Setting up an Intel Mini PC Linux Box for Automation

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The following steps were used in a POC to setup an Intel Mini PC as a Linux box to execute automation.

Mini PC Details

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BVLS7ZHP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

Beelink S12 Pro Mini PC, Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake- N100(up to 3.4GHz), 16GB DDR4 RAM 500GB PCIe SSD, Desktop Computer Support 4K Dual Display/USB3.2/WiFi 6/BT5.2/Gigabit Ethernet for Home/Office

Product Details: https://www.bee-link.com/catalog/product/index?id=434

Model: Mini S12 Pro

Processor: Intel N100

Clock: 3.4 Ghz

Cores: 4

RAM: 16 Gigs (DDR4 3200 Mhz - Single Channel)

Storage: 500 Gigs PCIe SSD

Wifi: 6 802.11ax (600 Mbps)

Bluetooth: 5.2

Ethernet: 1 Gigabit

Size: 4.5" x 4.5" x 1.54"

Video: HDMI x2

How to make a bootable USB Drive

Ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dalAJalZYDY

F7 on boot to select Boot Drive

How do I install a Linux OS on this Mini PC?

You need to make a bootable USB Drive

How do I make a bootable USB Drive?

Find a USB Drive

  1. Connect the USB drive to your Mac
  2. Open Disk Utility
  3. Erase USB Drive choosing either the exFAT or FAT32 format
  4. Download Linux ISO
  5. diskutil list
    1. Locate your USB drive in the list and note its identifier (e.g., disk2).
  6. diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX
    1. Unmount the USB Drive: Replace diskX with your actual drive identifier
  7. sudo dd if=/path/to/iso of=/dev/rdiskX bs=1m
    1. Write the ISO to the USB Drive: Use the dd command to write the ISO file to your USB drive. Replace /path/to/iso with the path to your ISO file and diskX with your drive identifier:
    2. Note: Using /dev/rdiskX instead of /dev/diskX may result in faster data transfer as it uses raw mode.
  8. diskutil eject /dev/diskX
    1. Eject the USB Drive: After the process is complete, eject the USB drive

Which architecture supports the N100 Intel

amd64

Which Linux Distro should I install?

- Should support Chrome

- Java 21

A: Debian Bookworm and Ubuntu

Ensure local user is in sudoers file

Switch to the root user

su - root

Enter Password

Update sudo users

sudo visudo

Look for the following.

# User privilege specification

root ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

Add the following below these lines

yourusername ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

Save changes.

Reboot

Ensure network connectivity and update all software

Launch Firefox to ensure connecting to web.

Mac - Making hidden files visible

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles true

killall Finder

Ensure apt is up to date

sudo apt update

Install SSH

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

Start the SSH Server

sudo systemctl start ssh

Enable SSH to start on boot

sudo systemctl enable ssh

On another system launch a terminal

type sss username@ipaddress

You might get a message like this

The authenticity of host 'ipaddress (ipaddress)' can't be established. ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:sdlaslhashdalsdnlaksdlkajsldja This key is not known by any other names Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?

Type "Yes"

If you get an error like this

Warning: Permanently added '192.168.1.242' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts. ssh_dispatch_run_fatal: Connection to 192.168.1.242 port 22: Broken pipe

Try authenticating again to the SSH server.

You should see a message like this

Linux vmdebian12masterv01 6.1.0-20-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.85-1 (2024-04-11) x86_64

Which means you've authenticated into the remote server.

Then you are done with the SSH session simply type exit

Install Synology Guest Tool

apt-get install qemu-guest-agent

Install Dask to Dock

This will ensure the dash (known as the DOck on Mac) will be displayed all the time

sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-dashtodock -y

Reboot

After restarting, search for “Extensions” in the “Activities” overview.

In the “Extensions” tab, activate “Dash to Dock”.

Click on the gear icon left of the activation slide switch to change position.

Installing curl

sudo apt  install curl

Installing git

sudo apt install git

Installing ZShell

Check the current shell echo $0

sudo apt install zsh

sudo chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh (Change to default shell)

Installing Oh-My-ZShell

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Installing Oh-My-ZShell - Plugin - Syntax Highlighting

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting

Add the following to the .zshrc file plugins=(git zsh-syntax-highlighting)

Refresh the shell source ~/.zshrc

Installing Audio Events Module

sudo apt-get install libcanberra-gtk-module

Installing netstat

sudo apt install net-tools

Setting x11 (Xorg) as your desktop environment

sudo nano /etc/gdm3/custom.conf

In the custom.conf file, look for the line that reads #WaylandEnable=false.

