Ubuntu installation

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Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a popular Linux distribution, best suited for desktop computers. It is based on Debian, therefore the packaging (*.deb) works rather well.

This page so far is by no means an installation guide, but it contains some extra information. Daniel K. Schneider decided to put some of his installation notes in this wiki, so he won't loose them. Feel encouraged to add stuff :)

Displays

Most Linux distribution's installer (at least the free ones) can't handle some slightly more fancy hardware automatically

Usually you have to do two things

  1. Find and install a driver for your graphics card
  2. Hand edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

Example Nvidia FX + 2 digital monitors

By Daniel K. Schneider. I have a Quadro FX 3450 card, a 24 and a 20 monitors. This is an executive summary. Find better explanation on Google :)

(1) You need to download the Nvidia driver.

  • Either from Nvidia. E.g. file NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9755-pkg1.run
  • Or via apt (a package manager), this is the better solution if it works:
sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx

(2) Save the xorg.conf file 

cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.save1

(3 - manual install) Install the driver (in case you got it from Nvidia only !) 

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9755-pkg1.run

(4) Run the X server configurator (but make sure you have a copy of your old xorg.conf file !!) 

nvidia-xconfig

(5) The result won't do it, but it's a start. You have to hand-edit and merge information from the old xorg.conf.save1 file !!!

E.g. I have this (I am minimalist and hate configuration work, so I stop when it works). I.e. if you want a single display for both monitors (you can drag stuff from monitor to the other) you only need to define one screen and one monitor. So, below there may some not used or even slightly harmful stuff (e.g. I have to check refresh rates). 

Section "ServerLayout"
   Identifier     "Default Layout"
   Screen         "Screen0" 0 0
   InputDevice    "Generic Keyboard"
   InputDevice    "Configured Mouse"
   InputDevice    "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
   InputDevice    "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
   InputDevice    "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "Files"
# path to defoma fonts
   FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"
   FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
   FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
   FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
   FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"
   FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"
   FontPath        "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi"
   FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
   FontPath        "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
   Load           "i2c"
   Load           "bitmap"
   Load           "ddc"
   Load           "extmod"
   Load           "freetype"
   Load           "glx"
   Load           "int10"
   Load           "type1"
   Load           "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier     "Generic Keyboard"
   Driver         "kbd"
   Option         "CoreKeyboard"
   Option         "XkbRules" "xorg"
   Option         "XkbModel" "pc105"
   Option         "XkbLayout" "ch"
   Option         "XkbOptions" "lv3:ralt_switch"
   Option         "XkbVariant" "fr"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier     "Configured Mouse"
   Driver         "mouse"
   Option         "CorePointer"
   Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
   Option         "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
   Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
   Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
                                                     # /dev/input/event
                                                     # for USB
   Identifier     "stylus"
   Driver         "wacom"
   Option         "Device" "/dev/wacom"          # Change to 
   Option         "Type" "stylus"
   Option         "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"               # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
                                                     # /dev/input/event
                                                     # for USB
   Identifier     "eraser"
   Driver         "wacom"
   Option         "Device" "/dev/wacom"          # Change to 
   Option         "Type" "eraser"
   Option         "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"               # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
                                                     # /dev/input/event
                                                     # for USB
   Identifier     "cursor"
   Driver         "wacom"
   Option         "Device" "/dev/wacom"          # Change to 
   Option         "Type" "cursor"
   Option         "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"               # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier     "Monitor0"
   HorizSync       28.0 - 51.0
   VertRefresh     43.0 - 60.0
   Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier     "Monitor1"
   HorizSync       28.0 - 51.0
   VertRefresh     43.0 - 60.0
   Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
   Identifier     "NVIDIA Corporation NV41 [Quadro FX 3450/4000 SDI]"
   Driver         "nvidia"
   Option "DPMS"
   #DKS (5 lignes)
   Option "TwinView" "Yes"
   Option "TwinViewOrientation" "LeftOf"
   Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "56-76"
   Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "31-80"
   Option "MetaModes" "1920x1200,1600x1200; 1920x1200,NULL"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
   Identifier     "Screen0"
   Device         "NVIDIA Corporation NV41 [Quadro FX 3450/4000 SDI]"
   Monitor        "Monitor0"
   DefaultDepth    24

   SubSection     "Display"
       Viewport    0 0
       Depth       24 
       Modes       "1920x1200" "1600x1200"
   EndSubSection
   # not really needed, but some games may want this
   SubSection     "Display"
       Viewport    0 0
       Depth       16
       Modes       "1920x1200" "1600x1200"
   EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
   Identifier     "Screen1"
   Device         "NVIDIA Corporation NV41 [Quadro FX 3450/4000 SDI]"
   Monitor        "Monitor1"
   DefaultDepth    24
   SubSection     "Display"
       Depth       24
       Modes      "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
   EndSubSection
EndSection

Make sure that there are no syntax errors, and that you have and empty line at the end of this file.

Printers

Printers don't necessarily work automatically either:

A good bet is to use this application:

Before you do so, it is like that you need a a PPD file (a file that defines properties of your postscript printer). Get it from:

Example Infotec

Example for Infotec ISC 1032 (A low end color copy and printer machine)

X Windows

We run a few sun servers and I prefer to run emacs (gui) on a remote machine instead of mounting all these file systems. Also I prefer to have a root terminal open instead of typing 'sudo' all the time. If you want allow for this:

Reconfigure the window manager (gdm)
  • Edit /etc/gdm/gdm.conf and change:
 DisallowTCP=true
  • Then, you'll need to restart your X session (Ctrl + Alt + Backspace)
Allow remote hosts to connect
  • Then you can allow certain hosts to connect e.g. to allow root on your own machine type
xhost + localhost
  • To allow somebody on a different machine, type:
xhost + xxx.yyy.zzz
  • It's important not to to type 'xhost +'. Since anyone may then connect to your screen. However, type xhost + something is boring, so it's more practical to edit /etc/X0.hosts. Just put the names or ip numbers of authorized machines there.
If it doesn't work

You can install nmap to scan ports (X is on 6000).

  • If you don't have nmap:
 sudo apt-get install nmap
  • Then type (as user):
 nmap -v -A localhost

In some cases you may have to define the display of your machine on your client machine. On your client machine type something like: 

export DISPLAY=xxx.yyy.zzz:0

or 

setenv DISPLAY xxx.yyy.zzz:0

Opinions

Add yours ...

DKS

  • Daniel K. Schneider uses Ubuntu since March 2007, because he got fed up with Mandriva updates not working correctly. I hate all OS's (Unix, Mac, Win) but prefer to work on Unix because it's fairly stable and appropriate for what I do. I also do have Windows machines (a Dell XP II and Acer tablet PC) for doing stuff that needs Win. (E.g. wordprocessing with Framemaker, X3D, Games). Our servers (e.g. for this wiki) run under Solaris. More difficult to install, but reliable on the other hand.
  • Indeed (it's now August 2007 and I went through a major upgrade) I find that Ubuntu and its packaging system is far more robust. Though I once failed with a non supported package, i.e. Cinelerra that I got from another site. It installed, but crashed on start. Have to try again at some point.
  • Other remarks: The official Ubunto Gnu Emacs installation is the "Leim" version, i.e. it can be used to edit UTF-8 text (I am writing my wiki entries with this).

Links

(there are many others)

Official
Other
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