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Install Ubuntu Server and Samba on the ODROID-HC1

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The ODROID-HC1 is a simplified version of the ODROID-XU4 single-board computer that has been designed for use as a small headless server. It includes a built-in SATA connector and comes mounted in a stackable aluminum frame that acts both as a heat sink for the CPU and as a mount point for a 2.5" hard drive or SSD.

ODROID-HC1 with U.S. quarter for scale

Software options include Android, Ubuntu, Armbian, Open Media Vault (OMV) and several others, but I used the minimal build of Ubuntu Server 18.04. Armbian probably makes system configuration easier, and OMV provides a full NAS solution, but I stopped looking after installing Ubuntu Server because it was simple to set up and did exactly what I needed.

Installation

  1. Download the latest Ubuntu 18.04 (MINIMAL, BARE OS) image from the ODROID Ubuntu Kernel 4.14 repository and burn it to a microSD card using Etcher.

    Burn the Ubuntu image to the microSD card using Etcher

  2. Install the microSD card in the device with the pins down and label up, then plug in the LAN cable followed by the power cable. The red, green and blue LEDs should all light up as the machine boots, and then the blue LED should flash as the OS loads. According to the XU4 manual, there may be something wrong with the SD card or the image itself if the blue LED doesn’t flash. Make sure the card is properly seated and reburn the image or switch cards if necessary.

  3. The release notes indicate that the first cold boot might take more than 5 minutes, depending on the microSD card and installed OS. After a few minutes, run ipscan or check the DHCP reservations list on the router to find the IP address that has been assigned to the ODROID device. In my case, the router assigned 192.168.0.110.

  4. Eventually, it should be possible to SSH into the IP assigned to the device as the root user (ssh root@IP) with the default password (odroid). Depending on the network setup, it might also be possible to use the device name (odroid) instead of the IP address. 

    λ ssh root@odroid
[...]
    λ ssh root@192.168.0.110
The authenticity of host '192.168.0.110 (192.168.0.110)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:UAop+TyiXAVFgOlJMkLqiLzjLNYlFrOMgf03RMj0vKw.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added '192.168.0.110' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
root@192.168.0.110's password:
Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.14.85-152 armv7l)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage

The programs included with the Ubuntu system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Ubuntu comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
applicable law.

  5. Update the system. 

    root@odroid:~# apt update
[...]

root@odroid:~# apt -y full-upgrade
[...]

Create a regular user

  1. To avoid using the root user, create a regular user and add it to the sudo group.

    root@odroid:~# adduser ccammack
Adding user `ccammack' ...
Adding new group `ccammack' (1000) ...
Adding new user `ccammack' (1000) with group `ccammack' ...
Creating home directory `/home/ccammack' ...
Copying files from `/etc/skel' ...
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
Changing the user information for ccammack
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
        Full Name []:
        Room Number []:
        Work Phone []:
        Home Phone []:
        Other []:
Is the information correct? [Y/n] y

root@odroid:~# usermod -aG sudo ccammack

  2. Switch to the new user and make sure it can use sudo. 

    root@odroid:~# su - ccammack
To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.

ccammack@odroid:~$ ls -a /root
ls: cannot open directory '/root': Permission denied

ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo ls -a /root
[sudo] password for ccammack:
.  ..  .bash_history  .bashrc  .cache  .gnupg  .local  .profile  .wget-hsts

  3. Exit the regular user, lock the root account and log out. 

    ccammack@odroid:~$ exit
logout

root@odroid:~# passwd -dl root
passwd: password expiry information changed.

root@odroid:~# exit
logout
Connection to 192.168.0.110 closed.

  4. Log back in again as the regular user. 

    λ ssh ccammack@192.168.0.110
ccammack@192.168.0.110's password:
Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.14.94-155 armv7l)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage

Last login: Sat Feb  2 10:14:13 2019 from 192.168.0.103

Assign a static IP to the device (optional)

  1. This step is not required for most situations, but I needed it for my application. Select an unused local IP address (192.168.0.254) and use the ip command to find the name of the ethernet device (eth0).

    ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo ip a
[sudo] password for ccammack:
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:1e:06:32:61:96 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.0.110/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global dynamic noprefixroute eth0
       valid_lft 3068935748sec preferred_lft 3068935748sec
    inet6 fe80::7285:ef8e:8d70:92bc/64 scope link noprefixroute
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

  2. The default netplan configuration file for Ubuntu Server 18.04 is /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml. Edit the file and enter these settings for eth0: 

    network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    eth0:
      dhcp4: no
      dhcp6: no
      addresses: [192.168.0.254/24]
      gateway4: 192.168.0.1
      nameservers:
        addresses: [9.9.9.9,192.168.0.1]
    For example, using nano to edit the configuration file looks like this. When finished, press Ctrl-S to save and Ctrl-X to exit.

    ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo nano /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml
    Edit netplan configuration using nano

  3. Apply the network configuration changes using netplan, which will hang for several seconds and then reset the connection. Log back in again using the new static IP address. 

    ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo netplan apply
Connection reset by 192.168.0.110 port 22

λ ssh ccammack@192.168.0.254
The authenticity of host '192.168.0.254 (192.168.0.254)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:UAop+TyiXAVFgOlJMkLqiLzjLNYlFrOMgf03RMj0vKw.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added '192.168.0.254' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.
ccammack@192.168.0.254's password:
Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.14.94-155 armv7l)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage

Last login: Sun Feb  3 03:14:56 2019 from 192.168.0.103

Partition and format the SATA drive

  1. Find the name of the SATA drive (/dev/sda) using fdisk -l.

    ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[...]
Disk /dev/sda: 298.1 GiB, 320072933376 bytes, 625142448 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 33553920 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xdca13c75

  2. Run fdisk on that drive and use the d command a few times to delete any existing partitions.

    ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.31.1).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.

Command (m for help): d
Selected partition 1
Partition 1 has been deleted.

Command (m for help): d
No partition is defined yet!
Could not delete partition 4846342

  3. Use the n and p commands to create a new primary partition with default settings and allow fdisk to clean up old drive artifacts if it finds any. 

    Command (m for help): n
Partition type
   p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
   e   extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1):
First sector (2048-625142447, default 2048):
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-625142447, default 625142447):

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 298.1 GiB.
Partition #1 contains a ext4 signature.

Do you want to remove the signature? [Y]es/[N]o: y

The signature will be removed by a write command.

  4. Make sure the new partition’s type is set to 83 (Linux). 

    Command (m for help): t
Selected partition 1
Hex code (type L to list all codes): 83
Changed type of partition 'Linux' to 'Linux'.

  5. Write the new partition with w. 

    Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.

  6. Run fdisk -l again and note that /dev/sda now contains a new Linux partitition called /dev/sda1. 

    ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 298.1 GiB, 320072933376 bytes, 625142448 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 33553920 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xdca13c75

Device     Boot Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1        2048 625142447 625140400 298.1G 83 Linux

  7. Format the new partition using mkfs, which may take some time to to finish. 

    ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sda1
mke2fs 1.44.1 (24-Mar-2018)
Creating filesystem with 78142550 4k blocks and 19537920 inodes
Filesystem UUID: 64f39c2a-d55e-4580-9570-b28df4410e78
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
        4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616

Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (262144 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

Automatically mount the SATA drive at startup

  1. Use blkid to display the partition’s UUID and copy it for use in the next step.

    ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo blkid /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1: UUID="64f39c2a-d55e-4580-9570-b28df4410e78" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="dca13c75-01"

  2. Create a mount point for the partition (/media/hdd). Append the partition’s settings to the end of /etc/fstab so that it will be initialized properly when mounted. Use the mount command to mount the partition manually and make sure that it does using the df command. Change the owner of the mount point to the recently added user.

    ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo mkdir -p /media/hdd
ccammack@odroid:~$ echo 'UUID=64f39c2a-d55e-4580-9570-b28df4410e78 /media/hdd ext4 defaults 0 2' | sudo tee --append /etc/fstab > /dev/null
ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda1
ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo df -h /media/hdd
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1       293G   65M  278G   1% /media/hdd

ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo chown -R ccammack:ccammack /media/hdd

Set up Samba to access the drive from other machines

  1. Install Samba. 

    ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo apt -y install samba
[...]

  2. Edit the Samba configuration file (/etc/samba/smb.conf) and add the new mount point and user info to the bottom of the file. 

    # odroid sata drive
[data]
path = /media/hdd
valid users = ccammack
force group = ccammack
create mask = 0660
directory mask = 0771
read only = no
    For example, using nano to edit the configuration file looks like this. When finished, press Ctrl-S to save and Ctrl-X to exit.

    ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf
    Edit Samba configuration using nano

  3. Restart the Samba server. 

    ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/smbd restart
[ ok ] Restarting smbd (via systemctl): smbd.service.

  4. Samba uses a different password database than the one used by the system, so run the smbpasswd command to set the Samba password for the user. For my application, I used the same password for both system login and Samba access. 

    ccammack@odroid:~$ sudo smbpasswd -a ccammack
New SMB password:
Retype new SMB password:
Added user ccammack.

Browse the Samba share

  1. It should now be possible to use the File Explorer to browse the Samba share using the device’s name (\\ODROID\data) or IP address (\\192.168.0.254\data). Enter the user name and Samba password when requested.

    Browse a Samba share using File Explorer

  2. It should also be possible to use a web browser to access the files using using the device’s name (file://odroid/data/) or IP address (file://192.168.0.254/data/).

    Browse a Samba share using a web browser