Upgrading Dell Mini to Ubuntu 8.10 + Netbook Remix

Since I want to upgrade to Ubuntu 8.10 and install the Netbook Remix, the first hurdle to overcome was the lack of a built-in optical drive. The folks at the Ubuntu Mini blog have a great post about upgrading the mini to Ubuntu 8.10 and provide details on installing Ubuntu from a USB Drive.

Unfortunatley, their instructions on using the built-in "Create a USB startup disk" resulted in a "Missing Operating System" error when trying to boot from the USB Drive. I think the USB Drive I bought was subject to this error. However, after a bit of searching, I came across the most excellent UNetBootin.

UNetBootin is not is the official Ubuntu repositories but the instructions on the site are easy to follow. In order to get UNetBootin to work I had to use synaptic to install the p7zip-full package. Other than that, the instructions on the site worked as expected and I ended up with a bootable USB Drive in minutes. And as an added bonus, I didn't have to fix the USB mounting problem after install.

I neglected to disable compiz in Preferences > Appearance > Visual Affects so when it came time to installing the Netbook Remix packages, the display was acting really wonky. Disabling Visual Affects after the fact made everything work fine but I would still recommend disabling them in advance. If the lack of visual affects is a turn-off, then you'll be pleasantly surprised with the nice visuals the Netbook Remix employs.