John Halamka's 10 Steps for Installing Ubuntu
The consumer-friendly distribution of Linux is known for its quick, easy installation. Here's how it's done.
- I booted the free Ubuntu 7.04 CD and clicked on the Install icon. Once Ubuntu was installed and connected to the network, I installed all available updates via the Update Manager, which you find by clicking System then Administration.
- My Dell D420 has a 1280-by-800 screen, which requires a special screen BIOS setting. I used Synaptic Package Manager, which is found under Administration in the System menu, to add the 915resolution package, which supports the Intel video chipset/high-resolution screen settings used on the Dell.
- I copied all my personal files into my Ubuntu home folder from a 1GB USB drive.
- I enabled Synaptic Package Manager to search a wide array of repositories of software by ensuring the main, universe and multiverse repositories. I also added the commercial packages of the Medibuntu repository with the following commands: Application, Accessories, Terminal.
wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -sudo wget http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/sources.list.d/feisty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list sudo apt-get update - I added additional multimedia codecs by using Synaptic Package Manager to install w32codecs,
gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3, flashplugin-nonfree. - I added Java support by using Synaptic Package Manager to install sun-java6-jre, sun-java6-plugin, sun-java6-fonts.
- I added Adobe Acrobat by using Synaptic Package Manager to install acroread. I used Nautilus to make acroread the default application for PDFs.
- I installed RealPlayer by downloading RealPlayer10Gold.bin from www.realplayer.com and installing per RealNetworks instructions.
- I installed KPPP by using Synaptic Package Manager and configured it to support wide area networking for my built-in Cingular cell phone modem.
- I configured Evolution for e-mail, added my printers, and used System, Preferences, Power Management to set the default to Suspend on closing the laptop lid.
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