Top Things to Do After installed Ubuntu 25.04 Plucky Puffin

Ubuntu 25.04 was released! Here are some top things to do, after installed the new Ubuntu desktop release, to make it ready to use.

1. Enable “New Documents” Context Menu option

It’s been quite a few years, GNOME still does NOT have a graphical option to create new documents in file manager. Though, it’s easy to enable this feature by putting a file into user’s Template folder.

To do so, launch Text Editor and create a new empty document. Then, press Ctrl+Shift+S to open save file dialog. Finally, choose save it to Home -> Templates with whatever file-name you want to display as ‘New Document’ sub-menu option.

2. Configure Printer

The default “Printer” page in Settings is OK for basic use.

If you have a printer physically connected to the Ubuntu computer, then you may open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install the graphical CUPS configuration tool:

sudo apt install system-config-printer

Then, search & launch Printers app to get more controls, such as share printer, remote admin, policies, and default print options.

3. Configure the Left Panel

The left panel, aka Ubuntu Dock, is handled by an extension forked from dash-to-dock.

By going to Settings -> Ubuntu Desktop -> Dock, you may configure the left panel/dock with basic options, such as icon size, auto-hide, shorten panel, show on primary or all displays, hide trash and volumes.

For more, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, and run command to install extension manager:

sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager

Then you may launch extension manager, and open preferences dialog for the Ubuntu Dock extension, which includes many more configure options for the left panel/dock:

Intelligent autohide, with dodge windows, animation duration, pressure threshold options.
Center icons in panel mode.
Show/hide, and move “Show Apps” (the Ubuntu Logo) icon.
Keyboard shortcuts.
Click action (e.g., click to minimize).
Appearance, e.g., background color, and opacity.

4. Install back default apps

If you didn’t choose “Extended Selection” option while installing Ubuntu 25.04, then you’ll see that many default applications are NOT pre-installed!

To install them back, simply launch App Center, then search and install one by one (mostly filtered by Debian package).

Or, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run commands below instead to install.

LibreOffice office suite.
```
sudo apt install libreoffice
```
Archive Manager (aka file roller).
```
sudo apt install file-roller
```
Shotwell photo manager.
```
sudo apt install shotwell
```
Backups (Déjà Dup Backups).
```
sudo apt install deja-dup
```
Gnome Camera, the new app replaces Cheese.
```
sudo apt install gnome-snapshot
```
Totem video player.
```
sudo apt install totem
```
Rhythmbox music player.
```
sudo apt install rhythmbox
```
Thunderbird email. It’s now defaults to Snap, see how to revert back to Deb version.
Startup Disk Creator.
Remmina remote desktop client.
```
sudo apt install remmina
```
Transmission torrent download app.
```
sudo apt install transmission
```

5. Install Multimedia Codec

Due to legal reason, Ubuntu does not include some media codec for video/audio playback, Microsoft TTF fonts, and RAR archive supports.

To get them, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open up a terminal window, and run command:

sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras

While downloading & installing the MS fonts, it will prompt to accept licence, use Tab key to highlight OK and hit Enter.

6. Enable Flatpak support

Flatpak is a popular package format runs in sandbox environment. Tons of applications support Linux through Flatpak package.

To enable Flatpak support in Ubuntu, simply open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo apt install flatpak

Next, you may install local flatpak files by running command:

flatpak install drag-and-drop-flatpak-file-here

Or, add the Flathub repository into system:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Then, use the command in a Flathub app page to install (click down arrow besides “Install” button).

NOTE: After enabled Flatpak support, you need a log out and back in to apply variable changes.

7. Enable AppImage support

AppImage is another popular way to run applications in Linux. It’s a portable, non-install package format, that can be run directly (after added executable permission) to launch application.

Since Ubuntu 22.04, user needs to press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, and run command to install the required library for AppImage support:

sudo apt install libfuse2

8. Install Configuration Tools

Besides the default Settings, they are few other graphical tools to help configure your Ubuntu desktop.

Gnome Tweaks

GNOME Tweaks is the popular alternative to Gnome Control Center (aka Settings), which offers graphics options to configure:

Fonts, scaling factor.
Cursor, icon, legacy apps, and sound themes.
Window buttons, and additional mouse & touchpad settings.

The app is available to install either from App Center (filter by Debian package) or by running command below in terminal:

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks

Extension Manager

Extension Manager is one of the must-have applications to install & manage extensions in GNOME desktop. It can be installed by running the command below in terminal:

sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager

Grub Customizer

For dual-boot or multi-boot computers, and users who want to configure the boot menu, Grub-customizer is good choice to make things simple.

To install the app, open terminal and run commands below one by one to get from developer’s PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

NOTE: The PPA does NOT support Ubuntu 25.04 at the moment of writing, check the PPA page for details.

GDM Settings

If you want to change the login screen background, then GDM settings is a good choice that also supports configuring fonts, top-bar, colors, etc for the login screen.

NOTE: GDM Settings might break your login screen. Use it at your own risk!

To install the app in Ubuntu 25.04, run the commands below one by one to get from PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/gdm-settings
sudo apt update
sudo apt install gdm-settings

Dconf Editor

For advanced users, there’s also “Dconf Editor” that offers even more hidden configuration options.

To install the tool, run command:

sudo apt install dconf-editor

9. Install NVIDIA Driver

For NVIDIA graphics card, you may launch Additional drivers and select install the latest NVIDIA 570 driver for better gaming performance.

10. Add App Icon to Desktop

If you prefer launching applications by using desktop shortcuts, then install Extension Manager that’s mentioned above, and use it to search & install “Add to Desktop” extension.

After that, you may right-click on your favorite apps in either app grid or GNOME Overview search result to add them into desktop.

And More

There are even more things you can do to make Ubuntu desktop better for use. The things however differ depend on users. Please leave comment below, if you have any other good advice to tweak the Ubuntu Desktop.

8 responses to Top Things to Do After installed Ubuntu 25.04 Plucky Puffin

Roy April 18, 2025 at 8:43 pm

Thank You Ji m your suggestions are very good and most helpful

cdcsc April 19, 2025 at 2:48 pm

Thanks Ji m. Would like to know if you are going to update PPA (e.g. MPV) to support Plucky Puffin?

I know it may sound weird but the native build would drop frame but your build doesn’t.

- Ji m April 19, 2025 at 4:01 pm
  
  I’ve updated most PPAs, except the ones that Ubuntu 25.04 already includes updated packages in its repository.
  
  Ubuntu 25.04 has MPV 0.40 in its repository. It was built with almost same rules (except sndio support) to the package in my PPA. So, the issue you mentioned could be something to do with the 25.04 system, e.g., drivers or runtime libraries.
  
  If you believe that the PPA package runs better, please comment. I’ll try to add it later.
  
  - cdcsc April 19, 2025 at 11:37 pm
    
    I am using an AMD 6800U CPU with the integrated AMD 680M GPU. I downloaded a 4K AV1 60fps video from YouTube to test my system, especially since AMD has known issues with Kernel 6.10 and older Mesa versions. If the system is properly configured, this test video should play smoothly without dropping any frames. I keep this video on my desktop specifically for testing.
    
    However, on the latest Ubuntu 25.04, I noticed the video drops about one frame per second. Interestingly, after downloading an MPV build designed for Ubuntu 24.10 and running it on 25.04, I no longer see any dropped frames during playback.
    
    But honestly in normal case the default MPV would work as expected. I can only find out this performance issue only when I use the 4K AV1 60fps test video.
    
    - Ji m April 20, 2025 at 3:48 pm
      
      That’s unusual.
      
      I’ve built MPV 0.40 for Ubuntu 25.04 with totally same rules from the 24.10 build. Give it a try:
      
      https://launchpad.net/~ubuntuhandbook1/+archive/ubuntu/mpv/+packages?field.name_filter=&field.status_filter=published&field.series_filter=plucky
      
      - cdcsc April 21, 2025 at 4:03 am
        
        Thanks
        
        I tested your version. As you mentioned it still see dropped frame after using https://launchpad.net/~ubuntuhandbook1/+archive/ubuntu/mpv/+files/mpv_0.40.0-9ubuntu1~ubuntu2504_amd64.deb. But the drop frame issue is gone when I use https://launchpad.net/~ubuntuhandbook1/+archive/ubuntu/mpv/+files/mpv_0.40.0-0ubuntu1~ubuntu2410_amd64.deb (I didn’t use libmpv-dev and libmpv2).
waybetter April 22, 2025 at 11:28 pm

Thank you so much.

I wonder if you kindly look into how to install virtualbox 7.1.8 on ubuntu 25.04.
Apparently, it doesn’t work out.

- Ji m April 23, 2025 at 4:41 am
  
  The package for Ubuntu 24.10 did install and work in my case in 25.04, though it output few warnings.