The first task of file conversion is handled neatly by a script called dir2ogg, which as the site says dir2ogg is a GPL’ed python script which converts mp3, m4a, wma, and wav files into ogg-vorbis format. Before you audiophiles get in a rage, yes I know it’s moving from one lossy format to another, it had to happen.  While I had some trouble converting entire directories it was easy enough to convert batches of files using a wildcard.

dir2ogg *.m4a

The second script came from rousting around the Ubuntu forums while searching for possible causes of my heat issues. TurionPowerControl not so simply lets you set a number of values for undervolting your AMD Turion processor. I don’t claim to understand how it all works, but some time with the included README pdf helped sort out the values needed. Once I had those values put it together in a script, made it executable, and copied it to /usr/bin/turionuv

modprobe msr

modprobe cpuid

TurionPowerControl -pallc 0 37 0 13 -pallc 1 54 1 15 -pallc 2 61 2 17 -nbvid 54 -rampuptime 3 -rampdowntime 3 -pallc 6 41 1 20 -pallc 7 41 1 20 -altvidslamtime 5

modprobe msrmodprobe cpuidTurionPowerControl -pallc 0 37 0 13 -pallc 1 54 1 15 -pallc 2 61 2 17 -nbvid 54 -rampuptime 3 -rampdowntime 3 -pallc 6 41 1 20 -pallc 7 41 1 20 -altvidslamtime 5

This helped lower my cpu temp marginally but every degree counts,  using it along side CPUFreq have helped a lot, even with my power hogging usb wifi adapter.

Jul 16 20:32:08 v3lm4 kernel: [13394.099593] wlan0: deauthenticating from 00:12:xx:xx:xx:xx by local choice (reason=3)

The line above has been the bane of my existence for a little over a month when I picked up a Ralink USB wireless adapter. Under the rt2800 driver my connection would drop at random intervals.  No matter which network I tried, regardless of network manager sometimes it was up for an hour, other times only 8-15mins. Many Google searches yielded varying solutions no of which worked until I found out about this bug.

The solution? Well it would seem that in kernel 2.6.32 and 2.6.34 power management for the adapter causes the above issue, this can be solved but turning it off. Replace wlan0 with your adapter.

iwconfig wlan0 power off

Hopefully this will be resolved in later updates, or Ralink will make the Rt3070 driver a bit more Linux friendly. The above solution worked immediately for me with no need for reboot.

** Update, it would appear this situation is not as resolved as I had hoped. This problem reappeared some hours later with no change in configuration I’m currently working on other possible fixes.

*** Update to the update:  I switched from sidux back to Crunchbang (statler) and all my wireless problems went away.

I began with Linux in 2000 whittling down Slackware to fit on a 500mb harddrive, even now I still have a love for breathing new life into nearly obsolete hardware. So after 10 years it should come as no surprise that I enjoy seeing others keep machines out of the landfill. One such champion of reuse is K.Mandla’s blog of Linux experiences, the curiously named Motho ke motho ka botho. He frequently shares awesome information on getting the best out of machines from the early Pentium era.

Now to be honest, my current machine is an Acer Aspire 6530 with a 2.1ghz AMD Turion X2 Dual-Core Mobile RM-72, so I don’t actually NEED to spare the power. However about one year ago a power surge damaged random things like the internal mini-pci slots, ever since then I have been concerned about heat produced by the processor and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650. System performance has never suffered but I was occasionally plagued by shutdowns due to overheating.

In attempting to isolate the causes and improve system performance as I whole I switched back to Openbox and hand choose the applications I use daily based on need and simplicity. While I have pretty much conquered my heat issues I still remained dedicated to, dare I say, minimalism.

So while kmandla prefers screen and other console focused, yet always awesome apps I take a hybrid approach via Openbox. I boot to console, and utilize the capabilities of ~/.config/openbox/autostart and the ~/.xinitrc file.

xinitrc

#!/bin/sh

#

# ~/.xinitrc

#

# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)

(sleep 2s && setxkbmap us) &

numlockx on &

(sleep 1s && parcellite) &

nitrogen –restore &

thunar –daemon &

xscreensaver -nosplash &

(sleep 2s && conky -c .conkybrc) &

(sleep 2s && conky) &

(sleep 2s && volwheel) &

# exec ion

# exec jwm

# exec wmaker

# exec startkde

# exec icewm

# exec blackbox

# exec gnome-session

# exec startfluxbox

# exec startxfce4

# exec xfce4-session

# exec xmonad

exec openbox-session

# exec awesome

Openbox autostart

# Run the system-wide support stuff

#. $GLOBALAUTOSTART

# Programs to launch at startup

# =============================

#vxprop -root -remove _NET_NUMBER_OF_DESKTOPS -remove _NET_DESKTOP_NAMES -remove _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP

# Start session manager

lxsession &

# Force openoffice.org to use GTK theme

# enable this if you install openoffice

export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome

# Start volume control system tray applet

# (sleep 4s && gnome-volume-control-applet) &

# Launch panel

tint2 &

#claws-mail

claws-mail &

#power manager

xfce4-power-manager &

#eye candy

(sleep 5s && xcompmgr -cCfF -t-5 -l-5 -r4.2 -o.55 -D6) &

I start with Terminator set almost full screen split into sections and two tabs. Tab one is usually used for MOC, alsamixer and alsaequal. Tab two is typically split horizontally with a root and user session for mucking about. My current distro of choice is still the Debian Sid based Sidux, which does well in catering to cranky power users like myself who can’t leave their machines well enough alone.

The Tamale Lady in the Italian Market. Catch her if you can, seriously good grub.

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