13 Things to do immediately after installing Ubuntu
In this article i describe some of the things to do immediately after installing ubuntu on your machine . Since most of the people reading this would be shifting from Windows to Linux with a system dual booting so i would focus more on making transition easy from Windows to Linux.
1. Enabling/Adding Extra Repositories
Ubuntu comes by default with only some of the repositories enabled because of licensing issue since downloading certain codecs and apps may be illegal in some countries so you have to enable these repositories/add new repositories to enable installation of these packages.
To enable new repositories go to (System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager ) , type in the root password .Then Go to (Settings -> Repositories ), there enable all the check-boxes to enable all the repositories you need .
Also for installing some apps extra repositories are needed since they are not in the default repositories so go to third Party and add the following there
After doing this exit Synaptic Package Manager Fire up Console and type the following command to import GPG keys .
After doing this your system should be ready for installing extra application.
2. Installing ntfs-3g
ntfs-3g this is necessary if you have a ntfs drive in your computer ( Usually Windows XP installs on NTFS drive) and you want to read and write data to the drive you have to install this .
This can be installed as following type the following at the command prompt
Then type the following command
This is automatic configuration of ntfs-3g , enable read , write support and it should be configured.
these commands would back up fstab file if configuration goes wrong.
Now one more thing you want your windows (NTFS) drive to be mounted automatically add the following entries to /etc/fstab
/media/ this is just the directory you want to use as a mount point where windows drive would be mounted , you can very well use any drive you like.
now Restart ubuntu your windows partition should be working well.
3. Making Windows see your Linux partition
Windows XP lacks support for reading and writing files to Linux file system however external utilities like free Ext2 File system for windows allows Windows XP to read and write files to a Ext2 , Ext3 file system however ReiserFS file system is not supported .
You can get Ext2 file system for windows at the following link : -
(www.fs-driver.org/download.htm)
4. Installing flash-plugin
Macromedia Flash player is not installed by default but since we would be surely needing it while browing the net , installing it is necessary
it can be installed by following command
5. Installing Microsoft True Type Fonts
If you are making a jump from windows to ubuntu you would surely miss the true type fonts that Windows uses , since Microsoft has released them free so they can be installed without a hitch in ubuntu (Though not distributed with Ubuntu) .
6. Installing unrar
RAR is one of the very widely used archives on Windows , however unrar tool to decompress RAR is not shipped with distribution and has ti be installed manually.
7. Installing mpg123
mpg123 is a very nice command line based mp3 player that can play mp3 files even on a slow processor based computer , further installing this provides a way of playing mp3 files from within the nautilus file manager . Hence i recommend installing mpg123
8. Installing Adobe Reader
Though ubuntu comes with default evince reader for viewing pdf files , but i am sure you would like to use more complete version of pdf reader Adobe Reader 7.0 which is quiet professional and
more robust , the Linux version of Adobe Reader 8.0 has not been released but the version 7.0 is available and could be downloaded from the following website : -
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=10&platform=unix
9. Installing DVD playback support
Now this is a contentious issue , in some countries playing DVD files through DEcss is illegal so use it at your own will , anyways to enable dvd playback issue the following command at the command line : -
Note : the above commands would only work if you have added the repositories i had mentioned before the Seveas repositories.
However if you do not have these Repositories installed issue the following command to install the DVD playback support : -
10 . Installing the extra multimedia codecs,players
Now you would surely want to install all the codecs for playing various media files and the players primarily xine,vlc,mplayer issue the following commands to install the multimedia codecs.
This command would install most of the codecs for gstreamer multimedia architecture and vlc media player and Mplayer , as well as the dll files codec (w32codecs) for decoding various files whoose open source decoder are not available.
11. Updating the system
After installing Ubuntu you would surely like to update the system so that all the packages on the system are up to date to new version of the software .
It can be done by following steps , go to (System > Administration > Update Manager)
Now press the Check button and then Install updates to start the installation of updates to the ubuntu system.
12 . Installing beagle
Now Ubuntu does not come with beagle pre-installed maybe because it is still not a final 1.0 release still it is very nice and efficient for searching files and directories on Linux providing features similar to Google Desktop Search and Mac OS Spotlight anyways to install beagle issue the following command at command line :
13. Installing gdesklets
gdesklets gives user a collection of impressive widgets that can be placed on desktop this is similar to feature available on Windows Vista and Mac OS X , it does provide quite a good look to the desktop.
