Audiophyl

Philip Barton

Email: <audiophyl AT SPAMFREE gmail DOT com>

I am a Computer Science major at the University of North Dakota. I have been using Ubuntu since 6.06.

My Linux experience goes back to Slackware 4.0, but I am familiar with many operating system going back to CPM-80 including Digital UNIX, QNX, MacOS 6-X and Server variants, BeOS, various incarnations of DOS (DR, MS, Free, etc.), and Windows 1.0-Vista and Server variants. My occupation requires a fair amount of in-depth knowledge of both server and workstation OSes, so I feel rather comfortable sitting down in front of a computer running any of these.

Recently I've begun maintaining an image gallery of OS & first-party software crashes which I find rather amusing. Notably, OSX kernel-panics more frequently than Windows Vista blue-screens. My sample size for OSX is twenty-two machines, but my sample size for Vista is limited to five.

When it comes to name dropping, I like to mention that my brother used to play in a band with Patrick Volkerding of Slackware infamy.

At present, I am using Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" on an upgraded Sony Vaio PCG-FX210 laptop with much success. The system specs are as follows:

Internal:

  • 750MHz AMD Geode NX 1500 (orig. an 800MHz AMD Spitfire Duron, then a 1.5GHz AMD Athlon XPm 1800+)
  • 512MB PC100 SD-RAM (originally 128MB)
  • 60GB PATA HDD (originally 10GB, will likely be swapped for an 8GB or 16GB SSD)
  • ATI Rage Mobility M1 8MB AGP 2x (with working DRI!)

Somewhere Between:

  • D-Link DWL-650 Rev P1 PCMCIA Wireless Card (requires non-OSS firmware)

External:

  • M-Audio MidiSport 2x2 (w/Boss DR-660 & cheap-o Reveal MUSICstar keyboard)

  • iAudio X5 30GB MP3 Player with Rockbox Firmware

  • Audiovox 8910 Cell Phone (file system accessible via BitPim, also used for DUN)

  • FujiFilm S5100 Digital Camera

  • Konica-Minolta PagePro 1400w

Below are links to things I have written to assist people in gaining certain functionality from Ubuntu.

Enabling DRI for Mach64 chipsets in Ubuntu 7.04: This isn't a simple process! I've broken down the steps as best I can, but the steps may vary depending upon Linux kernel version.

Workaround for DWL-650 Rev P1 support in Ubuntu 7.04 Page 1 Page 2: The DWL-650 Rev P/P1 PCMCIA wireless card doesn't work in Linux due to a Device ID mismatch introduced when hostap was merged into the kernel. These are instructions for fixing it quickly via a hex-edit (as opposed to recompilation). Only the firmware loading step need be followed in Gutsy Gibbon.

Final setup for the DWL-650 Rev P1 in Ubuntu 7.10: This is a quick guide to install the necessary firmware and utilities for the D-Link DWL-650 Rev P1 to work in Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon".

UDEV rules for DWL-650 Rev P1: Setup a UDev rule, which is the more appropriate way to go about firmware loading. Using this method instead of using the /etc/network/interfaces file for firmware loading will allow you to use all features of Network Manager without hosing your interfaces file.

Rosegarden MIDI Device Definition for Roland/Boss DR-660 Drum Machine: The DR-660 is a handy little drum machine. This MIDI device definition will allow you to use the Percussion Editor in Rosegarden with proper names for all 32 kits and proper key mappings depending upon which kit is selected. A huge time-saver when it comes to percussion editing! This will be included with the next release of Rosegarden, which would be post-1.5.1.

Sony Vaio PCG-FX210 Laptop Testing Team Page: This is the proper area for documenting how well Ubuntu works on the particular laptop model that I use.


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Audiophyl (last edited 2008-08-06 16:13:35 by localhost)