http://colinmorris.org/ Col's Corner on the Web en-us Nucleus CMS v3.22 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://colinmorris.org//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://colinmorris.org/ http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=120 Mint Linux as it appeared to be geared up for the multimedia experience. Machine 2 is an old Dell P400 2.8 Ghz machine with 1Gb of RAM and a reasonably sized 82Gb hard drive.

The install from CD went well but my first problem was I was stuck with a resolution of either 640x480 or 800x600. No really much to work on and since the old LCD monitor would support up to 1024x768 I really wanted to change this. Graphics card is an onboard Intel 865GL with 8Mb of system memory allocated to it in the BIOS. The monitor is an old Relsys TL565 15" flat screen LCD model.

A first look around the various forums suggested that I need to edit xorg.conf in /etc/X11 - only problem is I didn't have this file. After a bit more looking around I desided to create this file and have a play around with it.

First steps were:
cd /.
cd etc/X11
sudo gedit xconf
and paste in a generic xorg.conf
I then entered a depth of 32 and a resolution of 1024x568

This achieved nothing so I thought I would change the monitor settings. My first few attempts resulted in a black screen so I used a "Live" CD to change the settings further. As I changed the figures I eventually got a display and even though it was corrupted I knew that I was going in the right direction.
Eventually I go a slightly corrupted display but the Display Manager in the Control Panel allowed me to select my desired resolution of 1024x568. Result!
Relevant portion of xorg.comf is shown below:

/etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
HorizSync 40.0 - 60.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 60.00
EndSection

Section "Device"

Identifier "Card0"
Driver "intel"
VendorName "Intel Corporation"
BoardName "82865G Integrated Graphics Controller"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

]]> Linux http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=120 Sat, 6 Feb 2010 16:31:18 +0000 http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=119

Snow

Lot's of snow today. As at 16:00 it has started snowing again.

Looks like an early start tomorrow to get into work...]]> General http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=119 Tue, 5 Jan 2010 16:58:18 +0000 http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=118
A few months ago I took a trip down Rudheath canal behind Morrisons depot and discovered loads of elderberries. That wine has been in the shed for a while and although it needs another 4 months to really mature I was tempted to open a bottle on Christmas Eve. A little light but still a nice wine.

Currently in the shed I also have grapefruit wine and apple wine. Both should be ready in time for summer and I’m looking forward to sitting outside on a nice sunny day with a glass in my hand.
Currently on the go in the Kitchen is tea wine. This has been bubbling away nicely for about five weeks and I have high hopes for it.

My next project is going to be blackcurrent wine – the main ingredient being a bottle of Sainsbury’s Blackcurrent Hi Juice!
]]> Winemaking http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=118 Sat, 26 Dec 2009 22:46:58 +0000 http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=116
I personally did not feel that this venue was as good as in previous years. It seemed to be a lot smaller and the range of bikes did not appear to be outstanding, none of the really interesting customised bikes had made an appearance. Still, it was an interesting walk out.

Hoping that tomorrows main event, the Thundersprint, is as good as it usually is.

Thundersprint Bike Show 2009 Photos]]> Photographs http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=116 Sat, 9 May 2009 14:58:07 +0100 http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=112
On the Dell I decided to go for Debian 5 and the install went so smooth it was unbelievable. No problems with the install, which took about 60 minutes. Video card and the network were all detected and set up fine. Slight problem with the audio which stared working when I changed the Intel device being used (Though it still doesn't work in VLC for some reason - I'll investigate that a little later this week). Debian even detected a very old Philips webcam that I had found in one of my boxes of computer bits.

Installed Firefox and had a few problems getting Flash working but it is now fine so I will be able to get my iPlayer fix on the machine.
It finds the Windows network and can access the shared folders on the XP machines, that did kind of surprise me that it did it "out of the box".

It looks like it's going to be a good machine to work on.]]> Tech http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=112 Tue, 7 Apr 2009 21:58:25 +0100 http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=111
I selected one of the Dell's and upgraded the memory from 700 and odd Mb to a gig. Replaced the CD writer with a decent dual layer DVD writer. Popped in a 200 Gb hard drive and did a fresh install of XP. Thankfully all the drivers for the video card and such were easily obtainable from Dell's website and while there I also got hold of a file to flash the BIOS to the latest version.

The only slight problem I had was the fact that until you install Service Pack 2 XP will only recognise 130 Gb of the hard drive. This meant that I had to install some partitioning software and reclaim the unused space on the disk.

My Dad is very pleased with the result and keeps telling me he can't believe how fast it is.

Looking at the other Dell I was originally going to install Debian on it but now I'm wondering Hackintosh or even setting it up as a multimedia machine downstairs with the TV.]]> Tech http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=111 Tue, 7 Apr 2009 13:41:36 +0100 http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=110

Computer System

It came pre-installed with Vista which I'm not over keen on so my first task was to make a note of all the installed hardware and carry out a fresh install of Windows XP. Inside the case there was only one free ATA connection but this was enough for me to pop in my data hard drive. Had a bit of fun getting webcam number 3 working but after reinstalling the driver it started to work ok. The major problem was getting the Playstation game controller working. For this I had to carry out a search on the web - turns out that XP installs it's own drivers for this, which don't work... After deleting drivers and performing a number of restarts the pad came to life. I was surprised the the USB video card and second monitor worked fine.

So far, I'm very impressed with the machine. Though I'm not a big gamer it is nice to be able to run some of the more recent games and I'm sure all my emulation stuff is going to run just fine. The widescreen monitor is fantastic. I watch a large amount of TV and movies on the PC, and the picture quality cannot be faulted.

After a week I'm finally getting the software side of it just how I like it. Fortunately the majority of my software was on the data drive so the installations went like a dream.
]]> Tech http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=110 Sat, 28 Mar 2009 15:47:27 +0100 http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=109 here I have configured it to run as a repeater. Placed the second hub in the conservatory and I now have excellent signal strength even in the garden.]]> Tech http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=109 Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:38:06 +0100 http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=108 "Welcome to Northwich" website.]]> My Websites http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=108 Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:23:53 +0100 http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=107 Lifehacker. This evening they are running an article on tidying your desk space. Looking around me it's probably time that I gave that a go. As well as my two desktop PCs I've got three laptops sitting here, piled with papers and CDs and basically not doing much at all. I think I need to get my space organised and put these machines to use.

The older one needs to be running an OS like Linux and I really need to get an Apache server set up so I can test stuff like PHP code locally. I can't believe that I've got more machines than I've really got use for but hey, that's the fun of being a computer geek!]]> Tech http://colinmorris.org/index.php?itemid=107 Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:19:22 +0100