Rich Buggy

After much pain I found this great article about how to connect to a Windows VPN from Ubunto 8.10. Thanks Dean!!

I’ve been using Linux powered servers since 1995. About 18 months ago I decided to try using Linux on the desktop. I’m mostly happy with it but there are a number of things that annoy me and at least once per month I seriously think about switching back to Windows.

Some things are my fault:

• Buying a laptop with an NVIDIA card (I’m never going to buy another NVIDIA product)

Some things are out of my control:

• Needing to test applications using IE
• The Australian Tax Office only supports Windows
• Being unable to sync the contacts/calendars between my phone and Evolution

Some things aren’t important but still frustrate:

• The built-in webcam and microphone don’t work
• The external microphone worked with Kubuntu (which killed the audio after a kernel upgrade) but not Ubuntu (which I use)
• I’ve never been able to use the digital TV tuner that came with the computer

While I can do 100% of my day-to-day tasks that only covers 95% of what I do each the month. Being unable able to do the other 5% has become very frustrating and is almost enough to make me switch back to Windows. I just keep feeling that if I hold off long enough that I’ll be able to do the last 5% with Linux (or Reactos will become a viable option).

Update: I’ve made some progress on syncing contacts between my phone and Horde Groupware Webmail Edition using SyncML which I then hope to sync with Evolution.

It’s good to see that Ubuntu 7.04 includes support for the PHP PDO extension. I was a little confused when I saw php5-mysql, thinking it was just the mysql_ extension, but it actually includes the pdo_mysql drivers in addition to the mysql_ and mysqli_ extensions. Yay!!

Ubuntu 7.04 is nearly here. Just two more sleeps (maybe three if you’re in Australia like me). Personally I can’t wait based on what I saw of the early tests.

Ever since I moved to Ubuntu I haven’t been able to get my XDA II mini to stay connected. The output from dmesg was always the same:

[17179652.184000] usb 2-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
[17179652.356000] usb 2-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[17179652.460000] usbcore: registered new driver usbserial
[17179652.464000] drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial support registered for generic
[17179652.464000] usbcore: registered new driver usbserial_generic
[17179652.464000] drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial Driver core
[17179652.472000] drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial support registered for PocketPC PDA
[17179652.472000] drivers/usb/serial/ipaq.c: USB PocketPC PDA driver v0.5
[17179652.472000] ipaq 2-2:1.0: PocketPC PDA converter detected
[17179652.472000] usb 2-2: PocketPC PDA converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[17179652.472000] usbcore: registered new driver ipaq

followed about 5 seconds later by:

[17179667.064000] usb 2-2: USB disconnect, address 2
[17179667.064000] ipaq ttyUSB0: PocketPC PDA converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0
[17179667.068000] ipaq 2-2:1.0: device disconnected

The solution turns out to be really simple – TURN YOUR PHONE ON!!

With the phone turned off Linux will detect the phone and set everything up then report the phone as disconnected about 5 seconds later. The solution is to turn your phone on. It doesn’t seem to matter if you turn it on before or after you connect it, just as long as you do it before running synce-serial-start.