¢ LINUX FORMAT THE COMPLETE GUIDE INSTALL UBUNTU DISCOVER GREAT FEATURES FIX COMMON ISSUES LOVE LINUX! Edition B DigitalAALALAAAAAAAAAAZAAAAAAA AA 4, AALAAAAAMAAAAAAAAMAAAAMAAD DDS, AAAAAAAMAAAAAAAMAAAAAA ADA, AALAAAAAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAA, AAAAAAAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA A, AAAAAAAMAAAAAAhAAhAhbhbasadsa, AAAAAAAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAA, ALAAAAAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADA A. AALAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA A, AAAAAAAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA A, AAAAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA A, ZALAAALAAALZAAALZALAALAAS, AAAAMAALALAAAAALZAAAA AAA, AAAAMAALAAALAMAAAAAAA AS, AAAAAALAAAAAMAAAAAAAA DA, AAAAMAAAAAAAAAALAAAL AS, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAA AAA, LAAAAAAAMAAAMAAAMAAMAAAAAADD A A, 4 4 4 4 4 4 AAS NNNubuntu THE COMPLETE GUIDE Linuxis taking over the world and the last pace it has to conquer is your desktop fyoute desperate to dump Windows, curious enough to try Ubuntu ‘or want to jump feet fist into the open source word, this Ubuntu special the best place to get started. Inside this bookazine are all the guides, tutorials and advice you need to successfully install, get started and use Ubuntu for the frst time. Well be holding your hand as you leave Windows behind and {get Ubuntu up and running on your home systems ‘The great thing about Ubuntu and Linuxis that if you want to keep things simple, you can, but if you want to hit the bare metal and dive into the inner Workings ofthe operating system, you can do that, too, We're here to guide youtinto the world of Linux. We won't pretend t's completely easy - you need tobe prepared to look for support and ask questions - but there's a wealth of friendly help available from the Ubuntu and Linux communities. o what are {you waiting for Turn the page and start your Ubuntu adventure!4 L FUTURE 4 rTHE COMPLETE GUIDE Had enough of Windows? Looking for something new to play with? Step into the vast world of open source and Linux — we've got plenty here to keep you entertained! Get started Ifyou you up Ubuntu in ady, Ubuntu for desktops 10 What is Ubuntu? 12 Try Ubuntu in 4 minutes! 16 Ubuntu 19.10 18 Ubuntu 18.04: gear up! 26 Introducing the desktop 28 Customise the desktop Ubuntu cor packed full of Install software in Ubuntu Replacing Windows apps Enjoy films, music and photos How to edit photos Start editing videos Editing audio and music Browse the web in safety Enjoy the latest games Wann p) Get on social networks AG Play games on Linux Setting up email 6 | UnacFormat Presents: Ubuntatime to try your h involved pr Dual boot two OSes Run Windows programs Discover the Terminal Working with files Set up printers and scanners Safely backup and restore Run Windows pare How to update Ubuntu See ee Change your desktop oe System cerns Ubuntu most common ux issues when it goes wrong! Ubuntu system settings Configure your display ‘Tweak your system sound ae Optical and removable drives Wireless and wired networks Display drivers explained Li 76 3 80 82 84 86 88 Anti-virus and security 9 8 Troubleshoot start up issues g How to get help OW Graphics card drivers explained2] Get startedWhat is Ubuntu?. Try Ubuntu in 4 minutes!. Introducing the desktop. Customise the desktop‘macOS, you know what they are. But if we say Ubuntu, are you left blank? If you've picked up this copy of Linux Format Presents: Ubuntu The Complete Guide's more than possible you've heard of Linux, and you've possibly head of Ubuntu, Ifyou have, then dive in, but for those new to Linux, Ubuntuand ‘open source software freedom. let's fist get youup to speed with what's all aout ‘So what is Linux? What is Ubuntu? And how does the concept of open source software I we say Microsoft Windows or Apple ‘work? If youve seen the litle penguin fellow hanging around various pages and on the covers of Linux Format. hisname is Tux. He's the mascot of the world-famous open source system called Linux Its the control software at the heart of most open source operating systems, such as Android and Ubuntu, and its kown.as akerel, Youll find that Linuxis used in hundreds of operating systems, and one of the most popularis Ubuntu Just as Windows, hasits own kemel,and Apple's macOS has its Darwin kernel so Ubuntu has Linux Le ert eee Like mest sotware, Ubuntu has Feleased versions and cade names. youve never come across Ubunty before then these can bea bt erm, unusual and confusing so et us expla, Canonical the company that develops Ubuntu releases two versions a year andi then increases the version number by one. The releases are in Apel (04) and October (20), soths version 1804 was released in Apri 2018. The next release wil be 1910 in October 2018. Each normal release gets rine ‘months of support updates