Thursday, October 24, 2013

Lenovo BIOS Update method for Linux and USB thumb drive

If your like me and you don't ever like the methods that are laid out by
the manufacturer to burn an ISO to CD or use a Windows Update utility
then follow these instructions.

Linux Instructions.

1. Get the bios update ISO from the lenovo support site.
I have a ThinkPad W530 (2447-23U)

You will want to grab your Machine Type (mine was 2447)
You will also want to grab your Model (mine was 23U)

In order to grab this information you can use dmidecode or hwinfo.

Here is a link to the ISO file I downloaded for my Machine type and
model.
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS029170#os

(g5uj17us.iso)

Once you have the right ISO file then move to step 2.

2. Get 'geteltorito' and extract the boot image from the iso. Execute
the below commands.
$ wget
'http://userpages.uni-koblenz.de/~krienke/ftp/noarch/geteltorito/geteltorito.pl'
$ perl geteltorito.pl g5uj17us.iso > biosupdate.img
Note: if your wondering where to get the geteltorito perl script and the link above is not working for you then you can visit the developers website at http://freecode.com/projects/geteltorito 

3. Copy the image to the USB thumdrive once your thumb drive is connected.

$ sudo dd if=biosupdate.img of=/dev/usbthumdrive bs=512K

Reboot, Press F12 and boot from USB

Execute the Flash Utility

Have a lot of fun!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

openSUSE; disable ifup networkmanager checking

So you are running KVM or maybe you just want to run some fancy networking beyond what networkmanager can do in openSUSE then you have noticed that you get a message similar to the below.
# ifup virbr1.300
Network is managed by 'NetworkManager.service' -> skipping
Sad, Sad. Some other Linux distributions don't do this kind of checking, but i guess that leaves open some holes there especially if you don't know what your doing. Pat on the back for SUSE in making things more secure here.

So you think your an expert. Then look no further.

To disable the networkmanager checking in openSUSE 12.3 use the following:

1) make a backup copy of /sbin/ifup
2) open /sbin/ifup for editing
3) Find the following lines:

###############################################################
# Check if /etc/init.d/network (network.service) is enabled, otherwise
# (masked by e.g. the NetworkManager.service) inform the user and exit.
#
network_service_id=`get_network_service_id`
if [ "x$network_service_id" != "xnetwork.service" ] ; then
mesg "Network is managed by '$network_service_id' -> skipping"
exit $R_NOTIMPL
fi
case $SCRIPTNAME in
ifup)
# start everything in network service cgroup
if ! in_network_service_cgroup ; then
add_to_network_service_cgroup
fi
;;
esac

4) Modify the following lines by commenting them out like below:

###############################################################
# Check if /etc/init.d/network (network.service) is enabled, otherwise
# (masked by e.g. the NetworkManager.service) inform the user and exit.
#
network_service_id=`get_network_service_id`
#if [ "x$network_service_id" != "xnetwork.service" ] ; then
# mesg "Network is managed by '$network_service_id' -> skipping"
# exit $R_NOTIMPL
#fi
case $SCRIPTNAME in
ifup)
# start everything in network service cgroup
if ! in_network_service_cgroup ; then
add_to_network_service_cgroup
fi
;;
esac

You are now able to execute ifup without any networkmanager checking in openSUSE 12.3.

To disable the networkmanager checking in openSUSE 12.2 use the following:

1) make a backup copy of /sbin/ifup
2) open /sbin/ifup for editing
3) Find the following lines:

# Check if NetworkManager is running, inform the user and exit
#
if [ "$NETWORKMANAGER" = yes ] && ! netcontrol_running ; then
if [ "$SCRIPTNAME" != ifdown -a "$INTERFACE" != lo ] ; then
mesg "Network interface is managed by the NetworkManager ->
skipping"
exit $R_NOTIMPL
fi
elif nm_running && [ "$INTERFACE" != lo ] ; then
mesg "Network interface is managed by the NetworkManager -> skipping"
exit $R_NOTIMPL
fi

4) Modify the following lines by commenting them out like below:

# Check if NetworkManager is running, inform the user and exit
#
#if [ "$NETWORKMANAGER" = yes ] && ! netcontrol_running ; then
#if [ "$SCRIPTNAME" != ifdown -a "$INTERFACE" != lo ] ; then
#mesg "Network interface is managed by the NetworkManager -> skipping"
# exit $R_NOTIMPL
#fi
#elif nm_running && [ "$INTERFACE" != lo ] ; then
# mesg "Network interface is managed by the NetworkManager -> skipping"
# exit $R_NOTIMPL
#fi

You are now able to execute ifup without any networkmanager checking in openSUSE 12.2.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Running Steam on openSUSE 12.3

The ultimate entertainment platform. Play, connect, create and more. Install Steam today and start gaming!
Steam offers a catalog of Linux games, many of which support Steam Play so you can buy once and play anywhere, and Cross-Platform Multiplayer so you can play with all your friends, no matter where they log in. Sweet!

So now that Steam is available for Linux it does not always work for your favorite distribution because it seems they are catering mostly to Ubuntu right now. Thats not to say openSUSE hasn't done any work here. Our community has built a package which will work quite fine. Here are the instructions to help you get started.

1. We need to subscribe to the repository for Steam. (we do have repositories for other distributions as well take a look at hose here http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/games/ )
# zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/games/openSUSE_12.3/ openSUSE_12.3_Games
2. Lets install Steam
# zypper in steam 
3.  Now its time to execute it. From konsole (or shell of your choice) we can now execute the following:
# steam
It will now start downloading some bundles and install them. Once finished it will start steam.

4. Your probably wondering at this point how you get your sound to work in the games. In order to do that you will need to start steam with the following variable.
# SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa steam
setting it to alsa will do the trick. Hope this helps.

Enjoy!

Box.com with Linux and no client using davfs2



Box.com lets you store all of your content online, so you can access, manage and share it from anywhere. Integrate Box with Google Apps and Salesforce and access Box on mobile devices. Some people use it to back up their workstations. Something that is very intriguing for Linux users is the fact that you can directly mount your box.com to a folder on Linux with davfs2. Neat!





1. First thing we need to do is to install davfs2.
For openSUSE 12.3 we will need to add the following repository in order to get it.

# zypper ar http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/filesystems/openSUSE_Factory/ openSUSE_Factory-filesystems
2. Once you have added the repository we are now ready to install it.
# zypper in davfs2
3. Now we will need a place to mount our box.com. I like to put it under my home directory. (md is an alias in SUSE)
Note: change some_user to the user id your using.
# md /home/some_user/box
4. Now we will add a line to our /etc/fstab so that it will mount each time we boot our system up. So open your /etc/fstab for editing with your choice of editor and put the following at the bottom.
Note: change some_user to the user id your using.
https://www.box.com/dav /home/some_user/box davfs rw,user,noauto 0 0
5. Now lets add a line to the bottom of our /etc/davfs2/secrets file. Open your /etc/davfs2/secrets file for editing with your choice of editor and put the following at the bottom.
Note: Make sure to use your email address and password.
https://www.box.com/dav user@email.com password
6. Edit the /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf file and change the following line
# use_locks 1
Changed it to this
 use_locks 0
 7. Now it is time to mount our box.com to /home/some_user/box . To mount id we will use the following command.
# mount /home/some_user/box
To show that it is there run these commands:
# mount | grep box 
# df  | grep box
8. Now start using it. rsync something to it or copy something in to it using your favorite desktop environment.
# rsync -avzP  somefile.tar.gz /home/some_user/box/ 
Thats all there is to it. Now you can enjoy a client free cloud storage using davfs2 and box.com .
Enjoy!
 

Monday, February 11, 2013

Running Webex on openSUSE 12.3 64-bit

If your running openSUSE 12.3 and you use Webex on a regular basis for home/work/other you have probably noticed that it does not execute properly and you can't get some of the features to work on it. Well look no further. Thanks to my colleague dvosburg you can run the below command on your openSUSE 12.3 and it will install the necessary packages and its dependencies that are required for a good Webex experience.

zypper in libpango-1_0-0-32bit \
libpangomm-1_4-1-32bit \
libpangox-1_0-0-32bit \
libgtk-2_0-0-32bit \
libgtk-3-0-32bit \
libglib-2_0-0-32bit \
libXau6-32bit \
libXmu6-32bit \
libxcb1-32bit_64 \
libXext6-32bit


Enjoy!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Running Webex on openSUSE 12.2 64-bit

If your running openSUSE 12.2 and you use Webex on a regular basis for home/work/other you have probably noticed that it does not execute properly and you can't get some of the features to work on it. Well look no further. You can run the below command on your openSUSE 12.2 and it will install the necessary packages and its dependencies that are required for a good Webex experience.

zypper in libxcb1-32bit_64 \
libXau6-32bit \
libICE6-32bit \
libSM6-32bit \
libuuid1-32bit \
glibc-32bit \
libXmu6-32bit \
libstdc++47-32bit \
libgcc47-32bit \
libXt6-32bit \
libXext6-32bit \
libgtkglext-x11-1_0-0-32bit


Enjoy!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

openSUSE Build Service in the Spot Light!

My feeling is that this is quite epic for the openSUSE community. See the posting here http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2263346/

This says quite a bit about openSUSE its community and its focus and direction. Great Job openSUSE Community.

Also, we must give thanks to adrianS and ScriptRipper as they are known in IRC for the great work they have done in this space.

If you have not tried out the Build Service yet then get on over and build a package or two.

http://build.opensuse.org

Follow-up KDE4 Oxygen openSUSE Color Scheme

I have created a Color Scheme to go along with the previous post on the KDE4 Oxygen Theme for openSUSE 11.2


Notice the green highlights and mouse over effects around buttons etc.. also the dark green shadow effect on the focus window.

However we may have to get the #oxygen team to make an svg for the task Manager. Notice the blue highlight around the focused task in the Task Bar at the bottom. This is a setting that cannot be changed, unless you change the svg for it.

#Oxygen team are you up for a task of making a Theme for openSUSE 11.2 with greens instead of blues. :)

download my color scheme here and paste in .kde4/share/apps/color-schemes/

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

openSUSE 11.2 KDE4 theme...

This is just an opinion, but i do like how oxygen looks with a dark green background.


This is just an opinion, but i do like how oxygen looks with a dark green background.

Its simple and elegant.

I would love to hear your comments on this.

Monday, January 5, 2009

KDE 4.2 shaping up well

Over the holidays i have spent lots of time in KDE 4.2 beta on openSUSE 11.1 and things look to be shaping up well. I have submitted a few bugs to upstream and hope to see those washed out when 4.2 is officially released.

Have a look at my New Oxygen Themed Desktop for KDE 4.2. Very nice colors, looks very sharp. (Click the image to see its full size)



Another look at Oxygen with a few windows open with shadows. So.. pretty. :)
(Click the image to see its full size)



I love the new smoothness and fluency of the new KWin4, its integration with Desktop Effects is something to brag about. Plasmoids are great even when Desktop Effects are not enabled, so you can still have nice eye candy and a good workable desktop when you have a video card that does not support Desktop Effects.

The features missing page here is getting whittled away at and will soon be a thing of the past.

Come join the fun and load the unstable Beta of KDE 4.2

Nice Work from the KDE Team and the openSUSE KDE Team.