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Re: [GTALUG] FPD-Link adapter kits -Success
by Russell Reiter 22 Oct '16

22 Oct '16

Top posting again. It all works. The recycled laptop screen is connected to the Pi through the M.NT68676.2A display adapter. The provisional instructions said to make sure the ground on the LVDS cable was connected to the adapter correctly or damage to the screen would result. The original Toshiba cable was tabbed on top so it could only connect in the correct orientation. In fact the pin offset on the connection ensures that the cable only fits one way, if gentle pressure is used. Other than that, easy as Pi, although xrandr can't report the correct gamma size of this adapter. The OSD works fine and so I'm happy enough. Now to check a the old screens, hopefully there a few LG in the lot and close enough to this modle to be able to use this cable. Russell Sent from mobile. > > > On Oct 4, 2016 3:54 PM, "Russell Reiter" <rreiter91(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> >> On Aug 24, 2016 10:46 AM, "Russell Reiter" <rreiter91(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> > >> > On Aug 23, 2016 10:52 AM, "D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk" < talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: >> > > >> > > | From: Russell Reiter via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> >> > > >> > > | Has anyone tried out the LCD adapter kits like this one on ebay. >> <snip previous> >> >> I went with this product as it has a number of signal inputs. Also available on the net is a usb EPROM flash tool, but I'm hoping to override/modify EDID data in X in order to test several closely related LCDs with the same cable. >> >> M.NT68676.2A(HDMI+DVI+VGA+Audio) LCD/LED Screen Controller Board Diy Monitor Kit >> >> The cost was $61, and some change. It took about six weeks to ship. I got the full kit with power adapter rather than trying to recycle the PS and backlight inverter from the tickle trunk. >> >> Time to dig out the multimeter. >> >> The general instructions are to power test the inverter first, then test that the cable ground from screen to adapter is correct. >> >> Here's a shot of the package contents as delivered to my standard apartment sized mailbox. >> >> Very nice braid on the FPDL cable, I couldn't do that without a lot of practice. There is no spec sheet with the package so I'm going to turn to the net to figure out the EDID pairs. >> >> Success or failure some time soon, but It wouldn't be the the first time I toasted my pet project. >> >> Russell >> Sent from mobile. >> >> >> On Aug 24, 2016 10:46 AM, "Russell Reiter" <rreiter91(a)gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> On Aug 23, 2016 10:52 AM, "D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk" <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: >>> > >>> > | From: Russell Reiter via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> >>> > >>> > | Has anyone tried out the LCD adapter kits like this one on ebay. >>> > | >>> > | http://m.ebay.com/itm/121124750917?_mwBanner=1 >>> > >>> > Not me. But thanks for posting this. I'm mildly interested because of >>> > two projects that I never get around to. >>> >>> Here's a slightly cheaper one with VGA input only. This place drop ships from Flushing NY, although they say add 30 days for international delivery, most of them sellers I've viewed say that somewhere. >>> >>> These pre assembled device matched units all seem to come from the same manufacturing campus in China. >>> >>> http://m.ebay.com/itm/RTD2270-Universal-LCD-Controller-Board-Kit-VGA-to-LVD… >>> >>> I'm currently thinking of this one. >>> >>> http://www.chalk-elec.com/?page_id=1280#!/HDMI-to-LVDS-converter/p/14647633… >>> >>> You have to make/repurpose your own LVDS cable. However, there is a ink to step by step instructions and a they provide their own utility for loading EDID. This would be good for me considering where I'm starting from. However, in my case I may be wrong in my assumption these Toshiba's are all using LG. >>> >>> There is also this; as well as the native Linux EDID tools you can use to tinker Xorg. >>> >>> http://developer.amd.com/tools-and-sdks/graphics-development/amd-edid-utili… >>> >>> From what I have read so far, it is possible that if any of the adapters sold now is hooked up correctly ie. voltages and pin assignments are correct, you will get some sort of output. >>> >>> This guy has blogged his RE adventure. >>> >>> https://hackaday.io/project/4177/logs >>> >>> <snip> >>> > >>> > (Isn't it sad that the quality and resolution of the 15.6" notebook >>> > ($400) is so much less that of the 7" tablet ($40).) >>> >>> I see this as a transport issue related to supply side economics. You can invest in better technology for smaller items because your risk of damage or loss is spread out over a larger lot per container. The larger the display, the more fragile it becomes and shipping time and distance becomes more problematic. >>> >>> > --- >>> > Talk Mailing List >>> > talk(a)gtalug.org >>> > https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk >>> >>> Russell >>> Sent from mobile. > >

