< Back to menu >

Ubuntu 9.04 on Acer TravelMate 661LCi

Here we go with a brand new and shiny Ubuntu Jaunty.
The goal of this page is mainly to be some kind of `backup reference guide´ for my `customized´ system.

ext3 vs. ext4
Read here.
In short: ext4 is superfast because it accumulates all writing-to-disk and writes every x seconds in a optimalized way.
However, ext3 writes every 5 seconds to disk, and many applications count on that default behaviour.
The problem: in case of a crash, ext4 can lose a lot of data (because of the poorly written applications).
Wheter it is an ext4-problem or an application-problem: I don't care ! Ext4 has good changes of losing data, so I'm sticking with ext3.
The 2.6.30 kernel should fix this problem. This kernel will be used in Karmic Koala (9.10).
Or you can install it yourself already: http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline

Post-installation
After installation, the system needs to reboot (without the live USB). The booting is a graphical bar... Very annoying: is it booting? is it hanging? is it sending private information? I liked it better when there was at least some text...
I hope they wil include gFXboot sometime..
The booting screen is adapted to your resolution, which results in a nicer looking booting screen.


Enable Ctrl+Alt+backspace
Ctrl+Alt+Backspace has always been a shortcut te restart the X-server.
It is disabled in Jaunty because 'people have ACCIDENTALLY pushed that combination while it wasn't their intention'. Morons...
So, you can use it again by doing:
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
at the end of the file, append:

Section "ServerFlags"
        Option          "DontZap"               "false"
EndSection

Encrypted folder
Read here
1) Install ecryptfs-utils
sudo apt-get install ecryptfs-utils

2) Setup your private directory
ecryptfs-setup-private

3) Enter your login password, and either choose a mount pass phrase or generate one. * Record both pass phrases in a safe location!!! They will be required if you ever have to recover your data manually.

4) Logout, and Log back in to establish the mount

 

Notifications
Ubuntu 9.04 is experimenting with new notifications. Smooth black click-through boxes in the upper right screen. They look pretty nice. At first...
- They are nonconfigurable black... It sucks when you don't have a black theme. Would be nice if you could choose from different color shemes.
- Integrated with Pidgin. I really DON'T need to know every status change my contacts do...
But hey, it is an experiment. The notifications are not too obnoxious, it can only improve ;-)

Synaptic
Things I need to remove:
f-spot, tomboy, Evolution (via synaptic: all), ekiga, nautilus-sendto, totem (everything)...

Things I need to install
make, autoconf, gcc, irssi, camorama, qcad, bluefish, inkscape, mail-notification, build-essential, aria2c, homebank, xchat, smplayer...
pecan for pidgin

This is also a very useful site

 

PyTelemeter
Only usefull for Belgian cable users () !!

PyTelemeter werkt volledig in Ubuntu Jaunty.
Surfen naar http://pytelemeter.sourceforge.net/
Uitleg en installatieprocedure staan er ook.
Er is zelfs een Ubuntu-repository.

aMSN, CVS version
(aMSN2 development has started, search for it on youtube. No idea when it will be ready, just be patient :-) )
Okay, why would you want to use a "beta"-version?
Because it has new things in it :) At the moment of writing, aMSN 0.98b has playback for webcam and 'personal messages' and voice clips.
Voice chat (with farsight) is also included !
Do you want to run beta-version? Then the following is for you. Else download and install the .deb file from their webpage.

I absolutely LOVE aMSN. They have a forum (unlike pidgin), the admins/programmers are friendly (friendlier than pidgin) as long as you use the SEARCHfunction on their forum.
aMSN is quite cutting edge: they are the first (?) who actually implemented webcam (with playback !) and personal messages and so...

Okay, lets' first install tcl8.6 and tk8.6 (for anti-aliased fonts).
Go here and download latest tcl and tk package. (8.6 at moment of writing).
Extract them both and remember where.

In the following, I will give some brief commands. For better explaination, see the full code below.
Do not copy/paste the commands below, it will not work. It is just to give you an idea of what to do.
Look at the full code (just above the screenshot of aMSN).

Attention: dependency hell
Since this is a clean install, we will need some libraries and their dependencies for aMSN to compile properly.
The easiest way is to open Synaptic and install:
- search for 'xft' and install the dev
- imagemagic
- esound-clients
- libpng (12-dev?)
- libjpeg62-dev
- libltdl3-dev
- autoconf
- snack (searck Synaptic for it)
- ...

Open a console and go to that directory

Same thing for tk:


Next, we download http://amsn.sourceforge.net/amsn_dev.tar.gz
unpack it into your home-folder so you have ~/msn
Go into that folder

Edit the second line from "wish $0" to "wish8.6 $0"

Now you can run aMSN with: "~/msn/./amsn"


Let's config aMSN a bit.

• Press Ctrl+P to open the aMSN-preferences.
  Second tab: Appearance --> change font button
  I use "Bitstream Versa Sans" at size 9
• First tab: Personal --> My message text, I use "Bitsream Vera Sans Mono"
• Others tab: sound server
  set it to 'esdplay $sound' (this is why you installed esound-client)
  

screenshot of aMSN 0.98:

 

 

Elisa
This a small media center. It is not a full media center like MythTV, but it is nice to play around with.
At the moment of writing: version 0.5.xx.
No .deb's for Jaunty. PPA should be available on their website.
More info @ http://elisa.fluendo.com