Geekin’ Out: for the love of computers.

  • Helping Macintosh OS X connect to Samba server

    On the Linux server, add the file: /etc/avahi/services/samba.service Copy this code in the new file: <?xml version=”1.0″ standalone=’no’?><!–*-nxml-*–> <!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM “avahi-service.dtd”> <service-group> <name replace-wildcards=”yes”>%h server</name> <service> <type>_smb._tcp</type> <port>139</port> <host-name>chris.local</host-name> </service> </service-group>

  • VMware Server 1.0.6 on Ubuntu 8.0.4

    VMware Server 1.0.6 on Ubuntu 8.0.4 would not run “out of the box”. I needed a library fix to get it running: $ cd /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1 $ sudo mv libgcc_s.so.1 libgcc_s.so.1.orig $ sudo ln -s /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/

  • Google Calendar Updates

    I noticed some small Google Calendar updates a couple days ago. When creating a calendar item, it is now a semi-transparent color matching your category colors. I wonder what other features or fixes were put in that I have yet to run across.

  • Reset ALSA sound on Linux

    Sometimes, ALSA will freeze up and I have no sound. I came across this little code snip which makes it work again: alsa force-reload

  • Installing Asterisk from source on Ubuntu

    These packages must be installed in order to get Asterisk to compile from source on Ubuntu: aptitude install bison flex libncurses5-dev build-essential

  • Google’s Icon changed to the blue lowercase g today.

    I like the fresh look UPDATE: Found this article 9 days later which explains a lot: Google Blog

  • Compiz on Thinkpad T41 Mobility FireGL 9000 with Hardy Heron

    I got Compiz working quite easily on the new Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 sudo vi /etc/xdg/compiz/compiz-manager add: SKIP_CHECKS=yes In /etc/X11/xorg.conf, I had to set the depth down to 16bit color: Section “InputDevice” Identifier “Generic Keyboard” Driver “kbd” Option “XkbRules” “xorg” Option “XkbModel” “pc105” Option “XkbLayout” “us” EndSection Section “InputDevice” Identifier “Configured Mouse” Driver “mouse” Option…

  • Add Medibuntu repositories to your Ubuntu 8.04

    Unknown codec ‘aac’    sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list     then    sudo apt-get update &amp;&amp; sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring &amp;&amp; sudo apt-get update  

  • Feisty Fawn breaks Samba “Force User” Option

    After upgrading to feisty Fawn, I could not connect to a Samba share. I was receiving a authentication error, strangely enough. Other folders authenticated just fine. I tracked it down to the “force user” option in smb.conf.

  • Enable DVD Playback in Ubuntu

    sudo apt-get install totem-xine libxine1-ffmpeg libdvdread3 sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh