Erik's Data Dump

Make launching spotify links from the browser work again in Natty 11.04

2011-06-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

New distribution means new bugs, right?

Natty 11.04 broke the URI passing, disabling the possibility to launch spotify links from the browser.

Replace your spotify.desktop file in:
/usr/share/applications
with:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Spotify
GenericName=Spotify
Comment=Listen to music using Spotify
Icon=spotify-linux-512x512
TryExec=spotify
Exec=spotify -uri %u ""
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/spotify;
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Qt;AudioVideo

to make it work again.

Oh, you do need to update the database by issuing:

sudo update-desktop-database

afterwards.

Speeding up builds using ccache

2010-02-24T10:48:00.001-08:00

You probably know this but here is an article on how to speed up compiles using ccache:

http://www.debian-administration.org/article/Speeding_up_recompilation_with_ccache

Disassembling a Synology USB Station SUS-201

2010-01-18T11:15:00.000-08:00

So I got bored while doing a backup of a usb disk and disassembled an older Synology SUS-201 disk station. This product contains a 10/100 MAC and two usb connectors for connecting harddrives to.

The unit consists of a RDC SoC processor, 32 MB FLASH, 16 MB SDRAM and a 10/100 Ethernet PHY.

There are some debug pins available and when inspecting the PCB carefully you can see where the test probes have been sitting. If I had an oscilloscope I'd try to see if I could find the serial port and work from there, but that's an adventure for another day.

Karmic, Cups and the root password

2010-01-09T02:25:00.000-08:00

Just a short note.

I've been having problems with creating a new printer profile using cups.

Cups kept prompting for the root password but wouldn't accept it.

Turns out you need to be able to login as root directly.

This is done by executing: sudo passwd root

in a terminal. Afterwards, cups performed as intended, go figure!

How to increase your hibernation and resume speed in Ubuntu

2009-12-07T01:57:00.000-08:00

Ubuntu defaults to the kernel supplied hibernate function which is very inefficient. If you like me have > 4 GB RAM in your machine, hibernate and resuming in particular may be very slow, lasting even longer than a cold boot.

The solution to this problem is to install the uswsusp package which replaces the built hibernate function with a more efficient one, compressing the used memory pages and filtering out unneeded ones.

Once the package is installed you need to instruct the system to switch over by editing /etc/pm/config.d/00sleep_module (as of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala). Uncomment the SLEEP_MODULE line and replace it with SLEEP_MODULE="uswsusp", save and off you go. You now have a system which hibernates and resumes way faster!

Bad wifi reception on the ASUS 1005HA using ubuntu karmic

2009-12-02T11:54:00.000-08:00

The 1005HA is a nice piece of hardware but I got quite bad wifi reception on it. Turns out that if you install the wireless backports package you can increase the reception a great deal.

To give it a try install: linux-backports-modules-wireless-karmic-generic

Sign this petition in order to keep the Internet free in the EU

2009-09-27T06:26:00.000-07:00

http://www.euopeninternet.eu/open-internet/

Do it now!

Losing the numpad after having a vnc session

2009-09-23T04:33:00.001-07:00

I've recently had the problem that I've lost the keyboard numpad after vnc session.
Turns out that "Mouse keys" have magically been enabled, using the numpad as a virtual mouse.

Thanks to this forum thread a smart user found out how to disable this "feature".
Works like a charm once you've found out what the real issue was.

Motorola VIP 1910 fail

2009-07-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

I managed to acquire the source code to the Motorola VIP 1910 iptv box. It went much smoother than I expected. Turns out that the box only accepts code signed by Motorola. Mkáking it impossible for a normal user to run custom code.

Nice way of supporting the spirit of the GPL motorola!

stv06xx in mainline

2009-06-30T06:48:00.000-07:00

Some months ago I decided to convert the old bitrotted qc-usb v4l1 driver to the gspca framework as I have an old Quickcam Web donated by a friend.
This was done fairly but not without some problems such as that the webcam is usb 1.1 and needs some time to settle before you can start to program it. If you're too keen on touching its register, all you're going to get is a hung webcam.

Creative Vista Plus webcam

2009-05-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

I've recently moved and near my new apartment there's a flea market every saturday.
Today I went poking around and bought a used Creative Vista Plus webcam for 25 SEK (~2 EUR). I plugged it into my main Ubuntu 9.04 machine and it worked right of the bat with the gspca based pac207 driver. Granted, the image is crappy but that is a property of the camera and not of the driver. Kudos to Hans de Goede and the rest of the developers for getting this driver in such a good shape!

