A Beginner's Guide To Ubuntu¶

Open the terminal with the CTRL + ALT + T shortcut, or click on the Activities button on the top left and search for Terminal. Then run the following commands to stop Snap daemon services:

sudo systemctl disable snapd.service
sudo systemctl disable snapd.socket
sudo systemctl disable snapd.seeded.service

List all Snap packages installed on your system:

snap list

The output should look something like:

Name                        Version             Rev     Tracking            Publisher       Notes
bare                        1.0                 5       latest/stable       canonical       base
core20                      20220318            1405    latest/stable       canonical       base
firefox                     99.0.1-1            1232    latest/stable/...   mozilla         -
gnome-3-38-2004             0#git.1f9014a       99      latest/stable/...   canonical       -
gtk-common-themes           0.1-79-ga83e90c     1534    latest/stable/...   canonical       -
snap-store                  41.3-59-gf884f48    575     latest/stable/...   canonical       -
snapd                       2.54.4              15177   latest/stable       canonical       snapd
snapd-desktop-integration   0.1                 10      latest/stable/...   canonical       -

Next, remove each Snap package as follows:

sudo snap remove --purge firefox
sudo snap remove --purge snap-store
sudo snap remove --purge gtk-common-themes
sudo snap remove --purge gnome-3-38-2004
sudo snap remove --purge snapd-desktop-integration
sudo snap remove --purge core20
sudo snap remove --purge bare

Delete any leftover files:

sudo rm -rf /var/cache/snapd/
sudo rm -rf ~/snap

Completely remove Snap from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS:

sudo apt autoremove --purge snapd

Optionally, if you want to prevent Ubuntu from installing Snap packages going forward, open a configuration file:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/preferences.d/nosnap.pref

Add the following lines, then save the file:

# This file prevents snapd from being installed by apt
Package: snapd
Pin: release a=*
Pin-Priority: -10

Run the following command to install the GNOME Software Center:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install gnome-software

After removing Snap, running the command sudo apt install firefox might return the error message firefox : PreDepends: snapd but it is not installable. To re-install Firefox, open a configuration file:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/preferences.d/firefox-nosnap.pref

Add the following lines, then save the file:

# This file enables re-installing Firefox after removing snapd
Package: firefox*
Pin: release o=Ubuntu*
Pin-Priority: -1

Add the Mozilla team repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/ppa
sudo apt update

Finally, install Firefox:

sudo apt install firefox

First, make sure you didn't prevent Ubuntu from installing Snap packages. If you created the file /etc/apt/preferences.d/nosnap.pref in one of the previous steps, remove it before proceeding:

sudo rm /etc/apt/preferences.d/nosnap.pref

If you want the GNOME Software Center to support Snap and Flatpak packages, run the following commands:

sudo apt install gnome-software-plugin-snap
sudo apt install gnome-software-plugin-flatpak

To install GNOME Tweaks & GNOME Extensions, open the terminal with the CTRL + ALT + T shortcut, or click on the Activities button on the top left and search for Terminal. Then run the following commands:

sudo apt install gnome-tweaks
sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager

Alternatively, click on the Activities button on the top left and search for Software. Now look for GNOME Tweaks as well as Extension Manager, and click on Install.

Open the terminal with the CTRL + ALT + T shortcut, or click on the Activities button on the top left and search for Terminal. Then run the following commands to completely remove the bug report functionality:

sudo rm /etc/cron.daily/apport
sudo apt purge apport

To merely disable the automatic bug report while still keeping the functionality, open a terminal and type sudo service apport stop. Then open the configuration file with the command sudo gedit /etc/default/apport and set the value enabled to zero, i.e. enabled=0.

Open the terminal with the CTRL + ALT + T shortcut, or click on the Activities button on the top left and search for Terminal. Run the following commands to fully enjoy your multimedia experience:

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) partner"
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Open the terminal with the CTRL + ALT + T shortcut, or click on the Activities button on the top left and search for Terminal. Then run the following command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

The first part of the Ubuntu update command sudo apt update checks if new software versions are available. The second part of the command sudo apt upgrade installs the newest updates. The -y at the end of the command authorises the installation of new packages.

If you prefer not to use the terminal, click on the Activities button on the top left of the screen, and search for Software Updater. It will check if there are updates available and suggest to install them.

Once the system is up to date, clean up and remove unnecessary old packages with the following terminal commands:

sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean
sudo apt clean

Start by backing up your data. Then, open the terminal with the CTRL + ALT + T shortcut, or click on the Activities button on the top left and search for Terminal. Update all software packages, as described in the previous section:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Next, let's find out the current Ubuntu version using the command line:

lsb_release -a

Run the following command to enable release upgrades:

sudo gedit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades

Set the entry to Prompt=normal if you'd like to enable all release upgrades, or Prompt=lts if you'd like to enable LTS release upgrades only.

Reboot your device. Finally, upgrade Ubuntu to the next available release:

sudo do-release-upgrade -d -f DistUpgradeViewGtk3

Follow the upgrade wizard. Be patient, the upgrade can take a while. Make sure your device is plugged in and grab a coffee! Once the upgrade is complete, the system reboots and you can log in. Note that third-party software have been disabled during the upgrade and need to be enabled. Finally, make sure the upgrade was successful by checking the Ubuntu version with the command line:

lsb_release -a