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The OS on icub-head - Installation from scratch

Since iCubOS is based on the Ubuntu server, we will install the latter from the default installer and then manually customize it.

Latest versions

The latest version is based on Ubuntu Server 22.04

Create the USB installer

The first step is to download the official Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Server install media from the release page. Search for ubuntu-22.04.x-live-server-amd64.iso.

Then, please create the USB installer using a USB memory and a tool like Balena Etcher.

Find further information about creating a bootable USB stick on Windows, Ubuntu or macOS.

Install Ubuntu

Follow the below steps to install the Ubuntu server on icub-head.

Please, note that the installation procedure can be slightly different in each release, you can see the Ubuntu server official install guide

Warning

The installation procedure will overwrite the disk of your icub-head, so all data will be deleted.

Ubuntu Installer configuration

Install the system by choosing the default options, except for the following steps:

Keyboard and language

  • Layout : US
  • Variant : US

Storage configuration

  • Disable the following option : Setup this disk as an LVM group

Identity

  • Your name : icub
  • Your Server's name : icub-head
  • Pick a username : icub
  • Choose a password : icub

SSH

  • Enable the following option : Install SSH server

Required Packages

Install the following packages 

nfs-common python-tk libopencv-dev ntpdate vim ssh cmake-curses-gui iperf libportaudio2 portaudio19-dev linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils gdb meld bmon libi2c-dev expect libgfortran-10-dev qml-module-qt-labs-folderlistmodel qml-module-qt-labs-settings

Low Latency kernel

Install the following packages 

linux-image-lowlatency linux-headers-lowlatency

Disable X server at startup

The x server is started automatically at startup by GDM, so please disable GDM 

sudo systemctl disable gdm

Configuration steps

SSH configuration

  1. Configure passwordless ssh: see this link
  2. Disable reverse DNS lookup in SSH server: add the following line to the file /etc/ssh/sshd_config 
    UseDNS no

Network performances tweaks

  1. Install the following packages 

    sudo apt install linux-image-lowlatency linux-headers-lowlatency

  2. Modify the real-time priority of the process, add the file /etc/security/limits.d/icub.conf as follows 

    icub    soft    rtprio    99
icub    hard    rtprio    99

  3. Set the max OS receive-buffer size for all types of connections, by adding the file /etc/sysctl.d/20-net-rbuffer.conf as follows 

    # This sets the max OS receive-buffer size for all types of connections
net.core.rmem_max=8388608

Customize the system

What now you need to do is to customize the installation with your hardware and environment (see the "Required configuration" paragraph in Networking, Bluetooth, User Environment chapters as well as Further Tasks chapter )