My 1st technical post: Ubuntu 7.10 on Kohjinsha sh8 Howto
It's been a while since I started thinking about contributing to other people searches on the web regarding howtos on things I succeded in. I wanted to open a dedicated site/blog, but I decided today to start from here, and maybe then move all the technical stuff somwhere else. Livejournal entries end in google, so there are good chances that these posts are not completely useless.
Also, I'm writing this in English to give a chance to more people.
So, as my friends know I just bought a Kohjinsha SH8 to have an ultra portable that I can take everywhere, even where I wouldn't bring my iBook G4 with me, and expecially to dedicate completetly to my new job: the iBook has too much of my music and writings in it, and I prefer separate machines. Further to this, Ubuntu has an advantage over Mac OS X for an office/communication machine: you can always have updated software for free, and you don't risk to end up with an old OS version that doesn't allow you to access latest software, even if it is free software (I'm stuck on 10.3.9).
However, when I left my previous job on Dec. I promised to myself that I wouldn't have dealt with windows again for a long time, so as soon the the Kohji was in my hands, I removed Windows Vista from it, and started installing Ubuntu.
1. Removing Vista:
First problem is preparing a Vista backup: the Kohjinsha comes with no Recovery DVDs, and also lacks the 'one time only' utility seen on other machines shipping with a preinstalled Vista. There is an 'Emergency ISO' file somwhere on the disk. Burn it to CD, and when you reboot from emergency cd it can reinstall Vista. But wait a minute, how does Vista fit on 1 CD? In fact it doesn't: the CD relies on a hidden partition of the Kohji's disk, called WinRE. So, if you completely format the disk, you loose the recovery partition and won't be able to reinstall Vista in case you want to! I tried to backup the WinRE partition on a DVD (using Ubuntu of course, the partition is hidden to windows), but it appears some filenames would be damaged switching to a ISO/Joliet format, so I tarred the content of the partition, and burned the WinRE.tar.gz file to a DVD. WARNING: I am not sure if this works! I went on to my installation on the whole disk because I know that I won't be interested in using Vista again, so I did the backup 'just in case' but will never use it. If you think you might need Vista you can either check if my method works (recreating a 4.4 GB ntfs partition and filling that with the files from the uncompressed archive and then booting from the emergency cd) or keep the original partition leaving that untouched using the 'manual'disk setup, which is probably the best solution, but is not suitable to guys like me, who would be obsessed by the presence of that useless partition like from a stain on the wall behind the wardrobe. (Actually, I currently have one behind the TV - almost can't sleep for that). Anyway, when you've choosen what you want to do with Vista, you can proceed to step 2.
2. Installing Ubuntu:
Just put the Desktop CD in and proceed with the installation normally. What will work out of the box:
-Bluetooth
-USB
-Ethernet
-Trackpad
-Card readers (both CF and SD)
- Buttons on the front including the pointer, the directional arrows, the scroll buttons, left and right buttons, enter. (excluding shutter, rotation, launcher)
- Screen resolution, xorg drivers (intel drivers are integrated in xfree86 from my understanding)
- Graphic acceleration (including 3D)
What will NOT work out of the box (or will need tweaking):
-WiFi
-Touchscreen
- Webcam (actually I'm not sure about it, check below)
- Keyboard (Kohjis come with Japanes/Engrish keyboard, you will have to remap it for your language and buy some nice stickers - white model comes optionally with English keyboard, but I already have the iBook in white)
Please note that with the WiFi not working from live/desktop cd, you will have to plug an ethernet cable to have all of the downloaded packages and updates installed on first run. I strongly recomend that.
3. Getting your WiFi to work properly
In this particular case I advocate the use of ndiswrapper with windows drivers. The RT73USB driver is difficult to use, clumsy and installation is even worse, while the wrapped WinXp driver works beautifully. Think about it: you shouldn't waste your time with something that at the moment doesn't work when there is a nice working solution. I spent time on it, many other Kohji users did, there's no reason why you should. Moreover, you own a licence of Windows Vista, and a licence of all the windows drivers for your Kohji: I think that this solves the legal aspects of the situation as well. So when you're ok with your conscience (and with the knowledge that such a small device is kinda useless tied to a big cable, you probably have a desktop for that) follow these steps:
Downloade the drivers from the kohjinsha site and unzip.
