Saturday, November 24, 2007

Installing Debian on Acer TravelMate 3010-3012WTMi

- Install Partition Magic 8.0 on C:, resize C:, create D: (hd(0,4),vfat32), create swap partition (hd(0,5), 512 MB), create ext3 partition (hd(0,6).

- Make a grub loader by using Puppy Linux program at http://puppyfiles.org/dotpupsde/files/setup-puppy2installer-XP.exe (option 3 in that program). Now it can boot into grub command line (at grub, we can use, for example, configfile (hd0,4)/boot/menu.lst to enter graphic interface). I did it by chance. It may be better to use a more simple way to install grub on a windows partition.

- From http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/, download debian image netinst and files initrd.gz and vmlinuz in hd-media directory of other images. Save in D:\soft.

- Boot to grub, run
kernel (hd0,4)/soft/vmlinuz
initrd (hd0,4)/soft/initrd.gz
and boot.

- The installer will automatically find the cd image and do the installation.

- To use ethernet device, add to /etc/network/interfaces (if the installer didn't do this)
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

- To use wireless device (see update below for kernel >=2.6.24), apt-get install ipw3945-modules-`uname -r` ipw3945d firmware-ipw3945, run iwconfig to check the name of the device (for example, eth1). If all are ok, run these command (or create a script for this):
ifconfig eth1 up
iwconfig eth1 mode Managed
iwconfig eth1 key key-of-the-net
iwconfig eth1 essid "Wireless-nm"
dhclient eth1

May need to disable eth0 (in /etc/network/interfaces) to use eth1.

If the wireless hardware is inactivated with dmesg saying that
ipw3945: Radio Frequency Kill Switch is On:
Kill switch must be turned off for wireless networking to work. (See http://ipw3945.sourceforge.net/README.ipw3945)

activate the hardware by pressing the wireless button (near the headphone jack phone) (or booting into Windows ;-) ).

- Install 915resolution (to setting the screen resolution to 1280x800). UPDATE: 915resolution package has been obsoleted since my dist-upgrade on Feb 2009; to use that screen resolution, change the driver of "Generic Video Card" from "vesa" to "intel".

- Install alsa sound driver: alasa-base, alsa-oss, alsa-utils, alsamixergui. Run alsaconf.

- Linux may recognize the bios timezone is UTC, and then change the clock to ICT (Indochina timezone). tzconfig is now obsolete, use dpkg-reconfigure tzdata (or run ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Saigon /etc/localtime. Check the option "UTC=no" in /etc/default/rcS. Run hwclock --hctosys --localtime; if the error "select() to /dev/rtc to wait for clock tick timed out" exists, append --directisa to it (if then this command work fine, open /etc/init.d/hwclock.sh, change the line HWCLOCKPARS= to HWCLOCKPARS="--directisa"). /etc/adjtime records the last time hwclock is used to set the clock.

- Check battery status: cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/state. A code for battery monitoring: http://swicked.net/code/bat_mon.sh.

- Install Japanese font: apt-get install ttf-kochi-mincho.

Ref
- http://www.linlap.com/wiki/Acer+TravelMate+3010-3012WTMi
- http://user.interface.org.nz/~gringer/hacking/acer_3012wtmi.html
- http://www.linuxsa.org.au/tips/time.html

Update 18 Jan 2009: just upgraded the system to kernel 2.6.26

- Wireless: iwl-wifi drivers, built in the kernel, are used to replace the older ipw3945. Just need to install firmware-iwlwifi (see http://wiki.debian.org/iwlwifi)

- Huawei EG162G EDGE/GPRS USB stick (used with Mobifone): install wvdial package; then run wvdialconf and in /etc/wvdial.conf, add

Username = mms
Password = mms
Phone = *99#

Run wvdial to start the modem.

Update 8 Nov 2009: Synaptics mouse tapping stopped working after upgrade. It was explained that the upstream synaptics driver now defaults to tapping off.
In /etc/X11/xorrg.conf,


Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"

add

Option "TapButton1" "1"
Option "TapButton2" "2"
Option "TapButton3" "3"
Option "VertEdgeScroll" "1"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "1"


Update 14 Feb 2010:
- Install mplayer: see http://wiki.debian.org/MPlayer
Codecs can also be copied (or untar from essential-20071007.tar.bz2) to /usr/lib/codecs/mplayer_binary_codecs/essential-20071007 and make a symlink /usr/lib/codecs/essential-20071007 to the above directory. According to the info provided, the package libstdc++5 is also needed (apt-get install libstdc++5).

- To connect wifi through WPA:

+ Install package wpasupplicant

+ Run (and results)

#wpa_passphrase "Education - Cafe" 123456789
<123456789> is passphrase of the wireless

copy and paste the result into /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

network={
ssid="Education - Cafe"
#psk="123456789"
psk=2768869af7a70b9122d9fdf2503f7c7804706333142aa865a7232902330a7f9e
}

#iwconfig eth1 essid "Education – Cafe"
#wpa_supplicant -ieth1 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
(no space after -i and -c), results:

ioctl[SIOCGIWSCAN]: Resource temporarily unavailable
ioctl[SIOCSIWSCAN]: Device or resource busy
Failed to initiate AP scan.
Trying to associate with 00:23:69:c8:19:05 (SSID='Education - Ca
Associated with 00:23:69:c8:19:05
WPA: Key negotiation completed with 00:23:69:c8:19:05 [PTK=TKIP
CTRL-EVENT-CONNECTED - Connection to 00:23:69:c8:19:05 completed]
WPA: Group rekeying completed with 00:23:69:c8:19:05 [GTK=TKIP]

Open new xterm:
#dhclient eth1
Finish
Checked by
#ifconfig eth1


- Install gyachi (1.2.10): go to http://ppa.launchpad.net/ferramroberto/extra/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gyachi/, install 2 package: gyachi and gyachi-data.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Ta không còn tóc rối bồng bềnh

Khi chuyện đời nặng trĩu đôi vai...

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

太遙遠、夢已經不夠

Đường quá xa xôi, mộng thì chẳng đủ...

Saturday, April 14, 2007

A hanami season passed

Just received from Keiko the cup made on my last traveling trip in Japan.

A hanami season has just passed. Please allow me to put this year's picture here, as a reminder. There, I used to walk around, used to sit, used to drink, used to see the whole sight by my own eyes...

Tuesday, January 30, 2007