Tag Archives: Universal Serial Bus

a switch to ubuntu.

2007.10.23 – 2:31 pm PDT

A couple days ago I accidentally(and I did the first step of it on accident, truthfully. ) switched the [tag]Operating System[/tag] on my [tag]dad[/tag]’s laptop from Windows XP Home*barf*, to [tag]Ubuntu[/tag]. In that process I later decided to try out the encrypted drive option on the alternative install CD. With little hesitation after I decided on moving my ~/ stuff over from my [tag]Gentoo[/tag] system running on a [tag]laptop[/tag] [tag]hard drive[/tag] to the new Ubuntu system I easily setup for my dad. I was running a drive over usb which is only practical for so long, it really makes the drive feel slower to me. The only major configuration issue I had with the move was that not all my [tag]Microsoft Intelimouse[/tag] buttons were working the way I like them to. With a quick edit, by adding a new Input Device section to my xorg.conf, I was content.

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "USBMouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "SendCoreEvents" "true"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 8 9"
    Option         "ButtonMapping" "1 2 3 6 7 10 11"
EndSection

I wonder why this isn’t standard info for the Microsoft Intelimouse Optical USB/PS2 when it’s found plugged into my system.
I also gave him the Windows XP Home in a innotek virtualbox so he can run a certain proprietary piece of software which he needs.

By px | Posted in Gentoo, Ubuntu, hardware | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

lirc and my new remote

2006.08.26 – 8:41 am PDT

I got an infared remote and usb dongle receiver last week for pretty cheap, and here is my progress on getting the remote to work so far.

Plugging in the USB dongle shows us that the device looks like a HID Keyboard Device to my laptop.

ohci_hcd 0000:00:03.0: wakeup
usb 2-1: new low speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 8
usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
input: Libra-Q26 / 1.0 as /class/input/input7
input,hiddev96: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Libra-Q26 / 1.0] on usb-0000:00:03.0-1

Pressing the number keys while with a text window focused quickly showed that the numbers worked fine, and also the OK button (and Enter near the number pad) worked the same as pressing Enter on the keyboard. Also pressing the close button attempted to close the terminal I was working in. (Good thing Gnome Terminal asked me if I really wanted too.)

As you can tell most of the buttons on the remote already function for things before we even setup LIRC. Even the arrow buttons move the justl ike the keyboard arrow keys, channel up/down is page up/down.

LIRC was easy for me to install with a quick

$ emerge lirc -tav

After which I then decided to see what else needed to be recompiled due to the new USE flag.

$ emerge -tav –newuse world

After installing LIRC and recompiling, I could find no configuration availible for my new remote, I took to the easy task of creating a configuration for it using the irrecord program. irrecord will output a nice file named libra-q26.conf

$ irrecord -H dev/input -d /dev/input/event3 libra-q26

Here is the libra-q26.conf I created using irrecord. You will need to rename the file to /etc/lircd.conf or wherever you told lirc to look.
NOTES: My attempts to get the TV button to work failed. I have no idea why. The receiver lights up when it receives a signal. It lights up with the TV button. Using the irw utility shows codes comming from other buttons, but nothing from the TV button. Ohwell, so only 50/51 buttons work. I’m still happy.

Now to work on getting applications to work, Totem, VLC, and whatever else I want to control with my remote…

Resources:
HowTo LIRC Gentoo-Wiki.com
LIRC Remotes
more tips on using LIRC

[tags]LIRC, Libra-Q26, USB, Gentoo, Linux[/tags]

By px | Posted in Linux, hardware | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

Portable Storage…

2005.01.18 – 6:28 pm PST

With all the portable storage devices floating around the world, most of which have a USB interface that acts like a regular storage volume when connected to a computer, I wish that Car Stereo manufactures would get this through their heads, and just make an interface to that works with all USB mp3 players etc, instead of just the IPod Variety. eg. Alpine, BMW, Volvo…

Alpine has a neato adapter that interfaces into their AInet, that just plugs into the IPod’s USB port, and power. Same with the BMW, and Volvo, so that you can use the in dash controls, or remotes.

I am an Alpine owner, who doesn’t wish to shell out $500+ for IPod storage for his car, and an extra $60 bux, when I could spend considerbly less and get a Creative, or even an off brand.

Times like this I wish I knew enough about electronics to make my own dongle adapter for my head unit so I can tote my music with me, and play back ogg’s and mp3s.
*sigh*

Someone please design the Alpine Universal Storage Adapter!
And for heaven sakes make it cheap so that everyone will buy it. Goddamn vendor lock ins to specific brands of products..

By px | Posted in hardware, thoughts | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

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