Ubuntu: Awesome Support but noticeable compatibility issues

As you may have read in one of my earlier posts, I had fallen in love with Ubuntu.  Up until recently, I have been using Ubuntu for everything from web browsing to web design.

Regretably, I’ve been noticing that a lot of my hardware, in my Dell XPS 410 is not supported in Ubuntu (sound card, printer, etc…). The Ubuntu forums provides tons of “solutions” for hardware problems, but either I don’t have the expertise, the solutions don’t apply to me, or I have to add 20 lines of code to a certain system critical file.    I’m not saying that Ubuntu is a terrible OS, but I’m saying its a terrible OS for my PC and my patience.

I’m sure there are people who will be reading this who have the same PC as me and can’t figure out why I’m having so much trouble.  When it comes down to it, I work 10 hour days and don’t get home till 6pm at night.  Once I’m home I usually like to hop on my computer and shoot the shit with friends.  Sometimes I’m put in a situation where someone wants to talk on Skype.  I have an account from when I had XP and installed it on Ubuntu.   As it turns out, Ubuntu doesn’t support my sound card and it won’t recognize my mic.  So I googled solutions and found 100s of pages of restults.  I tried about 10 of them just to be left frustrated and let down.  Next thing I know its time to turn in for the night.  Now on the otherhand, I have Ubuntu 8.10 running on my Dell Inspiron B130 without any problems.   It does what I need it to and couldn’t ask for more from it.

Now I’m back using XP on my XPS and am loving how everything seems to be compatible.  No longer do I need to do custom editing on files.  Most problems can be fixed by downloading a program or driver.  Although, I’m experiencing a noticable performance defficiency in XP as compared to Ubuntu.  Overall, I’m happy with XP and will stick with it for my primary PC.

What are your experiences with Ubuntu as compared to XP?

Long time no Blog

So, its been a while since I posted on here and I figured it was time I atleast did something.   So here it is.     Recently, I have been going through an academic “rebirth.”  Its not the kind of rebirth in which I change my concentration of work in the field, but the kind in which I decide I need to do more.

I took and completed both the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) and CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional) classes throughout my academic careers.  I have yet to get the certifications.  Which is where I am now.  I have recently read over all of my CCNA Modules and have purchased a CCNA cram book that I’m reading now.  I hope to be certified by the end of next month.

I’m hoping that this will make my peers and employers take me more seriously and maybe, just maybe get me a promotion or atleast recognition.

I hope to post some more before I take the test, but in the case that I don’t, I will post on the results.

-Jim

Analog Fax Machine over Ethernet (The Ghetto Way)

It was recently brought to my attention that we do not have a fax machine at my place of business.  Keep in mind that I work for a fortune 500 company which likes to keep up with emerging technology.  Apparently users have been complaining amongst themselves about our lack of fax machines but decided to not bring it to my attention.  It wasn’t until a programmer was unable to send a fax to a software company for it to come to my attention.  It turns out that our office Copier/Scanner also has a built in Fax Machine.  Regrettably, there are no phone jacks located near the copier.

What I had planned to do was purchase a Cisco modem (we’re mainly a Cisco ran company) which would convert the analog fax machine into an IP fax machine.  From there our network admin could assign a number to it through Cisco call manager.  My boss however decided that this would be a waste of money and suggested that I figure a way to hook it up for next to nothing.  Like stated previously, there are no phone jacks near the fax machine.  In fact, there’s probably only about 5 phones jacks in the building. Yes that’s right, we are strictly VoIP.   This means, of course, that I have a plethora of RJ45 wall jacks to choose from.

The RJ45 half of my RJ11 to RJ45 cable.

After mapping out where the closest ethernet wall jack ran and where the analog phone lines are terminated I brainstormed a resolution.  Luckily, the ethernet patch panel and 66 block (phone patch panel) are loacted in the same room.  What I figured was my best plan of action would be to run a CAT5 cable, with a RJ11 connector on one side and a RJ45 connector on the other, from the fax machine to the wall plate.  From there I would run another CAT5 cable from the patch panel to the 66 block.

Blue CAT5 cable punched down on the 66 block

Once I had all of the cables crimped and installed, the final step was to map the fax machine to one of our phone numbers.  To do this, I simply punched the ethernet wires down parralell to a phone line that has a number leased from the phone company and then conected the two connections with briding clips (the silver clips shown on the picture to the left).

I searched for hours looking on a how-to for this topic with no luck, that is why I decided to document this.  Consider this a starting point for people who are in the same predicament.

My switch to Ubuntu

I’ve recently switched my laptop from Windows XP to Ubuntu (about 4 months ago) because of all of the great things I’ve been hearing about Linux and Ubuntu.  When I first switched, I was weary about how complex it might be and what kind of challenges I might encounter trying to do common tasks.  To be honest, if I didn’t have a friend that knew how to run Linux via command line or the GUI, I would have abandoned my quest for Linux knowledge.  Its not that Ubuntu was all that hard to use, it just that it was DIFFERENT.

Maybe this is just a sign of age (i’m only 22) or maybe I just grew too attached to XP.  I’m guessing its the latter of the two.  But once I got l the ittle things ironed out, like installing the correct flash package through synaptic package manager (I originally downloaded a flash package that blocked all flash objects on webpages, which pissed me off!), Ubuntu began to grow on me. For the record, I’m am still using XP on my XPS410 desktop mainly for compatibility and as a reference (I’m a computer tech).
It ran smoothly, quickly and rarely froze.  Some of the features that I liked:

Graying out of windows

When a program freezes or takes longer to respond than normal, the window will turn gray.  I find this to be a nice feature mainly because it lets you know that something is hung-up in the program.  Whereas in Windows when you click something you and it takes a while to load, you’re not sure whether it froze or is running slowly.  And I know from experience if you try to click a frozen window it just whites out and you have a hell of a time closing it.

Synaptic Package Manager

This handy little tool pretty much allows you to download and install almost every program, plugin, etc… that is meant for Ubuntu.  Its really simple, just open it up, search for what you want, download, and install.  Its a pretty sweet deal!

FREE $$$$$

Everything is free!  For you who do not know, Ubuntu can be downloaded free of charge here!  Simply download the ISO file and burn it to a CD and viola! You’re good to go.

If you’re still weary about whether or not you want to make the switch to Ubuntu, you can try it out without installing it on your computer.  Just put the Ubuntu CD into your computer and restart and boot from the CD.  Ubuntu will then ask you for a language and whether or not you want to try it out or install it.

Microwave Ovens… Science’s little sabotager

Lately at work we’ve been having trouble with our Symbol 1060 handhelds running slow and/or disconnecting during heavy production times. We have tried separating the access points from the rest of the network through vlans, but made no progress.

We then called in an expert from “Bar Coding.” He had a nifty device called a YellowJacket Wireless Analyzer. This thing could detect available access points as well as measure interference. We began to do a sweep of the warehouse and didn’t notice any interference. Although, the closer we got to the cafeteria, the worse the interference got. I would estimate that we were about 60 feet away from the cafeteria and were experiencing a 1/3 degradation from signal strength. The closer we got, the worse the strength got and the worse the interference got.

Bastard Microwave

It turns out that someone in the cafeteria was warming up their food in an industrial microwave that was located near the wall that separates the cafeteria form the warehouse. I always knew that microwaves were supposed to screw with wireless signal, but I never imagined it to be that terrible.

This blew my mind so much that I felt it to be necessary that I share this with the Internets.

Feel free to share any crazy wireless stories you may have in the comments.

HP Slimline Series – why are you so damn hard to troubleshoot?

Being the “new tech guy” at my current job, fellow IT techs send any and all coworkers looking for discount computer help to me.  I’ve fixed countless computers before from broken power supplies to missing .dll files.  I seemed to be at the peak of my computer repair profession until a certain person brought their mother’s HP Pavilion Slimline s3027c desktop in for repairs.

HP Pavilion Slimline s3027c

When I recieved the computer it would turn on, but not display anything, not even the P.O.S.T.  I figured that it was an internal shorting the motherboard out.  Keep in mind that this computer is fully SATA.  I removed the CD drive first and powered the computer on and VIOLA! the computer booted.  I shut the computer down and proceded to go to my refridgerator and make myself a victory drink.  When I returned to the computer about 15 minutes later and attempted to turn it on, it booted but no P.O.S.T.

Needless to say, this pissed me off and ruined my short-lived victory.  So for shits and giggles I plugged the CD drive back in.  And to my surprise the computer booted again!  I had a sneaking suspicion that after letting it sit for 15 minutes it wouldn’t boot.  I was right…. I hate being right.

It seems that the computer is bored with its current setup and likes to be stimulated in order perform its intended tasks.

Next I decided to rule the CD drive out all together by putting it in my Dell XPS 410 system.  My system booted fine and the drive worked flawlessly.   I’ve tried swapping the SATA data cables in the broken PC with the ones in my PC but nothing seemed to work.

Pain in the ass Power Supply

This leaves me with two possible suspects (maybe more?) the powersupply or the motherboard.  Being that this computer is compact in size, the power supply is, of course, oddly shaped and almost impossible to find online.  The computer itself is relatively new but the owner didn’t buy a warranty for it.  The only option I can see is contacting HP and seeing if it is possible to purchase a replacement power supply from them as well as bending over and paying an insanely outrageous price.

*UPDATE: I updated the firmware for the HDD and DVD Drive and the computer has booted without fault the last 10 times. Why I didn’t think of this sooner is beyond me!

*UPDATE: Computer won’t boot again. I swallowed my pride and called HP tech support for help. Needless to say that they’re baffled. So, I talked the owner into buying a new computer and salvaging parts from the broken one.

Feel free to post any suggestions to me or vent your HP Slimline gripes in the Comments: