Ubuntu as a dev machine

on October 15, 2008. in Development, Software. A 2 minute read.

This post is more of a note to myself, ‘cause I keep forgetting all these Linux commands, and spend hours setting up stuff right…

I’m installing Ubuntu 8.04 on VirtualBox, with windows xp as the host machine. I must do it this way, because my wireless card is having some problems with Linux, something with the drivers. The possible solution includes kernel compiling — thanks, but no thanks.

Anyway… The installation itself is no trouble, so I’ll skip that. I always keep the apt-cache from previous installations, sparing hours of updating the system… On the host I have a folder that I share between the host OS and the client OS and first I need to reach that folder, to get from it the apt-cache.

First, need to install the Guest Additions. In Virtualbox go to Devices —> Install Guest Additions. In the console run:

sudo /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

After it’s finished, we need to mount the shared folder:

sudo mount -t vboxsf name_of_the_sharing_folder /path/to/mount_point

Now, for me, this command shows some error. Here’s what I have to do:

sudo modprobe vboxfs
sudo mount -t vboxsf name_of_the_sharing_folder /path/to/mount_point

Something with some modules not being loaded into the kernel, not bothered with it really… Now I can copy the apt-cache to where it needs to be:

sudo cp -r /path/to/mount_point/apt-cache /var/cache/apt/archives

Now do the system update. If the system update includes a kernel update, you’ll have to install Guest Additions once more…

Next installing the LAMP:

sudo apt-get install apache2
sudo apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
sudo apt-get install mysql-server
sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql phpmyadmin
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
sudo a2enmod rewrite
sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

That should do it. But hey! mod_rewrite still doesn’t work!

sudo gvim /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

And change AllowOverride None to AllowOverride All.

There. I have a basic LAMP on Ubuntu under VirtualBox. I made a few snapshots of the VirtualBox image, in case I trash it (which probably will happen soon), so I don’t need to reinstall over again.

Now, I’m of to setup SVN…