Bucknasty

Cinnamon - My Ferret is dying and other depressing stuff!

2012-01-19T20:21:00.001-05:00

So it looks like 2012 is not going to be so great either. My second and last ferret Cinnamon (AKA: Mimi) is dying of cancer. She's been in a bad way for months now, but is acting particularly strange for the past few days. It's been a total bust for me for 2010, 2011, and now it looks like 2012 is going to be no better. Seriously, the streak of bad events just doesn't seem to ever end. Maybe I'll be lucky and the 2012 doomsday prediction will come true. I'm getting really tired of all the crap coming at me, now the IRS wants me to pay them $3800.00 because of some obscure tax error.

Well, I'll be going to see a tax specialist tomorrow and hopefully they can help. God, can I please get a break and some good, no wait, great news and events in my life soon?

I'm asking for prayers from anyone who cares to. I'll be praying a lot in the future...

In Memory of Charles Seymour Jackson - My Wonderful Father

2012-01-01T22:33:00.001-05:00

My father died at 7:04 PM on 12-22-2011 after battling lung cancer for the past 2 years. The cancer spread to his brain after lung surgery, and he fought the battle well but things went down hill fast all December. My mother, baby sister, my wife, and myself were with him and held his hands as he took his final breath. This has been and is a very upsetting/depressing time for our family, Christmas will never again be the joyful time of year for us. We love and miss you dad, I'll think of you every day for the rest of my life.

Full Obituary Memorial Website Guest Book

Some things to do after a fresh Ubuntu install

2011-11-28T22:48:00.001-05:00

Open up a terminal screen and paste in the following text, then hit enter:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras non-free-codecs p7zip-rar acroread gimp inkscape blender vlc libdvdcss2 libdvdread4 faac faad audacious rubyripper cd-discid aacplusenc gtkpod lame cdrdao aacgain flac mp3gain normalize-audio vorbisgain arista soundconverter gnome-sushi winff devede openshot audacity cheese synaptic gconf-editor

Party Rock / Halo

2011-11-15T10:19:00.003-05:00

Gotta love this commercial...

HP G6 (i5) - Ubuntu 11.10 install

2011-11-13T13:52:00.001-05:00

So my wife bought a new laptop as above and wanted Ubuntu installed. Wow what a task on this computer. All 4 primary partitions were alread used (windows, windows recovery file, HP bios tools, HP full image of the drive recovery tools). So first you have to eliminate one. I deleted the windows recovery partition with gParted. Then I merged or grew the windows boot partition into the newly unalocated partition.

Next, I found that the LiveCD would boot to a blank screen, so I had to edit the the kernel boot line to include the "nomodeset" command and the install went fine (wrong resolution though).

After the install I found that no matter what, the LCD was black after boot. After days of googleing I found the solution below.

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

And change the option row GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" as follow:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor splash"

Then update Grub installation with the command:

sudo update-grub

and restart the notebook.

Probem solved, but with a minor quirk or two... If you close the loptop lid, the screen will be black again when you open it. All you have to do is use the keyboard function that raises the brightness and it's back to normal. It seems that closing the lid turns the screen brightness to completely off.

Next, becareful not to hit the button that turns off the wireless. It turns off the radio and it won't come back on unless you reboot.

That's it, everything else works fine. If you use this information to help you with YOUR install and it works that's great. Remember this is not intended to be a guide but it's actually notes for me to use if I need to do a reinstall.

How to add the Medibuntu Repository to Ubuntu 11.04+

2011-11-10T13:50:00.001-05:00

Open a terminal and paste the following and hit enter. You will be prompted for your password, enter the password and hit enter. DONE!

Using this method will add hooks to the USC (Ubuntu Software Center) so that the packages from the medibuntu repository will show up in the software center app.

sudo -E wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list && sudo apt-get -y --force-yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get install app-install-data-medibuntu apport-hooks-medibuntu && sudo sed -i "/^# deb .*partner/ s/^# //" /etc/apt/sources.list && sudo apt-get --quiet update

Ubuntu Oneiric - 11.10

2011-10-16T21:57:00.001-04:00

Well, I upgraded to the latest version of Ubuntu and I must say it's a mixed bag of beans. I find the Unity interface and Gnome3 on the buggy side. The wife hates it and me for putting it most of our computers. I'm hoping things will improve over the next month or so, otherwise I'll have to switch to a different flavor of Ubuntu. The wife is talking windows again...

Nook EasyTouch

2011-08-02T21:04:00.001-04:00

Father's day has come and gone, but I'm still loving my Nook EasyTouch that the wife got me. I've never really been much of a book reader but that's all in the past. I'm a reading fool now. It's not that I've never read a book or anything, it's just that I've always only read things like technical manuals and text books. Novels however are something I haven't read. Since the Nook has arrived, I've read several...

Thanks Baby...

New Car for Ericka!

2011-07-06T20:14:00.001-04:00

My Daughter Ericka graduated from H.S. last month, and this past Thursday I bought her a new 2011 Nissan for a graduation present. She has been on cloud 9 ever since. My credit got her the car, but she is making the payments. There are no silver spoons in this house. I Love You baby girl... Do well in college and keep making me proud.

Today my best friend died. I love you Roxie!

2011-04-18T19:48:00.001-04:00

Today my best friend Roxie was put to sleep due to complications from pancreatic cancer. Roxie was a male Ferret with a female name. When we got Roxie from a local pet store over 7 years ago, he came with papers that indicated he was a she.

Roxie has had a rough life during the past 1 1/2 years. I've had to hand feed him every 4-6 hours and keep him on medication to elevate his blood sugar. Through it all Roxie has been a loving and loyal friend to me. Unlike many ferrets, Roxie was very smart and litter box trained. Most ferrets can't be totally trained to use a litter box reliably but I could count on my baby Roxie. Roxie loved me as much as I loved him. He loved me to hold him and pet him for hours. If you know anything about ferrets, you know that they don't want to be held, they want to explore and hide. Roxie loved those things too, but he truly loved for ME to hold and pet him as I spoke to him. He enjoyed the contact we had during hand feedings and grooming time. Roxie loved to take warm showers with me and then run and play, rolling and scooting on the carpet to dry off. My life has been greatly enriched because Roxie shared his life with me. I'm very sad he is gone but I know he's not suffering from the ravages of cancer anymore. Roxie became very weak 3 days ago and I just couldn't bring him out of it. Today when I heard him crying and whimpering as I attempted to give him water through a syringe, I decided to let go and give my beloved best friend a much deserved rest.

I Love You Roxie, I hope there is an afterlife for animals and you are now running and playing in the dirt you craved so often. Think of me and please know how much I cared for you. Goodbye my baby, go have some fun.

Job Search

2011-02-02T18:03:00.001-05:00

This month marks 1 year since I lost my job. Hundreds of applications and Resumes later, I'm finally getting a couple of interviews. Anyone who thinks Charlotte, NC is an easy place to get decent employment is mistaken (unless or course you are willing to take a job for slightly more than minimum wage, I'm not quite that desperate just yet).

This information is superfluous to most of you, but I wanted to make a blog entry of some type since I haven't posted in a very long time.

Update: 2/25/2011

Life gets worse...

I was applying for a job as a police dispatcher and all indications from the chief were great. He called me and gave me a brief phone screening to be sure that I was okay with the third shift (I was), the pay (I was), and the days of the week I would be working (I said great!). He then said "Very Good, you will be hearing from very soon".

Today I got a rejection letter telling me they were moving forward with other candidates. This shit sucks ass. I'm running out of places to apply and I don't understand why I can't find something.

Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) released!

2010-10-10T10:22:00.001-04:00

Ubuntu 10.10 was released today. I've been using it since it's pre-alpha days and I like it okay. It had some rough spots during development but it's a nice release in the end. I'm not sure I'll move all my system to Maverick though. I really like 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) and I'm not keen on dumping it just yet.

Dad to be released from Hospital on Oct. 1

2010-09-24T20:59:00.001-04:00

I had a good day today.
Mom called and told me that my did is scheduled for release from the
hospital on Oct. 1st. His heart and lungs are doing much better - Thank
You God :)

UPDATE: - October 4, 2010

Dad was released from the hospital at 1500 hours on October 1, 2010. He is happily at home and resting well. He and Mom report that he is getting stronger physically and mentally and progressing well. He starts physical therapy today (Mon, OCT. 4) and it looking forward to having his life back. I found it strange that he was released from the hospital on the same day, and EXACT same time that I was released from the hospital.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for blessing my family and working all the daily miracles that you do. I ask that you continue to watch over my earthly Father and Mother and continue to bless them health and wellbeing. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Please Pray for my Dad...

2010-09-07T14:46:00.001-04:00

I realize that probably no one will read this post, but I have to unload these thoughts. My 73 year old father went into the hospital about a month ago for a lung surgery. He was in reasonably good health and of sound mind when he went in. The hospital stay was supposed to be 1 week. Here it is a month later and he is still there with a multitude of problems.

His good lung keeps collapsing (pneumonia is suspected)
His heart rate is 150-200 beats per minute (medication to reduce isn't working)
His left foot has severe edema (blood clot is suspected)
He is confused to the point that he appears to have lost his mind. No one really knows why.

I ask that anyone reading this blog post pray for my Dad (Charles). Please add him to your prayer list at your church. My father is a great/kind man. He has worked his entire life to take care of his family and did so very well. My father only had a 8th grade education. He quit school to help provide for him family. He served honorably in the military (Army), and has always worked hard for us. He was a truck driver for 40 years and married to my mother for 50 years this month. He adopted his great-grandson (Jake, my sister's grandchild) and only wants to spend a few quality years with little Jake before his life is over.

I beg you to pray to whoever your deity is and ask that my dad be healed and returned home in reasonable health and sound mind. Thank you all..

Charles

New Maverick ISO testing.

2010-08-28T18:52:00.001-04:00

Well, today I installed the Alpha 3+ (daily build) of Ubuntu Maverick. It fixed quite a few minor issues and reviled a few others that are only noticeable during at all when doing a fresh install. The main issue for me was the crappy partitioner dialogue. I found that the option to install to the largest unallocated free space option was gone. When I install a new version of Ubuntu, I generally use gParted from a LiveCD/USB and blow away the old install and swap partition. Then I select to install to the unallocated space. With the new Alpah3 however, I had to make and format my partitions with gParted, and this use the manual install option to put things where I wanted them. It all worked out okay but it's not the idea solution.

Next, I noticed that the nice little install slide show was not working as normal. That sucked but it's not a show stopper. It will turn-off new comers however if the issue isn't fixed before the final release.

Gateway Netbook vs. Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04

2010-07-28T06:22:00.001-04:00

Today I got a new Gateway Netbook for my wife Joy. The thing was on sale for $50 off, then I got another 20% discount since she is a store employee. I inspected the packaging (it had been returned) and found it was missing warranty registration and was able to get another 5% discount. Grand total (drum roll...) $140ish.

The first order of business was to do away with that nasty piece of software called windows xp and installed Ubuntu Netbook Edition. A quick download and placement on a USB stick and it was Live boot testing time. After a quick test to confirm all hardware was supported I went straight to an install.

I did a little tweaking (adding flash, java, and video codecs) and then added some of my wifes basic software favorites and I'm off to the races. After testing for a few hours I gave it the A+ rating and handed it off to her.

Joy has never used the Netbook Edition desktop interface so a brief tour was needed to explain the subtle nuances and she is now ready to battle the playing field.

All in all, I'd say it was a good day (computer-wise) in the house and I look forward to playing with the new toy whenever she will hand it off to me.

Goodnight All...

Leftfield - My Favorite Commercial

2010-07-25T22:09:00.001-04:00

2010 Kia Soul Hamsters

OpenTyrian Rules

2010-07-14T19:23:00.001-04:00

Do you remember the old DOS game Tyrian? It's a spaceship shoot 'em up game. Man I used to love playing that game. I still have the original floppy disks and had the game setup using dosbox under Ubuntu. It worked but wasn't as good as running under native DOS.

Well, the game was recently opensourced and you can get it from www.playdeb.net for native Ubuntu Linux.

Well after the install all I can say is AWESOME! The opentyrian version is EXACTLY the same game and it includes all game episodes. This is great, I'm off to play another round.

New Chainsaw - Oops... Tree vs. Fence problem.

2010-07-09T21:46:00.001-04:00

Okay, Joy (my wife) has been fussing at me lately because I'm not getting things done around the house (yard work & home repairs) since I've been unemployed. So I go to Lowe's today and buy an inexpensive 16" chain saw and start chopping down trees in the backyard (they keep dropping leaves into the pool) as requested. All WAS going well until I started chopping on this one tree next to our fence line (keep in mind I've never used a chainsaw or cut down a tree in my entire life).

Well, I read up on tree cutting and understood how to make the needed cuts and where. The only problem is that this one particular tree didn't read the same instructions I did on where it was to fall. Stupid Ass Tree!!! It started falling backwards in the wrong direction (over my fence towards the neighbors property).

Well I stopped my cutting and strapped the tree to an adjacent bigger tree. It's holding so far... If it makes it through out the night I'll call in a professional tomorrow to see if he/she/we can finish the job without damaging the fence or any property. Hopefully if it does come down tonight it will only do some minor fence damage that I could perhaps fix tomorrow.

I'll follow-up this post tomorrow and let you know how it turned out.

-Good Night Irene

Okay, so I got the tree down today. First I had to take down a section of my neighbour's privacy fence. Then I had to take down my chain-link fence. Finally I made the final cuts on the tree and brought it down. I've been bucking the tree for hours in the 100° heat and had to go inside. I have never sweat so much in my life.

The neighbour's fence has been re-assembled but my chain-link is still down. I'll have to get a fence stretcher to put it back in order. I'm in no hurry for that, it can wait a while.

Well that's it. Tree is down and no damage. Nothing else to say for now.

HOWTO: Fix GPG errors for bad/deleted keys

2010-05-23T21:41:00.001-04:00

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=7667086&postcount=1

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys

Ubuntu 10.04 - The Lucid Lynx has escaped!

2010-04-30T23:24:00.001-04:00

Ubuntu 10.04 was released yesterday. I've been Alpha / Beta testing it from the beginning. It's been a fun ride and now it's rolling off the production line. I really like the new theme and other features. So far every thing works great with the exception of the Simple Backup Suite. That application does nothing for me on Lucid. I have discovered another great backup utility called deja-dup however. It's late and I don't really have time to do justice to this entry, so I'll continue this tomorrow. Good night.

Help my family please.

2010-02-13T10:24:00.005-05:00

I lost my job on the 9th and I'm frantically seeking employment. If anyone would care to help my family, please click on the paypal link DONATE button if you can. I will remove this post when I become employed again.

Thank you for caring,

Charles & Joy Jackson

Blogged with the Flock Browser

nVidia Video Card PPA

2010-02-07T19:53:00.001-05:00

http://ppa.launchpad.net/nvidia-vdpau/ppa/ubuntu

Posting this here because I'm tired of always having to search for it when doing a new install.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Installing Firefox 3.6 and Java 6.18

2010-02-06T12:02:00.002-05:00

I was debating on weather or not to write this guide but since I have to keep recalling the steps for my own use, I'll post it here. This will be short and with little explanation since it's for my own use mainly.

For Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic), open a terminal and paste the following:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install firefox-3.6 <or close the terminal, and run the update manager>

For ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) Users

First you need to edit /etc/apt/sources.list

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

add the following lines

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mozillateam/firefox-stable/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/mozillateam/firefox-stable/ubuntu jaunty main

Save and exit

Update the source list

sudo apt-get update

Install firefox 3.6 stable

sudo apt-get install firefox-3.6

For ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) Users

First you need to edit /etc/apt/sources.list

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

add the following lines

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mozillateam/firefox-stable/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/mozillateam/firefox-stable/ubuntu intrepid main

Save and exit

Update the source list

sudo apt-get update

Install firefox 3.6 stable

sudo apt-get install firefox-3.6

For ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy) Users

First you need to edit /etc/apt/sources.list

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

add the following lines

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mozillateam/firefox-stable/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/mozillateam/firefox-stable/ubuntu hardy main

Save and exit

Update the source list

sudo apt-get update

Install firefox 3.6 stable

sudo apt-get install firefox-3.6

Updating Java and making it work

Add the JAVA PPA

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/voronov84/andreyv/ubuntu karmic main

Go to the PPA homepage and grab the key if you need it;

https://launchpad.net/~voronov84/+archive/andreyv

Okay, now you can run your update manager and let it upgrade your JAVA install... It won't function properly due to an install bug but we'll fix than on short order.

Making Java work properly with Firefox 3.6

Now you need to navigate to the ~/.mozilla directory and make a folder called plugins (~/.mozilla/plugins/). Now using the terminal, run the command gksu nautilus to open a root file browser session. From there navigate to the following location:

/usr/lib/jvm/

Find the folder named java-6-sun/ and rename it to java-6-sun.bak/ (/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun.bak)

Now, in the same /usr/lib/jvm/ folder, find a sub folder named java-6-sun618/ or something similar, and rename it to java-6-sun/ (/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/).

Now from a terminal screen run the following command:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so ~/.mozilla/plugins/

That should do it...

Roxie Is Awesome

2010-01-28T20:48:00.001-05:00

Roxie has improved so much since my last post it can only be described as awesome. She can play for hours on end without running out of steam. I see no signs of hind-leg weakness. Roxie has gained ALL of her weight back and eats like a little pig. I would have to say that from all outward appearances, Roxie has made a full recovery and is enjoying life more now than in the past 2 years combined. The only difference I have noticed in behavior is her STRONG desire to be held and hand fed occasionally. Roxie wants lots of human contact and does not resist being a lap pet (unlike all other ferrets I've handled). I love Roxie like no other pet I've ever had and every penny I've spent (thousands) towards her recovery was absolutely worth it.

More Roxie News

2010-01-16T18:35:00.002-05:00

It's been 1 month and 1 day since I brought Roxie home from the hospital. She's now eating on her own again and drinking from the water bottle. What does this mean for me and my wife? Well we don't have worry about being home and awake ever 4 hours around the clock. Roxie had to be fed 16cc's of critical care food every 4 hours. A lot of sleep was lost, and nearly late for work a few times. I still feed her the critical care food before I go to work and as soon as I come home. She eats her dry kibble when I'm not around so I don't have to worry so much.

Roxie has been out playing for the past hour and is much stronger. She still tires or gets bored more quickly than in the past, but she's fattened up and I'm not so worried about losing her. I think Roxie is definitely out of the woods now, but she will get special attention from me for the rest of her life.

Roxie is doing well...

2010-01-01T22:48:00.001-05:00

After lots of hard work and around the clock care, Roxie is doing well. She is still being syringe fed. She's spoiled now and looks forward to the hand feeding and attention. I keep her stuffed with high quality paste food (Carnivore Care) and Gerber Chicken w/Gravy. She's gaining weight and much more alert. She's no pup anymore but does enjoy getting out and playing every day. Today she took her last dose of antibiotic and shows no signs of an ulcer anymore. I hope she continues to improve and is around for several more New Year's days. I love you Roxie.

Roxie is home, not doing so well.

2009-12-15T13:08:00.001-05:00

Last night I brought Roxie home from the hospital. Her blood sugar was lower than when she got there. The prognosis isn't good and I'm not handling it well at all. The doctor sent me home with some special food to push every 4 hours with a syringe. I put her on my couch and started to prepare her food and she went into seizures. It was very scary. She barked and made noises I've never heard her make before. I syringe fed her some pancake syrup and the seizure stopped, but she went limp and looked dead save for her breathing. It was awful, I cried like a baby. Joy wanted to take her to the vet and have her put down but I couldn't do it. I pushed more syrup into here and in 10 minutes she was wide awake and running around like a brand new baby.

Now, I'm feeding her syrup along with her diet every 4 hours to prevent the seizures and it seems to work. It's not a good long term plan but at least it makes her happier. I have a sinking feeling in my gut that this won't work long term and I don't know what to do. I'm kind of in a state of panic myself, I really love my Roxie and I can't face losing her right now. I only pray that the prednisolone will start to inhibit her insulin production so that she will have a more stable blood sugar and a better life in her remaining days. I'm so freaking sad about this that mere words can't even begin to describe my feeling of loss. I love you Roxie...

Roxie is in the hospital.

2009-12-13T22:54:00.001-05:00

Roxie is my number one Ferret. She's really a HE as I recently found out. Roxie has been very ill for the past month or so and It's tearing my heart out. She was diagnosed with insulinoma (cancerous tumor on the pancreas) and a tumor on his adrenal gland. I took Roxie to the best veterinarian around and she removed the tumors from the pancreas, and removed 1 adrenal gland. Then an implant (capsule with medication) was inserted between his shoulder blades to prevent any future tumors.

Everything was fine for a few days and Roxie seemed to be getting way better, then a couple of days ago she started sleeping all the time and didn't care to get out of her cage for play time anymore. I sensed her blood sugar was low so I gave her some pancake syrup and after a few minutes he started acting normal. 20 minutes later however, he was weak and sleepy again. Off to the vet I went. The vet tested his sugar and reported it was 40. Even worse than before the surgery. He had to stay and receive an I.V. with glucose and meds to coat his stomach.

The doctor said that he seems to have a stomach ulcer and perhaps he's not eating due to pain. The lack of food intake could be the cause for the low sugar. I hope this is the case. it's also possible that the insulinoma is back but not likely according to the doctor. I only hope and prey that Roxie is better tomorrow and the doctor tells me exactly how to care for him at home so that another trip to the hospital won't be needed. Please pray for my Roxie... I love you Roxie...

Karmic Installed on 4 Machines

2009-11-01T16:49:00.001-05:00

Well, I've installed Karmic on four of my machines and it's running well. I don't like the way the new Grub2 looks by default and I'll be looking into customizing it's appearance. If anyone has any tips (like how to remove the memtest86+ entries) please let me know.

I also just installed Flock browser 2.5.2 by hand. I'm hoping the getdeb.net will soon start building packages for Karmic. This blog post is being composed in Flock on Karmic.

Karmic Testing

2009-10-04T13:51:00.001-04:00

It's been a long time since I posted here. I'm testing Ubuntu 9.10 and so far I like it. It's performance isn't that great on my old lappy with an ATI 9600. Well 2D isn't that great but 3D is. I'll get back soon with more information when I have time. So far it looks like it's going to be a great release.

UPDATE:

By following my own guide for Jaunty. I was able to put back most of the missing video performance. You will find the instructions here. I guess Karmic is here to stay.

Set up an FTP Server on Ubuntu

2009-06-10T17:40:00.001-04:00

Installation

1. sudo apt-get install proftpd gproftpd. This will install all the necessary config files for proftp along with the GUI (gui being gproftpd)

2. Once install check to see if the server is running by using pgrep proftpd. If you do not see a PID than start it by typing /etc/init.d/proftpd start or status to see if again, the process is running.

Configuring Server

1. Once installed proftp will be under a new category of programs called system tools. Go to system tool -> GA-ADMIN PROFTP

2. There are several tabs that gui provides in editing your FTP settings: they are server, users, transfers, discs, files, secuirty, and configuration

Server- name your server to your liking. Use your private IP address in the address field. Issuing an ifconfig at the cmd line will bring you your private IP.By default the server is set to an idle time of 120 seconds so adjust time if you wish to.

Users- this is where you will create all users that are allowed to your ftp site. You can create user accounts with anonymous access by un-checking the required password box. The users section is where you will designate directories/drives for remote users to access as well.

Transfers- Will show you files that where transfered between remote pc and server

Discs- Displays directories that are available to share along with how much space is currently available in those directories

Files- shows statistics about what was downloaded by the user

Security- Gives a log file view of who was last logged on the ftp server.

Configuration- If for whatever reason that your settings that you edited do not adjust you can change them here. Its easier to read by editing it here than terminal its a little cleaner and easier to see where and what you are editing

Home Router settings

Next, we are going to have to open up some ports on your router. Most newer routers they use port forwarding and with the older ones like my d-link router we create a new virtual server.

1. In your web browser go to the you gateway address which would be something like 192.168.0.1 or verify it by using ifconfig

2. The port that you want to open is port 21 or if you feel you will be vulnerable to attacks use 2121 or something along those lines

3. For the IP address of your sever it will be your private IP address

4. Save settings

Connecting to ftp server

1. Using a client such as filezilla which is free of charge or if you are an intermediate-advance user use the command line. This is how we are going to connect to the ftp server

2. Find out Your public IP address using IPchicken.com. Once there it will display your public IP

3. You will use the public IP address to access you site along with a username, password, and port number. If everything is setup correctly you will be able to upload and download files. If you cannot go back and check that your settings are correct along with you private and public ip addresses

Non-Ubuntu Stuff...

2009-06-01T18:35:00.001-04:00

I lost my job a couple of days ago. Being that I was a contracted worker I'm up the creek right now. Today I submitted my applications and resume to 22 different organizations. I have an interview tomorrow so any good luck or prayers you want to send this way would be appreciated. Hopefully my employment gap will be short and my new job better than the last. I'm not in the greatest of spirits right now so I'll close with this entry.

Jaunty - DVD Playback - Video Codecs - Players - Medibuntu Repository

2009-05-25T23:41:00.001-04:00

Here is my shotgun approach for adding all codecs and enabling DVD playback with navigation. Please be sure to enable all your repositories before running this command.

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/`lsb_release -cs`.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list; sudo apt-get -q update; sudo apt-get --yes -q --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring; sudo apt-get -q update && sudo apt-get install -y ubuntu-restricted-extras non-free-codecs w32codecs totem-mozilla libdvdcss2 totem-xine xine-ui libxine1 libxinerama1 libxine1-all-plugins libxine1 libxine1-ffmpeg libdvdnav4 libdmx1 libdvdread4 gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly vlc smplayer smplayer-themes smplayer-translations && sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

Adding the Medibuntu Repository

2009-05-25T23:10:00.001-04:00

Below are the instructions to add the Medibuntu repository to your system's list of APT repositories. These are commands that should be run in the Terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal).

If you are new to Ubuntu, please see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu for an overview of repositories.

Add Medibuntu to your sources.list, as well as its GPG key to your keyring. Make sure to use the correct sources.list that corresponds to your current distribution.

Any Ubuntu Release and keyring:

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/`lsb_release -cs`.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list; sudo apt-get -q update; sudo apt-get --yes -q --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring; sudo apt-get -q update
Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope":

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/jaunty.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex":

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/intrepid.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron":

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon":

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/gutsy.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list
Ubuntu 6.06 "Dapper Drake":

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/dapper.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

Then, add the GPG Key:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

You may be asked to accept this package even though it cannot be authenticated. This is normal; typing "Yes" means you trust Medibuntu.

Install audio and video codecs in ubuntu

2009-05-25T21:27:00.001-04:00

For Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope”:

Open up a terminal (applications -> accessories -> terminal) and copy/paste this code:

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/`lsb_release -cs`.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list; sudo apt-get -q update; sudo apt-get --yes -q --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring; sudo apt-get -q update && sudo apt-get install -y ubuntu-restricted-extras non-free-codecs w32codecs totem-mozilla libdvdcss2

(if you use 64bit, replace w32codecs with w64codecs)

For Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron”:

Open up a terminal (applications -> accessories -> terminal) and copy/paste this code:

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/`lsb_release -cs`.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list; sudo apt-get -q update; sudo apt-get --yes -q --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring; sudo apt-get -q update && sudo apt-get install -y ubuntu-restricted-extras non-free-codecs w32codecs totem-mozilla libdvdcss2

(if you use 64bit, replace w32codecs with w64codecs)

For Ubuntu 8.10 “Intrepid Ibex”:

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/`lsb_release -cs`.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list; sudo apt-get -q update; sudo apt-get --yes -q --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring; sudo apt-get -q update && sudo apt-get install -y ubuntu-restricted-extras non-free-codecs w32codecs totem-mozilla libdvdcss2

(if you use 64bit, replace w32codecs with w64codecs)

————–

Install a different media player (optional)

The default media player (totem) is good, but I like vlc media player better, especially for watching a dvd.

In a terminal type:

sudo apt-get install vlc

If you are looking for a better audio player, I suggest either exaile or bmpx.

You now have 99% of the codecs in the world installed on your system.

Looking for real player? click me.

Ubuntu Juanty Jackalope vs. ATI Radeon Mobility 9600

2009-04-22T13:46:00.001-04:00

Okay - After lots of begging for help on the Ubuntu Forums, I found a workable configuration for my ATI graphics card in my old eMachines M6809 laptop. With out these settings in my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file it was totally unsatisfactory. Now however, it's near full speed as compared to Hardy and the infamous MS WinXP Pro. Here are the settings I'm now using.

Section "Device"

Identifier "Configured Video Device"

Option         "AccelDFS"                               "on"
Option         "AccelMethod"                         "XAA"
Option         "MigrationHeuristic"                "smart" # "greedy" works well also
Option         "EnablePageFlip"                      "on"
Option         "EnableDepthMoves"                "on"
Option         "ColorTiling"                            "on"
Option         "FBTexPercent"                         "0"
Option         "RenderAccel"                          "on"

EndSection

Timekpr Version 0.3.0 is released!

2009-04-19T13:05:00.001-04:00

This program will track and control the computer usage of your user accounts. You can limit their daily usage based on a timed access duration and configure periods of day when they can or cannot log in. With this application, administrators can limit account login time duration or account access hours.

DEVELOPMENT:

This program is heavily depended on Linux-PAM and its time and access modules.
If you would like to contribute to the code, join the timekpr-maintainers team on launchpad.

CURRENT SUPPORTED:

Ubuntu - Jaunty, Intrepid, Hardy
Kubuntu - Jaunty, Intrepid, Hardy
Xubuntu - Jaunty, Intrepid, Hardy

CHANGE-LOG FOR VERSION 0.3.0:

Timekpr-gui gives a warning if no other user than administrator is present (Bugs #345515 and #330261, thanks to BearTM)
An administrator will not be able to restrict him self (Bug ##286529)
Removed hard reference to /etc/timekpr in timekpr-client.py (Bug #314061), allows for configuration of timekpr dir (no gui for this)
Added a man page (Bug #302770)
Added i18n support (Bug #302782), this release includes translations for Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Norwegian Bokmal and Swedish. Please help to translate timekpr into more languages!
Timekpr works with Jaunty (Bug #344538)
Fixed packaging error for KDE (Bug #345515)
Fixed a bug that could kick any user who was logged in all day, also unrestricted users and administrators

HISTORY & CREDITS:

This project was born after Charles Jackson's (crjackson) request for a program that time-limits user accounts:
Ubuntu Forums. You can also find a progression of the history posted at the Bucknasty. blog.

This is a complete re-write in python and vast improvement from the original timekpr bash script:
Waggledance.

Even Nedberg initially began to improve the original bash script from Chris Jackson. Savvas Radević packaged it and soon began co-development.

Special thanks go to Charles Jackson (crjackson), who has contributed a lot by suggesting, brainstorming useful features, writing the initial blueprint, and
being the primary tester.

We would also like to thank all the people posting to that topic in ubuntu forums for their comments.

Additional Information

Developers Even Nedberg and Savvas Radević (or .nedberg and forger) of the Ubuntu forums have rewritten the package using python as opposed to the bash shell script of it's previous form. timekpr now has a full featured interface with the ability to change and grow as needed.

I have requested an additional feature of a black-out setting that would let you slice a chunk of time right out of the normally allowable login hours. This would be for designated home work time, or other required activities. Please bookmark this page for future updates.

- Charles

INSTRUCTIONS

Download the deb file and double click on it to install. Configure your users, click apply and then quit when done. Just remember to check back here to always get the latest version available.

Intrepid Ibex Users should install by adding Even's PPA repository to there software sources list, and then use your package manager to install. This will always give you the latest version and keep your system updated.

Stable repository:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/timekpr-maintainers/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/timekpr-maintainers/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

Development repository:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/nedberg/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/nedberg/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

Prior to installation, you must Un-install any previous versions by running the code below in a terminal session.

sudo dpkg --purge timekpr

DOWNLOAD

Screen Shot1 Screen Shot 2 Screen Shot 3

Ubuntu 9.04 - Jaunty Jackalope Testing

2009-04-04T22:55:00.001-04:00

I've been testing the soon to be released version of Ubuntu 9.04 beta. I am very impressed with it's performance and stability so far. Only time will tell however if it's going to be suitable for my laptop with an Intel GMA X3100. Intel video adapters have a poor history with Linux and I couldn't run Intrepid due to poor video performance. Hardy runs fine however. The performance issues stem from the latest/greatest xorg system. The drivers just haven't caught up yet. So far the beta on LiveCD runs great though, and I have high expectations.

Sound Solutions for Hardy,Intrepid and Jaunty Jackalope

2009-03-12T11:26:00.001-04:00

This is a re-post from Ubuntu-Geek, but it works so great I wanted to put it here for safe keeping.

If you have just upgraded to or installed Hardy or Intrepid or Jaunty and you have some sound somewhere, but not everywhere for everything, this is a fast way to get all the missing stuff you need and give you some tools to figure out what is going on. If you hear the startup sound but nothing else, or if some applications
work and others don’t, this is for you. If you have no sound at all, there is a link at the end of this post for more extensive troubleshooting help but you should try this first anyway as it may solve your problem and will not make matters worse.Make sure that your system is fully updated.

Credit goes to markbuntu forum article

Required Packages

First you need to get some missing packages with Synaptic. These packages were not installed by default but are important for getting your sound working properly:

asoundconf-gtk
This is a little Default sound card application for choosing the default sound card for alsa.

gnome-alsamixer
This is a gui mixer, far easier to use than the command line alsamixer.

alsa-oss
This is the wrapper for oss applications so they will use alsa instead of grabbing the sound card all for themselves.

libasound2
libasound2-plugins
These are the plugins for alsa

padevchooser
This is the Pulse Audio device chooser and will pull in the pavucontrol which is the Pulse Audio Volume Control and papref which is the Pulse Audio Preferences along with the Pulse Audio Volume Meters.

gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio
This is the gstreamer plugin for pulseaudio

ubuntu-restricted-extras
This is the package with all the restricted codecs and java and flashplayer so you can watch youtube and play your mp3s,etc..If you have other applications like mplayer, vlc, amarok, or audacious be sure to get any extra packages available for them also.

Single command to install everything you need
sudo apt-get install asoundconf-gtk alsa-oss libasound2 libasound2-plugins padevchooser gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio ubuntu-restricted-extras

Setting things up

Once you have all these packages installed, close any application that may be trying to use sound and go to System/Preferences/Sound and set all the preferences from automatic to PulseAudio except Default Mixer Tracks which you should set to your sound card. Go to System/Preferences/Default Sound Card and choose pulseaudio.
Next, right click on the little speaker on the top panel, that is the Panel Volume Control. Click Open Volume Control and make sure it is set to the same thing as the Default Mixer Tracks. Click on Preferences and make sure that Master and PCM and whatever else you want to control are selected. Make sure that any boxes labeled SPDIF or IEC958 are not checked. Close the Preferences box. Push up the sliders in the volume control and make sure the little speakers do not have little red mute marks on them. Go to Applications/Sound and Video/GNOME ALSA Mixer and see if there is anything you missed because sometimes, for some cards, not all the
options are in the Panel Volume Control.

