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.

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.