Sorry I’ve been busy with a lot of paper works lately. I just bought a HP Officejet 5610 and has been printing quite a lot documents. This is an ALL IN ONE series, has the capability of scan, print and fax, ideal solution for small business environment. My previous HP PSC 1400 is passed to another friend.

I use my debian box to physically connect to the device with usb cable. Setting up the printer should be as easy as my previous HP PSC 1400 how-to. There’s one extra package needs to be installed for this model.

• hpijs-ppds

This is a collection of HP printers’ ppd files. 5610 appears to be in it.

Sharing HP Officejet 5610

Following my previous how-to, the device should be running fine on the Linux platform. Now let’s share it on the local network. Here’s my Samba config file for printers.

[global]
printing = cups               # tell samba that we'd like CUPS for printing
printcap name = cups

[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
create mask = 0700
printable = Yes
browseable = No

[print$]
comment = Printer Drivers
path = /var/lib/samba/printers

[HP_OfficeJet_5610]
printable = Yes
printer name = HP_OfficeJet_5610
guest ok = yes
use client driver = yes
path = /var/spool/samba
printing = cups

[color=red]Note: Add necessary lines instead of copy and paste, do not remove your original config lines.[/color]

Restart your samba service after editing the config file.

/etc/init.d/samba restart

Installing HP Officejet 5610 as network printer on Windows

On Windows machine, we need to locate the device. Use Windows Explorer and search your network. For fast access I always input following line in the address bar.

\\\\ip_or_hostname\\

You should see a printer name “HP_Officejet_5610″(as my samba settings). Double click on the printer will prompt you dialog to install the printer’s driver. Unfortunately, bundled installation cd has no available driver for user to extract. We have to look for alternative here.

Thanks so much to the CUPS team, they have a windows version of CUPS driver available. You can download it here. Download the .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 version on to your windows machine. Extract the file to somewhere on your desktop.

During the selection of driver, click “Have Disk”, and browse to the latest extracted folder, the driver file will be “cups-windows-6.0\\i386\\cups6.inf“, and there you go, print your test page.

You can repeat this step on any other windows machine you wish to access the printer.

Here’s a test page of Windows XP using CUPS driver.

Please share your experience with me.

References:

http://www.mail-archive.com/hplip-help@lists.sourceforge.net/msg03674.html
http://forums.xandros.com/viewtopic.php?t=19385&start=0

Sorry I’ve been busy with a lot of paper works lately. I just bought a HP Officejet 5610 and has been printing quite a lot documents. This is an ALL IN ONE series, has the capability of scan, print and fax, ideal solution for small business environment. My previous HP PSC 1400 is passed to another friend.

I use my debian box to physically connect to the device with usb cable. Setting up the printer should be as easy as my previous HP PSC 1400 how-to. There’s one extra package needs to be installed for this model.

• hpijs-ppds

This is a collection of HP printers’ ppd files. 5610 appears to be in it.

Sharing HP Officejet 5610

Following my previous how-to, the device should be running fine on the Linux platform. Now let’s share it on the local network. Here’s my Samba config file for printers.

[global]
printing = cups               # tell samba that we'd like CUPS for printing
printcap name = cups

[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
create mask = 0700
printable = Yes
browseable = No

[print$]
comment = Printer Drivers
path = /var/lib/samba/printers

[HP_OfficeJet_5610]
printable = Yes
printer name = HP_OfficeJet_5610
guest ok = yes
use client driver = yes
path = /var/spool/samba
printing = cups

[color=red]Note: Add necessary lines instead of copy and paste, do not remove your original config lines.[/color]

Restart your samba service after editing the config file.

/etc/init.d/samba restart

Installing HP Officejet 5610 as network printer on Windows

On Windows machine, we need to locate the device. Use Windows Explorer and search your network. For fast access I always input following line in the address bar.

\\\\ip_or_hostname\\

You should see a printer name “HP_Officejet_5610″(as my samba settings). Double click on the printer will prompt you dialog to install the printer’s driver. Unfortunately, bundled installation cd has no available driver for user to extract. We have to look for alternative here.

Thanks so much to the CUPS team, they have a windows version of CUPS driver available. You can download it here. Download the .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 version on to your windows machine. Extract the file to somewhere on your desktop.

During the selection of driver, click “Have Disk”, and browse to the latest extracted folder, the driver file will be “cups-windows-6.0\\i386\\cups6.inf“, and there you go, print your test page.

You can repeat this step on any other windows machine you wish to access the printer.

Here’s a test page of Windows XP using CUPS driver.

Please share your experience with me.

References:

http://www.mail-archive.com/hplip-help@lists.sourceforge.net/msg03674.html
http://forums.xandros.com/viewtopic.php?t=19385&start=0

AmaroK with lyrics auto-loaded.

Locale Settings

First, you have to make sure that your locale environment is setup properly. In my environment, I’m able to input chinese(big5 or GB) and English, switching with hotkey CTRL-SPACE. Files can be saved in chinese file names(big5 or GB). It is useful if you can save your chinese music files in chinese file names, I will tell you why later.

Download This Script, Lyrics CN

This script is created by sanfanling. He’s uploaded the script to kde-apps.org. Many thanks to him.

However, the original version did not work properly for me. I had to tweak a small portion of the codes to make it work in my environment. Download my tweaked version here.(Please change the file name to ‘Lyrics_CN.amarokscript.tar.gz‘ after download, strange WordPress behaviour). It is a python script, you will need to have python installed on your system.

Install Lyrics CN

After you have the Lyrics_CN.amarokscript.tar.gz in place, open your AmaroK -> Tools -> Script Manager
. Click on ‘Install Script’ button to browse the location of the .tar.gz file and open it. Highlight the “Lyrics_CN” entry in the script list and click on “Run”.