To install gdesklets issue the following command at the command line
after installation go to (System -> Preferences -> Sessions) There go to Start up program and add gdesklets shell , now every time gnome loads up you should see your gdesklets on the desktop.
This is how my desktop looked like with all the desklets (Widgets )
1. Enabling/Adding Extra Repositories
Ubuntu comes by default with only some of the repositories enabled because of licensing issue since downloading certain codecs and apps may be illegal in some countries so you have to enable these repositories/add new repositories to enable installation of these packages.
To enable new repositories go to (System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager ) , type in the root password .Then Go to (Settings -> Repositories ), there enable all the check-boxes to enable all the repositories you need .
Also for installing some apps extra repositories are needed since they are not in the default repositories so go to third Party and add the following theredeb http://givre.cabspace.com/ubuntu/ edgy main main-all
deb http://ntfs-3g.sitesweetsite.info/ubuntu/ edgy main main-all
deb http://flomertens.keo.in/ubuntu/ edgy main main-all
deb http://ntfs-3g.sitesweetsite.info/ubuntu/ edgy main main-all
deb http://flomertens.keo.in/ubuntu/ edgy main main-all
deb http://mirror.ubuntulinux.nl edgy-seveas all
After doing this exit Synaptic Package Manager Fire up Console and type the following command to import GPG keys .
wget http://flomertens.keo.in/ubuntu/givre_key.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
wget http://mirror.ubuntulinux.nl/1135D466.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
wget http://mirror.ubuntulinux.nl/1135D466.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
After doing this your system should be ready for installing extra application.
2. Installing ntfs-3g
ntfs-3g this is necessary if you have a ntfs drive in your computer ( Usually Windows XP installs on NTFS drive) and you want to read and write data to the drive you have to install this .
This can be installed as following type the following at the command prompt
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgradesudo apt-get install ntfs-config
Then type the following command
gksu ntfs-config
This is automatic configuration of ntfs-3g , enable read , write support and it should be configured.
these commands would back up fstab file if configuration goes wrong.
sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak
gksu gedit /etc/fstab
gksu gedit /etc/fstab
Now one more thing you want your windows (NTFS) drive to be mounted automatically add the following entries to /etc/fstab
/dev/ /media/ ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0
Where /dev/partition is the partition which is NTFS drive , in my case /dev/hda1/media/
now Restart ubuntu your windows partition should be working well.
3. Making Windows see your Linux partition
Windows XP lacks support for reading and writing files to Linux file system however external utilities like free Ext2 File system for windows allows Windows XP to read and write files to a Ext2 , Ext3 file system however ReiserFS file system is not supported .
You can get Ext2 file system for windows at the following link : -
(www.fs-driver.org/download.htm)
4. Installing flash-plugin
Macromedia Flash player is not installed by default but since we would be surely needing it while browing the net , installing it is necessary
it can be installed by following command
sudo apt-get install -y flashplugin-nonfree
5. Installing Microsoft True Type Fonts
If you are making a jump from windows to ubuntu you would surely miss the true type fonts that Windows uses , since Microsoft has released them free so they can be installed without a hitch in ubuntu (Though not distributed with Ubuntu) .
sudo apt-get install -y msttcorefonts
6. Installing unrar
RAR is one of the very widely used archives on Windows , however unrar tool to decompress RAR is not shipped with distribution and has ti be installed manually.
sudo apt-get -y install unrar
7. Installing mpg123
mpg123 is a very nice command line based mp3 player that can play mp3 files even on a slow processor based computer , further installing this provides a way of playing mp3 files from within the nautilus file manager . Hence i recommend installing mpg123
sudo apt-get install -y mpg123
8. Installing Adobe Reader
Though ubuntu comes with default evince reader for viewing pdf files , but i am sure you would like to use more complete version of pdf reader Adobe Reader 7.0 which is quiet professional and
more robust , the Linux version of Adobe Reader 8.0 has not been released but the version 7.0 is available and could be downloaded from the following website : -
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=10&platform=unix
9. Installing DVD playback support
Now this is a contentious issue , in some countries playing DVD files through DEcss is illegal so use it at your own will , anyways to enable dvd playback issue the following command at the command line : -
sudo aptitude install libdvdcss2
Note : the above commands would only work if you have added the repositories i had mentioned before the Seveas repositories.
