morphing 10.04 LTS to 10.04 netbook edition

sudo apt-get instll ubuntu-netbook-remix

Log off, select the netbook remix, then log in

Hi :)

That was meant to be

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-netbook-remix

if you tried ActionParsnip's line the just use up arrow to get the command back and move left along the line to add the "a" into install. I am not convinced this will add in all the usual driver kernel modules you normally get with the UNR but it has to be worth a try and anyway AP is usually right about this sort of thing
So, please let us know how this goes!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Sorry if I am being dense here...

When I run your command line string, I get the following:

ddenholm@ASUS-netbook:~$
ddenholm@ASUS-netbook:~$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-netbook-remix
[sudo] password for ddenholm:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
ubuntu-netbook-remix is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
ddenholm@ASUS-netbook:~$

Which would seem to mean that everything is already installed. And maybe it is... I only had about an hour of playing around with 9.10 netbook remix before I upgraded to 10.04 LTS... But my impression is that the interface I now have is somewhat different from the 9.10 netbook remix. For example, there are no favorites by default whereas there were a few with the 9.10 remix version.

How can I tell if the netbook edition stuff is actually active?

TIA

--Doug

Hi :)

Don't worry about being dense, that is a total non-issue. Anyway, you aren't. Yes it does look as though you have all the UNR packages already installed. Please can you get to a command-line and give us the output of

uname -a

That should show us which version of linux you are using although i am not sure how specific it is. It might just say 10.04 for both the UNR and the desktop but it would be interesting to see.

The reboot or switch user and at the login screen look for "Options" or "Session type" to find the Netbook Remix option in there.

Please let us know how this goes!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

OK, uname -a gives me the following:

ddenholm@ASUS-netbook:~$ uname -a
Linux ASUS-netbook 2.6.32-22-generic #33-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 28 13:27:30 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux
ddenholm@ASUS-netbook:~$

And I tried the following:

ddenholm@ASUS-netbook:~$ cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS \n \l

I am not sure that tells me much.

I tried logging in and out but I did not see any options for 'turning on' the netbook stuff.

--Doug

Hi

Hmm, sorry but i am stuck here. Hopefully ActionParsnip or someone might be able to help but that is likely to be in a few hours time. I really thought there would be some sort of "Options" button on the login screen and the options menu included a "Session type"

Anyway, apols and regards from
Tom :)

Hi,

i'm trying to figured out how to upgrade to netbook edition too. In my case from karmic 9.10. In fact there is no precise and good information about it, i'm studing this subject days ago becouse i want to be sure that i'm upgreding to this version correctly and everything is a bit confused.

The metapackage "ubuntu-netbook-remix" is old and i think that is of an old version diferent to the "netbook edition" of 10.04, there is a new metapackage: "ubuntu-netbook" in 10.04 lucid that olso provides the "ubuntu-netbook-remix". If you have lucid lynx you'll find it into synaptic.

Hope this helps in something.

i forgot, for see precise details about the version of your ubuntu type: "lsb_release -a" on a terminal.

Thanks for trying, Tom. :)

This isn't a matter of any urgency... I am quite please with 10.4 LTS as it
is currently running... I am just obsessing about getting my first netbook
running "just so" and I have the impression that the netbook remix is
supposed to improve usability and battery life.

And I imagine someone will enlighten me tomorrow.

--Doug

On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 9:15 PM, Tom
<email address hidden>wrote:

> Your question #112758 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/112758
>
> Tom posted a new comment:
> Hi
>
> Hmm, sorry but i am stuck here. Hopefully ActionParsnip or someone might
> be able to help but that is likely to be in a few hours time. I really
> thought there would be some sort of "Options" button on the login screen
> and the options menu included a "Session type"
>
> Anyway, apols and regards from
> Tom :)
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

Thanks Alvaro,

Here is what I get with your command string:

ddenholm@ASUS-netbook:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
Release: 10.04
Codename: lucid

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to tell me whether the netbook edition stuff is actually enabled.

Try this out, go to synaptic manager, and there type in the netbook
remix package name as suggested above, you will see that if its
installed it will show up in green, otherwise it isn't installed, also
the graphical interface will give you a better idea of which package
is the meta-package and if any names changed and all that. Hope that
helps :)

On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 11:16 PM, D Denholm
<email address hidden> wrote:
> Question #112758 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/112758
>
> D Denholm gave more information on the question:
> Thanks Alvaro,
>
> Here is what I get with your command string:
>
> ddenholm@ASUS-netbook:~$ lsb_release -a
> No LSB modules are available.
> Distributor ID: Ubuntu
> Description:    Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
> Release:        10.04
> Codename:       lucid
>
> Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to tell me whether the netbook edition
> stuff is actually enabled.
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you are an answer
> contact for Ubuntu.
>

--
Regards,
Vikram Dhillon

~~~
There are lots of Linux users who don't care how the kernel works, but
only want to use it. That is a tribute to how good Linux is.
-- Linus Torvalds

Well Doug, apparently you don't have Netbook Edition. Check Synaptic and see if you have the package "ubuntu-netbook" installed.

I think we don't have to mix things up, "Ubuntu Netbook Remix" (UNR) it is not the same as "ubuntu Netbook Edition" (UNE) , what i could figure out is that UNR is the release for nebooks of Ubuntu 9.10 karmic Coala, so the metapackage "ubuntu-netbook-remix" is the trnasitional package for this version not for 10.04 lucid lynx version, and the "UNE" is the release for netbooks of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx.
Searching about it, i found in the Ubuntu package web a packege that olny appeared for 10.04 version and included the ubuntu-netbook-remix package, so i think maybe this could be our "magic package". If it's not, i hope that someone apears and clarify a bit this issue.

Succes! and Regards.

If you logoff, then click your user name, at the bottom of the screen in the middle you can choose the environment to log onto. Does this say GNOME or Netbook Remix, Select the remix if it isn't and you will get the remix.

Here's where I am now...

This morning, I followed Vikrahm's suggestion and opened up the graphical synaptic manager and I searched for "netbook" packages. I am not familiar with synaptic manager but I could see quite a few packages that either had "netbook" in the package name or in the description.

And I could see that there is a green button in the leftmost column that indicates that a particular package is installed. And the column next to it occasionally contains a red ubuntu symbol... but I don't know what that means... it can be present regardless of whether a package is installed or not.

When I first opened syaptic, I noticed a number of things...

1) It appears that I have both ubuntu-netbook and ubuntu-netbook-remix packages installed. Since I am running 10.04, should I delete the "-remix" package?

2) I saw that plasma-netbook and human-theme-netbook were *not* installed. So I installed them. As soon as I did that, my login screen changed... Before I had a dark background background with purple streaks with a matching login window in the center. That changed to a sky blue background with fluffy cloud stuff and a matching login window... And the login window now has a dropdown that allows one to choose an environment (e.g. gnome, KDE, netbook, and netbook 2D. The only ones I tried were KDE (which drops me into a black screen with only a cursor arrow... I have to physically swithoff the machine to get out) while both the netbook and netbook 2D get me into a usable environment. The main difference with netbook and netbook 2D (no remix is listed) is that I lose the large menu icons down the left side (Favorites, Accessories, Games, etc.) and I get a number of equivalent menu dropdowns across the top of the screen... Except that Favorites is not one of them.

From what I have read since, the human-theme-netbook may have been for the 9.10 version and perhaps is not to be used in 10.04

I can see that the new menu mode is maximizing usable screen real estate but I wish I could have the choice of going back to the original mode with the large menu icons down the left. I am not sure which mode I would prefer in the long run but at this point, I cannot figure out how to switch modes... this seems to have been a one way process.

--Doug

Hi at last :)

It is usually better to try a fresh new install rather than a upgrade but obviously you want to keep the data&settings from the previous install. Linux, unlike Windows, make this fairly easy, once things have been set-up right. The problem is that setting things up can be a little complicated but should be manageable.

The trick is to get the /home folder on it's own partition. The /home contains all the data&settings and during an install it doesn't need to be formatted. Ideal really. Then the OS&programs on / can safely wiped during formatting without touching the /home.

Since you can have 2 installs sharing the same /home partition it means that you don't lose access to the existing working system while struggling through the install (&getting things working) process.

The first step is to work out if you have enough free empty space on your current hard-drive in order to copy (using "rsync") the /home, otherwise we might need to use an external drive, a 2nd drive or perhaps the cloud or something. The easiest option is just to use the same hard-drive imo. So, please can you use gparted or something to see how much space is used on your current partition and how much space is free. I think that if you give us the results of

sudo fdisk -l

then we should be able to see if the partitions happen to be laid out in a particularly helpful way. For moving the /home partition i would use this guide
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Partitioning/Home/Moving
although we can help you work through that :)

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Thanks Tom, for the reality check.

I am not deeply invested in my current install or settings. I was of the mindset that one last tweak and I'd have everything the way I want it.

So it probably does make sense to burn it down and start over.

Where is the best place to download an install of the 10.04 netbook version?

I found the following page on the Ubuntu site: http://www.ubuntu.com/netbook/get-ubuntu/download

[I find the instructions confusing, they talk about creating a USB drive... Which I assume to mean that one is putting the install image on a USB flashdrive... But in the last instruction block they talk about a CD which, to me, means an optical drive.

My previous install attempt for this beast started with my booting an image of a Linux magazine distro disk on my external DVD drive. That worked fine for me.]

--Doug

Be sure to MD5 sum the image before use ;)

Hello actionparsnip,

Thanks for the suggestion but where do I find the MD5 sum for the ubuntu-10.04-netbook-i386.iso image that I am downloading?

I don't see it on the download page.

--Doug

Hi :)

That is the right place to download from. I can't find the md5sum hash at the moment. Still looking.

It appears the instructions made a mistake on step 4, instead of saying
"When the CD is ready, simply put it in your CD drive,"
it should, of course, have said something like
"When the usb-stick is ready, simply plug it into a usb slot,"
I have emailed the ubuntu translators teams to let them know of the error and to ask them for help in fixing it. They have been very helpful in the past but these things take time. Thanks for pointing out the error! :)

As you will begin to realise the differences between usb and Cd is quite slight in many ways and we still often refer to LiveUsb sessions as LiveCd because of the marked similarities between them. There are differences tho, especially if your machine has one but not the other!

I hope this helps!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi again :)

Ok, hopefully the md5 sum hash is here
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuHashes

Hopefully you are not using the 64bit edition (if there is one) and so the sum should be
712277c7868ab374c4d3c73cff1d95cb

I check these are the same using the calculator
Applications - Accessories - Calculator - View - Programming - Hex
then you should be able to copy&paste the numbers in and take one away from the other to get 0, assuming the sum check works. A non-zero would indicate an error. Hopefully just because one number has spaces in it and the other doesn't but otherwise it would indicate a problem.

As for re-installing the netbook remix i would recommend using a new partition and keeping the existing one.

As you said you are quite happy with the current install so it is worth keeping as part of a dual-boot, at least until you feel comfortable with the new one :) Why lose something that works for something untried? During the install process you will get to a partitioning section. The "Advanced" or "Manual" option at the bottom of this page should allow you to set-up an / partition of about 5Gb and a /home partition of at least 10Gb but filling as much of the drive as reasonably possible. The Advanced Partitioning section should hopefully allow you to shrink the current partition down to a reasonable size, perhaps 10-15 Gb? (a little bit more than the space it currently shows as being "used" would be ideal.)

Doubtless the magazines Dvd contains many interesting programs and we could show you how to add the dvd as a "software repository" to be able to access and install programs directly from the dvd. The advantage is that sometimes the online repos will contain more up-to-date versions of stuff that is on the Dvd. The package manager would automatically choose the most up-to-date versions of things. So, don't discard or discount the Dvd yet :)

