Back to the home page  There are nine mistakes that you definitely want to avoid, for the sake of the health of your system. Because they may be fatal. As with all warnings in general, these warnings are especially important for beginners with Linux. Experienced Linux users won't easily get into trouble, even in the danger zone. And they can help themselves, when they do get into trouble... To make a comparison with jet planes: it all depends on how you want to use your computer. As a pilot of the trusted F-18:  Or as a test pilot of an experimental plane:  Or as a pilot of... well, whatever it is:  If (for the time being?) the battle proven reliability of the F-18 is what you're looking for, then you can benefit from the warnings below. Never use installation scripts like Ultamatix, Ubuntu Tweak, Ubuntu Sources List Generator or Ubuntuzilla1. Third party installation scripts are all dangerous: some are acutely risky, some a little less. But you'd better avoid the lot. Below I'll describe some of the most common dangerous scripts.Severe danger level (red alert!): Ultamatix1.1. Ultamatix is the worst of the bunch. It will irreparably damage your system.Ultamatix installs all kinds of unstable versions of applications (nightly builds). Besides, it makes use of forced permits: --assume-yes and --force-yes are very dangerous. The developer says that those are being used because "he doesn't want to bother the users with all kinds of questions". It takes only one wrong dependancy, buggy application or another hitch, and your system may be damaged beyond repair.... When you've already used this script, a clean reinstallation of Ubuntu is the only solution. With previous formatting of the root partition. Furthermore, Ultamatix is essentially superfluous: everything it does, you can do also in the safe official way. With only a little extra effort. High danger level (orange alert): Ubuntu Tweak and Ubuntu Sources List Generator1.2. Ubuntu Tweak and Ubuntu Sources List Generator are also dangerous. Don't use them! With them, you can add several PPA's and third party software, without it being clear where everything comes from and without being asked for a verification key.You can add all kinds of software packages without verification or quality check, and without knowing if they are fit for your Ubuntu version or what they'll do to your system. Very risky indeed. Better stay away from them... Elevated danger level (yellow alert): Ubuntuzilla1.3. Ubuntuzilla is more limited in scope, and poses no security risk. But you'd better avoid this one as well. It may cause strange malfunctions in Firefox, because the Ubuntuzilla version of Firefox is "original upstream software" which isn't completely adapted to and tested for your Ubuntu version.With Ubuntuzilla, you bypass the entire system of tweaks and quality checks that the Ubuntu developers apply to Firefox.... This endangers the stability and reliability of Firefox. Don't turn on the software repository "proposed"
2. Don't turn on the software repositories of "proposed", unless you're a tester and don't value a stable system. Like this you can check whether this source is disabled:- If not installed yet: first install Synaptic Package Manager by means of the Ubuntu Software Center. - Click on the grey Ubuntu logo (Dash home). Query: synaptic Click on Synaptic Package Manager Settings - Software Sources - tab Updates You'll see this unchecked update source: Pre-released updates (precise-proposed). Don't enable it: The "proposed" source is very dangerous. It contains unstable and buggy software that hasn't been improved and tested enough yet. Stay away from it! Install preferably nothing from the software repository "backports"3. In Ubuntu 12.04, the software repository of "backports" is enabled by default. But with a lowered (harmless) priority, so that you can only install software from it when you consciously choose so.Like this you can check whether this source is enabled: - If not installed yet: first install Synaptic Package Manager by means of the Ubuntu Software Center. - Click on the grey Ubuntu logo (Dash home). Query: synaptic Click on Synaptic Package Manager Settings - Software Sources - tab Updates You'll see this checked update source: Unsupported updates (precise-backports). The "backports" source is less risky than "proposed", because it holds software that's stable in itself. But this software hasn't been tested for your version of Ubuntu. Therefore it may still diminish the stability of (parts of) the system. Although this repository has been enabled, it has therefore been issued a low and harmless priority. My advice is: put the stability of your system first, and preferably don't install anything from backports. Disable the repository (remove the check). If you would ever need it, you can always enable it temporarily. (continued in the column on the right) | This website is being sponsored by Google Ads. Do you use an ad blocker? Then you are blocking my income from advertisements, as well.... If you wish to support this website, you can (temporarily?) switch off your ad blocker. Thanks in advance.... Never remove any application that's part of the default installation of Ubuntu4. Even when you never use a particular default application: don't remove it. Reason: the default installation is an intertwined system that's dependent on shared supporting files, which makes the operating system run stable.When you remove a default application, you run a risk of seriously damaging the system. With some default applications this risk is bigger than with others, and with a few there's no risk at all. But it's best to avoid this risk altogether. If you want to, you can remove an unused application from the menu, but don't remove it from the system. This limitation applies only to those applications, that are part of the default installation of Ubuntu. Applications that you've added yourself, you may remove without problems. Never use cleaning applications like Computer Janitor5. With cleaning applications like Computer Janitor, you easily destroy more than you want. You can't trust them, because before you know it, they remove too much and damage the system.Besides, they are useless. Linux hardly experiences any pollution. So cleaning is superfluous. You may at most win a couple of hundreds of megabytes disk space, at an unacceptably high risk of damage. Be very careful with adding PPA's to your sources list6. Software from PPA's are untested in your Ubuntu version, and may damage the stability and reliability of your system. Furthermore, you make yourself dependent on the owner of the PPA, often only one person, who isn't being checked...Therefore only use a PPA when you really (really!) have no acceptable alternative. Handle with great care: .deb files7. Files with the extension .deb are separate installers, just like .exe installers for Windows. You can download debs from some websites. When you double-click them, they ask for your password and then they install themselves in your system.Only install those .deb files that you trust completely. When you're at all unsure about a .deb file, don't install it! These files are unchecked, unverified and may do damage to your system. They may even contain malware, like spyware and such. This happens in the real world: I know of at least one incident. Some years ago, malware (a trojan) was detected in a .deb file, that was available for download on the much visited website of gnome-look.org. Handle with a little care: the Partner and the Independent repositories
8. Definitely not a fatal matter, because these repositories pose only an acceptable low risk. But this risk, although low and acceptable, is still worthy of some attention... |
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Avoid nine fatal mistakes |