However! it should work using BT747 on Linux. BT747 is a Java tool designed to manipulate all of the poular MTKII chipset based dataloggers out there, not Just QStarz units, but Holux and others too.

While there are many instructions for getting this working with Ubuntu I could not find any recent info for Fedora; so I thought I’d write up my experience of getting this going on my Fedora 16 system.

(Note; the MS Windows software that came with the QStarz unit is Ok these days; the latest release of their [... read more]]]> I have a QStarz BT-Q1000XT gps travel recorder/datalogger; It’s a great bit of kit but rather Windows-centric..

However! it should work using BT747 on Linux. BT747 is a Java tool designed to manipulate all of the poular MTKII chipset based dataloggers out there, not Just QStarz units, but Holux and others too.

While there are many instructions for getting this working with Ubuntu I could not find any recent info for Fedora; so I thought I’d write up my experience of getting this going on my Fedora 16 system.

(Note; the MS Windows software that came with the QStarz unit is Ok these days; the latest release of their travelplanner software is, in my opinion, not too bad. And much more suitable than BT747 for, say, my dad or sister.)

When I connect the BT-Q1000XT and watch /var/log/messages I see:

$ sudo tail /var/log/messages
Apr 12 15:43:12 myhost kernel: [  741.660046] usb 5-1: new full-speed USB device number 4 using uhci_hcd
Apr 12 15:43:12 myhost kernel: [  741.815122] usb 5-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0e8d, idProduct=3329
Apr 12 15:43:12 myhost kernel: [  741.815126] usb 5-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=4, SerialNumber=0
Apr 12 15:43:12 myhost kernel: [  741.815129] usb 5-1: Product: GPS Receiver
Apr 12 15:43:12 myhost kernel: [  741.815131] usb 5-1: Manufacturer: MTK
Apr 12 15:43:12 myhost kernel: [  741.823171] cdc_acm 5-1:1.1: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
Apr 12 15:43:12 myhost mtp-probe: checking bus 5, device 4: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.2/usb5/5-1"
Apr 12 15:43:12 myhost mtp-probe: bus: 5, device: 4 was not an MTP device

Look at the 6th line, this tells us the device is appearing on /dev/ttyACM0

From the BT747 site I ignored the non-functional Java Web Start stuff and followed the link to SourceForge where I downloaded the latest Development Release version (v2.1.4 the last time I checked) and saved it in my downloads folder. This package contains all the various versions, Windows/Mac/Linux desktop, plus the J2ME and PDA versions all in one package.

You can use the standard Java for Fedora; and it works fine on both 32 and 64 bit systems (I use it on my 64-bit desktop and my 32-bit netbook, the developers have done a great job of getting all this stuff working in the latest releases and many of the old caveats about using Sun Java etc. seem to have been resolved. Here is my environment on my desktop:

$ uname -a
Linux myhost.local.net 3.3.1-3.fc16.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Apr 4 18:08:51 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ cat /etc/fedora-release
Fedora release 16 (Verne)
$ java -version
java version "1.7.0_b147-icedtea"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (fedora-2.1.fc16.1-x86_64)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 22.0-b10, mixed mode)

Unzip the downloaded package into a suitable folder:

$ mkdir ~/bt747 ; cd ~/bt747/ ; unzip [path.to.downloaded.folder]/[download].zip

You also need to install the Fedora RXTX package:

$ sudo yum install rxtx

As is commonly documented BT747 wont work as standard due to permissions on the lockfile folder:
* You can enable access with (I do this in the script that starts BT747):

$ sudo chmod a+x /var/run/lock

Having done this I then tried to run:

$ ./run_j2se.sh
$ ./lib/rxtx-2.2pre2-bins/Linux/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
PATH = /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/home/ocarter/.local/bin:/home/ocarter/bin

1994 - BT747 2.1.0 Build:BT747_mdeweerd.0.20120411231431933
1995 - Initial: 1019x575  Screen: 1920x1080 Final: 1019x575
1995 - Linux
1995 - amd64
1995 - 3.3.1-3.fc16.x86_64
1995 - 1.7.0_b147-icedtea
1995 - 64
1995 - Fail com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsLookAndFeel
Fail com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsClassicLookAndFeel
Success com.sun.java.swing.plaf.nimbus.NimbusLookAndFeel
javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalLookAndFeel
javax.swing.plaf.nimbus.NimbusLookAndFeel
com.sun.java.swing.plaf.motif.MotifLookAndFeel
com.sun.java.swing.plaf.gtk.GTKLookAndFeel

So far so good; The ‘Fail‘ messages are really just a warning that it cannot use it’s preferred window style.

