Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 2 "Karmic Koala" on The Dell Mini 9

There are some exciting features planned for Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala. The biggest news is the work being done on the Intel video driver. Recently Canonical's Bryce Harrington reported on the improvement of the Intel graphic driver on the Ubuntu developer mailing list. The 2.6.30 kernel will ship with Kernel Mode Setting enabled for Intel graphics and the driver will more than likely switch from the current EXA acceleration method to the new UXA method. GRUB2 has been implemented and the goal is to work towards a 10 second boot. There is a new power management system,DeviceKit-power, that should help improve battery life. A new Fn key maphandler, udev-extras. ext4 has been selected as the default file system and should significantly increase disk performance.

Installation
I used a Crucial Gizmo! 4GB USB flash drive and Ubuntu 9.04's USB Startup Disk Creator to install Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 2. Using the default ext4 files system, I setup a 4.8GB partition for the / directory, 7.8 GB for /home directory and 1.9GB for swap. The installation process was smooth. The only issue, and it is a know bug, is that the system will fail to reboot cleanly after the install. You will have to manually power-cycle the system to finish the install reboot. The system will shutdown and reboot properly after this.

Grub 2 & Booting
GRUB 2 is the default boot loader for Karmic, replacing the previous GRUB "Legacy" boot loader. GRUB 2 is a complete rewrite whose goals include making GRUB cleaner, safer, more robust, more portable and more powerful. It does offer a graphical menu but for now it's just a blue screen. As you can see from the video, I toggled between the two kernel entries so you can see how Grub 2 looks at this point in development. So far the only difference is the boot menu is blue. Hopefully Ubuntu can put something together as nice as Debian's Grub 2 menu for Ubuntu 9.10 when it ships.



Booting the Mini in Ubuntu 9.10 is quick but nothing special. Average boot up time, from powering on to a usable desktop, was about 25 seconds. Work is being implemented towards a 10 second boot time but currently 9.10 Alpha 2's times are not much faster than Ubuntu 9.04.

Video
The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950 driver has received some significant upgrades. The 2.7.99.1 Intel driver switched the acceleration mode to uxa and have stripped out exa acceleration altogether. Karmic has enabled kernel mode setting for Intel graphic chips. I followed these instructions for setting up uxa acceleration. The uxa acceleration has not crashed or throw up any weird errors throughout my testing. Some have reported problem, developers are asking for testers to report bugs upstream using these guidelines.

Flash Video Playback

• YouTube's windowed and fullscreen mode work great. No pausing in video or audio during fullscreen/windowed transition. HD video still doesn't work properly, it suffers from choppy audio/video playback and transition pauses. Turn off annotations for best results. Highly watchable.
• Hulu.com's playback is much better than 8.04 and 8.10. Windowed and fullscreen videos work well. Transitioning from windowed to fullscreen is still is a problem. Highly watchable.
• LiveLeak.com's video playback is smooth and fullscreen worked well. Highly watchable.
• Gametrailers.com's windowed mode works well, fullscreen causes video to become choppy. Watchable.
• TheOnion.com's video playback is smooth and fullscreen works well. Highly watchable.
• CNN.com's video is choppy, audio works well. Live streams work very well. Watchable.
• Break.com's video playback is slightly choppy. Drag to resize does not work. Watchable.
• NFL.com's windowed mode is great, fullscreen causes audio to become choppy. Watchable.
• Metacafe's video playback is smooth and fullscreen worked well. Highly watchable.
• Blip.tv's video playback is smooth and fullscreen worked well. Don't be fooled, the home page video doesn't work but the videos contained in the site are good. Highly watchable.
• Revver.com's video playback is smooth but no full screen. Highly watchable.
• Vimeo's video and audio was extremely choppy, fullscreen does not work. Unwatchable
• Spike.com's video playback is smooth and fullscreen works well. Highly watchable.

Compiz
Compiz runs out of the box. It's snappier than Ubuntu 8.10 and 9.04. I'm throwing everything I can at it and I haven't had any tearing or stuttering, shadowing, ghosting or bleeding.

Wireless
Wireless does not work out of the box like Ubuntu 8.04, 8.10 and 9.04. It does work once you install the Broadcom STA wireless driver. I was able to connect to both WEP and WPA networks without a problem. I am getting the same rock solid performance as in Ubuntu 9.04.

Wired
Worked out of the box. No problems or speed issues.

Audio
Unlike Intrepid and Jaunty, audio works without configuring or having to turn up the speaker volume. The internal mic, external mic and headphone all work.

Webcam
Worked out of the box. To test the webcam, install Cheese.

Bluetooth
Worked out of the box and includes the ability to enter the device PIN codes through the GUI.

Card Reader
Worked out of the box. Secure Digital (SD) & SDHC (High Capacity), MultiMediaCard (MMC) and Memory Stick all worked.

Fn Keys
The brightness, volume, suspend, fullscreen keyboard shortcuts all work with any extra configuration. The wifi on/off (Fn+2) does not.

Suspend & Hibernate
- Suspend works incredibly well. I suspended my computer over and over without a problem.
- Hibernate will not work if you do not have a swap partition. If you have a swap file, Hibernate does not work properly yet. It takes about 15-20 seconds for your machine to turn off and it will only wake up to a blank screen.

Aircraft Manager
Jitender's aircraft manager package for Jaunty works in Karmic Alpha 2 and turning wifi and bluetooth on and off worked flawlessly.