What to do when spotify has got black striped in wine

2009-04-09T01:12:00.001-07:00

I've had this long-standing issue where Spotify has been largely covered with black patches when emulated with wine. Today I finally resolved the problem:

You need to tweak what version of windows wine is to emulate. When set to Win98 this problem arises. By using the winecfg tool this can be tweaked to WinXp instead and the problem vanishes.

Small status update of the m5602

2009-02-02T12:14:00.000-08:00

A brief update:
The ov7660 sensor has been merged. This code is basically untested but I figured it would be better to add the almost working code as this increases the chances that someone who has the time and devotion helps me to get it going.

I've added multiple resolution support to a number of drivers but it turns out it's really hard to get it working when not having the hardware. As such I've given up fixing these until someone, again with the hardware can help me out.

More fun with resolution

2009-01-03T12:33:00.000-08:00

During my winter vacation I've spent more time playing around with the m5602 driver and now it supports VGA, QVGA, CIF, QCIF.
I've also implemented local caching of v4l2 controls as the sensor registers doesn't always update right away.

Right now I'm tackling the issue that the image needs to adjusted when flipping the image upside down.

QVGA support for the m5602 camera

2008-12-21T12:02:00.000-08:00

I've been experimenting the last days with enabling different resolutions during my commute to and from work.

Today I've finally cracked the way to setup the camera and can successfully produce 320x240 frame, enabling a much higher framerate.

Expect to see some patches coming down the pipes in the coming days.
Sad thing that I only can support the ov9650 sensor. But as the datasheets are still lacking that's where we are.

m5602 - gspca conversion complete; driver submitted mainline (almost)

2008-10-05T06:31:00.000-07:00

The gspca conversion is complete and went more smoothly than I ever imagined.
I'm still not 100% comfortable with the gspca framwork, but I have submitted some patches against some of the difficulties I've found.

The driver has also been merged in the the official v4l-dvb tree. This means that when Linus Torvalds opens his two week window for new kernel features in what's going to be the 2.6.28 tree, the m5602 driver is going in with it!

What's now bothering me is that I need something new to do with my time, there's still going to be regressions to the driver and some new unsupported sensors may pop up. Also there's a lot of unimplemented features in the m5602, but without any datasheets this is a lot of hard work.

I have a really old webcam at home, the quickcam web. There's currently an old v4l1 bitrotted driver out of the main kernel tree.
Currently I'm investigating if a gspca port is possible and worth the time.

m5602 - gspca conversion

2008-09-28T02:18:00.000-07:00

So, after submitting the m5602 driver mainline I got some suggestions to port to the gspca framework. Grudgingly, I'm now in the process of doing so.
Fortunately it turned out to be much easier than I ever expected.
Unfortunately every sensor needs to be converted which involves lots of mechanical typing. I expect to be done with the conversion quite soon which should render the driver ready for upstream!

To submit the m5602 webcam driver mainline (or not)

2008-08-24T13:18:00.000-07:00

I'm currently torn between submitting the m5602 webcam upstream.
So far, the software has been maturing pretty nicely. Some applications still do not work with the libv4l combo, but this seems more to be some initial struggle and Hans de Goede (the libv4l developer) has been pretty busy filing bugs at various projects trying to gain support for the library.

There are still various issues remaining: One sensor is still unidentified, the s5k83a goes crazy in high-lighting environments, the mt9m111 is still to dark initially but all in all things start to work.

One hard issue is that quite often someone reports an issue directly to me or via one of the mailing list. As I query the submitter for information no response is ever received. This makes it impossible for me to actually fix the bug, most annoying.

Anyway, submitting the project upstream is a good idea to get more coverage for the software and the submission must be done eventually. I've also been investigating to option to port the project to use the gspca framework but I still don't like the structure of it.

More progress on the m5602, protecting against sudden disconnects

2008-08-12T12:46:00.001-07:00

I today experimented with how the driver reacts to usb disconnects.
Turns out that if no stream is active, this is no problem. If a disconnect happens during live video, the driver improperly doesn't release the /dev/video* device. Creating a new one upon usb connection.

I commit a fix today which always releases the video device but not until all clients have exited the program. I then realized that it's possible for the device to be reconnected while waiting for all clients to exit, then some kind of recovery has to happen. I haven't written the code to catch this but expect a commit soon.

