Friday, November 2, 2007

gOS install

gOS is the operating system installed on $199 PC called "Everex Green gPC TC2502" from everex.
It's based on Ubuntu and designed for Google services' user like GMail, Google calendar, Google Maps and so on.

Now I boot with gOS CDROM image and install into VMware.

f:id:elsal:20071102162006j:image

This is default screen. It has menu like MAC's Dock under the screen, Google search bar on the top and icons of netoworking and clock on the right side.

f:id:elsal:20071102162005j:image

You can see complete list of Dock with clicking the leaf and selecting [Favorite Application].

f:id:elsal:20071102162040j:image

By default, the list has following services and applications. If the service needs Web browser(e.g. GMail), Firefox will be launched.
  • Blogger
  • Facebook
  • Firefox Web Browser
  • GMail
  • Google Calendar
  • Google Docs and Spreadsheet
  • Google Maps
  • Google News
  • Meebo
  • Rhythmbox Music Player
  • Tech Support
  • Wikipedia
  • Xine Movie Player
  • YouTube

Now I double click [Install] to begin installation process.

Select system language.

f:id:elsal:20071102162004j:image


Next, select time zone.

f:id:elsal:20071102162003j:image

Next, keyboard layout. I choose Japanese keyboard.

f:id:elsal:20071102162002j:image

Partitioning. I use entire disk.

f:id:elsal:20071102162043j:image

Enter username and machine name.

f:id:elsal:20071102162042j:image

Ready?

f:id:elsal:20071102162041j:image

Click [Install] and installation will be begun.

After installation, you can use gOS with your language.
f:id:elsal:20071102162103j:image

In gOS, it's little bit messy to switch window because it doesn't have anything like task bar.

I couldn't find any appealing from gOS enough to change my OS from Ubuntu. In the part of Dock, most services is Web-base so bookmark is enough to me. At the same time, it has no mailer locally.

But it's great if everyone can buy computer with gOS costing only $199. He can use e-mail, Web, OpenOffice, multimedia player without doing anything.

I'm interested who the target of this machine for WAL MART is.
Does american people want to use it in your home? Or is it designed for school?

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Using wheel mouse on Ubuntu on VMware

By default, you cannot use wheel of mouse on Ubuntu on VMware.
You should configure /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

First, check your mouse setting in /proc/bus/input/devices.

$ more /proc/bus/input/devices
.
.
I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0005 Version=0000
N: Name="ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse"
P: Phys=isa0060/serio1/input0
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input3
H: Handlers=mouse1 event3 ts1
B: EV=7
B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=103
Change your mouse "Driver" and "Device" in /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Original:
$ sudo vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf
.
.
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ps/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Change it like:
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "evdev"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/event3"
Option "Protocol" "ps/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection
Restart gdm and you can use wheel.
$ sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

LAMP on Feisty Fawn

LAMP is: Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.
I've escaped from database in the past but now I can't.

Actually the document Installing LAMP On Ubuntu For Newbies is good enough to make LAMP correctly.
In addition to my process of setup a LAMP referencing the document, I write how to configure MySQL and phpMyAdmin, application to administrate MySQL remotely.

You need install following pack

  • Apache
    • apache2
  • PHP
    • php5
    • libapache2-mod-php5
  • MySQL
    • mysql-server
Instead of Synaptic, I use command line as the document.

First, install apache.

$ sudo apt-get install apache2

Next, PHP.

$ sudo apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5
Restart Apache.
$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
Test PHP.

Write on /var/www/testphp.php following line

<? php phpinfo(); ?> 

Access http://[server's IP address]/testphp.php with your browser to ensure that it shows PHP information.

Next, MySQL.

$ sudo apt-get install mysql-server
Now I start MySQL setting.

If you want to allow other computer to connect to your SQL server, you need to change [Bind Address] in /etc/mysql/my.cnf from 127.0.0.1 to your IP address.

