OMG! My Web Cam works!

Wow!  Lucid did its first wow, and may be the only wow i suppose.  My web cam works.  now i can use every piece of hardware that is present in my laptop.  I can’t say that the problem was linux.  Actually the problem was my webcam, it did not come with drivers for linux.  some wise geeks out there, had tried and had developed drivers for this brand, which had 3 variants, and mine was stamped as the hopeless variant (Genesys Logic – gspca_gl860).  After a valiant effort by me and my friends for 3 days during February, we gave up saying it was impossible.  We made the system to recognize the webcam, but to make it work, to make it show the view, we weren’t able to.   I took a pic of me

First Pic with my Laptop WebCam in Linux.

I used Cheese to take this picture.  I know it is not that great.  but come on, my web cam is working……….

Upgrading Karmic to Lucid.

As I said in the previous post.  I tried to do what was said in ubuntu website to upgrade to lucid. i pressed Alt+F2 and then typed update-manager -d and pressed enter, Update Manager opener, there was a message at the top that Ubuntu 10.04 was available, and i clicked the upgrade button, but then after some 15 seconds a message comes saying that Could not download Release Notes. Please check your internet connection.  The internet is working, i was checking the ubuntu website that time.

A little Google Check confirmed that some others to have faced this error.  One person told after doing a complete update of latest packages in Karmic, the problem got solved.  Assuming that could be the problem, i sat thru another half hour of updates.  Then again when i tried to upgrade to lynx, i got the same error.  I searched some more, but could not find anything,

Then i saw there was some upgrade notes, which talked about some software which could be causing problems.  I followed thru everything, which started the installation, in the screen after release notes, it said, again some problem, with updating software, and said it will not continue. (I had to u ninstall, Chrome, VLC, Mplayer)

Defeated I decided to  download the alternate install CD to do the upgrade.

After 2 power cuts during download and  me blacking out for the rest of the night.  I resumed again.  I had backed up a few files of mine to Ubuntu One. Then mounted and started the upgrade.  Everything went fine.  Upgrade completed after a wait of 2 hours.  And restarted into Lucid.  It was disappointing.

The Grub Menu was black again.  this is not nice, atleast something more colorful, like Chamelon would have been nice.  or atleast theming options would have been great,  But still it is black, then the screen remained black for the entire time it moved to the login screen, when i saw the new purple theme.  Ok now the login screen looks nice than the previous one.

After logging in it was even more disappointment.  The system was slow as hell, nothing was responding,  Accessing the menus froze the system.  I feared for a result worse than what i had achieved with mandriva.  So I pulled the plug, and went off to get sleep some more.

Later sat thru and decided that those xubuntu desktop which i had installed was somehow causing these problems.  System Update said it can do a partial upgrade, which confirmed my suspictions.  i did a

sudo apt-get remove xubuntu-desktop

, which did not work.  the other software was not removed.

Then again searching i arrived at a page saying you could easily remove things with aptitude instead of apt-get.  Which gave me the thought that i am right path of removing xubuntu-desktop, to get my system back to performing like before.  then i did a

apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

after completion, i searched the internet to remove xubuntu-desktop completely.  again psychocats came to my rescue.  I executed the command.

