Renoise Mod Tracker

I usually don't plug commercial software, but Renoise is worth talking about because of the lack of great audio trackers in Ubuntu. Renoise is "a complete, expandable Digital Audio Workstation" which allows you to create  loops, beats and melodies, based on mod trackers. Mod trackers are characterized by displaying and editing music in an easily understood grid known as a pattern. These patterns are akin to sheet music, but are displayed alphanumerically instead of with musical notation."

It uses alsa and has a jack option, which is a real pity, since one would expect there to be other interface options like oss and pulseaudio.

There is a demo available as well as a full download.

Cave Story (Doukutsu Monogatari)

Great retro game with huge following in Japan.

wget  http://shii.org/pixel/linuxdoukutsu-1.01.tar.bz2

rar linuxdoukutsu-1.01.tar.bz2

cd linuxdoukutsu-1.01

run the bin file

Link to Cave Story Tribute Site

Trinity KDE

This project aims to keep the KDE3.5 computing style alive, as well as polish off any rough edges that were present as of KDE 3.5.10. Along the way, new useful features will be added to keep the environment up-to-date.

Towards that end, significant new enhancements have already been made in areas such as display control, network connectivity, authentication, and much more!

NOTE: This project is not an official continuation of KDE3.5 by KDE e.V., which will not be creating new releases. This is an independent fork using a largely separate developer community.

1. Add these lines to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:
For Maverick [STABLE] (4 lines):
deb http://ppa.quickbuild.pearsoncomputing.net/trinity/trinity/ubuntu maverick main
deb-src http://ppa.quickbuild.pearsoncomputing.net/trinity/trinity/ubuntu maverick main
deb http://ppa.quickbuild.pearsoncomputing.net/trinity/trinity-builddeps/ubuntu maverick main
deb-src http://ppa.quickbuild.pearsoncomputing.net/trinity/trinity-builddeps/ubuntu maverick main

2. Add the GPG signing key:
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.quickbuild.pearsoncomputing.net --recv-keys 2B8638D0

3. Install KDE 3.5:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install kubuntu-default-settings-kde3 kubuntu-desktop-kde3

http://trinity.pearsoncomputing.net/

More Linux DJ mixing software

UltraMixer

UltraMixer is a professional DJ mixer which has both a free and paid version. Download the .jar and run.

Link

SpiralSynth

SpiralSynth is capable of creating the kind of sounds made by hardware analogue synths, the noises used in electronic music. You can also use it to make stranger sounds too.

MIDI is supported, including velocity detection, mapped to the volume of the oscillators (But you can also use the PC keyboard to play the synth).

You can save and recall your sounds using the 100 patch save slots, and render WAV files directly to disk.

Link

BeatForce

BeatForce is a computer DJing system, with two players with independent playlist, song database, mixer, sampler etc. It was planned as a feature enhanced Linux replacement for BPM-Studio from Alcatech.

Link

Ubuntu Narwhal just a creature with a horn attached?

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="369" caption="Designed by Committee"][/caption]

Frankly the introduction of the misnamed Unity into the mainstream Ubuntu distro default desktop is yet another distraction from productivity. "Are my buttons on the right, no they on the left side" issue which results from the well-known duck-billed platpus school of design, yep, the Narwhal is also one of nature's creatures which looks like it got designed by a commitee. Instead of tackling some of the basic infrastructure problems that affect Ubuntu Linux in several important desktop areas, (see below) the community appears to be caught up with the need to present desktop eye candy that does absolutely nothing for productivity.

In the process we lose the desktop while gaining what is essentially yet another widget shell interface. Superstructure sheen, superficial glitz. Totally unnessary in terms of development IMHO. Hopefully Gnome will get its act together and we will all figure out a way to keep Classic Gnome on our desktops instead of having Unity foisted on us, replacing the default Ubuntu-Desktop session with the next upgrade.

Surely it is a question of choice? Will there be freedom in our package-kit, or will update-manager simply kill our default ubuntu-sessions, forcing us to use the NextStep-centric dock?

I was looking forward to Wayland, since at least there is the possibility of near perfect resolution,  but this is unlikely to be included in Narwhal or the near future, so there really is not much progress happening in Ubuntu apart from the  introduction of an alternative to the Gnome Shell which we already have. Mind you, since we can already install Unity, are we going to see the rise of Unity variants? Vote for freedom, Unity really needs to be an optional extra, like Gnome Shell. Something we can install or remove at leisure, otherwise, I'm afraid, Ubuntu Linux is going to be replaced by Linux Mint as people's distro of choice, at least having a peppermint flavoured varient isn't all that bad, you can simply change appearance.

Here are some of my current Ubuntu gripes

basic desktop networking

Try configuring Samba, a piece of software that is so huge and complicated it deserves to have a distro all of its own. The NFS kernel server may not be any easier, but at least it works.

desktop audio and video production

While the lack of any killer apps in this department hasn't stopped Linux fans from coming up with their own, Jack is seriously old. It is one of my pet infrastructure hates, relying on an applications that is not actually supported by the distro in order to open any one of the many Linux audio tools.

drag 'n drop extensibility

Try dragging files from one application to the next. Or pasting an audio clip into your favourite email programme. Do we still have to think about this one?

productive media folders

Over the past few distros, we've seen the addition of one or two extra  folders in the default home folder. I would have thought making home folders more media friendly would have been a focus, but no, we still have to install tools like Gloobus previews. Media folders like Music and Video have absolutely no intelligence other than the fact they are folders to which some apps like Banshee may relate, then again, why bulk up with Banshee, a relative whale of a programme.

In short, stop tackling superstructure, because what we really need is integrated infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure,infrastructure, infrastructure,infrastructure, infrastructure,infrastructure, infrastructure,infrastructure, infrastructure,infrastructure, infrastructure,infrastructure, infrastructure,infrastructure, infrastructure integrated...............,

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Unnecessary addition of unicorn horn?"][/caption]

Modded Twitter Rhythmbox plugin for Grooveshark

A modded twitter rhythmbox plugin that allows you to post to Grooveshark

Grab it here

check dependencies:

sudo apt-get install python-httplib2 python-gconf python-gobject python-gtk2 python-gnome2 python-glade2 python-twitter

unzip and copy to ~/.gnome2/rhythmbox/plugins/

FROM: Taringa

Darktable

Great image tool

darktable is a virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers: it manages your digital negatives in a database and lets you view them through a zoomable lighttable. it also enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.

this project tries to fill the gap between the many excellent existing free raw converters and image management tools (such as ufraw or f-spot). The user interface is built around efficient caching of image metadata and mipmaps, all stored in a database. the user will always be able to interact, even if the full resolution image is not yet loaded.

all editing is fully non-destructive and only operates on cached image buffers for display. the full image is only converted during export. the frontend is written in gtk+/cairo, the database uses sqlite3, raw image loading is done using libraw, high-dynamic range, and standard image formats such as jpeg are also supported. the core operates completely on floating point values, so darktable can not only be used for photography but also for scientifically acquired images or output of renderers (high dynamic range).

darktable is released under the terms of the gnu general public license version 3 or later.

ppa:pmjdebruijn/darktable-release

or

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/pmjdebruijn/darktable-release/ubuntu maverick main

deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/pmjdebruijn/darktable-release/ubuntu maverick main

A "200 lines" alternative patch script

I've translated a patch script that automates the hack that is being doing the rounds, it is by superpiwi @ Ubuntulife. Haven't tested it, so be warned. You need root privileges.

Add the following to a new file, name it something like 200patch.sh and chmod +x

#!/bin/bash

YELLOW="33[1;33m"
RED="33[0;31m"
ENDCOLOR="33[0m"



#::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
# PATCH
Apply the kernel enhancements (patch 200 lines)
# But in 4 lines of bash

#
#::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
function PATCH()
{

FILE="$HOME/.bashrc"



echo ""
echo -e $YELLOW"Patching file [${FILE}]..."$ENDCOLOR
echo ""

# Adding strings to .bashrc



# First we look for a string "base" to see whether or not it has already been added
LINES=`cat $FILE | grep "/dev/cgroup/cpu/user" | wc -l`
if [ "$LINES" == "0" ];
then
echo "Adding patch for performance .."
echo "if [ \"\$PS1\" ] ; then" | tee -a $FILE
echo "mkdir -m 0700 /dev/cgroup/cpu/user/\$\$" | tee -a $FILE
echo "echo \$\$ > /dev/cgroup/cpu/user/\$\$/tasks" | tee -a $FILE
echo "fi" | tee -a $FILE
else
echo "it seems that patch has been included in $FILE"
fi



FILE="/etc/rc.local"
echo ""
echo -e $YELLOW"Patching file [${FILE}]..."$ENDCOLOR
echo ""

# Adding strings to... /etc/rc.local

#First we look for a string "base" to see whether or not it has already been added
LINES=`cat $FILE | grep "/dev/cgroup/cpu/release_agent" | wc -l`
if [ "$LINES" == "0" ];
then

echo "Adding patch for performance .."
POSI=`cat $FILE | grep -n "exit 0" | sort -nr | head -n 1 | awk -F: '{print $1}'`
#echo "Is possible [$POSSIBLE]"
echo "making backup $FILE in /etc/rc.local.backup.txt"
cp /etc/rc.local /etc/rc.local.backup.txt
sed "${POSSIBLE}imkdir -p /dev/cgroup/cpu\nmount -t cgroup cgroup /dev/cgroup/cpu -o cpu\nmkdir -m 0777 /dev/cgroup/cpu/user\necho \"/usr/local/sbin/cgroup_clean\" > /dev/cgroup/cpu/release_agent" /etc/rc.local | tee /etc/rc.new.local
mv /etc/rc.new.local /etc/rc.local

