If you are, like me, the happy owner of a Dell Inspiron Mini 12 and want to install Ubuntu Linux on it, you will surely face a problem with the Poulsbo chipset embedded on the laptop.
Dell distributes a “custom” flavor of Ubuntu Hardy (8.04) with it. It includes support of the Broadcom wifi chip and support of the Intel Poulsbo grahic chip.
But some days after the official release of Ubuntu Jaunty (9.04) you might want to upgrade from your old Hardy.
Here is the way you can install it.
- First, get the Ubuntu Jaunty Desktop i386 installation CD or the Ubuntu Netbook Remix IMG file
- If you don’t have an USB optical drive, please create a USB startup disk.
- Boot from your USB flash drive or from the CD depending on the process you chose.
- Select your language and select the first line of the boot menu
- Follow the installation procedure then reboot your system
- If you installed Ubuntu Netboot Remix, you’ll have to switch to a normal desktop as 3D drivers are not supported yet.
- Upgrade your system (this is a very important step). Install all the upgrades available.
- Next step, add the ubuntu-mobile repository in /etc/apt/sources.list
- Copy the content of this file into a text file (from the first – to the last -) and import it as a key in Synaptic
- Update your APT cache (apt-get update) and install xserver-xorg-video-psb and its dependancies.
- EDIT – July 13th 2009 : 3D can be enabled by adding the poulsbo-driver-3d package and rebooting the machine.
- Reboot your system
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mobile/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mobile/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
You now have Ubuntu 9.04 on your Dell Mini 12. 3D effects (compiz) and Netboot Remix are not available yet but should be usable when 3D drivers are released.