Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 New User Guide

Overview and setup for getting Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron installed on the Dell Inspiron 1501

Setting Up Wireless with NDISwarapper

Easy Codec Installation

Encrypted DVD playback & Medibuntu

Stop Compiz-Fusion From Loading Automatically

How to Play Encrypted (Copyrighted) DVDs in Gutsy

Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon does not play DVDs out of the box. In order to play DVDs you need to install the Medibuntu Repository and a couple of packages. This guide will get your Gutsy install playing DVDs like a champ in less then 4 minutes.

This will add the Medibuntu repository to your repository lists
In a terminal type:
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/gutsy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

Then you have to add the GPG Key to authentic the packages
In a terminal type:
wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Now update your system to load the Medibuntu repository into your apt-get sources
sudo apt-get update

Download the DVDs playback packages
In a terminal type:
sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 libdvdread3

Now pop in a DVD and enjoy!

edited by pHreaksYcle

Codec Cheatsheet

redDEAD's version of Automatix
This simple howto installs the most common restricted codecs. Allowing you to play mp3, aac, DVD, mp4, avi, wmv and many more formats & rip mp3 using the lame encoder.

For Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn
in a terminal type:
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg libxine1-ffmpeg gstreamer0.8-lame gstreamer0.8-faac gstreamer0.8-faad libdvdread3 libk3b2-mp3

To play encrypted DVDs you need libdvdcss2. You need to install the Medibuntu Repositories to do this. My how to can be found here

Enjoy!


For more, check out Randall Munroe site at xkcd.com/

edited by pHreaksYcle

Medibuntu & How to Install DVD codecs

Please read this post before installing anything. You are responsible for not violating copyright law, not me. I do not endorse theft.

Medibuntu (Multimedia, Entertainment & Distractions In Ubuntu) is a repository of packages that cannot be included into the Ubuntu distribution for legal reasons; copyright, license, patent, etc. But, if you want to play restricted formats like the w32codecs, quicktime videos or encrypted DVDs you'll need to intstall the Medibuntu repository. First have to make sure your allowed to download these packages because Legal Notice Patent and copyright laws operate differently depending on which country you are in. Please obtain legal advice if you are unsure whether a particular patent or restriction applies to a media format you wish to use in your country.

To add the repo:
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/feisty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

Then add the key that authenticates the repo:
wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

The reload the your sources to add Medibuntu:
sudo apt-get update

Then in order to play encrypted DVDs download this package:
sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2

There are many other things in this repo that you may find useful besides codecs. Skype, Opera, Java, Realplayer & GoogleEarth. While they might not be free and open source, they are FREE to use. For a list of packages in the Medibuntu look here.

edited by pHreaksYcle

Feisty Fawn Starter Guide

If you decided to run Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04 on your Dell Inspiron 1501, you came to the right place. This blog is a great starter guide for getting things to work. Enjoy, it's not as hard as it looks and everything here is tested and confirmed to work. - redDEAD

AND NOW EVERY PIECE OF HARDWARE ON THE DELL 1501 WORKS IN UBUNTU

Getting Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04

Dell 1501 Compatability

Can't Get Feisty To Install

Dual Booting Ubuntu and Windows

Getting Wireless To Work Using ndiswrapper

Getting Wireless to work Using the Native Linux Driver

Beryl In Feisty With Xgl

Getting the Conexant Modem working in Feisty

Installing Java Runtime Environment 6.0

Installing Newest Azureus in Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn

Installing Wine

Installing VMware

How to Fix a Broken Key

Configure Synaptic Touchpad Settngs

Fixing Logout Freezing

Customizing Firefox

Installing Mozilla Thunderbird

edited by pHreaksYcle

Screen Capture - recordMyDesktop & Xvidcap

Recently I read this article on digg.com about screen capturing on Linux. recordMyDesktop produces files using only open formats; theora for video & vorbis for audio using the ogg container. Which is great, open source formats rock and we should all support them. To get recordMyDesktop, fire up a terminal and enter:

sudo apt-get install recordmydesktop gtk-recordmydesktop

Problem is if you want to upload your video to YouTube you can't use recordMyDekstop open source formats. This is my main problem with YouTube but if you can get a ton of people to see your video you gotta play with the devil.

This is why I choose to use Xvidcap it does the same thing that record my desktop does while offering a better menu layout and GUI. It uses the FFmpeg libavcodec and libavformat to encode video in MPEG 4 format.



You can download the deb here on sourceforge.com

edited by pHreaksYcle

Your Dell 1501 is Ready

UPDATED!
The Dell Inspiron 1501 is ready for Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04. Today the last remaining bugs were squashed. I highly recommend you count the days till Feisty is released or hop on the beta and start enjoying the ride.

Installation
It's a simple matter of placing the Feisty disk into your DVD drive and installing. Takes all of 30 minutes and doesn't need pci=nomsi to install.

Wi-Fi
The broadcom card shipped with the Dell 1501 still doesn't work out of box with Feisty. But ndiswrapper works and runs the card very fast. Installation is extremely easy, the guide can be found here. Feisty's avahi network manager is amazing, best I have ever used on any operating system. It's a must have for any mobile users.

Ethernet
Works out of the box, just plug the cable in.

Modem
Reported that it works with a little tweaking. Everyone who wants to run Feisty but is stuck in 1996 can breath easily.

Card Reader
There was a bug in the 2.60 Linux kernel that caused the Ricoh card Readers the Dell 1501 shipped with to not work although they worked in Edgy. This has been fixed, card reader works great and now it asks if you'd like to empty the trash upon dismounting. Very convenient and works out of box.

ATI Driver
ATI's 8.34.8 driver is working really well for me. Installation is a snap too. The restricted Driver Manager does all the work for you. You can install the driver with four mouse button clicks.

Media Codecs
Feisty makes codecs easy, no more Automatix or struggling with adding a repo. MP3, DVD, avi, mpeg, wmv, asf, mov, flv, flash codecs are installed with four mouse clicks. The only thing not enabled is reading encrypted DVDs. Some programs can do it for you but if you'd like to do it in Totem use this guide. Word is you can buy it from Linspire's CNR which is being introduced in Feisty. Remember kids, Linux is free as in Freedom not money. If you have to pay to play DVD, bite the bullet. You saved hundreds on the OS.

Beryl
It works and works pretty damn well. The trick is that you have to force bery-core to use 0.2.0~0beryl1 because later versions don't work with Xgl. It's not that hard of a hack. My guide can be found here.

Key Bindings
Work out of box, volume control, brightness, mute any function+commands. I have my keyboard set to Generic 101-key PC. After installing Xgl & Beryl I kept my key binding to Gnome's Settings.

Hibernation
Works out of box, never used hibernation before but I just tried it and think I like it.

edited by pHreaksYcle

Enable Media Codecs & Extras (For Edgy Eft)

Okay, because a reader named "-" (worst nickname EVER!) requested it, here's how to enable restricted formats, Flash, Java and other codecs in Ubuntu for your Dell Inspiron 1501.

There are two schools of thought of enable media codecs in Ubuntu, do it yourself and download a program to do it for you. I use Automatix, it can download media codecs for MP3 and DVD, Flash 9, Java, Microsoft fonts, some essential programs. I personally love it and it never caused me any problems. Others hate it because it uses it own repos and makes updating from one release to the next is a real pain. But I would never update an install, I prefer a clean install.

So if you want to do it yourself you should use this Guide on Restricted Formats

But if you want to do it the easy way and get everything done at once, use Automatix. It's not as bad as the detractors say. Here is how to do it: (works for both 32 and 64 bit versions)

Add Automatix to your source list:

echo "deb http://www.getautomatix.com/apt edgy main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

Get Key:

wget http://www.getautomatix.com/apt/key.gpg.asc

Import Key:

gpg --import key.gpg.asc

Add Key:

gpg --export --armor 521A9C7C | sudo apt-key add -

Update Your System:

sudo apt-get update

Install Automatix:

sudo apt-get install automatix2

Then go to Applications-->System Tools--> Automatrix
From there you can download all the restricted goodies you want.

*Note: Azuerus works so much better from Automatrix than from Ubuntu's own repos. Looks KDEish but actually minimizes to tray without needing a complex fix. But do not use ndiswrapper to enable wifi, use my guide.

edited by pHreaksYcle