Downloading VMWare Player and Ubuntu¶

To get started, you’ll need to download VMWare Player. You will need administrator privileges on your machine to install this!

1. Start by going to www.vmware.com/download/player

   1. The page will redirect - scroll down to VMWare Player and choose “Download Product.”

   2. Look for “VMWare Player and VMWare Player Plus for Windows” and choose “Download.”
   3. Leave yourself some time, as it takes a while to download.

2. When the .exe file is done downloading, double-click it wherever you’ve saved it (probably your Downloads folder).

   1. A pop-up box will open that says “Do you want to run this file?” Click “Run.”

   2. Accept the user agreement.
   3. A new window will pop up with an install sequence - you should be able to accept any defaults and go through the sequence quickly.

3. If VMWare Player doesn’t open automatically, go into your Programs menu and open it.

4. You will now see a new window - at the top should be “Welcome to VMWare Player,” and the first option beneath that should be “Create a New Virtual Machine.”

You can pause now in the process and move on to:

Downloading Ubuntu¶

1. Start by going to http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop and choose Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

   1. Choose Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (there will be an option to select your operating system above the orange download button).

   2. This will take you to a page asking you to donate to Ubuntu. If you don’t want to donate, you can scroll to the bottom for the “Not now, take me to the download” link.

      3. Your file should start downloading. Again, this can take a while to download, so leave yourself some time.

2. That’s it! You’re done.

Installing Ubuntu on your Virtual Machine¶

Now we’re starting to get to the fun part!

1. Go back to your VMWare Player window that says “Create a new Virtual Machine.”

2. A second window should pop up which says “Welcome to the New Virtual Machine Wizard.” It asks you how you will install the operating system.

   1. Choose the option “Installer disc image file (iso):”

   2. Browse to where you saved your Ubuntu file (probably your Downloads folder) and choose that file (“ubuntu-12.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso”)
   3. Click “Next”

3. You will move on to “Easy Install Information”

   1. Set your name as it will display under Full name
   2. Set a name for your username
   3. Set a name for your password
   4. Click “Next”

4. Give your virtual machine a name (maybe something like “PythonClass”).

5. Accept the default location and click “Next.”

6. It will ask you about the disk capacity - maximum size and whether or not to split the virtual disk into multiple files. Accept the defaults and click “Next.”

7. Click “Finish” - the virtual machine should start up once you do.

Important Note: We are going to be using the command line to do this next part. If your Ubuntu VM has defaulted to opening in the command line (you will see a black screen with a white blinking cursor waiting for your commands), proceed right away. If, on the other hand, your Ubuntu VM has defaulted to a normal-looking desktop interface, type CTRL-ALT-F1 to switch to the command line. To use your VM with command line, just click in the window. To get your mouse back so you can do anything else, type CTRL-ALT.

Installing ssh-server¶

Now we’re really getting somewhere.

1. In your command-line interface, type: sudo apt-get install openssh-server
2. Type in your password.
3. After a little thinking, your machine should tell you how much space the installation will take, and ask you if you want to proceed. Type: y
4. Hit the ‘Enter’ key.

Getting ready with Python¶

To double-check that Python is installed on your machine (it should come with your installation of Ubuntu), type: python –version You should get back something like: Python 2.7.3

If Python is not installed:

1. Type: sudo apt-get install python2.7
2. It will ask for your password - type that in.
3. It should tell you how much disc space nano will take, and ask if you’re sure you want to install (Y/n). Type: y
4. Hit the ‘Enter’ key.
5. You should be done! You can check that it installed properly by typing: python –version

Installing the nano text editor¶

Python is already installed on your machine, but your machine will still need a way to write Python programs, and help figuring out what to do with them. Luckily, your ubuntu VM should also come with nano, which is a text editor that can write Python. To double-check that Python is installed on your machine, type: nano –version You should get back something like: GNU nano version 2.2.6 (compiled 20:32:12, Dec 3 2010) ...

If nano is not installed:

1. Type: sudo apt-get install nano
2. It will ask for your password - type that in.
3. It should tell you how much disc space nano will take, and ask if you’re sure you want to install (Y/n). Type: y
4. Hit the ‘Enter’ key.
5. You should be done! You can check that it installed properly by typing: nano –version

Congratulations! You are now officially ready to roll!

