Startup Programs

Next lets disable the startup programs that you do not need by going to System > Preferences > Sessions.

Installing & Uninstalling Programs

Select Applications > Ubuntu Software Center to install any programs you may want, and uninstall any programs that you don’t.

System Updates

Now lets customize how your computer notifies you when there are updates. Select System > Administration > Software Sources.

Under the Ubuntu Software tab, you can enable or disable the main repositories for Ubuntu. One suggestion that I have is that you change which repository you are using. By default it will use the US Server (or possibly another countries server if you are located outside the US). We want our updates to be as fast as possible and Ubuntu provides a way for us to determine what the best repository server is for us. Where it says “Download from:” click the arrow. This will bring up a list; choose “Other.” A new window will pop up with a button on the right hand side that says “Select Best Server.” Click that button and Ubuntu will test the downloads from all the servers and determine which one is best for you. When it is done, the server that is best for you will be highlighted. Click Choose Server to close the window.

In the Third-Party Software tab you can enable or disable any repositories that are not official Ubuntu repositories.

The Updates tab allows you to choose which updates you want to be informed about, and how often you want Ubuntu to check for updates.

Medibuntu

To install all the “goodies” out there for Ubuntu, we need to make the Medibuntu repositories available. To do this, run the following two commands:

and

Install Restricted Codecs

Ubuntu does not ship with items such as flash, java, and some codecs due to licensing. Let’s enable the backports repository and install these items.

Locate the following lines and remove the # from the front of them:

Now lets update your system and install some codecs, including the restricted codecs.

Speed up your system

Even though Ubuntu is fast on its own, wouldn’t you like to make it even faster? Lets install an application called Preload which will monitor what applications you run and then predict what you will run and fetch the binaries and their dependencies into memory for faster startup times. Say that you run Firefox, VLC, and GIMP every day, Preload will keep the libraries in your RAM to load these programs for you faster. This is similar to Windows SuperFetch.

Other Programs

Now lets install Skype, Wine, VLC, Google Earth, Java, Flash Player 10, and Amarok.

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Adobe Acrobat Reader is no longer available in the Medibuntu repositories. It is now located in the Canonical Partner Repositories. To install Acrobat, we need to enable to Canonical Partner Repositories.

Look for the lines:

and uncomment them. Now we need to update our package list and install Acrobat.

Clean it all up

Now that we have finished installing everything, we need to go through and clean up the mess that was made. We do that by running:

The End

Now you have a fully customized full-featured Ubuntu 9.10 install. Enjoy!

Services

Your new install probably has some services running that you don’t need. Let’s remove those to free up some system resources. To do this select System > Administration > Services. Unlock the services tab by entering your password. Then remove the services you do not need.

Startup Programs

Next lets disable the startup programs that you do not need by going to System > Preferences > Sessions.

Installing & Uninstalling Programs

Select Applications > Add/Remove to install any programs you may want, and uninstall any programs that you don’t.

System Updates

Now lets customize how your computer notifies you when there are updates. Select System > Administration > Software Sources.

Under the Ubuntu Software tab, you can enable or disable the main repositories for Ubuntu. One suggestion that I have is that you change which repository you are using. By default it will use the US Server (or possibly another countries server if you are located outside the US. We want our updates to be as fast as possible and Ubuntu provides a way for us to determine what the best repository server is for us. Where it says Download from: click the arrow. This will bring up a list: choose Other. A new window will pop up with a button on the right hand side that says “Select Best Server.” Click that button and Ubuntu will test the downloads from all the servers and determine which one is best for you. When it is done, the server that is best for you will be highlighted. Click Choose Server to close the window.

In the Third-Party Software tab you can enable or disable any repositories that are not official Ubuntu repositories.

The Updates tab allows you to choose which updates you want to be informed about, and how often you want Ubuntu to check for updates.

Medibuntu

To install all the “goodies” out there for Ubuntu, we need to make the Medibuntu repositories available. To do this, run the following two commands:

and

Install Restricted Codecs

Ubuntu does not ship with items such as flash, java, and some codecs due to licensing. Let’s enable the backports repository and install these items.

