So I wanted to install Mythbuntu on my old Dell C640, I downloaded the CD and started the PC. Things went cool until the installation reached 25%. At that point ubiquity decided that the CD was corrupt and the installation could not continue.

So I tested the CD on both the old computer and a newer one. The newer computer didn’t find any error, but the C640 said the cd was completely broken (19 broken files, but one of them was the squashfs image).

Now what? Boot from USB? Didn’t seem to be an option, since there is no option in the boot menu. After a lot of time I found the following working solution:

• Boot the laptop from the CD (remember only the installation failed)
• Have a copy of the CD on an USB Disk
• Mount the USB Disk (mount /dev/sdb1 /tmp/usb)
• Mount the squashfs filesystem image that is located on the USB Disk (mount -o loop /tmp/usb/casper/filesystem.squashfs /tmp/squashfs)
• And now the big trick: bind the new location (/tmp/squashfs) on the location that is created by the installation CD (/rofs). The command to do that is: mount –bind /tmp/squashfs /rofs.
• Start ubiquity.

Tags: Dell, installation, mythbuntu, open source, problem, tv, ubuntu, USB

Alright, I’ve done it. Have been playing around with Feisty and got it all to work on my precious Dell D830. I had a lot of problems with Feisty (you will find the links on the left) so when Gutsy came out I hoped everything would be fixed (it did have the new intel drivers).

Well I was wrong. The problems with Gutsy on my Dell are just too big. My wireless is failing all the time. Compiz doesn’t really work (applets don’t start, settings are not saved). Too much to tell.

So I did it, I switched to hardy. Better to have an unstable release that kinda works than a stable release that just kinda doesn’t work. At least now I know I can’t blame anyone. So as time will pass I will post some updates about my experiences with Hardy.

Tags: beta, feisty, hardy, linux, ubuntu

A couple of weeks ago, I got a new Laptop for work: a Dell D830 with Santa Rosa Chipset. A nice machine, but it couldn’t run Kubuntu with Beryl and all the nice graphics features I use to make Vista look pale.

To solve the issue I backported a couple of packages from gutsy to feisty (all amd64) and stored the debs in a repository. You can read all about it here. The page features a description on how to build the packages. It also has the link to connect to the repository.

Tags: feisty, ubuntu

Getting video to work
In kaffeine go to Settings->Xine Engine Parameters. Then select video and xshm from the dropdown list. Same trick should be available in other players as well.

Getting the cdrom to work
Out of the box Feisty will not interact with the cdrom. To fix this do the following:
$ sudo modprobe -v ide-generic
To make sure you don’t always have to modprobe yourself edit your /etc/modules files and append the following line:
ide-generic
You also want DMA access for your drive. Too bad it won’t work. Theoretically it should work like this:
hdparm -d 1 /dev/hda
But that line produces an error on my machine. Seems to have to do with the ICH7 (Intel Chipset). We probably need to wait until this gets fixed in the kernel.

You need to tell the kernel to use libata for atapi. Since Ubuntu uses initrd during boot the following will ensure this (please note, adding this as a kernel boot option will not work):
$ sudo -i
# echo "libata atapi_enabled=1" >> /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
# update-initramfs -u

Now make sure the piix module is loaded on boot:
# echo "piix" >> /etc/modules
# exit

In case you still have “ide-generic” in your /etc/modules it might be a good idea to remove that line.

Now edit your /etc/hdparm.conf file, find the section describing /dev/hda and remove the remarks. It should then say:
/dev/hda {
mult_sect_io = 16
write_cache = off
dma = on
}

Other options are ok as well. Now reboot and things should be working. Test with:
$ hdparm /dev/hda

Install some extra tools to make live easier
ksynaptics: an applet to modify the settings of the touchpad (use gsynaptics if you are on Gnome)
$ sudo aptitude install ksynaptics

arno-iptables-firewall: a very easy to configure firewall script(!). It automatically protects all my network cards (eth1 and eth0), something I haven’t been able to set up with most of the GUI tools out there.

