CTE Visions

Now that Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) is out and stable I thought I would look into what is on the horizon for the next release of Ubuntu. There are a lot of questions that I have about the next release and I have found some solid answers, rumors and a lot of speculation as to what the next release will have.

Ubuntu has committed to have a regular release schedule. I came across a lot of mixed feelings about this idea/concept. Some people feel that this regular release gets in the way of how users see the distribution. Some users like to be on the edge of technology and what the developers have made for the release. Once people get used to that release it is about time for another release that uses new ideas and concepts.

On the other hand, Ubuntu wants to offer what they call a Long Term Support version (LTS). An LTS is released every two years. This is so that instead of jumping on every release, you can upgrade only when an LTS release comes out. LTS releases are supported by Ubuntu with security updates available for five years for servers and three years for desktops. The stability and longer life cycle of the LTS releases make them appealing to hardware makers and organizations that are rolling out large Ubuntu deployments.

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx release will be the third LTS release just two years, as promised, after the last LTS release, 8.04 Hardy Heron. What this means for 10.04 is that with the increased focus on stability there won’t be a long list of new features.

So what is 10.04 going to have? Let me explain what I found out. Read more…

Recently I have been asked by friends, colleagues and even family, how to install and configure a “development or testing” area on their personal computer (localhost). Because I have been asked to do this and each time I end up searching the Internet for guides and help, I thought that it would be a good time to condense what I have found, learned and know to be an ideal setup for a localhost environment.

I have set this post up differently then others that I have seen. I have broken the parts into sections and have linked to those sections so that if you need to come back for help on just one area you can jump to that section/area of the post.

Let me give guidance to those people who run Windows and even Mac OSx:

Windows Users
I would recommend you use a program called XAMPP. XAMPP is a great program and can be installed on all OS platforms (Linux, Mac and Windows). You can download a executable file from XAMPPs Site

Mac OSx Users
I would recommend you use a program called MAMP. MAMP is also a great program for the Mac users. It makes it easy for the users to get things done. You can download the dmg from the MAMP Site

Linux Users
Let’s get started since this post is for you.

Install Apache
Install MySQL
Install PHP

Installing Apache
Everything that I suggest here will be done through terminal. To launch terminal follow these steps:
Application -> Accessories -> Terminal

1. Once terminal is open type or copy the following command:
   sudo aptitude install apache2
2. Answer any questions that arise as you see fit. Once the process is finished installing you will need to test that the installation worked. To do this open another tab in your browser and in the address bar type localhost (link to help http://localhost). You should see the text “It works” and that means you have installed Apache2 correctly

NOTE:
If at the end of your installation you get an error or a message inside the terminal window that says “Could not reliably determine the server’s fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName” you can fix this by running the following command in terminal.
gksu gedit /etc/apache2/conf.d/fqdn

You might need to enter your password before the file will open. This command will open a file in gedit (a text editor for Linux).

• When gedit opens, type “ServerName localhost” (without the quotes) inside the file and click Save.
• Close the file.

Installing MySQL
Everything in the MySQL section will be done through the terminal window. To launch terminal follow these steps: Application -> Accessories -> Terminal

1. Once terminal is open type of copy the following command:
   sudo aptitude install mysql-server libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql
2. Near the end of the installation you will be asked to give a user name and password for MySQL
   If you leave the user name blank it will default to “root”

That is it. At this point you should now have MySQL installed an running on your localhost. You can test this by typing mysql in the terminal window. If all is setup correctly you should get a “Welcome to MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.” and a prompt that says mysql>. From here you can run your mysql commands.

Installing PHP
Everything in the PHP section will be done through the terminal window. To launch a terminal follow these steps: Application -> Accessories -> Terminal

1. Once your terminal is open type or copy the following command:
sudo aptitude install php5 php5-common libapache2-mod-php5 php5-gd php5-dev curl libcurl3 libcurl3-dev php5-curl
2. After everything is installed you will need to restart Apache for the server to see and implement PHP
   sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
3. You can now test to see if PHP5 is working with Apache. To test if PHP is installed you can create a .php file inside your /var/www/ directory
   sudo gedit /var/www/test.php
4. The command will open gedit (Linux text editor). Once gedit is open type in the following code:
   <?php
phpinfo();
?>
5. Open a new tab in your browser and in the address bar type localhost/test.php (link to help http://localhost/test.php)

After running step 5 you should see your PHP Info page. This page will display the settings of your PHP configuration file and what is available via Apache2, MySQL and many other settings you may not care to know about. But the thing is if you see the PHP Information page you have successfully set up PHP5 to work with Apache.

Congratulations, I hope this means you have been able to install one, two or even all three of the items outlined in this post. If everything has worked out correctly you know have a local environment to develop on. Good luck and have fun.

If you have questions please leave a comment.

I decided to upgrade my Ubuntu from 9.04 to the most recent release. The most recent being 9.10 Karmic Koala. Usually I tend to wait for a month or so to give the developers some time to fix stability, bugs and any other issues that arise. But all the reviews I was reading about and hearing from friends that it was a really good release, I just couldn’t wait.

So on Thursday night I started the process of backing up my personal stuff and anything else I could think of. Just in case something went horribly wrong. And at 1:28am on Friday morning I started the process. I ended up mostly working while it did its thing and I assume that due to the popularity the download process was very very slow.

On Friday morning at 7:30 (after I had gone to bed) it was almost finished. Just another 20 mins of things wrapping up and cleaning up. But at 9:00 the power went out. Luckily enough though the process was far enough that it was not relying on the Internet any more. So if wrapped up and I was able to check things out until power came back on at 10:30.

At this time I decided I would watch a movie and work at the same time. So I placed a horror film into the DVD Rom (28 Days Later, it is Halloween you know). The DVD never mounted. No matter what I did I could not find the DVD I put into the Rom. It was not in Nautilis, nothing mounted and displayed on the desktop. And now I couldn’t eject the Rom.

No matter what I did it would not eject so I went into my drawer can got my handy dandy “Disfigured Clippy” (for those who don’t know “Clippy” is a Microsoft Mascot. Even though I use Linux I still call it “Clippy”). Any way so my clippy has been bent so that I can shove one end into the Rom hole to eject it.

So I shut it again with the DVD thinking it might have not registered the first time. Nope, same issue and I could hear the Rom spin and then stop. So now thinking that maybe for some reason my Rom is broken I used “Clippy” once again to eject the disk and placed a music CD into the Rom. Worked like a charm. Mounted and asked me what to play the music with.

So then with much frustration I figured I would try to get my movie playing. I mean I was in the mood to watch a movie and work so I had to have my movie now. It would be like telling a kid there is no Santa Clause. It had to work, it used to work until I upgraded.

I went to ask my friend what the heck and what can I do. He had the answer he always does. He is a great friend. I am sure you know him and probably ask him questions too. His name is Google. I take no credit for having the answer. Google lead me to many other friends that did have the answer. Some thought they did but did not (for instance it is just common knowledge to install libdvdcss2), and others did have the answers but only parts. So I am writing this so that if you find this post you will have all the answers from all those people in one place. I found the answers out there in the world but it took a lot of time and many trials and errors.

On to why you are here now. How to play DVDs within Ubuntu 9.10: Karmic Koala. You will need to open up a terminal and paste the following information into the terminal window. You will need to be connected to the Internet and depending on your Internet connection speed the process will take anywhere between 5 – 15 mins. Mine took 12 mins and I connect at 7MB down.

Paste this into your terminal window:
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/`lsb_release -cs`.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list; sudo apt-get -q update; sudo apt-get --yes -q --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring; sudo apt-get -q update && sudo apt-get install -y ubuntu-restricted-extras non-free-codecs w32codecs totem-mozilla libdvdcss2 totem-xine xine-ui libxine1 libxinerama1 libxine1-all-plugins libxine1 libxine1-ffmpeg libdvdnav4 libdmx1 libdvdread4 gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly vlc smplayer smplayer-themes smplayer-translations && sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

This is the magic. Once this is finished you are done. You can now watch your DVDs (and work happily).

Thanks for looking and if you know of any other tips and tricks for 9.10 please leave a comment so we all can be informed.