If the line is commented out (with a # at the beginning), uncomment it by removing the #.

This will disable Wayland and enable X11 as the default display server.

  1. Reboot your system
  2. Check x11 is now your desktop

echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE You should see x11

Installing RealVNC on Ubuntu 22

  1. Open Firefox
  2. Download RealVNC
    1. https://downloads.realvnc.com/download/file/vnc.files/VNC-Server-7.10.0-Linux-x64.deb
  3. Install RealVNC
    1. sudo dpkg -i VNC-Server-7.10.0-Linux-x64.deb
  4. Start and Enable RealVNC Services
    1. sudo systemctl enable --now vncserver-virtuald.service
    2. sudo systemctl enable --now vncserver-x11-serviced.service
  5. Set the VNC Password
    1. vncpasswd -user
    2. sudo systemctl restart vncserver-x11-serviced.service (This restarts the service)
  6. Verify RealVNC is up and running
    1. systemctl status vncserver-x11-serviced.service
    2. systemctl status vncserver-virtuald.service
  7. Troubleshooting
    1. sudo systemctl status vncserver-x11-serviced.service
    2. sudo systemctl status vncserver-virtuald.service
    3. sudo netstat -tulpn
    4. netstat -tulpn | grep :5999 (Check that RealVNC is listening on port 5999)
    5. I found if trying to connect to the machine via RealVNC viewer, if it was requesting a user ID, I had to log into RealVNC website and confirm my identity which did require an email to confirm. Once that was done I no longer had to provide a user ID.
  8. Working !!!

Uninstall RealVNC

  1. Remove the RealVNC server package
    1. sudo apt remove realvnc-vnc-server
  2. Remove any configuration files associated with RealVNC
    1. sudo apt purge realvnc-vnc-server
  3. Check for and remove any systemd service files
    1. sudo systemctl disable vncserver-virtuald.service
    2. sudo systemctl disable vncserver-x11-serviced.service

Installing Google Chrome

wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

sudo apt install ./google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

Installing Java 21

sudo apt install openjdk-21-jdk

Check installed version

java -version

Installing Java 21 (Alternate)

wget https://download.oracle.com/java/21/latest/jdk-21_linux-x64_bin.deb

sudo dpkg -i jdk-21_linux-x64_bin.deb

Check installed version

java -version

Installing Maven 3

sudo apt install maven

Check installed version

mvn -version

Installing Allure

wget https://github.com/allure-framework/allure2/releases/download/2.27.0/allure_2.27.0-1_all.deb

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install default-jre-headless

sudo apt --fix-broken install

sudo apt-get install default-jre-headless

sudo dpkg -i ./allure_2.27.0-1_all.deb

allure --version

Installing VSCode

Install the dependencies

sudo apt install software-properties-common apt-transport-https wget

Import the Microsoft GPG key

wget -qO- https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/microsoft.gpg > /dev/null

Enable the Visual Studio Code repository

echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/microsoft.gpg] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list

Update the package index

sudo apt update

Install Visual Studio Code

sudo apt install code

GitHub - Check if SSH key already exists

Review any existing SSH keys.

ls -al ~/.ssh

Look for any of the following filenames:

id_rsa.pub

id_ecdsa.pub

id_ed25519.pub

If you see any of these files, it means you already have an existing SSH key pair associated with GitHub.

Test the SSH connection.

ssh -T git@github.com

GitHub - Remove SSH Key

Review any existing SSH keys.

ls -al ~/.ssh

Remove GitHub SSH key

rm ~/.ssh/id_rsa

GitHub - Set up SSH Key

Generate SSH key pair.

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "greg@gregpaskal.com"

Accept the default file location. (/home/username/.ssh/id_rsa)

Accept the default passphrase (empty for no passphrase) (x2)

This should generate a key fingerprint. (Looks something like the following.)

SHA256:sdhskdjfhskjdfkjsdhfkjsdfksdfkjsdhfkjshdfkshdfkshdfkjh myemail@email.com

It should also generate a key's randomart image.

+---[RSA 4096]----+

(a bunch of stuff here)

+----[SHA256]-----+

Start the ssh-agent in the background.

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

Add your SSH private key to it.

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

View the contents of your public key file.

