Archives par mot-clé : Lazy Web

(Almost) risk-free Karmic testing

Every time there’s a new Ubuntu version coming up it’s interesting to test it using the Desktop edition live CD. This however requires burning a CD, rebooting from it, but doesn’t include the « full » test experience – your personal files and customization are not there.

Putting a full working Ubuntu install on a USB key and linking to an existing home directory may be the closest to an actual full-upgrade: it doesn’t touch your hard disk (so no need to reverse any changes). Well, mostly. For example if you use Firefox, a new version will upgrade extensions, etc.

One of my colleagues, Shang Wu, has put together a little script to automate this setup, and a basic document on how to install Ubuntu on a stick to test Karmic as I described, see: Testing Ubuntu Beta Releases off a USB stick. Please do read the code before executing it in one of your systems 🙂

If anyone has comments or suggestions for this script or if you have better recipes to let existing Ubuntu users test/try future releases, I’d like to hear about it.

 

Dear Lazy Web: are Sony Memory Stick (MS) and Memory Stick Pro (MSP) Ubuntu-friendly ?

I’ve just filed Bug #237369,JMicron card reader (152d:2339) in HP Pavilion 2035la doesn’t support Memory Stick Pro (MSP) for a friend in the #ubuntu-co channel that has an HP Pavilion DV 2035la (or DV 2000 series as they call it). I was a bit surprised that Sony Memory Stick (MS) and Memory Stick Pro (MSP) cards would not be supported yet and I am seeing contradictory reports on this.

Apparently MS* support is card-reader specific, and this one’s USB id (152d:2339) doesn’t seem very common.

If anyone knows what the status of MS* support is in Linux (and Ubuntu specifically), I’ll gladly stop writing keyword intensive posts like this one 🙂

 

Webcams anyone ?

Dear Lazy Web: for some reason these days several people are asking me the same question – What Webcam is the cheapest and best to use in Ubuntu ? Of course, it HAS to work with Cheese and video in Skype.

I’d love to know if anyone has suggestions from FutureShop.ca or BestBuy.com or NewEgg.com, in that order 🙂

The Logitech Quickcam Communicate STX seemed like a good candidate but it’s out of stock.

Perhaps what we need is some mashup of this, this and this.