Installation
of
Ubuntu Linux 9.04
9 easy steps to success
This guide shows how to install
a
new Ubuntu 9.04 desktop system on
your
computer.If you want to upgrade from Ubuntu 8.10 to 9.04 then follow this link...
Download
Ubuntu:
Ubuntu Desktop...
The Ubuntu Desktop CD is so-called LiveCD which allows you to try Ubuntu without installing or changing your computer at all. The desktop will present an icon that lets you install Ubuntu permanently on a hard drive. Study the release notes...
The minimum memory requirement... is 384MB for the LiveCD installation. If your system has less memory, install from the Alternate CD which provides a low calory, text based installation. The Alternate CD is available from the same download link below.
Download the iso (CD) image
For servers you should get the "Ubuntu 9.04 Server CD". Ubuntu 9.04 Server... is a very professional and reliable server operating system suitable for both business and home servers. And you can easily manage your servers (or cloud) with the Canonical's Landscape... system management and monitoring tool.
Ubuntu Desktop...
The Ubuntu Desktop CD is so-called LiveCD which allows you to try Ubuntu without installing or changing your computer at all. The desktop will present an icon that lets you install Ubuntu permanently on a hard drive. Study the release notes...
The minimum memory requirement... is 384MB for the LiveCD installation. If your system has less memory, install from the Alternate CD which provides a low calory, text based installation. The Alternate CD is available from the same download link below.
Download the iso (CD) image
Browse to http://www.ubuntu.com/download... and pick the "Ubuntu
9.04 Desktop (the latest version)
". Select a download location near you. At the bottom of page
choose either 32bit or 64bit version. I highly recommend
you to
install the 64bit version if your computer can run it.
The name of the cd image is "ubuntu-9.04-desktop-amd64.iso" for the 64bit version and "ubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso" for 32bit. The "amd64" image will run on all Intel/AMD compatible processors.
The name of the cd image is "ubuntu-9.04-desktop-amd64.iso" for the 64bit version and "ubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso" for 32bit. The "amd64" image will run on all Intel/AMD compatible processors.
For servers you should get the "Ubuntu 9.04 Server CD". Ubuntu 9.04 Server... is a very professional and reliable server operating system suitable for both business and home servers. And you can easily manage your servers (or cloud) with the Canonical's Landscape... system management and monitoring tool.
You must burn the CD as a file system image on an empty 700MB CD.
In Windows
Follow this guide to burn the CD
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BurningIsoHowto
For the best result, burn at slow speed.
Here is also a complete example on howto download and burn a Ubuntu CD in Windows...
In Unix/Linux
The K3B burner (in
KDE) have
a special
menu
selection for burning of iso images. Look for menu selections "Burn
image" or "Burn iso image". In the GNOME-desktop, you should burn the
iso-image directly without adding it to the data project. See picture 2a...
Make
sure your PC can boot from
a CD. You can change the
boot-order
in BIOS
(pc setup). Recommended boot-order is CDrom -> Harddisk.
Put the CD in, reboot
your PC
and select "Check
CD for defects"
option from the menu. (See picture_3a)
This step will take a few minutes while it checks the CD for errors.
You should always perform this test for new Ubuntu CDs.
Return to step 1) if this test reports anomalies.
4a) Start the LiveCD
Then select the "Try Ubuntu without
any
change to your computer"
option from the menu as shown in picture_4a.
It will load a fully
functional Ubuntu Linux desktop. The "Install
Ubuntu" selection will let you skip the LiveCD part and start
the installation straightaway.
After the LiveCD has loaded,
nothing has been installed on your hard
drives - it all runs from
the
LiveCD. You can now test and play with Ubuntu before the
final
installation.
Of course, if you downloaded the Alternate CD, it will start the installation straightaway without any LiveCD desktop. It has text based user interface.
4b) Start the installation
Of course, if you downloaded the Alternate CD, it will start the installation straightaway without any LiveCD desktop. It has text based user interface.
4b) Start the installation
4c) Partitioning
Guided partitioning
Choose "guided" partitioning if possible. It can even resize and create space on an existing Windows harddisk. See picture_4c.
Manual partitioning
If you want to slice your harddisk manually, create at least these 2 partitions:
- The
main partition should be at least 20GB of size.
The mount point for this is "/" which denotes the root filesystem.
The recommended file system type is ext3 or the new, fast ext4. These are reliable journalled file systems.
- Swap partition
should be
around 2 times the PC's physical memory and at
least 512MB.
The filesystem type for this partition must be swap. See picture_4cc.
Activate
display driver:
If your computer has a rather
new ATI, NVIDIA or Intel's graphic card
then you should install a proper (closed source) driver for it. A
proper driver
will make your desktop very quick and it will let you play games with
full hardware acceleration. Also the Compiz
3D desktop requires accelerated
graphics support.5a) Start the "Hardware Drivers" dialog from the System -> Administration -> "Hardware Drivers" menu.
Note: If you do not see any lines (drivers) in the list then move to step 5c).
5b) Enable the driver
Locate and checkmark the graphics driver in the list. It will Enable and install the driver. In most cases the graphics driver will be NVIDIA or AMD/ATI. See picture_5a. Close the dialog after successful installation.
5c) Restart
Reboot, restart your computer via System -> Quit menu.
-----
In case you encounter problems with the display settings:
Try the Alberto Milone's Envy...
Envy can install the very latest driver for NVIDIA and AMD/ATI's video cards.
The last solution is to ask other Ubuntu users for help. Read how to get help...
Note: If you see other closed-source drivers in the "Hardware Drivers" dialog, then you may enable them too.
Keyboard and language settings ara probably OK but check them anyway.
6a)
Set language
Ubuntu Desktop and its applications have been translated to many languages. You can set the language via System -> Administration -> Language Support menu. See picture_6a. New language settings will take take effect after re-login (System -> Quit -> Log Out - login).
6b) Define keyboard
Start the Keyboard dialog from the System -> Preferences -> Keyboard menu. Select the [Layouts] page. Then add new and remove unnecessary keyboard layouts. See picture_6b.
Ubuntu Desktop and its applications have been translated to many languages. You can set the language via System -> Administration -> Language Support menu. See picture_6a. New language settings will take take effect after re-login (System -> Quit -> Log Out - login).
6b) Define keyboard
Start the Keyboard dialog from the System -> Preferences -> Keyboard menu. Select the [Layouts] page. Then add new and remove unnecessary keyboard layouts. See picture_6b.
Please reboot and login to your
new Ubuntu desktop system.
Programs and system files (which we call packages) come from repositories. A repository... is an archive, a server on the internet where program packages are stored and retrieved from. (more in this video...).
7a)
Refine your Ubuntu-desktop to
perfection
It may report a GPG-error on the Medibuntu's
repo. Do not worry, next command will fix it.
Medibuntu's packages are signed with a private GPG security key. Add its public key part to your package system. Run
Upgrade the system (if there are updates available). Run
Press TAB-key or arrow-keys to move the cursor in
the text
window (if you need to confirm the license).
Remove all old and buggy Flash-plugins (this seems to be an important step on 32bit Ubuntu 9.04) !
You may also remove "gnash" and "mozilla-plugin-gnash" packages if these are present.
Then install support for more multimedia formats and Adobe's Flash 10. Again, answer "y" to confirm the installation.
7b) Fix java
This is how to install Sun's Java 6 runtime (JRE).
Remove both OpenJDK and GNU's GCJ Java solutions and the Icedtea browser plugin. Run
Install Sun's java 6, its browser plugin and fonts. Run
Press TAB-key or arrow-keys to move the cursor in
the text
window (if you need to confirm the license).
Install also sun-java6-jdk package if you want to develope Java... applications.
Set the Sun's (non-free) Java VM as default. Run
Set the Sun's (non-free) browser plugin as default. Run
Restart internet browser after changes. Run
7c) Install and start firewall
Ufw... firewall (user friendly firewall) is a commd line tool and gufw is a grapical front-end to ufw. Run command
Activate the firewall. Run command
It will automatically start at boot.
Read its manual page.
And study the Ubuntugeek's
ufw guide...
You can start graphical UI for ufw from System -> Administration -> Firewall Configuration menu. The sudo-system will again ask your user password before it shows the dialog. See picture 7c...
Firestarter... is another good firewall front-end to the Linux's iptables firewall system.
7d) Speed up application start time with preload
Linux's preload daemon... monitors what programs you use most often and caches these programs and dependent libraries in (unused) memory to speed up application start time. If your system has 1GB or more memory then preload will have a positive effect.
