z0man's Techi Corner

Ubuntu Karmic : Vodafone Dongles

2010-04-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

Symptoms:
Vodafone Mobile Internet Dongles used to work on previous versions of Ubuntu. Unfortunately Ubuntu Karmic 9.10 has issues and cannot connect to the Internet.

Resolution:

Fix Vodafone Dongle(only need to do this once)

1) Safely Unmount the Virtual CDrom and SSD card

Click Places->Computer
If you see a virtual CD rom & a SSD card slot
right mouse click on the Virtual CD rom (you don't need it, there windows drivers) & select safety remove device)
Then when the SSD card reader & virtual CD rom has dissapered , close the computer browser box

2) Open a terminal up

Click Applications->Accessory->Terminal
Then copy & paste these

sudo rmmod usb-storage
sudo modprobe -r option
sudo modprobe -r usbserial
sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=0x12d1 product=0x1001
sudo pppd ttyUSB0

Then every time you plug the Dongle into Machine
Double check that your virtual CD ROM AND SDD card is not mounted.
See step 1 of this resolution

Connected to Internet and No Internet still!?
Vodafone's Connection Service sometimes plays up giving information to your computer that enables you surf the Internet.

So keep just keep trying to connect and check your nameservers assigned by typing

cat /etc/resolv.conf

[pending]

Further Reading
Ubuntu Forum - Reference to Fix
Ubuntu Forum - Reminder about Resolving Names
Launchpad - Bug Report

Ubuntu: Stuttering Sound

2010-02-27T11:50:00.000-08:00

Symptoms
Stuttering sound
Sometimes the sound just doesn't and some times it does

Possible Reasons
I have seen odd sound effects sometimes on older hardware. I Believe as of 8.04, the Ubuntu team moved to "PulseAudio" instead of ALSA.

PulseAudio is still in development to support older sound hardware. Yet ALSA still supports the old.

Resolution
Switching Safely from PulseAudio Back to ALSA (Ubuntu Karmic)

Run the following commands in this order:

$ sudo apt-get purge pulseaudio gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio

Code:

$ sudo apt-get autoremove

Code:

$ sudo apt-get install alsa-base alsa-tools alsa-tools-gui alsa-utils alsa-oss linux-sound-base alsamixergui

Code:

$ sudo apt-get install esound esound-clients esound-common libesd-alsa0 gnome-alsamixer

restart your computer!
Final Thoughts
It does kinda improve the sound quality, yet u may need to tinker with the PCM and Master volume to get the stuttered lowered to almost nothing.

Further Reading
Ubuntu Forums (Thanks to 'nullrend')

ThinkPad and Linux

2010-02-26T14:36:00.000-08:00

I've an old 'IBM ThinkPad T20 2647' and still wondering about how to improve my sound issues. I stumbled upon this place.

Anything related to ThinkPad issues and Linux is here.

Yet I still have yet to find an issue with my sound volume. I am starting to find clues...

My Sound Issues

Everytime I raise or lower the volume, the sound output corrupts
If I start another application with sound, it corrupts the output (Obviously it cannot handle more than one application playing sounds, probably driver)

FIXED!!!! see my new posting coming
....[its coming]

Xubuntu 9.10 : Fix Muted Sound on Startup

2010-02-20T01:46:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Ubuntu community they did it again for me ^^.

sudo mousepad /etc/init.d/alsa-utils

near the end of the file, comment out the line (Place a # character at the beginning of the line)

mute_and_zero_levels "$TARGET_CARD" || EXITSTATUS=1

Moments Later...
Due to my budget IBM ThinkPad with dodgy sound issues, think I'll keep it muted heh. [/me uncomments line again]

References
Ubuntu Forums

Amusing Linux Commands

2010-02-07T11:02:00.000-08:00

Wo, soo many fun tricks with the Linux command line...

Commandlinefu.com

I think I will be sure to keep checking this place. Stay update by following them on Twitter

Follow 10 star commands via Twitter

Kindle 2 : Revisited

2010-01-16T16:29:00.001-08:00

Nice to hear that Amazon reduced their price of their Kindle from $499 to around $259.

Also I like how they the provided a "Global Self Publishing Platform".

Think everyone around the world may be pleased about this. Yet still the price should still be lower :/

Ca Mon Amazon you can Do it!
I can't believe I am actually "Wooing" Amazon here...

If Amazon plays their cards right, we will see all our books digitized and become a successful "Online Digital E Storage Service" similar to Steampowered.com for our games.

Further Reading
Why Kindle is Pricy

Ubuntu : Genius Pen F610

2010-01-12T15:16:00.000-08:00

I know getting the Genius Pen is a technical hardware issue, yet I knew my new mouse tablet pen "F610 Genius"would be part of my development environment.

So I published my steps on how to get it working in my Developer's blog.

Review : Asus Eee PC - Windows 7 Starter

2010-01-08T10:05:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine, has started to suffer from bad back problems due to the mass required books for university. One of her solutions was to invest in a netbook. She bought the Asus Eee PC preinstalled with 'Windows7 Starter'. I was asked to prepare the system for University, which gave me an opportunity to experience Windows7, so here is my first thoughts.

Issues

Updates
Took an age to install updates and it felt like it took half a day.

Preinstalled Trial Software
Be prepared to uninstall individually. I have to still to look at the recovery CD, yet initially there does not seems to be a mass uninstall for trial software.

Uninstalling the MS Office 2007 (roughly 7 packages, including language packs) and replacing it with 2003 wasn't nice :/ Crashed on one of the uninstalls.

You are automatically suggested to start using this trial security software Micro Trends. Also Microsoft doesn't seem to let you know that you can install "Microsoft Security Esstentials". Can't be that important huh :-p

Final Thoughts
Love the hardware, welldone Intel and Asus and an extend applause to the creators of "One Laptop per Child" for initiating the idea of cheaper more energy efficient laptops. As for Windows7 solution for pre-installed software.... It took an age to clean up the pre-installed os. "Purple Place" game was probably the only happy experience whilst updating Windows7. Oh it was a pleasure of using the Eee PC too ^^, the keyboard felt just right and nice, the hardware is nice and compact with little noise. The networking was a breeze too with sharing devices to install software, I can't say the same for wireless networking between machines.

Seriously....It is by far quicker to install XP or Ubuntu and I am sure Mac is also quicker. Yet once set up it does appear kinda smoother than Vista. Also have noticed of less message anoying periodic warnings. I must admit I did like the "Pin and Unpin" wording for the task bar/dock system and the window desk spliting (By dragging the windows to the left and right of the screen).

I have a feeling setting up Windows7 would be quicker if you just completely re-install it. I could be wrong as I wasn't impressed with the speed of the updates. Spent half a day just installing updates.

Try and avoid the "Pre-installed" Windows7 and buy it seperately if you can. It may be expensive yet in the long run you may save time, money on electricity. Hopefully you be able to bypass alot of uninstalling of unnessary trial software. Oh and by the way, it takes an age to uninstall also :/ Took from 12pm till 8:30pm to clean up this Win7 pre-install :/ ....You know what I am going to say now...."avoid Windows7 if you can". Yet overall once fully cleaned/patched it does run smooth.

While I'm at it, I wish Adobe stop with this "Install McAffee Free Scan Trial Request" warning crap!!!!! What Adobe are entering the security market now?! My brain has turned to mush after this epic "Netbook Win7 clean up and install of required software"....[kookoo Baaahhahaaa /me blows raspberry QWERTYT$"%£$%^& So err you think Windows8 will be rock our world?! I think NOT haha.

End of line.

Ubuntu : Genius Pen F610

2010-01-04T04:03:00.000-08:00

[pending article]

I am trying to get the pen buttons to work and I am very new in using Tablet Pens with Linux, so here are my current findings.

Finding the Driver
With this guide I found out the the correct hardware name is "WALTOP International.

I visited their site and found their Linux Driver.

PS: I haven't tried the drivers as my current kernel does recognize the tablet

Using this command, "cat /sys/bus/usb/devices/*/product" I found it using a "Slim Tablet" driver.

Buttons Don't work
As Karmic 9.10 my pen works kind of. The buttons on the pen doesn't work. Curious why.
There is talk of configuring the xorg in someway...

Wizard Pen
There is talk of this "WizardPen", something tells me it is mean to solve all tablet issues.
Think I'll follow this guide via Ubuntu Community Docs.

References
Waltop Slim Tablet - Buttons don't work
Wizard Pen Setup

Getting Started with Ubuntu Guide

2010-01-02T06:04:00.000-08:00

Made this for one of my close friends, so they can get started with Linux gently.

Hopefully he'll pull through :)

Preparing and Install Ubuntu

Ubuntu : Fix : “subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 2″ Error

2010-01-02T04:20:00.000-08:00

Symptoms
I after installing a bunch of software and then crashed half way, they didn't get to be configured.

You recieve an error saying something along the lines

subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 2

Re installing the packages do not help.
You cannot uninstall the packages.

Tried using the following commands and it didn't resolve the errors of partial installs.

dpkg --configure -a
sudo aptitude –configure -a
sudo apt-get install -f

Resolution
You have to remove the offending packages from the "dpkg" status file.

1) Back up the status file
sudo cp /var/lib/dpkg/status /home/yourplace/status.old

2) Edit the file
gksudo gedit /var/lib/dpkg/status

3) Search for the offending packages and remove the whole paragraph to do with that package.
NOTE: Make sure there is a just ONE space between paragraphs

4) Save the file

5) Run "Synaptic Package Manager".
You will find the packages removed, you can now install them again with no errors.

Final Thoughts
The packages that I was installing that failed on me due to a pre mature crash was, "Empathy, Pingus and Konversation".

There was around 4 packages that related to Empathy and 2 from Pingus that failed. Thanks to help of a blog (See references), I managed to fix those :)

Seeing this resolution working, made me a feel that the community will some day improve the package manager to automate the cleaning of damaged packages in the "status" file.

Oh and this issue happend to be me in Xubuntu yet I am sure it be similar with other distros.

References
Odzangba Kafui Dake’s Blog

Ubuntu (Karmic) : Wireless Works Once

2009-12-10T02:26:00.000-08:00

Managed to change tarriffs on my phone to have unlimited text and web.... Just so long as I don't view any Videos I'll be fine under the "Fair Use Policy" of 500mb.

Found out connecting to "Mobile Broadband" / "Wireless Networking" only worked once. Then when I tried to reconnect, that nice network-manager icon span really fast blinking green and grey, and to stop that I had to click on it and then disconnect to something that I have connected to yet!!

Resolution
Make a script to restart the "networking" and "network-manager". Run this script everytime you disconnect.

1) Create a file called "3gfix" in your home folder.
2) Edit the file with your fav text editor.
3) Add the following lines

#!/bin/bash
sudo service networking restart
sudo service network-manager restart

4) Save it
5) Change the permissions on that file to be executable

Now to run it
1) Click Applications->Accessories->Terminal
2) Type the following and then press enter :)

./3gfix

OR you can

1) press "ALT+F2"
2) Type "./3gfix"
3) Tick "run in terminal"
4) Press Enter or click "Run"

Final Thoughts
Give the Ubuntu Community time to resolve this minor networking issue, patience is a virtue :)

Ubuntu Upgrade : 9.04 to 9.10

2009-11-30T09:29:00.001-08:00

Soon Karmic came out, I was a bit heasitant to pressing the "Upgrade Distro" button and decided to wait for 3 months. It felt very smooth ^^. Here is my experience during the upgrade.

During the Upgrade

Asked if I wanted to keep my original configs for [Networks and vsftpd]

Issues I had

Services menu item is missing from "System->Administration".
My apache2 virtual hosts went missing yet again.

Resolutions

Found an alternative way to managing my Services.
Had to edit my "/etc/hosts" file to have my Apache2 Virtualhost names back in :)

Ubuntu : Karmic 9.10 : Service Handling

2009-11-30T09:11:00.000-08:00

After a fairly smooth upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04 to Ubuntu 9.10. I found System->Administration->Services .... The "Services" GUI is missing in the menu, so I couldn't help but look to see if there is another way and turns out there is :)

The "service" Command Way
A nice clean way of seeing services in action.

service --status-all

Example of seeing a service status

sudo service vsftpd status

The Other Way?
Shows the various services

ls /etc/init.d/

Example of seeing a service status

/etc/init.d/vsftpd status

Final Thoughts
I actually Like the "service" command as it seems more cleaner to look at.

