alll about linux

Yesterday I decided to put back my Asus WL-130g (based on Ralink RT2500) wireless card back into PCI slot when after few hours I got a feeling that something is wrong with the supplied drivers and decided to use the well established drivers supplied by “rt2×00.serialmonkey project“, which I have been using with SUSE 10.1 and have a famous HowTo for it.

So, my recommendation is to IGNORE the drivers which come with openSUSE 10.2 for your rt2400/2500 wireless cards, unless of course all is working nicely.

Before continuing make sure you have the following packages installed: kernel-source, gcc and make

DISCLAIMER: If your card has been auto detected and installed with openSUSE 10.2 then we need to remove it first:

1. As root execute the following command to remove module:

# modprobe -r rt2500pci

2. Head to Yast -> Software Management -> remove package “wlan-kmp-*” (if such is installed)

Now to INSTALLATION:

1. Get the latest beta driver from here (I used the latest beta available, not the CVS … though you can try with that one)

2. Unzip the downloaded file

3. Now let’s prepare the kernel modules (I always do this, though not necessary)

# cd /usr/src/linux

# make mrproper

# make cloneconfig

# make modules_prepare

4. Now we need to compile a module for the wireless card that we have. Go to folder where you extracted the archive. Open folder called “Module” and execute the following:

# make

5. As root run the following:

# make install

6. Now we load the compiled driver with the following command:

# modprobe rt2500

(notice that with openSUSE 10.2 supplied driver, the module is called rt2500pci whereas here it is rt2500)

7a. To see that the module has been loaded successfully and the wireless card is properly functioning head to Yast -> Network Card (use the traditional ifup method). The following screens confirm that it is on mine:

(notice there is WL_130g there, but not yet configured)

(the module this time is called rt2500, as mentioned by me above)

7b. Now configure your card as per your needs. Once configured you can check that all is well and set according to your settings by using the following command:

# iwconfig

(the alias for module is “wlan0″ and not “ra0″ as it was with SUSE 10.1)

Here is snapshot of my HTC Artemis connected wirelessly to my Linux PC:

There you go …. hope this helps to resolve some issues. I am using simple WEP-128bit secure connection. The card is acting as a wireless router for my notebook and other WiFi devices to connect and have access to internet.

Check this link if you are thinking of turning your computer as a router for your home/small office internet sharing.

Ted has written a nice post on where Linux fit in between the Windows vs Mac debate (with some cool video coming from Novell) >>>>>>

“A Linux-based phone with mapping and voice navigation capabilities has gone on sale in China. The Tranzda PM328 can help users locate nearby businesses, such as restaurants and gas stations, and then guide them to their destination with voice prompts, according to GPS module supplier U-blox.The Tranzda PM328 phone has a thin form-factor just 0.6 inches (16mm) thick, and includes a USB port and a Bluetooth radio. Other details are sketchy; however, computer translations of Chinese websites suggest it to be powered by a single-chip, multi-core processor, with the baseband processor driving a CDMA transceiver. That, along with the GPS interface, suggests that the phones multi-processor could be Qualcomm’s multi-chip module

Linux is getting ever and ever more play in the mobile space, though the hardware frequently leaves something to be desired in the design department. There’s something starkly attractive about this here PM328 from China’s Tranzda, a smartphone with integrated GPS navigation from u-blox. The device clocks in at a reasonably thin 16 millimeters and runs Tranzda’s own “Newplus” software stack atop a Linux core. Bluetooth and USB are along for the ride, too, though the remainder of the phone’s specs are a bit hazy; just as well, since we’ll never have a shot of seeing this one stateside.

Swiss GPS radio vendor U-blox says the PM328 incorporates one of its LEA-4S GPS receiver modules, touted for its “outstanding” sensitivity up to -158dBm, small size of 1.1 x 0.9 inches (22.4 x 17mm), and low power requirements.U-blox says the PM328 smartphone is now for sale in China, although the image provided makes the design appear to be more of a reference implementation of Newplus than a consumer product.

