When a Rabbit is not a Rabbit!

With all the excitement of new products coming out of CES 2024, I too was fascinated by Rabbit R1.

So I searched for the product on a local on-line electronics distributor and was surprised to find this:

Guess the marketing team of the Rabbit R1 should have done some homework to see what the "competition" may be. Or, perhaps they did and it is just where they wanted it. Just saying...

Upgrading Ubuntu 16.04 to 18.04 - tip for those with AMDGPU-Pro drivers

I’ve been resisting upgrading my Ubuntu 16.04 LTS installation. One of the major reasons is my non-standard choice of graphics cards which has always proved problematic to support under Linux.

Rather than follow the crowd, I was persuaded (largely by the price) to get an AMD Radeon RX 460 card some 2 years ago. Installation under Ubuntu was less than obvious. The OS itself didn’t have drivers included for the card. Moreover, the AMD drivers were a bit of a “non-standard install” when compared with others, as (at the time) they were not delivered through the standard Ubuntu package manager. So after done days of searching the web for solutions and fiddling with my rig, I was finally able to get a stable graphics setup operational. Something I was not inclined to upset anytime soon.

So here I was using Ubuntu 16.04 - some 7 months after the release of the next long-term release - when I started to receive “suggestions” that it was time to upgrade to the next version. I’ve been using Ubuntu since 10.04 and have learned that there is no need to upgrade to the latest version right away. Not only is the upgrade process longer (hoards of computers upgrading at or around the time of the release), but also because there are “issues” associated with being an early adopter that are ironed out over time. But with my installation proposing to upgrade I decided to take the leap. Steps included:

1. Backed up the “home” folder.
2. Take snapshot of the packages that were installed.
3. Hit “Upgrade”. 

The upgrade proceeded without errors and after about 45 minutes the machine was ready to restart. Now the challenge started - though the Ubuntu splash screen was displayed, the GUI logon was not. CTRL-ALT 1, 2, 3 gave me command line access; however, the GUI screens were blank. Started scouring the web for “command line only after upgrade” and found several suggestions to “reinstall lightdm” or “ensure that lightdm is the selected interface for X” or “reinstall ubuntu-desktop”. All these failed. Though at one point in time I started receiving the GUI login only to have it “plant” and lock up the machine when credentials were entered.

Having gotten pretty “weak” on my command line skills, I needed some command line tools that would support the work I needed to perform. Enter “vim” editor. This enabled me to look into the log files where I noted broken links associated with the AMDGPU packages. So I downloaded the most recent AMD propriety drivers. Now this is no small feat with no GUI. I tried “wget” but it didn’t work. Next I resorted to Lynx. Happily this command line and text-oriented web browser did the trick and I was able to download the latest drivers from AMD. After unpacking and launching the installation script I thought I had my problems solved. That is, until I got an error message about problems with packages. A little more web perusing led me to a very useful script that removes all AMDGPU and AMDGPU-PRO packages (please see this site and bid thanks to “Fermulator” for posting this solution!). I repeat the command line code below:

for amdgpupkg in $(dpkg --list | grep amdgpu-pro | awk '{print $2}'); do echo $amdgpupkg; sudo dpkg --purge --force-all $amdgpupkg; done

for amdgpupkg in $(dpkg --list | grep amdgpu | awk '{print $2}'); do echo $amdgpupkg; sudo dpkg --purge --force-all $amdgpupkg; done

After executing this code and rebooting the machine, the installation was a little “unstable”; however, I was able to “apt update”, “apt upgrade” - essentially reinstalling the AMDGPU drivers that come with 18.04. Once this was complete, system rebooted and, much to my satisfaction, the GUI logon screen was displayed. 

Keycool KC-SP64 Bluetooth mechanical keyboard

So recently I've rediscovered the pleasure of typing on a real mechanical keyboard. This pleasure extends to my iPads where despite the extremely small form factor, and the ultimate portability of the Apple Smart Keyboard, I've struggled to use this for lengthy composition - especially when I'm at my desk. Enter the new generation of mechanical and bluetooth enabled keyboards.

I received my Keycool KC-SP64 today. It's a 60% ++ keyboard - meaning that it's a small form-factor keyboard without dedicated function keys, dedicated numeric, dedicated navigation keys but importantly it does include arrow keys to facilitate editing, spreadsheeting, etc. without having to resort to composite keystrokes.

