Ubuntu

Instead of going through the list of applications manually from this article, we plan to have the entire procedure replaced by the organicdesign-workstation package. Currently the package handled 90% of our requirements, but some manual installation is still required, and are included in this article.

Applications we use which are preinstalled

• Browser: Firefox 3
• P2P: Transmission
• MSN/IRC: Pidgin
• Office Suite: Open Office

Additional Software Installed

To install, type the name into the Add/Remove search box unless other instructions are given

• Browser addons: Flash plug in (from add/remove), download helper and firebug (from tools/addons)
• Email: Thunderbird
• Editor: Geany
• Media player: VLC
• Chat: Skype (download .deb from here, see this re installing on 64bit)
• Wine + IEs4Linux (for installation, see below)
• Vector Graphics: InkScape

Utilities

To install, type the name into the Add/Remove search box unless other instructions are given

• build-essential (install this before doing any compiling, use apt-get)
• Samba
• 7Zip
• Advanced Desktop Effects Settings (Ubuntu uses the Compiz window manager now which has many plugins and options)
• gparted (Disk partition editor, see also partition resize docs)
• ntfsprogs (allows you to run ntfsfix on devices which have been uncleanly dismounted from windows)
• sysinfo
• DynUsb allows drives to be removed safely without needing to be unmounted first

Dell specific

Most of our laptops are Dell's because they're a very Linux friendly manufacturer. Dell maintain their own repository of kernel modules (such as those needed for modems to work etc) and other specific configuration. So add it to your sources.list by appending the following (change hardy to what ever you're distro of Ubuntu is such as gutsy or intreped).

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/dell-team/ubuntu hardy main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/dell-team/ubuntu hardy main

Then update and upgrade as usual,

apt-get update apt-get upgrade

Dell modems

I found Dell dgc modems to install easily with the driver from Dell, eg dgcmodem_1.04_i386.deb. But the other popular Conexant modem they use is hsf and I found that wouldn't compile on many Dell laptop models.

I was able to get an hsf modem to work at 14.4Kbps using the free driver from Linuxant. I had downloaded the deb version of the generic packages with source, for example hsfmodem_7.80.02.01full_i386.deb. After I installed it with dpkg -i it gave no errors, but still it would fail to detect a modem from the gnome ppp, but I then ran hsfconfig which compiled successfully and then asked questions about area code etc which it had not been able to do before. After this process, the auto-detection of the modem succeeded from gnome ppp.

Note: It's best to run through pppconfig from root and fill in the ISP details so that all the files are already set up before trying to connect from gnome ppp because it doesn't have permission to write to the ppp configuration files itself.

Server Software & Utilities

To install server software for running a local development environment for our wiki work, just run through the necessary items in the Debian Post Install.

Sharing files with Samba

This has changed a bit in Ubuntu 8, you need to install Samba from Add/Remove then manage shares from the System/Administration/Samba menu.

• The administration app was crashing on my laptop due to being unable to open the /etc/libuser.conf file, but was fine after creating the file with no content.

Windows Emulator (Wine)

The windows emulator allows practically seamless integration of native windows applications into the Linux desktop environment. Internet Explorer is more difficult to set up in it than other applications due to its tight integration with the windows internal components, but a package is available allowing easy installation of multiple simultaneous Internet Explorer versions (see Installation on Ubuntu).

Below is a screenshot of my local laptop running Ubuntu. As you can see all the open windows are integrated naturally into the normal desktop environment but some of them are windows applications and some native Linux ones. The top browser window is Internet Explorer 6 running in windows emulation, but the bottom one is Ubuntu's Firefox. Music is playing from the Windows emulated Winamp in the top right, and the middle application is a Windows-only family tree program. I was able to drop a folder of music directly into the Winamp window to play it, and all file paths and open/save dialogue boxes can navigate the entire Linux directory tree just like a native application behaves.

Playing DVD's

Medibuntu (Multimedia, Entertainment & Distractions In Ubuntu) is a repository of packages that cannot be included into the Ubuntu distribution for legal reasons like copyright, license or patent restrictions. It also includes many popular media packages for ffmpeg, w32codes, skype and google earth.

echo deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free >> /etc/apt/sources.list
wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update
apt-get install libdvdcss2 libdvdread3

You may need to reboot the machine before the new settings take effect properly.

To make the default DVD player be VLC, see this article

DVD Ripping

We use dvd::rip, install it from the add/remove menu, then see Rip a DVD for usage details. I think some of the things installed for DVD reading above are required for the ripping to work properly. Note that currently our procedure only allows the xvid4 codec for the encoded result, divx is not working for us yet.

Flash Player

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

Second sound card

If you have a second (or more) sound card that you would like to make into the default one, install asoundconf-gtk:

sudo asoundconf-gtk

Then select the card from Preferences/Default sound card

Ubuntu 8 Notes

• Playing MP3's in VLC exhibited regular glitches every few seconds, I found that by setting Audio/Output modules/Audio output module to ALSA in preferences fixed the problem. Also CPU-intensive operations tend to glitch the music, which is fixed by ticking Allow real-time priority in the advanced preferences.
• Also VLC has trouble with video on the default settings, I fixed it by setting the output module to OpenGL and then the OpenGLX sub item to Alternate fullscreen method

See also

• Overview of various ways to install software on Ubuntu
• How to compile programs on Ubuntu
• Debian Post Install - follow this for installing server software
• Wubi - install Ubuntu into an existing Windows environment without affecting boot loader
• 64bit issues
• Apple wireless keyboard on Linux