Messages

31

How-to / Re: Can I install alongside Windows?

« on: May 23, 2012, 04:21:14 PM »

Hi. I have gotten a computer to dual boot Ubermix and 2 others flavors of Ubuntu. I installed Ubermix first and then installed Ubuntu and had the installer create a new partition. The GRUB menu had the Ubermix and new Ubuntu options. I then repeated that with a second Ubuntu version and that was added as well. So it will probably work for Windows as long as you first install Ubermix and then partition for other OS's.

32

Development and Scripting / Re: Disable N networking (to try and fix instability with intel 5100 wifi)

« on: May 23, 2012, 04:17:18 PM »

I have tried 1.0 on a few other machines and have had issues with the launcher not displaying (eeePC 1015 and Acer Aspire One 722 AMD C60). I haven't tried 1.0 on the dell e6400, but they are still having terrible wireless connectivity even with N disabled.

33

Development and Scripting / Re: Disable N networking (to try and fix instability with intel 5100 wifi)

« on: May 15, 2012, 07:37:21 AM »

I tested the file locally and over the network and made some changes. I had to remove the wifi disable and enable lines because then the program would just loop. I also added lines to check if the files existed, because the script ran on every boot and just added another line to the files if they were there.

So this script disable N wireless for the tricky Intel 5100 WiFi card and adds a file in the Home folder which students can click and choose Run to reconnect to WiFi without needing to restart.

#!/bin/bash
VAR=1;
if [ -f  /etc/modprobe.d/intel_11n_disable.conf ];
then
   VAR=2;
else
   sudo echo options iwlagn 11n_disable=1 >> /etc/modprobe.d/intel_11n_disable.conf
fi

if [ -f /home/user/FixMyWireless ];
then
   echo 'cool'
else
   sudo echo '#!/bin/bash' >> /home/user/FixMyWireless
   sudo echo 'sudo modprobe -r iwlagn' >> /home/user/FixMyWireless
   sudo echo 'sudo modprobe iwlagn' >> /home/user/FixMyWireless
   sudo chmod a+x /home/user/FixMyWireless

fi

if [ VAR == 1 ];
then
sudo update-initramfs -u
fi

34

Development and Scripting / Disable N networking (to try and fix instability with intel 5100 wifi)

« on: May 14, 2012, 11:50:24 AM »

I think if I place this script in our location for the network autostart script

#!/bin/bash
sudo echo options iwlagn 11n_disable=1 >> /etc/modprobe.d/intel_11n_disable.conf
sudo update-initramfs -u
sudo modprobe -r iwlagn
sudo modprobe iwlagn

I have never pushed out a script over the network, so I just wanted to make sure. I have run this file via sudo in terminal on a local machine and it works fine. Would this change "stick" after a system restore?

35

Hardware Specific / Re: Dell e6400 intel 5100 wifi random disconnect

« on: May 10, 2012, 04:57:42 PM »

I haven't tried alpha 1, but would prefer to be able to avoid a reimage of the 60 if possible, because the problem is very rare and intermittent, so it is difficult to know if the change fixes it.

36

Hardware Specific / Re: Dell e6400 intel 5100 wifi random disconnect

« on: May 10, 2012, 03:57:19 PM »

*-network
       description: Wireless interface
       product: WiFi Link 5100
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:0c:00.0
       logical name: wlan4
       version: 00
       serial: 00:22:fb:3e:2a:76
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=iwlagn driverversion=3.0.0-12-generic firmware=8.83.5.1 build 33692 ip=172.16.203.163 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abgn
       resources: irq:46 memory:f69fe000-f69fffff

I got to test a computer that wasn't reconnecting and I ran:
sudo modprobe -r iwlagn
sudo modprobe iwlagn

This kicked the wifi back to connecting. I have also been reading that perhaps disabling N networking helps this card work better. Here are possible instructions, but I haven't tried that yet.

    Press Ctrl + Alt + T. Type in this command: sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/intel_11n_disable.conf
    Paste this into the gedit window that opens: options iwlagn 11n_disable=1
    Save, and close gedit. When back at the prompt type sudo update-initramfs -u.
    Run sudo modprobe -r iwlagn && sudo modprobe iwlagn.
   
How can I run the disable N as a script and have to push out to the existing 60  (using the network autostart script)?
Or how can Iuse the network autostart script to place a FixMyWireless.sh file that would be executable to run the modprobe commands on each computer (and maybe even place a link on favorites to run the script in terminal).

Of course if you have other ideas, I would love to hear it!

37

Hardware Specific / Dell e6400 intel 5100 wifi random disconnect

« on: May 10, 2012, 11:30:37 AM »

We have some Dell e6400 (14 inch laptops) that are working really well on Ubermix until randomly a handful of them (3-10) in a class will disconnect from wifi and never reconnect. We have tried toggling the hardware switch and disabling and re-enabling networking from the Network Manager applet and they won't get back on. If the computer is restarted they connect again just fine. Some periods there are no issues.

Any ideas on how to kick the wireless card back into action without a restart?
Or any driver updates we could try to provide more consistent wifi connectivity?

38

General Support / Re: Getting Error on install

« on: May 02, 2012, 09:32:59 AM »

This error has occurred for me when the user changes customizations files didn't finish compacting because I pulled the key out too soon. Also the thumb drive could beout of space for the user changes files (if you added a lot of apps). Try doing the customizations and create the simple update files and then reboot the computer by pressing enter twice in the thumb drive menu and leave the drive in the whole reboot cycle.

You can check the size of the two user changes files user.tar.gz and mods.tar.gz just to see if they are the same size on both keys.

39

How-to / Hardware diagnostic program for Linux

« on: April 23, 2012, 07:55:01 AM »

Howdy,

My tech's tell me they use programs in windows provided by Dell for hardware diagnostics (Harddrive, RAM, fan, etc.). What are some good programs for techs to use as part of the troubleshooting and repair process in the Linux world?

40

Hardware Specific / Re: Acer AspireOne 722 - AMD suspend issues

« on: April 17, 2012, 07:55:57 PM »

Yes I just installed the driver and said no to the VA-API and flash question. I have definitely been reading that the AMD driver has trouble waking from suspend on the Acer AspireOne 722. I hope I can find a way to get at least some of power advantages of the AMD drivers. I have installed Jupiter and run Powertop, but they only seem to drop the power usage down to 8 or 9 Watts.

41

Hardware Specific / Acer AspireOne 722 - AMD suspend issues

« on: April 16, 2012, 09:26:01 AM »

The Acer AspireOne 722 is an awesome 11.6 inch netbook, with a full keyboard priced at $330. Using the default Ubermix image 0.914GA there are a few graphics issues (blurred text on occasion) and a fairly high power usage (10 watts during normal web/text usage=5 hours of life). I installed the AMD graphics drivers via the ubermix wiki http://wiki.ubermix.org/page/AMD_Video_Acceleration and via direct download of the latest catalyst drivers from the AMD website http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx and the graphics improves and power use decreases (6 watts during normal web/text usage=8 hours of life).

However, the netbook won't wake from suspend (which kind of cancels out the wonderful new power savings). I have read several wikis and forums that this is a known issue, but am hoping for a fix or another way to decrease battery use.

42

Q&A / Re: directory authentication

« on: April 03, 2012, 04:04:05 PM »

I used Likewise a while ago to test if network authentication was possible against our Active Directory. I was able to get it to work with some tinkering, but I forget all of the steps, and have now become a proponent of no-need-for-network-authentication 

43

Development and Scripting / Network File Storage

« on: April 03, 2012, 04:01:08 PM »

We have a fairly solid use of network file servers in our district. We can create bookmarks so that students can access the drive quickly, but I wanted to see if we could have the same convenience of our windows mapped network folders. I have added a couple of scripts to automount a public student folder. This also means that there is no need to do any Libre Office work around, as LibreOffice can directly save into the server with this setup.

First I booted with -generic instead of -aufs to make the changes permanent. Then I made sure samba and smbfs was installed:
sudo apt-get install samba
sudo apt-get install smbfs

Then I created a folder to mount the network folder
sudo mkdir /media/server

Then in the file:
/etc/network/if-up.d/mynetstart

I added:
mount -t smbfs //our-server/folder /media/server -o uid=1000,gid=1000,umask=0022,username="generic-student-account",password=""

This means that when a network connection is established the server will be mounted. This works fine, but it wasn't shutting down due to the fact that the wireless was turning off before the folder was unmounted.

So I created a file called S15umount in /etc/rc0.d:

sudo gedit /etc/rc0.d/S15umount
 
with this text:
#!/bin/sh
sudo umount /media/server

and then made the file executable:
sudo chmod a+x S15umount

This works more times but not all the time, so it still hangs on shutdown. Any ideas or suggestions on how to fine tune this auto-mount process would be great. Once it is working perfectly I will post to the wiki.

44

General Support / Re: Change the color of the top bar/panel

« on: March 27, 2012, 03:45:25 PM »

I did it and I also changed the opacity on the same config screen to half the existing value and now it looks sweet.

http://ubuntuone.com/3e24wTGW5rRVzRxXSIz3Ld

45

General Support / Change the color of the top bar/panel

« on: March 27, 2012, 02:42:52 PM »

Running .913 and I am changing the background picture. However, the top panel stays blue. I have tried messing with the themes, but I can't seem to get the color to change. This is crucial since I don't want my Ubermix to clash