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

712277c7868ab374c4d3c73cff1d95cb
ubuntu-10.04-netbook-i386.iso

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuHashes

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-website/+bug/587630

Well, I checked the MD5 hash and it matched, so I installed the iso on the thumbdrive and then installed it on the ASUS 1201T.

It comes up fine with 10.04 netbook edition. I like the interface but.... Now my networking isn't working. Everything (i.e. wired ethernet and wireless all are checked as enabled. But neither wired ethernet nor wireless will connect anymore. They were working on this machine before so I know the wireless hardware is working... I am less sure of the wired ethernet since I never tried it.

I saw some suggestions about wireless problems (although this one seems to affect both wired and wireless) and I ran two of the suggested diagnostic strings below:

ddenholm@ASUS-netbook:~$ sudo lshw -C network
[sudo] password for ddenholm:
  *-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 10
       serial: 1c:4b:d6:60:75:05
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=rtl819xSE driverversion=0014.0115.2010 firmware=62 latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=802.11bgn
       resources: irq:16 ioport:d800(size=256) memory:fbefc000-fbefffff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: Atheros AR8132 / L1c Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
       vendor: Atheros Communications
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:03:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: c0
       serial: 48:5b:39:12:46:ff
       capacity: 100MB/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=atl1c driverversion=1.0.0.1-NAPI firmware=N/A latency=0 link=no multicast=yes port=twisted pair
       resources: irq:27 memory:fbfc0000-fbffffff ioport:ec00(size=128)
ddenholm@ASUS-netbook:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

wlan0 802.11bgn Nickname:"rtl8191SEVA1"
          Mode:Managed Frequency=2.412 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
          Bit Rate:135 Mb/s
          Retry:on RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=10/100 Signal level=0 dBm Noise level=-100 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

eth0 no wireless extensions.

pan0 no wireless extensions.

None of the above is informative to me but perhaps someone with more knowledge will see what the problem is.

TIA,

--Doug

Ok if you run:

sudo iwlist scan

To you find access points?

Hi :)

The wiifi was also tricky in the desktop edition wasn't it? Do you prefer the desktop inferface or the netbook one? do windows have the buttons on the 'wrong' side (ie Mac (left) rather than Windows (right)) and if so do you want to change them? This line swaps them to follow the Windows (lack of) style

gconftool-2 --set "/apps/metacity/general/button_layout" --type string "menu:minimize,maximize,close"

I don't know how to switch them back tho!
Was this
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/netbook-meta/+question/112715
the thread that helped you fix your wireless last time? If so then it is worth bookmarking it on yur other machine as well as the eee.

Also on a new install of Ubuntu it is worth running through the medibuntu page
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
to sort out most multimedia issues. Also probably need to install the 'non-free' adobe "flash player"
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hello actionparsnip,

Here's what I get with the iwlist command:

ddenholm@ASUS-netbook:~$ sudo iwlist scan
[sudo] password for ddenholm:
lo Interface doesn't support scanning.

eth0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

wlan0 No scan results

pan0 Interface doesn't support scanning.

ddenholm@ASUS-netbook:~$

Thanks,

--Doug

On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 5:46 AM, actionparsnip <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #112758 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/112758
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> actionparsnip requested for more information:
> Ok if you run:
>
> sudo iwlist scan
>
> To you find access points?
>
> --
> To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
> this email or enter your reply at the following page:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/112758
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

Hi :)

Does this page
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EeePC/Fixes
from Community Documentation help?

If not could it be edited?
Regards from
Tom :)

Hi again :)

Ok, so i edited the page a little to sort some of the heading out. Then i found this guide which might be interesting although it doesn't deal with the wireless issue
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EeePC/Using

Regards from
Tom :)

Here's where I stand at this point...

I now have Ubuntu 10.04 netbook edition installed on my ASUS 1201T. I like the way the interface is set up, I am ready to go... BUT, neither my wired or wireless networking is working.

This is exactly the situation I was in when I first installed the Ubuntu 9.10 netbook remix a few days ago. With 9.10 remix, I was able to get the wifi networking to function by copying down some driver code from Realtek and following the procedure below (which jloman posted on NewEgg.com):

"For those who cannot get the wireless to work on linux (ubuntu 9.10) here's how

-go to realtek's website for driver support (download section)
-Choose "communications network ICs>wireless lan ICs>WLAN NIC> then choose b/g/n single chip> software > now choose "RTL8192SE"
-(For simplicity just download it to "Downloads" folder)
-go to the folder, click "Extract Here" (I renamed the extracted folder as "RTL8192""
-Open up the application "terminal"

type the following in terminal:
sudo su
cd Downloads |note that the letter the folder begins w/ a capital D|
cd RTL8192SE
make
make install
reboot gk (this will reboot the computer)

then press Fn + F2 and watch for the wifi light to light up."

When I ran the "make" and "make install" under 9.10 netbook remix, everything ran with out error and... after the reboot, I was able to start up the wireless and it worked fine.

But when I try and run "make" under Ubuntu 10.04 remix, I get the following errors:

"ddenholm@ASUS-netbook:~/Downloads/rtl8192se$ make
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-21-generic/scripts/gcc-version.sh: line 25: gcc: command not found
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-21-generic/scripts/gcc-version.sh: line 26: gcc: command not found
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-21-generic'
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-21-generic/arch/x86/Makefile:81: stack protector enabled but no compiler support
make[1]: gcc: Command not found
  CC [M] /home/ddenholm/Downloads/rtl8192se/HAL/rtl8192/rtl_core.o
/bin/sh: gcc: not found
make[2]: *** [/home/ddenholm/Downloads/rtl8192se/HAL/rtl8192/rtl_core.o] Error 127
make[1]: *** [_module_/home/ddenholm/Downloads/rtl8192se/HAL/rtl8192] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-21-generic'
make: *** [all] Error 2"

As I mentioned this ran fine with the default, out-of-the-box 9.10 but it appears that I am missing a package in 10.04 netbook edition (or something is missing from the default path).

I am hoping that if I can successfully run "make" and "make install" on the Realtek driver code that I will get the wifi to work as it did under 9.10.

If someone can suggest how I can get make and make install to work in this context, I would appreciate it.

TIA,

--Doug

PS If anyone has any tips on how to get the wired ethernet to work, that would also be appreciated.

Hi again Doug,

First of all, for get UNE you only need to uogarade to 10.04 Lucid Lynx and the metapackage "ubuntu-netbook" (A metapackage is a package made of other packages, a true package like leafpad is an actual program, a metapackage is a collection of packages and basically makes installing lots of packages easier). I say this becouse i see you have a mix of serveral packages hanging around and maybe (or maybe not) that can cause some errors. I speak becouse i've installed UNE after much research and it worked fine.

Second, about your error, i think the problem is that you don't have the package "gcc" installed and is for this that in the messenges you shared appears "gcc comand not found", so try this:

On a terminal:

"sudo apt-get update"

then:

"sudo apt-get install gcc"

Or in the Synaptic search for "gcc" package and install it.

Good luck and regards.

Hello Alvaro,

I checked in Synaptic Package Manager and it showed the following as being
installed:

gcc-4.4-base
libgcc1
libgomp1
cpp-4.4
cpp

--Doug

On Mon, May 31, 2010 at 11:15 PM, Alvaro <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #112758 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/112758
>
> Alvaro posted a new comment:
> Hi again Doug,
>
> First of all, for get UNE you only need to uogarade to 10.04 Lucid Lynx
> and the metapackage "ubuntu-netbook" (A metapackage is a package made of
> other packages, a true package like leafpad is an actual program, a
> metapackage is a collection of packages and basically makes installing
> lots of packages easier). I say this becouse i see you have a mix of
> serveral packages hanging around and maybe (or maybe not) that can cause
> some errors. I speak becouse i've installed UNE after much research and
> it worked fine.
>
> Second, about your error, i think the problem is that you don't have the
> package "gcc" installed and is for this that in the messenges you shared
> appears "gcc comand not found", so try this:
>
> On a terminal:
>
> "sudo apt-get update"
>
> then:
>
> "sudo apt-get install gcc"
>
> Or in the Synaptic search for "gcc" package and install it.
>
> Good luck and regards.
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

