1) Install Ubuntu Server 12.04, during the install select "OpenSSH Server" so you can remote into the server with Putty.
2) Once the operating system is up and running, set up a static IP on the box.
sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces
Change this-
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
To your static ip-
auto eth01
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.3
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.0.0
broadcast 192.168.0.255
gateway 192.168.0.1
dns-search example.com
dns-nameservers 8.8.8.8 4.2.2.2
(You can omit the dns-search if you don't need a domain suffix,)
Simply restart your server or you can restart the networking with this command-
sudo ifdown eth0 && sudo ifup eth0
3) Update the OS.
sudo apt-get update
4) Update the sources.list to include the Unifi repository.
Open the file-
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
Add the following line at the bottom of the file.
Updated-
deb http://www.ubnt.com/downloads/unifi/debian stable ubiquiti
Updated-
deb http://www.ubnt.com/downloads/unifi/debian stable ubiquiti
#OLD- deb http://www.ubnt.com/downloads/unifi/distros/deb/ubuntu ubuntu ubiquiti
Hit <Control> <X> to exit and <Y> to save.
Add the GPG Key
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv C0A52C50
Update the OS again.
sudo apt-get update
5) Install Unifi using apt-get.
sudo apt-get install unifi
If you want the latest version do-
sudo apt-get install unifi-rapid
If you want the latest version do-
sudo apt-get install unifi-rapid
6) If Unifi doesn't start and says "Cannot locate Java Home", do the following-
Open the init script.
sudo nano /etc/init.d/unifi
Look for the variable "JAVA_HOME" and change the path to include the -amd64.
Change- JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk
To- JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-amd64
Hit <Control> <X> to exit and <Y> to save.
Attempt to start Unifi again.
sudo service unifi restart
7) Open the unifi controller by going to the IP of the box on port 8443 (with https:).
https://192.168.0.3:8443/
----
To upgrade to 5.0-
# out the old entry in /etc/apt/sources.list
Add-
deb http://www.ubnt.com/downloads/unifi/debian unifi5 ubiquiti
Then-
apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv C0A52C50
apt-get update
sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade unifi