Warning, this article has been created more than 6 month ago. The information it contains may not be up to date. Ubuntu 17.10 - tools and configuration Written by Mirabellette / 01 january 2018 / no comments I bought a new computer last year and I had to choice to install a new operating system. I am waiting for Qubeos 4.1 (x.0 are most of the time fucked up). I choice to use Ubuntu 17.10 because packages are quite new and it is easy to use. To get an operative system fully usable, I had to do configure it and do some trick to get it as I want. You can find below some tools I installed and some configuration I did. First of all, the first thing you had to know is Ubuntu 17.10 has Gnome installed. Unity was give up by Ubuntu Inc. Astonishingly, even if it is the first release with Gnome, it works pretty well. Display full date to toolbar I wanted to display the full date to my toolbar. sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool Launch tweaks Top Bar > clock > Date > Calendar > Show week numbers An ebook reader There is no ebook reader by default in Ubuntu 17.10. Calibre is the most famous of them. sudo apt update && sudo apt install calibre Network manager Network manager is installed on Ubuntu 17.10. I don't really like it because it changes your configuration. I try to disable these modifications in order to have a better control. Randomize your MAC network address Ubuntu allows by design to generate a random network MAC address at each network connection. It is a basic privacy settings which could help you to prevent mac address ban or to increase the difficulty to track your habits. vim /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/30-mac-randomization.conf [device-mac-randomization] # "yes" is already the default for scanning wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=yes [connection-mac-randomization] ethernet.cloned-mac-address=random wifi.cloned-mac-address=random To be sure if works well, ifconfig && service network-manager restart && sleep 5 && ifconfig The mac addresses from your ethernet interface and wifi interface must be different from the first ifconfig result displayed. sources: https://blogs.gnome.org/thaller/2016/08/26/mac-address-spoofing-in-networkmanager-1-4-0/ Disable automatic update of /etc/resolv.conf When you want to use a specific dns, you have to modify /etc/resolv.conf. NetworkManager modifies this file each time it started. To avoid that: vim /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf [main] dns=none service network-manager restart To be sure if works well, cat /etc/resolv.conf The previous /etc/resolv.conf must be displayed. sources: https://www.mankier.com/5/NetworkManager.conf Disable the DNS resolver Ubuntu comes with his own resolver integrated in Systemd, I don't need it. systemctl disable systemd-dns systemctl stop systemd-dns Speed test in command line Sometimes it could be useful to measure your bandwidth in CLI. sudo apt install speedtest-cli speedtest-cli Show display picture from others components (usb key, sd cards) By default, Nautilus shows miniature only from local computer. It could be unconvenient when you have a usb driver which contains pictures. To enable this feature for all devices: open nautilus (files) > preferences > search & preview > thumbmails > all files Show information system If you want to find some information about your own system configuration. System Settings > Details > about Social media If you find this article interesting, feel free to subscribe to my RSS flux and to follow me on Mastodon. Don't hesitate to share it if you think he could interest someone else.