Mark Stosberg's blog

Windows and Linux dual-boot failure story

Mon, 26 May 2008 21:03:50 -0400

0x0000007B. This was the error code nestled in a blue screen of death when trying to boot Windows XP after an install of Ubuntu Hardy Heron. The screen flashes so quickly I had to boot to it once just notice there was an error code and then two more times to transcribe the hexidecimal error code.

Skipping the details of the hours of research and troubleshooting, the end result was a determination that to make Windows work again, the hard drive would need to be wiped clean of both Windows and Ubuntu Linux.

I generally recommend against dual-boot systems except as a transitional solution. It at least doubles the complexity of the system, creating two paradigms each with their own maintenance and gotchas.

Browse, E-mail and launch applications faster with Deskbar

Sat, 03 May 2008 21:32:22 -0400

Deskbar is feature built-in to Ubuntu Linux that speeds up common tasks by letting my type just a word and having it "do what I mean". Some examples:

If I want to use my chat program, I don't no longer have to think about whether it is already running or not, to decide whether to use a "task launcher" or a "task switcher". I just type "chat", and Deskbar will do the right thing-- Switch to it if it is open, or launch it if it is not.

The ability to "just think of the application" is the core elegance of the Mac OS X Dock, yet so many imitations of it get it wrong and continue to separate the concepts of task switching and launching. Deskbar thankfully allows you to just think of an application without being concerned about whether or not it is already open. But that said Deskbar is not a dock and the similarity with the OS X Dock ends there.

Flickr is_nazi?

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:23:03 -0400

Today while using Flickr, instead of returning a normal response page to me, it dumped a giant data structure to the screen instead. It appeared to be nearly complete set of all the details it stores about me internally. Some details were not all that surprising, like:
'stats_cluster_id' => '3',
That would indicate that they have multiple clusters of computers that serve their statistics, and when I access my stats, I'm talking to the third cluster of computers.

A few bits of data were especially intriguing. The appeared near the bottom of the list, which is perhaps an indication that they were added more recently:
'is_nazi' => 0, 'vitality_opt_in' => 0, 'has_used_beehive' => 0, Now, what would Flickr be using the "is_nazi" flag for? As for "Vitality" and "Beehive", perhaps these are new feature or services that are not public yet.


There were about 100 other details in the data, but these were the ones that jumped out at me. 
I notified Flickr through their help system the day I found this, and have not heard anything back yet. However, the behavior is no longer reproducible.



Use F11 for Full-Screen in Ubuntu
Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:33:10 -0500
With the increasing popularity of laptops, getting the most out of small screen sizes has become a priority for computer users. 
Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon helps with this by providing a consistent keyboard shortcut for a "Full Screen" mode. Pressing "F11" in many standard Ubuntu applications allows you to to toggle the application in and out of a full screen mode. Today I tested that the following key applications support this:

Firefox
Gimp Image Editor
Eye of Gnome Image Viewer
Evince Document Viewer
Totem Movie Player
Rhythmbox Music Player
Terminal

Now that I realize the shortcut exists and is widely supported I use it regularly to get the most out of my 14" laptop screen.  I did find one key application had a full screen model and used a different shortcut. Open Office mysteriously uses "Ctrl-Shift-J". I have filed a bug to suggest that Ubuntu make this consistent as well.


Ubuntu tip: Automatically turn off streaming music at night
Fri, 21 Dec 2007 23:33:29 -0500
I've been known to accidentally leave a stream of music running all night when I'm not there to listen to it anymore. That wastes bandwidth and energy. 
Here's a quick tip to prevent from happening, by causing any music playing to be turned off at 7:00 pm each night.
On Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10, add these lines to "/etc/crontab". You can edit this file with "gksudo gedit /etc/crontab":
Note that "rhythmbox" and "vlc" are the names of the music players I use.  Change as needed. 


# stop streams from playing all night.

0 19 *   *   Mon-Fri     killall --quiet rhythmbox vlc




The Widescreen Scam
Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:07:35 -0500
Widescreen LCD monitors are laptops are all the rage now.  Wikipedia cites lower associated manufacturing costs.
Basic geometry and algebra explain why manufacturers are saving money and consumers may be deceived about what they are getting.                                                 
Monitors are measured along the diagonal. A 14" widescreen sounds like a '14" screen...only wider", but it is not. It a screen with a wide width-to-height ratio, such as 16-to-10, with a diagonal that that measures 14".  The wider and flatter a rectangle gets for a given diagonal length, the smaller the area.  That means a 14" widescreen LCD has less screen area than a standard screen with a 4:3 ratio. By my calculations, it's about 6% smaller, or the equivalent of removing about half an inch from the standard size 14" monitor.


Hidden Gem in Ubuntu 7.10: "Run Command"
Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:10:36 -0500
For several years Linux has enabled to run a command by name with a little "Run Command" application, often accessed by pressing Alt-F2.
This is my favorite way to launch applications since it can be done with the keyboard by just remembering the name of the application. 
In Ubuntu Gutsy, this little tool has become more useful. 
No longer do I need to remember that the program run by OpenOffice is called 'oowriter'. 
Now I can just start typing "OpenOffice", and it will show me the icon and name for "OpenOffice Writer" as an option. 
If I type "Mail", it shows me the options for the "Thunderbird" and "Evolution" e-mail programs. Great!


Fixing sound in Firefox Flash Plugin on Mandriva Linux 2007
Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:45:27 -0400
Sound was generally working fine on my Mandriva 2007 workstation, but sound in the Flash plugin was not. Here's how I debugged the problem and fixed it. 
First, running Firefox from a terminal provided a great clue. To launch Firefox this way it may work to use Alt-F2 to have the run  box appear, and then type "mozilla-firefox" and make sure "Run in  terminal" is selected". 
This should lots of ALSA-related errors, including "device not found". 
By launching the Mandriva Control Center (Alt-F2 then 'mcc'), I was able to review the sound drivers in use. I navigated to "Hardware : Look and Configure Hardware" and then selected my soundcard below the "Soundcard" option. My soundcard was listed as "82801EB AC'97 Audio". From there, I could select "Run Config Tool", which provided a list of driver options. Only one of them was listed as "ALSA", so I switched the driver to that.


Microsoft Windows helpfully protects user from accessing the internet. At all.
Sat, 28 Jul 2007 15:22:13 -0400
Restricting freedoms in the name of safety and security can go too far. 
Take this recent tech support call from a family member. She hadn't been able to get on the internet for days. She called Comcast, which provides her cable modem. Things looked fine on their side, they said. They suggested something on her computer wasn't working right. Using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer as the web browser might be the problem, they offered.
Having used this Windows XP computer myself, I'm familar with all the popups that the ZoneAlarm security utility generates. "Someone is trying to attack your computer on Port 80. Do you want to allow it? [YES] [NO]".


Dell Sells Computers with Linux Pre-Installed
Fri, 25 May 2007 19:50:13 -0400
When Dell surveyed their customers to see what they wanted on their IdeaStorm feedback site, one answer was loud and clear: "We want Ubuntu Linux pre-installed".  And now, only about two months later, they have it.
Dell is now offering Ubuntu pre-installed on three machines. Not only is the open source foundation of Ubuntu a great choice for consumers, the price is lower than buying the machines with Windows Vista, and having Dell pre-install the software means that they have certified and support this specific hardware to work with Linux.


Five Immediate Customizations for Feisty Fawn
Mon, 07 May 2007 22:22:32 -0400
Ubuntu Feisty Fawn is a great operating system, and I've already helped install it on a number of systems. Here are five customizations I make right away to make it a more pleasant system to suit my taste:

Install the Flash and Java plugins. Ubuntu already has packages for these, but I believe they turned on by default for licensing reasons. Go to Applications: Add & Remove Applications and search for "ubuntu-restricted-extras". This will install Flash and Java plugins, as well MP3 support and some nice free Microsoft fonts. Check the boxes next to the listing and click "Apply" to finish the job.   The Java plugin installs some things into the menu system that I think I'll never use, so I remove the entries for them. To edit the menu, right-click on "Applications" and select "Edit Menu". The menu editor should be fairly intuitive, and allowing you to remove "Java Web Start" and anything else you want. (Note: removing the menu items doesn't un-install these applications).


Puppy Linux gives new life to Windows 95 Laptop
Tue, 01 May 2007 22:24:46 -0400
Recently I was asked to help revive a Windows 95-era laptop by installing Linux on it.  Windows 95 didn't seem to have functional USB support on the laptop, and modern web browsers like Firefox weren't easily available for it. 
My first attempt was to try Xubuntu Linux, which seemed to still be too resource intensive for this 96Mg RAM, 150Mhz processor laptop. 
My second attempt, Puppy Linux seems to be working rather well. Except for some files I needed to copy by hand, the install went very smoothly, and the system does indeed run with low requirements, idling well below the 96 Megs of memory the system has.


A laptop too old for Xubuntu
Sat, 28 Apr 2007 15:01:30 -0400
Today I'm working on breathing some new Linux life into a old Windows 95 laptop. The specs are extremely low end by todays standards: 150 Mhz processor, 3 Gig hard drive and 96 Megs of RAMs. 
I tried the Xubuntu alternate install CD first. I let it run overnight, and in the morning, it reported it was only 66% done! So slow.


Ubuntu and Kubuntu Edgy compared
Mon, 26 Feb 2007 21:24:24 -0500
Kurt has just installed Kubuntu Edgy on his laptop to replace Mandriva, so that gave me a chance to compare Kubuntu to Ubuntu.

I have Ubuntu on my laptop now, an almost identical model to his. 
Having seen both Ubuntu and Kubuntu, I definitely prefer Ubuntu at this point. Read on for details.


Improvements Contributed to Mandriva, Ubuntu laptop sound
Sat, 24 Feb 2007 22:52:52 -0500
As part of my switch from Mandriva to Ubuntu, I had the opportunity today to contribute some improvements back to both operating systems. 
Having just used Mandriva on this laptop, I knew it was possible for the sound to keep working after a suspend/resume cycle, but it quit working after the Ubuntu switch.
Since Mandriva's solution was made available under an open source license, I was able to review it adapt to work with Ubuntu, and Ubuntu can easily and legally accept this solution, if they choose.