Open Source Software vs. Commercial Software:
Migration from Windows to Linux
An IT Professional's Testimonial

 

Troubleshooting Tips

As mentioned previously, nothing is perfect. As expected, I ran into a few snags with some recent Fedora installations. Luckily since it's open source, I was quickly able to find solutions and workarounds. Here are the main issues I encountered:

 

Sound suddenly stopped working.

 

Keyboard and Mouse Stopped working randomly, or only on first boot.

On the Vostro XX10 laptops, the keyboard and mouse stopped working randomly. In my case, the keyboard and touchpad would not work the first time the laptop is booted from being off. But when rebooting they would work fine. Solution: add the kernel parameter “i8042.reset” in /etc/grub.conf: Edit /etc/grub.conf and add this text at the end of the “kernel...” line.

 

Caps Lock + Scroll Lock Blinking, System Not Responding

This seems to be an issue with the kernel 2.6.27 and some wireless cards. Upgrading to kernel 2.6.29 resolved it.

 

Dell TrueMobile 1395 / Broadcom 4312 Wireless not working

Wireless Networking (Dell TrueMobile 1395 / Broadcom 4312), no support was in the stock Fedora 10 kernel. Had to install the new Broadcom driver from rpmfusion:
Run: yum install broadcom-wl
Since a new kernel was installed, check /etc/grub.conf. The rpm should automatically create the new kernel entry and copy over the same kernel parameters from the old entry. I tested to make sure it booted, then commented out the old kernel entries.
After rebooting into the new kernel, I had to run system-config-network, and add a new Device as “eth1”, for the wireless card. When selecting the card to use, it now showed up and everything worked. Be sure to set “Controlled by Network Manager" and "Activate device when computer starts". Also, set all wireless options in this utility for “auto”, to allow for the network manager to detect and connect, and configure the connection, etc.

 

Changing the network card, the old card keeps using "eth0" when it isn't in the system

If you replace the original network card you had when you installed Linux, the system saves the old card as a device in Network Config utility as "eth0", and will not allow you to rename the new Hardware Device to "eth0", instead it keeps "eth1". This isn't really a critical issue, but I wanted the replacement card to use "eth0" to keep with the standard.
This is because the devices shown in the Network Config utility are assigned by the kernel, the utility just shows the devices but really can't rename them. To inspect and edit devices seen by the kernel, the "udev" service is used. To view and fix this, edit the file: /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules, and edit the eth0, eth1 devices as needed. You can simply remove the old entry for "eth0", then change the value "eth1" to "eth0". Reboot for the changes to take effect. Then you can edit the Network Config settings for the device(s) needed.

 

System slowing down, process "npviewer.bin" using all system resources.

Adobe Flash Player can eat up all of the system's memory, causing a slowdown of the PC. The running process is called “npviewer.bin”. The workaround is to use a smart application like “and” -- e.g. the “autonice daemon” to manage the process and “nice” it, and/or kill it if needed. Install and, and configure:

 

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