urth tech: 2008

2008-12-24

X start config problems

examining the files for configuration problems - according to the
log file /var/log/Xorg.0.0.log, the [default] configuration file
used when the system tries to start up X [entry to run level 5?]
is /etc/X11/xorg.conf - this config file is certainly the source
of the FONT PATH CONFIGURATION ERRORS that have been showing up at
the console.
--
DSL User

2008-12-14

Iceweasel / Firefox Readability Fixes

***text-here****

Revisiting Readability Problems in Firefox / Iceweasel

A couple years ago I posted to one of my other blogs with some solutions regarding readability problems I had encountered at that time using Mozilla Firefox. I looked into this again recently because the problems were recurring with Iceweasel 2.0.0.17 running under Debian "Etch" using the Sapphire window manager.

Overview

This solution uses the chrome files found in the user's default profile directory (~/.mozilla/default/[PROFILE_NAME]/chrome). The two files of interest reside in this directory. Their filenames are

userChrome.css
userContent.css

Mozilla Unix Help Files

The Mozilla help page entitled Customizing Mozilla details the settings used here, as well as a large number of similar or related user interface setting changes that can be made from these two files.

Another file provided by the Mozilla project site is Mozilla DPI-related Font Size Issues on Unix.

Note that both these help documents are Unix-centric. I don't have the instructions for doing this under MS Windows.

Annotated File Listings

/*
 * userChrome.css – taken from userChrome–example.css found in  
 *   ~/.mozilla/default/profile–directory/chrome/
 *   for Iceweasel 2.0.0.17
 */

/*
 * This file can be used to customize the look of Mozilla's user interface
 * You should consider using !important on rules which you want to
 * override default settings.
 */

/*
 * Do not remove the @namespace line –– it's required for correct functioning
 */
@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"); /* set default namespace to XUL */


/*
 * Some possible accessibility enhancements:
 */
/*
 * Make all the default font sizes 20 pt:
 */
  * {
    font–size: 14pt !important
  }
 
/*
 * Make menu items in particular 15 pt instead of the default size:
 */
  menupopup > * {
    font–size: 12pt !important
  }
 
/*
 * Give the Location (URL) Bar a fixed–width font
 */
  #urlbar {
     font–family: monospace !important;
  }
 

/*
 * Eliminate the throbber and its annoying movement:
 *
 * #throbber–box {
 *   display: none !important;
 * }
 */

/*
 * For more examples see http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html
 */

/*
** Examples added from mozilla.org site examples
*/

/* Set font size and family for dialogs
 * and other miscellaneous text
 */
window {
  font–size: 3.5mm !important;
  font–family: helvetica !important;
}

/* Single line text fields */
input {
  /* Set font size and family of text fields */
  font–family: clean !important;
  font–size: 13px !important;

  /* Set background color to something a little prettier */
  background–color: rgb(200, 255, 220) !important;

  /* Add some key bindings.
   * For an explanation of how to do this,
   * see below under "Custom key bindings".
   */
  –moz–binding: url("resource:///res/builtin/myHTMLBindings.xml#myInputFields") !important;
}

/* Multi–line textareas */
textarea {
  background–color: rgb(200, 255, 220) !important;
}

/* The  dropdown address and autocomplete windows are grey.
 * To make them match better with the URL field and look more like 4.x:
 */

/*  URL dropdown box  */
#ubhist–popup
  {
    background            : white !important;
    border                : 1px solid black !important;
    padding               : 0px !important;            
  }

/*  autocomplete text field  */
.textfield–popup
  {
    background            : white !important;
    border                : 1px solid black !important;
  }

#ubhist–popup > .popup–internal–box, .textfield–popup > .popup–internal–box
  {
    border–left           : 1px solid white !important;
    border–top            : 1px solid white !important;
    border–right          : 1px solid white !important;
    border–bottom         : 1px solid white !important;
  }

/* 3. Add a border (line of 1px) to the tooltips. */
.tooltip–label
   {
     border                : 1px solid !important;
   }

/*
** userContent.css – taken from examples at 
**   http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html
**   for Iceweasel 2.0.0.17
*/

/* Obviate need to zoom on many sites. */
html>body {
  font–size: 100% !important;
  line–height: normal !important;
}

/*
 * Disable the deprecated HTML <font> tag. (Like above,
 * reduces need to zoom.)
 */
font {
  font–family: inherit !important;
  font–size: inherit !important;
  color: inherit !important;
}

/* Put a thin black border around all dropdown forms like NS4.x */
:–moz–dropdown–list {
  border: 1px solid black !important;
  border–top–style: solid !important;
}

/* Disable marquee display */
marquee {
  –moz–binding: none; display: block; height: auto !important;
  /* This is better than just display:none !important;
   * because you can still see the text in the marquee,
   * but without scrolling.
   */
}

/*
 * Until bug 105547 is fixed, a helpful workaround to
 * highlight some links which would pop up a new window:
 */
:link:hover[target="_blank"],:visited:hover[target="_blank"] {
  color: white !important; background: red !important;
}
:link:hover[target="_new"],:visited:hover[target="_new"] {
  color: white !important; background: red !important;
}

/*
 * Many input forms have typing areas so small it's hard to use
 * them. On many of them, this sets a minimum width of about 50
 * characters, and a miniumum height of about 12 characters.
 */
textarea {
  min–width: 50ex !important;
  min–height: 12em !important;
}

/* Improve scroll performance on slow machines on some sites. */
* {
  background–attachment: scroll !important;
}

/*
 * Ignore user–specified style in mail messages.
 * See http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=18427 for details.
 */
.moz–text–html font, .moz–text–html div, .moz–text–html body {
  font–size: inherit !important;
  font–family: inherit !important;
  color: inherit !important;
  background–color: inherit !important;
  background–image: inherit !important;
  text–align: inherit !important;
  text–indent: inherit !important;
}

2008-12-12

getting down to cases

$sudo dpkg –i install_flash_player_10_linux.deb
Selecting previously deselected package adobe–flashplugin.
(Reading database ... 124092 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking adobe–flashplugin (from install_flash_player_10_linux.deb) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of adobe–flashplugin:
 adobe–flashplugin depends on libatk1.0–0 (>= 1.20.0); however:
  Version of libatk1.0–0 on system is 1.12.4–3.
 adobe–flashplugin depends on libc6 (>= 2.4); however:
  Version of libc6 on system is 2.3.6.ds1–13etch7.
 adobe–flashplugin depends on libcairo2 (>= 1.6.0); however:
  Version of libcairo2 on system is 1.2.4–4.1+etch1.
 adobe–flashplugin depends on libfreetype6 (>= 2.3.5); however:
  Version of libfreetype6 on system is 2.2.1–5+etch2.
 adobe–flashplugin depends on libgtk2.0–0 (>= 2.12.0); however:
  Version of libgtk2.0–0 on system is 2.8.20–7.
 adobe–flashplugin depends on libnspr4–0d; however:
  Package libnspr4–0d is not installed.
 adobe–flashplugin depends on libnss3–1d; however:
  Package libnss3–1d is not installed.
 adobe–flashplugin depends on libpango1.0–0 (>= 1.20.1); however:
  Version of libpango1.0–0 on system is 1.14.8–5.
dpkg: error processing adobe–flashplugin (––install):
 dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 adobe–flashplugin

…then, later …

$sudo apt–get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
You might want to run `apt–get –f install' to correct these.
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  adobe–flashplugin: Depends: libatk1.0–0 (>= 1.20.0) but 1.12.4–3 is installed
                     Depends: libc6 (>= 2.4) but 2.3.6.ds1–13etch7 is installed
                     Depends: libcairo2 (>= 1.6.0) but 1.2.4–4.1+etch1 is installed
                     Depends: libfreetype6 (>= 2.3.5) but 2.2.1–5+etch2 is installed
                     Depends: libgtk2.0–0 (>= 2.12.0) but 2.8.20–7 is installed
                     Depends: libnspr4–0d but it is not installed
                     Depends: libnss3–1d but it is not installable
                     Depends: libpango1.0–0 (>= 1.20.1) but 1.14.8–5 is installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try using –f.

…followed by…

$sudo apt–get –f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libnspr4–0d
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  adobe–flashplugin
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libnspr4–0d
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 139kB of archives.
After unpacking 9765kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://http.us.debian.org etch/main libnspr4–0d 1.8.0.15~pre080614d–0etch1 [139kB]
Fetched 139kB in 7s (18.8kB/s)
(Reading database ... 124100 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing adobe–flashplugin ...
Selecting previously deselected package libnspr4–0d.
(Reading database ... 124092 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libnspr4–0d (from .../libnspr4–0d_1.8.0.15~pre080614d–0etch1_i386.deb) ...
Setting up libnspr4–0d (1.8.0.15~pre080614d–0etch1) ...