Locate the following lines and remove the # from the front of them:

Now lets update your system and install some codecs, including the restricted codecs.

Speed up your system

Even though Ubuntu is fast on its own, wouldn’t you like to make it even faster? Lets install an application called Preload which will monitor what applications you run and then predict what you will run and fetch the binaries and their dependencies into memory for faster startup times. Say that you run Firefox, VLC, and GIMP every day, Preload will keep the libraries in your RAM to load these programs for you faster. This is similar to Windows SuperFetch.

Other Programs

Now lets install Skype, Wine VLC, Google Earth, Java, Flash Player 10, and Amarok.

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Adobe Acrobat Reader is no longer available in the Medibuntu repositories. It is now located in the Canonical Partner Repositories. To install Acrobat, we need to enable to Canonical Partner Repositories.

Look for the lines:

and uncomment them. Now we need to update our package list and install Acrobat.

Clean it all up

Now that we have finished installing everything, we need to go through and clean up the mess that was made. We do that by running:

The End

Now you have a fully customized full-featured Ubuntu 9.04 install. Enjoy!

1. Creating bootable media

Download the software and create in installation disk. You can download Ubuntu 9.04 from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download After downloading Ubuntu, create an install CD.

2. The Installation

First select your language.

Then select Install Ubuntu (the second option) and press Enter.

Ubuntu is preparing to begin the setup process.

Select your language again. Press Forward.

Select your time zone.

Select which keyboard you use.

Select how you want to partition your Hard Drive. You can choose either Guided or Manual. For this article we will use the guided method.

Enter your personal information. If Ubuntu detects another operating system on your computer it will offer for you to import your information from that operating system.

Verify the information on the screen and click Install.

Setup is now installing Ubuntu.

Installation complete. Please reboot.

Remove your install disk. Press Enter.

Booting up for the first time.

Your new desktop.

Enjoy your new system!

May 14, 2009 » Alpha 1 Release
June 11, 2009 » Alpha 2 Release
July 23, 2009 » Alpha 3 Release
August 13, 2009 » Alpha 4 Release
September 3, 2009 » Alpha 5 Release
September 17, 2009 » Alpha 6 Release
October 1, 2009 » Beta Release
October 22, 2009 » Release Candidate
October 29, 2009 » Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala Final Release

1. Install Nginx

For some reason Nginx does not start automatically when it is installed, so we need to start Nginx.

Now we want to make sure that Nginx installed properly. Open your web browser and point it to your servers IP address. If all is working fine you should see a page that says “Welcome to nginx!”

2. Install MySQL

3. Install PHP5

Now edit /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini

and add:

to the end of the file.

4. Install Lighttpd

I know.. Your saying “but I wanted Nginx!” The reason we are installing Lighttpd is because Nginx does not come with a FastCGI package, and there isn’t a standalone package yet. So we are going to install Lighttpd, disable it, and use spawn-fcgi from the Lighttpd package.

You will get an error message saying that port 80 is already in use. That’s fine because we don’t care about running Lighttpd anyway. Now we will remove Lighttpd from our servers startup:

5. Setup spawn-fcgi

Since we are going to use spawn-fcgi to handle PHP, we need to set it up to start when our server starts and make an init script so that we can control the processes. For starters, create the init script:

and add the following code to it and save it:

#! /bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          php-fastcgi
# Required-Start:    $all
# Required-Stop:     $all
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start and stop php-cgi in external FASTCGI mode
# Description:       Start and stop php-cgi in external FASTCGI mode
### END INIT INFO

# Author: Kurt Zankl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

# Do NOT "set -e"

PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin
DESC="php-cgi in external FASTCGI mode"
NAME=php-fastcgi
DAEMON=/usr/bin/php-cgi
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
SCRIPTNAME=/etc/init.d/$NAME
PHP_CONFIG_FILE=/etc/php5/cgi/php.ini

