Tech

I found this out this week that if you update your kernel via the usual Synaptic method - your sound will stop working.

You will need to follow the steps described in my previous post again. Found here

I guess that given the alsa-base modules are compiled against the kernel if you update it then they need to be recompiled.

I just did the recompile and the make install etc and sound is now working.

I upgraded my system to the latest version of Ubuntu 9.04. It seems the alsa drivers which ships with this are somehow broken as you will have no sound. There is a bug report on the myhpmini forums which detail a few people having the same issue. If you upgrade the also drivers to 1.0.19 it seems to work fine.

MyHPMini Forums

There is a fix here:
Work Around

I followed these steps and after a reboot, all done.

I bought a Compaq Mini 700 netbook yesterday from PC World. I am currently using it now to write this blog using Ubuntu 8.10.

The install was painless. I chose to install via the flash usb method - I dont have a usb cd drive. One tip is you need to have the usb key plugged in before you enter the BIOS to change to boot order. Once I did that the live usb was already finding my wireless network!

The install took about 20min plus another 40mins to update all the packages.

I am pretty happy with the performance of the whole setup so far. Firefox is crisp and on first use getting about 3 hours battery life. Webcam works too.

I would definitely recommend this if you are looking for a quality linux netbook with minimum fuss.

I was trying to fix my mates sound issues and thought it might be worth upgrading the BIOS. He has a K9AGM3-FIH and the sound keeps skipping when playing a file off the hard disk. I had read around that upgrading the bios might fix the problem.

I downloaded the MSI update tool and began bios flashing. Then it all went wrong. The PC stalled and then on reboot it would not switch on. The screen was black and all that happened was the sounds of fans whirring. I think I will probably avoid using the BIOS upgrade tool in the future.

I have a USB drive caddy so I took out the hard disk and backed up all the important data just in case.

After doing much reading the solution was to switch a jumper located on the motherboard which resets the bios. It took a few attempts to do this but after finally taking out the battery and putting it back in and leaving the jumper in the reset position for five minutes. All you need is a pair of pliers and some patience.

Once I replace the jumper into its normal setting and booted up, the computer POST beeped and all was well.

I was out and about in London last night and took a quick snap of Windows working its magic. It is a display sign above one of the platforms and is meant to show the next train, destinations, time etc. It won't be doing that tonight. I have seen this happening before on train displays - a few times on the CityRail network in Sydney, and elsewhere in the UK.



If you zoom in you can see that the message says "Your system is running low on virtual memory". I will give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt here, if you check out the version date 22/7/2002, it is clear this software has not been upgraded in a while - and probably is currently unsupported. Given the state of the railway companies in the UK it is more likely to be the case of dodgy software and a memory leak from the timetabling system.

Fortunately my train was on time.