Downloading VMWare Fusion and Ubuntu¶

To get started, you’ll need to download VMWare Fusion. You will need administrator privileges on your machine to install this!

1. Start by going to www.vmware.com/products/fusion and choose “Download Free Trial” - you’ll get 30 days of free access.

   1. Leave yourself some time, as it takes a while to download.

2. When the file is done downloading, click on the .dmg file.

   1. A pop-up box will open that says “Double-click to Install” - do it!

   2. Accept the user agreement.
   3. Since you won’t have a product key, choose the free 30-day trial option.
   4. Put in your email address to continue (it doesn’t look like there’s a way around this, unfortunately).
   5. This finishes the VMWare Fusion download and install process.
   6. You’ll see a new box pop up called “New Virtual Machine.”

You can pause now in the process and move on to:

Downloading Ubuntu¶

1. Start by going to http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop and choose Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

   1. Choose Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (there will be an option to select your operating system above the orange download button).

   2. This will take you to a page asking you to donate to Ubuntu. If you don’t want to donate, you can scroll to the bottom for the “Not now, take me to the download” link.

      3. Your file should start downloading. Again, this can take a while to download, so leave yourself some time.

2. That’s it! You’re done.

Installing Ubuntu on your Virtual Machine¶

We’re starting to get to the fun part!

1. Go back to your VMWare Fusion window that says “Create a Virtual Machine.”

2. The window should say “Select the Installation Method.”

3. Make sure the “Install form disc or image” option is selected, and then click “Continue.”

4. You should come to a new window which says, “Choose an operating system installation disc or image:” over a box which will be blank.

   1. Choose the button toward the bottom, “Use another disc or disc image.”

   2. In the window that pops up, browse to wherever you saved the Ubuntu file you just downloaded (for me, it’s my downloads folder).

   3. Find the file “ubuntu-12.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso” and choose “Open.”

   4. Ubuntu should now be listed as an option and selected in the window under “Choose an operating system installation disc or image.”

   5. Choose “Continue.”

   6. Choose “Easy Install.”

      1. Set your name as it will display.
      2. Set a name for your username (Account Name).
      3. Set a password.
      4. Make sure the drop-down menu at the bottom says “The virtual machine can: Read & Write.”

   7. Click “Continue.”

   8. Double-check your settings and click “Finish.”

Important Note: We are going to be using the command line to do this next part. If your Ubuntu VM has defaulted to opening in the command line (you will see a black screen with a white blinking cursor waiting for your commands), proceed right away. If, on the other hand, your Ubuntu VM has defaulted to a normal-looking desktop interface, click on the ‘Dash Home’ button at the top left of your screen and search for Terminal. Open Terminal and then proceed with the directions.

Installing ssh-server¶

Now we’re really getting somewhere.

1. In your command-line interface, type: sudo apt-get install openssh-server
2. Type in your password.
3. After a little thinking, your machine should tell you how much space the installation will take, and ask you if you want to proceed. Type: y
4. Hit the ‘Enter’ key.

Getting ready with Python¶

To double-check that Python is installed on your machine (it should come with your installation of Ubuntu), type: python –version You should get back something like: Python 2.7.3

If Python is not installed:

1. Type: sudo apt-get install python2.7
2. It will ask for your password - type that in.
3. It should tell you how much disc space nano will take, and ask if you’re sure you want to install (Y/n). Type: y
4. Hit the ‘Enter’ key.
5. You should be done! You can check that it installed properly by typing: python –version

Installing the nano text editor¶

Python is already installed on your machine, but your machine will still need a way to write Python programs, and help figuring out what to do with them. Luckily, your ubuntu VM should also come with nano, which is a text editor that can write Python. To double-check that Python is installed on your machine, type: nano –version You should get back something like: GNU nano version 2.2.6 (compiled 20:32:12, Dec 3 2010) ...

If nano is not installed:

1. Type: sudo apt-get install nano
2. It will ask for your password - type that in.
3. It should tell you how much disc space nano will take, and ask if you’re sure you want to install (Y/n). Type: y
4. Hit the ‘Enter’ key.
5. You should be done! You can check that it installed properly by typing: nano –version

Congratulations! You are now officially ready to roll!

Get IP address of Virtual Machine¶

We will log into the virtual machine by using the username created in the previous section. This will be followed by launching Terminal. The way to do this is to click the Dash at the top left of your Desktop. Search for Terminal and start the application.