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Ubuntu/Canonical livepatch
by Jamon Camisso 20 Oct '16

20 Oct '16

So this just got announced: https://www.ubuntu.com/server/livepatch >From this write up it sounds like a pretty clean implementation of kpatch: http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2016/10/canonical-livepatch.html Free for up to 3 machines beats any of the Suse, RHEL, or Oracle offerings. I've got it running, so far no changes, but hopefully there'll be an update for CVE-2016-5195 soon: sudo canonical-livepatch status --verbose machine-id: <snip> last-check: 2016-10-20T11:35:01.408858488+01:00 boot-time: 2016-10-20T11:28:11+01:00 uptime: 10h48m6s status: - kernel: 4.8.0-25.27-generic running: false livepatch: state: nothing-to-apply version: "" fixes: "" - kernel: 4.4.0-36.55-generic running: true livepatch: state: nothing-to-apply version: "" fixes: ""

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VirtualBox Guest Additions in Ubuntu VM doesn't work
by William Park 20 Oct '16

20 Oct '16

Question for Ubuntu users... VirtualBox Guest Additions installed by default on Ubuntu/Kubuntu VM is 5.0.18, ie. modinfo vboxsf Now, when I try to upgrade to latest 5.1.8, the install script (VBoxLinuxAdditions.run inside VBoxGuestAdditions.iso) finishes OK, but the version is still 5.0.18. Looking at kernel drivers, it seems that I have 2 versions of drivers: kernel/ubuntu/vbox/... --> from Ubuntu kernel misc/... --> newly compiled When I removed the default kernel drivers, then it uses the newly compiled 5.1.8 drivers. (which is what I want) What is Ubuntu-way of removing kernel drivers, or specifying which driver should be loaded? -- William

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Hiring Someone to do a Custom Ubuntu Spins
by Marcus Brubaker 18 Oct '16

18 Oct '16

Hi, I'm involved in a start-up which has developed software to run on Ubuntu Linux [1]. We're currently looking to sell "appliance" servers with the software pre-installed. We want to streamline the installation process by building a custom install ISO which uses our required partitioning scheme and installs some additional drivers and software that are not available on the base image. We'd like to hire someone on a contract basis to do this for us. Primarily, we just need someone who can work through the steps here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallCDCustomization based on our requirements. Minimal requirements include having the installer: - Partition drives in a particular configuration - Install specific required packages - Install NVIDIA and CUDA drivers - Create a special user and execution of a scripts to install software as that user. If you're interested or have any questions feel free to send me an email with your CV and some idea of what your rates might be. Cheers, Marcus

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Kernel Mode Set & EDID links
by Russell Reiter 17 Oct '16

17 Oct '16

I haven't tested the display adapter I ordered yet but I thought the links here might be of general interest. No pun intended, but it's always nice to be able to have a default resolution for a display problem. https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/Docume… https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/driver… I came across these while looking for more info on HDMI. With so many different display connection types and so many different Flat Panel Displays, it's good to know where and how to take control, without resorting to turning off kernel modeset at runtime. Russell Sent from mobile.

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Ubuntu 4.4.0-43 kernel update issue
by Tim Tisdall 17 Oct '16

17 Oct '16

On the off chance anyone else is using Ubuntu 16.04 ... This morning I found my computer barely usable because of a kernel update yesterday. My screen resolution was reduced to the minimum, mouse and track pad didn't work, and no wifi. After some searching online, I found that the issue was the update failed to install the "extra" package. You can check if this is your problem by running ` dpkg --list "*4.4.0-43*" ` and seeing if you're missing the "linux-image-extra" package. If so, then you can run "sudo apt-get install linux-image-extra-4.4.0-43-generic" to fix it.

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Screen Resolution Problem with Ubuntu
by Stephen 16 Oct '16

16 Oct '16

I have an H97M-E MB with on board Intel video chips. I have a high def ASUS monitor. I connect through a KVM switch, the video being VGA For a long time I have had no trouble with 1920x1080 resolution. Things started getting flaky in the spring. An OS update prevented Ubuntu system tools from recognizing the monitor and the highest res was 1024x768. I decided to upgrade from 14.04 to 16.04 hoping that would fix. It did not and there was a lot of pain in the upgrade. I finally found I could fix using xrandr. Last week Ubuntu issued another OS update and it again caused the monitor to not be recognized and the max resolution to be 1024x768. I ensured the full update was performed as discussed in recent email to this group. I upgraded to 16.10. No pain but no joy. I explored further with xrandr: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/xrandr I used cvt I got: Modeline "1920x1080_60.00" 173.00 1920 2048 2248 2576 1080 1083 1088 1120 -hsync +vsync xrandr --newmode "1920x1080_60.00" 173.00 1920 2048 2248 2576 1080 1083 1088 1120 -hsync +vsync xrandr --addmode 1920x1080_60.00 After the last commend, my screen resolution was reduced to something like 640x480 and an error window popped up. I could not read the full error message because it was off the screen. It started with "Could not set" I had to do a system reset. So still no joy. Still stuck at 1024x768. I posted to the Ubuntu forums. No response yet. Any and all suggestions welcome and appreciated. -- Stephen

