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MMB iPlayer -- no sound
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 09 Aug '10

09 Aug '10

Greetings All! Yesterday I downloaded (with automatic installation) the BBC iPlayer Desktop to a Debian Lennie; this also brought in with it the Adobe AIR (whatever that is). I then used this to download a programme from BBC 2 TV. On playback of the now downloaded main programme using the iPlayer, the video is OK, but the is no sound. Investigation of what has been stored shows a biggish (300MB) MP4 file (30-min programme, 10MB/min). There is also in an adjacent subdirectory a small MP3 file which plays the BBC2 logo (about 10 seconds); this one does play with sound. With iPlayer, it comes up, with sound, just before the main feature with no sound. So sound from the MP3, no sound from the MP4. Playing the MP3 with totem is fine. Attempts to play the MP4 with totem fail. Nothing happens, There is a message: The playback of this movie requires a audio/x-gst-fourcc-enca decoder video/x-gst-fourcc-encv decoder plugin which is not installed. and I cannot find this anywhere (probably built-in to iPlayer). The sound system on this machine seems to be ALSA. This normally works fine. Any suggestions for progress will be most welcome! With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 09-Aug-10 Time: 10:53:35 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Re: [ALUG] Linux Mint Help Please
by Simon Royal 08 Aug '10

08 Aug '10

Martin I shall look for some info for OpenBox rather than LXDE. I did find someone with the same problem on the same machine using Xubuntu, but there is an option in Xubuntu that resolves this, there isnt one Ican see in LXDE. The chipset is a SMI LynxEM+ which is Silicon Motion. I dont think it is a Xorg configuration problem, as I copied someone elses who runs Xubuntu on their 240x and I dont get it in Ubuntu. It has to be a WM/DE thing. Simon Royal PS. Thanks for your help earlier. I have been using it for a couple of hours and it is ripping along without a power supply in. ---------------------------------------- > Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2010 21:24:13 +0100 > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Linux Mint Help Please > From: mobile.sea(a)gmail.com > To: simonroyal(a)live.co.uk > > I have no experience with LXDE but try opening up a terminal and typing: > > compiz --replace > > Assuming compiz is installed that should enable display compositing > BUT here is a quote from a user forum: > > ##QUOTE### > Does Compiz work on/with LXDE? > > Compiz is a window manager. LXDE is a desktop enironment, meaning it's > a collection of software that makes up a 'desktop', including a window > manager, Openbox. Installing Compiz on top of LXDE will simply discard > Openbox in favour of Compiz. Mind you, Compiz will drag som many Gnome > dependencies in with it that you might as well have installed Gnome > but as Troy McClure said to Dolores Montenegro in "Calling All > Quakers": "Have it your way, Baby!!" > ###END QUOTE### > > Maybe you should google again your display problems but replace LXDE > with Openbox. As I assume the display problems are an Openbox issue > rather than an LXDE issue. It could of course be your xorg > configuration. Is it a SiS graphics chip? You could also google on the > chipset as that might give you some xorg parameters to try? > > Good luck. > > Martin > > On 8 August 2010 17:30, Simon Royal wrote: >> >> Martin >> >> >> Thanks for that. Excellent. I found the option in the BIOS and it has sorted it. >> >> >> Simon Royal >> >> >> --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. >> --- IBM ThinkPad 240X running Linux Mint 9 LXDE & Windows XP Home - Apple iBook G3 running OSX 10.4. >> >> >> >> Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2010 09:40:10 +0100 >> Subject: Re: [ALUG] Linux Mint Help Please >> From: mobile.sea(a)gmail.com >> To: simonroyal(a)live.co.uk >> >> The slow down when running off battery is (from distant memory), a power saving function of those IBM 240s where it underclocks the processor to half it's original speed. I think it can be turned off in the BIOS. Many kernels ago there may have even been a driver in the kernel for this. >> >> Rgds, >> Martin >> On Aug 8, 2010 12:30 AM, "Simon Royal" wrote: >> >> >> >> Hi >> >> >> >> Can someone offer some help on my problems using Linux Mint LXDE? >> >> >> >> I installed it on my ThinkPad 240x via another machine. Initially I had some X problems, but I have resolved them. However, I am still getting some odd screen problems where it is drawing multiple icons and buttons - like the maximise/minimise buttons - all over the screen. >> >> >> >> >> You can 'wipe' them off by moving a window, but they randomly pop up. >> >> >> >> I found one other person who had this problem, however he was using Xubuntu. I too had the same problems under Xubuntu 9.10, but not under Ubuntu 10.04. >> >> >> >> He resolved them by 'enabling display compositing' under xfce 4 settings manager, but Mint Linux uses LXDE and I cannot find anything in the menus for this. >> >> >> >> He also mentioned that when running off battery the whole machine was slower - very noticeably slower - than when it is running off power adapter. Everyone else on the forum said this wasn't possible, but I have been experiencing this too. >> >> >> >> >> I would really like to get over this graphics problem without switching distros as I like Mint. >> >> >> >> Simon Royal >> >> >> >> >> >> --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. >> >> >> --- IBM ThinkPad 240X running Linux Mint 9 LXDE & Windows XP Home - Apple iBook G3 running OSX 10.4. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> >> main(a)lists.alug.org.uk >> >> http://www.alug.org.uk/ >> >> http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main >> >> Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> main(a)lists.alug.org.uk >> http://www.alug.org.uk/ >> http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main >> Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! >>

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Ubuntu login problem
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 08 Aug '10

08 Aug '10

(I've been having problems posting to the list - apologies if this appears multiple times!) Hi! Can anyone help? I've got Ubuntu 10.04 LTS - the Lucid Lynx installed, and I rebooted it today, because it seemed a bit sluggish, bit sluggish, and ever since I've had problems logging in and/or authenticating. The only thinks I recall changing are there were a few updates downloaded, and I'd tweaked my Samba config file (smb.conf) and also been playing with the nvidia driver settings, enabling it and disabling it. This machine's a server, and it controls it's own logins, i.e. it doesn't authorise them somewhere else. When I reboot it, I see the greeter, I type in my password, and then it sits there for ages - at least a minute, before I see the logged in desktop. I can try switching to a virtual console (alt-f1 etc) and logging in there, and it takes ages and usually times out (timeout after 60 seconds message). It also happens if I try to ssh into the machine. Once the machine has been up for a while, the login response on a virtual terminal seems to be better, but I also get the problem using SUDO. I also get the problem logging in to Thunderbird on this machine, which uses IMAP to get the mail of this machine, and uses PAM to authenticate. I've looked in the logs and can't see anything obviously wrong. ISTM that this is a problem with PAM authentication, but I've not changed anything, nor do I know what to do about it or what to change. I've installed Bootchart, but there's nothing obviously wrong with that. Any ideas? Regards Steve

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Re: [ALUG] Linux Mint Help Please
by Simon Royal 08 Aug '10

08 Aug '10

Martin Thanks for that. Excellent. I found the option in the BIOS and it has sorted it. Simon Royal --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad 240X running Linux Mint 9 LXDE & Windows XP Home - Apple iBook G3 running OSX 10.4. Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2010 09:40:10 +0100 Subject: Re: [ALUG] Linux Mint Help Please From: mobile.sea(a)gmail.com To: simonroyal(a)live.co.uk The slow down when running off battery is (from distant memory), a power saving function of those IBM 240s where it underclocks the processor to half it's original speed. I think it can be turned off in the BIOS. Many kernels ago there may have even been a driver in the kernel for this. Rgds, Martin On Aug 8, 2010 12:30 AM, "Simon Royal" <simonroyal(a)live.co.uk> wrote: Hi Can someone offer some help on my problems using Linux Mint LXDE? I installed it on my ThinkPad 240x via another machine. Initially I had some X problems, but I have resolved them. However, I am still getting some odd screen problems where it is drawing multiple icons and buttons - like the maximise/minimise buttons - all over the screen. You can 'wipe' them off by moving a window, but they randomly pop up. I found one other person who had this problem, however he was using Xubuntu. I too had the same problems under Xubuntu 9.10, but not under Ubuntu 10.04. He resolved them by 'enabling display compositing' under xfce 4 settings manager, but Mint Linux uses LXDE and I cannot find anything in the menus for this. He also mentioned that when running off battery the whole machine was slower - very noticeably slower - than when it is running off power adapter. Everyone else on the forum said this wasn't possible, but I have been experiencing this too. I would really like to get over this graphics problem without switching distros as I like Mint. Simon Royal --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad 240X running Linux Mint 9 LXDE & Windows XP Home - Apple iBook G3 running OSX 10.4. _______________________________________________ main(a)lists.alug.org.uk http://www.alug.org.uk/ http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

