Not all laptops are designed equal

Over time it is common for fans in laptops to become clogged with dust, fluff and even hair. The symptoms are usually a hotter laptop and a noisier fan that runs more frequently. The solution is to open up the laptop’s body in order to get at the fan and remove the crud with tweezers and by blowing. However, dismantling many laptops to access the fan makes the Mission Impossible break-in look simple, and this seems to be getting worse as laptop prices continue to decrease. If you are not confident you can unblock the fan yourself, you’ll have to find a local computer repair shop and you may find it’s not cheap. For some models the dismantling procedure can be so complicated that people post videos on YouTube. Often it is necessary to remove numerous screws, ribbon cables, jumper leads, plastic strips and the keyboard. In some cases you have to disassemble the laptop almost entirely. Fortunately, in the case of RAM modules there is often a hatch in the laptop’s base to facilitate access, but even adding or replacing RAM modules can sometimes be a major task (I used to own an Acer laptop that required the laptop base and keyboard to be removed in order to access the RAM modules).

Not long ago I had the misfortune to have to dismantle an Acer Aspire 5536-643G25Mn and a Toshiba Satellite C660-1J2 to remove accumulated fluff from the fans. I had to study YouTube videos carefully and could not believe how difficult it was to get access to the fan in the Acer Aspire. Dismantling the Toshiba Satellite to access the fan was not quite as bad as the Acer Aspire but was still a major task and, despite being as careful as possible, I still managed to break a fragile plastic lug on one of the base panels.

Last week my main laptop, a Compal NBLB2, seemed to be running a little hotter than usual, so I decided it was time to check if its fan also needed cleaning. What a pleasure that was in comparison to the other manufacturers’ laptops. The NBLB2 has a large plate in the base that, by removing only three screws (see the first photograph below), allows easy access to the fan and RAM modules. In less than five minutes I was able to remove a wad of fluff from the fan, replace the plate and power up the laptop again. Hats off to Compal for thinking about maintenance when designing this laptop. I only wish other laptop manufacturers did the same.

So, next time you need to buy a new laptop, do some research on how easy it will be to access the fan in case it needs to be cleaned. Look at the laptop’s base and check on the Web for a service manual, a YouTube video of it being disassembled, and comments in laptop/notebook forums. At least then you’ll know whether you stand a chance of avoiding paying a repair shop just to remove crud that inevitably builds up over time in the fan.

Base of Compal NBLB2 showing the 3 screws removed from the main base plate.

Base of Compal NBLB2 with main plate removed. Notice how easy it is to access the fan and RAM modules.

ARTE Live Web videos

The Franco-German cultural Web site ARTE Live Web is an excellent resource for lovers of music (classical, jazz, alternative and World) and dance. The show videos at the site are enjoyable but unfortunately only viewable for a fixed period of time before the site removes them. Back in 2011 I wanted to download the video of a performance I’d attended and loved. I searched for a Linux tool but could not find one, then found a Windows freeware GUI tool called artepupper, and used version 0.2 to download the video. You can read about the tool on the author’s blog pages artepupper 0.1, artepupper 0.2 and artepupper 0.3. The reason for the change from 0.2 to 0.3 was that ARTE Live Web changed the format of an embedded URL inside the XML page for the video on their Web site.

Now, artepupper is based on livewebarte1.1.sh, a 2010 Bash script by Carmelo Ingrao, and a Perl script livewebarte.pl by Juan Domingo based on livewebarte1.1.sh, both of which are still available on line at Carmelo’s download page and which I only discovered after using artepupper in Windows. I tried the Perl script in Linux back in 2011, and it worked for me.

Recently I wanted to download another video from the ARTE Live Web site and found that, although artepupper 0.3 in Windows worked, the Perl script livewebarte.pl no longer worked. Presumably this was because of the aforementioned change to the embedded URL. However, I found that the Bash script livewebarte1.1.sh still worked. Actually, I had to edit the script to replace “./rtmpdump” with “rtmpdump“, as I had installed the command-line tool rtmpdump using the Linux distribution’s package manager and the executable is not stored in the same directory as the Bash script. But, apart from that, it worked.

Carmelo is a star for having deciphered how to access and download videos from the site. However, looking at his Bash script, the part where he parses a line in the XML code and extracts a string between the delimiters “MP4″ and “mp4″ is based on a hard-coded character position, which could change if the Web site’s owners change the format of the URL. So I decided to modify the Bash script to avoid using character positions to extract a string. The Bash script livewebarte1.2.sh is an updated version of Carmelo’s livewebarte1.1.sh script.

#!/bin/bash
# Script pour récupérer les vidéos FLV du site liveweb.arte.tv
# par Carmelo Ingrao <carmelo42@gmail.com> http://c.ingrao.free.fr/code/
# version 1.0
# release date 21 février 2010
## modified by Fitzcarraldo 24 April 2013
## version 1.2
## release date 24 April 2013
# licence : GPLv2
# rtmpdump compilé doit être dans le même répertoire que le script
## rtmpdump must be installed and in user's $PATH (e.g. I have it in /usr/bin/)
# utilisation du script :
#
# ./script.sh url fichier.flv
# _______________

# url --> $1
# fichier --> $2

# fichier de sortie
# on efface l'écran avant de commencer
clear

# on affiche les infos sur le script
echo "livewebarte.sh version 1.0."
echo "(c) 2010 Carmelo Ingrao; License : GPL"
echo "livewebarte.sh version 1.2."
echo "updated from version 1.1 by Fitzcarraldo on 24 April 2013; License : GPL"
echo "usage : ./livewebarte.sh url_concert_sur_liveweb.arte.tv fichier.flv"
echo "rtmpdump must be installed and in your path."

# on télécharge le code source de la page streamant le concert dans le fichier sourceconcert.html
wget $1 -O sourceconcert.html

# on récupère le numéro d'event et on le copie dans eventok.txt
#cat sourceconcert.html | grep "new LwEvent" > event.txt
#cat event.txt | cut -b "15 16 17" > eventok.txt
grep "new LwEvent" sourceconcert.html | grep -E -o -e "[0-9]+" > eventok.txt

# on prend le fichier XML d'arte et on crée l'url avec le bon numéro d'event
# xmloriginal="http://arte.vo.llnwd.net/o21/liveweb/events/event-610.xml"

# url du xml sans le numéro d'event original (pour faciliter)
xmloriginal2="http://arte.vo.llnwd.net/o21/liveweb/events/event-"

# on assigne à la variable b le contenu de eventok.txt --> numéro correct d'event
b=$(cat eventok.txt)

# on créer l'url correct du fichier XML qu'on téléchargera
xmlok=$(echo $xmloriginal2$b)
finxml=".xml"
xmlfinal=$(echo $xmlok$finxml)

# on télécharge le bon XML
wget $xmlfinal -O xmlok.xml
echo "Fichier XML téléchargé"

## I have changed the code in this part:
# on extrait le nom du fichier MP4 depuis le fichier xmlok.xml
mp4hd=$(cat xmlok.xml | grep "urlHd")
# on efface le début de l'url du MP4
# on efface le surplus à la fin du nom du MP4 et on sauve le nom dans la variable mp4hdcut2
mp4hdcut2=${mp4hd#*MP4}
mp4hdcut2=${mp4hdcut2%%mp4*}
mp4hdcut2="MP4"$mp4hdcut2"mp4"
## end of my changes to evaluate mp4hdcut2

# on lance la commande rtmpdump avec les paramètres
# rappel :
# $2 = nom du fichier de sortie
# $mp4hdcut2 = nom du fichier MP4

## Carmelo had ./rtmpdump here, but I removed the "./"
rtmpdump -r rtmp://arte.fcod.llnwd.net:1935/a2306/o25 -a a2306/o25 -f LNX 10,0,45,2 -W http://liveweb.arte.tv/flash/player.swf -t rtmp://arte.fcod.llnwd.net:1935/a2306/o25 -p http://liveweb.arte.tv/ -o $2 -y $mp4hdcut2

# on efface les fichiers crées
rm sourceconcert.html
#rm event.txt
rm eventok.txt
rm xmlok.xml

# Affichage des infos de fin
echo "________"
echo "Voilà, le téléchargement est terminé."
echo "Le fichier se trouve ici :"
echo " "
echo $2
echo " "
echo "Bon visionnage"
echo " "
echo " "
exit 0

Save it in your home directory and make it executable:

$ chmod +x livewebarte1.2.sh

Also make sure you have the package rtmpdump installed and that it is in your $PATH.

Then you can browse the ARTE Live Web site and select the performance video you wish to download. Hover the mouse pointer over the video pane and click on “INTEGRER LA VIDEO” to find the URL for that video, which will be of the form http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/foo/, where “foo” is some string of characters (not literally “foo”, of course). The command to download it is then as shown below. I’ll use a file name foo.flv here, but any prefix would do:

$ ./livewebarte1.2.sh http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/foo/ foo.flv

Note that it is essential to include the forward slash at the end of the URL. The file will be downloaded to your home directory and you can watch it in VLC or any other Linux media player that plays Flash video.

So there you have it; currently you can use artepupper 0.3 in Windows or livewebarte1.2.sh in Linux to download from ARTE Live Web a video of a performance you attended and loved.

Installing Dropbox in Gentoo running KDE

I had never used Dropbox before and had no intention of doing so, but today a work colleague sent me some large files via Dropbox so I was forced to sign up. I tried to install Dropbox on my main laptop running Gentoo Linux and KDE but, for a well-known application, I had a surprising amount of trouble, hence this blog post.

To begin with, I found the following Dropbox-related packages:

# eix dropbox
* gnome-extra/nautilus-dropbox
Available versions: (~)0.6.9 (~)0.7.0 0.7.1 (~)1.4.0 {debug}
Homepage: http://www.dropbox.com/
Description: Store, Sync and Share Files Online
.
* net-misc/dropbox
Available versions: 1.2.48-r1^ms (~)1.2.51-r2^ms (~)1.4.3-r1^ms (~)1.4.7-r1^ms (~)1.4.7-r2^ms (~)1.4.17^ms (~)1.4.23^ms (~)1.6.16^ms {X +librsync-bundled}
Homepage: http://dropbox.com/
Description: Dropbox daemon (pretends to be GUI-less)
.
* net-misc/dropbox-cli
Available versions: 1 1-r1 {PYTHON_TARGETS="python2_6 python2_7"}
Homepage: http://www.dropbox.com/
Description: Cli interface for dropbox daemon (python)
.
* xfce-extra/thunar-dropbox [1]
Available versions: [m](~)0.2.0
Homepage: http://www.softwarebakery.com/maato/thunar-dropbox.html
Description: Plugin for Thunar that adds context-menu items for Dropbox
.
[1] "sabayon" /var/lib/layman/sabayon
.
Found 4 matches.

But I don’t have GNOME or Xfce installed on my main laptop, so the first and last packages were of no interest. A quick search on the Web turned up Kfilebox, which seemed to be exactly what I needed. I was pleased to find that the package is in the main Portage tree:

# eix kfilebox
* kde-misc/kfilebox
Available versions: (4) (~)0.4.8 (~)0.4.9
{LINGUAS="ar br cs de el es fr gl it lt nl pl pt ru si tr zh zh_CN"}
Homepage: http://kdropbox.deuteros.es/
Description: KDE dropbox client

So I installed kfilebox, dropbox and dropbox-cli, thinking I would need them all. Then, before doing anything else, I surfed to the Dropbox Web site and signed up for an account.

I launched Konsole and entered the command kfilebox. A window popped-up telling me that the Dropbox Daemon was being downloaded, then another window popped up offering me two options/buttons: ‘Run gtk based installer’ and ‘Or simply link account’. I clicked on the latter, thinking that was all I needed to do as I had already signed up for an account via the Dropbox Web site. But a Dropbox icon did not appear in the Panel, nor did Dolphin show a Dropbox folder icon in my home directory, and the KDE Notifications widget kept popping up notification after notification from Kfilebox to “Please visit url to link to this machine”. The trouble was that clicking on the apparent link in the notifications did nothing.

The directories .dropbox and .dropbox-dist existed in my home directory, and the contents of /home/fitzcarraldo/.kde4/share/config/kfileboxrc were as follows:

[General]
AutoStart=true
Browser=rekonq
DropboxDir=/home/fitzcarraldo/.dropbox-dist/
FileManager=dolphin
GtkUiDisabled=true
IconSet=default
ShowNotifications=true
StartDaemon=true

As the rekonq Web browser is not installed on this laptop, I edited the file and changed Browser=rekonq to Browser=firefox then rebooted, but it made no difference.

So I uninstalled everything:

# emerge -C kfilebox dropbox dropbox-cli
# rm -rf /home/fitzcarraldo/.dropbox
# rm -rf /home/fitzcarraldo/.dropbox-dist
# rm /home/fitzcarraldo/.kde4/share/config/kfileboxrc

then rebooted and reinstalled only Kfilebox:

# emerge kfilebox

I then launched Konsole and entered the command kfilebox. The pop-up window appeared notifying me that the Dropbox Daemon was being downloaded, followed by the pop-up window offering me the choice of running the gtk-based installer or simply linking the account. This time I chose the option to run the gtk-based installer and just followed the intuitive instructions in the various pop-up windows that followed, one of which offered to create a new Dropbox account or to link to an existing Dropbox account. As I wanted to do the latter I entered my e-mail address and Dropbox password, a Dropbox icon then appeared on the Panel and a Dropbox folder icon is now visible in Dolphin.

I checked the contents of ~/.kde4/share/config/kfileboxrc and they were the same as listed above, so I edited the file to replace rekonq with firefox, although I’m not sure yet what (if anything) that does, as Dropbox is new to me and I’m still learning. Anyway, the important thing is that I could now click on the ‘View folder’ button in an e-mail sent to me by a colleague and the files uploaded by my colleague were automatically downloaded into the ~/Dropbox directory.

Switching the display quickly between a laptop monitor and an external monitor or projector in Linux

I connect my laptop to an external keyboard and an external monitor or projector in various offices and at home, and each of the monitors has a different resolution. Fn-F3 on my laptop keyboard allows me to toggle between monitors, but I want more control (including the ability to specify the resolution of the external display). Now, I find the GPU manufacturer’s application and the Desktop Environment’s GUI for switching monitors and changing screen resolution rather cumbersome, so I wanted an icon on the Desktop that I could double-click to switch monitors without having to enter the root user’s password and fiddle around too much. So I decided to create some simple Bash scripts and associated Desktop Config files with nice-looking icons on the desktop, which I can launch easily and quickly by double-clicking. Obviously the resolutions are limited to the range of resolutions supported by the GPU and external monitor.

The suite of Desktop Config files I created have self-explanatory names:

$ cd ~/Desktop
$ ls -1 Switch*
Switch_OFF_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected
Switch_OFF_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected_auto
Switch_ON_laptop_monitor_and_external_monitor
Switch_ON_laptop_monitor_and_switch_off_external_monitor
$ ls -1 Toggle*
Toggle_display

The difference between Switch_OFF_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected and Switch_OFF_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected_auto is that the former prompts for the resolution of the external monitor whereas the latter tries to find the resolution automatically. I have both because I have found that, for some external display devices (e.g. projectors), it is handy to have the ability to specify the resolution manually.

Switch off the laptop monitor if an external monitor is connected (find resolution automatically)

The Desktop Config file I double-click the most is ~/Desktop/Switch_OFF_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected_auto, and it contains the following text:

[Desktop Entry]
Comment[en_GB]=switch off laptop monitor if external monitor is connected auto
Comment=switch off laptop monitor if external monitor is connected auto
Exec=sh /home/fitzcarraldo/switch_off_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected_auto.sh
GenericName[en_GB]=Switch off laptop monitor if external monitor is connected auto
GenericName=Switch off laptop monitor if external monitor is connected auto
Icon=/home/fitzcarraldo/Pictures/Icons/display.png
MimeType=
Name[en_GB]=Switch_OFF_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected_auto
Name=Switch_OFF_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected_auto
Path=
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-DBUS-ServiceName=
X-DBUS-StartupType=none
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=

The Bash script it launches, ~/switch_off_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected_auto.sh, contains the following code:

#!/bin/bash
if xrandr -q | grep "CRT1 connected"; then
  xrandr --output LVDS --off
  xrandr --output CRT1 --off
  xrandr --output CRT1 --auto
else
  xrandr --output CRT1 --off
  xrandr --output LVDS --off
  xrandr --output LVDS --mode 1920x1080
# 1920x1080 is the native resolution of my laptop monitor
fi

Don’t forget to make them executable:

$ chmod +x /home/fitzcarraldo/Desktop/Switch_OFF_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected_auto
$ chmod +x /home/fitzcarraldo/switch_off_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected_auto.sh

If you’re wondering how I knew I had to specify ‘CRT1′ and ‘LVDS’ in the Bash script, I used the xrandr command to find out what names the GPU gives the monitors:

$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 1920 x 1920
LVDS connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
1920x1080 60.0 +
1680x1050 60.0
1400x1050 60.0
1600x900 60.0
1280x1024 60.0
1440x900 60.0
1280x960 60.0
1280x768 60.0
1280x720 60.0
1024x768 60.0
1024x600 60.0
800x600 60.0
800x480 60.0
640x480 60.0
DFP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
CRT1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 476mm x 268mm
1920x1080 60.0*+
1280x1024 75.0 60.0
1280x960 60.0
1280x800 59.8
1152x864 75.0
1280x720 60.0
1024x768 75.0 70.1 60.0
800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
640x480 75.0 72.8 67.0 59.9

Switch off the laptop monitor if an external monitor is connected (enter resolution)

The Desktop Config file I double-click is ~/Desktop/Switch_OFF_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected, and it contains the following text:

[Desktop Entry]
Comment[en_GB]=switch off laptop monitor if external monitor is connected
Comment=switch off laptop monitor if external monitor is connected
Exec=sh /home/fitzcarraldo/System_Administration/switch_off_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected.sh
GenericName[en_GB]=Switch off laptop monitor if external monitor is connected
GenericName=Switch off laptop monitor if external monitor is connected
Icon=/home/fitzcarraldo/Pictures/Icons/display.png
MimeType=
Name[en_GB]=Switch_OFF_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected
Name=Switch_OFF_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected
Path=
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=true
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-DBUS-ServiceName=
X-DBUS-StartupType=none
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=

The Bash script it launches, ~/switch_off_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected.sh, contains the following code:

#!/bin/bash
if xrandr -q | grep "CRT1 connected"; then
echo -n "Enter resolution width of external monitor (hint 1920 Doha, 1440 home): "
read EXTERNAL_WIDTH
echo -n "Enter resoluton height of external monitor (hint 1080 Doha, 900 home): "
read EXTERNAL_HEIGHT
  xrandr --output LVDS --off
  xrandr --output CRT1 --off
  xrandr --output CRT1 --mode $EXTERNAL_WIDTH"x"$EXTERNAL_HEIGHT
else
  xrandr --output CRT1 --off
  xrandr --output LVDS --off
  xrandr --output LVDS --mode 1920x1080
# 1920x1080 is the native resolution of my laptop monitor
fi

Don’t forget to make them executable:

$ chmod +x /home/fitzcarraldo/Desktop/Switch_OFF_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected
$ chmod +x /home/fitzcarraldo/switch_off_laptop_monitor_if_external_monitor_is_connected.sh

Switch on the laptop monitor and external monitor simultaneously

I don’t need to use this one much, only when I am using an external monitor but suddenly want to use the laptop’s built-in Webcam and so have to open fully the laptop’s lid. The file ~/Desktop/Switch_ON_laptop_monitor_and_external_monitor contains the following text:

[Desktop Entry]
Comment[en_GB]=switch_ON_laptop_monitor_and_external_monitor
Comment=switch_ON_laptop_monitor_and_external_monitor
Exec=sh /home/fitzcarraldo/switch_on_laptop_monitor_and_external_monitor.sh
GenericName[en_GB]=Switch_ON_laptop_monitor_and_external_monitor
GenericName=Switch_ON_laptop_monitor_and_external_monitor
Icon=/home/fitzcarraldo/Pictures/Icons/display.png
MimeType=
Name[en_GB]=Switch_ON_laptop_monitor_and_external_monitor
Name=Switch_ON_laptop_monitor_and_external_monitor
Path=
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=true
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-DBUS-ServiceName=
X-DBUS-StartupType=none
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=

and the Bash script it calls, ~/switch_on_laptop_monitor_and_external_monitor.sh, contains the following code:

#!/bin/bash
if xrandr -q | grep "CRT1 connected"; then
  echo "Note that the resolution specified must be the same for both monitors, and must be achievable on both monitors."
  echo -n "Enter resolution width of external monitor (hint 1920 office, 1440 home): "
  read EXTERNAL_WIDTH
  echo -n "Enter resoluton height of external monitor (hint 1080 office, 900 home): "
  read EXTERNAL_HEIGHT
  #xrandr --output LVDS --off
  xrandr --output LVDS --mode $EXTERNAL_WIDTH"x"$EXTERNAL_HEIGHT
  xrandr --output CRT1 --off
  xrandr --output CRT1 --mode $EXTERNAL_WIDTH"x"$EXTERNAL_HEIGHT
else
  xrandr --output CRT1 --off
  xrandr --output LVDS --off
  xrandr --output LVDS --mode 1920x1080
# 1920x1080 is the native resolution of my laptop monitor
fi

Don’t forget to make them executable:

$ chmod +x /home/fitzcarraldo/Desktop/Switch_ON_laptop_monitor_and_external_monitor
$ chmod +x /home/fitzcarraldo/switch_on_laptop_monitor_and_external_monitor.sh

Switch on the laptop monitor and switch off an external monitor

I don’t need to use this one much either, given that the display mode reverts to the laptop monitor after I reboot or shutdown/power-up the laptop. The file ~/Desktop/Switch_ON_laptop_monitor_and_external_monitor contains the following text:

[Desktop Entry]
Comment[en_GB]=switch on laptop monitor and switch off external monitor
Comment=switch on laptop monitor and switch off external monitor
Exec=sh /home/fitzcarraldo/switch_on_laptop_monitor_and_switch_off_external_monitor.sh
GenericName[en_GB]=Switch on laptop monitor and switch off external monitor
GenericName=Switch on laptop monitor and switch off external monitor
Icon=computer-laptop
MimeType=
Name[en_GB]=Switch_ON_laptop_monitor_and_switch_off_external_monitor
Name=Switch_ON_laptop_monitor_and_switch_off_external_monitor
Path=
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-DBUS-ServiceName=
X-DBUS-StartupType=
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=

The Bash script it launches, ~/switch_on_laptop_monitor_and_switch_off_external_monitor.sh, contains the following code:

#!/bin/bash
xrandr --output CRT1 --off
xrandr --output LVDS --auto
xrandr --output LVDS --mode 1920x1080
# 1920x1080 is the native resolution of my laptop monitor

I did also create a fifth Desktop Config file and associated Bash script, to toggle between the three modes (laptop monitor only > both monitors > external monitor only) rather than having to double-click three different icons. But, to be honest, it’s quicker and easier to have the three icons and double-click on the one I want rather than toggling through three display modes. Anyway, in case you are interested, the Desktop Config file ~/Desktop/Toggle_Display contains the follow text:

[Desktop Entry]
Comment[en_GB]=Toggle between laptop monitor, external monitor and both
Comment=Toggle between laptop monitor, external monitor and both
Exec=sh /home/fitzcarraldo/toggle_display.sh
GenericName[en_GB]=Toggle between laptop monitor, external monitor and both
GenericName=Toggle between laptop monitor, external monitor and both
Icon=video-display
MimeType=
Name[en_GB]=Toggle_display
Name=Toggle_display
Path=
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-DBUS-ServiceName=
X-DBUS-StartupType=none
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=

and the Bash script it launches, ~/switch_on_laptop_monitor_and_external_monitor.sh, contains the following code:

#!/bin/sh

# Using the xrandr command I found that the two video outputs from my laptop are named LVDS
# (the internal display) and CRT1 (the external display driven by the laptop's VGA socket).
# My external monitor at home has a resolution of 1440x900.

CONNECTED=`xrandr | grep -i ' connected' | grep LVDS | awk '{print $1}'`
CONNECTED="${CONNECTED} `xrandr | grep -i ' connected' | grep CRT | awk '{print $1}'`"

ENABLED=`awk '{print;exit}' ~/displays_enabled 2>/dev/null`

if [ "$CONNECTED" = "LVDS" -o "$CONNECTED" = "LVDS " -o "$CONNECTED" = " LVDS" ]; then
        # Only the internal display is connected, so don't do anything.
        echo "LVDS" > ~/displays_enabled
        ENABLED="LVDS"
        xrandr --output CRT1 --off
        xrandr --output LVDS --off
        xrandr --output LVDS --auto
        exit 0
elif [ "$CONNECTED" = "LVDS CRT1" ]; then
        # Both the internal and external displays are connected, so let's toggle
        # LVDS > LVDS,CRT1 > CRT1

        EXTERNALRES=`xrandr | awk 'c&&c--;/ connected/{c=1}' | awk '{print $1}' | grep 1440x900`
        if [ "$ENABLED" = "LVDS" ]; then
        # Switching on both displays.
                xrandr --output LVDS --off
                if [ "$EXTERNALRES" = "1440x900" ]; then
                         xrandr --output LVDS --mode 1440x900
                         xrandr --output CRT1 --off
                         xrandr --output CRT1 --auto
                else
                         xrandr --output LVDS --auto
                         xrandr --output CRT1 --off
                         xrandr --output CRT1 --auto
                fi
                ENABLED="LVDS CRT1"
                echo "LVDS CRT1" > ~/displays_enabled
        elif [ "$ENABLED" = "LVDS CRT1" ]; then
        # Switching on only external display.
                xrandr --output LVDS --off
                xrandr --output CRT1 --off
                xrandr --output CRT1 --auto
                ENABLED="CRT1"
                echo "CRT1" > ~/displays_enabled
        else
        # Switching on only internal display.
                xrandr --output CRT1 --off
                xrandr --output LVDS --off
                xrandr --output LVDS --auto
                ENABLED="LVDS"
                echo "LVDS" > ~/displays_enabled
        fi
fi

As I use KDE, I also used System Settings > Shortcuts and Gestures | Custom Shortcuts to create a keyboard shortcut which I named ‘Toggle display’, with Meta+P as Trigger and sh ~/toggle_display.sh as Action, but I tend to use the mouse rather than the keyboard in any case.

By the way, you might think some of the xrandr commands in the above Bash scripts are redundant. You would be correct in thinking that, but in practice I found that the displays did not switch if I didn’t include the additional commands shown (due to a bug in xrandr, perhaps?). Even then, when I switch to an external monitor, occasionally the screen resolution is slightly too big or too small, so I placed the icons at the top left of the desktop so that they are always accessible and I can just double-click on the same icon again if necessary. As I’m using KDE, I placed a Folder View Plasmoid for ~/Desktop/ at the top left of the desktop, as you can see in the screenshot.

Footnote

I’ve been using the above method of switching between displays for a couple of years now with an AMD ATI GPU. It works nicely and suits my needs perfectly. AMD has supported xrandr since 2008 (see Ref. 1), whereas NVIDIA only began to support xrandr last year (see Ref. 2) so I’m not sure how well these scripts would work with NVIDIA GPUs.

Ref. 1: AMD Catalyst 8.9 Gets WINE Fix, RandR 1.2 Support, September 18, 2008
Ref. 2: NVIDIA’s 302 Linux Driver Finally Has RandR 1.2/1.3, May 2, 2012

How to prevent a USB mouse auto-suspending in Linux when a laptop’s power supply is disconnected

I found that my USB mouse (and external USB keyboard) went to sleep when the mains power supply was disconnected from my laptop. This was annoying because I had to click a mouse button and wait a couple of seconds in order to wake up the mouse. You can see from the console output below that several USB devices were being auto-suspended when I unplugged the laptop PSU:

# # PSU is currently connected.
# for d in /sys/bus/usb/devices/[0-9]* ; do if [[ -e $d/product ]] ; then echo -e "`basename $d`\t`cat $d/power/control`\t`cat $d/speed`\t`cat $d/product`" ; fi ; done
1-1.2 on 1.5 USB Laser Mouse
1-1.3 on 12 BCM2046 Bluetooth Device
2-1.2 on 12 Fingerprint Sensor
2-1.3 on 480 USB 2.0 Camera
2-1.6 on 1.5 USB Keyboard
# # Now I will disconnect the PSU...
# # PSU is currently disconnected.
# for d in /sys/bus/usb/devices/[0-9]* ; do if [[ -e $d/product ]] ; then echo -e "`basename $d`\t`cat $d/power/control`\t`cat $d/speed`\t`cat $d/product`" ; fi ; done
1-1.2 auto 1.5 USB Laser Mouse
1-1.3 auto 12 BCM2046 Bluetooth Device
2-1.2 auto 12 Fingerprint Sensor
2-1.3 auto 480 USB 2.0 Camera
2-1.6 auto 1.5 USB Keyboard
#

I found out the Vendor ID (046d) and Product ID (c052) of my Logitech NX50 USB portable/travel mouse by unplugging then reconnecting the USB mouse and using the dmesg command:

[13628.909728] usb 1-1.2: USB disconnect, device number 5
[13634.454132] usb 1-1.2: new low-speed USB device number 6 using ehci_hcd
[13634.535107] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=046d, idProduct=c052
[13634.535111] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[13634.535113] usb 1-1.2: Product: USB Laser Mouse
[13634.535115] usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: Logitech
[13634.540168] input: Logitech USB Laser Mouse as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.2/1-1.2:1.0/input/input17
[13634.540582] hid-generic 0003:046D:C052.0005: input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Logitech USB Laser Mouse] on usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.2/input0

First I tried creating a local Udev rule:

# cat /etc/udev/rules.d/91-local.rules
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{product}=="USB Laser Mouse", ATTR{power/control}="on"

That didn’t stop the mouse from auto-suspending (and neither did “Logitech USB Laser Mouse” instead of “USB Laser Mouse”), so I tried creating a Udev rule specifying the Vendor ID and Product ID of the mouse:

# cat /etc/udev/rules.d/91-local.rules
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="046d", ATTR{idProduct}=="c052", TEST=="power/control", ATTR{power/control}="on"

That didn’t stop the mouse from auto-suspending either.

Then I remembered that laptop-mode-tools is installed on my laptop:

# eix laptop-mode-tools
[I] app-laptop/laptop-mode-tools
Available versions: 1.60-r1 (~)1.62-r1 {(+)acpi apm bluetooth scsi}
Installed versions: 1.62-r1(18:10:15 11/01/13)(acpi bluetooth -apm -scsi)
Homepage: http://www.samwel.tk/laptop_mode/
Description: Linux kernel laptop_mode user-space utilities

So then I tried adding the mouse model to the blacklist in /etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/usb-autosuspend.conf by making AUTOSUSPEND_USBID_BLACKLIST="046d:c052" as shown below:

#
# Configuration file for Laptop Mode Tools module usb-autosuspend.
#
# For more information, consult the laptop-mode.conf(8) manual page.
#


###############################################################################
# USB autosuspend settings
# ------------------------
#
# If you enable this setting, laptop mode tools will automatically enable the
# USB autosuspend feature for all devices.
#
# NOTE: Some USB devices claim they support autosuspend, but implement it in a
# broken way. This can mean keyboards losing keypresses, or optical mice turning
# their LED completely off. If you have a device that misbehaves, add its USB ID
# to the blacklist below and complain to your hardware vendor.
################################################################################

# Enable debug mode for this module
# Set to 1 if you want to debug this module
DEBUG=0

# Enable USB autosuspend feature?
# Set to 0 to disable
CONTROL_USB_AUTOSUSPEND="auto"

# Set this to use opt-in/whitelist instead of opt-out/blacklist for deciding
# which USB devices should be autosuspended.
# AUTOSUSPEND_USE_WHITELIST=0 means AUTOSUSPEND_*_BLACKLIST will be used.
# AUTOSUSPEND_USE_WHITELIST=1 means AUTOSUSPEND_*_WHITELIST will be used.
AUTOSUSPEND_USE_WHITELIST=0

# The list of USB IDs that should not use autosuspend. Use lsusb to find out the
# IDs of your USB devices.
# Example: AUTOSUSPEND_USBID_BLACKLIST="046d:c025 0123:abcd"
AUTOSUSPEND_USBID_BLACKLIST="046d:c052"

# The list of USB driver types that should not use autosuspend.  The driver
# type is given by "DRIVER=..." in a USB device's uevent file.
# Example: AUTOSUSPEND_USBID_BLACKLIST="usbhid usb-storage"
AUTOSUSPEND_USBTYPE_BLACKLIST=""

# The list of USB IDs that should use autosuspend. Use lsusb to find out the
# IDs of your USB devices.
# Example: AUTOSUSPEND_USBID_WHITELIST="046d:c025 0123:abcd"
AUTOSUSPEND_USBID_WHITELIST=""

# The list of USB driver types that should use autosuspend.  The driver
# type is given by "DRIVER=..." in a USB device's uevent file.
# Example: AUTOSUSPEND_USBTYPE_WHITELIST="usbhid usb-storage"
AUTOSUSPEND_USBTYPE_WHITELIST=""

# Trigger auto-suspension of the USB deivce under conditional circumstances
BATT_SUSPEND_USB=1
LM_AC_SUSPEND_USB=0
NOLM_AC_SUSPEND_USB=0

# USB Auto-Suspend timeout in seconds
# Number of seconds after which the USB devices should suspend
AUTOSUSPEND_TIMEOUT=2

And now the mouse no longer suspends when I unplug the PSU:

# # PSU is currently connected.
# for d in /sys/bus/usb/devices/[0-9]* ; do if [[ -e $d/product ]] ; then echo -e "`basename $d`\t`cat $d/power/control`\t`cat $d/speed`\t`cat $d/product`" ; fi ; done
1-1.2 on 1.5 USB Laser Mouse
1-1.3 on 12 BCM2046 Bluetooth Device
2-1.2 on 12 Fingerprint Sensor
2-1.3 on 480 USB 2.0 Camera
2-1.6 on 1.5 USB Keyboard
# # Now I will disconnect the PSU...
# # PSU is currently disconnected.
# for d in /sys/bus/usb/devices/[0-9]* ; do if [[ -e $d/product ]] ; then echo -e "`basename $d`\t`cat $d/power/control`\t`cat $d/speed`\t`cat $d/product`" ; fi ; done
1-1.2 on 1.5 USB Laser Mouse
1-1.3 auto 12 BCM2046 Bluetooth Device
2-1.2 auto 12 Fingerprint Sensor
2-1.3 auto 480 USB 2.0 Camera
2-1.6 auto 1.5 USB Keyboard
# # Now I will reconnect the PSU...
# # PSU is currently connected.
# for d in /sys/bus/usb/devices/[0-9]* ; do if [[ -e $d/product ]] ; then echo -e "`basename $d`\t`cat $d/power/control`\t`cat $d/speed`\t`cat $d/product`" ; fi ; done
1-1.2 on 1.5 USB Laser Mouse
1-1.3 on 12 BCM2046 Bluetooth Device
2-1.2 on 12 Fingerprint Sensor
2-1.3 on 480 USB 2.0 Camera
2-1.6 on 1.5 USB Keyboard
#

So configuring laptop-mode-tools solved the problem with the mouse. Mind you, I will probably simply make CONTROL_USB_AUTOSUSPEND="no" in /etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/usb-autosuspend.conf, as I don’t want the internal USB devices in my laptop (Bluetooth adapter, fingerprint sensor and Webcam) to auto-suspend either.

Setting the wireless regulatory domain in Linux on your laptop

I travel internationally and want to make sure that my laptop uses the legal wireless networking frequencies in the country I am visiting. In Linux, CRDA (Central Regulatory Domain Agent) is the udev helper used to communicate between userspace and the kernel, and it enables you to view and alter the wireless regulatory domain your kernel uses. For more information see the Regulatory page on the Linux Wireless Wiki site.

CFG80211 is the Linux wireless LAN (802.11) configuration API. The kernel on my main laptop has the following configuration settings relating to CFG80211:

# cat /usr/src/linux/.config | grep CFG80211
CONFIG_CFG80211=m
# CONFIG_CFG80211_DEVELOPER_WARNINGS is not set
# CONFIG_CFG80211_REG_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_CFG80211_DEFAULT_PS=y
# CONFIG_CFG80211_DEBUGFS is not set
# CONFIG_CFG80211_INTERNAL_REGDB is not set
CONFIG_CFG80211_WEXT=y

and the cfg80211 module is loaded:

# lsmod | grep cfg80211
cfg80211 145747 3 iwlwifi,mac80211,iwldvm

I have the package crda installed, and I have the following udev rule file /etc/udev/rules.d/regulatory.rules to allow the kernel to communicate with userspace:

KERNEL=="regulatory*", ACTION=="change", SUBSYSTEM=="platform", RUN+="/sbin/crda"

So, how do you check which wireless regulatory domain your kernel is currently using, and switch to another domain if necessary? These tasks are performed using the iw command. You’ll need to install the package iw if it is not already installed.

To see the regulatory domain your laptop is using now, enter the following command as root user:

iw reg get

When I use the above command on my laptop after start-up, I normally see the following:

# iw reg get
country 00:
(2402 - 2472 @ 40), (3, 20)
(2457 - 2482 @ 20), (3, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS
(2474 - 2494 @ 20), (3, 20), NO-OFDM, PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS
(5170 - 5250 @ 40), (3, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS
(5735 - 5835 @ 40), (3, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS

The country code 00 is not the code of the country I am in at present. To tell the kernel which wireless regulatory domain you wish to use, enter the following command as root user:

iw reg set ISO_3166-1_alpha-2

where ISO_3166-1_alpha-2 is the 2-character code for the country you are in. You can find the list of ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes on the Wikipedia page ISO 3166-1 alpha-2.

For example, if I were in the UK then I would enter the following command:

# iw reg set GB

and the regulatory domain would then be reported like this:

# iw reg get
country GB:
(2402 - 2482 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
(5170 - 5250 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
(5250 - 5330 @ 40), (N/A, 20), DFS
(5490 - 5710 @ 40), (N/A, 27), DFS

It is not a big deal to use the command line, but I wanted to make it even easier. I’m using KDE on my main laptop, so I created a Desktop Configuration File /home/fitzcarraldo/Desktop/Set_wireless_regulatory_domain containing the following:

[Desktop Entry]
Comment[en_GB]=
Comment=
Exec=/home/fitzcarraldo/iw_reg.sh
GenericName[en_GB]=Set wireless regulatory domain
GenericName=Set wireless regulatory domain
Icon=/home/fitzcarraldo/national-flags-icon.png
MimeType=
Name[en_GB]=Set_wireless_regulatory_domain
Name=Set_wireless_regulatory_domain
Path=
StartupNotify=true
Terminal=true
TerminalOptions=\s--noclose
Type=Application
X-DBUS-ServiceName=
X-DBUS-StartupType=none
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=

and gave it the following file permissions:

# chmod 744 /home/fitzcarraldo/Desktop/Set_wireless_regulatory_domain
# ls -la /home/fitzcarraldo/Desktop/Set_wireless_regulatory_domain
-rwxr--r-- 1 fitzcarraldo users 496 Jan 15 21:53 /home/fitzcarraldo/Desktop/Set_wireless_regulatory_domain

I used a search engine to find a nice PNG icon consisting of several overlapping national flags, and saved it with the file name name national-flags-icon.png in my home directory.

I created a Bash shell script /home/fitzcarraldo/iw_reg.sh containing the following:

#!/bin/bash
echo "First you need to enter the password of your user account..."
sudo echo ""
echo "The ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are listed on Web page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2"
echo ""
echo "The current wireless regulatory domain is set as: "
echo ""
sudo iw reg get
echo ""
echo -n "Enter the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code (upper case) for the country you are in now, and press ENTER: "
read REGULATORYDOMAIN
sudo iw reg set $REGULATORYDOMAIN
echo ""
echo "The current wireless regulatory domain is now set as: "
echo ""
sudo iw reg get
echo ""
echo "All done. You can close this window."

and gave it the following file permissions:

# chmod 744 /home/fitzcarraldo/iw_reg.sh
# ls -la /home/fitzcarraldo/iw_reg.sh
-rwxr--r-- 1 fitzcarraldo users 632 Jan 15 21:33 /home/fitzcarraldo/iw_reg.sh

Now, if I double-click on the icon for Set_wireless_regulatory_domain on my desktop, a Konsole window pops up with a prompt for me to enter my user account password. When I enter my password the window displays the current wireless regulatory domain the kernel is using and prompts me to enter the 2-character code for the regulatory domain I wish to use instead. When I enter the country code the window displays the new regulatory domain, as shown in the sample below.


First you need to enter the password of your user account...
Password:

The ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are listed on Web page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2

The current wireless regulatory domain is set as:

country SA:
(2402 - 2482 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
(5170 - 5250 @ 20), (3, 23)
(5250 - 5330 @ 20), (3, 23), DFS
(5735 - 5835 @ 20), (3, 30)

Enter the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code (upper case) for the country you are in now, and press ENTER: GB

The current wireless regulatory domain is now set as:

country GB:
(2402 - 2482 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
(5170 - 5250 @ 40), (N/A, 20)
(5250 - 5330 @ 40), (N/A, 20), DFS
(5490 - 5710 @ 40), (N/A, 27), DFS

All done. You can close this window.


The task of viewing and changing the regulatory domain after start-up is now very easy for me. The only thing that would be easier than this would be if Linux could detect automatically which country I’m in and set the regulatory domain automatically.

Converting ape music files to mp3 in Linux

I had a file in the lossless ape (Monkey’s Audio) file format, and wanted to convert it to a .mp3 file so that I could play it on my portable mp3 player. As is usual in Linux, several alternative solutions exist, and I thought I’d try three of them for fun: shntool, ffmpeg and KDE’s Konvertible (Konvertible is a GUI for ffmpeg).

I already had ffmpeg and Konvertible installed, but not shntool. So first I installed shntool and the Monkey’s Audio codecs it uses:

# emerge media-sound/mac
# emerge media-sound/shntool

Here are the details of these two installed packages:

# eix -I shntool
[I] media-sound/shntool
Available versions: 3.0.10-r1 {alac flac mac shorten sox wavpack}
Installed versions: 3.0.10-r1(08:11:30 19/12/12)(flac -alac -mac -shorten -sox -wavpack)
Homepage: http://www.etree.org/shnutils/shntool/
Description: A multi-purpose WAVE data processing and reporting utility

# eix -I media-sound/mac
[I] media-sound/mac
Available versions: 3.99.4.5.7-r1^m {mmx static-libs}
Installed versions: 3.99.4.5.7-r1^m(07:52:12 19/12/12)(mmx -static-libs)
Homepage: http://etree.org/shnutils/shntool/
Description: Monkey's Audio Codecs

Then I used the following command to convert the file My Band 1971 CoolSounds.ape to mp3:

$ shntool conv -i ape -o 'cust ext=mp3 lame - %f' My\ Band\ 1971\ CoolSounds.ape
Converting [My Band 1971 CoolSounds.ape] (59:15.39) --> [My Band 1971 CoolSounds.mp3] : 100% OK
$

The KDE utility Konvertible was also able to convert it. I double-clicked on the file My Band 1971 CoolSounds.ape in Dolphin to launch Konvertible, selected libmp3lame in the ‘Codec:’ drop-down picklist, 192.00 kbits/s in the ‘Bitrate:’ drop-down picklist, clicked on the folder icon and selected /home/fitzcarraldo as the destination directory, and finally clicked ‘Convert’.

The mp3 files created by shntool and Konvertible were of different sizes:

File created by Konvertible:

$ file My\ Band\ 1971\ CoolSounds.mp3
My Band 1971 CoolSounds.mp3: Audio file with ID3 version 2.4.0, contains: MPEG ADTS, layer III, v1, 192 kbps, 44.1 kHz, Stereo
$ ls -la My\ Band\ 1971\ CoolSounds.mp3
-rw-r--r-- 1 fitzcarraldo users 85334024 Dec 19 08:11 My Band 1971 CoolSounds.mp3
$

File created by shntool:

$ file My\ Band\ 1971\ CoolSounds.mp3
My Band 1971 CoolSounds.mp3: MPEG ADTS, layer III, v1, 128 kbps, 44.1 kHz, JntStereo
$ ls -la My\ Band\ 1971\ CoolSounds.mp3
-rw-r--r-- 1 fitzcarraldo users 56889259 Dec 19 08:29 My Band 1971 CoolSounds.mp3
$

So I added the bitrate to the shntool command:

$ shntool conv -i ape -o 'cust ext=mp3 lame -b 192 - %f' My\ Band\ 1971\ CoolSounds.ape
Converting [My Band 1971 CoolSounds.ape] (59:15.39) --> [My Band 1971 CoolSounds.mp3] : 100% OK
$

and this time the mp3 file created by shntool is comparable to the mp3 file created by Konvertible:

$ file My\ Band\ 1971\ CoolSounds.mp3
My Band 1971 CoolSounds.mp3: MPEG ADTS, layer III, v1, 192 kbps, 44.1 kHz, JntStereo
$ ls -la My\ Band\ 1971\ CoolSounds.mp3
-rw-r--r-- 1 fitzcarraldo users 85333889 Dec 19 08:56 My Band 1971 CoolSounds.mp3
$

The ffmpeg command to do the same thing is:

$ ffmpeg -i My\ Band\ 1971\ CoolSounds.ape -ar 44100 -ab 192000 out.mp3
ffmpeg version 0.10.6 Copyright (c) 2000-2012 the FFmpeg developers
built on Nov 26 2012 07:06:40 with gcc 4.6.3
configuration: --prefix=/usr --libdir=/usr/lib64 --shlibdir=/usr/lib64 --mandir=/usr/share/man --enable-shared --cc=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-gcc --cxx=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-g++ --ar=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-ar --optflags='-O2 -march=native -pipe' --extra-cflags='-O2 -march=native -pipe' --extra-cxxflags='-O2 -march=native -pipe' --disable-static --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --enable-postproc --enable-avfilter --disable-stripping --disable-debug --disable-doc --disable-vaapi --disable-vdpau --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-gnutls --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libtheora --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --enable-libfaac --enable-nonfree --enable-libdc1394 --enable-openal --disable-indev=v4l --disable-indev=oss --enable-x11grab --enable-libpulse --disable-outdev=oss --enable-libfreetype --enable-pthreads --enable-libgsm --enable-libspeex --disable-amd3dnow --disable-amd3dnowext --disable-altivec --disable-avx --disable-mmx2 --disable-ssse3 --disable-vis --disable-neon --cpu=ho
libavutil 51. 35.100 / 51. 35.100
libavcodec 53. 61.100 / 53. 61.100
libavformat 53. 32.100 / 53. 32.100
libavdevice 53. 4.100 / 53. 4.100
libavfilter 2. 61.100 / 2. 61.100
libswscale 2. 1.100 / 2. 1.100
libswresample 0. 6.100 / 0. 6.100
libpostproc 52. 0.100 / 52. 0.100
Input #0, ape, from 'My Band 1971 CoolSounds.ape':
Metadata:
Album : CoolSounds
Title : C:\1\My Band 1971 CoolSounds
Comment : Exact Audio Copy
Duration: 00:59:15.47, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 829 kb/s
Stream #0:0: Audio: ape (APE / 0x20455041), 44100 Hz, stereo, s16
Output #0, mp3, to 'out.mp3':
Metadata:
TALB : CoolSounds
TIT2 : C:\1\My Band 1971 CoolSounds
Comment : Exact Audio Copy
TSSE : Lavf53.32.100
Stream #0:0: Audio: mp3, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16, 192 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (ape -> libmp3lame)
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
size= 83334kB time=00:59:15.55 bitrate= 192.0kbits/s
video:0kB audio:83333kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 0.000892%
$

and, as you can see below, the resulting mp3 file is the same size as the mp3 file created using Konvertible (not surprising, since Konvertible is a GUI front-end for ffmpeg) and virtually the same as the mp3 file created by shntool.

$ file out.mp3
out.mp3: Audio file with ID3 version 2.4.0, contains: MPEG ADTS, layer III, v1, 192 kbps, 44.1 kHz, Stereo
$ ls -la out.mp3
-rw-r--r-- 1 fitzcarraldo users 85334024 Dec 20 18:14 out.mp3
$

So, there you have it: GUI or command line; take your pick!

Selecting different keyboard layouts in Xfce

One of my laptops running Xfce has a British English keyboard. However, I write in Portuguese and Spanish as well and so I need to be able to switch keyboard layouts. Therefore I added the three keyboard layouts by clicking on ‘Applications Menu’ on the Xfce Panel, selecting ‘Settings’ > ‘Keyboard’ and clicking on the ‘Layout’ tab. I also created the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/00-keyboard.conf containing the following:

Section "InputClass"
    Identifier "keyboard"
    MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
    Option "XkbLayout" "gb,br,es"
    Option "XkbVariant" ""
    Option "XkbOptions" "grp:alt_shift_toggle"
EndSection

As you can probably guess from the XkbOptions option I specified, pressing Alt-Shift enables me to toggle between the keyboard layouts declared in the XkbLayout option (‘gb’ = British keyboard layout; ‘br’ = Brazilian Portuguese keyboard layout; ‘es’ = Spanish keyboard layout). This works fine but I could not tell at a glance which keyboard layout was selected, without typing some text and seeing the result. It would be nice to see an icon on the Panel indicating which keyboard layout is currently selected, in the same way as is possible in KDE and GNOME. It turns out that Xfce has a plugin that does precisely this: Keyboard Layouts, which is available by installing the package xfce4-xkb-plugin. I installed it, right-clicked on the Panel and selected ‘Panel’ > ‘Add New Items…’ > ‘Keyboard Layouts’ to display the plugin’s icon on the Panel. Right-clicking on it and selecting ‘Properties’ allows you to configure the plugin, and I selected ‘Show layout as: image’ so that a flag indicating the current keyboard layout is displayed on the Panel, as shown in the snapshot below.

Keyboard layout icon on Xfce Panel

I can either use the keyboard shortcut Alt-Shift to toggle between the three keyboard layouts (in which case the flag changes on the Panel), or I can click on the Keyboard Layouts icon on the Panel and select the desired layout from there instead, as shown in the snapshot below.

Selecting keyboard layout from Xfce Panel

An easy way to edit the Xfce Application Menu

I recently installed Sabayon Linux with Xfce 4.10 on a couple of laptops. Being a long-time KDE user, I was surprised to find that Xfce does not provide a ‘native’ easy way to edit the Xfce Application Menu. The Xfce Wiki page (Customize the Xfce menu) lists a protracted and complicated procedure for making changes to the Xfce menu files. Fortunately the article also points out that a LXDE tool works for Xfce too:

A GNU-licensed graphical menu editor for LXDE, LXMenuEditor, also works for XFCE, as of XFCE 4.8.0 and LXMenuEditor 20110523.

So I installed LXMenuEditor:

# equo install lxmed

To run LXMenuEditor from the command line you just need to enter the command lxmed. If you do that from your user account you can only use LXMenuEditor to view the menu entries. To be able to edit, add and delete menu entries you must launch lxmed as root user, which of course you can do from the command line too. But I wanted to add LXMenuEditor to the Xfce Application Menu and also make it prompt for the root user’s password when launched from the menu. So I did the following:

1. Open a Terminal window, login as root user and launch LXMenuEditor:

$ su
Password:
# lxmed

2. Click on the ‘System Tools’ entry in the Categories pane. The Menu Items pane will display the current menu entries in the System Tools category.

3. Click on the ‘New Item’ button and a window will pop up.

4. In the Name box enter “Application Menu Editor” (without the quotes).

5. In the Command box enter “gksu lxmed” (without the quotes).

6. In the Comment box enter “Edit entries in the Xfce Application Menu” (without the quotes).

7. Make sure the Visible tick box is ticked.

8. Click the OK button.

(x11-libs/gksu should already be installed, but install it if it is not.)

That’s it. If you click on ‘Applications Menu’ on the Panel there will now be a menu entry System > Applications Menu Editor and, if you click on that, you will be prompted to enter the root user’s password. Once you have done that, LXMenuEditor will be launched with root user previleges and you can view and edit the Xfce applications menu.

Let’s hear it for Konqueror

My browser of choice on the desktop has been Firefox for many years. Firefox uses the Gecko rendering engine. As a backup Web browser I use Konqueror but configured to use WebKit, rather than KHTML, as the rendering engine. I’ve tried Chromium, Opera, Midori, rekonq, SeaMonkey and a bunch of others, but always found them lacking in some way in comparison to Firefox (I find Opera Mobile better than Firefox for Android on my mobile phone, though).

However, Firefox sometimes lets me down. For example, some months ago I wanted to book tickets online for a concert but Firefox would not display the seat map correctly, stopping me from being able to select seats. Konqueror saved the day. And, recently, Firefox no longer displays the video component of trailers on Rotten Tomatoes; only audio works. Firefox correctly plays videos from virtually all other sites I visit (YouTube, IMDb, iTunes Trailers, Vimeo, eTelegraph etc.) so why the sudden inability to display Rotten Tomatoes trailers? Today Firefox wouldn’t play a product video on an Amazon page either. So I launched Konqueror and it can play Rotten Tomatoes trailers and the Amazon video. What gives? They are both running on the same laptop in the same OS (Gentoo Linux) and desktop environment (KDE), using the same version of Flash, the same video driver etc. The only thing I can think of is that the Firefox rendering engine Gecko is the culprit. I assume WebKit in Konqueror is more capable than Gecko, although I don’t know enough to be certain that Gecko is the cause of the problem.

Anyway, if you want to configure Konqueror to use the WebKit rendering engine instead of the KHTML rendering engine, click on ‘Settings’ on the Konqueror menu bar, select ‘Configure Konqueror…’ and click on ‘General’. You’ll see ‘Default web browser engine’ in the right pane. Select WebKit and click ‘OK’. You’ll also need to have WebKit itself installed, of course. I have the packages qt-webkit (the WebKit module for the Qt toolkit) and kwebkitpart (a WebKit KPart for Konqueror) installed.