Last week of this years summer vacation I decided to make my new Dell d830 usable by installing ubuntu 7.04 to dual boot with XP.

First I installed ubuntu with the alternate cd, the normal one failed miserably. I basically followed these threads: this and this

• xserver:
  After basic installation the x server did not work so I updated a bit with:
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
  sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel
  sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg and skipped auto detect monitor and running screen at1280×800@60 Hz. Since the screen was not showing colours correctly I installed this
• Wireless: taken from here
  sudo gedit /etc/network/interfaces
  Comment out everything other than “lo” entries in that file and save the file
  Create a file called /etc/default/wpasupplicant, add entry ENABLED=0 and save the file
  Reboot your system or use the following command
  sudo /etc/init.d/dbus restart
• cd:
  sudo modprobe ata_piix
  sudo modprobe ata_generic
  sudo gedit /etc/modules and add the line piix (not ata_piix)

Update: Decided to try out changing the touchpad behaviour with the instructions found here. I also relalized that some of the above links do not work if one is not logged in into the ubuntuforums. Another remaining issue is that the pointing pin a la IBM thinkpads does not work for clicking, it does however work to move the pointer.

2007-09-18 Update:

I have now tried bluetooth which essentially work out of the box with obex (file transfer here and there). It is also possible to get a Sony ericsson phone work as a remote control saving you the trouble of leaving the bed after watching Life of Brian to turn off the computer, really cool! Take a look here.