New to Linux Mint

Windows XP Crashed!!! %^&%*

2011-10-26T06:03:00.002-07:00

Now to start all over. I installed Windows XP and Service Pack 1 (I have an older version of XP). Everything was fine after installing a few drivers. I then decided to install Service Pack 2. After that Firefox started crashing every few minutes. Thinking it might be a Firefox issue, I switched to Internet Explorer. It crashed after a few minutes too. Obviously something in Service Pack 2 was causing an issue, so I simply went into Control Panel, Add/Remove Software, and removed it. That was the simple part. After that I got the infamous BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) and couldn't boot into XP. I could boot into recovery mode with a C prompt, but DIR wouldn't work, so I knew the MBR (master boot record) and/or partition table was messed up. I booted with my Mint 11 live CD and ran GParted to check the partitions and everything was correct. I formatted the XP partition, but when I tried to reinstall XP it "saw" no partitions at all.

Now what? I thought about just rewriting the MBR, but since that may not work, I just started over. I used backup to save my Mint 11 software and configuration (I didn't save files, didn't have any!) and booted then installed Windows. The first attempt at installing failed, so did the next. I finally booted from my Mint 11 live CD and deleted ALL partitions. That seems to have done the trick. For some reason XP didn't want to load properly unless it partitioned the drive itself. One thing I hate about XP -- you have to install a driver then reboot... repeatedly when setting up a new machine. I didn't restart at first, installed 2-3 drivers without restarting then restarted. That might be why the second load of XP failed (but not the first -- it started acting up immediately, didn't get many drivers loaded!). On the install that finally worked I installed XP, then the two service packs, rebooting after each load, then after each additional driver install. I waited to install the motherboard drivers after the Service Packs, so no internet (no ethernet driver) until the motherboard drivers were installed. Reboot, load another driver (video was next!), then reboot, load another driver (sound card), then reboot...

Well. it took so long to get XP up and running reliably that I'll wait until tomorrow to reinstall Mint. Backup should restore everything, maybe not my sound card settings, but I figured that out already. If I have any problems I'll make another entry tomorrow, but let's hope not...

2011-10-26T06:03:00.001-07:00

Getting Sound Back

2011-10-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

In the January 19, 20109 entry I reported problems getting my Turtle Beach Riviera sound card working, and finally getting sound on January 24. Well, I initially had no sound this time around either! I re-read my (rather lengthy) blog and set about getting sound back. I installed Gnome Alsa Mixer and checked the settings. I unmuted everything and checked only the IEC958 output box. Still no sound. I then opened the Control Center and clicked on sound. From there I checked all the settings. To make a long process short, just go to the "hardware" tab and select any of the digital output modes. Then click on "test speakers" to check. Remember, I'm using the SPDIF output to a surround sound receiver. If speakers are connected directly to the sound card you may not have a problem.

If I had this to do over I'd connect directly from the sound card to the amplified subwoofer and not use a receiver. That might eliminate all my sound output problems, and would eliminate the expense of the receiver.

The advantage of the receiver is allowing more than one device input, something you may want. I do like having a stereo radio tuner (built into the receiver) though. If I just want a little music I can just turn the receiver on. Or I can use the TV input and my cable music channels and not have the computer on all the time. So whatever works for you...

Dual Boot Fiasco!

2011-10-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

Long time no post. I even upgraded successfully to Mint 10. In order to get Netflix I installed Virtual Box (Sun VM) and installed Windows XP. I also bought Codeweavers "Crossover/Crossover Games" bundle ($49.95) so I could run the "IL-2 1946" flight simulator easily (you have to use the GOG.com version -- the DVD version won't install due to the digital rights locks). But I was having some problems with using a joystick in IL-2. After a few minutes it would start to get "flacky" -- it would be very sluggish for no apparent reason.

Since I plan on using my HTPC for games, I figured the best thing to do would be to dual-boot with Windows XP and Mint. I tried running IL-2 in Virtual Box and it wouldn't work with the joystick (worked with keyboard controls, but that sucks with a flight sim!). Since I might want to run other games, and wanted to see if the problem I was having with IL-2 and my joystick was in Crossover Games, the joystick, or inherent in the program, I decided to dual boot.

I didn't really want to reinstall everything, so I tried setting the system up for dual booting leaving Mint 10 installed. This was a bust! I ended up trashing my Mint installation. I followed instructions -- booted from a Mint live CD and ran gparted to free space and create an XP partition, installed X, then reinstalled GRUB2. Something failed along the way is all I can say, and I ended up with no Mint. Luckily I didn't lose anything important, just have to reinstall everything.

The proper way to change to a dual boot system from Mint is to use the backup feature just as if you were going to upgrade Mint using a "fresh install" approach. Here is a step by step approach:

1. Back up your data and applications using the backup tool

2. Install Windows (whatever version you are using -- XP or 7 most likely). XP has a 131 GB limit. I installed using 100 GB since I have a 250 GB hard drive. You may want to specify a lower amount, but I'd use at least 80 GB if you plan on loading much software. When Windows installs it will trash the Mint partition, but that's okay.

