delusionofgrandeur

This evening I am mostly installing Ubuntu on my Compaq Presario 2100

This will probably come out a bit garbled as I will write this as I install…

First Impression: Nice installer, it STBs slightly as it tries to set up the mixer for the laptop’s built-in AC97 audio but nevertheless it plays a jingle just after booting. I am then landed in an apparently GNOME-based desktop with a few options to choose from. Feeling like a fish out of water without my QT widgets, I kick off the installation selecting ‘Install’ from the booted desktop by *double* clicking(!) - Don’t these people know how hard it can be to replace laptop microswitches? Not to worry tho as the synaptics touchpad is already working and a double-tap will suffice.

Running through the installer is just as expected, set the language, timezone, keyboard and go with the automatic partition suggestion (the one that overwrites that awful SuSE-10.1 install). Tell it to start and the progress meters show….er….progress as the CDROM drive makes sounds like a turntablist master at work - Don’t these people know how expensive slimline DVDROM drives are?

During the install, the light already shows ‘link-up’ on my Draytek 540 wireless card. I’m fairly confident that it isn’t actually up as I know the chipset uses the prism54 driver which requires separate firmware. Still just a tiny concern that it has got all excited and connected to a neighbours open AP. (Yes, I have my fair share of sheep round here).

The progress meter does enlighten me as to what it is doing but it’s best to multiply any completion estimates by 3, probably due to the general slowness of my Presario 2100.

I now realise that I was not prompted to, nor did I investigate encrypting the filesystem prior to installation. I wonder if it can be done later? Encryption is certainly good to have if you lose your laptop or have it stolen.

…better multiply the time estimates by 6.

On completing the installation, I am prompted to reboot and also to remove the disk just prior to restarting.

The system has rebooted.

To be continued…

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 19th, 2006 at 10:22 pm and is filed under Software / Hardware / DIY.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.