Post-installation and configuration of Ubuntu 14.04 without using the terminal

Mon, 06 Jul 2015 12:00:00 +0000

This is not the typical article that you find repeated ad nauseam all over the internet, “What to do after installing Ubuntu?”. This one is more personal: exactly what I do when I install it (although I do all of this from the terminal in less than half the time). Maybe I’m just saving a draft in case I forget something on my next install… Those who know me know that I’m an Arch Linux user and prefer it, but I’ll leave that for another day.

Archive note: the original 2015 screenshots were not preserved; the full text is retained.

To begin with, it should be made clear that this article is not an installation tutorial, so I assume that whoever is reading it knows how to install Ubuntu (which is as easy as clicking next, next and… oh yes, next). I just added this to the article, because when I published it on some media outlets, several people, without reading it, commented things like “Burn the heretic, long live the terminal, use Windows for that” (pathetic). To one of them I replied the following, as an example of the audience an article like this would be aimed at: “Tell that to the 65-year-old lawyer who has spent his whole life working in his profession, busy almost all day and every day, who has no time to learn computer stuff and doesn’t want to memorize commands in a terminal, but who nevertheless wants to use Ubuntu. There are all kinds of users; for those of us who prefer the terminal, there are better distributions like Gentoo and Arch Linux”.

Once Ubuntu is installed, we have the default interface, which in my opinion isn’t as “ugly” as on other distributions — being the most popular GNU/Linux distribution, it doesn’t hurt that its default appearance is a bit pleasant and has some identity compared to the others. The challenge of this article is to do everything without using the terminal.

Updates, language, and basic programs

The first thing I do, obviously, is install the available updates. For that… no, I’m not going to the terminal! I’ll try to avoid it as much as possible (even though it hurts me): I simply click in the upper right corner, on that button that looks like a “wrench”, then I click on “About This Computer” and then on “Install Updates”. It usually asks to restart when that first update finishes.

The next thing I install is the language, and it’s that by default in the installation, even if you activate the network, translations for all programs are not installed. To do that I look for “Language Support”, which with just opening it will ask you if you want to install all the translations; you accept and that’s it.

I take the opportunity to install some programs from the Ubuntu Software Center, such as Synaptic (which I’ll use later to install other things), Gimp (photo editor), Inkscape (vector graphics), VLC (media player) and something important, which is support for compressing and decompressing 7zip (where to use RAR you have to enable/install the non-free module as the original screenshot showed, and click on “Apply Changes”, of course).

Proprietary codecs and partner repositories

Then I install all the proprietary codec support and other utilities needed for multimedia content, among others. To do that I go to Synaptic and search for “ubuntu-restricted-extras” and install them (right click, “Mark for Installation” and “Apply”). I don’t install them from the Software Center because from there you CANNOT accept the EULA for the proprietary Microsoft fonts that come included in the metapackage, and that’s why they aren’t installed. In case you haven’t accepted it and they aren’t installed, they can be installed separately from Synaptic itself; the package name is ttf-mscorefonts-installer.

In the original screenshots you could tell that my desktop already had icons and other customizations installed; I’ll explain all of that here. Now that I have this, I go to the program called “Software & Updates” and in the “Other Software” tab I enable the “Canonical Partners” repository. Once enabled, it’s recommended to open the “Software Updater” so it picks up the changes; this allows installing Skype and other programs directly from the Ubuntu Software Center.

Another thing some people might use is proprietary drivers for graphics cards or other devices. To do that you have to open “Additional Drivers”, select the driver (first option, not the “updates” one) and click on “Apply Changes”.

Skype, Steam, and PlayOnLinux

I install Skype, which I use quite a bit to get in touch with some people. Although Skype Web is in beta and it also works from Outlook, the desktop app, although not very flashy visually, offers a better user experience in my opinion (it’s just that I usually close the browser and cut off all the webapps “unintentionally on purpose”, hahaha). When searching for Skype in the Ubuntu Software Center you have to click at the bottom where it says “Show technical items”; you have to know which one to install, because several packages come up.

After installing it, you can follow the suggestion in the most voted comment, which improves Skype’s appearance (yes, that Javier Orozco who wrote that comment is me; I didn’t expect it to stay there at the top forever). But since what I suggest is through the terminal, there’s no need for that; you can also install the packages “gtk2-engines-murrine:i386” and “gtk2-engines-pixbuf:i386” by searching for them with those exact names right from the Software Center.

