Ubuntu-MATE 20.04
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The left side of the MATE 'top panel' --- showing the 'Applications', 'Places', and 'System' menu 'buttons' --- and the 'Applications' drop-down cascading menus. The 'Remove from Panel' option for the 'Menu' icon was grayed-out, so I left it there. I prefer using the 'Applications'-'Places'-'System' triplet. |
! Note !
A few more notes or links may be added to this page,
if I re-visit this page after some experiences with this computer.
Sections Below:
INTRO
TAILOR-HP-PC-BOOT-MENU
'LIVE'-TEST
INSTALL-TO-DISK
SETTING-PREFERENCES
GRUB-TAILORING
INSTALLING-APPS
GAMES-INSTALLED
I-MAY-INSTALL-MORE
FINAL-IMPRESSIONS
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INTRODUCTION : In 2021 June, I decided to finally get around to installing a Linux 'distro' (distribution) with the MATE desktop environment on an HP 'laptop' computer that I bought back around 2018 Dec (at Walmart for $259, a bargain price).
Some places to look for laptop bargains are: I decided to install Ubuntu-MATE on the HP laptop --- for reasons indicated in an Ubuntu-vs-LinuxMint section below. For an Ubuntu-MATE intall that I did recently (2021 April) on another HP laptop ( 'HPlaptop01' ), I had downloaded a '.iso' file (64-bit) from the Ubuntu-MATE download page, and I had used a 'Hybrid-ISO-to-USB-Drive' script of the 'feNautilusScripts' system at the software site www.freedomenv.com to put the '.iso' file on a 'USB stick'. That script uses the 'dd' command to put the '.iso' file on the USB stick using a command of the form: sudo dd if=<iso-file-name> of=/dev/sdX bs=1M Although the Ubuntu-MATE team had recently released the new Ubuntu-MATE 2021.04 release, I decided to use the 'more mature' Ubuntu-MATE 2020.04.2 LTS (Long Term Support) release, that had been through about 2 updates. The computer 'specs' of the laptop that I identify as 'HPlaptop02' were as follows:
CPU Processor: Intel Pentium N5000 (1.1 GHz) GPU Processor: Intel UHD Graphics 605 Memory: 4 GB DDR4 SDRAM Monitor size: 15.6 inches Monitor resolution: 1366x768 LED LCD (max?) Hard Disk Drive: 1 TB 5400 rpm Optical Drive (CD/DVD): none USB Type-A ports: 2 USB3.2Gen1 ports ; 1 USB2.0 port Video ports: 1 HDMI (no VGA) Wi-Fi: 802.11b/g/n Bluetooth: 4.0 Weight: 4.6 lbs (2.10 kg) Other features: 1 Ethernet port, 1 SD card reader, 1 audio jack, webcam, speakers, microphone Manufacture date: 2018 ? (Made in China) A nice set of benchmark results for many CPU's working in a 'single-thread' mode can be seen at cpubenchmark.net. You can compare the performance of the Intel Pentium N5000 CPU to various low-end to mid-power Intel processors, such as various models of 'Atom', 'Celeron', 'Pentium', and 'i3' processors (surprisingly many!). The Intel Pentium N5000 CPU had a PassMark rating of 1,152. This was in the middle of the 'PassMark' performance ratings for laptop-CPU's --- which ranged from about 3,750 down to about 100. Ubuntu-MATE rather than LinuxMint-MATE: I had installed a couple of releases of LinuxMint with the MATE desktop environment on a couple of Acer 'netbook' computers, back around 2012, as described on some LinuxMint install pages of this site. But I found I liked the old Ubuntu-Gnome2 desktop envivironment with a 'top panel' (strip along the top of the screen) --- with the 'Applications', 'Places', and 'System' drop-down menus --- as well as a 'bottom panel' (strip along the bottom of the screen) --- that shows icons representing currently running tasks/windows. The MATE desktop environment was 'forked' from Gnome2 and has preserved the 'top-and-bottom' 'thin-panels' design. Over the 2012 to 2018 time frame, I decided that I would definitely prefer Ubuntu-MATE rather than LinuxMint-MATE. LinuxMint-MATE eliminates the MATE 'top panel' in favor of a rather monolithic MS-Windows-like 'Start' panel (menu) that is initiated by a click on the left of the 'bottom panel' --- the 'strip' along the bottom of the screen. I find the MATE 'top panel' allows for faster access to either 'Applications' or 'Places' (directories of files) or 'System' (computer utilities) --- instead of presenting all of them when you only need one of these object types. (I am usually using 'Places' --- during my web-development & script-programming activities.) Following are step-by-step notes on the installation of Ubuntu-MATE 20.04.2 on the 'HPlaptop02' laptop. The string 'Ubuntu-MATE' may be abbreviated 'UM' in the following notes.