2008-12-11

GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU 0x01F0

2008-12-06

Iceweasel about:config tweaks for Gmail

Just did this for Iceweasel - Iceweasel/2.0.0.17 (Debian-2.0.0.17-0etch1)

From the article Recommended IMAP client settings at the Gmail Help site:

In the 'Tools' menu, open Options.

On the 'Advanced' tab, open the General section.

Click the Config Editor button.

In the 'Filter' box, type 'browser.cache.memory.capacity'

Double-click on the browser.cache.memory.capacity entry to edit its value.

Change the value to '30720' and click OK.

Delete the text in the 'Filter' box and type 'mail.server.default.fetch_by_chunks'

Double-click on the mail.server.default.fetch_by_chunks entry to set its value to false.

Close the 'about:config' window and then close 'Options' by clicking OK.

[these suggestions are given by Google as performance tweak suggestions to "enhance your IMAP experience" - see the URL(s) given above for the source material and any explanations thereof, i.e. ymmv]

Debian [etch] font size [linuxquestions.org]

A detailed discussion of X dpi configuration and its effects on font size exists at LinuxQuestions.org, forum title Debian font size strange behaviour

2008-12-05

Iceweasel Chrome Tweaks

The Mozillazine Knowledge Base has an article Pane and Menu Fonts which describes how to use the userChrome.css file to fix font size problems in the "chrome" part of the Iceweasel user interface - that is, the menus, dialog boxes, and so on.

This version of Iceweasel is Iceweasel/2.0.0.17 (Debian-2.0.0.17-0etch1).

The following code, placed at the end of the userChrome.css file successfully fixed the problem of the Iceweasel menu fonts being unreadably small at 1600x1200 resolution:

/* Global UI Font */
* { font-size:16pt !important;
    font-family:FreeSans !important;
}

2008-12-04

X-Windows on Debian Etch - Installment 1

The command that finally worked

  xinit xterm -- /usr/bin/X -br :0.0

For some reason, this command also ran the window manager (sapphire in this case).

Perhaps it has to do w/ .xinitrc:

aterm &
xterm &
Eterm &
sapphire

The .xserverrc doesn't matter, and could be simply the default:

X :0

[as specified in the init(1) man page]

2008-11-28

Acer Aspire 5520-5912

"Acer Aspire 5520-5912" NVIDIA Ethernet driver

2008-11-25

DSL+Debian dsl-dpkg.dsl 'apt-get update' default config fix

Working with Damn Small Linux (DSL) packages installed to a hard drive, tried to follow the instructions in the .info file accompanying dsl-dpkg.dsl. The instructions read [in part]:

*** NOTE *** You must run apt-get update first!
  sudo apt-get update

... got:

dsl@box:~$ sudo apt-get update
Err http://archive.debian.org woody/main Packages  404 Not Found
Ign http://archive.debian.org woody/main Release
Err http://archive.debian.org woody/contrib Packages  404 Not Found
Ign http://archive.debian.org woody/contrib Release
Err http://archive.debian.org woody/non-free Packages  404 Not Found
Ign http://archive.debian.org woody/non-free Release
Failed to fetch http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive/dists/woody/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz   404 Not Found 
Failed to fetch http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive/dists/woody/contrib/binary-i386/Packages.gz  404 Not Found
Failed to fetch http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive/dists/woody/non-free/binary-i386/Packages.gz  404 Not Found
Reading Package Lists... Done
W: Couldn't stat source package list http://archive.debian.org woody/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.debian.org_debian-archive_dists_woody_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list http://archive.debian.org woody/contrib Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.debian.org_debian-archive_dists_woody_contrib_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: Couldn't stat source package list http://archive.debian.org woody/non-free Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.debian.org_debian-archive_dists_woody_non-free_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory)
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used  instead.

... apparently some sort of error messages ...

Checked apt-get config file(s) in /etc/apt and (in /etc/apt/sources.list found

deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive/ woody main contrib non-free
#deb http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/debian oldstable main contrib non-free
#deb http://mirror.linux.org.au/debian oldstable main contrib non-free
#deb http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/distributions/debian oldstable main contrib non-free

Went and looked at http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive/ - driving down through the site found that the main repository seems to be under an additional directory called 'debian'.

sudo cp /etc/opt/sources.list /etc/opt/sources.list.ORIG
sudo vi /etc/opt/sources.list
Add the path element debian/ to the archive.debian.org URL.

