Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Micha Feigin wrote: [...] Hi Micha, Hi to Everyone, Thanks for your help. I have not gone very far, in spite of much time spent. I thought I ought to tell some details, especially since it might help someone else, or, maybe, convince someone else to step in and tell his/her own experience. At first, I have worked at my sudo problem on Ubunto. I briefly recall what happened : after about one day, any call to sudo ..., generated the following reply : sudo: unable to resolve host dell-desktop You need to set dell-desktop in /etc/hosts. Add a line 127.0.1.1 dell-desktop.local dell-desktop otherwise look in /etc/hosts to see what you machine expects you hostname to be. You can change the hostname to localhost by running hostname localhost It's strange that it's not setup properly. So, I no longer had any possibility to intervene at tasks normally acessible to root or superuser... except if this could be done in Gnome environment, where my pasword still worked... but nothing accessible from an Xterm. Sudo worked all right at the beginning, but it no longer did. I spent a lot of time trying to overcome this, and, in the end, I decided to try ... re-installing Ubuntu from the built-in installation shell. Indeed, I have not felt sorry for having done so, since it was very fast (less that 30 minutes or so, with no questions except in the five last minutes). In the end, I got my system as it was a few days ago, when unpacking. So the sudo fonction did work again... but not for long ! This time, I know what I did just before it failed : Manual network configuration = General Host parameters Hostname : dell- desktop Domain name : blank space here Since I could not find a way to get my WiFi connexion working, I wondered if I should write a domain name. On one of my other computers, the domain name is localdomain... so, I wrote the same thing in the blank space. Needless to say that this did not change anything in my connections. But, ever since then, any call to sudo, gave the same answer as previously mentioned, that is : sudo: unable to resolve host dell-desktop Problem is that, once I removed that domain name from the host parameters box,it did not change anything to my problem with sudo... I maybe forced to re-re-install again ! But then, chances are great that this bug or another one will force me to re-install quite often :) I expect not to have to go through that once I have programs and data installed on this system :( Now, as far as WiFi connexions are concerned, I spent a lot of time, with absolutely no result or quite nearly so. Indeed, I have succeeded in a real normal connection, with my Livebox set to no encryption, and after I disabled the MAC authentification. Then I set my machine to WEP encryption, and then, after a thousand and one trials (well, maybe a little less than that), I got ONE connexion ONCE, it was a real one (82%), and workable one (I tried web pages using Hardy Heron (Firefox)... but it did work no longer that 2 or 3 minutes, after that time the icon stayed there and kept telling 82%, but I could no longer access the web, and a ping 192.168.1.1 resulted in Network Unreachable. I was unable to re-connect, even once. I haven't retried WPA, since there are no reasons that it would work any better than before. what is the output of ifconfig and iwconfig? Yes, I do have wpa_supplicant... but with no config file. In any case, you should not need to fiddle with that on a system that is supposed to be especially installed for that purpose ; you should be able to connect out of the box. I recall that I can't go fiddling with /etc/network/interfaces or launch ifup wlan0, since sudo is not You don't need to play with it if you are using network-manager or wcid, if you are trying to connect without something that sets wpa than you will need a config file. If you are using these you will need to make sure that the interfaces don't appear in /etc/network/interfaces (which means that ifup wlan0 won't work anyway) accessible ; however, at the time when this was still possible, the trials that I carried with interfaces did not lead to anywhere on this system. In the meantime, so as to check if my Livebox was still operating, I restarted my old Thinkpad 600 under Debian Lenny, and I could wifi wep connect right away using ifup wlan0 ; the connection is still up after more than one hour. sounds like there is something wrong since from my experience ubuntu should work out of the box with this (it will probably ask you to install the firmware for the iwl3945 since it's in non-free though) Thanks in advance for more hints Thanks for your help. I have succeeded in overcoming my sudo problem, once I had added 127.0.1.1 dell-desktop.local dell-desktop in my /etc/host file. I had to add this from the recovery mode. Sudo now works. As for WiFi... I am
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
On Sun, 11 Jan 2009 01:58:49 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Micha Feigin wrote: [...] Hi Micha, Hi to Everyone, Thanks for your help. I have not gone very far, in spite of much time spent. I thought I ought to tell some details, especially since it might help someone else, or, maybe, convince someone else to step in and tell his/her own experience. At first, I have worked at my sudo problem on Ubunto. I briefly recall what happened : after about one day, any call to sudo ..., generated the following reply : sudo: unable to resolve host dell-desktop You need to set dell-desktop in /etc/hosts. Add a line 127.0.1.1dell-desktop.local dell-desktop otherwise look in /etc/hosts to see what you machine expects you hostname to be. You can change the hostname to localhost by running hostname localhost It's strange that it's not setup properly. So, I no longer had any possibility to intervene at tasks normally acessible to root or superuser... except if this could be done in Gnome environment, where my pasword still worked... but nothing accessible from an Xterm. Sudo worked all right at the beginning, but it no longer did. I spent a lot of time trying to overcome this, and, in the end, I decided to try ... re-installing Ubuntu from the built-in installation shell. Indeed, I have not felt sorry for having done so, since it was very fast (less that 30 minutes or so, with no questions except in the five last minutes). In the end, I got my system as it was a few days ago, when unpacking. So the sudo fonction did work again... but not for long ! This time, I know what I did just before it failed : Manual network configuration = General Host parameters Hostname : dell- desktop Domain name : blank space here Since I could not find a way to get my WiFi connexion working, I wondered if I should write a domain name. On one of my other computers, the domain name is localdomain... so, I wrote the same thing in the blank space. Needless to say that this did not change anything in my connections. But, ever since then, any call to sudo, gave the same answer as previously mentioned, that is : sudo: unable to resolve host dell-desktop Problem is that, once I removed that domain name from the host parameters box,it did not change anything to my problem with sudo... I maybe forced to re-re-install again ! But then, chances are great that this bug or another one will force me to re-install quite often :) I expect not to have to go through that once I have programs and data installed on this system :( Now, as far as WiFi connexions are concerned, I spent a lot of time, with absolutely no result or quite nearly so. Indeed, I have succeeded in a real normal connection, with my Livebox set to no encryption, and after I disabled the MAC authentification. Then I set my machine to WEP encryption, and then, after a thousand and one trials (well, maybe a little less than that), I got ONE connexion ONCE, it was a real one (82%), and workable one (I tried web pages using Hardy Heron (Firefox)... but it did work no longer that 2 or 3 minutes, after that time the icon stayed there and kept telling 82%, but I could no longer access the web, and a ping 192.168.1.1 resulted in Network Unreachable. I was unable to re-connect, even once. I haven't retried WPA, since there are no reasons that it would work any better than before. what is the output of ifconfig and iwconfig? Yes, I do have wpa_supplicant... but with no config file. In any case, you should not need to fiddle with that on a system that is supposed to be especially installed for that purpose ; you should be able to connect out of the box. I recall that I can't go fiddling with /etc/network/interfaces or launch ifup wlan0, since sudo is not You don't need to play with it if you are using network-manager or wcid, if you are trying to connect without something that sets wpa than you will need a config file. If you are using these you will need to make sure that the interfaces don't appear in /etc/network/interfaces (which means that ifup wlan0 won't work anyway) accessible ; however, at the time when this was still possible, the trials that I carried with interfaces did not lead to anywhere on this system. In the meantime, so as to check if my Livebox was still operating, I restarted my old Thinkpad 600 under Debian Lenny, and I could wifi wep connect right away using ifup wlan0 ; the connection is still up after more than one hour. sounds like there is something wrong since from my experience ubuntu should work out of the box with this (it will probably ask you to install the firmware for the iwl3945 since it's in non-free though) Thanks in advance for more hints Thanks for your help. I have succeeded in overcoming
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Micha Feigin wrote: On Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:11:29 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Hi Chris, Hi to Everyone, Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 4:44 PM Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 2:41 PM To: Stackpole, Chris Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : connection to wireless network Livebox-46db (0%). [snip] 0% is bad; especially if you have 4 bars shown. Something isn't right. Post your hardware please and let the list look at it. Have fun! ~Stack~ my hardware is available at http://www.teaser.fr/~bdebreil/test.txt I have managed to get a cable DSL connexion, just plugging the cable from my desktop, and it worked right away, so that I have been able to save the trouble of typing one line after the other. ncftp was easy enough to install for the purpose of that transfer. I just got the output of lspci at this stage. Looking at your hardware I see this: 0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) OK, I have that wireless card in one of my laptops. I know it works with Ubuntu and Debian. If it is not working with your current setup, something is buggered up. I don't claim that it is not working, I just say that I haven't been able to get it to work as far as getting a connexion to my DSL router (Livebox). To this point, I'd rather suspect that I have not properly set up the parameters. I had a hell of a hard time to get it to work, Any chance that you setup mac filtering on the router? Took me a couple of hours of serious aggravation last time I tried to setup my wifes ipod touch ... back a few month ago on my desktop with Debian Sarge. It is very complicated, to the point that, on that Desktop and Debian Sarge, I have only been able to get a WPA connexion on my DSL router box, not on places where I brought my computer (meeting rooms for associations), where it did work only under MSWIN. It worked easier with WEP encryption or no encryption. Therefore, I suspect that, if it does not work with my new DELL Inspiron under Ubuntu 8.04, it likely is because I have not properly setup parameters. Amongst most likely suspects, I would put : It may be good to test wep and/or no encription as a start to make sure that everything works and it's just an issue of setting up wep properly. I found the wcid is better at handling wpa by the way that networkmanager which keeps dropping the connection on me. Do you have wpa-supplicant installed? - improper host (my hostname is supposed to be dell-desktop ; I don't know how I got this, it is localhost on my other computers - improper way to send parameters to the system. For instance, under Debian Sarge on my desktop, my interfaces file include commands that shows passphrase under brackets, while the network manager on Ubuntu does not require brackets. There are a few details on my Interfaces file on Debian Sarge that I can't reproduce on Ubuntu, for instance the mode Managed and things of the kind. Such different ways to address parameters, is very confusing indeed ; it leads me to suspect that, as long as I have not found what is the problem, chances are rather slim that I get better results with Debian Lenny or SID. I bet that I would get a connexion right away if I changed the settings or my DSL Wifi to no encryption, or to WEP encryption, but I don't see the point of trying, since I don't intend to use any of these modes. What I did was testing that WPA wifi connexion still worked on my desktop : it does. On my new DELL laptop, no connexion works except cabled DSL connexion. However, as I said, the system works, since it detects neigbourhood wifi points, but can't connect. If you find it useful, I might try to convert my DSL wifi router to WEP encryption, but I bet it will work. Besides, I don't know how to overcome the fact that I can't use sudo : unable to resolve host dell-desktop, which prevents me to modify the file /etc/network/interfaces. I must say, however, that the content of this file does change according to what I specify in the Ubunto/Gnome network interface, so this is a proof that it all works together. Indeed that interfaces file does look funny right now ; it includes a passphrase that I have never typed
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
[...] Hi Micha, Hi to Everyone, Thanks for your help. I have not gone very far, in spite of much time spent. I thought I ought to tell some details, especially since it might help someone else, or, maybe, convince someone else to step in and tell his/her own experience. At first, I have worked at my sudo problem on Ubunto. I briefly recall what happened : after about one day, any call to sudo ..., generated the following reply : sudo: unable to resolve host dell-desktop You need to set dell-desktop in /etc/hosts. Add a line 127.0.1.1 dell-desktop.local dell-desktop otherwise look in /etc/hosts to see what you machine expects you hostname to be. You can change the hostname to localhost by running hostname localhost It's strange that it's not setup properly. So, I no longer had any possibility to intervene at tasks normally acessible to root or superuser... except if this could be done in Gnome environment, where my pasword still worked... but nothing accessible from an Xterm. Sudo worked all right at the beginning, but it no longer did. I spent a lot of time trying to overcome this, and, in the end, I decided to try ... re-installing Ubuntu from the built-in installation shell. Indeed, I have not felt sorry for having done so, since it was very fast (less that 30 minutes or so, with no questions except in the five last minutes). In the end, I got my system as it was a few days ago, when unpacking. So the sudo fonction did work again... but not for long ! This time, I know what I did just before it failed : Manual network configuration = General Host parameters Hostname : dell- desktop Domain name : blank space here Since I could not find a way to get my WiFi connexion working, I wondered if I should write a domain name. On one of my other computers, the domain name is localdomain... so, I wrote the same thing in the blank space. Needless to say that this did not change anything in my connections. But, ever since then, any call to sudo, gave the same answer as previously mentioned, that is : sudo: unable to resolve host dell-desktop Problem is that, once I removed that domain name from the host parameters box,it did not change anything to my problem with sudo... I maybe forced to re-re-install again ! But then, chances are great that this bug or another one will force me to re-install quite often :) I expect not to have to go through that once I have programs and data installed on this system :( Now, as far as WiFi connexions are concerned, I spent a lot of time, with absolutely no result or quite nearly so. Indeed, I have succeeded in a real normal connection, with my Livebox set to no encryption, and after I disabled the MAC authentification. Then I set my machine to WEP encryption, and then, after a thousand and one trials (well, maybe a little less than that), I got ONE connexion ONCE, it was a real one (82%), and workable one (I tried web pages using Hardy Heron (Firefox)... but it did work no longer that 2 or 3 minutes, after that time the icon stayed there and kept telling 82%, but I could no longer access the web, and a ping 192.168.1.1 resulted in Network Unreachable. I was unable to re-connect, even once. I haven't retried WPA, since there are no reasons that it would work any better than before. what is the output of ifconfig and iwconfig? Yes, I do have wpa_supplicant... but with no config file. In any case, you should not need to fiddle with that on a system that is supposed to be especially installed for that purpose ; you should be able to connect out of the box. I recall that I can't go fiddling with /etc/network/interfaces or launch ifup wlan0, since sudo is not You don't need to play with it if you are using network-manager or wcid, if you are trying to connect without something that sets wpa than you will need a config file. If you are using these you will need to make sure that the interfaces don't appear in /etc/network/interfaces (which means that ifup wlan0 won't work anyway) accessible ; however, at the time when this was still possible, the trials that I carried with interfaces did not lead to anywhere on this system. In the meantime, so as to check if my Livebox was still operating, I restarted my old Thinkpad 600 under Debian Lenny, and I could wifi wep connect right away using ifup wlan0 ; the connection is still up after more than one hour. sounds like there is something wrong since from my experience ubuntu should work out of the box with this (it will probably ask you to install the firmware for the iwl3945 since it's in non-free though) Thanks in advance for more hints -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