# Exit if the package is not installed
[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0

# Read configuration variable file if it is present
[ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME

# Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
. /lib/init/vars.sh

# Define LSB log_* functions.
# Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.0-6) to ensure that this file is present.
. /lib/lsb/init-functions

# If the daemon is not enabled, give the user a warning and then exit,
# unless we are stopping the daemon
if [ "$START" != "yes" -a "$1" != "stop" ]; then
        log_warning_msg "To enable $NAME, edit /etc/default/$NAME and set START=yes"
        exit 0
fi

# Process configuration
export PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS
DAEMON_ARGS="-q -b $FCGI_HOST:$FCGI_PORT -c $PHP_CONFIG_FILE"

do_start()
{
        # Return
        #   0 if daemon has been started
        #   1 if daemon was already running
        #   2 if daemon could not be started
        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
                || return 1
        start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON \
                --background --make-pidfile --chuid $EXEC_AS_USER --startas $DAEMON -- \
                $DAEMON_ARGS \
                || return 2
}

do_stop()
{
        # Return
        #   0 if daemon has been stopped
        #   1 if daemon was already stopped
        #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
        #   other if a failure occurred
        start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE > /dev/null # --name $DAEMON
        RETVAL="$?"
        [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
        # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
        # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
        # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
        # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
        # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
        # sleep for some time.
        start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
        [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
        # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
        rm -f $PIDFILE
        return "$RETVAL"
}
case "$1" in
  start)
        [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
        do_start
        case "$?" in
                0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
                2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
        esac
        ;;
  stop)
        [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
        do_stop
        case "$?" in
                0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
                2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
        esac
        ;;
  restart|force-reload)
        log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
        do_stop
        case "$?" in
          0|1)
                do_start
                case "$?" in
                        0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
                        1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
                        *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
                esac
                ;;
          *)
                # Failed to stop
                log_end_msg 1
                ;;
        esac
        ;;
  *)
        echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|restart|force-reload}" >&2
        exit 3
        ;;
esac

There is no editing needed for the code above. Now we need to make it executable.

Now we will create the configuration file for spawn-fcgi:

and add:

In this file, you can change the FCGI_PORT, PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN, and PHP_FCGI_MAX_REQUESTS. If you change the port, make sure to note what you change it to because we will need it for later. Now, we want to make sure that spawn-fcgi starts when the server starts:

6. Configure Nginx and your default vhost

For help with configuring Nginx beyond just the default configuration, please refer to the Nginx Wiki. We are now going to configure the default vhost so that we can verify that PHP is working with Nginx.

In the default vhost, change the following lines to look like this:

        server_name  _;
        location ~ \.php$ {
                fastcgi_pass   127.0.0.1:9000;
                fastcgi_index  index.php;
                fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  /var/www/nginx-default$fastcgi_script_name;
                include fastcgi_params;
        }

What we did here was changed the server_name to accept all incoming requests, uncommented the location stanza and defined where Nginx needs to look for spawn-fcgi. If you changed the port above in the /etc/default/php-fastcgi file, then you need to change the port on the fastcgi_pass line as well. On the line fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /var/www/nginx-default$fastcgi_script_name;, you need to change /var/ww/nginx-default to match your web root. On the line include fastcgi_params; you need to add a space between the include and the fastcgi_params as there is a bug in the default configuration and that space was omitted. Once you save the default-vhost, you need to restart Nginx.

Now we will create an info.php file in your web root:

Add the following code and save the file:

Now in your web browser, pull up the newly created file (http://your-ip/info.php). You should see information about the version of PHP that you are running.

Note: When I installed Nginx, it did not start automatically, however it was setup to start when the server booted. I have heard stories of users having issues with Nginx starting automatically when the server boots. If Nginx does not start when you boot your server, run the following command which will make it start on boot:

Enjoy!