Also under investigation is suspend/resume support. Currently suspend just fails when a stream is active...

mt9m111 support coming up

2008-07-27T13:10:00.001-07:00

So after some minor mishaps involving a bug where all two byte writes to the sensor we're only written as a one byte we're finally getting somewhere on the mt9m111 support. As soon as I and my fellow tester, Andrea Mastellone find out a good probing sequence I aim to put the sensor into mainline.

New branch - m5602-po3030k

2008-07-24T06:22:00.001-07:00

I received some usb snoops containing a sensor I haven't seen before using the 0xDC i2c address.
A new experiemental branch m5602-po3030k has been pushed and is currently worked. With a bit of luck we'll be able to push this one to the main m5602 branch quite quickly.

m5602 and libv4l

2008-07-13T06:15:00.000-07:00

As noted in the last post I've been playing with the user-space libv4l library.
I've now reached some success which led me to remove a lot of complexity in the driver.

All post-processing is gone (color recovery, frame resizing) this also avoids some buffer memcopies which significally speeds up the driver. Color is much better and I've even got skype running with it.
Downsides are that it for is rather complicated to set up. You need to download the library and compile it, then either modify your LD paths to load the libraries or install them and play with /etc/ld.so.preload

I aim to soon publish this new driver together with instructions on how to properly install the driver as I really think this is the right direction to go.
Now we only need to fixup the s5k83a, s5k4aa mess and the mt9v111 sensor and we're ready to send this driver upstream.

Status on the m5602

2008-07-10T23:20:00.001-07:00

This are the issues I'm currently working on with the m5602:

1) Removing the in kernel frame format conversion and frame resizing
Doing format conversion and resizing in the kernel is bad, as many drivers typically want to do the same kind of conversion this is better put in a user-space library.
Hans de Goede has developed the libv4l and I'm currently experimenting with it.
I have a local branch working quite fine with some applications and the image quality is better than with my own homebrewed in-kernel algorithms. One big problem that many v4l2-apps have bugs in them requiring patching for them to work with libv4l. As some applications are dead upstream (I'm looking at you XawTV) there are going to be some compatibility issues.
Another issue is that in-kernel frame resizing won't be supported as we need to bayer-decode before doing a frame resize.
A main goal is to get skype working with libv4l as this is heavily requested by the community, but so far I haven't got it working. I'm currently discussing this issue with Hans and hope that it's resolveable.

2) Sorting out the s5k83a, s5k4aa mess
I've been collecting usb snoops from various people with samsung sensors in hope of adding support for more machines. The current support is not good as it only covers a subset of cameras and with varying degrees of success. My current work flow has been to gather snoops and produce init sequences for different machines and letting the snoop submitter testing them out. S o far the success rate has been low and I'm currently trying to figure out why it doesn't work.
Initially my assumptions were that only one samsung sensor was used, the s5k83a, later research indicate the we're (at least) having two different sensors with the s5k4aa as the second. They seem to be somewhat similiar in setup but I think that we'll be best off having two different sensor setups for them both. The biggest issue is the lack of datasheets for these chips, making it almost impossible to figure out what the register writes are doing.
I have tried to request datasheets from Samsung but am sofar unsuccessful.

3) Reverse-engineering the actual m5602-chip
There haven't been much progress on this front. I know at least have a lot of different dumps from different sensors which gives more information on how to configure the chip. Trouble is that the most configuration seem static over the whole range of chips with no information on how to change frame encoding or frame size.

New sensor branch for the m5602

2008-06-18T13:32:00.001-07:00

I've just created a new branch for the micron mt9v111 sensor.
It's based on some usb dumps sent to me and as I have no way of verifying if it really works some major breakage is probably ahead.

The work is still going to be easier than the s5k83a as there are datasheets available...

M5602 webcam update

2008-05-03T12:33:00.000-07:00

Today I finally squashed a serious bug that have been haunting me for the last couple of weeks.

If you have a m5602-based webcam with the ov9650 sensor give the
https://sourceforge.net/projects/m560x-driver/ driver a whirl.
Use the m5602-ov9650-2 branch.

Upgrading to Ubuntu Hardy Hero 8.04 and firefox / flash issues

2008-03-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

Just upgraded my main box (Intel C2D 2.4, onboard intel 965 gfx) to hardy 64 bits.
The upgrade to 64 bits is definitely worth it, this box still screams performance wise and it's still 1½ years old.

I had one issue with that flash contents didn't load with firefox. Turns out I had some old stale flashplugin files in my .mozilla/plugins/ directory. After removing these everything worked as intended.

