Basic of Ubuntu Linux
Basic of Ubuntu Linux
Copyright © by e Ubuntu Manual Team. Some rights reserved.
c b a
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Contents
Prologue
Welcome
Ubuntu philosophy
A brief history of Ubuntu
Is Ubuntu right for you?
Contact details
Conventions used in this book
Installation
Geing Ubuntu
Minimum system requirements
Installing Ubuntu
e Ubuntu Desktop
Understanding the desktop
Managing windows
Switing between open windows
Using the Applications menu
Using the System menu
Browsing files on your computer
Nautilus file browser
Searing for files on your computer
Customizing your desktop
Accessibility
Managing your computer
Geing help
Working with Ubuntu
Geing online
Browsing the web
Reading and composing email
Staying organized
Using instant messaging
Microblogging
Viewing and editing photos
Wating videos and movies
Listening to audio and music
Working with documents, spreadsheets, and presentations
.
Taking notes
Ubuntu One
Seing up Ubuntu One
Ubuntu One Preferences
More information
Hardware
Using your devices
Hardware identification
Displays
Connecting and using your printer
Sound
Burning CDs and DVDs
Using a webcam
Scanning text and images
Other devices
Soware Management
Soware management in Ubuntu
Using the Ubuntu Soware Center
Managing additional soware
Synaptic Paage Manager
Updates and Upgrades
e Command Line
Introduction to the terminal
Ubuntu file system structure
Geing started with the command line
Introducing sudo
Managing soware through the terminal
Security
Why Ubuntu is safe
Basic Security concepts and procedures
System updates
Users and groups
Seing up a secure system
Troubleshooting
Resolving problems
Troubleshooting guide
Geing more help
Learning More
What else can I do with Ubuntu?
Open Source soware
Distribution families
-bit or -bit?
Finding additional help and support
A License
Creative Commons Notice
Glossary
Credits
Team Leads
Authors
Editors
Designers
Developers
Translators
Special anks
Index
Prologue
Welcome
Welcome to Geing Started with Ubuntu, an introductory guide wrien to
help new users get started with Ubuntu.
Our goal is to cover the basics of Ubuntu (su as installation and working
with the desktop) as well as guide you through some of the most popular
applications. We designed this guide to be simple to follow with step-by-step
instructions and plenty of screenshots, allowing you to discover the potential
of your new Ubuntu system even if you are a novice computer user or are
migrating from another operating system for the first time.
Please bear in mind that this guide is still very mu a work in progress
and always will be. It is wrien specifically for Ubuntu . , and al-
though we have aimed to not limit our instructions to this version it is un-
avoidable that some things will ange over the life of Ubuntu. Whenever a
new version of Ubuntu is released, we will incorporate any anges into our
guide, and make a new version available at http://www.ubuntu-manual.org.
Geing Started with Ubuntu . is not intended to be a comprehensive
Ubuntu instruction manual. It is more like a qui-start guide that will get
you doing the things you need to do with your computer quily and easily,
without geing bogged down in tenical details.
If you are aer more detail, there are excellent resources available at http://
help.ubuntu.com. Ubuntu’s built-in system documentation is also very useful
for accessing help on specific topics, and can be found by cliing System ‣
Help and Support in Ubuntu. If something isn’t covered here, ances are More information about Ubuntu’s online
you will find the information you are looking for in one of those locations. and system documentation can be found in
Chapter : Learning More.
We will try our best to include links to more detailed help wherever we can.
Ubuntu philosophy
e term “Ubuntu” is a traditional African concept that originated from the
Bantu languages of southern Africa. It can be described as a way of connect-
ing with others—living in a global community where your actions affect all of
humanity. Ubuntu is more than just an operating system: it is a community
of people that come together voluntarily to collaborate on an international
soware project that aims to deliver the best possible user experience.
The Ubuntu promise
‣ Ubuntu will always be free of arge, along with its regular enterprise
releases and security updates.
.
‣ Ubuntu comes with full commercial support from Canonical and hundreds
of companies from across the world.
‣ Ubuntu provides the best translations and accessibility features that the
free soware community has to offer.
‣ Ubuntu core applications are all free and open source. We want you to use
free and open source soware, improve it, and pass it on.
A brief history of Ubuntu
Ubuntu was conceived in by Mark Shuleworth, a successful South
African entrepreneur, and his company Canonical. Shuleworth recognized Canonical is the company that provides
financial and technical support for Ubuntu.
the power of Linux and Open Source, but was also aware of weaknesses that
They have employees based around the
prevented mainstream use. world who work on developing and im-
Shuleworth set out with clear intentions to address these weaknesses proving the operating system, as well as
reviewing work submied by volunteer con-
and create a system that was easy to use, completely free (see Chapter : tributors. To learn more about Canonical, go
Learning More for the complete definition of “free”), and could compete with to http://www.canonical.com.
other mainstream operating systems. With the Debian system as a base,
Shuleworth began to build Ubuntu. Using his own funds at first, installation
s were pressed and shipped worldwide at no cost to the end user. Ubuntu
spread quily, the size of the community rapidly increased, and it soon
became the most popular Debian-based Linux distribution available.
Now with more people working on the project than ever before, Ubuntu
continues to see improvement to its core features and hardware support, and
has gained the aention of large organizations worldwide. For example, in
Dell began a collaboration with Canonical to sell computers with Ubuntu
pre-installed. Additionally, in the Fren Police began to transition
their entire computer infrastructure to a variant of Ubuntu—a process whi
has reportedly saved them “millions of Euro” in licensing fees for Microso
Windows. By the year , the Fren Police anticipates that all of their
computers will be running Ubuntu. Canonical profits from this arrangement
by providing tenical support and custom-built soware.
While large organizations oen find it useful to pay for support services, For information on Ubuntu Server Edition,
Shuleworth has promised that the Ubuntu desktop system will always be and how you can use it in your company,
visit http://www.ubuntu.com/products/
free. As of , Ubuntu desktop is installed on nearly % of the world’s whatisubuntu/serveredition/features.
computers. is equates to millions of users worldwide, and is growing ea
year.
What is Linux?
Ubuntu is built on the foundation of Linux, whi is a member of the Unix
family. Unix is one of the oldest types of operating systems and has provided
reliability and security in professional applications for almost half a century.
Many servers around the world that store data for popular websites (su as
YouTube and Google) run some variant of a Unix system.
Linux was designed from the ground up with security and hardware com- Whilst modern graphical desktop envi-
patibility in mind, and is currently one of the most popular Unix-based op- ronments have generally replaced early
command line–based operating systems,
erating system. One of the benefits of Linux is that it is incredibly flexible the command line can still be a quick and
and can be configured to run on almost any device—from the smallest micro- efficient way of performing many tasks. See
Chapter : The Command Line for more
computers and cellphones to larger super-computers. Initially, Unix was information, and Chapter : The Ubuntu
entirely command line-based until graphical user interfaces (s) began to Desktop to learn more about and
other desktop environments.
emerge in the early s.
ese early s were difficult to configure and clunky at best, and gen- A desktop environment is a sophisticated
erally only used by seasoned computer programmers. In the past decade, and integrated user interface that provides
the basis for humans to interact with a
however, graphical user interfaces have come a long way in terms of usability, computer using a monitor, keyboard and a
reliability and appearance. Ubuntu is just one of many different Linux dis- mouse.
tributions, and uses one of the more popular graphical desktop environments To learn more about Linux distributions, see
called . Chapter : Learning More.
Is Ubuntu right for you?
New users to Ubuntu may find that it takes some time to feel comfortable
with the operating system. You will no doubt notice many similarities to both
Microso Windows and Mac , as well as some things that work very
differently. Users coming from Mac are more likely to notice similarities
due to the fact that both Mac and Ubuntu originated from Unix.
Before you decide whether or not Ubuntu is right for you, we suggest A popular forum for Ubuntu discussion
giving yourself some time to grow accustomed to the way things are done and support is the Ubuntu Forums, http://
ubuntuforums.org.
—and expect to find that some things are different to what you are used to.
We also suggest taking the following into account:
‣ Ubuntu is community based. at is, Ubuntu is made, developed, and
maintained by the community. Because of this, support is probably not
available at your local computer store. ankfully, the Ubuntu community
is here to help. ere are many articles, guides, and manuals available,
as well as users on various Internet forums and Internet relay at ()
rooms that are willing to help out beginners. Additionally, near the end of
this guide we include a troubleshooting apter: Chapter : Troubleshoot-
ing.
‣ Many applications designed for Microso Windows or Mac will
not run on Ubuntu. For the vast majority of tasks that people use their See Chapter : Soware Management to
learn more about Ubuntu Soware Center.
computers for every day, there are suitable alternative applications avail-
To learn more about dual-booting (running
able in Ubuntu. However, many professional applications (su as the Ubuntu side-by-side with another operating
Adobe Creative Suite) are not developed to work with Ubuntu. If you rely system), see Chapter : Installation. For
more information on Wine, go to http://
on commercial soware that is not compatible with Ubuntu, yet still want www.winehq.org/.
to give Ubuntu a try, you may want to consider dual-booting. Alterna-
tively, some applications developed for Windows will work in Ubuntu with
a program called Wine.
‣ Many commercial games will not run on Ubuntu. If you are a heavy
gamer, then Ubuntu may not be for you. Game developers usually design
.
games for the largest market, where they can make the most profit. Since
Ubuntu’s market share is not as substantial as Microso’s Windows or
Apple’s Mac , most game developers will not allocate resources to-
wards making their games compatible with Ubuntu. If you just like to play
a game every now and then, there is active game development within the
community, and many high quality games can be easily installed through
Ubuntu Soware Center. Additionally, some games developed for Win-
dows will also work in Ubuntu with Wine.
Contact details
Many people have contributed their time freely to this project. If you notice
any errors or think we have le something out, feel free to contact us. We do
everything we can to make sure that this manual is up to date, informative,
and professional. Our contact details are as follows:
e Ubuntu Manual Team
Website: http://www.ubuntu-manual.org/
Email: ubuntu-manual@lists.launchpad.net
: #ubuntu-manual on irc.freenode.net
Conventions used in this book
e following typographic conventions are used in this book:
‣ Application names, buon names, menu items, and other elements are
set in boldfaced type.
‣ Menu sequences are sometimes set as System ‣ Preferences ‣ Appearance,
whi means, “Choose the System menu, then oose the Preferences
submenu, and then select the Appearance menu item.”
‣ Monospaced type is used for text that you type into the computer, text that
the computer outputs (as in a terminal), and keyboard shortcuts.
Installation
Geing Ubuntu
Before you can get started with Ubuntu, you will need to obtain a copy of the Many companies (such as Dell and Sys-
Ubuntu installation . Some options for doing this are outlined below. tem) sell computers with Ubuntu pre-
installed. If you already have Ubuntu
installed on your computer, feel free to skip
Downloading Ubuntu to Chapter : The Ubuntu Desktop.
e easiest and most common method for geing Ubuntu is to download the
Ubuntu image directly from http://www.ubuntu.com. Head to the website
and cli the “Download Ubuntu” link at the top. Select the nearest download
location to you in the drop-down box (to ensure maximum download speed),
then cli “Begin Download.”
-bit vs -bit
You may notice the words “Ubuntu Desktop . (-bit)” underneath the -bit and -bit are types of processor
architectures. -bit is newer, and most
default download buon on the website. If you are unsure what -bit means,
recent computers will come with a -bit
don’t worry. -bit will work on most computers, so if in doubt, simply pro- capable processor. See Chapter : Learning
ceed with the download. However, if you know that your computer is capable More for more information.
of using -bit soware, you may wish to try the -bit version instead. To do
this cli on “Alternative download options” and make your selection.
Downloading Ubuntu as a torrent
When a new version of Ubuntu is released, sometimes the servers can get
clogged up with large numbers of people downloading or upgrading at the
same time. If you are familiar with using torrents, you may wish to download
the torrent file by cliing “Alternative download options,” and obtain your
copy of the image this way instead. You may see significant improvements
to your download speed, and will also be helping to spread Ubuntu to other
users worldwide. Again, if you are unsure how to use torrents, you can use
the default download options on the website. Torrents are a way of sharing files and
information around the Internet via peer-
to-Peer file sharing. When a new version of
Burning the image Ubuntu is released, the Ubuntu servers can
become very busy. If you know how to use
Once your download is complete you will be le with a file called ubuntu- torrents, we recommend that you download
.-desktop-i.iso or similar (i here in the filename refers to the - the image this way to take the load off
the servers during periods of high demand.
bit version. is will be replaced with amd if you downloaded the -bit
version instead). is file is a image—a bit like a “snapshot” of the contents
of a —whi you will need to burn to a disc. To find out how to burn a
image on your computer, refer to your operating system or manufacturer
.
help. You can also find detailed instructions at https://help.ubuntu.com/
community/BurningIsoHowto
Ordering a free
Alternatively, a free can be ordered from Canonical. is option may be You will be required to create a free online
account with Launchpad before you can
preferred if you don’t have access to a burner, have limited bandwidth, or
place your order. Once you have Ubuntu
a slow Internet connection. ere are no shipping costs or other arges when installed and running, you will need this
you order an Ubuntu . Simply visit http://shipit.ubuntu.com to request your account again for use with all Ubuntu
One services. See Chapter : Working with
free Ubuntu Desktop Edition . Ubuntu for more information on Ubuntu
e usually takes two to six weeks to arrive, depending on your loca- One.
tion and the current demand. If you would rather start using Ubuntu sooner,
you may prefer to follow the instructions above for downloading the im-
age, and then burn it to a disc instead.
It is possible to purchase Ubuntu on from
some computer stores or online shops. Have
a look around your local area or on the
The Live Internet to see if someone is selling it near
you. Even though Ubuntu is free soware,
e Ubuntu functions not only as an installation for puing Ubuntu it’s not illegal for people to sell it.
onto your computer, but also as a Live . A Live allows you to test
Ubuntu without making any permanent anges to your computer by run-
ning the entire operating system straight from the .
e speed at whi your computer can read information from a is mu
slower than reading information from a hard drive. Running Ubuntu from
the Live also occupies a large portion of your computer’s memory, whi
would usually be available for programs to access when Ubuntu is running
from your hard drive. e Live experience will therefore feel slightly
slower than it does when Ubuntu is actually installed on your computer.
However, running Ubuntu from the is a great way to test things out and
allows you to try the default applications, browse the Internet, and get a
general feel for the operating system. It’s also useful for eing that your
computer hardware works properly in Ubuntu and that there are no major
compatibility issues.
To try out Ubuntu using the Live , insert the Ubuntu into your In some cases, your computer will run as
normal and appear not to recognize the
drive and restart your computer. Most computers are able to detect when a
Ubuntu is present as it starts up. This is
“bootable” is present in your drive at startup—that is, a that will tem- okay, generally it means that the priority
porarily take precedence over your usual operating system. As your computer given to devices when your computer is
starting needs to be changed. For example,
starts, it will run whatever information is stored on this bootable , rather your computer might be set to look for
than the information stored on your hard drive whi your computer usually information from your hard drive first, and
then to look for information on a second.
looks for.
In order to run Ubuntu from the Live , we
Once your computer finds the Live and aer a qui loading screen, want it to look for information from a
you will presented with the “Welcome” screen. Using your mouse, select your first. Changing your boot priority is beyond
the scope of this guide. If you need assis-
language from the list on the le, then cli the buon labeled Try Ubuntu tance to change the boot priority, see your
.. Ubuntu will then start up, running straight from the Live . computer manufacturer’s documentation for
Once Ubuntu is up and running, you will see the default desktop. We more information.
Figure .: The welcome screen allows you
to choose your language.
will talk more about how to actually use Ubuntu in Chapter : e Ubuntu
Desktop, but for now feel free to test things out, open some programs, ange
seings and generally explore—any anges you make will not be saved once
you exit, so you don’t need to worry about accidentally breaking anything.
When you are finished exploring, restart your computer by cliing the
“Power” buon in the top right corner of your screen (circle with a line
through the top) and then select Restart. Follow the prompts that appear on
screen, including removing the Live and pressing Enter when instructed,
and then your computer will restart. As long as the Live is no longer in the
drive, your computer will return to its original state as though nothing ever
happened!
Minimum system requirements
Ubuntu runs well on most computer systems. If you are unsure whether it The majority of computers in use today will
will work on your computer, the Live is a great way to test things out first. meet the requirements listed here, however,
refer to your computer’s documentation or
speak to the manufacturer if you would like
more information.
.
For the more tenically minded, below is a list of hardware specifications
that your computer should ideally meet as a minimum requirement.
‣ MHz x processor
‣ of system memory ()
‣ of disk space
‣ Graphics card capable of × resolution
‣ Sound card
‣ A network or Internet connection
Installing Ubuntu
e process of installing Ubuntu is designed to be qui and easy, however,
we realize that some people may find the idea a lile daunting. To help you
get started we have included step-by-step instructions below, along with
screenshots so you can see how things will look along the way.
If you have already tested out the Ubuntu Live , you should now be Alternatively, you can also use your mouse
to double-click the “Install Ubuntu .”
familiar with the initial “Welcome” screen that appears (refer to e Live
icon that is visible on the desktop when
section above for more information). Again, select your language on the using the Live . This will start the Ubuntu
le-hand side, then cli the buon labeled Install Ubuntu .. installer.
At least of free space on your hard drive is required in order to install
Ubuntu, however, or more of free space is recommended. at way you
will have plenty of room to install extra programs later on, as well as store
your own documents, music and photos. There are two other options presented on
the “Welcome” screen: release notes and
update this installer. Clicking on the blue
Geing started underlined release notes will open a web
page containing any important information
To get started, place the Ubuntu in your drive and restart your com- regarding the current version of Ubuntu.
puter. Clicking update this installer will search
the Internet for any updates to the Ubuntu
e next screen will display a world map. Using your mouse, cli your Live that may have been released since
location on the map to tell Ubuntu where you are. Alternatively, you can use your was created.
the drop-down lists underneath. is allows Ubuntu to set up your system
clo and other location-based features. Cli Forward when you are ready to
move on.
Next, you need to tell Ubuntu what keyboard you are using. Usually, you
will find the suggested option is satisfactory. If you are unsure, you can cli
the Guess buon to have Ubuntu work out the correct oice by asking you
to press a series of keys. You can also oose your own keyboard layout from
the list. If you like, type something into the box at the boom to make sure
you are happy with your selection, then cli Forward to continue.
Prepare disk space
is next step is oen referred to as partitioning. Partitioning is the process of
allocating portions of your hard drive for a specific purpose. When you create
Figure .: Tell Ubuntu your location.
a partition, you are essentially dividing up your hard drive into sections that
will be used for different types of information. Partitioning can sometimes
seem complex to a new user, however, it does not have to be. In fact, Ubuntu
provides you with some options that greatly simplify this process.
Erase and use the entire disk
Use this option if you want to erase your entire disk. is will delete any Many people installing Ubuntu for the first
time are currently using either Windows ,
existing operating systems that are installed on that disk, su as Windows ,
Windows Vista, Windows , or Mac on
and install Ubuntu in its place. is option is also useful if you have an empty their computer. Ubuntu provides you with
hard drive, as Ubuntu will automatically create the necessary partitions for the option of either replacing your existing
operating system altogether, or installing
you. Ubuntu alongside your existing system.
The laer is called dual-booting. Whenever
you turn on or restart your computer, you
Guided partitioning
will be given the option to select which
operating system you want to use for that
If you already have another operating system installed on your hard drive,
session.
and want to install Ubuntu alongside it, oose the Install them side by side,
oosing between them ea startup option.
.
Figure .: Check your keyboard layout is
correct.
Ubuntu will automatically detect the other operating system and install
Ubuntu alongside it. For more complicated dual-booting setups, you will need
to configure the partitions manually.
Specifying partitions manually
is option is for more advanced users and is used to create special partitions, Ubuntu installs a home folder where your
personal files and configuration data are
or format the hard drive with a filesystem different to the default one. It can
located by default. If you choose to have
also be used to create a separate /home partition. is can be very useful in your home folder on a separate partition,
case you decide to reinstall Ubuntu, as it allows you to format and reinstall then in the event that you decide to reinstall
Ubuntu or perform a fresh upgrade to
the operating system, whilst keeping all your personal files and program the latest release, your personal files and
seings intact in a separate partition. configuration data won’t be lost.
Because this is quite an advanced task, we have omied the details from
this edition of Geing Started with Ubuntu. You can see more information
and detailed instructions on partitioning here: https://help.ubuntu.com/
community/HowtoPartition.
Once you are happy with the way the partitions are going to be set up,
cli the Forward buon at the boom to move on.
Figure .: Choose where you would like to
install Ubuntu.
Enter your details
Ubuntu needs to know some information about you so it can set up the pri-
mary login account on your computer. Your name will appear on the login
screen as well as the MeMenu, whi will be discussed further in Chapter :
e Ubuntu Desktop.
On this screen you will need to tell Ubuntu:
‣ your real name,
‣ your desired username,
‣ your desired password,
‣ what you want to call your computer,
‣ how you want Ubuntu to log you in.
Type in your full name under “What is your name?”. e next text field
is where you select a username for yourself, and is the name that will be
displayed at the Ubuntu login screen when you turn on your computer. You
will see this is automatically filled in for you with your first name. Most
.
Figure .: Setup your user account.
people find it easiest to sti with this, however, it can be anged if you
prefer.
Next, oose a password and enter it into the first password field on the Although you can choose your preferred
username and computer name, you are
le, then type the same again into the right field to verify. When both pass-
required to stick with leers, numbers,
words mat, a strength rating will appear on the right that will tell you hyphens, and dots. You will receive a
whether your password is “too short,” “weak,” “fair,” or “strong.” You will be warning if symbols or other characters are
entered, and until this is altered you will be
able to continue the installation process regardless of your password strength, unable to progress to the next screen.
however, for security reasons it is best to oose a strong one. is is best
aieved by having a password that is at least six aracters long, and is a
mixture of leers, numbers, symbols, and uppercase/lowercase. For extra
security, avoid obvious passwords like your birth date, spouse’s name, or the
name of your pet.
Now you need to decide on your computer’s name. Again, this will be
filled in for you automatically using the login name you entered above (it
will say something like “john-desktop” or “john-laptop.”), however, it can be
anged if you prefer. Your computer name will mainly be used for identify-
ing your computer if you are on a home or office network with multiple other
computers. To learn more about seing up a network, refer to Chapter :
Working with Ubuntu.
Finally, at the boom of this screen you have three options to oose from
regarding how you want to log in to Ubuntu.
Log in automatically
Ubuntu will log in to your primary account automatically when you start
up the computer so you won’t have to enter your username and password.
is makes your login experience quier and more convenient, however, if
privacy or security are important to you, this option is not recommended.
Anyone who can physically access your computer will be able to turn it on
and also access your files.
Require my password to login
is option is selected by default, as it will prevent unauthorized people from
accessing your computer without knowing the password you created earlier.
is is a good option for those that, for example, share their computer with
other family members. Once the installation process has been completed, an
additional login account can be created for ea family member. Ea person
will then have their own login name and password, account preferences,
Internet bookmarks, and personal storage space.
Require my password to login and decrypt my home folder
is option provides you with an extra layer of security. Your home folder
is where your personal files are stored. By selecting this option, Ubuntu will
automatically enable encryption on your home folder, meaning that files and
folders must be decrypted using your password before they can be accessed.
erefore if someone had physical access to your hard drive (for example, if
your computer was stolen and the hard drive removed), they would still not
be able to see your files without knowing your password.
If you oose this option, be careful not to enable automatic login at a later date.
It will cause complications with your encrypted home folder, and will potentially
lo you out of important files.
Confirm your seings and begin installation
e last screen summarizes your install seings, including any anges that
will be made to the partitions on your hard drive. Note the warning about
data being destroyed on any removed or formaed partitions—if you have
important information on your hard drive that is not baed up, now would
be a good time to e that you have set up your partitions correctly. Once You should not need to click the Advanced
buon unless you wish to change your
bootloader seings or network proxy. These
are more advanced tasks and beyond the
scope of this guide.
.
Figure .: Check that everything is set up
right before Ubuntu is installed.
you have made sure that all the seings are correct, cli on Install to begin
the installation process.
Ubuntu will now install. As the installation progresses, a slideshow will
give you an introduction to some of the default applications included with
Ubuntu. ese applications are covered in more detail in Chapter : Working
with Ubuntu.
Aer approximately twenty minutes, the installation will complete and
you will be able to cli Restart Now to restart your computer and start
Ubuntu. e will be ejected, so remove it from your drive and press
Enter to continue.
Wait while your computer restarts, and you will then see the login window
(unless you selected automatic login).
Cli your username and enter your password, then press Enter or cli
Log in. You will then be logged in to Ubuntu and will be presented with your
new desktop!
Figure .: The first slide in the installation
slideshow.
Figure .: You are now ready to restart
your computer.
.
Figure .: The Ubuntu login window.
The Ubuntu Desktop
Understanding the desktop
At first glance, you will notice many similarities between Ubuntu and other Ubuntu . has an emphasis on “social
operating systems su as Windows or Mac . is is because they are from the start” and features social network
integration in the desktop for sites like
all based on the concept of a graphical user interface ()—that is, you use Twier and Facebook.
your mouse to navigate the desktop, open programs, move files, and perform
most other tasks. In short, things are very visually oriented, whi means it is
important for you to become familiar with where and what to cli in Ubuntu.
GNOME
All -based operating systems use a desktop environment. Desktop envi-
ronments encompass many things, su as the look and feel of your system,
as well as how the desktop is organized, laid out, and navigated by the user.
In Linux distributions (su as Ubuntu), there are a number of desktop envi-
ronments available for use. One of the most popular desktop environments
is called , whi is used by default in Ubuntu. , , and To read more about other variants of
Ubuntu, refer to Chapter : Learning More.
are other popular desktop environments (used in Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and
Lubuntu, respectively), and there are many more. As Ubuntu is based on
, we will limit our discussion in this guide to exploring your
desktop.
When you first log in to Ubuntu aer installing it to your hard drive, you
will see the desktop. Ubuntu is highly customizable, as is the
desktop, but for now let’s just explore the default layout that is in front of
you.
First, you will notice there are two panels—one at the top of your desktop
and one at the boom. A panel is a bar that sits on the edge of your screen
and contains various applets. ese applets provide useful functions su as Everything on a panel is an applet, even the
running programs, viewing the time, or accessing the main menu. main menu.
The top panel
Starting from the le, you will see three menu headings—Applications,
Places, and System—followed by two program icons. e first of these icons
will open the Firefox web browser (see Chapter : Working with Ubuntu for
more information), and the next will open the Ubuntu Help Center. The Ubuntu Help Center is a highly useful
resource. It provides a wealth of infor-
On the right side of this panel you will find the notification area, whi
mation about your Ubuntu system, and is
is similar in function to the “system tray” in Windows, or the “menu extras” always at your fingertips by simply clicking
area on the Mac menubar. Next to this is the MeMenu, whi will dis- this panel icon (or navigating to System ‣
Help and Support).
play your username (the name you entered during installation) and is used
.
Figure .: The Ubuntu . default desk-
top.
to update social network sites like Twier and Facebook as well as set your
Instant Messaging status in Empathy. Finally, on the far right of the panel is New notifications of emails and instant
messages appear in the messaging menu
the session menu, whi provides menu options for loing your computer,
applet. When you have a new message, the
logging out, restarting, or shuing down completely. envelope icon will turn green.
The notification area
Inside the notification area you will find the network indicator, volume ad-
justment, Bluetooth indicator (if your computer has Bluetooth capability),
messaging, and the date and time applets. Some programs will also place an
icon in the notification area when you open them.
