My Little Ubuntu Guide

Ok folks, I’ve been running Gutsy successfully, somewhat, so far. I’ve gotten Compiz working perfectly to my liking and every other application is flawless. Except of course, Hibernate and Suspend. I’ve tried several techniques to getting it to work to no avail.

There is some talk out there about going back to a previous kernel, etc. I’m not going to do that. To me that defeats the purpose of progress here. I want to figure out how to make things work moving forward, even if it means waiting for the next kernel to come out.

There is a bug report that you can follow along on this issue over here: Bug Report

In the mean time, if any of you run across any other work arounds, leave a comment please! :)

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Ok, I’ve made some progress. As of now I’m running the “official” compiz and it’s working exactly as my hacked version was before. The system seems very stable, all my apps work great.

Only thing still on the agenda to fix is Hibernate/Suspend.

From what I’ve read on the bug report about that issue is they are not fixing it till the next release. I think we can get this working however without having to revert to the old kernel. I’ll continue working on it and keep you all posted.

Until I get a new CD with the Compiz stuff working, here’s a quick and dirty tutorial:

1. Enable all software resources EXCEPT the Trevino ones. To do this, click System > Administration > Software Sources and uncheck the following under the “Third-Party Software” tab:
http://download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb feisty eyecandy
http://download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb feisty eyecandy (Source Code)

2. Now install compiz and all other “parts”:
sudo apt-get install compiz compiz-bcop compiz-core compiz-fusion-plugins-extra compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-gnome compiz-plugins compizconfig-settings-manager emerald libcompizconfig-backend-gconf libcompizconfig0 libdecoration0 libemeraldengine0 python-compizconfig librsvg2-common gnome-compiz-manager libgnome-compiz-manager0-d

3. Now download and unzip the fusion icon:
wget http://www.mylittleubuntuguide.com/files/fusion-icon.tar.gz
tar -zxvf fusion-icon.tar.gz
cd fusion-icon

4. Now we build it:
make
sudo make install

5. Now re-enable the Trevino sources by returning to System > Administration > Software Sources and checking the two “trevino” repositories under Third-Party Software. Close and choose Reload.

6. Now install Emerald Themes:
sudo apt-get install emerald-themes

7. For good measure let’s make sure Emerald is handling the window decorations:
emerald &
Now right click the blue icon that appears in the upper right on your task bar and click “Select Window Decorator” and ensure “Emerald” is checked. If it’s not, check it.

That’s it! Now restart compiz and you can change the settings in System > Preferences > Advanced Desktop Effects Settings

Note: You can get all of your virtual desktops back on the cube by changing the General Options setting in Advanced Desktop Effects Settings, under the tab “Desktop Size”, change the “Horizontal Virtual Size” to your liking.

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I’m trying another approach today to installing Gutsy. I’m upgrading. Perhaps with the latest updates and kernel changes things will go smoother and work this time!

If it works I’m not totally convinced the upgrade option made the difference. I’ll then need to do a fresh install and see what happens. If all goes well (crosses fingers) this will mean a very nice, working, ready to install ISO for Gutsy.

I’ll let you all know tonight.
UPDATE>>>
Okay, so i’ve done the upgrade and, well, it didn’t fix anything automatically :( BUT, I did find a nifty little tool for making custom compiz Fusion sources and I’m going to begin that process tonight. Also, I’ll be working on the Suspend/Hibernate catastrophe.

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Thank you all for your awesome comments and emails! I really appreciate the feedback.

I’ve decided to add more value to my blog. That is what this service is about. Giving you as my readers and the ones benefitting from my work, more options in making your life easier.

While I’ll continue doing what I’ve been doing, I’m adding this service (yeah!). Below are the options I’m adding (note, adding to what I currently do!:))

Personal Help - $19.95/Month
This service is unlimited email support, personal assistance with drivers, errors, etc., working my tail off to get Ubuntu (any version) working on your Dell system. I may add additional configurations over time, but for now, since I’m testing this whole concept out and all, just Dells.

Help & Education - $39.95/Month
I’ll do all that is outlined in Personal Help plus teach you how to do it. In other words, if you can learn it in a month you can cancel and have all you need to figure out future stuff on your own.

Custom CD Every Release - $49.95/Year
You’ll get the latest releases of every CD and DVD that I release for that year. It will be guaranteed to work or I’ll custom build a separate one just for you (Dell systems only).

Ok, so these are the options. If any of them appeal to you, great, I’ll be happy to serve you more fully and readily than I’ve been able to up to this point. To “sign up” for a particular service, just email me personally at john AT jrdw.com and tell me which one you want to subscribe to.

Again, thanks for all of your support and feedback that has helped me make this service a, well sort of, reality!

You all rock!

