How To: Ubuntu 8.04.1 on the MSI Wind U100

Posted by: Kat on: Sunday, 28 September 2008

• In: Guides | Tala
• 1 Comment

I’ve decided to take what I’ve learned and put it into a tutorial. But just so you know, these things aren’t new. I’m just compiling information from other sources and presenting them here for other Wind users’ benefit. A more apt title for this post would be “How I Got Ubuntu 8.04.1 Running on the MSI Wind U100.”

These instructions are for setting up an Ubuntu-only system, plus guides for getting the wireless and webcam to work. If you got Windows on your Wind and want to keep it, I suggest you search for a dual-boot guide first.

Anyway, let’s go:

PREP

1. Download the Ubuntu ISO from your chosen mirror.

*Optional* In Windows, check it for errors with WinMD5Free. (The Ubuntu docs recommend another program. I like this one because you don’t need to install anything.) In GNU/Linux:

cd the-directory-where-your-iso-is
md5sum filename-of-iso.iso

Then, compare the characters to the official hashes here. If they match up, you’re good to go.

2. Download UNetBootin. This program will turn your USB stick (I suggest at least 1gb in capacity) into a LiveUSB.

Plug in your USB stick and start UNetBootin. Click on ‘Disk Image’ and select the ISO file that you just downloaded. In ‘Type,’ select ‘USB Drive’ and then the letter of your USB drive. Click on ‘OK.’

If you do not have a USB stick, you’ll have to burn the CD image to a CD. When I did this for my desktop PC, I used the docs-recommended program, Infrarecorder. I used a USB stick because the Wind doesn’t come with an internal drive for optical disks (whether CD, DVD, etc.), so you will need an external drive for your burned disk.

4. With your LiveUSB/CD (still) plugged in, restart the Wind. You should then be able to start up Ubuntu.

5. Try it out! When you think you’re ready, click

INSTALL

1. Go through each of the screens, putting in the required information as you go.

2. When you get to the partitioning portion, click ‘Manual.’

• Make one ‘/’ ext3 partition about 10-15gb large. If you’re having trouble converting gb to mb, you might want to use this handy byte calculator. ‘/’ is where Ubuntu will go.
• Make one swap partition about twice the size of your RAM. My Wind came with 1.0gb ram, so my swap was 2048mb large.
• Use the rest of the disk for your ext3 ‘/home’ partition. This is where all your files will reside.

If you want to read a bit more on partition-planning, especially if you plan to dual-boot, you can read aysiu’s guide here.

3. Go on with the rest of your install. That’s it! :)

WIRELESS
Reference

This is for those who would rather not buy a new wireless card and just use the one that comes with the Wind.

1. Download this .tar.gz archive and put it in your home folder.
2. We’re going under the hood now. From your newly-installed Ubuntu desktop, go to Applications > Accessories > Terminal. Input these commands (If you’d like to know what each command does, click on the Reference link):

• sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`
• tar xvzf rtl8187se_linux_26.1016.0716.2008.tar.gz
• cd rtl8187se_linux_26.1016.0716.2008
• ./makedrv
• sudo ./wlan0up

3. Are you still in the terminal? Repeat this step for each of these .ko files, replacing the * with the proper filenames.

• ieee80211_crypt-rtl.ko
• ieee80211_crypt_wep-rtl.ko
• ieee80211_crypt_tkip-rtl.ko
• ieee80211_crypt_ccmp-rtl.ko
• ieee80211-rtl.ko

sudo cp -r ieee80211/*.ko /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/

4. The last set of commands:

• sudo cp rtl8185/r8180.ko /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/
• sudo depmod -a
• sudo modprobe r8180

That’s it. :) You may need to fiddle with the networking options from time to time, but it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work.

If you want to get your webcam fully-operational, don’t close the terminal just yet!

WEBCAM
Reference 1
Reference 2
Reference 3

1. Based on what I can glean from the German wiki (Reference 2), the MSI Wind’s built-in webcam is either an ID 0c45:62c0 Microdia or an ID 5986:0203 Bison, but just to check:

lsusb

If you don’t see those characters, hit Fn+F6 and input lsusb again.

2. Now that you’re sure you’ve got either of those webcams, input the following commands:

• sudo apt-get install subversion (Add build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r` if you did not go through the above steps for setting up your wireless card.)
• svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/linux-uvc/linux-uvc/trunk linux-uvc
• cd linux-uvc
• sudo make
• sudo make install
• sudo cp -a uvcvideo.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/ubuntu/media/usbvideo/
• sudo modprobe uvcvideo

3. You’re done! :) Want to try your webcam out? Go to Applications > Add/Remove Programs, look for a program called Cheese, and install it. Then, go to Applications > Graphics > Cheese and have fun!

Tags: command line, do-it-yourself, foss, GNU/Linux, msi wind, netbook, operating systems, tutorials, ubuntu, webcam, wireless