KDE 4.1 Protip #1 - Disabling compiz fusion

This entry was originally published on my blog, entropy

I’ve been using Kubuntu Hardy with KDE 3.5.9. When KDE 4.1 got released yesterday, I added the repository and installed the kubuntu-kde4-desktop.

My first impressions? Slick. Very slick. Almost all of my KDE 4 complaints have been addressed with this release, with just a few annoyance (no multirow taskbar, can’t hide system tray icons, lack of native, kde4 utilities for managing power and network connections).

I was using compiz with KDE 3, but decided to use KWin 4 with KDE 4. However, whenever I logged into my KDE 4 session, compiz would be enabled (even though fusion-icon wasn’t autostarting). After digging around, I solved the problem:

1. In a terminal, type: sudo nano -w /etc/X11/Xsession.d/25enable-compiz
   You can replace ‘nano -w’ with the editor of your choice (e.g. kate, gedit).
2. Comment the code out by inserting a # at the beginning of each line
3. Save and exit
4. Log out and then back into KDE
5. KWin should take over compositing duties

Hope this helps! Stay tuned for more KDE 4.1 Protips!

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Making Miro Play Nice

This entry was originally published on my blog, entropy

Having recently acquired a new laptop (more on that later), I set about configuring it to my liking. I gleefully installed the latest Kubuntu release with KDE3 (KDE4 isn’t mature enough for my tastes), Compiz Fusion, and Miro. I added a whole bunch of my favorite Revision 3 shows and let it start downloading. Oooh! A new TRS episode. Let watch it!

…

As you can see, the video affected by compositing is blue (the audio works this fine). This is a known “issue” with compiz that is easily solvable by changing the driver the video engine uses to one that compiz likes (xshm, here). In most cases, this is as simple as changing a drop down value in a menu somewhere. Sadly, the version of Miro in the Ubuntu repositories doesn’t seem to give you the ability to modify this setting.

After some digging around, I found that, since Miro uses VLC for video playback, I should be able to move my correctly configured vlcrc file into the ~/.miro folder. I tried, but no dice.

I then dug around on the Miro forums and found this thread on fixing video crashing issues. I poked around my system a bit and discovered the solution to the problem. The following instructions were written for a 32-bit Ubuntu Linux (Hardy) system, so YMMV.

1. Figure out which video driver (under the xine engine) plays nicely with compositing. For me, this is xshm.
2. Make sure Miro is closed.
3. On the command line, type the following (replacing ‘nano -w’ with the editor of your choosing):
   sudo nano -w /usr/share/python-support/miro/miro/frontend_implementation/xinerenderer.py

   . It might be a good idea to back this file up before you continue…

4. In this file, search for the following code block (around line 78):
   xineDriver = frontend.defaultXineDriver
   
   if xineDriver is None:
   
     xineDriver = "xv"
5. Append the following line outside of the if block (replacing ‘xshm’ with the driver of your choosing):
   xineDriver = "xshm"

   .
   NB: Python is a whitespace sensitive language, make sure that the last line of code is indented one level less than the line above it (xineDriver = “xv”) and at the same level as the line below it (self.xine.attach…)

6. Save and close the file.
7. Launch Miro and enjoy your composited video!

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Making Miro Play Nice

This entry was originally published on my blog, entropy

Having recently acquired a new laptop (more on that later), I set about configuring it to my liking. I gleefully installed the latest Kubuntu release with KDE3 (KDE4 isn’t mature enough for my tastes), Compiz Fusion, and Miro. I added a whole bunch of my favorite Revision 3 shows and let it start downloading. Oooh! A new TRS episode. Let watch it!

…

As you can see, the video affected by compositing is blue (the audio works this fine). This is a known “issue” with compiz that is easily solvable by changing the driver the video engine uses to one that compiz likes (xshm, here). In most cases, this is as simple as changing a drop down value in a menu somewhere. Sadly, the version of Miro in the Ubuntu repositories doesn’t seem to give you the ability to modify this setting.

After some digging around, I found that, since Miro uses VLC for video playback, I should be able to move my correctly configured vlcrc file into the ~/.miro folder. I tried, but no dice.

I then dug around on the Miro forums and found this thread on fixing video crashing issues. I poked around my system a bit and discovered the solution to the problem. The following instructions were written for a 32-bit Ubuntu Linux (Hardy) system, so YMMV.

1. Figure out which video driver (under the xine engine) plays nicely with compositing. For me, this is xshm.
2. Make sure Miro is closed.
3. On the command line, type the following (replacing ‘nano -w’ with the editor of your choosing):
   sudo nano -w /usr/share/python-support/miro/miro/frontend_implementation/xinerenderer.py

   . It might be a good idea to back this file up before you continue…

4. In this file, search for the following code block (around line 78):
   xineDriver = frontend.defaultXineDriver
   
   if xineDriver is None:
   
     xineDriver = "xv"
5. Append the following line outside of the if block (replacing ‘xshm’ with the driver of your choosing):
   xineDriver = "xshm"

   .
   NB: Python is a whitespace sensitive language, make sure that the last line of code is indented one level less than the line above it (xineDriver = “xv”) and at the same level as the line below it (self.xine.attach…)

6. Save and close the file.
7. Launch Miro and enjoy your composited video!

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Some food for thought

This entry was originally published on my blog, entropy

Something I read in Citypaper today…

It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor — both black and white — through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated, as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So, I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.

~Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

With a running cost of $533,403,457,338 (courtesy Iraq War Cost)

, the war in Iraq (not to be confused with the, in my opinion, “deserved” one in Afghanistan) has severely weakened our economy while providing us with little or no gain as a society, all for what? Possible stability in a region that hates us for a totally different reason?

I’m not trying to convert anyone, since by this point everyone has heard every argument in the book, and is standing by their position. However, I would love it if people didn’t see the operation in Iraq as the black and white issue of “us” (i.e. those who support the war) versus the increasingly vague “them” (i.e. Al Qaeda, Insurgents, Iraqis, Liberals, the old lady next door) and instead considered it in the more economic/realistic terms of costs and benefits. Yes, we do gain a foothold in a region that hates us, however tenuous it may seem, but we lose the strengthened infrastructure that let us experience the great growth and strength that we enjoy to this day. Now, as money is siphoned away from highway projects, as our natural resources are raped, and as the government starts caving into special interest groups who can finance their ridiculously expensive re-election campaigns, I have to wonder, who is being served?

I know I’m not. Are you?

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The Importance of Being Earnest

This entry was originally published on my blog, entropy

Well, not so much “earnest” as “respectful”.

Today, in one of my classes, the professor had a TA deliver the lecture. She was in charge of making the slides and choosing the topic (presumably one in which she was specializing). Unfortunately, Quicktime wasn’t installed on the presentation machine leading to many unreadable slides, and, because of the chart-heavy nature of the presentation, rendered the entire thing near useless.

This left the TA to her own devices for the next hour and change. She was visibly flustered - this did nothing to help the fact that English wasn’t her primary language. That being said, she did an admirable job trying to explain it with only the chalkboard. I wasn’t getting much from the lecture and neither were my classmates.

This was made apparent when, out of the blue, one kid got up and just walked out. Two minutes later, another followed. With 20 minutes left in the class, 10 people had left. I was floored. It might just be me (I hope not), but I was raised to respect everyone. That many people leaving at the same time is horrible. I thought here, at a school known for its academics, people would be a little more respectful to those who have devoted many hours towards the course that they are taking.

Even now, I’m still grasping for words. Here’s a question to my readers, if in a similar circumstance, would you leave? If so, why?

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