The new /etc/apt/sources.list now looks like this:

deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive/debian/ woody main contrib non-free
#deb http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/debian oldstable main contrib non-free
#deb http://mirror.linux.org.au/debian oldstable main contrib non-free
#deb http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/distributions/debian oldstable main contrib non-free

Now the command

 sudo apt-get update

produces the following output:

dsl@box:~$ sudo apt-get update
Get:1 http://archive.debian.org woody/main Packages [1773kB]
Get:2 http://archive.debian.org woody/main Release [95B]                       
Get:3 http://archive.debian.org woody/contrib Packages [49.2kB]                
Get:4 http://archive.debian.org woody/contrib Release [98B]                    
Get:5 http://archive.debian.org woody/non-free Packages [65.7kB]               
Get:6 http://archive.debian.org woody/non-free Release [99B]                   
Fetched 1888kB in 30s (62.5kB/s)                                               
Reading Package Lists... Done
dsl@box:~$

... which looks less like an error message and more like we imagine it's supposed to.

2008-11-23

DSL of Unkown Origin

system

Damn Small Linux (DSL) installed to a hard disc partition on this hp pavillion desktop computer. Version of installed DSL is [[unknown]].

sound

The sound is still not working, despite repeatedly trying variations of the [[ALSA install procedure]].

extensions

Installed Gtk2
Thunderbird 1.5 Running
GIMP 1.2.3 Running

locale

thunderbird date format

International ISO-8601 Date Format on Thunderbird
Date display format from mozillazine.org
ConfigDate add-on for Thunderbird [does NOT seem to be compatible with the Thunderbird 1.5 installed on this DSL box]

2008-11-22

photobucket + tinyurl

I used the toolbar button code provided to create a tinyurl button on the toolbar of my browser (Bon Echo [Firefox] on Damn Small Linux [DSL]).

Unfortunately, bookmarks that contain Javascript code for the URL do not automajickally bring in the correct favicon image, so I had to fiddle with it a bit. Here is a link to a screenshot of my browser with the tinyurl "make tinyurl" button installed:

  http://tinyurl.com/6c9ga6

consider the differences

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c174/piedpiper6996/Teresa-Heinz-Kerry-.jpg

http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c174/piedpiper6996/?action=view&current=Teresa-Heinz-Kerry-.jpg

libflashplayer dependencies, Damn Small Linux

dsl@box:~$ ldd /opt/firefox-2.0-gtk1/plugins/libflashplayer.so                                       
/opt/firefox-2.0-gtk1/plugins/libflashplayer.so: /lib/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.4' not found (required by /opt/firefox-2.0-gtk1/plugins/libflashplayer.so)
        libstdc++.so.6 => not found
        libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x40a78000)
        libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x40aca000)
        libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x40b86000)
        libXt.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXt.so.6 (0x40b93000)
        libfreetype.so.6 => /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6 (0x40bdd000)
        libfontconfig.so.1 => /usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1 (0x40c47000)
        libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0 => not found
        libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 => not found
        libatk-1.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/libatk-1.0.so.0 (0x40c6f000)
        libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0 => not found
        libpangocairo-1.0.so.0 => not found
        libpango-1.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/libpango-1.0.so.0 (0x40c8a000)
        libcairo.so.2 => not found
        libgobject-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so.0 (0x40cc0000)
        libgmodule-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/libgmodule-2.0.so.0 (0x40cfa000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x40cfe000)
        libglib-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0 (0x40d01000)
        libnss3.so => not found
        libsmime3.so => not found
        libssl3.so => not found
        libplds4.so => not found
        libplc4.so => not found
        libnspr4.so => not found
        libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x40d83000)
        libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x40da5000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x40dae000)
        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x80000000)
        libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6 (0x40ee1000)
        libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6 (0x40ee9000)
        libz.so.1 => /usr/lib/libz.so.1 (0x40f00000)
        libexpat.so.1 => /usr/lib/libexpat.so.1 (0x40f13000)
dsl@box:~$

2008-11-12

Speed Testing Cricket Wireless Broadband

Test Location:Phenix City, Alabama
Area Code: 706
Provider: Cricket

2008-11-06

Copy Knoppix to HD

# How to set up a "Poor Man's Install" so that the machine boots from a CD
# image that's been copied to the hard disk.  GRUB is used as the boot loader.
# It is assumed that you are booted to Knoppix CD 5.1.1, and ALL HARD DISK
# CONTENTS WILL BE ERASED!!!

