Your Ultimate Journey: Welcome to The Powerful GNU/Linux Debian Ubuntu

Because of the increasing use of Ubuntu in the campuss, I will shed a light to have your Ubuntu shining. This is the ultimate installation noob's guide.

Preparation

For you folks whom want Ubuntu only OS, there is no preparation necessary except to get your installer CD/DVD.

For those that already have an OS such as Windoze, you must prepare a good partition. Normally, 5 Gigs (Gigabytes) is enough. But, for ultimate fun, I recommend 10 Gigs spares for the linux partition.

[NOTE: Partition is like dividing your harddrive into pieces of drive, just remember apple pie.]

Installing Ubuntu Base System

I assume we are using Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake).

1. Boot from CD: Turn on your computer and put the installation CD into the CD/DVD drive and select to boot from CD/DVD drive (often by pressing button). Just press to boot from the CD/DVD.
   
2. After you in the graphical mode, you could see a little picture called icon where in the bottom of it says "Install". Now, move your mouse pointer to it and click it to install Ubuntu to your harddrive.
3. Follow the logic of the installer up unto one point where you are asked whether you want to:
   
   • Resize your harddrive. This option is to easily drag the partition bar to have empty space for ubuntu installation. Select this if you already have a single partition of Windoze and have sufficient free space for Ubuntu. Drag the bar so that it have 10 Gigs of free space.
   
   
   • Reformat your harddrive. This is for the one that dwells in glory. This option is to diminish all content of you harddrive and start a new structure just for only Ubuntu. Cowards and those who have precious data should NEVER choose this option.
     
   • Manually format the partition. This is for you whom have spare a partition(s) before you go to the installer. This option will launch an application called GParted to partition your harddrive manually.
     
4. I suggest our linux structure is:
• 1st partition is for dedicated Linux Swap. If you manually partitioning your harddrive/HD, you could choose around 512 Megs or 1 Gigs depending on your memory. Sometimes you just need 128 Megs or 256 Megs. I have 512 Megs memory installed and I choose 512 Megs for the swap partition. In heavy use of my computer, it only used about 200 Megs of its space. For bigger memory, it may less than that.
• 2nd partition is for the system or root directory. I prefer the filesystem is ReiserFS not the default EXT3.
  
• I suggest you make your [/usr] directory into its own partition. This [/usr] will be huge as you install more apps and blink-blink. But, this step is optional. I prefer the filesystem is ReiserFS not the default EXT3.
• If you have sensitive data, I suggest you could make 4th partition specifically for home. So, if you decided to become a scientist and vandalize your system, it would have minimal damage. I prefer the filesystem is ReiserFS not the default EXT3.
• Make a partition of FAT32.
5. Just next.. and fill the blank until it said finish. Reboot and have your ubuntu.

Set The Important

This section is for people whom live in a prison called proxy. You must set your system for proxy. I'm sorry the following 'cause I'm using Bahasa Indonesia for menu. I think you have the idea.

Setting Gnome

Goto: System-> Pengaturan-> Proksi Jaringan
Fill with the address of your proxy.

Setting wget

WGET is a powerful command line downloader used by many apps to download anything. Installer usually use this software to install anything. To set this app, you just edit the wgetrc file.

# sudo gedit /etc/wgetrc

Find two lines that contain "http_proxy" and "ftp_proxy" and change the value with yourown proxy. E.g.

http_proxy = http://myproxy.net:8080/
ftp_proxy = http://myproxy.net:8080/

Setting apt

APT is used to install everything in Ubuntu ('xcept u would be a hardcore compile it from the source). Set it to use proxy. To do it, create new settings in a file.

# sudo gedit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10Proxy

Now, fill this in the new file:

ACQUIRE {
http {
Proxy "http://myproxy.net:8080/";
Proxy::kambing.vlsm.org "DIRECT";
}
}

Save it. If you notice, I have kambing.vlsm.org domain with DIRECT keyword. It means, my system doesn't use proxy for host kambing.vlsm.org. Set it if you have local mirror of ubuntu repository. Add every repository that do not need proxy.

Install Everything

This is the last one. Simple installer to do, go to getautomatix.com, read the instruction and do it. Install automatix and install automatixbleeder. How, you know when you get there.

I have a local repository, so I do a little different thing. Before I run automatix and automatix bleeder, I changed the repository to my local repository. The three file that must be modified is:
/etc/apt/sources.list
/usr/share/automatix/conf/sources.list
/usr/share/automatixbleeder/conf/sources.list

The 1st file is the original list of repositories file, while the two other will be used by automatix and automatixbleeder as their list.Now, you just run the two apps and install everything.

A little bit more

To make sure that every noob in the planet can do it right, I must explain something:
# means console
sudo is a command to do administrative task, which regular user prohibited.
gedit is an apps to edit plain text.

You could install more apps by using synaptic.Go: System->Administrasi->Synaptic Package Manager. Just click and do.

Must have apps:
1. yakuake -> Quake-like console/terminal.
2. amaroK -> Music player.
3. mplayer -> Multimedia player, but great at playing movie have better handling at certain codec than other player.
4. gaim -> IM, for people that have friends.
5. XGL/Compiz/CGWD -> this is the future. (check www.compiz.net)

The rest is desirable.

Links:
1. www.ubuntuguide.org
2. www.compiz.net
3. xgl.compiz.info
4. www.kubuntu.org
5. www.ubuntuforums.org
6. www.google.com