10 Things You must do after Installing Ubuntu 9.10

Following the grand releases of Snow leopard and  Windows 7 the latest Linux distribution - Ubuntu 9.10, or Karmic Koala made its debut recently. The upgraded Ubuntu deserves an acclaim for bettering its predecessors in most respects. Ubuntu 9.10 hosts a number of features that brings it at par with Windows 7.  With a swift boot time, flashy enhancements and additions like Empathy, Mozilla Firefox , and ext-4 as the default file system, it’s definitely an OS that will woo the Linux buffs. Still, like its predecessors, Ubuntu 9.10 is not flawless and complete.  It requires fix es for things that are not working, some tweaking and installing useful applications to make it an accomplished OS. We decided to provide you with the 10 things that you must do after installing Ubuntu 9.10.

1. Reduce Boot Time

Karmic Koala shows much better boot time than its predecessors, but if you are still not satisfied with the speed you can can use the Ubuntu boot package.

To speed up the boot time follow the steps to install the packages

Step 1: Run the following command in the terminal

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-boot/ppa

Step 2: To update the source list run this

sudo apt-get update

Step 3: Install the package using the following command

sudo sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

2. Fix Firefox problems

Are you using Firefox 3.5 in Karmic Koala? It’s sluggish and adds to your miseries with a poor scrolling experience. For better scrolling try to use Swiftfox - an optimized version of Firefox. In case, this doesn’t work try to use the Firefox 3.6 (beta). The scrolling works perfect and is much faster.

To install the Firefox 3.6 you need to perform the steps below

Open the terminal and paste the following commands that follow

Step 1: To add the Ubuntu Mozilla Daily PPA

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb https://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu karmic main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

Step 2: Add the GPG key

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE

Step 3:  Install Firefox 3.6

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install firefox-3.6

Step 4: Now you need to resolve the compatibility issue. For this open the Firefox and type about:config in the address bar. Right-click on any position on the screen and choose New > Bolean and name this Boolean

extensions.checkCompatibility

Press Ok.

Step 5: Set it to false and press OK again.

Again right-click anywhere on the screen choose New > Boolean and change to this name

extensions.checkUpdateSecurity

Set the value to false

3. Fix Update Manager Behavior

After installing Ubuntu Karmic Koala you find a number of updates available. There are changes in Update Manager behavior that have been already introduced in Ubuntu 9.04. The update manager is launched directly instead of being displayed in the notification icon in the GNOME panel. Users would be notified of security updates on a daily basis. You receive updates for security alerts daily, but other updates are notified only once a week. This can be fixed easily.

In order to fix Update Manager behavior paste this code into the terminal

gconftool -s --type bool /apps/update-notifier/auto_launch false

5. Disable log in sound

Does the log in sound in Ubuntu upset you? You might have tried to turn it off, but with no results. Well, use the following command to get rid of the log in sound

sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds --type bool false

6. Enable Desktop Effects

To make your Desktop a real eye candy you need enable the Compiz Fusion. It is a window management environment for your Ubuntu installation. Whether getting the Desktop Cube or a simple Windows animation you need the Compiz.

Step 1: Open the Appearance window
Step 2: Go to System > Preferences > Appearance
Step 3: Choose the Desktop Effects Tab
Step 4: Check either Normal Or Extra

In case you don’t have graphics card drivers Ubuntu would search them automatically and install.

7. Ubuntu restart

When Ubuntu freezes you often use the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Backspace behavior to get it up and running. However, it doesn’t work for Ubuntu 9.10 and you have to use the reset button to restart the X-server. There is an easy workaround to avert this anomaly.

Step 1: Go to the System> Preferences > Keyboard settings

Step 2: Move to the Layout tab and under the keyboard settings click Key sequence to kill the X server

Step 3: To set it check the Control + Alt + Backspace

8. Install the restricted codecs

Ubuntu lacks a lot of popular media codecs, plug-ins and other handy applications. As for Ubuntu, you would have to pay for the codecs. But, there’s a Ubuntu-Restricted-Extras package that carries all this missing elements. The package includes Java, MP3/M4A/ACC/ETC playback, .RAR extraction, Adobe Flash for watching YouTube videos, Microsoft Core Fonts for viewing some sites properly, a number of popular video codec’s that you would need (.avi, .divx, .wmv, etc) and a other extras.

Installing all this is a click

Step 1: Open Ubuntu Software Center

Step 2: Search for Ubuntu Restricted Extras

Step 3: Click Install

OR

Click the link for Ubuntu Restricted Extras

9. Install Gnome Do

Gnome Do is hard to describe, but it works like a swiss-army knife of software. Essentially It is an intelligent and instantaneous launcher. Just hit the shortcut key and type a few words about the program. It will instantly search the application and launch it. Genome Do comes with a number of useful plugins. You can easily find files and folders, search the web, send an email, post tweets and a lot more that you can’t even think of.  Once you have installed the Karmic koala, this is a must-have.

Link

10. Installing libdvdcss2 package

Ubuntu doesn’t allow you to watch encrypted DVDs, as it is not shipped the libdvdcss2 package due to legal restrictions. To add the libdvdcss2 package add these line to the terminal

sudo apt-get install totem-xine libxine1-ffmpeg libdvdread4 &&
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh