MikeBedwell

Mike Bedwell

Email: <mike AT SPAMFREE sicktek DOT com>

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Customizations I do after ubuntu default install on breezy(preview release) to make my machine work

Enable DMA for cdrom

Edit hdparm.conf

sudo /etc/hdparm.conf

Add this text, replacing hdd with whatever the cdrom device is on the particular machine

/dev/hdd {
        dma = on
}

Setup ATI Drivers

This works for me everytime so far in flawlessly setting up DRI with the fglrx drivers

sudo apt-get install fglrx-control xorg-driver-fglrx
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

When running dpkg-reconfigure you'll be asked a series of questions, i've tracked my responses (hopefully accurately), here are my responses in order (someday i'll update this with the detail of the questions the responses are for)

  1. Autodetect
  2. 2 fglrx
  3. yes
  4. yes
  5. yes
  6. 131072 (very specific to my own video card 128MB of ram, replace with a number that is accurate for the machine specific card)
  7. No(kernel framebuffer question, not sure what real effect this has)
  8. Yes
  9. Enter
  10. us
  11. xorg
  12. Enter
  13. microsoftoffice (my own keyboard type, need to replace with whatever maches the keyboard)
  14. enter
  15. leave blank
  16. enter
  17. blank
  18. no
  19. yes
  20. enter
  21. enter
  22. star all modules listed except record
  23. Yes
  24. Yes
  25. Yes
  26. Enter
  27. star the resolutions you want
  28. Enter
  29. Advanced
  30. 30-70(specific to my own monitor, customize for current monitor)
  31. 50-160(specific to my own monitor, customize for current monitor)
  32. Enter
  33. 24

I've numbered these, and I "think" that i've got them all in order

Monitor xorg.conf section for my silly XF-7s 17" KDS monitor

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "KDS XF-7s"
        Option          "DPMS"
        Modeline        "1152x864" 109.72 1152 1184 1600 1632 864 880 891 908
        Modeline        "1024x768" 78.75  1024 1040 1136 1312 768 769 772 800
        Modeline        "800x600"  56.25  800  832  896  1048 600 601 604 631
        Modeline        "640x480"  36.00  640  696  752  832  480 481 484 509
        HorizSync       30.0 - 70.0
        VertRefresh     50-160
        DisplaySize     304     228     # 1152x864 96dpi
EndSection

Next, clean up the fonts

in my very humble opinion, or at least on my very humble monitor, xorg's font rendering just looks fuzzy. I found a nice post for an older release that has wisdom which still applies. after following the easy directions i have crisp clean looking fonts insteady of the furry fuzzy ones i got by default. Link is here http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=20976 Note, the display size lists misses my resolution, so here it is--> DisplaySize 304 228 #1152x864 96dpi

Logitech MX310 Setup

I've replaced below procedure with that found in this new thread --> http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=219894

  • enable 800cpi on mouse

get and install lmctl package that is found attached to this forum thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=4357 sudo nano -w /etc/udev/rules.d/logitech-mice.rules put this code in, this file can also be found in the previously mentioned thread if you want to just download and move it.

BUS="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}="046d", SYSFS{idProduct}="c00e", PROGRAM="/usr/bin/lmctl -8"
BUS="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}="046d", SYSFS{idProduct}="c00f", PROGRAM="/usr/bin/lmctl -8"
BUS="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}="046d", SYSFS{idProduct}="c012", PROGRAM="/usr/bin/lmctl -8"
BUS="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}="046d", SYSFS{idProduct}="c024", PROGRAM="/usr/bin/lmctl -8"
BUS="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}="046d", SYSFS{idProduct}="c01b", PROGRAM="/usr/bin/lmctl -8"
BUS="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}="046d", SYSFS{idProduct}="c025", PROGRAM="/usr/bin/lmctl -8 --sms"
BUS="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}="046d", SYSFS{idProduct}="c01d", PROGRAM="/usr/bin/lmctl -8 --sms"
BUS="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}="046d", SYSFS{idProduct}="c031", PROGRAM="/usr/bin/lmctl -8"
  • Enable extra buttons

sudo nano -w /etc/X11/xorg.conf

change mouse section to read similar to this

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "Configured Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "CorePointer"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
        Option          "Protocol"              "ExplorerPS/2"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "6 7"
        Option          "Buttons"               "9"
        Option          "Emulate3Buttons"       "false"
EndSection

then create Xmodmap file to have loaded the next time you log in

nano -w ~/.Xmodmap

paste the following line into the file

pointer = 1 2 3 6 7 4 5 8 9

if you don't load the .Xmodmap as directed your side mouse buttons become your scroll wheel, very disorienting and difficult to use

