Getting started with Ubuntu

Ubuntu Linux is... Developer Friendly Being a Linux distribution, It comes with almost everything a developer/coder/hacker could need; packages, libraries, API's and documentations...for free.  It is highly customizable unlike other  operating systems. In Unix like systems, developers talk with the system. You can let the system talk to you the way you want it, If you get what I mean. Interactive Interaction is Learning. As a popular Linux distro, Ubuntu is maintained by expert worldwide developers/coders/hackers around the world (Ubuntu.com). Share problems and understand ideas on how to solve them, learn from it, experiment with it and share it again. Sure, Linux is complex but you have your PC, the internet and a whole world of developers to help you. Again, for free. Culture Ubuntu is open source. Open source culture is the creative practice of appropriation and free sharing of found and created content. Some say it is a philosophy (Wikipedia). Open source culture is about sharing and being free. Being able to do what you like and letting the world know how great sharing can be. Almost Everything Ubuntu/Linux can support many users, can run many tasks, has a large collection of useful utilities, has a secure hierarchical filesystem, is good for software development and has a kernel programming interface (A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux, Mark G. Sobell). You may not appreciate and need to know these things know but you will love them as you become a great programmer or enthusiast. Install Ubuntu on your Machine This installation assumes that you do not have any operating systems on your machine but works otherwise maybe with or with small complications. Get hold of a Ubuntu Live CD. This is done by asking the nerds, maybe your friends, classmates, teachers or an almighty guru. You can also avail of a Live CD through Ubuntu's website. That is, by downloading an ISO file of your choice, preferably the most latest version 9.10, code name Karmic Koala as of this writing. Then, burn the ISO image to a empty CD and your good to go. Boot the CD by setting your CD-ROM as the first boot device in your CMOS. This is done by pressing DEL or F2 on boot. Once Live CD boots, a menu will appear with options. Select your language and then 'Install Ubuntu'. Select your timezone when asked and leave the other choices to their default values assuming you're good in english until you reach the partitioning menu. The partitioning menu lets you format your hard disk so that it can be used by the Ubuntu operating system. Select 'Specify partitions manually'.  Device  Type  Mount point  Format?  Size  Used  /dev/sda1           First, you will see something like the table above. What does it mean? Device - the name of your hard disk or a storage device. If you had any other hard disk, you will see /dev/sdb1 in another row and if you had a hard disk partitioned, you will see something like /dev/sda2 which means that it is the second partition of the first hard disk labeled sda. This is labeled such because it is a SCSI (pronounced scuzzy) type of hard disk. If it were an IDE type it would start with hda, hdb,etc. It is prefixed with /dev since the Linux Filesystem mounts the devices into the /dev directory. Type - the Filesystem type of the respective partition. A Filesystem is a method of storing files into a device. Ubuntu Linux uses the ext3 (third extended). ext3 is also journaled (it keeps track of the changes it will make in a journal before it commits the changes to the main filesystem). This is why ext3 is now used as opposed to ext2 which was not a journaled file system and ext4 due to instability reasons. Mount point - a mount point is what directory from the Linux Filesystem hierarchy will you mount on the respective partition. Usually, the / (root) and a swap partition will be mounted. Format? - a checkbox that lets you format a partition. That is, remove all data on that partition and prepare it for a new installation. Size - the size of a respective partition or the whole storage device.   Used - indicates the size of a partition that is being used. Next, you will need to add partitions or lets say, slice your hard disk or storage device into pieces. Select a storage device. In this example it would be sda1 but it could be anything in your machine. Create a new partition through the 'New Partition Table...' button. 'free space' will be shown under the storage device you selected. Select the free space and 'Add...' a new partition. You will see something like the image below. You will be asked for several things. First, what type will the partition be. Don't confuse Filesystem type with partition type. They are different. Primary partition - one that can hold system data. You are allowed to have four primary partitions. Logical - is a partition that is inside a partition that is usually called an extended partition. Only four primary partitions are allowed but you can have many logical ones. Partition size - how much space would you like to allocate for the specific partition. Partition Location - where the partition will be located in your physical storage device. A system reads from the beginning. Use as (Filesystem) -  what filesystem type you will use for the partition. Mount point - is what you will mount on the partition. (see Mount point above). To help you decide, this is a suggested layout from Codrschool.  Device Filesystem Type Mount point  Format?  Size  Partition Type  Partition Location  /dev/sda1  ext3  /  yes  Every space available  Primary  Beginning  /dev/sda5 swap  None  optional  1.5 or 2 times your RAM size  Logical (by default)  Beginning The layout above suggests that you mount the whole Linux Filesystem on a single partition and allocate a small space for the swap partition. The swap partition is your virtual memory or the pagefile (if you're a windows fanboy). Another layout is suggested with its advantages.  Device Filesystem Type     Mount point  Format?  Size  Partition Type  Partition Location  /dev/sda1  ext3  /  yes  4-8 gigabytes  Primary  Beginning  /dev/sda3  ext3  /home  yes  The rest available space  Primary  Beginning  /dev/sda5  swap  None  optional  1.5 or 2 times your RAM size  Logical (by default)  Beginning The layout above mounts the /home directory into a separate partition. This is useful in times when you want to install another UNIX-like operating system and you still want to keep your /home directory (or the 'My Documents' for windows fans). You can just simply use the mount command to overwrite the predefined /home of the new operating system.  If you followed everything CodrSchool suggested, you are now ready to press Forward and go on with the installation. This will bring you to another screen which will invade your privacy. Below are brief explanations. Username - the ID/Codename/Alias you want to use when you login to the local machine. Password - this password is your account password. Do not confuse this with the root password. We will set the root password later. That all folks. If you are a nerd and can't get enough of simple installations or you just maybe want to explore, which is good, you can refer to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation. Working on your Ubuntu machine Now that you are done with the installation, Ubuntu will load and you now login with your username and password. First things first, set your root account password. This is important and it is also vital that you don't forget it. Ubuntu Linux doesn't set the root password at installation unlike other Linux distributions. This is because of its user friendly nature. After logging in, go to the terminal (you can search for it in the start menu). The terminal is the CLI (Command Line Interface) of your system (This is the cmd for Windows fanatics). Input the command: sudo passwd This lets you input the password for the root/administrator account. Type in a good password, preferably alphanumeric and easy to memorize. Do not worry if nothing shows up when you type, not even the *.  This is normal. Confirm your password and your done. The root account is the administrator account for UNIX-like systems. It is essentially needed in troubleshooting, changing ownerships and permissions and basically almost everything you can do to your system, that includes destroying your system. So it is important to keep it secure. You also don't use the root account for logging in unless it is necessary. That's what sudo is for. sudo Being a normal user (not root), you can only edit what is inside your /home directory. Anything else, you are prohibited unless you assume the role of a super user or you are the owner of the said location. Basically, you can only read/write a file from/to a location when you own it or when you have permission to do it. Now, who can set all these permission and ownerships? The root can. As stated above, the root can do anything.  The sudo command lets you temporarily assume the role of the root. Because of this, you can temporarily do anything to your system.  When using sudo you are asked for your password, not the root's password. Use sudo when you want to change something you cannot do as a normal user. Be responsible.