So, the second major upgrade that needed to be done was to my AMD64 desktop. This served as my mail server, and a few other bits, for a while, but obviously had to give up that role when I moved into the new house (due to not having an internet connection there!).

Obviously, nothing is ever easy! When I plugged in the ADSL modem upstairs, I realised that our upstairs phone port doesn’t work! So, the ADSL modem had to sit downstairs. Of course, the desktop is upstairs in the office, with no wireless card!

So, first thing to do was to get a wireless adaptor for it. I took a quick look online, and spotted mention of a Belkin G USB wireless adaptor that I had seen in a local PC shop. So I bought this one. A bit of further investigation showed an update to the zd1211rw module in kernel 2.6.19 to support this device. The kernel in Etch is 2.6.18, so didn’t support the device. It’s an easy fix though – just grab the kernel source, and add the following to drivers/net/wireless/zd1211rw/zd_usb.c :

{ USB_DEVICE(0x050d, 0x705c), .driver_info = DEVICE_ZD1211B }

Then recompile this module and copy it into
/lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/zd1211rw
(don’t forget to backup the one that’s there already), and run

depmod -a

Loading this module should then pick up on the Belkin USB wireless adaptor.

Other than this minor problem, the upgrade went smoothly, and the AMD64 is now happily running Etch with no problems.

Man, what a gig. I may be half asleep looking at the screen, but it was worth it!

We left Limerick to head for the National Stadium in Dublin, only roughly knowing where it was. After getting slightly lost for not turning right (thanks Lou!!), we found our way back onto the South Circular Road, and the venue was easily spotted from there. Having left at 3pm, we were parked with nothing to do at 5:30pm. Doors were at 7:30pm, and the concert was due to kick off at 8pm.

We went and got some food, and waited for the rest of the gang to show up. The venue was small, and fully seated, so there was no major queue or crush to get in. I guess it took between 1,500 and 2,000 people.

There had been no prior confirmation of Tim Reynolds joining Dave for the gig, but we had heard rumours that he was going to be there. The pair were met with huge applause when they arrived out on stage. They started off with a slightly slower than usual version of “Don’t Drink the Water”. Constantly changing rhythm and mood, we heard “Crash (Into Me)”, “Crush” and “Ants Marching” among plenty of others.

In between songs, we got some short narratives which kept the crowd entertained. Having told us how happy he was to be playing in Ireland, he went on to describe a situation that we’re nearly all aware of — the Irish American — that is, when Americans visit Ireland, or vice versa, inevitably the conversation includes “Oh, you’re Irish? I’m Irish!”. This, of course, finished up with Dave claiming he was Irish! Other stories included how Tequila is like coffee, and proof of semi-retardation from pretty insane stunts he did when he was a kid.

Tim Reynolds never spoke during the gig, but his guitar said all that was needed. At one point around mid-way through the concert, Dave left the stage for a few minutes leaving Tim alone. He filled this slot easily with an amazing guitar solo. Throughout the gig though, Tim’s impressive guitar solos met with Dave’s music beautifully.

The encore lasted about 30 minutes, filled with more music, more stories, Guinness (for Dave) and a bottle of wine (for Tim)! The whole gig finished up around 11:15pm, with the crowd glad to step out into the cooling rain from the heat that had built up inside. All in all, a very enjoyable evening, leaving me very much looking forward to the Dave Matthews Band gig in May.

I met Mick ‘the hat’ and Graham from TKO beforehand, but didn’t see them afterwards. I can only presume, however, from the cheers I heard from Mick during the gig that they enjoyed it as much as us!

Since I recently (finally!) got broadband installed into our new house, I got started on the long-awaited upgrades to both my Macbook and my AMD64 desktop.

Starting with the Macbook, I installed Dapper on it about 9 months ago. Obviously, there were hacks needed to get some stuff working, and other bits just didn’t work at all!

I got started on the upgrade last week. This broke some things, well, not so much broke them, but changed them to work in a way I didn’t want! The most obvious one was the F keys. I like to use Alt + F(1-4) to switch virtual desktop. However, the Edgy kernel defaults the F keys to be the equivalent of Fn + F key. To undo this, put the following into a file in /etc/modprobe.d.

options usbhid pb_fnmode=2

If you’re using the Feisty kernel, the above option needs to be sent to hid instead of usbhid.

The wireless card seems to work much better under the later kernel in Edgy. Under Dapper’s kernel, the wireless connectivity was shaky to say the least. It’s a lot more stable under Edgy, I’m glad to see.

Also, under Dapper, whenever I closed the lid on the laptop and re-opened it, the screen remained dark. This seems to have been fixed under Edgy. So, suspend to RAM looks good to go!

The last remaining obstacle for me with the Macbook was the microphone. I wanted to be able to use Skype under Ubuntu, but without a working mic, this wasn’t possible. I found this page though, which explains how to fix the issue. Having followed these instructions, the mic now works perfectly.

I haven’t bothered touching on any of the stuff that already works like direct rendering, sound, touchpad, keyboard etc. The iSight camera apparently works, but I don’t know what I’d use it for, so I haven’t set it up.

I found this page to be an invaluable resource after the initial upgrade.

I’ve spent long enough not using some sort of content management system for my website, constantly promising myself that I’d update it some day soon! So, I gave in and installed WordPress. I’m impressed by its functionality so far, and it was very easy to install.

Anyway, this means I have no excuses any more, so I will try and keep this site a bit more up-to-date than I have been.