Pictures of Hard Drive Swap in Revo

Here are some pictures of swapping the hard drive in my Acer Aspire Revo.

Windows 7 and Samba Shares

This is a quick guide to setting up Samba file sharing on my Viglen MPC-L server which is running Ubuntu 8.04.3 LTS. The client is a Windows 7 machine – no changes to the registry or local security policy were needed. The following applies to the version of samba from the repositories –   smbd version 3.0.28a.

1. Install Samba

sudo apt-get install samba smbfs

2. Edit Samba Configuration File

Find the line which is commented out – “;   security=user” and change it to: -

security = user

username map = /etc/samba/smbusers

Find the line “encrypt passwords = no” and change it to “encrypt passwords = true”

Add a section for each share that you want to be available: -

[data]

browseable = yes

comment = Data

path = /data

force user = viglen

force group = users

read only = No

guest ok = Yes

3. Add “smbusers” file

A new file is now needed to map smb users onto local linux users. Create the file: -

sudo vi /etc/samba/smbusers

and add the following to it: -

viglen = "viglen"

4. Change  SMB Password for user

Set a password for the viglen smb user by running the following command: -

sudo smbpasswd viglen

5. Restart Samba

sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

6. Test Connection from Windows

Open a windows command prompt (Start -> cmd) and enter the following command (with the correct IP address and password)

net use q: \\aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd\data password /user:viglen

You should get a message “The command completed successfully.”, and Q: should be accessible through Windows Explorer etc.

To remove the share, enter the following command: -

net use /d q:

Netgear DGN2000 with o2 LLU Broadband

Here are the settings for if you want to replace the standard o2 Thomson modem/router with the Netgear DGN2000. These should be entered into the web interface.

Setup / Basic Settings

Does Your Internet Connection Require A Login? No
Account Name: Blank
Domain Name: Blank
Internet IP Address: Get Dynamically From ISP (If you have a static IP address, enter it here).
Domain Name Server (DNS) Address: Get Automatically From ISP (I’m actually using the OpenDNS servers, so I have entered 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220)
NAT (Network Address Translation): Enable
Router MAC Address: Use Default Address

Setup / ADSL Settings

Multiplexing Method: LLC-based
VPI: 0
VCI: 101

Routing Issues

Unfortunately, I suffered intermittent routing issues – other users have reported similar issues in this thread.

Thanks to wilderbeastie, there is a workaround detailed here:

Option One

1. Enable telnet access in the router.

http://192.168.0.1/setup.cgi?todo=debug

2. Login via telnet to 192.168.0.1 (via putty or the command line)

3. Run the following command: -

“echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/neigh/nas0/ucast_solicit”

This setting doesn’t survive a reboot so needs re-applying every time.

If you suffer loss of routing, this procedure also seems to restore it (i.e. you shouldn’t need to reboot first).

Option Two

This is exactly the same fix as detailed in option one but the command is inside the following link – all you need to do is copy & paste (all one line) into your browser and enter the username and password: -

http://192.168.0.1/setup.cgi?todo=ping_test&c4_IPAddr=%26/bin/echo%200%20%3E/proc/sys/net/ipv4/neigh/nas0/ucast_solicit

Again, this fix doesn’t survive a reboot.

Option Three

James from ADSL24 has patched the standard firmware to run the relevant commands on startup of the router.

The downloads are here.

This method will survive a reboot.

Accessing ADSL Line Stats from o2 Wireless Box III

I can’t find any easy way to access ADSL line stats through the o2-supplied “Wireless Box III” (a Thomson TG585n).

The only way that I could access them is by using this link.

Once you’ve got them, you can copy them into a stats checker such as this one.

This should all work with the standard “Administrator” user (no password), other functionality is available with the SuperUser user – password default is “O2Br0ad64nd”.

Writing Python with PSPad

PSPad is a great editor for programmers. Instead of using a dedicated Python IDE, PSPad can be tweaked to compile and run scripts directly. Here’s how: -

• Go to Settings -> Highlighters Settings
• Select “Python” in the left hand pane (if its not selected already)
• Select the “Compiler” tab
• In the “compiler” text box, enter or browse to the location of the Python compiler (e.g. C:\Program Files\Python26\python.exe)
• In the “parameters” text box, enter “%File%” (note the double quotes)
• Put a tick box in the “Capture Program Output Window” option
• In the “LOG parser” text box, enter *file %F *line %L*

Once this is set up correctly, you will be able to run .py files directly from PSPad by going to File -> Compile or using the shortcut (Ctrl+F9).

Updating twitter from python

Just looking into posting twitter updates from python. I’ve found three methods so far: -

• Python Twitter Tools
• python-twitter
• Command-line via Curl (can possible do with urllib)

Hmmm, more investigation required…

Pimp my Revo!

I’ve added some extra RAM and a new larger hard drive to my Acer Aspire Revo so here are the final specs: –

• 1.6GHz Intel Atom 230 CPU
• 2GB DDR2 RAM
• 500GB hard disk
• Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics
• HDMI, D-SUB out
• eSATA
• 6 x USB
• 4-in-1 card reader
• Gigabit Ethernet
• 802.11bg WLAN
• Size: 30mm x 180mm x 180mm

The Windows Experience comes out at a weedy 2.2 due to the Atom CPU but the rest of the ratings look pretty decent for such a low-powered PC (it got up to a maximum of around 34 watts during the tests – normally it hovers at around 23 watts when idling).

Next up – install Linux!

Swapping Hard Drive in Acer Revo

The Acer Aspire Revo has a lot of potential for a home media player but the 160gb hard drive won’t be large enough for everybody.

I spotted a special offer on a Iomega Prestige 500gb Portable Hard Drive which contains (in my case) a Seagate Momentus 5400.6 drive, model ST9500325AS .

I already had a working installation of Windows 7 RC, so here’s how I swapped the hard drives: -

1. Download the Clonezilla ISO file (I used clonezilla-live-1.2.2-14.iso) and install it to USB stick via Unetbootin.
2. Boot Revo with Clonezilla USB stick attached & USB Hard Drive attached.
3. Select “device-device disk/partition to disk/partition” and choose the 160gb internal hard drive (/dev/sda) as the source and the 500gb USB hard drive (/dev/sdb) as the target.
4. Confirm (it asks a few times!) and then wait for cloning to be complete. This will take a long time, as it copies all partitions (on my original hard drive I had 4 partitions – Windows 7 NTFS, Linux ext3, Data NTFS and Linux swap).
5. Open the Iomega USB drive (two screws at the back) and take out the Seagate 500gb hard drive.
6. Open the Revo & Swap the hard drives (see forum post here).
7. Swap the drives and re-assemble the Revo and portable hard drive.
8. Boot up the Revo with the new hard drive in it – it should boot straight up.
9. Extend the partitions to make use of the full 500gb space (this can be done in Windows 7 by going to “Computer” then “Manage”. Go to “Storage” then “Disk Management” and then right-click the drive before selecting “Extend Volume”).
10. Put 160gb hard drive into Iomega case & re-partition hard drive.

Now I have a Revo with lots of storage space, and a spare 160gb portable hard drive for backups etc.

XBMC With VDPAU and iPlayer

There’s an interesting article on the How to do something differently… blog about getting VDPAU working with iPlayer under Linux with the SVN build of XBMC. I’ll be sure to look into it some more when I install Ubuntu onto my Revo.

Opening the Acer Aspire Revo

There’s a useful page on opening the Acer Aspire Revo here. Will come in useful for when I add an extra 1GB RAM to the existing 1GB, or maybe swapping the hard drive for a larger one.