Webmin installation on Ubuntu - Install Ubuntu

Install Ubuntu

I installed the Ubuntu 10.10 alternate AMD 64 download. You could use the server version as described in Ubuntu 10.10 server AMD64 but you do not get all the nice tools provided by the Ubuntu desktop version. The Ubuntu desktop version will not install RAID and we need RAID. The Ubuntu alternate version is the desktop version with the RAID installation option and is ideal for this project.

The Ubuntu 10.10 alternate installation is described in Ubuntu 10.10 alternate installation. Installing RAID in a desktop installation is described in Ubuntu 10.4.1 desktop RAID 5.

Change your BIOS to boot from CD

Change your BIOS setting to book from CD or DVD. Download the Ubuntu ISO image to a CD or DVD. Place the disk in the CD/DVD drive. Start your system and Ubuntu loaded into memory.

Language

Ubuntu asks you which language you want to use during the installation process and defaults to English. Press [enter]. In a later step you can select the language to be used on the computer.

Test memory

If you are using new hardware or are resurrecting old hardware, you can test the memory. The only time I see memory failures are when people try to add more memory onto old systems and there is a mismatch.

Check disk for defects

The first time you use a new CD, run the check for defects then mark the disk as checked. The check takes only two minutes and can show errors caused by a faulty download or a faulty CD.

Install Ubuntu

Start the installation. This installation assumes all the disks can be wiped clean because there it is a test machine and there is nothing you want from the disks.

Choose Language

This is the language used during the installation and for the final configuration. After installation, you can add other languages. English is the default. Press [Enter].

Choose a country, territory, or area

Choose Australia. If Australia is not your location, move. :-) Press [Enter].

Detect keyboard layout

No is the default. Press [Enter].

Origin of the keyboard

USA is the default and the layout of most keyboards used in Australia. Select the keyboard layout you need then press [Enter].

Keyboard layout

USA is the default. Press [Enter].

Scanning CD-ROM

Go make a organic espresso. If you switched the machine on earlier during the Ubuntu download, you have time to make the espresso.

Please enter the hostname for this system

I call my machine r2. Type in r2 then select Continue then press [Enter]. Host names can be descriptive. web-development-server-and-nas-version-2

Configure the clock

Ubuntu used voodoo to work out where I am and proposed Australia/NSW as the time zone. Yes was selected. I pressed [Enter]. If Ubuntu makes the wrong decision for you, select No, press [Enter], then select your time zone.

Partition disks

I selected Manual then pressed [Enter]. You might choose to use on of the others to see what Ubuntu recommends.

Ubuntu screwed up partitioning the disks. I do not know why all distributions of Linux fail to partition disks. I have used many distributions and many versions of the popular distributions. They all work for some configurations and fail with other configurations. I use really simple reliable configurations and these seem to confuse Linux the most.

From what I read about the Linux disk management code, not one has ever written a disk management program. Instead they have some people writing utility programs to work from the 1960s style Unix DOS box then someone else writes a user interface that tries to fake disk management by running the utilities in the background. There is no effective communication. The user interface fails because it does not know what happened after the last command. You have to reboot and start again. Eventually the changes might work.

The best approach with Ubuntu, and the Debian it is based on, is usually to delete all partitions then reboot and add the new ones. Occasionally you will need CentOS to create combinations that Ubuntu does not understand. Sometimes you can tell Ubuntu to create the Ubuntu default layout then reboot and delete the default then create what you actually want.

On this occasion Ubuntu decided to not let me nominate the boot partition and failed when trying to delete the RAID partitions set up in a test of CentOS. I had to reboot. After the reboot, most of the deleted partitions were deleted, I still could not switch on the boot flag, and I decided to format each partition as I created each partition.

Partition settings disk 1

This disk is a Solid State Disk for the system files.

Partition 1 - the boot partition

Select the free space then press [Enter].
How to use this space: Create a partition
New partition size: 100 MB
Type for the new partition: primary
Then the following settings.

