Global Print

To get IBM Global print up and running, make sure you have the following packages installed:


ibm-global-print
ibm-print-emea-ppd
ibm-print-ipselect
ibm-print-us-ppd

ipr-cmd

mpw-engine

mpw-gtk

Use Firefox to install printers from the Global print site.

Missing icons in notification area on Natty

If you, like me, are using Dropbox, the Dropbox Icon will not show up in the Notification area on Natty. To solve this, see http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/03/how-to-hide-or-show-app-tray-applets-in-ubuntu-11-04/

Short version;

To see the current value type:

gsettings get com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist

You should get something like:  ['JavaEmbeddedFrame', 'Wine', 'Skype']

Now, add Dropbox to the list:

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['JavaEmbeddedFrame', 'Wine', 'Skype', 'Dropbox']"

and at the next login you should see the Dropbox Icon.

Unity

I'm not sure yet how much I like the new Unity interface in Ubuntu Natty, but I'll try to stay with it for a while at least... :) For those who want to get the 'old' gnome GUI back, select 'Ubuntu Classic' from the dropdown at the bottom of the login screen.

Fan noise

To save battery life and get the fan noise down, make sure that:

• 'thinkfan' is installed
• that /etc/default/thinkfan exists and has 'START=yes' in it
• that /etc/modprobe.d/thinkpad_acpi.conf exists and has 'options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1' in it

Lotus Notes on Natty

You need to fire Lotus Notes with a wrapper to get it up and running properly on Ubuntu Natty.

See...
http://usablesoftware.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/lotus-notes-8-5-2-fp2-in-ubuntu-11-04-natty-narwhal-64bit-beta-1/#comment-168
https://github.com/sgh/lotus-notes_gtk2.23.3

...for more information. You also need to have 'libgtk2.0-dev' installed through apt-get or synaptic to get the make script to run properly.

So, in a terminal (wget's are a single line...):

sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-dev
mkdir -p /tmp/notesfix
cd /tmp/notesfix


wget --no-check-certificate https://github.com/sgh/lotus-notes_gtk2.23.3/raw/d3492c997bc7a92b895fa1369d4743a8e20b56b5/Makefile


wget --no-check-certificate https://github.com/sgh/lotus-notes_gtk2.23.3/raw/d3492c997bc7a92b895fa1369d4743a8e20b56b5/libnotesgtkfix.c


wget --no-check-certificate https://github.com/sgh/lotus-notes_gtk2.23.3/raw/d3492c997bc7a92b895fa1369d4743a8e20b56b5/notes-wrapper


make
chmod +x notes-wrapper 
sudo cp notes-wrapper libnotesgtkfix.so /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/
sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/LotusNotes8.5.desktop


...where you have to change the line
Exec=/opt/ibm/lotus/notes/framework/../notes %F
with
Exec=/opt/ibm/lotus/notes/framework/../notes-wrapper %F

32 bit or 64 bit Natty

I have earlier tried both 64bit and 32bit distributions of Ubuntu for running IBM workstation SW, and have found that with a 32bit PAE kernel I get the best results. This is on newer thinkpads that have the appropriate processor flags for running (if you need it) 64bit VMWare/Virtualbox guests. Internal IBM print and java are examples that have been giving me problems on 64bit Ubuntu.