New Setup Procedures

1. Connect to wireless network

• Select "Connect to Hidden Network"
• Enter SSID = DEGREGORIO
• Set security to WPA2 Personal
• Enter password

2. Change wireless IP (change from dynamic to static)

• Select "Edit Connections"
• Set IP to Manual
• Enter IP = 192.168.2.50
• Enter Mask = 255.255.255.0
• Enter Gateway = 192.168.2.1
• Enter DNS = 192.168.2.1

3. Run update manager

4. Install Restricted Drivers (e.g. nvidia driver)

• If fonts are changed after install, run sudo leafpad /etc/X11/xorg.conf and add the lines

Option "UseEdidDpi" "false" (separated by tabs)

Option "Dpi" "92 x 92" (separated by tabs)

5. Install samba, x11vnc, picard

6. Set up VNC

• To run the VNC server, x11vnc -forever -display :0
• Copy custom mystartup.sh to the home directory from the backup drive
  
• sudo cp mystartup.sh /usr/bin/mystartup.sh
• sudo chmod 775 /usr/bin/mystartup.sh
• sudo leafpad /etc/xdg/lxsession/Lubuntu/autostart and add the line

@mystartup.sh

7. Automount NTFS drive

• Make sure NTFS drive (DIXON) is not already mounted
• sudo mkdir /media/DIXON
• ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid and look for the UUID for sda3
• sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.old
• sudo leafpad /etc/fstab and add the line

UUID=xxx /media/DIXON ntfs-3g defaults 0 0 (separated by tabs) where xxx is replaced by the UUID for sda3

8. Set up Samba server

• Copy custom smb.conf to the home directory from the backup drive
• sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.old
• sudo cp smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf
• sudo restart smbd
• sudo restart nmbd
• sudo smbpasswd -a bdegreg (prompt will ask for Windows password)

9. Set up automatic backup

• sudo crontab -e and add line

00 01 * * * /usr/bin/rsync --delete --size-only --progress -av /media/DIXON '/media/My Book/brad/dixon'

Lubuntu 11.10

It's been a while, mostly because nothing new was happening. My ubuntu computer was running along smoothly. However, there were two problems. First, VNC performance was crappy. This happened soon after the switch to the unity desktop, and it turns out to be related to the desktop effects settings, which cannot be turned off in version 11.10. I rely heavily on VNC so this was a dealbreaker for me. Actually, the 11.10 update did make VNC slightly faster, but it was still a pain to use. Secondly, I did not like how unity worked. It took extra steps to get to my programs and files.

Then I heard about lubuntu, the flavor of ubuntu for low performance machines. Since I was running this on a nettop, this sounded perfect. However, the switch from ubuntu to lubuntu was less than perfect, and I ended up with a garbled loading screen (it turned out that this was a login screen, so I probably could have gotten past it and fixed everything) so I started a fresh lubuntu install. At this point I also knew exactly how I wanted everything to work (e.g. VNC, Samba), so I also wrote everything down that I changed after the installation...

Boxee Box

After upgrading to Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope), I heard that boxee released a new alpha version that fixed the problems they were having with Hulu. Basically, they implemented a basic web browser rather than trying to connect directly to the video. Since watching full screen video on the Hulu website is choppy for me, I wondered if it was better using boxee. It is. And now I have easy access to other websites as well. Still no Netflix streaming on Linux, though.

It's Alive!

So after vacuuming a ton of dust out of my PC I managed to start it, but it was still fucked up. Before I did something drastic and costly, I wanted to check once more if it is only a software problem. After some futile google searching I found this page describing a problem almost exactly like mine. Two simple lines of code:


sudo rm -f /var/lib/gconf/defaults/*
sudo gconf-schemas --register $(ls /usr/share/gconf/schemas)

Nothing happened until I restarted, and then everything was back to normal (or at least the way it was before). I'm not sure what this does, but it looks like it deletes a bunch of Gnome defaults and recreates default values.

DOA

Something happened to my computer. I came home one day and everything was fucked up on the desktop (fonts, icons, etc.) and there was an error message about Power Management failed to install correctly. Everything functioned properly, but I couldn't figure out how to fix it. I tried relogging in and restarting the computer, but that didn't fix anything. Then yesterday I tried a cold reboot, except the "boot" part doesn't work anymore. So either something is wrong with the power supply or the motherboard is fried. I'm hoping it's just the power supply, because that's the easy (and cheaper) fix. My power supply has an extra plug that is supposed to provide stable "cleaner" power to the motherboard, so maybe that part failed, which is why my computer initially continued to operate.

Laptop Upgrade

Kelly asked to use my old laptop (the one I bought when I started grad school). I haven't used it for over a year, so I need to upgrade Ubuntu on it. I decided to do a fresh install with 4.10 Gutsy Gibbon because I had really messed around with things previously. The new install went very smoothly, and it even started up with some Compiz effects enabled. The only problem is that the wireless card did not "just work" like I had hoped. I basically had to install the windows driver for it using NDISwrapper, just like last time. After a restart, the wireless card started working, and I was very happy to see it connecting to my home network using WPA security (which never really worked right before) without having to mess around with config files. I also disabled the Compiz special effects because they really slowed down the laptop. I think I'll let Kelly play with it now.

7.10 Update

Things are very stable since I upgraded to version 7.10, named Gutsy Gibbon. Wireless internet seems to be working just fine. I also installed Samba so that I can transfer files between my linux PC and other computers in the house. Aside from installing the necessary packages, all I had to do to get it running was create a Samba login for myself.

sudo smbpasswd -a USER

where USER is replaced by my login username. Then all I have to do is right-click on a folder and I can share it with other PCs, just like in Windows.

New Wireless Card

I installed a new wireless card in my Ubuntu PC (D-Link WDA-1320). I had heard many of the D-link cards are linux-friendly. It was recognized immediately and started working. It even works with WPA security. The only hitch I had was that I had to turn on the SSID broadcast on my router to connect properly. I normally keep the broadcast off, so the router is hidden to outsiders. Hopefully the next version of Ubuntu (7.10, due out later this month) will fix this problem.

The Corollary to the Last Post

Since I mentioned that I would like to use Quod Libet as my music manager, I therefore have to eventually convert my wma music files to mp3 files. This is better in the long run for linux anyway, since many programs can't deal with wma files (like sound editors and such). It will take some time, but I do have access to the source for my wma files, so I can convert from the source instead of from my own unprotected wma files (which would be a copy of a copy).

Also, I'm really interested in the development of Songbird. It's basically a mashup of Rythmbox and Firefox. I think it's a perfect idea, and Songbird has a lot of great features. But it's still in development. I installed it on my test Ubuntu laptop, and I like it alot, but there are missing features and bugs right now, so I'll wait and see before I let it crunch on my main music collection.