The instructions below apply to the installation of Xubuntu 14.04 LTS or Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on a laptop. Where specific instruction is for Lenovo Ideapad Z580 laptop, it is clearly called out.
Important to note before you start.
Xubuntu 14.04 LTS or Ubuntu 14.04 LTS will not dual-boot if you have Windows 8.1 installed. It gives an error with the EFI Boot Manager and appears that Windows 8.1 inhibits it from co-existing as a dual boot. All attempts to fix it failed. Therefore, if you upgraded from Windows 8 OEM to Windows 8.1 when it was offered, please downgrade to Windows 8 OEM version. I did not mind downgrading as my primary Operating System is Linux.
Installation is easy, and you can now follow the instructions below to set up the computer.
- Disable guest account logins
- Hide list of users on the login screen in Xubuntu/Ubuntu
- Enable firewall and test the firewall
- Install bumblebee. See how to improve Lenovo battery backup time (this instruction applies to Lenovo Ideapad Z580 laptop with dual graphics (Intel onboard and NVidia Optimus).
- Sound with pulseaudio works out of box. No tweaks to be done.
- The wireless A/B/G/N networks all work fine, unlike 13.10 where only B/G worked.
- Install libdvdcss to play back DVDs.
- Install Oracle Java 7
- Install libavcodec-extra to get more codecs. This should replace ffmpeg. Open a terminal window and enter the command below:
$ sudo apt-get install libavcodec-extra <enter>
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