From within the Terminal type ifconfig

eth0    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:26:bb:53:8d:90
        inet addr:192.168.0.14  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

From the results we are interested in the numbers after inet addr in the eth0 device. This is the IP address of your Virtual Machine. Write this down for future use. In the fake example above the IP address of our Virtual Machine is 192.168.0.14.

Connecting from Windows¶

For the rest of the tutorial these will be the steps used to connect to your Virtual Machine. Enter the IP address in the step above and click on the Open. On your first connection you will get a pop up key warning you about the fingerprint of the server you are about to connect to. Accept the keys and enter your username and password in the window that follows.

Connecting from Mac OSX¶

For the rest of the tutorial these will be the steps used to connect to your Virtual Machine. Type the following in your Terminal.app (this was the last step in the last segment) ssh -l username IP Address So if your username was jondoe on my fake Virtual Machine above the steps would be ssh -l jondoe 192.168.0.14 On your first connection you will get a warning about the fingerprint of the server you are about to connect to. Accept the keys and enter your password.

Location¶

We will start with the pwd which stands for Present Working Directory. Many of the commands in UNIX are often an abbreviation of a word of words describing what they do.

username@hostname:~$ pwd
/home/username
username@hostname:~$

The command ls which is short for list will produce the following on your termimal

username@hostname:~$ ls
Desktop Documents Downloads Music Pictures Public Templates Videos

Before we proceed much futher it is important to remember that all UNIX systems are designed with a built-in manual to explain what the commands do. The way to find out what it does is to prepend the command with man In the examples above it would be man pwd and man ls. Go ahead and type those and read what the manual says about them. As you may have see the ls command can take arguments while the pwd does not. Below is an outline of the use of ls.

ls [options][location]

The square brackets above are optional. Here is an example with the echo of the results shown.

username@hostname:~$ ls
Desktop Documents Downloads Music Pictures Public Templates Videos
username@hostname:~$ ls -l
total 48
drwxr-xr-x  3 fkayiwa fkayiwa 4096 Mar  7 14:09 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x  2 fkayiwa fkayiwa 4096 Dec  9 17:32 Documents
drwxr-xr-x  2 fkayiwa fkayiwa 4096 Dec  9 17:32 Downloads
-rw-r--r--  1 fkayiwa fkayiwa 8445 Dec  9 17:21 examples.desktop
drwxr-xr-x  2 fkayiwa fkayiwa 4096 Dec  9 17:32 Music
drwxr-xr-x  2 fkayiwa fkayiwa 4096 Dec  9 17:32 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x  2 fkayiwa fkayiwa 4096 Dec  9 17:32 Public
drwxr-xr-x  2 fkayiwa fkayiwa 4096 Dec  9 17:32 Templates
drwxr-xr-x  2 fkayiwa fkayiwa 4096 Dec  9 17:32 Videos

So what did we just do?

• The ls will list the contents of our current directory.

• The ls -l adds the optional switch ( -l) to do the long listing. A long listing has the following:

  • First character indicates whether it is a normal file ( - ) or directory ( d )
  • Next 9 characters are permissions for the file or directory (we’ll learn more about them in a later segment)
  • The next file is the number of blocks.
  • The next field is the owner of the file or directory (fkayiwa/root in the examples above).
  • The next field is the group the file or directory belongs to (fkayiwa).
  • Following this is the file size.
  • Next up is the file modification time.
  • The actual name of the file or directory.

Here is another example.

username@hostname:~$ls -l /var
total 52
drwxrws---  5 archivematica archivematica 4096 Mar  6 11:38 archivematica
drwxr-xr-x  2 root          root          4096 Apr  1 07:35 backups
drwxr-xr-x 19 root          root          4096 Mar  6 11:10 cache
drwxrwsrwt  2 root          whoopsie      4096 Dec 26 07:35 crash
drwxr-xr-x  2 root          root          4096 Aug 20  2013 games
drwxr-xr-x 68 root          root          4096 Mar  6 11:23 lib
drwxrwsr-x  2 root          staff         4096 Dec 11 15:04 local
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root          root             9 Mar 10 13:40 lock -> /run/lock
drwxr-xr-x 24 root          root          4096 Apr  3 07:55 log
drwxrwsr-x  2 root          mail          4096 Mar 31 07:58 mail
drwxr-xr-x  2 root          root          4096 Aug 20  2013 opt
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root          root             4 Mar 10 13:40 run -> /run
drwxr-xr-x 10 root          root          4096 Mar  6 11:23 spool
drwxrwxrwt  2 root          root          4096 Apr 19  2012 tmp
drwxr-xr-x  2 root          root          4096 Dec 11 11:59 www

• We ran ls with a command line argument ( /var ). When we do this it tells ls not to list our current directory but instead to list that directories contents.

