Ejblinux-build-diary

From Ed's Mediawiki

ejblinux Build Diary

Introduction

ejblinux is an installation of Ubuntu Linux on a virtual machine running on ejbdesk1. The virtual machine is running under VMware Player, which is free virtual machine I downloaded after trying to do this with the Windows virtual machine that comes with Windows 7.

The purpose of this Linux installation is to give me a platform for Linux based development and learning Linux specific web server stuff.

Update 12/14/2011

Had to re-install this machine after a host machine rebuild. For some reason the old virtual machine was not backed up. Now calling it ejblinux.

Ubuntu Version and Virtual Machine

  • 64-bit Ubuntu 11.04 - the Natty Narwhal - released in April 2011 and supported until October 2012.
    • updated 12/14/2011 to 11.10
  • VMware Player 3.1.4 build-385536
    • updated 12/14/2011 to 3.1.5 build-491717
    • updated 12/17/2011 to 4.0.1 build-528992

Once VMware was installed, I was able to install Ubuntu with very little effort, because VMware has specific support for Linux installations. I just had to specify the ISO file I had downloaded from the Ubuntu site and the installation went quickly. Note that you can also download complete virtual machines called "Virtual Appliances" that already have the operating system installed. I wanted the latest version, so I did it from the ISO.

The virtual machine includes a virtual disk drive and virtual peripherals like the printer and network adapter. I let this default because it is easy to change things later. (Note: on rebuild 12/14/2011, set up virtual disk for multiple files. A tiny bit slower, but better backup footprint.)

Network settings

By default, the VM's network is set up to share the IP address of the host machine, which I did not want. By using the virtual machine settings GUI, I was able to set the networking to bridge through the host, which allows the virtual machine to have its own IP address. I also set "Replicate physical network connection state." With this setup, this virtual machine looks to the network router like a physical machine. For the moment, I am using DHCP for IP assignment, but will probably set up a fixed address later.

Printers

VMware uses some magic to create virtual versions of the host's printers, so I don't have to play games with linux printer drivers. This includes the PDFCreator virtual printer I use to create PDF files on Windows, but the PDF files are created on the host, not the virtual machine.

Software

The Ubuntu distribution comes with a lot of software already installed, including LibreOffice, which is a branch of OpenOffice.org, and seems like a good way to go.

Update 12/14/2011: I have now gone completely over to LibreOffice on Windows and MAC OSx

LAMP Installation

This desktop version did not include the LAMP tools (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) that I wanted to do web development. I found a tutorial blog at howtoforge.com that took me through this step by step. It did help that I did some of this already on windows, because there are a few missing parts. If you read all of the comments on the blog it all gets covered.

Need to do this again for re-build.