Ubuntu Tutorials

I’ve been working on a complete guide to installing Ubuntu on a MacBook, part of which includes a customized xorg.conf to offer right-click, double-tap, scrolling and other such functionality. In a release-early, release-often mindset I wanted to post my config now. If you run Ubuntu on a macbook this might be helpful. If you have any suggestions to add I would appreciate hearing about those as well.

Ooh, if you’re running on a MacBook Pro there is a similar config for that hardware available here.

Remember, before you update *any* of your xorg.conf it is *always* a good idea to back it up. The last thing you want is a b0rk3d graphical server with no revert options. (sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf-date).

…and if you read this far you can view / download my xorg.conf here:

macbook customized xorg.conf

The main magic is in the Section “Input Device”.

There is some built-in functionality on the MacBook hardware that I have that I have grown accustomed to, but not really enjoyed.  It has been one of those slight annoyances–something that you just kind of get used to–although it gets under your skin.  Well today I decided I had enough and hunted down the solution.  And, as is my nature, I have decided to blog my findings so you won’t have to look as hard as I have.

To reverse the function key behaviour on MacBook and MacBook Pro (I assume) you need to create an entry in one of the files in modprobe.d/.  The reason we want to do this is that, by default, the fn key behaviour is already reversed from what you might expect.  If there was such a key as fn-lock (think caps lock) imagine that being stuck on all the time.  This suggestion will fix that for you.

First, you’ll need to create a new file in the /etc/modprobe.d/ directory.  For my machine and for the sake of this tutorial we’ll call that file ‘function’.  You might use a command such as:

sudo vim /etc/modprobe.d/function

Within that file you will want to add one of the two below entries depending on your kernel version.  (If you are unsure your kernel version run the command ‘uname -r‘ to find out.)

# Reversing the fn behaviour ( >= 2.6.20 kernel)

options hid pb_fnmode=2

or

# Reversing the fn behaviour ( < 2.6.20 kernel)

options usbhid pb_fnmode=2

After you have pasted in the appropriate entry you may want to restart your machine or try reloading the hid or usbhid kernel module, after which the function behaviour should be corrected.

I got another email reminder yesterday from O’Reilly about the nearly expired early-bird discount for Ubuntu Live registration.  I knew I had been putting things off so I head over to the registration site to get things taken care of.  The site is very clean, easy to navigate and the information was all readily available.  No concerns there.  The only concern I had / have is the cost.

I don’t know what others think about it, but even with the 35% discount, early-bird special and travel it is too much for a three day conference.

I should mention that I *really* want to go.  I almost feel obligated to go as someone that does so much with the Ubuntu Community, but I can’t rationalize the price for the time.

What are you thoughts on Ubuntu Live?  Are you going? Do you think the price is reasonable?  I’d like to hear others thoughts…

Please consider downloading the latest version of folding instead.

After some continued testing and expanding I think my Folding @ Home Automated Installer is ready for initial release (release early, release often, right?). I would appreciate any testing, bug reports, expanding the tested / supported distribution list, etc.

Currently, as of v0.1 it has been tested on the following distributions:

Ubuntu 7.04

RedHat Enterprise Linux 5

Oracle Enterprise Linux 4

SuSE Enterprise Linux Server 10

SuSE Linux 10.1

Fedora Core 6

Fedora 7

You can find a link to the download below. It comes in three compressed formats for your convenience. Enjoy!

Folding @ Home Automated Installer

Yesterday I volunteered at a local release party for Fedora 7.  We had a great time, a lot of people showed up, and Fedora was enjoyed by all.  One feature in the new Fedora 7 desktop that was popular is that of fast user switching.  Of course, not to be outdone, I decided to sit down and write a tutorial on how to activate fast user switching on an Ubuntu 7.04 machine.

This tutorial breaks up into two main steps.  The first is installation, the second activation / configuration.

To install the fast user switching option on Ubuntu you can use the following command or install the package via Synaptic.

sudo aptitude install fast-user-switch-applet

After that has installed (it’s only 645kB) you simply need to add it to your panel as an applet.   You can do that by right-clicking on your panel, selecting “add to panel” and finding “User Switcher” in the Miscellaneous section.

Once this is added you are able to very easily switch between users on the system without completely logging out and logging into another desktop.  Simply click on the “Users” icon now appearing on your panel and select another user!

If you have multiple users an your machine, or share the machine with a spouse / roommate / etc this is a really useful little tool.  Enjoy!