Kubuntu 6.06.1 - "Fully Loaded"

This is a step-by-step guide for installing Kubuntu 6.06.1 in my "Loaded" configuration, as described in: Moving from Gentoo to ... SUSE, Ubuntu, or Fedora Core?

This guide should apply equally well to Ubuntu/Xubuntu. I just chose Kubuntu since I prefer the KDE environment.

A quick list of pros & cons:

Pros:

  1. Fewest number of CDs required compared to openSUSE 10.1 and Fedora Core 5.
  2. Easy to keep the system up to date with "apt get update; apt-get upgrade"
  3. Very nice package repository system. Felt highly cohesive especially compared to openSUSE and Fedora.

Cons:

  1. Had to manually edit xorg.conf to enable NVIDIA support (but it was an easy one-liner change).

Prerequisites:

  1. Kubuntu 6.06.1 "Desktop" CDROM

Instructions:

Before I begin, I should mention that there is a program called EasyUbuntu that automates several of these steps. However, I actually got better results by just using this procedure. EasyUbuntu installs extra stuff that I had to undo later.

  1. Boot from the CD. After Live CD boots, click the "Install" icon on the desktop. Install Ubuntu to hard drive, using default settings. Boot into the new system when it completes.
  2. Edit the repository list as described here (be sure to replace the entire /etc/apt/sources.list, as it says).

    Run:

    sudo apt-get update
  3. Enable playback of retail DVDs:
    sudo apt-get install libdvdread3 libdvdcss2 xine-ui libxine-extracodecs
    sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/examples/install-css.sh
  4. Install Firefox and some plugins:
    (it seems odd that Kubuntu doesn't install Firefox by default ...)
    sudo apt-get install firefox mozilla-mplayer realplay
    sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree w32codecs
    sudo update-flashplugin
  5. Enable the RealPlayer plugin in Firefox by following instructions here
  6. Install Acrobat Reader with plugins:
    sudo apt-get install acroread mozilla-acroread acroread-plugins
  7. Java:
    sudo apt-get install j2re1.4 j2re1.4-mozilla-plugin

    Or, if you prefer Sun Java 5 (seemed to make Firefox unstable for me): 

    sudo apt-get install sun-java5-jre sun-java5-plugin

    Then, run update-alternatives and choose the JVM corresponding to the one you just installed. 

    sudo update-alternatives --config java
  8. Install Microsoft Corefonts:
    sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts
  9. [OPTIONAL] Install KDE digital camera tools:
    sudo apt-get install digikam digikamimageplugins kipi-plugins
  10. NVIDIA drivers:
    1. Install NVIDIA packages:

      sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx nvidia-kernel-common
    2. Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf, and replace 'Driver "nv"' with 'Driver "nvidia"'. [Ubuntu's configuration program didn't work, but did tell me to edit the xorg.conf file.]
      sudo kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf
    3. Log out of KDE, switch to a console (Ctrl+Alt+F1), and run:
      sudo /etc/init.d/kdm restart

      Login again and make sure it worked:

      glxinfo|grep direct

      Should give the following output:

      direct Rendering: Yes
  11. [OPTIONAL] Many GTK/GNOME apps assume they are running on a 96 dpi display. If you want to adjust your display to 96 dpi, then do the following:
    1. Check current display dpi with "xdpyinfo|grep resol". If it doesn't say "96x96", then continue with the following steps.
    2. Calculate the screen size (in mm) to acheive 96x96 dpi as shown below, and enter these values in the "X" and "Y" axis boxes. For example, using 1024x768 resolution:
      • X = 1024/96*25.4 = 271
      • Y = 768/96*25.4 = 203
    3. Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Enter the values calculated above in the Monitor section by adding a "DisplaySize" line, for example:
      DisplaySize 271 203

      Then, in the Device section, add a line:

      Option  "UseEdidDpi" "False"
    4. Restart the X server and "xdpyinfo|grep resol" should show 96x96.
      HINT: Now is a great time to make a backup of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, in case it is overwritten later!
  12. [OPTIONAL] To make the sound sync better in Firefox (when playing videos), first install the ALSA OSS tools:

    sudo apt-get install alsa-oss

    Change your Firefox shortcut to launch it as "aoss /usr/bin/firefox". This makes sound sync better with streaming sites like YouTube. It is still a little off, but not as bad as the default.

Extras:

  1. wxPython:
    1. Install package:

      sudo apt-get install python-wxgtk2.6 wx2.6-doc wx2.6-examples
    2. [OPTIONAL] Test it out:
      cd /usr/share/doc/wx2.6-examples/examples/wxPython
      sudo gzip -d *gz
      python demo.py
  2. Wings3d:
    sudo apt-get install wings3d
  3. I add a few more commonly-used Python packages:
    sudo apt-get install python-crypto python-dev python-doc python2.4-pysqlite2
  4. jEdit:
    1. Download the Java-based installer
    2. Install:

      sudo java -jar jedit42install.jar
  5. sshfs:
    1. sudo apt-get install sshfs
      sudo ln -s /usr/bin/fusermount /sbin
    2. This next part is bad security on a multiuser system. I really should add users to the "fuse" group, but this is the quick & dirty method:
      sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/fusermount
      sudo chmod a+rw /dev/fuse
  6. Test cameras:
    1. Attach camera to USB port.
    2. Start digiKam
    3. Camera -> Add Camera ...
    4. Click Auto-Detect button
    5. Click Camera -> <Camera Name> to view images.
  7. Click the K Menu and right-click System Settings, then "Edit Item". Change the Command from systemsettings to kcontrol and change the name to Control Center (just to match the other distributions).

Sources:

  1. Ubuntu "Dapper" wiki
  2. File Format Compatibility Page @ Linspire

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