Setting up a Linux laptop

Setting up a laptop for full usability in office and outside is a fairly long process. One basic description of some background info plus instructions is available here [1]. But this is perhaps not sufficient to cover what a modern setup may need.

I recently migrated from an old laptop setup to a new one. I found that apart from the raw OS-level setups and package installations, I had to do the following, to get my work environment migrated fully from the old system to the new one:

• Set up local IMAP mail: described in detail here [2]
• Set up Usenet news: essentially set up the leafnode package, and set up /etc/news/leafnode/config and /usr/local/sbin/leafnode-fetch. Then insert a cron job for user news to run leafnode-fetch every hour or so.
• Delete excess kernels: this is not mandatory, but helps a lot to reduce junk from the GRUB menu at bootup. This is done by running dpkg-query -l to find out the exact names of old kernel packages, and then using apt-get remove to remove them.
• Set up syslog: this involves setting up /etc/syslog.conf, /etc/logrotate.d/rsyslog (for Ubuntu 9.10) and restarting syslogd or rsyslogd.
• Set up CDMA data card or USB data dongle for Internet access
• Test CVS access to the central server when you are connected to the LAN. Without CVS access, most officers won't be able to do their work.
• Move directories from old copy of your home directory to the new one. This is necessary because a blind tar-untar of the entire home directory usually overwrites a lot of the boilerplate "system directories" in your new home directory, e.g. .cache, .compiz, .gconf, .dbus, .gconfd, and so on. Carrying forward an old copy of these sub-directories into a newer version of Linux may cause problems with newer versions of the software. So it is better to just move your own data directories and files, but leave the dot-directories alone.
• Set up LaTeX and associated packages like epstopdf
• Set up VMware and Windows virtual machine in it. If you already had a working VM, then the VM files can just be copied.
• Set up Samba, export Linux home directory
• Set up CUPS for printing, including the cups-pdf pseudo-printer
• Set up printing through Samba
• Test Linux home directory access and printing from the Windows virtual machine
• Transfer Firefox environment:
  • old bookmarks
  • old password lists, if you are like me
  • old cookies files, if you must
  • extensions
• Transfer Thunderbird environment:
  • old address book: abook.mab
  • old mail folders, if using local folders
  • extensions, specially the "Redirect" extension

So, moving from an old laptop to a new one, or as in my case, a new Ubuntu 9.10 installation from an old 7.10 one, is not a small job.

But then I see this as warm-up exercise for my profession. If I can't even do this, I can't do my day job. It's a bit like a warm-up run for an athlete --- it goes with the territory.