This is my guide for installing Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) on my laptop. Here are the various different things this guide will help you do:
- Install Gutsy if you have an ATI Mobility Radeon x1800 graphics card
- Install Gutsy if you want a RAID0 strip array
- Install a lot of useful programs
- Change many useful configuration settings
[edit] Sources
Most of this guide came from this Ubuntu wiki guide, this forum post and my previous experience with installing Ubuntu
[edit] My system specs
- Model: Alienware m5750 Laptop
- Processor: Intel Core2 T7200 @ 2.00GHz
- Video Card: ATI Mobility Radeon x1800
- Hard Drive: 2 x 80 GB Western Digital
- RAID: VIA RAID controller (Configured with RAID 0)
[edit] Booting to the live CD with Radeon X1800
Skip this section if you're not having a problem booting to the live CD.
- Boot to normal install CD in safe graphics mode.
- While booting up, the log screen will show "Running local boot scripts (/etc/rc.local)". At this point, a script will run that tries to auto-configure your graphics. For my X1800 mobility, this didn't complete properly. and resulted in the following error "The display server has been shut down about 6 times in the last 90 seconds. It is likely that something bad is going on. Waiting for 2 minutes before trying again on display :1."
- Ignore that error. If you take too long doing the next couple scripts, the auto-config script might run again and your monitor will flash.
- Press Alt+F2 to get to terminal
- Perform
sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
startx
- After you install 7.10 and get it working, you will need to repeat these steps on your first boot. Then you will need to enable restricted drivers. An information should be presented to you on your first boot prompting you to enable these drivers.
[edit] Installation on RAID 0
[edit] What you need
Here's what you need:
- Ubuntu 7.10 live desktop CD. I used the i386 version (for 32 bit processors), but this guide should work with the AMD64 (for 64 bit processors) version of Gutsy.
- An internet connection. There is wonderful wireless support in Gutsy, but you might want to have a wired connection to be safe.
[edit] Partitioning and Installation
- Administration > Software Sources. Check the check boxes next to all the different repositories. Close the window. When prompted to, reload the repositories.
- Do
sudo apt-get install dmraid
- If you don't already have partitions set up and sized how you want them, do so now. Go to Administration > Partition Editor. Make sure to create one ext3 partition and one swap partition (equal to or greater than the size of your RAM). Apply those changes.
- On the desktop, double-click "install".
- When you reach the partition step, choose "manual" instead of "entire disk".
- This will open gparted, which should show all your partitions. You will see all your partitions listed twice in different ways. Under the first "section" of partitions, right click on all of them and change their type to "dontuse". Now go below where you see partitions in their own separate "sections". Right click and select the proper mount points for each partition. Select "/" for the ext3 partition and "swap" for the swap partition. Press continue.
- Right before the installation starts, it will give you a summary of the drives it's formating and partitioning. Write down the drive that you mounted "/" to. From here on out, I will refer to the name as
<RAID_SET-NAME> and the number at the as <PARTITION_NUM>.In my case, this was "/dev/mapper/via_bjgffdcjia2". It will always start with "/dev/mapper".
- The installation should start now. It will take a 15 minutes or so. At 95% it will say that it failed to install "grub". Press okay, we'll deal with this later.
[edit] Installing GRUB
You have to "chroot" into /target to tell Ubuntu that you are installing-to/dealing-with your new installation and not the live CD. Programs need to be installed on the new Ubuntu installation otherwise it won't be recognized after you restart. Then you need to install grub manually because it fails when the installer tries to do it. Here are the instructions for all of that:
- In the terminal, do the following:
# move some important system stuff over to the new installation of Ubuntu
# Note: You may get errors about some of these things already being done for you. That's fine.
# Just do them all to be safe. I have commented the ones were not necessary for me.
# replace <RAID_SET_NAME> with the name that you wrote down earlier. The same goes for <PART_NUM>
sudo mount -t ext3 /dev/mapper/<RAID_SET_NAME><PARTITION_NUM> /target # for me this was "sudo mount -t ext3 /dev/mapper/via_bjgffdcjia2 /target"
sudo mount --bind /dev /target/dev
sudo mount -t proc proc /target/proc # was already done
sudo mount -t sysfs sysfs /target/sys
# copy some necessary files from the live CD over to the new installation of Ubuntu
sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /target/etc/apt
sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /target/etc
# now point the terminal to start working with your new installation instead of the live CD
sudo chroot /target
# update the new installation and install dmraid and grub
apt-get update
apt-get install dmraid
apt-get install grub # might already be installed
# copy some grub files to the proper directory
cp /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/* /boot/grub # replace "i386" with "x86_64" if you are using the AMD64 live CD
# now we're going to run grub with a command line option that I made up while trying to grub to install properly
grub
- This will take you to the grub command prompt where you will enter the following commands
device (hd0) /dev/mapper/<RAID_SET_NAME> # hd0 represents the first hard drive in my computer, the "raid disk", none partition
find /boot/grub/stage1 # take note of the output of this command. it should be something like "(hd0,1)"
root (hd0,1) # change "(hd0,1)" to the output of the last command. What "(hd0,1)" means is "hard drive 1, partition 2".
setup (hd0)
quit
- Now you should be back to the normal terminal (but still "chroot"'ed into the new installation with "sudo chroot /target"). You now need to set up the GRUB configuration file. Run:
update-grub
# When prompted to create a new menu.lst file, enter "y" for yes.
# we need to edit the menu.lst file and put some of our own modificaitions
sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst # this will open a command line text editor. To save and exit, press CTRL+X, then press "y", then press "enter"
- Now you need to edit menu.lst to be fully set up for your RAID (and your Windows partition if one exists). Scroll to the bottom of the file. You should see some sections talking about "root" and "kernel". Change any occurences of "(hd0,0)" to whatever you entered when you set up grub. Since my <PARTITION_NUM> was 2, I entered replaced "(hd0,0)" with "(hd0,1)" (meaning "hard drive number 1, partition number 2").
- If you want to add a section to be able to boot to windows, copy the last section from the snippet below.
- Here is what the bottom section of my menu.lst looks like:
## ## End Default Options ##
title Ubuntu 7.10
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=/dev/mapper/via_bjgffdcjia2 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
title Ubuntu 7.10 (recovery mode)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=/dev/mapper/via_bjgffdcjia2 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
title Windows XP
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
boot
[edit] Finish up
- You should be able to restart your computer now
sudo shutdown -r now
- Keldek has written a guide based on mine, but modified because some steps in my guide didn't work for him. If you encountered problems while following the steps I listed, you might want to take a look at his guide.
[edit] Useful programs
[edit] Programming stuff
- Get the native subversion client
sudo apt-get install subversion
[edit] Eclipse 3.2 and 3.3 (Europa)
- Install Eclipse 3.2 and Java 6 by following these instructions<
- Now download a pre-configured version of Eclipse 3.3 from here (provides a huge collection of plugins to conveniently add)
- I start with the Java Developers package then add PHPEclipse, Subversive, EMF, and GEF
- Also, I get the Green UML plugin
- Now extract the archive you just downloaded
- Now copy all those files into the actual eclipse folder and overwrite the old 3.2 files:
sudo cp -R ~/Desktop/eclipse/* /usr/lib/eclipse/
[edit] Python Stuff
sudo aptitude install gcc libc6-dev python-dev python-setuptools python2.4-profiler
- Install PyDev for Eclipse
sudo apt-get install eclipse-pydev
[edit] Installing a LAMP server
System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager -> Edit -> Mark packages by Task -> LAMP Server -> OK -> Apply
# OR execute this command:
sudo apt-get install apache2 apache2-mpm-prefork apache2-utils apache2.2-common libapache2-mod-php5 libapr1 libaprutil1 libcurl3 libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libgd2-xpm libmcrypt4 libnet-daemon-perl libplrpc-perl libsqlite0 libt1-5 mysql-client-5.0 mysql-server mysql-server-5.0 php-db php-pear php5 php5-cli php5-common php5-curl php5-gd php5-mcrypt php5-mysql phpmyadmin
- Your username for phpMyAdmin should be root and your password should be whatever you set as the default MySQL password when you installed the package. To verify that phpMyAdmin is functional, visit http://localhost/phpmyadmin
[edit] Compiz Fusion
Compiz Fusion gives you the cool desktop cube and other amazing effects. It comes pre-installed in Gutsy Gibbon. All you need to do is install the Compiz Manager and enable it.