Loading custom compiled ALSA modules

2008-02-28T23:57:00.000-08:00

While trying to debug the soundcard on my Clevo M720R I had the pleasure of trying to find out how to avoid loading the ubuntu supplied kernel modules and instead loading the custom compiled ones.
These instructions have only been verified to work while using Ubuntu Hardy current.

I use the following steps to set up my environment:
1. Enter the module directory of your current kernel ( /lib/modules/2.6.24-...). You can check what kernel you're currently running by issuing the 'uname -a' command on a terminal.
2. Move the 'ubuntu' subdirectory to somewhere safe (your home folder preferably). Do not put it in the /tmp directory, as it gets swiped during each reboot.
3. Build and install the custom ALSA kernel modules.
4. Reboot the system
5. Your system should now have loaded the custom modules. If not, try to do a 'sudo modprobe "sound kernel module"' (snd-hda-intel in my case).
6. To return the system state to normal, enter the kernel module directory as stated in 1. and move the 'ubuntu' directory back from where you put it.

That's it!

Should you screw up, reinstall the ubuntu modules by issuing the following command on the terminal: sudo apt-get --reinstall install linux-ubuntu-modules-`uname -r`

Clevo backlight

2008-02-17T08:53:00.000-08:00

So, it seems I never gave a status update on the reverse engineering of the backlight.
I basically hit a wall. The EC is readable and gives status on the current backlight level.
Unfortunately it seems that writing to the EC accomplish nothing. I currently suspect that the windows backlight driver doesn't write at all but only poll relevant registers in the EC and show some graphics upon detecting a change. If someone has an update or solution to this, contact me ASAP.

Reverse engineering the Ali M5602 webcam

2008-02-14T13:13:00.000-08:00

I've been experimenting with reverse engineering the webcam equipped on my Clevo M720R.

After snooping the windows driver and cross referencing the register writes with the OV9650 (the actual camera sensor) one wonders what kind of crack they smoke in Taiwan. The following code describes the full init sequence for the sensor with comments from me.
Notice the amount of writes that are invalidated later on and writes writing the default value already set in the chip...

{OV9650_COM7, 0x80}, /* Reset chip */
{OV9650_COM7, 0x05},
/* 2, 2 */

{OV9650_BLUE, 0x80}, /* Set blue and red to default values */
{OV9650_RED, 0x80},
/* 2, 4 */

{OV9650_AECH, 0x29}, /* Set exposure */
{OV9650_COM1, 0x03},
{OV9650_GAIN, 0x02}, /* Set gain */
/* 3, 7 */

{OV9650_COM7, 0x80}, /* Reset chip */
{OV9650_COM7, 0x05}, /* Set raw RGB */
/* 2, 9 */

