Sunday, March 8, 2009

How to install the HP MIE (Mobile Internet Experience) UI on Ubuntu 8.04 and 8.10


Do you want your desktop to look like this? Well, follow this guide and you will be using the HP MIE UI in no time!

NOTE : Does NOT work for 64 - bit users

If you want the mail to work you will have to install thunderbird from the

repositories as it is not included in ubuntu by default.

GTK+ Theme:
You will first have to download the "GlassyBleu" theme from here. You have to apply the theme from the appearance manager (System > Preferences > Appearance).

Login Screen:
Download the file from here. You will have to apply this through the login window manager (System > Administration > Login Window).

Font:
First download this file from here. Change all instances of "Sans" to "LuzSans-Book" and all instances of "Sans Bold" to "LuzSans Bold". After doing all this the finished product should look something like the following. (You don't have to change the fonst sizes).
Before:




After:





Browser Theme:
First download this file. Install it and apply it through the addons manager in firefox (Tools > Add-Ons > Themes). After restarting Firefox, the new theme will be applied.

Thinderbird Theme:
First download this theme. You can apply this through the Add Ons manager. (Tools > Addons > Themes)

OpenOffice.org:
After applying this theme, you will see that open office becomes unusable. To fix it download this.

Cool Launcher:
You will have to download this. Save it to your home folder if you aren't that good with ubuntu. Open up a terminal and copy the following.

sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture --force-depends harbour-launcher_0.78.3_lpia.deb

If you didn't save it into your home folder just change the last part.


Music / Pictures:
If you want these to work you will have to install HP MediaStyle. To do that download the following and install them IN THE ORDER PROVIDED!!

For 8.10 users:
  1. libpigment
  2. python-pgm
  3. python-elisa
  4. elisa
  5. elisa-plugins-good
  6. elisa-plugins-bad
  7. elisa-plugins-ugly
For 8.04 users:
  1. libpigment
  2. python-elisa
  3. elisa
  4. elisa-plugins-good
  5. python-encutils
  6. python-cssutils
  7. elisa-plugins-bad
  8. elisa-plugins-ugly

Web Bookmarks:
You will have to run the following commands for this to work.

cd ~/.mozilla
ln -s firefox "web browser"

Mail:
For your mail to be integrated, you will have to install this.




Open up the synaptic package manager and install a package called "libxul0d" (without the quotes). Well, after you have done that, download this into your home folder and run the following command in a terminal.

sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture --force-depends gnome-web-photo_0.3-0ubuntu2netbook0dennis2_lpia.deb

Panel Layout:
Change the theme to clearlooks. (temporary!)
  • Delete all the objects on the lower panel except the window switcher (yet).
  • Add the "home applet" to the left most corner on the lower panel.
  • Add a "shut down applet," a "clock applet (disable the date)," a "volume control," and a "notification area," from the right side of the lower panel.
  • Add a "ubuntu menu" for ease of access to applications. (OPTIONAL)
  • Finally, delete the window switcher. Add the "switcher applet" and move it to the middle of the panel.
  • Delete the top panel and change the theme back to "GlassyBleu.


If you set the harbour-launcher to launch automatically, mediastyle will not work properly. Whenever you start the machine up, you have to launch the elisa media center and press ALT + F2 and type in harbour-launcher WITHOUT KILLING ELISA. Finally you should make a full restart and do the above steps.



At the end of the tutorial, you should end up with something looking like the above.

18 comments:

  1. Hi Rukmal, saw your blog mentioned on your dad's so I thought I'd have a look! Seeing sudo command lines on a 13-years old's blog gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Rukmal,
    Uber cool :) This is indeed interesting and super for a first time blog post. Keep it up :)

    BTW small technical clarification. I see you forcing a lpia deb. Are you using your desktop or HP-mie debs are only available in lpia ? [ Sorry just too lazy to Google :))]

    ReplyDelete
  3. most of the debs are only available in lpia... this is one of the main debs for it to work so the HP guys have compiled it for low power intel architecture (lpia)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Rukmal,

    Cool work little man. :) Keep it up son.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice... can't wait to try this. Now only if I can find a Ubuntu box. Went back to Gen2

    ReplyDelete
  6. This looks so cool! I'd love to change my 8.10 installation into this when I get time ;)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Попоробовал, все установилось на ура, спасибо. Но сама тема не понравилась, вернулся на стандартную UNR. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. this doesn't work on Ubuntu 9.04!!!!! HELP. This is a very COOL theme..

    ReplyDelete
  9. Check this out

    http://asparki.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  10. No catualy it works for on Ubuntu 9.04

    ReplyDelete
  11. hey rukmal does it work with Ubuntu 9.04?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Actually, let me clarify...most everything works except the browser skin...which isn't compatible with ff 3.5.3 which is installed with Karmic.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Correction, you can force use the HP Firefox theme on 9.10's FF3.5.3 if you first install the nightly tester tools and then override compatibility for extensions.

    ReplyDelete
  14. can this be installed on other distros like Novell Suse?

    ReplyDelete
  15. I'm using this with Ubuntu 10.04 and it's working great, except for the switcher and launcher which don't show any running applications. Does anyone know how to fix this?

    ReplyDelete