Log of unix software lessons, including installation of Ubuntu GNU/Linux on a Toshiba Satellite 2410 laptop, and installation of Ubuntu Server as a desktop GNU/Linux server
Also includes older installs of Mandriva and Mandrake

Christopher Barrington-Leigh

2003-2007

In 2003 I left the world of professionally supported Unix and got my own laptop. These are just my notes on things I've learned as a user of less-than-fully-supported (open source) unix distributions from Mandriva Linux and recently Ubuntu. Some things are written as advice to others; some as notes to myself. I include some notes on recently developed software I like, too.

[2006] For those who are just looking for a good, working operating system but are frustrated with Microsoft, I endorse the following advice (from someone more knowledgeable, 2005):

My current status:

Contents

1. Ubuntu Gutsy

sudo apt-get install latex-beamer gbib aterm   emacs21 latex2html elinks streamripper xpdf-utils  ssh emacs-extra emacs-goodies-el preview-latex  a2ps psutils gv sshfs xmms lyx latex-xft-fonts fetchmail postfix ipython python-mode alpine xmms-wma xmms-mp4 ubuntu-restricted-extras wine meld pdftk feh enscript mplayer alien efax-gtk imagemagick w32codecs imagemagick ps2edit

 you must run apt-get install 10 emacs-extra/select-modes doesn't exist to install theses languages support long description here...

msttcorefonts uses defoma Msttcorefonts uses the DEbian FOnt MAnager (defoma). If you wish to use the fonts provided by this package under the X Window System, you must configure it to   use defoma fonts.                                                                                    The easiest way to do so is to use the x-ttcidfont-conf package. For more information, install the x-ttcidfont-conf package and consult its documentation under /usr/share/doc/x-ttcidfont-conf. For uses of msttcorefonts not related to the X Window System (e.g. printing) this is not required.
That's about it! wow.

Oh, I also clicked on date/time and set it to use NTP

I also installed Adobe Acroread – see ubuntuguide.org

And I had to set up my printer – nearly automatic.

I downloaded the RealPlayer rpm and installed it with alien, as before.

1.0.1 Jan 2008

Once again, I have permanently lost email due to bad permissions in my /var/mail path. I had symbolically linked the latter to another path, and that path had not quite the right ownership, although

drwxrwsr-x 2 root mail 4.0K 2008-01-24 21:51 mail/

rather than

drwxrwsr-x 2 root root 4.0K 2008-01-24 22:13 mail/

. The other directories/files had the correct permissions.

Fetchmail got the mail. Postfix caught it, queued it, and then either bounced it or destroyed it. (Okay, maybe it wasn't permanently lost – maybe bounced.)

2. Ubuntu Feisty

I installed the beta Ubuntu 7.04 version from CD. I have two partitions I use for unix operating systems, so as usual, I installed into the alternate one, making for a very safe switchover. There are many great improvements!

etc, etc.

Some of my standard friends:

sudo apt-get install latex-beamer gbib aterm   emacs21 latex2html elinks streamripper xpdf-utils  ssh emacs-extra emacs-goodies-el preview-latex  a2ps psutils gv sshfs xmms lyx fetchmail postfix ipython python-mode alpine xmms-wma xmms-mp4

3. Ubuntu server: How to make a complete server in one hour with Ubuntu. March 2006

I guess this is what they call a LAMP server, since it comes nearly turnkey with Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP. Plus lots else in this case: Mediawiki, shell accounts, ...

3.1 Install X applications

I installed the server distribution (a mistake – easier to just change the desktop version to not start X by default? rather than installing all the gui tools afterwards on top of the stripped-down server version) so, to install graphical desktop, used:

sudo apt-get install gnome-desktop

sudo apt-get upgrade

Having stuff installed does not slow down the system – only running it does! Yet useful admin tools are gui... Therefore I am not sure what good the “server” version is. (Oh: one difference is that updates are less frequent / bleeding-edge for the server)

3.2 Install extra apps

Do the desktop enhancement thing: (the first line below is from March 2006. Google on “Automatix” to get something up to date).

wget http://beerorkid.com/automatix/automatix_5.6-2_i386.deb 

sudo dpkg -i automatix_5.6-2_i386.deb

Automatix

and install any other favourite tools3.1 you want...

3.3 Install some server services

sudo apt-get install mysql-server phpmyadmin postfix

sudo apt-get install mediawiki mediawiki-math apache2 

3.3.1 As per the postfix install instructions:

sudo newaliases
I set the hostname for mail up to be the gc ip name3.2.

The install noted that mail sending failed. (?)

The mailing system worked perfectly sending mail to the internet without ANY configuration!I love it! (This must be related to friendly behaviour on the part of my ISP, which is U.B.C. – oh, yes.. maybe sending directly to outside UBC does not work yet.?)

3.3.2 To initiate the MySQL service:

mysqladmin -u root password <pick-root-password>

3.3.3 Mediawiki is hidden until I do:

sudo ln -s /var/lib/mediawiki /var/www/mediawiki
and then browsing it worked. I followed the web-based setup process (Wiki name is GCRA) Then, as directed:

sudo mv /var/lib/mediawiki/config/LocalSettings.php /etc/mediawiki/LocalSettings.php

sudo chmod 600 /etc/mediawiki/LocalSettings.php 

sudo mv /var/lib/mediawiki/config /var/lib/mediawiki/config_retired

But how to get the wiki to appear at /wiki rather than /mediawiki ??????? Well, doing

sudo ln -s mediawiki wiki 
from /var/www is good enough for now.

And how to move the MySQL database (data location) off the root partition?

To change the graphic that seems to adorn default layout to a new one (/home/cpbl/wiki.png):

sudo cp /home/cpbl/wiki.png /usr/share/mediawiki/skins/common/images/wiki.png 
Actually, I think there is just a variable/setting somewhere as a cleaner way!

July 2006: spam attacks have started on the wiki. How to restrict edit by IP address?? Have closed new accounts and edits by anonymous... Still need to figure how to make new accounts; upgrade wiki version; restrict access to edit by IP range

3.3.4 Samba and Swat

sudo apt-get install samba smbfs

3.3.4.1 Samba (offer Windows NT networking services)

I followed Ubuntu's getting started guide to: make a samba user called gcra,

sudo smbpasswd -a <system_username>
the same name as a UNIX user gcra. Also following Ubuntu's instructions, I turned on read/write to home directories for users, which means gcra should be able to write to their home. (Next time, do all this using SWAT rather than editing /etc/samba/smb.conf ?)

Edited /etc/samba/smb.conf to change workgroup name from MSHOME to GCRA

sudo /etc/xinit.d/samba restart

3.3.4.2 SWAT (administrate Samba through a web interface)

I haven't found a 5-minute method for this yet, so ignore all the following.

sudo apt-get install xinetd

Swat: This didn't work (connection refused) until I edited some inetd file to uncomment swat and tried:

sudo apt-get install xinetd

then it worked (uhh, did it? or only when i made a /etc/xinetd.d/swat ??). This seems peculiar to Debian / Ubuntu?

An XP-Home user couldn't access the home share. With Swat I turned on Domain Controller.. that might help???

3.4 Webmin

Do I want this?! I've never tried it. It apparently is served https as installed, whereas SWAT needs fiddling to be SSL secure.

3.5 Time service

run service-admin to turn on ntp, see what's going, etc.

3.6 NFS

sudo apt-get install portmap nfs-common

mount montoya.econ.ubc.ca:/web/montoya2_backups /mnt/backups

I did NOT even need to do the following:

sudo /etc/init.d/portmap restart

sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-common restart

3.7 Missing

3.8

3.9 Personal stuff

3.9.1 Move a MySQL database from another server:

MySQL residents directory

Used outstanding phpmyadmin to add gcra as a user with privileges on just one database; created a database...

To move database. On old machine:

mysqldump -u cpbl -p greencollege residents activityLog > ~cpbl/gc.sql
Then I copied this file to the new machine, and:

mysql -u gcra -p 

use directory 

source /home/cpbl/gc.sql

presto! Except that the locations of graphics files are written into the database as being on the old server, etc... so some changes needed in my php Directory code.

3.9.2 Apache access

To control access by directory, I am using apache2.conf rather than local .htaccess files...

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Why? agh, it seems to me that if I turn on user-level control over .htaccess and .htpasswd files, users have to give the apache group read access (e.g. chown user:apache) to the .htpasswd file... but users cannot do that. So superuser intervention is needed anyway. Is this really right? (Help!). I've wasted a bunch of time chasing down this problem.

3.9.3 Anonymous ftp server (proftd) read/write; image indexer using php and GD2: “TWG”

July 2006:

I want an anonymous ftp site in which people upload new directories of images/videos. A script automatically indexes/thumbnails and organises them. Comments etc can be added.

Solution: proftpd, php(4)-gd, and a free php script called twg. Very neat! Too easy!

(Make sure to match php-gd package to the installed version of php. In my case, it was php4, not php5.)

See Ubuntuguide for ftp installation.

I increased the php memory limit and file upload size in php.ini

3.9.4 Fine tune security and behaviour of the web server

Configuration is in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf. Rather than use .htaccess files, I'm going to have security get set in that main config file for the moment.

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

is useful.

Restricting authentication is really easy; just follow the directions at a page such as

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/howto/auth.html

I also changed the default web dir in people's home directories (~user/) to “web” from “public_html”: simple.

.

.

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3.10 System upgrade

In August 2006 I replaced the word “breezy” with “dapper” in /etc/apt/sources.list and initiated an update. The system downloaded the ~0.5 GB of needed files, shut down some server services, installed the new system, software, etc, restarted the services, all by itself and seamlessly without requiring a reboot. Everything worked, except that

Several days later I rebooted the machine, and everything continued to work.

4. Upgrade of server Dapper$\rightarrow$Edgy($\rightarrow$Feisty$\rightarrow$Gutsy)

September 2007. Mike's advice: There are three things that will probably break during an upgrade. Exim configuration file, named zone files and encryption keys, and crontabs for root (for some reason logwatch espectially gets wiped during upgrades).

So repeated for feisty...

except I installed upgrade-manager and made the mistake of trying to ask it to “Upgrade”, which it had offered to do. It wanted me to install ubuntu-desktop first. I later found out that for servers, the appropriate command is instead sudo do-release-upgrade, not update-manager. Poor documentation in update-manager interface, then.

Instead, resumed by command line: began installing downloaded Feisty packages:

Success. Everything looks great.

5. Ubuntu Dapper Server: another (harder) install (on grad.econ.ubc.ca)

In Sept 2006 Mike Peters did a fresh install of Ubuntu (replacing old RH). Notes:

Some to do's for us: ——————–

I have had amazing frustration with phpmyadmin / php(?) with the

virtual hosts, so I'm leaving it (and mysql) and have not reinstated any

databases... (Not sure that those got backed up anywhere except the old

version in my account.)

