Friday, July 24, 2009

Some Things I Do After Each Installation

Things differ from distro to distro..
Some things I like to be my way...
I might have repeated some, just because this was not edited all at once.


  • Edit grub
    • Remove unwanted lines, for example, remove the lines for the same distro, older kernels
    • Reduce timeout to just enough to enter when alert. 5 Seconds is sufficient when you are alert to press any key
    • If there is no "quiet" or "splash" add them

  • Update the distro

    • Most of the distro's have the default auto-update enabled. I try to make sure I wait for this to popup and execute it.



  • Make sure wireless works, make sure sound works (I still have some distros with problems with one of these two.)

  • Install vlc
    • It may be as simple as sudo aptitude install vlc or using "add/remove software" type application.

  • Install latest firefox (curently 3.5)


    • Install Ubiquity Addon

      • Change the keystroke to CTRL+SPACE (go to settings tab on ubiquitiy's help page)

    • Remove the Bookmark Toolbar (I can just type CTRL-B to see th e bookmark toolbar)

    • Use small icons for toolbars (View->Toolbars->Customize->Use Small Icons)


  • Remove Thunderbird (if exists)

  • Fine tune the desktop


    • KDE


      • Date format, add date to time display

      • Lock all the panels, after I am happy with the setup


    • Gnome


      • Reduce the icon size to 66%, set list view as default, etc

      • Workspace switcher increase to 4, two rows and two columns

      • Remove one of the panels either top or bottom and include all the stuff on the only one left out


    • Common


      • Create shortcuts to terminal (konsole/gnome-terminal), firefox etc

      • Remove any unwanted shortcuts (mail, trash, show desktop)

      • Try to set the font on the terminal to a convenient size.

      • Adjust the default terminal size (use gnome-terminal --geometry 100x25 for example)



  • Install flash - Each distro has its way to install the flash, mostly have to follow instructions when prompted for.

  • Install vim/gvim


    • On Ubuntu sudo aptitude install gnome-vim works

    • Other ways include looking for vim in the package manager (add/remove software)


  • Make sure user ids and groups ids match the existing distros to access the common stuff

    • I have a /dump partition which is common to all the distros. Here is where I store all my music, pictures, etc.


  • Depending on the box I am on, configure compiz (Its System->Preference->Appearance->Visual Effects->Extra On Ubuntu based distros

  • Try to get the terminal (gnome-terminal or konsole) to have transparent background (40%), Color->White on Black.


How to install other language fonts


Before I did not know the easy way, I did it the hard way.


Download the font (whatever.tar.bz2). Then unzip it (tar jzvf ) to ~/.fonts directory (mkdir if does not exits).


Finally run fc-cache. Restart the browser (most of the times refreshing the 'foreign' page worked for me).


Was it simple? Well I found it was simpler to just start synaptic (mintlinux, probably common on all 'debian' based distros) and search for the font, right click, say mark for installation, then 'apply' (of course restart/refresh the web page)