sudo apt-get remove a2ps abiword abiword-common abiword-plugin-grammar abiword-plugin-mathview app-install-data-commercial aumix aumix-common catfish exaile exo-utils fortune-mod fortunes-min gigolo gimp gimp-data gnumeric gnumeric-common gnumeric-doc gtk2-engines-xfce libabiword-2.8 libaiksaurus-1.2-0c2a libaiksaurus-1.2-data libaiksaurusgtk-1.2-0c2a libbabl-0.0-0 libexo-0.3-0 libexo-common libgdome2-0 libgdome2-cpp-smart0c2a libgegl-0.0-0 libgimp2.0 libgoffice-0.8-8 libgoffice-0.8-8-common libgtkmathview0c2a libjpeg-progs liblink-grammar4 libmng1 libotr2 libots0 libpsiconv6 librecode0 libscim8c2a libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsexy2 libt1-5 libtagc0 libthunar-vfs-1-2 libwv-1.2-3 libxcb-keysyms1 libxfce4menu-0.1-0 libxfce4util-bin libxfce4util-common libxfce4util4 libxfcegui4-4 libxfconf-0-2 libxmlrpc-core-c3 link-grammar-dictionaries-en mousepad murrine-themes orage oss-compat pidgin pidgin-data pidgin-libnotify pidgin-otr psutils python-cddb python-mmkeys python-mutagen python-sexy ristretto scim scim-bridge-agent scim-bridge-client-gtk scim-gtk2-immodule scim-modules-socket scim-modules-table scim-tables-additional tango-icon-theme tango-icon-theme-common tcl thunar thunar-archive-plugin thunar-data thunar-media-tags-plugin thunar-thumbnailers thunar-volman thunderbird ttf-lyx usb-creator vim-runtime wdiff xchat xchat-common xfce-keyboard-shortcuts xfce4-appfinder xfce4-clipman xfce4-clipman-plugin xfce4-cpugraph-plugin xfce4-dict xfce4-fsguard-plugin xfce4-mailwatch-plugin xfce4-mixer xfce4-mount-plugin xfce4-netload-plugin xfce4-notes xfce4-notes-plugin xfce4-panel xfce4-places-plugin xfce4-power-manager xfce4-power-manager-data xfce4-quicklauncher-plugin xfce4-screenshooter xfce4-session xfce4-settings xfce4-smartbookmark-plugin xfce4-systemload-plugin xfce4-terminal xfce4-utils xfce4-verve-plugin xfce4-volumed xfce4-weather-plugin xfce4-xkb-plugin xfconf xfdesktop4 xfdesktop4-data xfprint4 xfswitch-plugin xfwm4 xfwm4-themes xscreensaver xubuntu-artwork xubuntu-default-settings xubuntu-desktop xubuntu-docs xubuntu-gdm-theme xubuntu-icon-theme xubuntu-plymouth-theme xubuntu-wallpapers && sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

Then, as if it was magic, everything was back to normal, the system was performing cool.  The sluggishness had gone off.

The system is working fine, now i have installed VLC again, have to install libdvdcss, chrome and picasa again.  Then i am off to check how Lucid is….

Upgrading to Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx)

Lucid is released today,  and i am gonna upgrade.  i just booted in to Karmic.  writing this as i am preparing for upgrading.  This is gonna be my second time doing an upgrade.  Am yet to do a successful upgrade.  The last time i did an upgrade was from Mandriva 2008 Spring to Mandriva 2009, which ended up being a cross between both the versions.  after that this is the first time i am gonna do an upgrade. Fingers Crossed.  i am doing the upgrade in my laptop.  i don’t think my desktop could handle lucid.  Will try that later.  I am just waiting to see how the lucid is gonna wow me.!!!

Voice Chat + Microphone + Sound recorder

Yesterday!

I was starting to get some shut eye in the evening when my uncle (dad’s brother aka Prof.) called.  It was the usual how are you, where are you, what are you doing call.  Suddenly, his daughter (she want’s to be an astronaut.) and her younger sister (we call her scientist, coz she wears glasses like me.)  barged into the call, and said they were chatting with another person, on gtalk, and asked me to come on chat.  I said i’ll join them as soon as i find my mic.  and set out to search for it.

It was just there lying in the first place i decided to look.  But before telling them i am comming, i decided to check if it is working.  Unfortunately, google chat did not have voice & video chat options in linux(i just hate google for that, they always do things first for that windoze and then after a huge amount of time, bring the features to linux).  But i thought atleast i could check if my microphone works in linux, so i fired up Sound Recorder. (Applications -> Sound & Video -> Sound Recorder.)

i Connected my Microphone, and then clicked on the Red Record button, the recorded time parameter was running like anything and showed that i have recorded for an hour and a few minutes, while in reality i had recorded only for ten seconds.  i wasn’t worried, but decided to check if it had got any sounds.  which it did not.  defeated.  i decided to update the system and give it a try again.

