Tlinux

Ubuntu and Mp3 player

2006-10-13T22:41:00.000+02:00

On Ubuntu Dapper my USB mp3 player Creative MuvoV200 sometimes isn't recognized. After a cold start it always works.

"sudo modprobe -r usb-storage" and replacing the player solves the problem.

Another webmail solution

2006-10-13T22:05:00.000+02:00

Another way to download mail from webbased mailaccounts.

http://webmail.mozdev.org/index.html

It's a plug-in for thunderbird and works great. Very nice is the feature in thunderbird to filter your mail. I've made separate folders for all my accounts, and the mail is filtered automaticly to the folders. And with spamassassin - build in Junk filter of Thunderbird, most of my spam is transported to the trashbin.

There was a small problem to get the extention to work. It is needed to change the pop and smtp port from 110 to more than 1024 (the same change is needed in the pop/smtp setting for every account in Thunderbird). After this the pop and smtp servers are green in the preferences of the webmail extention.

Pop settings:
servername: localhost
username: linux@hotmail.com (example)

For now smtp doesn't seem to work. I've changed the port above 1024, it could be a firewall issue.
Not that important for me, the hotmail and lycos accounts I'm using are mainly used to receive mail.

Edit: It works, you can only choose 1 "smtp" server and the right server isn't chosen automaticly.

Smtp settings
servername: localhost
username and password: linux@hotmail.com (example)

Hotmail in your e-mail client

2006-01-18T19:10:00.000+01:00

I've got some hotmail addresses. To log into all your acounts costs some time, so to make this process automatic I've discovered this great program.
http://mrpostman.sourceforge.net/

After starting this Java program, it's possible to download your mail with a normal client (like evolution or thunderbird) Of course you have to add your hotmail accounts in your client.
For more info: go to the site.

Highly recommended!

Ubuntu Breezy 5.10

2005-10-18T23:55:00.000+02:00

Soon after Ubuntu Breezy 5.10 was available I downloaded it and tried it on my laptop.

Upgrading from Hoary wasn't successful, so I did a complete new install. Installation was painless and all components were recognized.
The new Breezy isn't very different from Hoary from what i've seen. Open Office 2.0 is for me the biggest difference together with the newest Gnome version 2.12.

Maybe I will see the big benifits of Hoary after the update of the Ubuntu Guide.

Because I needed to do a new install I tried some other distro's too

1. Debian. After installing no X server started, so I didn't bother...
2. Mandriva 2005 (I thought I'd downloaded 2006)
Nice distro. Very complete 'out of the box' even AVI / mp3
3. OpenSUSE 10.0
Also a very nice distro. With this guide : http://www.thejemreport.com/mambo/content/view/178/42/
It's very easy to make a complete desktop in a short time.

I think the main distro's are all very good, and there isn' t one for me that is the absolute best.

Ubuntu is still my favorite, the reason for this is the community, the forum and the Ubuntu Guide.

gxmame

2005-10-02T23:39:00.000+02:00

Mame is an emulator for arcade games. It's a problem getting it to work with a nice gui in linux.
This is the way I do it, but it doesn't work flawless.

- install xmame (synaptic)

- install the newest version of gxmame Gxmame projectpage
to install use sudo dpkg -i gxmame_0.35beta2-1_i386.deb

- after that I changed the default rom directory

- copied a hiscore.dat file from http://www.mame.net/hiscore.html
unzip the file and save the hiscore.dat file in /usr/share/games/xmame/ (another directory doesn't work)
I changed permission of the file with chmod 666 hiscore.dat

- You can't see the romfile names if you start gxmame. You need to change the fontsize of the gamelist font (default size = 0).

Firefox Mplayer plug-in

2005-09-04T11:28:00.000+02:00

The Firefox/Mozilla Mplayer plug-in I could apt-get in Fedora was a better one than the one I installed with Synaptic for Ubuntu. I need the Mplayer plug-in for some Windows Media streams.

Especially the full screen option was something I missed in Ubuntu.
Of course it's available for Ubuntu too, I found this solution on the Ubuntu forum.

"http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=60505&highlight=mplayer+plugin"

Opinion about Linux / Open Source vs Windows

2005-09-03T17:50:00.000+02:00

I think we (open source community), should stop trying to convince Windows users to join 'our club'. Even the debate about the quality of free software vs commercial is something I don't really find interesting.

What I do find interesting is comparing free distro's, keep an eye on FreeBSD and Solaris. Try new updates of software, watch for games on www.happypenguin.org and read the linux news on www.linux.org.
If we stop comparing, be happy with what we've got and try to help newbies in the open source community with good information, this community will grow without trying to convince others.
The philosophy of free open source (share) doesn't need marketing, it will find it's way to the people anyway.
It may take a few years, but I believe it's a process that will not be stopped.

Just my 2 cts :)

How to: Ubuntu and gdesklets

2005-08-27T11:07:00.000+02:00

Gdesklets are small programs you can put on your desktop. Mostly the programs will show the status of something like cpu usage, harddisktemperature but you can also see weather(forcast), rss feeds.

These gdesklets make your desktop like the dashboard of your car, with speedgauges.

I've tried the gdesklets with synaptic, but that didn't work out. Probably the version is too old and you need a newer version. This is my working solution (found it on the Ubuntu forums):

First download:

http://sethkinast.com/ubuntu/hoary/backports/gdesklets_0.35.2-1~5.04ubp1_i386.deb

Then

http://sethkinast.com/ubuntu/hoary/backports/gdesklets-data_0.35.2-3_all.deb

sudo dpkg -i gdesklets_0.35.2-1~5.04ubp1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i gdesklets-data_0.35.2-3_all.deb

After that start gdesklets and click on the ones you like and put them on your desktop. A couple of them are not working very well, but most of them will.

I'm using 2 rss feeds, some computer usage monitors and a xmms tool. Fun and I think they look great!
The picture is my desktop, with the gdesklets I'm using.

Podcasting and Linux

2005-08-23T22:26:00.000+02:00

What is podcasting?

You can receive your favorite radioshows with a podcasting program. If you put the url (webpage) of the show in your program it will automaticly search the web and will download the shows you haven't downloaded/listened yet.

On Linux you can use fa jPodder (see picture). jPodder is easy to use and has got many features.
The one I use is BashPodder, not so easy to use and you need to adjust a config file. I like it because it does the job and nothing more, and I can adjust the program myself because it is written in bash.

BashPodder: BashPodder site
jPodder: jPodder site

Here you can find podcasts

ipodder.org

A lot of categories containing music, but also spoken word from Agriculture to Women.

My favorite podcasts:

Lugradio: Lugradio podcast
Hoe?Zo! (dutch): HoeZo laatste aflevering

Nice platform game Pachi el marciano

2005-08-21T02:11:00.000+02:00

Not very well known platform game, but I like it (and I'm not really into platform games). Got funny graphics, good gameplay not too easy and not too difficult.

Installation without problems using synaptic. After starting the game with "pachi" in the terminal, the opening screen appeared. Comic style. After that you can set up your controls, (full)screen etc in an easy menu. You can adjust the difficulty too.
Gaming is easy, collect the items and use jumping (space) and crawling (down). Avoid the nasty ghosts, skulls and find the exit after collecting all the items.

Not innovative, but painless install, smooth and fun to play

My score 8 out of 10.

Playing an iso (dvd) with Xine

2005-08-17T18:08:00.000+02:00

Piece of cake!

xine dvd: filename.ISO

No need to burn iso's

2005-08-15T18:43:00.000+02:00

If you have downloaded an .iso file it's very easy in Linux to use the files in the iso.
You can mount the iso and put the information in a target directory

How?

sudo mount -o loop -t iso9660 /source/directory/file.iso /target/directory/

Personal Linux roadmap

2005-08-13T17:47:00.000+02:00

I like the idea of a roadmap. Set some goals you want to achieve and try to reach them before you die ;)

I don't have a time limit for my goals .. yet.

My personal linux goals (random order):

1. Install MythTV

- Main problem will be my video card: a Hauppage WinTV 881 based PCI board, not supported by Linux as far as I know

2. Learn more about bash / scripting

- I have to make the goal more clear like 'write a script that does ....'

3. Learn more about python

- I have a video tutorial that I need to study, after that I will rewrite a program I once made in Basic.

4. Learn more about Excel/OpenOffice Spreadsheet. This will come in handy in my daily work as well.

- on going process, but there needs to be more structure in doing this

5. Install Linux on my pocket PC / Ipaq 3610

- I don't really use the 3610 anymore, because I've got a new pocket pc. It's something I planned doing for some time now, but never done it.

6. Sync my Pocket PC and laptop with SynCE

- I prefer with Korganizer or else with Evolution

7. Try to use stepbridge (dutch online bridgeprogram) with Wine.

- Will probably not work, but I want to try it anyway. During the process hope to learn more about configuring Wine.

Last edit [15-08]

If ejecting CD fails

2005-08-09T22:03:00.000+02:00

Sometimes I have a problem with ejecting CD's. Especially old/bad cd's have this problem.

#sudo eject

Typing this in a terminal solves this problem.

Linux and games

2005-08-07T22:56:00.000+02:00

I think the most important reason that Linux hasn't got very much users yet on the desktop (about 1% now) is mainly due to the lacking of commercial games.
There are a couple of commercial games like: Unreal, Doom, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Simcity 3000, Heroes of Might and Magic and some more. A lot of other games aren't available for Linux like GTA, Warcraft, C&C. I don't use Wine (for using Windows programs on linux), it's too much work to get the games working and often you need dll's from Windows.

I don't really mind, because I'm not a fanatic gamer. If I want to play a game, there are 100's of open source games available. Some of them are quite nice and can compete with commercial games. Some are not that appealing, but have good gameplay.

I will give my opinion of some games later in my blog.

Ubuntu and System Monitor

2005-08-02T17:22:00.000+02:00

"Every" windows user knows the task manager. With ctrl-alt-del you can choose task manager and see what processes are running.
In Ubuntu that's possible too with System Monitor and it has a nice gui (gui=graphical user interface) like task manager. You can find System Monitor in Applications => System tools, it's a very usefull tool.

If there is an application that will not start, the application could be running in the background and you have to force close it to stop it.
There are a few programs that have that problem, one of them is mplayer. It often happens that it stays resident after a bad closure.
To stop and be able to watch your movies again: start System Monitor, right click on the name (mplayer), and End or Kill (if End fails) the process.

streamtuner

2005-08-01T23:18:00.000+02:00

A great program to receive internet radio stations. For every taste a radiostation: music, talk, comedy. 100's of stations. You can add new stations if you like, and it's even possible to record shows to listen when it suits you.
Streamtuner works together with xmms so you have to install both. Of course very easy to install with synaptic.

One of my favorite linux programs.

link to streamtuner homepage

KDE + Ubuntu (=Kubuntu)

2005-07-31T23:30:00.000+02:00

If you like KDE and already installed Ubuntu, it's very easy to install KDE.
Only thing you have to do:

sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

Install it and choose between logon with KDM or GDM. I chose the default one.
After that restart and you can choose with "sessions" KDE too and choose KDE as default.

I like Gnome a bit more than KDE, but it's always nice to have a choice :)

Lugradio

2005-07-29T23:37:00.000+02:00

LugRadio is a British internet radio show. It's all about Linux and humor. Really worth checking out.
I like the interviews with developers and the humor. Can be a bit too much non-informative for me sometimes, but I always look foreward to a new episode.

Link to lugradio

There's a very good episode containing an interview with Mark Shuttleworh, the man behind Ubuntu.

Mail + linux

2005-07-28T17:59:00.000+02:00

The finest mail client I've ever used is Sylpheed. It's very fast and does what it promises, downloads your mail you can access attachments. The only "problem": it's rather basic, and hasn't got a slick gui.

Thunderbird is a nice client too, but not very fast. I like it because it feels integrated with
gnome/kde.