I won't go into all the "virtues" or details - it's too new and many of the headline specifications can be found elsewhere on-line. One of the challenges of adopting this bleeding edge, small production manufacturing is that though the technology behind these devices is pretty solid, the documentation is not. The keyboard arrived without a user manual, so things like pairing the keyboard, identifying the composite keystrokes for Page Up and other editing key sequences is not at all evident. Nor is it clear how to modify the RGB lighting functions of the device let alone start to envisage programming the keyboard for more sophisticated functions. This information cannot come soon enough.

In the meantime, I've done some preliminary explorations and have discovered many of the basic functions, which I list below.

A couple of notes. The pairing is a bit tricky at first. It took several attempts to get the keyboard paired with my iPad. Pressing and holding the "Fn + q" combination to get the backlight to register that it was in pairing mode (Q backlights) and then successfully enter the 6 digit pairing code and get the device to connect. After several failed attempts it worked. Happily, the reconnect after once initial pairing is pretty effortless. Of course, there are plenty of functionalities that I still do not understood or have not yet discovered. Needless to say that I'd appreciate any feedback, additional or  complementary information.

Control functions:
                Control (left) + Esc + Backspace + Right arrow (held simultaneously 5s) = System reset

                Fn + Control = swap control with Caps Lock

                Fn + Win = disable Win key

Bluetooth functions:

                Fn + Q (3 s) = start pairing, Press and hold for 3s until backlight highlights

                Fn + Q = reconnect
                "Q" can be replaced with "W" or "E" to facilitate pairing with up to three different devices
                Fn + R = Enable/disable Bluetooth (even during USB connection)

Function keys:

                Fn + 1 = F1

                Fn + 2 = F2

                Fn + 3 = F3

                Fn + 4 = F4

                Fn + 5 = F5

                Fn + 6 = F6

                Fn + 7 = F7

                Fn + 8 = F8

                Fn + 9 = F9

                Fn + 0 = F10

                Fn + - = F11

                Fn + = = F12

IPad functionality: (function keys when paired with iDevice)

                Fn + 1 = Dim screen

                Fn + 2 = Brighten screen

                Fn + 7 = media - previous track

                Fn + 8 = media - pause/play

                Fn + 9 = media - next track

                Fn + 0 = media toggle mute

                Fn + - = media volume down

                Fn + = = media volume up

Keyboard lighting functions:

   Fn + up arrow = LED brighter

   Fn + down arrow = LED dimmer

   Fn + Enter = Switch between static light patterns (white, off, red, green, blue, yellow, purple, cyan)
   Fn + Del = Switch to pre-programmed dynamic lighting patterns (snake, ...)
   Fn + Esc = Exit dynamic display mode

   Fn + space bar = Pause/enable pre-programmed display pattern

   Fn + left arrow = speed up keyboard animation

   Fn + right arrow = slow down keyboard animation

Keyboard lighting configuration:

   Fn + \ = Switch the between the 3 configurable keyboard lighting layouts
   Fn + ` = Program user-defined scheme #2 (defaults to WASD)
   Fn + Backspace = Program user-defined scheme #3

Baseplate lighting functions:
   Fn + a = Switch baseplate lighting (off, red, green, blue, yellow, purple, cyan, white)
   Fn + s = Switch between "breathe" mode (switching colors each "breath") or
                 "breath and rotate" sequence.

Numeric keypad:

   Fn + n = 0

   Fn + m = 1

   Fn + , = 2

   Fn + . = 3

   Fn + j = 4

   Fn + k = 5

   Fn + l = 6

   Fn + u = 7

   Fn + i = 8

   Fn + o = 9

Other keys:
   Fn + [ = Home
   Fn + ] = End

Additional observations:

1) The B key "breaths" green during charging via USB.

2) The keyboard has one ad hoc lighting configuration and two user-configurable patterns. With the ad hoc scheme, use function keys (Fn + Enter, Fn + Del) to select from the available static or dynamic lighting patterns. Pressing Fn + \ cycles you through the three configurations. The default 2nd scheme is WASD (green backlight with the WASD keys highlighted in red). These are reset when you perform the factory reset.

3) Programming the two user-configurable patterns is accomplished by pressing (and holding for 3 seconds) the Fn + ` (for scheme 2) and Fn + Backspace (for scheme 3). Once the respective key starts flashing, you can programme colors by repeatedly pressing individual keys. Exit configuration mode by momentarily pressing Fn + the respective key to start the configuration.

