Important Things 1999

I just tested two virtualization software this morning, VMware workstation 7.1.3 and Virtualbox 4.0.2 under Ubuntu 10.10.

There are some strange things I can’t understand.

1. Both not support multi vCPUs very well.

2. 4-CPUs is obviously slower than 2-CPUs

3. 2-CPUs shows best performance, but only a little faster than 1-CPU.

4. VMware is faster than Virtualbox

Test enviroment:

Host: Ubuntu 10.10 updated, 4CPU, 4GB RAM

Guest OS: Windows XP with Office 2007, 1GB RAM, (1-4) CPU

After simple test, I decided to use VMware Workstation 7.1.3, but just for emergency.

During installation, I input a simple password like what I always used.

After finished update, when I wanted to change password back,  it said the new password is alike with the old one.

To solve this problem, just give root a password, then use root to change user’s password.

1. sudo passwd root

2. su -

3. passwd xxxx

4. exit

After Ubuntu 8.04 updating to Kernel 2.6.24-19-generic, my wireless card is lost and WLAN configuration is invalid.

It spent my 4 hours to solve this problem, the following is summary:

1. Install b43-fwcutter,

sudo apt-get install b43-fwcutter

2. Run  b43-fwcutter

sudo /usr/share/b43-fwcutter/install_bcm43xx_firmware.sh

3.rmmod

rmmod ndiswrapper
rmmod ssb
rmmod b43

4.modprobe

modprobe ndiswrapper
modprobe ssb
modprobe b43

5. To check wlan0, OK

ifconfig -a

6. Config WLAN

Ubuntu Status bar, left click “Network”, Mannual configuration, unlock, Wireless connection, Properties, WPA, DHCP or IP (depend on your AP), disable LAN, save as a new network location.

Before these steps,

I have updated ndiswrapper to V1.9, both common and util, and found no ndiswrapper in /usr/sbin, so make a link(ln -s).

Reinstall DELL Wireless bcmw15.inf

The posts I have read,

1. HOWTO: WLan via Ndiswrapper http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=190967

2. http://www.lupaworld.com/home/space-47147-do-blog-id-123368.html, This article contains Chinese chars, and it’s the most important article.

3. Other posts: please search ndiswrapper, and fwcutter.

It works, so I post this article by WLAN.

Do you want a cOoL background for your Ubuntu, this is the one–Xwinwrap. The following video is an example which simulates movie “The Matrix”.

xwinwrap is a utility, written by David Reveman/Novell, that will make cool things happen on your desktop. You can run your screensavers, play movies etc, and it will look as if they are part of your background. These instructions have only been tested in GNOME.

Refer:

http://swik.net/xwinwrap

http://en.opensuse.org/Xwinwrap

I had tested several virtul machine softwares to find one I could use for working in it.

First, I tested VMware Workstation, and gave up for its big body and slowly startup.  I have used it for a long time in Windows and Linux host, so it’s the first one I tested and gave up.

Read more…

if you can’t open wireless connection of Internet, you should try this again.

Mannul Network Configuration –> Unlock –> wireless configuration –> re-fill SSID with correct WPA2 key –> OK

Notes: You should have your wireless device recognized before doing this.

Three posts of today were written under Ubuntu 8.04 using wireles connection.

I have tested a lot of times for Ubuntu wireless configuration on DELL Latitude D420.

It’s very strange that Ubuntu cann’t recognize hidden broadcast SSID althought I had input correct SSID and WPA2 key.

I didn’t think this would be a problem, even tried NDIS(deleted later), but after I changed my SSID configuration two days late, the error was gone, I could visit Internet after DHCP.

Hidden SSID problem wasted my two nights to solve and verify.

Maybe Ubuntu next version(V8.10) doesn’t have this problem, but I have no schedule to upgrade, V8.04 is good enough for me.

Stable is the first thing.

1. Ubuntu Linux core information

test@test:~$ uname -a
Linux test 2.6.24-19-generic #1 SMP Wed Aug 20 22:56:21 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

note: computer name and username is replaced by test

2. Software

Firefox: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.4) Gecko/2008111317 Ubuntu/8.04 (hardy) Firefox/3.0.4

Thunderbird:version 2.0.0.17 (20080925), for email in gmail.com

OpenOffice: V2.4.1, openoffice.org-core 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu-2,Mon Jun 30 10:45:22 UTC 2008

VMware Player: 2.5.0 build-118166, in the package of VMware Workstation, downloaded directly from VMware. Run MS Outlook 2007, MS Project 2003, MS Visio 2007

Filezilla: V3.1.5.1, FTP for website maintenance.

StarDict: V3.0.1, Dictionary for English-Chinese

Read more…