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.