Installing Ubuntu 10.04 and LMS 7.7 to a netbook

**TimT** · 2011-11-19, 12:57

Earlier this month I won an auction for an Asus eee PC900 netbook. My plan was to stream music to my SBR from the PC900 instead of from a Win7 desktop PC.

The PC900 arrived in good condition running the factory default Linux (as I expected). The unit has 1GB RAM and two SSD drives: one 4GB, the other 16GB. I installed Logitech Media Server from the slimdevices repository, attached a powered USB, 500gb drive to the PC900, and got LMS up and running with minimal hassles.

(I have been dabbling with Linux as an end-user on and off for years. So I consider myself moderately experienced. Although often I don't really know why things work, I can usually follow directions for getting things to work.)

Choosing your Linux OS
For a handful of reasons a few days ago I decided to wipe out the factory default Linux and install a different Linux version on the PC900. The process took considerably longer than necessary, mostly because it's been awhile since I have worked with Linux and thus I was in the tweaking-experimenting mode. The purpose of this post is to summarize the steps I took for the benefit of those who would like to install LMS on a Linux box that can also be used as a desktop computer. (Although I have not tried it, I would recommend using Linux vortexbox server OS for persons who simply want a Linux server set up specifically to run LMS.)

I downloaded several Linux ISOs and tried them out before settling on EasyPeasy 1.6, which is built upon Ubuntu 10.04 and Debian and customized for low-power netbooks, including the eee PC series. (See http://wiki.geteasypeasy.com/EasyPeasy.) If your Linux server is a desktop PC, you might go directly to Ubuntu 10.04 instead.

Making a bootable image file
The usual method for installing Linux is to download a Linux ISO file and burn it to a bootable CD. Then, in the system BIOS, change the boot order to boot first from the CD. At that point, follow the prompts for loading and installing the Linux OS. Many Linux distributions now can be run as a "LiveCD" that runs in the computer's RAM, thereby making no changes to the installed OS.

My PC900 netbook does not have an internal CD drive, however, and I did not have an external CD drive. Therefore I had to boot from a 2gb USB falsh drive by creating a bootable Linux image on the drive using UNetBootin. The process has just 3 steps:
1. Download (from http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net) UNetBootin for Windows or Linux and run it.
2. Use it to copy your ISO file to the USB drive so that it's bootable.
3. Boot your PC using the USB drive.

Installing your Linux OS
1. Download the EasyPeasy 1.6 ISO and burn it onto a CD-R to create a traditional bootable Live CD, or install it on a USB flash drive using UNetBootin.

2. Boot your PC using the CD or the USB flash drive. (To access the boot-order menu, insert the USB drive in the left USB port and depress the <Esc> key while the eeePC is powering on.)

3. After a few minutes you will boot to the desktop, where you can explore the OS or jump immediately to installation on your hard drive. (There will be an "Installation" menu item.)

4. EasyPeasy 1.6 steps you through the installation. The critical choice for most users will be whether to keep the installed OS on the PC and install EasyPeasy beside it (that is, a dual-boot installation), or to delete the installed OS and replace it with EasyPeasy. Although I didn't try to install Ubuntu 10.04 on the PC900, I am going to assume that the typical install routine will give the same choices.

5. I chose to delete the installed OS and therefore was offered a choice of accepting the default install or advanced (that is, with disk partitioning) install. Although I chose the advanced install, setting my own partitions, most users will probably accept the defaults. (The eeePC900 has two SSDs. I installed the OS on the 4gb drive and the /home directory on the 16gb drive. I used a ext2 file system on both SSDs. I did not create a swap partition.) The worst that can happen if you mess up or believe you made a wrong choice here is that you do the install routine again. Finish the steps, which include creating a username and password on your new Linux OS. Don't forget your password, you are going to need it later.

6. After 30 minutes or so, the install routine will finish and you will be asked to restart. Make sure you remove the CD or USB after restarting.

7. A few minutes after booting to your new Linux desktop and provided you are connected to the Internet, you will be prompted to run the Update Manager. If not, you can run Update Manager from the System -> Administration menu. This will update your OS -- may take a few minutes or, in my case, another 30 minutes.

8. Because I serve my music files from a powered USB, 500gb hard drive, I shut down the computer, attached the powered drive to the PC900, and started the PC. EasyPeasy found the attached USB drive, yippee! In the Linux filesystem, it is mounted at: /media.

Installing Logitech Media Server
9. OK, how to get Logitech Media Server installed on the computer? Ubuntu 10.04 comes with a neat software install program called "Synaptic," which is a graphical front-end to the OS's package management system. At this point, I am going to send you to the Ubuntu documentation for a short HowTo on Synaptic -- here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto -- because you will need to tell Synaptic where to find the Logitech Media Server files by adding those to the list of software sources (the "repository"). After getting oriented to Synaptic, add "deb http://debian.slimdevices.com stable main" (without the quotes) to Synaptic's Software Sources list, and then click Reload from the Synaptic toolbar.

10. Reloading the sources list will take a few minutes -- Synaptic goes online and updates the files from the repositories. Depending upon how long it has been since those files have been updated, the process could take several minutes. Once it is finished, search Synaptic for Logitech Media Server. Then mark it for installation.