TAILORING THE HP-PC BOOT MENU : To get to the UEFI / BIOS menu.
By doing web searches on keywords such as 'computer bios uefi menu key hp acer dell', you can find information on which key to use to get to the BIOS/UEFI menu on your computer. I found that F10 is typically used on HP laptop computers. I inserted the USB stick with the UM 20.04 '.iso' file into a USB port --- before powering on the PC. I held down the F10 key --- then I pressed the power-on button. The 'InsydeH2O Setup Utility' (Rev. 5.0) opened within a few seconds. It showed 'toolbar' options with the names: You can use the right and left arrow keys to choose one of these menu options. The 'Main' menu consisted mainly of unchangeable text showing features of the computer, such as the processor type and amount of memory. The 'Security' menu provides the option to set an 'Admin' password and a 'Power-On' password. The 'System Configuration' menu was the main menu that I needed to access --- to change the 'boot order' of devices --- to allow my 'USB stick' to be accessed first. The SysConfig menu included a submenu called 'Boot Options'. I entered that menu --- via down-arrow and Enter keys. I left the 'Secure Boot' option at 'Enabled' --- and the 'Legacy Support' option at 'Disabled'. I also left 'USB Boot' and 'CD-ROM Boot' at 'Enabled' --- and 'Network Boot' at 'Disabled'. I went down to the section titled 'UEFI Boot Order' and used F5 and F6 keys to change the default boot order (that had 'OS Boot Manager' at the top) to the following.
I also set 'POST Hotkey Delay (sec)' from 0 (zero) to 5 --- in case it would help me get to the BIOS/UEFI menu more easily. (I used the F5 and F6 keys to change zero to 5.) This BIOS/UEFI-Boot-Menu section is an appropriate place for me to point out that the 'OS Boot Manager' line was high-lighted, indicating that you can select that line and press the Enter key to get a response (shown below). After I completed the Ubuntu-MATE 20.04 installation, as described below, I found that when I went back into the Boot-Menu and clicked on the 'OS Boot Manager' line, it showed me the following string. ubuntu (?a-disk-drive-make-and-model?) Before I wiped out the Microsoft Windows 10 operating system with the Ubuntu-MATE operating system, I expect that the string diplayed would have said something about 'microsoft' or 'windows10' or the like. I may check this out on a Windows 10 machine in the future, when I do another overlay of Microsoft-Windows with Ubuntu. I used the F10 key to 'Exit Saving Changes'.
By the way, You can enter the following command at a terminal prompt. mokutil --sb-state In my case, where I left 'Secure Boot' enabled, this command returned the string 'SecureBoot enabled'. You can use the command 'man mokutil' to get information on that command.
