How to setup lighter, faster & minimal Ubuntu

By -
ubuntu penguin march

There are many variants of Ubuntu. One of them is Ubuntu JeOS where JeOS stands for Just enough Operating System. JeOS is a lean version of Ubuntu server and optimized for running in virtual machines like VMWare. But it can also be used to setup your own Ubuntu that matches your taste without extra luggage. I will get you started by showing you how to setup minimal GUI. Later you can make customizations by installing applications that you like. So lets get started.

Download Ubuntu JeOS

Download Ubuntu JeOS iso image from following url and install it either in VMWare or VirtualBox.

Download Ubuntu JeOS

Installing GUI

This part of guide can be used to install GUI on ubuntu server. First update your apt cache by issuing following command.

sudo apt-get update

You may install either xdm/gdm/kdm for login manager. Since xdm is lighter than others I prefer installing it.

sudo apt-get -y install xdm

Install core of gnome with out any extra baggage.

sudo apt-get -y install gnome-core

Install xorg since gnome needs it.

sudo apt-get -y install xorg

Your gui setup is now complete but since we didn't install any theme default desktop is not that eye friendly. Just install Ubuntu human theme by issuing following command.

sudo apt-get -y install human-theme

Start xdm by issing following command.

sudo /etc/init.d/xdm start

Your basic Ubuntu desktop now ready without extra baggage like open office and other applications. This basic setup works nicely in either VMWare or VirtualBox. Remember to install either VMWare or VirtualBox guest addons to speedup your virtual machine.

Art work used in this post is cc licensed and you can get it from flickr.

Comments

Spoon said…
Thanks for this post.. Few doubts.
1. Is JeOS intended only for Servers? or also for personal usage (such as laptops)?
2. I have already installed the standard ubuntu in my laptop. if I follow the steps in this post, would it remove the already installed packages?
3. I use my laptop mainly for browsing, viewing videos in you-tube, running some java applet applications in browser. If I install JeOS can I still continue these operations?
4. If at all I require to open some docs using open-office, would it be still possible?
June 23, 2008 at 9:05 PM
Vamsee said…
JeOS is intended for running inside Virtual Machines. Installing this version on physical machine is not productive because this version doesn't ship with all the necessary drivers and helper tools.

A lite version for ubuntu called Ubuntu Lite was proposed.

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/412/

Or you have to remaster your won installation image.
June 23, 2008 at 10:54 PM
Anonymous said…
The link changed:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/jeos/releases/hardy/release/jeos-8.04.1-jeos-i386.iso
August 19, 2008 at 1:22 PM
Anonymous said…
shadow is correct. Those looking for a really light Ubuntu should check out Fluxbuntu.
October 31, 2008 at 1:21 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Easy network traffic shaping on your ubuntu system

By -
Traffic shaping on Linux system used to require knowledge of lot of things like iptables, qdiscs & networking protocols. Things have changed and now there are couple of tools which handle all of this complexity without requiring much knowledge. And one of them is wondershaper . First install wondershaper by issuing following command. sudo apt-get -y install wondershaper Use following command template to make it work right away. sudo wondershaper <interface name> <down speed> <up speed> Where interface name is your network interface name like eth0 or eth1 or wifi0 and down speed , up speed are self explanatory and specified in kilo bits per second. So sample command will look like sudo wondershaper eth0 512 512 To disable wondershaper from controlling particular interface use following command. sudo wondershaper clear <interface name> To make these changes permanent add following lines to /etc/network/interfaces under relevant interface section. ...
Read more

winetricks - install wine application perquisites with ease

By -
As most of us know wine is used to run windows applications on linux. But setting it up always has been pain. For example if your windows program requires some prerequisites that aren't shipped or not implemented in wine then you have to go for hunting on net. Examples include mscore fonts, Internet Explorer, DCOM, etc. And this guide explains how to install winetricks on ubuntu. Crossover office has a little wizard that will download install all the prerequisites of a particular software but It costs money to use. But there is one little known tool called winetricks which you can use to automate that stuff for free. Finally you can concentrate on something productive rather than hunting for some obscure stuff. Download winetricks Use following commands to get winetricks and set it up. wget http://www.kegel.com/wine/winetricks chmod +x winetricks Using winetricks For example if you want to install Microsoft Core fonts use following command. ./winetricks corefonts ...
Read more

Multi touch for any,all synaptics touchpad

By -
Multi-touch became trendy after iphone came up with it. We are seeing many new laptops with multi-touch. At hardware level, there is nothing special that you need, to make multi-touch work. You can also do two-finger scroll and two-finger tap to right/middle click. Also, three-finger tap, but, for me it is very hard to press three fingers at the same time(1 out of 10). Create new file gksudo gedit /etc/hal/fdi/policy/11-x11-synaptics.fdi Paste the following code into the file and save it. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <deviceinfo version="0.2"> <device> <match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.touchpad"> <merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge> <merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">On</merge> <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" ...
Read more