guide « Alex Sleat

How To Take Screenshots in Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.x)

Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) finally brings screenshots natively to the mobile platform, to a lot of users of custom ROMs such as CyanogenMod or Darkys ROM it may seem like this has been a feature for a while but that isn’t the case.

To take a screenshot:

Simply hold down the Volume Down button and Power button for about a second.

You’ll see a flash and the screen will be framed which shows the screenshot was taken (I’ve tried grabbing a screenshot of this screen, but it’s pretty tricky and no luck yet!). The screenshot will be saved in a folder /Pictures/Screenshots on your phones internal SD card.

You’ll also get a new notification in the notification bar saying “Saving Screenshot…” and once it’s done there’ll be a “Screenshot captured.” notification in the pull down menu which will take you directly the screenshot in the Gallery.

For more screenshots, check out my first look and impressions post about ICS!
HERE

Linux USB Errors with usb-creator-gtk “stdin: I/O error stdin: error 0 /init: line 1: can’t open /dev/sr0: No medium found”

After installing Ubuntu on a USB stick with the Ubuntu USB Startup Disk Creator (usb-creator-gtk) you might encounter an error such as the following:

stdin: I/O error
stdin: error 0
/init: line 1: can't open /dev/sr0: No medium found

This is actually a bug with the software and isn’t anything you’ve done wrong. It seems to be a bug that’s effecting users running Karmic, Lucid, Maverick and Natty so it’s a pretty wide spread issue.

The best way I have found to get around this issue is to install and run unetbootin to create live USBs. If you’re using linux it should be found in the usual place you can install things.

Installation:

Ubuntu/LinuxMint/Debian:

sudo apt-get install unetbootin

Fedora/OpenSuse:

sudo yum install unetbootin

Create a live USB:

To install a distro it’s pretty simple, either select it from the “Distribution” option and pick a distribution and version, UNetbootin will then actually download it and install it for you. Alternatively you can pick an Diskimage and browse for the ISO file you download (and would usually burn to a CD/DVD) and install from that. Select the USB Drive at the bottom and hit ok and it’ll install a bootloader, the system and you’ll be up and running in no time.

Persistence File:

If you wanted a persistence install which allows you to save files, settings and installed programs you’ll have to do a little manual work as it currently doesn’t support that option.

Go to http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/diskimg/ and download one of the files (128mb.zip, 256mb.zip, or 512mb.zip) corresponding to the amount of persistent space you want (make sure the size of the persistent disk image is smaller than the free space you have on your USB drive).

You’ll then need to edit the syslinux.cfg file that was created by UNetbootin in the root of the directory (just open it with a text editor) you should see something similar to the following:

label unetbootindefault
menu label Default
kernel /ubnkern
append initrd=/ubninit file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash –

So on the line that starts “appen initrd=” you’ll want to add the option of “persistent”, it should then look like the following:

NOTE: Wordpress changes my double dash at the end of the last line to a single long dash, this won’t work. It’s easiest just to add the final word before the double dash in the file, do not copy and paste this in to your file. If you do, you will get more errors.

label unetbootindefault
menu label Default
kernel /ubnkern
append initrd=/ubninit file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash persistent –

I added this line to all that used the “file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed” option, since that’s the image that’s being opened and it should then change all options on the bootloader that will load the ubuntu install.

How to Install the ‘gnome-shell-extensions-mediaplayer’ Extension

The mediaplayer widget found on github, created by eonpatapon – (https://github.com/eonpatapon/gnome-shell-extensions-mediaplayer).

I’ve been searching for a while for a good, solid widget style thing that’ll sit in the top of the gnome-shell panel which can control the music that’s playing in banshee, rhythmbox or whatever else you want to use to play your tunes.

Installation:

1. First you’ll need to grab some dependencies:

sudo apt-get install git gnome-common gnome-tweak-tool

2. Next download the files from the git repository as below (this will download the folder to whatever directory you’re currently in, in terminal):

git clone https://github.com/eonpatapon/gnome-shell-extensions-mediaplayer.git

3. Once it’s finished download (it shouldn’t take too long it’s only about 2.30MB as of writing this guide), you’ll want to install using the following commands:

cd gnome-shell-extensions-mediaplayer
./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install

4. That’s it, it’s installed. Next you’re going to want to enable it, run gnome-tweak-tool and under extensions slide the newly installed extension to ON and it should appear next to the “Universal Access Settings” in the top right.

Fedora 15 Post Installation Guide

Install RPM Fusion

su -c 'yum localinstall --nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm'

– http://rpmfusion.org/Configuration

Enable unsupported video and audio codecs

Get enhanced audio and video support in applications that rely on GStreamer:

sudo yum install gstreamer-plugins-ugly gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-ffmpeg

Get enhanced audio and video support in applications that rely on xine backend:

sudo yum install xine-lib-extras-freeworld

– http://rpmfusion.org/FAQ

Install Chromium Browser

Make a file called “fedora-chromium-stable.repo” in /etc/yum.repos.d/ and open:

sudo gedit /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-chromium-stable.repo

Paste in the following, save and exit:

# Place this file in your /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory

[fedora-chromium-stable]
name=Builds of the "stable" tag of the Chromium Web Browser
baseurl=http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/spot/chromium-stable/fedora-$releasever/$basearch/
enabled=1
skip_if_unavailable=1
gpgcheck=0

[fedora-chromium-stable-source]
name=Builds of the "stable" tag of the Chromium Web Browser - Source
baseurl=http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/spot/chromium-stable/fedora-$releasever/SRPMS
enabled=0
skip_if_unavailable=1
gpgcheck=0

– http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Chromium

Install Flash

Download the YUM for Linux version from the adobe site – http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Run the following in the folder you downloaded the file to:

su -c 'rpm -ivh adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm'

Import the GPG key:

su -c 'rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux'

In 32bit run:

su -c 'yum install nspluginwrapper alsa-plugins-pulseaudio flash-plugin'

on 64bit run:

su -c 'yum install nspluginwrapper.{x86_64,i686} alsa-plugins-pulseaudio.i686 --disablerepo=adobe-linux-i386'
su -c 'yum install flash-plugin'

If you’re using Firefox, that should be all done but if you’re using Chromium you’ll need to open Firefox and play a video then close it and run the following:

32bit:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/chromium-browser/plugins/libflashplayer.so

64bit:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins-wrapped/nswrapper_32_64.libflashplayer.so /usr/lib64/chromium-browser/plugins/nswrapper_32_64.libflashplayer.so

Close and re-open Chromium and head to YouTube to check that it’s working.

– http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Flash

Install Dropbox

Download and install the correct rpm for 32 or 64 bit from the Dropbox website – http://www.dropbox.com/downloading.

Follow this guide to remove the YUM errors you may encounter once the package is installed – http://alexsleat.co.uk/2011/05/24/how-to-fix-error-cannot-retrieve-repository-metadata-repomd-xml-for-repository-dropbox-please-verify-its-path-and-try-again/ .

Install VLC

sudo yum install vlc

How To: Disable SELinux in Fedora

WARNING: by continuing following this guide you are putting your machine at risk by disabling the secuity features within SELinux, I strongly advise if you do not know what you are doing, stop and read up on the implications this action will have before continuing. Some information is avaible in the Fedora Wiki here .

Open up this file:

sudo gedit /etc/selinux/config

Change the line that looks like this:

SELINUX=enforcing

To this:

SELINUX=permissive

Save and reboot and it should be working, although again be warned this has disabled the security mechanism on your system. To re-enable this, simply do the same however change from permissive to enforcing and again reboot your machine.

How To Fix: Error: Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml) for repository: Dropbox. Please verify its path and try again

After installing dropbox from the RPM package availble on the site on a new Fedora 15 install, I was unable to use yum without coming across this error:

$ update
Loaded plugins: langpacks, presto, refresh-packagekit
http://linux.dropbox.com/fedora/15/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno 14] HTTP Error 404 - Not Found : http://linux.dropbox.com/fedora/15/repodata/repomd.xml
Trying other mirror.
http://linux.dropbox.com/fedora/15/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno 14] HTTP Error 404 - Not Found : http://linux.dropbox.com/fedora/15/repodata/repomd.xml
Trying other mirror.
Error: Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml) for repository: Dropbox. Please verify its path and try again

For some unknown reason dropbox repos dont seem to work past 13 so you’ll need to change the dropbox.repo file from detecting the current release to 13 like so:

Open the dropbox.repo file:

sudo gedit /etc/yum.repos.d/dropbox.repo

Change the baseurl from $relesever to 13 like so:

Original:

[Dropbox]
name=Dropbox Repository
baseurl=http://linux.dropbox.com/fedora/$releasever/
gpgkey=http://linux.dropbox.com/fedora/rpm-public-key.asc

New:

[Dropbox]
name=Dropbox Repository
baseurl=http://linux.dropbox.com/fedora/13/
gpgkey=http://linux.dropbox.com/fedora/rpm-public-key.asc

Save and close and everything should be working, try using sudo yum update to check and the error should have gone away. If not give a reboot a try.