I have a problem when using the default dhcp provided dns servers with my modem. DHCP puts 192.168.0.1 in my /etc/resolv.conf file. While this should work, my modem seems to be buggy and only actually returns a dns about 70% of the time, the rest of the time it defaults to 1.0.0.0 (not very useful). To resolve, I make my internal network IP addresses and dns configuration static and don't use dhcp. Click on System->Administration->networking and set values manually for the network.

SB Rear Channels

Alsa doesn't play sound through the rear channels of the soundblaster live value that I have installed in my machine(also used for headphones) by default, though the fix is easy. Just fire up alsamixer, right arrow to the "Wave Sur", and set the volume appropriately(I keep mine at about 80), hit the esc key to exit the mixer.

xorg.conf modelines

At this point we need to bring the system up to date. I've not bothered to investigate why, but xvidtune fails to run unless you've updated the packages on the system. I just let the update manager update my system to current. The procedure I follow gets working modelines for the xorg.conf file, since the xserver doesn't autodetect very well the right modes for my monitor(for some reason they set bad refresh rates, probably has more to do with my cheap monitor)

  1. Once updates are done, use the "System" -> "Preferences" -> "Screen Resolution" to set a resolution that fits, for example 1024x768 at 75hz.

  2. Fire up xvidtune, and click show, then quit the program.
  3. copy the modeline that is now in the terminal window you ran xvidtune from into your xorg.conf file
  4. lather rinse repeat for any other resolutions you want to use

While it works ok to set the preference for resolution within Gnome, doing this will make sure the GDM screen carries a nice resolution too. here are the resolutions for my KDS XF-7s monitor on my Radeon 9200

  • Modeline "1152x864" 109.72 1152 1184 1600 1632 864 880 891 908
  • Modeline "1024x768" 78.75 1024 1040 1136 1312 768 769 772 800
  • Modeline "800x600" 56.25 800 832 896 1048 600 601 604 631
  • Modeline "640x480" 36.00 640 696 752 832 480 481 484 509

Synaptic Package Manger

So that I don't have to edit by hand the sources.list each time I want to enable or disable a risky package list, I make a quick modification in Synaptic Click on Settings->Repositories->Settings and check of the box labeled "Show disabled software sources" and close out of the dialogs. Now, when you want to enable or disable s repository that's already in your sources.list all you have to do is check or uncheck it on the Synaptic repositories page.

win32codes and dvd playback

To get set up for playing my DVDs, etc, I folow the instructions on the restricted formats page here -> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RestrictedFormats. The main thing missing from this page is that Breezy(at least the preview release) doesn't include multiverse in the sources.list file. Edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file and add multivers to every source that shows a 'universe' entry, and do apt-get update to get the new lists. Then, follow the instructions on the restricted sources page to set up win32codecs and dvd playing.

gotta have my java

sudo apt-get install j2re1.4

CD Rip

I followed the instructions here -> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CDRipping for ripping my cd's, and am not sure that i am satisfied with that as a solution for ripping to mp3. piping the output to lame really slows the rip down if you wish to encode at a decent bitrate.(as an example, i get 20x+ cd rip speeds from grip, or just ripping to a file on the hard drive with cd ripping software of any sort, but piping the output to lame at a 192 bit rate yields a whoppin 3x rip, and at 256 bitrate yields a .5x rip yuck .

Enable Numlock on Gnome Startup

sudo apt-get install numlockx
sudo nano -w /etc/X11/gdm/Init/Default

place curser on line just above 'exit 0' and insert these lines

if [ -x /usr/bin/numlockx ]; then
  /usr/bin/numlockx on
fi

Fix non-utc clock

1- sudo gedit /etc/default/rcS and change UTC=yes to UTC=no

My Favorite Perl Command

perl -MFile::Find -e"finddepth(sub{rmdir},'.')"

MikeBedwell (last edited 2008-08-06 16:15:07 by localhost)