Forgot I had this blog lol, I'm now at college, been here a month or two, and classes are going OK. I've had the hard drive in my new dv9700t fail with bad sectors and ended up getting a warranty replacement from HP (great customer support, drive arrived quickly and I swapped them out at home, didn't have to lose my PC for any bit of time at all, and I had a few days where I had time to clone the old drive to the new one so I didn't even lose any data!). After that, I installed Mac OSX 10.5.2 on my dv9700t to try it out and now have XP running on it as well (that's 4 OS'es in total, quad boot FTW!). I also overclocked my graphics card using a BIOS modification a few weeks ago.
Today, however, my trusty old ThinkPad A21p laptop that I got used on eBay a few years back suffered from a hard drive failure. I figured this would happen, as the drive has been making clicking noises and such for a while now, but the inevitable came and my drive failed, I backed it up though so no big deal, and I'll be ordering a replacement drive this weekend to get my good old Pentium 3 laptop up and running like new again. Considering it was made in the year 2000 and was probably a business PC before I got it, that hard drive sustained a huge amount of wear and lasted 8 years, pretty impressive for any hard drive, let alone a laptop one. I'm going to attempt recovery of the drive this weekend (just for fun) by disassembling it and cleaning the platters, trying to re-align the heads, etc, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to make it.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Ubuntu Linux 8.04: My Install Experiences
Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron". The new LTS version, the first LTS for almost 2 years (the last one was 6.06 "Dapper Drake" from June 2006). What does it hold? Well, it has tons of new features, but it's not perfect.
I installed the new release on four different computers. Two computers are 64-bit, so I used the "amd64" version, and the other two used the x86 32 bit version. The computers are:
HP dv9700t laptop, Core 2 Duo T9300 (64 bit, 2.5GHz), 3GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 8600M GS
HP 734n desktop, AthlonXP 2600+ (32 bit, 2.13GHz), 1.25GB RAM, ATi Radeon X1600Pro
Custom desktop, Sempron 2600+ (64 bit, 1.85GHz), 1.5GB RAM, nVidia GeForce4 MX420
IBM ThinkPad A21p laptop, Pentium 3 (32 bit, 850MHz), 512MB RAM, ATi Rage Mobility 128 M3
First, for the HP laptop. Installation went perfectly on this PC and almost everything worked right out of the box. The Intel wireless chipset in my laptop was instantly detected by the open-source drivers and I was able to log on to my WiFi connection with just the Live CD. My Ethernet also worked fine. Sound played fine as well, but 3d wasn't enabled because the driver is restricted. After installing it to my hard drive (in dual-boot with Windows Vista Ultimate 64), the Drivers manager told me I had a new GeForce card and that it had proprietary drivers. After a few clicks, it told me to restart my PC. When it came back up, 3d acceleration was up and running and I was able to enable Compiz Fusion effects and fancy screensavers and all that good stuff. This is truly the climax of portable Linux computing.
My second success story came from my custom desktop, a salvaged Compaq case with a budget PC fitted inside. It has an AMD CPU but an nVidia graphics card. Since the Sempron supported 64 bit, I decided to use the 64 bit release on this PC as well. Installation was again simple, and I dual-booted with Windows XP Home Edition easily. The MX420 graphics card is detected as a normal nVidia card and uses the nVidia restricted driver. After restarting to apply the new driver, Compiz Fusion with all the animations ran fairly well, even on such an old card.
My third PC, my HP Pavilion 734n desktop, wasn't so lucky. I had the 8.04 beta on this PC and was hoping that the final release would bring much-needed ATi Radeon X500/X600 support...but unfortunately, it didn't. I installed the new version alongside Windows XP Home Edition and booted into it, and it prompted me to install ATi's "fglrx" drivers that have support for newer Radeon cards. However, upon rebooting, it crashed with a black screen instead of showing the Ubuntu login screen. This is the exact same thing the beta did, so I wasn't that surprised, as this is ATi's fault, not Ubuntu's. To fix this, I rebooted and selected Recovery mode from GRUB. After an xfix, I installed the new open-source "radeonhd" driver. The "radeonhd" driver is good enough to provide graphics and 2d acceleration, but 3d acceleration isn't supported yet...Oh well, save gaming for Windows I guess.
