powerpc laptop issues

[Albert]

Kubuntu 5.10 on a PowerBook 3.5 1GHz 512 MB RAM, CD-RW/DVD-R

Following a suggestion from Jonathan Riddell, I'm posting these requests here:

- updatedb: when my laptop is on battery, the last thing I want is for its 
energy to be spent unwisely. Running the cron job for the updatedb, which 
runs for several minutes consuming lots of chip resources, is a very poor 
choice. I have no clue as to whether one can make the updatedb process run if 
and only if the laptop is not on battery. The pbbuttons daemon should be 
queried for such information.

- airport wireless card: every time the computer wakes up, the airport is 
powered up, or so does a screen message claim. This is not desirable, at 
least for battery energy preservation, and further for security issues. If 
the airport card was not up when I put the computer to sleep, so it should 
remain when I wake it up. Having to run 'sudo iwconfig eth1 power off' every 
time is not very practical.

- kwifimanager: it does not work, nor it did not work at all in Hoary. What is 
the best replacement, other than manually configuring files under /etc/ ?

Albert

-- 
Albert Cardona
Molecular Cell Developmental Biology
University of California Los Angeles
Tel +1 310 2067376
Programming: http://www.pensament.net/java/
Research: http://www.mcdb.ucla.edu/Research/Hartenstein/
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