All you need to do is follow these handy instructions on LinuxForums.org and you'll be good to go.

Edited to add: ... and if you want your drivers to load at boot, don't forget to add rt3070sta to the end of your /etc/modules file.
Edited to add: ... as well as adding the following lines to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf so it loads the correct drivers upon reboot:

blacklist rt2800usb
blacklist rt2870usb

The ABIT AB9 motherboard has a reputation for being buggy and prone to hanging when running Linux; a quick Google search shows the problems people have been having. However! There is a solution. It's a painful one, but it works (note that my configuration has SATA but not RAID; this may effect the FreeDOS boot parameters) ...

1. go into BIOS Setup and load fail-safe defaults
2. if you don't have a floppy drive, make sure BIOS knows that, or things will become a little confused when you try to boot FreeDOS
3. download and burn the full FreeDOS ISO
4. download the latest AB9 BIOS update and put it on a USB flash disk
5. install FreeDOS onto the hard drive (yes, really - issues with CDROM support on early AB9 BIOS releases means that this is the best way)
6. boot off the FreeDOS live CD, and edit C:\FDCONFIG.SYS to remove the phrase "TUNS" from the end of the SHELLHIGH directive (see here for the reason)
7. boot using your Ubuntu live CD, and copy the BIOS flash utility from the USB keychain to the FreeDOS partition; you may have to attempt this multiple times as the old AB9 BIOS will be causing Linux to crash randomly but frequently
8. reboot into FreeDOS in safe mode (either from the live CD or the startup menu) and run the BIOS flash utility
9. when prompted by the BIOS flash utility, hit F1 and the machine will reboot
10. BIOS will then complain about a CMOS checksum error; press DEL to enter BIOS setup and load optimized defaults, disable the floppy drive (unless you have one), and set the first boot device to be the CD-ROM
11. boot from the Ubuntu live CD and install Ubuntu
12. go and put some more home-brew in the fridge

I'll update this post if I ever hear back from ABIT; I lodged a support request explaining the situation but they never replied.

In other news, FreeDOS is fun ... if you ever have a hankering for the 'good old days of DOS' or have a requirement to run DOS software (like BIOS flash utilities) I suggest giving it a whirl. It even comes with the OpenGEM GUI environment and a bunch of dev tools ...

I'm shopping around for a replacement for my wife's God-awful iRiver T6, and thought I'd ask the folks at Minidisc.com.au about the new Creative ZEN X-Fi Style.

In particular, I was after Linux and Mac OS X support info. I was prepared for frustration; many sales support staff with whom I've dealt have been utterly ignorant of the existence of Linux, and few places have serious knowledge of Mac OS X.

I was pleased to discover that Minidisc.com.au offers online chat with their staff, and was very pleasantly surprised by the service I received:

Andy emailed me to say that after persisting, he's had Dell UK replace the motherboard on his XPS M1210 free of charge due to the GPU bug. You can see the forum thread where he's discussing the matter with a Dell rep. here.

So, once again: if you have a dead XPS and Dell refuses to replace the motherboard, stick to your guns. So far everyone I've spoken to has eventually received a free replacement.

So it turns out Palm is still hopeless when it comes to customer support. Windows 7 was released ages ago, and there is still no option to download a Windows 7 version of Palm Desktop.

I thought I'd call Palm support and ask them about it. Oh, that'd cost $12. How about I email them? Nope - they have discontinued email support in favour of live chat. Well, that's alright ... except that it's a Windows-only solution that only works properly in IE. According to Palm:

Palm uses a secure chat application from LogMeIn Inc.. This chat application downloads and runs automatically in most browsers. Firefox and some other browsers prevent running of applications from the browser for security reasons. We will be changing to a seamless solution for Firefox users shortly. Thank you for your patience.

So I have to pay to call them, can't email them, and their online chat solution requires me to download and run a Windows executable. I tried that, and nothing happened ... I ran the executable, got a wait cursor, and nothing else for over half an hour.

