Ubuntu Linux 10.10 Annoyances and Solutions

I'm seriously testing Ubuntu 10.10 on my MSI Wind U100 and I came with some solutions to the obvious annoyances which a lot of users would come by.

1. Can't connect to shared internet connection with wifi which has WEP password. I have my Mac Mini serving as a wireless hotspot. The only problem with it is that it uses WEP password. I know that the WEP and password shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence, but that is the best I can get. And as the coverage is almost non-existent outside the house that is a non-problem.

But the real problem is that I couldn't connect with Ubuntu on it. But the solution is to go to Network Connections -> Wireless tab -> Edit your wifi connection -> Wireless Security tab -> Authentication -> Shared Key (instead of Open system)

2. You are trying to extract a file from usb flash drive (4GB+) and the extracting program tells you the following message: "Need PK compat." -something.

Solution: Open terminal (Ctrl+alt+t) and write this:
sudo apt-get install p7zip-full

This article will be updated as soon as I find more problems and solutions.

Canon LBP-5000 “out of paper” problem solved

Today the mentioned laser printer refused to print because of “out of paper” error. Naturally, the paper tray was full of paper. Printer reset, toner removal didn’t help. After examining the the underside of the printer (the part above the tray) I haven’t seen anything that was malfunctioning either. No mention of this problem on the web too. Then I realized that I could try to print the pages by using manual paper feed (seems obvious now;) and it worked. But still the notification light for missing paper was still on. But luckily, after few printer papers from the manual feed slot the notification went away and everything was fine.

One interesting thing about this printer and the other canon printer I have (cp520) is that they are some strange models canon doesn’t want to display any information. What I mean is that the latter printer I can’t even find on their web page (even in discontinued printers), and the former doesn’t even have 64bit drivers.

Canon selphy cp520: completely erased existence on canon web pages, those print kits (“cassettes” and paper packages) just went up in price by substantial amount

Canon i-sensys LBP-5000: completely discontinued drivers, no 64bit version. Expensive toners (4x500kn when the printer price with new toners is 1500kn)

One could say that I could switch manufacturers but I bet they are even worse. The canon inkjet printer I had before this laser was expensive but was good actually. Died only couple of months ago (had it for around 6 years). The printer before was a HP deskjet 690c. That printer was ok for couple of months but then it mysteriously couldn’t pull the papers in so you had to supply it sheet by sheet. The scanner I bought for my dad 2 years ago was somewhat expensive hp one. I can only say to you this. It takes like 4 minutes to start scanning the first page and the drivers are around 400MB! Unbelievable I know. And they have one of the worst UIs I have ever seen. So I won’t buy any of that HP crap ever again and I advise you do the same.

What’s going on these times? Gmail mobile app, Drupal, Windows 7 changes…

Gmail mobile app

The gmail mobile app on my nokia 6500c is great (too bad iphone doesn’t have similar version), but it lacked full screen support for my mobile. The problem was that google didn’t have special version for that mobile too so I always had to download generic app which doesn’t run in fullscreen. Another problem was that I always downloaded finnish or swedish language version so that didn’t work too. The idea that I had was that I had to trick google in giving me a version for nokia 5320 xpress music which has pretty much the same electronic hardware. Or even identical. So that part in guessing the address took me some time, but I finally managed to guess it. The language problem I didn’t solve completely (I wanted english version), but the trick is to set your phone to your own language (croatian in my case) and then it will download that version. The link will probably work with 2.0.7 or whatever other version.

The link is this:

http://www.gmail.com/app/gmail.jad?make=Nokia&model=5310&ver=v2.0.6 (link broken now unfortunately)

Drupal

Wasted two days to install it on my windows xp desktop. Couldn’t manage do the same on my macbook even though the installation is supposed to be simpler. I wanted to write a guide how to do it (the official one is out-of-date), but after a few days I forgot what was os special about my installation. Sorry. It is a CMP (Content Management Platform), so I guess that means it is a superset of CMS. Everyone is talking about it nowadays so I gave it a go. In any way, I didn’t use it that much because in one way it seems too simplistic, and on the other too complex. Adding some “blog posts” is easy enough, but it just seems that I’m doing something wrongly, probably I don’t even know what Drupal is all about. In any way, I’m going to explore it a bit more and report back.

Windows 7 beta build 7068 x64

After a very unpleasant experience concerning file permissions with build 7000 I decided to skip a few builds and go for some newer. This build was released yesterday and I’m just testing it at the moment. The problem with the file permissions bug is that it doesn’t manifest from the start, it can take days or weeks for problems to emerge.

It seems that some Microsoft employee has maybe seen my improved picture from my previous blog about build 6801, as demonstrated here:

My suggestion for this window (build 6801).

 

New Win+P window (build 7068). I like my solution more though,

same functionality but better looks.

 

More impressions and talk about performance soon to come as I test this build more closely. Update: see my post after this one.

Eventual disk problems

My Seagate Barracuda 300GB SATA hard disk (not a primary disk) started to sound strangely. When I start Norton Ghost it just starts to produce some metallic sound and windows really slow down. The end is near I think. What is strange is that the disk is only few months old because it was swapped under warranty because the old barracuda died as I said in my rant post about lack of quality in modern electronics.