Due date: Monday, April 5, 2021.

If you have already installed Linux on one of your computers at home, you can do this homework with whatever distribution you have, as long as you have administrative priviledges for it. In that case, you can skip directly to Exercise 2.

If you haven't installed Linux yet, I recommend to install Ubuntu on a flash drive or on a virtual partition using VMware or Virtual Box. I will mention the installation instructions for a flash drive.

a. Download the Ubuntu Live/Installation CD from
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download
On the second page there is a link to skip the donation. Create an installation CD from the downloaded image the following way:

• On MacOS, from Applications - Utilities open Disk Utility. From the File menu, choose Open Disk Image, or simply drag and drop it into the left side of the window. insert a blanc CD, then with the Ubuntu image selected, click on the Burn button.
• On Windows, right-click on the .iso file, then select Open with -> Windows Disc Image Burner. Insert a blanc CD and follow the instructions. Do not create a CD containing the file .iso, because that will not be bootable.

b. Once you have the installation CD, plug it into your home computer and reboot the computer. If you are doing this on one of the iMacs in the CS lab (the only ones on campus that can be used that way), then insert the CD and then boot the computer holding down the "option" key (as you do to switch from MacOS to Windows or the reverse). Choose the CD drive from the boot options. The same goes for a flash drive containing a Linux installation.

If you are working on the lab computers, after rebooting from the Ubuntu CD, DO NOT click on Install Ubuntu. Click on the Try Ubuntu instead.

On a home computer that is primarily based on Windows you may have to press F12 during the reboot to open up the boot menu and choose to boot from the CD. When asked if you want to install Ubuntu or just try it, select to try it.

Flash drive installation: once Ubuntu is loaded, if you have an empty flash drive that you can use for it, and you haven't decided to install Ubuntu (or another distribution) permanently on your computer, you can choose to install Ubuntu on the flash drive. This utility is normally found in the applications toolbar (left side of the screen) under Install Ubuntu. When you click on it, it should give you a choice to install on a flash drive if you have one plugged in. In older systems, it would be under the System menu - Administration. You will need the installation CD in for that. In my experience, a flash drive with 4Gb should be sufficient. In the dialog that opens, choose to have the settings and user files on the flash drive, as opposed to on the RAM virtual disk that Linux would boot under. Allow the utility to format the drive too, because it needs to add some information to make it bootable.

For this exercise, you will need to take some snapshots of the screen or window for each of the tasks below. Note that if you are working from a Linux (Ubuntu or Knoppix, or any other) live CD, then the files are saved on a RAM disk that will be erased when the computer is rebooted. So you will need to either save them on a permanent location, like a flash drive, or upload them right away before rebooting the computer.

a. User Account

Either from the Ubuntu distribution mounted as a live CD (booted from the CD), or from any installation that you have on your own computer with admin priviledges, create a new user account. In the newest version of Ubuntu, you'll find it under System Settings in the bar to the left side of the screen - User Accounts (click on the + to add a new one). In older versions of Ubuntu, you'll find it under System - Administration - Users and Groups.

Take a snapshot of the user creation screen showing the information about the user name, and another one showing the shell and the home directory, unless the utility doesn't give you that option. If they are shown on the same screen in another distribution, one snapshot is enough. In Ubuntu you can take a snapshot with the utility found under the Applications menu - Accessories, or use Gimp (File - Create or Acquire depending on your version - screen shot). Even a phone picture of the screen should be fine.

b. Application Management

Open a terminal. In the newest version of Ubuntu, click on the wheel button at the top left of the screen, then type in terminal - normally it will show the terminal icon before you finish typing. Note: if you are trying to do ssh from Ubuntu and have trouble with it, edit the file /etc/ssh/ssh_config and change the option GSSAPIAuthentication into a "no".

Find out if all of these applications are installed: emacs, g++, alpine, pico, latex, abcde, gimp, audacity, inkscape. Latex is a text formatting language and the utility is the compiler for it. abcde (a better cd encoder) is a utility that can convert a CD to audio files, like mp3 ("abcde -o m3" would be the command for that). Gimp is a Photoshop - like open source program. Audacity is an audio file editor. Inkscape is a program that does vector drawing. If you find one of these that is not installed, then install it (you don't need to install all of them, unless you want to). If all of them are already there, find any other application not yet installed and install it (you can search the web for possible applications). Use one of the following options:

• Under Ubuntu, you can use the command

  sudo apt-get install package

  with the name of the package being the application you're trying to install. If you do this from a terminal, then save the content of the terminal to a text file called hw7install.txt to upload. For example, to install emacs, I would run the command

  sudo apt-get install emacs

• Also under Ubuntu, you can try Ubuntu Software Center which you can find in the toolbar on the left side of the screen. In older versions, the equivalent is the Synaptic Package Manager that you can find under System - Administration. If you choose this option, then take a snapshot of the installation screen.
  
  
• On other distributions, use whatever installation package comes with it, and either save the content of the terminal as a text file, or take a snapshot of the screen. Under Fedora you can use "yum".

c. Using an Application

Show an example of something created with one of the packages in the list for point b, except those that we've used in previous labs/homeworks. It you use the abcde in a terminal, you can just save the content of the terminal from running the command (you don't need to upload an mp3 file). For this application, you can insert a music CD and run

abcde -o mp3

for example, to convert it to mp3 files.

If you are working on a lab machine, once you have finished uploading your lab files, choose to shut down and make sure to remove the installation CD before you leave. In the shut down window there should be a reboot option - select it to reboot the computer normally after that so it can be used by the next person.

Upload to Canvas: The images and text files resulting from Exercise 2, with the point a, b, or c, in the name, so that I know which image/text file corresponds to which part of the exercise.