Category: computers

Victory over the Dell Mini

After a few hours of toil and despair of trying to tweak my Dell Mini with Ubuntu in an attempt to enable the ability to use the 2GB of RAM instead of being limited to just 1GB. At one point I had the 2GB recognized but lost wifi and sound. In the end I completely reinstalled the initial Dell Ubuntu 8.04+ OS, did a full apt-get update and install…. and everything worked (2GB of RAM, wifi, sound, and on board webcam). And by now in Ubuntu I can add my network printers and permanently mount my networked shared drives with my eyes closed.

And yes, the Dell Mini is just a bit more zippy with 2GB of RAM humming under the hood.

Dell Mini 9…. 2GB with Ubuntu?

I got a Dell Mini back in October and have been enjoying it very much. What I like the best is its portability and battery life. At the time, the version that I purchased from Dell came with a specialized version of Ubuntu 8.04 and 1GB of RAM. I wanted to upgrade to 2GB and purchased the RAM. However, the Mini failed to recognize the additional RAM, stilling telling me I only had 1GB installed (even though it only has a single 2GB DIMM). I learned today that the problem is not the RAM but the specific Ubuntu kernel that Dell used for the Mini. And here is the fix:

Mini 9 Kernel Re-compile for 2 GB ram:

– Open a terminal
– Enable root login using the command:
sudo passwd root

– Change to the root user and then execute the following commands:
su
lsmod > /tmp/modules.old
apt-get install linux-source
apt-get install build-essential
apt-get install libncurses5-dev
cd /usr/src
tar -jxvf linux-source-2.6.24.tar.bz2
cd linux-source-2.6.24
cp /boot/config-2.6.24-19lpia .config
make oldconfig
make menuconfig

– In the menu that opens, go to “Processor Type and Features”, enter the option “High Memory Support (off)”, select the option 4GB, exit and save.
– Execute the follwing commands:
make
make modules_install
cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24.3
cp .config /boot/config-2.6.24.3

cd /lib/modules
cp -r 2.6.24-19lpia/volatile 2.6.24.3
cp -r 2.6.24-19lpia/ubuntu 2.6.24.3
update-initramfs -u -k 2.6.24.3

– edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and at the very bottom add an entry for the new kernel. It is recommended that you also increase the delay time to something greater than 0 (like 10 seconds) so you leave the stock kernel as the default, but select the new one from the grub menu till you know it works.
– Reboot and select the entry you created for the Kernel 2.6.24.3
– Several modules won’t have loaded after the reboot, You can identify which ones by doing a “lsmod > /tmp/modules.new” (without the double quotes) and comparing to the /tmp/modules.old generated previously. One that fails for sure is wireless, another one is the embedded webcam.
– To fix the wireless, just open a terminal and type the following commands:
su
depmod -a
modprobe wl

– at this point, perform a modprobe for the other modules listed in /tmp/modules.new that are missing from /tmp/modules.old . In my mini 9 the commands were:
modprobe michael_mic
modprobe arc4
modprobe ecb
modprobe blkcipher
modprobe unionfs

– At this point everything should be working normally in your Mini 9, and it should recognize all 2 GB of RAM. I did a last reboot before testing the camera and everything.
– If you are confortable that everything is working fine, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst again, change the delay back to 0 and make your new kernel entry the first one on the list of options.

I’m going to try this tomorrow – I hope it works!

There seems to be some debate on if it would be easier to just upgrade to Ubuntu 8.10. The apparent downside of the 8.10 upgrade on the Dell Mini is that it takes a bit to tweak the hardware settings and the potential loss of the battery efficiency of the Dell’s Ubuntu 8.04. More info here.

The Columbus Day Surprise


My Dell Mini arrived! I’m using it for this entry. I like it so far, but there are draw backs. The keyboard is tiny. Performance is a bit slugish, but it plays video without issue. I’ve been able to configure it to access my network drives, that went fairly well (… once I remembered the Linux commands).

It is small! And light weight. So far the battery is doing well. The screen is sharp and the speakers are pretty loud when you crank them up. There’s an SD card reader on the side. I also opted for the webcam, which seems to work nicely.

Now I need to stop procrastinating and write my history paper that’s due tomorrow. 🙂

Back in the saddle

I -finally- got my HF rig working here at the Kansas QTH.

Since arriving here back in July, I’ve been super busy. School (the Army’s Command & General Staff College (CGSC)) kicked in at the beginning of August. The last formal schooling I had was eight years ago – so I was a bit rusty at getting into the swing of things (i.e. reading, reading… and more reading). I’m also taking a complementarity master’s degree program in International Relations through Webster University (two nights a week). The good news is I was able to talk the XYL into taking the master’s courses with me. The bad news is that sometimes the master’s stuff chews up more time than my school work for CGSC.

