Laptop install mini-report / FAO Laptop Team

[Lance Lassetter]

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Gareth S Osler wrote:
| 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"
|
|
|

Disabling agp modules worked here with Dell Inspiron 8200.  If
supporting custom DSDT's aren't the answer, what about a postconf for
laptops to set things up the best possible way, i.e: notice to remove
agp modules, ramifications, then removal, etc.

Lance
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