Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu 20.04
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Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu 20.04

Every time I install a new software, the first thing to do is to configure it. Doing the configuration could be very annoying, especially when you are doing a re-installation, you have to do something you did before but you couldn’t remember well. Some software has a good default setting, I mean the setting suits me, I don’t need to do any extra setting, but for some software, the default setting doesn’t fit my habits, I have to do a lot of settings, I even have to export and backup the config file (if possible) in case of re-installation. Ubuntu is the latter, the annoying one.

In fact, the main factor that prompted me to rebuild my blog was that I was going to reinstall my operating system for my computer to give it a refresh. I am not going to install Ubuntu again, because Gnome isn’t my type at all. I would say it disobeys rule of the infinite edges of Fitts’s law at user interface. The top bar should be to blame. Due to the existence of the top bar, the close button isn’t at the right-top corner of the screen, and the browser tabs aren’t at the top edge, these are very inconvenient for my operation, I could have closed the windows without focusing on the position of the mouse cursor, even with my eyes closed, but the top bar ruined everything, it’s so painful. And this post is only for record, I will try using Kubuntu instead of Ubuntu later, maybe I will not use Ubuntu anymore. Another reason for me to drop Ubuntu is that the desktop environment is not responding from time to time since being installed, especially the Firefox browser.

Install Ubuntu

This the Step 0. Download via torrent is recommended, Chinese residents are also recommended to download from mirror site in China, such as USTC Open Source Software Mirror.

Use software repositories mirrors

Using a software repositories mirror near your location will give you better download speed. As for Chinese residents like me, I would recommend apt mirrors provided by USTC, tuna and Aliyun. They can be selected at Software & Updates.

For ppa, USTC Mirror provides reverse proxy. Edit ppa source lists in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, change the http://ppa.launchpad.net/ part to https://launchpad.proxy.ustclug.org/.

For Flatpak’s Flathub, use the mirror provided by SJTUG. Snap doesn’t have a mirror like this, that is why I prefer Flatpak over Snap.

sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
sudo flatpak remote-modify flathub --url=https://mirror.sjtu.edu.cn/flathub

For pypi, use the mirror provided by tuna.

python -m pip install --upgrade pip
pip config set global.index-url https://pypi.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/simple

For npm, use the mirror provided by Aliyun npmmirror, formerly known as Taobao npm Mirror.

npm install -g cnpm --registry=https://registry.npmmirror.com

Install Chinese IME

Rime is my only choice but the configuration is also very complicated so that I have to backup the config files.

Config file location:

  • Shared folder: /usr/share/rime-data/
  • User folder: ~/.config/ibus/rime/
~/.config/ibus/rime/ibus_rime.yaml
style:
  horizontal: true

Grub

By the default Grub setting, there is a splash screen while the system is starting, showing only the Ubuntu logo and a loading progress bar. I prefer seeing detailed information.

/etc/default/grub
- GRUB_TIMEOUT="10"
+ GRUB_TIMEOUT="4"

- GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
+ GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""

- #GRUB_TERMINAL="console"
+ GRUB_TERMINAL="console"

Install grub-customizer, the GUI tool to edit menu entries.

sudo apt install grub-customizer

Correct the time zone

The time zone will be incorrect when you install both Windows and Ubuntu on your computer.

timedatectl set-local-rtc 1 --adjust-system-clock

Most operating system will turn off the screen and sleep when inactive. As for the duration, the default setting may be too long or too short for different users, so this should be customized.

  • Settings > Power > Automatic Suspend > [1 hour]
    (the computer will sleep after inactive for 1 hour)
  • Settings > Privacy > Screen Lock > Automatic Screen Lock [OFF], Lock Screen on Suspend [OFF]
    (I don’t want to enter my password every time I wake up the computer so I disable auto lock)
  • dconf-editor > org.gnome.desktop.session > idle-delay [1800]
    (Settings>Power>BlankScreen only have limited options, you can’t set a specific duration)

Click action of dash

By default, when you click the button of a running application at the dash panel (not really sure about the name, dash or dock? Anyway the left side panel), it won’t minimize like that in Windows.

  • dconf-editor > org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock > click-action [minimize-or-previews]

Ubuntu 18.04 doesn’t even provide this minimize-or-previews option, it will be very troublesome when you want to switch among different windows of the same application in Ubuntu 18.04.

Configure fonts

I am a person who pays attention to fonts, not only at screen display but also at books typesetting. The fonts config at Linux is much easier than that at Windows, as long as you know how to do that. The official documentation of font-config is too complicated. The only thing I want to know is that how to set a fallback list for fonts, that is my only requirement. Luckily, I found some easy-to-follow tutorials.

Here is my config file.

~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "urn:fontconfig:fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>

<match target="pattern">
  <test name="family">
    <string>sans-serif</string>
  </test>
  <edit name="family" mode="prepend" binding="strong">
    <string>Nimbus Sans</string>
    <string>Yunlin Sans</string>
    <string>Twitter Color Emoji</string>
  </edit>
</match>

<match target="pattern">
  <test name="family">
    <string>serif</string>
  </test>
  <edit name="family" mode="prepend" binding="strong">
    <string>Nimbus Sans</string>
    <string>Yunlin Sans</string>
    <string>Twitter Color Emoji</string>
  </edit>
</match>

<match target="pattern">
  <test name="family">
    <string>monospace</string>
  </test>
  <edit name="family" mode="prepend" binding="strong">
    <string>FreeMono</string>
    <string>Yunlin Sans</string>
    <string>Noto Color Emoji</string>
  </edit>
</match>

<match target="pattern">
  <test name="family">
    <string>system-ui</string>
  </test>
  <edit name="family" mode="prepend" binding="strong">
    <string>DejaVu Sans</string>
    <string>Yunlin Sans</string>
    <string>Noto Color Emoji</string>
  </edit>
</match>

</fontconfig>

I will also deleted fonts I don’t need, maybe this is because of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. List all the preinstalled fonts.

sudo apt show list --installed | grep fonts-

Then uninstall the unneeded ones. The apt purge command doesn’t delete them completely because there are still a .uuid file left so the nonempty directories aren’t deleted. I have to delete them manually. By the way, Font Manager is a useful software to view your fonts.

  • System fonts at /usr/share/fonts/
  • User fonts at ~/.local/share/fonts/

Further reading:

Change screenshot hotkey

By default, when you press the PrintScreen key, a screenshot of the whole screen will be generated and saved to the ~/Pictures/ directory. However, I may press the PrintScreen key by mistake when I am going to press the ←BackSpace key. So I change it to Ctrl+PrintScreen to avoid this.

  • Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts > Save a screenshot to Pictures [Ctrl+Print]
  • Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts > Save a screenshot of an area to Pictures [Ctrl+Alt+A]

I will also recommend a powerful screenshot tool called Flameshot.

Install Firefox ESR

I prefer the ESR (Extended Support Release) version because I don’t like updates. If possible, I would like to stay at the 78.15.0esr version because I don’t like the new interface.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install firefox-esr

Set proxy

Download and install electron-ssr. Install the add-on Proxy SwitchyOmega for Firefox. Download gfwlist and decode.

base64 --decode gfwlist.txt > gfwlist-decode.txt

Install Gnome extensions

This is the most troublesome, Ubuntu is not out-of-the-box for me. I need to install a lot of Gnome extensions. First of all, Tweaks and chrome-gnome-shell should be installed.

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks chrome-gnome-shell

Manage applications view

Not sure about the exact name, I mean the view when you click the Show Applications button at the left-bottom corner, just like a Start menu at Windows 8.1. I am not allow to delete the applications icons directly from the view, the way to do that is to go to /usr/share/applications/.

Create bash command alias

~/.bashrc
# some more ls aliases
alias ll='ls -alFh'
alias la='ls -AF'
alias l='ls -CF'

alias cp='cp -i'
alias mv='mv -i'
alias dtrx='dtrx -v'

Install some software

※ Cover image: Ubuntu

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