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Sync your iPod Shuffle with Linux

Ryan — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 18:36:53 +0000

The iPod shuffle is a great little device but unfortunately it is buit to work with iTunes and comes with an almost undecipherable file system and database. Apple’s motives are clear here, buy a Mac and use iTunes. Fortunately for us you can save your money as there are a variety of ways to sync your Shuffle using some common Linux utilities.

Now it’s not all rosy, for some reason the iPod Shuffle support on Linux is shaky compared to other iPod models. This guide will walk you though all these problems and get your iPod Shuffle playing nice with your Linux system. This guide will focus on Ubuntu but these instructions will work with any Linux distribution out there.

Step 1: Initial Setup

If you have a new iPod Shuffle you can start here. If you are having problems skip down to the troubleshooting section.

Install gtkpod

Normally you have to connect your Shuffle to iTunes to setup the initial directory structure. gtkpod will handle this instead which allows your shuffle to locate and play music.

Install gtkpod:
$ sudo apt-get install gtkpod

Setup iTunes Directory Structure

Now connect your Shuffle to your computer and it should automatically mount to /media/IPOD or something similar. Start gtkpod.

Click on the New iPod icon and it should ask to create the iPod directory structure. Follow the instructions and choose your iPod model (Shuffle 2nd gen/3rd gen, etc.).

Step 2: Adding Music

Now that the Shuffle has the initial directory structure you can add music. You can use a variety of applications to do this.

If you use gtkpod or Rhythmbox they will work with the iTunes directory format and update the music database automatically. If you want to use Banshee or you want to add music using a file manager like Nautilus or Thunar you will have to download the shuffle_db program to update the database for you.

Optional: Download shuffle_db

This is a little Python program allows you to use the player almost like any other USB flash MP3 player. You simply copy MP3 files onto it using any file manager or application such as Banshee or Rhythmbox then simply run the rebuild_db program to build the music database.

Download shuffle_db:
http://shuffle-db.sourceforge.net/

Once you have downloaded the shuffle_db program rebuild_db.py, copy it to the root directory on the iPod Shuffle. Now you can add music to the root directory of the Shuffle and when you are done run the rebuild_db.py script to update the music database.

Execute the script. Your iPod my be mounted at a different location.
$ /media/IPOD/rebuild_db.py

Step 3: Unmount Shuffle and Enjoy

That should be it. Safely unmount your Shuffle and you should be able to listen to music right away.

Troubleshooting

The Shuffle is visible to Rhythmbox or gtkpod but no songs are listed

The permissions on the Shuffle are incorrect or the database is corrupted. This can happen if you have gone a long time since you last added music to your iPod Shuffle and there have been significant changes to your system (updated distribution, or updated gtkpod/Rhythmbox).

You can proceed in one of two ways.

1) Download shuffle_db program and execute it to rebuild your music database.

2) Remove all songs from the device and start at Step 1 above.

Clear the device. Be very careful here.
$ sudo rm -rf /media/IPOD/*

rebuild_db.py won’t execute

The iPod file system or the rebuild_db.py lacks the execute permissions.

Make sure it have execute permissions.
$ chmod +x /media/IPOD/rebuild_db.py

Try executing the program as root (be careful here).
$ sudo /media/IPOD/rebuild_db.py

If that doesn’t work you with have to manually mount the iPod Shuffle and execute the script.

Note: The following locations may differ on your system. Make sure that they are correct before executing any code.

Unmount the Shuffle.
$ sudo umount /media/IPOD

Create the new mount directory.
$ mkdir /media/my_ipod

Mount the iPod with a less restrictive umask. This will allow you to execute the script.
$ sudo mount /dev/sdb /media/my_ipod -o umask=0000

You should now be able to execute the script as root.
$ sudo /media/IPOD/rebuild_db.py

IPod wont play music, green amber flashing lights

The database is corrupted. You need to open Rhythmbox or gtkpod again, or rerun rebuild_db.py depending on how you added music in the first place.

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal with Unity is Released

Ryan — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:29:51 +0000

Canonical has released its latest version of Ubuntu today. Under the hood 11.04 Natty has made many controversial changes, first and foremost the addition of Unity which replaces the standard GNOME desktop. The new desktop was originally designed for the Ubuntu Netbook Edition but has now made its way to the standard version.

