Obtaining, Trying and Installing Linux

You can purchase Linux CD's from the internet if you have a slow connection, have trouble downloading your fave distro or dont want to mess about burning install CD's yourself.

Buy Linux CD's

Note that buying a CD does not mean that you are supporting that particular distribution, as the proceeds will likely go to the vendor who creates the CDs for their materials and labour. If you want to support a distribution financially, visit their website and look to see if there is a donate / merchandise store link. =)

However, you might want to reconsider downloading the distribution as you will get a more upto date revision, and you may find that some flavours of linux e.g. Ubuntu, Slax and Gentoo for starters allow you to run or install linux from a USB memory stick.

Other flavours may even allow you to download linux via bittorrent, such as BlueOnyx. You may wish to try several flavours before you select a particular one, as for example BlueOnyx is a great Server appliance distribution, but people who want to use linux on a single machine may well find that a Desktop edition is more tailored to their needs, e.g. Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Suse

Ubuntu Server VMware VA image

You can download the same copy of Ubuntu server VA from which I will be basing my examples here. It is not the latest version, as upgrading the image will form part of my tutorial.

(Please note! I was not responsible for creating the VMware Virtual Appliance itself, any questions about it please direct to the author - see description below)

INSTRUCTIONS

http://nevynsblog.posmena.co.uk/VMwareUmbongo7.10srv.tar.gz contains:

Ubuntu7.10Server.README.txt
VMware-UbuntuServer-7.10.7z
VMware-UbuntuServer-7.10.7z.md5

If you are using Linux, download the file, and extract it into the current directory with "tar xzfmv ./VMwareUmbongo7.10srv.tar.gz". You can "md5sum VMwareUmbongo7.10srv.tar.gz" and verify the file integrity by ensuring the output matches the contents of VMware-UbuntuServer-7.10.7z.md5 with "cat ./VMware-UbuntuServer-7.10.7z.md5".

If you are on Windows, download WinRar from http://www.rarlabs.com/download.htm. This will handle extracting the .tar.gz and then the .7z file.

DESCRIPTION

The package also contains a readme file which you can read locally, but to spare you the 70MB download, I will repost here:

Ubuntu Server 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Minimal Install
This is a standard (minimal) install of ubuntu 7.10 server, in a 69MB package. ... username: toor password: password. you can issue commands as root using sudo ...
www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/1060 - 9k

VMware Image - Ubuntu Server 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)

About:

This is a standard install of ubuntu 7.10 server, in a 75MB package.

This VM can be usefull for quickly deploying a base operating system from a small package, and with a minimal configuration time (about 2 minutes).
Some steps were taken to reduce the archive size down to a minimum:

* Some temporary data has been removed from /var (namely apt cache, installer logs, etc).
* The partition was also cloned to a new .vmdk as a part of the shrink process.
* The archive is in 7-Zip format (GPL - search you package manager or grab it from http://www.7-zip.org).

Aditional software included:
* The only extra package installed was ssh-server.

Login details:

username: toor
password: password

you can issue commands as root using ’sudo ‘ or enable the root user issuing the command ’sudo passwd root’.

VM Configuration:

Uppon login, your first action should be to run the ‘configure.sh’ script using ’sudo ./configure.sh’. this will enable you to configure:

* Keyboard,
* Timezone
* Password
* Hostname
* Network interface(s)
* DNS

Download:

Grab it here: VMware-UbuntuServer-7.10.7z. ( http://www.jcinacio.com/down/vmware/ubuntu-server-7.10-1/VMware-UbuntuServer-7.10.7z )
Also, md5 checksum ( http://www.jcinacio.com/down/vmware/ubuntu-server-7.10-1/VMware-UbuntuServer-7.10.7z.md5 ) and gpg signature ( http://www.jcinacio.com/down/vmware/ubuntu-server-7.10-1/VMware-UbuntuServer-7.10.7z.asc ) (key id: 0×146379A4).

If you find this appliance useful in any way, please link to this site.

Contact:

* Joao Inacio or at http://www.jcinacio.com

Changelog:

* 18 October 2007
- Initial release
* 20 October 2007
- Fixed network interface (eth0) name change due to new UUID