6. Download and Install fftw3 packages:

1.  Connect the printer to your Linux PC.   Your life will be easier if your Linux PC uses a static (or unchanging) IP address.   Network Manager or the program wicd will allow you to assign a static IP address, if necessary.

2.  On your Linux PC,  Install the  HPLIP (HP Linux Image Printing) package. It’s available via Synaptic in Ubuntu.  From within the HPLIP program  install your linux pc attached injet printer by selecting the “CUPS web interface”.   Follow the prompts.  When you name the printer, give it something simple.  I choose  ”DeskjetD1600″, for example.   Then Print a test page to make sure you can print to the Inkjet Printer from the host Linux PC.  And, again,  make sure that the printer is checked “shared”.

3   If the cups installer doesn’t find a driver for your printer,  then use the HPLIP button “Setup a device”.  I recall you are prompted for the CD which came with your printer from which the HPLIP program grabs the proper driver.   Again, make sure the printer is check “shared”.

4.   In your windoze PC,  select Devices and Printers,  Add Printer, Add a network, wireless, or Bluetooth Printer, then “The Printer I want is not listed”, then  in the blank “Select a shared printer by name”, insert something like  ”http://192.168.1.106:631/printers/DeskjetD1600″.

5.  The “http://192.168.106:631″  is the local area network ip address of your Linux box to which you have attached your HP injet printer.  the “:631″  says use http protocol via port 631 which is the (CUPS) common unix printer system’s port.   You can obtain the ip address of your linux box by entering “ifconfig” in a terminal window in your Linux pc.  This assumes your linux PC is using a static (as opposed to dynamic) ip address.   If your prospective linux host does not use a static IP,  use the network manager to create one then use “ifconfig” to determine the unchanging ip address and use in place of my example (192.168.1.106).

6.  The DeskjetD1600 part of  ”/printers/DeskjetD1600″  can be obtained from the host linux machine’s CUPS page located at http://192.168.1.106:631 under Printers.  It’s basically the name you gave the printer when you used the “CUPS” page to install the printer.

7.  Click Next and Windoze will attempt to find a driver.  Chances are a driver won’t be found so find your printer CD and click “I have a disk”.  Point Windoze to the CD in your CD drive. Hopefully it will turn up the proper printer driver.   Finally try the “Print a test page”.  What comes out of your printer should be the standard “Windows Printer Test Page”.

Before your first time thought through the RockboxUtility,  visit

http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/GraphicalInstall

Within that tutorial is a note about Configuring RockboxUtility.  My Fuze’s internal  8 GB memory was mounted by my installation of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx as /media/Sansa.   You can change the label (Mine was labeled Sansa) by using QParted.  In QParted, select the Sansas Internal Memory from the drop down box.  It will be /dev/sdi or similar.  Then under Partition,  select Unmount.   When dismounted, select the line containing it in the Partition | File System pane.  Then under Partition, select Label.  Give it a suitable name. Maybe  Sansa, Fuse, MySansaFuse, etc.  Then click the green check mark which causes GParted to write the label to the Sansa’s internal memory.

Using GParted to Rename the Sansa Partition

From then on,  your mount point will be /media/Sansa or /media/Fuse or /MySansaFuse  if you used my suggestions as shown above

Pointing the RockBox Utility to the Sansa Partition

..

The RockboxUtility window labeled “Configuration” is prompting you to find this “mountpoint” using the Browse button.  Click Browse and then navigate in the file system to find your  /media/Sansa  or whatever name you picked.

1. Scattered around the internet is the caution that RockBox cannot be installed on Version 2 of the Sansa Fuze. This is not true.   I used the Linux Version of RockboxUtility-v1.2.8-64bit to install rockbox-sansafuzeev2.3.8.1.zip.  You can check your sansa fuze version by  navigating to  System Settings, System Info

It doesn’t matter which version of the manufacturers SanDisk Sansa firmware is installed.  Just download, unzip and execute the RockboxUtility program and follow the prompts.

2. If you use the RockboxUtility,  you do not need to patch fuzea.bin in the rbinstall directory etc.   For version 2 of the Sansa, the RockboxUtility expects fizpa.bin.  Download this from Sansa  If you have a version 1 of the Sansa Fuze,  then RockboxUtility wants the location of fuzea.bin.

3. The executable file  RockboxUtility  did not have it’s Properties->Permissions->Execute checked.  This allows executing the file as a program.  Double click to execute the program, on my PC.

4.  Once you have installed RockBox, rockbox will automatically boot.  If you want to boot the old sansa firmware, then hold the left rocker (blue) button down and flick the power slide switch up.   Essentially your Sansa is “dual boot”

Leave the Rockbox Project some $ if you can.  See the PayPal button located here:  http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/ContributingToRockbox

ColorBMP:

As it’s name implies, ColorBMP is a program created to add color to an eight bit 256 level Black and White Windows Bitmap Image The program can also interactively modify the color palette of an existing color eight bit Bitmap image . A paint program such as Paintshop Pro 6 (PSP6) can also colorize a B&W bitmap, but not in the manner that ColorBMP does. ColorBMP’s unique claim to fame is that it allows 256 levels to be broken into four ranges. The color of the beginning and end of each of the four color ranges can be set interactively. Once set, the hue, saturation, and optionally, the luminance varies linearly across the range. The intended use of the program was to “colorize” mosaics of black and white Orthophotos. These mosaics are earth warped aerial photographs used to produce ground terrain scenery for the Flight Simulator FLY!TM by Terminal Reality.

Complete Source: http://foxgulch.com/WordPress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/ColorBmp.zip

Orthostitch

The idea here is to combine your colorized ground terrain photos into one giant photo which you can then “fly over” in your flight simulator.   The folder OrthoStitchDoc includes a walk-through of the program including a few Ortho photos which are automatically combined by the program.   From the manual:

From the manual: ” OrthoStitch mosaics OrthoPhotos. OrthoStitch takes Geo-referenced orthophotos that have been converted to bitmaps as input. It’s output is a larger Bitmap which is a mosaic of the input orthophotos bitmaps. The process is somewhat like putting together a jig saw puzzle. Each jig-saw piece is a orthophoto earth image. OrthoStitch reads the associated geo-reference file for each “piece”, copies the piece (bitmap) into a combination accumulation output file ( a much larger bitmap) neatly joining the jig-saw piece orthophotos. With modest computer resources, an output mosaic 50 miles on a side can be created. Programs which are part of a professional Geographic Information System (GIS) also join Orthophotos but the cost of such a program is high.”

Complete Source Code: http://foxgulch.com/WordPress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/OrthoStitch.zip

DisplayDATA  and  MergeDATA

These are two more utility programs offered in source without comment.

DisplayData source and doc: http://foxgulch.com/WordPress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/DisplayData.zip

MergeData source and doc: http://foxgulch.com/WordPress/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/MergeData.zip

Step 1.  Install TrueCrypt

Install TrueCrypt (if you haven’t already).  Plug in your encrypted usb connected volume so linux has access to it.  Click “Auto-Mount Devices” in the True Crypt window (Applications->Accessories->TrueCrypt)  For example, I use a 4GB usb drive which Ubuntu 10.04 automatically mounts as /media/truecrypt1

Step 2.  Check Quicken Files visible.

As a sanity check, “ls /media/truecrypt1″ to make sure your Quicken directory is visible.  For example,  “ls /media/truecrypt1/Quicken” should show the standard Quicken data files…*.QPH, *.IDX *.ODF, *.QEL,  etc.

Step 3.  Check that VirtualBox, Win7 and Quicken are installed in the Win7 VM

This “HowTo” assumes you have installed VirtualBox, created a Win7 Virtual Machine(VM) and then installed Win7 into it. Also Quicken should be installed into your Win7-64 bit virtual machine.  Your VirtualBox Details Tab should look similar to the screenshot below left. (Virtual Box Settings for my Instance of Win7)

Virtual Box Settings for my instance of Win7

Step 4. Share your TrueCrypt  encrypted Quicken Files

In the just opened VirtualBox window titled “Oracle VM VirtualBox”, go to the bottom of the list for your Win7 VM and click “Shared Folders”. Next, Click on the “folder/plus” icon to share your truecrypt volume with the hosted VM. The window should be similar to the screen shot below right. (Win7 VirtualBox Shared Folders Dialog)

Win7 VirtualBox Shared Folders Dialog

depicting the dialogue just  before you click OK to add the folder.  Click OK  and  OK.

Step 5.  Login as Admin

Start the Win7 Virtual Machine by double clicking it from the left column of the Oracle VM VirtualBox window. Win7 should open.  Login as your administrative user.

Step 6.  Install VirtualBox Guest Additions (if necessary)

Next make certain you have installed VirtualBoxes Guest Additions into  your Win7 VM.  In the Win7 VM window,  Click Devices then click Install Guest Additions.  Click “Run VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe”  Allow Oracle VM VirtualBox Guest Additions.  Then Next, I agree, Next, “Check Direct 3D Support” if you want, then Install.  Extraction and Installation proceeds.   Click Finish to  Reboot.

Step 7. Login as regular user.

When Win7 resumes,  login as your un-privilege user you want to give access to the Quicken files.  You should have an icon on your virtual Win7 desktop labelled Quicken.

Step 8.  Verify VBOXSVR is visible.

In the Win7 VM,  Start -> Computer.  Verify you have under the left column heading Network, a folder VBOXSVR.

Step 9.  In Win7 VM, Find “Map network drive”

On the tooolbar near the top of the window titled “Computer” is a text button labeled “Map network drive”.  Click on it.

Step 10.  Uncheck “ReadOnly” on your Quicken

In my computer, navigate to your Quicken folder (probably \\VBOXSVR\truecrypt1\Quicken.  Double click on it to bring up Quicken Properties.  Uncheck Attribute “Read-Only” Click Apply, then OK and OK again.

Step 11. Map Network (\\VBOXSVR\truecrypt) Drive

In Win 7 VM, Start -> Computer->Map Network Drive (again)  “What network folder would you like to map?” opens. Accept Drive Z if offered and then Browse to \\VBOXSVR\truecrypt1.  Your Map Network Drive folder should look like this:

Map Network Drive

Note do not specify  \\VBOXSVR\truecrypt1\Quicken as your “browse to folder”.   Quicken is a folder, not a mountable drive. You’ll get Win7 “error code: 0×80070043, The network name cannot be found” if you include the folder name Quicken.

Step 12.  Start Quicken, Find data files if necessary

Within your Win7 VM,  start Quicken.  Quicken should find your data files.  If it doesn’t, from Quicken “File,  Open” then navigate to the Quicken Folder (in my example, this is located in “truecrypt1(\\VVOXSVR) (Z:)“.   Your main *.QDF Quicken data files should be visible.  Click on one of the *.QDF to start Quicken.

Note now  that any changes you make within Quicken is saved, not within the Win7 VM instance of Quicken, but back out to the shared encrypted file mounted by TrueCrypt on your Linux machine.

This walk-through assumes you have installed Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop.  When I installed my 9.04,  I created a separate partition that I mounted as /kvm.   It’s in this folder where I installed my virtual machines.  The usual convention is to install the virtual machines in /home/kvm.  If you use /kvm whose disk space is supplied by  separate partition,  you need to make it read and write-able by your default user  or  invoke  the Virtual Machine Manager using gksudo.

First, we need to install the KVM packages following the instructions here:  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KVM/Installation

sudo aptitude install kvm libvirt-bin ubuntu-vm-builder bridge-utils

sudo adduser `id -un` libvirtd

Next follow the instructions on this page:  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KVM/Networking

sudo apt-get install bridge-utils
sudo invoke-rc.d networking stop

My /etc/network/interfaces file reads like this:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual

auto br0
iface br0 inet static
address 192.168.1.101
network 192.168.1.0
netmask 255.255.255.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255
gateway 192.168.1.1
bridge_ports eth0
bridge_stp off
bridge_fd 0
bridge_maxwait 0

Then restart the network:   sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

If you   command:  ifconfig,  you should see your bridge br0 and the eth0 nic like this

lj@lian:~$ ifconfig
br0       Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1d:7d:01:b4:86
inet addr:192.168.1.101  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::21d:7dff:fe01:b486/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
RX packets:294310 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:192509 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:428332980 (428.3 MB)  TX bytes:14557710 (14.5 MB)

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1d:7d:01:b4:86
inet6 addr: fe80::21d:7dff:fe01:b486/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
RX packets:333337 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:207805 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:466066295 (466.0 MB)  TX bytes:15699080 (15.6 MB)
Interrupt:251

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
RX packets:136315 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:136315 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:333035717 (333.0 MB)  TX bytes:333035717 (333.0 MB)

Next we will install the guest virtual machine.   Create a directory in /home named vm1 so that you have this directory  /home/vm1.   If you have decided to place your virtual machine image files in a separate folder as I did,  then you would create the directory  /kvm/vm1 (virtual kvm based machine one).

