This is mostly to help me remember what I like to do when setting up Ubuntu on a new computer, but maybe other folks will find it useful too. I’ll probably update it over time.

1. Update Ubuntu

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

2. Install frequently-used software

   sudo apt-get install vim hugin bitpim audacity wine flashplugin-nonfree msttcorefonts ubuntu-restricted-extras

3. Make sure SSH connections stay open
4. Enable the TrackPoint (ThinkPad specific)
5. Configure Firefox
   • allow backspace to go back in history
     Goto about:config in the location bar and set browser.backspace_action = 0
   • Move navigation buttons, location bar, and search box onto the menu bar (aka minimalist Firefox)
   • Under Edit > Preferences, turn off download manager, turn off password manager, always show tab bar
   • Install plugins
     • Copy as HTML Link
     • Firebug
     • Web developer
     • Live HTTP Headers
     • Last Tab
     • MeasureIt
     • Source Viewer Tab
6. Install EditPlus in Wine
7. Keyboard remapping
   Goto System > Preferences > Keyboard > Layouts > Layout Options > Ctrl Key Positions and select “Make CapsLock an additional Ctrl” and then Alt/Win key behavior and select “Control is mapped to the Win-keys”

Also check out: Adventures in Linux with Ubuntu and the Ubuntu Guide.

Everything else is just apt-get install and a lifetime of learning.

I ordered my X200 with the default wireless ethernet adapter, the ThinkPad 11b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Express Adapter III. I’m not even sure why I had a choice between that or the more expensive Intel WiFi Link 5100/5300, but given that I only really needed 802.11b/g support, I went with the cheaper default.

I was obviously disappointed to discover upon installing Ubuntu that it couldn’t see my wireless ethernet adapter. Grrr. This is important! It did determine that I needed some restricted (aka closed-source) Atheros drivers in order to try to get it to work, but apparently those drivers didn’t have support for this particular wireless chipset (AR242x):

$ lspci
...
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR242x 802.11abg Wireless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)

Without finding the kind of shining bullet that would make everything dandy, I attempted a few different instructions for how to get wireless to work, most of them outside my normal apt-get comfort level, and eventually, almost surprisingly, wireless started working. Of course I’d done a number of different things, and I wasn’t really sure which combination had produced the intended effect. So this morning I reinstalled Ubuntu from scratch, tried what I assumed to be the bare minimum necessary to get wireless to work, and it did!

So anyway, this is what worked for me:

1. Install Ubuntu
   At the time of writing, 8.04 (Hardy Heron) was the latest version
2. Update Ubuntu

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

3. Install tools for compiling software

   sudo apt-get install build-essential

4. Get the latest MadWifi HAL from http://snapshots.madwifi.org/, e.g.

   wget http://snapshots.madwifi.org/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6/madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3861-20080903.tar.gz

5. Decompress

   tar xzf madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3861-20080903.tar.gz

6. Compile

   cd madwifi-hal-0.10.5.6-r3861-20080903
   sudo make
   sudo make install

7. Reboot

Et voila!

Best boxer shorts ever! Just ordered 4.

(the boxer boxers come in a close second)

I’m typing this on my new laptop. The totally hot Lenovo ThinkPad X200. It’s like 4 generations of improvement over my X23. The best part about it is the 12.1″ 1280×800 resolution LCD screen. The worst part is that Lenovo forced me to buy it with Windows (and now there’s this annoying Windows flag key wedged between the Ctrl and Alt—it’s already been remapped as Ctrl). Thankfully they gave me the option of saving forty bucks by downgrading to Windows Vista Basic.

When it arrived on Monday, I booted it up, just to make sure it worked, and kind of realized this was the first time I was really seeing the infamous Vista. Then I realized my eyes were burning, so I had to look away and turn it off. When I got home I plugged in my external CD-ROM drive, loaded an Ubuntu 8.04 disk I had laying around, and immediately blew Windows away.

And dammit if the Atheros-based wireless card didn’t work when I finally booted into Ubuntu. This made me sad. I thought maybe I could switch out the mini pci wireless card in my old X23 (which works with Ubuntu), but turns out mini pci != mini pci express. Eventually I sucked it up (I’m such an apt-get baby) and found some instructions that essentially amounted to compiling my own HAL (hardware abstraction layer) for Atheros. Now everything is peachy keen.

Some people probably would use stories like this to demonstrate how Linux is not ready for prime time or the “average” user. However if Lenovo offered Ubuntu preloaded on their laptops (LIKE DELL DOES) they would make damn well sure it had the latest and greatest drivers for their wireless cards. And I’m not exactly an average user. It’s all a question of market share and economies of scale. I’m just trying to do my part.

I’ve been looking forward to Capay Organic’s summer farm tour (and heirloom cherry tomato picking) since I went to their spring farm tour and strawberry picking back in May. This time Stephanie was able to come, and we had a ball: walking around in the hot sun, eating warm figs right off the tree, and picking some of the sweetest cherry tomatoes I’ve ever tasted. These things are candy. And we picked a lot!

Cherry tomatoes on the vine

Justin picking red ones

Stephanie picking yellow ones

Cherry tomatoes (and dirty fingers) up close

The result of our hard work

Stephanie fancies herself a farmer

Yesterday I found myself sitting on the floor of a small room backstage at The Independent, recording an interview with one of my favorite bands.

I’m not even sure how it came to be that I was sitting there in that room on that day, except that Federated Media has been building this big “live media-cum-social media” event/website called Crowdfire for the Outside Lands Music Festival this weekend. As part of that, a bunch of folks (FM employees and FM bloggers) have been tasked with interviewing some of the musicians who are taking part. Somehow Leona got in touch with the Two Gallants, mentioned this to me off-hand one day, and seemed all too happy to have me along as her cameraman.

And so it was that I collected all my lo-fi camera gear—video recording them with my old Canon Digital Elph, and audio recording them with my Zoom H2 Handy Recorder. I enlisted Andy as our video editor, who spent most of the day splicing the video and audio and then editing it down into YouTube-able segments. The interview hasn’t been uploaded for public consumption yet, but when it has, I’ll be sure to post it here.

In the meantime, I did record a few minutes of the Two Gallants sound check before the interview, which I posted to White Noise Lounge earlier this morning.

Third in a series of stellar views (exhibit A and B). This is the view due west from the Hills Bros Coffee building, with the green glass Infinity tower in the foreground on the right.

And for the curious, here’s my desk in its present spartan state.

Like Andre says, all this can be yours and more, if you know, join us.

This is a view I’m guessing very few people ever experience. I call it “The Reverse Hills Bros.” This is not exactly the new view from my desk—I’ll post that in a day or two.