#echo "#========== patch improves ============" | tee -a $FILE
#echo "mkdir -p /dev/cgroup/cpu" | tee -a $FILE
#echo "mount -t cgroup cgroup /dev/cgroup/cpu -o cpu" | tee -a $FILE
#echo "mkdir -m 0777 /dev/cgroup/cpu/user" | tee -a $FILE
#echo "echo \"/usr/local/sbin/cgroup_clean\" > /dev/cgroup/cpu/release_agent" | tee -a $FILE
#echo "#====================================" | tee -a $FILE
else
echo "It seems that patch has been included in $FILE"
fi

echo ""
echo -e $YELLOW"Giving execution permissions to [${FILE}]..."$ENDCOLOR
echo ""
sudo chmod +x $FILE

FILE="/usr/local/sbin/cgroup_clean"
echo ""
echo -e $YELLOW"Building FILE [${FILE}]..."$ENDCOLOR
echo ""
if [ -f $FILE ];
then
echo "#!/bin/sh" | tee $FILE
echo "rmdir /dev/cgroup/cpu/$*" | tee -a $FILE

else
echo "File $FILE already exists."
fi;

echo ""
echo -e $YELLOW"Giving execution permissions to... [${FILE}]..."$ENDCOLOR
echo ""
sudo chmod +x $FILE

echo "COMPLETED. Applied patch, reboot and enjoy Linux ..."

}
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Check that you are user root
if [ $USER != root ]; then
echo -e $RED"Error: you must be root."
echo -e $YELLOW"Finishing..."$ENDCOLOR
exit 0
fi

# Patching the System
PATCH



# end of 200patch.sh

Note: I am not responsible if something breaks on your computer Anyway, it's easy to go "backwards" if you follow the instructions in the original post. However, before running the script I recommend you take a backup of your ". Bashrc" and your "/ etc / rc.local". If it does not give many problems, superpiwi will package. Deb.

UPDATE: Superpiwi reports a new version for the script as follows:

cd
wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/59511828/cgroup_patch
chmod +x cgroup_patch
sudo ./cgroup_patch

VideoCut 0.3.1vm an unofficial, faster fork of VideoCut

VideoCut - is an open source desktop application specially created for capturing screenshots from video files.

This is unofficial VideoCut fork, with new functions. This project has a new ffmpeg video decoding backend. Which is significant faster and more stable.

Requirements:
* Qt >= 4.6
* xine-lib or libffmpeg

Changelog:

0.3.1vm:
* Czech translations. Thanks to Pavel Fric.

0.3.0vm:
* ffmpeg backend
* plugin system
* automatic images uploading to ImageShack.us
* automatic images uploading to Ipix.lt
* ability to build on windows
* Lithuanian translations
* some bug fixes and improvements

You can get it here

Alternative to the 200 lines kernel hack

You may be aware of the recent debate around a 200 lines kernel hack which makes Linux 10% faster. Andrew from WebUPD8 just posted this alternative. It really does seem to work. I've reposted the relevant part for Ubuntu, but I seriously suggest you take a look at the original posting first.

To use Lennart's solution in Ubuntu (not tested - thanks to Lsh for this), you have to replace "/sys/fs" with "/dev". So you would have to add the following commands in your /etc/rc.local (open it with: sudo gedit /etc/rc.local) file, above the "exit 0" line:

mkdir -p /dev/cgroup/cpu
mount -t cgroup cgroup /dev/cgroup/cpu -o cpu
mkdir -m 0777 /dev/cgroup/cpu/user
echo "1" > /dev/cgroup/cpu/user/notify_on_release
echo "/usr/local/sbin/cgroup_clean" > /dev/cgroup/cpu/release_agent

and make it executable:

sudo chmod +x /etc/rc.local

And then add the following to your ~/.bashrc file (to open it: gedit ~/.bashrc):

if [ "$PS1" ] ; then
mkdir -m 0700 /dev/cgroup/cpu/user/$$
echo $$ > /dev/cgroup/cpu/user/$$/tasks
fi

Run the following command:

sudo gedit /usr/local/sbin/cgroup_clean

And paste this:

#!/bin/sh
rmdir /dev/cgroup/cpu/$1

then save the file and make it executable:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/cgroup_clean

And finally, restart the computer.

Update: The above instructions have been updated automatically remove empty cgroups (thank to Ricardo Ferreira - see his comment below).

Update 2: 64bit kernels (Warning: use these at your own risk!!!) for Ubuntu 10.10:

If you want to go even further and install a patched Kernel, you can download a "200 lines" patched Kernel from HERE (thanks to accumulator @ Phoronix forums).

Also, WebUpd8 reader Scott Franke shared a patch he patched with bfs with which he says he gets better performance then with the "200 lines patch". Download from HEREand HERE.

Both of the above 2 Kernels are for 64bit Ubuntu 10.10 only! Use them at your own risk!

Read the discussion @ http://lkml.org/lkml/2010/11/16/392 | via Habrahabr.ru(thanks to Lsh)

Hatari-UI, an addon for Ubuntu Atari emulator

Hatari UI is an out-of-process user interface for the Hatari emulator and its built-in debugger which can (optionally) embed the Hatari emulator window. Having the UI in another process allows doing it with a higher level language and avoiding adding GUI toolkit dependencies to Hatari itself.