Change into your newly created directory and invoke the Virtual Machine Manager from a terminal window.

lj@lian:~$ gksu virt-manager

Right click on the line “localhost (System)”,  then select connect.

Again Right click on the line “localhost (System)”, but this time select new

In the dialog windows which appear, use the following 15 screenshots as a guide to install and configure your guest.  Remember the screenshots reflect that I am installing my first virtual machine in a folder /kvm/vm1.  You may have chosen  /home/vm1 or even some other directory.  Next work your way through the next steps  clicking “Forward” when you have completed the current screen.

1. Read About the Steps that will be followed.

Step 1

2. Name your Virtual Machine Guest

The name is arbitrary so I picked  virtual machine number 1 (vm1)

Step 2

3. Choose the Virtualization Method

I chose fully.  This is similar to Virtual Box.  The down side is that certain hardware (Network Inteface Cards and Graphics Cards) are simulated.  So by default a virtualized 9.04 desktop will not use nvidia’s drivers or even directly speak to your phisical GeForce or other graphics card.  Instead your guest will “think” it is in a computer with a Cirrus graphics card.  I haven’t experimented with para-virtualization under Ubuntu KVM yet.

Step 3

4.  Tell Virtual Manager which OS you will be Installing

If you are going to install your virtual guest’s files in /home/vm  or as I did in this instance /kvm/vm1,  you need read/write permissions to these directories and the directories need to exist prior to this step.

Step 4

5. Tell Virtual Machine Manager where your Install CD is located.

Obviously, if you chose Jaunty 9.04 in Step 4,  then you must supply a 9.04 Desktop CD in this step.  The words Ubuntu 9.04 i386 reflect that choice.

Step 5

6.  Tell the Virtual Machine Manager where you want to install the Guest vm.

Here you might have /home/vm1 instead of /kvm/vm1/.   The name for the guest disk image vm1image is arbitrary chosen just to associate the giant 4 GB image file with the virtual machine vm1.

Step 5

Step 7  Tell the Guest How to Connect to the Internet

Here we tell the guest to use the bridge set up in the preliminary instructions.   The bridge piggy backs on your PC’s physical NIC and provides software RJ45 jacks  just as though you were setting up a physical  ethernet switch.   If you go “ifconfig”, you won’t see the “jacks” (vnet#) until the guest is actually running.   Then they appear as vnet0  vnet1  etc depending on how many guests you have “started”

Step 7

Step 8  Memory and CPU

I just took the default.  My host is a 32 bit install of Jaunty 9.04 with 4 GB of memory.

Step 8

Step 9  Ready to Install.

Review your choices and when you are ready to write the virtual machine’s file to your /home/vm1 or /kvm/vm1 directories,  click Finish.

Step 9

Step 10  The Guest Virtual Machine File is Written

Time for coffee or tea.

Step 10

Step 11.  Greetings from the “Live CD” Guest

This should look familiar.  What you see is your “Guest” virtual machine showing the standard “Live CD” introduction.   Just continue through like you were starting a “Live CD” that you stuck in the CDRom and rebooted.

Step 11

Step 12  More Familar Screens

Again this should look familar.  This is your “Live CD” screen.  This is the same screen that would be shown when the “Live CD” feature is booted from the Jaunty 9.04 CD but it is generated and comes from the “Guest Virtual Machine”.  So much for running entirely in memory.  If we want to write our installation to the guest image file,  click on Install.  What you see in succeding screens is that same as if you were installing to a bare hard disk.  Just remember all the writing and installing is directed to your /home/vm1 (or /home/kvm) directory in a giant image file.  Later you can to a “ls -l /home/vm1″ from your host to see the size of this file.

Step 12

Step 13  Writing the Virtual Guest Image File

Next the installation is written to the guest image file.  The screens are similar to that you would see if you were installing Jaunty to your hardisk.

Step 13

Step 14  Success!

Click Restart  then from Applications ->System Tools->Virutal Machine Manager window, which will already be open, right click on your virtual machine (vm1) select “run”  Succeesing screens should appear in a window  just as though you are “booting” from your hard drive.

Step 14

Step 15  My Desktop Screenshot

Just for fun, I installed another “guest”.  Here is my host desktop with both guests windows running.  In vm2 (guest number 2) I have launched GIMP.  In vm1, I have Open Office Writen running. To the right is the Virtual Machine Manager window.    Note that on my desk top,  I prefer the Applications Places System panel at the bottom.  Just put your mouse cursor on blank spot on the panel (at the top by default)  click and hold Alt while you drag the panel to the bottom of the screen.   Also since my host is using twin view to extend my desktop across sid by side monitors,  I had to drag the “Apps Places System” panel from the right monitor to the left (where I prefer that it reside).   Hope this helps.   I’m LarryJ2 on the Ubuntu forums so if you need to contact me, a pm there should work.

Step 15

# YOU MUST CHANGE THIS TO BE THE SOURCE YOU WANT TO USE
source=rt8180,wlan1,EncoreUSB
You might expect that the source=rt8180 phrase would be changed to source=r8187 since this is the Kernel Module (r8187.ko) that is loaded by UDev when the dongle is plugged in.   But the above line works so I didn’t complain. Your installation may use wlan0 or even wlan2. Use the utility iwconfig to determine which wlan number was assigned when you plugged in the dongle. For example in my case my USB Wifi dongel was assigned wlan1:

lj@lian:~$ iwconfig
wlan1 802.11b/g Mode:Monitor Channel=1 Bit Rate=11 Mb/s
Retry:on Fragment thr:off
Link Quality=0/100 Signal level=0 dBm Noise level=0 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

To start a kismet client (curses aka text based)  enter the following in a terminal:
sudo kismet
I purchased this cheapie from NewEgg ,  ENCORE NNUWI-G2 USB 2.0 802.11G Wirelss Adapter, NewEgg # N82E16833704002, FCC ID NOI-W420B for $8 USD Aug 2009.  The above info came from my system which has Hardy 8.04  LTS  with the 2.6.24-24-generic kernel.

All this assumes Ubuntu 2.6.24-24-generic  Hardy 8.04 LTS with the Gnome Desktop, and that the wonderful “wicked”  Wicd Network Manager is installed. [url]http://wicd.sourceforge.net/download.php[/url]  to download a .deb installable copy. (I personally highly recommend this utility and publicly thank its author.)

1. In a terminal on the command line, enter:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

2.  Add these three lines (The third line is blank)

# Note: comment out the following line with a # if you want the mini-pci intel 3945 wireless card to be loaded.

blacklist iwl3945

3. Save the file then  System -> Quit  > Restart

4. During BIOS boot,  plug in your wireless usb dongle.
(Or simply power down, plug in your dongle, and power up again)

5. Open a terminal and enter this on the command line:

lj@dell:~$ iwconfig

You should see wlan0 or wlan1 or wlan2 or similar.

6. Then open WICD network manager. (Applications->Internet->Wicd Network Manager)  In Wicd, Preferences, General Settings in the Wireless Interface
box,  enter your wireless interface you found from step 5 above (wlan0 or similar) in the box titled wireless interface.

7.  Then in the Wicd main window,  click the Refresh button.  Look for your  wireless access point.  Hopefully that will be one of the available choices so next  you can add your encryption data  and click connect.

8. To resume using the internal Intel 3945 card,  comment out the black list (Step 2 above) and reboot.

This seems rather painful.  Maybe someone else has a better method of switching between internal Intel 3945 and external USB Wireless dongles.

I tried this technique with three USB Dongles. I’ll probably end up using the SMC unit as it seemed to have the best performance.  Here’s info on the three FYI.

[QUOTE]USB Wireless Dongle #1
SMC EZ connect g    USB Dongle
Model: SMCWUSB-G   Serial Number: T291604191
MacAddress/ HWaddr 00:22:2d:0e:46:7b
Altheros AR2524-AQ1C chip
FCC ID: RAXWN4501H
lsusb: Bus 005 Device 008: ID 083a:4505 Accton Technology Corp.
Modules zd1211rw, lbm_cw_mac80211, lbm_cw_cfg80211
Irritations: Hard lockup when dongle is unplugged from USB port forcing power down and restart. Signal strength displayed in dBM under wicd is not correct but  Signal Quality with iwconfig seems appropriate.

