Debian on Dell Inspiron 6400 (SID)

Posted on May 13th, 2007

by siyb

This is a small tut explaining how to setup Debian SID on an Dell Inspirion 6400, if you encounter any problems please contact me in this post. The laptop is pretty Linux friendly and it’s not a hazzle to get the major features working. As Dell issues different models, I am just giving a small information about my system:

Intel(R) Core(TM) Duo CPU T2350 @ 1.86GHz
2048 mb ram
160gig hdd
nVidia Corporation Quadro NVS 110M / GeForce Go 7300
IPW 3945

Add your user to plugdev and powerdev:

adduser $USER powerdev
adduser $USER plugdev

nVidia drivers:

# get all required packets
apt-get install nvidia-kernel-source nvidia-settings linux-headers-`uname -r` module-assistant build-essential

# building the module
cd /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r` && m-a a-i nvidia

# edit the drivers option in your device section in /etc/xorg.conf
Driver “nvidia”

# get glx
apt-get install nvidia-glx

# stop gdm/kdm/xdm etc…
/etc/init.d/gdm stop

# load the module onto your kernel
modprobe -v nvidia

# start gdm/kdm/xdm again
/etc/init.d/gdm start

Next step wlan:

# installing packages
apt-get install firmware-ipw3945 ipw3945-source ipw3945d wireless-tools

# building the module
cd /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r` && m-a a-i ipw3945 && modprobe -v ipw3945

# install network manager (on demand)
apt-get install network-manager network-manager-gnome (or kde)

# adding user to netdev group
adduser $USER netdev

# restart gdm/kdm/xdm
/etc/init.d/gdm restart

Sound:

alsaconf

Cpu frequency scaling:

# first edit your /etc/modules file, add the following entries

# frequency scaling
speedstep_centrino
cpufreq_ondemand
cpufreq_conservative
cpufreq_stats
cpufreq_userspace
cpufreq_powersave

# after this reboot OR load all modules listed above manually
modprobe -v $MODULE

# install a cpu frequency scaling daemon and applet (in this case I choose powersaved and the emifreq applet)
apt-get install powersaved emifreq-applet

Disable internal speaker

$EDITOR /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

# add the following line at the end
blacklist pcspkr

The SD cardreader worked without me having to modify anything. Vertical scrolling works fine too (touchpad), haven’t bothered to try to set up the horizontal scroll, due to the fact that I don’t really need it. I am still working to get the TV out working properly and will probably write a whole post an that later on.

English, German, Howto, Linux, debian 1 Comment »

Changing identifiers of network interfaces using udev rules (Debian / Unstable)

Posted on May 10th, 2007

by siyb

When I installed the new mainboard into my server, I came across a problem, the new onboard ethernet device was identified by eth9 instead of eth0. There is a very easy way to fix that, by slightly editing the udev rules for network interfaces. Choose your preferred editor and edit the z25_persistent-net.rules file:

$EDITOR /etc/udev/rules.d/z25_persistent-net.rules

Now find the network interface(s) whose identifier you wish to change, the line of each NIC/Firewire/etc device should look a bit like this:

# PCI device 0×1100:0×4265 (woot)
SUBSYSTEM==”net”, DRIVERS==”?*”, ATTRS{address}==”00:13:32:bc:8a:21″, NAME=”eth9″

The only parameter you got to change in this case is the NAME of the NIC, here it’s called eth9.

# PCI device 0×1100:0×4265 (woot)
SUBSYSTEM==”net”, DRIVERS==”?*”, ATTRS{address}==”00:13:32:bc:8a:21″, NAME=”eth0″

In order to apply the settings you got to restart udev and probably networking, however that did not work for me so that I had to reboot my server.

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Flash on AMD64 without 32bit binary with nspluginwrapper

Posted on May 8th, 2007

by schischa
Some time ago I read about nspluginwrapper on gentoo-portage and now finally tried if it works. With this little programm it should be able to wrap 32bit plugins with 64bit browsers, so you don’t need to chroot oder install 32bit binarys. It’ some kind of ndiswrapper but for all kind of browser plugins. At the moment it supports:

  • Acrobat Reader (5.0.9, 7.0.1)
  • DejaVu Libre (3.5.14)
  • Flash Player (7.0, 9.0)
  • Linux JPEG 2000 (0.0.2)
  • Mplayerplug-in (2.80, 3.25)
  • Real Player (10.0.5)
  • ICA Citrix Client

    • Most important for me is the flash plugin, especially for music in youtube or on sites like mixupload. It’s also possible to watch/hear that stuff without flash, I know that, but with flash it’s kind of faster and if I like it I can still download it the way I used to before having flash on 64 bit ;)

    The installation is really easy and straight, so let’s go:

    First you need to emerge nspluginwrapper.

    emerge -av nspluginwrapper

    If you are running a stable gentoo system you will need put it in package.keywords as it’s still in testing (it’s running really fine here so try it)

    echo net-www/nspluginwrapper >> /etc/portage/package.keywords

    Now as an example we will try installing the flash plugin with

    emerge -av netscape-flash

    and tell nspluginwrapper to scan and install the existing plugins with

    nspluginwrapper -v -a -i

    Now there should be something like that in your about:plugins screen and flash should work fine. For example a youtube video.

    nspluginwrapper on amd64nspluginwrapper with youtube video

    English, German, Howto, Linux, Networkroll, Tips, gentoo 1 Comment »

    Getting Voice Software working with Audigy 4 and Nforce2 OnBoardsound

    Posted on April 3rd, 2007

    by ShadowHunter

    I tried to use TeamSpeak to speak with some friends while playing, but i didn’t succeed to get it working. I tried to put “aoss” in front of the “TeamSpeak” command, nothing changed. So i tried to find out, what i can do. First i merged audacity where i found out, that my microphone doesn’t work with the default device. I had to change from “Mic Capture” to “ALSA: Audigy4: Multichannel Capture/PT Playback (hw:0,2)”. But in TeamSpeak was no Option to use this devicepart.
    After this i tried “mumble” a really nice voice software that is opensource and works unter Windows and Linux. More infos here [1]. I used the svn version, the ebuild didn’t compile. I used this [2] introduction to install it.
    When i start mumble and joined a server i could here others, a step further to a solution (in TS i didn’t hear anything). Although mumble uses Alsa i still can’t talk, just crazy sounds coming over to others. After some time hacking around with the config i started to try my onboard Chip. I have a Asus A7N8X Deluxe 2.0 so i needed the “intel8×0″ driver. I made a new Kernel with emu10k1 for my Audigy 4 and intel8×0 for the Realtek Chip on board. I used ALSA and the drivers as modules. More infos here [3] especially 2.4.
    So now i wanted to use the Audigy 4 for Output and the intel8×0 for input, because microphone with intel8×0 works fine. So i used [3] and [4] to make my Gentoo using both cards as one.
    I had to modify some files:

    /etc/make.conf:

    ALSA_CARDS="emu10k1 intel8x0"

    /etc/modules.d/alsa:

    alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss
alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss
alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss

alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
alias snd-card-1 snd-intel8x0
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
options snd-emu10k1 index=0
options snd-intel8x0 index=-2

    .asoundrc:

    pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave {
        pcm {
            type    asym
            playback.pcm dmix:0
            capture.pcm dsnoop:1
        }
    }
}
pcm.dsp pcm.!default

    Now i made sure that alsasound is added to the runlevel and configured Alsamixer.
    So the Audigy is working for output and the Realtek Chip is working for the input.
    Now i can use mumble and TeamSpeak. There is just one problem left with mumble. When more then 1 User speak it crashes, if anyone has a solution please report me:
    ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:914:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave

    [1] http://mumble.sourceforge.net/
    [2] http://www.linux-gamers.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=2896&forum=6
    [3] http://www.gentoo.de/doc/de/alsa-guide.xml
    [4] http://de.gentoo-wiki.com/Soundkarten_kombinieren

    English, German, Hardware, Howto, Linux, Music, Software, gentoo No Comments »

    Mozilla Schriften anpassen | setting Mozilla fonts

    Posted on March 17th, 2007

    by ShadowHunter
    I had problems with the fonts when I changed from Ubuntu to Gentoo. With gtk-theme i could fix the problem with most of my tools. However, the fonts for Firefox, Thunderbird and Seamonkey were still ugly. As none of the mozilla progammes having direct acces to these settings by the preference menu, I started to search for a solution. According to the suggestion to use a ~/.fonts.conf to change my settings, I went on to the userChrome.css file as I failed with the ~/.fonts.conf. This file is in every profile folder of mozilla tools in the folder /chrome, if not, you have to create it. This file regulates the settings for the design in menu and fonts. I used a global setting, because I wanted to have the settings for fonts in every part of my mozilla tools. The guys who want to config it more in detail should take a look to the following sites:

    Userstyles
    Customizing Mozilla

    My userChrome.css looks now like this:

    * {
    font-family: fixed !important;
    font-size: 10px !important;
    }

    The font depends now on my setting in gtk. Here it is “Terminus”, but you are free to use your own favorite. The font-size should be small and equal but still readable, so I took 10px. The “px” is important, otherwise there will be some parts in the menu that would not be affected by the config.

    Here are some screenshots of my config in Firefox, Seamonkey and Thunderbird:

    FirefoxSeamonkeyThunderbird

    German, Howto, Linux, Software, Tips, gentoo No Comments »
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