Ubuntu « elwoodicious

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Posts Tagged ‘Ubuntu’

Ubuntu 8.10

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Jumped on the RC just before it went official late this afternoon (EST) so that I could beat the crowds. One of the faster upgrades that I have experienced with the package downloads taking around 20 minutes on my 6MB DSL and the install and clean up taking a little under an hour. So easy it was kind of boring.

Highlights are the revamped network manager which now has support for mobile connections which will make it easier for me to poach one of the Verizon data cards from work should the need ever arise. The new Bluetooth wizard also appears to have upped the functionality and UI quotient so I’m looking forward to pulling out my headphones and going wireless again.

Downsides are that the shutdown button has been subsumed to logout/fastuser switching something I nearly never do but could understand the logic for a desktop user but, seriously, who uses a desktop these days anyhow? Unrelated to the actual upgrade but still nagging issues are the Glipper crash on launch and the fact that my webcam still remains unsupported (05e3:f192 Genesys Logic, Inc.)–I’ve got to complain about something, right?

Overall, I’m happy with how things turned out. Thumbs up to the Ubuntu team for all their hard work. Thanks!

Tags: Linux, Ubuntu, upgrade
Posted in Linux | 3 Comments »

Building Google Chrome on Linux

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

Why not play along? It is that exciting. Like a Gentoo install fest.

/edit

A better part of the afternoon flushed down the drain for two executables: base_unittests and net_unittests. Passed with flying colors but neither is a browser.

rm -rf /chrome

Tags: Chromium, Google, Linux, Ubuntu
Posted in Linux | 6 Comments »

I love you, ZaReason!

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

It all started with a Dell E248WFP being dropped on our desks and the sad realization that my BigLap just couldn’t drive it no matter how hard I coaxed it. My bosses very graciously offered to replace my notebook and a couple of quick emails with Earl set me on the path to the MegaLap.

ZaReason was great about setting up a test environment to make sure that the notebook could easily drive a similar monitor. As always, they were fast and friendly with awesome tips on how to get things rolling once my MegaLap landed on my desk.

All that real estate leaves me feeling like a robber baron not to mention that the MegaLap is blazing fast and the screen is gorgeous.

So this is my second notebook from ZaReason (my BigLap is still a champ!) and I have to say I am so pleased with the service and support. they aren’t kidding when they say, “Building Linux hardware so you don’t have to.” Everything I have bought from them has worked right out of the box, no fuss and no bloat. Just an elegant OS making use of all the hardware it is given.

Thanks to everyone at Zareason for making my computing life fun!

MegaLap Specs

Intel Core2 Duo T7200
2GB RAM
512MB NVidia GeForce Go 7700
200GB SATA

Tags: Laptop, Ubuntu, Zareason
Posted in Hardware | 2 Comments »

ZaReason BigLap, Asus Z84FM, Microphone, Ubuntu, and You!

Thursday, November 8th, 2007

In my personal life I am incredibly lazy and often don’t et around to things unless need is so pressing that it should have been done yesterday. Case and point being recording support on my BigLap and the continuing mockery that I suffer for it not working and the fact that I lost my Bluetooth headset thus rendering Skype useless to me. So after some quick research I found the solution on the Ubuntu forms thanks to dejitarob.

james@elwoodicious:~$ sudo alsactl names
james@elwoodicious:~$ sudo alsactl store
james@elwoodicious:~$ alsamixer

The catch here was that the input sources needed to be pointed at Front Mic and Mic.

james@elwoodicious:~$ sudo alsactl store

That’s it. Skype works, Sound Recording works, Ekiga…~~Doesn’t. Not sure why Ekiga doesn’t but that’s a puzzle for another day.~~ Well, it does after a reboot. Go figure.

Tags: Alsa, Asus, Laptop, Linux, Sound, Ubuntu, Zareason
Posted in Hardware | 4 Comments »

Dear ZaReason…

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007

It has been about three months since I purchased my BigLap and started a new job that sees me working like a gypsy floating from place to place as long as it has wireless Internet. My laptop goes everywhere slung on my back and has worked perched on a knee at conferences, sticky tables at cafes, late nights in hotel rooms, and at my parent’s dining room table while my daughter tugs at my sleeve. It feels as necessary as my wallet and keys and I feel a little naked if it isn’t on me.

So how has it performed? Unbelievably. I’ve owned a number of laptops from Toshiba, Dell, and Sony and out of all of them this has been the best build quality and features for the price.

Battery life is solid
Light for being a 17″
Screen hinges are stiff
Keyboard responsive and quiet
Rugged design

Tech support from ZaReason has been equally great with quick response times with a genuinely conversational and friendly tone. They have worked hard to make sure that as much of the hardware is operational with the shipping version of Ubuntu. The built in webcam is the only piece that has given me problems in that the image displayed is upside down and cannot seem to be flipped but that is more a problem with the device and the driver.

segue/

After actually putting five minutes of work into researching the solution it is now fixed…

Gratefully cribbed from 0graham0’s post over at Ubuntu forums…

sudo mkdir /etc/camdriver

Download the driver from Sourceforge extract it and run the following…

sudo make
sudo modprobe videodev
sudo modprobe v4l1-compat
sudo insmod stk11xx.ko vflip=1

Add the following to /etc/modules

videodev
v4l1-compat

and to /etc/rc.local

insmod /etc/camdriver/stk11xx.ko vflip=1

Viola!

/segue

The great thing about ZaReason though is that they never dropped the issue and had emailed me possible solutions and are very receptive if you happen to stumble on one of your own and that level of service is what makes the company so great.

Bottom line: I love this laptop and I really love this company.

Tags: , , , , Laptop, Linux, Ubuntu, Zareason
Posted in Hardware | 5 Comments »

Bluetooth, Headsets, Ubuntu, and You!

Monday, August 13th, 2007

Tired of having my co-workers laughing at me for not having skype set up (yes, I am still trying to figure out the internal mic) I decided to look into pairing my Samsung WEP170. The solution is pretty quick and dirty.

You’ll need to install several tools, which you can do without I’m not sure but here’s what I have installed so far to pair both my phone and the headset:

bluez-btsco
bluez-pin
bluez-utils
gnome-bluetooth
kdebluetooth
libbluetooth
libbtcl4
libgnomebt0
nautilus-sendto
qobex

For this exercise, though, we’ll be making use of bluez-btsco, bluez-pin, and kdebluetoothd. So after installing the packages modprobe btsco:

$ sudo modprobe snd-bt-sco

Turn on the headset and grab the MAC address:

$ hcitool scan

Copy it and get set up to enter the devices pin number when pairing:

$ passkey-agent –default /usr/bin/bluez-pin

In another terminal type the following with that MAC address you copied:

$ btsco -v BL:UE:TO:OT:HM:AC

Turn on the headset for pairing, in the case of the Samsung it means holding the power down until the light goes solid. If all goes well the passkey-agent should pop looking for the pin of the headset and once that is entered the device should pair and the little KBluetoothD icon should be in your notification area. To use it with Skype I just needed to configure it to use the headset which showed up as a secondary ALSA device with the prefix of BT.

Now, there are two ways to get your headset connected quickly one is to create a little script that issues the btsco command sans the -v and launch it whenever you turn the headset on or you can use the GUI tool found here but that requires you run it as sudo (or gksudo for pure, unadulterated GUI-ness). Other than that this is pretty easy, quick, and dirty.