nVidia 169.12 Splash Screen disabled finally!

Well, I finally got the nVidia splash screen disabled. It was a matter of adding the option "NoLogo" to the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file as follows:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7900 GT/GTO"
Option "NoLogo"
EndSection

That did the trick and I'm no longer annoyed by the big green splash screen. No thanks to people who posted here to help me. I got the answer in a plea for help from the Ubuntu Forums
Well that's it for now. Just updating the BLOG to keep my notes on tap.

RealPlayer 11 Gold

Today I installed RealPlayer 11 Gold. The 1st time I installed it I didn't use "sudo" so the binary didn't have proper write permissions and it installed in the home directory. The final result is that it didn't work properly. It would launch but only if I dug through the binary directory installed in my home folder and told it to execute manually. The menu icon/launcher didn't work at all. It gave me some kind of "child process error". So I deleted everything from my hard drive relating to RealPlayer and started over.

This time, I went to the terminal and changed the desktop directory and typed "sudo ./Real" and hit enter. The next thing I know is the install process completed secussfully, and it works as it's supposed to.

Amazon MP3 Downloader for Hardy

I just downloaded and installed the Amazon MP3 Downloader for Gutsy. There is no Hardy version so far. The good news is that it installed without any problems on Hardy 32-bit. I purchased a song just to make sure it works correctly and it does.

Also, I'm using Scribefire to write this entry on my Gutsy powered laptop. I ordered a new power supply / battery charger for the laptop from eBay for $16. I've been running this laptop with 1% charge on my battery for a long time. I purchased a new battery because it seemed the old battery wouldn't hold a charge. No Dice! Now I had 2 batteries with the same problem. Finally I decided it must be the charger (fingers crossed motherboard wasn't bad) and bought one. It charged my battery to 100% so fast it made my head spin. The laptop is working so slick now that I'm hesitant to start a new OS install of Hardy. I can wait....

Hardy Is Nice...

Well, I've installed the 32-bit version of Hardy on one of my machines. I LIKE IT! It's net perfect but it's getting closer. FireFox 3 is fast and clean. Man this is so much better than FF 2. Another BIG improvement is in Open Office. It too is much faster. In fact, everything is more responsive. Part of this is due to the indexing services being turned off by default now. Smart move Canonical! I always turn it off from the get go. When I'm searching for files on my HD I use Krusader's search feature. If you want to install Krusader from the command line it's: sudo apt-get install krusader.

Now for the only bug I've ran into so far... PULSE AUDIO vs. FLASH PLAYER. Now Pulse Audio is a good addition but it has issues because Flash Player isn't Pulse aware. The bug simply does this. Flash can't share audio output with any other application so if you are watching a flash video, don't plan to listen to a music player. You will only get sound from the first one that is launched.

I've recently read that 64-bit Hardy doesn't have this bug, but I haven't tested the 64-bit version yet so I don't know for sure. Also there are a couple of work arounds for bug for use with 32 bit, but the most common solutions (adding a special sound lib) seems to cause more problems than it fixes. Personally, I just won't listen to Flash files while trying to use other audio applications (until the developers fix the bug properly).

7 Days To Go...

There are seven more days to go before the new Ubuntu version is released. I've been reading the development forum and I've got to say, some of the complaints of bugs makes me wonder if it will be a good release in that time frame. I did try the earlier beta and it was all good for me, but it sounds like there are more problems now, then there were then.

Most of the problems I've read about really aren't Ubuntu's but rather Firefox 3 and Adobe Flash. None the less however since these are the packages you will be using once you install Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. No doubt these issues will be worked out in a month or so, but still I wonder if it wouldn't be wiser to wait until these issues are fixed.

My system of upgrades is pretty flawless though, so if it is a problem, it will take me about 3 minutes to restore my working disk image of v. 7.10 anyway. I'm just really hoping that the next 7 days prove to be really productive and these issues are ironed out. My fingers are crossed...

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS - BETA

I installed the beta of 8.04 a few days ago. I only test drove it for a day. From what I saw it's very impressive. I would have left it on and just kept updating until the final release were it not for being able to properly install AmazonMP3 Downloader. It was an i386 deb file that requires a force install on my x86-64 system. It works fine under Gutsy (7.10) but not under Hardy (8.04).

Anyway, I've decided to do a clean install with all the updates and then image the drive so that I can fine tune 1 piece at a time. All this will wait until the final release in a few days. That will eliminate pulling in so many updates and revisions.

Firefox 3 is awesome as is Thunderbird with the Lightening extension. It's faster and operates more logically with things like sorting the bookmarks and how the buttons work. The Lightening extension is vastly improved in it's layout and feature set. I just can't even go into detail because there is so much to brag about.

Gnome is faster and smoother too. I was going to do my regular tweaks of the system by starting with disabling indexing but I can't find the tool anymore. I'm thinking indexing is not included by default anymore but I could be wrong. I'll have to wait for the final release and start asking questions on this one.

Open Office 2.4 is much improved. It opens faster and that was my biggest complaint with this application.

I found no regressions in hardware support so far. Everything on my main system was detected and supported out of the box. I'll have to wait and see how it all goes on my laptops and other wireless systems.

The new wallpaper is an improvement but I still don't like it much. I wish they would make a couple of different themes to actually choose from during the install. I would prefer a blue theme to an orange and brown one any day.

That's it for now, gotta run...

Pioneer DVR-112L Died

Monday I downloaded the new Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Beta. I tried to burn the ISO and it failed at 80% with a drive communication error. I figured it was a bad download so I deleted it and downloaded a new copy. The burn failed twice more, then I tried on my other burner and bang! it worked. I did some testing and found that it won't burn CD's any longer but does just fine with DVD's. This isn't acceptable... So I orderd a new Pioneer DVR-115D from newegg.com for $23 bucks (or should I say bucknastys).

Today the new burner arrived. I installed the drive and updated the firmware, and ran a few tests before going to work. It seems to be working fine so far. I'll have to rip & burn a few movies before I give it the 2 thumbs up.