Ubuntu on a MacBook Pro

This are the steps I followed to get Ubuntu running on a MacBook Pro 9,2.

Install

Note: this procedure requires an .img file that you will be required to create from the .iso file you download.

TIP: Drag and Drop a file from Finder to Terminal to 'paste' the full path without typing and risking type errors.

• Download the desired file
• Open the Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities/ or query Terminal in Spotlight)
• Convert the .iso file to .img using the convert option of hdiutil

hdiutil convert -format UDRW -o ~/path/to/target.img ~/path/to/ubuntu.iso

Note: OS X tends to put the .dmg ending on the output file automatically.

Create a bootable Ubuntu install flash drive:
Run:

diskutil list

to get the current list of devices

Insert your flash media and run:

diskutil list

again and determine the device node assigned to your flash media (e.g. /dev/disk2)
Run:

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN

(replace N with the disk number from the last command; in the previous example, N would be 2)

Execute

sudo dd if=/path/to/downloaded.img of=/dev/diskN bs=1m

(replace /path/to/downloaded.img with the path where the image file is located; for example, ./ubuntu.img or ./ubuntu.dmg).
Using /dev/rdisk instead of /dev/disk may be faster.

If you see the error dd: Invalid number '1m', you are using GNU dd. Use the same command but replace bs=1m with bs=1M.

If you see the error dd: /dev/diskN: Resource busy, make sure the disk is not in use. Start the Disk Utility.app and unmount (don't eject) the drive.

Finally run:

diskutil eject /dev/diskN

and remove your flash media when the command completes

Restart your Mac and press alt while the Mac is restarting to choose the USB-Stick

Follow the on screen instructions.

WiFi

After booting into Ubuntu, the wifi card was not working, to get it to work I connected it to my router with a network cable and followed this steps:

Download the driver:

wget http://www.lwfinger.com/b43-firmware/broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2

And install it:

tar xf broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter
sudo b43-fwcutter -w "/lib/firmware" broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o

then add:

b43

to /etc/modules and reboot

Keyboard and mouse:

This is a little extra to get natural scrolling and OS X like key bindings.

Create a Xmodmap conf file

vi ~/.Xmodmap

and paste the following inside:

!!Enable Natural scrolling (vertical and horizontal)
pointer = 1 2 3 5 4 7 6 8 9 10 11 12
!!Swap CMD and CTRL keys
remove control = Control_L
remove mod4 = Super_L Super_R
keysym Control_L = Super_L
keysym Super_L = Control_L
keysym Super_R = Control_L
add control = Control_L Control_R
add mod4 = Super_L Super_R

Under Mac OS X, the combination cmd+space opens Spotlight, to emulate this, install the package compizconfig-settings-manager.

sudo aptitude install compizconfig-settings-manager

Open it using the ccsm command, or search for it in Dash.
Find Ubuntu Unity Plugin->Behavior->Key to show the launcher and change it to <Primary>space, using the Grab key combination button. It may be also shown as <Control><Primary>space.

You can now have a behavior similar to Mac OS X in Ubuntu 12.04. You can change the virtual desktop using cmd+alt+arrow. You can cut, copy, and paste using cmd+x, cmd+c, and cmd+v and summon the dash with cmd+space.

Installing Oracle 11g R2 Express Edition on Ubuntu 64-bit

This are the steps I took to install Oracle 11g R2 Express Edition on an Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Server and are based on the tutorial found here:

Download the Oracle 11gR2 express edition installer from the link given below:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/products/express-edition/downloads/index.html

( You will need to create a free oracle web account if you don't already have it )

Unzip it :

unzip oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0.x86_64.rpm.zip

Install the following packages :

sudo apt-get install alien libaio1 unixodbc vim

The Red Hat based installer of Oracle XE 11gR2 relies on /sbin/chkconfig, which is not used in Ubuntu. The chkconfig package available for the current version of Ubuntu produces errors and my not be safe to use. So you'll need to create a special chkconfig script, below is a simple trick to get around the problem and install Oracle XE successfully:

sudo vi /sbin/chkconfig

(copy and paste the following into the file )

