LMT #5: Simple TV Tuning (with Win TV PVR)

Linux Mint Tips #5: Simple TV Tuning (with Win TV PVR 500)

Linux Mint Tips series is a list of tricks I've picked up after having switched away from Windows for good in 2013, after dabbling for years. I'll do my best to go back and edit posts that contain any erroneous information, but keep in mind that I'm a relative newcomer to the Linux scene. I wrote this tutorial running the MATE desktop environment in Mint 17.1.

I have an older TV capture card in my PC. It still works just fine, but I ran into some problems when I started trying to use it to view TV in Linux Mint 17.1. Namely that the TV watching packages (Myth TV, Me TV, pretty much every linux TV viewer) only work with DVB (digital video broadcast) devices, of which the older PVR series are not. After some time, I gave up searching for a nice looking piece of software and started looking for anything that worked. That's when I found a few useful guides and tips, which I'll distill for you here:

Part 1, Tuning:

Open Package Manager and install the ivtv-utils package (you'll have to enter the password of your elevated account to start package manager. After you've searched and found ivtv-utils, click on the checkbox next to it. Select mark for installation. It'll ask if you want to install dependencies. Choose Mark so they'll be installed also.)
Open VLC player (comes pre-installed on Mint).
Click on the Media menu, then select Open Capture Device.
Click PVR in the Capture Mode dropdown then click the Play button.
If you do not have a PVR option, you will need to close VLC and then open Terminal. Type, or better yet, copy and paste in this command: vlc 'v4l2c://' >/dev/null 2>&1 & and hit enter. This will start VLC in the correct mode for PVR devices.

Open Terminal, if it isn't already open, and enter ivtv-tune -c33 (33 is channel number, so use whatever channel you like)

You should now have a valid signal and you should be able to watch TV. You can use the ivtv-tune terminal command to change the channel at any time.

Part 2, Adjusting the view:

Turn on deinterlacing to reduce the "jaggy" effect. In VLC, click on the Video menu, select Deinterlace, then select On.

For channels that show widescreen inside the 4:3 frame, which is most of them these days, there is a useful zoom function. Click on the Video menu, select Crop, select 16:9.

To show in true fullscreen mode, use the following two options in succession: Click on the View menu, and select Fullscreen Interface. Then click on the View menu again, and select Minimal Interface. You can get out of this mode using the Esc key or by right clicking on the video itself to get the menu options to come up so you can toggle these modes back off.

To enable recording, click on the View menu and select Advanced Controls. This will enable the record icon in the bottom control bar. Videos are recorded to your home/Videos folder.

Thanks very much to the following guides and answers that helped me put together this tutorial:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1363622

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/33383/how-to-suppress-messages-generated-by-an-application-being-sent-to-my-terminal-w

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2215261&page=2&s=f05dfc3e119f1010dfd870cfe78caeea

LMT #3: Setting Up A Low-Privileged "Kids Account"

Linux Mint Tips #3: Setting Up A Low-Privileged "Kids Account"

Linux Mint Tips series is a list of tricks I've picked up after having switched away from Windows for good in 2013, after dabbling for years. I'll do my best to go back and edit posts that contain any erroneous information, but keep in mind that I'm a relative newcomer to the Linux scene. I wrote this tutorial running the MATE desktop environment in Mint 16.

One thing I ran into after setting up my Linux machine was that I needed a secondary account that my son could log into. At this point he plays web games on well known sites, under frequent supervision. One thing that's important to him is a sense of independence, so having a foolproof method to start the computer and get logged in was key.

You could potentially use the same idea if you wanted to have a guest account, or if you were setting up a machine for a friend or relative who was less computer savvy, or perhaps just your own convenience.

This left me with two goals:

• Create a low-privileged account 
• Make sure that account can log in automatically
  

Setting Up A Secondary Account

Menu->Control Center->Users and Groups.

Click the Add button.

Type a name and click OK.

Type in a password twice and click OK.

Set That Account To Log In Automatically

Menu->Control Center->Login Window

Click the Auto Login tab.

There are two options: One will log in a user automatically immediately, the other will log them in after a set amount of time. I like the timed option because it gives me the chance to log into my account instead if I'm using the machine. Here's how you do the rest:

Check the box, pick the secondary account out of the list, and if you’re using the timed option, set the number of seconds to wait before that account is auto-logged in.

The lowest possible time for this setting is 10 seconds.

Click Close.

That's it. The secondary account will now automatically be logged into when the machine starts. Low-privilege is the default setting, so there was no need to mess with the default account settings when it was created. Note that the account still has a password; I would never recommend setting up an account that lacked a password, nor would I recommend setting up automatic login on a laptop that I carried around to work or school. Furthermore, I would not recommend turning on this option on any account with high-level privileges; even though Linux Mint is good about requiring your password to do anything potentially harmful, there's no need to ask for trouble when setting up a secondary account is so easy.

Verizon's New Weird Trick To Prevent Tethering

You may recall that Verizon lost a court case that forced them to allow tethering and wi-fi hotspot apps for users who do not have unlimited data. Or did it?

Here's one of the articles that describes the ruling:
http://www.zdnet.com/let-my-wi-fi-go-fcc-rules-verizon-cant-charge-for-wi-fi-tethering-7000001916/

Verizon, for its part, hasn't given up trying to charge for this feature. They found a loophole.