Right, time to try a different route ... maybe I could call their Australian press contact, and ask whether there's any news about an upcoming Windows 7 release? I took a look at the Australian contact details:

So I called Recognition PR and asked for Sarah. I was told that she no longer works there, and besides, Palm no longer maintains an Australian PR presence and it's all handled from the US.

So far: no Windows 7 download, paid phone support only, online chat broken, obsolete Australian contact details.

I thought I'd try calling the US office. I did so, & went through to sales. I was greeted by an automated message which informed me that "sample administrator is not available" and asked me to leave a message. Second time around I went through to hand-held technical support, which politely informed me that I'd have to pay for the privilege of asking a human being when Windows 7 support was planned.

So, my next step was to try the Palm forum. However, my login was denied - I assumed I'd forgotten my password. I requested an email password reset, only to discover that I'd remembered my password correctly. Palm has changed their forum software, and is manually migrating accounts upon request:

Hello XXXXXXXXXXXXXX,

Your account information is listed below.

If your password has a value of 0, please reply to this message stating that you'd like your account updated for our current forums. This process should take less than 1 business day.

Login: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Password: 0
E-Mail: duncan.bayne@fluidscape.co.nz

So, now I'm waiting for Palm to turn on my forum account, so I can ask about Windows 7 support. I thought Palm displayed bad customer support in the past, but now I can see that they were just warming up for the current crap-fest.

According to Google Analytics, many visitors to this site arrive after searching for Palm Pilot related keywords. If you're one of those people, please accept my condolences on having purchased a Palm in the first place.

Update 19th January 2010: I originally bought the Zire from Dick Smith Electronics, so I just sent them an email in the hopes they might know. Fingers crossed ...

Update 19th January 2010: I re-downloaded the Windows chat client, and this time it worked (perhaps I missed the security dialog the first time around?). According to the CSR, the Palm Desktop software works on all 32-bit Windows 7 versions, but not 64-bit. Palm is working on 64-bit drivers but won't be drawn on whether they'll be released, let alone an actual date.

I just received an email from someone called Rahul, who has succeeded in getting Dell to repair his XPS M1210 outside warranty. The laptop failed due to the notorious GPU fault common to those models.

I sent their technical support an email last Wednesday and had a reply next day suggesting that my system was out of warranty so they can not help. I replied back quoting the different case numbers where they fixed the system even after the warranty has expired but they did not bother replying. So called the XPS hot line today. At first the person I was talking to was very blunt to put it mildly. He straight away said that there was nothing much he could do to help because it's been quite some time since even the extended warranty has expired. Then I said I know people who got their systems fixed outside the extended warranty. He said he was not interested in other peoples' cases and insisted that there was nothing he could do.

Then I asked him why I was being treated differently and he said he could not comment on that, that's when I asked him to put me on to his supervisor. He put me on hold for next 10 min, came back and said that they would repair my system this time free of charge (change the motherboard, heat sink, thermal pads and fan) and any future repairs would be out of my pocket.

...

My system was fixed and now works fine. Motherboard, heat sink and the fan were replaced.

I've updated my warranty repair case numbers to include Rahul's case number. It looks like quoting some or all of these case numbers is a great way of getting your XPS repaired.

Here are some case numbers, including my own, some gathered from NotebookReview.com, and some emailed to me directly. Each case number represents an XPS that was repaired for free outside of the warranty period as a result of GPU failure.

Several people have reported success by quoting some or all of the case numbers when dealing with Dell representatives.

United States of America

• Scott - 633668288
• Nick's - 631589518
• Ollie - 637788486
• Naveen Nimmala - 637608694
• LAN MAN - 639036103

Australia

• Duncan Bayne - 2032568
• Rahul - 3424916

I will update this list as I discover more case numbers. If you have one of your own, please email me and I'll add it.