#  0.  Switch to root with su -

#  1.  Partition the hard disk as follows (minimum 20GB hard disk recommended)
#      10GB /dev/hda1, type 83
#      2GB /dev/hda2, type 82
#      (the rest of the disk) /dev/hda3, type 83
#

# determine the disk device name, which is usually /dev/hda for IDE and
# /dev/sda for SATA

DEVICE=`fdisk -l 2>/dev/null | head -2 | tail -1 | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's/\:$//'`

# print warning and confirmation
clear
echo "This CD will install Knoppix 5.1 on your hard disk."
echo "The system will then boot from the hard disk as if you had booted from"
echo "the Knoppix CD, also known as a Poor Man's Install."
echo
echo "WARNING:"
echo "ALL EXISTING DATA ON THE HARD DISK $DEVICE WILL BE ERASED BY THIS PROCESS!!!"
echo
echo -n "Do you wish to continue? (y/n): "
read ANSWER
if [ "$ANSWER" = "y" -o "$ANSWER" = "Y" ]
then
:
else
  echo "Installation aborted!"
  sleep 3
  exit
fi


# clear the old partition table
dd if=/dev/zero of=$DEVICE bs=512 count=1

# determine the cylinder size
CYL_SIZE=`fdisk -l $DEVICE 2>/dev/null | grep "Units = cylinders" | awk '{print $9}'`

# determine the number of cylinders in 10GB
SIZE1=`echo "1073741824 * 10 / $CYL_SIZE" | bc`

# determine the number of cylinders in 2GB
SIZE2=`echo "1073741824 * 2 / $CYL_SIZE" | bc`

# partition the disk
sfdisk -f $DEVICE <<EOF
,$SIZE1,L
,$SIZE2,S
,,L
EOF


#  2.  Create an ext3 filesystem on the first and third partitions
mke2fs -j -m0 ${DEVICE}1
mke2fs -j -m0 ${DEVICE}3


#  3.  Create a swap area on the second partition
mkswap ${DEVICE}2


#  4.  Mount first partition on /media/p1
mkdir /media/p1
mount ${DEVICE}1 /media/p1


#  5.  Copy the contents of the Knoppix CD to /media/p1
echo
echo "Copying CD contents to hard drive.  This will take a few minutes."
/bin/cp -af /cdrom/KNOPPIX /media/p1

# remove /media/p1/KNOPPIX/knoppix.sh
/bin/rm -f /media/p1/KNOPPIX/knoppix.sh


#  6.  Create a boot directory on /media/p1 and copy the kernel and initrd
#      there
mkdir /media/p1/boot
/bin/cp -af /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.19 /media/p1/boot
/bin/cp -af /cdrom/boot/isolinux/minirt.gz /media/p1/boot


#  7.  Create a directory for GRUB
mkdir /media/p1/boot/grub


#  8.  Populate the GRUB config file.  If you require different default boot
#      options, include them in the kernel line.
cat <<EOF > /media/p1/boot/grub/menu.lst
default=0
timeout=10

title Knoppix 5.1 (Poor Man's HD install)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.19 ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=normal initrd=minirt.gz nomce loglevel=0 quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix BOOT_IMAGE=linux lang=us fromhd=${DEVICE}1 noeject noprompt
        initrd /boot/minirt.gz
EOF
cd /media/p1/boot/grub
ln -s menu.lst grub.conf


#  9.  Install GRUB
cd /media/p1
grub-install --root-directory=/media/p1 --no-floppy $DEVICE


#  10.  Reboot (and remove CD)
reboot

Now on Cricket Broadband

Posting this over a local wireless network behind a cricket broadband connection from a Windows Vista machine conntected to the USB dongle, and running Windows' Internet Connection Sharing or wtf it's called ... will connect eth and linksys wifi router to ICS-enabled and connect linux boxen wifi-ly.

Hello KNOPPIX. Insufficient bandwidth to practically d/l OpenSUSE 11 DVD ISO? testing one two three...

linux hack wanted, cheep/chirp

over

2008-11-04

OpenSuSE 11 on Toshiba Satellite

Installed the OpenSuSE 11.0 Linux distribution to a Toshiba Satellite M55-S3512 laptop from the Live/Installer DVD.

