I came across this post today. It is something that I need to do, but probably will never get around to it. Anyway, I figure if I link it, it will help me come back to it later.
Category: Uncategorized
Using a Brother MFC 8840D with Ubuntu
Today, I tried to make our Brother MFC 8840D Fax/Scanner/Copier/Printer work with my Laptop that has Ubuntu on it. I am currently running Hardy Heron 8.04 on it. Here is what I did:
Downloaded the brscan driver as a .deb file.
I installed sane and xsane, but they were already installed:
sudo apt-get install sane xsane
Then, I installed the driver package:
sudo dpkg -i brscan-0.2.4-0.i386.deb
Then, I configured it with:
brsaneconfig -a name=BrotherScanner model="MFC-8840D" ip=192.168.168.168
I checked the configuration with:
brsaneconfig -q
These lines looked correct:
Devices on network 0 BrotherScanner "MFC-8840D" I:192.168.168.168
I used xsane to scan, and everything worked fine — just like my printer/scanner at home.
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Sound for Mythbuntu
I couldn’t get my sound to work. Here is what I went through.
This command will help you figure out what is installed:
skp@peanut:~$ lspci -v | grep -i audio
00:10.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
This command can also help identify what is installed:
skp@peanut:~$ asoundconf list
Names of available sound cards:
NVidia
This command will also give you some clues:
skp@peanut:~$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC883 Analog [ALC883 Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: ALC883 Digital [ALC883 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
My problem was that this command said there were no sound devices. I found I need to make the following changes.
I added these lines to the /etc/modprobe.d/options file:
# from: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6313016
options snd-hda-intel model=3stack
I added these lines to the /etc/modules:
# from: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6313016
snd-hwdep
snd-hda-intel
Then, I rebooted, and the sound worked!
Mythbuntu Control Center
I just found a nice tool for Mythbuntu: the Mythbuntu Control Center.
You can launch it with:
$ mythbuntu-control-centre
X Configuration for My ESA Plasma TV
We bought a TV a while ago with the thought that one day we could hook the computer up to it. Well, that day has come, but I had trouble getting it to display correctly.
I enabled the restricted drivers for the nvidia video card. I could run nvidia-settings to configure the displays.
I had to add some options to me screen section in the xorg.conf to make it look like this:
Section “Screen”
Identifier “Screen0”
Device “Device0”
Monitor “Monitor0”
DefaultDepth 24
Option “TwinView”
Option “NoTwinViewXineramInfo” “1”
Option “metamodes” “1024x768_85,NULL”
Option “TwinViewOrientation” “RightOf”
Option “ModeValidation” “AllowNon60HzDFPModes,NoEdidModes,NoEdidDFPMaxSizeCheck,NoVertRefreshCheck,NoHorizSyncCheck,NoMaxSizeCheck,NoDFPNativeResolutionCheck”
Option “UseEDID” “FALSE”
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
Then, I found a nice tool to generate mode lines. I put the modeline in the monitor section:
Section “Monitor”
# HorizSync source: builtin, VertRefresh source: builtin
Identifier “Monitor0”
VendorName “Unknown”
ModelName “CRT-0”
HorizSync 28.0 – 55.0
VertRefresh 43.0 – 72.0
Option “DPMS”
ModeLine “1024x768_85” 69.54 1024 1056 1320 1352 576 586 594 605
EndSection
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PDFLatex
This post is just a fex explorations with latex. I had trouble with the images and PDFLatex. One thing I noticed was the pdftex.def version:
- installed: 0.04d
- currently listed at project website: 0.04l
Updating the pdftex.def (assuming downloaded to the desktop):
cd /usr/share/texmf-texlive/tex/latex/pdftex-def
sudo mv pdftex.def pdftex.def.old
sudo cp /home/skp/Desktop/pdftex.def-0.04l/pdftex.def .
Now, this didn’t solve the problem. I found that I had to convert the images to pdf. You need to install texlive-extra-utils: sudo apt-get install texlive-extra-utils
Then,
epstopdf imagename.eps
Here is a quick script that will convert all .eps images:
#!/bin/sh
cd images
for f in *.eps
do
epstopdf $f
done
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LaTeX to OpenOffice
I thought I read that converting Latex documents into Open Office documents was possible, but I had trouble figuring it out today. The bottom line was that I was using the wrong program to do so, and I didn’t have dvipng installed.
Where is oolatex?
When I typed oolatex on the command-line, the system couldn’t find the program. It turns out that oolatex just isn’t on the path. It is installed with the tex4ht system. When installed, it is located at:
/usr/share/tex4ht/oolatex
You can install it with:
apt-get install tex4ht
To compile a document you could use:
/usr/share/tex4ht/oolatex MyDoc.tex
Using htlatex
The command-line for htlatex is a little more complex, but it works. You can use htlatex to convert a document like this:
htlatex MyDoc.tex 'xhtml,ooffice' 'ooffice/! -cmozhtf' '-coo' '-cvalidate'
Using mk4ht
Mk4ht is much simpler. You can use mk4ht like this:
mk4ht oolatex MyDoc.tex
Images
I noticed this in the output:
sh: dvipng: not found
To fix it, I installed dvipng with:
sudo apt-get install dvipng
Then, the images worked fine.
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Java + Compiz
I have been having trouble with getting blank Windows with my Java programs. The problem first appeared in programs I was working on in Eclipse, but then I found other programs I had downloaded from SourceForge also had the same problem. Apparently, the problem comes from a conflict with Compiz-Fusion and Java.
Here is the solution:
Add the following line to /etc/environment —
AWT_TOOLKIT="MToolkit"
You possibly need to reboot for this change to take effect.
When I did this I got this error:
java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Can't load library: /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/i386
The problem appears to be caused by using OpenJDK. The solution was to use Sun’s JDK. This post will not go into detail about how to switch, but here are some things to consider:
- Install Sun’s JDK with Add/Remove Programs, apt-get, etc.
- Use update-alternatives to point the OS to the correct Java Home
- Run java -version to check that the correct version is in use
- Update the installed JVMs in the Eclipse preferences to make sure that Eclipse is lauching programs with the correct JVM
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winmail.dat
I received an email today from a user with Outlook. The email contained an attachment called winmail.dat. I tried to figure out how to view it in Thunderbird, and I couldn’t figure it out. I finally was able to view it online in GMail.
First, I tried to install the LookOut extension, but it didn’t work. I am guessing it doesn’t support new versions of Outlook. I don’t know.
Then, I tried TNEF. You can install it with “sudo apt-get install tnef”. I downloaded the winmail.dat file and ran “tnef winmail.dat”. The response was “Seems not to be a TNEF file”.
In synaptic, I noticed another program called ytnef. I tried that: “sudo apt-get install ytnef”. Again, “ytnef winmail.dat”. Reponse was “ERROR: Signature does not match. Not TNEF.”.
Finally, I checked my mail online with Gmail, and it displayed the embedded image without even complaining about a winmail.dat file!
Sorry that is not much help, but it solved the problem for now. Please comment if you know another solution.
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Mail Notifier
I found this nifty device on Engadget. My question is does it work with Linux? Also, can I have it notify only certain labels in GMail or mail from certain recipients? I don’t need to be notified when I have newsletters.