Thursday, March 29, 2007

Initial install issues.

Cups

get cups running to allow printin from remote machines to attached printer

1) change default line
in /etc/cups/cupsd.conf
to
Listen 631
from local 631 or something
2) allow also from network places.


Mailer

need
steps to set up

exim4
fetchmail
mutt
procmail for filtering the mail
see "email for the single user in debian"

http://www.lativy.org/articles/debian-mutt/

apt-get issues

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
if get errors
apt-get install -f
dpkg --configure -a

if get error about cant overwrite a file

may have to install the fixed package with override of overwrite file thusly:

dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/filename_deb

sound in debian

http://xtronics.com/reference/Debian-sound.html

I use alsa, thus install right kernel source then alsa-base alsa-modules and
run module-assistant select compile alsa
then
alsaconf
speaker-test
alsactl store
then can look at amixer or other gui mixers

then

Nvidia driver

download binary driver from nvidia
look at nvnews.net linux forum for latest drivers and issues
then download chmod 755 and run binary
after you make sure that you have
installed the linux-headers for your linux-image and make sure have a symlink
/usr/src/linux -> /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.18-4_whatever


Monday, March 5, 2007

Debian Recording cassette to mp3 tracks howto

Hi,

I wanted to learn how to record from my tapes and make some mp3 tracks of some music to carry around.

Ok. First how to get the music from my tape player to the computer?

The sound card built in to my Motherboard has 3 jacks. This is standard.
1) speaker out
2) line in
3) microphone in

Now both the speaker out and the line in take the same kind of plug -
a 3.5mm stereo plug.
You can tell that a plug is a stereo plug rather than mono plug
if it has 2 black lines printed on the metal plug!

Where to get one.
I tried RadioShack. I didn't communicate well with the guy at RadioShack.
I then found the part in a small computer parts store.
It was called
Phillips FYC
Audio AV-965
3.5mm stero plug to 3.5mm stereo plug mini audio cable 12ft
Fung Ying Corp
Brooklyn NY 11236
Made in China. It cost me $10.00.

Then I plugged it in to the phono out on my dual cassete stereo cassete player through a
phone to 3.5mm converter.

I then inserted a cassette amd turned on the cassette system and then didn't hear anything through the computer speakers. I tried many things. I fiddled with
kmix and with alsamixer
shoved everything on I could. Nothing worked.
The i tried to create a file using some random commands from googling the internet such as
dd bs=10 /dev/dsp > sample.au (who knows what that does?)
then i tried to listen to that
cat sample.au > /dev/audio or /dev/dsp
I got nowhere.

The i tried
mplayer sample.au
Of course it ignored the stupid file sample.au,
however suddenly glorius music came out of my speakers = sound from the cassete.

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT DID!

Anyway then i wanted to capture the output. Googled uselessly.
Then miracles

SOX!
i did man of sox and discovered "play" and "rec" commands.

Thus
I started the cassette playing then

1) rec cassetee_sidea.wav

recorded a nice side - I stopped it when the side was over.

2) play cassette_sidea.wav
plays it nicely.

Next I will learn how to create a set of mp3s from each side of the cassete.