Leather case for the mini from PDair

There are a ton of videos on youtube for the HP mini-note 2133! I just came across this one of a professional looking leather case from PDair. Really nice looking fit for access to all the controls and ports. Although I wonder if the small line of holes on the bottom does anything for cooling or is just for looks. The already hot running mini might run a bit hotter. The fan exhaust does come out the side so it may not matter...

Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C4pqf3XznE&feature=related

This is totally my style and I'd definitely look into getting it if I didn't already have the Case Logic neoprene case.

HP 2133 fits in a Case Logic neoprene case

Was at Walmart the other day and saw this DVD case on the clearance rack for $10. Thought it would be good to protect the mini from scratches in the new messenger bag. The mini fit in the case perfectly!



http://www.caselogic.com

The one I got is black with gray trim. Highly recommend getting this to protect the laptop from getting scratched up during transport.

Messenger bag to hold the HP mini-note 2133 and accessories

Saw a laptop accessory messenger bag on geeks.com for $30. Looked like a good size for the mini, external optical drive when I get one and anything else I want to bring along.

Worked out perfect and it has metal clasps! (NEVER get plastic clasps! They break quick!)



http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=B-XBR-LAP-K2

Tips -N- Tricks: The laptop cooler is GREAT as a lap pad and keeps the very hot running HP mini a lot cooler...

Quick: ubuntu linux IP renew

Release and renew IP in Ubuntu but should work in most flavors of linux:

Release current IP
$ sudo dhclient -r

Get new IP
$ sudo dhclient

Better way to mount network share in Ubuntu

A while ago I posted about mounting my Maxtor NAS as a local drive in Kubuntu using smbfs. This did not work for pas\sword protected shares. Hello cifs! So linux guru at work sent me a sample cifs command and I searched and tweaked and ended up with all this.

1. Used this for the unprotected share. Gave an error if no "username=" and "password=" so if there's a better way than using blank username/password please leave me a comment because I didn't find it with a quick search. (watch the line wrap if you copy/paste this, each > should be one line)

> sudo mkdir /mnt/nas
> sudo mount -t cifs //[share name or IP]/[share directory] /mnt/nas -o username=,password=,iocharset=utf8,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777

- Same command to access protected share, just add username and password values.

2. Now we alias this in .bashrc so a single command will mount the network share. I was browsing through the file and noticed a recommendation to use .bashrc_aliases. Cool, something new, I'm game.

> vi .bashrc_aliases
Insert

alias mountnas='sudo mount -t cifs //[share name or IP]/[share directory] /mnt/nas -o username=,password=,iocharset=utf8,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777'

3. Next uncomment call in .bashrc for .bashrc_aliases.
if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
. ~/.bash_aliases
fi

4. Run this to re-initialize .bashrc without restarting terminal
> . .bashrc

So now I can get my music down to the mini. Soon to come, Amarok configuration...

Automatically Mount local partition at boot in Ubuntu

You could double-click the drive icon in the GUI and Ubuntu would mount and open a drive window but I needed to automatically mount a data partition so media players can access the drive.

Make the destination with
> sudo mkdir /media/data

Copy fstab before editing
> sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak

Edit fstab adding the new mount point (using vfat for fat32)
/dev/sda3 /media/data vfat defaults 0 0
(SEE BELOW FOR PERMISSIONS NOTE)

Run command to refresh fstab
> sudo mount -a

To see mounted partition
> df -k

Ubuntu puts a drive icon on the desktop for the drive...

PERMISSIONS NOTE (Added 2008-06-22):
Previously clicking icon in "Computer" mounted drive with full permissions. I finally got around to copying data over with the fstab mount and realized drive was RO! Came up with the following solution for fstab entry:

/dev/sda3 /media/data vfat user,rw,exec,umask=000 0 0

Firefox Backspace not going Back in linux

Something that has been bothering me since I put Kubuntu on the Inspiron has been the backspace not going Back in Firefox. Mind you, not bothering me enough to lookup until now with the semi-permanent Ubuntu install and all. :>

Second hit on Google was http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/. Follow the link to find out why the Backspace wasn't working as we thought it should.

Below is the fix with a few extra details I added:

1. Type about:config in the address bar then hit Enter.
2. Type "browser.backspace_action" in the Filter box (matches will automatically filter)
3. Double-click the line to open the edit dialog box
4. Change the value to 0 then click OK
5. Close the tab and you're done.

NOTE:
The change is immediate. I did NOT have to restart Firefox to use the Backspace.
Also something I saw in the comment thread that I didn't know was that the Alt+left-arrow goes Back. Alt+right-arow goes forward...

HP 2133 mini-note blue wifi light in Ubuntu

I just got home from work and booted the mini into Ubuntu and left it on the kitchen table. Later I was outside on the deck and what should I see through the window but the blue wifi indicator that isn't supposed to work with the standard Suse install... Guess it likes Ubuntu. Saweet!!

OS choices?

OK, the replacement laptop has Windows Vista already installed so the question is whether to wipe or dual boot. I decided to dual boot mostly so I could play with Vista Gadgets and also to still be able to help others with Windows.

Now lets get to the good stuff. Downloaded gparted-0.3.7 from sourceforge and ran from an external CD/DVD drive I borrowed from my bro (thanx man!). Keep an eye on the screen when the mini is booting and press F9 to get the boot options menu. Select the external drive and hit .

The details of gparted depend on what your goal is for partitioning your drive. I ended up with about a 45GB NTFS partition for Vista of which over 20GB is OS, sheesh 20+ really??? There is also a small HP_RESTORE partition that I left alone.

Then I created a 75GB FAT32 data drive where I'll keep everything like music, movies and general files for any OS to access.

At the recommendation of the linux guru at work, I made a 10GB ext3 root(/) partition for the linux OS and like about 5GB /home partition. He said this is separated out so you can recompile the OS without losing your /home settings and files. I will definitely be learning more about this as I dig deeper into learning the linux kernel.

Lastly, the general recommendation for swap space is to match your RAM so I made a 2GB /swap partition. The remaining unallocated drive space is for playing with other flavors of linux.

OK, slight bummer, HP SLED 10 DVD is full restore disk so it wanted to wipe the entire drive. You can download the iso from hp.com but wasn't impressed with Suse enough to go through all that. Alternative: Ubuntu!

Man there are some SMART people out there!! I followed the instructions on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/HP2133 exactly so I won't repeat anything here. End result following site instructions step-for-step was that all worked perfectly.

Summary: I have a dual boot Windows Vista and Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) mini laptop! Much better solution than all the UMPCs I've been looking at! :>

Oh and for fun I installed http://www.yawcam.com/ on Windows side and it worked without a hitch. Linux side coming soon.