RE: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 4:44 PM Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 2:41 PM To: Stackpole, Chris Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : connection to wireless network Livebox-46db (0%). [snip] 0% is bad; especially if you have 4 bars shown. Something isn't right. Post your hardware please and let the list look at it. Have fun! ~Stack~ my hardware is available at http://www.teaser.fr/~bdebreil/test.txt I have managed to get a cable DSL connexion, just plugging the cable from my desktop, and it worked right away, so that I have been able to save the trouble of typing one line after the other. ncftp was easy enough to install for the purpose of that transfer. I just got the output of lspci at this stage. Looking at your hardware I see this: 0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) OK, I have that wireless card in one of my laptops. I know it works with Ubuntu and Debian. If it is not working with your current setup, something is buggered up. Do you have the ability to download either the Debian or the Ubuntu live CD's? You mentioned before you were looking to find out if all the hardware worked properly and I see no reason why the LiveCD's wouldn't tell you that. I don't know how the laptop came to you preconfigured, and I think that a clean run of a LiveCD would be just as good at determining if the hardware worked properly. If you get it to work with a LiveCD then it is the configuration; if not then it might be the hardware. Do you get restore discs with the laptop? That way if you do not have access to the LiveCD's (restricted internet access or something) then you should be able to do a fresh install of Lenny and have the drivers work right away. Should you have problems you can restore the original install to call tech support. Hope this helps. Have fun! ~S~ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
On Wednesday 2009 January 07 08:22:06 Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] I just got the output of lspci at this stage. Looking at your hardware I see this: 0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) This works with the ipw3945 driver in the etch kernel. This works with the iwl3945 driver (plus firmware from non-free[1]) in the etchnhalf kernel. Not sure about the Lenny kernel, but it probably also requires firmware from non-free. -- Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =. b...@iguanasuicide.net ((_/)o o(\_)) ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-' http://iguanasuicide.net/ \_/ [1] Not sure how long this will be true, ISTR a debian-vote to assume firmware blobs satisfy the GPL until there's evidence otherwise. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part.
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 08:22:06 -0600 Stackpole, Chris cstackp...@barbnet.com wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 4:44 PM Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 2:41 PM To: Stackpole, Chris Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : connection to wireless network Livebox-46db (0%). [snip] 0% is bad; especially if you have 4 bars shown. Something isn't right. Post your hardware please and let the list look at it. Have fun! ~Stack~ my hardware is available at http://www.teaser.fr/~bdebreil/test.txt I have managed to get a cable DSL connexion, just plugging the cable from my desktop, and it worked right away, so that I have been able to save the trouble of typing one line after the other. ncftp was easy enough to install for the purpose of that transfer. I just got the output of lspci at this stage. Looking at your hardware I see this: 0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) you want the driver from (compat wireless) http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Download you also need firmware (nonfree so not available on live cd) aptitude install firmware-iwlwifi There is also a version in the kernel for the driver so getting the firmware may be enough OK, I have that wireless card in one of my laptops. I know it works with Ubuntu and Debian. If it is not working with your current setup, something is buggered up. Do you have the ability to download either the Debian or the Ubuntu live CD's? You mentioned before you were looking to find out if all the hardware worked properly and I see no reason why the LiveCD's wouldn't tell you that. I don't know how the laptop came to you preconfigured, and I think that a clean run of a LiveCD would be just as good at determining if the hardware worked properly. If you get it to work with a LiveCD then it is the configuration; if not then it might be the hardware. Do you get restore discs with the laptop? That way if you do not have access to the LiveCD's (restricted internet access or something) then you should be able to do a fresh install of Lenny and have the drivers work right away. Should you have problems you can restore the original install to call tech support. Hope this helps. Have fun! ~S~ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Hi Chris, Hi to Everyone, Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 4:44 PM Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 2:41 PM To: Stackpole, Chris Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : connection to wireless network Livebox-46db (0%). [snip] 0% is bad; especially if you have 4 bars shown. Something isn't right. Post your hardware please and let the list look at it. Have fun! ~Stack~ my hardware is available at http://www.teaser.fr/~bdebreil/test.txt I have managed to get a cable DSL connexion, just plugging the cable from my desktop, and it worked right away, so that I have been able to save the trouble of typing one line after the other. ncftp was easy enough to install for the purpose of that transfer. I just got the output of lspci at this stage. Looking at your hardware I see this: 0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) OK, I have that wireless card in one of my laptops. I know it works with Ubuntu and Debian. If it is not working with your current setup, something is buggered up. I don't claim that it is not working, I just say that I haven't been able to get it to work as far as getting a connexion to my DSL router (Livebox). To this point, I'd rather suspect that I have not properly set up the parameters. I had a hell of a hard time to get it to work, back a few month ago on my desktop with Debian Sarge. It is very complicated, to the point that, on that Desktop and Debian Sarge, I have only been able to get a WPA connexion on my DSL router box, not on places where I brought my computer (meeting rooms for associations), where it did work only under MSWIN. It worked easier with WEP encryption or no encryption. Therefore, I suspect that, if it does not work with my new DELL Inspiron under Ubuntu 8.04, it likely is because I have not properly setup parameters. Amongst most likely suspects, I would put : - improper host (my hostname is supposed to be dell-desktop ; I don't know how I got this, it is localhost on my other computers - improper way to send parameters to the system. For instance, under Debian Sarge on my desktop, my interfaces file include commands that shows passphrase under brackets, while the network manager on Ubuntu does not require brackets. There are a few details on my Interfaces file on Debian Sarge that I can't reproduce on Ubuntu, for instance the mode Managed and things of the kind. Such different ways to address parameters, is very confusing indeed ; it leads me to