Ubuntu

Below are some recommended steps to customizing Ubuntu to function at maximum efficiency, generally, and at Virginia Tech.

Use Local Mirrors

Virginia Tech has several local mirrors of Linux and other Free and Open Source Software. Using Virginia Tech's mirrors has the main advantage of being fast.

You will need to alter your /etc/apt/sources.list file. First of all, make a backup of your original. Open a terminal emulator (Applications → Accessories → Terminal) and enter the command:

$ sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.original

Next, copy the commands below into a shell script. You can use a text editor like gedit; Applications → Accessories → Text Editor. Select the mirror you wish to remove by uncommenting (removing the beginning # character from) one of the two lines with MIRROR=. Save it in your home directory as vtmirror.sh:

#!/bin/sh
## Uncomment one of the two MIRROR lines below to choose your mirror
##
## VT Campus Computing mirror
#MIRROR="mirror.cc.vt.edu/pub/ubuntu"
## VBI Mirror (which also hosts PowerPC and SPARC repositories)
#MIRROR="mirrors.vbi.vt.edu/mirrors/linux/ubuntu"

sed "s,\(us\.\)\?archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu,$MIRROR," /etc/apt/sources.list.original |\
sed s,security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu,$MIRROR, > \
/etc/apt/sources.list.new
mv /etc/apt/sources.list.new /etc/apt/sources.list

IMPORTANT: make sure that you have uncommented one of the MIRROR= lines. Next, in your terminal window, change the permissions on this file to make it executable:

$ chmod u+x vtmirror.sh

Finally, run the script from the terminal with

$ sudo ./vtmirror.sh

Next, update your package information. You can do this in the terminal with

$ sudo apt-get update

You can also do this with the Update Manager in System → Administration → Update Manager. You will now be downloading all standard Ubuntu packages from your local VT mirror.

Setup VT-Wireless

Follow the instructions in the VT-Wireless article to get your wireless connection setup to automatically and securely connect to the campus wireless network. You'll either need to use OpenSSL from a terminal window to convert the certificate you obtain from CNS or switch from NetworkManager to Wicd, but the VT-Wireless article discusses the details of both options pretty thoroughly.

Setup Email

See the email article for instructions on setting up your preferred email client to download and send email (including for reliable off-campus sending), and how to add the LDAP faculty address book.

Customize Your Desktop

While not necessary, the desktop customization guide may improve your desktop experience.