However if you do not have these Repositories installed issue the following command to install the DVD playback support : -
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/./install-css.sh
10 . Installing the extra multimedia codecs,players
Now you would surely want to install all the codecs for playing various media files and the players primarily xine,vlc,mplayer issue the following commands to install the multimedia codecs.
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-pitfdll gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-gl gstreamer0.10-plugins-base gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse libxine-extracodecs w32codecs
vlc mplayer
This command would install most of the codecs for gstreamer multimedia architecture and vlc media player and Mplayer , as well as the dll files codec (w32codecs) for decoding various files whoose open source decoder are not available.
11. Updating the system
After installing Ubuntu you would surely like to update the system so that all the packages on the system are up to date to new version of the software .
It can be done by following steps , go to (System > Administration > Update Manager)
Now press the Check button and then Install updates to start the installation of updates to the ubuntu system.12 . Installing beagle
Now Ubuntu does not come with beagle pre-installed maybe because it is still not a final 1.0 release still it is very nice and efficient for searching files and directories on Linux providing features similar to Google Desktop Search and Mac OS Spotlight anyways to install beagle issue the following command at command line :
sudo apt-get install -y beagle
13. Installing gdesklets
gdesklets gives user a collection of impressive widgets that can be placed on desktop this is similar to feature available on Windows Vista and Mac OS X , it does provide quite a good look to the desktop.
To install gdesklets issue the following command at the command line
sudo apt-get install -y gdesklets
after installation go to (System -> Preferences -> Sessions) There go to Start up program and add gdesklets shell , now every time gnome loads up you should see your gdesklets on the desktop.
This is how my desktop looked like with all the desklets (Widgets )Labels: Detailed Articles
16 Comments:
It's really a pain doing that everytime you install ubuntu. There's a little app that automatically downloads and installs most of the stuff you talk about here, its called easyubuntu (http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/)
Or you could just install Automatix.
That link in step 3 should be http://www.fs-driver.org/download.html
Also, the package name in step 2 is ntfs-3g, not ntfs-config.
And the automatic tools listed above really do take all the (unnecessary) complexity out of it.
Yes you could use automatix or easybuntu but they add their own repos and some stuff dont work well !!! and moreever when things can work perfectly well by typing (Copying pasting ) few line of text why would you like to use automatic tools that give you half control over what u are doing . And isnt doing by this method more learning for the newbies as they learn abt apt-get,etc fstab and more they are more closer to actual process .
Yes the link was wrong, but the thing abt ntfs-config you mentioned ntfs-config is for automatic installation it installs ntfs-3g itself so no need to install it separately
Cheers !!.
one question? where can i find the icon themes you are using?
Thanks
What gives you the OSX like dock at the bottom?
To quote ubotu the Ubuntu irc channel help bot: "automatix is a script that tries to install some software, and often fails and breaks systems. We don't provide support for it, and we strongly discourage its use. Problems caused by Automatix are often hard to track and solve, and it might sometimes be easier to install a fresh copy of Ubuntu."
Tread carefully if you choose this route.
I forgot to say in my post above about automatix, that they give a similar warning for easyubuntu, but are a little nicer about it:
"easyubuntu is a script that automates installation of some items. Use at your own risk. See http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/ "
In FreeBSD ports they have a thing called a "meta-port" which just installs a list of other ports. There's one like this called "instant-workstation" (at /usr/ports/misc/instant-workstation). Can save a lot of time, just type "make install" once.
Never had a problem with Automatix
I use kubuntu and both easyubuntu and automatix have both given me trouble this method would probably work more gracefully thanks for the tips
Or you could just wait until April when Feisty comes out, and 3/4 of your steps are deprecated since all those "restricted" modules and packages are installed by default...
Nice article for the community new to Linux. These are certainly all good things one should do to prevent from being 'homesick' of windows functionality.
I'd like to be the first to say Great Job, aside from someone to just point out something thats WRONG.
Adobe Reader can also be installed from the repositories...
sudo apt-get install -y acroread
Don't forget flpsed, the best PDF editor ever.
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