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Hey all,

I’m thinking of providing a service that would allow you faster fixes to your problems. I just don’t know if it’s something you all would be interested in. If so, email me to let me know at john AT jrdw.com.

Here’s the idea.

For a small fee of $39.95 I’d create a custom install CD specific to your laptop. Every time there’s a new distro released, I would provide you a new CD for that distro for an additional $9.95. I know linux is free and we are all about free stuff! But I wouldn’t be able to justify my time spent on a project of this magnitude without some sort of compensation. (I have to feed my family too).

Anyway, I’m not even going to offer such a service until I get feedback from you, my visitors, as to if this is somthing you would want or pay for.

Thanks!

John

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The first Beta Custom CD for the Dell 6400 is now available for download. You can get the Gutsy CD here:
DOWNLOAD DELL 6400 GUTSY CD

You can get the MD5 file here:
DOWNLOAD MATCHING MD5 FILE

Be sure to report your errors and successes!

Remember, this version will allow you to do Wireless out of the box, ATI is installed out of the box, and Compiz-Fusion works out of the box. However, Suspend and Hibernate do not work in this version. I’m still working on that issue and Ubuntu may get ATI to fix the fglrx binary before I get a work around, so my bet is things will be working soon anyway.

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Ok folks, I’m uploading the first custom CD for Gutsy. It will only be in English, so if you need another language request it here.

This CD will include the binary fglrx drivers, xgl, and the advanced Compiz-Fusion settings manager for customizing your experience. It will also have the BCM43xx Wireless driver installed and the firmware already installed.

After you install your system from this CD, there is no need to enable the Restricted Drivers for the BCM43xx wireless to work. The ATI will show enabled and the BCM will show disabled (unchecked) but ignore that for now. It works.

You can even use wireless in live CD session, just click the network monitor icon and select/connect to your wifi.

The ISO will be finished uploading in 1 hour or less, so about 2:45 PM EST. I’ll announce it’s location at that time. Thanks!

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The problem with Suspend and Hibernate in Gutsy is that Gutsy is using CONFIG_SLUB=y in it’s kernel instead of CONFIG_SLAB=y, which Feisty used in it’s kernel. This is a problem with the fglrx driver, which worked fine in Feisty. Anyway, you can read more about this bug at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-restricted-modules-2.6.22/+bug/121653.

For now, here’s a fix, but it comes at a cost. Temporarily anyway. As I said, the FGLRX driver (i.e. xorg-driver-fglrx) doesn’t work right with the new kernel, BUT the ATI driver from www.amd.com does. The trade off is your Compiz-Fusion.

I’m going to try to get Compiz working with the official ATI driver as I get more time to work on it. But for now if you want Suspend/Hibernate you need to be running the official ATI driver.

So what you do is:

Preparation
Install Build Tools:

sudo apt-get install module-assistant build-essential debhelper debconf dh-make fakeroot libstdc++5 linux-headers-generic


Installation

Build Ubuntu packages from the installer by opening a terminal, entering the directory that you saved the installer to, and running:

bash ./ati-driver-installer-.run –buildpkg Ubuntu/gutsy


where is the version number of the driver you downloaded. This will take a short time. After finishing, the installer will create several debs. Use the command “dpkg -i ” to install the debs:

sudo dpkg -i *.deb


After installing the kernel source and xorg driver, you will now need to compile the fglrx kernel module in order to get 3-d rendering. Do so with the following commands:

sudo m-a prepare,update
sudo m-a build,install fglrx-kernel
sudo depmod
sudo rm -f /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb


Configuration

Now open “System -> Administration -> Restricted Drivers Manager” and select the enable box for “ATI accelerated graphics driver” and hit apply. Reboot now.

At next boot, Ubuntu will load an old version of fglrx, so you have to blacklist it by changing the following file as so:

sudo gedit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

Now change it to say:
DISABLED_MODULES=”fglrx”

You’re finished! Now Reboot Again.

You are now running the ATI official driver with Direct Rendering working. I’ll figure out how to get Compiz to work with this soon.

After any kernel updates

After every update of the kernel (linux-image-), you will need to recompile the kernel module (make sure to get the latest linux-headers too) as explained under the installation section. After you recompile the module, you can regain direct rendering by logging into a console (ctrl+alt+f1) and typing:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop (kdm if you use Kubuntu)
sudo rmmod fglrx (even if this command fails, go on)
sudo modprobe fglrx
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start (again, Kubuntu users type kdm)


That’s it. Should work to get your Suspend/Hibernate working for now in Gutsy. As I said, I’ll update when I find a fix for all with the compiz working too.

Later!

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Ok, I’ve installed and as said in the previous post, things look good. however they are not perfect. Let me outline some issues I’ve found:

1. Graphics
The ATI restricted driver is detected during install, however you must install it by clicking “Enable” in the Restricted Drivers manager. When you do this three packages are installed: xorg-driver-fglrx, libstdc++5, and gcc-3.3-base. These three do not make the built in Compiz Fusion work however. They only enable your default resolution.

