Ubuntu Install

[bhobjj]

I installed Ubuntu last week and have been using it at home for the last week.

The install process is the easiest of any distro that I have tried.
It is a live CD. After It finishes loading the desktop, there is an install icon on the desktop.

One problem I had, was the resolution was 1280x1024 and it was shifted off to the right about 50mm. On a 15" monitor, this high resoulution makes very small icons.
I fixed it, but something like this should never happen.

The install is cool. Very pretty. Very easy.

The reason why the install is so easy there are almost no decisions.Choose a timezone,language, keyboard, and then in the install process, I was given a choice of choosing an install to a drive (automatic) or configure it. The default setup mounts all of the partitions on all of the drives.

There is no bootloader choice. It installs Grub in the boot partition of the 1st drive.

It took about 20 minutes for an install.


Post Install
It took several minutes to from boot to desktop. Noticeably much slower than Debian.
Programs seem to be slow to load.
I tried playing a video, but it was choppy.
I found that part of this was due to a bad ATI driver. The latest release had problems.
The fix is to downgrade to a different flgrx lib file.

Printing was also a problem. The cups web interface is broken and hung after I clicked on the last configuration option. I tried this several times. I was able to use gnome-cups-manager, but no matter what settings I tried, it would only print in draft mode. The version of cups that was used for Dapper was alpha and should not have been used.
I removed and replaced cupsys, libcupsimage2, and libcupsys2. Doing this also removed gnome-utils, gnome-cups-manager, gtkhtml and libbluetooth1. :roll:


Once I had things working OK, I removed a few modules:
battery, sony_acpi, pcc_acpi, i2c_acpi-es, bluetooth and vesafb.
Startup time was much improved.

Then I added some missing programs:
xmms, gpppon,kedlibs, xfce4, build-essential, gcc, gxine, abcmidi, timidity, festival, fortune, cowsay, lynx, jpilot, vlc, mc, gnumeric, abiword, abc2ps, mozilla-browser, kino, etc.

Now I have a very usable Ubuntu install.


The desktop is well organized and easy to use.
CDs and external devices are mounted automaticly.

I assume that one of the differences between Mepis and Ubuntu is the kernel. Ubuntu uses a 386 kernel. I expect that Mepis will have a kernel that is configured for more performance.



-BoB

[coyotito]

--and how do you make this fantastic OS take module parameters?
I have tried update-modules but nothing happens.

[bhobjj]

I found a script to tweak Dapper, but forgot where I downloaded it from. Since it is GPL'd I can paste it here:

#!/bin/bash

################################################## ####################################
# faster-dapper.sh - Tweak default settings to speed up Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake #
# Usage: ./faster-dapper.sh as a user in the admin group with full sudo access #
# #
# Written July 8, 2006 by Jeff Schroeder (jeffschroed@gmail.com) #
# License: GNU GPL 2 only see http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/info/GPLv2.html #
################################################## ####################################

INSTALLED_DRIVE="/dev/hda"

# Disable sudo asking for your password for the remainder of the script
sudo sed -ie '/^%admin/s/ALL$/NOPASSWD: ALL/' /etc/sudoers

# Are we running on Dapper?
if ( ! grep "Ubuntu 6.06" /etc/issue >/dev/null 2>&1); then
echo "This script is only intended for Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake"
exit 1
fi

logger " -===== Installation log started on $(date) for faster-dapper.sh =====- " #Logs installation information to /var/log/messages
echo " -===== Installation started on $(date) for faster-dapper.sh =====- "

# Update the system
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get --yes upgrade

# Enable the Combined Fair Queue Linux process scheduler to handle high CPU usage situations better
if (! grep "elevator=cfq" /boot/grub/menu.lst > /dev/null 2>&1); then
logger " Kernel process scheduler changed to CFQ"
sudo sed -ie 's/^# defoptions=quiet splash/defoptions=quiet splash elevator=cfq/' /boot/grub/menu.lst
sudo su - root -c 'echo "cfq" > /sys/block/hda/queue/scheduler'
sudo su - root -c 'echo "cfq" > /sys/block/hdc/queue/scheduler'
sudo su - root -c 'echo "cfq" > /sys/block/hdd/queue/scheduler'
else
echo "Kernel process scheduler is already CFQ"
fi

