Netbooks News, Hacks and HowTo’s

I was able to install Ubuntu Eee 8.04 beta successfully but since then, I have not configured the wifi properly. I have followed the instructions on the wiki, forum and justing gill, who is lucky enough to have his Ubuntu 8.04 perfect OOTB, but to no avail for me.

I was actually able to use the wifi even without applying the madwifi patch, but I had to turn it on from the BIOS before starting Ubuntu up. Or I have to leave the Wi-Fi ‘on’ before I restart. It could be fine though since I can always turn it off anytime I want but it seems like Network Manager is also not behaving properly. There’s no harm I observed though but it’s still better if it could work properly.
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You might also have experience with your OpenOffice to have no title bar, in fullscreen, and you can’t minimize, move or resize it when on compiz-fusion. And just like me, you can’t figure out what’s wrong and don’t know what to do. I did some research and got good ideas and formulated own idea from those. I hope my solution helps you.

Here are the problems I had with OpenOffice.

• When I open it, it’s always in fullscreen mode.
• It does not have title bars.
• The window flickers when I initiate popup menus.
• I cannot minimize, move or resize OpenOffice.
• When on xfce environment, all windows do not have title bars.

Here’s how to resolve the problem.

1. Switched off compiz-fusion. You can easily switch it on/off using Forlong’s Compiz-Switch tool.
2. Run xfce manually on the terminal window. You may notice that after running it manually, all windows, including OpenOffice will have title bars will automatically.
3. On the terminal, type ‘xfwm4′ and press enter.
4. Run compiz-fusion on xfce. To do this, run compiz-switch xfwm4 on the terminal window. To run this automatically with compiz-switch tool, I needed to add Compiz-Switch shortcut to the Program Launcher and on the command field, I put ‘compiz-switch xfwm4′. How to add a Program Launcher.
5. Problem solved! More information about compiz-switch can be found on Forlong’s blog.

You may also read on below about how I discovered the problem if you’re still not bored.

I was playing with my system configuration last week to discover more about compiz-fusion and eeexubuntu. I was able to configure the animation, session settings, etc. to what I like but then, when I started my OpenOffice, I noticed that menus don’t come out as expected. Everytime a menu pops out, the whole window will flicker and then the menu hides again.

I knew it has something to do with my new config. So I tried to bring back my new configuration but there’s something I have missed and I dont know what. Then I started to investigate and research.

A Program Launcher works the same as the Quick Launch toolbar on Windows XP.

How to add a program launcher on Ubuntu.

1. Right click on the Applications Panel. A popup menu appears.
2. Select Add New Item from the popup menu.
3. Select Launcher and click the Add button. Now you can add shortcut items to the launcher. E.g compiz-switch.

Tip: You can also add new items without typing the commands. Open the Appfinder from Accessories and you can drag and drop items to your launcher easily.

I’ve heard a lot of concerns about wi-fi capability of eeeXubuntu. Some say wi-fi do not start up. Some say they can start it up but cannot connect to any network. Some say it’s about the network manager on eeeXubuntu.

I have experienced those issues as well. I just followed the intructions descried in asus eee wiki and it really helped me.

One thing I have not resolve yet.

I can connect to all available wi-fi networks except for one. I used to hang out on that place before because wi-fi is free. But with my last 2 visits on that place, I was not able to connect successfully. The network manager says it’s connected, showing the strength in percentage. But I just can’t connect to the internet. All other users using windows running Windows OS there were able to connect successfully.

I did every possible way to reconfigure my network settings to no avail. The store owner says there’s no special steps to be connected. So I don’t have anymore ideas about it.

Somebody have any hint why? Please help.

Problem

I installed AWN after installing Compiz on asus eee. (AWN requires installing Beryl or Compiz or other compositing support)
It runs successfully, but everytime I start up eeexubuntu, multiple instances of AWN starts up. It has something to do with the saved session. That’s what I noticed.

My Solution

1. Un-check or Remove Avant-Window-Navigator from Autostarted Applications
2. Un-check the ‘Automatically start AWN on login’ from awn-manager
3. Make sure only one AWN instance is running
4. Close all other windows
5. Shutdown or restart asus eee, check Save session for future logins

This solved my problem. Everytime I start up my ubuntu, only one AWN instance starts up. I hope this helps you too.

You might somtimes run over an error message in Terminal or whatever console while trying to run a script. The error I am talking about here is the following:

bash: … : Permission denied

This is very easy to resolve in eeeXubuntu. Here are the steps.

Open a Terminal / console
type sudo su
Provide your password
Run thunar by typing thunar &
Browse the file you need to change permission
Right click on that file, click Properties > Permission
Check “Allow this file to run as a program”
There it is. SImple.

Another way to use that file without changing permission is to run it as root user. Open thunar as root, then run the file right there.

I hope this article helps you resolve your problem. Happy reading.

From the moment I installed eeeXubuntu on my Asus Eee, the battery icon already has appeared to be troublesome. And it is indeed.

At first, it showed “Battery may be broken” warning message, then it just shutdown the eeePC automatically when the battery gets critically low without any warning. When I experienced it, I got frustrated because I have lots of unsaved works and they got lost. Well, it was a lesson to me.

Then I set the battery icon appear on the system tray and I was kept informed of how long will my battery last. It still have to hover the mouse on the icon to get the info but it’s fine. But I noticed that it’s really inconsistent. One time it was too low then from time to time, it goes up and then down again. I don’t know what is wrong but it’s probably with the OS.

So far, it’s the only thing I notice wrong on eeeXubuntu. It’s still a very good OS for Asus Eee PC.

Why have I forgotten to enable my camera? Because it’s too tiny to see, and I don’t use it so frequently, I forgot to enable the camera on my asus eee. Well, at least I got it working now.

The built in camera is not enabled by default from from the BIOS. You have to manually enable it or you can follow the steps on wiki so you can turn on and off that tiny eye at will while logged in.

I have not installed Skype yet but I guess it’s the right time to do it. I wanna know if it’ll go smooth as well.