Linux and Purdue Wireless - An Update

Ok, so after posting this post back in October, I solved the problem shortly after, but never posted about it. After setting up PAL (Purdue Air Link) on my new Linux Mint install and on my son's machine, I thought I would record the steps while they are fresh in my mind.

Now, Purdue will have you install the specially configured Cisco VPN client that they offer for download, but I had trouble with that. First, I had to install a patch before compiling the client. No mention of this on the Purdue page, but I found the details here on the LANMK site. OK, so that worked, but when I tried to configure the VPN connection, the add button wasn't available. Hmmm. I uninstalled the client and tried option 2.

Which was to use the open source vpnc client. It's available in the Ubuntu repositories, so install was easy:

sudo apt-get install network-manager-vpnc

Now the add button is functional.

To configure the client, I copied the setup from my old Linux install (which I haven't yet deleted). Note the group name and group password. I found those last year on a Purdue Linux Users Page here, along with all the rest of these instructions. I don't know why ITaP doesn't just link to this page, as it has everything one would need to connect.



The only bad part about this method is that the user has to connect both to PAL 1.0 and the VPN for each session - no automatic connection. Here's the steps:

1. Connect to the hidden wireless network PAL (Not PAL 2.0 or PAL 2.0 Instructions). If you can't find it, you're out of luck.
2. After the wireless connection is up, start the VPN connection by clicking on the wireless indicator in the status bar, selecting VPN Connections, and clicking on the VPN connection created earlier (mine is called 'Purdue').

Anyway, this worked for me, and hopefully for my son as well.

Updated Linux Mint on the Laptop

Linux Mint v7 came out a couple of months ago, and I ran the update process on the laptop to upgrade from v6. It worked pretty well, but a few things were off. Specifically, I had troubles with Compiz effects. Now, I know they aren't necessary, take up resources, and I rarely use them, but they're fun to show off - especially the cube.

Another issue that was a little more important was that the entire machine was considerably slower, and programs would often hang (the grayed screen of impatience) while things caught up.

Since I had an extra partition I wasn't using, I decided to throw on a fresh install of Mint. As one would imagine, the install was quick and easy. The only thing I forgot was that, as with every version of Mint or Ubuntu I've installed, since my wireless subsystem uses one of the proprietary drivers, I have to be plugged in to the network during the upgrade until I enable the driver. Once that was done, I was back on the air.

My Linux setup isn't overly customized. This makes it easy to upgrade or re-install, as I don't have to remember or document a bunch of oddball settings and utilities. Instead, I just re-installed my favorite software. And as a hard core web apps user, there isn't that much to put on. Here's the quick list:

Avant Window Manager

I like the Mac-like icon bar

Eclipse

Great of all kinds of devlopment projects. I'm using Django/Python

Firefox Add-ons

The only one I'm using right now lets me comment using icons on Flickr

Tweetdeck

Yes, I'm a Tweeter

Skype

I'm actually not very impressed by the delays that are always present in Skype, but I keep it around in case I need it.

gFTP

Everyone needs to transfer files sometime

Quanta Plus

HTML and CSS editor

jUploader

Flickr uploader

Cheese Webcam

Just for fun!

Inkscape

A vector graphics editor

GMail Notify

Makes an annoying beep sound whenever an email arrives

AcidRip

A DVD ripper

Handbrake

Convert videos and DVD rips to other video formats. Great for prepping things for the iPhone

Audacity

Used to manipulate and convert audio files. Can help record as well

VLC

I almost forgot my favorite video program. I use it mostly for playback, but it can also do capture and conversion. Also, works with almost any format without requiring external codecs.

Not a huge list anyway.

Of course, there are many programs that are included in the Linux Mint default configuration, including Firefox (web), The GIMP (graphics and photo manipulation), and OpenOffice (the occasional WP or spreadsheet task) that I use as well.

After that was done, I set up the connection to my home file server, and I was good to go. I'll wait a couple of more days before I delete the old partition and add the space to this new one.