Gnome desktop tuning

Sources:

• https://itsfoss.com/things-to-do-after-installing-ubuntu-18-04/

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver)

Add custom favourites (side drawer)

1. Copy app.desktop file to: ~/.local/share/applications/
2. Search for the shortcut via windows-key drawer using the name
3. Right click and "Add to favourites"

Additional favourite right-click options

Create .desktop file in ~/.local/share/applications/

gedit ~/.local/share/applications/app.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Apps
Comment=Launch multiple apps from a single launcher
Exec=notify-send "Right click" "to launch your favourite applications!"
Icon=/full/path/to/your/icon-file
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Actions=app1;app2;app3;

[Desktop Action app1]
Name=Files
Exec=nautilus

[Desktop Action app2]
Name=Text Editor
Exec=gedit

[Desktop Action app3]
Name=Terminal
Exec=gnome-terminal

Then:

1. Search for the name 'Apps' via windows-key drawer
2. Right click
3. Add to favourites

Install Gnome-Tweaks

sudo apt-get install gnome-tweaks
gnome-tweaks

• For example:
  • Disable dialog locked to main window
  • Remove trashcan from your desktop

Remove Zeitgeist 'spyware'

Also check out the "Activity Log Manager" and disable all the stuff that will not help you. ou can also Clear the currently gathered usage data here.

If you don't want your computer to record your 'actions' you may want te remove Zeitgeist:

sudo apt-get --purge remove zeitgeist zeitgeist-datahub
rm -r ~/.local/share/zeitgeist

Leave other Zeitgeist packages as they are part of other software that you may want to keep.

NVidia display problems

Ubuntu does not seem to have the 'Additional drivers' dialog, the opensource drivers seem to work for me.

Remove proprietary display driver and reboot.

sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia-*

Reboot