My Blackbeauty is getting NATTYer and giving me a hard time

As soon as I heard that Natty Narwhal, Ubuntu's latest distro was to be launched on April 28th, 2011, I was keenly waiting for the same. I jokingly asked an expert (@shekharg) if he could guess why I was waiting for April 28th. I thought it would be a piece of cake for him but he could not guess it. I was not sad but happier because he also added that he likes to work with OSs/ tools/ gadgets that have bugs. He is not interested in Linux anymore because everything works. I wonder what OS is he working with these days ;)

But my journey from 10.10 to 11.04 was not as smooth as I had expected (or experienced with past upgrades).

1. I first tried upgrading via the 'update manager'. It took over 3 hours but failed with some error message.
2. Then I started searching for an 'alternate CD image'. In past, alternate CD is what I used for upgrading via CD media. Surprisingly I could not find the latest release (I am sure it must be there somewhere.... but the point is that I could  not find it)
3. With no other option I used the standard desktop CD image (for 64 bit machines) for installation.
4. Thanks to past expert advice from (@kbhargava) I have always kept the /home directory on a separate partition. So, it was easy for me to do a fresh install without losing my data (or even fear of loosing my data)
5. Unity desktop environment is a big difference in 11.04. As a result, my old user profile was not working smoothly enough. In past, every upgrade was so smooth that I was back to a fully functional machine with all settings/ preferences preserved within 2 hours.
6. I finally had to create a new user profile and shift the data manually. This meant that I would not be able to preserve settings/ preferences/ passwords etc.

Overall, the upgrade from 10.10 to 11.04 (for me) has not been as smooth as past upgrades. I am also not sure if unity desktop environment is far better but it is certainly fresh. I did notice one mac-like feature (Menu for every app window is on the top bar as on macs). But I am happy using this latest version of Ubuntu :))

Correcting Windows crashes & FIXMBR vs FIXBOOT

Lately, every time I boot into windows, the system crashes after after a few minutes. Therefore I decided to do a re-install (from the IBM Pre-Desktop partition). It started fine but soon I encountered a small problem.

Windows made some changes to MBR. As a result, GRUB started hanging (I have a dual boot system - XP and Ubuntu). Earlier it used to give an option to choose Ubuntu vs XP. But now, it just did not move. Thus, Pre-desktop utility could not complete windows xp installation (as computer is rebooted many times when installation is done).

Following steps solved the issue:
a. I booted the machine using a Windows XP retail install CD
b. When uit asked me to choose whether to install or go to recovery console. I chose recovery console by pressing "R"
c. Here I ran "FIXMBR"

The above fixed the problem and after this when I rebooted, IBM pre-desktop was able to continue windows installation. (infact its going on as I type this from my home laptop)

Also, whule looking for a solution I learn the following two options to cure booting problems. Both are available in the Recovery console of Windows XP.
1. FIXMBR
2. FIXBOOT

FIXMBR vs FIXBOOT : whats the difference?
(taken from a post by bbz_Ghost here
FIXMBR grabs the original MBR code from the drive's EEPROM chip and restores it, effectively wiping out anything that might be in there, be it LILO, GRUB, a Windows bootloader, and any possible traces of a virus, etc. When that command is finished, the MBR is as good as it was the moment the drive passed QA testing at the factory.

FIXBOOT restore the native ability for Windows to boot with the NTLDR file and bootloader, simply put.

There's also BOOTCFG which lets you modify boot time parameters just like you can inside Windows by modifying the boot.ini file under Advanced System Properties.
There's also a proper order for the commands if you need to use them from the Recovery Console:
FIXMBR first, then FIXBOOT right after that, then type exit and press Enter to reboot.

Gutsy Gibbon - Ubuntu 7.10 is super cool

This is the first time that I have adopted a new linux distro within 2 days of it being launched. Ubuntu launched Gutsy Gibbon (code name for Ubuntu 7.10, the latest Ubuntu release) on oct 18 (press release) and I managed to install it on Oct 20 and its fully functional...... yes all eye candy, desktop effects, also work and they are GREAT!

