Cloning XP and linux to a SSD, part1

I've recently bought a Crucial SSD M500 240GB SATA III to substitute my old IDE HD seagate (120GB). 162e from Prokoo, not bad.

Capacity (Unformatted): 240GB
Interface: SATA 6Gb/s (SATA 3GB/s compatible)
Sustained Sequential Read up to (128k transfer): 500MB/s
Sustained Sequential Write up to (128k transfer): 250MB/s
Random Read up to (4k transfer): 72,000 IOPS
Random Write up to (4k transfer): 60,000 IOPS
Form Factor: 2.5-inch, m-SATA, and M.2
NAND: 20nm Micron MLC NND
Life Expectancy: 1.2 million hours mean time to failure (MTTF)
Endurance: 72TB total bytes written (TBW), equal to 40GB per day for 5 years
Operating Temperature: 0°C to 70°C
Compliance: RoHS, CE, FCC, UL, BSMI, C-TICK, KCC RRL, W.E.E.E., TUV VCCI, IC
Firmware: Field upgradable firmware
Product Health Monitoring: Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART) commands

The old disk hosted WinXP and Ubuntu 10.04, the latter spread on several dedicated partitions (boot, / and swap on this disk, /home on another, larger, SATA disk).

Cloning
Once connected internally to a SATA port my pc (Fujitsu-Siemens, quite old, Athlon64 X2), the SSD took the first disk position (sda) and the old disk moved to the last (sdc).
Cloning with Parted Magic (pmagic_2013_05_01) live from DVD was fast and easy.
It used partclone to copy "disk to local disk" at the astonishing rate of 3.35GB/min!!
Then I edited the grub.cfg file adding a new instance of linux pointing to the correct disk and to differentiate from the grub in the old disk: this would make evident that I'm actually booting from the SSD.
At this point I rebooted, entered BIOS to set the boot disk priority to let the SSD kick in first, rebooted and the grub from the SSD showed up correctly.
So far, so good.
But here my BIG mistake: I booted firstly windows, with BOTH the new and the old disk (cloned) connected.
WinXP did boot, but it went to the old disk, not the new one.
The reason -I've learned after long internet serach- is probably that I didn't change the UUIDs of the partitions of the new disk, therefore the boot got confused and started the old installation. The problem is that windows apparently realised that there was an identical installation on an identical partition and changed something to prevent -possibly- copy of the system.

Lesson learnt: after cloning NEVER reboot with both disks connected! Start with the new one, restart with a liveCD, change the UUIDs, re-install grub, reboot in the new disk (both OSs) and only ath this point you can safely reconnect the old disk!

Before going into the part2, with the recovery and installation of the lates LinuxMint LMDE 201303 along with XP and Ubuntu, here are the final performances:

Win XP:
was 1'16" from grub to the ethernet icon appearance (=system usable)
is ~45"

Ubuntu:
was ~ 47" from grub to the ethernet connected (=system boot finished)
is ~32"

Mint (not installed originally):
is ~ 27" from grub to the ethernet connected (=system boot finished)

Very, very good!

Grub2: terribly slow at boot

Karmic Koala comes with Grub2, on a fresh install (but it will keep grub legacy on upgrades).

Beside the scarcely comprehensible layer of complexity that grub2 has added to the great old grub, I was very disappointed by the long delay on boot.

After BIOS, the booting process just hanged with a "GRUB starting" message on black screen.

It stays like that for ~15-20 seconds.

Than grub menu shows up.

Amazing, since Karmic was said to be one of the fastest booting experiences one could have....

Now, poossibly the solution is here:

Grub 2 Basics

Grub 2 Hangs 10-30 Seconds between Grub 2 Loading and Menu Display.

This is a known bug that can be caused by GRUB 2 and /boot being loaded on different partitions. To fix the problem, run

Code:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc

Select to load Grub 2 on the same device as the /boot partition. In your system BIOS, change the drive to boot from first to the drive with the /boot partition.

As it happens, my /boot partition and my /home are on two different disks.

I need to check, but it might actually be that grub got installed on the disk with the /home partition and not the one with /boot and / partitions (which is amazing, since I kept the insalling disk for grub suggested by the installation process....).

Sound issues on Karmic 64bit

Issue and possible solutions, just listed, very few comments.

=================

No sound problem:

=================

Live CD --> everything's fine

Install --> fine

Restart --> install nvidia proprietary --> restart --> no sound!

200+ updates --> restart --> continuous whistle

Disable on board Audio card --> crappy sound, but something, at least.

Movieplayer and Rythmbox ask for additional codecs (to play wma and mp3). I let them download their codecs and reboot.

Still crappy sound (with rythmbox and vlc, no sound at all with movieplayer). See below for sound problem description and possible solutions.

=================

Useful output commands for audio/video troubleshooting

=================

uname -a

aplay -l

arecord -l

amixer -c 0

to check if the system recognizes the soundcard:

aplay -l

lspci -v | less

sounds module installed?:

find /lib/modules/`uname -r` | grep snd

===========

Comprehensive Multimedia & Video Howto

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=766683&highlight=sound+present+live+-present+install

===========

enable medibuntu:

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/`lsb_release -cs`.list --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list; sudo apt-get -q update; sudo apt-get --yes -q --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring; sudo apt-get -q update

install all multimedia stuff:

sudo apt-get remove gnash gnash-common libflashsupport mozilla-plugin-gnash swfdec-mozilla && sudo apt-get install alsa-oss faac faad flashplugin-nonfree gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse ia32-libs ia32-sun-java6-bin icedtea6-plugin libmp3lame0 non-free-codecs openjdk-6-jre unrar

install gecko (for audio/video streaming in web browser):

sudo apt-get remove kaffeine-mozilla mozilla-helix-player mozilla-mplayer mozilla-plugin-vlc totem-mozilla xine-plugin

sudo apt-get install gnome-mplayer gecko-mediaplayer

reboot

audio conversion:

sudo apt-get install soundconverter audacity oggconvert

tag editor:

sudo apt-get install exfalso

Video conversion:

sudo apt-get install avidemux ffmpeg winff

DVD playback:

sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 libdvdread4 libdvdnav4 vlc

alternative to VLC: sudo apt-get install gxine libxine1-ffmpeg

DVD rip

sudo apt-get install dvdrip

alternative: sudo apt-get install k9copy

Firefox add-ons:

NoScript (tick the box entitled "Temporarily allow top-level sites by default");

Screen resolution:

sudo xrandr -s 1280x800 (to set at 1280x/800)

sudo xrandr -q

Use the first command again and set the highest resolution that RandR claims is supported. Once that is set, try setting the resolution you know is correct, as it may now accept that resolution

==============

==============

Possible solutions or approaches to solve the sound issue

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1144009&highlight=no+sound+after+install

==============

Here after, a list of solutions that are reported to have worked at least ones:

1. kernel

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=8365308&postcount=50

check that grub is really starting the latest kernel (2.6.31-14-generic reported to work)

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=8202698&postcount=37

dpkg --get-selections | grep linux-image

uname -r

Edit your menu.lst file so that the kernel version numbers are up to date:

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

2. check volumes or mute

gnome-alsamixer

or

alsamixer -Dhw (hw device should be specified)

3. pulseaudio fixes

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=789578

backup and delete

$ mkdir ~/pulse-backup && cp -r ~/.pulse ~/.asound* /etc/asound.conf /etc/pulse -t ~/pulse-backup/

$ rm -r ~/.pulse ~/.asound*

$ sudo rm /etc/asound.conf

install libreries and utilities

sudo apt-get install libasound2-plugins padevchooser libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio

purge libflashsupport

sudo apt-get remove --purge libflashsupport flashplugin-nonfree-extrasound

config pulsaudio device chooser (choose default output and input card)

$ pulseaudio & pavucontrol

check alsa PCM volume or mute

alsamixer -Dhw

Note: When the PulseAudio ALSA plugins are active, you must explicitly specify your hardware device in alsamixer (marked in blue above), otherwise it will open the PulseAudio mixer

