Checking in... Muffy escaped...

I'm just checking in because I haven't posted in a while. Hardy is running well on my desktop but I sure wish a couple of bug fixes would come through. The Pulse Audio vs. Flash Audio bug is a little annoying. The bug where I can't launch my media player is very annoying too. I didn't think the media keyboard button meant so much to me until I didn't have it. Isn't that the way with everything though? I guess I'll just have to wait.

Muffy escaped...

Our cat Muffy is VERY pregnant so we are keeping her in the house that she and kittens will be safe when the birthing day comes. Tonight my daughter left the back door open for a few minutes and she escaped... The great cat hunt was on. Luckily she comes running when the wife calls. After spending about 30 minutes searching the house and the yard, Joy started calling for her. We looked over the back privacy fence and there she was... Too fat to jump back over the fence. My daughter Ericka climbed over the fence and lifted her across. She's back in the house none the worse for the adventure.

That's about it for now. I'll blog more when something good... Oh Wait!!! I forgot. Joy passed her final exams and is finally done with Chemistry and Biology. That was a great thing. She did very good and I'm VERY proud of her achievements. I love you honey...

Hardy Updates

Well, I'm really liking Hardy Heron aside from some already mentioned bugs. I learned today that unlike previous versions of Ubuntu it really is best to leave the "Proposed Updates" tab unselected in the software sources repositories. The proposed updates that I installed today broke my gnome panel and it wouldn't boot properly either. Luckily I always keep a recent disk image of my latest working system. It only took me about 10 minutes to revert back to a clean working system. Then I removed the proposed updates from my repository list. I had such great luck with the proposed updates under Gutsy Gibbon that I'm a little disappointed.

I also filed a bug report today on "Glipper" clipboard manager/buffer. I kept crashing on reboot and I would have to delete it from the panel and reinstall the applet to make it work again. After reverting to an earlier install of Hardy without the proposed updates however, I'm not having any more problems from it. I'm not sure if Glipper is a problem or if it was the updates that caused the problem. I have had troubles with Glipper before so I think the bug report is in order.

ScribeFire is once again installed on my main system. I'm using it right now to make this blog entry. Since it seems to check and hook into the blog every time the browser is launched I'll disable the extension when not in use. Having it active all the time slows down page loading even when it's not in use.

I'm been experimenting with changing my usplash themes using startup manager. It's really interesting but having problems with Hardy. My Gutsy install on the laptop is looking really good. On Hardy I had to revert to the default to get things working properly.

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.

More ScribeFire Stuff...

It seems that ScribeFire slows down my browser when opening an new page. I tried to combat the effect last week by various tweaks to Firefox and disabling of IPV6. All the tweaks seemed to help a little bit, but still I had sluggish loading of web pages. Finally I turned off the ScribeFire add-on and my browsing speed was back to normal.

Today I decided to blog and turned the extension back on again. I was notified of updates for ScribeFire so I've just now installed the update. Instantly I have noticed that now the spell checker seems to work properly. It worked before but it was buggy in that when a menu was activated you couldn't select the properly suggested word unless you moved the mouse cursor off the menu and sneaked up on the correct / suggested word from the side. It sounds crazy I know, but that's what it required. Now it works perfect.

I'll be leaving the extension enable for a while to see if the browsing speed is once again reduced or not. I'll update this entry once I've made a determination of the results.

Well that didn't take long to determine. Speed is much reduced with this add-on enabled. I will only enable this add-on when I plan to make blog entries. Too sad...

Exciting evening to wrap up easter

Today was eventful. I have a new neighbor who is preparing to move in across the street. He has spent the past 2 weeks really fixing up the house and cleaning out the mess of a yard the previous dweller left. It turns out that the mess wasn't caused by the previous dweller but rather their next door neighbor Tim.

Tim is kind of a crazy, alcoholic, pill popping crack head. He has been throwing garbage and debris in the yard of the "soon to be" neighbor. Well the new guy has been cleaning out the property for about 12 hours today, and even cleaned up crack-head's property line too. Then he knocked off from the task about 5:30 PM and left for the day.

At about 7:20 PM I was standing in my kitchen and looked out the window. I saw crack-head had returned home in his usual drunken and altered state of mind. I watched him as he stomped around in his yard waiving his arms about and pointing at the cleaned property line. The next thing I saw was crack-head got into his red Ford F-150 and plowed across the property line, ramming the neighbors wood pile (freshly purchased lumber for a new privacy fence) and smashing it to bits, before ripping and spinning the tires across the property and departing. Then I noticed that the new neighbor's front door was no longer there. It seems that the crack-head kicked in the front door and damaged the inside walls as well.

I contacted the new neighbor by telephone and got him and the police out there. I gave a statement to the police and now we're just waiting to see what drama will unfold next.

HAPPY EASTER...

Easter Weekend

This has been a busy but productive weekend. We finally cleaned up the leaves from the front yard. 90 bags worth. I got my hair cut. I bought my wife a new bicycle at Wal-Mart. I made some custom shelving for the bathroom (the one in the master bedroom). Everything there is now painted bright white and looks really nice. Joy's very happy and now I get to rest. That's about it for now. We are planing to have a baked ham tomorrow by the way.

Cat Gone Missing!!! She's BACK!!!

Our cat took off for a couple of days and everyone has been looking for her. I was starting to get really worried. Phew! then "Muffin" just showed up on her own tonight thank God. I'll probably get a good nights sleep after all.

FireFox Tweaks

My web browsing has been running slow lately due to some changes made by Roadrunner in their page redirection and filtering service. Probably some other settings too but I don't know off hand unless it's related to IPV6 implementation....

Anywho.... I did some tweaks to the Firefox settings using the ABOUT:CONFIG process. I found the tweaks here at Ubuntu Geek so far it seems to have made my pages load a little faster and snap onto the screen rather than slowly filling the page. Check out the tweaks, especially disabling the IPV6. I think this is the one that put the pep back into my browser.

ScribeFire

Okay, I've installed ScribeFire (a Firefox Browser Extension) and I'm testing for my Blogging needs. It looks pretty sophisticated and I like it so far.

Now I've installed ScribeFire (a Firefox Browser Extension) and I'm testing for my Blogging needs. It looks pretty sophisticated and I like it so far.

WOW! This thing is the BOMB!!! I've found my Blogging tool. I'm done for now and unless I have some problems of some kind, ScribeFire gets 2 Thumbs Up!!!

Blogger Tool Update

It looks like there is no really exceptional tool for posting directly to Blogger.com. I tried a tool called BloGTK that LOOKED exactly like what I wanted. The only problem is that it doesn't connect to the blogsite. It asks for the URL and I input http://www.blogger.com but it won't connect. After trying several times with different settings the application won't even launch anymore. Reinstalling it does no good either. Only after I search the entire HD to find every mention of BloGTK and delete it, will a fresh install cause the application to launch again.

My only complaint about the current tool I'm using is that entering text into the Title section does not enter it into the actual Blog entry title. Instead it's just some text heading of the same size as the regular text. For that reason alone, I'm forced to actually log into the website and move the text into the blog editor section marked Title. Then the font is much larger and a different color. It also them becomes a hyperlink to the actual HTML page where the entry is stored.

Mother-In-Law

UPDATE: 12:25 AM

Joy and Daniel are home now so they had a safe trip. I talked to Joy's sister Janet and brought her up to speed with the situation. All that can be done for the day is done, and we're turning in for the night. Sleep? We'll see, but it probably won't be a restful night in this family.

UPDATE: 9:03 PM

Joy called again. She's on her way home. She advises that her mother (Betty) is resting and will have an MRI in the morning. Joy has a lab test in the morning and doesn't want to miss that. We plan to go back to Raleigh next weekend to check on her.

UPDATE: 8:30 PM

Joy just called me and said her mother is out of danger for now and resting in the hospital. The medical staff thinks she had a seizure instead of a stroke. That's good news for the moment, but testing has to be performed to determine the cause.

BAD NEWS:

Joy (My wife) got a call from her Step-Father today and she is headed out of town right now. It seems that her mother is en route to the hospital ER due to probable stroke. She left in a hurry and I'm worried about the situation right now. I couldn't go with her due to work but she took one of the boys with her. I'm hoping to hear from her soon.

New ATI Video Driver

So ATI finally came out with an updated video driver for all my ATI cards. I downloaded the Envy installer program and updated my Ubuntu 7.10 systems to the new 8.3 driver.

Now I have desktop effects and everything is just great. It doesn't slow the system at all when desktop effects are running. I get the same FPS in glxgears weather it's turned on or not. I'm really starting to like my ATI video cards again.

Amazon MP3 Downloader / nVidia Driver Update

Today my laptop is sporting some new software and music. I contacted Amazon.com and requested a Ubuntu Linux version of their MP3 downloader software. A couple of days later a 32-bit deb was in my email. I did a force architecture install on my 64-bit Ubuntu powered laptop. I used getlibs and grabbed some missing 32-bit libraries and the program launched without a hitch. Next I purchased a few MP3's and let the new software do it's magic. I was presently surprised. It worked perfectly. No issues at all. I expect they will soon have a 64-bit deb file ready, but it doesn't really matter. Just grab the 32-bit and you're set.

A week has gone by since installing the newest nVidia graphics driver. I have to say it works very nicely, but I'd love to get rid of that login splash screen.

If anyone knows how to kill the splash screen (Logo Screen) on the new 169.09 nVidia driver, please let me know. The old xorg.conf entry isn't working on the new driver.

nVidia 169.09 / Envy install

Today I reinstalled the 169.09 driver again using Envy. I first installed Envy and then disabled the Ubuntu restricted driver. Next (using the Envy software) I removed the current nVidia driver.

After doing all this, a reboot was required. Then I used Envy to install the new driver and rebooted the machine again. All seems good so far...

Then I tested to see that 3D was working by launching glxgears and some 3D games. All was still well. Then I tried to enable desktop effects, and it told me I must turn on the restricted driver again. I can't understand why the 3D GL games are working and the desktop effects don't unless enabling the restricted stuff. It would seem that the restricted driver was already being used, but Ubuntu doesn't recognize it as so unless you go the the restricted driver manager and "Tick" the enabled check box.

Well, I went ahead and enabled it and all seems to work okay. Man, I did find out that turning on the desktop effects, SERIOUSLY slows down the FPS reported by glxgears. What's up with that? Anyway, I don't use the desktop effects unless I'm showing off or something.

The other strange thing about this driver is that when I use nvidia-settings applet to set my refresh rate to 85Hz (where I usually keep it), the Ubuntu resolution applet reports 121Hz. nvidia-settings reports it correctly, the xorg.conf shows it set the 85Hz, but the darn Ubuntu applet still shows 121Hz. No one in the Ubuntu Forums wants to help out as usual for me lately.

I'm still waiting for some help with the Remote Desktop usage.