How does it work

This script will make use of your media’s title, artist, and album tag information, send a query to various lyrics databases, including mp3.baidu.com, sohu.com, yahoo.com.cn, lyrc.com.ar and hk.music.yahoo.com. It is crucial that you have your media’s tags organized, so there is sufficient information for the query. Successfully loaded lyrics will be displayed in Context Browser -> Lyrics tab. The script will send query to baidu.com as default, if the lyric is not found, you will have options to search from sohu.com or yahoo.com.

Tips for Chinese Media Files

Always store your media files in chinese file names. For example, I always save music albums this way “Artist – Album/trackNo.title.mp3″, then make use of the “Guess Tags from filename” button in Track Information. In this way I don’t have to input the tags manually. Filename scheme for above file saving technique will be “%artist – %album/%track.%title“, make use of this feature will save you a lot of time.

As For Windows

Sorry, AmaroK is not for Windows. If you can read mandarin, and don’t mind using a full mandarin program, please try ttplayer. It has a very cool line by line lyric display feature.

Share your experience with me please.

My second AmaroK entry, you can look at the first entry here. Auto loading lyrics has been an useful feature in AmaroK, it really saves a lot of time for me.

AmaroK with lyrics auto-loaded.

Locale Settings

First, you have to make sure that your locale environment is setup properly. In my environment, I’m able to input chinese(big5 or GB) and English, switching with hotkey CTRL-SPACE. Files can be saved in chinese file names(big5 or GB). It is useful if you can save your chinese music files in chinese file names, I will tell you why later.

Download This Script, Lyrics CN

This script is created by sanfanling. He’s uploaded the script to kde-apps.org. Many thanks to him.

However, the original version did not work properly for me. I had to tweak a small portion of the codes to make it work in my environment. Download my tweaked version here.(Please change the file name to ‘Lyrics_CN.amarokscript.tar.gz‘ after download, strange WordPress behaviour). It is a python script, you will need to have python installed on your system.

Install Lyrics CN

After you have the Lyrics_CN.amarokscript.tar.gz in place, open your AmaroK -> Tools -> Script Manager
. Click on ‘Install Script’ button to browse the location of the .tar.gz file and open it. Highlight the “Lyrics_CN” entry in the script list and click on “Run”.

How does it work

This script will make use of your media’s title, artist, and album tag information, send a query to various lyrics databases, including mp3.baidu.com, sohu.com, yahoo.com.cn, lyrc.com.ar and hk.music.yahoo.com. It is crucial that you have your media’s tags organized, so there is sufficient information for the query. Successfully loaded lyrics will be displayed in Context Browser -> Lyrics tab. The script will send query to baidu.com as default, if the lyric is not found, you will have options to search from sohu.com or yahoo.com.

Tips for Chinese Media Files

Always store your media files in chinese file names. For example, I always save music albums this way “Artist – Album/trackNo.title.mp3″, then make use of the “Guess Tags from filename” button in Track Information. In this way I don’t have to input the tags manually. Filename scheme for above file saving technique will be “%artist – %album/%track.%title“, make use of this feature will save you a lot of time.

As For Windows

Sorry, AmaroK is not for Windows. If you can read mandarin, and don’t mind using a full mandarin program, please try ttplayer. It has a very cool line by line lyric display feature.

Share your experience with me please.

DeKorator

DeKorator is a KDE native window decoration, consider it as a kwin-style plugin, because installing it will not give you anything visually. You will need to find its related theme online, DeKorator themes.

The program is available in Debian Unstable repository, kwin-style-dekorator. Use your favorite package manager to install it. Once it is installed, you should be able to select it in Control Center -> Appearance & Themes -> Window Decorations. Now look at the interface.

DeKorator Theme Installation

New DeKorator themes can be installed using the “Install Theme” button. All you need to do is copy and paste the download link from kde-look.org into the pop up window. You can find the list here. For example, let’s choose Plastic for DeKorator. Just right click and copy the download link and paste it into the pop up window after you click on “Install theme”. Once the theme is installed, highlight it in the list and click on “Set Theme Path” button, and then apply, you will be good to go.

Alternative Installation Method

The Install Theme Button did not work for me somehow, but this is Linux hey! After a little bit of testing, I’ve found out an alternative way to get DeKorator themes installed. Just download the theme file(.tar.gz or .tar.bz2), save it somewhere on your desktop. Extract the file into ~/.kde/share/apps/deKorator/themes, and open up Control Center, the theme will be in the list, just set the theme path and there you go again.

Note: The directory name of the theme must be ended with “theme”. So in the path, it will look like this “~/.kde/share/apps/deKorator/themes/Plastic-theme”. This is specified in the DeKorator’s help file.

Share your experience with me please. I’m currently using the Theme-Manager’s theme, Smooth Gray.

Yes, back with some tweaks on my debian box. For someone who faces monitor most of the time, boring desktop can kill the day. This is another post for the KDE desktop fans, look at this window decoration.

DeKorator

DeKorator is a KDE native window decoration, consider it as a kwin-style plugin, because installing it will not give you anything visually. You will need to find its related theme online, DeKorator themes.

The program is available in Debian Unstable repository, kwin-style-dekorator. Use your favorite package manager to install it. Once it is installed, you should be able to select it in Control Center -> Appearance & Themes -> Window Decorations. Now look at the interface.

