Mac G5 PowerPC Update

Here's the specs on this project:
Mac G5 Tower, Dual PowerPC 2.7 GHz, 4.5 GB RAM, original 250 GB HD (vintage late 2005). Purchase price was $100 + shipping. Not bad, all things considered. The case was in good shape with very little signs of wear and just a bit of cleaning up to do inside to chase out the 10 years of dust bunnies. Since extra SATA II hard drives are so inexpensive on eBay, went with a second drive for installing the new OS. 

After much consideration, decided to proceed with installing the latest stable release of Debian "Jessie" (see previous post of the distributions in the running). Downloaded the ISO, burned to a DVD-R and read through the installation guide on PPC Luddite for some tips. 

First item to note, the resulting DVD was not a "Live" disc like what's popular now.  Booting from the DVD went right to business going through the steps for installation. Since this was a blank hard drive, selected the options to use the entire partition. Another option was which display manager to use (opted for kdm), and selected the Debian default, KDE and MATE desktops, just to have some variety. Other choices was lightdm for the display manager and GNOME, Xfce and LXDE for desktops - plenty to read up on and consider at the Debian Desktop HowTo page.

Second note, you'll be prompted to set the root password and then create an user account.  Remember those passwords! The user account does not automatically belong to the "sudo" group, so that's one of your first tasks after the installation. Read up on that here.

The results? A pretty sweet, massively powerful and elegant system! Seems to be some issues with the sound over the built-in speaker that needs additional research. More comments to come soon!

Linux Based PC for Under $100

On a budget? Need a basic workstation and prefer to use Linux/Open Source software? Want to have a planet-friendly alternative for computing?

SymplePC.com has introduced a re-manufactured workstation running Ubuntu Linux. See the press release for more details.

Transferring files to an Android Tablet

This post could also be titled, "Things You Can Not Do with an Android Tablet" - which is what I'm basically finding out.  Sure, I'll admit, this particular tablet is at the lower end of the market (HP 7 Plus, on sale direct from HP for less than $90), but it does function just fine as my mobile device at the office (email and web-based apps).

The goal was (supposedly) simple - load a few of my favorite songs on the tablet so I could listen to music when not connected to Wi-Fi. From previous posts one knows that my new platform of choice is Linux.  I was naive in thinking that it would be easy. After all, Android is based on Linux, right? Well, it doesn't work out that way.

If I was trying to connect to a Windows machine (Win 7 or newer, don't expect any support for XP) or a Mac, there's a chance you can get it to work.  Nothing I found for Linux worked.  Just for reference, I'll include the links of things that I tried.

First on the list, this method at least did connect to the tablet, although it is extremely slow.  Getting inside a folder on the tablet never happened (or maybe I just didn't wait long enough?): How to Transfer Files from Ubuntu to Android

These methods either didn't work  or were too risky or complicated to even try:

How To Properly Mount Android 4.0+ Devices In Ubuntu Using Go-mtpfs

Transfer Files from Android and Linux with ADB and AAFM

How to Transfer Files Between Android and a Linux Mint PC

I also went into the Software Manager (isn't that where you supposed to look first?) and installed mtpfs, which runs from the command line. There's a lack of documentation for this on the web, but there is a man file.  I was able to mount the tablet as root, but not able to enter or list the directory.  Maybe I just missed some important step or was too impatient.

So, the moral of the story is ... If you want to use an Android tablet, iPad or iPod with Linux, you're going to have to wait a little bit longer for that to happen.

PS - I was able to finally get Windows XP to connect to the tablet from the instructions provided by HP Support.  However, it still failed to allow me to copy mp3 files to the tablet.

[cloud] Storage Wars

Over the past few months, I've been trying out several different cloud storage providers. Actually, I've been using Amazon Cloud for a couple of years with my Kindle and it's still a favorite.  Since the price war broke out between Google and Amazon, I benefit from a much lower price per GB.

In this post I'll give some of my impressions of each service along with some of the pros and cons.

Amazon Cloud

• Low price plans for budget-minded folks
• Excellent support for music storage and MP3 Cloud Player
• Integrated seamlessly with the Kindle for music and photos

- No Linux support (browser only, single file uploads)
- No Blackberry support

Dropbox

• Great integration for eBooks (O'Reilly, Smashwords, others)
• Productivity integration (Nozbe, IFTTT)
• Support for every platform that I have: Linux, Mac, Windows, Android, Blackberry and Kindle
• Mailbox and Carousel apps for Android and iOS gives you extra free storage
• Has a Python tool for running on a headless Linux installation, great for moving files up to the server

- High price per GB

Box

• Better suited for business with integrated apps
• Support for Blackberry

- No client for Linux
- Highest price of all services reviewed

Copy

• Support for Linux, but the client seems to be buggy
• Developed a client for the Raspberry Pi
• Can split the cost of a shared account between users
• Mid-priced, could be better

- Finally had to give up on the Linux client since it caused the system to lag so badly

iCloud

• Windows, iOS and Android clients

- Pretty much geared for Apple devices

Google Drive

• Native integration on Android devices and Chrome OS
• Lowest price of all services I reviewed
• Works best with Google+ accounts, photos, Google Docs

- No Linux support (browser only)

OneDrive

• Native support for Windows 8, Windows Phone, good for Win 7
• Supported clients for iOS, OS X and Android work well
• Mid-price, can earn free storage using Bing as your search engine

- No Linux support
- No Blackberry or other support

 So, the bottom line is that I'll eventually consolidate everything on Dropbox. The biggest selling point was the available clients for all the devices that I use.  Works fine on Linux, Kindle and Blackberry, which were the hardest to find support for.  Will probably keep the Amazon Cloud since it's dirt cheap and still enjoy using the MP3 music streaming on the Kindle.

Chrome 35 on Linux Breaks Java

Java Doesn't Work on Linux Google Chrome 35, Downgrade Recommended.


If Google's Chrome is your browser of choice and you use a web site on regular basis that relies on the Java plugin, then the newest version is not going to be very useful.

As reported on Softpedia today, users are finding that Java just doesn't work with Chrome 35. Posted a few days earlier on AskUbuntu, the issue has been confirmed and recommended for users that must have Java functionality to roll back to Chrome version 34.

Ubuntu: Linux for human beings

Catchy phrase, eh?  Up to three installations of Ubuntu now (2 laptops, 1 server) and enjoying every minute.

 

Found this over at LinuxCounter.net - guess it's a bragging rights kind of thing.

Of course, could always learn new a thing or two about Ubuntu and Linux in general.

Check out this blog:

Cool UBUNTU Tips & Tricks brought to you by OzzyFrank

more Ubuntu changes

After setting up a nice screensaver in Raspbian on the Raspberry Pi, I realized that my laptop with Ubuntu 12.04 only had the default blank screen available.  Not to be outdone by the RasPi, I found some information about why Ubuntu's screensaver is the way it is and what to do about it:

How to Add Screensavers to Ubuntu 12.04

more Raspberry Pi

Here's something very interesting - combining my two newest hobbies Ubuntu Linux and RaspPi - A Raspberry Pi Build Cluster for Ubuntu

Never mind that I can't actually watch the YouTube video with Raspbian :-P

Still, if it could be done, I think having a modified Ubuntu that could run on the Raspberry Pi would be cool!

Customizing Ubuntu

Just for future reference, I'm going to try and list all the different software packages I've added to Ubuntu now I've got it installed on this old laptop.

I must say, installing and customizing things on Ubuntu is much easier than the last time I tried using a flavor of Linux (Redhat back around 2006 or so).

Here's the list so far:

• Oracle Java(TM) Development Kit (JDK) 7
• Eclipse, using the Ubuntu Software Center, got an older version (Indigo), but that's ok with me
• Wikipedia Lens
• OpenSSH server
• Gimp
• Lightweight Java Game Library (lwjgl) by following this link
• Boot-Up Manager (BUM)
• ClassicMenu Indicator
• Kompozer
• XChat-GNOME
• FileZilla (I know it's got FTP built in, but I like FileZilla anyway)

That's it for now, but I'm sure to find some more toys to download and install.

Do you Ubuntu?

Just installed Ubuntu 12.04 on an old laptop.  Pretty cool so far.  Always liked working with Linux and now they are so easy to install and configure, even with WiFi, webcams, USB, etc.

It was quite an "upgrade" from the cranky old Windows Vista that was running on this computer.