I have removed the CDROM from apt sources.

WEB SERVER:

mkdir /etc/apache2/logs

copy old VirtualServer directives to (which is a poor name) :

cp oldVirtualServerConfig /etc/apache2/sites-enables/gradEconSite

then:

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

or:

apache2ctl restart

MYSQL:

mysqladmin -u root password <pick-root-password>

Then all other setup, importation of archived databases, etc can be done

with phpmyadmin.

PHPMyAdmin:

I was getting download of php file! despite having installed php.

I tried: uncommment:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

in apache2.conf. That worked. Then:

I was getting strange error:

[Fri Sep 22 10:56:07 2006] [alert] [client 128.189.135.190]

/home/web/grad/phpmyadmin/.htaccess: DirectoryIndex not allowed here

I tried:

apt-get install libapache2-mod-php5

I'm still getting various errors from .htaccess in the /phpmyadmin

directory!

Solution: rename (disable/delete) .htaccess. Then it works fine.

I haven't taken any other security measures, since you still need a password

to log in from that page. This admin interface works nicely. I reloaded the

database dump file that I had saved on 12 Sept in cpbl account and have

recreated by hand two users who are more recent than that.

I have moved the link to /home/web/grad/admin/phpmyadmin

POSTFIX:

apt-get install postfix

I chose internet site with grad.econ.ubc.ca as host, but I got an error

Setting up postfix (2.2.10-1ubuntu0.1) ...

Adding group `postfix' (116)...

Done.

Adding system user `postfix'...

Adding new user `postfix' (108) with group `postfix'.

Not creating home directory `/var/spool/postfix'.

Creating /etc/postfix/dynamicmaps.cf

Adding tcp map entry to /etc/postfix/dynamicmaps.cf

Adding group `postdrop' (117)...

Done.

setting myhostname: montoya2.econ.ubc.ca.

setting alias maps

setting alias database

changing /etc/mailname

setting myorigin

setting destinations: grad.econ.ubc.ca, montoya2.econ.ubc.ca.,

localhost.econ.ub

setting relayhost:

setting mynetworks: 127.0.0.0/8

setting mailbox_size_limit: 0

setting recipient_delimiter: +

setting inet_interfaces: all

Postfix is now set up with a default configuration. If you need to make

changes, edit

/etc/postfix/main.cf (and others) as needed. To view Postfix configuration

values, see postconf(1).

After modifying main.cf, be sure to run '/etc/init.d/postfix reload'.

Running newaliases

newaliases: warning: valid_hostname: misplaced delimiter:

montoya2.econ.ubc.ca.

newaliases: fatal: file /etc/postfix/main.cf: parameter myhostname: bad

paramete

dpkg: error processing postfix (–configure):

subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1

Errors were encountered while processing:

postfix

E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Bizarre: I had to, in /etc/postfix/main.cf, change

myhostname = montoya2.econ.ubc.ca.

to: myhostname = montoya2.econ.ubc.ca

and then postfix started alright (but read on):

dpkg –configure postfix

Setting up postfix (2.2.10-1ubuntu0.1) ...

Postfix configuration was not changed. If you need to make changes, edit

/etc/postfix/main.cf (and others) as needed. To view Postfix configuration

values, see postconf(1).

After modifying main.cf, be sure to run '/etc/init.d/postfix reload'.

Running newaliases

* Stopping Postfix Mail Transport Agent postfix [

ok ]

* Starting Postfix Mail Transport Agent postfix [

ok ]

But when sending mail, it still thinks the host name has a period at the

end. Also, it can't find smtp.

not fixed.

That's it for now.

Chris

====================== Postfix instructions:=============

You have several choices for general configuration at this point. If you

have your debconf priority set to 'low' or 'medium', you will be asked more

â~T~B questions later. You can always run dpkg-reconfigure –priority=low

postfix at a later point if you want to see these questions again. â~T~B

â~T~B No configuration - IF YOU WANT THE INSTALL TO LEAVE YOUR CONFIG ALONE,

CHOOSE THIS OPTION. No configuration changes will be done now: If you have

not â~T~B already configured Postfix, your mail system will be

broken and should not be used. You must then do the configuration yourself

by editing â~T~B /usr/share/postfix/main.cf.dist and saving your changes as

/etc/postfix/main.cf, or by running dpkg-reconfigure Postfix. main.cf will

not be modified by the â~T~B Postfix install process. â~T~B â~T~B Internet

site - mail is sent and received directly using SMTP. If your needs don't

fit neatly into any category, you probably want to start with this one and

â~T~B then edit the config file by hand. â~T~B â~T~B Internet site using

smarthost - You receive Internet mail on this machine, either directly by

SMTP or by running a utility such as fetchmail. Outgoing mail is â~T~B sent

using a smarthost. optionally with addresses rewritten. This is probably

what you want for a dialup system.

.

.

.

Squirrelmail:

sudo apt-get install squirrelmail

sudo /usr/sbin/squirrelmail-configure

ln -s /usr/share/squirrelmail /home/web/grad/gradmail

But it seems to need an IMAP server?! doesn't work yet.

.

.

For some reason, this was necessary:

apt-get install synaptic

and I cannot find “software-properties” on the apt repositories.... I want to make auto security updates.

.

.

apt-get install unattended-upgrades sbackup

.

.

.

Bizarre! After installation of php-mysql, mysql was not turned on in php.ini! Needed to uncomment one line there. This is apparently intentional, and documented on ubuntuguide.org, but there's no mention from the .deb

And still, mail() from php seems to be failing silently.

Also, the –stdin option of passwd does not exist in Debian. What to do? (solved: usermod -p)

6. Ubuntu 6.10 “Edgy Eft” official release

This is meant to be more of a slightly “bleeding edge” release. Installed from CD. Added some extra apt sources. Followed ubuntuguide.org's instructions for Automatix, which still got the wrong nvidia-glx package, so:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-legacy
before rebooting, after installing stuff from Automatix. Problems:

 

I think this was due to a customisation in my Gnome themes, which for some reason failed under Edgy. I used a different theme to fix it.

As usual, install some personal favourites maybe not part of Automatix:

sudo apt-get install latex-beamer gbib aterm  octave emacs21 latex2html elinks streamripper xpdf-utils  ssh emacs-extra emacs-goodies-el preview-latex  a2ps psutils gv sshfs xmms lyx fetchmail postfix ipython python-mode 
and:

sudo gdebi pine_4.64_i386.deb
Problems with above: emacs-extra has trouble. Is this related to bad mode behaviour for php, etc?

/tmp/emacs-extra.config.123451: 90: cannot create /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/emacs-extra/emacs-extra.el: Directory nonexistent /tmp/emacs-extra.config.123451: 90: cannot create /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/emacs-extra/emacs-extra.el: Directory nonexistent /tmp/emacs-extra.config.123451: 90: cannot create /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/emacs-extra/emacs-extra.el: Directory nonexistent /tmp/emacs-extra.config.123451: 90: cannot create /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/emacs-extra/emacs-extra.el: Directory nonexistent /tmp/emacs-extra.config.123451: 90: cannot create /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/emacs-extra/emacs-extra.el: Directory nonexistent 

6.1 Sony DSC-W30 digital camera

Aha, recently (Edgy) the system has become able to talk to my camera. Now when I plug it in, everything happens automatically, GUI's pop up, etc, and I can get my photos and videos with a simple copy. Yay, GNU!

7. Ubuntu 6.06 “Dapper Drake” official release

Clean install from beautiful live-CD which can install (fast!) while you are using the live operating system! This is a brilliant advance.

Everything looks great on the first go. Touchpad works nicely, with sidebar scrolling on the touchpad.

I then installed and ran Automatix to get audio-visual workstation (easy, but takes some time). Automatix gets one thing wrong (install nvidia-glx, but my cardp is older so:)

sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-legacy
and anyway Automatix breaks X, so I have to revert to “nv” driver or my custom xorg.conf.

I then added a few more things:

sudo apt-get install latex-beamer gbib kdissert aterm  octave emacs21 latex2html elinks streamripper xpdf-utils scribus ssh emacs-extra emacs-goodies-el preview-latex w32codecs a2ps psutils gv sshfs
I am installing a non-Ubuntu version of LYX, since Ubuntu's is old (!? why?). Similarly, Ubuntu does not supply pine (my oooold-fashioned mail client), so I have to get it myself. After downloading,

sudo dpkg -i pine_4.64_i386.deb lyx-common_1.4.1-1.lyx.org.1_i386.deb  lyx-qt_1.4.1-1.lyx.org.1_i386.deb 
And lastly, to get my mail server up:

sudo apt-get install fetchmail postfix
And in the dialog that comes up, I chose Internet server for the configuration. I needed to do nothing by hand.

7.1 June 2006

I had realplayer play bbc in my startup script. About 50% of bootups resulted in a realplayer with no sound until I rebooted. This was fixed by putting a longer delay in when the startup script launched it. (?)

Dapper seems to have installed with /etc/papersize set to “a4”. That is no good.

Also, some files have been printing with all characters turned to rubbish boxes. Sending the doc through \pdf2ps and then ps2pdf fixed this, since the first one seems to rasterize....

8. Ubuntu “Dapper Drake” Automatically upgraded from Ubuntu Breezy on Toshiba Satellite 2410

Pretty neat: nearly one-click complete upgrade of an operating system and all associated software.

Well, almost. Before you do this, switch the driver in /etc/X11/xorg.conf back from “nvidia” (the proprietary driver) to “nv” (the open source one) — for me, X failed to start after the install. So after the upgrade, I used

sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx 
and switched the driver back to “nvidia”.

Below are my notes on the BETA version. That is, there are supposed to be bugs for this pre-release, and I've reported some of these bugs.

Also, some of the multimedia that I had installed with Automatix seems gone. I've used a script called “bumps”, plus

apt-get install libflash-mozplugin

uhhh. flash still doesn't work.!

Post-install

sudo apt-get install epiphany-extensions

9. 2005-November: Ubuntu “Breezy Badger” a.ka. 5.10 on Toshiba Satellite 2410

This distro failed to setup my touchpad properly, and at least after the nVidia driver had been installed, the display resolution was also wrong. Instructions for the fixes are below.

The speed and interface and completeness of Ubuntu's software download/installation service is really remarkable. Also, Ubuntu has embraced command-line support, so Ubuntu's online FAQ makes, e.g. installing standard commercial free software and plugins, a cinch. Below are some things I did to add some standard (proprietary) functions to the default (open source) operating system. This is mostly one big cut-and-paste into a terminal. Much of it is now redundant, thanks to Automatix.

Ubuntu, with its support structure, backed by money and commitment, will be the way to go! However, for some reason, like other GNU/Linux systems, this one has not been endowed with a friendly greeter for the new user nor a built-in guide to do standard set-ups that most users will want (how do I set up my modem and ISP??). There is no integrated control centre like in Mandriva.

In Feb 2006, the post-install procedure (endowing the operating system with multimedia, 3D acceleration, browser plugins, Acrobat software, additional software repositories, etc, etc) became vastly friendlier. Now, just look for and install the “Automatix” GUI script written for Ubuntu or the “Easy Ubuntu” script. These will take care of all the standard goodies.

For me, the only other tricks needed after install, then, are

  1. to get the touchpad working properly,
  2. to correct the display resolution imposed by Ubuntu's installation of the nVidia drivers,
  3. to install a few other of my favourite softwares,
  4. add back in a GRUB entry for the other linux distribution on my disk (the installer looks for Microsoft operating systems, but not other GNU/Linux ones!?).
  5. Tweak the mail server I use.
My final xorg.conf (for my exact hardware) is available9.1as is my Mandriva reference in /boot/grub/menu.lst.9.2

9.1 Post-install: basic workstation goodies

First, install any updates offered immediately by the system.

Then, get the touchpad / mouse working if it's not.

Run Automatix9.3 or (and!?) Easy Ubuntu. Then, as instructed,

sudo winecfg
Then... [note: keep an eye out during installations for related packages “recommended” by apt-get... you may want to take the advice]

These first couple of steps require using an editor; do them step by step:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nvu 

sudo rm -f /usr/share/applications/nvu.desktop

sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/nvu.desktop

Using the editor that pops up, insert following:

[Desktop Entry]

Name=Nvu

Comment=Web Development Editor

Exec=nvu

Icon=nvu.xpm

Terminal=false

Type=Application

Categories=Application;Network;

Back to the shell:

The following need no help; you can just paste this code all at once into a shell. Some of it is redundant if you've used Automatix. It's even safe to repeat this code.

sudo apt-get install w32codecs a2ps psutils gv

sudo apt-get install latex-beamer gbib kdissert

sudo apt-get install xfce4-iconbox xfce4-mixer xfce4-systray xfce4-toys xfce4-trigger-launcher   xfprint4 xfcalendar

sudo apt-get install aterm lyx octave emacs21  latex2html  elinks streamripper xpdf-utils scribus ssh 

 sudo apt-get install emacs21 auctex emacs-extra emacs-goodies-el preview-latex  

sudo apt-get install gnomebaker flashplayer-mozilla acroread mozilla-acroread acroread-plugins gftp azureus realplayer streamtuner

sudo apt-get install mutt urlview

sudo apt-get install sun-j2re1.5

java -version

sudo apt-get install libqt3c102-mt

wget -c ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/pine/pine_4.64_i386.deb

dpkg -i pine_4.64_i386.deb

9.2 Touchpad (ALPS)

The touchpad is made by ALPS, but the Synaptic driver drives it too. There seem to be three kinds of fixes described for the touchpad 9.4. The only one with good results follows. Do this after the basic steps, above.

First, create a new file with content as follows9.5 (the file contents should be all one line):

sudo cat > /etc/udev/alps.rules

BUS=serio, SYSFS{description}=i8042 Aux Port, KERNEL=event?, SYMLINK=input/alps

Press Ctrl-D to end the file.

Then:

sudo ln -s /etc/udev/alps.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/40_alps.rules
Now just tell xorg.conf a different device and protocol to use. Put the following in xorg.conf (for an optional external mouse, and the ALPS touchpad), for instance by editing it with pico:

Section InputDevice

Identifier Configured Mouse

Driver mouse

Option CorePointer

Option Device /dev/input/mice

Option Protocol ImPS/2

Option Emulate3Buttons true

Option ZAxisMapping 4 5

EndSection

Section InputDevice

Identifier ALPS

Driver synaptics

Option AlwaysCore

Option Device /dev/input/alps

Option Protocol event

Option LeftEdge 120

Option RightEdge 830

Option TopEdge 120

Option BottomEdge 650

Option FingerLow 14

Option FingerHigh 15

Option MaxTapTime 180

Option MaxTapMove 110

Option ClickTime 0

Option EmulateMidButtonTime 75

Option VertScrollDelta 10

Option HorizScrollDelta 0

Option MinSpeed 0.45

Option MaxSpeed 0.75

Option AccelFactor 0.020

Option EdgeMotionMinSpeed 200

Option EdgeMotionMaxSpeed 200

Option UpDownScrolling 1

Option CircularScrolling 0

Option CircScrollDelta 0.1

Option CircScrollTrigger 2

Option SHMConfig true

EndSection

And at the end of the /etc/xorg.conf file, the ServerLayout section should look like:

Section ServerLayout

Identifier Default Layout

Screen Default Screen

InputDevice Generic Keyboard

InputDevice Configured Mouse

InputDevice ALPS

EndSection

These changes will work next reboot.

9.3 Firefox's mplayer plugin

Audio is sometimes really choppy in the mplayer plugin (which handles all my A/V in firefox). Googling on “choppy mplayer plugin” gets a solution: adding “srate=48000” to the bottom of /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf solves the problem! (!?)

9.4 Opera browser

Opera browser didn't work (seg fault). I followed instructions for this problem at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OperaBrowser and this fixed the trouble.

9.5 HP LaserJet 1320

I plugged in by USB the printer, chose “New printer” from “Printing” in the System pull-down menu. It didn't see the printer immediately, so I rebooted for simplicity (blasphemy!). Tried again. It knew the 1320; no drivers needed. Acrobat immediately was able to print; auto-double-sided printing etc. No need for HP's CD, of course.

9.6 Optional / custom

Fetchmail and postfix: I get my mail with Pine (or mutt) from my laptop's unix mail drop, which is filled by Fetchmail from various other unix accounts I have elsewhere. Fetchmail talks to the port 25 (smtp port) which is run by the MTA, postfix. For some reason, although postfix comes standard with many distributions, it doesn't work at first. The port 25 is not open; fetchmail complains “smtp listener protocol error. The fix (for Mandriva and Ubuntu) seems to be to uninstall and then reinstall postfix. Trivial:

sudo apt-get remove postfix 
sudo apt-get install postfix
Oh, in Feb 2006 (everything much easier with Automatix):

this postfix trick didn't work like magic. Note any comments from apt-get when installing postfix; follow those instructions. In addition, I needed to run “newaliases” once to create /etc/aliases.db.

Also, because I now have two distributions installed on one machine and therefore have two installations of postfix which collect mail for me, I need to put the line

mail_spool_directory = /mandriva/var/spool/mail
in /etc/postfix/main.cf to tell postfix where to put mail spools. Well, then I'd have to change the default for where users should look too. Easier is to make /var/mail or etc a symbolic link to the correct place. Note that the mail spool files cannot be symbolic links, but the directory can be.

10. 2005: Mandriva 2005 Limited Edition

10.1 FAILED: Upgrade to Mandriva 2005 Limited Edition from the club mini CD [on hardware: Toshiba Satellite 2410-W9X]

First I tried upgrading from 10.1 to 2005LE using the club-mini single-CD. This resulted in a significantly non-functioning installation; it is a screwup of Mandriva to even allow the mini-CD to offer upgrades.

10.2 FAILED: Upgrade to Mandriva 2005 Limited Edition from the three-CD 2005 LE distro's on-disk ISO's [on hardware: Toshiba Satellite 2410-W9X]

Next I burned the (15 Mbyte) boot.iso from the first CD of the three-CD 2005LE distro to a CD. I think I can use this in the future to install other distros from on-hard-drive ISO's. I used that to upgrade to 2005LE from ISO's on hard disk.

Next I added the easyurpmi sources (except some didn't exist) and the club sources (except some didn't exist?).

Then call the magical command:

urpmi --auto-select 
and wait a while!

Next, urpmi pine

The boot process/display hangs on ipmi probe, so I could not get to a console to install NVIDIA. I turned the ipmi service off and then could install NVIDIA's own commercial installer.

Many problems:

scroll mouse does not work in Firefox anymore

all the fonts look horribly pixellated (didn't before)

ALSA doesn't work, and installing relevant ALSA packages doesn't help. (It turns out that during the install, one can choose between two audio drivers; if one knows what they are, one would notice that the default is NOT ALSA!); xmms does not work under any setting.

I ran alsaconf, but this made no difference.

my shells frequently telling me I have mail, when I do not.

I downloaded the latest RealPlayer rpm from their site and installed it.

10.3 FAILED: Full/fresh install of Mandriva 2005 Limited Edition from the three-CD 2005 LE distro's on-disk ISO's [on hardware: Toshiba Satellite 2410-W9X]

Next, I tried a fresh install (includes formatting the root partition) after saving /var/spool/mail. Many things were again screwed up. A rough account follows.

urpmi.addmedia main http://gulus.usherbrooke.ca/pub/distro/Mandrakelinux/official/2005/i586/media/main with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz 

urpmi emacs-X11 xmms auctex finger fetchmailconf bittorrent-gui aterm fetchmail lyx xdvi compress locate

urpmi pine 

Some package requested cannot be installed: pine-4.62-1plf.i586 (due to unsatisfied liblber.so.2) 

urpmi --auto-select

To build pine:

urpmi gcc pam-devel libopenssl-devel ncurses-devel

./build lmd

but result still fails without libldap.so.2!!

win32-codecs real-codecs

Following is big!

urpmi totem mplayer

Oops. then I used the drak gui to install MANY gnome, video stuff.

urpmi jre xpdf

JAVA: download it straight from Sun's site; follow their install directions. (above uprmi gave an old version of kaffe for jre?)

Then (with jre) Azureus runs!; this is a better bittorrent client??.

rpm -Uvh AdobeReader_enu-7.0.0-2.i386.rpm error: Failed dependencies: libstdc++.so.5 is needed by AdobeReader_enu-7.0.0-2 libstdc++.so.5(CXXABI_1.2) is needed by AdobeReader_enu-7.0.0-2 libstdc++.so.5(GLIBCPP_3.2) is needed by AdobeReader_enu-7.0.0-2

in urpmi media manager, searching by files or descriptions does not work, and i can find no settings to affect it.

10.4 Full install of Mandriva 2005 Limited Edition from CD1-CD4 (club download) set

Oh, there's a 4 CD set. So why is there a 3 CD set which doesn't work well? I had CD1-CD4 on the hard drive as ISOs. I backed up /var/spool/mail and used the boot.iso method to do a fresh install from on-disk ISO's (but preserving my /home partition, which has user accounts).