Every two years theresa Long Term Support (US) release that gets three years of support releases. The curtent one is 1804 LTS: there willbe 2008 LTS, Ifyou want something more stable, we suggest opting for one ofthese releases Toad to the quirkiness, every release gets an interesting releate name, ater an arial hat cyces the alphabet foreach release, Recent and future names are: Xenial Xerus Yakkety Yak Zesty Zapus Artful Aardvark Bionic Beaver Cosmic Cuttlefish Disco Dingo Eoan Ermine ‘While Linux has been developed since 1981, Ubuntu frst appeared in 2004, and thanks to its easy-to-approach philosophy and short sb ‘month development cycle rapidly became the most popular open source Linux operating system in the world, Ubuntu is an operating system, ust ike Windows and macOS, butts also mare than either of those. Within the Linux word ts called a distribution aka distro, ‘As you get more into Ubuntu and open source, youl ind choice isa huge element. Ubuntu a astro that doesn't just provide theGet started Ths seach system 'show youlnd and acoess more programs and ‘tor es and Aeeumens Yoo tanfiter anderen searchonine, no Launcher The Launcher nes dona tele othe desktp thos rece programs Youcan| 8d andere itemsand aust theleon sie. DLE ToT TT.) Settings Ybulfndmes system setingcanbeeasiy decesaes toughns fancy syste, software that installs and runs Linux on your P-, it provides the Unity desktop software bundles inthe Firefox browser, the LibreOrfice office package the Gimp art package, the ‘Audacity audio editor and so much more. It's distro, because it packages and handles an entire software library in one, “This only possible because ofthe open source philosophy under which the Linux kemelis developed, the Ubuntu distros created, and the open source lence that athe programs used are released under. ‘Open source is akey element to software freedom: the idea that all of us shouldbe able to freely use computers without being locked into ary single vendor or reliant onary single operating systern publisher. t's a. complex idea to get your head ‘around intial. especially i you've been used to the Microsoft and Apple ways of doing things, bt you're about to break free of ary Files Fls ard folders can stilbe accessed though fle exgorer ‘ster The Linux system is ‘mor complar than Windows but ‘cht the Home fle. restrictions and start to use computers as you want The way itshould be ~ is all quite exciting realy. (ver the page, you'll ind out how to install ‘and gt started with Ubuntu, We assume you're already running aWindows system here. you do already have a Windows system, then you have two choices: wipe over “It’s a complex idea but you’re about to break free of any restrictions” Windows and be rid of it forever or dual boot Ubuntu beside Windows, leaving your fles intact. The laters preferable it our systern has room fort ands probably the best option for anyone new to Linux (Once you are up and running, Ubuntu ‘ives you access to literally thousands of Desktop Leal POGestos Louth ane oo. Yucan epi as aor messyasyoule thio andan choose you amber 4 {ree open source apps. Many of which rival the abilities of anything you coud buy for Windows or macOS, and many even surpass their abilities. You'l also find the range of software tobe enormous, (see page 34 for more on apps) and it encompasses such diverse areas as coding, ‘mathematics, physics, engineering space ‘and beyond. Final i's important to rermember that Ubuntu set just limited to one distro. There's a whole range of options _2valable for you, and we encourage you tocxperiment, lock around and try outa few ctferent options to help find the one that suits you best. We'l outline the many ‘avaiable here, but sufce to say that they cover talored builds for desktop systems, internet servers, low-power systems, embedded internet-f things devices tablets and moe. ‘Sowhat are you waiting for? @ Uru Format Presents: Ubu | 1~ 2 Get started Ubuntu: Quick install guide Linux isn't scary or hard. You can be up and running in just 4 minutes, honestly! Would we lie to you? Don't answer that.. a Weddle ‘in tori nang as tats Souter meses Vedsowces sy POST ds, bate sso tial he may tires wepopped| cattomses ee Cup ofa Ohne tines led wing toarydiscsand theerte booty proces ‘onestly, mader Linux's easier. faster and less hassle toinstall than any recent release of Windows. That's the truth. Nomessing with keys. no worrying about ‘activation and ne diging out tha lost instal cise or USB, ive. The beauty of Linus that because its fee software ‘anyone can download and start using it immediatly You dont even have to install anything! Linux technology ard its ‘ree and easy lcence means that ican be run straight off (CD or DVD. Its not as fast and you can't save work as such but ts an ideal way to quickly try out Linux without worrying ‘bout installing or setting up anything