Instructions and scripts for setting up a Linux development virtual machine

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Setting up the vmdk image on your own machine

Installing the VM

• Install Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager on your machine
• Create the C:\dev, C:\dotfiles directories on your machine
• Copy the TW_devVM directory from _T:\Operations\Products\Software\Client_ into your VirtualBox VMs directory
• Start the image
• On first boot, you will be asked to choose a username and password

Accessing drives on your machine

By default, you should be able to see the C:\dev, C:\dotfiles, T:, X:\ and Y:
drives. These are mounted in the /media directory e.g. as /media/sf_dev and linked to the home directory. The files are owned by root and belong to the vboxsf group. As a member of the vboxsf group, you should be able to access and change the files.

Some programs have problems following symbolic links, or if you do not own the files that you are working with. In this case it is necessary to connect to them in a different way:

• Shut down the virtual machine

• Share the folder (e.g. C:\Users....\plugins\Roadnet) in VirtualBox Manager, but do not make it mount automatically

• Start the virtual machine

• Create a directory where you want to access the folder (e.g. /home/..../plugins/Roadnet)

• Add the following command to the /etc/rc.local file, above exit 0:

  mount -t vboxsf -o rw,gid=1000,uid=1000 sharename /path/to/new/dir
  

• After a reboot of the virtual machine, you should be able to access the files.

Install IDEs via umake

Eclipse (Luna) and Pycharm can be (were) installed with the umake tool.

umake ide eclipse
umake ide pycharm

You can make them accessible from the command line by linking the executable file into your ~/bin directory:

ln -s /path/to/pycharm /home/username/bin

Install server apps

Server apps are not installed by default. They can be installed with the following commands:

# install packages - Web
sudo apt-get install apache2 tomcat7 tomcat7-admin

# add geoserver from WAR file
wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/geoserver/files/GeoServer/2.4.0/geoserver-2.4.0-war.zip
unzip geoserver-2.4.0-war.zip geoserver.war
sudo mv geoserver.war /var/lib/tomcat7/webapps/

# install packages - Postgres
sudo apt-get install \
postgresql-9.4-postgis-2.1 \
postgresql-contrib \
postgresql-9.4-pgrouting

Other useful commands

• Switch between installed java versions

  sudo update-alternatives --config java
  sudo update-alternatives --config javac
  java -version
  

• Pick your default editor

  sudo update-alternatives --config editor
  

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Creating the vmdk image

• Create new virtual machine with 16 Gb disk space called TW_devVM_vanilla
• Share the C:\dev, C:\dotfiles, T:, X:\ and Y:\ drives with it (automount, full access)
• Use Linux Mint OEM image, so each user gets to set own preferences
• Install Linux from the .iso file (username oem, password TWAdm1n)
• Shut down the virtual machine
• Make a full clone of TW_devVM_vanilla, called TW_devVM_prep
• Start up TW_devVM_prep

Preparation of the software and settings

Note that Linux Mint comes with the following installed:

• virtualbox-guest-utils
• virtualbox-guest-dkms
• virtualbox-guest-x11

These are used to communicate with VirtualBox and have to be install manually in some other distributions.

• Clone the git repository with the installation scripts:

  git clone https://tw-johns@stash.luminis.net/scm/~tw-johns/tw_devvm.git TW_devVM
  

• Move into the directory and run the setup script:

  cd TW_devVM
  bash dev_VM_setup.sh
  

• Set up and personalise other settings e.g. install QGIS plugins

  • Zoom to postcode
  • OpenLayers
  • IPython terminal

Sharing the virtual machine image

• Pause the TW_devVM_prep machine, then close and Save Machine State

• Make a full clone into TW_dev_VM, and start the new machine

• Run 'Prepare for shipping to end user' from the desktop

• Delete desktop icon from the skeleton directory:

  sudo rm /etc/skel/Desktop/Prepare\ for\ shipping\ to\ end\ user
  

• Shutdown the virtual machine

• Copy the TW_devVM directory from the VirtualBox VMs directory onto the network at _T:\Operations\Products\Software\Client_