Beyond the introduction of the new Unity shell, there have been several other additions. The Gtk+ theme has a new slim scrollbar style, and the default music player in Ubuntu changed from Rhythmbox to Banshee. The Ubuntu Software Center has finally included support for posting ratings and reviews. This addition will make it easier for end users to make better decisions when adding packages to their system.

Ubuntu has been heavily criticized as of late for its increasingly closed development process, especially since it touts itself as being the “community” distribution. It’s often confusing design decisions and break from GNOME have done a lot to annoy many users as of late. With the recent release of GNOME 3 and Fedora 15 right around the corner Ubuntu has a lot at stake with Unity. I for one think that more diversity and choices are a good thing. Parallel development of GNOME Shell and Unity will undoubtedly spur innovation and will be a positive for both desktops.

The Open Source philosophy believes that freedom and choice are important. The big question is will the Ubuntu users support the new desktop and Canonical’s increasingly closed methodology, or choose to stay with GNOME and move to another distribution?

GNOME 3 Featuring Gnome Shell is Released

Ryan — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 21:27:21 +0000

April 6th is finally here and those of us who have been keeping track of GNOME 3 development, you know that means the release of GNOME 3 desktop featuring Gnome Shell. GNOME 3 and Gnome Shell are a dramatic shift from what users have come to expect from GNOME 2.

From the press release:

Today, the GNOME Desktop project released GNOME 3.0, its most significant redesign of the computer experience in nine years. A revolutionary new user interface and new features for developers make this a historic moment for the free and open source desktop.

Within GNOME 3, GNOME Shell reimagines the user interface for the next generation of the desktop. This innovative interface allows users to focus on tasks while minimizing distractions such as notifications, extra workspaces, and background windows.

Fedora 15 will feature GNOME 3 as their default desktop when they release in May. Up next in the release cycle will be Ubuntu and their Unity that will be the default desktop for their upcoming 11.04 Natty release. It will be interesting how the two compare as they share many of the same design elements and functionality.

Installation

At the moment you can download Live CD images for both Fedora and openSUSE but no distribution currently has it in their repositories.

If you are running Ubuntu and want to try it out as your default desktop, there is an article on how to build the latest version from source.

Build the perfect HTPC with Boxee and the Dell Zino HD

Ryan — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:12:28 +0000

If you are looking for a great HTPC then you should look no further than Boxee on the Dell Zino HD. For those of you that don’t know, Boxee is a free software program that you install on your computer that allows users to watch internet movies and TV shows, listen to online radio and music, play your local digital music and movies. The Boxee software turns your HTPC into a social media and home theater media center.

Boxee allows users to watch and listen to their local media, as well all access movies on Netflix, internet radio on LastFM and Pandora, and TV shows through NBC, FOX, ABC, and HULU. Boxee is diverse in its functionality and continues to evolve quickly.

Once installed boxee will start scanning your local Movies, Music and Pictures folders automatically. Boxee will attempt to bring artwork, reviews, cast, etc. for your media, so browsing your library becomes more useful and fun than looking at a list of files. Boxee is based on the XMBC media center.

You can buy a specific Boxee “Box” or build your own by downloading the free software .deb package and installing it on your own Ubuntu (or Windows/Mac) based Linux PC. Sorry but there is no love for Fedora or other RedHat distributions at the moment.

Here is a view of the Boxee home screen.

As far as hardware goes you can’t go wrong with the Dell Inspiron Zino HD. This little PC is powerful and keeps a very low profile in your home theater.

The Zino HD starts at $299 and you get is a CD/DVD combo drive, integrated graphics, integrated 2.1 Hi-def audio, and a dual core AMD processor. All models come packed with multiple USB ports, eSATA, HDMI, VGA, Gigabit Ethernet, analog audio in/out, SPDIF, and a 4-in-1 media card reader, so connectivity is covered. With an HDMI cable and an HDTV, you could have your Boxee HTPC up in no time.

Optionally you can upgrade to THX 7.1 audio, integrated WiFi, discrete graphics cards, Blu-Ray drive, or a quad core Phenom processor.

The Zino HD packs quite an affordable punch. Installing Linux was hassle free as all devices were correctly detected and the proper drivers were installed.