Go to Applications/Sound and Video and select Pulse Audio Device Chooser. This will put a little icon on the panel near the Panel Volume Control. Click on the new icon and choose Volume Control. This will open the Pulse Audio Volume Control. Go to Output Devices and see if your sound card is there, it will be listed as ALSA PCM on front:…(ALC8 via DMA or whatever your sound card is. If you have a usb device it will be listed as ALSA PCM on front:…(USB Audio) via DMA or something like that. Make sure the sliders are up and the device is not muted.

If any of the above is giving you problems, try rebooting.

Now, open Rythmbox and play something. If you have nothing handy just play one of the radio stations, you should hear something. In the Pulse Audio Volume Control/Playback you should see something like this
Rythmbox: Playback Stream and some Volume sliders that you can adjust.

More than one Device

If you have more than one device listed in Output Devices, Rythmbox may be playing in the wrong one if you do not hear anything so right click on the stream and choose move stream and move it to another device.

If you have more than one device and you want to use them all, like a usb headset and your speakers, go back to the Pulse Audio Device chooser on the panel and select Configure Local Sound Server/Simultaneous Output and click the box:

“Add virtual output device for simultaneous output on all local sound cards”

Now you can right click on the stream and move it to your new device. You should have sound from all your sound devices now or at least a clue about how it is supposed to work.

Other stuff

Another thing you may need to do, Check in System/Administration/Users and Groups that your users and root are enabled as members of the following groups:

pulse
pulse-access
pulse-rt

This seems to be a particular problem for some people after getting recent updates.

If you still have problems look in to the following references (They are very good)

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=843012

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5931543

Changing Display Monitors in Hardy

2009-02-16T18:57:00.001-05:00

Once in a while someone needs to either replace or reconfigure their display monitor to correct refersh rates and or resolution settings. It's a very simple procedure in Hardy. I haven't tried it in Intrepid or above yet. I'll post back after testing in 8.10. Anyway just paste the code below in a terminal screen. Once the GUI comes up, just click on the monitor icon to the right of the model listed in the drop down box, look through the list and make your pick. The rest is self explanatory.

gksudo displayconfig-gtk

Open Office 3 on Ubuntu Hardy

2009-02-14T01:22:00.001-05:00

Lots of people are wanting to install Open Office 3 on Ubuntu Hardy including some of my family members. I'll keep this sweet and short and assume that you already know a little bit about Ubuntu.

1) Go to System>Administration>Software Sources

2) Add this to the sources list:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ubuntu hardy main

3) Let the sources list applet reload and update

4) Run the Ubdate Manager from; System>Administration>Update Manager

5) Install the updates

6) Enjoy Open Office 3 on your Hardy installation

Reinstall all of your packages after a fresh Re-install of Ubuntu

2009-02-10T22:03:00.006-05:00

People sometimes have to do a reinstall of their Ubuntu system for various reasons (been playing/experimenting with configuration/drivers/other packages or just because something is badly broken) but remembering all the extra packages you have installed can be a chore - but here is the simple solution:On your old system (assuming it is still working), start up Synaptic and go:

File-Save Markings and choose a file name along with a location (like a USB drive) that you can use when you have installed your new system)

This file contains a list of all your currently installed packages, and when you have installed and booted up your new system (and configured your repositories to the best for your location ) then start up Synaptic and go:

File-Read Markings and point it at your saved file, and after that has completed then select Apply to kick off the download & installation of all of those packages you had installed previously!

There are also apt-get command line functions that achieve the same outcome, so those who don’t have/use Synaptic can still do this.

You will still have to do any special configuration changes that you had on the old system, but at least all of the packages are now in the new system.

This is also very handy for moving to new hardware/duplicating setups etc.

Be aware that doing this between different Ubuntu versions may cause complications because some packages may not be in a later version or have different names.

Note:- Don’t forget to backup your sources before you reinstall.

sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list ~/sources.list.backup

Otherwise if you have added any PPAs or other sources, this tip won’t work.

Kudos to dcstar

Install Vista Fonts on Ubuntu

2009-02-05T00:26:00.001-05:00

On Ubuntu run: sudo apt-get install cabextract
Download PowerPoint Viewer 2007.
Extract the .exe: cabextract -F ppviewer.cab PowerPointViewer.exe
Prepare a separate target installation directory: sudo mkdir /usr/share/fonts/vista
Extract the actual fonts: sudo cabextract -F '*.TT?' -d /usr/share/fonts/vista ppviewer.cab
Tip: You may substitute ~/.fonts instead of /usr/share/fonts for local, single-user installation which does not require root access.
Update the cache: fc-cache -fv

Making Linux FEEL faster...

2009-02-04T17:19:00.005-05:00

What we want is perceived performance
Take a file manager for example. Let's focus on Konqueror (it's a nice case study, and it's a nice file manager). Suppose I hit the home button on my panel, which shows one of the (usually hidden and prelaunched) Konqueror instances and prompts it to browse my home directory.

If you have lots of RAM, it won't be a problem -- both Konqueror and the contents of your home directory will be in memory, so it'll be blindingly fast. But if you're rather short of memory, it's a different matter -- what happens next determines whether you feel your computer slow or fast.

If Konqueror has been paged out, it will appear to be frozen (or take longer to "start up") for a couple of seconds, until Linux has paged necessary code paths in. If, on the contrary, my home directory has been evicted from the RAM cache, Konqueror will show up instantly and be responsive, while the home directory loads.

I'd much rather wait for the directory display than have to wait for Konq to unfreeze because it was paged out. The difference is that in the first scenario, I can close the window, use the menus, navigate among the window controls, change the URL, abort the operation; in the second case, I'm screwed until Linux decides to fully pagein whatever Konq needs.

What we want is perceived performance, not throughput. It matters to me that I can manipulate my file manager half-a-second after I've hit the home button. It doesn't matter to me that, because of this preference, the home directory actually takes one second longer to finish displaying.

Variations of this pattern can be found everywhere: in file open dialogs, in multimedia applications with collection managers, basically everywhere an operation requires some sort of progress report.

The solution
There are two distinct and complementary measures we'll take to solve this problem. Keep reading to find out about them.

Tuning swappiness to prevent impromptu RAM hijacking
Swappiness is the name Linux kernel developers gave to the preference between paging applications out to disk and (in practice) shrinking caches. If it's close to 0, Linux will prefer to keep applications in RAM and not grow the caches. If it's close to 100, Linux will prefer to swap applications out, and enlarge the caches as much as possible. The default is a healthy 60.

The irony of this preference is that, in fact, paging an unused application out generally produces a net performance increment, since the cache really helps a lot when it's needed -- but this net performance increment translates to a net drop in perceived performance, since you usually don't care whether a file uncompresses a few seconds later, but you do care (a lot) when your applications don't respond instantaneously.

On a desktop computer, you want swappiness to be as close to zero as possible. The reason you want to do this (even though it might hurt actual performance) is because this will immunize your computer to memory shortages caused by temporary big file manipulations (think copying a big video file to another disk). The cache will still be as big as possible, but it won't displace running applications.

With swappiness turned down, the Linux kernel no longer attempts to enlarge the cache by paging applications out. Not unless you're experiencing an extremely high memory shortage.

To make the change:
sudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf

Paste this to end of the file:
vm.swappiness=10

Filesystem caches are more important than other caches
We've already established that the filesystem cache is important because, without it, file browsing goes extremely slowl. Now lets tell Linux that we want it to prefer inode/dentry cache to other caches.

Back to the terminal we go:
sudo gedit /etc/sysctl.conf

Paste this to the end of the file:
vm.vfs_cache_pressure=50

Values close to 100 provide no gain. Values close to zero can cause huge swap activity during big filesystem scans.

Know this - These tips work well for me, however ymmv and as always - If you don't understand any of what I've said here, just leave your system alone. There is always the possibility that something COULD go wrong (though very unlikely), so play with this at your own risk.

It's a good practice to back up any file you are altering (prior to making that change and saving). If you back up the files mentioned and something goes wrong, it's always very easy to fix.

Good luck - and enjoy the improved speed of your desktop.

Disclaimer: The preceeding information was taken from rudd-o.com. I have posted the edited content here for my own use, and other family members to refer to.

How to Install Flash on Ubuntu 8.10 64-bit

2009-01-29T22:38:00.006-05:00

Close all internet browes and proceed to your menu bar as follows:
Go to Applications --> Accessories --> Terminal

Once the terminal is open, paste in the following code:

sudo apt-get install nspluginwrapper flashplugin-nonfree

Press the enter key --> type your password when prompted --> complete the install

Restart your browser and all should be well.

If you run into any problems Click Here!

BleachBit

2009-01-14T00:29:00.001-05:00

BleachBit deletes unnecessary files to free valuable disk space, maintain privacy, and remove junk. Rid your system of old clutter including cache, temporary files, cookies, and broken shortcuts. Designed for Linux systems, it wipes clean Bash, Beagle, Epiphany, Firefox, Flash, Java, KDE, OpenOffice.org, Opera, RealPlayer, rpmbuild, VIM, XChat, and more.
Install BleachBit in Ubuntu

Download the .deb package from here or use the following command

Blogged with the Flock Browser

How to Install Mozilla Prism in Ubuntu

2009-01-10T20:50:00.001-05:00

Prism is a simple XULRunner-based browser that hosts web applications without the normal web browser user interface. Prism is based on a concept called Site-Specific Browsers (SSB). An SSB is designed to work exclusively with a single web application. It doesn’t have the menus, toolbars and other accoutrements of a traditional web browser. An SSB also offers tighter integration with the operating system and desktop than a typical web application running through a web browser. Applications running in an SSB are therefore able to benefit from many of the advantages of the desktop and of the web at the same time.

Benefits

Separate process: Web apps can hog memory or processor cycles or even bring down the whole browser in extreme cases. By running each app in its own process, we minimize the impact of any mishaps. We can also benefit from operating system tools that less us view the memory/CPU consumption of a specific application.

Minimal user interface: A general-purpose browser UI is not necessary or appropriate for most web apps. It is more efficient to provide a UI that is specific to the application. This also cuts down on UI clutter (hence the term distraction-free browser).

Basic desktop integration: Support of desktop features can make using the app more natural and convenient for end users. This includes the ability to create desktop shortcuts, to place the application icon in the tray or dock and to display pop-up notifications.

Customization: Apps can be run using a shared browser runtime and customized using client-side script (similar to Greasemonkey).

Custom stylesheets can be used to tweak the UI.

Available Prism Packages in Ubuntu 8.04

prism-facebook
prism-google-analytics
prism-google-calendar
prism-google-docs
prism-google-groups
prism-google-mail
prism-google-reader
prism-google-talk
prism-twitter

Install Prism packages for google using the following command

sudo aptitude install prism-google-talk prism-google-mail prism-google-docs prism-facebook prism-google-analytics

You can install all the packages mentioned above.This will complete the prism packages installation.

You need to make sure that you have installed flash plugin for firefox otherwise google apps won’t work.

sudo aptitude install flashplugin-nonfree

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T23:11:00.001-05:00

2008 has come and gone (thank God). There have been many changes for me; Boss and co-workers fired unexpectedly, major updates to Ubuntu, a stable release (non-beta) of timekpr, family deaths, economic problems and now the first black president for the USA. Phew, what a year it's been. Well I'm ready to get on with things and welcome 2009. I'm really grateful I'm still employed with all the economic downfalls as of late. I'm really looking forward to Ubuntu 9.04 and my tax return. I hope everyone reading this blog has a happy new year full of promise and rewards. Bye for now.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

OpenOffice 3.0 PPA is up a working again

2008-12-09T12:56:00.001-05:00

A few entries ago, I posted information on how to upgrade to Open Office 3.0. Then suddenly the repository went off-line and it didn't work anymore. I'm glad to report that as of yesterday, the repository is back online and notified me of updates. The updates worked great on the systems that were updating from Open Office 2.4, but where 3.0 was already installed there were conflicts and a partial upgrade was offered but didn't work. To fix the issue I have to remove Open Office from the computer and then reinstall. After that everything was working perfect. I enabled the repositories again on the other computers and all is well.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Intrepid Ibex Install & timekpr b5

2008-12-07T23:15:00.001-05:00

Toady I had to rebuild one of the systems in my house. It was one that the kids use extensively so of course timekpr is normally installed on that system. I took the opportunity to upgrade that system to Intrepid Ibex after installing a new HDD, and wireless adapter. Enough of the small talk, here's the news.

I downloaded and installed timekpr b5 and all was well. I then decided to add the Intrepid repository from Even's PPA and to my surprise there were updates for timekpr. I installed the updates and I now have b5+ installed on that system and it's working beautifully.

I filed a bug report against timekpr today. I found that when you are logged in as an administrator or as an unrestricted user, the timekpr status keeper gives a countdown to log off (midnight). I feel like this shouldn't be the case for any unrestricted users. timekpr should simply report No Restrictions or some such phrase, so a new bug report was filed.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Timekpr Version 0.2.2 is released!

2008-12-06T10:57:00.004-05:00

DEVELOPMENT:

This program is heavily depended on Linux-PAM and its time and access modules.
Beta 5 has been released, and now supports Ubuntu, Kubuntu & Xbuntu version 8.04 and 8.10 - Special thanks to .nedberg for this much anticipated release.
If you would like to contribute to the code, join the timekpr-maintainers team on launchpad.
Current status indicated below:
- Ubuntu Hardy: Works
- Ubuntu Intrepid: Works
- Kubuntu Hardy KDE3: Works
- Kubuntu Interpid KDE4: Works
- Xubuntu Hardy: Works

HISTORY & CREDITS:

This project was born after Charles Jackson's (crjackson) request for a program that time-limits user accounts:
Ubuntu Forums. You can also find a progression of the history posted at the Bucknasty. blog.

This is a complete re-write in python and vast improvement from the original timekpr bash script:
Waggledance.

Even Nedberg initially began to improve the original bash script from Chris Jackson. Savvas Radević packaged it and soon began co-development.

Special thanks go to Charles Jackson (crjackson), who has contributed a lot by suggesting, brainstorming useful features, writing the initial blueprint, and
being the primary tester.

We would also like to thank all the people posting to that topic in ubuntu forums for their comments.

Additional Information

Developers Even Nedberg and Savvas Radević (or .nedberg and forger) of the Ubuntu forums have rewritten the package using python as opposed to the bash shell script of it's previous form. timekpr now has a full featured interface with the ability to change and grow as needed. The beta 3 release adds support for both KDE and Xfce versions of Ubuntu 8.04 & 8.10.

I have requested an additional feature of a black-out setting that would let you slice a chunk of time right out of the normally allowable login hours. This would be for designated home work time, or other required activities. Please bookmark this page for future updates.

- Charles

INSTRUCTIONS

Download the deb file and double click on it to install. Configure your users, click apply and then quit when done. Just remember to check back here to always get the latest version available.

Intrepid Ibex Users should install by adding Even's PPA repository to there software sources list, and then use your package manager to install. This will always give you the latest version and keep your system updated.

Stable repository:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/timekpr-maintainers/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/timekpr-maintainers/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main

Development repository:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/nedberg/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/nedberg/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main

Prior to installation, you must Un-install any previous versions by running the code below in a terminal session.

sudo dpkg --purge timekpr

DOWNLOAD

Screen Shot1 Screen Shot 2 Screen Shot 3

Install audio and video codecs - Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex

2008-11-16T20:42:00.003-05:00

Open up a terminal (applications -> accessories -> terminal) and copy/paste this code:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/intrepid.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list && wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y ubuntu-restricted-extras non-free-codecs w32codecs totem-mozilla libdvdcss2 libdvdnav4 totem-xine xine-ui libdmx1 libxine1 libxine1-ffmpeg libxinerama1 libdvdread3

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOW TO: UPGRADE to Open Office to 3.0 on INTREPID IBEX

2008-11-16T12:27:00.001-05:00

$ sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Copy to the end of your sources.list

## Openoffice.org
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/openoffice-pkgs/ubuntu intrepid main

Then open a terminal and run:

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

I had to run my update manager afterward to get ALL updates.

Thats it.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Intrepid 8.10 on my Laptop

2008-11-02T10:19:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I installed Intrepid Ibex on my laptop. I'm not thrilled because of the ATI video driver being kind of slow, but it's okay otherwise so far. I guess I'll get used to it for 6 months or so until the Jackrabbit comes out. It's hard to give it a fair test with a cruddy video driver. It's not really Ubuntu's fault that ATI didn't provide full support fot x.org 7.4 but the end result is a less than thrilling experience. At the end of the day, it's working well, it just FEELS less responisive. 3D games play fine however. I wish OpenOffice 3.0 had been installed by default, I guess I'll have to make that happen myself. I read that it was listed in backports but that just isn't the case. I'll probably add the PPA for openoffice and install from there. I pop back in and let you know what I've decided to do.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Nasty Windows XP

2008-10-12T22:17:00.001-04:00

Today I had the displeasure of re-installing WindowsXP-Pro on my main system. This system has 4 HD's so I keep a copy around for a couple of programs I can't do without (DVDFab5 & Sony Vegas). It took me ALL DAY to get windows installed because of my SATA HD's. Windows SP3 won't recognize my nVidia Nforce4 SATA controller. Somewhere in the process I messed up the drive and ended up downloading WD's DataLifeguard CD ISO. Using that I was able to prepare the drive and install Windows again. At one point, I thought I had killed the drive. To test it out, I formated ot ext3 and Ubuntu installed with no problems. Only crappy windows couldn't work. What's worse was I even tried Vista and it too was a no go. Well, thanks to the WD tools I got it all sorted out, but it ruined my Sunday.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Permissions problem after fresh install

2008-10-11T19:17:00.001-04:00

I recently did a clean install of Ubuntu Hardy 8.04.1 and got all my updates. All was perfect except somehow my permissions in my home folder got borked. Well, not really somehow! I figured out how I screwed it all up. I was trying to restore all my saved email (thunderbird) and in doing so (by saving to an NTFS partition) all the settings in my backup files required root permissions. Well I got all that sorted out but I also messed up the permissions to some hidden files too. Long story short, it all seems to be working now, but I should have archived the files in a tar.gz file rather than copying them to the NTFS partition. Achariving would have preserved the permissions. In my blinde efforts to fix the problem, I reset permissions on everything in the home folder. It's all working now, but I'm sure some things aren't quite the way they should be. I was going to start from scratch again, but it's not worth it since everything seems to be working well now.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Timekeepr - Keep control of computer usage

2008-09-21T14:18:00.009-04:00

DEVELOPMENT:

This program is heavily depended on Linux-PAM and its time and access modules.
Beta 5 has been released, and now supports Ubuntu, Kubuntu & Xbuntu version 8.04 and 8.10 - Special thanks to .nedberg for this much anticipated release.
If you would like to contribute to the code, join the timekpr-maintainers team on launchpad.
Current status indicated below:
- Ubuntu Hardy: Works
- Ubuntu Intrepid: Works
- Kubuntu Hardy KDE3: Works
- Kubuntu Interpid KDE4: Works
- Xubuntu Hardy: Works

HISTORY & CREDITS:

This project was born after Charles Jackson's (crjackson) request for a program that time-limits user accounts:
Ubuntu Forums. You can also find a progression of the history posted at the Bucknasty. blog.

This is a complete re-write in python and vast improvement from the original timekpr bash script:
Waggledance.

Even Nedberg initially began to improve the original bash script from Chris Jackson. Savvas Radević packaged it and soon began co-development.

Special thanks go to Charles Jackson (crjackson), who has contributed a lot by suggesting, brainstorming useful features, writing the initial blueprint, and
being the primary tester.

We would also like to thank all the people posting to that topic in ubuntu forums for their comments.

Additional Information

Developers Even Nedberg and Savvas Radević (or .nedberg and forger) of the Ubuntu forums have rewritten the package using python as opposed to the bash shell script of it's previous form. timekpr now has a full featured interface with the ability to change and grow as needed. The beta 3 release adds support for both KDE and Xfce versions of Ubuntu 8.04 & 8.10.

I have requested an additional feature of a black-out setting that would let you slice a chunk of time right out of the normally allowable login hours. This would be for designated home work time, or other required activities. Please bookmark this page for future updates.

- Charles

INSTRUCTIONS

Download the deb file and double click on it to install. Configure your users, click apply and then quit when done. Just remember to check back here to always get the latest version available.

Intrepid Ibex Users should install by adding Even's PPA repository to there software sources list, and then use your package manager to install. This will always give you the latest version and keep your system updated.

Stable repository:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/timekpr-maintainers/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/timekpr-maintainers/ubuntu intrepid main

Development repository:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/nedberg/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/nedberg/ubuntu intrepid main

Prior to installation, you must Un-install any previous versions by running the code below in a terminal session.

sudo dpkg --purge timekpr

DOWNLOAD

Screen Shot1 Screen Shot 2 Screen Shot 3

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Okay, I,m testing the Flock Browser for my Bolggin Needs

2008-09-21T12:46:00.001-04:00

This is a test of the Flock Browser. If this works out, I'll be removing "ScribeFire" from Firefox 3 and using this. I haven't have much luck lately with ScribeFire sooo... I hope this works out. Well it seems to work very well so far. Not much choice in font sizes and control, the the blog site itself is limited. When using ScribeFire I have lots of choices in font contro, the only problem is that the Blog Site doesn't accept them properly and that's been causing problems. I would prefer to be limited by my blogging application in a manner that reflects the capabilities of the actual posting site. At least the bolg won't look messed up when some one views it.

I'll be blogging more today about the progress of Timekeeper. It has come a long way and need a new blog post to reference. I'll explain more on that later.

timekpr.sh - Limit Daily Desktop Usage in Ubuntu

2008-09-05T17:43:00.093-04:00

NEW GUI VERSION

Here is the install script: install_timekpr.sh - Download the script to your desktop, open up a terminal and paste the following into the terminal. cd Desktop (remember to use a capital 'D') sudo bash install_timekpr.sh

This script will make sure you have the latest version. You still need to edit /etc/rc.local and add /usr/local/bin/timekpr.sh & to make the script run at boot. The GUI should be self explanatory, but here is a short how-to:

Select the user you wish to configure

Check "Use limits" if you want to use timed limits
a) Set the "Every day" limit or
b) Check "Configure single days" and set different limits for every day of the week
Check "Use boundaries" if you want to control when the user can log in
a) Set the "Every day" boundaries or
b) Check "configure single boundaries" and set different boundaries for every day of the week
Click "Apply" if you want to configure another user, OK if you are finished or Cancel to just exit.

To Un-Restrict a user, select the username, uncheck both "Use limits" and "Use boundaries" and click Apply/OK

Blogged with the Flock Browser

How to Limit Daily Desktop Usage in Ubuntu

2008-08-19T07:38:00.019-04:00

This is not my script but I'm placing it here for me and my family to reference. It comes from another blog called "Waggle Dance" The link to that bog is posted on the left hand side of this page under "My Links". All credit for the following scripts go to the author of the original timekpr.txt, and to Ubuntu Forums member .nedberg for making the modifications and additional two scripts I requested in this thread.

Here's the original content.

I have been looking for a way to limit the amount of time my kids spend on the computer. After toying with a couple of different things like timeoutd and pam_time, I decided to hack together something to meet my needs:

My kids share a PC with their Mom using fast-user-switching, so I needed it to keep track of multiple sessions.

I needed different times for different users ( Mom wouldn’t be toothrilled with me forcing her to log off after an hour or two )

I wanted everyone to get ample warning so they could save their work and logout cleanly.

With those ideas in mind I came up with this:

timekpr - (Modified - this is not the creator's original version)
What timekpr does is watch for instances of the session manager, keep a running tally of the time they are running, and logs kills it when time is up. Several libnotify alerts let the user know when thier time is running out.

It’s pretty rough right now ( just a couple of hours of research and bash hacking ) but it just kicked my son of the PC after his alloted hour and a half, so it’s functional - YMMV - I need to allow for different time limits on the weekends, and it uses a less than elegant method for
shutting down gnome-session, so it’s very much a work in progress.

Lets make sure you have the notifier libs installed so that you can get the nice graphical notifications that your user is about to be kicked to the curb. Open up a terminal and paste this:

sudo apt-get install libnotify-bin

To install it, down load the script, timekpr , and rename it. Copy it someplace useful and make it executable:

mv timekpr.txt timekpr.sh
chmod 755 timekpr.sh
sudo mv timekpr.sh /usr/local/bin

Next make a directory for the time tracking files and limits:

sudo mkdir /var/lib/timekpr

I added a line to /etc/rc.local

/usr/local/bin/timekpr.sh &

to start the script after a re-boot.

To limit someone’s per day usage, just add the number of seconds they will be allowed to a file in /var/lib/timekpr

sudo -i
echo 7200 > /var/lib/timekpr/username
where username is the account you want to time limit.

IMPORTANT UPDATE - NEW VERSION

This is a new version and needs a new config file for each userername located at:

/var/lib/timekpr/username

To use the new script, login to a terminal with root permissions and delete the old script AND all the old user configuration files and REBOOT your system. Then install the new script and create all new username config files. Then paste the settings (as shown below) into the newly created confg files. Reboot your system again, and the script should work it's magic provided you have added it to the: /etc/rc.local file as instructed above. If you don't create a configuration file for any user, they will have unrestricted access.

Each of the username files should have the following format:
limit=( 345 345 345 345 170 345 345 )
from=( 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 )
to=( 22 22 22 22 23 22 22 )

Each of the seven numbers on a line stands for the value of that certain day of week

(SUN--MON--TUE--WED--THR--FRI--SAT)

An unrestricted user does not need this file, so don't make one for yourself.

To start the script without rebooting, open up a terminal session and type:
$ bash /usr/local/bin/timekpr.sh

You need to be sure that libnotify is installed. Type the following code in a terminal session.
$ sudo apt-get install libnotify-bin

Here are the scripts - Notice the 2 extra scripts for added usefulness.

timekpr.txt
This is a modified version of the original. It lets you set additional time controls that prevent the user from being able to login outside of the allowable limits (7 & 22 by default) of 0700 & 2200 hours.

addtime.txt
This is a "rewards" script to give additional time to your well behaved little users. This script (when ran) is only effective for the day you run it. Run this script in the following format:

sudo addtime.sh
This does not expand the login hours regular boundaries of 0700-2200 hours.

extendlimits.txt
This script will allow you to set user privileges to extend beyond the default login boundaries of 0700 to 2200 hours. This is only effective for one session and will reset when the timekpr.sh script is next executed. To run this script, use the following format:

sudo extendlimits.sh

What's ahead?

.nedberg of the Ubuntu Forums is currently working on a GUI frontend for this script. Here is a preview of the work as it stands.

Enemy Territory: Wolfenstein - Complete Install Guide for Hardy

2008-08-16T23:14:00.002-04:00

Make sure that the driver to your 3D graphics card is properly installed and working by opening up a terminal and typing:

glxgears

Be sure your sourcelist is correctly set and download the relevant libs to Wolfenstein.

sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude safe-upgrade

sudo aptitude install libc6-i386 libgtk1.2

wget http://www.boundlesssupremacy.com/Cappy/getlibs/getlibs-all.deb

sudo dpkg -i getlibs-all.deb

INSTALLATION:

Open the terminal and type;

cd ~/Desktop

wget -c http://ftp.games.skynet.be/pub/wolfenstein/et-linux-2.60.x86.run

chmod +x et-linux-2.60.x86.run

sudo sh et-linux-2.60.x86.run

NOTE: It's important that you exit the installer window and do not press the installers play button. It will course permission problems for Wolfenstein.

Get any missing dependencies

getlibs /usr/local/games/enemy-territory/et.x86

Build a Launcher in the Games Menu

sudo nano /usr/share/applications/etwolfenstein.desktop

Add the following;

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Enemy Territory: Wolfenstein
Comment=Wolfenstein:
Enemy Territory is an online multi-player game, where the players
interact with each other over a network in two teams (Axis and Allies)
to defend or destroy mission objectives.
Exec=et
Icon=/usr/local/games/enemy-territory/ET.xpm
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Application;Game;

Then save (ctrl)+(o) and exit (ctrl)+(x)

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory - no sound fix

2008-08-16T17:34:00.000-04:00

The following is information I found by searching the internet for making the sound work in my WolfET installs. I found this information in 2 seperate forum posts and I take no credit for the accuracy of this information.

I have tried this on 3 different systems of mine, and it works on all 3. I have no idea why the commands in the first group do not match the second (i.e. sudo echo... vs sudo sh -c "echo...")

I personally used the 1st group when I tested and found it to work perfectly. The second group was found when I was looking a permanant fix (holds after reboot). I would guess they both do the exact same thing but use a slightly different command.

Older games like Wolf: Enemy Territory and Quake3 do not support ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture), the older games support OSS (Open Sound System) . The commands below direct the game to use OSS.

For WolfET
As root user (sudo -i) type:
sudo echo "et.x86 0 0 direct" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss

For Quake3
As root user (sudo -i) type:
sudo echo "quake3.x86 0 0 direct" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss

The commands I posted only effect the games. After I'm done with the game everything else works good like Gaim and Rhythmbox. The commands I posted are only good for that session, after a reboot, I have to re-enter commands.
Try type this on terminal

sudo sh -c "echo 'et.x86 0 0 direct' > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss"

sudo sh -c "echo 'et.x86 0 0 disable' > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0c/oss"

Then test the game. If sound works, you can apply this fix permanetly by typing in terminal:

sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

and add these lines end of file

echo 'et.x86 0 0 direct' > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss
echo 'et.x86 0 0 disable' > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0c/oss
exit 0

What is the equivalent of Ctrl-Alt-Del in Ubuntu

2008-08-15T19:33:00.000-04:00

Press the Alt+PrntScrn(SysRq) keys and hold them down while you type each of the following keys in order: R-E-I-S-U-B

R switch the keyboard mode
E send all processes the SIGTERM singal
I sends all processes the SIGKILL signal
S Sync filesystem
U Unmount all devices
B reboots the system (typing O instead will turn the computer Off)

Theoretically you could just do Alt+SysRq+B to do an old school, Win 95 style Ctrl+Alt+Del reboot, but it’s just as bad as hitting that power button. Your best bet is to run the whole sequence to ensure that the system shuts down in the way it would normally shut down when you issue a reboot command.

And it’s almost guaranteed to work even on a completely locked up system. That is, if it’s enabled on your system. If you are not sure, do a really quick test right now:

cat /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq

If you see a 1, you are in good shape.
If you see a 0 (zero), you can enable the SysRq keys by doing:

sudo echo 1 > /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq

How to add the source of Ubuntu Tweak

2008-08-15T01:25:00.000-04:00

No matter your Ubuntu is Feisty, Gutsy or Hardy, open your terminal, type the command to run gedit(or other editor in your opinion) to modify the sources.list:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

And put the two line into it:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/tualatrix/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/tualatrix/ubuntu hardy main

Then update the source and install or upgrade Ubuntu Tweak:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

if you have installed, just type:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Randy - To Fix your refresh rate try this

2008-08-14T18:35:00.000-04:00

Okay, I was able to fix this problem by doing this:
Open up a terminal session and paste sudo displayconfig-gtk

then set the screen model to your exact monitor. After doing that, you should be able to change your refresh rate using the System->Preferences->Screen Resolution program.

Also have a look at the ATI links posted in the "My Links" section to the left of this page.

Reconfigure your ATI Driver - Instructions for Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy)

2008-08-14T17:55:00.000-04:00

Enable accelerated the accelerated ATI graphics driver in the restricted-manager, then open a terminal and past the following code:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh linux-restricted-modules-`uname -r` && sudo insmod /lib/modules/`uname -r`/volatile/fglrx.ko

Log out and log in.

Version Locking Packages and Kernel

2008-08-08T10:45:00.001-04:00

COMMAND LINE METHOD:
Locking the version on a package prevents it from being upgraded. I'll show you two ways to do this. The first is to open a terminal and type: sudo aptitude hold linux-image-`uname -r` Those ` are backticks, usually located to the left of the 1/! key.

SYNAPTIC PACKAGE MANAGER METHOD:
For those who prefer to use GUIs, open Synaptic and scroll down to where the packages named linux-image- and then some numbers are. Find the one you are using (probably the highest number), and click Package > Lock Version. Both of these will prevent the kernel from upgrading at all.

OK, now you need to release those holds.
Synaptic, that's no problem. Just un-check it, do the upgrade, then make sure you lock version on the new one. For the command line one do sudo aptitude unhold linux-image-`uname -r`. Redo all your tweaks of course, and you're good to go.

Bonus Check

2008-08-06T00:44:00.000-04:00

Today I got a bonus check from my employer, a plaque, a service ribbon, and a letter of commendation. You might say it's been eventful. I'm very appreciative towards my boss for recognition because I've definitely been loyal and a producer of results. It's all about the bottom line, and I'm good at that.

As a result of the bonus check, I'll be taking some time off from work (just a day) and visiting my son who just moved into his new house with my Daughter-in-law and my grand baby Audrey. I can't wait to see them.

I'll also be traveling a route that allows me to visit my parents and siblings, and that will also be great.

That's all I've got for the day. I can't wait for some more great Ubuntu updates and/or bug fixes. Goodnight...

RaLink RT2500 rev 01 speed tweak...

2008-08-04T13:02:00.000-04:00

If you have this wireless card and it won't connect at a good speed (mine only connected at 1M) then you will love this tweak. First you have this card. In a terminal session issue the "lspci" command and look for this:

"01:09.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI (rev 01)"

Next, Check you speed (right click on the connection and choose Connection information). If it says anything less than 54Mb/s, open up /etc/rc.local (as root) and add the following lines:

Code:

ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 rate 54M

Replace wlan0 with you interface name. Worked for me.

To put in to effect immeadiately, open up a terminl and run:
sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Install audio and video codecs in ubuntu

2008-08-04T11:00:00.000-04:00

Open up a terminal (applications -> accessories -> terminal) and copy/paste this code:

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list && wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y ubuntu-restricted-extras non-free-codecs w32codecs totem-mozilla libdvdcss2 libdvdnav4 gxine totem-xine xine-ui libdmx1 libxine1 libxine1-ffmpeg libxinerama1 libdvdread3

That’s it.

(if you use 64bit, replace w32codecs with w64codecs)

————–

If you are looking for a better audio player, I suggest either exaile or bmpx.

You now have 99% of the codecs in the world installed on your system.

2 Kittens Adopted - 3 to go

2008-07-26T12:38:00.001-04:00

Last night at work I got a call from my wife Joy. She told me that lots of people have been calling her after listing the kittens for adoption on craigs list. As it turns out, 2 of the white kittens got adopted by some very nice people while I was at work. I'm glad I wasn't home when it all took place. I'm kind of sad about the whole thing.

There are 3 kittens left. One is solid white, one is an orange/white tiger striped kitty, the last (the runt) is my favorite. She is orange, white, and black. I don't know if I can let that one go... Stay tuned...

4th of July - BORING...

2008-07-06T20:03:00.001-04:00

The 4th of July has come and gone for 2008 and it was really boring. It's been raining all day and screwed up my plans to finish the repairs on my stairway to the back porch. I finally have the constructed and they look nice. The problem is that I haven't figured out a good way to attach them to the porch. My back porch is in tested condition and not really constructed by a professional (it was built by the previous owner I suppose).

It's looking like I'm going to have to find a way to improve the porch it's self before I can safely attach the stairs. Bummer! This should have been a 1 day job, but this is my 2nd weekend working on this monstrosity.

I was thinking of upgrading my Ubuntu installs on the 2 machines used by the kids (They're still running 7.10) but I decided not to fix it since it's not broke.

So back to my original title... BORING...

I guess that's it for now...

Lots of things...

2008-07-04T02:35:00.000-04:00

Wow! Ubuntu 8.04.1 was released today. I may do a fresh install on my desktop just to see if it fixes a problem I'm having with Firefox 3.0

I installed a Mac Leopard theme and it looks great. Really liking the look and feel of things.
Joy got a new HP laptop with Vista (Yuk), but the Laptop is great. Very fast. Heck, it has 3GB of ram. That's more than my desktop.

Joy is warming up to Ubuntu a little. She prefers to do her school assignments using Ubuntu.

Father's Day...

2008-06-15T21:00:00.001-04:00

It's been a while since I last checked in. Ubuntu has hundreds of new updates and fixes. I've ordered a new Intel MiniPCI wireless card for my eMachines laptop (better supported in Linux). My niece had a baby boy 2 weeks ago. His name is Ashton Jace...

AND it's Fathers day. We went out to eat last night but the grill is fired up today and the beer is cold.

I got a new pressure washer for Fathers day, I've been playing with that and all I can say is wow! Those things are awesome. I can't believe how well it has cleaned the sidewalk and the brick on my house. It will have lots of use down the road. Everyone wants to play with it. It's my present to myself, but I don't mind everyone else doing the work..

Runnin Good... Hardy Loves eMachines Lappy

2008-05-22T21:38:00.001-04:00

Well the install was pretty uneventful. Setting up wireless was different. I no longer needed the windows driver or ndiswrapper. The ristricted driver saw my hardware and with a reboot I had wireless. My only complaint is that it's a 1 MB/S connection. Now, that doesn't really seem to make any practical difference as it downloads and streams video/music just as fast as always. I would however like it to show a faster connection.

All my usual apps. installed without a hitch and I moved my data from the old home folder to the new one. The machine seems to be a little faster but nothing to blow your socks off. However Firefox 3 is much faster and nicer to use.

Under Gutsy, I always had an annoying issued with sound playback. It would skip at about a 3-5 second interval and continue until playback was stopped. This would happen on nearly every media player except that I had NO PROBLEMS with exaile music player and MPlayer Movie Player. Any thing else and it was an issue...

With Hardy 8.04 installed, I have no more sound issues on this machine.

It seems that something was improved with ALSA or perhaps that now it's running PULSE AUDIO that was the fix. I don't know, but I'm loving it so far...

MUFFY UPDATE: Muffy delivered 7 healthy kittens 3 days ago.... Anyone want a Kitten?

eMachines m6809 - Hardy x86 Install

2008-05-17T18:09:00.000-04:00

I'm backing up my personal laptop right not using Acronis TrueImage. When I'm done, I plan to move my home folder to a save place and then I'm going to wipe the Gutsy partition in preparation for a clean install of Hardy. My current setup runs so well that I've been putting this off, but I can't resist anymore. If it runs like crap or something, I can just restore my disk image and the laptop will never know it was violated. I hope... I'll report back after the install.

Checking in... Muffy escaped...

2008-05-11T23:10:00.001-04:00

I'm just checking in because I haven't posted in a while. Hardy is running well on my desktop but I sure wish a couple of bug fixes would come through. The Pulse Audio vs. Flash Audio bug is a little annoying. The bug where I can't launch my media player is very annoying too. I didn't think the media keyboard button meant so much to me until I didn't have it. Isn't that the way with everything though? I guess I'll just have to wait.

Muffy escaped...

Our cat Muffy is VERY pregnant so we are keeping her in the house that she and kittens will be safe when the birthing day comes. Tonight my daughter left the back door open for a few minutes and she escaped... The great cat hunt was on. Luckily she comes running when the wife calls. After spending about 30 minutes searching the house and the yard, Joy started calling for her. We looked over the back privacy fence and there she was... Too fat to jump back over the fence. My daughter Ericka climbed over the fence and lifted her across. She's back in the house none the worse for the adventure.

That's about it for now. I'll blog more when something good... Oh Wait!!! I forgot. Joy passed her final exams and is finally done with Chemistry and Biology. That was a great thing. She did very good and I'm VERY proud of her achievements. I love you honey...

Hardy Updates

2008-05-03T19:40:00.001-04:00

Well, I'm really liking Hardy Heron aside from some already mentioned bugs. I learned today that unlike previous versions of Ubuntu it really is best to leave the "Proposed Updates" tab unselected in the software sources repositories. The proposed updates that I installed today broke my gnome panel and it wouldn't boot properly either. Luckily I always keep a recent disk image of my latest working system. It only took me about 10 minutes to revert back to a clean working system. Then I removed the proposed updates from my repository list. I had such great luck with the proposed updates under Gutsy Gibbon that I'm a little disappointed.

I also filed a bug report today on "Glipper" clipboard manager/buffer. I kept crashing on reboot and I would have to delete it from the panel and reinstall the applet to make it work again. After reverting to an earlier install of Hardy without the proposed updates however, I'm not having any more problems from it. I'm not sure if Glipper is a problem or if it was the updates that caused the problem. I have had troubles with Glipper before so I think the bug report is in order.

ScribeFire is once again installed on my main system. I'm using it right now to make this blog entry. Since it seems to check and hook into the blog every time the browser is launched I'll disable the extension when not in use. Having it active all the time slows down page loading even when it's not in use.

I'm been experimenting with changing my usplash themes using startup manager. It's really interesting but having problems with Hardy. My Gutsy install on the laptop is looking really good. On Hardy I had to revert to the default to get things working properly.

nVidia 169.12 Splash Screen disabled finally!

2008-04-28T12:19:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally got the nVidia splash screen disabled. It was a matter of adding the option "NoLogo" to the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file as follows:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7900 GT/GTO"
Option "NoLogo"
EndSection

That did the trick and I'm no longer annoyed by the big green splash screen. No thanks to people who posted here to help me. I got the answer in a plea for help from the Ubuntu Forums
Well that's it for now. Just updating the BLOG to keep my notes on tap.

RealPlayer 11 Gold

2008-04-28T12:09:00.000-04:00

Today I installed RealPlayer 11 Gold. The 1st time I installed it I didn't use "sudo" so the binary didn't have proper write permissions and it installed in the home directory. The final result is that it didn't work properly. It would launch but only if I dug through the binary directory installed in my home folder and told it to execute manually. The menu icon/launcher didn't work at all. It gave me some kind of "child process error". So I deleted everything from my hard drive relating to RealPlayer and started over.

This time, I went to the terminal and changed the desktop directory and typed "sudo ./Real" and hit enter. The next thing I know is the install process completed secussfully, and it works as it's supposed to.

Amazon MP3 Downloader for Hardy

2008-04-27T21:10:00.001-04:00

I just downloaded and installed the Amazon MP3 Downloader for Gutsy. There is no Hardy version so far. The good news is that it installed without any problems on Hardy 32-bit. I purchased a song just to make sure it works correctly and it does.

Also, I'm using Scribefire to write this entry on my Gutsy powered laptop. I ordered a new power supply / battery charger for the laptop from eBay for $16. I've been running this laptop with 1% charge on my battery for a long time. I purchased a new battery because it seemed the old battery wouldn't hold a charge. No Dice! Now I had 2 batteries with the same problem. Finally I decided it must be the charger (fingers crossed motherboard wasn't bad) and bought one. It charged my battery to 100% so fast it made my head spin. The laptop is working so slick now that I'm hesitant to start a new OS install of Hardy. I can wait....

Hardy Is Nice...

2008-04-27T15:33:00.000-04:00

Well, I've installed the 32-bit version of Hardy on one of my machines. I LIKE IT! It's net perfect but it's getting closer. FireFox 3 is fast and clean. Man this is so much better than FF 2. Another BIG improvement is in Open Office. It too is much faster. In fact, everything is more responsive. Part of this is due to the indexing services being turned off by default now. Smart move Canonical! I always turn it off from the get go. When I'm searching for files on my HD I use Krusader's search feature. If you want to install Krusader from the command line it's: sudo apt-get install krusader.

Now for the only bug I've ran into so far... PULSE AUDIO vs. FLASH PLAYER. Now Pulse Audio is a good addition but it has issues because Flash Player isn't Pulse aware. The bug simply does this. Flash can't share audio output with any other application so if you are watching a flash video, don't plan to listen to a music player. You will only get sound from the first one that is launched.

I've recently read that 64-bit Hardy doesn't have this bug, but I haven't tested the 64-bit version yet so I don't know for sure. Also there are a couple of work arounds for bug for use with 32 bit, but the most common solutions (adding a special sound lib) seems to cause more problems than it fixes. Personally, I just won't listen to Flash files while trying to use other audio applications (until the developers fix the bug properly).

7 Days To Go...

2008-04-17T20:35:00.000-04:00

There are seven more days to go before the new Ubuntu version is released. I've been reading the development forum and I've got to say, some of the complaints of bugs makes me wonder if it will be a good release in that time frame. I did try the earlier beta and it was all good for me, but it sounds like there are more problems now, then there were then.

Most of the problems I've read about really aren't Ubuntu's but rather Firefox 3 and Adobe Flash. None the less however since these are the packages you will be using once you install Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. No doubt these issues will be worked out in a month or so, but still I wonder if it wouldn't be wiser to wait until these issues are fixed.

My system of upgrades is pretty flawless though, so if it is a problem, it will take me about 3 minutes to restore my working disk image of v. 7.10 anyway. I'm just really hoping that the next 7 days prove to be really productive and these issues are ironed out. My fingers are crossed...

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS - BETA

2008-04-09T12:41:00.000-04:00

I installed the beta of 8.04 a few days ago. I only test drove it for a day. From what I saw it's very impressive. I would have left it on and just kept updating until the final release were it not for being able to properly install AmazonMP3 Downloader. It was an i386 deb file that requires a force install on my x86-64 system. It works fine under Gutsy (7.10) but not under Hardy (8.04).

Anyway, I've decided to do a clean install with all the updates and then image the drive so that I can fine tune 1 piece at a time. All this will wait until the final release in a few days. That will eliminate pulling in so many updates and revisions.

Firefox 3 is awesome as is Thunderbird with the Lightening extension. It's faster and operates more logically with things like sorting the bookmarks and how the buttons work. The Lightening extension is vastly improved in it's layout and feature set. I just can't even go into detail because there is so much to brag about.

Gnome is faster and smoother too. I was going to do my regular tweaks of the system by starting with disabling indexing but I can't find the tool anymore. I'm thinking indexing is not included by default anymore but I could be wrong. I'll have to wait for the final release and start asking questions on this one.

Open Office 2.4 is much improved. It opens faster and that was my biggest complaint with this application.

I found no regressions in hardware support so far. Everything on my main system was detected and supported out of the box. I'll have to wait and see how it all goes on my laptops and other wireless systems.

The new wallpaper is an improvement but I still don't like it much. I wish they would make a couple of different themes to actually choose from during the install. I would prefer a blue theme to an orange and brown one any day.

That's it for now, gotta run...

Pioneer DVR-112L Died

2008-04-03T18:00:00.000-04:00

Monday I downloaded the new Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Beta. I tried to burn the ISO and it failed at 80% with a drive communication error. I figured it was a bad download so I deleted it and downloaded a new copy. The burn failed twice more, then I tried on my other burner and bang! it worked. I did some testing and found that it won't burn CD's any longer but does just fine with DVD's. This isn't acceptable... So I orderd a new Pioneer DVR-115D from newegg.com for $23 bucks (or should I say bucknastys).

Today the new burner arrived. I installed the drive and updated the firmware, and ran a few tests before going to work. It seems to be working fine so far. I'll have to rip & burn a few movies before I give it the 2 thumbs up.

More ScribeFire Stuff...

2008-03-29T16:58:00.001-04:00

It seems that ScribeFire slows down my browser when opening an new page. I tried to combat the effect last week by various tweaks to Firefox and disabling of IPV6. All the tweaks seemed to help a little bit, but still I had sluggish loading of web pages. Finally I turned off the ScribeFire add-on and my browsing speed was back to normal.

Today I decided to blog and turned the extension back on again. I was notified of updates for ScribeFire so I've just now installed the update. Instantly I have noticed that now the spell checker seems to work properly. It worked before but it was buggy in that when a menu was activated you couldn't select the properly suggested word unless you moved the mouse cursor off the menu and sneaked up on the correct / suggested word from the side. It sounds crazy I know, but that's what it required. Now it works perfect.

I'll be leaving the extension enable for a while to see if the browsing speed is once again reduced or not. I'll update this entry once I've made a determination of the results.

Well that didn't take long to determine. Speed is much reduced with this add-on enabled. I will only enable this add-on when I plan to make blog entries. Too sad...

Exciting evening to wrap up easter

2008-03-23T22:43:00.003-04:00

Today was eventful. I have a new neighbor who is preparing to move in across the street. He has spent the past 2 weeks really fixing up the house and cleaning out the mess of a yard the previous dweller left. It turns out that the mess wasn't caused by the previous dweller but rather their next door neighbor Tim.

Tim is kind of a crazy, alcoholic, pill popping crack head. He has been throwing garbage and debris in the yard of the "soon to be" neighbor. Well the new guy has been cleaning out the property for about 12 hours today, and even cleaned up crack-head's property line too. Then he knocked off from the task about 5:30 PM and left for the day.

At about 7:20 PM I was standing in my kitchen and looked out the window. I saw crack-head had returned home in his usual drunken and altered state of mind. I watched him as he stomped around in his yard waiving his arms about and pointing at the cleaned property line. The next thing I saw was crack-head got into his red Ford F-150 and plowed across the property line, ramming the neighbors wood pile (freshly purchased lumber for a new privacy fence) and smashing it to bits, before ripping and spinning the tires across the property and departing. Then I noticed that the new neighbor's front door was no longer there. It seems that the crack-head kicked in the front door and damaged the inside walls as well.

I contacted the new neighbor by telephone and got him and the police out there. I gave a statement to the police and now we're just waiting to see what drama will unfold next.

HAPPY EASTER...

Easter Weekend

2008-03-22T22:33:00.001-04:00

This has been a busy but productive weekend. We finally cleaned up the leaves from the front yard. 90 bags worth. I got my hair cut. I bought my wife a new bicycle at Wal-Mart. I made some custom shelving for the bathroom (the one in the master bedroom). Everything there is now painted bright white and looks really nice. Joy's very happy and now I get to rest. That's about it for now. We are planing to have a baked ham tomorrow by the way.

Cat Gone Missing!!! She's BACK!!!

2008-03-19T00:35:00.001-04:00

Our cat took off for a couple of days and everyone has been looking for her. I was starting to get really worried. Phew! then "Muffin" just showed up on her own tonight thank God. I'll probably get a good nights sleep after all.

FireFox Tweaks

2008-03-17T10:57:00.001-04:00

My web browsing has been running slow lately due to some changes made by Roadrunner in their page redirection and filtering service. Probably some other settings too but I don't know off hand unless it's related to IPV6 implementation....

Anywho.... I did some tweaks to the Firefox settings using the ABOUT:CONFIG process. I found the tweaks here at Ubuntu Geek so far it seems to have made my pages load a little faster and snap onto the screen rather than slowly filling the page. Check out the tweaks, especially disabling the IPV6. I think this is the one that put the pep back into my browser.

ScribeFire

2008-03-16T20:10:00.001-04:00

Okay, I've installed ScribeFire (a Firefox Browser Extension) and I'm testing for my Blogging needs. It looks pretty sophisticated and I like it so far.

Now I've installed ScribeFire (a Firefox Browser Extension) and I'm testing for my Blogging needs. It looks pretty sophisticated and I like it so far.

WOW! This thing is the BOMB!!! I've found my Blogging tool. I'm done for now and unless I have some problems of some kind, ScribeFire gets 2 Thumbs Up!!!

Blogger Tool Update

2008-03-16T19:26:00.000-04:00

It looks like there is no really exceptional tool for posting directly to Blogger.com. I tried a tool called BloGTK that LOOKED exactly like what I wanted. The only problem is that it doesn't connect to the blogsite. It asks for the URL and I input http://www.blogger.com but it won't connect. After trying several times with different settings the application won't even launch anymore. Reinstalling it does no good either. Only after I search the entire HD to find every mention of BloGTK and delete it, will a fresh install cause the application to launch again.

My only complaint about the current tool I'm using is that entering text into the Title section does not enter it into the actual Blog entry title. Instead it's just some text heading of the same size as the regular text. For that reason alone, I'm forced to actually log into the website and move the text into the blog editor section marked Title. Then the font is much larger and a different color. It also them becomes a hyperlink to the actual HTML page where the entry is stored.

Mother-In-Law

2008-03-16T17:39:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: 12:25 AM

Joy and Daniel are home now so they had a safe trip. I talked to Joy's sister Janet and brought her up to speed with the situation. All that can be done for the day is done, and we're turning in for the night. Sleep? We'll see, but it probably won't be a restful night in this family.

UPDATE: 9:03 PM

Joy called again. She's on her way home. She advises that her mother (Betty) is resting and will have an MRI in the morning. Joy has a lab test in the morning and doesn't want to miss that. We plan to go back to Raleigh next weekend to check on her.

UPDATE: 8:30 PM

Joy just called me and said her mother is out of danger for now and resting in the hospital. The medical staff thinks she had a seizure instead of a stroke. That's good news for the moment, but testing has to be performed to determine the cause.

BAD NEWS:

Joy (My wife) got a call from her Step-Father today and she is headed out of town right now. It seems that her mother is en route to the hospital ER due to probable stroke. She left in a hurry and I'm worried about the situation right now. I couldn't go with her due to work but she took one of the boys with her. I'm hoping to hear from her soon.

New ATI Video Driver

2008-03-16T17:22:00.000-04:00

So ATI finally came out with an updated video driver for all my ATI cards. I downloaded the Envy installer program and updated my Ubuntu 7.10 systems to the new 8.3 driver.

Now I have desktop effects and everything is just great. It doesn't slow the system at all when desktop effects are running. I get the same FPS in glxgears weather it's turned on or not. I'm really starting to like my ATI video cards again.

Amazon MP3 Downloader / nVidia Driver Update

2008-02-10T12:20:00.000-05:00

Today my laptop is sporting some new software and music. I contacted Amazon.com and requested a Ubuntu Linux version of their MP3 downloader software. A couple of days later a 32-bit deb was in my email. I did a force architecture install on my 64-bit Ubuntu powered laptop. I used getlibs and grabbed some missing 32-bit libraries and the program launched without a hitch. Next I purchased a few MP3's and let the new software do it's magic. I was presently surprised. It worked perfectly. No issues at all. I expect they will soon have a 64-bit deb file ready, but it doesn't really matter. Just grab the 32-bit and you're set.

A week has gone by since installing the newest nVidia graphics driver. I have to say it works very nicely, but I'd love to get rid of that login splash screen.

If anyone knows how to kill the splash screen (Logo Screen) on the new 169.09 nVidia driver, please let me know. The old xorg.conf entry isn't working on the new driver.

nVidia 169.09 / Envy install

2008-02-03T00:36:00.000-05:00

Today I reinstalled the 169.09 driver again using Envy. I first installed Envy and then disabled the Ubuntu restricted driver. Next (using the Envy software) I removed the current nVidia driver.

After doing all this, a reboot was required. Then I used Envy to install the new driver and rebooted the machine again. All seems good so far...

Then I tested to see that 3D was working by launching glxgears and some 3D games. All was still well. Then I tried to enable desktop effects, and it told me I must turn on the restricted driver again. I can't understand why the 3D GL games are working and the desktop effects don't unless enabling the restricted stuff. It would seem that the restricted driver was already being used, but Ubuntu doesn't recognize it as so unless you go the the restricted driver manager and "Tick" the enabled check box.

Well, I went ahead and enabled it and all seems to work okay. Man, I did find out that turning on the desktop effects, SERIOUSLY slows down the FPS reported by glxgears. What's up with that? Anyway, I don't use the desktop effects unless I'm showing off or something.

The other strange thing about this driver is that when I use nvidia-settings applet to set my refresh rate to 85Hz (where I usually keep it), the Ubuntu resolution applet reports 121Hz. nvidia-settings reports it correctly, the xorg.conf shows it set the 85Hz, but the darn Ubuntu applet still shows 121Hz. No one in the Ubuntu Forums wants to help out as usual for me lately.

I'm still waiting for some help with the Remote Desktop usage.

Remote Desktop Connection? How?

2008-01-27T17:03:00.000-05:00

Today I've been trying to figure out how to set up a remote desktop connection. So far I've tried entering "rdesktop ip.address.to.remote" and had no luck at all. I was told that I need to open up my Firestarter (firewall UI) and open up port 3389 on the host. So I did that (sort of), I don't know if that policy is for the outbound, or inbound traffic. I assumed inbound and it did nothing.

Next, I just turned off the firewall on the remote system all together to see if that would do the trick... Nothing...

Next, I noticed that on the Remote Desktop connection GUI from the system menu, there was a vpn command and it told me to use that. I entered that into a terminal screen and once again nothing happened.

Now I've turned to the Ubuntu Forums for help again. This time I requested an exact step by step procedure but so far no help.

I sure wish someone would notice my blog, and offer some help. I'll post back with the solution once I figure out what that is...

nVidia driver 169.09 installed

2008-01-22T12:28:00.000-05:00

Well, today I learned how to stop the X server with this command:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

then I ran the installer with:

sudo sh nvidia-file-name.run

then to restart X:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

By the way, gdm stands for "graphical display mamanger" which on my system is the "X" windows manager.

The installer went without a hitch and I now have the 169.09 driver installed, and Compiz-Fusion running just fine. I found no problems with video playback or resolution issues after letting the installer update my xorg.conf file.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

nVidia driver - UPDATE

I rebooted my machine today and was greeted with low graphics mode. I tried everything under the sun to correct the problem (short of reinstalling the 169.09 driver) and nothing I could do worked. I can only guess that I should have removed the older driver versions and disabled the restricted driver from the manager prior to install. If anyone knows the proper way to go about this, then let me know.

Prior to installing the newer drivers, I made a full backup (disk image) using Acronis True Image WS 7.1. The final fix for my driver issue was to restore the disk which had the repository installed restricted driver. Well it seems is back to normal now, but I'd really like to have the newest driver working properly.

I plan to do a clean install and install the new driver before any of the others and see if this cures any issues. If it does, then I'll slowly build my OS (Tweaks / Apps) back to the current state. As this will probably be a long process, I'll only work on it every few days, back it up with Acronis, the restore my current working OS until the new one is fully cooked.

Sony Vaio VGN-S460B woes...

2008-01-13T14:31:00.000-05:00

This morning I've been fighting with my wife's laptop. It's a Sony Vaio VGN-S460B craptop. It dual boots Windows XP Pro and Ubuntu 7.10. The thing is that once you turn off the computer it won't boot again. It either won't give a BIOS screen or halts at a keyboard error. It locks at this point and the only thing that seems to work (but not consistently) is to remove all power sources, hit the power button a few times the reconnect everything. After doing this a few times (like 25) it will finally boot.

It's had new memory installed (1.2GB), keyboard cleaned, battery replaced, power supply replaced. I hate this thing.

Now, to make matters worse, my wife really only likes using windows and the wireless works less that 10% of the time.

Using Ubuntu 7.10 the wireless is rock solid, but I can't get my wife to adjust. One big problem with Ubuntu is that it won't shut down properly most of the time. When the shutdown process is started, the screen will begin to fade and the screen will go corrupt then finally it will go black. The computer just sits there still powered on. You have to press and hold the power button to finally shut the computer off.

If I could fix the shut down issue with Ubuntu, I think I MIGHT get her to use it more. It sure is less problematic than windows on this Craptop. Perhaps the next Ubuntu release will cure the issue.