DeKorator Theme Installation

New DeKorator themes can be installed using the “Install Theme” button. All you need to do is copy and paste the download link from kde-look.org into the pop up window. You can find the list here. For example, let’s choose Plastic for DeKorator. Just right click and copy the download link and paste it into the pop up window after you click on “Install theme”. Once the theme is installed, highlight it in the list and click on “Set Theme Path” button, and then apply, you will be good to go.

Alternative Installation Method

The Install Theme Button did not work for me somehow, but this is Linux hey! After a little bit of testing, I’ve found out an alternative way to get DeKorator themes installed. Just download the theme file(.tar.gz or .tar.bz2), save it somewhere on your desktop. Extract the file into ~/.kde/share/apps/deKorator/themes, and open up Control Center, the theme will be in the list, just set the theme path and there you go again.

Note: The directory name of the theme must be ended with “theme”. So in the path, it will look like this “~/.kde/share/apps/deKorator/themes/Plastic-theme”. This is specified in the DeKorator’s help file.

Share your experience with me please. I’m currently using the Theme-Manager’s theme, Smooth Gray.

Compiz is OpenGL-based compositing and window-manager for Linux. Sort of 3D Desktop, like what you get in Windows Vista, only it has relatively more features and plugins. It is pretty much in development, so some tweaks have to be made in order to make it work. Ubuntu has it integrated in the desktop environment pretty well I’ve heard. Let’s get on to it.

First, get these packages in the Unstable pool. Apply necessary dependency.

• compiz
• compiz-core
• compiz-gnome
• compiz-gtk
• compiz-kde
• compiz-plugins
• libdecoration0
• gconf-editor

Please be informed that you must have the latest Nvidia video driver installed.(I’m using Nvidia 1.0.9755-1 as of writing)

You need to edit your xorg.conf at /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Please do not copy and paste the following entirely, add in lines section by section.

Section "Extensions"
        Option          "Composite"             "enable"
EndSection

I did not have “Extensions” section in the conf, this is a whole new section.

Section "InputDevice"
#key board section
        Option          "XkbOptions"    "altwin:super_win"
EndSection

Applying a new key to your keyboard’s “Window Key”, it’s called the “Super Key”.

Section "Device"
        Option          "AllowGLXWithComposite"         "true"
        Option          "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"         "true"
EndSection

Applying GLX in the device section.

Section "Screen"
        Option          "AddARGBGLXVisuals"             "true"
        Option          "DisableGLXRootClipping"        "true"
EndSection

Another 2 values in Screen section.

After applying the changes above, restart your X by holding CRTL + ALT + BACKSPACE.

Now in your KDE desktop, open Konsole and type

compiz --replace gconf & kde-window-decorator &

[color=red]NOTE: It’s two dashes “––” for “––replace”[/color]
You should now notice when you minimize or maximize window, it has the wobbly effect. If something is not right, for example you don’t see borders for your window. Simply switch back to kwin with this command

kwin --replace

Additional Compiz Configurations

To achieve more satisfying results from Compiz, you can tweak its config with gconf-editor. Simply type gconf-editor in Konsole. Compiz config is in apps > compiz > general > allscreens > options

Active plugins is where you specify the plugins you would like to use, simply edit the key and add in value(refer to apps > compiz > plugins). Plugins I’ve found useful are screenshot, png, fade, minimize. Please do not remove those enabled by default.

Compiz General Features

1. Zoom – Super Key(the “Windows” key) + Mouse Wheel.
   Wonderful feature when viewing web pages, direct zoom for better visuals.
2. Transparency – Mouse over a window, then ALT + Mouse Wheel Down.
   Useful when you want to keep a window opened in full size but still need to refer to another window’s content.
3. Expose – Point your mouse to the TOP RIGHT CORNER of your screens.
   This is another useful features when you have many windows opened at once without minimizing them. You can get to the window you want right away.
4. Screenshot – Super Key + Left-Click Drag(Select a region)
   Instant png saved to your desktop, just the area you selected! How cool is that? No need to edit with GIMP for desired image anymore.

These are the features I find useful for a power desktop user. Of course there are more, you can check in the sources I list down below.

Autostart Compiz with KDE

In order to start compiz automatically when log on to KDE. Create a new file ~/.kde/Autostart/compiz.desktop, with the following content

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Exec=compiz --replace gconf & kde-window-decorator &
GenericName[en_US]=
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-KDE-autostart-after=kdesktop

That’s it, kind of troublesome but it definitely worths it. Please discuss with me if you have any tip or encounter any problem.

Sources:
http://compiz.org/How_to_compile_and_run_Compiz_for_nvidia_card_users
http://wiki.debian.org/Compiz
http://technowizah.com/2006/10/debian-how-to-aiglx-compiz.html

It’s been a while since I wrote about Debian, I don’t have much time to try anything new recently so I just use it as it is. During my latest package update, I’ve found out that Compiz has been added into the Unstable repository. Quite an exciting finding to me, I’m always into desktop eye candy.

Compiz is OpenGL-based compositing and window-manager for Linux. Sort of 3D Desktop, like what you get in Windows Vista, only it has relatively more features and plugins. It is pretty much in development, so some tweaks have to be made in order to make it work. Ubuntu has it integrated in the desktop environment pretty well I’ve heard. Let’s get on to it.

First, get these packages in the Unstable pool. Apply necessary dependency.

• compiz
• compiz-core
• compiz-gnome
• compiz-gtk
• compiz-kde
• compiz-plugins
• libdecoration0
• gconf-editor

Please be informed that you must have the latest Nvidia video driver installed.(I’m using Nvidia 1.0.9755-1 as of writing)

You need to edit your xorg.conf at /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Please do not copy and paste the following entirely, add in lines section by section.

Section "Extensions"
        Option          "Composite"             "enable"
EndSection

I did not have “Extensions” section in the conf, this is a whole new section.

