92. Installing debian in virtualbox -- in pictures

Here's a ridiculously detailed set of screengrabs of how to install debian in virtualbox. It ends with a five-point list of things to do post-install. My motivation was to create a sparse build environment which would help me hammer out depencies.

VIrtualbox can be handles completely in the terminal too:

http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7673/

In particular,  starting an existing machine:

me@beryllium:~$ VBoxManage startvm debian_barebone

Waiting for VM "debian_barebone" to power on...

VM "debian_barebone" has been successfully started.

Just make sure that you've opened up portforwarding for ssh:

VBoxManage modifyvm "debian_barebone" --natpf1 "guestssh,tcp,,2222,,22"

A very similar guide, but which shows the installation of LXDE is here: http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/ecce-in-virtual-machine-step-by-step.html

Anyway: the graphical way:

---

Setting up the virtual machine

---

Name the vm and select os type and version

The amount of RAM you give the VM depends on what you will use it for.

Create a new harddisk

VDI is for virtualbox, VMDK is for VMWare

Dynamic will start small and grow as files are added.

A minimum of 3-4 GB is recommended, or apt cache might eat up all your space

And you're almost done.

Attach the debian install iso

USB is optional.

You can add a shared folder, but it's not necessary.

Don't touch this -- just make sure that the network adapter is enabled

Optional

Start the virtual machine, which will launch the installation.

---

---

Installing debian

---

The installation procedure is the same as on a 'real' computer.

Pick a language...

...a country...

...a keyboard layout...

...and let debian do a bit of preparation.

Choose a hostname. 

Normally leave domain blank.

Leave root password blank. This way sudo will be the default way of administration.

Leave blank.

Pick a name, any name.

Debian will suggest a user name based on the real name, but pick anything.

Pick a password. You'll have sudo access by default, so pick a good one.

Repeat your password

What about Melbourne/Victoria???

Normally Guided is a bad idea.

First you need to 'format' your harddrive

It won't touch your REAL harddrive, so relax

Create a partition -- we'll only create one linux partition, /

Create a new partition

Give it most of the space on your HDD, but not all

Primary is a good choice. Logical only acts as a container, and isn't necessary for  such a small setup.

Just go for the default settings.

Time to create a small swap, since we only gave our VM 256 Mb

Give the swap everything remaining

Primary again

Select Use as...

...SWAP

All is good

Make changes permanent

Write changes

Pick the generic kernel

...like so

Unless you do have another CD, don't bother

If you're connected to the net, go ahead and use a mirror

---

---

First boot

---

---

---

Things to do after installation:

---

0. With your virtual machine turned off, on the (linux) host do
 VBoxManage modifyvm "debian_barebone" --natpf1 "guestssh,tcp,,2222,,22"
to allow you to ssh to your virtual debian installation using
ssh verahill@localhost -p 2222

Boot your virtual machine and
1. Remove the CD from the /etc/apt/sources.list

2. sudo updatedb to populate the locate database
3. sudo apt-get install bzip2 to avoid the i18n header error:

W: Failed to fetch copy:/var/lib/apt/lists/partial/server_pub_linux_debian_dists_wheezy_non-free_i18n_Translation-en  Encountered a section with no Package: header

3. sudo apt-get update

4. install ssh server: sudo apt-get install openssh-server

5. Install a graphical environment: See this guide
The shortest summary of that would be:
sudo apt-get install lxde
sudo shutdown -r now

---

91. Downgrading nvidia drivers from 295.20 to 290.10 on debian testing

How to downgrade your nvidia drivers

WARNING -- you must use the terminal during these steps. If you don't know how to use e.g. cd, ls and nano or vim you will want to be careful:
1. Make sure that you have internet access even without a graphical environment
2. Make sure that you have a basic understanding of how to navigate in the terminal
3. Print out or write down these instructions before startintg

I typically test all my instructions on several different computers as a form of proof-reading. For various reasons I can't do that with this blog post, so read through the instructions first to understand what they do and that typos won't throw you off.

If you've been having the gnome-shell crash bug
http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/debian-testing-wheezy-64-nvidia-bug.html

[ 7011.967820] gnome-shell[32742]: segfault at 10 ip 00007fa1b6d98c0f sp 00007fa1914a1638 error 6 in libnvidia-tls.so.295.20[7fa1b6d98000+3000]

or the evolution crash bug
http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/debian-testing-wheezy-64-no-real.html

[22129.426444] evolution[20435]: segfault at 10 ip 00007f2a05bf8c0f sp 00007f29e5725508 error 6 in libnvidia-tls.so.295.20[7f2a05bf8000+3000]

which are both caused by nvidia driver 295.20, here's how to gracefully downgrade to the previous version of the nvidia driver: 290.10. Be aware that evolution crashes occasionally under 290.10 too, but not nearly as consistently as under 25.20 -- chances are that evolution is a bit buggy on its own.

This will make use of the dkms package, which is what you should use anyway. We'll pull the old stuff from a snapshot archive.

1. Setting up your computer 
I prefer not to be forced to boot into X when I'm mucking about with graphics drivers, so:

Edit your /etc/default/grub
find your

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT

line and add "text" to it e.g.
change

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset nouveau.modeset=0"

to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="text nomodeset nouveau.modeset=0"

Do

sudo update-grub

Now is a good time to do a reboot to see if you have internet in text-only mode. 
sudo shutdown -r now
To start your graphical environment again do 
startx


2. Set up snapshot archive
To your /etc/apt/sources.list add this line:

deb http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/20120120T092809Z/ wheezy main contrib non-free

Also, create a
/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/60ignore_repo_date_check
file with the following in it:

Acquire
{
Check-Valid-Until "false";
}

Run
sudo apt-get update
Don't install anything yet.

3. Get the nvidia binary driver
Go to e.g. ~/tmp and
wget http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/290.10/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-290.10.run
chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-290.10.run

Don't forget where you put it.

4. Remove your existing drivers and packages:
First reboot:
sudo shutdown -r now
You'll now boot into a text-only environment, so you had better printed this out first.

Then
sudo apt-get autoremove nvidia-*

The following packages will be REMOVED:
  diffstat glx-alternative-mesa glx-alternative-nvidia glx-diversions libcublas4 libcuda1 libcudart4 libcufft4
  libcurand4 libcusparse4 libgl1-nvidia-alternatives libgl1-nvidia-glx libglx-nvidia-alternatives libnpp4
  libthrust-dev libvdpau-dev nvidia-alternative nvidia-glx nvidia-installer-cleanup nvidia-kernel-common
  nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-support nvidia-vdpau-driver opencl-headers quilt xserver-xorg-video-nvidia
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 26 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
After this operation, 435 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?Y
[..]

Reboot for good luck:
sudo shutdown -r now

If you do
locate nvidia.ko
chances are you'll find

/lib/modules/3.2.9/updates/dkms/nvidia.ko

where 3.2.9 is the current kernel version.

Do
sudo updatedb
locate nvidia.ko
to make sure that the nvidia.ko is gone from your current kernel.

5. Install your old nvidia driver:
Go to the directory you downloaded the driver in, e.g. ~/tmp
sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-290.10.run
Reboot afterwards:
sudo shutdown -r now

After the reboot do
startx

Did it work? If yes, you're in good shape.
 dmesg | grep nvidia

[    7.540166] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
[    8.509525] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[    8.509600] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: setting latency timer to 64

6. Setting up the kernel-dkms
You really want to use dkms so that you don't have re-install the graphics driver each time you upgrade your kernel.

First check
apt-cache showpkg nvidia-kernel-dkms

Provides:
295.20-1 - nvidia-kernel-295.20
290.10-1 - nvidia-kernel-290.10
195.36.31-6 - nvidia-kernel-195.36.31

OK, time to get rocking:
sudo apt-get install nvidia-kernel-dkms=290.10-1 nvidia-glx=290.10-1 libgl1-nvidia-glx=290.10-1 xserver-xorg-video-nvidia=290.10-1 nvidia-vdpau-driver=290.10-1 nvidia-alternative=290.10-1

You'll be warned about remove nvidia-install etc. That's fine.