Le-cliing icons in the notification area will bring up a list of options, To remove an applet, right click on it and
and in some cases right-cliing an icon will also perform an action related to select Remove From Panel. To add a new
applet to a panel, right click in a clear area
that program. For example, to adjust the volume, simply le-cli once on the on the panel and select Add to Panel.
volume icon and a volume slider will appear. Cli the date and time applet to
open a small calendar, and then cli a specific date to add a reminder to your
calendar through Evolution (see Chapter : Working with Ubuntu for more
information on Evolution).
When the calender is expanded there is a buon labeled Locations, whi
will open a small world map when clied. Here you can further set up your
location preferences by cliing Edit. In the window that appears, cli Add,
then enter your location in the text field. If you live in a major city it may be
on the list already; if not, you can enter your latitude and longitude manually
(try searing online if you don’t have this information). Make sure your time
zone is selected, then cli OK to return to the preferences screen.
Feel free to explore the other options available under the General and
Weather tabs if you like, then cli Close at the boom when you are done.
If weather information is available for your city, you will now see the current
temperature displayed alongside the date and time in the notification area.
The boom panel
Ubuntu uses most of the boom panel to display a list of all programs or win-
dows that are currently open. ese appear as horizontal buons whi can
be clied to minimize or restore the corresponding windows (see Managing
windows below for more information).
On the far le of the boom panel is a small icon that resembles a desktop.
is Show Desktop buon will minimize all open windows at once, giving
you clear access to your desktop. is is particularly useful when you have
many windows open at once and your desktop becomes cluered. Cliing
the buon again will restore the windows to their original position.
On the right side of the panel you will see some small boxes in a row; The desktop environment used in
Ubuntu can provide two or more “virtual
this is the Workspace Switer. By default, Ubuntu . is set up with two
desktops,” or workspaces. Using these
workspaces. workspaces can reduce cluer by opening
Finally, the icon farthest to the right is the trash, whi performs a similar windows on separate desktops, without
needing a separate monitor. For example, in
function to the Recycle Bin in Windows or the Trash in Mac . Any files order to organize your activities you may
you delete are first sent to the trash. To see the contents of the trash, cli have your email open in one workspace
and a text document you are working on in
on this icon. You can empty it by cliing on the Empty Trash buon in
another. To switch workspaces, simply click
the window that appears, or alternatively by right-cliing the trash icon on the boxes in the workspace switcher or
in the boom panel and selecting Empty Trash from the menu. is will use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Left
arrow or Ctrl+Alt+Right arrow to switch
permanently delete any files or folders that it contains. workspaces quickly.
The desktop background
In between the top and boom panels is an image that covers the entire desk-
top. is is the desktop baground (oen referred to as your “wallpaper”),
and the one you see in front of you belongs to the default Ubuntu . theme
known as Ambiance. To learn more about customizing your desktop includ-
ing anging your baground, see the section on Customizing your desktop
below.
.
Managing windows
When you open a program in Ubuntu (su as a web browser or a text ed-
itor—see Chapter : Working with Ubuntu for more information on using
programs), a window will appear on your desktop. If you have used another
operating system before, su as Microso Windows or Mac , you are
probably familiar with the concept of a “window”—the box that appears on
your screen when you start a program. In Ubuntu, the top part of a window
(the titlebar) will have the title of the window in the center, and three buons
in the top le corner. From le to right, these buons close, minimize, and
maximize the window. Additionally, you can right-cli anywhere on the
titlebar for a list of other window management options.
Closing, maximizing, restoring, and minimizing windows
Figure .: The close, minimize, and max-
To close a window, cli on the “×” in the upper le corner of the window imize buons are on the top-le corner of
windows.
—this will be the first buon. Immediately to the right of this is a downward-
pointing arrow that is used to minimize the window to the boom panel of
your desktop. Once minimized the window will no longer be visible, however,
its corresponding buon in the boom panel will remain, indicating the
program is still running in the baground. Cliing this buon will restore
the window to its original position. Finally, the buon to the far right of the
titlebar will maximize the window, making it fill the entire screen. Cliing
this buon again will return the window to its original size.
Moving and resizing windows
To move a window around the workspace, place the mouse pointer over the
window’s titlebar, then cli and drag the window while continuing to hold
down the le mouse buon. To resize a window, place the pointer on an edge
or corner of the window so that it turns into a larger arrow, the resize icon.
You can then cli and drag to resize the window.
Switching between open windows
ere are at least two ways in Ubuntu to swit between open windows in a
workspace. You can find the window on the boom panel taskbar and cli
to bring it up on the screen, or you can use Alt+Tab to select the window you
wish to work on. Hold down the Alt key, and keep pressing the Tab buon
until the window you’re looking for appears on the desktop.
Using the Applications menu
ere are three menu headers in the top panel. Let’s take a look at these in You may find that there are programs in
the Applications menu that you don’t
more detail, starting with the Applications menu.
use frequently, or just don’t want to be
displayed on the menu. To hide those
Accessories applications (without deleting the actual
programs), click on System ‣ Preferences ‣
e Accessories sub-menu has many programs that are suited for productiv- Main Menu. Find the programs in the right
panel that you want to hide from the menu,
ity, including Calculator and Tomboy Notes. and deselect them in the “Show” column.
Other programs in Accessories include the / Creator, gedit Text See Chapter : Working with Ubuntu
Editor (similar to Windows’ Notepad and Mac ’s TextEdit), Sear for for more information about the included
applications.
Files (we’ll discuss that later), and Take Screenshot, whi allows you to take a
picture of your desktop screen.
Games
Ubuntu has several games built in for your entertainment. If you enjoy card
games, e out AisleRiot Solitaire. Perhaps you’re looking for more of a
allenge: in that case, there’s gBrainy and Sudoku. e Games menu also
includes Mahjongg, Mines (similar to Windows’ Minesweeper game) and
adrapassel (similar to Tetris).
Graphics
Under the Graphics sub-menu, you’ll find the F-Spot photo manager where
you can view, edit and share pictures you’ve downloaded from your camera.
OpenOffice.org Drawing allows you to create images using the OpenOffice.org
suite, and Simple Scan is a program for scanning images and documents from
your scanner.
Internet
e Internet sub-menu is where you will find the Firefox web browser, the Instant messaging () is a means of text-
based communication where you can hold
Empathy Instant Messenger client to allow you to talk to your friends and
a conversation with someone over the
family, and Ubuntu One, a program that allows you to sync and baup your Internet, instantly.
files across many different computers.
Office
e Office sub-menu is where you will find most of the OpenOffice.org suite To learn more about OpenOffice.org and to
get help with using the OpenOffice.org suite
to help you create formal documents, presentation, or spreadsheets. Also
of applications, visit http://openoffice.org.
under Office is the Evolution email client and an online dictionary. e full
OpenOffice.org suite installed in Ubuntu by default consists of:
‣ OpenOffice.org Word Processor
‣ OpenOffice.org Spreadsheet
‣ OpenOffice.org Presentation
.
‣ OpenOffice.org Drawing (located under the Graphics sub-menu)
Sound and video
e Sound and Video sub-menu has programs for working with multimedia,
su as:
‣ Brasero disc burner
‣ Totem movie player
‣ Pitivi video editor
‣ Rhythmbox music player
‣ Sound Recorder
More information on all of these programs can be found in Chapter :
Working with Ubuntu.
Ubuntu Soware Center
At the very boom of the Applications menu is the Ubuntu Soware Cen- Learn more about the Ubuntu Soware
Center in Chapter : Soware Management.
ter. is application gives you access to a library of soware that you can
download. e main screen in the Ubuntu Soware Center is similar to your
Applications menu, for easy searing. If you know the name of the program
you’re looking for, just enter it in the sear text field on the top right of the
Ubuntu Soware Center window. e Ubuntu Soware Center keeps tra of
programs that are installed on your computer. If you’re simply curious as to
what is available, you can explore the soware available using the categories
listed on the le side of the window.
Using the System menu
e System menu, located on the top panel, contains two important sub- See Chapter : Hardware for more informa-
menus. ese sub-menus, Preferences and Administration, allow you to tion on seing up Ubuntu.
make modifications to Ubuntu’s appearance, as well as the way it functions.
rough the System menu, you can also open the Ubuntu Help Center (Help
and Support), find out more about your desktop environment (About
GNOME), and find out more about Ubuntu in general (About Ubuntu).
Preferences
You can use the Preferences sub-menu to modify the appearance of the
desktop and windows, assign a default printer, designate keyboard shortcuts,
ange the entries listed in the Applications menu, edit network connections,
and ange mouse seings, among other options.
Administration
e Administration sub-menu contains programs you can use to monitor Most of the options in the Administration
menu will prompt you to enter your user
password when you click on them. This
is a security feature to make sure that
only authorized people are allowed to
change system seings. To learn more about
security in Ubuntu, see Chapter : Security.
computer performance, ange disk partitions, activate third-party drivers,
manage all installed printers, and manage how your computer receives up-
dates from Ubuntu. is sub-menu also has the Synaptic Paage Manager,
whi is a more tenical resource for locating and downloading soware
paages.
Browsing files on your computer
ere are two ways to locate files on your computer. You can use the Sear
for Files tool in the Applications menu, under Accessories. You can also use
the Places menu on the top panel. See the section below about the Nautilus
file browser for more details.
Places
e Places menu holds a list of commonly used folders (su as Documents,
Music, Downloads, and the Home Folder). You can also browse the disks
on your computer by cliing Computer in this menu. If you set up a home
network, you will find a menu item to access shared files/folders. You can also
access the Sear for Files tool from the Places menu, as well as browse a list
of recently opened documents.
Your home folder
e home folder is where ea user’s personal files are located. When you
installed Ubuntu, you entered a name to set up your user account. at same
name is assigned to your home folder. When you open your personal folder,
you will see that there are several folders inside: Desktop (whi contains any
files that are visible on the desktop), Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures,
Public, Templates, and Videos.
You will also see a link named Examples. Double-cli on that link to open You should open the example content to see
how different types of files are displayed in
a folder containing example documents, spreadsheets, and multimedia files.
Ubuntu.
Nautilus file browser
Just as Windows has Windows Explorer and Mac has Finder to browse
files and folders, Ubuntu uses the Nautilus file browser by default. We will
now look at the features offered in Nautilus.
The Nautilus file browser window
When you open a folder on the desktop or from the Places menu, the Nautilus
file browser window opens up. e standard browser window contains the
following features:
.
‣ Menubar: e menubar is located at the top of the window. ese menus
allow you to modify the layout of the browser, navigate, bookmark
commonly used folders and files, and view hidden folders and files. If you bookmark a folder, it will appear in
the Places menu.
‣ Toolbar: e toolbar has tools for navigation and a tool to make the con-
tents of the window larger or smaller. A drop-down list gives you the
option of switing the view from Icon View to List View or Compact
View. e sear icon (whi looks like a magnifying glass) open a field so
you can sear for a file by name.
‣ Additional Navigation Tools: Just below the toolbar, you will see a rep- If you start typing a location, Nautilus will
resentation of where you are currently browsing. is is similar to the change the navigation buons into a text
field labeled Location.
history function of most browsers; it keeps tra of where you are and
allows you to batra if necessary. You can cli on the locations to
navigate ba through the file browser.
‣ e le pane of the file browser has shortcuts to commonly-used folders.
When you bookmark a folder, it appears in the le pane. No maer what
folder you open, the le pane will always contain the same folders. is
le pane can be anged to display different features by cliing the down
arrow beside “Places” near the top.
‣ e largest, central pane shows the files and folders in the directory that
you are currently browsing.
Navigating between directories
To navigate between directories, use the bookmarks in the le pane of the
Nautilus file browser. You can also retrace your steps by cliing on the name
of a folder where it is listed just below the navigational icons. Double-cliing
on a visible directory will cause you to navigate to it in Nautilus.
Opening files
To open a file, you can either double-cli on its icon or right-cli and select
Open With (program).
Creating new folders
To create a new folder from within Nautilus cli File ‣ Create Folder, then Note that you can easily view hidden files
name the folder that appears by replacing the default “untitled folder” with by clicking View ‣ Show Hidden Files, or
alternatively by pressing Ctrl+H. Hiding
your desired label (e.g., “Personal Finances”). You can also create a new folder files with a dot (.) is not a security measure
by pressing Ctrl+Shift+N, or by right-cliing in the file browser window —instead it provides a way of keeping your
folders organized and tidy.
and selecting Create Folder from the popup menu (this action will also work
on the desktop). If you wish to hide certain folders or files, place a dot (.) in
front of the name (i.e., “.Personal Finances”).
Copying and moving files and folders
You can copy files or folders in Nautilus by cliing Edit ‣ Copy, or by right- You can also use the keyboard shortcuts
Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste files
and folders.
Figure .: Nautilus file manager displaying
your home folder.
cliing on the item and selecting Copy from the popup menu. When using
the Edit menu in Nautilus, make sure you’ve selected the file or folder you
want to copy first (by le-cliing on it once).
Multiple files can be selected by le-cliing in an empty space (i.e., not
on a file or folder), holding the mouse buon down, and dragging the cursor
across the files or folders you want. is “cli-drag” move is useful when you
are selecting items that are grouped closely together. To select multiple files
or folders that are not positioned next to ea other, hold down the Ctrl key
while cliing on ea item individually. Once multiple files and/or folders
are selected you can use the Edit menu to perform actions just like you would
for a single item.When one or more items have been “copied,” navigate to the When you “cut” or “copy” a file or folder,
nothing will happen until you “paste” it
desired location then cli Edit ‣ Paste (or right-cli in an empty area of the
somewhere. Paste will only affect the most
window and oose Paste) to copy them to the new location. recent item that was cut or copied.
While the copy command can be used to make a duplicate of a file or folder
in a new location, the cut command can be used to move files and folders
around. at is, a copy will be placed in a new location, and the original will
be removed from its current location.
.
To move a file or folder, select the item you want to move then cli Edit ‣
Cut. Navigate to your desired location, then cli Edit ‣ Paste. As with the In the Nautilus Edit menu, you will also
find the Copy To and Move To buons.
copy command above, you can also perform this action using the right-cli
These can be used to copy or move items to
menu, and it will work for multiple files or folders at once. An alternative common locations, and can be useful if you
way to move a file or folder is to cli on the item, and then drag it to the new are using panes (see below). Note that it is
unnecessary to use Paste when using these
location. options.
Using multiple tabs and multiple Nautilus windows
Opening multiple Nautilus windows can be useful for dragging files and
folders between locations. e option of tabs is also available in Nautilus,
as well as the use of panes.When browsing a folder in Nautilus, to open a When dragging items between Nautilus
second window select New Window from the File menu. is will open a windows, tabs or panes, a small symbol will
appear over the mouse cursor to let you
new window, allowing you to drag files and folders between two locations. know which action will be performed when
To open a new tab, cli File ‣ New Tab. A new row will appear above the you release the mouse buon. A plus sign
(+) indicates you are about to copy the item,
space used for browsing your files containing two tabs—both will display the whereas a small arrow means the item will
directory you were originally browsing. You can cli these tabs to swit be moved. The default action will depend
between them, and cli and drag files or folders between tabs the same as on the locations you are using.
you would between windows. You can also open a second pane in Nautilus
so you can see two locations at once without having to swit between tabs
or windows. To open a second pane, cli View ‣ Extra Pane, or alternatively
press F3 on your keyboard. Again, dragging files and folders between panes is
a qui way to move or copy items.
Searching for files on your computer
Earlier, we mentioned that you can sear for files on the computer by using Search for files quickly by pressing Ctrl+F
in Nautilus and then typing what you want
the Sear for Files feature on the Places menu in the top panel. You can also
to find.
use the Nautilus browser to sear for files, as explained above.
Customizing your desktop
Now that you’ve been introduced to the desktop environment, let’s
take a look at customizing some of its features su as modifying the behavior
of your panels, or anging the look and feel of your desktop.
Panels
e panels (currently siing at the top and boom of your screen) can be
moved from their default positions to the sides of the screen, set to hide
from view when not in use, and can ange color. To access these features,
right-cli the panel you want to modify and select Properties from the pop-
up menu. e General tab has options to autohide, position the panel, and
ange the panel size (width).
Use the Orientation drop-down box to select where you want the panel to
be located, and underneath this you can set the desired width (in pixels). Note
that the smallest width allowed is pixels.
By default, a panel covers the entire length of the desktop. To ange that,
you can deselect the Expand option. e panel will then shrink so that it is
just long enough to accommodate any applets or program launers that are
currently siing in it. Tiing the Autohide buon will cause your panel to
“fold” up into the edge of the screen when you are not using it, and remain
hidden until you move your mouse cursor ba to that screen edge.
An alternative way of hiding the panel is to do so manually. Cliing on
Show hide buttons will add a buon to ea side of the panel that can be
used to hide it from view. By default these buons will display directional ar-
rows, however, you can select the Arrows on hide buttons option to remove
the arrows and just have plain buons. Cliing one of these hide buons on
the panel will slide it across the screen and out of view, leaving just the oppo-
site hide buon in sight whi you can cli to bring it ba. e Baground By default, Ubuntu requires that you
maintain at least one panel on the desktop.
tab in the Panel Properties window allows you to ange the appearance of
If you prefer a Microso Windows feel,
the panel. By default, this is set to None (use system theme), meaning that a panel at the boom of the desktop can
your desktop theme will dictate the appearance of the panel (we will look be set to start programs as well as select
between open windows. Alternatively, if
at how to ange your desktop theme below). If you prefer, you can oose you prefer a Mac look you can keep
your own panel color by selecting the Solid color buon, then opening the a panel at the top and add an applications
color select window. You can also set the panel transparency using the slider. dock such as Docky, Avant Window
Navigator (), or Cairo-Dock. These are
Alternatively, you can cli the Baground image buon if you have an all available in the Ubuntu Soware Center,
image or paern stored on your computer that you would like to use as your which is discussed further in Chapter :
Soware Management.
panel baground. Use the file selector to locate the baground image in your
computer, then cli Open to apply the ange.
Adding applets
Ubuntu provides a selection of applets that can be added to any panel. Ap-
plets ranges from the informative to the fun, and can also provide qui access
to some tasks. To add an applet, right-cli on a panel then select Add to
Panel… from the popup menu. A window will appear with a list of available
applets, whi can then be dragged to an empty space on a panel. You may
want to spend some time exploring the different ones available—they can eas-
ily be removed from your panel by right-cliing on the applet and selecting
Remove From Panel. To reposition an existing applet, right-cli on it and
select Move. Move your mouse cursor to the desired location (this can even
be a different panel) and the applet will follow, then le-cli to drop it into
place.
e “Add to Panel…” window can also be used to add additional applica- You can also add program launchers to a
panel by dragging them directly from the
tion launers to your panel, similar to the Firefox launer that sits to the
Applications menu, in the le of the top
right of the System menu. To add a new one, double-cli on Application panel.
Launer… near the top of the window. Here you can navigate through your
.
applications and drag them to your panel to create a new launer, just as you
did to add an applet previously. Program launers can also be removed and
repositioned through their right-cli menu.
Workspaces
To modify your workspaces, right-cli on the workspace switer applet (by
default this is on the right side of the boom panel, just to the le of the Trash
applet) and select Preferences. In the window that appears you can oose
how many workspaces you want in total, and whether these will be displayed
on the panel in one or more rows. You can also rename ea workspace, and
have the names displayed in the panel applet. If you prefer, you can also
oose to just have the workspace you are currently using displayed in the
panel. In this case you can still ange between workspaces by moving the
mouse over the workspace switer, and scrolling the mouse wheel.
Appearance
To further modify the look and feel of your desktop su as the baground,
fonts, and window theme, you can do so through Appearance Preferences. To
access this, navigate to System ‣ Preferences ‣ Appearance in the top panel.
Theme
e “Appearance Preferences” window will initially display the eme tab
when it opens. Here you can select a theme that will control the appearance
of your windows, buons, scroll bars, panels, icons, and other parts of the
desktop. e theme called “Ambiance” is enabled by default, however, you
will see there are seven other default themes to oose from in the list. Just
cli once on the theme you want to try, and the anges will take effect
immediately.
You can download additional themes by cliing the “Get More emes
Online” link at the boom of this window. Your web browser will open and
take you to http://art.gnome.org/themes/, where you can download new
themes from a large selection. Once you have downloaded a theme, locate
the file on your computer (using Nautilus) and drag it across to the emes
window. is will add it to your list of available themes, and a window will
appear asking whether you want to apply the anges immediately.
You can also customize any theme to your liking by selecting it then cli-
ing the Customize… buon underneath. Here you can mix elements of dif-
ferent themes su as icons, mouse pointers, buons, and window borders to
create your own unique look.
Desktop background
Cli the Baground tab in the Appearance Preferences window to ange You can also change the background by
right-clicking on the desktop and selecting
Change Desktop Background from the
pop-up menu.
Figure .: You can change the theme in the
Theme tab of “Appearance Preferences”.
the desktop baground. Here you will see Ubuntu’s default selection of ba-
grounds, however, if you have your own pictures stored on your computer
you can use these as well. To ange the baground simply cli the picture
you would like to use from the list in front of you. To use your own, cli the
Add… buon, and navigate to the image you want. Double-cli it, and the
ange will take effect immediately. is image will also then be added to
your list of available bagrounds.
If you are aer a larger selection of desktop bagrounds, cli the “Get
More Bagrounds Online” link at the boom of the Appearance Preferences
window. is link will open your web browser, and direct you to the http://
art.gnome.org/backgrounds website.
Fonts
You can also ange the fonts used throughout your desktop through the
Appearance Preferences window by cliing on the Fonts tab. You can indi-
vidually set the font style and size for applications, documents, desktop items,
window titles, and for anything using fixed width fonts. e Rendering sec-
.
tion at the boom of the Fonts window gives you four options for anging
the way that fonts are drawn on your screen. Changing these may improve
the appearance of text on different types of monitors.
Screensaver
Ubuntu offers a selection of screensavers. By default, a blank screen will be
displayed aer a short period of inactivity. To select a different screensaver,
cli on the System menu in the top panel, then Preferences ‣ Screensaver.
is will open the “Screensaver Preferences” window, with the available
screensavers listed on the le. When you select a screensaver, you will see
a mini-preview in the window, or you can see how it will look on your full
screen by cliing the Preview buon. e le and right arrow buons at the
top allow you to scroll through the different screensavers without leaving the
full screen preview. To return to the Screensaver Preferences window, cli
the Leave Fullscreen buon at the top of the screen.
Make sure that the Activate screensaver when computer is idle option
is selected if you want to enable the screensaver. e slider can be adjusted
to set the idle time. If the screensaver starts aer the designated period of
inactivity, you can resume working on your computer by pressing any key or
moving your mouse. For added security, you can also select the Lo screen
when screensaver is active option. In this case, Ubuntu will ask you for your
login password when you return to the computer.
Accessibility
Ubuntu has built-in tools that make using the computer easier for people
with certain physical limitations. You can find these tools by opening the
System menu, then selecting Preferences ‣ Assistive Tenologies. You can
adjust keyboard and mouse seings to suit your needs through the “Assistive
Tenologies Preferences” window by cliing on the Keyboard Accessibility
or Mouse Accessibility buons.
Other assistive technologies
Orca is another useful tool for persons with visual impairments, and comes
pre-installed on Ubuntu. To run Orca, press Alt+F2 and type orca into the
command text field. Cli Run when you are done. Orca’s voice synthesizer
will activate and assist you through the various options su as voice type,
voice language, Braille, and screen magnification. Once you have finished
selecting your seings, you will need to log out of the computer (Orca will
offer to do this for you). When you log ba in, the Orca seings you ose
will automatically run every time you use your computer.
In addition to these options, selecting high-contrast themes and larger
on-screen fonts can further assist those with vision difficulties.
Figure .: Assistive Technologies allows
you to enable extra features to make it
easier to use your computer.
Managing your computer
When you have finished working on your computer, you can oose to log
out, suspend, restart, or shut down through the session menu on the far right
side of the top panel. You can also quily access these options by pressing the
Ctrl+Alt+Del keys.
Logging out
Logging out will leave the computer running but return you to the login
screen. is is useful for switing users, su as when a different person
wishes to log in to their account, or if you are ever instructed to “log out and
ba in again.” You should save your work before logging out.
Suspend
To save energy, you can put your computer into sleep mode, whi will save
its current condition and allow you to start more quily while remaining on
but using very lile energy. Suspending the computer spins down the hard
disk and saves your session to memory, so it is very qui to suspend and
resume from suspension.
Hibernate
Hibernate is similar to suspend, except that instead of saving your session to
memory, hibernate will save your session to the hard disk. is takes a lile
longer, but with the added benefit that hibernation uses no power while it is
in a hibernated state.
Rebooting
To reboot your computer, select Restart from the session menu.
.
Shut down
To totally power down your computer, select Shut Down from the session
menu.
Other options
From the session menu, you can also select Lo Screen to require a password You can lock your screen quickly by using
before using the computer again—this is useful if you need to leave your the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+L. Locking
your screen is recommended if you move
computer for some duration. You can also use the session menu to set up a away from your computer for a short
guest session for a friend to try Ubuntu, or to swit users to log into another amount of time.
user account without closing your applications.
Geing help
Ubuntu, just like other operating systems, has a built-in help reference, called Many programs have their own help which
can be accessed by clicking the Help menu
the Ubuntu Help Center. To access it, cli on the help icon in the top panel.
within the application window.
You can also access it by cliing Help and Support in the System menu.
Figure .: Clicking the blue help icon
in the top panel (just to the right of the
If you can’t find an answer to your question in this manual or in the System menu and the Firefox icon) will
Ubuntu Help Center, you can contact the Ubuntu community through the open Ubuntu’s built-in system help.
Ubuntu Forums (http://ubuntuforums.org). Many Ubuntu users open an ac- We encourage you to check any infor-
count on the forums to receive help, and in turn provide support to others mation you find on other websites with
multiple sources when possible, but only
as they gain more knowledge. Another useful resource is the Ubuntu Wiki follow directions if you understand them
(https://wiki.ubuntu.com), a website maintained by the Ubuntu community. completely.
Figure .: The built-in system help provides
topic based help for Ubuntu.
Working with Ubuntu
Geing online
If you are in a location with Internet access, you will want to make sure
you are connected in order to get the most out of your Ubuntu operating
system. is section of the manual will help you e your connection and
configure it where necessary. Ubuntu can connect to the Internet using a
wired, wireless, or dialup connection. It also supports some more advanced
connection methods, whi we will briefly discuss at the end of this section.
A wired connection refers to when your computer is physically connected
to a router or an Ethernet port with a cable. is is the most common connec-
tion for desktop computers.
A wireless connection is when your computer is connected to the Internet
via a wireless radio network, also known as Wi-Fi. Laptop computers com-
monly use Wi-Fi due to their portability, making it easy to access the Internet
from different rooms in the house or when traveling. In order to connect to
wireless connection, you must have a working wireless network. You will
usually need to purase and install a wireless router or access point, although
some locations will already have a wireless network established.
A dialup connection is when your computer uses a modem to connect to an
Internet service provider through your telephone line.
NetworkManager
In order to connect to the Internet in Ubuntu, you need to use the Network- If you are unsure whether your computer
has a wireless card, check with your
Manager utility. NetworkManager allows you to turn all networking on or off,
manufacturer.
and helps you manage your wired, wireless, and other connections.
Figure .: NetworkManager will display
this icon in the top panel when you are
connected to a wired network.
You can access all the functions of NetworkManager using its icon in the
top panel. is icon may look different depending on whether you currently
have a working connection, and whether the connection is wired or wireless.
