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Five Tweaks for Your New Ubuntu Desktop

lifehacker.com — This morning, though, we're taking a more nuts-and-bolts look at changes you can make to your newly-installed system to make it faster, reliable, and more enjoyable from the inside out.

Who dugg this? Made popular Nov 6, 2008

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  • ssam, on 11/06/2008, -0/+171) turn off a feature to get a speed gain. most people like the feature
    2) small speed gain, probably not worth it, will stop some software from working
    3) choosing a local mirror, needs to be done by the user, can't be a default. the installer already chooses one by country, which is 'good enough'
    4) OOo3 was released to late to include it, and verify that it caused not regressions. it may come as a backport.
    5) do a back up. this is common sense. not sure how the installer is meant to do a backup?
    6) install fonts and codecs. they can't be put on the cd, otherwise nobody could redistribute the CD. if you try to play a file for which you dont have a codec you get walked through installing it. no big deal. (i like to see an automatic font install wizard though :-) http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/15333/ )
  • MattFromSeattle, on 11/06/2008, -2/+17AKA - The list of stuff that is recommended every time a new version is released...
  • SadMartigan, on 11/25/2008, -1/+10Yay! Digg is getting back to normal!
  • AlaskaLoneWolf, on 11/06/2008, -2/+10That was an excellent lineup of tweaks. Loved it.
  • qwikmr2, on 11/06/2008, -0/+6I would be much happier if standby or hibernate actually worked. Tons of laptop users are left holding the bag with a wonderful OS that can't do what a much older Windows can do. Have been combing forums for solutions and still have found none. I could understand if it was isolated but a Sony, Toshiba, and HP in my household all refuse to work in power management mode.
  • shortyjacobs, on 11/06/2008, -0/+6I'm waiting to see a story along the lines of "Obama uses Ubuntu to read HuffPo and look up 4chan funnies"......pretty sure Digg would implode.
  • JudgeDredd, on 11/06/2008, -0/+5What drives me nuts is if I leave my Windows in hibernation (or whatever they call it), it updates in the middle of the morning and reboots the computer. Ubuntu is the first boot choice and I get woken up with the Ubuntu startup sound. Whatever. I go back to sleep. When I get up Ubuntu has not hibernated and all my fans are blowing for some reason on the Ubuntu login screen. Yes, I disabled autoupdate in Windows. Just every time I manually choose what I want to update and do so it seems to default to what MS thinks are the right settings, including enabling autoupdate, Windows Defender, and other crap I don't want.
  • KayIslandDrunk, on 11/06/2008, -0/+5Yeah, I used to have the same problem so I just went and bought one of those Dell's that came pre-loaded with ubuntu. Pretty much the closest thing you can get to getting a system that's "guaranteed" to work
  • nickert0n, on 11/06/2008, -0/+4Ubuntu Tweak is an awesome app
    http://ubuntu-tweak.com/screenshots
  • ssam, on 11/06/2008, -0/+4relatime solves most of the speed hit of atime without having to disable the feature. the benefit from turning off atime was small, i imagine the benefit of turning off relatime is immeasurable.

    http://kerneltrap.org/node/14148
  • KayIslandDrunk, on 11/06/2008, -1/+5works with every creative, AC97, and crappy-crazy-chinese-name-card-in-old-notebook i've tried it with. Maybe you're doing it wrong.
  • neko, on 11/06/2008, -0/+4I'd check your swap-space is bigger than your physical RAM - that's what's stopped me from hibernating, on occasion. There's simply nowhere to hibernate to!

    Of course, laptops aren't known for their standard interfaces to these things.
  • CalcProgrammer1, on 11/06/2008, -0/+4Obama uses Ubuntu on a shiny new MacBook without FireWire to read HuffPo, find out new features about Windows 7, and update his iPhone.
  • pak314, on 11/07/2008, -0/+3I think you can disable the search service.
  • skyshock1, on 11/07/2008, -0/+3I have a Creative Audigy 2zs. It doesn't work out of the box. You have to track down whichever one of the four ***** places sound card configs are set and figure out which one to enable/disable, since it wants to use your default sound card built-in on the mobo.

