Getting closer to graduation although I still have about 1 year left at 2 classes per sessions (8 weeks). Finally getting into some classes where I’m learning tons of good information. Wish I’d had this 6 or 7 years ago when I started as a programmer, but then again I learned a lot of good hard lessons in the process. Either way, finally getting closer to the end.

I’d forgotten how much fun it could be to develop SQL statements, but I recently started another session of classes at Columbia College, including CISS 430, Databases. So many choices, just like programming really, as everyone chooses a different method.

So, new adventure. Wanted a small laptop with Linux (Xubuntu) without a lot of money. My Lenovo W510 is a power house but weighs a lot and takes up quite a bit of real estate. Found out that the Acer C7 can be hacked a bit to load up Linux. Spent about 4 days so far testing various options, now have it running pretty darn well. Note, left it at 13.04 until the Intel Video driver is available in 13.10 or 14.04.

Quite a few caveats that I’ll try to cover. First, though, if you want 64-bit with a clean kernel, don’t bother with the various scripts. I utilized the firmware change instead that loads SeaBIOS and Grub2. That gets you to where you can install Linux more or less normally. Chrome OS? That’s different; if you have to have it then you’re on your own. I wanted Linux. Period.

First, I swapped the 4 GB RAM for 16 GB RAM and the 16 GB SSD to a 1 TB Hitachi SATA 3. Yes, it runs with no problem, although the drive is a bit tight fit.

Next, jumpered out the write protect on the motherboard. Various Internet sites show how to accomplish this so I’ll not bother showing pics. It’s a very small micro-jumper, so I used a little foil from a Hershey’s Kiss and a bit of tape to hold it on the pins. You’re only doing this long enough to backup the old firmware and then write the new firmware.

Speaking of firmware, use sudo flashrom -r filename.rom to backup the existing firmware. It’s pretty quick. Next, find the firmware you want to replace it with and use sudo flashrom -w whatevername.rom. This takes a couple of minutes so be patient. Whatever you do, don’t let the battery run down or otherwise cycle power. Can you say $200 brick?

Now that firmware is backed up and copied to a safe place, as well as the new firmware in place, reboot. You’ll see a text-mode screen that resembles GRUB; follow the prompts, pressing F10 to get to a boot menu. Hopefully, you have a memory stick prepared with Xubuntu 64-bit live distro (or whatever) using unetbootin to set it up. BTW, this step took longer than just about everything else, other than figuring out that the script method was out.

Once booted, you can pretty much install as normal. I don’t think I experienced any heart-stopping moments. I did start with 12.04 LTS and then updated until I reached 13.04, but you should be able to install whatever version you want, within reason.

You’ll notice that the trackpad doesn’t work (unless you’re luckier than I am). Upgrade the kernel to 3.11.4+ using the following commands (this is the 64-bit version). The reason for this upgrade is because 3.11 includes quite a few items relating to the Chromium laptops that are out there:

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.11.4-saucy/linux-headers-3.11.4-031104-generic_3.11.4-031104.201310081221_amd64.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.11.4-saucy/linux-headers-3.11.4-031104_3.11.4-031104.201310081221_all.deb

wget http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.11.4-saucy/linux-image-3.11.4-031104-generic_3.11.4-031104.201310081221_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-3.11.4*.deb linux-image-3.11.4*.deb

Reboot.

Now, you’ll find that your trackpad still doesn’t work. Problem is that only 1 of 4 drivers loads and order of the 4 is essential. First, use sudo rmmod chromeos_laptop to briefly unload that driver. Now, use sudo modprobe i2c-i801, sudo modprobe i2c-dev, sudo modprobe chromeos_laptop, and sudo modprobe cyapa to load everything in the correct order. Your trackpad should work. I still have to figure out how to force Xubuntu to load them in the order I want, but I now have options.

BTW, glxgears gives about 300 fps out of the box. I haven’t played with any optimization. Also, VirtualBox appears to have installed properly, which I have been unable to accomplish using the script configurations.

EDIT: To enable the trackpad, edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf to include the line:

blacklist chromeos-laptop

Now edit /etc/modules to include the lines:

i2c-i801

i2c-dev

chromeos-laptop

cyapa

Your trackpad should now be functional.

[2014-08-08: Edited chromeos-laptop entry.]

I’ve been collecting stamps for nearly 40 years now and I’ve found a lot of them advertised as used when in fact they are not used, they are simply cancelled. Unfortunately, a number of countries issue stamps in huge quantities that are cancelled during the printing process and have never actually been on an envelope. While this does make these stamps available globally, it also allows less-than-reputable dealers to sell these as used. Many new collectors do not realize this; I can remember when I first started collecting wondering why I was getting all of these cancelled stamps that still had their gum. It didn’t take long to find out that these stamps are printed by the millions and are essentially worthless.

It’s mostly a case of buyer-beware, as many dealers don’t bother mentioning whether the stamps are actually used for postage or CTO. Next time you go to buy a few used Hungary stamps, keep in mind that they probably never saw the inside of a post office nor the face of an envelope but were created specifically for sale to collectors.

I recently purchased several S-100 boards from eBay; the prices were good and I figured one of these days I’ll find some documentation for them, or I’ll have the time to chase signals enough to figure out what they do. One looks like an old Winchester MFM or RLL drive board, given the connectors and the number of pins. Another resembles some sort of IDE adapter board. All are by manufacturers with little or no information available. Makes things interesting, I guess. Also have an Alpha Micro AM-919 backplane with lots of slots. Not currently hooked up, still sitting in the shipping box, but should be handy one of these days. Hopefully I’ll come across a set of drawings for it, just to make sure everything is wired the way my smaller AM board is.

A beautiful ship of the line.

Starting the next session on Monday. Systems Analysis and Design Methods, along with Java Programming. I’ve worked as a System Analyst, so I’ll be interested to see what the best practices are vs. what I was actually doing. I already know some of it was wrong, but the corporate culture insisted… 🙂 I did try to work with the users and managers as much as possible to understand the underlying processes and demands.

Also found http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com. Looks like MS must have figured out that you can’t survive on charging people for everything associated with your basic product. They actually have some good training, based on my initial visits. Looking forward to going through several of their programs to see what I learn. The price is good, at least (free).

Next: CLEP and DSST testing. Hopefully, I can bypass about 5 or 6 classes.

Yet another college session down, this time Programming III and Western Civ II. Hopefully, both grades will be respectable. Next up? Not sure yet; I’d like to take a couple of technical classes this time with no “fluff” (don’t tell anyone I said that). However, the tech classes can get kinda busy… Oh, well, so many classes, so few years left to live. Come on lottery! Can you say permanent student?