In December I bought this brand new laptop and had the perfect excuse to upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10. Like I mentioned in this post, the video drivers were the only issue I had.

Nvidia released new drivers for Linux 64 (v. 190.53) so I took the chance to update and plug an old 19” monitor to my laptop. To enable TwinView I muddled through some documentation but finally made it work.

Here’s the code from xorg.conf that enables TwinView:

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection
 
Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option	    "TwinView"
    Option	    "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP-0, CRT-0"
    Option	    "MetaModes" "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select, CRT-0: nvidia-auto-select"
    Option	    "CustomEDID" "DFP-0:/path/edid/monitor1.bin; CRT-0:/path/edid/monitor2.bin"
    Option	    "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0,CRT-0"
    Option	    "TwinViewOrientation" "DFP-0 LeftOf CRT-0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

I had to add the binary EDID files because the X server was unable to identify the correct resolution for my laptop: 1366×768. The second monitor is 1280×1024… now I’m really seduced by a 27” monitor.

This week I decided to add a second monitor to my notebook. I first thought I was going to have a hard time. Check manuals, forums and alike. Especially because the 2nd monitor and my notebook have different resolutions.

Surprise. It was too easy. Plug and play.

Well, almost. I could not set the 2nd monitor to a higher resolution. I had to open /etc/X11/xorg.conf, increase the Virtual resolution and restart gnome.

Anyway, having fun with 2 monitors again. Wohooo!!

I followed the instructions to use UXA instead of EXA and it improved the perfomance on how graphics are rendered in my notebook. It is still not fast as it used to be though.

Note on Jun/23/2009

I was happy to notice this morning that the list of updates from Ubuntu 9.04 included the kernel (2.6.28-13) and compiz. All visual effects are back and working fine with the Intel Graphics card.

The only drawback for me is that the Intel Graphics built into my laptop is not supported. No fancy visual effects right now. I have to check it later though. I’m using a Sony Vaio VGN-NR330AE that I bought while I was still living in Brazil.

As noted on my previous post I’m back to Gnome. KDE versions 4.0 and 4.1 didn’t work for me although KDE 4.2 seems to be really good. I might be wrong but I just have the feeling that Gnome is more stable. I also noted that I spend most of my time with 3 tools: Emacs, Firefox and the terminal. The first 2 are built upon GTK and the 3rd is great at both graphical platforms.

Emacs? Lisp? Ain’t the title about Ubuntu??

Yes it is!

Well, I’m a huge fan of Ubuntu. Can’t go back to Windows anymore.

There’s only one thing that pisses me off. Wireless is a nightmare. Here’s the saga. Installed Ubuntu 7.04. No wireless. After reading some tutorials and hundreds of posts it finally worked! It is worth pointing out that Ubuntu Forums is great source of information but has a lot of noise.

Updated to Ubuntu 7.10. Wireless broken. Here I go again… forums, blogs… wireless back. Ubuntu 8.04? Guess? Wireless broken again. Hell. Ok, this time just one blog for the rescue. Everything back to normal, then… update in the kernel plus a few more fixes and not for the first time something happened. Guess? Again? Wireless.

I hate to copy and paste solutions from forums. I need to understand why things are the way they are. That’s why every time the Internet on Ubuntu stops I need to re-read tips and recipes and be remembered that I’m no wireless network whiz.

I’m not lazy. I can tell you that. The problem is on my focus. I don’t want to loose my current focus and order some books about wireless from Amazon so I can have internet connection, so I can study elisp (and power of spaces and tabs whenever I want), so I can go back to PHP and Python.

I can only hope that Intrepid Ibex finally offer wireless network working out of the box.

Too much whining today. Guess I’m pissed about my passport and PF here in Brazil. As an angel once told me about PF: “there’s no sense of customer service”.

Note on Dec/02/2008

Bought a new notebook. Good chance to install Intrepid Ibex and check how is the wireless issue. I had a feeling that it would not work. And tadaaaaaa! Crap! I was right. No wireless out of the box and ndiswrapper in rescue. Well, this time I’m running KDE instead of Gnome. Just for the sake of something new. Blue is way cooler than brown.

Note on Mar/22/2009

Truth must be told. KDE 4.1 made me wanna go back to Gnome. I will wait until Ubuntu 9.04 to try Wireless out of the box again and get rid of KDE that by then will probably have a good 4.2 version that I won’t check. That is a lesson for people selling software to be learned. You have to paint a Mona Lisa everyday.

Note on Apr/25/2009

I’m running Ubuntu 9.04!