I just finished basic configuration of Ubuntu 8.04 Beta (Hardy Heron) on my laptop - AND IT’S AWESOME!! My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite P105-S6024, and I’ve been having no end of problems getting the audio to work in conjunction with the ACPI. Turns out the Toshiba provided ACPI code for the BIOS isn’t all that great under GNU/Linux, and in order to fix the problem you’ve got to either recompile the kernel (which was the direction I had finally decided to take this weekend), or if you could get it to work, there’s a way to add the code to the initrid.

I had read this morning that there was a new Ubuntu release and, as I was having problems with Debian and was about to reinstall Ubuntu 7.10, so I decided to give it a try. Well, it’s a Beta, but I’m not going to hold that against it! Compiz is installted by default (but just subtley enough you don’t know it till you’re seeing the tell tail fades and such), Firefox 3 Beta 4, wireless support includes WPA (which it has had built-in since the 7.10 release), improved dual screen support for laptops, hell - I didn’t even have to install 915resolution to setup my Intel display to 1440×900! I still had to install Amorok and vlc manually, but that’s cake compared to recompiling a kernel.

1. So far so good, performance is a bit sluggish (especially with the extra visual enhancements enabled), but I’m thoroughly tickled pink by the feature set and compatibility! THANK YOU UBUNTU COMMUNITY!!

Link:

Ubuntu Test Releases

Yes, much has happened since my last post.

• July - Applied to East Carolina University
• August -
  • Was accepted to ECU
  • Started looking for financing to attend ECU
  • Registered for classes
  • Ordered books and paid for classes
  • Installed Vista Business on my laptop for school (now I can say without question - I LOATH Vista - with a passion hereto unknown to me)
• Last Couple of Months - Working on a new theme for the website
• Last Couple of Weeks - Working on an idea for a web comic, trying out different management solutions for said web comic (definitely more on this to come)
• Last Night - accidentally wiped out my gallery, decided to use the opportunity to install Gallery2 and give it a try (again)

More to come, when I get some time that is (did I mention I’m taking classes again? so much for “when I get time, I’m going to start concentrating more on my on-line presence…).