Tag: linux

Speed Up Gnome for Old Computers

Turn off the following in System->Preferences->Startup Applications:
Bluetooth Manager (unless your old computer has bluetooth… which i doubt)
Evolution Alarm Notifier
Remote Desktop
Visual Assistance (unless you need it)

open gconf from the terminal:
gconf-editor
/apps/metacity/general and check on reduced_resources
/apps/panel/global and uncheck enable_animations
/desktop/gnome/interface and check off the box for accessibility

Select Themes that are lighter and more responsive. You can go with something like:
Controls:Simple, Window Border:Simple, Icons:Gnome, Pointer:Default Pointer
Controls:Raleigh, Window Border:Bright

Visual Effects: None

Installing Mythtv on Ubuntu with a Pinnacle PCTV

I have installed mythtv before, but I could never really get it to work properly with my Pinnacle PCTV TV card. I couldn’t record the sound from the tv shows because I had an old card. I finally found a post by someone named tcj that pointed me in the right direction. Basically since this is an old card I would need to use a jumper cable to catpure the sound from line in.

From: http://www.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/2003-July/008852.html
“Pinnacle PCTV Pro. Video capture works using the bttv kernel driver. Audio
requires using a jumper to a sound card; btaudio does NOT work.” Note that btaudio is nolonger used as it was for OSS and OSS is now considered obsolete. ALSA is what you will need with snd_bt87x. Ubuntu 9.04 will automatically load the required modules: bttv and snd_bt87x.

Details on setting up the jumper settings for sounds here: http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-7.html.

You will first need to properly setup alsa. Do so with the following commands:
$ amixer set Master,0 100%,100% unmute
$ amixer set PCM,0 100%,100% unmute
$ amixer set Line,0 75%,75% mute captur
$ amixer set Capture,0 100%,100% captur
$ su
# alsactl store
# exit
$

Next, on the backend mythtv server set the audio capture device to /dev/dsp.

Change the output sound device in mythfrontend->setup->Audio from /dev/dsp to ALSA:default.

If it is still not working try this command to manually unmute your tv capture card:
v4lctl -c /dev/video0 setattr mute off

Back Up PSX images in Linux

Credit goes to po0f for this. This is his script from the ubuntu forums, I’m just putting it in my blog so I can find it easily. Everything below was written by poOf.

This is a script I wrote to rip PSX images, it might work for others as well. You’ll need cdrdao installed for it to work. First, you need to do a little setup; namely, which CD drive to use (command you type is bolded, don’t really know why sudo access is needed):
Code:


$ sudo cdrdao scanbus
... snipping useless program output ...
ATA:1,0,0       TSSTcorp, CD/DVDW SH-S182M, SB02

We’re interested in the first field of the output, ATA:1,0,0. This is the way cdrdao names the devices. You might have more than one device in the output; just use the one that you will rip PSX CDs with.

Now, the script:
Code:


#!/bin/bash

if [[ -z "$1" ]]; then
   echo -e "Usage: `basename $0` "
   echo -e "Error: No filename specified."
   exit 1
fi

cdrdao read-cd --device ATA:1,0,0 --driver generic-mmc-raw --read-raw --datafile $1.bin $1.toc

exit 0

Save this script as ‘mkpsximage’ in /usr/local/bin and give it execute permission. You’ll need sudo access to do this. (Change the bolded portion to whatever drive you want to use.) When you use the script, you will need to specify a base filename to use for the created BIN/TOC files. Say you were ripping Final Fantasy VII, disc one:

Code:


$ mkpsximage ff7-d1

When the script is finished, you should have two files in the current directory, ‘ff7-d1.bin’ and ‘ff7-d1.toc’.

Setting up Chromium in Ubuntu Linux

found a useful link on how to set up Chromium in Linux. Chromium is the open source browser that Google Chrome is based on. It might be because my thinkpad is a little older now, but Firefox is a little sluggish now, but Chromium is really, really fast. It’s still under development but it’s pretty usable now.

Updated for 9.10
credit goes to: http://a2b-net.com/software/chromium
Here is a quick install guide to install the Chromium Web Browser.

Open a Terminal window (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and copy+paste following command:

sudo apt-key adv –recv-keys –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 4E5E17B5

Then goto your Software Sources (System->Administration->Software Sources) and select the Other Software tab and click on the Add button. Now copy+paste the following line:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

Now click on the Add Source button. And click the Reload button when asked.

In a Terminal window copy+paste the following command line:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

Ubuntu 9.04
http://penguininside.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-setup-chromium-google-chrome.html

Here’s my summary. Add following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list:


deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main #chromium-browser

Add the key so you won’t get an annoying message everytime you update apt:


sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 0xfbef0d696de1c72ba5a835fe5a9bf3bb4e5e17b5

Install Chromium:


sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

To use Extensions and Firefox Plugins launch chromium with these flags:


/usr/bin/chromium-browser --enable-plugins --enable-user-scripts --enable-extensions

The entry from the link above suggests making a desktop icon or creating an executable file to launch chromium with these abilities. I preferred the option to create /usr/local/bin/chrome-launcher:


#!/bin/bash
exec /usr/bin/chromium-browser --enable-plugins --enable-user-scripts --enable-extensions
exit 0

Enabling Thinkpad Trackpoint Scrolling in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS

This information was from thinkwiki.
Add the following to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file

   Option          "EmulateWheel"          "on"
   Option          "EmulateWheelButton"    "2"
   Option          "YAxisMapping"          "4 5"
   Option          "XAxisMapping"          "6 7"

Here is my xorg.conf


# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
 Driver  "kbd"
 Option  "XkbRules" "xorg"
 Option  "XkbModel" "pc105"
 Option  "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier "Configured Mouse"
 Driver  "mouse"
 Option  "CorePointer"
 Option  "EmulateWheel"          "on"
 Option  "EmulateWheelButton"    "2"
 Option "YAxisMapping" "4 5"
 Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
 Driver  "synaptics"
 Option  "SendCoreEvents" "true"
 Option  "Device" "/dev/psaux"
 Option  "Protocol" "auto-dev"
 Option  "HorizEdgeScroll" "1"
EndSection

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
 Driver  "fglrx"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Monitor  "Configured Monitor"
 Device  "Configured Video Device"
 Defaultdepth 24
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
 Identifier "Default Layout"
  screen "Default Screen"
 Inputdevice "Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection
Section "Module"
 Load  "glx"
EndSection

Add new user on Ubuntu server

sudo useradd -d /home/testuser -m testuser admin
sudo passwd testuser

the admin at the end makes testuser part of hte admin group. you do not need to add it to the end. you can also just edit the /etc/group file and manually add testuser to the admin group.

info from here: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/add-a-user-on-ubuntu-server/
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=201468
http://linuxservertutorials.blogspot.com/2008/11/ubuntu-create-group.html