I get the GUI up and can use it, but when I enter the device in the connect box (/dev/ttyACM0) it fails to connect and I get errors:

65604 - Classgps.connection.GPSRxTxPort
WARNING:  RXTX Version mismatch
	Jar version = RXTX-2.2pre1
	native lib Version = RXTX-2.2pre2

gnu.io.NoSuchPortException
	at gnu.io.CommPortIdentifier.getPortIdentifier(CommPortIdentifier.java:269)
	at gps.connection.GPSRxTxPort.openPort(Unknown Source)
        ...
       [snip many lines of tedious, pointless and distracting backtrace info]
	...
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:105)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:90)
65622 -
Listing known ports:
65623 - Port opened

Much searching around and I found this is due to 1) permissions on the USB device and 2) A need to explicitly add this USB device to the available devices of gnu.io.rxtx

To verify I could see that the USB serial device is connecting and producing data; but permissions are wrong and my user cannot read it.

$ cat /dev/ttyACM0
cat: /dev/ttyACM0: Permission denied

But the same command run as the root user works:

$ sudo cat /dev/ttyACM0
$PMTK011,MTKGPS*08
$PMTK010,001*2E
00*79
$GPRMC,001255.799,V,,,,,0.00,0.00,060180,,,N*46
...
[data should pour out at high speed,
hit CTRL-C to end..]

.. so the device is connected and sending data (yippee!), I just cannot see it yet.

Looking at the device file shows that it’s owner is root, but that it’s group is ‘dialout‘.

$ ls -l /dev/ttyACM0
crw-rw----. 1 root dialout 166, 0 Apr 13 12:44 /dev/ttyACM0

Therefore I need to be in the group: dialout
Look at your current extended groups list:

$ sudo id [myuser]

Then use the usermod command to add ‘dialout‘ as a new extended group:
* due to the way usermod works you must specify ALL the extended groups in one go (separated by commas); which is why I get you the look at them in the step above.. you do not need to give the primary group.

$ sudo usermod -G [existing groups],dialout

eg:
$ id myuser
uid=1001(myuser) gid=1001(myuser) groups=1001(myuser),10(wheel),48(apache)
$ sudo usermod -G wheel,apache,dialout myuser
$ id myuser
uid=1001(myuser) gid=1001(myuser) groups=1001(myuser),10(wheel),48(apache),18(dialout)

You must log out/in to get the new group membership active in your default shells.
* Yes.. I know there are other ways to do that but logging out/in is easiest and fastest for real users..

Now we must pass the correct tty device to gnu.io.rxtx which we do by adding the option ‘-Dgnu.io.rxtx.SerialPorts=/dev/ttyACM0‘ to the Java invocation.

I combine this with the lockfile permissions setting by putting it all into a modified copy of the startup script:

Copy the script and make it executable:

$ cd ~/bt747/ ; cp run_j2se.sh bt747 ; chmod a+rx bt747

Then edit ‘bt747′ and replace the final line with two lines like this:

sudo chmod a+w /var/run/lock
"$JAVA" $MEM_HEAP_OPTION $DEBUG_OPTION $NOPROXY_OPTION -Djava.library.path="${RXTXLIBPATH}" -Dgnu.io.rxtx.SerialPorts=/dev/ttyACM0 -Dbt747_prefix="/dev/ttyACM" bt747.j2se_view.BT747Main $* &

This runs the command to free up the lockdir, and passes the correct option to gnu.io.rxtx (plus I pass another option to help bt747 find the USB device.)

Having done that, and remembering to log out/in, it just works(tm).

I can now run BT747 with:

$ ~/bt747/bt747

The first time of running you might need to enter ‘/dev/ttyACM0‘ in the connect box at the bottom; although it works fine for me with the default ‘USB‘ entry.

The result:

[ Later I Also want to add a review/notes about BT747, which seems very good so far... ]

In theory these functions are well protected and only accessible to admins; but I still see a risk; if an attacker manages to get Horde admin access they could then take over the entire site and replace it’s contents with their own. And if they know a privilege escalation exploit that works on the webserver or mysql accounts they could compromise the whole server. Essentially this could bypass the protections built into PHP that should stop a Horde admin from affecting anything other than the [... read more]]]> Horde4 is great, but one thing I was not too comfortable about is that the admin interface provides three CLI interfaces (cmdshell, phpshell and sqlshell).

