Category Archives: Fedora 8

Freeing up RAM in Linux

NOTE: Little clarification, this is not needed at all ,as memory is freed when required.

WHY IT MAY BE HELP-FULL: This clears the page-cache , dentires and inodes.

IT’S TRANSLATION : It may be that you are watching a movie or using a Virtual Machine , a resource hungry process has filled up your ram by caching data and the data needs to be continuously removed  to make space for new data . This is managed by the kernel.

IF YOU STILL DON’T  GET IT: Notice  video in your movie hanging (not audio) while your ram gets cached Or your system running a bit slow ?


1) Stop the process consuming loads of memory. (Check System Monitor).
2) Open a terminal with root privileges .
3) Sync
4) echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
5) echo 0 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

Reliance ATZ USB CDMA Modem on fedora , ubuntu and other linux

1) Find Vendor and ProdID

Do

cat /proc/bus/usb/devices

In the generated list where Manufacturer is ZTE , Incorporated

Take Vendor and ProdID

eg. Vendor=19d2 ProdID=fffd

-You can also use lsusb to get entry with ONDA Communication S.p.A in format   a:b

eg  19d2:fffd

2) Load Module
modprobe usbserial vendor=0x19d2 product=0xfffd

After this step 3 interfaces /dev/ttyUSB* where *(0-2)
should be created .(if not then rmmod usbserial ->remove device->modprobe again->insert device )

3)Configure (Run in root mode)(NOT FOR FEDORA go to 6)
wvdialconf

4)Edit /etc/wvdial.conf
Add number eg. #777
Add your username and password in the fields.

5)Run
Ideally running wvdial should be enough.
(try ping google.com to check if you are connected)

6)However in fedora(and if above steps dont work for you) after modprobe
Go to System>Administration>Network>New>Modem>
In Modem Properties (Despite error)
change device to /dev/ttyUSB0
Modem Volume=low
->Forward
Phone number #777
Username and Password -as you have
Provider Name -any
->Forward
Save And activate
Try ping google.com

UDF Bug in Linux Kernel , Play udf discs in fedora & other distros

I had been noticing for many months now that certain udf discs were not being mounted by fedora 8.

Giving Message:
mount: block device /dev/sr0 is write-protected, mounting read-only
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sr0,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so

Earlier i had thought it just to be defect of my drive but after my drive got replaced and after installing fedora 9 i decided to check up and voila !!This bug has been reported in nearly all distros.(well duh since kernel has bug)

Solution Continue reading UDF Bug in Linux Kernel , Play udf discs in fedora & other distros

Enabling WiFi in Fedora 9 HP 6515b using Ndiswrapper

1) You got  to have GCC 4+ and MAKE installed in your system to compile Ndiswrapper(get them from dvd)

2)in terminal go to the directory containig ndiswrapper tarball package (type following commands as super user -> su or sudo -i

3)make

4)make install

5)See COMMON STEPS

Alternate:

1) If you got the live cd be prepared to download and install gcc from internet ( connect to friends comp)

or download and install the packages:

binutils
gcc
kernel-headers
dkms
glibc-devel
libgomp
dkms-ndiswrapper
glibc-headers
kernel-devel
make

COMMON STEPS

1)/usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf (this is the win xp driver obtain it from windows installation or setup given by hp)

2)use “/usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -m”

3)use “/usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -mi”

4)use “/usr/sbin/ndiswrapper -ma”

5)gedit “/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist”

add following lines ->

blacklist b43

blacklist ssb

3)Reboot and see if the wifi networks are shown if not use “/sbin/modprobe ndiswrapper”

and add the same line to /etc/rc.local

IF THE ABOVE STEPS DON’T WORK PLEASE TELL ME THE EXACT PROBLEM.

PEOPLE WITH OTHER WIRELESS CARDS TRY SAM PROCCEDURE WITH DIFFERENT DRIVER (MAKE SURE YOU ARE INSTALLING THE WIRELESS CARD DRIVER AND NOT THE CONTROLLER DRIVER)

Download Accelerators For Linux

    Download Accelerators For Linux

1)Axel : Download from http://axel.alioth.debian.org/ current version = 1.1

Simple command line downloader.

Simple GUI using Zenity:

#!/bin/sh

url=`zenity --title="Axel " --text="Enter url" --entry`
user=`zenity --title="Axel " --text="Enter username" --entry`
pass=`zenity --title="Axel " --text="Enter password" --entry`

axel http://"$user":"$pass"@"$url" 

Remember url shud not have “http://”

ps: if you don’t want user name password

#!/bin/sh

url=`zenity --title="Axel " --text="Enter url" --entry`

axel "$url"

Here url needs “http://”

2)Aria2: command line download client which supports resuming and segmented downloading

http://sourceforge.net/projects/aria2

GUI:

http://www.martin-achern.de/wgetgui/aria2gui.html

Enabling wifi on Lenovo R60 AR5212 using madwifi

Enabling wifi on Lenovo R60 AR5212 using madwifi-0.9.4.tar.gz :

Well i am sure everyone installed madwifi and it actually worked for some people ( see ankur‘s Directives ).
Basically:

1)open terminal in su mode and enter directory where the madwifi-0.9.4.tar.gz has been extracted.
2)type ‘make’ press enter

3) type ‘make install’ press enter.

4)type ‘ modprobe ath_pci’ press enter.

Now here some people would have gotten “unable to insert module ….. no such device”

Heres what to be done :

1) go to /lib/modules/2.6.23.1-42.fc8/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath5k

2) rename ath5k.ko to ath5k.so.bkp (actually you can just delete it or blacklist it see comments)

3) go back to the madwifi directory to termianl

4)type “make uninstall ” press enter.

5)type “make clean” press enter.

6)reboot

7) Rename re-extract your madwifi-0.9.4.tar.gz to a different folder ( THIS ISNT NECCESSARY, BUT EVERYTIME I HAD TO DO THIS)

8) enter the new madwifi directory . Type “make clean “press enter.

9)type “make” press enter . type “make install ” enter.

10) type “modprobe ath_pci ” press enter.

NOW no new errors should come your network manager will now have wireless network selection.

11) Reboot

!!!!!!!ENJOY!!!!!!! (PLZ COMMENT IF THIS METHOD WORKED FOR YOU OR NOT!!)

Compiz And Screenlets Rock!!!

ompiz And Screenlets Rock!!!

Well Compiz- Fusion has many well known effects such as cube , paint fire ,motion blur

but what about screenlets  ( widgets / gadgets ) screenlets can be put in widget layer (compiz settings) or at desktop.

Heres my Widget Layer :

widgets3.png

have a look at my desktop… with Live RSS feeds screenlet and disk usage ooh and sidebar seems familiar doesnt it …

Continue reading Compiz And Screenlets Rock!!!

Sulphur – Codename for Fedora 9

Sulphur – Codename for Fedora 9

Try as they might, the Bathysphere lobbyists failed in their quest to have the little round ships be the moniker for Fedora 9. Instead, by a narrow margin, the community has chosen Sulphur to be the codename for Fedora 9. Full election results below.

vote_count | name
————+—————-
62 | Sulphur
54 | Bathysphere
43 | Chupacabra
39 | Mayonnaise
32 | Dragicorn
29 | Woodwose
23 | Tourette
13 | Asperger
13 | Barmanou
10 | Chingachgook
6 | Kingsport Town
5 | Marfan