Section "InputDevice"
#key board section
        Option          "XkbOptions"    "altwin:super_win"
EndSection

Applying a new key to your keyboard’s “Window Key”, it’s called the “Super Key”.

Section "Device"
        Option          "AllowGLXWithComposite"         "true"
        Option          "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"         "true"
EndSection

Applying GLX in the device section.

Section "Screen"
        Option          "AddARGBGLXVisuals"             "true"
        Option          "DisableGLXRootClipping"        "true"
EndSection

Another 2 values in Screen section.

After applying the changes above, restart your X by holding CRTL + ALT + BACKSPACE.

Now in your KDE desktop, open Konsole and type

compiz --replace gconf & kde-window-decorator &

[color=red]NOTE: It’s two dashes “––” for “––replace”[/color]
You should now notice when you minimize or maximize window, it has the wobbly effect. If something is not right, for example you don’t see borders for your window. Simply switch back to kwin with this command

kwin --replace

Additional Compiz Configurations

To achieve more satisfying results from Compiz, you can tweak its config with gconf-editor. Simply type gconf-editor in Konsole. Compiz config is in apps > compiz > general > allscreens > options

Active plugins is where you specify the plugins you would like to use, simply edit the key and add in value(refer to apps > compiz > plugins). Plugins I’ve found useful are screenshot, png, fade, minimize. Please do not remove those enabled by default.

Compiz General Features

1. Zoom – Super Key(the “Windows” key) + Mouse Wheel.
   Wonderful feature when viewing web pages, direct zoom for better visuals.
2. Transparency – Mouse over a window, then ALT + Mouse Wheel Down.
   Useful when you want to keep a window opened in full size but still need to refer to another window’s content.
3. Expose – Point your mouse to the TOP RIGHT CORNER of your screens.
   This is another useful features when you have many windows opened at once without minimizing them. You can get to the window you want right away.
4. Screenshot – Super Key + Left-Click Drag(Select a region)
   Instant png saved to your desktop, just the area you selected! How cool is that? No need to edit with GIMP for desired image anymore.

These are the features I find useful for a power desktop user. Of course there are more, you can check in the sources I list down below.

Autostart Compiz with KDE

In order to start compiz automatically when log on to KDE. Create a new file ~/.kde/Autostart/compiz.desktop, with the following content

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Exec=compiz --replace gconf & kde-window-decorator &
GenericName[en_US]=
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-KDE-autostart-after=kdesktop

That’s it, kind of troublesome but it definitely worths it. Please discuss with me if you have any tip or encounter any problem.

Sources:
http://compiz.org/How_to_compile_and_run_Compiz_for_nvidia_card_users
http://wiki.debian.org/Compiz
http://technowizah.com/2006/10/debian-how-to-aiglx-compiz.html

Visit the download page here. On my desk, there are one IBM Thinkpad(Windows XP) and a PC(Debian GNU Linux). I’m going to share one set of logitech keyboard and mouse across these two machines.

Decide which machine to be the server. In my case, I’m going to choose Debian machine as the synergy server, no doubt. The IBM Thinkpad is going to be the client machine. Before you start, you should make sure that, all machines involved must have TCP/IP connections. In other word, local area network is needed.

Setting Synergy Server on Debian machine

This requires a little work. I’m on Debian Unstable, Synergy is available in the repository. Just use your favorite package manager and install it. After the installation, nothing will be changed on the desktop screen yet.

A config file needs to be created in order to startup the Synergy Server. In my case, I create a new config file in /etc/synergy. Both the directory and the file are not existing, you will need to create them yourself.
[code]
mkdir /etc/synergy
touch /etc/synergy/synergy.conf
[/code]
I name the file synergy.conf. Now edit the file with your favorite editor.

[code]
section: screens
hostname1:
hostname2:
end

section: links
hostname1:
left=hostname2
hostname2:
right=hostname1
end
[/code]
Replace hostname1 and hostname2 with the actual hostnames of your machines, and set their positions. In my case there are only 2 screens, one is next to each other.

To start synergy server with the newly created config:
[code]
synergys -f --config /etc/synergy/synergy.conf
[/code]
At this point you should see a lot of output in the console. If it states that server successfully started, then leave it running there for the moment. Let’s continue to setting up the Windows XP client.

Setting up Synergy Client on Windows XP

Download the SynergyInstaller from the download page. After the installation, you should see a Synergy desktop icon. Double click and you will see this.

For me, entering the hostname did not work. I had to enter the local IP address of Debian Machine to get this to work. Once the client has successfully established connection with the server, you should be able to drag your mouse across the screens, and keyboard will work in the screen your mouse stays on. Easy task, right?

Key features that I like about Synergy

1. Multiple O/S support. This is the crucial feature of software development.
2. COPY and PASTE. Sweetest of all! Now I can copy and paste text across the screens. Great for programmers.

Autostarting

You can set Synergy to autostart when you boot up your machines.

On Debian
You need add a few lines into several KDE files.(I’m a KDE user).

1. /etc/kde3/kdm/Xsetup
   [code]
   /usr/bin/killall synergys
   sleep 1
   /usr/bin/synergys --config /etc/synergy/synergy.conf
   [/code]
2. /etc/kde3/kdm/Xstartup
   [code]
   /usr/bin/killall synergys
   sleep 1
   [/code]
3. /etc/kde3/kdm/Xsession
   [code]
   /usr/bin/killall synergys
   sleep 1
   /usr/bin/synergys --config /etc/synergy/synergy.conf
   [/code]

On Windows
Simply click on Autostart button in the program. Refer to picture above. You can choose “When computer starts” or “When you login”, depends on your requirement here. I’ve chosen “when computer starts”.

