Ubuntu on the touchpad

[philwil]

How to get the optional ext3fs partition mounted at device boot

Note that you have to use the Meta-Doctor as shown earlier in this page to doctor your device to create the ext3fs partition before attempting the following steps.
All of this is done on device either via novaterm or an SSH login. If your device does NOT have a folder at /media/ext3fs then you will need to create it first. Use the following two commands:
mount -o remount,rw /
mkdir -p /media/ext3fs
it is important that you use /media/ext3fs as the location, otherwise some homebrew applications (such as Optware and the Ubuntu 11.04 Chroot) will not be able to find it and use it properly.
After you have created the mountpoint, we are going to edit the fstab file to set it up to mount at bootup.
mount -o remount,rw / *****Not necessary if you performed the previous steps, but doesn't hurt if you do it twice
echo "/dev/mapper/store-ext3fs /media/ext3fs ext3 noatime,data=writeback 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
Now to get it mounted you have several options, the best one is the first command as it will use the data in /etc/fstab. If that works, then you have done this correctly and your ext3fs will mount at bootup.
mount -a
If you do not want it mounted at bootup, but you do need it mounted, you can use this command.
mount /dev/mapper/store-ext3fs /media/ext3fs

[de_great]

Yeah... it would no let me install Open SSH ... said there was no more space. I guess I need to redo the image.

[philwil]

When I created the MetaDoctor image, I created a 4G partition so I would have a little more space. Actually thinking about redoing it with an 8G partition.

[jemojc]

another update: have ubuntu with lxde installed. Firefox browser with both silverlight and flash plugins. Plus libre office. Works pretty good. but randomly crashes when browsing. Still trying to figure out how to get sound to work. Also, even with firefox and silverlight, netflix.com still won't allow play of instant. They are checking for other than browser compatibility. I'm guessing actual hardware specs. Shame. all in all, kinda cool. but until sound works any how, it's kinda pointless. Anyone have luck with gnome/unity? I went with lxde bc it's lighter.

[kill_dano]

Originally Posted by jemojc

Also, even with firefox and silverlight, netflix.com still won't allow play of instant. They are checking for other than browser compatibility. I'm guessing actual hardware specs.

Moonlight (open source silverlight in linux) doesn't have the needed DRM software to run nextflix.

How did you get the flash plugin on firefox? can you get it on chromium?

[alanmorford]

Well sweet. I got it all to work. The virtual keyboard also works...now if I could just hide it when I need to! Anyone have any tips on that?

[FenrirWolf]

Minimize it to XS. There's blank space at the bottom reserved for the keyboard.

[alanmorford]

Originally Posted by FenrirWolf

Minimize it to XS. There's blank space at the bottom reserved for the keyboard.

Thanks for the reply. I wonder if there is future hope to have the hide keyboard button work?

[FenrirWolf]

If there's always going to be that empty space then there wouldn't be much point. Unless future versions will be able to dynamically resize the usable space on the x window anyway.

[alanmorford]

Good point. I wonder if I get the bluetooth keyboard if I will be able to disable or dismiss the vkb...

[capt4chris]

New to Linux here but I was still able to get the process to work! I'm at an impasse however.

From the webOS-Internals wiki:
"Use "apt-get install" to install whatever apps you like from Ubuntu."
I've done that to install Chromium-Browser.

"Then run in the Ubuntu chroot and render on the XServer."
What's the command to run it now (or any app)? LOL

[sahil0984]

Was able to install the flash plugin for both firefox and chromium:
apt-get install browser-plugin-gnash

Sound worked fine by default.

Sahil

[rwhitby]

Originally Posted by alanmorford

Good point. I wonder if I get the bluetooth keyboard if I will be able to disable or dismiss the vkb...

At the moment, no.

In the future sometime, maybe. We need to find a way to dynamically resize the X display first.

-- Rod

[alanmorford]

Originally Posted by rwhitby

At the moment, no.

In the future sometime, maybe. We need to find a way to dynamically resize the X display first.

-- Rod

Yeah I finally started digging in deep to figure out the process and it was a LOT easier than I expected it to be. Even with the keyboard visible all the time it's awesome. Thanks for a great product! (even if you are dealing under the table with HP ;-) #unfoundedopinions

[rwhitby]

Originally Posted by alanmorford

Thanks for a great product! (even if you are dealing under the table with HP ;-) #unfoundedopinions

It is indeed a good thing that we can laugh at the unfounded opinions of such ZDNet bloggers.

-- Rod

[capt4chris]

Originally Posted by capt4chris

New to Linux here but I was still able to get the process to work! I'm at an impasse however.

From the webOS-Internals wiki:
"Use "apt-get install" to install whatever apps you like from Ubuntu."
I've done that to install Chromium-Browser.

"Then run in the Ubuntu chroot and render on the XServer."
What's the command to run it now (or any app)? LOL

Ok, so to run the program, you just type the program name and hit enter. I figured it was simple. Unfortunately the simple instructions are sometimes unmentioned.

Doing Ubuntu 11.04 research, I've learned that certain commands don't seem to work on this command line (man command for example). Does anyone have any resources people like me can use to learn basics that apply to this particular version of Ubuntu 11.04?

[rwhitby]

Originally Posted by capt4chris

Ok, so to run the program, you just type the program name and hit enter. I figured it was simple. Unfortunately the simple instructions are sometimes unmentioned.

Doing Ubuntu 11.04 research, I've learned that certain commands don't seem to work on this command line (man command for example). Does anyone have any resources people like me can use to learn basics that apply to this particular version of Ubuntu 11.04?

It's a minimal installation. To add programs, run apt-get install <package>

-- Rod

[sahil0984]

Rod,
The shift key doesn't seem to work for uppercase letters. Is that a key mapping issue or am I missing something?

Thanks,
Sahil

[rwhitby]

Originally Posted by sahil0984

Rod,
The shift key doesn't seem to work for uppercase letters. Is that a key mapping issue or am I missing something?

Thanks,
Sahil

It's a key mapping issue. Will is working on it I believe.

-- Rod

[jbennett]

Originally Posted by rwhitby

At the moment, no.

In the future sometime, maybe. We need to find a way to dynamically resize the X display first.

-- Rod

Rod,

From the brief research I've done, it looks like dynamic resizing requires the "RandR" X extension, but support for it is required by the graphics driver (and which we seem to be lacking)?

As an interim solution, have you considered (as an option, at least) doing away with the Touchpad's native virtual keyboard entirely (making room for a full-screen X server display), and then using an X11-based VKB in its place? I've just installed the "xvkbd" package in Ubuntu on my TP, and it seems like it would make a fine alternative in this environment...

--John