Ubuntu 7.04 on the New Laptop

I've been looking into the possibility of using a Vista/Ubuntu dual boot on the new laptop, but I haven't found much on the web yet to help me. Lucky for me I'm in no hurry.

I should mention that the machine is a Gateway MX8711 with 1GB memory and 100GB HD. Before I jump into the dual boot thing, I'm trying out Ubuntu with the 7.04 LiveCD. It seems to be going pretty well. The screen looks nice, although the highest resolution is 1024x768 while the Vista install runs at 1440x900. I imagine that an install of a specific video driver would solve the problem. Also, the touch screen works without a hitch. If I close the computer or if the timeout hits, the screen blanks to save power - and returns to service without incident. The sleep function gives an error. Finally, the FN key combination that toggles the wireless radio seems to work. Unfortunately, wireless networking itself doesn't work.

I did a little research (read: simple Google search) and found this page that has a hint for the Broadcom BCM4311 and Feisty. I first had to modify the sources.list file to include the Universe repository and update the software list before I could install the new driver. Next, it took a few tries to get the WEP key entered, but I finally made it in. The bad part is that since I'm using LiveCD, I'll have to do all of this again each time I boot to Linux.

So, I've got a few things to work on. I'll keep playing with it and report back if I learn anything new.

UPDATE: 12-15-2007 The wireless steps don't work any more!!!!!! Time to move ahead to a newer version, like I did.

Desktop Linux Takes a Hit - an Update

Long time readers may remember that I installed Xubuntu on my daughter's machine back in April. It went pretty well for a while, but she's been complaining about the lack of Windows the past few weeks. Her first problem was that she couldn't install some dodgey toolbar/icon/background/screensaver type program that she downloaded from a suspect site. (I thought this was a good thing.) Now, she is upset because she can't run the AOL IM client and has to use GAIM instead. (Once again, a good thing from my point of view.) Her friends are using it, and she wants to be the one that tells them how it works. (How can I change my buddy icon? Can I use smileys? Etc.) It's kind of neat that she is becoming the tech support guru of the middle school.

However, her machine is kind of slow for XP, so I may install Win 2000 on it in a dual boot configuration - although she'll never use the Linux side. We'll see. Another option is to find a faster computer for her. I should have watched the classifieds at the end of the semester to grab a college student's throwaway.

While I'm working on her problems, I've setup a profile on my desktop machine in XP for her to use. This means I had to change the default OS to XP in Grub, and I have to leave it in XP (or powered off) when I'm at work so that she can get to it without messing up my stuff.

In other news, I was surprised by my Fathers' Day gift this year - a new laptop. It is a Gateway running Vista. Now, I may setup a dual boot someday, but for now I'll give Vista a try. I'm noticing that it boots slower than I would expect on a new machine such as this.

These two changes mean I'll be using Linux less - at least in the short term.