Only Ubuntu Linux

Automatic Startup of uShare on Jaunty Jackalope (9.04)

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Fri, 29 May 2009 07:17:00 +0000

Issue: Because I am running wireless the ushare would always fail to load because it was loading to quickly before the wireless had a chance to reconnect with the router.

Solution

Created a simple script with the following lines:

sleep 10
ushare -x -c /sharepath

This makes it so that it waits 10 seconds before running the command. Then make the script executable.

sudo chmod -x scriptname

Add the script to the Startup Applications list:

System >> Preferences >> Startup Applications

create a new entry and point the command to the script you created.

Now reboot and test if it works, if it doesnt you may need to add more time to the sleep command in the script.

How To make ATI Catalyst work with Compiz - Xorg Server

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Fri, 29 May 2009 07:06:00 +0000

First you need to add a new source to your repo's

>open the "Software Sources" GUI

System/Administration/Software Sources

>Then select the tab "Third-Party Software

>Then Add... these two APT lines by clicking on the "Add..." button and cut/past them in. Add them "ONE at a Time"

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-x-swat/xserver-no-backfill/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-x-swat/xserver-no-backfill/ubuntu jaunty main

>Now you just need to enter it's GPG Key

>Fist follow this link

http://keyserver.ubuntu.com:11371/pks/lookup?search=0x643DC6BD56580CEB1AB4A9F63B22AB97AF1CDFA9&op=index

>That "Should" open a new tab, On that tab you will see

pub 1024R/AF1CDFA9 2009-01-20 Launchpad PPA for Ubuntu-X

>Click the "AF1CDFA9" or whatever that # is at the time.

>Then it should take you to a page with the GPG/PGP key and looks like this

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: SKS 1.0.10

mI0ESXVCiwEEANKBDbiSLOJOouub/S97iDifYCVW1b0KONg7XkFYiFos+bMBzzZyGGo90k1h
hCxcseLvqCKPL7dG0RzPRKMo7mvM68yyqi2ljw0ZYC9cVf0YzgKRTohVhihelpwZ+sBRGNYk
OCu+u0Dr+EdVI3u5RNOxAELrbd4vYaS+2cCOfzmLABEBAAG0GkxhdW5jaHBhZCBQUEEgZm9y
IFVidW50dS1YiLYEEwECACAFAkl1QosCGwMGCwkIBwMCBBUCCAMEFgIDAQIeAQIXgAAKCRA7
IquXrxzfqY4HBACIQEFhl59ZkuIhTD3pmCQgfkhpcg0RVdB6Xwhu3QDJvmlWmrs+cofNMzyA
7SwdjD9ARvhGbqHwub+T7oGiHlmFyodGypUZ4i/fdHsZYpsf34MwgYxhyNyOPY/jNImUE/yw
kSI+kV5esWURH4j0jYfkaergFqCpDnsSkxuIvdjH2Q==
=bkAa
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

>Now open up gedit or any text editor you like and Cut+Past in the whole key. Then save the file with any name, like NewRepoKey_1

>Back in the "Software Sources" GUI click on the "Authentication" Tab

>Then click on the "Import Key File..." button and navigate to the key you saved and click OK.

>Now click "close"

>Now take a brake and have a smoke.

>Now you can upgrade you system through any of the multitudes of GUI's Ubuntu preinstalls

Or just

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

How to fix Desktop Effects aren't enable for intel integrated graphic in Jaunty

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Fri, 29 May 2009 07:02:00 +0000

First, download Forlong's compiz-check

You can use this command to download it to your home directory:

wget http://blogage.de/files/9124/download -O compiz-check

Afterwards, you have to make it executable:

chmod +x compiz-check

And finally run it like this:

./compiz-check

If they output shows that Your intel graphic card is in the blacklist, this is the perfect solution for you.

Edit the compiz script file

sudo gedit /usr/bin/compiz

Then go down and look for blacklist, then add the # to take your intel graphic out of the blacklist.

Then the script should look like this

# blacklist based on the pci ids
# See http://wiki.compiz-fusion.org/Hardware/Blacklist for details
#T=" 1002:5954 1002:5854 1002:5955" # ati rs480
#T="$T 1002:4153" # ATI Rv350
#T="$T 8086:2982 8086:2992 8086:29a2 8086:2a02 8086:2a12" # intel 965
#T="$T 8086:2a02 " # Intel GM965
#T="$T 8086:3577 8086:2562 " # Intel 830MG, 845G (LP: #259385)
BLACKLIST_PCIIDS="$T"
unset T

Save, then restart

After reboot, go to System > Preferences > Appearance >Visual Effects
then tick on the middle or the last option.

Now your compiz should work back as normal.

