Re-Install Complete

After a few hairy moments when neither Ubuntu nor Windows would actually boot, my re-install of Ubuntu has worked out ok.

What did I do different? Well, first of all I created a partition specifically for my /home/ directory. This is supposed to make upgrades easier since I won't have to redo all my settings and such again.

The problem I ran into was with the famous GRUB startup menu. It wouldn't allow me to boot to either OS, which of course is a problem.

Turns out all I really needed to do was to edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst and make sure that my linux partition was set to hd0 and windows to hd1. Then things worked out real good.

If you have similar problems, check out this thread.

Ubuntu Reinstall

I have been using Ubuntu Linux for a little over a month now with a little bit of a mixed experience. I found that installing Ubunut was a piece of cake and using various pieces of software like Openoffice, Firefox, Evolution and so on was painfree and very easy. However, I found that getting various things to work was easier said than done.

Sound, for example, is something I am still struggling with. I have sound but not surround sound. Sound in Firefox is still not working and it's frustrating.

Some other aspects, like networking, shared drives worked very good. I also managed to get Wine to work fine so that I can run some indispensable Windows applications.

However, there are several other things that I'd like to get to work properly and it feels like a re-install would be in order, especially now that I feel pretty comfortable with using Linux and I'm not stumbling around as much anymore.

So, at this point, my plan is to reinstall Ubuntu in the next day or so and then be able to start out with a blank page and do some things differently that I have learned in the last month.

Wish me luck.

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EVDO on Ubuntu

My current project is this: to get a CDU-650 EVDO USB wireless modem to work on Ubuntu.

So far, I've progress quite nicely I think. I have manage to get it to actually connect and to be properly recognized by the system and that's always a first step. I just have to get the rest of the computer to realize that this is the main thing to use and not the router.

I'll try to get a guide of sorts together once I have things working.

Shutdown problem, CIFS related

So, for the last couple of weeks, I have been running into this very annoying glitch on my Ubuntu installation. Every time I shut down the system, I get this error.

CIFS: VFS server not responding
CIFS: No response for cmd 114 mid 3

It hasn't really bugged me until now but after one reboot too many, I figured it was time to try to track down this little pesky bug.

It didn't take more than about five minutes to solve it. If you have the same problem, head over to this link, it'll help you out immensly!

http://blog.avirtualhome.com/2008/03/10/ubuntu-shutdown-problem-cifs-related/

The GTA Phenomenon

We all know that the Grand Theft Auto series has always been very popular. From the now simplistic looking GTA and GTA 2 to the latest GTA IV with fantastic graphics, massive cities, a deep story line and a huge dose of questionable and immoral activities, its pure success might be hard to understand for some.

Personally, I'm not really a person that enjoy playing games with strong sexual themes, a lot of cussing and extreme violence and my faith keeps my from getting into games like GTA IV as well. Yet, as I sit here and I listen to those that complain and I listen to those that say how terrible this game is, it can't be denied that there is a huge demand. After all, Rockstar raked in $500 million in the first week of sales alone.
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$500 million! It's an amount that's difficult to comprehend. This is in one week! We talk about blockbuster movies when a movie makes $50 or $60 million in a week and here's a video game that earned hundreds of millions of dollars just on launch day, even beating out the latest Halo game.

I haven't played GTA IV but I have seen it in action and I have to say that what I have seen is very impressive. It looks great, the action is great and really, I could play this game all day just driving around in the cars and interacting with the environment. Now, will I? That's a separate question all together, naturally, and at this point, my answer to that is no. I really don't have a desire to play this game (yeah, call me strange). But, I do have to say, I'm not surprised that Rockstar has made so much money. I expect that they will make quite a bit more before everything is said and done. It is a game that is technically superior to most games out there. The graphics are amazing, the sound is amazing and the game play is amazing. I think I can safely say that even though GTA IV stands for so much that many people don't like, GTA IV is a great example of how video games should be made (I'm not talking content here, necessarily).

Anyway, it's time for me to get back to my Ubuntu adventures and leave gaming alone for a bit.

Progress Report

So I have had time to play around with my Ubuntu installation a little more. One thing that has irked me a bit since I got my music up and running has been the lack of surround sound. So, I made it my mission for the day to enable surround sound.

