Tarraguña's Blog

As it had been over six months since I had installed windows on my HP 2133, it was time to wipe the drive and re install.  Since my Ubuntu is set up to dual boot on this machine, that also meant I had to re install Ubuntu.  The best way to wipe a drive is to wipe everything and re partition.

I started by using gParted and setting up a partition for Windows so that it would not just install and take over the entire drive.  You have to keep your eye on Windows.  After installing Windows on the first partition, I was ready to install Ubuntu.

Ubuntu 8.04 was the version of Linux that I had previously installed.  I had wanted to install the latest version of Ubuntu, which as of this post is 9.10, but I just did not have much success installing the updated distros.

When installing a distro of Linux, sometimes you just have to go with what works best on your hardware.  I downloaded the .iso file for Ubuntu 9.10, 9.04 and 8.10.  I burned the live CD for each of them and proceeded to test them out on my HP 2133.  My biggest obstacle with these Ubuntu versions was getting the wireless hardware to work and jump on my wireless network.  As the HP 2133 Mini-Note is a small laptop made to be portable, the wireless working was essential in my case.  I also knew that I did not have the time nor the Linux know how to figure out a work around for the more recent versions.  As no one had of yet posted a fix online, I opted to reinstall Ubuntu 8.04.  I knew this version worked great on my hardware.

Install Ubuntu 8.04 on HP 2133

• Review, read and follow this wiki
• Download Ubuntu 8.04 .iso here
• Burn .iso to CD or DVD creating live CD, (windows or mac)
• Boot from Live CD
• Press F6 to bring up boot options line
• Type ‘xforcevesa’ at the end of the line and hit enter
• This should start the installation process
• Follow the prompts during installation to establish time zone and the computer name etc
• After installation is complete take out Live CD and restart
• Connect to internet with network cable
• On top right click on System> Administration > Update Manager and download and install the updates and restart
• To get wireless working, click on System> Administration> Hardware Drivers and from here you should be able to activate/ enable the wireless driver and then restart
• Now you can click on Applications> Add/Remove to install more software and set up you machine how you like.
• The webcam is the only thing I have not gotten to work properly so far.

Since it has been over 6 months since I had installed a windows os on my HP 2133, problems started showing up clueing me into the fact that it was time to wipe the drive, reinstall the os and start all over.  My previous set up on my HP 2133 was a tri boot of Windows Vista, Windows 7 (release candidate only), and Ubuntu 8.04.

Windows

Once all of the service packs were installed Vista actaully worked quite well.  Although maybe I think that because there was so much negative said about Vista.  I really only use Windows for those few websites that my work or my husband’s work require IE and Windows OS to access.  And I also use it to run Skype as the video conferencing does not always seem to work right on many of the Linux distros I have tried.  Damn the man you can’t ever fully get away from Windows.  I don’t want to install it on my Mac, YUCK.  I did like testing Windows 7 but not enough to run out and buy it for over 100 dollars.

Linux; Ubuntu 8.04

I loved running Ubuntu on my HP2133.  The built in wireless card and web camera worked wonderfully.  You have to love it when all you have to do is install from the live CD and practically all of the hardware works without having to search for how to set it up and use the terminal and search for drivers.  The only drawback was that Skype did not work too well.  Well the IM function worked great but video calls did not.  Ubuntu is a great Linux distro to start using if you are new to using Linux or if you just want to get going after an install.  In my case there even was already a wiki on how to install Ubuntu on my particular netbook.

Linux; OpenSUSE 11.0 KDE

Because Skype was the only app that did not work quite right in Ubuntu I kept searching for a good Linux distro for my HP 2133.  I discovered some posts about OpenSUSE 11.0 KDE running well on the HP 2133.  Reading the directions and notes associated with these posts of successful installation would have made things way too easy.  I downloaded the iso, burned it to a CD and installed in on my HP 2133.  I did not even re partition the hard drive.  I just wanted to see how it would work.  I like OpenSUSE.  I used to have it installed on an old Dell laptop.  Sadly the wireless card and web cam did not work right after installation.  So this will take some tweaking.  The last resort; I guess I will go back and read some documentation.

I have some sad news. Upon downloading Boxee and being all excited about using it in the Alpha development cycle my PowerBook G4 running OS X Leopard is not an Intel Mac so Boxee will not run on my Mac. It is a PPC Mac. I am looking into trying XBMC but I won’t have time to test it until this weekend.

I have just received my email confirming my approval as an alpha tester for Boxee.tv. I can’t wait to get home, download it, and start testing it out. I will keep you posted on how I like it. So expect an update in about a week on this.

If you don’t already know what boxee is let me explain it as I understand it. It is free, open source media center. Now it is available for Mac and Linux and I hear it will be available for Windows soon. It is written in C++ programming language. Ideally it is how you can easily access and play all of your media on your harddrives along with things you have on the web like your flickr photos for example. It is like the ultimate interface for your videos, picutes, music and other media. At least that is how I understand it now before testing it.

I will keep you posted.

sueño en comprar este HP 2133 y ponerle 3 o más sistemas operativos; XP o Vista (solo porque viene con una de ellas), Ubuntu (Linux), y Solaris10. Encontré un pdf en como instalar Solaris 10 aquí instalacion.  He usado OpenSUSE distro de Linux y claro he usado XP y Vista.  Nunca he usado las otras sistems operativos y quiero hacerlo.  Y quiero hacer esto.  ¿Para que voy a comprar software si puedo hacer lo mismo gratis?

In keeping more of your money by spending less of it… Instead of buying computer software, a lot of software is available though a concept of open source.  For example instead of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser you can download for free Mozilla Firefox browser.  Do you remember the Netscape browser?  Many of the programmers who designed Netscape are now working on many of the Mozilla programs.  For many of the costly software programs there exists a free open source version.  This entry here from The Simple Dollar website gives a great list of some of the best open source FREE versions for Windows PCs that you can start using now instead of buying more software.  Keep your money.