Installing Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon on Dell Latitude D820
Before installing, I made a backup copy of my home and opt directory (later I discovered that etc directory backup would have been nice) on a different partition and on dvd.
The installation went smoothly, almost everything worked from the start (including wireless). After install I found on the desktop (top right) the icon for installing propertary drivers (nvidia) and software updates, the upgrades went smoothly also.
I am just going through the configurations that were a little bit tricky:
- setting 4 workspaces with keyboard shortcuts: went to System->Preferences->Appearence and disabled visual effects, then right clicked on the workspaces in the right bottom corner of the desktop and set the number of workspaces, then to System->Preferences->Keyboard Shortcuts and I found in the menu all workspaces, after setting shortcuts, I reenabled visual effects (there is a bug/problem with setting workspaces shortcuts when visual effects are on)
- installation of Flash plugin did not work automatically (from browser), I had to download it from the Firefox Extensions page and run it manually in a terminal, the old fashion way.
- microphone: in Skype did not work from the start, so I played with Applications->Sound & Video->Sound Recorder and with Volume Control for tests. In the Volume Control Edit->Preferences I checked to view all controls and from Options I selected Input Source Front Mic, I set also the volumes a little higher and everything worked.
- for now Hibernation seems to work
- Suspend did not work from the start, but I used the workaround below. I do not regret passing some time fixing Suspend, as it is almost twice as fast as hibernation:
http://www.len.ro/work/tools/ubuntu-gutsy-on-a-dell-latitude-d820/install-gutsy/
Shortly, I added in file /etc/X11/xorg.conf the following line, in the nvidia section:
Option “NvAGP” “1″
And I modified this lines in /etc/default/acpi-support:
# Should we attempt to warm-boot the video hardware on resume?
POST_VIDEO=false
# Save and restore video state?
SAVE_VIDEO_PCI_STATE=false
# Comment this out to disable screen locking on resume
LOCK_SCREEN=false
- I disabled ipv6 module and trackerd, although I did not notice performance issues, as explained here:
http://www.len.ro/work/tools/ubuntu-gutsy-on-a-dell-latitude-d820/what-kills-my-gutsy
and here:
http://www.len.ro/work/tools/ubuntu-gutsy-on-a-dell-latitude-d820/what-was-killing-my-gutsy
Importing previous browser bookmarks: i copied from backedup home directory to new home directory the file: .mozilla/firefox/alphanumeric.default/bookmarks.html
Importing emails from evolution:
I followed this tutorial for importing emails:
Afterwards, I was getting all the time the message “evolution summary and folder mismatch“, and the workaround(s) (i applied two just to make sure):
For those suffering from this problem: A working workaround.
1. Set Evolution to Offline mode, exit evolution
2. Open terminal and run evolution –force-shutdown
3. find ~/.evolution/
4. Re-start Evolution.
Warning: this involves automated file removal which can result in data loss if done incorrectly. I take no responsibilities. Read “man find” to understand what you’re doing.
Step 2 is *essential*.
To avoid further corruption of your Evo folders: Always put it in offline mode before exiting. This avoids the mailcheck ruining the ev-summary files while the folders are being loaded and works around the bug on my system.
And:
cd ~/.evolution/mail
cp -r local local.ORIG
cd local
rm -f $(find . -name “*.ibex.index*”)
I recenlty heard about automatix, a tool for installing packages like mplayer, acrobat reader, windows fonts etc, and I strognly recommand it:
http://www.getautomatix.com/wiki/index.php?title=Installation#Ubuntu_7.10_.28Gutsy_i386.29
12. March 2008 at 6:33 pm :
Thanks for that, I’m considering installing the company’s laptop with Ubuntu this weekend, I’m evaluating the level of productivity that I will gain or lose from switching from MS Windows XP to Linux Ubuntu. I have Debian Linux running on all my home servers, even my firewall device (Nokia IP120), wireless Linksys WRT54G (upgraded to DD-WRT). So this is the only computer I have in my possession that does not have Linux. All the servers I manage are Linux based and lucky our management console is Java based so I can use it in Linux as well. My only concern is Evolution and MS Exchange.