Customizing "Edgy" HOWTO
Ubuntu Edgy is installed - but that’s only half the way! Here are some tips and tricks on how to customize your installation of Edgy. As I’m using a rather common system I hope this HOWTO may be helpful for some of you (though I’ll be listing nothing here you wouldn’t find in the official Ubuntu Howto/Wiki as well).
Adding repositories
By default Ubuntu makes use of “main” and “restricted” repositories only, so first of all we need to add “universe” and “mutliverse”. To do that open “/etc/apt/sources.list”:
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$ sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
At the top there should be a line which starts with “deb cdrom …... Place a “#” at the bginning. This way apt won’t ask for your installation CD each time a package from there is needed, but it’ll load it down. I hate playing DJ when installing software. If you’re low on bandwidth you may keep this entry of course. You may now add each repository individually or just add “universe multiverse” to each line which has no leading ”#”, so you should end up with something like this (no line breaks, should be six lines!):
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deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ edgy main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ edgy main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ edgy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ edgy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ edgy-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ edgy-security main restricted universe multiverse
Save the file and load the new package information by typing in a terminal window:
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$ sudo apt-get update
Done!
Installing nVidia drivers
Installing the nVidia drivers shipped with Edgy is quite easy. (Note: don’t use the default Edgy driver if you like to enable the aiglx extension later, it won’t work! You’ll need the ones provided on the nVidia site, for help look here.) You may use Synaptic (System -> Administration -> Synaptic) then search for “nvidia-glx” and install that package with all dependencies. Or, open a terminal and type:
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$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx
Answer “yes” to all questions and apt will download and install everything needed. When done, enable the new driver:
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$ sudo nvidia-xconfig
This will write a new xconfig file. Then do a reboot and you’re set!
If you have a videocard by ATI you may find some help here.
Installing a firewall
Ubuntu doesn’t come with a firewall and as I like to be on the safe side I’d install one. So again open a terminal and install Firestarter by:
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$ sudo apt-get install firestarter
To configure and start your firewall, open Firestarter (System -> Administration -> Firestarter). Answer the few questions (it should be OK to leave the defaults here - but if your router provides your computer with an IP address remember to check this feature) and everything is fine!
MP3 support
Like all major Linux distros Ubuntu comes with no MP3 support - but it’s installed very easily! Open Synaptic (System -> Administration -> Synaptic) and search for “gstreamer0.10” then install:
- gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
- gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
- gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse
Now you can use Rythmbox to listen to your MP3 collection.
These are only the basic parts which need to be added to a fresh installation of Edgy. I will continue with some more tips and tricks in the near future.