evad.zone

Recently I was faced to the problem of buying cellular modem on PCMCIA/CardBus interface for my laptop. One of the minimum requirements was Linux support – of course. I have found really good deal on Sierra AirCard 850 wireless GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA modem, and I also was more than happy to learn that it has (unofficial) Linux support. Well, once card has arrived, it turned out ‘Linux support’ wasn’t that straightforward, and I was really struggling to get it working, but finally I’ve succeeded. (more…)

After upgrading my MDA Vario II mobile phone to the latest Windows Mobile 6 OS, I have somehow lost ability to create rfcomm device over Bluetooth. I’ve been to lazy to resolve that problem, but I wasn’t lazy enough to find out how to use new WM6′s feature, which is internet connection sharing via Bluetooth PAN profile. It turned out to be quite easy and straightforward task. Read on. (more…)

After installing newest Sun’s Java Environment from rpm file, I have noticed that zip and OpenOffice files started to appear as ‘Java Archive’ type with little ugly Java icon. Dirty workaround for that is right-click on a file, choose Properties, Open With tab, and then select proper application. However, ugly icon and ‘Java archive’ type still remain. As usual, there is a fix for that. (more…)

Ever since I’ve got new laptop last November, I was quite unhappy with its battery life. Initially it used to keep computer running for around 2.5 hours with usual workload (mail/www/docs), while Dell advertised up to 5 hours of work with that particular 6-cell battery model. After some time battery lost ~40% of its original capacity without any particular reason, and could hardly manage to get 1.5 hours of work away from AC adapter. Fortunately, Dell’s technical support arranged battery replacement. But new battery’s performance wasn’t much better (2-2.5 hours), so I’ve managed to get… another replacement. :) This time I’ve decided to investigate in details what is actually standing behind laptop’s battery life. (more…)

Intel 945-series video adapter (as probably all Intel’s built-in video adapters) has pretty common issue regarding incorrect resolution modes. Fortunately, that can be easily fixed by 915resolution package. However, that fix needs to be executed not only when computer boots up, but also while resuming from hibernation. Otherwise, we might get some ugly resolution like 1024×768 after resuming, forcing us to execute 915resolution and restart X manually, which makes whole hibernation completely pointless. (more…)

After updating compiz along with one of the recent system updates, I’ve started to notice problems with workspace switcher. Basically, compiz’s cube was rotating properly, but workspace switcher in panel remained unchanged on first workspace. Also, changing workspace via switcher on panel, didn’t bring a cube effect. Well, quite annoying, but fortunately there’s a fix for that. (more…)

Recently I’ve had to tweak partition settings on my /dev/sda, which also involved moving swap partition from /dev/sda3 to /dev/sda6. How to tell system that swap location has changed? (more…)

Some time ago I thought using internet connection via Bluetooth and mobile phone in Linux is virtually impossible. Some time later it turned out to be very easy task to achieve, despite it needs some command-line tweaking. Let me show you how in few simple steps. (more…)

Some might think – phew, what an easy task, but surprisingly, not for everyone. I mean, it WAS easy task in Adobe Photoshop LE, but that’s not a tool which I expect to use in Linux environment, so I’ll rather stick with GIMP. (more…)

I am a big Dell fan, so when my employer offered me to buy an office laptop, I didn’t think much. :) I chose Dell Inspiron 640m and intentionally selected its hardware components to be similar with my home-based Dell Latitude D620. And, of course, installed Fedora Core 6 straight away. (more…)