I think this is what happened next after exiting the Boot-menu The screen cleared and after about 15 seconds a menu of UM startup options appeared. I was busy taking notes and in about 5 seconds a default option took effect --- a 'live' install (not to disk). I MAY have gotten a 'GNU GRUB' menu that showed options such as
- Install Ubuntu MATE - OEM install (for manufacturers) - Check disk for defects
'LIVE' TEST OF THE DISTRO I did not take detailed notes on the startup of the 'Try without installing' process --- but here is roughly what happened. The screen went blank for about 14 seconds. Then an Ubuntu-MATE logo appeared in the center of the screen with 5 dots horizontally centered below. One dot at a time would get brighter than the other 4 ... indicating something was happening. (I would rather see messages from 'what was happening'.) At about 54 seconds, the screen went blank again. At about 80 seconds, the MATE top and bottom panels appeared along with the desktop background. At about 90 seconds, the Ubuntu-MATE 'Welcome' window appeared in the middle of the MATE desktop background. In a 'live' (in-memory, not-on-disk) try-out of a distro, I typically like to check if
There were 'Menu' and Firefox icons on the left of the 'MATE top-panel' --- and there was a user's 'Home' icon on the desktop, by which to access the sub-directories and files of the user's home directory. I was able to use the 'Home' icon on the desktop to verify that the MATE Caja file manager was working well to allow me to quickly navigate directories. On the right of the 'top-panel', there is an icon representing the MATE 'Network Manager' applet. I clicked on the 'Network Manager' icon to examine its drop-down menu. The 'Ethernet network' option line was grayed out and the line below that line showed 'disconnected'. This was an indication that I did not have an ethernet cable plugged into the computer because the rental house where I was did not have a wired-ethernet connection option. Under the 'Wi-Fi network' option line were about 5 names of wireless access points (WAP's) --- with a 'More networks' line appearing below those names. The comforting thing to me is that the rental house's wireless access point name DID show up in the 'More networks' group of WAP's. I clicked on it and entered the router password in the dialog wndow that came up. Then, when I clicked on the Firefox icon and started up Firefox, it was able to connect to the Firefox site. Both the file-manager and wireless-access features were working --- so I proceeded to do an 'install-to-disk' of the Ubuntu-MATE 20.04 operating system. INSTALL DISTRO TO DISK: Here are some details of the install-to-disk. Since the 'live' install tests went well, I decided to go ahead and do the install of Ubuntu-MATE 20.04 to disk. In the 'live' install, I double-clicked on the desktop icon labelled 'Install Ubuntu MATE 20.04 LTS'. Within 10 seconds, I started getting the usual prompts for options like the following (not necessarily in the following order).
On one panel with radio-buttons and check-buttons, I did the following:
I got another window-panel labelled 'Installation Type' --- with 3 choices under the message: "This computer currently has Windows boot manager on it. What would you like to do?" The 3 choices were:
I chose option 2 - erase-and-install. Then an 'Advanced Features ...' button was un-grayed. I clicked on it. A panel showed 3 options:
I took the default --- None. I then clicked the 'Install Now' button on the 'Installation Type' panel.
I got a warning dialog-panel titled The panel messages specified:
partition#1 of SCSI1(0,0,0)(sda) as ESP I clicked the 'Continue' button --- which started a sequence of several dialog panels:
Thus the basic installation process was complete, and I got a nice looking green-MATE desktop with a small window prompting for my passord. I entered the password I had previously specified and pressed Enter. After several seconds, the top and bottom panels of the MATE desktop appeared. I was now ready to set some preferences and do some 'app installs'. SETTING PREFERENCES: I do not need an internet connection to set a lot of my preferences for the Caja file manager and for various desktop options such as appearance (colors) of windows. So, even if I was not connected to the internet, I could proceed to set a wide variety of preferences. Rather than go into detail on various preferences that I set, I will refer to my other web pages on past installations of Ubuntu-MATE (16.04 and 18.04) and LinuxMint-MATE --- and even old installations of Ubuntu-Gnome2 (9.10, 'Karmic Koala') --- in which I list many of the preferences that I set. BUT ... I WILL mention several main things that I like to change in MATE. 1) Top-panel menus: I like to intall the 'Classic Menu' (the 'Applications', 'Places', 'System' menu options) on the MATE 'top-panel'. You can right-click on the 'top-panel' and choose the 'Add to panel ...' option. A window opens and you can scroll down and select the 'Classic Menu' option and click on the 'Add' button. When the Applications-Places-System triplet appears on the 'top-panel', you can right-click on that 'icon' and use the 'Move' and 'Lock to panel' options to place the triplet where you want it on the 'top-panel'. 