Open a terminal and type (or copy from this page and paste in terminal, remembering that pasting in terminal isn't ctrl+v but shift+crtl+v)
sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper ndiswrapper-utils
to install ndiswrapper
now go (by terminal, not by nautilus) in the directory where the drivers are.
cd [yourdownloaddirectory]/Wireless\ LAN/Qcom/
Of course where i wrote [yourdownloaddirectory] you should put the path of your download directory from where you are now. And in case you're a complete beginner, the \ before the space is a kind of "ignore special character" command to allow the terminal to enter a directory with spaces in the name (it works with * and any other char as well)
now:
sudo ndiswrapper -i rt73.inf
warning: the rt73.cat and rt73.sys files must be in the directory as well, do not remove them.
and
sudo ndiswrapper -l
to make sure that it is installed
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
Now you're done (i.e. it should work). However you want the module to load at startup, right?
sudo modprobe -m
Now reboot to check if everything work ok. You should see the WiFi in the network applet bar. Just select your own wireless LAN from the menu, and type your password when asked.
It didn' take much effort, did it?
4. Making the touchscreen respond correctly
First you should know that you have a Penmount 6000 USB. You'll note that many things inside your Kohji are USB. Try a lsusb in terminal if you're curious. Now go to the penmount site, they have drivers for linux, and even ubuntu specific! Remember remember Penmount6000 USB do not download the wrong drivers!
Please note: I used ubuntu 7.04 drivers on ubuntu 7.10. The 7.10 drivers were not available a few days (weeks?) ago when I installed. So the problems and solutions below refer to the drivers for 7.04 applied to 7.10. You might not experience these problems with 7.10 drivers. Good for you, and please report in comments.
In folder resulting once you untarred the tar follow the instructions in the READ ME to install the drivers. You might have a first problem with permissions. Select the pmlinux-ubuntu folder, right click for properties, and (in the permissions tab) set the permissions a way that everyone can access, read, and write the files. Mark 'allow executable' or whatever it is called, and press the 'apply permissions to files inside the folder'. If you're unable, open a terminal, type 'sudo nautilus' and repeat the procedure, but this time with super user powers.
If you're not a beginner and want to do that fully by terminal, I don't need to explain what the chmod and sudo chmod commands are for.
Now, there are a pair of tweaks to do before you get your Touchscreen to work.
navigate throught the terminal to etc/X11/ (cd ../../etc/X11)and type
sudo gedit xorg.conf
else, you can type sudo nautilus again and go there by nautilus, just doubleclicking xorg.conf to open
WARNING: in case nobody told you yet, anytime you do something to xorg.conf, you'd better have a backup in case something goes wrong (you'll be unable to restart gnome again). However ubuntu 7.10 does a copy by himself, you can always restore from that copy.
Anyway. When you have the xorg.conf file opened in gedit (see, it's just a text document, nothing scary), remove all of the WACOM paragraph stuff. I'm not sure that this step is necessery, but I strongly doubt you will want to use a wacom tablet on a computer that is a tablet itself, so I don't see any damage in that. In case you want them so bad, you can recover the Wacom paragraphs later on the net, or on another computer, or running ubuntu from cd. I've been told that this wacom configurations make your Penmount mad. And now the important part.
Explanation: the driver installer set xorg to see your touchscreen as 'dev/input/event0'. Now, it is never event0. On some startup event2 on some other event4.
What you should do: you're always in xorg.conf opened in text editor with super user powers, right?
Look for the
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "PenMount"
go to the row
Option "Device" "/dev/input/event0"
and change it to
Option "Device" "dev/input/by-id/usb-DIALOGUE_INC_Penmount_USB-event-joystick"
Save and close xorg.conf. Restart X (simply hit ctrl+alt+backspace).
Now your tablet should work, but uncalibrated, so check it but don't mess around too much cause you can move all your icons and menus.
In case it doesn't work, check if you notice any other difference between your xorg.conf and mine (pasted below).
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "PenMount"
Driver "penmount"
Option "Protocol" "PM6000USB"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-DIALOGUE_INC_PenMount_USB-event-joystick"
Option "PMode" "1"
Option "MinX" "10"
Option "MaxX" "1000"
Option "MinY" "10"
Option "MaxY" "1000"
Option "ADBit" "12"
Option "Baudrate" "19200"
Option "Beep" "0"
# 0 = no beep, 1 = beep enabled
Option "PressVol" "100" # volume
of beep (press event)
Option "PressPitch" "880" # pitch of beep
(press event)
Option "PressDur" "15" # length
of beep in 10ms (press event)
Option "ReleaseVol" "0" # volume
of beep (release event)
Option "ReleasePitch" "1200" # pitch of
beep (release event)
Option "ReleaseDur" "10" # len of beep in
10ms (release event)
Option "RightButton" "0" # right button
active in ms
Option "RightButtonStart" "800" # right
button active in ms
Option "RightButtonEnd" "1200" # right
button inactive in ms EndSection
Now disable visual effects COMPLETELY, and run the adv-calib utility as sudo (the utility is in the penmount drivers folder), select how may points you want to hit. The more, the better. If the calibration utility freezes, check again that you have disabled the visual effects (compiz) and you're running as sudo. Note that the next red point doesn't show until you removed the stylus from the previous one and this might take sometimes, so don't assume the utility froze if not sure.
Restart X again and you have a working and calibrated touchscreen!!!
You can now re-enable Visual Effects, even at full capabilities.
5. See your face on the screen with the webcam
I'll tell you what I did. But probably it will be easier for you. Please report your results in comments, so I can edit and correct this guide.
I tested the cam with camorama, and it didn't work. I assumed that it were not working at all, so followed the procedure to compile gspca for unsupported webcams. This (time consuming) step is probably completely useless. I noticed that the device dev/video0 existed and the 'camera monitor' applet told me the status.
Uhm. Probably the webcam works out of the box, and it is just Camorama that doesn't work, so do not test the cam with Camorama because it is unreliable.
Please, try to install aMSN and/or Cheese to test. They are in the repositories but anyway you can get up to date aMSN on getdeb.net. If it works with no further install,I'd appreciate if you tell me. Also because in case it doesn't I'll post the procedure for installation of gspca source and recompiling.
6. Make it even better.
My suggestions. Install a set of BIG icons. They will be easier to hit with your finger on the screen. I'm not fond of hand writing systems, so I installed OnBoard, a nice screen keyboard. Well you can't really type a novel on that thing, but it is good enough for passwords, urls, brief emails and notes. Remap the keyboard. Some keys have to be manually remapped. For exampe ALT Gr. Install OpenArena (the latest fron getdeb and TORCS) the Kohji can rival a playstation portable, and even if you don't play much (I don't) you can use it to impress your friends. If only the arrows and the joystick were not on the same side of the screen it would be perfect for games.
Pair it with a bluetooth headset and make the Kohji your Voip Phone (use this guide and remember you don't need to use Skype, there are a lot of nice SIP softphones out there like Ekiga, Linphone, or the Gizmo Project). Hold the two mouse buttons on the side of the screen to emulate 3rd button. It means you can rotate the cube while in tablet mode. Put your own suggestions in comments.
7. What I'm still trying to do
Find a full screen/big icons interface 'ala iPhone' to launch applications in tablet mode. Use the kohji as a gps navigator. Make it work with MY bluetooth headset (which makes horrible noises so far). Configure gestures that would be really nice on a touchscreen; I'm trying with gestikk, but I'm still at the beginning. Configure compiz-water-point on every doubleclick. Enlarge the active corner area of the Scale plugin of compiz fusion (I cannot reach the current active part with my finger). Configure some compiz effect everytime a gesture is recognised.
