Yesterday I updated from Ubuntu 10.04 to 12.04. As usual, I did a completely fresh install, only copying over the things I still need. Tomboy is at the top of that list, so I copied over my ~/.local/share/tomboy/ directory. I read that Gnote is now the preferred replacement for Tomboy, so I installed it and was pleased to see that it read in my Tomboy notes automatically. But it didn’t put an icon in my tray, and that was my favourite Tomboy feature. To get the tray icon back, I did the following:

Fisrt, I added gnote to the systray whitelist:

gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Panel systray-whitelist "['JavaEmbeddedFrame', 'Wine', 'Update-notifier', 'gnote']"

Next, I set Gnote to auto-start:

mkdir ~/.config/autostart
cp /usr/share/applications/gnote.desktop ~/.config/autostart/
chmod u+x ~/.config/autostart/gnote.desktop

Finally, I turned on the tray icon in Gnote itself: Edit → Preferences → Use Status Icon. After logging out and back in, Gnote started up in the tray just the way Tomboy used to.

minicom -b 115200 -o -D /dev/ttyUSB0

After typing in a username, I got a password prompt and was able to log in. Also, the serial console allowed me to see all the kernel output during boot, which could be handy someday.

But I wanted to use the Raspberry Pi’s UART for my own purposes, not as a serial console. To achieve that, I did the following.

First, I made a backup of the /boot/cmdline.txt file, which contains the kernel parameters:

sudo cp /boot/cmdline.txt /boot/cmdline_backup.txt

Then I edited it:

sudo vi /boot/cmdline.txt

Originally it contained:

dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 rpitestmode=1 console=ttyAMA0,115200 kgdboc=ttyAMA0,115200 console=tty1 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootfstype=ext4 rootwait

I deleted the two parameters involving the serial port (ttyAMA0) to get the following:

dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 rpitestmode=1 console=tty1 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootfstype=ext4 rootwait

I rebooted (sudo reboot) to confirm that kernel output was no longer going to the serial port. But the serial console was still available. So I edited /etc/inittab:

sudo vi /etc/inittab

I commented out the following line:

2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty -L ttyAMA0 115200 vt100

Finally, I rebooted again and confirmed that nothing was touching the serial port anymore. Then, to test it out I installed minicom on the Raspberry Pi:

sudo apt-get install minicom

And ran it:

minicom -b 115200 -o -D /dev/ttyAMA0

After firing up minicom on my Ubuntu laptop again, I was able to send data in both directions!

Now to get the Raspberry Pi talking to an Arduino…

After a month and a half of obsessively checking for status updates, I finally received my Raspberry Pi yesterday. I love it!

The first thing I noticed after booting up the stock Debian image was that things are set up for British users. Most annoyingly, the symbols on the keyboard weren’t where I expected them to be. To arrive at a more Canadian configuration, I did the following.

First, I changed the system locale, turning off en_GB.UTF-8 and turning on en_CA.UTF-8:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

Next, I changed the keyboard layout:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

Next, I changed the time zone:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

And finally, I changed to a Canadian Debian mirror by editing the “sources.list” file:

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

On the first line, I changed “ftp.uk.debian.org” to “ftp.ca.debian.org”:

deb http://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main

# Nokia Qt5 development
deb http://archive.qmh-project.org/rpi/debian/ unstable main

After rebooting (sudo reboot) and updating my package list (sudo apt-get update) I had a pleasantly Canadian Pi.

UPDATE: Rohan Kapoor has turned these instructions into an excellent tutorial with lots of screenshots: “Americanizing” the Raspberry Pi. I highly recommend it if you’re a beginner having trouble following my instructions.

I didn’t want to port my number over until I was sure WIND’s coverage was adequate, so I declined the option when I activated my SIM. A few days later I was satisfied, so I called up WIND customer care to request the port. The person who answered my call told me it was impossible to port a number to a SIM that was already activated, and that I was stuck with the number that I had been assigned. Not happy with this response, I asked whether there wasn’t some other possibility, and I was told that I could go to a WIND store and get a replacement SIM, which could then have my number ported to it.

I phoned my nearest WIND store, and was told it would cost $25 to get a replacement SIM. Obviously I had no intention of paying $25 to fix a problem on WIND’s end, so I headed to Howard Forums to see whether other customers had faced the same problem. It didn’t take long to find several discussion threads on the topic. Some customers had managed to get a free replacement SIM at a WIND store, and others had eventually convinced WIND to cancel and re-activate their existing SIM, entering a port request with the new activation.

I called back, hoping to get a different customer care rep. This time, the rep was happy to put through a port request for me, but said the request would need to be handled by their back office staff, and would take three to five business days. While this seemed like an awfully long time for such a simple request, it sounded like a better option than making a trip to a WIND store, so I asked the rep to put through the request. She took down my information and gave me a reference number.

After four business days had passed, I was getting impatient. So I called back and gave my reference number. The rep told me that the reference number didn’t exist in their system. He looked up my account, and found that no port request had been made. I explained what had been done on my previous call, but the rep insisted that it was not even possible; I could not port a number to a SIM that had already been activated. The rep told me I would need to go to a WIND store and get a new SIM, which he insisted I would not be charged for.

At this point I was irate. How could my request have disappeared into thin air? I called back one more time, hoping there was somebody in customer care who could actually help me. The fourth rep again couldn’t find my request from the previous week, but after explaining my situation he told me that my number could easily be ported in to my existing SIM. He only had to cancel my existing SIM and re-activate it. He was able to do that within minutes, and my number was ported within the hour.

Clearly WIND has a big problem with insufficiently trained customer care reps. Two out of the four reps I spoke to didn’t know it was even possible to help me, and one was too incompetent to do it properly. My tweets to @WINDmobile during the ordeal went unanswered, as did an email to customer care. While I plan to stay with WIND for the time being, in the hope that their network is better than their customer care, I will definitely not be recommending them to friends. Koodo will remain my recommendation.

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

After a quick restart, the tearing was completely gone. Yay!

Here’s my submission:

Having read over the previous copyright bill (C-61), I would like to voice my opposition to the inclusion of anti-circumvention provisions in the new copyright bill. My reasons are as follows:

1. The anti-circumvention provisions in bill C-61 would have made it illegal for consumers to unlock their cell phones. This would further stifle competition in Canada’s wireless sector by making it more difficult for consumers to switch carriers, since they would have to purchase new hardware. It is my view that competitiveness would be maximized by banning the practice of cell phone locking, rather than protecting it in law. The owner of a cell phone should be free to use it with the carrier of his or her choice.
2. Users of the Linux operating system, myself included, must use a circumvention tool (libdvdcss) to play legally purchased DVDs on their computers. I see no reason why the use or distribution of this tool should be restricted, since it has many uses which do not infringe upon copyright.
3. The anti-circumvention provisions in bill C-61 would have allowed copyright holders to take away users’ fair dealing rights simply by applying technological protection measures (TPMs) to their works. Fair dealing rights are a critical part of our copyright legislation, and we must not allow them to be taken away by anti-circumvention legislation.
4. Technological protection measures can be harmful to consumers. For example, in 2005 Sony sold music CDs containing software intended to prevent unauthorized copying. This software installed itself without requesting the user’s consent and could not be un-installed. It also made the user’s computer unstable and vulnerable to attack. Other copy protection schemes use a central server to decide whether to allow users to access content they have purchased. When this server ceases to function, whether intentionally or unintentionally, users lose access to their content. In 2008, this occurred when Yahoo shut down its DRM server. I believe that rather than protecting TPMs in law, we should be protecting consumers from them by limiting their use.
5. Technological protection measures can harm competition. For example, until recently, users who purchased songs through the Apple iTunes music store could only play such content on Apple iPods. A user wishing to switch to another brand of music player would be unable to do so without losing access to their purchased content. It is my opinion that users should be able to access legally purchased content on the device of their choice. Protecting TPMs in law would undermine this goal.

I would further like to make the following suggestions for the upcoming copyright legislation:

1. Crown copyright should be abolished. I believe that the benefit to the public of putting works produced by the government into the public domain would greatly outweigh the resultant loss of revenue to the government. This model is used in the United States, where works produced by its federal government are not entitled to domestic copyright protection.
2. The term of copyright protection should be reduced. In my opinion, twenty years from the date of publication should suffice, since most works cease to be comercially exploitable before that point anyway. This would vastly enrich the pool of works in the public domain, upon which creators could freely build.

Clayton Smith
Ottawa, Ontario

Here’s a screen capture for your amusement:

First, I put the following in /etc/drirc:

<option name="allow_large_textures" value="2" />

Then, in /etc/X11/xorg.conf I changed my DefaultDepth from 24 to 16. Finally, I restarted X with Ctrl-Alt-Backspace, and enabled compiz in System –> Preferences –> Appearance –> Visual Effects. Voila!

I found these instructions here.

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (2.66 GHz)
• Asus P5K-V (1333 MHz FSB, integrated video)
• 2GB Corsair Twin2X PC2-6400 (4-4-4-12)
• Antec Solo case
• Corsair VX450 power supply
• WD Caviar 500 GB SATA hard drive
• Asus DRW-1814BLT SATA DVD burner

It also has a few components from my old machine, namely a 250 GB PATA hard drive, Hauppauge HVR-1600 ATSC/NTSC tuner card, and M-Audio Omni sound card.

Initially I was experiencing choppy sound and mouse movement whenever the hard drive was active, but I solved the problem by downloading the latest drivers for the JMicron PATA/SATA controller from the manufacturer’s website. Also, the memory was running at 5-5-5-18 timings by default, but I easily fixed that in BIOS. I used Norton Ghost to move Windows to my new SATA hard drive.

This machine is smokin’! Prime95 is running about three times as fast as before, and I can’t believe how fast BeyondTV starts up. The new case is great too. It has way better ventilation than my old one, and I love having USB ports and audio jacks on the front!