Saturday, May 30, 2009

Google maps: Offline without an internet connection

Recently I went on a trip which required me to have interactive maps, but i did not have an internet connection, thats when I stumbled upon GMap Catcher, it is a python based application which allows offline caching AND backing up of the caches. You can even specify the level of zoom upto which the map should be downloaded, and both the road maps and sattelite maps are downloadable. Very useful tool indeed.

http://code.google.com/p/gmapcatcher/

To run the linux version, just extract
cd
python maps.py

Center the map to where you want it and just click download, the latitude and longitude are already set to the current center of the map, choose the zoom level and you are good to go. Just check the 'offline' button to view the downloaded content offline.

And yes to backup, just go to your home folder, view> show hidden files, and just copy the .googlemaps folder to back up the whole cache.

Recovering Linux installation after windows install

Since window does not detect GRUB, if you wanna add a windows installation later or recover your existing installation, you end up invariably losing your linux installation.

To recover it, insert the installation disk, enter the text based recovery, when the console opens up type
chroot /mnt/sysimage
This is where your system is mounted on the recovery console.
Then,
grub-install hd
like, hd0,hd1 etc. And reboot.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Nvidia Drivers: Debian Lenny on acer aspire

The following commands ought to help you out (First configure /etc/apt/sources.lst) based on the link in the previous post):

apt-get install module-assistant

apt-get install nvidia-kernel-common module-assistant

m-a -i -t prepare

m-a clean,a-i -i -t -f nvidia-kernel-source

depmod -a

apt-get install nvidia-glx nvidia-glx-dev nvidia-xconfig xserver-xorg

m-a auto-install nvidia-kernel${VERSION}-source

Then add this to /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection

To the respective sections else,

Finally restart X server.

Bluetooth not working, Debian Lenny: Acer 4520

Just installed debian lenny, everything worked out of the box except Nvidia and bluetooth.

For bluetooth, the solution is simple, just go to synaptics (assuming its configured for non free, if not refer http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ch-basico.en.html).

Just install the Acerhk-source package and restart X, then bluetooth will work.

The reason for this error is that Debina does not configure extra keys for this model.