Things to Do After Installing Ubuntu 26.04 – Drivers, Codecs, Flatpak & More

Install every update

Open a terminal with Ctrl + Alt + T, then refresh the package lists and install everything waiting:

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade

full-upgrade also takes updates that bring in a new package, such as a new kernel, which plain upgrade holds back. Firefox and the other Snap apps update themselves, but you can push them now:

sudo snap refresh

Reboot if anything asks you to. Software Updater in the app menu does the same apt job if you prefer clicking.

Install your graphics and Wi-Fi drivers

Ubuntu 26.04 no longer includes the Software & Updates app, and its Additional Drivers tab went with it. Guides written for older releases still send you there. The tool that did the real work is still installed. Ask it what your hardware needs:

sudo ubuntu-drivers list

An empty list is normal on Intel and AMD graphics, whose drivers are already in the kernel. If it shows an NVIDIA or Wi-Fi driver, install the recommended one and reboot:

sudo ubuntu-drivers install

If you ticked the third-party software box during installation, this may already be done. Want the old window back? It is still in the archive:

sudo apt install software-properties-gtk

Add media codecs and Microsoft fonts

Ubuntu plays most audio and video out of the box, and 26.04 turns on hardware video decoding for Intel and AMD graphics by default. This package fills the gaps and adds fonts like Arial and Times New Roman, so shared documents look the way they were written:

sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Partway through, the terminal stops at a licence screen for the fonts. The mouse does nothing there. Press Tab to highlight OK, press Enter, then choose Yes the same way.

Playing DVDs needs one more piece, covered in how to play a DVD in Ubuntu.

Turn on the firewall

Ubuntu ships a simple firewall called ufw, but leaves it switched off. Turning it on blocks connections coming in from the network and leaves everything you start yourself working:

sudo ufw enable

Check it with sudo ufw status:

mike@ubuntu:~$ sudo ufw status
Status: active

If you later let other machines in, open that one service first, for example sudo ufw allow ssh. Sharing folders with Windows needs sudo ufw allow samba, which our file sharing guide walks through.

Set up backups

Two jobs, two tools. One keeps your files, the other lets you undo a bad update.

Your files: Backups (Déjà Dup). It comes with the Extended install but not the Default one. If it is not in your app menu:

sudo apt install deja-dup

Open Backups, choose an external drive, a network folder or a cloud account, and switch on automatic backups. Restore one file once to prove it works.

The system: Timeshift. It takes snapshots of Ubuntu itself, so a driver or update that breaks the desktop can be rolled back in minutes. It leaves your home folder out by default, which is why you want both.

sudo apt install timeshift

Open it, choose RSYNC, pick a drive with room, and keep a few daily snapshots. It deletes old ones for you.

Add Flatpak and Flathub

App Center installs Snaps and Ubuntu packages. Plenty of desktop apps publish first, or only, on Flathub, and App Center cannot install those. Add Flatpak and the Flathub store:

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

Restart, and Flatpak apps you install will show up in the app grid. Every app page on flathub.org has its own install command.

Want a store window for them? sudo apt install gnome-software-plugin-flatpak adds one, but it installs a second store app called Software next to App Center. Many people skip it and use the terminal.

Install the apps you actually use

Search App Center first. In 26.04 it also installs a .deb file you downloaded from a vendor, so a double-click on the file is enough.

The apps people most often add first, each with its own guide:

Dark style, accent colour and Night Light

Click the top-right corner to open Quick Settings. Dark Style, Night Light and the power mode are one click each. The accent colour lives in Settings, Appearance.

For a new look, start with the Ubuntu 26.04 wallpapers, then themes and icon themes.

Set up the dock

Settings, Ubuntu Desktop controls the dock: position, icon size, auto-hide, and panel mode, which stretches it edge to edge.

One behaviour is hidden. Clicking the icon of an open app does not minimise it. To change that:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock click-action 'minimize'

gsettings reset org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock click-action puts it back.

Change the small settings

Each takes a few seconds, and each is easy to miss:

Install Tweaks and Extension Manager

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

Tweaks covers fonts, title bar buttons and apps that start at login. Extension Manager browses and installs GNOME extensions without a browser add-on.

Keep extensions few. They are the usual reason a desktop misbehaves after a GNOME update. If something breaks, turn them all off in Extension Manager first.

Turn on Ubuntu Pro, free

Ubuntu Pro is free for personal use on up to five machines. It extends security fixes to the community packages in the universe archive, which standard updates do not cover, and adds Livepatch, which applies kernel security fixes without a reboot.

sudo pro attach

The terminal shows a short code. Enter it at ubuntu.com/pro/attach, sign in, and keep the Free Personal Token selected. pro status shows what is now switched on.

Keep searches on your machine

Typing in Activities now lists apps from App Center you have not installed, and offers to search the web for what you typed. To keep search local, switch those sources off in Settings, Search.

Fix the clock if you also run Windows

If Windows shows the wrong time after you boot Ubuntu, the two systems disagree about the hardware clock. Tell Ubuntu to use local time, as Windows does:

sudo timedatectl set-local-rtc 1 --adjust-system-clock

Swap the 1 for 0 to undo it. Skip this if Ubuntu is the only system on the machine.

Check for firmware updates

PC and laptop makers ship BIOS, SSD and dock updates through Linux. See if yours has any:

fwupdmgr refresh
fwupdmgr get-updates

If something is listed, plug in the charger and run fwupdmgr update. Many machines list nothing, which is fine.

The screen stays black after installing the NVIDIA driver

Restart and open the boot menu: hold Shift as the machine starts, or tap Esc on most newer PCs. Choose Advanced options, then a recovery mode entry, then root. Remove the driver and restart:

mount -o remount,rw /
apt purge '^nvidia-.*'
reboot

Ubuntu comes back on the open source driver. Try sudo ubuntu-drivers list again and install a different version from the list.

The codec install stopped and will not finish

It is waiting on the font licence screen. Press Tab, then Enter. If you closed the terminal while it was waiting, let the package manager finish the job:

sudo dpkg --configure -a

Flathub apps do not appear

Log out and back in once after adding Flathub. They will never appear in App Center, which only handles Snaps and Ubuntu packages. Look for them in the app grid, or in Software if you installed the plugin.

Something stopped connecting after turning on the firewall

Allow that one service, for example sudo ufw allow ssh. To see what is open, run sudo ufw status verbose. sudo ufw disable switches the firewall off entirely while you work it out.