Difference between revisions of "Installing Kubuntu 13.04"

Latest revision as of 10:53, 10 September 2014

EXPERIMENTAL

This is still in the experimental migration stage - unless you specifically need to install Kubuntu, stick with installing OpenSUSE (11.4) on all new AOG PCs.

Some of the instructions on here have been taken from the installing OpenSUSE page/s. I've tried to simplify it and add specific Kubuntu problems/solutions. Due to the popularity of Ubuntu, a lot of software for linux has been written specifically for this OS (e.g. Makerware for the 3D printer), and whilst it may be possible to port over to OpenSUSE machines, the easiest/simplest solution is to fold and just use Ubuntu. Kubuntu is a version of Ubuntu with a KDE frontend tacked on (well, not exactly tacked on). The scope is to see if one/few PCs can be integrated into the AOG network with Kubuntu without much hassle.

Pre-installation checklist

- List of installed software by you and others who use the PC (skip if new PC)

- Back up locally (not on network drives) stored files (skip if new PC)

- Have access to bios setup/boot menu - very relevant for new PCs. If locked, contact university information service (IS) to come and unlock it, or better still, request it before placing PC order.

- Get information on PC CPU (32-bit/64-bit) and get correct Kubuntu disk (i586/x86_64)

- Make sure PC has DVD drive or find a portable one (can be installed with USB pen too)

- Get information on hard drive specifications. You might want to also request IS to partition your hard drive/s (at least two), with MS Windows on one, and the other/s blank.

Installation screens

I. Boot setup

Often F2, sometime Del, could also be some other strange key shown when PC is starting up, press and wait for setup screen. Locate boot menu and put disk drive to the top of the boot list, save and exit.

II. Install menu

After a bit of a load time on the Kubuntu splash screen, select install Kubuntu (this screen may be bypassed by the installer)

1. Welcome

Select language 'English' and click on 'Install Kubuntu'

2. Preparing to install kubuntu

Should show drive space availability (tick) and internet connection (cross). Tick 'install this third-party software'. Click 'continue' (bottom right)

3. Installation type

Select manual and continue.

4. Prepare partitions

You may have Windows pre-installed and want to keep it. It will most likely show up as device:/dev/sda1 type:ntfs. It this isn't partitioned (determined with HDD bar at top showing 100% Windows) and you want to keep windows, seek help! Otherwise you can delete this partition.

If you kept the Windows partition, mount the partition by selecting it, clicking 'change...';

- windows: keep the same partition size, use as 'ntfs' (or whatever the type showed up as earlier), DO NOT tick format, and set mount point as '/windows/C/'. Click 'ok'.

The other partition/s will need to be split into three. Select the 'free space' partition and click 'add';

- swap: select 'primary', size is double your RAM, location is 'beginning', use as 'swap area', click 'ok'

- root: select 'primary', size is '40960MB' (adjust for small HDD), location is 'beginning', use as 'Ext4 jfs', mount point is '/', click 'ok' (it will automatically format)

- eee: size is the rest of available disk space (default), location is 'beginning', use as 'Ext4 jfs', mount point is '/eee', click 'ok' (will auto format)You'll also need to select your boot loader location, this will be you're root device (partition), most likely '/dev/sda3', but check on the list. Also recheck that windows format box is not ticked, it will be a hassle to get it back. Click on 'install now' in the bottom right.

5. Where are you?

Region is 'Europe', Time zone is 'United Kingdom time', click continue.

6. Keyboard Layout

Layout is 'English (UK)', Variant is 'English (UK)' (unless its different), click continue.

7. Who are you?

Your name is your computer `compname` (it is assigned and should be known; ask someone!), username is `compname_local`, password (also should be known) is `comppassword`, your computer's name is `compname` .

(go and get some tea or shut-eye)

8. Installation complete

Take out the Kubuntu disk, click restart.

Post install

At this point, you may want to switch back the boot list in the bios setup (HDD first) but its not essential (or in some cases, preferred). Let the GRUB menu load and select/auto-select 'Kubuntu GNU/Linux'.

- After the splash screen, login using the details you provided during setup.

Getting access to root

Right click anywhere, click 'add panel' -> 'default panel'. Open terminal, enter;

sudo passwd root

enter the `comppassword` x3.

Next, open 'system settings', 'login screens (lightdm)', enter password `comppassword`, select 'classic' theme, click 'apply'. Logout and sign in as root.

Initial setup

Kubuntu has some weird quirks that are probably there for a reason but makes setting up a bit more of a hassle than with OpenSUSE. First things first, you'll want to sort out the desktop (skip, if you are ok with the layout).

Replace taskbar: Like before, right click and add default bar. Remove the old bar. Re-adjust as needed.

Multiple screens: Open 'system settings', 'display configuration', and drag monitors to left/right and set primary display (yellow star).

Faster display: Open 'system settings', 'desktop effects', 'advanced' tab, change composting type to 'xrender', qt graphics system to 'raster' (also maybe turn off v-sync). This may be important for integrated graphics PCs (and for not blowing your own brains out because of the slow response).

Setting your IP address

Kubuntu has an odd start-up procedure, where the IP is resolved after trying to access shared directories if you use the network manager (the settings you set in 'system settings'). An easy way around this is to set up interfaces;

- Edit /etc/network/interfaces

- Add at the end;

iface eth0 inet static

address 128.243.74.xxx replace 'xxx' with your own IP

netmask 255.255.0.0

gateway 128.243.1.1

dns-nameservers 128.243.40.11 128.243.40.12 128.243.21.19

auto eth0

- If you have more than one Ethernet card/port and this doesn't work, you may need to change eth0 to eth1/eth2/...

Setting proxy for essential programs

Again, if you set the proxy in the 'system settings', for some reason, some of the more useful programs do not want to use these settings (wget, apt-get, muon). Use this workaround;

- Add, as root, to the end of the file '/etc/environment' the line;

http_proxy "http://optics.eee.nottingham.ac.uk:62267";

• Sometimes it likes http_proxy=http://optics.eee.nottingham.ac.uk:62267 instead, not sure why. If it complains in either muon or apt-get, (error 127) this might be the solution.

- Create file '/etc/apt/apt.conf' and add;

Acquire::http::Proxy "http://optics.eee.nottingham.ac.uk:62267";

- Restart and login again as root.

Downloading upgrades/needed programs

Unlike OpenSUSE, a lot of useful programs are missing from the initial install. Luckily, these can now be downloaded.

- Download 'muon package manager', don't use that frilly muon discovery

in terminal, type sudo apt-get install muon , type Y and enter.

- Open 'muon package manager', click 'settings', 'configure software sources', 'other software', click both 'canonical partners' and accept.

- Click 'check for updates', wait..., click 'full upgrade' and 'apply changes'.

(go for another nap)

- Restart, login as root and re-open 'muon'.

- Search and install; 'nfs-common', 'autofs', 'sysv-rc-conf', 'nis', 'automounter'. Click 'apply changes'.

- When it asks for a domain, enter 'applied_optics'

- Wait a bit more and restart

Access to shared directories

Annoyingly, automount and auto-directory stuff doesn't sort itself out like in OpenSUSE. So there's a few files that need manual amending.

- Add to /etc/yp.conf

domain eee.nottingham.ac.uk server optics.eee.nottingham.ac.uk

ypserver 128.243.74.2

- Edit /etc/nsswitch.conf and add/amend the protocols list by putting 'nis' next to; 'hosts', 'networks', 'services', 'netgroup' and add 'automount' and 'aliases' to the list (again with the 'nis' variable). E.g. networks would look like this;

networks: nis files

- Edit /etc/host.conf and add 'nis' to the 'order' option, i.e.

order hosts, nis, bind

- Move /home to /local_home and create another /home directory with full access;

mv /home /local_home

mkdir /home

chmod 777 /home

- Edit /etc/passwd, amend for the new home directory for `compname_local` user (i.e. '/home' to '/local_home') and add '+::::::' to the end of the file.

- Edit /etc/groups and add '+:::' to the end.+

- Open terminal and run;

sysv-rc-conf ypbind on

- Finally, edit /etc/default/autofs and change 'browse mode = "no"' to "yes".

- Restart, you should now be able to login under your own user name and see all users files in /home

Sudo

After this step, you shouldn't need to use the root password. Add to /etc/sudoers;

%scan ALL=(root) ALL

under #Members... section.

Things to do

- Disable nepomuk/akonadi

- Add repositories

- Install vpm and programs

- Annoying cd.. -> cd .. issue (~/.bashrc maybe?)

- Install ssh (possibly NX)

- for disabling mei-me messege, sudo rmmod mei-me, blacklist on /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf or ctrl-p at bios startup to disable report to console

- un-blacklist pcspkr in modprobe for motherboard speaker enable (beep)

- bash.bashrc.local not working for terminal shortcuts, added PATH /eee/vlsi/bin directly to /etc/environment

- If for any reason KDE/startx doesn't run, try this as root console login;

apt-get install kde-standard

- If you lose your profile settings when you login, logout and log back in after 20 secs or so. For some reason, it loads your profile before reading your profile settings on the network if you login too quickly.