$ sudo vi /etc/mysql/my.cnf
from
bind-address = 127.0.0.1
to
bind-address = [server's IP address]

Create password for MySQL
root.
$ mysql -u root
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 8
Server version: 5.0.38-Ubuntu_0ubuntu1-log Ubuntu 7.04 distribution

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('[パスワード]');
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> quit
Install PHPMyAdmin.
$ sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-auth-mysql php5-mysql phpmyadmin
To give a permission to administrate MySQL from PHP, configure /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini.
$ sudo vi /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini
;extension=mysql.so
remove ";".
extension=mysql.so

Restart Apache.

$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Now you can login PHPMyAdmin by accessing http://[server's IP address]/phpmyadmin/.

f:id:elsal:20070926151707j:image

Monday, October 1, 2007

Celena Linux Mint Beta 021 Installation

Linux Mint is one of Linux distribution for desktop user based on Ubuntu.
It has much more support for multimedia than Ubuntu.

I believe the installation process is completely same as Ubuntu.
I installed Linun Mint Celena BETA021 to VMWare.

Boot PC with CD.

f:id:elsal:20070920162756j:image

It's cool isn't is?
Select [Start Linux Mint].

Running...

f:id:elsal:20070920161307j:image


Booted up completely.

f:id:elsal:20070920161306j:image


Double click [Install] for beginning installation process.

First, you need to select locale.
I wanted to use Japanese for installation but I cannot read Japanese yet.

f:id:elsal:20070920161305j:image


Select time zone.

f:id:elsal:20070920161302j:image


Keyboard layout.

f:id:elsal:20070920161508j:image


Partitioning. I use entire disk.
[Manual] shows partition dialog like GPart.

f:id:elsal:20070920161507j:image


Merge the configuretions of Windows user in the machine to Linux. I don't have any other OSs so there's nothing to see.

f:id:elsal:20070920161506j:image


Create user.

f:id:elsal:20070920161505j:image


Ready?

f:id:elsal:20070920161503j:image


Click [Install] then is's started installation. It's so easy...

Friday, September 14, 2007

Mounting Linux partition on Windows with Explore2fs

I think Explore2fs is a program much simpler than Ext2Fsd.

Although it doesn't have many fanction like Ext2Fsd(in Explere2fs you cannot copy/paste with shortcut-key in the window), I prefer Explore2fs because it's not resident in memory.

Installation is very simple.
Download Explore2fs from the Web site, unzip it and dobleclick explore2fs.exe.
Explore2fs mounts Linux partition automatically, and now you can edit your Linux partition.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Mounting Linux partition on Windows with Ext2Fsd

You may find that you need mount Linux partition on Windows when you use dual boot PC.
I introduce utility "Ext2Fsd", enabling mount a partition on Windows.

First, you need to assign drive letter to Linux partition.


Hmmm I can't... saying, "Healthy but unknown partition".

I tried to command line utility "mount.exe" to assign drive letter.
You can get it here.

In console, execute:

c:\> mount 0 3 h:

Now the drive letter of Linux partition is "H:".

View the drive letter in Ext2 Volume Manager.

Now you can access Linux partition from Explorer. Copy and paste are available as well.

You cannot access to the garbled name directory or file is garbled.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

IP address is 169.254.*.* even though it's addressed statically

In my office, I connect to the network 192.168.50.32/27.

Even though I set my IP address statically, when I execute ifconfig:

$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:08:02:D6:FA:FA
inet addr:169.254.147.105 Bcast:169.254.255.255 Mask:255.255.0.0
inet6 addr: fe80::208:2ff:fed6:fafa/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:4287 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4414 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:3240523 (3.0 MiB) TX bytes:805926 (787.0 KiB)
Interrupt:10 Base address:0x800

That address is a temporary one for when the device cannot get IP address from DHCP server, no?

However, my /etc/network/interfaces has static address...

$ cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.50.39
netmask 255.255.255.224
gateway 192.168.50.33

And in this situation, I CAN connect to internet.

After restarting /etc/init.d/networking, the address turn to 192.168.50.39, the static address I set.
$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
Password:
* Reconfiguring network interfaces... [ ok ]
jocv@jocv:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:08:02:D6:FA:FA
inet addr:192.168.50.39 Bcast:192.168.50.63 Mask:255.255.255.224
inet6 addr: fe80::208:2ff:fed6:fafa/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:6978 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:7132 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:5267012 (5.0 MiB) TX bytes:1299465 (1.2 MiB)
Interrupt:10 Base address:0x800
It's causally related to zeroconf.
zeroconf is a tecnology that can let some device connect to network without configuration.
First, zeroconf request an IP address to DHCP server. If the server doesn't exist, zeroconf give an IP address of 169.254.0.0/16 automatically. I uninstalled zeroconf and now everything is fine.

At any rate, even though the result of ifconfig is 169.254.*.*, IP address is absolutely 192.168.50.* because it connected to network...why? I'm no longer able to believe ifconfig?

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Wireless LAN with PCMCIA on Edgy

Generally, there are 2 ways to activate a wireless LAN adapter with PCMCIA on Linux:
However, if you brought an adaper that isn't supported by ndiwrapper, you have to throw it in the garbage bag?
No. If you execute "lspci" command and get a following answer:

03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88w8335 [Libertas] 802.11b/g Wireless (rev 03)

You might be able to use it!

I bought an adaper "Wireless G Adapter PCMCIA(PM150NXT08)" by NEXXT.
Either There are no driver for Linux or support by ndiwrapper but I succeed activate it.

First, we need activate PCMCIA.
Edgy recognize PCMCIA by default. But if your Ubuntu doesn't know PCMCIA is inserted into your PC, install "pcmciautils" for kernel version up to 2.6 or "pcmcia-cs" for other version with Synaptic.

Now we can install driver for Marvell Technology's adaper.
If you've installed ndiswrapper, you nees uninstall it(following packages) through Synaptic or apt-get.
  • ndiswrapper-common
  • ndiswrapper-utils
  • ndiswrapper-utils-1.1
Next, install build-essential and linux-headers of your kernel version through Synaptic or command line interface.
$ sudo apt-get build-essential
$ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

Create symbolic link:

$ sudo ln -s /usr/src/linux-`uname -r` /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build

Download latest version on Nidswrapper and install it.

$ tar xvzf ndiswrapper-1.38.tar.gz
$ cd ndiswrapper-1.38
$ make distclean
$ make
$ sudo make install
Go to TRENDnet's web site and download a driver that can be alternative driver for your PCMCIA.

Decompress it and now install driver with ndiswrapper.
$ unzip TEW-421PC_b1\\Driver\\Utility_Driver_TEW-421PC_423PI_b1_2.00.zip
$ cd Drivers/Windows\ XP/
$ sudo ndiswrapper -i Mrv8000c.INF

Check install by command "ndiwsrapper -l"

$ ndiswrapper -l
mrv8000c : driver installed
device (11AB:1FAA) present

Activate it!

$  sudo depmod -a
$ sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

Now turn on PWD LED!

Execute iwconfig in passing.

$ iwconfig
:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11b ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated
Bit Rate:1 Mb/s Sensitivity=-200 dBm
RTS thr:2346 B Fragment thr:2346 B
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
Add information into /etc/network/interfaces:
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wireless-essid [SSID]
wireless-key [WEP key]
auto wlan0

Restart /etc/init.d/networking.

$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Are you connected to internet now?

Lastly, configure your ndiswrapper for activate your PCMCIA everytime you boot your PC.
$ sudo ndiswrapper -m
adding "alias wlan0 ndiswrapper" to /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper ...

Perfect!

Reference: TRENDnet TEW-421PC H/W:B1 PC Card Wireless Adapter using ndiswrapper Installation

Greeting...

Hello everyone,
I'm a big fan of Ubuntu.

I have a blog about Ubuntu, Ubuntu日記 in Japanese, and now I try to translate it into English by little and little.