ABF's l33t Ubuntu Breezy Thread

We all know i am an ubuntu whore. But its been long time no ubuntu, so i installed it again last night. Now I sit here and configure crap.

Install went fine, everything worked. Well..almost.

step 1: Install Automatix
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=66563
setup all the basics, all the good stuff

now that the general setup was out of the way, it was FGLRX time. Malkomer, an ubuntuforums staff member has the same lappy as i do, and his howt0 was top notch.

so step 2: install fglrx (latest)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=78466

then i fixed a known bug in the fstab where windows partition doesn't mount correctly. used ubuntuguide.org's "how to mount windows on bootup" section to walk me right through that. now i have a purty "Windows" icon on my desktop that takes me to my "C:/"

next i tried giving my grub some life:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...rub+background
but that failed, so i rolled back the changes, no biggie, life goes on.

unfortunatly, i did not configure my wifi without the restricted modules before i installed fglrx, so right now i am stuck using my pcmcia card. so next up will be the attempt to get my wireless running. after that rebuilding the kernel and changing my boot script is also on the menu.

who said you need gentoo to go nuts with customization


compiling the kernel is giving me issues i'll work out later.

in the meantime, i used BUM (boot-up-manager) to disable some crap i don't use (like LVM and bluezutils). And, i configured my internal wifi using ndiswrapper just because i am too lazy to build madwifi from source. hey...it works

i was gonna install drake flight 3, but then last minute i cancelled the download and just dug my breezy cd out of a pile of other crap.

not too bad. well, except for the fact taht when i installed the latest fglrx, i had to give up restricted-modules, which contains madiwfi so i was dropped on my ass to use ndiswrapper, which sucks!

so what i think i am gonna do is actually reinstall over the weekend or something and start fresh. i'll keep my madwifi (copy ath_hal and all taht good stuff) from the restricted_modules package, then remove restricted, and then install fglrx. that should fix my issue. man i hate ndiswrapper!

otherwise everything is ok, except for i am having issues compiling the kernel, which is strange, it lets me menuconfig, but then it dies about 1/2 way through the build. i'd really like to remove some of the fat from the kernel.

of course, if i can also remove ubuntu-desktop and install xfce instead....that'd be nice. maybe i'lll try it on my old (current) install first to make sure it comes out clean, so then i dont kill a good fresh install.

UPDATE:

i reinstalled fresh. now i have what is called "XUBUNTU"

the process:

1) stick in Breezy (Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Edubuntu) CD (or DVD) and poweron the engines
2) on bootscreen type in "server" and go through the installation as usual.
3) reboot. login as root and do "nano /etc/apt/sources.list"
- uncomment universe
- apt-get update
- apt-get upgrade
4) apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
5) apt-get install gdm
6) reboot
7) ENJOY!


its freaken sweet. its ubuntu without the fat of gnome...its fantastic! love it.


edit:
--------------
installed the basic progs, and codecs. installed fglrx, but teh madwifi fix didn't work. so i figure i'll have to build it from source, since ubuntu doesn't offer a .deb in the repositories AND the restricted-module fix didn't work, and i can't have that package installed together with fglrx for it will corrupt my X.


and of course, i'll probably trim the fat of the kernel a tad later

in any case, using my pcmcia card as of right now because I DONT WANT NDISWRAPPER...it STINKS!

grrr....madiwfi is being difficult.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=75451
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=105437


....beats me whats happening

i know i am running 2.6.12-9-386

and as far as i know i installed kernel-headers-2.6.12-9-386 package....anywho, i'll double check, make sure its good. (not right now, rebooted to windows for some fragging action)

STARTING FRESH:
----------------------

oh thats right. starting fresh. this morning i reinstalled my xubuntu from scratch because i felt it was getting messy. now i am all new. This post will outline my plan over the next few days and into teh weekend on how i am planning to get this sucker going.

The Concept: Transform a full-blown ubuntu install into a light and fast desktop os.

TO-DO List:
1 - install a fresh "Server" installation of Ubuntu or Kubuntu or Edubuntu --- DONE
2 - edit sources.list uncomment the universe. update, and then dist-upgrade --- DONE
3 - apt-get install xubuntu-desktop and gdm --- DONE
4 - remove useless packages (restricted modules included) -- DONE
(edit) 4b -- rebuild kernel (trim off the fat) -- DONE
(edit) 4c -- edit grub.conf so that old kernels (2.6.12-9 (and -10) - 386 don't appear anymore as bootoptions) -- DONE
(edit) 4d -- install BUM and turnoff useless boot-up processes to speed up boot time --- DONE
5 - install latest fglrx drivers following mlomker's howto on ubuntu forums Found here -- DONE
6 - install latest madwifi drivers like this -- INSTALLED (not configured yet)
7 - install required media codecs --- DONE
8 - install applications in a 1 app per task concept. (must keep it light) --- DONE (more or less)
9. custom theme. --- DONE (default xfce theme, changed gdm from Human to xfce default, also fixed gdm background from human brown to xfce blue...tweaked taskbar in xfce)
10. take screenshots and post em up

you know what i meant. i fixed it.

xubuntu-desktop is xfce 4.2

ubuntu-desktop is gnome 2.12

now i must ask for help!

i installed madwifi just fine, when i modprobe ath_pci it comes up just fine.


the issue:
- i need to have ath0 come up during boot-up and to be my primary net device.

any advice?


networking is one part of linux i totaly sux0rz at.

meanwhile i am on my pcmcia card....will go ahead and do the rest of the install process.

....still no wifi.

powernowd should probably also be reworked for best performance, and acpi has to be tweaked to so the battery monitor works correctly.

anyway, in the meantime, here is a screeny:

didn't quite do that.

i edited my networking/interfaces file, installed ifplugd, reboot...and boom! it works. jesus loves me, i am now on my internal wifi card, lets just hope the signal is pretty good compared to waht i experienced ndiswrapper (which dropped every 5 min or so).


now i am in the home stretch for some final tweaks.

my last major REQUIREMENT is to get the battery monitor working, once thats done, i am set. Then it will be just the little things.


Point is.... i stuck to it and 24 hours later i ahve a perfect linux installation on my system. Its not quite gentoo, but its customized enough to be called "gentoo-esque" and in the heart of it we ahve ubuntu...so that makes me feel that much better

found another small bug, and fixed that. xscreensaver daemon wouldn't start on boot, so i had to add a xscreensaver.sh script to init.d that would get that up and running for me. reboot the system and the screensaver now works


battery still doesn't work very well....pondering possible solutions still.

also my media buttons don't work, and i can't even configure them, which is strange because ubuntu would not only find them, but correctly set them up out of the box..... not that i use them very often...but still.