Ubuntu 12.04 with Mate Desktop Toughbook

Early days yet but I like it. I really like it.

1. Get a Ubuntu 12.04 disk. Or have a good friend give you one. Thanks, Shawn.

2. Load it on a PAE machine. I'm sorry but this is mainly CF-30 and above. I'm using a CF-31. Personally I don't need W7 and etc. Others may, due to work restrictions and etc.

3. My quarrel with 12.04 other than the PAE bit was the use of grub 3 and changes caused by that little deal. Things were not where I expected them to be. Screams from around the world.

4. Yesterday i was messing with Linux Mint Debian (LMDE?) and saw reference to desktop "MATE".

5. Today....after feeding the sheep I loaded Mate over my 12.04 Ubuntu on a CF-31ATNAX2M. (dual boot Ubuntu 12.04LTS /W7))

6. I'm in love. Menus are where they were two years ago and there are several other things I like.

7. From here: http://github.com/downloads/tias/xinput_calibrator/xinput-calibrator_0.7.5-1_i386.deb you will find calibrate touchscreen. Let it install.

Stand by for code. Sorry guys it has to be.

In terminal:

Code:

sudo mkdir /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d

Why? Because when you run calibrate, the snippet you gain wants to go in a directory that is not there. Or...wasn't until you did the above. I'll explain this once. What you did was say "I'm the supervisor and I want you to do the following: make a directory called /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d....and the capital X is important in X11.
8. O.K. in [System][Administration] you should find calibrate touchscreen. Open it, run it. The terminal that remains will give you a snippet to copy to the directory that you created above.

In a new terminal...that's right...open a new one you:

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-calibration.conf

Cut and paste the snippet as directed to this file. [Save] Must have sudo and password (maybe...sometimes it lets you get by) and you must have created a directory for the information. Go slow, get done quick.

9. At this point or before I will have loaded Chromium from package manager, checked show the bookmarks bar and open the new tab page. My preference.

10. I used this: Install [wiki.mate-desktop.org] to add the MATE desktop. Re-boot....click the foot (may be different for a new install) and select Mate. EDIT HERE. Note where it says to use ONE of the repositories.

I almost lost this once...thanks to the auto-save I got it back.....so will close for now.

This is the fourth thread I have started on Linux and toughbooks. Hope this one will last for a while.

To repeat myself a bit this won't work for non-PAE machines. (Look it up...I don't understand it)

Good luck...PM if you need help though I do check in here a couple times a day.

Thanks,

Jeff:GEEK:.....hoping the links work...

On calibration I had to switch back to regular desktop from Mate. The terminal presented by the calibration utility had no text otherwise. It's a regular X terminal and I think this is a small bug. By using regular desktop during calibrate everything worked and the numbers "stuck" when switching back again to Mate. Like I said "early days". EDIT.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/pan...-04-mate-desktop-toughbook-2.html#post9303040
Here's the fix from post 12 of this thread.

 

Thanks for the info. It will be handy when I try Linux on my CF-30CAS.

The links work great.

 

I am going to have to try this out when I get home from work.


Jeff, Have you run Linux much on a SSD?

 

I'll let you know next week as I have a ssd inbound. It will be a first for me.

Jeff

 

I haven't played with them a lot, the first two I got I installed went into the girlfriends CF-19 Mk1 as her hard drive crashed and I didn't have a spare hard drive on hand. The second one was in her 19 Mk2. The oldest boy "stole" the third one I got for this desktop build last Christmas. I couldn't use the SATA 3 right now anyway. Since then I have picked up 6 used Intel's of the G2 X25 make. Finally got three of them installed. One in the daughters CF-74 Mk3, one in my 19 Mk3 and the last one in the CF-T7 Mk1. I bought the 19 Mk3 to work to do some playing with it to see If it likes any of the tweaks I have done to it. I think there is some more speed in it. "out of the box" so to speak the 40gb ssd in the T7 was faster than the same generation one in the 19 (x25 g2 160gb). I am thinking that the firmware needs to be updated in my ssd. I will be working on doing that over the next week or so.

 

Thank you, Jeff
I went into the "dreaded" Terminal for the first time and cut & pasted code to get my Netflix to work in Linux Mint 15 (Mate). Now I have some much needed motivation to try your "calibration" code to get it on my desktop where I can "find" it. Thanks again for ALL you do!

