Some tasks to consider after upgrading to Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron)

When helping people to upgrade to Ubuntu 8.04 I find myself doing the same post-installation tasks on many setups. Here are some of those tasks, to be updated with more later perhaps. But removing old kernels, installing java, installing flash, and removing cruft are all common and useful tasks following an upgrade.

Removing Old Kernels

Here is what I did after I felt satisfied with the 2.6.24 kernel in Ubuntu 8.04:

• sudo apt-get remove --purge .*2.6.22.*

This removes any packages with “2.6.22” in the name. This will get kernel, header, and module packages in one fell swoop. Whenever doing this sort of change be very careful that you do not need any of the packages being removed. Still on my desktop, which I try to keep trim, this still freed 200MB of space.

Installing OpenJDK

I have installed IcedTea in Ubuntu 7.10 which is now called OpenJDK. So my system pulled int he OpenJDK packages automatically but for those wishing to use the open source version of Java can do the following:

• sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jre icedtea-gcjwebplugin
  • This installs the JRE and a plugin to enable java through web browsers.
• sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jdk
  • This should only be installed if needed. I need it for Eclipse.
• sudo apt-get remove --purge sun-java.*
  • This removes the Sun binary java packages.
• sudo apt-get remove --purge icedtea-java.*
  • This removes the transitional IcedTea packages.

You may also want to consider removing GCJ or Kaffe if they are installed. I had removed both some time ago and I know the wildcard removals can be more tricky for those 2.

To change the JVM used for Java the following command is useful:

• sudo update-alternatives --config java

Install Flash Plugins

I have a 64-bit system that I prefer to keep clean of 32-bit libraries and binaries. And, of course, I prefer free and open source applications to proprietary ones. Therefore for Flash playback I like to have both Gnash and SWFdec installed so I can evaluate and utilize them.

• sudo apt-get install swfdec-mozilla
• sudo apt-get install mozilla-plugin-gnash

Removing Cruft

I wrote about how to remove package cruft from an ubuntu or debian system. I found the following transitional packages on some of my systems in addition to the icedtea packages I mentioned earlier:

• libglu1-xorg-dev -> libglu1-mesa-dev
• netcat -> netcat-traditional (alternatively netcat-openbsd)
• python-pyopenssl -> python-openssl
• shorewall -> shorewall-shell
• xlibmesa-gl-dev -> libgl1-mesa-dev