Last week the PowerUser community ran a poll to decide the new logo/branding for our community and the submission by Thorsten Wilms was selected as the winner. Many thanks to Thorsten and all the other people who submitted artwork, they were all fantastic.
Ubuntu 10.04 is the best version of Ubuntu Linux so far, but I have a couple problems on my Dell Studio XPS 1340 that could not be resolved before the Ubuntu 10.04 was released.
My laptop has a Intel Wireless WiFi 5100 half height card. I had a problem with it losing connection with a wireless access point using 802.11n. This problem is a known issue with the iwlagn driver, and the best workaround is to disable 802.11n on the card. To disable 802.11n on this card create/edit your /etc/modprobe.d/options.conf file
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/options.conf
And add the following to it.
options iwlagn 11n_disable=1 11n_disable50=1
I was also have trouble in the timing between the nvidia driver and GDM loading at boot on my laptop. LP #532436. I have to have cron relaunch GDM at boot for a rough workaround for this problem.
1. sudo vim /etc/crontab and add this line to the end:
@reboot root /root/gdmstart
2. Create the shell script to relaunch GDM
sudo vim /root/gdmstart
with this contents:
#!/bin/bash
sleep 6
/usr/sbin/service gdm start
3. Make script executable.
sudo chmod u+x /root/gdmstart
One other problem I had with this laptop with any version of Linux is not being able to burn CD/DVDs with Linux. The fix was to downgrade the firmware for the HLDS HLDS GS20N 9.5mm Slotload SATA DVD-RW drive to version A108.
What workarounds did you have to tweek to get Ubuntu working on your hardware? Post them here, and be sure to file a bug on your problem if you have not already.
One of the common questions I get for my Ubuntu User column is what is my desktop or what is a good desktop for Ubuntu Linux. A few weeks ago I got a Dell Inspiron 560 on sale at Best Buy. It was a great deal, and ended up being a near perfect Ubuntu desktop.
Specs.
Everything on this computer works out of the box with Ubuntu. I thought the Dell 1525N wireless card was a Broadcom device and was planning a night of sacrificing chickens to the dark wireless gods to get it working under Linux. I was pleased that the card used the ath9k driver and works great in Ubuntu.
With 8GB of ram, I installed the amd64 version of Ubuntu Lucid RC, and I’m amazed how far the 64bit version has come since the last time I tried it. If you have delay switching over to 64 bit for PC with more than 3GB of memory, now is the time to switch. I found the user experience between using the 32bit vs 64bit nearly identical.
The only issue I had with this machine was that the installer ran very very slow, about 10 minutes for the first screen to appear. I’m looking to see if there is an existing bug that matches this problem, if not I will be running ubuntu-bug ubiquity tonight.
If you are looking for a desktop that works great with Ubuntu, I strongly recommend the Dell Inspiron 560.
Love or hate it, Skype is very popular program for many computer users. While not open source, I do appreciate Skype making client for Linux users. Skype had two common problems under some Linux distros.
1. Skype did not work with Pulse Audio: This was fixed with the first Skype 2.1 beta1 (2.1.0.47).
2. Skype does not work well with dark themes in Gnome: This is fix in the Skype 2.1 beta 2 (2.1.0.81)
Now, I’m a big fan of dark themes, the following is a quick guide to installing under Ubuntu with a dark Gnome theme:
1. Uninstall previous version of Skype from Medibuntu.
2. Download Skype from http://www.skype.com/download/skype/linux/choose (don’t worry about the Ubuntu 8.10 version, works with Ubuntu 8.10 thru Ubuntu 9.10)
3. Install the deb file
sudo dpkg -i skype-ubuntu-intrepid_2.1.0.81-1_i386.deb
4. Run Skype and goto Options.
5. Under the General tab, set Choose style to Desktop Settings or GTK+.
6. Restart Skype.
For more disucssion on Skype and Open Source, I suggest listening to the Shot of Jaq podcast episode: Has Skype Won the War?
Ubuntu Tutorials also has a great write-up on the new Skype.
The Ubuntu Utah Loco will be having a release party for Ubuntu 9.10 this weekend. We will have Ubuntu CDs for people who need them and lots of knowledgeable people to help you with any Ubuntu questions you have. Please join us for good friends, good fun, and yummy lamb quesadillas.
I would also like to invite our OpenSUSE and Fedora friends in the area to celebrate their upcoming releases with us.
Date & Time:
Saturday November 7, 2009 – 6:00 PM till 9:00 PM (MST)
Location:
MacCool’s Public House
Salt Lake City – Foothill Village
1400 South Foothill Blvd, #166
Salt Lake City, Utah 84108
801.582.3111
Map
“The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.”
- John Gilmore
“Bug #1 is fixed, we are still trying to get people to apply the fix (aka Ubuntu Linux).”
- Mike Basinger 
Keir Thomas, author of Ubuntu Kung Fu, has release a free pocket guide to Ubuntu. This 170 page great beginners guide to installing and using Ubuntu.
This guide can be found at http://www.ubuntupocketguide.com/.
Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) 1.5 was released last December. While not a 64 bit app yet, it is very easy to get the AIR 1.5 working on Ubuntu 8.10 AMD64 version.
1. Install needed libraries
sudo apt-get install ia32-libs
2. Download the installer
wget -c http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/lin/download/1.5/AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
3. Install AIR
./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
(note may need to chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin)
4. Copy extra Adobe library file
sudo cp /usr/lib/libadobecertstore.so /usr/lib32
5. Install AIR apps via web.
Discuss here