suspect that, as long as I have not found what is the problem, chances are rather slim that I get better results with Debian Lenny or SID. I bet that I would get a connexion right away if I changed the settings or my DSL Wifi to no encryption, or to WEP encryption, but I don't see the point of trying, since I don't intend to use any of these modes. What I did was testing that WPA wifi connexion still worked on my desktop : it does. On my new DELL laptop, no connexion works except cabled DSL connexion. However, as I said, the system works, since it detects neigbourhood wifi points, but can't connect. If you find it useful, I might try to convert my DSL wifi router to WEP encryption, but I bet it will work. Besides, I don't know how to overcome the fact that I can't use sudo : unable to resolve host dell-desktop, which prevents me to modify the file /etc/network/interfaces. I must say, however, that the content of this file does change according to what I specify in the Ubunto/Gnome network interface, so this is a proof that it all works together. Indeed that interfaces file does look funny right now ; it includes a passphrase that I have never typed, and that is a lot longer than that I have typed. I must precise that, just in case you wouldn't have noticed, I am close to an ignorant as far as wifi config is concerned. At one time, amongst the so numerous options that were offered, I was proposed to type a network pasword. I thought I had to type the WPA TKIP passphrase, so I did... but, two or three caracters before the end, no more was accepted... So it appears that I was supposed to type something else, or nothing at all. It maybe that my typings were translated into a passphrase, which can't be the right one... All this is so very confusing for a newbee... Thanks for more help, on a more ground level basis. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
On Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:11:29 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Hi Chris, Hi to Everyone, Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 4:44 PM Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 2:41 PM To: Stackpole, Chris Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : connection to wireless network Livebox-46db (0%). [snip] 0% is bad; especially if you have 4 bars shown. Something isn't right. Post your hardware please and let the list look at it. Have fun! ~Stack~ my hardware is available at http://www.teaser.fr/~bdebreil/test.txt I have managed to get a cable DSL connexion, just plugging the cable from my desktop, and it worked right away, so that I have been able to save the trouble of typing one line after the other. ncftp was easy enough to install for the purpose of that transfer. I just got the output of lspci at this stage. Looking at your hardware I see this: 0b:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02) OK, I have that wireless card in one of my laptops. I know it works with Ubuntu and Debian. If it is not working with your current setup, something is buggered up. I don't claim that it is not working, I just say that I haven't been able to get it to work as far as getting a connexion to my DSL router (Livebox). To this point, I'd rather suspect that I have not properly set up the parameters. I had a hell of a hard time to get it to work, Any chance that you setup mac filtering on the router? Took me a couple of hours of serious aggravation last time I tried to setup my wifes ipod touch ... back a few month ago on my desktop with Debian Sarge. It is very complicated, to the point that, on that Desktop and Debian Sarge, I have only been able to get a WPA connexion on my DSL router box, not on places where I brought my computer (meeting rooms for associations), where it did work only under MSWIN. It worked easier with WEP encryption or no encryption. Therefore, I suspect that, if it does not work with my new DELL Inspiron under Ubuntu 8.04, it likely is because I have not properly setup parameters. Amongst most likely suspects, I would put : It may be good to test wep and/or no encription as a start to make sure that everything works and it's just an issue of setting up wep properly. I found the wcid is better at handling wpa by the way that networkmanager which keeps dropping the connection on me. Do you have wpa-supplicant installed? - improper host (my hostname is supposed to be dell-desktop ; I don't know how I got this, it is localhost on my other computers - improper way to send parameters to the system. For instance, under Debian Sarge on my desktop, my interfaces file include commands that shows passphrase under brackets, while the network manager on Ubuntu does not require brackets. There are a few details on my Interfaces file on Debian Sarge that I can't reproduce on Ubuntu, for instance the mode Managed and things of the kind. Such different ways to address parameters, is very confusing indeed ; it leads me to suspect that, as long as I have not found what is the problem, chances are rather slim that I get better results with Debian Lenny or SID. I bet that I would get a connexion right away if I changed the settings or my DSL Wifi to no encryption, or to WEP encryption, but I don't see the point of trying, since I don't intend to use any of these modes. What I did was testing that WPA wifi connexion still worked on my desktop : it does. On my new DELL laptop, no connexion works except cabled DSL connexion. However, as I said, the system works, since it detects neigbourhood wifi points, but can't connect. If you find it useful, I might try to convert my DSL wifi router to WEP encryption, but I bet it will work. Besides, I don't know how to overcome the fact that I can't use sudo : unable to resolve host dell-desktop, which prevents me to modify the file /etc/network/interfaces. I must say, however, that the content of this file does change according to what I specify in the Ubunto/Gnome network interface, so this is a proof that it all works together. Indeed that interfaces file does look funny right now ; it includes a passphrase that I have never typed, and that is a lot longer than that I have typed. I must precise that, just in case
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
2009/1/6 Koh Choon Lin kohchoonl...@gmail.com: Do you think that just any usb mouse will do the job, or have I better ordering a specific DELL mouse ? OT: I am looking for a three button mouse but I do not seems to find one wheel-less. Anyone has an idea? I do not recall _ever_ seeing a USB three-button mouse without a wheel. -- Dotan Cohen http://what-is-what.com http://gibberish.co.il א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת ا-ب-ت-ث-ج-ح-خ-د-ذ-ر-ز-س-ش-ص-ض-ط-ظ-ع-غ-ف-ق-ك-ل-م-ن-ه-و-ي А-Б-В-Г-Д-Е-Ё-Ж-З-И-Й-К-Л-М-Н-О-П-Р-С-Т-У-Ф-Х-Ц-Ч-Ш-Щ-Ъ-Ы-Ь-Э-Ю-Я а-б-в-г-д-е-ё-ж-з-и-й-к-л-м-н-о-п-р-с-т-у-ф-х-ц-ч-ш-щ-ъ-ы-ь-э-ю-я ä-ö-ü-ß-Ä-Ö-Ü
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Koh Choon Lin wrote: Do you think that just any usb mouse will do the job, or have I better ordering a specific DELL mouse ? OT: I am looking for a three button mouse but I do not seems to find one wheel-less. Anyone has an idea? You had mentioned earlier that you were unfamiliar with USB mice, so I just wanted to make sure you understand that the scroll wheel doubles as the third button. (Also, you probably want an optical mouse rather than a roller-ball mouse; fewer moving parts, more reliable generally.) -- Kent West ))) Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
OT: I am looking for a three button mouse but I do not seems to find one wheel-less. Anyone has an idea? I do not recall _ever_ seeing a USB three-button mouse without a wheel. I am currently using such a mouse from Sun. Too bad its failing and I hope to get a replacement soon. http://www.actionpc.com/ebay_tools/hotlink/imgproc.php?pic=/home/actionpc/public_html/ebaypix/sunusbmnkb-01.jpg -- Koh Choon Lin -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Koh Choon Lin wrote: OT: I am looking for a three button mouse but I do not seems to find one wheel-less. Anyone has an idea? I do not recall _ever_ seeing a USB three-button mouse without a wheel. I am currently using such a mouse from Sun. Too bad its failing and I hope to get a replacement soon. http://www.actionpc.com/ebay_tools/hotlink/imgproc.php?pic=/home/actionpc/public_html/ebaypix/sunusbmnkb-01.jpg Oh I hated those mice! Mostly because they don't have a scroll wheel; you get spoiled to a scroll wheel really fast. (You also get spoiled to the two-finger scrolling on a track-pad fast too. I love it on my Debian lappy and on my Macbook; I get so frustrated when I sit down at a Windows laptop and don't have that feature.) -- Kent West ))) Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
