Discover Ubuntu

Thethering your iPhone on Ubuntu 10.04

MercuryLife — Sat, 22 May 2010 19:32:30 +0000

It’s pretty easy if you know what to do.

Here are the repositories from Paul Emery:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/pmcenery/ppa/ubuntu lucid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/pmcenery/ppa/ubuntu lucid main

Go to “Software source”, click on the “Other software” tab and then click on add. Copy and paste on of the above lines (PPA’s) into the space provided and click on “Add source”. Repeat this for the other PPA.

Once this is done close your Software Sources program and let it update.
Then go to your “Synaptic Package Manager” and do a search for “ipheth”. Tick all the applications that come up and click on apply.

Once this is done, an iPhone with tethering set up with your network should fire up automatically.

Installing fonts onto ubuntu

MercuryLife — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 12:06:04 +0000

While Ubuntu is quickly becoming a linux distribution that everyone can use, some things are still a bit tricky, like installing fonts.

Here’s how it’s done:

Go to your home folder
Enable “Show Hidden Files” option from Nautilus View menu
Then create new folder with name “.fonts” (with dot in front)
Now in new folder copy all your true type fonts. If you want to copy your Windows fonts, you can find it in WINDOWS/Fonts folder.
Now restart and new fonts will be in use.

Hope that helps.

Huawei Vodafone 3G Connect Card

MercuryLife — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:59:07 +0000

I have just moved from using my cellphone as a modem to using the new Huawei G Connect Card from Vodafone/Vodacom. Fortunately, compared to setting up you phone as a modem, this process is farely easy. There’s a Vodafone endorsed site called http://forge.vodafonebetavine.net – they have put together some handy connection software that works straight away.

Now I don’t know how to install tarballz and all that so I went through there older versions to find a “.deb” file. I installed that and it worked straight away. Just have your SIM password handy and it’ll do the rest for you.

It is very encouraging to see that possibly the biggest cellular provider in the world is supporting linux users.

Enjoy!

Hardy Heron update

MercuryLife — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:29:05 +0000

With the latest Hardy Heron release, here is the command to use in terminal to get it multimedia ready:

sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 w32codecs

Enjoy!

Using Ardour

MercuryLife — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:03:41 +0000

The leading free DAW (digital audio workstation) is Ardour. I am told it is modeled on the functionality of ProTools, which can’t be a bad thing. I have been playing around with it now for about a year. Here’s my take on it:

CONS

The first thing you’ll notice about Ardour is that it is NOT the easiest tool to use. Controls are a bit complicated and fiddley. It all tends to be quite glitchey: it freezes randomly and sometimes the track you just recording does not show a wave diagram (although it has in fact recorded something). It also requires a fairly high spec PC for it to really shine, but that is the case with most high end DAW’s.

PROS

That being said, the glitches should iron out as the Ardour developers progress, because there are professionals who are beginning to partner with Ardour to make it work for them. Also, although it is quite fiddley, all the functions a professional studio would need are there. So all it takes is a bit of getting used to. Now that I am accustomed to Ardour, the functionality blows me away. You can automate just about everything (volume controls, panning & plugins – and there’s probably more!). The availability of quality LADSPA plugins (linux plugin format) is getting better and better and the quality is really up there. With a good computer and gear, you would easily be able to come up with professional projects with Ardour. And on top of all that it’s free! Even if you donated $100 to the guys at Ardour, you’d still be saving hundreds on an equivalent commercial option like Protool.

To me, projects like Ardour are the way of the future. Coupled with Linux’s powerful JACK application, which allows you to get all your audio programmmes to speak to each other, there isn’t much reason for a Home Studio artist to go out and spend thousands on software. Rather spend your money on good gear. The road to excellent quality recording is getting easier and easier.

Recording on Linux

MercuryLife — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:17:31 +0000

I have decided, as a musician recording at home, to use ubuntu along with other free packages for my computer based recording. Although it is a free platform, the packages on offer are useful, well thought out and reaching a professional quality as things progress.

My key packages so far have been:

JACK (jack audio connection kit) control – the best secret weapon linux based recording has to offer. Use it to connect various software packages and computers together.
ARDOUR – the best free DAW on offer
LMMS – Linux multimedia studio – similar to FL Studio or Fruityloops
WIRED – A sequencer/sampler/DAW. Still not fully functional on ubuntu, but it’s going to be awsome when it is!
Hydrogen – a simple, yet powerful drum machine. Comes with pretty good default drum kits.
JAMin – a mastering kit. Route Ardour through to it or just play your mixdown into it. Comes with multiband EQ and compressor.

If you really want to gear your computer for multimedia, download ubuntu studio (ubuntustudio.org) or, if you have ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) go to this link (click here) and run the commands in terminal. Ubuntu studio comes with a cool desktop theme.

DVD Playback

MercuryLife — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:31:07 +0000

Your standard ubuntu is packaged with a regular version of Totem Movie player – a really handy movie player. However, it is not packaged with DVD playback for licensing reasons.

In order to get DVD playback go to your terminal (APPLICATIONS >ACCESSORIES >TERMINAL) and type in this command (you’ll need to be connected to the internet):

sudo apt-get install libdvdread3 libxine1-ffmpeg totem-xine build-essential debhelper fakeroot

And press enter. Then type in this command:

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh

And press enter. This should set your computer to play DVD’s. Enjoy!

Easy link to run wvdial…

MercuryLife — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:28:33 +0000

I realised that there is a small error on the tutorial by the blog I made a link to.

Where it says “sudo gedit etc/wvdial.conf” you need to put a “/” in front of “etc” so that it looks like this: “sudo gedit /etc/wvdial.conf” – otherwise you end up creating a file which is useless to you.

Okay, now instead of leaving Terminal open with your “sudo wvdial” command running. Make a link to the wvdial file itself.

Do this:

Right click on your “Application Menu”
Select “edit Menus”
Then click on the “Internet” section under Applications
On the right hand side you’ll see “+ New Item”, click on it
Next to name write whatever you want to call it, I wrote “Connect to Internet”
Click on the browse button next to “Command”
Go to “File System”, “usr”, “bin” and type “wvdial” to find the file
Select the “wvdial” file and click on “Open”
Then, if you like, you can add a comment, I left it blank
Now click on the picture of the spring-board at the top left of the window to select the icon you want to use
And then click “Okay”
Select “Close” and your link to wvdial should be in your “Applications” menu under “Internet”
Now you don’t need to leave the terminal open when you’re using the internet!

Using cellphone as modem

MercuryLife — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:32:07 +0000

In South Africa one of the most useful things is to be able to use your gprs / 3G / HSDPA enabled phone as a modem.

I tried for ages to connect my Sony Ericsson M600i to my ubuntu box without any luck.

This blog (click here for blog) worked perfectly and my guess is that it will work for most phones. Hopefully this is the answer to your internet problems.