Ubuntu Tutorials

I realized the other day, based on repeated questions, that many people don’t know which CD is the best to download. When looking at a list of CD options from a download page the options can be very overwhelming. I thought I would break things down for everyone today. Hopefully this’ll help new users find the right CDs, leading the fewer installation problems, better hardware support and a better overall experience.

First you need to decide whether you want the Desktop, Alternate or Server CD. After you’ve made that decision you’ll need to make sure you get the right architecture for your machine. Here is a breakdown:

The Desktop CD

The Desktop CD allows you to preview Ubuntu before you install anything. It’ll boot into a LiveCD with full functionality with an option to install during this preview. This installer seems to install things more quickly than the Alternate (below) and walks you through the installation in just a few steps. This is the suggested method for most new users. If you want to see what Ubuntu has to offer with no strings attached you’ll most likely want the Desktop CD.

The Alternate CD

The Alternate CD can be a bit intimidating to some users, although many of the options are the same as the Desktop CD. This installer is completely text-based and does seem to take a bit more time to install the system, but it has a few better support options when compared to the Desktop CD. A few things that I have found better supported on the Alternate CD are things such as RAID, LVM and boot-loader functions such as bypassing the grub installer or working with other boot loaders such as Acronis. I, personally, prefer using the Alternate CD installer.

The Server CD

The Server CD is for installation on server machines such as web or mail servers. It has a server-specific kernel, smaller memory footprint and only takes about 500M for a full installation. This website is hosted on an Ubuntu run web server based on this Server CD. To give you an idea, the server is a Pentium III 500mhz with 256M total memory and the Ubuntu Server CD keeps it running like a champ! If you need a home or office based server this would be the right CD for you.

Now for the architecture. You need to make sure that you’re installing the CD that best supports your computer architecture. Whether it is a Mac (old-school or Intel), Intel based PC or AMD based PC. You’ve got to make sure you’re getting the right version for your hardware for best support and performance.

i386

Here is a quick breakdown of some of the major machine types that are best suited for the i386 download. This is generally the most widely used / most popular hardware type. If you’re not sure what you have this is probably the safest guess.:

Intel Pentium (1-4)
Intel Celeron
Intel Pentium M
Intel Mobile Pentium 4
Intel Celeron M
Intel Core Solo, Duo (Not Core 2)
AMD Geode (GX, LX, NX)
AMD K6/K7 (Duron, Athlon)
AMD Sempron models without AMD64 support

AMD64

Here is a quick breakdown of some of the major machine types that are best suited for the AMD64 download:

AMD Athlon 64
AMD Turion 64
AMD Opteron
AMD Sempron models with AMD64 support enabled
Intel processors that support EM64T: Intel Core 2 processors, Pentium D, Pentium Extreme Edition, some versions of Pentium 4 and Celeron D
Intel Xeon

PowerPC

This architecture is best for those of you with the old-school Mac machines. Anything pre-Intel on Mac hardware is best suited for this installation. These are usually referred to as G3, G4 or G5. Note: This architecture is still available for download but will not be available or supported in future Ubuntu releases.

I hope this helps people find the right fit for the right machine. I want to make Ubuntu a pleasant experience for everyone and I believe making sure you know the right installation options for the right machine is the basis of it all. If you have any hardware or installation type suggestions please leave a comment and it may be added to the post.

This post is a response to a few previous posts and comments and based on some other questions that I’ve been asked recently. I wanted to outline the few steps I use on a new installation. Your usage might vary a bit, but I realize this is something that new users might be interested in.

Repositories

After I install a new Ubuntu machine the first thing I do is make sure that I have all of the appropriate repositories enabled to give me the software I need. The simplest way to do this is using a GUI method to update your “Software Sources”.

System > Administration > Software Sources

When you’ve got this open you’ll want to make sure you’ve got each box checked as seen in the picture. I always un-check the source code option as I rarely do any compiling. You might notice that removing the source code inclusion speeds up your update time as it no longer has to ping generally unneeded repositories.

You can also select the Download From option to select your local mirror.