Here’s my desk.

That’s it. This is a long post, please correct me if you find any spelling error. Also check out nice multi monitor setup got featured on lifehacker.com

I’ve been wanting to do this, I can’t work comfortably with the laptop’s keypad, especially without numpad. Now this is one innovative open source program that needs some serious credit. Synergy, lets you share a single set of keyboard and mouse across multiple operating systems, namely, Windows, Linux and Mac.

Visit the download page here. On my desk, there are one IBM Thinkpad(Windows XP) and a PC(Debian GNU Linux). I’m going to share one set of logitech keyboard and mouse across these two machines.

Decide which machine to be the server. In my case, I’m going to choose Debian machine as the synergy server, no doubt. The IBM Thinkpad is going to be the client machine. Before you start, you should make sure that, all machines involved must have TCP/IP connections. In other word, local area network is needed.

Setting Synergy Server on Debian machine

This requires a little work. I’m on Debian Unstable, Synergy is available in the repository. Just use your favorite package manager and install it. After the installation, nothing will be changed on the desktop screen yet.

A config file needs to be created in order to startup the Synergy Server. In my case, I create a new config file in /etc/synergy. Both the directory and the file are not existing, you will need to create them yourself.
[code]
mkdir /etc/synergy
touch /etc/synergy/synergy.conf
[/code]
I name the file synergy.conf. Now edit the file with your favorite editor.

[code]
section: screens
hostname1:
hostname2:
end

section: links
hostname1:
left=hostname2
hostname2:
right=hostname1
end
[/code]
Replace hostname1 and hostname2 with the actual hostnames of your machines, and set their positions. In my case there are only 2 screens, one is next to each other.

To start synergy server with the newly created config:
[code]
synergys -f --config /etc/synergy/synergy.conf
[/code]
At this point you should see a lot of output in the console. If it states that server successfully started, then leave it running there for the moment. Let’s continue to setting up the Windows XP client.

Setting up Synergy Client on Windows XP

Download the SynergyInstaller from the download page. After the installation, you should see a Synergy desktop icon. Double click and you will see this.

For me, entering the hostname did not work. I had to enter the local IP address of Debian Machine to get this to work. Once the client has successfully established connection with the server, you should be able to drag your mouse across the screens, and keyboard will work in the screen your mouse stays on. Easy task, right?

Key features that I like about Synergy

1. Multiple O/S support. This is the crucial feature of software development.
2. COPY and PASTE. Sweetest of all! Now I can copy and paste text across the screens. Great for programmers.

Autostarting

You can set Synergy to autostart when you boot up your machines.

On Debian
You need add a few lines into several KDE files.(I’m a KDE user).

1. /etc/kde3/kdm/Xsetup
   [code]
   /usr/bin/killall synergys
   sleep 1
   /usr/bin/synergys --config /etc/synergy/synergy.conf
   [/code]
2. /etc/kde3/kdm/Xstartup
   [code]
   /usr/bin/killall synergys
   sleep 1
   [/code]
3. /etc/kde3/kdm/Xsession
   [code]
   /usr/bin/killall synergys
   sleep 1
   /usr/bin/synergys --config /etc/synergy/synergy.conf
   [/code]

On Windows
Simply click on Autostart button in the program. Refer to picture above. You can choose “When computer starts” or “When you login”, depends on your requirement here. I’ve chosen “when computer starts”.

Here’s my desk.

That’s it. This is a long post, please correct me if you find any spelling error. Also check out nice multi monitor setup got featured on lifehacker.com

Graphics:

• The GIMP – free software replacement for Adobe Photoshop
• F-Spot – full-featured personal photo management application for the GNOME desktop
• Google Picasa – application for organizing and editing digital photos

Internet:

• Iceweasel (Debian’s name for Firefox)
• Opera
• Flash Player 9
• gFTP – multithreaded FTP client
• Icedove (Debian’s name for Thunderbird) – email and news client
• Evolution – combines e-mail, calendar, address book, and task list management functions
• aMule – P2P file sharing application
• Azureus – Java Bittorrent client
• Gaim – multi-platform instant messaging client
• Skype
• Google Earth
• Xchat IRC – IRC client

Office:

• OpenOffice Writer – replacement for Microsoft Word
• OpenOffice Calc – replacement for Microsoft Excel
• Adobe Reader
• GnuCash – double-entry book-keeping personal finance system, similar to Quicken
• Scribus – open source desktop publishing (DTP) application

Sound & Video:

• Amarok – audio player
• Audacity – free, open source, cross platform digital audio editor
• Banshee – audio player, can encode/decode various formats and synchronize music with Apple iPods
• MPlayer – media player (video/audio), supports WMA
• Rhythmbox Music Player – audio player, similar to Apple’s iTunes, with support for iPods
• gtkPod – software similar to Apple’s iTunes, supports iPod, iPod nano, iPod shuffle, iPod photo, and iPod mini
• XMMS – audio player similar to Winamp
• dvd::rip – full featured DVD copy program
• Kino – free digital video editor
• Sound Juicer CD Extractor – CD ripping tool, supports various audio codecs
• VLC Media Player – media player (video/audio)
• Real Player
• Totem – media player (video/audio)
• Xine – media player, supports various formats; can play DVDs
• GnomeBaker – CD/DVD burning program
• K3B – CD/DVD burning program
• Multimedia-Codecs

Programming:

• Nvu- WYSIWYG HTML editor, similar to Macromedia Dreamweaver, but not as feature-rich (yet)
• Bluefish – text editor, suitable for many programming and markup languages
• Quanta Plus – web development environment, including a WYSIWYG editor

Do you still need anything more? Please continue to read the detailed how-to here.

Howtoforge.com has a detailed how-to for installation of newly released Debian Etch(4.0). I have to list down some of programs the author uses to perform daily desktop tasks.

Graphics:

• The GIMP – free software replacement for Adobe Photoshop
• F-Spot – full-featured personal photo management application for the GNOME desktop
• Google Picasa – application for organizing and editing digital photos

Internet:

• Iceweasel (Debian’s name for Firefox)
• Opera
• Flash Player 9
• gFTP – multithreaded FTP client
• Icedove (Debian’s name for Thunderbird) – email and news client
• Evolution – combines e-mail, calendar, address book, and task list management functions
• aMule – P2P file sharing application
• Azureus – Java Bittorrent client
• Gaim – multi-platform instant messaging client
• Skype
• Google Earth
• Xchat IRC – IRC client

Office:

• OpenOffice Writer – replacement for Microsoft Word
• OpenOffice Calc – replacement for Microsoft Excel
• Adobe Reader
• GnuCash – double-entry book-keeping personal finance system, similar to Quicken
• Scribus – open source desktop publishing (DTP) application

Sound & Video:

• Amarok – audio player
• Audacity – free, open source, cross platform digital audio editor
• Banshee – audio player, can encode/decode various formats and synchronize music with Apple iPods
• MPlayer – media player (video/audio), supports WMA
• Rhythmbox Music Player – audio player, similar to Apple’s iTunes, with support for iPods
• gtkPod – software similar to Apple’s iTunes, supports iPod, iPod nano, iPod shuffle, iPod photo, and iPod mini
• XMMS – audio player similar to Winamp
• dvd::rip – full featured DVD copy program
• Kino – free digital video editor
• Sound Juicer CD Extractor – CD ripping tool, supports various audio codecs
• VLC Media Player – media player (video/audio)
• Real Player
• Totem – media player (video/audio)
• Xine – media player, supports various formats; can play DVDs
• GnomeBaker – CD/DVD burning program
• K3B – CD/DVD burning program
• Multimedia-Codecs

Programming:

• Nvu- WYSIWYG HTML editor, similar to Macromedia Dreamweaver, but not as feature-rich (yet)
• Bluefish – text editor, suitable for many programming and markup languages
• Quanta Plus – web development environment, including a WYSIWYG editor

Do you still need anything more? Please continue to read the detailed how-to here.

Azureus is a Java BitTorrent client, that’s platform independent, as long as you have Java Runtime Environment installed. Be sure that you have JRE installed for this program to work. You can refer to this post of mine, to get JRE installed on your Debian box.

Latest version of Azureus is 2.5.0.2, you can get it here. After you have downloaded the package, extract it to any location of your liking, I extracted it into /usr/local/ for this tutorial. Use this command to run Azureus, /usr/local/azureus/./azureus, assuming you are installing it at the location same as mine.

Installing Tor, can be found in my previous article here.

So now, the situation here is, my ISP is not happy with BitTorrent, they have blocked tracker connection. This workaround works for me, at the moment(sigh, this war is going on and on). In Azureus, Tools > Options > Connections > Proxy Options, follow my settings.

[color=red]Do not enable proxy for peer-peer communications, that’s the worst thing on earth to do![/color] This setting will not work if your TOR is not running.

Also, I have enabled Transport Encryption in Tools > Options > Connections > Transport Encryption, settings as below.

It doesn’t surprise me to see so many peers with Transport Encryption enabled, P2P blocking is a common ISP practice.

So, your Azureus status should show you some promising status like this.

If you get something like “Firewalled”, your software firewall or router might be blocking the listening ports that Azureus uses.

I use port 49155 for Azureus, you can assign any port from 49152 to 65535. Remember to do NAT portforwarding if you are behind a router. Portforward.com has detailed instructions for various routers available on the market.

So these are my settings that work at the moment, please discuss with me.

Reference:
http://azureus.sourceforge.net/doc/AnonBT/Tor/howto_0.5.htm

Azureus is a Java BitTorrent client, that’s platform independent, as long as you have Java Runtime Environment installed. Be sure that you have JRE installed for this program to work. You can refer to this post of mine, to get JRE installed on your Debian box.

Latest version of Azureus is 2.5.0.2, you can get it here. After you have downloaded the package, extract it to any location of your liking, I extracted it into /usr/local/ for this tutorial. Use this command to run Azureus, /usr/local/azureus/./azureus, assuming you are installing it at the location same as mine.

Installing Tor, can be found in my previous article here.

So now, the situation here is, my ISP is not happy with BitTorrent, they have blocked tracker connection. This workaround works for me, at the moment(sigh, this war is going on and on). In Azureus, Tools > Options > Connections > Proxy Options, follow my settings.

[color=red]Do not enable proxy for peer-peer communications, that’s the worst thing on earth to do![/color] This setting will not work if your TOR is not running.

Also, I have enabled Transport Encryption in Tools > Options > Connections > Transport Encryption, settings as below.

It doesn’t surprise me to see so many peers with Transport Encryption enabled, P2P blocking is a common ISP practice.

So, your Azureus status should show you some promising status like this.

If you get something like “Firewalled”, your software firewall or router might be blocking the listening ports that Azureus uses.

I use port 49155 for Azureus, you can assign any port from 49152 to 65535. Remember to do NAT portforwarding if you are behind a router. Portforward.com has detailed instructions for various routers available on the market.

So these are my settings that work at the moment, please discuss with me.