3. Boot from a live CD. Version of Mint doesn't matter.

4. Use "gparted" (menu, administration) to partition the remaining space on the hard drive. Create a swap file partition first. This should be at last the size of your RAM, recommended size is 1.5 to 2 times the RAM capacity. Apparently Ubuntu (Mint is Ubuntu based, remember!) doesn't use more than 3GB of swap space, so over 3 GB is a waste of hard drive space. If you use "hibernate", however, you need to have the partition the size of your ram + at least 512MB (1 GB if you have lots of HD space) as RAM is copied to the swap partition when hibernating. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq for more info on the swap partition/file in Ubuntu.
I created a 4GB swap file to match my memory size. I might need to make it a bit bigger later. I created it before reading the faq.

After the swap partition is made partition the rest to your liking. Mint 11 automatically splits the remaining space half and half into a files and system partition. You can adjust size during installation. IIRC older versions just create a single partition. You can go that way and organize files by folders. I installed Mint 11 since I had to reinstall anyway, and let it split the drive.

If you need more space in one partition or the other, simply boot with a live CD and run gparted to change partition sizes (even in a Windows only installation). Gpartd isn't installed normally due to the danger of accidentally making changes -- you can easily trash the system, so make backups first. The windows partition can also be resized with gparted.

5. Install Mint, reboot. When the boot menu comes up Windows will be the bottom choice, regular Mint boot the top. If no selection is made the top selection will be booted after a 10 second wait. The Windows boot loader doesn't like any other operating systems and will trash the Mint boot loader when installed -- that's why it's such a pain to install Mint first. The Mint 10 and 11 loader (GRUB2.. and older versions of GRUB) "plays well with others", so no problems.

6. Run backup and restore files and software (I restore software first).

7. If you want windows to boot automatically, change the boot order. With Mint 11 this is as simple as running Startup Manager (menu, administration) and selecting what you want as default. If you don't have Startup Manager on your system, install it using Package Manager. Otherwise, you can edit GRUB2 manually. See http://www.hackourlife.com/change-default-boot-order-ubuntu-10-04-lucid/. If you are using GRUB (legacy), see http://makingtheswitch.wordpress.com/2007/04/29/changing-grub-boot-order-to-boot-windows-xp-before-ubuntu/. I believe Startup Manager will work with the older GRUB as well, but couldn't check.

Happy!!

2010-12-05T13:11:00.000-08:00

I was just talking to a friend and referred him to my blog, and realized I haven't posted anything in a while! Well, there's a reason... I'm pretty happy with the system and haven't done anything to it in a while. It works great as an HTPC and gaming system. I loaded Sun Virtual Box and Windows XP and that seems to work fine. I have had a problem getting a couple games to work right with it, such as the Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator though. It starts to run, but hangs up under WINE and in VB. I may play with that some more later, but really just wanted to see how VB runs. I suspect the MS Combat Simulator does some crazy things with the hardware, not sure. Something I'll play with later!

I am contemplating switching my main PC over to Mint too. The only reason I haven't done it yet is because I use a Magic Jack phone in my shop office where the PC is. MJ said they would be supporting Linux by the first quarter of 2010, but that's come and gone with no support. I hate to lose the phone, my cell doesn't pick up well in the shop. There are ways around using the plug in dongle, but those violate the user agreement. I don't think MJ is real worried about that, I'm sure not! I don't know if using the software phone and hacking the MJ will allow incoming calls though. Something I may have to look at!

Surround Sound Rocks!

2010-01-24T15:03:00.000-08:00

FINALLY got the sound back on my computer! I'm not entirely sure all I went through was necessary, but I'll tell you what I did.

For starters, since Pulse Audio seemed to be part of the problem with the Riviera sound card, I removed it. That isn't all that easy! It seems that Pulse Audio is going to be more prevalent in Linux's future, but Ubuntu developers (remember, Mint if based on Ubuntu) jumped a bit too soon and integrated it into the latest release (actually I believe in 9.04 and 9.10). Apparently they dropped ALSA, which appears to be the most supported sound standard... but I'm not sure it was entirely dropped. What I was reading may have just been from people who didn't like Pulse Audio. At any rate, many advised deleting Pulse Audio, and I did. Only that by itself didn't get my sound back. What DID was going into Alsamixer (the sound mixer for ALSA) and turning off all the IEC958 (digital sound) settings off except for output. I can't say for certain anything else I did was necessary, as I'm not sure Alsamixer was available until I went through the steps of removing Pulse Audio and upgrading ALSA to the latest release -- both manually (from the command line).

After researching and finding that my sound card apparently only worked with ALSA, and Pulse audio might be interfering, I decided to remove Pulse audio. I followed the instructions in this message thread:
http://ubuntu-ky.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8284273
Scroll down to message 4 from nullrend. Then you can cut and paste the code in a terminal window.

After that I still didn't have sound. The next step was to upgrade ALSA to the latest version. Or at least I thought I did. It appears that Mint 8 ships with ALSA 1.0.20, and according to the first step on one site (http://monespaceperso.org/blog-en/2009/12/17/upgrade-alsa-1-0-22-on-ubuntu-karmic-koala-9-10/) that's what I'm running. I tried using the instructions on this site:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1046137
i didn't find the "To a Free World" site until later, but suggest you use it if wanting to upgrade. The upgrade obviously isn't necessary though.

I was still baffled after removing PA and "upgrading" ALSA (remember, that second part didn't work!)that I didn't have sound. I played around with Alsamixer and still got nothing, so I did some more searching. This time I reasoned that MythTV users were using the Riviera sound card (according to my research before buying) so maybe I should add the term "mythtv" to my search. BINGO!! I got a fellow with the same problem, and who simply put how he overcame it! Read http://mymythtv.blogspot.com/2005/06/turtle-beach-riviera-installation.html. As I stated early on, the solution was all the IEC958 selections in Alsamixer had to be deactivated except output. In fact, I don't even see why all the selections are there, the only two that seem to have any affect are "output" (MUST be active!) and "loop" (must NOT be active!). The other selections don't seem to do anything. There are seven selections total, which is why I had a hard time figuring out which settings were needed.

Surround Sound Woes!

2010-01-19T18:26:00.001-08:00

Well, I have an A/V receiver that will process surround sound, but no way to get the signal to it! The receiver has to have an optical SPIDF input for surround sound to work. No such animal on my motherboard sound output. So a better sound card is in order. Some motherboards do have the optical output built into them, it's one of those things I have learned as I have been progressing! Several suitable boards are out there, but most seem to have some problems with them. Still, I think I might have considered one ($75+). It's about what I have in my board plus a sound card... that doesn't work yet.

Sound is an issue! I can get sound from the TV speakers through the AV receiver with no problem, but that's NOT what I want! I'm real disappointed that surround sound won't go over the HDMI cable like regular sound. That might just not be possible, but the AV receiver doesn't intercept sound from the HDMI cable and mimic surround or at least send it in stereo through the surround speakers. It does that for AM/FM radio (tuners built into the receiver), why not from the HDMI cables? Other AV receivers might, I bought a Sony. I used to love Sony products, but over the last few years the quality has degraded it seems. Of course I didn't buy top of the line Sony, just an adequate AV receiver. How complicated can it be?

I bought a Turtle Beach Riviera sound card because several reviews mentioned that Ubuntu (what Mint if based on) "just worked" with it. Low and behold, that was OLDER versions! It seems that in release 9.10 the developers changed to default to Pulse Audio support, and a LOT of Ubuntu and derivative users have had problems ever since. The Riviera sound card works great with Alsa sound drivers (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) which was the defualt in all previous editions. The Alsa drivers should be there, but getting them active requires a lot of work, something I'll be learning in the next few days and reporting back on... or returning the Riviera sound card for something that works and has SPIDF optical (or coaxial) output...

Gaming With Linux

2010-01-15T07:02:00.000-08:00

Gaming is something that Linux still needs a little improvement on. There are several good games out there written specifically for Linux though. One of them is "Alien Arena" (http://icculus.org/alienarena/rpa/aquire.html). It's a First Person Shooter (FPS) that has several modes of play, including single player for practice. I'm kind of hooked on it right now. If you're not using Linux yet, there is a PC version also. Most of the FPS games for Linux are similar, but don't have a single player version, which is essential for practice before you go on-line against real players. I've got into one game where I was one of the best players in the game, but in most I get shot up bad! There are team games you can just jump into though. In those I don't mind a low "kill" score, I play for the team! If I'm keeping a couple of the "bad guys" busy defending me, one of the other guys can make a score for the team.

Getting into an on-line game is simple! Just select "join server", find one, and hit enter! I look for one with an odd number of players, and not too many. For team play you need at least four people on, but up to 10 isn't bad. Teams don't have to be even, and in at least one game I was on a team of five against a team of two, and we were STILL beat up pretty bad! Don't worry about "butting in" on someone either. I did at first, and there are people who play together (called "clans"), but they arrange meeting times and set up private servers that you can't just jump in on. I haven't tried hosting a public server yet, I really don't think I have the band-width to do it, but I might...

Don't worry much about the lack of games in Linux. If you have a slow machine like my two Athlon XP 2400+ computers you're going to be hard pressed to play something like Alien Arena. It will be a bit sluggish or choppy. If you have a dual-core machine it will be plenty fast, but a newer single core (almost any AMD Socket AM2/2+/3 [Athlon 64 2.0GHz or higher] or Intel socket LGA775 [P4 2.4GHz or higher]) should be fast enough for good play. The slow ones will be frustrating! My Athlon XP 2400 (Socket 754) has ample resources, but will play fine for a few minutes then get "choppy" for roughly an equal amount of time, then go back to normal. Frustrating in the middle of a game! In contrast, my HTPC machine plays smoothly, even if I leave Firefox or some other process running when I play.

My biggest frustration has been a controller. Alien Arena has an option for joysticks, but it's simply not supported any more. The developers should just take the option out, as all it does if give the impression that you might be able to use a joystick. I even bought a joystick only to find it wouldn't work. It DOES work in other games that have joystick support, just not AA. I talked to people on the AA forum, and they say that joysticks simply aren't used because a mouse is a more precise aiming device. The keyboard is used for moving. Using the W,A,S and D keys for movement is a long established standard. I've been playing with my wireless keyboard, which has a thumb operated track ball on the right. It works, but there seems to be an occasional lag between keystrokes, probably due to the wireless circuitry getting a little out of sync with the game. The trackball isn't all that precise either. I've played enough over the last couple months that the wireless keyboard has become frustrating! I'd hoped it would work for everything, and it does work well for most applications, but this game requires quicker and more accurate input.

Since a joystick can't be used, I looked for other options. I could use a USB keyboard and mouse on a lap tray/desk, and did consider that. A mini keyboard wouldn't be too bad. Then I got the idea to remap a USB number pad. That would be small and would leave plenty mouse room on a lap desk. I inquired on the AA forum, and it wouldn't be too much trouble to remap the keys, use something like 8,4,5,6 for movement instead of WASD. I thought there might be another option, so I searched for game controllers and came across references for controllers specifically made for FPS type games. Most require special drivers and need to be programmed though (some come with scripts or macros for popular games), and that wouldn't do for a Linux machine (none had Linux drivers, no surprise there!). But I ran across two that fit my situation perfectly! The Cyber Snipa Gamepad (http://www.cybersnipa.com/us/gaming-keyboards/gamepad.php) and the Wolfking Warrior keyboard (http://wolfkingusa.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9&Itemid=7) both look like a standard keyboard to the computer -- no special drivers required. Either should work fine. I have a Cyber Snipa on the way! The Snipa has 34 keys and is 9" (with removeable wrist pad) x 6" and retails for $39.99 (I found an original model at www.unityelectronics.com for $14.99 + S&H). The Warrior is round (roughly 9" in diameter) and has 55 keys. It retails for $34.99.

There aren't many differences between the cheaper original version and the current Snipa V2. The original has 34 keys, V2 has 39. The only obvious difference that might impact play is that the original has number keys 0-7, V2 0-9. If you can remember the number for each weapon and use them, that's a problem. In AA I use the mouse scroll wheel to rotate between the weapons I have. If you have more than 3-4 that might be a problem, but I haven't had a problem with that yet... except with the wireless keyboard. The scroll wheel is located at the top right, which means you have to move your left hand off the WASD (movement) keys to use it, which usually means you're dead before you can move again. I usually find a corner to hide then switch weapons... or get killed.

2010-01-15T06:37:00.001-08:00

HTPC Update
Well, I've been overall pleased with my HTPC. My brother-in-law bought me an Audio/Video receiver for Christmas to complement my PC and big flat-screen TV, something I was going to get later anyway. I got a set of Insignia speakers to go with it. I know, they aren't top of the line, just adequate -- about the same as comes with most mid level home theater boxed systems. I'm not a big audiophile, I just want surround sound for movies. I didn't spend the extra for replacement if something happens to them. I told the guy if they blow I obviously need to upgrade the speakers anyway!

I really just wanted a surround sound processor/receiver, but they don't make those any more. You either buy a largish A/V receiver or you buy a home theater system that has a DVD or Blu-Ray built in. I did consider some used surround processors, but didn't find anything I was interested in on e-bay. Most of the old ones are four speaker, and only a few had a subwoofer (4.1). So I opted for the receiver anyway. I do have room in my entertainment center, and since he was buying...

Got it all installed, and it works great... on the FM receiver. I discovered that the built in sound on my motherboard doesn't support digital surround sound. One reason I purchased it was because it did support surround, but I find that it only supports analog surround -- a PC system with the speakers plugged directly into the sound output jacks. I could forgo the receiver and plug the sound card directly into my wall jacks (I wired the room when I built it with a speaker input panel right behind the TV), but I don't think the PC sound card has enough power to drive unamplified speakers. PC type speakers have the amp in one or more of the speakers. I do have another option -- move the subwoofer from a rear corner of the room (have a jack in the wall just for that!) and run the PC output to the subwoofer, then from the subwoofer to the speakers. The subwoofer has line-level inputs and will amplify all speakers as well as the subwoofer. I didn't know that until I got it! I'm more used to car type stereos and expected the subwoofer to just have an amp for it alone with one or two inputs.

What I opted to do instead is order a sound card with 5.1 digital output. That way I don't have a lot of wires running around. 5.1 digital should work through the HDMI cables. The card I ordered is a Turtle Beach Riviera 5.1 Channel PCI Surround Sound Card w/ 24-bit Digital Output, Model: TB-3425-01. Newegg didn't have them in stock, so I ordered from Directron (www.directron.com). Got it yesterday, will try to get installed today.

If you're not going to use a receiver using the analog line outputs from the PC to the subwoofer amp (I found that most HT speaker systems are built that way) is definitely a good choice. If I'd know the subwoofer had an amp for all speakers I I think I'd have gone that route instead -- much simpler (and cheaper) for sure! If you plan on keeping the computer on and using it as the sole media player (as I am) that is probably the way to go. If you want to add other components either connect them directly to the TV or use a simple input switch box. The only caveat is you will only have surround sound when going through the computer, not for broadcast TV. For me that wouldn't have been a problem -- how much TV is broadcast in surround? HT is a learning experience for me as well as Linux, as you can tell!

Linux HTPC!

2009-12-26T06:46:00.000-08:00

It's been a while, but I've been busy! After I got comfortable with Mint, I sat down and ordered parts to build a new Home Theater PC (HTPC). I looked at the Wal-Mart specials and at some other web sites, even considered some of the surplus P4 computers on the market now, but neither was a good solution. All would have needed a few upgrades, and by the time I did that I'd have about what it cost me to build a very powerful machine -- at half the power (or less). The best deal was a $400 e-Machine at Wal-Mart (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=12347221), but I really wanted more processor and a horizontal desktop case where the CD drives would be horizontal. So I searched my favorite on-line retailer for the parts I wanted, and ended up spending about $100 more and getting a little less here, a little more there. I shopped NewEgg, Directron, and TigerDirect, and bought it all from NewEgg. There was only a few dollars difference between the three. I could have saved maybe $20 by buying some parts from one, some from another, but I prefer to get it all from one. Here's what I ended up with (and I'm pleased!):

APEX MJ-16 Black Steel MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case ATX12V SFX 250W Power Supply
- Item #: N82E16811154085 $41.99
nMEDIAPC HTPCKB-B Black 2.4GHz RF Wireless Mini Keyboard with Track Ball & Remote Combo Set
- Item #: N82E16823202004 $79.99
LG DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS50
- Item #: N82E16827136167 $28.99
WINTEC AMPX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Memory Model 3AXT6400C5-4096K
- Item #: N82E16820161183 $71.99
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
- Item #: N82E16822136074 $49.99
AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor
- Item #: N82E16819103706 $99.00
GIGABYTE GV-N94TOC-1GI GeForce 9400 GT 1GB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
- Item #: N82E16814125263 $59.99
SABRENT CRW-UINB 68-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader w/ USB 2.0
- Item #: N82E16820300608 $12.99
MSI K9N6PGM2-V AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
- Item #: N82E16813130187 $46.99
1 Year Service Net Replacement Plan For Item# N82E16813130187
$6.99

Subtotal $498.91
Tax $0.00
UPS 3 DAYS $29.80
Rush Processing $2.99
Order Total $531.70

I wasn't worried about the on-board graphics because I intended to use a much better video card. The main reason was to prevent using shared memory on the motherboard (MB). There's really no big problem with that, especially with a lot of memory (the e-Machine from W-M has 8 GB), but the memory on a graphics card is generally a little faster for the graphics processor to access. I could have saved a good bit by getting a MB closer to $100 with better graphics, but I chose to cheap out on the MB and get a dedicated graphics card. The only thing I don't like about the MB I chose is that it only has two SATA connectors. When I get a Blue-Ray drive I'll need to buy a SATA expansion card or an IDE B-R drive. No big deal -- the SATA cards are only $13 and up. I think I'll go for a $20-$25 card with eSATA also. Will worry about that when I get a Blue-Ray drive.

The CD drive is another place I cheaped out. I got a good combo DVD burner, cheap at <$30. I considered a combo BR drive, but at $149 I passed. I don't need a BR, HD-DVD is fine for me. I don't buy a lot of movies, and I'm not sure NetFlix has BR discs -- will check later. My brother-in-law bought me a BR drive for Christmas though. He didn't know I'd just built an HTPC and want to integrate everything in one box (why I bought a larger case than normally used for HTPC). So I brought up the idea of returning the stand-alone player and getting a drive for the HTPC instead, or surround-sound speakers if H.H. Gregg doesn't have drives (I doubt that!) or won't refund the money. He's cool with that, so I'll probably buy a BR player only at ~$60 (+ the ~$20 for an SATA controller... wish I'd got a MB with more than two now -- no IDE BR drives!). Should have got an IDE DVD drive. Isn't proprietary licensing great? Easily doubles the cost of a BR player only (double compared to the DVD combo drive!) -- thanks Sony!! That's why Sony is spending so much on marketing BR -- so they can make more. I don't think it's all that much better than regular HD-DVD. Sony has set out to convince the world otherwise, and are succeeding as far as I can tell.

Notice that I didn't buy a tuner card. I have digital cable that requires a set-top box. For now I'm just using the computer as a DVD player and to play video directly from the Internet. I wired my new family room (recently completed) for surround and Internet when I built it. Haven't got the surround system yet -- want to connect to an amplified source rather than the computer sound card (which is surround capable). Still looking for that, not in a hurry! I'll get a tuner card and be able to record TV later... if I see a need. Right now I can go to Hulu or the TV station site and watch missed episodes, and I'm not a big sports fan. I really don't see a need for a tuner card, and may not get one. Setup for this configuration is easy -- just put icons for the media players that come with Mint on the desktop and anyone can use it -- no need to install MythTV or anything else unless you do want to record and/or pause live TV. Sports fans will definitely want that! For the simple setup I have, the nMediaPC keyboard and remote are great! I've only used the remote as a mouse, not sure about the keypad bindings, but I don't really need the keys as controls are on the screen and can all be accessed with the mouse. The keyboard and remote work simultaneously, so keep the remote away from the spouse/kids while you're using the keyboard, or vice-versa! Otherwise it can be a bit confusing as to who has control of the cursor...

