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Posted by Matthew Smith At 8:03 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Linux as a Desktop

Well, thats been an interesting experience....

Upgraded my video card to a dual DVI card and all of a sudden my Chimei CMV221D start displaying in 640x480 resolution... which is a long way from its native 1680x1050.

After lots of research it appears that the EDID is non compliant to the standards and hence the latest nvidia drivers rejected it and went back to the lowest resolution.

The EDID is effectively the monitors firmware and is used to report the monitors capabilities to the opperating system. When it works its brilliant... true plug and play... but when its bad, well its REALLY bad...

I've done some reading about how to read and reflash the EDID and that sounded like I might end up with a dead monitor which I really didn't want.

So after more research I discover that under Linux the nvidia drivers allow you to insert a fake EDID... WOOOO HOOO... Lucky I own two 1650x1080 monitors the second is a AOC 210V.. it works just fine so I used the nvidia-settings tool to aquire the EDID basically save a copy to a file on the disk. Then in my xorg.conf file simply pointed the second monitor to that EDID file.. bingo all working.

The man pages for the nvidia driver say you can put this line in either the device or the screen section.. I found it ONLY worked in the screen section. (For my xorg i have two screen and two device sections, so i put it in the correct screen and after a reboot it worked.

Option "CustomEDID" "DFP-1:/etc/X11/edid.bin"

I've also uploaded the EDID in case it helps anyone else, check the downloads section.

Matt

Posted by Matthew Smith At 9:53 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (1)

Category General Techo Stuff

Python ISP Usage Meter based

Background:

I've been writing usage meters for ISP's now for about 6 years and generally using vbscript and Samurize.. I really liked the combo as it allowed anyone to modify the UI without having any coding skills and the code was also pretty simple for people to have a hack at.

Having recently made the move to a Linux desktop (i love ubuntu) Samurize is no long an option and obviously vb is seriously limited., (although there is a project to provide a framework for .net on Linux.)

So I decided to look at a simple cross platform language to provide the same functionality and finally decided on Python.... easy to use, heaps of modules and no worries with Windows and Linux.

I got the backend written pretty quick, ie login to the ISP and scrape the usage data. The challenge was going to be a UI that could be easily customised.... frankly i haven't found anything like Samurize for Linux and so fell back to finding something that people could still learn pretty quickly... gDesklets looked like the best solution but frankly i drove myself nuts trying to get the backend wrapped in a class etc... it just kept erroring and after a few days i gave in...

So another search and I found Screenlets... no documentation but it looks good and there was enough examples for me to hack around and get my UI working.

If your looking at something and think... hmmmm.. thats stupid... you gotta give me some slack, new to Linux, Python and Screenlets... lol

Code

So my code comes in two parts;

1. isp_usagescraper_ - This part is the work horse, you give it a bunch of parameters and it logs into the usage site, scrapes the data and returns as a dictionary or can alternatively write to an XML file.. The idea is that we can keep adding mode modules to provide meters for other ISPs... yeah i built it to be extensible...!

2. The UI – For windows this is a simple Samurize interface that extracts data from the XML file and displays it... Feel free to customise and modify as much as you like.. its really easy.
   
   On Linux the UI is built in Screenlets and unfortunately your going to have to really hack around in Python to change the look and feel.

Installation Notes

Windows

Download and install ActivePython (needed for Samurize, other versions don't seem to work).

http://www.activestate.com/Products/activepython/index.plex

Download and install Samurize

http://www.samurize.com/

Download my samurize package and double click, this will offer to automatically install it.

http://www.taet.com.au/mb.nsf/DOWNLOADS/8A51B3BC7BB4A6FCCA257366000129A5/$FILE/Netspeedv3.sam

Once installed you will need to load the Samurize config editor and work through all the properties for your usage plan.

1. Click Start\All Programs\Serious Samurize\Config Tool

2. As marked in the diagram above click on the black text that says “Update: [Not”

3. Then Click Edit Meters

4. Then Click Source

5. Then Click Change Parameters (each one should be self explanatory.. Login name is blah@netspeed.com.au)

You should now be able to click test on check that it works and the file is downloaded, double click the file to check that the data looks right.

