On upgrading Debian Sid

For as long as I’ve used Debian and Alsa, I’ve used to alsaconf to configure my soundcard(s). Late last week, I dist-upgrade’d my machine and moved from the 2.6.18 kernel to the 2.6.22 kernel which seemed to improve a number of performance issues with my E6420 and Asus P5B-E (though I haven’t tried recompiling the gigabit NIC driver under this kernel to check if those performance issues are resolved, so I’m still using a 3Com 10/100). However alsa broke for me with this upgrade.  After running alsaconf, I would get the following:

amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such device

I googled at first, and found nothing, so I gave up for a couple of days. Last night I decided it was time to fix shit, so I got back into troubleshooting mode.  Long story short, update-modules is now deprecated, alsaconf relies on update-modules, so stop using alsaconf.  Let udev load the drivers for your soundcards and it’ll be all good.

This is the middle, the middle of our headset story

I’ve recently picked up a Motorola H670 to use with my phone.  BT range is good, volume is decent, it fits snug against my head and it doesn’t look like ass.  So far so good.

The only problem? It auto-answers incoming calls, and I need to figure out how to change that.  I’m almost certain that it didn’t do that when I first paired it, so it must be something I did, but I haven’t as of yet figured out what that was. I’ve checked all the settings in my phone that I know of and none are set to auto-answer. This shall be the last piece of the puzzle.  I figured it was time for an update.  I really have nothing else to say about this.

The Woefull tale of a Treo and a new headset

I have a Treo 650 that I have accepted into my life as my personal lord and savior. It allows me greater mental freedom by offloading less important tasks like remembering anything.

For the last year, I’ve been using a Motorola HS850 with my Treo, and it’s been very well behaved. But over that year, the driver element has started to crackle, the over the ear hanger bit is loosening up and the unit is prone to falling off easily. So I decided it was time to look for a new headset. Originally I ebayed a Moto H700 which turned out to be a cheap knockoff. That said, it didn’t play nice with my Treo. So I gave it to a friend (it was only $30, good sign it was a knockoff) and yesterday I picked up a legit H700 at FutureShop.

I have a PalmOne Treo 650. Hardware revision A, Firmware 01.71, and Software Treo650-1.20-ENA. The legit H700 didn’t work with this phone. Disabled bluetooth, deleted the bluetooth device cache and trusted devices list, did a soft reset, turned bluetooth on then paired the H700 with my 650 and it still didn’t work. The H700 would pair with my phone and take itself out of discoverable mode, it would show up in my trusted devices list. It was non functional as a headset. Couldn’t answer a call, couldn’t transfer a call from the handset to the headset. Flipping open the boom didn’t “wake-up” the handset either. Every standard behavior I’m accustomed to with my HS850 didn’t work.

I tried the above in car-kit mode as well. Still no dice.

The only redeeming bit to the entire story is that there was no hassle returning the headset to FutureShop. And so, the search continues for a new headset to replace my trusty but dieing HS850.

PROGRESS!!!!

There is a new home!

We officially have our apartment! We’ve managed to snag a two bedroom halfway up a 14 story high-rise on the south-side. Close to work for me(relatively speaking, 27km commute one-way is now 9km), close-ish to work for Carla (she works downtown now).  Dave gets a room for an office, we get some privacy and independence, with a little bit of best-friends-that-live-across-the-hall just as icing on the cake.

Walk-through, lease-signing, key-getting and move-in this Saturday.  Joygasms abound!