RE: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 3:30 PM Subject: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far ! The UBUNTU v8.04 Gnome Desktop proposes a few things to get wifi working, but it does not work here. On my Desktop computer (running on Debian Sarge half upgraded to Etch), WiFi works on my DSL box/router, whether with WEP or WPA encryption. My old Thinkpad 600 worked WiFi only on WEP encryption. This one does not work at all so far ; no doubt that it is my mistake, but I'd like to kwow which one is mine. The automated process network tools has not given any success. I have tried to insert my WPA encryption key in /etc/network/interfaces as I have done on my Desktop, but I had no success. A ping on 192.168.1.1 gives no result either. I have not forgotten to switch the side button that is supposed to switch the network ON/OFF. If you have not used Ubuntu recently, the wireless configurations are /much/ different then they were in Debian Etch. Try using network manager; I bet the icon is in the top right of your screen by the clock (looks like 2 computers). Left click to see the wireless networks it has found, right click to see the properties information. Also, right after a fresh boot up, it will take a few minutes for it to scan/find wireless networks (I kid you not, it takes a full 2 minutes to find my wireless network on my Ubuntu 8.10 laptop). So give it time. Once it scans the area, it should present a drop down menu of all the wireless networks found (left click). If you have your SSID set to hidden you will have to select the connect to Hidden Network option. Both options bring you to the same menu where you can define your network, your encryption, and your password/phrase. That should be it to get you connected. If you try to do networking/wireless the Debian way in Ubuntu, you have to disable/remove network manager first. You will have issues if you don't. You will probably find that people tend to either love or loath network manager. Do you recommend to give it a quick extra trial before installing Debian Lenny, or have I better switch right away ? I would give it a trial. Also, please do yourself and anyone helping you a favor and look at the hardware before hand. I have heard several stories of these laptops being shipped with binary blobs for drivers. Also, a friend got one of the first Ubuntu-preinstalled Dell laptops. We were unable to get Etch to install and we were unable to get Lenny working right. The latest Sid and Ubuntu worked though (This was almost a year ago so I hope things have changed for the better). If I were you I would look through all the hardware and do a few Google searches to make sure that the Debian version you are going to install will work (or at least find out how much work it will take to get the drivers to work). I hope this helps. May the drivers be included on install and your configuration smooth! Have fun! ~Stack~ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
RE: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
From: Stackpole, Chris [mailto:cstackp...@barbnet.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 8:25 AM Subject: RE: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 3:30 PM Subject: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far ! The UBUNTU v8.04 Gnome Desktop proposes a few things to get wifi working, but it does not work here. On my Desktop computer (running on Debian Sarge half upgraded to Etch), WiFi works on my DSL box/router, whether with WEP or WPA encryption. My old Thinkpad 600 worked WiFi only on WEP encryption. This one does not work at all so far ; no doubt that it is my mistake, but I'd like to kwow which one is mine. The automated process network tools has not given any success. I have tried to insert my WPA encryption key in /etc/network/interfaces as I have done on my Desktop, but I had no success. A ping on 192.168.1.1 gives no result either. I have not forgotten to switch the side button that is supposed to switch the network ON/OFF. If you have not used Ubuntu recently, the wireless configurations are /much/ different then they were in Debian Etch. Try using network manager; I bet the icon is in the top right of your screen by the clock (looks like 2 computers). Left click to see the wireless networks it has found, right click to see the properties information. Also, right after a fresh boot up, it will take a few minutes for it to scan/find wireless networks (I kid you not, it takes a full 2 minutes to find my wireless network on my Ubuntu 8.10 laptop). So give it time. Once it scans the area, it should present a drop down menu of all the wireless networks found (left click). If you have your SSID set to hidden you will have to select the connect to Hidden Network option. Both options bring you to the same menu where you can define your network, your encryption, and your password/phrase. That should be it to get you connected. If you try to do networking/wireless the Debian way in Ubuntu, you have to disable/remove network manager first. You will have issues if you don't. You will probably find that people tend to either love or loath network manager. Do you recommend to give it a quick extra trial before installing Debian Lenny, or have I better switch right away ? I would give it a trial. Also, please do yourself and anyone helping you a favor and look at the hardware before hand. I have heard several stories of these laptops being shipped with binary blobs for drivers. Also, a friend got one of the first Ubuntu-preinstalled Dell laptops. We were unable to get Etch to install and we were unable to get Lenny working right. The latest Sid and Ubuntu worked though (This was almost a year ago so I hope things have changed for the better). If I were you I would look through all the hardware and do a few Google searches to make sure that the Debian version you are going to install will work (or at least find out how much work it will take to get the drivers to work). I hope this helps. May the drivers be included on install and your configuration smooth! Have fun! ~Stack~ One thing I wanted to add to this (just remembered while answering another topic). Debian does have Live CD's that can be tested out [1]. I have had a few issues with them not detecting hardware yet the install had no problems at all. Most of the time these issues have been a simple fix (a module not being loaded or something easy like that). They should be good enough for you to see how much work it is going to require for your devices to function properly. Plus you can test out Etch, Lenny, and Sid to see which one works best for you. That way you don't have to spend time to do multiple installs. Hope everything goes smoothly for you! Have fun! ~Stack~ [1] http://live.debian.net/cdimage/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
2009/1/6 Kent West we...@acu.edu: Oh I hated those mice! Mostly because they don't have a scroll wheel; you get spoiled to a scroll wheel really fast. That is quite what the OP wanted. (You also get spoiled to the two-finger scrolling on a track-pad fast too. I love it on my Debian lappy and on my Macbook; I get so frustrated when I sit down at a Windows laptop and don't have that feature.) What's that? Link, please! -- Dotan Cohen http://what-is-what.com http://gibberish.co.il א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת ا-ب-ت-ث-ج-ح-خ-د-ذ-ر-ز-س-ش-ص-ض-ط-ظ-ع-غ-ف-ق-ك-ل-م-ن-ه-و-ي А-Б-В-Г-Д-Е-Ё-Ж-З-И-Й-К-Л-М-Н-О-П-Р-С-Т-У-Ф-Х-Ц-Ч-Ш-Щ-Ъ-Ы-Ь-Э-Ю-Я а-б-в-г-д-е-ё-ж-з-и-й-к-л-м-н-о-п-р-с-т-у-ф-х-ц-ч-ш-щ-ъ-ы-ь-э-ю-я ä-ö-ü-ß-Ä-Ö-Ü
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
On Tue, 6 Jan 2009 19:29:31 +0800 Koh Choon Lin kohchoonl...@gmail.com wrote: Do you think that just any usb mouse will do the job, or have I better ordering a specific DELL mouse ? OT: I am looking for a three button mouse but I do not seems to find one wheel-less. Anyone has an idea? There used to be an ergonomic (right handed) mouse like that from logitec but it was quite a few years back so I don't know if they still exist. Haven't seen any lately. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Dotan Cohen wrote: 2009/1/6 Kent West we...@acu.edu: (You also get spoiled to the two-finger scrolling on a track-pad fast too. I love it on my Debian lappy and on my Macbook; I get so frustrated when I sit down at a Windows laptop and don't have that feature. What's that? Link, please http://www.symphonious.net/2007/05/22/two-finger-scrolling-rocks/ http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=26480 (the second posting, by roadnottaken) -- Kent West *))) http://kentwest.blogspot.com -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
2009/1/6 Kent West we...@acu.edu: What's that? Link, please http://www.symphonious.net/2007/05/22/two-finger-scrolling-rocks/ http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=26480 (the second posting, by roadnottaken) Excellent, thanks! You don't want to know what google thinks I'm searching for when I enter two fingers. -- Dotan Cohen http://what-is-what.com http://gibberish.co.il א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת ا-ب-ت-ث-ج-ح-خ-د-ذ-ر-ز-س-ش-ص-ض-ط-ظ-ع-غ-ف-ق-ك-ل-م-ن-ه-و-ي А-Б-В-Г-Д-Е-Ё-Ж-З-И-Й-К-Л-М-Н-О-П-Р-С-Т-У-Ф-Х-Ц-Ч-Ш-Щ-Ъ-Ы-Ь-Э-Ю-Я а-б-в-г-д-е-ё-ж-з-и-й-к-л-м-н-о-п-р-с-т-у-ф-х-ц-ч-ш-щ-ъ-ы-ь-э-ю-я ä-ö-ü-ß-Ä-Ö-Ü
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 3:30 PM Subject: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far ! The UBUNTU v8.04 Gnome Desktop proposes a few things to get wifi working, but it does not work here. On my Desktop computer (running on Debian Sarge half upgraded to Etch), WiFi works on my DSL box/router, whether with WEP or WPA encryption. My old Thinkpad 600 worked WiFi only on WEP encryption. This one does not work at all so far ; no doubt that it is my mistake, but I'd like to kwow which one is mine. The automated process network tools has not given any success. I have tried to insert my WPA encryption key in /etc/network/interfaces as I have done on my Desktop, but I had no success. A ping on 192.168.1.1 gives no result either. I have not forgotten to switch the side button that is supposed to switch the network ON/OFF. If you have not used Ubuntu recently, This is my first encounter with Ubuntu... and it is rather hard, ever since I also have to cope with Gnome which is also not familiar to me (used to fvwm). One of the first things that I learnt about Ubunto, is that, by default, the user cannot become superuser (su) using the root pasword ; also, when you open your new machine with Ubuntu installed, it is not being proposed that you register a user root. Instead, you are supposed, for any action that requires permission, to type : sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart (for instance), and the system then requires you to provide your own user pasword. Problem is that it no longer works here, and I don't know how to recover from this. I don't know why it no longer works, I gwess I must have changed something in my config, local parameters or else. It says : sudo : unable to resolve host dell-desktop The shell that appears on my Xterm is : b...@dell-desktop:-$ I can't remember what that shell was yesterday, maybe it has changed... it was 3 in the morning. In any case I hope I can get this fixed. the wireless configurations are /much/ different then they were in Debian Etch. Try using network manager; I bet the icon is in the top right of your screen by the clock (looks like 2 computers). Left click to see the wireless networks it has found, right click to see the properties information. I have just tried this. A left click on the icon just proposes a manual config (it also shows a grayed line Cabled network. After awhile, a box appears though, but the box is blank. At this stage, the system has been up for at least 30 minutes. So, I clicked to manual config. Once there and after authentification with my pasword (it still works there), I clicked on wireless connexion and properties. Once there, I deactivated the roaming mode (I hope there is no confusion in the translation, since most everything is in French on that laptop). Once that mode deactivated, the blue network light came on in the front left of the machine ; it was out before... Ah YES, I just carried another trial... true enough, the blue light did come in only after I deactivated roaming, but, this time, when I tried to reactivate it, the light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : connection to wireless network Livebox-46db (0%). Now, if I ping my livebox, it says Network is unreachable and, if I launch Firefox, http addresses are not found. While testing on my desktop on Debian Sarge, that is, about three months ago, using ifup and ifdown and /etc/network/interfaces, I think that I found that what made the difference was the mode (Managed or else), but on that laptop with Ubuntu, I don't know how to change this ; it may also be another reason why it does not work. I will reply your other questions later on, since I am trying to get rid of my wifi problem first, also to that of my sudo pasword reckognition. Also, right after a fresh boot up, it will take a few minutes for it to scan/find wireless networks (I kid you not, it takes a full 2 minutes to find my wireless network on my Ubuntu 8.10 laptop). So give it time. Once it scans the area, it should present a drop down menu of all the wireless networks found (left click). If you have your SSID set to hidden you will have to select the connect to Hidden Network option. Both options bring you to the same menu where you can define your network, your encryption, and your password/phrase. That should be it to get you connected. If you try to do networking/wireless the Debian way in Ubuntu, you have to disable/remove network manager first. You will have issues if you don't. You will probably find that people tend to either love or loath network manager
RE: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 2:41 PM To: Stackpole, Chris Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 3:30 PM Subject: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far ! The UBUNTU v8.04 Gnome Desktop proposes a few things to get wifi working, but it does not work here. On my Desktop computer (running on Debian Sarge half upgraded to Etch), WiFi works on my DSL box/router, whether with WEP or WPA encryption. My old Thinkpad 600 worked WiFi only on WEP encryption. This one does not work at all so far ; no doubt that it is my mistake, but I'd like to kwow which one is mine. The automated process network tools has not given any success. I have tried to insert my WPA encryption key in /etc/network/interfaces as I have done on my Desktop, but I had no success. A ping on 192.168.1.1 gives no result either. I have not forgotten to switch the side button that is supposed to switch the network ON/OFF. If you have not used Ubuntu recently, This is my first encounter with Ubuntu... and it is rather hard, ever since I also have to cope with Gnome which is also not familiar to me (used to fvwm). One of the first things that I learnt about Ubunto, is that, by default, the user cannot become superuser (su) using the root password [snip] Meh, the sudo thing annoys me. I just `sudo su` and get the root prompt. I will probably get yelled at again for saying that though... the wireless configurations are /much/ different then they were in Debian Etch. Try using network manager; I bet the icon is in the top right of your screen by the clock (looks like 2 computers). Left click to see the wireless networks it has found, right click to see the properties information. I have just tried this. A left click on the icon just proposes a manual config (it also shows a grayed line Cabled network. After awhile, a box appears though, but the box is blank. At this stage, the system has been up for at least 30 minutes. So, I clicked to manual config. Once there and after authentification with my pasword (it still works there), I clicked on wireless connexion and properties. Once there, I deactivated the roaming mode (I hope there is no confusion in the translation, since most everything is in French on that laptop). Once that mode deactivated, the blue network light came on in the front left of the machine ; it was out before... Ah YES, I just carried another trial... true enough, the blue light did come in only after I deactivated roaming, but, this time, when I tried to reactivate it, the light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : connection to wireless network Livebox-46db (0%). [snip] 0% is bad; especially if you have 4 bars shown. Something isn't right. Post your hardware please and let the list look at it. Have fun! ~Stack~ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
On Tuesday 2009 January 06 14:47:19 Stackpole, Chris wrote: Meh, the sudo thing annoys me. I just `sudo su` and get the root prompt. I will probably get yelled at again for saying that though... sudo -s works even if some crazy has removed/replaced/broken in su binary. You might also want sudo su - or sudo -i instead. -- Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. ,= ,-_-. =. b...@iguanasuicide.net ((_/)o o(\_)) ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy `-'(. .)`-' http://iguanasuicide.net/ \_/ signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part.
