Introduction

This guide will walk you through the process to install Ubuntu Server x64 16.04 LTS.

You can use other distributions of Linux with minimega, but your mileage may vary.

Downloading Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Ubuntu is a free operating system that can be downloaded from ubuntu.com/download/server

A download manager such as downloadthemall for firefox may make this process faster.

Currently downloadthemall is only compatible with old versions of FireFox. Another command line alternative is aria2

Burning the ISO Image

Once the download is complete for Ubuntu Server you should have an ISO file. This file is a digital image of a DVD and if you are using bare metal this needs to be burned to a disk.

There are a variety of methods to do so, depending on your hardware it is also possible to use a USB Drive if supported. Consult google for help burning an ISO to a DVD.

Windows – Imgburn, Linux – Brasero, OSX – hdiutil

Note: DVD media is preferred over CD media because dvds can be read from and written to faster.

Nested Virtualization

If you are using nested virtualization you can add the iso file as a cd drive in VMware’s settings.

Booting from the DVD Drive

Insert the newly burned DVD into your machine and turn it off and then back on.

When the machine is booting you will need to tell the bios to boot an operating system from the DVD drive. This is typically done using the keys F2/F8/F11/F12. Consult google if you are unable to do so.

Other Methods

Optical media is quickly becoming outdated. Here are a list of alternative methods that can be googled.

Usb dvd drive, Usb thumbdrive, Android DriveDroid, PXE Booting, Netboot, DD

Installing Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Ubuntu Server has a GUI installer that walks you through the process. The steps are outlined below.

Installer Language

Select English and Press Enter

Boot Menu

Select Install Ubuntu Server and Press Enter

Installed Language

Select English as the language to be installed.

Location

Set your location so ubuntu can determine the correct timezone information

Keyboard

Set your keyboard to English US either using autodetection or not

Hostname

Give the machine a name. For ease of future work numerical values following a set name is preferred. I.E. node1,node2,node3

Username

Set a fullname and username

Password

Set a password

Disk Encryption

Don’t encrypt your home directory

Timezone

Accept the timezone

Disk Partitioning

Use guided partitioning, select your disk, write the changes, and use the whole volume. If you install Ubuntu in future modules using LVM you will have troubles injecting files with minimega.

Installer

Wait for the installer to finish copying files to the hard drive.

Proxy

No proxy

Updates

No autoupdates

Software

Select OpenSSH Server with space bar.

Grub

Install grub to boot Ubuntu Server

Reboot

Continue to reboot

And Ubuntu Server will be installed.

Rename Network Adapters

Ubuntu uses a naming convention for network adapters that can be somewhat confusing. Here is what they mean

Lan-On-Motherboard interfaces: em[port number] (ethernet-on-motherboard [1,2 ..]) IE em0
PCI add-in interfaces: p[slot number]p[port number]_[virtual function instance] IE p3p1

Rename the adapters to start with the “eth” prefix to make things easier.

You can change the grub config to do so with these commands.

sudo sed -i -- 's/grub=GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""/GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="net.ifnames=0 biosdevname=0"/' /etc/default/grub
sudo update-grub

Enable DHCP at Boot

With the renamed adapter you will need to change eth0 to start with dhcp on boot.

sudo echo -e "auto eth0\niface eth0 inet dhcp" >> /etc/network/interfaces
sudo reboot

Authors

The minimega authors

30 May 2017

Module 1: Installing a Base OS