The adventures of Foo » Uncategorized http://jensge.org My aggregated random tech blabber Sun, 25 Jul 2010 09:57:50 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 The X201, addendum http://jensge.org/2010/07/the-x201-addendum/ http://jensge.org/2010/07/the-x201-addendum/#comments Sun, 25 Jul 2010 09:57:50 +0000 Jens http://jensge.org/?p=430 The fingerprint reader

The fingerprint reader is a mess. It has the USB id (147e:2016) of the upeksonly driver in the fprint project, but it doesn’t work. The reader seems to work with the normal UPEK driver (either in thinkfinger or fprint) by modifying the supported USB id. But the answers it presents to the driver don’t [...]]]> The fingerprint reader

The fingerprint reader is a mess. It has the USB id (147e:2016) of the upeksonly driver in the fprint project, but it doesn’t work. The reader seems to work with the normal UPEK driver (either in thinkfinger or fprint) by modifying the supported USB id. But the answers it presents to the driver don’t seem to conform to anything it knows.

]]> http://jensge.org/2010/07/the-x201-addendum/feed/ 0 Kolmas viikola Helsingissä http://jensge.org/2010/07/kolmas-viikola-helsingissa/ http://jensge.org/2010/07/kolmas-viikola-helsingissa/#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:23:23 +0000 Jens http://jensge.org/?p=425 or: You’re holding it wrong. Seriously. Once upon a time, you could buy a IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad with Intel graphics and it just worked. While the Intel issues in the last versions of Ubuntu were mostly home-grown, the current disaster with the Core i3/i5 on-chip graphics isn’t. Like in the X201.

The Ubutu experience

Getting Ubuntu 10.4 LTS to [...]]]> or: You’re holding it wrong. Seriously. Once upon a time, you could buy a IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad with Intel graphics and it just worked. While the Intel issues in the last versions of Ubuntu were mostly home-grown, the current disaster with the Core i3/i5 on-chip graphics isn’t. Like in the X201.

The Ubutu experience

Getting Ubuntu 10.4 LTS to work on an X201 isn’t too hard. You just need to follow some simple steps:

  1. Get Ubuntu (obviously) and put it on an USB stick; the X201 doesn’t have a CD drive
  2. Go to http://people.canonical.com/~hzhang/554569/ and grab the latest kernel package linked there (see also Launchpad bug 554569)
  3. Get the most recent BIOS update from Lenovo. A description on how to update your BIOS if you don’t have an optical drive may be found at thinkwiki.org
  4. Go to the BIOS setup and deactivate Intel AMT.
  5. Install Ubuntu normally. The installer should work just fine. If the graphical installer doesn’t, try the alternate install CD.
  6. After the installation is done, boot from USB once again and go into rescue mode to install the kernel package downloaded before.
  7. Boot normally.

Remaining issues

  • External video
    VGA works, but if you shut down the machine with the external monitor connected, it will somehow lockup (CPU is busy)
  • Suspend/Resume
    With the kernel from the launchpad bug, USB works after resume; the only thing I noticed is that sometimes the wireless LAN won’t come up again (like 1 in 10 resumes).
  • UltraBase
    No idea yet. Haven’t used though it is said that there are still problems with the display port on it
]]> http://jensge.org/2010/07/kolmas-viikola-helsingissa/feed/ 2 Popup ads http://jensge.org/2010/07/popup-ads/ http://jensge.org/2010/07/popup-ads/#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:35:47 +0000 Jens http://jensge.org/?p=422 gconftool-2 –set /apps/xchat/channel_list/auto_popup –type [...]]]> gconftool-2 –set /apps/xchat/channel_list/auto_popup –type bool false

]]> http://jensge.org/2010/07/popup-ads/feed/ 0 Simple web-radio sharing with rygel, part due http://jensge.org/2010/07/simple-web-radio-sharing-with-rygel-part-due/ http://jensge.org/2010/07/simple-web-radio-sharing-with-rygel-part-due/#comments Sun, 04 Jul 2010 15:16:45 +0000 Jens http://jensge.org/?p=418 If you try the receipe shown here with a RTSP source, you might need to throw in an additional input-selector element in [...]]]> If you try the receipe shown here with a RTSP source, you might need to throw in an additional input-selector element in your pipline.

]]> http://jensge.org/2010/07/simple-web-radio-sharing-with-rygel-part-due/feed/ 0 Simple web-radio sharing with rygel http://jensge.org/2010/05/simple-web-radio-sharing-with-rygel/ http://jensge.org/2010/05/simple-web-radio-sharing-with-rygel/#comments Tue, 25 May 2010 10:18:17 +0000 Jens http://jensge.org/?p=410 One easy method to share any web radio via UPnP on your network is to use the gst-launch plugin. This is a simple rygel.conf snippet to expose NDR Info to your DLNA enabled devices. For other services I’d first try to replace the uri and the content-type accordingly.

[GstLaunch] enabled=true launch_items=ndrinfo ndrinfo_title=NDR [...]]]> One easy method to share any web radio via UPnP on your network is to use the gst-launch plugin. This is a simple rygel.conf snippet to expose NDR Info to your DLNA enabled devices. For other services I’d first try to replace the uri and the content-type accordingly.

