Disabling touchpad in linux

 

Most of the time the “Fn” + “key”s are not functioning in Linux.(Well.. its not working for me, even though I have installed Omnibook module for Toshiba laptops ).So the touch pad is always turned on and it’s a real headache if you are doing lot of coding stuff.
I found a method to disable the touchpad using ‘xserver-xorg-input-synaptics’ kernel module.

First you have to install ‘xserver-xorg-input-synaptics’ .In Debian based system its
apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

Then you have to edit your xorg.conf file.
Add a new “InputDevice” section, in addition to the section for your mouse.

Section “InputDevice”
   Driver “synaptics”
   Identifier “Mouse[1]”
   Option “Device” “/dev/psaux”
   Option “Protocol” “autodev”
   Option “SHMConfig” “on”
EndSection

And in the “ServerLayout” section add an entry for the new synaptic touchpad like, and for your primary mouse (in my case – Configured mouse) add the option “CorePointer”.

 Section “ServerLayout”
     InputDevice “Mouse[1]” “AlwaysCore”
     InputDevice “Configured mouse” “CorePointer”
    .
    .
EndSection

Then restart the X server and type the command ‘synclient TouchPadOff=1’ , WOILA..your touchpad is now disabled. If you play with ‘synclient’ command , you can notice that there’s many settings for the touchpad. I am writing a small python GTK proggie, visit here soon to download it.

Linux Kernel 2.6.23

As you may probably know, the linux kernel 2.6.23 has been released.This kernel features a new process scheduler- CFS (Completely Fair Scheduler) and many more features. Checkout http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_23. So I thought to give it a shot.I downloaded it and configured the kernel for my Toshiba Satellite M40 with a Centrino processor. I feel theres a performance boost with the new kernel.

FOSS-ed On Wheels Ratnapura @ Ruwanpura National Collage of Education (RNCOE)

    

Last Saturday, I had this great opportunity to give my support to  ‘Linux Traning  workshop at Ratnapura’ .Event was held at Ruwanpura National College of Education , targeting IT teachers in Ratnapura area.
We (Sagara and Me) started the journey from Colombo at 4.00am and got on to the Ambilipitiya bus at 5.00am.We reached the place at about 9.00am.

Place was a nice, and when we got there,Sucheta, Kunchana and Bikku Metta Vihari had already finished installing Ubuntu and Edubuntu on machines.

After the starting ceremony, I had to give support in laboratory. I basically did hand on to Linux desktop, file system..Etc while other student-set were given a presentations on OpenOffice, Desktop environments..etc.

After the lunch, I did a small introductory speech on ‘OpenOffice Spreadsheet’ and again back to laboratory to do some particles on spreadsheets.

At about 5pm we were able to finish the schedule and went to our crashing place. After having a wash we watched some movies (including American Pie 5: naked mile;, Die Hard 4) while having some beers and at about 12.00pm I crashed to bed.

The sad part is, even though the event was a two day workshop I only had the chance to attend to the first day only. So early Sunday morning me and Sagara packed our gear and headed back to Colombo.

I really enjoyed hanging out with FOSS guys and giving my knowledge FREELY!. I am trying my best to give my support for future events like this.

 

 

 

 

 

Last King of Scotland

Few weeks back, I watched the movie Last king of Scotland. It has won several awards including “Best Actor (Idi Amin-Forest Whitkaer)” in Academy Awards 2007, Golden Globe Awards…etc. At the begging I thought its more like the other films based on racism like “Hotel Rwanda” and “Shooting Dogs” , but its little more different that than.
When I was watching the film, I realized how much its relate to leaders of our country, (well they don’t eat human flesh like Idi Amin, but they suck their blood).
In the movie, there’s a scene when “Idi Amin” address the people. There he’s giving hope to the people about a developed, prosperous and a unified Uganda. It came to my mind of what our leaders tell us throughout our history. About their fairytales, how they going to develop the country, make our economy strong…
In the movie “Uganda” people reflected the exact way how our people react. How people get fascinated and how they day dreaming about the sweet stories that their Amin told them.
So it’s up to us, to stop the “Idi Amins” who destroying our country, moving our motherland to hell…lets pray that our people will realize this someday…

Transformers

 

Ok the truth is I couldn’t wait to watch it, since I watched the trailer in Yahoo Movies. I remember got a ‘Japanese Transformer’ comic book when I was a kid and I’ve played with several Transformer toys (of course when I was a kid… 🙂 ).
So.. Right after a week the, movie came to MC Cinema; I gathered all my friends on last Tuesday (I really wanted to share the full enjoyment with my buddies) and went there at 6.30pm. There was a considerable queue at that time, so it was good idea to go earlier.
Anyhow I couldn’t find a seat in the center of the back rows- which is my favorite spot to enjoy movies.
Movie started at 7.30pm starting with a modified version of DreamWorks logo with a transformers robotic-voice. At beginning I was little bit worried with the sound, because compared to Savoy cinema, it had less quality DTS sound.
I heard that the Transformers has the record for longest rendering time for a frame, i.e. ~38hours.I was not amazed about that because the details of the robots were amazing. Fighting scene were Adrenalin pumping, and most of the crashes, stunts, blasts were done in real environment without using computer graphics because the director Michael Bay wanted to give the real thrill for the audience.
The story was ok; had the fun, humor, little bit of romance and LOTS of action. So it’s a well balanced movie to watch, enjoy and relax.
After the movie, all of my buddies accepted, that it was a great movie. I heard that there’s going to be two more sequels and now I’m waiting for hear any news about them…

Going back to time of Spartans…

Yesterday I watched the movie 300, and I thought I could write something about it. Actually I watched the DivX, not the DVD or in a theater. Yeah, I know what you thinking right now…It’s true that you can’t get the full enjoyment of a film like 300 without watching in a theater. But I couldn’t wait.. (But I’m pretty sure it won’t come to our cinemas)
Unlike other historical movies like Troy or Gladiator, 300 had completely made using the Blue Screen. All the backgrounds are computer generated. The story is framed by a voice-over narrative by the Spartan soldier Dilios. Because of this narrative technique and various fantastical creatures, 300 comes under the genre of historical fantasy.
Anyway what I felt when I was watching the movies ,is that I actually gone into the time of Spartans…Main factors leverage this was the CG backgrounds of prosperous corn fields , nice red and yellow sky, castles and environments like seen in fairytale books and of course, the well built Spartans with ‘6-pack’ in their stomachs 😉 .
The fighting scenes were marvelous. Especially the Matrix like slow motion and the poetic type motions of our Spartan heroes.
Ok…the bottom line is this is a great movie and you’ll enjoy it from start to end.

Into Blogging…

Here am I starting blogging…Actually I’m not much good at writing and stuff (thela gahanna)…But heck…lets give it a try..
Actually, I thought this would be a great way to show more dynamic view of my life other than got stuck to my site….