Also, I'm writing this in English to give a chance to more people.
So, as my friends know I just bought a Kohjinsha SH8 to have an ultra portable that I can take everywhere, even where I wouldn't bring my iBook G4 with me, and expecially to dedicate completetly to my new job: the iBook has too much of my music and writings in it, and I prefer separate machines. Further to this, Ubuntu has an advantage over Mac OS X for an office/communication machine: you can always have updated software for free, and you don't risk to end up with an old OS version that doesn't allow you to access latest software, even if it is free software (I'm stuck on 10.3.9).
However, when I left my previous job on Dec. I promised to myself that I wouldn't have dealt with windows again for a long time, so as soon the the Kohji was in my hands, I removed Windows Vista from it, and started installing Ubuntu.
1. Removing Vista:
First problem is preparing a Vista backup: the Kohjinsha comes with no Recovery DVDs, and also lacks the 'one time only' utility seen on other machines shipping with a preinstalled Vista. There is an 'Emergency ISO' file somwhere on the disk. Burn it to CD, and when you reboot from emergency cd it can reinstall Vista. But wait a minute, how does Vista fit on 1 CD? In fact it doesn't: the CD relies on a hidden partition of the Kohji's disk, called WinRE. So, if you completely format the disk, you loose the recovery partition and won't be able to reinstall Vista in case you want to! I tried to backup the WinRE partition on a DVD (using Ubuntu of course, the partition is hidden to windows), but it appears some filenames would be damaged switching to a ISO/Joliet format, so I tarred the content of the partition, and burned the WinRE.tar.gz file to a DVD. WARNING: I am not sure if this works! I went on to my installation on the whole disk because I know that I won't be interested in using Vista again, so I did the backup 'just in case' but will never use it. If you think you might need Vista you can either check if my method works (recreating a 4.4 GB ntfs partition and filling that with the files from the uncompressed archive and then booting from the emergency cd) or keep the original partition leaving that untouched using the 'manual'disk setup, which is probably the best solution, but is not suitable to guys like me, who would be obsessed by the presence of that useless partition like from a stain on the wall behind the wardrobe. (Actually, I currently have one behind the TV - almost can't sleep for that). Anyway, when you've choosen what you want to do with Vista, you can proceed to step 2.
2. Installing Ubuntu:
Just put the Desktop CD in and proceed with the installation normally. What will work out of the box:
-Bluetooth
-USB
-Ethernet
-Trackpad
-Card readers (both CF and SD)
- Buttons on the front including the pointer, the directional arrows, the scroll buttons, left and right buttons, enter. (excluding shutter, rotation, launcher)
- Screen resolution, xorg drivers (intel drivers are integrated in xfree86 from my understanding)
- Graphic acceleration (including 3D)
What will NOT work out of the box (or will need tweaking):
-WiFi
-Touchscreen
- Webcam (actually I'm not sure about it, check below)
- Keyboard (Kohjis come with Japanes/Engrish keyboard, you will have to remap it for your language and buy some nice stickers - white model comes optionally with English keyboard, but I already have the iBook in white)
Please note that with the WiFi not working from live/desktop cd, you will have to plug an ethernet cable to have all of the downloaded packages and updates installed on first run. I strongly recomend that.
3. Getting your WiFi to work properly
In this particular case I advocate the use of ndiswrapper with windows drivers. The RT73USB driver is difficult to use, clumsy and installation is even worse, while the wrapped WinXp driver works beautifully. Think about it: you shouldn't waste your time with something that at the moment doesn't work when there is a nice working solution. I spent time on it, many other Kohji users did, there's no reason why you should. Moreover, you own a licence of Windows Vista, and a licence of all the windows drivers for your Kohji: I think that this solves the legal aspects of the situation as well. So when you're ok with your conscience (and with the knowledge that such a small device is kinda useless tied to a big cable, you probably have a desktop for that) follow these steps:
Downloade the drivers from the kohjinsha site and unzip.