If you are unsure, try hovering your mouse over the icon until a short de-
scription appears near the cursor. is will read “Wired network connection
‘Auto eth0’ active” (for example) if you have a working wired connection, or
otherwise something else related to networking or connections su as “No
connection” or “Networking disabled.”
Cliing this icon will bring up a list of network connections that are
.
Figure .: Here you can see the currently
active “auto eth0” connection listed in the
NetworkManager menu.
available to you. If you are currently connected to the Internet, the name of
this connection will be highlighted in bold.
Figure .: This is the menu when you right
click the networking icon.
You can also right-cli on the NetworkManager icon. is will open a
menu allowing you to enable or disable networking, view tenical details
about your current connection, or edit all connection seings. In the image
above, the e box next to “Enable Networking” is currently selected; you
can deselect it to disable all network connections. is may be useful if you
need to shut off all wireless communication, su as when in an airplane.
Establishing a wired connection
If you have an Ethernet cable running from a wall soet, a router, or some
other device, then you will want to set up a wired network connection in
Ubuntu.
In order to connect with a wired connection, you need to know whether Are you already online? If the Network-
Manager icon in the top panel shows a
your network connection supports . is stands for “Dynamic Host
connection, then you may have successfully
Configuration Protocol,” and is a way for computers on your network to connected during the installation process. If
automatically receive configuration information from your Internet service so, you do not need to follow the rest of this
section.
provider (). is is usually the quiest and easiest way of establishing
a connection between your computer and your in order to access the
Internet, although some s may provide what is called a static address
instead. If you are unsure whether your supports , you may wish to
contact their customer service line to e. ey will also be able to provide
you with information on your static address if one has been allocated to you
(in many cases s only allocate static addresses to customers upon request).
Automatic connections with DHCP
If your network supports , you may already be set up for online access.
To e this, cli on the NetworkManager icon. ere should be a “Wired
Network” heading in the menu that is displayed. If “Auto eth0” appears di-
rectly underneath, then your computer is currently connected and probably
already set up correctly for . If “disconnected” appears in gray under-
neath the wired network section, look below to see if an option labeled “Auto
eth0” appears in the list. If so, cli on it to aempt to establish a wireless
connection.
To e if you are online, right-cli on the NetworkManager icon in the
top panel and select the Connection Information option.
Figure .: This window displays your
address and other connection information.
You should see a window showing details about your connection. If your An Internet Protocol () address is a
numerical label assigned to devices on a
address is displayed as ... or starts with ., then your computer was
computer network. It is the equivalent of
not successfully provided with an address through . If it shows another phone numbers for your house and allows
address, it is most likely that your connection was automatically configured your computer to be uniquely identified so
you can access the internet and share files
correctly. To test out your Internet connection, you may want to open the with others.
Firefox web browser to try loading a web page. More information on using
Firefox can be found later in this apter.
If you are still not online aer following these steps, you may need to try To access the “Connection Information”
seing up your Internet configuration manually, using a static address. window, you will need to make sure that
networking is enabled. Otherwise this
option will be gray and you will not be
Manual configuration with static addresses able to select it through the right-click
menu of the NetworkManager applet.
If your network does not support , then you need to know a few items of To enable networking, right-click on the
NetworkManager applet and select Enable
information before you can get online. Networking from the popup menu.
‣ An address is a unique address used for identifying your computer on
the Internet. When connecting through this is likely to ange at
.
times, however, if your has provided you with a static address then
it will not. An address is always given in the form of four numbers
separated by decimal points, for example, ....
‣ e network mask tells your computer how large the network is that it be-
longs to. It takes the same form as an address, but is usually something
like ...
‣ e gateway is the address at your ’s end. It helps your computer
connect or “talk” with their network, whi acts as a “gateway” between
your computer and the Internet.
‣ servers are one or more addresses of “Domain Name System”
servers. ese servers convert standard web addresses (like http://www.
ubuntu.com) into addresses su as .... is step allows your
computer to “find” the correct web site when you type in the web address
you wish to visit. A minimum of one server is required, and any
additional ones are used in case the first one fails.
To manually configure a wired connection, right-cli on the Network- If you do not already have these seings,
you will need to consult your network
Manager icon and select Edit Connections. Make sure you are looking at the
administrator or customer support to
Wired tab inside the “Network Connections” window that is displayed. receive them.
e list may already have an entry su as “Auto eth0,” or a similar name.
If a connection is listed, select it and then cli the Edit buon. If no connec-
tion is listed, cli the Add buon instead.
If you are adding a connection, you first need to provide a name for the
connection so you can distinguish it from any others that are added later. In
the “Connection name” field, oose a name su as “Wired connection .”
Figure .: In this window you can manually
edit a connection.
To set up the connection:
. Under the connection name, make sure that the Connect automatically
option is selected.
. Swit to the v Settings tab.
. Change the Method to “Manual.”
. Cli on the Add buon next to the empty list of addresses.
. Type in your address in the field below the Address header.
. Cli to the right of the address, directly below the Netmask header,
and type in your network mask. If you are unsure of your network mask,
“...” is the most common.
. Cli to the right of the network mask, directly below the Gateway header,
and type in the address of your gateway.
. In the servers field below, type in the addresses of your server. If
your network has more than one server, enter them all, separated by
spaces or commas.
. Cli Apply to save your anges.
A address is a hardware address for your computer’s network card, and
entering it is sometimes important when using a cable modem connection or
similar. If you know the address of you network card, this can be entered in
the appropriate text field in the Wired tab of the editing window.
When you have returned to the Network Connections screen, your newly-
added connection should now be listed. Cli Close to return to the desktop.
If your connection is configured correctly, the NetworkManager icon should
have anged to show an active connection. To test if your connection is
properly set up, refer to the instructions above for eing a connec-
tion.
Wireless
If your computer is equipped with a wireless (Wi-Fi) card and you have a
wireless network nearby, you should be able to set up a wireless connection in
Ubuntu.
Connecting to a wireless network for the first time
If your computer has a wireless network card, you should be able to connect
to a wireless network. Most laptop and netbook computers have a wireless
network card.
Ubuntu is usually able to detect any wireless networks that are available To improve speed and reliability of your
connection, try to move closer to your
within range of your wireless card. To see a list of wireless networks, cli
access point.
on the NetworkManager icon. Under the “Wireless Networks” heading, you
should see a list of available wireless networks. Ea network will be shown
with a name on the le, and a signal meter on the right. A signal meter looks
.
like a series of bars—the more bars that are filled in, the stronger the connec-
tion will be.
A wireless network may be open to anyone to connect, or may be pro-
tected with network security. A small padlo will be displayed next to the
signal meter of any wireless networks that are protected. You will need to
know the correct password in order to connect to these.
To connect to a wireless network, select the desired network’s name from
the list. is will be the name that was set up when the wireless router or
access point was installed. If you are in a workplace or a location with a
publicly accessible wireless network, the network name will usually make it
easy to identify.
If the network is unprotected (i.e., the network signal meter does not
display a padlo), a connection should be established within a few seconds.
e NetworkManager icon in the top panel will animate as Ubuntu aempts
to establish a connection, and if it connects successfully will then ange to
display signal meter. A notification message in the upper right of your screen
will also appear, informing you that a connection was established.
If the network is secured, Ubuntu will display a window called “Wireless
Network Authentication Required” once it tries to connect. is means that a
password is required in order to connect.
Figure .: Type in your wireless network
passphrase.
If you know the password, enter it in the Password field, and then cli
Connect. As you type your password, it will be obscured to prevent others
from seeing it. If you prefer, you can select the Show password option to see
the password as you type.
Aer you cli the Connect buon, the NetworkManager icon in the top
panel will animate as it tries to connect to the network. If you have entered
the correct password, a connection will be established and the NetworkMan-
ager icon will ange to show signal meter bars. Again, Ubuntu will display
a pop up message in the upper right of your screen informing you that a con-
nection was established.
If you entered the wireless network’s password incorrectly, Network- Select the Show Password option to make
sure you haven’t made a mistake when
Manager will aempt to establish a connection then return to the “Wireless
entering the password.
Network Authentication Required” window. You can aempt to enter the
correct password again, or cli Cancel to abort your connection. If you do
not know the password to the network you have selected, you will need to get
the password from the network administrator.
Once you have successfully established a wireless network connection,
Ubuntu will store these seings (including the network password) in order
to make it easier to connect to the same wireless network in future. You
may also be prompted to select a keyring password here. e keyring stores
network and other important passwords in the one place, so you can access
them all in future by just remembering your keyring password.
Connecting to a saved wireless network
If you have previously successfully established a wireless connection, that
connection’s password will be saved on your computer. is will allow you to
connect to the same network without having to re-enter the password.
In addition, Ubuntu will automatically try to connect to a wireless network
within range if it has its seings saved. is will work for both open and
secured wireless network.
If you have multiple saved wireless networks in range, Ubuntu may oose
to connect to one of them, while you may prefer to connect to another. In
this case, cli on the NetworkManager icon. You should see a list of wireless
networks in range, along with their signal meters. Cli on your desired
network.
If the password and other seings have not anged, Ubuntu will connect
to the wireless network you ose. If the password did ange, Ubuntu will
open the “Wireless Network Authentication Required” window. In this case,
follow instructions in the previous section.
Connecting to a hidden wireless network
In some circumstances, you may need to connect to a hidden wireless net-
work. ese hidden networks do not broadcast their names, whi means that
they will not show up in the list of wireless networks in the NetworkManager
menu. In order to be able to connect to a hidden network, you will need to get
its name and security seings from your network administrator.
To connect to a hidden network:
. Cli on the NetworkManager icon in the top panel.
. Choose the Connect to Hidden Wireless Network option. Ubuntu should
open the “Connect to Hidden Wireless Network” window.
. By default, the Connection field should show “New…”—you can leave this
unanged.
. In the Network name field, enter the name of the wireless network. is
name is also known as an . Please enter the network name exactly as it
was given to you.
.
. In the Wireless security field, select one of the options. If the network is
open, leave this field as “None.” If you do not know the correct seing for
the network you will not be able to connect to the hidden network.
. Cli on the Connect buon.
e rest of the process should work exactly as in the section on the initial
connection to wireless networks. Once set up according to the instructions
above, the hidden network should show up in the list of saved networks.
Disabling and enabling your wireless network card
Wireless access in Ubuntu is enabled by default if you have a wireless net- Some computers may have a physical switch
or buon to turn off Wi-Fi.
work card in your computer. In certain cases, for example on airplanes, you
may need or be required to turn your wireless radio off.
To do this, right-cli on the NetworkManager icon, and deselect the En-
able Wireless option. Your wireless network will be turned off, and your
computer will no longer sear for available wireless networks.
To turn wireless networking ba on, right-cli on the NetworkManager
icon, and cli on the Enable Wireless option to re-select it. Your wireless
network will be turned ba on. Ubuntu will then sear for nearby wireless
networks and will connect to any saved networks within range.
Changing an existing wireless network
At times, you may want to ange the seings for a wireless connection that
you have previously saved. Its password may have anged, or your system
administrator asked you to ange some networking or security seings.
To edit a saved wireless network connection:
. Right-cli on the NetworkManager icon and select Edit Connections…
. A “Network Connections” window should open. Cli on the Wireless tab
to see a list of saved wireless connections
. By default, this list shows connections in the order of most recently used to
least recently used. Find the connection you want to edit, cli on it, and
then cli Edit.
. Ubuntu should open a window called “Editing ⟨connection name⟩”, where
⟨connection name⟩ is the name of the connection you are editing. e
window should display a number of tabs.
. Above the tabs, you may ange the Connection name field if you want to
give the connection a more recognizable name
. If the Connect automatically option is not selected, Ubuntu will detect
the wireless network but will not automatically connect to it without you
oosing it from the NetworkManager menu. Select or deselect this seing
as needed.
. On the Wireless tab of the “Editing ⟨connection name⟩” window, you may
need to edit the field. A is the wireless connection’s network
name—if set incorrectly, the network may not be detected and a connection
may not be made. Please make sure that the is set according to your
network administrator’s instructions.
. Below the , you should see the Mode field. e “Infrastructure” mode
means that you would be connecting to a wireless router or access point.
is is the most common mode for wireless networks. e “Ad-hoc” mode
is a computer-to-computer mode and is oen only used in advanced cases.
. On the Wireless Security tab of the “Editing ⟨connection name⟩” window,
you may need to ange the Security field to the correct seing. A selec-
tion of None means that you are using an open network with no security.
Other selections may require slightly different additional information:
‣ /-bit Key is an older security seing still in use by some
wireless networks. If your network uses this security mode, you will
need to enter a key in the Key field that should appear aer you select
this mode.
‣ -bit Passphrase is the same older security seing as the entry
above. However, instead of a key, your network administrator should
have provided you with a text passphrase—a password—to connect to
the network. Once you select this security mode, you will need to enter
your passphrase in the Key field.
‣ & Personal is the most common security mode for wireless
network connections at home and at businesses. Once you select this
mode, you will need to enter a password in the Password field.
‣ If your network administrator requires , Dynamic , or &
Enterprise security, you will need to have the administrator help
you set up those security modes.
. On the v Settings tab, you may need to ange the Method field from
“Automatic ()” to “Manual,” or one of the other methods. For seing
up manual seings (also known as static addresses), please see the section
above on manual set up for wired network connections.
. When you finish making anges to the connection, cli Apply to save
your anges and close the window. You can cli Cancel to close the
window without making anges.
. Finally, cli Close on the “Network Connections” window to return to the
desktop.
Aer making anges, your new seings should go into effect immediately.
Other connection methods
ere are other ways to get connected with Ubuntu.
With NetworkManager, you can also configure Mobile Broadband connec-
tions to keep online through your cellular or other mobile data carrier.
You can also connect to s (Digital Subscriber Lines), whi are a method
of Internet connection that uses your telephone lines and a “ modem.”
.
It’s also possible to use NetworkManager to establish a (Virtual Private A is a “Virtual Private Network,” and is
Network) connection. ese are commonly used to create secure connectivity sometimes used to help secure connections.
s are “Digital Subscriber Lines,” a type of
to a workplace. a broadband connection.
Ubuntu can also connect using mobile broadband, s, or s, however,
these methods are beyond the scope of this guide.
Browsing the web
Once you have connected to the Internet, you should be able to browse the
web with Ubuntu. Mozilla Firefox is the default application for browsing the
web in Ubuntu.
Starting Firefox
To start Firefox, open the Applications menu, then oose Internet, and To set other keyboard shortcuts or to
change the shortcut for launching Firefox,
oose Firefox Web Browser. If your keyboard has a “” buon, you can
go to System ‣ Preferences ‣ Keyboard
also press that buon to start Firefox. Shortcuts.
Navigating web pages
Viewing your homepage
When you start Firefox, you will see your home page. By default, you will see
the Ubuntu Start Page.
To display more web content on the screen, you can use Full Screen mode.
Full Screen mode condenses the Firefox’s toolbars into one small toolbar. To
enable Full Screen mode, simply oose View ‣ Full Screen or press F11.
To go to your home page quily, press Alt+Home.
Navigating to another page
To navigate to a new web page, you need to type its Internet address (also stands for uniform resource locator and
stands for world wide web.
known as a ) into the Location Bar. s normally begin with “hp://”
followed by one or more names that identify the address. One example is
“http://www.ubuntu.com/.”
To navigate:
. Cli on the Location Bar to select the that is already there.
. Type the of the page you want to visit. e you type replaces any
text already in the Location Bar.
. Press Enter.
To quily select the of the Location Bar, press Ctrl+L. You can also press F6 on your keyboard to
If you don’t know a , try typing something specific to the page you highlight the location bar in Firefox.
want to visit (for example a name or other sear request) into the Location
Bar and press Enter. is will sear your preferred sear engine—Google by
Figure .: The default Ubuntu home page
for the Firefox web browser.
default—for that term, and take you to the web page that is the top result from
the sear.
Clicking a link
Most web pages contain links you can cli to move to other pages.
To cli a link:
. Move the mouse pointer until it anges to a pointing finger. is happens
whenever the pointer is over a link. Most links are underlined text, but
buons and pictures on a web page can also be links. Figure .: You can enter a web address or
search the internet by typing in the location
bar.
.
. Cli on the link once. While Firefox locates the link’s page, status mes-
sages will appear at the boom of the window.
Retracing your steps
If you want to visit a page you have seen before, there are several ways to do
so.
‣ To go ba or forward one page, cli on the Ba or Forward buon.
‣ To go ba or forward more than one page, cli on the small triangles
on the Ba and Forward buons. You should see a list of pages you’ve
recently visited. To return to a page, select it from the list.
‣ To see a list of any s you’ve typed into the Location Bar, cli on the
down arrow at the right end of the Location Bar. To view a page, select it
from the list.
‣ To oose from pages you’ve visited during the current session, open the
History menu and oose from the list in the boom section of the menu.
‣ To oose from pages you’ve visited during the past several sessions, open
the History menu and oose Show All History. Firefox should open a
“Library” window, whi shows a list of folders. Cli on the folders to
displays sub-folders, or titles of web pages you’ve visited in the past. Cli
on a page’s title to view that page.
Stopping and reloading
If a page is loading too slowly or you no longer wish to view a page, cli on
the Stop buon.
To reload the current page or to get the most up-to-date version, cli on
the Reload buon or press Ctrl+R.
Opening new windows
At times, you may want to have more than one browsing window. is may
help you organize your browsing session beer, or separate web pages that
you are viewing for different reasons.
ere are two ways to create a new window:
‣ On the menubar, open the File menu, then oose New Window.
‣ Press Ctrl+N.
Once a new window has opened, you can use it just like the first window
—including navigation and opening tabs.
Opening a link in a new window
Sometimes, you may want to cli on a link to navigate to another web page,
but do not want the original page to close. To do this, you can open the link
you’d like to cli in its own window.
ere are two ways to open a link in its own window:
‣ Right-cli on a link to open its popup menu. Choose the Open Link in
New Window option. A new window will open, containing the web page
for the link you clied.
‣ Press-and-hold the Shift key while cliing a link. is will also open the
web page in a new window.
Tabbed browsing
If you would like to visit more than one web page at a time, you can use You can alternate quickly between differ-
Tabbed Browsing to navigate the web. ent tabs by using the keyboard shortcut
Ctrl+Tab.
Tabbed browsing lets you open several web pages within a single Firefox
window, ea displaying in its own tab. is frees up space on your desk-
top since you don’t have to have a window open for every web page you’re
currently visiting. You can open, close, and reload web pages in one place
without having to swit to another window.
Opening a new blank tab
ere are three ways to create a new blank tab:
‣ Cli on the New Tab buon on the right side of the last tab.
‣ On the menubar, open the File menu, and then oose New Tab.
‣ Press Ctrl+T.
When you create a new tab, it will contain a blank page with the Location
Bar focused. Start typing a web address () or other sear term to open a
website in the new tab.
Opening a link in its own tab
Sometimes, you may want to cli on a link to navigate to another web page,
but do not want the original page to close. To do this, you can open the link
you’d like to cli in its own tab.
ere are three ways to open a link in its own tab:
‣ If your mouse has a middle buon, or a wheel, cli on the link with the
middle mouse buon or wheel. A new tab should open, containing the web
page for the link you clied.
‣ Cli on the link with the le mouse buon, and keep holding down the
mouse buon. Drag the link up to a blank space on the tab bar, and release
the mouse buon. A new tab should open, containing the web page for the
link you dragged.
‣ Press-and-hold the Ctrl key while cliing the le mouse buon on the
link. A new tab should open, containing the web page for the link you
clied.
.
Closing a tab
Once you are done viewing a web page in a tab, you can close that tab.
ere are four ways to close a tab:
‣ Cli on the Close buon on the right side of the tab you want to close.
‣ On the menubar, open the File menu, and then oose Close Tab.
‣ Cli on the tab you want to close with the middle mouse buon, or the
mouse wheel, if you have one.
‣ Press Ctrl+W.
Restoring a closed tab
Sometimes, you have closed the wrong tab by accident, or for another reason
would want to bring ba a tab that you’ve recently closed.
To bring ba a tab you’ve closed, do one of the following:
‣ On the menubar, open the History menu, oose Recently Closed Tabs,
and then oose the name of the tab you want to restore.
‣ Press Ctrl+Shift+T to re-open the most recently closed tab.
Changing the tab order
To move a tab to a different location on the tab bar, drag it there using your
mouse. Cli-and-hold on the tab and drag the tab to a new place on the tab
bar. While you are dragging the tab, Firefox will display a small indicator to
show where the tab will be moved.
Moving a tab between windows
If you have more than one Firefox window open, you can move an open tab to
a different window. You can also split a tab off to become its own window.
To move a tab from one Firefox window to another already open window,
cli-and-hold on the tab and drag it to the tab bar on the other Firefox win-
dow. When you release the mouse buon, the tab will be aaed to the new
window.
To move a tab from one window into its own window, cli-and-hold
on the tab and drag the tab below the tab bar. When you release the mouse
buon, the tab will become a new window.
Searching
You can sear the web, or other collections, from within Firefox without first
visiting the home page of the sear engine.
By default, Firefox will sear the web using the Google sear engine.
Searching the web
To sear the web in Firefox, type a few words into the Firefox Sear bar.
For example, if you want to find information about the world cup:
. Cli on the Sear Bar.
. Type the phrase “world cup.” Your typing replaces any text currently in the
Sear Bar.
. Press Enter to sear.
Sear results from Google for “world cup” should appear in the Firefox
window.
Selecting search engines
Figure .: These are the other search
engines you can use from the search Firefox
bar.
If you do not want to use Google as your sear engine in the Sear Bar,
you can ange the sear engine that Firefox uses.
To ange the sear engine, cli on the icon on the le side of the Sear
Bar. Choose one of the other sear engines in the list. Some sear engines,
like Google, sear the whole web; others, like Amazon.com, only sear
specific sites.
Searching the web for words selected in a web page
Sometimes, you may want to sear for a phrase that appears on a different
web page. Instead of copying and pasting the phrase into the Sear Bar,
Firefox allows you to sear the web for words you select within a web page.
. Highlight any words in a web page using your le mouse buon.
. Right-cli on the text you’ve highlighted to open a popup menu. Choose
the option Sear [Sear Engine] for “[your selected words]”.
Firefox should open a new tab whi should contain sear results for your
highlighted words using the currently selected sear engine.
.
Searching within a page
Figure .: You can search within web
You may want to look for specific text within a web page you are viewing. pages using the find toolbar.
To find text within the page you are currently viewing in Firefox:
. Press Ctrl+F or oose Edit ‣ Find to open the Find Toolbar at the boom
of Firefox.
. Enter the text you want to find into the Find field in the Find Toolbar. e
sear automatically begins as soon as you type something into the field.
. Once some text has been mated on the web page, you can:
‣ Cli Next to find text in the page that is below the current cursor
position.
‣ Cli Previous to find text that is above the current cursor position.
‣ Cli on the Highlight all buon to highlight occurrences of your
sear words in the current page.
‣ Select the Mat case option to limit the sear to text that has the
same capitalization as your sear words.
To find the same word or phrase again, press F3 or oose Edit ‣ Find
Again from the menubar.
Copying and saving pages
With Firefox, you can copy part of a page so that you can paste it elsewhere,
or save the page or part of a page as a file on your computer.
Copying part of a page
To copy text from a page:
. Highlight the text with your mouse.
. Choose Edit ‣ Copy from the menubar.
You can paste the text into other programs.
To copy a link () or an image link from a page:
. Position the pointer over the link or image.
. Right-cli on the link or image to open a popup menu.
. Choose Copy Link Location or Copy Image Location. If an image is also
a link, you can oose either menu item.
You can paste the link into other programs or into Firefox’s Location Bar.
Saving all or part of a page
To save an entire page in Firefox:
. Choose File ‣ Save Page As from the menubar. Firefox should open the
“Save As” window.
. Choose a location for the saved page.
. Type a file name for the page, and cli Save.
To save an image from a page:
. Position the mouse pointer over the image.
. Right-cli on the image to display a popup menu.
. Choose Save Image As. Firefox should open the “Save Image” window.
. Choose a location for the saved image.
. Enter a file name for the image and cli Save.
Changing your homepage
By default, Firefox will show the Ubuntu Start Page when you start Firefox.
If you prefer to display another page when you start Firefox, you will need to
ange your homepage preference.
Figure .: You can change Firefox seings
in this window.
To ange your homepage:
. Navigate to the page that you would like to become your new homepage.
.
. Choose Edit ‣ Preferences from the menubar.
. In the “Startup” section on the Main tab, whi is shown by default, cli
on the Use Current Page buon. If you had more than one tab open then
all the tabs will be opened when Firefox starts.
. Cli Close.
Bookmarks
When browsing the web you may want to come ba to certain web pages
again without having to remember the .
In Firefox, you can create Bookmarks, whi are saved in the web browser
and whi you can use to navigate ba to your pied web pages.
Bookmarking a page
If you have navigated to a web page and would like to bookmark it for future
visits, you will need to add the page as a bookmark.
ere are two ways to bookmark a page:
‣ From the menubar, oose Bookmarks and then Bookmark is Page. A
window will open. Provide a descriptive name for the bookmark, and cli
on the Done buon.
‣ Press Ctrl+D. A window will open. Provide a descriptive name for the
bookmark, and cli on the Done buon.
Navigating to a bookmarked page
To navigate to a bookmarked page, open the Bookmarks menu from the
menubar, and then oose your bookmark’s name. Firefox should open the
bookmark in the current tab.
You can also press Ctrl+B to display bookmarks in a sidebar on the le side of
the browser window. Press Ctrl+B again to hide the sidebar.
Deleting a bookmark
If you would like to delete a bookmark that you have previously made, open
the Bookmarks menu from the menubar, and then right-cli on your book-
mark’s name. Firefox should open a popup menu for your bookmark. Choose
the Delete option from the menu. Your bookmark should then be deleted.
History
Whenever you are browsing the web, Firefox is saving your browsing history.
is allows you to come ba to a web page that you have previously visited
without needing to remember the page’s , or even bookmarking it.
To see your most recent history, open the History menu from the menubar.
e menu should then display several of the most recent web pages that you
were viewing. Choose one of the pages to return to it.
To see history from an older time, press Ctrl+H. Firefox should open a
“sidebar” on the le side of the browser window, whi should contain your
browsing history categorized as “Today,” “Yesterday,” “Last days,” “is
month,” and then monthly for the times before that.
Cli on one of the item categories in the sidebar to expand this category,
and see the pages you’ve visited during that time period. en, once you find
the page you need, cli on its title to return to it.
You can also sear for a page by its title. Enter a few leers, or a word,
in the Sear field at the top of the history sidebar. e sidebar should then
display a list of web pages whose titles mat your sear words. Cli on the
title of the page you need to return to it.
If you would like to hide the history sidebar again, press Ctrl+H again.
Clearing private data
At times, you may want to delete all private data that Firefox stores about
your browsing history. While this data is stored only on your computer, you
may want to remove it if you share access to your computer.
To delete your private data, open the Tools menu from the menubar, and
oose Clear Recent History. In the drop down list for the Time range to
clear, oose how far ba you would like Firefox to delete.
If you would like more control over what you clear, cli on the Details
text to display a list of options.
When done, cli on the Clear Now buon.
Using a different web browser
If you install a different web browser on your computer, you may want to
have Ubuntu use that new browser by default when you cli on links from
emails, instant messages, and other places.
To ange your preferred web browser, open the System menu from
Ubuntu’s main menubar. en, oose System, and oose Preferred Ap-
plications. Ubuntu should then open the “Preferred Applications” window.
In the “Web Browser” section, oose your new preferred web browser, and
cli Close.
