As mentioned in a recent post, I am trying a dual boot configuration on a new laptop, where the secondary OS is Ubuntu 9.04 x64.
As mentioned in an even earlier post, I have never had an Ubuntu install (or any Linux install) go 100% perfect, and this was no exception. To be clear, I’ve never had 100% perfect functionality after installation.
I will say this: Ubuntu 9.04 x64 on this laptop has been the cleanest install yet, with the nearest to 100% of functionality and “correctness” after installation. Considering this laptop is a fairly new product, which meant that my expectation was pretty low for approaching that 100% target, I am simply blown away with the level of success.
On top of that, I’m further blown away by how sweet and slick of an OS this is. It might not be as polished as OS-X, but it’s smooth and fast and fun to use for a computing interface. I almost want to reach into the screen and squish it between my fingers.
Just how close to 100% was it?
The first problem was the screen resolution. This one seems to get me every time – especially on laptops. It didn’t take long to discover that the Nvidia graphics (GPU) in the laptop use a vendor-provided driver, which Ubuntu isn’t allowed to load by default because it isn’t open source. Figuring out the correct driver wasn’t easy, because the Nvidia GPU is newer than the most recent driver. Fortunately, it was pretty easy to determine the general generation of GPU’s and select the correct driver based on that, and after a reboot I not only had the correct resolution, but snappy new desktop effects to boot. (Compiz FTW!)
It would be nice for Ubuntu to walk you through this after install. A little hand-holding goes a long way. It would also be nice for them to use a standard installation interface. I’m not clear why they don’t use Synaptic for everything. However the Nvidia install had to be done though a completely different “Add Programs” interface.
This is the Interface you have to use to add the NVidia drivers
This is Synaptic, the application you use to add and remove "packages", which is where I would have preferred to see the NVidia driver.
That, as far as base functionality is concerned, is about it. I have not tried to burn a CD or a DVD, nor have I ever done this on Linux, so I have no idea whether or not this works. Same goes for the built-in webcam. However, both wifi and bluetooth work (wifi definitely does, and although I can see a bluetooth icon, I haven’t tried to pair anything yet). I can read and write to NTFS partitions without any effort as well.
That’s pretty damn good for Ubuntu and for Linux in general. I applaud their efforts and for once I find myself spending time in the OS. Now, if somebody could help me get Adobe Air working, I might be able to spend more time in it (they don’t have 64-bit Ubuntu support yet, and although I can get it installed using their instructions, I can’t get it to work).
Any takers?
See my response at the following site:
http://www.bauer-power.net/2009/05/getting-adobe-air-to-work-in-ubuntu-904.html
By: Rishad on July 20, 2009
at 9:45 am
Mike, give this a shot if you haven’t already….
http://www.bauer-power.net/2009/05/getting-adobe-air-to-work-in-ubuntu-904.html
Frederic
By: Frederic on July 1, 2009
at 1:09 am
Thanks for the link Frederic. Something changed, but something’s still not working…
Air itself installed successfully. However, I get this on running the “Air Application Installer” from the command prompt:
mdiamond@HDXuntu:~/Downloads$ sudo "Adobe AIR Application Installer"[sudo] password for mdiamond:
/usr/lib/gio/modules/libgioremote-volume-monitor.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64
Failed to load module: /usr/lib/gio/modules/libgioremote-volume-monitor.so
/usr/lib/gio/modules/libgvfsdbus.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64
Failed to load module: /usr/lib/gio/modules/libgvfsdbus.so
/usr/lib/gio/modules/libgiogconf.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64
Failed to load module: /usr/lib/gio/modules/libgiogconf.so
All the necessary modules are in /usr/lib32. For some reason, Air Application Installer isn’t looking for them there. However, it runs, and I can install a pre-downloaded Air Application such as Snackr just fine. Then Snackr runs just fine, however it was having trouble connecting to the network. I was getting an error (I think it was error 2032), but now I am not. This seems to have gone away after your fix, so thanks!
Now I can still not download Tweetdeck. They use a flash based download button on their site, which simply doesn’t work for me. Again, I was previously getting error 2032 from the Air Application Installer GUI when trying to download Tweetdeck. After your fix, the download doesn’t even kick in. I get nothing. It’s quite possibly now a flash problem (I was having some problems with another flash site – actually it was the flash uploader on WordPress.com when I was trying to upload those screenshots).
Thanks again Frederic for at least helping me get Snackr working. Onward!
By: Mike D on July 1, 2009
at 12:38 pm