24.04 Main Ubuntu (Noble Numbat) Install

Main Installation

The main installation is slightly different in 22.04LTS, insert the Ubuntu Server (LTS 22.04LTS Live) installation CD/USB/DVD and follow the onscreen instructions. If you don’t understand the questions asked by the installer put the keyboard down and switch everything thing off and go back to being a user. You will be asked to select.

Language
Keyboard
Type of Ubuntu Install - Choose "Install Ubuntu"

Network Configuration

Use the cursor keys to configure the network interface with a static IP address. (set the IPv6 option to Do Not Use) Internet Proxy: Set to whatever you user (none if you don't user one) Make sure you select “Use Third Party Drivers” if you for example have an NVIDIA card. Select Install SSH server with relevant options (if you want to use certs etc)

Disk Partitioning

When prompted choose

Use An Entire Disk

This will configure the system disk, with automatic boot / root / swap partitions. You can specify extra disks later and mount them if needed. You can also enter manual mode and select other disks and choose your mount points. You may want to set up LV volumes if you want to resize partitions later.

If you want to be safe, disconnect all disks apart from the one on which you want the do the install, (then add them later)

root@solaris:/home/sysadmin# lsblk
NAME                    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda                       8:0    0   3.6T  0 disk /srv/media
sdb                       8:16   0  12.7T  0 disk
├─vg--backup-lv--cctv   252:0    0     1T  0 lvm  /srv/cctv
└─vg--backup-lv--backup 252:1    0  11.7T  0 lvm  /srv/backup
sdc                       8:32   0   3.6T  0 disk
└─vg--data-lv--data     252:2    0     3T  0 lvm  /srv/data
sr0                      11:0    1  1024M  0 rom
nvme0n1                 259:0    0 465.8G  0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1             259:1    0     1G  0 part /boot/efi
└─nvme0n1p2             259:2    0 464.7G  0 part /

You can edit the disk partitions before submitting to add further disks at specific mount points. Mount points used were.. (which in this case were manually configured as I did not want to lose existing data)

Prolong the life of SSDs with

nano /etc/sysctl.d/local.conf

And add this line

vm.swappiness=20

Make live with

  systemctl restart procps.service

User Config

When prompted create the system login user / password The server will install the basics, set up your user / timezone etc. Eventually you will be prompted to Reboot.

Reboot Now

Set up software repositories and update system

We need to add additional repositories so we can download all the nice pieces of software and grab all the security updates, we do this by editing the config file listing the repositories.

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Note: sudo elevates you to ROOT status, by typing sudo –s before you begin maintains your elevated status so you don’t have to keep typing sudo; nano is a simple text editor. Note that ‘#’ and ‘;’ indicates the line has been commented out.

Comment / Uncomment and repositories you wish to use.

Now we have to get Ubuntu to update its internal repository database

sudo apt update

Now we can do a full distribution upgrade which gets us all the latest patches and fixes.

sudo apt dist-upgrade

Say yes to accept the installation. The dist upgrade may take some time to install, You probably then want to update any of the minor packages.

sudo apt upgrade

Answer yes to any of the upgrade questions. After it is probably wise to reboot and make sure everything is still good. Especially as you have probably got your self an updated linux kernel.

sudo reboot

SSH Server

Check that SSH server is working, Run a PuTTY session to the server and check connectivity.

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

And change

# To disable tunneled clear text passwords, change to no here!
PasswordAuthentication no
#PermitEmptyPasswords no

# Enable this is you only want to allow people to login using a PSK.
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no

systemctl reload ssh

To reload ssh (after changing this file) - Do this securely via OpenVPN. Keep a session open while you test the new login.

Fix the console text scroll speed (if there is an issue when using NVIDIA drivers)

NOTE: THIS IS NOW FIXED This step is not necessary if you select - use Third Party Drivers during the install.

nano /etc/default/grub

Update the relevant line … (this will force the console into VGA(ish) mode)

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="maybe-ubiquity vga=0x307"

Now update the grub loader

update-grub

Allow IP routing internally

nano /etc/sysctl.d/local.conf

Add the following line.

net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

Then to load this restart the procps service…

systemctl restart procps.service

Network Interface Configuration

Configure a network bridge to present a single interface to the world, this is handy for VMs / VPNs etc. as we only need to reference the bridge. (br0:) 24.04 uses netplan to configure its network configuration.

The following steps will set up a bridge with a static IP address.

Change to the netplan directory.

NOTE: You may need to set the DNS server to be the local router - until you have set up BIND, then you can go back and edit this again.

cd /etc/netplan
nano 00-solaris.yaml  (default netplan config)

Content of the 00-solaris.yaml

# This is the network config written by 'subiquity'
network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    eno1: {}

  bridges:
    br0:
      critical: true
      dhcp4: false
      addresses: [ 10.3.200.1/16 ]
      routes:
       - to: default
         via: 10.3.1.1
      nameservers:
        search: [ scottworld.net ]
        addresses: [ 10.3.200.1 ]
      interfaces: [ eno1 ]
      parameters:
        stp: false

Here is an example if you have dual NICs and want to team / bond them.

network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    enp1s0: {}
    enp2s0: {}

  bonds:
    bond007:
      interfaces:
      - enp1s0
      - enp2s0
      parameters:
        mode: balance-alb

  bridges:
    br0:
      critical: true
      dhcp4: false
      addresses: [ 192.168.3.200/24 ]
      routes:
       - to: default
         via: 10.3.1.1
      nameservers:
        search: [ scottworld.net ]
        addresses: [ 192.168.3.200 ]
      interfaces: [ bond007 ]
      parameters:
        stp: false

Disable the cloud network configuration.

touch /etc/cloud/cloud-init.disabled

Update the permissions on the netplan config to remove the global r/w permissions

chomd 600 /etc/netplan/00-solaris.yaml

Apply the changes

netplan --debug apply

Reboot and check the network configuration with

ip addr

You should have an interface of br0: with the ip you specified.

root@solaris:/home/sysadmin# ip addr
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host noprefixroute
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eno1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast master br0 state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether ec:b1:d7:3e:4e:36 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    altname enp0s25
3: br0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether ee:06:d4:0f:de:5b brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.3.200.1/16 brd 10.3.255.255 scope global br0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::ec06:d4ff:fe0f:de5b/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

Edit the file

nano /etc/hosts

Comment out the entry for 127.0.1.1 and replace it with a Global server value.

10.3.200.1 solaris.scottworld.net solaris

Turn on shell script autocomplete

This allows autocomplete on shell command lines

nano /etc/bash/bash.bashrc

Uncomment the the section

# enable bash completion in interactive shells
if ! shopt -oq posix; then
  if [ -f /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion ]; then
    . /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion
  elif [ -f /etc/bash_completion ]; then
    . /etc/bash_completion
  fi
fi

You need to log out and back in for this to activate

Setup SmartMon Disk Monitoring Tools

Install the smartmon package.

apt install smartmontools mailutils

List the disks with

lsblk

Edit the file

nano /etc/smartd.conf

Edit this and set up your monitoring You first must comment out the line that tries to check all drives, then add this below to check your individual disks.

# Local NVMe disks
/dev/nvme0n1 -a -W 1,40,50 -m mark@scottworld.net -M diminishing -s (S/../../7/01)

# Local SATA disks
/dev/sda -a -I 194 -W 1,40,50 -m mark@scottworld.net -M diminishing -s (S/../../7/02)
/dev/sdb -a -I 194 -W 1,40,50 -m mark@scottworld.net -M diminishing -s (S/../../7/03)
/dev/sdc -a -I 194 -W 1,40,50 -m mark@scottworld.net -M diminishing -s (S/../../7/04)

Setup Ubuntu Pro for live patching

Go to https://ubuntu.com/pro/dashboard and login

sudo pro attach <yourkey>

Further Configurations

Continue with

* = Optional.

ScottWiki

Table of Contents

24.04 Main Ubuntu (Noble Numbat) Install

Main Installation

Network Configuration

Disk Partitioning

User Config

Set up software repositories and update system

SSH Server

Fix the console text scroll speed (if there is an issue when using NVIDIA drivers)

Allow IP routing internally

Network Interface Configuration

Turn on shell script autocomplete

Setup SmartMon Disk Monitoring Tools

Setup Ubuntu Pro for live patching

Further Configurations

Network / DNS Config

Security / Monitoring.

Virtual Machine Host (KVM)

Setup SSL Certs for Apache etc in OVH

LAMP Stack / Web Servers / Databases

Torrents / File shares / Time

Media / Gaming

Wiki Installs

Backups