3 minor cofig issues with 12.04.1 minimal install

[Steven_G]

I decided to build the wife's laptop to my specs. I used the minimal cd w/ manual file installation so all it would install is the base system, drivers and shell.

I installed gdm, network-manager and gnome-core to start with.

Gnome core is close to what I want, but no cigar. So I used unmarkauto in aptitude to break the dep links in the meta-package and pull out stuff I didn't want like epiphany.

Everything went well untill I pulled Unity out.

These are the three issues:

1) When I pulled unity out I lost my bootloader screen. At boot everything is just black until the desk top comes up. I'll check the grub config files when I get home. But I don't think that's the issue since it was working fine before I pulled unity out. Any ideas where I should look besides the grub config files?

2) The minimal / manual install never had a splash screen. How do you add one for the first time when it never had on to begin with?

3) The default volume at boot is "muted". Where can I find the config file to turn up the system default volume?

[Steven_G]

I got the sound fixed. I installed pulseaudio-equalizer from webupd8. After I finshed setting things up the way I want the volume quit defaulting to mute; even though there's no setting in the equalizer for that.

But now I have two more:

4) How do I kill the chat indicator envelope incon in the unified indicator? I took telepathy out and unchecked its startup service. Does the icon belong to something else?

5) Logging out will not take me back to the log in screen. Instead I just get a box with the localhost name and a power button with no way to log in again without rebooting.

[Steven_G]

Two down. I installed a sound event on log out / in and I got the login box back on log out.

[Steven_G]

OK

sudo apt-get remove indicator-messages

killed the evelope. So that leaves the splash screen and the bootloader screen.

[elija]

A how to on configuring Grub 2.. You may also be looking for Plymouth

[Steven_G]

Thanks for the info. I’ll look in to it when I get home. I had to start over from scratch again. Last time I used the minimal CD with the graphical install and even though I told it not to install a desktop and drop me in to a shell on boot it still installed unity. Then I put gnome on it and it was slow and unstable; even after I took unity out.

For example, the problem with the volume: It turns out that installing the equalizer did not fix it. But I did finally figure out what was happening. The sink volume was randomly resetting to zero on boot. I don’t know if it was an issue with the underlying code base or if it was gnome. I never did figure out why that was happening. But, it had a lot of issues like that.

So this time I used the minimal CD to do a command line install. That stopped it from installing unity and a lot of other crap too. Then I installed the building blocks for a basic x-session with menus, firefox, terminal and synaptic. I started building from there.

What I’ve got so far is light, friggin lightening faaaaaast and stable. I’ve got a ways to go to build a fully flushed out system, but so far so good. Even if it does look like windows 95.

And I think what I’ve ended up with is somehow a lot closer to the original debian code base. I say that because even though I’ve dl’ed everything from the Ubuntu repos I’ve found debian art work still in some of the stuff. And not just buried behind the scenes either. A lot of it is right up on the desktop.

I hate the latest ub default distros. They contain way too much bloat, run too slow, introduce privacy concerns and intentionally hide away too many configuration options.

But they make drivers easy, have tons of tools and packages to choose from and 12.04 will get security updates for the next five years.

I think I finally figure out how to dump the bloat / crap and harness the power.

Now I just need to iron out the minor bugs like adding splash screens, etc.

Once I do that I’ll figure out how to turn in in to my own “distro” / remix. I just won’t bother with the art work and all that stuff because it will only be "distributed" around my house.