Ubuntu 5.04 pro and con

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Edward Mendelson · #1 Post by **Edward Mendelson** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 10:23 am

Here's a very quick report on a few days' experience with Ubunu 5.04 on a TP42 with the IBM/Atheros (NOT Intel) wireless.

Everything (with one very important exception involving wireless) works perfectly after making some slight changes. Whether the very important exception matters in your situation should be easy to figure out from the rest of this post.

Slight change (1):

For the ThinkPad buttons program (tpb) to work properly, do this:

Download the Debian package from

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-24685.html

open a terminal, go to the directory in which you downloaded the package and enter

dpkg –i tpb*

Add tpb to System/Administration/Sessions/Startup Programs.

Slight change (2):

Enable full sleep and hibernation capabilities by following the instructions here in the power-management section:

http://aaltonen.us/archive/2005/03/02/u ... inkpad-t42

You should also install the 686-level kernel by following the instructions on the same page. I did NOT apply the video changes, as they break suspend, hibernation, etc.

Here's the very significant problem:

Unlike the first version of Ubuntu (4.10, "Warty"), 5.04 Hoary has problems with wireless roaming. With the IBM wireless adapter built into my TP42, Ubuntu 4.10 connected as soon as I turned on wireless in the network applet. With 5.04 "Hoary" I had to enter the IP address by hand in the network manager, and eventually, only got wireless to work reliably by entering the IP address, essid, and key in the file /etc/network/interfaces.

I've tried various solutions out there for selecting wireless networks from a menu, but none work reliably (some not at all), although it's possible they'll work with an Intel wireless card. If anyone has a solution for this, I'd be glad to hear it. And if it's possible to roam effortlessly with the Intel card, please let us know.

Meanwhile, I'm delighted to use Ubuntu at home with my home wireless network, but I'm not going to use it on the road. A lot of complaints about wireless are on the Ubuntu forums, and here's hoping that the 5.10 version fixes this. (The numbering refers to the Ubuntu practice of issuing a new version every six months: 4.10 was October 2004, 5.04 is April 2005, etc.)

Will probably try Suse 9.3 when the free download becomes available in a couple of months. If anyone has a preliminary report on wireless roaming in Suse 9.3, please let us know...

egibbs · #2 Post by **egibbs** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 12:40 pm

Thanks Edward,

I'm having a few more issues in my install, but for the most part it is up and running.

As you know I can't seem to control the power state of my Athros wireless card - does fn+f5 work on your machine? Interestingly, shortly after I installed fn+f5 was reliably turning Bluetooth off and on but not Wifi. Now for some reason Bluetooth no longer works either. These are both low priority since I use neither at home, but they bug me.

Haven't tried to get the Thinkpad buttons working yet - that is low on my priority list. Sound doesn't seem to be working though - or maybe I just haven't figured out how to turn it on yet.

The video performance is slow - I have a T42p with the 128MB FireGL and I haven't messed with the default ATI driver yet. I did see the instructions for using the fglrx driver, but like you suspend/hibernate is more important to me than fast video.

I installed mplayer following the instructions here http://www.linuxforums.org/tutorials/1/ ... 25783.html rather than using the one from the Ubuntu repository (i'd heard it has problems). The only problem during install was the essential codecs package in the instructions has been replaced by a newer version - went to the mplayer download site and found the file name then edited the command line to the new file name.

It works sort of - won't play Real or QT files, plays some Windows media fine but not others, AVIs all seem to work. Probably DRM/software copyright issues, or possibly the newer codecs don't work well with the source version I got.

I got WINE using Synaptic but I haven't tried it out yet - the config instructions are intimidating, to say the least. I have a few absolutely essential Windows only apps, so until I get something worked out I can't ditch the Windows disk. I'm also considering buying VMWare, but they don't list Ubuntu as a supported distro. I wonder if the Debian version will work on Ubuntu...?

