OSS Notebook

Ubuntu 11.10 on Lenovo Q150

2012-01-22T15:50:00.000-08:00

Jan 22 2012: I updated the post and added instructions to describe the sound settings for HDMI using Ubuntu 11.10. This post instructions should work on 11.10 and 11.04, but I recomend using 11.10.

The Lenovo Q150 comes Atom D510 and the nvidia Ion gfx, 2GB of ram and a 250 GB HD, but mine is running with a OCZ Vertex 2 disk and 4 Gb of memory to improve the speed.

I decided to install the 64 bit version of Ubuntu. I also installed:

ubuntu tweak
miro
minitube (youtube player, without flash)
huludesktop
skype
chromium

How to add Ubuntu-tweak

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

XBMC install:

# Install the nvidia drivers to be able to start xbmc, the open source drivers won't work. You can do that by going to "System Settings" and run the "Additional drivers" app on Ubuntu followed by a reboot. After this install xmbc

sudo apt-get install xbmc

You can get all the other applications from Ubuntu Tweak or Ubuntu Software Center.

The latest version of Ubuntu contains updates to the kernel, alsa and nouveau nvidia drivers.

- The new opensource video drivers seems as fast as the proprietary drivers when playing video and this is great, but flash is a little bit faster with the nvidia drivers.

- It also detects the nvidia HDMI sound card and sound works out of the box.

- Basic installation from a USB key works fine.

- HDMI/VGA and sound out, little USB keyboard/mouse works fine.

- Dual boot with Windows 7 works fine. But since I got a SSD installed on the Q150, I removed windows.

- Video acceleration at 1080p works great for Miro, mplayer, minitube, vlc, xmbc with the opensource drivers. Sound works out of the box for xmbc, with default settings.

- Wireless card works out of the box as well as the Ethernet drivers. In the Ubuntu 10.10 and 10.04, I had some problems to get the Ethernet driver to work without a cold reboot, but now it seems to work flawless.

Problems I found:

- Flash video acceleration does not work as fast as in windows, it uses more CPU, I think this is because flash on linux does not have gfx acceleration.

- With the the nvidia opensource drivers Ubuntu sometimes freezes, this normally happens when using Unity or playing Videos. I assume this is related with 3d or video acceleration stuff since using just the browser does not seem to create problems. You need to reboot Q150 if this happens. With video nvidia drivers seems to be stable. I'm currently using the nvidia drivers.

Wake up from usb wireless keyboard

You need to enabled USB wake up, in /proc/acpi/wakeup

# cat /proc/acpi/wakeup

sudo -s

echo USB0 > /proc/acpi/wakeup

echo USB1 > /proc/acpi/wakeup

echo USB2 > /proc/acpi/wakeup

echo USB3 > /proc/acpi/wakeup

echo EUSB > /proc/acpi/wakeup

This will allow you to suspend the machine use the wireless usb keyboard to wake up.

Wake up from at certain time

# Check alarm is not step

cat /proc/driver/rtc

# clear alarm, is need before setting

sudo sh -c "echo 0 > /sys/class/rtc/rtc0/wakealarm"

# Set alarm

sudo sh -c "echo `date -u --date "Aug 9, 2010 00:05:00" +%s` > /sys/class/rtc/rtc0/wakealarm"

# Check alarm time

cat /sys/class/rtc/rtc0/wakealarm

cat /proc/driver/rtc

How to use sound over HDMI

If you install nvidia drivers sound should work out of the box for HDMI, the open source drivers don't support sound over hdmi. After installing the nvidia drivers and a reboot, just go to sound Preferences and select Hardware->"High Definition Audio Controller" to "Digital Stereo (HDMI) nr 4 Output", and disable the other sound devices. In my case I had to play with that setting, it looks like only one setting works for me: "Digital Stereo (HDMI) nr 4 Output". None of the others produce a sound. This was done using Ubuntu 11.10.

Reference for timed wake:

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/ACPI_Wakeup#Using_.2Fsys.2Fclass.2Frtc.2Frtc0.2Fwakealarm

Older Posts

Lenovo Q150, OCZ vertex 2, 4Gb of Memory and Ubuntu 11.04.

Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick on Lenovo Q150

Arduino code for Gaui 330X quad copter

2011-06-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

I've been doing some work with arduino and GAUI 330X. In this example we controlling the throttle speed of the engines. On the 330X throttle is also used to reset and config the ESCs (4 small boards that control the power to the engines and speed).

I removed the blades and replace those with plastic circles, so I can test the code without having the 330x flying all over the place.

Since I don't own a radio/receiver, it took me a while to get the 330X configure and working.

This example, should allow you to configure the ESCs, and start the 330X, and throttle the engine up and down with the potenciometer.

One thing I didn't realize for a while is that the ESCs are the ones that beep (not the GU334), and since all four are connected to the GU3344 is difficult to configure them because they all beep at same time and are not really synchronized, so you can't really figure out what is the current state of each one.

Probably in the future, I need to figure out a easy way to configure the ESC one by one, without redoing all the wiring.

This code should be used with a potenciometer on pin analog 1.

The wires from GU334 gyroscope should connected to the arduino in the order below:

yellow is the rudder wire connect to pin 9
orange is the throttle wire connect to pin 10
red is the int elevator wire connect to pin 11
green is the gain/gear don't connect this wire
white is the aileron wire connect to pin 12 (this connector also has power (3 wires). Only connect the white wire to the arduino)

GU334 wires behave like servos, so you can use the servo arduino library, to control the GU334.

Just take it consideration that 90(the user is not pushing the controls) is the neutral value on the servo and 0(user pushing the controls backwards at max) is max backwards value and 180(user pushing the controls forward at max) is max forward value.









#include 



int aileronPin = 12;

int rudderPin = 9;

int throttlePin = 10;

int elevatorPin = 11;

int gainPin = 8;

int potPin = 1;



Servo aileron;  //White

Servo rudder;   //Yellow

Servo throttle; //Orange

Servo elevator; //Red

Servo gain;     //Green (Gain/Gear)



void arm(){

setSpeed(aileron, 90);

setSpeed(rudder, 90);

setSpeed(throttle, 90);

setSpeed(elevator, 90);

setSpeed(gain, 90);

delay(1000);

}



void setSpeed(Servo &s, int speed){

if (s.read() != speed) {

s.write(speed);

Serial.print(speed);

Serial.print("\n");

}

}



void setup() {

aileron.attach(aileronPin);

rudder.attach(rudderPin);

throttle.attach(throttlePin);

elevator.attach(elevatorPin);

gain.attach(gainPin);

Serial.begin(9600);

arm();

}



void loop() {

int foo = analogRead(potPin);

setSpeed(aileron,90);

setSpeed(rudder,90);

setSpeed(throttle,map(foo,0,1023,0,180));

setSpeed(rudder,90);

setSpeed(elevator,90);

setSpeed(gain,90);

delay(10);

}

NOTE: Created a library for arduino to control the Gaui 330X available here https://github.com/hagleitn/QuadCopter/

DFU Mode Arduino UNO without soldering

2011-06-05T13:32:00.000-07:00

I did these steps after I loaded and "empty" sketch to the board.

Code:

void setup(){}

void loop(){}

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

INSTALL THE DFU PROGRAMMER (console commands)
-----------------------------------------------------------------

$ sudo aptitude install dfu-programmer

-----------------------------------------------------------------
DOWNLOAD AND VERIFY THE FIRMWARE (console commands)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
$ wget --no-check-certificate https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/raw/master/hardware/arduino/firmwares/arduino-usbserial/Arduino-usbserial-uno.hex
$ md5sum Arduino-usbserial-uno.hex
8e01ee236e70bbea43f7eb4e11c9688a Arduino-usbserial-uno.hex

-----------------------------------------------------------------
PUT ARDUINO UNO IN DFU MODE (see Picture)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
0) connect your board to the pc

1) insert 2 wires in GND pins according to the picture above

2) hold the "wire 1" on the top left 8u2 ICSP pad (AREF)

3) touch the "wire 2" against the left side of the capacitor below the RX LED (leds will blink)

4) remove the "wire 2" wire

5) remove the "wire 1" wire

NOTE: in step 3, my board actually has 2 capacitors instead of one like displayed in the picture, use the capacitor below the RX LED.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
UPLOAD THE NEW FIRMWARE (console commands)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
$ sudo dfu-programmer at90usb82 erase
$ sudo dfu-programmer at90usb82 flash Arduino-usbserial-uno.hex
$ sudo dfu-programmer at90usb82 reset

-----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL STEP
-----------------------------------------------------------------
disconnect the board from the pc
reconnect it and you are done

NOTE: when you are done remove dfu-programmer package from Ubuntu since this package require the arduino IDE and some other tools and those versions don't work with Arduino UNO board.

Most of these instructions were copied form MementoMori posts on
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,52447.0.html

Measure network speed between 2 machines

2011-04-08T01:34:00.000-07:00

install

sudo apt-get install iperf

run on machine A
iperf -s

run on machine B
iperf -c IP_OF_MACHINE_A

Android LG optimus v factory reset

2011-03-15T22:34:00.000-07:00

NOTE: didn't worked for me, I returned the phone in the end.

Android LG optimus v factory reset
1. Turn off your LG Optimus V.

2. Press and hold the following keys for over 5 seconds: Down volume key + Home + Power

3. When the power turns on, release these keys.

3G Drops & Standby Battery Drain (Solutions)

The steps were as follows:

* Check "Time Without a Signal": Home, Menu, Settings, About Phone, Battery Use, click "Cell Standby" and not the value. It should be close to 0% if you've been in 3G range. 50% indicates a definite problem.

To "Fix" - Note the original poster says this change will reset if you reboot the phone and need to be redone:

* Dial *#*#4636#*#* which will go to the phone's "Testing" menu.
* Click "Phone Information", then Menu, then click "Select radio band".
* Click "Force Close" and return back to "Phone Information"
* Scroll down to "Set preferred network type:"
* Click the "Set preferred network type:" button and select "CDMA only".
* Click the "Set preferred network type:" button again and reselect "CDMA auto (PRL)".

As mentioned in the link, now charge your phone to reset the battery usage statistics and after an hour or so monitor the "Time without a signal" value. The problem seems to be from an incorrect network type value that is originally set/saved despite it showing the correct value.

Some people also note that they get better battery usage with WiFi left on vs 3G. I'm not sure if this is due to this issue or not, but I'll do further tests leaving WiFi on tonight after a full recharge.

The default WiFi "Sleep Policy" on the Optimus V is set to turn WiFi off "When screen turns off". If WiFi is truely better, then one would need to set this to "Never". (Note on some other phones WiFi defaults to "Never" sleep.) To change the setting:

* Home, Menu, Settings, Wireless & Network, Wi-Fi Settings
* Click the Menu button and select "Advanced"
* Select "Wi-Fi sleep policy" and change to the desired value

Note: this information was copied from the links below for personal reference.