Use as: Ext4 journaling file system (the default)
Mount point: /boot
Mount options: noatime
Label: boot
Reserved blocks: 5% (the default)
Typical usage: standard (the default)
Bootable flag: on

Ubuntu would not let me switch on the bootable flag the first time through! I could not switch on the bootable flag until I went through the disk configuration a second time. You have to delete all the old partitions first, save the changes, reboot, then go back to add your new partitions.

Partition 2 - Swap space

Select the free space then press [Enter].
How to use this space: Create a partition
New partition size: 8 GB (to match the 8 GB memory)
Type for the new partition: primary
Then the following settings.

Use as: swap space

Partition 3 - System partition

Select the free space then press [Enter].
How to use this space: Create a partition
New partition size: 55.9 GB (Use the default because it will use the rest of the disk)
Type for the new partition: primary
Then the following settings.

Use as: Ext4 journaling file system (the default)
Mount point: /
Mount options: noatime
Label: system
Reserved blocks: 5% (the default)
Typical usage: standard (the default)
Bootable flag: off (the default)

Configure software RAID

Select Configure software RAID then press [Enter].

Write the changes to the storage device and configure RAID?

Select Yes then press [Enter].

Software RAID configuration actions

Select Create MD device then press [Enter].

Software RAID device type

Select RAID5 then press [Enter].

Number of active devices for the RAID5 array

This should default to 3 because there are three spare disks. Press [Enter].

Number of spare devices for the RAID5 array

This should default to 0 because there are now no spare disks. Press [Enter]. If you had four disks and wanted RAID 6, you could specify 3 for active disks and 1 for spare.

Active devices for the RAID5 array

We have our system on /dev/sda. Select /dev/sbb, sdc, and sdd for RAID5.

Save the changes

Select Yes then press [Enter].

Software RAID configuration actions

Select Finish then press [Enter].

back at the partition list

You are back at the partition list and there may be the odd spare space listed around the RAID configuration. CentOS does not waste space on my configuration. Ubuntu leaves 131 KB unused despite being exactly the same Linux on exactly the same disks. Another reason to hate disk configuration in Linux.

Select Finish partitioning and write changes to disc then press [Enter].

Set up users and passwords

Full name for new user: peter[Enter]
Username for your account: peter[Enter]
Choose a password for the new user: ambystoma78789mexicanum[Enter]
Re-enter the password to verify: ambystoma78789mexicanum[Enter]
Encrypt your home directory: no[Enter]

Configure the package manager

HTTP proxy information: [Enter]

There should be no need to go through a proxy. Everything you need should be on disk. When you bring up the working computer, you should be able to then alter network settings and perform any online updates.

On my machine there is about five minutes of activity here to read files form the CD. Plenty of time to listen to your customer complain about the installation taking so long and costing so much despite it happening twice as fast as normal and you saving your customer the thousands of dollars the customer was going to pay for proprietary software licences.

Configuring grub-pc

Install the GRUB loader to the master boot record? Yes [Enter]

Finish the installation

Is the system clock set to UTC? Yes [Enter]
Installation is complete: Remove the CD. Select Continue. [Enter]

The system reboots.

Log in

Log in with your user id. Select System then Administration then Update Manager. The update manager will list a lot of updates to be applied before you continue. Two months after the release of Ubuntu 10.10, my test system required 194 updates totalling 203 megabytes. If you were installing a lot of Linux systems every week, you could benefit from a Jigdo style weekly update of your installation CD to save reapplying all those updates to every computer.

Reboot

All those updates will require a reboot (just like Windows). Of course a major Windows update would include a .NET update that would disable your computer. Ubuntu updates have not disabled any of my Linux machines. Ubuntu 9.4 (I think it was 9.4) included a change that made me stay at 9 until 10 arrived but even the mistake in 9.4 did not make the machine unusable, it only disabled a feature I wanted, not the whole operating system like .NET updates.

Remove the CD drive

Power down the system using the Linux Shut down button. Unplug your external CD drive or remove the cables from the internal drive. Power up and hit [Delete] to enter the BIOS. Tell the BIOS to boot direct from hard disk, not from CD. Save and exit the BIOS. You system should continue booting and boot up to two seconds faster without the check for the CD.