Update June 16, 2009: Steven and Coder’s Wasteland has taken this post even further! In my opinion, he’s done a great job in providing a bash script that implements all the changes described in this post. Way to go Steven! You can read more about that (and get the script) at: Initial Ubuntu Install Items Script.

Update June 19, 2009: Steven and Coder’s Wasteland has migrated the script from a CLI to a GUI based one! Check it out at: Install Initial Ubuntu Items GUI.

1) sudo aptitude install sbackup

Nothing is worse that losing all your important data (pictures, email messages, music, documents, etc.) The above command will install Simple Backup Suite (more details found on Sourceforge). For me at least it’s a great desktop backup solution. I can select which directories I want backed up (full and incremental), then have backups automatically transfered to my external network storage. I play a lot with my computer, I often break something as a result. With sbackup, I can be more confident as it’s easy to restore data (in the event I have to reinstall an application or even worse… the OS itself). You can also install via:

apt:sbackup

2) sudo aptitude install ubuntu-restricted-extras && sudo aptitude install w64codecs

If you enjoy music, videos, and so forth, you’ll want to install the extra media codecs and packages that will allow you to play almost any desktop media format (mov, mpg, avi, wmv, mp3 and so on). I wrote a detailed post:  “Build a Web Developer PC and Enable Most Media Playback Using Ubuntu Linux“, which provides a bit more of an in depth explanation of the above command (including editing the sources.list to include mediabuntu). Note: If you have a 32 Bit system, change the the “w64codec” part of the command to say “w32codecs” instead. You can also install these packages via:

apt:ubuntu-restricted-extras

apt:w64codecs

3) sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts && sudo fc-cache -fv

I like having the same fonts used by Windows users. People often send me .doc files, so I want to ensure I have at least the core fonts they use. The above command installes the Microsoft core fonts and then reloads the font cache. I’ve posted about this before at “How to Install TTF and CTF Fonts in Ubuntu“, which contains far more detail. You can also install the core fonts via:

apt:msttcorefonts

4) sudo aptitude install vlc

I prefer not to try juggling with the use of different applications to play different media types. VLC plays all the media types I access. For me at least, it’s the singular application I use to play everything from an MP3 file to a DVD video (and incidentally, vlc can stream your media to other computers, even to the television!). Of course you can click the apt link and install via:

apt:vlc

5) sudo aptitude install k3b

Even though I use gnome, I still install k3b, which is (in my opinion) among the best DVD/CD burners around. I find the interface  intuitive and easy to use. There’s a post containing more applications at “Top 100 of the Best (Useful) OpenSource Applications“. Using apt links, we can also install k3b via:

apt:k3b

6) Enable surround sound right away. I’ve an earlier post at Enable 5.1 Surround Sound on Linux – Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy, but the jist of the instructions is to edit

sudo gedit /etc/pulse/daemon.conf and change the line that says:

; default-sample-channels = 2

to say

default-sample-channels = 6

7) Use the “Windows” Key.

I prefer using keyboard shortcuts instead of the point and click mouse. Thankfully, there’s an easy way to turn your keyboards “Windows key” into an Ubuntu key.

Go to: System -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts

Scroll down to the action “Show panel menu” and click on it. (The phrase “New accelerator menu…” will appear).

Now simply press your Windows key once. (You’ll see the accelerator now says “Super L”). Select the “Close” option and you’ll see that your Windows key now works. Note: If you ever want to change it back to the default (for Hardy 8.04), the original setting is Alt f1.

8) Make gedit remember more documents.

I often use gedit to quickly edit files in a GUI environment. I often wish gedit would remember more of the documents I edit. That way I don’t have to surf through the file system. There’s a simple way to ensure gedit remembers more of the files you edit:

sudo gconf-editor

In the window that appears (using the above command), select

apps -> gedit2 -> preferences -> ui -> recent

Select the “max_recents” key and change the default of 5 to 10

9) Increase the start speed of multi-core CPU systems.

