Hi all,
I had been playing/goofing around with Ubuntu 7.04 for the last 2 weeks & hence a gentle introduction to the world of Ubuntu.
Before going further, some things, Ubuntu is a distribution of linux. Distribution here meaning one of many. There are various other distros. which are there & each have their own unique heritage & utility. Most of these distros. are based on the community around them so getting support for that distro. as well as making suggestions/improvements to a particular distro. is also easier.In fact most of the distros. thrive on community participation.
The thing about Ubuntu is quite a lot of stuff is based upon the .deb format & debian distribution. Debian is one of the largest volunteer-led projects & they have around 1000 developers. What Ubuntu brings to the table is the packaging, the support, slick marketing. So its easy for newbies (noobs) to jump into the debian band-wagon.Also Ubuntu takes a lot from debian & gives lot of feedback while sometimes some of the developers are common to both the distribution.In fact there have been people who are constantly moving between ubuntu & debian. Usually developers and system admins.
The .deb format used in Ubuntu/debian is similar to the .exe in windows (its an executable/binary) while there are some changes in how both debian & Ubuntu package their debs. But still it is easy to install.
Of course there are lots of things about debian itself which would occupy atleast 2 articles but lets leave that for another day or for that matter the .deb format itself .
Some more presumptions, as I have an i386, so only install on i386 will be discussed. The other architectures are not known, experimented with hence not discussed. Also do not know have any experience with wireless chipsets (although few are supposed to work outta box) . Graphic cards (also very limited experience with just my i845 chipset hence will be giving guidance only on i845 chipset) . Of course if the opportunity presents itself I would like to install them on different platforms as well . (off-list of course).
Anyways to get started, you need to get the distro. there are 3 ways essentially :-
1. http://shipit.ubuntu.com :- This is the interface where one can order the live/install CDs of ubuntu. This is a good idea if you can afford to wait for some-time & your BIOS is latest. (for resolution issues)
2. Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Beta :- This is the page from where you can download Ubuntu. At the moment it is showing 7.04 beta which should change to 7.04 in another 10 days.
3. Buy/steal/borrow from a friend/LUG :- this one is the most common method.
If downloading by any means, either bittorrent or through a mirror do not forget to download the md5sums alongwith the relevant .gpg. First check the authencity of the md5sums with the .gpg given with something like WinPT
for Windows. This will make sure that the md5sums are not spoofed. Then one can use a utility like md5sum to see if the data is correct or not. This is good practice as one would not want media to go waste due to data corruption. Then burn the .iso compilation with your favorite burner.
Now at this point, lemme make the point clear as to why I am giving the tutorial for the alternate CD & why not the Live CD. There are plenty of reasons, for one it might not work for everybody, as it happened in my case, or if you want more control & want to only install few packages (a la Power USer) , unattended installs calling from list, rescue disk, the reasons are far too much & compelling to list here. Further we have sites like osdir which make installing live CD a cinch. For e.g. look at the stock 6.06 installation slides which makes it more easy.
Ok now once the data is verified & burnt, it is also important to verify that the media (the CD itself is not corrupted) this can be done using the Check for CD defects application which checks the CD for any malfunction. There is also the memory test application for those who have doubt if their memory is failing. Although a memory test should be run over 10-11 hrs. to make sure that the memory is ok. A default install with a Graphical login should atleast have 5 GB, more if developmental or gaming packages are going to be installed l8ter.
Now for users who have multiple disks. It is advisable to power down your computer. Take out the power connection of the hard disk which is not to be touched upon. To view contents one can add it l8ter. Also depending your BIOS configure it to boot from CD/DVD and disable every other kind of booting mechanism. One can also put the ISO on a USB stick and can use that if the BIOS supports that but I will not be delving in that part as of now.
Now in the text install, the keyboard is your friend. Tab or Right arrow keys help you move forward while the Shift-Tab or left arrow key helps you move backward in the page/menu. The procedure is as under :-
01. Boot options :- The boot options start from where to boot to use the expert mode and other things. Use expert mode for full control.
02. Language :- for locale settings usually english
03. Region :- for Time settings
04. Keyboard Layout Selection :- usually US (depends on which locale is selected)
05. Detection of media as well as hard disk
06. Scans the CD-ROM and downloads the packages to the hdd.
07. Loading the network interface
08. Finding the first working interface & marking, naming it as eth0 (for wired ethernet) ath0 or usb0 or something like that for other interfaces :- One can leave this unconfigured or take defaults for the time being.
09. Asks for hostname :- Anything e.g. Ubuntu
10. Detecting disks & all other hardware in the system
11. partition disks :- ok this is the big crunch. If a first timer & have the whole disk then can either use the whole face, if windows is sharing then use remaining space, if want absolute control then choose manual. There are choices like lvm and RAID which I would not be talking about. Both are lengthy topics. :- Ok here if you choose manual,
a. Make a / ext3 bootable flag Primary partition and lets say 15%-20% of the space u have committed for your Ubuntu install. The / is the root directory (something like C: in linux terms) , the ext3 is a filesystem type, one has too many choices here but ext3 is cool. There is possibility of the experimental ext4 (supposed to be thoroughly tested but have not used it hence no idea. To say simply ext 3 is a journalised file system. Journalised file systems are less prone to break down in case of improper shut-downs etc.
b. Then give the remaining to /home (this can be primary, logical) depending on how the hdd is structured. The idea of having a separate /home preferably on a different partition is in case for some reason, upgrades, issues etc. /home would be safe. This has all the data files of all the users on the system.
Partitioning scheme Minimum space Created partitions
All files in one partition 600MB /, swap
Separate /home partition 500MB /, /home, swap
Separate /home, /usr, /var and
/tmp partitions 1GB /, /home, /usr, /var, /tmp,swap
IDE1 slave (sdb) (SCSI) uuid=(UUID=49f6ebf1-f7e5-4dad-9dc1-e2bb3611d4f1)- 80.0 GB ST380021A
#1 primary 15.9 MB B f ext3 /boot
#2 primary 996.0 MB fat16
#3 primary 3.9 GB xfs /home
#5 logical 6.0 GB f ext3 /
#6 logical 1.0 GB f ext3 /var
#7 logical 498.8 MB ext3
#8 logical 551.5 MB swap swap
#9 logical 65.8 GB ext2
As one can see there is something called uuid , this is nothing but a change of naming . Please go to Libata wiki for the reasons behind the change.
The above is just to show one of the many ways the hdd can be structured. As can be seen the B flag or bootable flag is the most important without which nothing can work.
Ok there are many more options here, depending on if you need LVM, software RAID, encryption etc. but would not be digressing into that.
12. Configure the clock :- Configure to UTC if this is the only OS on the system & you want the UTC time. If however either you want or if there is an alternate win32 OS or any other OS which uses the system/hardware clock then setting clock to configure is preferred.
13. Set up users and passwords :- The term says it all. Setting users with rights/permissions. This is done as a security measure. Make sure to write down the username & password or remember it as that is the only way of getting into the system atleast for newbies.
14. Installs the base system :- the most needed, minimum packages for the distro. are downloded.
15. Select and install software :- This is where you can select which packages to select. This depends on one's choices. Be aware there are close to 15k packges in Debians repository & Ubuntu is quickly mirroring and adding them with its own specific packaging to its own repo.
16. Making the system bootable a.k.a GRUB :- This is again an important place/decision to take. There are 2 boot-loaders called GRUB, LILO although the most common form is GRUB as arguably it has more advantages than LILO. GRUB = Grand Unified Boot Loader while LILO means Linux Loader. The functionality of both are same, find other OSes, give a menu to the user when he boots choice to use either linux or other OSes. While GRUB is actively maintained by a group of developers and users alike and they have a healthy community-base LILO meanwhile is being maintained by a certain John Coffman. They just had a new release after a gap of 6 years although it has become a second choice after GRUB. Unless it is a netboot or diskless install installing either of the bootloaders is necessary.
17. Cleaning up:- This process can take considerable time or none at all depending on memory, chip processing speed etc. After this process is over, there is a small cleaning up non-interactive process & before you know it, you are asked to take the CD/DVD out if everything is successful.
18. Once the CD/DVD is out, go back to BIOS & enable Hard disk booting.
19. Once you hit the GRUB menu you will come across two entries something like :-
Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-14-generic
Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-14-generic (recovery mode)
Other OSes like Windows etc.
20. After some slick graphics, you will see the username & password. Enter the respective stuff which you had entered at
step 13. That is it, you are in new slick Ubuntu.
Now similar installation can be done in the Live CD as well but there are many parameters which cannot be used and a degree of control is lost. It is good however for people who just want to install it, play a game (free-cell) etc. without knowing much of how things work in Linux. The screenshots given at osdir.com are more than enough for people to do the installation after reading this guide.
The next installation will be covering 2 important aspects, post-install configurations, some nice not so well-known applications, some sites to get support etc.