USB Wireless Dongle #2
Encore Electronics  Wireless 802.11g USB Adapter
Encore  ENUWI-G2  FCC ID NOI-W420B
MacAddress /HWaddr HWaddr 00:08:54:95:2f:6a
RealTek RTL8187B chip
Serial Number 11729040724359
lsusb: Bus 005 Device 003: ID 0bda:8189 Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Modules: r8187, ieee80211_rtl,ieee80211_crypt_ccmp_rtl,ieee80211_crypt_tkip_rtl,ieee80211_crypt_wep_rtl
Irritations:  Senstivity, slow to connect,  LED doesn’t flash on data transfer.

USB Wireless Dongle #3
D-Link DWL-G122
Model:  DWL-G122  H/W Version B1  F/w Ver 2.02
P/N BWLG122NA.B1  FCC ID:  KADWLG122B1
Serial Number  DR5Z2610111437
MacAddress /HWAddr 00:15:e9:33:95:5d
lsusb: Bus 005 Device 005: ID 2001:3c00 D-Link Corp. [hex] DWL-G122 802.11g rev. B1 [ralink]
Modules:  rt2500usb, rt2x00lib, rt2500usb,rt2x00usb rfkill, lbm_cw_mac80211, lbm_cw_cfg80211
Irritations: Doesn’t connect under WPA, No Activity LED nor Link LED,
unplugging from usb port causes hard lockup forcing power down restart.[/QUOTE]

• Talking Media Player Source Code (.zip)
• Talking Media Player  Demo with Podcasts
• Talking Media Player  Demo with Music

Installation

Installation of the Talking Media Player (TMP)  depends on several external program which are called from within TMP.   You could install the auxiliary programs using synaptic. But here  for clarity,  the command line with will be used.  In several of the steps below, dependency files are also installed automatically.  In the steps below, I used Ubuntu Linux  Hardy Heron  Version 8.04.1 The steps below depend heavily on the Ubuntu package Repository  accessed by apt-get.  If you are using a different Linux distribution  or a Mac or “Windoze”, you’ll have to make appropriate changes,  or simply  empty out a partiton and install Ubuntu!

1. To play a wide variety of media files including .mp3, .ogg, and  .acc+, I suggest installing the Swiss army knife of media players Totem

lj@dell:~$ sudo apt-get install vlc

2.  Install the speech synthesizer Festival Note: Command to install Festival  is one one line. (1.96 beta or later)  If you get lost, I followed the instructions located here posted by MonkeeSage which are  partially duplicated here

lj@dell:~$ sudo apt-get install festival festlex-cmu festlex-poslex festlex-oald libestools1.2 unzip

3. Download and install a suitable voice for the speech synthesizer Festival.  I prefer the  female US voice from the Nagoya Institute of Technology.  One irritation is that the spoken word “down” comes out “doum”  There are other voices available, but this is the one I prefer.

lj@dell:~$ wget -c http://hts.sp.nitech.ac.jp/archives/2.1/festvox_nitech_us_slt_arctic_hts-2.1.tar.bz2

4. After downloading,  extract the .bz2 file.  You should see a folder /lib

5. Following instructions found in MonkeeSage’s link above in the section titled : (Installing NITEC voices section)

lj@dell:~$ sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/festival/voices/us

lj@dell:~$ sudo mv lib/voices/us/* /usr/share/festival/voices/us/

lj@dell:~$ sudo mv lib/hts.scm /usr/share/festival/hts.scm

6. Again following the instructions in the ubuntu foum,  I made this voice the default.  Note that in ubuntu, the festival.scm file is located in a different place on Ubuntu namely at “/usr/share/festival/festival.scm”

lj@dell:~$ sudo gedit /usr/share/festival/festival.scm

7. In the festival.scm file, I added the last line shown and saved the updated file. After the addition, the last two lines of my festival.scm file read:

(provide ‘festival)

(set! voice_default ‘voice_nitech_slt_rms_arctic_hts)

8. Next test to see if the text to speech synthesizer Festival is alive and well

lj@dell:~$ festival

Then at the festival prompt, enter (include  the parenthesis)

festival> (SayText “Hello from Festival and Ubuntu”)

You should hear the text.

Ctrl+D exits the festival interpreter.

9.  Install and test  the remote control LIRC (Linux Infra-Red Remote Control) facility.   The folks at MythBuntu has made this easy.  Mythbuntu is an excellent distribution of MythTV, the  personal video recorder application.  In MythBuntu is the MythControlCentre which installs the files necessary to run your remote control. (Note British spelling of “centre”, that’s not a typo)

lj@dell:~$ sudo apt-get install mythbuntu-control-centre

10. Open the control center

lj@dell:~$ mythbuntu-control-centre

11.  In the section,  Infrared Devices,  check  Enable a Remote Control and then select your remote brand name from the list.  I’m using a StreamZap USB connected remote I purchased from Amazon for about $30 US.   Then click Apply

12.  Check if LIRC is operating correctly.  Plug in your USB or Serial IR remote receiver then start the IR utility program “irw”.

lj@dell:~$ irw

If all is well, you should see remote control button press responses something like:

00000000000028d2 00 OK Streamzap_PC_Remote

00000000000028d2 01 OK Streamzap_PC_Remote

00000000000028d7 00 PLAY Streamzap_PC_Remote

00000000000028d7 01 PLAY Streamzap_PC_Remote

00000000000028ca 00 POWER Streamzap_PC_Remote

Ctrl+C exits irw

13.  Nothing seen from “irw”?  Especially if you are seeing can’t open /dev/lircd or similar.  This means that lirc (Linux Infra Red Control) package is not installed or configured properly.    Try this command to see if it helps then re-run MythBuntu-Control-Centre

lj@dell:~$ sudo apt-get install lirc

14.  Finally download then extract the main script file  TalkingMediaPlayer  into a convenient directory, here  for illustration a directory created on the desktop.

lj@dell:~$ cd Desktop

lj@dell:~$ mkdir TalkingMediaPlayer

lj@dell:~$ cd TalkingMediaPlayer

Here’s a zippped file with the directory Sample Music. Download and extract this directory to your TalkingMediaPlayer  directory  (4.8 MB)     SampleMusic.zip

The python script source  file (a .py file and ERIC4 IDE project file)  is available here: (~20KB)  TalkingMediaPlayer Zip

You can always get the latest source script by using this  link.  The source is undergoing minor tweaks daily.  As of April 26, 2009,  Version 1.6  was current.

Right click and then choose  Save Link As  to download the zip file  to your ~/Desktop/TalkingMediaPlayer directory.

Invoke the Archive Manager then unzip the zip package.

You should have these files:

lj@dell:~$ls -al .

drwxr-xr-x  4 lj lj    4096 2009-04-09 11:18 SampleMusic

-rw-r–r–  1 lj lj 5065823 2009-04-12 13:25 talkingmediaplayer_v1-x.zip

(where x reflects the version number, currently v1-3 but maybe later)

-rw-r–r–  1 lj lj    3370 2009-04-08 09:15 TalkingPlayer.e4p

-rw-r–r–  1 lj lj   17442 2009-04-11 14:23 TalkingPlayer.py

15. Open a terminal console and change into the TalkingMediaPlayer directory on your desktop  then start the program with

lj@dell:~$  python TalkingPlayer.py SampleMusic

If you press “OK” on the remote,  the following should be seen and heard:

This directory is selected:

SampleMusic

This file is selected and cued

Dowland_Excuse.mp3

Press “Play” and you should hear music.

Here is a copy of an early but complete script in five pages, formatted as python scrip in .pdf format:    TalkingMediaPlayer.py

Operational Hints:

1. Say your media files arranged in and below a directory named MP3s  which has a subdirectory MP3-1 which in turn has a sub-subdirectory MP3-1-1 all of which have valid media files in them.   When TalkingMediaPlayer runs,  it will suck all the media files it finds and flatten the directory structure.  For example,  first MP3s directory will be selected.  Pressing  the RIGHT arrow will select  subdirectory  MP3-1   and another RIGHT arrow will select sub-subdirctory  MP3-1-1.   While either of these directories are selected, you can select individual medial files with the UP and DOWN arrows.

2. The Blue button speaks the modification date of the media file.  This is usually the creation date.  The Yellow button will speak the current time.  The media files are sorted on their creation date inside each directory so the oldest file is presented first at the “top” (index==0).