In theory these functions are well protected and only accessible to admins; but I still see a risk; if an attacker manages to get Horde admin access they could then take over the entire site and replace it’s contents with their own. And if they know a privilege escalation exploit that works on the webserver or mysql accounts they could compromise the whole server. Essentially this could bypass the protections built into PHP that should stop a Horde admin from affecting anything other than the horde install.

So, having discovered that there is no global (built-in) way to disable these shells on Horde4 Groupware I decided to find out how to do it myself, and then write it up.

First; disable the functions themselves by removing the .php extension from them:

# cd /path/to/www/horde/admin
# mv phpshell.php phpshell.php.DISABLED
# mv sqlshell.php sqlshell.php.DISABLED
# mv cmdshell.php cmdshell.php.DISABLED

Next; find the entries for phpshell, sqlshell and cmdshell in the Api.php script ‘class Horde_Api‘ -> ‘public function admin_list‘ definition (near the start of this file):

# cd /path/to/www/horde/lib/
# cp -p Api.php Api.php.DIST
# vi Api.php

.. and comment them out using /* … */; to look like this:

/* 'phpshell' => array(
    'link' => '%application%/admin/phpshell.php',
    'name' => _("P_HP Shell"),
    'icon' => Horde_Themes::img('mime/php.png')
), */
/* 'sqlshell' => array(
    'link' => '%application%/admin/sqlshell.php',
    'name' => _("S_QL Shell"),
    'icon' => Horde_Themes::img('sql.png')
), */
/* 'cmdshell' => array(
    'link' => '%application%/admin/cmdshell.php',
    'name' => _("_CLI"),
    'icon' => Horde_Themes::img('shell.png')
) */

And that should be it.. a refresh of the Horde portal should show them gone; and they cannot be exploited by an attacker on their default paths any more due to being renamed (+you could delete them for even more paranoid scenarios).

Note that this is non-persistent; every upgrade of Horde will necessitate coming back to these items and reapplying the above; Hopefully this will be adresseed in a more permanent fashion in the future.

Before: After:

Update: 20-4-2012 : Slow Boot??? (aka: big pause before Gnome starts) It’s this bug causing it and the fact that the iSCSI service is being started by default. Solve this by running the commands from here (I have added this to the guide).

Fedora 17? – Is coming, and this guide should work just fine with it. I wont be very rushing to update [... read more]]]> I should warn that F16 has been giving me a lot of wireless network disconnects under high network load; and also that Gnome3 is either good or bad, depending on your POV. I quite like it but think it has unaddressed weaknesses and weird UI defaults.

Update: 20-4-2012 : Slow Boot??? (aka: big pause before Gnome starts)
It’s this bug causing it and the fact that the iSCSI service is being started by default. Solve this by running the commands from here (I have added this to the guide).

Fedora 17? – Is coming, and this guide should work just fine with it. I wont be very rushing to update this for it since the sailing season has begun, and I am trying to prefer nuts and bolts reality over all this virtual nonsense.

This guide is geared towards the Original Aspire One (the one with a very slow 8Gb SSD disk). Fundamentally it is all about maximizing performance from SSD equipped Intel Atom Netbooks. Some of it applies to versions of the Aspire One which came with ‘real’ HDD’s too. Although they will work well with a default F16 install you can use many of the steps here to tweak a HDD based atom Netbook too (ignore the specialised disk partitioning, leave YUM presto enabled, and do not follow the instructions on how to remove disk journalling.)

I think this is complete; but YMMV.

Create bootable Live CD image on a USB stick.

• I’m not giving instructions for this step here; the Fedora Site does a much better job of it than I can, all the info and downloads you need are there.
• Use the 32 bit Live CD image.
• If you see the boot starts but then you just get weird letters and patterns on the screen and the system becomes unresponsive.. Check you don’t have the 64 bit install media! It took me 10mins to figure what the hell was going on.
• Use a good USB stick, some cheap ones refuse to boot on the Aspire one. My Kingston DataTraveller works every time, but my SD Cruzer only worked once and has failed every time since.
• If having trouble with this a good alternative (one that I have used) is an external USB CD drive and a bootable CD/DVD.

Once you have booted from the Live Image and are on the desktop; move the cursor to the top left corner of the screen to open the Gnome3 menus. Click the ‘Install to Hard Drive‘ icon at the bottom of the ‘favourites’ panel to the left.

Follow the wizard!

