Friday, September 12, 2014

kivy : fedora 20 netbook graphics update required

Installing Kivy for some python development/fun with Android and my old netbook;


remember, the netbook is an old
Acer Aspire one D257 , with 1 gig ram and Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N570

I think the netbook is less powerful than most high end Android phones these days!


I found there is a repo that is slightly newer than the online doc (which lists Fedora_18)


Kivy Launcher works great on android, but the netbook, recently updated to Fedora 20 gave the error:

Fatal Python error: (pygame parachute) Segmentation Fault

oh no!

but this is not uncommon, since is listed early in the FAQ for kivy.

but then no details on how to update Fedora!

that took a bit of looking around;  I am running the non standard LXDE spin; so did not have all tools installed;

finally found the link to the Intel graphics driver site:


installed the drivers using the graphical installer for 1.0.6 for 32bit,  rebooted, and now am running.

now can type on netbook and use editors and then send the result to the android device to test!


p.s.
my other machine, running Fedora 20 64 bit 8 gig ram, AMD graphics, did not require any updates, it runs fine out of box.


Tuesday, July 29, 2014

linux/Raspberry pi SD card compatibility

annoying fact:

Linux on my old netbook only works with some SD cards.

much to my surprise, it seems that some SD cards are not compatible.

for the longest time I assumed it was the kernel and drivers I was using, but then I switched to another brand, and it worked perfectly....

so general advice;  have a variety of different vendor SD cards available when you are trying out the linux support.

a different SD card may work perfectly, on the same setup.

(using Fedora on Acer aspire one D257)

found the same true with the raspberry pi board, could not get it to boot with some SD cards, and others work fine.






Sunday, March 16, 2014

MythTV and old WII, via WIIMC

http://www.wiimc.org/

Have connected our Fedora MythTV to the WII Multimedia player, installed on the Homebrew Channel

WIIMC does not see the MythTV as a server, so connecting to the mythtv machine as a fileserver to access the video files directly.

two modes currently: FTP and SMB

Notes:

1) annoying fact:  vsftpd does not follow symlinks;  so my rename/make symlink script does not work, have to access the files directly, if using the default fedora vsftpd server.

2) smb share does see the symlinks, but does not play, still working on this.

TODO:  Create some sort of web interface... still need to research, on this one.

MythTV Android Frontend BETA

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mythtv

recently installed MythTV Android Frontend from the  Google Play Store .

Working great.

Client is a 2012 Nexus 7, with VLC player as the video client

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.videolan.vlc.betav7neon

Notes:
for internal network tests, have default settings.

Landscape mode, is a bit cramped on the program listing.  On my current setup, I can only see two shows in the show list;  Seems to be setup to use portrait mode, and then flip to landscape when playing the video.


No problems with Fedora

All quiet here, recently.

Why?

Things "just work"

Recently been running Fedora 18 linux, recently upgraded to Fedora 20.

Was running Fedora 18, 32 bit + PAE, switched to Fedora 20, x64.

Been using for homework, MythTV, Office VPN, Old machine VM.


Saturday, January 25, 2014

Fedora 20 upgrade

yearly upgrade cycle...

now on Fedora 20

also decided to try x64, and see the full 8 gig ram on my main system!

no more eap.

looking good so far;

minecraft working on full x64 java;  perhaps a bit slower, but running.

scanner/printer from epson : Artisan 730   working over wireless network!  These rpms from the epson site:

  • iscan-data-1.26.0-1.noarch.rpm
  • iscan-network-nt-1.1.1-1.x86_64.rpm
  • iscan-2.29.3-1.usb0.1.ltdl7.x86_64.rpm
  • epson-inkjet-printer-201112w-1.0.0-1lsb3.2.x86_64.rpm

note: to get network scanning, need to edit 
  • /etc/sane.d/epkowa.conf
not any of the "epson" conf files.  There is a more recent "generic" printer driver, but it does not have any settings to use the small photo tray.

mythtv with old Hauppauge external usb video0; needed to update to "testing" from rpmfusion at this time (by the time you read this, may work with default set of rpms)

  • mencoder-1.1-18.20140111svn.fc20.x86_64.rpm  
  • mplayer-common-1.1-18.20140111svn.fc20.x86_64.rpm


firefox, chrome, gimp

all ok so far