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Test Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 in Debian Without Changing Your Existing Installation

Craciun Dan — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 22:40:00 +0000

Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 was released on October 14, 2008 and it currently comes in 36 fully-localised languages. This beta is based on Gecko 1.9.1 layout engine and according to the official website, this release features "significant changes to improve web compatibility, performance and ease of use". You can read the release notes on the official website, here.

Debian Lenny comes with Iceweasel 3.0.3, which is actually Firefox with a changed name and a few minor changes. If you have Iceweasel 3.0.3 installed but want to test this new beta without changing anything to your system, just follow the steps below.

Download Firefox 3.1 Beta 1
Get the Firefox .tar.bz2 archive from here, then uncompress it using:

tar -xjf firefox-3.1b1.tar.bz2

Next, move the firefox directory wherever you want it, for example in your home directory, or in ~/apps etc.

Run it using a new profile
Firefox uses the default profile whenever you run it without specifying another profile using a parameter. To run it using a different profile than the default one, use this command after making sure your current working directory is firefox:

./firefox --no-remote -P new_profile

As you can see, we used the name new_profile for our profile. The --no-remote parameter will not connect Firefox to a running instance, so you will be able to run both your current version and 3.1 Beta 1.

Select new_profile (or whatever the name of your profile is) and click on Start Firefox:

You will be prompted to accept the EULA, then Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 will start and you will be able to test it.

A small window should appear prompting you to choose the profile to use. Click on the Create Profile... button, then follow the instructions as in the screenshots below. You will notice you won't even have to close Iceweasel 3.0.3 if you have it running.

Currently there are no available themes for Firefox 3.1, so you'll have to use the default until they are updated.

How-To: Compile and Install xine-lib 1.1.15 in Debian Lenny and Ubuntu 8.04

Craciun Dan — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:28:00 +0000

Xine is an engine which allows to play audio CDs, DVDs, VCDs, various audio and video formats like AVI, WMV, MOV to list a few. The last version of xine-lib is 1.1.15, released on August 14, 2008.

Installation in Debian Lenny
To compile from source and install xine-lib 1.1.15 in Debian Lenny you'll have to follow the steps below.

1. Enable the sources repositories
Make sure you have a line like the following in your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb-src http://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free

Then update the packages list as root:

apt-get update

2. Install the dependencies
As root, type:

apt-get build-dep libxine1

This will install the development packages and the tools needed to compile Xine.

3. Download the source, compile and install
Download the last xine-lib version from here, uncompress it and compile as usual:

./configure
make
make install

Last one as root.

xine-lib should be now installed in /usr/local/lib/.

Installation in Ubuntu 8.04
Ubuntu Hardy comes with libxine 1.1.11, so if you want to update to the latest version, you need to follow the steps above, with the exception of preceding the commands which need root privileges with sudo. For example:

sudo apt-get build-dep libxine1

./configure
make
sudo make install

With your user's password.

Video players using Xine
I can recommend Kaffeine and Xine-UI, both these players use the Xine engine.

Kaffeine 0.8.6

Updated: Sep 12, 2008

How-To: Install Video Codecs and DVD Support in Ubuntu/Kubuntu 8.04 ‘Hardy Heron’

Craciun Dan — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:11:00 +0000

Medibuntu is a project somewhat similar with debian-multimedia.org for Debian, providing packages which are not included in the official Ubuntu repositories due to legal issues. In order to make use of the packages included in Medibuntu (including the non-free video codecs w32codecs and libdvdcss2 for watching ecrypted DVDs), you will only need to follow several easy steps explained below.

1. Add the Medibuntu repository address to /etc/apt/sources.list
Edit as root the /etc/apt/sources.list file (e.g. sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list or kdesu kate /etc/apt/sources.list) and add the following two lines:

deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free
deb-src http://packages.medibuntu.org/ hardy free non-free

2. Update the packages list
Issue the following command:

sudo apt-get update

3. Install the w32codecs and libdvdcss2 packages
To install those two packages, just type in the command:

sudo apt-get install w32codecs libdvdcss2

It should be done now. The codecs will be installed in /usr/lib/codecs/ and the DVD library in /usr/lib/libdvdcss2.so.2.0.8.

Another way to install libdvdcss2 is to first install the package libdvdread3:

sudo apt-get install libdvdread3

And then running the command:

sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread3/install-css.sh

As video players, I recommend SMPlayer and Kaffeine, the first using the MPlayer engine, while the latter uses the Xine engine. They both have subtitle support and many powerful features (like remembering video position and settings after closing the application in SMPlayer), and Kaffeine also reads DVD menus.

SMPlayer 0.6.0 running in Kubuntu 8.04

To install either of those, use one of the commands below:

sudo apt-get install smplayer
sudo apt-get install kaffeine

Updated: Sep 10, 2008 (Created: Sep 10, 2008)

How-To: Make UT2004 Use OSS on Debian Lenny

Craciun Dan — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 14:22:00 +0000

Some of us playing Unreal Tournament 2004 may be familiar with the error open /dev/[sound/]dsp: Resource temporarily unavailable. This is usually caused because the sound system is busy (for example, you have an audio player opened, or a paused movie).

The simplest way to get over this problem is to install the alsa-oss package, which contains the aoss wrapper to allow the use of ALSA OSS library. In Debian, type as root:

apt-get install alsa-oss

Then run UT2004 like this:

aoss ut2004

Or:

aoss /usr/local/games/ut2004demo/ut2004-demo

Depending on where your game is installed. The good thing about this is that you can now listen to music in a player separate from the one included in the game and also hear the UT2004 sounds.

How-To: Compile and Install Banshee 1.2.0 on Debian Lenny

Craciun Dan — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 15:13:00 +0000

Banshee is a powerful audio player written using GTK, featuring audio and video libraries, support for podcasts and much more. The last version, 1.2, was released on July 30, 2008.

1. Install the necessary dependencies
As root, type:

apt-get install build-essential
apt-get build-dep banshee

For the last one, make sure you have sources repositories enabled in your /etc/apt/sources.list file (there is a line which starts with deb-src).

2. Download the source tarball
Download the source tarball from here, under the Source releases, then change the current working directory to where you saved the archive, and uncompress it:

tar -xjf banshee-1-1.2.0.tar.bz2

Change the working directory to banshee-1-1.2.0, and proceed to the next step.

3. Compile Banshee 1.2.0
In the banshee-1-1.2.0 directory, issue the usual:

./configure
make
make install

The last command as root. Banshee 1.2 should be now properly installed. Run it as banshee-1 from command line or pressing ALT+F2 and typing the name in the run dialogue that appears.

Running Banshee 1.2.0

How-To: Compile and Install Code::Blocks from Source in Debian Lenny

Craciun Dan — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:51:00 +0000

Code::Blocks is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for C and C++, built using the wxWidgets kit.

The latest version is 8.02, available for download from the official downloads page. To install the dependencies, use:

apt-get install build-essential
apt-get install libwxgtk2.8-dev wx-common libgtk2.0-dev

Next, uncompress the source and issue the usual:

./configure
make
make install

Last one as root. You can launch Code::Blocks by running codeblocks in a shell or typing ALT+F2 and type codeblocks in the run dialogue.

Codeblocks 6.02

How-To: Compile and Install Exaile 0.2.13 from Source in Debian Lenny

Craciun Dan — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:03:00 +0000

Exaile is an audio player built in GTK which aims to provide the same features as the popular Amarok for KDE. The last stable version is 0.2.13, released on April 2, 2008, which fixes cover art fetching from Amazon.

In order to compile Exaile on Debian Lenny, first make sure you have sources repositories enabled, that is, you have a line which starts with deb-src in your /etc/apt/sources.list file, like the one below:

deb-src ftp://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free

Next, install the necessary dependencies:

apt-get update
apt-get build-dep exaile

Download the source tarball from the official website here, uncompress it, change the current working directory to exaile-0.2.13 (or whatever your package is called) and issue:

make
make install

The last one as root. Exaile should be now installed in /usr/local/bin/exaile.

How-To: Compile and Install PCMan FM 0.4.5 in Debian Lenny

Craciun Dan — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:25:00 +0000

PCMan FM is a basic GTK file manager with a simple interface, providing features like tabs, compression menu (bzip2, gzip, zip), or bookmarks. The last version is 0.4.5, and to install it issue as root:

apt-get build-dep pcmanfm
apt-get install intltool

Next, download the source from SourceForge.net, here. Uncompress it and follow the usual commands:

./configure
make
make install

The last one as root.

How-To: Compile and Install BasKet from Source on Debian Lenny

Craciun Dan — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:15:00 +0000

BasKet is a powerful and fully-featured notes-taking application for KDE3, and there are also plans to port it to KDE4 (read about it here). The current version included in Debian Lenny's repositories is 1.0.2, however the last stable release is 1.0.3.1, so if you want to compile it from source, all you have to do is:

1. Make sure you have sources repositories enabled
Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file and make sure you have a line similar with the one below:

deb-src ftp://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free

2. Install the needed dependencies
Use apt-get build-dep as root to install BasKet's dependencies:

apt-get build-dep basket

3. Download the source
Get the source tarball for the latest BasKet release from the official homepage.

4. Compile and install
Uncompress the tarball, change the current working to basket-1.0.3.1 (or whatever version you may have), and issue the usual:

./configure
make
make install

The last one as root. BasKet should be now properly installed.

BasKet 1.0.3.1 - Even better!

I recently wrote a full review of BasKet, you can read it here.