Blog of Lennart Hansen

Install Poker Clients On Linux

2010-02-23T18:29:00.009Z

Getting various poker client to work on Linux can be troublesome and I was myself struggling with it for a while, even had windows running in Vmware player for a while so I could play on some of the more popular sites which was crashing when running in Linux and wine, like Paddy Power Poker and Mansion Poker, but not anymore.

This post will describe how you install these poker clients on Linux.

Recently I created a couple of PlayOnLinux script to install the 3 poker client I use myself, so I can play natively in Linux without the need for windows, the 3 poker rooms are

Paddy Power Poker

Mansion Poker

PKR - Let's play

PlayOnLinux uses wine to run Windows Applications on Linux but has the capability to easily create individual prefix sets in which you can install each application.

Here is the instructions you need to install these client on Linux.

First you need to download and install PlayOnLinux, follow this link and select your Linux distribution for further instructions.

Secondly,

Start PlayOnLinux, click Install.

to go to Games and search for Poker.

Select desired poker software and click Apply and follow the guide on the screen to install.

You'll have the choice to install some other Poker Client as well like Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars, those scripts is not something I've contributed to but should be working as well.

Enjoy and good luck at the tables.

Best firefox experience

2009-03-31T01:01:00.004+01:00

I want to highlight some of the best Firefox plugins out there, that have made my experience with the web and facebook.com more pleasant :)

First up is URL Link, this add-on make it possible to mark any url within firefox, right click on it and open it in a new window or tab, really worth having.

Get it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/403

Try it here: http://lhansen.blogspot.com :)

Second up is, GMail Checker, which is a light add on to keep an eye on your inbox and other "folder" you may have and wish to monitor.

Get it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3179

Next up is Download Statusbar, which is a plugin that removed that anoying download window, that pop-up every time you download a file. Instead it will show your files download status in the button of the screen in a small tab like bar. I really love this one.

Get it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/26

The next one I'm going to write about is Greasemonkey, which enabled allot of other "plugins" in form of Java scripts, that can be used to improve your web experience by adding or removing features from websites.

Get Greasemonkey here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748

Hate ads in Gmail? I do!
This Greasemonkey script removed those ads : http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/43019

Like Youtube, and like the videos so much you wish you could download them?
Check out this script here: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/39788
it will allow you to download all youtube videos in MP4 , MP4 HD, HD, Flv or 3gp format streight down to your mobile :D Sweet, aint it!

Last but not least, here is a script to remove those damn app and tests your friends take on facebook, this script is called "Facebook - External Apps Blocker" and can be download right here: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/44490

Thanks for reading, that was my little contribution to your enhances web experience.

Enjoy.

3D Desktop (Compiz Fusion) on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS

2008-04-08T21:56:00.027+01:00

This is tested on the latest daily snapshot of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron.

This is a follow-up on my guide for Ubuntu Edgy guide.

I still receive responses on my older guide from people with problems getting this cool desktop feature to work, I hope that with this guide I can show people just how simple and user friendly Ubuntu Linux have become throughout time, and also to encourage other people to follow the same line when writing documentation for the novice user.

Enjoy.

First things first, my system specs.

My system specs.

Laptop is Dell D610
1GB of RAM
CPU is Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.86GHz
Graphic card is ATI Technologies Inc M22 [Radeon Mobility M300]

The Installation.

The graphic card driver:

In this first part of the installation we will be installing the proprietary driver for graphic card in order to gain maximum performance from the system.

You might not have the same graphic card as me, but the steps should be similar to yours even if the graphic card is different, but note that not all graphic cards have a proprietary driver available or might not be necessary at all.

First start the program that controls the hardware drivers as shown in the picture below.

If you are asked to enter your password then you have to do so.

The main windows should look similar to this.

Check the "Enabled" box to install.

If you see the following confirmation box appear chose "Enable" to continue.

And now watch the driver install onto your system.

When finished click "close" to continue.

And reboot your system when asked, to complete the installation of your graphic card driver.

Setting up 3D Desktop:

Now the time has come to prepare the system, by this we will need to enable Compiz, it comes installed with Ubuntu by default.

First start the "Appearance" Application as shown below.

If you are asked to enter your password you need to do so

When it's started, select the "Virtual Effects" tab and then select "Extra", and "Close" then application.

If it ask you to confirm and you can see what is on the screen, press "Keep settings".