References:
Nginx Wiki
Nginx, PHP and a PHP FastCGI daemon init script
Installing Nginx With PHP5 And MySQL Support On Ubuntu 8.10

There are better options to see your memory usage; however it seems `free` is more attune to creating the confusion I’m attempting to quell here. That said, see the Redhat docs about /proc/meminfo

Other commands to use to see memory usage

$ vmstat -aS M #see the "inactive" column for a rough "free" idea.

The real answer

There’s no reason to clear what’s in RAM until you need more space to write to it.

The short answer analogy

Buffers and cache in RAM being cleared is silly. Imagine a professor, who rather than writing all the way across the chalkboard, finishes a sentence and immediately erases and starts writing in the upper left corner AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN.

OR imagine you like a song. You record it to the beginning of a cassette tape. When you want a new song, do you re-record over the first song or record after it?

AKA: The horrible House/Barn analogy

Many people new to Linux or computers in general have a poor understanding of how RAM works. On Linux systems, most users will look at `top` or use `free` to see the amount of memory installed and/or free. Below is an example:

dayid@emiline ~ $ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          2024       1970         53          0         19       1669
-/+ buffers/cache:        281       1742
Swap:         1953          4       1948

At first glance, they may look at their machine with 2GB of RAM and wonder how they only have 53MB free! While this is true, the surprise, fear, or angst about this comes from a misunderstanding.

We could take a trip to a million places for this horrible analogy, but let’s pretend we’re on a country farm.
Rather than working with 2024MB of RAM and 1953MB of SWAP, we’ll say we’ve got 20 beds in the house, and 20 beds in the barn.
Rather than programs we’ll have people occupying the space.
For our purposes, ignore costs of cleaning the bedding, water, etc.
The house can hold active workers or non-active workers.

Due to its distance and the time to get to/from it, the barn can only hold non-active workers. When a worker is called from the barn they will have to pass through the house and stay in the house while they work.

• 10 laborers show up to a job. Since the house is closer to the food, showers, and work they’ll be doing, we let them stay in the house.
• 10 of our 20 beds are used by active workers.
• Our farm in `free -m`:

                     total       used         free       shared      buffers      cached
  House:                20         10           10            0            0           0
  -/+ buffers/cache:               10           10
  Barn:                 20          0           20
  

• 8 more people show up for another job. They also stay in the house since we have the space for them.
• 18 of our 20 beds are used by active workers.
• Our farm in `free -m`:

                     total       used         free       shared      buffers      cached
  House:                20         18            2            0            0           0
  -/+ buffers/cache:               18            2
  Barn:                 20          0           20
  

• The first job is over, we no longer need to keep around the first 10 laborers; however, letting them stay doesn’t cost us anything, as if they weren’t there the beds would just be empty (i.e., go to waste).
• 18 of 20 beds are used. 8 by active workers, 10 by non-active workers.
• Our farm in `free -m`:

                     total       used         free       shared      buffers      cached
  House:                20         18            2            0            0          10
  -/+ buffers/cache:                8           12
  Barn:                 20          0           20
  

• Let’s take a timeout and review the above output. Right now we have 20 rooms. 18 are being used so only 2 are free. However, since 10 workers aren’t being used, they are in cache – kept around because we have no reason to kick them out – so, we actually have an operating space of 12 workers we could hire. 2 to stay in the unused rooms, and 10 to replace those that are already here.
• We have a new job on the farm, so we have 4 new people show up. We do not have enough beds for them. 2 of the 10 who are not active leave. We move in those 4 new people.
• 20 of 20 beds are used. 12 by active workers, 8 by non-active workers.
• Our farm:

                     total       used         free       shared      buffers      cached
  House:                20         20            0            0            0           8
  -/+ buffers/cache:               12            8
  Barn:                 20          0           20
  

