ALBA DVD62XI DVD Region Hack

The ALBA DVD62XI dvd player is not multiregional out of the box, but there is a simple set of instructions to make it that way.

1. Turn on your TV and DVD player.
2. Press the Open/Close button on the remote control.
3. Using your remote control, key in the following numbers from the keypad: 3, 3, 0, 8, 8 one after the other,
4. Then immediately press the 10/0 button on the remote control to set the region to 0 which is the multiregional setting.
5. Pres the Open/Close button on the remote control.

Your player should now be multiregional... try a few DVDs and you'll see its all set up!

Dansai DVD-852 Region hack

To get the Dansai DVD-852 to play multi region DVD's:

Press set up.
Press stop on front panel of player.
Press rewind on front panel of player.
Press fast forward on front panel of player.

Change Factory settings:
Go to region ID.
Down to bypass.
Press play.
Press set up.

The macrovision can also be turned off or on the factory settings page, but the default is off.

OpenOffice UK Spell Checker

To enable the UK spell checker in OpenOffice download the "myspell-en-gb" package using synaptic or apt-get. In OpenOffice hit F11, right click on default, and choose modify. The UK option should now have a blue tick next to it. Choose and hit OK.

CPU Running at 100 Percent

Another problem with running Compiz and Firefox appears to be full on CPU usage (100 percent). Check first to see where the problem lies by typing into a console:

top

This lists the processes in order of greediness. Usually, to solve the problem all you need do is either restart Firefox or turn off Compiz.

Embedded Audio in Linux (Realplayer)

Realplayer for Linux is a bit duff, and is prone to stutters, freezes and crashes. Better to use the Totem media codecs. To get Totem to handle your embedded audio, download the "mediaplayerconnectivity" add-on from Mozilla, and choose your applications manually.

Firefox Covers Task Bar and Shut Down Bar Missing

There seems to be a problem running Compiz and Firefox together. At times, when expanding Firefox to fullscreen, it will expand beyond the taskbar, and the shut down/minimize bar will also appear too high up, effectively off the top of the screen, making it impossible to shut down Firefox by the usual method.

Whatever the problem is, once it's happened, it saves to the Firefox settings file, meaning the setting effectively sticks.

To remedy the problem either (a) turn off Compiz, or (b) type the following into a console:

mv ~/.mozilla ~/.mozillaold

This will rename your Firefox settings file. You will lose all of your extensions using this method, and any themes you may be using, so a re-install of them will be necessary.

Install Flash and Java Plugins - 32 Bit

To get Flash and Java working, either download flashplugin-nonfree, sun-java6-jre and sun-java-plugin through Synaptic and then restert Firefox.

Or:

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin

If you need to choose between older Java installations, then type:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

...and follow the onscreen prompt.

Increase Amount of Workspaces in Compiz

System>Preferences>Compiz Config Settings Manager>General>General Options.

Desktop Size>Horizontal Virtual Size>**Change Number To Suit**

Nautilus Open Terminal Option

To enable the open terminal option in Nautilus simply download the "nautilus-open-terminal" package through synaptic.

LCD Monitor Settings (Ubuntu 8.10)

For some reason, the latest release of Ubuntu omits the gksudo displayconfig-gtk package, making it difficult to choose a monitor type. To remedy simply install proprietary drivers as per usual and edit:


/etc/X11/xorg.conf

to reflect the following changes:


Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
Vendorname "Generic LCD Display"
Modelname "LCD Panel 1280x1024"
Horizsync 31.5-64.0
Vertrefresh 56.0 - 65.0
modeline "640x480@60" 25.2 640 656 752 800 480 490 492 525 -vsync -hsync
modeline "800x600@56" 36.0 800 824 896 1024 600 601 603 625 +hsync +vsync
modeline "800x600@60" 40.0 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +hsync +vsync
modeline "1024x768@60" 65.0 1024 1048 1184 1344 768 771 777 806 -vsync -hsync
modeline "1280x960@60" 102.1 1280 1360 1496 1712 960 961 964 994 -hsync +vsync
modeline "1280x1024@60" 108.0 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
Gamma 1.0
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
Defaultdepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Virtual 1280 1024
Modes "1280x1024@60" "1280x960@60" "1024x768@60" "800x600@60" "800x600@56" "640x480@60"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Free Proxy Addresses

CoDeeN:

HTTP Proxy: 129.24.211.25
Port: 3124

HTTP Proxy: 133.1.16.172
Port: 3128

Des Moines:

HTTP Proxy: 208.69.147.43
Port: 80

Apnic: China

HTTP Proxy: 221.11.27.110
Port: 8080

Bellnexia :Canada

HTTP Proxy: 67.69.254.245
Port: 80

Automounting NTFS Partitions (Ubuntu)

To find out the UUID of a particular partition type in:

sudo blkid | grep sdb1

Remember to change the sbd1 part to whichever partition you want the UUID number of. Then set yourself a mount point in /media:

sudo mkdir /media/sdb1

Again, sdb1 can be whatever you want it to be, as long as it matches your fstab entry. Then backup and edit fstab:

cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak
gksu gedit /etc/fstab

Add this line - insert UUID and change /media/sda1 to whatever your mount point is. GID 100 is group users, 46=plugdev, 1000 is normally your group:

UUID=enterUUIDnumberhere /media/sdb1 ntfs-3g uid=1000,gid=100,umask=022 0 0

Remount /dev/sdb1, if it's already mounted:

sudo umount /dev/sdb1
sudo mount /dev/sdb1

Add yourself as a user in Virtual Box

Via command line:


sudo adduser $USER vboxusers

Via GUI:

System>Administration>Users and Groups

Hit "unlock" and then "manage groups". Add yourself as a user to "vboxusers" by clicking on "properties" and ticking next to your name. Hit OK.