Evolution is the slowest, but got the most features. It's bloated, and got problems with opening attachments 'out of the box'. You have to tweak it to make it somewhat usable. I "have to" use it because it's the only way to synchronise my calendar with my phone.

My advise: go for Sylpheed(-claws) if you can live without Evolution.

Synaptic + Repositories

2005-07-27T17:18:00.000+02:00

One of the best ways to install software on Ubuntu is with Synaptic. I've already discovered Synaptic when I was using Fedora Core 2 and since then it is my major install tool.No more rpms and dependencies hell.

This link shows you how to add extra repositories to Synaptic: ubuntuguide extra repositories

Repositories are extra sources to get your software from. After installing extra repositories, adding new software is a piece of cake.
You can find Synaptic: System => Administration => Synaptic Package Manager.

Signature

2005-07-26T18:21:00.000+02:00

How tempting is it to click a signature with a hyperlink that states: don't click

I guess very tempting :)

don't click!

Linux and command line

2005-07-25T21:33:00.000+02:00

Using Linux without terminal is almost impossible. Sooner or later you will have to use the command line.
I've used msdos in the past, so it was not very hard for me to get used to it.

You can see my terminal, I've made it transparent so you see a part of my desktop background, I like this feature (downloaded the background yesterday)

You can use commands in the terminal but you can use the commands in a automatic script too. Can be very handy.
I'm still a bit of a novice, but I'd like to improve my scripting in the years to come.

This post will be a reference for commands I learn and use. I will edit it whenever I learn a new one:

goto Tuxfiles link for commandline stuff like ls, cd, cp (copy), rm (remove), mv (move), cat (view), less (view), mkdir (make dir), rmdir (remove empty dir), rm (remove dir)

Some more advanced: piping

ls | less => output of ls is input for less

More later

Why Ubuntu

2005-07-24T12:38:00.000+02:00

I've used lots of distro's. I've started with Mandrake 9.2, after that I tried Mandrake 10 for a while, but that was a bit of a dissapointment.
It was not very stable for my hardware and lots of thing working fine in 9.2 didn't work as well in 10. So for me it felt like downgrading instead of upgrading.
That motivated me to try other distro' s and Suse and Fedora really appealed to me. Installation and hardware detection went without any real problems. I worked with both for a while but after a couple of months I deleted Suse 9.2 to use Fedora Core 3 only.
There was no real need to change Fedora, but curious as I am, I wanted to try Fedora Core 4 and compare it with Ubuntu. Lots of good reviews of Ubuntu made me try it.
Everything you can read in the reviews of Ubuntu is true: very easy install, very good hardware detection, very stable and lots of easy to install software, because it is based on Debian.
What I like about Ubuntu as well, is the great community around it. Very helpfull...
With ubuntuguide it's very easy to have a full featured desktop within a couple of hours.

Don't know if it's the best distro for starters, but it does the job very well and easy for me.
If you want to try Linux, download Knoppix
Great live cd, no installation on harddisk. Just burn the knoppix iso, boot the cd and try it. No risk and you can see if you like Linux.

Share files

2005-07-23T18:29:00.000+02:00

A very easy way to share files between 2 linux pc's in Ubuntu is by using ssh (I installed open-ssh client + open-ssh server).

Install it first on both computers (synaptic) and after that select from "Places" - "Connect to Server"
Choose service type "Custom Location"
For locations "sftp://name@servername/home/name" fa "sftp://tlinux@192.168.1.1/home/tlinux"
Name to use for connection "choose whatever you want" fa "tlinuxlaptop"

Now you need to put in your root password and voila, you can access the files you want. It's realy easy to use. The only "problem" is you can't use the files without copying them on your client. If that's the thing you want, you'd better choose nfs or samba.

First post

2005-07-23T18:03:00.000+02:00

This blog will be used to keep track of the things I do and learn with linux. Linux is since 2 years my main operating system.
By searching through my posts I hope I can spare some time googling for a problem I already solved in the past.

I' m from Holland but I will write it down in English, that way I hope my english writing will improve. If you see some spelling mistakes, please tell me :)