This will slow down systems that  have a single CPU. For multi core CPUs, we can change the services to all start together (in parallel) during boot time. The command to do this is;

sudo perl -i -pe ‘s/CONCURRENCY=none/CONCURRENCY=shell/’ /etc/init.d/rc

and then reboot with

sudo shutdown -r now

10) Finally, I sometimes need to run application that are for another OS (not Ubuntu Linux). Virtualization is the answer and allows me to run the other application without using Wine ore rebooting into another OS. You can install Virtualbox:

sudo aptitude install virtualbox

If you’re interested, more information about VirtualBox can be found by visiting the about VirtualBox page. Again, here’s the apt link to install virtualbox:

apt:virtualbox

A bonus tip!

I’m often asked how to uninstall a .deb package. The command to facilitate that is:

sudo dpkg -r package_name

I hope these tips help some of you out there! How strong is your Kung Fu? -> If you’ve any tips or tweaks you think should be here, please feel free to drop them in your comments below!

In some ways I was bothered about this. Why? I work best with Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Dreamweaver, WinSCP, Flash and so on. I felt like I was going to lose all the productivity these applications provided. I enjoy being able to double click media and play it automatically, same goes with DVD movies, etc. In Linux, I’ve often encountered problems with media playback as the media usually includes restricted formats, MP3 for example. On the developer/designer side, I was not looking forward (nor do I have time) to a steep learning curve.

This post (hopefully) will show the desktop user how to enable all the restricted media playbacks (movie DVD, music MP3, etc.)

It will also show web developers and designers some of the issues, applications and work arounds – Or at least the current state of them.

First off, let’s deal with the media issues. I built this PC using Ubuntu 8.04 LTS 64Bit (Hardy). I did try installing 8.10 64Bit but found that the network cards did not properly work. After much investigation, I also discovered out that I would benefit best using a release with LTS “Long Term Support”, as apparently there was better hardware support – So I’m waiting for 9.04 (still in alpha 6 release as of this post).

One of my favourite tools is aptitude. I used to prefer apt-get, however I found out that aptitude does a better job in removing applications. Aptitude will also remove the dependencies when a package is removed. apt-get will not do that (and I don’t think synaptic will either – someone please correct me if I’m wrong). I almost always use aptitude, this way my system (and hard drive space) is keep cleaner whenever I use aptitude to remove packages.

In order to install some of the applications and enable some of the media formats, we’ll need to edit your sources.list file. You can use nano, gedit, etc. An example terminal command is below:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

The above command will open a window with the gedit application containing your sources.list file. MAKE SURE that you have no mistakes (syntax or otherwise) in the file. If you do, you’ll get an error message when using aptitude and will have to edit the file. Therefore, make a BACKUP of the /etc/apt/sources.list file that you can later revert back to BEFORE editing it.

Below is a copy of my sources.list file – As you may see, I’ve added some addresses (sources) to it:

# Main and Restricted
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security main restricted
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security main restricted
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-updates main restricted

# Universe
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security universe
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy universe
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security universe

# Multiverse
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy multiverse
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security multiverse
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy multiverse
deb-src http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hardy-security multiverse

# Canonical
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ hardy partner

# Medibuntu
deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free
deb-src http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free

# Third Parties
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian hardy non-free

If you have a repository in your sources.list file (that I do not, remember to make sure that you include it!

A couple things about the above edit:

I use ca. within the URL because I’m in Canada. Change the ca. to whatever your country is. Also, Ubuntu Linux 8.04 is called “Hardy”, if you are using 8.10 “Intrepid” (or earlier versions) then change “Hardy” to the name of your distribution.

As seen above, we added the mediabuntu repository source, but we still have to add the public key. If we don’t we’ll get a message from aptitude that indicates the source cannot be verified. Here’s how to add the public key via terminal commands:

Download the key:

wget http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg

Add the key:

sudo apt-key add medibuntu-key.gpg

Now let’s make sure that we update the repositories with this command:

sudo aptitude update

And then let’s upgrade everything:

aptitude full-upgrade

The above command can also be issued as aptitude dist-upgrade (the old name – which still works).

