Hardware

Product Review: Razer Orochi

Product Review: Razer Orochi

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I’ve always been a big proponent of high-end input devices.  While many people are happy with their super-cheap keyboards, I’ve always resisted this mindset.When you get right down to it, there are two ways you interact with your computer:  the keyboard, and the mouse.  If you’re going to spend fifteen hundred dollars to buy your computer, then spend 50 hours a week on it, improving these two components can make a huge difference in your work life.A few weeks ago, I noticed one of our clients using an old Microsoft Wheel Optical Mouse, in preference to her Logitech M510 Wireless mouse.  This made me a bit sad, so I asked Claire why she preferred the old one.  We came up with a list of requirements, and I went for a quick hunt. More →
Restoring from a RAID drive failure in Ubuntu

Restoring from a RAID drive failure in Ubuntu

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One inevitable outcome when working with multiple RAID arrays is that you are going to encounter drive failure at some point, no matter how well you prepare. Luckily, when it comes to Ubuntu, the process to replace a failed drive is not terribly difficult.  You’ve probably arrived here because you already have a RAID array with a failed drive in it, and you’re looking for a tutorial to replace it.  So this tutorial is written for people running Ubuntu, already with an mdadm RAID-1 array set up and running.

Replacing a failed drive in a RAID array is fairly straightforward, provided they're not engulfed in flames.

One possible cause of hard drive failure

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Running ‘sudo reboot’ causes shutdown with Intel C224 chipset

Running ‘sudo reboot’ causes shutdown with Intel C224 chipset

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The Intel C224 chipset requires some tweaking in order for Ubuntu Server to reboot

The Intel C224 chipset requires some tweaking in order for Ubuntu Server to reboot

When setting up a server recently (the one mentioned in this post), I encountered an odd problem: running sudo reboot would power down the machine, instead of rebooting it! This was occurring on a new Supermicro X10SLM-F motherboard with an Intel C224 chipset, running Ubuntu Server 13.04 Raring Ringtail.

It turns out that the problem is caused by buggy Intel drivers, and the problem can be resolved by blacklisting the mei driver. In order to do this, open up a terminal and enter the following:

$ sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Then add these lines:

# Don't load MEI driver; this allows system to reboot
blacklist mei

Save and exit the file, and enter the following into the terminal:

$ sudo reboot

The machine should now reboot without any problems

Credit goes to Ubuntu forums user thomasberger for offering the solution: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2024096

No display on boot in Ubuntu Server 13.04

No display on boot in Ubuntu Server 13.04

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When performing a recent server setup, I encountered an annoying display problem. The install completed without any problems, but there was no video on boot at all – sometimes the Grub menu appeared (but usually not), and after that the monitor went to sleep. SSH access was working fine, proving that it was only a display issue and not a boot fail.A boot issue gives rise to an annoying display problem

The setup involved installing Ubuntu Server 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) onto the server, which contained a new Supermicro X10SLM-F motherboard with an Intel C224 chipset.

After doing some research I found that the solution was to enable nomodeset in Grub. Because I had set up OpenSSH during Ubuntu install, I was able to connect to the server and do the following:

$ sudo nano /etc/default/grub

 

Find the line 

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""

 

Change it to 

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"

 

And then enter the following commands into the terminal 

$ sudo update-grub
$ sudo reboot

 

When the server rebooted, everything loaded as normal.

Getting the Brother HL-2040 to print under Ubuntu 11.04 “Natty Narwhal”

Getting the Brother HL-2040 to print under Ubuntu 11.04 “Natty Narwhal”

Hardware, Hints and Tips, Linux , , , , , 4 Comments

Our Brother HL-2040 printer is a great little workhorse, and has always worked pleasingly well under both Windows and Linux (and as a shared printer). However when I upgraded from Ubuntu 10.10 to 11.04, it went a little bit haywire. No matter what I did, the printer’s response was to print infinite blank pages. Fortunately, the fix is easy! More →

Why you should do a regular system audit

Why you should do a regular system audit

Business, Efficiency, Hardware, Hints and Tips, Software , , , , , , , 0 Comments

Having your system audited is a crucial task that is often overlooked by small businesses. An annual system audit will give you an overview of the state of your system, from the ground up: network, power supply, backups, server, workstations, etc. It should also include recommendations from a professional; for example, if your server is three years old, you might get a recommendation to start allocating some income to replace the server in a couple of years. More →

Making OpenBravoPOS work correctly with a STAR TSP143 Ethernet receipt printer

Making OpenBravoPOS work correctly with a STAR TSP143 Ethernet receipt printer

Business, Hardware, Software , , , , 5 Comments

We installed an OpenBravo Point of Sale system for one of our clients last year.  Things have been working fairly well for them, except they had a problem with one of their printers going offline every so often.  Everything would be going along fine, then suddenly the printer would stop printing orders. The problem is, the kitchen printer isn’t visible from the bar, so nobody would notice for possibly five or ten minutes. The printer would come back online by itself after a while, or the wait staff would be forced to reboot the POS system. Not good.  Here’s how we fixed it. More →

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