Oct 15, 2008
I recently upgraded two of my computers to Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) which was in alpha at that time and is beta at present. Some small thing always seems to break for me with an upgrade and this time there were two issues, which I have finally managed to sort out this week.
1. Google calendar in Thunderbird
I had my google calendar nicely set up in Thunderbird using the Lightning and Provider for Google calendar extensions. After the upgrade, my google calendar wasn't displaying anymore and moreover all the calendar related menu items were disabled. Finally I found the answer here.
I uninstalled lightning and provider, did a 'sudo aptitude install libstdc++5', then reinstalled the extensions. On restarting thunderbird, the calendar was now there as before.. a relief.
2. Fingerprint reader and thinkfinger
After the upgrade, my fingerprint reader appeared to not be working. Swiping the finger elicited no response at all. Searching in launchpad brought me here showing others were having the same issue. Surprisingly it seemed that the fingerprint identification was working, but needed a carriage return (Enter key) after the swipe to work. Some workarounds are beginning to appear (though nothing final) and what worked for me was a simple change in xorg.conf. Adding the line
'InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"' to the "ServerLayout" section got the reader working again after a restart of xserver.
Hope these help someone with simlar issues.
Showing posts with label thinkpad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label thinkpad. Show all posts
October 15, 2008
March 15, 2008
Ubuntu Hardy on Thinkpad x61s
Update:
The brightness hot keys problem referred to below is fixed in kernel 2.6.24.14 that is available now.
Installation:
New install using the PC desktop cd of Ubuntu Hardy alpha 6.
Since the X series thinkpads dont have an inbuilt optical drive I created a live USB from the iso using the isotostick script from here. Bootup into the live environment and installation from there was faster than I have ever experienced.
What works out of the box:
No installation issues.
Compiz-fusion runs beautifully.
Sound, wireless need no additional work, thanks to Intel.
Suspend and hibernate work out of the box!
Needed tweaking:
While the volume control keys work, the Fn-Home and Fn-End key combinations to change LCD screen brightness did not work. This is the bug reported in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/198476 and as I mentioned there, the fix (temporary) reported in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/172985 worked for me.
Setting up the fingerprint reader:
I got my thinkpad with the fingerprint reader, but the ease of setting it up was a pleasant surprise. Just followed the instructions here with the difference being that you dont need to add any additional repos - thinkfinger is added in the official Hardy repos.
Not working, could not fix:
Well, really nothing for now! I am happy I removed Vista (after just booting into it to update the bios drivers). After 30 mins of Vista, booting into Ubuntu seemed like moving a century into the future ! All developers associated with Ubuntu and linux can be proud of the work they have done and the product they have created. And of course, Thinkpads are made for Linux.. too bad they come with Vista pre-installed and Lenovo refused to sell me one with no OS or with an option to refuse the license and get a refund. But thats another story...
The brightness hot keys problem referred to below is fixed in kernel 2.6.24.14 that is available now.
Installation:
New install using the PC desktop cd of Ubuntu Hardy alpha 6.
Since the X series thinkpads dont have an inbuilt optical drive I created a live USB from the iso using the isotostick script from here. Bootup into the live environment and installation from there was faster than I have ever experienced.
What works out of the box:
No installation issues.
Compiz-fusion runs beautifully.
Sound, wireless need no additional work, thanks to Intel.
Suspend and hibernate work out of the box!
Needed tweaking:
While the volume control keys work, the Fn-Home and Fn-End key combinations to change LCD screen brightness did not work. This is the bug reported in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/198476 and as I mentioned there, the fix (temporary) reported in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/172985 worked for me.
Setting up the fingerprint reader:
I got my thinkpad with the fingerprint reader, but the ease of setting it up was a pleasant surprise. Just followed the instructions here with the difference being that you dont need to add any additional repos - thinkfinger is added in the official Hardy repos.
Not working, could not fix:
Well, really nothing for now! I am happy I removed Vista (after just booting into it to update the bios drivers). After 30 mins of Vista, booting into Ubuntu seemed like moving a century into the future ! All developers associated with Ubuntu and linux can be proud of the work they have done and the product they have created. And of course, Thinkpads are made for Linux.. too bad they come with Vista pre-installed and Lenovo refused to sell me one with no OS or with an option to refuse the license and get a refund. But thats another story...
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