{OV9650_COM7, 0x80}, /* Reset chip */
{OV9650_CLKRC, 0x80}, /* Enable double clock */
{OV9650_RSVD1, 0x91},
{OV9650_ADC, 0x04},
{OV9650_OFON, 0x40}, /* Do something out of spec with the power */
{OV9650_ACOM38, 0x12},
{OV9650_COM1, 0x20}, /* Set QQVGA or QQCIF */
{OV9650_COM8, 0xc0}, /* Set fast AGC/AEC algorithm with unlimited step size */
{OV9650_BLUE, 0x80}, /* Set blue and red to default values again */
{OV9650_RED, 0x80},
{OV9650_GAIN, 0x00}, /* Set gain to zero */
{OV9650_AECH, 0xf0}, /* Set exposure [9:2] */
{OV9650_PSHFT, 0x00}, /* Set pixel delay to zero (default) */
{OV9650_RSVD16, 0x06},
{OV9650_CHLF, 0x10},
{OV9650_ARBLM, 0xbf},
{OV9650_ACOM38, 0x81},
{OV9650_COM16, 0x00}, /* Turn off color matrix coefficient double option */
{OV9650_RSVD96, 0x04},
{OV9650_COM13, 0x19}, /* Enable color matrix for RGB/YUV, Delay Y channel, set output Y/UV delay to 1 */
{OV9650_HV, 0x80},
{OV9650_TSLB, 0x0d}, /* Enable digital BLC, Set output mode to U Y V Y */
{OV9650_COM24, 0x00}, /* Limit the AGC/AEC stable upper region */
{OV9650_COM12, 0x73}, /* Enable HREF and some out of spec things */
{OV9650_DBLC1, 0xdf}, /* Set all DBLC offset signs to positive and do some out of spec stuff */
{OV9650_COM21, 0x06},
{OV9650_RSVD1, 0x91},
{OV9650_RSVD94, 0x99},
{OV9650_RSVD95, 0x99},
{OV9650_COM15, 0xc0}, /* Enable full range output */
{OV9650_COM6, 0x4b}, /* Enable HREF at optical black, enable ADBLC bias, enable ADBLC, reset timings at format change */
{OV9650_BBIAS, 0xa0}, /* Subtract 32 from the B channel bias */
{OV9650_GbBIAS, 0xa0}, /* Subtract 32 from the Gb channel bias */
{OV9650_Gr_COM, 0xa0}, /* Bypass the analog BLC and to some out of spec stuff */
{OV9650_RBIAS, 0xa0}, /* Subtract 32 from the R channel bias */
{OV9650_COM26, 0x80},
{OV9650_MVFP, 0x04},
{OV9650_ACOMA9, 0x98},
{OV9650_AEW, 0x68}, /* Set the AGC/AEC stable region upper limit */
{OV9650_AEB, 0x5c}, /* Set the AGC/AEC stable region lower limit */
{OV9650_VPT, 0xc3}, /* Set the high and low limit nibbles to 3 */
{OV9650_COM9, 0x4e}, /* Set the Automatic Gain Ceiling (AGC) to 32x,
drop VSYNC at frame drop,
limit exposure timing
drop frame when the AEC step is larger than the exposure gap */
{OV9650_MVFP, 0x00}, /* No flip or mirroring */
{OV9650_COM10, 0x42}, /* Set VSYNC negative, Set RESET to SLHS (slave mode horizontal sync) and set PWDN to SLVS (slave mode vertical sync) */
{OV9650_HSTART, 0x1a}, /* Set horizontal column start high to default value */
{OV9650_HSTOP, 0xbf}, /* Set horizontal column end */
{OV9650_HREF, 0xb2}, /* Complementing register to the two writes above */
{OV9650_VSTRT, 0x02}, /* Set vertical row start high bits */
{OV9650_VSTOP, 0x7e}, /* Set vertical row end low bits */
{OV9650_VREF, 0x10}, /* Set complementing vertical frame control */
{OV9650_COM7, 0x45}, /* Set raw RGB output format with VGA resolution */
{OV9650_PSHFT, 0x00}, /* Set pixel delay to zero */
{OV9650_ADC, 0x04},
{OV9650_HV, 0x40},
{OV9650_COM22, 0x23}, /* Enable denoise, and white-pixel erase */
{OV9650_LCC1, 0x00}, /* Set Lens correction option to default values */
{OV9650_LCC2, 0x00},
{OV9650_LCC3, 0x10},
{OV9650_LCC4, 0x80},
{OV9650_LCC5, 0x01}, /* Set correction from 00 to 01 */
{OV9650_LCCFB, 0x00},
{OV9650_LCCFR, 0x00},
/* 64, 73 */

{OV9650_BLUE, 0x80}, /* Set the blue and red gain to default yet again */
{OV9650_RED, 0x80},
/* 2, 75 */

{OV9650_AECH, 0x29}, /* Set the high bits of the exposure value */
{OV9650_COM1, 0x03}, /* Set the low bits of the exposure value */
{OV9650_GAIN, 0x02} /* Set the gain */

Note to self cpufreq

2008-01-21T11:16:00.000-08:00

To control the cpufreq self issue the following command:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure gnome-applets

Experiences with MythTV

2008-01-01T12:09:00.001-08:00

Although MythTV is a pain to set up and has a relatively high entrance threshold, once working you can perform some pretty sweet things. I am for instance right now writing this entry from the mythtv backend while watching live TV on another machine. The quality is really awesome concerning that the
hauppage TV-card is almost 10 years old.

Some notes about installing and configuring mythtv

2007-12-30T12:29:00.000-08:00

These are some notes about installing mythTV on ubuntu gutsy in the swedish net

1. If you set a root password on the mysql server, you need to reconfigure the mythtv backend.
This document helped me.

2. To get swedish tv listing, you need to install xmltv from the repositories. See this site for more info.

Update

2007-11-03T15:16:00.000-07:00

Seems like my last post with the cut and paste removed some important parts. I'll try to post a .tar.gz file soon instead.

So with the help of dumping the ec i've located a register where the backlight is stored. The current issue that writing another value into that same register doesn't change anything. The question now is how to make the embedded controller to register this.

