How do I set systemwide proxy servers in Xubuntu, Lubuntu or Ubuntu Studio?

Question

I cannot find the settings anywhere do I have to set it through terminal through gconftools or is there some GUI present for it?

Answer 1

System-wide proxies in Ubuntu Studio, Xubuntu and XFCE must be set via environment variables

Ubuntu Studio, like Xubuntu, uses the XFCE desktop environment which does not contain a graphical settings tool to set systemwide proxies (unlike the default Ubuntu desktop environment, Unity).

1. Set up the proxy/proxies for most programs

• Open the /etc/environment file with gksudo leafpad (or your favorite editor). This file stores the system-wide variables initialized upon boot.

• Add the following lines, modifying appropriately. You must duplicate in both upper-case and lower-case because (unfortunately) some programs only look for one or the other:

  http_proxy=http://myproxy.server.com:8080/
  https_proxy=http://myproxy.server.com:8080/
  ftp_proxy=http://myproxy.server.com:8080/
  no_proxy="localhost,127.0.0.1,localaddress,.localdomain.com"
  HTTP_PROXY=http://myproxy.server.com:8080/
  HTTPS_PROXY=http://myproxy.server.com:8080/
  FTP_PROXY=http://myproxy.server.com:8080/
  NO_PROXY="localhost,127.0.0.1,localaddress,.localdomain.com"
  

2. Then set up proxies for GTK3 programs such as Rhythmbox:

Some newer GTK3 programs such as Rhythmbox ignore the environment variables set above, and rely on Gnome settings instead. To make sure they are covered, open a terminal and paste the below line-by-line, modifying as appropriate:

gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy mode 'manual' 
gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy.http host 'myproxy.server.com'
gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy.http port 8080

3. Finally, set up the proxies for apt-get and Update Manager

• These programs will not obey the environment variables either. Create a file called 95proxies in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/, and include the following:

  Acquire::http::proxy "http://myproxy.server.com:8080/";
  Acquire::ftp::proxy "ftp://myproxy.server.com:8080/";
  Acquire::https::proxy "https://myproxy.server.com:8080/";
  

Finally, logout and reboot to make sure the changes take effect.

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Sources: 1, 2, 3. See 1 in particular for additional help, including a script to quickly turn on/off the proxies.

Answer 2

It is not necessary to restart whole system for apt-get tweak via proxy95 file in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d

• It just works immediately after file is written and
• it is gone immediately after the file disappears.

Consider script to enable and disable file by renaming it to *.bak for quick switching the proxy if necessary.

Answer 3

there is a graphical tool called UbProxy, that sets the whole systema proxy, via a graphical interface (GUI). The only problem for me, was I have to log out my user and log in again to load the config. Is very simple to use. https://code.google.com/p/ubproxy/

Answer 4

Go to Dash Home type System Settings, click system settings then network.Proxy settings will be visible to you. Click system wide. It may work as in system proxy settings.

Answer 5

I personally recommend a proxy provider for this purpose because are more reliable and highly anonymous. I use SSLPrivateProxy.com for months now and I'm very happy with their services. Also, their support is really great.