Sample VirtualBox setup of Ubuntu Desktop on a Windows host for web dev

ubuntu-on-vb.md

Basics

• Install Guest additions
• Setup Shared Folders
  • add your user to the vboxsf group. sudo adduser paul vboxsf
  • configure host shared folders, I usually share a sites folder, Docs and Downloads
  • not really sure why but in VB, the config for mount-point seems to have no effect at all
  • in Ubuntu, create the folders where you'll mount stuff
  • then mount
    • # mount -t vboxsf sites ~/win-sites
    • # mount -t vboxsf docs ~/win-docs
    • # mount -t vboxsf downs ~/win-downs
• Install Vim
• Install Git
  • # apt update
  • # apt install vim
  • # apt install git
• Install Visual Studio Code (based on Atom Editor?)

  • download deb file for x64 https://code.visualstudio.com/Download

  • do as below. replace with proper file name

    cd ~/Downloads
    sudo dpkg -i code_1.30.1-1545156774_amd64.deb
    

  • if you get an error due to missing deps, sudo apt --fix-broken install

  • In VS Code, I got error: Cannot validate since no PHP executable is installed...

  • I installed PHP: sudo apt install php but this by default includes packages like apache. I proceeded as we'll host things too.

  • Later, let's have Nginx installed too so we can play having the two.

  • Check if PHP is installed. php -v. Mine is 7.2.10

  • Try apache now. Go to your browser and visit: 127.0.0.1

  • I prefer working with Nginx so make sure to change apache to listen on 8090

Apache on port 8090

• # vim /etc/apache2/ports.conf

• I host sites on ~/sites. Doing so requires permissions

• gave save perms on the dir as orig www in apache2.conf

  <Directory /home/huenisys/sites/>
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Require all granted
  </Directory>
  

Some Tools

• sudo apt install net-tools
• allows you to run sudo netstat -tlpn. Confirm which port apache listens to.

tcp6       0      0 :::8090                 :::*                    LISTEN      15958/apache2