EC Dumper

2007-11-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

I've written a simple kernel module that dumps the contents of the embedded controller. This module registers a procfs handle which, in turn outputs the content of the ec memory. A brief warning, though. I have experienced infrequent keyboard lockups after heavy usage.

So without further ado:

/*
* ec_dump.c - Dumps the contents of the embedded controller,
* useful for reverse-engineering backlight, killswitches etc.
*
*
* Copyright (C) 2007 Erik Andrén
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
* it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
* the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
* (at your option) any later version.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
* GNU General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
* along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
* 02110-1301, USA.
*/

#include
#include
#include
#include

#include
#include

int ecdump_read_procmem(char *page, char **start, off_t offset, int count, int *eof, void *data)
{
int i, len = 0;
u8 v;
len += sprintf(page + len, "EC +00 +01 +02 +03 +04 +05 +06 +07 +08 +09 +0a +0b +0c +0d +0e +0f\n");
len += sprintf(page + len, "EC 0x%02x: ", 0);
for (i = 0; i < 256; i++) {
if (!ec_read(i, &v))
if (!v)
len += sprintf(page + len, " ");
else
len += sprintf(page + len, "0x%02x ", v);
else
len += sprintf(page + len, "Failed to read address %d!\n", i);

if (i == 255)
break;

if (i % 16 == 15)
len += sprintf(page + len, "\nEC 0x%02x: ", i);
}
len += sprintf(page + len, "\n");
return len;
}

static int __init ec_dump_init(void)
{
printk ("Loading ec_dump!\n");
create_proc_read_entry("ec_dump", 0, NULL, ecdump_read_procmem, NULL);
return 0;
}

static void __exit ec_dump_exit(void)
{
printk ("Unloading my module.\n");
remove_proc_entry("ec_dump", NULL);
return;
}

module_init(ec_dump_init);
module_exit(ec_dump_exit);

MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");
MODULE_AUTHOR("Erik Andrén (erik.andren@gmail.com)");

Tags: Linux, ACPI, EC, kernel module, GPL

Work log for getting backlight on the Clevo M720R

2007-10-22T13:14:00.000-07:00

Currently backlight control on the Clevo M720R is by hotkey only. Under windows there is a hideous program which activates the hotkeys and also displays some rather hideous bitmaps onscreen.
This series of posts will describe my attempts to disassemble the windows program. This, in turn, will enable the possibility of manually setting the brightness under linux. This will be incorporated into a hald addon or equivalent which enables nice autodimming, etc.

Today I've successfully disassembled the binary, found a way to extract the installshield application and to mine the hideous bitmap images located inside the exe. I've stilled not fully mastered the disassembly GUI. Further attempts will try to locate the actual commands given for setting and reading the brightness.

Review of the Clevo M720R

2007-10-07T12:23:00.000-07:00

I've recently purchased a Clevo M720R 12" laptop preinstalled with Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon.

This review is split up into two parts, covering the hardware and the software.

Hardware
The machine is nice looking and sports a 12" widescreen with a 1280x800 resolution. As this is a barebone system, a wide range of different processor and memory configurations are available. This particular unit is equipped with a Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz, 4 GB of memory and a 120 7200 RPM SATA drive. Naturally, the speed of it is blazing. A weak spot is its 4-cell battery. This equates to only about 2 hours of battery time, something that doesn't rhyme well with the mobility of a small laptop. The fan is audible when the machine is put under high load but a hotkey on top of the keyboard triggers a whisper mode, which slows the fan down and lowers the backlight.

The integrated camera is of VGA-resolution and the rendered picture is of moderate quality, it is not supported in linux at the moment but a driver is under development at http://sourceforge.net/projects/m560x-driver/ . The fingerprint sensor works as expected in windows and the placement between the touchpad buttons feels natural. I haven't got it to work under linux.

The keyboard is of mediocre quality, it flexes when pushed hard. The keys are small and I strongly question the layout of the keys. For instance, the PgDn, PgUp keys are placed on the arrow up and are accessible with pressing the function key. This is non-ergonomic when you read a lot of texts. Various hotkeys are present on the keyboard such as: vol up, down, mute, touchpad on/off, brightness up/down, wireless and bluetooth killswitch.
Another disturbing fact is that it's easy to trigger the optical drive eject button.

Finally, suspend and resume to ram / disk works.

Software
Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 is the successor to Feisty Fawn and sports a number of incremental upgrades. Compiz is now preinstalled by default, unfortunately is the i965GM graphic chipset blacklisted as XVideo doesn't work.

Neither the webcam or the fingerprint sensor works. There is a
beta driver for the camera, but is, as of now not working correctly.

