Configuration

Switch to better DNS servers

Switch to better dns servers like google dns or open dns. We personally use Google DNS servers: 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4

Right click on the network management icon on the system tray and "Configure Network Connections". Go to IPv4 tab and enter the dns servers as shown below.

You can also configure IPv6 dns servers from google if you want to use it.

Update all packages

Update all packages to make your system up-to-date with the latest versions. In order to do it, simply open your terminal and enter the following commands:

sudo apt update 
sudo apt upgrade

If you want to also upgrade your distribution to the latest version, below the command to use:

sudo apt dist-upgrade

Install additional proprietary drivers

Some hardware components will need extra proprietary drivers that are not installed by default. The most common one is Nvidia graphics card for which you need to install the Nvidia proprietary drivers and replace the open source nouveau driver for max performance.

The drivers can also be listed on the command line using the command ubuntu-drivers devices

ubuntu-drivers devices

Output

== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0 == 
modalias : pci:v000010DEd00002520sv00001462sd000012F1bc03sc00i00
vendor : NVIDIA Corporation
model : GA106M [GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile / Max-Q]
driver : nvidia-driver-550-server-open - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-470 - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-550-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-535-server-open - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-545 - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-535 - distro non-free recommended
driver : nvidia-driver-535-open - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-535-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-470-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-545-open - distro non-free
driver : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin

You can see that some driver packages have "-open" or "-server" suffixed while some have no suffix. There is a discussion at askubuntu about this.

Install the driver

Now that we know about the driver packages available in ubuntu repositories, we can go ahead and install the latest one as per our needs using the apt command like this:

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-545 
sudo reboot now

It will take a while and download stuff and finally install and configure everything. After the install process it's highly recommanded to reboot the system.

Installation of Restricted Code

This will install proprietary media codecs allowing you to play more media formats.

sudo apt install kubuntu-restricted-extras ubuntu-restricted-extras

Installation of Gpart

A partition manager will allow you to view and manage partitions easily, incase you need to modify anything later on to better manage your dual boot environment or install even more distros just for fun.

Gparted is the most common free partition manager for Linux and is available in the ubuntu repositories.

sudo apt install gparted

Installation of hardware information tools

Hardware information tools will allow you to check hardware information about your machine and see if Ubuntu has been able to detect every piece of hardware properly or not. There are both gui and command line tools that do an excellent job. Hardinfo is a gui tool and Inxi is a command line tool. You can try both.

sudo apt install hardinfo 
hardinfo

Another useful command-line tool to check hardware information is inxi.

sudo apt install inxi 
inxi -F

Output

System: Host: neoslab Kernel: 6.5.0-27-generic x86_64 bits: 64
Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.24.7 Distro: Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Micro-Star product: GF75 Thin 10UE v: REV:1.0
serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Micro-Star model: MS-17F5 v: REV:1.0 serial: <superuser required>
UEFI: American Megatrends v: E17F5IMS.103 date: 04/14/2021
Battery:
ID-1: BAT1 charge: 46.9 Wh (97.5%) condition: 48.1/51.3 Wh (93.8%)
CPU:
Info: 6-core Intel Core i7-10750H [MT MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 800
min/max: 800/5000
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel CometLake-H GT2 [UHD Graphics] driver: i915 v: kernel
Device-2: NVIDIA GA106M [GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile / Max-Q] driver: N/A
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
unloaded: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 resolution: 1920x1080~144Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (CML GT2)
v: 4.6 Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.2
Network:
Device-1: Intel Comet Lake PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi
Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
driver: r8169
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 2.26 TiB used: 383.84 GiB (16.6%)
Info:
Processes: 408 Uptime: 1h 36m Memory: 62.61 GiB used: 6.35 GiB (10.1%)
Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.13

Installation of Yakuake dropdown terminal

Dropdown terminals are great productivity tools that get you terminal access at the press of a keyboard hotkey, right on your desktop and then disappear in the background, when you don't want to see them actively.

Yakuake is an excellent dropdown terminal that lets you access the command line quickly with a keyboard shortcut.

sudo apt install yakuake

Adjust Battery Management (For Laptop)

These settings are important and can increase the battery life up to 2 hours at the cost of high performance, but your mileage might vary depending on your system configuration.

In order to properly configure it, run System Settings and go to the Power Management tab.

• On the 'Screen brightness' section, enable it and decrease the number. Smaller means better.
• On the 'Dim Screen', enable it and decrease the number. Smaller means dim often.
• On the 'Suspend session' enable it and select Automatically = 'Sleep'. You can also decrease the number of minutes.
• Press the 'Apply' button for the change to be saved.