***Warning***
This command will attempt to upgrade packages. It is aggressive with solving dependency problems. It will install and remove packages until all dependencies are satisfied. Because of this, it is possible that undesirable things may happen to your system and/or application. Therefore you should be careful when using it! Back up FIRST.

Now we’re ready to start installing some media playback and file sharing capabilities. Particularly:

• Multimedia Codecs.
• DVD playback.
• Java plugin.
• DVD (and CD) burning.
• Some Compilers.
• File/Printer sharing.

All the following commands are using aptitude via terminal commands.

Let’s start with the codecs:

sudo aptitude install ubuntu-restricted-extras && sudo aptitude install w64codecs

For 32 Bit users, use substitute this codec command:  sudo aptitude install w32codecs

Don’t forget to install the restricted extras:

sudo aptitude install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Now let’s get that DVD movie playing capability working:

sudo aptitude install libdvdcss2 && sudo aptitude install libdvdnav4 && sudo aptitude install gxine && sudo aptitude install libxine-main1 && sudo aptitude install libxine-extracodecs && sudo aptitude install libxine-ffmpeg && sudo aptitude install vlc && sudo aptitude install mplayer

And some DVD/CD burning software. I prefer K3B – But you can substitute any other one you prefer:

sudo aptitude install k3b

Let’s enable compiling:

sudo aptitude install build-essential

(If you want documentation, install it too: sudo aptitude install manpages-dev glibc-doc).

Let’s install a couple extra things like NFS (Network File Sharing), NTP (Network Time Protocol) and NIS (Network Information System) like so:

sudo aptitude install nfs-common && sudo aptitude install ntp && sudo aptitude install nis

Were pretty much done with the multimedia, but there are a couple application related things we’re going to install:

Flash player for Firefox can be obtained from Adobe by  downloading the .deb version (Adobe Flash Player version 10.0.22.87 as of this post). This will allow you to save a file called “install_flash_player_10_linux.deb”. Simply double click the file to begin installation.

While we’re working with Firefox, let’s turn it into a web developer tool with the following extensions:

Installing the Web Developer Toolbar, allows for the inclusion of some productive tools, such as:

• Editing CSS.
• Disabling CSS.
• Outlining images or finding broken ones.
• Displaying ID and Class details.
• View response headers.
• Edit HTML.
• Outline tables, elements, etc.
• And tons more!

Let’s also install Firebug so that you can edit, monitor and debug various web site scripting.

The use of MeasureIt helps in that you use it to  obtain width and height form any element you draw in your browser screen. It’s like a drag and stop (width/height)  ruler.

When developing or editing files displayed in my browser screen, I often copy and paste content. Unfortunately, Firefox will also copy the formating that’s been applied to the text. The extension, Copy Plain Text fixes this for me, now I get exactly what I want – Text only.

I do like using Shutter to capture full web page screen shots, so here’s how we install it according to the Shutter web site like this:

Include the repository and key:

wget -q http://shutter-project.org/shutter-ppa.key -O- | sudo apt-key add -

The above is for the stable releases. For more installation information or other methods you can visit Shutter Downloads.

In terms of development tools, many of them have already been listed in our Top 100 of the Best (Useful) OpenSource Applications post. However, there are a few that I’d particularly mention below.

Blender, Gimp and Inkspace. I’m not suggesting that Gimp or Inkspace are substitutes for Photoshop or Illustrator, rather they are an option. While they can produce the same resulting artwork, I find they require a steeper learning curve. Particularly steep in that the keyboard shortcuts are different, the names of many of the interface tools are different and/or they function in a different way. I’ve found several site with some great tutorials for both Gimp and Inkscape, however I don’t have the time (or motivation) to learn new applications. In my personal opinion, the GIMP interface is a horrid mess, but that is probably because I am used to the Photoshop interface. I think GIMP would be adopted much more readily if they improved the interface to be more intuitive and similar to Photoshop – But that’s simply what I think, I’m not the GIMP expert here.