You'd think it wouldn't be that hard but it did take me over an hour to get it to work. At this point, I'm not even 100% sure what I did to get it to work. However, in the process of working on this, I did stumble upon a media player (Amorok) that I like quite a bit better than the default one. It looks better, handles the playlist in a much better way I think and it also happened to have a setting to enable surround finally!

So, one more thing I can check off of my list.

The other thing I did today was to start doing some of my web development on Linux software. Previously, I have used Dreamweaver to some extent as well as Kompozer on Windows. Moving over to Linux I naturally started looking for a worthy replacement.

Quanta ended up being the candidate that at least at this point does what I need. In fact, I like how projects can be grouped together quite a bit better than the old Dreamweaver version I had. So, it did take me a bit longer to do what I did tonight because I was learning how to use Quanta at the same time but overall it was a good experience and based on what I've seen so far, I believe that I can do all the stuff I've done in the past without problems. Of course, time will tell but so far it's encouraging. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

Printer Victory!

So far, my biggest challenge with my Ubuntu/Linux adventure has been my printer. I'm using a Brother MFC-240C Printer/Scanner/Fax combo which has served me very well since I got it this past fall.

However, I found that getting it to work in Ubuntu was easier said than done but I finally did get it to work.

The three links below are essentially what I used to get this to work. The first link contains links to the drivers you need (LPR and CUPS). The second links shows one specific step for Ubuntu 8.04 and the third one is a link to a page that walks you through how to do the install for Ubuntu 7.10. Although I'm using 8.04, I found the instructions to be sufficient and helped me get through to the end which was the successful printing of a page from OpenOffice just moments ago. So, another victory on my adventure with Ubuntu.

Brother Linux Drivers
Brother FAQ
Driver Installation Guide for Ubuntu

Picasa

Picasa by Google is an application that I have used for several years for organizing photos, printing them, ordering them, importing them and so on. Initially, I had not even thought about not being able to use that while using Linux so when it did dawn on me that I needed access to all my photos, I was happy to see that fortunately for me, there is a Ubuntu version available for Linux as well.

As I write this, Picasa is in the middle of scanning all my photos.

I have to admit that so far everything is going very smooth.

Universal Remote

Being a tech guy with electronic devices all over the place, it was just a matter of time before my "media" room became cluttered with remotes. There's the one for the TV, the cable box, the stereo and the one for my PS3.

The PS3 one I can't do much about since it's a Bluetooth remote. However, all the other ones are infrared and I'd love to get rid of them all.

While pondering this little dilemma, I realized that I have an old Sony Clie Palm device in a box in my basement that I used to use before I got dragged over to the dark side of Windows Mobile. I ventured down into our crawlspace, found the box where I knew I had stored it and got it out together with it's cradle. I hooked it up, installed the Palm Desktop on the Windows side and did a quick sync to restore all the stuff I once had on it (I still had it on my computer somehow).

Why all this work? Well, the Clie's were made with good IR ports which are perfect for remote control activities. In fact, the one I have (and probably many others) came with software from Sony for this specific purpose. The software is a bit outdated now so I downloaded a nice little app I found online, Omniremote. I have yet to test it but it appears to be configurable for pretty much anything.

So, my Palm is now charged up and I think it's about time to put it to the test. Will I be able to dump all my other cumbersome remotes? Time will tell.

Skype is Alive

After a week of very little work on the Ubuntu front, I finally ventured back into Ubuntu to continue a bit of my work.

The next victim: Skype.

Skype is a fantastic program that I use primarily to call my family back over in Sweden and Finland. It works very well and using Ubuntu, I would absolutely want to use it.

I head over to Skype's website and immediately see a download link for Skype for Linux. I downloaded the Ubuntu version, installed it without problems. After logging in, I connected my USB headset, changed the sound settings to allow me to use my headsets for calls and I made a quick test call to the local time and temperature number.

It worked! (at least incoming)

I also found that my USB webcam worked perfectly without any need for configuration in Skype. Awesome!

Now, the next step is to get my Linksys Skype phone to work. I can tell that Ubuntu recognizes it since it's showing up as an available sound device in Skype but the phone itself is not registering. Not a big deal at the moment though since the headset works fine.

Another mission accomplished on my Ubuntu trek.