After a clean install…

This page details the first things I do after a clean install of Linux as an Ubuntu and Debian user. As you can see the process is quite long but depending on your Internet connection can take as little as an hour to complete.

First thing to note is that the initial install is from the latest LiveCD from Ubuntu.com. It is always good to have a few LiveCD’s and network install versions laying around as you never know when and where you might have to do an install–perhaps a friends computer.

I have tried to make this document in order of importance as it always seems that I do my clean installs while I’m on the run :/ In which case, networking via wifi is priority #1.

The current version of Ubuntu I run is:

• 8.10 “Intrepid Ibex”
• 9.10 “Karmic Koala”
• 10.04 “Lucid Lynx”

This page was last updated:

• March 26, 2010 at 12:27 pm
• July 16 2010 at 2:17 am

Get Wifi Working (for the Gateway M675 only)

Setup wired network and install:

sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

Setup and test wifi using terminal and Network Manager

Obviously this step will be different for you depending on your wifi cards drivers. Mine happens to be a Broadcom 43xx chipset.

A restart may be in need, and after, might want to check to see under System > Administrator > Hardware Drivers that the driver is loaded and enabled.

I must say it has finally gotten easy to install this damn thing!

Setting Up Ubuntu System

Add network computers IP addresses and hostnames to hosts file /etc/hosts

Create users and groups for the network.

Modify /etc/fstab for NFS mounts and custom partitions.

Remove login/log out sounds, gah! In 9.10 you have to set the Sound Theme to No Sounds as I don’t see how to edit themes.

Set up VNC by going to System > Preferences > Remote Desktop and checking the “Allow other users to view your desktop” and “Allow other users to control your desktop” and then set the password by checking the box “Require the user to enter this password:”

Customize Gnomes panels by removing the bottom one completely, changing time settings, setting workspace switcher to 9 workspaces! Delete evolution, help etc icons from top panel. Etc etc.

Also the Power Management settings… blank screen when laptop lid is closed on AC Power, and Spin down hard drives.

Enable all Repositories (especially those used for media playback)

Run these four lines in terminal:

sudo wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list
sudo apt-get --quiet update
sudo apt-get --yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring
sudo apt-get --quiet update

Upgrade the Distro

After the initial install you most likely have a lot of updates to catch up on…

sudo apt-get upgrade

MP3, WMA, Real, Apple QuickTime & DVD Codecs

Can’t live without my media files…

sudo apt-get install w32codecs libdvdcss2

File Sharing: DropBox

I put dropbox on all my networked computers and linked them to the same dropbox account, but tagged as the hostname. Now I can share files between them and with clients. I store only the important files that I may need outside of my network in there, or I use as a temporary backup. Note: I use NFS for all of my file sharing on the network, but do not open that up to the world, thats where dropbox comes in.

I also have some of my most frequently used applications sorting their configuration files into it, such as Pidgin and xchat etc. Now where ever I go or whatever computer I use, the same configs are used, giving each computer or remote network the same “feel”.

Get Dropbox here

Also check out my blog post on how I use Dropbox here.

File Sharing: Ubuntu One

I have started using Ubuntu One, but not quite as much as Dropbox. I put this here anyways because I do have files in there that I would like to sync back during a fresh install.

File Sharing: NFS

I have a central file server, a single computer that is on 24/7. This is where all my data resides, from movies, music, to projects and other files.

sudo apt-get install nfs-common

Create your mount points. This will vary depending on your setup but here is an example below. Obviously you will need to substitute the users and groups on line 2 for what you use.

sudo mkdir /mnt/nfs
sudo chown root:group /mnt/nfs
sudo chmod 770 /mnt/nfs

The /etc/fstab should have your NFS drive listed something like so:

192.168.1.1:/mnt/nfs    /mnt/nfs    nfs    rw,user 0 0

Continue the process for each of your NFS directories.

Remaining Important Packages

These are packages that I cannot live without, however you may, so pick and choose whats helpful.

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree msttcorefonts nautilus-open-terminal

This gives me:

1. Flash for FireFox
2. Microsoft Core Fonts
3. Nautilus context menu shortcut for Terminal (I really miss it when I don’t have it)

Setting Up FireFox and Extensions

Add the following extensions:

1. Xmarks
2. Linkification
3. ColorZilla
4. MeasureIt
5. Adblock Plus
6. FireFTP
7. FireFTP Button
8. DownThemAll
9. Image Toolbar
10. S3Fox
11. FireBug
12. Gmail Manager
13. Clear Cache Button – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1801

Customize the toolbar by adding buttons for creating a new tab, and FireFTP.

Web Development Stuff

sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 php5-cli mysql-server phpmyadmin git-core bluefish

This gives me:

1. Apache2 – Webserver
2. PHP5
3. PHP5-Cli – command line interface to php
4. MySQL – Database server
5. phpMyAdmin – Easy web interface for mysql databases
6. Git – Source Code Version Management
7. Bluefish – Programming Editor

System Management

sudo apt-get install ssh munin smartmontools

This gives me:

1. ssh Server
2. Munin System Performance Charting
3. Smartmontools to debug hard drive issues

Miscellaneous & Communications Applications

sudo apt-get install skype gnumeric xchat pidgin dia inkscape freemind unrar ushare

This gives me:

1. Skype*
2. Gnumeric Spreadsheet software (I am not a fan of open office)
3. xChat an IRC client
4. Pidgin MSN/AIM/Yahoo/ICQ/Jabber & more chat client
5. Dia a diagram flowchart program
6. Inkscape a fantastic vector graphic program
7. Freemind a great mindmap program
8. unrar – compression tool for rar files
9. uShare – uPnP streaming for xbox 360 from Linux

* Skype does not currently have an Ubuntu 9.10 version, however their 8.10 version works just fine. You will need to download the Skype file directly from Skype.com here.

Ubuntu Tweaks

Nautilus Location

Nautilus doesn’t use the location address by default so turn that back on…

Open gconf-editor and check /apps/nautilus/preferences/always_use_location_entry

Ubuntu Update Notifier

Ubutnu’s Update Manager is now intrusive by default, popping up whenever updates are available instead of just showing us a pretty little icon in the status panel. Here’s how we turn it off.

Open gconf-editor and uncheck /apps/update-notifier/autolaunch

Optional Tasks

Now that I have a complete system up and running, I have some optional tasks that need to be performed.

• How I use Dropbox on Ubuntu
• Automatic database backup via script

Conclusion: Yay FINALLY done!

Thats about it for now. I will continue updating this list as my needs change. I might have forgotten something somewhere in this whole process but reading it over it looks like all the major stuff is covered.

Do you have any stuff you install immediately after a clean install? Add a comment and share.

sudo wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list && sudo apt-get --quiet update && sudo apt-get --yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get --quiet update