Fix for slow virtual desktop switching with Nvidia 96.* and Ubuntu 9.04 August 14, 2009
Posted by claudio in Desktop, GNU/Linux, Hardware, Ubuntu, Uncategorized.add a comment
I have a dual-cpu Sun W2100z workstation I really like. It’s getting rather old, but it’s pretty fast for things like programming and Internet use. Until the release of Ubuntu 9.04, the machne was running fine. After installing the new release it was pretty obvious that the X performance was terrible. Things like glxgears ran fine on this dual screen setup, but things like switching virtual desktops (I use the shortcut ctrl+alt+arrows a lot) took a few seconds when windows were maximized. Sadly, the free driver didn’t work with the 3300 x 1050 resolution I use.
After playing around with the millions switch and config options of the nvidia driver, I found a working setting:
nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=2
To enable this permanently, you can add it to System – Preferences – Startup Applications:
(put “nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=2″ (without “”) in the command field).
Add rar extraction to Gnome’s Archive Manager (file-roller) May 11, 2009
Posted by claudio in Desktop, Ubuntu.Tags: file-roller, gnome, GNU/Linux, Rar, Ubuntu
1 comment so far
You may see this when trying to decompress a rar file:
Too bad that file-roller does not tell you what to do (in contrast to Rhythmbox when new codecs need to be installed).
The solution is very simple, just install unrar like this:
sudo apt-get install unrar
That’s it. The Archive Manager can uncompress rared files now.
Install 64-bit upstream Vuze (aka azureus) on Ubuntu 9.04 April 28, 2009
Posted by claudio in Desktop, Ubuntu.Tags: 64-bit linux, azureus, GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, vuze
3 comments
On our 64-bit series, we continue today with Vuze. There is a slightly older version on the Ubuntu repositories, so if you just want a running vuze, you can be happy and stop reading.
However, if you prefer to use the upstream latest version (vuze has its own update mechanism) on Ubuntu 64-bit, this is what you can do:
1. Create a local directory for applications. I use ~/bin.
mkdir ~/bin
2. Download and uncompress vuze.
cd ~/bin
tar xvjf Vuze_Installer.tar.bz2
(Alternatively you can use the Archive Manager and copy the vuze directory to bin in your home directory).
3. Download swt (SWT binary and source, Linux (x86_64/GTK 2)) for Linux 64-bit. Open it with the Archive Manager and copy swt.jar to ~/bin/vuze (~ is your Home Directory). (The download page is rather confusing, make sure you download swt and not eclipse).
4. Create a launcher for vuze by right clicking on Applications and choosing “Edit Menus”. The command is “/home/<YOUR USERNAME HERE>/bin/vuze/azureus %f” and the icon can be found in “/home/<YOUR USERNAME HERE>/bin/vuze/”
That’s it.
Ubuntu release party: Installeer Ubuntu Linux op je computer! (Belgium, dutch) April 28, 2009
Posted by claudio in Desktop, Misc, UNIX, Ubuntu.Tags: belgium, brussels, Ubuntu, ubuntu release party
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I received this invitation for the Ubuntu Release Party of Indymedia.be:
Ubuntu release party: Installeer Ubuntu Linux op je computer!
Waar: Indymedia.be mediacentrum
Adres: Haachtse Steenweg 51, Brussel
Op 24 april verschijnt de nieuwe versie van Ubuntu Linux, een alternatief besturingssysteem voor je computer. Indymedia.be nodigt je uit op een ‘release party’: breng op zondag 27 april je computer mee, en we installeren samen Ubuntu.
Het Indymedia.be mediacentrum bevindt zich vlakbij de Botanique, 5 min. wandelen van het Noordstation). Klik hier voor een wegbeschrijving.
Wat is Ubuntu?
Ubuntu is een eenvoudig te gebruiken besturingssysteem voor je computer. Het bevat alle nodige programma’s om je computer te gebruiken, netjes verzameld op één enkele cd. Bovendien bevat Ubuntu tekstverwerkings- en spreadsheetprogramma’s, kan je ermee op het web surfen en je e-mail lezen.
Dit alles maakt van Ubuntu een prima alternatief voor Microsoft Windows of Apple’s OS X. Je kan er alle huis-tuin-en-keuken-computerwerk zonder problemen mee verrichten (en nog veel meer) – en het is volledig gratis te verkrijgen en te onderhouden. Ubuntu staat ook bekend als een uiterst stabiel en veilig systeem.
