Ubuntu 17.10: Install Notes

skp Ubuntu 17.10

Today is my first day without my X! I’ve officially installed Ubuntu 17.10 – Artful Ardvark. So, instead of X Windows, I am using Wayland.

There are some issues, but it is a nice new look and feel. This article is my install notes.

Wayland Notes

This is my first jump into using Wayland. The only way I can really tell that I am using it is with the loginctl command or the XDG_SESSION_TYPE variable:

skp@cashew:~$ loginctl
   SESSION        UID USER             SEAT             TTY             
        c1        121 gdm              seat0            /dev/tty1       
         2       1000 skp              seat0            /dev/tty2       

2 sessions listed.
skp@cashew:~$ loginctl show-session 2 -p Type
Type=wayland
skp@cashew:~$ echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE
wayland

I did notice that video is a little smoother. I had an issue with my external screen flickering and distorting the red colors at times. This new version of Ubuntu doesn’t do any of that.

Restoring files

These are the directories that I restored. Maybe it will give you an idea of things you may want to restore if you do the same thing.

  • ~/.ssh: The keys for my remote ssh connections — most important because of backuppc restoring
  • ~/Documents: This is where I put all my document files
  • ~/Pictures: I have Shotwell pointed at this directory, so it contains all the pictures from my cell phone and digital camera
  • ~/GideonTaylor: I keep my work files in a different directory
  • ~/.config/google-chrome: The settings for Chrome (extensions, bookmarks, etc) (or, ~/.config/google-chrome-beta)
  • ~/.local/share/keyrings: My saved passwords
  • ~/.remmina: The settings for my remote connections
  • ~/.local/share/shotwell: The settings and thumbnails for my photos
  • ~/.sword: The downloaded Bible files for Xiphos (and the underlying Sword library)
  • ~/.filezilla: The settings for my FTP connections
  • ~/.vim: stores the plugins installed in Gvim
  • ~/.vimrc: preferences for Gvim
  • ~/.local/share/fonts for custom-installed fonts (see this post)
  • /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections: this saves all of my wireless connections and VPN connections
  • .local/share/applications (not the whole directory) for application shortcuts

Note: To make it recognize the keyring updates without rebooting, you can run this command:

gnome-keyring-daemon -r -d

Also, note that for the network connections to work, you have to make sure the permissions are correct on the files and restart the network manager to get it to use them.

sudo chmod 600 /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/*
sudo service network-manager restart

Networking

Chrome is my browser of choice. I restored my profile so that I am basically back the way it was before I reinstalled. I downloaded the 64-bit Deb install package from Chrome’s website.

Installing it takes a few tweaks. First, I used the command-line to install the package:

sudo dpkg -i Downloads/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

On the last version, I had issues with installing the package. This time it installed with no problems just by double clicking on the package in the Downloads folder.

For VPN’s, I installed all of the VPN pacakges:

sudo apt-get install vpnc \
network-manager-vpnc \
network-manager-openconnect \
network-manager-openconnect-gnome \
openconnect \
network-manager-iodine \
network-manager-openvpn \
network-manager-strongswan \
network-manager-openvpn-gnome

KeePass helps me keep track of my accounts and passwords across the web and my laptop. It’s crucial because there’s no way I could remember all of those accounts and I don’t want to make them all the same password.

I have the library stored and encrypted on drop box, so it is secure but shared across all my devices. So, dropbox is also a requirement for this to work. I’ll install that later.

sudo apt-get install keepass2

To assist with integrating it into Chrome, I used the ChromIPass plugin. I restored that when I restored the Chrome profile. Then, I needed to install the KeePassHttp plugin.

I downloaded KeePassHttp from the GitHub website. The Readme has the link underneath the “Installation” heading. The download file is named KeePassHttp.plgx.

I used the command line to copy the file to my KeePass directory (/usr/lib/keepass2):

cd ~/Downloads
sudo mv KeePassHttp.plgx /usr/lib/keepass2
sudo chmod 644 /usr/lib/keepass2/KeePassHttp.plgx
sudo apt-get install mono-complete

Skype is a necessary evil for me. I feel like the Linux client is missing key features such the ability to share screens or video with multiple people. Still, since others use it, I have to install it.

So, I downloaded it from the Skype website:
Skype Download Page

Installed:

sudo dpkg -i skypeforlinux-64.deb
sudo apt install -y libjpeg62:i386

This installed Skype 5.5.0.1.

The settings have been greatly simplified. I check the 2 options: Tools > Launch at Login and Tools > Launch Minimized. Also, I used to restore the .Skype directory. That directory had all of the chat history. Now, chat history seems to be stored in the cloud and only for a limited amount of time.

The Skype tray icon didn’t work at first. I had to change it to launch like this (I was concerned it wouldn’t work since I am not using Unity anymore, but it did still work):

env XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity skypeforlinux

Note, in the future, I may try the App Indicator Support Gnome Extension.

To make that work, I had to edit the launcher with Menu Libre and also edit it in Startup Applications.

I use Zoom a lot for online meetings. To install, I downloaded it from the download page. I double clicked on the package in the downloads folder to install.

I installed Filezilla with:

sudo apt-get install filezilla

Remina came pre-installed, but I like the latest version.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:remmina-ppa-team/remmina-next
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade remmina remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc

To get Remmina to autostart, I went to the Preferences dialog, and I checked “Start Remmina in tracy icon at user login” under the Applet section.

I installed Dropbox by downloading from their Download Page. It installed easily by double clicking on the package. After installing, you have to start dropbox from the menu and go through the “download” and setup stuff.

Configuration and Utilities

I like these tools:

  • MenuLibre — uesful for adding items to the menu
  • 7zip & RAR — compression algorithms
  • Synaptic — more dependable / advanced for installing packages
  • Y PPA Manager — tool for managing PPA’s
  • Gnome Tweak Tool — allows tweaking additional settings
  • Keep Awake Gnome Extension — a tool to turn off the screensaver/ lock
  • Bing Wallpaper Gnome Extension — a tool to switch backgrounds
  • Xiphos — a Bible tool that works off of the Sword project
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install menulibre \
      p7zip-full p7zip-rar \
      synaptic \
      y-ppa-manager \
      gnome-tweak-tool \
      caffeine \
      xiphos

Sticky edges wasn’t an issue on this Ubuntu release (I used to have to turn it off), and the launcher bar was only on the one screen by default. Apparently, Wobbly Windows is a think of the past, and I haven’t found a way to enable it on Wayland yet.

The Gnome Tweak tool is just called “Tweaks” in the menu…

  • Top Bar — Turned “Date” on to show date in top bar

Under system settings, I made the following changes:

  • Devices, Mouse & Touchpad: turned Natural Scrolling off
  • Details, Date & Time: Changed Time Format to AM/PM

For Gnome Extensions, I had to install the helper tool:

sudo apt-get install chrome-gnome-shell

Instead of the old Caffeine program, I installed the “Keep Awake” extension that does the same thing. It is supposed to keep the screen from going to sleep when desired. I also decided to install the Bing Wallpaper Switcher.

Update 10/30/2017: I had a clipboard manager installed before. This time, I decided to give a gnome extension from here a try.

At the moment, Synaptic doesn’t work either:

It does work if I launch it this way:

xhost +si:localuser:root
sudo synaptic

On the Software & Updates program, I also installed the NVidia driver in the Additional Drivers tab.

LibreOffice

Initially, Ubuntu came with this version installed:
Version: 5.4.1.2
Build ID: 1:5.4.1-0ubuntu1

I want to keep it up to date, so I am enabling this repo:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:libreoffice/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

After applying that repo, it upgraded to:
Version: 5.4.2.2
Build ID: 1:5.4.2~rc2-0ubuntu0.17.10.1~lo1

There are a few settings that I like to make in the Options (Tools > Options). I like the ribbon interface. LibreOffice > Advanced: under optional features, I checked “Enable experimental features”. Then, I can select View > Toolbar Layout > Notebookbar. Also in the Impress, I went to LibreOffice Impress > General, there I checked the “Enable remote control”.

For some reason, the Notebook Bar looks horrible with the current colors. I fixed it by going to LibreOffice > Personalization and picked the “Eagle Head” theme.

Virtual Box

This I just downloaded the virtualbox package directly (from here).

Then, I download the extension pack from Oracle’s website.

Programming Tools

  • GVim: Power text editor — vim is the CLI version, and vim-gnome is the GUI version (I like both for different situations)
  • Git: Version control system … git-cola is the GUI client, installs CLI program as a dependency
  • Meld: compare tool like “Beyond Compare”, etc. nautilus-compare is an add on to launch from the file manager
  • Java: I use several Java tools
  • MS Visual Studio Code: I have allowed this to replace brackets
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install \
       vim \
       vim-gnome \
       git-cola \
       meld \
       nautilus-compare \
       oracle-java8-installer \
       oracle-java9-installer

I created a directory for the Vi backup files:

mkdir ~/.vimtmp

Visual Studio Code has become my editor of choice for website development. I downloaded it from the website. I also decided to install the Angular Extensions Pack. To install, I hit Ctrl+P and typed: “ext install angular-essentials”.

