27/04/2008 by mtn.

I’m sitting on the train happily surfing the web on my Asus Eee PC using the now free WiFi Internet, available since National Express took over from GNER a few months ago (available on the UK east cost service anyway!). I use my Eee PC as an MP3/OGG player. I decided I wanted to stop surfing the web, and read a book instead (a momentous decision), this meant closing the lid of the Eee and leaning my book on top of it for maximum comfort. However, this reminded me that when you close the lid, the Eee automatically goes in to standby mode - very annoying if you want to carry on listening to music!

So, since I’m on the train and have nothing else to do, I thought I would investigate how to stop it going in to standby mode when you close the lid, and instead do nothing except turn the screen off.

It took a few mins to find out how to do it…

First, open a terminal. In easy mode (default Linux setup) simply press the CTRL, ALT and T keys on your keyboard all at the same time. The default terminal program in Easy mode is named lxterm.
(Info from: http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:openaterminal)

Then, in the console type

sudo kwrite /etc/acpi/lidbtn.sh

You should see

#!/bin/sh
LID_STATE=`cat /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state | awk ‘{print $2 }’`if [ $LID_STATE = “closed” ] ; then
/etc/acpi/suspend2ram.sh
fi
exit 0

Replace with the code below and save the file.

#!/bin/sh
LID_STATE=`cat /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state | awk ‘{print $2 }’

if[$LID_STATE = “closed”]; then
# /etc/acpi/suspend2ram.sh
su user -c “DISPLAY=:0 xset dpms force suspend”
elif[$LID_STATE = “open”];then
su user -c “DISPLAY=:0 xset dpms force on”
fi

Close the lid to test. That’s it.,
(Info from: http://wiki.eeeuser.com/close_lid_shutdown)

Posted in Asus Eee PC | Print | No Comments »

04/01/2008 by mtn.

Setting up a client computer (i.e. laptop or desktop) running Ubuntu Gusty to print over the home network with a Synology DS-207+ Disk Station as the print server.

There is also a very rough video version (my first ever video tutorial!) of this How To.

This part of the How To assumes that the network printer is pluged in to the DS-207+ and that the DS-207+’s IP address and Samba user name and password are know, and that the network is setup and ready to go. If this is not the case please see the sections below and the Synology DS-207+ setup CD and manual.

Setting up a Network Printer on a Client Computer Running the GNU/Linux Ubuntu Gutsy Operating System
- Open up the “Print Configuration” window - System>Administration>Printing

- Click “New Printer”.

- In the add printer dialog window select “Windows Printer via SAMBA” and then in the “Samba Printer” input box type the IP address and printer designation (this is hard set by the DS-207+ and cannot be changed - “/usbprinter”) of the DS-207+ (i.e. 192.168.2.20/usbprinter).
- Click “Authentication required” and add the user name and password and click “Verify”.

- Once the printer has been verified as being available click forward.
- On the next screen, select the printers manufacturer from the list and click forward.
- On the next screen, select the printer model from the list and click forward.

- Choose a name for to identify the network printer by.

- Select the newly installed printer from the list on the left and click the “Print Test Page” button.

All being well the printer is installed correctly and will print a test page.

Get the Home Network DHCP Allocated IP Address of the DS-207+
- To login the network router open up Firefox and type the IP address 192.168.2.1 (the default IP Address for this particular Belkin router) into the address bar and then hit “Enter”.
- Login to the router administrations pages using the admin user name and password.
- Click the option “DHCP Client List” in the left hand menu.
- The DS-207+ host name will be “null” and the IP address is indicated to the left.
NOTE: I have “hard set” the DS-207+’s IP address so itis outside the DHCP allocated addresses (it is 192.168.2.20) and will not change if the router is restarted. This is because the client computers have to know the correct IP address for the DS-207+ in order access the network printer. To hard set the IP address see the instructions below.

Login to the DS-207+
- - To login the DS-207+ open up Firefox and type the IP the address 192.168.2.20 (this is the IP Address I have hard set the DS-207+ t0) into the address bar and then hit “Enter”. Otherwise find the IP address of the DS-207+ as allocated by the routers DHCP server - see instructions above.
- Login to the DS-207+ administration pages using the admin user name and password.

“Hard Set” the DS-207+ Home Network IP Address
- To “hard set” the DS-207+ IP address login to its administration pages as above and then click the “System” option in the left hand menu.
- Input the IP address that you want making sure it is within the home networks range i.e. 192.168.2.2 - 192.168.2.xxx.

Create a New Samba User

Check Pinter is Attached to the DS-207+

Posted in Uncategorised | Print | No Comments »

02/01/2008 by mtn.

The HP LaserJet 1018 printer stopped working for some reason, although it had worked out-of-the-box. This thread on the Ubuntu forums sorted things tho, specifically using the code below.

$ wget http://foo2zjs.rkkda.com/firmware/sihp1018.tar.gz
$ tar xvzf sihp1018.tar.gz
$ arm2hpdl sihp1018.img > sihp1018.dl
$ sudo cp ./sihp1018.dl /usr/share/foo2zjs/firmware/sihp1018.dl
$ sudo cat /usr/share/foo2zjs/firmware/sihp1018.dl > /dev/usb/lp0

Posted in Printing | Print | No Comments »

02/01/2008 by mtn.

I had a home movie file that was not playing well on the Neuros OSD so I checked out how to re-encode it. This page was, introduction to Mencoder Specifically I followed these instructions.

mencoder original-movie.avi -oac mp3lame -ovc xvid -xvidencopts pass=2:bitrate=800 -o new-version-of-movie.avi

Once re-encoded the movie worked perfectly.

Posted in OSD/Encoding | Print | No Comments »

18/12/2007 by mtn.

Neuros OSD: http://www.neurostechnology.com/

IMPORTANT: Remember to turn off the firewall on the computer with the shares!
(Use Fire Starter and add a rule to allow the OSD access)

Setup Samba
This was basically to allow basic networking and so the script files created using gedit could be copied on to the OSD.
Create Samba user: http://linux.byexamples.com/archives/123/creating-samba-user/
Open terminal and type…

smbpasswd -a username

Telnet into the OSD
Open terminal and type…

telnet
open [IP address]
User name: root
Password: pablod
cd ..
ls

Auto Mount Script
General instructions: http://forums.neurostechnology.com/index.php?topic=7918.0
Specific script I adapted: http://forums.neurostechnology.com/index.php?topic=7918.msg41934#msg41934

Create the script and rc.user files using gedit and copy them to /mnt/OSD folder on the OSD

cp /rc.user /mnt/OSD
cp /mount_script.sh /mnt/OSD

Posted in OSD/Encoding | Print | No Comments »

15/11/2007 by mtn.

Straight forward and clear tutorial for getting files sharing between Ubuntu and Windows machines using Samba: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=202605&highlight=network+sharing

I used this with Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10 and and Vista, and it worked great.

[Edit] Another good tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad17kma8rNM

Posted in Linux Network | Print | No Comments »

07/09/2007 by mtn.

Finally got 2 Ubuntu machines sharing a printer over a wireless network using this tutorial: http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/Networking/Setting_Up_a_Network_Printer_using_CUPS

I had to stop the firewall on the server, using Firestarter, while setting the printer up. I also had to creae a new policy to always allow access to the print server (Ubuntu machine) 0n port 631 from the client machine’s IP address.

Once the Ubuntu machine was setup as a server for the printer it took about 5mins to get an Windows XP machine sharing the printer, over the same home network, using this how to: http://www.owlfish.com/thoughts/winipp-cups-2003-07-20.html. The only bits I actually had to use are posted below.

( Note: my network printer address - http://192.168.2.4:631/printers/LaserJet-1018)

————————————

Hostname lookup

Another common step is to ensure that hostname broadcast by CUPS is accessible from the Windows XP machine. If your CUPS machine is accessible using a name rather than just an IP address then you don’t need to do anything for this step. If the CUPS machine is not accessible via it’s hostname then you need to set a mapping between the CUPS hostname and its IP address in the Windows hosts file. Under WindowsXP the host file is in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\HOSTS, in Win2k replace WINDOWS with WINNT. The format is simple:

# Example hosts entry
192.168.0.3 rock

Under some CUPS server configurations you will be able to use the IP address instead of the hostname, but often only a hostname will work.

Postscript Printing

To use a printer queue as a Postscript printer requires a Windows XP Postscript printer driver, such as the built-in MS Publisher Imagesetter or this freely available one from Adobe.

Built-in MS Publisher Imagesetter

To use the MS Publisher Imagesetter driver, use “Add Printer” to add a new network printer, select “Connect to a printer on the Internet…” and enter the URL for your printer queue (e.g. http://rock:631/printers/Epson). When prompted for a driver select a Manufacturer of “Generic” and the Printer “MS Publisher Imagesetter”.

————————————

Posted in Linux Network | Print | No Comments »

18/04/2007 by mtn.

I came across a new community developed game today, Beyond the Red Line, based on the new (rather than original) Battlestar Galactica TV series. This was exciting as there is a Linux (as well as Windows and Apple) version. I did have a problem running the game tho (on my Toshiba A120 running Ubuntu Feisty Fawn beta - fully updated), so I have documented the solution here for future reference.

Installing the game was easy. Download the Linux install to the desktop (took about 30mins). Then change the permissions of the file so that it is executable - right click on the file, choose the permissions tab and click the “allow executing file as program” check box, and then click close. Then run the install - double click the install file (BtRLDemoInstaller.run) and click “run”. After checking the files integrity the install box pops up, then click through the couple of options. install completed.

To run the game pop up Nautilus file manager and navigate to home-directory~/btrl_demo, double click the btrl_demo file (I might have had to make this executable as well!). The game starts - excellent. The problem was when I click on the “Briefing” option the game crashed with the error [Linux] ERROR: “Could not load ABexp04 anim file” at fireball/fireballs.cpp:697. This was solved by checking out the BtRL forums, and following this thread.