• Keyboard (as appropriate; US English if unsure). Click on Next.
• Choose Basic Storage Devices. Click on Next.
• Hostname (eg: myserver.mydomain.co.uk). Click on Next.
• Nearest City (use the dropdown or map). Click on Next.
• Choose a strong root password, enter it twice, try not to forget it! Click on Next.

Now we come to the tricky part: Disk layout.

• On the first screen; select ‘Use All Space‘ from the installation types, unselect ‘Use LVM‘, select ‘Review and Modify Partitioning Layout‘. Click on Next.
• On the following screen select and use the arrow button to copy just the internal HD (ATA) device from the top of the list to the ‘Install Target Devices’ column; don’t select the Boot stick or your SD card homedir (if you use one). Click on Next.
• This next screen is the trickiest:
  We will work on the ‘sda‘ device, this is the SSD HD in a standard A110, the ‘sdb‘ device is the USB stick, and ‘mmcblk0‘ (if present) is for SD card homedirs.
  Select and delete the Swap partition (sda3 on my device).
  The list should now adjust its scheme to fill the disk without having swap; leaving the root partition (mount point=’/‘) as sda3 and occupying all the space previously assigned to swap (7193Mb on my device).
  When finished you should have something rather like this:
  
  [Note that I have a SD card at mmcblk0 which has my homedir on it, so I am not formatting it, the installer incorrectly identifies this as a ext2 filesystem. ]
• Get a pen and paper: Write down the device identifiers for the / and /boot disk partitions (by default ‘sda3‘ and ‘sda2‘ respectively). You will need to know this later when we turn journalling off.
  Click on Next.
• Say ‘Yes’ to the ‘Are you sure you do not want a swap partition?’ popup; for the SSD in the A110 swap is a bad idea, extremely slow and really just a waste of disk space. Which is why I strongly recommend deleting it in the previous screen.
• Click ‘Write Changes to Disk‘ on the next popup (having first double-checked that you have any backups you need.. BlaBlaBla..) and the filesystems will be created.
• On the final screen; leave the bootloader on /dev/sda. Click on Next.

The system should now install to the SSD (Hard Drive), this takes a few minutes.. Once it completes select Reboot (remember to boot from the system disk, not the USB stick!)

The system will reboot back into the install wizard, follow this to complete the final config steps, begin by pressing ‘Forward‘, look at the open licence and then go ‘Forward‘.

• Check the Date/Time is OK, I strongly recommend selecting the ‘Synchronise date and time over the network’ option (accept the default pool server list if unsure what to do there).
• Create a normal user account, and select the ‘add to administrators group’ option to make your life easier later on.
• Submitting a hardware profile is good; it lets the Fedora folks know that NetBooks are still being used.

You should now have a functioning system.

I suggest logging in and setting up a network connection at this point; the system will be quite functional, but there are still a few things we can do to perk up it’s performance.

Now it is time to ‘fix’ Some stuff.

In this next section you need to be able to open a terminal, sudo to root and edit files (with nano/vi/gedit/whatever). If you are comfortable with this then go right ahead, if not I suggest you start at some of the excellent online Linux guides and come back once you have a ‘root prompt‘ open. If you are new to Unix I think you will find nano much easier to use for editing files than vi.

Protips:

• Get online and enable the sshd service (‘# systemctl enable sshd.service ; systemctl start sshd.service‘) and open up the firewall for it; eg. via ‘# system-config-firewall').
  Logging in via SSH from a desktop machine made doing all the stuff below much easier (cut/paste on a big screen and mouse etc..
• I also installed ‘screen‘ (# yum install screen so that the update process could be detached without stopping when I disconnect from SSH.

First: we will set disk optimisations and set up some ‘ramdisks’ on the system for temporary and log files.

• Log in as root on a terminal; edit the mount map file
  # vi /etc/fstab
• Add ‘,noatime,nodiratime‘ after the ‘defaults‘ option for the ext4 disks already listed.
• Add tempfs (ramdisk) entries for some temporary filesystems that would otherwise live on the (very slow) SSD: /var/log /tmp and /var/tmp.
  [Putting the logfiles on a ramdisk has means you loose all your logs at every reboot, but saves loads of write cycles on the disk. If you have an issue where you need to keep logs you can simply comment out this entry while debugging it.]
• When complete my fstab looked like this:
  

  #
UUID=12345678-abcd-abcd-9009-123456789abc / ext4 defaults,noatime,nodiratime 1 1
UUID=87654321-dcba-dcba-8bb8-cba987654321 /boot ext4 defaults,noatime,nodiratime 1 2
tmpfs /var/log tmpfs defaults 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0
tmpfs /var/tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0

• If you have a SD card in the left hand card slot to use for home directories you can also add:
  

  # Home directories on left hand SD card
/dev/mmcblk0p1 /home xfs defaults,noatime,nodiratime 0 0

  [Note: I use XFS instead of EXT for the filesystem type since EXT filesystems on SD cards can be corrupted by one of many bugs with Suspend. This might be fixed for Fedora 16 (it was definitely broken at Fedora 14) but I really cant be bothered to check.]

