Linux Format forums

Wireless PCI Adapter

SiriusHardware — Wed May 01, 2013 12:52 am

Author: SiriusHardware

Posted: Wed May 01, 2013 12:52 am

ferrari wrote:

An old post, but just in case someone comes searching - Intel, 3Com, D-link, Atheros, and Linksys generally all have reasonable driver support. There are lots of wireless hardware compatibility lists around, if you care to search. For example

http://linux-wless.passys.nl/

For a more specific, current (April 2013) recommendation right here - I am using a TP-Link TL-WN851N PCI (not PCI-E) card in my Debian 6 PC with V2.6 Kernel.

It has an Atheros chipset and 'Just works' with encryption up to and including WPA2. As I write this, they are available on Amazon (and probably in other places as well). Several of the Amazon reviews specifically stated that it definitely worked under Linux - that's why I originally chose it.

What extras to buy with Raspberry Pi

JohanM — Mon Apr 29, 2013 6:17 pm

Author: JohanM

Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 6:17 pm

Thanks for the tips.

Debian 6 wireless connection

SiriusHardware — Tue Apr 23, 2013 12:41 am

Author: SiriusHardware

Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 12:41 am

Just a thought: (A few actually)

-Did you set up a MAC restricted access list on your router at some point in the past? If so, obviously you'll need to add the Debian PC's wireless MAC address to the 'allowed' list.

-Is your router on channel 12 or 13 by any chance? Historically, the official wi-fi Spectrum in the USA only seems to have included channels 01-11, whereas we here have the additional 12 and 13.

Since the USA is the largest technology market in the world a significant amount of wi-fi enabled stuff is configured by default for that market, not ours, and may not work on wifi channels 12 and 13. When you install a wi-fi card under Windows the manufacturer supplied installer usually asks you for the region the card is being used in and resets the channel range accordingly. Unfortunately, they don't tend to supply such friendly installers for Linux.

I have personally encountered a good example of this syndrome: The original grey single-antenna wireless 'g' adaptor for my Xbox 360 can not see any network on channels 12 or 13 - it is an American designed product designed originally for the USA market, and the version sold to the wider world appears to be exactly the same 11-channel unit. It, or my example at least, can not see any network on channel 12 or 13.

Finally, a re-iteration of some useful advice I originally received in this forum - if the router at the heart of this problem is set to mixed WPA / WPA2 encryption mode, go into the router's settings and try setting it to WPA2 only - that solved a WPA2 connection problem for me on at least one subsequent occasion.

Best brand of hard drive for laptop use

Paradigm Shifter — Thu Apr 04, 2013 11:55 am

Author: Paradigm Shifter

Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 11:55 am

I've had no end of trouble with Seagate drives. I tend to buy Samsung drives (both 3.5" and 2.5") as they're usually cheaper than their Western Digital equivalents.

On the SSD front (if you may think about that route) I avoid OCZ like the plague as myself and my friends have had their drives die very quickly and randomly in the past... I'm also somewhat cautious about drives using a Sandforce controller, so I tend to stick with Crucial or Intel.

Linux compatible webcam and headset?

paulm — Thu Apr 04, 2013 1:37 am

Author: paulm

Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 1:37 am

towy71 wrote:

HP Pro Webcam like this

Thanks. Sorry to be slow to reply to eveyone - too many things to do....

I think I can afford one of those. And a cheap headset as well. Thanks again.

Paul.

how to restore invalid partition table

johnhudson — Sun Mar 24, 2013 9:22 pm

Author: johnhudson

Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2013 9:22 pm

Windows does not support GPT on the first hard drive and the layout with the fourth partition as an extended partition is pure MSDOS.

So try parted or gparted and if that fails System Rescue.

Ubuntu based sound problem - Cracking/Popping sounds

dvanzo — Tue Mar 19, 2013 1:02 pm

Author: dvanzo

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 1:02 pm

Just a long shot... Try to lower (once a time) using alsamixer the values for each output device/channel... I suffered a problem like this long time ago and this did the trick...

Best regards,

Daniel

What New Motherboard?

dvanzo — Tue Mar 19, 2013 12:59 pm

Author: dvanzo

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 12:59 pm

Hi!

I recently installed Ubuntu 12.04 into a new Asus p8z77-v (i7, 12Gb ram). Everything worked without problems (video, sound, wifi, etc...)