Novell has announced the public beta software availability of the first service pack (SP1) for SUSE® Linux Enterprise 10, with general availability scheduled for the second quarter of this year.

SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 includes SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, providing a secure and reliable foundation for enterprise computing from the desktop to the data center — a lineup of enterprise-class solutions matched by no other Linux® vendor. SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP1 enhancements include the following:

• Enhanced virtualization support and management. With the latest update to the Xen hypervisor (version 3.0.4++), organizations can reduce costs through server consolidation and improved system management. New paravirtualized network and block device drivers will allow Microsoft Windows Server 2000/2003/XP to run unmodified in Xen virtual environments on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 operating on Intel Virtualization Technology and AMD Virtualization hardware. Seamless live migration is possible for paravirtualized virtual machines across distinct physical hosts.
• Updated high-availability storage infrastructure. Service Pack 1 includes updates to all key components of the infrastructure, including the cluster file system, volume manager and cluster resource manager, to ensure data integrity and availability. As a result, there is improved support for workloads including SAP running on Oracle, DB2 and MaxDB, as well as Web services and virtual image storage.
• Support for new processor technologies, including Quad-Core Intel Xeon and Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors. Through joint engineering with the chip vendors, SUSE Linux Enterprise enables multiple virtual machines to run varied data center workloads in native and Xen virtualized environments with outstanding performance, energy efficiency and reliability.
• Enhanced security features. The Novell AppArmor™ 2.0 security framework is integrated into the SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 platform and now includes support for Apache Tomcat. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop now includes desktop lockdown tools, secure disk partitions and encrypted home directories.
• Expanded OpenOffice.org support. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop now includes the latest version of the Novell edition of OpenOffice.org (version 2.1), including the new OpenXML/ODF translator to convert Microsoft Word 2007 documents to OpenOffice.org, additional Visual Basic macro support, and improved Impress presentation functionality, including the ability to play embedded video as part of presentations.
• Desktop virtualization. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop now includes Xen virtualization technology along with improved management and auditing tools.
• Desktop enterprise integration technologies. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop now fits more seamlessly into existing environments due to enhancements in Microsoft Active Directory authentication and network management, and it also now includes Firefox 2.0.
• Updated desktop user experience. Improvements include redesigns to the Novell main menu, control center, and logout and screen-saver dialogs, and updates to the desktop effects engine. The desktop also includes new utilities like an international clock applet and a disk space usage utility.
• Audit subsystem enrichment. Major improvements and extensions to the audit subsystem enable SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 to meet strict government standards and vertical industry requirements. The updates include modules for security certification provided by the Common Criteria for Information Security Evaluation (CAPP EAL 4+).
• Support for Novell Open Enterprise Server 2. SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP1 has many new features designed to support the workgroup services in Open Enterprise Server 2, including updates to the DNS, DHCP and LDAP modules, as well as support for paravirtualized NetWare® 6.5.

SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP1 beta software is now available, with general availability scheduled for May.

Sabayon Linux aims to give users all the bleeding edge software of SimplyMEPIS and PCLinuxOS but is based on Gentoo and uses Portage as its package management system. I haven’t used Gentoo for a couple of years now, but Sabayon’s popularity is continually increasing and with a new release it’s now time to give it a try.

Intrigued by a few of these boot options I decided to play around with them before seriously trying out the distro. I picked Anonymous Internet Browsing which booted up fine on my desktop. It did take a few minutes to boot, but eventually the Nvidia splash screen appeared and I was greeted with a screen asking me to configure my desktop acceleration. I opted to go with AIGLX since XGL was supposed to be more compatible with ATI cards, I assumed that the other would be more compatible with Nvidia cards. Also AIGLX says it is the best choice for performance and stability, so that’s what I went with.

It reconfigured and restarted X and then KDM came up. I logged in to the default user account and up came KDE. I noticed something… it looked like it was running at the proper resolution for my monitor (1440×900). I went to the display configuration settings, and sure enough it was set for 1440×900. This is the first distribution that I’ve tried that correctly set my monitor’s display resolution automatically.

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