#!/bin/bash
# Oracle 11gR2 XE installer chkconfig hack for Ubuntu
file=/etc/init.d/oracle-xe
if [[ ! `tail -n1 $file | grep INIT` ]]; then
echo >> $file
echo '### BEGIN INIT INFO' >> $file
echo '# Provides: OracleXE' >> $file
echo '# Required-Start: $remote_fs $syslog' >> $file
echo '# Required-Stop: $remote_fs $syslog' >> $file
echo '# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5' >> $file
echo '# Default-Stop: 0 1 6' >> $file
echo '# Short-Description: Oracle 11g Express Edition' >> $file
echo '### END INIT INFO' >> $file
fi
update-rc.d oracle-xe defaults 80 01
#EOF

Save the above file and provide appropriate execute privilege :

chmod 755 /sbin/chkconfig

Oracle 11gR2 XE requires to set the following additional kernel parameters:

sudo vi /etc/sysctl.d/60-oracle.conf 

(Enter the following)

# Oracle 11g XE kernel parameters
fs.file-max=6815744
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range=9000 65000
kernel.sem=250 32000 100 128
kernel.shmmax=536870912

(Save the file)

Note: kernel.shmmax = max possible value , e.g. size of physical RAM ( in bytes e.g. 512MB RAM == 512*1024*1024 == 536870912 bytes )

Verify the change :

sudo cat /etc/sysctl.d/60-oracle.conf

Load new kernel parameters:

sudo service procps start

Verify:

sudo sysctl -q fs.file-max
-> fs.file-max = 6815744

Increase the system swap space : Analyze your current swap space by following command :

free -m

Minimum swap space requirement of Oracle 11gR2 XE is 2 GB . In case, your is lesser , you can increase it by following steps in one of my previous posts.

make some more required changes :

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/awk /bin/awk
sudo mkdir -p /var/lock/subsys
sudo touch /var/lock/subsys/listener

Convert the red-hat ( rpm ) package to Ubuntu-package :

sudo alien --scripts -d oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0.x86_64.rpm

(this may take a long time)

Go to the directory where you created the ubuntu package file in the previous step and enter following commands in terminal :

sudo dpkg --install oracle-xe_11.2.0-2_amd64.deb 

Do the following to avoid getting MEMORY TARGET error ( ORA-00845: MEMORY_TARGET not supported on this system ) :

sudo rm -rf /dev/shm
sudo mkdir /dev/shm
sudo mount -t tmpfs shmfs -o size=2048m /dev/shm

(here size will be the size of your RAM in MBs ).

The reason of doing all this is that on a Ubuntu system /dev/shm is just a link to /run/shm but Oracle requires to have a seperate /dev/shm mount point.

To make the change permanent do the following :

create a file named S01shm_load in /etc/rc2.d :

sudo vi /etc/rc2.d/S01shm_load

Then copy and paste following lines into the file :

#!/bin/sh
case "$1" in
start) mkdir /var/lock/subsys 2>/dev/null
touch /var/lock/subsys/listener
rm /dev/shm 2>/dev/null
mkdir /dev/shm 2>/dev/null
mount -t tmpfs shmfs -o size=2048m /dev/shm ;;
*) echo error
exit 1 ;;
esac

Save the file and provide execute permissions :

chmod 755 /etc/rc2.d/S01shm_load

This will ensure that every-time you start your system, you get a working Oracle environment.

You can now proceed to the Oracle initialization script

sudo /etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure

Enter the following configuration information:

• A valid HTTP port for the Oracle Application Express (the default is 8080)
• A valid port for the Oracle database listener (the default is 1521)
• A password for the SYS and SYSTEM administrative user accounts
• Confirm password for SYS and SYSTEM administrative user accounts
• Whether you want the database to start automatically when the computer starts (next reboot).

Before you start using Oracle 11gR2 XE you have to set-up a few more things :

a) Set-up the environmental variables, add following lines to the bottom of /etc/bash.bashrc :

export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe
export ORACLE_SID=XE
export NLS_LANG=`$ORACLE_HOME/bin/nls_lang.sh`
export ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH

b) execute your .profile to load the changes:

source /etc/bash.bashrc

Start the Oracle 11gR2 XE :

sudo service oracle-xe start

The output should be similar to following :

user@machine:~$ sudo service oracle-xe start
Starting Oracle Net Listener.
Starting Oracle Database 11g Express Edition instance.
user@machine:~$

And you're done :)