The Hard Way: Installing UbuntuBeta
From MythTV Book
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| Credits |
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Authors: Stewart Smith, Michael Still |
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Published version: The Hard Way: Installing Ubuntu |
| Beta Chapter |
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| Warning: This chapter is currently a beta. This means that the chapter hasn't had any review yet, and might be inaccurate. Please be cautious when implementing recommendations from this chapter. If you find problems with this chapter, then either fix them yourself, or send your comments to the editors. |
Contents |
Introduction
In this chapter we cover the installation of Ubuntu, a popular Linux distribution. We'll use Ubuntu Linux throughout this book, although MythTV should run on any recent Linux distribution. We selected Ubuntu because of its ease of installation, excellent packaging, and nice user interface consistency. In this chapter we refer to Ubuntu 8.10, as it is a recent release, and has significant improvements for MythTV users over previous releases.
Now that you've selected hardware in the Selecting Hardware chapter, you’re ready to start installing the various software components of the system. In this chapter, we will cover only the dependencies for MythTV, not the installation of MythTV itself, which is covered in The Hard Way: Installing MythTV From Source. Chapters Configuration, Recording TV and Performing Advanced TV Recording cover the configuration of a basic MythTV system.
Installing Ubuntu
Installing Ubuntu is relatively easy -- it's certainly much easier than installing Linux was just a few years ago. We unfortunately can't provide complete support for your installation of Ubuntu in this book. This is because of the massive variation in hardware available today and the rapid rate at which that hardware changes. The following sections will walk you through an Ubuntu install, step by step, and provide as much advice as possible. Remember that you can use other versions of Linux, if you're more comfortable with them. You might still find it useful to read through these sections, though, even though the exact steps will differ.
Getting Ubuntu
You can download the installation CD from the Ubuntu download page and burn it yourself. Many Internet service providers will have an Ubuntu mirror on one of their servers, possibly not charging for bandwidth from it or providing quicker access. With the 8.10 release of Ubuntu, you can choose from three CDs. You need only one of them:
- Desktop contains a simple, graphical-based installer and components for a desktop system.
- Server contains a text-based installer, designed for installing server systems. You cannot use this version to install MythTV, because even backend-only machines require the X Window System to be installed.
- Alternate contains the more advanced installer (allowing you to configure LVM and RAID during install), and the install is text based rather than graphical. The installation procedure is, however, similar to the graphical installer.
In most cases, the desktop version is the right choice. You should also download the right CD for your architecture. This will always be x86 (unless you're constructing a rather unusual MythTV box) -- you just have to work out whether your system is 32 bit or 64 bit. You can run 32-bit software including the operating system on 64-bit hardware, though. In the past some people have had problems with using the proprietary NVIDIA and ATI drivers on 64-bit operating systems but not when they run a 32-bit operating system. Keep this in mind if you are buying 64-bit hardware.
You can also buy Ubuntu DVDs from Amazon and probably from many local retailers, or you can get them for free from Canonical, the makers of Ubuntu, by visiting the Ubuntu ShipIt program.
Installing Ubuntu
To begin the installation, make sure your system is set up to boot from a CD, insert the Ubuntu CD, and turn on the machine. The first thing that loads is a menu letting you choose to try Ubuntu without changing your computer, install the system, install it in a safe graphics mode, check the CD for defects, check the memory of your PC, or boot from the hard disk (Figure 1). You will usually want the first option. There is also a language selection menu which will pop up after a few seconds (as shown in Figure 2). Depending on how long you wait before selecting an install option, this menu may appear to be the first one. Select the "try ubuntu without any change to your computer" option. Ubuntu will now load, and at the end you should see a desktop. If you don't, try rebooting the computer and choosing the safe graphics mode. Ubuntu will now load the kernel, start some services, and log into a desktop environment. The boot process will take a little while to complete, but when the machine is ready for use, you should end up with a desktop that looks a lot like that shown in Figure 3.
The Ubuntu Install CD is what's known as a Live CD. This lets you use the operating system and programs without installing it. You can have a look around if you haven't seen Ubuntu before. When you're ready to install, launch the installer by double-clicking the Installer icon on the desktop.
The first question you'll be asked is regarding the language you'd like to use for the installation process (and the installed system) -- see Figure 4. We'll use English, but you're welcome to choose your native language. When you've made your selection, click Forward to go to the next step.
