DevBlag

Installing Guitar Pro 6 on Ubuntu Maverick 64-bit

2010-12-03T12:14:00.000-08:00

To install Guitar Pro 6 natively on Ubuntu Marverick 64-bit (ie: without WINE) you must:

Obtain the .deb from the Guitar Pro website by clicking the 'Free Trial' link and then picking the Linux download.
Install the deb with 'sudo dpkg -i --force-architecture <.deb file>'. Install any missing dependencies using apt and try again if it fails. If your apt ends up in a funky state you can use 'sudo apt-get install -f' to fix it and then try again. I just needed to install libportaudio0 and libportaudio2 on my machine.
Now you need to install the missing 32-bit libs by downloading this library bundle and extracting the contents to /opt/GuitarPro6. Now you can launch Guitar Pro from Applications->Sound & Video->Guitar Pro 6. If you want to run the trial that's it, you're done.
(optional): To activate Guitar Pro you must enter your user-id + key-id when prompted and install only the update to Guitar Pro. After the update manager dialog closes you can now launch Guitar Pro and do the full update. If you don't update Guitar Pro it will keep asking for your password on every startup and you'll forever be stuck in trial mode.

Some photos of Chateau de Lucy in the snow.

2010-12-03T05:59:00.000-08:00

Is variable scope in Python broken?

2010-08-22T03:05:00.000-07:00

I've come across this weirdness before when trying to write functional python code. It seems you can access the variables declared in the function above but not alter them in anyway or you'll get a UnboundLocalError. In PHP you're allowed to alter the variable but the changes will only take place in the current scope (unless you global it first). Python just gives you an error.

Example code:

#!/usr/bin/python

def myfunc1(var1="VAR 1"):
    var2="VAR 2"
    def myfunc2():
        print var1
        print var2
    myfunc2()
myfunc1()

def myfunc3(var1="VAR 1"):
    var2="VAR 2"
    def myfunc4():
        var1 += " WORKING!"
        var2 += " WORKING!"
    myfunc4()
myfunc3()

Expected error:

UnboundLocalError: local variable 'var1' referenced before assignment

If anybody knows why this is I'd be interested to hear why.

How to fix UPNP on Rhythmbox under Ubuntu Lucid

2010-08-14T05:11:00.000-07:00

I just got fuppes installed on my shiny new Drobo FS but I realized that whenever I try to connect to it via the upnp plugin in Rhythmbox it throws an exception:

File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 371, in _runCallbacks
self.result = callback(self.result, *args, **kw)
File "/usr/lib/rhythmbox/plugins/upnp_coherence/UpnpSource.py", line 135, in new_process_media_server_browse
seconds = int(h)*3600 + int(m)*60 + int(s)
exceptions.ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: '54.00'

To fix it I just changed line 135 of /usr/lib/rhythmbox/plugins/upnp_coherence/UpnpSource.py to:

seconds = int(h)*3600 + int(m)*60 + int(eval(s))

Dashboard widgets coming to Linux. Again.

2010-07-11T10:05:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Code is now available from git on the new StormOS server.

I was bored Saturday morning so I decided to check up on Jackfield to see how its development was coming along. Turns out it hasn't changed much since I last checked it out 4 years ago. Since there was a huge list of comments on the original authors (Stuart Langridge) blog from people mourning the death of the Jackfield project I decided to resurrect the project.

I quick list of what I've done so far:

Migrated everything over to WebKit instead of Embeded Moz
Added support for synchronous Dashboard APIs (async already implemented)
Added support for moving widgets around the screen (yay!)
Started implementing the fancy new Apple Button classes (see how the Youtube info button is different to the rest -- its using the newer API)
Now runs uninstalled without hacking the source

Update all but one package in Gentoo

2010-02-10T09:02:00.000-08:00

Controlling Banshee on Gentoo with you Android Phone

2010-01-31T12:23:00.000-08:00

Installing the client

Download and extract this file. You'll find the APK (android package) under BansheeRemote/bin. Install it.

Installing the server

You need to upgrade to Banshee 1.5.2, but first you'll have to unmask it. Comment out '=media-sound/banshee-1.5*' in /usr/portage/profiles/package.mask and the just 'emerge banshee'.

Now grab 'Banshee.RemoteListener.dll' from here. It says its for 1.5.3 but works fine with 1.5.2. Just put it in /usr/lib/banshee-1/Extensions

Setting it all up is pretty self-explanatory.

Getting the Tomtom to install updated maps on an SD card

2009-11-17T09:37:00.001-08:00

My Mum wanted me to update her Tomtom 720, but it kept on trying to install the updated maps onto internal storage which didn't have enough space, even when the device was set to the SD card (which did have enough space).

Here is how I fixed it:

First, make sure you have a copy of the updated Maps. On the Mac I was using to update the tomtom I discovered the updated maps in /Users/[my user]/Documents/Tomtom/Home/Western_Europe, we'll refer to this location as the 'local maps folder'. You should find a folder with the same name on the Tomtom internal memory, well call that the 'tomtom maps folder'.