I am using Node JS more and more for website development. So, I am just installing it with my system.

sudo apt-get install nodejs
sudo apt-get install npm
sudo npm install bower -g
sudo npm install -g gulp
sudo npm install -g grunt

Here are the versions:

$ node --version
v6.11.4
$ npm -g ls --depth=0
/usr/local/lib
├── bower@1.8.2
├── grunt@1.0.1
└── gulp@3.9.1

I also installed Soap UI from their website.

sh Downloads/SoapUI-x64-5.3.0.sh

I installed the Gluon Scene Developer from their website. This time, I downloaded and installed the Java 9 version.

I downloaded SQL Developer from Oracle’s website. Then, I used these commands to install it:

sudo apt-get install sqldeveloper-package \
                     debhelper
make-sqldeveloper-package -b output \
       sqldeveloper*.zip
sudo dpkg -i sqldeveloper*all.deb

For some reason, that didn’t work. I got this output:

make-sqldeveloper-package: Building sqldeveloper package in "/home/skp/Downloads".
This package has a Debian revision number but there does not seem to be
an appropriate original tar file or .orig directory in the parent directory;
(expected one of sqldeveloper_17.3.1.279.0537+0.2.4.orig.tar.gz, sqldeveloper_17.3.1.279.0537+0.2.4.orig.tar.bz2,
sqldeveloper_17.3.1.279.0537+0.2.4.orig.tar.lzma,  sqldeveloper_17.3.1.279.0537+0.2.4.orig.tar.xz or sqldeveloper-17.3.1.279.0537.orig)
continue anyway? (y/n) y
debuild: fatal error at line 1124:
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -us -uc binary failed

I ended just unzipping it into the bin directory and using MenuLibre to create a launcher.

I downloaded Eclipse from the Eclipse website.

cd Downloads/
tar -xzvf eclipse-inst-linux64.tar.gz
cd eclipse-installer
./eclipse-inst

After the install, I installed the following components from the Help menu.

  • Collaboration > Dynamic Languages Toolkit – Mylyn Integration
  • Collaboration > Eclipse GitHub Integration with task focused interface
  • General Purpose Tools > e(fx)clipse – IDE
  • Programming > JavaScript Development Tools Chromium/V8 Remote Debugger
  • Web, XML, Java EE and OSGi Enterprise Development > Eclipse Web Developer Tools
  • Web, XML, Java EE and OSGi Enterprise Development > Eclipse Java Web Developer Tools
  • Web, XML, Java EE and OSGi Enterprise Development > Javascript Development Tools
  • Web, XML, Java EE and OSGi Enterprise Development > PHP Development Tools

Visual Media Programs

I installed the following other programs for working with visual media:

  • Gimp: for editing photos
  • Inkscape: vector-based drawing
  • Xournal: has features that allow marking up a PDF
  • Shutter: I used for taking and annotating screenshots
sudo apt-get install gimp \
        gimp-data-extras \
        inkscape \
        xournal \
        shutter

After installing, on Shutter, I went to Edit > Preferences. On Main > Directory, I changed the directory to a new one that I created called screenshots. Pictures is for photos, in my opinion, not screenshots. Under Behavior > First-launch Behavior, I checked “Start Shutter at login” and “Hide window on first launch”.

Currently, Shutter (and any screenshot tool) is broken. There is a screenshot tool that I could use in the meantime. Here’s a bug link.

These shortcuts are helpful:

  • PrtSc = Capture screen
  • Alt+PrtSc = Capture Active App/Window
  • Shift+PrtSc = Capture Area

Audio Media Programs

These are the audio programs that I like:

  • Audacity: sound editing
  • MuseScore: sheet music editor
  • soundconverter: converting audio between formats
  • winff: Front end to ffmpeg
sudo apt-get install audacity \
          winff-gtk2 \
          soundconverter \
          musescore

Note: The MuseScore Maintainers team has a repository, but they don’t update it until that version gets out of date, so we can’t use it now.

Video Media Programs

These are the programs I use for playing and editing video:

  • mplayer – nice general video/music player from the command line
  • smplayer – gui version of mplayer (couldn’t find gnome-mplayer anymore)
  • vlc – video player
  • kdenlive – video editor
  • openshot – video editor
  • cheese – nice for testing to make sure the webcam works (already installed)
  • EasyTAG
  • YouTube Downloader — downloads videos from Youtube
sudo apt-get install smplayer \
      vlc \
      kdenlive breeze-icon-theme \
      openshot \
      youtube-dl \
      easytag

Update 10/30/2017: I added breeze-icon-theme with kdenlive (without it you get a warning on startup).

Then, I installed the codecs for videos:

sudo apt-get install \
     libdvdnav4 \
     libdvdread4 \
     gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad \
     gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly \
     ubuntu-restricted-extras

Finally, I installed the Open Broadcaster Software from their website. Here are the commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install obs-studio

Games

0ad has been a hit in our house. I like to keep up to date with it, so I’ll install from their repo

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wfg/0ad
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install 0ad

Resources

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