Main Ubuntu installation

First of all on your Windows box, with your favorite browser navigate to the Ubuntu download place.

Choose the Server Edition, a download location near you and make sure the 32-bit version is selected. Remember this will be installed on your old box therefore we have to ensure maximum compatibility. Even if you plan to install it on a newer machine that may be supporting 64-bit, the 32-bit version is the safest choice.

Click “Begin Download”, and choose a folder to save the ISO file. After the download completes, use your favorite CD burning software to burn the ISO to a CD. Keep in mind you have to burn it as an ISO, not as plain data! As soon as the CD is burnt take it out from the Windows box and place it into the soon-to-be Linux Joomla Server.

Now with the Ubuntu CD in the drive, power on your computer. Your pc should be configured to boot up from the CD drive thus, you’ll need to enter the BIOS setup and make the necessary changes. On boot, the first thing you‘ll get is the language selection screen.

This is a text mode installation, meaning no mouse is available. Use the arrow keys to move your way around the available choices. Use the tab key to select “buttons” (such as Yes, No, Continue) and use the enter key to “click”.

So, select English and press Enter. Of course, you could go ahead and choose any language you like nevertheless I would recommend English since we need to ensure you follow the recommended steps. When you feel confident with the installation procedure, you may reinstall to try other options; after all it takes only 20 minutes!

On the main option screen there are five options, select the first one: “Install Ubuntu Server” and press enter.

Next, you have to choose the default language for your final system. Again use the arrow keys to select English and press Enter.

Next choose your location. This will help with things like time and date settings. Again, I am going to select United States but, feel free to select whatever suits you best.

Now you need to set up your keyboard layout. You can have the installer detect your keyboard by pressing a bunch of keys but, I would recommend you avoid the hassle and go for the generic “US” choice. Highlight NO and press ENTER. Then use the arrow keys to highlight USA and press enter. Then, just press Enter one more time.

Now wait while Setup scans your hardware and loads various components. Time to name your machine, feel free to type in whatever you like; I am going to name mine after the Greek goddess of beauty, so I will type in “Aphrodite”.

After selecting the time zone you have to decide how to partition your disk. Well, disk partitioning for a server can be a long discussion since there are many decisions associated with it. An administrator should consider factors like usability and security.

If you were building a live server, I would definitely recommend you go for the “Manual” approach. Since you’re building a test machine you don’t really need to bother a lot with this, just go for the easy way out. Select “Guided – use entire disk” and press ENTER. This will let Setup decide on how to partition the disk and for the test environment we are building, it will be just fine.

If you have more than one hard disk, select the one you want to use and press enter. The next screen reports two partitions will be created, the ext3 one and the swap one. Select YES to write changes to disk. NOTE that all data on the disk will be erased, use right – left arrow key to select “Yes” and hit ENTER.

Now sit back and relax as the base system is being installed. This might take a while.

On the next step, you need to create a user. For security reasons, you are advised not to use the root account, this is why you need to create a normal user for your Ubuntu Server. First enter your full name, anything can be entered there.

Then select a username for your account. The system will suggest one according to what you entered in the previous screen. You may accept it or type in something completely different. Use something easy to remember with small letters, no spaces and fairly short. Then, press ENTER. You will be asked to define a password for your user and type it twice to avoid misspellings. Make sure you don’t forget it (write it down if necessary). This is the password you will use to login later on.

This next setting is for enhanced security. Not needed for our purposes since we don’t have any other users. Select NO and hit ENTER.

Unless you know you use a proxy, just hit ENTER on the next screen otherwise type in the proxy address.

Now you need to decide if you want automatic updates. Well, why not? Select the second option “Install security updates automatically” and press ENTER.