Posts Tagged → ubuntu
More 1001ha WiFi woes
I’ve just upgraded Ubuntu on my netbook to version 10.10. I’ve been having further problems which I believe are related to the wireless adapter. This link helped a great deal:
http://projectgus.com/2010/10/ubuntu-on-asus-eeepc-900ax/
But again, why is all this necessary on such a popular netbook, running such a popular operating system?
Asus Eee PC 1001ha Wireless Fix
I’m typing this using an Asus Eee PC 1001ha running Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.04. It took a wee bit of struggling to get the wireless working but thanks to an article on the Ubuntu Wiki, I was able to get it working.
However, there is a further issue that occurs every time there’s a kernal upgrade. Having had a working wireless network connection, the Network Manager ceases to work when the new kernel is installed.
One solution is, of course, to stick with the previous, working kernel. However, I have discovered the following (relatively) easy fix, that needs to be followed when a new kernel is released.
‘lspci’ from the command line informs that that the 1001ha has an onboard RaLink RT3090 Wireless 802.11n 1T/1R PCIe card. After much Google-ing, I found that the following command will rebuild the offending kernel module:
dpkg-reconfigure rt3090-dkms
This will take a wee while. Then, to activate the change, you need to:
modprobe rt3090sta
You don’t need to reboot the machine – you should see the Network Manager come to life in the top-right of the screen.
Et voila!
I must admit that I find it strange that this is necessary at all, on one of the most popular netbooks, using a netbook-specific netbook distribution of Linux. But anyway, there you have it, problem solved!
The trouble with Apple Macs…
Usually my posts are all about solutions. Sadly, this one is about an unresolved problem.
I work at an Edinburgh-based charity, AdvoCard. In one of our offices we have 10 PowerPC Apple Mac G5s. They all run OS X 10.3 at the moment. This is a problem because I cannot purchase an upgrade. 10.6 (Snow Leopard) is all that Apple sells at the moment, which is not compatible with PowerPC Macs – same with all retail outlets. It is, literally, a closed shop.
It’s a problem in day-to-day usage because, without an upgrade to OS X, I cannot update Firefox beyond version 2. This causes issues accessing many websites, notably Google docs. Internet Explorer and Safari are in the same boat (if not worse). Another issue is that MS Office (on OS X 10.3) cannot install the converter to read docx formatted documents (from Office 2007 onward). Pretty much any new software I want to install demands at least version 10.4 of OS x.
My only option (aside from spending a stupid amount of money on hardware which AdvoCard cannot afford), seems to be to install Ubuntu, or Debian, or Yellow Dog Linux. Believe it or not (given my track record of Linux usage), I’m loathed to do this, due to the training and migration implications. It’s certainly do-able but, frankly, I have bigger fish to fry than training everyone in AdvoCard how to use Gnome or KDE. I’m not an IT manager, and we certainly don’t have the cash to employ one.
Answers on a postcard please…