How to install Ubuntu Linux step by step? — Top Tech Notes
In our last two post we have seen how to install CentOS Linux and Red Hat Linux Operating System. In this post we will discuss step by step instructions to install Ubuntu Linux Operating System on our machine.
Ubuntu Linux is another popular variant of Linux used with PC and IBM compatible computers. To install Ubuntu Linux OS the first thing that we need to do is to download the ISO image of our operating system. So to download ISO image of Ubuntu Linux you can navigate to the below URL and download your preferred version of Ubuntu Linux.
I have already downloaded Ubuntu desktop operating system from URL https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop.
As discussed in previous post I am using virtual box for installing virtual machine. You can use any other virtualization software if you want. So getting back onto the Ubuntu Linux installation, I have to create a virtual machine, where I will install Ubuntu Linux. So as discussed earlier, let’s create a new virtual machine in virtual box and I will name it ubuntu01. Then in virtual box make sure that type is linux and version is Ubuntu as shown in picture below. Oracle virtual box is a very smart virtualization tool. So as soon as I entered Ubuntu in name, virtual box picked up correct type and version automatically for me. Then adjust memory size and Hard disk information as per your preference. 1–2 GB RAM is enough for a test Ubuntu machine. And we can increase it later on if we want. But again if you want then you can allocate more memory. In create a virtual hard disk, leave it at default. Click create.
And now it’s asking us the information about the location of this virtual machine. I will leave it to its default location. But if you wanted to change the location, you could click on the little folder icon and define the location. I will keep file size as 20 GB. Default hard disk file type is VDI, which is for the virtual box disk image. Storage on physical hard disk is dynamically allocated by default. If you want to know more information about that, you could definitely click on Guided Mode. I will leave these options to its default value and click on create.
Next start the virtual machine in virtual box. The virtual machine will then look for an operating system to boot. But this is an empty virtual machine. It doesn’t have any operating system. So I will mount the ISO image of Ubuntu Linux that I downloaded.
Once the ISO image is attached we can go ahead and click start. It will then start uploading contents of the ISO image to start installation wizard.
After some time we get welcome screen which says Try Ubuntu and install Ubuntu. You can try Ubuntu without making any changes to your computer directly from this CD. If you are ready, you can install Ubuntu alongside (or instead of) your current operating system. This shouldn’t take long. I don’t want to try it. I will go ahead and click on Install Ubuntu.
Now in next screen we need to select keyboard layout. I will go with default layout which is English (US) and then click on Continue.
In next screen it asks us what apps you would like to install to start with. I will go ahead with normal installation which will install web browser, media player and basic command line utilities. Then the other option is to download updates while installing Ubuntu. So if you do not have Internet while you’re installing it, I would not recommend you to pick this option. Also, even if you do have Internet, I would still keep it out. And if I need to do the updates, I’ll do it later. So just pick the first option which is Normal installation and click continue.
Now in next screen it says this computer currently has no detected operating system. What would you like to do, erase disk and install Ubuntu?
This option deletes all existing programs, document photos, music and other files and all operating system. I have allocated a separate 20 GB disk in virtual box for this installation. So it’s just telling me that whatever I have in that 20 GB disk assigned for Ubuntu, it will remove or delete all the programs that is there on that disk. So that’s perfectly fine. We know that.
So go ahead and click on Install now.
Now it says, if you continue, the changes listed below will be written to the disks. Otherwise, you will be able to make further changes manually. And then it gives partition device information. So that is fine. These are default setting and it’s building our file system on ext4, which is the file system for Linux. Go ahead and click Continue.
Next select the time zone. If you have Internet connectivity then it will automatically detect your location and it will pick it and it will show up right there. But somehow if it’s not then you could actually move this around or drag it around to get the right location. Go ahead and click Continue.
Next we need to enter some information’s such as our name, our computer name, user name and then pick a password for the username. Then we have two options and they are to automatically log in or require my password to log in. I will leave it to default, require my password to log in and go ahead and click continue.
Next it copies the files that are required for this operating system installation. And when it’s finished, it starts installation which could take anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes, depending on the speed of your computer.
Once the installation is complete it prompts us to restart the computer in order to use the new installation. So go ahead and click on Restart now.
Once the system is back online, we get login screen where we could go ahead and click on username and put in password. If you want to log in as root then you have to click on not listed, put in the username as root and in next screen put it in a password. The system will log you in as root.
But I want to log in as myself and so I’ll click on my user name and I will go ahead and put in the password. System has logged me in and it shows welcome page which shows how the current version works differently from older versions. If you want then you could explore that one by one. I already know the changes. So I will just go ahead and click on next.
Next it shows us live patch. Now, live patch requires us install patch for which our machine needs to go out on the Internet. You could click on it. But before you do that, please make sure your machine has internet access and then you could do live setup or whatever that you want to do or even updates. I will simply skip and click on next.
In next screen I will select don’t send system info and I will click on next.
And we are ready to go. You can use software to install third party software. You could go to your software options and download these programs. I will go ahead and click on Done.
And now we have Ubuntu desktop. Here you could go into each available categories and different application programs to familiarize yourself with Ubuntu desktop. But Linux is pretty much on the command line environment. So I would say that you should open up your command line terminal and run the commands. So if you want to open up the terminal then you could just simply right click on your desktop and click on Open Terminal.
And there you have the same terminal that you will get in any Linux operating system, primarily like CentOS or RedHat. I would say 80 to 85 per cent of the commands that we use it in CentOS and RedHat are also applicable in Ubuntu Linux as well.
So try it out, run different commands. And yes, this installation was just for demo purpose to show you how the installation works. You could have them installed and see how it looks.
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Originally published at https://toptechnotes.com on July 12, 2022.
