The SLE 11 Community Preview in Singapore

The SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 community preview in Singapore was held last Wednesday evening (22nd April, 7pm). Well... we really got started at 7:30pm as we were chatting away and waiting for some of the regulars to arrive. Darrel and Mike did a fantastic job organizing and getting the word out. Thank you!

I'm looking forward to visiting the next community SUSE meetup in May and also supporting Darrel in Singapore's Software Freedom Day in September.

We had slightly over 35 people turn up and spent slightly over an hour (initially planned 45minutes) on my presentation and demo. I was delighted at the questions and discussions, a real lively session. This was followed by some light snacks sponsored by Novell.

Update:
Link to Meetup -> http://www.meetup.com/sg-linux/calendar/10093898/
Link to Photos -> http://www.meetup.com/sg-linux/photos/596475/
Link to Presentation -> http://files.meetup.com/95900/SLE-11-CommunityLaunch-SGP.pdf

3G Surfing with SLED 11

YES, it works! Out of the box babe!

With reference to my previous entry last year and compared to getting my Telco's(StarHub) 3G mobile broadband modem(Huawei E270) to work [link here], life is so much better in SLED 11. Here are the really simple steps:

1) Plug in my 3G modem(Huawei E270) via USB.
2) Wait 5 seconds and my NetworkManager applet on my desktop picks it up. Select Properties under the device shown and do a 1-time setup (eg click the Connect Automatically checkbox).
3) Wait for the connection and DONE! Its that simple... so simple that I wondered if I should blog about it. Hahaha .

Life is good.

External Projector or Screens with SLED 11, nVidia and Thinkpad T61p

Having setup my SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 on Thinkpad T61p working with Xen previously [link here], I now needed to project my screen (1920x1200) onto an external projector (typically 1024x768). Additionally, I have an external LCD monitor which I would like to use as my secondary monitor (ie Multi-head, desktop spanning blah).

Good news is it WORKS!

Here are my observations and the neat little trick (tool) that worked for me:

Note: After plugging in the VGA cable to Thinkpad T61p, always restart (re-initialized) X11 (Ctrl-Alt-Backspace) before doing anything else. On SLED 11, you will need to hit Ctrl-Alt-Backspace TWICE within 1-2 seconds. I think this is a newly introduced safety feature to avoid accidentally hitting this key combination and killing the entire X11.

1) SAX2 in SLED 11 does not seem to drive the nVidia driver like it used to do in SLED 10, especially the part where we configure Dual Head Mode. Irregardless of how I tried to configure the Dual Head Mode settings in SAX2, when I connect to an external projector or LCD monitor and after re-initializing X11, SLED 11 will project itself onto the external display and my Thinkpad LCD will be blank.

2) The trick to get the display to show on both the Thinkpad LCD (1920x1200) and external screens in the correct resolution is to use the nVidia tool that comes with the driver. As root, you startl it up via nvidia-settings. Below are 2 screenshots of it in action. I run it as root so that any changes I made can be written to the xorg.conf file directly.



If I had an external screen connected to my Thinkpad T61p as I'm writing this, the second screenshot would have 2 screens set side-by-side for me to configure the resolution, position and designate the primary display when using the TwinView mode.

Of course, the SLED 11 3D desktop effects continue to work across screens. Very sweet... so sweet that my good friend, a loyal Windows Vista user and graphics guru, is impressed.

Why do you do the things you do?

Its Sunday and a person whom I have much respect asked a question this morning: "Why do you(we) do the things you(we) do?"

In response to that question, of the many possible answers that were swimming in my head, the very first and simplistic answer in three words were: "Because I can." Now now, context is everything... so what I really meant with that simple answer is that I am a person who enjoys new experiences.

From a techie perspective, this means that I really loved it when I get the chance to try out something new (ie software feature, engineering technique blah blah)... so that's why I do the things I do.

However, as I begin to reflect deeper, I found myself with 2 other answers and they are: "Because I want to be counted... and because I want to be of good help." Hence, the reason behind writing it down on my blog today. The transition from experiential (Because I can) to being part of something bigger (to be counted) and contributing towards it (be of good help) is a change in perspective in my professional career.

I started this Blog because I could (experiential). Slowly, it became a place where I realized that the technical (experiential) stuff I put here is just part of the much larger Open Source Software community... well, granted I have not contributed a single line of OSS code (yet) but I contibute by writing stuff I've tried and succeeded... so that others do not need to waste cycles repeating them.

I dig OSS because I could ... and now, because I believe that it can really be of benefit to everyone... even to those who don't realize that their productivity is a result of OSS running seamlessly behind the scenes in their daily routine.

With the launch of SUSE Linux Enterprise 11, and having seen some of the plans and roadmaps, I believe it is becoming more relevant and will be of good help to people looking for technical solutions to real-life business problems/challenges.

As I'm writing this entry, I'm waiting for some code/binary download to complete as I'm in the midst of preparing a few good demos for the official launch of SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 in Singapore this coming Wednesday (22nd April). Will be looking forward to share my experience soon.