The new version of 99gtwireless adds support for the new LAWN login process. The new process requires shell scripts wait a period of time between logging in and actually being available on the network. If you run the script in a test case (99gtwireless <interface> up) it will print the messages it receives. Download it!
99gtwireless update
September 5th, 2007synergy-ssh update
August 14th, 2007An update to synergy-ssh. Download it!
New usage: synergy-ssh <hostname>
Changelog:
- Rewrote script based on this forum post.
- Added syntax checking
- Starts server on host if not running
- Kills old port forwards if they exist
Requirements:
- ssh key uploaded to your server
99gtwireless, revisited for KDE and suspend/hibernate
August 13th, 2007One of my first posts was a script for Ubuntu to automate connecting to Georgia Tech’s LAWN wireless network. After some more research I found the instructions only really applied to GNOME (especially the gconf settings). The guide also did not cover suspend/hibernate.
KNetworkManager, the KDE version, doesn’t use gconf, instead storing its settings in a plaintext config file, ~/.kde/share/config/knetworkmanagerrc . After connecting for the first time, which involves first connecting to FASTPASS, the paid wireless network, then manually inputting the gtwireless info (otherwise it won’t be found due to something weird). After doing this, remove the FASTPASS network from your trusted list. You might have to delete the section manually in knetworkmanagerrc as well. I strongly suggest closing knetworkmanager while editing knetworkmanagerrc.
Next thing you’ll want to do is give knetworkmanager a list of MAC addresses to avoid this problem. Doing this should (currently untested, will post results later this week or next) allow autodetection of the hidden gtwireless network.
My current list of gtwireless MAC addresses (right now the same as on touset.org):
- 00:13:5F:55:18:D1
- 00:13:5F:55:19:F1
- 00:13:5F:55:15:91
- 00:13:7F:BB:40:21
- 00:0F:8F:40:7E:C1
- 00:0F:8F:3D:D7:81
- 00:11:5C:A1:B5:D1
- 00:11:5C:A1:BE:E1
- 00:13:7F:BB:44:F1
- 00:11:5C:A1:B6:11
- 00:11:5C:A1:BF:41
- 00:11:5C:A1:BF:31
- 00:13:5F:55:34:31
- 00:13:5F:55:17:61
- 00:11:5C:A1:B5:01
- 00:11:5C:A1:B2:A1
- 00:0F:8F:3D:D8:31
- 00:0F:8F:3D:E4:51
- 00:13:80:94:60:61
- 00:13:7F:BB:45:71
- 00:13:7F:BB:45:B1
- 00:0F:8F:3D:E4:61
- 00:0F:8F:40:7B:D1
- 00:0F:8F:3D:E4:D1
- 00:13:7F:BB:41:D0
- 00:11:5C:A1:B5:11
- 00:0F:8F:40:7F:81
- 00:11:5C:A1:B4:11
- 00:0F:8F:3D:E4:11
- 00:0F:8F:40:82:D1
- 00:03:93:ED:EC:B8
- 00:11:5C:A1:B5:41
- 00:11:5C:A1:B5:F1
- 00:11:5C:D4:7E:A1
- 00:11:5C:A1:B4:81
- 00:13:7F:BB:41:A1
- 00:13:80:94:5E:51
- 00:13:7F:BB:44:81
- 00:13:80:94:43:31
- 00:13:7F:BB:41:B1
- 00:13:80:94:5F:51
- 00:13:80:94:47:91
- 00:15:2B:42:50:81
- 00:11:20:4C:01:B1
- 00:13:80:94:52:71
- 00:11:20:52:C9:01
- 00:13:5F:55:2C:A1
- 00:13:5F:55:17:E1
- 00:13:5F:59:2C:80
- 00:13:5F:59:17:C0
- 00:11:5C:A1:B4:41
- 00:11:20:4B:FB:01
- 00:13:80:94:5D:51
- 00:0F:8F:3D:D9:D1
- 00:13:80:94:52:A1
To actually get NetworkManager to use these, replace the HardwareAddresses line with the comma-separated list of MAC addresses:
HardwareAddresses=00:13:5F:55:18:D1,00:13:5F:55:19:F1,00:13:5F:55:15:91,00:13:7F:BB:40:21,00:0F:8F:40:7E:C1,00:0F:8F:3D:D7:81,00:11:5C:A1:B5:D1,00:11:5C:A1:BE:E1,00:13:7F:BB:44:F1,00:11:5C:A1:B6:11,00:11:5C:A1:BF:41,00:11:5C:A1:BF:31,00:13:5F:55:34:31,00:13:5F:55:17:61,00:11:5C:A1:B5:01,00:11:5C:A1:B2:A1,00:0F:8F:3D:D8:31,00:0F:8F:3D:E4:51,00:13:80:94:60:61,00:13:7F:BB:45:71,00:13:7F:BB:45:B1,00:0F:8F:3D:E4:61,00:0F:8F:40:7B:D1,00:0F:8F:3D:E4:D1,00:13:7F:BB:41:D0,00:11:5C:A1:B5:11,00:0F:8F:40:7F:81,00:11:5C:A1:B4:11,00:0F:8F:3D:E4:11,00:0F:8F:40:82:D1,00:03:93:ED:EC:B8,00:11:5C:A1:B5:41,00:11:5C:A1:B5:F1,00:11:5C:D4:7E:A1,00:11:5C:A1:B4:81,00:13:7F:BB:41:A1,00:13:80:94:5E:51,00:13:7F:BB:44:81,00:13:80:94:43:31,00:13:7F:BB:41:B1,00:13:80:94:5F:51,00:13:80:94:47:91,00:15:2B:42:50:81,00:11:20:4C:01:B1,00:13:80:94:52:71,00:11:20:52:C9:01,00:13:5F:55:2C:A1,00:13:5F:55:17:E1,00:13:5F:59:2C:80,00:13:5F:59:17:C0,00:11:5C:A1:B4:41,00:11:20:4B:FB:01,00:13:80:94:5D:51,00:0F:8F:3D:D9:D1,00:13:80:94:52:A1
Attention Georgia Tech staff: Nothing on this list will give unauthenticated users access to the network. The MAC addresses are there to allow NetworkManager to find and access gtwireless. Otherwise, due to it being a hidden SSID, NetworkManager would probably not find it. This guide is provided for informational use only. I do not condone illegal access to the network or any network.
The connection currently won’t survive a suspend or hibernate. To fix that, the directions in Ubuntu Wiki for suspend support.
One more thing. The connection generally won’t come up until you authenticate to your keyring (GNOME) or wallet (KDE). For GNOME users, on the same wiki page is a way to login to your keyring automatically with your session. For KDE users, unfortunately this doesn’t exist yet. The best suggestion is changing your wallet password to an empty password (kwalletmanager->open kdewallet->file->change password).
Finally, for those who don’t have it yet, 99gtwireless. This script will automatically authenticate you to GT LAWN’s captive portal. As soon as you connect to the network, you’re good to go.
If you have any new MAC addresses that don’t show up automatically, please post them in the comments and include the location you found that. This way the list can cover more locations on campus. If you’re a Georgia Tech representative and can spare a list of LAWN MAC addresses, feel free to email me at: 
Synergy
August 1st, 2007Synergy is a program to share a mouse and keyboard across computers physically next to each other. For example, my laptop sits on my desk to the right of my desktop. Using synergy, if I move my mouse off the left edge of my desktop, it appears on my laptop. I can also use my desktop keyboard on my laptop when the mouse is over there. Synergy also shares clipboards. Copy something from one computer and paste it on the other, even taking into account different OS’s text formats (newlines in windows and linux for example).
Setting is up is easy. Just install the ’synergy’ package (in universe). Windows and Mac versions also exist on synergy’s site. On the “server” computer, most likely your desktop, set up the config file. I used this guide on the Ubuntu wiki. On the client computer, no configuration is needed.
Keep in mind that keyboard and mouse data is transported over the network. To make it more secure, you can tunnel the data through ssh. I wrote a helper script, synergy-ssh. This script sets up an ssh tunnel and connects synergy to localhost (which tunnels it to the server over ssh).
I won’t go into how to set up synergy to start on boot, with X, or on login, mostly because I haven’t figured it out yet. Enjoy, and feel free to comment on how it’s helped you.
Disable Google Talk in gmail
July 25th, 2007I already run a client for Google Talk and find it annoying to see my chats pop up in gmail as well. I just found this at the bottom, though:
AP transfer credit
July 3rd, 2007Click the picture to view in full size.
Facebook users: Facebook doesn’t aggregate pictures. View this post at its original page to see it. It does now, apparently.
