Unduly Noted

What a great upgrade. Ubuntu just keeps getting easier and easier for the everyday user. This is from a clean install onto a 2.4ghz 17″ Macbook Pro with Nvidia8600M GT.

VIDEO:
After intalling you will notice you can’t enable visual effects (compiz-fusion). Just go to System on the top menu, Administration, Hardware Drivers. It will search for drivers. If it doesn’t list your Nvidia Card reboot and try again. Make sure you have an active internet connection. Repeat the above process and it should now list 2 drivers. I chose the top one (version 180) by clicking the radio button to the left of it (turns it green). It will now install. It will then tell you to reboot.

SOUND/AUDIO:
Sound doesn’t work out of te box.
type the following into the terminal:
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

copy the line below and paste it at the bottom of the document that opens. (the end of the following code can change depending on your laptop, just Google the term)
options snd_hda_intel model=mbp3

Hit the save button and reboot

INTERNET/WIRELESS
Very flaky, disconnects all the time. Makes updating take forever. Easy Fix

Before you do the below make sure you type the following in the terminal:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
Open terminal and type the following 2 lines hitting return after each. (Credit to Alex for this one)

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-jaunty
sudo apt-get install wicd

You will get an error saying you are missing something at the end of the install (this is normal).
Reboot and you will now see a new Wifi config tool in the upper right. Give it a go. To get this working on the iphone with pdanet or iphone modem shoot me an email, i’m too tired to explain it in this post. Open the wifi utility by clicking on it in the upper left. Go to preferences and then uncheck the box that says “Automatically reconnect on connection lost”. (You may not need to but since I am running an Ad-Hoc network it was really messing it up).

VLC and Encrypted DVD playback:
Just go to http://videolan.org and download/install the .deb package. You will notice that it still won’t play commercial DVD’s.
for other codecs you may as well run the following in the terminal:
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras
Open the terminal and type the following and hit return.
##OLD###  —>sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2
New Edit: follow instructions here

DONE. reboot if it is flaky.
Also, the latest .deb of handbrake (0.9.3) works great with 9.04. Just head on over and download it.

DISPLAY BACKLIGHT:
Go to System, Preferences, Power Management. Now click on the far right tab General. Uncheck ‘Use ambient light to adjust LCD brightness’.

HFS+ READ WRITE:
In 9.04 you can read some of the stuff but not all of it. This is because Ubuntu does not look for users below 1000, and your mac is probably 501. Right click on your mounted OS X drive on the desktop and click properties, now click the far right tab (I think its volume). Look for that number on top (should be 501). Now open the terminal and type the following hitting return after each. (thanks to changuito)

sudo groupmod -g 501 youruserid
sudo usermod -g 501 youruserid
sudo usermod -u 501 youruserid

Warning, You will no longer see your user listed at login and will have to manually type your user name/pass to login. This is a temp fix that I will update soon. If you want read write acces to the HFS+ partition  you ned to disable journaling on the mac side. Reboot into OSX and type the following into the terminal and hit enter (case sensetive):
sudo disableJournal /

I personally only need read acccess and don’t like the thought of disableing journaling. Mac OSX may take awhile to boot the next time after disableing. You can ways reneable by doing the following in the terminal in mac os X.
sudo enableJournal /

NOTES:
I need to find a better trackpad driver. I always have “Ignore Accidental Input” turned off in Mac OS 10.5 and it feels like it is on in Ubuntu. Just not as senstive.

FYI: My laptop is a MBP 3,1 . To determine yours type this into the terminal in ubuntu:
sudo dmidecode -s system-product-name

I will add to this post as I continue to run Ubuntu 9.04 on my MBP.

Ok, so this is an obvious one but if you are reading this then you probably don’t know yet. You will need to download skype from the apple store (free). If you try running it and making a call without wifi you will get an error stating that you can’t make calls with skype over 3g.
Fix: Take your Jailbroken iphone (I use quickpwn to do it) and make sure the bigboss repository is installed via Cydia. Now search for VoIPover3G in Cydia. Install it. If it doesn’t tell you that you need to also install MobileSubstrate (which it should) go ahead and search for/install that as well. Reboot and test. This works well for me even on EDGE with a 2G iPhone. Of course you can also use Skype on your computer tethered through the iPhone with Pdanet.