i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

Avid readers of this blog (yeah, right) will remember that a year or so ago, I launched into my iFolders experiment.  For a long time, I have not had a satisfactory backup/synchronization system.  The more critical stuff gets encrypted and shoved onto my ISP provided website, the rest of the stuff just risks total borkization.

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So, it seems that after the computer returns from hibernation, the internet interface is unstable.  I can't zero in on the precise problem -- I have had random (but predictable) crashes in Firefox, Konqueror and Akregator.  The common threads seem to be (a) software that connects to the internet; and (b) computer has been hibernated and restarted.

The actual crash is somewhat random -- that is, it doesn't not immediately occur.  But, it is fairly certain to happen once the computer has resumed after hibernation, which is rather inconvenient.  The only solution I know is to do a forced power-down and reboot the computer.

And, in other news ... this is mildly interesting.  As I have increased the number of posts regarding lxde, this has become the topic that most often brings searches to my web page.  I guess there are a fair number of users out there that just want a solid gui that doesn't use too much in the way of resources.

I could not find a php script to explicitly import google/ics calendars into a mySQL database, so I utilized some php classes I found and the PEAR date() funtion and wrote my own.  I documented it here in the ETM.

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This project is going well and I created an extended entry in my Executive Technical Manual.  I replaced the 1 gb of memory with 2 gb and now I am satisfied with the performance.  This netbook is working great and the only thing that continues to annoy me is the 1024 x 600 screen.  I much prefer the larger 1366x768 resolution on the now defective Gateway.

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The Acer project is/was going well, actually. I took the "conservative" approach and did not load all of the extra repositories, just the basic OpSu 11.2 ones. KDE 4.3 running fine, etc. Used "webpin" to track down some programs I wanted that are not in the basic repositories, added those necessary repositories. Everything fine. UNTIL ...

Well, I had connected my 17" external monitor (1280 x 1024). The Acer obligingly shut off the internal monitor and used the external one. The install went fine with everything in 1280 x 1024.

Sooo.... when the actual install offered me via krandr choices of 1024x600 (internal monitor) and 1024 x 768 (external monitor) I was woefully disappointed.

I ran SAX2. Oops.

Well, the oops was not immediately apparent. Because, in fact I successfully set up my external monitor to 1280 x 1024 -- and SAX2 reports I could have resolution up to 1920x1440, but I don't have a monitor to test it on. But ... that seems to have the potential to be very useful.

Then, back to internal monitor!

Aha. The oops. The unfixable oops. No matter what I did, I could only get 800 x 600 stretched to the 1024x600 monitor. Horrible! Sax2 would not fix it.

Not very useful to have all this extra resolution if I can't get it to switch back and forth!

I have renamed the /etc/X11 directory to /etc/X11_old and I'm trying a "repair" run from the OpSu installer. We'll see what happens.

Later: didn't work. I then studied the xrandr wiki. Exited "X" to console session. "X -configure" to create new xorg.conf in /root. Move to /etc/X11/xorg.conf. This put everything back to the status of the original install. (Where one of the further issues is that the cursor disappears on the external screen in 1024x768 mode!)

It appears there is an incompatibility between SAX2 generated xconfig files and the one that xrandr needs. But, SAX2 and xrandr seem to be using different databases or something. So, I can get a VESA 1280x1024 (no effects) on my external monitor OR I can get normal operations. Weird.

Oh, by the way, unlike my Gateway, the Acer netbook handles 3d compositing just fine in the normal mode.

I should note that all of this is handled by an hotkey in Windows7. The "unified" mode runs the same as in linux, 800x600. The external only mode runs in 1280x1024 (at least on my 1280x1024 external monitor).