You could control this HTPC with a full sized wireless keyboard but this guide wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the Logitech diNovo Mini. This little remote device has the perfect blend of portability, functionality, and ease of use. It is a handheld wireless bluetooth keyboard with an integrated trackpad that’s designed to perform all of the functions necessary to effectively control an HTPC from the comfort of your couch.

The diNovo Mini has full functioning keyboard and trackpad but also comes with media keys to control playback and the backlight which is invaluable at night. One of my other favorite things is that it comes with an integrated USB bluetooth dongle that can plug into any PC that doesn’t natively support bluetooth.

You can usually find this for under $100 USD online.

Convert a relative path to absolute path in BASH

Ryan — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:11:41 +0000

There are a few ways to take a relative path and convert it to an absolute path which can be accessed regardless of the current working directory. The easiest method is to use the readlink utility which comes bundled with about every distribution.

Here my working directory is my home directory. It is printed as an absolute path.
$ pwd/home/ryan

Using readlink we can convert this same directory as a relative path to an absolute path.
$ readlink -f ./../ryan/Desktop/../../../home/ryan/home/ryan

If you are using a Debian based distribution like Ubuntu you can use the realpath utility instead.
$ realpath ./../ryan/Desktop/../../../home/ryan/home/ryan

Setup SSH access between VirtualBox Host and Guest VMs

Ryan — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 16:50:39 +0000

It is often necessary to have the ability to SSH between your Linux Host and your Guest virtual machines. In VirtualBox you can do this by simply configuring a second network interface on the Guest. This type of setup will not only allow SSH sessions between Host and Guest, but also between separate Guests themselves.

First off shutdown your Guest VM so that you can add a second network interface. By default you should have one interface already which is using NAT. Leave this alone as it provides access to the internet. Select the tab “Adapter 2″ and change “attached to” to “Host-only Adapter”.

Now boot up your Guest and pull up a terminal. Run ifconfig to see what base address eth1 has been assigned. You can use this address as a base to assign static IP addresses for each Guest VM. In this case inet addr:192.168.56.101 is the base IP address.
$ sudo ifconfig eth1
Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX inet addr:192.168.56.101 Bcast:192.168.56.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: XXXX::XXXX:XXXX:XXXX:XXXX/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:296 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:237 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:32116 (31.3 KiB) TX bytes:37642 (36.7 KiB)

If you rely on DHCP you might get a different IP address each time your Guest VM reboots. If this is a problem, you need to setup a static IP address instead.

On a Debian based system edit /etc/network/interfaces to add the following lines. Change the address to your base IP address.
auto eth1 iface eth1 inet static address 192.168.56.101 netmask 255.255.255.0

On a redhat based system edit this file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 and add the following lines. Change the IPADDR to your base IP address.
DEVICE=eth1 BOOTPROTO=static IPADDR=192.168.56.101 NETMASK=255.255.255.0

On your Linux Host you can now open a terminal add ssh to the Guest VM:
$ ssh ryan@192.168.56.101

If you are having problems connecting, make sure that sshd in installed and running, and that the firewall on the is not blocking the SSH service on the VM.

You can create an entry in /etc/hosts so you don’t have to remember the IP address.
192.168.56.101 virtualhost1

This allows you to use the virtual hostname instead.
$ ssh ryan@virtualhost1

Add new fonts to your Ubuntu system

Ryan — Tue, 18 May 2010 06:40:03 +0000

Whether you work with the GIMP to create graphical content, OpenOffice to write documents, or anything in between, chances are that you will need to supplement the basic installed fonts on your Ubuntu system. There are a couple ways to go about this. If you don’t alrady have a font to install you can use Synatcic or apt to search for and install one.

Open System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager and do a search for ttf. This is the TrueType file extension but it can also be used for other types such as FreeType. This should net you a ton of useful fonts results to install.

Alternatively you can use apt.
sudo apt-cache search ttf sudo apt-get install <font package name>

A wide variety of fonts can also be found across the internet from various sources. If you downloaded a specific font, or have a collection of fonts you would like to install, follow these steps.

If you want the font available to only your user.

Make a “.fonts” directory within your home directory.
mkdir ~/.fonts
Copy your font(s) to this directory.
cp font.ttf ~/.fonts

If you want to make the font accessible to all users.

