These are Rough Notes for how I installed Ubuntu Studio 14.04 as a replacement for Mint 13 Xfce on my Production Workstation. As I continue to Install this LTS version of Ubuntu for others, the information in these notes will continue to expanded and evolve.

To create the LVM partitions and then to install Ubuntu, use the Ubuntu Studio 14.04 live boot (The top “Try Ubuntu Studio without installing” option in the menu.)

GParted → to create the /boot & Physical LVM partitions

• IF Linux was already installed on a “to be repurposed” hard drive, stop using the swap partition so the drive can be repartitioned.
  • If Linux was installed using LVM → select the lvm2 pv partition → Partition » Deactivate
  • if Linux installed w/o LVM → select the swap partition → Partition » Swap off
• Device » Create Partition Table (This will cause all data on the HDD to be lost.)
• Create a 2000MiB ext2 Primary Partition (to be used by /boot)

• Create an lvm2 pv partition using the remainder of the drive space. (pv01 is a suggested Label for this.)

Terminal Commands → to create the LVM volumes

The below is assuming that at least a 320GB hard drive is used for this. Also, with how LVM works, leaving any remaining space unused – to permit resizing (enlarging) LVM Volumes as needed, creating other “purpose specific” Logical Volumes, etc.– is very desirable.

$ sudo -i
# blkid     # to confirm LVM2_member is on /dev/sda2
# vgcreate lts14 /dev/sda2
# lvcreate -L 100G -n root lts14
# lvcreate -L 16G -n swap lts14
# lvcreate -L 200G -n home lts14
# exit
$ exit

• Run the “Install Ubuntu Studio 14.04” application on the desktop
• Download updates while installing ← UNCHECKED
• Install this third-party software ← CHECKED
• Ubuntu Studio installation options:
  • CHECK ubuntustudio-photography & ubuntustudio-publishing
  • UNCHECK everything else
• Installation Type →select Something Else
  • /dev/sda1 → Ext2 … /boot
  • /dev/mapper/lts14-root → Ext4 … /
  • /dev/mapper/lts14-swap → swap area
  • /dev/mapper/lts14-home → Ext4 … /home

• Select the correct Time Zone, then the correct Keyboard Layout
• Enter the appropriate information for Your Name, Your Computer's Name, etc.
• Click the button to Reboot the computer once the installer is finished.

• Use the Update Manager to do all updates.
• Install the Additional Drivers for the Nvida video
• Reboot, then configure the Dual Monitors on this PC.

Terminal Commands ←to put the Squid Deb Proxy data on it's own LVM partition

$ sudo -i
# lvcreate -L 50G -n debproxy lts14
# mkfs -t ext4 /dev/mapper/lts14-debproxy
# mkdir /mnt/squid-deb-proxy
# chown proxy:proxy /mnt/squid-deb-proxy
# nano /etc/fstab    # add the following line to this file

/dev/mapper/lts14-debproxy /mnt/squid-deb-proxy   ext4   defaults   0    2

# exit
$ sudo reboot

Terminal Commands Continued ←finish the squid-deb-proxy setup

$ sudo -i
# mkdir /mnt/squid-deb-proxy/log
# mkdir /mnt/squid-deb-proxy/cache
# ln -s /mnt/squid-deb-proxy/log /var/log/squid-deb-proxy
# ln -s /mnt/squid-deb-proxy/cache /var/cache/squid-deb-proxy
# exit
$ sudo apt-get install squid-deb-proxy
$ cd /etc/squid-deb-proxy/mirror-dstdomain.acl.d
$ sudo mv 10-default 10-default.old
$ sudo nano 10-default    # copy & paste the following into this empty file

$ sudo apt-get install squid-deb-proxy-client
$ sudo reboot

LVM Partition Terminal Commands ← to create a Public Drive on it's own LVM partition

$ sudo lvcreate -L 200G -n public lts14
$ sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/mapper/lts14-public
$ sudo mkdir /home/public
$ sudo chown 1000:100 /home/public    # 1000 => 1st user account  100 => users
$ sudo chmod 0775 /home/public
$ sudo nano /etc/fstab    # add the following line to this file

/dev/mapper/lts14-public /home/public   ext4   defaults   0    2

$ sudo reboot

User Account Terminal Commands ← do this for each [user] added to system

$ sudo usermod -a -G users [user]
$ sudo rmdir Public
$ ln -s /home/public /home/[user]/Public
$ ls -l    # notice how Public is listed in the [user] home directory
$ exit

Script to set group in ~/Public/ to “users”

The below will create a script “allSameGroup.sh” in ~/Public/ – which when double-clicked in the file manager, will open up a Terminal window to prompt for the users Password, then recursively change the group for all folders & file in ~/Public/ to “users”. That with how ~/Public/ was setup, the default group permissions are: rwx for directories, and rw files. Thus with all user accounts added to the “users” group, this script ensures full access to the Public folder.

$ nano Public/allSameGroup.sh    # copy & paste the following into this empty file

#!/bin/bash
# Change the group for everything in ~/Public to users
xfce4-terminal -x bash -c "sudo -s chgrp -R users ~/Public/*"
exit

$ chmod 0755 Public/allSameGroup.sh

• Now rsync the Public files back into /home/public from the backup drive.

