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Wind Minstrel Technologies Ubuntu Linux Guide.
Let us have a quick look at the Ubuntu releases so far:
Ubuntu 4.10 (The Warty Warthog): October 2004
Ubuntu 5.04 (The Hoary Hedgehog): April 2005
Ubuntu 5.10 (The Breezy Badger): October 2005
Ubuntu 6.06 (The Dapper Drake): June 2006 - (With Long Term Support).
Ubuntu 6.10 (The Edgy Elephant): October 2006
Ubuntu 7.04 (The Feisty Fawn): April 2007
Ubuntu 7.10 (The Gutsy Gibbon): October 2007
Ubuntu 8.04 (The Hardy Heron): April 2008 - (With Long Term Support).
Ubuntu 8.10 (The Intrepid Ibex): October 2008
Ubuntu 9.04 (The Jaunty Jackalope) April 2009
Ubuntu 9.10 (The Karmic Koala) October 2009
"Upgrading from Ubuntu 9.04"
To upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04 on a desktop system, press Alt+F2 and type in "update-manager -d" (without the quotes) into the command box. Update Manager should open up and tell you:
New distribution release '9.10' is available.
Click 'Upgrade' and follow the on-screen instructions.
To upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04 on a server system:
install the update-manager-core package if it is not already installed;
edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and set Prompt=normal;
launch the upgrade tool with the command sudo do-release-upgrade -d and follow the on-screen instructions.
So, Ubuntu has been around for a while, and has evolved and been developed from an earlier distribution called Debian.
We shall now have a spin around the new system and get a feel of things, editing is a good place to start......
1. Applications > Accessories > Terminal - open up and type in the following.
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
'sudo' is a command that gives you access to the files as 'root' or 'superuser' do not delete or jab around in this mode unless specifically needed (or you enjoy re-installing systems).
This will open up the default text editor and will reveal the list of repositories.
Uncomment (remove the #'s) from the lists you wish to include.
On Jaunty, the list could look like this:
# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 9.04 _Jaunty Jackalope_ - Release i386 (20090420.1)] / jaunty main restricted
# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty main restricted
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty main restricted
## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-updates main restricted
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-updates main restricted
## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty universe
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty universe
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-updates universe
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-updates universe
## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty multiverse
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty multiverse
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-updates multiverse
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-updates multiverse
## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-backports main restricted universe multiverse
## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu jaunty partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu jaunty partner
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty-security multiverse
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-proposed restricted main multiverse universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty-security multiverse
I have already uncommented the sections for the backports and partner repositories, to access some of the software we shall need to do this.
This will give you access to the restricted, multiverse, universe and backports repositories.
Save the file and close.
Additionally, you may add the Medibuntu repositories.
Medibuntu (Multimedia, Entertainment & Distractions In Ubuntu) is a repository of packages that cannot be included into the Ubuntu distribution for legal reasons (copyright, license, patent, etc).
Some of these packages include the libdvdcss package from VideoLAN and the external binary codecs package (commonly known as w32codecs) used by MPlayer and xine.
Add the following to your sources list via the command line:
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/jaunty.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
Then you will need the Medibuntu key:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update
You will be asked to verify the key installation during the updating process.
Funky Boot Menu and Boot List.
Still in the text editor, open up boot/grub/menu.lst
Find these sections:
## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu
# Pretty colours
colour cyan/blue white/blue
Add a comment to the hiddenmenu section as above.
Remove the comment from the colour cyan/blue white/blue section.
Scroll down the list page to the kernel section (your kernel values may be different here, do not copy and paste the text below):
title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-14-generic
uuid 408347f4-8460-466e-aaae-1ccf747f1c35
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-14-generic root=UUID=408347f4-8460-466e-aaae-1ccf747f1c35 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-14-generic
....remove the word 'quiet' - and nothing else.
title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-14-generic
uuid 408347f4-8460-466e-aaae-1ccf747f1c35
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-14-generic root=UUID=408347f4-8460-466e-aaae-1ccf747f1c35 ro splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-14-generic
Save and close the file.
Please note, when you have a kernel upgrade you will have to re-edit this file because the default kernel setting is once again set to 'quiet'. The menu settings will remain unchanged.
Home Networking with Samba.
If you have a home network and wish to share computer files and access printers:
Open up /etc/samba/smb.conf
Go the the [global] section and add your local domain (default is usually MSHOME when Windows are used in the home, although as long as all workgroups are the same this can be altered as preferred)
# Change this to the workgroup/NT-domain name your Samba server will part of.
workgroup = MSHOME
To add a printer:
System > Administration > Printing.
From here you can access network printers or add a new printer.
Desktop and Icons.
For a desktop with icons, do the following:
System > Preferences > Main Menu
Go to System Tools and check Configuration editor
Open up Applications > System Tools > Configuration Editor
Open Apps > Nautilus > Desktop
Check Computer, Home, Network, Trash and Volumes Visible.
Right click on the trash icon on the right of the bottom panel > remove from panel (you don't need two).
Right click on the panel, go to 'preferences' and within the workspace switcher check you have 4 workspaces and 'show names in workspace switcher' checked. Double click on each workspace name and write a name for each window - internet > email > xterm > office (or whatever you feel you will be using the most). You may now open separate applications and just click on whichever window you wish to use at any one time. Note that applying the 'desktop effects' will remove the names you have given each switcher.
To have a system that does not bounce around with special effects, go to
System > Preference > Appearance.
In Visual Effects check the 'none' button.
The default text size may be altered here in the 'fonts' section. Once you have updated your system from a fresh install, you should now have a set of fonts called 'Liberation'.
Within the 'Fonts' section of Appearance, change the settings to size 9 and Liberation Sans, Liberation Sans Bold and Liberation Mono where applicable.
Restricted Extras and Synaptic Package Manager.
Accessing the repositories via a Gui.
System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager
When opening you will be asked to enter your password.
Hit 'Reload'
Hit 'Mark All Upgrades'
Search for restricted extras. This will bring up a list, pick Ubuntu-Restricted-Extras.
Installing this package will pull in support for MP3 playback and decoding,
support for various other audio formats (gstreamer plugins), Microsoft fonts,
Java runtime environment, Flash plugin, LAME (to create compressed audio
files), and DVD playback.
Add Packages.
To complete this section, you shall have a reasonably accesible system for general usage. Within Synaptic you can add many packages > Thunderbird, Open Office extras, GPG Encryption, Emacs, Extra Fonts, .... the list is endless.
One particularly good application is Elisa for media playing :
sudo apt-get install elisa
Installation will bring in a raft of other stuff to complement Elisa such as additional gstreamer plugins. This is okay.
"Elisa is a project to create an open source media center solution for
GNU/Linux and Unix operating systems. Elisa runs on top of the GStreamer
multimedia framework. In addition to personal video recorder functionality
(PVR) and Music Jukebox support, Elisa will also interoperate with devices
following the DLNA standard like Intel's ViiV systems."
Ensure your system is up to date by using
System > Administration > Update Manager, or if you wish via the command line by typing
'sudo apt-get update'
Welcome to your new and improved Ubuntu system.
Web Design on Linux.
Wind Minstrel utilise a couple of packages for web design.
FileZilla is used for file transfers. (available from the repositories).
Bluefish is a good web designing package. (available from the repositories).
Kompozer is becoming very popular and while available from the repositories, there is an excellent version available from the website (at this time of writing):
http://kompozer.net/download.php
Download the 08 alpha 4 version that ends in tar.gz. and save it to the 'downloads' folder that you should have created. Right click on the file and extract. Inside the newly created folder is a file that simply says 'kompozer'. To create an icon from the desktop, right click on the top toolbar and select 'add to panel', create a custom application launcher and point the file at the kompozer file in the folder.
Click on the default icon and point it to the icons folder within the kompozer main folder and select an icon (you may select the folder and then close it, the icon set will be viewed upon closure).
Update: the icon seems to automatically configure to your added application now.
Recommended.
Now you have your new Linux system, you will need a decent ISP.
Having used various ISP's over the years, we can recommend Plusnet (UK). This ISP has a lot of utilities for the Linux user, including the following:
- Unlimited usage
- Send and receive thousands of emails with attachments, surf the web and play online games as much as you like and download music files and HD movies.
- Up to 8Mb download speeds
- Fast enough for multiple users on one connection, downloading music tracks in a matter of seconds and playing games online.
- Free wireless 4-port router Wirelessly connect up to 10 devices.
- Static IP (available)
- You can have a Dynamic IP assigned by default, but you can request a Static IP once your account is created.
For more information go to the website:
http://www.plus.net/