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Linux Post Installation

Though the Ubuntu Guide provides many good tips, this article provides links to some useful backup files to provide interoperability, efficiency and an overall more enjoyable computing experience.

Table of Contents

Fonts

Installing fonts in Linux is quite simple, however installing many can become quite tedious unless done all at once. Even after installing the ubuntu-restricted-extras, one could make use of many more fonts.

  1. Download myfonts.zip (or go to any server hosting a large number of fonts in a given directory using DownThemAll! with FireFox)
  2. Save it to the desktop and extract it right on the desktop
  3. To make these fonts system-wide, in the terminal, type and enter cp -a '~/Desktop/myfonts' '/usr/share/fonts/truetype/' to copy the fonts (otherwise just copy the fonts to a folder called .fonts in your home directory, if it does not yet exist, simply create the folder)
  4. In the command line type and enter fc-cache -f -v to refresh the fonts list.

The commands were taken from http://penguinfonts.com/howto/ubuntu.php, however this link is dead.

It used to be possible to install fonts "Windows style" running "fonts://" (without quotation marks) in Ubuntu 7.x. This is obsolete for Ubuntu 8.x.

Special Characters

Linux doesn't use Windows' bizarre character codes. Instead, it uses a compose key combination "just like in OS X". Unfortunately, PC keyboards don't have a compose key, meaning a key will have to be mapped as the compose key in order to use this feature. As of Ubuntu 11.10, go to System Settings>Keyboard Layout and hit the Options button (from Ubuntu 8.10 to 11.04, System>Preferences>Keyboard, then click on the Other Options button) then expand Compose key position and select a key to use as a compose key (typically a right-ctrl or a right-winkey). Once selected, close the Keyboard preferences window and in the text editor/word processor/browser/wherever one could possibly want to type, hit the compose key, then hit the appropriate key to generate an "accent", then the key for the character itself. For instance, after hiting the compose key, hit the apostrophe for an acute accent, shift+6 for a circumflex accent, etc. followed by the character than is to be accentuated. HowTo with screenshots found here (for the Ubuntu 7.x versions).

Despite the version changes in Gnome regarding setting the compose key, it is still easy to do using the GUI in Gnome or even KDE. However for Xfce it is a little trickier, see instructions here.

GreaseMonkey Scripts

Epiphany is an awesome browser and it is much easier to back up one's GreaseMonkey scripts in Epiphany than in FireFox (unless one backs up an entire FireFox profile). Unfortunately, some GreaseMonkey scripts do not work in Epiphany. For that reason, this article provides scripts that do work in Epiphany.

  1. First download and install the Epiphany browser and its extensions by entering the following into the command line: sudo apt-get install epiphany-browser epiphany-extensions
  2. Launch the Epiphany browser and enable the GreaseMonkey script under Tools>Extensions (this should create a GreaseMonkey folder in the Epiphany subdirectory)
  3. Download greasemonkey.zip and extract the files to the GreaseMonkey subdirectory.

Compact Gnome Desktop

To make the Gnome desktop compact, first download and install ClearLooks Compact. To make the Gnome menus compact and default Gnome icons to small, create a file in the home directory called .gtkrc-2.0, open it using the text editor and paste the following into the blank document: gtk-icon-sizes = "gtk-large-toolbar=18,18:panel-menu=16,16:gtk-menu=14,14"

Also, to have the toolbar in Nautilus display icons only, under System>Preference>Appearance, then Interface tab, set the Toolbar button labels to Icons only (taken from this page).

Desktop Effects

For Ubuntu 9.04 and Ubuntu 9.10, here is a wonderful HowTo for getting those unsupported Compiz effects. It uses a script to download them and install them.

For Ubuntu 8.10, there is a HowTo available here that makes it easier than ever to get all those wonderful extra plugins working. To access the custom effects in Intrepid, just as in Hardy, the simple-ccsm package must also be installed. It is now safer than ever, because the setup no longer requires commands as root.

