Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu Plans (marketing)
On 07/03/12 22:26, Grant Phillips-Sewell wrote: On Mar 7, 2012 7:01 PM, alan c aecl...@candt.waitrose.com wrote: What I took from this exchange was that the retail goldfish bowl we all actually live in, is one of deep immersion. There is hardly anywhere we can go, or that I can think of, which does not have only retail air to breathe. There is 'no such thing as a free lunch' is mostly true in the real world, although exceptionally, not with most of GNU/Linux. There is a price, though, but for end users all they have to do is trust in the social generosity of developers and teams. But trust in strangers is not something that comes easy in a world full of scams. However, I do like the idea of more marketing. -- alan cocks Whenever I've been faced with trying to explain to people about how the whole open source/Free Software thing works, I usually end up using the St. John's Ambulance as an example of people's generosity and helping for no cost, and using footballers playing charity matches for examples of how someone doing something for no cost doesn't automatically mean that the result of their efforts is of a poorer quality than that of someone being paid for their work. People seem to understand these two analogies quite well. Grant Nice one! Thanks I will be using those. -- alan cocks -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Xorg high CPU usage
On 07/03/12 17:03, Pete Smout wrote: On 07/03/12 16:43, Pete Smout wrote: On 07/03/12 11:46, Neil Greenwood wrote: On Mar 7, 2012 10:50 AM, Grant Phillips-Sewell dcg...@cornwall-it.co.uk mailto:dcg...@cornwall-it.co.uk wrote: On Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:45:23 + Pete Smout wrote: On 06/03/12 18:15, Grant Phillips-Sewell wrote: On Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:07:08 + Pete Smout wrote: On 05/03/12 21:10, Pete Smout wrote: Hi, For about a week now my laptop (ubuntu 10.04 LTS fully updated) has been freezing up for approx 30 secs, with gkrellm and top showing xorg using 100% cpu usage? There seems to be no pattern to what programs I am using, everything from open office to clementine to smplayer or thunderbird, not at any certain time of day or day of the week, or even weather using the inbuilt screen or external one. My understanding (admittedly limited) is that xorg is the bit that works the display (screen). Has anyone else come across this? For reference the laptop specs are: Acer Aspire 5720 Intel T5250 Dual core processor Ram 2.0 gb Internal graphics (intel) Internal sound (intel) Thanks in advance for any ideas Regards Pete just for reference my xorg.conf: Section Device Identifier Configured Video Device Driver fbdev EndSection Might want to look into that bit. You should have a specific Xorg driver for your onboard Intel graphics chip. Run the following command to find out your graphics chip: lspci Look for the line that has VGA on it. If it does indeed say something about an Intel chip, then make sure you have the following package installed: xserver-xorg-video-intel (That package deals with all i8xx and i9xx chips) Once that's installed, remove the xorg.conf file and restart X. You can restart X by going to a terminal (NOT a terminal window... press CTRL+ALT+F2 and log in) and then run: sudo service lightdm restart (Or just reboot... up to you.) Grant. Hi Grant, Thanks for your reply, the lspci command produces (relevant lines only I hope) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) Synaptic shows xserver-xorg-video-intel is installed (reinstalled for good measure) moved the xorg.conf file to my documents folder and rebooted, opened t-bird to reply to you and the machine 'greyed out' for approx 20 secs with gkrellm showing xorg as using 100% CPU! Please note that last time it happened was with clementine running, when playback stopped mid song so I cannot blame t-bird! As an aside but possibly related?! when I open a tty shell (ctrl-alt-f1) log in it tells me 'Your CPU appears to be lacking expected security protections. Please check your BIOS settings, for more information please run /usr/bin/check-bios-nx --verbose which produces smouty@smouty-laptop:~$ /usr/bin/check-bios-nx --verbose This CPU is family 6, model 15, and has NX capabilities but is unable to use these protective features because the BIOS is configured to disable the capability. Please enable this in your BIOS. For more details, see: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/CPUFeatures I am unable to find any related settings in BIOS, if this is unrelated to my original question please ignore it and I will do further research Regards Pete Hi Pete, That is interesting, about your CPU security extensions, but I do not believe it is related to this. Your original post showed that your xorg.conf file was using fbdev as the graphics driver - this *should* work on most machines and so it is useful as a fall back if all else fails. The fbdev driver means that the CPU is doing all the graphics donkey-work rather than the GPU. Essentially all I suggested was that you ensure you have the correct xorg driver available (which you do) and you (re)move the xorg.conf file so that xorg regenerates it (or creates on on-the-fly) when you reboot... which you've done. It is still entirely possible that xorg is still using fbdev, so you may want to re-instate your xorg.conf file but edit the fbdev entry to say intel instead. Thanks trying that, so far so good no issues to report! Essentially, as I understand it, if there is an xorg.conf file present then XOrg will use it; if there is no xorg.conf file then XOrg will try to detect what's going on and make up a configuration on-the-fly. Since the on-the-fly thing doesn't seem to be working for you, let's try *making* it use the Intel driver by having an xorg.conf file that specifies to use the Intel driver and nothing else. I hope that makes sense. Grant. As well as the xorg.conf file, there is also the /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ directory
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu Plans
Not forgetting Pi day on the 14 March if you write it in the silly american format the date is 3.14 Stuart -- Stuart Ward M +44 7782325143 On 7 March 2012 21:48, paul sutton zl...@zleap.net wrote: On 07/03/12 13:49, Liam Proven wrote: On 7 March 2012 13:38, Alan Pope alan.p...@canonical.com wrote: On 07/03/12 13:33, Colin Law wrote: Out of interest, in what way is it not open? It needs a binary blob for the GPU and to boot apparently. They also only licensed the h.264 and one other codec bundle from broadcom for that blob. So only certain video files will play back accelerated. So it wouldn't do for a FreeView set top box, but would be good for playing back pre-recorded/downloaded h.264 encoded video. Broadcom bought up the rump of what was Acorn Computers. Acorn designed and developed the ARM chip. (Interestingly, after Acorn was split up and sold off, the rump renamed itself Element 14. This is now a trading name for Farnell, one of the distribution partners for Rpi.) Broadcom still employs Sophie Wilson, who (back when she was called Roger) designed the ARM chip, BBC BASIC and much of the BBC Micro. Rpi is basically a Broadcom GPU and video-decoder chip with a small, basic ARM CPU added in one corner. It's a very proprietary device and so are the Linux drivers. Something nobody is giving any attention to is that Linux is not the only OS for Rpi. It will also come with Acorn RISC OS, meaning a full networked multitasking Internet-capable GUI OS, complete with optimised BBC BASIC interpreter with ARM assembler, GUI editor and so on. Whereas it's a very low-spec system for Linux, it's a high-end one for RISC OS. For beginners, RISC OS may be a much more appealing prospect. Ohh i am sure I have a few games on 3,5 floppy that ran on an acorn risc/os machine, in fact I may have a manual for the Acorn Archimedes somewhere :) Paul -- -- http://www.zleap.net http://www.ubuntu.com skype : psutton111 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Playing DVD through projector
I would suggest copying to a mpeg or simmular format with handbreak and then playing with mplayer, then it is easy to script into your presentation, just call mplayer -fs ripped.file.mpeg You could of course play directly with mplayer -fs /dev/cdplayerdevice Stuart -- Stuart Ward M +44 7782325143 On 7 March 2012 15:09, Gordon Burgess-Parker gbpli...@gmail.com wrote: Hi, Ubuntu 11.10 fully updated. I need to play a DVD through a projector as part of a course. I followed the procedure here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/PlayingDVDs which made the DVD play fine in VLC. However as soon as I went to full screen through the projector, the DVD played fine but there was a flashing rippling image of the launcher on the L/H side of the screen showing up on the projected image, even though nothing showed on the computer screen Anyone seen this, and is there a cure? (I had been using Windows Media Player on Win 7 which kept misbehaving and I thought that this might be a chance for Ubuntu to shine!) I've had to install VLC on Windows 7 to get it playing without hiccoughs :-( -- Registered Linux User no 240308 GBP's alternative computing: http://gbplinuxfoss.blogspot.com/ Say No to OOXML http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9594#mpart8 I only accept odf or pdf documents by email -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Xorg high CPU usage
On 08/03/12 17:13, Pete Smout wrote: On 07/03/12 17:03, Pete Smout wrote: On 07/03/12 16:43, Pete Smout wrote: On 07/03/12 11:46, Neil Greenwood wrote: On Mar 7, 2012 10:50 AM, Grant Phillips-Sewell dcg...@cornwall-it.co.uk mailto:dcg...@cornwall-it.co.uk wrote: On Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:45:23 + Pete Smout wrote: On 06/03/12 18:15, Grant Phillips-Sewell wrote: On Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:07:08 + Pete Smout wrote: On 05/03/12 21:10, Pete Smout wrote: Hi, For about a week now my laptop (ubuntu 10.04 LTS fully updated) has been freezing up for approx 30 secs, with gkrellm and top showing xorg using 100% cpu usage? There seems to be no pattern to what programs I am using, everything from open office to clementine to smplayer or thunderbird, not at any certain time of day or day of the week, or even weather using the inbuilt screen or external one. My understanding (admittedly limited) is that xorg is the bit that works the display (screen). Has anyone else come across this? For reference the laptop specs are: Acer Aspire 5720 Intel T5250 Dual core processor Ram 2.0 gb Internal graphics (intel) Internal sound (intel) Thanks in advance for any ideas Regards Pete just for reference my xorg.conf: Section Device Identifier Configured Video Device Driver fbdev EndSection Might want to look into that bit. You should have a specific Xorg driver for your onboard Intel graphics chip. Run the following command to find out your graphics chip: lspci Look for the line that has VGA on it. If it does indeed say something about an Intel chip, then make sure you have the following package installed: xserver-xorg-video-intel (That package deals with all i8xx and i9xx chips) Once that's installed, remove the xorg.conf file and restart X. You can restart X by going to a terminal (NOT a terminal window... press CTRL+ALT+F2 and log in) and then run: sudo service lightdm restart (Or just reboot... up to you.) Grant. Hi Grant, Thanks for your reply, the lspci command produces (relevant lines only I hope) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) Synaptic shows xserver-xorg-video-intel is installed (reinstalled for good measure) moved the xorg.conf file to my documents folder and rebooted, opened t-bird to reply to you and the machine 'greyed out' for approx 20 secs with gkrellm showing xorg as using 100% CPU! Please note that last time it happened was with clementine running, when playback stopped mid song so I cannot blame t-bird! As an aside but possibly related?! when I open a tty shell (ctrl-alt-f1) log in it tells me 'Your CPU appears to be lacking expected security protections. Please check your BIOS settings, for more information please run /usr/bin/check-bios-nx --verbose which produces smouty@smouty-laptop:~$ /usr/bin/check-bios-nx --verbose This CPU is family 6, model 15, and has NX capabilities but is unable to use these protective features because the BIOS is configured to disable the capability. Please enable this in your BIOS. For more details, see: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/CPUFeatures I am unable to find any related settings in BIOS, if this is unrelated to my original question please ignore it and I will do further research Regards Pete Hi Pete, That is interesting, about your CPU security extensions, but I do not believe it is related to this. Your original post showed that your xorg.conf file was using fbdev as the graphics driver - this *should* work on most machines and so it is useful as a fall back if all else fails. The fbdev driver means that the CPU is doing all the graphics donkey-work rather than the GPU. Essentially all I suggested was that you ensure you have the correct xorg driver available (which you do) and you (re)move the xorg.conf file so that xorg regenerates it (or creates on on-the-fly) when you reboot... which you've done. It is still entirely possible that xorg is still using fbdev, so you may want to re-instate your xorg.conf file but edit the fbdev entry to say intel instead. Thanks trying that, so far so good no issues to report! Essentially, as I understand it, if there is an xorg.conf file present then XOrg will use it; if there is no xorg.conf file then XOrg will try to detect what's going on and make up a configuration on-the-fly. Since the on-the-fly thing doesn't seem to be working for you, let's try *making* it use the Intel driver by having an xorg.conf file that specifies to use the Intel driver and nothing else. I hope that makes sense. Grant. As well as the xorg.conf file, there is also the
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Ubuntu Plans
On 07/03/12 14:56, Alan Bell wrote: On 07/03/12 14:43, Liam Proven wrote: https://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=chromeie=UTF-8q=raspberry+pi+700+second I scaled it down 2 orders of magnitude to something I find a bit more plausible. At £25, yes, I can believe they have a million-odd preorders. yeah, I had seen the 700 a second stuff too, ridiculous! I can certainly believe they have a lot of pre-orders, certainly in the hundreds of thousands. A million is plausible taking into account international orders. What I am not seeing is a massive buzz about this in the educational sector yet. My teaching twitter friends are not really talking about it, it is a technology thing so far. Anyone else heard about the Raspberry Pi via a teacher or someone at a school who would not ordinarily be interested in geeky stuff? There was a half double page (i.e. a double page with RPi in the top half and ads in the bottom half) about it in Metro on Monday. So it's had some press outside of tech circles. I haven't heard anybody talk about it indeed but if it's made it to Metro, it's bound to make it to non-tech circles. Cheers, Bruno -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
