ubuntu on a thinnote laptop

A followup post on installing ubuntu on this laptop:

Install gotcha (and workaround)
getting ubuntu onto the disk turned out to be a challenge. I have no bootable CD-ROM drive -- the CD-ROM drive I do have is a USB device that doesn't mount on boot, so I spent a long time trying to copy the CD onto the hard disk and convince it to boot from there. But _dkg_ suggested that I install the laptop HD into a desktop system (with a bootable CD-ROM), install Ubuntu there, and then swap it back into the laptop -- apparently most of the hardware detection now happens at boot time, not at install time. Pretty neat.

And it worked. But the X (video) configuration was all shot to heck. But in the process of doing this, I realized that the install process installed the base system from the CD, then copied the remaining packages to the HD, kicked out the CD, and rebooted before installing X etcetera. So I threw the HD back into the desktop, wiped the disk again and reinstalled, but killed the reboot. I pulled the HD and put it back in the laptop, and then booted. The auto-install proceeded just fine, and correctly discovered all the hardware on the laptop.

Update management
Other Debian-based system users may be familiar with sources.list, the way to instruct the system to find updates. I find Ubuntu's Gnome-based update-management software to be really easy to use and understand. It took me about 30 seconds to remove the CD repository and include the web sources for security package upgrades, and then another ten minutes to download and install the packages. (why doesn't it automatically include the security packages? possibly because I installed without a network connection available.)

Surprisingly (to me), emacs was not installed by default, but that was easily remedied with the more sophisticated synaptic package-manager -- and could have been done through the "start menu" anyway!

switching to gnome; music management
Because it was the default window manager, I decided to switch to Gnome, and I've been quite happy with it. As a benefit, Ubuntu provides the excellent rhythmbox music manager, which I much prefer to XMMS right now -- the ability to browse by genre alone is quite easy.

By default, Ubuntu does not provide decoders that are legally entangled. After some internet research, I discovered the excellent Ubuntu wiki page on restricted formats that allows you to very easily enable all the decoders to handle .mp3, .mov, m4a, .wmv files. The instructions here are clear, simple, and easy to follow; unusual, in my experience, for Linux video instructions. Like evan_tech, I am amazed at how it all holds together.

firefox version hunting
As yet, I only have one gripe. I'm eager to install the latest version of Firefox, but I would much rather do it through the package management. Apparently this isn't ready for the stable version (Breezy Badger) yet, though it's getting there for the next one (Dapper Drake, scheduled for April). I shouldn't complain -- it'll be ready real soon.

summary
What a cool system! My whole laptop feels new!