Choosing an alternate screensaver in Ubuntu

1. From the desktop, select: System > Preferences > Screensaver. The Screensaver Preferences window will display.
2. From this window, you may select the desired screensaver as well as configure additional settings such as: automatically locking your computer when the screensaver is activated and Power Management.

Determine which brand of graphics card is installed on my system

1. From the desktop, launch a new terminal session by selecting: Applications > Accessories > Terminal. A new terminal window will display.
2. At the prompt (the blinking cursor), type: lspci | grep VGA then press Enter. This will return something similar to: 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G86 [GeForce 8400M GS] (rev a1)
3. From this information, it is clear I have an NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS graphics card.

Install proprietary graphics drivers

Though probably not required, it may be helpful to determine which brand of graphics card is installed on your system.

1. Ensure that you are connected to the Internet.
2. From the desktop, select: System > Administration > Hardware Drivers. The Hardware Drivers window will display after a quick hardware scan of your system is performed. The scan will determine what proprietary drivers are available and list the results.
3. Select the available driver. If multiple drivers for the same hardware are displayed (as is likely the case when installing the NVIDIA graphics driver), simply click the driver that identified as [Recommended].
4. Once you have chosen the appropriate driver, click: Activate. The new graphics driver will be downloaded and installed.
5. Once installation is complete, it is likely that you will need to reboot your system for the changes to take effect. For NVIDIA graphics cards, you will also now have an application titled: NVIDIA X Server Settings, located in the: System > Administration menu. This application will enable you to access information and settings specific to your graphics card.

Configure Déjà Dup Backup Tool to do it's business

1. From the desktop, select: Applications > System Tools > Déjà Dup Backup Tool. The Déjà Dup window will display.
2. Select: Edit > Preferences. Déjà Dup Preferences will display.
3. If you are backing up to an external drive, ensure that this drive is connected now. To define a backup location (i.e. where you want your backup files stored), click: Edit. Note: You may also choose to backup to other external resources via the Connect to Server button. Though for now, we will assume you are using an external hard drive.
4. From the Backup Location dropdown list, select the desired external drive.
5. Include files in folders: Next you will add the folders to be backed up. Click: Add then select the desired folder. To select additional folders, simply repeat this step.
6. Exclude files in folders: Here you may define the sub-folders (i.e. the folders inside the ones you added in the previous step) that you do not want Déjà Dup to backup. For example, you may not necessarily care to waste time and storage space by creating a backup of your Trash directory. As before, you simply click: Add then select the desired folder(s).
7. To encrypt your backups, click: Encrypt backup files. You may also schedule recurring backups by clicking: Automatically backup on a regular schedule and defining the frequency with the How often to backup dropdown.
8. After configuring the remaining Keep backups option, click: Close and you will be returned to the main Déjà Dup window.
9. Pretty self-explanitory from here. To perform a manual backup, simply ensure that your external drive is still connected then click: Backup followed by Backup again. A restore of your backed up data is done with ...wait for it ...Restore.

Install Déjà Dup Simple Backup Program in Ubuntu 10.04 and (Lucid Lynx) and 9.10 (Karmic Koala)

1. From the desktop, launch a new terminal session by selecting: Applications > Accessories > Terminal. A new terminal window will display.
2. At the prompt (the blinking cursor), type: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deja-dup-team/ppa then press Enter. 
3. If prompted, type the sudo password then press Enter. Ubuntu will now fetch the PPA (Personal Package Archive) key for Déjà Dup.
4. Once this is complete, you should see something like: Executing: gpg --ignore-time-conflict --no-options --no-default-keyring --secret-keyring /etc/apt/secring.gpg --trustdb-name /etc/apt/trustdb.gpg --keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg --primary-keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv B24F18C361712E3A495E1184FEFFB8F041556EEA
gpg: requesting key 41556EEA from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpg: key 41556EEA: "Launchpad PPA for Déjà Dup Administrators" not changed
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: unchanged: 1 If you receive an error indicating: gpgkeys: HTTP fetch error 7: couldn't connect to host simply verify the command you entered and run it again.
5. Once you have successfully imported the PPA key, type sudo apt-get update then press Enter.
6. After the update is completed, you may install Déjà Dup using either Synaptic Package Manager or by typing: sudo apt-get install deja-dup and pressing Enter.
7. Once installation is complete, you may access Déjà Dup by selecting Applications > System Tools > Déjà Dup Backup Tool.

OK, great! Now, uhhh ...what do I do with it? Read on...

Install the Chromium web browser

Method 1

1. From the desktop, launch a new terminal session by selecting: Applications > Accessories > Terminal. A new terminal window will display.
2. At the prompt (the blinking cursor), type: sudo apt-get install chromium-browser then press Enter. 
3. If prompted, type the sudo password then press Enter.
4. Once installation is complete, you may access Chromium by selecting: Applications > Internet > Chromium Web Browser.

Method 2

1. Click here to install the ubuntu-restricted-extras package
2. When prompted, click to open the link with apturl and install the package automatically.

Change the default Ubuntu fonts

1. From the desktop, select System > Preferences > Appearance. The Appearance Preferences window will display.
2. Select the Fonts tab.
3. Make the desired font adjustments (Family, Style and Size) by selecting the desired dropdown list. Your changes will take effect immediately, giving you an opportunity to view the result.
4. Once you are satisfied with your selections, click Close.

Playing restricted media formats in Ubuntu 10.04 and (Lucid Lynx) and 9.10 (Karmic Koala)

Ubuntu strives to make all software that meets the licensing terms in the Ubuntu License Policy available. However patent and copyright restrictions complicate...

Blah, Blah, Blah. While Ubuntu makes playback of non-proprietary media formats a snap, additional steps are required to enable the more widely used formats including MP3, WMA and others.

Method 1

1. From the desktop, launch a new terminal session by selecting: Applications > Accessories > Terminal. A new terminal window will display.
2. At the prompt (the blinking cursor), type: sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras then press Enter.
3. When prompted, type the sudo password then press Enter.
4. Once installation is complete, you will have the ability to play all of your favorite proprietary media files.

Method 2

1. Click here to install the ubuntu-restricted-extras package
2. When prompted, click to open the link with apturl and install the package automatically.