Linux wireless

I've written about some of what works for my hardware. 2 boxes currently running Gentoo.Network manager has never worked for me on either of these. Gentoo bug #345143 I had no luck trying to setup Gentoo and wireless as it is currently documented.

For me what worked was using instead 'emerge -vp iw wireless-regdb crda' and configuring wpa thru wpa_cli wpa_passphrase and two files /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf and /etc/conf,d/net

As of version Connman 0.70 it does load the card properly but when it does it loses the routing table and I would have to add it each time I start up connman. ;-( Guess I could add it to local till they get it fixed or I find out what is the issue and then emerge gconnman and actually have a gui for networks. It also over writes /etc/resolv.conf without regard for using the nameservers provided by dhcp

I've a half completed application for arch tester. Got halfway and just not sure I want to dedicate the time. Also wondering what restrictions would come with actual association. Even generated a gpg key so I could sign email. I do like contributing but in actuality my profession and family life come first. Dedicating 20+ hours a week on a consistent basis is not likely. Could certainly host on a dedicated ip cheaply enough and give others access to the hardware on a speedy connection at times As is flameeyes power usage and my own high electric bills make me think twice about even running so much hardware.

In fact updating my pc's and a slight rate reduction last month dropped $80 from my utility bill this month. Modern hardware is providing more computing power at far less energy cost. One would think there would be new pc's flying off the shelf in the low and mid-range. This Coding Horror blog shows an energy reduction of 75% for hardware purchased today versus that purchased just 5 years ago.

Random progress

So now the hard drive has been moved to it's new home. A dual core pentium 4 and it lives further on sata2

I had run about 9 passes of memtest 86 and have done an emerge -e system since then. Everything is pretty stable.
Did have a bug report but this was an issue that occurred long before moving to this hardware but bug-buddy was
unable to report due to the keyboard failing to work when nautilus crashed. After moving from Nvidia/AMD 64 to radeon/dual core P4 I was able to type in my email address which was preventing the crash report.

The ATI TV 650 reports as

02:00.0 Multimedia controller: ATI Technologies Inc Device 4d51
Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc Device b041
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
Memory at ff400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
Memory at dc000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Express Endpoint, MSI 00

I do not see the Xcieve module loading via lsmod. I do have I believe the proper firmware installed for the Xcieve 3028
I built much of v4l/tuner in kernel as modules Likely will try installing a tv app (after re-check MSI in kernel support)

Rescued a docking station for tuxmobl It was a timely event as it was on it's way to the great electronics graveyard in the sky

I am quite satisfied with the new Windows laptop it is snappy and capable. I have yet to try to boot a linux on that machine yet. May try a liveusb image at some point. The biggest drawback was the lack of hdmi Although the vga out is compatible with about any conference room in the US and a ton of image projectors.

At a time when labor is taking a beating sellable skills are still at a premium and so things may change for me soon.

For anyone using Gentoo please avail yourself of the 'eclean' command I have suggested some enhancements but it is already very useful.