Ubuntu 9.04 3D Desktop

Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 alpha6 with the latest updates as of 21 March 2009.
Compiz and cairo-dock are enabled.
The demo was recorded with gtk-recordmydesktop and upload to youtube without changes.

I used a Thinkpad T61p with a nvidia card.

The video was recorded at 1920x1200 15fps at the same time as all those apps where running, sometimes it looks a bit sloppy, but on the screen of the t61p it looked very fluid and smooth.

I think gtk-recordmydesktop was probably not able to grab all the video glory from the video card.

How to flash the Bios using a DOS USB Flash drive

This tutorial might delete your hard-drive or usb-drive data, in case you do not understand how partitions work, avoid this tutorial


Install gparted and run:
sudo apt-get install gparted
sudo gparted

- Select the the USB drive, delete all partitions and click apply.

- Create a new FAT16 partition, apply


- Format FAT16 partition, apply



- Set boot flag, set label to DOS




After all this is done, you should have a pen with a DOS partition. The drive I'm using is assigned to sdf1 partition.

sudo apt-get install dosemu

# some usb drives mount on the same drive as the cdrom, so we are changing it to be safe
sudo gedit /etc/dosemu/freedos/autoexec.bat



Create this file /home/youruser/dosemurc
Put the correct partition used in gparted section:

$_hdimage = "drives/* /dev/sdf1"

Save the file and execute

sudo dosemu -f /home/youruser/dosemurc

# as you can see the flash drive was assign to drive E under DOS

Type
> Z:
to change to the drive that contains the OS binaries and then type
> sys E:
to copy all needed files to make DOS boot.


You can close dosemu, and remove the USB drive.
Plug it again to see a DOS drive on the desktop.
Now copy all the needed files to flash your bios.

NOTE: I'm not sure, but I think FAT16 should only work for USB drives with 4GB partitions or lower, so if you have a USB drive bigger than 4GB just create a partition with less than 4GB, and leave the rest as free space.

LVM tools in Ubuntu Jaunty

Jaunty comes with 2 useful tools to setup LVM. KVPM is a KDE based tool, but works fine in gnome. System-config-lvm is gnome based tool that also works well is KDE. KVPM was easier to use. Both tools still require the creation of the lvm partitions before using the tools.

KVPM Disk view

KVPM volume group view

System-config-lvm main view

How to get 4GB in Ubuntu 32 bit

In case you added 4Gb or more of memory to your ubuntu 32 bit OS, you will notice that "free -m" only reports the OS using around 3.3Gb. This is behavior is related to technical hardware issue of old 32 Bit systems.

The 64 bit version of Ubuntu does not have this problem, it will detect the full memory.
But if you running 32 bit version, there is a work around to make all 4Gb available to the OS.

- Install the PAE enabled Kernel

sudo apt-get update
sudo sudo apt-get install linux-headers-server linux-image-server linux-server

- Reboot

sudo reboot

How to install Boxee in a Ubuntu 64 bit

sudo apt-get install schroot
sudo mkdir /home/chroot (or another location)
sudo mkdir /home/chroot/jaunty-32-bit (or another location)
sudo vi /etc/schroot/schroot.conf

[jaunty-32-bit]
aliases=default
description=Jaunty 32-bit
type=plain
location=/home/chroot/jaunty-32-bit
priority=3
run-setup-scripts=false
personality=linux32
groups=admin
root-users=lafa

sudo apt-get install debootstrap
sudo debootstrap --variant=buildd --arch i386 jaunty /home/chroot/jaunty-32-bit http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/

sudo mkdir /home/chroot/jaunty-32-bit/etc/etc-from-root

sudo vi /etc/fstab

# For 32-bit jaunty chroot
/home /home/chroot/jaunty-32-bit/home none rbind 0 0
/dev /home/chroot/jaunty-32-bit/dev none rbind 0 0
/etc /home/chroot/jaunty-32-bit/etc/etc-from-root none bind 0 0
/proc /home/chroot/jaunty-32-bit/proc none rbind 0 0
/media /home/chroot/jaunty-32-bit/media none rbind 0 0
/mnt /home/chroot/jaunty-32-bit/mnt none rbind 0 0
/tmp /home/chroot/jaunty-32-bit/tmp none rbind 0 0