How To: Add the Computer, Trash, and Home icons to the Desktop

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:48:00 +0000

This how-to will explain exactly how to add these icons to your desktop, in a completely graphical way.

1. You're going to follow this path in the Ubuntu panel:
Applications --> System Tools --> Configuration Editor.

2. If the above path existed, skip this step.

Sometimes System Tools isn't in the menu by default. It's simple to change by simply hovering your mouse over the taskbar, and Right-click --> Edit Menus. However, it is much easier to press
ALT + F2, and in the dialog box, copy/pasting

gconf-editor

3. On the left side of the configuration editor, follow this path:
Apps --> Nautilus --> Desktop.

4. Now, on the right side, select the checkboxes for "computer_icon_visible", "home_icon_visible", "trash_icon_visible", and whatever else applies to your wants/needs.

Howto enable ATI unsupported cards in Jaunty with full effets

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:21:00 +0000

The latest open source git drivers seem to have a lot of this fixed. While I'm sure you can wait until the next release when we get newer drivers, here is how to do this in Jaunty and get your system fixed now. Worst case scenario of doing this is that on your particular card all the cleanup hasn't been done yet, but on my x1200 this worked wonderfully.

Open up a terminal and run the following commands

sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool pkg-config git-core

sudo apt-get install libdrm-dev x11proto-gl-dev mesa-common-dev xutils-dev x11proto-xf86dri-dev x11proto-fonts-dev x11proto-randr-dev x11proto-video-dev x11proto-xext-dev x11proto-xinerama-dev x11proto-render-dev xserver-xorg-dev

git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-ati

cd xf86-video-ati

sudo ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --enable-dri

sudo make

sudo make install

Now restart your machine and you're using the new drivers. Try bumping up your visual effects to max and see what happens. If you're lucky like me, everything will work flawlessly. If not, then you may want to wait a couple weeks and try it again, but you're no worse off then you were before.

Ubuntu Cooling Tip

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 20 May 2009 21:19:00 +0000

If you happen to have a clear fan with a blue led light, here is a helpful tip. Dust particles can build up on the intake of these fans and you will never be able to see it. I only discovered it because rising heat issues caused me to remove the side panel in order to use an exterior fan.

For whatever reason I happen to hold the the panel up in the air at a certain angle to the light and saw dust build up which looked in appearance to be similar to dryer lint which is removed from a clothes dryer. A few shots of compressed air to the inside of the fan to blow the buildup away from the intake does the trick. My 120mm fan is now happy again.

These are my after temps:
temp1: +29.0°C (low = +127.0°C, high = +127.0°C) sensor = thermistor
temp2: +16.0°C (low = +127.0°C, high = +127.0°C) sensor = thermal diode
temp3: -2.0°C (low = +127.0°C, high = +127.0°C) sensor = thermistor
cpu0_vid: +2.050 V

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0: +34.0°C (high = +78.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

coretemp-isa-0001
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 1: +34.0°C (high = +78.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

Prior to cleaning my temps were 8-10 degrees higher across the board.

How to Make your windows show up on the bottom in Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:39:00 +0000

Sometimes you will accidently add an applet to the bottom where your windows you go to when you minimize, or you may accidentlly delete the applet that displays the windows. This can be a major problem because, other than being extremely annoying it will cause you to not be able to maximize a window and have to reopen the application everytime you minimize it. Even worse it can casue you to lose your work if you are working in a program such as Open Office or GIMP.

First open up a terminal window: Applications > Accessories > Terminal

Enter the following command

killall gnome-panel

If there was an applet blocking your windows list that should have resolved the problem. If not read on.

Now Right click on the bottom panel and click "Add to Panel"

Scroll down to the bottom and click "Window List" then click add and click close.

Your windows should appear now.

How to Install Microsoft Office 2007 on Ubuntu Intrepid

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:49:00 +0000

This tutorial will explain How to Install Microsoft Office 2007 on Ubuntu Intrepid

Install Wine 1.16 from the old .deb archive

Open terminal and type the following command

winecfg

in a terminal and make sure the Windows version is set to XP

Run your Office setup in wine.

Using the command line, cd to the directory where your Office setup files are and run:

wine setup.exe

Using the GUI: Navigate to your Office setup files, right click on the setup.exe file and choose open with "wine windows program loader."

Click customize in the setup window and disable any features you do not want, and change any settings (name, organization, etc.), then click install.

Once the installation is complete close the window, and navigate to /home/username/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Microsoft\ Office/Office12 and run any office programs to test (WINWORD.EXE, EXCEL.EXE, POWERPNT.EXE, MSPUB.EXE, etc.).

Re-enable the wine repository (steps to install repository here: http://www.winehq.org/download/deb), and update wine to the latest version.

Now just create links to these executables for easy access. Type this in the command box when making links to wine programs

wine "/pathtoexecutable/"

(replace "pathtoexecutable" with a valid file path).

How to Install Hercules Classic Silver Webcam in Ubuntu 8.10

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:56:00 +0000

This tutorial will explain you how to Install Hercules Classic Silver Webcam in Ubuntu.This how-to assumes that you have not previously tried to load the gspca from source. If you have, you will need to clean up all the drivers that were installed previously.

For starters, you will know you have this webcam if, when you run the command:

$lsusb | grep 06f8:3004

You get:

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 06f8:3004 Guillemot Corp.

Since we will be build from source, we need to make sure we have all the tools:

$ sudo aptitude install build-essential

First we need to have a place to download and keep the source code. In this case we create a directory /opt/src for this, but you can just as easily use another location

$ sudo mkdir /opt/src

$ sudo chmod 777 /opt/src

$ cd /opt/src

The gspca source lives in the v4l-dvb project. This project uses Mercurial to allow for easy updating of source. So let's install Mercurial

$ sudo aptitude install mercurial

Using mercurial, download the most recent version of v4l-dvb:

$ hg clone http://linuxtv.org/hg/v4l-dvb

This will actively pull all the most recent source code for this project into a newly created directory called v4l-dvb. If you ever need to update the source just go to that directory and type

$ hg pull -u http://linuxtv.org/hg/v4l-dvb

Before we compile, we need to clean up any gspca stuff already on the system from the original install of 8.10. The drivers live in the specific folders for your kernel under /lib/modules. You can identify your kernel by

$ uname -r

and locate the /kernel/drivers/media/video/gspca folder. Or, you can use the below command to quickly remove them

$ sudo rm -r /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/media/video/gspca

There are some modules we need to make sure are not loaded as well before compiling

$ sudo rmmod videodev

Check to see if any gspca modules are currently loaded

$ lsmod | grep gspca

If any are found, remove them by name:

$ sudo rmmod (name of mod here)

Now we are ready to compile. Go into the v4l-dvb directory

$ cd v4l-dvb

And compile:

$ make

This will take about 10 mins or so and will compile all the v4l drivers including TV capture card drivers and other stuff. I'm sure there's a way to only compile what we need, but I'm not smart enough to figure it out.

Once it's done compiling, install it with

$ sudo make install

Restart your system using the following command

$ sudo reboot

Once it reboots, your camera should be recognized. Run:

$ dmesg

and look for something like:

gspca: main v2.4.0 registered
gspca: probing 06f8:3004
sonixj: Sonix chip id: 11
spca: probe ok
gspca: probing 06f8:3004
gspca: probing 06f8:3004
usbcore: registered new interface driver sonixj
sonixj: registered

If you tried to use Skype, You may got very colorful static instead of a picture of Yours Truly. Starting Skype with:

$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype

fixed it.

A way to start Skype from the menu instead of command line using the following procedure

$ sudo gedit /usr/local/bin/skype

and paste the following two lines into the new file

#!/bin/bash
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype

save, then make it executable

$ sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/skype

That's it!

Autodetecting and configuring multiple monitors in Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 13:23:00 +0000

A common problem for laptop users is that they use various display configurations. When traveling they use only the internal LCD panel, but in the office they use internal LCD panel + external display. It is pain to configure external display manually each time you plug it in.

This how to will give you instructions to create a shell script which will configure displays and Gnome panels according to the plugged in displays.

Install magnificent disper tool

Edit your sources.list file

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

add the following lines

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/wvengen/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/wvengen/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main

Save and exit the file

Update the source list using the following command

sudo apt-get update

Install disper tool using the following command

sudo apt-get install disper

Note:- Currently disper supports nVidia only, but the author claims ATI support is possible to add by contributions.

Run the following command to autodetect displays and set the extended desktop

disper --displays=auto -e

Dispering displays is not enough. You probably want to move Gnome panels to your primary (external) display when it is plugged in.

Gnome architects have been clever. Gnome panel stores its settings in gconf registry. gconf registry is not just dummy storage backend; changing these values immediately reflect changes in applications using the registry. One of these applications is gnome-panel. This means that we can move the panels by editing its registry setting related to the monitor configuration.