The lack of a CD (since I have Ubuntu on a HDD in the Ultrabay) is beginning to become a pain. Some of the package dependencies for mplayer needed the Ubuntu CD, so I had to swap the drive back into the primary slot to run the installs. I don't know why the installer doesn't offer the option to get the required files from the network. Whenever I get WINE working I'll have to swap it again to install my Windows apps. Maybe by then I'll have broken down and bought a USB CD.

Like you I was a bit surprised to see that you have to explicitly tell the wireless networking what you want to connect to rather than being able to scan and pick an access point. Perhaps it's a security thing to keep you from unintentionally connecting to a spoofed access point?

Similar issue with printers. I have an HP printer sitting on my home network. To connect to it I need to find it's name and IP address and enter them by hand rather than being able to browse the network for it. I can browse for network drives, why not for network printers?

It's been slow going but I'm learning as I go. Still got lots more to do before I'm happy with the install, and a whole lot more to learn.

Ed Gibbs

Edward Mendelson · #3 Post by **Edward Mendelson** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 1:42 pm

First, wireless roaming turns out to be a bit easier than I thought. I'm writing this from a semipublic hotspot (no WEP key), and I got here simply by using the System/Administration/Networking applet and entering the SSID.

Next, before using Fn+F5, try installing tpb as specified in my post. If you're deeply concerned about the radio being on, then just turn it off in the BIOS. The wireless antenna light on the panel below the screen on my T42 is never on under Linux, by the way; only under Windows.

Haven't tried the other things you tried. You don't need the CD at all, by the way; sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list, and comment out the line at the top that begins:

deb cdrom ....

and then you'll never be prompted for the cd again.

Yes, you need to specify an IP printer. I think all Linuxes have the same requirement - I've never seen one that simply detects a network printer on a print server.

egibbs · #4 Post by **egibbs** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 2:39 pm

How do you get the SSID for a public hotspot?

Funny - my wireless LED is never on in Windows, but always on in Ubuntu... I'll probably get to Thinkpad Buttons in a day or two.

Thanks fo the tip on disabling the CD as a source. That will help a lot.

I guess I need to change my printer from DHCP to static IP. Otherwise every time the power goes off and things wake up in different orders the IP may change.

A couple more general questions...

I think I want to back out the mplayer install I did and try the one from the repository. How do you uninstall something you compiled yourself? For that matter, what is the generally accepted best practice for doing any uninstall in Linux?

I think that the mplayer source I got was a rev or two behind (the instructions were old) but when I search for updates Ubuntou tells me I'm up to date. If I get a package using apt-get or by downloading the source and compiling it myself, does it get included in the automatic search for updates? Or is that only packages downloaded from the repository with Synaptic? If so, what is the best way to check for updates if you have a lot of packages?

Any tips for backup? Under Windows I use R&R and MS Backup to a network drive. I looked at the backup packages in Synaptic (including the Universe library) but they are all either too industrial or too basic.

Thanks,

Ed Gibbs

Edward Mendelson · #5 Post by **Edward Mendelson** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 3:23 pm

EssID for public network: System/Administration/Networking, select wireless interface. Properties, Network name, use dropdown list.

Uninstalling: in the terminal:

# sudo dpkg -r packagename

Backup: haven't tried anything systematic. I mount a FAT32 partition that's on my main HDD and copy files to it, mostly. Information on mounting FAT32 partitions and everything else is here:

http://www.ubuntuguide.org

A lot of advice out there tells you to install things that turn out to mess things up (including some advice on www.ubuntuguide.org - for example do NOT prelink anything), so it's probably best to see whether something really doesn't work before trying to replace it.

One example: I was looking for information on adding middle-button scrolling on the TrackPoint, and there were wildly complicated instructions that involved recompiling the kernel. Turns out that all that was needed was two addiitonal lines in a text file, as described here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-25826.html

Scroll down to the last message, and of course don't include the parts of the line that include the arrows and "add this" strings.

