ANKUR JAIN

It’s been quite sometime that I installed Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn on Dell Inspiron 1520. My experience with this Ubuntu installation has been good and I have got Compiz Fusion working this time (something I could not do before).

Installation was slightly problematic with Feisty, since the Live CD did not boot at all. It failed after I pressed “Enter to Install” and I had to search for available solutions for this problem. I solved the problem by following the steps provided here. The workaround provided helped me out and I could boot using Live CD and installed Ubuntu Feisty subsequently. No problems after the boot process. Installation was simple and straightforward and completed in 18-20 minutes.

Now, since many essential features were missing, so first thing I had to do was to install those missing packages. So, I needed to update the packages list or apt-get should I say. But I did not choose apt-get, instead I selected Smart Package Manager this time. I have had a very good experience with smartpm previously, so decided to try it out this time on Ubuntu as well. I haven’t faced any problems till now, in fact I’m impressed with Smart Package Manager. I find it better since as per my experience, it resolves package dependencies better and I never faced any version conflicts which I faced otherwise with apt-get at times.

Here’s how you can configure smart package manager to add apt-get channels available in default sources.list file:

Issue all these smart commands as root.

smart channel –edit

Now add the following repositories:

[aptsync-a30ca3197e720a6180d50388c93162f8]
type = apt-deb
name = feisty - free non-free
baseurl = http://packages.medibuntu.org/
distribution = feisty
components = free non-free

[deb-sys]
type = deb-sys
name = DEB System

[feisty-backports]
type = apt-deb
name = feisty - backports
baseurl = http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
distribution = feisty-backports
components = main restricted universe multiverse

[feisty-main]
type = apt-deb
name = feisty - main
baseurl = http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
distribution = feisty
components = main restricted universe multiverse

[feisty-security]
type = apt-deb
name = feisty - security
baseurl = http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu
distribution = feisty-security
components = main restricted universe multiverse

[feisty-updates]
type = apt-deb
name = feisty-updates
baseurl = http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
distribution = feisty-updates
components = main restricted universe multiverse

[medibuntu]
type = apt-deb
name = medibuntu-updates
baseurl = http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/
distribution = feisty
components = free non-free

After adding all the sources, I updated smartpm using the following command:

smart update

First, I installed envy to fetch the Nvidia Graphics Driver. Envy worked extremely smoothly and setup everything automatically without requiring any manual edit of xorg.conf file. So, I got the wide screen 1440×900 resolution setup correctly. Later, I used the Amaranth repository to setup Compiz Fusion on the system. But I had to remove the other 3D desktop packages like Desktop effects, beryl before that. Then I followed this link to install the Compiz Fusion package and it worked without further issues. Here are some screen shots: Screenshot 1, Screenshot 2, Screenshot 3

Smart worked well for the installation of other essential packages as well; you can refer this page for the list of essential packages like DVD support, Multimedia audio codecs, mplayer, banshee, flash plugin, java plugin, vlc, rar archives: http://ubuntuguide.org

One problem that I noticed on Ubuntu Feisty is that I get less battery life for my laptop using the same settings (screen brightness, hdd activity) that I have on Windows Vista Premium. Other issues are related to Sound, Sleep mode, Bluetooth and the Internal Microphone.

Note: Don’t use “Sound Recorder” application (Applications->Sound & Video->Sound Recorder) to check if the microphone is working. Instead try using the Audacity program.

In case of speakers when I plug in the headphones, speakers are not muted. So I had to upgrade ALSA manually as instructed at this link.

After I installed ALSA, I had to edit the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base file by adding the following line at the end of the file:

options snd-hda-intel model=3stack

Rebooted the system and the speakers worked perfectly. But the bluetooth and internal microphone are still not working. Moreover, there is a problem with the power management functions. If the system goes into sleep mode, it does not resume, you get blank screen. I could not find any solution for this problem.

Otherwise, it’s a nice distribution over all.

Update:
I got Bluetooth working. Follow the steps given below :

Start the Bluetooth Adapter using the Button on the left side of the laptop. The Blue lights of Wifi and Bluetooth Adapter should light up.

As root, issue the following command : /etc/init.d/bluetooth start

Now, run this command : hciconfig hciX reset

Start Bluetooth File Sharing application from the Applications Menu.

Now, try to discover your Laptop using other Bluetooth enabled devices.