Now you need to install one applications to help you configure your 3D desktop, to do so start the "Add / Remove Applications" program an show here.

Here you need to do several things.

1. Under "Show" select "All available applications"
2. Under "Search" write in "compiz"
3. Tick "Advanced Desktop Effects Settings"

"If it asks you to enable comunity maintained software, choose to do so"
4. Click "Apply" to apply the changes and watch the software install on your computer.

When the application is installed click "Close" to continue.

Now that we have installed the application, we can start configuring our desktop, start the "Advanced Desktop Effects Settings" application to configue the 3D desktop.

When the application have started, the first 2 plugins we will enable is "Desktop Cube" and "Rotate Cube" to test it works, tick the checkbox on both, as shown in the picture.

It might come up with a warning of conflicting plugins, click "Disable" to continue.

To test your rotating "cube" press and hold down
"Alt + Ctrl + Left-Mouse-Button + Move Mouse"

Most likely you will only have 2 sides by now.

This can be changed in "Advanced Desktop Effects Settings" under "General Options" and tab "Desktop size", change "Horizontal Virtual Size" as shown here.

Now you should have a full rotating cube, test it with the commands shown above.

I wont be going into more details of the configuration of your desktop, but will let you play with it yourself, basically don't be afraid to look at all the plugin's and test them out, if you click on then you can find help see how they are activated and change them to your own preferences.

After at little bit of playing around you can easily get a cool looking desktop.

Thats it for this guide, tutorial etc.

Hope you enjoyed it and it worked out great for you.

Comments and suggestions are most welcome.

-Lennart

Evolution - "Timed out trying to get lock file"

2008-02-19T12:25:00.000Z

Here is how I solved this problem.

So this morning I got this error on my Evolution mail, the first thing I tried was to restart evolution as this normally would solve a lock problem, but in this case it didn't work, evolution kept complaining about the lock and I was unable to access one of my mail folders while the other ones worked.

Then as I normally would do I searched google in hope someone else have had a similar problem and found a solution on this, but was not able to find any answers that solved this problem only suggestions, but none of them worked.

I gave up on google and looked in the .evolution directory starting with

$ find ~/.evolution/ -name *.lock

and found a .lock file on the folder i was unable to access.

So I shutdown evolution.

$ evolution --force-shutdown

and removed the .lock file.

$ mv ~/.evolution/.lock ~/Desktop

and started up evolution again, then did no longer get the error message and my folder was yet again accessible.

This solved it for me.

Convert AVI to 3gp with ffmpeg

2008-01-09T23:26:00.000Z

Been playing around with this for a while and found several examples online none of which worked for me in first try, got it working with the following command.

ffmpeg -i [input.avi] -acodec libamr_nb -s 176x144 -ar 8000 -b 120000 -vcodec h263 -ab 10.2k -ac 1 [output.3gp]

Enjoy,

Disabling Gnome screensaver thru the terminal

2007-08-23T21:00:00.000+01:00

Today, I had a interesting problem where I needed to disable the Gnome Screensaver remotely via the terminal.

Normally it's a trivial task to disable a screensaver via the graphical interface but I never had to do this remotely.

However, I figured I needed to use the gconftool-2 Gnome configuration editor tool, and found this thread that lead me in the right direction.

With this command you can see the current status of Gnome Screensaver.

gconftool-2 --get /apps/gnome-screensaver/idle_activation_enabled

- false means screensaver is disabled
- true means screensaver is enabled.

Change the configuration with this command

gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/gnome-screensaver/idle_activation_enabled "option"

Insert your options as shown, and again

- false means screensaver is disabled
- true means screensaver is enabled.

The firefox extensions I use

2007-04-20T19:33:00.000+01:00

Here is a list of Firefox extensions I use and find essential for a decent browser experience.

Google Browser Sync

With this extension you save your bookmarks and more if you have a Google account, quite handy if you need to use the same bookmarks at work and at home, without using the same computer.

NoScript

Use this to block Java scripts.

Adblock Plus

Is IMHO the best Add blocker out there.

Fasterfox

For faster internet surfing.

Riot in Copenhagen

2007-03-13T22:58:00.001Z

The short story is, government sold a youth house to a Christian union, and they wanted the house teared down.

This is what happened. 3 Days of Rioting...

Welcome to DK ano 2007.