Install and start the preload process. Run command
It will automatically start at boot.
7e) Enable Control Center
Ubuntu comes with a Control Center application, but the menu selection for it is normally not activated because most of its tasks can be done via other menu items. But the Control Center has a search-field plus it gives a great overview so you should enable it.
First, right click the main menu on the panel and select "Edit Menus". The menu editor window should appear. See picture 7e... Then select the "System" menu at the left side and enable the "Control Center" item. See picture 7ee...
Start the Control Center from System -> Control Center menu. See picture 7eee... It's a really nice feature.
----- ----- -----
Programs and system files (which we call packages) come from repositories. A repository... is an archive, a server on the internet where program packages are stored and retrieved from. (more in this video...).
To
make your desktop useable we need to install browser-plugins for Flash9
and Java. We will also add multimedia
codeces to make video, DVD and music play well in Ubuntu.
First, start the gnome-terminal application from the Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal menu. See picture_7a... Type (or copy & paste) one green line at the time. The first sudo command will ask your user password. Note that it expects your own, ordinary, normal password.
This command will add the Medibuntu repository... to your package manager. Medibuntu provides many important applications, multimedia codeces and plugins. Run the following commands. (see this example picture_7aa...)
Now refresh the package index
(package list) in your pc. Copy & paste this commandFirst, start the gnome-terminal application from the Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal menu. See picture_7a... Type (or copy & paste) one green line at the time. The first sudo command will ask your user password. Note that it expects your own, ordinary, normal password.
This command will add the Medibuntu repository... to your package manager. Medibuntu provides many important applications, multimedia codeces and plugins. Run the following commands. (see this example picture_7aa...)
| sudo wget
http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/jaunty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list |
| sudo apt-get update |
Medibuntu's packages are signed with a private GPG security key. Add its public key part to your package system. Run
| sudo apt-get -y --force-yes install
medibuntu-keyring |
Upgrade the system (if there are updates available). Run
| sudo apt-get upgrade -y |
| Install support for proprietary multimedia formats (mp3, avi), ability to read encrypted DVDs. Add extra fonts. Answer "y" to confirm the installation. |
| sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras libdvdcss2 |
Remove all old and buggy Flash-plugins (this seems to be an important step on 32bit Ubuntu 9.04) !
You may also remove "gnash" and "mozilla-plugin-gnash" packages if these are present.
| sudo apt-get remove flashplugin-* --purge |
Then install support for more multimedia formats and Adobe's Flash 10. Again, answer "y" to confirm the installation.
| sudo apt-get install non-free-codecs flashplugin-nonfree |
7b) Fix java
Ubuntu comes with the OpenJDK... Java solution. OpenJDK
is good but it seems to fail
when login to some online
bank... sites with signed Java-applets (picture 7b...),
so in Ubuntu, I prefer to
install the official Sun's Java 6 and its accompanying Firefox
plugin.
This is how to install Sun's Java 6 runtime (JRE).
Remove both OpenJDK and GNU's GCJ Java solutions and the Icedtea browser plugin. Run
| sudo
apt-get remove -y icedtea6-plugin
openjdk-6-jre openjdk-6-jre-lib gcj |
Install Sun's java 6, its browser plugin and fonts. Run
| sudo apt-get install
--reinstall -y sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts |
Install also sun-java6-jdk package if you want to develope Java... applications.
Set the Sun's (non-free) Java VM as default. Run
| sudo update-alternatives --auto java |
Set the Sun's (non-free) browser plugin as default. Run
| sudo update-alternatives --auto xulrunner |
Restart internet browser after changes. Run
| pkill firefox |
7c) Install and start firewall
Ufw... firewall (user friendly firewall) is a commd line tool and gufw is a grapical front-end to ufw. Run command
| sudo aptitude install ufw gufw |
Activate the firewall. Run command
| sudo ufw enable |
Read its manual page.
| man ufw |
You can start graphical UI for ufw from System -> Administration -> Firewall Configuration menu. The sudo-system will again ask your user password before it shows the dialog. See picture 7c...
Firestarter... is another good firewall front-end to the Linux's iptables firewall system.
7d) Speed up application start time with preload
Linux's preload daemon... monitors what programs you use most often and caches these programs and dependent libraries in (unused) memory to speed up application start time. If your system has 1GB or more memory then preload will have a positive effect.
