Skype Video

It lives!! Had video in cheese and not skype but now both!

Using this thread I found that I simply had to remove the .deb install and use a medibuntu version of skype. Of course you have to have the medibuntu repository.

# sudo aptitude remove skype
# sudo apt-get install skype-common

I tried install skype but no juice, worked all the same though.

P.S. adding medibuntu repository from here.

deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ karmic free non-free

• Download the repository key to a folder.

• Example: The Medibuntu key can be downloaded from

http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg

• Then add the key from:

System -> Administration -> Synaptic Manager -> Settings -> Repositories -> Authentication -> Import Key File...

• (Alternatively, you can manually add the key from the command line Terminal. See Add Repository keys.)

• Refresh the package list from the new repository:

Synaptic -> Reload

VX-1000 Web Cam

Got my camera working in cheese by following the instruction in this post.

# wget http://linuxtv.org/hg/v4l-dvb/archive/tip.tar.bz2
# bunzip2 tip.tar.bz2
# tar xf tip.tar
# cd v4l-dvb-19c0469c02c3

# make

# vi v4l/.config
Change CONFIG_DVB_FIREDTV=m to CONFIG_DVB_FIREDTV=n.

# sudo make install

Then reboot.

This got it working in Cheese but I still haven't been able to get it working in skype, got my google wave invite tnite :-) and the test in Project Implementation went well so today was a good day.

VirtualBox Seamless Mode

Seamless mode on Virtualbox, brilliant.

.3gp Video playing in Ubuntu 9.1 (Karmic Koala)

So the issue really is that the medibuntu repository no longer carries the mplayer capable of handling 3gp using AMR (from here). The guy who pointed it out then posted a wonderful but long guide here. This is conforting as I'd hate to have to boot to windows just to check the files recorded on my G1.

Following that I got a "Gnome Mplayer" which handles .3gp quite nicely. I'll have to see if I broke anything along the way!

The battle to get 3gp working

Some things are easy and some things are hard.

Adding my wireless printer was an absolute breeze on Ubuntu 9.10 but playing 3gp video? Total nightmare! Took some videos recorded on the G1 and haven't gotten the audio on them no matter what I have tried.

I've installed Realplayer 11, Mplayer, w32codecs, ubuntu-restricted-extras etc. and VLC player and none work and at first I couldn't even get mplayer to show video on ANY video I tried to play. Finally got video working on mplayer by

• opening mplayer
• right clicking the video screen
• going into preferences
• video and using xv as opposed to the default xmga

Still no audio on the 3gp though.

ubuntu-restricted-extras

I ran:
:~: sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

"ubuntu-restricted-extras not found"

eh? what do you mean not found? This is how I was greeted when I tried to install the restricted packages onto Ubuntu 9.10 on a laptop.

*sigh* to fix?

:~$ marlon@hyperion:~$ sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.bk.list
:~$ sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

I uncommented the canonical entries and got the following

:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list

#deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 9.10 _Karmic Koala_ - Release i386 (20091028.5)]/ karmic main restricted
# See http://help.ubuntu.com/community/UpgradeNotes for how to upgrade to
# newer versions of the distribution.

deb http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic main restricted
deb-src http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic main restricted

## Major bug fix updates produced after the final release of the
## distribution.
deb http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates main restricted
deb-src http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates main restricted

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team. Also, please note that software in universe WILL NOT receive any
## review or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic universe
deb-src http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic universe
deb http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates universe
deb-src http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates universe

## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## multiverse WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu
## security team.
deb http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic multiverse
deb-src http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic multiverse
deb http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates multiverse
deb-src http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-updates multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'backports'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository may not have been tested as
## extensively as that contained in the main release, although it includes
## newer versions of some applications which may provide useful features.
## Also, please note that software in backports WILL NOT receive any review
## or updates from the Ubuntu security team.
deb http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-backports main restricted universe multiverse

## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from Canonical's
## 'partner' repository.
## This software is not part of Ubuntu, but is offered by Canonical and the
## respective vendors as a service to Ubuntu users.
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu karmic partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu karmic partner

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu karmic-security multiverse

Specifically removing the comments from:

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu karmic partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu karmic partner

deb http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://bb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ karmic-backports main restricted universe multiverse

Followed by:

:~$ sudo apt-get update

Then I could get my restricted extras.

32bit or 64bit

Sure I downloaded the 32bit version of Ubuntu but doubt crept in so be sure I wanted to check, but how do you determine the longest bit length your Ubuntu 9.10 OS can handle?

# getconf LONG_BIT
32

Ubuntu 9.1 The first transgression

Ok so using Ubuntu 9.1 and it was going pretty smoothy til I tried to auto hide one of the panels, after which the OS froze. This was pretty annoying but not as annoying as what happened next:

I rebooted and logged in only to get stuck at the Ubuntu splash screen! I figured that something had gone awry with the gnome settings so I searched for how to reset the Gnome settings from the command line as no GUI was available. Found the following:

# rm -rf .gnome .gnome2 .gconf .gconfd .metacity

source

Used the recovery kernel mode from grub to get to the console and entered the command, rebooted and voila. However that is a pretty harsh penalty for trying to auto hide one panel!