[devel] Fwd: Re: Ubuntu in the news (OSNews and LC2210D)

[devel] Fwd: Re: Ubuntu in the news (OSNews and LC2210D)

[Michael Shigorin]

	Hi!
Интересное обсуждение OEM-проблем с точки зрения "простого
разработчика" по мотивам т.з. "простого пользователя".

----- Forwarded message from Paul Sladen <sounder paul.sladen.org> -----

Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 22:28:18 +0100 (BST)
From: Paul Sladen <sounder paul.sladen.org>
To: Ubuntu Sounder <sounder lists.ubuntu.com>
Subject: Re: Ubuntu in the news (OSNews and LC2210D)

On Thu, 12 May 2005, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> On Thu, May 12, 2005 at 05:37:42PM +0200, Fabio Massimo Di Nitto wrote:
> > Rapha?l Berbain wrote:
> > > http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=10542

It's quite good that they shipped it with Ubuntu, the current webpage at:

  http://linuxcertified.com/linux-laptop-lc2210d.html

says:

]  Currently recommended distribution on LC2210D:
]    Fedora Core 3 with March updates

So if they are pushing out review models by default with Ubuntu instead of
Fedora I see that as a good sign that Ubuntu is doing something right!

> it is clear that the reviewer was making system-level changes (for
> example, setting a root password) at the same time.

Unfortunately, it sounds worse than this... that the OEM has set a password
and instructed the user to login as root on first-boot, viz:

]  [...] LC has configured the laptop with a root password that you
]  initially logged in as, and then create your user using ubuntu's
]  user's preference panel.

This is where the OEM installer stuff is really needed so that this
situation can be avoided.

]  [...] LC has installed some additional software to the stock
]  ubuntu: mplayer, xbindkeys and suspend/resume.

The 'xbindkeys' seems reasonable---this functionality should work
out-of-the-box for Breezy and the latter, (hibernate) probably worked
anyway.

]  also I couldn't load gnome as root anymore

I want to patch GDM so that it reads Vogon Poetry to any user when they try
to do this.  Grrrrrgh.

]  The suspend/resume function takes about 20 seconds to resume and about 10
]  seconds to suspend.

This sounds remarkably fast for 'swsusp'.  I assume this /is/ 'hibernate'
and not 'suspend'.

]  1. [...] Gnome's mouse preference panel does not support Synaptics

Same goes for Nipple and Pen calibration.  I added a note to the Specs
yesterday.

]  2. Sleep does not work: if you close the lid, the lcd will go off,

Instead of disabling it in case it doesn't work, we could just make the
default 'mem' (which _should_ work everywhere) and only enable 'standby'
explicitly on hardware where it is known to work

The second point, what event maps to what action is one of configuration.

]  3. XMMS with either OSS or ALSA wouldn't work here.

That's because it wants 'ESD' and this should be selected by default.  Is
it?  Hopefully the proposed AudioInfrastructure we discussed should fix this
by coping with OSS/ALSA/ESD/gstreamer APIs and forwarding the whole lot onto
DMIX with ALSA on the backend.

]  Rhythmbox was also saying that it doesn't support mp3

This requires 1ll3g4l stuff from multiverse, unless the OEM wants to pay a
couple of bucks for the patent license and enable it.  Since alot of OEMs
already pay for DVD software they may want to do this...

]  4. There is no 3D support, as it is not compatible with suspend/resume,

I couldn't find the hardware specificaiton onthe website, but I'm guessing
it's an Nvidia and they're using the 'nv' driver instead of the binary-only
one.

]  5. After upgrading Ubuntu to the latest version using Ubuntu's update
]  panel, mplayer stopped working,

I wonder how mplayer was installed originally (the article states that
the OEM did it) and which archive it came from?  Even so, I'm still intriged
how it broke since hopefully any newer stuff grabbed from multiverse should
have replaced it.

]  6. The user I created ('eugenia', belonging to the 'users' group), could
]  not use wifi. Only ethernet was available to that user.

Three puzzlements here:

(a) was the user's primary group 'users' rather than 'eugenia'
(b) the user may not have been added to the 'admin' group for sudo
(c) would the wifi not working related to the possibility of not having
    sudo or just the wifi never working.  What other user /did/ have access
    to it.  The best oI can think of is something like a steal dhclient lock
    with the wrong ownership.

Perhaps it's time to ask LC "for a loaner" and some funding to make it work
specifically on their hardware...  (or at least an email to LC and the
reviewer to confirm what does and doesn't need fixing).

	-Paul
-- 
It sometimes snows here.  London, GB




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 ---- WBR, Michael Shigorin <mike@altlinux.ru>
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