How to install Ubuntu Server - Lucid Lynx 10.04
Although I do have a few old desktop computers lying around and so could have taken a Windows Licence from one of them to use Windows for my server I fancied trying Linux. Ubuntu seems to be a very popular choice and I knew there would be plenty of help available when (not if!) I needed it. Since this new machine would be running headless I figured Ubuntu Server would be the natural choice. Obviously I could have chosen Ubuntu Desktop but that would mean installing all the desktop components and all the other bloat that goes with it. Don't get me wrong, Ubuntu is not a bloated operating system but nevertheless I'd still be installing more stuff than I would be using. The downside with Ubuntu Server, for many, is there is no GUI and so you have to do everything from "the command line". However, I found out I could run a "virtual desktop" using VNC so I decided that Ubuntu Server would be the perfect choice after all. If I hit a brick wall I could always wipe the drive and start over using Ubuntu Desktop. Or dare I say it, Windows.
The installation of Ubuntu Server is actually very straight forward. You first off need to download the ISO image from the Ubuntu Website and burn it to a CD. The process for installing Ubuntu Server is almost identical for Intrepid Ibex 8.10, Jaunty Jackalope 9.04, Karmic Koala 9.10 and Lucid Lynx 10.04 so this guide will work equally well for these earlier versions too. One of the big differences with Karmic & Lucid over the previous versions is Ubuntu now uses the ext4 file system by default. The other versions use ext3 as the default.
So, onto the install. You'll need a keyboard, screen and Ethernet cable plugged into your new server for this part.
Firstly, you need to make sure the server is set to boot from the CD/DVD drive. You can do this by going into the BIOS (by pressing the [Del] key when it's booting) and changing the first drive to be the CD/DVD drive if it's not set like that already.
If you've just jumped into this guide here and have not been following things from the start (meaning you will likely not be using the same motherboard as me) then hitting the [Del] key to get into the BIOS during boot might not work for you. Try instead hitting [Esc], [F1], [F8] or [F10] to get you into the BIOS when the server is booting up.
If I'm ever unsure what the key is I just hit all the Function keys in quick succession when it's booting and one of them usually does the trick!
Once the server has booted from the CD you'll be presented with the Ubuntu Welcome Screen. Follow the onscreen instructions to install Ubuntu. Just a couple of points worth mentioning:
Drive Partitions. In previous versions of Ubuntu Server, well apart from Jaunty that is, you basically had two main choices when it came to partitioning your system drive: The first option was to manually configure the partitions yourself and the second option was to let Ubuntu do the work for you. Whilst the latter might sound attractive at first, the downside was that Ubuntu used the WHOLE of the drive for the installation. Whilst there was nothing inherently wrong in doing this it could cause problems later on if you ever decided to wipe the OS and start over, since you'd have to move all your "user data" off the drive before you could reinstall, or of course risk losing all your data.
Thankfully they've now addressed that shortcoming. So you can now have the benefits of a manual configuration (where you can decide on your own partition sizes) but Ubuntu does all the hard work for you.
So, when you reach the "partition disks" screen choose "Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM" and select the disk you want to install Ubuntu on. You'll then get a screen where you can choose exactly how much of the drive (Volume Group) you want to use for the installation. I chose 30GB which is MORE than plenty.When prompted, choose a strong password. But make sure it's one you'll not mind typing lots of times in the future!
When asked which software you want to install choose OpenSSH Server & Samba File Server.
When the installation has completed remove the installation CD from the drive and let the system reboot.
How to upgrade packages
It's likely that the packages you've just installed from the installation CD have been updated since the CD image was built on the Ubuntu website. You can bring you system fully up to date by issuing the following two commands:
sudo apt-get update
to update the package index. Then issue the following command to update the installed packages:
sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
It's recommended you issue the above two commands from time to time to keep your system full up to date.
How to reboot the Server
Once you've installed Ubuntu Server you should make sure the server can boot properly. So type the following command at the prompt to reboot the server:
sudo reboot -h now
You'll be prompted for a password. This is the password you created during the install. Once it's rebooted and assuming everything's working fine you'll end up back at the command prompt. Now you can disconnect the keyboard and screen, but keep the Ethernet cable plugged in.
We're going to firstly Install Putty to administer our server. This will give us a "Command Line" interface. Since I didn't want to have to learn hundreds of Linux commands I decided to Install VNC as well. VNC provides a virtual desktop view onto your server exactly as if you'd installed Ubuntu Desktop (but obviously without all the extra desktop applications) and so, for the Windows veterans amongst us, the transition from Windows to Linux doesn't have to be quite so painful since you'll have a nice GUI to play with.
As we're essentially building a server and not a desktop computer there are some "server functions" that can't easily be configured using the Gnome desktop and so for this we're going to Install Webmin.
