The Perfect Desktop - Kubuntu 12.10 - Page 2

3 Update The System

Now it's time to check for updates and install them. This is done using the Update Manager (Applications > System > Update Manager):

The Update Manager tells you which updates are available. If some of them need dependencies it tells you so - in that case, mark them for installation by clicking on Mark Upgrades:

Confirm with OK:

Finally, click on Install Updates:

Enter your password for authentication:

The updates are now being downloaded and installed:

If a new kernel was amongst the updates, a system restart is required to make the changes effective.

To perform a restart open the menu and click on Leave > Restart > Restart Computer:

The system is now up-to-date.

4 Flash Player

If you have checked the Install this third-party software checkbox during installation Flash Player should already be installed on the system.

To check this, the simplest way is to install Firefox. Open the menu and find the Firefox installer. Click on Install once you start it:

Type in your password for authentication:

Firefox will be installed afterwards...

Once Firefox starts, type about:plugins in the address bar. Firefox will then list all installed plugins, and it should list the Flash Player (version 11.2 r202) plugins among them.

5 Inventory Of What We Have So Far

Now let's browse all menus to see which of our needed applications are already installed:

You should find the following situation ([x] marks an application that is already installed, whereas [ ] is an application that is missing):

Graphics:
[ ] The GIMP
[ ] Shotwell Photo Manager
[ ] Pinta

Internet:
[x] Firefox
[x] Flash Player
[ ] FileZilla
[x] KMail
[ ] Deluge
[ ] Skype
[ ] Marble
[ ] Kopete
[ ] Dropbox
[ ] Gwibber Social Client

Office:
[x] LibreOffice Writer
[x] LibreOffice Calc
[ ] Adobe Reader
[ ] GnuCash
[ ] Scribus

Sound & Video:
[ ] Audacity
[ ] Banshee
[ ] dvd::rip
[ ] Kino
[ ] VLC Media Player
[x] K3B
[ ] Multimedia-Codecs
[ ] Winff

Programming:
[ ] KompoZer
[ ] Eclipse

Other:
[ ] VirtualBox
[ ] TrueType fonts
[ ] Java
[x] Read/Write support for NTFS partitions
[ ] gdebi
[ ] Synaptic Package Manager

So some applications are already on the system. NTFS read-/write support is enabled by default on Kubuntu 12.10.

6 Install Synaptic Package Manager And Configure Additional Repositories

I like to install the applications I need with Synaptic Package Manager instead of the installed Muon Manager, that's why I need to install that before I can go on with the other packages. Open a terminal (Applications > System > Terminal)...

...and enter the following:

sudo apt-get install synaptic

Some packages are not available in the standard Ubuntu repositories. The easiest way to make such packages available to your system is to add the Medibuntu repository.

Again, open a terminal and edit /etc/apt/sources.list...

sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list

..., enable the quantal partner and Ubuntu Extras repositories (if they are not already enabled):

[...]
## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu quantal partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu quantal partner
[...]

Then save the file.

To enable the Medibuntu repository, please do the following:

Import the repository:

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

Import the gpg-key and update your package-list:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

Then run

sudo update-apt-xapian-index

to make Synaptic display packages from third-party repositories.