I got the wifi + bluetooth combo card made by Intel, and it only seems to work like the AzureWave one where I only can get wifi. Except I can only get wifi in 12.1. Looks like I'm going to have to RMA this one as well... Dammit.
Well, I did find one thing out. The wireless defaulting to off problem is the same problem I experienced a couple months ago. Just had to blacklist acer-wmi and it's on upon boot.
27 November 2011
18 November 2011
Computer Cluster 2
So after digging a bit, I found a different HPC Linux distro that seems a little closer to what I want to use for a cluster. I was going to comment on the previous entry, but I couldn't for some reason.
Anyway, it's called KestrelHPC, and if I read it right, I only need one install of Debian/Ubuntu to run it. Which means I won't need a disk for every node, and just for the frontend node.
One of the nice things I found is that it's not a dead distro. Last update was back in October, so It's still being worked on.
Again, I still need a USB wireless stick to get anywhere with it, and I won't download /burn it until I'm ready to start experimenting with computer clusters again.
Anyway, thought I'd post the HPC distro so I don't forget about it (and don't have to make a bookmark for it).
Anyway, it's called KestrelHPC, and if I read it right, I only need one install of Debian/Ubuntu to run it. Which means I won't need a disk for every node, and just for the frontend node.
One of the nice things I found is that it's not a dead distro. Last update was back in October, so It's still being worked on.
Again, I still need a USB wireless stick to get anywhere with it, and I won't download /burn it until I'm ready to start experimenting with computer clusters again.
Anyway, thought I'd post the HPC distro so I don't forget about it (and don't have to make a bookmark for it).
16 November 2011
Mei Ren 2
I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but after unlocking the other cores, there was a bit of voltage leak to the CPU (I'm assuming that's what it was) which caused a digital ticking noise (which I lost a bit of sleep due to it that night). I stepped up the frequency level from -2% to 0% to see if it changed anything, but it didn't seem like it.
Anyway, I left it on last night to see if anything would happen, and I didn't hear anything at all. There's only a slight digital "screeching" noise now, but I actually have to put my ear next to the case to hear it.
Cool! Now I don't have to switch the PSU off to kill the voltage leak.
It was a bit annoying, since I had to boot into openSUSE, then reboot for it to pick up my Wifi card. Now that I don't have to switch the PSU off, I don't have to do the boot-reboot thing now.
Awesome!
Just need to test 12.1 on it somehow before making it an official install. Wish I had a... Wait... I think I can borrow an unstable SATA drive from my friend... I'll have to remember that later.
Anyway, I left it on last night to see if anything would happen, and I didn't hear anything at all. There's only a slight digital "screeching" noise now, but I actually have to put my ear next to the case to hear it.
Cool! Now I don't have to switch the PSU off to kill the voltage leak.
It was a bit annoying, since I had to boot into openSUSE, then reboot for it to pick up my Wifi card. Now that I don't have to switch the PSU off, I don't have to do the boot-reboot thing now.
Awesome!
Just need to test 12.1 on it somehow before making it an official install. Wish I had a... Wait... I think I can borrow an unstable SATA drive from my friend... I'll have to remember that later.
openSUSE 12.1 Part 1
Well, I checked the site about 8 minutes ago and it was there. Seems like it was officially released at 06:12 this morning (UTC-7). I'm downloading it now, and will burn it and stuff it in the laptop bag. I'll do all the testing later.
(edit 1)
Okay, I haven't really found anything different from RC2, but I did find a couple things.
To get my Bluetooth to work, the wireless has to be turned on. And I can use the function key for turning the wireless on and off to do so. And for some reason, I can't use my Bluetooth mouse on boot until sometime after wireless is turned on. For some weird reason, my trackpad got permanently disabled which didn't help the situation beforehand.
12.1 also did not ship with GRUB2 as I read somewhere in the openSUSE pages (either in the news or Wiki), but I can't find it and I don't feel like finding it. I really wonder why, since GRUB2 is so much easier to use.
I installed GRUB2 (the package in openSUSE), and then did an install of it. I guess I forgot to
Anyway, good thing I used a spare hard drive, since I would not have been happy to not be able to boot into anything. More to come.
(edit 2)
As I've thought about it, I don't really want to deal with the troubles of installing GRUB2 (at least for the computers that have multiple OSs on it anyway. I may just reinstall it on the testing drive for Triela, and see what happens, but I will need to test it on Mei Ren to see if I can flip the top screen upside down... Then again, I really don't want to enable wireless on every single boot, so I might just do this testing out of curiosity (and boredom).
