Installing Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) into a LG R405

I have previously blogged about Installing Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) into a LG R405. I have now updated the system up to Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04) and have some remaining issues.

WiFi support is available through NDISwrapper and with more reliability through madwifi. To setup NDISwrapper you can download the package ndisgtk and use the Windows' drivers from on of the laptop's CDs.

Regarding madwifi, if you follow ticker #1192, you will find out version 0.9.5 will bring support for the wireless chipset AR2425. Meanwhile, you can download the driver from a SVN branch at the madwifi's repositories. NetworkManager works best with madwifi's driver (this includes support for eduroam).

Bluetooth got broken in the update (for some Nokia's mobiles). If you follow launchpad's bug #211252, you will notice that you may install Debian's SID bluez-utils to fix the issue (I have left a comment in the ticket stating just that). Fortunately, the regression has been fixed upstream. The fix, however, has not been applied in the Ubuntu package.

Sleep and hibernate work. Well... mostly. After waking up the sound dies (see Ubuntu's bug #200210). I have not bothered with scavenging the net to a fix/bug report.

The (graphical) intel driver has been improved (it is no longer blacklisted in compiz). Power management is better, since the brightness is not crazy anymore.

Concluding, support is still sub-optimal. Sadly, the alternatives are scarse.

Installing Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) into a LG R405

I have bought — actually, it was kind of a present — my first laptop: a LG R405. Because I am not that geeky, I didn't even bother to checkout what the famous Windows Vista looks like and promptly installed Ubuntu on my machine, removing the other OS.

Installation went smoothly. What didn't work out of the box?

• wireless not supported by the default drivers: I followed a tutorial from the forums called HOWTO: Atheros AR5007EG on Feisty Fawn (with ndiswrapper) and it turned out OK. The problem was: how do I know my laptop has a chipset named AR5007EG (lspci reports an AR5006EG!)?
• bluetooth support is poor and falky: although a bluetooth icon appeared in my desktop I could not send files to my laptop (I had to google for an answer and understand I had to install bluetooth-gnome). I wanted bluetooth to synchronize the contacts on my Nokia 6680 with my laptop, I still have no idea how to configure the criptic kitchensink :(

About the Bluetooth Preferences. I do not understand what are the Services; shouldn't all the services be turned on? There is a section called Input Devices which I could crash just by connecting to a device. What is this section for? On the General pane, what is a class of device, what the hell is that option for? On the first pane, how do I bond from the laptop to a device? Why is it only from the device to my laptop? Why do I need to specify the class of device, does anyone care about this?