11. While you are marking the LMS package for installation, also search Synaptic for "NTFS Configuration Tool" and "Samba Configuration Tool." Mark these packages for installation as well. Neither of these packages were installed by default in EasyPeasy. The NTFS tool will come in handy if you find that you can't access the files on your external USB hard drive from your Linux box or from another computer on your network. See the instructions on NTFS by forum member pablolie here: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=87719. You want Samba installed because that is the Linux program that enables your Linux computer to share files and folders with other computers on your network. The Samba Configuration Tool is a graphical front-end to configuring Samba.

12. Mark Logitech Media Server, Samba, and NTFS Configuration Tool for installation and follow Synaptic's instructions for installing these packages.

13. Close out of Synaptic. Let's make sure you have access to your external USB drive (if you are using one). Make your way to the System -> Administration menu. Open the NTFS Configuration Tool and, as pablolie explains, "let it noodle for a while. Enable read write etc. It's easy if you're patient."

14. If you intend to share folders and files on your new Linux computer with other computers on your network, you might as well open Samba from the System -> Administration menu. Because a picture is worth a thousand words, here is the easy way to set up Samba: http://www.liberiangeek.net/2010/07/...04-lucid-lynx/ and http://www.liberiangeek.net/2009/12/...p-ubuntu-easy/.

You may need to restart your Linux computer. EasyPeasy installed LMS so that it runs automatically on startup. For more information or if you get stuck on how to get LMS running, see the wiki on the SqueezeCenter/Squeezebox/LMS Debian Package install: http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/DebianPackage.

If you want to start/stop Logitech Media Server manually you can run:

sudo /etc/init.d/logitechmediaserver stop
sudo /etc/init.d/logitechmediaserver start

That's it! Now you can set up your LMS account and access your music files.

**lrossouw** · 2012-03-08, 05:50

Looking to switch from XP to Ubuntu on my music server soon. Your instructions will be very useful.

**Stokes_jk** · 2012-03-09, 23:27

Hi ,
thanks for this post ; it has been really helpful !!

I just followed it for a EEE PC 8G i had, and it ha seemed easy enough considering i have no experience with linux.

however, it could not find ntfs configuration tools. It is thus having trouble seeing my external drive.

And, while the logitech media server is running (apparently), it did not open the control panel and so I cant point it to my music files.

Any ideas ?

{side note: you mentioned initially using vortex box; this looks a great option but one needs a cd drive and it doesnt look easy to install from an ISO loaded on USB for a novice}

**Stokes_jk** · 2012-03-10, 00:08

ok, i just partially figured this part out....in firefox i entered the IP address (went to my router and through trial and error entered the right one for the server...e.g. 192.168.0.9:9000 and it took me to a page where i could tell it which music folders to chose.
Now i just need to get it to find my usb drive..

ok just found ntfs config after an update that took a few hours. searched for ntfs config rather than the ntfs configuration tools which didnt find it.
Took me a while to find my usb drive because it was under the directory name of 'media' in the local file list that come up in the control panel.
Hope that helps others.
This page has been a tremendous help !! thank you tim.

**TimT** · 2012-03-10, 16:20

You're welcome. Glad to hear that your setup is working for you.

**Cape11** · 2012-07-05, 12:47

I've found this post most useful. But I can't get it to work!

I'm trying, just for the sake of learning a bit of Linux, to get LMS working on an eeePC 701 4G. I can follow the Easy Peasy 1.6 install process, and loading LMS, and NTFS-config. The fun starts with Samba.

In fact you don't need to load Samba from Synaptic, you can load it via the Shared Folders application under System>Administration. But either way, I get a failure loading nfs-common, returning error 127.

Looking on the web for recent posts about this problem and it's littered with people struggling with this failure - perhaps from installations from certain Linux libraries. But I can't find a fix.

Can anyone help?

**el_chupacabra** · 2012-07-21, 06:42

I just moved my eeePC from Win7 to Ubuntu. This is a slow-as-molasses eeePC with the 1.6GHz N270 (single-core, although Ubuntu sees 2 cores!) processor.
So far, LMS is just as slow on Ubuntu as it was on Win7. On the up side, the switch to Ubuntu went pretty smoothly - the only thing I couldn't figure out was how to install directly from the hard drive (it's an option in unetbootin), so I made a bootable USB stick like everybody else.

So here's my question: has anybody tried making LMS faster on Linux? Bonus points if you're also on an eeePC! Or if you're just an idle lurker, which steps would you take to optimize an LMS installation on Linux? What do you think of the following proposed strategy:

0. Check the LMS "Advanced" settings under "Performance" (did that already).
0.5 Connect the LMS machine and the Squeezebox with Ethernet cable as opposed to WiFi (did that already - big improvement).
1. Make sure kernel (and/or BIOS) isn't configured to enable any power-saving features in the CPU (SpeedStep or whatever).
2. Recompile kernel.
3. Recompile Perl.
4. Recompile LMS.
5. Move the media to a filesystem that the kernel offers native support for (as opposed to NTFS).

Anything else?

Originally Posted by Cape11

I've found this post most useful. But I can't get it to work!

I'm trying, just for the sake of learning a bit of Linux, to get LMS working on an eeePC 701 4G. I can follow the Easy Peasy 1.6 install process, and loading LMS, and NTFS-config. The fun starts with Samba.

In fact you don't need to load Samba from Synaptic, you can load it via the Shared Folders application under System>Administration. But either way, I get a failure loading nfs-common, returning error 127.

Looking on the web for recent posts about this problem and it's littered with people struggling with this failure - perhaps from installations from certain Linux libraries. But I can't find a fix.

Can anyone help?

**Thomas8675309** · 2012-07-21, 10:06