• Right now we have 20 rooms filled. 8 are filled by people who aren’t working though, so technically we have 8 beds we can use if we need to. Now let’s get crazy.
• It’s production season and we have a lot to do around the farm. We setup another program and need to hire 14 new workers for it. We’ll have to kick out the 8 non-active workers and move in 8 of the new workers. However, because we run out of rooms in the house, our least important workers will have to stay in the barn. The barn is still good storing area, but it will take them longer to get to and from the job each time they are required to.
• 20 of 20 beds are used by active workers. 6 rooms in the barn are used.
• Our farm:

                     total       used         free       shared      buffers      cached
  House:                20         20            0           0            0            0
  -/+ buffers/cache:               20            0
  Barn:                 20          6           14
  

• Now, things calm down again and only 4 workers are going to remain active. We’re not going to toss out the rest though as they’re not harming anything just taking up space (at least not until we need the space again)
• Our farm:

                     total       used         free       shared      buffers      cached
  House:                20         20            0           0            0           16
  -/+ buffers/cache:                4           16
  Barn:                 20          6           14
  

• That’s right, our “free” stays 0, as we still have no space available. The important thing to look at here is how much do we have available if we clean out the buffers and cache – which are not necessary to keep, but we generally keep until it needs to be discard.

That’s right. You just read an entire horrible article about RAM just to know to look at your buffers/cache line before wondering why so much RAM is used.

Unused RAM is “wasted RAM”, let it cache!

1. Update your package list

2. Install the upgrade manager

3. Run the upgrade manager

Ubuntu will now run through the upgrade process. It may ask you for input depending on your current setup. At the end of the upgrade the server will ask to reboot itself. Once the server has rebooted, the setup is complete. Now run:

to verify that the upgrade was successful and complete. The output should be something similar to:

Congratulations! Your server is now upgraded to Ubuntu 9.04. Enjoy!

Please note: I had to install the program “dontzap” prior to this command working, so I have added that to the line of code above to make life easier for you!

Ubuntu 9.04 introduces a change to the handling of package updates, launching update-manager directly instead of displaying a notification icon in the GNOME panel. Users will still be notified of security updates on a daily basis, but for updates that are not security-related, users will only be prompted once a week.

Users who wish to continue receiving update notifications in the previous manner can restore the earlier behavior using the following command (in the terminal window):

Before you upgrade:

• Backup your data – Please, please, please backup all of your data in case something happens that the upgrade doesn’t happen as it’s supposed to. Don’t blame me if you loose something because you have been warned!
• Apply all current updates – Before you upgrade you need to apply all of the updates for your current version. There are two ways to do this, either through the update manager located in System > Administration > Update Manager or via the command line by running the following two lines:
  sudo aptitude update
  sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
• Read the release notes and the known issues – Prior to upgrading you should read the release notes and known issues to be aware of any potential problems that you may have.

Once you have finished applying all of the updates for your current version, you are now ready to upgrade from Ubuntu 8.10 to Ubuntu 9.04.

To begin the upgrade process you will need to press the Alt + F2 keys at the same time. This will bring up the run application dialog. In the Run Application dialog enter ‘update-manager -d‘ and click Run.

This will bring up the Update Manager. (Note: you may need to click “Check” for the new distribution to show as available) The Update Manager will say “New distribution release ’9.04′ is available.” Click Upgrade to begin the process.

Next you will see the Release Notes. Be sure to read through them and then click Upgrade. At this point Ubuntu will download the Upgrade Tool which will help you through the upgrade process. If you are using third party sources the Upgrade Tool will disable them. Once that is downloaded, the upgrade process will begin automatically.

The Upgrade Tool will first setup new software channels. You will then see a dialog that will tell you what will be upgraded, approximatly how long it will take to download the upgrade and give you the choice to Cancel or Start the upgrade. Click on Start Upgrade when you are ready to begin.

Your system will now download and install the new packages. After the installation is complete you will be presented with the option to Remove Obsolete Packages. Confirm that you want to remove them by clicking Remove otherwise click Keep. The upgrade process will then run a cleanup and ask you to reboot the system. Click Restart Now.

Congratulations! At this point your upgrade is complete! If you want to confirm that you have been upgraded, open up terminal and run:

and you should recieve an output similar to this: