Artificial's Linux Corner

Build Pidgin from source (7.10 - 64bit)

2008-01-04T01:55:00.000-08:00

Pidgin is a multi-protocol Instant Messaging client that allows you to use all of your IM accounts at once.

This guide show how to build the latest version of Pidgin, plus the following plugins:

talkfilter
Pluginpack
guification

Before Installation.

First thing you need is to enable all the sources in your repository. You can do that by; System tab ---> Administration ---> Software Sources.
You also need to enable medibuntu which you can find here; http://www.medibuntu.org/

When that is done, open the terminal (Applications tab ---> Accessories ---> Terminal ).
To build Pidgin from the source the right tools, libs and headers is needed, also the old pidgin needs to be uninstall, type this in the terminal;

sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude upgrade
sudo aptitude remove pidgin pidgin-data
sudo aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r` checkinstall
sudo aptitude install libexpat1-dev libintl-perl gettext bcp libx11-dev libgtk2.0-dev libxss-dev libsm-dev libstartup-notification0-dev libgtkspell-dev libsqlite3-dev libecal1.2-dev libncursesw5-dev libgconf2-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev libmeanwhile-dev libavahi-client-dev libavahi-glib-dev libavahi-compat-howl-dev libsilc-1.1-2-dev libgadu-dev libperl-dev libgnutls-dev doxygen xsltproc tcl8.4-dev tk8.4-dev check libnss3-dev dot2tex libecal1.2-dev libedata-book1.2-dev flex

Installation

The first thing you need to compile is Pidgin itself;

cd ~/Desktop
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/pidgin/pidgin-2.3.1.tar.bz2
tar jxfv pidgin-2.3.1.tar.bz2
cd pidgin-2.3.1
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo checkinstall

Next is the talkfilter

cd ~/Desktop
wget http://www.hyperrealm.com/talkfilters/talkfilters-2.3.8.tar.gz
tar zxfv talkfilters-2.3.8.tar.gz
cd talkfilters-2.3.8
./configure
make
sudo checkinstall

Now to the Plugin Pack

cd ~/Desktop
wget http://downloads.guifications.org/plugins//Plugin%20Pack/purple-plugin_pack-2.2.0.tar.bz2
tar jxfv purple-plugin_pack-2.2.0.tar.bz2
cd purple-plugin_pack-2.2.0
./configure
make
sudo checkinstall

Last but not least The Guification plugin

cd ~/Desktop
wget http://downloads.guifications.org/plugins//Guifications2/pidgin-guifications-2.16.tar.bz2
tar jxfv pidgin-guifications-2.16.tar.bz2
cd pidgin-guifications-2.16
./configure
make
sudo checkinstall

I'll add more plugins in the future but these are the most "important".

Enjoy!

Build Gimmie from source (7.10 - 64bit)

2007-12-30T22:27:00.000-08:00

Gimmie is an alternative Menu bar for your panel.

If you don't want to compile it. You can find it in synaptic package manager.
This will show you how to compile the latest version.

Before Installation.

First thing you need is to enable all the sources in your repository. You can do that by; System tab ---> Administration ---> Software Sources.
You also need to enable medibuntu which you can find here; http://www.medibuntu.org/

When that is done, open the terminal (Applications tab ---> Accessories ---> Terminal ).
To build Audacious from the source the right tools, libs and headers is needed, type this in the terminal;

sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude safe-upgrade
sudo aptitude install build-essential libtool
sudo aptitude install intltool libexpat1-dev libgconf2-dev python2.5-dev libgnomecups1.0-dev python-gobject-dev python-gtk2-dev libgtk2.0-dev libdbus-1-dev libgnomevfs2-dev libgnome-dev libgnome-menu-dev python-gnome2-desktop-dev libwnck-dev gnome-applets-dev tomboy

Installation

cd ~/Desktop
wget http://www.beatniksoftware.com/gimmie/releases/gimmie-0.2.8.tar.gz
tar zxfv gimmie-0.2.8.tar.gz
cd gimmie-0.2.8
./configure
make
sudo checkinstall
killall gnome-panel

Right click on the panel and choose "Add to panel". Now click on Gimmie.

Status & Interview

2007-11-24T22:34:00.000-08:00

What I have been up to?
At the current state I'm building a new guide for setting up a nice Desktop as mine. All the stuff is heavy moderated from the original. You can see my old guide - here
A lot of new things will be in the new guide, so stay tuned.

As some people might have noticed is that it have been sparse with Game News on UGA. I have been busy testing/tweaking/playing with my new computer - here also started writting some game guides for Ubuntu 64 bit.

For those of you who missed the interview of me you can find it here - Interviews with Ubuntu Forum Members

Build Audacious from source (7.10 - 64bit)

2007-11-20T08:08:00.000-08:00

This guide have been tested on Ubuntu 7.10 64bit Gnome.

The guide will show you how to compile the latest stable version of Audacious and how to set Audacious to auto-play when inserting a music CD. At last but not least how to change the skins and the graphic in Audacious.

Before Installation.

First thing you need is to enable all the sources in your repository. You can do that by; System tab ---> Administration ---> Software Sources.
You also need to enable medibuntu which you can find here; http://www.medibuntu.org/

When that is done, open the terminal (Applications tab ---> Accessories ---> Terminal ).
To build Audacious from the source the right tools, libs and headers is needed, type this in the terminal;

sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude upgrade
sudo aptitude install build-essential mercurial autogen automake checkinstall
sudo aptitude install libgtk2.0-dev libpng12-dev libglade2-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libmcs-dev bison libxml2-dev libxcomposite-dev imlib11-dev
sudo aptitude install gettext libsamplerate0-dev libsidplay1-dev libsidplay2-dev libflac-dev libmad0-dev libvorbis-dev libasound2-dev libesd0-dev libpulse-dev libsndfile1-dev libmpcdec-dev liblame-dev
sudo aptitude install liblircclient-dev libbinio-dev libwavpack-dev libtag1-dev libjack0.100.0-dev libresid-builder-dev libfluidsynth-dev libcdio-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev libmms-dev libmtp-dev libsdl1.2-dev libimlib2-dev libcdio-cdda-dev libcddb2-dev libneon26-dev flex

There's one lib that you need but it's not available in Ubuntu repo, therefore it needs to be build as well;

Libmowgli

cd ~/Desktop
hg clone http://hg.atheme-project.org/libmowgli libmowgli-devel
cd libmowgli-devel
sh autogen.sh
./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install

Now you are ready to compile, build and install Audacious.

Installation

The first thing that need to be build is Audacious. This is the structure of Audacious and do not contain any plugins, codecs and format.
To the terminal;

cd ~/Desktop
wget http://distfiles.atheme.org/audacious-1.4.6.tgz
tar zxfv audacious-1.4.6.tgz
cd audacious-1.4.6
./configure --enable-samplerate
make
sudo checkinstall
cd src/libaudclient
sudo cp -r libaudclient.so /usr/lib/libaudclient.so.1

Next Audacious Plugin;

cd ~/Desktop
wget http://distfiles.atheme.org/audacious-plugins-1.4.5.tgz
tar zxfv audacious-plugins-1.4.5.tgz
cd audacious-plugins-1.4.5
./configure
make
sudo checkinstall

Audacious is now installed and ready for use. You can start it by writting audacious in the terminal or via Applications tab ---> Sound & Video ---> Audacious.

This guide used checkinstall, so if you like to uninstall it, you can do it via synaptic. Remember if you want to build or install another version of Audacious you must uninstall the previous one that is build by checkinstall.

Skins

To install skins for Audacious you have to move the skin(s) to /usr/local/share/audacious/Skins
Note you don't need to extract the skin file, just copy it to the location.

an example if you have the skin called Aqua.wsz on your Desktop;

cd ~/Desktop
sudo mv Aqua.wsz /usr/local/share/audacious/Skins

If you have a folder full of skins

cd [into director]
sudo mv * /usr/local/share/audacious/Skins

Auto-play CDs

Type;

gnome-volume-properties

Go to the Multimedia tab and select Audio CD Discs

fill in;

audacious -p /media/cdrom

Done.

Advanced Eyecandy

This is needed to be done before you start to build Audacious source, if you already build an install Audacious you need to uninstall it to accompilish this.

If you want to change the icon and the graphic like I have done (see screenshots), you have to do this;

Copy this file to your Desktop;

http://www.filefactory.com/file/0b7e14/

and do a;

cd ~/Desktop
tar zxfv Audacious-Inner-Theme.tar.gz

copy audacious.png from image folder to audacious-1.4.0/pixmaps
Then move rest of the icons in the image folder to audacious-1.4.0/src/audacious/images
The icons in audioscrobbler folder you move to audacious-plugins-1.4.0/src/scrobbler/images

If you want to make your own Audacious preferences icons, here is the background for it;

Wallpaper for widescreen - part 1

2007-11-17T22:24:00.000-08:00

Normally it's hard to find wallpapers that looks good and fit widescreen. So I took the opportunity and converted my most used wallpapers into size 1680x1050. Note, none of these wallpapers was done by me. I only moderated them via Gimp by copy/paste/resize/repaint them so they look good on widescreens. If you have another resolution than mine, you can simple resize the wallpaper to your prefer widescreen resolution.

New PC 64-bit

2007-11-17T07:20:00.000-08:00

It was time for me to get a new PC. No matter what I've decided to move completly to 64-bit both the system and my OSs'. The decisions was ofcause Ubuntu 7.10 64-bit and Arch 64 which installed without a hitch. Though I had to remove "splash" from Ubuntu grub to make it work, no big deal. Mandriva 2008 also worked without any problems and Sidux too. But Ubuntu and Arch is what I prefer.

System

CPU: Athlon64 6000+X2 Dual Core AM2 S-940 (both core 3Ghz)
Motherboard: ASUS M2N232-SLI Deluxe S-940
RAM: 4GB DDR2 PC6400 800mhz Corsair
Video Card: ASUS GF 8800 GTX PCI-E 768MB DDR3
HHD: 500GB Maxtor 7200rpm 16MB SATA2
DVD 1: 48x16x Lite-ON DVD
DVD 2 18x Pioneer DVD/RW Dual Layer
Sound Card: Creative SB XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro
Screen: 22" Xerox XM7-22WD Wide TFT - 5ms - Digital(dvi)

Cabinet
NZXT Zero Aluminium Black/Silver
1000w Chiftec CFT-1000GDF 140mm+80mm
80mm Arctic Cooling AF8025 19DB
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro s-939/940 (PCU)
NZXT Sentry 1 LCD Fan Controller

Other
Logitech Premium Headset
PCI card - 2xUSB 2.0 & 2x Firewire
Logitech Cordless Desktop MX5000 Laser
USB Bluetooth Dongle

The first thing I did was removing the soundcard and replaced it with my old Audigy2 Extern as the driver for XF is still in development - so we have to wait a little longer. Next I installed NZXT Sentry 1 LCD Fan Controller in the cabinet and probed the CPU, HDD and the cabinet itself. In the BIOS I disabled the motherboard soundcard .

Anothing thing I was worried about was my 22" Wide TFT screen which is 5ms. Alot of people say that 5ms is not good if you play FPS games. So I put it to a test. I downloaded the demo version of ETWQ, installed it, pimped up all the settings...and I must say WOW!!1 The worries was uncalled, I was zoomed into the screen full of nice details, moved smoothly even when alot of stuff was happening at the same time. !!! No grey on screen !!! Can it be because my screen was plugged to the computer with DVI (digital)?
Note I also ran Compiz in the background as well while playing ETQW which didn't had any impact of the performance versus the strength of the Video card I have.

The cabinet have 6 fans. 2 in the rear and 4 on the left side. The power-supply got one also, the video card have also one which is connected outside of the cabinet to avoid blowing hot air in the cabinet. And last but not least the CPU got a fan upon the arctic cooler aswell. 9 fans totally!

Cable Modem, mouse recharger & Audigy2 Extern.

Another thing I was worried about was the heating, so I put it to the test; 3 hours of ETQW non-stop! After the 3 hours the CPU reach 36 C and the video card reach 59 C. No worries there either.

Linux Banners - Part Three

2007-02-25T12:03:00.000-08:00

This the third part of Linux Banner. This time I have made the banners a bit diffrent in size although the usual size is available. As promised I have made banners for Kubuntu and Mandriva.

Kubuntu:

Mandriva:

Arthur and the Invisibles

2007-02-06T01:06:00.000-08:00

Yep, the "Arthur and the Invisibles" have stroke me. So ofcause some changes to my Desktop have been made. The wallpaper can be found on their official homepage. The one in the screenshot I've modified by removing every text that was displayed and changed Arthur's eyes to red (looks cooler that way).

For full 1600x1200 resolution Click here

For full 1600x1200 resolution Click here

For full 1600x1200 resolution Click here

Linux Banners - Part Two

2007-02-03T07:39:00.000-08:00

Here's the second part of my linux banners. Though I'm not quiet happy with the Gnome banner I'll properly going to do a remake of it. This time it's Ubuntu Linux, Gnome and Arch Linux. Also a special made Linux banner are available.

Ubuntu Large:

Gnome Large:

The next one is a bit special. It's an animated .gif file that's aimed to linux in generally, I hope you like it. I call it Linux Revolution.

Here's some small linux banners which was made by others but I enhanced them a bit because they were dull.

Next time (Linux Banners - Part Three) will be for Kubuntu and Mandriva as some people have requested I may re-make both the Arch Linux banner and the Gnome banner as well.
As always I'll take requests, suggestions, comments so if you have something on your mind please don't hesitate.

A.I. Dude

Linux Banners - Part One

2007-01-07T11:02:00.000-08:00

This is my first Linux Banners all made with Gimp Image Editor.

Feel free to use them. The first two are one with Linux generally and the other is for Arch Linux. I have added two diffrent version of them both. Next banners will be one for Ubuntu and one for Gnome DE. If you have a special request, let me know.

Linux:

Arch Linux:

GL O.B.S. : GL Open Benchmark Suite

2006-11-22T11:19:00.000-08:00

Here's a nice HOWTO on installing GL O.B.S. : GL Open Benchmark Suite on Ubuntu. Though it's still in the alpha phase it's quiet stable and runs remarkable well. It's recommended to use the latest version of Nvidia's binary driver both for GL O.B.S. and for 3D stuff in general.

Before Installing

Make sure that the 3D graphic driver is set up properly and your sourcelist is also set up correctly before installing GL O.B.S.

Next thing is to download the compiling tools and the libs to compile, build and install GL O.B.S.
Open the terminal and type;

sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude upgrade
sudo aptitude install build-essential subversion scons
sudo aptitude install libsdl-image1.2-dev libsqlite0-dev libsqlite3-0 libsqlite3-dev python-gnome2-dev python-gobject-dev python-gtk2-dev python2.4-opengl x11proto-gl-dev libgtk2.0-dev python2.4-pysqlite2 freeglut3-dev python-numeric epydoc-doc

Now you're ready to compile, build and install GL O.B.S.

Installing

Now to the compiling and installing, type the following commands;

cd && cd Desktop
svn co https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/globs/globs/trunk globs
svn co https://svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/globs/benchmarks/trunk globs/src/benchmarks
cd globs
scons
sudo scons install prefix=/usr
sudo python patchdir.py prefix=/usr
sudo python setup.py install --prefix=/usr

Last step is making an application launcher;

sudo rm -f /usr/share/applications/globs.desktop
sudo nano /usr/share/applications/globs.desktop

Add the following;

[Desktop Entry]
Name=GL O.B.S.
Comment=OpenGL Benchmark Utility
Exec=globs %F
Icon=/usr/share/globs/pixmaps/globs.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Application;System;

Save & Exit

You can now start GLobs in the Application tab ---> System Tools or type globs in the terminal.

More about GL O.B.S.: http://globs.sourceforge.net

gDesklets - FTB look

2006-11-18T07:18:00.000-08:00

Here's some tips'n'Tricks on howto setup gdesklets in a proper way and ofcause so it looks nice and handy.

This will show you how to get desklets and look as shown above.

1. You need to install gdesklets from gdesklets.org or if you are using Ubuntu you can do this;

sudo aptitude install gdesklets gdesklets-data

2. Now start the gdesklet daemon by clicking the gdesklets starter in the Applications tab. A menu should pop up. The desklets you're looking for are called FTB-xxxxxx.

