Ubuntu Hacks

Part of proper power management is the ability to put your laptop to sleep. ACPI sleep is defined as a state where the system is still technically powered on, but the screen and hard disk are powered down and the computer is using ju...

Hibernate mode lets you save the contents of memory to disk so you can resume later on. In "Put Your Laptop to Sleep" [Hack #38], you learned how Ubuntu supports ACPI sleep. However, because ACPI sleep...

GNOME has a built-in CPU-frequency-monitor applet that will show you the current speed of your processor. This is great for laptops that have CPUs that can support dynamic frequency scaling. Additionally, the same applet will also let you alter the p...

Ndiswrapper and ndisgtk will let you use that card under Ubuntu by encapsulating the native Windows driver. In "Roam Wirelessly" [Hack #42], you'll see that Ubuntu ships with built-in drivers for a goo...

Here's how you can simplify this aspect of mobile computing using your wireless adapter and NetworkManager. One of the coolest things about having a laptop that's Wi-Fi-enabled is being able to go from place to pla...

Make your work settings follow you to work, and your home settings follow you home. When you use a laptop, particularly as your primary system, you start to notice some of the ways most systems are biased toward a d...

Bluetooth allows you to create short-range (usually 10-meter), low-bandwidth (1-2 megabits per second), ad hoc connections between devices. It's ideal for sending photos from your camera phone to your computer, or for using the wireless modem found i...

Most laptops have PCMCIA (also called PC Card) slots for card-based expansion. Under Windows, before you install a PCMCIA card, you usually have to install a software driver in order for the card to operate. Under Ubuntu Linux, however, the drivers a...

If you've purchased a laptop within the last couple of years, your machine most likely has an optical drive that's in a removable caddy or drive bay. Typically, these type of drives are enabled under Windows to be removed and replugged with the syste...