Ubuntu is vrije software: je mag het systeem vrij gebruiken, kopiëren, aanpassen en verder verspreiden. Het is ook ‘community developed’: het wordt door talloze vrijwillige programmeurs van over de hele wereld ontwikkeld.
Meer weten over Ubuntu? Surf naar http://www.ubuntu.com, of bezoek de website van de Belgische Ubuntu community: http://www.ubuntu-be.org.
Wat doen we op zondag 3 mei?
We houden een zogenaamde ‘release party’: naar aanleiding van de nieuwe versie van Ubuntu, nodigen we je uit om samen Ubuntu te installeren op je computer, problemen met bestaande installaties proberen op te lossen of gewoon een koffieklets houden over Ubuntu, vrije software, …
- Als je Ubuntu wil installeren op je computer, maak dan zeker en vast op voorhand een kopie van al je documenten, foto’s, e-mails, … die op je computer staan. Er kan immers altijd iets fout lopen.
- Wil je Ubuntu uitproberen maar niet noodzakelijk installeren op je computer? Dat kan. De Ubuntu-cd laat je toe de volledige Ubuntu-omgeving te testen, zonder ook maar iets op je computer te installeren (aan de hand van een zogenaamde live cd).
- Het is ook mogelijk om Ubuntu en een ander besturingssysteem (bijvoorbeeld Windows) naast elkaar te gebruiken op dezelfde computer – op voorwaarde dat je computer over voldoende schijfruimte beschikt.
Zin om mee te doen?
Als je op 3 mei naar de Ubuntu release party komt, stuur dan een mailtje naar Bruno De Bondt: bruno@indymedia.be. Vermeld in je mail met hoeveel personen je komt en hoeveel computers je in totaal meebrengt – liefst ook wat je met die computer wil doen (installeren of enkel testen). Zo krijgen we een idee van de nodige netwerkinfrastructuur, installatie-cd’s, …
Aan de Ubuntu-kenners onder jullie:
Als je zin hebt om mee te helpen met installeren, of mensen mee op weg wil helpen met Ubuntu, contacteer dan Bruno De Bondt (bruno@indymedia.be) of Han Soete (han@indymedia.be).
Install 64-bit Adobe Flash Player on Ubuntu 9.04 April 26, 2009
Posted by claudio in Desktop, Ubuntu.Tags: 64-bit, 64-bit linux, flash, GNU/Linux, Ubuntu
50 comments
Now that there is a java browser plugin and a working wine for 64-bit on the Ubuntu repositories, there is not much holding back 64-bit Linux on the desktop. Maybe the only thing missing is the Adobe Flash player. Most of the time Flash is just annoying, nevertheless sometimes needed. Luckily, there is now a Flash Player release for 64-bit Linux (however, still beta alpha but stable so far) . I am pretty sure the instructions are identical for other Linux distributions.
To install it:
1. Download it from here.
2. Unpackage it using a terminal (with the assumption your firefox downloads into your Desktop as default):
cd Desktoplibflashplayer-10.0.32.18.linux-x86_64.so.tar.gz
tar xvzf
(The name of the tar.gz file may change when a new version is released, change accordingly).
3. Create a plugin directory in your $HOME (instead of a system directory):
cd
mkdir -p .mozilla/plugins
4. Move the file to the plugin directory:
mv Desktop/libflashplayer.so .mozilla/plugins
5. Restart firefox. Go to about:plugins to see if it’s enabled:
That’s it.
Edit: Alternatively, you can use the graphical approach:
1. go to the download pages and click on “Download 64-bit Plugin for Linux (TAR.GZ, 3.64 MB)”.
2. select “Open with ” in firefox (you have to click on open to enable the ok button) and clck on OK.
3. The archive manager will open and show you the libflashplayer.so file.
4. Click on extra and a save window will open.
5. Type ctrl + h to show hidden files. Go to .mozilla (dubble click).
6. If no “plugins” directory is present, click on “Create Folder” on the top right and type as name “plugins” (without the quotes). Press Ener.
7. Click on Extract.
8. Click on Close on the windows showing the result.
9. Close the archive manager.
10. Restart firefox.
I don’t like monkeys in the house April 24, 2009
Posted by claudio in Desktop, General UNIX, Java, Programming, Ubuntu.Tags: GNU/Linux, Java, mono
2 comments
There have been some controversy about the .Net clone on Gnu/Linux: Mono.