These comments now reflect the help of Adam W, a most friendly Mandriva employee, who helped sort them out (identifying a bunch of veritable bugs in the release). The lesson for me was to be more open to the possibility that problems experienced are real bugs that need reporting and fixing. Mandriva's poor QA is improving, but distro's are still not robust when they come out.

10.4.1 Comments on installer:

I complained that in MDK10.1, the html link to the main INSTALL.html documentation file on the first CD was broken. It still is in this version! Yes, the top-level help file for installing the distribution does not exist! Again! [I have reported this bug, to no avail].

It claimed to format my / partition, as requested, but it must not have, since my old /etc/fstab still exists!? [unclear now. maybe /etc/fstab is kept on purpose? If so, how is that a fresh install?]

I installed from on-disk ISO's. The installer claimed to find 6 ISO's, i.e. those from CD5 and CD6 too, even though they were absent. Better still, the media manager comes up with all 8 CD's listed, but I don't understand it, since they have not been mounted..? In fact, the media manager had one of the CD's listed four times. [seems to be a real bug]

The installer gives some nice “standard debug procedure” for audio; but this info is not so useful during installation. It could maybe tell me where to find such info later.

My past problems with ALSA not working properly was to do with the fact that there is actually a choice of drivers for audio, and I had left it as the non-ALSA default driver. It is cryptic, though, in the installation: it mentions you are choosing between OSS and ALSA, but does not tell you which driver is which! Advice: switch to driver with name starting with “snd-” for ALSA. [Apparently on most hardware, the installer will default to ALSA, but it believes mine has some trouble. I find no trouble. Regardless, the instructions during install are not helpful.]

I went through and chose all my packages carefully, and then at the very end of the installation had the opportunity to save my selection to a file (great!!), although some parts of that option (e.g. save to ftp) are not yet programmed! and just lead to blank screens.

10.4.2 Comments on functionality after installation

  1. The first boot failed to reach X. Boot messages said dkms failed to install nvidia and also slmodem. I had to switch “nvidia” to “nv” in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. [TWO bugs! To fix my X problem, I needed to add the nvidia driver to modprobe.preload. Also, the error messages from the nvidia kernel on boot should be ignored.]
  2. Mozilla-firefox complains when it starts that it fails to initialise rpnp.so. [A real (Mandriva) bug; confirmed on another installation with all CD's.]
  3. Mouse scrolling doesn't work properly. The installer, unlike in previous versions, picked the wrong mouse type as default. Maybe I didn't test it properly. PS/2 universal scroll mouse works.
  4. Yay! Acroread7 was installed.
  5. So was an old version of realplayer.
  6. There are so many softwares available, it might be nice to have a tip-of-the-day option which tells you of a useful package/program each morning.
  7. I asked for mozilla (ie in addition to firefox) during the install, but it wasn't installed, and worse it is no longer available afterwards either. [Maybe this is due to the installer's confusion about how many CD's were present; Mozilla is available in the contrib mirror, which wasn't available at first.]
  8. Wahoo!: multiple sound sources work in parallel!! (sometimes; start xmms first).
  9. Realplayer fails to get access to the sound driver for 1.5 mins after startup!!? [This needs the workaround to DISABLE the arts server in KDE (by gui). But then, no KDE apps make their silly noises. Maybe in the future sound will be better sorted out.]
  10. I installed NVIDIA's driver, but then X fails every second boot: cannot find a screen. [See above; this is a (bad!) Mandriva bug; the fix is to add nvidia to modprobe.conf]

10.4.3 Procedure after install

Here is what I did post-install:

  1. As root, run some lines to get some mirrors in the urpmi database (see footnote)10.1. Commercial mirror failed (25 April 2005). Then run

    urpmi --auto-select
  2. I use pine, but the plf rpm of pine in my mirror list fails to install. Download from pine's site and compile it yourself.

    To build pine:

    urpmi gcc pam-devel libopenssl-devel ncurses-devel

    ./build lmd

  3. Download nvidia driver from their site and install it according to instructions. Change xorg.conf to use nvidia.
  4. If skipped xmms in installation, urpmi xmms xmms-alsa gnome-alsamixer
  5. Download latest Skype rpm and install. If desired, download more recent RealPlayer rpm and install. Maybe some of these efforts are only necessary for me due to not having the full CD set.
  6. urpmi win32-codecs libdvdcss (latter available from plf source). AAhh! action DVD looks horrible compared with under 10.1 [This just turned out to be a different default for interlacing behaviour than in the last versions of video players (!). In Totem, press “i” to toggle interlacing.] For DVD ripping, try “urpmi dvdrip DVDrip” and then run dvdrip.
  7. My shells keep telling me that I have mail (even when it's not new). They didn't used to do this before, and I can't figure out how to get rid of it. [Not yet figured out]
  8. gtkguitune for guitar. psbind (where isi t?); urpmi octave finger
  9. Oooh. I finally got my nvidia card to display to an external monitor (LCD projector). I had tried this before, and recently, and got errors, but all I needed to do was reboot (ie restarting X didn't work.. I guess something's in the hardware). I didn't quite get the twinview I was looking for – I only got the external display, no laptop display – but enough to present PDFs and project DVD's. #:) So, my current setup is: xorg.conf xorg.conf.
  10. Too much fun (text to speech): urpmi festival sox ... e.g. see http://www.aerospacesoftware.com/text-to-speech-howto.html

11. 2004-November: Installation of Mandrake 10.1-Official on Toshiba Satellite 2410-W9X

b

11.1 Installation

I upgraded (i.e., avoided a fresh install) from MDK10 to MDK10.1-Official, using ISO format files (i.e., not expanded to files, and not burned to CD). I used a floppy boot disk with the appropriate list file detailing where the rpm's were (ie following standard directions, which are sadly out of date: one can use ISO's directly), but the installer ignored this file! Instead, it let me specify wher the first ISO was. Rather than let me worry during installation whether I would get a chance to specify where the others were, it stated clearly (a great improvement!!) that it had found all four! before proceeding. [[By the way, why do I need the boot floppy? Can't I just add something to LILO to tell it to boot from some install file somewhere?]] [[Another possibility for upgrading is just to let people switch urpm sources to the new distro?...]]

But then the screen went blank for a while, making me worry (needlessly)... the interface stil needs help. The installer claimed it would take 90 minutes! but suddenly decided (correctly) it was finished after only ~15. It's great not having to change CD's etc. The Network configuration is much improved! It has a little more explanation what it's asking for.

It's remarkable how poor some superficial things (above) can still be coming from Mandrake. The html link to the html documentation file on the first CD was also broken – only the .txt version existed! Unbelievable, almost, for an official release from a good company trying to make a good impression.

11.2 After installation

I mostly wanted this upgrade for the sleep/suspend functionality, but it still does not work at all, at least out of the box. The other reason was the hope that ALSA would be able to mix more than one sound source at once. That still did not happen by itself, though I haven't spent extra time on it.

Also, wine does not work at all. Applications come up as all-black windows. (fixed, below)

A number of things were broken after the “upgrade”:

  1. The KDE panel, “kicker” died whenever I logged in or started it up. I ended up trashing all my KDE settings and starting over (a great nuisance!). Remember, keyboard shortcuts are hidden under “Accessibility” under KDE customisation! One can spend forever going through all the stupidly separated “look and feel” options for KDE configuration. More integration, please; more tabs; less having to launch separately from a long menu system a dozen different GUIs.
  2. ALSA (sound) was no longer working after installation! I tried alsaconf, and I turned off “sound” service on startup. No luck. Next time I rebooted, ALSA was running, and I just needed to use the alsamixer to un-mute the PCM and adjust volume levels. Hmm. Still, I want to be able to hear more than one sound source at once! e.g. Skype ringing while I'm listening to BBC... Aha. (March 2005): I finally got that to work: very simple; as root, put the following lines into /etc/asound.conf :

    #/etc/asound.conf start:

    pcm.!default {

      type plug

      slave.pcm dmixer

      }

    pcm.dsp0 {

      type plug

      slave.pcm dmixer

      }

    pcm.dmixer {

      type dmix

      ipc_key 1024

     slave {

      pcm hw:0,0

      period_time 0

      period_size 1024

     buffer_size 8192

      rate 44100

      }

     bindings {

      0 0

      1 1

      }

      }

    ctl.dmixer {

      type hw

      card 0

      }

    #end.

    Immediately, multiple apps will play their sound simultaneously!
  3. I had to reset all my urpm media! http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/ is a place for setting up some urpmi media with a batch command. For the club ones, Mandrake Club has an interface to give urpmi.addmedia commands one by one. All pretty quick.
  4. OpenOffice during upgrade: My choices for language settings in OpenOffice got overwritten by the upgrade! It switched to interpreting dates the American way! Just need to change language locale in Options. [I only ever used the spreadsheet; but I now prefer Gnumeric anyway].
  5. Mandrake Online: I paid (donated?) for Mandrake's little update icon, which has some way to go before it's useful. If you ever delete the mdkonline (mdkapplet) applet from your desktop panel, just edit ~/.MdkOnline/mdkonline (turn to TRUE the auto thing) and then run mdkapplet to get the applet back on your panel.
  6. I have not managed to get my nVidia drivers going again after upgrade, even though I'm a club member. Not sure why this is always such a pain.
  7. Since the upgrade, I now have to tell KDE that I want to log out TWICE for it to actually take effect!! Weirdness! [This went away]
  8. urpmi fnfx for some Toshiba laptop tricks??! “FnFX enables owners of Toshiba laptops to change the LCD brightness, control, the internal fan and use the special keys on their keyboard (Fn-x combinations, hot-keys).” Hm. I uninstalled this again: something broken.
  9. Added twinview functionality to xorg.conf, copied from a Toshiba 2410 linux page (tiscali). Didn't work the only time I tried with an LCD projector.
  10. No sound on mpegs / quicktime from mplayer or etc. Try “urpmi codecs” to find a number of rpms for codecs for different programs. e.g. urpmi win32-codecs real-codecs ... but this didn't help. I installed from the mandrake gui a more recent mplayer and now there is sound.
  11. Firefox: This may not give a recent version, but use it; updating from mozilla.org gave me bugs.

urpmi mozilla-firefox

11.3 Xorg and nVidia drivers once more

Some advice from someone on a MandrakeClub forum worked, with one difference and despite a number of discouraging things (see below) on the way. What a shame that out of four Mandrake distributions, I've never managed to get the nvidia working using Mandrake's packages! So.. once again, the following is how to let nvidia rather than Mandrake install their driver. Starting with the 6226 release from nvidia, there is no patch needed for this kernel.

I installed the appropriate kernel-source. (uname -r and then urpmi kernel-source).