AI vs. Humans

2007-02-20T12:09:00.000Z

Here... I read Google to rule the Earth,
and it states Google are trying to develop AI.

Hmm.. quite interesting is my first thoughts, would be cool having a thinking machine standing there 24/7 that never gets tired.. as in sleepy.

But what it it gets tired of doing work for us?
What if it's capable of lying?
What if we give it the power to build machines? What will it do?
What if it take over the factories and there computers, and develop new software, develop new hardware e.g. robots..?

Are we fucked then? I think so...

I just hope, if the times comes, that "they" don't care much about us (humans) as we are far less intelligent and weak, and leave us alone to our pitiful existence as it knows we wont survive for long anyway...

Scary thoughts...

2007-01-21T20:48:00.000Z

Human Sling shot

Woah! This would be soo nice to have at home :-)

2006-12-26T18:33:00.000Z

Love

Christmas time is all about love isn't it? Anyway, found this clip, and just had to blog it up here, so cute :-)

Enjoy

The Hole - video powered by Metacafe

2006-12-20T16:39:00.000Z

Command like fu

Got this one of a mate at work, enjoy ;-)

Original article is here: http://xkcd.com/c196.html

2006-11-28T03:15:00.000Z

The Free Ryzom Campaign

The company Nevrax which makes this MMORPG has declared bankruptcy and some fans and Open Source supporters are trying to go in the footsteps of Blender and collecting enough $CASH to buy the intellectual property for this cool game and re-release this game under a Free License.

I'm no gamer, but defiantly think it's worth to support a project like this.

Read more here.

Watch a trailer from the game here:

2006-11-24T10:23:00.000Z

2 people dies in a carcrash caused by hitchhiker ghost.

Do you believe in ghosts, I don't really, but this video is a bit creepy, it might just be a fake I'm not sure, but scary it is...

2006-11-21T06:59:00.000Z

Shaping the News
The Manipulation of reality

I'll let the film speak for it self.

3D Desktop (Beryl and Xgl) on Ubuntu Edgy Eft with ATI card

2006-10-25T11:30:00.001+01:00

UPDATE 08/04 - 08:
New Guide for Ubuntu 8.04 -> Here

UPDATE 21/2 - 07:
Added walkthrough video of this tutorial.

UPDATE 12/2 - 07:
Added a few troubleshooting advice.
Added more information on how to install packages via Synaptic.

UPDATE 2/2 - 07:
Updated link for the repository's authorization key

UPDATE 26/12 - 06:
Updated Xorg.conf section a bit to make it more clear for novice users.

UPDATE 19/12 - 06:
Package authorization key updated.
SVN Repositories added for the latest cutting edge version of Beryl.

This is a follow-up on my guide for Installing Beryl and Xgl on Dapper.

This is tested on the latest daily snapshot of Edgy.

My goal with this guide is to make it as easy as possible for everyone to install a 3D Desktop on Ubuntu Linux (Edgy Eft) with Beryl and Xgl, there will be no use of the terminal in this guide so everyone should be able to follow this guide and install a 3D Desktop on there very own and brand new installation of Ubuntu Edgy Eft.

Here is a video where I go through this guide, so if in doubt check out the video for help -> Video Here

First be first my system specs.

My system specs.

Laptop is Dell D610
1GB of RAM
CPU is Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.86GHz
Graphic card is ATI Technologies Inc M22 [Radeon Mobility M300]

This is really the only relevant info for this guide.

The installation..

The first thing we should do is to add the needed repositories to your
Ubuntu installation, this is done by starting
System -> Administration -> Software Sources from the menu

At this time you will properly be asked to provide a password to continue, do so.

Now click on the Third Party tab and click
the Add button.

Copy the following info and click Add Sources.

deb http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org edgy main

and click Add Source.

Now we need to download and install the key used to verify the packages we are going to install are genuine, right click on this link and select Save Link As...
to save the key file needed.

Save the file on your computer, but remember where, I save it on my Desktop.

Then select the Authentication tab from the Software Sources program and click the Import Key File button to import the file.

Browse to the root@lupine.me.uk.gpg file, select it and
press OK to import.

Click Close to exit.

NOTE:
If you want the latest cutting edge SVN version of Beryl you can use these repositories.

deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb edgy beryl-svn
deb-src http://download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb edgy beryl-svn

And this key for authorization.