[GstLaunch]
enabled=true
launch_items=ndrinfo
ndrinfo_title=NDR Info
ndrinfo_mime=audio/mpeg
ndrinfo_launch=souphttpsrc location=http://ndr.ic.llnwd.net/stream/ndr_ndrinfo_hi_mp3
]]> http://jensge.org/2010/05/simple-web-radio-sharing-with-rygel/feed/ 1 Mr. Fusion http://jensge.org/2010/05/mr-fusion/ http://jensge.org/2010/05/mr-fusion/#comments Sat, 01 May 2010 11:16:38 +0000 Jens http://jensge.org/?p=407 That was easier than I expected. After a bit of googling and hand-crafting libtool archives, Rygel’s plugins now work on Windows as well. Now I just need to clean-up all [...]]]> That was easier than I expected. After a bit of googling and hand-crafting libtool archives, Rygel’s plugins now work on Windows as well. Now I just need to clean-up all that hackery.

]]> http://jensge.org/2010/05/mr-fusion/feed/ 0 1.21 Gigawatts http://jensge.org/2010/04/1-21-gigawatts/ http://jensge.org/2010/04/1-21-gigawatts/#comments Fri, 30 Apr 2010 10:38:44 +0000 Jens http://jensge.org/?p=404 The beast is alive… Well. Sort of. Plugins still missing…

$ ./rygel.exe -g 5 ** (rygel.exe:8080): WARNING **: Failed to load user configuration: Es wurde keine g³ltige Schl³sselwertedatei in den Suchordnern gefunden ** (rygel.exe:8080): DEBUG: new network context {C457B4A8-2516-46B9-837A-F5167D574A2E} (192.168.200.64) available. ** (rygel.exe:8080): WARNING **: Failed to create context for host/IP '{C57C8A03-20D6-4A0F-8C5D-946804401865}': Der Vorgang wurde erfolgreich beendet. ** (rygel.exe:8080): WARNING **: [...]]]> The beast is alive… Well. Sort of. Plugins still missing…

$ ./rygel.exe -g 5
** (rygel.exe:8080): WARNING **: Failed to load user configuration: Es wurde keine g³ltige Schl³sselwertedatei in den Suchordnern gefunden
** (rygel.exe:8080): DEBUG: new network context {C457B4A8-2516-46B9-837A-F5167D574A2E} (192.168.200.64) available.

** (rygel.exe:8080): WARNING **: Failed to create context for host/IP '{C57C8A03-20D6-4A0F-8C5D-946804401865}': Der Vorgang wurde erfolgreich beendet.

** (rygel.exe:8080): WARNING **: Failed to create context for host/IP '{8946F41B-6765-4205-8238-82786C175392}': Der Vorgang wurde erfolgreich beendet.

** (rygel.exe:8080): WARNING **: Failed to create context for host/IP '{846EE342-7039-11DE-9D20-806E6F6E6963}': Der Vorgang wurde erfolgreich beendet.
]]> http://jensge.org/2010/04/1-21-gigawatts/feed/ 0 Xbox support landed in rygel master http://jensge.org/2010/04/xbox-support-landed-in-rygel-master/ http://jensge.org/2010/04/xbox-support-landed-in-rygel-master/#comments Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:37:07 +0000 Jens http://jensge.org/?p=400 Support for the Xbox 360 has landed in master. You need:

gupnp master0.13.3 gunp-av master0.5.5 gupnp-vala master0.6.5 rygel master

For the transcoding to work properly make sure you have gst-lame and gst-ffmpeg installed.

On a side note: Rygel master has now gained the ability to serve subtitles to Samsung DLNA [...]]]> Support for the Xbox 360 has landed in master. You need:

  • gupnp master0.13.3
  • gunp-av master0.5.5
  • gupnp-vala master0.6.5
  • rygel master

For the transcoding to work properly make sure you have gst-lame and gst-ffmpeg installed.

On a side note: Rygel master has now gained the ability to serve subtitles to Samsung DLNA enabled TVs

]]> http://jensge.org/2010/04/xbox-support-landed-in-rygel-master/feed/ 0 Rygel’s XBox support http://jensge.org/2010/03/rygels-xbox-support/ http://jensge.org/2010/03/rygels-xbox-support/#comments Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:55:41 +0000 Jens http://jensge.org/?p=395 Status update: We’re nearly there. Out-of-the box support of XBox 360; no patches, no database [...]]]> Status update: We’re nearly there. Out-of-the box support of XBox 360; no patches, no database modification necessary.

]]> http://jensge.org/2010/03/rygels-xbox-support/feed/ 0 Software wishlist http://jensge.org/2010/03/software-wishlist/ http://jensge.org/2010/03/software-wishlist/#comments Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:09:23 +0000 Jens http://jensge.org/?p=393 I’d really like a decent vocabulary trainer for my phone. It would be great if I could use the 30 minutes I spent on the tram to work for a quick training session. And it should be able to synchronize  its data and learning statistics with my desktop app. I like and use I GNU it [...]]]> I’d really like a decent vocabulary trainer for my phone. It would be great if I could use the 30 minutes I spent on the tram to work for a quick training session. And it should be able to synchronize  its data and learning statistics with my desktop app. I like and use I GNU it (though it’s management of the boxes is not quite clear to me) for my desktop. I couldn’t find a proper app for the phone, the closest one was a java app which had massive problems with umlauts – really problematic if finnish is the language you want to train yourself in.

Seems what is missing is some sort of VIF – a vocabulary interchange format. Some common ground might be the XML format chosen by the KDE guys for KVocTrain. But honestly, single-char XML tag names?!

]]> http://jensge.org/2010/03/software-wishlist/feed/ 0