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This page contains information about running Ubuntu 8.10 on the MSI Wind. This is largely work in progress. If you have an answer to any of the sections marked TODO then please fill in the blanks.
Installing Ubuntu on the MSI Wind
Installing Ubuntu 8.10 on the MSI Wind is pretty standard. The easiest way to get going is to simply boot the Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop Live CD from a USB CD-ROM drive and then start the installer.
If you have a Wind that was pre-installed with Windows XP, and if you want to keep that OS, then just make sure you choose to do a Custom disk layout. Otherwise the installer will try to resize the XP partition. It is much easier to simply remove the unused D: partition and then use that space for a swap and root partition. Your preference may vary of course.
Getting the Wireless Interface to work
RealTek RTL8187SE wifi
Some models of the Wind come with a RealTek RTL8187SE PCI Express card. This card is not supported by default but it is fairly simple to compile and install the driver.
The following should do the trick for the RTL8187SE driver. If you have a RT2860 card, see below for instructions.
wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/18533836/rtl8187se_linux_26.1023.0928.2008.tar.gz tar xvfz se_linux_26.1023.0928.2008.tar.gz cd se_linux_26.1023.0928.2008 ./makedrv sudo ./wlan0up
After executing the wlan0up script, Ubuntu should notice the new wireless interface and you can choose your network from the NetworkManager applet.
If you want to permanently install these drivers then execute the install script. Just be warned that the install script does a reboot after installation without asking for permission.
Also see this bug report for more information: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/246141
Alternatively, you can download prebuilt driver packages for the RTL8187 card, but be sure to match the correct kernel version:
http://boskastrona.ovh.org/download_en.html
linux-rtl8187se-modules-04coffee@2.6.27.10.13.deb (Intrepid) linux-rtl8187se-modules-1023@2.6.27.10.13.deb (Intrepid) linux-rtl8187se-modules-04coffee@2.6.27.7.11.deb (Intrepid) linux-rtl8187se-modules-1023@2.6.27.7.11.deb (Intrepid)
Ralink RT2860 wifi
Some later models of the Wind come with the Ralink RT2860 wifi card, which is not currently supported by default. The driver is in the Debian unstable repository. To install it, follow the following steps, based on these instructions:
Download the package: http://packages.debian.org/sid/all/rt2860-source/download and then install the source package. After that, execute the following commands to build and install the driver and to ensure that the driver modules are loaded at boot time:
sudo aptitude install debhelper module-assistant sudo m-a a-i rt2860 sudo modprobe rt2860sta sudo echo rt2860sta >> /etc/modules
You should then be able to configure your wireless connection with the NetworkManager applet.
Don't forget to actually enable the Wireless card by using Fn-F11
Disabling the trackpad while typing
Sentellic has released a driver for the touchpad on sourceforge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/fsp-lnxdrv
Known Issues
TODO Please add any issues you have with Ubuntu 8.10 on the MSI Wind.
For the U100, the LAN port is using the Realtek RTL 8101, which does not work 'out-of-the-box.' (is this still true for Ubuntu 8.10?)
Useful Software
The CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor GNOME applet allows you to see and change the current CPU speed.
Other useful MSI Wind resources
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=manual&maincat_no=&prod_no=1474
The MSI Wind forums for Debian-based distributions, including Ubuntu