Using the synaptic package manager, I installed recordmydesktop.  Eventually I discovered that this was not the gui part of the program and installed gtk-recordmydesktop.

I’ve been very happy with the results.

My first attempt was with Handbrake. That converted the MOV to an MP4 very nicely. However, I wasn’t able to upload those to Blip.tv and have them convert successfully every time to an flv. Blip was timing out on the longer videos and poorly converting the smaller ones.

I then decided to try the command line ffmpeg. There weren’t any gui tools around it that I found in the repo’s, so I just tried the standard

ffmpeg -i inputfilename.mov outputfilename.flv

but that did not work. Apparently JVC doesn’t put all the right properties into the mpg2 for ffmpeg to automatically pick up the properties because I kept getting a Floating point exception.

I assumed I needed to just manually set the full command with all the different video and audio settings, but I didn’t know what those should be.

After a bit more googling I found winff. From that app I copied the command line arguments over, tweaked them a bit, and came out with this:

ffmpeg -i INPUTFILENAME.mov -vcodec libx264 -deinterlace -vpre hq -crf 22 -r 29.97 -s 960×540 -aspect 16:9 -bf 2 -b 2000kb -ac 1 -ar 22050 -ab 96k OUTPUTFILENAME.flv

The trick is to use the libx264 codec instead of the flv one. After uploading these converted movies to Blip.tv I was pleased with the results.

I stumbled across the sound edit controls today:

1. Left click on the sou
   nd applet in the system tray and click “Volume Control”.

2. Unmute the “Microphone”

I never knew this existed! Its not in my admin menu anywhere.

(I apologize to Pulse Audio for the many curse words erroneously thrown in its direction over this)

I recently discovered “grandr” and its capabilities.  It worked more often than Ubuntu’s Screen Resolution program…but I had to use my mouse and see the screen to do so.  This meant that I had to the lcd before I did a stand by or took the laptop off the dock.

I then discovered the command line “xrandr” program.  It let me set up some scripts to switch the screen resolution.

• Use open source ATI driver (not fglrx)
• Set up your terminal to launch with a keyboard shortcut (System–>Preferences–>Keyboard Shortcuts)
• Figure out what randr calls the lcd and vga video card outputs with just xrandr
• Create ./lcd.sh and ./vga.sh and set them to be executable with chmod +x

lcd.sh:

/usr/bin/xrandr –screen LVDS –auto

vga.sh:

/usr/bin/xrandr –screen “VGA-0″ –auto
/bin/sleep 4
/usr/bin/xrandr –screen LVDS –output LVDS –off

Now after undocking I don’t need to be able to see the screen to turn on the lcd.  I just type Alt-t to bring up the terminal, then ./lcd.sh and the lcd turns on.   Jaunty is supposed to have improved monitor support, so I’m looking forward to its release.

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Wireless Settings

The Network Manager program didn’t reconnect to my wireless after the upgrade.  I had to run nm-applet manually from the command line.  It loaded up correctly every time after that.

Screen Resolution

I switch between monitors quite often between work/home/meetings.  The list of available resolutions was reset to the defaults, so I couldn’t connect to my TV properly at home.  I simply restarted the machine with the TV plugged into the VGA port and they all reappeared.

Update: Intrepid had turned off my choice of using the fgrlx driver. I went to System–>Administration–>Hardware Drivers and turned it back on. Now fn-F7 and external monitors works as it should.

Update: Acceptable solution found.

Scrolling

I lost my blue button trackpoint scrolling feature because Ubuntu changed how they run x.org. I stole this new patch from: http://psung.blogspot.com/2008/09/scrolling-with-thinkpads-trackpoint-in.html

Create a file named: /etc/hal/fdi/policy/mouse-wheel.fdi

<match key="info.product" string="TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint">
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheel" type="string">true</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.EmulateWheelButton" type="string">2</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.XAxisMapping" type="string">6 7</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.YAxisMapping" type="string">4 5</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.ZAxsisMapping" type="string">4 5</merge>
 <merge key="input.x11_options.Emulate3Buttons" type="string">true</merge>
</match>

And restart.

Update: Somehow these settings were lost after (un)suspending a few times. Would be nice to know how to get it back without having to restart.

Update #2: The functionality seems to have fixed itself after another series of suspend/unsuspend.

Update #3: I should have read that other post a little better.  See this Ubuntu bug.

Gnome-Do

I had the action mapped to CapsLock-Space because 1) the windows key doesn’t exist on the T43 and 2) because the CapsLock key is easier to reach even when I’m not using my laptop keyboard.

Back in Hardy Heron I had a delay on the key so that I could still use it. Intrepid Ibex apparently doesn’t support that anymore, so I simply had to disable the CapsLock key (I don’t use it anyway).

System-->Preferences-->Keyboard Preferences
Layouts-->CapsLock Behavior-->Caps Lock just locks the shift modifier

Sound

I didn’t have any sound after the upgrade (even after restarting).  I had to kill the pulse audio process.
I also took it out of the startup process in System–>Preferences–>Session
Skype needed to be restarted to pick up the changes, everything else worked after testing things in System–>Preferences–>Sounds
The annoying “Play System Alert” seemed to be turned back on by default. I had to check it and then uncheck it again from that same Sounds dialog.

A Release Candidate was put out for Hardy Heron this last week.  I’ve been itching to upgrade and, unlike Brian, I wasn’t willing to (potentially) suffer through a beta release.  Upgrading from Ubuntu 7.08 was absolutely painless.  The only thing I had to do was run the standard Update Manager program with a flag to say I wanted to upgrade to a new release.  An unnecessary screenshot walkthrough can be found on the Ubuntu site: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HardyUpgrades.

The download took 20-25 mins on my cable connection, and the installation took about three hours.  I’m sure the installation would have been 30-60 minutes, but I was in-and-out all afternoon.  Dialog boxes kept popping up asking if I wanted to overwrite some custom config file.  This caused the whole process to halt until I came and clicked “ok”.  Everything worked the first time, I’ve had exactly zero “gotchas” so far!

I only had a few complaints with 7.04 Gutsy Gibbon.  The only one I can remember now is the silly Keyring Manager application that saved usernames and passwords.  A master password was all that you needed to be able to access all passwords for all applications that used it.  I was fine with this except that Network Manager used it for some reason to store my WEP key.  When initially logging on it would pop up and ask for my master password.  Meanwhile, all of my default apps were loading in the background and flailing about (Thunderbird, Firefox, and XChat).  I had switched to WICD as a very nice alternative, but it had a few other annoying habits of its own.

If I recall correctly, Hardy Heron doesn’t use the same Keyring Manager application anymore.  When I logged in the first time after reinstalling Network-Manager, I entered my master password and checked the little box labeled “Always log me in automatically”.  Voila!  Now I don’t have to enter my password at log-in.  Its a beatiful thing.  Combine that with the new Firefox 3 option of automatically loading my past tabs (instead of asking me if I wanted to everytime) and I can start up the laptop, walk away, and when I come back everything is loaded and waiting for me.

The one thing I miss is the ability to control-tab through my Firefox tabs.  I was using the LastTab plugin which allowed me to cycle through my tabs in the order I last accessed them.  The plugin hasn’t been updated for firefox 3 yet.  I tried cheating and unpacking the plugin and simply upping the maxVersion…but there were a few bugs that prevented it from working correctly unfortunately. Google gave me no alternatives.  I really don’t know why this isn’t an option baked into Firefox.