This blog now has a forum that can be found at:
http://nc10ubuntu.forumcircle.com/
New users can post questions and hopefully somebody will help them out.
Regular readers of this blog can contribute by reporting new issues with the use of Ubuntu on the NC10. In addition, opinions on what should go on the community NC10 Ubuntu help page (and who should write it! hint hint) are encouraged.
Even if you have nothing to say yet please register.
I think that we (the NC10 user community) now know enough to start writing a page for new users that contains information that is critical to getting Ubuntu working on the NC10. I have generated a very simple template that needs to be populated. So please visit: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NC10
To facilitate the population of the NC10 page I have setup a fledgling forum at: http://nc10ubuntu.forumcircle.com/
More space
I think that screen real estate is an important consideration when configuring your NC10’s desktop.
1) Even when a gnome panel is set to auto-hide it does not hide completely. I found this blog post which highlights one way of doing this – http://atunu.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-to-hide-taskbar-aka-gnome-panel.html
2) I use the classic compact 3.0.9 theme for Firefox that aims to minimise the vertical space consumed by menus and toolbars – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3699
Does anybody have any space saving tweaks?
In a previous post I reported some problems (now mostly resolved) running Compiz – http://nc10ubuntu.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/compiz-enabled-desktop-or-netbook-remix/ – The glitches are starting to irritate. I tried Netbook Remix again (installed on another user account) but find it too limiting. Currently I’m playing with the KDE 4.1 desktop, my first impressions are positive, but I have yet to commit. Please share your experiences…
Although using ndiswrapper does get the wireless working, it prevents the NC10 from restarting / rebooting. Other problematic issues such as power management and wireless range are also presenting themselves. I therefore decided to uninstall ndiswrapper using the Add/Remove option in the applications menu, disabled the wireless and rebooted successfully(!).
To install the latest Atheros drivers use these instructions: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NC10#Wireless%20Networking%20-%20Atheros
I found this bug report – https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/295980 – “Making horizontal finger movement on the touchpad of a Sasmung NC10 netbook leads to wave like (up and down) pointer movements on the screen.” I’m not really consciously aware of this problem but I guess that this could put new users off.
While on the touchpad subject, Pluisje has enquired about the availability of multi-touch support in Ubuntu?
As I reported on http://nc10ubuntu.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/what-i-did/ I had no major problems during installation. I am aware that ACPI problems have been reported on the archlinux forum http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=58117 and also when using Ubuntu http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2008/10/samsung-nc10-netbook-tested.html (I’m guessing this is only a problem for older versions of Ubuntu). I also found a report suggesting that ACPI was responsible for the screen brightness problem – http://www.mail-archive.com/acpi-bugzilla@lists.sourceforge.net/msg20910.html
Has anybody got anything to say about ACPI or can we just ignore these reports?
Some applications use windows that are too large to fit on the screen. I found a tweak on https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne#Screen%20Tweaks which makes it possible to drag windows so the top of the window is above the top of the screen.
Latest drivers are needed for Ubuntu 8.10 and can be installed by following these instructions:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NC10#Wireless%20Networking%20-%20Atheros
This is an alternative way to get the wireless working… posted by Jon Bradbury – http://netbook-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=57#p276
Glancing quickly at this blog may give you the impression that it has been a pain getting Ubuntu working on the NC10. This is not fair. I want to put a positive spin on the use of Ubuntu and suggest that nearly all of the the issues highlighted on this blog are fairly minor ones. I have been running Ubuntu on the NC10 for two weeks now, I’m still confident that I made the right choice to install it. There is a good article that talks about ways of ’spreading Linux’ that I agree with: http://hehe2.net/advocacy/help-spread-linux-without-preaching-it/
