When the usual problem occurs (after upgrading linux kernels) in VirtualBox and
sudo /sbin/rcvboxdrv setup
fails, use
sudo /usr/lib/virtualbox/vboxdrv.sh setup
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Deleting old kernels
This page has all the information I need: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Lubuntu/Documentation/RemoveOldKernels
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
StarCraft 2 on 64 bit Ubuntu 13.10 and 14.04
Ubuntu 14.04
As of August 2, 2014, installing Starcraft II using PlayOnLinux seems to work okay.
Ubuntu 13.10
I had a hard time figuring out how to get StarCraft II running on Ubuntu 13.10. I kept ending up with missing characters and a screen that usually looked like this:
I tried different versions of WINE, PlayOnLinux, etc. In the end, it was really just a matter of enabling the different graphics components within PlayOnLinux. Now it works great! This is the configuration screen I found within PlayOnLinux after the normal installation, and the settings I used:
As of August 2, 2014, installing Starcraft II using PlayOnLinux seems to work okay.
Ubuntu 13.10
I had a hard time figuring out how to get StarCraft II running on Ubuntu 13.10. I kept ending up with missing characters and a screen that usually looked like this:
I tried different versions of WINE, PlayOnLinux, etc. In the end, it was really just a matter of enabling the different graphics components within PlayOnLinux. Now it works great! This is the configuration screen I found within PlayOnLinux after the normal installation, and the settings I used:
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Finding Ubuntu 14.04 replacements for stuff I like in Mac
Mac OS X is still the best, in my opinion, and this has been reinforced to me as I have been diving into Ubuntu 13.10 (although the end-user-usability has significantly improved since I first started using Ubuntu a few years ago). Here are some things I like to use in Mac, and the ways in which I have managed to enable the same/similar feature in Ubuntu 14.04:
Tips:
Text to speech (TTS)
I have used the built-in text reading on Mac for years to help me with studying while I am doing chores, running (with convert to mp3 Automator script), etc. Ubuntu does not have an equivalent. SpeakIt extension for Google Chrome is great, but it does not save output to mp3, and it only reads text in webpages. When I opened Google Docs and pasted text into the word processor, the SpeakIt option disappears. :(
There are some TTS engines for linux. The default installations all seem to have very poor voice quality. Here is a page that helps by instructing how to install additional voices for one TTS engine named "festival": http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=751169. It is not a system-level-solution for speaking selected text, however. :(
Email
I really like Apple Mail. I like having an email client that I have more control over regarding interface, storing local messages, and making all the email from my various accounts present in one interface. The best I have come up with so far as a replacement is Thunderbird. Here are some of my key findings to get similar functionality:
1. Enable Unified Folders
2. Use Virtual Folders to replace Apple Mail's Smart Folders
3. Use Google Contacts for syncing address books. gContactSync seemed to miss some syncing/is buggy for me.
Podcasts
Banshee seems, so far, to be the best for making subscribing to podcasts the easiest.
Update: gPodder works well and seems decently organized, though it would be better if it just copied the iTunes format. It is now my player of choice. Unfortunately, you cannot browse for podcasts as you can in iTunes.
Photo organization
I discovered digiKam as my replacement for iPhoto. I think I like it better than iPhoto 2011(?) for several things, and I might install digiKam on my Mac. The big downside so far is it is a pain creating albums and exporting files to the desktop.
Update: I recently discovered Shotwell Photo Manager, which is built-in on Ubuntu 13.10. It has much more the look and feel of iPhoto (though not as advanced).
Surfing the net
I like Safari, but I have also used Chrome and Firefox plenty. Chrome is nice because it offers lots of high quality add-on apps (and a lot of junk apps) that I am getting used to.
Writing code
Geany seems great for editing source code. I wish there was more control over code folding.
Tips:
- Use the NVIDIA proprietary driver, not the Nouveau driver. Things just work better.
Text to speech (TTS)
I have used the built-in text reading on Mac for years to help me with studying while I am doing chores, running (with convert to mp3 Automator script), etc. Ubuntu does not have an equivalent. SpeakIt extension for Google Chrome is great, but it does not save output to mp3, and it only reads text in webpages. When I opened Google Docs and pasted text into the word processor, the SpeakIt option disappears. :(
There are some TTS engines for linux. The default installations all seem to have very poor voice quality. Here is a page that helps by instructing how to install additional voices for one TTS engine named "festival": http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=751169. It is not a system-level-solution for speaking selected text, however. :(
I really like Apple Mail. I like having an email client that I have more control over regarding interface, storing local messages, and making all the email from my various accounts present in one interface. The best I have come up with so far as a replacement is Thunderbird. Here are some of my key findings to get similar functionality:
1. Enable Unified Folders
2. Use Virtual Folders to replace Apple Mail's Smart Folders
3. Use Google Contacts for syncing address books. gContactSync seemed to miss some syncing/is buggy for me.
Podcasts
Banshee seems, so far, to be the best for making subscribing to podcasts the easiest.
