Saturday, July 6, 2019

At last!! I installed Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS (Bionic Beaver) on my MacBook Air

This blog is not about the step by step process of installing Ubuntu on a Mac it's basically for me to reference for future purposes. So, there are three main reasons why I ended up installing Ubuntu on my Mac.

  1. I've come to realise that I simply do not like Apple products period.
  2. I wanted to Install Ubuntu on it anyway
  3. Not a programmer-friendly machine
  4. The battery is dead, it lasts for about 45 minutes and it's very expensive to replace.

I've been contemplating doing this, simply because I was thinking of drivers compatibility and the difficulty of reverting back should it not work.

Basically, I need these three components:
  •  Ubuntu 18.04 LTS  - Download the .iso image. I prefer a Long Term Support(LTS) rather than normal releases, mainly because of stability, security patches, maintenance and support by Landscape, Canonical's enterprise-oriented server management toolset
  • UNetBootin - UNetbootin allows you to create bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions without burning a CD.
  • USB drive, minimum 4GB

Things to install after installing Ubuntu


  1. Install Snap
    sudo apt install snapd

  2. Install media codecs using the Ubuntu Restricted Extra package.
    sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras

  3. Prolong your battery and prevent overheating
    TLP is a wonderful tool that controls CPU temperature and extends your laptops’ battery life in the long run.
    sudo apt install tlp tlp-rdw
    sudo tlp start

  4. Install SimpleScreenRecorder
    sudo apt install simplescreenrecorder

  5. Install skype using latest .deb
    sudo apt install ./skypeforlinux-64.deb

  6. Install Flat Remix Gnome theme using the following PPA in Ubuntu and Linux Mint.
    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:daniruiz/flat-remix
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install flat-remix-gnome

  7. Install Pop theme using the following PPA in Ubuntu and Linux Mint.
    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:system76/pop
    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install pop-theme

  8. To unlock the grayed out Shell icon theme option in Tweaks
    sudo apt install gnome-shell-extensions
    Enter your password, and then type “Y” to confirm when prompted.
    Log out, and then log back in after installing the extensions
    Launch the Tweaks application, click “Extensions” in the sidebar, and then enable the “User Themes” extension.

  9. Install Visual Studio Code (I will create a small blog with all of my favourite extensions and themes later)
    Download .deb file from https://code.visualstudio.com/download

  10. Installing IntelliJ and phpStorm from Snap
    sudo snap install intellij-idea-ultimate –classic
    sudo snap install phpstorm –classic

  11. Installing XAMPP
    sudo /opt/lampp/lampp start
    sudo /opt/lampp/lampp stop
    sym-linking the PHP library from file and refer to this php file path /usr/bin/php wherever required: sudo ln -s /opt/lampp/bin/php /usr/bin/php

  12. Installing JDK 12

  13. Install Slack
    sudo snap install slack --classic

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