The following is a brief list of instructions for getting Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) set up on an MSI Wind u100 in a reasonably child-friendly fashion:

1. Get the Ubuntu 9.04 ('Jaunty Jackal') UNR image and install it according to these instructions. Do not try 9.10 ('Karmic Koala') - at this point it's broken (which should come as no surprise to those who've tried Karmic).
2. Uninstall Pidgin and Evolution using Synaptic.
3. Create a user for each child who will use the device, and turn off unwanted priviliges - in particular "Administer the system". Leave WiFi connection privileges alone (kinda misses the point of a netbook if you disable that).
4. Install DansGuardian (and Squid and ClamAV) according to these instructions, stopping once you've completed Step 3 (i.e. before you start configuring WPAD).
5. Configure your system to use localhost:8080 as your proxy for all users according to these instructions.
6. Make Firefox proxy settings read-only according to these instructions.
7. Observe that everything stops working when you reboot. Squid isn't clever enough to pick up changes to resolv.conf that NetworkManager makes when it connects to a WiFi network. The fix is to create a dispatcher script in /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d that restarts Squid when it receives an 'up' message. Seriously.

The dispatcher script I'm using looks like this:

#!/bin/sh -e

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
  echo "$0: called with no interfact" 1>&2
  exit 1;
fi

# restart Squid so it can see the new interface
case "$2" in
  up)
    /etc/init.d/squid restart
    ;;
esac

Anyhow, on the list of things to do is to figure out how to route all HTTP traffic through DansGuardian using iptables, so as not to have to depend upon Firefox and other apps honouring the system proxy settings.

I can't help but see a commercial product here: a remix of Ubuntu Netbook Remix, but designed from the ground-up to be child-safe. Perhaps it could even use a separate apt mirror, loaded only with child-safe apps? I mean, I got very lost several times figuring this stuff out and I do this sort of thing for a living.

I recently received a few emails from Craig, who managed to get Dell to repair his dead XPS M1210 free of charge.

This is one awesome little machine. It ran well until last week. Then it blinked off. Ironically, it sat for two days and wouldn't boot, the power test indicating the video card being the culprit. But on day three it booted up and ran without a glitch. Then yesterday, it died again. That's when I saw the article you had contributed to.

Accordingly, I bit the bullet and contacted Dell, held my ground for almost an hour, to avoid the up front troubleshooting charge. I was sympathetic with the support agent who sounded so exasperated because he didn't have a clue what the GPU glitch was. He got so frustrated playing the gopher intermediary between me and his own staff, he finally put me through the extended warranty group. Now ACT II.

The $199 test charge and $399 repair I finally negotiated down to a flat $391 with tax. And being that I'd will have a warranted unit afterwards, I'm pleased. As an afterthought, If I hadn't jumped the gun, I could have just reinstated the lapsed warranty, and then called technical support.

...

CANCEL that last email to you.

I tried one more time and reached XPS Tech Support. I found a list of case numbers online that had success getting their M1210s included in the recall. I referenced one of the case numbers to them.

Dell said that my machine is so far out of warranty that even if they extended the warranty one year it would still be out of warranty and not covered. Nevertheless, they agreed to repair it free of charge.

I have posted a list of case numbers here that includes the numbers mentioned by Craig, as well as my own case number and those of people who have emailed me. Each case number represents an XPS that was repaired for free outside of the warranty period. It's definitely worth following Craig's example and quoting those case numbers when requesting repair of your XPS M1210.

I use a USB thumb drive (a Toshiba 2GB with the U3 software uninstalled) for many things; my SSH and GNUPG files along with the pet software projects I'm working on.

Today, I inserted it into my laptop (running Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackal) and it didn't automount. I suspected file system corruption on the thumb drive, & I was right. The fix was easy:

sudo apt-get install partionmanager
sudo partitionmanager

I selected the thumb drive from the partition list, right-clicked, and chose Check. Then I clicked Apply, and partionmanager repaired whatever faults existed on the filesystem. The thumb drive then auto-mounted with no further effort.

Oddly, my first attempt to rectify this from the command line using fsck failed. The file system check completed, but the drive still wouldn't mount. I'm guessing there is a difference between what fsck did and what partitionmanager did during repair, but I don't know what it is ...