3G Drops & Standby Battery Drain (Solutions)
http://androidforums.com/lg-optimus-v/293583-3g-drops-standby-battery-drain-solutions.html

LG Optimus V Factory Reset
http://www.lg-phones.org/lg-optimus-v-factory-reset.html

TMobile network speed using HTC G2 tethered to my old R50p

2011-02-09T00:27:00.001-08:00

Here are a couple of TMobile network speed tests servers using my G2 and tethering to my old thinkpad R50p.

Reporting appliance power consumption over powerline

2011-02-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

Here is a idea I had for appliances resource consumption reporting (ARC).

This post describes an appliance standard for energy consumption reporting, with extensions to report consumption of other resources. (Powerline products extend Internet access to any existing power outlet. Netgear and other brands sell devices with this techonology).

Below a a description of a method of producing and distributing this information in a home network environment with support for powerline networking:

Add built-in powerline (network using the electrical cables) support to a fridge, toaster, microwave, tv, ps3, xbox etc. This would allow all appliances to be connect to a in home network. I'm assuming this would add 10-50$ extra to the cost of producing the appliances.
Add power-line support to home routers (dlink, netgear and all other brands of wireless routers should come with power-line support by default).
Create a standard for the appliances to find the home routers using the powerline connection, without configuration. Appliances would publish the energy consumption to the router. This would be done using a HTTPS PUT request with the appliance name, appliance unique ID, appliance TYPE (kind of like mime type, but for appliances), the period in minutes (5,15,30 minutes), and the number of watts spent in that amount of time, other types of consumption would also apply. Date and time are marked on the router, to avoid requiring that all appliances have a built in synchronized clock. All arguments are be passed in json format and included on the body of the HTTP message.

Example of the JSON for a fridge composed of 2 devices

     "devices":

             "name": "Samsung Fridge",

             "id": "Samsung Fridge M-2345 SERIAL5-23234-8765",             "type": "refrigeration/fridge",
             "data":              
             [
                 {
                    "resource": "energy",
                    "unit": "watt",
                    "minutes": 15, 
                    "consumption": 400,                 },
                 {
                    "resource": "water",                    "unit": "mL",
                    "minutes": 15,                     "consumption": 550,
                 },             ]
         }
         {     
             "name": "Samsung Ice Maker",
             "id": "Samsung Ice Maker M-2345 SERIAL5-23234-8765",             "type": "refrigeration/icemaker",
             "data":
             [                  {
                    "resource": "water",                    "unit": "mL",
                    "minutes": 15,                     "consumption": 100,
                 }             ]
         }       ]

Example for a TV composed of 2 devices

     "devices":

             "name": "Sony Plasma TV",

             "id": "Sony Plasma TV M-2SDF5 SN HGJF72635-987-P,             "type": "entertainment/tv",
             "data":
             [
                 {
                    "resource": "energy",
                    "unit": "watt",
                    "minutes": 15,
                    "consumption": 300,                 },
                 {
                    "resource": "data",                    "unit": "KiB",
                    "minutes": 15,                     "consumption": 134235,
                 },             ]
         }
         {     
             "name": "Sony Plasma TV - Google TV",
             "id": "Sony Plasma TV - Google TV M-2SDF5 SN HGJF72635-987-P,
             "type": "entertainment/webtv",
             "data":
             [                  {
                    "resource": "data",                    "unit": "KiB",
                    "minutes": 15,                     "consumption": 1983335,
                 },             ]
         }       ]


The wireless router receives the request from the appliance and timestamps the request and caches it. At a certain specific interval the cached requests are uploaded to a pre configured wed site, selected by the user.
This setup allows the user to use the router interface to configure where all appliances ARC messages should be delivered.
The wireless router needs to allow the user to forward all messages to a third party webservice (this service would be able to provide reports and display monthly aggregated data).
The router can have built-in data aggregation and reporting for ARC. But the option to forward ARC messages still needs to be available to the user, to allow for a open standard.

This is just an idea, would be great if a standards body could come up with a patent free and open standard that implements ARC.

It would be great to have the appliance, electronics and "wifi/powerline routers" manufacturers supporting a standard like ARC with their devices.

This is just an idea I wanted to put out there. This document was created on 6 Feb 2011.

Lenovo Q150, OCZ vertex 2, 4Gb of Memory and Ubuntu 11.04

2011-02-05T13:58:00.000-08:00

Old related post Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick on Lenovo Q150

This time I wanted to speed up the the Q150.

I love the Q150, since I got it the disk access seems slow and I wanted to add a bit more memory for disk cache and desktop speed up.

So I got a 60Gb OCZ Vertex 2 for 129$ and corsair 4Gb DDRII 800Mhz for 99$, pics below.

So here are some basic stats with the new hardware.

30s Boot (11s for bios and grub 19s for ubuntu)

5s suspend sleep

5s suspend wake

4s shutdown

Disk speed for OCZ vertex 2

$ sudo hdparm -T -t /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1:
Timing cached reads: 1656 MB in 2.00 seconds = 827.89 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 582 MB in 3.00 seconds = 193.75 MB/sec

Everything is snappier:

Firefox loads in 2s
Chromium in 1s
LibreOffice Calc in 6s.
Hulu desktop loads and plays video in 10s.