Regards,

Daniel

Choice of photo printer?

Nuke — Sun Mar 17, 2013 2:34 pm

Author: Nuke

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2013 2:34 pm

You can avoid inkjet nozzles drying out by using it say once a week. Just print a test picture, that is what I do.

Guy made this suggestion too, but said it was wasteful. However the test picture does not have to be large (the CUPS test page perhaps) and if you are not printing very much anyway then the whole cartridge is likely to dry out before it runs out, even with test printing.

It also depends on the printer; I used to have an Epson which did a self-clean that seemed to blow out a teaspoonful of ink into a special receptacle every time it was turned on. Despite that the nozzles eventually clogged anyway. I now have an HP which does not do that. HP have the best support for Linux anyway.

In the case of HP printers, my cartridges time out on the date limit before they run out. I am currently still using a set which timed out a year ago but I did a hack that over-rode the timer and put two fingers up to HP - but that is another story.

Super small and battery driven

towy71 — Mon Feb 11, 2013 10:57 pm

Author: towy71

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2013 10:57 pm

ZTE kis is a cheap android phone, I have one and it is ok and you can fit up to 32Gb microSDHC card

Monitor

Ram — Sun Jan 27, 2013 12:45 pm

Author: Ram

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 12:45 pm

I'm looking at getting a new monitor, current one is about to die.

Looking at one of these.

Code:

Asus VE247H LED LCD 23.6" HDMI Monitor

- True Resolution: 1920x1080
- ASUS Smart Contrast Ratio (ASCR): 10000000:1
- Response Time: 2ms
- Signal Input: HDMI, D-Sub, DVI-D

Anyone using this monitor or similar?

I'd like to know the actual screen hight / width.

Printing from MINT 14 Cinnamon

petlon — Fri Jan 18, 2013 12:38 pm

Author: petlon

Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 12:38 pm

Thanks for reply and ideas. I've tried all the suggestions you made but still with no success. A printer test page will work but then any further printing fails as explained above.

I have tried "live" versions of several other distros such as Ubuntu 12.10, Manjaro, Chakra on LXF DVDs and have found that if Cups v 1.6.1 is used that seems to be the problem.

I've spent hours trying to fix this problem and I'm still going round in circles - very frustrating! So I'll will stay with Mint 13 which does work OK and prints reliably. Perhaps someone will come up with a fix in due course.

Parallel Port Card Query

ferrari — Thu Jan 10, 2013 8:31 am

Author: ferrari

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 8:31 am

You may want to disable your damaged port in the BIOS as well (if possible). That way, only the good one will show up. Often, the parport_pc module must be loaded on boot, since parallel ports are not in common use any longer.

Nvidia graphics driver halting boot

Dutch_Master — Tue Jan 08, 2013 1:51 am

Author: Dutch_Master

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 1:51 am

You need to boot in "single user mode" or "rescue mode". It'll ask for the root password. Now, remove all packages related to the nVidia drivers via yum (don't use it, so someone else will tell you how to do that) and try to start X again (the startx command, IIRC). If that works, log out again. It shows that the X11 system is working, probably using the generic VESA driver. It also tells you that if anything goes wrong, the cause is the nVidia driver. Change into the directory where you stored the nVidia driver (it ends in .run) Make sure it's executable:

Code:

chmod +x NVIDIA*.run

Then execute the installer:

Code:

sh NVIDIA*.run

Use tab-completion to make this easier, just type "sh NV" (note: w/o the " please! ) then hit the tab key. It'll complete the name of the file for you. Nice feature, �h? Accept the nVidia licence and let it run. Let it change the xorg.conf file.

Eee PC and Linux pre-installed Laptops

TheWizardofOdds — Mon Jan 07, 2013 8:04 pm

Author: TheWizardofOdds

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 8:04 pm

I finally decided on a Zoostorm laptop with 2.4 ghz pentium core, 500 hd, 8gb ram and DVD drive for �260 delivered. Not bad.

I'd definitely still like an Eee or msi wind u180 for work, I really like the look of them.

I went for the Z as it seems a good all-rounder, good value and no OS installed. I think I'm going to try Mint for the laptop.

Thanks to all for the replies. When I get the Z set up I'll put a pic up...In about three months time, knowing me!