欧州自転車レース追っかけ日記

Haiku OS on Compaq Presario CQ56 (AMD N370)
I have been using heavily this old Compaq 610 (Intel Core2 Duo T5870) running Lubuntu 23.04 lately. So I have not used Haiku OS recently.

I would like to use Haiku OS more but I find Lubuntu more stable and practical.

For a starter, the WiFi card driver (Atheros card) is not too stable or consistent. It sometimes fails to work. I can not count on it to work consistently. This is a big problem. How should I proceed?

How about putting the HDD that has Haiku OS on it into my Compaq 610? I already know it works well on it (Compaq 610). Is this a win-win situation? Not quite so. The graphic performance of AMD CQ56 is way better than Intel 610. This is the only down side of the 610.

If the WiFi card in Compaq 610 works well with Haiku OS, I will be happy to give Haiku OS a try.

I am seriously thinking of upgrading my 610. How about giving it an Intel Core2 Duo (T7800) to add 30 % of performance?

Now I am trying it
I am writing this on my Compaq 610 using Haiku OS. I found it a bit discouraging to continue doing this.

First of all, for some reason the keyboard on it does not work at all. I am writing this from a USB connected keyboard.

Secondly, the sound does not work. I can play a video but no sound at all.

On the other hand, it is a bit encouraging to see the WiFi works.

So I think I am going to use this Compaq 610 with Lubuntu 23.04.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Haiku OS on Comapaq 610]の続きを読む

テーマ:ノートパソコン - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2023/08/20(日) 18:06:12|
2. HAIKU OS
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I destroyed my newly acquired iPod Classic 6th gen. 160 GB
I did. I wanted to open it up to see what was inside and how easy or difficult to open it up knowing that I would do so when the time comes.

The first time, everything went almost alright. The second time I cut the cable off. I cut the thin film cable connecting the earphone jack and the switch that disables the wheel.

I can still repair it. I can buy the broken parts. The assembly unit costs a bit more than 10 Euro.

I immeidately ordered some parts: the unit aforementioned and the battery for "thin" iPod Classic (mine is "thick" iPod Classic). I was going to buy an iFlash SD to ZIF adapter card and the obligatory special ZIF film cable for the 6th gen. 160 GB model. This thin adapter board leaves enough space for the battery above-mentioned.

I was a bull in a china shop. I hope I learned from the mistake I made. I won't fail again! (by Anakin Skywalker)


4 cells rescured
I had a dead battery back from one of my Compaq Presario CQ56 notebook PCs. The ebay seller had clearly staated the battery pack was dead and it was dead indeed.

I broke opened the battery pack and took six cells out of it. Two of them had developed rust on both of the terminals. It seemed that they had developed leakage and the rust was the consequences. 4 seemingly clean ones were rescued. I charged them and they seemed to work.


In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Haiku OS and Lithium-ion 18650 battery cells]の続きを読む

テーマ:ノートPC - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2023/07/18(火) 21:00:35|
2. HAIKU OS
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My newly acquired old used iPod Classic 6th gen. 160 GB
It has been restored. I plugged it in my MacBook Late 2009 and let iTunes restore it. It is mine now without any trace of the previous owner whose name I vaguely remember as the iPod Classic was delivered to me with the contents seemingly intact. The ebay seller did not care to erase or restore it before selling but only determined its model and battery status.

When I got it in a box sent from Germany, it was off (simply the battery was depleted). After charging it for a while, I could turned it on (or rather it turned itself on autumatically) and see if it really worked. It worked. It was loaded with a lot of song that I did not recognize. It had a lot of photos. I was not interested in them so I deleted them (by restoring it) in a rush.

No matter how long I charge it, the battery gets only around 30 to 40 % full.

I loaded all of my purchased audiobooks onto it. They were 3.4 GB in size. There is 145 GB of space left on my 160 GB hard disk drive. There is plenty space left for other audiobooks like those from LibreVox.

Today I took it on my car and connected it in the USB port of Mazda Connect system. It worked flawlessly so far. I was happy. I have found out that in sleep mode, it lasts more than several hours on battery. So I have no urgent need to replace the dying battery in a hurry. I can wait as my intended use for it is to serve as an audiobook source in my car where it is always powered by the USB port through which it also provide the audio.

I am interested in modifying it. This 6th generation iPod Classic may be the worst choice when it comes to modding. It has a fatal hardware flaw (according to a lot of sites I checked) that prevents it from accessing more than 128 GB of storage (unless the firmware or the OS is swapped to RockBox?). If so, why am I seeing 149 GB of storage on my iPod Classic? Or I am just seeing it as 149 GB of storage but I can only use 128 GB of it?

Anyway, I will keep my eyes on those batteries and HDD replacement devices.

I am trying to confirm that if I use one of those thin adapter boards (HDD replacement devices) , I can put a bigger capacity battery. My iPod is dubbed "Thick" (how rude!) among parts suppliers and modding fans likewise. The fat back cover has room for a flat battery and this thin flat circuit board. I hope the original HDD lasts long but in reality it can go bad any time. I am doing my homework (to know what to buy etc.) when the time comes.

Haiku OS and LibreOffice and USB memory stick support?
I am running Haiku OS on AMD (N370) Compaq Presario CQ56 and it works fine.

I wonder why a USB memory stick won't be recognized on Haiku OS (at least my Haiku OS). I can not pass the data (LibreOffice data made on other LibreOffice on Lubuntu or MacBook). Why? It is just a normal USB memory stick right out of the box.

Anyway, I want to use my Haiku OS desktop environment as much as possible so I wanted to work on the document that I use at work. I had to bother my Intel CQ56 (now running Lubuntu 23.04 again as the HDD was rendered to its brother AMD CQ56) to transfer the data from the USB stick to a USB connected HDD. Now I can work on the document.

For some reasons unknown to me, I could use the very USB memory stick I had just written "unusable" on Haiku OS moments ago.

I am pleased.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Haiku OS / LibreOffice at work!]の続きを読む

テーマ:ノートPC - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2023/07/16(日) 19:29:36|
2. HAIKU OS
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Hello, World!
I am writing this on my AMD N370 equipped Compaq Presario CQ56 using Web (a web browser formerly called Epiphany) running on top of Haiku OS (current).

It is OK. I can write like this but I can not still write in Japanese. I guess and I am pretty sure that Web does not accept Japanese input as of now. I hope its future version will eventually.

So the Japanese part will be written in other ways. Like doing so on my Lubuntu CQ56 or Webpositive (if it can) right after this.

One note: It (Web) can display Japanese perfectly. It is not about recognizing the languages other than Western languages like English, French or others but it is about accepting input from Input systems like Fcitx or Ibus or something else.

It was only iPod Classic 6th gen. 160 GB model
Obviously DHL has just changed its delivery system recently.

I guess DHL was sick of handling the undelivered parcels when the destinees were not available at the delivery destination address.

So they decided to partner up with the Post (Luxembourg Post Office) and made it possible to designate all the local small post office locations as its pick-up stations.

So the iPod Classic that the DHL tracking information claimed as deposited was kept at the local post office just several hundred meters away. I did not know this.

Anyway, I could pick it up. So the CPU heatsink fan that I thought had been delivered and kept at local post office was still on its way to me somewhere.

And how was the iPod Classic? Was it OK?

I will let you know. So far, it has been reset to factory settings and has already all the audiobooks purchased from Apple. I don't seem to locate the earphone so I can listen to them. How inconvenient! I will try to plug it into my Mazda MX-5 and see how it reacts.

The only problem that I have encountered so far is the 30-pin plug connection. It is not so stable. Maybe I have to clean it well.

In Japanese: 日本語でどうぞ [Hello from Haiku OS (Web) on AMD Compaq Presario CQ56]の続きを読む

テーマ:ノートパソコン - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2023/07/14(金) 11:09:42|
2. HAIKU OS
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Realtek rtl8192se
This chip does not work with Haiku OS at this time (hopefully maybe later, soon?). It works Linux obviously. I swapped the WiFi cards so that Haiku OS can use WiFi with the Atheros chip.

This chip (rtl8192se) behaves a bit strange. Linux boots OK and recognizes it. So far so good. On the other hand, during the booting process, some kind of error message comes up about this chip. Anyway, it is not my concern.


Haiku OS - One last try?
I got to know quite recently that the Intel Compaq Presario CQ56 can boot Haiku OS but the AMD Compaq Presario CQ56 hangs during the boot process (boot DVD).

Now I wonder why the AMD Compaq Presario CQ56 hangs during booting from the boot DVD.

Why is the tile of this entry "One last try"? Well, because I want to give it a last (for the time being) try this way.

I have a working Haiku OS environment on my Intel Compaq Presario CQ56. What happens if I take the HDD out of this and put it in one of my AMD Compaq Presario CQ56 and boot it from this HDD? Will it hang?

Let's see what happens, shall we?

Moments later . . .

It works!!!!!!
To my surprise, one of my AMD Compaq Presario CQ56 notebooks successfully booted without any hickups. Why? I don't know but it was encouraging.

I briefly played around and found something. It was N370 (top of the line Athlon II CPU for this notebook series) machine. I tried Web (web browser - formerly Epiphany) and directly went to YouTube site and played one of the videos. Its playback was much better than Intel machines!! How come? The Intel machine was powered by Intel Pentium T4500 (Dual-Core 2.3 GHz).

I also tried one of the "demo" software, "Teapot". When called, it displays a red teapot in 3D spins around. That's it. I remember seeing FPS around 60 (or was it 90?) on the Intel machine. This AMD machine did 190 FPS or around? I could see the teapot spinning much faster than the one on the Intel machine.

How come? I thought (wrongfully in the hindsight) that only Intel machine (CQ56) could run Haiku OS. Not only was I wrong about the CPU architecture that could run Haiku OS but also dead wrong about the expected performance of the AMD CPUs.

My wrong belief that only Intel CQ56 can run Haiku OS led me to purchasing another Intel CQ56.

Yes, it is true that Intel CPUs run much cooler than AMD CPUs (Core2 Duo v.s. Athlon II) but the performance under Haiku OS is better on AMD CPUs (?).

I am now confused.

The only thing I had to make Haiku OS run on my AMD CQ56 notebook PCs was to have the Intel CQ56 make a Haiku OS installed HDD (or SSD).

The post delivery negligence or bad hunch

Yesterday (Today it is July 12th, 2023) I opened up the mailbox and found a fresh notice of undelivered package notice from the post office on my way out to the post office for I had another previous notice slip from the post office.

The date (July 11th) suggested that it was put there the same morning.

How did I miss the delivery this morning? It's not possible. The mail woman or man must have guessed that I was not home without ringing the bell and left the note.

Is it a case of negligence or bad guessing on the delivery person's part?

One more funny coincidence to add this notice slip story.

The next day I tracked the ebay purchase, iPod Classic, several times since morning as I had done for the last couple of days and around noon I found that the tracking result had changed to "ready for pick-up".

What? How? I tracked further and found that the delivery attempt had been already made the previous day around the time I left my room to pick up the the thing at the local post office. I missed the DHL delivery for another delivery from the post office.

Now I will look inside the mailbox after work (I'm writing this at work) to find the notice slip from DHL.

***** Later I FOUND NO slip at all. I don't know where my parcel lies but I have to pick it up. I am assuming that it lies at the very main base of DHL Luxembourg near the airport. I will get it as soon as possible.

Minority Report 2002
Tom Cruise played a futuristic Police unit chief who caught criminals before they committed the actual crimes predicted by the Pre-Cogs to happen.

In this movie he mentioned a life of a poor woman who cleaned herself out of bad drug habits only to see herself tumble into another hole wherein she got killed.

A tragic situation but here I just want to borrow this line to illustrate my predicament where I tried to deal with one delivery-not-completed notification slip only to find myself incurring another one.

If I had stayed home till later or left earlier, I would have received the delivery.

AMD Compaq Presario CQ56 froze for seemingly no reasons
It has been solved.

I took my CQ56 to work place to get something done related to my new job. The machine worked normally for a while before it froze.

No keyboard keys worked. Mouse nor trackpad or touchpad input worked. I had to force shutdown by holding the power switch. It happened several times so I decided to shut it down for good.

Later, it dawned on me what could be causing this. Based on my experience, this symptom could be triggered by memory error. It could be triggered by RAM module(s) loose in the socket.

And further later at home, I opened up the service hatch and re-seated the RAM modules and then I booted the CQ56.

I think it has been solved.

Pseudo-MagSafe wallet
A quite disappointing result of "DG MING" wallet (pseudo-MagSafe wallet). I got it and tried it. I don't think this wallet claims to be MagSafe compatible and I found it was NOT.

The magnets inside both the wallet back and back of the phone case are 4 (each) small ones laid out in a square position. The phone case and the wallet sticks tightly.

This wallet sticks to MagSafe compatible phone case but just slightly. It easily falls off the phone case.

I wasted money.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Haiku OS on AMD Compaq Presario CQ56 . . . works!]の続きを読む

テーマ:ノートパソコン - ジャンル:コンピュータ

1. 2023/07/13(木) 20:35:54|
2. HAIKU OS
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