Gettin no-where, lots of noob questions!

I am so fed up at the moment - I am not a total noob, I run a small Linux server for all my work uses as well as doing a bit of Linux development, some OS X and loads of Windows stuff, however I am feeling like a total dunce with this machine!

To save me ripping out my hair or throwing this (once loved, but now hated) computer through the nearest window, any tips would be appreciated on the following issues: [It's an 8GB SSD system with 512Mb running Linpus, it is labeled ZG5 on the base]

* Power management
- There seems to be no way to suspend-to-disc, any laptop needs to be able to do this to be useful to me.
- When I hit 10% battery the screen goes blank and anything I am working on is lost - there is no way to get it to come back even though it seems to be running and the power LED is still green. (Plugging in power will not bring it back)
- I installed the full version of KPowersave to try and fix these problems, but it has not made it any better.
- I don't get battery notifications even though they seem to be enabled (they may have happened before I fiddled with KPowersave!)

* I can't mount the samba share on my server reliably!
- I have set it up in fstab as follows:

Code:

//192.168.nn.nn/home /mnt/home/ServerHome cifs credentials=/etc/.servercred,_netdev,gid=users,rw  0 0

This does not work on boot, but does work if I sudo mount -a, it also mounts as read-only. The credentials file has the same username and password as used by Windows machines that connect to this server without problems!
- I have written a shell script with the following:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
  sudo echo 0 > /proc/fs/cifs/LinuxExtensionsEnabled
  sudo mount -t cifs //192.168.nn.nn/home /mnt/home/ServerHome -o credentials=/etc/.servercred,rw

This does work when run, but again only gives read access.
Just to confuse matters one of these commands did give write access a day or so back, but I don't now remember which!

* It keeps losing my WPA password - not every boot, just one in every 3 or 4 boots!

* Booting to Linpus takes only about 7 or 8 seconds, which is great, but it takes anything up to about 30 seconds extra (when it remembers the WPA key. Is it possible to speed this up?

* I tend to use the "Home" and "End" keys quite a bit, but Fn-PgUp and Fn-PgDn take both hands or a huge stretch - is there a simple way to remap these to something else like AltGr-PgUp and AltGr-PdDn?

 

I'll give a stab at it --

* Power management
- There seems to be no way to suspend-to-disc, any laptop needs to be able to do this to be useful to me.

==> Yes, I believe the idea was to have fast boot instead.

- When I hit 10% battery the screen goes blank and anything I am working on is lost - there is no way to get it to come back even though it seems to be running and the power LED is still green. (Plugging in power will not bring it back)

==> A bug. Not yet fixed. The battery level warning doesn't seem to work. I've been working on this for a few months (I do not work for Acer) on a time-available basis, because it annoys me too.

- I installed the full version of KPowersave to try and fix these problems, but it has not made it any better.
- I don't get battery notifications even though they seem to be enabled (they may have happened before I fiddled with KPowersave!)

* I can't mount the samba share on my server reliably!
- I have set it up in fstab as follows:
...

==> I don't think the boot drivers have samba, and the startup sequence was altered (for the fast boot), so the smb mount doesn't work automatically from fstab. I use a script, and haven't (yet) had problems. Try the usermode smbclient as a reference.

* It keeps losing my WPA password - not every boot, just one in every 3 or 4 boots!

==> Weird. Try left-clicking the "connection wedge", pick "Connection Manager", then delete and re-create your wireless connection to try to "clean stuff up".

* Booting to Linpus takes only about 7 or 8 seconds, which is great, but it takes anything up to about 30 seconds extra (when it remembers the WPA key. Is it possible to speed this up?

==> Don't think so.

* I tend to use the "Home" and "End" keys quite a bit, but Fn-PgUp and Fn-PgDn take both hands or a huge stretch - is there a simple way to remap these to something else like AltGr-PgUp and AltGr-PdDn?

==> Yes. Look into the "xmodmap" command.