Installing Kubuntu 22.04
Hopefully is a fully robust installation for Kubuntu 22.04. Minor things such as: "press X button to access bios/boot menu" are left out. Some of these instructions are ported over from the Installing Kubuntu 16.04 page.
Contents
Pre-installation checklist
- List of installed software by you and others who use the PC (skip if new PC)
- Back up locally (not on network drives) stored files (skip if new PC)
- Have access to bios setup/boot menu - very relevant for new PCs. If locked, contact university information service (IS) to come and unlock it, or better still, request it before placing PC order.
Installation screens
I. Boot setup
Interrupt the normal booting procedure for the computer. The means for doing this will be displayed on the screen with the maker of the CPU, e.g. Lenovo. For Lenovo press 'Enter' otherwise it might be F2, Del, etc. Enter the BIOS Setup Utility menu, e.g. by pressing F1 on Lenovo, and arrow to the Startup sub-menu. Enter into the Primary Boot Sequence; 'shift +' the USB drive to the top of the queue. Save and exit (e.g. F10).
II. Install menu
After a bit of a load time on the Kubuntu splash screen, select install Kubuntu (this screen may be bypassed by the installer)
1. Welcome
Select language 'English' and click on 'Install Kubuntu'
2. Preparing to install kubuntu
[May show drive space availability (tick) and internet connection (cross)] Tick 'install this third-party software...' Click 'continue' (bottom right)
3. Installation type
Select manual and continue.
4. Prepare partitions
You may have Windows pre-installed and want to keep it. It will most likely show up as device:/dev/sda1 type:ntfs. If this isn't partitioned (determined with HDD bar at top showing 100% Windows) and you want to keep windows, seek help! Otherwise you can delete this partition.
If you kept the Windows partition, mount the partition by selecting it, clicking 'change...';
- windows: keep the same partition size, use as 'NTFS' (or whatever the type showed up as earlier), DO NOT tick format, and set mount point as '/windows/C/'. Click 'ok'. If there are two ntfs allocations designate the larger of the two as the mount point '/windows/C/' and the smaller of the two as the drop-down option '/windows' without ticking format for each.
The other partition/s will need to be split into three. Select the 'free space' partition and click 'add';
- EFI: designate 1 GB as an 'EFI' type, click 'ok'
- root: select 'primary', size is '40960MB' (adjust for small HDD), location is 'beginning', use as 'Ext4 jfs', mount point is '/', click 'ok' (it will automatically format)
- eee: size is the rest of available disk space (default), location is 'beginning', use as 'Ext4 jfs', mount point is '/eee', click 'ok' (will auto format). Next it is important to correctly select your boot loader location, this will be the entire partition where root is located, e.g. '/dev/sda' or '/dev/sdb' (usually). Also recheck that windows format box is not ticked, it will be a hassle to get it back. Click on 'install now' in the bottom right.
5. Where are you?
Region is 'Europe', Time zone is 'United Kingdom time', click continue.
6. Keyboard Layout
Layout is 'English (UK)', Variant is 'English (UK)' (unless its different), click continue.
7. Who are you?
Your name is your computer `compname` (it is assigned and should be known; ask someone!), username is `compname_local`, password (also should be known) is `comppassword`, your computer's name is `compname` .
(go and get some tea or shut-eye)
8. Installation complete
Take out the Kubuntu USB-stick, click restart.
Post install
Upon restarting, do as before and interrupt the boot such that you can reach the Primary Boot Sequence in BIOS Setup Utility -> Startup. Here alter the boot sequence again so that the disk Kubuntu is partioned onto, boots first. If this partition was second chronologically in your partitions window, then in the boot menu it should be the name of your hard drive with the number 2 (e.g. Scan2 not Scan1, or whatever the name of the drive is). Double check your partitions/make sure you have the correct boat loader location if Kubuntu cannot boot correctly after installing it from the USB and changing the boot sequence.
- After the splash screen, login using the details you provided during setup.
Getting access to root
Open Terminal/Konsole through the Application Launcher (start button) or by right clicking anywhere, click 'add panel' -> 'default panel'. In terminal, enter;
sudo passwd root
enter the `comppassword` x3.
Setting your IP address
Unlike previous versions, the network manager can be configured fairly easily in 22, e.g. using 'nmtui'
- In the terminal enter nmtui, then press enter for 'Edit a connection', use the right arrow to locate/enter the <Edit...> sub-menu for the 'Wired connection 1' that should be selected already.
- Arrow down to the 'IPv4 CONFIGURATION' row and arrow over to <Show> and press Enter
- Arrow to <Add> and press enter for each of the below entries:
Addresses 128.243.74.xxx replace 'xxx' with your own IP
Gateway 128.243.74.254
DNS servers 128.243.40.11 128.243.40.12 128.243.21.19 (<Add> for each address individually)
- Arrow down to <OK> and press enter. Arrow down to <Back> and enter, then arrow down to <Quit> and enter.
(Try setting the netmask to 255.255.255.255 and disconnecting/connecting if the above doesn't work -RP)
Downloading upgrades/needed programs
- Open 'muon package manager' (e.g. in start menu or 'sudo muon' in terminal).
- Click 'check for updates', wait..., click 'full upgrade' and 'apply changes'.