You will now be asked about the current time and your time zone as shown in Figure 5. When you've made your selection, click the "Forward" button to go to the next step.
The next question, shown in Figure 6, is asking you to select your keyboard layout. If you're unsure, go for the one with the name of your country, or if it’s a standard QWERTY keyboard, go with American English. When you've made your selection, click "Forward" to go to the next step.
Ubuntu will now launch the partitioner. Eventually you'll end up with a partitioner screen something like Figure 7. This allows you to setup the layout of your disks and specify what each part of the disks will be used for. You will probably want to edit the partition table manually, so make that selection, and click "Forward".
The simplest install method is just to replace the entire contents of the hard disk with the Ubuntu installation. In fact, in many cases this is what you'll want to do anyway, as you wont want to do word processing on your TV. To do this, select the "Guided - use entire disk" option. If you want to use only a portion of the disk (either because you want to keep some of the data already on the disk, or because you want to have more than one operating system on the machine), then select the "Guided - resize and use freed space" option. Guided partitioning is an advanced topic and outside the scope of this book.
We will now set up a user account for the MythTV box (Figure 8). A good way to set up the machine is with a user who automatically logs in, runs all the MythTV processes, and can run administration utilities. Although this is not the most secure way to run a Linux machine (you certainly wouldn't do it this way on a server, for example), it's extremely convenient for a machine that everybody in the family is going to use. Remember to select the "Log in automatically" option if you want to enable automatic login for the user you are creating, then click "Forward" to go to the next step.
The installer will now show you the settings you've entered before continuing with the install (Figure 9). When you’re ready to proceed, click "Forward".
Ubuntu will now install, which looks like Figure 10. This will take a while. If you're hungry -- now is the time to get something to eat. If you're not hungry, you might be by the time this is finished!
When done, you can restart into your freshly installed Ubuntu. Don't forget to remove the installation CD, otherwise you'll be prompted to install all over again.
Setting Up Automatic Login
If you chose not to setup automatic login when you installed Ubuntu, or are reusing an existing Ubuntu machine, then you might want to setup automatic login. This is useful when you're restarting your MythTV system and want it to enter the MythTV user interface automatically. While the default is to prompt the user for a username and password, it can make sense when your MythTV machine is plugged into a television and doesn't have a keyboard attached to not ask the user for this. These instructions are also useful if you want to change the user which is automatically logging in to your system.
If you don't have automatic login setup, when your system has finished booting, you’ll be presented with the login screen (Figure 11). Enter the username and password you set up in the installer to log in.
After you’ve logged in, you can set up the autologin. Open the login window configuration dialog by navigating to System ➤ Administration ➤ Login Window, as shown in Figure 12.
You will need to enter your password to perform this administrative task. This is the same password as your login password (the one you set up in the installer). Many of the administrative tools require you to enter your password. This is a graphical interface to the sudo command (superuser DO) -- which gives you superuser privileges for running a command. Users who can run sudo (and what commands they can use with it) are listed in the /etc/sudoers file.
Now the Login Window dialog will launch (Figure 13). On the Security tab, enable Automatic Login, and select your user. When done, click Close.
Installing Software Updates
When software updates are available, an red downward arrow will appear in the notification area along with a little pop-up message (Figure 14). It’s quite normal for there to be updates waiting when you first install an Ubuntu system. Click the red arrow icon to launch the Software Updates application.
Figure 15 shows the Software Updates application. Click Install Updates to download and install the updates. You can configure the updates to be applied automatically from the Software Properties Administration utility, although there is a small possibility that an upgrade could cause problems.
You can also see that in this case I am running an older version of Ubuntu, and the update manager also offers to upgrade the entire operating system to the new release. This is of course much more convenient than reinstalling the entire system.
Conclusion
In this chapter we've installed Ubuntu on a system, set it up to automatically login as the MythTV user, and ensured the software install is up to date. This is all basic plumbing for building your MythTV system if you choose not to use a fully packaged solution like MythBuntu. In The Hard Way: Installing MythTV From Source we'll install MythTV itself on our newly configured machine. If you want to verify that your hardware is working, then you might also want to check out Verifying Your Hardware which will help you ensure your hardware is working. This is mostly an issue if you have trouble getting MythTV working on your new machine.
