Dave’s Happy Place

I’ve just made the move to Ubuntu from Kubuntu.

I started Linux life with an Kubuntu Live CD borrowed off a MythTV user from work over a year ago. Having been frustrated with how much configuration was necessary to do what seemed like sensible things I installed the ubunutu-desktop package about a week ago. I don’t think I’ll be going back.

Ubuntu works fantastically well with the default configuration. It has lots of the things I commonly do all out in the open

• The Applications menu works well and uses Fitt’s law to good effect in the top left hand corner
• The Places menu is way better than the similar analogy in KDE
• The System menu is also much better on it’s own than buried in the KDE menu
• Accessing Logout from the top right works well (again Fitt’s law comes into play)
• Configuration of the desktop just seems easier - a good choice of sensible defaults helps
• It has a great look and feel out of the box - after months of trying to get something consistently decent for KDE I gave up
• Putting shortcuts to commonly used applications and other useful things in the top bar is easy - also a great default setup
• A much easier way of switching users out-of-the-box
• Many others…

It’s a shame it was so hard getting rid of all the KDE related applications. A few hours tidying with Add/Remove Applications and Synaptic Package Manager seems to have cleaned out most things.

Overall it seems like a great improvement to the usability of the common things that I use Linux for. Awesome.

And, since Shelly hasn’t had any significant problems yet I guess it’s a thumbs up from her as well.

I stumbled upon a fix that allows text messages from Vodafone New Zealand to appear when you miss a call and someone leaves a voice message.

The fix has been tested with iPhone firmware version 1.1.1.

1. Open Installer, and add the following source if not already there - http://i.unlock.no/
2. Choose the Unlocking Tools category.
3. Install SMS Fix

This fix was a frequently asked questions titled SMS received from internet is scrambled/not working? at iphone.unlock.no.

I don’t understand why the password for the mythtv MySQL database user is reset whenever the MythTV package is updated in Ubuntu (and it’s derivatives like Kubuntu).

When this happens the Xbox Media Center (XBMC) fails to connect to the database. It’s somehow related to the password authentication mechanism that the MySQL libraries use on the XBox within XBMC.

Here are the instructions from one of my older posts to get the XBMC MythTV script to be able to connect to the MythTV database again. These steps are performed on the MythTV server.

1. Login to MySQL as the root user - mysql -u root -p
2. SET PASSWORD for mythtv = OLD_PASSWORD('mythtv');

Use the appropriate password for the mythtv user - the default is mythtv.

I finally decided to update the iPhone from 1.0.2 to 1.1.1. I’ll still be a version behind as version 1.1.2 was released by Apple earlier in November.

The update process was reasonably straight forward. No problems like Ryan Maxwell of Red Ink Scribbles had - Dreaded 1.1.1 Update. I found and used a different method though. There are lots of upgrade methods to choose from, but the one used below seemed to be the easiest. You don’t even need any software on your computer.

1. Virginze the 1.0.2 phone - How to virginize an unlocked phone before update to 1.1.1
2. Upgrade to 1.1.1 - How should I upgrade or restore my phone? Be careful not to let iTunes do the upgrade automatically as it will use 1.1.2 instead of 1.1.1.
3. Activate and unlock the SIM - http://iphone.unlock.no
4. Apply New Zealand specific tweaks
   • Open Installer and add the XK72 repository - http://xk72.com/iphone/repos/
   • Open the Tweaks (XK72) category and install all non 1.0.2 packages - Caller ID update (1.1.1), NZ Phone Formats (1.1.1) and NZDT 2007 update.
   • Update: Open Settings > General > International > Region Format and choose New Zealand
   • Open the Unlocking Tools category and install Edge Settings fix
   • Open Settings > General > Network > Edge and set the APN to direct.vodafone.net.nz
   • Go to Phone and manually dial *5005*86*707#. This will change the Voicemail button so it calls 707 rather than not doing anything.
5. Apply SMS Patch - Open Installer and then open the Unlocking Tools category and install SMS Fix

Allow about an hour to get through everything. Leave a comment if you have any questions.

The ridiculously expensive Wi-Fi internet access at the hotel in Wellington is also ridiculously slow now that it’s reached after hours time.

That’s the problem with Wi-Fi, the more people on an access point, the slower it gets. I almost contemplated not writing this post because it would be too painful.

$25 for 12 hours to get eventually get a connection that slows to less than modem connection speeds is terrible. Bring on free wired internet in hotel rooms!

How can it possibly cost $25 for 12 hours access to the internet when you are staying at a hotel that charges upwards of $200 a night? That’s just ridiculous!

I’m staying in a hotel in Wellington for a conference. The hotel probably services mainly business guests so I would have thought that internet access would be free of charge. Just throttle the wireless connection speed or cap it somehow to prevent problems with people trying to download the latest episode of Heroes via bittorrent.