# Preload is an adaptive readahead daemon. Read /usr/share/doc/preload/proposal.txt.gz after installing preload for more info
if [ ! -f /etc/preload.conf ]; then
logger " Installed preload"
sudo apt-get install preload
else
echo "Preload already installed"
fi

# Enable prelink which causes big applications like firefox and OO.o to load faster
if (! grep "^PRELINKING=yes" /etc/default/prelink > /dev/null 2>&1); then
logger " Installed prelink"
sudo apt-get install prelink && sudo sed -ie 's/unknown/yes/' /etc/default/prelink

# Uncomment this if you don't keep your computer on all night and want to have prelink run on newly installed software
# NOTE: This makes apt-get upgrade or apt-get dist-upgrade take a loooooong time.
#echo 'DPkg::Post-Invoke {"echo Running prelink, please wait...;/etc/cron.daily/prelink";}' >> /etc/apt/apt.conf

echo -n "Running prelink for the first time so this might take awhile..."
sudo /etc/cron.daily/prelink && echo "done"
else
echo "Prelinking already enabled"
fi

# Disable ipv6 to improve network responsiveness and speed dhcp lease negotiation at boot time
if [ -d /etc/modprobe.d ]; then
if ( ! grep "net-pf-10 off" /etc/modprobe.d/aliases > /dev/null 2>&1 ); then
logger " Disabled ipv6"
sudo su - root -c 'echo "alias net-pf-10 off" >> /etc/modprobe.d/aliases'
fi
if ( ! grep "ipv6 off" /etc/modprobe.d/aliases > /dev/null 2>&1 ); then
logger " Disabled ipv6 alias"
sudo su - root -c 'echo "alias ipv6 off" >> /etc/modprobe.d/aliases'
fi
fi

# Speed up gnome a bit
logger " Improved gnome speed"
gconftool-2 --set --type boolean /desktop/gnome/interface/enable_animations false
gconftool-2 --set --type boolean /apps/panel/global/enable_animations false
gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/nautilus/preferences/preview_sound never
#gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_image_thumbnails never
#gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_icon_text never

# Performance tweak to speed up your hard drive
logger " Enabled IDE hard disk tweaks"
sudo /sbin/hdparm -u1 -m16 -c1 -A1 -a64 -d1 -K1 $INSTALLED_DRIVE > /dev/null

# Performance tweak to speed up ext3 partitions with lots of files
for volume in $(mount | grep ext3 | awk '{print $1}'); do
logger " Enabled dir_index speed tweak for $volume"
sudo tune2fs -O dir_index "$volume"
done


# Disable unnecessary services.
# Remove any of these if you use them: hplip: hp printers, bluez-utils: bluetooth, pppd-dns: dialup users.
for service in hplip ppp festival bluez-utils mdadm apmd brltty lvm evms pppd-dns waitnfs.sh; do
logger " Disabled service $service"
sudo /etc/init.d/$service stop
sudo update-rc.d -f $service remove
done

# Disable more unnecessary services if the computer is not a laptop
# Comment out this section if you are using a laptop
for service in laptop-mode pcmcia pcmciautils; do
logger " Disabled service $service"
sudo /etc/init.d/$service remove
sudo update-rc.d -f $service remove
done


# Re-enable password prompts for users in the admin group running sudo
sudo sed -ie '/NOPASSWD/s/NOPASSWD: //' /etc/sudoers

logger " -===== Installation log finished on $(date) for faster-dapper.sh =====- "
echo " -===== Installation finished on $(date) for faster-dapper.sh =====- "

echo " "
echo "Your installation of Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake should run faster now..."
echo "Please reboot your computer for some changes to take affect."


Line 105 is a mistake. It should be:
sudo /etc/init.d/$service stop
instead of:
sudo /etc/init.d/$service remove