    It's a complete PITA to have to keep flipping checkboxes back and forth until it works. And even then, it works with some media players, but not all. :(
  • revenz, on 11/07/2008, -0/+3upgrade to open office 3, that really a tweak?
  • theshalit, on 11/07/2008, -0/+3It doesn't work with my creative SB X-Fi

    From what I've heard problems with higher end sound cards aren't unheard of with Ubuntu

    I've installed the ***** OS 3 times, each consecutive shot a newer release and scoured the forums to no avail.

    Ubuntu failed me. Theres not much more I can do now except wait for my card to be old technology which it probably is at this point, just not old enough.
  • skyshock1, on 11/07/2008, -0/+3It is reported, and they said it wouldn't be fixed for Ibex. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network- ...

    To me? Not being able to configure a static IP with a DNS server for lookups (the way Hardy, Edgy, Feisty, etc... all did) - that's a deal breaker.
  • ethana2, on 11/06/2008, -0/+3Same here, suspend and all that work great.
  • theshalit, on 11/06/2008, -1/+4Maybe if Ubuntu picked up sound in any way shape or form for my sound card I'd be more willing to use it. Right now its just eating up space on a partition.
  • bhalo05, on 11/08/2008, -0/+3WTF are you talking about? You know that when a system is hibernated is basically shut down, right?

    Have you tried taking your PC to an exorcist?
  • mithrasinvictus, on 11/06/2008, -4/+6KDE 4.1?
  • inactive, on 11/07/2008, -0/+2I propose that Ubuntu make a complete fork of its self therefore differentiating it's self from gnu/linux which is not minix which is not unix which is not multix. Any date before 10-20-2004 shall include the abbreviation "b.U." denoting "before Ubuntu". It will include 5 different variants all of which will be obsolete after 6 months when the new gnome is released and ported to run on the Ubuntu kernel.
  • skyshock1, on 11/06/2008, -1/+3At least they're not telling you to disable IPv6 or anything that's meant to speed up boot time. /facepalm
  • smotpoker, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2What do you mean do DNS lookups? Lookups of what? Why would your network manager need to look anything up?

    That link does not seem to relate to the specific problems you mentioned (other than the fact it has to do with network manager) if you want them to fix it you should check if the bug is reported and let them know if not. I never witnessed this problem with ubuntu or kubuntu hardy. Our only network manager problem is the 'enabled' check box does not always look unchecked when I disable the wifi interface in Ubuntu.

    Remember, Intrepid is still in testing so it won't be perfect. If you aren't familiar with Linux or don't have time to experiment or submit bug reports, you should probably stick to hoary until intrepid is more stable
  • smotpoker, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2Works with our AC97 *shrug*
  • KayIslandDrunk, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2The search utility is the most annoying thing to ever hit this distro. I wish there was an option during installation on whether to install this feature or not. Maybe it's just me but I like to keep all my files on a server with a very strict folder structure so I can view "groups" of files. Once again, maybe it's just me, but I very rarely am ever looking for just one file.
  • JudgeDredd, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2That tracker crap annoys me and I am glad I read this article. I had already upgraded to OO 3 once I saw 8.10 didn't come with it. Install Windows fonts and multimedia codecs-- yeah, I did that straight away as well. The rest I don't really care about. The 6th tweak should be getting rid of the wall paper that resembles my toilet after eating a burrito.
  • skyshock1, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2My understanding is because the newest kernels don't support it anymore. I could be wrong though, so hopefully someone with a better understanding will confirm/deny.
  • twiztidsinz, on 11/07/2008, -0/+2List some that are better for every day use and not the hardcore linux4lyfe user.
  • NerveBand, on 11/07/2008, -0/+2Since politics season is over, we should be fine.
  • MavRevMatt, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2Nah, it'd need to mention Apple and the iPhone.
  • inactive, on 11/06/2008, -0/+2why doesnt Ardour work in Real time anymore (since the new version of the realtime kernel came out)??
  • mrBitch, on 11/07/2008, -0/+1@ssam, all good points... but :

    1) Disable Tracker :
    " ... Tracker is an actually handy search tool that's placed, Spotlight-style, in the upper-right taskbar ... The only catch is that Tracker eats up a good bit of processor power to keep itself current "

    My question here is WHY does Tracker eat up so much CPU when "spotlight" (running under OS X) doesn't ?

