Monthly Archive for May, 2007

Wordpress 2.2 available for download and installed

Published
by
admin
on May 17, 2007
in Blogging
. 0 Comments

If you’re the sort of person who likes to squint at small type at the bottom of blogs, you will have noticed that I’m now running Wordpress version 2.2. It is running nicely on here, no issues with it so far. My ultra simple upgrade process is:

  • Backup your blog
  • Deactivate all plugins
  • Switch to the classic template
  • Delete everything from the Wordpress directory bar wp-config.php and the wp-content folder
  • Copy over all the files from a new download of Wordpress, having removed wp-content
  • log in and run the upgrade process
  • Reactivate your theme and plugins

As I’m lucky enough to have the space for it on my hosting, I’ve now got a test blog that I try things out on first to see if they cause any problems. It does raise your confidence a bit to see things work, and is better than a first run on your live blog. This is especially worthwhile with your template, as at the moment template authors don’t always keep up with new releases of Wordpress, they tend to update in the weeks following a release if there are any problems. I can report that Black Minimalism 1.0 seems happy with the new release.

Installing Kubuntu on the Toshiba Tecra M5 laptop

Published
by
admin
on May 17, 2007
in Linux
. 2 Comments

So I guess that’s one way of saying I have a new laptop! Anyway, I was going to write a detailed blog posting of the process for setting up and installing Kubuntu Feisty Fawn on my new Toshiba Tecra M5. However there really isn’t a lot to say. I reinstalled Windows using the supplied recovery cd, as this allowed me to partition the drive very easily. Then I took the latest version of Kubuntu (7.04) and started the install process. And it all worked. All the things I would expect to be there, are, and worked out of the box, even wireless. I’ve found recent versions of KDE far better than Gnome for sorting wireless out painlessly, and this certainly did it. The only obvious thing that isn’t working is the fingerprint scanner, but I’m really not bothered about that yet, nor am I convinced I will ever be. I will report back if I find any problems, but so far it has been very easy.

Linking your Nokia 6300 mobile phone to Ubuntu

Published
by
admin
on May 11, 2007
in Linux and Mobiles
. 25 Comments

So I did some further investigation tonight into getting my Nokia 6300 working under Ubuntu, with very positive results. What I tracked down was a program called Gnokii. It is a project to provide connectivity to Nokia phones that has been going since at least 2001, so they’ve got quite a bit of collective experience. And it has got me started.

First of all, I installed the software. It was available as a program to install, but I went with the trusty:

sudo apt-get install gnokii

Next I had to configure the connection. The documentation on the site is a little dusty, and does deal with a lot of different options depending on the phone, so I’m going to concentrate on my model, the 6300. First connect the phone using the usb cable, and select the Nokia mode on the phone when asked. You then need to edit the config file by hand (I tried setting it within the program itself, but it wouldn’t allow me):

sudo cp /etc/gnokiirc /etc/gnokiirc.OLD
sudo vi /etc/gnokiirc

And you will get a very well commented config file. If you are using a different phone, or connecting through another means such as Bluetooth, have a read through the file, there are good pointers for the changes you need to make. For the Nokia 6630, delete the contents (you’ve already backed it up) and use the following:

[global]
port = /dev/ttyACM0
model = AT
initlength = default
connection = serial
use_locking = yes
serial_baudrate = 19200
smsc_timeout = 10
[gnokiid]
bindir = /usr/sbin/
[connect_script]
TELEPHONE = 12345678
[disconnect_script]
[logging]
debug = off
rlpdebug = off
xdebug = off

and save the file. You may well prefer to comment out the port and model in the existing file, and then just uncomment the two lines I’ve set at the start of this file.

Now to test the connection:

sudo gnokii --identify

If this has worked, it will show a small amount of information about the phone, the make, model, EMEI number and revision number. If you’ve got this, you’re ready to go. If not, check the config file, or look up on the Gnokii site for further help.

You can know run Gnokii from the applications menu (it should be under utilities). You will be able to view and edit basic details about your contacts, back them up, and send SMS from the computer via the phone. There is also an option for Calendar entries, but I can’t get this working yet. It may be down to me using the model = AT option, which I think is more limited in what it can do. I’ll certainly keep investigating to see if I can solve it.

links for 2007-05-11

Published
by
admin
on May 11, 2007
in General
. 2 Comments

Ubuntu and the Nokia 6300 mobile phone

Published
by
admin
on May 11, 2007
in Linux and Mobiles
. 3 Comments

I’ve just received my almost annual upgrade mobile phone, a Nokia 6300. Now with my previous phone (Nokia 6230), one of the last things that has had me booting back into Windows has been doing anything with the phone. The Nokia Windows software is quite nice, you can edit contacts, backup data, browse files, and install Java apps. And it was by far the best way of moving from one phone to another, I just had to backup the old phone, then restore the data to the new phone. Took everything off both the memory card and sim card, and put most of it onto the new one (apart from some games I’d bought, which was slightly annoying).

However even though I could connect the phone to my computer using a USB cable, under Ubuntu it wouldn’t do anything with it at all. This has changed with the Nokia 6300 though. It has a proper mini-USB connector, and once hooked up, the phone asks if I want to use it in Nokia Software mode (i.e. for Windows) or in data mode. The latter means that my memory card in the phone becomes available as if it were a standard flash memory drive. Which I like a lot. I can now copy pictures off and upload them to Flickr using digikam (I think that comes as standard with Kubuntu). I can add music and images as I need. I would still love to be able to sync contacts, calendars and to-dos, but it is a defnite improvement. I’d ideally like Nokia to provide that for me too, but I think I’ll start digging and see if anyone is doing anything on Sourceforge and the like that could help me. If you’ve seen anything that might be useful, please let me know.