How to install Ubuntu from Minimal CD (with UEFI)

Besides standard disc images, Ubuntu also offers a small image of only ~30...40 MB named Minimal CD. This contains a text-based installer, so you can use it on computers that fail to load the graphical environment of the installer. Only the packages required to run the installer are on the actual image and anything else will be downloaded from a repository that you can choose.

This has advantages and disadvantages. If you have a fast internet connection, this is actually a good way of installing Ubuntu or any of its official derivatives like Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu or Ubuntu MATE. You will only get the packages you requested at their available versions from the repositories. This means that once installed, your OS will be updated. The disadvantages are of course related to the internet connection. The minimal ISO cannot boot in EFI mode yet you can make it EFI bootable. Also, the text installer may be a little difficult for inexperienced users.

This tutorial shows how to make an EFI bootable media from Minimal ISO and also how to install Ubuntu from it whether you're in EFI mode or not.

The ISO is less than 40 MB, thus it can be burned even on 80 mm CD or you can make a bootable flash drive. This is the perfect choice for any old, low speed USB flash drive. In order to make the bootable USB drive, you can use Rufus on Windows and dd command on Linux. You can get the Minimal ISO at http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/netboot/.

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