Ubuntu On Your Dell Laptop
Welcome to my little ubuntu guide! I’m John Westbrook and have set up this site to meet a growing need to provide ease of install, use, and configuration of Ubuntu on Dell laptops. While my hardware is an Inspiron 6400 with an ATI graphics card, most of my How Tos and scripts will work or are customizable to any hardware.
To begin, subscribe to my free newsletter where you will receive latest updates, How Tos, Scripts, changes, and bug fixes. You can interact with my via this blog or my email once you have subscribed and I’ll do my best to help you solve your issues.
If you have fixes that I haven’t found yet, feel free to submit them to me and I’ll post them, giving you the credit of course;)
To subscribe to the newsletter, put your name and email in the fields below. Then, enjoy my site!
When are you going to post how to add the citrix client to the live cd for those of us less skillful?
just ran the script 1 and 3 trying to get decent screen resolution on a Dell 9400 with x1400 on a 17′ screen which is supposed to run at 1920×1200 but will not give more than 1280×1024.
Nothing has improved.
Any help would be much appreciated after messing around with this for days.
Thanks.
Thank you very much for the work! This is amazing and I will certainly use it.
Just one thing, and this is of course simply my opinion, but I don’t think all those apps should be installed by default. If I’m not mistaken Automatix already can install quite a few of them, plus some of them are redundant with what Ubuntu already has (e.g. thunderbird, picasa, etc.).
I don’t mind much uninstalling them though, still quicker than going through all the setup…
Thanks again
I may limit it, but for now these are the things I thought would give the most flexibility for everyone. I’ll do a poll and find out what people want
So:
Favorite Email Client?
Favorite Browser?
Favorite Photo Organizer?
Favorite Media Player?
Favorite Video Editor?
Favorite Image Editor?
Let me know and I’ll limit it down.
Thanks for the prompt feedback. I appreciate the fact that you’re open to discussion on this.
So here’s my 2 cents (it ended up much longer than I thought… sorry):
If people come to Ubuntu, I believe we have to assume it is in part because they are satisfied with the selection of basic software that it offers. Also, a lot of thinking and consultation goes on in the Ubuntu community to pick the apps that should be included in the basic distro. There’s also an explicitly stated policy, that I strongly agree with, of eliminating bloat by avoiding duplication of fuctionnalities. Therefore, I don’t think any additionnal apps should be included to serve purposes that are already taken care of by default ubuntu apps.
For example, while Thunderbird is definitely great software, the email functionnality is already filled by evolution. I don’t think it should be included. If f-spot is in the default ubuntu install, i would also remove picasa as it more or less fills the same role (photo manager).
All in all, it really depends on what target audience you’re aiming for with your custom cds. I can’t speak for the other users, but for my part, the reason I use your live cd is because I am tired of all the hassle and tasks that a new ubuntu install entails. This is especially true of the video and network aspects. If you put aside the installation of beryl, wifi and synaptics touchpad, the rest is pretty straight forward. We can always use the add/remove menu or synaptics to install most other apps that are needed by users.
Of course, as you said, flexibility is key. So I think you’re on the right track by providing a tool like Automatix (I don’t have any experience with it, but I like the idea). Also, other tools like vmware server might be very useful (I will definitely use it). Good guidelines might include be the following:
1- No apps that duplicate default ubuntu apps
2- Make sure a “one-click” option is available to install any other program that you or the community feel is necessary (Does automatix sucessfully install vmware server? If so, why install vmware + automatix when only the latter would be necessary)
3- If no “one-click” option is available, install the app by default.
Thanks for listening, and sorry again this was so long…
Vincent
The truth is, I installed all this stuff by default because I use it all. And this project was originally started as a way for me to get Ubuntu reinstalled on my system quickly in case of a crash, etc.
Because of that, I install all the stuff that I want. I use multiple media players for example, for the reason that one doesn’t do EVERYTHING that the other does. And I have different needs.
I use multiple Video Editors for the same reason.
But, I’ll create a more “basic” DVD image for the general public I think…Put Automatix on it for the options, and maybe instructions on installing some of the other more complicated pieces like Cinelerra.
Let me know what you all htink on this.
Cheers!
John
I hope you didn’t feel like I was pressuring you into anything… I admit my outlook was much more one of stearing towards a larger target audience.
I just wanted to say how great it is to see that you are going through all this trouble to help people like us whom you’ve mostly never met. You rock!
Thanks again.
Now i’ll shut up and let the other ones share their thoughts…
I think alot of dell users are looking for this and 90% or more of these users are already users of firefox , thunderbird and the inclusion of these i think is very valuable for the dell user ,
the transition between Windowz to Ubuntu should be semitransparent
It would also be of value being able to ask the user upon install which type of DellBuntu they require , Server / Gaming / Windows Software User. and options having the like to Select software to install , and what services to setup , ( if your going to be using a dvd instead of a CD i would include the deb files in its own pool and have a option to include updates and extras)
Having the option to remove or add any selection
from a information listing would solve the issues above aswell as future isues for software updates ,
how this could be done is another question ,
also …. would the idea of automatically starting a backup and creating a rescue directory so that if you ever need to go back to when u started
you dont have to reinstall ….
Hi!
First of all, thanks for your work!
But today I wanted to reinstall ubuntu (downloaded the latest iso, installed,…) and when I wanted to download the script (wget http:…/feistydell.tar.gz) I only get an error (404).
any ideas?
thanks, robert
Help me please….
I received my new laptop a few days ago (Xps 1330), and windows vista just sucks, I want to install ubuntu 7.04, but once I reboot the laptop and start with the cd, when I select “start of install…”
Appear this:
BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-3ubuntu3) Buit-in shell (ash)
Enter ‘help’ for a list of built-in commands.
/bin/sh: can´t access tty; job control tuerned off
(initramfs)
BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-3ubuntu3) Buit-in shell (ash)
Enter ‘help’ for a list of built-in commands.
/bin/sh: can´t access tty; job control tuerned off
(initramfs)
This appear when I try to install ubuntu 7.04 in my laptop (xps1330). It appear when I select “start or install”…
Hey there. love your site! got my laptop running 99% perfect! thanks again! i’m not sure if this is the right place to ask but…is there a proper way to run google earth on an ati card using your scripts? i can seem to only run google earth when i log out of beryl and in to gnome. the funny thing is, when i look around the internet, the solution seems to be to use open source drivers, but when i do, my video card goes haywire. my point being, has anyone tried to run google earth successfully using these scripts? as i have not. thanks again!