In the mean time i switched on the desktop of mine (yeah the one with the 256mb of ram) to test it there. It worked.  It worked like it should.  I wondered.  Coz, i haven’t updated the system for nearly a month or two.  Still it was able to record.  So i guessed it to be some other problem.

After updating my laptop i again tried.  but with the same result.  i Could not understand. Defeated again, and with the knowledge that my microphone works, i decided not to waste any more time, i rebooted into Windoze to chat with my cousins.

Today!

Well, it was kinda nagging me at the back of my mind since i woke up this morning.  If this is really a problem with linux and my laptop, this would be the first point that my desktop gets against my laptop. But whatever it is, linux lost out to windows in this situation.  I decided to search launchpad bugs for any pointers, and i did get something for that timer running around erratically thing. But still couldn’t find anything for not being able to use the microphone.

I read a suggestion somewhere to use audacity to check the microphone, so i did apt-get audacity, then proceeded to test the microphone with it. but audacity too was not able to handle it.  I was crashing in less than 1o seconds.  Other than that, it worked fine, cut paste audio, export to other format, apply effects etc to a mp3 file.  When i restarted Audacity, it asked if i want to recover the files from the previous crash.  I played the recovered bit, and heard what i had spoken into my microphone during those 10 secs.  So it is something with the sound hardware and Karmic, which i am not able to understand as to what it is.

I am just out of ideas as to where to look, or what to do.  anybody any suggestions?!

Sound Hardware : VT1708/A [Azaliza HDAC] (VIA High Definition Audio Controller) Stereo.

AutoStart Guake during System Startup

Well, all those who love to use terminal or are in need of using terminal frequently, would know about Guake,  which bring terminal with a touch of a button.  But the thing is after it is installed, it does not start up automatically during system startup.  It was a bit frustrating for me, I searched Google for a few minutes and hit upon the answer,

type this is terminal

sudo cp /usr/share/applications/guake.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart/

This will make Guake start automagically during system startup.  I read this here.

Update:

After going thru the menus a little i found this can be done without going to terminal too in Ubuntu Karmic, don’t know abt the rest.

Goto System -> Preferences -> Startup Applications.

The Startup Application Preferences window opens. In the Startup Programs tab click on Edit Button.  Give a Name for the Application in the Name field, and then type “guake” without quotes in the command field and click Save.  Then close the Startup Application Preferences window and restat the machine, now Guake should start automatically on login.

Masquerading Ubuntu Karmic as Windows 7

ok.  Before i start,….  This is about having only the look of windows 7 on a linux rig.  nothing more. If you might take any offence, then leave without reading any further.  And this is not a total convert, just the look of the desktop.

Ok.  So, Today, out of the blue, i had a day off.  I didn’t know what to do.  Was just looking around since last night.  Tried a few things here and there, then suddenly i chanced upon this piece of software called GnoMenu.  Which kinda rekindled memories, a few things from the past.  So once again, i decided to try to make the desktop look a little different from the usual plain jane default desktop.   I know this aint’t cool what i have done.  But, i kinda like it.

What did it do?  Well i set off to change the appearance of the desktop to that of similar to Windows 7.  And i can say i kinda achieved it mostly.  Except the windows and icons look and stuff.  But looking at the desktop is sure to confuse if it is a linux gig or wat…

Take a look and say how is it…

My laptop does not have those 3d thingis, so i had to stop with this, i tried to install the themes and stuff, but they kinda depend on emerald, compiz and others.  So I am happy with wat i achieved.  Later i found out some more of those how to do stuff, i liked one of those, though it did not work out for me, because of the above mentioned reason, may be it helps you.  Take a look here.

Karmic Updates (cont)

It seems strange.  The problems which i faced in my desktop, i did not face in my laptop.  Does it mean that is has goto to do something only with my desktop.   A few repos are failing consistently during updation both in my Desktop and laptop.  And lately when installing some software, it takes atleast 2 tries minimum to get it installed, coz some files fail to download.  Need to check them, i couldn’t make time for it.  Will soon find why,…..

Installing Fonts in Ubuntu 9.10

Dad was browsing the TN government website to check the voters list today. To get the information he had to chose the district and some other details from the site. The site was designed in Tamil Language, and the letters were not coming up as junk. He called to me. I was able to guess that it was a font problem, there was a download link, from which i downloaded the fonts, but i did not know how to install., When i was waiting for other fonts to finish downloading, accidentally i double clicked the downloaded font file, and it opened, as it would in windows, but with a difference. It had a install font button. On clicking it, the font got installed, and dad continued browsing.

Later when i checked out with another user, the site was not working properly. But in my dad’s login it was working fine. So it had got installed for my dad but not for me. after a little googling i found out that it gets installed only for the currently logged in user. (copy the font files to .fonts folder in home directory for single user install).  But it is possible to install it in a system wide manned also. But this involves the terminal.

Ok. First download all the required fonts. now open a terminal and change directory to the directory where the downloaded fonts are stored usually the Downloads folder. here type

sudo cp *.TTF /usr/local/share/fonts
sudo cp*.ttf /usr/local/share/fonts

enter your password and your fonts will be installed. Now to bring them up to use, we have to clear and rebuild the cache. for this enter the following command in terminal

sudo fc-cache -f -v

That is it. Now you will be able to see the letters.

To download tamil fonts go here.

I missed the link from where i got this info.  I’ll update as soon as i find the url.

Karmic Updates

I wonder why, but, every time i start my system after an update, the first time the system becomes unresponsive and slow, and by the time, it finishes login, it will be throw an error saying something has crashed and do you want to delete it or not.  I always choose Don’t Delete, and then restart the system, after which the system works perfectly.  So what is really wrong with this updates which makes the system go crazy every time it happens?!!!

customising gdm

I sure have to say though the system is working cool, i did not like the gdm.  I have previously used gdm themes back the time when i was using Debian Lenny.  The login screen would look beautiful.  So i wanted to try customising gdm.  A quick google search revealed that it cannot be themed.  But can be customized a little like the background.  so i decided to go ahead and change the wallpaper.  so went to the terminal and typed.

sudo -u gdm dbus-launch gnome-appearance-properties

which opened the display properties of the gdm user.  I got this from ubuntuforums.  There i changed the wallpaper.  and the next time i rebooted it was beautiful.  But logging in was a pain.  And the overall system performance was down.  The time it took to reach the desktop was around 4 minutes instead of the usual 30 – 40 seconds max.  I couldn’t understand.  Later some more googling revealed similar problems to many others.  So i decided to revert back to the default screen.  But when i went to the display properties, that screen was not there.  since i could not find it anywhere, (i don’t know where it was), i decided to give a skip to the wallpaper all together by choosing a solid color.  and surprise, the system was even more faster than before around 5- 10 seconds faster.  Though it doesn’t make a big difference to me.  the disappointment was that i cannot have a beautiful login screen without a hit in the performance.  Will this be fixed in the future?  will the next Gnome release have theme abilities for gdm? we’ll have to wait and see.

There was a side effect for trying this out.  (both from console ctrl+alt+F1 and in Terminal as a user).  A small icon for Universal Access Preferences was there in the bar near the time.  Which was annoying.  you cannot right click on it.  If you click on it, it opens Universal Access Preferences window, which also is not having any options to turn it off.

Turns out this is a long pending issue since past 3 or 4 releases.  I can’t think of a reason as to why it was not taken care off.  The way to turn it off is by going to System -> Preferences -> Assistive Technologies.  Click the Keyboard Accessibility button, then remove the tick on “Accesibility features can be toggled with keyboard shortcuts”.  If not ticked, tick it and then remove the tick, then close both windows.  That should do the trick.  I found this here