My last PC, the IBM ThinkPad A21p, came as quite a surprise to me...I had used Ubuntu 7.10 almost exclusively on this PC, even though it was installed alongside Windows XP Home Edition. Now I find myself in XP because 8.04 refuses to detect the PC's LCD resolution correctly. When I put in the CD for Ubuntu 8.04 (32 bit), I wondered why it displayed at 800x600 when the LCD's native resolution is 1600x1200. I figured it was just a LiveCD issue that would fix itself after installing (many of these sort of issues do). However, after installing, I couldn't get the screen to change. It seems to think the PC only has an 800x600 screen, and with the new xorg.conf layout of 8.04, even changing screen modes by editing the config doesn't work. I am fairly disappointed at 8.04 because of this, as the A21p is my main web-browsing PC and I prefer to browse in Linux (much safer than Windows).
I installed the new release on four different computers. Two computers are 64-bit, so I used the "amd64" version, and the other two used the x86 32 bit version. The computers are:
HP dv9700t laptop, Core 2 Duo T9300 (64 bit, 2.5GHz), 3GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 8600M GS
HP 734n desktop, AthlonXP 2600+ (32 bit, 2.13GHz), 1.25GB RAM, ATi Radeon X1600Pro
Custom desktop, Sempron 2600+ (64 bit, 1.85GHz), 1.5GB RAM, nVidia GeForce4 MX420
IBM ThinkPad A21p laptop, Pentium 3 (32 bit, 850MHz), 512MB RAM, ATi Rage Mobility 128 M3
First, for the HP laptop. Installation went perfectly on this PC and almost everything worked right out of the box. The Intel wireless chipset in my laptop was instantly detected by the open-source drivers and I was able to log on to my WiFi connection with just the Live CD. My Ethernet also worked fine. Sound played fine as well, but 3d wasn't enabled because the driver is restricted. After installing it to my hard drive (in dual-boot with Windows Vista Ultimate 64), the Drivers manager told me I had a new GeForce card and that it had proprietary drivers. After a few clicks, it told me to restart my PC. When it came back up, 3d acceleration was up and running and I was able to enable Compiz Fusion effects and fancy screensavers and all that good stuff. This is truly the climax of portable Linux computing.
My second success story came from my custom desktop, a salvaged Compaq case with a budget PC fitted inside. It has an AMD CPU but an nVidia graphics card. Since the Sempron supported 64 bit, I decided to use the 64 bit release on this PC as well. Installation was again simple, and I dual-booted with Windows XP Home Edition easily. The MX420 graphics card is detected as a normal nVidia card and uses the nVidia restricted driver. After restarting to apply the new driver, Compiz Fusion with all the animations ran fairly well, even on such an old card.
My third PC, my HP Pavilion 734n desktop, wasn't so lucky. I had the 8.04 beta on this PC and was hoping that the final release would bring much-needed ATi Radeon X500/X600 support...but unfortunately, it didn't. I installed the new version alongside Windows XP Home Edition and booted into it, and it prompted me to install ATi's "fglrx" drivers that have support for newer Radeon cards. However, upon rebooting, it crashed with a black screen instead of showing the Ubuntu login screen. This is the exact same thing the beta did, so I wasn't that surprised, as this is ATi's fault, not Ubuntu's. To fix this, I rebooted and selected Recovery mode from GRUB. After an xfix, I installed the new open-source "radeonhd" driver. The "radeonhd" driver is good enough to provide graphics and 2d acceleration, but 3d acceleration isn't supported yet...Oh well, save gaming for Windows I guess.
My last PC, the IBM ThinkPad A21p, came as quite a surprise to me...I had used Ubuntu 7.10 almost exclusively on this PC, even though it was installed alongside Windows XP Home Edition. Now I find myself in XP because 8.04 refuses to detect the PC's LCD resolution correctly. When I put in the CD for Ubuntu 8.04 (32 bit), I wondered why it displayed at 800x600 when the LCD's native resolution is 1600x1200. I figured it was just a LiveCD issue that would fix itself after installing (many of these sort of issues do). However, after installing, I couldn't get the screen to change. It seems to think the PC only has an 800x600 screen, and with the new xorg.conf layout of 8.04, even changing screen modes by editing the config doesn't work. I am fairly disappointed at 8.04 because of this, as the A21p is my main web-browsing PC and I prefer to browse in Linux (much safer than Windows).
HP dv9700t Review
For my first post, I'm going to review my new laptop! It's an HP dv9700t 17" entertainment PC with loads of features. Here's the specs:
-Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 (2.50GHz, 6MB L2)
-3GB DDR2 SDRAM
-250GB SATA 5400RPM Hard Drive
-nVidia GeForce 8600M GS 512MB
-17" HP BrightView Widescreen 1680x1050 LCD Display
-Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit and Ubuntu Linux 8.04 Desktop 64 Bit
Well, to start off, this PC is amazing. It has tons of features found on high end desktops and it is also portable. It has a built in webcam, fingerprint reader, stereo microphone, and full keyboard. It has a touch sensitive strip above the keyboard for media controls (QuickPlay, DVD, Previous/Play-Pause/Next/Stop, Mute, and Volume). It also includes a media remote control that fits into the ExpressCard slot when you're not using it.
