Learning Ubuntu #8 - Sirius, Garmin Mapsource, Windows Networking

Well, I have not posted for a few weeks, but i have been mostly using Linux. I have for sure found two really bad pieces of news:

1. Nothing I can figure out looks promising for Garmin Mapsource. That sucks, so I have at least one application which is going to push me back to Windows now and then.
2. Even a bigger issue, I can not get Sirius Satellite radio to work. I spent several hours fooling around with something called "sipi", and got nowhere. Sigh. It looks like Konquer might be the solution, but I have not tried that yet.

Then, I got sidetracked on another issue - remember I said that I had to replay my old USR router with a new LinkSys router? Well, after that, I could not get Windows networking working in the house - two XP machines, 1 1/2 Vista machines (this laptop runs Vista most of the time). Turned out that one of the XP machines which runs Norton Internet Security had decided to treat the network as restricted, and all I had to do was change that to get the Windows machines working on the network again.

Before I close for the night - a couple of good links:

1. This looks like all I need to get Samba working: SettingUpSamba
2. This was a good explanation of the difference between apt-get and aptitude.

See you again soon!

Learning Ubuntu #7 - Suspend is Working, Upgrading to OO 3.1, Getting CIFS working

1. Have a look at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/336158. I cut, modified slightly, and pasted the following into the specified file. All is well. Suspend is now working.
   
<match key="system.hardware.product" contains_outof="L300">
<merge key="power_management.quirk.vbe_post" type="bool">true</merge>
<merge key="power_management.quirk.s3_bios" type="bool">false</merge>
</match>

   


2. This appears to be the definitive guide for the OO 3.1 upgrade
   
   • How to Install OpenOffice.org 3.1 on Ubuntu 9.04
   This did not work out the way it was described, but I did end up with 3.1 installed - note - look carefully - it still look like 3.0 - read the small print. Spell check is not working - I will follow up on that latter.
   
   
3. This appears to be the definitive guide for basic Samba setup
   
   • File Sharing Using Ubuntu 9.04 And Samba
     

Learning Ubuntu #6 - Mounting a Partition, Fixed My Internet Problem, Install Wireshark

1. I find I am access stuff off of the Windows partition frequently, and I plan to do that even more, so I wanted to have the Windows partion permanently mounted. A couple of simple things make this easier:
1. Create a directory named /windoz - i used root, and created it 755, but not sure it really matters
2. Like I said earlier, I am a GUI kind of guy, so figuring out to get Nautilus to "open with" and use "gksudo gedit" to open /etc/fstab just makes it simple
3. I had used automont, and noticed the windows partititon was mounting as "fuseblk" - but after experimentation, the line in fstab should be:
   /dev/sda2 /windoz ntfs
4. Use "mount -a" to test, then reboot - /windoz will be good to go
   
2. Remember I mentioned a couple of posts ago that suddenly all my internet access had slowed down - both on windows and Linux? Did some problem determination today - and I am not sure exactly what the issue was, but it all pointed at an old USR router that I have used forever. I removed it, reconfigured every fricking think in the house to point at a LinkSys wireless router I have also had for a long time, and have all the key stuff back online with much improved speed. Not really sure what caused the issue, but this fixed it.
3. Also, used "sudo apt-get install wireshark" to get wireshark installed. Went perfectly smoothly. In case I have not mentioned it yet, I am a huge fan of the way apt-get work - what a great way to make managing a system easy.