Running MVC5 Applications on Ubuntu Server (14.04.1 LTS)

We will be following the steps outline in the Install Mono on Linux guide and the ASP.NET 5 Getting Started guide.

When I installed Mono, KVM, and KPM as described in the above guides, I ran in to a couple of issues. First, unzip was not installed, causing the kvm upgrade command to fail. Secondly, libtool was not found, yielding the following exception:

System.DllNotFoundException: libdl
  at (wrapper managed-to-native) Microsoft.AspNet.Server.Kestrel.Networking.PlatformApis/LinuxApis:dlopen (string,int)
  at Microsoft.AspNet.Server.Kestrel.Networking.PlatformApis+LinuxApis.LoadLibrary (System.String dllToLoad) [0x00000] in :0
  at Microsoft.AspNet.Server.Kestrel.Networking.Libuv.Load (System.String dllToLoad) [0x00000] in :0
  at Microsoft.AspNet.Server.Kestrel.KestrelEngine..ctor (ILibraryManager libraryManager) [0x00000] in :0
  at Kestrel.ServerFactory.Start (IServerInformation serverInformation, System.Func`2 application) [0x00000] in :0
  at Microsoft.AspNet.Hosting.HostingEngine.Start (Microsoft.AspNet.Hosting.HostingContext context) [0x00000] in :0
  at Microsoft.AspNet.Hosting.Program.Main (System.String[] args) [0x00000] in :0
  at (wrapper managed-to-native) System.Reflection.MonoMethod:InternalInvoke (System.Reflection.MonoMethod,object,object[],System.Exception&)
  at System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) [0x00000] in :0

Installing the libtool package fixed the issue. Lastly, once libtool was installed, I was greeted with this exception:

System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at Microsoft.AspNet.Server.Kestrel.Networking.Libuv.loop_size () [0x00000] in :0
  at Microsoft.AspNet.Server.Kestrel.Networking.UvLoopHandle.Init (Microsoft.AspNet.Server.Kestrel.Networking.Libuv uv) [0x00000] in :0
  at Microsoft.AspNet.Server.Kestrel.KestrelThread.ThreadStart (System.Object parameter) [0x00000] in :0

This was remedied by downloading, compiling, and installing libuv. In particular, libuv needs to be installed (or symlinked) to /usr/lib/libuv.so.1 for everything to work correctly.

So without further ado, here is a quick step-by-step guide to Running MVC5 applications on Ubuntu Server (14.04.1 LTS).

Install Mono

First, install Mono. These steps are pulled straight from the Install Mono on Linux guide.

language: sh
# Add the Xamarin public code-signing key
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 3FA7E0328081BFF6A14DA29AA6A19B38D3D831EF

# Add the Mono repository to apt sources
echo "deb http://download.mono-project.com/repo/debian wheezy main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-xamarin.list

# Install Mono
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y mono-complete

Install libtool, libuv, unzip and Their Dependencies

Next we install the rest of the dependencies.

language: sh
# Install other prerequisites
sudo apt-get install -y autoconf build-essential git-core libtool unzip

# Compile libuv
cd /opt
sudo git clone https://github.com/libuv/libuv.git
cd libuv
sudo ./autogen.sh
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install
sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libuv.so /usr/lib/libuv.so.1

autoconf, build-essential, and git-core are necessary to build and install libuv.

Install the K Version Manager and the K Runtime Environment

These steps are pulled from the ASP.NET 5 Getting Started guide.

language: sh
# Get the K Version Manager
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aspnet/Home/master/kvminstall.sh | sh && source ~/.kre/kvm/kvm.sh

# Install the runtime
kvm upgrage

All Done?

Here we could call it a day, since your Ubuntu system is now set up to run ASP.NET 5 applications. Why don't we follow through with the rest of the guide so we can see it working?

language: sh
# Obtain the ASP.NET 5 samples
git clone https://github.com/aspnet/Home.git ~/AspNetHome
cd ~/AspNetHome/samples/HelloMvc

# Get all of the .NET dependencies necessary to run the sample
kpm restore

# Run the sample
k kestrel

Here it is, running on my machine:

Running Kestrel

Working Sample