Installing on Mini-Box

These are installation notes for getting the mini-box LCD appliance up and running with Ubuntu Server 32-bit 8.10 (Intrepid) wth an Atom processor and making use of the menuing system.

Ubuntu

Although we will intend to run this box without a monitor for the moment we will plug in the monitor to install Ubuntu from a USB-CDROM. Make sure the BIOS is configured to boot from the CD-ROM. Also, under Peripheral Devices you will need to enable all legacy support (or it will hang on installation).

For a flash drive, apparently Josh has had some success following these directions.

We will do a software raid

Software RAID

Read me.

USBLCD Reader

Download and build the SDK or at least just what it includes usblcd-src. Install 'usbread' into the /home/lcdmenu/bin. To build it you will first need:

sudo apt-get install autoconf gcc-4.1-base gcc-4.1 gcc  automake binutils binutils-dev libtool libusb-dev libhid-dev

If you do a

./autogen.sh
./configure
 sudo make install

on some machine, you will need to copy the *usb* files in /usr/local/lib as well as /usr/local/bin/usblcd

LCD Menu

First create a user 'lcdmenu' that can't login:

 sudo adduser --disabled-login --gecos \'\' lcdmenu 

(those quotes should not be slashed)

This applies to LCD Menu 1.0 which is not packaged yet. Download it in whatever way makes you happy and install it to /home/lcdmenu/bin (once you have made the directory).

Now edit the "sudoers" file by running:

sudo visudo 

and add this line to grant the lcdmenu user limited access to system functions

%lcdmenu ALL=NOPASSWD: /sbin/shutdown, /etc/init.d/apache2, /etc/init.d/mysql, /usr/bin/mysqldump, /usr/bin/apt-get, /home/lcdmenu/bin/usblcd

Create a "backup" user in mysql with localhost only access and no password which can lock and select all tables

  mysql -u root -p
  mysql> GRANT SELECT,LOCK TABLES on *.* TO backup@localhost IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD \'\';
  mysql> quit;

(again no slashes)

Now we want it to setup to run periodically:

sudo crontab -u lcdmenu -e 
* * * * * /home/lcdmenu/bin/lcdmenu_check.sh >/dev/null 2>&1

Automount

The LCD Menuing system has a "backup MySQL database to a flash drive" feature. Since we will not be using GNOME, we will need a USB automounter:

  sudo apt-get install usbmount

Then edit the file /etc/usbmount/usbmount.conf and add "vfat" to the FILESYSTEMS e.g:

   FILESYSTEMS="ext2 ext3 vfat"

then make sure the FS_MOUNTOPTIONS line has at least:

   FS_MOUNTOPTIONS="gid=lcdmenu,dmask=0007,fmask=0117"

Power Button

Make sure acpid is installed and running and change /etc/acpi/powerbtn.sh to suit your needs.

UPS

Install nut and follow these directions as well as whatever is available on the home page of the nut package. nut is built for network access to a UPS but seems to be the most up-to-date package available.

Network Status

The MAC Address, to configure your router, can be obtained from the LCD Menu:

>F1:Server Status
>F2:Network Status
>F3:MAC Address

Similarly, if you have plugged the server into a network with DHCP, you can get the IP Address:

>F1:Server Status
>F2:Network Status
>F3:MAC Address

Webmin

See me or just cut and paste:

sudo aptitude install perl libnet-ssleay-perl openssl libauthen-pam-perl libpam-runtime libio-pty-perl libmd5-perl
wget http://garr.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/webadmin/webmin_1.441_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i webmin_1.441_all.deb

Browse to:

https://your-server-ip:10000/

and login as the user you created on Ubuntu installation.