This post is part of my install notes for my Ubuntu 13.10 setup.
These are the steps that I took to set up my programming environment. Since I dabble in a myriad of different little projects, I need a myriad of different tools.
Author: sphillips
Adding Fonts
I was working on trying to throw together a fancy looking document, and I needed a calligraphy font. Fortunately, it was pretty easy to install the fonts.
Basically, I just placed the ttf file into a folder under /usr/share/fonts/truetype. To make it easier, I opened that folder up with root privileges.
sudo nautilus /usr/share/fonts/truetype
Then, I created a folder called “myfonts”. I copied the .ttf files into that new folder. These are the fonts that caught my eye for my needs:
Finally, I ran this command to refresh the font list:
sudo fc-cache -f -v
After that, I reopened Gimp, and I could see the font there available for use.
Resources
Ubuntu 13.10: Internet-Related Setup
This is my second post in setting up my Ubuntu 13.10 install. I am working to reinstall my laptop from scratch, and I have grouped all of my notes for my Internet-related programs in this post: email, browsers, VPN, etc.
Backup Experiments
In following up with my encryption experiments, I wanted to use the same virtual machine to do some backup experiments. Here’s the basic thought: I want to use the Redo Backup & Recovery CD to make an image of my virtual machine. Then, I want restore that image on a brand new virtual machine.
It’s pretty straight forward. Here are my notes…
Experiments with Encrypted Disks on Ubuntu
Because of some increased security demands, I decided that I need to explore and understand encrypted home directories. First, I want to see it work where I can’t see the information from a Live CD. Second, I want to make sure that I can still get to the information in case I have to rescue it from a Live CD.
So, here’s my experimentation…
Ubuntu 13.04: Finally Fixing my Touchpad
On my Ubuntu 13.04 installation, I have had trouble getting the touchpad to work. The driver just wouldn’t install. I finally figured it out.
Installing Brother Scanner Driver
I have an old article about installing the scanner driver for our Brother MFC 8840D Fax/Scanner/Copier/Printer. That was when things were simpler. Brother hasn’t kept up to date on their drivers, so I am updating this article.
Downloading
I downloaded the driver from Brother’s Website. Mine uses the brscan driver, not the brscan2. You can tell which one to use based on the model number listed on the download page.
Installing
I tried to install with the Ubuntu Software Center. It gives you some error messages when you do that. The official instructions say that you are supposed to install it like this:
sudo dpkg --force-all -i brscan-0.2.4-0.amd64.deb
I added my printer using this command:
brsaneconfig -a name=BrotherScanner model="MFC-8840D" ip=192.168.168.168
To make sure that it installed, look at the bottom of the output of this command:
brsaneconfig -q
Now, after all of that, it wouldn’t work. Come to find out, it puts the library files in the wrong directory. Thanks to Chargen, I found an easy fix:
for driver in /usr/lib64/sane/*; do sudo ln -s $driver /usr/lib/sane/$(basename $driver); done
And, run this one, too.
for lib in /usr/lib64/libbrscandec.so*; do sudo ln -s $lib /usr/lib/$(basename $lib); done
That fixed the problem!
Resources
Synthesizing an Accapella Song with Festival Speech Synthesis
I have played with Festival before. It will easily generate speech from written commands. It seems pretty full featured. But, I have always wanted to add pitch. Could I make it sing the words?
Making Git Ignore File Permissions
I found a cool little trick today. The file permissions are making git think that the file changed. There is a simple command that tells it to ignore those changes:
git config core.filemode false