The Twin Cities Linux User’s Group (TCLUG is having an installfest this Saturday!
If you live in the cities, and always wanted to try Linux, here’s your chance. The experts will be on hand to help out, and will have various distributions to give. Hit the link to learn more and go!
The FlackOS blog has a list of 10 guides for a new Ubuntu user.
Pretty handy list, from binary video card drivers to eye candy to reducing boot time.
Check it out.
As you should know by now, I’m a huge Ubuntu Linux fan. I’ve been using Linux off and on since 1997, starting with Red Hat, and have tried most distros in between (SUSE, Mandriva, Gentoo, Debian) but it was Ubuntu that made me switch permanently from Red Hat (and later, Fedora) when Ubuntu’s 4.10 was released.
I use Ubuntu on all three of my main machines now (except my Windows Media PC when I have to use Windows, and my Mac Mini, just to toy with Mac OS X), and made the switch to use Ubuntu full-time a year ago when I decided to give up my gaming habit.
As an Ubuntu user, I highly recommend the Ubuntu Blog, written by a Ubuntu fan, Ubuntonista, who posts daily about how to make your Ubuntu experience better. I make sure to stop by every day.
If you are already an Ubuntu Blog reader, Ubuntonista has posted on why he writes and calls for comments on what his readers want to see there. Make sure you stop by, thank him, and share your thoughts.
From the preview over at Planetquake4:
Other features include in game voice chat, absolute Linux support (though may not be 100% done at the time of shipping), Punkbuster for anti-cheating, and stopwatch mode for tournament play.
Sweet! Enemy Territory: Quake Wars will run on the Doom3 engine, and is being developed by Splash Damage, who did the original Enemy Territory. Quake Wars pits Strogg vs. Humans as the Strogg invades Earth, and will the two sides will have entirely different classes and vehicles.
I’ve been talking this game up for a while, and I’m very excited they officially announced Linux support.
It’s here! I received the email yesterday to participate in the alpha test of Second Life’s Linux client. It’s Alpha – it has a few graphic glitches, but it’s working. It seems to run fast so far.
The client is very Mac OS-ish and very intuitive. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to play as I needed to watch Jack with my better half out shopping, but I’m really looking forward to spending some time this weekend with Second Life.
Obligatory screenshot right after I logged in:
Linuxgames has the post and the links with the details.
Savage 1 was an interesting game – a RTS / FPS hybrid, that actually worked. The learning curve was a little steep, but it was a fun game.
I’m glad to see another major developer continue to support Linux – add S2 games to the list of developers doing the right thing like id and Epic.
I’m pleased to announce that after looking into it off and on for the last 6 months, I’ve got my iRiver H10 5GB fully working in Linux for the first time.
The H10 comes in MTP mode – Microsoft Transfer Protocol, insead of being a UMS – USB Media Storage device. MTP is needed for Plays for Sure compatibility, so it will work with Napster-To-Go or Yahoo, for example. A UMS device, when plugged in, just shows up as a drive letter on your PC, so you can drag and drop files on to it. Sacrificing Napster-to-go (which I haven’t used in 6 months) is a small price to pay to use this on Linux – especially as no modern online music store has a Linux client yet.
The steps needed update your firmware, convert your iRiver to UMS mode, and then you need to install EasyH10 to rebuild your music database. Do this at your own risk!
How I did it, and be prepared to lose any music on your H10:
If installing on Ubuntu or Debian, at a terminal, type:
sudo dpkg -i easyh10_1.2.1-1_i386.deb
At a command line type:
cd /usr/share/easyh10/model(On Ubuntu, could be /usr/local/share/easyh10/model on other distributions) and thenlsFind your model in the list, I have a H10UMS_5GB_FW2.04-2.51.model so we’ll use that in the next step.
From a terminal, type in the following:
cp /usr/share/easyh10/model/H10UMS_5GB_FW2.04-2.51.model /media/H10/easyh10.model (Or whichever corresponding version you have, copy it over as easyh10.model in the root directory of the H10).
easyh10 -Un -on /media/H10 to rebuild your database.
That should be it! However, if you run in easyh10 and see this, like I did:`EasyH10 [CUI] 1.2.1 Copyright (c) 2005 by Nyaochi
H10 model template: /media/H10/easyh10.model
Path to database: /media/H10/System\DATA/
Path to music: /media/H10/Media\Music/
Path to playlist: /media/H10/Media\Playlist/
Playlist extension: .plp
Enumerating music files:
236 files found.
Reading H10 model template:
H10 (UMS) 5GB firmware 2.04 - 2.51
Obtaining media information from 236 files:
236 files obtained.
