Ubuntu Precise Pangolin

I installed Ubuntu Precise Pangolin (amd64) on a separate partition today. The installation went well, with the usual black screen problem.

The amd64 build felt speedier for most applications compared to the i386 build..

I was unimpressed with Unity and so I proceeded to get back the Gnome 2 look and feel by following the instructions here.

Make sure that sources are up to date:
$ sudo apt-get update

Install the gnome fallback:
$ sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback
Logout, select Gnome Classic using the gear icon, and then login.

I replaced lightdm with the more awesome gdm:
$ sudo apt-get install gdm
$ sudo apt-get purge lightdm

Install aptitude, gdebi (so faciliate future .deb installations) and synaptic
$ sudo apt-get install aptitude gdebi synaptic

Remove the annoying global app-menu
$ sudo apt-get purge appmenu-gtk appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-qt indicator-appmenu

Remove Unity (Woots!)

$ sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-music unity-lens-applications unity-greeter unity-common unity-asset-pool unity-2d-launcher unity-2d libunity-misc4 libunity-2d-private0 gir1.2-unity-4.0

Remove the semi-invisible overlay scrollbar
$ sudo apt-get purge liboverlay-scrollbar-0.2-0 liboverlay-scrollbar3-0.2-0 overlay-scrollbar appmenu-gtk appmenu-gtk3 appmenu-qt indicator-appmenu

Remove compiz (I dislike special effects)

$ sudo apt-get remove compiz compiz-plugins-main-default libcompizconfig0

Install gconf so we can change the min,max,close buttons to the right:

$ sudo apt-get install gconf-editor

Run gconf-editor in terminal and look for the path  /apps/metacity/general in the tree.

Change the value of button_layout to ":minimize,maximize,close"

Following advice from here, I proceeded to install the cool weather indicator and multiload indicator.

sudo apt-get install indicator-weather indicator-multiload

Now, restart your computer.

Note: I did not install gnome-shell.

I proceeded to make more tweaks:

I installed my favorite Gnome-Do.

$ sudo apt-get install gnome-do

After install, you can start it from Applications -> Accessories -> Gnome Do

It should load on start up and it can be activated via super+space.

I brought back the Alt+F2 shortcut for the run dialog:

Bring up Keyboard window -> Shortcuts (tab).

Look for System -> "Show the run command prompt".

Change the value to Alt+F2.

I installed mscorefonts.
Bring up Synaptic Package Manager. Look for ttf-mscorefonts-installer.
Also installed Mac Fonts (e.g. Lucida Grande)

I also installed the awesome zsh and Google Chrome, and nautilus-open-terminal.

Finally, as my screen is 2 pixels off, I brought up Display and changed the resolution from 1368x768 to 1366x768.

Current problems:
1. xrandr gives me "xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default"
2. Can't connect to external monitor.
Solved: [source]
The trick is to use "acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor" during the boot phase.
This works:
$ sudo sed "s/\(GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=\)\"\"/\1\"acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor\"/" /etc/default/grub -i 
$ sudo update-grub
# reboot now

War Story Update:
On a second attempt at configuring Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise) using the above steps, I ran into some problems due to failing to remove compiz completely. The menu bar for windows disappeared and key bindings such appeared to be misconfigured. I then removed compiz via the Ubuntu Software Center and all things were OK after that.

Ubuntu: failed to get i915 symbols, graphics turbo disabled

As it happened, I have been getting the "failed to get i915 symbols, graphics turbo disabled" error on my Ubuntu laptop for the past 2 years. I have finally got around to browsing the related thread on the Ubuntu forums and eliminating the error message.

Apparently, doing the first suggested actions prevented the computer from booting in Linux:

$ sudo su -

$ echo "softdep intel_ips pre: i915" > /etc/modprobe.d/intel-ips-dep-i915.conf

So, I did the second suggested action instead (which worked):

$ gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
Add "blacklist intel_ips"

I am not sure what are the side effects of blacklisting, but I doubt it will have any difference compared to the original "fail+disabled" scenario.

nomodeset

Note-to-self: About the Ubuntu black screen issue

Here is an explanation of what nomodeset does. (recommended: read the whole thread)

Update: it seems the recommended way is:

Older Intel devices: i915.modeset=1 or i915.modeset=0
Nvidia: nomodeset
Generic: xforcevesa or nouveau.modeset=0
Radeon: radeon.modeset=0

From my observations, setting *.modeset=0 seems to have similar effects with nomodeset.

Another Ubuntu Upgrade

Just upgraded to Ubuntu 10.10, but not without a few glitches.

1. I did the usual alternate cd upgrade
2. Upgrade froze with about 20% left. Restarted computer but could not boot into X.
3. Decided to use recovery option in grub boot menu
4. Manually mount the alternate cd iso, and ran sudo ./cdromupgrade from terminal. This miraculously solved all problems. It appears to "resume" the upgrade process.

Conclusion: running ./cdromupgrade from cmd line seems like a good idea for future upgrades. Its definitely faster too. It might also be a good idea to defer the Internet update until the upgrade is finished.

Ubuntu Lucid Lynx

Just upgraded to Ubuntu Lucid Lynx... but not without a few cheap tricks along the upgrading process.

1. Upgrade Using the Alternate CD

I upgraded using the alternate CD, then did a partial upgrade via the Internet. To upgrade using an alternate CD, I downloaded the alternate CD, mount it:

$ sudo mount -o loop ~/path/to/alternate/cd/ubuntu-10.04-alternate-i386.iso /media/cdrom0

Then hit Alt-F2, and ran gksu "sh /cdrom0/cdromupgrade"

This is probably the fastest upgrading method.

2. Not enough disk space... oops!

Ironically, I did not have enough disk space on my ext4 partition to do the partial upgrade via the Internet. After some Googling, I found a really neat trick:

$ sudo su
$ cd /var/cache/apt
$ mv archives archives-orig
$ ln -s /media/AnotherPartition archives
$ mkdir archives/partial

Run the update manager, and complete the upgrade process. After installing:

$ rm archives
$ mv archives-orig archives

3. Getting Nvidia drivers to work again

I had some difficulty getting the Nvidia 195.36.24 driver to work again as the installation script failed. I followed the instructions on ubuntugeek.com to solve the problem.

Specifically, in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf,
Adding the following lines helped:

blacklist vga16fb
blacklist nouveau
blacklist rivafb
blacklist nvidiafb
blacklist rivatv

4. Getting the window buttons back in the _right_ place

Although I had no problems adjusting to the left positioning of the minimize, maximize and close buttons, I found the change unappealing.

This guide clearly helped. One fact I wasn't aware of was that running "gconf-editor" was different from running "sudo gconf-editor" (the later meant a different thing).

5. Thunderbird 3

A fan of Thunderbird 2, I was disappointed at how Thunderbird 3 handled the IMAP messages. TD 3 attempted to download every single email message from the IMAP server (which quickly made me run out of disk space). Turning off synchronization did not help.

Fortunately, the following trick was useful:
In the config editor in TD 3 (Preferences->Advanced->General->Config Editor), set the following values to false

mail.server.default.autosync_offline_stores
mail.server.default.offline_download

6. Sounds and ALSA

I found that my sound device was unable to work after upgrade (i.e. no sound). After realizing the alsaconf had been removed from the latest alsa package. I figured that a simple remove and reinstall would do the trick:

$ sudo apt-get remove alsa-base
$ sudo apt-get install alsa-base

Conclusion

Lucid Lynx comes with major under the hood improvements (faster boot up, better system integration, etc). Lucid Lynx is definitely worth the upgrade.