Apple iOS 3 and 4 VS Android 2.1 and 2.2
Ubuntu 10.04 on Alienware M17x (R1)
After several failed attempts to install Linux late last year, and over the past week or so, I finally got Ubuntu 10.04 installed on my Alienware laptop. Working wifi, working audio, working nvidia graphics.
To get started, I downloaded unetbootin-windows-442.exe, and the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS CD .iso, and ran unetbootin to unpack the ISO on a USB stick. When that was finished, I rebooted, went into the BIOS and disabled both the hybrid graphics and the integrated graphics, rebooted again and selected F12 to choose my boot medium, and booted from the USB stick.
With the graphics cards ‘disabled’, installation began in 1900×1200 native mode. I moved my 25GB recovery partition to another USB drive using dd:
dd if=/dev/sda2 of=/media/MyPassport/DellRecovery.partition
I then removed that partition and started the Ubuntu installer.
When installation was complete, and I rebooted, I realized I had no way to download the restricted STA driver, but there’s a workaround — you can install it from your installation medium by running a dpkg command. First, insert your installation medium, then start a Terminal prompt, change to the mount folder, such as /media/cdrom or in my case, /media/CORSAIR … from there, change into the pool folder, so your path is similar to /media/CORSAIR/pool/ and run the following command:
sudo dpkg -i restricted/b/bcmwl/bcmwl-kernel-source_5.60.48.36+bdcom-0ubuntu3_i386.deb \
main/d/dkms/dkms_2.1.1.2-2fakesync1_all.deb \
main/p/patch/patch_2.6-2ubuntu1_i386.deb
This will install the restricted driver and kernel patch, etc.
Next, I downloaded all available updates, rebooted, loaded the restricted nvidia driver, rebooted, and voila:
Now to see if the HDMI output will work at the office in the morning for a dual monitor setup.
New Froyo features announced at Google IO
Besides giving away an HTC EVO 4G to all attendees, here’s the big news announced about Android 2.2 Froyo at Google IO today:
Features Announced At Google IO
- Just-in-Time compiler confirmed
- Microsoft Exchange integration including auto-discovery and remote wipe
- New services just as data backup APIs for carriers to move your data from one device to another
- Tethering announced for Wifi and USB, shown in demo, pokes fun at iPad; no word on whether carriers can disable it
- 2x-3x performance boost in the Browser, new Javascript engine is SO much faster
- Optimizations for using the camera, orientation (accelerometers) within the browser
- Speech control and recognition is so much smoother, including Mandarin and Japanese, including speech recognition to make phone calls
- Real-time language translation
- Announced support for Flash Player 10.1 Public Beta and AIR developer pre-release, showed Flash working on Nickelodeon
- New ways to work with apps:
- Finding new apps (app search)
- Searching data within apps (showed Mint.com app search)
- Installing to SD memory with a “Move to SD card” button within the Application Info screen, demoed Need for Speed game
- Update All and Auto-Update confirmed
- Bug reporting, can view stack trace online
- Sneak peak of new Android Marketplace, because demo user is logged in, you can view your installed apps and over-the-air app sync
- New Marketplace feature: over-the-air music sync
- Sync your Android device with your iTunes library to live-stream your music to your device
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