Reference:
http://azureus.sourceforge.net/doc/AnonBT/Tor/howto_0.5.htm

The game’s name is Second Life, and yes, its linux client is the most hassle-free version I’ve ever dealt with. Simply download the package, extract and run the game. There’s no compile-and-install steps at all! If you are running on alsa sound system, your have a video card better than geforce2, then you’ll have no problem running this game. Make sure you’ve installed the nvidia driver like I did, and if you are on ATI cards, fglrx is needed for 3d performance.

Second Life login screen.

Second Life is best played in window mode, it has a lot of interactions with outside the game world(opening web pages, voice commucation with skype etc).

Second Life is command started.

A desktop shortcut can be added manually. The command to execute the game is /path/to/SLfolder/./secondlife

Residents

Players in Second Life, are referred as “Residents”. Residents have total control of their avatars(outlook in the game), therefore, seeing a dinosaur, tweety bird, or tazmania is not rare in the game.

Buildings

Buildings in Second Life, are all creations of Residents. Residents need to buy land in order to have buildings for several purposes, normally commercial shops for merchandise display.

Objects

Almost everything in Second Life, can be considered as an object. First, model something out, and then apply behaviours on it with LSL(Linden Scripting Language). This is the best part of Second Life, intelectual workers like 3D artists, programmers are actually making real money out of this.

I’m still a newbie in this game, but I see a lot of good things in it.

1. It’s FREE.
   Yes, it’s totally free. You are free to explore the world anyway you like on a basic account, until you’re happy with the game and feel like owning a land for something, you’ll have to upgrade your account to premium.
2. it’s light weight.
   The extracted folder on my harddisc is only 90.8MB, supremely coded application.
3. Its Potential
   Second Life has total 1,855,135 of residents since 2003, and keep growing. It has a unique economic system, its in-game currency Linden Dollar, can be converted into US dollar at around 250-300/1 rate, and vice versa. I’ve seen appearances of major companies in the game, Dell for example, owns an island in Second Life.
4. Its idea of IP Rights
   Every creation in Second Life, will be the Intelectual Property of that creator, including avatar characters, clothing, scripts, textures, objects and designs. Both online and offline worlds.

There’s so much to tell about this game just after 2 days of experience, you certainly need to experience it yourself. Register an account and join many others in your second life!

I’m not a gamer. Since I’m so addicted to Linux, gaming is something I have to give up. However, wonderful pc game developers will come out with something amazing from time to time, aiming the entire pc game market. They have wonderful port versions for popular operating systems which Linux is also included. This is my second online game, after Neverwinter Nights.

The game’s name is Second Life, and yes, its linux client is the most hassle-free version I’ve ever dealt with. Simply download the package, extract and run the game. There’s no compile-and-install steps at all! If you are running on alsa sound system, your have a video card better than geforce2, then you’ll have no problem running this game. Make sure you’ve installed the nvidia driver like I did, and if you are on ATI cards, fglrx is needed for 3d performance.

Second Life login screen.

Second Life is best played in window mode, it has a lot of interactions with outside the game world(opening web pages, voice commucation with skype etc).

Second Life is command started.

A desktop shortcut can be added manually. The command to execute the game is /path/to/SLfolder/./secondlife

Residents

Players in Second Life, are referred as “Residents”. Residents have total control of their avatars(outlook in the game), therefore, seeing a dinosaur, tweety bird, or tazmania is not rare in the game.

Buildings

Buildings in Second Life, are all creations of Residents. Residents need to buy land in order to have buildings for several purposes, normally commercial shops for merchandise display.

Objects

Almost everything in Second Life, can be considered as an object. First, model something out, and then apply behaviours on it with LSL(Linden Scripting Language). This is the best part of Second Life, intelectual workers like 3D artists, programmers are actually making real money out of this.

I’m still a newbie in this game, but I see a lot of good things in it.

1. It’s FREE.
   Yes, it’s totally free. You are free to explore the world anyway you like on a basic account, until you’re happy with the game and feel like owning a land for something, you’ll have to upgrade your account to premium.
2. it’s light weight.
   The extracted folder on my harddisc is only 90.8MB, supremely coded application.
3. Its Potential
   Second Life has total 1,855,135 of residents since 2003, and keep growing. It has a unique economic system, its in-game currency Linden Dollar, can be converted into US dollar at around 250-300/1 rate, and vice versa. I’ve seen appearances of major companies in the game, Dell for example, owns an island in Second Life.
4. Its idea of IP Rights
   Every creation in Second Life, will be the Intelectual Property of that creator, including avatar characters, clothing, scripts, textures, objects and designs. Both online and offline worlds.

There’s so much to tell about this game just after 2 days of experience, you certainly need to experience it yourself. Register an account and join many others in your second life!

this image is taken from picotux.com

You can check out its spec sheet at http://www.picotux.com/techdatae.html.

What can this little thing do? I seriously don’t know, it’s a complete computer(not pc). From my point of view, it can be used to perform following jobs.

1. Router/Firewall
2. Web server
3. Print server

What’s in your mind? Share with me!

Check out this little baby I’ve found online, the smallest Linux computer in the world. Its size is 35mm×19mm×19mm, only a bit larger than a RJ45 connector! It has one serial port, and one RJ45 connector. It’s using uClinux as its operating system.

this image is taken from picotux.com

You can check out its spec sheet at http://www.picotux.com/techdatae.html.

What can this little thing do? I seriously don’t know, it’s a complete computer(not pc). From my point of view, it can be used to perform following jobs.

1. Router/Firewall
2. Web server
3. Print server

What’s in your mind? Share with me!

1. lsusb, this command should print a block of output depending on your USB usage.
   

   Bus 002 Device 006: ID 03f0:4d11 Hewlett-Packard

   This is the line, the device is detected.

2. dmesg, this command will print a load of output. Look at the bottom part. You will find something similar to this.
   

   usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 6 usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
   drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 6 if 1 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x03F0 pid 0x4D11

So the device can be detected. Here comes the driver part. You should get the following packages from unstable pool.

1. cupsys
2. cupsys-common
3. foomatic-db
4. foomatic-db-hpijs
5. foomatic-filters
6. hpijs
7. hplip(For printer management tool)

Dependency will have you to install additional packages

After all above are installed. You should see a Kmenu entry “Printer Toolbox(HPLIP Toolbox)” under “Settings“. I do not recommend to use this tool to setup your all-in-one device. There’s one more thing you need to get.

Go to this linuxprinting.org page. You will see a very detail introduction for HP PSC 1400 works in Linux. You will need the PPD file needed for this device. It’s on the page, and here’s the link to be sure. After you have downloaded the PPD file, place it in /usr/share/ppd/hpijs/HP/.

SETTING UP
There are many ways to setup this device to work with CUPS, what I’ve used was kdeprint, under Kmenu > Settings > Printers. If you don’t see that, just go ahead and install it, its package name is also kdeprint.

Steps

1. in “Add” tab, choose “Add Printer/Class”.
2. during Backend Selection, choose “Local printer (parallel, serial, USB)”
3. during Local Port Selection, choose the detected “HP PSC 1400 Series“. (Note that the URI should be like this “hp:/usb/PSC_1400_series?serial=XXXXXXX”).
4. during Printer Model Selection, choose HP then PSC 1400.(If you have an empty list, or PSC 1400 cannot be found. Just browse to the location where you’ve saved the PPD file downloaded from linuxprinting.org)
5. during Printer Test, just simply click on the “Test” button to test, or you can turn it to grayscale printing in “Settings”.
6. during Banner Selection, I’ve selected “No Banner” for starting and ending. Personal preference here.
7. during Printer Quota Settings, I’ve set No quota and none for size and page limit.
8. during User Access Settings, add your normal user account into the “Allowed Users” list.
9. during General Information, set the device name, location, and description.
10. you’re done!

For scanning, simply use kooka. It will let you choose the device during program startup. This is a scanned image of my printer test page.

Scanned images from kooka are stored in ~/.kde/share/apps/ScanImages/.

Again, drop me your 2 cents.

[color=red]Update:[/color] Please also check out my latest HP Officejet 5610 Network Printing How-To.

P/S: Over 2000 views on this how-to without a single comment. Is something wrong with me? Or with you?

I’ve just got a HP PSC 1400 All-In-One Series from a friend. This device is so called “All-In-One”, but can only photo-copy, print and scan. It took me sometime to make it work in my KDE desktop. So here I am again, to share some tips with you guys.

PREPARING
First, get its power on, connect it to your machine’s USB hub. Try to verify that your machine is able to detect it by various approaches.

1. lsusb, this command should print a block of output depending on your USB usage.
   

   Bus 002 Device 006: ID 03f0:4d11 Hewlett-Packard

   This is the line, the device is detected.

2. dmesg, this command will print a load of output. Look at the bottom part. You will find something similar to this.
   

   usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 6 usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
   drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 6 if 1 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x03F0 pid 0x4D11

So the device can be detected. Here comes the driver part. You should get the following packages from unstable pool.

1. cupsys
2. cupsys-common
3. foomatic-db
4. foomatic-db-hpijs
5. foomatic-filters
6. hpijs
7. hplip(For printer management tool)

Dependency will have you to install additional packages

After all above are installed. You should see a Kmenu entry “Printer Toolbox(HPLIP Toolbox)” under “Settings“. I do not recommend to use this tool to setup your all-in-one device. There’s one more thing you need to get.

Go to this linuxprinting.org page. You will see a very detail introduction for HP PSC 1400 works in Linux. You will need the PPD file needed for this device. It’s on the page, and here’s the link to be sure. After you have downloaded the PPD file, place it in /usr/share/ppd/hpijs/HP/.

SETTING UP
There are many ways to setup this device to work with CUPS, what I’ve used was kdeprint, under Kmenu > Settings > Printers. If you don’t see that, just go ahead and install it, its package name is also kdeprint.

Steps

1. in “Add” tab, choose “Add Printer/Class”.
2. during Backend Selection, choose “Local printer (parallel, serial, USB)”
3. during Local Port Selection, choose the detected “HP PSC 1400 Series“. (Note that the URI should be like this “hp:/usb/PSC_1400_series?serial=XXXXXXX”).
4. during Printer Model Selection, choose HP then PSC 1400.(If you have an empty list, or PSC 1400 cannot be found. Just browse to the location where you’ve saved the PPD file downloaded from linuxprinting.org)
5. during Printer Test, just simply click on the “Test” button to test, or you can turn it to grayscale printing in “Settings”.
6. during Banner Selection, I’ve selected “No Banner” for starting and ending. Personal preference here.
7. during Printer Quota Settings, I’ve set No quota and none for size and page limit.
8. during User Access Settings, add your normal user account into the “Allowed Users” list.
9. during General Information, set the device name, location, and description.
10. you’re done!

For scanning, simply use kooka. It will let you choose the device during program startup. This is a scanned image of my printer test page.

Scanned images from kooka are stored in ~/.kde/share/apps/ScanImages/.

Again, drop me your 2 cents.

[color=red]Update:[/color] Please also check out my latest HP Officejet 5610 Network Printing How-To.

P/S: Over 2000 views on this how-to without a single comment. Is something wrong with me? Or with you?