Intrepid Ibex Released

The latest version of Ubuntu, version 8.10 Intrepid Ibex has been released. To check it out, click over to http://www.ubuntu.com.

I'll start working on my laptop today.

Another interesting thing I saw: it looks like the PS3 is mentioned in the release notes. I'll have to give that a try as well.

A few other links of interest:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/upgrading - more information about the upgrade.
http://psubuntu.com/wiki/IntrepidReleaseNotes - Information about Intrepid Ibex for the PS3

Scanning Fixed

I mentioned in a post several months ago that I had managed to get my printer to finally print properly while using Ubuntu. Since my printer is a printer-scanner-fax combo, I hadn't bothered with the fax part until it actually became necessary for me to scan something. It turned out to be easier than expected.

Once again, this Brother's Printer Installation guide website helped out a great deal. Keep in mind as you read this that I know am using Ubuntu 8.10. I figured that the instructions for 8.04 would be close enough:

1. Download the brscan2 0.2.4 file from the Brother website or click here:
2. Once downloaded the download window may appear, just double click on the file and the package manager will install, select install, once install is complete select close
3. Then back to the brother site for the ScanKeyTool or click here and the download manager will appear double click and install this as well.

It turned out, I was right. Almost. After installing, I still had to do the following:

Ubuntu 8.04

1. Open "/etc/udev/rules.d/40-basic-permissions.rules" file.

2. Edit "0664" to "0666" in "USB devices" section.

Before the edit---------------------------------

# USB devices (usbfs replacement)
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", MODE="0664"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device",                MODE="0664"

After the edit----------------------------------

# USB devices (usbfs replacement)
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device",                MODE="0666"

3. Restart the OS.

However, once that was complete, I was all good to go. The XSane Image Scanner worked like a charm and I had no problems whatsoever scanning photos. What can I say? Sweet! Another thing that works!

Watching TV Online

Throughout the year 2008, online entertainment has been gaining ground in regards to availability and quality. While a year ago there was very little quality online content available, these days you can find pretty much anything you'd like online. In fact, I predict that 2009 will be the year when online entertainment really takes off.

Let me share a few observations with you. At the time of writing, all the major networks, such as ABC, Fox, NBC and CBS offer their shows online for you to watch, without charge. I can watch them all online. Here's an example of the shows that are available:

• 30 Rock (HD)
• Battlestar Galactica
• Chuck (HD)
• Heroes (HD)
• Knight Rider (HD)
• My Own Worst Enemy (HD)
• The Office (HD)
• Fringe
• House
• Cops
• Prison Break
• The Simpsons
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
• Desperate Housewives
• Grey's Anatomy
• Dirty Sexy Money
• Lost
• Private Practice
• Pushing Daisies
• The Unit
• CSI
• Numb3rs

And so on. Not to mention that there are many other websites such as Joost and Netflix that provide commerical free streaming of full length shows and movies.

So, is there a need for a TV anymore? I'm starting to doubt it. A quick search online reveals that the following channels offer full length shows online with limited advertising:

• Fox
• ABC
• NBC
• CBS
• History Channel
• Discovery Channel (includes TLC & Animal Planet)
• Sci-Fi Channel
• TNT

Not to mention hulu.com, which carries a ton of shows as well from several of the above channels. So really, unless you need a lot of the other special channels such as Fox news, CNN, ESPN and such, gosh, you might as well ditch you TV. NBC even shows Sunday Night Football online now (with the exception of the Super Bowl and some other high profile games).

Now, if you have a TV that you can hook your computer up to, even better. Then you can just sit in your living room as normal and watch everything the way you normally do.

How can you beat that?

Now, since I've been transitioning to Linux, my next project will be to find all the stuff that I can watch exclusively on Ubuntu without using the dreaded Vista.

Tethering PPC6800 on Ubuntu (& Windows)

After a long time of searching, I have finally found a very simple way to use my PPC6800 as a modem for my Ubuntu installation. The below instructions are specific to Ubuntu and have been tested by me on 8.04 Hardy Heron.

Note: I can't take credit for any of these instructions. The below two links basically both list the same information. Naturally, doing any of this is all at your own risk.

Ubuntu Support Forums (see post #23)
PPCGeeks Forum

First of all, to be able to perform the operation that I will be outlining shortly, you will need to have the compiling tools for Ubuntu installed. Execute the command seen below from a terminal window. If you already have this package installed, please ignore.

sudo apt-get install automake

Once done, go on with the following:

sudo apt-get install subversion
svn co https://synce.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/synce/trunk/usb-rndis-lite
cd usb-rndis-lite/
make
sudo ./clean.sh
sudo make install

Once the above sequence has been completed, reboot.

After logging back into your desktop, do the following:

Plug in the phone via USB. On the phone go to programs/applications and select "Internet Sharing" and then select the following.

PC Connection:USB
Network Connection: Phone as Modem

Click "Connect"

Within a few moments, you should be online and ready to surf the web just as if you had a network cable or a USB modem.