Also I just remembered: I’m entering as a sophomore!
Compiz Fusion
June 22nd, 2007It seems like writing about Compiz Fusion is the cool thing to do, so here’s my contribution. First off, a picture:
Expo mode looks a lot better now.
To build from git, I used a few guides put together with the help of racarr. Dependences needed include all of those for compiz (apt-get build-dep compiz) and a few others you can probably resolve during build time including autoconf, automake, and libtool. From the gitweb page (http://gitweb.opencompositing.org/) clone the following branches using git-clone <git path as shown on the page>:
- compiz
- libcompizconfig
- compizconfig-python
- compizconfig-backend-gconf
- ccsm
- bcop
- emerald
- emerald-themes
Build them in the same order using:
- ./autogen.sh
- make
- sudo make install.
For compiz start with ./autogen.sh –disable-kde. KDE integration doesn’t yet work yet.
After installing all of these, you’ll probably want some plugins. Make a new directory (mine is called compcomm, you can call yours fusion if you want). Clone fusion/misc/yags (Yet Another Git Script). Move the example.conf to gitinfo.conf, changing the GITURL to git://anongit.opencompositing.org. Run ./yags clone to pull all the directories, then:
- ./yags make
- sudo ./yags make install
You can then test everything with ccsm (compiz community settings manager). If you did it right, all the plugins should be there with descriptive names (as opposed to one word names).
Updating the plugins is easy. Run ./yags pull, ./yags make clean, then recompile. Updating the core components is a bit more involved. In each directory (compiz, emerald, etc) run git-pull, then recompile.
To actually start compiz, run:
- compiz –replace ccp &
- emerald –replace &
A system tray manager like beryl-manager isn’t out yet, but it’s in the works.
Having some plugins to show off is also a good idea. I recommend wall, expo, and some animations, including dodge (available in animations->focus). I’d write more about using compiz, but there’s already so much out there. Instead of watching someone else, if you follow this guide you can see for yourself.
System76
June 15th, 2007Yesterday, my system76 Gazelle Performance laptop arrived. The laptop arrived in Asus white box packaging, complete with Windows driver cds and system76-specific documentation (cover letter, getting started with Ubuntu page). Initial configuration was as easy as running the installer, probably because it was the installer except with all the packages already in place.
There was only one issue, but it was easily fixed. At times, xorg would randomly hang, only allowing use of the mouse while everything else was stuck. If I had top running, it probably was using a healthy chunk of cpu usage. A quick search on the system76 forums found this topic. Fired off an email to support, and the next morning I had everything I needed to flash the BIOS. Instructions were straightforward as well. Since flashing the BIOS there have been no problems with xorg hanging.
The problem I had was minor compared to how everything was already set up. No tricky hardware to hunt down. All the special laptop keys work as expected in both Gnome and KDE. Suspend works; haven’t tested hibernate yet.
Also took the time setting up ssh keys, using this guide on Ubuntu’s wiki. I only have to enter my key’s passphrase once, when my KDE session starts, and I can ssh to my other boxes without having to enter any passwords. One thing I recommend differently from the guide is to use RSA instead of DSA. Just replace any references to DSA in the guide with RSA.
In all, system76 is great. Preinstalling Linux is definitely the way to go to increase its usage. But unlike Dell, from what I’ve seen, system76’s support is many times better, going above and beyond to make sure everything works. Even with Windows, if the average user encounters a problem they usually call their “resident geek” to fix it. The one issue I’ve seen so far was easily solved through a quick email. Rock on, system76.
Graduation
May 26th, 2007Yesterday I graduated high school. That’s about I all I have to say about that.
Swap files
May 24th, 2007A few days ago in #ubuntu-georgia somebody asked about adding more swap because their system was running kind of slow. I found this article in the Ubuntu wiki that allows you to add more swap as a file without repartitioning. Under the 2.6 kernel there is little to no performance loss using a swap file over a swap partition.
A summary:
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/512Mb.swap bs=1M count=512
Creates your swap file of 512MB (change the count number to get a different swap size)
sudo mkswap /mnt/512Mb.swap
Makes it a swap file.
sudo swapon /mnt/512Mb.swap
Activates the swap file.
/mnt/512Mb.swap none swap sw 0 0
Add that to /etc/fstab to mount this swap file every boot.