Sierra Wireless USB modem (GSM/UMTS) setup in Ubuntu 8.04.1

I am now tried to verify two 3G modules to my recent project. That is the Sierra mini card module which was attached on USB interface. Such as:


In Ubuntu w/ kernel 2.6.24-19-generic I can compile and install new driver v1.3.1b without any problem. I have tried 2 different modules MC8775 and MC8790, both of them work very good.

There are some points you may interested in it:
1. After driver installed, you can use command "modinfo sierra" to check version and it should be v1.3.1b.
2. By default, Sierra driver uses pppd to connect. And use /dev/ttyUSB* to communicate with device. If you received an error such as modem initialization failed or connect script failed, you can try to modify the string "/dev/ttyUSB0" (this is default value) in your /etc/ppp/peers/gsm script (this is default Sierra provided script path of pppd). Just try to use another ttyUSB[1..n] which you can use command "ls /dev/ttyUSB*" to know how many ttyUSB you can try.

3. If you can dial out successfully and get IP configuration but you can not surf on internet with browsers, just try to cp /etc/ppp/resolv.conf to /etc/resolv.conf.

BTW, if you use the 3G device from Acer Peripherals Inc. (now BENQ Corp.), you don't need additonal kernel driver module but only usbserial.ko. First use lsusb to check the VID:PID. In my case that is 04a5:0468, so I issue command to load up kernel driver module for this device: sudo modprobe -v usbserial product=0x0468 vendor=0x04a5. Second, you just need to wait for few "seconds" for driver to take effect and create proper device nodes for you (/dev/ttyUSB[0~2]). Then you can use pppd to dial out just like the way you do on Sierra devices. Note that this 3G module's communication port is /dev/ttyUSB1 for pppd.

How to uninstall Trend Micro OfficeScan client w/o IT password

Sometimes I want to re-install Trend Micro OfficeScan client from my office PC.
But due to my IT dept.'s rule it requires a password to uninstall the client.

How can we do to "drive-around" it? ;-)

Basically, we can use a little bit trick to do so.

Use "services.msc" command to open the service list. And then find out all "OfficeScanNT*" services and STOP them. You can see the Trend Micro OfficeScan icon in the system tray will disappear.

Open your registry editor and find out HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Current Control Set\Services, and look for following subkeys:
Ntrtscan
Tmfilter
Tmlisten
TmPreFilter
TmProxy
tmtdi
VSApiNt
TM_CFW (if you have this one)

Delete above subkeys (CAUTION! BE CAREFUL WITH THIS OPERATION!).

Find out the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\TrendMicro, and look for following subkeys:
OfcWatchDog
NSC
Pc-cillinNTCorp
OfficeScanCorp (if you have this one)
RemoteAgent (if you have this one)

Delete above subkeys (CAUTION! BE CAREFUL WITH THIS OPERATION!).

Find out HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\MicroSoft\WINDOWS\Current Version\Run, and look up the value: OfficScanNT Monitor,

Delete above value (CAUTION! BE CAREFUL WITH THIS OPERATION!).

Delete the entry in your "Start" -> "Programs" -> "Trend Micro OfficeScan xxx", and then issue a system reboot. After reboot delete C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\OfficeScan Client or C:\OfficeScanNT, Then also you can delete the file C:\tmuninst.ini if you have it.

Ok, now you are ready to re-install your virus scaning application ;-)

Mandriva 2009.0 just released

In the early today, I just received a system notice about Mandriva 2009.0 just released (..OK, I forgot to shut it down...Orz). The major updates were: kernel 2.6.27, X.org 4.3, KDE 4.1.2 (and 3.5.10 in /contrib), Gnome 2.24, FireFox 3, and OpenOffice.org 3.

Basically, I plan to stay in my 2008.1 w/ 2.6.24 kernel for a while. Because I know the new release should be in a "POST-BETA" stage but not a very stable one. My 2008.1 just works fine with my DELL Vostro 1310 and I don't want to screw it up because I really don't have time to fix any issues that caused by the new 2009.0 release...;-)

I plan to update my system maybe 1 or 2 months later.

For details and the errata (this is very important in my opinion..) of Mandriva 2009.0, you can refer to here.

Mandriva One Spring 2008.1 bugs

My DELL Vostro 1310 was installed the Mandriva One Spring 2008.1.
I don't need to install extra drivers for my unit because Mandriva Linux is a very good distro for hw supporting. And also it is very easy to use for everyone including experts and newbies.

Unfortunately, I still got some bugs with my box.

1. System memory was found only up to 884 MB (it should be 2 GB in my box).
2. Intel wifi card 4965AGN got response timeout issues that sometimes can not access to the AP.

For 1, this is a kernel issue so that I switch my default kernel build from kernel-desktop586 to kernel-desktop. You can use $ uname -r to make sure your kernel build currently on your system. And this issue was fixed by this kernel build switching. Based on the official errata, you need to also install some kernel driver modules in order to let the switching more stabler if you have those drivers for kernel-desktop586 arch.

For 2, just add a line into /etc/modprobe.conf:

options iwl4965 disable_hw_scan=1

Official errata you can refer to here.

Confusing hard disk device in Debian 4.0 R4a - continued

My Debian 4.0 R4a box has another problem that, after installation of the system the resume device was changed!! Normally it was the swap file system, and it will be defined during the installation process and wrote into initramfs (/boot/initrd-img-xxx).

I think the installer of Etchnhalf is really buggy!
He recognized my hdd and odd as:
/dev/hde -> hdd
/dev/hde1 -> 1st partition, boot
/dev/hde2 -> logical
/dev/hde5 -> swap
/dev/hdg -> odd

And he wrote it into /boot/grub/menu.lst for kernel boot parameter as root=/dev/hde1. Of course the resume device in initrd-img will be /dev/hde5, the swap.

OK, now I complete installation process and reboot my Debian 4.0 R4a box. Guess what!?

I can not boot into system because the stupid installer makes a WRONG device recognation!...:-(
And now the boot device and root file system can not be found and mounted........

The actual device map of my box should be:
/dev/hdc -> hdd
/dev/hdc1 -> 1st partition, boot
/dev/hdc2 -> logical
/dev/hdc5 -> swap
/dev/hde -> odd

Now, I need to modify my /boot/grub/menu.lst and /etc/fstab to correct this stupid problem which was caused by Debian installer.
And I need to issue command $ dpkg-reconfigure uswsusp to re-generate the /boot/initrd-img-xxx........:-(

Confusing hard disk device in Debian 4.0 R4a

This is weird..= =|||

I have installed Etchnhalf many times but the HDD device file changed every time?!
Maybe this time it is /dev/hdc in istallation process, but it will be changed to /dev/sda after installation done.
Then I hit Ctrl+Alt+Del to reboot, it may be changed back to /dev/hdc or more worse /dev/hda..
I think this is related to kernel driver of ide-generic and SATA.
Maybe they are fighting to each other for controling my IDE channel...:-(

And one more weird thing is that the kernel parameter "quiet".
Basically, there will be a parameter "quiet" added in the end of kernel boot command line in modern Linux distro.
I don't like this parameter because I totally can not monitor my Linux box if it displayed some error message when booting up.

In this case I shut "the quiet" down so that I can:
1. To see error messages of the HDD device file changed.
2. To fix the ide port error when GRUB wants to load kernel up (Fucking weird! WHY??????).
Why this error is related to kernel boot parameter "quiet"??????