Lie-chan is really the only viable (and "partial") install of 12.1 I could do, provided that I keep Ubuntu for GRUB2, since Lie-chan is hard-wired to the wireless bridge.
Anyway, off to finish a few things and continuing the experimentation.
(edit 3)
So I got done with all the experimentation.... Turns out I can't use update-grub (in any format) to properly populate the grub.cfg file... So definitely a no on GRUB2 in 12.1
Screen orientation still works just fine. One thing I noticed with the window previewer is that each screen has its own space, and you can move the windows between screens. Cool! I'm pretty sure it was already there, but I didn't really think much about it and didn't really test it out then.
One of the other things I noticed is that the "menu bar" only resides on one of the screens (main screen) when in a side-by-side configuration (and I'm assuming the same for the notifications bar).
Okay, here comes the weird part. When I booted into 12.1 on Mei Ren, wireless was automatically on. WTF? I'm going to safely assume that it has either has something to do with Triela or laptops in general (so either it's something with Triela+12.1 or 12.1 disables it by default for laptops).
Which means I can easily migrate to 12.1 for openSUSE only computers (Mei Ren and the jukebox). I could also migrate for Lie-chan, but I'm still very disappointed that 12.1 did not have GRUB2 as default.
I realized that I completely spaced the HDD from my friend, so I'm actually gonna have to wait longer to do the installation test for both Mei Ren and the jukebox, since I don't want to kill the existing 11.3 install if I don't have to.
I also tested 1080p on Mei Ren with 12.1 and VLC again. Nothing different in quality... Well, I did forget to turn the "GPU acceleration" on again, but I don't think it makes that much of a difference.
Well, I think that's it until I get the HDD for easier testing (well... easier roll-back).
(edit 1)
Okay, I haven't really found anything different from RC2, but I did find a couple things.
To get my Bluetooth to work, the wireless has to be turned on. And I can use the function key for turning the wireless on and off to do so. And for some reason, I can't use my Bluetooth mouse on boot until sometime after wireless is turned on. For some weird reason, my trackpad got permanently disabled which didn't help the situation beforehand.
12.1 also did not ship with GRUB2 as I read somewhere in the openSUSE pages (either in the news or Wiki), but I can't find it and I don't feel like finding it. I really wonder why, since GRUB2 is so much easier to use.
I installed GRUB2 (the package in openSUSE), and then did an install of it. I guess I forgot to
update-grub and when I rebooted, I was left at the CLI for GRUB2. Seeing how I'm not an expert at it, I can't get back into 12.1 to do so. My only two options are to either (1) reinstall 12.1 and re-update or (2) attempt to fix it with 12.1 live. I think the first option is the more viable one, since it doesn't really take too long.
Anyway, good thing I used a spare hard drive, since I would not have been happy to not be able to boot into anything. More to come.
(edit 2)
As I've thought about it, I don't really want to deal with the troubles of installing GRUB2 (at least for the computers that have multiple OSs on it anyway. I may just reinstall it on the testing drive for Triela, and see what happens, but I will need to test it on Mei Ren to see if I can flip the top screen upside down... Then again, I really don't want to enable wireless on every single boot, so I might just do this testing out of curiosity (and boredom).
Lie-chan is really the only viable (and "partial") install of 12.1 I could do, provided that I keep Ubuntu for GRUB2, since Lie-chan is hard-wired to the wireless bridge.
Anyway, off to finish a few things and continuing the experimentation.
(edit 3)
So I got done with all the experimentation.... Turns out I can't use update-grub (in any format) to properly populate the grub.cfg file... So definitely a no on GRUB2 in 12.1
Screen orientation still works just fine. One thing I noticed with the window previewer is that each screen has its own space, and you can move the windows between screens. Cool! I'm pretty sure it was already there, but I didn't really think much about it and didn't really test it out then.
One of the other things I noticed is that the "menu bar" only resides on one of the screens (main screen) when in a side-by-side configuration (and I'm assuming the same for the notifications bar).
Okay, here comes the weird part. When I booted into 12.1 on Mei Ren, wireless was automatically on. WTF? I'm going to safely assume that it has either has something to do with Triela or laptops in general (so either it's something with Triela+12.1 or 12.1 disables it by default for laptops).