Reading and composing email
To send and receive email in Ubuntu, you can use the Evolution mail applica-
tion. To start Evolution, open the Applications menu, then oose Internet
and then Evolution Mail.
.
Figure .: You can change the default
browser in this window.
In addition to email, Evolution also can help manage your contact list, your
calendar, and a list of tasks.
You do not need to use Evolution if you are using a webmail system, su as
Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, or Gmail. To access these services, use the Firefox web
browser to access them on the web.
Running Evolution for the first time
When you start Evolution for the first time, you will need to configure it to
connect to your email account.
When Evolution starts you should see the “Evolution Setup Assistant”
window, welcoming you to Evolution. Cli Forward to continue with the
setup.
Next, on the “Restore from baup” screen, Evolution may ask you to
restore from a previous baup. Since this is the first time you are running
Evolution, you can cli Forward to skip this step.
On the next screen, “Identity”, you need to enter your name and the email
address you wish to use with Evolution. Enter your full name in the Full
Name field, and the full email address in the Email Address field. You can
fill in the optional information, or leave it unanged if you desire. Cli
Forward when you are done.
Next, you should see the “Receiving Email” screen. On this screen, you
need to provide Evolution with the details of your email servers. If you do not
know these details, you will need to ask your network administrator or e
with your email provider.
ere are two common types of Internet email connections: , and
. ese are described below. In work environments there are sometimes
other types, su as Microso Exange or Novell GroupWise—for more
information on those types of connections, please see the documentation for
Evolution.
Seing up an IMAP connection
connections allow you to manage your email remotely—the actual email
and folders reside on your email server, while Evolution allows you to view,
edit, and delete the messages and folders as needed.
If your email provider recommends an connection, oose IMAP
from the Server Type drop-down list. In the Server field, enter the Internet
name of your mail server. For example, imap.example.com. In the Username
field, enter the username that you use to log into your email system, for
example joe.x.user.
Your email provider may specify the security seings you will need to use
in order to receive email. If your connection does not use security, leave the
Use Secure Connection drop-down list set to No encryption. Otherwise,
oose either encryption or encryption as recommended by your
email provider.
Aer oosing these options, cli Forward to proceed to “Receiving Op-
tions” screen. While it is normal to leave all options unselected, you may
want to select the Che for new messages option to have Evolution auto-
matically e email on a regular basis.
When you are finished seing the options, cli Forward to continue to
the next screen.
Seing up a POP connection
connections let you manage your email locally—Evolution will connect to
your email provider and download any new messages you may have received,
and store them in folders on your computer. e messages will be deleted off
the server.
If your email provider recommends an connection, oose POP from
the Server Type drop-down list. In the Server field, enter the Internet name
of your mail server. For example, pop.example.com. In the Username field,
enter the username that you use to log into your email system, for example
joe.x.user, or joe.x.user@example.com.
Your email provider may specify the security seings you will need to use
in order to receive email. If your connection does not use security, leave the
Use Secure Connection drop-down list set to No encryption. Otherwise,
oose either encryption or encryption as recommended by your
email provider.
Aer oosing these options, cli Forward to proceed to “Receiving Op-
tions” screen. While it is normal to leave all options unselected, you may
.
want to select the Che for new messages option to have Evolution auto-
matically e email on a regular basis.
You may also wish to adjust the Message Storage options, whi determine
what Evolution does aer downloading email to your computer. Select the
Leave messages on server option to have Evolution keep the messages on
your email system aer downloading them. is will allow you to use another
computer to re-download all of your new messages. Select the Delete aer
days option to have Evolution keep the messages for a few days, and delete
them aer a while. You can adjust the number of days that Evolution keeps
the messages.
When you are finished seing the options, cli Forward to continue to
the next screen.
Seing up your Sending options
e next screen should be the “Sending Email” screen. Here, you will need to
configure your connection for sending email through your email provider.
e most common type of sending connection is , whi is the default
server type selected.
In the Server field, type in the name of the outbound mail server (also
known as the server), as described by your email provider. For example,
mail.example.com.
If your email provider requires authentication, select the Server requires
authentication option. is is common for commercial email providers. In
the “Authentication” section of the screen, oose the type of authentication
from the Type drop-down list—the most common authentication type is
“.” Enter your username below, in the Username field, for example
joe.x.user, or joe.x.user@example.com.
Your email provider may specify the security seings you will need to use
in order to send email. If your connection does not use security, leave the Use
Secure Connection drop-down list set to No encryption. Otherwise, oose
either encryption or encryption as recommended by your email
provider.
Aer oosing these options, cli Forward to proceed to the next screen.
Finalizing account options
On the next screen, “Account Management”, enter a descriptive name for this
account. If you plan to use more than one email provider with Evolution, you
will use this name to distinguish between the different accounts.
When finished, cli Forward. is should open the “Done” screen. If you
believe that you’ve entered the correct options, cli Apply to finish setup.
Otherwise, cli Ba to go ba one or more screens to correct your seings,
or cli Cancel to abort setup and discard your account seings.
Aer you finish setup, Evolution may ask you if you would like to make it
your default email client. Cli Yes if you plan on reading and sending email
only with Evolution. Cli No if you plan on installing or using a different
email program.
Around the Evolution workspace
Figure .: Evolution allows you to manage
e Evolution window is divided into four parts. At the top are the your mail, contacts and tasks.
menubar and toolbar. e menubar lets you access most of the functional-
ity of Evolution, while the toolbar provides some convenient shortcuts to
some of the most frequently used features.
On the le side of the window is the folder list. Every message that you
send or receive will reside in one of the folders in this list.
Below the folder list on the le side of the window are the Mail, Contacts,
Calendars, Tasks, and Memos buons. When working with email, the Mail
buon is selected. e other buons take you to other parts of Evolution.
On the right side of the window are the message list, and the message
preview beneath it. e message list shows all of the messages in the currently
.
selected folder, or mating your sear request. e message preview shows
the contents of your currently selected message in the list above the preview.
Understanding the folder list
e folder list is the way that Evolution separates and categorizes your email.
e first group of folders in the list is titled “On is Computer.” is set of
folders are your local folders—they reside on your computer only. If you use
servers to retrieve your email, any new message will be placed in the
Inbox local folder.
You can cli on any folder to see its contents appear in the message list on
the right side of the window.
Ea of the initial folders in the list is special:
‣ Inbox stores your incoming messages.
‣ Dras stores messages that you’ve worked on, but have not yet sent.
‣ Junk stores messages that have been identified as being junk. Junk mail is
also known as “spam.”
‣ Outbox contains messages that you’ve finished composing, but whi have
not been sent yet. For example, if you are working on your email while
offline (su as in an airplane), you can still cli the Send buon on an
email message that you finish writing. e message will be moved to the
Outbox, and will remain there until the next time you are able to send
and receive messages. Once you can send and receive messages, all email
messages in the Outbox will be sent out.
‣ Sent contains copies of messages that you had sent. Once a message from
an Outbox is sent, it is copied to the Sent folder.
‣ Templates stores email message templates—partial messages that you have
composed and saved as templates. You can use a message stored in the
template folder as a starting point for other messages.
‣ Trash contains messages that you have deleted. By default, the trash will
be emptied every time you exit Evolution.
If a folder contains any unread messages, the folder’s name will be dis-
played in bold, and the number of unread messages will be displayed in
parentheses following the folder name.
If you use an server to retrieve your email, then your remote
folders will be shown in the folder list below the “On is Computer” section.
e list of remote folders will be shown with a heading of the name that you
have given to the account. With , your email messages will arrive in your
remote Inbox.
Towards the boom of the folder list, Evolution will show a list of “Sear
Folders.” ese are special folders that represent certain messages that mat
sear rules. Please see the section on Finding Messages for more on sear
folders.
Managing folders
In addition to the initial folders, you can create your own folders to manage
your email.
To create a new folder, open the Folder menu, and then oose New. Enter
a name for the folder that you would like to create. en, from the list of
folders below, select the parent folder. For example, if you would like your
new folder to be placed under the Inbox then select the Inbox folder. If you
select “On is Computer,” then your new folder will be placed under “On
is Computer” in the folder list.
Once you’ve made your selection, cli on the Create buon to create the
folder. Your new folder should now be in the folder list.
You can move folders that you have created. To do so, cli on the folder
that you would like to move, hold down the mouse buon, and drag the folder
to a new parent folder. Once the mouse cursor highlights a new parent folder,
release the mouse buon to finish the move.
You can also right-cli on a folder, and oose the Move… option. en,
select the new parent folder, and cli on the Move buon.
To delete a folder, right-cli on the folder and oose the Delete option.
To confirm that you want to delete the folder, cli on the Delete buon.
Checking and reading messages
Checking mail
When you finish setup, or when you start Evolution in the future, Evolution
will first try to connect to your email provider to e your email. In order to
connect, Evolution will need to know your email account password, and will
ask you for it.
Figure .: You need to enter your pass-
word to authenticate your account.
In the “Enter Password” window, enter your password and cli “OK”. If
you wish for Evolution to remember this password and not ask you in the
future, you can select the Remember this password option.
Evolution will then show a “Send and Receive” window, showing the
progress of the operation su as how many messages are being retrieved.
.
Listing messages
e top right portion of the Evolution window is the message list. Here, you
can see email messages for your currently selected folder, or mating your
sear terms.
By default, the message list shows six columns of information for ea
message. e first column is a read/unread indicator. If a message has been
read, the column shows an icon of an open envelope. If a message has not
been read, the icon will show a closed envelope.
e second column is an aament indicator. If a message contains an
aaed file, Evolution will show an icon of a paperclip in this column. Oth-
erwise, the column will be blank.
e third column is an importance indicator. If someone sends you a
message marked with high importance, Evolution will show an exclamation
mark in this column. Otherwise, this column will be blank.
e fourth column contains the sender of the message. Both the name and
email, or just the email address, may be displayed in this column.
e fih column contains the subject of the email message.
Finally, the sixth column is the date that the email was sent.
When you cli on a message, its contents will be displayed in the preview
pane below the message list. Once you select a message by cliing it, you can
cli on the Reply buon in the toolbar to begin composing a reply message
to be sent to the sender, or cli on the Reply to All buon to begin com-
posing a reply message to be sent to the sender and other recipients of your
selected message.
You can also cli on the Trash buon in the toolbar to put the message
in the Trash folder, or on the Junk buon to move the message into the Junk
folder. Note that Evolution, or your mail server, may automatically classify
some mail as Junk.
In addition to the buons on the toolbar, you can right-cli on a message
in the list. Evolution will open a menu with actions that you can perform for
the message.
Sometimes, you may wish to take an action on multiple email messages
(for example, delete multiple messages, or forward them to a new recipient).
To do this in Evolution, press-and-hold the Ctrl key while cliing on mul-
tiple messages—the messages you cli on will be selected. You can also cli
on one message to select it, then press-and-hold the Shift key and cli on
another message in the list. All messages in the list between the original selec-
tion and the one you just clied on will be selected. Once you have multiple
messages selected, right-cli on one of them to perform your desired action.
Directly above the message list are the Show drop-down list, and the
sear options. You can use the Show drop-down list to filter your view to
show only unread messages, or only messages with aaments, etc.
e sear options will be covered in a later section.
Previewing messages
When you select an email message, its contents will be shown in the preview
pane below the message list.
e top of the preview pane will show the message header, whi contains
the sender, recipients, and subject of the message, as well as the date the
message was sent. Below the header, Evolution shows the contents of the
message itself.
If a message was sent with formaing, some of the images may not Note that loading images may provide a
way for the sender to track your receipt of
be displayed when a message is previewed. To display the missing images,
the message. We do not recommend loading
open the View menu from the menubar, then Load Images, or press Ctrl+I. images in messages that you suspect are
If your Internet connection is active, the missing images should then load. Junk.
Opening messages
At times, you may want to display multiple messages at the same time. To do
so, you can open ea message in a separate window instead of just viewing it
in the preview pane.
e open a message in its own window, double cli a message in the
message list. e message should then open in a separate window. You can go
ba to the message list and open another message, if needed.
In the open message window, you can use the options in the menubar or on
the toolbar to reply to the message, categorize it, delete it, as well as perform
other message actions.
Finding messages
ere are three ways to sear for messages in Evolution: you can use the
sear option at the top of the message list, use the Advanced Sear function,
or create a sear folder.
To use message list sear, enter the text you want to find in the Sear
field at the top right of the message list, and press Enter. e list of messages
will ange to show only those messages containing the text you entered.
To the right of the sear field you should be able to see a drop-down list
of options su as “Current Folder,” “Current Account,” and “All Accounts.”
By default, Evolution will use the “Current Folder” option and will only
show you results within the folder you’ve got selected in the folder list on
your le. If you oose the “Current Account” option, Evolution will sear
for messages in all folders within the current email account—su as all the
folders “On is Computer” or in your folders, depending on your email
setup. If you have multiple email accounts added to Evolution, oosing the
“All Accounts” option lets you sear for messages in all of your accounts.
If no messages mat the text you’ve entered, you can edit the text and
try searing again. To return to the folder display, open the Sear menu
from the menubar and then oose Clear, or instead erase all the text you’ve
entered in the Sear field and press Enter.
.
In some cases, you may want to sear for messages using multiple criteria.
For example, you may want to find a message from a particular user with
some specific words in the subject of the message. In Evolution, you can
perform this sear using the Advanced Sear function.
Figure .: To use more search terms you
can use the advanced search window.
To use Advanced Sear, oose Sear ‣ Advanced Sear. Evolution
should open the “Advanced Sear” window. In the middle section of the
window, specify your sear criteria. For our example, to find messages from
myfriend@example.com that contained “boat” in the subject, you would enter
myfriend@example.com in the text field to the right of the drop-down list
with “Sender” selected, and would enter boat in the text field to the right
of the drop-down list with “Subject” selected. en, cli on Remove to the
right of all lines that are unused, and cli OK to perform the sear. e
message list should then only display messages that mat your advanced
sear criteria.
When specifying the criteria for advanced sear, you can cli on the Add
Condition buon to add additional lines. You can also ange the selection
in the drop-down list at the beginning of ea line to specify a different field
to be eed, or ange the drop-down with “contains” selected by default
in order to have a different type of a mat. Please refer to the Evolution help
documents for more information.
In some cases, you may want to perform the same sear request on a reg-
ular basis. For example, you may want to always be able to see all messages
from myfriend@example.com regardless of whi folder you’ve used to store
the message. To help with this type of a sear, Evolution allows you to create
Sear Folders.
To create a sear folder, oose Sear ‣ Create Sear Folder From
Sear from the menubar. Give the folder a name by entering it in the Rule
name field at the top. en, specify sear criteria in the same way as in
Advanced Sear. Below the criteria, pi whi folders should be seared by
this sear folder—for example, you can oose “All local and active remote
folders” to sear in all of your account’s folders. When you are finished, cli
OK.
e new sear folder should now be added to the list of sear folders
towards the boom of the message list. If you cli on the sear folder to
select it, you should be able to see a list of messages that mat your sear
criteria.
Subscribing to IMAP folders
If you use to retrieve your email, you should see a set of folders in the
folder list on the le side of the window that is titled with the name of your
account. Folders like Inbox, Dras, Junk and others should be displayed
in the folder list.
If you have other folders in your account, you will need to subscribe
to them. If you subscribe to a folder, Evolution will download messages for
that folder whenever you e your email.
To subscribe to a folder select Folder ‣ Subscriptions from the menubar.
Evolution should open the “Folder Subscriptions” window. From the Server
drop-down list oose your account name. Evolution should then show a list
of folders in the list below.
Choose the folders you would like to subscribe to by selecting the e
box to the le of the folder name. When you are finished, cli Close. e
folders will be updated the next time you e your email.
Composing and replying to messages
In addition to reading email, you will likely want to reply to the email you
read, or compose new messages.
Composing new messages
To compose a new message, cli on the New buon on the toolbar. Evolution
should open a “Compose message” window.
In the To: field, enter the email address of the destination—the contact to
whom you are sending this email. If there is more than one contact to whom
you are writing, separate multiple recipients with commas.
If a contact that you are addressing is in your address book, you can ad-
dress them by name. Start typing the name of the contact; Evolution will
display the list of mating contacts below your text. Once you see the con-
tact you intend to address, cli on their email address or use the down arrow
key and then Enter to select the address.
If you would like to carbon-copy some contacts, enter their email addresses
in the Cc: field in the same manner as the To: recipients. Contacts on the To:
and Cc: lines will receive the email, and will see the rest of the contacts to
whom an email was sent.
.
If you would like to send an email to some contacts without disclosing to
whom your email was sent, you can send a blind carbon-copy, or “Bcc.” To
enable Bcc, select View ‣ Bcc Field from the menubar. A Bcc: field should ap-
pear below the Cc: field. Any contacts entered in the Bcc field will receive the
message, but none of the recipients will see the names or emails of contacts on
the Bcc line.
Instead of typing the email addresses, or names, of the contacts you are
addressing in the message, you can also select the contacts from your address
book. To do so, cli on the To:, Cc: or Bcc: buons to the le of the text
fields. Evolution should open the “Select Contacts from Address Book” win-
dow. Use the list on the le side of the window to select your contact, or type
a few leers from your contact’s first or last name in the Sear field to filter
the list to only show mating contacts.
Once you identify the contact you would like to address, cli on their
name in the list. en, cli on the Add buon to the le of either the “To,”
“Cc,” or “Bcc” fields on the right of the screen. Your selected contact will be
added to that list. If you’ve added the contact in error, cli their name in
the list on the right, and cli on the Remove buon. When you are finished
piing contacts, cli Close to return to the composing screen.
Enter a subject for your email. Messages should have a subject to help the
recipient to identify the email while glancing at their message list; if you do
not include a subject, Evolution will warn you about this.
Enter the contents of your message in the big text field below the subject.
ere is no practical limit on the amount of text you can include in your
message.
By default, new messages will be sent in “Plain Text” mode. is means
that no formaing or graphics will be shown to the recipient, but the message
is least likely to be rejected or displayed illegibly to the recipients. If you
know that your recipient uses a contemporary computer and a modern email
program, you can send them messages that include formaing. To swit to
this mode, cli the drop-down list buon on the le side directly above the
text field for the message contents. Change the selection from “Plain Text”
to “” to enable advanced formaing. When using mode, a new
toolbar should appear right under the mode selection that will allow you to
perform advanced advanced font styling and message formaing.
When you have finished composing your email, cli on the Send buon
on the window’s toolbar. Your message will be placed in the Outbox, and will
be sent when you next e your email.
Aaching files
At times, you may want to send files to your contacts. To send files, you will
need to aa them to your email message.
To aa a file to an email you are composing, cli on the Add Atta-
ment buon at the boom right of the email message window. Evolution
should show the “Add aament” window.
Select the file you would like to include in your message and cli on the
Atta buon. Evolution will return you to the email message window, and
your selected file should be listed in a section below the Add Attament
buon.
Replying to messages
In addition to composing new messages, you may want to reply to messages
that you receive.
ere are three types of email replies:
‣ Reply (or “Reply to Sender”)—sends your reply only to the sender of the
message to whi you are replying.
‣ Reply to All—sends your reply to the sender of the message, as well as
anyone else on the To or Cc lines.
‣ Forward—allows you to send the message, with any additional comments
you may add, to some other contacts.
To use any of these methods, cli on the message to whi you want
to reply and then cli the Reply, Reply to All, or Forward buon on the
toolbar.
Evolution should open the reply window. is window should look mu
like the window for composing new messages, but the To, Cc, Subject, and
main message content fields should be filled in from the message to whi you
are replying. Ea line in the message should be prefixed with a “>” aracter.
Edit the To, Cc, Bcc, Subject or main body as you see fit. When your reply
is finished, cli on the Send buon on the toolbar. Your message will be
placed in the Outbox, and will be sent when you next e your email.
Using signatures
In order to give your messages a footer, Evolution allows you to use a “signa-
ture.” Signatures in email are a bit of standard text that is added to the boom
of any new messages or replies.
When composing of replying to a message, cli on the Signature drop-
down list below the toolbar just above the To: field. is list should contain
any signatures that you have created, as well as an “Autogenerated” signature.
If you select Autogenerated, Evolution will add two dashes, and then your
name and email address to the boom of the email message.
You can also specify some custom signatures. To create a signature, open
the “Evolution Preferences” window by selecting Edit ‣ Preferences from
the menubar. On the le side of the Evolution Preferences window, select
Composer Preferences and then select the Signatures tab.
.
Cli on the Add to add a new signature. Evolution should then open
the “Edit Signature” window. Give your signature a name, and enter the
contents of your signature in the big text field below. When finished, cli Note that the two dashes are added auto-
matically by Ubuntu, so there is no need to
on the Save buon on the toolbar (the buon’s icon looks like a floppy disk).
include them in your custom signature.
Your new signature’s name should appear in the list in preferences. Close the
preferences window.
Your signature should now show up in the drop-down list in the com-
pose/reply window.
Staying organized
e Evolution application in Ubuntu can let you keep and manage a list of
your contacts, maintain a calendar, and a task list.
If you have already set up Evolution with an email account, you do not
need to do any further setup to use these features. If you do not wish to
use Evolution for email, you can still use it for managing your contacts or
maintaining a sedule, as well as keep tra of tasks and memos that you can
create for yourself.
To start Evolution, open the Applications menu, then oose Internet and
then Evolution Mail.
Managing your contacts
If you would like to keep a list of your contacts—personal or professional
contact information for people and organizations—you can manage these
contacts in Evolution.
To view contacts, cli on the Contacts buon below the folder list on
the le side of the Evolution window. e folder list on the le will be re-
placed by a list of address book types. Cli on an address book, for example
“Personal.”
e right side of the window will display a list of contacts. Cli a contact
to show the contact’s details in the lower portion of the right side of the
window.
If you use Ubuntu One, you may have two address books—a “Personal” An address book is a collection of contacts
address book stored on your computer, and an “Ubuntu One” address book. and contact lists. It can either be stored on
your computer, or on a remote server.
You can add contacts to either address book, though only the “Ubuntu One”
address book is synronized to your Ubuntu One account.
Searching for contacts
To find a contact, type in a few a few leers from the contact’s first or last
name in the sear text box on the upper right of the window, and press
Enter. e list below should ange to only show contacts whose name
mates your sear term.
Figure .: You can view, edit, and add
contacts.
Adding or editing a contact
To make anges to an existing contact, find the contact in the list and double-
cli on the entry. Evolution should open a “Contact Editor” window for the
contact.
Swit between the different tabs in the contact editor to make anges to
the contact. Cli OK when you have finished making your anges.
To add a new contact, cli on the New on the toolbar. Evolution should
open the “Contact Editor” window. Enter the contact’s details in the contact
editor window, and cli OK when finished.
Managing your schedule
If you like to manage your sedule with a computer, you can maintain this
sedule in Ubuntu using Evolution.
To view your calendar, cli on the Calendars buon below the folder
list on the le side of the Evolution window. e folder list on the le will
.
be replaced by a list of calendars, and a mini-calendar showing the current
month.
Evolution allows you to manage more than one calendar. For example, you
could have a personal calendar and a sool or work calendar. You can also
subscribe to the calendar of a friend or family member who may oose to
share their calendar with you.
Cli on one of the calendars in the list. By default, you should have a
“Personal” calendar in the list. e middle of the window should now show a
view of the current day, showing all the hours of the current day.
If the calendar already has some events, Evolution will show the event in
the day view between the hours when the event starts and finishes. You can
double-cli on the event to open its details, or drag the event to a different
time or date to resedule it.
In the day view, you can cli on a different day on the mini-calendar on
the le side of the screen. Evolution will then display that day in the day
view.
You may also wish to see more than one day at a time. is will allow you
to compare sedules on different days, or find a free day for an event you
wish to sedule. In Evolution, you can cli on the Work Week or Week
buons on the toolbar to see an entire week at the same time. Cli on the
Month buon on the toolbar to see a view of the entire month—if an event
is difficult to read due to the small space alloed to ea day, you can hover
your mouse over the event to have Evolution show the full title of the event.
Finally, the List buon on the toolbar shows upcoming appointments in a list,
allowing you to see all of your upcoming appointments at a glance.
On the right side of the window, Evolution displays a list of tasks and
memos. You can add a new task or memo to Evolution
Adding a new event
e simplest way to add a new task is to cli a time in the day view, and
begin typing. An event “bubble” will appear, containing the text that you are
typing. If you want to add a longer event, drag your mouse from the first time
slot to the last before starting to type.
To add a new event without using the day view, cli on the New buon
on the toolbar. Evolution should open the “Appointment” window. In the
Summary field, enter a short title for the event as you want it to appear on
the calendar. Optionally specify the location and enter a longer description if
you would like. Make sure that the time and date, as well as the duration, are
as you want them. Finally, cli on the Save buon on the toolbar to save this
new event (the buon looks like a floppy disk, and is the first buon on the
toolbar).
Figure .: You can stay organized by
adding events to your calender.
Scheduling a meeting
If you would like to sedule a meeting with one of your contacts, Evolution
can assist you in sending out an invitation and processing replies.
To create a meeting invitation, oose File ‣ New ‣ Meeting from the
menubar. Specify the subject, location, time and duration, and description as
when you create a regular event.
You will then need to add aendees to this meeting. To add an aendee,
cli on the Add buon. In the list of aendees, Evolution will add a new row
—type the aendee’s email address or contact name.
When you are finished adding aendees, cli on the Save buon on the
toolbar. Evolution should then ask you if you would like to send meeting invi-
tations to your selected participants. Cli Send to send out these invitations.
e invitations will be sent the next time you e email in Evolution.
If your contact ooses to reply to the meeting invitation, Evolution will
show you a new email message. In the body of the email message, Evolution
will display an Update Attendee Status buon. Cli on that buon to mark
your contact as aending the meeting.
Using instant messaging
Instant messaging allows you to communicate with people you know in real
time. Ubuntu includes the Empathy application that lets you use instant
messaging features to keep in tou with your contacts. To start Empathy,
open the Applications menu from the menubar, then oose Internet and
then Empathy IM Client.
Empathy lets you connect to many instant messaging networks. You can
.
connect to , Gadugadu, Google Talk, Groupwise, , Jabber, , Mys-
pace, qq, , Sametime, Silc, , Yahoo, or Zephyr.
Running Empathy for the first time
When you open Empathy for the first time you will need to configure it with
the details of your instant messaging accounts.
When Empathy starts you will see the “Welcome to Empathy” window.
Choose the option corresponding to your situation.
You have an account
If you have an account that you have used previously with another instant
messaging program then select the Yes, I’ll enter my account details now
option. en, cli Forward to continue.
On the next screen, oose your account type from the drop-down list
below What kind of at account do you have?. en, enter your account
details in the field below.
Depending on the account type that you oose, Empathy may request that
you enter a username, or an for your account, followed by a password.
Figure .: Creating a new instant messen-
ger account in Empathy.
If you do not remember your account information, you will need to visit
the website of the instant messaging network to retrieve that information.
If you have another account to add then select the Yes option, and cli
Forward to repeat the above process. When you have entered all the accounts
leave the No, that’s all for now option selected, and cli Apply to finish the
setup process.
Next, Empathy should display the “Please enter personal details” screen. If
you oose to fill out this information, you will be able to communicate with
people who are on your local network either at home or in an office.
Enter your first name in the First name field, and your last name in the
Last name field. Type in a way that you would like to be identified on your
local network in the Niname field. When you have filled all of the informa-
tion, cli Apply.
If you don’t want to communicate with people on your local network,
select the I don’t want to enable this feature for now option and cli
Apply.
