[isoutar]

I searched the net for a week trying to find a post saying that the Dell Mini 10v can have Ubuntu 9.04 installed without difficulty. No posts ... so I tried it. The Dell Mini 10v runs Ubuntu 9.04 perfectly!!

My daughter Meghan just received her Dell Mini 10v with Ubuntu and as usual the Dell version of Ubuntu was terrible. I have upgraded a half dozen mini 9s to Ubuntu 9.04 and each machine was a real winner after the install. Before I helped them the people wanted to send their machine back to Dell!! I will not go on about how bad the Dell version of Ubuntu is ... but if you know linux at all you cannot use it without frustration. The main issue is Maximus which insists on making everything full screen. The next issue is that you can hardly find any software in the Dell version. If you try and add repositories they seem to fail. I am an old debian fan so I know this is not usually the case.

So I booted the Mini 10v with Ubuntu 9.04 using the live USB version of ubuntu to modify the root partition and move all the data over to the root, erasing the operating system but leaving her data in the root. This was done by using sudo nautilus. The new Ubuntu 9.04 live USB makes a very very good computer maintenance tool. Previously I had relied on Knoppix because the ubuntu live cd was rather poor in performance. Not any more.

Then I issued the command "metacity --replace" to stop Compiz 3d effects ... essential because if Compiz is running you cannot access the radio buttons in the install properly! Very Important to do this. Otherwise you can get into an issue where the buttons jump up when you try and hit them with the mouse. Buttons like format y/n cannot be selected without the command to stop Compiz.

Then I resized the 160 gig drive so that 15g was free but the data was still intact. I made two more partitions, 2 gig for swap and the rest for the new operating system mounted as /

I mounted her data partition as /home with the initial folder called "meghan". Straight install but i made sure to use the same user name as she used in the stock Dell ubuntu installation.

Then I did a manually partitioned installation where I mounted the swap, root and data partitions as above.

No mysteries ... the install went great and now it is a great machine!!

Dell take note ... your version of Linux is extremely poor. The new Linux users wanted windows NOW because Ubuntu appeared to be so bad. The experienced linux users wanted a REAL ubuntu NOW. That Dell version was one of the worst distros I have seen.

So in the end she got a really fine machine running the leading edge Ubuntu. My theory is that Dell is used to Windows which issues beta releases as their normal releases with lots of minor problems. Dell was probably thinking that Ubuntu was the same as Windows and you want to stay clear of the latest release. However the release called Jaunty or 9.04 is a masterpiece of perfection. I would highly recommend that all users either install it themselves or get someone with the know how to do it for them.

A superb machine was the result!! All codecs arrived correctly and worked. Everything is fine, no glitches with flash ... great machine once you fix it.

Dell ... PLEASE take note ... you need to move on from the version you are shipping 8.04. Use the stock Ubuntu 9.04 which is perfect on the Mini 10v. The Dell version has dozens of broken issues.

Also Ubuntu take note that the stock Ubuntu 9.04 is way better than the remix version. Even the first time linux users hated the remix and asked for help to get something better. Just selecting the Classic desktop is not good enough. You have to kill Maximus or else all windows go to full screen and you have to keep minimizing their size.

But after the new O/S fix the Mini 10v is a really great machine. If you have a windows or ubuntu machine ... get yourself a live USB version of Ubuntu 9.04 and boot into it. You will be hooked! Installation is really easy if you do not have to protect existing data.

Moral of the story ... buy a Dell Mini 10v but do a clean install of Ubuntu 9.04 before you use it!!

[robann]

how much room did the installation take? Is this practical for a basic SSD based 10v?

[zrtom]

Hey isoutar,
Thanks for the post. I tried 9.04 on the Mini 10 because my son uses it on his desktop and I really like it. Well, as you know, it hardly will run on the Poulsbo chipset.
I'm going to give it a try on my 10v tonight.

[isoutar]

SSD Space Requirements for Ubuntu 9.04

On smaller machines with 8 gigs ssd I used the whole thing as / because the uses will need the maximum space for their own data. It is not worthwhile to guess how big the root directory "/" should be. I installed one machine that only had 4 gig ssd and it worked but the user had to rely on an SD card for movies. I did 4 mini 9s and one mini 10v.