I've been using these packages my self for a while now, and they haven't been more unstable then the first mentioned version.

Now a dialog should ask you to reload your repositories, click Reload.

If you see this notification when the reload is completed you should update your system before continuing...

Next we need to install Beryl, Xgl and our ATI drivers.
For this we will use Synaptic which is a graphical front-end to our package management system.
Start Synaptic from the menu
System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager.

Now we need to find and install 4 key packages xserver-xgl, emerald-themes, beryl and xorg-driver-fglrx, the easiest way to do this is by searching and selecting as show on the pictures.

When found, "Mark" them for installation, and continue with the next one.

Then click Apply to install the selected packages, and a Summary screen should appear where you have to click Apply once again, do this to continue the installation.

When this is done we need to make sure the new installed ATI driver is going to be used, this is done by editing our Xorg config file.

For this we use our default text editor, press Alt+F2 and type

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

If it asks for password, then provide your password as prompted.
Now we need to find all lines containing either

Driver "ati"
or
Driver "radeon"
or
Driver "vesa"

and replace it with

Driver "fglrx"

I recommend you use the Replace function in the text editor from the top bar.

But make sure it is corrected, otherwise it wont work.
Usually it will be in a section similar to this

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. M22 [Radeon Mobility M300]"
Driver "fglrx"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

The next thing we need to do is disable Composite in your configuration file, this is done by adding these lines to the configuration file.

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "false"
EndSection

I added this section just after my module section, in my config its on line 42. But it really doesn't matter where this is added, as long it's in there, and not inside another section.

Now save the file and exit the text editor.

Next we need to create 2 new files in order to be able to run Xgl, for this we will again use gedit.

1. File - press Alt+F2 and run

gksudo gedit /usr/bin/startxgl

Copy this contents into the file, save the document and exit the text editor.

#!/bin/sh
Xgl :1 -fullscreen -ac -accel xv:pbuffer -accel glx:pbuffer &
sleep 4
DISPLAY=:1
cookie="$(xauth -i nextract - :0 | cut -d ' ' -f 9)"
xauth -i add :1 . "$cookie"
exec dbus-launch --exit-with-session gnome-session

Now press Alt+F2 again and type

gksudo nautilus /usr/bin

and click Run

Find the file startxgl which we just created, this can be done by just writing startxgl.

Now right click on the file and select Properties and

select the Permissions tab, and in the bottom there, check the box "Allow executing file as a program" and
then click Close.

2. File - again press Alt+F2 and run

gksudo gedit /usr/share/xsessions/xgl.desktop

And copy the following contens into this file.

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Xgl
Comment=Start an Xgl Session
Exec=/usr/bin/startxgl
Icon=
Type=Application

Save the document and exit the text editor.

Now we are almost finished and ready to startup our awesome new cutting edge 3D Desktop.

The last changes we need is to get beryl to start up when logging in, this is done from the menu System -> Preferences -> Sessions under the tab Startup Programs we need to add the following entry

beryl-manager

Click OK and then Close the sessions properties.

So now it's time to reboot and start playing with your new desktop environment.

When you come to the login screen you will have to go down in the left corner and click sessions and select Xgl from the list and click Change Session.

Now you can login and try out Xgl and Beryl.

By now you should see a fancy wobbely splash for Beryl, when it starts, and all the Beryl effects should be avaiable for you to use..

You should also see a gem in the system tray, from which you can change your Beryl setting and your Emerald themes, I suggest you look at it.

Some default Beryl and XGL keys are

Ctrl + Alt + Left/right arrow key - Switch cube side.
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Left/Right arrow key- Same but moves the window in fucus to with.
Ctrl + Alt + Hold Left Mouse Button - Rotate the cube in free view ( Nice effect :-D )
Alt + Tab - Switch between tasks
Ctrl + Alt + Tab - Switch between tasks on all cube sides.
Super (Windows Key) + Right Mouse button or Wheel Buttom - Will enable Zoom

All this can be changed from the Beryl Setting.

Hope you liked this guide and found it useful.

My Friends new desktop - Nice to see another xp installation disappear.

Enjoy.

Thanks to the guys at beryl-project.org and Ubuntu.com

Some Trouble Shooting advice:

1. Make sure you do indeed have an ATI card!
Either open a terminal from Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal
and type "lspci" and examine the output.

