Wednesday, 1 June 2016

Post-Install Tips & Tricks for Ubuntu 16.04

1. Install Media Codecs

Due to legal issues Ubuntu does not come with media codecs pre-installed, which are needed to play most audio and video formats. Installing the required codecs is straightforward:
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

1.1 Install unrestricted version of libavcodec 

sudo apt-get install libavcodec-extra

2. Install Java

Most likely you will only require the Java browser plugin and OpenJRE.
sudo apt install icedtea-8-plugin openjdk-8-jre

3. Adobe Flash on Ubuntu

Unfortunately Flash is still needed for many web applications.
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer
Alternatively you can use chromium (recommended!).
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser chromium-browser-l10n chromium-codecs-ffmpeg

4. Install Linux Graphics Drivers 

AMD users will experience a drop in performance because the AMD driver is not supported as of now (June 2016) in Ubuntu 16.04. So think twice before upgrading if you are playing games or performing GPU-intensive work.
  • 1) Open Software & Updates from the Unity Dash
  • 2) Click on the Additional Drivers tab 
  • 3) Follow on-screen instructions
software & updates ubuntu 16.04

5. Install a System Cleaner

BleachBit is an excellent open-source tool to keep your caches clean and perform some other essential housekeeping from time to time.
sudo apt-get install bleachbit
system cleaner ubuntu 16.04

2 comments:

  1. Step 1.1 is not needed as installing restricted extras installs libavcodec-extra as well as the flash installer in step 3

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've been dual-booting Windows and Ubuntu for almost ten years now. Unfortunately, after installing Windows 10, the GRUB boot loader that allows you to choose between Windows and Ubuntu disappeared from my computers, so I was forced to either automatically boot into Windows 10 at start-up or enter the BIOS and choose to boot into Ubuntu from there.
    However, after installing the windows 10 Anniversary Update (1607), not only was the GRUB boot loader missing, but the option to boot into Ubuntu disappeared from the BIOS as well. There was essentially no way to boot into Ubuntu, even though the computer still showed that the Ubuntu partition was “healthy”.
    If you are experiencing this same problem, here is how to restore normal functioning of the GRUB boot loader:
    First, go into the Windows 10 Command Prompt (Administrator) this way: Click on the “Windows” logo at the bottom left-hand side of the screen. Go down to Windows System>Right-click “Command Prompt”> More>Run as administrator
    Enter (copy/paste) the following: bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi

    ReplyDelete

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