This Twitter post sums up all my feelings about the decision to make Unity the default desktop in Gnome in Ubuntu 11.04. Let see how Unity develops for the desktop before passing judgement.

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.

Specs.

• Intel® Core™2 Duo processor E7500
• 8GB DDR3 SDRAM
• DVD±RW/CD-RW drive
• 1TB Serial ATA hard drive (7200 rpm)
• Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD
• 7.1-channel audio support.
• Built-in 19-in-1 digital media reader
• Dell 1525N Wireless-N mini card (802.11b/g/n)
• Built-in 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN

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.

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.

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

“Bug #1 is fixed, we are still trying to get people to apply the fix (aka Ubuntu Linux).”
- Mike Basinger

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1159085

Peace baby \/

This guide can be found at http://www.ubuntupocketguide.com/.

Digg It

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