At some point the physical power button on my file server (ubuntu 12.04) stopped working and I had to do a software shutdown everytime. The solution is to (re) install acpi: sudo apt-get install acpi sudo apt-get install --reinstall acpi-support
Category: linux
mdadm woes
After migrating a software RAID 5 to Ubuntu LTS 12.04, the system wouldn't come up again after rebooting. I believe Chris Siebenmann to splendidly have analysed [1] the problem: a race condition with udev losing the race. His solution is to: Change /usr/share/initramfs-tools/scripts/mdadm-functionsas follows: degraded_arrays() { + udevadm settle mdadm --misc --scan --detail --test >/dev/null … Continue reading mdadm woes
Ubuntu 12.10 64bit on the HP ProBook 4720s
With the trusty HP ProBook 4720s refusing to give up it's time to give the new Ubuntu 12.10 a spin. After having tried out the 11 and the 12 series with mixed feelings [1], [2]. Installation Installation of the live CD image on a USB stick was easy and without any problems. The system booted … Continue reading Ubuntu 12.10 64bit on the HP ProBook 4720s
Automatically starting an SSH tunnel in Ubuntu
As I am a frequent guest in public WLANs I spent some time looking into ways to connect safely to both the corporate network and the rest of the internet while enjoying the amenities of a cafés' or hotel's wifi.Because of its simplicity and universal availability I like SSH tunnels which are easily set up … Continue reading Automatically starting an SSH tunnel in Ubuntu
Reducing HP 4720s power consumption under Ubuntu Linux 11.10
Mainly annoyed by the loud fan I looked into ways of reducing power consumption of the HP Probook 4720s and came up with this script:#!/bin/sh -e# Increase filesystem write cache timeoutecho 1500 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs # Enable power management on all PCI devicesfind /sys/devices/pci* -path "*power/control" -exec bash -c "echo auto > '{}'" \;# Enable power … Continue reading Reducing HP 4720s power consumption under Ubuntu Linux 11.10
Updating the Galaxy Mini to Android 2.3.3 under Linux
The Samsung Galaxy Mini S5570 comes with Android 2.2 and can easily be updated to Android 2.3 if you are running Windows on your computer and if you get Samsung's fragile Kies application to run. If you have been following this blog you know that any Windows installations reside safely banned inside Virtualboxes so my … Continue reading Updating the Galaxy Mini to Android 2.3.3 under Linux
HP Probook 4720s on Ubuntu 11.04 64bit
Last Winter I posted [1] about installing Ubuntu 10.10 64bit on a HP Probook 4720s with 6GB RAM which was only a moderate success, as it required a manual driver update for the WLAN, the touchpad right-click would not work reliably and the external microphone produced only static noise. Now that the new Ubuntu … Continue reading HP Probook 4720s on Ubuntu 11.04 64bit
Resolving smb server names in Linux
Windows handles NETBIOS server names just like any other DNS entry, so you can ping, http:// or ftp to any computer on your Windows network. While Linux binds those computers also via Samba, it does not export that information to the rest of the networking stack, i.e. this will fail:ping win7machineThis post [1] has a … Continue reading Resolving smb server names in Linux
Ubuntu 10.10 64 Bit on an HP ProBook 4720s
Update: Ubuntu 11.04 seems a good improvement over the previous one. Read my adventures here installing it on the same laptop. The HP ProBook 4720s is what you'd call a business workhorse: metal casing, fast WLAN, 6 hours+ battery duration, a Core 3 and a matte (anti glare) 1600x900 LCD screen for a fair price … Continue reading Ubuntu 10.10 64 Bit on an HP ProBook 4720s
Enabling the powerbutton in Ubuntu Server 10.04 on an AMD box
While shutdown –h does the trick of shutting down a server just fine, occasionally I’d prefer the haptic version. While I’ve never had problems getting the powerbutton to work with Ubuntu desktop versions, it didn’t work out of the box on my AMD Athlon XP. Fortunately the solution seems to be quite simple: sudo apt-get … Continue reading Enabling the powerbutton in Ubuntu Server 10.04 on an AMD box