Installing a Network Printer

2009-11-27T11:11:00.000-08:00

My wife would like a printer at her desk, and I might get her one later, but we have several printers on our small home network already. My daughter has a color inkjet (HP 3650) on her desk, and I have a pair of laser printers in my workshop office (HP 5P and a 2650 color laser). It's a bit of trouble to walk out to the shop, but not through the dining room and into our daughter's room. So I installed the printers as network printers.

It's not exactly intuitive in Mint, but close. I failed miserably on my first attempt, but found some pointers in the Mint Forum. After that it was pretty easy! Just go to Control Center then Printing. If you just installed Mint you will find "Print_to_PDF" already there. This is a handy feature that creates a PDF file from any program simply by selecting it as the printer. "Print" your file and a PDF is created that can be e-mailed or saved to disk and shared. Of course if you installed a physical printer it will be there also.

Got off track just a bit... In the top left of the Printer Configuration box is a button marked "New". Click on the word "New", not the down arrow, and Mint will search for printers. After the short search ends a "New Printer" window will appear. Click on the little "arrow head" to the left of "Network Printer". Then click on "Windows Printer via SAMBA". Click on browse and the workgroup name or the individual computer names will show up -- provided they are on. The computer with the network printer does need to be on, though the printer doesn't. The printer must also be shared on the Windows computer. That's pretty easy to do -- go to Start, Printers & Faxes, then right click on the printer you want to share and click on Sharing.

If the workgroup name comes up click on the little arrowhead to the left and the individual computer names should then show. Click on the arrowhead next to the computer name and a list of printers that are shared on that computer will appear. Select the desired printer then click on the "forward" button in the bottom right of the window. This will take you to a printer driver screen. Select the appropriate driver, click on "forward" again, then give the printer a name, description, and a location (if desired). That's all there is to it!

I went one step further and renamed the printers after they were installed. To rename right click on the newly installed printer and a drop-down menu will appear. Selecting "Rename" will allow editing the printer name. There can be no punctuation marks or blank spaces in the new name. Use either an underscore or dash in place of a space. I tried three times before I figured that one out! I gave the printers more descriptive names, like "Franks-Desk-LJ5P" so I'd know what kind of printer it is and where it's at without going to "Properties" to find out.

If the printer is on another Linux computer on the network the printer search should have found

KDE programs on Mint (Gnome)

2009-11-20T08:31:00.000-08:00

Wednesday I posted a little about KDE and Gnome. Well, I found out today that there are no real problems running KDE programs on the Gnome desktop or vice-versa. The filing is a bit different, so the first time a program is run it might be a bit slow as it finds and/or creates the directories/files it needs, but after that it should be fine. That is provided you use Software Manager or Package Manager to install the software from the installed repositories. Then any extra utilities, applets, or other software needed to make it run under Gnome will be installed also. If you install the software manually or from the software website these dependencies may not be loaded.

I didn't mention what a "repository" is earlier. It's a single place where a collection of programs for the system are collected and distributed. For the most part the programs in the repositories that Mint comes configured with will run. Some are in early releases and may not be fully functional, but they will generally work.

Another way to get software is to use the "Software Portal" from the Mint website. There will be a Software Portal button at the top of the page. All that software has been tested and rated with user comments. With that software there are no surprises, and it's usually the best of its type available. I had to tell Mint to open the file (which has an extension of ".mint") with mintinstall the first time I did this. A window will pop up asking if you want to run the program with synaptic (I think) or "other". There is no programs listed under other, but I knew from reading the website that the programs were supposed to be installed with mintinstall. I just had to find it! So I browsed and found mintinstall in filesystem/usr/bin. Just use the browse button and find the program, then click on the filename. Once that's done it will appear in the "other" list. I just clicked on the "always open with this application" (or something like that...) box.

One "Problem" with Linux...

2009-11-19T07:09:00.000-08:00

One "problem" I've run into is the general Linux attitude that software must be free and open source to be "acceptable" for Linux. That one really baffles me, and I'm sure other long time Windows users. I don't like being raped when I buy software (Adobe products in particular...), but I also understand that there is no incentive to do more/better than financial incentive, and that someone who writes a really great whiz-bang program may not want to share source code, or license it under the GNU model. I really liked the old share-ware concept, but there were lots of people who never contributed anything for software they used. I always tried to, and have made one small contribution to the Mint project (and expect to make more later). But I can't criticize someone for wanting to gain some profit from their hard work.

