Fixing Bluetooth and Wireless (WiFi) Issues

Disclaimer: This blog article is for experienced Linux users who installed Fedora XFCE - my recommendation is to add the full Cinnamon desktop package or better yet, install Fedora Mate.

***Update for June 28, 2015: Removed WICD since I do not want to alter the DHCP client settings. Unblocked wifi using /usr/sbin/rfkill as desktop session setting.

***Update for June 14, 2015: a full Cinnamon, MATE or XFCE4 Desktop install is the alternate to figuring out GNOME and GNOME Classic. Openbox does not show a panel by default. Fedora is definitely for the experienced Linux user.

***Update for June 13, 2015: Adding the Mate Desktop improved everything. For anyone bold enough to make the jump to Fedora or even Mint Linux, the Mate Desktop installation is recommended. If you depend on Bluetooth and WiFi, then please choose Mate Desktop.

In the following article, I have documented my experience installing and using the XFCE4 Desktop version of Fedora 21. Since May, I have upgraded to Fedora 22 and added Mate Desktop.

Despite adding a script (start_dnsmasq) to enable local DNS, it still has to be run in a terminal. My guess is, Fedora considers such a script to violate security policy and will not run it. I have clicked on System: Preferences: Personal: Startup Applications to add it to the startup applications but Fedora does not run my script. Thus, I will continue to run the script from the terminal.

Wicd was installed, replacing wifi-radar. WiFi is currently detected by the system. My guess is, wifi-radar might have "forgotten" wifi when I opted to use a wired connection rather than WiFi. Perhaps Gnome might have "assumed" that WiFi wasn't needed anymore, resulting in no WiFi.

In any case, the Mate Desktop is much more to my liking than Gnome was.

***UPDATE: I have resisted as far as I could, but now am running Chrome browser, but it still isn't fast as the Firefox. In a new post on my blog, I will tell you how much fun it is to work with Fedora!!

XFCE4 is light, so light that they decided to program Fedora to turn off Bluetooth and eventually the WiFi network via rfkill.

According to the developer of Cinnamon, the workaround is to install these bluedevil packages:

bluedevil.i686
bluedevil-autostart.i686
libbluedevil.i686

For details, see: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpost.php?p=1685034&postcount=4
Thank you, leigh123linux, for the suggestion of using bluedevil.
Note: Blueooth does not work with XFCE4, LXDE, LxQT, and Cinnamon.

It only works with Gnome. So upgrade to Gnome.

— SHK 20150517.0320 UDT

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After installing Fedora 21 on my EeePC 1000HE last Tuesday (May 5), I could not get Bluetooth to work. By Wednesday, I had lost wireless and only had a LAN connection.

On Sunday (yesterday), I decided to tackle the problem since the only time Fedora would detect WiFi was by plugging in a WiFi USB adapter.

After checking /var/log/messages and /var/log/messages-20150510, I discovered that only the ethernet network adapter worked:

lshw is run showing the Class "network" entry for the Ethernet interface. Even though the Atheros is a Gigabit or Fast Ethernet, my LAN cable is CAT.5E, and thus limits the speed to 100 Mbit/s.

I also discovered that the netbook's WiFi adapter uses the ath9k module for the Qualcomm Atheros AR9280 WiFi chipset:

So I found the solution here: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpost.php?p=1729572&postcount=5

> I installed rfkill and lshw
...
> prompted rfkill list = Soft blocked = no and Hard blocked = no

In my case I got the following:

$ rfkill list
0: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
1: asus-wlan: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
2: asus-bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: yes
Hard blocked: no


and here: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpost.php?p=1489711&postcount=2

> rfkill unblock all

Similarly, I unblocked all the soft blocked interfaces (bluetooth and wireless):
$ rfkill unblock all && rfkill list

$ rfkill list
0: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
1: asus-wlan: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
2: asus-bluetooth: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no
3: phy0: Wireless LAN
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no

After unblocking the netbook's wireless and Bluetooth interfaces, I then used modprobe to install the ath9k module:

$ sudo modprobe ath9k

This loads all the ath9k-related modules - ath, ath9k, ath9k_common and ath9k_hw with the associated 802.11-related modules, cfg80211 and mac80211:

$ lsmod|grep ath
ath9k 112655 0
ath9k_common 29490 1 ath9k
ath9k_hw 433891 2 ath9k_common,ath9k
ath 23507 3 ath9k_common,ath9k,ath9k_hw
mac80211 597573 1 ath9k
cfg80211 461788 4 ath,ath9k_common,ath9k,mac80211

Once the Atheros modules are installed, it is trivial to set up the WiFi network using the NetworkManager-applet.

After bluetooth is unblocked and enabled, the solution to enable bluetooth for the plain vanilla Fedora 21 XFCE is to install Cinnamon and its related packages:

cinnamon.i686
cinnamon-control-center.i686
cinnamon-screensaver.i686
cinnamon-session.i686
cinnamon-desktop.i686
cinnamon-menus.i686

Here's a screenshot from my netbook showing the configuration menu in Cinnamon:

By clicking on the Bluetooth and/or Networking icons, the configuration menu may be viewed and can be edited.

Specifically the networking area consists of Wired (LAN), Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The Nexus 4 entry refers to my smartphone which is a paired device which can be used to provide internet via the phone's data service. The Bluetooth entry shows a connected device (the smartphone) which uses the netbook as an audio device.

After reflection on my original Bluetooth issue with the XFCE version of Fedora 21, I could have saved myself the hassle of this issue by installing Fedora 21 Gnome.

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This article would not have happened without the help of Google Search - "Google is your friend!"

Kudos to two members of Fedora Forums:

1. feihuhotain for providing the tip for installing lshw and rfkill, and using rfkill to list the wireless interface (Bluetooth and WiFi), and
2. aks for providing the tip for using rfkill to unblock all the software blocks of wireless interfaces.

Fedora Forums: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/

Improving My Web Browsing (Linux)

DISCLAIMER: This project is posted for information only and should take no more than 2 hours to complete. Only an experienced Linux user should attempt this task due to the work involved. It requires being comfortable at the command line and downloading packages from the Internet.

Overall, I rate this project as "advanced" since an experienced Linux user will be able to understand what I planned to do and implement it. YMMV

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In this project, I worked at getting polipo to work with pdnsd. My intention was to speed up polipo, the caching web proxy server. Information on polipo is found by entering apt-cache to show its description:

$ apt-cache show polipo

Originally I started with polipo, and noticed that Iceweasel was lofting and wait times while loading web pages was over 15 seconds. After searching on the Internet for "speed up polipo" I happened on a post on the crunchbang.org forum by "hardran3" entitled '"Faster" browsing with polipo & pdnsd.'

Polipo is configured to show:

• its menu at http://127.0.0.1:8123/polipo/
  
• its status at http://127.0.0.1:8123/polipo/status?
  
• its current configuration at http://127.0.0.1:8123/polipo/config?
  
• its known servers at http://127.0.0.1:8123/polipo/servers? and
  
• and its disk cache index at http://127.0.0.1:8123/polipo/index?

As instructed on the tips page, I installed pdnsd using aptitude: $ sudo aptitude install pdnsd

Pdnsd is the proxy DNS server with permanent caching. More information on it is found by entering apt-cache to show its description: $ apt-cache show pdnsd

After installing polipo, I edited /etc/polipo/config without ad-blocking and allowed the amount of information leaked by commenting the lines for censoredHeaders and censorReferer.

In this way it was adapted for Crunchbang Linux on my desktop PC which is directly connected to the Internet via aDSL modem / router.

Next, /etc/pdnsd.conf was edited using the configuration shown. However, the original text for pdnds.conf was missing a "}", so the last six lines of the code given should be:

48:source {
49: ttl=86400;
50: owner="localhost.";
51: serve_aliases=on;
52: file="/etc/hosts";
53: }


I also opted to keep the following from /etc/pdnsd.conf:

55:rr {
56: name=localhost;
57: reverse=on;
58: a=127.0.0.1;
59: owner=localhost;
60: soa=localhost,root.localhost,42,86400,900,86400,86400;
61:}


However, the above 7 lines are optional. Finally I edited the /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf file as directed.

In order to get pdnsd to run, the file /etc/default/pdnsd also needs to be edited as follows:

01: # do we start pdnsd ?
02: START_DAEMON=yes


* Note that I prefaced lines in the respective configuration files with line numbers. This is for information purposes and should be left out in each file.

To get dhclient to restart, unplug the network cable and plug it back in. If it still isn't reset, do not worry. Just start up polipo with: $ sudo /etc/init.d/polipo restart

The system will respond with: Restarting polipo: polipo. ...and start up pdnsd with:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/pdnsd restart

To which the system will respond with: [ ok ] Restarting pdnsd (via systemctl): pdnsd.service.

To check the status of and ensure pdnsd is running: $ sudo /etc/init.d/pdnsd status
The system will respond with:  

● pdnsd.service - LSB: Start pdnsd
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/pdnsd)
  Drop-In: /run/systemd/generator/pdnsd.service.d
           └─50-pdnsd-$named.conf
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2015-02-14 01:17:28 PST; 2h 42min ago
  Process: 24149 ExecStop=/etc/init.d/pdnsd stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 24156 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/pdnsd start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   CGroup: /system.slice/pdnsd.service
           └─24161 /usr/sbin/pdnsd --daemon -p /var/run/pdnsd.pid

Once pdnsd is running, polipo is using 127.0.0.1 as the address for the internal DNS server. Overall, the time spent debugging was due to pdnsd not starting up.

