Category Archives: tech

technical schtuff I want to see here

HP-WWAN (2300) card under Ubuntu 11.10

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seems the WWAN (3G module) is not switched by the hardware switch in my Compaq 6910p under Ubuntu 11.10
In Windows I need to run some tool that is branded by Vodafone, in ubuntu now there is rfkill.

andreasr@komm-pack:/sys/class/rfkill$ rfkill list
0: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
2: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
3: hp-bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
4: hp-wwan: Wireless WAN
Soft blocked: yes < ---------- Hard blocked: no

so we do:

andreasr@komm-pack:/sys/class/rfkill$ sudo rfkill unblock 4

result:

andreasr@komm-pack:/sys/class/rfkill$ rfkill list
0: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
2: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
3: hp-bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
4: hp-wwan: Wireless WAN
Soft blocked: no < ----------- Hard blocked: no andreasr@komm-pack:/sys/class/rfkill$

and there it is:

disable again by using "rfkill block"

Linux (Ubuntu/GRUB) on ASUS P5Q-E

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To successfully install Linux on ASUS’ P5Q-E motherboard the following _must_ be done (and will fail when you reset the BIOS)

1. Under MAIN / Storage Configuration, ‘configure
SATA as’ must be set to [AHCI]. This allowed the kernel to find my disks
and boot.

2. I experienced some weird USB problems while booting, and so under
ADVANCED / USB Configuration, I had to change ‘BIOS EHCI
Hand-Off’ to [Disabled].

3. For good luck, I also made sure ACPI 2.0 was enabled under power
saving. (off by default)

I have not heard from anyone getting Q-fan and/or EPU 6-engine (ASUS’ power saving / dynamic under-/overclocking software) to work under Linux.

Pity…

shiny new hardware

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I got myself new toys (finally!) :)
n800_1 n800_2 e60

I got a “compensation payment” from my previous employer, unexpected, that is. And such money needs to be spend immediately :P

The Nokia N800 “Internet tablet” – basically a 800×480 touchscreen that runs linux ;)
Well, it’s a bit more than that. The screen is just amazing, featuring 220 DPI (!) displaying virtually any PDF or website without having to zoom.
WPA2 WLAN encryption, (unfortunately, there is no VPN client, yet.. but as the OS is Debian-based, it can be only a matter of time till someone ports vpnc to it’s developer platform, Maemo).
(I am waiting for Skype (with video) and a good PIM, then this device is perfect!!!)
If there is no WLAN access, it connects through my mobile phone, using bluetooth.
I can listen to AAC+ music streams (like SomaFM) on it, read my email, well… it does almost anything I want ;)
Once I have trained the handwriting recognition, I can also skip the iPhone-style on-screen thumb-keyboard (basically a neat idea, but so slooow…)

Also: I got myself a Nokia E60 “business” cellphone, which has no camera but amazing PIM and document/internet functions and VoIP over WLAN capabilities! So whenever I am at home it switches from “cell phone” to VoIP, how cool is that? ;)
And finally… Now I can sync with my iCal and address book again..

I like its “retro” look a lot, now that people buy phones by colour and ringtone-variety, I buy a phone that looks old but at a close look has fantastic functions.
A N95 or N73 would also have been interesting but I realized that VoIP and long battery life is way more important than having a multimedia computer with you. (besides, that’s what I have the n800 for) :P
One device that does everything somehow.. well.. I tried that with the C500 “smartphone” (which is understatement, it runs windows mobile) :P and I decided I don’t want a smartphone anymore. I will wait till voice recogniton is better and people have PADDs everywhere.

Hey, wait! There is a “PADD” skin, look here
Continue reading →

back to the roots

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I thought I had been spared.. I thought I was lucky as usual.
But it seems I wasn’t this time. My MacBook has RSS :(
(Random Shutdown Syndrome)

It is sent now away to get a new Mainboard and a new heatsink… 8 working days. Apple apparently expects a _LOT_ of units being replaced the next months.
At least they don’t make a fuzz about it and just take it in for replacement.

Now that I had the Mac OS X Experience for more than 2 months and all of a sudden am back with Ubuntu Linux on my old 400Mhz VAIO I know that once the warranty of the macbook is over I will run ubuntu on it ;)

Ubuntu and suspend2

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I am using Ubuntu “Dapper Drake” for a while now and I am truly impressed how far the Linux community has pushed this. It’s nearly perfect.
Of course, some work is needed and one will actually have to read at least one website to get mp3 working (did I mention that patents and copyrights suck badly?)
But everything is usually resolved quickly after looking into the forums once.

What Ubuntu lacks at the moment is good hibernation support.
Software Suspend 2 is a project that gives Linux the ability to hibernate the PC just like in Windows XP. Problem is, you have to patch the kernel for it to work with Ubuntu. Beginners don’t like that. :P

Here’s a nice person that has written a nice howto and has provided custom (experimental) kernels to use with software suspend 2:
http://dagobah.ucc.asn.au/dapper-kernels/

Thank you very much!!!

P.S.: And to speed up the whole thing there is a neat script: faster-dapper

alarm clock for the “difficult cases”

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for all those that sleep long and always find ways to switch off the alarm clock before waking up there is help: *grins at Anna*

This alarm clock ejects pieces of a puzzle when buzzing and won’t switch off before you have found all pieces of the puzzle (which are scattered around your room).

It’s cruel.. but highly effective ;)

seen at OhGizmo.com, to be purchased at bimbambanana.com – all great gadget sites.
To name a few more: there is gizmodo.com, iwantoneofthose.com, shinyshiny.tv and of course thinkgeek.com for the extreme geeks ;)

Death and rebirth

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My Mainboard did not survive the moving to Aachen, it seems.. 2 weeks after moving in a capacitor blew on my ASUS A7M266-D, rendering this beautiful dual-cpu board unusable :'(

As it is a quite exotic server/workstation board, spare parts are expensive as hell and a replacement cost ~750 Dollars (no joke) because ASUS recently declared it “end of life” making it a “most wanted” board for those that can’t afford changing hardware.
Suckers :P

Now, having good friends *hugs Sir Cubbi* I was given a replacement board. And I did what usually never works, I just plugged it in, connected my hardware and booted windows. After 30 minutes of hardware detection, a lot of restarting and a new activation of Windows XP I was able to use my system again. I’m running Cubbi’s 800Mhz “Thunderbird” processor now but I don’t really see much difference in performance from my 2x1500Mhz that I had before. That should teach me a lesson not to go for speed anymore in the future…

Ok.. this saves me from painful reinstallation of Windows. *grin*
(at least till I get a decent replacement.. dual core athlon or whatever)
And by the way: Fedora Core 5 will be released March 15th…
Please, please keep me away from the Install CDs till I finish my exams :D

It’s still 5 days to go till the Biochemistry exam. I must not fail this one!

read mail…

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Learning Linux – part 2

yesterday I learned how to read mail – really fast in Linux/Unix

the command for this is rm -rf * (isn’t it obvious?)

Thanks, Cubbi, for giving me this most valuable tip :P