Download the file libtxc_dxtn060508.tar.gz (from the bottom of the s3tc page) on to the desktop. Unpacked it with archive manager - double click it and click extract. Then install libtxc_dxtn - pop up a terminal using Ubuntu’s main menu Applications>Accessories>Terminal and navigate to the libtxc_dxtn dircetory by typing… cd Desktop/libtxc_dxtn …and then hit the enter key. Then type the two commands below, hitting enter after each command, to install libtxc_dxtn.
make

make install

That got things going for me. I still have a problem with garbled sound, but I’m working on this!

Posted in Linux Games, Linux Ubuntu | Print | No Comments »

25/02/2007 by mtn.

UPDATE: I have since run 7.04 and 7.10 and both work perfectly out-of-the-box, including the wireless card and Compiz Fusion (or whatever 3D desktop 7.10 ships with). I NO longer use Automatix as most stuff is installed by default or is as easy to install through Synaptic or Apt.

I recently (Jan 2007) bought a Toshiba Satellite Pro A120 (Part Number: PSAC1E-04V00VEN) and, as I have been using Linux for the last two years and Ubuntu for the past year, the first thing I did was (boot up the system decline the Windows XP license and email Toshiba for a refund) install Ubuntu Edgy 6.10. Here I want to document the process for my own records and for anyone thinking of installing Ubuntu on a Toshiba A120. [EDIT: I had said that the built in wireless card did not work, this was wrong, the card works perfectly once Ndiswrapper is installed - see below]

Introduction
Basically it was a really (really) smooth ride installing Ubuntu, everything worked – Beryl 3D desktop even worked with no configuration once the repositories were added, and Beryl installed. Even the built in wireless card worked once Ndiswrapper was install using Automatix.

Basic Installation
I downloaded the Ubuntu iso file and burnt it on to a CD using GnomeBaker on my desktop, which is also running Ubuntu. I then booted up my Toshiba laptop with the Ubuntu CD in the CD Rom, making sure that the CD Rom was set as the primary boot device in the BIOS. At the Ubuntu menu I select the “Live CD/Install” option (at this point the hard drive is not effected) and boot in to the Ubuntu live desktop. On the desktop there is an install icon, click this and the install process will start. I went through the few steps, selecting time zone etc, and then left the laptop to install Ubuntu – this took about 15 mins.

Useful links

• Get GNU Linux - Trying out the live CD
• Video Tutorial – Installing Ubuntu
• Ubuntu Forums

Post Install
Ok, the installation was really straight forward, time to install Automatix and get the wireless network going as well as a few other useful codecs and applications.

Installing Automatix
Installing Automatix is a simple as going to the website and downloading the install .deb file. Having downloaded the file double click on it and install Automatix.

Setting up the wireless network card
Once installed, start Automatix from the Applications>System Tools>Automatix menu option and select the NDISWrapper from the “Internet” options and click start (you have to be connected to the Internet obviously). Once it is installed, from the main Ubuntu menu bar go to System>Administration>Networking and setup the wireless network settings.

It is also worth installing a bunch of other packages/applications through Automatix, namely Mplayer, GnomeBaker, Google Earth, Multimedia Codecs, AUD-DVD Codecs (to enable watching of DVDs) Thunderbird (email client), Flash Player, Real Player etc.

Installing Beryl 3D desktop
Add the Beryl repositories then open System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager, search for Beryl, select the packages and click “Apply”. Once Beryl is installed open Applications>Accessories>Terminal and type beryl, and Beryl should start. Try holding down Ctrl + Alt and pressing the left or right arrow key! To make Beryl start everytime the laptop is started open System>Preferences>Sessions, click the “Startup Programs” tab, click the “Add” button and type “beryl” (lower case with out the quotations) as the “Startup Command”, and you are done.

Games
With the good support for the Intel graphics cards I decided to find out what games run natively under Ubuntu, and was welcomely surprised to find quite a few really good ones

Open Arena
I was really please to find that the Quake III engine had been GPL’ed a while back and an open source project had been busy creating an excellent open source version called Open Arena. Having been a huge fan of the original Quake, it was great to be able to download this and have it just work, very smoothly, even getting straight into an Internet game. To start playing Open Arena, download the Linux tar ball, unpack, and double click the “ioquake3.i386″ file (I might have had to right click on the file, choose the “Permissions” tab and click the “allow executable” box) and it should fire up – excellent game.

PlaneShift
PlaneShift is a open source and free Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMOGPG) that, although I have not had time to get into it, looks really sweet. Well worth a try.

Other Games
Other games to try are BZFlag a “free multiplayer multiplatform 3D tank battle game” installable through Synaptic, as well as Globulation 2, LXDoom and Trigger.

Windows Games on Linux
To play a good variety of Windows games, for a small price you can purchase TransGames, Cedega. From my limited experience this is an excellent way to get Windows games going on Linux, with lots of titles supported.

Linux Game Publishing have a range of titles for sale that are worth looking at as well.

Well, hope this helps someone!

Posted in Linux Ubuntu | Print | 2 Comments »