4. alsa reinstall

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=8541933&postcount=68

backup as in previous item:

mkdir ~/pulse-backup && cp -r ~/.pulse ~/.asound* /etc/asound.conf /etc/pulse -t ~/pulse-backup/

remove alsa:

sudo apt-get --purge remove linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils

shutdown and restart

reinstall alsa:

sudo apt-get install linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils

sudo apt-get install gdm ubuntu-desktop

shutdown and restart

configure:

goto System > Preferences > Sound

goto Hardware tab and goto Profile:

Select "Analog Stereo Duplex"

5. upgrade alsa to 1.0.22

http://monespaceperso.org/blog-en/2009/12/17/upgrade-alsa-1-0-22-on-ubuntu-karmic-koala-9-10/

6. modem proprietario

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=8213242&postcount=40

(= switch it off from "Proprietary Driver" dialog)

answer to issued bug:

This problem has been temporarily resolved by disabling the proprietary Smart Link Software Modem driver available in Ubuntu's Hardware Drivers dialog (jockey-gtk).

7. remove pulseaudio

sudo apt-get remove pulseaudio

-----------------

EDIT: approach 4 made the trick and now sound works, even if not perfectly yet.

-----------------

Karmic Koala 64bit: almost fresh install

Fresh install of Karmic Koala, but keeping the previous /home partition unformatted.

Installation quite OK, but a few issues immediately arose.

Most important of which, several sound issues.

More detailed installation description in a later post.

As for now, the overall impression is that compared to 8.04 this Ubuntu release has several improvements, but it's missing loads details and functionalities which for sure would make at least a bad impression on new linux adepts, if not falling back on windows.

ZyXel G-220 v2 on (Myth)Ubuntu 8.04 x86_64

Issue:
System hangs upon insertion; need several reboots before working.
It used to work fine with Mythbuntu 7.10 x86_64.
A friend tested it on its Ubuntu 8.10 x86 and it works --> is it a 64-bit issue?

Suggestions:
1. blacklist:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/74362

Tim Gardner wrote on 2007-03-27: (permalink)
Try a more current driver by blacklisting zd1211rw:
edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist and add zd1211rw
edit /etc/modules and add zd1211rw-mac80211
Either reboot or 'modprobe zd1211rw-mac80211', then insert the zd1211.

2. cardbus:
issue muight be related to cardbus and USB system (my pc seems to hang because both mouse and keyb are USB...)
http://communities.vmware.com/message/575305#575305

In short, the problem was Ubuntu not mounting USBFS to /proc/bus/usb.
Solution:
sudo mount -t usbfs none /proc/bus/usb
and add the following line in the /etc/fstab file:
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs auto 0 0
Similar effect should be obtained if inserting a another USB dongle and AFTER that the USB wifi key: the first insertino should trigger the usbfs system, than the wifi key mounts with no issue.

3. kernel
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/74362

Mark Krapivner wrote on 2008-09-20:
i worked with alpha 6 a few days and i didn't encounter this bug (with Kernel 2.6.27), if any one else can confirm it's fixed too please do so :-)
BUT, this bug still exists on kernel 2.6.24 that comes with hardy, which is an LTS release.

SnowTDM wrote on 2008-05-09:
[...]
But if I start 8.04 version with 7.10 kernel (2.6.22) card connects perfectly, including with WAP encryption. It also connect if I boot with 7.10 desktop CD.
I think it is a problem with driver or module zd1211rw in conjunction with new kernel.

4. ndiswrapper
my try:
blaklist zd1211rw module and try ndiswrapper with the original windows driver

HandBrake 0.9.3

Good news: this new version has a linux GUI available as well.
xBuntus debs can be found here.
Forum thread here.

Sound issues on my Hardy 64bit

Still no success with the Alsa/PulseAudio settings on Hardy 64bit (Hercules Game Theater XP 5.1, CS46xx).
Only way I can get the sound to work, is to set everything to OSS.

Now, a few links with hints/guides to follow:

Alsa:
need to have soundcore loaded:

modinfo soundcore

Multiple soundcards:

explicitly assign the default device numbers of our sound card drivers by adding lines at the end of the /etc/modprode.d/alsa-base file like this (These are mine):

Code:

options snd_hda_intel index=0
options snd_cmipci index=1
options snd_atiixp index=2
options snd_usb_audio index=3

This way each device will always be numbered the same.

You can use:

Code:

cat /proc/asound/modules

to discover your sound device driver module names and their order.

Generic troubleshoot:

to check if the system recognnizes the soundcard:
aplay -l
lspci -v | less

sounds module installed?:
find /lib/modules/`uname -r` | grep snd

The 10,000 Page Guide to Sound Troubleshooting:
Among several tips, this:
Create a new user and login with that: if sound works, it's an issue of user configuration

Another (older) guide on sound problems:
This is a quite comprehensive guide, with a "failure/success" path to follow. Nice.

PulseAudio fixes:
It says libflashsupport should not be installed.
this is confusing, since it's the only way I could find to let Flash produce sounds.

PulseAudio installation (Italian):
Italian guide to PulseAudio installation.
Makes use of most of the previous hints, and summarizes them.
Too simple?
A noticeable difference with the "fixes" page:
Here it uses ladspa without even checking its installation. In "fixes":
Install the required LADSPA plugins and tools:

Code:

$ sudo apt-get install swh-plugins ladspa-sdk

Maybe
Also, there is no editing of the /etc/pulse/default.pa and no note on the necessity of changing the
slave.pcm "plughw"
line in ~/.asoundrc (or /etc/asound.conf)

Surround guide (italian):
To be tested yet

---------------------------
Edit:
this might be the real fix: remove pulsaudio....!
Or even better, in the same thread: post 51.
Or still, I can keep my "OSS" settings: not brilliant, but working...!
---------------------------

Installazione Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 AMD64

Sono passato dalla vecchia Dapper alla nuova Hardy, sul computer fisso.

Di seguito i vari step seguiti, in forma di nota/promemoria.

CAP 0: mettiamoci in condizione di tornare indietro, se qualcosa va storto....:

Backup Dapper

Disinstallare software inutili

Fare lista sw

dpkg --get-selections > installed-packages.txt

oppure da synaptic (vengono meno voci. Perche?)

Fare lista di storia di installazioni con synaptic (export to txt)

Fare screenshot del menu applicazioni (magari c’e’ un file con l’elenco delle icone: verificare e salvare da qualche parte, cosi’ c’e’ un elenco delle applicazioni installate)

--> copiato i vari file .desktop (in usr/share/applications e in ~/.local/share/applications)

Cancellare roba inutile, anche dal trash

Copiare fstab, menu.lst, part table di fdisk, xorg.conf

Copiare bookmarks, dati thunderbird, dati utenti

Partimage di boot (5min), home (30min) e sistema (30min)

Partimage di partition table (http://www.partimage.org/Partimage-manual_Backup-partition-table)

        dd if=/dev/hda of=backup-hda.mbr count=1 bs=512

Now, we will save entries of the extended partitions:

        sfdisk -d /dev/hda > backup-hda.sf

To restore:

        dd if=backup-hda.mbr of=/dev/hda

        sfdisk /dev/hda < style="">

CAP 1: Installazione sistema

Una guida passo-passo

http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-ubuntu-8.04-lts-hardy-heron

il mio schema di partizioni:

Device	Mount point	File system	size
/dev/hda1	/home	reiserfs	30GB
/dev/hda2	/media/music_fat32	vfat	30GB
/dev/hda3	/media/shared_fat32	vfat	50GB
/dev/sda1	/media/winXP	ntfs	30GB
/dev/sda2	/boot	ext3	100MB
/dev/sda3	/	reiserfs	50GB
/dev/sda5	/media/myth	ext3	50GB
/dev/sda6	/media/distro	ext3	8GB
/dev/sda7	swap	swap	1GB
/dev/sda8	/media/video_fat32	vfat	100GB

L'installazione dal liveCD AMD64 va liscissima.
Mi ha cambiato i nomi delle partizioni (chissa' perche') e ora vede il disco IDE hda come sdb. A parte questo tutto tranquillo.
Ho mantenuto la mia home, sperando di tenere tutti i dati e i settaggi.
In ~35min ho la Hardy installata e pronta all'uso, con dati e settaggi conservati!

Cap 2: Personalizzazioni

Step1 - Ritocchi al sistema base:

Nautilus: enable delete

Font: pref/appearance --> subpixel smoothing

pref/appearance/advanced --> 96dpi

Services: admin/services --> rimuovere gli inutili (--> bluetooth)

Startup: pref/sessions --> disabilitare roba inutile

Uninstall: togliere programmi inutili (--> nessun programma tolto)

Update: ricaricare e fare update del sistema

Reboot

Al termine dello step1 (~15min), ho 47.3GB free (49.2GB dichiarati da system monitor) → usati circa 2GB in /

Proseguiamo con le installazioni dei software necessari a rendere usabile (ai miei scopi) la essenzialissima Ubuntu.
Installo tutto da Synaptic, per poter avere un log di tutte le dipendenze installate di volta in volta, in modo da poterle eliminare insieme al programma in caso di malfunzionamento

Step2 - I fondamentali:

Fonts: msttcorefonts

Compilare: build-essential

Posta: Thunderbird

Sistema: partimage, checkinstall, language-support-it

Java: gcjwebplugin (non funziona!) oppure icedtea: jre e plugin (ok)

Flash: flashplugin-nonfree, libflashsupport

(http://www.ubuntu1501.com/2008/06/play-video-audio-while-playing-flash.html)

padevchooser → fotte tutto!!! pare che ne' alsa ne' pulseaudio funzionino: devo usare OSS in pref/sound

pulseaudio fallisce cosi': audiotestsrc wave=sine freq=512 ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! gconfaudiosink: Failed to connect stream: Invalid argument

idem alsa e CS46xx (scheda Hercules Game Theater XP)

Ntfs: ntfs-config per abilitare/disabilitare scrittura su ntfs

Multimedia: vlc, DVD95, gthumb (da usare al posto di fspot), doppio click su un .mp3 e installazione gstreamer ffmpeg e extra plugins

Compiz: pref/appearance/visual effect à per abilitare effetti (compizconfig-settings-manager)

Repo: aggiungere medibuntu

Codecs: w64codecs, libdvdcss2

Internet: aMule

update e reboot

2ore circa, 46.7GB free

Step2b: Partimage di installazione base (root, boot). Root ~2.8GB

Step3 - Utili:

Software complessi o con molte dipendenze, che potrebbero appesantire il sistema o renderlo instabile.

Li installo uno per volta.

https://help.ubuntu.com/

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=766683

Exaile (al posto di amarok) (c’e’ bisogno anche di python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 per abilitare lyrics e guitar tablature)

Dvd::rip

EasyTag (o exfalso)

WinFF (e’ 32 bit! Richiede ia32-libs) (converte video da un formato a un altro)

cd ~/Desktop && sudo dpkg --force-architecture -i winff.deb

HandbrakeCLI (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5410459&postcount=54)

Step3b - Utili, II parte :http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=766683

Multimedia, codecs, falsh e Java

sudo apt-get remove gnash gnash-common libflash-mozplugin libflashsupport mozilla-plugin-gnash swfdec-mozilla && sudo apt-get install alsa-oss faac faad flashplugin-nonfree faad gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse ia32-libs icedtea-java7-jre icedtea-java7-plugin liblame0 non-free-codecs unrar

Ancora flash audio non funziona!!! --> http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5465376&postcount=13

Download libflashsupport.so compilato con OSS support:

http://ubuntuforums.org/attachment.p...6&d=1210377383

sudo apt-get install alsa-oss

sudo apt-get remove libflashsupport

cd ~/Desktop; gunzip libflashsupport.so.gz; sudo mv libflashsupport.so /usr/lib

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libflashsupport.so /usr/lib/firefox/plugins

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libflashsupport.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libflashsupport.so /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins

If you're running x86_64:

sudo cp /usr/lib/libflashsupport.so /usr/lib32/

ora flash funziona!!!!

unrar

htop

lm-sensors

(Tovid) Devede, avidemux

Google Earth

Dizionario Ita-Eng: vocabulary.aioe.org in Applicazioni -> Accessori -> Dizionario

Ubuntustudio-video (--> openmovieeditor, kino, jack, imagemagik)

Mplayer (installato come dipendenza di openmovieeditor)

Ultimi ritocchi Inspiron 1501 prima della consegna

Copiato diverse splash images per grub nella cartella /boot/grub/splash e aggiornato il file /boot/grub/menu.lst
Cambiato .bashrc per avere una console a colori e editato il profilo per abilitare le trasparenze di gnome-terminal

Dati pc:
lspci
/etc/fstab
elenco partizioni e punti di mount
Fatto ultimi aggiornamenti disponibili (ora il kernel e' 2.6.20-15-generic)
Fatto backup con partimage di sda2 (/boot), sda7 (/home), sda8 (/).
Per farlo, ho avviato il pc con system rescue cd e montato il direttorio di scambio:

Code:

mkdir /mnt/scambio
mount -t vfat /dev/sda5 /mnt/scambio
partimage

poi ho seguito la stessa prassi indicata nel post sul backup di vista.

Ho avviato Mandriva One 2007 e notato che anche qui xgl non funziona. Pero' funzionano i tasti del brightness. In /etc/X11/xorg.conf la sezione della tastiera e' identica e il modello indicato e' pc105 versione italiana. Tornato in Ubuntu e rimessa la stessa tastiera, pero', il brightness continua a non funzionare.

Da ultimo ho seguito le istruzioni della guida beryl di redDEAD per l'accelerazione 3D, dopo aver installato i driver proprietari dall'apposito menu in "preferenze".
Tutto e' andato liscio, ma non c'e' verso di far girare beryl: e' installato, ma niente accelerazione, come gia' avevo visto tempo fa provando sabayon 3.3. Con Sabayon, infatti, l'acceleration manager chiede se usare XGL, ma il risultato e' uno schermo tutto nero. Beryl su Ubuntu invece non ha effetto e il desktop si vede, ma niente accelerazione. L'accelerazione senza driver proprietari, continua invece a dare schermo completamente bianco.
Sembra proprio che questa scheda ATI Xpress 200M non funzioni per ora. C'e' sempre il dubbio dell'allocazione della memoria da bios, ma non ho avuto tempo di provare questa via.
Pazienza.
Niente cubo rotante.
Ho rimosso tutto beryl (cercando beryl su synaptics e disinstallando tutto quello che era installato) e cancellato i file creati seguendo la guida di redDEAD. Poi ho rimosso i driver ATI proprietari.

Meglio installare i driver per la stampante lexmak Z600 su vista dopo aver collegato la stamapante, magari funziona senza bisogno di driver.
Su Ubuntu i driver dovrebbero essere installati, ma si deve controllare una volta connessa la stampante.

gcompris

Installato gcompris educational suite, ottima raccolta di software educativi per bambini anche piccoli. Installata anche la localizzazione italiana per il suono.

Stranamente tuxpaint non viene installato automaticamente.

L'ho quindi aggiunto a mano con synaptics.


-----------------------------------------------------

What is GCompris

GCompris is an educational software which propose different activities to children from 2 to 10 years old.

GCompris is an educational software suite comprising of numerous activities for children aged 2 to 10. Some of the activities are gameorientated, but nonetheless still educational. Below you can find a list of categories with some of the activities available in that category.

computer discovery: keyboard, mouse, different mouse gesture, ...
algebra: table memory, enumeration, double entry table, mirror image, ...
science: the canal lock, the water cycle, the submarine, electric simulation ...
geography: place the country on the map
games: chess, memory, connect 4, oware, sudoku ...
reading: reading practice
other: learn to tell time, puzzle of famous paintings, vector drawing, cartoon making, ...

Currently GCompris offers in excess of 100 activities and more are being developed. GCompris is free software, that means that you can adapt it to your own needs, improve it and, most importantly, share it with children everywhere.

Special keys

una buona notizia: con l'ultimo upgrade di qualche giorno fa i tasti speciali (tipo Fn+F1 per l'ibernazione) si sono messi a funzionare.
forse e' per il nuovo kernel (2.6.20-14-generic).
quindi: il wireless viene abilitato e disabilitato dai tasti, ibernazione e standby funzionano, volume e muting funzionano, brightness NON funziona ancora.
cosa strana pero' e' che in uscita dall'ibernazione il wireless non funzionava piu'.
poi ho messo in standby e riattivato (aprendo il coperchio) e il wireless funzionava di nuovo.
ho sospeso nuovamente (con i tasti funzione, questa volta) e al riavvio il wireless funzionava....
boh.

resta il dubbio se mettere un kernel dedicato AMD64 (tipo linux-amd64-k8), il sito dei packages per feisty lo considera obsoleto a favore del -generic.
quindi mi tengo il generic.

dvdrip

non reisco a installare mplayer 32 bit per feisty64, quindi dvdrip non funziona.

quindi installo xine-ui da synaptic e cambio le preferenze.
anche rar va cambiato.

backup partizione vista

per il backup della partizione di vista ho usato partimage.
sudo apt-get install partimage

prima di lanciarlo, smontare le partizioni:
Code:

sudo umount -a

connettere ed eventualmente montare i dischi esterni necessari (nel caso il sistema non li avesse montati automaticamente)

Code:

sudo mkdir /mnt/temp
sudo mount -t auto /dev/sda1 /mnt/temp
sudo ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /mnt/temp

(o l'uno o l'altro: nell'esempio sda1 e' un generico filesystem linux o fat, sdb1 invece e' una partizione con filesystem ntfs)

lanciare partimage:
Code:

sudo partimage

selezionare la partizione da copiare e dare un nome al file di backup

dopo un paio di ok e un po' di tempo, il backup finisce.


se si riceve l'ok, vuol dire che la copia della partizione e' andata a buon fine.
il supporto per ntfs e' limitato, ma se si riceve l'ok la copia e' ben fatta.

meglio comunque controllare.
rilanciare partimage, selezionare la partizione, dare il nome del file seguito da .000 e selezionare "restore"
nella schermata successiva selezionare "simulate"

qui bastano pochi minuti

al termine, meglio rimettere la proprieta' dei file all'utente, per poterli successivamente cancellare comodamente:

Code:

sudo chown nome_utente vista*

ATI e FGLRX

per edgy, qui c'e' uno con gli stessi problemi miei: schermo bianco appena si abilita l'accelerazione con driver free. Forse il problema e' nella memoria? mi pare strano.

posso pero' provare con la guida ufficiale, ma e' troppo vecchia per feisty che dovrebbe gia' contenere tutti i moduli nel kernel.

anche la parte finale con:

Code:

sudo aticonfig --initial

sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv

e' la stessa gia' vista nei link precedenti. lui usa i driver ati proprietari.



c'e' pero' una differenza nello script di startup:

Code:

#!/bin/sh

Xgl :1 -fullscreen -ac -accel xv:pbuffer -accel glx:pbuffer &

DISPLAY=:1

exec dbus-launch --exit-with-session gnome-session

la guida aggiornata per feisty e' qui.

piu' avanti (pag4) pare pero' proprio che non funzioni con le schede Xpress 200M.

in definitiva, direi che e' meglio lasciare i driver opensource, rimettere a posto xorg e aspettare con calma che anche la X200 venga supportata.



stasera provo sabayon o mandriva2007 live, giusto per vedere se almeno loro riescono a far girare il 3D.



per gli special keys e per mplayer nessuna nuova.

devo provare a mettere gxine al posto di mplayer nelle preferences di dvd::rip

ancora da fare dell

• special keys!!!
• mplayer (per dvd::rip)
• testare stampante e controllare la libreria che fallisce on sudo ldconfig, magari non c'entra!
  
  (http://finebushpeople.net/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=65)
  
  (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=49714&highlight=lexmark+z600+driver+ubuntu+gentoo)
  
  (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=2408135&postcount=217 --> importante per Edgy e Feisty: usare cups webmin!!!)
  
  (forse davvero meglio farlo con alien e dpkg come in http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1951306&postcount=187)
  
  
• ATI e compiz dopo update kernel
• eventuale ricompilazione ndiswrapper per nuovo kernel come in
  

  Fixing wifi on the Dell 1501 Edgy & Feisty

4/6/2007 10:33 AM:

ancora da fare:



special keys

in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Option  "XkbModel" "inspiron"

(http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Dell_Latitude_X1#Special_Keys)

(http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Use_Multimedia_Keys)

(http://lineak.sourceforge.net/index.php?nav=showdoc&docid=LinEAK_support_HOWTO&doctitle=Keyboard%20support%20HOWTO)



link per dvd::rip e dvdshrink

libdvdcss2 (ubuntuguide; medibuntu https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu)

w64codecs

totem-xine

stampante lexmark Z600

seahorse

DMA per DVD (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DMA:

sudo hdparm /dev/hdc

sudo hdparm -d1 /dev/hdc poi aggiungere codice in /etc/hdparm.conf)

fare immagine partimage sia di vista che di ubuntu

solo dopo immagine: provare ATI restricted



controllare:

Brasero

dma on per HD

card reader

Acquisto Dell Inspiron 1501

Un amico ha comprato un Dell Inspiron 1501 (con Vista) e me lo ha lasciato per installare Linux.

La scelta e' caduta su Ubuntu per similitudine con il suo desktop di casa, per semplicita' d'uso, per la qualita' del supporto della comunita' e perche' tanto le magie del 3D ci compiz e beryl non sono fondamentali (Mandriva 2007 o Sabayon, se lo fossero).

Caratteristiche tecniche di vendita (piu' tardi qualche output tipo lspci):
Numero di catalogo: 6161 N03156
AMD® Turion 64 MK36
Vista™ Home Basic
SDRAM DDR2 a doppio canale da 1024 MB a 533 MHz (2 da 512)
ATI Radeon® Xpress 1150 HyperMemory™ da 256 MB (scheda integrata, memoria shared)
Hard Drive 80 GB (5400 rpm) SATA
modem interno 56,6 k V.92
8X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer
Scheda wireless mini-PCI Dell 1390 802.11g 54Mb/s18
Display widescreen WXGA TFT (1280 x 800) da 15,4"
Card reader
2 USB 2.0 ports
no firewire, no webcam

Sulla carta sembrava facile e compatibile con linux, ma non e' stato cosi' semplice....

Primo impatto con Vista: pessimo. E' piuttosto lento, c'e' troppo schermo nero in avvio (non si capisce cosa stia facendo) e fa subito un suo aggiornamento online. Peccato che dopo il riavvio alcuni driver accessori non sono riconosciuti, explorer si impalla subito, faccio fatica a sfogliare persino i menu....

Poco male, tanto ci devo mettere linux....

Dopo l'installazione di un paio di cose e un bel defrag sono pronto a cominciare con il pinguino.

Ubuntu Dapper64 (6.10) e' la prima scelta, ma -errore mio- carico e installo la Dapper32. Poco male.



Primo problema con la procedura di installazione: il disco non e' riconosciuto.

E' un SATA con tre partizioni: una piccola fat16 per l'avvio del pc e la sua
schermata DELL, una di recovery con la bellezza di 10GB NTFS (occupati
si' e no 3....), e una mega partizione NTFS per Vista.

L'amico Google mi offre prontamente la risposta: mettere l'opzione pci=nomsi al boot.

E per di piu' cosi' facendo scopro una bella manna per me: il sito di redDEAD dedicato all'Inspiron 1501...!!! Evviva! C'e' una bella guida all'installazione, anche se a me e' servita solo per questa opzione. Inoltre non ho avuto bisogno di aggiungerla a grub, lo ha fatto da solo.

Tornando all'installazione, ho ridimensionato Vista a 35GB e partizionato il resto, installato grub sul MBR e atteso 25min per avere la mia bella Dapper funzionante e scattante al riavvio.

Ma ahime', Vista non partiva piu': mi offriva un desolante cursore verde ondeggiante o un ancor-piu'-desolante schermo nero....

-to be continued-