Tasks to Perform Immediately After Install

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Importance of Connecting to the Internet

It is essential that you get your Linux system hooked up to the Internet...

Allowing your system to connect up to the Internet allows you to:

  • Install Critical Linux Updates
  • Install Applications
  • Check Your E-mail
  • Use the Web-browser
  • Perform online Chats
  • Play online games
  • Etc...

Therefore, the first thing I would do after installing Ubuntu Linux is to get connected to the Internet...

Challenges of Getting Connected to Internet

The process of getting your computer system connected to the Internet from your Linux system can range from easy to tricky.

The reason for this depends on the network card manufacturer, and the availability of open-source drivers for that network card. As time goes by, the process can become easier (I have adopted the slogan, "If there are problems, wait until they are solved by the next release"...).

Even if there are no "open-source" drivers for the network card, there are "restricted" drivers that may be used to solve the problem.

It is usually easier to connect to an Ethernet card than a Wireless card. Therefore, if you are having problems with your wireless card, you can connect to your Wired card, and then download and install "restricted" drivers to make your Wireless card work. Use a web browser to test to see if you are properly connected to the Internet.

Here is a link to a webpage that lists network cards that are supported by Ubuntu Linux:

Also, here is the link to the general Hardware Support by Category: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport

Getting Connected (via Wired Ethernet Card)

Here is a link to help connecting to a Network via an Ethernet card (click right arrow button at bottom of screen for next page...):

https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/internet/C/networking-enable.html

Getting Connected (via Wireless Card)

Here is a link to help connecting to a Network via a Wireless card (click right arrow button at bottom of screen for next page...):

https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/internet/C/wireless-connecting.html

Check for System Updates

Ubuntu releases a stable version to be downloaded and burned onto a CD. As time goes by, there are fixes that are made to that version. Instead of making a newer version of the distribution to be downloaded and burned, those fixes can be updated via the Internet.

The longer the stable version has become, the more updates are required to make that version current and stable. For example, I recently installed Ubuntu 9.04 in October 2009 (prior to the release of Ubuntu 9.10), and there were over 240 required updates. The Ubuntu distribution will automatically notify the user of updates periodically...

It is a good idea to immediately update your Ubuntu distribution after you can connect to the Internet. Below are the procedures to manually check for updates for your Ubuntu system.

Steps To Check for Updates:

  1. Click SYSTEM -> ADMINISTRATION -> Update Manager
  2. The Update Manager dialog box will appear.
  3. If the message "Your system is up-to-date", then you do not need to download and install updates (although it may be a good idea to click on the "Check" button just to make certain)...
  4. If updates appear, then click on the button "Install Updates".
  5. The update procedure will first download all updates, and then install them.
  6. When completed, the system will re-check for updates, which should then give the message "Your system is up-to-date"
  7. Close the Update Manager Dialog box.

NOTE: Sometimes, you may be required to reboot the Ubuntu system for the updates to take effect...

Update to Beta Version of Future Release

When any type of software is in development, testing and feedback allow the developers to make improvements to the software or fix "bugs". Extensive testing must be performed before the "stable" version of software is released to the general public.

There are two categories of software releases for testing and feedback:

  1. Alpha (build) - Version of software released to internal programmers (engineers) for testing.
  2. Beta (build) - Version of software that passed "Alpha" testing stage, but testing to more volunteers prior to public release.

I recommend to wait until a stable version becomes available. You can simply run the "Update Manager" (discussed above), and a notification will appear to ask the user to upgrade to that newer version.

If the release date is close, but you are very impatient, you can run a command to download and install the beta version. This method is not highly recommended to new-users, since there may still be bugs in the system. It is NOT a good idea to upgrade to an Alpha version (there could still be major bugs to be resolved).

Below is the procedure to make beta version available for Ubuntu users:

Steps to update to a Beta Version of Next Ubuntu Version:

  1. Click APPLICATIONS -> ACCESSORIES -> Terminal
  2. A terminal window application (called the "Bash Shell") will appear.
  3. Type in the command: sudo do-release-upgrade -d and press the ENTER key.
  4. You will be prompted for your user password (assuming you ARE the only person - i.e. the administrator)
  5. The program will then upgrade your system to the beta version of the future release
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