Once it started running, I got the following response using netstat: $ sudo netstat -atunp | grep "127.0.0.1:53"

Results:

Internet response times are improved. Most of the webpages are cached permanently in /var/cache/polipo and the DNS information in /var/cache/pdnsd - this allows for faster access to webpages because they are permanently stored in cache.

Update; 20150411

I have also added the polipo and pdnsd packages to my netbook which runs Mint 17.1.


Sometimes I get one webpage that never resolves on my netbook. After careful research of the issue (504 Gateway error) led me to reinstall resolvconf. Then I added GoogleDNS to server section in /etc/pdsnd.conf to improve lag time:

server {
label = "GoogleDNS";
ip=8.8.8.8;
proxy_only=on;
timeout=10;
}

After forcing a reload of pdnsd, I could access the webpage.

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Kudos: Thanks to Hardran3 for the tips on getting polipo to work with pdnsd, and especially to Jiri H for developing Crunchbang Linux.

While development of Crunchbang Linux is finished, I will still use it because it still works.

Reference:

Caching Web Proxy and DNS Server pictures:

Crunchbang:
Index
» Tips, Tricks & Scripts
» "Faster" browsing with polipo & pdnsd

http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=11881

Mint Linux is derived from Ubuntu, and the following link helped with resolve the 504 Gateway error:

http://www.n00bsonubuntu.net/content/speed-up-your-web-browsing-by-caching-dns-to-your-hard-drive-in-ubuntu/

Getting Doc-Central To Display Compressed Documentation as Text

This article has to do with Apache web server and the Doc-Central and Dwww documentation utilities for Linux. It is intended for experienced Linux users who are familiar with Apache, Doc-Central and Dwww.

Crunchbang Linux 11 comes with Apache2.

Today I installed dwww and Doc-Central so I can use Chrome to read documentation.

Dwww can read both plaintext README files and related files and the compressed changelog.gz, changelog.Debian.gz, NEWS.gz, and README.gz files. However, Doc-Central can only read plaintext files.

So the challenge was to get Doc-Central to display the GZipped documentation as plaintext on a web browser.

So I spent an hour researching the problem and came up with the following solution:

To set up Apache serve so that Doc-Central display so that changelog.gz, changelog.Debian.gz, NEWS.gz, and README.gz are displayed as text, change the mime.conf by uncommenting all the lines containing AddType.

Then change the alias.conf by adding the following text after the comments:

Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/"

<directory "/usr/share/doc">
Options FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

AddEncoding gzip gz
<filesmatch "\.gz$">
ForceType text/plain
Header set Content-Encoding: gzip
</FilesMatch>
</Directory>

Finally, restart Apache using apache2ctl:
$ apache2ctl restart

It will take a few minutes for Apache to update Doc-Central.

When I checked Doc-Central again, the compressed text displayed as plaintext.

Linux on a Modest Budget (satire)

Originally, this article began as a post I might have posted on the Linux Community on GooglePlus but decided against posting because of my nonchalant attitude after writing it.

However, rather than face the prospect of apologizing to the many Linux users who invest a lot of money in their machines, I decided to write this article on my blog instead.

This article is not for them. It is for the people of modest means who want Linux on a used PC that may or may not run an old copy of Windows.

To make a long story short, I decided to use a screensaver on my Linux PC and picked Slidescreen.

After using the screensaver for a couple weeks, I noticed what appeared to be screen burn-in on my monitor. Actually, it is image persistence. Given that this is an LCD monitor made in 2006, I can accept image persistence, since it will go away in about two weeks.

To help my monitor recover, I changed the screensaver preferences to Blank Screen Only and left it at the default settings.

I am not overly concerned since it cost me under $100, and as a rule I buy according to my modest income from work.

My PC is worth under $300 used and I'm proud of the fact that Linux runs on it.

First starters, the 250GB Seagate hard drive came from an old Buffalo external hard drive I bought for $50 used. The motherboard is an old HP dc5000 SFF(PB480A) made after HP was merged with Compaq.

Originally made in desktop slim form factor (approximately 4" x 13" x 15"), the original maximum specifications state 3 GHz Pentium 4, Intel 865 graphics, 4GB, and 40 GB hard drive. The Intel 865 graphics chip supports 2048 x 1536 pixels.

Thus, the motherboard is capable of supporting a 1280 x 1024 monitor, 2 GB and 250 GB hard drive. To give it plenty of flow space due to the 2 GHz CPU, it fits into a spacious mid-tower case that's 7" wide x 15" high x 17" depth. On eBay, I've seen the motherboard being sold for $35 and the tower case, being so old it doesn't have any front mounted USB ports, probably could be picked up used less than $20. A matched pair of 2 GB RAM is available on ebay for $20.

In total that comes to under $221. After labour costs, the total cost is $400.

Most systems today give a bigger bang for the buck but usually cost $600 to 700 before taxes from a local dealer. Some places even will not supply an operating system on request. Best Buy only offers name-brand PCs from Dell and other PC manufacturers but their suppliers are locked in the Microsoft deal.

The only time Dell sells a Linux system is when they sell one of their high-end laptops with it. However, there are businesses around the world that sell Linux systems if you wish to go that route. If you're local to the continental US, then there are the five top Linux desktop vendors, according to ZDnet as of 2011.
LA Computers appears to have the best prices but Eight Virtues lets you choose from eight different flavors of Linux. Although they seem more expensive than comparable Windows systems, their expert support service is built into the price. Overall, these dealers are more knowledgeable about Linux than the average PC reseller.

However, I didn't need a dual core CPU or even a single core hyperthreading P4. Nor was I interested in a larger hard drive. If I wanted to upgrade my memory, then the maximum I'd pay would be $50 for 2 GB to fill it to its 4 GB capacity.

In the past, I've ran Linux on everything from full towers to tiny HP slim PC's made circa 2003-2005. All of these computers were used, being either computers that computer technicians threw away after giving up on them or a computer I bought because the price was right.

That's because my first rule for Linux on a modest budget is buy according to your budget, not what everyone else considers top of the line, preferably used and locally.

My best moment regarding Linux was getting a computer that could not run XP to run Linux. This is why I like Linux. My second-best moment was when I noticed my Linux computer was always faster than than my friend's computer, even though he had a Windows PC running at 3.0 GHz but I only had a 2.0 GHz PC running Linux.

Of course, his computer had collected malware which I usually had to delete on visits to his place. Once I even found that his Internet Explorer had not one but three toolbars due to installing new games and other unnecessary gadgets.

In exchange for getting rid of his malware, I got his significant other to cook me a meal that would cost upwards of $20 at a good restaurant.

That is my second rule: when living on a modest budget, helping other people I know on a modest budget means compromising.

Finally, my third rule is do not rely on Linux and your knowledge of computers to be your only source of income. My reason here is because most clients tend to abuse the fact that without certification, your expertise isn't worth $50 an hour or more. So if you can afford the cost, get Linux certification. Otherwise, find a career that you grow into.

In this way, I follow my Less is More philosophy. In the case of Linux, this translates into buying a used computer for less than new and add more value to it by upgrading to the only alternative to Windows 8 and XP, Linux.

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Reference:

Image persistence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_persistence

HP: The 2000s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hewlett-Packard#The_2000s

HP/Compaq Desktop System Board 368427 Motherboard DC5000 Series Rev 0G: http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Compaq-Desktop-System-Board-368427-Motherboard-DC5000-Series-Rev-0G-/261381597830?pt=Motherboards&hash=item3cdb8eaa86

Businesses that sell Linux pre-installed: http://linuxpreloaded.com/

ZDnet's Top Five Linux Desktop Vendors: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/the-top-five-linux-desktop-vendors/9313

Unix and Linux Certification: http://www.itcertificationmaster.com/it-certifications/unix-and-linux-certifications/

My Next Music Album (satire)

In this article, I am going to write about the creation of my next music album. With the help of two Android apps on my Nexus 4 smartphone and four Linux programs on my PC, a song is created using two source audio tracks derived from two video files created by one of the apps.

Please note that I have used javascript code to hide and show text depending on the familiarity of my followers with the Android apps and Linux programs mentioned in the rest of this article.

None of the links in the main text of this article will crash your computer and the link at the very end of the references points to the author of the code.

My reason for calling this article satire is that I could have written it without hiding any text at all. Then it would have only made sense to a fellow Linux hobbyist who also owns a smartphone with the same specifications as a Nexus 4, and wants to use the Android apps and Linux programs mentioned in the main text to create song too.

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Currently I am using my smartphone to create my next album, Sound of Colors Remixes with the help of the Android app, Color Sounds.

Using the Camera option of Color Sounds, I can create two Flash videos in which the video stream is used to create the audio stream of each video.

Once the videos are made, they are transferred to my PC using Bluetooth.