Open a terminal and type (or copy from this page and paste in terminal, remembering that pasting in terminal isn't ctrl+v but shift+crtl+v)
sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper ndiswrapper-utils
to install ndiswrapper
now go (by terminal, not by nautilus) in the directory where the drivers are.
cd [yourdownloaddirectory]/Wireless\ LAN/Qcom/
Of course where i wrote [yourdownloaddirectory] you should put the path of your download directory from where you are now. And in case you're a complete beginner, the \ before the space is a kind of "ignore special character" command to allow the terminal to enter a directory with spaces in the name (it works with * and any other char as well)
now:
sudo ndiswrapper -i rt73.inf
warning: the rt73.cat and rt73.sys files must be in the directory as well, do not remove them.
and
sudo ndiswrapper -l
to make sure that it is installed
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
Now you're done (i.e. it should work). However you want the module to load at startup, right?
sudo modprobe -m
Now reboot to check if everything work ok. You should see the WiFi in the network applet bar. Just select your own wireless LAN from the menu, and type your password when asked.
It didn' take much effort, did it?
4. Making the touchscreen respond correctly
First you should know that you have a Penmount 6000 USB. You'll note that many things inside your Kohji are USB. Try a lsusb in terminal if you're curious. Now go to the penmount site, they have drivers for linux, and even ubuntu specific! Remember remember Penmount6000 USB do not download the wrong drivers!
Please note: I used ubuntu 7.04 drivers on ubuntu 7.10. The 7.10 drivers were not available a few days (weeks?) ago when I installed. So the problems and solutions below refer to the drivers for 7.04 applied to 7.10. You might not experience these problems with 7.10 drivers. Good for you, and please report in comments.
In folder resulting once you untarred the tar follow the instructions in the READ ME to install the drivers. You might have a first problem with permissions. Select the pmlinux-ubuntu folder, right click for properties, and (in the permissions tab) set the permissions a way that everyone can access, read, and write the files. Mark 'allow executable' or whatever it is called, and press the 'apply permissions to files inside the folder'. If you're unable, open a terminal, type 'sudo nautilus' and repeat the procedure, but this time with super user powers.
If you're not a beginner and want to do that fully by terminal, I don't need to explain what the chmod and sudo chmod commands are for.
Now, there are a pair of tweaks to do before you get your Touchscreen to work.
navigate throught the terminal to etc/X11/ (cd ../../etc/X11)and type
sudo gedit xorg.conf
else, you can type sudo nautilus again and go there by nautilus, just doubleclicking xorg.conf to open
WARNING: in case nobody told you yet, anytime you do something to xorg.conf, you'd better have a backup in case something goes wrong (you'll be unable to restart gnome again). However ubuntu 7.10 does a copy by himself, you can always restore from that copy.
Anyway. When you have the xorg.conf file opened in gedit (see, it's just a text document, nothing scary), remove all of the WACOM paragraph stuff. I'm not sure that this step is necessery, but I strongly doubt you will want to use a wacom tablet on a computer that is a tablet itself, so I don't see any damage in that. In case you want them so bad, you can recover the Wacom paragraphs later on the net, or on another computer, or running ubuntu from cd. I've been told that this wacom configurations make your Penmount mad. And now the important part.
Explanation: the driver installer set xorg to see your touchscreen as 'dev/input/event0'. Now, it is never event0. On some startup event2 on some other event4.
What you should do: you're always in xorg.conf opened in text editor with super user powers, right?
Look for the
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "PenMount"
go to the row
Option "Device" "/dev/input/event0"
and change it to
Option "Device" "dev/input/by-id/usb-DIALOGUE_INC_Penmount_USB-event-joystick"
Save and close xorg.conf. Restart X (simply hit ctrl+alt+backspace).
