Going back to Ubuntu 12.10

So, installing Ubuntu 12.10 on my HP laptop came with some unforeseen issues, but I think they are mostly sorted at this point.

After install, I had to go to /etc/apt/sources.lst to change all references to old-releases.ubuntu.com which is to be expected from an OS that is no longer supported.  I also decided to grab all the updates which took a bit of time to do.  It asked me to reboot which turned out to be a bad decision as I forgot to install the kernel headers and source which meant I had no wifi when I rebooted.  Why on earth did Ubuntu not auto-install the kernel source when these dkms dependent packages need them is beyond me.

So, to solve the lack of wifi from my Broadcom Wifi Card (4313, if I'm not mistaken), I had to boot back to the old kernel.  Right after the laptop's POST and just before booting Ubuntu I hit the shift key to get the grub menu.  The old kernel is at the advance option.  This allowed me to get my wifi back.  Then, I did some serious apt-getting.

$  sudo apt-get install linux linux-headers-generic kernel-package

After that, I loaded Software Sources and disabled and re-enabled the Broadcom drivers which did some apt-getting and dkms work on its own.  Reboot after and voila, wifi on a new kernel.  Now for fglrx.

Fedora Core 20 and Virtualbox

I liked Fedora Core 20's interface.  I think it's right up there with Ubuntu's unity.  Unfortunately, it seems as my HP laptop cannot really run what I need to run from my backed up Virtualbox install.  So, I will be purging this and installing Ubuntu 12.10 which was the last Ubuntu release that was very problem free on this laptop.  Anyway, this blog post details the issues I came across while getting my backed up Virtualbox image to work.  More after the jump!

Ubuntu 12.10: nVIDIA Oops!

I thought installing the nvidia drivers would be very easy.  Turns out, I was wrong.  I ran sudo apt-get install nvidia-current which failed because apparently, it didn't include the kernel headers.  I ended up with vesa and without the taskbar, rendering the desktop useless.

To fix this, I went to the commandline screen (ctrl+alt+f1) and logged in.  Then sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic and then sudo apt-get remove nvidia-* to get rid of the currently installed nvidia drivers.  Lastly, I ran the nvidia driver install again: sudo apt-get install nvidia-current-updates nvidia-settings to recompile the drivers (and slipped in the config app).  After reboot, all's well!  Special thanks to this forum thread.

Pulse Audio still exhibits the same issues with HDMI where the audio being played misses a few seconds.  Typical of this POS audio layer.

Now it's about trying to get this Logitech Quickcam to work which used to work splendidly on 9.10.  Oh well, time to see what's going on.