Update: gPodder works well and seems decently organized, though it would be better if it just copied the iTunes format. It is now my player of choice. Unfortunately, you cannot browse for podcasts as you can in iTunes.
Photo organization
I discovered digiKam as my replacement for iPhoto. I think I like it better than iPhoto 2011(?) for several things, and I might install digiKam on my Mac. The big downside so far is it is a pain creating albums and exporting files to the desktop.
Update: I recently discovered Shotwell Photo Manager, which is built-in on Ubuntu 13.10. It has much more the look and feel of iPhoto (though not as advanced).
Surfing the net
I like Safari, but I have also used Chrome and Firefox plenty. Chrome is nice because it offers lots of high quality add-on apps (and a lot of junk apps) that I am getting used to.
Writing code
Geany seems great for editing source code. I wish there was more control over code folding.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Battling to get StarCraft running on Ubuntu 13.10
WINE is a set of software that allows the running of Windows software on Linux/Unix systems. Apparently a lot of people run Broodwar with no problem using WINE.
I have run into problems, however. I tried installing using both PlayOnLinux and winetricks. First I downloaded the combined installer for StarCraft/Broodwar from blizzard.com. These two installers, however, are not really set up to run the combined installer. Eventually I just did the installation using the wine command. Here are the basic steps I did to get Broodwar working:
1. Install "Wine windows program loader" (wine) from the Ubuntu Software Center.
2. Open a Terminal window, change directories to where you placed the StarCraft installer, and type "wine Downloader_StarCraft_Combo_enUS.exe", which will give you a basic installation.
3. Type "winecfg" and then click on the "Add application" button. Find "StarCraft.exe" and add it. Make sure it is highlighted. Then, under the "Graphics" tab, uncheck the "Allow the window manager to control the windows" checkbox.
4. Download the latest patch for StarCraft from https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/classic-game-patches. Install the patch similarly to how you installed StarCraft in step #2.
5. There should be an icon on the Desktop now for StarCraft-Brood War.
6. Play the game.
Everything seems to work great until I try to play a game on BattleNet. Some of the images there for the login are missing (no big deal). The worst, however, is that input from the keyboard suddenly gets lost. I can join a game, but I have to control everything by using a mouse only, which slows me down a LOT. When I quit the BattleNet game and start a single player game, the keyboard input is still missing and does not come back until I restart the program. The current version of WINE in the Ubuntu Software Center is 1.4. I also tried 1.6 and 1.7 by changing the repository. When I did that, the login screen for BattleNet became really messed up such that I could not even log in (everything else in the game seemed to work fine). I could try wine 1.5, but that will take some extra effort to get installed...
The battle for StarCraft will continue... If any readers have solutions for running StarCraft on Ubuntu 13.10 that you can share, that would be great.
UPDATE: It looks like someone has a solution (http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/115853/is-there-a-work-around-or-fix-to-the-starcraft-online-chat-bug-for-wine), but it will involve having to write a new wine prefix for PlayOnLinux. I understand that is supposed to be easy to do, but it will have to wait for another day...
I have run into problems, however. I tried installing using both PlayOnLinux and winetricks. First I downloaded the combined installer for StarCraft/Broodwar from blizzard.com. These two installers, however, are not really set up to run the combined installer. Eventually I just did the installation using the wine command. Here are the basic steps I did to get Broodwar working:
1. Install "Wine windows program loader" (wine) from the Ubuntu Software Center.
2. Open a Terminal window, change directories to where you placed the StarCraft installer, and type "wine Downloader_StarCraft_Combo_enUS.exe", which will give you a basic installation.
3. Type "winecfg" and then click on the "Add application" button. Find "StarCraft.exe" and add it. Make sure it is highlighted. Then, under the "Graphics" tab, uncheck the "Allow the window manager to control the windows" checkbox.
4. Download the latest patch for StarCraft from https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/classic-game-patches. Install the patch similarly to how you installed StarCraft in step #2.
5. There should be an icon on the Desktop now for StarCraft-Brood War.
6. Play the game.
Everything seems to work great until I try to play a game on BattleNet. Some of the images there for the login are missing (no big deal). The worst, however, is that input from the keyboard suddenly gets lost. I can join a game, but I have to control everything by using a mouse only, which slows me down a LOT. When I quit the BattleNet game and start a single player game, the keyboard input is still missing and does not come back until I restart the program. The current version of WINE in the Ubuntu Software Center is 1.4. I also tried 1.6 and 1.7 by changing the repository. When I did that, the login screen for BattleNet became really messed up such that I could not even log in (everything else in the game seemed to work fine). I could try wine 1.5, but that will take some extra effort to get installed...
The battle for StarCraft will continue... If any readers have solutions for running StarCraft on Ubuntu 13.10 that you can share, that would be great.
UPDATE: It looks like someone has a solution (http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/115853/is-there-a-work-around-or-fix-to-the-starcraft-online-chat-bug-for-wine), but it will involve having to write a new wine prefix for PlayOnLinux. I understand that is supposed to be easy to do, but it will have to wait for another day...
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Activating the Rosewill USB 3.0 wireless adapter (AC1200UBE) on Ubuntu 13.10 or 14.04
I purchased a Rosewill USB 3.0 Wireless Dual-Band Adapter 1.2Gbps (AC1200UBE) (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FJTGRE0/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1) because (1) it works with the latest and greatest wireless standard (802.11ac), (2) it was relatively inexpensive, and (3) it was listed as working with Mac, Windows, and Linux.
When I received it, however, the driver installation disk was not really Linux-user-friendly. I eventually found the drivers and copied them to my hard drive. When I tried to run the installation script, it failed. This was really annoying since I assumed that by advertising it as running on Linux, the thing would work out-of-the-box on the latest Ubuntu. I did some searching and found that basically all the latest 802.11ac WiFi adapters use the same chip. I did some more searching and found the following website that provided a driver for this chip: https://github.com/gnab/rtl8812au. I followed the instructions there, and I had a working wireless network connection!... until I had a major update to my operating system. I decided I would try to just repeat what I had done previously, but this time I created a folder named "Linux Drivers" in my home folder where I extracted the installation files. The driver would not compile. Doing some more searching, I found that I should not have spaces in the names of the folders that contain the driver source files. I renamed the parent folder "LinuxDrivers", and the compile and installation once again worked just fine.
I am keeping a copy of the installation files for the driver on my hard drive just in case I need them when Ubuntu updates again.
When I received it, however, the driver installation disk was not really Linux-user-friendly. I eventually found the drivers and copied them to my hard drive. When I tried to run the installation script, it failed. This was really annoying since I assumed that by advertising it as running on Linux, the thing would work out-of-the-box on the latest Ubuntu. I did some searching and found that basically all the latest 802.11ac WiFi adapters use the same chip. I did some more searching and found the following website that provided a driver for this chip: https://github.com/gnab/rtl8812au. I followed the instructions there, and I had a working wireless network connection!... until I had a major update to my operating system. I decided I would try to just repeat what I had done previously, but this time I created a folder named "Linux Drivers" in my home folder where I extracted the installation files. The driver would not compile. Doing some more searching, I found that I should not have spaces in the names of the folders that contain the driver source files. I renamed the parent folder "LinuxDrivers", and the compile and installation once again worked just fine.
I am keeping a copy of the installation files for the driver on my hard drive just in case I need them when Ubuntu updates again.
Getting started
A little history on my Linux experience: I have used Ubuntu before to do research work during graduate school. I have also become quite comfortable in using Unix on my Mac (also for programming and research). I have recently built a powerful, personal computer than I want to use to do a lot of research/computing, as well as just have some fun. I have resisted the strong urge to turn it into a hackintosh and instead just have Ubuntu 13.10 installed. Now the task of getting everything working the way I want is ongoing. Here is my starting build:
Intel i7 4770K
Asrock Fatal1ty Killer
16 Gb Kingston Black DDR3
Crucial 500m 240 Gb solid state drive
EVGA 650W gold power supply
Corsair h100i CPU cooler
Corsair 500r case
Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse
Dell monitor
Rosewill AC1200UBE USB 3.0 Wireless AC1200 dual-band adapter
computer speakers
I installed Ubuntu 13.10 from a USB flash drive that I prepared on my Mac with no problem. I also have an old, spare Apple hard drive (rebranded Fujitsu) that I pulled from my MacBook that I wanted to add for extra storage. Life is easier if you only have the solid state drive connected when you are initially installing Ubuntu; you can then connect the other hard drives later.
Enough with the introduction...
Intel i7 4770K
Asrock Fatal1ty Killer
16 Gb Kingston Black DDR3
Crucial 500m 240 Gb solid state drive
EVGA 650W gold power supply
Corsair h100i CPU cooler
Corsair 500r case
Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse
Dell monitor
Rosewill AC1200UBE USB 3.0 Wireless AC1200 dual-band adapter
computer speakers
I installed Ubuntu 13.10 from a USB flash drive that I prepared on my Mac with no problem. I also have an old, spare Apple hard drive (rebranded Fujitsu) that I pulled from my MacBook that I wanted to add for extra storage. Life is easier if you only have the solid state drive connected when you are initially installing Ubuntu; you can then connect the other hard drives later.
Enough with the introduction...
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