Let me preface this post with a rant. In retrospect, I feel that getting this netbook with the Poulsbo chipset / Intel GMA500 video was a mistake since it’s been a major PITA. The little form factor has been more annoying than helpful. Should have gone with a larger laptop with a decent Nvidia or ATI video card. There are reasons for why this chipset is such a bitch to live with and sounds like it’s one of those situations where no one is at fault. Fine, but after dumping quite a few hours on this thing since getting it, I frankly just don’t care. As a mere luser, I need a working computer whose video doesn’t keep breaking on every kernel and OS upgrade so I can live my life.
But, wasted hours aside, I just got it working again. I had the nice 1366×768 resolution previously working with Ubuntu 9.04, but it wouldn’t let me turn on Compiz effects. A few days ago, swayed by promise of seemless iPhone 3GS syncing, I upgraded to Ubuntu 10.04, which broke video. Turns out, GMA500 support is not all there yet with Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid and I forgot to research that before upgrading. So then I do a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic and follow the install steps on the Ubuntu Poulsbo Wiki, only to find this did absolutely nothing. Turns out, it’s missing some critical steps. After scouring the web for a while and trying a bunch of settings, finally arrived at a configuration that works. Got the pretty resolution back and even got extra Compiz effects! This thing is a royal pain in the ass, but sure looks nice when it works. Anyway, here’s the config that’s working for me on Dell Mini 10 (aka Inspiron 1010).
After a clean install of Ubuntu Karmic (9.10), on a box with an Nvidia card (1), went into “System” > “Administration” > “NVIDIA X server settings” and changed configuration to TwinView (I’m using dual monitors), which worked, but saving the configuration returned:
Failed to parse existing X config file '/etc/X11/xorg.conf'
Nothing further found in the logs. The solution was two-fold.
Previously, I had setup an Ubuntu Karmic box to install Boxee from the apt.boxee.tv APT repository. Since this repository appears to be unmaintained, I’m now reverting back to manual Boxee installs until an updated repository becomes available.
Did a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) on an old Inspiron E1505, only to find Wi-Fi not working. Fortunately the fix was easy.
Following a recent update, started getting errors copying files to a WebDAV mount point:
cp: cannot create regular file `./todo': File exists
Boxee folks helpfully host an APT repository (http://apt.boxee.tv/), but, as of this writing, only for Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy) and 8.10 (Intrepid). But if you happen to run a later version such as 9.04 (Jaunty) or 9.10 (Karmic), you could still install from the Boxee repository through the magic of APT pinning. This method should work just as well with later versions of Ubuntu also.
I had gotten the optimal 1366×768 resolution working on the Dell Mini 10 with the optional HD display (Poulsbo chipset / Intel GMA500 video) by using the drivers provided by the Ubuntu Mobile Team.1
It’s been working great for over a month until this morning, when instead of a login screen, I was greeted with an error: “Ubuntu running in low graphics mode”.
What’s up with that? The APT log contained the explanation:
1 2 | * Running DKMS auto installation service for kernel 2.6.28-16-generic * psb-kernel-source (4.41.1)... psb-kernel-source (4.41.1): AUTOINSTALL not set in its dkms.conf. |
I guess I could set AUTOINSTALL for the psb-kernel-source module to “Yes”. I’ll think about it, meanwhile, a manual fix is easy enough:
1 2 | sudo dpkg-reconfigure psb-kernel-source sudo shutdown -r now |
If you’re looking for a program and need to find a package that provides it, AND your package manager is APT (e.g. you’re running Debian or one of its many derivatives, like Ubuntu), you, Sir, got a couple of options.
One way is to search package contents online at debian.org, or you could use apt-file.
This is a (long overdue) follow up on my ancient post on how to setup a Nokia E62 as a bluetooth modem on a Windows laptop. It’s been a couple of years now since I’ve purged the Winblows partition from my Dell Inspiron 1501 and it’s been happily running Ubuntu using the E62 to get to the Internets. Just got a Dell Mini 10 for work, so might as well post the steps while they’re still fresh in memory (my RAM gets regularly purged, as it turns out).
This had been working without any problems for months, but this afternoon got an error while trying to connect to the Internet using my Nokia E62 as a Bluetooth modem on a Dell Inspiron E1505 running Ubuntu 8.10. Attempting to establish a dial up connection returned a rude error.