Ubuntu Tweaks

From MSI WInd User wiki

Overview:

Once you have successfully installed Ubuntu 8.04.1 (see: Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron Installation Guide for instructions), you will probably want to start customizing and optimizing your system. The following Post-Installation Guide should get you started.

Ubuntu 8.04.1 Post-Installation Guide:

Fixing Suspend & Hard Drive Clicking

Suspend and Hibernate are not currently supported running Ubuntu 8.04.1 on Windows versions of the Wind/Advent 4211 (see bug report here). Also, suspend does not work when booting via wubi/grub4dos. The following workaround (from this forum thread), however, seems to fix suspend (sound, wifi, bluetooth, and the card reader are all confirmed to work after multiple suspends).

Instructions:
The first step is to make power management less aggressive. This has the following results:

the drive will park its heads a lot less thus the drive will have substantially prolonged life.
the drive will be warmer (the right underside of the Wind may heat up a bit).
battery span may be reduced (unconfirmed).
the drive will be switched off anyway during suspend/hibernate

Open a terminal and type:

sudo gedit /etc/hdparm.conf

At the end of the file, paste the following:

command_line {
hdparm -B 192 /dev/sda
}

The above line does not switch power management off completely. If you want to do that, use the value 255 instead of 192. It will make the drive even warmer (still, nothing to worry about, certainly less than mad head parking), but there will be no more clicking.

To force the setting without rebooting run:

sudo hdparm -B 192 /dev/sda

To fix sound, you will need to tweak the alsa modules options. Type the following in a terminal:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

At the end of the file, paste the following:

options snd-hda-intel model=targa-2ch-dig

Note: If the above fix doesn't work for suspend, try running the following three commands:

echo SUSPEND_MODULES="ehci-hcd" > /tmp/unload_modules
chmod +x /tmp/unload_modules
sudo mv /tmp/unload_modules /etc/pm/config.d/unload_modules

Note: To make your Wind/Advent 4211 automatically suspend when the lid is closed, go to:
System => Preferences => Power Management

To resume from suspend, press the power button.

For more information and discussion about suspend and hibernation on the Wind, see this forum thread and this one too.

'Note: To enable auto login after Suspend (by default the screen is locked), follow the easy instructions here.

Enabling and Customizing Compiz Fusion

Compiz Fusion provides a number of fancy 3-D effects on your desktop, including the infamous cube (see video demonstration here).

First, install the CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM):

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Then, add the emerald theme manager:

sudo apt-get install emerald

Next, enable Advanced Desktop Effects by going to "Appearance Preferences" and checking the "Custom" box:

System => Preferences => Appearance => Visual Effects => Custom (check)

Now, open the CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM) from:

System => Preferences => Advanced Desktop Effects Settings

Configure Compiz to your liking. For some suggestions and help, check out Forlong's Blog.

Finally, you will want to make the Emerald window decorator start automatically whenever you log in to your desktop. Go to:

System => Preferences => Advanced Desktop Effects Settings

Under the "Effects" group there is a "Window Decoration" icon. Select it, and change the "Command" value to "emerald --replace" (without the quotes). Click on "Back" and then "Close" to close the Compiz configuration window.

Now press CTRL + ALT + Backspace to end your current desktop session (or simply log out), then log in again. Compiz Fusion should now be fully functional.

Compiz-Switch (optional) is a handy little tool that provides a simple way to switch between Compiz and the window manager of your desktop environment (Gnome or Xfce). Follow the simple installation instructions on Forlong's Blog.

Desktop Themes

For suggestions about installing themes and customizing your desktop, check out CatsWhoCode.com.

Playing Restricted Formats (mp3, Quicktime, WMV, Flash, etc)

Ubuntu can play the most popular non-free media formats, including DVD, MP3, Quicktime, Windows Media, and more by installing the ubuntu-restricted-extras package:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Adding the Medibuntu Repository

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). Below are the instructions to add the Medibuntu repository to your system's list of APT repositories. These instructions and additional information about Medibuntu can also be found here here.

Add Medibuntu to your sources.list, as well as its GPG key to your keyring.

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

Then, add the GPG Key:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

You may be asked to accept this package even though it cannot be authenticated. This is normal; typing "Yes" means you trust Medibuntu.

