Ubuntu 9.04 Post-Install

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Today:

This page is a collection of tips and teething problems I have encountered with Ubuntu 9.04. Something here should help. Specific notes on issues to do with Jaunty on the DSE/Acer aspire 4315 can be found here.

Note, Jaunty Jackalope was released on the 31st of April 2009. As I install to the various machines I find about me, I'll post notes on what I find. I'll be starting with the Acer, move over to the nx5000s and then to my main desktop. HBCLUG people may be bringing me their own computers too. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile - the most common things don't seem to have changed.

Installing or Uninstalling Programs

... Ubuntu uses centralised repositories to store variously supported programs. You use these instead of going to the program vendor's website. In these repo's, a program is divided into packages for greater efficiency. The packages on your computer are maintained by a program called apt which is called from a terminal. However, there are ways to use apt without having to use a terminal. They are:

• Applications--->Add/Remove
  ... commonly wanted programs are found here.
• System--->Administration--->Synaptic Package Manager
  ... here is the most powerful approach: just search for the kind of thing you want. Descriptions of the packages help you narrow your search. This utility will calculate dependancies and install/remove them as needed.
• System--->Administration--->Hardware Drivers
  ... this is the best way to locate and install proprietary drivers to get different performance out of restricted hardware. i.e. nvidia graphics cards. You should understand that it is always preferable to use the free drivers where they are available.

Automatix and EasyUbuntu:
Please resist using these. They promise to make configuration easier but may damage your system in such a way that it breaks completely later. This sort of thing is very difficult to troubleshoot. Jaunty includes a range of meta-packages now, which do the same job anyway, do not get sucked in.

For specific details, see this discussion and the following rebuttal.

Installing Custom Fonts

You want to install a third-party font. e.g. the Atlas of the Magi font used for titles on this page (instead of Purisa or Courier-New or whatever you see now).

To install locally (for just one user): you have to create the user font directory, copy the font to that directory, then make linux aware that there is a new font available.

mkdir ~/.fonts
cp atlas.ttf ~/.fonts/
fc-cache -fv

If you want to install it globally, then:

cp atlas.ttf /usr/share/fonts/
cd /usr/share/fonts/
sudo mkfontdir
sudo mkfontscale
sudo fc-cache -fv

Coming Feature:
I have been informed that a GUI tool for managing fonts is coming. It is not something that has had a high priority in the past. However, it is something for which some developers have been feeling the lack. Scratching an itch is the most common motivator for Bazaar-model development so expect something to happen.

[update] Still no sign of this - some people find that just putting ttf files in ~/.fonts is sufficient to get them loaded. With such a no-brainer, perhaps the font gui is dead?

Issues
Always read the license agreement that comes with any file you intend to use. For instance, the fonts you get as part of Windows or OSX are usually restricted to be used only within that particular OS on that computer. Sharing them, or using them in gnuLinux (etc) is contrary to the terms of your EULA.

Third party fonts are often free for personal use or non commercial. Which is to say: not free. In particular, that license restricts you from sharing your font files with your friends.

Just because (it seems) everone ignores these licenses, doesn't mean you should do so out of ignorance. It is important to learn the rules that you are breaking.

Essential Multimedia

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg2theora
... needed to convert proprietory media formats into free theora and vorbis formats.
ffmpeg2theora *.mp3
No more mp3 library.

So you have an iPod or similar mp3-only player? Sell it and buy a media player that supports ogg, like iRiver. 100% linux freindly, and some models play flac too. Note: it turns out that many Media Players that claim to be mp3 only will, in fact, plac ogg/vorbis and other formats. Apple, on the other hand, are only interested in DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) and are yet to impliment free formats in their players.

sudo apt-get install nautilus-script-audio-convert
This is a wee gem that provides a format converter in the rt-click context menu.

See the New Linux User page for more info.

However, Canonical provides the definitive guide to converting media formats in Ubuntu.

Advanced Eyecandy

sudo aptitude install compizconfig-settings-manager

This gives you a new tool in system--->preferences called "advanced desktop effects settings". In there you can set up things like the "desktop cube", "rotate cube" and "expo".

The cube rotates the workspaces instead of sliding them like the default. Use ctrl+alt+arrom keys.

