Install Ubuntu 16.04 Server

Ubuntu 16.04 is the new upcoming long term support server release from Ubuntu. The final version is expected to be released April 21st 2016, almost a month and a half from now. Ubuntu 16.04 features the kernel 4.4 , PHP 7 with Apache 2.4.x, etc. In this tutorial I will go through step by step on how to install Ubuntu 16.04 server on a physical server or VM.

Getting the ISO image

Before April 21st, you can get the daily server image from this URL . After April 21st you can download the server image from the Ubuntu official website at this URL .  If you are installing the server on a physical server, you need to burn the ISO image to a CD or USB drive ( Yupe! Ubuntu server 16.04 still fits in a CD-RW )   I’m using a Hyper-V VM for this tutorial.

When you first boot from the Ubuntu 16.04 image you get the “choose” language screen:

image

Choose your language, and hit Enter then choose the first option “Install Ubuntu Server”

Ubuntu 16.04 Install server

Choose the Language again:

Ubuntu 16.04 choose language

Select your location:

Ubuntu 16.04 - Location

Choose No when detecting the keyboard layout:

Ubuntu 16.04 - Keyboard Layout

Enter the host name:

Ubuntu 16.04 - Host name

Enter the user’s full name:

full name

Enter username:

Enter username

then enter the password ( the show password is clear option is new in Ubuntu. I haven’t seen that option before )

Enter password

Choose if you want to encrypt the user home drive partition. I normally choose no:

encrypt home drive

Choose the time zone:

configure clock

 

Partition your disks. I normally just choose to use the entire disk in one partition for these tutorials, but you might have different needs. Setup your disk partitions accordingly.

use entire disk

After you setup the partitions, the server installation should begin.

install the system

eventually you will get to the “Software selection” screen. I normally install the OpenSSH server, and this time I will install the LAMP stack to see what version of MySQL, Apache, and PHP is in this release:

choose packages

Install the GRUB Boot:

install grub boot

Conclusion

It seems like the installation process for Ubuntu server 16.04 is almost the same as in previous releases so there is nothing new here. I was expecting to see some new changes, but taking into account this is a LTS release they kept it very conservative.