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Getting Started with Linux

Sign in at: tinyurl.com/ufosc17

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Announcements

  • Project Status
    • Club Website has new issues posted
    • Marston vs West is working on hitboxes and player character
  • Casual Coding Sessions
    • Wednesday 4PM - 6PM in Marston, Room Darwin
    • Thursday 5PM - 7PM in Marston, Room Darwin
  • Empowered Prosthetics
    • Looking for web design interns
    • Spring and Fall

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Installing Ubuntu in VirtualBox

  • Download Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
    • Ubuntu is a distribution of Linux
  • Install VirtualBox
    • Runs and manages virtual machines
    • Use Ubuntu without messing with computer

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Set up VirtualBox

  • Select Ubuntu (64-bit)
  • Choose RAM usage
    • Default is good enough, but more is better
    • Stay in the green
  • Choose all the defaults for storage
    • 10GB is more than enough for Linux
    • Can add more later

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Booting Ubuntu Medium

  • Start the VM
  • Select installation medium
    • The “.iso” file
  • Ubuntu LiveCD loads
    • Let’s you try before installing

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Install Ubuntu

  • Click “Install Ubuntu”
  • Select
    • Download updates
    • Install third-party software
      • Proprietary software
      • May help improve UX
  • Erase disk and install now
    • Just your VM disk

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Setup Ubuntu

  • Choose
    • TimeZone
    • Language
    • Keyboard
  • Make superuser account
    • Username
    • Password
    • Gives you admin access
  • Wait for install to finish

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Ubuntu Desktop

  • Keyboard Commands
  • Dock
    • Favorite apps
    • Open apps
  • Dash button
    • Search files and apps
  • Settings
    • Wi-Fi
    • Battery
    • Time
    • Etc

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VirtualBox Tweaks

  • Processing cores
    • Must power off the machine
  • RAM
  • Storage
  • Graphical Acceleration
  • Share Clipboard
  • USB passthrough
  • Snapshots
    • Save current state of OS
    • Can go back to old snapshot

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Wait, what is Linux?

  • Technically a free and open source kernel
    • Kernel is the software between the hardware and everything else
  • Colloquially refers to a full operating system
    • Linux
    • GNU components
    • Lots of other free and open source software
  • Can run anywhere
    • Desktop
    • Server
    • Mobile
    • Super computers
    • IoT
    • SoC
    • Toaster

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Why use Linux?

  • Free and Open Source
    • Support from thousands of developers
  • Customizable
    • Most components are interchangeable
  • Lightweight
    • RAM: 128MB
    • Hard Disk: 512MB
  • Fast
    • Lots of development
    • No Windows cruft
  • Secure
    • Lots of eyes
    • Lots of money
  • Updates
    • Easy to install and update
  • Reliability
    • No random reboots or forced updates
  • Privacy
    • No spying on users
  • Developer focused
    • Easy to install tools
    • Most services are run on Linux, so easy to develop and deploy
  • Choice
    • Distros with many different purposes
    • More on that later

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How to use Linux?

  • Virtual Machine
    • Like we did
    • Can have multiple VMs running
    • Don’t interfere with OS
    • Can be slower
  • Full install
    • No slow downs
    • Can replace Windows
    • Or can keep both installed
  • Windows subsystem for Linux
    • No slow down
    • Supports most command line programs
    • No GUI

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  • LiveCD
    • Boot off USB Drive
    • Full version of Linux
    • Can be slower
    • Usually no persistent storage
    • Can be used to fix installed OS

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Linux Distributions

  • Different flavors
    • Specific focus
    • Company or community created
  • Fixed vs Rolling Releases
  • Different packages
  • Different focuses
  • Examples
    • Ubuntu
    • Debian
    • Redhat
    • Fedora
    • openSUSE
    • Arch Linux

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Why Ubuntu then?

  • Popular
    • Lots of help online
    • Lots of packages available
  • 16.04 LTS
    • Came out in April, 2016
    • Long term support
    • They also have more frequent releases
  • Based off Debian
    • Very stable server oriented distro
  • Lots of distros based off Ubuntu
    • Ubuntu Flavors
    • Linux Mint
    • Elementary OS

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Desktops

  • Can very easily switch desktop interfaces
    • Once installed, select on login
    • Use themes and icon packs
  • Unity
  • GNOME
  • KDE
  • XFCE
  • LXDE
  • i3
  • More...

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Install Applications

  • Package manager
    • Installs, updates, removes programs
    • Keeps track of installed programs
      • Including OS
    • Tracks and pulls in dependencies
    • Looks at repositories
  • Repository
    • Stores programs
    • Distribution offical repo
    • Add other repos
  • Can use GUI or command line
    • Ubuntu Software Center
    • apt

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Using apt

  • sudo apt update
    • Gets a list of updates from repos
  • sudo apt dist-upgrade
    • Upgrades software and removes unused dependencies
  • sudo add-apt-repository ppa:<PPA name>
    • Adds new repository to be checked
  • sudo apt install <Program>
    • Installs program plus dependencies
  • sudo apt remove <Program>
    • Uninstalls program plus any unused dependencies

Break it down

  • sudo
    • Run as super user
  • apt
    • Package manager program
  • install
    • Specific task for apt
  • <Program>
    • Name of program in repo

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Practice

  • Install chromium
    • sudo apt update
    • sudo apt install chromium-browser
  • Start it from terminal
    • chromium-browser &
  • Start in from GUI
    • Search and launch with top left button
  • Remove chromium
    • sudo apt remove chromium-browser

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Congrats!

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Resources

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More info

  • Terminal
    • TTY
    • https://askubuntu.com/questions/294119/most-important-commands-to-know
  • File Structure
    • / vs \
  • Sudo
  • Groups
  • Permissions
  • Tools
    • Cron
  • Wine
    • http://appdb.winehq.org/
  • Snap/Flatpack
  • Grub
  • Server
  • Docker intro