Ben Crox on Blog

This is for the Lazy guys only!

pppd stable 2.4.4 is already two years old. Don’t expect your pre-compiled pppd can be patched easily. I have to set up a virtual box for compilation for my own EEEpc’s sake.

For the 3G network bogus WINS / DNS issue, in case you are using EEEpc with ubuntu like me, you can try my compiled pppd.

After downloading, do this:

chmod 755 pppd

It is up to you to check against virus and malware.

sudo mv /usr/sbin/pppd pppd.backup
sudo mv pppd /usr/sbin/pppd

If it does not run ( wvdial something ) , just replace it with the backup.

I will test more (with different Netbooks, hopefully) and make some trim down ( possible from 600k -> 300k ) before further announcement.

Get bogus DNS when connecting ?

Last year I sent a fix for pppd to a router vendor. It seems the discussion had gone open a lot.
That’s good, I don’t need to care about NDA any more.

Please refer to this thread.

Notice that Pete’s latest suggestion is to accept 3 MS-WINS. The patch posted accepts 2 only.

In HK, I do find some cell pumping 3 MS-WINS. So, it would be better modify it before compile. Another approach I have tried is to cache DNS address of the specific profile ( carrier + APN ) to be used. That was my solution dated in Oct 2007. But it seems the DNS problem can be solved by future pppd/distro package update.

我想到的﹐除了是作 3G router 外﹐還有一些古靈精怪的 Share LAN desktop 應用。

比如說﹐可不可以做 Display Array ？（ 完全呆掉…）

實際一看點﹐Mobile Local ( Adhoc / Meshed)　Network 尚且是一個處女地﹐尤其是在機種完整的流動電腦上﹐可待發掘的空間應該很大。

舉一個最簡單的例﹐以 Synergy 之類的工具 Adhoc 縫合兩個或更多的 Desktop ﹐會是甚麼境象呢？也許是一種新的近端 p2p Desktop Sharing 。

近端電腦﹐最值得分享的不是內容﹐而是機能。

是故﹐更值得探索的是﹐EEEpc 是一個萬能工具的接口（處理器）。一台 EEEpc 的處理和聯接能力有限﹐但多台 EEEpc 卻可以分工合作﹐各自控制不同的組件﹐產生一個蟻群網絡。比如說﹐在一架車上裝一台 EEEpc 相容的智能系統（主要是一個攝錄鏡頭）﹐就可以透過層遞分享﹐把路面情況由近至遠地相傳。又比如﹐ 把 EEEPC 的處理時間（ Processing time ) 和網絡端口（ Bandwitch / IP-based identity) ﹐分享給近端的電腦﹐那就會形成湊集規模效應﹐形成網格電腦 ( Grid-Computer ) 、聲東擊西的保安 Routing （有點像洋葱網）。

雖說我對著 Console 的時間很長﹐但我不喜歡亦不必要在系統裏用中文。平時打 BBS 都是在 windows 底下居多﹐要不就是有調好了的 XCIN 。現在﹐在 EEEpc 上打中文﹐懶的話就得用 SCIM。

問題是﹐我習慣了 M$ 系、舊倉頡的編碼表……

幸好﹐當我用 SCIM 用到「怒」的時候﹐自家開發的功夫輸入法﹐派上用場了（淚 ）。

一回兒看看 GCIM 有沒有比較好……

我們要組織一個本地的 EEEpc 用戶協㑹嗎？

今天跟另一位首批買家通信﹐似乎得到一個共識﹐用戶協會可以做到一些東西：

1、促進本地 EEE pc 用戶交流﹐互相幫助解決（主要是本地獨大的）問題，分享心得。

2、爭取用戶權益、代理支援。例如
a) 提供延長保養合約的機會
b) 提供官方途逕﹐不毀合約地擴大記憶體、硬盤容量等得以改裝。
c) 發放本地化的系統包

3、收集用戶羣資料﹐探討應用和開發方向。

我即日便聯絡了代理大量華碩產品的漢科﹐以及灣仔區的華碩皇家會。漢科表示﹐他們會在周四有公關活動。我看如果用戶會攪得起﹐可以找漢科和電郵雜誌的朋友連帶宣傳一下。至於華碩皇家會﹐實則是個修理中心。那中心的主任表示會找市拓部跟進用戶會﹐這也算是肯出點力。

以我有限的觸覺﹐刻下己知﹐最主要的 EEE pc 用戶組織﹐分別活動於：

1. forum.EEEuser.com ( English , intl )
2. EEE pc 非官方部落格 ( Chinese, TW )
3. Mobile01 Asus discussion group ( Chinese, Technical )

本地新聞組零零散散都有些 EEEpc 相關的題目﹐問題就是零散了點而己﹐似乎不易組織起來。

如果你剛巧是本地 EEEpc 用戶 （ 目前怕且不遠過二百個吧？）﹐現在不妨先到 Facebook 的 EEEpc Users 露一露面吧。

Ref : Yuren’s Info Area

Um… That’s good. I am lazy. Lazy rocks!

PCman means better telnet BBS terminal presentation.
GCIM … does not make much sense to me, but worth a trial
Stardict … forget it. I dont know English.
More logs. Bravo ! I love log, give me more logs !
Better mechanism for adding short cuts on desktop and after software installation…. my desktop is for Firefox only… the prompt is my safety blanket.

Anyway, many thanks to Yuren ( and our old friend Dr. PCMAN ) !

Hmm… poor, I am not yet ready to recompile kernel.

Tonight I have plugged a usb HSUPA modem to the EEEpc. The bad news (again) is I cannot probe it as usual. Actually that’s not a great problem. I can see:

$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 005: ID: 1410:4400

So I can get it on /dev/bus/usb/002/005
Ugly is when you want to probe, you see this…

$ modprobe usbserial vendor=0×1410 product=0×4400
usbserial: Unkown parameter ‘vendor’

$ echo $*@#(%@$(%&$@(&%…
$*@#(%@$(%&$@(&%…

It means at least I have to turn on CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_GENERIC and recompile kernel.

After checking an unofficial kernel config, it seems I am right ….

I think I am brave and ignorant as usual. Now I am …. compiling 2.6.23.1 ( not 2.6.21.4 as shown by uname -r ).

Why don’t me change to other Distro, say ubuntu ?…. I don’t know, perhaps Xandros can survive the new, my friends can have a look at the original setting. And I can jump to something BSD ….

有站友說我﹐買到 EEEPC 才只寫幾行﹐沒甚麼感想和心得。那真是見鬼﹐我這陣子都算超忙﹐甚麼都沒有寫﹐幹麼會有很多時間寫 EEE ?

倒是被人篤一篤﹐我還是動一動。

我的心得就是：小心冇電時﹐會突然熄機。

呢個問題查實好大鑊﹐我尚在 Verify : 部機跑三粒鐘左右﹐電池顯示話只剩 10% 電時﹐突然啪一聲熄了！
之後﹐未插生電的話﹐開到中途會 Hang 機﹐而不會在 BIOS 或其他 Pre boot 界面出提示。

再插生電﹐部機開得番﹐但之前的暫存資料冇晒﹐好老土。

相信這是原廠 OS 的問題﹐若是轉了 Ubuntu / Win Xp / Win XPE 後﹐該可以省卻意外。

唔知呢個心得﹐幫唔幫到想敗家、或已敗家的你呢？

Never…
Even mounting a 16G ramdrive on my favourite server could not help leaking desire…

Now the EEEpc is my mobile object. I just want it to get things done, not necessary almighty, as long as my pocket money is limited.

I have plan to turn it into a mobile SIP phone.
( that I have access to a POTS gateway… )

EEEpc uses Atheros wifi module, that makes me to think about hostapd…. With HSDPA / 3G connection via USB, the EEEpc would be yet another 3G to Wifi AP …. ( and that is what I keep working on…. )

Before touching any setting, I want to check how many resources I have…

Hmm, as you may see, I have added a Transcend 8G SDHC, with class 6 i/o speed. That cost 500 HKD in addition….. But never mind, money is to be burnt…. At lease someone has proved SDHC can boot, what else can be better?

As I have keep reading on Gmail and Facebook, I can sure Firefox would not leave me a free mind. Around 7 ~ 9 MB is left for fun. Adding more memory will cost me the 1 yr warranty. Should I ever care about that ???

A brief scan on the memory assigned uncover SCIM. Huhhh ? I am still out of the advantage it provides… It is tempting to have it be killed…. as long as I am working on ajaxime ….

Scripting on EEEpc ? That’s fine, I just want to add “irb” to the existing ruby-1.8.5 … errr , may be 1.8.6+ tomorrow. GCC 4.1 is not my choice, yet an upgrade to 4.2 is not necessary as well. Perl 5.8.8 , that’s OK, except that I may not have time to play with perl. Nawk/awk ? nice. lisp/clisp is not there.

I am not greedy at all… to sum it up:

1. I want to try out the Atheros Wifi module… in additional, add 3G router functionality that I often have to use.

2. I want to have a ruby playground. A term with bigger fonts and having irb installed, will be go enough.

I am extremely conservative on installing any external programs to the EEEPC.

Thus, for the very first batch of EEEPC dealt to Hong Kong, I don’t want to touch SCIM.

Here is the screenshot of using GownFull on my EEEpc. I have no doubt that it works:

I have to use my thumbs to type… you know, my finger tips are not that fit….