Ubuntu

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Alpha Release for Testers

Welcome to the Alpha 3 release of Amahi Ubuntu Edition!

This is our third alpha release ... still expect turbulence! Let's start with the caveats and then on to how to install!

Caveats

  • This is a third alpha release. Expect your machine to explode in a million pieces losing all the data.
  • No graphical installer yet. Installation involves two CLI (command-line) commands
  • Note that this is intended to be installed under 11.10. It also seems to work under 10.04 and 11.04; but no warranty. It has been tested with ubuntu desktop, but server probably also should not cause problems. I suspect things like Kubuntu/Lubuntu/Gobuntu/Edubuntu/.... will also work but this is not tested. No warranty. Feel free to report results.
  • No applications are available for Ubuntu yet. This is on purpose, so that we keep the focus tightly on platform stability before chasing ghosts in apps
  • Only supported on Ubuntu 11.10 desktop and server edition
  • 'only 32bit is supported. x86 64bit and arm are not supported yet
  • This has been also tested on Debian, but not as well as in Ubuntu
  • There are no automatic updates or ways to update from your install to an eventual release or from the awxibs alpha.
  • Greyhole is not yet supported
  • Debian is not well supported in this release (there are a couple of known issues). We are focusing on Ubuntu only for now.

How to install Amahi on Ubuntu i386

  • Download Ubuntu 11.10 CD/DVD
  • Install Ubuntu. Only 11.10 has been tested. If you want to test other releases, let us know if or how they work. Aim is to move a soon as possible to 12.04LTS and stick with that one for a while.
  • start a terminal
  • Double check your network settings with ifconfig and route -n. These should be the settings that you use in the next step. If these are not correct you can change the ip address by issueing the command
bash code
​sudo ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.14 netmask 255.255.255.0 up​

assuming 192.168.1.14 is your IP address. The route can be changed with

bash code
​sudo route add default gw 192.168.1.1​

assuming 192.168.1.1 is the address of your router.
This is especially important if you are doing a headless install.

  • Make sure you have the proper network settings set up in your control panel, with one profile and one install code
  • Get the installer by executing the following command in the terminal window (hint: use copy and paste):
bash code
​ wget http://ubuntu.amahi.org/install.11.10 ​
  • Then start the install with
bash code
​ sh install.11.10 ​

The install script partially runs as root so it will ask you for your password to install those sections (there is a sudo command in the script)

This should take a little while and many messages will flash by the screen. The time depends on the speed of your PC and your network connection.

If you are on a system with a display and have firefox installed and are not running as root (running as root is not recommended), firefox will start and prompt you for the install code. (you can get your install code from www.amahi.org).

If you are on a system with GUI but without firefox (but e.g. Konqueror or Chrome) or were running as root (not recommended) start your browser and browse to http://localhost:2000.

If you are installing on a headless system where you have no window system running browse to the web gui from a different system. This is done by browsing to http://<ip address of your amahi system>:2000

In either case your browser will ask you for your install code and start installing some additional packages. There is a progress indicator, but don't trust it too much as it has not been tuned very well.

Once the installation is completed the system will tell you to reboot. Do so. Note that rebooting will change the IP address of your system to the addres you've given when creating your install code.

After rebooting, http://hda should be working if entered on the local system. From a remote system this will only work if you have your DNS pointing to the amahi system as otherwise your system cannot resolve the name "hda".

How to install Amahi on Pandaboard

If you want to install Amahi onPandaboard it is highly recommended to use a USB hard disk. If not, you should go for a fast SDHC card of at least 4GB (better 8GB). If you want to install on an USB hard disk an SD card of at least 2GB is needed. Other thin gneeded is a serial cable for console access to the pandaboard.

The following steps are needed to get amahi going:\

Install Ubuntu on Pandaboard

Detailed information can be found at: http://www.omappedia.org/wiki/OMAP_Ubuntu_Main and http://www.omappedia.org/wiki/PandaBoard_Ubuntu_Pre-built_Binaries_Guide

In brief:

  • on a pc fetch the ubuntu 11.10 arm server image:
bash code
​wget http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/11.10/release/ubuntu-11.10-preinstalled-server-armel+omap4.img.gz​
  • prepare your sd card, for <device name> use the name of your sd card (not a partition) (e.g. /dev/sdf) NOTE this will overwrite the whole card!:
bash code
​ sudo sh -c 'zcat ubuntu-11.10-preinstalled-server-armel+omap4.img.gz > /dev/<device name>'​
  • remove the SD card from your PC, insert it into the pandaboard and hook up a serial cable (or a USB to serial cable).
  • start a terminal emulator on your PC. I have used cu as minicom was horrible with the graphics of the installer.