The following instructions assumes familiarity with Linux and with Blueman applet and familiarity with Nautilus and the Android app Color Sounds. It also assumes the user has Bluetooth File Transfer app on his Android phone and familiarity with using Blueman to pair and trust a phone with his PC.

For Bluetooth connectivity, my phone is paired with and trusted by my PC.

On my phone (a Nexus 4) I use the Bluetooth File Transfer app to turn on Bluetooth

On the PC, I use the Blueman applet to mount the phone's storage folder and use the file manager Nautilus.

After left clicking on the Blueman applet on the PC to bring up the Bluetooth Device window, I then highlight my smartphone and left clicking on the Browse button to access the smartphone.

(The alternative to the previous action is to right click on the Blueman applet on the PC to bring up the menu and left clicking on the Browse Files on Device option.)

After the previous action, the Nautilus window will appear showing storage folder contents on the phone labelled as a mount with the name of the Bluetooth identity of the phone e.g. Nexus4.

In the "Color Sounds" folder are the two video files.

Each file is named in the format of "camera_YYYYNNNN_HHMMSS.flv" where YYYY is the four-digit number corresponding to the year (e.g. 2014), NNNN is the session number which may be from 0001 to 9999 (e.g. 0004), and HHMMSS is the time from 00000 to 235959 (e.g. 190824). E.g. camera_20140004_190824.

Both files are cut from the "Color Sounds" folder on the phone and pasted into an appropriate subdirectory (e.g. nexus4/color_sounds) in the "video" folder of the user's home directory (e.g. ~/video) on the Linux PC.

After transferring both files from the phone to the PC, unmount the phone's storage folder and disconnect the phone using the Blueman applet.

Bluetooth is disconnected by accessing the Bluetooth Devices window which may still be on the desktop. If not, then right click on the Blueman applet to bring up the menu and left clicking on "Devices...".

At the top of the Bluetooth Devices window that appears is a tool list labelled Adapter, Device, View and Help. Left-click on Device:Disconnect.

Once the video files are on my PC, I convert them into MP3 audio files using the audio conversion program Gnac.

The following instructions assumes familiarity with the file manager Thunar. Actions used in Thunar assume each directory is displayed as Icons. It also assumes familiarity with Gnac. See Gnac manual for more instructions on use and how to select MP3.

Highlight both video files "camera_20140004_190824.flv" and "camera_201400004_191004.flv".

While mouse pointer is hovering over the highlighted files, right click and pick Rename...

The "Rename Multiple Files" window appears. It consists of an action area headlined with "Name" and "New Name".

Below the action area are the left action button and the right action button.

When the left action button is left clicked, a pick list consisting of seven actions (Audio Tags, Insert Date/Time, Insert/Overwrite, Numbering, Remove Characters, Search & Replace, Uppercase/Lowercase) appear.

When the right action button is left clicked, the pick list of Name only, Suffix only, and Name and Suffix appear.

A file-name consists of a file Name ("camera_20140004_190824") and a Suffix ("flv"). If you choose Name only, then the action described in the left action button only affects the name "camera_20140004_190824". If you choose Suffix only, then the action described in the left action button only affects the suffix "flv". If you only choose Name and Suffix, then the action described in the left action button affects the name and suffix ""camera_20140004_190824.flv".

Below the left and right action buttons is the options area which provides entry areas in context with the action chosen for the left action button.

In context with Search & Replace, there are two entry areas, Search For: and Replace With:.

After the "Rename Multiple Files" window appears, below the Name | New Name action area, choose "Search & Replace" from the left action button.

Check and make sure the right action button is set to "Name only".

First we change "0004" to "0110" in both video files, "camera_20140004_190824.flv" and "camera_201400004_191004.flv".

In the Search For: entry area enter "0004" and in the Replace With: entry area "0110"

Then left click on the Rename Files button.

The action area under New Name should list the files with the new filenames "camera_20140110_190824.flv" and "camera_20140110_191004.flv"

After renaming both files, close the Rename Multiple Files window.

Run Gnac.

Add "camera_20140110_190824.flv" and "camera_20140110_191004.flv" by left clicking on the plus button.

Choose the files in the subdirectory "videos/nexus4/color_sounds" of the user's home directory and left click on the Add button.

Then the audio files "camera_20140110_190824.mp3" and "camera_20140110_191004.mp3" are created by selecting MP3 and clicking on the Convert button.

At this point I move the two MP3 files to the appropriate subdirectory in the "music" folder of the user's home directory (e.g. ~/music/colorsounds) using the file manager Thunar.

In the "color_sounds" subfolder, highlight both audio files "camera_20140110_190824.mp3" and "camera_20140110_191004.mp3".

Right click on the highlighted files to bring up the menu action list and left click on Cut.

Create the subdirectory "colorsounds" in the "music" subdirectory of the user's home directory.

Then go to the subdirectory "colorsounds".

Right click to bring the menu action list and left click on Paste.

Highlight and right click on each audio files. Choose "Rename" from the pick list.

Rename file name in numerical sequence such as "Colorsounds001".

Click on "Rename" button to rename.

Repeat previous action on the remaining audio file.

You should have two audio files named "colorsounds001.mp3" and "colorsounds002.mp3".

After the audio files are created on my PC, I note the time length for each video using the sound editor Audacity.

Assumes familiarity with Audacity.

Run Audacity

Import the first file into Audacity and note the time length for that file on a piece of paper. Then undo the import.

Repeat import for the second audio file.

Then pick one of the audio files to be the main source track and adjust the time length of the remaining file to match the main source track. Next import the remaining audio file and perform "Mix and Render" on both tracks.

Asssumes familiarity with Audacity.
Assumes Audacity was not closed since previous action.
Assumes the audio files "colorsounds001.mp3" and "colorsounds002.mp3".
Assumes that "colorsounds001.mp3" has a time length of 34.725 seconds and "colorsounds002.mp3" has a time length of 40.125 seconds. The audio file chosen is "colorsounds002.mp3".

Import "colorsounds001.mp3" into Audacity.
Set Tempo so that the new time length will be 40.125 seconds.

Import "colorsounds002.mp3" into Audacity.

Select "Mix and Render" and commit to this action.

You should have one stereo track.

Create your song with a time length of between three and six minutes long.

Assumes Audacity is still running

With the stereo track just created, select all of the track by left clicking on the left information area of the track.

Mark and copy the whole track. Then paste the copy at the end of the current track.

Repeat the previous two instructions until you obtain a track greater than three minutes and less than six minutes.

Using the audio plugins Stereo Reverb, adjust Stereo Reverb for a large room, and click on OK button to confirm. Normalize the track. Check sound quality.

Use the Echo Delay Line or Feedback Delay Line as needed and click on OK button to confirm. Normalize the track. Check sound quality.

While the sound quality is not to your tastes do the following three steps until Step 4 is met:

1) Use Equalize set to RIAA. Click on OK button to confirm

2) Use C * Scape: Stereo delay & filters. Set bpm (beats per minute) to either 124.5 or 144.5 - I would suggest 144.5 for a fast rhythm. Set divider to 2, 3 or 4. I suggest 4. Set feedback to 0.75, dry to 0.25 and leave blend at 0.75 - note that you may change these settings according to your tastes. Click on OK button to confirm.

3) Normalize the track and check sound quality.

4) If the sound quality of the whole track is to your liking, then save the song to your album wherever on your disk you keep your new album and songs.

It is feasible to use Color Sounds on your smartphone to create a three to six minute movie if you have the room on your smartphone.

Just be aware that a 18 second video is approximately 33 megabytes (MB) long while a 34 second video is approximately 43 MB and a 40 second video is approximately 52 MB.

So total file size may vary from 1.26 to 1.83 times the time length, depending on the audio and video streams.

This implies that a three minute (180 second) video could vary from 227 MB to 330 MB in size or perhaps larger.

Then you could just convert the videos made to an MP3 audio file and use that as the source audio stream for your song.

However, the larger size of the video file would result in long wait times for the resulting audio file.

Therefore it is recommended to create video files of no longer than a minute at the most. Then convert to audio files, and use them to create your songs.

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Reference:

Android Apps at Google Play:

Both apps work on a Nexus 4 smartphone running Android version 4.4.3. Please test them out and see if they work on your smartphone.

Color Sounds: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.androidideas.colorsounds
See also at Android Ideas: http://androidideas.org/colorsounds/

Bluetooth File Transfer: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.medieval.blueftp
See also at Medieval Software: http://www.medieval.it/blueftp-android/menu-id-68.html


Linux Programs:

I currently use the waldorf version of Crunch Bang Linux. Most of the programs listed below works best on a Debian-based Linux. However, I have not tested any of them on any other system. Windows versions of the follow programs may or may not work as described.

Audacity: fast, cross-platform audio editor; http://audacity.sourceforge.net

Gnac: audio converter for GNOME; http://gnac.sf.net/

Nautilus: file manager and graphical shell for GNOME; http://www.gnome.org/projects/nautilus/

Thunar: File Manager for Xfce; http://www.xfce.org/

Show/hide text code used in this article is from: http://webtechnote.blogspot.ca/2012/09/showhide-text-in-blogger-with-javascript.html - Thank you, Garoner Geoffrey for providing this code.

