Ubuntu install guide
From RHLUG
This guide walks you through setting up your Rose-Hulman laptop to dual boot with Ubuntu Linux 8.04. The Basic Install will be done completely off the Ubuntu Live CD. Once this is completed you will have a fully working Ubuntu installation. After the install is complete First Boot Setup and Introduction to Ubuntu will give you an overview of how to operate and administer your newly installed system. Finally, you will be provided with instructions on how to set up and configure Ubuntu for use in the Rose-Hulman environment.
While working though this guide you may be without Internet access at several points. It is advised that you have a wired network connection nearby and that you read ahead and/or print out sections of this guide for use when you are not able to get online.
If at any point you get stuck feel free to contact one of the Rose-Hulman LUG members or stop by the IRC channel.
Contents |
[edit] Conventions
Before getting started, several conventions will be used in this guide.
- bold face text will be used for names of commands, packages, files, options, and other specific names.
- Blue boxes will be used to describe extra information that you may find interesting but is not necessary or required, free free to skip those boxes if you're in a hurry.
- Note: We, at least, find these boxes interesting
- Red boxes will denote parts of the guide that are hardware dependent. If you do not use that particular piece of hardware feel free to skip those boxes.
- Monochrome LaptopsIf you have a monochrome display on your laptop you will need to take our word for it, this box really is red...
- Green boxes are commands that should be typed verbatim into a terminal, unless you know what you're doing. A terminal is a application that lets you issue commands to the computer. Once you're in Ubuntu you can open a terminal by selecting Applications->Accessories->Terminal. The $ represents the prompt, and does not need to be typed.
- $ echo "The $ is implied, you do not really have to type it."
- Yellow boxes contain the desired contents of a file.
- File: editors.txtText editors are cool. In Ubuntu you can use any editor you choose. Gnome (which Ubuntu uses) comes with several text editors such as GEdit and Vim; others, such as Emacs, can be installed easily. GEdit (the GNOME default) may be the easiest to use at first, but it is not quite as advanced as Emacs and Vim. Emacs and Vim also work well from a terminal so you can use them even if you do not have a GUI available. But in the end, 'ed' is still the standard editor...
[edit] Basic Install
[edit] Pre-install
[edit] Obtain an Install CD
If you are following this guide at a LUG installfest you will be provided with an install CD, and you may skip to the next section.
- First, download the CD image (a .iso file)
- If you have a sophomore or freshman laptop, you may want to consider the 64-bit version. For a discussion on 32-bit vs 64-bit, please view the community documentation.
- If you have a senior or junior laptop, download the 32-bit version (Or, if you're on campus, use the local mirror).
- Burn the CD image to a blank CD.
[edit] Prepare Windows
During the install you will be shrinking your Windows filesystem. It is generally a good idea to leave 10-20% of the Windows filesystem empty after shrinking in order to help prevent fragmentation. By default, we will be using 10GB for Linux so for a 60GB Windows partition you should make sure there is at least 15GB free before continuing. (10GB + (60GB − 10GB) × 0.10). Once you have enough free space you should also run the Windows defragmentor at least once.
As when taking your computer to IAIT, you should make sure to back up any (and all) important documents before continuing.
[edit] Reboot to the Install Environment
After making the above changes, place the Ubuntu CD in the CD drive and reboot. If your BIOS is set up to boot off of the CD (by default it is) a language selection screen will be displayed; press Enter to choose English. On the next menu, select Install Ubuntu.
[edit] Installing Linux (Ubuntu)
After Ubuntu is done booting, an Install dialog will pop up. Make the following selections.
- Make sure you have a wired network connection.
- Click Forward to select English as the default language.
- Select Indiana/Indianapolis for city/timezone and click Forward.
- Click Forward to use a USA keyboard layout.
- The disk partitioner will start up. Make sure that Guided - resize SCSI1 (0,0,0), partition #2 (sda) and use freed space is selected. Slide the bar separating the /dev/sda2 and Ubuntu 8.04 sections such that Ubuntu has 10 GB free (or however much room you want to allot to Ubuntu). Click Forward and Continue once you are done. Ubuntu will begin partitioning your disk.
- Once the partition operation has finished, you will be prompted to enter some personal information. It is suggested that you use username-1, where username is your kerberos username, as the name of your computer. Click Forward when you are done.
- You will be presented with a summary of your choices. If everything looks correct, click Install.
The install process will take about 15 minutes, depending on the speed of your laptop. Once the installation has finished, click the Restart Now button to reboot into your new Ubuntu installation!
[edit] First Boot Setup
There are a few steps you should take when you boot your Ubuntu installation for the first time.
[edit] Setting up software sources
At Rose-Hulman it is best to download software directly from the Rose-Hulman servers so that it does not count against your bandwidth usage:
- Open System->Administration->Software Sources
- On the Third-Party Software use the Add button to enter the following repositories:
- deb ftp://ftp.cs.rose-hulman.edu/ubuntu/ hardy main
- deb ftp://ftp.cs.rose-hulman.edu/ubuntu/ hardy universe
- deb ftp://ftp.cs.rose-hulman.edu/ubuntu/ hardy multiverse
- Click close
- When prompted, click Reload
[edit] Updating your System
Apply any updates that are available. Do this by clicking the red arrow in the notification area, clicking Install Updates, and then providing your password. Depending on what updates were installed, you may be asked to reboot your system. It is recommended that you reboot before you install the restricted drivers.
[edit] Installing Restricted Drivers
Certain pieces of hardware used in the Rose-Hulman laptops need drivers and firmware which cannot legally be distributed as part of Ubuntu. You will need to install them separately by using System->Administration->Hardware Drivers. It is advised to enable all the restricted drivers unless you have a reason not to. See the specific notes below:
[edit] Install Restricted Extras
The restricted extras provide MP3 support, Adobe Flash, Java 6 JRE, and other useful libraries. To get all of these libraries, install Ubuntu Restricted Extras (Under All available applications) by going to Applications->Add/Remove....
[edit] Introduction to Ubuntu
[edit] Installation Software
There are three common ways to install software in Ubuntu.
- Add/Remove Applications - A simple graphical user interface for simple installation/uninstallation tasks.
- Synaptics - A graphical user interface with more options
- apt-get - A command-line tool (used from the terminal).
[edit] Using Add/Remove Applications
Go to Applications->Add/Remove... and click on the category of the application you want to install. You may want to consider setting the 'Show' widget to All Available Applications. Once you find the software you want to install or uninstall, toggle the checkbox next to the application, click Apply Changes, and supply your password.
[edit] Using the Synaptic GUI
In Gnome, go to System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager in the top menu bar. This is the GUI-based package manager in Ubuntu. It provides a simple visual way to install programs. Upon running Synaptic, you will be prompted for your password. Once the program loads you can click the Search button at top of the window and search for software or browse for software on the left.
Once you have located some software to install simply check the box next to it. If Synaptic pops up a dialog asking if you wish to install other programs and libraries you will generally want to say yes. Once you have checked all the software you want to install press the Apply button at the top of the window and choose Apply in the dialog that appears. Synaptic will grab the proper files and install them.
To uninstall software, open the Synaptic Package Manager. Locate the software to uninstall, and click on the checkbox next to the name. From there, either click Mark for Removal or Mark for complete removal. Normal removal will remove the program but keep your program settings, in case you at some point reinstall the software. Complete removal will remove the settings as well as the program.
[edit] Using apt-get from a terminal
From a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) you can manage installed software using the apt-get command. For example, to install emacs and vim-gtk:
Before you can install anything you must get a list of files you can install. It is generally a good idea to update your list of packages every once in a while so that you are installing the newest available versions of software.
For those of you new to Linux, a few small explanations are in order. Prefacing a command with the word sudo runs the command as the super user, also known as root, who has the ability to modify files that a normal account cannot for security reasons. It will ask you for your password the first time you use it in a new console window. Often, if you know what you want to do (such as install a particular program) command line tools can be much faster than digging through a graphical interface. Another useful thing about command lines is that it simpler to describe what needs to be done over the internet. For this reason this guide as well as some other things you find online may instruct you to run a particular command instead of use a GUI simply because it is easer to type a command than take screenshots.
Command line tools usually take 'flags' which modify the behavior of a particular program. For example, in the command $ sudo apt-get -y install emacs vim-gtk the -y option tells the program to automatically grab any extra files it might need without asking you. More information can generally be obtained about the flags for a particular program by running $ <program> --help or $ man program[edit] Rose-Hulman Configuration
[edit] Course Specific Setup
If you would like to use Ubuntu Linux for a course at Rose-Hulman, here are some course-specific notes. We also have a page that rates courses at Rose in Linux-friendliness
[edit] CSSE 120-230
[edit] Eclipse Java Installation
Eclipse is easy to install but requires some additional configuration.
Now apt will complain about the Java documentation packages needing to be downloaded manually, so open up Firefox and go to the link it gives you. Choose Java SE 6 Documentation, and download the English version.
Open up another command window and do the following (you will need to be in the directory that you downloaded the jdk docs to. (maybe "cd Desktop".)
Now you can continue the apt install.
Once that has finished, Eclipse wants to run in a JRE other then Sun's by default, which is rather annoying and slow.
Just move the java-6-sun line to the top, above all others, which will make Eclipse run inside Sun's JVM. You can now follow the instructions given on the CSSE website about setting up the preferences file if you choose.
Make sure the system JRE default is set properly by running the following command, and set it to the sun JRE if it isn't already.
Inside Eclipse, go Window -> Preferences -> Java -> Installed JREs -> java-6-sun, hit edit -> rt.jar, edit Javadoc Location, and in the top field enter
Install Subclipse the same way as described in the CSSE guide.
[edit] CSSE332
[edit] Build Essential
In order to compile C code (which will be used quite often in Operating Systems) you will need to have a compiler and some development tools installed. Installing the build-essential software package should work fine. Build essentials will pull in any other tools needed for compiling C code.
[edit] C Documentation
To get the man pages you need for the C libraries, you'll need to install the documents with the following command:
[edit] Subversion
There are many ways to use Subversion under Ubuntu. The two main ways are using the RapidSVN graphical user interface or the svn program from the command line.
