{"id":4751,"date":"2010-11-17T09:57:35","date_gmt":"2010-11-17T01:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/?p=4751"},"modified":"2010-11-17T12:10:28","modified_gmt":"2010-11-17T04:10:28","slug":"clean-install-of-ubuntu-10-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/2010\/11\/17\/clean-install-of-ubuntu-10-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Clean install of Ubuntu 10.10"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been upgrading my Ubuntu<\/a> installation since 8.04, and it’s collected a fair amount of cruft. So I decided on a clean install of Ubuntu 10.10. I suppose that this post may be of interest to people planning something similar.<\/p>\n

Step 1: Backup<\/strong><\/p>\n

To be honest, I usually ignore this step (and just trust that I won’t overwrite the wrong partition, and that the installer won’t accidentally corrupt files).<\/p>\n

Anyhow, this time I decided to backup my entire home directory. Since there are always a bunch of temporary files, I first ran BleachBit<\/a> to remove unnecessary files. I then used grsync<\/a> to backup to an external USB HDD. The great thing about rsync<\/a> is that you can easily (and quickly) verify that everything copied properly by just running it again.<\/p>\n

Step 2: Sync<\/strong><\/p>\n

I figured that it would be easier to return all my application settings to normal if I synced my data with an external resource (so that I could later sync the new install).<\/p>\n

I considered using Ubuntu One<\/a>, but it wasn’t really the one-click secure process I had hoped for. It looked like I would need to setup sync for Evolution<\/a>, Tomboy<\/a>, and Empathy<\/a> separately. Also, I hasn’t too happy about sending my data to a third party.<\/p>\n

In the end I decided that I just needed to copy my KeePassX<\/a> passwords database, Evolution contacts, and Tomboy Notes to some storage media. So I copied the KeePass database, synced Tomboy to a folder, and dumped a vCard<\/a> file with all contacts to the USB HDD.<\/p>\n

I also copied the KeePass database to my new Android phone<\/a> so that I would have the wifi network settings handy immediately after installation (since I wouldn’t be able to install KeePassX before the wifi was setup).<\/p>\n

Step 3: Installation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Installation went without a hitch. Rather than burn a CD, I used a 2GB USB stick to create a startup disk (using the handy Startup Disk Creator program included with Ubuntu). Incidentally, the USB drive created is also setup with Wubi<\/a> for installation under Windows.<\/p>\n

Since this is a desktop machine, I decided not to encrypt my home directory. My passwords and such are already encrypted and I’ll use an encrypted partition for other confidential data.<\/p>\n

After the initial installation, I had two more reboots in store for me before I had a base setup. The first reboot was to install security updates and the second was to install the NVIDIA proprietary accelerated graphics driver. All reasonable stuff I suppose.<\/p>\n

Step 4: Basking in the Glory of a Clean Installation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sniff. It’s so beautiful.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I had already been using 10.10, but as I mentioned earlier it had collected a lot of cruft (unnecessary programs and files). The new default installation boots quickly, presents a clean login screen, and then loads an empty desktop with Firefox<\/a> ready to go. Even the shut-down graphics and terminal appear to be native resolution now (1920×1080) rather than low resolution (80 character wide) screens. Ahhh.<\/p>\n

Step 6: (re)Sync
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

I synced some data before overwriting my previous Ubuntu installation, so that I could easily and quickly sync it back into the new installation:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Startup Tomboy and set the sync directory to the folder on the USB HDD<\/li>\n
  2. Load the KeePass database so that I can configure my other accounts<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Since I have Windows 7 installed on another hard drive, I might move these sync files from the USB HDD to a new shared partition so that I can access them from either Ubuntu or Windows.<\/p>\n

    Step 5: User Interface Changes<\/strong><\/p>\n

    I’m generally pretty happy with the default Ubuntu 10.10 user interface, but I like to make a few minor tweaks.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Install “Advanced Desktop Effects Settings (ccsm)” via the Ubuntu Software Centre<\/li>\n
    2. Install “compiz-fusion-plugins-extra” via Synaptic Package Manager<\/li>\n
    3. Launch “System > Preferences > CompizConfig Settings Manager”<\/li>\n
    4. Enable “Window Previews” under “Effects”<\/li>\n
    5. Enable “Grid” under “Window Management”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Incidentally, Grid<\/a> is the best window management plugin ever. If you use Ubuntu, you should definitely install and use it. It will change your life. Guaranteed.<\/p>\n

      Step 5: Software Installation<\/strong><\/p>\n

      As much as I love the minimalism of a new installation, I need to install a few programs in order to be productive. I won’t go into this in too much detail other than to provide a list:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Ubuntu restricted extras (Java, Flash, Codecs)<\/li>\n
      2. KeePassX (Password management)<\/li>\n
      3. Inkscape<\/a> (Vector drawing\/illustration program)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Actually, I’ll probably just stop there for now and only install other programs as I run into a need for them. I expect that I may end up installing most of the following (in no particular order):<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Gnome Partition Editor<\/li>\n
        2. GIMP<\/a><\/li>\n
        3. MyPaint<\/a><\/li>\n
        4. ScribusNG<\/a><\/li>\n
        5. QuickSynergy<\/li>\n
        6. VirtualBox OSE<\/a><\/li>\n
        7. Blender<\/a><\/li>\n
        8. Getting Things Gnome<\/a><\/li>\n
        9. Miro<\/a><\/li>\n
        10. Chromium<\/a><\/li>\n
        11. Wine<\/li>\n
        12. Skype<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Step 6: Things Left to do<\/strong><\/p>\n

          I still need to setup mail, instant messaging, and social broadcasting services. I also want to put some decent fonts into my .fonts directory and setup by bookmarks toolbar with a handful of my frequently visited sites.<\/p>\n

          Then I’ll get onto importing photos and videos from the backup. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be a photo-and-video manager under Ubuntu. So I’ll still have to manage videos manually and import them into Shotwell at a later date. I’m also a little bummed that Shotwell doesn’t handle hierarchical tags or tag icons (which I used in F-Spot). Oh well.<\/p>\n

          Finally, I’ll probably selectively copy other files (documents etc.) as required. Hopefully this install will last another couple of years!<\/p>\n

          Update<\/strong>: Turns out Evolution can export all its settings (and tasks, events, email presumably) for import into another instance. I probably should have done that.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          I’ve been upgrading my Ubuntu installation since 8.04, and it’s collected a fair amount of cruft. So I decided on a clean install of Ubuntu 10.10. I suppose that this post may be of interest to people planning something similar. Step 1: Backup To be honest, I usually ignore this step (and just trust that … Continue reading “Clean install of Ubuntu 10.10”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paLsRH-1eD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4751"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4769,"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4751\/revisions\/4769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nick.onetwenty.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}