Trash / Treasure Update

I have been slowly tweaking my new old laptop to see if I can use it as my primary for a while. I realize it is not as speedy as the desktop, but it 95% of what I need it for works as far as I can tell. One of the things it does not have is a CD burner. That is going to be an issue, but as long as I have a USB drive, I may be okay.

Also, I figured out why I was getting one of the errors during boot up. I thought it was a DVD boot issue problem but it turns out that it was just an incorrect BIOS setting. The BIOS was looking for a network boot device and could not find one so it was giving the error message and trying the HD, not the DVD-ROM. Once the setting was changed to try the floppy first, HD second, DVD-ROM third, and LAN last (this is the only option that puts the LAN last except for one that puts the HD first and I do not want that). This laptop and a neat feature that allows you to interupt the BIOS boot and pick a device to boot from, so my order above is not as critical as long as I keep the LAN last. So at least I have pretty much everything working that I need from a laptop. With wifi enabled, it is pretty hard on batteries (I get about 1.5 2 hours, tops) but that has not been a big issue. I am looking to find a car charger (something generic) that will allow me to take it on the road and use it to play DVD's when I am bored. I would prefer not to take my work laptop in case something happens.

Since the case is in such bad shape, I have been looking for cool stickers for it. I had a few Ubuntu stickers left, but I would like to find some others. I am sure I can find some at the Christian Book Store if I can get there. I know it will look a tad juvenile, but it is an older hand-me-down.

OS Installed - Check
Wired Network Access - Check
Wifi access - Check (WEP or open connections only)
Office Suite - Check
Browser Configured - Check (extensions installed and configured)
Patches Current - Check
Hardware working - Check (sans Bluetooth...I have not been able to get it working)
USB Thumb Drive - Check (read/write and mount/unmount)
E-mail Client - Check (installed, but not configured)
Play Media - Check (DVD, mp3, Flash)
IM - Check (installed but not configured)
Vehicle Charger - Needed
Case - Check (we have a back pack we use for laptops)

I am sorry to hear that Knightmare has had so many problems with Ubuntu on his laptop. I know it must be frustrating. The first couple of times I installed Linux on a laptop I was very frustrated. Hopefully he will not give up on Linux and will keep a spare box to learn on. That is the only way I made it.