How cool is it that they included a screwdriver?
Quick thoughts: the company rules as their personalized service and quirky sense of humor (screwdriver to encourage you to work on your pc!) really make you feel more like a valued individual than just a customer; and this laptop is plain awesome as its super bright screen, quiet keyboard, and thin design is just begging me to stay up late playing. What a damn good day!
Sweet!
Drool. I’m so jealous! I know it’s early, but how’s the hinge feel?
It is soooooooo sweet! And the hinge is nice and stiff! Perfect for laying in bed watching videos online.
Hi James,
You’ve been linked to from ZaReason’s page!
I’ve had a BigLap from them for a little over a month now. I’ve been pleased with it, except that it crashes on resume from suspend or hibernate. Which means I’m always having to power down and reboot.
Does yours suspend and hibernate properly?
Regards,
-james.
Hi James! That is awesome that I’ve been linked!
Well, I just quickly tried hibernate and it came back fine with the exception of one application (webilder but that has always been a tad finicky). I’m planning on doing a little more indepth review of that laptop and I’ll be sure to really try and test suspend and hibernate. I’m going to set it up to hibernate on lid close…
All the quick launch buttons work and I love how I can lock the screen or touchpad with a single key or launch the browser and email. Very cool! (I’m easily impressed as my old laptop was a 5 year old Toshiba)
Nice lappy my man, looks real nice!
Thanks, Jon, it certainly is the nicest laptop I’ve ever owned!
On the hardware front, suspend is working perfectly but dvd playback is still flumoxing me. DeCSS is installed, dma is on, but VLC will only spin the disc up and then nothing. To be honest, dvd playback screws me up on ever machine I have…
Does the laptop get very hot? Have you had any problems with it so far. I was thinking of getting one myself. Tired of programming with windows!
Not really hot, more like a warm spot where the drive is (7200 RPM puts out some heat) and where the processor is but over all it runs cool and quiet.
The only things that are hanging me up–and that might be because I haven’t had uninterrupted time to fiddle–are DVD playback and getting the webcam working. I found this blog entry and might give it a shot sometime next week… So nothing that would grind my productivity to a halt.
If you are thinking about it my recommendation is do it! I keep saying it, but, damn, I love this laptop!
Thanks for this post, James! I saw the link to here from ZaReason when I was looking at their website just before I ordered my BigLap two weeks ago. This blog post pushed me over the edge to ordering from ZaReason. I was glad to see someone had just ordered and received the laptop as promised. It turns out ZaReason was at Ubuntu Live when I ordered so the machine was delayed, and then they ran into internal delays so they upgraded my shipping to two day air and my RAM to 2 GB, both for free. Now the BigLap has been delivered, I just have to pick it up from the complex office. I can’t wait to try it out!
That’s awesome, John! Your story is a perfect example of what kind of company they are, very personable. When I was working through getting DVD playback working (you have to set the region of the drive) Earl was wicked responsive and very helpful in pointing me towards the right direction.
Have you been able to get everything up and running on your system? I noticed that direct rendering is not enabled out of the box, so I’m working on that right now (trying to get to Beryl, maybe Compiz-Fusion; have you gotten any of them to work?). And I’m not convinced I have DVD playback working, even though I installed the codecs. And you can switch this conversation to email if you want since it may be on-going. I know I gave an address, but I don’t know if it shows for you. Just in case, it’s cermus _at_ cermus dot com.
Well, for DVD playback the catch is setting the region for the drive–its a firmware thing and you only have 5 chances then it is permanent–sudo apt-get install regionset will get you started. To set the region you need a disc in the drive and know the region code you want to set. This wikipedia article should help you find your code, I set mine to 1 since I watch US encoded movies.
I tried Beryl and found it had a tendancy to crash so I fell back to Compiz which is the default for Ubuntu (Avant Window Navigator works the best with Compiz)–the basic stuff can be turned on under System–>Preferences–>Desktop Effects but searching synaptic will turn up handy things like GL Desktop which makes customizing Compiz easier). To get things working smooth and pretty, though, I had to adjust my xorg.conf for 24-bit rendering: sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf, locate DefaultDepth under Section “Screen” and change it from 16 to 24.
Let me know how things turn out!
Well, I have DVD’s playing now. I just needed Totem to add another codec. The webcam is working, but the image upside-down and I can’t seem to find a fix on the web. Any luck with yours?
Beryl/Compiz is going to drive me crazy. Beryl lets me install the manager, but I can’t switch to Beryl from Metacity. When I run “beryl” from Terminal it gives me this:
beryl: glXBindTexImageEXT is missing
beryl: Failed to manage screen: 0
beryl: No manageable screens found on display :0.0
But at least I get the manager to work. With Compiz installed, Desktop Effects tells me:
Desktop effects could not be be enabled
Yes, with the double “be.” It may be something regarding AIGLX, I’m not sure. By the way, I’m using the Intel GMA 950 card, which is the default from ZaReason.
Good on the DVD playback! BTW, what is the extra package for Totem? I’ve been using Ubuntu since 4.10 and have never gotten playback to work with Totem; I always use VLC.
Now those Beryl and Compiz errors… How did you install the packages? Synaptic/Apt-get/Aptitude or Automatix/EasyUbuntu? My experience with the latter is that they can make an absolute mess of things. I do believe we have the exact same hardware set up so I’m at loss why it isn’t working. A quick tour of the boards seemed that the problem is split between improper installation or improper xorg.conf settings. :-/
I wish I could remember which codec it was. I inserted a DVD and Totem automatically opened, said it needed a codec, and then when I clicked on OK it downloaded and installed the codec. I don’t like Totem, I’ll be switching to Kaffeine or VLC, but at least Totem can handle getting codecs on its own.
I used apt-get/aptitude. Problems with xorg.conf or installation are good news, those can be fixed. I have no problem with starting all over. I just wonder if the correct video driver was installed when shipped and I changed it. I think I’m using “intel” in xorg.conf right now. I’m not on the laptop right now, I could dump the relevant parts of xorg.conf to here when I get home. Maybe a comparison of our xorg.conf’s will help.
If you want to know how to install anything restricted formats wise:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats
And for DVDs:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/PlayingDVDs
Does that help?
(I’ve been using that page since I first started using Ubuntu. Really useful, if you want to avoid Automatix.. unfortunately, can’t avoid it for all codecs [the really wierd ones].)
Sorry for the delay but here’s the relevant section from my xorg.conf:
Section “Screen”
Identifier “Default Screen”
Device “Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller”
Monitor “Generic Monitor”
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Depth 1
Modes “1440×900″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 4
Modes “1440×900″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “1440×900″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 15
Modes “1440×900″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “1440×900″
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1440×900″
EndSubSection
EndSection
Here’s a link to my full xorg.conf as well.
Thanks for the links! Why, after 3 years, I have never bothered to check their wiki is beyond me but here’s the note why Totem doesn’t work: “While Totem-gstreamer can play a DVD automatically when it is inserted into the DVD drive, it cannot navigate the DVD nor play it by selecting Movie → Play Disc ‘DVD Name’.” One catch I ran into, if you are running Beryl of Compiz you need to set the output to X11 in the preferences menu, otherwise it will crash during playback. This is actually, true of any of the players.
Hey,
Everything works now. Earl from ZaReason sent me the xorg.conf file they have to get Compiz to work and he gave me some instructions. I reinstalled UbuntuStudio, followed his directions and used the new xorg.conf, now it all works! Compiz is very very nice!
That’s awesome, John! I’ve found Earl to be one of the most helpful folks I’ve ever met. Been a huge help for me as well.
I simply wanted to say thank you for purchasing from Zareason. Not only are they truly FOOSS Folks, They put their money where their mouth is…no wait.
They do more than that. They put their sweat, bloody scraped knuckles and sore, tired feet into what they believe in. The Zareason folks are the only thing that stood between our Komputer4Kids effort.
http://www.lobby4linux.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=53
I will tell you how shortly. Thanks again, by purchasing from Zareason, you have not only gotten a superior machine and system. You’ve allowed them to do what they believe in their hearts what they are supposed to do.
h