This is a collection of annoyances that I have had to fix for myself while using the Ubuntu 24.04 desktop. Snaps are obviously the most annoying thing that Ubuntu does. Especially for Firefox. If you need to use smart cards or other tools with Firefox you may consider removing the snap version. I don't know the steps to completely remove snapd from a desktop system and retain all the functionality provided by those snap applications. I update this doc when I can remember.
The Ubuntu install defaults to some weird text editor called nano. I have no idea how it works. I think it is new. You can change the default text editor.
sudo update-alternatives --config editor
You may need to install a more complete vim editor instead of the tiny vim that is installed by default.
sudo apt install vim
After installing a more complete vim you will see more options. I don't actually know what vim.tiny is but it is pretty useless for me.
There are 4 choices for the alternative editor (providing /usr/bin/editor).
Selection Path Priority Status
------------------------------------------------------------
0 /bin/nano 40 auto mode
1 /bin/ed -100 manual mode
2 /bin/nano 40 manual mode
* 3 /usr/bin/vim.basic 30 manual mode
4 /usr/bin/vim.tiny 15 manual mode
If you are pedantic you can confirm this by looking at the symbolic links:
$ ls -l /usr/bin/editor
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Mar 29 2023 /usr/bin/editor -> /etc/alternatives/editor
$ ls -l /etc/alternatives/editor
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Sep 2 11:20 /etc/alternatives/editor -> /usr/bin/vim.basic
Run as local user not the root user.
Get the current blank screen value:
gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay
Set the blank screen value in seconds:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay 1800
After making this change, in Settings GUI editor it will show "Never" as there is no entry for 30 minutes. The GUI only allows up to 15 minutes.
Get the current lock screen after blank screen value:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver lock-delay
Set the lock screen after blank screen value in seconds:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver lock-delay 1800
To use minutes directly $((15*60)) i.e. 15 minutes x 60 seconds e.g. gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver lock-delay $((15*60))
see https://gist.github.com/jfeilbach/78d0ef94190fb07dee9ebfc34094702f
see https://make-firefox-private-again.com/
Copy of the page is below. I don't recommend running curl <url> |sh
This can be dangerous if you are not paying attention or someone is doing nefarious acts. If you are using the snap version of Firefox these paths are incorrect and will not work. See replacing Snap Firefox above.
echo 'user_pref("dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled", false);' | tee -a $HOME/.mozilla/firefox/$(grep "Default=.*\.default*" "$HOME/.mozilla/firefox/profiles.ini" | cut -d"=" -f2)/user.js
echo 'Restart Firefox for the change to have effect'
# What is this about? Read more here:
# https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/18/mozilla_buys_anonym_betting_privacy/
# https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/privacy-preserving-attribution-for-advertising/
#
# How to use:
# curl https://make-firefox-private-again.com | sh
#
#
#
# Verify, or do it manually:
#
# about:config
#
# dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled
#
# set to false
#
#
#
#
# Report issues to @eloy@hsnl.social, but
# don't complain about curl | sh please.
# I have only tested this on Fedora, let
# me know if it worked or not on others.
#
# I am aware there are Firefox forks that
# have sane defaults with regards to this
# and other aspects. I prefer keep using
# Firefox itself, because maintaining a
# browser is an incredible difficult job
# and I don't trust small projects to be
# able to this, despite that my trust in
# Mozilla is pretty low these days.
#
# Inspired by https://web.archive.org/web/0/https://make-linux-fast-again.com/
See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/telemetry-clientid
Confrim by going to about:telemetry You should see something like this:
Telemetry is collecting release data and upload is disabled.
This extension is made by EFF. Privacy Badger is a browser extension that automatically learns to block invisible trackers. Go to https://privacybadger.org/
In about:config set media. Peer connection. enable to false.
sudo systemctl status unattended-upgrades
sudo systemctl disable --now unattended-upgrades
sudo systemctl status unattended-upgrades
In file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades
Change from enabled APT fucntions to disabled:
APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";
APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "1";
after it shoud look like this:
APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "0";
APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "0";
To get a good description of what this will install:
sudo apt info ubuntu-restricted-extras
To install these packages run:
sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras
You will have to agree to a EULA. This will also change quite a few packages. This list will vary depending on whether you upgraded or did a clean installation.
It will remove:
cabextract
libaribb24-0t64
libavcodec-extra
libavcodec-extra60
libmspack0t64
libopencore-amrnb0
libopencore-amrwb0
libvo-amrwbenc0
ttf-mscorefonts-installer
unrar
libavcodec60
It will install new packages:
cabextract
libaribb24-0t64
libavcodec-extra
libavcodec-extra60
libmspack0t64
libopencore-amrnb0
libopencore-amrwb0
libvo-amrwbenc0
ttf-mscorefonts-installer
ubuntu-restricted-extras
unrar
If you also want to play and decrypt DVDs follow these instructions: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/PlayingDVDs
You can try the following, but it will most likely fail. These services do not currently support the --purge operation. They never will. pro <tab> <tab> will autocomplete the full list of services.
sudo pro disable esm-infra
sudo pro disable esm-apps
sudo pro disable livepatch
You will find one package with the name advantage in the installed list. DO NOT remove the the ubuntu-advantage-desktop-daemon. It will break your desktop by removing dependencies, in a very bad way. There are several pro packages installed by default. I do not know if you can safely remove them. Proceed at your own risk.
ubuntu-pro-client
ubuntu-pro-client-l10n
There is documentation here: https://documentation.ubuntu.com/pro/pro-client/purging_services/
These services do not currently support the --purge operation.
When these services are disabled with --purge, the sources and authentication will be removed first. Then, packages that are only available in the service-specific APT repository will be removed from the system. The origin is detected based on the origin metadata defined in apt for all packages in this repository.
You might be able to disable the sources in /var/lib/ubuntu-advantage/apt-esm/etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu-esm-apps.sources by placing a comment #at the beginning of each line. I think errors will be returned by apt. You will need to run sudo systemctl daemon-reload to resolve this issue.