I'll likely be buying a DTP program (Pagestream) because of the lack of maturity with Scribus (the OS DTP project). I need something that works fully and has better support NOW if I'm to switch from Windows to Linux permanently. I could use Virtual Box or Wine to run Pagemaker 6 (what I currently use), but prefer to use native Linux software if possible. Pagestream sells for $100-$150 depending on the version -- very reasonable compared to Quark Xpress and Adobe InDesign (which I wouldn't touch after using PageMaker since version 4), which are over $400 (http://www.pagestream.org). Yet it appears to be just as functional for its intended purpose. InDesign appears to have more capabilities, but a lot of unnecessary functions just for page layout. PageStream is more comparable to Quark and PageMaker. Another DTP program is Xclamation by Axene (http://xibios.free.fr/english/xclamation.html). It's from a French company, and I haven't tried it, but the screen shot looks good and the info page reads good too. The license fee in 1999 was $25, might be a bit more now. The fee isn't mentioned on the website, but it is in the only review of Axene products I could find (http://xibios.free.fr/english/news/techdreview.html). Haven't been able to find anyone who knows anything about it, so I'm a bit leery, but may try it too.

Back to the subject! I see nothing wrong with profiting from your work, as long as it's reasonable. Each programmer will have to figure what "reasonable" is -- time vs. expected sales over a couple year or so period is the only thing I can come up with. At least packaging isn't a big expense, especially if one can get the various distribution repositories to accept the program(s). I still believe that Linux and some programs will have to be on store shelves to get the mainstream computer user's attention. People want what they can go to Wal-Mart and pick up, not something they have to search the internet for. That's changing, and in 10 years it will probably be the opposite, but Linux needs to collect enough users to be real popular. Mint's ease of installation and use is a big step in the right direction.

Wish I had the resources to pay a few programmers and package Mint (or a close derivative) for store sales -- without breaking any licensing restrictions. That last one might be impossible... the licenses of ALL the little parts would have to be researched and cleared or worked around. If it required donating part of the proceeds to the originating party that would be fine, and actually what I would insist on. As I said, they should be rewarded for their work, not just with donations. If you load and like Mint, do remember to go to the Mint site and make a donation! However small it all adds up...

2009-11-18T12:52:00.000-08:00

Some Linux/Windows Differences

There are a lot of things that a user will find different in Linux. One of them is the terms used for various items. One I just had to look up was "Nautilus". Nautilus is the file manager -- the GNOME stand-in for Windows Explorer. So what's GNOME? GNOME stands for GNU Network Object Model Environment, pronounced gah-NOHM. It's the desktop that you see when you start Mint, customized by the Mint distribution team. Basically GNOME is the Windows equivalent for Mint. There is another popular desktop called KDE (K Desktop Environment) that just has a bit of a different look and feel. The "K" really doesn't mean anything in KDE -- it was a word play on "Common Desktop Environment" (a desktop for Unix X-Windows systems) -- though some think it means "Kool" (a play on cool).

You can actually run either desktop (or one of a few more obscure desktops) with Mint, but I haven't tried KDE (Mint comes set up for Gnome). Linux runs a bit like older versions of Windows where MS-DOS was installed also and Windows was just the desktop interface that you saw. After Windows 98 the desktop and underlying operating system became more integrated, fully integrated by the time XP came out. There's nothing wrong with having the desktop and OS separate -- it works just fine and is more flexible.

Three other things I want to point out now are "Control Center", "Package Manager", and "Software Manager". Control Center is rather simple -- it's the equivalent of Windows' "Control Panel". The layout is much nicer though. Package Manager and Software Manager are used to add native Linux software to your computer. Simply open one of them up, click on a category or type in a name to find, then click on it. A screen will come up that lists "dependencies" that will also be installed. Dependencies are programs or modules that the main program needs to run, sort of like DLLs or drivers, but not always. You don't have to hunt them down, the Manager will install them for you! These two are almost the same thing, but the Software Manager comes only with Mint as far as I know. Software manager is a bit better arranged and easier to find software you might want. I'd use Software Manager first, and if you don't find anything there check Package Manager. There are some listings in Package Manager that don't show up in Software Manager, but they may require a bit more work or need the KDE desktop (most programs starting with K are for KDE) and may not run correctly under Gnome. The two desktops are similar, but they do some things in slightly different ways. I haven't messed with KDE enough to know the exact differences, but it may be as little as naming folders differently, which can still confuse a program.

You can look through Software and Package Manager from a live CD, but can't install anything. I don't think the live CD environment won't let you, and you don't want to since your hard drive is still set up for Windows anyway! Look through them though, and you will find just about all the software you'd ever really need. GIMP and Inkscape are just as capable as the popular Adobe Photoshop programs, and OpenOffice (which install with Mint by default) is not only as good as MS-Office, it will read and write Office compatible documents! There isn't a huge selection of games, but you will be surprised to find that there are more than expected. On top of that, there is an application called "Wine" that will allow running many Windows games on Linux. It's not an emulator ("Wine" stands for "wine is not emulation"), but a set of modules that work between the programs and Linux the same way that APIs and DLLs work between programs and Windows. I'll be playing with that some later too.

First Post!

2009-11-18T07:02:00.000-08:00

Just as the blog title says, I'm new to Linux Mint. Actually, I'm rather new to Linux -- period! Previously, I've used various iterations of Microsoft Windows since 3.1, and not been all that impressed. Windows is definitely easier to use than the old DOS and other command line computers, but it's a resource hog and is rather expensive and bloated. I've been a user simply because it was the only easy to use system that was most economically feasible for a long time. I've worked with Macs, and could get over the initial higher cost, but software cost is also a consideration. That's why the Mac has been relegated to higher end use while the more common people (and most businesses) suffer along with Microsoft. Remember, just because MS Windows is the most popular operating system on earth doesn't mean it's anywhere near the best, though it does have it's good attributes (high software availability, moderate cost of OS and software, relative ease of use).

So why is MS-Windows the most wide spread OS? Mainly due to the marketing strategy employed by Microsoft in their early years. Today they are way to aggressive in maintaining that dominance, to the detriment of users. Linux has few, if any viruses and other attacking programs. The main reason for using anti-virus software on Linux is to intercept the plentiful MS-W viruses and prevent passing them on.

I started out with computers in late 1985 with a Timex 1500 for a very short time (about 3-4 months!). I was writing a book about Rambler cars at the time and wanted a computer for word processing and printing the draft. It didn't take long to figure out that the little TS-1500 had serious limitations! The small keyboard was one, but I wasn't much of a typist at the time and figured it wouldn't be a big problem. The killer was the lack of a real printer interface. The computer was made for a small 40 column printer. To connect a real preinter required an adapter that cost nearly as much as the computer, then add the cost of the printer itself. Remember, back in 1985 an IBM 8088 PC-Jr. with 64K RAM and a 180K 5.25" floppy drive retailed for $1300! I was using a cassette tape drive, the most popular form of data storage at the time.

Well, I did a little research after the TS-1500 fiasco. I think I paid $100 for the thing used, but I was an E-3 in the USAF with a wife and small child -- $100 was a lot to blow! My monthly base pay was $762.30, though there was a little extra for BAS (food allowance for married GIs -- $4.87 per day in 85, avg. $146.10), and I lived in base housing.

My research led me to decide that the Tandy Color Computer 2 was the best "bang for the buck". I considered a Commodre 64 and others, but I discovered that all required special peripherals or adapters except the CoCo2. It had a somewhat standard serial port (though a minimal four pin iteration of one), and could use standard floppy drives, though it did require a proprietary controller. A used one was located for a good price and I was all set! I used a cassette player for a while, but soon got a couple 360K floppy drives.

I continued with the little CoCo all the way through the early 90s. Loved the little thing! It would do almost all I asked of it, and in a compact 64K of memory. Programmers had to create tight code back then, and the best were in direct machine language, not something like C that takes up more memory and speed... not that either is a big problem today. I did get a CoCo 3 around 1989 that came with 128K and was expandable to 512K (and later hacked for up to 2MB).

The neatest thing about that little CoCo was the OS-9 operating system. It was a Unix-like system developed for the Motorola 6809 (which the CoCo used, of course) by a small company (still in existence) called Microware. It was a multi-user/multi-tasking OS that would run on the original 64K CoCo long before Microsoft was capable of such things. It was limited with 64K, but many systems used it. It was amazing to see one CoCo with a floppy drive have another CoCo or dumb serial terminal connected to the serial port retrieving or storing data off that one floppy drive (or a hard drive). Even though the 6809 only ran at 1MHz (actually slightly under 1MHz, for most operations it was as fast as a 10 MHz PC-XT. When 128 and 512K became available it was wonderful! The CoCo3 version of OS-9 did have a windowing system that was similar to early versions of X-windows (for Unix/Linux), but it was always a niche market system and never exploited by Tandy. They didn't make much on CoCo sales, and didn't want to let it be known that the inexpensive little computer was really as powerful as the TS-1000 PC-XT clone. But OS-9 was my first taste of what Linux could grow to be.

I started this blog to help others who are also new to Linux, the Mint distribution in particular. In fact, that's pretty much all I'll write about, though some will apply to other distributions. Why Mint? Well, I tried a couple others, but they all required a bit of tweaking to get to run right on different hardware combinations, or the user had to collect and install different codecs for video and audio file palyback. In other words, they weren't easy "drop-in" replacements for MS-W. I've never really been fond of MS-W, just more or less forced to use it. But I have got used to a computer that's easy to use and for the most part "just works" right out of the box, even though there are errors and "blue screens of death" to deal with later. All forms of Linux, by the way, have a LOT better error handling! I've only had one or two programs hang up the computer under Linux. It usually just shuts the offending application down and throws up an error message.

Mint just works! The codecs and such aren't all open source, but are freely distributable. Many Linux distributions (or versions) don't package anything that's not open source. The Mint developers realize that useability is the most important aspect of any OS, and don't prescribe to the "open source or nothing" philosophy. It's something you'll find common in the Linux world, and something I don't really understand. More on that later!

If you've never used Linux, download a "live CD" of linux Mint from http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php, make sure your computer is set to boot from the CD drive, and restart it. Mint won't install or mess up your current OS, it will create a temporary file on the HD and run from the CD. The temp file will be deleted when you exit Mint... if you just turn the computer off it will probably be left somewhere, haven't tried it! Mint has a much better start menu than Windows, one of the reasons I like it so much. It just works on most hardware, but if you have a problem you can usually find an answer on the Mint forums.