The UI is done with PyGtk i.e. in Python language, using the Gtk widget set. It's an additional UI, the built-in Hatari SDL UI isn't being replaced or going anywhere!

Why another UI?

While the built-in SDL UI for Hatari has its good points, it has also many minor shortcomings:

• There's no UI for the debugger or for viewing trace/debug logs.


• The configuration UI itself is not configurable and although its quite nice for an UI done with C and libSDL, it's still very hard to modify (e.g. its layout).


• It doesn't currently support UTF-8 or internationalization and isn't scalable enough to support localization well (translations need upto 1/3 more space).


• The file selector doesn't support unicode (all file systems use nowadays Unicode file names) nor bookmarks or other goodies in modern file selectors.


• Invoking the UI stops the emulation.


• It doesn't allow configuring all the things that one can configure e.g. from command line (Spec512, fast forward,Falcon DSP settings, trace settings and bios-tracing, log files and levels).

http://koti.mbnet.fi/tammat/hatari/hatari-ui.shtml

Grab Hatari-UI by checking out the latest mercurial code

hg clone http://hg.berlios.de/repos/hatari

cd into hatari directory and run hatariui

/hatari/python-ui$ ./hatariui

You can grab TOS files to run your Atari here, and here as for software, I am still looking for a convenient method of converting ATR format disks to use *.st and *.msa disk format which Hatari uses. There is an msa dos-based utility in French with source code. I also managed to find a great resource of for Atari games and applications. SpareMint is an OS which runs on Tos4XX

Some useful links:

http://www.atari-forum.com/

http://www.atari.org/l

http://www.atarimania.com/index.html (has great Atari 2600 download)

http://www.atariage.com/

Tos Documentation Project

Dead Hackers Society (2010 atari demo scene)

Pouer.Net

Magic with the Ubuntu Classic Gnome desktop

I've been looking around for ways to make the Gnome desktop more of a "desktop experience" and to remove some of the annoyances which while minor, are irritating enough in terms of productivity to warrant some attention.

Firstly, I must admit to being a fan of OSX, after some years with an Apple, then suffering the pain of not being able to upgrade as the "revolution" went from supplying affordable home appliances to upmarket designer goods which I couldn't afford.

I recently joined the OSX86 hacker community to see what I was missing. And yes OSX Snow Leopard is a dream compared to Tiger and OS9. But since OSX86 is a legal grey area, which IMHO has tacit support from Apple execs if only to destroy good open source Linux distributions like Ubuntu, I was driven by the need to fix/r  and augment the parts of Ubuntu which where immediately lacking in comparison. (This is not a tutorial on how to make your Ubuntu system look like a Mac, it is my thoughts on what all those tutorials lack after you have changed everything except your browser and installer and then gone back to just having a dock).

[caption id="attachment_2586" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="My Applications folder (see 4 below)"][/caption]

1. What, no mini-browser for Nautilus browser?

Yes, I'm afraid this is one of the failures in the current Gnome desktop. "Open" does what it is supposed to do, but try  "Open With" or browsing for applications with Nautilus and you miss the previews and well-represented information which give the OSX browser a practical edge, as well as aesthetic value. If anyone knows of a plugin which will give nautilus some extra capability this department, then please drop me a note. Here is how to solve a related problem, duplicate 'Open With' entries.

[caption id="attachment_2591" align="aligncenter" width="255" caption="Duplicate entries, not enough oomph."][/caption]

2. Clutter View and Previews

While it is easy to install Nautilus Elementary with Clutterflow and Gloobus Previews,  Clutter view in Linux lacks any real use value. Currently one cannot click on any of the carasol images to drag and drop files. Thankfully Gloobus is a lot more practical, but the lack of any distinctin between the backend framework and the frontend, means that development in the community has not progressed to the level it has in OSX where Quicklook has created a veritable scene providing preview options for a wide variety of different files and folders.

3. Nautilus Mouse Gestures?

One of the biggest surprises in comparing OSX browser to Nautilus is mouse gestures. In Snow Leopard one can drag a file into a folder and have the folder open or close actually without clicking, you literally drive wherever you need to go forgetting about the symbolic reality which makes all of this happen. Some links worth mentioning: Gestikk and wayV, also OMG! has a posting.

4. Dedicated Applications Folder

The biggest point of difference between desktops on OSX and Ubuntu will probably be sniffed at by hard-core Linux heads who believe everything, including application icons, should be neatly tucked away. Sure, one can make symbolic links or aliases to favourite applications and place them on ones desktop, but this Windows-centric way of thinking is practically archaic. After being driven to fix some of the irritations I have with junk file options in "Open With...", I stumbled on one of the more interesting debates one can have with any Linux/Unix desktop.

Open one of these two locations in Nautilus:

~/.local/share/applications

/usr/share/applications

They both contain icons of applications ie application.desktop. If you like me, then you'll probably find a lot of duplicates, including some applications which have lost their icons and which have default system icons. /usr/share/applications also contains a lot of .desktop files. While deleting the duplicates fixed a pet irritation, (but not my wish for a mini-browser/preview for nautilus ) you'll notice something interesting related to Open With in Nautilus. Try double clicking on one of the application icons. It should immediately execute the application and act exactly like any of the applications icons you may have on your desktop.

Now try moving one of the icons into your trash. You'll notice that the corresponding entry in you Ubuntu main menu disappears. Drag it out of the trash can and back into the application folder and it will be immediately restored in the main menu.

The beauty of OSX is that there is an Applications Folder in exactly the place one wants a folder of Applications. In order to achieve something similar in Ubuntu you can create a symbolic link to either:

ln -s ~/.local/share/applications ~/Applications

ln -s /usr/share/applications ~/Applications

However doing both ends up with a recursive folder  ~/Applications/applications, so you probably just need a link to ~/.local/share/applications

You can also do this with nautilus by right clicking and making a link. Place the folder in your home folder and start questioning why it is that a lot of applications are simply treating your user folder as part of the system and dumping folders there so that your default Documents, Downloads, Music, Videos folders are drowning in a sea of other folders, some of which you can't tell if they serve any purpose or not.

While I understand my home folder contains users and users contain system information, surely one needs a firewall  separating the system parts of the user folder from the productive desktop parts? In my mind this would be a huge improvement:

home/user/extra

Forcing applications to install into /home/user/extra instead of home/user/ which would now contain all those pieces of user-specific parts of the system while leaving the user free to populate /home/user with semantic and aesthetic meaning, would be a big plus in my mind, but exactly how to achieve this is beyond my powers right now, although I imagine one would have to trick the applications into thinking /home/user/extra was /home/user.

One can cope with having a folder named Desktop, next to Documents, but the absence of a folder called Applications (which allows a form of symbolic user-choice that is outside of the main  system hierarchy without compromising the system) is one of the greatest selling points of OSX compared to Ubuntu.

On OSX I can place my icons of applications into a folder called Utilities and wake up in the morning, know they are there somewhere. I don't have to think what the application is named, I can simply view it, oh right, doh, its the icon with the paint shovel which I need to click to make x y z happen.

This is really where I believe Ubuntu should be spending more of its development time, instead of reinventing the wheel. Natty Narwhal is quite frankly a disaster in the making. Nobody I know wants to change the file and menus order which have stood the test of time. The result quite frankly is simply a NextStep clone and the reason NextStep got buried by Steve Jobs is because BEOS would have taken over the desktop if it were not for the invention of OSX.

5. Convenient Injector

Having played around with the Oconf/Zeroconf injector which seems to have done the rounds, it immediately became obvious that what Ubuntu lack is a convenient injection method for non-PPA applications. The OSX injector is practically the funnest thing around. It is amazing to view the icons and informational pickups as you install pieces of the system which aren't installed mainline.

Now forcing everyone to congregate around the main distribution channel creates a few snarlups in Ubuntu. It's not for lack of trying. Sure we get the news about a particular PPA, but keeping up with what is happening quickly turns into a full-time occupation. We don't all have the time to administer systems and package with the kind of attention to the command line that is required, and Software Centre  is never going to stop folks from hunting around on websites and simply wanting to download stuff to install, the old fashioned way.

So I put it to you, zeroconf injection for all those minor fixes, like a simple script which simply needs an icon and suggestion of place to put it before execution to become real fanfare on the modern desktop could go a long way in taming the Ubuntu Classic, because it really is the Wild West which no amount of trading off Gnome to the latest Netbook edition, tablet pc or touchscreen is ever going to fix. Then again, somebody should write a database for our scripts and call it a supplementary control panel.

Some new CLI apps

1. Canto

Great RSS feed reader based upon python/ncurses. Practically gobsmacked.

2. Cabber

cabber is a customisable jabber console client based in ncurses,

3. Herrie

A command line music player. It supports multiple audio file formats (including MP3 and Ogg Vorbis) and  has  the  ability  to  send
playback  statistics  to AudioScrobbler. The word `herrie' is Dutch for `clamour'. Personally, I found the keybindings a bit difficult compared to cplay which has the basics like playing a track with enter or pausing with spacebar, so have yet to actually play a track with herrie.

4. Juke

If the keybindings for herrie are difficult, juke takes the cake, another app without a play option in the help menu.

5. mybashburn 1.0.2-1

New release of an extremely sophisticated commandline DVD/CD burner. Great replacement for brasero.

6. pacman4console (1.2-2)

Pacman is just a C, while the ghosts are & in an okay pacman maze, different mazes would be a nice.

7. Aylet

aylet plays music files in the `.ay' format.  These  files  are  essen‐
tially  wrappers  around  bits of Z80 code which play music on the Sin‐
clair ZX Spectrum 128's sound hardware - the beeper, or  the  AY-3-8912
sound  chip,  or  both. Files using the Amstrad CPC ports are also sup‐
ported

RepoStory PPA tool

Been looking everywhere for a way to verify my ppa list after the upgrade. Doing it manually is a big hassle. This project is a great tool and development is coming along nicely.

Use this command in a terminal to get the code:

bzr branch lp:~davidc3/+junk/repostory

The script will be in the "repostory" folder in your Home, so you have to go there and make the file executable:

cd repostory && chmod +x repostory

Make sure you have the curl and zenity packages:

sudo apt-get install curl zenity

That's it, you can now launch the script by either clicking it or typing:

./repostory

To get the latest changes, if you have a previously downloaded version just type:

cd repostory && bzr pull

LINK: Ubuntuforums

UZBL the ultra-usable browser

I really like where this project is going and hope there's also UZBL window environment that adheres to the unix usability philosophy. A window which doubles as a web browser? Entirely scriptable web browser? UZBL is neat.

sudo apt-get install uzbl

Is Ubuntu Unity really NEXTstep?

[caption id="attachment_2621" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="A striking resemblance"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="307" caption="Inspired by NextStep?"][/caption]

The announcement that the X window system is going to be replaced by Wayland in Ubuntu Narwhal brings to mind Apple Copland. Could Unity be Shuttleworth's NEXTstep? Check this video out!

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-8495483285864450495

Ubuntu kernel 2.6.37-rc1-maverick available

“…an author, with thesaurus in hand, chooses the names of variables carefully…” — Knuth, Literate Programming

If you want to test the latest rc kernel available from the Ubuntu kernel mainline team then hop over to this link, you'll want to download three files, the linux kernel and either the x86 or 64 headers.

Some users report that both 2.6.36 and 2.6.37 (there doesn't seem to be much difference between the two releases) fixes choppy video and lag in Maverick. There is quite a bit of talk about the slowness of the 2.6.35 kernel, so this might be a solution if you experiencing hardware problems.

THANKS: Khattam

NOTE: Ubuntu's default infrastructure for handling kernel OOPSes will not work for these builds as they are external to Ubuntu. To contribute this information to kerneloops.org you will need to make a couple of changes.

First, install the kerneloops-applet package which will handle the prompting and submission on any problem. Then edit /etc/kerneloops.conf and delete the submit-pipe line from the file, so that kerneloops-applet will be used. After a reboot kerneloops-applet will then prompt you if there are any problems and you can choose to submit the information to kerneloops.org.

See here

Create a Windows Virtualbox Session

Here is how to create a Windows Virtualbox session. You will have to have Virtualbox installed as well as a licensed copy of Windows installed as a guest virtual machine. Obviously some of you may want to pirate Windows. This is not a tutorial on how to go about cracking the latest copy of Windows, and has only been tested on Windows XP Professional.

1. Create the following file and place it in your /usr/bin

#!/bin/bash

VBoxSDL -fullscreen -vm "Name-of-your-Windows-VM"

The inverted commas are important.  Replace the contents with the name of your VM in Virtualbox, (that's the name that appears when you boot up Virtualbox)

Now name the file  something like winxp, move to /usr/bin
and make the file executable:

chmod +x /usr/bin/winxp

2. Add a new file to usr/share/xsessions

Name it something like xp.desktop and paste in the following code:

[Desktop Entry]

Encoding=UTF-8

Name=Windows XP Pro

Comment=This session will run XP VirtualBox

Exec=/usr/bin/winxp

Type=Application

You can change and comment these lines to suit your session, the important line is the exec part which will execute the script you created.

Log out and change your session from Ubuntu Desktop to Windows XP Pro

New Linux MacPlus emulator

I wrote an ad for Apple Computer: "Macintosh - We might not get everything right, but at least we knew the century was going to end."  ~Douglas Adams

PCE-MacPlus is a nifty Macintosh Plus emulator. It emulates a Macintosh 128K, Macintosh 512k, Macintosh 512ke or a Macintosh Plus. Making it the third Apple emulator to support Linux, joining SheepShaver and Basilisk, both of which appear to be somewhat dormant when it comes to development, although I could be wrong, since Emaculation Forums announced that a 2010 build of SheepShaver which supports SDL is available. The powerpc emulator appears to get patched periodically, but could really do with an overhaul and proper version management, there is currently no source code available of the latest builds. Nevertheless, the news presents us with hope and at least we can feast our eyes on PCE-MacPlus which is a welcome addition. Ubuntu devs can learn a lot from the emphasis on productivity and user-friendliness that characterised much of the classic macintosh era.

Emulated parts

Part	Status
CPU	A complete MC68000 emulator.
ROM	An unmodified ROM image from a Macintosh Plus is needed.
RAM	Memory configurations of 128K, 512K, 1M, 2.5M and 4M are supported.
Video	Supported (512*342*2)
Sound	Not yet supported
Floppy disks	Supported by a custom driver. For this to work the ROM is patched at runtime.
SCSI	Up to 7 SCSI harddisks are supported.
Serial ports	Supported
Mouse	Supported
Keyboard	Supported
AppleTalk	Not supported

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="422" caption="pce-macplus on linux xfce"][/caption]

Source code



















File name
Description
pce-20100920-36bf765.tar.gz
PCE 20100920-36bf765 sources
pce-0.2.0.tar.gz
PCE 0.2.0 sources
pce-0.1.8.tar.gz

PCE 0.1.8 sources

The Latest Source code can be checked out via git

git clone git://git.hampa.ch/pce.git

VISIT PCE-MacPlus home page for disk images and MacPLus ROMS.

System 6 and 7 is still available from Apple.Com

Macintosh Garden is a great place to pick up free Apple Software and Abandonware.

Fix blank space during plymouth boot

That Canonical hasn't got its priorities straight can be seen by the prevalence of the following hack. Although Maverick is the second release to include Plymouth, many users still report either resolution or blank space problems. I can only speak as somebody with a NVIDIA card, but the issue also affects other hardware. Why the online installer doesn't include this option is beyond me, then again some people like filling out the daily crossword puzzle, and if Canonical removed all the bugs in Ubuntu there would be nothing left for users to do.

If you have either problem, kyleabaker has a nifty script and howto for fixing your Plymouth.

Fix GR-lida dosbox frontend error message

GR-lida is a fantastic front-end for Dosbox, ScummVM and VDMsound which makes playing Dos-games a cinch. The site describes it as "a frontend for emulators most commonly used in abandonware .... This way you can easily run any game emulator." There are literally hundreds of abandonware DOS programmes available from sites like vetusware and abandonia.


However GR-Lida has an install bug on Ubuntu. If you're getting an error message in your terminal like this:

gr-lida usr/share/menu/gr-lida syntax error word unexpected (expecting")')

Then all you have to do is edit this file:

sudo gedit /usr/share/menu/gr-lida

Change the contents of the file to look like this and save:


?package(gr-lida): \
needs="x11" \
section="Games" \
title="GR-lida" \
command="/usr/bin/gr-lida" \
icon="/usr/share/icons/gr-lida.png"

NOTE: Ctrl-F10 to switch your mouse away from DosBox. You can also set this default option from within GR-Lida.

[caption id="attachment_2509" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The GR-Lida interface"][/caption]

Ubuntu = Choice

In some quarters, the sight of an Ubuntu logo where Tux would normally be is heresy, for others it is a sign of progress, but let's face it, penguins don't have a good rap in warmer parts of the globe. Then again anyone who actually downloads Linux software from a download site probably doesn't get it. PPAs are the way to go and doing this all manually defeats the purpose of having package management.

Fix Streamtuner plugins

Streamtuner is great, trouble is, some of the plugins are a little out of date and no longer work. Here is a link to a more current version. This site explains how to go about fixing the shoutcast plugin using a hex-editor. There are also some packaged files.

Classsic Gnome vs Gnome Shell vs Ubuntu Shell

The battle of the UI is upon us. Run, the sky is about to fork (see is Ubuntu forking Gnome ) Nobody but nobody is worried about those users who just want a functioning desktop. Sure Unity aka Ubuntu Shell will bring with it innovation, and as Johno Bacon says, "Gnome Shell is just a click away". Well, what if I don't want either option?

What about those of us who just want to keep the desktop the way it is, Classic Gnome, with incremental development on areas related to performance, speed, elegance in code, better drag 'n drop libraries, productivity, stuff that really matters instead of moving the stearing wheel from left to right in the sad attempt at changing user behaviour in the process?

Shout out for sanity now, because the mirage presented by Gnome Shell and now Unity aka Ubuntu Shell, is killing me. It is exactly the kind of thing which divides communities and creates opportunities for Google (see Linux Journal) This is not like the KDE vs Gnome war, this is about the basics, the instant recognition of look and feel which every user expects from a GUI in order to make it number 1..

My guess is Ubuntu has been heading tragically close to a bunch of OSX and Microsoft patents and this is way of putting a spin on an otherwise depressing situation. Rather than actually talking out the strategy that is needed to overcome some basic facts of life in a digital age, the community and canonical has found a rather efficient way of devolving around the problem Hell,.adopting Unity is like going backwards a couple of centuries. Do we really need Hardy Heron as the next LTS?

Fight M$ and OSX by saving GNOME and Ubuntu from itself. Ubuntu is really merely a brand of Gnome Linux and Linux, as we all know, is just one of the GNU kernels.

Nautilus Terminal with Music on Console Player (MOCP)

Nautilus Elementary with Terminal and MOCP is awesome. A  MOCP plugin for Nautilus to track music folders with a console player would be even more awesome.

You can install mocp from the Ubuntu repos

sudo apt-get install mocp



Maverick upgrade experience

Here is my report on a recent Maverick Meerkat upgrade experience which although a little rough by some standards has a happy ending

First off, my hardware is vintage 2007 - a low-end Celeron 430  @ 1.80GHz CPU with Biostar P4M90-M7A motherboard, 1Gb RAM and  NVIDIA 8600GS GPU. (admittedly a lot more power than the average user in the developing world!)

With my 384kb broadband line, it took approximately 22hours to download and another 8 hours to install the new packages. Along the way I had to restart X twice after I got bored and booted up an old game which failed to respond to my clunky keyboard. Ubuntu took all this in its stride, resuming the downloading of the packages. Of course, I quit all my apps when it was installing to avoid any further mishaps and to give the CPU a chance to focus on what it was doing.

