Linux Forum - VHT Forum

Commands to generalize Linux VM templates

Brandon Lee — Mon, 04 May 2026 16:16:16 +0000

Hey guys, in case you ade creating templates these are the commands to run when you create a Linux VM template as it will allow them to be generalized when you clone them.

sudo rm -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_*
sudo truncate -s 0 /etc/machine-id
sudo rm -f /var/lib/dbus/machine-id
sudo cloud-init clean
sudo shutdown -h now

WSL new tar based Ubuntu install and configuration: Easy Customization and you can self-host

Brandon Lee — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 03:05:15 +0000

In case you haven't heard there is a cool new deployment method that is supported by Ubuntu for WSL Ubuntu instances. Microsoft has a new tar-based WSL distribution format. This will allow you to have the ability to fully manage the deployment of WSL distributions. It will allow organizations and system admins to install WSL instances directly from tar files which means you will no longer have to install your Ubuntu instances from the Microsoft Storee

This will open up some really great new features and capabilities, including the following:

Easier Deployment – You can now use just a simple tar file with the command wsl --install --from-file ubuntu.tar.wsl
Enterprise management and better security – Organizations can fully manage and self-host their WSL instances to have full control over which WSL installations are run within the organization
Customization – Images of Ubuntu can be customized before deployment. This will support the ability to have full cloud-init support for automation

How do you use this new way of installing?

First of all you will need to have the WSL version 2.4.8 or higher. Then, you can use the following as we have always done:

I'm looking forward to diving into this a bit more and see how we can create and manage our own WSL image.

Check out the blog post from Ubuntu here: Ubuntu available in Microsoft’s new WSL distribution format | Ubuntu

Disable systemd-resolved: Fix Ubuntu DNS resolution

Brandon Lee — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 16:03:05 +0000

If you have encountered issues with Ubuntu DNS resolution in a home lab or production environment, chances are, it may be the systemd-resolved service that is causing issues. By default Ubuntu installs the systemd-resolved service which points the Ubuntu server to a symlinked file located at /etc/resolv.conf.

I will show you the workaround steps to disable the systemd-resolved service and remove the symlink file and enter your own DNS settings in a non-symlinked file at this location.

Stop the service

Below, stop the service and disable it. Then you can mask the service.

sudo systemctl stop systemd-resolved
sudo systemctl disable systemd-resolved
sudo systemctl mask systemd-resolved

Check for symlink

Below is optional, but you can check to see if the file is indeed a symlink.

ls -l /etc/resolv.conf

Remove symlink

Remove the symlink.

sudo rm /etc/resolv.conf

Create a new file

Below is an example of how you can easily configure the file with your own values. Below I am pointing to my DNS server at 10.1.149.10 and the internal DNS search domain "cloud.local" and entering this into the /etc/resolv.conf file.

bash -c 'echo -e "nameserver 10.1.149.10\nsearch cloud.local" > /etc/resolv.conf'

Set the file to immutable

sudo chattr +i /etc/resolv.conf

The above will make sure this file can't be changed by other processes or anything that tries to modify this file.

Using these steps you will find that your DNS resolution will likely work much better and have more consistent behavior that you would expect if you have a DNS server that you want to point your Ubuntu server to.

Best .bashrc files for making your Linux terminal look good

Brandon Lee — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 14:47:44 +0000

If you are delving into Linux or even Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), you may not like the default look of the terminal. There is actually a way to make your Linux terminal look much better, and that is the .bashrc file. With the .bashrc file you can customize the look and feel of the terminal to suit your needs and even add useful information.

There are a couple of .bashrc files that I have tried and love to use and I will share with you guys the links for these. The first of these is Tom Lawrence's .bashrc file that he has made available to the community.

You can check out the repo for Tom's "dot" files here: lawrencesystems/dotfiles: Lawrence Systems Dot Files

There is also a really great bashrc file called the Ultimate BashRC file. You can find that one here: The Ultimate Bad Ass .bashrc File

421

Hopefully you will find these helpful and great additions to your Linux environment. Just wanted to share what I am using.

Install NTP Ubuntu 20.04 22.04 and 24.04 Server

Brandon Lee — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 03:22:55 +0000

Installing NTP in your Ubuntu Server or workstation helps to make sure everything works smoothly especially with systems that depend on time sychronization. One of these is Ceph or Microceph. Let's look at the quick steps to get NTP installed and configured in Ubuntu.

To install the NTP package, run the following command:

sudo apt install ntp -y

Add the NTP Server Pool that you want to use. To do that, we edit the file /etc/ntp.conf. In that file, place the following as an example if you are in the US:

sudo nano /etc/ntp.conf

Add the following in that file:

# Use US-based NTP servers from the NTP Pool Project
server 0.us.pool.ntp.org iburst
server 1.us.pool.ntp.org iburst
server 2.us.pool.ntp.org iburst
server 3.us.pool.ntp.org iburst

Restart NTP service

sudo systemctl restart ntp

View the configuration:

ntpq -p

Hopefully, this will help anyone looking to install and configure NTP in Ubuntu.