You would like an account
If you don’t have an account that you can use, then you can create one by
selecting the No, I want a new account option. Cli Forward to display the
next set of options.
Choose the account type that you would like to create from the drop-down
list below What kind of at account do you want to create? You can
create either a Jabber or a Google Talk account. Note: If you wish to create another account
Next, enter the account name that you would like in the text field, and in type then you will need to visit the relevant
website and follow the “You have an
the proceeding text field enter a password of your oice. If you would like account” section.
to set up another account then select the Yes option, and repeat the above
process.
When you have entered all the accounts leave the No, that’s all for now
option selected, and cli Forward.
Empathy should display the “Please enter personal details” window. Pro-
viding this information allows you to communicate with people who are on
your local network either at home or in the workplace.
Enter your First name in the text field, and enter your Last name in the
next field. In the Niname field enter a niname by whi you would like
to be identified. When you have filled all of the text fields cli Apply to save
your seings.
If you don’t want to talk to people on your local network then select the I
don’t want to enable this feature for now option and cli Apply.
You want to talk to people nearby
If you would only like to communicate with people on your local network
either at home or in the workplace, then you should select the No, I just want
to see people online nearby for now option.
Cli Forward to display the next set of options. en enter your First
name in the text field, and enter your Last name in the next field. In the
Niname field enter a niname by whi you would like to be identified.
When you have filled all of the text fields, cli Forward.
.
Figure .: You can talk to people nearby
by entering your information.
Changing account seings
If you need to add more accounts aer the first laun, then open the Edit
menu, then oose Accounts. Empathy will then display the “Accounts”
window.
Adding an account
To add an account cli on the Add buon. Empathy should display some
options on the right hand side of the window. Choose your account type from
the Protocol drop-down list. Next, enter your account name in the first text
field. en enter your password in the Password text field. Finally cli on
the Log in buon to save and verify your seings.
Editing an account
You might need to edit and account if you ange the password or get the
password wrong. Select the account you want to ange on the le side of
the “Accounts” window. Empathy should show the current seings for the
account. Once you have made your anges, cli Save.
Removing an account
To remove an account select the account on the le hand side of the window
and cli on the Remove buon. Empathy should open the “Do you want to
remove” window. Cli on the Remove buon to confirm that you want to
remove the account, or cli Cancel to keep the account.
Editing contacts
Adding a contact
To add an account open the Chat menu, then oose Add contact. Empathy
should open the “New Contact” window.
In the Account drop-down list oose the account that you want to add
the contact to. Your must add you contact to an account type that mated
theirs.
For example if your contact’s address ends in “@googlemail.com” then you
will need to add it to an account that ends in “@googlemail.com.” Likewise if
the contact’s email ends in “@hotmail.com” then you would need to add it to
an account ending in “@hotmail.com.”
When you have osen the account that you wish to add the contact to,
you will need to enter either their login , username, screen name or email
address in the Identifier text field.
en, in the Alias text field, enter the contact’s name as you would like to
see it in your contact list. Cli Add to add the contact to your list of contacts.
Removing a contact
Cli on the contact that you want to remove and then open the Edit menu,
then oose Contact, then Remove. is will open the “Remove contact”
window.
Cli on the Remove buon to confirm that you want to remove a contact,
or cli Cancel to keep the contact.
Communicating with contacts
Text
To communicate with a contact, select the contact in Empathy’s main window
and double-cli their name. Empathy should open a new window where you
can type messages to your contact, and see a record of previously exanged
messages.
To send a message to the contact, type your message in the text field below
the conversation history.
When you have typed your message press the Enter key to send the mes-
sage to your contact. If you are communicating with more than one person
then all of the conversations will be shown in tabs within the same window.
Audio
If your contact has audio capabilities then there will be an icon of a micro-
phone next to their name. Cli on the microphone icon to open a popup
menu. Choose the Audio call option from the menu. Empathy should then
open the “Call” window.
.
is window shows your picture on the right and your contact’s picture
on the le. Ensure that your microphone and speakers are connected, and
proceed with the audio conversation. You can finish the conversation by
cliing on the Hang up buon.
Video
If your contact has video at capabilities then there will be an icon of a
webcam next to their name. Cli on the icon to open a popup menu. Choose
the Video call option from the menu. Empathy should then open the “Call”
window.
is window shows your webcam view in the top right and your contact’s
webcam will be in the middle.
If you don’t have a webcam then your picture will be shown instead. You
can finish the call by cliing on the Hang up buon.
Sending and receiving files
Sending a file
When you are in a conversation with a contact and you would like to send
them a file, open the Contact menu and then oose Send file.
Empathy should open the “Select file” window. Find the file that you wish
to send and cli on the Send buon. A “File Transfers” window will open
showing the osen file and its transfer progress.
When the file transfer is complete, you can close the “File Transfers” win-
dow.
Receiving a file
When a contact wants to send you a file, the status icon to the le of the
contact’s name will flash with an icon of a paper plane.
To receive the file double-cli the contact’s name. Empathy will open
the “Select a destination” window. Choose a location where you would like
Empathy to save the file, and cli Save. Empathy should open the “File
Transfers” window.
e “File Transfers” window shows you the progress of current file trans-
fers. You can stop file transfers by cliing on the Stop buon, open trans-
ferred files by cliing on the Open buon, and clear the list of completed
transfers by cliing on the Clear buon.
Changing your status
You can use your status to show your contacts how busy you are or what you
are doing. You can use the standard statuses, whi are “Available,” “Busy,”
“Invisible,” and “Off-line.” ese can be anged in the main Empathy window
from the drop-down list at the top of the window.
e same drop-down list lets you set a custom status by oosing “Custom
Message…” next to the icon thats mates your status. Type what you would
like your status to say, and cli on the green e mark.
Changing your picture
Your picture is what your contacts will see next to your name in their contact
list. e default picture is the outline of a person. You can ange your picture
by opening the Edit menu, then oosing Personal Information.
Empathy should open the “Personal Information” window. From the Ac-
count drop-down list oose the account that you want to ange, then cli
on the picture on the right hand side of the window.
Empathy should open the “Select Your Avatar Image” window. Find the file
containing your picture, and cli Open. If you would like to return it to the
default avatar, cli on the No Image buon instead.
Microblogging
You can connect several microblogging services by opening the Applications
menu, then oosing Internet and then Gwibber Social Client. Until you add
accounts, the “Social Accounts” window will open.
Aer you have added accounts you will see the “Social broadcast mes-
sages” window.
In this window in the Add new drop-down list you can oose the from
Flir, Twier, StatusNet, Qaiku, Facebook, FriendFeed, Digg, and Identi.ca.
Figure .: Gwibber lets you add many
different account types.
MeMenu
If you cli you name in the top panel, you will see the “MeMenu,” in the box
below your name you can type a message to post on the sites that you have
set up with Gwibber.
.
You can also ange your account seings by cliing Broadcast Ac-
counts…, this opens the “Social accounts” window.
Changing accounts
To add more accounts aer you have already added some. Cli Edit then
Accounts, the “Social Accounts” window will open.
Adding accounts
In the “Social Accounts” cli Add…, ea account will need you to enter your
account details. e details that you require for ea account is detailed as
follows.
Flir: To set up a Flir account all you need is the account login .
Twitter: Requires a user name and password.
StatusNet: A login , domain and password is needed.
Qaiku: You will need an key, instructions for this are provided in the
Gwibber window. You will also need your login .
Facebook: Cli Authorize, then enter your email address and password
and cli Connect. If you want to be able to post on Facebook from Gwibber,
cli Allow publishing, otherwise cli Don’t allow.
If you want Gwibber to show your news feed, you will need to cli Al-
low access, otherwise cli Don’t allow. You will also need to allow status
updates—cli Allow status updates; if you don’t want Gwibber to be able to
update your status, cli Don’t allow.
In order for Gwibber to interact with Facebook ea time it is used, it will
need to have constant authorization. If not, you will have to authorize it ea
time you use it. To allow constant authorization cli Allow.
FriendFeed: A remote key is required for friend feed, Gwibber provides
information on where to get one from. You will also need a login .
Digg: A login is all that is required for Digg.
Identi.ca: A login and password is required for Identi.ca.
Removing accounts
In the “Social accounts” window cli the account that you want to remove
and cli Remove.
How Gwibber displays accounts
Gwibber allows you to post to either all, one or a selection of accounts. is
can be set at the boom of the “Social broadcast message” window, ea of the
accounts that you can post with will have an icon. Cliing on an icon so that
it is disabled (appears gray) means that you will not post to that account.
Once you have decided on whi accounts you want to post to you can
type your message in the text field above the icons, then cli Send.
Ea one of you accounts will have a set of icons to go with it, these are
displayed on the le hand size of the “Social broadcast message” window. e
set of icons that goes with an account has a baground color, ea one of
these icons allows you to do tasks for that specific account.
Viewing and editing photos
To view and edit photos in Ubuntu, you can use the F-Spot Photo Manager ap-
plication. To start F-Spot, open the Applications menu, then oose Graph-
ics, then F-Spot Photo Manager. When you start F-Spot for the first time,
you will see the “Import” window—how to use this is covered in ‘Importing’.
By default, F-Spot displays your photos by date. You can view photos from
a specific month by cliing on that month in the timeline near the top of the
window.
You can also play slide shows of your pictures by cliing on the Play
buon on the toolbar (this buon looks like a green triangle).
Figure .: F-Spot lets you store, tag, and
edit your photos.
is guide oen refers to the side bar on the le. If you can’t see it, open
.
the View menu, then oose Components, and oose Sidebar—making sure
the option is selected.
Version system
When you edit a photo, F-Spot creates a new version so that the original is not
lost. You can create a new version by opening the Photo menu, then oosing
Create New Version…. is opens the “Create New Version” window. In the
Name text field you can type what you would like to call the version and then
cli OK. A new version will then be created.
You can view previous versions of photos by cliing on the photo that
you wish to view, then cliing on the Edit Image buon. is anges the
side bar on the le to the “Edit” side bar. In the boom le, the Version drop-
down list allows you to oose previous versions of the photo.
You might want to rename a version so that you remember whi version
is whi. To rename a version, cli on the photo that you want to ange,
then cli on the Edit Image buon. is anges the side bar on the le to
the “Edit” side bar. In the boom le the Version drop-down list lets you
oose the version of the photo that you want to rename.
Open the Photo menu, then oose Rename Version. is will open the
“Rename Version” window. Enter the new name in the New name text field,
then if you want to rename the version cli OK. If you don’t want to rename
the version, cli Cancel.
When editing photos, you may make a mistake and may decide to remove
that version as you no longer need it. To delete a version, cli on the photo
that you want to ange, then cli on the Edit Image buon. is anges
the side bar on the le to the “Edit” side bar. In the boom le the Version
drop-down list oose the version of the photo that you want to delete. en
open the Photo menu, then oose Delete Version. is will open the “Really
Delete?” window. If you want to delete the version cli Delete. If you don’t
want to delete the version, cli Cancel.
Importing
When you laun F-Spot for the first time you will see the “Import” window.
Aer the first laun you can import more photos by cliing on the Import
buon.
When you import some photos, only the photos that you have just im-
ported are shown. To show all of your photos, cli on the gray X to the right
of the blue Find.
Choosing where F-Spot saves photos
When importing pictures in the “Import” window, the Copy files to the
Photos folder option determines where the photos are saved.
If the Copy files to the Photos folder option is selected then F-Spot will
copy the photos into the Photos folder, whi is within your Pictures folder.
e pictures are then sorted by year, month and then date.
If the Copy files to the Photos folder option is unselected then F-Spot will
not copy the pictures into the Photos folder.
Importing from file
Figure .: You can import all of your
photos.
To import photos that are saved on you computer, oose Select Folder
from the Import Source drop-down list. is opens the “Import” window.
Navigate to the folder containing your photos and cli Open.
When the loading bar says “Done Loading” all the photos in that folder
and any sub-folders are then displayed in the “Import” window. You can
exclude importing photos from sub-folders by deselecting the Include sub-
folders option.
All of the photos are imported by default, but you can oose to import
only some photos. To do so, press-and-hold the Ctrl key while cliing the
photos you do not want to import. Duplicates are automatically detected
when the Detect duplicates option is selected.
You can aa tags by typing the names of the your current tags in the
Atta Tags text field. If you want to use multiple tags then separate them
with a comma.
Once you have osen the photos that you want import, cli on the Im-
port buon.
.
From digital camera
To import photos from a digital camera, plug your camera into the port of
your computer, and turn your camera on. If your camera is detected, Ubuntu
should open a new window prompting you to import photos. Ensure that
Open F-Spot is osen in the drop-down list and cli OK. is will show the
“Import” window. In the Import Source drop-down list oose the option that
looks like …Camera.
A “Select Photos to Copy from Camera…” window will open. You can
then cli the photos that you want to copy. All of the photos are selected by
default but you can add or remove individual photos by pressing-and-holding
the Ctrl key while cliing on photos to deselect them.
You can aa tags to all of them by cliing on the Atta tag option and
oosing the tag in the Atta tag: drop-down list. For more information
about tags see Organizing photos.
You can ange where the files are saved in the Target location drop-
down list. e default is the Photos folder—this is where F-Spot saves the
photos.
Once you have osen the photos that you want to import, cli on the
Copy buon. e “Transferring Pictures” window should open, and will show
the copying progress. When copying is complete, the progress bar will display
Download Complete. Finally, cli OK to show your photos in F-Spot.
Organizing photos
F-Spot makes finding photos of the same type easier by using tags. You can
apply as many tags to a photo as you like.
To apply tags to photos, first select the photos. en right-cli on the
photos and oose Atta Tag. Cli the tag you want add to your photos.
You can aa tags when importing photos, as covered in the “Importing”
section.
You can make new tags by opening the Tags and oosing Create New
Tag…. is will open up the “Create New Tag” window. Enter the name of
the tag in the Name of New Tag: text field. e Parent Tag: drop-down list
allows you to oose the “parent” tag for your new tag.
Editing Images
You may want to edit some of the photos you import into F-Spot. For exam-
ple, you may want to remove something at the edge, some discoloring, fix red
eyes, or straighten a photo. To edit a photo, cli on the photo that you want
to edit and then cli on the Edit Image buon. is anges the side bar on
the le of the “F-Spot” window. e panel will show eight options: Crop,
Red-eye Reduction, De-saturate, Sepia Tone, Straighten, So Focus, Auto
Color, and Adjust Colors. Some of these options are explained in more detail
in the next section.
Cropping photos
You might want to crop a photo to ange the framing or remove part of the
edge of the photo. Cli on the Crop on the le panel, then in the Select an
area to crop drop-down list oose the ratio that you would like to crop with.
You might want oose the ratio that mates the ratio that you would like to
print, so that the photo is not streted.
You can create custom constraints if one of the defaults does not meet your
requirements. is is done by oosing Custom Ratios from the Select an
area to crop drop-down list. is opens the “Selection Constraints” window.
Cli Add to place a new entry on the le of the window.
Once you have osen your constraint, move the cursor to one conner of
the section of the photo that you want to keep. Cli-and-hold the le mouse
buon and drag it to the opposite corner of the section that you want to keep.
Release the the mouse buon to finish your cropping selection.
To resize the cropping selection box, move the mouse until an arrow points
to the side of the cropping selection box that you want to move. Cli-and-
hold the le mouse buon, and move the mouse until the edge is in the right
place.
All ratios work in portrait and landscape mode. To ange between the
two, you need to cli on the edge of the cropping selection box as if you
were to resize the box. Moving the cursor between top right and boom le
swites between portrait and landscape modes.
Red-eye Reduction
If you have taken a photo and the flash caused the subject to have red eyes,
you can fix this problem in F-Spot. First, cli on the Red-eye Reduction
buon. Move the cursor to the one corner of the subject’s eye and cli-and-
hold the le mouse buon as you drag the cursor to the opposite corner of the
eye. en, release the mouse buon.
is box can be moved by placing the cursor into the middle of the red
eye selection box until a hand cursor is shown. en, cli-and-hold the le
mouse buon and move the selection box into the correct place. When it is in
the correct place you can release the le mouse buon.
To resize the box, move the mouse until an arrow points to the side of the
red eye selection box that you want to move. Cli-and-hold the le mouse
buon, move the mouse until the edge is in the right place.
When the box covers all of the red in one eye, cli the Fix buon. You
will need to repeat the process for ea of the subject’s eyes that is affected.
.
Straighten
If you have a photo where the subject is at an angle, you can straighten the
photo with F-Spot. First, cli on the Straighten buon. en move the slider
until the picture is straight again. F-Spot will auto crop the picture to remove
any white parts that occur due to the rotation. When you are happy that the
picture is straight, cli on the Straighten buon.
Auto Color
To automatically correct the coloring of a photo, cli on the Auto Color
buon.
Exporting to web services
F-Spot allows you to export you photos to a Web Gallery, Folder or and the
following services: SmugMug, PicasaWeb, Flir, hq and Zooomr.
You can export to these services by selecting a picture and then opening
the Photo menu, then oosing Export to and cliing the service that you
require. is will open a window in whi you can enter your account name
and password for the service. is will allow you to upload pictures to this
service.
Watching videos and movies
To wat videos or s in Ubuntu, you can use the Movie Player application.
To start the Movie Player, open the Applications menu, then oose Sound &
Video, then oose Movie Player. is will open the “Movie Player” window.
Codecs
Wating s may require Ubuntu to install a “codec,” whi is a piece of
soware that allows your computer to understand the contents of the ,
and display the video.
Legal Notice Patent and copyright laws operate differently depending on whi
country you are in. Please obtain legal advice if you are unsure whether a par-
ticular patent or restriction applies to a media format you wish to use in your
country.
So that you can play all videos and s, you will need to install some
codecs. is is done by enabling the Multiverse repositories (for how to do
this see Chapter : Soware Management).
Once you have enabled the repositories, open the Applications menu, then
oose Ubuntu Soware Center. When the “Ubuntu Soware Center” win-
dow opens, use the sear box in the top right and sear for the following:
‣ gstreamer.-ffmpeg
Figure .: Totem plays music and videos.
‣ gstreamer.-plugins-bad
‣ gstreamer.-plugins-ugly
‣ gstreamer.-plugins-base
‣ gstreamer.-plugins-good
‣ libdvdread
‣ libdvdnav
‣ libdvdcss
When you find ea one, select it with a double-cli and then cli the
Install buon. is may open an “Authenticate” window. If so, enter your
password then cli Authenticate to start the installation process.
To finish codec installation, you also need to run a command in the termi- For more information on the terminal see
nal. Open the Applications menu, then oose Accessories and then oose Chapter : The Command Line
Terminal. is will open the “Terminal” window.
Type the command as shown below. Sudo is a way to gain temporary adminis-
trative rights to perform certain tasks, such
$ sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh as installing new soware. Usually, sudo is
presented in a window for you to enter your
password. When you enter your password
in a terminal, it will not be shown.
.
Once you have typed the command, press Enter. You will be asked for
your password—to authorize this action, type in you password and press
Enter. Wait for the process to finish. Once it has finished you can close the
“Terminal” window.
Playing videos from file
Open the Movie menu, then oose Open…. is will open the “Select Movies
or Playlists” window. Find the file or files that you want to play and cli on
the Add buon. e video or videos will start playing.
Playing a DVD
When you insert a in the computer, Ubuntu should open the “You have
just inserted a Video . Choose what application to laun” window. Make
sure that Open Movie Player is osen in the drop-down list and then cli
OK. e “Movie Player” window will open and the movie will start.
If the “Movie Player” window is already open, open Movie menu, then
oose Play Disc… and the movie will start.
Listening to audio and music
Ubuntu comes with the Rhythmbox Music Player for listening to your music,
streaming Internet radio, managing playlists and podcasts, and purasing
songs.
Starting Rhythmbox
To start Rhythmbox, open the Applications menu, then oose Sound &
Video, then Rhythmbox Music Player.
To quit Rhythmbox, oose Music ‣ it or press Ctrl+Q. Rhythmbox
will continue to run if you oose Music ‣ Close or close the window. A few
Rhythmbox tools (su as Play, Next, and Previous) are available from the
Rhythmbox Music Player icon in the notification area (typically the top right
of your screen). You can also oose it from this menu to quit Rhythmbox.
Playing music
In order to play music, you must first import music into your library. Choose
Music ‣ Import Folder or press Ctrl+O on your keyboard to import a folder of
songs or Import File for single songs.
e Rhythmbox toolbar contains most of the controls that you will use for
browsing and playing your music.
If you want to play a song, select a tra and cli on the Play buon on
the toolbar (you can also oose Control ‣ Play from the menubar or press
Ctrl+Space). Cliing on the Play buon again will pause the song.
Figure .: Rhythmbox with a CD in.
Next and Previous buons are next to the Play buon. You can cli on
these buons to play the next and previous songs in your library.
e Rhythmbox toolbar also has options to enable or disable Repeat
(Control ‣ Repeat or Ctrl+R), Shuffle (Control ‣ Shuffle or Ctrl+U), the
Artist/Album browser (View ‣ Browse or Ctrl+B), and Visualization.
When you insert a into your computer, it will appear in the list of
Devices in the Side Pane. Select the in the Devices list. Enable and disable
the Side Pane by oosing View ‣ Side Pane or F9. Rhythmbox will aempt to
find the correct artist, album, and tra names. To play the songs on the ,
oose the tra and press Play.
To import the songs into your library, select the in the Devices list. You
can review information about the , make any anges if needed, or deselect
songs that you do not want to import. e toolbar will display additional
options to reload album information, eject the , and copy the tras to your
library. Press the Copy buon to import the songs.
.
Listening to streaming radio
Rhythmbox is pre-configured to enable you to stream radio from various Streaming radio are radio stations that are
broadcast over the Internet.
sources. ese include Internet broadcast stations (Radio from the Side Pane)
as well as Last.fm. To listen to an Internet radio station, oose a station
from the list and cli Play. To listen to music from Last.fm, configure your
Account Seings.
Connect digital audio players
Rhythmbox can connect with many popular digital audio players. Connected
players will appear in the Devices list. Features will vary depending on the
player but common tasks like transferring songs and playlists should be sup-
ported.
Listen to shared music
If you are on the same network as other Rhythmbox users (or any music stands for “Digital Audio Access
Protocol,” and is a method designed by
player soware with support), you can share your music and listen to
Apple Inc. to let soware share media
their shared music. Choose Shared from the Side Pane for a list of shared across a network.
libraries on your network. Cliing a shared library will enable you to browse
and play songs from other computers.
Manage podcasts
Rhythmbox can manage all of your favorite podcasts. Select Podcasts from
the Side Pane to view all added podcasts. e toolbar will display additional
options to Subscribe to a new Podcast Feed and Update all feeds. Choose
Music ‣ New Podcast Feed, Ctrl+P, or press the Subscribe buon in the
toolbar to import a podcast . Podcasts will be automatically downloaded
at regular intervals or you can manually update feeds. Select an episode and
cli Play. You can also delete episodes.
Rhythmbox preferences
e default configuration of Rhythmbox may not be exactly what you want.
Choose Edit ‣ Preferences to alter the application seings. e Preferences
tool is broken into four main areas: General, Playba, Music, and Podcasts.
‣ General options include music filtering and sorting options and a configu-
ration seing for toolbar buon labels.
‣ Playba options allow you to customize the crossfading feature and
define the buffer seing for streamed music from sources su as Internet
radio and shared libraries.
‣ Music options define the Library Location on your computer where im-
ported music is added, the Library Structure of how folders are created
Figure .: You can add and play your
podcasts in Rhythmbox.
based on your imported music, and the Preferred format for imported
music.
‣ Podcasts options define the Download location podcast episodes and the
frequency to Che for new episodes.
Managing your music
Rhythmbox supports creating playlists. Playlists are either static lists of songs
that are played in order or can be automatic playlists based on your specific
filter criteria. Playlists contain references to songs in your library. ey do
not contain the actual song file. If you remove a song from a playlist (Remove
from Playlist), it will remain in your library.
To create a playlist, oose Music ‣ Playlist ‣ New Playlist or Ctrl+N and
give the new playlist a name. You can then either drag songs from you library
to the new playlist in the side pane or right-cli on songs and oose Add to
Playlist and pi the playlist.
Automatic Playlists are created almost the same way as static playlists
—oose Music ‣ Playlist ‣ New Automatic Playlist. Next, define the fil-
.
ter criteria. You can add multiple filter rules. Finally, cli Close and give
the new automatic playlist a name. Automatic Playlists will appear in your
side pane with a different icon than any static playlists. You can update any
playlist by right-cliing on the name and oosing Edit….
Rhythmbox supports seing song ratings. Select a song in your library and
oose Music ‣ Properties, Alt+Enter, or right-cli on the file and oose
Properties. Select the Details tab and set the rating by piing the number of
stars. Other song information su as Title, Artist, and Album can be anged
from the Basic tab. Cli Close to save any anges.
To delete a song, select it in your library and oose Edit ‣ Move to Trash
or right-cli on the song and oose Move to Trash. is will move the song
file to your trash.
If you ever want to move a song (for example to another computer), oose
the song (or group of songs) from your library and drag it to a folder or to
your desktop. is will make a copy in the new location.
Rhythmbox plugins
Rhythmbox comes with a variety of plugins. ese are tools that you can
enable and disable that add more features to Rhythmbox. Examples include
Cover art, Song Lyrics, and various music stores. A few plugins are enabled by
default.
To view the list of available plugins, oose Edit ‣ Plugins. e Configure
Plugins window allows you to enable or disable individual plugins, view
descriptions, and configure additional options if they are available for the
plugin.
Music stores
Rhythmbox has three music stores whi give you access to an extremely
large catalog of music with a variety of licensing options.
e Jamendo store sells free, legal and unlimited music published under
the six Creative Commons licenses. You can browse the catalog and play
songs by oosing Jamendo in the Stores list in the side pane. More informa-
tion about their catalog can be found at http://www.jamendo.com/.
e Magnatune store sells music from independent musicians. ey work
directly with artists and hand-pi the songs available. eir catalog is com-
posed of high quality, non- (no copy protection) music and covers a
variety of genres from Classical and Jazz to Hip Hop and Hard Ro. You can
browse the catalog and play songs by oosing Magnatune in the Stores list in
the side pane. More information about their catalog and subscription service
can be found at http://www.magnatune.com/.
e Ubuntu One Music Store sells music from major and minor music
labels around the world. e store offers non- (no copy protection) songs
encoded in either high quality or format. Ubuntu does not come
with support for playba, but the store will install the proper codecs
automatically for free. You can browse the catalog, play previews, and buy
songs by oosing Ubuntu One in the Stores list in the side pane.
e Ubuntu One Music Store integrates with the Ubuntu One service. All
purases are transfered to your personal cloud storage and then automati-
cally copied to all of your computers so an Ubuntu One account is required.
e catalog of music available for purase will vary depending on where you
live in the world. More information about the Ubuntu One Music Store can be
found at http://one.ubuntu.com/.
Audio codecs
Different audio files (e.g., , , ) require unique tools to decode them
and play the contents. ese tools are called codecs. Rhythmbox will aempt
to detect any missing codecs on your system so you can play all of your audio
files. If a codec is missing, it will try to find the codec in online resources and
guide you through installation.
Rhythmbox support
Rhythmbox is used by many users throughout the world. ere are a variety
of support resources available in many languages.
‣ Choose the Help buon for a variety of support options and information
about reporting Rhythmbox bugs.
‣ e Rhythmbox website: http://projects.gnome.org/rhythmbox/
‣ e Multimedia & Video category of Ubuntu Forums: http://ubuntuforums.
org/forumdisplay.php?f=
Working with documents, spreadsheets, and presentations
ite oen, you may need to use your computer for work. You may have a
need to use a word processor to write a document. You may need to work on
a spreadsheet, do calculations on a table of data or create a data art. You
may want to work on slides for a presentation.
In Ubuntu, you can use the OpenOffice.org suite of applications for these
tasks.
Working with documents
If you need to work with documents, you can use the OpenOffice.org Word The OpenOffice.org Word Processor is
also known as the OpenOffice.org Writer.
Processor. To start the word processor, open the Applications menu, oose
Spreadsheet is also known as Calc, and
Office, and then oose OpenOffice.org Word Processor. Ubuntu should Presentation is known as Impress.
then open the main window for the word processor.
.
Working with spreadsheets
If you need to work with spreadsheets, you can use the OpenOffice.org
Spreadsheet. To start the spreadsheet application, open the Applications
menu, oose Office, and then oose OpenOffice.org Spreadsheet.
Working with presentations
If you need to work with slides for a presentation, you can use the OpenOf-
fice.org Presentation. To start the presentation application, open the Applica-
tions menu, oose Office, and then oose OpenOffice.org Presentation.
Geing more help
Ea of these applications comes with a comprehensive set of help screens. If
you are looking for more assistance with these applications, press the F1 key
aer starting the application.
Taking notes
You can take notes in a program called Tomboy Notes, you can use it to make
a shopping or a to do list. Cli Applications, then cli Accessories and cli
Tomboy Notes.
You can sear all of your notes by typing a word in the Sear: text field
in the main tomboy window.
Making notes
To create a new note cli File, then cli New, the “New Note” window will
open.
e “New Note” window will contain a blue title “New Note”—this can
be deleted and anged to a title that makes the note more memorable. e
main content of the note can be typed where it says “Describe your new note
here.” Once you have entered your text just close your note as all anges are
automatically saved.
To delete the note cli the red delete note buon, this will open a “Really
delete this note?” window. If you do want to delete the note cli the Delete
buon, otherwise cli the Cancel buon.
You can add a note to a notebook by cliing the Notebook buon and
cliing the option next to the notebook that you want to move the note to.
Organizing notes
You can organize your notes in Tomboy using “Notebooks,” is makes find-
ing you notes quier and in a more logical location. To create a new note
book cli File, then Notebooks, and cli New Notebook….
Figure .: You can record information that
you need to remember.
e “Create a new notebook” window will open, type the name of the
notebook in the Notebook name: text field. Once you have typed the note-
book name cli the Create buon.
e notebook will now show up in the sidebar of Tomboy Notes. You can
cli and hold on the note of your oice and drag it on top of the notebook
that you want to move it to.
Synchronizing
You can synronize you notes with your Ubuntu One account, this means
that you can access them across all of your ubuntu computer. You can also
access them from https://one.ubuntu.com/.
To synronize you notes cli the Edit, then cli Preferences, this will
open the “Tomboy Preferences” window. Cli the Synronization tab and
then in the Service drop down cli Tomboy Web.
Next cli the Connect to Server buon, this will open a web page in
Firefox you will need to enter the email address that you use for ubuntu one
and your password. en cli the Continue buon, then in the Computer
.
Name text field enter a name that reminds you of that computer and cli
the Add is Computer buon. Firefox will then display a page that says
something similar to “Tomboy Web Authorization Successful.”
Ba at the “Tomboy Preferences” window cli the Save buon. A new
window will pop up asking if you want to “synronize your notes now,” cli
the Yes buon and the “Synronizing Notes…” window will show, once the
synronization is complete cli the Close buon.
If you want to synronize the notes again cli Tools and cli Synro-
nize Notes. Your notes will start synronizing, when they are done, cli the
close buon.
Ubuntu One
It is common for many people to use multiple computers in the course of their
work, sool, and personal life. You might have a desktop at your office as
well as a laptop for traveling or just going to a coffee shop. Ensuring that all
of your files are accessible no maer what computer you’re using is quite
a difficult task. e same could be said for the complexity of keeping your
Evolution address book, Tomboy notes, or Firefox bookmarks in sync.
Ubuntu One can help you keep your digital life in sync. All of your docu-
ments, music, bookmarks, address book contacts, and notes stay in sync across
all of your computers. In addition, they’re all stored in your personal cloud so
you can use a web browser from any computer to access all of your stuff from
the Ubuntu One website (http://one.ubuntu.com/).
Ubuntu One provides all Ubuntu users with of storage for free. More
storage capacity and contacts synronization with mobile phones is available
for a monthly fee. Aer you set up Ubuntu One you can continue to use your
computer as you normally would, with Ubuntu One taking care of making
your data appear on all your other computers with Ubuntu One installed.
Seing up Ubuntu One
To set up Ubuntu One, first open the System menu, then oose Preferences,
then Ubuntu One. If this is your first time running the Ubuntu One Prefer-
ences application, it will add your computer to your Ubuntu One account.
Ubuntu One uses the Ubuntu Single Sign On () service for user ac-
counts. If you don’t already have an Ubuntu account, the setup process
will let you create one. When you’re finished, you will have an Ubuntu
account, a free Ubuntu One subscription, and your computer will be setup for
synronization.
Ubuntu One Preferences
e Ubuntu One Preferences application shows how mu of your storage
capacity you are currently using as well as provides account management
tools.
e Account tab displays your account information like name and email
address and links to more account management and tenical support re-
sources.
e Devices tab lists all of the devices that are currently added to synro-
nize with your account. Devices are either computers or mobile phones. For
the computer that you are currently using, you can adjust how mu of your
bandwidth is used by synronization and connect or reconnect to Ubuntu
One. You can also remove computers and mobile phones from your Ubuntu
One account.
e Services tab is where you manage what Ubuntu One features synro-
nize with your cloud storage and other computers. You can enable or disable
the synronization of files, purased music, contacts, and bookmarks.
More information
For more information about Ubuntu One, its services, and tenical support
resources, visit the Ubuntu One website at http://one.ubuntu.com/. Follow
the Ubuntu One blog at http://one.ubuntu.com/blog for news on the latest
features.
Hardware
Using your devices
Ubuntu supports a wide range of hardware, and support for new hardware
improves with every release.
Hardware identification
To identify your hardware you can install the following application: Cli
Applications, scroll down to Ubuntu Soware Center. When the “Ubuntu
Soware Center” window opens, use the sear box in the top right and
sear for the following: “sysinfo.” Now cli More Info ‣ Install to install the
application.
Now to run the application go to Applications ‣ System Tools ‣ Sysinfo.
e program should open up providing you with access to information about
all your hardware on your system.
Displays
Hardware drivers
A driver is some code paaged in a file, whi tells your computer how to
utilize a piece of hardware. Every component in a computer requires a driver
to function, whether it’s the printer, player, hard disk, or graphics card.
A majority of graphics cards are manufactured by three well known com- Your graphics card is the component in your
panies: Intel, /, and Corp. You can find your card manufacturer computer that powers your display. When
you’re watching videos on YouTube or s
by referring to your computer manual or looking for the specifications of or simply enjoying the smooth transition
your particular model on the internet. e Ubuntu Soware Center houses a effects when you maximize/minimize your
windows, your graphics device is doing the
number of programs that allow detailed system information to be obtained. hard work behind the scenes.
SysInfo is one su program that you can use to find relevant information
about your System devices. Ubuntu comes with support for graphics devices
manufactured by the above companies, and many others, out of the box. at
means that you don’t have to find and install any drivers by yourself, Ubuntu
takes care of it on its own.
In keeping with Ubuntu’s philosophy, the drivers that are used by default
for powering graphics devices are open source. is means that the drivers
can be modified by the Ubuntu developers and problems with them can be
fixed. However, in some cases the proprietary driver (restricted driver) pro-
vided by the company may provide beer performance or features that are
not present in the open source driver wrien by the developer community. In
other cases, your particular device may not be supported by the open source
.
drivers yet. In those scenarios, you may want to install the restricted driver
provided by the manufacturer.
For both philosophical and practical reasons, Ubuntu does not install
restricted drivers by default but allows the user to make an informed oice.
Remember that restricted drivers, unlike the open source drivers for your
device, are not maintained by Ubuntu. Problems caused by those drivers will
be resolved only when the manufacturer wishes to address them. To see if
restricted drivers are available for your system, cli System in the top panel,
go to Administration and find Hardware Drivers. If a driver is provided by
the company for your particular device, it will be listed there. You can simply
cli Activate and use the driver if you want. is process will require an
active Internet connection and will ask for your password.
e Ubuntu developers prefer open source drivers because they allow the
problem to be identified and fixed by anyone with knowledge in the com-
munity. Ubuntu development is extremely fast and it is a good ance that Another useful resource is the official online
documentation (http://help.ubuntu.com),
your device will be supported by open source drivers. You can use the Ubuntu
which contains detailed information
Live to e for your device compatibility before installing Ubuntu or go about various graphics drivers and known
online in the Ubuntu forums to ask about your particular device. problems.
Seing up your screen resolution
One of the most common display related tasks is seing up your screen reso-
lution.
Ubuntu correctly identifies your native screen resolution by itself and sets Displays are made up of thousands of
it for you. However, due to a huge variety of devices available, sometimes it tiny pixels. Each pixel displays a different
color, and when combined they all display
can make a mistake and set up an undesirable resolution. the image that you see. The native screen
To set up or just e your screen resolution, go to System ‣ Preferences ‣ resolution is a measure of the amount of
actual pixels on your display.
Monitors. e Monitors application shows you your monitor name and size,
the screen resolution and refresh rate. Cliing on the displayed resolution
(e.g., “× (:)”) would open a drop-down menu where you can select
the resolution of your oice.
Connecting and using your printer
You can add, remove, and ange printer properties by navigating to System ‣
Administration ‣ Printing. is will display the “Printing-localhost” window.
When you add a printer it will need to be plugged in with a cable or
connected to you network. It will also need to be swited on.
Adding a local printer
If you have a printer that is connected to your computer with a cable
then this is a local printer. You can add a printer by cliing the Add Printer
buon.
In the le hand pane of the “New Printer” window any printers that you
can install will be listed. Select the printer that you would like to install and
cli Forward.
You can now specify the printer name, description and location. Ea of If your printer can automatically do double
sided printing it will probably have a
these should remind you of that particular printer so that you can oose the
duplexer. Please refer to the instructions
right one to use when printing. Finally cli Apply. that came with the printer if you are unsure.
If you do have a duplexer you will need to
make sure the Duplexer Installed option is
Adding a network printer checked and then click the Forward buon.
Make sure that your printer is connected to your network with an Ethernet
cable and is turned on. You can add a printer by cliing Add Printer. e
“New Printer” window will open. Cli the “+” sign next to Network Printer.
If your printer is found automatically it will appear under Network Printer.
Cli the printer name and then cli Forward. In the text fields you can
now specify the printer name, description and location. Ea of these should
remind you of that particular printer so that you can oose the right one to
use when printing. Finally cli Apply.
You can also add your network printer by entering the address of the
printer. Select Find Network Printer, type in the address of the printer The default printer is the one that is auto-
matically selected when you print a file. To
in the box that reads Host: and press the Find buon. Ubuntu will find the
set a printer as default right click the printer
printer and add it. Most recent printers are detected by Ubuntu automatically. that you want to set as default and click Set
If Ubuntu cannot detect the printer automatically, it will ask you to enter the As Default.
make and model number of the printer.
Changing printer options
Printer options allow you to ange the printing quality, paper size and media
type. ey can be anged by right cliing a printer and oosing Properties.
e “Printer Properties” window will show, in the le pane oose Printer
Options.
You can now specify seings by anging the drop-down entries. Some of
the options that you might see are explained.
Media Size
is is the size of the paper that you put into your printer tray.
Media source
is is the tray that the paper comes from.
Output mode
is is very useful if you want to print in Bla Only Grayscale to save on
ink, or to print in Color, or High ality Grayscale.
.
Media type
Depending on the printer you can ange between:
‣ Plain Paper
‣ Automatic
‣ Photo Paper
‣ Transparency Film
‣ or Media
Print ality
is specifies how mu ink is used when printing, Fast Dra using the least
ink and High-Resolution Photo using the most ink.
Sound
Ubuntu usually detects the audio hardware of the system automatically dur-
ing installation. e audio in Ubuntu is provided by a sound server named
PulseAudio. e audio preferences are easily configurable with the help of a
very easy to use whi comes pre-installed with Ubuntu.
A volume icon, siing on the top right corner of the screen, provides qui
access to different audio related functions. Le cliing on the volume icon
shows up a slider buon whi you can move horizontally to increase/de-
crease volume. Le cliing on the volume icon also allows you to oose
between muting the sound and Sound Preferences. Selecting Sound Pref-
erences opens up another window whi provides access to sound themes,
hardware, input and output preferences. Sound Preferences can also be found
if you go to System ‣ Preferences ‣ Sound.
e first tab whi shows up by default is sound themes. You can disable
the existing sound theme or configure it with the options available.
e hardware tab will have a list of all the sound cards available in your You can add new sound themes by installing
them from Soware Center (e.g., Ubuntu
system. Usually there is only one listed, however, if you have a graphics card
Studio Sound theme.) You will get the
whi supports audio it will also show up in the list. is section should installed sound themes from the drop down
be configured only if you are an advanced user. menu. You can also enable window and
buon sounds.
e third tab is for configuring input audio. You will be able to use this A microphone is used for making au-
section when you have an inbuilt microphone in your system or if you add an dio/video calls which are supported by
external microphone. applications like Skype or Empathy. It can
also used for sound recording.
You can increase/decrease and mute/unmute input volume from this tab. If You should note that by default in any
there is more than one input device, you will see them listed in the white box Ubuntu installation, the input sound is
whi reads Choose a device for sound input. muted. You will have to manually unmute
to enable your microphone to record sound
e output tab is used for configuring the output audio. You can in- or use it during audio/video calls.
crease/decrease and mute/unmute output volume and select your preferred By default, the volume in Ubuntu is set to
maximum during installation.
output device.
If you have more than one output device, it will be listed in the section If you change your sound output device, it
will remain as default.
whi reads “Choose a device for sound output.” e default output hardware,
whi is automatically detected by Ubuntu during installation will be selected.
e Applications tab is for anging the volume for running applications.
is comes in very handy if you have multiple audio programs running, for
example, if you have Rhythmbox, Totem Movie Player and a web-based video
playing at the same time. In this situation, you will be able to increase/de-
crease, mute/unmute volume for ea application from this tab.
Burning CDs and DVDs
To create a or go to Applications ‣ Sound and Video ‣ Brasero Disc
Burner. is opens Brasero, whi gives you five options to oose from.
Ea one of these is explained below.
Figure .: Brasero burns music, video, and
data s and s.
Universal options
ese options apply for all projects except Disc copy and Burn Image.
.
Adding files to a project
To add files to the list, cli the Green + buon, whi opens the “Select Files”
window. en navigate your way to the file you want to add, cli it, and
then cli the Add buon. Repeat this process for ea file that you want to
add.
Saving a project
To save a project so that you can finish it later, oose Project ‣ Save. e
“Save Current Project” window will be opened. Choose where you would like
to save the project. en, in the Name: text field, enter a name for the project
so that you will remember it. Now cli the Save buon.
Removing files
If you want to remove a file from the project, cli the file in the list and cli Icons of a broom are oen used in Ubuntu
to represent clearing a text field or returning
on the Red - buon. To remove all the files in the list cli on the Broom
something to its default state.
shaped buon.
Burning the disc
When you cli the burn buon you will see the “Properties of …” window.
You can specify the burning speed in the Burning speed drop down. It is
best to oose the highest speed.
To burn your project directly to the disc, select the Burn the image di-
rectly without saving it to disc option. With this option selected, no image
file is created and no files are saved to the hard disk.
e Simulate before burning option is useful if you encounter problems Temporary files are saved in the /tmp folder
burning discs. Selecting this option allows you to simulate the disc burning by default. Should you wish to save these
files in another location, you will need to
process without actually writing data to a disc—a wasteful process if your change the seing in the Temporary files
computer isn’t writing data correctly. If the simulation is successful, Brasero drop down menu. Under normal conditions,
you should not need to change this seing.
will burn the disc aer a ten second pause. During that ten second pause, you
have the option to cancel the burning process.
Blanking a disk
If you are using a disc that has wrien on it and you have used it before, stands for Re-Writable which means that
then you can blank it so that you can use it again. Doing this will cause you disc can be used more than once.
to lose all of the data currently on the disc. To blank a disc, open the Tools
menu, then oose Blank. e “Disc Blanking” window will be open. In the
Select a disc drop down oose the disc that you would like to blank.
You can enable the Fast blank option if you would like to shorten the
amount of time to perform the blanking process. However, selecting this
option will not fully remove the files; if you have any sensitive data on your
disc, it would be best not to enable the Fast blank option.
Once the disc is blank the you will see e disc was successfully blanked.
Cli the Close buon to finish.
Audio project
If you record your own music, then you may want to transfer this music onto
an audio so your friends and family can listen. You can start an audio
project by cliing Project, then New Project and then New Audio Project.
So that ea file does not play straight aer ea other you can add a
two second pause aer a file. is can be done by cliing the file and then
cliing the || buon.
You can slice files into parts by cliing the Knife buon. is opens a
“Split Tra” window. e Method drop down gives you four options ea
one of these lets you split the tra in a different way. Once you have split the
tra cli OK.
In the drop down at the boom of the main “Brasero” window make sure
that you have selected the disc that you want to burn the files to. en cli
the Burn buon.
Data project
If you want to make a ba up of your documents or photos it would be best
to make a data project. You can start a data project by cliing Project then
cliing New Project and then New Data Project.
If you want to add a folder you can cli the Folder picture, then type the
name of the folder.
In the drop down at the boom of the main “Brasero” window make sure
that you have selected the disc that you want to burn the files to. en cli
the Burn buon.
Video project
If you want to make a of your family videos it would be best to make
a video project. You can start a video project by cliing Project, then New
Project and then New Video Project.
In the drop down at the boom of the main “Brasero” window make sure
that you have selected the disc that you want to burn the files to. en cli
the Burn buon.
Disc copy
You can copy a disc cliing Project, then New Project and then Disc copy.
is opens the “Copy /” window.
If you have two / drives you can copy a disc from one to the other,
the disc that you want to copy to must be in the / drive. If you
have only one drive you will need to make and image and then burn it to a
.
disc. In the Select disc to copy drop-down oose the disc to copy. In the
Select a disc to write to drop-down either oose image file or the disc that
you want to copy to.
Image file
You can ange where the image file is saved by cliing Properties, this
shows the “Location for Image File”. You can edit the name of the file in the
Name: text field.
e default save location is your home folder, you can ange this by
cliing the + next to Browse for other folders . Once you have osen
where you want to save it cli Close.
Ba in the “Copy /” window cli Create Image. Brasero will open
the “Creating Image” and will display the job progress. When the process is
complete cli Close.
Burn image
To burn an image, open the Project menu, then oose New Project, and
then Disc copy. Brasero will open the “Image Burning Setup” window. Cli
on the Select a disc image to write drop-down and the “Select Disc Image”
window will appear. Navigate your way to the image you wish to burn, cli
on it, and then cli Open.
In the Select a disc to write to drop-down menu, cli on the disc to
whi you’d like to write, then cli Burn.
Using a webcam
Webcams oen come built into most laptops and netbooks. Some computers,
su as Apple desktops, also have webcams built into the monitors. e rest of
the webcams typically use connections. To use a webcam, plug it into
an open port in your computer.
Almost all new webcams are detected by Ubuntu automatically. You can There are quite a few applications which
are useful for webcams. Cheese can capture
configure webcams for individual applications su as Skype and Empathy
pictures with your webcam and VLC media
from the application’s setup menu. For webcams whi do not work right player can capture video streaming from
away with Ubuntu, visit https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Webcam for help. your webcam. You can install these from the
Ubuntu Soware Center.
Scanning text and images
Most of the time, Ubuntu will simply detect your scanner and you should just
be able to use it. To scan a document, follow these steps:
. Place what you want to scan on the scanner.
. Go to Applications ‣ Graphics ‣ Simple Scan.
Does my scanner work with Ubuntu?
ere are three ways to see if you scanner works in Ubuntu:
. Simply plug it in. If it is a newer scanner, it is likely that it will just
work.
. Che https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupportComponentsScanners
whi is Ubuntu specific.
. project listing of support scanners. e (Scanner Access Now
Easy) project provides most of the ba-ends to the scanning soware on
Ubuntu.
Ubuntu can’t find my scanner
ere are a few reason why Ubuntu may give you a “No devices available
message”:
‣ Your scanner is not supported in Ubuntu. e most common type of scan-
ner not supported is old parallel port or Lexmark All-in-One printer/scan-
ner/faxes.
‣ e driver for your scanner is not being automatically loaded.
Other devices
Firewire
Firewire is a special type of port that makes use of Firewire tenology to
transfer data. is port is generally used by camcorders and digital cameras.
If you want to import video from your camcorder you can do so by con-
necting your camcorder to the Firewire port. You will need to install a pro- To find out more about Kino, visit http://
www.kinodv.org/.
gram called Kino whi is available in the Ubuntu Soware Center.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is widely used on devices, mouses, mobile phones, headsets,
music players, desktops and laptops for data transfer, listening to music,
playing games and for various other activities. All modern operating systems
support Bluetooth and Ubuntu is no exception.
You can access the Bluetooth preferences by le-cliing on the Bluetooth
icon on the right hand side of the top panel. It is usually located next to the
volume icon. Le-cliing on the Bluetooth icon opens a popup menu with
several oices, su as an option to Turn off Bluetooth.
e Bluetooth preferences can also be accessed from System ‣ Preferences ‣
Bluetooth. If you want to setup a new device su as a mobile phone to
synronize with your computer, oose the option that reads Setup new
device...
.
Figure .: The Bluetooth applet menu.
Ubuntu will then open a window for new device setup. When you cli
Forward, Ubuntu will open the second screen whi will show you how
many Bluetooth devices are present within the range of your system. e list
of available devices might take a minute or so to appear on the screen as your
system will be scanning for the devices. e scan and display is in real time,
whi means that every device will be displayed as soon as it is found. Cli
on the required Bluetooth device from the list of devices. en, select the
number by selecting PIN options.
ree predefined numbers are available but you can create a custom
if you like. You will need to enter this on the device you will be pair-
ing with Ubuntu.
Once the device has been paired, Ubuntu will open the “Setup completed”
screen.
In Ubuntu, your computer is hidden by default for security reasons. is
means that your Ubuntu system can sear other Bluetooth enabled systems
but they cannot sear for your Ubuntu system. You will have to enable
the option, if you want your Bluetooth device to find your Ubuntu system.
You can do this by selecting the option “Make computer discoverable” in
Bluetooth preferences. You can also add a fancy name for your Bluetooth-
enabled Ubuntu system by anging the text under Friendly Name.
Soware Management
Soware management in Ubuntu
As discussed in Chapter : Working with Ubuntu, a range of default applica-
tions are available in Ubuntu that are suitable for many everyday tasks. At
some point you may decide to test out an alternative web browser, set up a
different email client, edit an audio file, or try some new games (for exam-
ple), and to do any of these you will need to install new soware. Ubuntu
keeps tra of many different soware paages, and finding and installing
what you are aer is designed to be as qui and easy as possible. Alterna-
tively, you may prefer to browse through the extensive library of available
applications, and try any that cat your interest.
Differences from other operating systems
Most other operating systems generally require a user to purase commer-
cial soware (online or through a physical store), or otherwise sear the
internet for a free alternative (if one is available). e correct installation file
must then be downloaded and located on the computer, followed by the user
proceeding through a number of installation prompts and options.
While at times a similar process may be used for installing soware in
Ubuntu, the quiest and easiest way to find and install new applications is
through the Ubuntu Soware Center. is is a central location for accessing
new soware, and is based on the concept of repositories. A repository can be
thought of as a catalog of paages that are available for downloading from a
single location. You automatically have access to the official Ubuntu reposito-
ries when the operating system is installed; however, additional repositories
can be added later in order to access more soware.
Using the Ubuntu Soware Center
e Soware Center can be used to install most applications that are available Some soware packages have more ad-
vanced purposes, such as programming or
in the official Ubuntu repositories.
running a server, and cannot be installed
To start the Soware Center, open the Applications menu and oose using the Soware Center. You will need
Ubuntu Soware Center. to use the Synaptic Package Manager (dis-
cussed towards the end of this chapter) to
e Soware Center window has two parts—a list of sections on the le, install these packages.
and a set of icons on the right. Ea icon represents a department, whi
is a category of soware. For example, the “Games” department contains
“Sudoku.”
e sections on the le side of the window represent your current view of
the Soware Center’s catalog. Cli the Get Soware buon on the le to
.
Figure .: You can install and remove
applications from your computer using the
see soware that is available to install, and Installed Soware to see a list of Soware Center.
soware that is already installed on your computer.
Finding soware
If you are looking for an application, you may already know a specific name
(for example, “underbird” is a popular email client), or otherwise you may
just have a general category in mind (for example, the “sound and video”
category includes a number of different soware applications su as video
converters, audio editors, and music players).
To help you find the right application, you can browse the Soware Center
catalog by cliing on the department that reflects the category of soware
you are aer, or alternatively use the built-in sear at the top-right of the
window to look for specific names or keywords.
When you select a department, you will be shown a list of applications Check out the Featured Applications depart-
ment to see a list of highly recommended
that fit within that category. Some departments have sub-categories—for
applications.
example, the “Games” department has subcategories for “Simulation” and
“Card Games.”
To move through categories you can use the ba and forward buons at
the top of the window, as well as the navigational buons (oen referred to as
“breadcrumbs”) next to these.
Installing soware
Installing applications is literally one cli away. Once you have found an Note that you will need to be connected
application that you would like to try: to the Internet for the Soware Center
to work. To learn how to set up your
connection, see Chapter : Working with
. Cli the Install buon to the right of the selected paage. If you would Ubuntu.
like to read more about the soware paage before installing it, first cli
on More Info. is will take you to a short description of the application,
as well as a screenshot and a web link when available. If you wish to
proceed, you can also cli Install from this page.
. Type your password into the authentication window that appears. is is If you receive an “Authentication Failure”
message aer typing in your password,
the same password you use to log in to your account. You are required to
check that you typed it correctly by trying
enter it whenever installing new soware, in order to prevent someone again. If the error continues, this may mean
without administrator access from making unauthorized anges to your that your account is not authorized to install
soware on the computer.
computer.
. Wait until the paage is finished installing. During the installation (or
removal) of soware paages, you will see an animated icon of rotating
arrows to the le of the In Progress buon in the sidebar. If you like, you
can now go ba to the main browsing window and queue additional so-
ware paages to be installed by following the steps above. At any time,
cliing the In Progress buon on the le will take you to a summary of
all operations that are currently processing. Here you can also cli the X
icon to cancel any operation.
Once the Soware Center has finished installing an application, it is now
ready to be used. Ubuntu will place a launer in your Applications menu
under the relevant sub-menu—its exact location will depend on the purpose
of the application. If you cannot find it, in some cases an application will ap-
pear in one of the System ‣ Preferences or System ‣ Administration menus
instead.
Removing soware
Removing applications is very similar to installing them. First, cli on the
Installed Soware buon in the Soware Center’s sidebar. Scroll down to
the application you wish to remove (or use the sear field to quily find it),
and then:
. Cli the Remove buon to the right of the selected application. To completely remove a package and all
its configuration, you will need to purge it.
. Type your password into the authentication window that appears. Remov-
You can do this with the more advanced
ing soware also requires that you enter your password to help protect Synaptic Package Manager, which is
your computer against unauthorized anges. e paage will then be discussed further in the Synaptic Package
Manager section below.