The system fonts are stored in /usr/share/fonts, make a sub-directory within this for your personal fonts.
sudo chmod mkdir /usr/share/fonts/myfonts
Copy all your fonts to this directory.
sudo cp <font-name.ttf> /usr/share/fonts/myfonts
Change the permissions on the files so the system can use them.
sudo chmod -R 755 /usr/share/fonts/myfonts/*
Now update the system cache.
sudo fc-update -fv

Your fonts should now be available to all your programs. If a program was open while you were installing a font you may have to restart it in order to access the new fonts.

How to fix unresponsive Flash player on Ubuntu

Ryan — Sat, 15 May 2010 15:40:28 +0000

For a long while going back to Ubuntu 9.04, 9.10, and even the latest 10.4 lucid, there has been a nagging issue with the Adobe Flash player being unresponsive to mouse clicks. This bug stops you from interacting with Flash buttons or controls for example those in video players or games which is obviously very frustrating. Being such a high profile issue which affects many users it’s amazing that it has taken this long come up with a fix.

Here is the official bug on launchpad which concerns the flashplugin-nonfree package and mentions a couple workarounds.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/flashplugin-nonfree/+bug/410407

So here is the bug and workarounds.

For example on youtube, whilst it recognises my mouse moving over various buttons, actual mouse clicks are not recognised. I can navigate using ‘tab’ but this is very painful. I can also right click. The problem doesn’t occur with other flash players, e.g. swfdec-mozilla.

WORKAROUND 1: Disable compiz
WORKAROUND 2: Remove flashplugin-nonfree / flashplugin-installer and install from adobe
WORKAROUND 3: Open a terminal and enter:

gksudo gedit /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/i386/linux/npviewer

Then add: export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1 before the last line of text

Note: Chrome & Chromium are now working fine without workaround

These workaround’s have been verified to work for some users. We don’t need verification of whether or not they work for you.

To my knowledge it is still unclear what the underlying cause of this issue really is. But these workarounds are your best shot at resolving the issue until an official fix is released. The last workaround is the easiest and has the least impact on your system so I would give that a try first, it worked for myself.

Install Boxee on 64-bit Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic

Ryan — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:33:12 +0000

Installing Boxee turns your computer into an incredible HTPC. These instructions will help you get it up and running on Ubuntu.

Update:
Boxee has recently made the latest version (9.20) of their software available for Ubuntu 64 and 32-bit. If you are installing this new version simply download the deb package off their website directly and install it.

The instructions below pertain to older Boxee versions < 9.20

Start by downloading the repository off the website. Since the 32-bit repository is the only one available simply adding it to your sources.list will not work.

$ wget http://apt.boxee.tv/dists/jaunty/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz

Find the latest version of Boxee in the repository.

$ zcat Packages.gz | grep Filename

Filename: ./dists/intrepid/main/binary-i386/boxee-0.9.6.4578.intrepid.deb
Filename: ./dists/intrepid/main/binary-i386/boxee-0.9.7.4826.intrepid.deb
Filename: ./dists/intrepid/test/binary-i386/boxee-0.9.11.5777.deb
Filename: ./dists/intrepid/test/binary-i386/boxee-0.9.12.6570.deb
Filename: ./dists/intrepid/test/binary-i386/boxee-0.9.13.6684.deb
Filename: ./dists/intrepid/test/binary-i386/boxee-0.9.14.6795.deb
Filename: ./dists/intrepid/test/binary-i386/boxee-0.9.14.6992.deb

Download the latest version.

$ wget http://apt.boxee.tv/dists/intrepid/test/binary-i386/boxee-0.9.14.6992.deb

Install the package, since your system is 64-bit and you are installing a 32-bit package you will see that your system is missing some required libraries.

$ sudo dpkg -i --force-all boxee-0.9.14.6992.deb

dpkg: warning: overriding problem because --force enabled:
 package architecture (i386) does not match system (amd64)
Selecting previously deselected package boxee.
(Reading database ... 144498 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking boxee (from boxee-0.9.14.6992.deb) ...
dpkg: boxee: dependency problems, but configuring anyway as you requested:
 boxee depends on liblzo1; however:
  Package liblzo1 is not installed.
 boxee depends on libfaad-dev; however:
  Package libfaad-dev is not installed.
 boxee depends on libxmlrpc-c3; however:
  Package libxmlrpc-c3 is not installed.
 boxee depends on libdirectfb-1.0-0; however:
  Package libdirectfb-1.0-0 is not installed.
 boxee depends on libkrb53; however:
  Package libkrb53 is not installed.
 boxee depends on xsel; however:
  Package xsel is not installed.
Setting up boxee (0.9.14.6992)

To fix these dependency problems download the getlibs package and install it.

