Following the proud tradition [1],[2],[3] of documenting Linux installations on all the hardware I break, I'm happy to report that Ubuntu 18.04 works fine on the ASUS VivoBook 17 (model number X705U). Things I tested and that work: OS boots from USB and from harddisk Secure boot WLAN USB On board and external (USB) camera … Continue reading Ubuntu on the ASUS VivoBook 17
Tag: hardware
Unlocking a password-protected hard disk
TL;DR: Recovering data from a password-protected SATA hard disk that was locked by a Thinkpad I wish this post would be as generally valid as the title suggests; at this hour I'm just unspeakably glad to have unlocked a hard disk I didn't even know I had locked and can finally go to bed. What … Continue reading Unlocking a password-protected hard disk
Controlling the TP-LINK HS100 Wi-Fi smart plug
[update 7 June 2020] Available now on Docker: https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/georgovassilis/hs100 [update 27 January 2017] TP-LINK HS100 project on github: https://github.com/ggeorgovassilis/linuxscripts [update December 2020] TL;DR; This is about a shell script which controls the TP-LINK HS100, HS103s, HS110, HS200 and KP105 Wi-Fi smart power plugs. Other models in that product line may also work (the tplink-smarthome-api project uses … Continue reading Controlling the TP-LINK HS100 Wi-Fi smart plug
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on the Acer Aspire E15
I have been moderately content [1] with Ubuntu 14.04 on the Acer Aspire E15 for about a year. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, another long term support release, has recently been published and of course I had to try it out! Installing the live image on a USB stick: bring some patience The first obstacle is that … Continue reading Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on the Acer Aspire E15
Ubuntu on the Acer Aspire E15 (E5-571G-51TH)
Having failed the 3rd repair attempt at the Thinkpad E540 [1] I gave up and bought the next best laptop from the nearby store that somehow is usable for programming. Behold: the Acter Inspire E15. 8GB RAM, i5, matte screen (1920x1080). It worked out of the box with the SSD transplant from the old Lenovo, … Continue reading Ubuntu on the Acer Aspire E15 (E5-571G-51TH)
Formatting USB flash drives for write speed
Flash drives enjoy a reputation for being fast and that certainly goes for high-end models with their elaborate memory controllers and multi-bank layouts. A fundamental "problem" with current flash memory technology is that writing even a single bit of information requires that an entire block of flash memory is reset first [1], which greatly reduces … Continue reading Formatting USB flash drives for write speed
Ubuntu: physical power button not working
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
Reducing power consumption on the HP Probook 4720s and Ubuntu 12.04
As said earlier, Ubuntu 12.04 does a good job with power management on the 4720s. With some manual settings power consumption can be further decreases, albeit not much this time. I wrote this script which takes a parameter: on: enable power management settings off: disable power management settings extra: on + enable extensive power management … Continue reading Reducing power consumption on the HP Probook 4720s and Ubuntu 12.04
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 devices find /sys/devices/pci* -path "*power/control" -exec bash -c "echo auto > '{}'" … Continue reading Reducing HP 4720s power consumption under Ubuntu Linux 11.10
HP Probook 4720s on Ubuntu 11.10 64bit Oneiric Ocelot
The new Ubuntu 11.10 is out as of yesterday, and naturally it is time for another upgrade. Because of the many tweaks [1], [2] I decided for a fresh install, this time directly on the notebook harddisk instead of a flash card. The live ISO worked nicely from the USB stick except for the WLAN, … Continue reading HP Probook 4720s on Ubuntu 11.10 64bit Oneiric Ocelot
