Fixie

Although my preferred platform is OS X for personal stuff, I use Ubuntu Linux for work. I do all my work in Ubuntu via VMware Fusion.

Great thing about Ubuntu is apt. It makes setting up the machine for development really easy. OS X has Mac Ports, but imo apt is better. Plus, working in a VM allows you to have multiple OS installs, allows you to backup your setup easily, you can take snapshots, and work on the same OS that you deploy your software to.

Read on to read my notes on how to setup Ubuntu for work.

• Download Ubuntu 8.04 Server ISO from from http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu-releases/8.04/ubuntu-8.04.1-server-i386.iso.
• Purchase / install VMware Fusion 2
• Create the VM, point the install disc to the downloaded Ubuntu ISO.
• Configure the VM, give it a lot of hard drive space. It doesn’t use all the hard drive space, but you want it to think that it has access to as much space as it needs. I gave it 50GB.
• Start the VM, press enter a bunch of times. Install process should be pretty easy.
• I enter “localhost.com” as the hostname. Read on to find out why.
• When it asks you what software to install, pick OpenSSH, PostgreSQL, and Samba.
• Reboot, login.
• Type in: sudo apt-get update This will update the package information on your system.
• Type in: sudo apt-get dist-upgrade This will update all the software.
• Install the software you work with. For me, I type in the following:

• Note the VM’s IP address by running ifconfig -a . For me, the IP address 192.168.206.128.
• Add this line to your “host” (i.e. the physical OS) /etc/hosts file: 192.168.206.128 localhost.com . This allows you you to use localhost.com as the name of the machine – you don’t have to remember the IP address.
• See if you can ssh into localhost.com from your host machine. Hopefully you can.
• Install rubygems: curl http://rubyforge-files.ruby-forum.com/rubygems/rubygems-1.3.1.tgz | tar zxv && cd rubygems-1.3.1 && sudo ruby setup.rb && sudo ln -s /usr/bin/gem1.8 /usr/bin/gem
• Install any rubygems you work with. I install haml, capistrano, hoe, mongrel, and webby.
• Add yourself as a postgers user: sudo su postgres -c “createuser YOUR_USER_NAME”
• Install the apache phusion software: sudo /usr/bin/passenger-install-apache2-module