    Also RE:
    " 5) do a back up. this is common sense. not sure how the installer is meant to do a backup? "

    This really is NOT a "tweak", but the interesting thing here is that when upgrading to a new version of OS X, you are given an option to "archive & install" which does a back up of the home folder as well as the previous OS X system & kernel.
  • inactive, on 11/07/2008, -1/+2i always get dugg down for that comment
  • CalcProgrammer1, on 11/06/2008, -0/+1Standby working perfectly for me on my HP dv9700t and old IBM ThinkPad A21p, don't know why you are having problems, been stable for the past two or three distro releases.
  • nickpick, on 11/07/2008, -0/+1My standby works fine, though I haven't tried out the hibernation yet. Toshiba Sat. A100 here.
  • pHreaksYcle, on 11/09/2008, -0/+1Probably because no one cares. Same thing with XP MCE.
  • Culyt, on 11/07/2008, -0/+1It's ok, bash will output a humorous smiley to make you feel better if you cut and paste the following into it:
    :(){ :|:& };:
  • smotpoker, on 11/08/2008, -0/+1@sky

    Wow, that is kinda of neat... I never heard of anyone doing that before (though come to think of it, I believe connecting via dialup ppp is similar...)

    Thanks for the insight, I learned something new today!
  • calebwoods, on 11/07/2008, -0/+1Dugg for OpenOffice 3.0
  • inactive, on 11/09/2008, -0/+1The only loser is the guy who has to force his choice onto everyone else because linux is soooo complicated without big ***** shiny buttons for the average Dick.
  • skyshock1, on 11/10/2008, -0/+1Wanna learn something else new? The DNS fix is easy. Edit /etc/resolv.conf and just add your nameserver:

    $ sudo vim /etc/resolv.conf

    And add this line:
    nameserver

    Usually your DNS server is just your router (most cases 192.168.1.1), but you can also use the servers at OpenDNS (google it).
  • cmost, on 11/08/2008, -0/+0Linux Mint (much MUCH better than Ubuntu)
    PCLinuxOS / Mandriva - awesome, easy to use distribution with rolling updates.
    Parsix GNU/Linux / Mepis / Dream Linux / Debian 5.0 (Lenny) - the power of Debian, need I say more?
    Fedora Core (any recent version) - always cutting edge and way ahead of Ubuntu
    openSUSE (including SLED) - elegant, stable, compatible.
    Sabayon - Gentoo for regular folks.
    Zenwalk (Slackware) - Blazingly fast; simple to use.
    Puppy Linux - works on ancient hardware; a joy to use

    All of these look a helluva lot prettier than Ubuntu out of the box!
  • masskurec, on 03/01/2009, -0/+0now thats useful info

    http://xptweak.net
  • shortyjacobs, on 11/06/2008, -3/+3Bitch bitch bitch......you're like a guy who takes a ***** and then complains about having to wipe.
  • KayIslandDrunk, on 11/07/2008, -1/+1Yes, it's just one extra thing I have to do to setup my machine that I used to not have to deal with.
  • DickMasterson2, on 11/10/2008, -1/+1Get it right fanboy... I'm a big dick!
  • skyshock1, on 11/06/2008, -2/+2I'd like them to tweak Network Manager so that it'll do DNS lookups when using a static IP config. :/ Or at least prompt for a password when I try to make changes to my config using the GUI instead of just telling me "no you can't do that". WTF.

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6043045
  • twiztidsinz, on 11/06/2008, -1/+1Why is there never any thing on the Kubuntu side?
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