hardware

Dual-head on collision

One of the last tasks that moving to my new machine involves is to stretch the Ubuntu desktop across both of my monitors. Our sysadmin had very kindly set it up to work with the monitor card integral to the motherboard, so in principle I only had to tweak the configuration for X, the standard Linux GUI system.

Could I get this to work? Could I hell. xorg.conf configuration after configuration threw the error

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A minor hardware triumph

Today has been a day of minor disasters. More on those once they come to some sort of resolution. But I’ve also effected a minor hardware triumph with my old Kodak CX6230 camera. For two years (and two house-moves: God bless my hoarding instinct!) I’ve occasionally switched it on to be confronted with the message:

Camera needs service
E10

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Closer to the wireless

After a bit of a struggle I’ve managed to get wireless networking at home. Unfortunately, my first attempts to test the connectivity to the rest of the world coincided with the power outages at Telehouse, a “bullet-proof” ISP that too many people rely on, including ADSL services, the BBC website, Nominet, some DNS servers….

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Percussive maintenance, with a twist

Seen the “sad iPod icon” recently on your iPod? I was greeted by it yesterday on my 4th generation podlet:

The sad iPod icon (SII). Usually accompanied by a generic, unhelpful apple.com URL, which just makes it all the more sad.

Unlike most people who see this, I didn’t seem to have the symptoms of major hardware failure (the disk making a repetitive ticking noise) that they diagnose before employing the rather hard-core fix discussed below.

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How to get Dell to provide more Linux-installed machines: people power!

I'm not one for passing on memes and crazy petitions, but Sean McGrath has pointed out that Dell are requesting advice on expanding their pre-installed Linux range.

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No, Mister Bond: I expect you to I!

I've found myself learning a number of interesting facts about iPods this past day or two that perhaps I'd rather not have ever known:

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Laptop nearly dead stop please send help stop or soldering iron will do stop

I'd like your thoughts on a replacement for my laptop.

It's been dying for a long time now. I originally bought it to write my thesis on back in 2002, spending most of an inheritance from my grandmother on the last of the 1.2GHz machines in the now defunct Dixons. A few months ago the keyboard developed the canonical HP Pavilion G-H-F4 problem, which I was able to correct by occasionally unscrewing the case and fiddling with cables.

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Precision decision

I have a new laptop: a Dell Precision M4300. Thanks to everyone who gave feedback to my request for recommendations about laptops.

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Laptop and Linux: the fixes for a Dell Precision M4300

The Ubuntu Live CD worked straight away for the laptop: I was able to boot into a temporary copy of Linux using the VESA display drivers, and test sound, CD and other peripherals (obviously) and wired networking. However, optimising the system wasn’t so easy, and as I say Nick practically installed Ubuntu for me, fixing all that he could.

Below is a list of the main fixes and workarounds that Nick employed, for my reference as much as anything else.

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DO NOT BEEP!

On both my work and home Dell laptops, the computer beeps at full volume when you change the sound settings. This has come close to shattering my eardrums on several occasions these past few days.

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