First Steps in Ubuntu 12.04

I just installed Ubuntu 12.04 on my main laptop.  Clicking the buttons to walk through the Ubuntu install wizard is only the tip of the iceberg.  Now comes the job of installing all of the programs and tools to make it what you want.

Read on to see what I did first with my new installation…

Wireless

I was amazed that I was able to get wireless working even before I installed Ubuntu.  I have a Broadcom wireless card, and that used to involve installing proprietary drivers and rebooting.

This time, I was able to use the dialog to enable the driver and use it right away.  The dialog said I needed to reboot, but my wireless network showed up in the list without rebooting!

Here’s where I installed the driver:

Next, I simply enabled the driver in this dialog.

By activating wireless in the Live CD, I was able to tell it to download updates as it installed.  The cool part was that it remembered my wireless network after the install and I didn’t have to re-enter my wireless password on my new installation.  It just automatically connected!

Installing Shutter

If you are going to document your install, you need a good screenshot tool.  Ubuntu comes with a Screenshot program that works, but I like Shutter better.  You can easily install it from the Software Center:

Before running shutter, you need to run this command in the terminal.  This will allow the icon to show up by the clock. (from Ask Ubuntu: Application Indicator for Shutter)

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "$(gsettings get com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist | sed -e "s/]$/, 'shutter']/")"

Then, I like to create a separate folder for screenshots.  By default, Shutter uses the Pictures folder, but I want to keep photos there.  So, I just add a screenshots folder in my home directory.

Next, go to Edit > Preferences.  You can select the screenshots folder there.

Next, I wanted it to start on bootup.  So, I set that on the Behavior tab.

Chrome

Ubuntu comes with Firefox pre-installed.  It works great, but I have become a Chrome fan and see no need to switch at the moment.

If you want to install from the Software Center, youi’ll have to use Chromium.  There are some privacy issues that you avoid by using it, but you also sacrifice a few Google-added convenience features.   The big one for me is the built-in PDF viewer plugin.

To install Chrome, you’ll need to go to: https://www.google.com/chrome.  Then, click on the Download link:

The download should be Deb file.  It should open with the software center:

Finally, after installing, I restored my settings from my backup.  That way I would have my bookmarks, etc.  For the password, I had restore to my gnome keyring from my backup.  These are the two directories:

• ~/.config/google-chrome
• ~/.gnome2/keyrings

When I started up, it seemed to work great.  It even kept open the tabs that were open before.  Most of them crashed, but I just reopened a new tab and copied the URL to the new tab:

Settings

You can make a number of Settings changes with the “System Settings” application.  These are the one that I made.

My touchpad has a horizontal scroll area, so I wanted to enabled it.  You can do so with System Settings > Mouse and Touchpad > Touchpad tab.

The other setting is a power setting.  I like to move my laptop around, and I close the lid as I carry it.  I don’t like it hibernating if I am just walking from one room to another.  So, I disable that option.  I can still explicitly tell it to hibernate if I want it to.  You can change it on System Settings > Power.

I also changed the background to the Live Wallpaper.  I like it changing periodically because I can’t make up my mind on a single Wall Paper.  System Settings > Appearance.

Ubuntu Tweak

I remember hearing about Ubuntu Tweak in the past, but this is my first use.  I am downloading it from their website:

http://ubuntu-tweak.com/

Again, the download is a Deb file.  When you open it, it opens in the Software Center, and you can easily install it from there.

For now, the only tweak that I used was the Workspaces mouse corner.  I went to Tweaks > Workspace.  I like to see all of the windows by moving the mouse to the lower right-hand corner.  You can easily configure that here:

Adjusting the Launchers on the Left

In my mind, the launchers that stay on the left are for applications that you use regularly.  So, I need to remove a number of the ones that go there by default.  You can right click on items you don’t want and choose “Unlock from Launcher”.

Shutter has a number of shortcuts from the launcher, but you can decide for yourself.  I use the notification icon near the clock instead.

Since I use Chrome, I wanted to pin Chrome to the launcher:

Then, I removed Firefox:

 

 

Stay tuned for more later…