Free as in speech

I’ve just updated the dgap packages with a new (beta) release from Digi. This release accommodates newer kernels and introduces a udev script, though the previous releases worked just fine with udev too.

The packages are now built for Etch. On Sarge systems, you should keep version 1.3.6-1.

The following apt source line can be used (sources available too):

deb http://debian.technologeek.org/ etch non-free

You’ll find the old packages at http://debian.technologeek.org/pool/non-free/d/dgap/old/ for Sarge systems or should anything go wrong with the latest packages. They can be installed by apt if you request the exact version.

Bug reports and feedback should be directed at my inbox, as usual.

Today’s kernel: 2.6.23 + 2.6.23-hrt1 patchset + mactel patches. That gives an amd64 tickless kernel that just works and I’m not observing the weird behaviour I observed with 2.6.22-hrt6 that forced me back to a 2.6.21 kernel.

I still need to remove the HID_QUIRK_POWERBOOK_ISO_KEYBOARD quirk for my GEYSER IV ISO keyboard, otherwise the @ and < are swapped. The good news, on the audio side, is that I don’t need to manually fix the pin config for the HDA codec anymore, which is a great step forward :-)

There’s a patched radeontool available that introduces a radeontool power low command to switch the chip into low power mode. And it works. Saves about 45 minutes of battery power, bringing the laptop’s autonomy to something like 2:15 hours. Still far, far away from the 4 hours I had on the PowerBook but it’s a step forward. This also means the laptop is now quiet; I don’t hear the fans anymore. I’ve had this laptop for 11 months now, and it’s something I was really, really looking forward to.

Update on the EFI firmware update 1.4: this update really fixes the keyboard issue in legacy bootloaders, I’ve had a working keyboard in LILO at each and every (re)boot since I installed it.

Apple released a firmware update for the MacBook Pro about two weeks ago, entitled “MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update v1.4″.

The update contains, among other things, a microcode update for the Core2 Duo CPUs.

It also looks like this update fixes the longstanding issue of the non-working keyboard in the legacy bootloaders. As it used to work from time to time, I’m not entirely sure the issue is fixed yet, I may just have been lucky so far.

I’ve been told that this update breaks the framebuffer, so if your kernel has framebuffer support for the console you may want to hold off…

A new release with a new feature: pommed can now act as a replacement for the PC Speaker and play your favorite WAV file as the system beep.

The feature is disabled by default as it’s not needed on all machines (most of the PowerPC machines have their system beep handled by the sound driver) and I guess not everybody wants it by default. You need to load the uinput driver before pommed starts for this to work.

If you want your Mac to behave like a good old Mac and have it quack at you, Google for Quack.aiff and turn that into a WAV file ;)
Have fun!