Thanks to othiym23 at KeebTalk.com for discovering more functionality of this keyboard in advance of English reference manuals. Additional information can be found this site (in Mandarin).

Conky desktop widgits Ubuntu 15.10 - make it stick!

Ubuntu 15.10 seems to have, by default, conky's dfor the desktop displayed as "normal" windows. "Desktop" setting results in unpleasant behavious of the widgit disappearing when you click on the desktop. Solution how to get this to work in  conky.rc fragment below:
---
.
.
.
# Window specifications #
gap_x 100
gap_y 70
minimum_size 268 620
maximum_width 268
own_window yes
own_window_class conky
own_window_type override  # other options are: override/dock/desktop/panel
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorate,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager,below
border_inner_margin 0
border_outer_margin 0
alignment top_right
#own_window_argb_visual yes
#own_window_argb_value 0
.
.
.

Power of the Web... Musings on the shift from "print" to "web"

I'm reminded from time to time about the power of the web. I know that we've been all warned about the quality of the information on the web and that it is no substitute for a good encyclopaedia (for instance). Fair enough - I have seen many an instance where this absolutely true.

However, I was reminded that this is not a "universal" and that there are some domains where indeed the information on the Web is more correct that that found in traditional print media. I'll explain...

I purchased my PC a little over 3 years ago in Nehru Place in New Delhi. The "box" has been extremely reliable and apart from a failed graphics card (looks like the fan got gummed up with dirt and dust) and the inevitable need to change CD drives on an annual basis (again due to dust issues), there have been zero problems. Indeed the thing is too reliable... I would have anticipated that any box built in the cramped, humid cubicles of Nehru Place would have been ready for replacement after 3 years. But armed with 2 GB RAM and 320 GB disk space, I've been able to use it as a principle workstation, host for Windows XP VM, internet browsing station for the family, etc.

The only problem, is that now with multiple users (and multiple logins) and the VM-thing going on, I do seem to be "hitting the wall" with respect to RAM and the machine is starting to crawl at times. I looked in the manufacturer's documentation (printed and on-line) and verified that the maximum memory for the motherboard is 2GB. So much for getting more life out of the MB... So I started browsing the specs for new motherboards and trying to figure out how I would plan the migration to a new MB (hence new installation). That is until I decided on a hunch to search the internet discussion groups for any information on "expanding RAM" for my MB.

Low and behold what I found was a pretty copious amount of "postings" suggesting that despite both the printed and on-line documentation from the manufacturer of the motherboard, the board can indeed support not the 2 GB "officially" stated, but a full 4 GB. I investigated further and could not help but notice the "concerns" of populating a 32 bit operating system (I use Ubuntu 10.10) with 4 GB; essentially much "common belief" that one will only get some 3 GB of active RAM. But I thought I would give it a chance - as RAM is presently "cheap" (I paid $50 for the 4GB).

You can imagine my delight when after taking the box apart, removing the existing 2GB DIMMs and replacing them with the 4 GB DIMMs, putting the thing back together and plugging it in, I got the boot-up screen where the POST messages flashing past indicated that the hardware recognised all 4 GB of RAM! I verified this further by restarting and going into the BIOS. Next, booted into Ubuntu there too verified that there was 4 GB of RAM, though usable was only a little over 2 GB.

I had been lead to believe the 32 bit operating systems cannot use effectively more than 2 GB and that if you increase the amount of RAM, it will only be a waste unless you switch to a 64 bit operating system. Well, that is just bunk... Ubuntu has a "pae" version that when installed and restarted alows the 32 bit operating system to make use of the additional memory. Upgrading the OS was a breeze as there was plenty of "advice" from discussion groups as to how to do this with either 1-2 command lines or with a handful of clicks through the GUI interface. In the end, the OS upgrade took no more than 5 minutes and afterward I was rewarded with the system indicating that there was 3.9GB of memory available - hot dog!

So the point of this is that, yes, there may be lots of "bogus" information out there. But the scales seem to be tipping from former paradigm of the "veracity of print" - "low quality of the web" to a different game where, as Sy Sims used to say "an educated consumer is our best customer". Discussion forums and community of trust are creating spaces and opportunities where information can be discovered, and it's relative "truth" tested. If my experience is relevant, this will not be the last word on a new model for information "cultivation" in the democratic "web".