Ubuntu in my desktop (installation)

Tomorrow is an holiday in Portugal and today it was a nice day to start installing Ubuntu in my Desktop :-)

The first reference for my eXPerience is my own post where I address several important points to check before installing and to achieve.

Running the live cd

So, the first thing was downloading Ubuntu 32 bits, checking the downloaded file hash (look for more info here) and burning the cd.

After booting from the cd is important to check the integrity of the cd. Burning cds also fails.

Hardware to check (during the live cd session)

• Sound (check)
• Cable network (check) -- been writing in the blog in the live cd session
• Graphics (not so good)

I have a 800x600 screen resolution in my 19'' monitor, and the image isn't centered...
I installed EnvyNG using the Synaptic Package Manager (look for envyng-gtk) and just had to run it (Applications > System Tools > EnvyNG), after closing Synaptic (important), choose to "Install he NVIDIA driver (Automatic Hardware Detection)" option.
Note: before installing EnvyNG, in Synaptic, go to Settings > Repositories and in the "Ubuntu Software" tab choose every option. Also, in the "Third-Party Software" tab choose the first option.

Because I was in a live cd session I didn't restart to see the effect, but everything looks fine in the log so...

Starting the installation now :-)

Ubuntu install Hard Drive Partition Layout

/dev/sdc
...../dev/sdc1 .....ntfs ................................21476 MB (20 GB)
...../dev/sdc2 .....ext3 ...../.........................15360 MB (20 GB)
...../dev/sdc5 .....ext3 ...../home ...............15360 MB (15 GB)
...../dev/sdc6 .....swap ................................2048 MB (2 GB)
...../dev/sdc7 .....ext3 ...../storage/pool .....27719 MB (27 GB)

Post-install: graphics card

After the Ubuntu installation, I restart the computer and choose to boot from Ubuntu in the Grub menu.
I still don't have the graphic card installed, but the image is centered now.

I installed EnvyNG (like in the live cd session) and restarted.

While restarting a NVIDIA splash screen will be displayed, proofing a successful installation.
I now have a normal 1280x1024 screen resolution and some desktop effects are already active.

Also check the System > Administration > NVIDIA X Server Settings. Pretty awesome. Even my monitor is correctly recognized.

Post-install: wireless network card

A warning in the Notification Area told I had a Proprietary Driver to install. I just had to check Enable and the wireless card was installed.

Ridiculous simple...

To Do: try the wireless network...

Post-install: file system

Besides the / and /home partitions, only root have permissions to write in every other partitions. In my case /storage/pool.

So, we have to add permissions to our user:

sudo chown -R youruser:youruser /storage/pool
sudo chmod -R 755 /storage/pool


Click here for more info.

Post-install: Multimedia

Reference: Complete Streaming, Multimedia & Video How-to

• Repositories

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update

• Flash

sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-nonfree gnash gnash-common && sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

• Codecs and plugins (it will take quite some time)
  

sudo apt-get remove icedtea-gcjwebplugin openjdk-6-jre && sudo apt-get install alsa-oss compizconfig-settings-manager faad gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse gstreamer0.10-pitfdll libflashsupport liblame0 sun-java6-fonts sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin unrar w32codecs

Check the reference link, because it as many other things.

Post-install: System > Preferences

List of changed Preferences:

• Advanced Desktop Effects Settings (Compiz Settings Manager)
  
• Keyboard (Layout > Layout Options)
  

Post-install: LAMP Server

To install Apache, MySQL and PHP, check here.

Post-install: Windows Legacy

To install VirtualBox to run Windows, check here.

Post-install: NFS file sharing

To configure two Ubuntu machines to share files using NFS, check here.

Post-install: Syncing Windows Mobile 5/6 with Synce

To sync your phone with Ubuntu, check here.

Post-install: extra software

List of extra installation software installed:

• GVim
• Firefox Foxmarks add-on (can't live without it)
• More Firefox add-ons (BugMeNot, Forecastfox)
• Firefox IMDB search-engine
  
• VLC
• Gmount-iso
• Gmail Notifier
• Gnucash
• Amarok
• Istanbul Desktop Session Recorder
• Sysinfo
• Conky
• Gaupol Subtitle Editor
• VirtualBox
• Acrobat Reader (choose the .deb installer and double click after the download)
• Google Earth (it will download a .bin installation file, run it in the Terminal)
• gPHPEdit
• Screem HTML/XML Editor
• Bluefish Editor
• Gnome Partition Editor (gParted)
• aspell-pt-pt
• Simple Backup
• mdf2iso (sudo apt-get install mdf2iso)
• nrg2iso (sudo apt-get install nrg2iso)
• gFTP
  

last updated: 21-05-2008

Ubuntu in my desktop (status)

I'm preparing to install Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" in my desktop machine.

