Ubuntu 9.10 on Dell Studio 1555

I recently got a new laptop, a Dell Studio 15(55). Of course the first thing I did when I got it was wipe it (remove Windows 7) and install Ubuntu 9.10.

To make a long story short, I had some problems with the laptop display (though plugging in an external monitor worked fine). The issues had to do with Intel's GMA and integrated graphics support.

The first problem was during installation. After the initial live boot/installation menu (pic below) I would get a blank (lit black) screen.

First I used Ubuntu's alternate installer. Then on the installation menu:

1. Select the Install Ubuntu item (don't press Enter yet)
2. Press F6 and select (X) the apic=off option
3. Press F4 and type nomodeset as input
4. Press Enter to install

After installation or a restart though you'll still get a blank screen until you permanently set the nomodeset option.

,

These resources helped me solve the problems:

• http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/910
• https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/395932

To get things working I had to set the "nomodeset" option in the Grub2 (boot loader) configuration.

When using the default kernel-mode-setting (KMS) option in Ubuntu 9.10, users with Intel 82852/855GM cards will find that they are unable to use the Xv extension for playing videos. This may show up as high CPU usage or stuttering during video playback, or a failure to play videos at all with some applications. As a workaround, users can add the option nomodeset to the kernel boot options in the grub config (for GRUB 2: edit /etc/default/grub and add nomodeset to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX, then run sudo update-grub; for GRUB 1: edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and add nomodeset to the line beginning with # kopt=, then run sudo update-grub), to disable the use of KMS

From the above excerpt:

1. For Grub2 (the default for Ubuntu 9.10), edit /etc/default/grub
2. Add nomodeset to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX
3. run sudo update-grub

Then you should be good to go.

Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)

I upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) today. The whole process, including downloading about 1 GB worth of packages, took little more than an hour. And so far it's flawless. I wonder if the upgrade to Windows 7 is similar?

Django and OpenID

I finally got Django + OpenID working (quite easily in the end) using django_openid_auth (after some struggles with some of the older Django + OpenID packages).

django_openid_auth is actually made by the developers of LaunchPad, who help out quite a bit on Ubuntu.

Working on new redbirdsoftware.com

I'm working on a new website (www.redbirdsoftware.com).

• The site is hosted via Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2)
• The server's operating system is Ubuntu Linux
• The site is written in Python, using Django

Powerful combo...

Ubuntu Fixing "Papercuts"

Canonical, the company behind the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, is launching a new project to improve the usability of the platform. The developers aim to identify and resolve 100 minor bugs that negatively impact the Ubuntu user experience before the release of the next major version in October.

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/06/canonical-to-boost-ubuntu-usability-by-tackling-papercuts.ars

Ubuntu 9.04, Django, Google AppEngine

Today's tasks:

• Upgrade to Ubuntu 9.04 (done)
• Get Django 1.0 working on Google AppEngine (done)
• Work on Feed aggregator for Flex After Dark (in progress)

Ubuntu 9.04 Is Here

Ubuntu 9.04 is here! I plan to upgrade to Jaunty Jackalope this weekend. Last time I upgraded from 8.04 to 8.10 it took a few hours, but mostly for the downloading. Overall it was an easy and pleasant experience. I'm looking forward to trying out the latest version of Ubuntu and Gnome.

If you're still using Windows... why? Do yourself a favor and try out Ubuntu. You can download it, put it on a CD/DVD and try it without having to install it. You'll thank yourself (and the thousands of developers behind Linux).