As you may know, Ubuntu is the most popular distribution and the developers are trying to make it so that users do not need to spend a lot of time on settings, there are still many things that are missing by default. So what to do after installing ubuntu?
This article will look at setting up Ubuntu after installation, let’s look at adding repositories, setting up the shell, and installing the most needed programs.

First you can check this video for what to do after installing Ubuntu
Things to do after installing ubuntu
1. Ubuntu Desktop BackgroundFirst of all, let’s change the desktop background from standard to something more interesting. To do this,
- Right click on the desktop
- Select Change background
- Then select Background
Then select the picture you like. In addition, you can select a picture from the Images folder :
2.Ubuntu Additional repositories
Open the main menu, then type “software & updates” in the search and launch the Software and Updates utility
On the first tab, check the check-boxes opposite the main, universe, restricted and multiverse items :
Then go to the Other Software tab and check the box next to Canonical Partners :
3. Ubuntu installing additional drivers
Now go to the Additional Drivers tab, wait until the utility completes the search for available drivers and tick the ones you want to install, then click the Apply changes button .
Then wait until all drivers are installed.
4.Ubuntu system update
If you install the system immediately after the release, then most likely there are no updates for it, but you need to check the system for security updates and bug fixes. I recommend installing all available updates, various security and software updates will be released, as well as bug fixes – they need to be installed. First update the package repository lists:
sudo apt-get update
if you get this error : E: Could not get lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock – open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/Type the following command :
killall gnome-software
Then upgrade the packages themselves:
sudo apt upgrade
5. Ubuntu installing multimedia codecs
By default, Ubuntu codecs are not installed because they have a proprietary license. But you can install them manually, to do this, run the command:
sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras libavcodec-extra libdvd-pkg
6. install flash player
Despite the fact that most sites have now switched to the HTML5 standard, the flash player is still quite often used, so it’s better that it be installed in the system. To install it, run:
sudo apt install adobe-flashplugin
7. Customize Ubuntu dock panel
In Ubuntu, you can move the panel down and also adjust the size of the icons. To do this, open Settings, then Taskbar , here you can select the position of the panel And also change the size of the icons:
8. Configure gnome
If you want to fine tune the Gnome environment settings, then you need to install the Gnome-tweak-tool program :
sudo apt install gnome-tweak-tool
Then you can find it in the main menu in the Advanced settings category :
Here you can customize the appearance and icons of the top panel, the appearance of environmental elements, such as the theme of the shell, cursors or icons, font size, hotkeys and much more. Installation of extensions will be discussed in the next paragraph.
9. Installing gnome extensions
GNOME extensions are a great way to add functionality to the Ubuntu desktop without having to install separate applications or go into hidden settings.
If you want a desktop in the style of Windows 10 or Linux Mint, a beautiful window switch by alt + tab or a terminal that pops up from the top of the screen, you probably already have a suitable extension for this.
The GNOME extensions site has hundreds of small improvements that you can add to Ubuntu 19.04 right from your browser.
First you need to install
- Browser add-on ( for Chrome here ; for Firefox here )
- Chrome-gnome-shell package (Needed for Firefox)
Browser add-ons can be installed either from the links above or from the GNOME extensions site . There you will be offered to install the appropriate supplement.
The chrome-gnome-shell package (allows the site to make changes to your desktop environment) is available in the Ubuntu Application Center.
Once you are done with the above preparations, you can install extensions from the site using the switch on their pages.
To install extensions, you must first install the extension management component in the system, to do this:
sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell
Then you need to open the site extensions.gnome.org and agree to install the browser extension, it’s better to use Firefox for this, especially since it comes with the system by default:
Click the link Click here to install browser extension .Then confirm the installation.
Next on the page of each extension, a switch appears with which you can install it. Simply move the switch to the On position .
In the dialog that opens, click Install. I recommend installing such extensions:
- User Themes – allows you to customize Gnome themes in the Gnome Tweak Tool
- OpenWeather – the weather
- Pomodoro – time management
- Caffeine – screen fade lock while watching a video
10. Installing a new Communitheme theme
The Ubuntu developers have suggested that the community create a new Ubuntu design that will contain a window and application theme, a login sound, and icons. And such a topic has been developed. It is called communitheme, and you can install it as a snap package:
sudo snap install communitheme
11. Ubuntu Automatic login
Using a password to log in is justified if it is a working computer and you do not want anyone to gain access to your data. But if this is your home computer, then the password will only create additional unnecessary actions. To disable the password request at login, open the Settings utility from the main menu: Then go to Details , and then Users:
Here you need to select the user for whom you want to enable automatic login and then click the Unblock button. And only now you can set the Automatic entry switch to the On position.
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