Problems and Solutions for Ibex on Lenovo s10e
Combining two different entities is never easy and smooth, there will be problems, bumps along the way. Just like dating couple, marriage couple, etc, they will experience troubles along the way because of differences. They need to be considerate and understand the other party. It’s the same with Ideapad and Ibex. To make it really comfortable for me to work together with it, I need to understand it. Some bumps I faced were:
- Gnome-ppp can not connect to the internet. It detected the modem, send the init string was successful, but after that it said something like it cannot run /usr/sbin/pppd. I found in the forum, I need to change the user privilage in System -> Administration -> User and Groups -> Unlock -> Insert your password -> Properties -> User Privileges -> Check “Connect to internet using a modem” -> OK -> Logout -> Login -> Try connect again, it should be working now
User Privileges
- Firefox starts in offline mode. I read in the forum this is because firefox detects the connection using the network manager which I’m not using everytime I connect to the internet using 3G modem. The solution is simple, in firefox, open new tab -> type “about:config” (without the double quotes) -> type
toolkit.networkmanager.disable-> change the value to true. It should be working in online mode now
- I wanted to try the built in webcam of Lenovo. Actually I could test it using Skype but I wanted to record video and take picture with it. I found this cool application called Cheese. You can apply effect to the picture taken from your webcam real time.
Cheese in action
Cheese Effects
The problem is it can not record the video. I dont know why, it seems no solution yet in forum. So I tried looking for another software to record video from webcam, and finally I found videoview. Just download the archive, extract it and you can run it right away. Yeah, webcam works now!
Videoview in action
- I tried to also record sound using built-in mic while using videoview, but still no sound. Then I tried to record the sound using soundrecorder. Still no sound, so the problem is the mic. But then I tried to increase the volume of mic, now I got the sound but so low. Everyone also has the same problem. So it seems I need to get external mic. Not a big problem anyway.
- After that I tried using my lab’s monitor to perform dual monitor. So easy, just go to System -> Preferences -> Screen Resolution. You need to log out first after plugging in the monitor cable. But unfortunately, after returning to single monitor, I cannot run compiz anymore. Everytime I use the Extra Visual Effects, it kept saying unable to enable display effect. I found out it’s because after I used dual monitor, the xorg.conf was changed. Just edit the file again, find
Subsection "Display" Virtual xxxx xxxx. Replace xxxx yyyy with your normal screen resolution. - I wanted to be able to use my webcam to video chat in YM. Pidgin is unable to perform it, too bad. I heard Kopete can do it. I tried it. But for some reasons I dont know why, Kopete kept disconnecting everytime I got connected to Yahoo Messenger.
Could not find the solution in internet 
So I used Skype instead, and asked people I want to videochat with to use Skype too (like nyaw 
)
Well so far only that. Hope it can be useful for anyone who has the same problem
December 19th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
very useful indeed.
keep informing us! 
December 24th, 2008 at 8:43 am
[...] bisa kirim detect carrier n kirim init string. Tapi selalu aja ga bisa terkoneksi dengan alasan cannot run /usr/sbin/pppd, check your permission bla bla bla. Solusinya: Ubah User Privilege di System -> Administration [...]
March 10th, 2009 at 2:20 am
Thank you very much. You help me much.
Keep update.
March 14th, 2009 at 12:47 am
As with the new kernel in Ubuntu (cant remember which one), sound will also work from the front microphone
April 27th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
[...] Who’s to blame? Network Manager VS Applications 27 04 2009 So I finally found out the source of problem why my pidgin cannot connect to any accounts. It’s because I used gnome-ppp to connect to the internet through my usb 3G modem. Apparently, internet-connecting application like firefox and pidgin check the availability of network connection through Network Manager. And the problem is, if user use other application (like gnome-ppp or wvdial) to set up the connection, Network Manager doesn’t realize this. So d**n stupid! That’s why I used to get this problem of firefox starting in offline mode. Luckily it can easily fixed in firefox. [...]