JHEM · #6 Post by **JHEM** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 3:45 pm

Ed,

Is all this testing for eventual publication or just for your continuing education and enlightenment?

If the former, your usual haunt?

Regards,

James

Edward Mendelson · #7 Post by **Edward Mendelson** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 3:59 pm

James,

Purely for my own education and that of anyone else who's interested. I keep posting (and I hope I'm not wasting bandwidth) because I can't see much point in spending so much time on this stuff if someone else doesn't benefit also.

My usual haunt does write about Linux these days, but I think Linux-on-ThinkPad is a bit too specialized for it...

JHEM · #8 Post by **JHEM** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 5:35 pm

Ed,

Unlike some denizens of the Forums, if you were to fall asleep with your head on the keyboard and post a string of ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZs, I'd still not consider it a waste of bandwidth.

Now take that Gibbs guy from Joisey......... please.

Regards,

James

(I'm ducking and running Ed!)

Edward Mendelson · #9 Post by **Edward Mendelson** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 5:46 pm

OK, James, this is more or less a string of ZZZZ, but maybe someone will find it useful.

The problem I had with wireless under Ubuntu 5.04 was basically that I couldn't switch networks here at home. It kept using the same IP address that I started with, even after I cleared out the manual IP address in /etc/network/interfaces. Also, the configuration settings in the network applet seem to forget the gateway address.

I finally solved this by editing by editing by hand this XML file:

/etc/gnome-system-tools/network/profiles.xml

which is not something I'd recommend to anyone. But it works. I added a <gateway>xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx</gateway> string in a couple of places, and now it sticks.

would · #10 Post by **would** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 3:29 am

hmm...that's funny,
my wireless LED works in Ubuntu and in Windows!

Haven't tried the other things you tried. You don't need the CD at all, by the way; sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list, and comment out the line at the top that begins:

deb cdrom

maybe this helps:
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/AddingRepositoriesHowto

yukit · #11 Post by **yukit** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 4:02 am

I totally cheated by installing Hoary on VMware Workstation.

egibbs · #12 Post by **egibbs** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 6:36 am

JHEM wrote:Now take that Gibbs guy from Joisey......... please.

Regards,

James

(I'm ducking and running Ed!)

That's Ok James - no need to run. Or should I say no WHERE to run... Have you met my cujine, Vito? He'll be dropping by with some of his goombatas later to tell some jokes. You'll like him - he's a funny guy too.

Edward - well your posts are certainly helping me, so keep it up. If you could do one small thing for me - run iwconfig and tell me what you get for power management state on your card? Mine shows Off and it won't turn on - I still have a feeling ACPI is not set up right for the card on my machine. I know I could kill it in BIOS but it's personal now - I want to understand why it is not working as designed for me and fix it.

would - When you say your LED works do you mean you can turn it off and on with fn+f5 in Ubuntu? If you wouldn't mind could you run iwconfig too and post the output?

yukit - How is VMWare working for you with Hoary and in general? What platform are you running it on?

Ed Gibbs

Edward Mendelson · #13 Post by **Edward Mendelson** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 10:14 am

In matters like these, Google is your best friend. Less than one minute of searching reveals why it's impossible to set power management for the Atheros card. For example, see the FAQ for the driver:

http://www.mattfoster.clara.co.uk/madwifi-faq.htm

If you had an Intel card, you could set power management, but not (yet) with an Atheros card.

Remember that Fn+F5 has nothing to do with power management settings.

yukit · #14 Post by **yukit** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 2:37 pm

egibbs wrote: yukit - How is VMWare working for you with Hoary and in general? What platform are you running it on?

Ed Gibbs

I really have not done much with my Ubuntu VM, but I am typing this msg on Firefox running in Ubuntu in the VM. I also have Fedora & SUSE along with Win2K, WinXP VMs. They do take up disk space, so I have not bother to setup my host system for dual boot. My host is T40p running WinXP sp2.

yuki

Ubuntu 5.04 pro and con

Ubuntu 5.04 pro and con

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