Dell Mini 9 and Ubuntu

Dell Ubuntu

We restored the dell netbook using the ubuntu 8.04 restore image. It had come with windows xp but with no ubunutu disc in the box.

This is a customized version of 8.04 for dell. The plus is that everything works, the downside is that I don't like some of the package choices and settings, however that should be easy to change.

First we restore the default ubuntu desktop to get rid of the big launcher bar. Next we remove the apps we don't want - ie periodic table etc and tuxmath and games. Next we download the updates

SHOW STOPPER - the system monitor only reports 883mb of ram in a 2 gig machine. What gives? A post by ffreitas:

To check yours just open in a text editor/viewer the file /boot/config-2.6.24-19lpia , and search for the text "CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM" (without the double quotes). You will see something like this:

CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM=y
# CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G is not set
# CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G is not set

That shows that the kernel was compiled without an option that is needed to see more than the 883 MB our mini 9's can currently see. To fix that manually requires a kernel recompile.

That is an incredible oversight. Ok - appears that if you enable a repository you can get a fixed kernel. Done - now we see the full 2 gig. Removed the k-crud and now we have a fast system with 22 gig free. Time to get a good sd card...