How to install AR8151 v1.0 Gigabit Ethernet driver on Fedora 13

UPDATE!
I upgraded my kernel version to 2.6.33.6-147.2.4.fc13.i686, if you upgraded yours too, you'll have to repeat the process above all over again, I'll try to find a way so we can avoid that, but for the meantime, repeating the process above will solve the problem.
END UPDATE

Ive spent at least a month, just trying to get my wired connection work on an ACER Aspire 4745G running on Fedora 13. The linux driver for my AR8151 v1.0 Gigabit Ethernet LAN card was giving me nightmares! It was always telling me that the driver cannot be built since I was using an old version of the linux kernel (which was really annoying, mind you, since I was running the latest version of the linux kernel (2.6.33.6-147.fc13.i686)). So here's how I made it work, with lots of help from my colleagues.

Prerequisites (Thanks to Nikhil Pawar for this info):
1. Install kernel-devel and kernel-headers. Do this using the following command:

yum install kernel-devel kernel-headers

2. Install compilers. Do this using the following command:

yum install make automake autoconf gcc gcc-c++

Installation Steps:

1. Download the Atheros ethernet driver for linux from here. Download the file named AR81Family-Linux-v1.0.1.9.tar.gz
2. Extract the contents of the gzip file using the following command

tar zxvf AR81Family-Linux-v1.0.1.9.tar.gz

3. Become root using the following command

su

4. Enter the root password.
5. Navigate to the src directory of the extracted files by executing the following command.

cd src

6. Build the driver from source by executing the following command.

make

NOTE: If it complains about your kernel version being outdated / and / or not being the latest version, do the following:
6.a) Edit the MakeFile. (the one inside the src folder from the file that you extracted on step 2) Comment out the following lines by adding a # sign before all of the lines.

ifeq ($(KKVER), 0)
$(error *** Aborting the build.
*** This driver is not supported on kernel versions older than 2.4.0)
endif

After editing, the said lines should look like the following:

# ifeq ($(KKVER), 0)
# $(error *** Aborting the build.
# *** This driver is not supported on kernel versions older than 2.4.0)
# endif

6.b) Save the MakeFile.
6.c) Execute the make command again. Ignore the warnings that you see, they're annoying.

make

7. Install the driver by executing the following command.

make install

8. Inside the src folder. Find the file atl1e.ko. Copy it to the following folder.

/lib/modules/"your kernel version"/kernel/drivers/net/atl1e/

NOTE: Replace the text "your kernel version" with the version of your kernel. You can find that out by executing the following command:

uname -r

For example, in my machine:

[root@mybox src]$ uname -r

2.6.33.6-147.fc13.i686

So the command to copy my .ko file to the proper folder will be:

cp ./atl1e.ko /lib/modules/2.6.33.6-147.fc13.i686/kernel/drivers/net/atl1e/

9. Make your system automatically load the driver modules during system boot by executing the following command.

modprobe atl1e

NOTE: After executing the command above and you got an error that looks like the following:

[root@mybox ~]$ modprobe atl1e

FATAL: Module atl1e not found.

Do the following:
9.a) Execute the following command.

depmod -a

9.b) Create a .module file inside /etc/sysconfig/modules by executing the following command.

echo /sbin/modprobe atl1e >> /etc/sysconfig/modules/local.modules

9.c) Chmod the newly created module file to 755 by executing the following command

chmod 755 /etc/sysconfig/modules/local.modules

10. Restart your machine.

Thats it! That should do it! It worked on my machine, I hope it will work on yours too!
Please comment on this post for any questions!


For Fedora 14, please refer to Patrik Martinsson's blog post.

Creating and Editing Symbolic Links

Creating a Symbolic Link
To create a symbolic link, you can use the ln command. Usage is as follows:

ln -s targetFile symbolicLinkName

For example, to create a symbolic link named "mylink" in the current folder that targets the executable file "/usr/java/default/bin/java", execute the following command in your terminal:

ln -s /usr/java/default/bin/java mylink

Changing the target of a Symbolic Link without deleting the file

You can also use the ln command to change the target of an existing symbolic link by using ln's -f option. Usage is as follows:

ln -f -s newTargetFile symbolicLinkName

For example if you want to change the target of the symbolic link "/home/user/mylink" to "/usr/bin/gedit", execute the following command in your terminal:

ln -f -s /usr/bin/gedit /home/user/mylink

"Permissions 0664" error when using a ssh private key file

I tried to migrate my ssh private key (which was generated using cygwin on a windows box) to my Fedora 13 box, but I got a "Permissions 0664" error. Here's how I was able to resolve it:

1. Open a terminal.
2. Navigate to the .ssh folder. Mostly located under your home directory.
3. Make sure that your private key file is located under the .ssh directory.
4. Type in the following command

chmod 0400 id_dsa

NOTE: Where id_dsa is the filename of your private key file.

That's it! You're all done!

Fedora 13: Playing MP3 Files

To play MP3 files on Fedora 13, execute the following commands on a terminal as root

rpm -ivh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm
yum install gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-ffmpeg gstreamer-plugins-ugly -y

Taken from http://www.linuxreaders.com/2010/05/28/play-divx-mp3-on-fedora-13

Free Boracay Package

Win a Free Boracay Vacation Package by WOW Philippines Travel Agency

WOW Philippines Travel Agency, Inc. is celebrating it's 5th year in business during July of 2010, and we would like you to have a chance to celebrate with us, so we have decided to give-away a FREE Boracay Package complete with 5 Star accommodations at the luxurious Le Soleil de Boracay Hotel on Boracay Island. The lucky winner will win the following Boracay vacation package.

Vacation Package Inclusions:
- 5 Days / 4 Nights Luxury 5 Star Accommodations at the Le Soleil de Boracay  Hotel
- Flights to Boracay from Manila to Caticlan Airport on Philippine Airlines
- Island Transfers - Door-to-Door from Manila to the resort and back to Manila
- Three (3) Meals each day, Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
- Boracay Activities - Horseback Riding, Island Hopping, Glass Bottom Boat
- PLUS - 5,000 peso Spending Cash

Read More Information: http://www.boracay-packages.com

My Pirate Name a.k.a Something less serious

My pirate name is:

Dirty Jack Kidd

You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Preventing ConcurrentModificationExceptions!

I have encountered several times now, and its very annoying since the error happens randomly. After a bit of googling, I found out that using unsynchronized JAVA collections yields unpredictable results. I am hoping that synchronizing my JAVA collections manually could solve this problem. To do this, I will have to use the ready made JAVA Collections synchronize wrapper:

For example if I use the List interface like this before:

List list = new ArrayList();

I will have to wrap the ArrayList implementation using the Collections synchronize method:

List list = Collections.sychronizedList(new ArrayList);

OR

List list = new ArrayList();
list = Collections.sychronizedList(list);

I hope this works. I will refactor my code now and will update this post once I find out what happens.

EDIT: It works! You just have to synchronize the list before iterating through them :)