Make sure you configure it properly (115200 8N1) and use the proper line (in my case /dev/ttyUSB0, but this depends on your actual hardware). With cu and ttyUSB0 the command line reads:

bash code
​cu -l /dev/ttyUSB0 -s 115200​
  • power the board; your panda will now boot; and start resizing the partition, after that the board will reboot.
  • you will now get into the ubuntu installation dialog. I've tested with English, but feel free to try other languages.
  • choose location, timezone etc. Keyboard does only matter if you plan on adding a local keyboard, but most likely you won't.
  • choose a username and password, make sure not to forget these
  • for primary interface best use eth0 (using wlan0 should not probably be no problem but will be slower). This was all tested with fixed network.
  • for hostname just keep localhost; we'll rename later
  • IMPORTANT: when it comes to selecting what software to install choose both Basic Ubuntu Server and OpenSSH Server. Select no other items.
  • the packages will now install. This takes some time. A good moment to get some coffee or a beer ;-)

Optional: move Ubuntu to a USB hard disk

Info is to be found here: http://omappedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_on_OMAP_FAQ#I_want_to_install_Ubuntu_on_external_USB_hard_disk_instead_of_sluggish_SD_card

Install Amahi

Follow the instructions for installing Amahi on i386 starting at the third instruction ("start a terminal").

Install time will depend on your network, but both the install.11.10 step and the amahi installer took around 10 minutes for me (using an USB hard disk). Of course this also depends on your network speed and on speed of the servers. On SD card this will take substantially more time.

Install Ubuntu on BeagleBoard/BeagleBoard XM/BeagleBone

This is not tested by me but probably possible following the instructions for Pandaboard. BThere is (as far as I know) one deviation. As ubuntu image you need to download http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/11.10/release/ubuntu-11.10-preinstalled-server-armel+omap.img.gz instead of the omap4 image.

And of course for BeagleBoard you need to add some USB Ethernet adapter.

If you manage to get Amahi running on any of these boards, feel free to update this page and please mail the Amahi mailing list.

Install Amahi on other ARMv7 boards

This is probably feasible. If you have Ubuntu running on it just start at step 3 of the i386 instructions. Please report successes to the mailing list and feel free to add a note to this page.

Other

Refer to the Debian page for the latest info, how to install via other methods and development updates.

The old Ubuntu information (mostly out of date now) is in the Ubuntu old page.

Plans

Plan is to move to 12.04LTS server as soon as possible and stick with that one for a while.

Problems, questions etc

If you encounter any problems, have questions or whatever, please stop by on our irc channel (#amahi and #amahi-debian), or send them to the mailing list.

If you encountered a problem and found a solution feel free to append your solution to this page.

install.11.10 reports error, firefox does not give a web page

Generally if there is a problem during executing the install script, re-invoke the install command. I have seen this problem once where the install script could not install a ruby gem (probably because the repository was not available or accessible). retrying the install after 15 minutes or so resolved this.

12.04 Notes

Below are some notes for 12.04. These are recordings of things to do, work in progress and not a fully fledged recipe! Do not use this yet unless you are very adventurous.

Steps (preferred)

  • download server iso (tested: 32 bit)
  • boot into iso (from CD or whatever)
  • select language
  • select install server
  • select language again
  • select location
  • configure system (kbd etc)
  • do not encrypt home dir; encrypted home dir is not tested by me and will probably slow things down
  • the amount of disk space depends on what you want to do. A basic system can run in 8 GB but if you want to have much apps or much content you definitely want a lot more.
  • opt for install security updates automatically (you probably want to keep things secure; most people tend not to spent too much time on maintenance activities)
  • for "Software to install" only select "OpenSSH server"
  • after install "apt-get update; apt-get upgrade"

Or (less preferred and tested)

  • download destop iso
  • start installer
  • click on the "install" button
  • check the box before "Download updates while installing"
  • fill in the forms the installer will present to you (I did opt for setting a password; as I saw issues with autologin in older versions of ubuntu, I did not use autologin)
  • use update manager to update installed packages


After installing ubuntu run the procedure as described above, with the exception that you should get the install script from amahi.herobo.com (wget amamhi.herobo.com/install.11.10 ; yes it still needs to be renamed but works for 12.04 too)
three issues popped up:

  • network settings were wrong
  • no appps

Note that this is all very premature. Stay tuned

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