Hardware Update: I Fixed My Sound Problem (Hardware)

Since June 9 I couldn't get sound to come out of the rear jack.

So today I got the front assembly for 2 USB ports and the mic input & headphone jack output. Sound now works.

I don't know or care why it didn't work now.

Also the internal speaker works, as does the ATI RAGE 2 card which I got from my friend Wayne to add more screen space when I get the 15 inch LCd monitor from him next month.

Update: 20130621.0435


A picture of my new computer

Crunch Bang Linux Tips: Pulling App Window Into Toolbar and Moving Conky Display

Recently I wanted to do two things on my PC running CrunchBang Linux: pull an app window into its topbar and move my conky display from top right to bottom right.

Here are my two tips on how I accomplished both tasks.

1) How to pull an app window into its topbar

Left-click with the mouse on the up-arrow in the window manipulation area in the top right corner of an app window pulled the app's window into its topbar

The reason why I wanted to pull the app window into its topbar was to move it to the top of the screen.

With both topbars for Terminal and Iceweasel are at the top of the screen, put of the conky display is obscured.

This brings us to my next tip...


2) How to move conky display from top-right to bottom-right

The reason for this change was when Iceweasel and Terminal had their respective window pulled into their respective topbar, it would hide the top of conky's display.

To make conky display at bottom-right, I replaced the alignment item in .conkyrc from "top-right" to "bottom-right."

To do this I used the following command to open up .conkyrc in my home directory using gedit:

$ sudo gksu gedit .conkyrc

The line to change is:
alignment top_right

Just change "top" to "bottom".

Then save .conkyrc and close gedit.

TIPS TO SECURE YOUR NETWORK

1) DESIGNATE YOUR IT PERSON
You need one person who knows how to secure your network, whether
s/he is the only one who knows what packet inspection means or you
already budgeted for your IT person.

2) WRITE UP A SECURITY POLICY FOR YOUR NETWORK
This policy has to state clearly what your employees may and may
not share with the rest of the world. This should cover what they may
download and how their business email address will look like, as well
as whether you have a VPN for them to access company data from
home.

3) BUY A FIREWALL THAT IS SET UP TO INSPECT PACKETS
if you don't know what that means, then ask your designated IT person.
Block P2P unless your company is a P2P service, All IMs like AIM, LiveChat,
YahooChat, etc. need to be blocked, too. Social media that is to be blocked or be
checked for rogue ActiveX and Javascript applets: Facebook. Social media that's
usually benign: Twitter, GooglePlus (replace Internet Explorer with Chrome)

4) AUTOMATE A NIGHTLY VIRUS SCAN OF ALL COMPUTERS ON YOUR
NETWORK.
This means worker's network access should be scheduled for 6AM to
10 PM. Set the scan on all the computers to 1AM. The antivirus software should be
able to report to the network server and store the results for each computer.

5) AUTOMATE BACKUPS FOR WEEKLY BACKUPS.
Backup to tape drives, and use the software that comes with it to
do a backup of the file server. Schedule this for 2AM to back
up in increments to the tape drive.


6) PREPARE FOR POWER OUTAGES
That means a UPS for the file server (200 W), and a UPS for every five
workstation (500 W) or ten (1 kW) assuming each workstation and monitor consumes
100 Watts. YMMV

7) IF MOST OF YOUR STAFF KNOW HOW TO USE A BROWSER AND OFFICE SOFTWARE, THEN
IT IS EASY TO UPGRADE TO LINUX
Consider Fedora 17. IF you buy a license for it, you get free support.
SELinux and Open

Pageviews by OS Reveals iPad Mobile User Reads Gandhara.Blogspot.Ca

WOW! I noticed that someone used his iPad to view my blog.

Thanks but next time, could you post a comment? Maybe I need to pan iPads...

GooglePlus has helped me immensely by allowing me to merge the blog with my G+ account.

Thanks for viewing my pages, gentle reader!!!!

How Exposure to Open Source Has Set Me Free

While using Linux for exclusively for the past 5 years, I've been exposed to the concept of Open Source software (open-source software).

Open Source software is that it is free, and comes with source code.

In brief, Open Source is software that sets you free. Over the past 10 years I have used Debian Linux and FreeBSD, having installed it on low end PC computers. As well, I have installed Knoppix on PCs on which Window XP would not installed.

So my computer experience would be considered to be advanced and extensive by a few people. Though, I view my experience as intermediate, since there is so much more to learn.

As an advanced computer user, I would have no exclusive preference for any kind of operating system since I would feel comfortable using Linux, OS X, Windows, Solaris, BSD, and Unix.

Thus am I thankful that my experience with open source software has set me free.

Attention: Music Lovers, Free Yourself

Devotion to music does not end by just listening to and sharing it.