 

Jeff, How are you liking Mint compared to Ubuntu?

 

I started my "Linux experience" with Mint a few years ago. Then as a lot of folks were asking in that thread...I tried Ubuntu. Been there a while now but I am ready for a change and it's all due to Grub and a thing called rolling release.. My Ubuntu 10.10 is customized to my liking and runs on practically everything Tough but it's EOL. (deprecated) Oh there are ways to get new (to me) packages through archives but it's a little labor intensive.
Then at Ubuntu 12.04, PAE showed up. Which eliminated CF-29 and before. Not happy when Ubuntu wanted to look like a cell phone. Not happy at all. Reminded me of W8.
Here's a pet peeve. I (or someone) complains because our machines will not run on 12.04 and above and the answer is "buy a new computer". Hellooooo! I have 20 perfectly good "working" computers and they have been turned into bricks by this attitude and the upcoming EOL on XPP next year. W7 is a $140 option legally. Does that make sense on a machine that you can get for under $100.
LMDE brought back the menus I was used to in version 6 along with their version of Grub2 called something else now. This is a rolling release. No anticipated EOL. Even 12.04 LTS will be outdated in a while. LTS is long term support by the way.
If you want to read arguments for and against Grub2 versus Grub3 please go elsewhere. This is not my purpose here.

My purpose is to come up with a usable OS for Legacy Toughbooks. Debian through LMDE seems to be listening to the people that own older machines. I like that and mean to give it a good try...

What was the question? Oh, I'm liking it fine.

Jeff...forgive the rant...

 

That use to be one of the best things about Linux, light weight, ran well on a older machine. I was always a casual user of it, but never got too deep into it. I was starting to get more into it until they kept wanting to push unity on Ubuntu. The other one I use to use was Mandriva (one and powerpack) but even that is gone now. They finally rebooted DSL project so I am waiting to see what will come with that. At least I know they will keep it lightweight.

 

Ubuntu 12.04 w/Mate Desktop booting in 7 seconds from the bios splash screen. Intel 335 240 GB. CF-52GUNBRAM Touchscreen 2048 Ram.
I have a change for above instructions. I will edit it in place in a while.

Doing the calibration thing right now.

There are two edits in the first page of this thread. End edit.

 

Hehehe. You're going to need a chin strap to hold your hat on. :-D

Thanks for updating the thread. I am going to try it out next week, if life and time allow.

 

O.K. that's what I thought was happening with calibration.

The terminal was recording black numbers on black back ground.

The fix:
run [System][Administration]Calibrate_Touchscreen
click the four red squares.
When the Terminal opens if it is blank do this:
Click [Edit][Profile preferences]
Under Colors Tab Uncheck [Use colors from system theme]
Fixed

Jeff

 

Jeff,
I went to the main Linux Mint download page here: Download - Linux Mint and loaded XFCE on the CF-19.
Your post gave me enough courage to go into Terminal and add a "quit/shutdown/ switch" on a newly loaded Mint with XFCE:
How to Add a Shutdown (Power Off) Button to Your Desktop - Linux Mint Community
XFCE is light on resources but seems very easy to use, their website is here: Xfce Desktop Environment
I'm reading up now on MATE, found here: Install | MATE and here: Install | MATE
I do know that you can download Linux Mint 15 with MATE on the above Linux Mint download page.
The Terminal is "too cool" and should be helpful for all dabbling in Linux (UBUNTU, MINT, UNIX).
Thanks for the tutorial.
Cleve

 

Cleve,
You have topped off my day. Thank you..

I need to take a look at XFCE.....reading good things about it.

Remember my motive is a usable OS for vintage Toughbooks for when XPP reaches EOL. The hardware is fine...why destroy it?

The latest and greatest will not work with the older Intel Chips....again my reason for trying Linux Mint Debian.

And again repeating myself....from earlier threads...not everything is mix and match. (Ubuntu v.s. Debian)

Great post friend, thank you.

Jeff

 

Jeff
great to hear. I've found this link which might help: http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?pid=29666
Apparently you can not only load xfce edition of mint, but also install it OVER your current system. It is in the software repository, I believe the name there is: xfce4
Look for it!
Cleve

 

For those of you Linux users wishing to "replace unity by MATE": Replace Unity by MATE [wiki.mate-desktop.org]
Cheers!