Phones can be hotspots - but what about laptops?

So here I am chewing through mobile data and surely I don't need to buy and set-up a permanent wifi AP when I want the odd bit of wireless data. Normal process follows - ask google what ubuntu can - wifi tethering?

Turns out 'yes' and some good instructions are forthcoming on askubuntu.com but (aside from only seemingly supporting WEP and some IPv6 issues) I don't see a hotspot?

The answer - via http://askubuntu.com/questions/76981/cannot-make-wi-fi-hotspot

 $ sudo iw list | less
   ...         
 Supported interface modes:
                 * IBSS
                 * managed
                 * monitor

 so no AP and so hardware does not support being an AP. Bummer - but good to know.

Getting to grips with Unity ... MyUnity

I've also been through my share of Debian based distros pre Ubuntu such as Storm and Knoppix. I briefly tried dabbling with non-Debian distros (Redhat and Centos) but just didn't like it. I'v esince settled happily with Ubuntu.

Having initially started with Windowmaker I would now say I'm an established Gnome (+ metacity) user. I tried KDE but it didn't work for me .. actually it worked just fine - I simply prefer the Gnome look-n-feel (maybe the big paw print struct a chord .. who knows). I wanted to like OS X but couldn't (the app / window thing .. no sorry).

So in summary I've been very happy with Ubuntu and Gnome ... until I upgraded and got Unity. Previously I tried Enlightment but reverted - but I didn't get it by default. With 11.04 I hunted and found out how to remove it - I succeeded but now on 12.04 I 'm getting constant dialog errors, etc, etc .. so I'm thinking it's time to create a new user with default settings to see if I've broken things. Along the way I'll check out Unity.

So this post is a bit about me trying Unity - hopefully positive, and capturing the little customisations, things I like and how I've managed to set them up in Unity.

Now that I'm on 12.04 I've found MyUnity .. things are looking up .. temporarily :)

Things I like

Focus follow mouse 

Easy to configure with gnome-tweak-tool and it doesn't seem to be a bad thing - i.e. it won't break Unity. Ref: http://askubuntu.com/questions/64605/how-do-i-set-focus-follows-mouse

Summary: gnome-tweak-tool is good.

Application menu in panel

A bit weird to me but I'm getting used to it (bit Mac-ish maybe?). When you have multiple windows of different apps and focus following the mouse this is a bit of a fail.

Summary: Still not convinced

Lots of horizontal workspaces 

I'm trying to figure out the how Untiy will let me keep working with lots of horizontal workspaces - myUnity can configure them  yippeee .. ah no - It seems I'm running Unity-2D (see http://askubuntu.com/questions/136324/always-boots-into-2d-mode) and likely my hardware doesn't support anything more advanced (Toshiba Portege m800).

Summary: OK so now we start failing big time


Also .. what about dragging and dropping windows in the workspace panel app thing ???

So MyUnity doesn't allow me to configure all the fancy stuff .. but some of it is not really that fancy? Why can't I configure the number or rows / columns of workspaces. Arrrgh.

So what to do - sadly I'll need to try gconf-editor and try and hack away without breaking things.

I'll update as I continue but it just seems Unity is too aggressive a proposition. There's too much lost functionality .. hey I 'could' do some good stuff .. but I can't. The Unity upgrade didn't come with a box full of free hardware.

Cubox [Part 1]: the arrival + Debian 'squeeze'

My first (and I say first for a reason) Cubox arrive from Solid-run this week. The reason I got the first one:

• Cheap as (99 euro)
• Need a fan-less music and phone system (mpd and asterisk) 

Experience to date

Breaking it

Booted out of the box with an HDMI cable plugged into the TV but without a network cable or adapter handy this was short lived but proved all should play nicely. Booting it directly with a network cable (headless) worked fine - check for host 'cubox' on list of router dhcp leasesfor ip address. ssh'ing in was fine given default 'cubox/cubox' and 'root/cubox' details .. all good.

Next steps were:

1. leave the default Ubuntu 10.04 on there for a quick set-up of what I need
2. install music server (sudo apt-get install mpd)
3. install asterisk (sudo apt-get install asterisk, etc)
4. update all packages (it said some were needed) ... error .. almost bricked it .. 

Well almost. I simply trashed the boot process as some of the new packages simply didn't work leaving me with a busted install and kernel panic's .. don't do an apt-get upgrade if you want to keep it working.

Fixing it

OK so rather than try and figure out where the base system could be restored from (take a back-up people - dd the whole MMC card would be my future recommendation .. that is if you want to go back to it .. I don't really want to).

Next steps:

1. get serial access sorted - nicely documented here, no problem - refresh your screen commands - this worked best for me.
2. choose a distro - I'm picking debian - http://www.solid-run.com/mw/index.php/Debian_on_CuBox
1. lot's of udev issues with wheezy so I'm going back to squeeze - consider http://www.solid-run.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=323#p1010
3. run with basic ssh server only set-up and copy over kernel / boot images.

Some hints I found useful fixing this issue:

•  If you find yourself booting a usb kernel numerous times to get the MMC card back operational again, cat /proc/partitions to find the name soyou can mount the boot partition
• As per this post make sure your boot partition contains a /boot directory ;)