Needed Improvements and Irritations:

1.  The word “down” is pronounced to my ear as “downd”.  I quickly made the translation in  my head so never tried out any of the other NITEC voices.  The pronunciation of “down” may be better in them.

2.  The script launches  VLC  with the NO_WAIT signal. (in playerPid= os.spawnl(os.P_NOWAIT)   Therefore, any remote key presses after Totem is started are directed not to Totem but to the script.    If you launch Totem with P_ WAIT, then  the  “Kill thread” method of stopping vlc doesn’t work correctly.  In reality, I should use a python module such as pyMedia or similar and not call Totem     Totem for this application is overkill.

3. After expeimenting with VLC as the underlying media player,  I quit using it infavor of Totem.  VLC had a nasty habit of occassionally not responding to my IR Remote keypresses.

4. Many more I’ll bet

Bugs

What!?  That’s impossible… works here….your mileage may vary….  But contact me anyway if you want.  My contact info is under the Pages heading as About and Contact.

First you need to open a terminal.   Ubuntu Start Menu -> Accessories -> Terminal.   You can clear the terminal window at any time using this:

lj@lian:~$ clear

Next you need to create a folder for the input directory containing your input  images,  and another output directory  to contain the html album output by bins.  I chose to put my in and out directories on the Desktop

lj@lian:~$ cd Desktop

Off the Desktop directory (so it will show up on your desktop) create the input directory

lj@lian:~/Desktop$ mkdir photosIn

Similarly, off the Desktop directory, make another directory to hold the many html and resized image files that bins will generate.

lj@lian:~/Desktop$ mkdir photosOut

Next put some sample photos in the  ~/Desktop/photosIn directory.   Here I just copied them from a photo directory

lj@lian:~/Desktop$ cp ~/Photos/*    photosIn

Now  list the diretory photosIn to make sure your copy command  loaded  several files in the photosIn directory.  Alternatively, you can  drag and drop these image files using the file browser Nautilus.

lj@lian:~/Desktop$ ls photosIn

This is the resulting  list of my sample input images:

Picture2 063.jpg  Picture2 147.jpg  Picture2 165.jpg
Picture2 072.jpg  Picture2 153.jpg  Picture2 170.jpg
Finally, you run the bins program.   Bins is particular about where the templates are stored.  As installed, the templates are in /usr/share/bins with a separate directory for each template.  (Names like template.martin etc).  After several attempts, I read in the manual that bins would also look in ~/.bins   if it found one for these templates.   So I created one  and copied the all the templates into it.

lj@lian:~$ mkdir ~/.bins

lj@lian:~$ cp -R /usr/share/bins/* ~/.bins/

Then execute the bins program (my executable aka binary was installed as  /usr/bin/bins)  Here I’ve asked bins to use the  satyap template.

lj@lian:~$ bins -s satyap   ~/Desktop/photosIn  ~/Desktop/photosOut

You can now experiment using the installed templates and perhaps modify one to suit your needs.  In the installation with Hardy, came  seven templates:  marc, mwolson, satyap, joi martin, petrus, and swigs.

Again bins expects to find these templates in the ~/bins folder which I created above and populated with the contents of /usr/share/bins.

If you get a complaint from bins that it can’t find “search_ .js”.   Open  /etc/bins/binsrc with a text editor

Find the paragraph showing:

<!– If 1, generate a search page. Images can be searched on
description fields set in the searchFields parameter. –>
<parameter name=”searchEngine”>
1
</parameter>

Change the “searchEngine” parameter from a one to a zero.   Some templates include a search function written in Java.  If it’s not included in the templates directory,  bins will complain.  This change will cause bins to omitt a search function.

Another way to invoke bins is like this.  This uses the default template subdirectory and requests the martin template.

lj@lian:~$ bins -t /usr/share/bins  -s martin  ~/Desktop/photosIn  ~/Desktop/photosOut

I’ve posted a sample html page that was created by me using bins here:

http://foxgulch.com/Miscellaneous/anker/index.html

There hasn’t been much activity on the bins email list since 2005.  This program may have been superceded by a fork or a different technique.  But if you have hundreds of photos to paste into html pages, this program is a definite time saver.  Thanks to their authors.