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How to finish setting up Ubuntu



Last changed Mon Oct 22 15:02:05 EDT 2007

Dual booting to preserve existing Windows

If you want to dual boot a laptop between Ubuntu and Windows, there is video documentation if you google 'youtube dual boot ubuntu'. I have seen Ubuntu 7.04 successfully shrink the partitions and create boot menu entries for both Windows XP and Vista. During the first boot of XP or Vista after shrinking the partition, it does a filesystem consistency check, then reboots and it's fine.

Run the disk defragmenter before shrinking the XP or Vista partition. This may take most of an hour to run. Menu paths to defragmenters are: XP: [path goes here] Vista: [path goes here]. The first boot of Windows after Ubuntu resizes it, checkdisk runs, but doesn't report any errors. Don't hit any key, and let it run.

A Vista machine only a month old was using 15 Gig of disk. Here's how to shrink overly enthusiastic use of disk space for system restore points:

  1. Click the start menu
  2. Click on All Programs, and then Accessories
  3. From the accessories menu, right click on Command Prompt and select "run as administrator"
  4. Type "vssadmin list shadowstorage" into the command prompt
  5. The results should tell you the amount of storage used and the maximum amount allotted

If you're not happy with those numbers, here's how to resize them. Keep in mind, you will lose some older system restore points when you do this.

  1. Repeat steps 1-3 to get bring up the Command Prompt
  2. Type "vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=[your hard disk]: /On=[your hard disk]: /MaxSize=[how much space you want to allocate]"
  3. For example: "vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=2GB"
  4. You should get a message saying Successfully resized the shadow copy storage association, and you should have more free space on your hard drive.

Then I ran the defragmenter. After that Vista was consuming a more reasonable Gig or two, and I proceeded with an Ubuntu dual boot install in a stock fashion.

Ubuntu Linux

This document assumes you have just installed Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) from the cd, and then are dismayed to find that emacs, tex, R, etc. are missing. This describes how to add the missing packages. 

log in to the user account you created during the install
You can set up wireless networking from the top-bar menu System -> Administration -> Networking -> Wireless connection. After you enable the wireless interface in Ubuntu, start a Firefox browser and log in with your Gatorlink to enable the wireless connection. 
sudo -i		# give your personal login password
Add knowledge of software not shipped by default. Download this script, make it executable with "chmod +x ubuntu-cd-updates.sh", and run it in a Terminal window you did sudo in with "./ubuntu-cd-updates.sh". If you have flaky wireless access at home that interrupts this script in the middle, it is safe to rerun this script, which will pick up where it left off.

ubuntu-cd-updates.sh

There may be a popup asking for a reboot, or the menu bar in the upper-right may show a blue circle formed by two arrow heads. If so, do the reboot: 

Top menu bar: System -> Quit -> Restart
If you rebooted: 
log in to the user account you created during the install
sudo -i		# give your personal login password
Now add applications most everyone will want:

ubuntu-statuser-packages.sh 

# populate /usr/local/share/texmf with letterhead

# Environment variables that you want to be set under the window system,
# so that programs started from the window manager menus get them,
# should be set with "export TEXMF=blah" in ~/.profile.  This works even
# if you use tcsh.  Use LC_COLLATE=POSIX to switch back to the old sort
# order of capital letters first.
Some R packages may be installed as "apt-get install r-cran-PACKAGE_NAME", but not enough of them. Install packages using the native R install feature:

ubuntu-r-packages.sh

Here are some more packages which appeal to me:

ubuntu-additional-packages.sh

Additional packages for Stat-managed machines, you probably don't want these:

ubuntu-stat-managed-packages.sh

Also adjust: 

System -> Preferences -> Font
	set to Subpixel smoothing (LCDs)
focus follows mouse in System -> Preferences -> Windows
left windows raiselower in System -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts
gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_key_theme Emacs --type string
gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/general/focus_mode mouse  --type string
gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/general/num_workspaces 4 --type int
firefox about:config middlemouse.contentLoadURL set true.
/etc/auto.{data,home,master,misc}
/etc/{passwd,shadow,group}
/etc/ntp.conf for time.clas.ufl.edu if desktop on campus
hard code IP settings instead of dhcp System -> Administration -> Networking
add local printer System -> Administration -> Printing, set as default per user
umask 002 in /etc/profile
don't stomp bash completion stuff by replacing .bashrc?
comment ls alias in .bashrc
add alias functions in .bashrc
up lcd panel max speeds in /etc/X11/xorg.conf to get full panel resolution
nfs server turned off in System -> Administration -> Services
turn cookies, javascript off in firefox, set home page
collect /etc/ssh/*key*
/depot except for hostgen-2.0
/usr/local/depot/shellrc-1.0
/usr/local/bin
default paper sizes A4 to Letter /etc/papersize ?
thunderbird config for eelpout
tsm client
Notes on mysql initial setup:

ubuntu-mysql.shtml

Start the gui package manager and add other things that seem attractive. Note: Synaptic locks the package system, and you can't use apt-get when Synaptic is running, even if you haven't asked for any operations to be performed. 

Top menu bar: System-> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager

	upper right panel gives list of packages,
		check square on left side of line, do 'mark for installation'
		do Apply from top menu bar
Not documented yet: adding the java runtime for the browser using the "alien" program to unpack the RPM (is this still necessary?)

The new system administrator of a personally maintained system should skim through this document for everything that seems relevant: http://ubuntuguide.org

Ubuntu questions may be asked of more experienced users on this forum: http://www.ubuntuforums.org


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