The Good:
Well, there's so much stuff on this PC that is good, I'll point out the best. First, the screen is amazing. It's bright, glossy, and wide. The 1680x1050 resolution makes images look crisp and sharp while allowing you to have multiple applications open on your screen at a time. At 17", it compares to many desktop displays. Next, the nVidia 8600M GS is a great graphics solution for a high performance laptop. I was able to run Half Life 2 Deathmatch at near 60FPS with all settings at maximum. It gets around 2200 3dMarks on 3dMark06. The CPU is also great, beating out most AMD dual-core chips. It can compute 1M of Pi (using the SuperPi benchmark test) in 17.5 seconds. The PC supports Wireless b/g/n with its Intel wireless chip and 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet with its Realtek Ethernet controller. Last, I really like the finish on the case. It is a glossy finish with HP's "Radiance" pattern embedded in the plastic. Apart from attracting fingerprints, it looks very nice.
The not-so-good:
There's very little that I don't like about this computer. However, there are some things that must be addressed. First, the otherwise incredible keyboard has a minor layout issue. To fit the arrow keys and a number pad in, HP cut the right Shift key in half. This takes some getting used to, as new users may find themselves pushing Up instead of Shift, leading to garbled messages. Next, I would like to point out that the touch-sensitive panel for media has a downside. Although it is a great, stylized input system, it can be triggered by sliding your hand accidentally across the strip. If you're pointing at the screen and lower your hand onto the QuickPlay button, you can open the program accidentally. Other than those issues, it's a fingerprint magnet, but that's to be expected.
So, to conclude, I give it a 10/10. No questions asked, the few minor flaws don't detract from the rest of the PC. Since it has Intel and nVidia hardware, it is also almost perfectly supported in Linux, with wireless and wired networking up out-of-the-box and accelerated graphics only a few clicks away.
-Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 (2.50GHz, 6MB L2)
-3GB DDR2 SDRAM
-250GB SATA 5400RPM Hard Drive
-nVidia GeForce 8600M GS 512MB
-17" HP BrightView Widescreen 1680x1050 LCD Display
-Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit and Ubuntu Linux 8.04 Desktop 64 Bit
Well, to start off, this PC is amazing. It has tons of features found on high end desktops and it is also portable. It has a built in webcam, fingerprint reader, stereo microphone, and full keyboard. It has a touch sensitive strip above the keyboard for media controls (QuickPlay, DVD, Previous/Play-Pause/Next/Stop, Mute, and Volume). It also includes a media remote control that fits into the ExpressCard slot when you're not using it.
The Good:
Well, there's so much stuff on this PC that is good, I'll point out the best. First, the screen is amazing. It's bright, glossy, and wide. The 1680x1050 resolution makes images look crisp and sharp while allowing you to have multiple applications open on your screen at a time. At 17", it compares to many desktop displays. Next, the nVidia 8600M GS is a great graphics solution for a high performance laptop. I was able to run Half Life 2 Deathmatch at near 60FPS with all settings at maximum. It gets around 2200 3dMarks on 3dMark06. The CPU is also great, beating out most AMD dual-core chips. It can compute 1M of Pi (using the SuperPi benchmark test) in 17.5 seconds. The PC supports Wireless b/g/n with its Intel wireless chip and 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet with its Realtek Ethernet controller. Last, I really like the finish on the case. It is a glossy finish with HP's "Radiance" pattern embedded in the plastic. Apart from attracting fingerprints, it looks very nice.
The not-so-good:
There's very little that I don't like about this computer. However, there are some things that must be addressed. First, the otherwise incredible keyboard has a minor layout issue. To fit the arrow keys and a number pad in, HP cut the right Shift key in half. This takes some getting used to, as new users may find themselves pushing Up instead of Shift, leading to garbled messages. Next, I would like to point out that the touch-sensitive panel for media has a downside. Although it is a great, stylized input system, it can be triggered by sliding your hand accidentally across the strip. If you're pointing at the screen and lower your hand onto the QuickPlay button, you can open the program accidentally. Other than those issues, it's a fingerprint magnet, but that's to be expected.
So, to conclude, I give it a 10/10. No questions asked, the few minor flaws don't detract from the rest of the PC. Since it has Intel and nVidia hardware, it is also almost perfectly supported in Linux, with wireless and wired networking up out-of-the-box and accelerated graphics only a few clicks away.
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