HowTo: Disable Mouse Scroll to Switch Desktop – OpenBox

Open up the openbox config file, it should be located in /home/username/.config/openbox/ but if it’s not you might have to do a little digging.

nano /~.config/openbox/rc.xml

Find the following lines and remove or comment them out, you can use Ctrl+W in nano to find:

Note: XML comments are as follow:<-- Comment -->

Save with Ctrl+X, Y, Enter (if you’re using nano) and restart OpenBox (Preferences -> OpenBox Config -> Restart) and all should be done.

OpenShot, libmp3lame and Ubuntu

If you’re getting the following error while trying export a video under several different codecs in OpenShot including AVI, MOV and MPEG using (mpeg2, mpeg4 or h.264) chances are this might help you with that error.

The following formats/codecs are missing from your system:

libmp3lame

You will not be able to use the selected export profile. You will need to install the missing formats/codecs or choose a different export profile.

This is a simple fix:

Open up Synaptic Package Manager
Search “libavformat”,

If the current package installed is “libavformat52″ select “libavformat-extra-52″ (alternativly “libavformat-unstripped-52″ should also work).
Else the package might be “libavformat53″ so simply change to “libavformat-extra-53″, basically it might end in different numbers, it should work the same.

Hit Apply and approve the changes.

HowTo: Remove Every Other Line in Text Files – Linux

Let’s say you’ve got a text file, of any size, big or small, and you want to remove every other line of that file, well here are a few commands in Linux that allow you to do this.

Example, you want to get from this:

To this:

The sed way:

 sed -n "p;N;" file.txt > newfile.txt

The awk way:

 awk 'NR%2 != 0' file.txt > newfile.txt

Here you can actually specify N lines, replace 2 in the above command and you’ll be able to take out every N’th number. As an example, here’s the above replaced with a 3 on the file:

Easy as pie, right?

Installing packages from CD in Arch Linux

Okay, so you have Arch Linux installed and let’s say you’re wifi isn’t working and you need the package “iwlwifi-3945-ucode-15.32.2.9-2-any.pkg.tar.gz” to fix this but you don’t have a wired connect. What do you do? Blast in your Arch cd, mount it, mount the packages sqfs file and install using pacman.

Mount cdrom:

mkdir /mnt/cdrom/
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom/

Mount *-pkgs.sqfs:

mkdir /mnt/pkgs/
mount -o loop core-pkgs.sqfs /mnt/pkgs/
cd /mnt/pkgs/

Install pkg.tar.gz:

pacman -U package-name.pkg.tar.gz

Alex Sleat

How To Take Screenshots in Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.x)

To take a screenshot:

For more screenshots, check out my first look and impressions post about ICS!
HERE

Linux USB Errors with usb-creator-gtk “stdin: I/O error stdin: error 0 /init: line 1: can’t open /dev/sr0: No medium found”

Installation:

Create a live USB:

Persistence File:

How to Install the ‘gnome-shell-extensions-mediaplayer’ Extension

Installation:

1. First you’ll need to grab some dependencies:

2. Next download the files from the git repository as below (this will download the folder to whatever directory you’re currently in, in terminal):

3. Once it’s finished download (it shouldn’t take too long it’s only about 2.30MB as of writing this guide), you’ll want to install using the following commands:

4. That’s it, it’s installed. Next you’re going to want to enable it, run gnome-tweak-tool and under extensions slide the newly installed extension to ON and it should appear next to the “Universal Access Settings” in the top right.

Fedora 15 Post Installation Guide

Install RPM Fusion

Enable unsupported video and audio codecs

Install Chromium Browser

Install Flash

Install Dropbox

Install VLC

How To: Disable SELinux in Fedora

How To Fix: Error: Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml) for repository: Dropbox. Please verify its path and try again

HowTo: Disable Mouse Scroll to Switch Desktop – OpenBox

OpenShot, libmp3lame and Ubuntu

HowTo: Remove Every Other Line in Text Files – Linux

Installing packages from CD in Arch Linux

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To take a screenshot:

For more screenshots, check out my first look and impressions post about ICS! HERE

Installation:

Create a live USB:

Persistence File:

Installation:

1. First you’ll need to grab some dependencies:

2. Next download the files from the git repository as below (this will download the folder to whatever directory you’re currently in, in terminal):

3. Once it’s finished download (it shouldn’t take too long it’s only about 2.30MB as of writing this guide), you’ll want to install using the following commands:

4. That’s it, it’s installed. Next you’re going to want to enable it, run gnome-tweak-tool and under extensions slide the newly installed extension to ON and it should appear next to the “Universal Access Settings” in the top right.

Install RPM Fusion

Enable unsupported video and audio codecs

Install Chromium Browser

Install Flash

Install Dropbox

Install VLC

About

Professional Profile

My Projects

Tag Cloud

Categories

Friends

Disclaimer

For more screenshots, check out my first look and impressions post about ICS!
HERE