Mutt and Google Contacts
Posted by elbryan
I've recently begun using Mutt to read my mail.
One thing I'm used to do is to keep all my contacts synchronized online with Google Contacts.
After a (small) research, I've run into goobook , a small python program that relies on gdata to perform queries onto Google Contact service.
Posted in Linux, Apps | no comments |
XEN: Improve disk performance on domU
Posted by elbryan
A brief post about a possible solution for slow I/O throughput of guest machines.
Posted in Xen, Kernel, Linux | no comments |
Samba, CUPS and Windows 32/64 bit drivers
Posted by elbryan
A nice discovery of a friend of mine, Walter "DaK_TaLeS", that found a way to automagically install shared printers on Windows 64 bit using CUPS and Samba running on Gentoo/Linux.
Happy printing!
Posted in Linux | 6 comments |
Metacity loses windows position
Posted by elbryan
I finally found the end of skein! It's about 3 days that I'm googling and asking gentoo people trying to solve this annyoing problem I have. In practise, the applications that I minimize into the traybar, once restored, completely loses the postition that I gave to them.
I've so damn noticed that today when I played with Gwibber. It starts placed on the left, I place it on the right, then I minimize it into the traybar, I restore the apps after few seconds and it reappears on the left. With Compiz that didn't happen!
The solution? One frigging line command:
gconftool-2 --set -t boolean /apps/metacity/general/disable_workarounds false
It's quite funny the description of the key "Disable misfeatures that are required by old or broken applications". I think that there must be so many old and broken application nowadays..
Posted in Linux, Apps | no comments |
Synchronize contacts: some advices
Posted by elbryan
How much time did you spend about digging, testing email clients?
Once you think you've found your favorite unbeatible client comes the part where you import the contacts in your address book.
Well, in my previous post I've pointed out your attention to the "formats battle" between clients. This time I just want to indicate you a Thunderbird 3 extension that I've really enjoyed so much.
Time ago, I've decided to give Google Contacts a try. It's a really simple and clean service that hosts your Address Book.
Today I've tried to make Thunderbird cooperating with Google Accounts in order to have my Address Book synced. I did it!
The extension is called Zindus. It provides a clean GUI where you should put your credentials in. That's it.
Warning: I can't remember exactly how Zindus behaved at its first launch so I strongly suggest you to backup your Address Book before "just running it" since you might lose some contact.
Posted in Linux, Apps | no comments |
Skype, Linux, Alsa & Bluetooth
Posted by elbryan
Check out your kernel configuration. Running "lsmod" here is my module configuration related to audio/bluetooth:
lsmodModule Size Used by btusb 10883 2 rfcomm 32313 4 sco 7586 2 bnep 9474 2 l2cap 28147 16 rfcomm,bnep coretemp 4646 0 snd_pcm_oss 30288 0 snd_mixer_oss 12350 1 snd_pcm_oss snd_seq_oss 23147 0 snd_seq_midi_event 5516 1 snd_seq_oss snd_seq 43658 4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event snd_seq_device 5297 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq snd_hda_codec_realtek 256239 1 snd_hda_intel 19780 1 snd_hda_codec 61238 2 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel snd_hwdep 5362 1 snd_hda_codec snd_pcm 61528 3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec snd_timer 16938 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm snd 51423 13 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer soundcore 6040 1 snd snd_page_alloc 6813 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
Now you should gather information about your device, in particular you need its bluetooth MAC address:
hcitool scanScanning ... 00:07:B0:11:81:83 BTC5
Write somewhere this xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx address, you'll need it in a while.
Next step is to pair your bluetooth device with your computer. I use gnome-bluetooth to manage bluetooth devices on my system so feel free to use anything that works for your system. Look up for your device, start pairing it and issue the PIN (usually 0000 for handsets).
Once everything seems working fine, let's configure ~/.asoundrc (Notice that this file should be placed in your user homedir).
Well, open that file (or create it) with your favorite text-editor:
vi ~/.asoundrcpcm.bluetooth { type bluetooth device xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx # The device address gathered before }
This will tell your audio tools that exists another control named "bluetooth" that points out to the device address "xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx" (your bluetooth headset).
This should be enough, fire up skype and choose "bluetooth" for incoming and outcoming audio flows.
Note: Some issues you might encounter:
Please make sure you run skype from a terminal to collect more informations
- This error shows up:
ALSA lib control.c:909:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL bluetooth
Actually you might ignore this message. However, if you followed Bluez HOWTO/AudioDevices and you put something like
in your ~/.asoundrc, then I can tell you that I had this issue before. I just removed this "workaround" and I simply used the "normal" configuration.pcm.bluetoothraw { type bluetooth device 00:11:22:33:44:55 } pcm.bluetooth { type plug slave { pcm bluetoothraw } } - On Gentoo amd64 is possible that you get some errors regarding not found lib32 libs. This is "normal" (shouldn't be, but happens). Just unmask and use app-emulation/emul-linux-x86-soundlibs-20091231. This ebuild contains lib32 alsa-bluetooth libraries you need.
Posted in Audio, Linux | 2 comments |
Deluge 1.1.9 and zlib crash
Posted by elbryan
Today I've rebooted my home-server and I discovered that deluged crashed at boot.
[ERROR ] 11:43:01 main:207 can't decompress data; zlib not available Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/deluge/main.py", line 204, in start_daemon Daemon(options, args) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/deluge/core/daemon.py", line 56, in __init__ self.core = Core(options.port).run() File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/deluge/core/core.py", line 239, in run component.start() File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/deluge/component.py", line 198, in start _ComponentRegistry.start() File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/deluge/component.py", line 118, in start self.start_component(component) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/deluge/component.py", line 125, in start_component self.start_component(depend) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/deluge/component.py", line 125, in start_component self.start_component(depend) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/deluge/component.py", line 130, in start_component self.components[name].start() File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/deluge/core/pluginmanager.py", line 69, in start self.enable_plugins() File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/deluge/pluginmanagerbase.py", line 84, in enable_plugins self.enable_plugin(name) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/deluge/pluginmanagerbase.py", line 126, in enable_plugin egg.activate() File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 2149, in activate self.insert_on(path) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 2252, in insert_on self.check_version_conflict() File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 2291, in check_version_conflict for modname in self._get_metadata('top_level.txt'): File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 2143, in _get_metadata for line in self.get_metadata_lines(name): File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 1144, in get_metadata_lines return yield_lines(self.get_metadata(name)) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 1136, in get_metadata return self._get(self._fn(self.egg_info,name)) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 1201, in _get return self.loader.get_data(path) ZipImportError: can't decompress data; zlib not available Exception in thread Thread-1 (most likely raised during interpreter shutdown): Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/python2.6/threading.py", line 525, in __bootstrap_inner File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/deluge/core/preferencesmanager.py", line 451, in run File "/usr/lib/python2.6/urllib.py", line 1228, in quote_plus File "/usr/lib/python2.6/urllib.py", line 1217, in quote <type 'exceptions.TypeError'>: 'NoneType' object is not callable Unhandled exception in thread started by Error in sys.excepthook:
There's an easy workaround to solve this issue, that consists in editing /usr/bin/deluged as follows:
I asked the guys upstream and I've been told that it's currently already fixed in the new 1.2.0 rc4. Since this problem seems not to be reproducible on every system, this is still a dirty (working) fix.
Posted in Linux, Apps | no comments |