I am running the same operating system (Ubuntu 9.04) on my own mini 9. The basic operating system takes slightly more than 2.5 gigs approximately I believe. Does anyone know precisely?? My mini 9 has 64 gigs of ssd and I gave it a separate directory for root / of 7 gigs. Right now I have xubuntu desktop as well as ubuntu desktop, tons of development software and other tools, virtual box with windows xp installed inside it. The 7 gig root partition still has 2.5 gigs left. So I eventually used 4.5 gigs but it is packed with programs. Most people would never put so many programs on it. In fact I am a firmware developer and I have all my tools and everything from my large laptop installed ... this now is my main machine. For the average user they will use less than 3 gigs.

I would not recommend the netbook remix version. It is awkward to use and installs maximus which insists that all programs open to full screen ... a real pain. Of the machines I installed for people on the mini 9 none liked the netbook remix for more than an hour or two. Then they all demanded a real operating system look ... even the newbies.

So it works on all mini 9 models, even those with the smallest size ssd drives of 4 gigs.

On the Dell Mini 10v I gave root 13 gigs of space. This is very generous but with 160 gig drive I wanted to allow my daugher to install any number of programs of any size. She loves downloading using ktorrent so we got her the 160 gig model of regular drive.

Making a USB install disk of Ubuntu 9.04
-avoid the download of the remix usb

The easy way ... download a CD install disk. Ubuntu Home Page | Ubuntu

Boot it live on a computer and put in a 1 gig usb memory stick. Under System and Administration you will find a program called USB Startup Disk Creator. This creates a bootable USB stick that you can install machines with.

I would not worry about the size of ubuntu ... it is both efficient and has amazing 3d graphics working by default.

Ian Soutar
Victoria BC Canada.

[jgroves79]

Originally Posted by zrtom

Hey isoutar,
Thanks for the post. I tried 9.04 on the Mini 10 because my son uses it on his desktop and I really like it. Well, as you know, it hardly will run on the Poulsbo chipset.
I'm going to give it a try on my 10v tonight.

I've got 9.04 running fine on my Mini 10, at 1024x576.... the Poulsbo chipset works fine, you just need to run the fix found at the followig link:

Ubuntu on the Dell Mini 10 (2) « mok0’s world

[T-Keith]

Good to hear, it was expecting as the specs are similar to the mini9. I agree 9.04 is great, did you install Netbook remix or the standard installation? IMO, NBR is what makes it work so great.

I do disagree with your analysis on Dell's Ubuntu. It worked fine for me, and the interface was OK. My only complaints were the wireless manager and the wasted screen real estate. Installing software is a non-issue for experienced users, a script will convert normal i386 debs to a lpia deb. That said I wouldn't hesitate to recommend upgrading to anyone.

[isoutar]

Just a quick note ... I am an experienced linux user and have been using it since 1998 for development. The Dell version I got with my mini 9 was fine and I could work with it. But it as partially broken right from the factory.

However my daughter's Dell Mini 10v came with a broken "apt" program ... it must have either been a defective modified version or it as defectively installed at the factory. If you issued the command sudo apt-get install seamonkey ... or something it would fail and complain that there as no such command as apt-get!

There were serious issues and I am an experienced Debian user. What they did to it I am not sure. It was not possible to uninstall maximus too!

The sources list was only 1 entry long and the software sources section was broken. You could not install sofware using apt-get commands.

In a way it was luck that the system was so badly broken ... otherwise I would have not instantly turfed the O/S in favour of the latest Ubuntu. I hoped it would work without issues ... but I had to abandon Dell's messed up system in any case.

Thanks Dell for forcing me to put the latest version of Ubuntu on it.

I have to say my Wife's Mini 9 only had minor issues that I could repair and my mini 9 was not too bad.

The Mini 10v Ubuntu was reamarkably bad. ... did other people experience a broken O/S on the Mini 10v?

Ian Soutar
Victoria B.C. Canada

[soul]

Agree

[pegasis]

Hello

did other people experience a broken O/S on the Mini 10v?

I did! It´s really annoying I can´t uninstall any programs...

I will switch to 9.04 Remix!

[Furgus]

just did a clean install tonight of 9.04 on my 10v and my mic does not work in Skype. Tried the instructions at ubuntumini.com for a Mini 9 and nothing. Seems like my mic is stuck on mute. Any fix for that? Going to try and do a clean install of 8.10, but if I can fix this problem I will be great with staying with 9.04.