The configuration file can be found in /etc/arno-iptables-firewall/firewall.conf. If you sepcify eth0 and eth1 as external connection cards and don’t specify any internal ones, nothing can go wrong (well, ok, it is a firewall, so yes you can render your machine unusable). Don’t forget to open the ports you want open to the rest of the world.
$ sudo aptitude install arno-iptables-firewall

Start Beryl as a KDM session
Create the following file /usr/bin/startberyl.sh with the following contents:
#!/bin/sh
export KDEWM="/usr/bin/beryl-manager"
exec startkde

Save the file and make it executable:
chmod +x /usr/bin/startberyl.sh

Create the file /usr/share/xsessions/Beryl.desktop with the following contents:
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Beryl
Exec=/usr/bin/startberyl.sh
Icon=
Type=Application

Save the file. Next time kdm is started you will have the possibility to start a “Beryl” session. This way one can switch between a normal KDE session and a beryl session upon login.

Install flash for Firefox (64 bit) and konqueror
This information is from this website. The site describes how to install flash for Firefox using nspluginwrapper. Since everything is described very well there, I am not going to copy it here.

One remark though. The howto instructs the following:
$ cd ~/.mozilla/plugins

That didn’t work for me, I had to execute the following:
$ cd /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins

Back to main page.

Tags: art, feisty, firefox, info, ubuntu, xp

Since information on Google seems to be a bit hard to get and I wanted a central point for all the information, here it is.

Please note:
This information modifies files on your computer. After modification your computer may not work anymore which may result in loss of data. If this, or worse, happens don’t complain, you have been warned.

(K)ubuntu version
The question is what to use for this installation. My personal choice is to use Kubuntu. So everything here has only been tested with that particular distribution. Since nothing I have done has anything to do with either KDE or GNOME, everything should apply to all variations of ubuntu.

The second question was, what version should I use. Gutsy has the advantage that it supports OpenGL 3D effect (screensavers, beryl and Google Dekstop) out of the box. Feisty will freeze if you run those applications. But Gutsy still is very unstable and has a lot of issues. So I went with Feisty and decided to do some backports of the important packages.

Last but not least I asked myself the question whether it should be a 64 bit or a 32 bit installation. Since I have a 64 bit machine it didn’t make sense to me to go with a 32 bit installation. If you have a 32 bit installation, please refer to Ross Burton’s blog for ready compiled packages. This howto will describe how to build the 64 bit packages. It should work for 32 bit as well, but since you can just download them I don’t think you would like to do that.

Now without further delay, here comes the howto install Feisty 64 bit on a Dell Latitude D830 with Intel GPU and all the 3D graphics you could ever dream of.

Installing (K)ubuntu
To install (K)ubuntu on the DELL Latitude D830 forget about all fancy graphical interfaces. You will have to use the text installation provided by the alternate CD, so download that one. I went for the AMD64 distribution, but you might as well go for the 32 bit one, since that will save you some compatibility problems. Then again, why buy a 64 bit machine if you are not going to use it…

Getting X to work
After the installation is done and you reboot the machine you will be prompted by a nice command prompt. Since the cdrom will not function correctly there are a few steps you will have to execute:
Open the file /etc/apt/sources.list and remark the first line, listing your Feisty CD as an installation source. Then install all updates for feisty:
$ sudo aptitude update
$ sudo aptitude dist-upgrade

and install the xserver-xorg-video-intel package by typing
$ sudo aptitude install xserver-xorg-video-intel

Then open your xorg.conf and change the device from vesa to intel. After this change save the file and restart kdm. Things should be better. If restarting kdm doesn’t work, try rebooting the pc.

X is a little bit blurry
No it is not you, you do not need any glasses. After starting X everything will look a bit blurred. We will fix that issue later when we update the intel driver. So for now, you just have to live with it.

Getting the latest intel drivers
The default intel GPU drivers in feisty will freeze your pc as soon as OpenGL is running (Beryl, Google Earth) so these need to be updated. This is probably the hardest part of the installation since it involves updating parts of your x-server installation. I did warn you about blowing up your laptop, didn’t I?

You can achieve this in two ways. The first way would be to install gutsy packages on feisty. This can be achieved by using a debian process called pinning, which involves making changes to your apt.conf. More information can be found here. This is a very easy and very quick process, but it will also upgrade your libc6.

Since I think one should only upgrade the packages really needed, I decided to compile the packages needed for my libc6. This also makes sure that other packages depending on that library will not run into conflicts.

For the update I followed the following procedure:

Open your /etc/apt/sources.list and append the following line (make sure you use your own mirror location):
deb-src http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ gutsy main restricted

Save the file and execute:
$ sudo aptitude update

Make a root directory for your sources:
$ mkdir ~/xorg

Install the dependencies needed to build everything:
$ sudo aptitude install fakeroot dpkg-dev
$ sudo apt-get build-dep mesa
$ sudo apt-get build-dep libdrm2

Install the libxdamage packages
$ mkdir ~/xorg/libxdamage
$ cd ~/xorg/libxdamage
$ apt-get source libxdamage
$ cd libxdamage-1.1.1
$ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b
$ cd ..
$ sudo dpkg -i libxdamage1_1.1.1-3_amd64.deb libxdamage-dev_1.1.1-3_amd64.deb

Install the mesa packages
$ mkdir ~/xorg/mesa
$ cd ~/xorg/mesa
$ apt-get source mesa
$ cd mesa-7.0.0/
$ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b
$ cd ..
$ sudo dpkg -i mesa-swx11-source_7.0.0-0ubuntu2_all.deb mesa-common-dev_7.0.0-0ubuntu2_all.deb libgl1-mesa-dev_7.0.0-0ubuntu2_all.deb libgl1-mesa-dri_7.0.0-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb libgl1-mesa-glx_7.0.0-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb libglu1-mesa_7.0.0-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb mesa-utils_7.0.0-0ubuntu2_amd64.deb

Install the libdrm2 packages
$ mkdir ~/xorg/libdrm2
$ cd ~/xorg/libdrm2
$ apt-get source libdrm2
$ cd libdrm-2.3.0/
$ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b
$ cd ..
$ sudo dpkg -i libdrm-dev_2.3.0-4_amd64.deb libdrm2_2.3.0-4_amd64.deb

Install the x11proto-print-dev packages
$ mkdir ~/xorg/x11proto-print-dev
$ cd ~/xorg/x11proto-print-dev
$ apt-get source x11proto-print-dev
$ cd x11proto-print-1.0.3.xsf1/
$ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b
$ cd ..
$ sudo dpkg -i x11proto-print-dev_1.0.3.xsf1-1_all.deb

install the xorg-server packages
$ sudo apt-get build-dep xorg-server
$ mkdir ~/xorg/xorg-server
$ cd ~/xorg/xorg-server
$ apt-get source xorg-server
$ cd xorg-server-1.3.0.0.dfsg/
$ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b
$ cd ..
$ sudo dpkg -i xnest_1.3.0.0.dfsg-6ubuntu3_amd64.deb xprint_1.3.0.0.dfsg-6ubuntu3_amd64.deb xprint-common_1.3.0.0.dfsg-6ubuntu3_all.deb xserver-xorg-core_1.3.0.0.dfsg-6ubuntu3_amd64.deb xserver-xorg-dev_1.3.0.0.dfsg-6ubuntu3_amd64.deb

Install the xorg-server-video-intel packages
$ sudo apt-get build-dep xserver-xorg-video-intel
$ mkdir ~/xorg/xserver-xorg-video-intel
$ cd ~/xorg/xserver-xorg-video-intel
$ apt-get source xserver-xorg-video-intel
$ cd xserver-xorg-video-intel-2.1.0/

The following is no longer needed with the 2.1.0 driver
This is where we patch the driver to be less blurry. If you like the blurry effect, please skip this part.
$ vim src/i830_lvds.c

Find the following line (line number 230):
pfit_control = (PFIT_ENABLE |
VERT_AUTO_SCALE | HORIZ_AUTO_SCALE |
VERT_INTERP_BILINEAR | HORIZ_INTERP_BILINEAR);

And replace it with the following:
pfit_control = 0;

Save the file (:x). And continue the installation.

$ dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b
$ cd ..
$ sudo dpkg -i xserver-xorg-video-intel_2.1.0-1ubuntu2_amd64.deb

Edit your /etc/apt/source.list again and remove (remark) the gutsy line we added above.

Now reboot and see if X is still running… if not you are in deep trouble.

Installing Beryl
Installing beryl is easy. Just type:

$ sudo aptidute install beryl beryl-manager

Then start it by typing beryl-manager in a konsole

Using my repository
I just setup a repository with the above packages as debs. Please note that I am on a limited download rate, so if you want to install them on a 1000 machines, please setup your own mirror. Please note all packages are amd64!

To use the repository, you should add the following to your /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://ubuntu.jordswart.org feisty backports

You will also need to add my key to your list of trusted keys:

wget http://ubuntu.jordswart.org/falcon.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Tags: art, DRM, feisty, Fun, google, info, ubuntu, upgrade, xp

Since it might concern some of you, I have switched away from Gentoo. Although it has been great fun, I don’t have the time anymore to build everything from scratch. I came to the point where I want a distribution that “just works”.

For what it is worth, the choice of today seems to be ubuntu and since I’m a KDE fan I went with the kubuntu distro.

This means that I will not be working on the Amarok ebuild anymore. I really feel sorry for that, but porting portage to kubuntu just is too much of a problem for me. I am still willing to host the files here, if needed and they will be around for the months to come. If anyone wants to step in, feel free to contact me.

Tags: amaroK, Ebuild, Fun, ubuntu

In august 2005 I decided to get myself a home theater PC (HTPC). Before starting the whole event, I wrote down a couple of small requirements for the machine:

• It should ‘look’ nice
• The size must fit the stereo
• The machine must be very, very quiet
• The sound quality should be as good as possible
• The machine should be able to have all ‘HTPC’ functionality without using Microsoft Media Edition

The hardware
As you can see in the list above, most of the requirements (looks, size and noise level), are dictated by the choice of case. Since the machine is going to be located in the living room noise turned out to be the main reason for choosing the case.

Based on the above I ended up buying the following components:

• An HFX classic case in black. If installed correctly (with all the heatpipes, etc.) this case can live without any active cooling. This means it is as silent as a case can be. I got it with the default power adapter (ST30NF 300W) and the iMON VFD-IR. Info.
• An Abit AV8 Mainboard. Info.
• An AMD Athlong 64 Processor 3000+ with Venice core. Although at the time of buying there were faster processors on the market, I chose this one because of the power consumption. Link.
• A gigabyte of RAM.
• The old ATI card that I had laying around, which I figured should be up to the job. It is an ATI Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9600 Pro
• A Hauppauge MCE 500. This TV card basically features two Hauppauge 150 cards in one. So it is possible to record from two channels at the same time. I opted for a version without a remote control. Info.
• A Terratec Aureon Space 7.1. I digitized all my CDs so the sound output of the HTPC is one of the key requirements. After a log of reading on different forums I learned the following two things:
  1. Stay away from Creative as they seem to do funky stuff with their bitrates.
  2. ENVY Chips have the best consumer sound available.

  I chose the Terratec because of the overall positive reviews it had and I must say, it sounds like a beauty. Link.

• A Seagate 250 Gb SATA Hard disc. A little googling showed that for Seagate has an excellent name when it comes down to crating quiet hard discs. Link.
• A BENQ DVD DD DW1640, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive. Because it operates very silently. Link.
• Since I could not have cables in the living room I needed to go with a WIFI card. Finding a wifi card that would work with 64 bit linux proved to be a very hard undertaking. I think I tested about four cards, before I finally bough a Linksys WUSB54GP v4.0 802.11g Adapter. The card has performed very well during the last 11 Months. And with the release of kernel 2.6.17 it’s driver is finally included. Oh, and it looks pretty funky standing up on its feet. Link.

The software

To make sure that everything created on the machine is transportable and free, I chose to install Mythtv on my HTPC. Mythtv features all the PVR functions one needs and it also comes with modules for listening to music and looking at photos. As stated before music is one of the key features of my HTPC and since I completely moved to digital Photos the ability to present slideshows in my HTPC application comes as very handy.
Initially I chose gentoo linux. This worked very well, but took an enormous amount of time to stay up to date. So after 8 Months I turned to Kubuntu Edgy Eft. More on that later.

As it turned out, a lot of the components (both hardware and software) I chose made a lot of problems… So building everything took way more time than planned.

Read more: the hardware arrives.

Tags: art, Fun, home, info, linux, living, music, photos, tv, ubuntu