Setting up a development machine with Ubuntu Gutsy Gibon and Compiz Destop in a LAMP environment

Posted December 12th, 2007 by manmeet

Ubuntu server installation is quite straight forward and you can get one set up fairly quick following the onscreen instructions. Ubuntu server by default installs a command shell which is more secure, but for easy of use and portability we decided to install the flashy new Compiz desktop that comes with Gutsy Gibon.

I encountered only 1 issue while installation regarding my Network Interface. Even though the machine was plugged in to a DHCP network, Ubuntu failed to discover the device and I plugged out my network cable, restarted the installation over again.

To over come the autodetection I had to put the following lines in /etc/network/interfaces

To edit type

#pico /etc/network/interfaces


and add the following lines

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp


Again on a later installation the network was discovered automatically so I guess its a rare scenario but worth mentioning.

To install Ubuntu desktop simple type the following command at the shell

#sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop


This can take from 30 minutes to 2 hours depending upon your internet speed.

Installing LAMP

In case you forgot to check the Lamp-Server box while the OS installation you can install LAMP by issuing the following command

#sudo taskel install lamp-server


Another way of suing the TASKEL is by using the Synaptic Package Manager

Open synaptic package manager from
System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager
then in the edit menu click on mark packages by taskel and from the list select LAMP server and apply.

Installing PHPMyAdmin
as with everything else in Ubuntu installing PHPMyAdmin is a breeze and can be intalled by issuing the following command

#sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin


PHPMyAdmin automatically locates the MySQL server and you can use the MySQL Username/Password combinations to log in.

If there does not exist a username an d password for MySQL you can create one by running the following commands

#sudo mysqladmin -u root password newrootsqlpassword
#sudo mysqladmin -p -u root -h localhost password newrootsqlpassword


Start the server or restart if it does not automaticall by using

#sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart


Point you browser to http://localhost/ and you should see the default Apache screen. You can further test the installation by installing one of the OpenSource PHP packages. I always tend to go with my favourite Drupal (www.drupal.org)