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hardware

hardware — 60 Comments
24
May 07

Word’s Thinnest Laptop from Intel

source: businessweek

When Intel asked designers to build a better laptop, its instructions were simple, really. The machine has to be fashionable, able to connect to all manner of wireless networks, and full of the latest, fastest computing capabilities. Oh yes, and make it as thin as Motorola’s Razr. Its own engineers in conjunction with Ziba Design in Portland, Ore., rose to the challenge.

The result, code-named Intel mobile Metro notebook, is less than 0.7 inches thick—about one-quarter of an inch thicker than Motorola’s (MOT) iconic cell phone, making it the world’s thinnest notebook. And at 2.25 pounds, it’s also one of the lightest small-sized portable computers. Other features include always-on Internet connectivity via various wireless technologies:

intel metro - ultra thin laptop/notebook

This looks nice and cool. The only thing that I noticed is that a display model of this machine has Windows Vista installed. I think this makes it looks 4 times less as cool, as it could have looked with Ubuntu logo..

Common Intel, clean your “interior” design. :)

cool places / hardware / howto / linux / software / tutorials — 60 Comments
18
May 07

Dual Monitor on Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) – nc2400 with Intel 945GM

xorg logoOne of the good things about being in a big consulting company is that you get these "once every one/two years" laptop upgrades. So my lucky upgrade day was yesterday, and my friend Dell D400 was upgraded to HP nc2400. So I decided to change my course a little, and use Ubuntu on a company laptop (instead of XP). I talked to the company people, they did not mind, which was great! The only problem is, when you get a new Windows XP laptop (upgrade), there are certain people that set it up for you, and you just pick it up and go to the client. Well, in my case I had to get up to speed very quickly myself. And of course one of majors problems with Ubuntu Feisty (as with most Linux distros) it does not have any tooling to deal with dual (laptop/LCD) monitors. So it was a fun time experimenting with "xorg.config". It took me quite some time, but I DID GET IT WORKING! And just want to share with everybody what I came with, since none of the Ubuntu forums, and none of what Google (with their new Web 2.0) told me did NOT work.

So here we go… Checking what graphic (video) my new nc2400 has:

user@host:~$ lspci
...
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)<br />
...

Ok, so I’ve got "Intel 945GM" – cool. Notice that there are two VGA/Display controllers, one is on 0:2:0, and another one is on 0:2:1 (those numbers are BusIDs by the way). Nevertheless, I used only one BusID, which is the first one 0:2:0 to get it working.

I also have 1280×800 laptop screen resolution, which means I need to get 915resolution

apt-get install 915resolution

Now, my External Monitor has 1280×1024 @ 60 Hz by specs. Let’s see it is supported by 915resolution:

user@host:~$ sudo 915resolution -l
Password:
Intel 800/900 Series VBIOS Hack : version 0.5.2
 
Chipset: 945GM
BIOS: TYPE 1
Mode Table Offset: $C0000 + $269
Mode Table Entries: 36
 
Mode 30 : 640x480, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 32 : 800x600, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 34 : 1024x768, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 38 : 1280x800, 24 bits/pixel
Mode 3c : 1920x1440, 8 bits/pixel
Mode 41 : 640x480, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 43 : 800x600, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 45 : 1024x768, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 49 : 1280x800, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 4d : 1920x1440, 16 bits/pixel
Mode 50 : 640x480, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 52 : 800x600, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 54 : 1024x768, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 58 : 1280x800, 32 bits/pixel
Mode 5c : 1920x1440, 32 bits/pixel

Seems like I do not have 1280×1024 as one of the supported modes. Hmmm. Ok, then I need to explicitly ask for it by modifying this file, to look like this:

user@host:~$ cat /etc/default/915resolution
#
# 915resolution default
#
# find free modes by  /usr/sbin/915resolution -l
# and set it to MODE or set to 'MODE=auto'
#
# With 'auto' detection, the panel-size will be fetched from the VBE
# BIOS if possible and the highest-numbered mode in each bit-depth
# will be overwritten with the detected panel-size.
MODE=3a
#
# and set resolutions for the mode.
# e.g. use XRESO=1024 and YRESO=768
 
XRESO=1280
YRESO=1024
 
# We can also set the pixel mode.
# e.g. use BIT=32
# Please note that this is optional,
# you can also leave this value blank.
BIT=24

Ok. No I still need to patch laptop LCD to 1280×800, therefore im going to write  a one liner script that is going to do that on startup (how-to). Here is that one line:

# Set the laptop monitor resolution
# Add it to 915Resolution supported modes
915resolution 38 1280 800 24

Did, resolution, did the patching, is it now time for an "xorg.conf"? Ok, then, here it is (working too) :)

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf(5) manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
 
Section "Files"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
        FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
        # path to defoma fonts
        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    "vbe"
EndSection
 
Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Generic Keyboard"
        Driver          "kbd"
        Option          "CoreKeyboard"
        Option          "XkbRules"      "xorg"
        Option          "XkbModel"      "pc105"
        Option          "XkbLayout"     "us"
EndSection
 
Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "CorePointer"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
        Option          "Protocol"              "ImPS/2"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
        Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "true"
EndSection
 
Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Synaptics Touchpad"
        Driver          "synaptics"
        Option          "SendCoreEvents"        "true"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/psaux"
        Option          "Protocol"              "auto-dev"
        Option          "HorizScrollDelta"      "0"
EndSection
 
Section "InputDevice"
        Driver          "wacom"
        Identifier      "stylus"
        Option          "Device"        "/dev/input/wacom"
        Option          "Type"          "stylus"
        Option          "ForceDevice"   "ISDV4"         # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection
 
Section "InputDevice"
        Driver          "wacom"
        Identifier      "eraser"
        Option          "Device"        "/dev/input/wacom"
        Option          "Type"          "eraser"
        Option          "ForceDevice"   "ISDV4"         # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection
 
Section "InputDevice"
        Driver          "wacom"
        Identifier      "cursor"
        Option          "Device"        "/dev/input/wacom"
        Option          "Type"          "cursor"
        Option          "ForceDevice"   "ISDV4"         # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection
 
Section "Device"
        Identifier      "0 Intel 945GM"
        Driver          "i810"
        BusID           "PCI:0:2:0"
        Screen      0
        Option          "MonitorLayout" "CRT,LFP"
        Option          "DRI" "false"
    # I don't think these next lines are actually required.
    #Option          "BackingStore" "true"
    #Option          "DevicePresence" "on"
    #Option          "DisplayInfo" "FALSE"
    #Option          "DRI" "true"
    #Option                       "CacheLines" "1024"
EndSection
 
Section "Device"
        Identifier      "1 Intel 945GM"
        Driver          "i810"
        BusID           "PCI:0:2:0"
        Screen      1
        Option          "MonitorLayout" "CRT,LFP"
        Option          "DRI" "true"
    # I don't think these next lines are actually required.
    #Option          "BackingStore" "true"
    #Option          "DevicePresence" "on"
    #Option          "DisplayInfo" "FALSE"
    #Option          "DRI" "true"
    #Option                       "CacheLines" "1024"
EndSection
 
Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "0 nc2400 Monitor"
        Option          "DPMS"
        Option          "DPMS"
#       HorizSync       28-75
#       VertRefresh     43-100
EndSection
 
Section "Monitor"
        Identifier         "1 nc2400 Monitor"
    HorizSync      30 - 83
    VertRefresh    56 - 76
    Option         "DPMS"
        Modeline       "1280x1024@60" 108.0 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
EndSection
 
Section "Screen"
        Identifier          "0 Screen"
        Device              "0 Intel 945GM"
        Monitor             "0 nc2400 Monitor"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           24
                Modes           "1280x800"
        EndSubSection
EndSection
 
Section "Screen"
        Identifier          "1 Screen"
        Device              "1 Intel 945GM"
        Monitor             "1 nc2400 Monitor"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           24
                Modes           "1280x1024@60"
        EndSubSection
EndSection
 
Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "Default Layout"
    Screen      0 "0 Screen"
    Screen      1 "1 Screen" RightOf "0 Screen"
        Option          "Xinerama" "on"
        Option          "Clone" "off"
        InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
        InputDevice     "Configured Mouse"
        InputDevice     "stylus"        "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice     "cursor"        "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice     "eraser"        "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice     "Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection
 
Section "DRI"
        Mode    0666
EndSection

You may notice "Modeline "1280×1024@60" 108.0 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync", well I just got it from the same place you would get it, yea..that’s right, I got it from Google.

Remember, no matter what a general opinion is (linux follows "install without restart" philosophy), you have to restart. And not just /etc/init.d/gdm restart, but a FULL system restart,

Ok, so now you should see two beautiful screens – one is your laptop, and the other one is your external monitor which is now a separate screen. Congrats!