Think I'll check the "Menu Editor" to see if it hasn't accidently been de-activiated. [moments later] Heh, it is missing.

Enabling SLI Technology in Ubuntu 9.04

2009-10-30T10:10:00.001-07:00

Getting SLI technology working with Ubuntu 9.04 is a bit wierd to know, yet hopefully in later versions we shouldn't have to keep doing this :) ANYWAY follow these seteps.

You have tried typing "startx" and that didn't work, and you still at command prompt and wondering what to do now... Try this :)

Enabling SLI

0) Backup your old Video configuration just for convience

cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /home/youraccount/xorg.conf-bk

So if that worked before you can restore it back.

1) Find the BusID address to the first PRIMARY card

lspci

An output of the above commad is

04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce 7600 GS] (rev a1)
06:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce 7600 GS] (rev a1)

2) make note of BusID of primary (first) graphics card

e.g. 04:00:00 (last 0 might not be shown but need it anyway)

3) Generate a new Video configuration file

sudo nvidia-xconfig
enter password

You will be brought back to a new prompt.

4) Edit the Video configuration file to enable SLI technolgoy

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

go to EndSection of Devices section
press Enter
press up arrow once
Type BusID "04:00:00"
Press Enter
Type Option "SLI" "Auto"
press ctrl o to save
press ctrl x to exit

The section should look something like this (Red is the new two lines added)

Section "Device"
Identifier     "Device0"
Driver         "nvidia"
VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BusID          "04:00:00"
    Option         "SLI" "Auto"
EndSection

5) Verify the configuration works

startx

Then open up a terminal window and then type

nvidia-settings

Click on the "screen0"section, it should saying in the "GPUs" section something like

GeForce 7600 GS (GPU 0),
GeForce 7600 GS (GPU 1)

Enjoy :)

Addtional
You may try a different option in the device section of the video configuration file.

Off : As in OFF, don't use the SLI technology.
Auto : auto-select rendering option
SFR : Split Frame Rendering
AFR : Alternate Frame Rendering
AA : Anti Aliasing.
AFRofAA : Alternate Frame Rendering of Anti Aliasing (!?!? not sure of this one haven't tried it)

Personal Note: I believe "auto" maybe better as the device would then pick which RENDER is best for any current situation.

Further Reading
Wikipedia
Ubuntu Forums

Yahoo Pulls Plug On Geocities

2009-10-26T23:58:00.000-07:00

A line quoted from a news article made me wanted to document my first baby steps onto the Internet.

"I think GeoCities was the first proof that you could have something really popular and still not make any money on the internet.

"It was a fascinating experiment in the pre-industrial era of the internet."

My first Baby Steps
I was in my teens and discovered the Internet via Netscape for the first time. Then I kept asking a next door neighour at a computer, "How did you do that?". "How is this possible?"... I learnt about this file transfering software called WS-FTP, a free online storage facility called Geocities, a graphics package called PaintShop Pro, the interrupter language called HTML and how it all pieces together.

Thankfully he kept showing me and after a week or so of playing around, I managed to make some mad looking site. Unfortunately I have no picture of my very first site. Yet I will describe it as like a hobby show off site, documenting my favourite toon show ("The Simpsons") and my newly played fav game "Hexen".

It took me an age to get used to using "Paint Shop Pro", I am still amazed I have not turned pro into graphics. Yet I have managed to learn the basics, slicing, making nice effects, feather touching, simple smudging techniques, even made an animation clip of a film credit from scratch (Took me a while).

Whilst taking up a GNVQ course in Intermediate in IT at Henley College and with no qualifications under my belt, only armed with a Geocities site... At the age of 14 I landed my first part-time Web Designer job at Uxbridge college and helped them create their first site ever.

Sounds amazing doesn't it? Really my father was the "IT manager" for Uxbridge College at the time, and after my father initially starting up the web server technologies on their campuses, he was wondering who to give the 'Web Designer' job to, at the time he only knew me who had the skills to create websites, so it saved him having to look for long and concentrate on other important priorities.

After a year of working with them, Uxbridge College, took control and I got made redundant :( They thought they could save money by having some lecturer who only just recently learnt HTML and thought they be able to save some money....The site got shut down for a very long period as it was too complex to look after.

Why was it complex? The Website boasted off it's latest prospectus and it had a multi-tier arrangement as at the time, computers could not handle much rendering (3 Frames worth of pages was stretching it) so I was asked to create a setup system to make the site look even more basic with the user wished it to speed up the browsing. Yes you can safely say I used JavaScript programming langauge in which to create the system.

The screen-shot of the the desktop showed I used Windows95 and never knew of this so called software Open source at the time and only saw and heard of meir hints of Unix [/me blushes]

Further Reading
BBC : Yahoo Pulls Plug on Geocities
Google Finance : YHOO

I Feel Sick Everytime I see windows7 Advert

2009-10-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

Having been mainly using Ubuntu and dual boot into XP once in a while just to play games for a while now (Since Ubuntu's first launch) and over time I have seen Ubuntu mature to a point where I can see the founder's vision coming true. Yet just recently I have been feeling wierd :/

Every time I see an advert about Windows7 I get this weird feeling of sick. I am thinking it is because of the following reasons...

Reasons

Witnessed IE8 banned Ad Video
Seen Windows7 launch party video
Digusted reading miss-education about Linux training to "Best Buy" employers
Been told about the price about Windows7 being £149 (Home Premium Edition) which was interesting seeing the price cut for "Office 2007 Student Edition
Read the hardware requirements then compared it to Ubuntu's
Witnessed Microsoft's attempt at making their own Open Source movement
Saw the boot up speed differences between Ubuntu and Windows7
Recently saw how this guy's face just beemed jolly as I said "What do you think of Windows7" and how clueless he looked after asking, "What is your thoughts on Ubuntu"....And this is at a Computer Recycling plant, installing XP and Microsoft Office that cost them!?! And they don't even dual boot them!?

I felt sick on and off whilst writing this article!? A while back having heard, Windows7 is a major improvement from Vista and that Microsoft improved their way of developing...Having seen all these bizzare movements by Microsoft, it gets to me now :(

Thanks a bunch Microsoft :/

After Posting to Reddit
Reddit link

To answer the first comment... People and family and friends are amazed how I loath Microsoft so much, I can get that annoying to them too :/ Think it maybe because I am too "open source dependant".

After reading a comment mentioning their hardware is more good, I felt kinda better would you believe, yet reminded about the [cough] erm...

I will try and make an effort to try and ignore the annoying bits about Microsoft and try and see their better side, their "hardware sector"... Maybe I should actually see Windows7 in action and that may lift off a bit of this... Yet I'm in no hurry as it seems to be the touch screen as the big thing, seen it on the iphone though so it's nothing new :/ I will still say it is a major improvement from Vista yes. Also during my timeout from the Internet, I kinda also thought I shouldn't of seen that 'banned IE8 ad' either. I hope to also provide the computer recycling plant some assistance for dual booting and providing alternative 'friendly User Ubuntu documentation'.

Thank you Redditors for responding :) Yet I still probably haven't figured of a good way to counter-act this feeling... Well I have helped some friends get Ubuntu installed on their computers and I have only just started to providing a network solution for small organizations and charities. Knowing that kinda helps but it isn't enough :( hmmm

Heh, this made me laugh after googling "Ubunto"...Now... I wonder what this "Ubunto" is :P Oh and felt relieved after reading this comment. :)

Further Reading that has Helped me :)
Guardian :Microsoft Aging Giant.
PC Wiz Kid's First Look at Windows7
BBC : 24hrs with Ubuntu
BBC : Ubuntu Readies Karmic Koala
BBC : Windows7 Pros and Cons

Installing BBC iplayer on Ubuntu 9.10 64bit

2009-10-23T04:15:00.000-07:00

Follow this link and follow the instructions exactly, also please note the warning below :) Enjoy :)

Use "Computer Janitor" With Caution
Don't Remove/Fix the following files

adobeair1.0 (.deb package)
bbciplayerdesktop.39453645783645bla (.deb package)
getlibs (.deb package)

Or you could corrupt the installation and when you attempt to fix, you will get messages from Adobe Air Installation like:

"An error occurred while installing Adobe AIR. Installation may not be allowed by your administrator. Please contact your administrator."

Resolution
If you have done by mistake...Like me and others :P You have to delete the cert files.

sudo dpkg --purge adobe-certs

Also you shouldn't have to worry about switching off the web browser either when you reinstall Adobe-air either.

Further Reading
Ubuntu Forums

MS Funnies : Microsoft Miseducates Linux

2009-10-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

If this is true...

MS sending miss-leading information on Linux to "Best Buy" Staff.. then I feel gob smacked at how low they willing to go.

Further Reading
Cnet

MS Funnies : MSN Live Messenger Size

2009-10-22T14:31:00.001-07:00

Looks like MSN Live Messenger isn't designed for 800x600 any more
Not that I'm bothered, I can just make out the OK button.

Wifi and Linux

2009-10-22T13:07:00.001-07:00

I knew I had to some research on finding the best WIFI pci card, I was bemused about the question....

Just warning this article babbles about me moaning about the various Linux hardware compatibly pages scattered about the Internet.

How I found a good WIFI card
There is so many out there even trying to surf the latest "Hardware compatibility List" was a little tormenting. Browsing Ubuntu Community WiFI Hardware List didn't help show the makes properly that was good. Well it was nice to see what worked and what didn't I guess. I eventually found one via a site that done some home work for me already.

Linux Emporium : Done homework already and have supposedly found the official BEST tested wifi hardware. See below for link

I have seen sites where you could see if a device was fully implemented or shows how much of of a driver has been implemented more friendlier than that. Yet you had to know the "Kernel Driver Module Name" to begin with.

I Eventually bought a
"EDiMAX Wireless 802.11b/g Turbo Mode PCI Adapter"
Once plugged in, it worked with Ubuntu.

What is also cool is that I can buy an antenna (EA-IO5D or EA-ID6D) that can increase wireless coverage later :)

When I typed, "lspci" in a Terminal it shows
Network controller: RaLink RT2561/RT61 802.11g PCI
So it was wierd seeing "RaLink" instead of "EDiMAX" yet I was happy I was able to see wireless networks atleast :) Most probably the name of the chip really which is very understandable :)

Final Thoughts
I guess I am crying for a better managed view of Kernel drivers and easily browseable via hardware names in some way rather than having to do the complex kernel compiling just to see or even browse a list.... I know the HCL is there yet it be nice to see that more easily visible and bigger letters and not too techi looking (Not that I'm a noob in Linux).

The kernel's offical site should show their work more nicely someday yet I know their priority is to just get hardware working and worry about the fancy looks later. Touch wood Ubuntu Community may pick this up somehow.... hmmm

I know Linux is designed to you shouldn't have to worry about hardware yet I know it could you need to see how things are getting on when you want to try new hardware.

Merge all them hardware compatiability sites together into one somehow ... Us Linux users WE ALL USE THE SAME LATEST LINUX right!? right!?... I know I know I just google the question and figure out it out.

Don't get me wrong, I luv Linux. Patience is a virtue and things that been in the planning and still being thought out, will eventually break through.

Further Reading
Linux Emporium : Linux Compatible Wireless Devices

Kindle (For reading E-Books) : What a rip off

2009-10-12T03:18:00.000-07:00

This is my opinon on the Kindle....

Don't even think of buying the Amazon Kindle. They not colourful, they don't have expansion slots, they don't even have wifi support. For $499 dollars?!

Get yourself a laptop, where you have unlimited reading and colourful moving images etc, with WIFI support so you can easily browse the Internet at ease. You can even enlarge the text of your browser just pressing a key combination of "Shift and +" and "Shift and -".

If they provided those extra features of colorful, expandable memory slots, with wifi support, I just may like it then. Yet I still probably wouldn't buy it for other various reasons.

Further Reading
Guardian : Kindle UK Launch

Linux : Enabling Marvell Sata Drive

2009-10-08T11:48:00.000-07:00

Recently got a Sata Drive for a thankyou for helping my parents.

My motherboard is a M2V and has the SATA2 (aka 300gig per second). It is on the Marvel chip 88SE61xx. Yet the only problem I initially couldn't see it :/ Yet I managed to figure it out :)

Symptoms
You cannot see the sata drive by either using the following command

df -h

sudo fdisk -l

Enabling the Driver

Ubuntu 9.04

1) Start a super user edit of the Grub menu settings

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

2) Add "ahci.marvell_enable=1" (excluding double quotes) to a line at the end "kopt",
For example :

# kopt=root=/dev/mapper/vg0-root ro ahci.marvell_enable=1

3) Finalize the changes

sudo update-grub

4) Reboot the machine and your drive should now be visible :)

Ubuntu : Remote Control Experience

2009-10-05T09:57:00.000-07:00

I can now remote control my machine from my phone !!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111111111 :)

Initial Setup
You must Attach your machine to know that your phone always exists (Do 1st step here).

HOW!?
Easiest Remote Control Setup is with Ubuntu 9.04 (jaunty)

Remote Control Machine Guide here.
Download Remote Application Configuration files here.

Technical Issues I bumped into
Think during the time of experimenting with VirtualBox(Download n installing SP3 for XP), I bumped into a bluetooth conflict or something and hate some bizzare issue.

Restarting the machine once which resolved my bluetooth conflict. Seems to be fine with my virtualBox still running.

Wammu : Getting Bluetooth to Work

2009-09-19T03:11:00.001-07:00

Wammu will not work until you have set up Ubuntu Bluetooth device first, so this is a two part solution.

Check List

You have Ubuntu (The instructions has been made with version9.04 and hopefully work for older).
Your mobile bluetooh is visible and shows name.
You have a bluetooth USB dongle or your computer has it's bluetooth feature on.

1st Setup Ubuntu
1) First install your bluetooth USB dongle into the back of your machine or whereever.
2) System -> Preferences -> Bluetooth
3) Change Friendly Name to something nice :) I did "BURD.BURDEN"
4) Click "+" button and then click "forward" button after
5) Select your device and then make sure you have fixed.

7) Do the test with your phone
6) Hopefully it should be successful.

2nd Setup Wammu

1) Get your bluetooh phone address by running an ubuntu terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal)

hcitool scan

Mine is "00:16:B8:22:89:48" which also has an additional "w810i" description on the end.
Remember this value for later :)

2) Start "Wammu"

3) Click Wammu->Phone Wizard

4) Click "next" and then select "Guided Configuration" then next again.

5) Select "Bluetooth" then click "next"
6) Select your phone mobile (Mine is Sony Ericsson phone) then click "next"
7) Select "AT based" then click "next" (Yet your phone may be different for other)
8)Select "AT over bluetooth" then click next
9)Type in "00:16:B8:22:89:48" (see step1 of this 2nd part) then click next

Give it a a moment to test and it should say something like this.

10)Leave it as it's default name it suggests or change it then click "Finish".

FINALLY : Try it out
You should now be able to connect to the phone via "Bluetooth" on Wammu
Just click "Phone->Connect"

Thew

WOOOO YAAA!
Enjoy
"Wammu Usage Notes" can be found at the bottom of this.

Ubuntu Upgrade : 8.10 to 9.04

2009-09-19T03:04:00.000-07:00

Please bare in mind I have upgraded from 8.04 to 8.10, and after years of waiting for 9.04 to mature, I Forced open the" distribution update button" to allow the major upgrade from 8 to 9.

I believe ideally you should have a clean install between major version releases. Well I thought I'd just keep pressing that nice "Distribution Update" button and see how things go. Here is my findings :)

Oh the Issues also include things after reseting my user account to have fresh configs

During the Upgrade
I allowed it to remove all the software it requested and upgraded all configs.

Issues I had
Kate (KDE Text Editor) - Got uninstalled
Konqueror Settings - Go changed
Apache2 - Got uninstalled
PHP5 and PHP5 modules - Was uninstalled.
CheckGmail - Got uninstalled
VLC - Turned wierd on me (It had an alpha version or something)
Bluetooth - Stopped working (Fresh new account issue)

Resolutions
Using "Synaptic Pacakge Manager" I did the following:

First I had install the missing software.

To get bluetooth working properly again, I re-installed "bluetooth" and "bluez" packages.

Free Up Space
Thanks to a new feature of Ubuntu 9.04, "Computer Janitor" is a cool program which I can gambled everything and saved up 1gig of space :)

VLC
Had to start using "ppa" system. Instructions and updating is here.
Still have problems with it (Hopefully they will get fixed again)
For now I have Installed Totem Movie Player (powered by xine).

Konqueror
I had to update the extension handling for ".html" to have "kate" as the primary application.
Verified and corrected my Konqueror settings.

Apache2
To get PHP5 working yet again, I had to run in a terminal

sudo a2enmod php5

Ubuntu (Linux): Getting Slow Old Machines to Boot

2009-08-25T12:44:00.000-07:00

Some tips about making a slow old machine boot. I hope to expand on this more as I experience more situations.

Hardware
Getting hardware to work can is getting more easier as more manufacturers of devices and supporting Linux more. Yet you will bump into some issues on and off, here are a few things to help installation go smoothly.

Old Hardware (Different name on kernel supports)
I have known the odd monitor setting to be differently named for third party use. Acer, Dell and Compaq have known to use crypt set ups in the past. Another is "ROCK" that sells laptops but they don't make them, some company in Asia creates them and hires or makes another company to sell them more friendly.

Support Or Not?
Always google around to look for hardware supported yet in the Kernel.

Partitions
If the motherboards is really old, make sure the "Boot/" partition is first. Believe there is a guide on standard size for the various partitions.

Basic Setup
/boot - 512 Mb as ext2(Important that)
/swap - double the size of your physical memory as swap.
/ (Rest of the hd space) - REST of the space as ext3 (For fast performance).

Believe it could be lower on the /boot partition. May need to verify that myself.

Booting
Various boot issues may come in the way. Here is mine I bumped into.

Move the Boot Partition
Some distros of Linux, forget to make the /boot partition at the beginning of the harddrive. See above for more info.

Kernel Boot Parameters
Read the first two paragraphs and then look for your known issues in "Known Kernel Parameters"

Manually Change (temporary)
When you get to the load up screen of "GRUB" you may need to press "e" key a few times to edit parameters.

Make changes Permanent
You will then need to modify the "/boot/grub/menu.lst" file and then finally run "sudo grub-update" to permantly keep the changes.

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
sudo update-grub

Known Kernel Parameters

Slow Reading of Harddrives rootdelay=90
Provide Auto Power Down acpi=force

Further Reading
Grub Howto By Ubuntu Community
Setting Kernel Parameters By Ubuntu Community1

Xubuntu : 8.10 to 9.04 Upgrade - No Sound

2009-08-25T12:22:00.000-07:00

I successfully installed Xubuntu 8.10 on a slow end machine and fulled updated all the software. I then couldn't help myself and click that nice button saying, "Upgrade to the latest distribution 9.04". Which I did.

I found the sound gone, came back and then gone again after creating a new account. I am not sure if this is for "Xubuntu" or for all the them, well here is my solution.

Major upgrades have known to require some little fine tuning so this normal really :) Yet I have sneaky suspicions of user error from time to time. ANYWAY!!!! Read on

Exceptions
I chose to not let it change the "menu.lst", I modified the boot parameter of the kernels to have "rootdelay=90" and "acpi=force" at the end to aid the old machine boot up to really boot up and shut down efficiently. I will explain in another blog entry soon about my boot parameters [INSERT LINK HERE].

Issues Found
Sound disappeared on me.

Resolution
One of the volume controls has been muted. To Unmute you need to reveal some volume controls, by default Xubuntu hides them (Not exactly sure why, yet I have a funny feeling it is to make you aware you can just show the controls you only need to see).

Click "Applications->Multimedia->Mixer".
You will see a window pop up with a pulldown showing the various modes which could be OSS and/or ALSA based at the end. Go through the first two and show all your volumes.
Once you click ok you will see various volumes in various tabs. It is probably the first first you should worry about. Look out for "MASTER" and "PCM-??" controls and also the mute button which is showing red "X" next to a speaker or on top of it.
Play a CD track or something that requires sound, and fiddle with the MASTER and PCM. Hopefully you should be able to hear your sound again.

End of Line. (Getting into the mood for the new Tron film :P)

EDIT: TO BE REALLY REALLY SURE:
run "alsamixer" in a terminal, (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It is just like the GUI only in text form.

There has been odd bizzare reports where the sounds is more properly saved using that command, oh and then press "ESC" to save :) If you view both the GUI volume control in GUI and TEXT form, you will notice they both are synched together.

Wammu and Finding USB Ports

2009-03-29T18:10:00.000-07:00

Wammu Bluetooth setup is here, you may now carry on reading :)

Wammu is a nice tool I found to keep my mobile data in sync. It provides a nice wizard to start synching and backup mobile phone data, however I had issues trying to find this, USB port address.

I must admit, no regular new user would of figured it out, yet I am sure there is documentation online some where. Yet I didn't have the internet on me at the time, so here is how I did it. Think it is pretty standard for most usb mobile connections, but here is how this piece of information out.

You will Need "hwinfo"
FORGET THE "lsusb" command :P That just brings up interesting numbers that I have already tried in my past attempts lol.

Make sure you can run "hwinfo" command, if you have not got that command, get one!

hwinfo is a "Hardware identification system", pretty cool nifty dump. Comes standard with Ubuntu, not sure about the rest.... ANYWAY!....

How to find the USB Port Address for a Mobile Phone
1) Connect the phone to the USB and let it go in file transfer mode. So the phone is mounted to Linux.

2) Bring up a console or terminal and type

hwinfo > myhardwareinfo.txt

This will save all your hardware information.

3) Search the file for the make of your phone, it should show something like


usb.vendor_id = 7531 (0x1d6b)
usb.is_self_powered = true
usb.product_id = 1 (0x1)
usb.can_wake_up = true
usb.vendor = 'Linux Foundation'
usb.bus_number = 1 (0x1)
usb.product = 'USB Communications Interface'
usb.interface.number = 7 (0x7)
linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.0/usb1/1-1/1-1:3.7'
info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_1d6b_1_0000_00_10_0'
usb.interface.class = 2 (0x2)
usb.interface.subclass = 9 (0x9)
usb.interface.protocol = 1 (0x1)
usb.interface.description = 'Sony Ericsson Device 039 USB WMC Device Management'

6: udi = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_1d6b_1_0000_00_10_0_if1_serial_unknown_0'
linux.sysfs_path = '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.0/usb1/1-1/1-1:3.1/tty/ttyACM0'
info.subsystem = 'tty'
info.parent = '/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/usb_device_1d6b_1_0000_00_10_0_if1'
info.category = 'serial'

4) This is the tricky bit, look for the line beginning with "Linux.sysfs_path". Mine is

/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:10.0/usb1/1-1/1-1:3.1/tty/ttyACM0

To find the port for the USB, turns out it was just a small bit at the end and not that long address I've learnt something here...

It is not "/tty/ttyACM0" , is it in fact

Change "tty" to "/dev/" and dump the rest....

BEHOLD THE CORRECT USB PORT ADDRESS TO TYPE INTO WAMMU

/dev/ttyACM0

It may be different if you using more than one USB port on your machine.

Final Thoughts
I tried to figure this one on more than one occassion and it is my 3rd time that I figured it out. Funnily enough I must have entered all kinds of addresses.

Apparently tty is a standard input thingy. I'm a little older and wiser and happy I can sync my phone. we're trying to communicate to the device. I am sure there is some logic I am mis understanding as to why it is /dev/.

THEY should improve the "lsusb" to show this? Or can't that be possible?

Wammu Usage Notes
Just some things to realize as you use this software.

Don't have the phone in File Transfer Mode
Keep it in regular phone mode
You may get a error with synching empty things like, you have not used the "TODO" on your phone.
Everytime you run Wammu, it starts off with a clean slate, unless you open up your backups.
It will come up with errors when you try to backup things that don't exist yet.
Be aware of duplicate data (Some are on Sim and some are on memory).

Backup

Connect to phone (click Phone->Connect)
Retrieve everything you use. Click "Retrieve"-> everyone of these items (excluding the ones you don't use ie "todo")
Click Backups->"Save" and "save messages"

Restore
Been a while since I restored... Either you connect last or connect first before doing this 1 step.

1) Something tells me you have to connect to phone first then click
Backups->Import
Backups->Import Messages

Moving Mobile Numbers

2009-03-04T10:23:00.000-08:00

I needed to change my mobile number to another network and I searched around online, finding people just being lazy about it or saying it very fussy. I decided to go ahead and see what the whole process is like anyway. Also I didn't want to spend around £20 just to unlock my phone from some backstreet store.

Phones are are locked with your first provider and new phone for good reasons. To give you reassurnance that your BRAND NEW may be retraceable,assured if required.

I did the following in this order to change my mobile number and unlock my phone, I hope it helps you see the process.

Oh I managed it by the way :) I will not say the provider's names I changed as I like them both really. Just family and factors of life that make us have to change for fair price at the time.

IMPORTANT
MUST HAVE MOBILE PHONE WITH YOU ALL TIMES, and NOTE your mobile number in hand just incase.

Get Permission to transfer number to New Provider
1) Call up old mobile provider TEAM for PAC (Porting Authorisation Code) number. It be valid for 30 days then expire.

2) Visit the new "NEW mobile provider's" website and search around for moving, "Moving mobile Numbers". They normally provide a form to fill with the PAC number requirement too.
They then email you in a day or so, saying the will start the transfers in 2 to 3 workings roughly. During the process of transfering, you not be able to use any services on the mobile other than the features of the phone software (calendar, notes, games, etc).

Unlocking the Phone to be usuable by any provider
If you do this with a new phone, you may be charged, however if you had the phone over 12 months then it will be free. Understandable there.

1) Call "old mobile provider team" and ask for unlock code to phone. You will need to confirm some security questions in order to an unlock code, as well as give them your "model and make" of mobile phone.

2) Give the operator your EMEI number which is located on the back of the phone, under the battery. Normally begins with the two numbers, "35".

Some times you may call at an awkard time where they are updating their server details, which means you have to wait a couple of hours, and then call them back. Move onto step 3.

3) Once the operator knows your; model, make and EMEI number of phone, the operator will guide you through the process of the unlocking.

For a Sony Erricson k800i, I had to do the following the steps, and stayed with operator till done.

3.1. Take out sim card

3.2. Switch on phone

3.3. push joystick left

3.5. type **

3.6. push joystick left again, once sucessful you'll see a couple of screen flashes, then the display will show "network unlock"

3.7. select Network Unlock

3.8. type in the NCK number that the operator of the old network will give you. (Be nice to them)

If sucessful the screen should display network unlocked, othwise stay with the operator as the phone is locked in their service any how.

3.9 If successfull, destroy old sim card to "old mobile operator".

Final Conclusions
Scary on and off but achieveable, if you remain paitent and can take around roughly 3 days.

My Ubuntu 8.04 to 8.10 Experience

2009-02-20T05:42:00.000-08:00

Took a leap of faith with my Ubuntu lol

I managed to successfully upgrade my Ubuntu from 8.04 to 8.10 :) Took some guts having not done a proper full backup, I did above half of copying my data. Anyway this is what I done.

Unlocked upgrades to "Short term" releases and then clicked for updates and finally clicked "Upgrade to the latest Ubuntu release".

Changed all configs to the latest one(Accidently kept one old one).
Rebooted.
Had issues with X, but eventually it knows.

Anoying issue for me was, had to recompile VMWare :/ and fix my Compiz configs caps.

I'm happy anyway :)

Firewall in Linux

2009-02-16T07:56:00.000-08:00

Firewall, determines what applications and services, ports, ips are allowed in and out of your machine.

Best one is to use the recommended software. As of 8.10 Ubuntu, they recommend "ufw", which is command based "terminal".

Strong Advice, you don't need a GUI, use the commands "ufw"
See the offical Wiki entry here.

Also don't need a GUI frontend to ufw because it already is a frontend to some else already complicated.

What really governs all the Rules?
Firewall management on Linux/Ubuntu is managed by "iptables" and setting those up are complicated at times. "ufw" and "firestarter" are frontends to "iptables". Use either one or the other.

Example of how complex "iptables" comared to "ufw" is:
ufw: sudo ufw deny from 10.100.0.5

iptables : sudo iptables -A INPUT -s 10.100.0.5 -j REJECT

But if you want a GUI
Think you can install it from "Applications->Add/Remove" and search for "Firestarter", just don't bother with "ufw".

Other Frontends

gufw : Frontend to ufw, even though ufw is a frontend to iptables.  Seems silly
lokkit and Guarddog : Frontend to iptables, these I feel seem a bit complicated but it's what ever you feel comfortable with in the end.

Pipe Viewing

2009-02-02T13:21:00.001-08:00

Found an article that seems to help show the progress of piping things from place to another in nix.

Example 1 (From Article)
To know the progress of this pipe command: compress this log

$ gzip -c access.log > access.log.gz

You Run

$ pv access.log | gzip > access.log.gz
611MB 0:00:11 [58.3MB/s] [=>      ] 15% ETA 0:00:59

Example 2 (From Article)
If you wish to see more details

$ pv -cN source access.log | gzip | pv -cN gzip > access.log.gz
source:  760MB 0:00:15 [37.4MB/s] [=>     ] 19% ETA 0:01:02
gzip: 34.5MB 0:00:15 [1.74MB/s] [  <=>  ]

How to get It?
Course to have that nice command, make sure you either get the latest tar ball or run some installing utility like this.

$ sudo aptitude install pv

Made by Andrew Wood

Wireless Broadband With Opensource

2009-01-19T15:30:00.000-08:00

[PENDING]
Not sure of the wireless network I will be using but I know they use
BT Wireless.

Get Wireless to Work
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WifiDocs/WirelessTroubleShootingGuide?action=show&redirect=WirelessTroubleshootingGuide

http://www.linux.com/feature/56946

Use Windows Drivers in Linux?
http://www.net4nowtforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=291060

Here are a few links to help.
Talks about getting a certain BT Broadband hardware working

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=153612&highlight=british+telecom+usb

Working hard to help save Us Money?
http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/review-949-ubuntu-site.html

Start Gnome Screensaver

2009-01-16T09:17:00.000-08:00

I have disabled mine, as Dosbox has issues with it :/ But if I wish to see my fav screensaver, run the command in a launcher

gnome-screensaver-command --activate

Linux Terminal Firewall Controls

2009-01-14T11:42:00.000-08:00

iptables can be a fiddle, instead use the command "ufw", it's a terminal/console front end command to iptables.

ufw disable : Switches off firewall and from boot startup also.

Example of commands allows FTP protocol from anywhere.

# ufw allow 21/tcp

# ufw allow 20/tcp
Rule added

# ufw status

Firewall loaded

Linux Compile Guides

2009-01-12T03:53:00.000-08:00

These are rough guides to compile straight from source applications into Linux distros
Whiles do "./configure" and any additional options first before accepting the guide's opinion.

If you get peeved at that amount of development headers you have to install, there is place called getdeb.net

Ubuntu
Pidgin OR getDeb

Fanboi : Not good, stay open!

2009-01-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

Or u may regret it, as I did on and off. Have to remind myself to never be a fanboi to any one thing. Everything has their good purposes in the end. Also not everyone wishes to know how a computer works.

MS/Apple/Linux!?
Something tells me, I may find some good uses to tell about Windows7. Well I am glad there are a lot of proffessionals who know Vista is a flop. And I must admit, XP is still MS's best work. As OSX is Apple's.

What is nice is Microsoft is providing Windows7 beta free for download.

I will stay support of Linux as it is an alternative for people who cannot afford much. I've still to make my own cut down version for myself someday and there are many many other flavours I've still to try such as: Gentoo and Slackware

Business?!
It's really a user friendly term for saying, civil competition amongst others to encourage competition. Lets face it, if there was no Apple or MS, what is there!? ibm :P

Yet I still wish it wasn't so hefty fighting amongst each of them. Guess thats my hippy nature side of me.

Dumbing Us Too Much?
Since the software industry is always involving at a fast rate, some people cannot keep up. But I believe the young generation does not need this, if they strive to constantly learn new things, then they can think outside the box.

CrunchGear : Mentions about some Inquirer Article saying, "Windows7 will kill Linux"
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/01/15/windows-7-will-kill-desktop-linux/

I don't think so.

So Need to do this : Linux on a USB

2009-01-03T19:07:00.000-08:00

USB Stick OS
Ever expanding space on USB sticks, we can soon place our operating systems on them with everything set up.

Make me feel more better about getting my work environment set up at any place, far more quicker. Yet there is a level of not certain about whether the USB stick speed is fast enough for constant read/write.

Read article here.

Linux from Scratch
I'd also like to go to a level of making my own linux distro from scratch to compact the size more by reading the book here.

Tech Watch : Nokia Gun Phone Concept!?

2008-12-28T19:49:00.000-08:00

What a joke of a concept. Can you imagine using this in mitarely, law enforcement or some criminal activity.

Picture this, assuming some army guy got this amazing gun, holding some enemy suspecting of being bad, suddenly the phone rings [nokia phone ring tone]..."Err excuse me whilst I take this".

BANG!

What a joke of a concept, this should of been made on April Fools Day. Read the mad articles at the following locations:

phonesreview
absolutegadget
mobiletor
unwiredview

Underground Hacking on the Rise

2008-12-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

Not surprising really :/

There is an article that relates to my previous email alert, seems mine is majorly late in warning.

Remember to be more vigilant with your emails that look totally out of the blue. They seem to be written as if trying to trick you to reply back.

Read BBC's article titled, Hi-Tech Criminals

Frustrating Moment: You will save money if...

2008-12-18T03:27:00.000-08:00

...You stop relying on Microsoft. Make a change and try a Linux distribution called, Ubuntu.

I will keep this person's name anonymous but I heard some frustration of a 2nd hand laptop bought for £100, that they wish to save their ONLY copy of the OS software that was pre-installed on the laptop. Just these few statements that really frustrated me and is inspiring to me to think up some statements to help.

Encouraging Thoughts to Dump Microsoft

First off you can buy a whole brand new netbook for £150.
Choosing Linux as my primary OS, it took some getting used to (It's like learning to ride a new bike).
I know Ubuntu is almost there for user friendly free alternative for an OS (Give it a try).
Endless supply of free support online (Online Chat [irc] and forums).
Endless supply of free updates and security.
Mass huge range of free software spanning all categories of uses.
You will save barrels of money by moving from Microsoft to Linux.

The only Requirements is

A standard Linux Supported Machine (This is an awkard bit :/hmm ). If you can boot from a LIVE CD of a Linux dristro then that is a huge clue that it will run almost fine.
Broadband internet connection.
A copy of Ubuntu's latest software.
Some Will to change.

I now wish to stop preaching and burn a copy of Ubuntu just give it to them. I did show them once before but struggled to get their Internet fully working which stopped me, Fuzzing Ruzzing muzzing dag namit! I felt almost I almost converted them! I wish to try again someday.

Alert : Email Scam

2008-12-18T01:54:00.000-08:00

Just recieved an interesting email. DO NOT REPLY TO IT!!! Or you will encourage more spam. Click the image for a larger view.

Basically it is an email spoofing to be one of your old friends you haven't spoken to in a while, struggling to get out of Nigeria.

Further reading about this kind of email fraud here and here.

I've received this email twice so far in my life time, spanning years from each other intriguing thought a? :)

Helping my Dad with his Computer

2008-12-13T08:08:00.000-08:00

He's sick of Vista and wish to dual boot with XP as his main operating system.

Installing Dual boot Vista XP with (Vista installed first)

Good BYE digg...HELLO Reddit

2008-11-30T21:12:00.001-08:00

I should of done this a long time ago, feel like an idiot and a sheep.

Especially finding out digg.com is funded by MS. Those M$ been fighting web standards for years they have the cheek to try and make it big online.

Any ways better late than never :)

I encourage others to do the same ^^.

Ubuntu: Vmware No longer Starts

2008-11-15T07:20:00.000-08:00

After upgrading my Ubuntu, 'Vmware Server Console' no longer starts.

Symptoms
Nothing happens after I click the VMware icon and put in the root pass word.
No error messages are produced after clicking the icon.

Resolution
When you install Vmware 'Server Console', it requires for a driver to be compiled. The driver was compiled for the older kernel of your Ubuntu distribution.

1) Bring up a "terminal" or console and type the following to become "superuser"

sudo bash

2) Run Vmware's config script which shuold be

vmware-config.pl

3) Press [ENTER] for all answers accept for, this particular question. Make sure you say "yes" to compile, the question you need to need out for should look like this.

Your kernel was built with "gcc" version "4.2.3", while you are trying to use
"/usr/bin/gcc" version "4.2.4". This configuration is not recommended and
VMware Server may crash if you'll continue. Please try to use exactly same
compiler as one used for building your kernel. Do you want to go with compiler
"/usr/bin/gcc" version "4.2.4" anyway? [no]

4) Exit the terminal window and start VMWare Server Console as normal.

Ubuntu: Some user not in sudoers file

2008-11-12T01:43:00.000-08:00

Bumped into this on my Ubuntu where I could no longer be super user on my machine so I can install stuff and get the latest updates.

After googling the error message, I discovered a solution that worked.

Not exactly sure how this has happened but I am sure it was a minor mistake on some update.

Symptoms
Can no longer become SUPER USER to do amazing stuff like, being able to install software.
Cannot update software
Cannot create new users.
Cannot do much other than regular user stuff.
Admin menu appears samaller
Add Remove Menu item is gone.

Known Errors
When you type "sudo bash" and type in the word, you recieve an error like
This user is "not in sudoers file".
Sudoers file is located in /etc/sudoers

Resolution
You need to know a small bit of "vi" or "vim" to edit the sudoers file. "vim" is slightly easier. There should be a cheat sheet online( Google search "vi cheat sheet"). Really you only need to know how to

"Insert a line"
"delete a line"
"Save and Quit" and
"Quit without Saving"

You can only edit /etc/sudoers file visudo.

1. In the boot up menu, select "recovery" mode for the latest kernel (You may need to press "esc" key).
2. You will come to a choice menu, select "shell prompt"
3. Run the command "visudo" and insert a line similar to this

someuser    ALL=(ALL) ALL

Around here.

# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL) ALL
someuser    ALL=(ALL) ALL

4. Save the file and then reboot the machine safely by typing at prompt

shutdown -r 0

5. Once machine has rebooted, login again type in a new terminal the following

sudo addgroup someuser admin

You should now be able to do SUPER user stuff again.

Virus Cheatsheet

2008-11-10T11:12:00.000-08:00

When you have viruses, trojans, malware and spy ware. You need various tools to help remove them as soon as possible. You cannot always rely on "Anti-virus" software to remove every one of them all at once.

Nature of Viruses n Trojans
Some viruses may detect anti-viruses software and set up barriers, for example, 'if found halt the machine, to force the user to reboot'.

Trojans may get removed successfully once, but they may detect this and spawn a new one.

MICROSOFT XP RESOLUTIONS

SmitFraudFix helps remove
brastk.exe (trojans)

AVG removes
antiviruspro2009 (Trojans/viruses)

ComboFix removes
faulty links from search results such as "go.google.com" (Mal ware) and any other "go.????.com" (Mal ware).
Helps fixes anti-virus software update issues.
NOTE:Allow it to retrieve "XP Recovery Console" software from Microsoft.com

MICROSOFT PREVENTION RESOLUTIONS

Spybot Search and Destroy removes
Unwanted spying from your Internet surfing

System Repairing and Optimizing
XP : System Mechanic

Options : Outrageous Orange Drinking Chocolate
Helps sooth the mind during the headaches.

Anti-Virus Software
XP: Free AVG

Firewall
XP: ZoneAlarm

Internet Browser Toolbar
Netcraft, helps show the phishy and risky sites before you start interacting.

A REAL BAD SITE!
Site that pretend to scan your machine. DO NOT click on the pop ups or install or register.

Notice Netcraft toolbar "Risk Rating" is in RED.

Ubuntu: Remove Old Kernels

2008-10-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

Symptom
You run Ubuntu and after updating so many times you see a lot of kernels in the start up.
Basically freeing up more space your hard-disk also.

Resolution
Completely remove the old ones, keep the previous old from the update at least though. By removing a "linux-image-???????-generic" file, it will also automatically remove the associated modules with it.

Go to System->Administraction->Synaptic Package Manager
Search for "linux-"
Careful which you wish to remove completely. If it was just the following kernels in the boot up, linux-image-2.6.24-21-generic, linux-image-2.6.24-19-generic, ~~linux-image-2.6.24-18-generic~~
I decided to just remove one as I only saw, 3 linux-images in my boot up.

XP : Service Pack 3

2008-10-12T06:47:00.000-07:00

After Installing XP Service Pack, I had a minor issue. Yet I am not sure if it did cause to be honest.

Graphic Lag Issues
Whilst playing 3d games, your graphics regularly runs smoothly then suddenly lags then runs smoothly again. This happens periodically during game play.

You have also optimized your machine to the best you can. That is you have defragged the drive, removed any unwanted start up programs and regularly run an XP maintence tool like "System Mechanic 7".

Resolution
It might be wise to reinstall your graphics card driver over the top. Hopefully it will reset any corrupt files.

Installing Hardware Drivers in an Ubuntu (Linux Distro)

2008-09-21T11:26:00.000-07:00

Hardware drivers linux you say? Yes sometimes you may have to install them manually due to either early development or recently released drivers. Or it could due to a technical issue that you can only install drivers manually first.

Every step requires a terminal or console with root permission (Administrator mode). Here is a rough idea of the steps you have to go through in order to safely install a driver.

First Off
To make things easy first install apt-file so search the software library files installed.

sudo apt-get install apt-file
sudo apt-file update

Example for installing a SATA driver.

1) Find out what Linux u using by typing
Linux hardware drivers is looked after by this part of the operating system, called a "kernel".

someuser@mylinuxos#>uname -r

2) Then check if the Linux has picked up your hardware by running this command
We need to see if your Linux has picked up your hardware or not. No point carrying on if we can't. Type the following

someuser@mylinuxos#>lspci

It should show something like


02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 7100 GS (rev a1)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Attansic Technology Corp. L1 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (rev b0)
06:00.0 IDE interface: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE6121 SATA II Controller (rev b0)
07:07.0 Ethernet controller: National Semiconductor Corporation DP83815 (MacPhyter) Ethernet Controller

3) Verify a working driver version does exist
There are various OFFICAL linux driver status sites like http://linux-ata.org/driver-status.html#marvell

Working driver is called "sata_mv"

Using the command, apt-file we installed earlier, search for the driver for the installed kernel by typing. It is more helpful to add the ".ko" at the end :)

someuser@mylinuxos#>apt-file search sata_mv.ko

Apt-file produces a list of something like..

linux-image-2.6.24-19-386: /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-386/kernel/drivers/ata/sata_mv.ko
linux-image-2.6.24-19-generic: /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/kernel/drivers/ata/sata_mv.ko
linux-image-2.6.24-19-openvz: /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-openvz/kernel/drivers/ata/sata_mv.ko

We want the drive that represents your version of kernel. You have to type "uname -r" (see step 1)

4) Verify the driver works by typing
Need to check if your hardware really works.

someuser@mylinuxos#>sudo modprobe  /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/kernel/drivers/ata/sata_mv.ko

If no messages pop at you you may as well install it

someuser@mylinuxos#>sudo insmod /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/kernel/drivers/ata/sata_mv.ko

That is it.

SUDO Cannot Resolve Host / gksudo NOT WORKING

2008-08-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

Version:
Ubuntu Hardy 8.04

Symptoms:
After upgrading Ubuntu from 7 to 8.04, then when trying to SUDO something, you get the following smptoms.

SUDO in Gnome : gksudo [whatever] don't work

also when trying to sudo in console, I get this message

SUDO in Terminal/console don't know machine localhost
>sudo bash
>sudo: unable to resolve host [computername]

Solution:
1) Backup and then edit edit the /etc/hosts file
cp /etc/hosts /home/somebackupfolder/hosts

2) Edit the line 127.0.0.1 and change the one with the trailing domain on it, [computername].[SOMEDOMAIN]. Remove that [SOMEDOMAIN].

Reasons:
Basically your computer lost it's own localhost identity. Somehow it is related to networking, possibly with Samba. Samba should still work provided you followed the Samba bookmarking mount points here.

Text Based Software Management (Ubuntu)

2008-08-27T08:04:00.000-07:00

I know these commands existed for ages(Even in Debian), I am blogging this to let myself know that it is OK to use them :P

"aptitude" < Text based GUI, bit fiddly at first but worth knowing how to use.
"sudo apt-get update" < Retrieve the latest software lists from all repositories
"sudo apt-get upgrade" < Upgrade any software that needs updating lol.

Robots in Future, may demand Legal Rights

2008-08-26T05:04:00.000-07:00

That prediction, is based on a full range of other risk factors to start early debate.

Makes you wonder what it may be like living with AI robots. Whether we be arguing at who's causing too much dirt. Who's turn is it to switch on the dishwasher on, wondering when the other person is going to get a job, to pay his side of the rent.

"I-Robot" has shown some interesting parts where humans live in company of robots.

hmmm.

We give birth to each other, as we give birth to robots, everyone should get just as much legal rights as any other.

"checkgmail" Rocks

2008-08-20T04:55:00.000-07:00

Gotten fed, having to keep some powerful app open just to keep an eye on Gmail. I also got a bit sick of using screenslets. So I thought make a change use a system tray icon :) checkgmail does just that, it is easily installable found in software respositories and...

Should Google change their logging coding, checkgmail is on the ball with that and quickly releases fixes via SVN. Easily update it on major quick changes via console: "sudo checkgmail -update".

Easier Root Access

2008-08-11T18:21:00.000-07:00

Easier Root Access: Is very handy for the light hearted users. So whenever you wish to edit some special config or extract, you just double it that icon, then do your stuff :) When you are successful with password permission, it default's to "/home/root" folder.

HERES HOW:Make a small launcher icon in the top panel. Then fill in the details the same as above. You should change the "Name" to be like "Super Nautilus" really.

Better Firefox Updates via Ubuntu

2008-08-11T18:09:00.000-07:00

I offically like, Ubuntu's way of firefox pre-setup. Why? Because when ever I have to update the OFFICIAL firefox application, I never to worry about faffing around with each plugin via a console.

REASONS:
OFFICIAL, I mean, leave Ubunt's Firefox get the offical one here. Don't even bother trying to remove Ubuntu's, it will only moan at you saying it is cleverly linked with other software.

That quite a few handy and nice "Addons" that do not work with Ubuntu's version.

HERES HOW:
I install all the Firefox plugins you want with "Add/Remove Software". Most of the common ones like video is mostly like already installed.

From the arrow above do the following (Looking at the pic above),
BIG LONG RED ARROW ) Extract the tar.gzip to /usr/local/
See tip [Quicker ROOT access for Easier Extraction]

SMALL ARROW) Create a symbolic link to the "plugins" folder of "Ubuntu's Firefox".
cd /usr/local/firefox
mv plugins plugins-backup
ln -s /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/

That is all. So when ever you update OFFICAL firefox, remember to reset up the plugins link (SMALL ARROW).

Celestia : Explore the Galaxy with addons!

2008-08-10T16:53:00.000-07:00

Celestia, cool program with tons 7gigs worth of high quality addons, not mention tours.
To get some of the bizzare addons working in Ubuntu, create folder like cel-extras.

There is a config file called /etc/celestia.cfg normally and in there is something like "ExtrasDirectories"

Add any additional folders here. Then pop the addon's in there :)

ExtrasDirectories [ "extras" "/home/paul/cel-extras" ]

It is possible to create different configs for different extra packs.

Application Docks

2008-07-27T15:08:00.000-07:00

UPDATE :

I have had a bash at a couple of them... AWN and Cairo-dock. both slightly buggy, however I feel Cairo-dock has a dangerous mouse side effect to me :(

Cairo Dock

As of cairo-dock 1.6.1.2
Turns out my optical mouse was old, Cairo-dock works great and I love it to pieces.

I found it to mess around with the mouse abit too much automatically, even created folders and opened up windows. Ever since I stopped using it, my mouse problems stop :( So I have reverted back to "Avant Window Navigator" aka awn, till I am really sure what it is. It maybe cause of the compiz-fusion plugin for the dock, I'm not sure yet.

Mac PC and Linux Truths

2008-07-23T21:09:00.000-07:00

Dugg it at digg.com, and believed to be initially came from http://ralree.com/images/MacPCLinuxTruth.jpg

To anyone who does not understand the history here. Here it goes very briefly......

Originally MS started their mission to encourage everyone onto a computer. Started with quick and rushly made software and sold them to companies with even basic crap deals that MS didn't care loosing profit for. Amstrad ignored their offer as Sugar believed software was not worth paying for unless you could see it :P

Macs came in, showed the tidier version of an OS, but Macs are more costly.

Linux came in, to recreate what MS and Apple have done commerically to be free. Unfortunately, everything was not easily understandable. Like what does a /etc mean? It means that's the folder where all the main software configs go.

Then after thousands of different distros in attempting to show user friendly Linux, Ubuntu came recently popular in 2008. They struck a deal with Dell to provide support and they install Desktops of selected machines.

Still Linux still has it's woes, as soon something gets upgraded a bug could appear then a few days later, someone fixes it. Thankfully with Ubuntu's fairly impressive update farm keeps things in working almost. I sure get the odd headache once in a while.

Due to Ubuntu popularity, there has been recent confusion that Ubuntu is Linux. That is incorrect. Ubuntu is a popular distribution brand of Linux. Linux is the name Linus Torvalds gave to relate everything required to run Linux kernel

Converting Image Formats

2008-07-23T20:44:00.000-07:00

"gThumb Image Viewer" provides browsing and conversion tools. Can easily convert images to either JPEG, PNG, TGA, or TIFF.

How I Solved my Hardy Samba Vista Issues

2008-07-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

As of Ubuntu 8.04, Samba Version 3.0.28a and Nautilus Share 0.7.2-0ubu

4 areas of concern, Hardy Issues, smb.conf, sharing and communication with Vista.

Hardy 8.04 Issues as of this post

I had issues with Samba conf files not getting reset, so I had to grab a copy from a LIVE-CD. involved me having install samba on it that didn't properly work either lol.
Browsing Vista Networks does not work anymore, however Vista could see Samba shares.
Sharing Folders was trivially hidden

smb.conf
By Default VISTA reads via NTVLMv2 only. Read here to make sure you can switch between NTVLMv2 and Samba policies here. Originally my smb.conf used to work and was VERY simple smb.conf it was:

[global]
workgroup = BURDEN
wins support = no
#client NTLMv2 auth = yes

#for vista compatibility
client lanman auth = no
client ntlmv2 auth = yes
domain logons = yes
guest account = nobody

I don't use this smb.conf setup any more. I used a fresh one from a LIVE-CD, which involved me installed Samba on there and then I emailed myself the smb.conf that was installed. The only thing I changed is WORKGROUP. But I still had issues trying to nagivagate through the networks.

Sharing
The "System->Administration->Shared Folders" application has gone, you can now right click any folder and there is "Sharing Options" in the popup menu :).

I used to be able to reinstall samba and a clean smb.conf file with the defaults used to reappear, now it doesn't. If you lost your smb.conf file or corrupted it, you get a recently clean one by installing Samba on a LIVE-CD boot. I then emailed it to me really :P Yes yes I've said this twice, means I've made my point.

Communicating with Vista
Temperary solution to mounting Vista Shares for me was mounting by "Places->Connect to Server". Change the type of share to "Windows Share" and then fill in like soo

You probably get promopted for a passsword or you get a mount point on the desktop, that means it worked :)

What killed Microsoft?

2008-06-26T01:19:00.000-07:00

I strongly believe it was something they least suspected...

Besides all the great new Linux distribuations such as Ubuntu, Gentoo, etc. I strongly think AJAX :P

Killed by their own doing by accident :P

Thats my thought anyway, I could be wrong.

IRC - Konversation

2008-06-11T07:56:00.000-07:00

A description of my IRC enviroment setup is roughly explained here.

Google Slogon

2008-06-07T15:05:00.000-07:00

Google Slogon

Amen to that!
I know this old news :P

My Linux Enviornment Notes

2008-06-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

Click here to read

This Is Funny Only if You Know Unix

2008-05-26T19:31:00.000-07:00

An amusing pic of the Internet vs World at this place

How low can M$ go

2008-05-13T20:53:00.001-07:00

Microsoft has launched WorldWide Telescope....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7397811.stm

It's been done :P Google Earth runs on any platform, Mac, Windows or Linux

This "WorldWide Telescope" only works on ..... err Windows. Why limit their market like that? They did give it away free ^^.

What is even more low, they recorded kids expression using the program...It would not surprise me if they screened the kids, 'If they used Google Earth' or not :P Mind you it shows kids can use this product ^^

I've yet to try out the product, so....I may try it to see if there is any major features of interest.

iGoogle : I'm Back

2008-05-13T06:07:00.000-07:00

I used iGoogle away while. Even boasted about it in my first early blog entries. I then went through a phase of finding the best internet desktop.

I actually stopped using internet desktops for a bit. Then I thought I'd check iGoogle out again......

In the end I am back iGoogle^^.

Links of Interest for me

2008-05-03T08:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.computeraid.org/
......

Aw sod it, I'm bringing my blogmarks to my blogs!

Oh dear, Google kills Eco Search!

2008-04-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

Ecocho.com.au

Promises to plant a tree after 1000 searches. That search engine uses Google Adsense, apparently it's breaking the rules to Adsense :( So Google has removed ad support for this search engine. Yahoo is still there :P

Shame that, yet it sounds like a great idea. Search engine market is Google's territory so they wish to remain that.

Everyone is trying to cripple Google's image here, "Do no harm". Maybe Google might see something to improve here....Hopefully.

Read the full story here.

Right it's late and I'm off to bed.

Friendly Push into Google Docs?

2008-04-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

Let's face it, online on demand applications is the future and it is here now :) Why not take advantage of it?

I recently friendly pushed one of my friends into using Google Docs for the first time, I hope it takes it the right the way. I did give him an ultimatum that if he really hates the experience that I will use Google Docs to save it in Word format.

Sharing work with other colleagues online to work together has to be fun.

I know google docs does not have all the features as Word, but why have all that fussy features anyway? It has all the basics that we need ^^.

Scientists predict 500000GB mp3 player

2008-04-15T20:14:00.001-07:00

Heading taken from 'Telepgrah.co.uk'

This is already top news on Google News why I'm blogging this I don't know. It's just a freaky thought that you could have a song library the size of music superstore in your pocket! It kind of sounds mad if everyone has one of these. Digital hording at it's best(In a good way hopefully). This calls for a little brainstorming of how we might use such a device.

Think what we need is clever mp3 player to help us find the right tone of music for the right occasion. Be nice to see the top 100 song based on realtime in someway anyway. I have a nice thought, mp3player should be like a mobile broadcaster for everyone to hear together. So we share music together for free! You happen to be in a pub and switch on your mp3 player, and searched for 'relaxing', you stumble upon a couple of broadcasters in the pub. When you download the song, it will also give details about the artist, where they from and how to get to see them more. If you like that music you'd go see the show live for example.

If you curious yourselves the article is here.

Managing CompizFusion Environments

2008-04-12T17:43:00.000-07:00

You have Ubuntu, you have the dazzling desktop effects(compiz fusion). You work a long while then decide to have a break and play a game. Whilst playing your games your desktop effects interferes with the game because of your corner setups?! What do you do? This can be annoying for other applications besides games, but I haven't seen any yet. It maybe Windows application being ran under Wine maybe. Well I have noticed a setting in Gnome conflicting with Blender application but there was secondary shortcut to my Blender feature thankfully :)

Create Profiles
I have two CompizFusion profiles at the moment, one for work and the other for games :)

First setup your work environment, make sure you have setup your screen corners to do your desktop management stuff.
Then after that, visit the Advanced Desktop Effects (CompizConfig)
Browse the CompizConfig Preferences seeing below then export the settings and save the filename as "work.profile".
Ok make sure you have saved your work.profile somewhere safe like in a folder called "Compiz".
Now change your settings, removing any unwanted effects from your game. Such as disabling all screen corners.
Then visit the CompizConfig Preferences then save this new setup as "game.profile"

Switch environments
when need be, just visit that fabulous CompizConfig Preferences window, create two profiles and then just import :) You only need to import once, then to quickly switch, just revisit the Preferences area and then change the profile.

Fix Ubuntu Firefox

2008-04-09T17:44:00.000-07:00

I hate to say this about Ubuntu (As of this date using Gutsy Gibbon), their Firefox package stinks at the moment. There is a few missing lib files that prevents certain great addons to work normally with Firefox. Addons such "ColorPicker" and "Firebug" should work out of the box, unfortunity Ubuntu's Firefox does not allow them to work.

Removing Ubuntu's package of Mozilla Firefox is not an easy task so just leave it really. Instead do the following

1) Install all your fav plugins via the package manager or fav repositaries :) Also take care with installing "Adobe Reader", should be fairly straight forward. Also read Ubuntu's community docs if you still stuck

2) Make sure all plugins work and are registered with Ubuntu's Firefox. Also visit "about:plugins" in the address bar.

3) Get the "offical Firefox" the regular way from here. Download and extract the contents to /usr/local/ Then make a shortcut(Launcher) to "/usr/local/firefox/firefox" somewhere on your desktop or panel. Course to be root for this press "ALT+F2" then type "gksudo nautilus", after that it should prompt for your root password. You can then navigate to "/usr/local/" folder.

Ok to save the hassle of installing plugins for your offical version of firefox, do the following. you will need to be "root" to do the next steps. Also you need to have a terminal up (Applications->Terminal) ^^

1) Rename the /usr/local/firefox/plugins to plugins-backup
"sudo mv /usr/local/firefox/plugins /usr/local/firefox/plugins-backup"

2) Make a symbolic from /usr/local/firefox/ to the plugins folder(/usr/lib/mozila) already installed via the package manager.
"sudo ln -s /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/ /usr/local/firefox/plugins"

3) Stop any old Ubuntu Firefox and launch your "offical Firefox" and visit "about:plugins". Remember don't use "Internet->Firefox Web Browser", you have to use the new launcher you made on your desktop ^^

To save a little confusion, remove any old Firefox launchers till Ubuntu resolves the issue. You can leave the "Internet->Firefox Web Browser" one, just to let you know that you still have Ubuntu's Firefox. I generally place my "offical Firefox" in a panel or in an application dock like "AWN Manager". Enjoy your "offical Firefox" from Mozilla :)

My Latest Computer Setup

2008-04-09T17:06:00.000-07:00

I have found a great setup that makes me happy every day on my computer, it involves 80GB split into 2 partitions.

1st Partition : 40GB is XP for my games and any other XP software that still need to use.
2nd Partition : Linux (Currently I am still happy with Ubuntu Distribution)

Linux Software For Added Productivity
I cannot stress this enough, but I hope people will understand me here. If you have a 3D capable card, then follow these steps :)

1) Make sure you have set up your 'Restricted Graphics Drivers' correctly (Nvidia or ATI)
2) Turn on "Desktop Effects".
3) Install Screenlets (Currently my fav widget system, still in heavy development !)
4) Set up your screen corners in the "Desktop Effects Manager", so when you move your to any of these locations, it will initiate a desktop effect. Corner set up example (That I still use)

TOP RIGHT: Show all Windows
BOTTOM RIGHT :Show windows on the current desktop
BOTTOM LEFT : Hide windows and show desktop
TOP LEFT : Show widget layer

Firefox Speed Surfing with Pleasure

2008-04-09T16:40:00.001-07:00

Once in a while I will suggest new Firefox addons with different themes.

These are my first initial set of Firefox addons that I seem to keep installing all the time. Makes web browsing more fast, enjoyable and pleasing to the eye :)

All-in-One Gestures : Makes browsing faster after you have learnt the initial gestures. After installing this baby, you will be able to hold the right mouse button and draw stuff. After drawing a gesture and releasing a button it initiates a "Web Browser" command, like;
"BACK" - draw a line left
"FORWARD" - draw a line right
"HOMEPAGE" - draw the letter "h" in lower case.
"VISIT A LINK IN NEW TAB" - Start from the hyperlink and then draw a line up

Socialite Toolbar : Browse reddit.com more swiftly and surf the web's best Internet content. Check other people's comments and voice your own. Also help share more great content of the Internet and ask discuss anything together there.

Personas : Allows you change to the latest themes on the fly! This is probably the best theme handling system around for Firefox, still a work in progress (Hence it is at Mozilla Labs yet it works really well). Try switching the theme to "Paper" :)

ColorfulTabs : After adding, 'Personas', this will fully make your web browser more colorful :)

IE TAB : If you have to visit sites that require "Internet Explorer", install this addon and you will never to keep switching browsers every again!

Thats all for now, hope you have a much more enjoyable surfing experience.

April Fools

2008-04-01T12:36:00.001-07:00

Virgin and Google plans to go planetary together, first stop is Mars!
Google and Virgin's: Virgle

BBC: Flying Pengiuns

Course check the date today :P

Internet Privacy

2008-03-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

Father of the internet, warned us about being careful publishing information. Treat every post as if you are applying for a job interview. Just be sensible online :)

From my exprience, be wise what you say online. Think before you speak/write on the Internet. You may end up regretting saying that online later in time.

ATT&Yahoo Internet Support Linux woes

2007-03-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

I managed to get 'AT&T Yahoo Internet DSL Service' on linux but with great difficulty. They require MS Windows products for easy installation. I said to someone I'd help them get internet access with his old computers, and it took a while, but here is the story.

AT&T website does show that MS windows 2000, XP etc is required. They don't even listen to their customers or even respect their knowledge of computers. The companies should make sure their registration forms are correctly programmed to W3C standards and that it works in ALL web browsers. But overall once the service is running it is a very good UPTIME service eventually and is a good price. Support did say they are working on a Linux solution which is a nice thought :) Whether that was true or not is another story.

First I inspected the machines,

one is a Gateway machine
Intel PentiumIII,
128mb ram

another is IBM
PentiumIII
128mb of ram.

After installing various Linux distributions (Kubuntu, SUSE, Ubuntu) trying to finding which machine has the most supported hardware, we was happy with Ubuntu 6.10 alternative installation on the IBM. To get ATT & Yahoo Internet to work. You need a fully installed MS Windows product period.

After connecting the devices, I checked the CD I was given and there was a manual setup instructions. I eventually found out that their registration forms do not render properly in Firefox. (https://sbcreg.sbcglobal.net) . Managed to press "I Agree" after switching fullscreen mode in firefox soo many times. Then there was a Javascript error, so I called up support. They said they only support Microsoft (even though they supply support for Apple Macs).

Support said to speak to your Linux distributor and I declined to accept that answer and
I asked who made the registration form software, they declined to reveal the company's name
They couldn't even switch on Internet access on their end, "WHAT!? I need MS Windows just to get Internet Service!?"

I had to get a lift home to pick up my machine and take it over to where there DSL modem is (thankfully it was around a BLOCK away). I tried my machine with IE6 on openSUSE, it refused to find the forms which was an interesting problem. The address was correct I tried both https://sbcreg.sbcglobal.net/DSLRegWeb/ and https://sbcreg.sbcglobal.net/. My IE6 installed on openSUSE 10.2 is provided by IE4Linux.

Finally the solution was to drive back to my home and to take my wife's machine out(XP installed) and use the SETUP.EXE file provided on the "ATT&Yahoo Internet Service Installation CD". Left a note for my wife to not be alarmed, we wasn't robbed :P The installation finally worked after it attempted to installed to software that it required. Replugged in the OLD IBM machine with Ubuntu and heypresto!!

You shouldn't have to worry if you move house, the registration form is required to enable the modem to have Internet access. Me and my wife has "ATT Yahoo Internet" and we moved and thankfully it stilled worked :) Touch wood things may get better.

VMWare would be the BEST solution next time. Just so happens I've got Ubuntu installed on my openSUSE machine :) I plan on making sure I've a plain installation of XP as well for just such stupid moments.

Hope this helps for new Linux users trying to get Internet Service with "AT&T & Yahoo partnered with SBCGlobal.net".

Interesting Way to See RANKS of "Free OpenSouce"

2006-12-08T23:19:00.000-08:00

Visit this link to see the TOP 10 most popular software that has been developed and used and stable.

http://freshmeat.net/browse/11/?hash=ff9292ed03d302d8656489b85045393a&offset=0

Manage Protopage TABS!

2006-12-03T09:05:00.000-08:00

Using Protopage v3 has been very confusing for some people. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if they got a little frustrated about it. Thankfully Protopage mentioned in their blogs highlighting the changes. Here is a few tips to help.

COLOR choices is VERY important when managing TABS in Protopage. Think of having 3 or 4 desks all with a different purpose and you need to run to a certain desk with out getting confused. In fact make sure you have set up your favorite colors first for all types of categories(private, restricted and public). It helps to have a "Restricted" and "Public" category made as well, just so you know your color scheme. You may one day use them, otherwise name them "Unused"
Here is my Protopage Example. You will see that I have unique colors for my NEWS to show I have repeated TAB names. NOTE: Make sure your widgets are still in the color of your category as the color reminds you why you using that TAB.
When you make a TAB copy, changes you do in ONE tab, will change them all :D
An example of what your MAIN DESKTOP should contain would be instant things that you need to know.
You can use "TODOs" for reminders on different months, just add the widget and rename it to "JUN REMINDERS", then add your dates and reminders.
Be creative with your widgets and TABS, bookmarks does not have to mean just links to your favorite pages. They could be links to common tools at your WORK!
Have categories for work and studying, and if you need to share your research with someone, just use your "restricted categories" to share them. When done with your research, copy the tab into one of the restricted areas and then set up the password.
Duplicate your widgets and tabs when moving a widget to share. This is so you feel safer rather than loosing a lot of widgets and tabs from sharing trouble. NOTE: Protopage has removed this feature on an off on some widgets. Carefully hover over the Widget Title and you should see icons.
Don't go over board in sharing widgets and tabs. Be careful who you share your tabs and widgets with. the idea of sharing too many desktops sounds horrific.
Use "Podcast RSS feeds" as there is a BUILT in player in protopage, you can listen whilst you still browsing your tabs in protopage. While you at it make a notes widget to make your notes on that podcast.
Make a restricted category to share with your family and friends so they can keep in touch with your day to day stuff. Like a preview of your blog, links to your photos on Flickr. Your friends can stay in touch with you by placing comments. (Worth while).

Protopage v3!!!

2006-11-27T23:50:00.000-08:00

Just forget my last post. Just start learning Protopage v3. Well done Protopage

Desktop Widget Patterns

2006-11-15T00:11:00.000-08:00

Many people may think it is crazy and scary to even share your desktop to other friends, family or colleagues. Protopage's ease of customization of desktops with text formatting of stickies and windows placement, it reveals a new hidden talent that other cannot provide. It is called "Desktop Widget Patterns"

Providing shared editable desktops with just a small amount of steps to setup a "Dinner Brain Storm Menu", I'm kind of explaining a Desktop Widget Pattern.

It is a series of Text formatting and rules just like wiki sites. Some basic rules in creating "Desktop Widget Patterns" are what kind of text formatting is required for each window and rules are required to keep everything in order. With the power of copy/paste and spell checking in web browsers such as Fire fox, the formatting of text is instantly duplicated very quickly. Also Protopage provides a Duplicate Window feature.

So Remember these rules when trying to make new "Desktop Widget Patterns"

Formatting of text in each window (What is that window used for?)
Arrangement of windows (Why should that window be there?)
Titles of those windows are very important. (What is the desktop's use?)
Provide Rules and a screen shot of your Desktop Pattern (Make sure there less chaos)
Size of the windows (Keep size of windows to size of common MONITOR or SCREEN resolutions size. Don't make page be scrollable for ages maybe. Let the Desktop Windows do the scrolling arrangements for you).

Shared Desktop Widget Pattern "Dinner BrainStorm"
Take a look at the screen shot at the top of this article, there are 3 windows, with a title, discussion, and menu area. All editable and shared with the whole family.

Required Protopage Widgets
Using Protopage, the following "STIKI NOTE WIDGETS" should be made based on the "Widget Creation Guide"

1) TITLE stickie note so others can tell what is for.
2) DISCUSSION stiki note to discuss things.
3) MENU stickie note to hold the agreed menu.
4) CODE OF CONDUCT sticki note (Optional) To everything in order and everyone plays right with the pattern.

Widget Creation Guide
1) TITLE stickie note
This should be formatted big and bold and always shown. Don't hide it !! It will show what the desktop is for. Example of a Title Text formatting.
Weekly BURDEN Menus

2) DISCUSSION stiki note
With this window, you will be able to provide talk notes from different members of the family.
You can color code who is who whilst chatting for example Bold BLUE text could me Paul

Format should be Careful on how to keep everyone clear about everything. A CODE OF CONDUCT should document how to chat. Notice time and date format is kept the same.
15/12/2006 : 2:01pm [deleteme]
Old message here that could be deleted by ANYONE!!
15/12/2006 : 2:01pm [readit]
Should we have a "CODE of CONDUCT"? or is the windows self explantary? Could more windows be create to show more detail of things?
15/12/2006 : 3:01pm [await response]
Sounds like a plan, I will let you know. Think I may delete that 15/12/2006 : 2:01pm [deleteme]

3) MENU stickie note
This is where everyone provide suggestions or make personal notes. Format of text should be
MON
Fried Chicken or Fish
with Mashed potatoes and Mixed Vegetables
TUES
Some other new meal
provide a description of stuff here

4) CODE OF CONDUCT sticki note
If things get messy you can provide RULES on how to use the Desktop Widget Patterns, should anyone forget text formatting rules etc. This should hide and other members who can see the Desktop and can optionally read it. And they should read it TOO!!!!

Final Thoughts
This is all meant to be all in good fun, to making new "Desktop Widget Patterns" fun and more interactive. Since everyone is sharing everything these days such as, videos, calendars, to dos, why not share "Desktop Widget Patterns" for Web Desktops. Customizing content is so easy with these Web Desktops. Code of Conduct should be very strong and backups is matter of a print screen! Does Desktop Widget Pattern sound good or Desktop Window Patterns?

Personally I think this idea could go wrong or get better depending on the amount of people you trust and share. Am I going crazy of a silly stupid idea? lol Well I know for one thing, it will save time coding when producing this kinda of stuff. No HTML, no programming language learning, just text formatting and sticking to 'codes of conduct' just like wiki pages really (Where code of conduct is exercised on text formatting heavily).

You know what is crazy, Firefox v2 has a 'built in spell checker'!!! You wonder why hmm (sarcastically)

Could this be the end of Web programming as we know it??? Na of course not the Internet is always evolving, creating new ways to make site building ever so more easier.

I'd also like to stress to never share your Protopage accounts with members you do not trust! could be hazardous to your desktop areas. Maybe make a new account that you are willing to share and trust with certain amounts of people. I'm sure Protopage will go through the accounts and delete the inactive users :p

This is my first Digg story and I am afraid of people's opinions. I Must remember constructive criticism is always good. There are always drafts in making blogs.

Digg Me!!

Granddaughter broke my Linux box

2006-11-08T06:11:00.000-08:00

Me and my wife was looking after our 9 month old granddaughter. We let the baby actually move the mouse and play with the keyboard.

My SUSE 10.1 Linux box was fully booted and uses KDE's GUI Manager. we let our granddaughter play with Linux box. TAP TAP TAP, nudge the mouse a little, CLICK CLICK CLICK, maybe some more tapping at the the keyboard. Then hell broke loose on KDE

Somehow she managed to permanently move the task bar to the left side and rendered the KDE's menu button to not work. I Tried to change KDE's Task bar settings to place the task bar back to it's original location, that failed :(

After a little think on how to fix the KDE without trying to destroy my profile, I decided to let KDE make me a new set of settings by renaming the .kde/ .kderc/ folders and let KDE fix it self. After a restart KDE is now fixed :D

I felt sheepish knowing that a baby managed to corrupt KDE with VERY little effort.

Google Homepage with TABS!

2006-09-28T21:16:00.000-07:00

On 09-25-2006 at Search Watch someone reported that Google has added tabs. So I logged into my google personal homeage and to my surprise....They are there. They didn't make an update on their blogs either!

Should we be careful?

2006-08-25T14:55:00.000-07:00

After looking at this Zimbio.com read someone at digg referred a comment say

"Similar to Zombo.com" which is amusing if you get it. Sites that give you total control. Then the company data mines continously in alsorts of ways.

Isn't bad socialising. Just becareful what you share. Heres a little list to help think about.

Don't coment that you could regret later.
Share benefical info that could help others.
Don't publish bank details or telephone numbers.
Don't publish things you working on ntil you finished or almost finished

Hehe, I still laugh at zombo.com on and off lol.

Zimbio (Internet Guides)

2006-08-24T00:35:00.000-07:00

Internet guides to various topics (Internet portal). Very insanely simple and free to change any group (Which will probably turn into an argument database like Wikipedia).

Zimbio.com

I've installed various content management systems and this is a first for me to see a Content management system ALMOST free of privledges. How does a site like Zimbio.com prevent abuse? A GURU! They have the power to DELETE and need to visit their topics regularly to maintain quality. To become a GURU member you have to try one of the three methods they mention in their guide.

Guru Guide

Go check it out. Or if you like enjoy http://zombo.com/ :p

Note Taking: Reloaded

2006-08-02T17:09:00.000-07:00

After pondering about how I should be managing my notes, even started to make a website for my purposes but then I bumped into these links.

TiddlyWiki
Wiki on a Stick

They both allow you to edit your own wiki page without installing any software! A wiki allows you to edit a webpage on the fly with little coding involved. They also can fit on a USB stick too! The developer of "Wiki on a Stick" has collaborated with the developer of "TiddlyWiki" to get his project going with saving routines. They are both amazing pieces of coding anyways.

With the power to create as many pages as you like, it's 'note taking with a kick'.

The Differences

TiddlyWiki : Is designed to be just one file HTML and has been in alot of development and has a search tool with some nice animation. Even though there is tones of features in this it can be complicated at first and it doesn't provide WikiCode help(however their online page provides alot of help worth a read).

Installation is to right click the "empty" and "Save As". I'd save it into a folder as it does generate more HTML pages as you use it.

Incremental backup is done automatically when you 'save changes', you can setup a folder name for all your backups to unclutter from your main HTML page.

There are many ways to navigate around your notes:You can search, view your popular tags, see your history.

Wiki on a Stick: Is designed to be just one file HTML and still in early development. There is even a few nice button images if you save the HTML page with your web browser. It's far more easier to get used to, has a control panel for handling orphan pages. Also provides WikiCode help when you edit any page. No search or datestamps. I'd like to here the performance of this project.

Installation is best done by viewing the page and then using your browser "File->Save Page As", this will provide a folder for the button images too :D

Backup is done everytime you save what you have been editing.

Simpilar design, no search or tagging features. no history. It's good if you know what you looking for and is easier to get to grips with.

Word of Warning
they are both still in heavy development but are functional enough to get down to business with these things. So backup regulary of these files should they become corrupted.

Both projects recommend using Firefox apparently it's functional in Opera and Safari I beleve. I wouldn't recommend IE as I'm no lover of Microsoft's work, here is a few reasons why. Anyways enjoy Note taking to the extreme and backup those files up regularly.

Woohoo SUSEWiki.org

2006-07-27T12:57:00.000-07:00

After writing a couple of articles at SUSEWiki I didn't expect to get featured.

Well there it is :D

Couldn't help but call my wife at work and tell her the interesting news. Then called my parents in the UK.

Made me right jolly of myself. Thanks SuSEWiki and Novell :D

SUSE Support

2006-07-26T14:03:00.000-07:00

Over the years of using SuSe and not contributing, it finally got to me and I just had to start somewhere :P

I decided to become a member in a couple of areas

LinuxQuestions.org
SuSe Wiki

They have both helped me in the past and since Linux and open source has helped me soo much, I want to try and contribute more articles to these places. Here is my first batch of contributions.

On LinuxQuestions.org
Install on Old Machines (Survival Guide)

On SuSeWiki.org
Wrestling Zen to Work
Setting up VerySecure FTP

My Resume(CV) site redesigned yet again

2006-07-07T18:02:00.000-07:00

You will see in my porfolio that I have made many redesigns of my Resume(CV) site. My ingredients

Element Handling : http://prototype.conio.net/
Animation: http://script.aculo.us/
Ajax : http://www.dynamicdrive.com

Visit the site at
http://www.paulburden.co.uk

Amend my last choice of Web Desktop

2006-06-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

Prototype hasn't been updated in a while and I'm kinda all cluttered up with windows now. I decided to like netvibes for the following reasons:

It's more pleasant to look at
Tabs organise well more than windows
More effiecient module designs

Reasons why I stopped using Prototype:

Fiddlely
Clutter encouraging

Soo much to choose from

2006-06-14T06:46:00.000-07:00

Back when it was just Yahoo as the best search engine around, it was kinda obvious about which email service would dominate, now there is loads out there to choose from.

Sometimes we choose a service based from friends and family using it, we choose that and then something else comes out better.

When it comes to knowing different languages that can do the same thing. U'd choose performance but computers are getting soo fast, that won't be a major problem. It sure does help to know how to improve your programs. But it don't help when there is so many languages out there. ASP, PHP, Ruby, perl.

My mind has been in a little frustration about it all and my thoughts on this "choice" issue is what makes us unique. What YOU like, which do you enjoy most? :D

Web Destop Fever Relaxed

2006-04-14T14:15:00.000-07:00

After spending alot of time trying to figure out how these new technologies can manage, I am happy with my setup :D

I use protopage and netvibes :D See I still like some features from another "Web Desktop", Netvibes's tabs are great and browsing the news is great along with your fav photos.

So if I was working somewhere else in the world and don't have my computer setup for browsing my online apps and news, I just log in :D

I use webnotes to setup "Desktop Titles" so I know which area I in (Hope that naming feature comes out soon.)

I also decided to make a "web bookmarks" called "My Online Apps", where I just click on what feature I want such as, "email goes to my gmail", "photos goes to my flickr.com" etc etc.

I have desktop2 with only one "webpage" which shows my netvibes.com
Desktop3 and 4 are my public areas if I want to amuse the public.
Desktop 5 is my research area. Where theres lots of notes (But that's private to me in away?)

Well I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts on managing the web.

You noticed I have collasped a few windows as the mouse over is great for just seeing quick information.

Visit my flickr.com to see my arrangement :P Visit my flickr.com to see my findings, which is in my public area :P

Start to feel like borg?

2006-04-14T02:39:00.000-07:00

With all these ways to share, photos, thoughts, videos, files, documents etc.

Tags are the craze to see what's hot online, heres one that was made on ruby on rails.

http://www.tagviewer.com/

Tags the way to see interest?

2006-04-14T01:34:00.000-07:00

absolutely amazing way to find popular interest and findings. Tried using Ice Rocket and I was amazed.

Websites such as "flickr.com", "blogmarks", "box.net" and other blog sites use tags to help see what is popular!. The way you see them words bigger the more popular it is really. Simple.

Marketing will probably use it for one, handy to see other ppls thoughts based on your thoughts!

Once again the internet has amazed me. Be careful what you want to show online:D Make sure it's legal somehow and be nice :D Enjoy the other ppls experiences and chat wisely :D The internet can show alot from a username.

Technology Addiction

2006-04-14T00:48:00.000-07:00

I believe since sites came out with web2.0 technologise(Ajax for one), i believe it could make alot of ppl addicted to the internet. Mind you other technologies such as TV,Video, Video games can all be addictive. I for one got a little addicted to "Web Desktops" as you can see in my blogspots, flickr, and blogmarks, use tags "web webdesktop, learn"

Don't get yourself in a loop of being addicted to technology, take the odd break from it, keep your skills up to scratch. Well here is a few more pointers

Possible Reasons
Everyone wants to experience life as fully as they can, the internet is kinda cheating as you don't actually do them but enjoy seeing the experiences.

Advice
I believe it is wise to take timeout from using computers,games,internet,movies. Enjoy the great out doors when ever you can. See your friends and marvel life as full as you can.

Also another note, if you want success are a great life, you need to specialse in set of skills, so it's wise to keep them upto scratch (Guess I make that expcetion).

For me reading books (with ACTUAL paper) helps and enjoying the regular walk around the block to see what's happening for regular exercise.

"Web Desktop" Designing?

2006-04-13T23:40:00.000-07:00

Take a look at my webspace online. I didn't have to code anything!!!!! (kinda scares me but wow)

With "Protopage" it gives you the ability to design anything with minimal coding!!!!

Check my space online by clicking here!

Took me a while to lay it all out. Rather buggy at times but seems to stay almost all stable. What no web developers? Course we will need them to add more functionalities!!!

Protopage(version2) Bugs found!
Not sure if you're away but when setting up many webpages, and have a "public page", I had a webpage on [Page1] and it showed up in my public area after I logged out. wierd huh? So I deleted some of my private area :(

Web Management Tips

2006-04-13T21:42:00.000-07:00

Basically these "web desktops" help manage yourself online rather, "Hmmm what shall I search for?". "Which page shall I go to?" "Is someone online?, which website shall I go to?

Well thanks to web desktops, you can go straight to your spaces on the internet without having to load them up all the time! Thanks to these "Web desktops"

They sure do take a while. I hope they don't reset everything :P That's all we want lol

Just think, you won't have to search or type in loads of web addresses to get your website controls and admin areas.

Protopage!
Pages to manage your types of Desktops (Admin areas, News area, Fun area,etc)Use the panels. They are located in the bottom left :D They cant be rename :P If you end up having many pages blank, Protopage said, "they be automatically delete if not used".

Use "Webpage" module as muchas you like to help customize your views!

Pages

Page 1 should be general such as, "Calendar,gmail,popmail,Your most watch news, Weather"
Page 3 should be made your public area for everyone to see your set. Also it's handy for your why? Cuz it's FREE related? :P FREE or page 3 could pics about you. You can basically make a website with all this without having to anything!!!!!!!!!! No coding? Huh? Well it depends on what modules are available for these "web desktops" hehe.
Your pages shuold be categoried on your behaviour such as, "Researching web desktops" ? (Give a guess someone tried loading all the "web desktops" into all one page. Hmmm)
Since some "Web desktops" don't supply tabs, use "www.netvibes.com" as one of your pages So you benefit from all the features of other "Web Desktops".
Have "Web Desktop" to only your SOFTWARE page and use "webpage" module to go to all your faviourate software. You won't ever have to upgrade ever again! Writely.com will be one of mine alright :P Or maybe that other online word processor.
Have a page for just Games!!!!

Docking

If you page represented "admin" sites then use "edit->"send to doc to stop all the clutter :D
Use them one at a time or collapse them with the two little arrows.
Don't forget to name your webpages so you can identify them

Notes

Use widgets and name them carefully :D Thenk why'd you'd need it there such as, 'It's for my researching' cuz I'm researching newspapers from around the world about a particular topic.' thew. Didn't put a comma in that long sentance. Basically you have all the tools are the READY!!

NetVibes
NetVibes I believe have done well in choosing inital first modules available to quickly add on to your "Web Desktop"

BookMarks

You can use blogmarks to store your boomarks.

Your Fun Misc Stuff like Photos, movies

Use box.net on netvibes.com

Firefox
If you have "All in gestures" module installed or have some kind of gesture use them on your links alright. Helps having to worry about changing the webpage addresses in "Protopage"

Final Thoughts and Security
Now that you have customized your page behaviours, "Research,News,Admin Areas", you'd think what about secruity

Don't share too much of pages as it would reveal what you are doing on the internet. Absolute amazing for policing! Ok let's dump our browsers.

Brillant to see what your childern are up to. I believe setting up one place with only certain webpages opened.

Don't forget these "Web Desktops" are still in beta, "alpha?"
Post you coments on some more tips if you like or comment away :D