• Wireless connection – this is very easy, it automatically detects any network and you just need to key in the WEP key if applicable.

• VPN connection – successfully configured to connect through VPN to my office.

• Terminal Server Client – tried this as well. Managed to connect to my client’s server with great speed.

• Internet Explorer – managed to installed using Wine. You can refer to this website http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Installation:Ubuntu. (somehow I still need IE for my work).

• Got PuTTy installed, tried and tested okay.

• gFTP (FTP client) is up, tested working fine.

To do list:

• To get Active-X working on the IE (need this for my work).

• To install Genero Desktop Client (for work as well).

• Migrating my MS Outlook emails (.pst) to Ubuntu. Heard that this is going to a major thing.

… and some others that I cannot think of now.

It was quite a frustrating day yesterday as far as my attempt to install Ubuntu 8.10 goes. In my previous post, I mentioned that the installation was not smooth; it hangs mid way. Let me tell you in detail what actually happened yesterday.

First attempt to install Ubuntu 8.10 was on my 6 years old Twinhead Efio D212A with AMD Athlon and 376MB RAM. I tried to install twice, but on both occasions, the installation hangs at step 4 of 7 – at the partition stage. I thought it was going to take me 30 minutes to install, max… but, after almost 2 hours, I decided to take a break. But before I leave my notebook, I downloaded the latest version, 9.04.

I came back a couple of hours later, and burn the ISO image on a CD.

I tried again on the same notebook but this time, it hanged at step 3. Hard booted the notebook, removed the CD from the drive and I then decided to have a go at my other notebook… (it’s my company’s actually). It’s a DELL Vostro 1200 with 2GB of RAM.

On this notebook, the installation hanged at step 4 as well (I think). This couldn’t be right. Back to the drawing board. I spent a good 20 minutes Googling around and found that, maybe, I need to do a CHKDSK. So, CHKDSK it is.

Upon running CHKDSK (not with /F), I found that there were quite a number of errors. I need to repair them. CHKDSK was completed last night.

This morning, with full of energy, I started the installation again…. and to cut long story short, in about 25 minutes, everything is done. In fact, I’m writing this post on Ubuntu 9.04… yes….I now have a dual boot OS, 110GB for Windows XP (where all my work files are), and a mere 10GB for the Ubuntu.

Ubuntu or Linux for that matter, is quite new to me. A lot to learn. So far so good, everything seems to be working fine.

Today is going to be a busy day trying, learning, customising my Jaunty Jackalope.

Anyway, will continue installing 8.10.

At this moment, I’m installing Ubuntu in a separate partition – 43% Ubuntu and 57% Windows XP Home (hhmm… why do I need to keep XP???). Nevermind, I can redo the installation later and wipe out XP entirely. Can’t wait for the installation to complete. In the meantime, let it running,… it’s at resizing partition stage now.. and it’s going to take a while.

[updated] The installation hangs at 37%. Nothing is moving. I hardreboot the notebook and am running the installation again. Hopefully it’ll work this time round.