Ubuntu on Feisty

Having upgraded my MSI S270 laptop to Ubuntu's Feisty fawn, I kinda got used to the built-in card-reader not working. I've been a long-time user of Ubuntu (Warty Warthog 4.10 whetted my appetite) and now moving up from Dapper Drake 6.10 LTS to Feisty Fawn, after skipping Edgy Eft.

I am surprised to find out that it actually does.

Here's a peek of what I got:

$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 Host Bridge (rev 10)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 SMBus Controller (rev 10)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller ATI
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-ISA Bridge
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge
00:14.5 Multimedia audio controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:14.6 Modem: ATI Technologies Inc ATI SB400 - AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc ATI Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955 (PCIE)
02:03.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
02:05.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ711MP1/MS1 MemoryCardBus Controller (rev 21)
02:05.2 Generic system peripheral [0805]: O2 Micro, Inc. Integrated MMC/SD Controller (rev 01)
02:05.3 Bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. Integrated MS/xD Controller (rev 01)
02:05.4 FireWire (IEEE 1394): O2 Micro, Inc. Firewire (IEEE 1394) (rev 02)
02:09.0 Network controller: RaLink RT2500 802.11g Cardbus/mini-PCI (rev 01)

The internal card reader for the MSI S270 is working! (Or at least the MMC/SD card reader is working. I don't have an MS card to test.) All the while I thought I had the Ricoh R5C576A reader which isn't working in Linux - yet.

2007-May-5

California, US server


The download speed of the ISP service of MyDestiny fluctuates, check out my previous speedtests. The upload speed, however, is quite consistent.

But then again, their cable internet, doesn't guarantee any minimum speed or maximum speed.

2007-05-04 speed test

California, US Server

Flash in Ubuntu

Okay, Feisty's been out for more than two weeks now and I finally bit the bullet and did a clean install from a Dapper system.

How is it so far? News apps. New looks. My MSI S270 lappie sports an ATI Radeon Xpress 200M video but I'm experiencing plenty of "White Screen of Death".I go through the same on Dapper but it seems that it happens more often on Feisty. I'm not using ATI's proprietary driver and I'm considering it if it would make my system more stable.

I also decided that I want support Adobe's Macromedia Flash in my 64-bit Ubuntu, which has been a bit of a disappointment since I started using Ubuntu 5.10. Thankfully, I stumbled into Swfdec, which promises open-source flash support! Oh goody!

I tried the repositories. No pre-packaged swfdec yet. Sigh.

So, I downloaded the sources and installed them. No problems there. From a terminal window, I did the following:

(I had to install the build-essential before you can build this app from the sources. You would also need the following libraries: autoconf, automaken, gcc, g++, libglib2.0-dev, libgnomevfs2-dev, libgstreamer0.10-dev, libgtk2.0-dev, libasound2-dev, liboil0.3-dev, libmad0-dev, libavcodec-dev, firefox-dev and libpango1.0-dev )

$ wget http://swfdec.freedesktop.org/download/swfdec/0.4/swfdec-0.4.4.tar.gz
$ tar zxvf swfdec-0.4.4.tar.gz
$ cd swfdec-0.4.4
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ cd ..
$ wget http://swfdec.freedesktop.org/download/swfdec-mozilla/0.4/swfdec-mozilla-0.4.4.tar.gz
$ tar zxvf swfdec-mozilla-0.4.4.tar.gz
$ cd swfdec-mozilla-0.4.4
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

Now, we need to tell Firefox where to look for this plugin

$ cd ~/.mozilla/plugins
$ ln -s /usr/local/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins/libswfdecmozilla.so

If you don't have a plugin folder, just do:

mkdir -p ~/.mozilla/plugins

Now, did it work for me? Yes and No.

It works for some flash sites (say, YouTube) but crashes on some (like Speedtest.) Well, better than nothing , right?

Oh, by the way, I'm only installing it for Firefox, I want to keep my primary browser, Epiphany, lean and mean.

speedtest

Monitoring by broadband connection.

California, US server


Quezon City, PH server

blogging again

It's been a long time since I wrote a blog. Close to two years, I guess.

Lately, I have this need to scratch this particular itch.

I want to write. Not sure what about.

I want to tell someone something.

I told a friend last night that I think I'm having a pseudo-mid-life crisis of sorts. (More of this later)

Can't think of a better URL, but the one I chose is suitable with what I plan to do here. Blab about nothing in particular, yada yada.

Ciao.

Playing with MyDestiny

I decided to finally end my wait for a broadband connection.

I've been waiting for Innove/Globelines to upgrade their DSL facilities in the area for the last 8 months but it never happened. My fingers got permanently crossed doing it.

The decision to go with MyDestiny, a cable ISP was done with some trepidation. I've heard the local horror stories about MyDestiny cable users and, well, I'm really a happy subscriber of Globe and expect their sister company, Innove, to be just as good. (That's despite the horror stories about Globe DSL users.)

I found an agent from TPC offering MyDestiny summer promo. 599 for the first two months, 999 afterwards, with an 8-month lock-in period. After a few days of exchanging mail, I decided to take a gamble and sent a go ahead for a Thursday installation. That was a Sunday.

He confirmed the request and informed me that I should expect a call from MyDestiny to confirm the installation schedule. Wednesday arrived and there were still no calls. I called the agent and asked for an explanation. He told me that he's going to get in touch with MyDestiny and they'd call me up.

After a few minutes, a person from MyDestiny, who introduced herself as Dyra called to tell me that they can't do it on Thursday, and inquired if I could move it to Friday. Fine, I said. I was told that I should wait all day because they can't say what time the installers can come in (What the f!! Apparently, local companies are alien to the idea that time is gold.)

4.30pm, Friday. I've been waiting all day and it's already close to 5pm and I still haven't heard from MyDestiny, despite calling them earlier at 2pm to re-confirm the schedule.

11am, Sunday. Installer came knocking to the door. I asked them why they're doing it on a Sunday. The tech said they've been busy. (And I'm not?). They checked out the apartment building and I was told that they can't do the installation because our building uses conduit-type system to distribute cable signals in the apartments.

I contacted the agent and he told me that he talked to a manager to prioritize my installation. And the installers would be their in-house technicians, not the contractors, like those who came by last Sunday. He even cc'd me an email about this exchange.

Monday, 4.30pm. Still no installers. I called MyDestiny and talked to a coordinator who introduced himself as Floyd. They told me to expect the installers tomorrow, and that they've forwarded the job order with a memo from the manager to prioritize my call.

Tuesday, 5pm. I told Floyd that I want my installation done by 11am tomorrow. If they can't do it by then, cancel my installation request.

Wednesday, 11.10am. Installers come a-knocking.

So, ten days of waiting finally ends here. I'm crossing my fingers and see what MyDestiny will bring.

speedtest

California, US server