Tip: Try a reboot of the system now. The fstab file is very syntax sensitive, and a mistake in it can stop the system fully booting. It can be fixed via the emergency prompt you get dumped to, or you can restart the install from scratch if doing that is failing.

Change the location of the YUM log so that it is not on a virtual filesystem, this lets you keep your updates history intact; I simply dump it on the root of the filesystem.

• # vi /etc/yum.conf
• edit the line for the logfile; eg: ‘logfile=/yum.log‘

Now we will apply some of Jorges changes to kernel parameters.

# vi /etc/sysctl.conf, add the following to the end:

# Economize the SSD
# Strongly discourage swapping (default 60)
vm.swappiness = 1
# Don't shrink the inode cache aggressively (default 100)
vm.vfs_cache_pressure = 50
# Make system wait longer before writing dirty data (default 500)
vm.dirty_writeback_centisecs = 1500
# Laptop mode setting tries to minimise disk power usage. (default 0=0ff)
vm.laptop_mode = 5

• We no longer need to set vm.dirty_ratio = 20 and vm.dirty_background_ratio = 10 since these now seem to be the default with Fedora 16.

Run a script that changes some device settings at startup (there may be a better way to do this, but if so I have not come across it, all tips gratefully received!)

• Create and edit a new file:
  # vi /etc/rc.d/rc.local
• Copy/paste the following into it:
  [Remove the mmcblk0 lines if you do not use a separate homedir in the left hand SD card slot].

  #!/bin/sh
# Owens SSD/ASpire Mods
#
# Use the deadline scheduler
echo -n "deadline" >| /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler
echo -n "deadline" >| /sys/block/mmcblk0/queue/scheduler
#
# Stop disk activity being batched; not sensible on SSD.
echo -n "1" >| /sys/block/sda/queue/iosched/fifo_batch
echo -n "1" >| /sys/block/mmcblk0/queue/iosched/fifo_batch
#
# Keep the fan working properly..
echo -n "enabled" >| /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/mode
#
# Make the sound subsystem go off 10s after playback stops.
echo 10 > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save
#
# SMT will fill first core+thread before starting others up; helps save power.
echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/sched_smt_power_savings

• Make this file executable:
  # chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/rc.local
• Enable the service that runs this at boot time:
  # systemctl enable rc-local.service (ignore the warning)

Disable SElinux in the kernel (This saves resources and keeps the system responsive)

• # vi /etc/sysconfig/selinux
  Change the ‘default’ line to say:
  SELINUX=disabled
• SElinux will now be disabled after next reboot.
• You are not reducing the security of your machine much; SELinux is currently configured for protecting webservers etc, not personal PC’s. The disadvantages of running it on a netbook far outweigh any positives.

Disable Yum Presto with:

• # yum remove yum-presto
• Presto works well on systems with a nice big fast HDD; but is catastrophic to yum’s performance on a slow disk like the A110′s.

Do not start some redundant (and cpu/time sapping) services:

• # systemctl disable iscsi.service
# systemctl disable iscsid.service
• No iSCSI devices on the aspire one.
• # systemctl disable libvirtd.service
# systemctl disable libvirt-guests.service
• Running VM’s on this system would be very slow.
• # systemctl disable livesys.service
# systemctl disable livesys-late.service
• These are hangovers from the install, dont really cause any problem but have no value to us either.
• # systemctl disable nfs-idmap.service
# systemctl disable nfs-lock.service
• If you are in an environment where you use NFS, you’ll know what to do, if not these are pointless.

Now we want to make two changes to the kernel boot parameters, the first forces the use of the best access mode (elevator) for the SSD disk; the second makes suspend work properly if you use a the left hand SD card slot (thanks to JB for this trick).