2) Files view: I like to change the files view in the Caja file manager from 'Icon View' to 'List View' --- because I am frequently dealing with directories with more than 100 files --- not easily managed with icons spread all over (and out of sight on) a Caja file manager window. To change to 'List View', you can open the Caja file manager --- for example, on your home directory. On the Caja file manager toolbar, select 'Edit' and then select 'Preferences' on the drop-down menu A 'File Management Preferences' window appears, in which you can change a 'Default View' option from 'Icon View' to 'List View'. 3) Workspaces: I like to simply use one 'workspace' --- rather than maintaining several different 'desktops'. I right-clicked on one of the workspace rectangles at the right of the bottom MATE panel. I chose 'Preferences' in the menu that popped up. In the 'Workspace Switcher Preferences' dialog panel, I reduced 'Number of workspaces' from 4 to 1. 4) Window-appearance: The default 'Ambiant-MATE' theme --- as seen in 'System > Preferences > Look and Feel > Appearance' --- was fine with me for very readable colors (white text on a dark background) in window borders. But in an installation of Ubuntu-MATE 16.04 a few years earlier, I had a heck of a time choosing-and-tailoring a nice color scheme for the MATE windows. So it may be necessary, after some Ubuntu-MATE installs, to use the 'Look and Feel > Appearance' options to get a satisfactory color scheme in the MATE windows. 5) Other: There are many other preferences that I set --- especially preferences in web browsers such as Seamonkey and Firefox. Some of those preferences may be described in my other 'Ref-Info > Computer' web pages. GRUB TAILORING: I like to see the bootup messages as Linux is booting up --- rather than looking at blank or nearly-empty logo-screens for almost 2 minutes. So, at some point after this Ubuntu-MATE install, I want to remove the "quiet splash" options in the GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) configuration files. I plan to proceed as follows.
INSTALLING APPS:
Adding app icons to the MATE-top-panel: Now that I had the 'base' of Ubuntu-MATE installed, I added app icons to the 'MATE top panel' by right-clicking on various MATE 'Applications' menu drawers and choosing the option 'Add this launcher to panel'. For apps that were not in the 'Applications' menu, I knew that I could use the Ubuntu-MATE 'Software Boutique' or the 'Synaptic package manager' to install more apps. I 'set up' about 50 apps as follows. I installed the 'Synaptic package manager' from the 'Software Boutique'. From the 'Applications' sub-menus, I added the following apps, as icons, to the top panel --- apps that I have found convenient to have in the top panel in my other Gnome2-Nautilus and MATE-Caja installations. I made the following groups of icons in the top panel. Handy utilities:
Text Editors:
Web Browsers:
Mail client:
Internet File transfer utility:
Capture utilities:
Games: I do not ordinarily install games on my computers because my main use of my computers is for
However, one aim that I had for this laptop was to load it up with games to determine which ones may be suitable to show my grandchildren how to play. And then, perhaps, give this laptop to them - when they are old enough to deal with it. I do not plan to put icons for these games on the MATE 'top-panel'. Rather, many of them will appear, after installation, in the 'Games' sub-menu of the MATE 'Applications' menu. A few games can be installed from the UM 'Software Boutique'. Many other games can be installed using the Synaptic Package Manager. A list of those games-installed is presented in a 'Games Installed' section below. Apps I installed from the 'Software Boutique': Using the 'System > Administration > Software Boutique' menu-path, I installed programs from the following 'groups' within the Software Boutique. From 'Accessories': Gip From 'Education': Gcompris, TuxPaint From 'Games': 'Desktop Games', 'Extreme Tux Racer', 'Frozen Bubble', 'Super Tux Kart', Neverball From 'Graphics': MyPaint, 'Rapid Photo Downloader' From 'Internet': 'Adobe Flash Player', Filezilla, Thunderbird, Vivaldi, Brave From 'Office': gLabels From 'Programming': Meld (a 'diff' viewer, including directory differences) From 'Sound & Video': Audacity, VLC, EasyTAG, Kazam, Peek, SimpleScreenRecorder, SoundConverter, Handbrake, Kdenlive, 'Pulse Audio Volume Control' From 'System Tools': Brasero, 'System Profiler and Benchmark' (aka Hardinfo), Psensor From 'More Software': 'Synaptic Package Manager' Apps I installed via 'Synaptic Package Manager': I used the 'System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager' menu-path to install the following via the named 'Sections'. From 'Editors (Universe)': 'scite' From 'Interpreted Computer Languages': tcl 8.6 From 'Graphics (Universe)': mtpaint, pngcrush, recordmydesktop, smplayer, tui, winff, wings3d, xaos, xplanet I used the 'Search' option within the Synaptic Package Manager to find the following apps. I used the keyword 'totem' to find-and-install the 'totem' GUI media player. I also installed 'smtube' which showed up in the 'totem' search. Did a search on 'youtube'. Found and installed 'ffcut'. 