customising life

This is but the first step in my attempt to run AIGLX and Beryl on Xubuntu Edgy.

I’ve already enabled AIGLX on my work PC, and it was an absolute snap. However in the end my efforts to use AIGLX and Beryl at work failed, because my PC uses an ATI card, and the fglrx driver does not support the necessary extension to run AIGLX.

My PC at home has a (an?) NVIDIA card, and the latest NVIDIA drivers do support this extension.

• Seeing as the NVIDIA drivers will write over the X.org configuration file, I’ll install the NVIDIA drivers before enabling AIGLX.

I found a nice write up (on the UDSF of all places) that can show you how to get Ubuntu packaged NVIDIA drivers to install straight to Xubuntu.

To start off you need to add an extra repository to you APT sources.list

deb http://seerofsouls.com/ edgy contrib

Then you can also grab the authentication key (I still don’t know exactly what they do)

wget http://seerofsouls.com/keys/hawkwind.asc

sudo apt-key add hawkwind.asc

Then follow this up with an update, upgrade and installation of the nvidia-glx package. The upgrade will install the re-packaged restricted-modules, which you will need.

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude upgrade
sudo aptitude install nvidia-glx

Once the packages are installed, run the following code to set the drivers up

sudo nvidia-xconfig

It will make some changes to your X.org configuration file, hence my reason for enabling AIGLX after installing the NVIDIA drivers. When it is all done, you will need to restart your computer to allow the new modules to be loaded and you’re done!

The result is great! A nice new splash screen, and many more settings in the NVIDIA config application.

Well I’m not sure what happened or why, but I’m having more issues with fonts.

I only noticed when I spent some time doing things other than watching DVDs. Like reading and coding.

I just started getting tired and sore eyes. I could only think it was the refresh rate or something wrong with the fonts. They did look a little crappy to me.

Continue reading ‘More crappy font issues in Xubuntu Edgy’

When I was using Xubuntu Dapper, I was able to set up a PPTP connection to my workplace VPN. Overall it was a pretty easy exercise.

Unfortunately in Xubuntu Edgy, it’s been more troublesome.

I initially installed and ran pptpconfig (as I did for Dapper), which was configured in the same way. However when I tried to make the PPTP connection I was greeted with the unhappy error

Using interface ppp0
pptpconfig: monitoring interface ppp0
Connect: ppp0 /dev/pts/1
CHAP authentication succeeded
MPPE 128-bit stateless compression enabled
Cannot determine ethernet address for proxy ARP

In the end I was able to figure this out; by installing the network-manager framework. Unfortunately this requires some amount of GNOME dependencies. The sort of dependecies that I’m quite prepared to pay, especially since most have been already installed for other applications. On lower end machines, this may not the way you want to go.

The packages you need are in both the main and universe repositories; network-manager, network-manager-pptp and network-manager-gnome.

Once you have them installed, simply run nm-applet (if it’s not already running) from the command line, and the applet should appear in the system tray of your panel.

From there it is quite simple to setup the VPN connection.

First click the applet and then VPN connections and Configure VPN.

When the dialog opens, choose to Add a new connection, and follow the prompts.

Next simply enter in the name you wish to call the connection, and the IP address of the VPN.

In the authentication tab, check the Refuse EAP checkbox and then you are done.

To connect to the VPN click on the applet and choose the connection.

Finally enter in the username and password required to make the connection.

If the connection is successful the network-manager applet should have a little lock over it. Then you are away!

This has become sooo annoying. I am always accidentally pressing Shit Backspace. Here’s how you can turn off this ‘feature’

xmodmap -e ‘keycode 22 = BackSpace BackSpace Terminate_Server’

I didn’t really give to much thought to my birthday until early last week, when we had another birthday at work. It kind of feels a bit overrated; I’m getting on.

Haven’t done all that much. I had a pyscho chilli hot pot with friends last night, which I paid quite dearly for, and a lunch in the city with the family, which is always a bit of fun.

One good thing about turning 25, my insurance premiums should be lower now.