In mid June, my laptop hard disk died. Suddenly, there was a flurry of disk I/O wait, then applications started to report errors trying to write anything.
With a 500GB 2.5" laptop disk lying around that was used for backup, I replaced the dead disk with this one.
I had an Ubuntu Server 14.04 CD lying around, and therefore did not bother to download Kubuntu 14.04.
My laptop's home directory is backed up daily via ssh to the server. So my data was safe.
Of course, after I had a server operating system installed, I had to install additional stuff to get a KDE desktop, Sound, and Wifi.
First, let us update what we installed, since there are many updates since the CD was created:
aptitude update && aptitude full-upgrade
We then install KDE Plasma Desktop. This will give me the bulk of KDE.
aptitude install kde-plasma-desktop
Then we add the necessary parts to get WiFi working:
aptitude install plasma-widget-networkmanagement
Some drivers and codecs:
aptitude install kubuntu-restricted-addons
Touchpad configuration, so we don't have annoying interference while typing.
aptitude install kde-touchpad
The sound mixer for KDE, so sound can be configured, as well as alsamixer terminal tool:
aptitude install kmix alsamixer
Web browsers:
aptitude install firefox flashplugin-installer
aptitude install chromium-browser
aptitude install rekonq
Install Opera browser
add-apt-repository 'deb http://deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free'
wget -qO- http://deb.opera.com/archive.key | apt-key add -
aptitude update && aptitude install opera-stable
These are needed for suspending the laptop:
aptitude install acpitool acpitail acpi-support
These help make GTK applications (e.g. Firefox) loop acceptable on KDE:
aptitude install kde-config-gtk-style kde-config-gtk gtk2-engines-oxygen gtk3-engines-oxygen oxygen-molecule
Useful widgets for KDE (CPU monitor, weather, ...etc.)
aptitude install plasma-widgets-addons plasma-widget-cpuload
Printing packages
aptitude install system-config-printer-kde
aptitude install print-manager
aptitude install cups
aptitude install hpijs-ppds hplip
Some useful applications:
aptitude install clementine
aptitude install speedcrunch
LibreOffice, for word processing, spreadsheet, and presentations:
aptitude install libreoffice
For taking screen shots:
aptitude install ksnapshot
PDF viewer
aptitude install okular
A nice replacement for top:
aptitude install htop
A planetarium:
aptitude install kstars
And a USB webcam tool, which I use for a microscope:
aptitude install guvcview
File systems we may need, sshfs for the server, and NTFS for USB drives:
aptitude install sshfs ntfs-3g
Tools for multiple monitors, for when connecting a projector:
aptitude install krandrtray kscreen
A default video player:
aptitude install kaffeine
Make LightDM the default window manager:
dpkg-reconfigure lightdm
To get suspend and resume to work, we need to configure policy kit:
cd /var/lib/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/
cat > com.ubuntu.enable-hibernate.pkla <[Enable hibernate by default]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.upower.hibernate
ResultActive=yes
EOFcat > com.ubuntu.enable-suspend.pkla <
[Enable suspend by default]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.upower.suspend
ResultActive=yes
EOF
We add regular backups via ssh
# Enable backups
echo "*/10 8-17 * * * ~/bin/laptop-backup.sh" | crontab
We finally setup sshfs mounts from the home server to the laptop.
Comments
Priyanka (not verified)
@KhalidShould I also add the
Mon, 2015/08/31 - 04:10@Khalid
Should I also add the ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports or is that automatic if I just install kubuntu-desktop?
Regards
Priyanka
Khalid
No need
Mon, 2015/08/31 - 09:27No need to add any PPA at all.
This line in /etc/apt/sources.list should give you backports automatically, and it should be enabled by defaults.
deb http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-backports main restricted universe multiverse
Phuong Pham (not verified)
Install or Upgrade KDE 4.12 on Ubuntu 14.04
Sun, 2015/11/01 - 23:21Step 1: Add backports Repository
First we need to add required repository in apt-get package manager to install KDE. Use following commands to add it
$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports -y
$ sudo apt-get update
Step 2: Install/Upgrade KDE
Install KDE: Use following command to install KDE desktop in your ubuntu system, If you already have installed kde skip below command and use next to upgrade.
$ sudo apt-get install kde-standard kubuntu-desktop
Upgrade KDE: If you already have KDE installed, Just execute following command.
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
The installation process will take some time. During the installation, it will prompt for few inputs like below screenshots.
Step 3: Check KDE Version
After successfully installing kde, lets check the version of KDE installed on your system. To check version Open KDE System Settings menu >> Go to Help Menu >> and select About KDE.
Now reboot your Ubuntu system and start in graphical mode. Select the desktop environment you want to use at login screen.