Updating database
Writing H10 media database:
Failed to write the H10 database (code = 8). (That smiley face should be an 8 )
ERROR: Database update.`
Per [this thread on the EasyH10 forums][7], delete all your files in the H10/System/DATA folder. Run it again, and you should see:
`silwenae@shaftoe:/usr/share/easyh10/model$ easyh10 -Un -on /media/H10
EasyH10 [CUI] 1.2.1 Copyright (c) 2005 by Nyaochi
H10 model template: /media/H10/easyh10.model
Path to database: /media/H10/System\DATA/
Path to music: /media/H10/Media\Music/
Enumerating music files:
236 files found.
Reading H10 model template:
H10 (UMS) 5GB firmware 2.04 - 2.51
Obtaining media information from 236 files:
236 files obtained.
Updating database
Writing H10 media database:
100%: (H10DB.hdr)
`
It’s my understanding that after every time you add music files to your H10, you need to run EasyH10 to update your database to let your H10 know that the music is there. You could choose to play songs through the Browser on the H10, but it’s easiest in Music.
Unfortunately, the H10 isn’t recognized in [Banshee][8], but with how the database needs to be updated each time, I doubt it will ever work. Though this is a great start for using in Linux, as this was the last thing that required me to have a Windows box.
[1]: http://iriver.com/html/support/download/sudw_view.asp?searchProductIdx=&searchCategoryIdx=&searchString=&page=1&idx=739&tmpSearchProductIdx=&tmpSearchCategoryIdx=&tmpSearchString=
[2]: http://www.misticriver.net/wiki/index.php/H10
[3]: http://www.misticriver.net/wiki/index.php/H10_Firmware_Conversion:_MTP/UMS
[4]: http://easyh10.sourceforge.net/download.html
[5]: http://webb.ens-cachan.fr/debian/pool/main/e/easyh10/
[6]: http://webb.ens-cachan.fr/debian/pool/main/e/easyh10/easyh10_1.2.1-1_i386.deb
[7]: http://easyh10.sourceforge.net/forum/index.php?topic=39.0
[8]: http://www.banshee-project.org
Engadget builds a practical PVR. Coming in at just over $1000, with tuners, Engadget does a pretty good job of building a PVR for everyday use. The motherboard is a knockout, though I would have added more storage than just one 250 gig hard drive.
And of course, they’re using MythTV!.
As I mentioned in my last post, I needed to use different modeline setting on my Nvidia xorg.conf file than when I had my ATI card installed.
I have no idea why, but it worked. For posterity’s sake, I thought I’d just document ’em here in case I ever needed again.
For my Nvidia card, in the Monitor section of my xorg.conf:
Section "Monitor"<br /> Identifier "DELL 2405FPW"<br /> HorizSync 30-82<br /> VertRefresh 60-60<br /> Option "DPMS"<br /> Modeline "1920x1200" 92.473920 1920 1992 2192 2464 1200 1209 1217 1251 -HSync +VSync interlace<br /> EndSection
And from my ATI x800 xorg.conf:
Section "Monitor"<br /> Identifier "Monitor0"<br /> HorizSync 30-82<br /> VertRefresh 60-60<br /> Option "DPMS"<br /> Modeline "1920x1200" 193.16 1920 2048 2256 2592 1200 1201 1204 1242 -Hsync +Vsync
EndSection
They both worked for 1920×1200, the monitor’s native resolution, flawlessly. There’s a big difference in going from 1920×1200 to any other resolution, especially 1600×1200 or below. This monitor is definitely most crisp and bright when running in 1920×1200 like it should be.
I thought I was done with installing my operating system, but I ran into another glitch today. I installed, or more appropriately, tried to install Quake IV and Doom 3. Quake IV I had working previously before the reformat, and I kept meaning to get around to installing Doom 3 on Linux to try out some of the mods.
Fixing my Doom 3 problem was easy – for whatever reason, my DVD-rom drive wouldn’t read the first disc, so I couldn’t transfer the .pak file over I needed. Put it on the NAS, and fixed it.
Quake IV is driving me nuts. All of the menu’s have the wrong text, such as #str_000000 or different numbers. Searching on Google turned up one hit on the SUSE mailing lists – and the guy reinstalled and it was fine. I’ve re-installed 3 times with no luck, including trying the 1.05 installer instead of 1.06.
I even thought the above problems were a video card driver problem, that my ATI card wasn’t working right. So I swapped it out for a Nvidia 6800 and spent a good hour reconfiguring my X server (that was fun). Turns out I needed different mode lines for my Dell 2405 (more on that later).
The net result is I’m running a Nvidia 6800 instead of my ATI x800, so the net result is about equal. It took a while to get my 1920×1200 resolution back, but it’s working. Doom3 is working, but no Quake IV yet (and I even backed up my save games!).