Curious about what Scibuntu can offer me, and desperate to talk about something at the LUG, I decided to install Scibuntu.
At Sourceforge's download page, a full minute goes by without a download. So I right-click to save the link and I see:
I don't belive Scibuntu is written in HTML. So I copy and paste it using Nano and run scibuntu.sh:
~/tmp$ ./scibuntu.sh ./scibuntu.sh: line 12: syntax error near unexpected token `)' ./scibuntu.sh: line 12: `dapper repository), '
I download the file as is and I rename the HTM file to scibuntu.sh. I run it as a user and it instructs me to run it under sudo, which I promptly do. It installs without a hitch, except that the only new programs that were accessible from the Gnome menu were Kile and the Sun Java 5.0 Web Start. It turns out when I Ctrl-C'd in the middle of the first installation (I didn't want to install Acrobat), my package manager never removed the lock file it created, and the Scibuntu installation kept skipping packages until the package manager was available.
MultiMedia Cards (MMCs) are automagically mounted after insertion. Formatting them is harder.
After finding that a 128MB MMC was reporting ~20MB total space, something was wrong and it was suggested to me that it should be reformatted. But I didn't know how. I knew the filesystem was FAT, but FAT what? FAT12? FAT16? FAT32? Was there a format option in Ubuntu?
I couldn't find a tool to format the card, so I listed my mounted devices and saw:
/media/HP43xCARD /dev/mmcblk0p1 on /media/HP43xCARD type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,quiet,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,gid=1000,umask=077,iocharset=utf8)
And the space reported as:
/dev/mmcblk0p1 122912 108064 14848 88%
So a shot in the dark with mkdosfs /dev/disk/by-label/HP43xCARD reveals a card that has a total capacity of 128MB.
Searching for "formatting cf cards" or "formatting sd cards" turns up nothing useful. But a search for "formatting mmcs" turns up the kernel driver documentation.
7zip support is not enabled by default in Ubuntu 6.10. But Nautilus does identify the file as compressed and to be used with the Archive Manager.
It even does this when the p7zip package is installed.
The Ubuntu Wiki was searched and no information was found, other than p7zip will be packaged with the next release. But a thread on the Ubuntu Forums lead to a link that had this to say:
Install p7zip-full and your problem will be solved :-)
So I have some .lit eBooks that I find are for Microsoft Reader. That requires a .NET Passport account, so I'm not using that.
Is there an eBook reader for Linux? Yes! It's called OpenBerg.
Oh, that doesn't work with Firefox 2. So let's try openclit. There's no package for openclit, so it looks like I'm forced to compile it:
First, you need libtommath (available from math.libtomcrypt.com).
I also need to compile libtommath. So by my math that's two programs I must compile.
$ make cc -I./ -Wall -W -Wshadow -Wsign-compare -O3 -funroll-loops -fomit-frame-pointer -c -o bncore.o bncore.c In file included from bncore.c:1: ./tommath.h:18:19: error: stdio.h: No such file or directory ./tommath.h:19:20: error: string.h: No such file or directory ./tommath.h:20:20: error: stdlib.h: No such file or directory ./tommath.h:21:19: error: ctype.h: No such file or directory In file included from /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.1.2/include/syslimits.h:7, from /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.1.2/include/limits.h:11, from ./tommath.h:22, from bncore.c:1: /usr/lib/gcc/i486-linux-gnu/4.1.2/include/limits.h:122:61: error: limits.h: No such file or directory In file included from bncore.c:1: ./tommath.h:537: error: expected declaration specifiers or ‘...’ before ‘FILE’ ./tommath.h:538: error: expected declaration specifiers or ‘...’ before ‘FILE’ make: *** [bncore.o] Error 1
It turns out that I get this error because linux-libc-dev isn't installed. I sudo aptitude install libc6-dev and continue.
... a - bn_mp_sqrt.o a - bn_mp_is_square.o a - bn_mp_init_set.o a - bn_mp_init_set_int.o a - bn_mp_invmod_slow.o a - bn_mp_prime_rabin_miller_trials.o a - bn_mp_to_signed_bin_n.o a - bn_mp_to_unsigned_bin_n.o ar: unable to rename 'libtommath.a' reason: Operation not permitted make: *** [libtommath.a] Error 1
SSHFS strikes again. This time I compile libtommath locally. It wants to install into /usr, but I hate that and manually edit the makefile to install it to ~/pro.
Why does this need to be in the group for sudo? There is no documentation so I'll assume I can run it in userland. I have to edit the makefile again.
ifndef INSTALL_GROUP GROUP=usergroup
$ make install install -d -g usergroup -o root ~/pro/lib install: cannot change owner and/or group of `~/pro': Operation not permitted make: *** [install] Error 1
I edit the makefile again.
ifndef INSTALL_USER USER=user
And the installation finishes. It's now time to compile openclit.
hexdump.c: In function ‘hexdump’: hexdump.c:37: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘memset’ hexdump.c:37: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘memset’ cc -funsigned-char -Wall -O2 -I ../libtommath-0.30/ -I ../lib -I ../lib/des -I . -c -o drm5.o drm5.c drm5.c:38:21: error: tommath.h: No such file or directory drm5.c: In function ‘get_next_key’: drm5.c:116: warning: pointer targets in assignment differ in signedness drm5.c:117: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 1 of ‘read_whole_file’ differ in signedness drm5.c:122: warning: pointer targets in assignment differ in signedness drm5.c:123: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 1 of ‘read_whole_file’ differ in signedness drm5.c:144: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 2 of ‘strcpy’ differ in signedness drm5.c:145: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 2 of ‘strcpy’ differ in signedness drm5.c:168: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 2 of ‘strcpy’ differ in signedness drm5.c:169: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 2 of ‘strcpy’ differ in signedness drm5.c: In function ‘ms_base64_decode’: drm5.c:185: warning: pointer targets in assignment differ in signedness drm5.c: In function ‘get_element’: drm5.c:267: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘isalnum’ drm5.c: At top level: drm5.c:295: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token drm5.c: In function ‘drm5_handle_key’: drm5.c:342: error: ‘mp_int’ undeclared (first use in this function) drm5.c:342: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once drm5.c:342: error: for each function it appears in.) drm5.c:342: error: expected ‘;’ before ‘c’ drm5.c:376: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘mp_init’ drm5.c:376: error: ‘c’ undeclared (first use in this function) drm5.c:377: error: ‘p’ undeclared (first use in this function) drm5.c:378: error: ‘mod’ undeclared (first use in this function) drm5.c:379: error: ‘d’ undeclared (first use in this function) drm5.c:380: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘mp_read_radix’ drm5.c:382: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘mp_read_unsigned_bin’ drm5.c:383: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘mp_exptmod’ drm5.c:384: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘my_mp_to_unsigned_bin’ drm5.c:426: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 1 of ‘strlen’ differ in signedness drm5.c:426: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 1 of ‘strlen’ differ in signedness drm5.c:426: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 1 of ‘__builtin_strcmp’ differ in signedness drm5.c:426: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 1 of ‘strlen’ differ in signedness drm5.c:426: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 1 of ‘__builtin_strcmp’ differ in signedness drm5.c:426: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 1 of ‘__builtin_strcmp’ differ in signedness drm5.c:426: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 1 of ‘__builtin_strcmp’ differ in signedness drm5.c:426: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 1 of ‘strncmp’ differ in signedness make: *** [drm5.o] Error 1
openclit looks for tommath.h in other directories. So I change the CFLAGS line in the Makefile to:
gcc -o clit clit.o hexdump.o drm5.o explode.o transmute.o display.o utils.o manifest.o ../lib/openclit.a ../libtommath-0.30/libtommath.a gcc: ../libtommath-0.30/libtommath.a: No such file or directory make: *** [clit] Error 1
I have to edit the Makefile again to point it to the correct path for libtommath.
$ ./clit +---[ ConvertLIT (Version 1.8) ]---------------[ Copyright (c) 2002,2003 ]--- ConvertLIT comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details see the COPYING file or visit "http://www.gnu.org/license/gpl.html". This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions. See the GPL license for details.
This program has three modes of operation: First, is ** EXPLOSION **, or the expanding of a .LIT file into an OEBPS compliant package. To explode, you type: clit \ For Example: clit ebook-propietary.lit ebook-oebps\ If the directory does not exist, you MUST put a trailing \ or / after it!
To disable creating multiple subdirectories, use the "-d" flag.
Second, is the DOWNCONVERTING of a .LIT file down to "Sealed", or DRM1 format for reading on handheld devices. To downconvert, you type: clit For Example: clit "drm5 ebook.lit" ebook-open.lit
Third, is the INSCRIBING of a .LIT file which allows you to label your ebooks. This is very similar to downconverting, you just add a third argument: clit For example: clit ebook.lit inscribed.lit "the Library of Basil Frankweiler"
DRM5 is supported if you have a "keys.txt" file that contains the private key(s) for your passport(s) in either the CLIT program directory or the current directory. Use the -k flag to force the location of your keys.txt
This is a tool for **YOUR OWN FAIR USE** and not for stealing other people's ebooks.
Please do not use this program to distrbute illegal copies of ebooks. ... that would make Baby Jesus sad.
We can now convert my eBooks to something Linux can understand.
It's simple enough. One wants to make a video of what they're doing on the desktop and post it on the Internet. Just record the content of my desktop for the video source, and capture the output of my sound card as the audio source. Encode it, and I can upload it to a site of my choosing. It should be simple.
sudo aptitude install istanbul
No hitches. I was trying to capture video and istanbul captured this instead:
The times it did run, Istanbul decided to capture video and not write it to disk. Sometimes Istanbul was too stuck up to even capture video. So I decided to try recordMydesktop. I know its a Debian package I'm trying to install on Ubuntu, but compiling is a last resort and Debian packages work most of the time.
$ sudo dpkg --install recordmydesktop_0.3.0r2-1_i386.debdpkg: error processing recordmydesktop_0.3.0r2-1_i386.deb (--install): cannot access archive: Permission deniedErrors were encountered while processing: recordmydesktop_0.3.0r2-1_i386.deb$ dpkg seems to dislike the way I mounted sshfs. So it was copied to the hard drive and recordMydesktop and gtk-recordMydesktop were installed.
If the frontend doesn't start at all, it is most likely that you haven't got installed gnome-python-extras. Run gtk-recordMyDesktop on a terminal. If it says something like egg.TrayIcon is not found, then your problem is definately that one.
So I try that and get this:
$ gtk-recordMyDesktop Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/bin/gtk-recordMyDesktop", line 30, in ? from recordMyDesktop import rmdSimple ImportError: No module named recordMyDesktop $
Maybe I can get it from the command line instead of using the frontend:
General Options: -h or --help Print this help and exit. --version Print program version and exit.
Image Options: -windowid id_of_window id of window to be recorded. -display DISPLAY Display to connect to. -x X Offset in x direction. -y Y Offset in y direction. -width N Width of recorded window. -height N Height of recorded window.
-dummy-cursor color Color of the dummy cursor [black|white] --no-cursor Disable drawing of the cursor. --with-shared Enable usage of MIT-shared memory extension at all times. --no-cond-shared Do not use the MIT-shared memory extension when aquiring large areas. -shared-threshold n Threshold over which shared memory is used(default 75). --full-shots Take full screenshot at every frame(Not recomended!). --quick-subsampling Do subsampling of the chroma planes by discarding,not averaging. -fps N(number>0.0) A positive number denoting desired framerate.
Sound Options: -channels N(number>0) A positive number denoting desired sound channels in recording. -freq N(number>0) A positive number denoting desired sound frequency. -device SOUND_DEVICE Sound device(default hw0:0). --no-sound Do not record sound.
Encoding Options --on-the-fly-encoding Encode the audio-video data, while recording. -v_quality n A number from 0 to 63 for desired encoded video quality(default 63). -v_bitrate n A number from 45000 to 2000000 for desired encoded video bitrate(default 45000). --drop-frames Allow theora encoder to drop frames. -s_quality n Desired audio quality(-1 to 10).
Misc Options: --no-wm-check Do not try to detect the window manager(and set options according to it) --zero-compression Image data are always cached uncompressed. -workdir DIR Location where a temporary directory will be created to hold project files(default $HOME). -delay n[H|h|M|m] Number of secs(default),minutes or hours before capture starts(number can be float) --overwrite If there is already a file with the same name, delete it (default is to add a number postfix to the new one). -o filename Name of recorded video(default out.ogg).
If no other options are specified, filename can be given without the -o switch.
I estimate the amount of time I would have to spend experimenting with all of the options and it's much for me to invest. So I hunker down and try this out:
$ recordmydesktop -o test.ogg Initial recording window is set to: X:0 Y:0 Width:1440 Height:900 Adjusted recording window is set to: X:0 Y:2 Width:1440 Height:896 Your window manager appears to be beryl
Detected 3d compositing window manager. Reverting to full screen capture at every frame. To disable this check run with --no-wm-check (though that is not advised, since it will probably produce faulty results).
Initializing... Playback frequency 22050Hz is not available... Using 44100Hz instead. Recording on device hw:0,0 is set to: 2 channels at 44100Hz Capturing! An error occured while reading sound data: Input/output error Shutting down.Saved 174 frames in a total of 182 requests .An error occured while reading sound data: Input/output error An error occured while reading sound data: Input/output error
An error occured while reading sound data: Input/output error An error occured while reading sound data: Input/output error An error occured while reading sound data: Input/output error An error occured while reading sound data: Input/output error An error occured while reading sound data: Input/output error An error occured while reading sound data: Input/output error An error occured while reading sound data: Input/output error Killed $
Now since I am using Beryl, I don't expect it to be perfect. But it didn't catch my sound hardware correctly. Testing with Beryl worked, but only if --no-sound was specified. Time to consult the FAQ again:
In order to record sound from a source(e.g. microphone) you have to set it through a mixer like kmix, gnome-mixer or alsamixer. recordMyDesktop will not set anything itself but it will rather start recording from any preselected source. To test if you can record you can run cat /dev/dsp on a terminal session It should start printing characters whenever sound reaches your selected source. Another reason for no sound might be the presence of more than one soundcards. In that case make sure you've set the right one (consult the manpage on how to do this).
Oh, okay:
Sound Options:
-channels N(number>0) A positive number denoting desired sound channels in recording.
-freq N(number>0) A positive number denoting desired sound frequency.
-device SOUND_DEVICE Sound device(default hw0:0).
--no-sound Do not record sound.
I don't see anything about that in the man page. Time to try another method of capturing. Hmm...xvidcap uses ffmpeg to encode captured video and audio. Nice. Let's try that.
$ sudo apt-get install xvidcap Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done E: Couldn't find package xvidcap
So I downloaded xvidcap_1.1.3-1_i386.deb from somewhere else and went on.
$ xvidcap xvidcap: error while loading shared libraries: libpng.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
It turns out the Debian repository linked from xvidcap's homepage only has 1.1.3, which is linked to libpng.so.2. xvidcap 1.1.4, from the Sourceforge page, loads fine.
So let's start recording! I press the record button and:
