[frgeek-michiana] Installed Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
- From: Tom Brown <tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: FreeGeek Michiana <frgeek-michiana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 03 May 2010 20:41:53 -0400
1. Grub
Over the weekend, I downloaded and installed Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on my test
box at home which already has VL 6.x on the main drive. The Ubuntu
installer recognized the OS and gave me the option of resizing
partitions so it could create a separate partition for Ubuntu. That's
what I did. I updated and upgraded the default install packages, and
grub displayed a boot menu on the next reboot.
2. Wireless/Wired
Wireless doesn't work out of the box. I didn't expect it too in spite of
claims that wireless networking has improved on Ubuntu. The OS seems to
have found the D-Link USB wireless N adapter and the access point but
can't connect the two. At least the lights blink on the adapter, a good
sign. The wireless subsystem operates fine under VL 6.x so I know the
equipment is good and the gui configuration on both distros is right.
The wired network works flawlessly out of the box. Ubuntu sees the
Windows network which is really a Slackware file server running Samba.
3. Network printing
The desktop effectively hides what is happening in the background so I
assume CUPS handles network printing. Our multi-function printer (MFP)
has a network interface built in, and our laserjet does not. CUPS found
the MFP on its own and installed drivers (I haven't tested them yet).
After I indicated which host the laserjet is connected to and which
driver to install, CUPS successfully configured the laser printer.
4. Window controls
Whenever I attempt to use a window control, I first mouse to the right,
see there are no controls, then mouse to the left to correct. Seems an
arbitrary decision to have moved the controls.
5. Video/Sound
Ubuntu chose 800x600 instead of 1024x768. The desktop gui utility fails
to reconfigure X windows at 1024x768 so it can only be done manually. I
think Mike pointed this out earlier.
I downloaded an AVI format video and tried to play it with the default
movie player. Ubuntu automatically asked me if I wanted to install
restricted files. I said 'yes', and the package manager downloaded and
installed the minimum files to play the video. The libraries also suport
mpg/mpeg videos.
The sound subsystem is not working. Fr. Robert fixed Marc's sound by
disabling the modem. The sound and modem chip are the same chip, a DSP.
The modem software had grabbed the DSP and wouldn't let go.
6. Responsiveness
The test box has an MSI mainboard, 2 MB of DDR2 500 RAM, a Pentium 4/2.8
GHz CPU and an 80 GB SATA drive. Any distro I would likely use should
run well on this hardware, and Ubuntu runs fine as expected. OpenOffice
doesn't leap to the screen, but opens comfortably.
6. Overall
After a month or two, I suspect 10.04 LTS will be fully functional and
stable although my hopes are not high for wireless networking, always
the fly in the ointment.
Tom
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