CGSC can be intense. September was packed with wall-to-wall learning, usually from 0830 to at least 1530. The schedule is starting to lighten up a bit.

Today I was able catch my breath a bit… out of class at 1130. The sun was shining, a beautiful day. I had some antenna maintenance to do. A little bit of time on the roof and the majority of my HF problems were fixed. I’m now up on HF, except for 80M. I think a little work on my counterpoise will fix that.

Back in the basement (aka The Scud Bunker) I hooked up my Icom IC-7000 to the new and improved HF antenna – bingo… all the problems I was experiencing in the past were gone. A QSO with KC2PBX, Pierre on Long Island, NY on 20M and then TI8II from Costa Rica on 17M, later with Ray, W1RAA from Tampa, FL. It felt good having some HF QSOs. I did a little more work with my station setup; hooking up the RIGtalk and RIGblaster Plug&Play. There’s more work to do and I should have time later in the week.

Other news:
– I’m switching from Windows to Ubuntu Linux. I WILL NOT UPGRADE FROM XP TO VISTA. Vista is a tool of the devil and I will have no part of it. My Toshiba laptop has been dual boot between XP and Ubuntu for a while, but had rarely been using the Ubuntu. I ordered a Dell Mini 9 (very tiny netbook) to help with school (writing papers in the library rather than goofing off in the Scud Bunker). The Dell Mini is coming with Ubuntu pre-loaded. Sweet. The next step will be setting up one of my towers as an Ubuntu server. Goodbye Microsoft.
– I’ve gone Kindle. Both the XYL and myself have the Amazon Kindle. I like it a lot better than my Sony eBook. Getting the Washington Post first thing every morning is great. The battery life is a little to be desired. The best part is that I can read KE9V’s blog right on my Kindle.

Ok – back to the books. I will get better at making frequent updates here.

Items of interest

Interesting post on W2LJ’s blog about his PDA. I have an assortment of PDAs:

– Palm Pilot Pro that I got an upgrade kit for to make it a Palm III (new chip along with IR sync capability)

– Palm IIIxe which I bought on eBay. It works well except that it eats up batteries even when it is turned off. I have used this PDA with my Kenwood TH-D7 to do mobile 2m packet and PocketAPRS.

– Palm m130. This was the first PDA I had that allowed you to use an SD card. I have used this to program my TinyTrack APRS device.

– Palm Tungsten 3 (or T3). First PDA with wireless connectivity, in this case Bluetooth. Also has a slot for an SD card. I used this PDA for mobile logging, mainly taking advantage of the voice recording function… I’d have a mobile QSO, pick up the Palm T3 and record a voice memo of the time, freq, callsign, and any other significant info. At a later point I used that to update my primary log.

– Some variant of an HP PDA that has WiFi and an SD card slot.

Also have an assortment of keyboards, cameras, and other doo-dads that go with these.

I have the Palm T3 with me now… I’m guessing it needs to be charged.

K3OQ has a post about his upcoming trip to the Outer Banks. He also plans to activate The Bodie Island Lighthouse (USA-067). I had the opportunity to activate that light back in June of 2006. Beautiful area out there – very relaxing. One of the highlights of any hams visit to the Outer Banks is using the Outer Banks Repeater Association’s 2m and 70cm repeaters. I had a few great exchanges with Jack, W2EHD who lives in the area year around. The repeater system also allowed me to stay in contact with the XYL while I was off activating lighthouses.

N9IK’s Radio Blog has a new post about his completion of the Rock-Mite 40 transceiver kit. He’s got some great pics of his work. I hope to develop my building skills to that level. Very nice work. I look forward to hearing about the contacts he makes with it.

K9ZW tries to solve the age old question of the best way to organize QSL cards with his latest post. I’m curious to see how others keep their cards organized. I don’t have a ton of cards yet, but I would like a solid method of keeping my cards organized that will last for years and allow me to access them as needed.

As always – I enjoy reading your blogs. It keeps my interest in amateur radio strong even if I don’t get on the air as often as I’d like.

Sunday in the shack

I was successful in transferring the WX station duties to the computer out in the garage. I first had to get the Davis Weather Monitor II talking with the computer – which was accomplished after I changed the COM port speed to 2400 baud. I then transferred all the Weather Display files from the computer in the radio room out to the garage. The Weather Display software started up, green lights indicating that it was taking data from the Davis Weather Monitor II. But I didn’t have any sensors plugged in yet, so the only data being displayed was the indoor temp (now the garage temp) and the barometer. The outdoor temp sensor is located near the garage, so I was easily able to reroute the cable into the window of the garage and connected it to the Davis Weather Monitor II box. The outdoor temp came up right away. The next challenge was setting up the FTP for my weather webpage. The Weather Display software has great wizards that walk you through setting up different aspects of the software – the FTP setup had such a wizard. And now the webpage is getting updated every 5 minutes. Great! I still need to (1) reroute the wind direction and speed cable to the garage (requires me to get on the roof), (2) find some place to put the rain gauge (may require me to get on the roof), and (3) get the webcam hooked back up.

Spent some time cleaning up the radio room. I finally unpacked the MFJ-989C tuner that I got to go along with the Heathkit SB-220 amp. Neither are setup – that’s a project for another day.

I was also able to make contact with MI3JQD, operating from Northern Ireland… and a CW contact on 30M with John, K9??? in Indiana.

Weekend Wrap Up

Went up to the Yorktown Battlefield Saturday and linked up with Mark, N1LO. I got to see his portable setup. He was using a delta loop antenna made of speaker wire, maybe about 25′ per side. The speaker wire was in three sections, the sections were connected using fishing line lure links. The speaker wire was terminated using banana plugs and fed into a 1:1 balun. To support the legs of the delta loop, Mark used a combination of a painter’s pole and a fiberglass fishing rod secured by a 3′ picket easily driven into the ground about 8″.


The fiberglass fishing pole’s end easily nests into the painter’s pole with about 6″ overlap raising the loop to a height of about 20′. The painter’s pole was secured to the picket using two small hose clamps. The delta loop tuned easily from 80M to 10M, but would not tune 160M. All the antenna components compacted down to fit into a plastic rifle case. Mark connected the delta loop to his IC-706MKIIG through his LDG AT-200 Pro autotuner and was easily making QSOs into Ohio (the Ohio QSO Party was underway). Power was provided by a ~100aH marine battery and a nice homebrew PowerPole distribution hub. The best part of the setup was the location – in a very nice, shady park on the southern banks of the York River.


In an endeavor to consolidate my 2M packet operations (APRS, Winlink 2K, and good ol’ fashion BBS packet) into the garage, I spent a good chunk of time pushing around boxes and crates. I purchased three 3′ high bookshelves from Target, arrayed them in an open “U” and then placed a 4’x6′ piece of plywood across the top. I filled the bookshelves with back issues of QST and equipment awaiting to be put into use. Next to this workbench, I put a previously unused, small table where I positioned my monitor and PC. I spent the late afternoon converting the PC from Ubuntu back to Window XP (… I can’t commit the time needed to tweak Unbuntu to my needs). Now I need to move the my KPC-3+ from the radio room out to the garage and see if I can get a basic packet station operational.

Also been preparing for the upcoming RV DXpedition. I’ll be taking the ARSIB along with the vertical dipole, but was also thinking about taking a G5RV. I’m also going to try and use a 75M hamstick, we’ll see how that works out.

Weekend wrap up

Got to see a bit of the air show today from a nearby park that has a good view of Langley Air Force Base. Had my Bearcat Scanner (BC245XLT) with the Radio Shack antenna and was able to monitor the Air Boss as well as the air/ground communications for the Golden Knights parachute team.

Tired to contact the special events station at Fort Knox (W2P), but the propagation just wasn’t there. I was able to make two other SSB contacts while trying as well as a PSK31 contact with a Swedish amateur radio operator on St. Martin.

Worked on cleaning the radio room.

Started looking at using my TH-D7A for accessing a DX packet cluster… but I’m not sure if we have any packet clusters in the area. We’ll see.

I’m looking at getting an amp for my FT-817 so I can use it for portable operations without having to pull the IC-706 out of the shack.

Finished about 30 QSL cards to be sent out tomorrow.

Weather Display works on Ubuntu!! I need to transition my weather station from the radio room to the linux box out in the garage. I need to figure out how to do do the FTP upload and webcam.

Started working on a webpage for Old Point Comfort Lighthouse activations: http://www.ni0l.com/monroe/monroe.html

Upgraded memory

Just added some more memory to the Linux tower (aka garage box)… dropped in an additional 512MB SDRAM SIMM and after a reboot it is now operating much quicker. Also made an adjustment to the xorg.conf to fix the video card. It’s an old VooDoo 3Dfx card and although recognized, it defaulted to a screen resolution of 800×600 without allowing any changes. Now it’s defaults to 1200×1048… much better.

Now it’s back to weeding through the old harddrives.