Spend a little time perusing the ls manual by doing the following. man ls

Paths¶

The previous section touched on something about navigating your Ubuntu machine, namely the paths on the operating system. Understanding paths is essential in using your new computer. Whenever we refer to a file or directory on the command line we are in fact referring to the actual path to it.

Referring to paths can be done using the absolute path or a relative path.

At the top of the unix system is what is called the root directory. It is denoted by a single dash (/). It has sub-directories which have other sub-directories contained within them. Files can reside in any of these directories.

Absolute paths refer to the location relative to the root directory. Relative paths specify location based on your current working directory. The example below will illustrate what we mean.

username@hostname:~$ pwd
/home/fkayiwa
username@hostname:~$
username@hostname: ls Desktop
test.mrc
username@hostname:~$ ls /home/fkayiwa/Desktop
test.mrc
username@hostname:~$

So what just happened?

• We ran pwd to verify where we were on the filesystem.
• We ran ls providing it with a relative path. Desktop is a directory in our current location. We would get different results depending on where we are.
• We finally ran ls providing and absolute path. This will provide the same output regardless of the location we ran it from.

Here are a few more tips that can help build on your new knowledge on paths.

• ~ (tilde) - This is a shortcut for your home directory. So if the user fkayiwa above wanted to head to their home directory. Typing ~/Desktop in the example above is the equivalent of typing /home/fkayiwa/Desktop
• . (dot) - This is a reference to your current directory. We will see more on this later.
• . . (dotdot) - This is a reference to the parent directory. You can use this several times to keep going up the heirarchy.

A few more examples to explain this.

username@hostname:~$ pwd
/home/fkayiwa
username@hostname:~$
username@hostname:~$ ls ~/Desktop
test.mrc
usename@hostname:~$ ls ./Desktop
test.mrc
username@hostname:~$ ls /home/fkayiwa/Desktop
test.mrc
username@hostname:~$ ls ../../
bin boot lib lost+found proc selinux usr boot home lib32
...
username@hostname:~$ ls /
bin boot lib lost+found proc selinux usr boot home lib32
...

Spend time listing the content of various directories on your filesystem and familiarize yourself on how the elements of building a path.

Moving around your filesystem¶

In order to move around your filesystem we use the cd command which stands for change directory.

A handy tip to remember is if you run the command cd without any arguments then it will always take you back to your home directory.

Otherwise the cd command can be used much like the ls before to change into absolute or relative paths as some of the examples below will show.

username@hostname:~$ pwd
/home/fkayiwa
username@hostname:~$ cd Desktop
username@hostname:~$ ls
test.mrc
username@hostname:~$ cd /
username@hostname:~$ pwd
/
username@hostname:~$ ls
bin boot lib lost+found proc selinux usr boot home lib32
...
username@hostname:~$ cd ~/Desktop
username@hostname:~$ pwd
/home/fkayiwa/Desktop
username@hostname:~$ cd ../../
username@hostname:~$ pwd
/home
username@hostname:~$ cd
username@hostname:~$ pwd
/home/fkayiwa

Another handy tip when navigating is Tab Completion. Typing out these paths can become tedious. If you’re like me, you’re also prone to making typos. The command line has a nice little mechanism to help us in this respect. It’s called Tab Completion.

When you start typing a path (anywhere on the command line, you’re not just limited to certain commands) you may hit the Tab key on your keyboard at any time which will invoke an auto complete action. If nothing happens then that means there are several possibilities. If you hit Tab again it will show you those possibilities. You may then continue typing and hit Tab again and it will again try to auto complete for you.

It’s kinda hard to demonstrate here so it’s probably best if you try it yourself. If you start typing cd /hTab/<beginning of your username>Tab you’ll get a feel for how it works.

Summary¶

Commands we learned about

pwd - Present Working Directory
ls - List the contents of a directory
cd - Change directories