Features Ask Klaus!

Klaus Knopper answers your questions Thanks for reading this, Klaus; it really means a lot to me that you take time to help out the Linux community. Mark Mina

If I’m not completely mistaken (having no such model for test- ing), the main challenge with this note- ByAsk Klaus Knopper Klaus! book really seems to be the graphics Knoppix Install adapter, which is a hybrid + ATI/​ Hello, Klaus. I have been using your AMD RadeonHD 6550M. You will most OS version 6.4 as supplied on the likely need a new kernel (at least 2.6.38 DVD with the January 2011 Linux Maga- or 2.6.39) with the Radeon DRM module zine. I like it so much that I would like to and Xorg 1.10 with the xorg-video- install it on the hard drive on one of my radeon driver, which is currently in De- machines. I have looked through the bian/​unstable. This is quite distro-inde- files but cannot find a way to install it. pendent; the most recently released ones Can you please advise? I am not on the will be the best candidates. Internet but hope to be on in the next You may also succeed by switching off couple of months. Best Regards, John one of the graphics chipsets in the BIOS Stirling and explicitly configuring the other in Xorg. The Intel version may be a good A Knoppix harddisk install option candidate. For Knoppix, try to boot with: exists in the Preferences menu with the “0wn” (“zero work needed”) knoppix xmodule=intel utility. You need at least 15GB free on your hard disk with unpartitioned space, to see if the “powersaving mode” part of or a 1GB Linux swap partition, and the the graphics chipset is working. Actually, rest for the uncompressed Knoppix files. the Intel chipset should even be suffi- The installer tells you at each stage what cient for 3D effects and for your it needs and also allows you to reparti- daily work, because the ATI chipset is tion your hard disk with , in case probably targeted more to high-frame you want to keep another previously in- gaming. stalled . To create a custom /etc/X11/xorg.conf, the "Device" section should contain the My Laptop for a Distro following lines Klaus! How great it is to finally write to you. I’ve been reading your Section "Device" column and seeing your genius solutions Driver "intel" for almost two years now, and I now ... have an issue worthy of your time – at EndSection least I hope. I recently bought a fairly good laptop: an Acer Aspire Timeline X to select the Intel chipset driver (as op- 5820TG-6406. Being lazy, I no longer posed to "radeon" driver for the ATI/​ have the energy to install and configure AMD graphics chipset). Gentoo. But now I have hit an impasse. The laptop is a dual-GPU laptop. On Linux Network Drive Windows 7, that’s no issue, but Win- Klaus: How would you map a Linux dows 7 itself is an issue. RedHat/​ (network) drive on No matter what [Linux] distro I use, it a Windows XP computer? Somebody won’t work. I tried loading Ubuntu recommended a tool called ExpanDrive Klaus Knopper 10.10; nothing started, so I loaded 10.04 [1] or replacing the computer name with and it worked somewhat. Now, I’ll be an IP address. Samba is installed, run- Klaus Knopper is the creator of Knoppix honest, I have no brand loyalty when it ning, and properly configured on the and co-founder of LinuxTag expo. He cur- rently works as a teacher, programmer, comes to distros; I’m willing to jump to Linux box, but there’s got to be another and consultant. If you have a configura- any distro. If you know this issue is way. Are there any alternatives to Wine tion problem, or if you just want to learn solved, I will hop to it. My needs are software? How can I be just as good at more about how Linux works, send your simple when it comes to Linux: Gnome Linux as you? Thanks for your help. questions to: [email protected] or Xfce, and no PulseAudio. Mike Mcleod

68 August 2011 Issue 129 linux-magazine.com | Linuxpromagazine.com

068-070_AskKlaus.indd 68 6/14/11 4:19:10 PM Don’t miss a single issue! Your question falls into two cat- whether an ext2/​3/​4, Btrfs, Rei­ The first print magazine created spe- egories, which I will try to an- serFS, XFS, or other filesystem is in- swer. In the first scenario, you have a stalled on the Linux partition. cifically for Ubuntu users! Ease into Linux and a Windows partition on the In your second scenario, you have Ubuntu with the helpful Discovery same computer, and you want to access a computer with Linux and a second Guide, or advance your skills with the Linux partition from a running Win- computer with Windows, and you dows operating system. want to access files exported by the in-depth technical articles, HOW- Samba is not a good solution in this Linux computer acting as file server. TOs, reviews, tutorials, and much, case, because it runs on Linux and ex- For this, the Windows program much more. ports directories as a “Windows drive” ExpanDrive, which you mentioned, over a network to computers running could work, but you don’t really Windows (or Linux as Samba clients). need it if you can configure the You could still accomplish this by run- Linux computer as a Windows file ning Linux inside a virtual machine on server using Samba. ExpanDrive now! Windows and network-exporting the im- adds “secure FTP” (SSH on the subscribe ported Linux partition to the Windows Linux side) capabilities to Windows. 4 issues per year for only host. Nah, too complicated … . I would For Samba, check your running £ 24.90 / EUR 29.90 / US$ 39.95 try the other way around. Boot Linux Linux system for the /etc/samba/ from the Linux partition or a Live sys- smb.conf configuration file. If it’s not tem, and copy all needed data to the there, Samba is not yet installed. ✔ Don’t miss a single issue! Windows partition. It does not matter After installing and starting Samba whether your Windows system uses with ✔ Huge savings – Save more NTFS or FAT32, because Linux can write than 35% off the cover price! to both filesystems. sudo /etc/init.d/samba start Still, a few “drivers” for Windows do ✔ Free DVD – Each issue allow access to Linux partitions from you can access data in your user includes a Free DVD! Windows, but they are very filesystem- home directory from Windows specific – that is, you need to know using the “network drive” path:

Figure 1: HP G62-b55SE hardware specs.

