Many laptops, that uses Intel board faces problems with Wlan. That is, most of the time when booted with Ubuntu 8.04 the Wlan will not be enabled and the WirelessLan switch in the laptops will not be of any use… More over the Wireless Lan leds will also be of no use. I faced the same problem and i happened to reboot my ubuntu severall times to get my wlan enabled.

I googled and had a chat in IRC and found it a bug with Ubuntu. Also found the solution as i was surfing. The solution to the above problem is making the WLAN led glow and making the WLAN switch work. For that install the package below using Synaptic or atp-get

linux-backports-modules-hardy

that is install like

~$ sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-hardy

Even if it doesnt work after this, install the Latest stable version of ndiswrapper from the link,

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/ndiswrapper

Iam right now using my Dataone connection, in my Lap via wlan as my modem is Wireless enabled. I never reboot now a day to enable my Wlan enabled in my Ubuntu.

Linux Networking, Ubuntu Hardy, Ubuntu, wlan

KolourPaint is an Opensource Painting tool. I sat with it, felt to draw something, and something came out…

Art using KolourPaint

Write your comments about my painting…..

Applications, Ubuntu KolourPaint, Paint

When you reinstall your windows in a dual boot system having you windows and ubuntu. Probably you will get a thought that your ubuntu got removed from your hard drive, and you may reinstall you ubuntu also. Thats a waste of time… Your ubuntu will be safe in your Hard drive but the thing is the boot loader doesnt know there is Ubutu in the  hard drive and its location. This is because

This is because, Windows in not more friendly. When you install the Windows it over writes other Boot loaders with its own. Also doesnot identify other Operating systems in the hard drive. Where are opend source boot loaders such as GRUB that come with most of the linus distros are more friendly and detects amost all operating systems.

So to get back your Ubuntu. Just install GRUB (Boot Loader) alone with the help of a Ubuntu cd or dvd, that will take few second than wasting you precious time. Also will give you back the same Ubuntu that you were using before and all softwares install as before….

To install GRUB alone follow the steps:

1. Boot your system with a Ubuntu Bootable Cd and Choose Live CD mode

2. After the Ubuntu boots in the Live-CD mode, press Alt-F2 and type gnome-terminal, and press Enter

3. Now follow the commands below

sudo grub
find /boot/grub/stage1
root (x,y)
setup (x)
quit
sudo shutdown “now” -r

The resulting “find” command will display something like (hd0,1). In this example, you would then type root (hd0,1) and then setup (hd0) in the above area. These numbers might be different; that’s why I included the “find” command. So that find command will locate the partition where linux wass installed previously. That is Ubuntu partitions located either in front or behind their Windows installation or on a completely separate internal/external hard

Ubuntu GRUB, Ubuntu

Mplayer is a good movie player that supports almost all video and audio codecs. Mplayer can be used to view the output of the webcam also can be used to take the snaps using the web cam in your laptop.

The following is the command to view the output of the webcam

$ mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0 -fps 30

and to take the snaps (to capture each frame) as a picture use the following command.

$ mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0 -fps 30 -vo jpeg tv://

where fps specifies the frame rate in both cases. and this will determine the number of snaps taken per second.

This probably works with other destros also.. check it out….

To save the output as a vedio file you can use the mencoder command.

Also you can use XawTv package included by default in ubuntu for the above purpose.

Do write ur comments….

Ubuntu Ubuntu, webcam

For a Dell xps 1530 model laptop, Hardy (Ubuntu 8.04) doesnt support Nvidia driver directy. Instead you will have to download two packages and install it manually.

The packages are    nvidia-glx-new-envy    and    nvidia-new-kernel-source-envy and pls note that the version of these packages should be 173.14.05+2.6.24.501-501.30 Hence the two packages

1. nvidia-glx-new-envy 173.14.05+2.6.24.501-501.30
2. nvidia-new-kernel-source-envy 173.14.05+2.6.24.501-501.30

The download links for both these packages are

1. https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/hardy/i386/nvidia-new-kernel-source-envy/173.14.05+2.6.24.501-501.30
2. https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/hardy/i386/nvidia-glx-new-envy/173.14.05+2.6.24.501-501.30

Also remove anyother nvidia kernel sources if installed….. This works well.

Hence the default package for nvidia-glx-new as old ubuntu versions doesnt support now…. Even if you try installing this default package you will have to run yuo hardy only in you Low Graphics Mode.

Note: Take a back of you   /etc/X11/xorg.conf   file before performing any operation. If any problem goto a shell using other run levels (pressing Alt+Ctlr+f4) and replace the back up file with the one in that location.

Ubuntu Dell, Hardy, nvidia, Ubuntu