.
queued for removal, and will appear under the In Progress section in the
sidebar.
Removing a paage will also update your menus accordingly.
Managing additional soware
Although the Soware Center provides a large library of applications to
oose from, initially only those paages available within the official Ubuntu
repositories are listed. At times, a particular application you are aer may not
be available in these repositories. If this happens, it is important to understand
some alternative methods for accessing and installing soware in Ubuntu,
su as downloading an installation file manually from the internet, or adding
extra repositories. First, we will look at how to manage your repositories
through Soware Sources.
Soware Sources
e Soware Center lists only those applications that are available in your
enabled repositories. Repositories can be added or removed through the So-
ware Sources application. To open this, cli System ‣ Administration ‣ You can also open Soware Sources from
the Soware Center. Simply go to Edit ‣
Soware Sources in the top panel. You will be asked to enter your password,
Soware Sources.
then the “Soware Sources” window will open. ere are five tabs at the top
of this window: Ubuntu Soware, Other Soware, Updates, Authentica-
tion, and Statistics.
Managing the official repositories
e Ubuntu Soware tab lists the four official Ubuntu repositories, ea
containing different types of paages. When Ubuntu is first installed, only
two of these are enabled—main, and universe.
‣ Canonical-supported Open Source soware (main): is repository
contains all the open-source paages that are maintained by Canonical.
‣ Community-maintained Open Source soware (universe): is repos-
itory contains all the open-source paages that are developed and main-
tained by the Ubuntu community.
‣ Proprietary drivers for devices (restricted): is repository contains Closed-source packages are sometimes
proprietary drivers, whi may be required to utilize the full capabilities of referred to as non-free. This is a reference
to freedom of speech, rather than monetary
some of your devices or hardware. Proprietary means that these paages cost. Payment is not required to use these
are closed-source—that is, they are owned commercially and not open for packages, however, they are disabled by
default in Ubuntu to give users the choice of
development by the community. is repository is not enabled by default. a completely open-source operating system.
‣ Soware restricted by copyright or legal issues (multiverse): is
repository contains soware that may be protected from use in some states
or countries by copyright or licensing laws, and is therefore not enabled by
default. You may oose to enable this repository, but in doing so assume
responsibility for the usage of any paages that you install.
e Source code option should not be selected unless you have experience Building applications from source is an
advanced process for creating packages,
with building applications from source.
and usually only concerns developers. You
may also require source files when using
Selecting the best soware server a custom kernel, or if trying to use the
latest version of an application before it
Ubuntu grants permission to many servers all across the world to act as mir- is released for Ubuntu. As this is a more
advanced area, it will not be covered in this
rors. at is, they host an exact copy of all the files contained in the official manual.
Ubuntu repositories. In the Ubuntu Soware tab, you can select the server
that will give you the best possible download speeds.
When selecting a server, you may want to consider the following:
‣ Connection speed. Depending on the physical distance between you
and a server, the connection speed may vary. Ubuntu provides a tool
for selecting the server that provides the fastest connection with your
computer.
First, cli the dropdown box next to “Download from:” in the “So-
ware Sources” window, and select Other from the menu. In the “Server
Selection” window that appears, cli the Select Best Server buon in
the upper right. Your computer will now aempt a connection with all
the available servers, then select the one with the fastest speed. If you are
happy with the automatic selection, cli Choose Server to return to the
“Soware Sources” window.
‣ Location. Choosing a server that is close to your location will oen pro-
vide the best connection speed.
To select a server by country, oose your location in the “Server Se-
lection” window. If there are multiple servers available in your location,
select one then cli Choose Server when you are finished.
Finally, if you do not have a working internet connection, Ubuntu can
install some soware paages straight from your installation . To do this,
insert the disc into your computer’s drive, then select the e box next to
Installable from the /. Once this e box is tied, the disc will
be treated just like an online repository, and applications will be installable
straight from the through the Soware Center.
Adding more soware repositories
Ubuntu makes it easy to add additional, third-party repositories to your list of A is a Personal Package Archive. These
soware sources. e most common repositories added to Ubuntu are called are online repositories used to host the
latest versions of soware packages, digital
s. ese allow you to install soware paages that are not available in the projects, and other applications.
official repositories, and automatically be notified whenever updates for these
paages are available.
.
Providing you know the web address of a ’s Launpad site, adding it
to your list of soware sources is relatively simple. To do so, you will need to
use the Other Soware tab in the “Soware Sources” window.
On the Launpad site for a , you will see a heading to the le called
“Adding this PPA to your system.” Underneath will be a short paragraph
containing a unique in the form of ppa:test-ppa/example. Highlight this
by selecting it with your mouse, then right-cli and oose copy.
Figure .: This is an example of the Launch-
pad page for the Lifesaver PPA. Lifesaver
Return to the “Soware Sources” window, and in the Other Soware tab is an application that is not available in
cli Add… at the boom. A new window will appear, and you will see the the official Ubuntu repositories. However,
words “Apt line:” followed by a text field. Right-cli on the empy space in by adding this PPA to your list of soware
sources, it would then be easy to install
this text field and select Paste, and you should see the appear that you and update this application through the
copied from the s Launpad site earlier. Cli Add Source to return to the Soware Center.
“Soware Sources” window. You will see a new entry has been added to the
list of sources in this window, with a tied e box in front meaning it is
enabled.
If you cli Close in the boom right corner of this window, a message
will appear informing you that “e information about available soware is
out-of-date.” is is because you have just added a new repository to Ubuntu,
and it now needs to connect to that repository and download a list of the
paages that it provides. Cli Reload, and wait while Ubuntu refreshes all
of your enabled repositories (including this new one you just added). When it
has finished, the window will close automatically.
Congratulations, you have just added a to your list of soware sources.
You can now open the Soware Center and install applications from this ,
in the same way you previously installed programs from the default Ubuntu
repositories.
Synaptic Package Manager
e Synaptic Paage Manager is a more advanced tool for managing so-
ware in Ubuntu. It can be used to perform the same tasks as the Ubuntu
Soware Center, su as installing and removing applications, but also allows
for more control over your paages. For example, it provides the following
options:
‣ Install any paage in your repositories. In many cases you can even select
whi version of a paage to install, although this option is only available
if there are multiple versions in the repository.
‣ Reinstall a paage. is may be useful if you wish to revert a paage to
its default state, or repair any conflicts or damaged files.
‣ Update a paage when a newer version is released.
‣ Remove any paage you no longer need.
‣ Purge. is is when you wish to completely remove a paage, including
any stored preferences or configuration files (whi are oen le behind
when a paage is removed).
‣ Fix broken paages.
‣ Che properties of any paage, su as the version number, contained
files, paage size, dependencies, and more.
To open the Synaptic Paage Manager, navigate to System ‣ Administration ‣
Synaptic Paage Manager. As explained above, Synaptic is a more complex
tool than the Soware Center, and generally not essential for a new user just
geing started with Ubuntu. If you want to read more information on how
to use this program, or require more support managing the soware on your
system, head to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto.
Updates and Upgrades
Ubuntu also allows you to decide how to manage paage updates through the
Updates tab in the Soware Sources window.
.
Ubuntu updates
In this section, you are able to specify the kinds of updates you wish to install
on your system, and usually depends on your preferences around stability,
versus having access to the latest developments.
‣ Important security updates: ese updates are highly recommended to
ensure your system remains as secure as possible. ese are enabled by
default.
‣ Recommended updates: ese updates are not as important for keeping
your system secure, but will mean your paages always have the most
recent bug fixes or minor updates that have been tested and approved. is
option is also enabled by default.
‣ Pre-released updates: is option is for those who would rather remain
up-to-date with the very latest releases of applications, at the risk of in-
stalling an update that has unresolved bugs or conflicts. Note that it is
possible that you will encounter problems with these updated applications,
therefore this option is not enabled by default. However, if this happens it
is possible to “roll-ba” to a previous version of a paage through Synap-
tic Paage Manager.
‣ Unsupported updates: ese are updates that have not yet been fully
tested and reviewed by Canonical. Some bugs may occur when using these
updates, and so this option is also not enabled by default.
Automatic updates
e middle section of this window allows you to customize how your sys-
tem manages updates, su as the frequency with whi it es for new
paages, as well as whether it should install important updates right away
(without asking for your permission), download them only, or just notify you
about them.
Release upgrade
Here you can decide whi system upgrades you would like to be notified Every months, Ubuntu releases a new
version of the operating system. These are
about.
called normal releases. Every four normal
releases—or months—Ubuntu releases
‣ Never: Choose this if you would rather not be notified about any new a Long Term Support (LTS) release. Long
Ubuntu releases. Term Support releases are intended to be
‣ Normal releases: Choose this if you always want to have the latest the most stable releases available, and are
supported for longer.
Ubuntu release, regardless of whether it is a Long Term Support release
or not. is option is recommended for normal home users.
‣ Long Term Support releases only: Choose this option if you need a
release that will be more stable and have support for a longer time. If you
use Ubuntu for business purposes, you may want to consider selecting this
option.
The Command Line
Introduction to the terminal
roughout this manual, we have focused primarily on the graphical desktop
user interface. However, in order to fully realize the power of Ubuntu, you
may want to learn how to use the terminal.
What is the terminal?
Most operating systems, including Ubuntu, have two types of user interfaces.
e first is a graphical user interface (). is is the desktop, windows,
menus, and toolbars that you cli to get things done. e second, and mu
older, type of interface is the command-line interface ().
e terminal is Ubuntu’s command-line interface. It is a method of con-
trolling some aspects of Ubuntu using only commands that you type on the
keyboard.
Why would I want to use the terminal?
For the average Ubuntu user, most day-to-day activities can be completed
without ever needing to open the terminal. However, the terminal is a pow-
erful and invaluable tool that can be used to perform many useful tasks. For
example:
‣ Troubleshooting any difficulties that may arise when using Ubuntu some-
times requires you to use the terminal.
‣ A command-line interface is sometimes a faster way to accomplish a task.
For example, it is oen easier to perform operations on many files at once
using the terminal.
‣ Learning the command-line interface is the first step towards more ad-
vanced troubleshooting, system administration, and soware develop-
ment skills. If you are interested in becoming a developer or an advanced
Ubuntu user, knowledge of the command-line will be essential.
Opening the Terminal
You can open the terminal by cliing Applications ‣ Accessories ‣ Terminal. The terminal gives you access to what is
When the terminal window opens, it will be largely blank apart from some called a shell. When you type a command
in the terminal the shell interprets this
text at the top le of the screen, followed by a blinking blo. is text is your command, resulting in the desired action.
prompt—it displays your login name and your computer’s name, followed by There are different types of shells that
accept slightly different commands. The
the current directory. e tilde (~) means that the current directory is your most popular is called “bash,” and is the
default shell in Ubuntu.
In environments the term “folder” is
commonly used to describe a place where
files are stored. In environments the
term “directory” is used to describe the same
thing and this metaphor is exposed in many
commands (i.e., cd or pwd) throughout this
chapter.
.
home directory. Finally, the blinking blo is the cursor—this marks where
text will be entered as you type.
To test things out, type pwd and press Enter. e terminal should display
/home/ubuntu-manual. is text is called the “output.” You have just used the
pwd (print working directory) command, and the output that was displayed
shows the current directory.
Figure .: The default terminal window
allows you to run hundreds of useful
commands.
All commands in the terminal follow the same approa. Type in the
name of a command, possibly followed by some parameters, and press Enter
to perform the specified action. Oen some output will be displayed that Parameters are extra segments of text,
confirms the action was completed successfully, although this depends on usually added at the end of a command,
that change how the command itself is
the command. For example, using the cd command to ange your current interpreted. These usually take the form of
directory (see below) will ange the prompt, but will not display any output. -h or --help, for example. In fact, --help
can be added to most commands to display
e rest of this apter covers some very common uses of the terminal, a short description of the command, as well
however, there are almost infinite possibilities available to you when using as a list of any other parameters that can be
the command-line interface in Ubuntu. roughout the second part of this used with that command.
manual we will continue to refer to the command line, particularly when
discussing steps involved in troubleshooting and the more advanced manage-
ment of your computer.
Ubuntu file system structure
Ubuntu uses the Linux file system structure based on a series of folders in
the root directory. Ea of these folders contain important system files that
cannot be modified unless you are running as the root user or use sudo. is
is for both security and safety reasons so that viruses cannot access the core
system files, and users cannot damage anything.
Below are some of the most important directories.
Figure .: Some of the most important
directories in the root file system.
Mounting and unmounting removable devices.
When a device su as a flash drive or a media player is mounted in
Ubuntu, a folder is created for it under media and you are given the appropri-
ate permissions to be able to read and write to the device.
Nautilus File Manager will automatically add a shortcut to the mounted
device in the side bar so it’s easy for you to get to. You shouldn’t have to
physically navigate to the media directory in Ubuntu.
Geing started with the command line
Navigating directories
e pwd command is short for print working directory. It can be used to dis-
play the directory you are currently in. Note that the prompt (the text just
before the blinking cursor) also displays your current directory, so this com-
mand is not usually necessary.
$ pwd
/home/your-username/
e cd command is short for ange directory. It allows you to ange
from one directory to another.
$ cd /directory/you/want/to/go/to/
If there are spaces in one of the directories, you will need to put quotation
marks around the path:
$ cd "~/Music/The Beatles/Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/"
If you leave out the quotation marks, the terminal will think that you are
trying to ange to a directory named ~/Music/The.
Geing a list of files
e ls command is used to get a list of all the files and directories that exist
inside the current directory.
.
$ ls
alligator-pie.mp3
squirm.mp3
baby-blue.mp3
Moving things around
e mv command is used to move a file from one directory to another. Note that the terminal is case-sensitive.
For example, if you have a directory called
$ mv /dmb/big-whiskey/grux.mp3 /home/john Directory1, you must remember to include
the capital leer whenever referring to it in
e cp command is used to copy a file from one directory into another. the terminal, otherwise the command will
not work.
$ cp /dmb/big-whiskey/grux.mp3 /media/ipod
Creating directories
e mkdir command is short for make directory, and is used to create a new
directory in the current directory or another specified location. For example,
this command will make a directory called newdirectory inside the current
directory:
$ mkdir newdirectory
is command will ignore your current directory, and instead make one
called newdirectory inside a hypothetical directory called /tmp/example/:
$ mkdir /tmp/example/newdirectory
You could then “move into” this new directory (i.e., make it your current
working directory), by using the cd command.
$ cd /tmp/example/newdirectory
Deleting files and directories
e rm command is used to delete files. For example, to delete a file named
deleteme.txt located in the current directory:
$ rm deleteme.txt
To delete a file located in another directory (i.e., not inside your current
working directory), you would need to include the path to the file. In other
words, you are specifying the file’s location. For example, to delete the file
deleteme.txt located in the /tmp/example directory, use the following com-
mand:
$ rm /tmp/example/deleteme.txt
e rmdir command is similar to the rm command, except it is used to
delete folders. For example, this command would delete the directory called
newdirectory that we created earlier.
$ rmdir /tmp/example/newdirectory/
Introducing sudo
When Ubuntu is first installed two accounts are created: your primary user
account, and a “root” account that operates behind the scenes. is root
account has the necessary privileges required for modifying system files and
seings, whereas your primary user account does not. Rather than logging
out of your primary user account and then logging ba in as root, you can
use the sudo command to borrow root account privileges for performing
administrative tasks su as installing or removing soware, creating or
removing new users, and modifying system files.
For example, the following command would open Ubuntu’s default text When using sudo in the terminal, you
editor gedit with root privileges. You will then be able to edit important will be prompted to enter your password.
You will not see any dots, stars, or other
system files that would otherwise be protected. e password you use with characters appearing in the terminal as you
sudo is the same password that you use to log in to your primary account, and type your password, however, don’t be put
off—this is an extra security feature to help
is set up during the Ubuntu installation process. protect you from any prying eyes.
$ sudo gedit
[sudo] password for username:
Opening gedit...
e sudo command gives you virtually unlimited access to important system files
and seings. It is important you only use sudo if you understand what you are
doing. You can find out more about using sudo in Chapter : Security.
Managing soware through the terminal
In Ubuntu there are a number of ways to manage your soware. tools
su as the Ubuntu Soware Center and Synaptic Paage Manager were
discussed in Chapter : Soware Management, however, many people prefer
to use the apt command (Advanced Paaging Tool) to manage their soware
from within the terminal. Apt is extremely versatile and encompasses several
tools, however, the most commonly used apt tool is apt-get.
Using apt-get
Apt-get is used for installing and removing paages from your system. It
can also be used to refresh the list of paages available in the repositories, as
well as download and install any new updates for your soware.
Updating and upgrading
e apt-get update command can be used to quily refresh the list of pa-
ages that are available in the default Ubuntu repositories, as well as any ad-
.
ditional repositories added by the user (see Chapter : Soware Management
for more information on repositories).
$ sudo apt-get update
You can then use apt-get upgrade to download and install any available
updates for your currently installed paages. It is best to run apt-get update
prior to running apt-get upgrade, as this will ensure you are geing the most
recent updates available for your soware.
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
tzdata
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 683kB of archives.
After this operation, 24.6kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
e terminal will give you a summary of what paages are to be up-
graded, the download size, and how mu extra disk space will be used (or
freed), and then ask you to confirm before continuing. Simply press y then
Enter, and the upgrades will be downloaded and installed for you.
Installing and removing
e following command would be used to install media player using
apt-get: Notice the sudo command before the apt-get
command. In most cases it will be necessary
$ sudo apt-get install vlc to use sudo when installing soware, as you
[sudo] password for username: will be modifying protected parts of your
system. Many of the commands we will be
To remove , you would type: using from here on require root access, so
expect to see sudo appearing frequently.
$ sudo apt-get remove vlc
Cleaning up your system
Oen soware in Ubuntu depends on other paages being installed on your
system in order to run correctly. If you aempt to install a new paage
and these dependencies are not already installed, Ubuntu will automatically
download and install them for you at the same time (provided the correct
paages can be found in your repositories). When you remove a paage
in Ubuntu, however, any dependencies that were installed alongside the
original paage are not also automatically removed. ese paages sit in
your system and can build up over time, taking up disk space. A simple way
to clean up your system is to use the apt-get autoremove command. is Another useful cleaning command is apt-
get autoclean which removes cache files
le over from downloading packages.
will select and remove any paages that were automatically installed but no
longer required.
$ sudo apt-get autoremove
Adding extra soware repositories
Sometimes you might want to install some soware that isn’t in the official
repositories but may be available in a what’s called a . s, or personal
paage arives, contain soware that you can install by adding that to
your system. In versions of Ubuntu prior to Ubuntu . adding a to your
system meant typing several long commands into a terminal. However, in
Ubuntu . and later, adding a is as easy as typing one short command
into a terminal.
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:example/ppa
Once you have installed the you may install soware from it the usual
way using the apt-get install command.
Security
is apter discusses ways to keep your Ubuntu computer secure.
Why Ubuntu is safe
Ubuntu is secure by default for a number of reasons:
‣ Ubuntu clearly distinguishes between normal users and administrative
users.
‣ Open-source soware like Ubuntu allows security flaws to be easily de-
tected.
‣ Security pates for open-source soware like Ubuntu are oen released
quily.
‣ Many viruses designed to primarily target Windows-based systems do not
affect Ubuntu systems.
Basic Security concepts and procedures
When Ubuntu is installed, it is automatically configured for a single person
to use. If more than one person will use the computer with Ubuntu, ea
person should have her or his own user account. is way, ea user can
have separate seings, documents, and other files. If necessary, you can also
protect files from being viewed or modified by users without administrative
privileges. See Users and groups to learn more about creating additional users
accounts.
Permissions
In Ubuntu, files and folders can be set up so that only specific users can view,
modify, or run them. For instance, you might wish to share an important
file with other users, but do not want those users to be able to edit the file.
Ubuntu controls access to files on your computer through a system of “per-
missions.” Permissions are seings that you can configure to control exactly
how files on your computer are accessed and used.
To learn more about modifying permissions, visit https://help.ubuntu.com/
community/FilePermissions.
Passwords
You can use a strong password to increase the security of your computer. Your
password should not contain names, common words or common phrases. By
.
default, the minimum length of a password in Ubuntu is four aracters. We
recommend a password with more than the minimum number of aracters.
Locking the screen
When you leave your computer unaended, you may want to lo the screen.
Loing your screen prevents anyone from using your computer until your
password is entered. To lo the screen:
‣ Cli the session menu icon in the right corner of the top panel, then select
Lo Screen, or
‣ press Ctrl+Alt+L to lo the screen. is keyboard shortcut can be
anged in System ‣ Preferences ‣ Keyboard Shortcuts.
System updates
Good security depends on an up-to-date system. Ubuntu provides free so-
ware and security updates, and you should apply these updates regularly.
See Chapter : Soware Management to learn how to update your Ubuntu
computer with the latest security updates and pates.
Trusting third party sources
Normally, you will add applications to your computer via the Soware Center,
whi downloads soware from the Ubuntu repositories as described in
Chapter : Soware Management. However, it is occasionally necessary to
add soware from other sources. For example, you may need to do this when
an application is not available in the Ubuntu repositories, or when you need a
newer version of the one available in the Ubuntu repositories.
Additional repositories are available from sites su as getdeb.net and
Launpad s, whi can be added as described in Chapter : Soware
Management. You can download the paages for some applications
from their respective project sites on the Internet. Alternately, you can build
applications from their source code (an advanced method of installing and
using applications).
Using only recognized sources su as a project’s site, , or various
community repositories (su as getdeb.net) is more secure than downloading
applications from an arbitrary (and perhaps less reputable) source. When
using a third party source, consider the trustworthiness of source, and be sure
you know exactly what you’re installing on your computer.
Users and groups
Like most operating systems, Ubuntu allows you to create users accounts
for multiple people, ea with some access to your computer. Ubuntu also
supports user groups, whi allow you to administer permissions for multiple
users at the same time.
Every user in Ubuntu is a member of at least one group—the group’s name
is the same as the name of the user. A user can also be a member of additional
groups. You can configure some files and folders to be accessible only by a
user and a group. By default, a user’s files are only accessible by that user;
system files are only accessible by the root user.
Figure .: Add, remove and change the user
accounts.
Managing users
You can manage users and groups using the Users and Groups administra-
tion application. To find this application, cli System ‣ Administration ‣
Users and Groups.
To adjust the user and group seings cli the keys icon next the phrase
“Cli to make anges.” You will need to input your password in order to
make anges to user and group seings.
Adding a user Cli the Add buon whi appears underneath a list of
the current user accounts that have already been created. Type in the new
username and select relevant options then cli OK. A new dialog box will
appear asking you to enter a password for the user you have just created. Fill
out the fields, then cli OK to proceed. Privileges you grant to the new user
can be altered in “Users Seings”.
Modifying a user Cli on the name of a user in the list of users, then cli
on the Change… buon, whi appears next to ea of following options:
‣ Account type:
.
‣ Password:
For more advanced user options cli on the Advanced Settings buon.
Change the details as required in the dialog that appears. Cli OK to save the
anges.
Deleting a user Select a user from the list and cli Delete. Ubuntu will
deactivate the user’s account, though it will not remove the user’s home
folder.
Managing groups
Cli on the Manage Groups buon to open the group management dialog.
Adding a group To add a group, cli Add. In the dialog that appears, enter
the group name and select the names of users you’d like to add to the group.
Modifying a group To alter the users in an existing group, select a group and
cli on the Properties buon. Select and deselect the users as required, then
cli OK to apply the anges.
Deleting a group To delete a group, select a group and cli Delete.
Applying groups to files and folders
To ange the group associated with a file or folder, open the Nautilus file
browser and navigate to the appropriate file or folder. en, either select the
folder and oose File ‣ Properties from the menubar, or right-cli on the file
or folder and oose Properties. In the Properties dialog that appears, cli on
the Permissions tab and select the desired group from the Groups drop-down
list. en close the window.
Using the command line
You can also modify user and group seings via the command line. We
recommend that you use the graphical method above unless you have a
good reason to use the command line. For more information on using the
command line to modify users and groups, see the Ubuntu Server Guide at
hps://help.ubuntu.com/./serverguide/C/user-management.html
Seing up a secure system
You may also want to use a firewall, or use encryption, to further increase the
security of your system.
Firewall
A firewall is an application that protects your computer against unauthorized
access by people on the Internet or your local network. Firewalls blo con-
nections to your computer from unknown sources. is helps prevent security
breaes.
Uncomplicated Firewall () is the standard firewall configuration pro-
gram in Ubuntu. It is a program that runs from the command line, but a
program called Gufw allows you to use it with a graphical interface. See
Chapter : Soware Management to learn more about installing the Gufw
paage.
Once it’s installed, start Gufw by cliing System ‣ Administration ‣
Firewall configuration. To enable the firewall, select the Enable option. By
default, all incoming connections are denied. is seing should be suitable
for most users.
If you are running server soware on your Ubuntu system (su as a web
server, or an server), then you will need to open the ports these services
use. If you are not familiar with servers, you will likely not need to open any
additional ports.
To open a port cli on the Add buon. For most purposes, the Precon-
figured tab is sufficient. Select Allow from the first box and then select the
program or service required.
e simple tab can be used to allow access on a single port, and the Ad-
vanced tab can be used to allow access on a range of ports.
Encryption
You may wish to protect your sensitive personal data—for instance, financial
records—by encrypting it. Encrypting a file or folder essentially “los” that
file or folder by encoding it with an algorithm that keeps it scrambled until it
is properly decoded with a password. Encrypting your personal data ensures
that no one can open your personal folders or read your private data without
your private key.
Ubuntu includes a number of tools to encrypt files and folders. is ap-
ter will discuss two of these. For further information on using encryption
with either single files or email, see Ubuntu Community Help documents at
hps://help.ubuntu.com/community.
Home folder
When installing Ubuntu, it is possible to encrypt a user’s home folder. See
Chapter : Installation for more on encrypting the home folder.
.
Private folder
If you have not osen to encrypt a user’s entire home folder, it is possible to
encrypt a single folder—called Private—in a user’s home folder. To do this,
follow these steps:
. Install the ecryptfs-utils soware paage.
. Use the terminal to run ecryptfs-setup-private to set up the private
folder.
. Enter your account’s password when prompted.
. Either oose a mount passphrase or generate one.
. Record both passphrases in a safe location. ese are required if you ever
have to recover your data manually.
. Log out and log ba in to mount the encrypted folder.
Aer the Private folder has been set up, any files or folders in it will auto-
matically be encrypted.
If you need to recover your encrypted files manually see https://help.
ubuntu.com/community/EncryptedPrivateDirectory.
Troubleshooting
Resolving problems
Sometimes, things simply do not work as they should. Luily, problems
encountered while working with Ubuntu are easily fixed. Below, we offer
a guide to resolving basic problems that users may encounter while using
Ubuntu. If you exhaust the troubleshooting advice below, see Geing more
help to learn about seeking support from the Ubuntu community.
Troubleshooting guide
e key to effective troubleshooting is working slowly and methodically,
documenting anges you make to your Ubuntu system at every step. is
way, you will always be able to roll ba your work—and give fellow users
information about your previous aempts, in the unlikely event that you
should need to turn to the community for support.
Ubuntu fails to start aer I’ve installed Windows
Occasionally you may install Ubuntu and then decide to install Microso
Windows as a second operating system running side-by-side with Ubuntu.
While this is supported by Ubuntu, you may find that aer installing Win-
dows you may no longer be able to start Ubuntu.
