Ubuntu on Compaq Presario F500

Installing Ubuntu Gutsy on Presario F500

Recently Leena got a new laptop [ Presario F500] . At its base, there is a 64-bit AMD Turion Processor and 1 GB RAM. To add to this there is a Wide Screen [15.4''] and Altec Lansing Speakers. But this is not good enough for Windows Vista [packed by default] to run.

Ubuntu Installs normally except certains glitches.

1. LiveCD causes the system to hang.

1. Once you see the splash screen of Ubuntu's main menu press F6
2. You will get the kernel command line, append vga=792 or vga=791 to that line and press Enter or b
3. Now X server should start and you will see the Ubuntu Desktop

The reason for this hack is probably because it has a widescreen display.

2. Machine during boot up.

1. Post Installation, your machine will hang because of the above mentioned problem.
2. In grub edit the kernel command line and the params mentioned above.
3. This may not be enough for your system to bootup. It wasn't surely enough for me.
4. I had to remove the params quiet and splash also.
   
5. Make these changes permanent once the system boots up by editing the /boot/grub/menu.lst .
   

NOTE: Removing quiet and splash, although necessary will not show any splash screen while the OS is booting. You will directly see to the login window.

3. Getting Wireless/Compiz working.

1. Unfortunately Wireless doesn't work out of the box.
2. You will need the Broadcom wireless binary driver.
3. Goto Menu System-> Administrator -> Restricted Driver Manager .
4. It will say Broadcom driver not in use. Select the checkbox associated with it .
5. It will ask for a link from which to download firmware . You will get it here .
6. Once the state changes to in use. You are successful.
7. Similarly to get Compiz working, select the NVidia Driver which is not is use.
   It will download the driver and again once the state changes to in use. You are successful.
8. This will need a system reboot.
   

4. Nonfree Flash doesn't work in Firefox.

1. The non-free Adobe flash player embedded in Firefox will surely not work although package manager will say its installed, as there is no 64bit version yet.
2. Use gnash [ open source/free flash player] . It works just fine.
3. People seem to crib about java plugin for Firefox not working on 64bit boxes, but it worked fine for me.
   

References:
1. Tom On Identity
2. Ubuntu's wireless Docs

Start Ups and Free/Open Source Technology

I am starting my first tech blog [hoping more will follow] . The topic i choose is Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) not only because its what i work on but it is something that can cause a revolution if isn't already.

What revolution am i talking about ?
The same revolution that enables Computers become personal [PC] and available to all, or the Interne t which allows access to whole load of data stored anywhere around the world. All this is a cliché but nonetheless true.
Such is the potential of FOSS. In my opinions, Start-ups and/or SME (Small/Medium Enterprises) are the ones which can/will exploit FOSS in many ways.

One of the biggest hurdles start-ups can face is investing a lot of money in buying licensed copies of Propretiary Closed Source Non-free Softwares like Windows/Office or some SQL database like Oracle.This may or maynot directly even help product development.
It is easily possible to use open-source alternatives which are freely available and can give equal if not greater quality of software.
This is very important. People may think free/open software may mean less-than-standard software. That is not at all the case.
Fedora/Ubuntu Linux Distributions have matured over the years and have become very stable. OpenOffice can provide great office productivity. MySQL is very good competitor to any SQL solution available.
These are just few examples. There are many such solutions available.

Another Issue is Development Tools . IDE's like Visual Studio again cost a lot.Linux comes with a default compiler for C/C++.
Development Tools for technologies involving langauges like Python, Perl, PHP, AJAX etc are freely available on Linux. Hence building applications using these technologies as simple as it is in Windows.Also programmers for above mentioned can easily migrate from Windows to Linux.
As Initial investment comes down, lot of businesses/ideas can actually see the light.

The latest buzzword in the industry these days is Web2.0 . A lot of start-ups rushing to provide their services. And Obviously Open Source solutions are present here as well .Linux, Apache, MySQL, Ruby on Rails, Python, Django, PHP, and AJAX. You just have to name it.
Start ups like YouTube (now owned by Google), Facebook, Mugshot (a venture by Red Hat), Twitter, Stumble Upon, Reddit, Digg, LinkedIn, Dopplr, Tabblo, Pownce are all major users of Open Source Technology.

Another area that is largely benefitting is embedded devices. Linux is easily portable to the ARM architecture[which is predominantly used for embeddedded devices]. There can be cheaper handheld devices as the cost of Operating System will be negligible. Openmoko is one such example. Also Google introduced the Open-Source Android Platform which will foster development of hundreds of applications.
Unlike Symbian or Microsoft based mobile phones, Linux-based Mobile phones can allow 3rd party applications to run flawlessly.OpenMoko supports the GTK+ Platform which means any GNOME based application can run on it.
Althought business opportunities here maybe restricted; Once 3G networks become a norm, it can surely foster a growth of services for mobile-devices.
Startups in this market can surely leverage FOSS for their advantage

Setting up the internal infrastructure for a startup like setting up IMAP,DHCP,DNS servers, providing home-users access to the network usings VPNs, Securing the network etc is an area costing a lot of dollars. Open Source solutions can bring down not only the initial cost but also the maintenance cost.
What about Desktops/Laptops for developers and other staff ?
One Licensed Version of Windows Vista costs around Rs 10,000/-and assume there are 20 Desktops. You don't need a math genius to figure out where those precious dollars are going.

Last word.

I am surely not criticizing or against propretiary software or the amount of money they charge. Its another business model ,so is FOSS. The point here incase not clear is start-ups can "start" up easily with availability of high quality software at low costs .


References:

Article from technetra.com
Article from wired.com
OpenMoko
Android