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The iCub Dedicated Server - Installation from scratch

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

Latest versions

The latest version is based on Ubuntu Server 20.04.2

Prerequisite

Please check that the BIOS configuration allows booting from a USB drive.

Create the USB installer

The first step is downloading the official Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Server install media from the release page. Search for ubuntu-20.04.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 system

Use the following details to install Ubuntu server on icub-server. You can find further details and guides on the official Ubuntu Server installation guide

Basic Info

  • Hostname : icub-srv
  • IP address : 10.0.0.1
  • Username : icub
  • Password : icub

Operative System

  • Installed OS : Ubuntu Server 20.04.2 LTS
  • Language : english
  • Country : Italy
  • Locale : en_US.UTF-8
  • Keyboard : english (US)
  • Hostname : icub-srv
  • Kernel version : 5.4.0-73-generic x86_64
  • Partions : single - 237Gb EXT4 (plus EFI)

Warning

Please disable LVM configuration during the partitioning step of the installation procedure

Network configuration

external connection

enp1s0:
  dhcp4: true
  dhcp6: false
  dhcp-identifier: mac
  optional: true

internal connection

enp2s0:
  dhcp4: false
  dhcp6: false
  addresses: [10.0.0.1/24]

configuration details

See file /etc/netplan/50-icub-srv.yaml for configuration details

Remove Cloud Init package

Remove cloud init package 

sudo apt purge cloud-guest-utils cloud-init cloud-initramfs-copymods cloud-initramfs-dyn-netconf

IP forwarding

To enable IP forwarding edit the file /etc/sysctl.conf by modifying the below line as follows 

net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1

Network Address Translation

The following IPTABLES rules enable the NAT 

sudo iptables --table nat --append POSTROUTING --out-interface enp1s0 -j MASQUERADE
sudo iptables --append FORWARD --in-interface enp2s0 --out-interface enp1s0 -j ACCEPT

Install the package iptables-persistent 

sudo apt install iptables-persistent

further details

See file /etc/iptables/rules.v4 for persistent rules details

DNS Server

Install package bind9 

sudo apt install bind9 bind9utils

further details

See configuration files in /etc/bind and /var/lib/bind for further details

Fix logging configuration

create the folder /var/log/bind/ and set correct ownership 

mkdir /var/log/bind/
chown bind:bind /var/log/bind/

DHCP Client

Edit the file /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf adding the following lines 

supersede domain-name "icub.local";
prepend domain-name-servers 127.0.0.1;

DHCP Server

Install package isc-dhcp-server 

sudo apt install isc-dhcp-server
Edit the file /etc/default/isc-dhcp-server as follows 
INTERFACESv4="enp2s0"

further details

See configurations files in /etc/dhcp for configuration details

Fix logging configuration

Create the folder /var/log/dhcpd/ and set correct ownerhip 

mkdir /var/log/dhcpd/
chown bind:bind /var/log/named/

RNDC fix

To fix the RNDC please use the following commands 

sudo cp /etc/bind/rndc.key /etc/dhcp/ddns-keys/
sudo chown root:root /etc/dhcp/ddns-keys/rndc.key
sudo chmod 640 /etc/dhcp/ddns-keys/rndc.key

AppArmor profiles update

In order to allow DCHPD and Bind services to read in write their configuration fields and logs, you should add some lines in the local apparmod configuration

  • /etc/apparmor.d/local/usr.sbin.dhcpd /var/log/dhcpd/** rw, /var/log/dhcpd/ rw, 
    - `/etc/apparmor.d/local/usr.sbin.named`
    /var/log/bind/** rw, /var/log/bind/ rw,

!!! note "further details" See configurations files in /etc/apparmo.d for configuration details

Logrotate configuration

You should add the lograte configuration for the log files from DHCPD and Bind service by adding the following files

  • /etc/logrotate.d/dhcpd 
    /var/log/dhcpd/dhcpd.log {
  rotate 4
  daily
  create
  compress
  missingok
  notifempty
}
  • /etc/logrotate.d/named 
    /var/log/bind/default.log
/var/log/bind/ddns.log
/var/log/bind/query.log
/var/log/bind/query-errors.log {
  rotate 4
  daily
  create
  compress
  missingok
  notifempty
},

Set correct timezone

Change the timezone to Europe/Rome 

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Rome /etc/localtime

NTP Server

Install the ntp package 

sudo apt install ntp
add the following lines to the file /etc/ntp.conf 
server 10.255.8.30
server 10.255.8.31
# the following lines make the server a master server
server          127.127.1.0 # local clock
fudge           127.127.1.0 stratum 10
broadcastdelay  0.008

NFS Server

The laptop hosts two directories and export them using nfs. Both of the are mounted by the other machines on the network, by the PC104 and by the laptop itself :

  • /exports/code - this contains the robot software sources such as YARP, iCub Software.
  • /local/yarp - this contains the YARP configuration files, shared by all the machine in the network

For this to work you need:

Install the package nfs-kernel-server 

sudo apt install nfs-kernel-server
Create the exports target paths and change ownership to icub user 
sudo mkdir -p /exports/code /exports/local_yarp
sudo chown icub:icub /exports/code
sudo chown icub:icub /exports/local_yarp
Edit the exports configuration file /etc/exports as follows 
/exports/code           10.0.0.0/255.255.255.0(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)
/exports/local_yarp     10.0.0.0/255.255.255.0(rw,sync,no_subtree_check)

Disable unattended-upgrades

In order to avoid automatic system updates you can edit the file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades by changing the following lines 

APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";
APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "0";

Alternatively you can uninstall the package unattended-upgrades as follows 

sudo apt remove unattended-upgrades

Customize the system

What now you need to do is to customize the installation with your hardware and environment