The hotel is also in a Telecom Wi-Fi hotspot. That service only charges $10 an hour (charged on a per second basis) for non XTRA customers. Woohoo, sign me up Scotty, NOT!

It only costs me $39.95 a month for “as fast as you can eat” access with a 5Gb limit at home. That XTRA hourly rate is a complete rip-off, as is the rate the hotel charges.

I thought I had got lucky with my last attempt at stopping the intermittent humming noise coming from the ozone generator in the Sundance Spa. The last attempt was a bit unscientific and can be read at an earlier post.

I didn’t work long term. The noise came back last week.

While in the spa on Friday evening I noticed that the bubbles coming out of the circulation jet outlet were also intermittent. Every now and then some larger bubbles would come out. So I started playing with the outlet of the circulation pump with my foot. If part of the outlet was covered off the noise from ozone generator stopped and so did the larger bubbles. Interesting.

I popped the spa panels off at the weekend and looked more closely at the line running from the mazzi jet to the SunZone ozone generator. Sure enough I could see very small air bubbles getting sucked into the air line where it connected to the mazzi jet. A few zip ties later and that connection was sealed. As soon as it sealed the noise stopped as well. Voila!

I zip tied all of the other connectors in that same air line and checked the connections for all of the other components as well. I also zip tied the air line well out of the way of the other components. Now the spa really is quiet with a consistent stream of small bubbles coming out of the circulation pump. Excellent! Hopefully this problem is sorted for good now.

The Sundance Spa has been making a low humming/buzzing noise on and off for the past few weeks. This noise is quiet in comparison to the gurgling noise the spa used to make before the circulation pump was replaced, but it’s still annoying.

The low frequency humming/buzzing noise was intermittent which made it all the more obvious as it came and went. It sounded like something was loose or vibrating within the spa.

I took off the front panels of the spa to isolate the noise, which turned out to be coming from the SunZone ozone generator. This device uses high intensity UV light to create ozone that is sucked into the circulation water supply to help with sanitation.

To try and get rid of the noise, I thought I’d see if anything was obviously loose in the generator. After turning off the power to the spa I removed the SunZone ozone generator which was only held on by 4 wood screws. On the back though, there were at least 12 metal screws, 3 bolts and 2 rivets. Too many things to make pulling it apart simple.

Onto plan B. I held the unit at various angles and gently thumped the unit with the base of my hand in the hope that if something were loose it would move enough that it wouldn’t vibrate any more. It was a bit of a long shot but it was worth a try.

After reinstalling and turning the power back on I was pleasantly surprised to not be hearing that annoying buzz anymore. Magic! Sometimes I get lucky.

While I was there I also zip-tied the hartford loop in the ozone air line up above water level. Previously it was just sitting on the top of the circuit board housing. Not sure if that had any affect on the noise.

I spent eons this afternoon trying to get direct rendering to work with Kubuntu Gutsy (7.10) so the recently installed Compiz Fusion visual effects actually look remotely impressive rather than clunky and old skool. I am using AIGLX as opposed to XGL as my Shuttle SD32G2 server has an integrated Intel GMA 950 chipset which AIGLX supports well in Linux.

After much chagrin and reading of numerous bugs and waffly semi-related threads I finally found one page that actually resolved the problem (xserver-xgl on gutsy doesn’t work). I removed the xserver-xgl package from the server and double checked that everything for AIGLX was setup correctly. HOWTO AIGLX contains instructions for configuring AIGLX targeted for Gentoo but should work fine for most Linux distros.

glxinfo | grep direct now returns the much desired direct rendering: Yes output. Wohoo! No longer is scrolling in Firefox and other applications painfully slow and jumpy. The visual effects in Compiz Fusion are also now crisp and smooth as opposed to jagged and choppy. Excellent. Not sure it was worth the hours of what felt like banging of my head against a brick wall though.

It’s unfortunate that the problem may have arisen as I may have installed the xserver-xgl when I first started configuring the server to use XGL for Compiz. Rats!

I can’t believe that the latest release of Kubuntu Gutsy (7.10) has been in beta for so long. The upgrade rendered my system all but useless because KDE wouldn’t start.

When I logged in the only thing that was presented to me was the new Kubuntu background. Nothing more, nothing less.

Starting Kubuntu with the Session in Failsafe mode presented a terminal window with the new Kubuntu background behind it. This was all it did, but I presume this is all that Failsafe mode does.

Starting the X server using startx threw an error about the user not being authorized. I found a few links like X: user not authorized to run the X server, aborting with similar looking problems. This error was resolved using dpkg-reconfigure x11-common and changing Allowed Users to “Anybody” instead of “Console”.

Running startkde then had KDE fire up but then bail back to the login screen. The last thing I saw in the terminal window was

No battery found.
This is not a laptop, quitting…

This had me puzzled for a while since it looked like this might have been the problem. However, it turns out that is simply the output of the guidance-power-manager. Nothing to be concerned with it would seem, just an unfortunate piece of wording in that output.

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