The machine is still using a Atom CPU, so no miracles can be expected. With almost no noise and 24W power consumption this machine is very useful. It can also attach to the back of any monitor or TV and provides a great web computer to play mpeg videos at full speed and browse websites.

PS3 black screen and freeze with Netflix, Hulu plus, MLB.tv and Home

2010-12-22T01:55:00.000-08:00

I spent a few days trying to figure out why my netflix, hulu and Home stop working on my PS3.

I tried everything, formatting the hd, reset to default settings, change resolution, hold the POWER button for 5 secs, reinstalling those Applications, nothing worked.

The only thing that worked was to reinstall firmware 3.55 again using the following instructions.

Follow "Activating Safe Mode" from the link below and then select the option to update the firmware from a USB drive.

http://us.playstation.com/support/answer/index.htm?a_id=1488

Get the firmware from the link below put it on the right PS3/update folder on a USB key/drive:
http://us.playstation.com/support/systemupdates/ps3/pc_update/index.htm

After the firmware was updated to the same 3.55 version I already had, NetFlix, Hulu, MLB.TV and Home all magically started to work again.

So it seems that Sony screwed up, with the update made from inside XMB in some manner.

I hope this is useful to someone else, I wish I could get back my last 4 days wasted on this stupid problem.

This is not related to OSS, but I think sharing this will save lot of hours to someone else out there and maybe they will use those some OSS code. :)

A feature to move running apps between different graphical sessions

2010-11-23T23:37:00.000-08:00

I would love to see a feature on Wayland or xorg, that would allow for a running application to move from one graphical server to another, if the user has permissions for that.

I know this is tricky. But it would be super useful.

Imagine is a user has his desktop running and fully loaded with apps, and then it uses ssh or nxclient to connect to that machine.

The user would be able to list all graphical apps running under his id in any display servers are running on that machine.

It would then be possible run some command to transfer the output of a certain app to your current display server.

When the user is done with the app, the app should return to the original display server.

All of this would work without ever having to close or restart the app.

Sweet dreams :)

Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop Video Players

2010-11-12T00:06:00.000-08:00

I got some time to record a demo with the Video players in Ubuntu 10.10, playing HD Video.

Bluetooth Headset on Ubuntu

2010-11-11T22:57:00.000-08:00

Pulse audio device choser:

sudo apt-get install paprefs paman padevchooser

Switch to PulseAudio by going into System -> Preferences -> Sound. Go into the Devices tab and change the Sound playback option for everything from Autodetect to PulseAudio Sound Server.

Use the gnome Bluetooth device wizard to pair your headset to the desktop

When the device is in pair mode you can type to learn the device unique ID
$ hcitool scan
Scanning ...
00:1F:82:28:XX:XX DR-BT101

create the file in $HOME/.asoundrc with the correct device ID:

pcm.bluetooth {
type bluetooth
device 00:1F:82:28:XX:XX
profile "auto"
}

type to test if the it's working:

mplayer -ao alsa:device=bluetooth ANY_MP3_FILE.mp3

Ubuntu Jaunty 64 bit:

You need some extra 32 bit libraries to make skype bluetooth work on Ubuntu 64 bit.

getlibs:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=474790

Skype:


getlibs -p bluez

getlibs -p bluez-alsa

A more sophisticated Bluetooth Manager (not needed):

Add this source
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/blueman/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

Do not update your system with the new version of bluez from this source.

type to replace default gnome bluetooth applet with blueman type:

sudo apt-get install blueman

Disable this source.

G2 review, rooting and Wifi tether.

2010-10-16T14:21:00.000-07:00

I got the new G2 from TMobile (full price), It sounded like a great device when I got it according to the specs and the standard android build.

But HTC and TMobile got together to remove some functionality from the hardware and software and deceive the their customers by never document these restrictions, in the store or the documentation that comes with the device.

The bad:
- The G2 has a anti root mechanism
- The 4Gb internal storage is consumer fraud, the device might have a 4G internal storage but the user is only allowed to use 1.3Gb from the 4GB. Terrible deal for the price and similar devices like the Samsung Vibrant has 16Gb built in storage available and visible to the user, except for OS binaries. The G2 is missing 2Gb, the OS reporting tools don't even display 4Gb anywhere.
- The G2 has built in apps that you can't remove, twitter, web2go, quickoffice and photobucket. It's ok to pre-install these, but blocking the customer from removing these apps is a terrible idea.
- Tmobile changed market to have a useless TMobile tab and make it more difficult to get to your downloads.

The G2 uses a standard android build without any UI changes and I love that, but TMobile went the extra mile to block the customers that own the device from installing a new version of OS on the device or removeing stock apps. Rooting the device and removing stock apps is disabled on the G2.

With the new OTA, Tmobile WIFI calling was added to standard android 2.2 OS, at least this is a positive change for owners of a G2.

The Hardware:
- The network speed is fast, see the image below.
- The device is Fast.
- I love the keyboard.
- Camera and video is good, but it is a little slow if you need a fast picture, but the camera button and the LED flash are very useful.
- The screen is great.
- Only has one microphone, does not have sounds cancelling with multi microphones as other devices on the market, but it works fine.
- Battery lasts a day, depend on the usage some times not even a full day, but compared to my G1 is similar.
- The power button is not that great, difficult to press and seems like it might break easily, and since you have to press it multiple times per day, does not look like is going to last. It is very similar to the Nexus One.
- I love the volume button, big and usefull.
- I like the camera button.
- I like the 3 configurable buttons on the keyboard, I associated the gtalk, maps and browser to these, but you can associate any apps.
- I love the phone look and the metal back.

What would I change if I could:
- I would install a standard vanilla android build with 2.1, with root access so I can do whatever I want with my device.
- HTC should send a CD or USBKey with a software to restore the phone to the standard android OS image to save user from bloat-ware, spy-ware etc.

How to get root on the G2.
- Paul O’Brien has created an application that will provide quick one-click rooting for users. Get VISONary Paul's website.
- You might need to shut-down the G2 and remove the battery and restart to make VISIONary work, but after this it works great, and you can start blue-tooth tether.
- You can also use my backup pro or titanium backup to backup your device now that you have root on the device.

References:
http://phandroid.com/2010/10/14/visionary-gives-t-mobile-g2-users-a-one-click-root-solution/
http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/

Detailed review with pics:

http://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=425

My speed test on the G2:

Updates after the OTA:

- I got the OTA, I've been running it for 2 weeks now. The phone is more stable, I don't have a freeze or reboot for 2 weeks.
- USB and WIFI tethering is enabled in this new OTA.

- There is also a WIFI calling feature from tmobile and it works.

The 2 things that stills annoys me is after the OTA are:

- that I can't remove the bloatware that tmobile injected in the OS. (So I might change it to another ROM later because of this, I always have to get all the updates for the bloatware to avoid the android notifications for those.

- The phone has some ROM write protection, to disallow the owners that payed the full price of the phone, to install a new version of the OS, this makes no sense and should be not be legal. But this is the mobile market we have today.

- I just wish that HTC or TMobile learned that I am the customer and the phone I payed full price is mine and I should be able do whatever I want with the phone, without having to find hacks and exploits. Give me a clean standard OS image without mods or bloatware that I can install, put it on HTC website or on TMobile web site and allow me to remove the bloatware from the phone, and only support that in case I call for support.

- The 4GB I payed for are still not available with the OTA, I can only see 1.8GB of internal storage, sad so sad :(

All that said:

This phone is amazing. Super fast, lasts me all day with WIFI/Bluetooth/GPS on. I use it to play podcasts for 6 hours or more per day and play these with stereo blue-tooth headsets. I also do normal usage of calling and web-browsing. Somehow the battery seems to last longer with the new OTA update. :)

How to use vpnc with a cisco vpn server

2010-09-16T22:22:00.000-07:00

Build vpnc with Hybrid support need by the cisco vpn.

sudo apt-get build-dep vpnc

sudo apt-get install libssl-dev

mkdir -p ~/tmp/vpnc

cd ~/tmp/vpnc

apt-get source vpnc

cd vpnc-0.5.3r449

# Edit the file Makefile and uncomment line
#OPENSSL_GPL_VIOLATION=yes

dpkg-buildpackage

# Remove existing vpnc
sudo apt-get remove vpnc
sudo dpkg -i ../vpnc_0.5.3r449-2_i386.deb

Verify the hybrid mode by executing

vpnc --version| grep -i auth
Supported Auth-Methods: psk psk+xauth hybrid(rsa)

Extract/Convert Root Cert and Profiles

Download MacOS Cisco VPN client your_company_cisco_client.dmg

Mount HFS Archive to copy the files needed

sudo mkdir /tmp/cisco
sudo mount -t hfsplus your_company_cisco_client.dmg /tmp/cisco -o loop
cd /tmp/cisco
cp -r Profiles/ rootcert
cd
sudo umount /tmp/cisco
sudo rmdir /tmp/cisco

Use pcf2vpn to convert files.

mkdir ~/vpnc

$ for file in Profiles/*.pcf; \

do basename=`basename "$file"`; \

/usr/share/vpnc/pcf2vpnc Profiles/"$basename" ~/vpnc/"${basename%pcf}vpnc"; \

done

use openssl to convert your root cert to PEM format

openssl x509 -inform DER <> root_certificate.pem

to connect to bayarea (for example)

sudo vpnc --ca-file root_certificate.pem vpnc/bayarea.vpnc

Example vpnc file:

## generated by pcf2vpnc

# CA-File /etc/vpnc/root_certificate.pem

IPSec ID GeneralHybrid

IPSec gateway vpn.company.com

IPSec secret XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

IKE Authmode hybrid

IKE DH Group dh2

## To add your username and password,

## use the following lines:

# Xauth username

# Xauth password

Using a socks proxy

2010-09-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

#ssh to a machine on the network you need access and start

# a local socks server

ssh -D 9999 httpserver.blah.com

# setweb browser proxy to

proxy: localhost:9999

# To use other apps with socks install

sudo apt-get install tsocks

# Change config file to (remove everything else)

/etc/tsocks.conf

server = 127.0.0.1

server_port = 9999

# ssh to a machine

tsocks ssh -X httpserver.blah.com

# eclipse to a machine

tsocks eclipse

reference:

using tsocks for tunneling cmds lines and everything else

http://www.plenz.com/tunnel-everything

Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick on Lenovo Q150

2010-07-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

New related post Lenovo Q150, OCZ vertex 2, 4Gb of Memory and Ubuntu 11.04.

The Lenovo Q150 comes Atom D510 and the nvidia Ion gfx, 2GB of ram and a 250 GB HD.
I decided to install the 32 bit version of Ubuntu since flash more stable under 32 bit linux. I also installed:

ubuntu tweak
xbmc
miro
minitube (youtube player, faster than flash)
huludesktop
boxee
skype
cooliris
chromium
shotwell

The latest version of Ubuntu contains updates to the kernel, alsa and nouveau nvidia drivers. The new opensource drivers seems as fast as the proprietary drivers when playing video and this is great. It also detects the nvidia HDMI sound card out of the box.

So the biggest difference compared to 10.04 is that using the opensource drivers you can play video at 1080p full-screen without problems and HDMI sound card works.

- Basic installation from a USB key works fine.

- HDMI/VGA and sound out, little USB keyboard/mouse works fine.
- Dual boot with Windows 7 works fine.
- Detects the nvidia HDMI sound card.

- The open source nvidia ubuntu drivers, NVidia proprietary drivers, and the new drivers from nvidia web site work fine.
- Video acceleration at 1080p works great for Miro, mplayer, minitube, vlc, xbmc with the opensource drivers. You don't need to install nvidia proprietary drivers, unless you want 3D and HDMI sound. Flash is as fast with opensource drivers as the nvidia proprietary drivers.

- Hulu desktop plays fullscreen in high quality, with the opensource drivers and the proprietary drivers but you need to right click and select quality low on the context menu of hulu desktop. I thinks this use a decompress routine that is less CPU intensive (see the picture).

- When playing hulu, boxee, cooliris, youtube in full-screen it uses 100% of all CPUs. You can play youtube videos up to 720p without full screen with a good frame rate, but youtube 1080p is slow even in a small window.

Problems I found:

- Wireless card works, but requires compiling some code for now.
- Flash video acceleration does not work as fast as in windows, it uses more CPU, I think this is because flash on linuc does not have gfx acceleration.

- HDMI sound card requires nvidia video drivers and some tweaking see below.

XBMC install:

Add key on command line:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0x6d975c4791e7ee5e

Adding the XBMC Repo

Adding the XBMC Repo tells your system where to look for xbmc for installation and future updates
From the Desktop, click System -> Administration -> Software Sources.
Click the "Third Party Sofware" tab.
Click "Add" for each of the following. For the Apt line type the following:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc/ppa/ubuntu lucid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc/ppa/ubuntu lucid main

Reference:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW-TO_install_XBMC_for_Linux_on_Ubuntu,_a_Step-by-Step_Guide

HDMI sound instructions

sudo apt-get install alsa-utils

on alsamixer press F6 to select the nvidia card enable all s/PDIF devices

# list the devices
aplay -l
# my sound gets enabled when I play on device speaker-test -D plughw:1,9 -r 44100, after that the sounds starts to work. It's important to use the -r 44100 since the drivers are not setting up the correct frequency.
speaker-test -D plughw:1,3 -r 44100
speaker-test -D plughw:1,7 -r 44100
speaker-test -D plughw:1,8 -r 44100
speaker-test -D plughw:1,9 -r 44100

In case you want to make a permanent change for the hdmi sound as the deafult card you can update /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf and change these lines:

defaults.ctl.card 0

defaults.pcm.card 0

defaults.pcm.device 0

to this:

defaults.ctl.card NVidia

defaults.pcm.card Nvidia

defaults.pcm.device 9

Wireless driver

Q150 uses a Realtek USB RTL8191SU 802.11n USB 2.0 wireless card.

There are 2 drivers for the wireless card, instructions described below:

Download the RTL8191SU driver from Realtek:
http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=21&PFid=48&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

The one I got was dated 2010/6/30. Unzip the file.
Go into the "driver" sub directory:

cd rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100625/driver

Extract the driver:

tar -zxf rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.6.0.20100625.tar.gz

Add this line:

{USB_DEVICE(0x13D3, 0x3323)},

to rtl8712_8188_8191_8192SU_usb_linux_v2.6.0006.20100625/os_intf/linux/usb_intf.c at line 96 or so.

This adds the vendor / product ID for the adapter the Q150 uses. I found out the correct numbers by doing a sudo lsusb -v and looking for the network device.

# download compiler and kernel source
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-source linux-headers-generic
cd /usr/src
sudo tar -xvjf linux-source-2.6.35.tar.bz2
sudo ln -s /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.35 /usr/src/linux

# get a root shell
sudo bash
./clean
make
make install
modprobe 8712u
/etc/init.d/NetworkManager restart
exit

Note: these instructions where provided by Doug S.

Another driver you can use is r8192s_usb non stable driver, instructions below:

# get the realtek firmware
sudo apt-get install linux-firmware
wget http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/kernel/dists/trunk/firmware-nonfree/realtek/RTL8192SU/rtl8192sfw.bin
sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/RTL8192SU
sudo cp rtl8192sfw.bin /lib/firmware/RTL8192SU
# load the driver
sudo modprobe -v r8192s_usb
# the device should show up on network applet
# you can run dmesg|less and look for r8192s_usb to see if the driver loaded correctly.

Some other references for the wireless card:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/maverick/+source/linux-firmware/+bug/595455

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=21&PFid=48&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

Dlink DWA-131 usb wireless chipset use a similar chipset as the Q150, some guides on the DWA-131 available here:

http://samiux.blogspot.com/2010/05/howto-realtek-8192su-usb-dongle.html

http://ukstokes.com/blog/2010/05/12/d-link-dwa-131-and-ubuntu/

Wake up from usb wireless keyboard

You need to enabled USB wake up, in /proc/acpi/wakeup

# cat /proc/acpi/wakeup
sudo -s
echo USB0 > /proc/acpi/wakeup
echo USB1 > /proc/acpi/wakeup
echo USB2 > /proc/acpi/wakeup
echo USB3 > /proc/acpi/wakeup
echo EUSB > /proc/acpi/wakeup

This will allow you to suspend the machine use the wireless usb keyboard to wake up.