$ wget http://frozenfox.freehostia.com/cappy/getlibs-all.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i getlibs-all.deb

Now resolve those missing libraries.

$ getlibs /opt/boxee/Boxee

libfaac.so.0: libfaac0
libhal-storage.so.1: libhal-storage1
libjasper.so.1: libjasper1
libenca.so.0: libenca0
No match for liblzo.so.1
libmysqlclient.so.15: libmysqlclient15off
libfribidi.so.0: libfribidi0
libGLEW.so.1.5: libglew1.5
The following i386 packages will be installed:
libenca0
libfaac0
libfribidi0
libglew1.5
libhal-storage1
libjasper1
libmysqlclient15off
Continue [Y/n]? y
Downloading ...
Installing libraries ...

Install the lib32nss-mdns library.

$ sudo apt-get install lib32nss-mdns

You also need to manually install the liblzo library which is no longer available in the 9.10 release.

$ wget http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/pool/universe/l/lzo/liblzo1_1.08-3_i386.deb
$ getlibs -i liblzo1_1.08-3_i386.deb

You should now be able to launch Boxee normally, enjoy!

Installing Ubuntu 9.10 on the Dell Zino HD

Ryan — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:46:24 +0000

The Dell Inspiron Zino HD is the perfect machine if you are looking to build an Ubuntu Linux based HTPC. At the time of this post the Zino can be purchased with either Windows 7 or Ubuntu linux 9.04. I decided to go with Windows 7 and install Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit karmic on my own in a dual boot configuration. This article will cover all the steps necessary to get Ubuntu up and running.

The easiest way to setup a dual boot configuration is to reinstall Windows 7 first with the included OS DVD and then Ubuntu second. When installing Windows 7 make sure to leave space for your Ubuntu installation. Repartition the drive so that Windows 7 only uses a small chuck and leave the rest of the space unallocated. The good thing about reinstalling Windows is that it gets rid of all the extra 3rd party junk that comes preinstalled.

You can install Ubuntu through the HDMI but on some TVs the HDMI port may display incorrectly until the ATI drivers are correctly installed. If this occurs to you switch over the the VGA port until you have completed the installation.

The only other pitfall of this installation is that the default Ubuntu installation doesn’t recognize the wireless card (in my build it was the Broadcom wireless b/g card). All this means is that you need to have the wired ethernet connection until you update the system and download the appropriate wireless driver.

Once you have completed the initial installation and made sure you have a working network connection you should update your system.

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y upgrade

Next you need to find and install your hardware drivers. Go here:
System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers

It should find the Broadcom STA wireless driver for your wireless, and the FGLRX ATI/AMD driver for your video card. Download and activate both of them. You should now be able to connect with wireless and use the HDMI port if you experienced display issues with it during the installation.

If your display resolution if incorrect. Go here:
System -> Administration -> Display

Configure your sound to work over HDMI. Go here:
System -> Administration -> Sound

In the Output tab select HDMI. You can go to the Sound Effects tab and select a sound to test that it works.

You should now a fully functional system up and running with Ubuntu, but you may want to install some packages that will make your make your life easier. Here are my suggestions:

ubuntu-restricted-formats
ssh
nfs-common
sshfs
vim

mythtv
boxee
xbmc

Enjoy your new Zino HTPC!

Setup the PS3 Bluetooth Controller on Ubuntu

Ryan — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 15:25:49 +0000

The PS3 Sixaxis and DualShock3 bluetooth controllers are a great for gaming on your PS3 but will work just as well under Linux. With this guide you will be able to configure them to work on your Ubuntu Linux 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) PC in USB as well as wireless bluetooth mode.

There are a variety of solutions out there but they are either overly complex, or because of the ever changing state of Linux bluetooth support, they are somewhat outdated. The advantage of this solution is that it is simple, and requires only slight modification to the default versions of the bluez-utils packages (bluez-4.12). This minimizes possible conflicts and eliminates unneeded configuration.

This guide specifically covers Ubuntu Linux 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) but I’m sure similar steps can be taken for other distributions.

Share a remote filesystem over SSH

Ryan — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:25:24 +0000

You may already be familiar with NFS and Samba for sharing files over a network. While these are both great distributed filesystem solutions, they require extra configuration and setup overhead in order to get them to work. If you want quick and easy access to a remote filesystem then SSHFS may be your best shot.

SSHFS (Secure SHell FileSystem) is a file system for Linux capable of operating on files on a remote computer using just a secure shell login. It is based on sftp (SSH File Transfer Protocol). Setup is easy on the server side, since most servers support SSH out of the box there is nothing to do. On the client side, mounting the filesystem is as easy as logging in with SSH. The end user can seamlessly and securely interact with remote files as if they were local to your machine.

Advantages of SSHFS over NFS/Samba:

Utilizes SSH and is therefore very secure.
Allows secure access to remote filesystems outside of your local network.
Requires no special configuration on the server side.

Disadvantages:

Slightly slower, although the difference is fairly small.
Does not show filesystem usage statistics.
Requires a user account on the server side.
Not a true distributed file system, single point to point sharing.

Setup

The first step is to install SSHFS.

In Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt-get install sshfs

or in Gentoo:

$ sudo emerge -av sshfs-fuse

Create the mount point on your local machine. This is where you are going to access the remote filesystem.

$ sudo mkdir /mnt/share

Your user must have permission to access this mountpoint.

$ sudo chown ryan /mnt/share

Start Sharing

Now use the sshfs command to mount the remote filesystem. If the username is different on the server you are connecting, use the “username@host:” format, otherwise you can simply specify “host:”.

$ sshfs ryan@fileserver:/remote/share /mnt/share

If you are not using keys with SSH you will be prompted for a password.

ryan@fileserver's password:

Once you are finished you can easily unmount the filesystem.

as regular user:

$ fusermount -u /mnt/share

or as root:

$ sudo umount /mnt/share

Configuration

You can add an entry for this share to /etc/fstab to make the mounting process more seamless.

sshfs#ryan@fileserver:/remote/share /mnt/share fuse user,noauto 0 0

user – allow any user to mount this share.
noauto – stop the shared directory from being automatically mounted at startup.

If you want it automatically mounted, ensure that your SSH configuration uses keys and not passwords so it doesn’t ask for a password at startup. Once keys are in use you can safely remove the noauto option.

With fstab updated you can now mount the share as a normal user with this simple mount command. Again, if ssh is configured to use passwords you will still be prompted for one.

$ mount /mnt/share

Fix blue tinted video in Ubuntu

Ryan — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:20:05 +0000

A strange issue has been identified in Ubuntu where video takes on a blue colored tint. Other descriptions of the problem include inverted colors, blue skin tones, or distorted video hues. The problems have been reproduced with Totem (Gstreamer), Totem (Xine), Mplayer, as well as VLC and other players.

The common theme with this bug seems to be the use of the Nvidia closed source drivers.

Update 3/11/2011: The problem has been isolated to the interaction between the proprietary NVIDIA driver and the X video extension. The fix should now restore correct video color to all players.

Here is an example showing the blue tint problem.

There are 3 fixes you can try. I have listed them from best to worst.

Fix 1: Install the recomended NVIDIA drivers

Change to the recommended drivers.

System -> Administration -> Additional Drivers

You should have 2 proprietary drivers available. Choose the recommended driver which should be your second option. Restart your system and you should be good to go!

Fix 2: Create a custom setting in gstreamer-properties

Make a change to gstreamer-properties.

Open gstreamer-properties from within a terminal.

$ gstreamer-properties

Now click on the Video tab. From the Plugin dropdown box select Custom. Finally add the following line to the Pipeline box.

videobalance hue=-1 ! autovideosink

The window should look like this.

Fix 3: Turn off Xv optimizations

This is basically your last resort. This will fix your issues for all video players but will result in higher CPU utilization.

Make a change to gstreamer-properties.

Open gstreamer-properties from within a terminal.

$ gstreamer-properties

Now click on the Video tab. From the Plugin dropdown box select X Window System (No Xv).

Enable HDMI output on Dell XPS M1530/M1330 with Ubuntu

Ryan — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:45:15 +0000

Hardware support in Linux, specifically Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) for the Dell XPS M1530 and M1330 is very impressive. However in certain cases the process is not as straight forward as it could be, and it takes a bit of tinkering in order to get it to work. In this article I will go through how to enable audio and video through the HDMI output.

The first step is making sure that the HDMI cable is connected between the computer and external monitor, HDTV, etc.

Video Support

To enable the video you need to go to your NVIDIA X Server Settings manager. This of course assumes you are using the NVIDIA driver on your system.

System -> Administration -> NVIDIA X Server Settings

Select the X Server Display Configuration. Click the Detect Displays button and you external monitor should be displayed. Click on the external screen so that it becomes selected and click the Configure button and select the TwinView option.

Once this monitor is enabled a Position dropdown box should appear. It is best in most cases to select Clones.The screen output will be duplicated on both devices.

Select the Apply button for these changes to take effect.

If your external monitor has a lower resolution than your laptop screen it may help to disable the laptop screen so that maximized video won’t go beyond the borders of your external monitor. To do this click the laptop screen so that it becomes selected, click the Configure button, and select Disabled.

Audio Support

Open the Volume Control manager, usually ou can click on the volume applet on the top GNOME panel.

Make sure your device is set to HDA Intel (Alsa Mixer).

Select the Switches tab and put a check mark next to IEC958. Selecting this enables audio output over the HDMI connection.

If you want to disable audio output through your laptop speakers you can disable them. Go back to the Playback tab and mute the Front channel.

Bugs

1) Enabling the laptop screen as well an external monitor through HDMI can cause X to freeze with certain Compiz-Fusion effects such as desktop switching. Disabling Compiz-Fusion or disabling the laptop screen while operating in this mode fixes this issue.

2) Disabling the laptop monitor will not correctly resize the GNOME desktop to match the resolution of the external monitor over HDMI. However video playback will still be correctly maximized.

3) Audio output over HDMI connection may not work for a specific program even if everything has been configured correctly. Restarting this program usually fixes this issue.

Enable syntax highlighting in vim with Ubuntu

Ryan — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:34:16 +0000

Many distributions have syntax highlighting in vim enabled with their default installation. In Ubuntu as well as other Debian based distributions, this is not the case. By default Ubuntu installs the vim-tiny package which does not support syntax highlighting or many other advanced features.

You can see by following the chain of symlinks that in the default installation vim calls vim.tiny.

$ which vim

/usr/bin/vim

/usr/bin/vim -> /etc/alternatives/vim -> /usr/bin/vim.tiny

If you want additional features including syntax highlighting you need to install the vim package.

$ sudo apt-get install vim

Now vim uses vim.basic which is what we want. This version supports all the advanced features.
/usr/bin/vim -> /etc/alternatives/vim -> /usr/bin/vim.basic

The last step is to actually enable syntax highlighting.

To enable it for a single session go into command mode and enter this command:

:syn on

Make these changes permanent for every vim session by opening or creating the .vimrc configuration file in your home directory.
/home/username/.vimrc

Insert the following lines.

if has ("syntax")
        syntax on
endif

How to SSH into Ubuntu LiveCD

Ryan — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:08:44 +0000

The ability to remotely SSH into a machine running an Ubuntu LiveCD can come in handy in many situations. The LiveCD supports a large variety of hardware and can be used to troubleshoot system problems on a machine where you have limited or no access. A user with limited skills can easily setup remote access and allow a trusted friend to troubleshoot the system from another location.

The first thing to start the process is to open a terminal. Follow these menus:

Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal

In the terminal install the ssh server on your LiveCD system.

$ sudo apt-get install openssh-server

The server is started automatically after installing.

To login remotely, you’ll need to set the password for the default ubuntu user.

$ sudo passwd ubuntu
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully

You should now be able to login to the system running the LiveCD. But first you need to find the IP address of the machine so you can connect to it.

The ifconfig command will list your network interfaces and along with it your IP address.

$ ifconfig

eth0      ...
          inet addr:192.168.1.1  Bcast:192.168.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          ...

The inet addr entry is your IP address which you need to log into the LiveCD system. As you an see above the IP address begins with “192.168” which indicates that the IP address is only valid on the local network. It was an address assigned to the machine by the router. This is fine if you plan on logging in from another machine on this local network.

If you need to access the machine from outside your local network you have a couple of options. The first is to remove any router between you and the Internet. This should give you a valid IP address which is accessible from outside your local network. You may also be able to access your router’s administration panel and tell it to pass SSH traffic to the IP address of the LiveCD system. You will then use the router’s IP address instead for the next step.

If your IP address already begins with something other than “192.168” then you are safe as well. You should be able to access the LiveCD system from any location, local or not.

Using the IP address from the previous step you can now log into the LiveCD system as the ubuntu user. Use the password you created earler.

$ ssh ubuntu@

Customize keyboard shortcuts in GNOME

Ryan — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 23:55:21 +0000

Use the Keyboard Shortcuts tool in GNOME to customize the default keyboard shortcuts for your system. If you have a laptop that has special media buttons you can configure them here as well. In some distributions such as Ubuntu these media buttons may be automatically configured but you may still need to fine tune them to suit your needs.

To access this menu in from the GNOME desktop open the following menu:

System -> Preferences -> System Shortcuts

There are 3 groups of shortcuts you can customize: Sound, Desktop, and Window Management. These groups break down in the following way.

Sound – Deals with media players and system sound.

Desktop – Shortcuts for opening applications and managing menus.

Window Management – Shortcuts for working with windows and workspaces.

To make a change select the shortcut from the menu and enter the new combination, it should correctly appear as you have pressed it. If you are configuring media buttons press them here instead. To disable a shortcut select the shortcut from the menu and press backspace.

Download digital camera photos with gphoto2

Ryan — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 22:14:44 +0000

gphoto2 allows you to directly connect a digital camera over USB and transfer the saved images and videos to your computer. This is very helpful when you don’t have access to a media card reader.

Install the gphoto2 package on your system.

In Gentoo:

# emerge media-gfx/gphoto2

In Ubuntu:

# aptitude install gphoto2

Start off by connecting your digital camera to your computer with a USB cable and turning on any transfer/playback mode that might exist.

Run the following command to see if your camera is auto-detected by gphoto2. It will show you the camera model that detected and what port it is on.

$ gphoto2 --auto-detect

This will show you all the files that are currently stored on your camera including images and videos. You will get data such as type, size, and location on the camera device.

$ gphoto2 --list-files

Change your current working directory to the location that you want the images saved on your system.

$ cd ~/camera_images/

Now you can download all the images and videos from your camera to your current working directory on your system.

$ gphoto2 --get-all-files

Once all images are downloaded to your computer you can clear the camera. Make sure your images are stored on your system correctly because there is no going back.

$ gphoto2 --delete-all-files

Allow sudo access without passwords in Ubuntu

Ryan — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:51:28 +0000

To give a specific user access to sudo without having to enter a password you have to edit the /etc/sudoers configuration file. For security reasons you should only edit the file using the visudo command.

$ sudo visudo

In Ubuntu the following lines are placed at the bottom of /etc/sudoers by default. This gives your default user access to sudo as well as any other user in the admin group.

# Members of the admin group may gain root privileges
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

If you want to allow sudo access without passwords for all users in the admin group you can simply add the NOPASSWD option to this line and be done.

%admin ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

If you want to give a specific user sudo access without passwords, you will have to add an additional line for each user. These lines will conflict with the default admin line above so they must be placed at the end of the sudoers file. The reason for this is that sudo will handle contradicting configuration lines by giving priority to the line closest to the bottom of the file.

Add the following line to the end of the file, replace ‘ryan’ with your username.

ryan    ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Add a line for each user that you wish to have access.

For more ways to use and configure sudo have a look here.

Fix Skype audio on Ubuntu with Dell XPS M1530/M1330

Ryan — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:29:32 +0000

To get Skype audio working with Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex (Ubuntu 8.10) and Dell XPS M1530/M1330 requires a few changes to the standard install.

Make sure you have added the medibuntu repository and installed Skype.

You need to enable the embedded microphone. Go to Volume Control by clicking on the volume icon. In Preferences select Digital Input Source. This will enable the Digital Mic 1 option which you should select.

Now launch Skype and go into Options -> Sound Devices. Select “HDA Intel (hw:Intel,0)” for Sound In, Sound Out, and Ringing.

Go ahead and make a test call to verify that everything is working correctly.