When you first turn on your computer, a program called a “bootloader”
must start Ubuntu or another operating system. When you installed Ubuntu, A bootloader is initial soware that loads
you installed an advanced bootloader called that allowed you to oose the operating system when you turn on the
computer.
between the various operating systems on your computer, su as Ubuntu,
Windows and others. However, when you installed Windows, it replaced
with its own bootloader, thus removing the ability to oose whi
operating system you’d like to use. You can easily restore —and regain
the ability to oose your operating system—by using the same you used to
install Ubuntu.
First, insert your Ubuntu into your computer and restart it, making sure
to have your computer start the operating system that is on the itself (see
Chapter : Installation). Next, oose your language and select Try Ubuntu.
Wait while the soware loads. You will need to type some code to restore
your bootloader. On the Applications menu, cli Accessories, and then cli
the Terminal item. Enter the following:
$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/hda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
.
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1224 64228+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 * 1225 2440 9767520 a5 Windows
/dev/sda3 2441 14593 97618972+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda4 14532 14593 498015 82 Linux swap
Partition table entries are not in disk order
is output means that your system (Linux, on whi Ubuntu is based) The device (/dev/sda, /dev/sda, etc.) we
are looking for is identified by the word
is installed on device /dev/sda, but your computer is booting to /dev/sda
“Linux” in the System column. Modify the
(where Windows is located). We need to rectify this by telling the computer instructions below if necessary, replacing
to boot to the Linux device instead. /dev/sda with the name of your Linux
device.
To do this, first create a place to manipulate your Ubuntu installation:
$ sudo mkdir /media/root
Next, link your Ubuntu installation and this new folder:
$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /media/root
If you’ve done this correctly, then you should see the following:
$ ls /media/root
bin dev home lib mnt root srv usr
boot etc initrd lib64 opt sbin sys var
cdrom initrd.img media proc selinux tmp vmlinuz
Now, you can reinstall :
$ sudo grub-install --root-directory=/media/root /dev/sda
Installation finished. No error reported.
This is the contents of the device map /boot/grub/device.map.
Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
fix it and re-run the script grub-install.
(hd0) /dev/sda
Finally, remove the Ubuntu disc from your drive, reboot your
computer, and enjoy your Ubuntu system once again.
is guide may not work for all Ubuntu users due to differences in system
configuration. Still, this is the recommended method, and the most suc-
cessful method, for restoring the bootloader. If following this guide
does not restore on your computer, please consider trying some of
the other troubleshooting methods at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/
RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows. When following the instructions,
please note that your Ubuntu installation uses Grub. is guide replicates
the method described in the first section of the referenced web page. Please
consider starting with the third section, https://help.ubuntu.com/community/
RecoveringUbuntuAfterInstallingWindows.
Ubuntu doesn’t present the login screen when my computer boots
e simplest and easiest way to correct this issue is to order Ubuntu to reset
the graphics configuration. Press and hold Control, Alt and F. You should
now see a bla and white screen with a prompt for your username and
password.
Enter your username, press Enter, and then enter your password. (Char-
acters will not appear on the screen as you enter your password. Don’t worry
—this behavior is normal and was implemented for security purposes.) Next,
enter the following code and press enter:
$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
Enter your password at the prompt, as above. Allow Ubuntu to process the
command, then enter:
$ sudo reboot now
Ubuntu will reboot, and your login screen should be restored.
I forgot my password
If you forget your password in Ubuntu, you will need to reset it using the
“Rescue mode.”
To start Rescue mode, shut down your computer, then power it up. As the
computer starts up, press Esc when you see the white-on-bla screen with
a countdown (the prompt). Select the Rescue mode option using the
arrow keys on your keyboard. Rescue mode should be the second item in the
list.
Wait while Ubuntu starts up. You will not see a normal login screen. In-
stead, you will be presented with a terminal prompt that looks something
like:
root@something#
To reset your password, enter:
$ passwd username
Replace “username” above with your username. Ubuntu will prompt you
for a new password. Enter your desired password, press enter and then type
your password again, pressing enter aer you are done. (Ubuntu asks for your
password twice to make sure you did not make a mistake while typing.) Once
you have restored your password, return to the normal system environment
by entering:
$ init 2
Login as usual and continue enjoying Ubuntu.
.
Figure .: This is the grub screen in which
you can choose the rescue mode.
I accidentally deleted some files that I need
If you’ve deleted a file by accident, you may be able to recover it from
Ubuntu’s trash folder. is is a special folder where Ubuntu stores deleted
files before they are permanently removed from your computer.
To access the trash folder, select Places ‣ Computer from the top panel,
then oose Trash from the list of places in the le-hand sidebar of the win-
dow that appears (alternatively, cli on the trash applet at the far right of
the boom panel). To remove items from this folder and restore them to your
computer, right-cli on the items you want and select Restore, or otherwise
drag them wherever you would like (we recommend a memorable location,
su as your home folder or desktop).
How do I clean Ubuntu?
Over time, Ubuntu’s soware paaging system can accumulate unused pa-
ages or temporary files. ese temporary files, also called caes, contain
paage files from all of the paages that you have ever installed. Eventu-
ally, this cae can grow quite large. Removing them allows you to reclaim
space on your computer’s hard drive for storing your documents, music,
photographs, or other files.
To clear the cae, you can use either the clean, or the autoclean op-
tion for a command-line program called apt-get. e clean command will
remove every single caed item, while the autoclean command only re-
moves caed items that can no longer be downloaded (these items are oen
unnecessary). To run clean, open Terminal and type:
$ sudo apt-get clean
Paages can also become unused over time. If a paage was installed to
assist with running another program—and that program was subsequently
removed—you no longer need the supporting paage. You can remove it with
autoremove.
Load Terminal and type:
$ sudo apt-get autoremove
to remove the unnecessary paages.
I can’t play certain audio or video files
Many of the formats used to deliver ri media content are proprietary,
meaning they are not free to use, modify and distribute with an open source
operating system like Ubuntu. erefore, Ubuntu does not include the ca-
pability to use these formats by default; however, users can easily configure
Ubuntu to use these proprietary formats. For more information about the
differences between open source and proprietary soware, see Chapter :
Learning More.
If you find yourself in need of a proprietary format, you may install the
files necessary for using this format with one command. Before initiating this
command, ensure that you have Universe and Restricted repositories enabled.
See the Synaptic Paage Manager section to learn how to do this.
Open the Ubuntu Soware Center by selecting it from Applications.
Sear for ubuntu-restricted-extras by typing “ubuntu restricted extras”
in the sear box on the right-hand side of the Ubuntu Soware Center’s
main window. When the Soware Center finds the appropriate soware, cli
the arrow next to its title. Cli Install, then wait while Ubuntu installs the
appropriate soware.
Once Ubuntu has successfully installed soware, your ri media content
should work properly.
.
How can I change my screen resolution?
e image on every monitor is composed of millions of lile colored dots
called pixels. Changing the number of pixels displayed on your monitor is
called “anging the resolution.” Increasing the resolution will make the dis-
played images sharper, but will also tend to make them smaller. e opposite
is true when screen resolution is decreased. Most monitors have a “native res-
olution,” whi is a resolution that most closely mates the number of pixels
in the monitor. Your display will usually be sharpest when your operating
system uses a resolution that mates your display’s native resolution.
e Ubuntu configuration utility Monitors allows users to ange the
resolution. Open it by oosing System from the Main Menu, then oosing
Preferences and then Monitors. e resolution can be anged using the
drop down list within the program. Piing options higher up on the list (for
example, those with larger numbers) will increase the resolution.
Figure .: You can change your display
seings.
You can experiment with various resolutions by cliing Apply at the bot-
tom of the window until you find one that’s comfortable for you. Typically
the highest resolution will be the native resolution. Selecting a resolution
and cliing Apply will temporarily ange the screen resolution to the se-
lected value. A dialog box will also be displayed. It allows you to revert to
the previous resolution seing or keep the new resolution. e dialog box
will disappear in seconds, restoring the old resolution.is feature was
implemented to prevent someone from being loed out of the computer by
a resolution that distorts the monitor and makes it unusable. When you have
finished seing the screen resolution, cli Close.
Figure .: You can revert back to your old
seings if you need to.
Ubuntu is not working properly on my Apple MacBook or MacBook
Pro
When installed on notebook computers from Apple—su as the MacBook or
MacBook Pro—Ubuntu does not always enable all of the computer’s built-in
components, including the iSight camera and the Airport wireless Internet
adapter. Luily, the Ubuntu community offers documentation on fixing these
and other problems. If you are having trouble installing or using Ubuntu on
your Apple notebook computer, please follow the instructions at https://help.
ubuntu.com/community/MacBook. You can select the appropriate guide aer
identifying your computer’s model number. For instructions on doing this,
visit the web page above.
Ubuntu is not working properly on my Asus EeePC
When installed on netbook computers from Asus—su as the EeePC—Ubuntu
does not always enable all of the computer’s built-in components, including
the keyboard shortcut keys and the wireless Internet adapter. e Ubuntu
community offers documentation on fixing these and other problems. If you
are having trouble installing or using Ubuntu on your Asus EeePC, please
follow the instructions at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EeePC. is
documentation page contains information pertaining specifically to EeePC
netbooks.
My hardware is not working properly
Ubuntu occasionally has difficulty running on certain computers, gener-
ally when hardware manufacturers use non-standard or proprietary com-
ponents. e Ubuntu community offers documentation to help you trou-
bleshoot many issues that may arise from this situation, including problems
with wireless cards, scanners, mice and printers. You can find the complete
hardware troubleshooting guide on Ubuntu’s support wiki, accessible at
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport. If your hardware problems per-
sist, please see Geing more help for more troubleshooting options or infor-
mation on obtaining support or assistance from an Ubuntu user.
.
Geing more help
is guide does not cover every possible workflow, task or issue in Ubuntu.
If you require assistance beyond the information in the manual, you can find
a variety of support opportunities online. You can access extensive and free
documentation, buy professional support services, query the community for
free support or explore tenical solutions. More information is available here:
http://www.ubuntu.com/support
Learning More
What else can I do with Ubuntu?
By now, you should be able to use your Ubuntu desktop for all your daily
activities su as browsing the web and editing documents. But you may be
interested in learning about other versions of Ubuntu that you can integrate
into your digital lifestyle. In this apter, we’ll provide you with more detail
about versions of Ubuntu that are specialized for certain tasks. To do this,
we’ll first discuss the tenologies that make Ubuntu a powerful collection of
soware.
Open Source soware
Ubuntu is open source soware. Simply put, open source soware is soware
whose source code isn’t owned exclusively by any one person, group, or
organization, but is instead made freely available for download. is makes The source code of a program is the files
that have been wrien to make the program.
Ubuntu different from proprietary soware whi requires users to purase
licenses before they are able to use the soware on their computers. Microso Proprietary soware is soware that
Windows and Adobe Photoshop are examples of proprietary soware. cannot be copied, modified, or distributed
freely.
Computer users can share and distribute open source soware without
fear of breaking intellectual property laws. ey can also modify open source
soware to suit their individual needs, improve it, or translate it into other
languages. Because open source soware is developed by large communi-
ties of programmers distributed throughout the globe, it benefits from rapid
development cycles and speedy security releases (in the event that someone
discovers bugs in the soware). In other words, open source soware is up-
dated, enhanced, and made more secure every day as programmers all over
the world continue to improve it.
Aside from these tenical advantages, open source soware also has
economic benefits. Most open source programs cost nothing to obtain or run.
Users needn’t purase a license to run Ubuntu, for example.
To learn more about open source soware, see the Open Source Initia-
tive’s open source definition, available at http://www.opensource.org/docs/
definition.php.
Distribution families
Ubuntu is one of several popular operating systems based on Linux (an open
source operating system). While other versions of Linux, or “distributions,”
.
may look different from Ubuntu at first glance, they share similar aracteris-
tics because of their common roots. A distribution, or “distro,” is a operating
system made from open source programs,
Linux distributions can be divided into two broad families: the Debian
bundled together to make them easier to
family and the Red Hat family. Ea family is named for a distribution on install and use.
whi subsequent distributions are based. For example, “Debian” refers to
both the name of a distribution as well as the family of distributions derived
from Debian. Ubuntu is part of the Debian family of distributions, as are
Linux Mint, Xandros, and Crunbang Linux. Distributions in the Red Hat
family include Fedora, OpenSUSE, and Mandriva.
e most significant difference between Debian-based and Red Hat-based
distributions is the system ea uses for installing and updating soware.
ese systems are called “paage management systems.” Debian soware Package management systems are
paages are files, while Red Hat soware paages are files. For the means by which users can install,
remove, and organize soware installed
more information about paage management, see Chapter : Soware Man- on computers with open source operating
agement. systems like Ubuntu.
You will also find distributions that have been specialized for certain tasks.
Next, we’ll describe these versions of Ubuntu and explain the uses for whi
ea has been developed.
Choosing amongst Ubuntu and its derivatives
Just as Ubuntu is based on Debian, several distributions are subsequently
based on Ubuntu. Some of these are made for general use, and ea differs
with respect to the soware included as part of the distribution. Others are
designed for specialized uses.
Four derivative distributions are officially recognized and supported by
both Canonical and the Ubuntu community. ese are:
‣ Ubuntu Netbook Edition, whi is optimized for netbook computers.
‣ Kubuntu, whi uses the graphical environment instead of the
environment found in Ubuntu;
‣ Edubuntu, whi is designed for use in sools; and
‣ Ubuntu Server Edition, whi is designed for use on servers, and typi-
cally is not used as a desktop operating system because it doesn’t have a
graphical interface.
Four other derivatives of Ubuntu are available. ese include:
‣ Xubuntu, whi uses the graphical environment instead of the
environment found in Ubuntu;
‣ Lubuntu, whi uses the graphical environment.
‣ Ubuntu Studio, whi is designed for creating and editing multimedia; and
‣ Mythbuntu, whi is designed for creating a home theater with
MythTV (an open source digital video recorder).
For more information about these derivative distributions, see http://www.
ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/derivatives.
Ubuntu Netbook Edition
Ubuntu Netbook Edition is a version of Ubuntu designed specifically for
netbook computers. It is optimized for computing devices with small screens Netbooks are low-cost, low-power note-
and limited resources (like the energy-saving processors and smaller hard book computers designed chiefly for
accessing the Internet.
disks common among netbooks). Ubuntu Netbook Edition sports a unique
interface and features a collection of soware applications particularly useful
to on-the-go users.
Because many netbooks do not contain drives, Ubuntu Netbook
Edition allows users to install it on their computers using flash drives.
To learn more about using a flash drive to install Ubuntu Netbook Edition on
a netbook computer, visit https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/
FromImgFiles.
Ubuntu Server Edition
e Ubuntu Server Edition is an operating system optimized to perform
multi-user tasks when installed on servers. Su tasks include file sharing and A server is a computer that’s been con-
figured to manage, or “serve,” files many
website or email hosting. If you are planning to use a computer to perform
people wish to access.
tasks like these, you may wish to use this specialized server distribution in
conjunction with server hardware.
is manual does not explain the process of running a secure web server
or performing other tasks possible with Ubuntu Server Edition. For details on
using Ubuntu Server Edition, refer to the manual at http://www.ubuntu.com/
products/whatisubuntu/serveredition.
Ubuntu Studio
is derivative of Ubuntu is designed specifically for people who use com-
puters to create and edit multimedia projects. For instance, it features ap-
plications to help users manipulate images, compose music, and edit video.
While users can install these applications on computers running the desktop
version of Ubuntu, Ubuntu Studio makes them all available immediately upon
installation.
If you would like to learn more about Ubuntu Studio (or obtain a copy for
yourself), visit http://ubuntustudio.org/home.
Mythbuntu
Mythbuntu allows users to turn their computers into entertainment systems.
It helps users organize and view various types of multimedia content su as
movies, television shows, and video podcasts. Users with tuners in their
computers can also use Mythbuntu to record live video and television shows.
To learn more about Mythbuntu, visit http://www.mythbuntu.org/.
.
-bit or -bit?
As mentioned earlier in this manual, Ubuntu and its derivatives are available
in two versions: -bit and -bit. is difference refers to the way computers
process information. Computers capable of running -bit soware are able to
process more information than computers running -bit soware; however,
-bit systems require more memory in order to do this. Nevertheless, these
computers gain performance enhancements by running -bit soware.
Why oose one over another? Pay aention to the version you select in
the following cases:
‣ If your computer is fairly old (made before ), then you may want to
install the -bit version of Ubuntu. is is also the case for most netbooks.
‣ If your computer has more than of memory (), then you may need
to install the -bit version in order to use all the installed memory.
Finding additional help and support
is guide is not intended to be an all-encompassing resource filled with
everything you’ll ever need to know about Ubuntu. Because Geing Started
with Ubuntu . could never answer all your questions, we encourage
you to take advantage of Ubuntu’s vast community when seeking further
information, troubleshooting tenical issues, or asking questions about
your computer. Below, we’ll discuss a few of these resources—located both
inside the operating system and on the Internet—so you can learn more about
Ubuntu or other Linux distributions.
System help
If you need additional help when using Ubuntu or its applications, cli
the Help icon on the top panel, or navigate to System ‣ Help and Support.
Ubuntu’s built-in help guide covers a broad range of topics in great detail.
Online Ubuntu help
e Ubuntu Documentation team has created and maintains a series of wiki
pages designed to help both new and experienced users learn more about
Ubuntu. You can access these at http://help.ubuntu.com.
The Ubuntu Forums
e Ubuntu Forums are the official forums of the Ubuntu community. Mil-
lions of Ubuntu users use them daily to seek help and support from one
another. You can create an Ubuntu Forums account in minutes. To create
an account and learn more about Ubuntu from community members, visit
http://ubuntuforums.org.
Launchpad Answers
Launpad, an open source code repository and user community, provides a
question and answer service that allows anyone to ask questions about any
Ubuntu-related topic. Signing up for a Launpad account requires only a few
minutes. Ask a question by visiting Launpad at https://answers.launchpad.
net/ubuntu/+addquestion.
Live Chat
If you are familiar with Internet relay at (), you can use at clients su
as XChat or Pidgin to join the annel #ubuntu on irc.freenode.net. Here,
hundreds of user volunteers can answer your questions or offer you support in
real time.
LoCo Teams
Within the Ubuntu community are dozens of local user groups called “LoCo
teams.” Spread throughout the world, these teams offer support and ad-
vice, answer questions and promote Ubuntu in their communities by host-
ing regular events. To locate and contact the LoCo team nearest you, visit
http://loco.ubuntu.com/.
Community Support
If you’ve exhausted all these resources and still can’t find answers to your In addition to official Ubuntu and commu-
questions, visit Community Support at http://www.ubuntu.com/support/ nity help, you will oen find third-party
help available on the Internet. While these
CommunitySupport. documents can oen be great resources,
some could be misleading or outdated.
It’s always best to verify information from
third-party sources before taking their
advice.
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under this License, su additional rights are deemed to be included in
the License; this License is not intended to restrict the license of any
rights under applicable law.
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Glossary
applet An applet is a small program that runs in a panel. Applets provide
useful functions su as starting a program, viewing the time, or accessing
the main menu. ,
Canonical Canonical, the financial baer of Ubuntu, provides support for
the core Ubuntu system. It has over paid staff members worldwide
who ensure that the foundation of the operating system is stable, as well as
eing all the work submied by volunteer contributors. To learn more
about Canonical, go to http://www.canonical.com. , ,
cursor e blinking cursor that appears aer the prompt in the terminal is
used to show you where text will appear when you start typing. You can
move it around with arrow keys on your keyboard.
desktop environment A generic term to describe a interface for humans
to interact with computers. ere are many desktop environments su as
, , and just to name a few.
stands for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, it is used by a
server to assign computers on a network an address automatically.
dialup connection A dialup connection is when your computer uses a modem
to connect to an through your telephone line.
Ethernet port An Ethernet port is what an Ethernet cable is plugged into
when you are using a wired connection. ,
(whi once stood for Network Object Model Environ-
ment) is the default desktop environment used in Ubuntu.
e (whi stands for Graphical User Interface) is a type of user
interface that allows humans to interact with the computer using graphics
and images rather than just text. , ,
stands for Internet Service Provider, an is a company that provides
you with your internet connection. ,
kernel A kernel is the central portion of a Unix-based operating system,
responsible for running applications, processes, and providing security for
the core components.
.
maximize When you maximize an application in Ubuntu it will fill the whole
desktop, excluding the panels.
MeMenu e MeMenu in Ubuntu . allows you to manage your presence
on social networking services. It also allows you to publish status messages
to all of your accounts by entering updates into a text field. ,
minimize When you minimize an open application, it sits in an applet on a
panel. If you cli on a minimized applications panel buon, it will then be
restored to its normal state and allow you to interact with it.
notification area e notification area is an applet on the panel that provides
you with all sorts of information su as volume control, the current song
playing in Rhythmbox, your internet connection status and email status.
,
output e output of a command is any text it displays on the next line aer
typing a command and pressing enter, e.g., if you type pwd into a terminal
and press Enter, the directory name it displays on the next line is the
output.
paage Debian paage files that hold the core information and code for
applications to run.
panel A panel is a bar that sits on the edge of your screen. It contains applets
whi provide useful functions su as running programs, viewing the
time, or accessing the main menu.
parameter Parameters are special options that you can use with other com-
mands in the terminal to make that command behave differently, this can
make a lot of commands far more useful.
prompt e prompt displays some useful information about your computer,
it can be customized to display in different colors as well as being able to
display the time, date and current directory as well as almost anything else
you like. ,
router A router is a specially designed computer that using its soware and
hardware, routes information from the internet to a network. It is also
sometimes called a gateway. ,
server A server is a computer that runs a specialized operating system and
provides services to computers that connect to it and make a request. ,
,
shell e terminal gives access to the shell, when you type a command into
the terminal and press enter the shell takes that command and performs
the relevant action.
terminal e terminal is Ubuntu’s text only interface, it is a method of con-
trolling some aspects of the operating system using only commands en-
tered via the keyboard. , ,
wired connection A wired connection is when your computer is physically
connected to a router or Ethernet port with a cable, this is the most com-
mon connection for desktop computers. ,
wireless connection A wireless connection involves no cables of any sort and
instead uses a wireless signal to communicate with either a router or access
point.
Credits
is manual wouldn’t have been possible without the efforts and contribu-
tions from the following people:
Team Leads
Benjamin Humphrey—Team Lead
Kevin Godby—Lead TEXnician
Jamin Day—Head of Editing
Ilya Haykinson—Authors coordinator
Josh Holland—Translation maintenance
orsten Wilms—Design
Adnane Belmadiaf—Web development
Luke Jennings—ishot developer
Neil Tallim—ishot developer
Simon Vermeersh—ishot developer
Authors
Joe Burgess Ma Griffin Benjamin Humphrey
omas Cantara Ilya Haykinson Luke Jennings
Sayantan Das Wolter Hellmund Elan Kugelmass
Kelvin Gardiner Josh Holland Ryan Macnish
Editors
Bryan Behrenshausen Kevin Godby
Jamin Day Benjamin Humphrey
Designers
K. Vishnoo Charan Reddy Benjamin Humphrey orsten Wilms
Wolter Hellmund David Nel
Developers
Adnane Belmadiaf Luke Jennings Simon Vermeersh
Kevin Godby Neil Tallim
.
Translators
Vytautas Bačiulis James Kelly Daniel Sury
Dmitry Belonogov George Kontis Paulius Sladkevicius
Francisco Dieguez Shushi Kurose Pierre Slami
André Gondim Martin Lukeš Fredrik Sudmann
Jiri Grönroos Kostas Milonas Muhd Syazwan
Mohamad Imran Ishak Anwar Mohammed Ralph Ulri
Martin Kaba Abhijit Navale Chris Woollard
e KaniLUG Tamil Emmanuel Ninos John Xygonakis
translating team Robert Readman …and many others
Kentaro Kazuhama Roth Robert
Special Thanks
Chris_Ilias mozilla_help_view_project Josh Leveree
Bo Joey-Elijah Alexithymia Walter Méndez
underpass Jono Bacon Martin Owens
jehurd Manualbot Tim Penhey
cl Chris Johnson Andy Piper
kjhass Elan Kugelmass Alan Pope
djstsys Elizabeth Krumba Mahew Paul omas
e Ubuntu Documentation Team
e Ubuntu Community Learning Project
Index
/ Creator, Sear for Files, , pwd, , ,
Simple Scan, rm,
About GNOME, Skype, rmdir,
About Ubuntu, Soware Center, – sudo,
AisleRiot Solitaire, Soware Center’s, , cp,
Appearance Preferences, Soware Sources, ,
applications Sound Recorder, Doy,
/ Creator, Sudoku,
About GNOME, Synaptic, ecryptfs-setup-private,
About Ubuntu, Synaptic Paage Manager, , , , Empathy, , , ,
AisleRiot Solitaire, , , Evolution, , , –
Appearance Preferences, Take Screenshot,
Avant Window Navigator, Tomboy Notes, F-Spot,
Brasero, , Totem, F-Spot Photo Manager,
Cairo-Do, Ubuntu Help Center, , , Firefox, , , , , ,
Calculator, Ubuntu One, , ,
Cheese, Ubuntu Soware Center, , , , , gBrainy,
Doy, , , , , gedit,
Empathy, , , , VLC, gedit Text Editor,
Evolution, , , – Wine, , grub-install,
F-Spot, XChat, Gufw,
F-Spot Photo Manager, Apt,
Firefox, , , , , , apt, Help and Support,
gBrainy, Apt-get,
gedit, apt-get, –, Kino,
gedit Text Editor, Avant Window Navigator,
Gufw, Lifesaver,
Help and Support, Brasero, , ls,
Kino,
Lifesaver, Cairo-Do, Mahjongg,
Mahjongg, Calculator, Mines,
Mines, cd, – mkdir,
Movie Player, Cheese, Movie Player,
Mozilla Firefox, command line Mozilla Firefox,
Nautilus, –, , Apt, mv,
Nautilus File Manager, apt,
Network Connections, Apt-get, Nautilus, –, ,
NetworkManager, apt-get, –, Nautilus File Manager,
OpenOffice.org Drawing, cd, – Network Connections,
Orca, cp, NetworkManager,
Pidgin, ecryptfs-setup-private,
Pitivi, grub-install, OpenOffice.org Drawing,
adrapassel, ls, Orca,
Rhythmbox, mkdir,
Rhythmbox Music Player, mv, password,
.
Pidgin, Simple Scan, Tomboy Notes,
Pitivi, Skype, Totem,
pwd, , , Soware Center, –
Soware Center’s, , Ubuntu Help Center, , ,
adrapassel, Soware Sources, , Ubuntu One, , ,
Sound Recorder, Ubuntu Soware Center, , , , , ,
Rhythmbox, sudo, , , ,
Rhythmbox Music Player, Sudoku,
rm, Synaptic, VLC,
rmdir, Synaptic Paage Manager, , , ,
root, , , Wine, ,
Sear for Files, , Take Screenshot, XChat,
is book was typeset with XƎLATEX.
e book design is based on the Tue-LATEX document classes available at http://code.google.com/p/tufte-latex/.
e text face is Linux Libertine, designed by Philipp H. Poll. It is an open font available at http://linuxlibertine.sf.net/.
e captions and margin notes are set in Linux Biolinum, also designed by Philipp H. Poll and available at the same above.
e terminal text and keystrokes are set in Bera Mono, originally developed by Bitstream, Inc. as Bitstream Vera.
e screenshots were captured using ishot, available at http://ubuntu-manual.org/quickshot.
e cover and title page pictograms contain shapes taken from the Humanity icon set, available at https://launchpad.net/humanity.
e title page and cover were designed using Inkscape, available at http://inkscape.org/.
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