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Re: [GTALUG] Hiring Someone to do a Custom Ubuntu Spins
by Russell Reiter 14 Oct '16

14 Oct '16

Umm, I'm top posting this because I think there is some misunderstanding about the nature of the original post. This is a contract offer for tender. While most of us do lots of different things related to Linux and roll our own solutions, the OP is looking for a special skill set they don't seem to have in house, so to speak. Having done a Red Hat net kick-start floppy, through peek and poke, some sixteen years ago, I know the basics can be done fairly simply. I believe the OP is looking for someone to write scripts to handle the installation of special partitioning and specialized hardware and software. Python / Pearl and HW troubleshooting knowledge would come in handy for hardening a commercial product like the one described. Since this is an appliance, the biggest obstacle I see is the appliance form factor uniformity. You don't want the ISO installer to choke on a slight firmware or other issue. Russell Sent from mobile. On Oct 13, 2016 1:19 PM, "Marcus Brubaker via talk" <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: Hi, I'm involved in a start-up which has developed software to run on Ubuntu Linux [1]. We're currently looking to sell "appliance" servers with the software pre-installed. We want to streamline the installation process by building a custom install ISO which uses our required partitioning scheme and installs some additional drivers and software that are not available on the base image. We'd like to hire someone on a contract basis to do this for us. Primarily, we just need someone who can work through the steps here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallCDCustomization based on our requirements. Minimal requirements include having the installer: - Partition drives in a particular configuration - Install specific required packages - Install NVIDIA and CUDA drivers - Create a special user and execution of a scripts to install software as that user. If you're interested or have any questions feel free to send me an email with your CV and some idea of what your rates might be. Cheers, Marcus --- Talk Mailing List talk(a)gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

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War Story: installing Fedora 24 on an old Acer Aspire 9300-3089
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 13 Oct '16

13 Oct '16

TL;DR: - if booting hangs, remove "quiet" and "rhgb" from the kernel command. This will show you the boot log in realtime. - if a module is causing the hang, you can suppress it with "modprobe.blacklist=modulename" We needed a computer for casual use at a remote location. So we pulled one out of retirement. Boring first task / adventure: back up all the precious files. It was dual boot Ubuntu 12.04 / Windows Vista. Vista had suffered some kind of bit rot: svchost (or some name like that) was eating 100% CPU so that it was impossible to do backup from it. Not a virus. I wasted a lot of time trying to cure the problem but so many Vista tools have disappeared that I didn't get anywhere. We'll do backing up of the Windows filesystem from Linux at some later date. I replaced the 120G HDD with a 128G SSD that I bought yesterday for $40 from The Source. Boy those are getting cheap. I did *not* copy the old disk to the new one. I then tried to install Fedora 24 "Workstation" using a USB stick. It hung part way through the balloon in the startup screen. How I diagnosed and dealt with this is the real subject of this War Story. - I rebooted the stick, selecting "check installation medium". Checking succeeded but the installation hung the same way - rebooting from the stick, I hit "tab" on the menu item for installing. This lets you edit the kernel parameters. I removed "quiet" and "RHGB". This puts a boot log on the screen instead of the splash screen. - thet boot stopped making progress when "acer_wmi" was started. This is a module intended to do things with Acer's ACPI stuff for wireless (I think). I guess my notebook is too old to match this module's expectations. The machine has hung but I've learned what's important. - I reboot again, hitting tab again, removing "quiet" and "rhgb" again. And I add "modprobe.blacklist=acer_wmi". This magic incantation solves the problem and I can complete the installation. Apparently this also sets up /etc/modprobe.d correctly so that the installed system will work too. I discovered the incantation in the Fedora 24 Installation Guide section 8.2.3. The required parameter was "rdblacklist" in Fedora 16 days so perhaps it is different in your distro of choice too.

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Good news for procrastinators! FSOSS early bird extended
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 13 Oct '16

13 Oct '16

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