Hi :)

22 hours ago Mark posted an answer that seems to have solved the other thread about this
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/netbook-meta/+question/112715

Does that help you?
Regards from
Tom :)

At this point, I think that I could get this all fixed if I could get gcc to
work properly. I.e. if I could run make/make install against the Realtek
driver stuff. After all, that is what got me up and running with wireless
with my initial 9.10 install.

As far as I can *see*, the gcc package(s) are installed but when I run
"make" against the Realtek driver files, the process fails... Apparently
because gcc is *not* properly installed.

If someone can tell me how to reinstall gcc (given that I do not have any
wireless or wired network access at this point) I would appreciate it.

Also, I would appreciate it if someone would suggest how to get the wired
ethernet to work as well.

Thanks,

--Doug

On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 10:37 AM, Tom
<email address hidden>wrote:

> Your question #112758 on unr-meta in ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unr-meta/+question/112758
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Tom proposed the following answer:
> Hi :)
>
> 22 hours ago Mark posted an answer that seems to have solved the other
> thread about this
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/netbook-meta/+question/112715
>
> Does that help you?
> Regards from
> Tom :)
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
>
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unr-meta/+question/112758/+confirm?answer_id=31
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unr-meta/+question/112758
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

Hi

This guide can help with downloading and installing packages on a machine with no internet access
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Synaptic/PackageDownloadScript
the page is not completely up-to-date but i am working on it. The part i haven't finished looking at is that when you get the packages back to the Ubuntu machine you only need to open Synaptic and use it's "File" menu to "Add downloaded packages" but that might not make much sense until after you have looked at the guide.

Launchpad doesn't have a good way of dealing with questions older than a couple of days so it might be worth re-posting this question to attract the attention of new people in the Answers Team
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unr-meta/+addquestion
perhaps use this link to let people know what has already been tried or discussed
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unr-meta/+question/112758

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hello Tom,

I appreciate all the help but I have decided to beat a disorderly retreat back to 9.10. At least I can get a network connection on that.

I may have another shot at installing 10.x once it has had a few of the kinks worked out. With Windows, I always wait until SP2, I guess the same applies here too.

Thanks again.

--Doug

Hi :)

Yes, 10.04 is quite a radical change and seems to need a few things ironed out. As you point out it is comparable to a Windows release as they only get released every few years too and seem to need to make a big splash too.

Hopefully the 10.04.1 might work better on your system, roughly the equivalent of Sp1. Of course 9.10 is a good one to go back to as it still has nearly a years worth of support left and 2 further releases scheduled, 10.10 & 11.04 although neither of them is an LTS.

An option that a few people seem to be trying out is to dual-boot (or multi-boot) the 10.04 with either 9.10, 9.04 or 8.04 until they have things sorted the way they really like. With linux a dual/multi-boot is very easy to set-up which does give us another significant edge over Windows. I don't think it would help in your case where internet access becomes a problem but then there is always the LiveCd/Usb to test the 10.04.1 & then the 10.04.2 or just wait until the .2 one.

If you could post a bug-report about the wireless and wired internet not working then that would help. I am not sure which app to use to post the report to get the most relevant attachments included automatically so it might be better to just post the bug-report and then ask people how to access the right logs and stuff
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs
Hopefully developers might help fix the problem with your network connections which would help a lot of other people too.

I have been meaning to re-write the Community Documentation page about how to deal with a machine that has no internet connection for quite a long as i know quite a few people that have this type of issue even if it is only temporary in some of those cases. We quite often get questions about it in here so it is good to have an easy guide to point to rather than have to keep re-write the same answer repeatedly

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)