[64studio-devel] Many Questions

[Susan Dridi]

Daniel James wrote:
> Hi Susan,

Hi Daniel,

Hey, I just installed 64 Studio 1.3.0 (did a reinstall from 1.0, getting
a new machine is a good time to play around a bit:-))

>> 1. I can't figure out how to get flash working, which packages to 
>> install, etc. I've tried Gnash and swf-player, not sure what else.
> 
> Gnash is the best bet at the moment. It doesn't support Flash video though.

I'll give Gnash another try at some point soon.

>  > Trying to install directly from
>> Adobe's site: http://tinyurl.com/zgkz2 gives an error, "Your 
>> architecture, \'x86_64\', is not supported by the Adobe Flash Player 
>> installer."
> 
> That's right Adobe doesn't support 64-bit Linux. No native Adobe Reader 
> either, last time I checked.

I like the Document Viewer program you've included, it works just fine,
I never tried it before, was just using xpdf, so this is a big
improvement:) And it opens fast, unlike the Adobe Reader!

>> 2. Do I need to pin anything to use the Debian archives for other 
>> programs? How about security updates?
> 
> If you install or upgrade to 64 Studio 1.3.0 you should be able to mix 
> and match with Debian stable (etch) sources. (It's best to comment these 
>   Debian sources out before running the 64studio-upgrade script though).

I see that /etc/apt contains a preferences file. And there's also this
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/64studio.list, which is different than
/etc/apt/sources.list (which currently just has the cd deb line.) I'm
guessing that sources.list is what is used and preferences tells apt to
get things from your archive instead of Debian's where it matters, so I
should edit my sources.list and the 64studio.list is what I should put
in my sources.list, but is otherwise ignored. Am I close?

>> 3. Do you know about this bug in Firefox/Iceweasel and Thunderbird? 
>> Cursor artifacts are left all over the place when you use your arrow keys.
> 
> I've never run into that myself, but I'll watch out for it.

That's the reason I asked about Konqueror and Kmail. Or some other
browser and email client. It's really hard to write when there are lines
all over the place! I don't have this problem in any other application.

It's my lucky day though, the solution has been found:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-driver-nv/+bug/57466

It's a Nvidia video card driver problem, but is fixed when you add this:

Option "XaaNoSolidFillRect"

to the device section for the nv driver in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

When I rebooted after this change, the greeter app crashed, and so I got
a login screen with the Debian logo. But I'm in!

I really wanted a good 2D video card, maybe I'll get one later.

>> 4. Are there any issues with installing Konqueror, Kmail and K3B?
> 
> Not especially. For KDE programs in general, you have to check that the 
> arts sound server isn't hogging the soundcard.

I see that Jack Control execute this at startup: artsshell -q terminate
- I guess that would take care of the arts sound server problem, right?

>  > I
>> tried using SoundJuicer, but got the following error when I tried to 
>> "extract" a CD to my hard drive: "SoundJuicer could not extract this CD. 
>> Reason: Could not link pipeline." I have no idea what that means.
> 
> Probably a gstreamer error. Which output format are you trying to rip 
> to? (It's under Preferences).

I was trying to rip to wav, which didn't work, though it is a choice
under Preferences. I was able to rip to flac though. I always thought
that wav files were better, though I don't know why I thought that.

>> 6. Which is better for audio? ext3 or reiserfs?

Thanks for the advice on that and on swap size!

>> 7. Is there a package that utilizes the writemaster capabilities of my
>> CD/DVD drive? I'm sure that will be prettier than my handwriting!
> 
> There is some proprietary Lightscribe software for Linux available for 
> download, but we haven't tested it:
> 
> http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10803
> 
> It may not support 64-bit Linux either. I'd be keen to find out if there 
> are any free software applications that support this feature. Otherwise, 
> you can print onto inkjet-compatible CD-Rs with Gutenprint I believe.

Thanks - something to figure out later, after I've learned how to use
the music programs.

One other program I really like that I've never tried is Bluefish. My
favorite Windows program is something called TextPad, it was the only
thing I missed when I started using Linux. I never had time to learn
Vim, and but I think that Bluefish might be just what I was looking for.

Thanks for the careful package selection!

>> I've been taking bass lessons for the past year, so I'm really 
>> excited about 64 Studio!
> 
> hehe - the bass players are taking over :-)

<smile>

What can I say, I love my bass:-)

> Cheers!
> 
> Daniel

Take care,

-Susan