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UU_1-3h_subscription_09.indd 1 03.05.2011 12:03:45 Uhr Features Ask Klaus!

\\Linux‑Computername\username This notebook uses a Bluetooth/​ with your game. It may be that you even WiFi combination by Broadcom. need to downgrade Wine to get the game where Linux-computername is the host- It may be that using Bluetooth and WiFi running. name of your Linux computer and user- together causes interference between the The error message you sent is the name is the user of your “normal work” two, or perhaps the Broadcom driver in graphics server Xorg telling you that the Linux user account. the Linux kernel simply can’t handle it. necessary 3D support would be missing Windows will ask you for the pass- My best guess is to try the “broadcom- in order to run the game or parts thereof. word for the “network drive,” which is sta” driver module instead of the stock If 3D is otherwise working (Compiz, na- usually the login password for your Linux kernel’s Broadcom support. The tive Linux games like Neverball or Chro- Linux user account. If that password broadcom-sta-source module is available mium B.S.U.), then it’s a Windows does not work, you need to set a “Win- as source package in , and bc- driver problem. If glxgears shows fewer dows file server password” on the Linux mwl-kernel-source in Ubuntu. You prob- than 100 frames per second, and glxinfo side by issuing the following as system ably need to disable the “ssb” module | grep ‑i direct does not say direct administrator: (just add an entry to /etc/modprobe.d/ rendering: Yes, then hardware accelera- blacklist.conf saying blacklist ssb) as tion is not working with your card, and smbpasswd ‑a username well; otherwise, the kernel driver may you need to take care of your X server’s block the hardware. configuration first. The password will be added to Samba’s own password database and will be used Got Game? Be My Guest exclusively for Windows access to the Hello: I am a long-time user of From the Knoppix Support mailing list user’s Samba network drive. Ubuntu. Recently, I bought a new The problem I am having is that the laptop on which I installed Ubuntu 10.10 mouse movement and positioning HP WiFi on Ubuntu and my favorite game, Grand Theft Auto: (in Knoppix Guest) is so horribly slow as Hi. I always read your replies in San Andreas (GTA:SA), which I also to make it totally unusable. This is not Linux Magazine and can’t tell you have on my second computer with the case with other systems, such as how much it helps. I have a problem Ubuntu 10.10. When I ran it, I just got guests in Fedora or Windows. with my WiFi and wonder if you could some clips that seemed to be from GTA, help. I recently got an HP G62-b55SE but the game didn’t run. I clicked around I noticed that mouse accelera- laptop (Middle East only), and it came a bit and, finally, I quit GTA and got the tion sometimes differs in KVM/​ with SUSE SLE. I am more of an Ubuntu output shown in Listing 1. QEMU compared with the surrounding user (though still a noob), so I installed Please help! Mateusz Magacz native Xorg. I’m not entirely sure why; it Ubuntu on it. may be an option in the generated xorg. Now my WiFi is not performing as You are trying to run a game de- conf, related to “HWCursor” vs. “SWCur- well as it was before. It won’t detect net- signed for Windows, under sor,” or just internal calibration of the works, and even if it does, I need to be Linux using Wine. Well, as you already usually “experimental” version of Xorg within 10 feet with no physical barrier. I know, this is possible. that I use because of support for newer looked on the HP site, but strangely, they Wine [2] provides the Windows API to hardware. I did not experience pointer only have Windows drivers and not a Windows executables so that they will delays or slowness, however; rather, the one for Linux. Surprising, because it “see” a Windows environment. Wine is pointer was moving “too fast.” I use Vir- comes with Linux. Please find my hard- under heavy development, and it’s not tualBox rather seldom, because KVM ware specifications attached (Figure 1). easy to tell which version will work best currently has better scripting and inter- Is there an alternative place to get these with which Windows program. For some nal virtual network infrastructure. drivers? features, Windows libraries (.dll files) You can probably set mouse accelera- Thanks in advance for the solution I and special Windows drivers must be in- tion in the guest operating system with: know is coming. Regards, Muhammad stalled. Sometimes, programs tell you Zubair Waqar what’s missing during installation; and xset mouse 4 sometimes, you Listing 1: GTA Output need them “pre- or:

01 mateusz@mateusz‑R540‑SA41‑E452:~/Pulpit/Rockstar Games/ installed” in a di- GTA San Andreas$ WINEDEBUG=‑all wine gta_sa.exe rectory because xset mouse 8

02 X Error of failed request: BadValue (integer parameter the installer does out of range for operation) not even start. It’s or even higher values. nnn 03 Major opcode of failed request: 140 (ATIFGLEXTENSION) a mess. ;-) 04 Minor opcode of failed request: 74 () Please check the Info 05 Value in failed request: 0x6200002 Wine application [1] ExpanDrive: 06 Serial number of failed request: 1980 database [3] for http://www.​­ expandrive.​­ com/​­ mac​­ 07 Current serial number in output stream: 1980 the procedure and [2] Wine: http://www.​­ winehq.​­ org/​­ 08 mateusz@mateusz‑R540‑SA41‑E452:~/Pulpit/Rockstar Games/ version of Wine [3] Wine application database: GTA San Andreas$ known to work http://appdb.​­ winehq.​­ org/​­

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