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 2:41 PM To: Stackpole, Chris Subject: Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations Stackpole, Chris wrote: From: Bernard [mailto:bdebr...@teaser.fr] Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 3:30 PM Subject: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations [snip] For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far ! The UBUNTU v8.04 Gnome Desktop proposes a few things to get wifi working, but it does not work here. On my Desktop computer (running on Debian Sarge half upgraded to Etch), WiFi works on my DSL box/router, whether with WEP or WPA encryption. My old Thinkpad 600 worked WiFi only on WEP encryption. This one does not work at all so far ; no doubt that it is my mistake, but I'd like to kwow which one is mine. The automated process network tools has not given any success. I have tried to insert my WPA encryption key in /etc/network/interfaces as I have done on my Desktop, but I had no success. A ping on 192.168.1.1 gives no result either. I have not forgotten to switch the side button that is supposed to switch the network ON/OFF. If you have not used Ubuntu recently, This is my first encounter with Ubuntu... and it is rather hard, ever since I also have to cope with Gnome which is also not familiar to me (used to fvwm). One of the first things that I learnt about Ubunto, is that, by default, the user cannot become superuser (su) using the root password [snip] Meh, the sudo thing annoys me. I just `sudo su` and get the root prompt. I will probably get yelled at again for saying that though... the wireless configurations are /much/ different then they were in Debian Etch. Try using network manager; I bet the icon is in the top right of your screen by the clock (looks like 2 computers). Left click to see the wireless networks it has found, right click to see the properties information. I have just tried this. A left click on the icon just proposes a manual config (it also shows a grayed line Cabled network. After awhile, a box appears though, but the box is blank. At this stage, the system has been up for at least 30 minutes. So, I clicked to manual config. Once there and after authentification with my pasword (it still works there), I clicked on wireless connexion and properties. Once there, I deactivated the roaming mode (I hope there is no confusion in the translation, since most everything is in French on that laptop). Once that mode deactivated, the blue network light came on in the front left of the machine ; it was out before... Ah YES, I just carried another trial... true enough, the blue light did come in only after I deactivated roaming, but, this time, when I tried to reactivate it, the light did not came out and I got two networks available, one is my neigbour's, the other one is mine. I gave the pasword as required, and it seems to reach a connexion... the former icon is being replaced by four bars... If I get the pointer on it, it says : connection to wireless network Livebox-46db (0%). [snip] 0% is bad; especially if you have 4 bars shown. Something isn't right. Post your hardware please and let the list look at it. Have fun! ~Stack~ my hardware is available at http://www.teaser.fr/~bdebreil/test.txt I have managed to get a cable DSL connexion, just plugging the cable from my desktop, and it worked right away, so that I have been able to save the trouble of typing one line after the other. ncftp was easy enough to install for the purpose of that transfer. I just got the output of lspci at this stage. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Kent West: Dotan Cohen wrote: 2009/1/6 Kent West we...@acu.edu: (You also get spoiled to the two-finger scrolling on a track-pad fast too. I love it on my Debian lappy and on my Macbook; I get so frustrated when I sit down at a Windows laptop and don't have that feature. What's that? Link, please http://www.symphonious.net/2007/05/22/two-finger-scrolling-rocks/ AFAICS, that's almost exactly what the synaptics touchpad in my five year old laptop could do. It didn't have two-finger scrolling but there were scrolling regions (to the left and the bottom by default) and two-finger click was interpreted as middle click (nice for Firefox). You could even have right clicke by tapping in the bottom right corner. I really liked these features as well. But I must say that I really like the trackpoint of my Thinkpad X200 (doesn't have a touchpad) as well. Scrolling works by pressing the middle button and bending the trackpoint. I got used to the little thing in almost no time (less than two weeks). J. -- I spend money without thinking on products and clothes that I believe will enhance my social standing. [Agree] [Disagree] http://www.slowlydownward.com/NODATA/data_enter2.html signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Do you think that just any usb mouse will do the job, or have I better ordering a specific DELL mouse ? OT: I am looking for a three button mouse but I do not seems to find one wheel-less. Anyone has an idea? -- Koh Choon Lin -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Hi to Everyone, I've received my new DELL Inspiron 1525... It surely takes some time to get used to such a difference, whatever you speak of the overall size, the keyboard, Ubuntu... and, above all, the touchpad, which I find absolutely horrible. I thought I could just plug any spare mouse, but I now realize that it has to be an USB mouse... didn't even know about these, this is to say how old is my equipment :) Do you think that just any usb mouse will do the job, or have I better ordering a specific DELL mouse ? I can't keep using that touchpad. The plate is not hard enough, and the course of your pointer does vary depending of how light or heavy is the touch ; most times it appears difficult to go from one screen end to the other. Doing this, if your pointer stays more that a few tenth of a second on a live word, it will carry you there, even without any button pressing. On my old thinkpad, there was a red button in the midst of the keyboard, and it was just wonderful, compared to that failure... To the Ubuntu GNOME desktop, I have to get used to, at least for some time, since I am planning to install Debian Lenny instead, as soon as possible, but not before I have checked that everything worked as is, especially WiFi. For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far ! The UBUNTU v8.04 Gnome Desktop proposes a few things to get wifi working, but it does not work here. On my Desktop computer (running on Debian Sarge half upgraded to Etch), WiFi works on my DSL box/router, whether with WEP or WPA encryption. My old Thinkpad 600 worked WiFi only on WEP encryption. This one does not work at all so far ; no doubt that it is my mistake, but I'd like to kwow which one is mine. The automated process network tools has not given any success. I have tried to insert my WPA encryption key in /etc/network/interfaces as I have done on my Desktop, but I had no success. A ping on 192.168.1.1 gives no result either. I have not forgotten to switch the side button that is supposed to switch the network ON/OFF. Do you recommend to give it a quick extra trial before installing Debian Lenny, or have I better switch right away ? Micha Feigin wrote: On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:38:39 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Micha Feigin wrote: On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 15:05:31 +0100 Vincent Lefevre vinc...