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Copy this content to the clipboard.

Go to GitHub

https://github.com/settings/keys

Click on New SSH key.

Provide the following details.

Title: VM Debian SSH Key

Key type: Authentication Key

Paste your key into the key field.

Click Add SSH key.

(You might have to authenticate your GitHub account.)

To test that your SSH key is working, do the following.

ssh -T git@github.com

You will likely see the following message.

This key is not known by any other names. Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])?

Type Yes

You should get something like this if it's working.

Hi gregpaskal! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.


GitHub - GitHub repo

git clone git@github.com:MurahoTraining/Automation-JAV-SwagLabs.git

The repo should now be cloned.

Set JAVA_HOME variable

Find where Java is installed

echo $(dirname $(dirname $(readlink -f $(which javac))))

You're likely to see an entry like this

/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-21-oracle-x64


Check if JAVA_HOME already exist in ~/.bashrc

grep 'export JAVA_HOME' ~/.bashrc

Open ~/.bashrc and paste the following in near the other export settings

# Java Home

export JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-21-oracle-x64"

Then run

source ~/.bashrc

Check if JAVA_HOME already exist in ~/.zshrc

grep 'export JAVA_HOME' ~/.zshrc

Open ~/.zshrc and paste the following in near the other export settings

# Java Home

export JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-21-oracle-x64"

Then run

source ~/.zshrc

Install Jenkins

sudo apt-get update

Add the Jenkins repository key to your system

sudo wget -O /usr/share/keyrings/jenkins-keyring.asc https://pkg.jenkins.io/debian-stable/jenkins.io.key

Add the Jenkins repository to your system

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/jenkins-keyring.asc] https://pkg.jenkins.io/debian-stable binary/" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jenkins.list > /dev/null

Install Jenkins

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install jenkins

Start and enable the Jenkins service

sudo systemctl start jenkins

sudo systemctl enable jenkins

Get the initial admin password

sudo cat /var/lib/jenkins/secrets/initialAdminPassword

Which will look something like this

745154e83e374313ba8f6c0a23e119a1

Access Jenkins

http://192.168.1.233:8080

Enter password discovered above (Remember you will need to change this)

Jenkins - Getting Started

Install suggested plugins

This will take a while and will get everything installed

Create first admin user

Username

Password

etc...


Installing Apache

sudo apt update

sudo apt install apache2

Check Apache status

sudo systemctl status apache2

You should see active (running) if Apache is running.

Test that Apache is serving HTML content

In a browser, go to http://192.168.1.youripaddress

The Apache2 Default Page should come up.

Installing MySQL

sudo apt install default-mysql-server

If asked if you want to secure your MySQL installation answer "Yes"

Check MySQL service is running

sudo systemctl status mysql

You should see active (running) if MySQL is running.

Installing PHP

sudo apt install php libapache2-mod-php php-mysql

To test PHP installation, let create a basic test page for PHP.

sudo nano /var/www/html/info.php

<?php

phpinfo();

?>

In a browser, go to http://192.168.1.youripaddress/info.php

You should now see the PHP info page come up.

Installing Wordpress

cd /tmp

Download the latest version of Wordpress

wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz

Extract WordPress to the /var/www/html/ directory

tar xzvf latest.tar.gz

Move these files to the HTMl Directory

sudo cp -a /tmp/wordpress/. /var/www/html/

Configure the MySQL Database

sudo mysql

You will now be in the MySQL Shell

database_name = Your desired database name (wordpress01) username = Your desired username (wpdbuser) password = Your desired password (wpdbpassword)

CREATE DATABASE database_name DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci; GRANT ALL ON database_name.* TO 'username'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; EXIT;

Configure WordPress by making a copy of the sample configuration.

cd /var/www/html/

sudo cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php

Modify the configuration file

sudo nano wp-config.php

replace 'database_name_here', 'username_here', and 'password_here' with your database name, username, and password. then save changes and exit nano.

Set Permissions

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/

sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/

Remove index.html file if necessary

sudo rm /var/www/html/index.html

Run the Wordpress installation from your Web browser

In a browser, go to http://192.168.1.youripaddress

Configure your new WordPress installation

How do I copy and paste between Mac and a VM running Debian Linux

Open Virtual Machine Manager

Select a virtual machine

Select Action -> Edit

Select Other

Set Additional ISO File to Synology_VMM_Guest_Tool

Click OK button

Power on the VM

Click "Connect"

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