• Edit the grub2 config file:
  # vi /etc/default/grub
• Add ‘ elevator=noop mmc_core.removable=0‘ to the default Grub commandline so that it looks like this:
  

  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rd.md=0 rd.lvm=0 rd.dm=0 KEYTABLE=us quiet SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 rhgb rd.luks=0 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 elevator=noop mmc_core.removable=0"

• Then rebuild the grub config with the following command:
  # grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

This final step is awkward and slightly risky.. but saves write cycles on the SSD and is worth doing.

• Reboot the netbook from the USB live stick like you did to begin the install
• Open a terminal and become the root user via the ‘su‘ command
  [liveuser@localhost ~]$ su -
• run tune2fs to remove the disk journals:
  This command can only be run on inactive filesystems; which is why we had to reboot from the USB media.
  [This example assumes the disk devices you noted when specifying the disk layout are the defaults; adjust this if you used a different partitioning layout when originally installing.]
  # tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sda3
# tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sda2

Reboot the system normally (if you only see ‘Suspend‘ in the user menu, press the ‘ALT‘ key to see the correct option and marvel at the stupidity of the Gnome 3 team when they imposed that on their users);

Now; your system should be running Fedora 16 about as well as it can. We are finally ready to do our first system update; it takes several hours at present (2 weeks after release there were 166+ packages to update.)

Tip: Due to the problems with Wifi under high load, and the fact that this update will hammer the network connection while it downloads, I strongly suggest using a wired ethernet connection while the update is running (you can disconnect it after the initial download phase is finished)

# yum update

• Look at the list, groan, press ‘Y‘ and remember you’ll need more than a cup of coffee to wait this one out.

Have fun…

You should follow some of the many existing Fedora 16 guides for installing Flash, gstreamer plugins, chrome, etc..

What works:

• As far as I can tell and have tested: pretty much everything; webcam, speakers, microphone, cooling (fan on/off), wifi, ethernet, r/h card reader, function keys, touchpad, suspend.
• I have not tried multi-monitor mode, but I expect that works properly too.

What Fails:

• The 2 small known issues are that sony memorysticks wont work in the r/h card slot, and the wireless switch on the case is not working.
• The big known issue is that the WiFi flakes out under high sustained load, it’s a pretty fundamental problem too, the network simply stops responding without generating any errors or warnings.
  This is really annoying when it happens, but does not actually affect me too much in my daily use. Mostly it prevents me using the machine as a media player (but I have an Android tablet which is better for that anyway).
  I have not had a chance to investigate this further, unless it becomes a bigger issue I probably wont either..
• Hibernate (suspend to disk) is not available because we have disabled the swapfile, this is no huge loss since hibernate is very slow with the SSD disk.

Thinks I would like to write up properly here but probably never will;

• Install the tweak tool: # yum install gnome-tweak-tool
  This will make a ‘Advanced Settings’ application appear in the applications menu.
• Install Fusion repos and then install vlc+gstreamer codecs in order to get a working media player.
• Install Adobe repo and flash to get bbc radio player working
• WeightWatchers; trim some fat from the install. Things that a netbook never needs.

In short, to avoid a minor rant, suspend is quite a problem area for Linux and is broken on many common chipsets and systems. I have 2 Desktop machines and a NetBook all running Fedora 16, and suspend is broken on all of them, I suspect many others have a similar level of breakage.

Fortunately; the system policy framework on Linux is good; allowing us to simply tell [... read more]]]> This is dead simple; Gnome 3 tries to impose Suspend on users as the only true way^(tm) to de-power their system; hiding PowerOff behind a modifier key. If suspend fails on your Fedora 16 Machine this is a constant source of irritation.

In short, to avoid a minor rant, suspend is quite a problem area for Linux and is broken on many common chipsets and systems. I have 2 Desktop machines and a NetBook all running Fedora 16, and suspend is broken on all of them, I suspect many others have a similar level of breakage.

Fortunately; the system policy framework on Linux is good; allowing us to simply tell the OS that Suspend is not available.

UPDATED: The original solution given here worked but was substandard because it was not permanent. Updates to the polkit system would re-write the file we were modifying, leading to an ‘aaargh! dammit.’ moment.

Fortunately folks older and more into the inner workings of this stuff than me have a better, permanent, solution; so head on over to Anttix’s blog for a correct solution.

Do not do the following, see above!

I did not do a Fedora 15 version of this guide; but there is now a Fedora 16 A110 guide!

I have F14 working beautifully on my Acer Aspire A110L (that’s the original model with the really slow 8Gb SSD drive); the purpose of this article is to show how.