Install and start the preload process. Run command
| sudo apt-get install -y preload |
7e) Enable Control Center
Ubuntu comes with a Control Center application, but the menu selection for it is normally not activated because most of its tasks can be done via other menu items. But the Control Center has a search-field plus it gives a great overview so you should enable it.
First, right click the main menu on the panel and select "Edit Menus". The menu editor window should appear. See picture 7e... Then select the "System" menu at the left side and enable the "Control Center" item. See picture 7ee...
Start the Control Center from System -> Control Center menu. See picture 7eee... It's a really nice feature.
----- ----- -----
Note: We have here
used command
line to install some programs and packages. But normally we use the
Synaptic Package Manager (from the System
-> Administration
menu) or the Applications
-> Add/Remove... dialog to install
and remove
packages/programs. Command line is snappy but GUI is often
easier to use. See pictures 7f...
and 7ff... You ought
to learn to use them!
8a) On your desktop, right-mouse click on the upper toolbar (panel) and choose "Add to panel..." from the menu. See picture 8a...
Drag & drop items onto the toolbar as shown in picture 8aa...
You can also pull some important menu selections from the main menu onto the toolbar or the desktop surface so you can access them easily. See picture 8aaa...
8b) Install some additional programs
Start the Synaptic Package Manager from System -> Administration menu. In the Synaptic, search for programs/packages listed in the table. But first, study picture 8b....
You can also install the programs by clicking the 1-click apt-link in the rightmost column.
| sbackup |
Simple
backup ssolution. Read also this...
article. Related software: Apt on cd... and Back in time... |
Install Sbackup now... |
| ubuntu-tweak | Ubuntu-tweak... lets you tweak
many desktop-properties in Ubuntu. Very nice tool in-deed and easier to
use than gconf-editor. It's not in
the repository yet. Get package for Jaunty from here.. |
|
| startupmanager |
Startup Manager...
is a gui tool for changing settings of GRUB and
boot splash picture. Change which OS to boot by
default and delay before boot up. |
Install Startup Manager
now... |
| hardinfo |
Hardinfo... can show information about your system's hardware and operating system, perform benchmarks, and generate printable reports either in HTML or in plain text formats. AFAIK it does not install any menu selection. Start it from CLI by typing hardinfo. Add a new entry to the menu or toolbar. lshw-gtk... (lshw) is another good tool to dig hardware details. | Install Hardinfo now... |
| gftp or filezilla |
FTP
client with
GUI. I personally prefer FileZilla over gftp. |
Install FileZilla now... |
| skype and ekiga | Skype and
Ekiga are internet phone appliances. Read this... about softphones. |
Install Skype now... Install Ekiga now... |
| pidgin | Pidgin... is a multi-protocol chat
program. It's installed by default. You will find it in Applications
-> Internet menu. Read also this
overview... Empathy... will replace Pidgin in Ubuntu 9.10. |
Pidgin is
pre-installed. |
| mozilla-thunderbird | A very good email client. The default email client in Ubuntu is Evolution... but am used to Mozilla's Thunderbird. | Install Thunderbird
now... |
| google earth |
Google earth... to show maps and images of this planet. | Install Google Eearth now... |
| liferea | Liferea... is a feed/news reader. Supports several feed formats. | Install Liferea now... |
| drivel |
Drivel...
is a blog editor. See also micro-blogger gwibber... |
Install Drivel now... Install Gwibber now... |
| acroread | Adobe's PDF-reader. Ubuntu has its own document
tools.Ubuntu/GNOME's evince...
can read
PDF,
postscript, djvu, tiff and dvi documents. I'll stick to evince, but
Adobe's acroread is much quicker to show large PDF documents. |
Evince is pre-installed. Install Acroread now... |
| transmission | Transmission-gtk...
is Ubuntu's default torrent-client. |
Transmission-gtk is pre-installed. |
| ardour | Ardour... is an excellent multitrack audio editor. | Install Ardour now... |
| kino |
EDIT
21.may.2009: I will recommend the PiTiVi
movie editor...(via Jaunty's PPA repo). Add
the PPA repo-lines to
/etc/apt/sources.list file. Kino...
is another good video editor for
Linux. More about
video editors here... (PiTiVi's story...)
|
Install kino now... |
| gtk-recordmydesktop istanbul is another usable screen capture tool. |
Take a
video capture of
your desktop and applications. gtk-recordMyDesktop...
puts an icon on the system tray
(notification area) of your toolbar. Default output file name is
out.ogg. About other good screencast applications, read article
1... and article
2.. The Java-based Krut...
is also ok. |
Install
gtk-recordmydesktop... Install Istanbul now... |
| cheese | Cheese... can take
pictures from your webcam and add fancy effects to them. Share your
photos. |
Install Cheese now... |
| vinagre | Vinagre... is a remote desktop (VNC) client. | Install Vinagre now... (probably pre-installed) |
| gscreendump | Gscreendump is a screenshot taking app with many amazing features. It is not in the Ubuntu's repository (yet) but you can easily install it from gscreendump... But read the installation instructions... first. |
Other software you should know about. You may install these programs later !
| soundconverter |
Convert
audio files
between OGG, MP3, FLAC, WAV. Read this great overview of Ubuntu's multimedia applications... |
Install Soundconverter now... |
| imagemagic | Imagemagic is a collection of
nice command line tools to manipulate images. Display, convert, mogrify
etc. Good ImageMagick Tutorials... |
Install ImageMagick now... |
| amarok | Amarok is
an audio
player with iPod support etc. It is a KDE application. Ubuntu's Rhythmbox... and Banshee... can probably do the same tricks. Test the pre-installed RhythmBox first. Learn to download music from Jamendo and Magnatune... |
RhythmBox
is pre-installed. Install Banshee now... Install Amarok now... |
| vlc |
Open
source video player
with support for many audio and video formats. But I prefer the
GNOME's pre-installed Totem...
movie player. |
Totem is
pre-installed. |
| k3b | Probably
the best CD/DVD
burning program on this planet. KDE-application. Ubuntu's Brasero... burner is good enought. |
Brasero is
pre-installed. |
| handbrake thoggen dvdrip |
This guide...
will show you how to rip DVDs. |
|
| scribus and inkscape |
Scribus... is
a desktop
publishing tool DTP (KDE application). Inkscape... is SVG vector graphics
editor. Read more...
about graphics tools. |
Install Scribus now... Install Inkscape now... |
| kompozer | Kompozer... is a capable web design and authoring tool. Fork of NVU. KDE-application. | Install Kompozer now... |
| frostwire | Frostwire... is a p2p file
sharing client. Replaces Limewire. Download/install Frostwire from its
webpage. Other alternatives are gtk-gnutella
(in the repo) and phex. See also Nicotine+... It's in the repo. |
|
| mc gnome-commander |
Midnight
Commander... is a twin-panel file manager with powerful features
and ease of use. These articles 1...
and 2...
can tell you more about orthodox file managers. |
Install MC now... Install Gnome Commander now... |
| build-essential | A meta
package that
contains compilers for c/c++ programmig. If you plan to compile
programs from source code then you should get this package, otherwise
no. Read also how to install
Code::Blocks IDE... on Ubuntu. Study also Eclipse...
It's in the repo too. |
Install Build-essential now... |
I also want to mention these programs: penguintv and frozen-bubble. They are all in the Ubuntu's repo/Synaptic ;-). And do not forget the new Miro TV...
Google's Picasa photo album is also a great application. Download the .deb package from http://picasa.google.com and let the package manager install it. Start Picasa from the menu. However more and more people opt for F-spot. Try F-spot first. It's in the repo.
Software for kids... and a lot of great games... + more games...
Check also these App Stores 1... and 2...
------------------------
Note: You can easily change and add new items to the main menu. Press right-mouse-button on the menubar and select "Edit Menus". Study picture 8c...
Test browser-plugins and actions on the most common file types.
9a) Start Firefox and check browser-plugins on http://webapps.ou.edu/it/browser...
You should see that most of the plugins are present. This model picture_9a is from my PC. You will probably do without Real Player and Acrobat Reader plugins because Ubuntu has other tools for that types of content.
You can also list all plugins by typing about:plugins in th Firefox's address field(Picture_9aa).
9b) Take a Java test... You should see a dancing Duke logo.
9c) And watch this music video... to check the Flash 9 browser plugin.
9d) Study also the samples in your home folder's /Examples... directory. Start the Nautilus file manager from Places -> Home Folder menu and browse to the Examples directory and test the samples.