'ffcut' is an ffmpeg wrapper to make conversions to do high efficiency audi-video (Opus/H2.65) compression encoding. Also VP9 video. Did a search on 'imagemagick'. Found and installed the ImageMagick package of image processing programs. Did a search on 'mplayer'. Found and installed 'mplayer', 'mencoder', 'mplayer-gui' with 'mplayer-skins', and 'mplayer-doc'. After seeing 'tcl' in the 'Interpreted Computer Languages (Universe)' group of Synaptic, but not 'tk', I used Synaptic Search to find 'tk8.6'. I installed 'tk8.6'. Synaptic actually installed 'tk 8.6.10'. To test it, I tried the 'wish' command but it was 'not found'. It turns out the executable 'wish8.6' was installed in /usr/bin --- with no link made to 'wish' --- which was the norm in previous installs of tcl and tk on Ubuntu and LinuxMint. I will need to make a 'soft-link' to 'wish' - as 'root' (superuser) --- in the /usr/bin directory --- using the 'ln' command. Did a search for 'seamonkey' in Synaptic. Not found. Downloaded the Seamonkey '.bz2' install file for 64-bit Linux from the Seamonkey web site and installed the files in $HOME/bin/seamonkey2 by extracting with the 'Engrampa Archive Manager' (aka File Roller) that is offered by the MATE-Caja file manager when you right-click on a compressed file like a '.bz2' file. Other installed-apps-that-I-often-use (not on top-panel): I have a lot of Nautilus/Caja scripts that use the 'ImageMagick' 'convert' program, so I wanted to install the 'imagemagick' system of utilities. The FE Nautilus/Caja scripts are designed to be used in the Caja file manager --- via the right-click popup menu of Caja --- and the 'Scripts' option (that appears just below the 'Open with' option) in that popup menu. I also wanted to install the GUI 'mtpaint' image editor utility. I did not need it in the top-panel, because I hardly ever need to start it without specifying an image filename. I would usually want to select an image file in the Caja file manager and then apply the 'mtpaint' program to the file --- by a right-click on the image filename and using the 'Open with ...' option of the Caja popup menu. Following is a list (in alphabetical order) of some 'apps-I-may-use' (more or less frequently) that I installed on this laptop --- apps that I do not need to access via an icon on the 'top panel'. You can click on the software-name links to go to a web page that describes the software.
Other apps-that-I-may-install on this laptop (someday): Here is a list (in alphabetical order) of some apps that I may install on this laptop --- especially if I don't pass this laptop on to my grandchildren and if I find a compelling use for this laptop for some of my projects:
Since the software repositories for the 20.04 release of Ubuntu-MATE will only be supported until about 2023, I wanted to try to anticipate most of the programs that I might want to use. I will probably never use many of these programs --- that I installed on this computer. Maybe I will use some of them eventually --- but probably on a desktop computer. Some of the programs in the 'Software Boutique' that I did NOT install, but I might want to install someday were :
I may also wish to install the Pale Moon web browser someday --- because it has an icon on its toolbar that you can use to quickly turn Javascript interpretation OFF and ON. This can be handy when you are on a web site that is popping up annoying ads or phony windows that tell you (on a Linux machine) that your Microsoft Windows operating system has been infected with a virus. You can simply turn OFF Javascript and reload the page. (I wish all web browsers had this quick-Javacript-disable feature.) In addition to all the 'binary' executables above, I installed my script-executables from freedomenv.com. Specifically, I installed I will probably set up the startup scripts of 'tkGooies' and 'xpg' and 'feColorSelect' and 'feFontSelect' so that they can be executed by clicking on a desktop icon for each of them.Some comments on SLOW-STEPS of 'Software Boutique': As a 'Software Boutique' application (and its dependencies) is being installed, you can see messages like the following: "Downloading ..."