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Re: [ALUG] Linux Mint Help Please
by Simon Royal 08 Aug '10

08 Aug '10

Martin Thanks for that. Excellent. I found the option in the BIOS and it has sorted it. Simon Royal --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad 240X running Linux Mint 9 LXDE & Windows XP Home - Apple iBook G3 running OSX 10.4. Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2010 09:40:10 +0100 Subject: Re: [ALUG] Linux Mint Help Please From: mobile.sea(a)gmail.com To: simonroyal(a)live.co.uk The slow down when running off battery is (from distant memory), a power saving function of those IBM 240s where it underclocks the processor to half it's original speed. I think it can be turned off in the BIOS. Many kernels ago there may have even been a driver in the kernel for this. Rgds, Martin On Aug 8, 2010 12:30 AM, "Simon Royal" <simonroyal(a)live.co.uk> wrote: Hi Can someone offer some help on my problems using Linux Mint LXDE? I installed it on my ThinkPad 240x via another machine. Initially I had some X problems, but I have resolved them. However, I am still getting some odd screen problems where it is drawing multiple icons and buttons - like the maximise/minimise buttons - all over the screen. You can 'wipe' them off by moving a window, but they randomly pop up. I found one other person who had this problem, however he was using Xubuntu. I too had the same problems under Xubuntu 9.10, but not under Ubuntu 10.04. He resolved them by 'enabling display compositing' under xfce 4 settings manager, but Mint Linux uses LXDE and I cannot find anything in the menus for this. He also mentioned that when running off battery the whole machine was slower - very noticeably slower - than when it is running off power adapter. Everyone else on the forum said this wasn't possible, but I have been experiencing this too. I would really like to get over this graphics problem without switching distros as I like Mint. Simon Royal --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad 240X running Linux Mint 9 LXDE & Windows XP Home - Apple iBook G3 running OSX 10.4. _______________________________________________ main(a)lists.alug.org.uk http://www.alug.org.uk/ http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

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Bubba2 server
by Peter Alcibiades 08 Aug '10

08 Aug '10

Has anyone any experience with one of these? We have just bought one out of some grant funding at a small charity, and so far have done no more than unpack it. It is about the size of a thick mass market paperback, very solidly made. Its running Debian, Etch apparently, and the main reason we bought it rather than build our own, one is very very low power consumption, and two, it comes totally set up with web server, NAS, picture gallery app and so on. The suppliers intend for you to use it as a firewall/router in addition, but we will be using it strictly as a server. Power consumption is minimal, its meant to be a plug in and forget package. Came with a 500G hard drive. We could have got a bigger disk, but it seemed like it would probably be smarter to have an external usb for the extra storage and greater redundancy. Ours is the non-wireless version, you can get them with wireless also. Price 240 Euro. Peter

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Linux Mint Help Please
by Simon Royal 08 Aug '10

08 Aug '10

Hi Can someone offer some help on my problems using Linux Mint LXDE? I installed it on my ThinkPad 240x via another machine. Initially I had some X problems, but I have resolved them. However, I am still getting some odd screen problems where it is drawing multiple icons and buttons - like the maximise/minimise buttons - all over the screen. You can 'wipe' them off by moving a window, but they randomly pop up. I found one other person who had this problem, however he was using Xubuntu. I too had the same problems under Xubuntu 9.10, but not under Ubuntu 10.04. He resolved them by 'enabling display compositing' under xfce 4 settings manager, but Mint Linux uses LXDE and I cannot find anything in the menus for this. He also mentioned that when running off battery the whole machine was slower - very noticeably slower - than when it is running off power adapter. Everyone else on the forum said this wasn't possible, but I have been experiencing this too. I would really like to get over this graphics problem without switching distros as I like Mint. Simon Royal --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad 240X running Linux Mint 9 LXDE & Windows XP Home - Apple iBook G3 running OSX 10.4.

