Installing Xubuntu as a headless server.
Headless as in headless horseman? What headless means is no monitor, no keyboard, no mouse. This way you can put that POS somewhere out of site, just make sure you have your Ethernet network connected to it. This is after we get it all installed. At this point I will assume you have downloaded Xubuntu and burned it to a disk. During the set up you will need to connect the pc to the network and have a keyboard and monitor attached. Next you put the CD in to the drive and boot the PC from the CD drive. You may have to go into the BIOS/”Hit delete to enter setup” and tell the PC to boot from the CD instead of the hard drive.
After the PC boots you should see this.
Choose “Install command line system”, and then choose your language.
More options for your language.
This is the place you choose your keyboard.
Here are some more options for the keyboard.
Ok, I know this is crazy but here is yet another option for the keyboard.
On this screen we are asked to set the Hostname, this is like a nickname for the PC.
Partition this partition that are you wishing you could partition?
I’m showing you how to use the whole disk because this is a POS computer, and you have dictated it to being your Linux server.
Wishing, wishing, my partition, if I say yes, no data can be fix’n. A little humor to show all data will be erased.
Set the time zone.
UTC to set local time.
Now that we are logged in we have what is called a bash shell. This is the place where we will issue our commands of the system. We will talk about bash in a bit, let’s get ssh installed. You will need to type this to install ssh. Add a new user, Linux is Case sensitive, Rob and rob are different people to Linux.
Not another password to remember. :>
The system will then install, soon you will see this.
Now that we are logged in we have what is called a bash shell. This is the place where we will issue our commands of the system. We will talk about bash in a bit, let’s get ssh installed. You will need to type this to install ssh. Was that so bad? We are almost done. Now I like to add ssh to my fresh system. Ssh allows you to log into this server remotely. Let’s reboot and see how to add the ssh server so we can hide this PC in a closet somewhere. It looks really bad on my desk, like something form the early 90’s, scary. So reboot the system soon you will see this.
Enter your user name and password.
Now that we are logged in we have what is called a bash shell. This is the place where we will issue our commands of the system. We will talk about bash in a bit, let’s get ssh installed. You will need to type this to install ssh. sudo apt-get install openssh-server What does this do? Look at it one piece at a time, sudo allows you to run privileged, you need to do this in order to do administrative functions, like installing applications. The apt-get part is a debian linux package manager. Slow down, what is a package? Well it’s kind of like a zip file and an exe all in one. See out there on the internet there is a computer with lots of .deb packages, apt-get will get that file if it’s out there, then we tell it to install and finally the name of the package we need is openssh-server. You will be asked for your password, and then asked if you want to install this.
After the install you need to reboot and go into the BIOS again and make sure that the PC will boot with out a keyboard. If you are not sure unplug it, reboot if you see the system come up to the login screen. Then you are set, shut it down. All you need to plug in is the pc and the Ethernet cable. Go and hide that nasty looking pc. Robuis out
