[mdlug] Ubuntu I on another laptop

[David Lee Lambert]

You may remember that I posted a few months ago about a Windows laptop 
that my son spilled lemonade on,  erasing all files on the NTFS 
partition.  Even after replacing the keyboard and cleaning it out 
inside,  I couldn't get it to reliably boot from any of my live or 
install Linux CDs, or even from a standard Windows XP install CD.  At 
some point I bricked it by removing the "active" flag on all partitions.

Recently I tackled the problem again.  I acquired a USB-SATA adapter and 
attached the drive to a desktop system.  I changed the partitions to my 
liking, then used "dbootstrap" to install Ubuntu Intrepid on one of 
them.  Before disconnecting the drive,  I did a "chroot", set the 
hostname and IP parameters, and installed grub and a few other extra 
packages. It worked!

I have all the important stuff working:  DVD player (vlc), audio, 
touchpad, builtin memory-card reader, builtin wireless.  Sending this 
message from it.  I haven't made an account on it for my son;  I've told 
him that if he gets good grades in school this year,  I might let him 
use it next summer.

There are only a couple of things that don't work yet:

1.  There's a little second touchpad above the keyboard that acted as a 
quicklaunch for a user-chosen media player and a volume-control under 
Windows.  It was actually kind of annoying when it got bumped by 
accident,  but I wish I could make it do *something*.  (Remember,  this 
is a Compaq Presario V6444US).

2.  The battery drains completely in less than a day even when the 
computer is completely off and unplugged.  Also (I'm not sure if it's 
related) a little lightning-bolt icon between the power and 
disk-activity lights flashes slowly all the time,  and sometimes starts 
flashing slowly in the middle of the night when the computer was 
completely off.


So I guess I could say that I have finally mastered "dbootstrap", and 
love it.  On the other hand,  I'm not sure I want to get any more Compaq 
or HP computers...

--
DLL