Which means I can easily migrate to 12.1 for openSUSE only computers (Mei Ren and the jukebox). I could also migrate for Lie-chan, but I'm still very disappointed that 12.1 did not have GRUB2 as default.
I realized that I completely spaced the HDD from my friend, so I'm actually gonna have to wait longer to do the installation test for both Mei Ren and the jukebox, since I don't want to kill the existing 11.3 install if I don't have to.
I also tested 1080p on Mei Ren with 12.1 and VLC again. Nothing different in quality... Well, I did forget to turn the "GPU acceleration" on again, but I don't think it makes that much of a difference.
Well, I think that's it until I get the HDD for easier testing (well... easier roll-back).
15 November 2011
openSUSE 12.1 RC2 Part 7
Well, I have about 16.25 hours left before the official release of 12.1.
I was hoping for midnight UTC time, but when it became that time, a new countdown graphic of "17 hours left" replaced the "1 day left". I feel like I was very, very mislead.
So I gotta wait until 10am until I can download and burn it (I'm gonna have to take a blank CD with me so I have something to burn on).
I was hoping for midnight UTC time, but when it became that time, a new countdown graphic of "17 hours left" replaced the "1 day left". I feel like I was very, very mislead.
So I gotta wait until 10am until I can download and burn it (I'm gonna have to take a blank CD with me so I have something to burn on).
13 November 2011
openSUSE 12.1 RC2 Part 6
Hmm... It looks a bit funny, but it works I guess.
I think I might have tried Chrome with M3 or RC1, I can't remember, but I should test it just in case. Probably last test since there's not a whole lot I can think of that I need.
Now that I think about it, I am going to miss gkrelm (maybe two "l"s?) a bit. I might be able to install it, but I'm not sure if it's going to work. I only used it for CPU temps, though I didn't really pay too much attention to it; it's just something that's nice to know every so often. Since I don't really do a whole lot with Triela (a few old games, but that's in W7), I'm not horribly concerned.
Anyway, probably won't say if Chrome works or not... I don't think there's a real reason to, since I'm quite sure it'll work.
openSUSE 12.1 RC2 Part 5
Nope. Still have to turn wireless on manually... It's not going to deter me from 12.1, but I'd have to see what exactly happens in a desktop environment... Which may take a bit.. I don't exactly have a desktop to install and test it on at the moment... The jukebox is probably the best candidate, but I don't really feel like messing with it.
When I get a hold of 12.1, I'll probably use it on Triela instead of 11.3...
OH! Which reminds me, I would be able to get rid of Ubuntu, since I only needed Ubuntu for GRUB2 and since 12.1 ships with GRUB2, I won't need Ubuntu. YAY!!!
So Triela will be a dual boot between W7 and 12.1 with the small test-bed space. Looks like I'll be merging the leftover space from Ubuntu into the "Storage" space since there's not a whole lot else I can do with it.
One thing I just noticed is that the cursor changes depending on something... In most cases it's white with a black outline, but in Firefox it's black with a white outline. At first I thought it maybe changed based on the background, but after opening a new tab (which is white) it didn't change to the white/black outline.
Gonna test out to see if Firefox themes work. Be right back.
When I get a hold of 12.1, I'll probably use it on Triela instead of 11.3...
OH! Which reminds me, I would be able to get rid of Ubuntu, since I only needed Ubuntu for GRUB2 and since 12.1 ships with GRUB2, I won't need Ubuntu. YAY!!!
So Triela will be a dual boot between W7 and 12.1 with the small test-bed space. Looks like I'll be merging the leftover space from Ubuntu into the "Storage" space since there's not a whole lot else I can do with it.
One thing I just noticed is that the cursor changes depending on something... In most cases it's white with a black outline, but in Firefox it's black with a white outline. At first I thought it maybe changed based on the background, but after opening a new tab (which is white) it didn't change to the white/black outline.
Gonna test out to see if Firefox themes work. Be right back.
openSUSE 12.1 RC2 Part 4
Bah, can't stay away for a second. So the easier way to switch windows is the old Alt-Tab trick. I'm not quite used to using it (I prefer to click on the window/application instead), but it seems like I may have to when I'm single-screening.