To get Compiz Fusion working you have to additionally install xserver-xgl. This will then allow you to boot into XGL and use the built in effects. I’m not sure yet if you need to write a custom startup XGL script or not. I don’t think so and will test this shortly.

2. Wireless
The Broadcom wifi issue has been fairly well addressed in this release. Again, it’s a driver that is restricted and must be enabled in the Restricted Drivers manager. During the process you’ll be prompted to either provide the location of your firmware or download it…choose to download them and it will complete fine.

3. Power Management
I’m a little annoyed by the constant dimming of my screen while running on batteries. Even when I brighten it manually, it dims after a while and when I move the pointer only brightens it a little. I’m sure there’s a way around this, just haven’t found it yet.

The other more serious issues are that Suspend and Hibernate no longer work. I’ll find out what’s going on with this and if it’s fixable in the current Kernel. But for now, just avoid attempting to do Hibernate and Suspend as it just locks up the system.

What About The Custom CD?

Now about the new Custom CD…I’m going to make it have the XGL, ATI, and WiFi drivers all installed already so you won’t need to go downloading them. I’ll also try to make it boot up into the XGL session the first time without need of enabling the drivers. That to me would be paramount.

Secondly, I’m going to find out what the hell is going on with these power issues and address them immediately.

If any of you figure that out first, let me know.

That’s it for now!

John Westbrook

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Downloaded, burned and booted without a hitch. I installed the new Gutsy and it loaded, without the ATI driver of course, but with GUI working!

I simply enabled the ATI and WiFi drivers from the Restricted Drivers link in System > Administration and … It works great.

Not perfect of course. Enabling their new built in Effects didn’t work until I installed XGL server and booted into it. However, got a message saying that from now on I need to boot into the default normal session and XGL will auto start…interesting. I may not have needed to create a custom start script afterall. We’ll see.

Right now I’m creating a custom boot disk that will have the ATI and WiFi drivers pre-installed. We’ll be testing a lot of these and I’ll make it available for download when it works.

Later…

PS: If it didn’t boot into the GUI before for you, I suggest downloading a fresh copy, it may be they made updates after you tried.

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I’m downloading the Gutsy release now. Sounds like the issues you all are having are identical to the previous release. This is good and should make it easy to fix.

The problem is the ATI driver. If ATI would be easier to work with this wouldn’t be an issue. Oh well, I’ll just continue fixing things for them!!!

I’ll keep you all posted. Just started downloading and it should be down in about 9 minutes, then I’ll burn and boot.

I’ll do a post tonight to update everyone.

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I don’t know how many of you have read up on the latest release of Ubuntu: 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). You can read about it HERE. This is a step in Linux history that will change everything! On the 18th I’ll be downloading the official CD and doing a fresh install. If anything is needed to make it work smoothly I’ll create a custom CD and announce it here within a day of that date.

See you there!

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Yes Rhona, even your husband is devoting a blog post to you on your birthday!

Ok, so here’s the deal for those of you who don’t know Rhona. She’s my wife, duh, and she is totally awesome. I’m not just saying that because she’ll be reading this, I mean it. And today is a very special birthday for her. It’s her last birthday in the 20s.

Yeah, sorry hun, I’m STILL younger than you!

Now let me share some more cool things about my wife that many of you may not realize. Rhona Westbrook is a very accomplished author. She’s published much of her work and is currently working on a major book. Although I have not read the book, seeing it’s more words than I’ve probably spoken in my lifetime, I hear (from her and others) that it’s awesome.

I’m so proud of all that she’s accomplished in the past 2 years on this. She has gone from being into reading and interested in writing to becoming a legend of sorts over on LiveJournal.com! Check out her blog at rhonawestbrook.livejournal.com. You’ll love it!

Rhona is funny, intelligent, sexy, an amazing mom and a literary genius. Let me just sum it up to say that I’m very proud and honored to be Rhona Westbrook’s husband.

Happy Birthday baby! You’re the best!

-John

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Hey everyone,

Sorry for my absense. It has been very busy lately. To all of you who have made offers on the laptop, thank you. Fortunately, I was able to keep it and no longer need it sold. Sorry if you wanted it!

Our new puppy that we got for our daughter is so awesome. It’s a little Sheltie, very intelligent and very cute. I’ll put some pics up later.

As for linux, I haven’t had much time to do anything with it lately, so I’ll update when I have. I still need to read through all the comments…I’ll get to it!

Talk later!

John

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Many of you are noticing that your install is not working, at least not when you run the FinishUp script. This is due to www.GetAutomatix.com being down. I’m not sure what the status is and why they are down, but I’ll look into it.

Until further notice, DON’T run the script. I’ll let you know when they are back up.

Cheers!

John

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It’s true. I’m selling the 6400. Why?

Ok, here’s the story.

My wife and I have had a beautiful Doberman since we were married in 2000. His name was Hoss. He was the sweetest, most caring and loving dog you could ever imagine.

Hoss recently was diagnosed with a heart condition, common in Dobermans, which involves his heart enlarging. In fact, now that this happened we discovered that 50% of Dobermans die of this condition. Most before they reach a ripe old age.

Because we rescued Hoss from a Kill Shelter in Southern Cal. we don’t know who the breeder was and even didn’t know how old he was. But when we got him he was estimated to be 2 years old. That was 7 years ago.

Last night I took Hoss to our vet to have him put to rest. That’s the most difficult thing I’ve had to do in years. Emotionally this has been very trying and with a 4 year old daughter involved it’s even more challenging. How do you tell your little girl that Hoss died, when she doesn’t even understand death?

We knew we were going to have to put Hoss to sleep, so we decided to get a puppy BEFORE this. To be very transparent, money has been tight recently. And we wanted to get our daughter a puppy that would be a good fit, and have longevity so she doesn’t have to experience another loss like this, at least to the extent that we can handle.

My wife found the cutest little 9 week old sheltie boy. I’ll post pictures later. He was $600. However, well worth it and with the most adorable personality, or doganality. He’s 10 weeks now and my daughter absolutely loves him. She sits in his little pen and plays with him every day, takes him outside, helps to potty train him, etc.

He’s AKC registered and his dad is a champion. With all the vet bills for Hoss in his final days and the puppy costs, I’m forced to take some pretty drastic measures. So I’m selling my laptop. I don’t know what a good price for it is, I’ll have to figure that out. But below are the specs.

Inspiron 6400
Intel Core Dou Processor at 1.6 Ghz
2 GB RAM
160 GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
DVD-+RW/CD-+RW
ATI 1400 Graphics w/ 128 MB Dedicated
15.4″ Display (1280×800) w/ TrueBrite
Firewire
Card Reader
VGA and S-Video Out
Audio In/Out
9-Cell Batter (Up to 5.5 Hours)

comes with:
Ubuntu Installed
Power Supply
Warranty Good till 12/09/2007

If you throw in some extra bucks I’ll include my hard case

anyway, make offers and I’ll figure out a price to start from as I research what’s out there.

thanks for listening to my very long and somewhat “preachy” post.

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I’m beginning the build of Gutsy tonight. Yes, thought I’d get my butt in gear! The crazy week has slowed down finally, so I can focus a bit more on this project.

Again, if any of you have suggestions, don’t hesitate to make them! Just comment below.

Cheers!

John Westbrook

P.S. There will be an outage planned for this site, starting tomorrow night, and going into Friday mid-day. The reason? I’m replacing the WordPress site with a more robust backend to handle all the content. It’s actually going to be really cool, I’m going to seperate everything into much easier to navigate sections, such as a “how to” section, a “scripts” section, a “Download” section, the blog, and a forum! It will take anywhere between 5 hours to 15 hours for the transfer of content and design to finish. Unfortunately it’s rather complicated to create the site offline, so everything will be done online.

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Ok, I’m not being totally lazy. I’ve just been pursuing some other interests, like making a living! Man this week was busy! I did a ton of stuff including some information product launches. So I’m sorry I’ve been off the job here, but I’m going to get back into things and start on that Gutsy CD.

By the way, reports of the CD working on HPs also!

Comments(0)

The new CD is live and is at:
http://www.mylittleubuntuguide.com/iso/livecd.iso

Tested and it works great!

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For those of you who don’t want to wait or download another CD iso, here’s a quick guide to get you “updated” to the new features of the new CD! Keep in mind this will replace your current xorg.conf and sources.list files. Also, after it finishes it will automatically reboot your PC. Here’s how you do it:

1. Open a terminal and go into your home directory, then download the updateme script:
cd ~
wget http://www.mylittleubuntuguide.com/files/updateme.sh

2. Make it executable:
sudo chmod +x updateme.sh

3. Run as root:
sudo ./updateme.sh

NOTE: You will be required to press ENTER at one point, when it asks you for the location of your kernel files for the Modem build. Just hit ENTER and the script will finish.

4. After if finishes, it will clean itself up and reboot

After it reboots you should now have Compiz-Fusion working, Horizontal Scrolling working with the touchpad, and suspend working!

Please comment your success or bugs!

NOTES:
1. This script does the exact same thing the new finishup script does. So if you just installed from the CD, the FinishUp script will take care of all the above, no need to do both. If you installed and ran the FinishUp script 3 or 4 days or more ago, you need this.

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