Installing Debathena

Debathena can be installed on top of an existing Ubuntu or Debian installation, or you can install it from scratch with a Live CD. If you have an existing installation, use the Debathena installer. If not, you probably want to install from a Live CD.

Installing from a Live CD has several advantages: you can try Debathena without modifying your computer to see how it works with your hardware, you don't need an existing Debian or Ubuntu install, and you can easily install it alongside other existing operating systems, including Mac OS X and Windows. You can easily burn a Live CD yourself, or you can come by the SIPB office and we'll be glad to get you one.

A few notes before you install:

• A portion of the install requires internet access. For greatest speed and reliability, we recommend that you use an ethernet cable as opposed to wireless. If you haven't used ethernet on this computer on MIT's network before, be sure to register your computer by visiting a website in Firefox in the Live CD before installing.
• The Live CD currently only installs the debathena-standard and debathena-workstation installation options.

Installation instructions:

1. Download the Live CD image: ubuntu-8.10-debathena-20080303-i386.iso (checksum, signature)
2. Burn the image to a CD-R. Be sure to use a 700 MB CD-R. You can do this on any computer with a CD-R drive, including many Athena workstations. For burning CDs on Athena, we recommend nautilus-cd-burner.
3. Boot the computer to be installed from the burned CD. This may require pressing a key like F12 or ESC during startup to access a boot menu. On a Mac, hold down the 'c' key.
4. A menu of options will come up. You can select the first option to try Ubuntu and Debathena before you install, or select "Install Debathena" to install right away.

Debathena has an interactive command-line installer that should be easier to use than the manual installation instructions. You can run the Debathena installer by running the following commands as root:

wget http://debathena.mit.edu/install-debathena.sh;
sh install-debathena.sh

One of the first questions the installer will ask you is which category, or metapackage, you would like to install. The supported metapackages are:

debathena-standard

This package gives your machine full access to Athena services, but does not configure your machine to use use Kerberos authentication and AFS home directories, and as such is an ideal choice for laptop users.
NOTE: This package works best when used with a local user account with the same username as your Athena username.

debathena-login

This package includes everything from debathena-standard, and configures your machine to use Kerberos authentication and AFS home directories. This allows other Athena users to log in to your machine, hence the name.

debathena-workstation

This package configures the machine as an Athena cluster style workstation. It contains debathena-login along with some additional dependencies useful for graphical workstations. An ideal choice for users migrating from Athena 9 private workstations, however such users should read the Private Workstations section of the Migrating to Debathena document.

The installer will also ask you whether you wish to use your workstation to build Debathena packages—you can safely answer “no” unless you plan to build Debathena software.

Lastly, the installer will ask you whether you wish to install the third party software packages. This is a large package and provides all the third party software that is installed on Debathena cluster workstations. If you want your workstation to be exactly like a cluster workstation, you should choose to install this package. Alternatively, you can skip this package and install individual pieces of software when you need them.

Advanced options

Advanced users may wish to read our page on advanced installation options, including manual installation.

Troubleshooting

See the troubleshooting page for common issues.

If you run into any problems with Debathena not discussed on the troubleshooting page, please contact the maintainers.