@vinc17.org wrote: On 2009-01-04 11:28:10 -0200, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote: And BTW, the ThinkPads will waste up to 3W more in Linux than in Windows, so keep that in mind when you look at battery life figures. Is there any reason? Is this specific to ThinkPads? From talks on linux-thinkpad it is not currently know exactly why, mostly speculations. Either more agresive throttling of the graphics chip and/or putting pci to sleep. Possibly more optimizations What I can say is that, with my old Thinkpad 600 then running under RedHat 7.2, I could expect at least three hours of work with the battery, even three and a half hours when the battery was new (I used that thing for about 6-7 years, and this is my third battery). Even though I did have a small MSWIN partition (Windows 98), I have never used it long enough to evaluate how long my laptop would work on battery under that OS, but I doubt that it would have be 3X more, that is 9 to 10 hours. This Thinkpad 600 was just a perfect machine. It ran at least 4 hours a day, often 6-8 hours daily for more than 5 years ; everything worked perfectly. I still have that machine, but then I was unable to get satisfactory results when it came to operate WiFi. With WEP encription it worked OK, but no workable issue with WPA. I then tried to install Debian Etch, which worked OK, but not with WPA. Also, using Debian Etch, a few utilities are not working properly, such as fan management and sleep and hibernation modes, which worked perfectly under RedHat 7.2, to the point that I rarely shutdown ; I just closed the lid. Under Debian Etch, the log messages say about fan and sleep management : BIOS too old... I bet I could overcome this, but I thought time might have come My guess is that the laptop uses APM which is really old. Debian must have phased it out, but you can check the packages if there is still APM support instead of acpi. Otherwise you can check if there is a bios upgrade to support acpi (they will probably sell it as compatibility upgrade for win2k - thats how toshiba presented it). to get something newer, since that Thinkpad was only 300 MHz (Pentium 3) with a Hard Drive of 5 Gb. I then ordered a DELL Inspiron 1525, which I It's a lot of bang for the money, but it's a bit heavy and they save money where they don't tell you, such as the touchpad, keyboard, screen. A friend of mine got it just now, we'll see how it holds up. should receive tomorrow. This is an experiment, also a bet, with the advantage of a really
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Bernard: Do you think that just any usb mouse will do the job, or have I better ordering a specific DELL mouse ? No, any USB mouse will do. For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far ! lspci iwconfig Do you recommend to give it a quick extra trial before installing Debian Lenny, or have I better switch right away ? I don't see why you try to make it all work if you are going to throw the system away anyway. J. -- People talking a foreign language are romantic and mysterious. [Agree] [Disagree] http://www.slowlydownward.com/NODATA/data_enter2.html signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
On 01/05/09 15:41, Jochen Schulz wrote: [snip] I don't see why you try to make it all work if you are going to throw the system away anyway. Theoretically, the manufacturer has tested the stick configuration. So, if you can get it work with stock, you should be able to get it to work with a different distro. -- Ron Johnson, Jr. Jefferson LA USA I like my women like I like my coffee - purchased at above-market rates from eco-friendly organic farming cooperatives in Latin America. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: my new Inspiron - WAS: OT: laptop recomendations
Sorry, sent off list by mistake. On Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:29:36 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Hi to Everyone, I've received my new DELL Inspiron 1525... It surely takes some time to get used to such a difference, whatever you speak of the overall size, the keyboard, Ubuntu... and, above all, the touchpad, which I find absolutely horrible. I thought I could just plug any spare mouse, but I Sorry to hear that. now realize that it has to be an USB mouse... didn't even know about these, this is to say how old is my equipment :) Do you think that just any usb mouse will do the job, or have I better ordering a specific DELL mouse ? You can plug in any usb mouse you want. It's been some time since laptops came with a ps2 port. You can get a usb to ps/2 adaptor if you want but a usb mouse is probably cheaper. I can't keep using that touchpad. The plate is not hard enough, and the course of your pointer does vary depending of how light or heavy is the touch ; most times it appears difficult to go from one screen end to the other. Doing this, if your pointer stays more that a few tenth of a second on a live word, it will carry you there, even without any button pressing. On my old thinkpad, there was a red button in the midst of the keyboard, and it was just wonderful, compared to that failure... The trackpoint I believe it's called only exists on top end dells (latitudes) and thinkpads (t series, not sure if the new t500 and t400 still have it) You should try to play with the touchpad settings. It's probably and alps on that machine so it's a bit more limited than the synaptic touchpad but are still configurable. Have a look at gsynaptic (graphic) or synclient (command line, included in the synaptic x driver package) to play with the settings. You can change speed, acceleration, sensitivity and whether tapping the touchpad works as a button press. To the Ubuntu GNOME desktop, I have to get used to, at least for some time, since I am planning to install Debian Lenny instead, as soon as possible, but not before I have checked that everything worked as is, especially WiFi. For I have not been able to get WiFi working so far ! Check what wifi card you have installed (lspci possibly with -vv to get more verbose output) and we can probably help more. The UBUNTU v8.04 Gnome Desktop proposes a few things to get wifi working, but it does not work here. On my Desktop computer (running on Debian Sarge half upgraded to Etch), WiFi works on my DSL box/router, whether with WEP or WPA encryption. My old Thinkpad 600 worked WiFi only on WEP encryption. This one does not work at all so far ; no doubt that it is my mistake, but I'd like to kwow which one is mine. The automated process network tools has not given any success. I have tried to insert my WPA encryption key in /etc/network/interfaces as I have done on my Desktop, but I had no success. A ping on 192.168.1.1 gives no result either. I have not forgotten to switch the side button that is supposed to switch the network ON/OFF. Do you recommend to give it a quick extra trial before installing Debian Lenny, or have I better switch right away ? Micha Feigin wrote: On Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:38:39 +0100 Bernard bdebr...@teaser.fr wrote: Micha Feigin wrote: On Sun, 4 Jan 2009 15:05:31 +0100 Vincent Lefevre vinc...@vinc17.org wrote: On 2009-01-04 11:28:10 -0200, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote: And BTW, the ThinkPads will waste up to 3W more in Linux than in Windows, so keep that in mind when you look at battery life figures. Is there any reason? Is this specific to ThinkPads? From talks on linux-thinkpad it is not currently know exactly why, mostly speculations. Either more agresive throttling of the graphics chip and/or putting pci to sleep. Possibly more optimizations What I can say is that, with my old Thinkpad 600 then running under RedHat 7.2, I could expect at least three hours of work with the battery, even three and a half hours when the battery was new (I used that thing for about 6-7 years, and this is my third battery). Even though I did have a small MSWIN partition (Windows 98), I have never used it long enough to evaluate how long my laptop would work on battery under that OS, but I doubt that it would have be 3X more, that is 9 to 10 hours. This Thinkpad 600 was just a perfect machine. It ran at least 4 hours a day, often 6-8 hours daily for more than 5 years ; everything worked perfectly. I still have that machine, but then I was unable to get satisfactory results when it came to operate WiFi. With WEP encription it worked OK, but no workable issue with WPA. I then tried to install Debian Etch, which worked OK, but not with WPA. Also, using Debian Etch, a few utilities are not working properly, such as fan