Ubuntu Update

It has been a while since I have been into Ubuntu. I think the last time I was on was around Memorial Day when the Kernel update caused problems with Fx 2.0.0.3. Today I went back in and updated the Kernel again and went to Fx 2.0.0.4. Fx is running smoothly now.

So my next issue to tackle was the on again/off again sound. Looking through some troubleshooting sites for Ubuntu Sound issues I came across the site: Debugging Sound Problems. Keep in mind my system came with a built-in sound chip on the motherboard but I had added my own SoundBlaster PCI512/Live! Card. I figured out the problem once I read this:

Most sound applications output to card0 by default. In some cases, other audio devices (like a USB MIDI Keyboard) might be recognized as a soundcard and take card0, bumping your real soundcard to card1. cat /proc/asound/cards to see which devices are connected to which cards.

I launched the terminal and ran the ‘cat /proc/asound/cards'
command and here is what I discovered:

Turns out card0 was being detected as the on-board sound chip which was bumping the Live to card1. This left me with one of two options. The first was to find a way to make Ubuntu and/or Amarok playback to card1 by default. I looked at the instructions for Amarok and it seemed very complicated. The second option was to disable the on-board sound chip via the BIOS. That was not too difficult, just took a little hunting in the BIOS to figure out how to disable.

So after a reboot back into Ubuntu I still didn’t have system sounds. I ran the ‘cat /proc/asound/cards' command again and this time only card0 showed up and it showed up as SB Live. I opened the Sound Preferences (via System >> Preferences) and clicked on the ‘Test’ button. I had a test tone! This was a first.

Next I launched Amarok and started playing music. Nada, or so I thought. I could very faintly hear the music (even though the test tone came through at normal volume). I opened the Volume Control and after some fiddling with both the Master and PCM controls as well as adjusting my speakers I had music and test tone at normal volume! Of course now I wonder what is going to happen when I got into Windows next time, if I am going to be blasted by the start-up sound or not hear it.

For my next project I am going to setup Thunderbird in Ubuntu so it will run off my Windows profile. This way, no matter which OS I am using my Thunderbird will always be in sync. See [Linux] Sharing Thunderbird with Windows for details.

Update: Relaunched Windows XP and volume was at a normal level.  Also fixed funky formatting issues occurring throughout this entry.

Fx 3 to Support Native Audio/Video

A new addition to Fx 3 which will add about 100-200 KB to Fx Code will be support (though not yet documented) for the forthcoming <VIDEO> <AUDIO> HTML 5 Tags. However, this currently not in any released (or nightly) Fx 3 builds and further:

Right now and for its first iteration, support will be limited to Theora and Vorbis, a couple of open source video and audio encoding formats respectively, developed by the Xiph.org Foundation, as recommended by the specification but other formats may be supported in the future as well.

News Source: Mozilla Links

Flock 0.7.14 Released

Earlier this week Flock 0.7.14 was released. Nothing really exicting as all the 0.7.14 Flock Maintenance patch does is incorporates Mozilla’s patch (for Fx) 1.5.0.12.

Netscape 9 Beta 1 Released

Back in February, I posted: Netscape 9 Announced. Now, four months later Netscape Navigator Beta 1 has been release. Yes, they have resurrected the Navigator name in this version. Remember, Netscape 9 is built by AOL/Time Warner (not affiliated with Mozilla) off the Mozilla Fx 2 rendering engine (Gecko 1.8). You could almost call Netscape 9 a “power user’s” version of Fx 2. Besides the standard, Session Management, Spell Check, etc. it also has many other standard features which would require extensions in Fx 2:

• Resizeable Textarea – allows you to make a textarea larger or smaller
• URL Correction – fixes common URL typos automagically
• Link Pad – a notepad of sorts where you can drag links to
• Tab History – keeps a separate ‘History’ for each tab
• Sidebar Mini-Browser
• Restart Netscape
• Sitemail Notification
• Throbber -As seen in Netscape 7
• Combined Stop/Reload Buttons – Saves space on the toolbar
• In-Browser Voting
• OPML Support
• News Tracker
• Friend’s Activity Sidebar
• News Menu and Sidebar
• Support for any Fx 2 extension including IE Tab and Tab Mix Plus.

I been hearing lately that Fx is getting ‘bloated’ with all the ’standard features’ Mozilla has been including in the newer builds. There are many folks who would prefer to see Fx the way it was in the ‘old days’ when it was small and compact. However given Mozilla is going to have more competition (Opera includes lots of standard features) now in the ‘Power User’s’ Browser market this is likely not going to change.

News Source: CyberNet News >> CyberNotes: Netscape 9 Beta 1 Debuts

Update: Corrected parent company from Mozilla to AOL/Time Warner.

Fx3a5 Released…Late But with Places!

Mozilla had planned on having Fx 3 Alpha 5 with Places out by May 31st. Well, they missed the May 31st time line by a few days. However, when it was released on June 6th, it did include Places at least for Bookmark management. Ryan at CyberNet News has a nice screenshot here:

Click For Larger Image

Some other new features with the 3.0a5 release:

• Crash Reporting via the new Breakpad
  • Mac OS X & Some Windows builds (not yet on Linux)
• New Javascript-based Password Manager
  • More details here.
• Support for Growl notification under Mac OS X
• Support for native controls on Mac OS X
• Miscellaneous Gecko 1.9 bug fixes

Expect so see more UI (user interface) changes with Places coming with the Alpha 6 release scheduled for on/around June 29th.

News Source: CyberNet News >> Firefox 3 Alpha 5 Released…with Places

Major Update Now on ‘Beta’ Channel

For those of you using Fx 1.5.0.12 and are on the Beta (update) Channel, you should be offered the major update to Fx 2.0.0.4 soon (if you haven’t already). Here is a nice screenshot compliments of Ryan at CyberNet News on what the Major Update will look like:

• If a user selects “Later”, they will be prompted again in approximately 24 hours.
• If a user selects “Never”, they are opting to skip this offer to upgrade and will not be prompted again for this particular release (2.0.0.4). If Mozilla decides to offer a 1.5.0.12 to 2.0.0.5 major upgrade, the user will be prompted again with that new offer.
• If a user selects “Get the new version”, they will be asked to accept the revised End User License Agreement (EULA) for Firefox 2 in order to proceed with the upgrade. The major update will then be downloaded and the browser restarted with Firefox 2.0.0.4 as the current version.

Again this is currently available to user of Fx 1.5.0.12 who are on the ‘Beta’ (update) Channel.  If you want to change your Update Channel, you will need to do it with the Update Channel Selector extension.  WARNING: DO NOT attempt to change the app.update.channel setting via about:config . Doing so could cause updates not to work.

News Source: CyberNet News >>Firefox 1.5 to 2.0 Upgrades to Start Rolling Out Today