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Ubuntu 9.10 Post Installation To-Do List
Install video drivers
If required/desired, install hardware specific video drivers (nVidia or ATI). Go to System→Administration→Hardware Drivers and enable the drivers for your video card. You will need to reboot to make this take affect.
Install Flash plugin
Install one of flashplugin-installer, swfdec-mozilla, or mozilla-plugin-gnash.
First enable the multiverse repository. Go to System→Administration→Software Sources. Make sure the check boxes for main, universe, restricted, and multiverse are selected.
Enable the multiverse repository
While you're in there, select the Other Software tab and enable the partner repository. Now that multiverse is enabled, you can install the Flash plugin.
Set up fan control
This is probably not necessary for most people, but if your fans are annoyingly loud, you may be able to set up automatic can control.
Enable multimedia codecs from Medibuntu
To enable the Medibuntu repositories, paste the following four lines into a terminal and hit <Enter>.
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list &&
sudo apt-get -q update &&
sudo apt-get --yes -q --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring &&
sudo apt-get -q updateOnce the Medibuntu repository is enabled, you can browse the available packages for Karmic and click the links to install through Firefox. Or you can install packages through apt-get. For example,
Enable the Gnome Configuration Editor menu item
Right click on the main menu and select Edit Menus. Select System Tools on the left side and then check the box next to Configuration Editor.
Edit the System Tools Menu
Turn off the annoying Update Manager auto-launch
Open the Configuration Editor by going to Applications→System Tools→Configuration Editor. Expand the apps section on the left side and scroll down to select update-notifier. Uncheck the box for auto_launch.
Disable The Update Notifier Auto-Launch
After making this change you will still get the update notifications in the Notification Area.
Update Manager Notification
What other crucial items do you install on a fresh Ubuntu installation? Let me know in the comments.
Install Multimedia Codecs in Ubuntu 8.04
Web designers in the multimedia business have been slow to embrace open standards. Most websites feature content in the proprietary mp3, wmv, or Adobe Flash formats. In order to get many multimedia files to work with Ubuntu you need to enable the Medibuntu repositories. So fire up your handy, dandy terminal and enter the following to add Medibuntu to your sources list.
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get updateIn order to play encrypted DVD's, you'll need the libdvdcss2 package.
I you're running the 32 bit version of Ubuntu, then you'll want the w32codecs package.
If you're running the 64 bit version, you'll want the w64codecs package.
If you're running the PowerPC version, you'll want the ppc-codecs package.
To play mpeg and other video formats, install libavcodec1d libavformat1d.
To install Adobe's Acrobat Reader:
If you also want the Acrobat Reader plugin for Firefox:
In order to view videos on sites like YouTube and MetaCafe, you'll need to install the Adobe Flash Player. To do this, you first need to enable the Multiverse repository. To enable Multiverse through the menu, select System->Administration->Software Sources. Enter your password at the prompt. Then check the box to include the Multiverse Repository and click on Close.
Enable Multiverse Repository
You can now install the flash player with this terminal command.
You now have all the crucial multimedia products installed.