One tool I use to enable continued use of Photoshop, etc. is VirtualBox. VirtualBox provides a virtual environment in which I can install a Windows based environment and any applications I wish (including Flash, etc.) – Hopefully Adobe will soon release Linux versions of their software as I think it is a huge market for them to tap into. After I’ve configured that environment, I can take a snapshot. If the virtual Windows installation or applications ever fail or become corrupted, I can simply restore the snapshot to bring the environment back to a working state – Voilà a quick 2 minute fix instead of reinstalling everything. Also, the virtual environment facilitates an optional shared directory on the host OS (that’s the Ubuntu Linux installation), so that I can access and store input and output files. If the virtually installed OS crashes, I still have that data within the Linux host installation.

To install VirtualBox, please follow the guide posted here: Installing VirtualBox 2.0.0 On Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop. Or use sudo aptitude install virtualbox as the repository is already in your sources.list file (above).

As web development is no longer simple HTML pages, but rather full multimedia, below are more of the development tools I’d suggest exploring:

• Bluefish Editor – Script editor – apt:bluefish
• Meld Diff Viewer – apt:meld
• Ardour – Audio editor – apt:ardour
• Audacity – Audio editor – apt:audacity
• Avidmux -Video editor – apt:avidmux
• Kino -Video editor – apt:kino
• Gftp – FTP client – apt:gftp
• Kompozer – Script editor – apt:kompozer
• puTTY – SSH client – apt:putty

The above applications are all available via aptitude or getdeb.net or by clicking the “apt” links above.

Finally, in order to have fonts consistent with Windows (and other) users, we may want to install some of the Windows based fonts like this:

sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

This will install the True Type Fonts (TTF).

Now simply update the shared font  directories with this command:

sudo fc-cache -f -v

If you’d like CTF (Clear Type Fonts) the How to Install TTF and CTF Fonts in Ubuntu post will help you with that.

This just about covers most everything. These further resources can help you:

Medibuntu.

Converting MP3s to Ogg-Vorbis.

Enabling 5.1 Surround Sound.

Playing Blu-Ray and HD DVD Video.

If you think I’ve missed anything or you’ve an idea, feel free to comment about it! – cheers! :)

The command is simple:

sudo aptitude install openssh-server

Installing an SSH client? PuTTY:

sudo aptitude install putty

I decided to install the SSH Server via aptitude after LAMP, because I found out (the first time I did this) that updating the SSH Server would cause me to have to update the certificates as well. Doing it this way, saves me extra steps.

Needless to say, this step was very simple, but very powerful in that it allows me to manage the server remotely, in comfort. :)

1. Download the iso image from: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download and burn it to a CD.

2. Order the CD from https://shipit.ubuntu.com/login-server.

Once you have a copy, make sure the BIOS on the PC is set to boot off the CD drive. Put the CD in the drive and simply restart the unit. It should now boot off the CD and display the “select language” screen as seen below.

After you’ve selected the language, you’ll be presented with the installation menu. Simply select “Install Ubuntu Server”, as seen below.

Remember that this is a server, ideally we’d like to have a static IP address for this server. There is a selectable boot option called “F6 – Other Options” where you could enter the following command to disable DHCP:

netcfg/disable_dhcp=true

At which point you will be required to manually configure the network settings. I am going to include that information below. However, for some reason I was not able to set up the network card after the installation (I could not see it) , so I used this work around instead…

I logged into the router and checked the logs so that I could get the MAC address of the network card. I then configured a DHCP reservation in the LAN/DHCP setting of the router so that the MAC address of the network card would always get the same IP address. Because I did not want to install a DNS server (my ISP made me take the DNS server down last time I set it up), I then, simply added the IP to hostname record, into the host file of each unit I wanted to connect to the web server.

During the installation (just follow the prompts it gives you), you will need to provide the following (among other obvious questions/answers):

1. A hostname for your web server (the hostname is independent of whatever domain name you’re going to use. For example, the hostname of this server is “webbox” and the domain I’ll use to access the web server on it is “local.ubuntulinuxhelp.com”).
2. I selected to use the “Guided – use entire disk” when prompted for the partitioning.
3. A username and password that you are going to remember.

