Rebuilding Ubuntu
Building Ubuntu 18.04 on a brand new machine
the raw steps (in what follows, newport is the new machine,
burnley is an old machine with all necessary files).
add newport,et al., to /etc/hosts
# rsync -auv burnley:.bash_profile ./
# rsync -auv burnley:.bashrc ./
$ rsync -auv burnley:bin ./
# apt-get install ssh
$ ./bin/mkremlog.sh ajh@burnley
$ ./bin/mkremlog.sh ajh@spencer
# apt-get install emacs
# apt-get install apache2
# a2enmod actions cgid userdir
in the file /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/userdir.conf,
change the Directory entry for /home/*/public_html
to "AllowOverride All"
# apt-get install xsltproc
add newport to .bash_profile cases and run
$ . .bash_profile
in the file /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/dir.conf,
change the DirectoryIndex entry to include index.xml
# systemctl restart apache2
# apt-get install python2.7
# apt-get install python3
$ mkdir /home/ajh/binln
$ cd /home/ajh/binln
$ ln -s /usr/bin/python2.7 python
$ ln -s /usr/bin/python2.7 python2.7
$ ln -s /usr/bin/python3 python3
$ ln -s /home/ajh/public_html www
$ mkdir -p local/localhost/counters
$ mkdir -p local/localhost/htmls
$ chmod -R g+w local/localhost
# chown -R ajh:www-data local/localhost
$ rsync -auv burnley:lib ./
$ rsync -auv burnley:local/localhost/environment ./local/localhost/
edit the environment file to update the hostname to newport
$ rsync -auv burnley:public_html/* public_html/
$ rsync -auv burnley:public_html/.htaccess public_html/
# apt-get install net-tools # this is to grab ifconfig,
# an interim measure until replaced by ip
# apt-get install make
# apt-get install psgml
# apt-get install wallch # this is a dodgy application, and doesn't always work
# apt install variety # a more reliable wallpaper application
# apt install python-pip # install pip
# pip --version # check its version (20181227:145306 pip 9.0.1)
# python -m pip install pyserial # install python module serial
I shall endeavour to add to this list as I discover missing software.
DNS
The DNS settings I use are internode.on.net, or IP
addresses 192.231.203.132, 192.231.203.3
Background
We recently acquired a Silverstone RM420
20-bay disk farm to house all our
house needs for data storage. This was a story in its own right,
but here we document the process of rebuilding Ubuntu to suit the
local needs.
In what follows, we use a prompt of # to indicate
that the actions must be done as superuser, and $
for actions as the (normal) user.
Tasks
Hostname
Depending how you got to this stage, the hostname might need
fixing. To do this, simply edit (as superuser) the file
/etc/hostname to the correct value.
# vi /etc/hostname
Files
load basic files from backup. These should include:
~/.bash_profile
~/.bashrc
~/bin/*
~/lib/emacs
~/.emacs
SSH
install sshd
Emacs
Install my preferred editor Emacs
# apt-get install emacs
Apache
Install the web server Apache
# apt-get install apache
Enable the actions, cgid and userdir modifications.
# a2enmod actions cgid userdir
In the file userdir.conf,
change the <Directory /home/*/public_html> line
containing AllowOverride to be just
AllowOverride All
You also need to add index.xml into the
DirectoryIndex list in the dir.conf file.
install the XSLTPROC package
# apt-get install xsltproc
Assuming all the relevant files have been copied across from
backup, you should now be able to access the web server from a
browser. Don't forget to make sure that the cgi script
index.py is available and executable! (It needs
python2.7.)
Gotchas
- Apache2 does not enable user directories
automatically. To do this, you need to install the
userdir mod (above).
- Because I also run a cgi script driven by special
instructions in the .htaccess file to perform the XML to
HTML translation, I also must install the actions and cgid
modifications. The latter, in particular, gives very
cryptic error messages - simply saying that it cannot find
the requested file.