- Install XGL and the compiz manager.
sudo apt-get install xserver-xgl gnome-compiz-manager
sudo shutdown -r now # restart just to be safe (even though it's not totally necessary)
- When the system starts up again, go to System -> Appearance -> Visual Effects and select "Custom". Then press the "preferences" button and edit things to your hearts delight.
- NOTE: If you cube isn't rotating properly, make sure you have 4 "workspaces" enabled. In the bottom right corner next to the trash can, you should see 4 boxes. If you only see one, right click and go to preferences and change the number of horizontal workspaces to 4.
[edit] iTunes via Wine
sudo apt-get install wine libjack
- Download iTunes 7.3
- Install iTunes via Wine
- Run
libcfg
- On the main configuration tab, click "Add Application", navigate to the iTunes installation folder and select iTunes.exe. In my case, this was "~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/iTunes/iTunes.exe". Set iTunes to run under Windows XP.
- On the audio tab, make sure the test sound plays through your speakers.
- Run iTunes and import music!
[edit] Amarok
- Execute the following command to install Amarok and get MP3 support
sudo apt-get install amarok libxine1-plugins
- To get sound working with my external USB sound card (Toshiba Docking Station/USB Hub with Dolby Digital PA3390U-1MPM), I had to do the following
- Double click the audio icon in the top left -> File -> Change Device -> Select "Toshiba Audio Device"
- System -> Preferences -> Sound
- Change everything to USB Audio and change the last drop down to "Toshiba Audio Device"
- Edit the sound configuration file and comment out a certain line:
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
Locate this line:
options snd-usb-audio index=-2
and add a # symbol in front of it which leaves you with:
#options snd-usb-audio index=-2
[edit] Importing from iTunes
- First copy all your files from your iTunes music folder into ~/Music
- To get automatic sound gain and import your playlists, ratings, play counts, follow the steps in this informative blog
[edit] MusicTracker (Status updater for Pidgin)
[edit] Picasa
After debating between using Picasa For Linux
[edit] Other programs
- Other important programs (or at least the ones I remembered to write down):
sudo apt-get install vlc
- Skype for linux
- Picasa (I prefer the Windows version running through WINE instead of the Linux version
- Azures for Linux (Getting Azurues from the repositories resulted in it crashing every time I ran it.) This link is recent as of Nov 14, 2007.
- Get support for RAR and UNRAR:
sudo apt-get install rar unrar
[edit] Configuration tips
[edit] Automatically mount Windows partition on RAID
The directions here are derived from the amazing guides on UbuntuGuide.org.
- Create a folder where the windows partition will be mounted
sudo mkdir /media/windows
sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab_backup
gksudo gedit /etc/fstab
- Now appened this line to the end of the file:
/dev/mapper/<RAID_SET_NAME><PARTITION_NUM> /media/windows ntfs nls=utf8,umask=0000 0 0
[edit] Small helpful tips
acpi -V # for degrees Celsius
acpi -Vf # for degrees Fahrenheit
[edit] Laptop battery life
sudo gedit /etc/default/acpi-supprt
- And change the line that says
ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=false to say ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=true
- Get the following laptop power management :
sudo apt-get install powertop
- Run it under the terminal (under
sudo) from time to time to get suggestions on how to save power.
- When the program is running, it gives you hotkeys to change certain settings to optimize power. If you use the hotkeys, the settings don't stay after a restart. I haven't found a way around this yet.
[edit] Package Repositories
- I use the following for my sources.list file. To edit yours, execute this command:
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
- Now delete everything in that file and use these lines instead:
# Ubuntu supported packages
# GPG key: 437D05B5
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy main restricted
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-updates main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-updates main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security main restricted
# Ubuntu community supported packages
# GPG key: 437D05B5
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy universe multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-updates universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security universe multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy universe multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-updates universe multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-security universe multiverse
# Ubuntu backports project
# GPG key: 437D05B5
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu gutsy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
# Others
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/corenominal/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/corenominal/ubuntu gutsy main
- Now you need to update Synaptic so it knows about the new repositories (primarily the backports repository.
sudo apt-get update
Last modified January 9, 2008 10:34 am