On Ubuntu 11.04

I did an in-place upgrade of the Ubuntu 10.10 running on my mother's netbook to Ubuntu 11.04. I had it run overnight, and by morning, voila!, I had Natty Narwhal on the computer. The upgrade went by without a hitch; real sweet, considering this was a Wubi installation.

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Karmic on HP Mini 2140

Current verdict: so far so good.

When I tried to install Jaunty Jackalope on the HP Mini 2140, I ran into some snags even at the Wubi stage. As I had other things to do back then, I put off fiddling with the problem. Then I decided to have another go at it with Karmic, and voila! It works.

Some initial hitches:

• Wifi didn't work out of the box. The HP Mini 2140 uses a Broadcom chip (the BCM4322, to be exact.) To fix this problem I had to install proprietary drivers.


• As sometimes happens with new Ubuntu installations, the sound (for both speaker and mike) are set to mute. After reviewing the Sound Settings, I fixed the problem.


• Gnome login themes don't work. I still have to read up on the new configuration, though for the moment that's not a priority.
  

All in all, enough new things to puzzle out but not altogether frustrating. I still like Jaunty's overall look, though.

Ubuntu Mini blog

I stumbled across a blog that's dedicated to Ubuntu on the Dell Inspiron Mini 9: Ubuntu Mini. It's quite a comprehensive blog. I especially liked their article on the Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix.

I'm staying away from netbooks in the meantime, though. I'm eying a MID instead, when it comes out.

Ubuntu MID edition

It just keeps getting better! Apparently, Ubuntu now has a page up for its MID Edition.

From the page:

Ubuntu MID Edition targets an exciting new class of computers called Mobile Internet Devices. Ubuntu MID, based on the world's most popular Linux distribution, and MID hardware from OEMs and ODMs, is redefining what can be done in mobile computing.

Ubuntu MID Edition, a fully open source project, gives the full Internet, with no compromise. Custom options may include licensed codecs and popular third-party applications.

Full Web 2.0/AJAX fidelity, with custom options of Adobe Flash, Java, and more

Outstanding media playback so you can enjoy videos, music and photos with superior quality and easy navigation

A suite of applications that work seamlessly to meet every need of a digital parent, student or anyone who is on-the-go

Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Dailymotion, 3D games, GPS, maps, in short, the full Web 2.0 experience delivered into your hands as a compact and powerful device that's easy and fun to use

There's still no mention about the actual hardware, though, but I suppose this is going to be the one from Intel.

What it will look like:

Small size/form factor

4 to 7 inch touch screen

Physical and/or virtual keyboard

Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, WiMAX

2GB to 8GB Flash or disk storage, 256MB+ memory/512MB+ recommended

OpenGL 3D

USB, camera, head phone jack, speakers, microphone

Me want. Now.

New Ubuntu options

While poking around in the Jaunty Jackalope download page, I noticed several new additions to the usual download options. For the past few releases, we've only had to contend with the Desktop Install, the Server Install, and the Alternate Install Edition, all with the 32-bit and 64-bit variants. These all fell within the 700MB size limit of CD-Rs. But with Jaunty Jackalope, there are a few more:

First, there's now the Install/Live DVD, which weighs in at 4.3GB. There's no stated differences with the standard CD edition, but I presume that this will have more packages preloaded into the CD, e.g., compilers, development environments, and databases. The bigger size will be a pain to download, but it should be easier to redistribute the software to organizations without broadband Internet.

Next, there's the Ubuntu Netbook Remix, available as a .img file. As per the description:

This USB image allows you to run Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) from a USB storage device without installing UNR on your computer. While running in this "live" environment you will be running a full desktop environment and have the option to install UNR permanently, as well as installing UNR alongside an existing operating system. This USB image is optimized for netbooks with screens up to 10". You will need at least 256MB of RAM to install from this image.

For almost all PCs. This includes most machines with Intel/AMD/etc type processors and almost all computers that run Microsoft Windows, as well as newer Apple Macintosh systems based on Intel processors. Choose this if you are at all unsure.

Finally, there's the MID USB image, meant for mobile Internet devices, also available as a .img file.

The MID USB image allows you to try Ubuntu without changing your computer at all, and at your option to install it permanently later. This USB image is optimized for handheld devices with 4-7" touchscreens and limited processing power. You will need at least 128MB of RAM to install from this image.

Now I wish I knew which MID devices Ubuntu runs on so I can go out and buy 'em!

Image files are written to USB using the usb-imagewriter utility, as outlined in the USB image how-to.

Curious at these developments, I also had a look at the Intrepid and Hardy download pages. The Netbook remix had also been introduced to 8.10, but with 8.04, only the DVD option is now available.

Ubuntu Eee

Ubuntu Eee rocks.

If I had any misgivings about Ubuntu Eee before, they were largely unfounded. Ubuntu Eee turns my EeePC 701 4G into everything I want it to be. It's just...perfect. Sound works, Wifi works, camera works; and more than that, everything seems scaled to the right proportions. The 7" screen is still 7" but its use of the real estate is very sensible.

It's a new lease on life on my EeePC.