Linux sound issues

If your sound is not working properly in Linux here is a possible solution. I had a Linux install with this issue. The sound card would sometimes work but then on occasion the system would boot up and not show any sound card detected.

In Ubuntu you can use the following code to make sure you have everything you need installed.

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r` alsa-base alsa-firmware-loaders alsa-oss alsa-source alsa-tools alsa-tools-gui alsa-utils alsamixergui

If you are not using Ubuntu or other Debian based systems with apt then take a look at the programs listed and make sure those are installed.

Another issue I recently encountered was a popping sound when using iheartradio.com in Ubuntu. The sound was similar to what you may hear when plugging in a speaker. It was intermittent and very annoying. What I ended up finding was that in my case pulseaudio was not loading or crashing at some point during boot up. Simply setting the system to launch the command pulseaudio on start up took care of that issue. Hope this information is helpful to someone. If you find anything that works for you feel free to share it in the comments section.

Linux versus Window’s and Apple’s kernel

What makes Linux the powerful and stable system that it is? Much of the performance and the stability comes as a result of the way it’s kernel functions. The link below discusses in fairly simple terms these differences.

http://linuxaria.com/article/the-linux-kernel-vs-commercial-kernels?lang=en

The beginning of Tech support

Just a little something I stumbled across on youtube, the first tech support call.

Enjoy

Bootable Live Linux Usb stick Creation in Linux

Here are some things that have worked for me with creating a live Linux USB stick in Linux. I have also been able to remove the U3 Launchpad from my usb stick using these tools.

If your USB stick is already properly partitioned then you can simply give usb-creator-gtk a try.

If that works then you are all done. For those of us who are not so fortunate, we will need to format and create a fresh partition in order to setup a bootable Live Linux USB stick.

fdisk can come in handy for formatting your usb stick

Commands:

sudo fdisk /dev/sdb (make sure you have the correct path to your usb stick you
don't want to end up formatting your hard drive)

Once you have opened fdisk and used the /dev/ command to point it to your 
usb drive you will need to press the letter d and press enter

Next you will need to press the number 1 for the partition number and enter.

Press N for new partition and hit enter.

Press W to write the partition and hit enter.

That should do the trick however in some cases I have used Gparted to 
delete and create new partitions on the usb drive.

Hacked Versions of Star Wars music

Someone definitely has more time on their hands then I do. But clever nonetheless are some hacked versions of the Star Wars sound clip that Darth Vader is known by. The imperial death march.

You can now hear this music played by the sounds of floppy players, scanners and other electronics in all of its glory.

Here is the link to a page that has a compilation of these hacks.

Star Wars from the Command Prompt

How about a little bit of command prompt fun today. This is a little something anyone with a command prompt can appreciate. Using ASCII text generation you can watch Star Wars from your command prompt. For those of you who are not yet educated in the ways of the Geeks, the ASCII text generation is simply a careful arrangement of letters and symbols on the screen to create an image. In this case along with captions from various scenes from Star Wars.

Here is a screen shot just for fun.

Star Wars from the command prompt

In my case I am using Tilda in Linux as my command prompt. Set the transparency and take away the title bars and stretch it to fill the screen and you will  have  a set up to look as if it is integrated with your desktop. Of course, that is another adventure and is not required to view this ASCII version of Star Wars.

Finally here is the command that you will need to put in your command prompt:

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

You will also need an internet connection.

Generate ASCII Art in Linux

Ever wanted to generate ASCII art from your family photos laying around just for the geekiness of it? There are a number of ways to do this in Linux including by using Gimp and saving a copy and select ASCII text and save. I also found a handy online tool for generating ASCII art that allows you to adjust the settings for the sharpness of the text and provides a beige backdrop which makes the ASCII text seem even sharper.

Give us the link already!

Here it is:

sporkforge.com

After you generate a photo you can simply take a screen shot and select that area if you want to keep the backdrop color.

Construct 2 Game Design Software in Ubuntu Linux

Construct 2 from Scirra is a game design program that enables you to create html5 games without having to code the software. You can create games through the programs graphical interface without any programming knowledge required. Since the games are in html5 format they are compatible with Linux, Windows and even Apple.

However Construct 2 is a Windows program. I have noticed some postings by individuals who had attempted to use Construct 2 with Wine and could not get it to work. Maybe they were using an older version of wine. In my case I was able to get Construct 2 setup in Linux using the latest version of  Wine and by tweaking the settings just a little bit.

Get the latest version of Wine

If you are able to get it working with an older wine install, then good for you. If not then you may want to follow this link to get information on installing the latest version of wine. Here is a link to get you started with setting up Wine 1.3  in Ubuntu.

After installing Construct 2 you will find that the Menu’s are black, like in this screen shot.

To fix this problem you will need to go into Configure Wine click on the graphics tab and set it to emulate virtual desktop.

Here are some screen shots to guide you through this process.

After clicking on apply and restarting the program I had a functioning version of Construct 2.

Burning DVD Video iso for Standalone Players in Linux

In addition to using Nero to create UDF DVD video in Linux, with the help of the Linux community and the discovery of a little program called DVDFab hd decryptor, I have learned another technique for creating DVD video disk that will play on standalone dvd players. This technique involved creating an iso file from your VIDEO_TS folder. After that you can simply open the file you created with k3b and burn to dvd.

For me the first step was to install DVDFab hd decryptor. Unfortunately this is a windows program but it is available for free and it works with wine.

Here is a link to DVDFab

Once DVDFab is installed, open it up and click on the blue folder next to Source. Select your VIDEO_TS folder.

Then after that, click on the icon with the little disk next to target to select the location and the name of the iso file.

Then simply click on start to create the iso file. As mentioned previously you can open the new iso file with k3b and burn it to dvd to create a dvd video in Linux which should play on most standalone dvd players. I stress most since there does seem to be a lot of inconsistency with dvd players.

There are other programs in Linux which some have successfully used to create dvd video iso files. Unfortunately none of them have worked for me.Whether it is a problem with the programs I have tried such as DeVeDe, k3b and from the command line growisofs or whether the real problem exists between the keyboard and chair, I am not sure as I am rather new to doing this in Linux. This is simply my experience as to what has worked for me in Linux. I hope if you are having difficulty with this task that this information will be helpful to you as well.

The good news is that with this technique I was able to create the DVD in k3b instead of having to use Nero. Now I just need to find a way to create an iso file that will work properly. So far the iso files that I have created in other give errors when I try to play the disk in my dvd player. Some of them would play on one dvd player but not the other.

If anyone has any tips or tricks that they would like to share for creating DVD video iso files in Linux, feel free to leave a comment.

 

Amusing Novell/Linux Ads

This is an old Novell ad from youtube.

Just a little something for the nonsense section. Enjoy

This is my favorite of the two.