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Last time we talked about Install Ubuntu with Windows 10 dual boot.

After the installation, there are several settings and customization need to be configured for better experience of using Ubuntu.

Update Software

Foremost, some packages need to be updated. In Terminal, update them with the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
  • sudo apt-get update doesn’t actually install new versions of software but updates the package lists for upgrades and new packages that have just come to the repositories.
  • sudo apt-get upgrade fetches new versions of packages with the updated list by way of sudo apt-get update.

Reduce the Overheating

Overheating might affect the performance of the laptop, and also the battery life. There are several ways to managing the overheating problem:

TLP

TLP is a simple but useful software to reduce overheating as well as improve battery life. It will auto-start at each boot and keep running in the background.

To install TLP, a specific repository source need to be added and an update of the package lists for new packages is also required:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp
sudo apt-get update

Now install TLP with the first command in the following, and the second one is used for the situation of installing TLP in ThinkPad due to some additional packages are required in this situation:

sudo apt-get install tlp tlp-rdw
# Additional step if tlp is installed in ThinkPad as followed:
sudo apt-get install tp-smapi-dkms acpi-call-dkms

After the installation, rebooting the system and TLP should start automatically at booting. Check status with the first command in the following, and it would show some information of System Info and TLP Status if TLP is successfully started. If not, start TLP with the second command:

sudo tlp-stat -s
# If tlp is not started, start it with:
sudo tlp start

Switching between AC Mode and Battery Mode of TLP to balance the overheating issue and the system performance with:

sudo tlp ac # Switch to AC Mode
sudo tlp bat # Switch to Battery Mode

CPUfreq

If command line usage of TLP looks complicated, CPUfreq might do the job since it offers a simple switch between performance and power safe mode on the navigation bar of Ubuntu desktop. Installation could be implemented with:

sudo apt-get install indicator-cpufreq

Then an indicator icon would be shown on the navigation bar. Switching between different modes is done by simply clicks.

Psensor

Other than switching modes of the system, Psensor shows temperature of CPU, RPM of fan and some other status of the system. Before installing Psensor, other packages are required. Install them and start the detection of the hardware sensors with:

sudo apt-get install lm-sensors hddtemp
sudo sensors-detect

Now, everything is in place, install Psensor with the following command. Make sure to check the box of Launch on session startup in Startup tab of Psensor Preferences after the installation.

sudo apt-get install psensor

Top

The methods above aren’t direct routes to manage overheating problem but simplified ones, however, we sometimes may need a way to monitor the CPU consumption of running tasks to see which ones might go wrong, such as the situation of the laptop getting too hot or making noises suddenly.

It might be a good way to check which task is causing the overheating problem with a simple command:

top

This command shows a real-time list of most CPU intensive tasks of the system. If a process that is consuming more than 60% of CPU, that might be the culprit process that consumes the most of the CPU resources. Get the process ID from the list, then kill it with if needed:

sudo kill -9 <process_id>

Get rid of non-required packages

The APT package management system keeps a cache of DEB packages and the cache would grow quite large holding a lot of packages no longer required overtime. The size of such cache could be found with the following command:

sudo du -sh /var/cache/apt

Clean and Autoclean

There are ways to get rid of this cache. clean and autoclean could be applied depending on the purpose:

  • apt-get autoclean removes only the obsolete DEB packages, like those are outdated or superseded by recent updates.
  • apt-get clean clears out everything in the cache but the lock files in /var/cache/apt/archives/ which frees more disk space.

Autoremove

Other than clearing out the downloaded DEB packages in cache, autoremove will free some disk space by uninstalling some installed packages. These packages were installed automatically to satisfied dependencies for some other packages, and these packages are no longer needed due to those dependencies are no longer needed.

  • apt-get autoremove removes orphaned packages from the system, but not purges them by leaving all of the configuration files in place.
  • apt-get autoremove --purge does the same but also removes all of the configuration files.

Configure Language Setting and Input Method

Further more in Language Settings and Pinyin Input Method in Ubuntu.