- To use the commmand line subversion program, simply install subversion. This package contains the svn program, the standard Linux application to access subversion. See the Subversion page for more detailed information on how to use svn.
- To use RapidSVN, install the rapidsvn package. Note that you will need the subversion package installed to use RapidSVN (it should be installed automatically).
[edit] Wireless networking
Make sure you have enabled any restricted drivers or firmware for your wireless card. Gnome provides a Network Manager applet that can be used to configure the wireless card for various networks.
When available the RHIT-1X network tends to work better than the old RHIT network with VPN. To configure the wireless card to use RHIT-1X use the Network Manager applet ( 
) in the top right corner of the screen and enter the following information:
| Network Name: | RHIT-1X |
| Wireless Security: | WPA2 Enterprise |
| EAP Method: | PEAP |
| Key Type: | Automatic |
| Phase2 Type: | MSCHAPV2 |
| Identify: | Your Kerberos Name |
| Password: | Your Kerberos Password |
[edit] Connecting to the VPN
In order to connect to the Rose network through VPN (either on campus or off campus), you must first install pptp (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol). The easiest way to do this is by installing the PPTP Client (pptp-linux) and the PPTP plugin for the network manager (network-manager-pptp).
Once this is installed:
- Click the network icon in the upper-right corner of the screen.
- Click Configure form the VPN Connections submenu
- Click Add to add a new connection.
- Select PPTP tunnel as the type of connection.
- Configure the connection:
- Choose a clever name for the connection such as "Rose-Hulman VPN".
- The type of connection is Windows VPN (PPTP)
- The Gateway is 137.112.8.14
- In the Compression & Encryption tab ensure that Require 128 bit MPPE encryption is checked
Apply the settings, and the configuration should be complete
To connect to VPN, you can now click on the network icon, go to "Network Connections" and choose your new Rose-Hulman VPN connection.
[edit] Mounting and accessing AFS
There are a few ways to access your AFS share. The easiest way is to use the Gnome Virtual File System (VFS) and SSH. Another way is to use OpenAFS and Kerberos
[edit] SSH with Gnome VFS
Go to places, find "Connect to Server..." click on it.
- Service type: SSH
- Server: addiator.rose-hulman.edu
- Port: Leave blank to use the default
- Folder: This will be the initial folder you start out in. You should put /afs/rose-hulman.edu/users/stu200X/username where X is the year you arrived at school (freshman year), and username is your Kerberos username.
- Username: your Kerberos username
- Name to use for connection: Up to you, name it something like AFS Home.
After clicking Connect you will have an icon on your desktop that allows you to connect to AFS. You can also access it though the Places Menu.
[edit] OpenAFS
If you followed the steps in 'SSH with Gnome VFS' above, you do not have to do this OpenAFS section or the Kerberos section below.
Start by installing openafs-modules-source and module-assistant. Since OpenAFS requires the kernel modules to be built and installed separately we will use module-assistant help with this:
This will create a file in /usr/src/ that can be installed with dpkg:
Now that the kernel modules are installed, proceed to install openafs-client.
When installing OpenAFS Client it will prompt you for some configuration options:
- Rose-Hulman.edu is the Cell that Rose-Hulman uses.
- The default cache size of 50M should be fine unless you plan on transferring large files to and from AFS.
- The host names for the home cell are:
- afs1.rose-hulman.edu
- afs2.rose-hulman.edu
- afs3.rose-hulman.edu
[edit] Kerberos
In order to access your own files on AFS you will need to use Kerberos. Start by installing openafs-krb5 and krb5-user. Once installed you will need to configure Kerberos. Edit /etc/krb5.conf to look something like the following:
[libdefaults]
default_realm = ROSE-HULMAN.EDU
dns_lookup_realm = false
dns_lookup_kdc = false
[realms]
ROSE-HULMAN.EDU = {
kdc = rose-hulman.edu
default_tkt_enctypes = des-cbc-crc des-cbc-md5
default_tgs_enctypes = des-cbc-crc des-cbc-md5
##admin_server = rose-hulman.edu
}
[domain_realm]
.rose-hulman.edu = ROSE-HULMAN.EDU
rose-hulman.edu = ROSE-HULMAN.EDU
[appdefaults]
pam = {
debug = false
ticket_lifetime = 36000
renew_lifetime = 36000
forwardable = true
krb4_convert = false
}Once Kerberos and AFS are installed and configured you can log in using:
$ kinit <username> $ aklog
[edit] Connecting to a printer
Printing is already set up in Ubuntu, all you need to do is add one or more Rose-Hulman printers. The best way to use Rose-Hulman printers is to print to them directly:
- Go to System->Administration->Printing and clicking the New Printer icon
- On the left, select AppSocket/HP JetDirect
- For the hostname type: <hostname>.printer.rose-hulman.edu. You can obtain the hostname IAIT's direct printing webpage.
- Leave the port as the default and click Forward
- Click forward though the Make and Models/Drivers dialogs making sure that the defaults are reasonable.
- Give the printer a nice name, and hit apply.
