Patrick's Blog(2)

Here’s a quick way to get rid of that annoying beep sound when selecting a login name in the GDM greeter on Fedora 14:

As root type the following command:
sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 –type=bool –set /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds false

The new PR 1.2 firmware release for the N900 was just released and it’s time to upgrade. Then you bump into your first challenge: how to backup your SMS messages on the N900? Nokia’s PC Suite only backs up Contacts etc. but not your SMS messages. And Ovi Suite still does not support the N900 (what’s up with that Nokia?!).

So how do you backup your SMS messages (and Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Bookmarks and Settings)?

Here is how:

1) make sure your N900 has a full battery or is plugged into the charger

2) on your N900 start the Backup application

3) select “New Backup”, fill in a name like N900_Backup_<date> and press “Proceed”

4) in the next screen make your selection or leave all enabled and press “Select”. Make sure at least “Communication and Calendar” is selected as that one contains your Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes and SMS messages

5) wait for the Backup to finish after which you are returned to the main Backup screen where you see your shiny new backup

6) copy the backup (directory + contents) from your N900 to your PC

7) upgrade the N900 to PR 1.2

8) copy the backup (directory + contents) on your PC to your N900. The location on the N900 is /home/user/MyDocs/backups

9) start the Backup application. yuo should now see your backup listed

10) press “Restore”, select your backup and voila all your data should be restored

Disclaimer: no guarantees, this is how it worked for me. Your mileage may vary.

If you need to blow of a little steam then Enemy Territory is the perfect game. Here are some  tips to make the sound working on Fedora 13 x86_64.

Assumptions:

• Fedora 13 x86_64 is installed and updated with yum update
• et-linux-2.60.x86.run is installed
• the et-2.60b.zip patch is installed
• kmod-catalyst is installed from rpmfusion.org

There are two parts to make this work: Graphics and Sound

Graphics:

• get xorg-x11-drv-catalyst-libs.i686 rpm from rpmfusion.org (note the .i686 extension. It must be the same version as the x86_64 one you previously installed)

Sound:

You need to add a couple of lines to /etc/rc.local to make sure sound works properly:

/sbin/modprobe snd_seq_oss
/sbin/modprobe snd_mixer_oss
/sbin/modprobe snd_pcm_oss
echo "et.x86 0 0 direct" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss
echo "et.x86 0 0 disable" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0c/oss

Alternatively you could use et-sdl-sound.

Other solutions or improvement are most welcome in the comments.

If you want to enable the fingerprint reader in Fedora 11 then do this:

# yum install fprint* libfprint* gdm-plugin-fingerprint

You can find more information on the wiki.

If you get an avc denial from selinux when you initiate an openvpn link in NetworkManager then here is a solution:

# chcon -t cert_t /your/certificates/dir/*

Credits go to the most helpful folks in the #fedora-selinux irc channel on freenode.