Ubuntu and RTL8185 the bane of my existance

Today, I ran into something that would make baby jesus cry.

I am using a Gateway W340UI laptop with a built in wireless card. I downloaded Ubuntu and tried to get it to work. With the installation of Ubuntu (7.10 and 8.04) I was geting hard lockups when trying to connect to a network. It was also not showing any wireless networks. Time to delve into this and learn.

Step 1, doing the actual instiallation - super easy, congrats Ubuntu group for making a great easy way to get a different OS onto my computer other than windows, for this you shall forever be my heros.

Step 2, what have I done, my wireles network card dosn't work, it won't even recognize it.

Step 3, time to learn how to fix this so I may move forward on my quest for world domination.

*** How to get RTL8185 working on your computer - much thanks to the community over at Ubuntu. ***

One on my fresh installation I learned that a program called ndiswrapper was not installed. Okay first thing to do install ndiswrapper.

1) download the latest version of ndiswrapper
2) save the file to a flash drive
3) create a folder on the desktop of your Ubuntu installation to place the file in
4) transfer the file from the flash drive to the desktop folder
5) open the folder in a file explorer (double click the folder to open it)
6) double-click on the ndiswrapper file to install it onto your machine

Great first step down, only a few more to go.

Now, to install the drives many thanks to this post for pointing me into the right direction.

1) Time to get the correct drivers. Realtek has the drivers that you will need on its website here.
2) The drives I first tried were the XP, that was not a good idea... now how do I remove them drives
a) Okay I looked at the manpage for ndiswrapper in hopes that it would instruct me how to remove the drivers that are now invalid.
b) ndiswrapper -r *filename that is the command you will need to keep in your back pocket if you are like me and install the wrong drivers.
3) Okay i'm on to something here, I need the windows 98 drivers, well download the windows ME package. In that package you will have a sub-folder that is for windows 98.
a) here are the files you will need, one is the *.inf and the other is the *.sys file from there.
4) take those two files and put them on your flash drive, and then transfer them to the folder you created on your desktop.

*** Now onto installing the drivers ****

1) open a terminal where the files are located. ls lists the files and folders in the current path you are in. cd moves you between folders.
2) Okay now that you are in the folder you have the files, its time to do the install
a) follow this post I can not say it any better than this guy and he shold get the credit.

You should now have a working network connection.

Back from the beyond!

Well in anticipation of the new release of GTA i've been playing the old ones to completion again to up my skills.

On a secondary note, I've decided I hate windows vista and shall install Ubuntu on my little portable laptop, hey why not.

HERE is an account of what I have to go through

Das Keyboard

I think my favorite gadget I own is my Das Keyboard, for those of you not familiar with the old Nuclear Proof IBM clacker keyboards - built like a tank, and could survive a nuclear strike point blank and made the most noise possible to ensure quality typing speeds.

Fast forward, thinkgeek, yes that online store you get all your widgets from and the home of timmy's monkey offer us up the wonderful DAS keyboard, sturdy, indestructable and the keys are blank, begone beast of trying to see what you are typing it allows one to focus entirely on task of typing not seeing what they are typing until it appears on screen. The bonus to this is that it makes you a better typer.

Portable Development

Got Laptop?

sometimes I do sometimes I don't, kind of like that old commercial "Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't" comparing Almond Joy and that same candy bar that dosn't have the almonds (but the name escapes me at this time).

So, with that in mind what is one to do when you don't have control over your environment but want to be creative?

Obtain a USB flash drive (cheap and easy solution).

On my wiki from pbwiki I shall chronicle my process of installing and running things from my USB flash device.

Core Skill Set - what is it where do you get it?

What should be included in a core skill set of a Mad Scientist?

Tough question, probably not a good answer out there. I would tend to think that as a budding Mad Scientist the foundation or what I like to call "Everything I need to survive in life I learned in the Marine Corps" is very solid.

- Hard skills and soft skills are a must for all blossoming Mad Scientists, but for now I shall leave this question open and try to start finding answers to the solutions.