How to reinstall Ubuntu via SSH

Question

I have a 32 bit version of Ubuntu 10.04.2 running on a server. I need to reinstall a 64 bit edition of Ubuntu. Is it possible to do this remotely via SSH? If yes, how so.

Thanks.

You can, but you really, really, *REALLY* shouldn't. – womble Jul 18 '11 at 11:06 — womble, Jul 18 '11 at 11:06

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 18 '11 at 11:38

Is it possible? Yes

Is it anywhere near easy? No

It depends whatever you want (or need because of no space on LVM) to install it in-place or in parallel, whatever you have access to shell when you make a mistake and boot a 32bit kernel with 64bit userland, etc.

In short: I wouldn't even try to do it with ubuntu and I already done something like that with Archlinux, doing it over SSH is really only for the gurus.

There is no automatic way to do it, it has to be manual install of whole new system.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 19 '18 at 11:45

1

You can use preseed and grub image boot together, I write simple solution for that. https://github.com/mhf-ir/ubuntu-overssh-reinstallation

answered Mar 19 '18 at 11:45

sweb

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Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, [it would be preferable](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/8259) to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. – Gerald Schneider Mar 19 '18 at 12:52

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 18 '11 at 10:48

Not for the faint-hearted, but it's certainly possible with Debian (which Ubuntu is based on). I've personally done it before with Debian, although I did have a serial console to fall back on.

Have a read of http://www.underhanded.org/papers/debian-conversion/remotedeb.html - there's some useful details on there.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 18 '11 at 11:34

I've not tried this myself, but there are two options for adding an ssh-accessible console to the Debian and Ubuntu installers. One requires someone with physical access to the console to go through the first part of the installer and configure sshd, the second one requires you to make a preseed file and modify your PXE or ISO boot media.

How to reinstall Ubuntu via SSH

4 Answers4