Extract [local maps folder]/[map].zip and the [local maps folder]/activation-maps*.cab to [tomtom maps folder]. Copy [tomtom maps folder]/CurrentMap.dat to the root of the sd card too.

Now delete the maps folder from the tomtoms internal memory and open up Tomtom home. It should tell you that the tomtom system software needs to be installed on the SD card, click OK and follow the instructions.

When its done you should now have the updated maps on your SD card.

I love my computer

2009-11-15T11:40:00.001-08:00

Easier way to get Google App Engine working on Python2.6

2009-10-14T09:42:00.000-07:00

sudo ln -s /usr/lib64/python2.6/multiprocessing/ /usr/lib64/python2.6/_multiprocessing

Google app engine SDK on Gentoo ~amd64

2009-10-05T03:39:00.000-07:00

Here is how I got the Google app engine SDK working on Gentoo ~amd64.

Set python2.5 as the default:

sudo eselect python set python2.5

Unmask and install django:

sudo echo "dev-python/django ~amd64" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
sudo emerge -av dev/python/django

Then just follow the instructions provided by Google.

Note: Dont forget to set the python version back to whatever it was (2.6 for me) when you are done.

Emtpy applications menu on GNOME

2009-08-10T01:09:00.001-07:00

Just upgraded from GNOME 2.26 to 2.26.3 on Gentoo and my GNOME applications menu ended up completely empty, here is what fixed it for me:

cd /etc/xdg/menus/
sudo cp gnome-applications.menu applications.menu

Apple aluminum keyboard on Gentoo

2009-08-07T01:57:00.000-07:00

I recently got a new Apple aluminum to replace my crusty ol' logitech I bought in 2004, and so far I think it's excellent. By far the best keyboard I have ever used, except the function keys don't work without a bit of tweaking. Here is how I got them working on Gentoo:

Create '/etc/init.d/applefn' with the following contents:

#!/sbin/runscript

start() {
 echo 2 > /sys/module/hid_apple/parameters/fnmode
}

Make it take affect now:

su -c "/etc/init.d/applefn"

Add to to default runlevel:

su -c "rc-update add applefn default"

Why Open-Source games suck

2009-07-29T05:20:00.000-07:00

They change too much, simple as that.

If Valve kept on altering the story line of HL2 and adding/taking out things all the time it just wouldn't be the same. You've got to know when its done and move on to something else.

Ubuntu 9.04 notification system: Nothing new

2009-07-13T07:48:00.000-07:00

Growl on Mac OSX:

NotifyOSD on Ubuntu 9.04:

Coincidence?

Howto: GNOME on StormOS/Nexenta CP2

2009-07-09T02:43:00.000-07:00

First you need to install GNOME itself, all the meta-packages seem broken so do this:

sudo apt-get install gnome-session nautilus metacity

Now you need to disable the gnome-settings-daemon media-keys plugin to prevent it from segfaulting continuosly (it will keep getting restarted):

gconftool-2 --type boolean --set /apps/gnome_settings_daemon/plugins/media_keys/active false

Now you should have a very minimal but working GNOME.

StormOS Hail Beta 2 - 5 minute installer

2009-07-07T01:19:00.001-07:00

One of the biggest complaints with StormOS Hail Beta was the installer. People kept of reporting that the installer had hung, when in actual fact it just took a really long time to install. With StormOS Hail Beta 2 I managed to reduce the install time down to about 5 minutes as well as combine the Live CD (previously 314mb) and Install CD (previously 611mb) into a 569mb ISO, thats only about 54mb more than the Nexenta Core Platform 2 ISO! Here's how I did it.

I took a look at how the installer worked and saw that it generated a list of packages to be installed and then generated an APT repo from that, and then copied the lot to the ISO where it would then be debootstrapped onto the HD, which works fine but it takes forever. Then I remembered back to when I used to be a Foresight Linux user, a distro which used to suffer from insanely long install times that were fixed when the devs moved to a tar based installer, so that is what I decided to do with StormOS.

I moved loads of the code out of the installer and into "nexenta-builder" to create "stormos-builder" (the set of scripts used to generate the ISO's). What this did was install StormOS into a directory, tar+lzma it up and put that onto the ISO instead, a preinstalled copy of StormOS. Then all the installer has to do is extract it and set it up. Simple, easy and lightening fast.

Of course there is a downside to this which I think is worth mentioning; you pretty much kill all upgrade functionality. There is no way to upgrade an old installation from a tarball, but since we have APT AND StormOS Hail Beta is based on Nexenta Core Platform 2 which is and LTS release I see that as a non-issue.

New blag

2009-07-02T12:57:00.000-07:00

So I decided to get myself a new blag...

It's no secret that my old one over a getonthenet.eu sucks, mainly because its too web orientated.

Web Development is only a small part of what I do so I decided it made more sense to find a new place where I can talk about whatever, even if its not web or StormOS related.

I had been eyeing up one of those new linux.org blogs, but since I'd probably end I talking about Solaris (and other things) more often than Linux I thought this would be a better place.