• System Settings » Language Support
  • IF “Language support not installed completely” then select “Install”
• Ubuntu Software Center
  • install 7zip → CHECK “Non-free rar module for p7zip”
  • Install VLC
  • Install Xubuntu Restricted Extras → UNCHECK Adobe Flash plug-in
  • Install Non-free firmware for Linux kernel drivers
  • top of window menu → “Edit” » “Software Sources”
    • “Other Software” tab → CHECK “Canonical Partners” & “Independent” (4 boxes total)
    • “Updates” tab → “Notify me of a new Ubuntu version:” set to “Never”

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh    # to enable playing purchased DVDs
$ sudo apt-get install xubuntu-artwork xfce4-artwork xubuntu-community-wallpapers
$ sudo ln -s /usr/share/xfce4/backdrops/ 'Pictures/System Wallpaper'   # make above easy to find
$ sudo apt-get remove xscreensaver xscreensaver-data
$ sudo apt-get install light-locker
$ sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf    # copy & paste the following into bottom of the file

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "BlankTime"   "0"
    Option "StandbyTime" "0"
    Option "SuspendTime" "0"
    Option "OffTime"     "0"
    Option "DontZap" "false"
EndSection

$ sudo nano /Fix_Xfce_Desktop.sh    # copy & paste the following into this empty file

#!/bin/bash
# Fix the Xfce 4.10 Desktop "Behaves Badly"
xfwm4 --replace
exit

$ sudo chmod +x /Fix_Xfce_Desktop.sh
$ sudo apt-get install gksu    # Gtk+ frontend to su & sudo
$ sudo apt-get install cryptsetup    # support for Linux encrypted drives
$ sudo apt-get install cifs-utils    # needed to mount network drives
$ sudo apt-get install libav-tools    # missing due to unchecked options
$ sudo reboot

• Settings Manager » Desktop
  • Background → White Hexagon w/ Blue Ubuntu Studio symbol
  • Menus → UNCHECK Desktop Menus items
  • Icons → CHECK only Removable Devices
• Settings Manager » Appearance
  • Style → Bluebird
  • Icons → Ubuntu Studio (already selected)
  • Fonts » Default Font → Droid Sans 10 (already selected)
  • Settings » Event sounds → CHECK “Enable event sounds
• Settings Manager » Removable Drives and Media
  • Storage
    • CHECK Mount removable drives when hot-plugged
    • CHECK mount removable media when inserted
  • Multimedia
    • CHECK Play audio CDs when Inserted
    • Audio CDs Command: audacious cdda:// ← to auto-play Audio CDs when inserted
    • CHECK Play video CDs and DVDs when inserted
    • Video CDs/DVDs Command: vlc -f dvd:///dev/sr0 ← to auto-play DVDs (full-screen) when inserted
• Settings Manager » Power Manager
  • On AC » Monitor
    • Switch off Display → Never
    • Put Display to Sleep → 60 Minutes
• Settings Manager » Workspaces » Number of Workspaces
  • 1st workspace name → On Internet
  • 2nd workspace name → On this PC
• Panel Preferences » Panel 1 → Remove
• Office » Extra Office Applications → CHECK libreoffice office productivity suite (metapackage) » OK

  • $ sudo apt-get install libreoffice-style-sifr

• Set Firefox homepage to https://www.google.ca
• http://www.google.com/linuxrepositories/ → download the correct .deb file & install Google Chrome
  • in Downloads right-click the .deb file » open with Ubuntu Software Centre » Install Package
  • run Chrome → UNCHECK Make Google Chrome default browser → Start Chrome
  • run Chrome again → Don't ask again → skip for now
• download the correct .deb file & install the “Google Voice and Video Chat” Plugin
• Panel audio icon » Sound Settings » check/configure the audio controls/settings

• Rsync the following backed up folders back into my home directory:
  • Documents
  • eBooks
  • FireStore ← where I store Downloads files that I am keeping long-term.
  • Music
  • Pictures
  • Videos
  • VOIP
  • Websites
  • .conkyrc ← my current/existing Conky configuration file
  • .rednotebook ← data files for RedNoteBook
  • .gconf/apps/gnome-gmail-notifier ← data files for GNOME Gmail Notifier

• Install Conky System Monitor
  • Settings Manager » Session and Startup » Application Autostart → Add
    • Name: Conky
    • Description: conky system monitor
    • Command: conky -p 30

• Synaptic Package Manager » Quick filter → linux kernel
  • Install “linux-headers-generic” and “linux-image-generic”

• Ubuntu Software Centre
  • install RedNoteBook
  • install GNOME Gmail Notifier
  • Install FBReader
  • Install XSane Image scanning program

• Install the current version of gscan2pdf

  $ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jeffreyratcliffe/ppa
  $ sudo apt-get update
  $ sudo apt-get install gscan2pdf libsane-perl

• Add Google Cloud Print printers
  • How-to set-up a Google Cloud Print printer in Ubuntu

• Install YouTube-dl GUI ← to save training videos, to watch on an “airplane mode” tablet.
  • http://ppa.launchpad.net/nilarimogard/webupd8/ubuntu/pool/main/y/youtube-dlg/
  • download & install the …~trusty1_all.deb file