Once you have added the Medibuntu repository, you can easily install a number of useful packages. To play encrypted DVDs, for instance, the libdvdcss2 package is essential. libdvdcss is a simple library designed for accessing DVDs like a block device without having to bother about the decryption. To install:

sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2

There are a few formats such as certain Windows formats, Real, and Apple Quicktime which do not have native codecs under Linux. To work around this issue, external binary codecs are used instead to play these formats. To install:

sudo apt-get install w32codecs

Fixing Flash 9 from Crashing

Note: You may want to install Flash 10 Beta instead - see directions below.

You can increase the stability of Flash 9 by adding libflashsupport. In a terminal type:

sudo apt-get install libflashsupport

Flash 9 in Hardy Heron crashes regularly when viewing YouTube videos etc. To fix this, try the instructions posted (Aug 30-08) at Mike's Ubuntu Blog.

Installing Flash Player for Linux

First, remove your existing Flash plugin, if you have one installed. This command will remove Flash 9 if you installed it from Ubuntu’s repository:

sudo apt-get remove flashplugin-nonfree

Visit the Adobe download page.
Select .deb for Ubuntu 8.04+ from the dropdown list
A small window will pop up - choose "Open With GDebi Package Installer" and click OK
Now restart Firefox and you're good to go.

Fixing Sound to Simultaneously Play Music and Watch/Listen to Flash Videos

Here's a little bug fix that is required in order to play music using Rhythmbox music player and listen to flash movies like YouTube videos during the same session and/or at the same time.

Go to: System => Preferences => Sessions (you'll need to scroll down below the screen)
Click on the "Add" button
Fill in the following fields:
1. Name: killall pulseaudio
2. Command: killall pulseaudio
3. Comment: This fixes sound for Flash & Rythmbox
Press OK and close the Sessions Preferences window
Now go to: System => Preferences => Sound
Click on the "Sounds" tab and for "Log in" select "No sound" from the dropdown list (Fyi, this turns off the start up music)
Close the window
Press Ctrl + Alt + Backspace to restart your session

Activating the Webcam

To turn the webcam on/off, press fn and F6 together. You can test the webcam by installing Cheese and/or Skype (see instructions below).

Pairing a Bluetooth Mouse

To turn on bluetooth, press the Fn and F11 keys a few times until the blue bluetooth indicator light at the base of your Wind/Advent 4211 is illuminated.
To pair your computer with your bluetooth mouse, first make it discoverable (e.g. push the "connect" button on the bottom of the mouse) and then right click on the bluetooth icon in the top right panel of your desktop.
Select "Browse Device."
Once your mouse is connected, right click on the bluetooth icon again and select "Preferences." Highlight your mouse under "Bonded Devices" and push the "Set Trusted" button (your mouse should now automatically connect during future sessions).
Note: If you are unable to connect your mouse using the above method, try opening a terminal (with your mouse set to discoverable) and type:

sudo hidd --search

Once your mouse is connected, right click on the bluetooth icon again and select "Preferences." Highlight your mouse under "Bonded Devices" and push the "Set Trusted" button.

Installing Microsoft Core Fonts

Note: If you followed the Medibuntu instructions above, this package is already installed.

If you want Arial, Georgia, Times New Roman, Verdona, etc., you can install the following package that will run a script to download and unpack these font packages and install them on your system.

Note: Microsoft used to distribute their core fonts in a package -- the MS core web fonts. They withdrew them a couple of years ago, but it's still legal to redistribute them in their original (.CAB -- windows installer) packaging and licensing.

To install the Microsoft Core Fonts package, use:

sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

Making On-screen Fonts Clearer

There are two steps to making your on-screen fonts a lot clearer.

First, go to the 'System => Preferences => Appearance' panel and select the 'Fonts' tab. Here, select the 'Subpixel smoothing (LCDs)' option and close the panel.

Second, cut and paste the following code in to a terminal:

cat >~/.fonts.conf <<EOF
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <match target="font">
    <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
      <bool>true</bool>
    </edit>
  </match>
</fontconfig>
EOF

Log out and back in again and your fonts should all be a lot clearer.

Optimizing Ubuntu for the 1024x600 Screen

Smaller Fonts

You may want to reduce the default font resolution from 96 to 83:

System => Preferences => Appearance => Fonts => Details (button)

GTK theme

There are several Compact GTK Themes available out here:

Dock

The lower panel (task bar) can be replaced with an auto-hiding dock-like bar which sits at the bottom of the screen.

Option A: Cairo-Dock
Option B: Avant Window Navigator (Awn)

There is a theme for Cairo-Dock specially designed to fit the MSI Wind's screen. It is available to download from http://www.devzero.net/cairo-dock/Wind.tar.gz. To install it untar it to the .cairo-dock/themes subdirectory in your home directory and restart cairo-dock.

Gnome Fullscreen Mode

In Gnome, any application can be made to take up the whole screen, however, there is no default key binding set up. To setup a key binding (suggested is Alt + F11) to toggle fullscreen mode, go to System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts > Window Management > Toggle Fullscreen Mode and select a keybinding.

This screen mode can flicker if compiz is enabled. To fix that problem, install compizconfig-settings-manager by opening up the Terminal application and typing:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Then, go to to System > Advanced Desktop Effects Settings, click the "General Options" button and untick "Unredirect Fullscreen Windows". You can now enable an application to be displayed taking up the whole 1024x600 screen resolution.

Firefox

To free up some viewing space in Firefox, you may want to hide the Bookmarks Toolbar:

View => Toolbars => Bookmarks Toolbar (uncheck)

You may also want to use smaller icons on the normal toolbar:

View => Toolbars => Customize => Use Small Icons (check)

In addition to these options you may want to use the Firefox fullscreen mode, accessible my pressing F11 whilst using Firefox.

Some useful Firefox Add-ons:

Autohide gives you total control over your favorite browser's fullscreen mode. Autohide lets you choose what you'd like to be able to see at any given time once you go fullscreen. You may want to set it as the default view.

AddBlockPlus (ABP) is another useful add-on which will block most advertisements, collapsing the space they take up, meaning you only view the useful content.

Vimperator: Additionally, if you are familiar with VIM (or wmii), you might want to try out the Vimperator add-on which removes the toolbar and address bar, replacing them with a VIM-like command line.

Note: Firefox Add-ons can be easily installed by navigating to: Tools => Add-ons => Get Extensions (click link)

There also was a rich discussion on forums.

wmii

wmii is a small tiling window manager, enabling efficient usage of the screen area. You can install it using apt-get:

sudo apt-get install wmii

Then, you can select it by clicking "Sessions" in the login screen. 'Note: It's not recommended to make wmii your default window manager at first, since many people find it hard to learn.

Xfce

Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for unix-like operating systems. It allows any application to run in full screen mode (press Alt + F11 to take up the full screen - Press Alt + F11 again to take the application out of full screen mode). For more information and installation instructions, check out out the Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron page.

Suggested Hardware Enhancements:

Note: While each of the suggested hardware enhancements can certainly improve your system, keep in mind that opening up the back of your Wind/Advent 4211 "may" (and in some cases most likely "will") void the warranty. User discretion is always advised.

Battery

The 3 cell batteries supplied with the first generation of the MSI Wind/Advent 4211 are inadequate. Lion Battery is now selling 6 Cell and 9 cell batteries.

For those interested in a DIY 9 cell option, check out this forum thread.

And here are some other portable power options:

Hard Drive

For those wanting a faster drive or who are not satisfied with the 80GB of storage space (Torrent junkies, those with multiple OSs, etc), the hard drive can be removed and replaced with relative ease. One option is to swap out the supplied 80GB drive with Western Digital's My Passport Essential 320GB USB 2.0 portable hard drive. The advantage of this approach is that you end up with a huge drive on your Wind/Advent 4211 and a portable enclosure for your original 80GB drive (AKA a bonus 80GB portable USB 2.0 hard drive). Also, according to MSIWind.net user Ben in in this forum thread, the 320GB drive runs faster than the original 80GB drive. For installation instructions, check out MSIWind.net user naturaldisasta's cubicleofdoom.com.

Western Digital's Scorpio SATA drives have also been reported to work nicely in the Wind/Advent 4211. Check out Laptop Magazine's How To for more details.

The OCZ 64GB SSD drive has been tested in the Wind and works out of the box. Initial testing shows a fair decrease in boot speed (49 seconds with the stock hard drive, 37 with the SSD) and much faster application start (OO writer 17 seconds with the stock hard drive, 7 seconds with the SSD). It also has the effect of increasing battery life (from about 1 hours 30 minutes to 2 hours on a simple test).

RAM

The Windows version of the MSI Wind/Advent 4211 are shipped with 1GB of RAM soldered to the board (1GB SODIMM). While Ubuntu is a very efficient OS, there are still obvious advantages to increasing your system's RAM (there is an empty slot on board and the system will recognize up to 2GB). The procedure itself is very simple. You can find an easy step-by-step manual at Laptop Magazine.

