Starting with A Clean Slate

For a long time, I thought of documenting my troubles with Linux. It didn't materialise, though. The trouble with not documenting is that when you get into the same or similar problem, you experience a deja vu but there's nothing much you can do about it except reinventing the wheel. Yesterday, I decided to reinstall Linux on my system. To erase everything and start from the beginning. I generally upgrade from one version to the next, which is going on for several years now. There are benefits of upgrading. The small changes and tweaks accumulates over time and you get a system which not only suits you but defines you. However, there are caveats of such upgrading process as well. All the problems that I have created by running commands copied from the internet, also accumulates and the system gradually turns into something that is beyond troubleshooting. So, it is better to start with a clean slate once in a while. After-all, it's not like going back to the level zero. It helps you to loose some weight. I installed many packages which I needed at that time and maybe I shall never use them again. A clean install helps you to shed those baggage. And, here comes the necessity of documenting. I don't want to forget the programs that I used or the steps that I took to achieve something or solve a problem. If those are documented, it gives you the direction and guidelines when you face similar situations.

So, today, I installed ubuntu 18.10 on my hp 14 inch laptop with intel core i5 and a problematic WiFi-cum-Bluetooth drive called RTL8723BE. I would have loved to talk about the problems I faced and how I solved them. But nothing of that sort happened. I download the .iso image from the ubuntu website (please also donate to Canonical if you can) and created a startup USB stick using the Startup Disk Creator application. Then, I plugged in the USB and restarted and while booting pressed F9 to select the boot device (the USB stick). It opened the GRUB menu which offered direct install option, however, I waited to enter the test session. Because:

• I wanted to take some screenshots while installing. 
• I had to configure the LAN, as well, so that the propitiatory software (mp3 codecs etc.) gets downloaded and installed while installing the OS. If you have automatic Ethernet then it may not be needed. Maybe there would be options to configure internet in a direct install; I don't know for sure. There is a option to connect to WiFi, though.

I got the option to reinstall ubuntu, which would try to keep the previously installed programs but I chose to erase and install the existing version. the whole process took only a few minutes and completed flawlessly. Many problems that I faced with the upgrade from 18.04 got solved, such as:

• WiFi and Bluetooth both are working perfectly now. In 18.04, none worked simultaneously. Some kernel upgrade fixed Bluetooth but crippled WiFi. After upgrade to 18.10, WiFi started working but there were no sounds over Bluetooth. In the clean install of 18.10, both are now working smoothly.
• Natural scrolling is working for both the horizontal and vertical directions. Previously, it was working on the vertical direction only.
• Canonical introduced the gtk-common-themes for snap apps so that they don't look alien to the desktop environment and to make them better assimilate with the other apps. It was not working with the upgrade to 18.10 but working in the clean install.

You'll find many posts on things to do after installing a new version of ubuntu. There are actually a lot to do to tweak it to your liking. However, I am taking it slow this time. Earlier, I use to spend days on installing unnecessary programs, the programs that I ever liked and was interested in but never going to use. For example, I always installed blender. I never used it. This time, my motto is "bare necessities". Here are the things that I did:

1. I agreed to submit user data to Canonical
2. Connected the online accounts (ubuntu, google and Microsoft, Facebook, Flickr)
3. Reduced the screen brightness to 15%. It is required to protect your eyes
4. Turned on the Night Light. It's there in the display settings. (One thing I noticed that Settings program now remembers the place where you had left off)
5. Adjusted (increased) the speed of the pointer.
6. Installed Gnome Tweaks
7. Changed the pointer style to DMZ-white using Gnome Tweak. However, on the snap apps, pointer turns into Yaru (the new default theme) mode. I guess, the gtk-common-themes for snap is set to Yaru and it does not adapt to the system theme changes
8. Enable Auto hide for dock; It's a 14 inch screen so I need space
9. Turned off the desktop icons (Previously my desktop used to be a trash can; Gnome is getting rid of the desktop icons and it is a welcoming step for me)
10. Activated the Activities Overview Hot Corner
11. Added a language (bn_IN)
12. Slimmed down the Firefox (by switching on Client Side Display). Synced. Installed tor and configured proxy
13. Installed Chromium snap. Signed in to sync. In future, Canonical will provide chromium only through snap store
14. Installed Artha (I love this app and I use it. It's a thesaurus actually and I like to use it over a dictionary). Added it to the startup application using Gnome Tweak. It can also be done using the program called Startup Applications
15. Installed GIMP although I don't need it today
16. Set a profile picture in the Account Settings

These are the 16 things that I did after installing ubuntu 18.10. I am not doing any more changes to the system today. Hopefully. Tomorrow, I shall install some gnome extensions and talk about them.

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