Category: IT

DriverGuide.com

Let’s face it, finding the right device driver can be a tedious, time consuming, often impossible task! The Driver Guide was created to make finding driver updates a whole lot easier. With the help of thousands of our members, we have compiled a massive database archive of drivers and resources that is by far the largest and most comprehensive on the Web.

ACK! :)

I’ve uploaded a couple of pictures of the Swiss Firefox 1.0 Release party in Zurich/Switzerland. Additional, password-protected pictures (as people are recognizable) and 2 short movie clips can be accessed using received credentials (login by clicking on [login], then click on the appearing nested album).

Kudos to the organizers of the party: http://www.andrist.org/ /
http://www.openforce.at/mozparty2/?party=388!

And thanks a lot to all the devs and contributors of Mozilla Firefox 1.0, the best web browser ever :)

I use Mozilla Firefox for quite a while now and I am very happy with it. It’s high time to spread the word:

It’s probably the last chance for you to claim you were already using Firefox before its official release (1.0) ;)

Gentoo Linux Newsletter — October 25, 2004

Experimental support for GPG verification: Not completely implemented yet, but a new FEATURES variable gpg in /etc/make.conf that can be set to different levels of strictness will allow checks of the GPG signatures in newer Manifest files.

Sounding familiar? ;)

The available Apple PowerBook and iBook models for Neptun have been announced (for a while already, but nonetheless ;):

ETH – Projekt Neptun – Basismodelle Apple Herbst 2004

According to rumours, this might be one of the last times Neptun offers discount notebooks for students.

After Mouse Modding I, there’s Mouse Modding II – The Ultimate Gamer Mouse :) Heavily inspired by Heeszel’s posting on ExtremeTech:

Another point is the MX weighs more than the MS mouse. The MS weighs 3.0 oz, and the MX510 4.3 oz. I opened up the MX mouse and found a small steel weight screwed to the top cover, approximately where the logo is. This weight is exactly .5 ounces. Why would they put a weight in their mouse? I believe this is done to make the mouse appear more “solid” or “quality” to the prospective buyer in the store. It certainly would do nothing for any other purpose, such as balance.
Below is a picture of the weight, which I removed from my mouse to reduce weight. http://home.comcast.net/~heeszel/mx510weight.JPG

With the extra-weight removed, the Logitech MX510 Performance Optical Mouse is The Ultimate Gamer Mouse :) Highly recommended! :)

Disclaimer: You probably void your mouse’s warranty when doing this. You do everything at your own risk – do not blame me if something goes wrong. Unplug the mouse before opening its case.

Older entries on the MX510:
Logitech MX510
logitech mx510 optical mouse supported in linux 2.6.6
ergonomically nice mice

For the logs and Google (I use FBSplash for quite a while already):

(Inofficial) Gentoo FBSplash Howto
(Inofficial) Gentoo FBSplash in 5 steps Howto

Upgrading a FBSplash kernel once you’ve already installed one (procedure for a laptop/desktop or workstation -> you don’t want to use fbsplash on a server, do you?):

1. # emerge -u gentoo-dev-sources

2. # cd /usr/src/linux-{your new gentoo-dev-sources}

3. # make mrproper (just to make sure everything is clean)

4. # cp ../linux-{your previous gentoo-dev-sources}/.config .

5. # make oldconfig

6. verify the new kernel config (if required): # make menuconfig

7. # mount /boot

8. # make && make install modules_install

9. adjust /boot/grub/grub.conf to boot the new kernel. keep the old section as a fallback. a valid section for my box (with a 1400x1050 screen) would look like (don't copy this as it probably won't work for you. just take it as an example. note that the "kernel /boot/vmlinuz .. theme:emergence" line is very long.):

default 0
timeout 5
splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.8-r4 (new fbsplash)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda4 video=vesafb-tng:ywrap,pmipal,1400x1050-32@60 splash=silent,theme:emergence
initrd /boot/fbsplash-emergence-1400x1050

10. adjust the /usr/src/linux link:
# rm /usr/src/linux
# ln -s /usr/src/linux-{your new gentoo-dev-sources} /usr/src/linux

11. # reboot

12. after rebooting, make sure that the correct kernel has been booted (see # uname -a)

13. remerge any kernel-dependent ebuilds.
if you use the binary x11 driver by nvidia, do:
# emerge nvidia-kernel
if you use the ndiswrapper (wlan; intel pro wireless bg 2100/2200 etc.):
# emerge ndiswrapper
if you use alsa you might need to remerge alsa-utils:
# emerge alsa-utils

14. if anything had to be emerged in step 13, do
# reboot

15. if everything works fine, you might want to remove the following things:
- previous kernel sources (# rm -rf /usr/src/linux-{your previous gentoo-dev-sources}/)
- previous kernel modules
# rm -rf /lib/modules/{your previous gentoo-dev-sources kernel modules}
- previous kernel in /boot:
# mount /boot
# cd /boot
# rm vmlinuz.old
# rm vmlinuz-{your previous gentoo-dev-sources kernel}
# rm config.old
# rm config-{your previous gentoo-dev-sources kernel}
- adjust /boot/grub/grub.conf accordingly (remove the section of the previous kernel)

have fun :)

Finally, I bought my Logitech MX510 mouse. Works fine, even with Linux (no driver installation or kernel patching required at all, using the latest 2.6.8.1 kernel)! Thanks to the friendly staff at portable-shop who let me test Linux support in the shop at Jelmoli – I guess they were pretty curious to see Gentoo Linux running on a TabletPC :)

BTW I strongly recommend to make use of the new de-spamming feature in MTB 2.x:

Instead of just deleting a spam comment on your blog, rather click on the comment’s de-spam link (displayed at the bottom of the comment in the admin interface) or on the according de-spam link in your comment notification e-mail message. The latter is probably the most convenient way to report a spam comment to the master blacklist. See Neil’s World – MT-Blacklist 2.0 RC6 Screenshots for some more information.

Spam is a distributed problem. Fighting spam is a community effort.