I also install Steam, because I have several games purchased, and PlayOnLinux (to install Steam for Windows on Ubuntu). I install both programs from their official pages and not from the Software Center, to have the most recent versions, because besides, the .deb automatically adds the direct repository to stay up to date with updates.

On the PlayOnLinux page it says the following: Ubuntu Precise (and superior) users: You must install the package wine:i386 to get PlayOnLinux working. That’s done by opening the Ubuntu Software Center and typing wine:i386 and installing it.

Once in PlayOnLinux, you just search for Steam in the list of programs available to install; it’s quite easy (next, next and next). Once the process is finished, it’s ready to “launch” every time you open PlayOnLinux; that way you can have both Steam for GNU/Linux and Steam for Windows on your Ubuntu.

Customization with Unity Tweak Tool and Numix

After having everything I use the most installed, I move on to customization. For that I install the “Unity Tweak Tool” from the Ubuntu Software Center; on 14.04 two versions come up, I install the most recent one by selecting it in the dropdown menu.

With this tool you can modify icons, sizes, the theme and many other things; each person will see how they modify it. I leave it as default, the only things I change are theme and icons, and I disable the Amazon web app, nothing else. I then proceed to install Numix, my favorite package.

To do it you have to add the repository; I take the opportunity to also add other repositories for other programs I’ll also use. I then go to “Software & Updates” and in the “Other Software” tab I click on “Add” and type the PPA repositories I’m going to add:

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ppa:numix/ppa
ppa:jd-team/jdownloader
ppa:fyrmir/livewallpaper-daily
ppa:diesch/testing
ppa:sunab/kdenlive-release

In the first repository are the icons and themes I’ll use; in the second, the program JDownloader, which is a download manager I use out of habit and convenience; in the third, the Livewallpapers (watch video); in the fourth, the classic menu for Ubuntu; and in the fifth, Kdenlive, my favorite video editor. Possibly whoever reads this only wants the first, the third and the fourth.

Once I’ve added them, one by one, I click Close; it will automatically ask me to refresh the cache so I can use the repositories (this is necessary for everything to be installable).

Then you have to install the programs from those repositories, using the Ubuntu Software Center or Synaptic, searching for the exact name of the packages. When using the Software Center, they usually appear among the “Technical items”. In this case they would be the Numix Circle icons and the Numix GTK and KDE themes, exact names:

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numix-icon-theme-circle
numix-gtk-theme
numix-kde-theme

The JDownloader (which when installed and updated will possibly suggest updating to version 2), the Livewallpapers, the classic menu and the Kdenlive are searched by these exact names:

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jdownloader
livewallpaper
classicmenu-indicator
kdenlive

For the Livewallpapers you have to install the additional plugins as shown in the image, otherwise it won’t work and/or won’t be configurable. Then you have to open the preferences to configure (important to enable autostart) and the wallpaper itself. Now comes the part where you change the theme and icons to the recently installed ones: for that you have to open Unity Tweak Tool; once open, in Appearance/Theme choose Numix, and in Appearance/Icons choose Numix-Circle. You also have to open the ClassicMenu by searching for its name in the Dash.

Media player and desktop effects

Another thing I do is uninstall the default music player, Rhythmbox, and install Gmusicbrowser, which is my favorite since it brings more options (like viewing the song lyrics) and different appearances (with more than 20 different styles).

To finish, I like to add effects to the desktop, like gooey windows, blurs, fades… writing with fire? All of that… To do that you have to install the Compiz settings; these are the 3 packages that must be installed, either from the Software Center or from Synaptic:

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compizconfig-settings-manager
compiz-plugins
compiz-plugins-extra

Once in the Compiz settings, there’s little I enable, since many things cause problems; so I only enable gooey windows, Motion Blur, Fire Paint, Animations and nothing else (the cube works fine WITHOUT the 3D windows, but I don’t use it). Of the enabled ones, I only configure 2: the first is the Ubuntu Unity Plugin, in which I enable the option that allows minimizing and maximizing windows directly from the Unity panel; for that I go to Ubuntu Unity Plugin > Launcher > Minimize Single Window Applications (Unsupported). The second one I configure is Animations, in which I enable all of them and set everything to random, both for minimizing, closing, etc.