You’ll eventually come to a prompt for the type of server (Software Selection), select LAMP, like the image below.

I chose to install the other components later, because I found out it will reduce some of the tweaking and updating later. During the software installation, you will be asked for a MySQL password. Write it down or don’t forget it! (You’ll need it later to use phpMyAdmin). The remainder is very straight forward, but as I mentioned earlier, here’s the static network configuration information. Remember, your network configuration addresses will probably be different from mine.

Because there is no GUI yet, we’ll be using the command line to configure the network.

Login after rebooting.

You can use a simple text editor like nano, vi, etc.

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

For those who left DHCP enabled, look for this:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

and change it to this:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static

Under the line that says “iface eth0 inet static”, you’ll enter your network information. An example of mine is:

address 72.138.51.130
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 72.138.51.0
broadcast 72.138.51.255
gateway 72.138.50.1

So the file would look something like this:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 72.138.51.130
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 72.138.51.0
broadcast 72.138.51.255
gateway 72.138.50.1

Additionally, I made sure the host file contained the following information:

127.0.0.1 localhost webbox
172.138.51.130 local.ubuntulinuxhelp.com webbox

After configuring the network interface, restart the network using the following command:

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

The basic LAMP installation should be complete. :)

Introduction:

This is the introductory post to a full series where I’ll be posting how I installed an Ubuntu Linux LAMP (Apache, MySQL, PHP and cgi-bin) server with a GUI (I needed to use it as a desktop PC at the same time), the appropriate media playback codecs (flash, DVD, MP3, Quicktime MOV, WMV, WMA, MP4, M4A), OpenSSH, PureFTP and FFMpeg (FFmpeg, FFmpeg-PHP, Mplayer, Mencoder, flv2tool, LAME MP3 Encoder, Libogg, Libvorbis).

This “hands-on” project is broken into topics:

1. Hardware Installation.

2. LAMP installation with cgi-bin.

3. Installation of OpenSSH.

4. Configuration of the First Website.

5. Installation of PHPMyAdmin.

6. Configuration of cgi-bin and SSI.

7. Installation of the Ubuntu Desktop and Media Codecs and MS fonts.

8. Installation of DVD Playback Capability.

9. Installation of PureFTP.

10. Installation of Webmin and Usermin.

11. Installation of FFMpeg and Related Packages (and ionCube).

12. Troubleshooting.

Needless to say, this did take me some time to do as I am not a Linux expert (rather self-taught). But… it’s works and I’ve all my rough notes to type here. That’s part of the reason why I’d not posted, here on the blog, in a few days! ;)

Why did I do this? I wanted a web server I could use for internal projects and to test Open Source web systems (CMS, billing, eComm, blog, etc.) I also wanted to have a more updated (hardware) system that could better work with the newer Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 OS.

Hardware :

Shuttle SN68SG2 Socket AM2 Barebone – NVIDIA 7025, Audio, Video, PCI Express, Gigabit LAN, USB 2.0, Firewire, Serial ATA, 250 Watt Power Supply.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Processor ADA4200CUBOX – 2.20GHz, 1MB Cache, 1000MHz (2000 MT/s) FSB, Windsor, Dual-Core, Retail, Socket AM2, Processor with Fan.

Kingston 1024MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz Memory (2 of these for 2GB).

Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB Hard Drive – 7200, Browser Problems – Creating a Linux Based Virtual Box – Part 1 of 2 16MB, SATA-300, OEM.

DVD burner: LG GSA H55N Super-Multi Disk Drive 20×20×12

(More info about the hardware here: Browser Problems – Creating a Linux Based Virtual Box – Part 2 of 2).

Software:

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Server Edition (64-bit)

(You can download the software from here: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download or order free Server CD’s from here: https://shipit.ubuntu.com/login-server).

Hopefully many of you will have a bit of fun with this (I did) and that you’ll be able to bookmark this and return when needed. As always, helpful comments are always welcome.

Enjoy!
:)