I uninstalled the nvidia and nvidia-kernel and dkms-nvidia rpms but got horrid errors:

[root@]# urpme nvidia

To satisfy dependencies, the following packages will be removed (15 MB):

dkms-nvidia-6111-1mdk.i586 (due to missing nvidia)

nvidia-6111-3mdk.i586

Is this OK? (y/N) y

removing dkms-nvidia-6111-1mdk.i586 nvidia-6111-3mdk.i586

+ /usr/sbin/dkms --rpm_safe_upgrade remove -m nvidia -v 6111 --all

dkms.conf: Error! No 'DEST_MODULE_LOCATION' directive specified.

dkms.conf: Error! No 'PACKAGE_NAME' directive specified.

dkms.conf: Error! No 'PACKAGE_VERSION' directive specified.

Error! Bad conf file.

File: /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/6111/source/dkms.conf does not represent

a valid dkms.conf file.

error: %postun(dkms-nvidia-6111-1mdk) scriptlet failed, exit status 5

[root@]# urpme nvidia-kernel

The following packages contain nvidia-kernel: nvidia-kernel-2.6.8.1-10mdk-6111-1mdk.i586

[root@l]# urpme nvidia-kernel-2.6.8.1-10mdk-6111-1mdk.i586

removing nvidia-kernel-2.6.8.1-10mdk-6111-1mdk.i586

dkms.conf: Error! No 'DEST_MODULE_LOCATION' directive specified.

dkms.conf: Error! No 'PACKAGE_NAME' directive specified.

dkms.conf: Error! No 'PACKAGE_VERSION' directive specified.

Error! Bad conf file.

File: /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/6111/source/dkms.conf does not represent

a valid dkms.conf file.

error: %preun(nvidia-kernel-2.6.8.1-10mdk-6111-1mdk) scriptlet failed, exit status 5

I then from init 3 ran the nvidia script. It failed with

ERROR: Unable to load the kernel module 'nvidia.ko'. This is most likely

because the kernel module was built using the wrong kernel source files.

Please make sure you have installed the kernel source files for your

kernel; on Red Hat Linux systems, for example, be sure you have the

'kernel-source' rpm installed. If you know the correct kernel source

files are installed, you may specify the kernel source path with the

'--kernel-source-path' commandline option.

-> Kernel module load error: insmod: error inserting './usr/src/nv/nvidia.ko':

-1 Invalid module format

Looking at the log file /var/log/nvidia.log or something like that indicated I should try

urpmi gcc

which upgraded from 3.3 to 3.4. That had in fact been the problem. I tried the nvidia script again and it worked. I also added the line

nvidia 
to the end of the file /etc/modprobe.preload. This is necessary! If it's not there, you will need to reinstall the NVIDIA driver every time you boot!

Then I got dkms errors on every boot-up, until I deleted the whole (old) nvidia directory from some dkms directory.

11.4 toshutils compiling

I still cannot get toshutils to compile. urpmi gtk-devel gtk+ yacc may solve some of the problems, but I still get lots of errors.

By the way, for anyone using a Toshiba, there is a great Toshiba Linux email list on which one can ask for help. (Might not be available archived online?).

I also found some patches for the toshutils program... it seems it might be quite buggy? I applied those patches but still had errors remaining.

Jan 2005: Still no luck with this stuff. urpmi acpi cpufreq gnome-cpufreq-applet does not help.

echo 3 >/proc/acpi/sleep 
tries but says suspend is an unsupported event. Same with mode “4”.

Other diagnostics:

ls /proc/acpi

I turned apmd off for startup at boot in services gui.

There is a “toshiba extras” kernel option which might not be standard?!

cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/info

cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/state

Can't find kpowersave

Oh.. Installing klaptop seems nice. Now there's an icon on my taskbar, and I can “configure ACPI” and can initiate suspend/hibernate. Only problem is, those fail, and eventually give up and return to the session...

11.5 Security

Ohhh. Wakeup call! I just noticed that for the indefinite past my computer has been under ssh attack!! Since I had some guest and family accounts with trivial passwords (what was I thinking?!), I have probably had people all over my machine. Ah what to do? Try to get pam-tally working? I have set the Mandrake security level one grade higher and installed/activated a firewall.

12. 2004: Installation of Mandrake 10 on Toshiba Satellite 2410-W9X

Upgrading was frustrating initially, though I think I figured out my mistakes eventually. See my page for Mandrake 9.2 install for details on compatibility etc. I have my /home directory on a separate partition, so there was never any real risk to reinstalling – just expended time.

I tried to do an update on Mdk 9.2 to 10. There was very little direction on how to use ISO's on disk. I thought I had done it but then somewhat into the upgrade the install started freaking out, claiming errors on libdv2, libgii, libgii0, and then endless more. I ended up burning CD's IN MS WINDOWS to save my ruined system (ie complete the “upgrade”), but even then X did not work at all.

How to write an ISO image: In Nautilus (file browser), right click on the .iso image and choose “write to CD”. Yep.

12.0.1 Mail:

It seems I have full mail servers running, so if I delete the smtp host in pine, mail is sent straight from my machine! That's not good for privacy (risk of reply to dynamic IP?) but if I were using Mutt or if I had a fixed IP it would be good.

Also, note that interchange still says they will do upgrade system soon... then switch all mail to them with secure pop...

12.0.2 Another round of XFree trying

the solution is simple: Forget the Mandrake commercial RPMs!! Stick with the nvidia shell script, making sure to have the kernel-source which matches my kernel exactly! (Still need to upgrade kernels to .13?). Then, see Thorsten's page or etc for all the weird XF86Config lines: the display on my laptop lies about the available modes, so you have to tell X to ignore them. Now the full screen is used, GLX works, etc.

12.0.3 Another round of XFree frustration

I unplugged the computer and booted it on wireless, and now my X is broken.

My kernel is 2.6.3-7mdk but when I install the sources, I get 2.6.3-13mdk.

SOLVED: So reinstalling the NVIDIA script seemed to do the trick. God knows what messed up the driver. And the problem with that is that the kernel and sources didn't match. I probably just need to tell the NVIDIA script where to find the sources. Instead, I installed -7 and removed -13.

12.0.4 Trying to get sound recording to work

sox -r 48000 Untitled.wav -r 32000 un.wav rate

mp3encode -s 32 -b 64 -l 2 un.wav un.mp3

Actually, gnome-sound-recorder hung when recording a long (5 min) sound. Instead, use the excellent “rec” along with above two lines.

12.0.5 FINALLY, progress with sound: ALSA revelation

Aug 2004: Motivated by interest in gnomemeeting and skype, I spent ages trying to figure out why they would not work (problems with /dev/dsp and etc etc). It turns out that I have never had ALSA running, despite it trying to start up on boot and being integrated in my kernel!! What is Mandrake thinking? Why is it so hard to find documentation on this?! Maybe there was an option I messed up in the install: choose ALSA if you have the choice! Anyway, I had to install a bunch of “alsa” rpms (tools, lib, player). Those include “alsaconf” to be run by root, and alsamixer. After one restart, everything works beautifully, including Flash sound, skype, choice of sample speeds, etc in both GNOME and KDE.

Also got ALSA plugin for xmms, changed xmms to use ALSA, and configured detail to use audio device rather than PCM (latter, default, made jittery sound).

NOTE: Now I can only use one sound application at once! They block each other. http://www.thepenguin.org.uk/alsa/ says this is due to my sound device, but can be overcome with the latest ALSA and a dmixer plugin. Still to do..

12.0.6 Video

urpmi xine-win32??

12.0.7 Anacron: some regular root scripts

urpmi anacron, since this computer is not on continuously.

Actually, I had planned to then set slocate and update jobs, but it seems that if you install anacron, these are already done. /etc/cron.daily and so on include such things.

12.0.8 Kernel upgrades

“uname -r” tells you your kernel.

Need to reinstall the Nvidia commercial driver for each kernel upgrade. I think there's the problem that for me, kernel-source upgrades happen automatically, but kernels don't. Then they're out of sync, and maybe that makes my X (commercial nvidia driver) break?!? Can't undersstand why. Anyway, to update kernel, see http://www.mandrakesoft.com/security/kernelupdate . For kernels, seem to need to use a longer filename with urpmi; e.g.:

urpmi kernel-2.6.3.16mdk-1-1mdk.i586  

rather than

urpmi kernel-2.6.3-16mdk
Don't forget to reboot into the new kernel before reinstalling NVIDIA driver.

Wow this was epic. I uninstalled kernel-source-... and reinstalled kernel source (all unnecessary) and then found out from reading groups that the new NVIDIA drivers have problems (got “not clean, please run 'make mrproper' in the install log, etc). So, don't use the 61xx driver versions; download the old 5336 version from nvidia.com. [September 2004]. That works fine. (610x version compiles but gives me a black screen in X!). Also, in general if trouble with nvidia installers, can run them with –extract-only flag, then enter directory and use “make install”.

Seem to need to rerun “alsaconf” as root after each kernel upgrade too!

[btw, I was once again confused by booting with wireless which seemed to break X, but it may have been my recent upgrade of kernel-source instead???? don't know, but solution is reinstall driver as above..]

12.0.9 Postscript: changing bounding boxes in order to make optimal 2-up versions of .ps files

Ugh. There is no single method here, and in general everything seems very difficult. In a few occasions, the psbind program with carefully chosen set of pages to scan for bounding box, and possibly borders and margins set to 0, works nicely. But when there is lots of white border within the bounding box, psnup will overwrite text with white!!! in the case of a scanned document (?).

Could make a version of psbind which does each page independently?

12.0.10 MediaWiki

12.0.11 Dual-boot stuff

Though I almost never use it, the proprietary and fragile operating system (MS Win2K) on one small partition became messed up, so I simply reformatted and reinstalled the OS. That was easy: it did not overwrite LILO (which had been put on disk's first sector by Mandrake).

12.0.12 Scribus

Couldn't install this so far, but it might be only hope for better than Acroread....

12.0.13 Maple

[oct 2003] I installed Maple 6 (REALLY OLD!!) as though it were RedHat 6/6.1, but I guess I have the wrong version of glibc (not 2.0?), so it doesn't work. Ahh. I got it working by following this FAQ:

This problem is caused by a conflict between various dynamically linked shared libraries used by Maple. As a workaround, rename or remove the following files in the folder $MAPLE/bin.IBM_INTEL_LINUX_REDHAT or $MAPLE/bin.IBM_INTEL_LINUX_SUSE (where $MAPLE is the location of your Maple installation). The default location is /usr/local/maple.

ld-linux.so.2

libc.so.6

libdl.so.2

You can either move these files to a temporary folder or change their names by adding a letter to the filenames. Do not remove the files from your system until you are sure that removing them fixes the problem on your system.

Next, I still have a problem due to the fact that the hostname changes whenever I log on to the network wirelessly, and this confuses the license manager. Ahh. Tech support helped me with this. You no longer need a license manager for Maple 6. Just put the license.dat file obtained from Maple straight into the license folder. So, from scratch: in flexlm/unix dir on CD, run license install script. Then replace

/usr/local/maple/license/license.dat
with the file license.dat from Maple.

Oh, I also may have had to symbolic link maple and xmaple to /usr/local/bin:

ln -s /usr/local/maple/bin/maple /usr/local/bin/maple

ln -s /usr/local/maple/bin/xmaple /usr/local/bin/xmaple

This was an old version of Maple – I doubt any problems installing a newer one!!!

13. 2003-December: Installation of Mandrake 9.2 on Toshiba Satellite 2410-W9X

I don't know what the “W9X” part means. By the sounds of others' pages, I guess all 2410's are fairly equivalent.

Previously I had installed Mandrake 9.1 on the same Toshiba Satellite 2410 mandrake91_toshiba.html.

Installed it next to existing MS Win2000pro (the last version ever of M.S. Windoze which can be copied and reused etc without registering??) – no problem, no fiddling with NT boot loaders: just let Mandrake do its thing.

more /proc/version says: Linux version 2.4.22-10mdk (nplanel@no.mandrakesoft.com) (gcc version 3.3.1 (Mandrake Linux 9.2 3.3.1-2mdk)) #1 Thu Sep 18 12:30:58 CEST 2003 .

The following page is better; follow it for most stuff: linuxfrance.chez.tiscali.fr/toshiba_eng.html

.....

Still to do:

APM! dl Modem; set sendmail up for smtp forwarding (NO! wait for fixed network).

13.1 Initial Mandrake installation

Chose UK English; Generic PS2 wheelMouse (can test it!)

Used custom partitioning (and the auto-allocate button)

I needed all three CD's.

Graphics autodetected: Generic Flat panel 1024x768. NVidia GeForce4

I chose XFree 4.3.

Left “zeroconf host name” blank, if it was asked.

Chose “standard” security; no firewall.

Turned on ssh and other servers.

Boot loader: chose LILO (there's no /boot partition with Mandrake!) on disk's first sector. Upon installation, the Win2K which was already installed worked perfectly.

13.2 Post-install configuration

Extra packages

I installed: lyx, wireless*, fetchmail, ethereal, xmms, latex2html, xdvi, grip, a2ps, and aterm from the Mandrake CD's (using urpmi <package> called as root). Probably others, too. I have copied my CD's to the hard drive and changed the location through the Drak Package program, so now using urpmi to install stuff will get it from the hard disk if Mandrake shipped it, and the internet otherwise.

Had to install adobe acrobat by hand; had to install a bunch of plugins for Mozilla. Downloaded pine and some others.

13.2.1 Graphics

Shut down X by Ctrl-Alt-F1, log in as root, and type init 3. Then as root ran the NVidia driver installation program I downloaded (very simple to find/choose) from NVidia's web site.

Then I made the couple of changes in /etc/XF86Config-4 advised by the nvidia install docs, and also added Option NoLogo under “Section `Device'” to remove the full-screen logo on startup. (Hey, that doesn't work!). The 3D programs I try now work.

13.2.2 Wireless ethernet in PCMCIA card

PCMCIA worked initially. I did use the graphical package installer to install iwconfig and pcmcia-tools, I think, from the Mandrake CD's. I stuck in my wireless card (whose true Orinoco chipset I knew should work fine with Linux) and it just worked automatically – much easier to set up than in Windows. I had to run the Mandrake Contrl Center network setup once, but didn't change anything. So, the card acquired the local signal at UBC and that was that. The wireless card, if it's inserted, shows up as eth1 and that's that.

Well, I am on UBC campus in a place where the wireless connection is REALLY flakey. When it goes down, (especially) if root calls “ifup eth1” to refind the network, sometimes I can no longer launch any X application!! I get an error such as

Xlib: connection to :0.0 refused by server

Xlib: No protocol specified

/usr/X11R6/bin/xterm.real Xt error: Can't open display: :0.0
I can fix this by having root say “hostname localhost” but this doesn't last very long. What to do??

28Nov2003: Another try. There is interference due to rogue access points / wireless hubs, I guess, so often my link seems to die and “iwconfig” reports that the ESSID has changed from “ubc” to “default”. If I tell iwconfig to change it back, this sometimes fixes the problem! I have told Mandrake Control Centre to use only “ubc” now, but that didn't fix the problem. (!?). I have now edited the defaults essid in /etc/pcmcis/wireless.opts to fix it to “ubc” rather than “any”.

2Dec2003: Ahh, for what it's worth there are now a bunch of gui wireless consoles:

rpm -Uvh kwifimanager-1.0.2-1.MDK91.i586.rpm

And while I'm at it, upgrade wireless-tools:

rpm -Uvh –test wireless-tools-26-1mdk.i586.rpm libiw26-26-3mdk.i586.rpm

13.2.3 Keyboard

The key bouncing problem of Toshiba is no longer present under Mandrake 9.2

13.2.4 LYX

urpmi lyx

13.2.5 Toshiba Utilities

Much later: November 2003: rpm -Uvh toshutils-2.0.1-2.i686.rpm. It gives an install message “Run /etc/rc.d/init.d/fan start to start Toshiba fan daemon.” It does not work. It claims my kernel's missing the module?? I have rpms for toshset and toshutils installed, but they both crash when run.

13.2.6 Cannot get toshutils-2.0.1 to install: claims :

CANNOT get toshutils ie power management etc to work. Help!? I just want to be able to sleep and hibernate.

13.2.7 Fetchmail

Crazy! Under Mandrake 9.2, the postfix server does not work properly if mailman is also installed and not set up properly. So: with the drak rpm or whatever, uninstall postfix, and then reinstall postfix. Apparently this is not a bug, but it wasted a lot of my time, since fetchmail no longer worked. I suspect that uninstalling mailman would also have made the local smtp server (postfix) work properly.

urpmi fetchmail

So, postfix (the recent name for sendmail, the common MTA) is running on this system, and I think that is what receives the mail from fetchmail. I have my fetchmailrc file set up to get mail by IMAP from Berkeley. It works perfectly. I haven't yet got sendmail working to transparently send mail when I get online.

13.2.8 Sound

Sound seems to work for most applications, but RealPlayer 8 was initially silent. I get the “cannot open the audio device.” This is fixed easily. Run realplayer, chose to set the preferences, and turned on ESound. Quit the player, and restarted it. (Now I can watch NASA TV coverage of Spirt and Opportunity.)

13.2.9 Modem and PPP

(see Mandrake 9.1 version. I haven't bothered with this yet).

13.2.10 Canon i550 printer with GNU/Linux (Mandrake 9.1)

Please DO NOT buy this printer. Canon is quite clear they will not support it. I think they may have some other well-supported printers (??) but I would check their modern attitude before supporting them by buying any Canon product.

I RETURNED THIS PRINTER FOR A FULL REFUND.

See my Mandrake 9.1 install page for details.

13.2.11 Epson Stylus C84 with GNU/Linux

So then I bought a Stylus C84. Epson has a good record with GNU; I should have figured this out before. I plugged it in, ran Mandrake Control Center under Mandrake 9.2. It has a built in driver for the C84; autodetected, etc. Works perfectly.

See comment on k3b cd case printing, below.

Aaah. Feb 2004: I used the http interface to CUPS to adjust the print mode and (maybe as a result), printer printed an entire page of black on the next file!! I deleted printer, re-ran the Drake setup thing (which autodetects and sets it up!) and things are happy again!! Printers...sigh.

13.2.12 Window managers etc

12Sept: installed blackbox, bbconf, bbkeys, bbpager rpms. I don't like them. Maybe try again in a few years. Aha! Eventually installed my beloved old friend vtwm (which I used back in early 90's: still better than most vwm's now)! Perfect.

13.2.13 CD -writing

I log in to a shell as root and then run k3b. Everything seems to work perfectly. Start by running the k3b setup. I don't think Gnome is useful here.

In order to make a cd case cover, I used GCombust, another CD writing program already set up in Mandrake 9.1. However, when I printed out the cover, it was slightly too small!! I had to enlarge the postscript file by 2.575%. I used:

psresize -w8.7176in -h11.282in -W8.5in -H11in cdcase.ps cdcasebigger.ps

13.2.14 Maple

[oct 2003] I installed Maple 6 (REALLY OLD!!) as though it were RedHat 6/6.1, but I guess I have the wrong version of glibc (not 2.0?), so it doesn't work. Ahh. I got it working by following this FAQ:

This problem is caused by a conflict between various dynamically linked shared libraries used by Maple. As a workaround, rename or remove the following files in the folder $MAPLE/bin.IBM_INTEL_LINUX_REDHAT or $MAPLE/bin.IBM_INTEL_LINUX_SUSE (where $MAPLE is the location of your Maple installation). The default location is /usr/local/maple.

ld-linux.so.2

libc.so.6

libdl.so.2

You can either move these files to a temporary folder or change their names by adding a letter to the filenames. Do not remove the files from your system until you are sure that removing them fixes the problem on your system.

Next, I still have a problem due to the fact that the hostname changes whenever I log on to the network wirelessly, and this confuses the license manager. Ahh. Tech support helped me with this. You no longer need a license manager for Maple 6. Just put the license file obtained from Maple straight into the license folder.

Oh, I also may have had to symbolic link maple and xmaple to /usr/local/bin.

This was an old version of Maple – I doubt any problems installing a newer one!!!

13.2.15 Octave

Jan2004:

urpmi f77

rpm -Uvh octave-2.1.44-1mdk.i586.rpm libfftw2-2.1.3-11mdk.i586.rpm libhdf5_0-1.4.4-2mdk.i586.rpm

13.2.16 Automatic clock synchronisation

As root, type:

urpmi ntp

The settings are in /etc/ntp.conf if you like to look, but you don't need to! (But you should – put in a local time server; for me, ntp.ubc.ca). Unoptimised but fully functional clock setting will now occur whenever you boot! Simple, beautiful.

For optimisation, details: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/TimePrecision-HOWTO/ntp.htm

After you've set that up, use ntpq -p as root to check what it's doing.

13.2.17 Backup

To backup a user directory, I set up drakBackup (ie use the all-purpose config tool) and make use of the .backupignore feature and a combo of CD-R and network and to-disk: see the Mandrake documentation: excellent. Oh but the software isn't. My backup was more than one CD's worth, and the drakbackup wasn't savvy, and its report doesn't claim anything's gone wrong: awful logging.

13.2.18 Automatic updates from Mandrake

I'm not sure of all the details, but the following two lines done as root (could be put in /etc/cron.daily, for instance) does the magic! This gets the updates from Mandrake, auto-selects all of them, automatically installs them and leaves the rpm's downloaded in /var/cache/urpmi/rpms. You can leave out the –noclean switch if you don't want to keep the rpms.

#!/bin/bash

# Check for any rpm updates from Mandrake

urpmi.update -a

urpmi --update --auto --auto-select --noclean

Alternatively, to do this “manually”, type Alt-F2 and enter “MandrakeUpdate” in the dialog box, and click “run”. But this interface seems awfully broken (latencies in ui) to me.

For whatever reason, when first doing the auto update above for Mandrake 9.2, I got an error:

The following packages have bad signatures: /var/cache/urpmi/rpms/apache2-2.0.47-6.3.92mdk.i586.rpm: Invalid Key ID (sha1 md5 gpg GPG#22458a98 OK)

I solved this (!?) by doing “urpmi apache2” first. I don't know why.

This auto updating also sometimes tells me that a file it just apparently just downloaded is missing. Since it gives the exact internet path (ftp://...) I just use wget followed by that location to get the file and put it in the /var/cache/urpmi/rpms/.

13.3 Upgrading without burning ISO's

To upgrade Mandrake from 9.2 to 10 by downloading ISO's (I paid to join Mandrake Club) without bothering to burn CD's: I expanded the ISO of disc 1 into a temporary directory (see below). From it, I wrote the cdrom.img file to a floppy (could also write a couple others, to make network-installable version?). Then did installation (upgrade) using ISO's on disk.. .just boot floppy. See directions on CD 1, which are, unbelievably, written for MS-Windows-users!

mkdir mdk10

mkdir /iso

mount -t iso9660 ~/mdk10iso/Mandrake91-cd1-inst.i586.iso /iso -o ro,loop=/dev/loop0

cp -fR /iso/* mdk10/.

umount /iso

and so on for other ISO's.

Prepare boot floppy: Insert a good 1.44MB floppy in your floppy drive.

cd mdk10/images

dd if=cdrom.img of=/dev/fd0

Instead of cdrom.img, might use the hd one or network one, etc...

Argh. I couldn't get the CDrom floppy boot process to point to the hard drive, so I ended up opening the ISO's and using th hd-floppy boot...

14. Hardware Appendix

(Taken originally from: http://www.toshiba.ca/web/specifications.grp?lg=en&section=1&group=223&product=531&part=830)

Satellite 2400 Series Specifications 2410-W9X: 1.90GHz (PS241C-2PW9XP)

Processor

CPU: Mobile Intel Pentium 4 Processor - M Clock Speed: 1.90 GHz Coprocessor: Integrated Coprocessor, 400 MHz PSB Cache: L1 Cache 12KB/8KB (instruction/data), L2 Cache 512KB

Memory

Standard: 256MB PC2100DDR Maximum: 1024MB (512MB+512MB) Expansion Modules: 128MB, 256MB, 512MB PC2100 DDR SODIMM modules BIOS ROM: 4Mbit capacity

Storage

Floppy Disk Drive: Built-in 1.44MB, 3.5 integrated Optical Drive: Built-in COMBO DRIVE DVD/CD-RW. 180ms DVD, 130ms CD Maximum speed: CD-R(16x), CD-RW(10x), CD-ROM(24x). ATAPI interface Hard Disk Drive: 40.0 billion bytes, 9.7mm height, Enhanced IDE, Access time 12ms read/12ms write

Display System

Type: TFT Active Matrix colour LCD display Size (diagonal): 15 TFT LCD Panel Resolution: 1,024x768x16.7 million colours External Support and Maximum Colour Support: 800 x 600 x 16.7 million colours (no clean stretch) 1,024 x 768 x 16.7 million colours 1,280 x 1,024 x 65,536 colours (virtual display) 1,600 x 1,200 x 65,536 colours (virtual display) Simultaneous Display Support: 1,024x768x16.7 million colours

Video

Graphics Controller: NVIDIA GeForce 4 420. 3D and 2D accelerator. AGP bus. Simultaneous Display Capable. Open GL Support. Video Memory: 16MB DDR

Audio

Sound System: YMF753. Full duplex 16bit. Stereo. Direct 3D sound. External mic and headphone port. Volume Control dial, Built-in stereo speakers..

Communication

Modem: V.92 Data/Fax Modem, Ring Wake-up Resume LAN: 10/100 Ethernet LAN network interface card, Wake-up On LAN, remote boot. 802.11b wireless antenna built-in. Also requires PA3212U-2MPC wireless accessory module for full wireless function.

Expansion

Memory: 2 slots total, one slot filled with 256MB, other slot empty. Empty slot can be filled with 128MB, 256MB, or 512MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM module. Maximum 1024MB RAM (512MB+512MB) PC Card Slots: 2 PC Card slot supports two Type II or Type III PC Cards, Supports Cardbus Ports: Parallel, RGB, infrared, 3 USB, 1 TV-Out, RJ11, RJ45, external microphone port, headphone port, SD Card Slot.

Keyboard and Pointing Device

Keyboard: Full sized 85 keys with 12 function keys 2.7mm keystroke, 6mm height Dedicated Windows Keys. Touchpad pointing device with scroll wheel Toshiba Console button Internet Button CD Control Function: Play/Pause, Stop/Eject, Previous, Skip/Next

Dimensions and Weight

Dimensions: 327 mm (W) x 286 mm (D) x 42 mm (H) Weight: 7.5 lbs

Operating System

Software: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

Power

Power Supply: 75W external Universal AC adaptor input voltage (100 \x{2013} 240V 50/60Hz Frequency (Universal), output voltage (15V, 5A). Dimensions: (WxHxD) 56mmx28mmx140mm Weight: 400g Battery Type: Removable, Rechargeable 9-cell Lithium Ion (Li-ion) 10.8V x 4500mAh capacity. Dimensions: (WxHxD) 174.5mmx70mmx18.5mm; Weight: 370g Battery Life: 2.5 hours Recharge Time: 3 hours off/ 3-10 hours on

BIOS

Support: TSETUP support, APM support, ACPI support, PnP support, VESA support, DPMS support, DDC support, SM BIOS support, PCI BIOS support

Security

Security: Cable lock slot, power on password

Environmental Specifications

Temperature: Operating 5^to 35^C (41^ to 95^F); Non Operating \x{2013}20^ to 65^C (-4^ to149^F) Thermal Gradient: Operating 15^ C per hr. max; Non Operating 20^ C per hr. max Relative Humidity: Operating 20% to 80% non-condensing; Non-Operating: 10% to 95% non-condensing Altitude (relative to sea level): Operating: -60 to 3,000m.; Non-Operating: -60 to 10,000m Shock: Operating: 7G; Non-Operating 60G Vibration: Operating 0.2G; Non-Operating: 1G

Warranty

Toshiba Warranty: Canada and International Limited Warranty System unit: One year parts and labour Battery: One year Pre-installed software is excluded from TCL standard limited warranty Click here for complete details on this warranty program and other Warranty Programs such as On-site and Next Business Day Service.

Print Friendly page

Hard Disk Drives: *GB = billion bytes for hard drives, accessible capacity may be less.

**Data connection rates may vary depending on conditions.

CPU Disclaimer

All brand and product names are trademark of their respective companies.

.

.

.

.

.

Satellite 2400 Series Specifications

2410-W9X: 1.90GHz (PS241C-2PW9XP)

Processor

CPU: Mobile Intel Pentium 4 Processor - M

Clock Speed: 1.90 GHz

Coprocessor: Integrated Coprocessor, 400 MHz PSB

Cache: L1 Cache 12KB/8KB (instruction/data), L2 Cache 512KB

Memory

Standard: 256MB PC2100DDR

Maximum: 1024MB (512MB+512MB)

Expansion Modules: 128MB, 256MB, 512MB PC2100 DDR SODIMM modules

BIOS ROM: 4Mbit capacity

Storage

Floppy Disk Drive: Built-in 1.44MB, 3.5 integrated

Optical Drive: Built-in COMBO DRIVE DVD/CD-RW. 180ms DVD, 130ms CD

Maximum speed: CD-R(16x), CD-RW(10x), CD-ROM(24x). ATAPI interface

Hard Disk Drive: 40.0 billion bytes, 9.7mm height, Enhanced IDE, Access time 12ms read/12ms write

Display System

Type: TFT Active Matrix colour LCD display

Size (diagonal): 15 TFT

LCD Panel Resolution: 1,024x768x16.7 million colours

External Support and Maximum Colour Support: 800 x 600 x 16.7 million colours (no clean stretch)

1,024 x 768 x 16.7 million colours

1,280 x 1,024 x 65,536 colours (virtual display)

1,600 x 1,200 x 65,536 colours (virtual display)

Simultaneous Display Support: 1,024x768x16.7 million colours

Video

Graphics Controller: NVIDIA GeForce 4 420. 3D and 2D accelerator. AGP bus. Simultaneous Display Capable. Open GL Support.

Video Memory: 16MB DDR

Audio

Sound System: YMF753. Full duplex 16bit. Stereo. Direct 3D sound.

External mic and headphone port. Volume Control dial,

Built-in stereo speakers..

Communication

Modem: V.92 Data/Fax Modem, Ring Wake-up Resume

LAN: 10/100 Ethernet LAN network interface card, Wake-up On LAN, remote boot. 802.11b wireless antenna built-in. Also requires PA3212U-2MPC wireless accessory module for full wireless function.

Expansion

Memory: 2 slots total, one slot filled with 256MB, other slot empty. Empty slot can be filled with 128MB, 256MB, or 512MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM module. Maximum 1024MB RAM (512MB+512MB)

PC Card Slots: 2 PC Card slot supports two Type II or Type III PC Cards, Supports Cardbus

Ports: Parallel, RGB, infrared, 3 USB, 1 TV-Out, RJ11, RJ45, external microphone port, headphone port, SD Card Slot.

Keyboard and Pointing Device

Keyboard: Full sized 85 keys with 12 function keys

2.7mm keystroke, 6mm height

Dedicated Windows Keys.

Touchpad pointing device with scroll wheel

Toshiba Console button

Internet Button

CD Control Function: Play/Pause, Stop/Eject, Previous, Skip/Next

Dimensions and Weight

Dimensions: 327 mm (W) x 286 mm (D) x 42 mm (H)

Weight: 7.5 lbs

Operating System

Software: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

Power

Power Supply: 75W external Universal AC adaptor input voltage (100 ? 240V 50/60Hz Frequency (Universal), output voltage (15V, 5A).

Dimensions: (WxHxD) 56mmx28mmx140mm

Weight: 400g

Battery Type: Removable, Rechargeable 9-cell Lithium Ion (Li-ion) 10.8V x 4500mAh capacity.

Dimensions: (WxHxD) 174.5mmx70mmx18.5mm;

Weight: 370g

Battery Life: 2.5 hours

Recharge Time: 3 hours off/ 3-10 hours on

BIOS

Support: TSETUP support, APM support, ACPI support, PnP support, VESA support, DPMS support, DDC support, SM BIOS support, PCI BIOS support

Security

Security: Cable lock slot, power on password

Environmental Specifications

Temperature: Operating 5^to 35^C (41^ to 95^F); Non Operating ?20^ to 65^C (-4^ to149^F)

Thermal Gradient: Operating 15^ C per hr. max; Non Operating 20^ C per hr. max

Relative Humidity: Operating 20% to 80% non-condensing; Non-Operating: 10% to 95% non-condensing

Altitude (relative to sea level): Operating: -60 to 3,000m.; Non-Operating: -60 to 10,000m

Shock: Operating: 7G; Non-Operating 60G

Vibration: Operating 0.2G; Non-Operating: 1G

Warranty

Toshiba Warranty: Canada and International Limited Warranty

System unit: One year parts and labour

Battery: One year

Pre-installed software is excluded from TCL standard limited warranty Click here for complete details on this warranty program and other Warranty Programs such as On-site and Next Business Day Service.

Print Friendly page

Hard Disk Drives: *GB = billion bytes for hard drives, accessible capacity may be less.

**Data connection rates may vary depending on conditions.

CPU Disclaimer

All brand and product names are trademark of their respective companies.

Design and specifications subject to change without notice.

<-@<-@7d

-@-@Font: Default-@-@

About this document ...

Log of unix software lessons, including installation of Ubuntu GNU/Linux on a Toshiba Satellite 2410 laptop, and installation of Ubuntu Server as a desktop GNU/Linux server
Also includes older installs of Mandriva and Mandrake

This document was generated using the LaTeX2HTML translator Version 2019.2 (Released June 5, 2019)

The command line arguments were:
latex2html -show_section_numbers -split 0 linuxInstallationLessons-toshiba.tex

The translation was initiated on 2021-01-18


Footnotes

... tools3.1
For instance:

sudo apt-get install ssh emacs21 w32codecs a2ps psutils gv latex-beamer gbib kdissert xfce4-iconbox xfce4-mixer xfce4-systray xfce4-toys xfce4-trigger-launcher xfprint4 xfcalendar aterm lyx octave emacs21 latex2html elinks streamripper xpdf-utils scribus auctex emacs-extra emacs-goodies-el preview-latex gnomebaker flashplayer-mozilla acroread mozilla-acroread acroread-plugins gftp azureus realplayer streamtuner mutt urlview sun-j2re1.5 
... name3.2
Post-fix installer told me the following: You have several choices for general configuration at this point. If you have your debconf priority set to 'low' or 'medium', you will be asked more questions later. You can always run dpkg-reconfigure –priority=low postfix at a later point if you want to see these questions again. No configuration - IF YOU WANT THE INSTALL TO LEAVE YOUR CONFIG ALONE, CHOOSE THIS OPTION. No configuration changes will be done now: If you have not already configured Postfix, your mail system will be broken and should not be used. You must then do the configuration yourself by editing /usr/share/postfix/main.cf.dist and saving your changes as /etc/postfix/main.cf, or by running dpkg-reconfigure Postfix. main.cf will not be modified by the Postfix install process.
... available9.1
xorg.conf for Ubuntu on Satellite 2410:

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)

#

# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using

# values from the debconf database.

#

# Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page.

# (Type man /etc/X11/xorg.conf at the shell prompt.)

#

# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*

# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg

# package.

#

# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated

# again, run the following command:

# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section Files

FontPath /usr/share/X11/fonts/misc

FontPath /usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic

FontPath /usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled

FontPath /usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled

FontPath /usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1

FontPath /usr/share/X11/fonts/CID

FontPath /usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi

FontPath /usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi

# paths to defoma fonts

FontPath /var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType

FontPath /var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID

EndSection

Section Module

Load GLcore

Load i2c

Load bitmap

Load ddc

Load dri

Load extmod

Load freetype

Load glx

Load int10

Load type1

Load vbe

EndSection

Section InputDevice

Identifier Generic Keyboard

Driver kbd

Option CoreKeyboard

Option XkbRules xorg

Option XkbModel pc104

Option XkbLayout us

EndSection

Section InputDevice

Identifier Configured Mouse

Driver mouse

Option CorePointer

Option Device /dev/input/mice

Option Protocol ImPS/2

Option Emulate3Buttons true

Option ZAxisMapping 4 5

EndSection

Section InputDevice

Identifier ALPS

Driver synaptics

Option AlwaysCore

Option Device /dev/input/alps

Option Protocol event

Option LeftEdge 120

Option RightEdge 830

Option TopEdge 120

Option BottomEdge 650

Option FingerLow 14

Option FingerHigh 15

Option MaxTapTime 180

Option MaxTapMove 110

Option ClickTime 0

Option EmulateMidButtonTime 75

Option VertScrollDelta 10

Option HorizScrollDelta 0

Option MinSpeed 0.45

Option MaxSpeed 0.75

Option AccelFactor 0.020

Option EdgeMotionMinSpeed 200

Option EdgeMotionMaxSpeed 200

Option UpDownScrolling 1

Option CircularScrolling 0

Option CircScrollDelta 0.1

Option CircScrollTrigger 2

Option SHMConfig true

EndSection

Section Device

Identifier NVIDIA Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 420 Go]

Driver nvidia

BusID PCI:1:0:0

# REst of this section by cpbl, from settings used under Mandriva...

BusID AGP:01:00:0

Option DPMS

Option CursorShadowYOffset 2

Option CursorShadowXOffset 4

Option NoLogo

#Option ConnectedMonitor DFP, CRT

# TV Twinview – This seems to do nothing!

Option TwinView 1

Option SecondMonitorHorizSync 30-70

Option MetaModes 1024x768 @1024x768,1024x768 @1024x768; 800x600 @800x600,800x600 @800x600; 640x480 @640x480,640x480 @640x480

#Option TVStandard PAL-N

Option SecondMonitorVertRefresh 60-100

Option TwinViewOrientation Clone

EndSection

Section Monitor

Identifier Generic Monitor

Option DPMS

HorizSync 28-51

VertRefresh 43-60

EndSection

Section Screen

Identifier Default Screen

Device NVIDIA Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 420 Go]

Monitor Generic Monitor

DefaultColorDepth 24

### added by cpbl for mdk10, see Thosten page for satellite 2410:

Option NoDDC 1

###END: added by cpbl for mdk10, see Thosten page for satellite 2410:

Subsection Display

Depth 8

Virtual 1024 768

EndSubsection

Subsection Display

Depth 15

Virtual 1024 768

EndSubsection

Subsection Display

Depth 16

Virtual 1024 768

EndSubsection

Subsection Display

Depth 24

Virtual 1024 768

EndSubsection

Option NvAgp 3

# Option IgnoreEDID 1

Option DigitalVibrance 0 # Picture improvement

EndSection

Section ServerLayout

Identifier Default Layout

Screen Default Screen

InputDevice Generic Keyboard

InputDevice Configured Mouse

InputDevice ALPS

EndSection

Section DRI

Mode 0666

EndSection

... /boot/grub/menu.lst.9.2
title Mandriva

root (hd0,4) 

kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 resume=/dev/hda6 splash=silent 

initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img 

boot

... Automatix9.3
If you don't know what you're doing, just turn everything on. If you want the option of fancy looking (better than GNOME) bars and tools on your Desktop, don't miss out on gDesklets.
... touchpad9.4
These are:
  1. (re)compile some driver or even the kernel,
  2. execute (and then, for simplicity, reboot):

    sudo sh -c echo options psmouse proto=exps > /etc/modprobe.d/psmouse.modprobe
    This has the effect of making “click-and-drag” work for the touchpad, when it does not seem to by default. To undo this change, just do

    sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/psmouse.modprobe
    and then, for simplicity, reboot.
  3. Just edit xorg.conf, using Ubuntu's drivers, as described further below.
For my laptop, you should avoid the first two. The third (which is all one would expect to need to do!) can make the touchpad do many fancy things, include turning its right side into a scroll-bar. It does not so far for me result in a working hardware scroll-wheel, with which this laptop is equipped. However, this is not needed since the functionality is now provided by the touchpad through sofware.

By the way, I found xev to be a useful tool for debugging the touchpad: it just reports X events.

... follows9.5
These steps basically come from instructions in the thread

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=78904
If you don't have exactly my hardware, you might read the thread to adapt the steps. For the alps.rules file, only the “i8042 Aux Port” part might change; to see, try

udevinfo -a -p `udevinfo -q path -n /dev/input/event5`
... footnote)10.1

club:

urpmi.addmedia distrib_mirrors.secsup.org_i586_2005LimitedEdition ftp://mirrors.secsup.org/pub/linux/mandrakelinux/official/10.2/i586/media/main/ with ./media_info/hdlist.cz 

urpmi.addmedia club.comm_i586_2005LimitedEdition http://cpblcpbl:cpblMandrake@www.mandrakeclub.com/downloads2/comm/10.2/i586/ with ./media_info/hdlist.cz

urpmi.addmedia updates_mirrors.secsup.org_i586_2005LimitedEdition ftp://mirrors.secsup.org/pub/linux/mandrake/Mandrake/updates/10.2/RPMS/ with ./media_info/hdlist.cz

urpmi.addmedia club.contrib_mirror.aca.oakland.edu_i586_2005LimitedEdition ftp://mirror.aca.oakland.edu/linux/mandrakelinux/devel/testing/Mandrakeclub/10.2/i586 with hdlist.cz

public: urpmi.addmedia plf-free ftp://ftp.free.fr/pub/Distributions_Linux/plf/mandrake/free/10.2 with synthesis.hdlist.cz urpmi.addmedia plf-nonfree ftp://ftp.free.fr/pub/Distributions_Linux/plf/mandrake/non-free/10.2 with synthesis.hdlist.cz urpmi.addmedia --update updates ftp://mirrors.secsup.org/pub/linux/mandrake/Mandrakelinux/official/updates/LE2005/main_updates/ with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz urpmi.addmedia main ftp://mirror.aca.oakland.edu/pub/linux/mandrakelinux/official/2005/i586/media/main with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz urpmi.addmedia contrib ftp://mirror.aca.oakland.edu/pub/linux/mandrakelinux/official/2005/i586/media/contrib with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz urpmi.addmedia jpackage ftp://mirror.aca.oakland.edu/pub/linux/mandrakelinux/official/2005/i586/media/jpackage with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz