Customizing Ubuntu 18.
10Mayank AroraBlockedUnblockFollowFollowingFeb 9So you finally decided to give Ubuntu a shot and gone through all the hassle of ‘nomodeset’ and ‘acpi=off’ (if you have NVIDIA drivers, you know the pain) and you’re greeted with an ugly orange screen.
Which looks absolute shit.
But here’s the best part about Ubuntu, it’ customizable af unlike Windows(it has rainmeter but takes a lot of RAM and it’s not that great) and macOS .
You can go from default Bionic Beaver to Tony Stark stuff in about 10 minutes.
Without further ado, let’s start.
Install GNOME TweaksWhile the default system settings have plenty of options to configure your GNOME system as per your needs, I still recommend using GNOME Tweaks in order to do more customization to GNOME desktop in Ubuntu 18.
10 or other Linux distributions.
Some of the tweaks which you’ll see in this article will be using this tool.
You can find GNOME Tweaks in the Software Center.
Or just open the terminal and writesudo apt install gnome-tweak-toolGNOME Shell ExtensionsSome functionalities to GNOME Shell are locked by default.
They can be changed using GNOME Shell Extensions.
This consists of 8–10 useful extensions, including the one that will allow you to change the GNOME Shell theme.
sudo apt install gnome-shell-extensionsDisplay battery percentageIt’s a lot more helpful to display the battery percentage.
You can easily do that using GNOME Tweaks tool.
Start GNOME Tweaks and go to Top Bar->Battery Percentage.
Then you may switch it on.
Installing themes and icon packsThere are 3 basic components that we can customize.
Icons: Pretty straightforward what that means.
You can customize the icons like make them more flat.
(You’ll see in a moment what that means)GTK3: GTK is a framework used for building the GUI of an application.
Download GTK3 themes as it’s used by Ubuntu at present.
GNOME Shell theme: Changing the GNOME Shell theme will change the Shell elements such as the top panel, activity overview, desktop notification etc.
I’ll show you a couple of ways to install themes.
Using PPA to install themesA Personal Package Archive, in simple terms , is a collection of software not included in Ubuntu by default.
PPA is the easiest way to install themes and the best part is it’s very easy to update.
Here I’ll be installing the Flat Remix theme.
Open the terminal and type in these commands.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:daniruiz/flat-remixsudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get install flat-remix-gnome2.
Manually installing themesDownload the zip file.
Go to your Home directory and press Ctrl+H to show hidden files and folders.
If you see .
themes and .
icons folders, you are good.
If not, create new folders named .
themes and .
icons.
Extract the GTK and Gnome Shell theme to the .
themes folder and Icons pack to the .
icons folderChanging the themeFor changing the theme, use GNOME tweaks tool.
The Applications represents the GTK theme, Icons the Icon theme and Shell the Gnome Shell theme.
Sometimes there’s a triangle over shell theme.
This is because some functionalities are locked by default.
Enable the ‘User themes’ in GNOME Shell extension.
After that, restart GNOME Tweaks application.
Now, you’ll see that the triangle has gone and you can change the GNOME Shell.
You can pick and choose from different themesIf you see a triangle, do thisChanging the TerminalHaving changed the theme, if you want to make your terminal transparent, Open terminal -> edit ->Preferences.
Transparency at 50% works for meHere’s the link for the wallpaper.
Extra tips:If you’re using it for Machine Learning, try not to install numpy, scipy and all other hundreds of libraries on your own.
Use Anaconda to do all that for you.
When you’re in anaconda, use a virtual environment for everything.
A virtual environment is like a virtual space where particular files run.
Eg.
one program uses python 3.
5 and other uses python 3.
7 but your system has 3.
6.
5.
To avoid these issues, you can make a virtual environment that’ll install python 3.
7 in that virtual space and then you may run you program in it.
I’ve made 3 separate virtual envs for ML, DL and webdev.
Base is the default provided by conda.
3.
To install NVIDIA drivers, use the PPA.
It’s a lot easier and much less hassle.
4.
Save your eyes.
Turn on the night light.
That’s it for this article.
Hope you liked it.
Thanks a lot.
.