Generic Hell: June 2010

Sunday, 27 June 2010

Lips : My Achievements(1)

500x Medalist

Awarded 500 total medals - 40G

Serious Sam HD The First Encounter : My Achievements(1)

Serious Beginner

Complete any level in single player. - 10G

Red Dead Redemption : My Achievements(1)

The Gunslinger

Score a headshot on any enemy using Expert targeting mode. - 5G

Sunday, 20 June 2010

Ubuntu 10.04 : My tweaks and changes

Moving the Button Layout

I know the Ubuntu Team moved these buttons of the window bar to match Apple's OS X, but I like my buttons on the right not left. This link http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/13535/move-window-buttons-back-to-the-right-in-ubuntu-10.04/ explains how to move the buttons back or in anyway you fancy.

Changing your Computer Name

When I first installed Ubuntu 10.04, I mistyped my computer name and after searching on the 'net this is the easiest way to change the computer name.

Press Alt+F2 and type gksudo gedit /etc/hosts /etc/hostname and click Run

Now use gedit to change the computer name in both hosts and hostname, Save both files and Restart your computer and the name will change. Be warned, if the computer names don't match or you don't change both files this can cause issues.

Saturday, 19 June 2010

Ubuntu 10.04 : My 64 bit adventures

Back in July 2007, not only did I review Ubuntu 6.10, but it had become my operating system of choice. Since then I have used 7.04, 7.10 and 8.04 LTS (Long Term Support), all 32 bit, but recently with a purchase of a couple of new computers. I have moved to 10.04 64 bit, it wasn't without a couple of hardware hiccups, but this blog isn't about them, it is about issues I encountered with 64 bit, rather than 32 bit.

Adobe Flash Player 10, 64 bit

Ubuntu offers a version that uses a 64 bit wrapper on a 32 bit package, which to be honest is pretty awful. Worst than that is the nature of closed source, which means that the 64 bit version of Adobe's Flash Player is still only in a beta test stage and best of all currently unavailable! But don't be put off, the linux community is resourceful and this link http://nxadm.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/install-64-bit-adobe-flash-player-on-ubuntu-904/ includes all requirement to get Flash Player 10 64 bit installed.

Sun Java 6, 64 bit

Ubuntu offers the OpenJDK as a replacement for the closed source of Sun Java, but I found that it was a bit sticky with Facebook. So, here are my instructions for adding Sun Java's official plugin;

Open Ubuntu Software Centre, search for openjdk and remove it

Select Edit and Software Sources, click on Other Software and tick http://archieve.canoncial.com/ubuntu lucid partner.

On clicking close the database cache will update, then search Software Centre for sun java, install the plugin and accept the notices.

Probably not very interesting, but the two issues that I actually had where both around closed source software.

Sunday, 13 June 2010

Graphic Novels : Crossed

Maybe, I should call this Garth Ennis' Crossed, but as fan of Garth, it is hard not to expect something nasty and Crossed is exactly that, a world where those infected have no morals and those still uninfected are play things to be eaten alive or worse. Crossed is very strong stuff, but is a mix of Garth's wicked humour and questions of humanity or life. Definitely worth reading.

Official Avatar Press Website:
http://www.avatarpress.com

Graphic Novels : Army @ Love Volume 1.0

I love satire and what better than merging love, adrenaline and corporate sponsorship into a fictional war. Yes, you too can join up and fight with the latest weapons, party like its 1999! Army @ Love is a clever, witty dig at the nature of war.

Official Army @ Love Website:
http://www.dccomics.com/sites/army_at_love/

Saturday, 12 June 2010

Gadgets : Acer Extensa E420 Desktop

Acer Extensa E420 Desktop AMD 1640B Athlon

Good Points :

A steal at less than £150
64 bit Processor
HDMI connector
High Quality Audio Card
Motherboard can take up to 8 gigabytes of RAM
4 USB ports plus audio input/output on the front of the base unit
Gigabit Network Card
160 Gigabtye SATA Hard Disk
Very, very quiet

Bad Points :

Single Core Processor
ATI Graphic Driver provided by AMD/ATI and approved by Ubuntu Development Team can be unstable
Memory is very specific, ie; you cannot use anything faster than the PC2 5300 667Mhz. I tried 800Mhz and it caused massive instability, but I also found that PC2 4200 444Mhz will actually work safely.
BIOS does not have an option to move the AGP aperture, this can cause problems, if you install 4 gigabytes or more of RAM as this aperture is placed in the high memory and from my research, I found that both Microsoft Windows and Linux attempt to mark the area as reserved. Linux uses 64 megabytes and the Windows system will reserve around 1 gigabyte of memory. Unfortunately, this reservation can be overwritten causing instability. See following example from my kernel log;

Jun 8 16:40:36 ub02 kernel: [ 0.000000] Checking aperture...
Jun 8 16:40:36 ub02 kernel: [ 0.000000] No AGP bridge found
Jun 8 16:40:36 ub02 kernel: [ 0.000000] Node 0: aperture @ 2832000000 size 32 MB
Jun 8 16:40:36 ub02 kernel: [ 0.000000] Aperture beyond 4GB. Ignoring.
Jun 8 16:40:36 ub02 kernel: [ 0.000000] Your BIOS doesn't leave a aperture memory hole
Jun 8 16:40:36 ub02 kernel: [ 0.000000] Please enable the IOMMU option in the BIOS setup
Jun 8 16:40:36 ub02 kernel: [ 0.000000] This costs you 64 MB of RAM
Jun 8 16:40:36 ub02 kernel: [ 0.000000] Mapping aperture over 65536 KB of RAM @ 20000000

Conclusion; As a long time Ubuntu and Linux user, this computer is steal and runs like a dream in full 64 bit, but the 4 gigabyte AGP aperture is an issue because of the integrated video card and reservation being overwritten. I was forced to reduce my memory to allow the BIOS to put the aperture in lower memory, but for a Linux user that is probably less of an issue than for a Microsoft user, where memory is often a premium.

Further Reading:
http://www.acer.co.uk
http://www.ebuyer.co.uk