IMPORTANT THINGS I DID AFTER INSTALLING UBUNTU 11.10

I am an Ubuntu user from 6.06 release. Now I am using Ubuntu in my laptop (x64) and lab desktop (x86). After a fresh installation of Ubuntu 11.10 the major things I did was.

1. Setting up Local repositories:
     IIT Kharagpur has local repositories of ubuntu. I replaced my /etc/apt/sources.list with a custom one containing the local repository information.

# deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 11.04 _Oneiric Ocelot_ - Release i386 (20110427.1)]/ oneiric main restricted # See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to # newer versions of the distribution. ## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the ## distribution. ## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu ## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any ## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team. ## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu ## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to ## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in ## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu ## security team. ## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports' ## repository. ## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as ## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes ## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features. ## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review ## or updates from the Ubuntu security team. ## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's ## 'partner' repository. ## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the ## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users. # deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu oneiric partner # deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu oneiric partner ## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by third-party ## developers who want to ship their latest software. # deb http://extras.ubuntu.com/ubuntu oneiric main ##These are manyually added repositories to use the ##local repository within the IIT Kharagpur campus deb http://10.5.19.220/extras oneiric main deb http://10.5.19.220/partner oneiric partner deb http://10.5.19.220/partner oneiric-security partner deb http://10.5.19.220/partner oneiric-backports partner deb http://10.5.19.220/partner oneiric-updates partner deb http://10.5.19.220/ubuntu oneiric restricted main multiverse universe deb http://10.5.19.220/ubuntu oneiric-backports restricted main multiverse universe deb http://10.5.19.220/ubuntu oneiric-security restricted main multiverse universe deb http://10.5.19.220/ubuntu oneiric-updates restricted main multiverse universe

2. Adding other repositories manually to the sources. list

##These are manually added getdeb repositories deb http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu oneiric-getdeb apps #GETDEB deb-src http://archive.getdeb.net/ubuntu oneiric-getdeb apps #GETDEB ##These are manually added Medibuntu repos deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ oneiric free non-free #MEDIBUNTU deb-src http://packages.medibuntu.org/ oneiric free non-free #MEDIBUNTU #Manually added for vidalia and tor deb http://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org oneiric main deb http://deb.torproject.org/torproject.org oneric main ##Manually added for skype deb http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/ stable non-free

3. Update the repository information by running

sudo apt-get update

4. Install the ubuntu restricted extras. This allows me to play popular file formats like mp3, avi, Flash videos etc in Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

5. The next important thing I did was enabling Full DVD Playback by installing libdvdcss2 available in Medibuntu repository
sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2

6. The proprietary drivers needed were installed using Additional Drivers. My system needed the installation of Broadcom Wireless Driver till 11.04 release. But from 11.10 it was installed by default.

7. I installed synaptic package manager to make the installation process easier. Synaptic package manager was installed by default in all previous releases but in Ubuntu 11.10 it is missing. I dont like to use the Ubuntu Software Center available as alternate as it lacks many functionalities and is very slow.
sudo apt-get install synaptic

8. From the synaptic package manager I installed all codecs for playback. This was done by selecting almost all packages in repositories starting with gstreamer. Additionally I selected vlc from synaptic. Other important packages I installed are cabextract, unzip, p7zip-full, p7zip-rar, etc for managing different archive formats.
I installed other packages like audacity (music editor), screenlets (for sidebar), wallch (automatic wallpaper changer), linuxdcpp (DC++ client), etc.

9. Most chat clients wont work in Ubuntu 11.10 due to proxy issues. To solve these issues ubuntu needs to update libproxy version from 0.3 to 0.4 which is not yet available. So I use vidalia (with tor and polipo ) for setting up a socket connection. I have explained how to setup vidalia-tor connection in Ubuntu in another post. Click here for reading more