(go for another nap)
- Restart, login as root and re-open 'muon'.
- Search and install; 'nfs-common', 'autofs', 'nis', and 'nfs-kernel-server'. Click 'apply changes'.
- 'nfs-kernel-server' used to prompt to set the domainname, however, no longer seems to do that. Instead set it manually, e.g. as below:
sudo nano /etc/defaultdomain (or whichever terminal editor you prefer beyond nano)
applied_optics (populate the file with this and save/exit)
- Restart and login as root.
- Add to /etc/yp.conf
domain applied_optics server 128.243.74.2
ypserver 128.243.74.2
- Edit /etc/nsswitch.conf and add/amend/check the protocols list to ensure that the following designations exist in the file (and leave all others untouched):
passwd: compat nis
group: compat nis
shadow: compat
hosts: files nis dns
networks: files dns
protocols: files
services: files nis
ethers: files
rpc: files
netmasks: files
netgroup: nis
publickey: files
bootparams: files
automount: nis files
aliases: files nis
- Ensure that /etc/host.conf possesses the code
order hosts, bind
multi on
- (Optional) Move /home to /local_home and create another /home directory with full access;
mv /home /local_home
mkdir /home
chmod 777 /home
- Edit /etc/passwd by adding '+::::::' to the end of the file.
- Edit /etc/group and add '+:::' to the end.
- Run below in terminal
systemctl enable rpcbind nscd ypbind autofs
systemctl restart rpcbind nscd ypbind autofs
- Restart, you should now be able to login under your own user name and see all users files in /home. If not ask for help.
Sudo
After this step, you shouldn't need to use the root password, but your linux password. Add to /etc/sudoers under the #Members... section
%scan ALL=(root) ALL
More bits
aptitude full-upgrade
sudo apt-get install tcsh openssh-client openssh-server tmux
Fail2Ban
DTS require us to have fail2ban installed on all our linux machines - MAKE SURE YOU INSTALL THIS!
sudo apt install fail2ban
sudo systemctl enable fail2ban --now
Firefox Shenanigans (from Matt)
By default the latest version of firefox is installed as a "snap" package rather than a "deb". This is extraordinarily dumb and you do not want it. If you install the latest kubuntu then I strongly advise you follow these instructions (below) from:
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/04/how-to-install-firefox-deb-apt-ubuntu-22-04
-This will undo this stupidity. You won't lose your browser history / passwords / etc etc and firefox should continue to work across machines as you expect.
-Also this fix needs to be done once per new machine - the profile fix needs to be done everytime a user logs into the new machine for the first time.
-the snap runs in a container and cannot see your profile, it can import your profile as I mentioned before but then it won't be accessible from another machine and you'll end up with two unconnected ones. Plus it is <really> slow and disconnected from the usual helper programmes which is a PITA
Instructions:
(1) remove the snap
sudo snap remove firefox
(2) connect to the source of firefox as deb
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa
(3) prioritise the deb over the snap (cut and paste into terminal from kate or something):
echo '
Package: *
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-mozillateam
Pin-Priority: 1001
' | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/mozilla-firefox
(4) prevent auto updates reverting your good work (same as above):
echo 'Unattended-Upgrade::Allowed-Origins::
"LP-PPA-mozillateam:${distro_codename}";' | sudo tee /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/51unattended-upgrades-firefox
(5) install firefox the right way
sudo apt install firefox
Matts method didn't work for me, i followed the instructions here: https://fostips.com/ubuntu-21-10-two-firefox-remove-snap/
this got firefox installed by apt ok
Installing Teams
- E.g. download from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/download-app#allDevicesSection
- 'cd' to Downloads or wherever the .deb as gone, ensure it is executable:
sudo dpkg -i teams_XX.deb (where 'XX' is the rest of the .deb filename)
- If you get dependency errors then:
sudo apt --fix-broken install and repeat above
Microsoft doesnt support linux at the moment so use teams-for-linux
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo wget -qO /etc/apt/keyrings/teams-for-linux.asc https://repo.teamsforlinux.de/teams-for-linux.asc
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/teams-for-linux.asc arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture)] https://repo.teamsforlinux.de/debian/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/teams-for-linux-packages.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install teams-for-linux
Installing Matlab
use mathworks account based on Uni email to log in download linux zip for the version you want.
At the system terminal do not use dolphin to do this as it breaks everything, unzip the matlab_R2023b_glnxa64.zip installer archive to the matlab_R2023b_glnxa64 directory by entering: unzip matlab_R2023b_glnxa64.zip -d matlab_R2023b_glnxa64
The installer fails to launch as root, as it doesn't have access to the graphical user interface that you need for installation. so do:
xhost +SI:localuser:root
sudo -H ./install
When prompted by the installer, specify the folder for installation. this should be in /eee/MATLAB/R20XYa (what ever the release is)
xhost -SI:localuser:root
This allows the root user to access the running X server, launches the installer, and then
removes the root user from accessing the X server.
Printers
The install script and drivers are in /home/share/printers/
run on local machine to install
Finish
The installation of Kubuntu 22.04 and all the useful softwares should be done at this point beyond those which require manual installs such as MATLAB. Ask for help if you find any problems.