List of FTB desklets you need
FTB-info
FTB-cpu-plot
FTB-mem-plot
FTB-net-plot
FTB-disk-gauge (multiply how many disk/cd/DVD you want displayed)

3. Download the extra icons to switch the default FTB icons out. Download here.

4. Now right-click on one of the desklets and pick configure desklets. You'll see alot of tabs with options in everyone of them.

5. Under Appearance change theme color to white and eventual remove a top/buttom border depending where you want the desklet.

6. Icon/launcher tab is here where you can change the icon. You might want to scale the icon (under icon scale) and move the icon around.

7. A good idea is to change color of the plots to something in royal blue color.

8. Under dimension you can change the size of the desklets to fit your needs.

Enjoy

Gnome Eyecandy

2006-11-17T03:54:00.000-08:00

Here's how you get a cool and beautiful looking desktop without comprimizing the usability and distracting eyecandy which can be annoying on a working computer. Still enough to impress everyone and not to forget a relaxing environment to work in for your eyes.

1. The first thing you need is to setup the latest Nvidia binary driver and install beryl on your Linux OS. For Ubuntu users check here.

2. Now download a modified milky theme (created by hanzomon4, modified by Artificial Intelligence) here and save it to your Desktop. To install it double click it and select it in the beryl theme manager.

3. You can add/remove or modify all the effects in the Beryl settings Mananger if you want to make some changes.

GTK2 theme

1. The GTK2 I use is a modified GT4 theme by AlexR1 at www.gnome-look.org
Download the modified version of GT4 from here and unpack it in the ~/.themes folder.

2. Make sure that gtk2-engines-pixbuf is installed (a quick search in synaptic if you're in doubt if it's installed).

3. Go to the gnome theme manager and click theme details and select GT4 under controls.

Icon theme

1. The icon theme is a heavy modified D3a icon theme by bvc mixed with alot of icons I have found throughout the web. Download it here and unpack it in your ~/.icons folder.

2. Go to the gnome theme manager and click theme details and select D3a under Icons.

Extra Icons

1. Here's some extra icons which needed to be installed manually. Download them here. It also contains readme files for where you need to copy the icons.

Root Application theme

1. By default root application (applications that need sudo/su to run) is grey an ugly. However there's a fix for that.

2. Here you need to open the terminal and type;

sudo ln -s /home/USERNAME/.themes /root/.themes
sudo ln -s /home/USERNAME/.icons /root/.icons

If you have fonts in your ~/.fonts folder which you want to share with root applications without installing them you can do;

sudo ln -s /home/USERNAME/.fonts /root/.fonts

Wallpaper

1. The Wallpaper is made by josuefrade at www.gnome-look.org
You can download 1280x1024 size here and 1600x1200 size here. Download the size which fits you best.

2. Go to Desktop Background Manager and load it up. While you are in the Desktop Background Manager do change Desktop colours to #E7F1F7 or something more lighter than that.

Login Manager(GDM)

1. The greeter of Gnome also need a change. Download the Simple Elegance made by Fedorateur/DMC Mandrake at www.gnome-look.org from here and save it to your Desktop.

2. Now go to the Login Window manager and add Simple Elegance and afterwards select it. Do also change the background color to #E7F1F7 or something lighter.

X Splash Screen

1. Next is a proper splash which fits nice to the rest of it. Ubuntu Metal Styck Splash by Luck at www.gnome-look.org
Download it here and save it to your Desktop.

2. install Splash Screen Manager

sudo aptitude install gnome-splashscreen-manager

3. Start the Splash Screen Manager, select Ubuntu Metal Styck Splash an activate it.

Audacious Theme

1. I can highly recommend the use of Audacious music/media player. To get it you can download and compile it from here. When it's done download the Aqua X skin by Freddy Leitner at www.winamp.com from here and save it to ~/.audacious/Skins

2. Start Audacious and press ctrl + P. Now select Aqua X skin.

Terminal Appearance

1. Open the terminal and go to Edit and click Profiles. Edit the Default profile.

2. Go to the Effect tab and select Transparent Background

3. Edit the the launcher you start your terminal to

gnome-terminal --hide-menubar

Enjoy your new Desktop Look