The "New" Rob Enderle

Over the years no pundit has taken quite as much flack as Rob Enderle (some less charitable than myself would probably say deservedly).

Although I still think that his anti-Linux stance really didn't do him any favours it is fair to say that he certainly isn't a pro-Microsoft shill. One of his latest articles could almost be proof of that.

A well written article mixing Apple Computers, Politics and Dancing with the Stars? You betcha!

So is Rob now on the side of good? A reading further through his output unfortunately reveals that his anti-Linux stance is as much in evidence as ever, whilst he can still churn out pro-Microsoft stuff with the best of them.

Whilst I still don't think that he is a paid shill (although he does a darn tooting impression of one I must admit) some of this anti-Free Software stuff just doesn't do him any favours. Many companies can (and do) support free software solutions mixed in with the commercial ones. These days it is so common that it hardly even warrants a mention.

The company I work with supports both Open Office AND Microsoft Office, although we only install Microsoft Office where there is a damn good business case for spending money on the software licence. Does Open Office cost us any more to support than Microsoft Office? Of course not. Don't be silly.

You see, in a support role you often end up supporting desktop applications that you haven't had full (or in some cases any) training on. It doesn't matter whether it is a Microsoft, Sun or Joe Bloggs Open Source program, part of a good technicians skills are being able to deal with new stuff "on the fly" as it were and learn (and remember) enough to be able to support the users.

So what Open Source stuff gets widely used? Apart from the obvious such as FireFox and OpenOffice, tools such as ImageMagick are in heavy use (often as part of the back-end software for commercial products). Some of the more useful Unix commandline utilities have been ported to Windows and again, can often be found as part of the "glue" behind larger commercial products. Samba is so common that it is almost a certainty to find it installed on any given Unix server that you find.

And as for Linux not working on the desktop? Some of us switched to it years ago, and I can tell you this: even with some of the issues I've encountered over the years I'm not switching back! (Using the beta version of Windows 7 has made that decision a damn site easier to handle!)

Hide KMix at start-up on KDE 4

Although I've rather got to like KDE4 there has been one thing that has been a constant (although minor) irritation to me - and that is that KMix doesn't minimise at start-up.

Well, it can be done. In ~/.kde4/Autostart create a file called kmix which contains the following script:

#!/bin/bash
kmix; qdbus org.kde.kmix /kmix/KMixWindow close

Make sure that the script is executable

chmod u+x kmix

Now when KDE starts kmix will launch and minimise straight to the dock.

Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope - First Impressions and problems

I've had a bit of a love / hate relationship with Ubuntu in the year that I've been using it as my main desktop.

The big problem for me has been the fact that the via_pata driver that they insist on using isn't reliable on my hardware, causing random lock-ups. Not nice that, and certainly not what I expect from Linux.

I've managed to get around it by using an older 2.6 kernel that was patched to use the original via82cxxx module, which is a less than satisfactory solution really (and yes, I'm already using 80 wire IDE cables thank you very much).

With all this in mind it was with some trepidation that I took the plunge and upgraded to the new Ubuntu 9.04 beta. If you want to do this, then simply run update-manager -d and follow the on-screen prompts to upgrade.

The upgrade itself was (as usual) painless, although it did take about two hours for the download / upgrade process to complete. Once the upgrade was complete I rebooted and. . . .

I was faced with a nice, shiny KDE 4.2.1 desktop. There was a problem though, which I discovered about ten seconds after launching Amarok and trying to update my collection. Yes folks, the system locked solid. Trying to launch the old version of the kernel left me without a graphical desktop, so back into the latest kernel and a second attempt to update my MP3s in Amarok - followed by a system lock after a few seconds.

I should be able to get around this problem by recompiling the kernel to allow me to revert to the original via drivers (like I've got the time for this shit. . .). As a last resort (and after consulting my good friend Google) I've added "defoptions=all-generic-ide" to /boot/grub/menu.lst and restarted, which so far seems to have done the trick as I've been able to update my collection without any locks.

I'm going to have to see how well the system holds up. If this sorts it then great, but if not then I'll have to look using a different Linux distro.

. . .

As it turns out this didn't sort the problem at all. Spooling a video to my XBox caused the system to lock solid - so onto Plan B - recompiling the kernel.

There are some pretty straight-forward instructions here on how to recompile the kernel for Ubuntu. One thing that shocked me is just how long it takes to recompile the Ubuntu way. With Slackware compiling a kernel took less than an hour, with Ubuntu? I gave up waiting after a couple of hours. God only knows what it is doing, but it is certainly taking its time about it.

Adding in support for the old via82cxxx module is reasonably straight-forward, and after the compile had finished I installed the new modules, checked the blacklist to make sure that the pata_via module wasn't going to load, rebooted and. . .

No difference. Running lsmod didn't show pata_via, but it also didn't show via82cxx. In fact, I couldn't see any modules relating to the IDE drives. Checking /proc/bus/pci/devices shows that pata_via has actually been loaded. What?

Checking back through the kernel configuration shows why - they've compiled support for pata_via directly into the kernel rather than as a module. Bastards!

After setting it back to being a module (rassen frassen Ubuntu) I did a clean recompile as per the Ubuntu instructions. So now I'm going to spend the morning waiting for the compile to complete, and hoping that the PC doesn't lock up in the meantime.

Fun, I don't think.

*** Three hours later ***

OK, so I've recompiled the kernel, reinstalled it and rebooted and yes! We are no-longer using pata_via, the drive names have reverted from SDxx to HDxx, and hopefully that should be it for the lock-ups.

If (like me) you are using the NVidia drivers then you will also need to recompile the Ubuntu restricted drivers.

One further problem was that the kernel package I'd created never seemed to complete installing (even though it was added to the grub menu and I could boot the system using it). After a fair bit of faffing around I traced the problem to the file /etc/kernel/postinst.d/nvidia-common throwing errors due to the new kernel. To get around this I removed the nvidia-common package, at which point the custom kernel completed installing without any errors, then I re-installed nvidia-common. Easy when you know how. . .

So, what's new? Faster start-ups, at least it seems faster to me. A new notification system (for Gnome at any rate), updated apps, 2.6.28 based Kernel and an awful lot more "polish" to the desktop experience. Oh, and the splash screen is slightly different too.

For those of us using KDE we now get KDE 4.2.1 - which is a seriously nice upgrade to the KDE4 series. One bone of contention over the past couple of years is that Ubuntu's tools tended to be better integrated into Gnome than KDE - but this time round I'd say that both desktops are on an equal footing - and personally I'd say that KDE4 may even have a bit of an edge.

I've been so impressed with the latest release that I've upgraded my Toshiba Satellite Pro from Ubuntu 8.04 to 9.04. This has been, shall we say a time consuming exercise. Firstly I had to upgrade to 8.10 and from there to 9.04. Each upgrade took around four hours.

Upgrading to 8.10 was fine, everything worked without problems, however upgrading to 9.04 killed knetworkmanager. The program launches, sees the local wireless network but won't connect. As the network connection still worked from Gnome I had a search around and found that yes, knetworkmanager is stuffed on the latest KDE.

I finally got the wireless network running from the network pane of the Systems Settings.

One further bonus is that 3D acceleration now works on the laptop's Trident Cyberblade/XP card. It isn't fast, I'll admit, but at least it now works.

DanO vs XBox 360 and 3 Red Lights Part 2

Well, it finally happened - a couple of in-game lock-ups followed by three red lights that just won't go away. As I mentioned before, Microsoft have extended the warranty for the Red Ring of Death to three years, so even though the standard warranty is over, registering the console with Microsoft (via www.xbox.com) still allowed me to request a repair.



Sending back the XBox

Depending on where you live and how old your XBox is one of three things will now happen, either:

A: You'll receive the return packaging from Microsoft.
B: Microsoft will post you the UPS packaging slip.
C: You'll be emailed the link to a UPS Packaging Slip and a delivery receipt.

In my case I received the link to download the prepaid packaging slips. Once you've printed them out you'll need to find a box big enough to hold the XBox (don't use the original XBox packaging as it won't be returned) and something to keep it securely in place.

