Over This

Long winded update

The post installation update of Fedora 10 - Gnome took forever!

One bad thing about the update is that the shut down settings have changed. Before the update, when I chose “shutdown” from the System menu, “hibernate” and “suspend” were options. Now, they aren’t there!

I am thankful that I didn’t have to Google for ages to find how to update the system to use my Dell 1390 card. http://www.fedoraguide.info had all the information I needed, and it was super easy. I’ve read other methods of using fwcutter and other methods to extract drivers from other sources. This was a piece of cake, and easy enough to summarize quickly.

1. install the Fusion repository
su -c 'rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm'
2. install the driver
su -c 'yum update'
su -c 'yum install broadcom-wl'
3. configure your system so that the wireless card automaticaly starts
System menu :: Administration :: Network :: click “wlan0″ and then “edit”
check “Controlled by Network Manager” and “Activate device when computer starts”.
4. Restart and test

After restarting,

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Trying Fedora 10 on the Aspire One

I was using the Ubuntu Netbook Remix for a while. I can say that it suited all my needs and was very efficient about using space. I didn’t have to customize any of the appearance settings at all; it just worked. I think the only downside of my using UNR was my choice of using a lpia kernel and some difficulties in working out getting updates. I’m an Apple fanboy, so not having everything perfect out of the box made things a little trying at times. One of my favorite things about my Apples is that they come out of sleep immediately. Because of this, I don’t care much about boot times.

UNR came out of suspend fairly quick, but I noticed that over a span of days the battery would be depleted. I needed hibernate to be able to keep my battery charge and get back to what I was doing. So, I’m now moving on to Fedora 10 to see how well it performs in this regard.

After my installation last night, my first attempt at hibernating was a fail. It sent me back to the login screen. Suspend worked fine. I wondered if it was because I didn’t have swap space. I tried it again this morning, and the hibernate worked! So, I need to see if it’s a sporadic thing or something resolved itself.

Right now, the AAO is going through its system update. It sure is taking a long time …

I just realized that there is a separate Fedora 10 KDE iso file. One reason I wanted to try F10 out yesterday was because my coworker mentioned that KDE 4.2 just came out. In the Aspire One forums, KDE was mentioned as the faster booting desktop manager, so I think I’m wasting my time right now updating the system. I think it’ll be cleaner to install the KDE version as a default rather than installing KDE on top of the GNOME version.

I suppose I should check to see what version of KDE Fedora 10 is. I highly doubt it’s got KDE 4.2 yet since it just came out yesterday. Maybe I’ll just play with GNOME until I can get a F10 download with the latest KDE.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Writing about the same thing again - installing an OS

I just can’t make up my mind … since I can’t seem to get OS X installed on my Acer Aspire One, I’ve gone back and forth with linux operating systems. First I got Ubuntu 8.10 on there, then I added the “netbook remix”, and things were fine and dandy. Then, I tried to get creative by adding a low power kernel to the mix, but that killed my wifi. Not satisfied with the slower load times, I figured I’d go back to Linpus and try some customizations out. Well, that was a bust too because of my new Dell 1390 wifi card. Grr…

So, now I’m back to the remix. This time, I’m installing straight from the remix image and not with 8.1 and the remix on top of that. I read that this would be simpler, so I’m giving it a shot. I also read that with the remix and a low power kernel, the load time was about 20 seconds. Yeah, that’s what I want! I also want everything else to work too … that means wifi, suspend and hibernate.

The only good thing about this process is that the regular installs of Ubuntu and Linpus always work. Why the heck is OS X so much of a problem for me? I’ve got a 8G Lexar CF card in the mail now. It was free after rebate and $5 shipping, so I thought I’d try it. I also want to try a 1.8″ HD, but of course, I don’t want to pay a lot for it considering it may not work. Option 1: buy a broken 30GB ipod and yank the HD, Option 2: eBay …

Note 1: I didn’t pay attention to what I read earlier, but it doesn’t really bother me … Ubuntu Remix is built on top of Ubuntu 8.04 and not the newest 8.10. There are a lot of menu options that I don’t see in the preferences and system menus, but I don’t know if that’s release related …

Note 2: The proprietary driver was listed as “wl”. That didn’t do anything for me, so I removed it and rebooted. The next time around, it found the familiar “bc43″ driver. It was interesting that the install takes you through the use of “bc43-fwcutter”. That’s the same thing I was unsuccessful in doing with Linpus. I guess it just works better in Ubuntu. The process worked, and I had wireless again!

Note 3: I installed the lpia (low power intel architecture??) kernel (http://draecas.googlepages.com/linux-image-2.6.28aaobroadcom_1_i386.deb) successfully with this:
sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture linux-image-2.6.28aaobroadcom_1_i386.deb
One thing that I did notice is that when rebooting, I don’t see the grub screen where I can choose the kernel. I suppose I have to muck around with something to get that grub load screen. No big deal though; I hope to not have various kernels this time. Oh, yeah, the wifi works perfectly too, either be/c this kernel specifically included it, or be/c I got the drivers earlier …

Note 4: I wanted to test the sound, so I tried Pandora. Adobe Flash wasn’t installed, so I had to install that. The plugin wouldn’t install properly because of my “lpia” kernel. Thankfully, I read a bit, and did pretty much the same business with the .deb file I downloaded from the Adobe site:
sudo dpkg –force-architecture -i whatever_the_name_of_the_flash_installer_was.deb
I can report that plugging in headphones worked just fine and also worked after suspend. nice.

Posted in aspire one | No Comments »

Intrepid Ibex Installed!

Yahoo! It definitely looks nicer than the stock Linpus operating system, but it also comes at a price … gone is my 15 second boot up time. It sure would be nice to have both a super fast boot up and this nicer OS. I guess I can start reading about stripping the system down for speed. Nah, I want to get the “Ubuntu Netbook Remix” theme going first =)

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

I give up - apples and oranges

I am done for now trying to install OS X on my Acer Aspire One. Maybe I’m not cut out to be a hacker. Well, I didn’t think you had to be a hacker to install OS X on the AAO, but in my case, things just aren’t working out. I guess I’ll check back in the future to see if someone comes up with a super easy no fail install route, like the folks have done with unlocking the iphone. Now, that I can do … and have done.

So, rather than totally give up, I’m now trying my hand at Ubuntu 8.10, Intrepid Ibex. Although I haven’t completed the install yet, my current success in this installation is like comparing apples to oranges. Rather than being met with constant roadblocks, I’m actually proceeding through the Ubuntu install without any problems. Sure, I expect there to be some hiccups, but I think all of those can be resolved after the install. I just passed the 50% mark in this install, and I have high hopes that it will not fail.

The slightly sad part of the whole story is the money I’ve wasted so far. I won’t need the Dell 1390 wireless card for this, so that’s about $20. Then there’s the SanDisk Extreme III CompactFlash card and adapter I was hoping to use instead of the built in SSD. That’s easily $100+ right there. Well, if the rebates on the card(s) come through, then it’s not a big deal. Actually, if the rebates don’t come through, then I’m out $300+ since I bought 3 of them. How do you like them apples!

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Persistance paying off?

Now, I’ve moved on to being persistent. I’ve also decided that “obsessed” probably wasn’t the best word for me earlier. I think I like “consumed” better. I’m not letting myself get consumed by things anymore. I am ok with being persistent as long as I keep boundaries to how much time I spend on things.

So, my various approaches to installing OS X on the Aspire One have failed so far. The recent hope these past few days has been the Boot 132 method, but I’ve given that up. After making progress, the process dies when my system says “Errors encountered while starting up the computer” and then freezes. All my searches for answers say that my DVD is corrupted. I’m using a retail DVD that has worked before, and it looks almost perfect. Rather than chasing down a better answer, I’ve moved on to my last hope.

At this time, I’m trying the iATKOS method. So far, it’s gotten farther than all my other attempts and actually gets to a version of the familiar looking OS X installer. The first attept I chose to skip the Disk Utility step that I read about since I already partitioned the CF card with a GUID partitition table earlier today. Sadly, the install process ended with an error. I guess it’s time to chase down this error …

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Obsessed with installing os x

So, I’m not just stubborn, now I’m also obsessed!

After learning that the Acer Aspire One is just as fast as the Apple Powerbook G4 1.5Ghz that I own, there seems like much less of a reason to keep the Powerbook. That is, of course, assuming that I can get OS X installed properly on the AAO.

My first attempt tonight was through the Kalyway method. The DVD I burned is now a coaster, so for now that method is a bust. Noticing that there were some pretty nice guides for the iATKOS method, I am waiting for my download to complete. While that downloads, I’m attempting the “boot 132″ method which uses the original Leopard DVD. This route is also on hold right now because all the guides I’ve read talk about installing to HD1 and HD2, but none mention a USB card reader with a CompactFlash card. Yeah, it’s a bizarro method, but hopefully someone will fill me in on the hexadecimal number that will work.

I contacted someone with a spare ZIF cable, so hopefully he’ll send it to me shortly. If I can get that cable to work with the ZIF adapter, then I won’t have to go this crazy external card reader route.

I think I need to work on this obsessive nature and learn to redirect to something more productive. Lately, I’ve had stretches of obsession with electric bikes, e-commerce packages, upgrading the AAO. I could definitely be doing other things or at least reduce my time allotment for these “hobbies”.

It’s a good thing my iATKOS download won’t be ready for a while. At least this forces me to put it to rest for tonight.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Stubborn Aspire One hacking

After accumulating several upgrade components, I decided that I’d try to hack my Acer Aspire One tonight. As much as I like the laptop, it is definitely not user friendly for any upgrade. The ease of adding memory to the Dell mini 9 is amazing. The freakishly long process to upgrade the memory of the AAO is amazingly ridiculous.

Removing the screws on the bottom was easy, and I thought I was off to a good start. The keyboard came out pretty easily too. I opted for a screwdriver rather than a credit card as a video guide suggested, and I think I did OK not to scratch much. My warranty is way gone now, so scratches would merely be an aesthetic thing. The easiest thing to upgrade tonight was the wifi card. I bought a Dell 1390 card to replace the original card be/c I want to try to use OS X on the laptop, and there aren’t any drivers for the original card. The Dell card was not very expensive and extremely easy to remove, so I was pleased with that upgrade. I was able to remove everything necessary for the RAM upgrade without any problems either, and the laptop is showing 1536M, so the extra 1G of RAM is working too.

Thinking that I was making good progress, I decided that I would move on to the third upgrade, which was replacing the original 8G SSD with a 16G SanDisk Extreme III CompactFlash card by way of a CF adapter. I knew I’d probably have to do some surgery on the inside casing to make it fit, and depending on how much cutting I do will also determine if I need to trim the CF adapter. Little did I know that I would have to begin the surgery early!

To gain access to the screw holding the original SSD card in place, you have to remove the board on the right side. Every single screw tonight came out easily except for this last stinking screw! Neither of my two phillips screwdrivers was able to turn that darn screw. Eventually, I pretty much ruined the head of the screw. So, I resorted to getting the dremel out to see if I could cut a notch in the top so that I could try a flathead screwdriver. Well, that didn’t go so well either since my cutting disk was too thick and the head of the screw was thin. I gave up on thinking that I could actually remove the screw, so I grinded down the head of the screw.

Let’s just say that my dremel skills aren’t the best … I ended up cutting part of the board around the screw. Rather than finishing off the screw with the dremel, I figured that what was left was thin enough to be removed with a knife. So, I pried the super thin remains of the screw head off. Even with the screw head completely off, the board didn’t want to come out. So, I put a conical grinding head on the dremel and slowly grinded the stub of the screw. Finally, I was able to lift out the board.

This is where I was thinking that my being stubborn and refusing to quit was probably not the smartest thing. After all, I was potentially killing my laptop just to gain an extra 8G of faster storage. Oh well, there as no sense in stopping at this point.

After connecting the adpater with the original ZIF cable, I reconnected enough of the laptop to let me turn it on again. Not being sure if I installed the ZIF cable properly, I thought I’d let the computer tell me if I was right or wrong. A red LED light on the adapter was on, so I figured that was a good sign that it was getting power properly. However, when I turned on the laptop and hit F2, it didn’t recognize the card. I flipped the ZIF cable over, and I tried it again, and that didn’t work either.

Just to make sure the laptop wasn’t dead, I tried the original SSD card, and it booted just fine into the normal deskotp. That was a relief!

Finding the ZIF cable that came with the adapter would definitely help. The cable wasn’t in the same basket where I kept the CF adapter, so I have no clue if I still have it =( If it doesn’t turn up, I will have to make another 20 mile trek to Fry’s or pay $8 to buy 10 cables on eBay. 40 miles round trip is almost 2 gallons of gas, but with the sub $2/gallon price of gas, I guess driving is still cheaper. Or perhaps I should buy the cables on eBay and sell the 7 I don’t need …

Oh well, at least this delay gives me time to backup the contents of the original SSD. I was just going to skip that process since I have very little on the drive. I suppose that’s the silver lining to this whole ordeal.

Posted in aspire one | 2 Comments »

Magento is not too intuitive

I don’t consider myself a novice when it comes to e-commerce systems, but Magento sure has given me some headaches. I will admit that I started off without reading a user guide, and that was probably not the smartest thing. I’ve read a few knowledgebase articles and a few forum posts, and now I’m finally making some progress.

I would definitely say the not too intuitive process of doing things has contributed to my slow progress. I was able to add a category and product without much trouble, but I had no clue why they weren’t showing up on the site. It turns out that you have to add new categories under the default category. I started out not even using the default category and created my own. That was a headache solved by reading a forum post. So, now I have categories that are “anchored”, which is how they phrase adding the category to the nav bar. I can only imagine what fun I’ll be having with theming …

Something else that didn’t make sense right away was the difference between a “simple product” and a “configurable product”. It turns out that they are related rather than just plain different. As far as I can tell, you have to set up all the variations of a product first as simple products, and then you do some work with the configurable product settings. Since I built the now dead Bridesave.com site, I suppose I can use it as an example … If a wedding dress came in 12 shades of white, would I have to create 12 separate simple products? That doesn’t seem right since all the products are the same except for the color. And if each dress also came in 8 sizes, would I have to have each one of those in each of the 12 colors? That seems crazy, but actually now that I think about it, it is not uncommon to run out of a popular color in a popular size, and that would be the only way to make a variant unavailable.

Hmm, now that I am reflecting back on the Bridesave.com site, I think I built a pretty usable product. Someone took over the coding after me, but I think the major guts of the site were still mine. It definitely didn’t have the flexibility that Magento seems to have, but it was a custom job, and I only added what was requested.

One thing that I’m curious about with Magento is the API. I wonder what all it can do … On the other hand, just like Drupal, I think I’ll spend some time looking at what the community has already written before diving into the API.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Leopard PHP with magento woes

Yeah, another woe post. haha.

I tried to install Magento Commerce onto my Leopard system (Apple OS 10.5.x) just now, and it complained about not having “pdo_mysql”, “gd”, and “mcrypt”. Oh, how I hate having to deal with compiling extensions and plugins! Now, I know why I don’t use a VPS for hosting. I hate having to mess with things like this.

As this is a system that I don’t want to play around with, I will leave it alone. It does what it needs to do, so I’ll leave it alone. I do seem to have a surplus of other computers that I can use for development. Perhaps I’ll upgrade one of them to Leopard and figure out how to get all the extensions to work properly. I’m sure there’s got to be a walk through out there somewhere!

For now, I guess I’ll play with Drupal + ubercart. I don’t think that requires anything special.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »