A blog entry on other blogs, and reconfiguring Xorg...

In case your curious, I've been regularly reading some other blogs out there on the web. Some are continually updated, some aren't. The main one I track is:

• Funtoo by Daniel Robbins: Daniel Robbins is the guy that invented the Gentoo Linux distribution. He (like many other people) hated Linux dependency hell, and came up with a system that downloads source code, compiles it and then installs it on a working system. Any dependencies are resolved when installing a new package. Genius!

Other blogs that I do pop into every so often (since they're somewhat neglected at the time of writing this entry) are:

• Africa: A blog that was maintained by my sister-in-law, Jacquie. Jacquie spent a year in Africa helping out at a school on a volunteer basis. She has since returned to Australia, and is now doing a prestigious hospitality course. Jacquie's blog has some great photos of her trip to Africa.
• Bloggy Hell: This is a blog by a friend of mine, Alex. I had the honor of working with Alex for a period of around two years. He really knew his stuff when it came to Unix / Linux. And better still, he made working with him fun!

Do visit them, do leave comments on them (especially the neglected ones), and see if we can get more posts from them.

On a different note, I'm currently in the process of reconfiguring Xorg on my Toshiba P20. The reason I started doing this was due to many different factors. Firstly, there's been a new kernel to install on my system - that being 2.6.23-gentoo-r3. Secondly, I recently tried the new Ubuntu Linux 7.10 LiveCD / installer and was impressed by the fact that it correctly detected my screen resolution (being 1440x900). Back when I first started using Gentoo, there was no automated installer, and hence it had to be configured by hand. Played around with different drivers, as well as modelines, and other configuration settings I had very little understanding. Things have changed in a period of 4 years - and for the better.

In case you're wondering, this is my current configuration (which is found in /etc/X11/xorg.conf - you may need to cut and paste it into a file on your PC if you find it hard to read):

# File generated by xorgconfig.
#
#
# Copyright 2004 The X.Org Foundation
#
# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
# copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
# to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
# the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
# and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
# Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
#
# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
# all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
# IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL
# The X.Org Foundation BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
# WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF
# OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
# SOFTWARE.
#
# Except as contained in this notice, the name of The X.Org Foundation shall
# not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other
# dealings in this Software without prior written authorization from
# The X.Org Foundation.
#

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the xorg.conf(5x) man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

Section "Module"

# This loads the DBE extension module.

Load "dbe" # Double buffer extension

# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables
# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.
SubSection "extmod"
Option "omit xfree86-dga" # don't initialise the DGA extension
EndSubSection

# This loads the font modules
# Load "type1"
# Load "speedo"
Load "freetype"
# Load "xtt"

# This loads the GLX module
Load "glx"
# This loads the DRI module
# Load "dri"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Files section. This allows default font and rgb paths to be set
# **********************************************************************

Section "Files"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/corefonts"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/freefont"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/freefonts"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/sharefonts"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/terminus"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ttf-bitstream-vera"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/unifont"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/artwiz"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/default"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/dejavu"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/encodings"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/util"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "MS Wireless Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Buttons" "7"
# Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
# Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/event2"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "0"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "LeftEdge" "130"
Option "RightEdge" "840"
Option "TopEdge" "130"
Option "BottomEdge" "640"
Option "FingerLow" "7"
Option "FingerHigh" "8"
Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Option "MaxTapMove" "110"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "20"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "20"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.60"
Option "MaxSpeed" "1.10"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.0030"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "nVidia GeForce FX Go5200 64M"
# Driver "nv"
# Driver "vesa"
Driver "nvidia"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
# VideoRam 65536
# Option "NoLogo" "0"
Option "CursorShadow" "1"
Option "CursorShadowAlpha" "64"
Option "CursorShadowYOffset" "3"
Option "CursorShadowXOffset" "4"
# Option "NvAGP" "3"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "LCD Panel 1440x900"
Option "DPMS"
#HorizSync 28-72
#VertRefresh 43-60
HorizSync 29.0 - 55.0
VertRefresh 0.0 - 61.0
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "nVidia GeForce FX Go5200 64M"
Monitor "LCD Panel 1440x900"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "metamodes" "1440x900_60 +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Screen0"
InputDevice "Keyboard0"
InputDevice "MS Wireless Mouse"
InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection

I hope it assists someone out there. Do feel free to leave comments or queries about it!

C'mon Victory... start winning again! And Linux battery woes...

I was down in Melbourne again with my wife this weekend. I was celebrating her birthday, and presented her with her new Olympus camera. On the Saturday night, we went to Telstra Dome in hope that Melbourne Victory would beat Adelaide FC.

