linux Archives - Tech Stuff

April 9, 2009

HP 2133

You know not sure why I am writing this, as HP no longer make their HP 2133 having replaced it with the 10″ HP 2140…

As netbooks go, I quite like the HP 2133, in the main as the keyboard is much bigger than your average netbook and therefore a lot more usable.

The model I got has 1GB of RAM, a 100GB HDD and an 8.9″ screen.

HP 2133

The included camera does not work under the Suse Linux operating system (which surprised me) and in many ways the Suse Linux is (for me) the one weak point of the machine.

Now don’t get me wrong (yes I know I come across as a bit of a Mac fanboy) but it’s not that I don’t like Linux. I do like Ubuntu and think the Xandros distro on the Asus EeePC is extremely well done. I have installed Mint on another system. I do use and like Linux. However there are some issues I am having which are making me thing to either install another Linux distro or possibly Windows 7.

So what are my main issues?

Well it’s all to do with the wireless networking. I can’t seem to get the HP 2133 to join my wireless network automatically, I always need to enter not my wireless network key, but the administrator’s password to unlock the HP 2133’s default keyring

so that it can then connect to the wireless network. The other aspect is that if I set the HP 2133 to Sleep or Hibernate, the only way I can rejoin the wireless network once I have awoken the HP 2133 is by restarting which kind of defeats the reason for using he Sleep or Hibernate function!

Now I have done a little searching (not a lot, but a little) but haven’t come up with any answers.

So what with the camera, the sleep wireless issue and the Flash Player problems I am seriously giving thought to putting on a different OS

March 8, 2009

BBC iPlayer on Linux

Recently I have been playing about with a couple of those little netbooks which are so popular now.

Though I have had an Xandros based Asus EeePC for a while now, I realised that I had never really tried to use it to watch Flash based video. I had used it to watch DivX and MP4 video files which it did fine with, however when using the Asus to try and watch BBC iPlayer, well the results were less than satisfactory.

I also tried BBC iPlayer on a SUSE based HP 2133 netbook and got similar results.

After a bit of Google searching the verdict appears to be that the Flash Player for Linux is not that capable when it comes to playing video, rather than the chips on these low powered netbooks aren’t capable of playing Flash video.

I am now going to try the BBC iPlayer Desktop once I have re-charged the HP 2133 (well the battery doesn’t last very long).

December 18, 2008

BBC iPlayer now available on Mac and Linux

Well I know you are thinking that you could access BBC iPlayer already on your Mac or Linux PC!

Well what we’re talking about here is not the Flash based web BBC iPlayer, but the iPlayer which allows you to download BBC programmes and watch them while offline.

Not tried it yet, but thinking it could be useful for train journeys.

Installing Ubuntu 7.10 as a Guest OS on Parallels

After having a few problems and reading a variety of guides on installing Ubuntu as a guest OS on my Parallels installation on my iMac I finally managed to get there after a suggestion from KevanV on Jaiku.

Go to the Ubuntu website and when you download the ISO ensure you that you check the box which says Check here if you need the alternate desktop CD. This CD does not include the Live CD, instead it uses a text-based installer.