Using gconf-editor command the critical settings can be found under:

/apps/panel/toplevels/bottom_panel_screen0/monitor
/apps/panel/toplevels/top_panel_screen0/monitor

Value = 0 -> panels on internal LCD
Value = 1 -> panels on External display

Let's make a little command line script which will

a) Detect and configure monitors

b) Move gnome-panels according to the connected display count

Open monitor.sh file

sudo gedit monitor.sh

add the following lines save and exit

#!/bin/sh
#
# Detect displays and move panels to the primary display
#

# disper command will detect and configure monitors
disper --displays=auto -e

# parse output from disper tool how many displays we have attached
# disper prints 2 lines per displer
lines=`disper -l|wc -l`

display_count=$((lines / 2))

echo $display_count

echo "Detected display count:" $display_count

# Make sure that we move panels to the correct display based
# on the display count
if [ $display_count = 1 ] ; then
echo "Moving panels to the internal LCD display"
gconftool-2 \
--set "/apps/panel/toplevels/bottom_panel_screen0/monitor" \
--type integer "0"
gconftool-2 \
--set "/apps/panel/toplevels/top_panel_screen0/monitor" \
--type integer "0"
else
echo "Moving panels to the external display"
gconftool-2 \
--set "/apps/panel/toplevels/bottom_panel_screen0/monitor" \
--type integer "1"
gconftool-2 \
--set "/apps/panel/toplevels/top_panel_screen0/monitor" \
--type integer "1"
fi

Add monitor.sh to your Startup Programs in System > Services menu, so it will be run each time you login to Gnome.

How to Repair a corrupted filesystem in Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:20:00 +0000

You can repair a corrupted filesystem with the program "fsck".The system utility fsck (for "file system check" or "file system consistency check") is a tool for checking the consistency of a file system in Unix and Unix-like operating systems such as Linux.

Note:-File systems must be unmounted, you cannot repair them while they are running.So fsck must ALWAYS be run on an UNmounted filesystem.Running fsck on a mounted filesystem can do SEVERE damage.

A quick fsck options overview:

Many options for fsck exist, but the most important are:
-f which performs a FAST check
-p which fixes minor problems without user interaction
-y which gives permission to correct every problem found
-n which indicates to only search (and not correct) problems

The most simple variant to run fsck is to force fsck on restart, and then restart your system:

sudo touch /forcefsck

The other option is to swich the system to runlevel 1 (logs-out any userRunning fsck on a mounted filesystem can do SEVERE damage), unmount all partitions. run fsck & repair, remount all drives, increase the runlevel to 3 and continue.

1) Take system down to runlevel one (make sure you run all command as root user):
# init 1

2)Unmount file system, for example if it is /home (/dev/sda3) file system then type command:

# umount /home

OR

# umount /dev/sda3

3) Now run fsck on the partition:

# fsck /dev/sda3

However be sure to specify the file system type using -t option. Recenly one of our sys admin run the command on ext3 file system w/o specifying file system. Result was more corruption as fsck by default assumes ext2 file system.

# fsck -t ext3 /dev/sda3

OR

# fsck.ext3 /dev/sda3

Tip if you don't know your file system type then typing mount command will display file system type.

fsck will check the file system and ask which problems should be fixed or corrected. If you don't wanna type y every time then you can use pass -y option to fsck.

# fsck -y /dev/sda3

Please not if any files are recovered then they are placed in /home/lost+found directory by fsck command.

4) Once fsck finished, remount the file system:

# mount /home

5) Go to multiuser mode

# init 3

Read man page of fsck for more information. Make sure you replace /dev/sda3 with your actual device name.
__________________

Persistent monitor rotation Script

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 07:42:00 +0000

This is a fix that allows for persistent configuration of tho monitor's pivot rotation. You most create two scripts:

screen-rotate

sudo gedit screen-rotate

add following lines save and exit

#!/bin/bash
if [ "$1" = "right" ]
then
rotate="right"
else
rotate="left"
fi

if xrandr | grep "$rotate ("

then
rotate="normal"
fi
xrandr -o "$rotate"

echo $rotate > ~/.screen-orientation

screen-rotate-setup

sudo gedit screen-rotate-setup

add following lines save and exit
#!/bin/bash
rotate=`cat ~/.screen-orientation`
xrandr -o $rotate

save both scripts to /usr/bin and give them execution permissions to everyone (chmod +x)

Now go to System>Preferences>Sessions, click add and put screen-rotate-setup as the command. Name it as you see fit.

Now create a shortcut somewhere (the taskbar, perhaps?) put as a the command screen-rotate(in case your monitor rotates clockwise) or screen-rotate right(in case your monitor rotates counter-clockwise).

New click on the shortcut, log out and then login again.

Howto Make an MPEG Picture Slideshow with digiKam in Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:03:00 +0000

If you only install digiKam, you will not be able to encode and render the mpeg slideshow.

Install the required packages

sudo apt-get install imagemagick mjpegtools music123 ffmpeg digikam

2. Open digiKam, select Tools -> Create MPEG Slideshow

3. From here on out, just select the file you want to save as (output file), add the pictures you want in the slideshow using the giant 'Add' button, and include an audio track if you're so inclined.

Note: If you just install digikam, it will not install mjpegtools or music123 which it needs to do the encoding. Also, this installs the full imagenagick, as opposed to the compact libraries.

How to Speedup Firefox using SQLite VACUUM command

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 07:33:00 +0000

Firefox can run faster if it's database is purged of empty entries. Firefox database is using SQLite to manage its database.

Requirements

SQLite >=3.0

You can install using the following command

sudo apt-get install sqlite3

Now you need to open file ffast(you can give any name) using the following command

gedit ffast

copy and paste the following script

#!/bin/bash

username=$(whoami)
proc="$(ps aux | grep $username | grep -v $0 | grep firefox | grep -v grep)"
if [ "$proc" != "" ]
then
echo "shutdown firefox first!"
exit 1
fi

curdir=$(pwd)

for dir in $(cat ~/.mozilla/firefox/profiles.ini | grep Path= | sed -e 's/Path=//')
do
cd ~/.mozilla/firefox/$dir 2>/dev/null
if [ $? == 0 ]
then
echo "i'm in $(pwd)"
echo -e " running...\n"

for F in $(find . -type f -name '*.sqlite' -print)
do
sqlite3 $F "VACUUM;"
done

echo -e "done in $(pwd) ...\n"
else
echo -e "\n !!!! Error while entering directory $dir !!!!\n"
fi
done
echo "Job finished";

cd $curdir

Save and exit the file

Now you need to open your home folder select your file in this case ffast right-click on it, select properties. Then select Permissions tab and check the "Allow executing file as program" click Close.

Then close Firefox and run your script from terminal using

./ffast

when script done it's work start Firefox and you should see how fast your firefox will run.

Howto setup Pulseadio and VMWare with 2 soundcards

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:39:00 +0000

You need a free PCI (or PCIe 1x) slot, so this is not for laptops.
This will cost you between 20 and 0 bucks depending on how much extra hardware you have lying around and how cheap you can get stuff.

You are going to need one extra soundcard and a cable to loop the audio-out (green) of one of the cards to the line-in (blue) of the other. This cable has 2 identical audio jacks at both ends.

1. Install the extra soundcard.

2. Boot back into your system and check what you have when you type 'ls /dev/dsp*' into the console. You should have a dsp and a dsp1 or some such.
If you don't see 2 audio devises, your other card is not recognized yet and you'll have to figure out why.

3. Go to your package manager and install the 'pavucontrol' and 'padevchooser' packages if they aren't there already.
Close the package manager window.

4. Start padevchooser. You will have a little audio jack icon in your systray now. Click on it and go to the 'Configure Local Sound Server' option. You will have a window with 3 tabs. Uncheck all boxes in all tabs.
Close the window.
Close padevchooser.

5. Start pavucontrol and go to the 'Output Devises' tab. Set your primary audio card as default with the little down arrow icon.
Close pavucontrol.

6. Close all apps that make sound and kill Pulseaudio with with the 'killall pulseaudio' command.

7. Start VMWare. Now you can figure out witch of your cards is dsp or dsp1 with directing the virtual sound to either dsp or dsp1 and checking it with your speakers when you play a sound inside your virtual machine.
Leave the settings directing the sound to your secondary soundcard.

8. Now use the audio loop cable to loop from the audio-out of your secondary card to the line-in of your primary one.
Leave the mic-in and audio-out cables of your primary card just the way they were when you started this guide.

9. Start 'pulseadio' while your VM is still playing music. Pulseadio will fail to hook on your secondary soundcard and just uses the primary one.
(Don't close the console window you started Pulseadio in until you reboot)

10. It should all work now. Pulse only hooks on your primary card and the sound feed from the VM goes to your secondary (and is looped to your primary one though the line-in).Even after reboot, Pulseadio should leave your secondary card alone now.

11. If your virtual OS is Windows, go to Control Panel>Sound and Audio> Audio>Sound Playback>Advanced>Performance
Set the hardware acceleration to None and the Sample rate conversion quality to Low. This should remove/reduce the sound stutter.

How to fix your Audio EQ in Audacious

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:35:00 +0000

For all Users who is having trouble with audacious in Ubunutu, this seemed to work to fix the EQ

1. Download the Winamp preset EQ's
2. Open up terminal
3. wget http://www.xmms.org/misc/winamp_presets.gz
4. To install the presets for the Audacious media player type:
gunzip -c winamp_presets.gz > ~/.config/audacious/eq.preset

Restart Audacious. Now heres the sticker. What I think happens is Audaciou's Pre-Amp (to the left on EQ), is pushing too much Hz through the audio channel. Now, I do use the ALSA mixer, as nvidia's fails to work by default on my 8.04 machine.

Select a Winamp preamp, and turn on the EQ to ON. I am quite certain the preamp messes with the EQ in terms of the Base dB's (decibel) frequency. Think of if you've ever used Adobe Premiere, raising the dB too high and what, tiny crackly , or fuzzy audio! The same goes for a guitar amp, turn up the pre-amp (your amp) too high, then plug in a external effect pedal and turn up the sound and voila, crackly shitty audio.

Note!!!: If you use Ubuntu / Debian, I specially added the "Gnome-Alsamixer" to my arsenal as well. This allows you to change Master, and sub level audio tracks without the terminal. This will let you bump up you base master volume without destroying anything. The default audio applet on the top gnome panel bar only raises it so much. Find this program in Add/Remove Programs, or do "sudo apt-get install gnome-alsamixer "

Howto Display more than 5 bookmarks in gnome-panel "Places" menu

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:55:00 +0000

1) Open Terminal

2a) Install apt-build

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apt-build

2b) Configure apt-build:

* Optimization level: Medium
* Add apt-build repository to sources.list: Yes
* Architecture: SELECT YOUR ARCHITECTURE

3) Install files required to build gnome-panel from source and download the source

sudo apt-get build-dep gnome-panel
sudo apt-build source gnome-panel

4) Navigate to the downloaded gnome-panel source folder and open the menu items file

cd /var/cache/apt-build/build/gnome-panel-*
sudo gedit gnome-panel/panel-menu-items.c

5) Set the the maximum number of bookmarks to display before placing them in the Bookmarks submenu

Find the line:
PHP Code:
if (g_slist_length (add_bookmarks) <= MAX_ITEMS_OR_SUBMENU) {
and replace it with:
PHP Code:
if (g_slist_length (add_bookmarks) <= 20) {
Save the file.

6) Install the modified gnome-panel and restart it

sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install
killall gnome-panel

How to tether AT&T's Fuze phone (AT&T version of HTC's Touch Pro) to Ubuntu Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:48:00 +0000

This is a tutorial showing folks how to tether AT&T's Fuze phone (AT&T version of HTC's Touch Pro) to Ubuntu Linux via USB. It is a little different from tethering a regular Windows Mobile phone to Ubuntu.

To tether the Fuze to Ubuntu Linux, 3 things need to be done:

* Crack the phone so that any connection can be shared
* Create a connection on the phone other than AT&T's MEdia Net
* Mod usb-rndis-lite to allow connection from Fuze

Please note that this tutorial is ONLY for the HTC Fuze on the AT&T (USA) Network.

This tutorial is done under Ubuntu Linux 8.10 aka Intrepid Ibex with software up-to-date (according to the update manager). It is also recommended that you have an unlimited data plan with AT&T. Tethering plan is recommended but not required.

PART I: Allow any connection on phone to be shared

AT&T has modded the registry of the Fuze so that ONLY folks with dedicated tethering plans can tether. If you have a tethering plan with AT&T, please move on to part 2. Otherwise complete this step.

1. Download a registry editor for Windows Mobile. We recommend PHM Registry Editor for Pocket PC. This links directly to the install file, so I would recommend downloading this to the phone.
2. Open File Explorer (Start > Programs > Tools > File Explorer) and navigate to where you saved the install file. Install it by tapping it once.
3. Once it installs, open it. It should be in Start > Programs.
4. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Comm/InternetSharing/Settings.
5. You will notice a key in settings called "ForceCellConnection". Delete it.
6. That's it. Any connection can be used for tethering. Verify this by opening Internet Sharing and seeing that there are two combo boxes (one for PC Connection and one for Network Connection)

PART II: Create a connection alternative to MEdia Net

AT&T configures the Fuze's network slightly differently from its other WinMo phones. but when tethering with it's MEdia Net connection, I can never seem to log on in Ubuntu. This wasn't a problem on my Windows box, but that box ain't my main box. Anyway this step is rather simple.

1. On your phone, go to Start > Settings and tap on the connections tab. Open Wireless Manager and make sure that Data Connection is turned OFF.
2. Close Wireless Manager and go into Connections. You should see "MEdia Net" and "My Work Network". Under MEdia Net, tap "Manage existing connections".
3. You should see a radio botton labled "MEdia Net". Tap and hold it to bring up the menu and select "Delete"
4. Now tap the "New" Button. In the dialog that comes up, enter a name for your connection. This name will be the name you select in Internet Sharing later. From the combo box below it, select "Cellular Line (GPRS, 3G)". Tap Next.
5. Leave the Access Point Name box blank. Tap Next. Leave those boxes blank as well and tap finish.
6. If you did all right, you should be able to get on the web. Verify this by opening Opera on the Fuze. If web pages load, it worked.

PART III: Mod usb-rndis-lite to allow Fuze connection

This is a mod to Ubuntu now. Not the phone. Apparently HTC phones have some issues tethering to Ubuntu. This is usually due to rndis failing with some packets exceeding error. Here we will modify and recompile the source code for usb-rndis-lite to ignore that error.

