To Do List After A New Installation Of Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal)

As you know, it remains three days until the final release of the stable version of Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) which will bring more new features and improvements compared to previous releases. In this article, we will try to give some basic tips that you need to perform after installing Ubuntu 12.10. If you think that we missed something useful in this article, you can mention it below (comment form).

1. Change Repsoitory Server Location

It's recommended that you configure Ubuntu to download, update, or upgrade packages from the main server rather than using location-based servers. You can do this as follows:

- Run this command:

sudo software-properties-gtk

- Set now this option under the "Ubuntu Software" tab:

Download from: Main server

- In the "Other Software" tab, make sure these options are selected:

* Canonical Partners
* Canonical Partners (Source Code)

- Close the window and run an update with this command:

sudo apt-get update

2. Update/Install Device Drivers 

In Ubuntu 12.10, jockey-gtk has been superseded by software-properties for managing third-party driver configuration. So, to access this feature, open the terminal and run this command:

 sudo software-properties-gtk

Open now the "Additional Drivers" tab, then install any detected driver for your keyboard, wireless cards, graphics cards, etc.

For Nvidia graphics cards, it is recommended that you use Nvidia proprietary drivers instead of Nouveau to be able to get better graphics performance in games, HD videos and so on. You can install the latest Nvida driver using the x-swat PPA (stable) with the following commands:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current nvidia-settings

Using the same PPA, you can also install AMD Catalyst driver with these commands:

sudo apt-get install fglrx-installer
sudo aticonfig --initial -f

For NVIDIA Optimus laptops, you can install the graphics driver with these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates 
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia 

3. Installing Multimedia Packages

To be able to play some restricted media formats (MP3, AVI, DVD, etc.) under Ubuntu 12.10, install the "ubuntu-restricted-extras" package with this command:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

4. Installing A Web Server

 If you want to test PHP projects on Ubuntu 12.10, your best choice is the LAMP server which can be installed with this command:

sudo apt-get install lamp-server^

You can find here detailed instructions for installing a LAMP server on Ubuntu.

5. Some Basic Applications You Need To Install

   A. Gimp

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gimp gimp-plugin-registry gimp-resynthesizer

   B.  Wine

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install wine1.5

   C. VirtualBox 

echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list

wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.2

   D. VLC & Mplayer

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:videolan/stable-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mplayer vlc 

   E. Thunderbird

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/thunderbird-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install thunderbird xul-ext-lightning xul-ext-calendar-timezones

   F. Pidgin Chat Client

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pidgin-developers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pidgin pidgin-data pidgin-plugin-pack pidgin-themes
sudo apt-get install pidgin-lastfm pidgin-guifications msn-pecan pidgin-musictracker

   G. Skype 

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ $(lsb_release -sc) partner"
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install skype

7. Managing Themes, Cursors, and Icons

To be able to change default theme, icons, and cursors, you need a software like GNOME Tweak Tool. You can install it with this command:

sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

6. Installing Gnome Shell

Gnome Shell is a desktop environment that you can use on Ubuntu instead of Unity. You can install it with this command:

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

You can later login to Gnome Shell desktop from the login screen.

7. Desktop & System Configuration Tools

   A. Compiz

sudo apt-get install compiz compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-plugins

   B. Ubuntu Tweak

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa  
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

C. MyUnity (Currently unavailable for Ubuntu 12.10)

sudo apt-get install myunity

9. Installing Adobe Flash Player

You can install Adobe Flash Player with this command:

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer gsfonts-x11

10. Installing Google Chrome

Via the terminal, run these commands:

wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list'

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable

11. Installing Conky

To be able to run Conky scripts under Ubuntu, you need to install Conky with this command:

sudo apt-get install conky conky-all

12. Compiling & Installing From Source Under Ubuntu

To compile and install things on Ubuntu from source, you need to install these packages:

sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall dh-make fakeroot git devscripts

sudo apt-get install libxml-parser-perl  cdbs avahi-daemon check

For more information about this, click here.