Ubuntu / Xubuntu for the O2 Joggler.

[coelhonet]

Thanks a lot for all directions!

I'll try first running from USB and see if I can make a correct mix and match for what I'm looking for. If I can make it work, I'll try to shrink it to fit inside 2GB internal MMC. If I can't, maybe I'll use an USB hub.

Thanks!

[pete]

Yup; here many Jogglers have been configured with another USB port inside to booting an OS via a USB to ZIF Pata drive. It worked well for a while until the little mini USB ports started to fall off of the the tiny USB to PATA ZIF cards. They fit nicely inside of the Joggler. Relating to using a hub it works fine except if the hub is being utilized with a boot drive (that is from my personal experiences).

My test linux stuff today is booting via a USB boot and or ZIF PATA drive inside and I keep a USB hub plugged in outside for a keyboard,mouse and USB stick (for copying or data file stuff). The 1-2 Gb MMC will work fine maybe too if you utilize a USB stick as a scratch drive (for all RW stuff). I am doing this sort of with another device today. (my irrigation system running in Linux).

[BuZz]

Updates to Ubuntu Base / Xubuntu images (01/1/2014)

* Package rollups for 12.04 images (includes XBMC 13.2).
* Kernel 3.2.63.

[pete]

Thank-you Buzz!

[hawsey]

Cheers

[Andrew1971]

Cheer's BuZz

[ilovemyjoggler]

Can someone please tell me how to connect via wifi using wifi manager built into the image. Have been trying for days. Looked through a gazillion help pages. It can 'see' my wifi but can't connect. Have tried editing settings not really knowing what to edit/add but that turns out to be irrelevant as it won't save any changes anyway. Surely it can't be that hard to connect wirelessly. Please help!

[Juggler]

This may be of limited help as I don't really use WiFi on my joggler's and I cannot recall using network manager to do network connections... Anyway, these two links may be helpful :

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiD ... otingGuide
http://askubuntu.com/questions/461825/c ... mmand-line

I've used command line tools that are in the package wireless-tools - a good one to have installed, if it isn't all ready. And the sort of things I did were covered in the following link, which is now being stated as out-of-date :

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/WiFiHowTo

Hope you will let us know how you get a long, what problems you have/had and your solutions. If I see your posts, I'll help if I can...

HTH

[ilovemyjoggler]

Thank you for your reply. I've read through and followed the instructions but still no luck. I can't believe it's this difficult. I'll expand on this post after i've slept on it and tried again.

[pete]

Just a couple of days ago here I was playing a bit with the stock USB wireless network card in the basement play work shop.

I use mostly wireless for laptops, tablets and phones in the house.

I did notice a very low signal while playing. I removed the USB stick with the two little stickem antennas and installed it into a USB hub.

Signals improved but not by much. Last year purchased a couple of small 802.11X antennas with the same little coaxial connector and tried one while testing.

It did improve the wireless signal. Here just a couple of suggestions if you want to play a bit with the hardware.

A

1 - If you are using a USB stick to boot the Joggler into Ubuntu / Xubuntu; remove the wireless stick that is inside of the Joggler along with the two wireless tiny stickem antennas. They come right off.
2 - purchase a new wireless stick with a built in antenna and use that instead.


or

B
1 - purchase an external 802.11X antenna

2 - you can connect this antenna to the back of the Joggler and pass a tiny coaxial cable to the USB stick inside of the Joggler. Note that this does involve drilling a hole in the back of the Joggler to accomodate the antenna.

or
C
1 - Purchase a Buffalo WRT-HP-G54 or a Linksys WRT-54G Access Point and install DD-WRT on it.
2 - With DD-WRT OS on the above two routers / AP's you can crank the wireless power from stock to 100Mw. It will have no issues reaching your Jogglers. This is probably the easiest and would provide you with best coverage. (or replacing the antenna on the current AP you are using would also work).

You can keep your current combination router / firewall / AP and just connect the above to a network port and utilize only the AP pieces and shut off current AP.





Here currently utilizing BuZz's Ubuntu image running on a 16Gb SSD card or a 8 Gb SSD USB stick. That said stock built in XBMC / Squeezeplayer works great. I am now playing a bit with Linux Wine and Microsoft SAPI voices on the build and do have it working but I am throwing the kitchen sink into the build and in dot net hell; which is a PITA.

I also installed Microsoft Skype on two Joggler Ubuntu builds and attached a little Logitech combination webcam / microphone with works well with the Joggler. Ideally going to just a two connect O2 Joggler set up a private interconnect. I have tested with VLC and it works fine such that I could just run a preconfiguration of two Jogglers for this set up. Here going into the direction of private family interconnected Jogglers (repurposing Jogglers).

D

You can increase the wireless power on the current O2 USB stick. Note that the WLAN USB stick already gets a bit warm. This may toast it. (that said I'll send another one if you toast / melt it).

SSH or in a terminal type:

sudo iw reg set BO
sudo iwconfig wlan0 txpower 20

Increase this number (20 to 22 to 24 to 26 et al) in very small increments. Some devices may not work with this command. I will test it today to see what happens.

[tmohammad]

I dont know if this will help... BUT

I used to be with O2 Broadband before they were taken over by SKY.

If I install my SKY router, I cannot connect to the WIFI, however the old O2 Router is fine. I have tried all sorts too as I believe the Sky Router is better.

I have never found a solution and always have to resort to using the Old O2 Router. Like you say, I see the SSID but cannot connect to it.

Maybe its a compatibility problem between my joggler and the new SKY router. Maybe thats the same problem you have.

[ilovemyjoggler]

Oohh. I'm also ex o2 now sky....

So you never managed to get it work via wifi on the sky router? That's not good!! Is it a problem you had with any other operating system? I can and have successfully connected all my jogglers running various operating systems via wifi to my sky fibre router - just not this one. I may have to scrap the ubuntu idea.

[BuZz]

have you tried with the joggler close to the router ? Wonder if it's a poor signal issue. What happens when you choose your wifi essid from network-manager ? does it pop up a request for a password ?

[ilovemyjoggler]

I've tried with it sitting right next to the router. It doesn't accept the password. No error message, just a loop of asking me for the password.

[BuZz]

after trying to connect you could check if there is any infomation logged

Code: Select all

dmesg >/home/joggler/dmesg.txt

to get the output from dmesg and

Code: Select all

sudo cp /var/log/syslog /home/joggler/syslog.txt

then you can copy them to another machine with scp / via a network share etc and paste to pastebin.com

sometimes the passwords prompt shows again due to authentication error so double check you are entering the password correctly. you could try adjusting your wifi settings on the router also. Nothing has changed that should have broken this, but without any further debug information it is going to be hard to solve.

you could also try editing "/etc/modprobe.d/joggler.conf" and swapping round the wifi drivers.

Code: Select all

# rt2800usb is the kernel wireless driver. was problematic on older
# kernels but may be better on newer than the vendor driver.
# rt2870sta is the vendor driver packaged on the joggler ppa
# if one driver is problematic, consider switching
blacklist rt2800usb
# blacklist rt2870sta

comment out blacklist rt2800usb (adding a #), and uncomment blacklist rt2870sta (removing the hash)

[BuZz]

Of course, you will need to plug the juggler in via Ethernet to get the files off it.

[ilovemyjoggler]

Thank you so much for the tips. I have, for the time being, picked my battles and abandoned this but should I decide to tackle it again I'll try these suggestions.

[pete]

Don't give up.

Let us know how you proceed; you are after all part of the family here and have been here now for quite a while.

[pete]

@BuZz,

Been updating all of the 32/64 bit Ubuntu server / desktop boxes to Ubuntu 14.10.

This morning updated your current Joggler Ubuntu build to 14.10 with no issues. Been playing much lately with Wine stuff on them along with text to speech stuff (SAPI).

Base build is on the 16Gb SSD such that the Jogglers do fine running Ubuntu Desktop with XBMC, Squeezeplayer, automation stuff, touchscreen application, et al. Also installed USB cams on a few of them these days.

Main wireless AP today is an Ubiquiti AP in attic. Just started to purchase new AC Gb wireless stuff and will probably use a separate AP running AC Gb to play some more with it.

Base MythTV box (with 6 tuners - multiple HD Homerun, Nexus internal plus analog for inhouse TV stuff) is also running Squeezebox server and just added Plex on it. It is doing well so far - pushing it a bit though.

Concurrently have also switched mobile phone over to Windows Mobile 8.1 (testing). I haven't used MS mobile since 6.0 days. Purchased a couple of Win 8.1 phones. One is that new Nokia (MS) - kind of too big though.

[tmohammad]

Buzz said "....try editing "/etc/modprobe.d/joggler.conf" and swapping round the wifi drivers."

And I modified the file and it now works!

Thanks Buzz.. you are a genius.