ISP Notes

WARNING – Netspeeds usage data updates infrequently and can lead to very expensive over runs. I used the meter to keep a rough eye on things and then use my router to track things properly... If you cop a huge excess bill don't blame me...!!!!

Version history

Rel 1 – Virtually no error checking.. so if it works great it not.......

Rel 2 - Minor fixes

Rel 3 - Huge update, now includes current session downloads so is far more accurate and updates without having to disconnect etc.

Future plans

Improve the error handling and generally make the code more robust.

Port the backend so it can be used for gDesklets

General notes and thanks

Huge thanks to Angelo at Velocity who whipped up a custom HTML page to make scraping really easy.

Thanks to the creators of Screenlets and Samurize for providing tools to make an easy to use and modify UI.

Thanks to all those people who created the great examples and howto's which I leverage to hack this thing together.

Zero thanks to Netspeed for making no effort to provide any information or simple site etc... out of 6 isp's the ONLY one who hasn't helped..

Disclaimer

Basically use at your own risk, no warranty, blah blah... I'm providing all the source code and your getting it for nothing.. don't wanna hear about how you over ran your usage and cost you money. In fact if you have a need to blame the rest of the world for your issues then piss off and don't download it at all.... geeeez

Posted by Matthew Smith At 11:35 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Linux as a Desktop
Well... Seems I am the only one being caught out.. but just in case it helps someone else.

Firstly credit to Coort to providing virtually all the idea's for this (note he and he borrowed them from notes.net forums).. stolen from http://coort.wordpress.com/2007/07/17/install-lotus-notes-8-beta-3-on-ubuntu-704-feisty-fawn-step-by-step/

If your running Compiz Fusion or Beryl switch back to metacity as the window manager otherwise the install screens are all blank.

Change to switch from DASH to BASH (seems to fix some issues)
sudo ln -sf bash /bin/sh

Download and extract the tar file (You can just do this with the gui)

Run the setup
go to the directory you extracted the files to
sudo ./setup.sh

I just accepted all the defaults except i didn't install Sametime as i'm running it at home.

Set permissions on the program and data directories.
sudo chmod -R 777 /opt/ibm
sudo chmod -R 777 /etc/lotus

(I know this is bad, but i tried 755 and still got issues.. even tried assigning to me as the owner.. still errors..)

Delete the data directory in your home directory (it will be recreated when you launch notes)
sudo rm ~/lotus -r -d

Finally reverse the DASH to BASH thingo
sudo ln -sf dash /bin/sh

Re-enable Beryl or Compiz Fusion.

Finally to get the fonts working properly load Synaptic Package Manager and install "ttf-xfree86-nonfree".. and actually they still sucked so I changed the default fonts in the Notes prefernces to the "FreeSerif, FreeMono.. etc" and now its much nicer.

Now Notes won't appear on the menu's until you either logout or restart, so logout and login and launch Notes.

The errors I was dealing with;

could not launch application
Failed to execute child process
Permission denied

Error
notes setup cannot write or create pernames.ntf

Error no license key found

Hope it helps someone else out...

Matt

PS I'm a complete ubuntu noob, so be gentle... 

Posted by Matthew Smith At 12:35 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (1)

Category Linux as a Desktop

smb4k – Great util for connecting to windows shares. I found the default network browser wouldn't allow me to see my Windows 2003 server, this util hit it no worries at all. Installed from the ubuntu repositries.

GnomeBaker – Awesome tool for burning CD's and DVD's.

Gaim – Instant messaging client with support for all the main networks. (Now replaced with Pidgin new version of gaim.

Notes 8 – I just love my notes... lol.. Email, database, webserver all rolled into one nice neat package. Installation was a nightmare but these instructions worked for me.

http://coort.wordpress.com/2007/07/17/install-lotus-notes-8-beta-3-on-ubuntu-704-feisty-fawn-step-by-step/

Hamachi - But I want it with a GUI..!

Complete HowTo for Hamachi and gui on ubuntu including adding to menu's etc
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=478863

Tremulous - Great FPS game that the kids and I really enjoy playing. Not to heavy on the hardware, heaps of servers around the world and lots of fun.

http://tremulous.net/

Beryl - Incredible eye candy for Linux

This thing makes the features in Vista look about as interesting as a DOS box...!

Screenlets - Desktop widgets in my attempt to replace samurize

After a search the options I found where gdesklets, adesklets and screenlets... none of them are really as good as samurize (IMHO) but I did get my usage meter working in screenlets after lots of pain and agony.

All for now, will add another one soon... so much software so little time.

Matt

Posted by Matthew Smith At 2:36 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (1)

Category Linux as a Desktop
This one was driving me nuts and ended up being REALLY easy to resolve.

Delete the Multimedia Shortcuts in System/Preferences/Keyboard Shortcuts. After that, try to enable shortcuts within amarok (Settings->Configure Global Shortcuts).

Now that does get forward / backward, play pause working... but after awhile i wanted ALL the keys working...   Then I found Keytouch.. this awesome utility now has every key working and even allows mapping of keys to different tasks etc.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KeyTouch

Posted by Matthew Smith At 12:08 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Linux as a Desktop

This is dead easy and worked great for me...!

Backup X.org configuration file

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak

Modify the X.org configuration file

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Find the Input Device section for your mouse and add two lines as shown below. You may also increase the number of buttons if your mouse has more than 7, just fix the rest of the section based upon the number of buttons (remember back/forward, wheel click & tilt left/right all count as buttons)

Change:

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Configured Mouse"

Driver "mouse"

Option "CorePointer"

...

Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"

...

Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"

EndSection

to:

OLD SECTION - NVIDIA

Section "InputDevice"

# generated from default

Identifier "Mouse0"

Driver "mouse"

Option "Protocol" "auto"

Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"

Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"

Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

EndSection

NEW SECTION

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Configured Mouse"

Driver "mouse"

Option "CorePointer"

Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"

Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"

Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"

Option "Buttons" "12"

Option "ButtonMapping" "1 2 3 6 7 8 9 10 11 12"

EndSection

Buttons still won't work in Nautilus unless you install the imwheel dameon.

Source

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty/Hardware#Activate_side-mouse-buttons_in_FireFox

The next step

The next step is customisation of the buttons, btnx looks damn fine and configurable. It allows you to set keystrokes etc for any mouse button.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=455656&highlight=btnx

Posted by Matthew Smith At 12:06 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Linux as a Desktop
I've been running dual screens for years and sure as hell wasn't going back to one...!!

My machine was running a ATI X800 video card which at the time was pretty kick ass... Even now most games run in the 50-90fps mark which is very acceptable. So decided I'd try and get dual screens with acceleration support working... what a pain in the ass..! I did finally get it working but found that I ATI doesn't work with Beryl when you get over 2048 resolution in any direction.. my dual screens are 1650x1050 total 3360x1050 and therefore after all the pain wouldn't work... I finally ditched the card and got a 7600GT and got it all working in about an hour.. dual screen, full 3D support and Beryl... Linux and ATI.. not a good call.

Here's my notes.

ATI video card and dual screens

Two monitors and ATI video card... open source drivers ended up being waaaay easier to get working and using MergeFB to span the monitors seems to work well. No luck with the enhanced desktop as my resolution with combined monitors is 3360x1050 and apparently around 2000 is the limit.. DOH

Basically the binary drivers (the ones direct from ATI) would install but I could never get acceleration working.... if you don't intend to play games or use the enhanced desktop effects it doesn't really matter.

Here is the instructions on how to setup the open-source driver and enable dual desktops.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

Here is the relevant sections of my working xconf.org

Section "Device"

Identifier "Generic Video Card"

Driver "ati"

BusID "PCI:1:0:0"

#Option "UseFBDev" "true"

#Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" "true"

Option "UseFBDev" "false"

Option "BusType" "PCI" #Weird but apparently there is a bug in the current version so this is needed even though my card is AGP

Option "MergedFB" "true"

Option "MonitorLayout" "TMDS,CRT"

Option "CRT2Hsync" "30-65"

Option "CRT2VRefresh" "50-75"

Option "OverlayOnCRTC2" "true"

Option "CRT2Position" "LeftOf"

Option "MetaModes" "1680x1050-1680x1050 1680x1050"

Option "MergedXineramaCRT2IsScreen0" "false"

Option "MergedXinerama" "on"

# Performance Settings

Option "AGPMode" "8"

Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"

Option "ColorTiling" "on"

Option "EnablePageFlip" "true" #only works with accelmethod "XAA"

Option "AccelDFS" "true" #seemed to speed things up using EXA acceleration

Option "DMAForXv" "true" #This can speed up movie playback but can in rare cases case instability

Option "GARTSize" "64" #This is the size of the "GART" that xorg will use.

EndSection

Section "Screen"

Identifier "Default Screen"

Device "Generic Video Card"

Monitor "Generic Monitor"

DefaultDepth 24

SubSection "Display"

Depth 24

Virtual 3360 1050

EndSubSection

SubSection "Display"

Depth 24

Modes "1680x1050"

EndSubSection

EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"

Option "AIGLX" "true"

Identifier "Default Layout"

Screen "Default Screen"

InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"

InputDevice "Configured Mouse"

InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"

InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"

InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"

EndSection

Section "DRI"

Mode 0666

EndSection

Section "Extensions"

Option "Composite" "Enable"

EndSection

NOTE: After many hours I finally worked out you can't get Beryl running with my ATI card so ditched it on the weekend and bought a nvidia 7600GT and had dual screens and Beryl running within an hour...!

Posted by Matthew Smith At 12:04 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Linux as a Desktop

Well I have to admit that whilst I have been using Linux for my servers for a long long long time I've not used it as a desktop... But I've finally made the switch from Windows to Ubuntu.. Why ubuntu.. well frankly it has a huge library of software that can be installed through the package manager.. has a large active community that seems happy to help newbies like myself.

So i've taken the time to document some of the challenges and my experiences etc.. mostly for myself but hell if it helps someone else thats awesome...!

At this point its about a two weeks out and frankly I'm loving it...  I got dual screen 1650x1050 as my display running Beryl and its just awesome to work with...  I'm not normally an eye candy guy, but it really is amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gShBoXzO_B0

Now tell me you don't care...lol

Matt

Posted by Matthew Smith At 11:57 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Invention
So lets kick off this exploration into what I call true innovation...!

The first enthralling episode is yeast... this stuff is everywhere and yet it has made such a huge difference to modern man.

From my research it appears the clever Egyptians discovered the properties over 5,000 years go, apparently they have documented they used to leave there dough next to the oven to let it rise.

Whilst they didn't understand the science of it, they definitely knew how to use it... Whilst the original person who noticed this phenomenon will go unnamed they truly are a great innovator.

It wasn't until Louis Pasteur worked out the mystery in 1859 that we really understood that yeast was a living organism and it was responsible for these amazing behaviour.

The next great leap come in the mid 19th century where modern man worked out how to produce a standardise yeast, up until that point it was hit and miss.

Since then we have worked out how to use this humble single celled organism to make bread rise, make wine, then beer and even environmently friendly fuel. Of course the most important creation of all Vegimite...!

Now you will notice I'm calling it an innovation not an invention.... To me invention is the creation of something new... innovation is finding a new way to make something valuable. So invention is the creation of the light bulb, innovation is the guy who worked out how to use the failed glue to make post it notes.

Oh and by the way to give full credit the scientist who invented it was Dr Spencer Silver and the genius who stumbled on the use of the “failed” product was Arthur Fry.

Anyway, the next time you eat a sandwich or have some toast think about how someone 5,000 years ago was clever enough to come up with a way to put that bread on your table.

References
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2791820
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeast
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-it_note

Posted by Matthew Smith At 9:03 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (2)