1. Open up a terminal and do this:
Code:

sudo apt-get install subversion

This will install subversion, which is needed to get the latest version of usb-rndis-lite.
2. Using that same terminal, do this:

svn co http://synce.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/synce/trunk/usb-rndis-lite

This will download the latest code of usb-rndis-lite.
3. Still in the terminal, move into the folder by doing this:

cd usb-rndis-lite

4. Terminal again, open the source file we are going to edit by doing this:

gedit rndis_host.c

5. Around line 524, find the following code

if (tmp < dev->hard_mtu) {
dev_err(&intf->dev,
"dev can't take %u byte packets (max %u)\n",
dev->hard_mtu, tmp);
goto fail;
}

and change it to this:

if (tmp < dev->hard_mtu) {
dev_err(&intf->dev,
"dev can't take %u byte packets (max %u)\n",
dev->hard_mtu, tmp);
retval = -EINVAL;
/* goto fail;*/
}

Save and close the file
6. Returning to the terminal, type the commands in this order to compile and install it:

make
sudo ./clean.sh
sudo make install

Now that the steps are completed, verify everything worked by plugging your Fuze into your preferred USB port. Open the Internet Sharing app on the Fuze (somewhere in Start > Programs), select USB for PC Connection and the name of the network you typed earlier for Network Connection, and tap Connect. Ubuntu should see and connect to the phone, and you should be able to browse the web, get email, IM, and so on.

From this point on, all you should need to do is open Internet Sharing, select the right things and hit "Connect" to connect.

ONE THING TO NOTE: updating usb-rndis-lite will break this. To fix it, just repeat part 3 and your good to go.

Howto SetUp Dual-Dual NIC Bonding On Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:13:00 +0000

Bonding is creation of a single bonded interface by combining 2 or more ethernet interfaces. This helps in high availability and performance improvement.

How to setup dual-dual bonding (two bonds of two interfaces each) on Ubuntu as quickly as possible.

1. Add two lines to /etc/modules

bonding bond0 -o bond0 mode=1 miimon=100

bonding bond1 -o bond1 mode=1 miimon=100

If you’re very good at managing your time, just remember that miimon’s option determines how often the bond is monitored for failure and that mode can be one of:

0 - Round robin balancing

1 - Active back-up

2 - Transmit based on MAC address for load balancing/fault tolerance

3 - Broadcasting - provides fault tolerance by transmitting on all slave interfaces

4 - Aggregates links, assuming all nics support same speeds and duplex settings

5 - Transmit load balancing - balancing is handled by the bond based on load

6 - Same as 5, but also uses arp to balance load “better

2. Install the ifenslave package if you haven’t already. You can use apt-get to grab it if you don’t:

sudo apt-get install ifenslave-x.x

3. Ensure that the package actually installed:

sudo dpkg –get-selections | grep enslave

ifenslave-x.x install

4. Set up your interface files:

# cat /etc/network/interfaces (only including the parts you probably need - substitute IP addresses, netmasks, etc):

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback

auto bond0

iface bond0 inet static

address 10.10.125.88

netmask 255.255.255.0

network 10.10.125.0

gateway 10.10.125.1

post-up ifenslave bond0 eth0 eth2

pre-down ifenslave -d bond0 eth0 eth2

auto bond1

iface bond1 inet static

address 10.10.127.88

netmask 255.255.255.0

network 10.10.127.0

gateway 10.10.127.1

post-up ifenslave bond1 eth1 eth3

pre-down ifenslave -d bond1 eth1 eth3

5. Add lines to the bottom of your architecture’s modprobe files, reboot and pray:

sudo cat /etc/modprobe.d/arch/i386

alias bond0 bonding

options bond0 mode=1 miimon=5000 max_bonds=2

alias bond1 bonding

options bond1 mode=1 miimon=5000 max_bonds=2

5 Ways To View CHM Files in Ubuntu Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:28:00 +0000

1. Gnochm

Gnochm is a gnome based chm viewer that has the following features :

Support for external ms-its links

Full text search support

Bookmarks

Configurable support for HTTP links

Integrated with GNOME2

Support for multiple languages

Support to open multiple files at once

To install gnochm issue the following command in the terminal window

sudo apt-get install gnochm

After installation gnochm should be installed properly, which you can even launch by typing in "gnochm" in the terminal window.