Touch Screen

Stay tuned for more info about adding a touch screen to your Wind/Advent 4211. In the meantime, check out JKKmobile.com's Eee PC 900 with touch screen mod (with video and photos).

Wireless Card

There is currently no native Ubuntu 8.04.1 wireless support on Windows versions of the MSI Wind/Advent 4211 due to the wireless card supplied with the system (although you can compile your own drivers by following the steps listed in forum posting). If you would like to have native support for wireless under Ubuntu 8.04.1, your best option at this point is to replace the supplied Realtek RTL8187SE wireless card. Suitable wireless cards can be found for under $30 (new) and the replacement procedure only takes a few minutes to complete. For more details and instructions, visit the "Wireless" section of the Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron page.

Suggested Software Enhancements:

The following is a selective list of applications not included in the basic Ubuntu Desktop Edition that can be easily installed to enhance and expand your system. For a comprehensive list of Linux software to run on your Wind/Advent 4211, visit the Linux Alternative Project.

Avidemux

Avidemux works well as a lightweight video editor. Version 2.4.1 has .flv support which allows you to edit flash files from YouTube etc.

sudo apt-get install avidemux

Audacity

Audacity works well as a basic sound editor (it supports supports Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV, AIFF, and AU): http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

sudo apt-get install audacity

Cheese

Cheese is a program to take pictures and videos from your webcam. You can install it with:

sudo apt-get install cheese

FrostWire

Great P2P application - derived from Limewire. Can be downloaded from here.

Gnome Do

GNOME Do (Do) is an intelligent launcher tool that makes performing common tasks on your computer simple and efficient. You can find installation instructions here.

Inkscape

Inkscape is a very good Vector graphics program http://www.inkscape.org/

You can install it with:

sudo apt-get install inkscape

Scribus

Scribus is a desktop publishing program that gives you full control over page layouts. It works with CMYK color profiles and has PDF output. http://www.scribus.net/

You can install it with:

sudo apt-get install scribus

Skype

You can download the latest version of Skype for Linux by visiting: http://www.skype.com/download/skype/linux/choose

Note: If you added the Medibuntu repository (directions above), you can also add Skype with:

sudo apt-get install skype

How to Configure Skype

Configuring Video:

Open Skype and select “Options” from the Skype menu.
Select the “Video Devices” tab and click on the “Test” button to try out your video. If you don't see yourself, try pressing Fn + F6 to turn on the built-in webcam.

Configuring Audio:
Note: The microphone under Skype is not particularly loud. Some users have suggested using a USB mic (or headset and mic) instead. The following instructions should get Skype working using your built-in mic and speaker.

Audio Playback for Skype
To get audio playback working in Skype, you may need to disable PulseAudio. This fix may also correct audio problems with Firefox & Flash 9.

Go to: System => Preferences => Sessions
Under the first tab (startup programs), uncheck PulseAudio Sessions Manager.
Close the screen and restart the computer.

Configuring the Microphone:

Right click on the volume applet in the panel (top right of your screen) and select “Open Volume Control.”
Go to: Edit => Preferences and check every box in the pop up window except “Digital” and “IEC958” (not sure why – just seems to work).
Then in the Volume Control window, select the “Playback” tab and set everything to full except “Mic Boost” which seems to work best at about 1/3rd full.
Under the “Recording” tab, set the Capture settings to full.
Under the “Options” tab, select “Mic” for input source.
Open Skype and try the free “Skype Test Call” service. You'll probably find that speaking 10-12 inches (30cm) from the microphone works best. Fyi, the microphone is embedded in the top right bevel of your screen.

Thunderbird

Thunderbird is a cross-platform email and news client.

sudo apt-get install thunderbird

Some useful Thunderbird Add-ons:

Sync Kolab to synchronize your address book across all computers running Thunderbird.
Quicktext allows you to easily insert multiple email signatures and more.
SmtpSelect to easily switch your outgoing mail server (helpful when travelling or going between home and work).

Note: Thunderbird Add-ons can be easily installed by navigating to: Tools => Add-ons => Get Extensions (click link)

VLC

A cross platform media player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, flv, etc). You can install it with:

sudo apt-get install vlc

Other

Kernel Mode-setting (KMS)

If you want to try out kernel-based mode-setting, you can find steps for Jaunty Jackalope on the Kernel Mode-setting page. It will likely be enabled by default come Karmic.

CoreAVC-aware, multi-threaded mplayer

See the CoreAVC wiki entry for instructions. This provides a *considerable* boost in video decoding performance.