How To Install NCTUNS on Fedora 12 using Virtual Box

When you try installing NCTUNS on your Linux system, there are possibilities that you may encounter several dependency errors in the process. Also you might not be a Fedora rooter like me and you might not want it installed as an OS on a separate partition. Here I present a guide that serves a purpose for installing NCTUNS over Fedora on a Widows/Linux Virtual box host machine.

Alrighty then, lets begin -

The Requisites -

 1. Virtual Box  - Download Virtual Box from here. depending on the operating system you are using.

2. Fedora 12  - The link to it - Click To Download.

3. NCTUNS v6.0 - You do not need to download this for now. Download it later, after you install fedora. The link to it - Click To Download.

We now have the necessary requisites. The next steps involve following them carefully one after the other.

Step 1 -  Run VirtualBox and click on New to create a new virtual machine.

Step 2 –  Click Next To Continue.

Step 3 –  Assign the name to your Virtual Machine as ‘Fedora‘ and the OS type as

‘Linux‘.

Step 4 –  Set the memory size for the virtual machine. I used 2GB. Click onNext to continue.

Step 5 –  Click on Next to create a new virtual disk.

Step 6. Create New Virtual Disk Wizard starts, click on Next to continue.

Step 7 – Select Dynamically expanding storage and click on Next to continue.

Step 8 – Specify a location for the disk image and size. If your system drive is low on space, you might want to use a different drive. Click onNext to continue.

Step 9 – Click on Finish to finish creating a new virtual disk.

Step 10 – Click on Finish to finish creating of the new virtual machine.

Step 11 – Now back to the main windows of VirtualBox with the newly created virtual machine for Fedora. Double click on CD/DVD-ROM. Note that a lot of features are turned off by default. If you want to change the settings, click on Settings to modify them.

Step 12 – Check Mount CD/DVD Drive and select ISO Image File.Click on the folder

icon.

Step 13 – Click on the Add icon to locate the iso image you downloaded. Click on Select and you will be brought back to the dialog in previous step. Click on OK.

Step 14 – Click on Start icon in the upper left corner to start installation.

Step 15 – Click anywhere inside the virtual machine window, so that you can use your keyboard and mouse inside the virtual machine. If you ever want to release the mouse and keyboard from the virtual machine, press right Ctrl key. Double click on Install to Hard Drive.

Step 16 – The installer runs. Click on Next.

Step 17 – Select the language and click on Next.

Step 18 – A warning dialog shows. Click on Re-intialize drive to continue.

Step 19 – Set a hostname and click on Next.

Step 20 – Select a time zone and click on Next.

Step 21 – Enter root’s password and click on Next.

Step 22 – Use the default scheme for partitioning. Click on Next.

Step 23 – A confirmation dialog shows. Click on Write changes to disk.

Step 24 – The installer copies the live image to the virtual disk. When the installation is done. Click on Close.

Step 25 – When the virtual machine is in the shutdown state. We want to un-mount the Live CD, so the virtual machine won’t boot to it again. Double click on CD/DVD-ROM and uncheck Mount CD/DVD Drive. Please see the screenshots for step 11 and 12.

Step 26 – Start the virtual machine.

Step 27 – When the VM boots up the first time, a setup wizard runs. Click on Forward.

Step 28 – Click on Forward.

Step 29 – Create a user, enter a password of your choice  and click on Forward.

Step 30 – Click on Network Time Protocol and check Enable Network Time Protocol. Click on Forward.

Step 31 – Click on Finish.

The installation process for Fedora completes here. Now we shall begin installing the NCTUNS client.

Step 32 – Download NCTUNS from the link mentioned at the start of this blog under the Requisites section. Place it in the Downloads folder and   extract it.

Step 33 – Open a terminal and browse to the Downloads folder using the cd command and then enter the NCTUns-6.0 folder.

Step 34 – Open a terminal and type ‘su’. When asked for the password enter your root password(the password you had set in step 21).

Step 35 – When you have the root access, type in the following command in the terminal -

yum groupinstall “Development Libraries” “Development Tools” “Legacy Software Development”

Step 36 – Next after the group install is done, type in the following command -
yum install mkinitrd -y 

Step 37 – Install the xterm rpmfile -
yum install xterm

Step 38 – Now you have all the required dependency files and you shouldn’t face any errors while installing NCTUns. Type in the following cmd -

./install.sh

Its going to take a while until the above command finishes executing.

Step 39 – You must now configure your shell preferences to include the NCTUns environment variables. Add these lines to the file /home/user/.bashrc by simply typing the following commands.

export NCTUNSHOME=/usr/local/nctuns
export NCTUNS_TOOLS=$NCTUNSHOME/tools
export NCTUNS_BIN=$NCTUNSHOME/bin
export PATH=${NCTUNS_BIN}:${PATH}

Step 40 – That is it. You are done with installing NCTUNS. Now restart Fedora.

Step 41 – In order to start using the nctunscleint, open a new terminal and gain root access by typing ‘su’ and then entering your root password.

Type in the following cmds.

source /usr/local/nctuns/etc/nctuns.bash
dispatcher

Step 42 – Leave the terminal running and open a new terminal to start the coordinator.

Type in the following cmds.

source /usr/local/nctuns/etc/nctuns.bash
coordinator

Step 43 – Open another terminal and type in the following cmd to get nctunclient running.

source /usr/local/nctuns/etc/nctuns.bash
nctunsclient

Please note – You need to repeat steps 41, 42 and 43 every time you start nctuns.

Cheers, you now have NCTUns installed in your system. Leave your queries in the comments section and I’ll try resolving them.