Some flash websites (e.g. YouTube, DailyMotion) work with a video player
plugin (e.g. Totem, MPlayer) using the Greasemonkey script Linterna Mágica
and a supported browser (Mozilla based. Midori, Epiphany) :
http://linterna-magica.nongnu.org/
For example, if you wish to use the Totem plugin
Trisquel mini ships with GNOME MPlayer and Midori instead of Totem and
Abrowser (Mozilla browser) respectively, so one of the two packages midori
andtotem-mozilla isn't installed by default in Trisquel and Trisquel mini.
Also, installing an an already installed package doesn't cause any harm
YouTube no longer works with Linterna Mágica on latest Midori (in Parabola).
This happened a few days ago. Other sites, e.g. Dailymotion, still work fine.
HTML5 works pretty well now in Midori for supported YouTube videos. YouTube
doesn't work in latest Epiphany/Web either in Parabola (and
I took a look at the site and have a few suggestions/questions:
1. Every large OEM has a recommends Windows 7 logo (so they can get a
discount from Microsfot presumably as they aren't selling any other common
operating systems). Why not make a similar logo for Trisquel at least for
those
Also, aside from free software drivers, it would be nice to buy a printer
that can use recycled cartridges for environmental and price reasons (they
are much cheaper than original ones).
Another thing that could easily be added regarding hardware is the exact
lspci -nnk/lsusb output and which software the hardware was tested with (e.g.
webcamera works with Cheese, printer works with Simple Scan etc) and simple
instructions on how to get it to work if it doesn't work out of
I'm thinking more along the lines of what a Windows user gets when buying
hardware: a nice booklet which explains how to set up the software and
install the drivers. Some hardware just works under GNU/Linux such as USB
wireless adapters (provided you have networkmanager or similar software
Chris thanks for your replies.
The thing I liked with Openmoko was that before buying their phone I knew
exactly what I was getting as there is a very detailed community driven wiki
explaining how to perform common tasks.
Most computer websites seem to make the mistake of giving lots of
On one hand you say providing IDs will encourage people to buy elsewhere, but
then you say that if they do so they will likely get the wrong chip in which
case they will probably buy from you in the end anyway :)
Anyway, providing as much info (including chipset IDs) makes comparing
I'm guessing:
FAT32 patents. Most Android devices use this partition format (at least for
microSD cards) so they must pay Microsoft patent royalties or use an open
format instead such as ext2 and supply drivers for Windows and Mac which they
probably won't do as it won't work out of the
Lyx is very user friendly, but bear in mind that it creates files using its
own open format which unfortunately isn't backward compatible (i.e. might not
work on older version of Lyx) - of course you can always export to .tex to
use with a different editor . Gummi shows a preview of the text
There might be another reason for all these patent deals. Microsoft probably
offers their products at a reduced price (and advertising money to sell these
products if they are part of a laptop or a cellphone) in return for these
patent deals just like they give OEMs a cheaper price for
To decode 720P via GPU using Intel graphics you need to use (for example)
MPlayer with Video Acceleration API (VAAPI) as the output driver. If the
version of Mplayer shipped in Trisquel isn't compiled with VAAPI support you
will need to compile a version of MPlayer yourself (in Parabola the
It seems that the need for flash replacements is disappearing as sites
embrace HTML5 video. Dailymotion and Vimeo now completely support it (albeit
using a patent-encumbered format - H.264 - so it won't work in Mozilla based
browsers but it will work just fine in Webkit based browsers such
The majority of the videos on YouTube are still available in WebM format even
if not in HTML5 mode. These videos can either be downloaded (using a browser
plugin such as UnPlug) or streamed (via SMPlayer after setting preferred
format to WebM in the settings - you can see what format is
Since the shift to Gnome 3 I have tested Xfce, LXDE and E17. I like E17 best
despite it being a bit less stable.
The easiest way to watch YouTube is via latest SMPlayer (available via PPA)
which supports selecting preferred format and quality so you can watch the
WebM encoded videos whenever they are available.
I'm guessing it's a problem with GDM (Gnome Display Manager). You could
always install a different login manager like SLiM. Does grub2 show up? if so
try using recovery mode or something similar which will give you a bare bones
terminal to work with. If this doesn't work you can use a live
MiniTube still works. The latest svn of SMPlayer should work too.
Unfortunately, JDownloader is not free software as it includes some non-free
code.
Just tested svn of SMPlayer (from Arch user repositories as it isn't in
Parabola's repositories) and YouTube works fine.