If you have any questions – shoot, I killed so much time figuring out all these details, why should you?

cool places / hardware / howto / linux / software / tutorials — 67 Comments
16
May 07

Hacking Aproach: NVIDIA Driver on Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn

nvidia driver ubuntuNeeded to install Nvidia driver for my Feisty Fawn (Ubuntu 7.04) box. Googled for a "how to". Noticed that all "how to"s in www follow one of three scenarios:

"Here is a tutorial on how to install Nvidia Driver…":

  • Make sure you know whether you card belongs to "1.0-71xx series" or "1.0-96xx series"
  • Get the driver’s installer  from nvidia site
  • Run the installer
  • Change the device driver from ‘nv’ to ‘nvidia’ in xorg.conf
  • You’re good to go"

                      OR

  • # sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx nvidia-kernel-common
  • # sudo nvidia-glx-config enable
  • You’re good to go

                      OR

  • Download this envy script
  • Run it
  • You’re good to go

    As you can see, there are multiple ways in Linux to solve a single problem, and it is wonderful, besides when none of them work. Yea, none of the above worked for me. I either had "GPU version mismatch – The 1.0-9755 NVIDIA driver will ignore (WW) NVIDIA(0): this GPU." or "Failed to load nvidia kernel module" or that "envy" stuff that said "my OS is not supported", etc..

I solved the problem and just wanted to share with everybody out there who might struggle, so you don’t.

I took a very "dirty approach" and did the following:

I knew my card falls into "1.0-96xx series" list by nvidia, so I went there and downloaded that installer.

Then I did:   sudo rm -rf `locate nvidia`   to make sure I have NO traces of any kind of nvidia stuff that came (?) with a clean Feisty install. (if locatedb is not populated, you can do   sudo find / -name "*nvidia*" -exec rm -rf {} \;   this will definitely clean your system from all nvidia guests)

Make sure if you have copied your driver to the directory with (or part of a) name "nvidia" rename it before deleting all the "nvidia" pieces:   mv nvidia/ myvidia/)

And only then, after I ran the installer from "nvidia", my GeForce MX 400 smiled broadly :)

Happy hacking!

cool places / hardware / linux / me / software / tutorials — 8 Comments
14
May 07

KISS that Technology by Learning

So you need to learn (about) this technology… So you go to google… So you spent X minutes (hours? days?) to find a good candidate-article (tutorial, how to, step-by-step guide, etc.)… So you finish reading it… and most of the time you doing what? – exactly!  – going back to google and keep searching.

More often than not there are two main things that we are looking for when we need to learn something new:

  1. We want to learn it fast
  2. We want to learn it fast

See the difference? :) Here it is – the "first fast" goes for the quality of content that a source has to offer. The better the quantity, the more we learn, the faster we learn. And the "second fast" goes to the amount of time we search for that source of knowledge.

The "first fast" is going to be solved by only dealing with SIMPLE tutorials/guides/ideas about many simple and comlex topics. Simplicity is the key to solve "the quality of content" problem. Think about an IBM Redbook on something you do not know about, let’s say web services. Although it is a great book – lot’s of content – it is a very poor example of an efficient tutorial (not for all, but for most), it just has too much and will take hours to go through. Most of the time a redbook will make you quite sleepy on the page number 24 (my own observation).

And for comparison take this picture from soaspecs.com:

webservices through uddi, wsdl and soap

and spice it up with "SOAP::Lite for Perl" quick guide.

A combination of the two (pic and guide) will take you 5-10 minutes to go over and will make you understand what/how/why/etc.. about webservices. Although the guide is Perl based, it will by no means distract you from understanding the material even if you are not familiar with Perl, why? Because it is SIMPLE, that’s why.

In order to solve the "second fast", I would like to speak to everybody who is going to read this post. If you have a very cool and SIMPLE tutorial, how-to, guide, etc.., please share it with everybody by going to the comments section of this post and putting one or more links to it, or ideas where to get these very simple tutorials.

Later on I will compile this list, and either post it on a different website (if you like, I can put your name as a contributor, with a link to the tutorial/idea and your website, if you have it) or I will create a different post. This will be solving the "second fast" – decreasing the time of searching for the right source.

Apply yourself – KISS that technology! :)

 

action / hardware — 3 Comments
11
May 07

India to build a $10 laptop

cheap $10 laptopThe Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) invested in designing a $10 laptop computer.

Until now, one laptop including labour charges is costing $47 but the ministry forecasts that the price will radically come down when the demand will rise to manufacture one million laptops. An official from HRD ministry said:

    The cost is encouraging and we are hopeful it would come down to $10. We would also look into the possibility of some Indian company manufacturing the parts

The final year engineering student of Vellore Institute of Technology in conjunction with researcher from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore has proposed two designs to the ministry.

In both of the submitted designs, according to Times of India, all components would be located on a single circuitboard. This would keep prices down and make it easier to find and repair problems.

The true estimate to launch a $10 laptop is another two years:

    We do not want to rush into it. Many issues remain to be resolved like royalty to the designer after the design is patented. Prototyping would also take time. We would even conduct destructive testing and create a proper maintenance network

HRD received several proposals from some big multi national companies, but none of them was willing to develop laptop for $10 bucks – greedy closed mind/source corpo-s.

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