Laptop install mini-report / FAO Laptop Team

[Gareth S Osler]

Laptop install mini-report
==========================



INTRO

Hardware System:

Dell Latitude C600, 10GB HD, 500MB RAM, CDROM
HP PSC 1215 printer/scanner
56k modem/dialup Internet connection with pap authentication
All bios power management features activated (AC and battery operation)
Installing for a 686 with power management, and Internet security.

A mini-report intended mainly for the Laptop Team[1].


INSTALLATION

Installing from CDROM Ubuntu 4.10 to the whole HD, went without a glitch
(very smooth indeed, concise and easy).  Got the CD from a magazine.


DIALUP

Internet connection didn't configure with network-admin (Computer >
System Configuration > Networking).  Used pppconfig instead (I noted
there is a wiki page that explains this also[2]) - this seems almost to
be a feature of Debian nowerdays ;-) -- guessing, the problem could be
wvdial and /etc/ppp/{pap|chap}-secrets - from the wvdial manpage:
"wvdial maintains this list automatically", but the Bugs section also
says: "You may encounter some error messages if you don't have write
access to /etc/ppp/pap-secrets".  After running pppconfig pap-secrets
had the correct entries (which it didn't after configuring an account
with network-admin), and network-admin worked also as a dialer.  After
this I had some problems with the modem switching into a sort of mode on
dialup whereby it appears to download maybe 5 or 10 times the data that
is needed to display a webpage (takes for ages to load a page).  Hacking
around with stopping and starting the modem using pon and poff gets
things going properly again, but not sure what it is as yet that does
this.


POWER MANAGEMENT

A wiki page explains this clearly[3].  Quickly ascertained I had ACPI.
Downloaded the tar.gz file and installed as instructed for suspend to
RAM.  Had to make a link from  "laptop-mode" to "laptop_mode" which is
what this program is called in 'suspend.sh'.  Also changed the line
"/usr/sbin/laptop_mode auto" to "/usr/sbin/laptop_mode stop" as my
version of laptop-mode does not support "auto" as an option.  The laptop
buttons did not suspend the computer, but running suspend.sh directly
did.  The suspend button on the laptop (Fn+Suspend) worked when I
reinstalled a 686 kernel (i.e. running a 386 kernel prior to this).
Closing and opening the lid suspended/resumed fine also.  There was one
glitch after this - I suspended the laptop over night, switched it on in
the morning, but within a few seconds it powered down again.  I would
guess this is something to do with the hardware suspend that is set in
the bios.  One more thing, I have to use the power button to bring the
laptop out of suspend mode, rather than just moving the mouse or
pressing a key (or is this how it should be?).


INTERNET SECURITY

A FAQ page[4] explained the policy re. this, and so not having any
external services, I have not installed shorewall.  Will be watching
things closely from this point!


CONCLUSION

I'm a converted Ubuntu user :)


REFERENCES

[1]
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/community/teams/laptop/view?searchterm=LAPTOP
[2]
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/DialupModemHowto/view?searchterm=dialup
[3] http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/SuspendHowto/view?searchterm=apm
[4]
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/support/documentation/faq/firewall/view?searchterm=firewall




Skylark
http://www.gsowww.uklinux.net/pub

"You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!"
-- Col. Nathan Jessup, played by Jack Nicholson in the film "A Few Good
Men"