Getting sound to work on Toshiba w/ Linux Mint

To setup the sound correctly on your Toshiba running some sort of ubuntu follow the steps on the following link.

From website:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto

More specifically make sure your module parameters at correct. On my computer "options" was only "option" and "model" was only "mode" which cause the module not to load correctly.

Manually Specify Module Parameters

First you must find which model of sound card you use, so run this command:

cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#* | grep Codec

It will return model of your sound card(s), for example: "Codec: Realtek ALC260", so your sound card is ALC260.

You should open a file in ALSA documentation. This file is here (replace KERNEL_VERSION with your kernel's version!):

/usr/src/KERNEL_VERSION/Documentation/sound/alsa/ALSA-Configuration.txt

If you didn't have this file, for version 2.6.22, you can check out this link or you can find ALSA-Configuration.txt in the subdirectory /alsa-kernel/Documentation/ of the alsa-driver-1.x.x directory you created.

Search for your model, and take a look at its types, for example I found the following lines for ALC260:

hp              HP machines
hp-3013         HP machines (3013-variant)
fujitsu         Fujitsu S7020
acer            Acer TravelMate
basic           fixed pin assignment (old default model)
auto            auto-config reading BIOS (default)

Read all of them and try to find the one which is more similar to your sound card, for example if you have a laptop, you can choose "acer".

Open /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base with the following command:

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

Then paste the following line at the end of the file (change MODEL with the type of sound card's model, in our example it should be "acer" (without quotation marks)):

options snd-hda-intel model=MODEL

Reboot

Webcam on Linux Mint (Ubuntu) Quick and Easy

With thanks to binselam of Ubuntu Forums, I was able to get my webcam working in no time flat. Below is his post originally located on Ubuntu Forums.


November 20th, 2006
binselam
5 Cups of Ubuntu
Join Date: Nov 2006
Beans: 15
Thanks: 0
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[How to] Logitech Quickcam IM/Connect webcam on Kubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft)
I have been trying to install Logitech Quickcam IM/Connect webcam on Kubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft). So, I have searched the ubuntuforms and how-to's. Although, what I have found in both sites was very helpful, but it was not specific to my webcam and step by step approach. I wanted to contribute to community by posting this.

I followed the ubuntu-community`s Spca5xx documentations and Yoriko post with little modifications.

It worked for me. I hope this helps you.



STEP 1: First, I have used lsusb to find out:
1) Vendor Id and Product ID
2) to see do I have usb support, and check the driver files for device support. The supportted device list is available at the Michael Xhaard's homepage ("http://mxhaard.free.fr/ ").

This list shows the lsusb result.
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 046d:08d9 Logitech, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 045e:0039 Microsoft Corp. IntelliMouse Optical


STEP 2: Download latest Spca5xx source code to your home directory from Michael Xhaard's homepage. At the time of writing this installation guide, the latest source code version was spca5xx-20060501.
NOTE: There might be a newer version of the driver by the time you install. Please check the web page :" http://mxhaard.free.fr/ ".
Latest driver is:gspcav1-20070508.tar.gz (swejuggalo indicated that works fine on Ubuntu 7.04). Make sure you substitue correct driver name in the following steps, if you use a different driver.
(You can see the instructions for the new driver in following post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...09418#poststop).

cd ~
wget http://mxhaard.free.fr/spca50x/Downl...01.orig.tar.gz


STEP 3: Become root. To do that, you need to open a terminal window and enter following command(Please enter user password when it is prompted. In each terminal window, you just need to enter sudo
command and password once (for the first time).

sudo -s
Password:########

Note: Prompt should change to: root@yourmachine:


STEP 4: Download the necessary packages. The following packages are needed from the Ubuntu repositories for compiling.
1. linux-headers-`uname -r`
2. linux-restricted-modules-`uname -r`
3. build-essential

uname -r
Identifies the version of running kernel. Exp: 2.6.17-10-generic

apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` linux-restricted-modules-`uname -r` build-essential


STEP 5: Compile the spca5xx source code. The linux stuff (drivers/programs) is installed under /usr/src. The downloaded driver files need to be placed to proper directory under linux. So, please type following commands to change directory, move downloaded source files, unpack the source files and change into directory. (NOTE: This step assumes you downloaded the driver file to your home directory.)

cd /usr/src
mv ~/spca5xx-220060501.orig.tar.gz .
tar xfvz spca5xx-20060501.orig.tar.gz
cd spca5xx- 20060501


STEP 6: Set the environment variable CC for spac5xx Makefile. In my case, Ubuntu Edgy Eft uses gcc 4.1 as kernel compiler. (NOTE: your system might use gcc-4.0. if you use version gcc4.0, you need to modify the command as "export CC=gcc-4.0" So, please make sure of your compiler version.)

export CC=gcc-4.1


STEP 7: Set a link back to source code(headers).

ln -s /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r` /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build

STEP 8: Now, we need to compile spca5xx source code, remove the old driver(from memory and hard drive), install the new driver and load the new driver. Please enter the following commands in the order given.

make
modprobe -r spca5xx
rm -rf /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/usb/media/spca5xx*
make install
modprobe spca5xx

If everything went accordingly, there should be no error messages. When you type dmesg, you should get something like shown above.

[17191980.272000] usbcore: deregistering driver spca5xx
[17191980.276000] drivers/media/video/spca5xx/spca5xx-main.c: driver spca5xx deregistered
[17192035.756000] Linux video capture interface: v1.00
[17192035.768000] /usr/src/spca5xx-20060501/drivers/usb/spca5xx.c: USB SPCA5XX camera found. Logitech QC IM/Connect
[17192035.768000] /usr/src/spca5xx-20060501/drivers/usb/spca5xx.c: [spca5xx_probe:5480] Camera type JPEG
[17192036.860000] /usr/src/spca5xx-20060501/drivers/usb/zc3xx.h: [zc3xx_config:558] Find Sensor HV7131R(c)
[17192036.872000] /usr/src/spca5xx-20060501/drivers/usb/spca5xx.c: [spca5xx_getcapability:1765] maxw 640 maxh 480 minw 176 minh 144
[17192036.872000] usbcore: registered new driver spca5xx
[17192036.872000] /usr/src/spca5xx-20060501/drivers/usb/spca5xx.c: spca5xx driver 00.60.00 registered
root@eagel:/usr/src/spca5xx-20060501#


GOOD LUCK!
_____________

OpenSUSE and Compiz Fusion, woah.

First off, since I'm using an intel chipset, I am using AIGLX instead of XGL.

This is the OpenSUSE how-to on AIGLX.

More specifically, you will need to disable XGL (but enable 3D in YaST->Hardware->Monitor) and add two entries to your xorg.conf file.

Again, I have an intel chipset so I had to use the following addition to my xorg.conf file from compizfusion's troubleshooting wiki page otherwise my windows would freeze/not render:

Windows Don't Update

When using the intel or ati driver with AIGLX, you may notice that all your windows seem to be frozen even as you interact with them. Nothing in any window updates until you rotate the cube or otherwise switch viewports.

Adding the following line to the Device section of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file should fix the problem:

Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" "true"

Finally, go to OpenSUSE's Compiz Fuzion how to page and completed the following steps:

1. Test if composite is enabled: running grep Composite /var/log/Xorg.0.log as root should show Extension "Composite" is enabled

2. Clicked the "One Click-Install button" for KDE.

3. Clicked the link right under the those buttons for the main install - labled: If you would like to setup autostart of compiz install Compiz Manager: Click here to install compiz-manager

And then I had a fully functioning 3D desktop.

rsync - Once again why Linux is better.

Linux has this little easy command called rsync. Basically what it did for me today was went through all the music on my computer, compared it with the saved music on my external hard drive, and then copied anything over to the external that wasn't already there.

See, I use my laptop to listen to music and when I get a new cd I put it on my laptop. But then I need to make sure my external is keeping a good/up-to-date backup of all my music in case something happens to my laptop.

Thanks to linuxquestions.com I found a quick and easy way to do that with rsync.

The command I used was:

rsync -avuz /home/awesome/Music/ /media/My\ Book/My\ Music/
(laptop music dir) (ext. music dir)


rsync is the command.
"a" option archives the files to the new directory
"v" verbose?
"u" update - this causes it to skip files that are newer on the destination - that way you don't copy old info over new info (in my case this is a "just in case")
"z" compresses files during data transfer - to speed transfer


Wow, that's excellent.

Linux Mint Review

Linux Mint - "From Freedom Came Elegance" - A Review

First off the very concept of Linux Mint I believe is ideal. If Linux is ever to become mainstream and pose a real threat to the monopoly of M$ and @pple then it needs to get on board with the Linux Mint creators. By far this is the easiest distro I have ever used - installed in less than 20 minutes and every - EVERY - piece of hardware on my computer works with no configuration right off the bat. First off here is what equipment/release I am using:

Gateway MX3560
Processor - Intel® Centrino™ Mobile Technology with Intel® Pentium® M Processor 7357 - (2MB L2 Cache | 1.70GHz | 400MHz FSB)
Chipset - Intel® 855GM
Memory - 1.5GB DDR SODIMM (PC2700)
Video - Intel® Extreme 2 Graphics
32MB Shared Video Memory
Audio - AC '97 2.1 Compliant Audio Built-in Stereo Speakers
Hard Drive - 160 GB Hard Drive

Linux Mint 4.0 Daryna - KDE Community Edition BETA 011

Installation:

Like I mentioned above installation took less than 20 minutes. It was very simple, truly just a few clicks and we were rolling. If I could make a constructive criticism of it I would recommend a more intuitive partitioning tool. I, and I believe many other Linux users - for the sake of safety/security - partition my hard drive for a separate / partition and /home partitions. The partitioning tool currently in it took me a bit of fiddling to get it to do exactly what I wanted.

Post-Installation - Immediate:

One of the first things I noticed as I booted into this new distro is that Compiz comes pre-installed with Emerald. Unfortunately for all of the wonderful things that KDE is capable I have trouble getting the standard window decorations to satisfy me asthetically. So in my previous distro I went to utilize Compiz/Emerald and was never able to get it to work correctly partly due to the lacking video card of my old system. So it was a welcome change to see the new look and how easy it was to change it around.

Secondly I noticed that my wireless was already picking up signals from surrounding networks. No ndiswrapper or windows drivers or hassling with setup for hours (and having it still not display correctly) - it just worked. I haven't had a chance to test the wireless extensively - ie discovering new networks or switching between networks - but from the little bit of browsing through my kde network manager I have done it seemed to work very well.

Third, codecs. Linux Mint comes with everything you need right off the install in order to play almost any type of music or video file you may have. This includes CDs and DVDs. Even ripping DVDs was simple with KDB already setup. The only problem I had here was ripping mp3s. I tried using the two encoders it gave in the drop down menu - mp3 and mp3 lame - and neither worked. Which is fine, I don't mind using OGG, but it is hard to share then because 100% of my friends and family use either wind0ws or M@c 0S X.

Post-Installation - A Few Weeks Later:

Everything seems to be working fine. I did turn of extra background terminal screens to boost performance, but other than that have made little to no changes. The only problem I had/have was with the auto-mounting of external drives to include my CD/DVD-ROM drive. If I boot with something in the CD/DVD drive or an external drive connected via usb then it will not show as mounted when I login to KDE. Sometime if I have add an additional drive, for example another thumb drive, then the auto-mount utility will not only mount the new drive but will also bring up the drive that was connected at boot and had not yet shown as mounted. It is a small grievance but passing on the knowledge of the problem may lead to it's eventual solution.

My second problem is a problem I believe between the configuration of Linux Mints interworkings interfacing with KDE Network Manager. When switching between ethernet connections Linux Mint has an awesome little configuration GUI that is simple and easy to use. However after introducing a manual configurtation KDE's network manager than goes hands off and will show "Manual Configuration and No Active Connetcion" only (whereas before it showed eth1 and connection details). Then when you switch back say from a set IP scheme to DHCP KDE's network manager doesn't get the change and stays showing "Manual Configuration". I've found what I have to do to remedy the situation - I manually edit the /etc/network/interfaces file to look as it did before Linux Mints configuration utility edited it. When it's just KDE Network Manager using a DHCP server the file only reads:
auto eth0
However when Linux Mint's configuration utility gets in there it adds an extra line (this is just for Auto DHCP mind you):
intf eht0 auto dhco
Apparently it is that line that Linux Mint adds that KDE network manager doesn't understand.

Despite the few problems I've had, I still think this is one of the easiest and most complete distros I have ran. I can do everything I need to do, easily, and it looks nice too.