# reboot the system
# verify that all the mounts are done after the reboot, by typing mount

sudo vi /home/chroot/jaunty-32-bit/etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty main universe restricted multiverse

# for boxee
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-security universe main multiverse restricted
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty-updates universe main multiverse restricted
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jaunty-backports universe main multiverse restricted

# get root access, to install sudo on your new jaunty
sudo bash
schroot -p -c jaunty-32-bit
# to check you are in 32 bit type "uname -m" you should get i686
apt-get update
# install sudo
apt-get install sudo less nano vim

cd /etc

# fix passwords, and hostname
for i in group gshadow hosts hosts.allow hosts.deny passwd resolv.conf shadow; do rm $i; ln -s etc-from-root/$i $i; done

# fix sudoers
cp etc-from-root/sudoers sudoers

# exit schroot
exit
# exit root shell
exit

# as a normal user
schroot -p -c jaunty-32-bit

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

# install boxee and some other apps that will fix some dependencies for flashplugin and boxee to work without problems
sudo apt-get install software-properties-gtk util-linux firefox libasound2-plugins gnome-terminal x11-apps

# add a software source
sudo software-properties-gtk

# enable communit-maintained, proprietary drivers, software restricted on the "Ubuntu Software" tab

# In "third-Party Software" tab add for boxee
deb http://apt.boxee.tv jaunty main
deb http://apt.boxee.tv jaunty test

# In updates Tab enable Important and recommended updates

# install boxee
sudo apt-get install boxee

#exit schroot
exit

# to run boxee type
schroot -c jaunty-32-bit -p /opt/boxee/Boxee

To create a link on the desktop to boxee, just check the image below:




I tried this on a computer with a intel video chipset.

For nvidia you need extra steps:
schroot -p -c jaunty-32-bit
apt-get install libglitz-glx1 rss-glx xserver-xorg xorg mesa-utils gedit equivs nvidia-180-libvdpau
equivs-control nvidia-kernel-control
# edit the file to look like this
gedit nvidia-kernel-control

### Commented entries have reasonable defaults.
### Uncomment to edit them.
Section: misc
Priority: optional
Standards-Version: 3.6.2

Package: nvidia-180-kernel-source
Version: 180.44-0ubuntu1
# Maintainer: Your Name
# Pre-Depends:
# Depends:
# Recommends:
# Suggests:
# Provides:
# Replaces:
# Architecture: all
# Copyright:
# Changelog:
# Readme:
# Extra-Files:
Description:
long description and info
.
second paragraph

# build a fake package to eliminate the kernel dependency
equivs-build nvidia-kernel-control

#install fake package
sudo dpkg -i nvidia-180-kernel-source_180.44-0ubuntu1_all.deb

# make sure the kernel is not installed
sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-180

# now boxee should work fine

Ubuntu Intrepid Dell Mini how to

This tutorial describes how to configure a Ubuntu Desktop for daily use.

Follow my older post to install ubuntu on Dell Mini using a USB drive. Install the Broadcom STA wireless driver, as suggest by Ubuntu after first boot, and install all available updates.

Dell Apps

# Dell airplane mode
wget http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/dists/hardy-dell-mini/universe/binary-lpia/aircraft-manager_belmont11_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i aircraft-manager_belmont11_all.deb

Fix sound:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

# at the end of alsa-base file add

options snd-hda-intel model=dell

after saving the file, reboot the system and set the volume as described in the picture



Tweaks for the desktop:

Setting smaller font sizes

gconftool-2 --set /apps/nautilus/preferences/desktop_font --type string "Sans 8"
gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/interface/document_font_name --type string "Sans 8"
gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/interface/font_name --type string "Sans 8"
gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/general/titlebar_font --type string "Sans Bold 8"
gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/interface/monospace_font_name --type string "Monospace 8"

Unconstrain windows to the top of the screen

gconftool-2 --set /apps/compiz/plugins/move/allscreens/options/constrain_y --type bool 0

Making the top & bottom panels smaller

gconftool-2 --set /apps/panel/toplevels/top_panel_screen0/size --type integer 19
gconftool-2 --set /apps/panel/toplevels/bottom_panel_screen0/size --type integer 19


Enabling the windows key as keyboard shortcut as fullscreen mode
Preferences --> Keyboard Shortcuts --> Window Management --> Toggle Fullscreen Mode then press the windows key.
You can also set the tool bars to use small icons, as showed by the picture.

Multimedia Codecs, Java, Flash

# java , fonts, codecs
# The ubuntu-restricted-extras
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Configure repositories for extra Applications

On Ubuntu goto to System->Administration->Software Sources->Third Party Software and select "Add". You can also edit /etc/apt/sources.list and add lines to the end of the file.

# Canonical repository (VMWare and DB2 Express)
# enable this on the Software Sources Management tool (tab thir-party) from ubuntu/kubuntu menu

# Ubuntu tweak
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/tualatrix/ubuntu intrepid main

# Google Linux repository, add both to get picasa
deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free
deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ testing non-free

# Miro - The free open-source video platform.
deb http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/pculture.org/miro/linux/repositories/ubuntu intrepid/

# Virtual Box
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian intrepid non-free

# MediaTomb
deb http://apt.mediatomb.cc/ hardy main

# medibuntu repositories
# run this command to add this repository
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/intrepid.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

To get the GPG key for Picasa and Virtual Box

# Google Key
wget -q -O - http://dl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -

# Virtual Box Key
wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/sun_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

# medibuntu Key
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

# Mediatomb Key
wget http://apt.mediatomb.cc/key.asc -O- -q | sudo apt-key add -

Java, Skype, Acrobat, GoogleEarth, Proprietary and Others

For installation execute the following commands:

# Update the index of your repositories
sudo apt-get update

# java, flash, google earth, virtualbox, libdvdcss2, codecs, skype, ffmpeg, amarok, lastfm, picasa, wine acrobatreader
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras googleearth libdvdcss2 ffmpeg non-free-codecs skype miro amarok libtunepimp5-mp3 lastfm picasa wine acroread acroread-escript acroread-plugins ksnapshot kget ubuntu-tweak cheese awn-manager powertop

For other very usefull apps:

# Ubuntu Tweak
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

# Amarok media player, Lastfm music cleint
sudo apt-get install amarok libtunepimp5-mp3 lastfm

# The kubuntu-restricted-extras (install this one if you use kubuntu)
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-restricted-extras

# Mediatomb UPnP MediaServer with a nice web user interface. Share your media with PS3 and XBOX devices.
sudo apt-get install mediatomb

# Acrobat Reader
sudo apt-get install acroread acroread-escript acroread-plugins

# Google Earth, Picasa
sudo apt-get install googleearth picasa

# Skype
sudo apt-get install skype

# Miro - The free open-source video platform.
sudo apt-get install miro

# KDE download manager
sudo apt-get install kget

# OSS voip, softphone, video conference tools
sudo apt-get install ekiga wengophone twinkle

# image and publishing tools
sudo apt-get install krita scribus inkscape karbon

# Kexi is considered as a long awaited Open Source competitor for Microsoft Access, Filemaker and Oracle Forms.
# Kivio is an easy to use diagramming and flowcharting application
# KPlato is a project management application.
sudo apt-get install kplato kivio kexi

### Advanced usage

# visual partition editor
sudo apt-get install gparted

# To change the default JVM run the command below and select the relevant version.
# If you only have one JVM this step should not be required.
sudo update-alternatives --config java

# remote login using ssh
sudo apt-get install sshfs openssh-server

Auto start AWN when ubuntu starts?
System>Preferences>Sessions
Click New. Add a Title for it then for the command enter
avant-window-navigator

Restart, enjoy

Note: this post was created on a Dell Mini 9 with Ubuntu Intrepid.
references:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EeePC
http://www.ubuntumini.com/2008/10/installing-ubuntu-on-dell-inspiron-mini.html

Other Links:
Firefox on NetBooks: http://www.ubuntumini.com/2008/11/customizing-firefox-for-netbooks.html
Blog on Dell Mini: http://www.ubuntumini.com
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/UbuntuMini

Ubuntu Intrepid screenshots