Then triplets:
Then you typically see: The messages above typically are followed by the next message within a fraction of a second.
Then you typically see: It is at these 'Processing trigger' steps that one often sees a SLOW-DOWN of three different types:
For some applications, only one or two of these 'objects' are processed. But when all 3 occur, the install can take almost 3 minutes --- whereas apps with only one or none of these will usually install within 15 seconds. Perhaps it is not possible, but if the processing in the 3 steps could be made more efficient, there would be less wait-time when installing a lot of 'Software Boutique' applications. GAMES INSTALLED: A few nice things about the Synaptic GUI package manager:
For example, if I wanted to search for apps that might help with doing scanning of documents (esp. with Epson scanners) and to help with doing OCR (Optical Character Recognition), I could do searches on keywords like 'scanner', 'epson', and 'ocr'. Also, if I wanted to search for apps that would allow for viewing or creating or editing 3D models --- such as models of molecules (in addition to models of objects such as vehicles or people), I could do searches on keywords like '3d'. Also I could do searches on keywords like 'audio' and 'video' and 'image' and 'camera' and 'edit' and 'play'. There are three Games 'sections' in Synaptic:
From the 'Games and Amusement (multiverse)' section, I installed:
From the 'Games and Amusement (universe)' section, I installed:
There are more games available in Synaptic. These are ones whose description indicated they may be OK for children. I did not put 'gory shooter' games here, because my grandchildren will get more than enough exposure to violence and gore in the real-world (news, TV, movies, internet, etc.).
MORE APPS THAT I-MAY-INSTALL: Some 'I-may-install' apps are mentioned in an 'INSTALLING-APPS' sub-section above. For some other apps that I may want to install, see the 'app-install' sections of my 'HPlaptop01' UM 20.04 install page. I may look for more games (and brain-teasers) to install by using the 'Search' option of Synaptic and keywords such as 'game' or 'puzzle' or 'education'. I may also look for good Linux games by doing WEB SEARCHES on keywords such as: PARTING GENERAL IMPRESSIONS: I am favorably impressed by the stability and 'polish' of the Ubuntu-MATE 20.04 'distro'. Luckily, with this 'HPlaptop02', I did not have to spend a lot of time solving the 'garbled desktop problem' and the Realtek 8821ce 'wireless adapter problem' that consumed so much time in the installation of UM 20.04 on 'HPlaptop01'. On the other hand, after trying out about 10 of the games, I found that many of the mouse-control and keyboard-control games were not very well controlled by the mouse or keyboard. Furthermore, many of the games do not have good built-in help that can help you get started fast. It may take many more hours to go through the games to find ones that are worth showing to my grandchildren. To end on a bright note: After installing the many apps and utilities and games on this 'HPlaptop02', I saw that only about 15 GB of the 1 TB disk drive was used --- by the operating system files and the application files and the game files --- less than 2% of the disk --- for several hundred thousand files. There is plenty of room on the 1 TeraByte disk for more apps and data --- and games. Considering the massive amount of code and data in my installation, and opportunities for bugs and flaws to show up in all those files, I feel very satisfied with the Ubuntu-MATE 20.04 installation on this HP laptop. This 'distro' feels very 'solid' in almost all areas --- especially if I avoid games that were not very well programmed and tested. |
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Page was created 2021 Jun 10.
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