Or open System -> Administration -> Device Manager and examine the devices to find your ATI Graphic Card.

2. Check list of supported ATI cards -> http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

3. When I Start My Computer I Get Text Instead of a Graphical Interface
If this is the case, follow this section from the Ubuntu Book and then start from scratch with the guide and check everything is alright and exactly as written.

4. Check if OpenGL is enabled.
Start a Terminal from Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal.
Type in "fglrxinfo" on the command line, you should see a similar output to this if your graphic card is supported and working.

lennart@lennart-laptop:~$ fglrxinfo
Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":1.0".
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: MOBILITY RADEON X300 Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.6011 (8.28.8)

If this is the case, and your using the "stable" version of beryl I suggest you try and use the SVN repositories instead, and see if that will work for you.

5. If Everything seems to work fine but Beryl is not running check that Beryl is selected as default Window Manager as shown on the picture here.

Right click on the Beryl Icon and check it like this

2006-10-24T14:42:00.000+01:00

Who said Footballers weren't intelligent!

Got this on mail, and though it was fun enough to share here on my blog.

My parents have always been there for me, ever since I was about 7.
David Beckham

I would not be bothered if we lost every game as long as we won the
league.

Mark Viduka

Alex Ferguson is the best manager I've ever had at this level. Well,
he's the only manager I've actually had at this level. But he's the best
manager I've ever had.

David Beckham

If you don't believe you can win, there is no point in getting out of
bed at the end of the day.

Neville Southall

I've had 14 bookings this season - 8 of which were my fault, but 7 of
which were disputable.

Paul Gascoigne

I've never wanted to leave. I'm here for the rest of my life, and
hopefully after that as well.

Alan Shearer

I'd like to play for an Italian club, like Barcelona.
Mark Draper

You've got to believe that you're going to win, and I believe we'll win
the World Cup until the final whistle blows and we're knocked out.

Peter Shilton

I faxed a transfer request to the club at the beginning of the week,
but let me state that I don't want to leave Leicester.

Stan Collymore

I was watching the Blackburn game on TV on Sunday when it flashed on
the screen that George (Ndah) had scored in the first minute at Birmingham.
My first reaction was to ring him up. Then I remembered he was out there
playing.

Ade Akinbiyi

Without being too harsh on David Beckham, he cost us the match.
Ian Wright

I'm as happy as I can be - but I have been happier.
Ugo Ehiogu

Leeds is a great club and it's been my home for years, even though I live
in Middlesborough.

Jonathan Woodgate

I can see the carrot at the end of the tunnel.
Stuart Pearce

I took a whack on my left ankle, but something told me it was my
right.

Lee Hendrie

I couldn't settle in Italy - it was like living in a foreign country.
Ian Rush

Germany are a very difficult team to play...they had 11 internationals
out there today.

Steve Lomas

I always used to put my right boot on first, and then obviously my
right sock.

Barry Venison

I definitely want Brooklyn to be christened, but I don't know into what
religion yet.

David Beckham

The Brazilians were South American, and the Ukrainians will be more
European.

Phil Neville

All that remains is for a few dots and commas to be crossed.
Mitchell Thomas

One accusation you can't throw at me is that I've always done my best.
Alan Shearer

I'd rather play in front of a full house than an empty crowd.
Johnny Giles

Sometimes in football you have to score goals.
Thierry Henry

2006-10-13T10:00:00.000+01:00

More great music for free

Today I was looking around http://www11.nrk.no/urort/ to see if I could find some new tunes, it did't take me long before I stumbled across Anja, her music is a bit special, but I like it, enough to post about it here anyway ;-)

Mua - Grow without you

2006-10-12T23:58:00.001+01:00

UPDATE: 14/04 - 2008:
Seems the the song have been removed from the link below, but I found it on youtube including a clip from the video. Enjoy,

6 months ago a norwegian guy named Thomas, gave me a DVD with BASE jumping called 2. BASE and told me I should watch it, I must say I'm fasinated about BASE jumping but don't think I will ever try it my self, havent done enough sky dives yet.... Actually not a single one, but maybe some time I will try just one sky dive...

Anyway, in this video a guy named Mua has contributed a track, a very good tune if you ask me, and this track is also avaiable online for free.. ( not torrent :-D ), but right here. This is a real artist if you ask me, if you like what you do, why not give it away for free to let other people enjoy it as well?