My life's story (and its problems)

Hello everyone. I have several questions and an introduction at hand.

I first used a CF-28 toughbook about a year ago after buying it on ebay. I was the second laptop I ever used. After buying, fixing, and selling 3 more cf-28s and one cf-72, and using several other brands/models of laptops, I found myself wanting to get a cf-28 and my it my primary computer. I also wanted to try out Ubuntu. I bought a Mk1 for $280 with no OS installed, which was a heck of a deal because it has a touchscreen and a cd drive. Shortly after purchasing it, I found a guy with a bunch of MK3s with DVD combos, touch, docking station, XP pro, and was in beautiful condition.

I got that one for $480, and have since taken the better parts from the mk1 and put them on the mk3 (larger battery, pcmcia cover door). Im going to be selling the mk1 with cd on ebay soon, and in the meantime will be configuring my mk3.

Im now typing on my mk3 under Ubuntu Studio.

Thus far Ive added a 60GB hardrive, dual booted XP and Ubuntu Studio, installed all the drivers for XP, and unsuccessfully attempted to calibrate the linux touchscreen by trying Modlys method.

What im looking to now is setting up internal wireless on this computer. I had a a broadcom wireless card lying around but it didn't fit the dimensions, so im stuck there. I also was thinking of putting the wifi paddle antennas under the top plastic tabs of the screen, but it seems that there is metal there too.

I also want to get into wardriving and adding a gps of some sort, but havent the slightest where to start.

I think ive pretty much covered it. I WAS going to paint this thing orange until I saw it was in near-perfect condition.

Oh, and I had this sticker lying around...

http://www.stickergiant.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?screen=PROD&product_code=FO3427&category_code=anarchist

It covers some scratch marks that were on the hard drive cover

 

For wi-fi card, you need a maximum hight of 44mm otherwise it will not fit into the slot, you can find it on ebay for a reasonable price. I recommend an atheros based chip. Secondly, if you want to mod. with gps you have look first for daughter board, like the rim board for cf-28 but make sure that the cable is included. For the gps engine, we can discuss it later.

Your idea of installing the padle antena at the top lid corner with the plastic was already been done(used as primary). And I am proposing the second one on the top side plastic of the lan/dsl modem area(auxilliary) and its goona be fine.

 

Welcome to the bunch, The_Chief. There are a lot of people here that can help you mod it into oblivion! I am an active Linux wardriver, here are some tips.

1. Get an external wifi antenna. A 5.5 db gain magmount is ideal. It's also unobtrusive and small. You certainly can wardrive without one, but you will get less than half of what you will find with an external antenna.

2. Kismet is the wardriving program to use for Linux. It requires you to add a username in the config file, and change one line to define the wireless card you are using, otherwise it's pretty easy to use.

3. As ohlip said, Atheros a/b/g cards are very good, and well supported with Kismet. Get one with an external antenna connector.

4. There is a lot of GPS modding activity here, but you will probably get better results inside a vehicle with an external GPS. A BU-303 or BU-353 are good USB choices, from USGlobalsat. and not too expensive.

5. Get the Toughbook rigged up to use vehicle power. I use a $12 cigarette lighter adapter. While it wants 15 volts to charge a battery, if you are battery-less it will run on straight 12vdc fine.

6. Go to wigle.net and sign up. It is probably the biggest active wardriving place around. There is a lot of information, search through it's forums.

Speaking of Wigle, I find that I am repeating info that has been hashed around there for a long time. Read their Cardinal Rules of Wardriving FAQ for a good overview.

 

I did fix a few things with my touchscreen install a couple weeks ago. You're using Ubuntu 7.10 right? If so, You'll need the one thing I updated (installing evtouch 0.8.7).

 

That is the problem i think. I don't thing Ubuntu Studio is a current version of Ubuntu. I hate it anyway. Its preloaded with a bunch of garbage and I dont know where to start. Im going to try linux mint instead. External GPS looks like the ticket for me i think. I have some basic electronics skills in soldering etc but doing that inside my lappy kinda worries me.

Edit: Do you have higher res pics of your hearse? I myself are going to be starting a 65 mustang restomod project myself, and these things intrest me so...

 

Yup! http://modly.net/hearse/DCP_0083.JPG

I'd try mint out. It is very nice and clean looking.

 

UbuntuStudio is probably not a good choice for a TB. It is loaded with a lot of specialty audio/video applications, a low-latency kernel for multi-track audio, etc. Some of the higher spec later model Toughbooks could do better, but any CF-28 will be light on resources to make the best use of it's apps.

 

Modly: Haha, my dad's 71 Buick skylark convertible has you beat I'm afraid. I'll see if I can produce a picture of it later. My mustang still has enough to the point ill be making a new body out of bondo, but living on the coast and letting it go isn't doing good things to it at the moment.

Pico: I've decided I don't like the Ubuntu music tools. I have a bunch of windows applications, mostly freeware, that I know well and have run on lesser systems than my toughbook in the past.


Oh, and I have a more general question about Installing OSes. Before I go and try and do it, Is it possible to load 2 copies of Xp and linux? I have an Nlite cutdown of XP that I want to use for running intensive software, but I also want a copy of xp so I can do all the wga crap for microsoft SDK downloads and whatnot.

Edit: Actually, Ive done this before accidentally, just without Linux. I think Ill just go and do it. By the time I receive a reply I'll probably be posting from my Home/Pro/Mint triboot.

 

I am not much of a Windows guy, but as long as you can get the XP versions dual-booting, just carve out some space on a partition and install any Linux you like. There is a Windows/Linux howto in the stickied topics on the first page here.

I"ve been using Ardour (it's on UbuntuStudio) for five years, it's quite impressive. On the automotive front, my daily driver is a 1975 Maverick, with 31k original miles. It has sat outside 6 nights since 1975, and is very nearly new mint condition.

 

I've never ran it with two Windows OS's, but it's possible for sure. I've done it with Windows and two linux distros (Check my sig).

I've re-spray painted the hearse since that photo, but it's still scary
Very little rust though...

 

Well now It won't do it. there is probably a tutorial somewhere on the net, but I say screw it for now. I wanted the XP Home or 2000 for when I take my programming class (Microsoft makes you put all this wga crap for you to download anything, and they don't like it when you modify your windows install, ive tried it). Thats not until next semester, and I think I might just get Visual Studio 6 instead of express. So im back to dual boot now. Makes life easier anyway.

Oh, as for Arduor, it was pretty much THE reason for me to get Ununtu Studio, but after I loaded it and got all this bs dumped on me on the opening install, Im going to mint and adding what I want one program at a time. In the end though I might just be going back to making music with Buzz and Audacity.

 

Audacity is very nice, I use it for quick edits of a stereo pair. To do multi-track recording with Ardour at all , you definitely need a low-latency kernel with some patches installed. I use a 64-bit AMD 4200 and my latency is 2.9 milliseconds (which is pretty astounding). I can record 6 tracks at the same time, and listen back on a monitor bus with effects. For a long time I used an external 16- channel Alesis mixer for monitoring, but I've gotten the software monitoring working in recent months, it's sure a lot less wires and crap. Ardour will work with nearly any soundcard, but your basic PC type of soundcard is not well suited for multitrack recording.

Ubuntu Studio, and 64 Studio are both custom Debian installs with all the kernel patches done for you, and the apps installed. A main thing about Ardour, is that you have to have the Jack audio server running FIRST. Jack can feed audio to and from many other audio apps, it's like a network switch for sound. Ardour is a true pro-level app, and it takes some time to get familiar with it.