Just a quick announcement that the theme seen in the preview is now finished. Link.
GDM Composite Preview
The usplash theme only supports Ubuntu Intrepid and there still appear to be some issues with widescreen support in Usplash.
Under Ubuntu-8.10 two changes are needed for Virgin wireless broadband USB adaptors to work with NetworkManager.
First is that NetworkManager does not save chap/pap settings. This is a NetworkManager bug. But it can be fixed in /etc/ppp/options:
sudo sed -i 's/#-chap/-chap/' /etc/ppp/options
This will disable chap authentication globally for all connections that do not override the option (such as NetworkManager).
Second thing is that the APN is wrong. I don’t know if this is only for pre-paid, as that is all I have tried.
After plugging in the USB adaptor and selecting your internet provider:
To start and stop data sessions now, left click the NetworkManager icon.
If your are asked for a password to connect, anything can be entered.
(ref)
After a day of learning how to create a usplash theme this is a semi final screenshot:
The usplash template is based on usplash-smooth and the background is by evenflow. The usplash-smooth package from its PPA is required to be installed for this theme to work. The progress bar timing should be correct from the second reboot on.
The usplash theme supports the following resolutions (both 4:3 and 16:10 in one theme file):
I have only compiled the theme for amd64 so far and only in one color. They will take me a while to upload too as per color/platform bz2’d is 4.6mb.
Once I fnish installing an x86 guest I will put up both the themes for testing and think about creating the rest of the colour schemes later.
BTW: usplash-smooth is nothing short of what usplash should have been to begin with if you havnt checked it out yet. Even if it does have some downfalls when a boot fails. Cant wait to see plymouth make it into Ubuntu either.
After all of the Windows and Linux virtual machines I have setup I decided to try a Windows p2v (Physical to Virtual) conversion. After bracing for the worst it ended up being fairly straight forward. Steps as follows:
Yip. Only three steps. Beware that Windows p2v images have all run quite slow for me compared to Windows images that were originally installed in KVM. This I guess is just because of the cruft buildup in Windows and all the driver changes that Windows seems to balk at so much.
Although these instructions are written using Window XP as the guest image, it will work equally (extremely) well for Linux too. The only exception with linux being that you can substitute the clonezilla step for a straight tar copy of the images. Using clonezilla for Windows and Linux though reduces the number of different steps to remember.
My old instructions on setting up internet access from Ubuntu-7.10 via a mobile phone from Telstra or Optus on Ubuntu Linux. Connecting to wireless internet plans via bluetooth. Tested with Next G, (HSDPA) and GPRS.
Drop me a note if you have successfully (or not) tested this guide with other phones Read More