Techie |

The Batman Belt

Everywhere I look in the work place I see two phones on everyone’s belt or desk. There sits the company issued blackberry next to the iPhone or Android device. In an era of financial concerns I cannot help but wonder what the outside world thinks about us. Based on BillShrink.com we can guestimate the total to be around 4000 dollars which is 6 times more than the average Haitian makes in a year. ...

Left Facebook and “Why you should too”

The amount of banter on the topic is extensive, but there really are good reasons to leave Facebook. When I started dabbling in Social Networking back on the BBS days there was always a desire and reason for anonymity. It could have been for the illegal activities going on or for the fact people just didn’t want to over expose themselves. It was around the time AOL picked up some steam that sharing really became trendy. There were extensive pushes to kick AOL off the grid for the amount of anonymous data leaked from their pipes, but that was not enough to place controls on the system. As I joined sites like Friendster, Jaiku, etc. there were always controls in place for the amount of information I could share and what people could share about me. That layer of control allowed me to keep tabs on my personal identity and persona. I left MySpace and Hi5 since everyone told me “Facebook is way more secure,” but at the time I was unable to join due to no college affiliation. That changed and I joined… ...

Juniper Connect 64bit Debian

These are the steps needed to get Juniper Connect working on Ubuntu 10.04 64bit. Some of the steps will work in 32, other than the ia32 package install. Good luck! Enable partner repo Install the needed Java Packages: sudo apt-get install sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-jdk sun-java6-jre ia32-sun-java6-bin <li> Run Firefox 3.6 as root and allow juniper connect script to install and fail </li> <li> Drop to terminal <ul> <li> sudo cp -Rv /root/.juniper_networks ~/ </li> </ul> <ul> <li> chown -R $user ~/.juniper_networks </li> </ul> </li> <li> The script fails on TUN module being built into the kernel </li> <li> sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r` <ul> <li> mkdir faketun </li> </ul> <ul> <li> cd faketun </li> </ul> <ul> <li> echo -e “#include <linux/module.h>\nstatic int start__module(void) {return 0;}\nstatic void end__module(void){return;}\nmodule_init(start__module);\nmodule_exit(end__module);”>tun.c </li> </ul> <ul> <li> echo -e “obj-m += tun.o\nall:\n\tmake -C /lib/modules/\$(shell uname -r)/build/ M=\$(PWD) modules\nclean:\n\tmake -C /lib/modules/\$(shell uname -r)/build/ M=\$(PWD) clean\nclean-files := Module.symvers”>Makefile </li> </ul> <ul> <li> make </li> </ul> <ul> <li> sudo install tun.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/net/tun.ko </li> </ul> <ul> <li> sudo depmod -a </li> </ul> <ul> <li> sudo modprobe tun </li> </ul> </li>

Intel GMA500 Support Matrix

First a few things: Intel you suck…suck hard…your own Moblin distro can’t suspend because you feel that “embedded platforms shutdown and restart” Guess what sparky, they don’t always. Fix your damn IEGD driver Dell and Ubuntu screw you both for creating some custom driver to send out on Dell 12 laptops. The driver I install now was extracted from your blob. Hate Theo from OpenBSD as much as you want, but no blobs Windows drivers for this card suck pretty bad too. There is a video demo of the GMA500 Poulsbo playing Quake 3 off a MID. The driver in Windows XP-7 cannot play flash without massive frame drops. Totally unacceptable with the 10.1 Flash Beta to still have such trouble The distro I landed with was Ubuntu 9.10. It pains me because it will never recieve the GNOME 2.30 install, but with PPA I am good with most everything else. I will use this as my hold over until Intel gets off their butts and produces quality code. I used to tell people that the Intel series of cards were the best in UNIX world for out of the box drivers. Yes+but=NO Don’t sour your good name Intel ...

