Ubuntu

Ubuntu Linux

Ubuntu is the #1 most popular Linux distribution on distrowatch.

Based on Debian, Ubuntu is available in quite a few variants like Kubuntu (Ubuntu w/ KDE), Xubuntu (XFCE), etc.

Some other popular distributions like Linux Mint and Knoppix are also derived from Debian.

Here are a few links you may find useful for installing and running Ubuntu.

• Releases
• Ubuntu Security - some tips about securing Ubuntu and improving security.
• Ufw - the Uncomplicated Firewall
• UbuntuPerformance - tips for tweaking better performance from Ubuntu.
• UbuntuonVMware - guide to running Ubuntu as a VMware virtual machine image
• Ubuntu home page
• RestrictedFormats - multimedia tips
• Debian Packaging

Hints & Tips

DVD Playback

Getting error "Could not read from resource"? See here

These are the steps I tried...

1. Run these commands

aptitude install totem-xine regionset
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh
regionset
(choose 1)
totem-xine

1. Now totem (movie player) is running
2. Select Movie->Open Disc 'Movie Title'
3. Examine console for output

General Hints & Tips

Upgrades

Unattended upgrades are now possible and make it easy to keep your system updated with ZERO user involvement.

sudo aptitude install unattended-upgrades
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -plow unattended-upgrades

See /usr/share/doc/unattended-upgrades/README for other interesting details.

Bonding interfaces

First install ifenslave before screwing up the network :)

aptitude install ifenslave

This can be put into /etc/network/interfaces to bond two ethernet interfaces. Don't forget to remove the (individual) entries for eth0 and eth1.

auto bond0
iface bond0 inet manual
  address 10.1.1.2
  netmask 255.255.255.0
  gateway 10.1.1.1
   post-up ifenslave bond0 eth0 eth1
   pre-down ifenslave -d bond0 eth0 eth1

Add this to /etc/modules and reboot

bonding mode=active-backup miimon=100

VLAN interfaces

To create a (tagged) vlan interface on top of a bonded interface, add 8021q to /etc/modules and modprobe 8021q.

Then add something like this to the /etc/network/interfaces

# VLAN10 
auto vlan10
iface vlan10 inet static
   address 10.1.10.2
   netmask 255.255.255.0
   vlan_raw_device bond0

Notice how the last line vlan_raw_device indicates which "physical" interface this tagged interface should communicate through.

See also: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/vlan