ese. Aslong as you have an optical drive and can persuade your PC to boot from it~ not always an easy task ~ then you canbe trying out Linuxin just a few minutes. Perhaps you want something alittle more permanent? ifyouive tried Ubuntu and decided for you then itl easily help youinstal it permanently on your local hard drive. Itcan even automaticaly shrink Windows to fit Ubuntu on there If that sounds too complex then why not use a virtual version? Well look at how using VirtualBox you can run Ubuntu atthe same time as Windows. Another big win with Linux and Ubuntu that it doesn't require arywhere near the space of Windows. The minimum space is around 7B, ‘obviously more i always better, but to try out Ubuntu just 10GBis more than enough, Easy ways to Linux ifyoue not abg Lux user then you probably won't want to destroy your existing Windows or Mac system. Andthe tuth ‘sthatyou dort need titer Linus exible enough that t canberun ina number of ways: beside, ontop or alongside ‘most other operating systems and on mast types of harcvare, an from vital versions to versions running of USB drives, DVDs or on hardware tke the Raspbecy Booting a DVD is the easiest and fastest way to try Linux and Ubuntu Here, at Linux Format Towers after navigating the OVD menu we can have Ubuntuloaded up in ess than four minutes, Getting the disc to boot, however, canbe easier said than done. Ityour system doesrit automaticaly run the Insert Guest Additions CD image... What this does is add another virtual optical disc withthe required software. ter afew seconds a window should open asking i you want torun the disc. choase Run’ and allow the software toinstal, ths can take a while, Use the View. Input and Devices menus atthe top of the VirtualBox window to adjust and contro allof the previously ‘mentioned integration features. They make using the VitualBoxmuch more comfortable. as wel as enable a wider range of resolutions. There are more options avaiable including writing the ISO file toa suitable USB thumb drive and folowing a srlar boot process as discussed above, running Linux from this. To get BD Create a machine ‘Choose Ubuntu and the bits should match the ISO you downloaded, click Next. Under Memory we'd recommend 2048, but if you have an 8GBPC 4096s best. You can leave allthe rest as default settings, apart from the dynamic hard drive size. The default is 868, weld suggest at least 32GB just incase, Finish and cick Start to get going this to work you need to use a write tool such as UNetbootn from http: Aunetbootin.githubio. This can be a helpful optionf your device doesn't have an optical drive that youican boot from or you've downloaded the relevant disc image (150) fie rom wwrubuntu.com/download/desktop. Using USB Thre sore ety en colder bring nts blesraeaias fnarbonro prob Aenan caryyer OS andvanyevcnbeat tomato PC seuhappen sean bu werehatoomgat tm bne te Doesojouc aes yeu (See Unt on USB aie brm aa) "mot 208k aprons he othe cotonclungte spe spcess safe otarou er Saabs bitas (Retioal Aco rece Sete tov st clenss Weheteo pete ath eshte eSB shh bt Sond 308 sek ou sat bub weda end » B Starting virtual Ubuntu prompt will appear asking for ads locate the Ubuntu IS0 file and click "Start. Linux Ubuntu wil start, once loaded you're free to ‘ry out Ubuntu or use the installicon to properly instal to the virtual machine. For extended use in the virtual machine's settings under Display. youll want to enable 3D acceleration and allocate 16MB. ar? Ones yon haa'telde ener te ‘sturedentoget ‘obecfoman| pba erie As wepitasene (ep where festuenenae yours fpttoboatem Sterstemads| ype VF Disc booting problems ‘The frst problem thal many people encounters booting their desktop or lptop from a DVD. Many systems no longs check the optical dive fr boot media asi slows down the start process. You have two options, anes to open any provided Boot Meru —not all devices oer ths~ the key Used varies. HP systems use F9, Dell and Lenovo use FIZ. ‘der AMIBIOS-based systems use FB, Avard:based systems use FL You need to siawlytap the key ust after sting onthe system, Selet ary CD-ROM/Optical rive option and you're good to go ne boot men seems avalable the other option ito select the order of boot devices within the BIOS/UEFI settings. Typical a message should fash un during the system start explaining which ke to press. Justa withthe boot menu pressing one of Del (the most common), FL 2 Ese raspecial'maintenance key should provide 2c2235. In the BIOS locate the Boot Device menu and ensure 2 DVD/ optical crive is frst in thelist. Save and reboot! 5: ATA HDDO: ST9160823AS-(S1) 6: PCI LAN 7: -USB HDD _ “Initiate a Remote Connect ion> IBA GE Slot 60C8 v1351 > This is our boot menu, there are others lke it, but this one is ours. Lux Format Presents: UbuntuEFI has replaced the BIOS and can block dises from running for security reasons. ea ee) Da kat Disabled Enabled Peed Pees eatcy 3 VERT and Legacy | Legacy Only oa We don't really have space here to go into the fulins and ‘outs of backing up any existing Windows partition, resizing partons and instaling Ubuntu by hand. The good news is LUount wil largely do the last two automatically for you, you indows lett. Be warned though. t's easy to destroy your partition, the Windows bootloader orto leave your PC Lurusable i you should choose the wrong options orit something ese goes wrong along the way, We don't recommend instaling or upgrading any OS unless you have ‘backed up any fies, created an image of your dives and the system srt eitial to any business, personal use or ather ‘operation. With that dre warning out ofthe way, on tothe fun ‘Asa general rule if you have Windows on the boot crve Ubuntu vill happily resize this and ft itself alongside Windows Install Ubuntu ayer) con the drive. Before trying to ensure the crve has enough free space. These days drives can be easily 50GB or larger, as long as there's 20GB fre there shouldnt be an issue; more space is required than ust for Ubuntu as there needs to be space to move Windows fs out ofthe way too. there isnt ths free space, run the Windows Disk CleanUp Tok ideally choose to re-runit as Administrator, and get ito remove Unused system fies to, It youdon't have 2068 free then its best that yo. try toinstall Ubuntu, Once you start the Ubuntu install process dont interrupt it f you break your bootcader o partition tables then they can bea real pain to fx, but if you ‘do manage to break something don't panic Windows wil sti be there, nt Boot and run UNetbootin Linux Torun Ubuntu trom a USB stick, you fest need a USB drive atleast 2GB in size, 8GB ‘would be ideal. Youll need the Ubuntu 150 file from worwaubuntu.com as discussed in the VirtualBoxwalkthrough and well use the download tool UNetbootin from http:// ‘unetbootin.githubio This installs the Live Disc $0 file rectly to your USB drive. 14 | LinuxFormat Presents: Ubunta ‘The tool can downlcad the ISO image, buti's best practice todo this yourself. So select Diskimage, locate the file inthe Download folder. Use the Ubuntu storage box to create reusable space—-512MB shouldbe fine use ‘more on large sticks. Ensure youhave the correct USB drive select the bottom pul: down menu and click OK’ tocreate the drive, ‘You can naw boot your PC from the USB drive. However, youll need to ensure your PC selects the USB drive asthe boot device. Usually when youtfirst turn on your PC a message says press F8,F9, Flor FI2 to Select the boot device. Some PCs have their ‘own specific button, consult your manual oF ‘manufacturer for details. Ubuntu ill now run,LINUX MAGAZINE EBOOK TIPS GET STARTED Boot Linux now with 4» Our Pop!_OS guide LI NI UX) ae ans . Tepiosacsncemaey FORMAT TATU 018: SU v Protect files ~ Boost speeds v Add RAID Monitor drives Pesan — Pooecas 19.04 <= rp Build a digital library with books new and old Kop Streamlined desk'oP | eeenccd ised power Optimised PO carch Boe es Powerful and videos Full-disk encryption Se | mercer NNert Ubiquity, unt’ Installer, wil gt your new favourite OS installed swift and smoothly Eoan Ermine completes the preparations for the upcoming 20.04 LTS release, adding polish and pizazz, and clearing cruft. Je word's most popular desktop Linux r I Micauton (operon whoyu believe and how you measureit) continues its evolution with anather exciting release, Bulding on theideas laid down in Bionic Beaver, refined in Cosmic Cutletsh and ‘tweaked i Disco Dingo, Eoan Ermine isa worthy champion of the Ubuntu lineage. bunts 1810s the fith release that ships with the Gnome Shell desktop environment. The transition from Unity back to Gnome hasn't been a smooth one, with the desktop oftentimes feeling sluggish compared to its peers. A great deal of work has gone into remedying this, with Canonical engineers ssquishing hard to track down performance bugs and contributing their remedies Upstream. And the results are palpable. {Ubuntu 19.10 uses Grome 3.34, which in itself brings a great dea of improvements. There are processor optimisations latency 16 | LinuxFermat Presents: Ubu reductions, tweaks to the graphics stack and a Jot more work behind the scenes that makes the desktop feel lot more responsive than previous iterations. Taming Gnome “The Ubuntu developers have spent aot of time and effort customising Gnome to help ‘accommodate thse stil fond of the Unity ‘workflow The characteristic Dock onthe et hha sid of the desktop the helpful Ubuntu appincicatos (top right) andthe ably to put icons on the desktop areal provided through the magic of Gnome extensions. ne ofthe major hight for usis the distro’ default Yarutheme, which frst ‘appeared in Ubuntu 1810.The standard Yau theme has been rebased on Gnore'sAdwata, which improves compatibity.t'sa misture of light and dark shades, which we think works ‘very wal though some may find lor example) the contrast between the light calendar panel and the dark top panel lite jarring. Fear not albight and al-dark Yaru variants are available via the Gnome Tweak Too (see box) You! otice the log in and lock screens look much cleaner, too Generation Z Beyond the desktop, Ubunty 1910 offers an experimental option to install using the next ‘generation ZFS filesystem. This shouldnt be done ighty but you're working with huge amounts of data on multiple huge drives (and have backups) then thsis probably worthy of your curiosity inamove that will pease some gamers. the proprietary Nvidia drivers row included on the 150.0 this canbe installed event you dont have internet access at install time, Workhas alsobeen done to ensure that for whatever reason this dost work the systern wilSorry Install custom themes and second guess Gnome's enforced defaults with the Tweak too sracetil fallback tothe open source driver, rather than leave you staring ata blank screen The threatened purge of al 32-bit libraries never happened, but Canorical are supporting far fewer of them, with ths release, so you may find that some old applications won't work with 1910 Ifyou have an old printer for example, you may be out of luck here. The 32-bit gubbins required for the Steam cent and Wine (but not necessarily old Steam ties or olt Windows programs you might have been running vith Wine) areal there, however More control As with other aspects ofthe Gnome desktop, the Ubuntu levelopers have also tweaked the allimportant Settings app tomake tmoce useful There's anew background panelin the Settings application, which allows you tose the desktop and lock screen backgrounds from the same pace. you want the same picture for both, then good news: youcan do this ina ingle click ‘soi the Settings app. youlfind the the Nght Light (or reducing colour temperaturesin the dark hours) has been ‘mowed tothe Display section which is enirely reasonable The WiFinetworkistingis more pleasing tothe eye, and theres aso support for WPAS security. AS inthe previous release, there's a redundant Liepatch panel bothin Settings andin the Softuare & Updates tool this feature being avalable only in LTS releases. Media sharing via DLNAis now easy accessible via the Sharing pane. Besies the sible changes tothe desktop Eoan Ermine aso sports several visual improvements and most notably, eeping up with the times woeks realy wellon DPI lsplays. The desktop includes an experimental rational scaling feature for such high-resolution displays. With scaling values of 1258, 1508 andé 20086, this feature makes reading fonts, especially in the terminal, on HiDPIsereens much case. But since its still under development, you have to enable it with some commandne tu. Fre upa terminal and ype: ‘goetings set org. gnome mutter experimental features “Tale monitor ramebuller, x 1-vande-frational-sealing betore heading to Settings > Devices > Dspayst scale your fonts Besides the changes visible onthe desktop there have been several made under the hood aswel. Infact. the improved performance and responsiveness of the desktopin comparison to previous versions is lxgely du tothe code clean-up and improvements tothe Gnome 3:34 backend Aire est ofthis etortis the improvements in the framerats, which make animations feel mare responsive even on older under equipped machines. B tcc tranr een ‘After installing the updater wil nudge you to install any new packages: that are available. Code clean-up isnt the only thing behind Eoan Ermine’s improved performance ~ there's aso the 53 series kernel that t ships. This includes futher (anc more perforant) Spectre and Meltdown bug mitigations, Gamers wil ‘appreciate the support for AMD's Radeon RX 5700 series (GPUs, and fancy laptop toting users wll enjoy the support for Intel Speed Select and the extra battery ite it engenders With ts notable performance improvements and. ‘overhauled visuals, oan Ermine marks a watershed moment for the Ubuntu project in the post Unity era. Before you Upgrade. note that itis a regular non-Long Term Support (UTS) release, which means it wll gt nine months of support and patches. For more information on LTS releases, see our explanation on page 10. » Things to do after installation Ubuntu 19.0 is perfectly usable straight out of the box. However, you can ‘urther refine that experience by following a couple of post install tweaks. For Starters, fire up the Software & Updates app and make sure you install any ‘valable updates. Next, we recommend enabling suppor for Gnome ‘extensions, which willow you to further tweak the desktop as per your \worktow. First up install the Gnome Shell integration for Firefox (https / ‘addons. mezlla.org/en-US/frefox/addon/gnome-shell-integration) oF for (Chrome/Chromium (tps: shelLintegration/gphhapmejobijbbhepihcjogniahblep). Next. fre up a terminal and instal the host connector with Seudo apt neal crome-gnome-shell, ‘command. Tha'sit. Now head t htts:/extensions gnome.org and install ‘any extension you want touse. ‘We particularly ke Dash To Dock, which changes the launcher into a configurable dock. If you're wanting to access more Gnome customisation options, you should ‘also install the Gnome Tweaks app. You'l find ths inthe Ubuntu Software application, but it you prefer todo things the old fashioned way. fre up a Terminal and incant: sudo apt install gnome-weaks Using the app, you can make changes to the desktop that aren't possible with the default Settings app For instance. you can display icons for {frequently visited places on the desktop, change the placement ofthe window ‘buttons, switch toa aiferent icon theme, malty the default behaviour of windows, dsable extensions, and alot more. Linux Format Presents: Ubu | 17GEAR UP! There's anew Ubuntu LTS in town, with a whole new desktop to entice and amaze you... tit your busy mind for just a ‘moment. dear reader. and tell us what you hear. The sound of swallows, swifts and wheatears returning to their northern breeding ‘grounds? No, listen more closely. There's a vaguely mechanical gnawing sound from the trees over yonder. That's the sound of a bionic beaver, and possibly some gnomes too. and it can ‘mean only one thing: the latest Ubuntu LTS. release is here. But things have changed since the last LTS two years ago. Back then, there was excitement about Canonica's bold desktop projects: Unity Mir and convergence. Those have all been | 1 | Ln Format Presents: Ubu bequeathed to the community now and, ‘Ubuntu, after seven years going its own) ‘way, has returned to the Gnome desktop. ‘Acontraversial move, but a pragmatic one too. Canonical is heading towards an IPO, ‘and ambitious desktop projects that ‘generate no revenue don't attract investors. Furthermore, Gnome 3 has matured ‘and ripened and is no longer the scary desktop beast that it used to be, and Canonical has done a great job of ‘customising it to be a friendly as possibly to Unity ex-pats, Gnome is also leading the charge towards Wayland, the successor to the aging X.org display server, so Ubuntu 18.04 » sageh evo sianteny adc ‘to experiment with the future display stack (don't worry isnot the default yet). Stet cram stare tmabunitlcarieres tices ane few Semper Poe nha erent iyEager beavers There's a lot of hype surrounding the latest release of Ubuntu, codenamed Bionic Beaver. But what's new? Let's find out.. fer 14 years of Ubuntu releases, you might think they weren't such a big deal anymore. But make no mistake, this s big news. For one thing, it's an LTS release so will very likely be many People’s dally driver for a good few of the next five years Furthermore, a number of those other popular desktop distros are based on Ubuntu LTS, so this release crystalises their foundations too. And finally this release sees Ubuntu return to the Gnome desktop after seven years of going their own way with Unity Installing Ubuntu is as easy ass ever been. However, this isa new release and so shouldn't be used on systems you're depending on day to day just to keep things nice and secure. You should aim to make sure that everything works from the live environment before you install it. As wellas that, try to back up any important data before you think about hitting the install button, so that if anything does hit the fan, your old contnt is covered, Also, don't use an install disc. Get an up-to-date ISO from wwwubuntu.com/download/desktop. This might seem lke strange advice, especially given al the superiatives on the wallet, ut within the confines of the covers we can at least be sensible about this. Tre iquty ister 36 smooth a eve, nde ikes theartwork too =a beer ceamserbed by intersecting ces You can use the zsync tity to update the ISO with ‘minimal data transfer here (see below). Ths will download only the bits that have changed, which should only be a few megabytes. Once that’s done, write the refreshed ISO toa disc using your favourite burning utility or to USB using ddor Etch. ‘When you begin the install, you may be pleased to find the option of a minimal instal. This doesr't save a huge amount of space (around 500MB), but does away with most of the bulky applications, leaving only a web browser and the core tools you'd likely rely on from Ubuntu. From here you can add whatever you lke, so its great f you have different application procivities to the Ubuntu defaults. DD iesrotcremanse BD foyosacevsseneim EQ Seiatmcnstyrrvor as already running Linux, copy the ISO from four disc (it's in the Ubuntu/ directory), Install zsyne and update the ISO: $ chmod 755 bionic-desktop-amd64 iso {my bionic-desktop-amdé4.iso ubuntu- 18.04-desktop-amd64.iso $ zsync http://releases ubuntu. com/18.04/ubuntu-18.04-desktop-amd64 isozsyne Now write the new image to