Compiz in Ubuntu 7.10

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One of the reasons that I wanted to upgrade to Ubuntu 7.10 before it was released was so that I could have a play with the new developments in compiz. It was therefore more than a little disappointing to discover that it did not work. When I tried to enable desktop effects, it would simply state that it could not, and would revert back to metacity.

At first, I was a little annoyed as I could not even see any error message as to why this had failed. Finally, for another reason, I started gnome-settings from the command line. When I then selected the appearance tool, and tried to turn on desktop effects, some useful information scrolled up the screen.

It would appear that by default, compiz checks that the graphics card has at least 64 MB or RAM before it will allow compiz to start. No doubt this is done for a good reason, but this does not help me with my 32 MB graphics card in my laptop.

A little bit of googling and I discover that compiz in Ubuntu has a wrapper script called /usr/bin/compiz A quick look in here and it is easy to see where the check for the RAM is done. I dropped the limit to 32 MB and tried again. Yay! Wobbly windows 🙂

Now all I need to do is find out how to configure compiz ….

Resist the urge to upgrade

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I am currently running Ubuntu 7.04 on two computers at home. In the past, I have always found it hard to resist the urge to install the development version of the next release of the distribution I am running. This started when I was using Debian. With its slow release cycle, Debian stable did start to feel a bit tired as a desktop system.

I would find that the latest version of some software with the features that I was interested in was not available. Rather than muck about with back-ports etc., I just went and installed testing, and then unstable. These are only my own machines, and the need for stability was not critical. The only time this did bother me was when I wanted to print. I found that my printer needed to be re-configured at regular intervals. A couple of times this did bite me as I wanted to print something quick, and due to changes in CUPS or whatever, my printer was off-line.

I then moved to Ubuntu. With its shorter release cycle, I decided that I would have the best of both worlds. I could have the more recent versions of software, and not have unpredictable breakage. Two upgrades a year should be ample. Well I could not wait for the final release of version 7.04 so I installed that a few months early, to try out compiz IIRC.

Now I am trying hard to resist the urge to upgrade to 7.10 before it is released. I fully expect that it is already stable enough for my use, but it would be good to wait until it has been released to try it. Not long to go now!

SATA DVD Burner with LightScribe

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As mentioned before, I have a new DVD Burner. After getting it to work, I needed to start using it. The first pack of media that I bought had the LightScribe surface. For those that don’t already know, LightScribe is a technology developed by HP that uses the DVD burner laser to effectively print directly onto the surface of special discs. Now I need to get this to work with Ubuntu.

First I went to the download area of the LightScribe website, and in the pre-release area, they have a few Debian packages that are compatible with Ubuntu. I installed these following the instruction provided, and started to use the simple labeller application.

This worked great, but is limited only to the most basic format of label, which consists of only two lines of text with a few provided graphics in a narrow band near the centre of the disk. My handwriting is not the best, so was happy with this as a simple solution, but it would be nice to have more.

I did a quick search to see if anybody has made any other label software for Linux that can use LightScribe, and drew a blank. This seems strange to me as HP have made the API available and even provide a sample application with the SDK. It would be nice to one day bite the bullet and have a go at writing my own application. Maybe this is the one!

A little bit of further research and I found LaCie have provided a LightScribe program for Linux. Initially I discarded this, as I was sure that it would be somehow crippled to only work with LaCie drives, and not with my Samsung one. Well it turns out that it is not. I only need to download the application, as I already had the LightScribe support files from the LightScribe site.

The LaCie software makes a good companion to the LightScribe software. The LaCie software only prints graphics, but will print to the full face of the disk. The clever thing with LightScribe is that the drive is able to recognise the position of the disk, so I can use the LaCie program to put a picture on the lower half of the disk, and leave the top area blank. I can then use the LightScribe simple labeller program to add a line of text. It is even possible to print the same label twice to get a darker image.

So I am happy. I have a method of marking my disks that looks smart, and it all works in Linux. I could really do with making a template for Gimp or Inkscape so that I can generate images easily, but that can wait. I now need to work on a few recipes to cook up some content suitable to burn.

SATA DVD Writer issues!

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I decided to buy myself a DVD Writer. A quick search and I decided to get a SATA device from Samsung that has LightScribe. I have a SATA controller on my motherboard, and I don’t like the idea of buying old technology, so I wanted a SATA interface.

I did a quick check to make sure that there was a good chance such a device would work with my Ubuntu desktop system. No major issues were highlighted, so on Tuesday I went bought the drive. I guessed that it would be only a few minutes to install, and then I would be up and running.

How wrong was I? To cut a long story short, I found that I have two different SATA controllers on my motherboard. One is incorporated in the southbridge, and one extra one. If I plugged the DVD into the extra one, then the machine would not even complete the POST. If I plugged it into the one on the southbridge, it would boot, but very slowly, and the DVD would not work, and the lots of error messages would fill dmesg.

It turns out that I have an early motherboard with SATA, and that it is not very good. Eventually I gave up trying to get it to work, and just bought a new SATA controller card. Now the machine boots without errors. Next thing is to learn how to create DVD’s and see if I can get LightScribe to work.

MythTV on Ubuntu

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I have just installed MythTV on my Ubuntu desktop machine using the instruction found here. I am really pleased with the result even if I did have to jump through a few hoops to get here.

I first looked a MythTV a while back, when I first got the DVB USB adapter. I had trouble setting it up and was a bit disappointed so I did not bother to use it. Instead I just use Xine to watch live broadcast, and then dvbstream via the ‘at’ command to schedule recordings. It worked, but was not very elegant.

I decided to have a go again after reading the guide mentioned above. The initial set-up probable went OK, but for some reason I could not get the schedule to download the information required. I fiddled about lots and tried alternative methods, only to later discover that I had a network problem, not an issue with MythTV. By this time I had already sent an email to the guy who wrote the guide above.

To avoid untangling the mess I had gotten into, it seemed that it would be easier to remove what was already set-up, and start again. This time the schedule was working in that the data was retrieved from the website, and could be seen in the schedule. However the problem now was that the channels had been duplicated in the schedule. When I selected a channel that had program information, I could not tune in. When I selected the version of the same channel that had no information, it would tune in OK and display the channel on the screen.

From the replies that I received from the author of the guide, it was apparent that the information for the channels is stored in the channel table of the mysql database that is used by MythTV. Well a quick view of that table showed me what was wrong, and a quick bit of SQL editing, and I had the channel table sorted.

Now I have a fully working MythTV setup that I am quite pleased with. The only thing I would like to do now is to set-up the system so that it can be run in a window in the corner of the screen, much like can be done with Xine. My hardware now probably needs some attention as it is not exactly the quietest machine.

April what?

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Every year April 1st comes along. I take no notice and start reading Slashdot. Invariably I read a number of posts without even raising an eyebrow. I will even click on a few links to read the attached articles. Eventually the penny drops that what I am reading is a little too unusual, and then I realize that it is a hoax.

At this point I then have to go back and re-read all the posts so that I can check that they are all hoaxes. I have to do this to make sure that I don’t quote the story thinking that there was some truth in it. I was almost caught out this year by the Gmail Paper story. I only read the slashdot summary, and believed it. Although I did think, I bet it will only be available in the states.

Once I realized the date, I went back and read the actual story.

I like this type of humor.

Life on the edge with Ubuntu Feisty – issues with Nvidia driver

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Ok, so I probably deserve this for using beta software, but I have just recovered from a major falling over with Ubuntu feisty.

A few weeks ago, I jumped through some hoops to get feisty running with compiz on my aged graphics card. In the end all it took was to use the standard nvidia packages that ubuntu supply, and some reconfiguring of my xorg.conf, and I had a fully working 3D bling desktop. I was happy. The only problems I saw are down to the limited memory on my graphics card.

Monday I installed a lump of updates. On Tuesday, when I rebooted, it all fell apart. Much gnashing of teeth later I gave up. Tonight, I decided to look into the problem. Well it would seem that Ubuntu have upgraded the nvidia driver that they package. The new one, 1.0-9755, has dropped support for my graphics chip. Ubuntu do supply a legacy driver, 1.0-7184, but that does not support the extensions required to use compiz.

It would seem that Nvidia are now supporting three versions of their unified driver. How that is unified, beats me. That aside, the version that is required for my hardware is not currently supported by Ubuntu. I ended up removing as any Nvidia package that I could, and then installed the driver using the download from Nvidia direct. All i need to do is remember to rebuild the kernel module next time it is upgraded.

I can’t wait for feisty to be released. Hopefully that will mean things settle down for a time. Next time, i must try and resist the urge to upgrade before the software is released. I don’t think I am really cut out to be a beta tester 🙂

Single ended 5 watt class A guitar amplifier

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Another year is here, and so is another hobby. This time I am going to build an amplifier for an electric guitar.

First, I have to say that I don’t play the guitar. However, I do have an interest in how they work. One day I would like to build one. Anyhow, I was in a music shop with my son (who does play very well) looking for a new amp. He does not want to spend much money, but I think that he will never be happy without the quality tone from an expensive valve (tube) amplifier. This prompted a discussion with my brother (who also plays very well) and he pointed me to Ampmaker.

Ampmaker supplies components and kits to build a valve amplifier. Reading his site, I was quite amazed how simple the electronics are in a valve amp. More reading followed. Notably:-

Now after that reading, I probably know just enough to be dangerous. Not to be put off, and after reading some very positive comments, I decided to buy one of the kits from Ampmaker. A couple of days later, and I received a package.

Amp kit contents

The contents were really well packed. I should have got a picture of it, but I was too excited. In a flurry of flying bubble wrap, the contents were revealed and laid out for inspection. I had already printed out the instructions from the website, so I was good to go. Next time I blog, it should be ready to play, unless I forget to head all the warnings about the dangers of high voltage electricity.

Ubuntu fstab changes

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A couple of weeks ago, I had a look at /etc/fstab for some reason. I was a little surprised to see that things have changed. Where partitions were labeled /dev/hda1 etc., now they look like this:-

# /dev/sda5 -- converted during upgrade to edgy
UUID=2350b9c8-c62a-4c50-b494-6c7db3438192 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1

This confused me a bit, but I did not do anything about it. What worried me was how would I know which drive or partition was being referred to. I let this go until a discussion that mentioned /etc/fstab came up on my local LUG mailing list.

Well it would appear that the idea behind the change is that with the latest drive technologies, there are so many possible drive connections, what with multiple SATA, IDE, RAID etc, a new method of drive and partition naming was needed. The UUID referred to above is taken from the actual partition. Therefore, drives can be moved around without having to edit /etc/fstab each time.

To find out where these partitions are, or what the UUID of a partition may be, a quick look at /dev/disk should be the place to start.

I am not an authority on this. I am just writing this primarily as a memory aid for myself. If I have missed anything important, please add a comment below.