I was pleasantly surprised to have all the hardware working and a smooth install of Kubuntu 8.04rc for a year old Dell Latitude D820 notebook PC. There was still a bit of customization to do to make it work like I wanted, but who can fault Canonical for not knowing what I like?
Add Codecs, Java, and other Customizations
The official way to do this is documented in the Ubuntu Wiki under CommonCustomizations. There is also a wiki page on EasyCodecInstallation. The official meta package is called “ubuntu-restricted-extras” and this installs:
- MP3 playback and decoding
- Sun Java runtime environment
- Flash plugin
- DVD playback
- LAME (to create MP3 compressed audio files)
- msttcorefonts (may be missing in kubuntu extras)
- DeCSS script to download and install for DVD viewing
$ sudo apt-get install kubuntu-restricted-extras
$ sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh
$ sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts
Add the ability to compile, edit, and maintain code
Here are the compilers and their documents
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential subversion-tools gcc-4.2-doc glibc-doc manpages-dev
$ sudo apt-get install mingw32 mingw32-binutils mingw32-runtime
I need access to subversion and XSLT ChangeLog tools
$ sudo apt-get install subversion-tools
$ sudo apt-get install xsltproc
I install a couple of editors, useful for various things. Kate is already installed.
$ sudo apt-get install scite
$ sudo apt-get install vim-full
Useful tools for cleaning up code, converting comments and line endings, and code statistics:
$ sudo apt-get install splint
$ sudo apt-get install sloccount
$ sudo apt-get install indent
$ sudo apt-get install liwc
$ sudo apt-get install tofrodos
Add favorite online music source and music/video player VLC
$ sudo apt-get install streamtuner
$ sudo apt-get install vlc
Get rid of limited use Dolphin
This is one of the main reasons I use Kubuntu and KDE: Konqueror allows me to do many things that Nautilus and Dolphin prevent or are unable to customize
$ sudo apt-get remove dolphin
Get Rid of IcedTea – Install Sun Java JRE
I had several errors which prevented me from doing useful work on some websites that used Java. Turns out that the default install of Kubuntu used IcedTea – the OpenJDK. Well, apparently it doesn’t mimic Java the way the websites expected, and so, it didn’t work. Into the hopper it goes, and Sun gets the install.
$ sudo apt-get remove openjdk-6-jre
$ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre
Get rid of annoying PC speaker beep
Using a console, remove the PC Speaker driver from the kernel:
$ sudo modprobe -r pcspkr
Edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and add a new line to keep the PC Speaker driver from automatically loading:
# Keep the annoying beep from occurring - don't load the PC Speaker driver
blacklist pcspkr
Get rid of annoying Synaptic Tap Button
Edit the X11 configuration file /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Add the Tapbutton line and any other missing lines in the Synaptic Touchpad section:
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
Option "SHMConfig" "On"
Option "TapButton1" "0"
EndSection
You can disable the Tap Button effect immediately using the synclient tool as long as SHMConfig is On:
$ synclient TapButton1=0
Fix a bug in Firefox 3 rendering Check boxes and Radio boxes
Check boxes and Radio boxes show as a blank box or circle until the focus is moved away. This bug was reported, and the solution is to install a GTK2 engine:
$ sudo apt-get install gtk2-engines-qtcurve
Additionally, go to System Settings->Appearance->GTK Styles and fonts, and Set: Use another style = QtCurve.
Updating a Toshiba A135 Notebook
I also updated our Toshiba A135 Notebook and the sound and sound controls now work! I did have to fix an fglrx bug to keep from locking up on logout.