I am truly impressed and here are a few reasons why :

1. Installing Gutsy gibbon was easy and fast. It took me exactly 35 minutes to install it. Before you compare it with benchmarks, please note that I am not a geek.... i do not understand kernels and more. Infact I still remember that installation of windows XP from the IBM Pre-desktop area took me more time.

2. Everything worked out of the box. I did not have to download or install any proprietary drivers. Ironically, with Windows XP (retail version) installation earlier, I was forced to download some drivers from the IBM website.

3. I have an ATI FireGL card on my laptop and Compiz is working fine without the need of installing the proprietary drivers. I am amazed. With Dapper Drake, I tried and tried but could not get compiz to work. Here it is working from the word go. I have also installed CompizConfig Settings Manager that allows additional desktop effects. Again installation of CompizConfig Settings Manager was also very smooth. I used the Synaptic Package manager and it only took 3 clicks.

So this is a good start. All I need to do now is to get the other essentials like thunderbird, mplayer etc....

:)

Thanks Canonical!!!!

Forlong's blog has a great description of the advanced desktop effects and their 'real' benefits. you can read it here.

#HDD setup#
Everything seems fine...... XP still boots smoothly

I was scared when I turned on the machine..... but to my SURPRISE I found :

1. ACCESS IBM button was still functional..... which means that PRESDESTOP area is fine.

2. XP booted very smoothly... it did give a message suggesting some changes have happened in the HDD and asked me if this needs to be fixed.... I chose the option of not fixing anything and to carry on with normal boot up.

3. FAT 32 partition was showing in MyComputer

So, all is well so far.....

#HDD setup#
Saving the PREDESKTOP area
After doing a lot of research, it was clear that I would need to order the recovery CDs from IBM. Therefore I decided that I am gonna go ahead and try different solutions that came up in my research.

I started with Linux's KNOPPIX Live distro. It booted my machine smoothly. I tried to check my HDD using qtparted. It could not read my HDD partition information because I had set the PREDESKTOP area to secure. So I went back to BIOS and changed the secure setting. This is despite the fact that all sites/ forums I read had warned me on changing this setting.

Booted with KNOPPIX again.... and now qtparted could read the partition information. It had :
1. NTFS Partition (~53GB)
2. Free space (~4GB)
The above Free space was not really FREE. This is where the PREDESKTOP area is.

qtparted allows you to shrink the partition and this is what I intended to do. Here is what I did :
1. Noted the numbers for the start and end of the current Free space (i.e. PREDESKTOP area)
2. Shrinked the NTFS partition to 25 GB
3. Created a FAT32 partition starting at 25GB and going up to 40GB (The trick here is to ensure that you stay away from the cylinders on HDD where the initial Free space was)
4. Created another 5 GB ext3 partition (for /homr)
5. Created an extended partition - and created root, swap and boot on this partition
PLEASE NOTE: ALL THIS WHILE I ENSURED THAT NONE OF THE NEW PARTITIONS OVERWRITE ANY OF THE SECTORS WHERE THE INITIAL FREE SPACE (I.E. PREDESKTOP AREA) WAS.

I rechecked the above thrice before committing the changes to the disk.

#HDD setup#
IBM PREDESKTOP AREA - my first challenge
My T41p shipped with preinstalled WIN XP Professional. Unlike earlier times, I did not get any recovery CDs with the system. Thus, I was in a fix - how do I repartition my hard disk and make space for installing a Linux distro without losing my licensed Win XP installation?

Repartitioning would mean that I lose the predesktop area where all the installation files are stored....

I started with a google search to see if others also faced this problem.... YES they did and I also came across a number of solutions. But every solution suggested that I create a set of recovery discs before doing anything. And if creation is not possible then connect with IBM to send me a set.

I looked up IBM website and learnt that recovery discs can be created. some other websites....like the one below also suggested the same. I tried all options but could not create the discs...
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/01/18/ibm-lenovo-thinkpad-recovery-cd/006/01/18/ibm-lenovo-thinkpad-recovery-cd/

I called up IBM and they requested me to download the latest Rescue and Recovery program (around 475 MB) from their website. I did that.... but still the option for creating recovery discs was not available. They also could not help me create the discs.

Later I learnt that T41p does not carry the image that allows creation of recovery discs. Other T series models however offer this option.

All this had not solved my problem..... but atleast I knew the limitations by now.....