Connect to a Huawei ETS2055 USB CDMA modem

  1. Install wvdial and usb-modeswitch (the first one ships with Lubuntu, the seond one ships with Ubuntu/Gnome, so you'll probably have to install at least one of the two)
    • sudo apt-get install wvdial
    • sudo apt-get install usb-modeswitch
  2. Edit /etc/ppp/options on line 35
    • gksudo gedit /etc/ppp/options
    • change line 35 from #auth to #noauth
  3. Change some file attributes
    • sudo chmod a+x /etc/ppp/pap-secrets
    • sudo chmod a+x /usr/sbin/pppd
  4. Allow user to connect to a CDMA modem via Gnome Network Manager
    • System>Administration>Users and Groups
      • Advanced Settings>User Privileges
    • Enable: Connect to Internet using a modem
  5. Check USB connection to the Huawei ETS 2055:
    • lsusb
    • The output should be: ID 12d1:1803 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
  6. Add it to the modules
    • gksudo gedit /etc/modules
    • add: usbserial vendor=0x12d1 product=0×1803 to the end of the file
  7. Now create a USB Modeswitch file for the device
    • gksudo gedit /etc/usb_modeswitch.d/12d1:1803
    • add the following:
      ########################################################
      #Huawei ETS 2055

      DefaultVendor= 12d1
      DefaultProduct=1803

      HuaweiMode= 1

      CheckSuccess=20
    • save and close
  8. Reboot
  9. Go to the USB Modeswitch directory
    • cd /etc/usb_modeswitch.d
  10. Run the magic command to load the device module
    • sudo usb_modeswitch -H -c 12d1:1803
  11. Run wvdialconf as administrator via the CLI
    • sudo wvdialconf
  12. Now edit its conf file
    • gksudo gedit /etc/wvdial.conf
    • add the phone number, username and password (#777/card/card) and remove the semi-colons!
  13. Left-click on the network manager and add the CDMA connection, for the provider use a write-in (such as SoTelMa)
  14. Cancel the connection
  15. Right-click on the network manager and under the broadband tab, edit the connection
    • add the phone number, username and password (#777/card/card)
    • connect via left-click

It's the exact same process for the ZTE (Qualcomm, Inc.) CDMA wireless modem, except the Vendor ID / product ID are 05c6:3197 (use the same dial number, user name and password).

Many thanks to Indonesian forum users and bloggers for figuring out how to enable this device in Linux.

Configure Epson 2480 USB Flatbed Scanner

To configure the Epson 2480 USB scanner (Vendor ID/Product ID 04b8:0121) in Ubuntu, do the following:

  1. Install the extra libraries libsane-extras and libsane-perl. Installing xsane (the scanning application) is also a good idea
  2. Detect the scanner on boot
    1. gksudo gedit /etc/modules
    2. add the following at the bottom: scanner vendor=0x04b8 product=0x0121, then save and close
    3. to detect the device immediately, run the command modprobe scanner vendor=0x04b8 product=0x0121
  3. Now deploy the binary driver and identify it
    1. Using the command line, run sudo mkdir /usr/share/sane/snapscan/
    2. Download the binary at http://luc.byhet.free.fr/epson2480/esfw41.bin (otherwise search the esfw41.bin file and save it), drop the file on the desktop
    3. Again in the command line run cd Desktop, then sudo mv esfw41.bin /usr/share/sane/snapscan/
    4. To identify the driver for its respective device, run gksudo gedit /etc/sane.d/snapscan.conf and change the line that reads firmware /usr/share/sane/snapscan/your-firmwarefile.bin. Change /your-firmwarefile.bin to /esfw41.bin & save your changes before exiting
  4. Enjoy, now the scanner should work not only with XSane, but with SimpleScan aswell!

Source: http://ubuntufs.wordpress.com/2006/05/26/epson-perfection-2480-scanner/

Configure Zonet ZEW1642s in Linux 3.0

As of Ubuntu 12.04, this is no longer necessary.

Confirmed to work in Ubuntu 11.10. In LMDE (with update pack3) I was able to connect but unable to get data transfer. Use the following commands:

It should show up as "ra0". If ra0 ever disappears, use those commands again (somehow it's not a problem to simply "reinstall" the driver the same way as the first time). You'll have to reinstall the driver after each time you update the linux kernel.

Source: http://askubuntu.com/questions/84959/ralink-rt3060-driver-not-working

Security

Concerned about security in Linux? For daily browsing, use AdBlock with FireFox or Epiphany. Paranoid about security? You can block many URL's for the entire system following this guide.

This is a Linux and Operating System article.
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Page last modified on March 26, 2012, at 04:13 PM EST