Why not go beyond that to enrich your life?

Why don't you become a creator of music i.e. remix your own dubs of mp3 like the members on mix.dj do?

You could use your leisure hours to learn to be a DJ artist.

You could even make the plunge into creating your own songs from scratch using free software to do so on a free operating system called Linux, thus freeing you from having Windows holding your hand for a hefty price, including having to opt for privacy & security by paying more money to Microsoft-certified computer consultants.

Being devoted to music certaintly does not end with listening to and sharing it, for going beyond that most certainly will enrich your life and your retirement fund.

The choice is yours to make.

Thoughts on Computers and Especially Appreciation of Linux

Computers have helped their users to develop their minds, using their behavioral and mental attributes as mind tools to help understand themselves and others.

Though, the ego needs to be daily deflated in order to maintain its health. In real life, nobody cares if you think you have one. They care more about how you can help them be connected to others.

People respect what one can do with one's skills and attributes to improve our lives - to be helpful and of service to others without thought of fame and gain.

With growing experience and a positive mindset, the computer aids those of us dedicated to that pursuit.

For myself, the advanced skill-set I use is due exposure to Linux since 1992, and especially due to the decision in 2006 to switch to Ubuntu Linux circa 2007. Since then, my Linux experience has grown.

As a result of computer use, I have grown to appreciate the work of many people associated with Ubuntu Linux, and especially with Linux itself. My thanks to them, and to Mark Shuttleworth of Canonical and especially to Linus Torvalds!

How to get root legitimately

how to root legitimately:

you must have the following:

a minimum of 2 computers that will install linux -- with at least 64 MB ram and 500 MB drive space on one that will be used as the server

internet connection (for linux updates)

router connected to your broadband modem, and the usual cables

experience with linux

directions:

1. install server version of linux on the minimal computer and workstation on the best computer. you should know which is which.
2. update the client with dist-upgrade. if you know how to do that, then fine. if not, then rtfm.
3. you could use chkrootkit on the server and see where it fails. or use nessus, tho it means your client will need apache running for that. or you could just upgrade python and ruby and install metaploit framework according to instructions. use google to find these suckers and rtfm before proceeding.
4. once you root your server, using your exploit tool, patch the server to prevent that root exploit from working again. do this with all the exploits that work.

The objective of this exercise is to learn how to prevent someone from rooting a server. This involves preventing buffer overflows. Google "buffer overflows" for details.


Short FAQ:

Will this howto help me get root on xyz.tld's server? No, but it will teach you how to get root on your own server. Furthermore it will teach you that you may need physical access to get some privileges. However, rooting your employer's server could result in getting blackballed in the IT field, especially if you use it to get warezs and pr0n, plus use it to serve that illegal content to your warez buddies. If you must be illicit, then google "rackspace" and learn.

Can you help me setting up my computers and network? No, i am not gonna tell you how to set up a server under Linux or how to patch it. You may learn how to build kernels, etc. on your own, though. Nor am I going to give out urls to the stuff revealed in this howto. This howto covers the basics, and you should know where to get real howto's to help you.

Why did you write this stupid lame-azzed howto and write this stupid FAQ? I forget; probably cos I can't KISS.

The Challenges of Japanese on Computers

After studying the Japanese character challenge in Terminal and Konsole, I've noticed that Kterm displays Japanese well, despite the annoying fact that desktop entries for applications may have descriptions that are displayed perfected in UTF-8 format without problems.

As a consequence of my research, here are several things I've discovered about Japanese and computers:

Most Japanese using computers use several programs together that help them write in Japanese. This consists of typing in Romaji, which one program recognizes and translates into both Kanji and Hiragana, but very litttle Katakana, which is reserved for transliteration of foreign words. To conserve typing, most words rendered as Katakana in Japanese retain their foreign spelling (as best as the particular Japanese writer can muster, based on whether they graduated from an ESL cram school). So, technically Japanese compuer enthusiasts actually write in ASCII character sets (charsets) but it gets translated into one of four charsets - Shift-JIS, EUC-JP, JIS-7 or ISO 2022-JP. As well there is Unicode.

When W3M or Links2 displays text, it isn't in UTF-8. It's ISO 8859-1.

Most applications that run in the BASH shell will display correctly if they have an option to use alternate character sets such as 8859-1, which may be programmed into the particular application, though with l10n, by installing more than just English, the font manager will translate fonts to be displayed in UTF-8.

Links2 does not correctly use UTF-8 and is based on 8859-1. It needs a UTF-8 upgrade, or at least, the current version I got for Dapper is not working.

I have also discovered that several apps (pyDict) isn't set to display as UTF-8.