Westell 327W Hard Reset (Verizon)

I was at the friend's house. They have this wireless router/modem model Westell 327W. It was behaving badly with the connection being up and down constantly. Of course, they forgot their admin username and password. We needed to do a hard reset on it.
Hard reset is done by pressing the reset button and holding it for long time pressed (like a minute or two as said by Verizon support). It actually did reset after around 30 seconds. The admin username password was reset to admin/password pair.

To check this you connect via cable to it and go to http://192.168.1.1 address. There you can set new admin username and password, which is desirable as you do not want anyone else to access your router via wireless connection. Another thing to set is your wireless security (such as SSID name and WEP password).

In this particular situation, The connection to Internet did not work. The Verizon page would be showing up saying offering option "reconnect after resetting modem". That required Verizon online username and password.

Alternative, path to enable this was to got the address:
http://192.168.1.1/verizon/redirect.htm
and click on disable button. After that, the Internet connection was allowed.

Viewing CHM files in Gnome (Ubuntu)

I came across several ebooks in CHM file format. In order to view/open those in Linux you need a CHM file viewer.
In default Ubuntu install with Gnome, you install gnochm package. In KDE (Kubuntu), there is Kchmviewer (have not tried it).

Command:
sudo apt-get install gnochm

Checking PDF Colour base (RGB or CMYK) on Ubuntu

RGB or CMYK
I needed this thing for sending out a PDF file to printers (ad in a magazine). These are some notes for Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic):

• Install imagemagick package, which contains identify command:
  sudo apt-get install imagemagick
• Run identify command on a PDF file to check if it contains RGB or CMYK colours:
  identify -verbose MyPdfFile.pdf

Additional comments

• Ran into some Gimp plugin package, but was not sure how to use it
• In Scribus, when exporting to PDF, one can select "Printer" in the colour tab. That created CMYK PDF file. Was not sure if it was the best quality though. Some experimenting needed.
  

Fiat Abarth 850 (Scale 1/43)

Built-in Mic Issue with Linux Mint 7 (Ubuntu 9.04) Vostro 1400

Issue
Built-in digital mic does not work in Ubuntu 8.10 and newer. Similar situation with recent Fedora and OpenSuse. It was located as PulseAudio issue, but I never managed to fix it. Recently playing with Linux Mint 7 XFCE and standard GNOME I started looking for a fix and had luck with the following:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/275998/comments/109

Fix
I followed the directions and here are some snapshots:

• First, edit or create /etc/asound file. Add the following text displayed in the picture below to add a new device called "alsaboost". Use command:
  sudo gedit /etc/asound
  

• Then edit /etc/pulse/default.pa file. Insert the following two lines where shown in the picture below. Use the following command:
  sudo gedit /etc/pulse/default.pa
  

• Reboot computer here for new settings to take place

• Go to Volume Control... and click on Preferences, then select +50db Mic
  

• Then in the Volume Control, you should see a slide bar for +50dB Mic

• This can also be adjusted from Terminal using command alsamixer:

Skype

• In Skype, in Options for Sound Devices, select Sound In to be new "alsaboot" component, and Sound Out and Ringing to be "pulse"

References
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/275998/comments/109

Linux Mint 7

Intro

I always liked Linux Mint variant of Ubuntu. For some reason I was coming back to the Ubuntu mainly I guess for the reason of staying comfortable with it and following the progress. When I noticed on DistroWatch new XFCE Mint I decided to give it a try. I ended up playing and installing both XFCE and standard Gnome Mint 7. Some very pleasent suprises came out of the excersise.

Good Stuff

• Cosmetics. Linux Mint really has all of the cosmetics figured out just nicely. Both standard and XFCE versions look extremely eye pleasing.
• Pre-configured. Another big plus is that Java, Flash, and some codecs are there by default so you are pretty much ready to go. Selection of the software is very nice. Mint tools also do make sense (software install, backup, configuration) although for some things I still like using standard Ubuntu way, which is there.
• Repositories. Repositories are already pre-configured so basically all jou need to do is run Software Manager or Package Manager and browse and install what you need. My "usual suspects" are: aMSN, Skype, FileZilla, Opera, Evolution, msttcorefonts, non-free-codecs, htop, mc, etc. Pretty easy to add with no changes in preconfigured repositories.
• Device Support. This comes from Ubuntu in general, but I noticed that audio configuration went much smoother. Also, liked the support for webcams. On my HP desktop that has video card, Mint properly selected webcam to be the input device.
• Installation. Pretty fast installation. Around 15-20 mins from Live CD.
  

More Good Stuff

• Audio. Mint 7 is based on Ubuntu 9.04. I really liked 9.04 improvements, but I had a major issue with not being able to adjust audio on my laptop. Could never make my built-in digital mic to work. Once I put Linux Mint 7 XFCE, I was pleasently suprised that the mic worked just fine and I could use Skype with no issues whatsoever.

Issues

• With XFCE version I was not able to browse my Samba shares, Standard Mint went through that with no problem.
• Where is "Lock" icon? CTRL+ALT+L still works.
• Update icon displayed as a lock. Not really an issue, but little bit confusing.
  

Test Machines

• Dell Vostro 1400
• Dell Latitude E4200
• Dell Vostro 220s
• Dell Dimension E520. Had an issue with audio. Needed to add the fix "model=ref" into the alsa configuration file.
  
• Dell Dimension 3000
• HP MediaCenter (will check number)
• VirtualBox VM

Conclusion
In general, very nicely pre-configured Ubuntu with some additional "goodies". I would recommend Linux Mint to anyone who wants to try Linux as first choice. Currently keeping as Linux choice for desktops. Will face some challenges with that Latitude E4200 as it will need to connect using VPN, Microsoft Exchange server, and dual monitors with docking station.

References
www.distrowatch.com
www.linuxmint.com
www.ubuntu.com

Experimenting with RAM disk on Ubuntu/Mint

Intro
I read little tweak article regarding use of Linux on laptops with SSD disks. One of the suggestions was to move /tmp folder onto RAM disk. So, I am here trying to do that on a "regular" desktop PC (Dell Vostro 220s).

Configuration

• In console run:
  sudo gedit /etc/fstab
• Add the following line to the /etc/fstab file:
  tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0
• Restart your PC for changes to take effect
  
• Check your new /tmp with the following command:
  df -h
  

You should see a new tmpfs partition (RAM disk).

Firefox Configuration
Tell Firefox to use newly created /tmp folder for temporary files

• In th address field enter about:config
• Click yes to proceed
• Create new String property named "browser.cache.disk.parent_directory"
• Enter "/tmp" as field value (no quote signs)
  

Comments
This probably only makes sense if you have lots of RAM. In this case there is 3GB RAM, which is pretty good for running Linux desktop.