Sony Vaio P788K Ubuntu 9.10 Load

Ubuntu 9.10 is the last usable version of Linux for use with the GMA500 craptasic video card. As it stands today I cannot recommend using Linux full-time on the laptop. As a hardcore linux geek that saddens me in my heart. Hopefully with the release of the “new” drivers we will be good to all switchback to a big boy OS. Thanks to Jakob Westhoff for his notes on the Vaio X which helped a good bit here. Notes below: Install Windows 7 to active Verizon Gobi Modem and Firmware Install GMA 500 Graphics driver wget http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1338581/Gma500/scripts/poulsbo.sh && sh ./poulsbo.sh add mem=2000 /etc/default/grub update-grub After reboot dpkg-reconfigure psb-kernel-source Edit /etc/apt/sources.list to include universe and multiverse sudo apt-get dist-upgrade reboot Update system to include SSD optimizations Install sony-laptop-zseries module http://www.logic.at/people/preining/software/ sudo -i mkdir -p /usr/share/sony-laptop Extract np5 into directory ln -sf ../share/sony-laptop/sony-laptop-zseries-0.9np5 /usr/src/sony-laptop-zseries-0.9np5 dkms add -m sony-laptop-zseries -v 0.9np5 /etc/init.d/dkms_autoinstaller start vi /etc/modules Turn on WWAN hardware mkdir /lib/firmware/gobi Copy files from: C:\Program Files\Qualcomm\Images\Sony\1\AMSS.mbn C:\Program Files\Qualcomm\Images\Sony\1\Apps.mbn C:\Program Files\Qualcomm\Images\Sony\1\UQCN.mbn to /lib/firmware/gobi <li dir="ltr"> Download qcserial and extract to <a href="file:///usr/src/">/usr/src/</a> <ul> <li dir="ltr"> <a href="http://westhoffswelt.de/data/blog/vaiox_gobi2000/qcserial_with_gobi2000_support.tar.gz">http://westhoffswelt.de/data/blog/vaiox_gobi2000/qcserial_with_gobi2000_support.tar.gz</a> </li> <li dir="ltr"> cd <a href="file:///usr/src/qcserial">/usr/src/qcserial</a> </li> <li dir="ltr"> make </li> <li dir="ltr"> make install </li> <li dir="ltr"> echo “qcserial” >>/etc/modules </li> </ul> </li> <li dir="ltr"> Download gobi loader for Linux and extract to <a href="file:///usr/src">/usr/src</a> <ul> <li dir="ltr"> <a href="http://westhoffswelt.de/data/blog/vaiox_gobi2000/gobi_loader_with_gobi2000_support.tar.gz">http://westhoffswelt.de/data/blog/vaiox_gobi2000/gobi_loader_with_gobi2000_support.tar.gz</a> </li> <li dir="ltr"> make </li> <li dir="ltr"> make install </li> </ul> </li> Enable Suspend Install PSB fix in /etc/pm/sleep.d/99_psb_fix Touch /etc/pm/sleep.d/98smart-kernel-video Install USB Wakeup fix for QCSerial Gobi issue in /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/00usbsleep Enable console framebuffer Edit /etc/default/grub set gfxmode=1024×768 You can do the full 1600×768, but on the console I prefer larger fonts <li dir="ltr"> Edit <a href="file:///etc/grub.d/00_header">/etc/grub.d/00_header</a> <ul> <li> <ul> <li dir="ltr"> if loadfont `make_system_path_relative_to_its_root ${GRUB_FONT_PATH}` ; then </li> <li dir="ltr"> set gfxmode=${GRUB_GFXMODE} </li> <li dir="ltr"> set gfxpayload=keep </li> </ul> </li> <li dir="ltr"> IT HAS TO GO UNDER “set gfxmode…” </li> </ul> </li> Enable scroll trackpoint sudo vi /etc/hal/fdi/policy/mouse-wheel.fdi Install RFkill Applet to disable radios http://www.logic.at/people/preining/software/rfkill-applet-0.6.tar.gz Execute with the following installer: rfkill install.sh Reboot and add to panel Internal Mic Fix sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-alsa-2.6.31-20-generic sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ricotz/unstable sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade Edit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf Add at the bottom of the file options snd-hda-intel model=toshiba-s06 power_save=10 power_save_controller=N <li dir="ltr"> On Sound Preferences change Profile to Analog Stereo Duplex </li> <li dir="ltr"> Turn speaker volume up HIGH </li> ...