Preparing Img for an Offline Embedded PC

Question

I am preparing an Ubuntu 18.04 image that will eventually run on an embedded PC not connected to the internet.

I recently noticed it taking a very long time to boot because it was attempting to perform unattended upgrades so I disabled this. I also saw whoopsie trying to connect to a server whenever I looked at syslog. Should I disable/uninstall whoopsie?

What other packages would you recommend diabling/enabling if you were creating an image that will not have internet connection and you would like to maximize reliability and predictable behavior?

Answer 1

Debian-based systems (like Ubuntu) generally assume a working network connection: A network stack is part of the base install, the package system assumes network based updates, backups are assumed to be network-base, etc.

Your use case "embedded, offline" is well outside the use cases that the Ubuntu Developers consider for Ubuntu Server. Ubuntu Core (instead of Ubuntu Server) is the release of Ubuntu that is designed for embedded use...but it's designed for network, too.

So there's no single list of all network-based OS features. You will just keep finding new connection attempts and errors as you slice away applications and services that you don't need. We haven't tested that. You are out in the wild, so let us know what you discover.