Linux

Broken Linux :(

My main machine was (is now a MacBook Pro) an IBM T43 Thinkpad running Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). It has a Pentium M 2.0 Ghz, 1.5G Ram, 80G hdd, bluetooth, Atheros AR5212 ABG wireless card and a ATI X300 graphics card. I have a 15G root (/) partition and a 65G /home partition.

I had no problems getting things running. Admittedly, the wireless is still a little flaky, but it's much better then Fiesty. The graphics card is well supported with the xorg ATI drivers, though the radeon drivers don't work at all. I suppose this is due to ATI's recent release of some documentation(?).

Xorg.conf

The only thing I had to play with after installation was my Xorg.conf file where I had to enable middle key scrolling on my nub thingy

After some requests here is the section of my xorg.conf file I edited

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "YAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "EmulateWheel" "on"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"
EndSection

OpenCV

If you install the .debs from the repositories, the files are in

/usr/share/doc/opencv-doc

In particular, the examples are in

/usr/share/doc/opencv-doc/examples/c

and the Haar cascades are in

/usr/share/opencv/haarcascades

To try the face detection

./facedetect --cascade="$DIR/haarcascades/haarcascade_frontalface_alt.xml" face.jpg

To compile

./build_all.sh

LTSpice

Install Wine (from the repos), download LTSpice, install it with

wine swcadiii.exe

If you want, you can create a menu item with a shortcut which runs the following

env WINEPREFIX="/home/andy/.wine" wine "C:\\Program Files\\LTC\\SwCADIII\\scad3.exe"

Xilinx Webpack ISE

This installed with no problems. However, it takes a bit to figure out where the core program is. It is in /usr/local/bin/xilinx/bin/ise. Also, it is a bit large at 5+ gigs. There is a ~1.5 gig hidden .backup file which you can safely delete. Most of that space is taken up by Xilinx cores and IP. I have not deleted any of those yet, but I imagine you can safely delete those too (tell me how it goes).

Compiz Fusion Problems

I run Compiz Fusion. Honestly, I think it improves my productivity. I use some of its features (expose, the cube) all the time, and frankly don't think I could live without them. But running sweet eye candy, tends to break things. Below are some fixes and workarounds I have found.

Matlab

After following the directions to install Matlab, you notice that when you start it (the desktop mode) you get blank screens. There is a simple fix. Before, you used to have to patch Java. That was a not fun 4 hr exercise.

The problem lies in the Java AWT toolkit Matlab uses. If you set the AWT toolkit to MToolkit, you have no problems. What I did was create a script called matlab_compiz containing the following

#!/bin/sh
export AWT_TOOLKIT="MToolkit"
matlab -desktop
exit 0

Then I made a soft link in /usr/local/bin and create a shortcut in the applications menu to matlab_compiz. Everything works!

Eagle CAD

Similar to Matlab, there is a problem with the windowing toolkit Eagle uses. The text becomes transparent. A similar solution exists, make a script called eagle_compiz with the following

#!/bin/sh
export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1
eagle
exit 0

Then I made a soft link in /usr/local/bin and create a shortcut in the applications menu to eagle_compiz. Everything works!