Tutorials

A variety of tutorials was provided for the "Command Line" unit this week, including print and audio/video. Having audio and PowerPoint like presentation video is a nice change from long readings and class chatrooms of my previous on-line courses. It was more like being in a classroom/lecture environment, which I do miss from face-to-face classes as an undergraduate.

I am fortunate that I learn almost as well with print materials as I do with audio/visual materials. Still, having both types available for tutorials is beneficial. Employing multiple resources reinforces the content, but also provides various means to understanding.

In particular, I appreciated the DOS to Unix summary page link provided in the unit assignment text.

Live CD

My effort to boot Ubuntu using a Live CD was halted by an error. So I posted on the class activity board for the unit:

Color me disappointed.... it was all going so well... and fairly familiar from the 'old' days with DOS... Here's what came up on the GNOME interface when I tried to boot the LiveCD:

b43-phy0 ERROR: Firmware file "b43/ucode5.tm" not found or load failed

You must go to http://linuxwireless.org/en/user/Drivers/b43#devicefirmware and download the correct firmware (version 4)

So.... I'm heading there to look around, but probably won't do anything until I check back in here.

That location was "not yet created" page, but there were links on to information about the b43 (which has to do with Broadcom wireless firmware). Unfortunately, even though the content on the FAQ page was rather technical, it was obvious that their instructions would have to take place from within Ubuntu.

Google (and Ubuntu forums) to the rescue! The first hit from searching Google with "b43/ucode5.fw" provided a link to a Ubuntu thread and from that first post, I visited the recommended site, Broadcom Wireless Firmware . The file and simple (too simple???) instructions are there, but again, this is something to be added into the files, and doesn't help when running a LiveCD.

Just about the time I was finding all this information, the instructor confirmed the association of the error with the wireless system, and suggested I try to disable the WiFi in the BIOS. Ufortunately (again), there is no option in the BIOS to disable the Wifi (that I could find; and my manuals for the laptop are who-knows-where). His other suggestion was to just do a VM install... which is what I did.