Preparing Ubuntu installation

Before you install IBM® WebSphere® Application Server on Ubuntu, you must prepare the operating system.

Before you begin

For information about the WebSphere Application Server offerings that support Ubuntu on the POWER® Little Endian (LE) architecture, see WebSphere Application Server product offerings for supported operating systems.

Some WebSphere Application Server components have prerequisites that might not be available by default on all operating system installations.

Verify that the system prerequisites are installed.
- To install packages needed for 64-bit graphical components of the product on all architectures, run the following command:
```
apt-get install libxtst6 libgtk2.0-0 libxft2
```
- To install additional packages for Edge Caching Proxy, 32-bit IBM HTTP Server, and WebSphere Configuration Tool graphical user interface on the x86_64 architecture, run the following command:
```
dpkg --add-architecture i386
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get install libxtst6 libgtk2.0-0 libc6:i386 libgcc1:i386 libgtk2.0-0:i386 \ libstdc++6:i386 libxft2 libxft2:i386 libxtst6:i386
```
- To install additional packages required for Edge Caching Proxy, 32-bit IBM HTTP Server, or the WebSphere Configuration Tool on the s390x architecture, run the following command:
```
apt install libc6-s390 lib32gcc-s1 rpm
```
Optional: Change the default shell to bash by running the following command and choosing no.
```
dpkg-reconfigure dash
```
For Ubuntu on POWER Little Endian (LE), review the following platform-specific limitations:
- IBM Installation Manager Version 1.8.0 or later is required.
- WebSphere Configuration Tools, including the Profile Management Tool, are supported in command-line only mode.
- Edge Caching Proxy is not supported on this architecture.
- Load Balancer for IPv4 and IPv6 components Content Based Routing (CBR) and Site Selector are not supported.