Prepare a reelyActive laptop from scratch

Our step-by-step guide to prepare a laptop with the minimum prerequisites for our open source software.

Download Xubuntu 18.04 LTS Part 1

From any Internet-connected computer :

1. Browse to xubuntu.org/download/
2. Scroll to find the LTS version (18.04)
3. Download the 64-bit version via Torrent or a local mirror, as you prefer
4. Burn the ISO file to a bootable USB drive or a DVD , as you prefer (search online for instructions specific to your case and operating system)

You should now have Xubuntu 18.04 LTS on a bootable media that the target laptop can accept. Let's install!

Install Xubuntu 18.04 LTS Part 2

Boot the target laptop with the Xubuntu 18.04 LTS installation media and, when prompted, select the option to Install Xubuntu (rather than simply Try Xubuntu). Then,

1. Select English as the language
2. Select the English (US) keyboard , unless the laptop has another
3. Select the option to connect to a WiFi network, if available, and enter the credentials
4. Select Download updates while installing Xubuntu but do not select the option to install third-party software
5. Select the installation type: on a laptop with virgin hard drive, simply Erase disk and install Xubuntu (if another operating system is present, take great care to select an appropriate configuration!)

Xubuntu will now be written to the hard disk. In parallel, there will be prompts to configure personalisation settings.

Enter personal settings Part 3

While Xubuntu is being written to the hard disk, complete the following when prompted:

1. Select the time zone in which the system will be used
2. Enter reelyActive as your name
3. Enter reelyActive-XXX as your computer's name, replacing XXX with the model of the laptop , for example X250
4. Enter reelyactive as the username
5. Enter owl-in-one as the password, or a stronger and more appropriate password
6. Select the option to Require my password to log in

Wait for the installation to complete, and when prompted, remove the installation media and restart. Xubuntu 18.04 LTS is now installed and configured!

Once the laptop has booted up, ensure it is connected to the Internet.

Install Java Part 1

Open a terminal and then:

1. Update the list of available packages and their versions with the command sudo apt update
2. Install Java with the command sudo apt install default-jdk

Configure the Elastic APT repository Part 2

Open a terminal and then:

1. Import the Elasticsearch PGP key with the command wget -qO - https://artifacts.elastic.co/GPG-KEY-elasticsearch | sudo apt-key add -
2. Install the prerequisite transport package with the command sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https
3. Add the location of the Elastic APT repository with the command echo "deb https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/7.x/apt stable main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/elastic-7.x.list

Xubuntu now knows where to find and how to download the Elasticsearch and Kibana APT packages.

Install Elasticsearch 7.x Part 3

Open a terminal then install Elasticsearch 7.x with the command sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install elasticsearch

Elasticsearch is now installed.

Enable the Elasticsearch service Part 4

Open a terminal and then:

1. Reload the systemctl daemon with the command sudo /bin/systemctl daemon-reload
2. Enable the Elasticsearch service with the command sudo /bin/systemctl enable elasticsearch.service

Elasticsearch will automatically start the next time the laptop is restarted.

Configure Elasticsearch 7.x Part 5

Open a terminal then open the elasticsearch.yml file for editing with the command sudo nano /etc/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.yml and paste in the following lines:

http.cors.enabled: true
http.cors.allow-origin: /https?:\/\/localhost(:[0-9]+)?/
http.cors.allow-methods: GET, POST
path.repo: ["/var/backups/elasticsearch"]

This will allow API access to Elasticsearch by software, such as the reelyActive open source software, running on the same machine (localhost). This will also specify the path for backups, a folder that must be created as follows:

1. Change to the var/backups folder with the command cd /var/backups
2. Create the elasticsearch backups folder with the command sudo mkdir elasticsearch
3. Change the owner of the folder to the elasticsearch user with the command sudo chown -R elasticsearch:elasticsearch elasticsearch

Elasticsearch is now installed and configured.

This step assumes that the previous step, Installing Elasticsearch 7.x, is already completed.

Install Kibana Part 1

Open a terminal then install Kibana with the command sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install kibana.

Kibana is now installed.

Enable the Kibana service Part 2

Open a terminal and then:

1. Reload the systemctl daemon with the command sudo /bin/systemctl daemon-reload
2. Enable the Kibana service with the command sudo /bin/systemctl enable kibana.service

Kibana will automatically start the next time the laptop is restarted.

Procedure to come...

The laptop is prepared for installation of the reelyActive open source software suite, which is the subject of the next tutorial:

Next tutorial

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Where to next?

Continue exploring our open architecture and all its applications.

• 

  Install our open source software suite on a laptop

  Our step-by-step guide to run reelyActive's open source software suite on a laptop or personal computer.
• 

  Prepare a Raspberry Pi from scratch

  Our step-by-step guide to prepare a lean yet versatile SD card image for the Pi.
• 

  diyActive Home

  The home for reelyActive developers.