Easy Autoconfiguration for Ubuntu

zane9000 · 11:17 AM

I have been seeing a lot of problems from people that have successfully followed the instructions found on the first page of TUTORIAL: How to get Ubuntu on the TouchPad, but are still having trouble getting a good working graphical environment.

In that thread Bradmont provides some very helpful instructions which have since been buried and overlooked. To that end I have put together an very easy automated process for you to follow that will configure Ubuntu for you once it is installed. After following these quick steps you will have:

Non-privileged user account that is added to the sudoers list.
Options for using Netbook Launcher on top of LXDE, a bare version of LXDE, or XFCE4 which will auto-launch into a session for the user account with dbus activated when Ubuntu is started by Xecutah. (If Netbook Launcher is selected, you should install Easystroke as the long-tap for rightclick does not work to add programs to favorites.)
Date and time are properly set
Working audio. (Thanks to Willard and premiso)
Useless start up terminal window is hidden automatically.
Florence Virtual Keyboard OR Onboard virtual keyboard with a slightly corrected version of Bradmont's layout (Note: Use Caps button on onboard instead of shift for now). ***See note about keyboard differences below ***Caution: Do not install Florence if you plan on using a Bluetooth keyboard.
Easystroke can be preloaded with some gestures and set to start at login. (Easystroke seems to slow down typing significantly. With Florence and longtap=rightclick you might not need to use it.) ***More info on included gestures below.
libgtkstylus right click is enabled (long tap to right click).
rdesktop, xtightvncviewer, and SSH are installed.
xournal installed for tablet writing and PDF viewing/annotation.
Evince PDF viewer installed.
Synaptic Package Manager, wmctrl, gnash (flash plugin), gamix, are also installed.
An option to automount the USB partition (/media/internal) will be given. [CAUTION: if you do this, be sure you unmount the partition before trying to uninstall Ubuntu and clearing /media/ext3fs]
Also there is an option to install LibreOffice
Finally, any errors (and there will be) that occur during window manager launches will be written to ~/.wman.err. These probably wont be important but may be helpful during future troubleshooting.

This will give you environment that should be much more friendly to the common Linux user. If there is enough interest I may make this process a bit easier and add more options (ie different window managers).

NOTE: This is intended to be done over a clean install of Ubuntu. If you do it on existing install that should be ok, but if you set it up for a user that already exists, some (all) of your previous configurations may be wiped out.

Please let me know how this process works for you and how it can be improved.

Now, on with the show...

STEP 1: From the Ubuntu command line type (all commands are from the Ubuntu prompt)

Code:

apt-get install wget

this will install wget which is needed to grab the configuration scripts and files from my server.

STEP 2:

Code:

wget alloutofwine.com/ubuntuconf.tar.gz

This will download my configuration files to your current directory and can (should) be deleted after everything is done.

STEP 3:

Code:

tar xzfv ubuntuconf.tar.gz

This will unpack the compressed file into a folder called ubuntuconf. This folder also can (should) be deleted when everything is done.

STEP 4:

Code:

cd ubuntuconf

STEP 5:

Code:

./runme.sh

This will run the configuration script. Make sure you get the ./ in there. It will ask you a few questions at the beginning and then proceed to install everything. When it asks for your username do not put in "root", or "sudo" or any other linux command or standard user, use something unique. The installation will take a good amount of time depending on your internet speed. Chances are you will lose the webOS keyboard part way though the install. That is fine because you should not need to type anything else, you are done. When it finishes installing just restart Luna (or reboot the device if you don't know what Luna is) and the webOS keyboard will return. When you launch Ubuntu next you should find yourself in the window manager and ready to go.

STEP 6 (Optional):
Head over to Preware and get Tweaks. This will let you eliminate (or resize) the webOS keyboard. I know I said this was optional, but I was lying, just do it.

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Differences Between the Two Types of Keyboards:

Florence is a very nice looking keyboard that you can resize however you like. It also has a button in the tray to raise/lower it so you don't need Easystroke for this. On the left side there are a number of keyboard control buttons (a wrench for configuration and a set of arrows for moving are the most useful). In the controls menu you can turn off window decoration which removes the title bar so it takes up a bit less space. Having the window decoration turned on makes resizing much easier.
The down side of Florence is that it will completely garble webOS, Onboard, and bluetooth keyboards. This is the reason the installer only lets you choose one or the other. I am working on a fix for this.

Onboard is more stable, but its pretty ugly for now and you must use Easystroke to drop and raise the keyboard. On the upside, its layout is comparable with the webOS keyboard so you can use that as a back up.

You can always switch by running the install script again and chose different options.

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Some Info on the Preconfigured Easygesture:
I preprogramming 4 basic gestures for you:

Right click

Close current window

Bring up Onboard keyboard if installed (Thanks to Bradmont for providing the script)

<ENTER> button. This is useful so you don't need to double click icons to launch them.

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I want to give a huge thanks to weoOS Internals, Rennat, Geekpeter, Bradmont, Qole, Willard and Premiso who have all been instrumental in getting my own setup working. I hope that this can be my way to give something back to such a great community.

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Change Log

12/1/2011:
Added option for Netbook Launcher
Minor bug fixes

9/7/2011:
Added the option for installing Florence or Onboard keyboard
Fixed the "host not resolved" issue when using sudo
No longer installs gnome-terminal
More reliable automounting internal partition.
Added a number of checks during install to make sure there are no duplicate entries in configuration files.

9/2/2011:
Fixed time zone setting
Added a check for valid username

9/1/2011:
Fixed permissions issues for some of the config files
Unless terminal window is now auto hidden on the second desktop
Added desktop pager to lxpanel
xournal and evince now auto install

Kaerey · 08/31/2011, 10:09 AM

Very nice. Thank you for your work. This will be a great tool for those that wish to utilize a somewhat stable environment. If you are now looking for more to do, I would LOVE to see something similar for ubuntu-netbook
Ubuntu Netbook Remix - WebOS Internals

zane9000 · 08/31/2011, 02:41 PM

Thanks for that link, Kaerey. If I get some time this week I will try to add ubuntu-netbook as an install option.

HansTWN · 08/31/2011, 06:23 PM

Gave your baby a thorough test run last night and I love it. There are, however, a few issues:

1.)You didn't provide us with a root password. Thus we can run programs like synaptic only from the terminal command line and have no root access at all (except for running commands with "sudo").

2.)This version of onboard lacks a number of import keys (@, :, among others). I solved this easily by installing matchbox-keyboard and assigned an easystroke gesture to it.

3.)I couldn't find a way to choose among the regional options during setup, only return works.

4.)Perhaps it is just me and my clumsy hands, but I find round swipes register a lot easier
--- the angled swipes I have to redo over and over again before I get results. Anyway, this is easily solved by ourselves in easystrokes.

5.)One suggestion I have is an option to get not run the user account and LXDE but to default to the root directory in the terninal every time we start up. Or a small menu to choose among different users?

6.)I am still having this keyboard problem with Remmina RDP that nobody else seems to have. Once I am on the remote computer and try to log in, the keyboard doesn't work properly (only the top and bottom row work at all, but even they don't display the correct results). This is the same with other GUIs and all keyboards I have tried, but strangely enough, for all other RDP programs (TSclient, GRDesktop, KDRC,, Gnome-Desktop) the keyboard work. What is messing up the keyboard mapping, and how to reset it? I would appreciate it if you guys have any thoughts.

Thanks again for the great job, a big help for those of us who just want to get our feet wet in Linux (meaning finding an easy way of using Ubuntu to get some functionality not available in WebOS) and not dive all the way in.

HansTWN · 08/31/2011, 06:27 PM

Before I forget it, and option to resize the keyboard would be nice. Onboard is gigantic in landscape mode and doesn't fit the screen in portrait. It might also be a good idea if height could be squashed to show more of the screen for those with small fingers.

zane9000 · 07:47 PM

Hey, thanks for the feedback! I think I can address most of what you brought up.

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