When you've packaged it up neatly (and remembered to write your name and the customer service request ID on the outside of the box) it is time to phone UPS and arrange a time for them to pick it up, or to be more exact a day that they can collect it as they refuse to be narrowed down to a time, and they won't collect on a weekend.

You can track the package at the UPS website. From the UK it takes around two days for the package to make its way to the repair center at Frankfurt.

As well as checking the UPS tracking status, you can also check the repair status with Microsoft, again via the XBox Live website. A word of warning to the impatient (like me): there is likely to be a delay from when UPS delivers the parcel and the status changing from "Waiting for device" to "Device received". In my case it took a worrying 20 hours. I'm guessing it depends on just how busy they are.

Of course, you don't have to keep checking as Microsoft will email you once the status changes.



The next email should be when the repair has (hopefully) been completed.

A couple of days later. . .

After checking the repair status today I found that my repair status had changed from "Device Received at Service Center" to "No pending repair". . .

What!?!??

As I haven't had an email to state that the console had been repaired or replaced this is more than a bit worrying.

I decided to contact Microsoft's customer support (0800 587 1102) and see what had happened.

After negotiating their phone system and finding out that the voice recognition system isn't keen on a Northern accent ("Check status. . . I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. Check Status!. . . I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. CHECK STATUS!!!") I was transferred through to a customer support agent.

Apparently my 360 has been replaced and is being shipped back to me as we speak - along with a one month gold card for XBox Live. Hopefully I should get an email and tracking number later on today - and all being even the console before the weekend.

I'd also like to mention that the customer service guy was extremely helpful and very thorough in dealing with my request - so full marks to Microsoft there.

Later that afternoon. . .

Still no email from Microsoft, but the repair status has now changed to "Device shipped to customer - Your console has been repaired or replaced. We are shipping it back to you," and there is a tracking number for UPS too.

Something else has changed too. The console has gone from being "out of warranty" to "in warranty". It is back under full warranty until June of this year.

A couple of days later. . .

UPS came to visit today, "Hi, here's your XBox." Yes!!!

So I've finally got my 360 back! Well, not my original 360 but a refurbished one. How can you tell that it is a refurb? Look at the tag on the back of the console. A console that has never been repaired should have a "manufactured date" on it. A refurb has a "serviced date" instead.

Also, the documentation that comes back with the console states that the console is a refurbished one, and that it has a different serial number to the original one - although all warranty / registration details will be automatically updated for me.

So how long did it take? From being collected by UPS on a Tuesday afternoon, I received the replacement back the following Thursday. Nine days isn't a bad turnaround in my opinion.

I've quickly tested the console out - and so far, so good. It actually sounds less like a washing machine on the spin cycle than the original 360 did, and has played the games I tried it on without any problems.

So is it worth sending your 360 back, I'll say a resounding YES to that. For Gods sake if you have any warranty left send it back before trying to mess around with the "alternative" methods.

The benefits of sending it back?

1 - You get a properly repaired 360.

2 - You get an additional three months of warranty on the repaired / replaced machine (longer if your machine was still under the regular warranty).

3 - You get one month's XBox Live Gold subscription as a "sorry" from Microsoft.

It certainly looks like Microsoft are starting to get their act together when it comes to dealing with customer issues, although there are some things to look out for.

Don't take their word for it about getting confirmation emails. Although I got the one to say that they'd received the console - that was it. I had to check to website to see how things were progressing (and eventually phone customer services).

The customer services phone system stinks, but once I'd got through to him the customer services guy was pretty good.

Overall - not a bad experience, although not without its problems.

Update: I've just received an email from Microsoft telling me that my XBox 360 has been shipped and should be with me within the week, the same XBox that arrived yesterday. . .

One of the things in the email was that all licenses should be automatically transferred from the old console to the new one, this would enable me to use my paid-for content when not online. All I should need to do would be to re-download the content. Unfortunately it didn't work.

There are a couple of things you can do at this point. One is phone customer support, another is to use the license transfer tool on XBox Live. Using it is actually quite simple. When you run it for the first time you are shown how many xboxes have your content is assigned to, all licenses are transferred to your live account, then when you log onto your live account from your xbox all licenses are transferred back.

After I'd run though this I redownloaded Space Giraffe, logged out of live and was still able to play the full version of the game.