I’m using  a custom eclipse installation. The ubuntu repositories package is too old, so I always update my eclipse installation from the eclipse website. I install it to /opt/eclipse. If you’re using the default installation package, just look for yor install forlder, probably somewhere near /usr/share.

Now, I assume you installed the subclipse plugin, a nice SVN client. This client uses JavaHL libraries to communicate to the svn program istelf, and  unfortunately, this libraries installation is up to you. If you do not have them, subclipse will complain about missing libraries each time you need to do somthing svn-related. So, to fix if:

1. Install the javaHL libraries:
   sudo apt-get install libsvn-java
2. Tell eclipse where to look for them. Edit the file /opt/eclipse/eclipse.ini (or /your-eclipse-path/eclipse.ini), and locate the line:
   -vmargs
   Now just below this line, add the following one:
   -Djava.library.path=/usr/lib/jni
3. Happy coding!.

The flash version in the ubuntu repositories, is the 32 bits version of the famous plugin. In fact, it shouldn’t be working in a 64 bits browser. Here’s where ubuntu makes some of its behind-the-scenes magic, and installs and configures for you a wrapper named nspluginwrapper.

Nspluginwrapper is a software layer which provides an appropiate environment for the plugin to run (i386) in other platforms which it is not supposed to work. So Ubuntu, automatically installs the wrapper, and configures it for you. Unfourtunately, this magic comes with a little bug somewhere casing the flash plugin to fail – sometimes – .

It turns to be quite annoying when it fails, because instead of a crash, or not showing the flash content (and clearly showing that it has crashed) it just blocks the “click” in the flash content, creating confusion about what’s not working, the flash plugin, the flash content, the browser, the mouse, the finger etc…

Here’s a workaround to fix the click problem:

• Edit the file : /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/i386/linux/npviewer  (as root, use sudo from console or gksudo from the “run” dialog)
• Add the following line BEFORE the last line of text:

export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1

• Save, and restart your browser.

This should be enough to solve the problem. It is possible that the npviewer script gets updated losing your changes.

If you realize that it is failing again, maybe this is the case, and you should redo this workaround.

UPDATE: If you feel brave, you can try the really-64bits-flash version of the plugin, that will work with the 64bits browsers. This will bypass all the nspluginwrapper magic mentioned above. Someone created a script, to get rid of the unnecessary packages and install the flash player  for AMD64. There are precise instructions in the Ubuntu Forums.

Keep in mind that Adobe 64 bits  flash player is in alpha stage, so it can be unstable.

Unfortunately, Songbird is not on the offcicial ubuntu repos, but you can install it anyway thanks to the guys at Getdeb who made the package for you. To install it just download the package from HERE and install it with your favourite package manager.

I had at first some problems with this new version, but after a bit of reading, I saw that was a common problem. There some conflict with the package libvisual-0.4-plugins that cause the Sonbird player not to start. This package comes preinstalled in systems with NVIDIA video cards, and for what I have seen, it is not an important part of the system and it has no big dependencies. You most probably want to remove this package if you’re experiencing some problems with this last version.

I tried to add the repositories of the Songbird Nightly Builds, but I found the current version (1.3.0a) quite unstable, and not compatible with most plugins, so I decided to leave the stable 1.2.0 version.

• If you want to try though, here is the repo you need to add to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/songbird-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/songbird-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

• Add the signature by typing in a console:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 5719E347

And now you will always have the lastest development build of Songbird available in your preferred package manager app.

Anyway, here it  is:

The wifi: I’m using here a Dell 1935 wifi card, wich is automatically configured in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty, using the propietary drivers (wl driver).

The next steps (ndiswrapper) are required in Ubuntu 8.10. Recent kernels, as the ones shipped with ubuntu 9.04, already have included the appropiate drivers for the Ralink wifi card.

The medion akoya comes with a Ralink 2860 wifi card. This card could be used under linux using the ndiswrapper and the windows driver. To do so, download from your preferred site (I used medion website) the windows drivers for the wifi card, and extract them to a directory.

• Install the package ndiswrapper with your preferred package tool. We need to insert into de kernel the ndiswrapper module. To do so from a console run:


$>sudo depmod -a
$>sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
$>echo 'ndiswrapper' | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
$>sudo ndiswrapper  -m


• Now we need to blacklist the rt2860 module that actually comes shipped into the kernel. Do so running:


$>echo 'blacklist rt2860' | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
$>echo 'blacklist rt2860sta' | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist


• Then, to activate the windows driver through the ndiswrapper, we need to execute (in the directory where you extracted the windows drivers and the file rt2860.inf is located):


$>sudo ndiswrapper -i rt2860.inf
$>sudo ndiswrapper -l

The wifi device should be visible now, and after a reboot, the network-manager should recognize it and automatically set it up.

