The Perfect Desktop - Kubuntu 9.10 - Page 2

3 Update The System

Before we go on, we should check if there are any updates available for our system. Start the KPackageKit package manager (System > Software Management):

Click on Software Updates. This will show you a list of available updates. To install them, click on Select all updates...

... and then on Apply:

Type in your password:

Afterwards the updates are being downloaded and installed:

Click on OK to leave KPackageKit:

The system is now up-to-date.

4 Inventory Of What We Have So Far

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

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

Graphics:
[ ] The GIMP
[ ] F-Spot
[ ] Picasa

Internet:
[ ] Firefox
[ ] Opera
[ ] Flash Player
[ ] FileZilla
[ ] Thunderbird
[ ] Evolution
[ ] aMule
[x] KTorrent
[ ] Azureus/Vuze
[x] Kopete
[ ] Skype
[ ] Google Earth
[x] Quassel IRC

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

Sound & Video:
[x] Amarok
[ ] Audacity
[ ] Banshee
[ ] MPlayer
[ ] Rhythmbox Music Player
[ ] gtkPod
[ ] XMMS
[ ] dvd::rip
[ ] Kino
[ ] Sound Juicer CD Extractor
[ ] VLC Media Player
[ ] Helix Player
[ ] Totem
[ ] Xine
[ ] Brasero
[x] K3B
[ ] Multimedia-Codecs

Programming:
[ ] KompoZer
[ ] Bluefish
[ ] Quanta Plus

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

So some applications are already on the system. NTFS read-/write support is enabled by default on Kubuntu 9.10.

5 Configure Additional Repositories

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

First we open a terminal (System > Terminal):

First off, we edit /etc/apt/sources.list...

sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list

... and enable the karmic partner repository:

[...]
## 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 karmic partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu karmic 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 aptitude update && sudo aptitude install medibuntu-keyring && sudo aptitude update

Then run

sudo update-apt-xapian-index

to make Synaptic (which we install in the next chapter) display packages from third-party repositories.

6 Installing The Synaptic Package Manager

I prefer the Synaptic Package Manager over Kubuntu's built-in package manager, therefore I install it as follows (still in the terminal):

sudo aptitude install synaptic