I have been running Linux before Mono appeared and I remember the discussions. To be short: most reasons to introduce .Net on Linux are clearly bogus today. If you really want to use a high-level language with a VM, well … use Java (there are java-gtk2 bindings if you prefer a more native look than swing-gtk or swt-gtk). If you want to make it perfect, spend a fraction of the time and money of copying/rewriting a full stack (including a VM) and fix what need to be fixed on Java (specially now that’s GPL2). Besides, there are pretty decent IDEs that make you productive . If Java isn’t your cup of coffee tea (It should be as C# looks pretty similar to me), there are tons of other languages with gtk-bindings (I use gtk2-perl).
Anyway, being a user of a minority OS, there was one argument that stuck then: “we will enable thousands of windows programmers to run their programs unchanged on Linux”. I remember the apocalyptic warnings of “jumping on the .Net boat or drown and disappear”. Guess what, it didn’t happen. And it won’t happen. Windows developers prefer to write for the full and up-to-date .Net stack instead of an outdated Linux-clone. Nothing earth-shocking here. As long as the complete stack is not open (libraries), you will always play -incompatible- catchup.
What did we get instead? Beside a few proprietary applications (that can be counted on one hand), we’ve got some tools and applications that mainly run on Linux. Some of them are very nice, but nothing revolutionary that can not be written in an other language.
Do we need to live in fear of Microsofts lawyers for a few applications that can be written in a risk-free language or stack (e.g. Tomboy => Gnote)? To be honest, as long as the OS and my DE (Gnome) don’t depend on Mono, I don’t really care. If Microsoft sends its lawyers, there is always “apt-get purge libmono0 mono-common”. The problem I see is that Novell is pushing really hard to make Gnome dependant on Mono.
Removing Mono in that situation will mean holding the broken pieces of the Desktop in your hands.
Indymedia.be FOSS tech call March 20, 2009
Posted by claudio in GNU/Linux, Misc, UNIX, Ubuntu.Tags: "tech call", foss, media, volunteers
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I received this very interesting mail from indymedia.be. They are a 100% free and open source based organisation heavily based on drupal and GNU/Linux.
Hello,
Indymedia.be, the belgian chapter of the global Indymedia network, is forming a tech volunteer team to work on their website. The goal is to build an advanced participatory news website, based on Drupal. Features will include: an on line newsroom, sub websites to allow local and thematic groups to operate their own part of the site, automated video transcoding, and much more. If you’re interested in helping out and being part of a group of highly motivated tech people, read on at http://www.indymedia.be/en/node/32264.
thanks,
- bruno
Specially for people on the belgian planet grep, this is a great opportunity to combine foss ideals, technical knowledge and social commitment.
Avahi/Zeroconf and the local domain: fix your router… November 11, 2008
Posted by claudio in GNU/Linux, UNIX, Ubuntu.add a comment
I have a nice new Linksys WRT54GL router. A hackable router, nevertheless with the linksys firmware for now.
I noticed that the local domain for internal machines (provided by avahi) did not work any longer. If you don’t know what this is: you can connect to your local machines by their hostname in the local domain (e.g. brugge.local) instead of the ever changing IP. Poor’s man DNS.
Desktop Virtualisation Today September 23, 2008
Posted by vruz in Desktop, GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Virtualisation.Tags: hardy heron, Linux, photoshop, Ubuntu, VirtualBox, Virtualisation, Virtualization, xvm
9 comments
VMware is in serious trouble. (have a look at the screenshot)
It’s the latest release of Sun xVM VirtualBox 2.0.2 running on my Ubuntu Hardy Desktop edition, with Windows XP (that came with this laptop) as a guest, and Adobe Photoshop, the only remaining Windows application I still use. (if you discount the browsers I use for web development testing on different platforms, with Chrome being the latest addition)
It’s isolated from viruses and malware of any kind, I can backup the virtual machine as easy as copying files, and it’s free software under the GPL. (more…)
Microphone on Ubuntu 8.04 on a HP nc6320 laptop April 28, 2008
Posted by claudio in Desktop, GNU/Linux, Hardware, Ubuntu.Tags: bug, GNU/Linux, Linux, nc6230, Ubuntu
6 comments
There is a bug on the sound setting for my main machine, a HP nc6320 laptop. Everything seems to work fine on GNU/Linux except the microphone.
This is the chipset of my soundcard (in case you have the same problem on an other type of machine):
claudio@brisbane:~$ lspci |grep -i audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
