Enabling SLI Technology in Ubuntu 9.04

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OR

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 :)

Further Reading
Enabling the Marvell Sata on an Asus M2V
Full credit to this person's blog!!!! As older posts via forums, wikis etc got miss leading.


Ubuntu : Remote Control Experience

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.