What to do after installing Ubuntu 17.10

For me, a sub-average long-time software developer, Ubuntu is a great operating system. Canonical, the company who releases Ubuntu, does so every six months, in April and October; therefore, version 17.10 was released in October 2017.

My system : Lenovo Yogo 2 Pro x86_64 Grub GNU Debian Ubuntu 17.10 Artful Gnome

Normally I like to install every new Ubuntu release for the following reasons:

1. I remove all the cruft I have gathered, notice I said “install”, not “upgrade”,
2. new features available.

Contents

• Partitions
• Comments
• Issues
  • Display
  • MPV
  • Indicators
• Pre-Install
• Post-Install
  • Tools
  • Network
  • Firefox
  • Sublime Text
  • Slack
  • E-mail
  • Development
  • SSH keys
  • Hugo
  • Terminal
  • Bash
  • Mega
  • Applications
  • System config
  • Gnome Tweaks
• Previous 17.04 installs
  • Archivers
  • Media
  • Database
  • Cleaup
  • Misc

Partitions

Partition information is important when using a custom install.

$ sudo lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT,LABEL
NAME    FSTYPE     SIZE MOUNTPOINT      LABEL
sda              238.5G
├─sda1  vfat       477M                 WINY
├─sda2  swap       8.4G [SWAP]
├─sda3  ext4        28G /
├─sda4  ext4        51G /home
├─sda5  ext4      81.7G                 Meadow
├─sda6  ntfs         4G                 LENOVO
├─sda7  vfat       250M /boot/efi       BOOT
└─sda10 ext4      61.8G                 Distroer

Comments

Wayland : the new default display server changed from X.org to Wayland

You can choose to use X.org during login by the little gear next to the login button.

$ echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE
wayland

Meld : nice dark syntax highlighting theme Oblivion

Issues

In the latest release I found the following issues.

Display

The new Wayland display server prevents some things from running without escalated privileges:

• synaptic
• gparted

To get these to run you need to execute this command for every new session:

xhost +si:localuser:root

MPV

The great video app mpv 0.26.0 does not allow access via the mouse so I had to install a Gnome GTK front-end:

sudo apt install gnome-mpv

Indicators

The stop-gap system tray introduced in Gnome 3.16 was removed in 3.25 and now my beloved system-monitor and touchpad indicators no longer work.

Multiload

A system load indicator capable of displaying graphs for CPU, network traffic and more does not display properly.

Touchpad

An indicator to show the status of the touchpad, and to enable and disable the touchpad.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install touchpad-indicator

Couldn’t get it working

Touchpad-Indicator version: 1.1.0-0extras15.04.3-src
Couldn't find synaptics properties. No synaptics driver loaded?

So for now I have to disable it manually. The first time I installed synclient worked:

synclient TouchpadOff=1

But the second time I installed it didn’t work so now I have to use gsettings:

#!/bin/bash
STATUS=`gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events`
if [ "$STATUS" = "'enabled'" ]
then
    STATUS="'disabled'"
else
    STATUS="'enabled'"
fi
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad send-events $STATUS
echo "Touchpad $STATUS"

Pre-Install

Note: You are going to have to backup your current files to another partition like I did or you could use an external drive or USB stick. I keep my bash files in a GitHub repo, see Dotfiles below.

The main things I backed up were:

• ~/bin/
• ~/.bash_links/
• ~/.config/sublime-text-3/Packages/User/
• ~/.ssh/config
• ~/.gitconfig
• ~/.hgrc
• ~/.s3cfg
• ~/.scrapinghub.yml
• /etc/hosts
• bookmarks
• git branches
• Evolution
• Gramps
• dconf dump /org/gnome/terminal/ > gnome_terminal_settings_backup # https://askubuntu.com/questions/967517#967535
• cp ~/.bash_links/* -L * /media/stav/Meadow/xenix
• PaleMoon bookmarks-2017-12-05.json
• move all local Git branches (including stashes) to remotes
• note: use bash_it with powerline theme (need to install fonts)

What I should have also backed up:

• virtual environment setups

Post-Install

Here is my list of things I had to do to after the install to get up and running with a fresh Ubuntu.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Tools

sudo apt-get install curl htop gdebi synaptic gparted ubuntu-restricted-extras compizconfig-settings-manager

If you want to run the Synaptic or GParted GUIs you now have to escalate permissions. See Display.

Restore ~/bin/

Network

Merge /etc/hosts

Firefox

Update search engine to Duck Duck Go:

about:preferences#search

Do not warn when closing multiple tabs:

about:config

Search: “browser.tabs.warn”

browser.tabs.warnOnClose `false`
browser.tabs.warnOnCloseOtherTabs `false`

Sublime Text

Sublime Text is an excellent editor.

wget -qO - https://download.sublimetext.com/sublimehq-pub.gpg | sudo apt-key add -

sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https

echo "deb https://download.sublimetext.com/ apt/stable/" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sublime-text.list

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install sublime-text

License

Add under help menu.

----- BEGIN LICENSE -----
Steven Almeroth
Single User License
EA7E-... 104B
------ END LICENSE ------

Package Control

You want Package Control from wbond.

Install Package Control

Command Pallate (shft-ctrl-p) -> Install Package Control

Install packages

Restore the following file from your backup and Package Control will automatically install all missing packages:

• ~/.config/sublime-text-3/Packages/User/Preferences.sublime-settings

    "installed_packages":
    [
        "Anaconda",
        "GitGutter",
        "Hugofy",
        "INI",
        "Package Control",
        "Pretty JSON",
        "Python Pretty Print",
        "Theme - SoDaReloaded",
        "TrailingSpaces",
        "Vue Syntax Highlight"
    ]

Copy Files

Copy backup files to ~/.config/sublime-text-3/Packages/User/

Slack

https://slack.com/downloads/linux

wget -P Downloads https://downloads.slack-edge.com/linux_releases/slack-desktop-3.0.0-amd64.deb

sudo dpkg --install Downloads/slack-desktop-3.0.0-amd64.deb

The Slack icon was not appearing in the system tray so I had to update the desktop file. Thanks to Trinh Nguyen.

1. Edit /usr/share/applications/slack.desktop, and change the following line from:

    Exec=/usr/binslack --disable-gpu %U

   to

    Exec=env XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity /usr/bin/slack --disable-gpu %U

2. Restart Slack or log out and then log back in.

E-mail

Reload Evolution from backup.

Development

sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall
sudo apt-get install libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libvte-dev
sudo apt-get install vim git git-extras gitg meld tree
sudo apt-get install python-pip python3-pip python3-venv virtualenvwrapper

SSH keys

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "stav@thelatae"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
sudo apt-get install xclip
xclip -sel clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Note that new keys will have to be uploaded to remotes:

• GitHub
• Bitbucket

Hugo

It’s good to update this document as I’m installing.

sudo snap install hugo

mkdir -p ~/Work/stav/Hugo
git clone git@github.com:stav/stav.linode.gen.git ~/Work/stav/Hugo/steven.michael
git clone git@github.com:gcushen/hugo-academic.git /home/stav/Work/stav/Hugo/steven.michael/themes/academic

Terminal

Reload backup settings.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/967517#967535

cp ~/.config/dconf/user /tmp # backup
dconf reset -f /org/gnome/terminal/
dconf load /org/gnome/terminal/ < gnome_terminal_settings_backup

Bash

git clone git@github.com:stav/dotfiles.git ~/.bash

• https://github.com/stav/dotfiles/blob/master/INSTALL
• Restore .bash_functions_private
• Restore ~/.*

Copy files

.bash_extra.bash
.bash_functions_private
.bash-it.bash
.bashrc

Link files for editor reference

stav@thelatae:~$ ll .bash_links/
.bash_extra.bash -> /home/stav/.bash_extra.bash
.bash_functions_private -> /home/stav/.bash_functions_private
.bash-it.bash -> /home/stav/.bash-it.bash
.bashrc -> /home/stav/.bashrc

Install bash_it

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/Bash-it/bash-it.git ~/.bash_it
~/.bash_it/install.sh  # keep existing `.bashrc` and append templates

Install Powerline theme

https://github.com/Bash-it/bash-it/tree/master/themes/powerline

git clone https://github.com/powerline/fonts.git ~/Public --depth=1

cd ~/Public

./fonts/install.sh

wget https://github.com/powerline/powerline/raw/develop/font/PowerlineSymbols.otf

wget https://github.com/powerline/powerline/raw/develop/font/10-powerline-symbols.conf

mv PowerlineSymbols.otf ~/.local/share/fonts/

fc-cache -vf ~/.local/share/fonts/

mkdir -p ~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/

mv 10-powerline-symbols.conf ~/.config/fontconfig/conf.d/

# close all Terminal instances

Mega

Downloaded the Sync Client

sudo apt-get install libc-ares2 libcrypto++6 libqt5core5a libqt5dbus5 libqt5gui5 libqt5network5 libqt5svg5 libqt5widgets5
sudo dpkg --install megasync-xUbuntu_17.10_amd64.deb
sudo apt --fix-broken install

See Installing MEGA Sync Client on Ubuntu

Applications

sudo apt-get install chromium-browser gimp mpv lynx elinks

System config

See Lenovo Yoga Ultrabook SSD Tweaks

Gnome Tweaks

Install Gnome Tweaks (Tool) to improve appearance.

https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Tweaks

Previous 17.04 installs

I previously installed some other stuff.

Archivers

sudo apt-get install arj cabextract file-roller icedax p7zip-full p7zip-rar rar sharutils unace unrar unzip uudeview uudeview zip

The following NEW packages will be installed: arj icedax libuu0 p7zip p7zip-full p7zip-rar rar sharutils unace uudeview

Need to get 2 728 kB of archives. After this operation, 9 229 kB of additional disk space will be used.

Media

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg2theora flac id3v2 lame liba52-dev libav-tools libdvdnav4 libdvdread4 libflac++6v5 libjpeg-progs libmad0 libmpeg2-4 mpack mpeg2dec mpeg3-utils mpegdemux mpg123 mpg321 sox vorbis-tools

The following NEW packages will be installed: ffmpeg ffmpeg2theora flac id3v2 lame liba52-0.7.4-dev libaudio-scrobbler-perl libav-tools libavdevice57 libconfig-inifiles-perl libflac++6v5 libid3-3.8.3v5 libid3tag0 libjpeg-progs libjpeg9 libmpeg3-2 liboggkate1 libout123-0 libportaudio2 libsdl1.2debian libsdl2-2.0-0 libsox-fmt-alsa libsox-fmt-base libsox2 mpack mpeg2dec mpeg3-utils mpegdemux mpg123 mpg321 sox vorbis-tools

Need to get 3 770 kB of archives. After this operation, 9 942 kB of additional disk space will be used.

Database

sudo apt-get install mysql-client mysql-server

wget -P Downloads https://www.valentina-db.com/en/studio/download/current/vstudio_x64_lin-deb?format=raw

sudo dpkg --install vstudio_x64_lin-deb

Cleaup

echo "Cleaning Up" && sudo apt-get -f install && sudo apt-get autoremove && sudo apt-get -y autoclean && sudo apt-get -y clean

Xkill shortcut

Dash -> keyboard -> Shortcuts -> + -> “Kill window” xkill -> Ctrl+Alt+X

Misc

Chromium extension - json viewer