Security Updates

I then hit the next tab labeled Internet Updates. This allows you to set the options concerning your regular security updates. I always want my machine as up to date as it can be. That probably explains why I normally have at least one machine in perpetual alpha / beta. In any event, this will allow you to make sure your machine is up to date on the latest stable packages.

I generally make sure to include the important security updates (of course!) and usually include the recommended updates. Proposed and backported I haven’t been using, mainly because I’m not 100% on what they are for.

The major things that I update here are the automatic updates section. I update my machines daily, download automatically, and install security updates without confirmation. Again, I like to keep my machines up to date on security and the latest versions of my commonly used packages. Your usage here might vary, but this is what I have set.

Seveas Repository

After I have taken care of the above I add one third party repository. I generally don’t suggest using any third party repositories but this one has been very well supported and I trust Seveas. He works very closely with the main community and maintains, from what I can tell, a few of the official packages. He also maintains a few packages in his repository that I always end up installing. You can install his repository using the following:

You can add the following line within the Third Party tab (as seen in the screen shots) or use the second command to manually add it directly to your sources.list file.

deb http://mirror.ubuntulinux.nl edgy-seveas all (replace edgy with your version as needed)

echo "deb http://mirror.ubuntulinux.nl edgy-seveas all" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

You’ll also want to import his public key for authentication using the command below:

wget http://mirror.ubuntulinux.nl/1135D466.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Another option is to download the key directly and import it using the Authentication tab as seen in the screen shots.

Get up to date

After all of that fun stuff is out of the way I then make sure my new installation is updated. Whether you’re installing Dapper, Edgy or even Feisty your machine will have security and suggested updates available. Make sure that you’re using the latest versions and the latest security. You can do this in two ways.

The first is to use the command line, which is done using the command below. It can be cut and pasted into a terminal as needed. It will check against the above changed repositories for updates, upgrade to those packages and clean up unneeded packages afterwards.

sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude upgrade && sudo aptitude dist-upgrade && sudo aptitude autoclean

This can also be done using a GUI method by using the graphical Update Manager. You can find that in the same menu area as the software sources (System > Administration > Software Updates) or launch it using ALT-F2 and typing the following in the resulting window:

gksudo "update-manager"

You’ll want to make sure and select the Check option to scan for updates. You’ll then be prompted to update your system based on what the update manager finds.

Any new system should have quite a few updates available. The time it takes to update your system at this point will depend on your internet connection.

Install The Goodies

Now that your system is up to date you’ll want to install the goodies. Your usage really might vary here but this is a list of packages that I always install on a new machine. Mainly codecs, media players and a few of my favorite apps.

sudo aptitude install gstreamer0.10-pitfdll gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-gl gstreamer0.10-plugins-base gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse libxine-extracodecs w32codecs
vlc beep-media-player flashplugin-nonfree sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin libdvdcss2 rar unrar mpg321 vorbis-tools liferea tilda glipper

Your packages might vary here as mentioned above but this list in combination with the instructions above will install all your needed media codecs, the VLC player, java, flash, DVD playback, windows codecs and my favorite media player, beep (as mentioned before in the gnome media players post.)

Have I missed any packages here? What else might be on your new machine setup list?

I spent some time this last weekend at a couple of local install fests. They were fairly successful but there were a few things I saw that could be improved.

There are some limitations of the Live CD installer that are included in the Alternate CD. Is there, or how difficult would it be to include, an option to use the alternate text-based installer from the standard Live CD? Considering the Live CD is the standard that is shipped it would be nice to provide all of the options to the new user.

We ran into trouble being able to get the correct resolution to display during the installer on some machines, which made things very difficult. This wouldn’t have been an issue on the Alternate text-based installer. Also, there were a few situations where the partitions weren’t detected. In particular I have always had trouble creating or using LVM with the Live CD.

Personally I always use the alternate CD installer. I think it’s faster, has fewer bugs and seems to be just as simple to use. What have the rest of you found when using the two methods and is there any way that they can be improved in future versions?