Thread: Comprehensive Setup Guide for Ubuntu 9.04 Linux (Jaunty Jackalope)

Basic Concepts and Fundamentals:

What is Linux?
Linux is an operating system, which can be installed as an alternative to Microsoft Windows or Apple OSX. Linux is free to use, free to change, and you have complete freedom to do whatever you wish with it. Linux is however not a clone in any way of Microsoft Windows. It doesn't natively run Windows software and it works quite differently "under the hood". It will take some time to learn and you may find that some of your hardware isn't well supported by the manufacturer under Linux...but most things are likely to work just fine.

What is a distribution?
For simplicity sake, a distribution is a certain company or groups collection of Linux based software that they have provided to you in an installable package. Each distro is designed to achieve a particular need. Some are meant to be well rounded desktop operating systems supporting tons of hardware configurations, others are meant to be installed on servers only and focus heavily on security, while others are built to be extremely small and fast for older hardware.

Why is this guide written around the Ubuntu distribution? I've chosen Ubuntu as my distribution of choice for this guide as it's a single cd download, it's a pain free install process, it works very well on tons of hardware, and it has great community support. You can visit the Ubuntu forums at Ubuntu Forums

Once you install the Ubuntu operating system, you end up with a fully functional operating system which includes things such as 1). An office suite 2). A graphics application 3). PDF functionality 4). Ability to handle compressed files 5). web browsers 6). instant messaging clients 7). cd burning software 8). games 9). a mail client 10). a bit torrent client and many others. That's right, all this stuff just comes with it. No subsequent installs required...or purchases for that matter.

Where can I get Ubuntu from and what do I need?
You can download Ubuntu from Ubuntu Home Page | Ubuntu. You will want to download the Desktop version. For compatibility sake, I would pick the 32-bit version as that is what I use for this guide. The most recent version is 9.04 and it was released in April of 2009.

When you download Ubuntu (or most any Linux distro), you will download an ISO file. You will need to take a cd burning application and write this image to a cd. Some distros are larger and do require a DVD or multiple cd's.

Also, with Ubuntu, the standard install cd is a LIVE CD. Meaning that you can boot from the CD and see Ubuntu as it will run straight from the cd without having to be installed. Gives you an idea of what to expect and how compatible your hardware is right out of the box.

What is the "Alternate CD" for?: It's primary for low-end computers or boxes which have trouble with the standard install cd.

What's with the different versions, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc?
Essentially, they are the same OS...but they each have a different desktop environment installed. Ubuntu uses Gnome...and is what I suggest for following this guide as that is what I used. Kubuntu uses KDE which is a competing desktop environment to Gnome. Xubuntu uses XFCE which is a low frills light-weight desktop environment suitable for low-end computers or for those who want the fastest possible performance and are willing to give up a few visual things.

Once you pick one, it's simple to just install the other desktop environment if you want to get a feel for how they look. Once you get through this guide, you will just need to install kubuntu-desktop or xubuntu-desktop.

How do i install Ubuntu?
There are multiple ways to install Ubuntu onto your computer. Which method you choose depends upon your comfortability and what you have available. #4 is the method that I would recommend if you already have a computer with Windows that you plan to use...as it's the least risky method possible.

#1). If you have an extra computer lying around, you can simply install Ubuntu onto that computer using the CD.
#2). If you have Windows already installed on your computer, but have left unallocated space on your hard drive, you can boot from the Ubuntu installer CD and then choose to install Ubuntu in that free space and effectively have a dual-boot system
#3). You can install Ubuntu in a virtual machine environment (like VMWare or VirtualBox). You won't be able to experience any of special graphical effects this way, but you have a safe environment to work within without risking any damage to your Windows installation.
#4). You can install Ubuntu using wubi.exe (which is included on your Ubuntu Linux 9.04 cd). If effectively sets you up for a dual boot with Windows, but without having to have partitions available. You simply install Linux like any application within Windows. I've got a post written detailing this procedure here: http://www.xbox360forum.com/forum/co...sing-wubi.html.

The command line (aka The Shell, The Terminal)
People have a "love/hate" relationship with using the command line. I'll let you in on a little secret. Most things can be done either at the command line or in the GUI.

I use the command line quite a bit in my setup guide...and the reason is SIMPLE. You can cut and paste in exactly what I give you and it will work on your computer. Documenting your setup, just cannot get any easier than this. Just trust me on this for the time being, and tell me in the end if you still hate the command line.

What is this sudo thing that starts each command at the command line?
Sudo is the system that is used to elevate your standard user account to temporarily have admin priviledges. When you first installed Ubuntu, the installer configured your user account to be able to use the sudo system.

To use sudo, you simply preface a command with sudo. For example, sudo apt-get install something (this runs apt-get which is the online installer and it is going to install something...and because you started with sudo, it does it with admin level (root) priviledges.

Once you type your command and hit enter, the system will prompt you for YOUR PASSWORD. Once you confirm that you know your password, it will execute that command with admin level privileges for you. It will also cache that credential for a period of time, thus in the next few moments if you keep entering commands, you won't have to type your password each time.

What is root, who is root?
This is the equivalent account to Administrator in Windows. root can do anything and everything on the system. With Ubuntu, you don't really use the root account for anything. Instead, as described above, you use your standard user account and simply preface commands with the sudo command to run with admin level priviledges.

Why should I try out Linux anyway? Is there any real benefit?
Couple of things come to mind.
#1). Linux is free...so if you have a few computers and don't want to spend tons of money on other proprietary systems, this might be a good choice
#2). You are a computer hobbyist and you just want to learn something new.
#3). You want to see what other things are available for your computer. It's often an eye opening experience to see what another operating systems can do. If you never look at the competition, you may just not know what is available.

What types of things won't I have to do or worry about by using Linux
#1). Viruses, or anti-virus software
#2). Spyware/malware/adware: It just doesn't run on Linux and impact the operating system
#3). Registry cleaners: There is no registry to clean, or be concerned with when applications are uninstalled
#4). Defragmenting the hard drive: EXT3 pretty much takes care of itself and fragmentation is hardly an issue.

If I know a command, how do I see instructions about how to use it?
For example, let's say that I want to unzip a file, and I know that the command is unzip...but I don't know what other syntax is required.

type: man unzip

This will then display the "manual" pages to you....or the set of documentation that comes with each command telling you how to use that command.

Here are some other resources for learning more

• Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference. This is a free 170 page guide for installing and using Ubuntu. Download the PDF, it's a nice reference.
• ubuntug Web Upd8. This webpage has a nice rundown of using Ubuntu and it's separated into small sections. Check it out.

Installing additional Software and Configuring Ubuntu 9.04
What applications come with Ubuntu 9.04 right out of the box?

• Firefox: Web browser
• Pidgin : Instant Messenger client (support for MSN, yahoo, aim, icq, etc)
• OpenOffice 3.0.1: Word processor, spreadsheet, slide show.
• Gimp: Photoediting/Graphics application
• Brasero: CD/DVD burning software
• Transmission: BitTorrent client
• Rhythmbox Music Player: Music player
• Movie Player: video player
• Evolution: email package
• F-Spot Photo Manager: Photo-editing package
• Document Viewer: for opening PDF files

How do I open a terminal window...a shell...a command line?
Applications, Accessories, Terminal.

How to update all of my software to the latest and greatest?
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Adding Multimedia Repository support into Ubuntu
First, Ubuntu does not come with the ability to playback encrypted DVD's, MP3 files or other Windows codec stuff. The reason, is because these are not-open source, royalty free or have other license restrictions. The good news is that you can easily add this support with 1 single command;
Note: This also covers video codecs necessary for YouTube videos.

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Setting up the VLC movie player
sudo apt-get install vlc
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

In order to get movies to playback with VLC, i had to reboot Ubuntu. I'm not entirely sure why, but if yours is not working, a reboot will likely fix you too.

Setting up Amarok for music playback
There are many other apps for this, including things like Rhythmbox Music Player. I've just been using Amarok for a long time and included it here.

sudo apt-get install amarok libxine1-ffmpeg phonon-backend-xine phonon-backend-gstreamer

Installing Sun Java Support and Firefox Java Plugin
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-bin sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin

CD-ripping with grip to MP3
sudo apt-get install grip lame
Applications, Sound and Video, grip
Natively, this app will rip to an .ogg file (ogg vorbis). This is a fantastic high-quality open source free format...but if you have a portable device which won't use those files....you can change to MP3 as I show you below.

I like to rip to MP3's on VBR 3 (Variable Bit Rate 3). Here is how I do that;
Open grip, Go to Config tab, encode, change to lame
Changed encoder command line to read: -V 3 --vbr-new %w %m
changed encode file format to read: ~/ogg/%A/%d/%t-%n.%x

The ripped files will be in a folder in your home folder (/home/username) in a subfolder called Ogg.

Mounting a Windows share on another computer
sudo apt-get install smbfs
sudo mkdir /mountpoint (you can call mountpoint whatever you like and put it wherever you want)
sudo mount -t cifs //server/share /mntpoint -o username=Windows_user_name

Mounting a Windows share on another computer at boot time
touch /home/user_name/.smbpassword
sudo gedit /home/user_name/.smbpassword
--add the following 2 lines into this file and save
username=NT_User_Name
password = NT_Password

sudo chown root /home/user_name/.smbpassword
sudo chmod 600 /home/user_name/.smbpassword

sudo gedit /etc/fstab
--add a line similar to the follow (change to suit tastes)
//server/share /mntpoint cifs credentials=/home/user_name/.smbpassword 0 0

sudo mkdir /mntpoint (obviously you can call this whatever you want)

test mount with;
sudo mount -a

How to make a transparent terminal window
Start terminal (Applications, Accessories, terminal)
Edit, profiles
Edit default profile
Click on Colors to set your color preference (I like green on black)
Click on Effects to set a Transparent background


How to change the logon screen to something else
Visit Eyecandy for your GNOME-Desktop - GNOME-Look.org
On the left, click on GDM themes
Find one that you like, download it. It should be in the format of something.tar.gz
System, Administration, Login Window
click on Local tab at top
Choose add, find the GDM theme that you just downloaded (the something.tar.gz), click on Install
Set the theme to Selected Only
Pick the new GDM theme that you want to use.
Log off and back on.

Edit: You can also find pretty cool GDM themes here: GNOME: The Free Software Desktop Project

How can I install software without the Terminal or I don't know the exact name of what I need?
System, Administration, Synaptic Package Manager
Search for what you want, mark it, install/uninstall it


How do I modify the programs in the Applications menu?
System, Preferences, Main Menu

Is there something similar to Task Manager in Windows which shows me system performance?
System, Administration, System Monitor

How can I see how much disk space is free?
Terminal
sudo df -h

After I download a lot using apt-get, i notice I run low on disk space
apt-get will cache everything it downloads to the hard drive in /var/cache/apt
sudo apt-get clean (erases the cache)

How can I quickly see how much space is being used and where in my file system?
terminal
sudo du -h --max-depth=1 / (that is 2 dashes before the word max)

How can I tell which applications are installed and which version?
terminal
dpkg -l |less (I piped to less because this is likely a long list

Mounting your NTFS partition if you are dual-booting with XP or Vista

First, determine where you Windows partitions are:
sudo fdisk -l (this will list your partitions, find the partition in question you want to mount...likely something like /dev/sda1)

sudo mkdir /windows (or whatever you choose to call this mountpoint)
sudo gedit /etc/fstab

Add following line to bottom
/dev/sda1 /windows ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0

NOTE: Obviously, you need to substitute in the value determined above for your Windows partition. In my case, it was /dev/sda1.

Test your configuration
sudo mount -a

How do I remotely connect to my Ubuntu box from a Windows or other Linux host?
The simplest method is with an SSH client
Install the ssh server on ubuntu with;
sudo apt-get install openssh-server

Now, from a Windows host, you can use either Putty, Winscp or any other SSH client
From a Linux host, just use the ssh client preinstalled.


Now, from How do I switch to xfce, fluxbox or KDE instead of Gnome?
sudo apt-get install xfce-desktop
sudo apt-get install fluxbox
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

Now, logout.
From Logon screen, click on Options, Choose Select Session and pick your desktop environment.

When you then logon, it will ask if you want to use the new session 1 time or make it permanent.

Getting rid of the awful Ubuntu Orange look
System, Preferences, Appearances
Under Theme, pick something like "Clearlooks"

Then, open up Firefox, go to Backdrops - Wallpaper iPhone App from InterfaceLIFT and get a new desktop background of your choice.

Installing Frostwire (open source equivalent to LimeWire Pro..peer to peer file sharing)

Go here: Application Information - Frostwire
Download 32-bit for Jaunty.
Choose save file and it will save to your desktop
Once it completes, double click on the .deb file on your desktop. It will open the package installer, click on Install Package in upper right

To launch it, Applications, Internet, Frostwire

Note: if you experience problems with the interface or the app not starting, be sure to follow the previous steps for installing Sun Java.

How to perform fast backups with rsync
This assumes that you save everything that you want to keep in your home folder (/home/username), and you have an external hard drive or USB keyfob that you can back up to

1). Plug in the USB key
2). Open a terminal window, and type: mount
3). Look for something like /dev/sdb1 /media/disk (that will be your external drive)
4). mkdir /media/disk/backups (creates a backup folder on the external drive)
5). rsync -rv /home/username/ /media/disk/backups/ (will backup everything onto your external drive)

The beauty of using rsync is that subsequent runs will ONLY copy files that have changed....thus backups will only take a few seconds. Also, if you want to make sure that files that you delete on the source hard drive are also deleted on the external hard drive, you can change the syntax to
rsync -rv --delete /home/username/ /media/disk/backups/ (there are 2 dashes before delete)


Everything beyond this point is geared around Eye Candy and is completely optional

Enabling proprietary video drives for ATI/Nvidia cards
My Linux machines all have NVIDIA based graphics cards in them, so I describe that procedure here. The installation for ATI cards should be similar.

System, Administration, Hardware drivers
I choose NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (version 180) and choose activate.
The system will automatically download and install the driver.
Note: it will sit at 0% for a bit, just be patient...it will install

Getting basic eyecandy features enabled.
Make sure that you have installed the proprietary video drivers as described above for the best possible experience.

System, Preferences, Appearance, Visual Effects
You should be able to turn on Normal at this point, to get the basics.


Installing the Compiz Configuration Manager to Control the built-in eye-candy features.
Again, ensure that you install the proprietary video drives for the best possible experience.

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager
Make adjustments from System, Preferences, CompizConfig Settings Manager

Installing the Emerald Theme Manager
sudo apt-get install emerald libemeraldengine0

now we need to make Emerald start once you boot into Ubuntu. To do so, go to System > Preferences > CompizConfig Settings Manager
check "Window Decoration" and click it, then in the "Command" field enter this:
emerald --replace

Get emerald themes from here: The Compiz Community - Compiz-Themes.org
Then go to System, Preferences, Emerald Theme Manager and import the themes you have downloaded.

Now, just logout and back on to get emerald running and you should be using your new theme.

Setting up a Mac like dock with the Avant Windows Manager
sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator awn-manager awn-applets-python-extras awn-applets-c-extras

System > Preferences > AWN Manager, on the "General" tab and set it the way you want it to be
check auto start on logon
under Bar Appearance, change to 3D
Add any applets that you might want displayed

To start it now, either hit ALT-F2 and type in avant-window-navigator or log off and back on.


Making applications rollup, when you click on the title bar versus Maximize/Minimize
System, Preferences, Windows
Change titlebar action to "Roll up"

How can I install a screenlets applications (aka Desktop widgets)?
sudo apt-get install screenlets
Applications, Accessories, Screenlets
Pick the Screenlets that you want to run, choose whether you want to auto start them at logon.

Skinning Ubuntu to looking like Apple OSX
So, lots of people agree that the Apple OSX interface is pretty nice to look at. Well, under Ubuntu it's incredibly easy to skin and make it look very similar to OSX. Total time for this is about 10 minutes

Follow this guide for 95% of the modfications
Linux on Desktop: Transforming your Ubuntu 8.04 Desktop to look like Mac OS X

The last thing I did was modify my firefox theme:
1) Go here and get the add-on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7540

2). There is a bug, where the file, edit, view menu items just disappear when you highlight them. There is a fix: Go here and download the .jar file: Issue 24 - prototheme - Hovering mouse over menu bar item causes the menu bar item to disappear - Google Code

3). Go into Firefox, Tools, Add-Ons, Themes. Drag the .jar file into that window. Accept the installation.



Here is another guide for skinning Ubuntu to look like OSX
Do it All with Ubuntu: Turn Your Ubuntu Hardy to Mac OSX Leopard

Note: If you follow this post, when they get to the steps for installing the global-menu-applet...don't use those instructions. Instead, go to this website, read it, then click on Installation on the left and it will install for you and work properly on Jaunty. gnome2-globalmenu - Project Hosting on Google Code

Note2: if you do use the gnome-globalmenu option, you will find that some applications don't support it because of the rendering engine they use (Firefox and OpenOffice)...so you will have to rely on the menu within the application.


Yet one more web guide for skinning like OSX
Turn Your Ubuntu Intrepid Into Mac OSX Leopard - Make Tech Easier


I think between all the above guides as reference, you will be able to do just about everything you want to make Ubuntu look more like OSX.

Originally Posted by GAllmond

You'd have thought it would be all written up first...

Well, they are works in progress that I add to frequently. They are mostly written from older guides...I'm just updating them for Ubuntu 9.04. They will mostly be done in the next few hours.

Originally Posted by GAllmond

You'd have thought it would be all written up first...I've used my ubuntu partition twice. It's pretty, but largely impractical for my needs.

Well, at least you gave it a try and have seen what it has to offer. My laptop dual boots Vista (for work) and Linux (for home). I rarely use Vista when I am at home for anything.

Nice guide. +rep

I do have numerous other things that I want to post, but I haven't been able to test them out in the new version of Ubuntu yet to make sure that they are working properly.

In addition, there is a lot of discussion going on in the Ubuntu forums with regards to slow and poor video performance under Intel Graphics adapters. If you are experiencing major graphical problems, please see the Ubuntu forums for assistance on correcting these. I simply don't have any computers with these integrated graphics chipsets...so I don't have good first hand experience.

Wow, fantastic. +rep.

Originally Posted by Niall

Is there any disadvantages to using wubi to install it? I know how to partition my drive, and it won't cause any problems for me, but if there is no real disadvantages to using wubi, then I'll use that.

Yes, the primary disadvantage of wubi is that the Linux system resides completely on the Windows NTFS filesystem. Now, within Linux, you still see EXT3...so you have all of the security of the filesystem...it's just gonna be a tick slower. And if you ever foobar'd your Windows partition completely, you could lose the Ubuntu install as well.

Even with both of these disadvantages, I've been running Ubuntu under Wubi on my work laptop for about 1 year now. It's been flawless for me. It's so easy to setup and I don't have to risk anything with regards to my Vista partition.