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Notes on setting up Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver) on Intel NUC6i7KYK

MIT LicenseMIT

Skull Canyon

Maintenance

Notes on setting up Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) on Intel NUC6i7KYK tech-spec [PDF]

skull-canyon

Components

Download Ubuntu 18.04

Dowfnload 64-bit desktop ISO image (1.5Gb) from http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/bionic/ and use Startup Disk Creator to burn to a USB drive.

BIOS Settings

BIOS & firmware updates available from: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/89187/Intel-NUC-Kit-NUC6i7KYK

Fast Boot

Enabling fast boot means that there is no straightforward way to get to the BIOS settings, as the splash screen with F2 / F7 / etc options is skipped entirely. With the machine powered off, press and hold the power button for 3-4 seconds then release. You should see a menu appear listing various options, one of which is BIOS Setup (press F2).

Blink Codes and Beep Codes

The power LED on the Intel® NUC blinks in a pattern if an error occurs during POST. Intel NUC products that include a front panel audio jack produce an audible beep pattern that you can hear through headphones or speakers plugged into that jack.

Code Diagnosis Pattern
3 blinks (3 beeps) Memory error On-off (1.0 second each) three times, then 2.5-second pause (off). The pattern repeats until the computer is powered off. Some memory sticks, while supported by hardware spec, can still cause issues. Some errors can be fixed by removing one stick if two are installed. A non complete list of supported RAM can be found here.
Continual blinks BIOS Update in progress Off when the update starts, then on for 0.5 seconds, then off for 0.5 seconds. The pattern repeats until the BIOS update is complete.
2 blinks (2 beeps) Video error (when no VGA option ROM is found) On-off (1.0 second each) two times, then 2.5-second pause (off). The pattern repeats until the computer is powered off.
16 on/off blinks (8 beeps) CPU thermal trip warning 0.25 seconds on, 0.25 seconds off, 0.25 seconds on, 0.25 seconds off, for a total of 16 blinks. Then the computer shuts down.

BIOS KYSKLi70.86A.0060.2019.0122.1440 installed.

References

Keyboard Mappings

showkey displays the key mappings and keytouch-editor allows custom key mappings to be created.

References

Ubuntu Install

On Installation type screen, don't pick 'Encrypt the new Ubuntu installation for security': Use home folders encryption instead.

/etc/fstab

Alter /etc/fstab to set the root partition options to include noatime. Remount with sudo mount -o remount / (does not need a reboot).

Inotify Watches Limit

Add the following line to the /etc/sysctl.conf file:

fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 524288

Then run this command to apply the change:

$ sudo sysctl -p --system

Terminal Settings

  • Terminal size: 80 x 43
  • Custom font: Monospace Regular 10
  • Colors: Grey on black
  • Use transparent background: 10%
  • Limit scrollback: Unlimited

SSH Key generation

Generate an RSA public/private keypair with ssh-keygen. Upload the public key to github, and add to https://github.com/rm-hull/dotfiles/blob/master/.ssh/authorized_keys

Pull down Essentials pour le vim exigeants basés programmeur informatique agiotage

From a command prompt:

$ sudo apt-get install git
$ git clone git@github.com:rm-hull/dotfiles.git
$ cd dotfiles
$ ./bootstrap.sh

Answer 'y' when prompted.

Copy ~/.apt-lists/* into /etc/apt/sources.list.d as root, and trust the keys:

$ sudo cp -av ~/.apt-lists/*.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d
$ sudo apt-key add ~/.apt-lists/TRUSTED-KEYS.txt

(trusted keys generated with apt-key exportall)

APT Packages

Install some common packages from the Ubuntu mines:

$ sudo apt install git htop tree nfs-client sshfs gimp openssh-server \
    exuberant-ctags silversearcher-ag postgresql postgresql-client \
    openvpn network-manager-openvpn network-manager-openvpn-gnome \
    optipng p7zip unrar mplayer ffmpeg gitg conky-all acpi vim-gtk \
    ttf-mscorefonts-installer httpie jq awscli python-pip python3-pip \
    curl net-tools wireshark-qt libcanberra-gtk-module libcanberra-gtk3-module \
    slurm moreutils ncdu inxi graphviz gnome-tweaks sbcl ngrep speedtest-cli \
    nethogs linux-tools-common linux-tools-generic linux-cloud-tools-generic \
    rlwrap iperf libreadline-dev sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev build-essential \
    libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev llvm libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev \
    xz-utils tk-dev libffi-dev liblzma-dev python-openssl python3-dev \
    libsdl-image1.2-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libsdl1.2-dev \
    libsmpeg-dev python-numpy libportmidi-dev ffmpeg libswscale-dev \
    libavformat-dev libavcodec-dev python3-pil libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev \
    libfreetype6-dev liblcms2-dev libopenjp2-7 libtiff5

Next install some packages from other sources:

$ sudo apt install virtualbox-6.1 oracle-java12-installer \
    oracle-java12-set-default google-chrome-stable nodejs sbt \
    docker-ce etcher-electron code

Post install steps

$ sudo groupadd docker
$ sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Log out and in again to pick up the new group

NFS Mount Point

Create a mount point with sudo mkdir -p /mnt/atrax and add the following entry to /etc/fstab:

192.168.1.65:/  /mnt/atrax    nfs4 _netdev,auto,intr,timeo=14,x-systemd.device-timeout=3s,nofail,noatime  0   0

Mount it, and re-assign links:

$ sudo mount /mnt/atrax
$ cd ~
$ rm -rf Documents Music Videos Pictures
$ ln -s /mnt/atrax/users/rhu/Documents
$ ln -s /mnt/atrax/media/Music
$ ln -s /mnt/atrax/media/Photos Pictures
$ ln -s /mnt/atrax/media/Videos

Benchmarking

CPU

Device BogoMIPS
Skull Canyon 41472.00
i7-4700MQ 38312.84
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X 217164.73
AMD Turion II Neo N40L 5990.21

I/O

Running hdparm -tT /dev/...:

Device Drive Buffered Reads Cached Reads
Skull Canyon Samsung 970 EVO M2 2478.33 MB/sec 12689.42 MB/sec
i7-4700MQ Kingson v300 SATA 308.45 MB/sec 8916.75 MB/sec
HP Proliant Server WD 7200RPM HDD 11.10 MB/sec 1403.80 MB/sec
Digital Ocean droplet Virtualized SSD 270.41 MB/sec 6461.35 MB/sec

References