Expo zooms all the desktops out so you can choose between them. super+E, arrow keys to select, then enter.

Another one to try is super+alt+tab - release the tab and use the arrow keys.

Note: You must have a 3D accelerated video card for this to work.

Restricted Multimedia

... needed to play proprietary formats streamed over the internet or as part of DVD video. It is still better to use free formats wherever possible. However, sometimes it is not possible. These instructions will get encrypted DVDs playing in Totem too.

Add the medibuntu repository
System-->Administration-->Software Sources-->Third-party software-->Add
APT line: deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free

Load the medibuntu key
wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Add Multimedia Codecs
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

The Ubuntu Restricted Extras package will install Adobe Flash Player, Java Runtime Environment (JRE) (sun-java-jre) with Firefox plug-ins (icedtea), a set of Microsoft Fonts (msttcorefonts), multimedia codecs (w32codecs or w64codecs), mp3-compatible encoding (lame), FFMpeg, extra Gstreamer codecs, the package for DVD decoding (libdvdread4), the unrar archiver, odbc, and cabextract. It also installs multiple "stripped" codecs and avutils (libavcodec-unstripped-52 and libavutil-unstripped-49). This is a single command approach.

Add DVD Player
sudo apt-get install vlc

Add DVD CSS decode capability
sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2

Install Oolite.

Oolite is a Free software implimentation of the classic game Elite. Gameplay is very much like Eden online, only single player and freindly to low-spec machines. These instructions will install the latest development release following these notes found in the Oolite Forums. If you've never installed from source code before, this will give you a good overview of what is involved without too many headaches.

Install The Build Environment
sudo apt-get install gobjc gnustep-core-devel libsdl-mixer1.2-dev subversion
... Oolite is written in Apple Objective C, for historical reasons, and migrating the codebase has proved too difficult. Fortunately the GNU-Step project provides free-software compatibility and OpenGL does the graphics.

Edit ~/.bashrc
gedit ~/.bashrc

Add the following two lines right at the end:

#GNUSTEP Environment vars
. /usr/share/GNUstep/Makefiles/GNUstep.sh

Create the needed directories
mkdir ~/.Oolite
mkdir ~/.Oolite/AddOns
mkdir ~/.Oolite-dev

Note: Oolite-dev is where you will be working. If you prefer to use a different directory, that's fine too.

Get the Source Code
cd ~/.Oolite-dev
svn co -r1626 http://svn.berlios.de/svnroot/repos/oolite-linux/branches/1.71-maintenance/

... this creates a directory called 1.71-maintenance in ~/.Oolite-dev which contains the source code.

Build SpiderMonkey JavaScript v1.70 dependency
cd ~/.Oolite-dev/1.71-maintenance/deps/Cross-platform-deps/SpiderMonkey/js/src
gedit jsautocfg.h

jsautocfg.h is not there, you have to create it. Get the appropriate content from this forum post (32 bit). Save the file, then: cd fdlibm make -f Makefile.ref cd .. make -f Makefile.ref cd Linux_All_DBG.OBJ mv libjs.so oldlibjs.so

edit the "GNUmakefile.postamble"
cd ~/.Oolite-dev/1.71-maintenance gedit GNUmakefile.postamble

Make it look like this:
ifeq ($(debug),yes)
EXTENSION=debug
SHAREDOBJ=obj
else
EXTENSION=app
SHAREDOBJ=obj
endif

Compile and Run Oolite
make debug=no
oolite.app/oolite

Enjoy!

Teething Troubles

I only found that Totem's DVD playback support is now unusable for commercial (encrypted) DVDs. It will play the copyright notice then stop. I'm now using VLC instead.

When you insert a DVD movie, Jaunty will ask you which player you want to use and if you want to do this all the time - a vast improvement.

There are still problems with some monitors, which require you to manually edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. Xrandr is a great tool for autoconfiguring screens, particularly if you move between conferences a lot, as long as it is working.

There are ongoing issues with older nvidia cards. This is nvidias fault - they seem to be sluggish with updates and have stopped support for some cards campletely so they will stop working when you upgrade the kernel. You can get a newer card, use the nv driver, or downgrade the kernel.

If you are having trouble with some device, it is probably best to check the Release Notes in case this is a known issue.

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