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a deeply puzzling overheating
by Peter Alcibiades 07 Aug '10

07 Aug '10

Any ideas on this? Its a socket 754 machine, something like a 2Ghz Athlon, 1G memory. Debian Squeeze. It has always worked just fine, and in almost all ways except this still does. What has just now started happening however is that the owner has started to read the papers online. Sometimes, it doesn't seem to matter which paper or which browser, there will be a page with 'the wrong kind' of graphics. Its not clear exactly what the wrong kind is, some are fine, others seem not to be. Gradually, the fan will start to speed up. If you now start up gkrell, you can see that cpu temperature starts to rise quite rapidly to the high 50s, and the fan gets very loud indeed. I don't know how far it would go, because one of us closes the browser fairly soon when this happens, and eventually the temperature falls to below 50. It does not do it when displaying pictures. For instance, one can load in a file of a few hundred, and it will display the thumbnails fine, and then one can page through them repeatedly, they come up an display quite fast, and there's no problem. It does do it when rendering some pdfs. Particularly, it did it with a graphics intensive pdf of some sort. I thought about getting a better cpu cooler, this is the stock one, but there is very little space in these smallish cases. And I can't see why this should be happening. I have other barebones of this sort, Asus, and it never does. Another machine is an old 754, and it does not happen on it. I'm not completely sure if this is new, because I'm not sure whether this sort of graphic content was displayed previously. Meanwhile, there's a Novatech small form factor i3 machine at 400 which is looking more and more attractive.... Bought one for someone else, they are fairly compact, quite quiet, and run very cool. 754 is pretty old hat nowadays, so maybe its time. Peter

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Re: [ALUG] Copying SD cards
by Anthony Anson 07 Aug '10

07 Aug '10

Chris Walker wrote: > On 04/08/10 17:05, Anthony Anson wrote: >> Chris Walker wrote: >>> Apologies if this appears twice - I posted it to the wrong address, >>> having already posted it using the wrong email address! >>> >>> I've copied one 2GB SD card to another 2GB card using the dd command >>> (having copied it to the hard drive as an intermediate step). >>> >>> The original card will load up in the desired device - a TomTom sat >>> nav but the second card won't. Is there any way for me to check that >>> the cards are the same? >>> >>> Also, and I realise that it's a bit OT here (although the TomTom is a >>> linux device!) but does anybody have any ideas what might be wrong >>> with the card? >> >> ISTR having a similar promble with a Kingston memory stick - it had a >> separate partition with uselessware in it, and it waas written in a >> (IIRC) NT format. >> >> Using violent methods under Debian, I deleted the contents of this >> partition then the partition itself. (It wouldn't go, all in one lump) >> >> After that, the copy worked as per original. > > But wouldn't the DD command overwrite everything on the SD card > including the partitions? Strangely, it didn't. I also tried reformatting it, and it ignored the partition. I think it's because the partition has a different drive address. -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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enable display compositing in lxde
by Simon Royal 06 Aug '10

06 Aug '10

Hi I have been having some bizarre graphical glitches in Linux Mint LXDE and so far haven't been able to find anyone else with the same problems nor a fix for it. Until now. 'the minimise/maximise/close window icons appear in random places all over the screen when I roll over them. When I move a window over them they dissapear (as if i was erasing them)' I have this exact problem. He appears to be using Xubuntu - I too had the same problem in Xubuntu last night. Oddly enough it didn't do this in Ubuntu. Anyway, he fixed it by 'enabling display compositing' under xfce 4 settings manager. Great, but I am using the LXDE version of Linux Mint and cant find this anywhere. Can anyone offer help or an alternative way of enabling display compositing? Simon Royal --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad 240X running Linux Mint 9 LXDE & Windows XP Home - Apple iBook G3 running OSX 10.4.

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