Living with Lucid: Working desktop effects on an Intel X3100

I have tested Ubuntu 10.04 since Alpha 3 on a variety of laptops, all of which have integrated Intel graphics.  It’s been a real mixed bag performance-wise.  My HP Mini (GMA950) has been A-OK all along.  My IBM ThinkPad X40 (Intel 855, I think) has no DRI acceleration.  My HP Compaq 2710p with an Intel X3100 has working DRI and Compiz is fine but the netbook launcher is dog-slow on anything newer than the 2.6.32-18 kernel.  Thankfully, the xorg-edgers PPA fixes all of my graphical woes.

NOTE THAT THIS MAY CAUSE PROBLEMS FOR YOU.  It has worked for me, I offer no guarantees.

1. Open a terminal
2. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
3. sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
4. Reboot, you should be good.

Again, this has worked for me.  Please do this knowing that you’re basically running beta Xorg packages.

Living with Lucid: Map Windows key to netbook launcher

Clicking on the top-left icon of the default desktop shows you the computer’s “desktop”  (The launcher.)  To map this to the Windows key, open a terminal and type:

gconftool-2 –set /apps/metacity/global_keybindings/show_desktop –type string “Super_L”

This is posted here.

Living with Lucid: Set/change host name graphically

There is no way to rename your PC through a GUI with the default packages in Ubuntu 9.04 and newer.  This is because of a shift to NetworkManager.  NetworkManager is great for joining networks.  It mostly replaces functionality in Ubuntu 8.04’s gnome-system-tools.  This package is still installed by default, but a good portion of it was split off to the gnome-network-admin package.  It can interfere with NetworkManager, but it’s also how you change your hostname using a GUI.

So, if you need to change your computer name and are uncomfortable editing /etc/hostname and /etc/hosts, do the following:

1. Open terminal
2. run: sudo apt-get install gnome-network-admin
3. run “Network” under the System -> Administration
4. Unlock, change your hostname

I filed a bug suggesting that this should be fixed and that gnome-network-admin should be installed by default, it was closed because, as I mentioned, it duplicates some functionality in NetworkManager.

Living with Lucid

With the next LTS release only days away, I’ll be posting tips and tricks that I find useful to making Lucid livable.  As far as I am concerned, all of these are bugs.  I’ve tried reporting some of them with little to no success.  For the moment, I’ve given up with the Launchpad bug system and am posting work-arounds instead.  Such is life.