Lucid 10.04 – All the stuff people forget to tell you – Flash, Codecs, Medibuntu, Packages, Fixes.

All the stuff you need in one place so you don’t have to go looking.

• Add Codecs and Packages.
  Add Medibuntu repository.
  Install favourite packages from a list.
• Buttons not working on iPlayer, Flash.
  Confirmed workaround.
• Add PPA’s
• Light-themes: panel-background isn’t scaling.
  Confirmed workaround.
• Customise Theme.
  Tooltips, Window Border.

______________________________

Here We Go.

Set-up:

Download: 10.04-desktop-amd64.iso or 10.04-desktop-i386.iso

• Use TestDrive to do a dry run in a vm.
• Backup (Recommended).
• Burn CD with K3b at 4 speed and check integrity.
• Check md5 sum.

  md5sum ubuntu-10.04-desktop-amd64.iso >check.md5

• Get Partition Screenshots (send to Web or Gmail).
  Use GParted or Systems Monitor.

• Boot the CD and hold down shift key.
  Choose language. Choose test integrity.
• Reboot, Choose “Try Ubuntu”.

Clean Install:

• I am performing a Clean Install not an Upgrade.
  I was previously running Karmic 9.10 64bit.
• My /home is on its own partition.
  This enables me to keep 99% of my configuration information.
  (Application Settings, Desktop, Panels, etc.) and is a huge time saver.

Installing:

• Wait for the CD files to be uncompressed and loaded.
  This will take a while if you don’t have a Linux swap.
• On the desktop click the short-cut “Install”.
• As you can see below the Lucid Installer is open on the left and Firefox on the right.
  This allows you to consult the previously saved screenshot of your partitions.

• Double checking is a good idea at this point.
  Have you set the correct file system for each partition?
  That tick box marked “format”, are you sure?
• Reboot when the installer is finished.

______________________________

Post Install Set-up.

If needed, install the NVIDIA, or other restricted driver, then reboot.

Add Codecs and Packages

1. Add medibuntu repository

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/lucid.list  --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

2. Reinstall all of your favourite packages from a list.

Download the following files:

cleanstart-packages.list.sh

packages.list

This is a list of the best/most useful packages I use.
Note that I have a 64bit system and Nvidia graphics.
You may have to adjust the list for your system.
I test it in a vm first, (via TestDrive). Details here.

3. Make the script executable.

cd /home/sil/Downloads
ls
chmod +x ./cleanstart-packages.list.sh

4. Run the script and install the packages.

sudo ./cleanstart-packages.list.sh 

Note: Change …/sil/… to your user name.
______________________________

Buttons not working on iPlayer, Flash.

gksudo gedit /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/i386/linux/npviewer

Add this line:

export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1

Before this line:

. /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/noarch/npviewer

Example:

#!/bin/sh
TARGET_OS=linux
TARGET_ARCH=i386
export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1
. /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/noarch/npviewer

____________________________

Add PPA Repositories.

Only add these if you want the very latest features.

Low safety, daily packages have not undergone any quality assurance.
Sometimes very safe but sometimes may not work at all.

Firefox-3.6 Lucid:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:silverwave/one-daily-a-month-0

Firefox-3.7 Lucid:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:silverwave/one-daily-a-month-1

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firefox
sudo apt-get install firefox-3.7

Or

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-daily

And possibly one of these

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chromium-daily/beta
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chromium-daily/dev
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chromium-daily/ppa

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

____________________________

Light-themes: panel-background isn’t scaling.

Bug #532309
Confirmed workaround1:

If confident with image resizing you can just resize the panel_bg.png to whatever size you have set the panel to.

Below are examples of resizing to 32 pixels using Gwenview.

R32 ><

/usr/share/themes/Radiance/gtk-2.0

A32><

/usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0

Confirmed workaround2:

This is more involved but doesn’t require any image manipulation.

sudo gedit /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
sudo gedit /usr/share/themes/Radiance/gtk-2.0/gtkrc

Comment out:

bg_pixmap[NORMAL] = "panel_bg.png"

e.g.

#bg_pixmap[NORMAL] =  "panel_bg.png"

Set “fit”, “stretch” and “rotate” to true:

gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/panel/toplevels/top_panel_screen0/background/fit true

gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/panel/toplevels/top_panel_screen0/background/rotate true

gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/panel/toplevels/top_panel_screen0/background/stretch true

Right Click Panel > properties > Background Tab > Select Background image: > panel_bg.png

Log out then Log in again.

______________________________

Customise Theme.

• I now use Radiance, with the Ambiance Window Border.
  Right Click on Desktop > Change Desktop Background.
  Theme (Ambience) > Customise > Window Border.
• Set Theme Tooltips to yellow (#F5F5B5) with black text (#000000).
  Right Click on Desktop > Change Desktop Background.
  Theme (Ambience) > Customise > Colour >Tooltips.
• Set background to the Simple Ubuntu Purple.

______________________________

Errata:

There are a couple of packages that I need to add to the Package List for next time:

ushare – lightweight UPnP A/V Media Server (x-box)
mplayer-gui – movie player for Unix-like systems
gwenview – image viewer for KDE 4
bbe – sed-like editor for binary files
normalize-audio – adjusts the volume of files to a standard volume level
mpeg4ip-server – end-to-end system to explore streaming multimedia

Manual install needed for this:

NeroDigitalAudio.zip (Details here).