Category Archives: Linux

Connect to The Internet using Ubuntu, Bluetooth and a mobile phone.

Finally I did it! I established a bluetooth connection to my mobile and used it as a modem to connect to the internet. It has actually been something that I started trying a couple of months ago. Back then I read about how to connect using bluetooth and how to use the mobile as a modem and to initialize a GPRS connection setting on the phone. I also got as far as to actually do the connecting and dialing, and I could see on the mobile that it was connected but I didn’t get a proper IP address and couldn’t reach the internet.

Since I have had a lot of other stuff to do and had almost forgotten about it entirely until yesterday when I decided to give it a last chance. I found out that I had use the wrong dial string for my mobile so I didn’t use the correct GPRS setting (duh!). When I saw Google load for the first time I couldn’t help shouting “YES”. Normally I don’t even recognize when I do that but this time I was in THE TRAIN on my way home (and even worse I sat in a cupe where you have to be quiet!).

So how did I do it? To be honest I don’t really know. But after having looked around a bit I found [this guide][guide], which pretty much describes what I did. The only difference is that I created two launchers on my panel which I use for starting and stopping the connection. Works like a charm :)

launchers.png

launcher_start.png

launcher_off.png

[guide]: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BluetoothDialup

New server

I’ve just configured my new server, which are already running my [personal][billen] [websites] as well as my [girlfriend's][signestaunerdk] [websites][runawaybridedk].

The new server is a AMD64 3200+ with 2×250GB SATA discs configured in RAID1 (mirror). I also bought a 1GB RAM block, but either it’s damaged or else it simply don’t fit together with my ASUS A8N-VM. So right now I’ve only installed 512MB in it.

I have installed Ubuntu Server on it (of cause ;-) ), but it wasn’t as straight forward as I’ve hoped. The installer was ok for configuring the software raid, but for some reason it wouldn’t install grub on the harddisk. I had to manually do that and it was also then I found out that the installer hadn’t created a /boot/grub/menu.lst. But that was easy to create using update-grub.

But after that everything just worked perfectly (after the RAID partitions had been scrubbed)

If you are actually reading this post it also means that the new server is up’n'running and accesible from The Internet.

[billen]: http://billen.dk/
: http://i.billen.dk/
[signestaunerdk]: http://signestauner.dk/
[runawaybridedk]: http://runawaybride.dk/

Dual-head setup on a Thinkpad Z60m with Ubuntu

After having got the [docking station][dock] and a [19" external monitor][monitor] at [my work][avaleo], I tried to find a way to have a dual-head setup with Xinerama. Though Ubuntu is very cool, it didn’t really know what it was that I wanted when I attached the external monitor to it. And because there ain’t any graphical interfaces to configure [X.org][xorg] in these directions I had to do it myself.

To begin with I tried to have the xserver figure out the best resolution, depth etc. which it normally does just fine. But I think it can’t cope with my 15.4″ laptop screen together with my 19″ external monitor. So strongly inspired by a [somewhat similar setup][dellsetup] I found out that I had to set it all myself. So below you can see my full /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

# Please note the Xinerama option.
Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "Dual-Head Setup"
	Screen      0  "Screen 1" 0 0
	Screen         "Screen 2" LeftOf "Screen 1"
	InputDevice    "Generic Keyboard"
	InputDevice    "Configured Mouse"
	Option         "Xinerama" "On"
	Option         "Clone"    "Off"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Generic Keyboard"
	Driver      "kbd"
	Option	    "CoreKeyboard"
	Option	    "XkbRules" "xorg"
	Option	    "XkbModel" "pc105"
	Option	    "XkbLayout" "dk"
EndSection

# This configures both the trackpoint mouse and my external USB mouse.
Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Configured Mouse"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "CorePointer"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
	Option	    "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
	Option	    "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "Files"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi"
	FontPath     "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load  "i2c"
	Load  "bitmap"
	Load  "ddc"
	Load  "dri"
	Load  "extmod"
	Load  "freetype"
	Load  "glx"
	Load  "int10"
	Load  "type1"
	Load  "vbe"
EndSection

# Laptop LCD
Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Laptop LCD"
	Option	     "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
	Option	     "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
	Option	     "DPMS" "true"
	DisplaySize  331 207
	Modeline     "1680x1050"  122.00  1680 1712 1776 1904  1050 1051 1054 1066
EndSection

# Samsung TFT
Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Samsung 920N"
	Option	     "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
	Option	     "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
	Option	     "DPMS" "true"
	DisplaySize  376 301
	HorizSync    30-81
	VertRefresh  56-75
	ModeLine     "1280x1024" 108.00 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"R600 for Laptop LCD"
	Driver		"fglrx"
	BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "R600 for Samsung 920N"
	Driver      "fglrx"
	BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
	Screen      1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen 1"
	Device     "R600 for Laptop LCD"
	Monitor    "Laptop LCD"
	DefaultDepth     24
	# The modes is important to set else it won't work
	SubSection "Display"
		Modes     "1680x1050"
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen 2"
	Device     "R600 for Samsung 920N"
	Monitor    "Samsung 920N"
	DefaultDepth     24
	# The modes is important to set else it won't work
	SubSection "Display"
		Modes     "1280x1024"
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Mode         0666
EndSection

[avaleo]: http://www.avaleo.net
[dock]: http://www-131.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=-840&storeId=10000001&langId=-1&dualCurrId=73&categoryId=2581897&productId=4611686018425101091
[monitor]: http://www.samsung.com/Products/Monitor/LCD_Analog/LS19MJAKBZXAA.asp
[xorg]: http://www.x.org/
[dellsetup]: http://rdo.homelinux.org/ubuntu-linux-on-a-dell-latitude-d610/

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS released

[Finally the Dapper Drake has been set loose.][dapper]

I have as usual reinstalled my laptop using the final cd. This time though I tried the desktop install cd, where you install Ubuntu from a live cd. It’s actually a cool experience to be able to surf the internet while the installer is working in the background. And it didn’t actually take much longer than a normal install. Other distributions installers take ages to load (try [SuSE][suse] f.ex.), so compared to the Ubuntu livecd installer it actually seems slower because you can’t do anything while it installs.

I haven’t been testing all features yet (does sleep work again etc.) but I sure will do it.

[dapper]: http://www.ubuntu.com/
[suse]: http://www.opensuse.org/

LinuxForum 2006

[As always][1] the first weekend of March is [LinuxForum][2]. For the second time I attended with [Casalogic][3]. My collegue, [Jacob Emcken][4] hold a [speech][5] about Linux/Windows integration using [Samba][6]. The room was so crowded with people, that I couldn’t even enter the room. I hope that the guys who recorded the speech, will publish it any time soon.

LinuxForum 2006

[1]: http://www.linuxforum.dk/2006/linuxforum.shtml
[2]: http://www.linuxforum.dk/
[3]: http://www.casalogic.dk/
[4]: http://emcken.dk/weblog/
[5]: http://www.samba.org/
[6]: http://www.linuxforum.dk/2006/program/saturday/JacobEmcken.shtml

Ubuntu is boring

I’ve just (re)installed [Ubuntu Dapper][1] ([Flight 3][2]) on my new worklaptop [ThinkPad z60m][3]. It was totally boring, because it found all useful hardware and configured it. The only problem was the sound, which was muted (Turn up “Front” in alsamixer”). Ok admitted it didn’t find the fingerprint device, but as I said before: It found ALL the useful hardware ;-) All the stuff I would expect to use works: Suspend, Wireless (using NetworkManager, coool!!), support for the Radeon X600 card (fglrx driver needs seperate configuration, of cource), etc etc.

Since I’ve begun on my latest assignment, I have used [Eclipse][4] a lot. Therefore it’s great the Eclipse has found it’s way into the Dapper Universe. Thanx a lot guys.

[1]: http://www.ubuntu.com
[2]: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/dapper/flight-3/
[3]: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:Z60m
[4]: http://www.eclipse.org

Ubuntu CD’s received

I have just received the latest [Ubuntu][1] cd’s. Now it’s time for some handaround. My [girlfriend][2] has already gotten two of them ;-) You gotta spread the word, where it could be heard.

__To begin with:__
10 x i386
2 x powerpc
2 x amd64

__Give-away:__
3 x i386
1 x powerpc

__Total:__
7 x i386
1 x powerpc
1 x amd64

… and counting :)

[1]: http://www.ubuntu.com/
[2]: http://signestauner.dk/