Om nom nom nom! (For real this time lol)
Om nom nom nom! (For real this time lol)
openSUSE 12.1 RC2 Part 3
Okay, so Network Manager actually works... Weird. My hypothesis is that it didn't load right... It could also be that it came broken and an update fixed it. Hard to say. Luckily, ifup isn't horrible to use as long as you're hard-lined to the router.
Oh, so apparently, 12.1 Goldmaster was released on the 11th... So that makes it a day after I installed and tested it... So I guess I should have waited a couple days. Oh well. I'm not going to make an effort to download and burn it at this point due to the fact that it comes out Wednesday (16th).
One of the things I didn't get to talk about with 12.1 is the battery monitor. It seems a lot more accurate than the old version. Triela's battery is only really able to stay running for about an hour (and maybe fifteen minutes), which the old version of the battery applet said 3 something hours... Right...
A bug I found is when it goes to an hour, it displays 0 minutes remaining (x%)... I'm assuming it meant 60 minutes and somehow the 6 was left off... Oops. The charge and time remaining is also shown in the power settings, so if anything I can hop over there to double check if the applet isn't being truthful.
OH! I just remembered about having to turn the wireless on after every boot. Obviously, I'm not quite sure if this still applies, but I can test it after I eat dinner.
We'll see what happens in about 45 minutes.
Om nom nom nom!
Oh, so apparently, 12.1 Goldmaster was released on the 11th... So that makes it a day after I installed and tested it... So I guess I should have waited a couple days. Oh well. I'm not going to make an effort to download and burn it at this point due to the fact that it comes out Wednesday (16th).
One of the things I didn't get to talk about with 12.1 is the battery monitor. It seems a lot more accurate than the old version. Triela's battery is only really able to stay running for about an hour (and maybe fifteen minutes), which the old version of the battery applet said 3 something hours... Right...
A bug I found is when it goes to an hour, it displays 0 minutes remaining (x%)... I'm assuming it meant 60 minutes and somehow the 6 was left off... Oops. The charge and time remaining is also shown in the power settings, so if anything I can hop over there to double check if the applet isn't being truthful.
OH! I just remembered about having to turn the wireless on after every boot. Obviously, I'm not quite sure if this still applies, but I can test it after I eat dinner.
We'll see what happens in about 45 minutes.
Om nom nom nom!
10 November 2011
openSUSE 12.1 RC2 Part 2
Okay, I forgot about the favourites bar. If you hold onto the icon too long, you pretty much lose the trashcan icon. So pretty much, they made it common sense. You grab the icon and immediately head toward the bottom of the favourite bar to get the trash icon to appear. No need to do the awkward curve-ball to get rid of the icon.
I haven't gotten a chance to test out network manager, but so far I haven't been able to get it to work with eth0. When I was still plugged in, I couldn't access the internet. I had to switch to ifup to get anything done. I'll try again at some point with wireless when I'm at home to see if I can't get it to work.
Oh, so the power button puts the computer to sleep. I tested it out when I partially crashed GNOME3. So now the power button does something.
Well, there's 6 days and one more pre-release (maybe) left before the full release.
Looks like I'll just stick with this until the final release date, then I'll test that one out to see if it's something I'll be "upgrading" to.
I haven't gotten a chance to test out network manager, but so far I haven't been able to get it to work with eth0. When I was still plugged in, I couldn't access the internet. I had to switch to ifup to get anything done. I'll try again at some point with wireless when I'm at home to see if I can't get it to work.
Oh, so the power button puts the computer to sleep. I tested it out when I partially crashed GNOME3. So now the power button does something.
Well, there's 6 days and one more pre-release (maybe) left before the full release.
Looks like I'll just stick with this until the final release date, then I'll test that one out to see if it's something I'll be "upgrading" to.
openSUSE 12.1 RC2 Part 1
Well, downloaded it last night, installed it earlier and got everything updated. Installed VLC as well.
So a few changes. Finally can shutdown/reboot the computer without having to logout first, and VLC actually works (sadly it works better than in 11.3).
So it seems that I might move onto 12.1... as long as network manager is fixed, since it's not easy or fun to use ifup.
Haven't really seen a whole lot else changed... or at least, that's all I've noticed so far.
So a few changes. Finally can shutdown/reboot the computer without having to logout first, and VLC actually works (sadly it works better than in 11.3).
So it seems that I might move onto 12.1... as long as network manager is fixed, since it's not easy or fun to use ifup.
Haven't really seen a whole lot else changed... or at least, that's all I've noticed so far.
05 November 2011
OS Installation Counts
I got bored and thought I'd make a short post of OS installation counts.
An installation is a current installation, not the number of times I've installed (which would just get ridiculous).
I would bring Triela and Lie-chan down to 1 install each, but the fact that openSUSE uses GRUB 1 bugs me. Everytime I do an install of openSUSE, the bootloader section always tells me that the boot partition doesn't entirely lie below the 128gb mark and the system might not boot. I don't know if this has something to do with GRUB 1, but it's sure annoying to see. That's really the only reason why I have an installation of Ubuntu. I read that openSUSE 12.1 is going to ship with GRUB 2 (finally!), but I need the VLC problem solved before I can migrate to it.
An installation is a current installation, not the number of times I've installed (which would just get ridiculous).
- Windows: 2 Installs (Triela and Lie-chan)
- Mac OS X: 2 Installs (Shizuma and Momiji-chan)
- Linux (any distro): 7 Installs (Triela:2, Lie-chan:2, Mei-Ren:1, Momiji-chan:1, Jukebox:1)
I would bring Triela and Lie-chan down to 1 install each, but the fact that openSUSE uses GRUB 1 bugs me. Everytime I do an install of openSUSE, the bootloader section always tells me that the boot partition doesn't entirely lie below the 128gb mark and the system might not boot. I don't know if this has something to do with GRUB 1, but it's sure annoying to see. That's really the only reason why I have an installation of Ubuntu. I read that openSUSE 12.1 is going to ship with GRUB 2 (finally!), but I need the VLC problem solved before I can migrate to it.
Hard Drive Price Hike 2
Well, so much for Samsung... Newegg raised the prices on those too. It makes sense though, if you understand the law of supply and demand.
Looks like it's time to wait it out. (LOL)
03 November 2011
Gentoo 11.2 Live
It keeps giving me a firmware bug when I try it on Triela... So as far as I'm concerned, it only works on Mei Ren for now.
I was able to use it a bit, but my Wifi card wasn't on and I didn't feel like doing the reboot trick to turn it on.
The settings (at least the monitor/screen one) was different than I'm used to.... Oh yeah, that's right, it was KDE and not GNOME. KDE tends to stretch the entire wallpaper across both screens (eww) while GNOME just duplicates it... The fix is pretty easy, since all it really requires is to make the wallpaper the full size and then tile the original wallpaper in them. I couldn't find a settings thing to change the wallpaper anyway... Though I did find the wallpaper folder (
But I think my main turn off is KDE. I don't mind it, but I honestly prefer GNOME since I think it's a bit more friendly and customizable. The little desktop thingy that stays in the top right corner annoys me, even in its translucent form.
Pretty sure there's a way to install GNOME for it, but that requires me to install Gentoo... Which I don't have any hard drive space for (if only it didn't have a problem with Triela...).
Since I wasn't really connect it to the internet, I didn't really have a whole lot of motivation to test it any further. And so I wasn't really able to test out the package manager (if there is one) or anything else.
For now, I'm just gonna give my best friend the disk and let him tinker with it if he pleases... Well, he's gonna have to find that short USB A to B cord first... (LOL)
I was able to use it a bit, but my Wifi card wasn't on and I didn't feel like doing the reboot trick to turn it on.
The settings (at least the monitor/screen one) was different than I'm used to.... Oh yeah, that's right, it was KDE and not GNOME. KDE tends to stretch the entire wallpaper across both screens (eww) while GNOME just duplicates it... The fix is pretty easy, since all it really requires is to make the wallpaper the full size and then tile the original wallpaper in them. I couldn't find a settings thing to change the wallpaper anyway... Though I did find the wallpaper folder (
~/.wallpapers).
But I think my main turn off is KDE. I don't mind it, but I honestly prefer GNOME since I think it's a bit more friendly and customizable. The little desktop thingy that stays in the top right corner annoys me, even in its translucent form.
Pretty sure there's a way to install GNOME for it, but that requires me to install Gentoo... Which I don't have any hard drive space for (if only it didn't have a problem with Triela...).
Since I wasn't really connect it to the internet, I didn't really have a whole lot of motivation to test it any further. And so I wasn't really able to test out the package manager (if there is one) or anything else.
For now, I'm just gonna give my best friend the disk and let him tinker with it if he pleases... Well, he's gonna have to find that short USB A to B cord first... (LOL)
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