ubuntu18-unity

Install Unity Desktop in Ubuntu 18.04

by with No Comment Ubuntu

After installing Ubuntu 18.04, i have several small issues with new Gnome desktop, most of it i solved with plugins. But i decided to switch back to Unity desktop as for a while until i am ready to Gnome desktop.

To install Unity Desktop in Ubuntu 18.04, run

You will be asked to select display manager. Select lightdm.

To make it look like Ubuntu 16.04, i copied old wallpaper used by Ubuntu 16.04

ubuntu-power-settings

Things to do after installing Ubuntu 18.04

by with No Comment Ubuntu

Today i installed Ubuntu 18.04. Ubuntu 18.04 use GNOME desktop instead of Unity Desktop. I like some of the new features, but missed some feeatured i am used to in Ubuntu 16.04. First thing i notice was i can’t easy change sound output device like in Ubuntu 16.04, i expected Ubuntu 18.04 made it easier. But after spending some time, i found out i can customize Gnome to make it work like i need.

Show date in top bar

I want to show date along with time in top bar. To enable this, you need to install gnome-tweek-tool.

Now start gnome tweak tool, this is available as Tweaks

Gnome Tweaks

Go to Tweaks > Top Bar. Under clock, set “Date” to On.

Gnome Tweaks Enable Date

Now you will see full date along with time.

Set time 12 Hour format

By default Ubuntu 18.04 show time in 24 hour format. I prefer 12 hour format with AM/PM.

Click on Power button, select Settings.

Go to Details > Date & Time

Gnome Shell Extensions

You can customise how GNOME work by installing extensions. This is just like google chrome/firefox extensions. Installing is easy.

First run

Now open your web browser, visit

https://extensions.gnome.org

This will ask you to install a browser plugin, so you can install Gnome Extensions easily from the browser itself.

For Firefox, install plugin

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/gnome-shell-integration/

Create an account in Gnome.org, so you can manage your extensions.

Here is some of the Gnome Extensions i installed.

Unite

Unite make your Gnome Top bar like Unity. Date get moved to right side. Also application close buttons merge with top bar like in Ubunty. This save from top space. This is highly recommended if you are a Unity user switching to Gnome.

You can install it from

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1287/unite/

Sound Input & Output Device Chooser

This Gnome Extension allow you to easily switch sound devices.

You can get it from

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/906/sound-output-device-chooser/

Remove Totem

Ubuntu come with Torem video player. I perfer VLC. Remove Totem and install VLC with

Install Tor on Ubuntu

by with No Comment Ubuntu

Tor is a highly anonymous proxy network. Tor is used by sites in dark web as it is almost impossible to find who owns a web site when it is hidden using tor.

https://www.torproject.org

To install tor on Ubuntu/Debian, run

This will start a sock5 proxy server on your PC on port 9050.

tor proxy

To check if proxy is working, run

You can also use “torify”, that work like proxychains.

You can configure your browser to use sock5 proxy server running on 127.0.0.1 on port 9050.

If you are using applications that do not support proxy, then you can use torify or proxychains, for example.

Install MATE Desktop in Ubuntu

by with No Comment Ubuntu

Add PPA repo with command

To install MATE run

This install was done on remote VPS with x2go server. Once install is over, i am able to connect to remote desktop using x2go client.

x2go

Ubuntu

by with No Comment Ubuntu

do-release-upgrade – upgrade ubuntu to next release. If you are using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, it will upgrade to 16.04 LTS.

Ubuntu 18.04

Install PHP 7.2 on Ubuntu

by with No Comment Ubuntu

To install PHP 7.2, first add repository with command

Now run apt update

Install PHP 7.2 with command

To install additional modules, run

php

Ubuntu point all .test domains to 127.0.0.1

by with No Comment Ubuntu

Until recently .dev was popular TLD used by developers for local web development. Recently google acquired the rights to use .DEV domain name extension and forced SSL for this LTD in google chrome.

Web developers are looking for alternate home for their local development web sites. Some suggested .localhost as development LTD, but it is too large. Another option is .test, this is a reserved LTD, so you won’t be forced to leave and is short. So many opted for .test as local development domain extension.

DNSMasq allow you to point *.test domains to 127.0.01, so you don’t have to edit /etc/hosts and add each domain you need for local development.

To do this, create file

Add following

Restart network-manager.

We restarted network-manager as dnsmasq is started by Network Manager.

[email protected]:~# pstree -sp $(pidof dnsmasq)
systemd(1)───NetworkManager(11557)───dnsmasq(11594)
[email protected]:~#

dnsmasq

Installing OpenSSH from Source on Ubuntu 16.04

by with No Comment Ubuntu

PCI Compliance report from COMMODO complain about OpenSSH version available in Ubuntu 16.04.

SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_7.2p2 Ubuntu-4ubuntu2.4

This version have all security updates back ported. Installing OpenSSH from source is bad idea as you have to manually upgrade to latest version when new version is released.

Since PCI Compliance require new version of OpenSSH, i installed from source. It is better to LIMIT SSH access to your own IP using firewall or hosts.allow/deny rules.

Install requirements

Go to

https://www.openssh.com/portable.html

Download latest version of OpenSSH source code from one of the mirrors.

Download and install with