Dual monitors, USB2 and CD Burner
November 6th, 2006 12:10 pm

Ben's RigI further soup-up-ified my workstation:

  • Traded CD drives with my daughter’s computer, so I have a Lite-On 52x burner, she has the 50x reader. Couldn’t get Serpentine to work, so installed GnomeBaker – successfully burned a few audio cds (have to remember to set it to DAO mode).
  • Installed the Adaptec USB2 PCI card (also out of my daughter’s computer – and reconfigured her on-board USB1.1 to work so that she could continue to use the USB 802.11b wireless). Now my iRiver and external hard drives go fasty!
  • Connected my new 19″ Viewsonic (thanks Brent!) to my main video card (Nvidia 32M AGP)
  • Installed a second video card, a Matrox 4meg PCI card – connected my Envision 17″
  • Tweaked the bios and xorg.conf to allow dual video cards/monitors

I still need to connect my printer, which hasn’t worked so far. I have an HP 722C connected via parallel port to a dlink 704p router/print server. All of my windows machines can print to it, but have not been able to connect the linux box.

I also need a SD card reader, for now I’ll take my multi-reader home from work – but might buy another one for $10 at job lots.

Also, big thanks go out to my supporters: Carl for the hard drive, cd burner, keyboard and optical USB mouse. Ken for the non-working monitor, Brent for the working monitor. If you have any parts you would like to donate (not just get rid of) let me know!

Posted in Technology, Web Development by ben
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ben
November 7th, 2006 12:06 pm

I connected my USB card reader and it was immediately recognized, allowing me to copy files to/from my SD cards (used by my phone, camera and palm).

I also edited my second podcast, and burned more CDs (including the podcast).

Still need to get the printer working, its sad to think I have to use windows still to print stuff.

Also, I did manage to mount a windows share, which I had been struggling with. Turned out I forgot to turn off the windows xp firewall, which was blocking all my attempts!

ben
November 8th, 2006 11:51 am

Don’t know if I mentioned this before, but the 4meg card coupled with the 17″ monitor, set as a secondary display, limited to 800×600 at 24bit. Might be able to get more resolution with less colors, or maybe if it was the primary display. In any case it is good enough for a terminal or ftp or chat, then I can use the main screen for audacity or whatnot.

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