disc or USB. the appropriate place and then boot your ‘machine. The official image will work with ssecure boot (note that our disc will ot), but finding the magic key to summon the ‘boot menu or UEFI settings may take ‘some trial and error on your part. F2, FIO {and Del are common options. Mac users should hold down C. Select the optical drive or USB and then choose "Try Ubuntu without instaling’ possible from the live environment (extra displays, wireless and printers). In addition, make sure you like it, because there's no point risking your system if you don't. fall's wel then press the install icon on the desktop. the installer will happily install alongside (or atop) Windows or other Linuxes. If you have a ‘more exotic setup then choose the "Something else’ option. Linux Format Presets: Ubuntu | 19~ ral Get started Getting to Gnome you Unity is out and Gnome is in. Despite what some would call its chequered history, Gnome’s a feature-packed desktop powerhouse. ‘ou may have heard terrible things about ‘Gnome: that it's a hypermodern desktop environment more suited to phones than PCs, that it forces you to learn abstruse key combinations, that it can’t be configured, that i's written in JavaScript... the list goes on. Though none of these are really true, the prospect of learning a whole new desktop environment may be, to say the least, daunting, Don't worry, though - Canonical has put alot of etfort into making Gnome friendly to people used to working in Unity. There's the familiar colour scheme, app indicators, the signature font and window decorations and, of course, the characteristic left-hand launcher bar. You can even put icons on the desktop if you really want to. However, Canonical has been quite deliberate in not making these tweaks invasive to the desktop's underpinnings: they're all done through standard Gnome extensions and themes, rather than Let to know the Gnome desktop. shipping patched libraries. This ensures compatibility across the Gnome ecosystem and avoids reliance on third-party extensions, but it does mean things like ‘global menus and the more advanced features of Unity's HUD are no more, ‘The Gnome release cadence happens to align nicely with Ubuntu’s bi-annual releases, so 18.04 includes (most of) the latest version, Gnome 3.28, released in ‘mid March. This includes some great new features, ‘many of which you can read about in our Hotpicks section on page 81. Files, which i the default file ‘manager in Ubuntu, is based on the version from 3.26, butithas received a stylish new look (check out that funky sidebar. people!) and willbe familiar to Unity users. Also familiar willbe the sponsored Amazon link in the sidebar. We recommend replacing this with something useful forthwith. A shortcut to the Terminal isa good and sensible choice, Dock nongedtacickinthe bow to serch App. Launch ad ee running sppeations (denoted by 3 de fom here Docs and nore Calendar and Notification area (ick hereto control muse ee ay sppoirkments f youve connected an Speroprite serie and seater stuf Activites king here ox pressing the Super ay onches the Actites vow petred). Helly shows previews onan pp Stats Mens SearchBox Sart typng inthe Actives view Chere 20 | Lime Format Presents: Ubunta hare. The button inthe bottom ef unches theallimporant Stings app Aplications mene Clk hereto opanose a view of Frequently used appeations You can se intl applcaions fom the selector atthe Battom ofthis mena. Network setings (nding VPN volume centrl and appeaionindatrs can be Founda. Gnomes Tet Er formerly ed enables you to inpt era The Fret ane we paced in testament othe level of matury around here We've covered the basics of the Gnome desktop in ‘our annotation (below left) and you'll finda treasure trove of further information on the next page. Ifyou realy want to have Unity back, then you can install it with sudo apt install unity, but we'd strongly advise against this. It has received some bugfixes in this release, but won't be receiving very much attention at all going forward, Odcities wil occur with increasing frequency, and applications wil start breaking, better to start embracing the future. Ityou've ever used Emacs, or tried to quit Vin then youl know the importance of keyboard shortcuts. You can happily prosecute your business in Gnome without knowing any of these, but learning these few will make your life easier: > Super (Windows key) ~ Bring up the activities view » Super-Left/Right - Tile current application left or right (soit fully occupies one half ofthe screen) » Super-Up/Down ~ Maximise/Restore current application > Super-PgUp/PgDown ~ Switch virtual desktops > Super-Shift-PgUp/Dn - Move current application to rnext/previous virtual desktop ‘There are many more, which you can study at hittps://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/_ shell-keyboard-shortcuts.html.en ‘Gnome has been criticised in the past for its lack of configurability, and this has traditionally been countered with the notion that users shouldn't need to configure something that's been well-designed. There's some truth in this sentiment, and it's worth trying to get used to Gnome, before resorting to extensions to"fix'it. ‘That said, there are some things missing’ from Gnome (including, but not limited to: minimise buttons, a system tray and ttlebars on Gnome applications). ‘Some of these can be remedied by installing Gnome's. Tweaks tool or extensions (see box. right). You'l find Tweaksin the Software application (It's called GNOME Tweaks there), and once it's installed i will enable you to play with many settings that were hitherto only accessible through gsettings keys. “There's good news if you're down with the youth, or indeed if you just lke to embelish your monochromatic letters, numbers and punctuation marks with colourful/ lexpressive/reverent glyphs, or creative combinations thereof. Ubuntu ships with the Noto Color Emoji font, the very same used in recent versions of Android, and recent enough versions of Fontconfig and Cairo to render them. They can be copied and pasted from the Get started Characters application, and will work in all Gnome applications (even the Terminall), but sadly not LitreOffice although that does have support for some uncoloured emojis using shortcuts such as -yin yang: Online accounts ‘One of Gnome’s many impressive tricks i its online ‘account integration. You may not want to browse your ‘Google drive files from Files. or see your Facebook and Flickr photos with Photos, or integrate with any proprietary service at all, But ifyou do, then you can, ‘There's also integration with open source services, ssuch as Nextcloud The Night Light feature has been in Gnome for a ‘while, Bt you right have missed it. Eyestrain s a big ‘deal nowadays: we spend too long looking at displays, be they monitors or phones or VR goggles. All too often. this staring goes on into the small hours, where blue light begins to cause detrimental effects, both physically ‘and psychologically. The best cure is, of course, to take regular screen breaks and go to bed early (yes Jonni Ec), but when that’s not possible having your display change i's colour temperature at sensitive times should make it easier on the eyes. Open the Settings panel, and 0 to Devices>Screen Display>Night Light to configure times and temperatures. >» INSTALLING EXTENSIONS ‘There are also a great selection of Gnome extensions that provide ‘new functionality. Only two small hurdles need to be overcome before you can avail yourself of them. Gnome extensions are installed via the https:/ /extensions.gnomeorg website. Before you can use this (as the website tells you) you'll need two things: a ‘native host messaging application’ and a browser extension. ‘The former is found in the chrome-gnome-shell package available from the software application and the latter can be found by following the ‘Click here to install browser extension’ link. Now a hole world of extensions awaits you. One of the mest popular, youll note is User Themes, which enables you to use themes from sites such as https://gnome-look.org, by extracting them to the ~/themes directory. Once that's done you can select them from Tweaks. Within the Extensions tab in Tweaks, you'll notice two already ‘there: Ubuntu appindicators and Ubuntu dock. These can't be deactivated, because they're a key part of the Ubuntu Gnome desktop. The Ubuntu dock is actually a fork of another popular extension, Dash to Dock, which you may want to check out. f you're feeling brave, you may also want to check out what a vanilla Gnome session is lke, Just do: $ sudo apt install gnome-session You can select the session when you log in. Look ma, no dock! oe opt Luna Format Presents: Ubuntu | 21~ oa Get started Flavours and spin-offs Don't worry if Gnome's not your jam. There are other desktop flavours to enjoy and other Ubuntu-based distros, too. irst came Ubuntu (2004) and then, one year Ch ieee cece sere the Ubuntu system under thet eso choice ther flavus eloned sore ofthese dont fovea etnse ths glean soe ae ornare auches Unt Gnome) Buta suman of ur vues Ubuntu Budgie Budgie is up-and-coming distro Solus OS's desktop, and its the newest action othe Ubuntu flavour fami. t strives to bea clean and... powerful desktop without tannecessary bloat” One ofits proudest features isthe >> THE WIDER UBUNTU ECOSYSTEM Besides the official flavours, Ubuntu provides the basis for a number ‘of popular derivative distributions, many of which willbe releasing Updates soon. The most popular is Linux Mint, and we look forward very much to Mint 19, which hopefully will be released in June. We ‘were nothing but impressed with Mint 18 (see LXF2I4) where we saw Mint start to move away from Gnome applications, launching its own