Read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JDownloader
Other desktop environments provide more customization, e.g. Xfce, LXDE, E17.
Don't know but there are free alternatives to JDownloader such as FatRat and
Tucan Manager.
See here:
http://www.fsfla.org/svnwiki/anuncio/2010-03-Linux-2.6.33-libre.en
I preferred Sintel and Big Buck Bunny. They were really good.
Both KDE and GNOME are free software. In the past there was a problem with
KDE as it relied on Trolltech's Qt framework which was in the past
proprietary but now it is free software licensed (among others) under the
LGPL.
Replicant unfortunately doesn't ensure full freedom since the modem has too
much power on most phones (it can access the main CPU, the microphone and the
GPS and can be flashed by the mobile operators).
The main reason OEMs chose Android is because it is released under a
non-copyleft license (which means they can change the code without releasing
their changes allowing product differentiation).
The secondary reason is because Google managed to attract developers to their
proprietary app
For math, LaTeX creates much more professional looking equations than
LibreOffice. The easiest way to use it is via a graphical editor such as Lyx
which either produces its own format or lets you export to LaTeX or lets you
export to PDF. If you plan on sharing source files in LaTeX format
I don't use Lyx either (although I did in the past), but for someone who has
never used LaTeX before it is in my opinion the easiest method for creating
math formulas and professional looking academic documents.
The Lite version is probably used because the full version requires non-free
javascript.
Netbooks are light and have long battery life but suffer from very low
resolution which makes using some applications cumbersome. There is a simple
hack using xrandr which gets you a higher resolution.
First determine which resolution you want. I wanted 1280x750 which is
1.25x1.25 the
My xrandr actually look like this:
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 600, maximum 4096 x 4096
LVDS1 connected 1024x600+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 220mm
x 129mm
1024x600 60.0*+ 65.0
800x60060.3 56.2
640x48059.9
VGA1 disconnected
The bug isn't a big deal since the hack I posted does the same thing it just
takes 3 commands instead of 1.
Also, the graphics on the netbook is intel and I played around a bit with
xorg.conf with no luck so far. If anyone finds a setting to eliminate tearing
(which doesn't exist at all
UnPlug is a Mozilla browser plugin which finds videos on many websites
including YouTube (it lets you download all the different versions of the
video that are available such as 720P, 480P and WebM and H.264 formats).
Ubuntu Tweak is really useful - if I remember correctly (I haven't used it in
years) it makes removing old kernels and PPAs possible without using the
terminal so new users do not need to see multiple kernels whenever the update
includes a new kernel and they can easily purge PPAs that they
Trisquel on Desktop partially because Openchrome drivers didn't work well in
Parabola. Parabola on netbook but will probably switch to Trisquel LTS as
Parabola requires too much maintenance. Parabola does have a few benefits
such as ffmpeg providing H.264 encoding out of the box.
Epiphany is now called Web for some reason. I'm guessing the developers
don't want to confuse new users with lots of different settings, so any
advanced setting in their view (including changing the user agent which is
essential since Web isn't a popular browser and thus some websites are
- if you want a phone, it will have nonfree baseband firmware, on GTA02
and GTA04 it cannot spy on you (ignoring all normal uses of GSM
networks), on other phones this isn't completely known; most can read
all data from the main memory and access the microphone and GPS
According to libreplanet:
Chris, free drivers enable users to use any GNU/Linux distro of their choice
and lets them upgrade the drivers when using newer libraries but it does not
solve all freedom related issues since the firmwares of the devices are not
always free, which is why we hear of problems such as printers
I'm pretty sure Chris has mentioned that thinkpenguin supports Linux Mint
which develops free software while shipping some non-free software.
Thinkpenguin is a business and needs as many deals as it can get to remain
sustainable.
Unfortunately. selling only computers with Trisquel, a distro most people
have never heard of or have very little interest in trying out, probably
won't make thinkpenguin enough money to fund future models. Also, any free
software developed by mint and partially funded by thinkpenguin can be
The difference is that mint and Ubuntu develop mostly free software, whereas
Steam develops primarily non-free software.
I do agree though that it would be good to also make deals with more popular
distros that also value software freedom (even if they aren't FSF endorsed)
such as Debian
10 percent of the price goes to mint if you buy hardware from the mint
website, whereas Trisquel gets 25 percent of profits from this site, so it
isn't 10 vs 25 percent.
Deals with popular GNU/Linux distros will hopefully lead to more sales from
thinkpenguin which will also lead to cheaper new models since then
thinkpenguin can earn a profit with smaller profit margins per unit. We all
know how much hardware which barely sells costs without external funding
The popular non-free software (fonts, flash etc) can be easily installed on
Ubuntu as well as they are part of one package, so it's quite easy to install
on Ubuntu as well.
I'm pretty sure Unity3D not working with nouveau is a bug which will be
fixed. Since nouveau is reverse engineered its performance might not be
consistent (it might work better on some graphic cards than on others).
Try updating to a newer version of Midori via their PPA. You will also need
to add the WebKit PPA. These commands should suffice:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:midori
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webkit-team
$ sudo aptitude update
$ sudo aptitude upgrade
I encountered the bookmarks error in the past. I simply deleted the midori
settings folder (~/.config/midori) and it worked but I lost my bookmarks.
Since then I use speed dial instead (adding pages by right clicking and
selecting add to speed dial) and keep unread tabs all the time (in the
I'm having problems with the net install of 5.5 with only Xfce for a friend.
Firstly, it requires ethernet and doesn't work with wireless so I had to take
the computer to my place as I have ethernet.
I installed Trisquel console version (had to use space key to select it which
isn't
I meant the installer suggests to encrypt /home directory with user password
later on if it isn't clear. I chose this method.
using linux-libre from the linux-libre repository solved it and replaced
Debian's grub (a documented bug) by a GNU grub (lots of GNUs appear
instead).
jxself - a backported kernel would be better than bleeding edge kernels
(which is what your repository offers) since features sometimes break in
cutting edge kernels (e.g. internal microphone not working in 3.3 kernels but
working fine in older and newer versions - see here:
There are other free SIP clients such as Twinkle and Linphone.
For underclocking the CPU you can use cpupower. By default the CPU is
underclocked when using the battery on Parabola, so increasing the CPU
frequency might be required for watching HD videos when using the battery.
Also replacing a hard drive by a solid state one should improve battery life
as it requires less power. It will also eliminate noises as there are no
moving parts.
Handbrake is partially non-free as it provides the proprietary FAAC encoder.
There is a free fork in Ubuntu's backport repositories (for 12.10) but only
for 32-bit systems.
If hard drive space isn't an issue an exact copy of the DVD into VOB format
(which is supported by your TV) would be the fastest. Here is the Arch Linux
guide:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dvdbackup
Compiling HandBrake from source requires running a script which downloads
other programmes such as FFmpeg and compiles them. HandBrake does not use
local versions of these programmes even if they exist. Some of these
programmes have freedom issues such as FFmpeg compiled with AAC support.
2. Try dconf editor
The multiverse repository isn't included in Trisquel at all since it contains
non-free software. Maybe you can request the repackaging of the free parts
(if they exist) of gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse.
Have you tried PulseAudio Volume Control (is the package pavucontrol
installed)?
Xfce is a good choice if one is looking for a stable and basic desktop
environment which can also provide eye candy via compiz (but it isn't
integrated with Xfce's settings). If one also wants optional eye candy and a
lightweight desktop environment, perhaps enlightenment/e17 would fit
Here is a video of the latest version of e17 (which I'm using on all my
computers including on the Neo Freerunner which runs the mobile version of
this on Debian) which looks much better in my opinion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHJuMuMXjlE
e17 would also work well if Trisquel wants to
The only definition I can think of is 'incomplete'. The only native
application, besides the environment itself, is their file manager.
e17 also has its own connection manager which uses connman (called econnman).
Upgrade from 4 to 6 via do-release upgrade -d on 2 machines terminated with
a python minimal error so I just installed from scratch. On another 5.5
machine running net install with Xfce this command led to a successful
upgrade.
I have a 5th generation iPod video that works great with Rockbox. Banshee
supports copying videos to the iPod that the original (proprietary) firmware
supports in case you want to watch movies on the iPod.
It didn't work for me when I tried it either a few months ago. noscript and
requestpolicy work great though (although they don't provide the same
functionality as librejs but they do prevent some scripts from running).
The question is whether the new GNOME supports graphics cards without 3D
acceleration or not. If it doesn't then the new version of Trisquel will need
to use a different Desktop.
I also use an Atom netbook and found browsing via Mozilla version 19 to be
much faster when disabling most JavaScript via NoScript and RequestPolicy
(LibreJS didn't work when I tried it - it was too CPU intensive).
For Youtube I use either SMPlayer or youtube-dl. youtube-dl can fetch the
Konquerer actually uses KHTML but can use QtWebKit too. Rekonq and Arora use
QtWebKit and Midori and Epiphany/Web use WebKit/GTK+ (Epiphany in the past
used Gecko). Chromium/Chrome uses its own version of WebKit.
The OGV works fine on my weak netbook (which cannot play back 720P videos
other than YouTube without dropping audio sync). You probably need a newer
video player (e.g. mplayer2 or VLC).
Here is Matthew Garrett's video from LibrePlanet about secure boot and
restricted boot available on his website:
http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/
http://www.codon.org.uk/~mjg59/sb/mjg59_secure_restricted_boot.ogv
If you don't mind command line then nzbget is decent.
You can get 3D acceleration on the Glamo chip used in the Neo Freerunner if
you write such a driver (the specs have been released but there probably
wasn't much interest to write a 3D driver):
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_itempx=MTAzMjU
nVidia did release a free software (but obfuscated) 2d only driver called
nv a few years ago.
Story on Slashdot:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/04/30/2251252/fsf-certifies-atheros-based-thinkpenguin-80211-n-usb-adapter
I just opened the link on ThinkPenguin's website:
https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-wireless-n-usb-adapter-gnu-linux-tpe-n150usb
There seems to be a typo. Trisquel 6.5 is supported but I have no idea when
it will be released :) I'm guessing the card should work out of the box on
Can you copy as root? Try copying files in Nautilus when running it as root
via sudo nautilus command. If you manage to copy you just need to change
the permission of the folder (which can also be done in the root session of
Nautilus).
Chris, why don't you simply sell one of the digital audio players that are
supported by Rockbox with Rockbox preinstalled?
I'm guessing the code might recommend installing non-free games and/or
artwork.
Rockbox includes a video player with support for MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 formats
but you will need to transcode the videos beforehand.
The Doom Rockbox page links to a shareware version of Doom alongside Freedoom
so someone might be tricked into downloading a proprietary version of the
game (although this is also true for other software, e.g. Midori's Xfce page
explains how to setup Adobe Flash).
Abrowser only supports royalty free formats in HTML5 such as Vorbis, Opus,
Theora and VP8.
Other browsers use external multimedia frameworks such as GStreamer. Mozilla
based browsers do not use external media frameworks, so in order to play back
MP3 format Mozilla would need a patent license.
Midori doesn't use Apple WebKit. It uses WebKitGTK+ (which is similar but
not the same).
I'm guessing it's a bug then.
SIP clients should work fine such as Linphone (has a Windows version also) or
Twinkle (doesn't support video and doesn't provide a Windows version).
The Windows and GNU/Linux versions aren't really the same. For instance, on
GNU/Linux you need to configure the sound system in the SIP client (e.g.
Alsa, OSS, Pulseaudio). Anyway, the reason I meantioned Twinkle is because
its interface has more options than Linphone, such as viewing missed
Twinkle and Linphone are easy to use with Ekiga and Linphone accounts. Jitsi
and QuteCom didn't work when I tried them.
If you get a buzz-fixed Freerunner then it should work fine as a daily phone,
at least with one of the official images (e.g. OM2009 works fine as a phone
if you regularly delete SMS messages). As an actual smartphone it is less
impressive, as setting up wireless, bluetooth and other stuff
The Intel card requires proprietary firmware and thus will not work with the
kernel provided in Trisquel.
It's buzz fixed but it doesn't include some of the additional fixes like
improved sound (bass rework).
The video can be downloaded using this URL (and then viewed with e.g.
SMPlayer):
http://video.golem.de/files/1/1/10750/metrolastlight-sd.mp4
P.S. in order to find this URL I used Lightspark (version 0.7.2 which I
compiled myself on Parabola GNU/Linux) and Wireshark and searched in
This video can also be streamed in HTML5 if the browser supports H.264.
What's so special about Chromium based browsers compared to other WebKit
browsers such as Midori, Epiphany and Arora?
Other WebKit browsers also support H.264 (Midori, Epiphany etc).
THe video can be played back inside Abrowser using a media plugin such as
Totem, but it cannot be played as an HTML5 video (if it is infact provided as
such). WebKit browsers such as Midori do supports H.264 in HTML5 video.
Maybe you can post the site that he needs so we can test whether it works
with Gnash or Lightspark?
1 - 100 of 557 matches
Mail list logo
