Whizzytex on Ubuntu 7.10

Whizzytex is a pretty nifty application that updates a compiled TeX pane in real-time as you type into emacs. Under Ubuntu 7.10 it comes as a package in the repositories.

With my installation (on a Thinkpad t61) I've had an annoying problem: every few seconds, emacs will freeze completely for a 1-5 seconds (presumably doing a slice compilation or some such thing for whizzytex). This can happen right in the middle of a yank, and it can happen ten times a minute.

Here's my solution, though I can't explain why it works: put the line

(setq whizzy-load-factor 10)

in your .emacs file. The problem still occurs but very occasionally (once in 5-6 minutes, which I can live with). Whizzy is a lot more responsive now as well.

There is one downside: this really increases processor usage. My laptop runs hot and the battery doesn't last long when I have the load factor set high this way.

Ubuntu 7.10, the T61 and External Monitors

I had a spot of bother trying to use an external monitor with Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon on a Lenovo T61. My T61 has an Nvidia Quadro 140M card and I'm using the proprietary (restricted) drivers.

I got a Lenovo Mini-dock and a Lenovo D221 monitor with my T61. When I connected everything up and put my T61 on the mini-dock and started it, everything appeared on the external monitor up to the Ubuntu splash screen with the progress bar. Right after that, the external monitor went blank and the T61's screen took over. (I think that happened when the X server was started, but not sure.) The same thing happened when I connected the external monitor to the T61 directly (not through the mini-dock).

To resolve this:

1. Connect the external monitor to the laptop directly
   
2. Open up a terminal, get root access using "su", and type "nvidia-settings &" at the prompt. This is a configuration program from the package "nvidia-glx-new" (I think it gets installed when you install the restricted nvidia drivers, but not sure).
   
3. Within nvidia-settings, select "X Server Display Information". It should show two monitors in a little box called "Layout". The external monitor may be disabled.
4. Click on the external monitor's icon, then click "Configure", then select "Separate X Screen".
5. Click on the laptop screen's icon (which is probably enabled), then click "Configure", then select "Disabled".
6. Note: This step will overwrite the X Confuration File (usually /etc/X11/xorg.conf). You may first want to backup that file to something like xorg.conf.bak.01. When you've backed it up, click "Save to X Configuration File".
   

When I restarted my X Server (or restarted the computer) after this, all output came out only on the external monitor, which is what I wanted.

However, this didn't solve the problem when I put the T61 on the mini-dock. I also had to connect the T61 and the external monitor to the mini-dock, and then repeat steps 2-6 with the T61 on the mini-dock.

Finally, when the T61 is not connected to the external monitor in any way, it should continue to work as usual. The above configurations don't affect this.

Caveats:

1. After doing this, there is an Nvidia splash screen every time the X Server is started up. This can be removed by editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf, but I don't detail that here.
2. After this reconfiguration, I began noticing that my GL Desktop window manager crashes very frequently. When that happens, I can resolve it by running System > Preferences > GL Desktop. But it is a bother.
   

Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon on the T61

Having installed KUbuntu, I was interested in trying out Ubuntu on my T61. I installed it on a separate partition, and I am thrilled with the results. Kubuntu and Ubuntu have their strengths and weaknesses, but Ubuntu seems better on the whole.

I did have a couple of problems during the installation. The Ubuntu GRUB installer got confused and thought the Windows XP Pro partition was another Ubuntu partition... rendering it unbootable. This was fixed easily enough, though, by simply editing the /boot/grub/menu.lst file a bit.

A peculiar problem with both KUbuntu and Ubuntu on the T61 is that the keyboard volume controls don't work the way you'd expect them to. On Kubuntu, there are only two volume levels you can select with the keyboard controls. On Ubuntu, the controls do work... the problem is that they are not integrated with the system software controls. For example, if I press the mute button, the system doesn't seem to realize that it's been muted. Using the volume up and down does change the volume appropriately, and Ubuntu recognizes this and even shows an overlay displaying the volume changing, but this is not reflected in the system volume levels. This confused me a couple of times.

The screen brightness controls on the keyboard (Fn+Home and Fn+End) are recognized. Ubuntu shows an overlay with increasing or decreasing brightness. However, Ubuntu ignores them: it does not respond by changing screen brightness.

Ubuntu has a host of usability hacks that KUbuntu lacks. For example, it automagically recognized the .Xmodmap file I had placed in my home directory (to switch Caps Lock and Ctrl). Compiz works well out of the box on Ubuntu; I couldn't figure out how to enable it on KUbuntu.

One thing I did miss on Ubuntu is Konqueror's multi-functionality. I installed Konqueror, but it was a different version and didn't have the handy "File Size View".

Both Ubuntu and KUbuntu seem to have problems with their "Switch User" functionality. It's a little slow, and one of the sessions crashes a little too often. On Ubuntu, there's a peculiar effect when switching: one of the sessions will slow down a hundredfold, taking several seconds to respond to mouse clicks or draw/move windows etc. Switching back and forth a couple of times solves the problem, but it is an annoyance.

KUbuntu Gutsy Gibbon + Lenovo T61 = Freedom!

I just got a new Lenovo T61, with 2.2 GHz core 2 duo, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M, 3 gigs of RAM, and a 160 Gig hard drive. As soon as I could, I installed KUbuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon on it, and am impressed with the results. Installation was (almost) a breeze, and (almost) everything works right out of the box. After using SuSE 10.2 for over a year, I can finally breathe! Read on for a review.

Partitioning

The laptop came with the 160 gigs partitioned into two parts: a small recovery partition by Lenovo (about 6 gigs), and a large (~150 gigs) partition with Windows XP Pro (more expensive than Vista Home). I wanted to keep XP along with one "production" Linux system and a "trial" Linux system to play around with. I used the gparted LiveCD (from http://gparted.sourceforge.net/), which made re-partitioning a breeze. I left the recovery partition strictly alone. My final partitioning scheme:

 Device Gigs  System
/dev/sda1 30.7  HPFS/NTFS (Win XP)
/dev/sda3 79.5  W95 FAT32 (Data)
/dev/sda4 40.2  Extended
/dev/sda5 12.6  Linux (Trial)
/dev/sda6  3.2  Linux (Trial home)
/dev/sda7 15.9  Linux (Production)
/dev/sda8  5.2  Linux (Production home)
/dev/sda9  3.3  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2  5.8  Compaq diagnostics (Lenovo Recovery)

Initial Hiccups

I initially tried to install KUbuntu 7.04 ("Feisty Fawn") because Gutsy was still in the RC (Release Candidate) stage. When using the standard Live CD, Feisty would boot up and ask for mode of operation, but wouldn't be able to initialize its X Window System (from which you can install). There is some discussion online about setting the SATA setting to "Compatibility" instead of "HCPI" in the T61's BIOS, but that didn't work for me, so I went ahead with the Gutsy Gibbon RC. Gutsy couldn't initialize its usual X Window System, either, but I followed the advice at:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Installing_Ubuntu_7.10_%28Gutsy_Gibbon%29_Release_Candidate_on_a_ThinkPad_T61

and simply selected the "Safe Graphics" option and the rest of the installation was a breeze.

Installation

During installation KUbuntu asks for the name of a user and an admin password. This refers to a special user with sudo privileges, so I avoided my usual username and put in something like "sysadmin". I didn't have any other installation issues.

Startup, Logon and Shutdown

Gutsy is the fastest Linux I've ever seen, even giving Win XP a run for its money. Here are the startup (time to display logon screen), logon (time from display of logon screen to delivering a usable cursor and clickable icons after logon) and shutdown (from a session with no windows open) times of XP and Gutsy on this machine:

Win XP: Startup = 40s, Logon = 30s, Shutdown = 28s.
Gutsy: Startup = 49s, Logon = 19s, Shutdown = 20s.

Adding Packages

The installer installs a basic functional system. I wanted to add more packages. I like the package manager synaptic better than the default, adept. So I installed it using the command "apt-get install synaptic" in a terminal window.

Wi-Fi

Worked out of the box. Knetworkmanager stores the authentication information in the KDE wallet.

Sound

Works out of the box, but the volume up/down buttons don't work properly. Mute works.

Brightness

The brightness controls don't work. The night light works.

3D

The restricted NVIDIA driver is required to enable harware 3D acceleration. Enabling it is a breeze.

Fonts & Appearance

This was the biggest surprise. After getting accustomed to fuzzy, ugly fonts, blunt mouse pointers, and a generally shoddy appearance on Linux for ages, I am now happy to state that Gutsy surpasses Win XP in terms of appearance. Everything is crisp and beautiful. Caveat: Enabling the restricted NVIDIA driver actually diminished the appearance somewhat, with some fonts looking too thin.

Hibernate

This doesn't work very well out of the box. When only one session was active, I recovered from a hibernate once and couldn't another time. When I did recover, Gutsy showed some corrupted screens etc. and then a blank screen; it took me a few seconds to realize I had to move the mouse to get a login dialog. When two sessions were active, Gutsy wouldn't hibernate at all. With Gutsy's amazing boot-up speed, this is less of an issue than on SuSE 10.2, but is still a problem when I'm in the middle of several applications and have to move.

The Mini-Dock

I got a mini-dock with the T61. Gutsy works fine on the mini-dock as long as the T61 is turned off when putting it on or taking it off. If I eject it from the dock while Gutsy is running, the T61 screen stays blank, and I have to do a hard reboot.

Overall Experience

The overall experience is great. The most bothersome Linux issues seem to have disappeared in this distribution. And this is just the release candidate!

There are still some bugs, however. Konqueror doesn't remember its settings properly. Integration between the KDE clipboard and applications like kterm and emacs is quite problematic. Some applications and KDE components crash, especially when switching between multiple X sessions. And a few others.