# The following is a document describing my personal Ubuntu post-install procedure # as of 2008-06-15. The latest version of this file may or may not be available at # http://misc.nybergh.net/pub/ubuntu/ # # Please keep in mind that this includes bunch of unofficial repositories. These could end up # giving you a not very dist-upgradeable and/or insecure system. If you use this, please realize that # #ubuntu @ FreeNode may not be able to help you properly, and that your machine # will be infected with even more binary-only, non-free feces in order to make your system # Ready for The Enterprise Desktop. # # If you want (no, you probably don't) genuine, really Free Software (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html), # a new Ubuntu based GNU/Linux distribution called gNewSense might be worth taking a look at. # See http://www.gnewsense.org/ # # Only the main Ubuntu repositories provide timely security updates! # # I am neither competent or willing to help you with any problems these istructions may cause, # but if you know of any new, useful unofficial Ubuntu repos or other stuff not mentioned here, such as further # complaints about my incompetence, I wouldn't mind being informed. # # Thomas Nybergh # thomas [at] nybergh [dot] net # http://www.nybergh.net # # For Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (i386, 32 bit version) after install: If you feel like not sudoing when you're about to do tons of root stuff, just run sudo passwd root to be able to login or su yourself to root rights. I don't allow root logins over ssh on Internet facing machines, I su myself when i need to do a a few root commands. uncomment all default repos in /etc/apt/sources.list. add nice extra repos like deb http://getswiftfox.com/builds/debian unstable non-free deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free see http://www.google.com/linuxrepositories/apt.html deb http://apt.last.fm/ debian testing see http://apt.last.fm run: wget -O- http://apt.last.fm/last.fm.repo.gpg | sudo apt-key add - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/gutsy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update apt-get update - activates changes in the sources.list file apt-cache search keyword - searches package names and content apt-cache policy packagename - displays package versions apt-get remove packagename dpkg -i packagefile.deb installs .deb packages. apt-cache search swiftfox display and locate the package (e.g. swiftfox-athlon-xp) for your own cpu and add it to the next command if your goal is to make an easy to use desktop available for other users, edit the default firefox launcher on the menu bar to link to the command swiftfox instead of firefox There's a bug in at least the ubuntu 7.04 k3b package that prevents normalizing from working (haven't tried 7.10 properly yet). See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/k3b/+bug/44524 mv /usr/bin/normalize-audio /usr/bin/normalize pico /usr/bin/normalize-audio add the following with your favourite text editor: #/bin/bash case "$1" in --version) normalize --version | sed -e 's/normalize /normalize-audio /g' ;; *) normalize $* ;; esac , and chmod +x /usr/bin/normalize-audio aptitude install libdvdcss2 w32codecs ubuntu-restricted-extras kubuntu-restricted-extras displayconfig-gtk compizconfig-settings-manager nmap zenmap glipper checkgmail ntfs-config ntfsprogs k3b libk3b2-mp3 normalize-audio kernel-package vlc konqueror kubuntu-konqueror-shortcuts konqueror-nsplugins gxine msttcorefonts xfonts-terminus xfonts-terminus-dos xfonts-terminus-oblique mplayer mozilla-mplayer apt-build build-essential fakeroot lynx links2 elinks epiphany gtk-gnutella kaudiocreator jokosher wine gnome-alsamixer openoffice.org-voikko voikko-fi tmispell-voikko libvoikko1 wfinnish aspell-fi aspell-sv comix kamera gwenview amsn gstreamer0.10-plugins-base gstreamer0.10-plugins-base-apps gstreamer0.8-plugins-multiverse gstreamer0.8-plugins gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-dbg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-doc gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse-dbg gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-good-dbg gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-dbg gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse-dbg gstreamer0.10-plugins-base-apps gstreamer0.10-plugins-base-dbg gstreamer0.10-plugins-farsight gstreamer0.10-lame lame gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer-tools lastfm shell-fm lastfmproxy amarok qtparted gparted nfs-common nfs-client samba-common xchat dvdrip imagemagick xvid4conf rar thunderbird uptimed skype epiphany-browser galeon ntp (there are a few dead packages in that list, I haven't bothered to clean it up up, since aptitude will tell you there are stuff missing and get on with it) LAME: compile the latest recommended lame version by checking here first: http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=LAME for voikko (finnish spell checking) specific details, see http://www.lemi.fi/voikko/asennus-deb.html To activate/deactivate compiz and restriced drivers, try the Desktop Effects menu item under Preferences (or whatever the user-specific settings menu is called in gnome) (not true anymore as of 7.10, just make sure that you install the package called "compizconfig-settings-manager", and you'll have a nice entry for "Advanced Desktop Effects Settings" under System -> Preferences (the binary is called "/usr/bin/ccsm") On not so well designed laptops, adding a delay to the activation of the Synaptics touchpad after keyboard avtivity is worth considering http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=271052&highlight=disable+touchpad+while+typing You might want to do disable the non-informative, non-interactive, boring default bootsplash (what on earth were they thinking? compare this one with what you see in distros like OpenSUSE or pretty much any other distro that includes a bootsplash ("press f2 to display details")). Additionally, this will give the grub boot menu pretty colors edit with sudo/as root: /boot/grub/menu.lst activate: # Pretty colours color cyan/blue white/blue # defoptions=quiet splash defoptions= and remove "quiet splash" from lines like: kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.17-11-generic root=/dev/hda5 ro quiet splash