Once the installation is done it's time to put holds on the packages so they don't accidentally upgrade

sudo su
echo "nvidia-kernel-dkms hold"| dpkg --set-selections
echo "nvidia-glx hold"| dpkg --set-selections
echo "libgl1-nvidia-glx hold"| dpkg --set-selections
echo "xserver-xorg-video-nvidia hold"| dpkg --set-selections
echo "nvidia-vdpau-driver hold"| dpkg --set-selections
echo "nvidia-alternative hold"| dpkg --set-selections
exit

7. Cleaning up
Things to do:
a. comment out the snapshot in /etc/apt/sources.list
b. move the /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/60ignore_repo_date_check file out of the way
c. sudo apt-get upgrade

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree    
Reading state information... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  libgl1-nvidia-glx nvidia-alternative nvidia-glx
  nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-vdpau-driver xserver-xorg-video-nvidia

d. edit your /etc/default/grub and remove the "text" item you added.
e. Run sudo update-grub
f. You can now reboot and your computer will be back to normal, sans nvidia 295.20

DONE

---

8. In the future
Once it is safe to upgrade, all you need to do is

sudo su
echo "nvidia-kernel-dkms install"| dpkg --set-selections
echo "nvidia-glx install"| dpkg --set-selections
echo "libgl1-nvidia-glx install"| dpkg --set-selections
echo "xserver-xorg-video-nvidia install"| dpkg --set-selections
echo "nvidia-vdpau-driver install"| dpkg --set-selections
echo "nvidia-alternative install"| dpkg --set-selections
exit
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

---

Links to this post:
http://www.pro-chip.de/linux-mint/161-linux-mint-debian-geforce-gtx-560-ti-treiberproblem.html

90. Compiling kernel 3.2.9 on Debian Testing

UPDATE: the instructions below work without modification with kernel v 3.2.9

For a more exhaustive description of how to build a kernel for debian, see here:
http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/debian-testing-building-your-own-linux.html

I'll be brief:
You need 6.6 Gb of free space to build, and a fair amount of free time.


sudo apt-get install kernel-package fakeroot
wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.2.9.tar.bz2
tar -xvf linux-3.2.9.tar.bz2 
cd linux-3.2.9/
cat /boot/config-`uname -r`>.config
make oldconfig
make-kpkg clean


-- apply to 32 bit only --
ln -s /home/me/tmp/linux-3.2.9/Documentation/virtual/lguest  Documentation/lguest
-- for 32 bit only end --


fakeroot make-kpkg -j4 --initrd --revision=3.2.9 kernel_image kernel_headers

where 4 is the number of cores(3)+1 (e.g. quadcore gives 5)
wait....wait...wait...takes a while...wait...wait...


mv ../linux*3.2.9*.deb .
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Done. 
Linux tantalum 3.2.9 #1 SMP Fri Mar 2 15:21:59 EST 2012 x86_64 GNU/Linux

---

Minor note: Navigating Kernel.org

Each minor version has a stable release -- for 3.2.X it was 3.2.8 until 3.2.9 was released. Given that 3.3 is in the works, 3.2.9 will be the stable version of the 3.2 minor version.
"Full source" is the full kernel source, which is what we used in the example above. "Patch" is the difference between the previous version and the current version e.g. 3.2.8 vs 3.2.9 -- there's more information here. You can save both bandwidth and compile time by patching instead of doing a full download.

---

Build times:
Intel Celeron 32 bit (1.6 GHz)
still waiting...

AMD Athlon II X3 using -j4

real    44m56.522s
user    75m52.633s
sys     12m7.241s

Intel i5-2400 using -j5

real 22m26.712s
user 50m23.289
  sys 6m1.111s

AMD Phenom II X7 using -j7

real 28m46.599s
user 81m0.108s
sys 12m57.825s

89. Compiling kernel 3.2.8 on Debian Testing -- example using kernel-packages and kernel.org source

For kernel 3.2.9, see here: http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/debian-testing-kernel-329.html

Following: http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/tutorials/6853/1 and http://www.sysdesign.ca/guides/linux_kernel.html  and very much http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/hoary/main/installer-ia64/current/doc/manual/en/ch08s04.html

Update: added kernel_headers

I've added very litte to the guides, except proving that yes, the above tutorial works for the current stable kernel version (3.2.8) and the current debian testing (29/12/2012).

Here's what's new in 3.2.8 -- https://lwn.net/Articles/484042/
Here's what will be new in 3.3 -- http://www.h-online.com/open/features/Kernel-Log-Linux-3-3-goes-into-testing-1418516.html

Everything between SAFE START and END are ok -- they won't change anything serious on your system. If you're building on a 32 bit system, have a look at the end of the post before launching the make.

--  SAFE START --
Install tools:
sudo apt-get install kernel-package fakeroot
(if you use apt-bugs you may get a warning about an lguest bug. Ignore it. Look at the bottom of the post for 32 bit issues and a simple solution.)


Get the latest STABLE release from http://kernel.org/
wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.0/linux-3.2.8.tar.bz2
It's 75 M and will take a wee while.
tar -xvf linux-3.2.8.tar.bz2
cd linux-3.2.8/

To get a head-start on a configuration file, see if you have one for your current kernel:
ls /boot/config-`uname -r`

If so (I know this is clunky, but the obvious solutions didn't work...)
echo "/boot/config-`uname -r` "|xargs cat > .config

I'm running 3.2.0-1.

Alright. Here's the thing. You shouldn't edit .config unless you know what you're doing. But then how will you ever learn? I don't yet know what I'm doing, so won't lead you into kernel-configuration related temptation.

Instead, we'll just learn how to build.

First
make oldconfig
which uses the .config

But it's not completely automatic -- when it comes to new features you'll have to provide input. Hitting enter i.e. accepting the default option is probably a good idea unless you think otherwise.

Alternatively, you do
make menuconfig
and pick everything you want

Here are the new features in 3.2.8 vs 3.2.0-1: 

  Cirrus Logic (Sound Fusion) New DSP support (SND_CS46XX_NEW_DSP) [Y/n/?] (NEW)
Agere Systems HERMES II Wireless PC Card Model 0110 (WLAGS49_H2) [N/m/?] (NEW)
 Linksys HERMES II.5 WCF54G_Wireless-G_CompactFlash_Card (WLAGS49_H25) [N/m/?] (NEW) 

Y means compile into kernel, m makes a loadable module and no means no.

Now build!
make-kpkg clean
The next step takes forever, in particular if you only use one core (>1 h). It takes ca 50 minutes on an i5 with the -j5 switch. You'll also need around 6.5 Gb of free space for the compilation.
fakeroot make-kpkg -j4 --initrd --revision=3.2.8 kernel_image kernel_headers

where as usual 4 is the number of cores(3)+1. Adjust as necessary.

--SAFE END--

This really isn't dangerous, although you may not want to do it remotely without a back-up plan.

Install with
sudo dpkg -i ../linux-image-3.2.8_3.2.8_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i ../linux-headers-3.2.8_3.2.8_amd64.deb

That's it! You don't even have to bother with update-grub.

Reboot at your convenience and admire your handiwork:
uname -a

Linux boron 3.2.8 #2 SMP Wed Feb 29 19:27:04 EST 2012 x86_64 GNU/Lin

The deb built this way is ca 33 M, while the stock debian 3.2.0--1 is a slim 23 M.

Once you're confident that you can compile and install a kernel without mishap you can start to remove kernel modules to make it slimmer -- or start including modules of your own choosing.


Tried and tested on:
AMD Athlon II X3 (64 bit)
2 x AMD Phenom II X6 (64 bit)
Intel i5-2400 (64 bit)
Intel core 2  duo T5870 (laptop, 64 bit)
Intel Celeron 1.6 GHz (32 bit)
-- all running debian testing.

---

Building on 32 bit

I had some issues on an Intel Celeron 1.6 GHz 32 bit due to a bug:

make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/me/tmp/linux-3.2.8'
/usr/bin/make    ARCH=i386 \
    -C Documentation/lguest
make: *** Documentation/lguest: No such file or directory.  Stop.
make: *** [debian/stamp/build/kernel] Error 2

The failure was pretty annoying...

real 157m58.192s
user 132m27.049s
sys 12m5.589s

There's a simple solution in a forum post at http://billy.com.mx/archives/660:

"I solved it by creating a symlink Documentation/lguest to Documentation/virtual/lguest"

that means (on one line)
ln -s /home/me/tmp/linux-3.2.8/Documentation/virtual/lguest  Documentation/lguest


That's all.


Check:
ls Documentation/lguest -lah

Documentation/lguest -> /home/me/tmp/linux-3.2.8/Documentation/virtual/lguest

ls Documentation/lguest/

extract  lguest.c  lguest.txt  Makefile

And once it's installed:
uname -a

Linux kookaburra 3.2.8 #3 SMP Thu Mar 1 14:43:45 EST 2012 i686 GNU/Linu

---

Modules
To get a list over the modules in use on your current system:
lsmod | gawk '{printf("%s ",$1)}'| sed 's/Module//g'

zlib_deflate crc32c libcrc32c ufs qnx4 hfsplus hfs minix ntfs vfat msdos fat jfs xfs reiserfs ext3 jbd ext2 pci_stub vbok8 mperf cpufreq_stats cpufreq_conservative cpufreq_powersave cpufreq_userspace ppdev bnep rfcomm bluetooth binfmt_misc as nfs_acl sunrpc kvm_amd kvm xt_state ipt_REJECT ipt_LOG xt_limit xt_tcpudp xt_conntrack iptable_mangle ipt_MASQUERADE ip
le_filter ip_tables x_tables hwmon_vid lp loop snd_hda_codec_hdmi arc4 rt2800usb rt2800lib crc_ccitt rt2x00usb rt2x00lib xer_oss snd_usb_audio snd_pcm snd_hwdep snd_usbmidi_lib nvidia hid_logitech_dj mac80211 joydev snd_seq_midi cfg80211 rfki5100_tco snd_timer snd_seq_device edac_core edac_mce_amd parport_pc parport snd i2c_piix4 soundcore pcspkr k10temp i2c_combcache jbd2 crc16 usb_storage uas sd_mod crc_t10dif ata_generic pata_atiixp ohci_hcd thermal thermal_sys floppy ahci lib

You can use that as a source of inspiration for what to keep and what to trim.

88. Building Apache 2.4.1 on Debian Testing

WARNING:
Don't remove your existing installation of apache2 without thinking. gnome-core depends on it.

Updated 1 March 2012. Added missing information which prevented building and now provide information about auto-start using an /etc/init.d/ script. Original post at 2012-02-23

---

Building
 A new version of apache is kind of a big deal. Here's how to build it.

sudo apt-get install libapr1-dev uuid-dev libaprutil1-dev libmysqlclient-dev libpq-dev libsqlite3-dev rcconf
wget http://apache.mirror.aussiehq.net.au//httpd/httpd-2.4.1.tar.gz
tar -xvf httpd-2.4.1.tar.gz
cd httpd-2.4.1/
./configure
make -j5

where 5 is the number of cores+1. Four-core i5 => 4+1=5.

To install run
sudo make install
or
sudo checkinstall
sudo dpkg -i *.deb


Done.


sudo checkinstall won't work unless you first
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/apache2/modules
(see comment below by Y&S who pointed this out)

If you don't create the directory first, you get

/usr/share/apr-1.0/build/libtool --silent --mode=install install mod_allowmethods.la /usr/local/apache2/modules/
ranlib: could not create temporary file whilst writing archive: No more archived files
make[3]: *** [install-modules-yes] Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/me/tmp/httpd-2.4.1/modules/aaa'
make[2]: *** [install-recursive] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/me/tmp/httpd-2.4.1/modules/aaa'
make[1]: *** [install-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/me/tmp/httpd-2.4.1/modules'
make: *** [install-recursive] Error 1
****  Installation failed. Aborting package creation.

Anyway, your compiled httpd is now in /usr/local/apache2/bin/httpd
In my case /usr/local/apache2/bin is not in my PATH -- whether you want to add it or not is a matter of choice.

In order for you to bind your own httpd to port 80 you need to stop apache2 if it is running
sudo service apache2 stop


Test your build:

me@tantalum:~$ /usr/local/apache2/bin/httpd -v
Server version: Apache/2.4.1 (Unix)
Server built:   Feb 23 2012 11:51:26

So far, very easy.

I've tried it on amd64 and i386 debian testing machines.

---

Replacing old version of apache2
Don't try to remove apache2.2-bin since gnome-core depends on it:
http://www.linuxformat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=101538

The easiest way to deal with this is to do
sudo rcconf 
and de-select apache2. This way it's still installed, but won't run as a rc service.

---

Making it boot -- init.d script
I had a look at this: http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-write-sys-v-init-script-to-start-stop-service.html

And here's my /etc/init.d/httpd script

#!/bin/bash
# description: apache2 httpd 2.4.1 server
# Start the service httpd
start() {
        /usr/local/apache2/bin/httpd &
        echo "Up and running"
}
# Restart the service httpd
stop() {
        killall httpd
        echo "Killing httpd"
}
### main logic ###
case "$1" in
  start)
        start
        ;;
  stop)
        stop
        ;;
  *)
        echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop}"
        exit 1
esac
exit 0

Don't forget to chmod+x

Finally,
sudo rcconf
and select httpd (it'll be at the bottom of the list)

It's not the prettiest of scripts, and you can probably do better by editing /etc/init.d/apache2