2. kchmviewer
If you are one of those who likes using KDE desktop environment you might like using a tool that uses KDE library instead of gnome one , and integrates better with KDE desktop. A nice chm viewer for KDE desktop is kchm viewer.

to install kchmviewer type in the following command in the terminal window :

sudo apt-get install kchmviewer

and after above step is completed you can launch kchmviewer by typing in kchmviewer in the terminal window

3. xCHM

xCHM is a chm file viewer , that is not bound to any desktop environment and could be used even in window manager like fvwm or xfce .

to install xchm issue the following command in the terminal window :

sudo apt-get install xchm

and then you can launch xchm by typing in xchm in the terminal window .4. Mozilla Firefox add-on to display chm files
Mozilla Firefox is a powerful platform and it can be extended to do a number of cool things by installing different plug ins and one really useful addon is a CHM viewer .

To install CHM reader addon go HERE and, download the *.xpi file, then put it somewhere in Mozilla folder, sorry i forgot where exactly the folder is, you can try to find it yourself. Procedure after that is quite self explanatory owing to extremely easy interface of Mozilla Firefox

After installing you can easily open chm files from Mozilla Firefox , In the File submenu you will find a option of opening chm files .5. Okular

If you happen to install kde4 on your desktop , Okular is the new addition to the KDE desktop environment . Okular besides having ability to render pdf , djvu files can also display chm files flawlessly . Besides being based on solid KDE 4 libraries Okular allows one to add notes , highlight text etc . It is one of the most advanced document reader available on linux .

How to Rip & Encode DVDs into AVI/OGM files in Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:00:00 +0000

OGMRip is an application and a set of libraries for ripping and encoding DVDs into AVI/OGM files using a wide variety of codecs. It relies on mplayer, mencoder, ogmtools, oggenc, and lame to perform its tasks. The GUI features a clean HIG-compliant GNOME 2 interface and tries to minimize (as much as possible) esoteric settings.

Download DEB package via getdeb.net

After download, double click on the file to install..

List of Twitter Clients in Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 16:55:00 +0000

1. gTwitter - Hompage

It's a simple GTK+ based application for Linux, designed to interact with Twitter web service. It's written using Mono/C# and some of GNOME dependant libraries. GUI is inspired by Mac client Twitterrific.

Download TAR Package via googlecode

2. Twidge - Homepage

Twidge is a command-line, full-functional Twitter client. It supports posting updates, retrieving information, and excellent integration with the Unix shell scripting environment via piping and well-formatted output.

Download TAR/BIN/ZIP Packages

3. Gwibber - Homepage

Gwibber is an open source microblogging client for GNOME developed with Python and GTK. It supports Twitter, Jaiku, Identi.ca, Facebook, and Digg. Please note that this is pre-alpha software.
Intallation Guide For Ubuntu
Installation Guide For OpenSUSE

4. Mitter - Homepage

Another Twitter Client.Download DEB Package via getdeb.net

5. Twhirl (Need Adobe AIR) - Homepage
A social software desktop client based on the Adobe AIR platform.

Download Twhirl(.AIR)

6. Spaz (Need Adobe AIR) - Hompage
Spaz is a Twitter client for users who value free, open-source software, attractive design, and customizability.
Download Spaz(.AIR)

How to fix upside down webcam image in ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 16:53:00 +0000

I've found a Ubuntu user via ubuntuforums.org that have problem with the webcam, the user have integrated webcam - Syntek USB Video Camera. He/she claimed that the webcam image turned upside down. This happen because of the vflip option..

To fix it(Syntek USB Video Camera as a example) you need to know the camera driver, in terminal type :

lsusb

udevinfo --query=all --name=/dev/video0 --attribute-walk

Example udevinfo command result :The driver for the webcam is stk11xx & has the vflip option(To check all the options the driver offers, use the command "modinfo stk11xx")

Now unload the driver and then re-load it with the vflip option, code :

sudo modprobe -r stk11xx
sudo modprobe stk11xx vflip=1

Now try with webcam app to see that the problem has solved. You can add the option to the system settings so the driver always uses it when it loads..

Code:

echo "options stk11xx vflip=1" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/options

Circular Application Menu for Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:00:00 +0000

This is a circular-application-menu (C-A-M) prototype mirroring the same structure as the exisiting application menu for the GNOME desktop. I heard this feature will be available in Windows 7.It’s a menu in a circular form displayed in desktop. The icon of each sub menu is laid around the circle, if we click on the icon another circular of the menus that laid under the icon of the sub menu will be displayed so that we will show two circle on our desktop.

Download via getdeb.net

After download finished, just double click it to install it & you can find at Apllication>>Accesories>>Circular-Application-Menu

Safely Remove USB Device in Ubuntu with Ejecter

noreply@blogger.com (Admin) — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 13:50:00 +0000

Ejecter is a small but very useful utility to safely, easily remove external media. A simple menu that sits in the system notification area, providing you a quick way to unmount external peripherals such as usb pendrives, cd/dvd, external hard disks and so..

Download DEB Package :

Ejecter via getdeb.net

After download, double click on the file to install..