Ubuntu Linux Help

I recently upgraded the audio card on my Ubuntu (7.10) system, which was an “issue” simply because I created it (instead of looking at the issue and jumping to conclusions instead of analyzing possible causes). Suffice it to say, a word to the wise… If your motherboard comes with a soundcard embedded and you want to use an enhanced or better quality sound card in one of your PCI slots… Make your life easy, simply disable the on-board audio in the BIOS setting of your motherboard. I did not do this initially. The two were not compatible and I spent countless hours trying to troubleshoot the issue that took less that 30 seconds to fix! Needless to say, next time I won’t be as foolish.

However, the primary purpose of today’s post is enabling 5.1 surround sound. During the upgrade I was also able to grab an almost new set of Creative Inspire 5.1 5200 series speakers. When I plugged them in I was only hearing audio from the front speakers.

While troubleshooting the earlier sound card issue, I remembered that ALSA was one of the components in the configuration. After lots of research, here is the solution that worked (below).

Edit the configuration file like this:

gedit .asoundrc

(You can use vi or nano to edit it if you don’t have gedit).

Then add the following:

pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm “surround51″
slave.channels 6
route_policy duplicate
}

I think however, that it might be helpful to include some of the sound card related issues…

In my case the above 5.1 solution worked well (ONLY after I disabled the onboard audio of the motherboard!)

You can check to ensure that an issue is the sound card (and not the speakers) by using the following command in a terminal.

aplay -l

This will list the sound card installed. (If you see others, just remove or disable them).

If using the “aplay -l” command does not show your sound card, then try listing the sound card (PCI) device by entering:

lspci -v

If you see your card, then (most likely) the drivers are not installed, so just install them. More information for this can be found here: ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205449

Update: The edit to asoundrc is to configure the surround output so that it duplicates the stereo output to all 6 channels, instead of only through the front channel speakers.

When I’m working, I like to listen to music (which I stream over the local network). I also often download ISO images of Ubuntu CD’s, Ultimate Boot CD, etc. The problem comes when I have to power down my main computer. If I have an ISO downloading from Ubuntu or somewhere else, I cannot power down. Needless to say, that was an annoyance as I did not want to leave my main computer on when I was not using it. Not anymore!

I picked up a small used PC that would make a great mini-fileserver with a small footprint; so it can be hidden away. The best part is I got it for only $30 (CAN) - An old IBM Aptiva. The added benefit that this smaller unit uses less energy than my main computer is also a nice bonus (and I don’t need to leave a monitor connected to it either).

Here’s a snapshot:

Here’s what came with it:

• AMD 500MHz CPU
• 256MB RAM
• 10GB HDD
• 40x CDROM
• 1.44 FDD

What was my mission?
A file server that could Read the full post…

I received a couple questions this morning about “apt-get” and thought they were good in the sense that the answer helped to alleviate a couple of my personal annoyances. What are these annoyances? Well…

When I use “apt-get remove” the package is removed, but all the associated extra libraries (dependencies) are not. Additionally if I use apt-get to install a package, I always get the current package (in retrospect I’ll rename this as a benefit!), but sometimes I need to install an earlier version of a package.

Resolving these two issues is relatively easy, here’s how we can remove the dependencies (if you know they are not needed) along with the package:

apt-get -D remove the_name_of_the_package

And the simple way to install earlier versions of a package (let’s say “your_package1.2.3″):

apt-get install your_package=1.2.3

Very easy!

Remember to have your repositories updated to be able to install the packages you are looking for. Another article (link below) takes the repository step to a different level. In a nutshell it contains pretty much all the software repositories for Ubuntu Feisty (7.04) that could be found. You can read about that here: “The Best Ubuntu Linux Repository List“

When I was still a Windows user. I found it easy to create PDF documents through the use of software such as Adobe Distiller, Cute PDF Writer and so on…
After switching to Ubuntu, I was a little unsure how to do this until I installed OpenOffice which made PDF creation simple by using the file menu “Export as PDF” option. My problem was that I occasionally needed to do the same thing while using other applications.

Here is a simpler, effective solution. The “cups-pdf” (printing) can simply add that enhanced feature to your Ubuntu installation. To install it, type (in a terminal):

sudo apt-get install cups-pdf

You need to change file access using chmod.

The chmod command allows you to alter access rights to files and directories. All files and directories have security permissions that grant the user particular groups’ or all other users’ access. You will need to change the file permissions using this command:

sudo chmod +s /usr/lib/cups/backend/cups-pdf

Now all that remains is to set-up the CUPS PDF Printer by installing a new (PDF) printer:

Go to System –> Administration –> Printers –> New Printer
Select “Local Pinter”
Okay, use detected printer -  “PDF Printer”
Select the “Printer Driver”
Manufacturer - “Generic”
Model - “Postscript Colour Printer”
Name - “postscript-printer-PDF”
Now click “Apply”

You’re done!

To use the new PDF printer, select whatever the print function is for the application you’re using and then select that postscript-printer-PDF printer to create your PDF document. Unless specified, (I really don’t remember when I changed it), I’m sure I recall that there should be a /pdf directory where the PDF documents will be save to.

Changing the location where PDF documents are saved to, is a simple edit away…

gksudo gedit /etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf

Find “Out ${HOME}/PDF”

and change that entry to read as:

Out ${HOME}/whatever_directory_name_you_want_to_type_here

and simply restart the service to use the new settings (with that changed directory location) like this:

sudo /etc/init.d/cupsys restart

Voilà! - Easier to do than this post may make it seem!