Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx on HP Mini 5101 Setup

This week I 'ubuntunized' - there goes a new word! - my sister's netbook. She frowned about the viruses. I spilled the offer. Time has come baby!

Since 5101 doesn't come with a disc drive, I've created a Ubuntu bootable USB using Startup Disk Creator which comes pre-installed with 10.04 under System > Administration menu.

Installation and setup wasn't quite a breeze. Now everything is working - broadband modem, webcam, printer, functional buttons and power management. Wireless driver doesn't work right away but Lucid will prompt you to activate the 'proprietary drivers'. If not, just manually find it under Administration > Hardware Drivers menu.

Well I am going to tell you my actual story. There was a few things that didn't work properly or didn't work at all - webcam, Gwibber, broadband - but to my surprise, everything solved after I figure out the keyring issue. But this is just a blind theory.

What is it? Well if you authorized Lucid to remember passwords, keyring is where he stores them.

All started when Gwibber - an app that update social network status simultaneously - did not respond on different Ubuntu account. So I ran it from the terminal and saw an error mentioning keyring daemon.

I also notice something in the Passwords and Encryption Keys under the Application > Accessories menu - "can't communicate with keyring daemon".

So I googled. I discovered that some people edit the Certificate and Key Storage in the Startup Application Preferences. Remove all arguments. Leave it as "gnome-keyring-daemon".

I'm not sure how but it also solved my broadband problem. My webcam suddenly happen to work too. Also worth to mention on the broadband issue if you're experiencing it, once I disconnect the modem, I can never simply reconnect it. I have to reboot with the modem plugged in.

My wild guess is, something to do with keyring & permissions. So if you happen to read this in an attempt to 'ubuntunize' your netbook, go for it! Lucid is awesome!

...but wait. You might want to consider UNE instead of full fledge Ubuntu. Adios :)