A link to the ubuntu wiki laptop testing page.

D-link DBT-122

2007-08-02T05:27:00.000-07:00

I recently purchased a D-link DBT-122 bluetooth adapter. Works right out of the box with Ubuntu Feisty Fawn.
Two thumbs up!

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 2001:f111 D-Link Corp. [hex]
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 1.10
bDeviceClass 224 Wireless
bDeviceSubClass 1 Radio Frequency
bDeviceProtocol 1 Bluetooth
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0x2001 D-Link Corp. [hex]
idProduct 0xf111
bcdDevice 1.09
iManufacturer 1 Broadcom
iProduct 2 D-Link DBT-122
iSerial 3 0015E9F59441
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 200
bNumInterfaces 3
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0xa0
(Bus Powered)
Remote Wakeup
MaxPower 100mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 3
bInterfaceClass 224 Wireless
bInterfaceSubClass 1 Radio Frequency
bInterfaceProtocol 1 Bluetooth
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x81 EP 1 IN
bmAttributes 3
Transfer Type Interrupt
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0010 1x 16 bytes
bInterval 1
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x82 EP 2 IN
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
bInterval 1
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x02 EP 2 OUT
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
bInterval 1
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 1
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 2
bInterfaceClass 224 Wireless
bInterfaceSubClass 1 Radio Frequency
bInterfaceProtocol 1 Bluetooth
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x83 EP 3 IN
bmAttributes 1
Transfer Type Isochronous
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0000 1x 0 bytes
bInterval 1
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x03 EP 3 OUT
bmAttributes 1
Transfer Type Isochronous
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0000 1x 0 bytes
bInterval 1
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 1
bAlternateSetting 1
bNumEndpoints 2
bInterfaceClass 224 Wireless
bInterfaceSubClass 1 Radio Frequency
bInterfaceProtocol 1 Bluetooth
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x83 EP 3 IN
bmAttributes 1
Transfer Type Isochronous
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0009 1x 9 bytes
bInterval 1
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x03 EP 3 OUT
bmAttributes 1
Transfer Type Isochronous
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0009 1x 9 bytes
bInterval 1
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 1
bAlternateSetting 2
bNumEndpoints 2
bInterfaceClass 224 Wireless
bInterfaceSubClass 1 Radio Frequency
bInterfaceProtocol 1 Bluetooth
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x83 EP 3 IN
bmAttributes 1
Transfer Type Isochronous
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0011 1x 17 bytes
bInterval 1
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x03 EP 3 OUT
bmAttributes 1
Transfer Type Isochronous
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0011 1x 17 bytes
bInterval 1
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 1
bAlternateSetting 3
bNumEndpoints 2
bInterfaceClass 224 Wireless
bInterfaceSubClass 1 Radio Frequency
bInterfaceProtocol 1 Bluetooth
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x83 EP 3 IN
bmAttributes 1
Transfer Type Isochronous
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0020 1x 32 bytes
bInterval 1
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x03 EP 3 OUT
bmAttributes 1
Transfer Type Isochronous
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0020 1x 32 bytes
bInterval 1
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 1
bAlternateSetting 4
bNumEndpoints 2
bInterfaceClass 224 Wireless
bInterfaceSubClass 1 Radio Frequency
bInterfaceProtocol 1 Bluetooth
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x83 EP 3 IN
bmAttributes 1
Transfer Type Isochronous
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
bInterval 1
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x03 EP 3 OUT
bmAttributes 1
Transfer Type Isochronous
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
bInterval 1
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 1
bAlternateSetting 5
bNumEndpoints 2
bInterfaceClass 224 Wireless
bInterfaceSubClass 1 Radio Frequency
bInterfaceProtocol 1 Bluetooth
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x83 EP 3 IN
bmAttributes 1
Transfer Type Isochronous
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
bInterval 1
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x03 EP 3 OUT
bmAttributes 1
Transfer Type Isochronous
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
bInterval 1
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 2
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 2
bInterfaceClass 255 Vendor Specific Class
bInterfaceSubClass 255 Vendor Specific Subclass
bInterfaceProtocol 255 Vendor Specific Protocol
iInterface 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x84 EP 4 IN
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0020 1x 32 bytes
bInterval 1
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x04 EP 4 OUT
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0020 1x 32 bytes
bInterval 1
Device Status: 0x0000
(Bus Powered)

SyncML, Nokia N73 and Evolution

2007-07-31T08:28:00.000-07:00

Getting synchronization with your phone and evolution in Linux is pure hell and unimaginable non-user friendly. I would rather push a rusty nail through my tongue then to guide someone by phone through this mess. Anyway.

