Kubuntu Guide 06

06 — Installation

Back up all your important files to an external device of some sort. That would be whatever you keep in your Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos and perhaps Download folders. If you know how, you can find your font collection and save those in a separate folder. Most Windows type fonts have four files for each one, so get the full set for each font you want to save. You can use them in Kubuntu. Set this aside for later.

Once you decide to install it, the next screen reminds you what you’ll need. I highly recommend you put a checkmark in the two boxes farther down for the third-party software and the updates. On the next page you should select the second option: “Guided — use entire disk.” We won’t be covering dual boot in this guide. The idea is to migrate, not hedge your bets.

The next screen graphically depicts what will happen next and you can click the “Install Now” button in the lower right corner. The time zone should be obvious, but this is the screen where you need to wait for the installer to download some updates. When it reaches 100%, click “Continue.” Next comes the keyboard, but unless you are using something rather unusual, you can accept the defaults and move on.

The next screen asks, “Who are you?” First is some version of your real name. The next box below that is for your user account name. Keep it short and simple, and traditionally it should be all lower case letters. You’ll need a good password here and one more for later. The password you use here is for both your account and for administrative actions. The point is that, if someone comes to your computer running in your absence, they can’t change anything without knowing your password.

The password business has gotten really difficult these days. Do not use a word or name already common in your language. At one time, seven or eight characters was enough, and you could make up a word using both upper and lower case and mixed with digits and other symbols. It was common to simply use a famous quote or line from a song and take the first letter from each word, adding appropriate punctuation, changing a letter or two to numbers, etc. These days you probably need more like twelve characters. I highly recommend you use a random password generator and simply take the time to memorize it. It’s okay to write it on something you keep in your purse or wallet. Most of us can do this after about twenty or thirty times looking it up. There are several sites that offer the free service of password generation; here are some randomly chosen from search engine results — one, two, and three.

If you believe your system is physically rather secure, you can also opt to login automatically whenever the machine starts. The actual installation can take awhile. When the screen tells you it’s time to reboot and remove the installation disk, you are almost there. There will be some more initial configuration and eventually you land on the desktop.

One of the first things you’ll notice is the default decorations might be a bit much. However, the general layout should be familiar. You’ll see an empty frame displayed on the desktop. Run your mouse along the sides until a control appears and close it. There are tons of options you won’t understand at first, and most of them are just toys. This guide assumes you’ll want to stay rather close to a default Windows-like display configuration, but you don’t have to accept any part of my advice. This is DIY, remember?

Right-click on the desktop background and you’ll get a fairly standard looking context menu. Be aware that the context menu in Kubuntu is very contextual. The items in any given menu could change one you make some choices; come back to it later and the labels might be different. One of the first things we need to do is enable using normal icons on the desktop. In the context menu, that’s the last item, whatever it says. Click on that and you’ll get a configuration window for the Desktop Settings. The left window pane lists sections and the main window on the right is the configuration options for the selected section. Under “View” I recommend you change the Layout to folder view. After changes in each section, you need to hit “Apply.” Otherwise, the configuration utility will bug you about it.

While you are here, you’ll see only one wallpaper, with an option down below that to download and install more. If you click that, you’ll need your regular password for it. If you already have a collection of images suitable for your wallpaper, hold off until we can start coping files over. You can come back to this as often as you like, always the last item on the context menu of the desktop background.

The second section in this configuration window is what the mouse buttons do. Likely enough the defaults will work for now. Next is Location, and I recommend you select “Show the Desktop folder” — this is a folder in your personal file system where links and icons are stored for display on the desktop. Next is Icons and I generally find them too large, so I drop down to the middle of the right window pane and bump the slider left one notch. You can check the other options to suit your taste. The last item — Filter — won’t mean much to you right now, so we can skip that. When you like what you have for those settings, close the window

This is a good time to offer up a minor warning. By default, Kubuntu rarely uses the double-click. Most icons are single-click to activate. If you hover your mouse a moment over an icon, you’ll see a plus sign. That would be the Windows equivalent of CTRL+left-click — it selects the item for action under the assumption you’ll select more files for the same action. If you hover over an icon and see the minus sign, it’s already been selected and you can hit that minus to de-select it. Otherwise, simply clicking on an icon will activate whatever it represents, or something will try to open the file. If you can’t adjust to single-click, we can change that later.

The last item for now is the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. It’s called Panel and it will surely need customization. However, there is a lot involved and I’ll refer you to this page for an overview. Once you’ve had a chance to read that, I’ll add a couple of items. First, removing widgets from the Panel is easy, but adding them can be a bit cranky. Using the instructions, I suggest you at least temporarily widen the Panel long enough to drag the widgets you want onto it. If you simply double-click on an item in the list (one of the few places where double-click works) it will simply insert on the right end and you cannot move it. You’ll have to remove it and drag it if you want it somewhere specific. Wait for the empty square to peek out from behind the item you are trying to drag onto the Panel. One of the things most Windows folks do is the remove the default Applications Launcher (the big blue “K” icon) and replace it with the other version, the traditional Application Launcher Menu. The other thing is that they remove the widget with a trio of colored dots next to the menu button, called “Activities.” You can read up on it later if you like, but most Windows refugees have no use for it.

That’s enough for now.