Asus 1201n Synaptics two-finger scroll on Ubuntu Karmic 9.10

Posted on 3 January 2010 by Martijn

True. I have a love/hate relationship with everything Apple. But one thing I was instantly hooked on was the two-finger scroll option on my Macbook. The 1201n as many other eee netbooks has a Synaptic trackpad. The old 1000h worked out-of-the-box when selecting the two-finger scroll in the Gnome preferences, but the 1201n did not.

I’ve read some solutions on the net, but it all boils down to setting the Synaptics fdi policy in the HAL prefs, reboot and set the two-finger scroll in the Gnome mouse-preference pane on.

/etc/hal/fdi/policy/11-x11-synaptics.fdi

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
<device>
<match key="info.capabilities" contains="input.touchpad">
<merge key="input.x11_driver" type="string">synaptics</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.SHMConfig" type="string">On</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" type="string">40</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.VertTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.HorizTwoFingerScroll" type="string">1</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton1" type="string">1</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton2" type="string">3</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.TapButton3" type="string">2</merge>
</match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>

This works on Ubuntu Karmic 9.10, but I’m sure it works on any other distro. You don’t have to enable the shmconfig and/or mount the tmpfs as long if you are not interested in running synclient statistics.

Categories: en_US, Ubuntu | Tags: | 1 Comment

Harddisk upgrade Asus 1201n netbook

Posted on 3 January 2010 by Martijn

I’ve ditched my 1000h and replaced it for an ION based 1201n the other week as I was fed up with the poor video performance. Also, the Atom 330 feels somewhat better than a 230 or 270 as I have one on the ASrock 330 frontend I use as a MythTV frontend.

One problem though. I wanted to transfer the OCZ SSD from the 1000h and I had no clue whatsoever on how to access the drive-bay. On Tweakers I read a review on the 1201n where someone mentioned a controlled demolition of an Asus 1101ha which has quite some similar features.

So I decided to take the plunge and take some (rather miserable as they turned out) pictures while going in. Small note, the four ‘thingies’ which hold the keyboard in place are not nifty spring-controlled devices. They are just 4 pieces of cheap plastic which slide under a protruding plastic wedge from the surroundings holding it in place, so you’ll have to use a little force with a flat screwdriver to give way.

asus 1201n 1

asus 1201n 2

asus 1201n 3

Categories: en_US, Netbook | Tags: | Leave a comment

Kitchen appliance: exit Alix 1C, enter AppleTV

Posted on 31 December 2009 by Martijn

Don’t ask why, but I tend to have a surplus on certain hardware. Some hardware you ditch without a blink, some you cling on to (“No, I’m /not/ throwing out my external UW/W SCSI cables!”) and others, well, they are useful in another setting.

So I have an extra AppleTV I used as an MythTV frontend running Gentoo. 256Mb/1GHz was a little too much for running MythTV on IceWM for HD, so I decided to use it in the kitchen. Exit NEC1701 as well as I needed a DVI capable monitor. I bought an 1440×900 Philips el-cheapo (€110?) and bolted on a vesamount through the plastic backplate so I could hang it in portrait on the wall.

AppleTV running 9.10 tinytiny howto:
So you boot your AppleTV using a patchstick from the guys from ATV Bootloader, mount a second USB stick holding a Ubuntu 9.10 mini.iso image (or just copy it on the patchstick as there is room to spare) and mount it as a loop device. Then, kexec the kernel and initrd and you are set to go. At some oint you can decide whether to install Xubuntu (don’t), Mythbuntu or the Desktop full blown. I only choose the SSH server and went from there using using apt-get to build it up from ground. Tip: Supplying a priority=low on the command-line parameter enabled me to continue the installation using SSH from another machine as the ATV monitor was in portrait mode. After two failed attempts I was having neck problems…

Another note on Karmic and ATV. 9.10 is using grub2 and thus a new boot syntax so you will have to skip the grub installation and make sure you make your own howbrew menu.lst using an editor. The atv bootloader is not capable of parsing the new grub2 config syntax in the kernel.

Also, and this is rather nice as a side dish. I’m planning to watch TV in the kitchen whilst I’m dicing and slicing. I’ve fitted the ATV with the Broadcom 70012 Crystal HD and things look rather interesting. MythTV will jump on the bandwagon soon I hope so I can watch DVB-S2 on ATV.

Categories: AppleTV, en_US, MythTV | Tags: | Leave a comment

Alix and TT 3650 USB DVB adapter: fail

Posted on 2 August 2009 by Martijn

Darn. It sounded like a sweet combination. An Alix with two 3650-CI adapters in the garage as a (slave) MythTV backend. I ran some tests using the liplianin S2 repos drivers, but the Alix could not cope woth the data transfer. Same setup using the old Pentium D920 posed no problems whatsoever and even could stream from the two USB tuners without framdrops. Exit idea and exit surplus Alix. Shame really.

Categories: Alix, DVB-S, en_US | Leave a comment

Geode LX framebuffer woos

Posted on 3 August 2008 by Martijn

From kernel 2.6.25 there’s something strange with the Geode LX frambuffer driver when I’m compiling it in the kernel (opposed to a module that is). I have an old NEC1701 monitor attached to the Alix1C and all I see after the kernel tries load is a black screen. When I plug in a Samsung 24″ it boots perfectly fine whether it is a graphical console or plain 80×25. It only costs you a day to come to this conclusion but hey, we’ve all been there before…

I’ve fixed it by compiling the lxfb component as a module. I noticed that get-edid hangs on the VBE/DDC with the NEC attached. Running read-edid on the Samsung (switching VGA cables) it returns to the prompt saying it is not DDC1 and DDC2 capable.

So the boot problem is probably the same timeout I get from the read-edid command. I have to check it with a 2.6.24 kernel.

UPDATE: same problem with the 2.6.24 kernel. I’m out of ideas as this NEC1701 never had any problems with DDC in the past. Perhaps I’ll have to check the I2C section or have it attached to the 8800GTX in my desktop and compare the kernel options. I’m missing something obvious..

UPDATE2: Solved it by deslecting the EDID firmware option (Graphics > Framebuffer > Support for…). Also had to do a complete rebuild (make mrproper, make oldconfig) to let it fly. The NEC1701 now works without any problems, but also headless operation pose no problems.

Categories: Alix, en_US | Tags: | 2 Comments