Install opensync, follow any other guide out there on how to do it.
Create a sync group with two members: syncml-obex-client and evo2-sync
multisync-gui is a friend here.

Configure your syncml-obex-client to use the following profile:

Edit the evo2-sync by hand by issuing the following command:
msynctool --configure "Name of your defined sync group" 2 <-- If you get your syncml-obex-client configuration, change to 1. This depends on in what order you added the plugins in the group.

Note that this will sync against your local calendar. Sorry about the images, blogger gave me a hard time.

The Samsung 226BW and Linux

2007-04-20T12:59:00.000-07:00

This monitor was a friggin pain getting to work in Linux together with the intel drivers.
Eventually it turned out that a quirk in the modesetting was required for achieving the proper resolution. So if you have bought this monitor and are experiencing some problems. Try to upgrade to xserver 1.3 which has the quirk merged.

Possible infringement of the Gnome trademark

2006-12-22T08:54:00.000-08:00

Today at the wineshop I noticed a new wine called Gnome of Africa.
It's logo bears quite a resemblance of the gnome logo.
Anyway I've sent a mail to licensing@gnome.org see what they have to say on the issue.
Here's some quick pictures I took with my mobile phone camera:

Macrand

2006-10-06T11:02:00.000-07:00

Yes, he's back on the dump.

I've developed a nifty program making it easier to set the mac address an ethernet device.
You can get it here

Howto: Sony Ericsson K610 bluetooth synchronization against Kdepim

2006-08-23T07:40:00.000-07:00

The following howto explains how to setup a working bluetooth synchronization setup against the kdepim suite. There is going to be some serious compiling to achieve this, you have been warned!
You need to have a correctly configured bluetooth setup previous to this guide.
As a test checking if your ready for this guide, issue a hcitool scan in a console and the mobile phone name and address should appear.

Step 1.
Download and install Opensync. Use the following howto.
Download the svn packages and not the tarballs!
You need the multisync, opensync and the irmc and kdepim plugins.

Step 2.
Install the experimental, svn version of kitchensync via these instructions

Step 3.
Fire up kitchensync, create a new group and add two members: kdepim and the mobilephone.
Select the mobile phone icon and push the search for units-button. Your bluetooth enabled mobile phone should appear. Select it. Press ok and push the Synchronize Now-button.
The synchronization should now work properly.

Thats it!

Change the default kerry systray icon

2006-07-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

This small patch changes the ugly system tray search icon to the nicer looking kerry icon.
Get it here.

Git xorg-server ebuild

2006-06-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

Here's an ebuild that pulls out the current git xorg-server and builds it for you.

Enjoy

http://home.student.uu.se/e/eran8655/filer/xorg-server-1.1.0-git.ebuild

Windows System requriements through time

2006-05-21T06:40:00.000-07:00

I read this interesting article about how Microsofts OS products minimum system specs have changed during the years.
Just to make the changes more visible I drew some simple diagrams clearly showing that Vistas minimum system requirements are exponentially higher than Microsofts previous products.

A crude Lempel-Ziv encoder / decoder

2006-05-18T04:58:00.000-07:00

The recent week I've created a simple Lempel-Ziv encoder.
Have a look at the code if you are interested!

New temporary xf86-video-ebuild

2006-03-02T02:49:00.000-08:00

The modular xf86-video-ati is currently broken if you're not running the cvs version of xserver.
This ebuild and this patch makes xf86-video-ati compile without the newest xserver.
Enjoy!

xf86-video-ati ebuild
pci-id.diff <- needs to be placed in /files directory

libLZF ebuild

2006-02-23T06:16:00.000-08:00

I just cooked up an ebuild for installing libLZF, which is a small compression library.
It's used in the experimental suspend2ram program by Pavel Machek.
Download the ebuild here!

Quick note

2006-02-19T11:40:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note of that the cvs server of freedesktop has changed their anonymous login name, updated the ebuild to fit that change.

First post and xf86-video-ati cvs ebuild

2006-02-18T13:39:00.000-08:00

So I've decided to take my work back underground, to stop it from falling into the wrong hands
famous words by the Prodigy. :)

I just need an easy way to syndicate patches and other stuff which I make.

For starters, here's an ebuild script ripping the cvs version of xf86-video-ati drivers and installing them.

Place it in your portage overlay, digest and enjoy!

/Erik