Before starting

• Try, using the Ubuntu live-cd, at least graphics, sound and cable network access (done)
  
• Backup important data (done)
• Decide the partition layout for all my hard drives (example) (done)
• Rethink my home network (IPs, Windows workgroup names...)
• Decide between Ubuntu 32 bits and Ubuntu 64 bits for my AMD Athlon 64BIT X2 DUAL-CORE 4200+ SKAM2 2.20 GB
  • I've decided to go with Ubuntu 32 bits (done)
  • Check if both cores are beeing used (done)

I will be dual-booting (for now) with Windows XP, and in order to release myself from Windows completely, here's a "to achieve" list.
This list doesn't have a significant order of importance.

To achieve (check the installation eXPerience here)

• Internet access using my home network (cable) (achieved)
  
• Internet access using my home network (wireless)
• Read and write support from Linux to my Windows partitions (just in case) (achieved)
• Read and write support from Windows to my Linux partitions (just in case)
• Divx and Xvid playback with subtitle files support (achieved)
• Full browser experience (Java, flash...) (achieved)
• Microsoft Office 100% support (achieved using a virtual machine)
  • it isn't enough .doc support
  • as an example, the Excel formats, graphs, etc. should be exactly the same
  • it could be done using a virtual machine
• Windows XP in a virtual machine (objective - legacy support) (achieved)
  
• Streaming media content (xvid, divx) to my Xbox 360
  • the the content must be converted to the right format in real time
  • it must add subtitles to the media (for instance .srt separated files)
  • in Windows I use TVersity
• Print to PDF (achieved)
• Have a subtitle editor (achieved)
  • a needed feature is to fix the subtitles in order to keep a fixed number of characters for column
  • in Windows I use Subtitle Workshop
• Software to mount cd image files (like .iso) (achieved)
  
• Recording software (CD and DVD support) (achieved)
• Google Earth and Google Notifier (achieved)
• Full iPod Touch support (it could be done using a virtual machine)
• Full Calendar and Contacts sync support for Qtek 9100 (it could be done using a virtual machine) (achieved)
• Apache, PHP and MySQL solution for my home database solution, currently working in Windows (achieved)
• Remote Desktop Connection to other machines, including Windows (it could be done using a virtual machine)
• Home network (at least shared folders) (achieved)
  

Other nice stuff I'd like

• BIOS upgrades (it could be done using a virtual machine)
• System monitor (hard drive free space, cpu, memory, network and temperature)

last updated: 21-05-2008

Upgrading to Hardy

And I'm set. I'm now officially running Ubuntu 8.04 LTS.

The recommended (and easier) way to upgrade from Ubuntu 7.10 is to use Update Manager. But the servers are clotted (April 25th)...
I tried it two times and it just isn't possible at this moment (yes, I want Hardy).

So I downloaded the alternate version of Ubuntu (check bellow the "Start Download" button).
This version isn't a live cd, and it can be used to upgrade Ubuntu.

I installed (Applications > Add/Remove) Gmount-iso. This way I could use the iso file without having to burn a cd.

To make sure cd image isn't corrupted:

• In the Terminal

md5sum ubuntu-8.04-alternate-i386.iso

• You should get the correct hash for the iso you're checking

166991d61e7c79a452b604f0d25d07f9 *ubuntu-8.04-alternate-i386.iso

• Check the hash values here.
  

After an hour I got the alternate version of Ubuntu 8.04, mounted the iso file using Gmount-iso and, in the Terminal:

gksu "sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade"

And off we go. Upgrading to 8.04.


After some time the upgrade was complete and I rebooted the machine. Check bellow the aftermath:

• Several packages were marked to removal at the beginning of the upgrade. My Ubuntu 7.10 installation came from Ubuntu Ultimate Edition. I think that's one of the reasons. I gave it a little look and kept going. If something is missing I will install it later.
  
• The installer asked 3 ou 4 times about replacing configuration files, like smb.conf. It allowed to see the differences between the current file and the new one, and I could choose to keep or replace the files. I backed up the ones I wanted and replaced them all.
• Restarted.
  
• After the restart the Update Manager wanted to do a partial upgrade. It seems the alternate cd didn't cover all packages. More packages where marked for removal.
  
• After the successful partial upgrade, I'm did another one.
• I then restarted again.
• I ran the Update Manager manually and check for updated and there aren't none. I was finished. It was a long run.

Issues

• Issue 1: I was missing some software I wanted to get back. Just went do Applications > Add/Remove and that was it.
• gVim (installed)
  
• vlc player (installed)
• VirtualBox kernel driver (to install)
• LAMP Server (installed - check the link for details)
• Issue 2: All my preferences seems to be ok, except the mouse pointer speed (System > Preferences > Mouse). (solved)
  
• Issue 3: in Places > Network I see my Workgroup, but no computers (in this case a Windows machine). Still the Windows machine is accessing Linux shared folders (that I had to share again). (to solve)
• If I use directly the IP I have no problems, but even in Places > Connect to Server I'm having no luck.
• To pass this "problem" I created a Launcher (Location) in the Desktop to the machine (smb://100.000.0.0/).
• Issue 4: The version of Firefox that came with Ubuntu is the 3.0 beta 5. Unfortunately some of my favorite add-ons aren't supported (just yet), so I'm gonna have to install Firefox 2.0 (to do).
• Issue 5: The time server (ntp) I had defined was gone. I had it again. (solved)
  

ntp02.oal.ul.pt

• Issue 6: I had some custom code in grub. I have to check it out tomorrow. (to check)
• Issue 7: Check if VirtualBox is running. (to check)
  
  
  
  
  last updated: 25-04-2008

Firefox Widgets

Firefox widgets (buttons, radio buttons, drop down menus, text fields and checkboxes) in Ubuntu don't look so good. I don't like it. And I'm not the only one.
So, we can change the images and CSS code for the widgets so Firefox will look really nice :)

Here's a tip from Ubuntu Forums:

Steps to make Firefox widgets look good:

• Download the Firefox Widget Installer
  

• available at the end of the first post (direct link)
  

• Run the installer
  

• unpack the archive and run the graphic_installer
• install in the Firefox directory (default is /usr/lib/firefox)
  

• Make this the default look, even when Firefox is updated
  

• to make the default look

sudo dpkg-divert --add /usr/lib/firefox/res/forms.css

• to undo the previous

sudo dpkg-divert --remove /usr/lib/firefox/res/forms.css

Before


After


Further reading:

• Firefox Widgets, a Tip from Ubuntu Forums

last updated: 17-04-2008

Automatix

Now a great piece of software to help you install a bunch of stuff: Automatix

I started with an update (Automatix already installed) using Update Manager.

I then installed:

• Codecs and Plugins
• MPlayer Plugin for Firefox
• Ubuntu Restricted Extras and Multimedia Codecs
• W32-DVD Codecs
• Email Clients
• CheckGmail
• Miscellaneous
• Extra Fonts
• Nautilus Scripts (open as root option)
  
• Office
• Acrobat Reader
• Google Earth

Check for other useful software yourself :-)

Hardware: first impression

Uppon first boot all my hardware seems to be working, including my graphics card, the mute sound button and even the SD Card Reader (this one doesn't work out of the box in Windows).

So far I only had to manually config my wired connection (I have DHCP turned off) and restart the network service.

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Partition Map

First thing to decide is how will I partition my hard drive.

/dev/sda
...../dev/sda1 .....ext3 ...../ ...........10240 MB
...../dev/sda5 .....ext3 ...../home ....10240 MB
...../dev/sda6 .....ext3 ...../data .....58547 MB
...../dev/sda7 .....swap .................1028 MB

I used some useful resources to decide:

• Ubuntu Forums Partition Basics
• Explanation of the Ubuntu / Linux file structure

Ubuntu Ultimate Edition

I chose Ubuntu Ultime Edition, based on Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibson because it added a lot of useful software and configuration out of the box.
Having tried it on my laptop I saw everything I needed to get me started, from hardware to software, was already there. So I backup all my data and started my eXPerience.

PS: I had Windows XP Professional Edition installed...