The new Dell Vostro A840 laptops that we ordered came with Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) pre-installed. However when I installed the latest release Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex), the Atheros AR242x wifi card didn't work right away.
The solution to get this card working is available on WifiDocs > Driver > Atheros on Ubuntu Wiki.
The ath5k module from the linux-backports-modules-intrepid package on Ubuntu backports will do the magic for you.
On my first visit to the International Institute for Social Entrepreneurship (IISE) here in Kerala I found that they were having trouble configuring the USB Wireless (Wifi) Network Card for gnu/Linux. They use this device for all their desktops and some older laptops, this device is not very commonly used here in India and there is very little documentation about it in English.
The Chinese make TP-LINK TL-WN322G+ USB Wireless Network Card is supported very well in gnu/Linux with a builtin module zd1211rw now included in main linux kernel tree, thanks to the zd1211 project.
On their Ubuntu 8.04 (HH) desktop computer I first checked the USB ID of the chipset then inserted the zd1211rw module with modprobe command and the devices started working like magic.
$ lsusb
0ace:1215 Zydas WLA-54L Wifi
$ sudo modprobe zd1211rw
Append to new line with 'zd1211rw' at the end /etc/modules file so that the module is loaded every time the computer boots.
After reviewing the last two Ubuntu books, Beginning Ubuntu Linux and Ubuntu Unleashed I decided to call it a day until October 30 release of Intrepid Ibex.
However I felt the need for a reference book that discussed topics like AppArmour, SELinux, Encryption, FACL, Intrusion Detection etc.. for more advanced users. Well, I found one such book Ubuntu The Complete Reference.
Indeed the book lives up to its grandiose title and it does cover basis for new users and the advance users who are planning to run Ubunutu on desktop and servers would find it very useful too. While reading the book I felt that author could have covered a chapter in more detail, however given the wide range of topics (I dare say, just too many) that are already covered in this book, I felt it was asking for too much :) .
My kudos to Richard Petersen and technical editor Ibrahim Haddad for doing such a great job on this book and finish it too ! . The book is up to date covering Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) and you need to have it on your bookshelf.
xvidcap users on Ubuntu Hardy Heron are in for a nasty surprise. The moment you press the red record button, the program greets you with a segmentation fault error (bug #224355). This isn't a serious problem but it does make users shy away from using the xvidcap tool.
The solution is to tweak few settings on the Multi-Frame preferences page. The xvidcap preferences page can be accessed by right clicking on the first button on the left hand side marked test-0000.mpeg[00000] .
Here is yet another review of a Ubuntu book before the release of the next version of Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex at the end of this month. In my last post I wrote about Beginning Ubuntu Linux
Ubuntu Unleashed 2008 edition by Andrew Hudson and Paul Hudson is the second Ubuntu book I am reviewing this week. At 850 odd pages this book covers a lot of ground and is yet another wrist breaker from Unleashed series.
The book caters to a wide range of audience from beginner to advanced, this is the highlight of the book and its major defect. The book starts by teaching you the much feared task of installing your first Ubuntu system (Part I Installation and Configuration, Part II Desktop Ubuntu) and do some basics tasks like adding new users, configuring network connections, backup up the system and burning DVD disks (Part III System Administration) and advanced system administration tasks like turning Ubuntu machine into a File and Print server or LAMP server(Part IV Ubuntu as a Server) is also covered. These who are planning to learn bit of programming could get started with Perl, Python, PHP, C/C++ or Mono (Part V Programming Linux).
Also the book has a section on Linux gaming which is rarely given coverage in other gnu/Linux books . You will find out how to install games like DOOM 3 , Unreal Tournament 2004, Quake 4, Wolfenstein, Battle for Wesnoth on Ubuntu. The book lives up to unleashed series reputation of power packing information into a single book. If you are beginner learning Ubuntu Linux this is a book you should have on your bookshelf. As for advanced users you better stick with your O'Reilly books for now or read The Debian System book.
Most of us geeky free software advocates forget that just handing out CD/DVD of gnu/Linux is not enough to get people started. It is always a good idea to suggest a book that's available in a local book store that will help learning by exploring. There is a lot of documentation and manuals that are already bundled on installation disk and also installed by default but nothing really compares to the joy of reading a printed book.
The current version of Ubuntu is 8.04 , better known by its code name Hardy Heron. And since things change from one version to another I rather suggest a title that is updated and revised to reflect the changes in latest version. Browsing through the bookstores I found this one from Apress publications called 'Beginning Ubuntu Linux' by Keir Thomas and Jaime Sicam. This book in third published edition seems to be a fully revised. It covers not only installation and basic customization but also introduces various Linux Multimedia software and Office tools. The book features a nifty reference of Linux terms and of course a DVD copy of Ubuntu and its derivatives like Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Edubuntu.