So, what does this do, you ask? Well, to be honest, I don't know all the technicalities but what it looks like to me is that the above software essentially creates a way for Ubuntu to see PPC6800 using Internet Sharing as just any other networked connection and simply uses it as the Internet connection. It's amazing how easy and smooth this use is and if are looking to use your PPC as a modem, you just can't skip this.

Windows users: I found that this worked just as well on Windows Vista. It's the first time I tried to do it on Vista as well so I'm not sure if it's supposed to be that easy or not or if it's related to my ROM upgrade at all but either way, I now have a way to easily connect to the Internet with my phone, whether it be Ubuntu or Vista.

Upgrading my ACS PPC6800 to GPS and Rev A.

So, I finally went ahead with it. I upgraded my ACS HTC PPC6800 to include GPS and Rev A plus WM 6.1 and a few other apps thrown in with the "kitchen" I was using. For those of you in a similar position, I want to share some of what I went through to get this done.

Warning: proceed at your own risk. There is always a possibility that your phone will become a very expensive paperweight. So, doing the same thing that I did will by no means guarantee that you will end up with the same results, even if you use the same kind of phone from the same carrier. Your Warranty may also be void if the software of the phone is tampered with. Also remember to READ everything in the instructions at the website below. Don't hurry through this.

Having said that, let's move on.

I did a bit of research online before I just jumped in with both feet in an attempt to at least minimize an outcome where my phone would end up being unusable.

After a bit of surfing, I found this post in the forum over at PPCKitchen.org:

http://www.ppckitchen.org/forums/showthread.php?t=32

Essentially, this link has everything you need to enable GPS and Rev A on your PPC6800. To summarize, there are several things you will need to do:

1. Unlock the phone and load a new bootloader.
2. Load a newer radio that supports both GPS and Rev A. I ended up loading version 3.35.04 and it works great.
3. You will need to load a ROM into the phone that supports the radio since the stock one won't. Use the PPCKitchen software provided at the site for this. Download, install it and update it. You will only need to download the Titan packages for the PPC6800 upgrade.
4. Once the BuildOS has been installed and updated, you're ready to "cook" your own ROM by selecting various packages and OS version that later will be written to the phone. Remember to select your carrier, which in my case was ACS.
5. Once both the radio and the ROM have been written to the phone, your phone is ready to be used with GPS and Rev A.
   

The above process can take at least an hour the first time. The second time for me it took about 30 minutes and I am now the happy owner of a PPC6800 with GPS and Rev A. I have tested both and found both to be working to my satisfaction.

Ubuntu 8.10 Upgrade Finished

Well, the upgrade from Ubuntu 8.04 to Ubuntu 8.10 worked out although not smoothly. Throughout the download and upgrading process, the updater ran into a number of issues that in the end broke my desktop all together. I could get to the login screen but not any further, I simply ended up with a blank screen after logging in.

Frustrating.

So, I started digging around and I finally found a workaround in this post. It's in a post towards the bottom by Charles Curley. Here's essentially what I had to do:

1. Reboot and open up the shell/command promopt (CTRL+ALT+F2).
2. Install scrollkeeper, which removes rarian and parts of Gnome.
3. Purge all of scrollkeeper once step two finished.
4. Installed rarian-compat.
5. Install ubuntu-desktop.

That did it. I did a reboot and I'm back in business.

So, what's 8.10 like, you ask? Well, I've barely had time to check yet but one reason I upgraded to the beta before all the bugs were worked out was because I was curious how 8.10 would handle wireless CDMA USB modems, like the CDU-680. Well, I'm happy to report that it's working better. The software that comes with the unit still acts up but once the interface changer has been run, the network manager gives you an option to automatically connect to the CDMA connection. No need to configure GnomePPP or any other similar application. I was happy to see that. It will make it easier to use. At some point I'll have to see if I can get my cell phone to act as a modem too.

Next step: updating the laptop. I think I'll wait for the official release for that though.

Ubuntu 8.10 and Other Fun Things

With the latest version of Ubuntu coming out at the end of this month, I just couldn't resist getting the beta installed on my desktop. Since my primary Linux computer is my laptop now, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it on that one first to see what happens. I know there are probably drivers here and there that might not function properly so I'd like to check that out and see what happens. It's downloading as we speek.

1hr or so to go.

In addition to that, I've been messing around with my PPC6800. Those of you fortunate enough to have a phone from one of the bigger carriers already have GPS and Rev A capability but not poor me so I've been downloading kitchens and custom ROMs and radios, trying to find a combination that works.

Will it work? Who knows.

Finally, I've gotten sucked into Eve Online again. I played it for a couple of months a few years ago and I have always felt that if I ever would play a MMORPG, this would be the one. So, I have returned, created a new character, started a new life in a new two week trial. We'll see how it goes. If all goes well, I'll keep playing for a while, we'll see.