Hopes were dashed when Adelaide struck first. I was hoping for a 6-0 win similar to the final (18.02.2007), and something not like when Adelaide last played Melbourne (4-1 loss on 12.10.2007). Then after half time, Adelaide struck again. With Melbourne down 0-2, things were looking bleak. Then I saw some of the best football I have seen from the Victory all year. An attack on the right hand side resulted in a penalty which Capitan Kevin Muscat converted with ease. Then a last minute OG from Adelaide in injury time sealed the 2-2 draw. It was inspiring to see the Victory play, but I don't understand why they have to go down (in score) so much or lose a player (usually to a red card) before they start to play hard.

The Victory now has its backs against the wall. It's either win now for the remainder of the season, or there will be no finals appearance.

On another note, I recently inserted my battery back into my notebook. I know most people leave their batteries in their notebook, but due to the size of my notebook (being a Toshiba P20 running Gentoo), it makes more sense to run it like a desktop. So therefore I don't leave the battery in it (this is even more the case since the notebook did not come with a WiFi card). Anyway, upon inserting in the battery, ACPI claimed it couldn't see my battery. OK, to be exact, it was GNOME's battery monitor that couldn't locate the ACPI battery entry (ie. /proc/acpi/battery). This was quickly fixed, as I also had to compile in a new kernel - being 2.6.23-gentoo-r3. The thing that makes me wonder, is I used to have this functionality in my system about 6 months ago, but apparently, via upgrades of the kernel (even though I copy over the older kernel configuration files and base my builds off them), it has somehow dropped out of the kernel build.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, complete the recompile, and "presto", battery is now seen by GNOME's battery monitor.

Sony DSC-V3 and Linux (correction)

Correction on the previous post. I decided to just connect the camera to my Gentoo machine in USB mode, and type in dmesg into a console to see what the device thought it was. It connected like any other thumb drive / dongle device, as well as allowing me to manipulate the data on the storage within the camera. To me, it was surprising...

This was not the case a year or so ago. It would only connect in PTP mode. The advances in the Linux kernel (and most likely udev) since have improved to a state where this is now a non-configurable issue, and it just "plugs and plays". And therefore the Open Source development model advances...

Sony DSC-V3, Olympus mju 795 SW, and Linux

The support for digital cameras in Linux seems to be getting better and better. Either that, or the camera manufacturers are standardizing the way PCs connect to their hardware. I own a Sony DSC-V3, and I just purchased an Olympus 795 SW for my wife. The Sony is an older model. I think I purchased that in 2005, and the Olympus was a recent purchase.

The Sony connects to my Gentoo Linux machine via a USB cable, and uses the PTP protocol to interface with the gtkam application. This uses the gphoto set of libraries. It was a little bit of mucking around, with both my machine, and the camera before it was able to transfer images. It was a different situation on my wife's Ubuntu Linux PC. Just plug in the Sony, ensure it is using PTP, and Ubuntu will do the rest. This is an ideal situation for my wife, who unlike me does not have the patience to tinker around with a PC to make it work. She wants it to just work "out of the box". The only thing that doesn't work is that I cannot delete images off the memory card within the Sony from the gtkam GUI. No major hassle. Once I transfer the images, I can just delete them using menus within the camera.

With the Olympus, the story is even easier. It too connects to the PC via a USB cable (but not the same one as the Sony). The Olympus declares itself as a USB storage device. There is no additional work to do. A folder will pop up on the desktop, and you will be able to manipulate its contents like you would do to a USB storage key / dongle. Since the difference between the 795 SW and the 790 SW is its "toughness", I assume the 790 SW would also connect just as easily to a Linux PC. I am yet to confirm if Ubuntu will just read it, but seeing how it is does with every other device, I'm assuming it will. I will confirm this.

To summarize this, unlike some other operating system, there is no additional drivers to load to get these two cameras working under Linux. So if you need assistance in getting either of these cameras working under Linux, do feel free to contact me. If you're using a distribution like Ubuntu, then you probably find that these cameras and many others will just work.

Lastly, here are two pictures from both cameras.

The first one is from the Sony, and the second one is from the Olympus. Do click on them to look at them in proper size. Both are great cameras - but I still prefer my Sony...

Down in Melbourne for the weekend (again)...

Back down in Melbourne for the weekend again to watch the Melbourne Victory play Wellington Phoenix. It was a bit upsetting that the captain - Kevin Muscat got sent off on red after about half an hour. But like the past few matches, it appears the Victory needed to loose a player to start playing properly. They scored first with a fantastic assist from Archie Thompson to Danny Allsopp, but it didn't end there - like I would have hoped. Wellington answered in the second half with their own goal, which meant the game ended with a 1-1 draw.

I don't know what the Victory need to do to get off the lower half of the ladder - with the obvious exception of starting to win games. They're not playing like they were last year. I think in a way, this was an indication of how much Fred was to their midfield. I know there are people out there who will say Fred didn't do anything for the first half of the season, and I would agree with that, but once Fred got into his rhythm, he was feeding the other players as well as creating gaps in defense.

Once again, my wife and I went out for dinner afterwards. This time it was to another French restaurant called Paris Go. Food was great, and the prices were more reasonable than the other French restaurant I went to a fortnight ago. I would definitely go back, as well as to the other. Awesome steak tartare!

1st month in Canberra gone... time to go to work.

I've been in Canberra for one month now, and it's been OK so far. Not as good as Melbourne, but then again, Melbourne is home.

I think it is time I get down to work. I am working at the moment, but I am not working on my side Open Source projects. Now that I've settled into the place I am staying, I need to start coding up a car ordering system for a car dealer. I've seen what systems are being used at the moment, and I think I can make one that's easier to use for the car dealers.

My idea will be that it is written in PHP, and talk via Apache to a MySQL database. I'm running Gentoo Linux on my PC, so it's going to be developed on a LAMP platform, but hopefully it will be portable enough to run on WAMP if necessary.

I'll update people through this blog on the progress. Wish me luck!

A gentle sunday walk...

Yesterday I decided to take a walk to Parliament House from where I'm staying in Canberra city. Along the way I decided to take photos of what I saw. I got side-tracked a little when I saw the British High Commission (which would be equivalent to the top-level embassy or consulate office), and that led me onto the Chinese Embassy. If anyone ever visit Canberra, please make sure you take a walk / drive past the foreign Embassy section which should be approximately west of Parliament House. The Chinese Embassy is done with a Chinese theme, complete with a Chinese tiled roof and Chinese ornamental garden. The New Zealand High Commission has some metal cow sculptures out the front of it, and the Papua New Guinean High Commission is what I would consider is in the shape of one of their tradition abodes.

Just a word of warning - don't spend too much time around the US of A Embassy. I was approached by the Australian Federal Police and asked to move along. They were not rude, and were very professional and polite. It was just somewhat unnerving to be asked to be hurried along. There was absolutely no one else there (being a Sunday morning), and I was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts - hopefully I wasn't posing a threat. If you ever met me, you wouldn't think I was threatening in any way.

Any pictures I do upload to this blog will be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Down in Melbourne for the weekend...

Drove down to Melbourne on the weekend to catch up with my wife and my daughter. Both are doing well, and my wife mentioned that my daughter was extra well behaved while I was down there. She usually growls (ok... keep in mind she's a Vizsla).

Was a little disappointed with the Melbourne Victory vs Sydney FC game which ended in a 0-0 draw, but that is football sometimes.

My wife and I had dinner at the brasserie by Philippe Mouchel at Crown. I love French cuisine, and it was awesome having steak tartare.

Fortunately I've also found a Canberra restaurant that also serves tartare. It seems like food is motivating me at the moment. I'll get around to trying it and informing writing down what I think of it.

2 weeks down, and missing the ones I love...

I've just started my 3rd week of what could be a 6 to 12 months stint in Canberra. My housemate just came back from Melbourne after spending the long weekend down there (Melbourne Cup). In the 2 weeks that I've been in Canberra, I've managed to see:

• The War Memorial
• The National Museum
• Bits and pieces all over the place

I'm missing Melbourne greatly, as my wife and our four-legged daughter is down there. It feels weird as tonight is also the Wednesday night meeting for LUV (it's usually on a Tuesday night - except for November due to the Melbourne Cup weekend). Last month I attended the CLUG meeting and was lucky enough to hear Tridge speak, but it wasn't the same as LUV. In a very geeky act, I introduced myself to him and thanked him for his contributions to Open Source.

I really miss Melbourne...

The start of something...

As some of you may know, I'm from Melbourne and was happy there. Recently I've taken a leap of faith and am working in Canberra in an infrastructure role with IBM technologies. It's mainly around their UNIX and application server technology.

So why did I start this? Wanted to get some bits down of what I was thinking as well as document some of the things I have been doing or playing with. So let's hope this becomes something big, and not just another neglected blog.

In case you're wondering more about me, here's my current homepage.