Automatix2

Woah, all i have to say is apps! What's so good about Ubuntu? How damn easy it is to install apps thanks to it's debian base, it's got apt-get with graphical front ends such as synaptic. One of my favorite apps, and one I suggest you take a gander at is called "Automatix2" it's a really great program that will allow you to install some commonly used applications by just checking some boxes. So the install for automatix2 goes as follows

Edit your sources.list:

Gnome

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list 

KDE

sudo kwrite /etc/apt/sources.list

from terminal

Substitute gedit with the text editor of your choice.

Add the following to your sources.list:

NOTE: Kubuntu/Xubuntu users will need to uncomment (remove the # before the word "deb") all the additional sources as well as add the automatix repository.

deb http://www.getautomatix.com/apt edgy main

Now save the file and close it.

Now from terminal do the following:

wget http://www.getautomatix.com/apt/key.gpg.asc

 gpg --import key.gpg.asc

 gpg --export --armor 521A9C7C | sudo apt-key add -

To finish off:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install automatix2

Google automatix2 to find out what it lets you install, I love almost everything inside of it, especially it's network manager application which btw, provides excellent and easy selection of wireless networks. It's actually easier than windows! Another excellent app inside automatix2 is the slab menu, google for a screenshot or just install it-- it's sweet!

Dualy Display on T42 Ubuntu

Now I love my laptop's display, its just plain beautiful, but I have a nice Samsung 17" lcd also so I decided, why not use both? Here's what I did. First I asked my bestfriend if he knew anyone who's done this. (my best friend being google of course) and right away he said, Jkraemer know's all about that. So i just modified his xorg.conf a bit to get mine to work.





This will result in having two monitors side by side, laptop left and the external to the right

laptop resolution = 1400x1050

external monitor resolution = 1280x1024



ALWAYS MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR ORIGINAL xorg.conf









1. Open your xorg.conf file ( sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf ) then replace with the contents of his.



2. Make following changes, or changes you would like.



I switched the keyboard to english, the drivers to ati and the display resolution of the second monitor to 1280x1024 by changing the following lines:

His:

Option "XkbLayout" "de"

Driver "radeon"

Modes "1024x768"



Mine:

Option "XkbLayout" "en"

Driver "ati"

Modes "1280x1024"

The first line change is in the first "Section InputDevice"

The second change is in both "Section Device"

The last is in the last "Section Screen"



Note: this is for my laptop which has the 1400x1050 resolution and an external monitor with 1280x1024 resolution, if you want something different, change it accordingly. Also note that this setup has the laptop screen set to be at the left of the external monitor, change "RightOf" to "LeftOf" in "Section ServerLayout"



3. Press save and close gedit



4. Press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to restart X and hopefully you have a beautiful dual display like mine.

Installation

My T42 was almost perfect "out of the box" after my edgy install. I just popped in the disc and followed the install guide and bam I was already online. This one's pretty big because a lot of distrobutions do not suppport the wireless without a little bit of work. But Ubuntu supported it perfectly. The first tthing I decided to tackle was getting a dual screen setup so I could use both the laptop display and the external monitor, not cloned but across the two. I used Jkramer's xorg.conf as a guide. See the next post for a more detailed walk through of what I did.

Jkramer

this is an excellent guide for the t42 with Ubuntu I highly recommend it.

T42buntu

This is my first blog. I can promise it will deal a lot about what I am doing to have a sweet running IBM Thinkpad T42 with Ubuntu Edgy Eft (6.10) on it. It will probabbly have a lot more than that on it though. I'm using it mainly as a way to remember what I did- if it helps you out too, great! If you see any ways to improve what I do or have any suggestions comment or email me.