Their current strategy: comply with the letter of the law, but not the spirit.

Their new trick is a multi-pronged plan:
1. Allow users to download third party wi-fi hotspot programs in order to comply with the ruling. The ruling only forced Verizon to assert that "it no longer objects to the availability of the tethering applications to C-Block network customers”. Which, by allowing users to download such programs, they technically comply with.
2. Release Android operating system updates that are specifically customized to prevent third party wi-fi apps from actually enabling a wi-fi hotspot on the phone. These apps can be installed and run by the users, but they don't do anything.
3. Continue to charge a monthly fee for enabling the wi-fi hotspot functionality that is integrated into the Android OS, offering users a single alternative: upgrade to a [more expensive] plan that includes the hotspot function.

The only recourse for the customer: root the phone and replace the operating system, which voids any warranty the customer may have had.

Verizon doesn't have much to lose. The settlement resulted in a fine that amounted to a mere slap on the wrist. $1.25M is almost certainly less than the amount that they make annually from users duped into paying the extra fee. Any future ruling represents an insignificant risk, well worth flaunting for the ability to continue to fleece customers out of another $20 a month for data that they already pay for.

LMT#2 - Fixing Xbox 360 Controller Input in Steam For Linux

Linux Mint Tips #2: Fixing Xbox 360 Controller Input in Steam For Linux

Linux Mint Tips series is a list of tricks I've picked up after having switched away from Windows for good in 2013, after dabbling for years. I'll do my best to go back and edit posts that contain any erroneous information, but keep in mind that I'm a relative newcomer to the Linux scene. I wrote this tutorial running the MATE desktop environment in Mint 16.

I ran into trouble in Steam for Linux getting my controller working. Though its a cheapo Gamestop knockoff, it is Xbox 360 compatible, which should mean it'll work on just about any PC these days no matter what OS its running. One of the benefits of the long life of the last console generation has been the driver support for these ubiquitous controllers; I wouldn't be surprised if there were an Xbox 360 controller driver for OS/2 Warp at this point. I figured it would work straight out of the box in Mint 16, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Even though the controller was clearly powered up, Steam games didn't recognize it and even the Steam controller configurator widget couldn't fix the issue.

The good news is that it only took a short bit of research to fix the issue. Here's the steps I ended up taking to fix it.

• Open Software Manager.
• You'll need to enter the password for your elevated/Admin account.
• Search for jstest-gtk.
• It should be the top item, with the subtitle "Joystick testing and configuration tool".
• Double click on that item.
• Click on the install button.
• When it finishes, close out of software manager.
• Open a terminal window.
• Type jstest-gtk and hit enter.
• This will bring up the configuration tool. Your Xbox 360 compatible controller should already be listed.
• Click the properties button.
• You can now test the various inputs, thumbsticks, buttons and so forth.
• If you find that some of the inputs aren't mapping properly, click the Mapping button. Here you can drag items around and watch for the effects in the properties window.
• Once you've gotten everything lined up, you can save the profile in the properties dialog using the button next to the dropdown box in the upper section.

Now for the Steam portion.

• First, open Steam and change to Big Picture mode. You can select this option by right clicking on the Steam notification icon or by clicking the Big Picture option in Steam in the upper right side in just about any Steam screen.
• Once Big Picture mode starts, click on Settings in the top right (the gear icon).
• Click on the Controller option.
• Click the Edit Controls button.
• You should now be taken through a first time setup tutorial. Follow the prompts and push the correct button/input at the correct time.
• When finished use the Save option.
• It will ask you to upload, but you can decline to upload it and just save it locally.

You're now finished, your gamepad should work in Steam games now!

Hopefully this helps somebody out there. Happy gaming.

LMT#1 - Using Driver Manager To Update Nvidia Driver

Linux Mint Tips #1: Using Driver Manager To Update Your Nvidia Driver

This is the first in a series of posts I'll be making about my journey switching over to Linux Mint from Windows. As I pick up tips and tricks, be they sublime or mundane, I'll be posting them here. I'll do my best to go back and edit posts that contain any erroneous information, but just beware that even though I've been tinkering with Linux off and on for years, this is my first serious foray into completely abandoning Windows. As such, there are a number of items in this series that are things that I'm doing in Linux for the first time, such as games, TV tuning, and more.

I wrote this tutorial running the MATE desktop environment in Mint 16.

As this new machine that I built is going to be primarily used for games, the first thing I wanted to find out was how to update my driver to the latest version manually. Though I haven't figured that out yet, what I have figured out how to do is install a newer version than what comes bundled in Mint by default.

Note: This fix resolves the problem with Steam for Linux where it reports that "OpenGL GLX context is not using direct rendering, which may cause performance problems".

Here's how to use Driver Manager:
Click on Menu, and type driver manager in the search box, then hit enter.
    or
Click on Menu, click on Control Center, scroll down to the Other section, click on Driver Manager.

Once you've provided your password, Driver Manager will start. Click on the radio button next to the recommended driver and then click the Apply Changes button.

Driver Manager in action on Mint 16

After it completes installing, click the x to close.

That's it. Kudos to the Linux Mint folks for making this a painless process.