Screen Size: 14.1 inches
Weight: 5 lbs
Processor Options: Intel Pentium M,Intel Celeron
Graphics Options: Integrated

Toshiba Support Page for Satellite M55-S3512

Note that the URLs for the Yast online repositories listed in the default Yast configuration are still not right (last dealt with this under SuSE 9.2, iirc) - add the text 'suse/' to the end of the repository path settings to get the online update and software installation functions to work.

There is some OpenSuSE documentation still on the Novell site: Novell Doc: OpenSUSE 11.0 - Table of Contents

2008-05-20

Google API Example Code [Obtained Key]

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head>
    <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <title>My Google Data API Application</title>
    <script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi?key=ABQIAAAAEF0hbwoIdolnKjr5eMdCPRR65_V0rae5Sii3SwQWquZGohjOQRRV-du2YimkeA46q7aGVN6U-luT3w" type="text/javascript"></script>
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    google.load("gdata", "1");

    function OnLoad() {
      // Fill out
    }

    //]]>
    </script>
  </head>
  <body onload="OnLoad()">
    <div id="panel"/>
  </body>
</html>

2008-05-06

speed test redoux

2008-03-27

New Speed Tests

A batch of speed tests for our new ATT/Bellsouth FastAccess™ DSL connection. Nice stuff, this, compared to that incredibly slow East Alabama Cable-provided cable modem...

2008-02-01

DSL Report Speed Tests

DSL Reports speed tests from this location @ Zanesville, OH.

This is a wifi connection served by a Time / Warner / Road Runner residential back-haul connection.

2008-01-24

Acer 5520-5912 OEM Device Driver List

PDF from Acer: http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/forms/AcerDrivers/Aspire%205520.pdf - A PDF containing a list of drivers for the 5520-5912; these can be downloaded from Acer; the listing includes drivers for WinXP, Vista, and Vista-64; the file contains download links that may be used to retrieve the device drivers from Acer as compressed archive files, each of which in turn contain a Windows setup program, release notes, etc

The base URL for the driver archive files referenced in this file is:

http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/data/7117/documents/

2008-01-23

Acer 5520-5912 NVIDIA Driver Problems

Acer 5520
NVIDIA Ge7000M video chipset

Bob provides a fairly clear description of the problem he and others are experiencing with the NVIDIA device drivers, Windows Vista, and the Acer 5520-xxxx:

[...] currently running the machine on generic VGA without any driver installed because that is all that will work. I've tried installing everything from 84.25 to the latest 169 version. Same problem; flickering during install and then either won't work and have to restart from previous good config or it does start and is stuck in 4bit color and 640 x 480 res. I've read all the FAQs, googled til I'm blue in the face and still no joy.

Help please!

Bob

Google: acer "5520-5912" nvidia driver vista

PDF containing a list of drivers for the 5520-5912; these can be downloaded from Acer; the listing includes drivers for WinXP, Vista, and Vista-64

Ubuntu Forums: Acer 5520 -specific Atheros AR5007EG HowTo

Ubuntu Forums is hosting a some discussions about getting the Atheros WiFi card working on the Acer 5520 laptop.

Also, Bug #162251 in network-manager-applet (Ubuntu) details a bug which the post's author says may be related to the problems with

2008-01-20

Acer Aspire 5520-5912

The Problem Space

I can't stand Vista any longer. I started looking last week for a Linux LiveCD distribution to use.

So far I have tried a good half-dozen [it seems - I will enumerate later] Linux LiveCD distros, and none of them have proven satisfactory. Again, I will try to detail the specific problems of each a bit later.

The Machine

Acer Aspire 5520–5912, AMD Turion 64x2 TL-58, 2 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 700M / nForce 610M, DVD-RW, Ethernet NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller, Wireless Atheros AR5007EG

The [Working] Distro(s0

Knoppix 5.1.1 LiveDVD

2008-01-18

Device listing for Acer Aspire 5520-5912 w/ Windows Vista

Here is the driver list painstakingly hand-copied from a windows dialog box:

Acer Aspire 5520 5912, AMD Turion 64x2 TL-58, 
2 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 700M / nForce 610M, 
DVD-RW, Ethernet NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller, 
Wireless Atheros AR5007EG

**********************************************************

Batteries: 
 Microsoft AC Adapter
 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery

Computer: 
 ACPI x86-based PCv

Disk Drives: 
 TOSHIBA MK11637GSX ATA Device

Display adapters: 
 NVIDIA GeForce 700M / nForce 610M

DVD/CD-ROM drives:  
 Optiarc DVD RW AD-7560A ATA Device

Human Interface Devices: 
 ENE CIR Receiver
 HID-compliant consumer control device
 HID-compliant device [3x]
 Microsoft eHome Infrared Transceiver; USB Human Interface Device 

IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers: 
 IDE Channel [4x]
 Ricoh Memory Stick Controller
 Ricoh xD-Picture Card Controller
 Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller [2x]

IEEE 1394 Bus host controllers: 
 RICOH OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller

Imaging Devices: 
 Acer Crystal Eye Webcam

Keyboards: 
 Microsoft eHome MCIR 109 Keyboard
 Microsoft eHome MCIR Keyboard
 Microsoft eHome Remote Control Keyboard keys
 Standard 101/102-key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard

Mice and other pointing devices: 
 Alps Pointing-device
 HID-compliant mouse [2x]

Modems: 
 HDAUDIO Soft Data Fax Modem with SmartCP

Monitors: 
 Generic PnP Monitor

Network adapters: 
 Atheros AR5007EG Wireless Network Adapter
 isatap.{13CDFF80-1123-4C42-BFDA-CF21C68B1754}
 isatap.knowlogy.net
 isatap.shacknet.nu
 NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller
 Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
 WAN Miniport (IP)
 WAN Miniport (IPv6)
 WAN Miniport (L2TP)
 WAN Miniport (PPPEO)
 WAN Miniport (PPTP)
 
Non-Plug and Play Drivers:
 Ancillary Function Driver for Winsock
 Beep
 Common Log (CLFS)
 Crcdisk Filter Driver
 Dritek General Port I/O
 Dynamic Volume Manager 
 HTTP
 int15
 IP Network Address Translator
 ISA/EISA Class Driver 
 Kernel Mode Driver Frameworks Service
 KSecDD
 LDDM Graphics Subsystem
 Link-layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver 
 Link-layer Topology Discovery Responder
 Message-oriented TCP/IP and TCP/IPv6 Protocol (SMB session)
 Mount Point Manager
 NativeWiFi Filter
 NDIS System Driver 
 NDIS Usermode I/O Protocol
 NDProxy
 NETBT
 NetIO Legacy TDI Support Driver
 NSI proxy service 
 Null
 QoS Packet Scheduler 
 RDP Encoder Mirror Driver
 RDPCDD
 ReadyBoost Caching Driver
 Remote Access Auto Connection Driver
 Remote Access IPv6 ARP Driver
 Security Driver
 Security Processor Loader Drivr
 Storage Volumes 
 TCP/IP Protocol Driver
 TCP/IP Registry Compatibility
 VgaSave
 Windows Firewall Authorization Driver
 XAudio

Processors:
 AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-58 [2x]

SD host adapters:
 SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller
 
Sound, video, and game controllers:
 Realtek High Definition Audio
 
Storage Controllers:
 Microsoft iSCSI Initiator
 
Storage volume shadow copies:
 Generic volume shadow copy [3x]
 
Storage Volumes:
 Generic volume [3x]
 
System Devices:
 ACPI Fixed Feature Button 
 ACPI Lid
 ACPI Power Button
 ACPI Sleep Button 
 ACPI Thermal Zone 
 AMD Address Map Configuration
 AMD DRAM and HyperTransport(tm) Trace Mode Configuration
 AMD HyperTransport(tm) Configuration
 AMD Miscellaneous Configuration
 Consumer IR Devices
 Direct memory access controller
 High Definition Audio Controller
 High precision event timer
 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Embedded Controller
 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System
 Microsoft Composite Battery
 Microsoft System Management BIOS Driver
 Microsoft Windows Management Interface for ACPI [3x]
 Motherboard resources [2x]
 NVDIA nForce PCI System Management 
 NVDIA nForce System Management Controller
 PCI bus
 PCI standard ISA bridge
 PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge [2x] 
 PCI standard RAM Controller [2x]
 Plug and Play Software Device Enumerator
 Programmable interrupt controller
 System board
 System timer
 Terminal Server Keyboard Driver
 Terminal Server Mouse Driver
 UMBus Enumerator
 Volume Manager
 
Universal Serial Bus controllers:
 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller [2x]
 Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller [2x]
 USB Root Hub [4x]
 
************************************************************

what worked for me was changing the monitor to a 
"acer 55s (widescreen)" using the 
system/administration/screens and graphics then running 
nvidia-settings from the command line.