Wake up from at certain time

# Check alarm is not step
cat /proc/driver/rtc

# clear alarm, is need before setting
sudo sh -c "echo 0 > /sys/class/rtc/rtc0/wakealarm"
# Set alarm
sudo sh -c "echo `date -u --date "Aug 9, 2010 00:05:00" +%s` > /sys/class/rtc/rtc0/wakealarm"

# Check alarm time
cat /sys/class/rtc/rtc0/wakealarm
cat /proc/driver/rtc

Reference for timed wake:

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/ACPI_Wakeup#Using_.2Fsys.2Fclass.2Frtc.2Frtc0.2Fwakealarm

Lenovo Q150 pics

2010-06-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

The box comes with a

LQ150 desktop
small wireless keyboard/mouse
vesa mount (mount to the back of TV)
base mount (desk base)

Specs are:

Atom D510 Dual Core/64 bit
250 Gb WD HD
2Gb DDR2 Mem
Wireless Card
100Mb Ethernet
NVidia ION gfx

Some pics:

More Pics:

lenovo_q150

Ubuntu 10.4 Lucid on a Lenovo Q150

2010-06-26T03:30:00.000-07:00

The Lenovo Q150 comes Atom D510 and the nvidia Ion gfx, 2GB of ram and a 250 GB HD.

I decided to install the 32 bit version of Ubuntu Lucid since flash is more stable under 32 bit linux. I also installed:

ubuntu tweak
xbmc
miro
minitube (youtube player, faster than flash)
huludesktop
boxee
skype
cooliris

Added this repository to enabled sound thru HDMI port
I upgraded upgrade alsa packages to 1.0.23 and kernel to 2.6.35-6-generic and the nvidia drivers 256.35, using the following repositories:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ricotz/unstable/ubuntu lucid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ricotz/unstable/ubuntu lucid main

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates/ubuntu lucid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates/ubuntu lucid main

After the kernel, nvidia and alsa update and a reboot, start alsamixer and unmute the S/PDIF devices on the HDA NVidia sound card.

Status with lucid out of the box:
- Basic installation from a USB key works fine.
- VGA and sound out, works fine.
- Little USB keyboard/mouse works fine.
- Dual boot with Windows 7 works fine.
- HDMI out works great, but HDMI sound does not.
- Video acceleration works great for Miro, mplayer, minitube, with nvidia drivers from lucid.

Problems I found:
- Ethernet seems to work but sometimes the Ethernet card driver does not deteced the cable, sometimed a power off cycle to fixes this.
- HDMI sounds does not work with the latest Nvidia drivers from their web site. It requires a new kernel and and the latest alsa drivers to be detected. (See my other post on ubuntu 10.10 where the HDMI sound is working)
- Flash video acceleration does not work as well as in windows, it uses 100% of all CPUs, hulu, boxee, cooliris, youtube for full-screen, you can play it without full screen, but youtube 1080p is slow even for regular size, youtube 720p works.

ForUbuntu 10.10 Maverick Alpha (see my blog post on Ubuntu 10.10 and the Q150)

Windows 7 note:
- Flash acceleration is not enough to run 1080p even on windows 7, but flash seems to use less CPU usage on windows 7 compared to lucid or maverick. Hulu, Boxee, Hulu Desktop, Amazon, Youtube video all have problems on windows, dropping frames and some times affecting sound quality when in fullscreen at 1080p.
- HDMI sound works fine on windows.
- Wireless works out of the box.

- I had to install new drivers for ethernet to work.

DLink DWA-131 usb wireless on Ubuntu 10.10

2010-06-25T23:38:00.000-07:00

#Get the firmware

wget http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/kernel/dists/trunk/firmware-nonfree/realtek/RTL8192SU/rtl8192sfw.bin

sudo mkdir /lib/firmware/RTL8192SU

sudo cp rtl8192sfw.bin /lib/firmware/RTL8192SU

# unplug and plug the device again, this should make it work

# This will load r8192s_usb module

Reference:
http://ukstokes.com/blog/2010/05/12/d-link-dwa-131-and-ubuntu/

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/maverick/+source/linux-firmware/+bug/595455

Daemonizing bash process

2010-06-25T14:32:00.000-07:00

How to fork/exec/spawn a process in bash,

closing open file descriptors.

Reference http://blog.n01se.net/?p=145

Windows Applications with winetricks

2010-06-06T21:39:00.000-07:00

This is simple script that makes installing and configuring wine/windows applications much easier.

http://wiki.winehq.org/winetricks

Ubuntu how change display resolution settings using xrandr

2010-06-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

Sometimes my gfx is not able to detect the resolution of monitors connected thru VGA connections. I nice work around is to use this easy tutorial to fix it.

How change display resolution settings using xrandr

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-change-display-resolution-settings-using-xrandr.html

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid running on MacBook Pro

2010-02-25T13:37:00.000-08:00

Got my hands on a MacBook Pro, nice hardware :).

I don't really like the wireless card,
intel wireless would be better,
and I would prefer Intel to nvidia gfx,
but the rest is OK.

The config is very stable running Karmic or Lucid.
Started by using Lucid 32 bit with pae kernel,
and moved to the 64 bit in April, and works great also.

Yesterday night found some time to write up:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro5-5/Lucid

Seems pretty easy, and works great.

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Desktop HOWTO

2009-09-20T23:25:00.000-07:00

This tutorial describes how to configure a Ubuntu/Kubuntu Desktop for daily use.

Ubuntu Tweak
Ubuntu Tweak is a GUI tool that allows you to add software sources and applications very easily.
# add key
sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com FE85409EEAB40ECCB65740816AF0E1940624A220
# add this software source
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/tualatrix/ubuntu karmic main
# install
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

You can use Ubuntu Tweak to install the following software sources, on the "Third Party Sources":

Medibuntu
Opera
Google

Don't install other "Third Party sources" from the ubuntu tweak list, since all of them are already included in medibuntu or ubuntu karmic sofware sources, press refresh button to reload the indexes you just added.
You can now move to the "Add/Remove" section and select:

Audacity
Avant Window Navigator
Avidemux
Cairo-Dock
Googleearth
Gnome Partition Editor
gtk-recordMyDesktop
Inkscape
Kino
Lastfm
Miro Internet TV
Opera
Skype
Ubuntu restricted extras - multimedia codecs, java, flash
VLC media player
Wine

Pick any other application that you find interesting, and select apply.

Applications Dock

Enable "Visual Effects" in Appearance Preferences
Use Ubuntu Tweak "Desktop->Compiz Fusion" to enabled action corners and wobbly windows.
Use "GNOME Do" with Docky theme to enable a application dock bar, you can also use "Avant Window Navigator" as another application dock bar.

VirtualBox - running windows and other linux inside ubuntu

# Fast Virtual Machine (faster than VMWare) with a simple interface
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-3.1

With VirtualBox you can connect USB devices directly to your VM, and you can browse your host file system inside your VM.

Your user should belong to the group "usbusers"and "vboxusers". You can use the tool available on System->Administration->Users And Groups. You might need to log-out and log-in to make this settings active for the VM.

Configure repositories for extra Applications

If you prefer to add the repositories manually without using Ubuntu tweak goto to System->Administration->Software Sources->Third Party Software and select "Add".

# Canonical repository (Acrobat, Flash, VMWare and DB2 Express)
# enable this on the Software Sources Management tool (tab thir-party) from ubuntu/kubuntu menu

# Google Linux repository, add both to get picasa
deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free
deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ testing non-free

# Virtual Box
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian karmic non-free

# medibuntu repositories
# run this command to add this repository
sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/karmic.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list

To get the GPG key for Picasa and Virtual Box

# Google Key
wget -q -O - http://dl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -

# Virtual Box Key
wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/sun_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

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

Java, Skype, Acrobat, GoogleEarth, Proprietary and Others

If you prefer to install apps on the command line, execute the following commands:

# Update the index of your repositories
sudo apt-get update

# google earth, libdvdcss2, codecs, skype, ffmpeg, amarok, lastfm, picasa, wine acrobatreader gizmo5virtualbox pidgin
sudo apt-get install googleearth libdvdcss2 ffmpeg non-free-codecs ubuntu-restricted-extras skype miro amarok libtunepimp5-mp3 lastfm picasa wine gizmo5 virtualbox-3.0 pidgin

For other very usefull apps:

# Some cool games
sudo apt-get install frozen-bubble warzone2100 chromium nexuiz

# Amarok media player, Lastfm music client
sudo apt-get install amarok libtunepimp5-mp3 lastfm

# The ubuntu-restricted-extras (installs flash, java, multimedia codecs)
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

# The kubuntu-restricted-extras (install this one if you use kubuntu)
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-restricted-extras

# Mediatomb UPnP MediaServer with a nice web user interface. Share your media with PS3 and XBOX devices.
# cat /var/log/mediatomb.log to see what url is the server running point you browser to that url to configure
sudo apt-get install mediatomb

# Acrobat Reader
sudo apt-get install acroread

# Google Earth, Picasa
sudo apt-get install googleearth picasa

# Skype
sudo apt-get install skype

# Miro - The free open-source video platform.
sudo apt-get install miro

# KDE download manager
sudo apt-get install kget

# OSS voip, softphone, video conference tools
sudo apt-get install ekiga twinkle gizmo5

# image and publishing tools
sudo apt-get install krita scribus inkscape karbon

# Kexi is considered as a long awaited Open Source competitor for Microsoft Access, Filemaker and Oracle Forms.
# Kivio is an easy to use diagramming and flowcharting application
# KPlato is a project management application.
sudo apt-get install kplato kivio kexi

### Advanced usage

# visual partition editor
sudo apt-get install gparted

# To change the default JVM run the command below and select the relevant version.
# If you only have one JVM this step should not be required.
sudo update-alternatives --config java

# remote login using ssh
sudo apt-get install sshfs openssh-server

Restart, enjoy

Ubuntu 3D Desktop Howto

2009-09-20T15:18:00.000-07:00

Small video tutorial to enabled 3D effects and add a application dock bar in Ubuntu Karmic 9.10.

This video was created in Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha, using a ATI RS480 built-in gfx chip-set on a Shuttle ST20G5. It's kind of slow because the recording software brings the frame-rate to it's knees, on this box. Otherwise it is fast enough when I'm not recording the desktop to a video.

This also works without problems with Intel or nvidia video chip-sets in Ubuntu 9.10. But for nvidia you need to install the proprietary drivers first.