Tag: USB

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Device Hardware Linux Open Source Solutions Ubuntu

Fixing USB Keyboard & Mouse Boot Problems in Ubuntu

USB Cables
USB Cables (Photo credit: incurable_hippie)

Sometimes on startup, Ubuntu does not recognize my USB Keyboard & Mouse. This problem is frustrating as Windows seems to recognize them.

It took me a while to recognize the root of the problem was with the USB 3.0 ports on the Motherboard. By moving the usb connections to the USB 2.0 ports on the motherboard this problem was solved.

Problem: USB Keyboard and Mouse dont work on boot up.
Solution: Move the connectors to the devices from a standard USB 3.0 port to standard USB 2.0 port(check with your motherboard manual for specifics)

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Hardware Linux Solutions Web

How to Create a Bootable SeaTools USB – SeaGate Linux

Seagate U6 3.5 inch 40 GB hard disk.
Seagate U6 3.5 inch 40 GB hard disk. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

SeaTools is a diagnostic tool to check your hard disk for errors and failure. Its an extremely useful tool to have around as hard disks fail all the time and recognizing a failing hard disk can save you a lot of trouble in the long run.

You can get a copy of the bootable iso from here: http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/item/seatools-dos-master/
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So here is a guide to create a bootable SeaTools USB drive for Ubuntu:

  1. Install syslinux:
    $ sudo apt-get install syslinux
  2. Format the USB drive and Repartition it as FAT
    Give it a name like  “SEATOOLS”
  3. Mark the newly created partition as bootable – You can use Gparted to do this.
  4. Copy “syslinux” master boot record to drive (The code below is assuming your drive is loacated at “sdb”):
    $ sudo dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sdb
  5. Install syslinux on the drive partition:
    $ sudo syslinux /dev/sdb1
  6. Mount drive. You can do this by reinserting the drive or by using a command like:
    $ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
  7. Copy the MEMDISK bootloader from /usr/share/syslinux/memdisk to the drive:
    $ cp /usr/lib/syslinux/memdisk /media/SEATOOLS
  8. Copy the SeaToolsDOS223ALL.ISO to the drive
  9. Create a file named ‘syslinux.cfg’ on the drive, with this in it (use correct .iso name):
    DEFAULT SeaTools
    LABEL SeaTools
    LINUX memdisk
    INITRD SeaToolsDOS223ALL.ISO
    APPEND iso

 

Thats it you’re done 🙂  Try booting with it. Here’s what my usb stick looks like at the end of all of this:

$ ls -l
total 3136
-r--r--r-- 1 username username 32768 2013-12-22 17:44 ldlinux.sys
-rw-r--r-- 1 username username 25244 2013-12-22 17:51 memdisk
-rw-r--r-- 1 username username 3137536 2013-12-22 13:22 SeaToolsDOS223ALL.ISO
-rw-r--r-- 1 username username 97 2013-12-22 17:54 syslinux.cfg

Categories
Device Open Source Solutions

Downloading Garmin GPS Data in Ubuntu

One of the simplest ways to download Track, Waypoint and Route information from your Garmin GPS in Ubuntu is using gpsbabel.

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Install gpsbabel via apt-get

sudo apt-get install gpsbabel

Connect the gps via the cable provided to the serial port of the computer or via a serial to USB converter to the USB port on your desktop/notebook.  To extract the infrormation all you need to do is, execute the following command:

gpsbabel -r -t -w -i garmin -f /dev/ttyUSB0 -o gpx -F data.gpx

The above command copies Routes(-r), Tracks(-t) and Waypoints(-w) from a garmin device (-i garmin) located at Serial-USB interface (-f /dev/ttyUSB0) and saves the info (-o) in the standard gps format (gpx) in the file data.gpx. You can omit the information you dont require and even choose other fromats like kml for google earth:

gpsbabel -r -t -w -i garmin -f /dev/ttyUSB0 -o kml -F data.kml

You should now have a file “data.gpx” which can be used to retrive or map your gps data.

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