The installer came up with a number of config queries along the way, automatically diffing configs which I had either customised or which had been changed by software in Lucid.

I still find reading "diff" files a little difficult. One would expect the diff to be in a colour and not simply in b&w, but then again, maybe some people still have monochrome monitors?

I chose to keep my sysctl.conf which I had modified to avoid IPV6. I allowed the installer to install the maintainers version for ALSA as well as Grub and xorg.conf. My reasoning being that I wanted any innovation in these areas to be included in the upgrade. I had modified Grub because of a buggy Plymouth (see previous post) and my xorg.conf had been modified by a manual install of NVIDIA drivers, so I expected some complaints with the new boot.

After reading a few posts on Maverick upgrades which sounded a lot like my experience upgrading from Karmic to Lucid, I was waiting for the dreaded sight of a black screen and no X-server. Lo and behold, the system came right up without any complaints except for an issue with a secondary harddrive which has been giving me some trouble.

I logged in and was greeted with the following environment.

1. No sound

2. Slow GUI performance that resembled a lite form of the "wading through treakle" effect.

3. A system which swore it was still 10.04

4. A secondary NTFS drive which was not being recognised at boot but was still accessible.







5. At least 15 seconds of black space during boot

All five issues are enough to scare off the average novice. While I can't claim to be a Linux Veteran, I immediately had some misgivings about the performance issue, since I had compiled a 2.6.35-22-generic kernel for Lucid and had experienced similar issues which had been resolved by simply switching back to the default kernel. Also I had some previous trouble with the manually installed NVIDIA-Linux-x86-256.35 driver which had been resolved by sticking with the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-195.36.31 driver.

Since I had taken the trouble to download a Maverick ISO to boot up the machine to see how it performed with the 2.6.35-22-generic kernel compiled by the Ubuntu Team, I resolved that my course of action would be to first tackle any NVIDIA driver problem before worrying about a kernel fallback strategy (fear of redundant hardware being my main concern.)

I rebooted in recovery mode, logged in and found to my surprise that the system now described itself as 10.10, so issue 3 was immediately resolved and could be put down to some quirkiness with the system's dpkg reporting.

Now I made a silly error, failing to check how exactly the NVDIA drivers had been affected by the upgrade (turns out the upgrade automatically installs nvidia-common and no longer prompts the user to do this, the installer also fails to check if nvidia has been manually installed and does not prompt the user for instructions around this issue!!!).

Proceeding to launch the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-195.36.31 driver from recovery console which failed miserably to report about the true state of the system, I succeeded in borking my x configuration. No problem, but since it had been a 15 hour day, I resolved to play headless for a while in total processor freedom, finding that MOCP refused to recognise the sound server, it fell to cplay to entertain for the evening.

At least I had a music player that could be trusted while my housemate struggled with the equivalent of a braai -- the South African BBQ.

A good nights rest behind me, I woke up this morning November 2, 2010 and restored the xorg.conf backup, still completely oblivious to the truth about nvidia-current and Ubuntu Maverick's new install tactics. Then my weak attempt to manually install NVIDIA-Linux-x86-256.35 driver over the old driver destroyed the working xorg.conf backup.

For a brief while I remembered the terror of losing a working xorg.conf. Luckily ever since Lucid, recovery console has had the ability to generate a new xorg.conf file. Regaining sanity was a piece of cake, and I really appreciate the work taken by the community in covering this base alone.

Eventually I fired up a browser in a low-graphics mode session and discovered a posting about the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-260.19.06 driver which was in beta with many of the performance issues related to the newer versions of X fixed. While downloading it, I decided to check if the completed version of NVIDIA-Linux-x86 260.19.x was out and lo and behold, there it was. NVIDIA had released the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-260.19.12 driver addressing many issues affecting the community.

Realising my initial error, I proceeded to sudo apt-get purge nvidia* removing the nvidia-current which had been automatically installed by my system and which had failed to remove the manual install of NVIDIA-Linux-x86-195.36.31, a case of the system really not knowing much about itself -- a NVIDIA custom install is still very much a customl install -- surely the ubuntu installer should be able to take such quirkiness in its stride?

NVIDIA-Linux-x86-260.19.12 having been installed, I fired up X from the console:

sudo gdm service start

Logged in, with sound (the sound server obviously just needed to be reset) , and found a totally awesome desktop which just needed a few minor compiz adjustments. Performance on the new kernel appears to be more than acceptable, the GUI is a lot faster than it was in Lucid with the newer NVIDIA driver, and some of the Lucid sound issues which had plagued me have disappeared, so in all I am extremely pleased with the upgrade.

All major issues, bar the NTFS problem and black space issue which I have yet to tackle, were thus resolved in little more than one-hour-and-half via recovery console after what I estimated would take at least another 5 hours of internet postings and bug-fix-hunting. A case of great progress on old hardware. Glad I upgraded from the LTS and recovery console is improving.

NOTE: I resolved the NTFS problem. Cause - an extra line in my fstab file placed there by the installer resulting in two entries for the second drive, which had to be commented out.

UPDATE: Fixing the bootsplash is easy with this link.