Thank you all for your time and patience. :tongue:
I had been playing/goofing around with Ubuntu 7.04 for the last 2 weeks & hence a gentle introduction to the world of Ubuntu.
Before going further, some things, Ubuntu is a distribution of linux. Distribution here meaning one of many. There are various other distros. which are there & each have their own unique heritage & utility. Most of these distros. are based on the community around them so getting support for that distro. as well as making suggestions/improvements to a particular distro. is also easier.In fact most of the distros. thrive on community participation.
The thing about Ubuntu is quite a lot of stuff is based upon the .deb format & debian distribution. Debian is one of the largest volunteer-led projects & they have around 1000 developers. What Ubuntu brings to the table is the packaging, the support, slick marketing. So its easy for newbies (noobs) to jump into the debian band-wagon.Also Ubuntu takes a lot from debian & gives lot of feedback while sometimes some of the developers are common to both the distribution.In fact there have been people who are constantly moving between ubuntu & debian. Usually developers and system admins.
The .deb format used in Ubuntu/debian is similar to the .exe in windows (its an executable/binary) while there are some changes in how both debian & Ubuntu package their debs. But still it is easy to install.
Of course there are lots of things about debian itself which would occupy atleast 2 articles but lets leave that for another day or for that matter the .deb format itself .
Some more presumptions, as I have an i386, so only install on i386 will be discussed. The other architectures are not known, experimented with hence not discussed. Also do not know have any experience with wireless chipsets (although few are supposed to work outta box) . Graphic cards (also very limited experience with just my i845 chipset hence will be giving guidance only on i845 chipset) . Of course if the opportunity presents itself I would like to install them on different platforms as well . (off-list of course).
Anyways to get started, you need to get the distro. there are 3 ways essentially :-
1. http://shipit.ubuntu.com :- This is the interface where one can order the live/install CDs of ubuntu. This is a good idea if you can afford to wait for some-time & your BIOS is latest. (for resolution issues)
2. Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) Beta :- This is the page from where you can download Ubuntu. At the moment it is showing 7.04 beta which should change to 7.04 in another 10 days.
3. Buy/steal/borrow from a friend/LUG :- this one is the most common method.
If downloading by any means, either bittorrent or through a mirror do not forget to download the md5sums alongwith the relevant .gpg. First check the authencity of the md5sums with the .gpg given with something like WinPT
for Windows. This will make sure that the md5sums are not spoofed. Then one can use a utility like md5sum to see if the data is correct or not. This is good practice as one would not want media to go waste due to data corruption. Then burn the .iso compilation with your favorite burner.
Now at this point, lemme make the point clear as to why I am giving the tutorial for the alternate CD & why not the Live CD. There are plenty of reasons, for one it might not work for everybody, as it happened in my case, or if you want more control & want to only install few packages (a la Power USer) , unattended installs calling from list, rescue disk, the reasons are far too much & compelling to list here. Further we have sites like osdir which make installing live CD a cinch. For e.g. look at the stock 6.06 installation slides which makes it more easy.
Ok now once the data is verified & burnt, it is also important to verify that the media (the CD itself is not corrupted) this can be done using the Check for CD defects application which checks the CD for any malfunction. There is also the memory test application for those who have doubt if their memory is failing. Although a memory test should be run over 10-11 hrs. to make sure that the memory is ok. A default install with a Graphical login should atleast have 5 GB, more if developmental or gaming packages are going to be installed l8ter.
Now for users who have multiple disks. It is advisable to power down your computer. Take out the power connection of the hard disk which is not to be touched upon. To view contents one can add it l8ter. Also depending your BIOS configure it to boot from CD/DVD and disable every other kind of booting mechanism. One can also put the ISO on a USB stick and can use that if the BIOS supports that but I will not be delving in that part as of now.
Now in the text install, the keyboard is your friend. Tab or Right arrow keys help you move forward while the Shift-Tab or left arrow key helps you move backward in the page/menu. The procedure is as under :-
01. Boot options :- The boot options start from where to boot to use the expert mode and other things. Use expert mode for full control.
02. Language :- for locale settings usually english
03. Region :- for Time settings
04. Keyboard Layout Selection :- usually US (depends on which locale is selected)
05. Detection of media as well as hard disk
06. Scans the CD-ROM and downloads the packages to the hdd.
07. Loading the network interface
08. Finding the first working interface & marking, naming it as eth0 (for wired ethernet) ath0 or usb0 or something like that for other interfaces :- One can leave this unconfigured or take defaults for the time being.
09. Asks for hostname :- Anything e.g. Ubuntu
10. Detecting disks & all other hardware in the system
11. partition disks :- ok this is the big crunch. If a first timer & have the whole disk then can either use the whole face, if windows is sharing then use remaining space, if want absolute control then choose manual. There are choices like lvm and RAID which I would not be talking about. Both are lengthy topics. :- Ok here if you choose manual,
a. Make a / ext3 bootable flag Primary partition and lets say 15%-20% of the space u have committed for your Ubuntu install. The / is the root directory (something like C: in linux terms) , the ext3 is a filesystem type, one has too many choices here but ext3 is cool. There is possibility of the experimental ext4 (supposed to be thoroughly tested but have not used it hence no idea. To say simply ext 3 is a journalised file system. Journalised file systems are less prone to break down in case of improper shut-downs etc.
b. Then give the remaining to /home (this can be primary, logical) depending on how the hdd is structured. The idea of having a separate /home preferably on a different partition is in case for some reason, upgrades, issues etc. /home would be safe. This has all the data files of all the users on the system.
Partitioning scheme Minimum space Created partitions
All files in one partition 600MB /, swap
Separate /home partition 500MB /, /home, swap
Separate /home, /usr, /var and
/tmp partitions 1GB /, /home, /usr, /var, /tmp,swap
IDE1 slave (sdb) (SCSI) uuid=(UUID=49f6ebf1-f7e5-4dad-9dc1-e2bb3611d4f1)- 80.0 GB ST380021A
#1 primary 15.9 MB B f ext3 /boot
#2 primary 996.0 MB fat16
#3 primary 3.9 GB xfs /home
#5 logical 6.0 GB f ext3 /
#6 logical 1.0 GB f ext3 /var
#7 logical 498.8 MB ext3
#8 logical 551.5 MB swap swap
#9 logical 65.8 GB ext2
As one can see there is something called uuid , this is nothing but a change of naming . Please go to Libata wiki for the reasons behind the change.
The above is just to show one of the many ways the hdd can be structured. As can be seen the B flag or bootable flag is the most important without which nothing can work.
Ok there are many more options here, depending on if you need LVM, software RAID, encryption etc. but would not be digressing into that.
12. Configure the clock :- Configure to UTC if this is the only OS on the system & you want the UTC time. If however either you want or if there is an alternate win32 OS or any other OS which uses the system/hardware clock then setting clock to configure is preferred.
13. Set up users and passwords :- The term says it all. Setting users with rights/permissions. This is done as a security measure. Make sure to write down the username & password or remember it as that is the only way of getting into the system atleast for newbies.
14. Installs the base system :- the most needed, minimum packages for the distro. are downloded.
15. Select and install software :- This is where you can select which packages to select. This depends on one's choices. Be aware there are close to 15k packges in Debians repository & Ubuntu is quickly mirroring and adding them with its own specific packaging to its own repo.
16. Making the system bootable a.k.a GRUB :- This is again an important place/decision to take. There are 2 boot-loaders called GRUB, LILO although the most common form is GRUB as arguably it has more advantages than LILO. GRUB = Grand Unified Boot Loader while LILO means Linux Loader. The functionality of both are same, find other OSes, give a menu to the user when he boots choice to use either linux or other OSes. While GRUB is actively maintained by a group of developers and users alike and they have a healthy community-base LILO meanwhile is being maintained by a certain John Coffman. They just had a new release after a gap of 6 years although it has become a second choice after GRUB. Unless it is a netboot or diskless install installing either of the bootloaders is necessary.
17. Cleaning up:- This process can take considerable time or none at all depending on memory, chip processing speed etc. After this process is over, there is a small cleaning up non-interactive process & before you know it, you are asked to take the CD/DVD out if everything is successful.
18. Once the CD/DVD is out, go back to BIOS & enable Hard disk booting.
19. Once you hit the GRUB menu you will come across two entries something like :-
Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-14-generic
Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-14-generic (recovery mode)
Other OSes like Windows etc.
20. After some slick graphics, you will see the username & password. Enter the respective stuff which you had entered at
step 13. That is it, you are in new slick Ubuntu.
Now similar installation can be done in the Live CD as well but there are many parameters which cannot be used and a degree of control is lost. It is good however for people who just want to install it, play a game (free-cell) etc. without knowing much of how things work in Linux. The screenshots given at osdir.com are more than enough for people to do the installation after reading this guide.
The next installation will be covering 2 important aspects, post-install configurations, some nice not so well-known applications, some sites to get support etc.
Thank you all for your time and patience. :tongue:
