eRacks Systems Tech Blog
Open Source Experts Since 1999
The Quest for a good Ubuntu netbook
We’ve had a long and arduous search for a usable resolution (at least 1366×768) portable netbook, that will run Ubuntu smoothly, and we’re pleased to report our findings! The MSI U230-040US netbook fulfills all our requirements without so much as a hiccup.
Most netbooks have a 1024 x 600 pixel display. This fails miserably with some applications that are designed for higher resolution, like Eclipse, for example. Working with Eclipse can be annoying enough, but in a lower resolution display, important fields in certain windows are unusable and almost completely hidden.
Portability is important and this system weighs in at 3.3 pounds. It’s got a good solid feel to it, and the display bends back to an angle of about 135 degrees. The keys are next to each other, not spaced out like the Sony Vaio. The netbook’s measurements are 11.71″(L) x 7.49″(D) x 0.55~1.22″(H).
This system passed all our tests and is available, as a complete dual boot system from eRacks, called the eRacks/CUMULUS. We’ve got Ubuntu and Windows 7 on this one.
The built-in Webcam is 1.3MP and works with Cheese Webcam Booth, both photo and video. There is a 4-in-1 Card Reader (XD/SD/MMC/MS), and three USB2.0 connections. Bluetooth is working without any special configurations.
I’ve set the processor for 800MHz at OnDemand. The other settings are Conservative, Performance, and Powersave with a higher 1.6GHz is available.
All-in-all this system gets top marks for usability and portability.
britta October 5th, 2010
Posted In: Laptop cookbooks, New products, ubuntu
eRacks Sony Laptop – Part 2 – Shrinking partitions & Installing Linux
eRacks Sony Laptop – Part 2 – Shrinking partitions & Installing Linux
Step 1 – back up Vista partitions
[joe@sony ~]$ sudo su
Password:
[root@sony joe]# fdisk /dev/sda
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 14593.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x200c5cbf
Device Boot     Start        End     Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 1Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 889Â Â Â Â 7138304Â Â 27Â Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2Â Â *Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 889Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 4076Â Â Â 25600000Â Â Â 7Â HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 4077Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 4101Â Â Â Â Â 200812+Â 83Â Linux
/dev/sda4Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 4102Â Â Â Â Â Â 14593Â Â Â 84276990Â Â Â 5Â Extended
/dev/sda5           4102      14593   84276958+ 8e Linux LVM
Command (m for help): q
[root@sony joe]# dd if=/dev/sda2 | gzip -9 – >vista.img
51200000+0 records in
51200000+0 records out
26214400000 bytes (26 GB) copied, 2384.53 s, 11.0 MB/s
[root@sony joe]# ls -l
total 6168412
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Download
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Music
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Public
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Templates
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Videos
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 6310241019 2009-02-20 21:58 vista.img
[root@sony joe]# dd if=/dev/sda1 | gzip -9 – >recovery.img
14276608+0 records in
14276608+0 records out
7309623296 bytes (7.3 GB) copied, 739.479 s, 9.9 MB/s
[root@sony joe]# ls -l
total 12022456
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Download
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Music
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Public
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 5988678705 2009-02-20 22:15 recovery.img
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Templates
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Videos
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 6310241019 2009-02-20 21:58 vista.img
[root@sony joe]# mv vista.img vista.img.gz
[root@sony joe]# mv recovery.img recovery.img.gz
[root@sony joe]# ls -l
total 12022456
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Download
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Music
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Public
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 5988678705 2009-02-20 22:15 recovery.img.gz
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Templates
drwxr-xr-x 2 joe joe       4096 2009-02-20 03:05 Videos
-rw-r–r– 1 root root 6310241019 2009-02-20 21:58 vista.img.gz
[root@sony joe]#
Step 2: Boot from the Ubuntu CD and install Linux!
Previous: Part 1 – the OOB Experience
eRacks Sony Laptop – Part 3 – Virtual Windoze
joe June 9th, 2009
Posted In: Laptop cookbooks, Open Source, Products, Technology
Tags: laptop, linux, Notebook, Open Source, Sony, Technology, ubuntu, Windows Tax
Home Media Meets Open Source Software
Imagine having the technology to store your music, movies and pictures in a central location and to access them from anywhere in the house. Even better, imagine that you can do this with little cost for hardware and zero cost for software. Not only is it possible, it’s never been easier.
The Network
In order to be able to access your central media repository, you’ll need to connect your computers to a network. With wireless networking, you can cheaply connect your machines almost anywhere in the house without having to run any cable. For the minimal configuration of one server (your media repository) and one client (the system connected to your home theater that lets you actually use the media), one wireless router and two wireless adapters will do. Even better, if the wireless router sits near the server, you can directly connect the two via a cable, saving you the cost of one wireless adapter.
The Hardware
Nowadays, with storage so plentiful and CPUs that are so powerful, it really doesn’t take much money to get good results, which is fortunate for those of us who have been negatively impacted by the downward turn in our nation’s economy. On the server side, a modest Intel Core 2 Duo with anywhere from two to four gigabytes of memory will do, and with one terabyte hard drives falling below $100, you should be able to save even more money. On the client side, with the new Intel Atom CPU, which is powerful, compact, quiet and highly energy efficient, you can build a thin client that sits snuggly atop your entertainment center.
The Software
Media center software has grown increasingly popular, and the open source movement has kept up nicely with easy to install, easy to use applications.
For the operating system on both the client and server side, you have a plethora of Linux distributions to choose from, Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) being our recommendation. Then, on the server side, you’d simply have to configure your system to share your files over the network. On the client side, applications for managing your media include XBMC (http://xbmc.org/), Elisa (http://elisa.fluendo.com/), Entertainer (http://www.entertainer-project.com/) and MythTV (http://www.mythtv.org/ — note that MythTV is a little more involved with regards to configuration and has components that must run on the server side.)
Conclusion
With hardware becoming cheaper and more powerful, and with the added bonus of using free software, a capable home entertainment system can be had for a minimal investment. And, of course, eRacks specializes in providing its customers with the resources they need, whether it be selling systems pre-configured to your specifications or offering consulting for more difficult projects. Contact eRacks today and find out what we can do for your home!
james March 24th, 2009
Posted In: media center, multimedia
Tags: home, images, linux, media, mp4, multimedia, music, network, ubuntu, video
Ubuntu Install for Compal IFL90 laptop
Ubuntu 7.10 Installation on the Micro Express IFL90 Laptop 1. Go into the BIOS by hitting the F2 key during post and make sure it can boot from CD 2. Insert the Ubuntu CD and reboot the system (make sure you use the amd64 version, since Intel's Core 2 Duo is x86_64.) 3. When the install menu for Ubuntu comes up, choose "Safe graphics mode install." DO NOT try the normal install, or the system will hang. 4. Once the LiveCD is fully booted, you will see a desktop with an icon labeled "Installer." Double click on it and wait for the installation application to open. 5. You will be presented with a series of questions related to the configuration of the system. Making sure you setup the proper timezone and the sysadmin username, leave everything else at their default values. When it tells you it's ready to install, click "ok" and wait for it to finish. 6. When the installation is complete, click on the "reboot" button. The disk will be ejected, and the system will boot from the CD. 7. When you have booted successfully from the hard drive, and are presented with the graphical login prompt, hit ALT-F1 to drop down to virtual terminal and login as sysadmin. 8. As the sysadmin user, type the command "sudo passwd root." Enter sysadmin's password when prompted to do so, then enter the root password for the system (eracks.) 9. Logout of the virtual terminal and hit F7 to go back to the graphical console and login as sysadmin. 10. You will be notified that there are updates available. Go ahead and install them. 11. You will be notified that there are "restricted drivers" available. Click on the little icon on the top right that looks like a little circuit board and click on the "Restricted Drivers" tab. 12. Make sure the intel wireless adapter is enabled, and also enable the Nvidia accelerated graphics driver. 13. On the system menu at the top, click on "System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager" 14. Install the package "linux-backport-modules." This is required to make the sound card work. 15. Edit the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base, and add the following line at the bottom: "options snd-hda-intel model=toshiba" 16. Reboot the computer, and make sure to test the wireless adapter and sound card (by playing a sound) You're done!
admin March 31st, 2008
Posted In: Laptop cookbooks