Download Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala Alpha 2
Pre-releases of Karmic are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable
system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even
frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and
those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs. The final, stable version will be released on October 29th, 2009.

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover? Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.

Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope Beta on the Mini 9

Installing Ubuntu on the Dell Mini 9 was never hard, but getting everything working was. Ubuntu 9.04 Beta does not require any extra fixes or patches. Audio works out of the box (you just need to turn up the speaker volume) and there is no longer a drive mounting problem after a LiveUSB install. Installing Ubuntu Netbook Remix doesn't require adding any extra repositories or adding items to your start-up programs.

I tested both the Ubuntu 9.04 Beta i386 and the Ubuntu Netbook Remix USB 9.04 Beta i386 Image for this article.

If you need need help making a LiveCD.

Installation
If you select the "Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer" option and then try to install Ubuntu on your Mini, there is a minor issue. The windows are too large for the screen and get cut off. You will not be able to completely see the buttons on the bottom of the window to make your selections.

It does not hinder your ability to install Ubuntu on the Dell Mini 9 or and you can see what the buttons say. If you want to be able to move the windows and see the complete selection.
Go to System>Preferences>Appearances. Under the Visual Effects Tab select None.
- This will allow you move the windows up (click the window while holding down the alt key) and see the bottom of the buttons.

Video
The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950 driver has received some significant upgrades since Intrepid's release. Video playback is better, Compiz is running smoother and flash video is actually bearable to watch again.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix
Installing Ubuntu Netbook Remix used to require a little bit of work and extra know-how. In Jaunty, the Netbook Remix packages have been added to the official Ubuntu repositories and the included ubuntu-netbook-remix-default-settings package configures everything for you.

To install Ubuntu Netbook Remix
in a terminal type:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-netbook-remix

Note: The desktop switcher program is still slightly buggy. It has a tendency to crash when switching back from the normal desktop to Netbook Remix.

Compiz
The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950 runs compiz without any special setup or configuration.

To get the most out of Compiz install the advanced configuration tool.
In a terminal:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Note: You can find the Compiz Settings Manager under System->Preferences once you install it

Wireless
The Broadcom STA wireless driver was activated after install and connecting to both WEP and WPA poses no problem.

Wired
Worked out of the box. There was a Kernel Bug that prevented the wired Ethernet connection from working in Ubuntu 8.10 but the bug has been squashed and the Dell Mini 9's wired connection works perfectly.

Audio
Unlike Intrepid, audio works out of the box in Jaunty. You just need to turn up the speaker volume in the Volume Control on your first boot.


Webcam
Worked out of the box. To test the webcam, install Cheese.
In a terminal type:

sudo apt-get cheese

Note: The video may seem slow, you just need to adjust the webcam's resolution under Edit>Preferences

Bluetooth
Worked out of the box and includes the ability to enter the device PIN code through the GUI.


Card Reader
Worked out of the box. Secure Digital (SD) & SDHC (High Capacity), MultiMediaCard (MMC) and Memory Stick all worked.

Brightness & Volume
Brightness and volume keyboard short-cuts both work with any extra configuration.

Suspend & Hibernate
Suspend works incredibly well. I suspended my computer over and over without a problem.
Hibernate will not work if you do not have a swap partition. If you have a swap file, hibernate works well.

Video Out
Worked out of the box, you don't have to edit your xorg.conf file anymore. Just plug your external monitor/projector into your Mini 9 and send the video out.
Video has a tendency to jitter while Grub is loading and during the Ubuntu splash screen once you load into Ubuntu, the video corrects itself and all is smooth.

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover? Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.

Ubuntu 8.10 Kernel Update Has Broken Wired Connection

The 2.6.27-11-generic kernel update to Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex has broken the wired Ethernet connection on the Dell Mini 9. It is a known bug (330355) on launchpad and is scheduled to be fixed with the 2.6.27-13 kernel update.

The real issue is with the Realtek RTL8101/RTL8102E card used inside the Mini 9 and this bug is actually a duplicate of bug 326891. One of the Ubuntu kernel developers have already uploaded the patches to intrepid-proposed repository for testing. Early Mini 9 testers report that the 2.6.27-13 update has a working Ethernet connection.

The Fix (Two Methods)
1. You can add the Pre-released updates (intrepid-proposed) repository to your software sources and install the test/proposed 2.6.27-13-generic kernel.

- You can find your Software Sources under System>Admin.
- Select Pre-release updates (intrepid-proposed) repository under the Updates tab.
This is not my prefered method as the proposed kernel could have other problems associated with it.

2. You can load into the older 2.6.27-9-generic kernel when you have to use the Mini's wired connection. The 2.6.27-9 kernel had a working wired connection and until a week ago we here all using it without any major problems.
Selecting 2.6.27-9-generic kernel is an easy process:
- Load into your Grub menu. (After the Dell splash logo at start-up hit Esc during Grub loading)
- At the Grub menu select the 2.6.27-9-generic kernel and hit enter.
I prefer this method because I know what to expect, the 2.6.27-9 kernel will have a working wired connection and won't break anything else on my Mini.

The only feature the 2.6.27-11-generic kernel offered Dell Mini 9 users was a broken wired connection, it won't be missed. The 2.6.27-13-generic kernel update should hit soon and I will update the blog when it does.

Have a question or problem that this article doesn't cover? Ask our Ubuntu Mini 9 Google Group for help.