Now your tablet should work, but uncalibrated, so check it but don't mess around too much cause you can move all your icons and menus.
In case it doesn't work, check if you notice any other difference between your xorg.conf and mine (pasted below).
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "PenMount"
Driver "penmount"
Option "Protocol" "PM6000USB"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-DIALOGUE_INC_PenMount_USB-event-joystick"
Option "PMode" "1"
Option "MinX" "10"
Option "MaxX" "1000"
Option "MinY" "10"
Option "MaxY" "1000"
Option "ADBit" "12"
Option "Baudrate" "19200"
Option "Beep" "0"
# 0 = no beep, 1 = beep enabled
Option "PressVol" "100" # volume
of beep (press event)
Option "PressPitch" "880" # pitch of beep
(press event)
Option "PressDur" "15" # length
of beep in 10ms (press event)
Option "ReleaseVol" "0" # volume
of beep (release event)
Option "ReleasePitch" "1200" # pitch of
beep (release event)
Option "ReleaseDur" "10" # len of beep in
10ms (release event)
Option "RightButton" "0" # right button
active in ms
Option "RightButtonStart" "800" # right
button active in ms
Option "RightButtonEnd" "1200" # right
button inactive in ms EndSection
Now disable visual effects COMPLETELY, and run the adv-calib utility as sudo (the utility is in the penmount drivers folder), select how may points you want to hit. The more, the better. If the calibration utility freezes, check again that you have disabled the visual effects (compiz) and you're running as sudo. Note that the next red point doesn't show until you removed the stylus from the previous one and this might take sometimes, so don't assume the utility froze if not sure.
Restart X again and you have a working and calibrated touchscreen!!!
You can now re-enable Visual Effects, even at full capabilities.
5. See your face on the screen with the webcam
I'll tell you what I did. But probably it will be easier for you. Please report your results in comments, so I can edit and correct this guide.
I tested the cam with camorama, and it didn't work. I assumed that it were not working at all, so followed the procedure to compile gspca for unsupported webcams. This (time consuming) step is probably completely useless. I noticed that the device dev/video0 existed and the 'camera monitor' applet told me the status.
Uhm. Probably the webcam works out of the box, and it is just Camorama that doesn't work, so do not test the cam with Camorama because it is unreliable.
Please, try to install aMSN and/or Cheese to test. They are in the repositories but anyway you can get up to date aMSN on getdeb.net. If it works with no further install,I'd appreciate if you tell me. Also because in case it doesn't I'll post the procedure for installation of gspca source and recompiling.
6. Make it even better.
My suggestions. Install a set of BIG icons. They will be easier to hit with your finger on the screen. I'm not fond of hand writing systems, so I installed OnBoard, a nice screen keyboard. Well you can't really type a novel on that thing, but it is good enough for passwords, urls, brief emails and notes. Remap the keyboard. Some keys have to be manually remapped. For exampe ALT Gr. Install OpenArena (the latest fron getdeb and TORCS) the Kohji can rival a playstation portable, and even if you don't play much (I don't) you can use it to impress your friends. If only the arrows and the joystick were not on the same side of the screen it would be perfect for games.
Pair it with a bluetooth headset and make the Kohji your Voip Phone (use this guide and remember you don't need to use Skype, there are a lot of nice SIP softphones out there like Ekiga, Linphone, or the Gizmo Project). Hold the two mouse buttons on the side of the screen to emulate 3rd button. It means you can rotate the cube while in tablet mode. Put your own suggestions in comments.
7. What I'm still trying to do
Find a full screen/big icons interface 'ala iPhone' to launch applications in tablet mode. Use the kohji as a gps navigator. Make it work with MY bluetooth headset (which makes horrible noises so far). Configure gestures that would be really nice on a touchscreen; I'm trying with gestikk, but I'm still at the beginning. Configure compiz-water-point on every doubleclick. Enlarge the active corner area of the Scale plugin of compiz fusion (I cannot reach the current active part with my finger). Configure some compiz effect everytime a gesture is recognised.