wireless « kogan agora netbook

Archive for the ‘wireless’ Category

ubuntu 9.10 (karmic koala) beta on the kogan agora

Monday, October 5th, 2009

In a bid to resurrect my kogan agora pro netbook to a usable state, I decided to upgrade to the lastest version of ubuntu, karmic koala, which has just gone beta.

sudo update-manager -d

This will kick off the update manager, and provide you with a single button to upgrade to version 9.10. After 30 minutes or so, you should be rebooting into a new kernel, and the new ubuntu.

The usual suspects that needed attention in the past (read: the touchpad and wireless networking) were both still working, and had obviously remained configured from the previous version.

Whilst I say “working”, the wireless adapter is connecting to my home wireless access point however the signal is still low and not picking up neighbouring APs.

There has been some improvements though. The physical wifi button is no longer a “glorified light switch“, as it was so well put by Andrew. Pressing the button results in the card shutting off.

The second welcome surprise is the return of “resume from suspend”. After changing the wifi card recently myself and others discovered the netbook would not resume from suspend. This now appears to have resolved itself.

The netbook remix interface is looking much fresher, as you can see in the screenshots attached below.

The only qualm I have so far with karmic and the netbook remix itself is that I cannot seem to locate the shutdown icon in the menus or interface. This may be because I upgraded from 9.04, but as it is beta I will wait and see, and use the physical netbook power button to bring up the shutdown options.

Another note to add – GRUB2 and EXT4, whilst being the new defaults in ubuntu 9.10, are not automatically upgraded:

ext4 by default

The new “ext4″ filesystem is used by default for new installations with Ubuntu 9.10 Beta; of course, other filesystems are still available via the manual partitioner. Existing filesystems will not be upgraded.

GRUB 2 by default

GRUB 2 is the default boot loader for new installations with Ubuntu 9.10 Beta, replacing the previous GRUB “Legacy” boot loader. Existing systems will not be upgraded to GRUB 2 at this time, as automatically reinstalling the boot loader is an inherently risky operation.

A comment in a previous blog entry on this site asks how to configure the touchpad in GRUB2. I am yet to investigate this, however is anyone has any info, please post below.

References

http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/karmic/beta

Posted in agora, agora pro, drivers, netbook remix, software, touchpad, ubuntu, wireless | 6 Comments »

kogan slashes the price on the agora netbook (again)

Monday, October 5th, 2009

Kogan has again slashed the price of the agora netbook, this time down to $299.

It is only the low-end agora, so for $299 you get a 10″ netbook with 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard disk and a 3 cell battery.

There does however appear to be issues with the wireless network capabilities – you can read about this in other blog entries:

To purchase the kogan agora for $299, use the discount code NEWSLTR093 when you purchase online.

Posted in agora, wireless | No Comments »

kogan sent me a replacement wireless network mini card

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

After the problems I had connecting to wireless networks overseas with my kogan agora netbook, I emailed kogan support and explained the issues I had been facing.

A support representative emailed me back rather promptly (6 minutes later!) and acknowledged the under-performance of the VIA wifi card. They also offered to send me a replacement card, which is now being used in the agora netbooks.

I quickly took up the offer, and a week later, the new Ralink wifi card arrived in my mailbox (see the picture gallery below).

Change over of the card was very easy – power down, remove battery, remove single screw for the back panel and slide open the panel. Next I used small pliers to carefully lift off the two antenna connectors, and then after removing the single screw holding the card down I was able to pull it out. Installation of the new card was the reverse of the removal of the old.

(more…)

Posted in agora, agora pro, wireless | 23 Comments »

kogan agora wireless performance (VT6656 Via Arena adapter)

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

My kogan agora pro has just returned from six weeks abroad, where is was regularly put to the test booking flights, trains, accommodation and other general duties.

There are many great things to like about travelling with the agora netbook – it is light and easy to carry in a backpack, the battery life was good and only needed charging every few days, and on flights it makes a great video player to pass the time.

There is also a downside – the under-performance of the wireless network adapter. On many occasions at hotels and in pubs and restaurants I was unable to connect to the free wifi on offer. Some networks were visible in the network manager but I could not connect to them, whilst other networks would simply not appear in the available list. Very frustrating!

(more…)

Posted in agora, agora pro, wireless | 12 Comments »

mobile internet on your kogan agora netbook

Monday, May 18th, 2009

UPDATE: I have just tried the kogan agora netbook coupled with a borrowed 3 USB mobile broadband internet key, and the setup was exactly the same as described below.

The kogan agora netbook is designed to be taken anywhere – on the road, on the train, down to the local, etcetera. And being a netbook, its primary use is the internet – email, the web, instant messaging, etcetera.

So it’s safe to assume that people are going to want to use mobile internet devices with the agora – be it a 3G USB dongle or mobile phone – to connect to the internet. So safe to assume, that Matt has already asked how this can be achieved.

Thanks to the gnome NetworkManager applet, connecting to these devices is easy! First off, connect your USB dongle or mobile phone (by USB – my Nokia 6120 works fine, just select “PC Suite” when you connect the USB cable). Next, from the Preferences menu click Network Connections, and then select the Mobile Broadband tab.

(more…)

Posted in agora, agora pro, netbook remix, ubuntu, wireless | 2 Comments »

“You have to set ‘SHMConfig’ ‘true’…” – even though you have created shmconfig.fdi

Monday, May 11th, 2009

In previous blog entries (disabling the touchpad whilst typing and installing gsynaptics) I described how to enable SHMConfig in order to control the touchpad.

I had some feedback from at least two readers who could not enable SHMConfig, and when they tried to use gsynaptics or syndaemon, they were met with the error “You have to set ‘SHMConfig’ ‘true’ in xorg.conf or XF86Config“. The instructions provided in the post to enable SHMConfig using the /etc/hal/fdi/policy/shmconfig.fdi method did not appear to be working.

After a lot of troubleshooting work with Travis, we were able to determine why this was occuring, and how to resolve it.

(more…)

Posted in agora, agora pro, drivers, gOS, netbook remix, software, touchpad, ubuntu, wireless | 6 Comments »

restoring the kogan agora to factory default settings and gOS

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

I have just booted my agora using the kogan gOS iso, which can be found here: http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/s2eg5d.

I used unetbootin to create a bootable USB drive, and it booted to an Ubuntu/gOS boot menu fine. I didn’t want to overwrite my UNR install, so I chose to boot ‘live’ – i.e. run gOS from the USB drive, and not change my hard drive in any way.

The kogan spash screen appeared and eventually it booted to the ‘koganised’ gOS desktop, which only lasted a day the last time it was installed on my agora! What I didn’t have, semi-unexpectedly, was a functioning touchpad.

(more…)

Posted in agora, agora pro, drivers, gOS, software, touchpad, wireless | 3 Comments »