The webcam works fine with the uvc driver. Look at this other post, as it is explained there how to set up this driver.

TWEAK1: After an ubuntu clear installation, the power management system, forces the hard disk to spin down at random intervals, producing an annoying click. It is said, that this kind of aggresive power management may not be the best choice for a long lasting drive.If you  want to get rid of it, just edit the file /etc/hdparm.conf and add at the end of it:

command_line {
hdparm -B 192 /dev/sda
}

This will prevent the hard disk to spin down, while keeping some kind of power management. It’ll do it after the next reboot though. If you want to activate this tweak now, you can run from a console:

$>sudo hdparm -B 192 /dev/sda

TWEAK 2: In 8.04, after  recovering from the suspended/sleeping state, the sound stops working. This can be solved by adding the next line at the end of the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base:

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

This(sound after sleep problem) is solved in Ubuntu 9.04.

TWEAK 3: There is a problem with the intel video drivers shipped with the 9.04 (at least in the first versions)  making very poor performance with the compiz effects.

More info about the bug itself, and how to solve it can be found here.

Basically, if you don’t want to read the whole post, what you should do is:

• Download THIS script and save it to /usr/local/bin

• Make it executable:


$>sudo chmod +x /usr/local/binfixmtrr.sh


• Make it run at boot:


$>sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default


• And last but not least, edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf and add this lines under the “Device” section:


Identifier    "Configured Video Device"
Option        "AccelMethod"        "exa" #uxa
Option        "EXAOptimizeMigration"    "true"
Option        "MigrationHeuristic"    "greedy"
#Option        "Tiling"        "true"

In the original post recommends to use UXA instead EXA, but I obtained best results using the EXA old acceleration method, as well as deactivating the tiling option.

Other minor tweaks I did in this install:

• Change the font size to accomodate gnome in the small screen:

System>Preferences>Appeareance>Fonts>Details> Change value from 96 to 83

• Install firefox plugins “hide menubar” and “fission” to accomodate the browser to small screens.

And ready to go…

If you’ve reached this point, and have any other suggestions, I’d like to hear about them. Thanks.

It seems that the default installation of the Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty comes with the Open Source Java instead the Sun one. If your not too picky about non oss, I will recommend to use the sun java virtual machine.

To change this setting, just be sure that you have installed the packages sun-java6-bin and sun-java6-jre.

Then, in case you want to make the Sun JVM the default one in the system, you can do it by running from a console:

$>sudo update-alternatives --display java
$>sudo update-alternatives --set java /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java

This way, the next time you open any java application, /usr/bin/java will be called, that is a symlink to /etc/alternatives/java, that now points to the Sun JVM instead the open source one.

However, I have tried some music management/players applications, and although Rhythmbox and Songbird are quite nice, I like Amarok to be my main player.

Amarok is on the official ubuntu repos (Amarok 2), and since it is a a KDE app, you’ll need some KDE libs in your system to execute. For what I have read, it gives some problems in some ubuntu default installations. Avoid them with these simple steps:

• Install the amarok package, and it’s dependencies with your preferred package management tool.

• Make sure that the packages libphonon4, phonon, and phonon-backend-xine are going to be installed. If not, install them manually.

• Install the following packages:


systemsettings, ffmpeg, gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg, libxine1-ffmpeg


• Run systemsettings (the KDE control panel app), and go to Multimedia. Click on the Backend Tab and move xine to the top of the list in case there’s more than one. Click apply.

Now you can start your Amarok2 player from the appz menu, and it should work just fine.

• To do so, download the plugin provider for Mozilla Lightning or Mozilla Sunbird.

If you’re using a 64bits linux, you won’t find the 64 bits lightning n in the mozilla repo. You will need to look for it in the plugin website.

• Now go to your google calendar account>settings and copy the XML adress of your private calendar.

• Open the Lightning/Sunbird, create a new calendar, select “On the Network” and select Google Calendar.

• Paste your XML address.

• Enjoy 2-way sync!

NOTE: The first time it loads the calendar, it can take a long time in case you have a lot of past reminders, because the lightning/sunbird comes with the alarms activated by default.

Of course, you can use Google Calendar from Lightning/Sunbird as CalDav Source, but I find the provider extension more stable.

This post is a summary of the few tweaks I did on my Aspire 5920G to install the last release of Ubuntu (Jaunty). This distro, has surprised me in a lot of ways. I was used to tweak the system in some hard ways to have it working “my way”. I tried several times to install Ubuntu, but I always happened to not like something, and these little details made me to return to Debian again and again.

But this time something is different. Not only the system works out-of-the-box, but it  works even better than I expected. (Better that “My Way” Debian, but I’m trying to forget this part).

Continue reading for this little guide about Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty on the Acer 5920G.

As I said, few tweaks are required.  Here some details that maybe could help someone.

SOUND

The last ALSA changelog, says they have introduced a new ID (and config) specifically for the ACER 5920G. And it works.

With previous releases of ALSA, I used to set the parameter model=lenovo-ms7195-dig using modconf, or creating a file /etc/modprobe.d/options, and adding the line

options snd-hda-intel model=lenovo-ms7195-dig

However, in this Ubuntu release, there’s some kind of problem  and some applications (read skype) can’t access the microphone through the alsa mixer. Only works through the (default installed) pulseaudio server, adding an annoying (unusable) delay.

After playing with the alsa config a little bit, I ended up setting up the default configuration. This default settings will give you less control over the sound card (like 3d audio, channels, etc…) but at least it works fine with the alsa mixer when needed (for the mic). Once reached this point, you should be able to record  (Preferences>Sound) with PulseAudio (with a little delay) and with at least one Alsa dev, and with the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture option. If this does not work for you, maybe you need to install some other alsa package. Personally I installed the alsa-oss emulation that never hurts.

WEBCAM

The webcam alsa works fine OOB with the uvcvideo driver. The driver in the Jaunty repos is not the last one though. If you’re bored, you can compile the last version from the source and install it with those easy steps.

• Install with your preferred tool the packages subversion, build-essential, and the kernel headers.


$>sudo aptitude install subversion build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)


• Download the last tarball (or from svn) with the source from here.

• Untar, compile with make install with sudo make install and update modules dependencies with sudo depmod -ae $(uname -r)

• If you want to test that the webcam works, and still haven’t installed skype, try installing cheese from the official Ubuntu repos.

For more information see: http://linux-uvc.berlios.de/ and http://developer.berlios.de/projects/linux-uvc and http://linuxtv.org/hg/~pinchartl/uvcvideo/

VIDEO

The NVIDIA 8600M GT works oob too, but you will probably want to activate the private device drivers in order to use the nvidia closed source driver for performance reasons. You can do this from the System menu, Hardware Controllers.

If it does not come installed by default (I’m not sure) you should install the nvidia-settings package, which will provide you with a GUI to configure some video parameters. Trick: Start the nvidia-settings app once installed using gksudo, so it can have modify access to the Xorg file. This will allow you save some changes in case you have more than one screen, for example.

REPOS AND APPLICATIONS

These are not tweaks, but a list of some interesting repos and applications that I installed using Ubuntu designed repos. (Instead of download a thousand packages…).

• The medibuntu repo has some comon apps. Add the repo to the sources list, and its key with:


$>sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/jaunty.list --output-document /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

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


• Now you can install some common apps like codecs, or skype, or whatever with:


$>sudo apt-get install w32codecs skype ubuntu-restricted-extras compizconfig-settings-manager vlc wine mplayer

-Change w32codecs for w64codecs if you’re performing a 64bits install.

-The ubuntu-restricted-extras-package  will provide java, more codecs, and more common stuff that you most probably want in a user computer.

-The compizconfig-settings-manager will install the compiz control panel to tweak the graphical effects.

POWER MANAGEMENT

The power management that Ubuntu does is quite good, but installing and running powertop you can improve tour battery duration. There’s a problem though. Those changes are only per session, so you will loose them after any reboot.

For a more advanced power management, you can use laptop-mode. I’m not going to write here how to do so, because it’s explained quite clear HERE (post #7).

BLUETOOTH

Bluetooth works perfect without any user tweak. Just turn it on, and you’ll see the bluetooth applet come to life in the gnome/kde system tray.

In earlier Ubuntu versions, using a bluetooth headset was a bit painful. This time, it is pretty straightforward. Pair your headset in the bluetooth applet. Then, in the app that you want to use the headset with, select headset instead of pulse as input. That’s one (of the few) advantages of using pulseaudio along the whole distribution.

And that’s all. Ubuntu 9.04 up & running.

NOTE: The only thing I can’t seem to deal with, is the multimedia keys. If you’re reading this, and you were able to do it, please give me more info about.