Monthly Archives: October 2009

Karmic Koala Beta on ThinkPad T61 (continued)

Posted by cviorel on October 20, 2009 No comments | This post has 357 views.

After the latest updates, enabling touchpad on/off key (fn-f8) is now working. There are some annoying gdm random restarts without a trace in the logs. I suspect it’s the nvidia proprietary driver and I hope it will be fixed soon.
Here is a better approach to enable the Active Protection System in your ThinkPad:

# Install HDAPS - IBM Active Protection System Linux Driver
sudo cp /etc/modules /etc/modules_backup
sudo aptitude install tp-smapi-source
sudo module-assistant prepare tp-smapi
sudo module-assistant auto-install tp-smapi
sudo modprobe tp-smapi
sudo aptitude install hdapsd
echo 'tp-smapi' | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

# Install HDAPS - IBM Active Protection System Linux Driver

sudo cp /etc/modules /etc/modules_backup

sudo aptitude install tp-smapi-source

sudo module-assistant prepare tp-smapi

sudo module-assistant auto-install tp-smapi

sudo modprobe tp-smapi

sudo aptitude install hdapsd

echo 'tp-smapi' | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

Search and remove duplicate files

Posted by cviorel on October 14, 2009 No comments | This post has 496 views.

Here a small piece of code which will search for the duplicates in the path you supply. It will generate a new file which contains the commands for deleting those duplicates.
Make sure you double check the resulting file!
The script requires that you have fdupes installed.
Install it in Ubuntu/Debian by running the following command in your terminal:

sudo aptitude install fdupes

1	sudo aptitude install fdupes

#!/bin/bash

OUTF='rm-dups.sh'
echo "#!/bin/bash" > $OUTF
fdupes -r -f $1 | sed -r 's#(.+)#rm '\"'\1'\"'#' >> $OUTF
chmod +x $OUTF

#!/bin/bash

OUTF='rm-dups.sh'

echo "#!/bin/bash" > $OUTF

fdupes -r -f $1 | sed -r 's#(.+)#rm '\"'\1'\"'#' >> $OUTF

chmod +x $OUTF

Karmic Koala Beta on ThinkPad T61

Posted by cviorel on October 6, 2009 No comments | This post has 425 views.

I just installed Ubuntu 9.10 Beta on my LENOVO ThinkPad T61 64608NG.
Here is what I found so far, in two days of intensive usage:

Quadro NVS 140M – 2D and 3D acceleration: tested and works.
Wireless switch: tested and works.
Sound: tested and works.
Enabling touchpad on/off key (fn-f8): not working.
Enabling Active Protection System: works by installing tp_smapi.
Read the complete guide here.
Fingerprint Reader: install thinkfinger-tools and libpam-thinkfinger from the repository and everything works.
Network Card Intel 10/100/1000: tested and works.
Wireless Intel PRO/4965AG: tested and works.
Card reader: not tested.

UPDATE: Power level of the fingerprint reader is set to on by default, so it gets hot pretty fast. Use one of the scripts here to set it to auto at boot time.
Note that the path /sys/class/usb_*/*/device is no longer working. Instead, use /sys/class/usbmon/usbmon*/device/usb*/*.
Here is the complete script for that, taken from thinkwiki.org and modified to reflect the new path.

#!/bin/bash

# find the fingerprint reader and change its power level to autosuspend
find_manuf=STMicroelectronics
find_prod="Biometric Coprocessor"

for devdir in /sys/class/usbmon/usbmon*/device/usb*/*; do
  [[ -r $devdir/manufacturer ]] || continue
  manuf=$(<$devdir/manufacturer)
  [[ $manuf = $find_manuf ]] || continue;
  prod=$(<$devdir/product)
  [[ $prod = $find_prod ]] || continue;
  # if we get here then we have the right device!
  plevel_file=$devdir/power/level
  old_level=$(<$plevel_file);
  # if it is already set properly then exit silently:
  [[ $old_level = auto ]] && exit 0
  # if we successfully change it then exit silently:
  echo auto >$plevel_file && exit 0
  echo "Failed to set the fingerprint reader's power level to 'auto'."
  exit 1
done

# if we make it through the for loop without exiting, the search failed
echo "Could not find the $find_manuf $find_prod (fingerprint reader)"
exit 1

#!/bin/bash

# find the fingerprint reader and change its power level to autosuspend

find_manuf=STMicroelectronics

find_prod="Biometric Coprocessor"

for devdir in /sys/class/usbmon/usbmon*/device/usb*/*; do

[[ -r $devdir/manufacturer ]] || continue

manuf=$(<$devdir/manufacturer)

[[ $manuf = $find_manuf ]] || continue;

prod=$(<$devdir/product)

[[ $prod = $find_prod ]] || continue;

# if we get here then we have the right device!

plevel_file=$devdir/power/level

old_level=$(<$plevel_file);

# if it is already set properly then exit silently:

[[ $old_level = auto ]] && exit 0

# if we successfully change it then exit silently:

echo auto >$plevel_file && exit 0

echo "Failed to set the fingerprint reader's power level to 'auto'."

exit 1

done

# if we make it through the for loop without exiting, the search failed

echo "Could not find the $find_manuf $find_prod (fingerprint reader)"

exit 1

How to fix menu icons in GNOME 2.28

Posted by cviorel on October 5, 2009 No comments | This post has 411 views.

In the latest release of GNOME, they decided to turn off icons in menus by default. This is ugly and if you ask me, not practical at all.
However, you can get those icons back by going to System → Preferences → Appearance, and under the Interface tab, you can check the box “Show icons in menus”. The new GNOME also removes stock icons from buttons. The the above option does not put them back.
To enable icons in menus and butttons, run in your terminal:

gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/interface/buttons_have_icons --type bool true
gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/interface/menus_have_icons --type bool true

1 2	gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/interface/buttons_have_icons --type bool true gconftool-2 --set /desktop/gnome/interface/menus_have_icons --type bool true

Before:

After:

cviorel.com

Monthly Archives: October 2009

Karmic Koala Beta on ThinkPad T61 (continued)

Search and remove duplicate files

Karmic Koala Beta on ThinkPad T61

How to fix menu icons in GNOME 2.28

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cviorel.com

Monthly Archives: October 2009

Karmic Koala Beta on ThinkPad T61 (continued)

Search and remove duplicate files

Karmic Koala Beta on ThinkPad T61

How to fix menu icons in GNOME 2.28

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Categories

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