This article aims to be a more updated and clear instructional on how to install the Easycap video capture device in Ubuntu and it’s variants . Given the price of these capture devices and there relatively good video quality they are fairly popular devices, at an average cost of $10-$15 how can you not pick one up to at least check it out. Until not to recently there wasn’t a great deal of support for the devices and what support and drivers there were weren’t always the greatest for all of the Easycap versions and hardware.

The old driver had bad video quality and compatibility for all hardware types is pretty low and finicky. Additionally you had to use their capture software piped through Mplayer to capture video unless you installed the slightly more finicky kernel patch. And that is what I will be guiding you through now is installing the current stable kernel module you will need to properly install and use your Easycap device in ubuntu.

Description

Linux kernel module driver for the Somagic Easycap capture device.

EasyCAP Model DC60, with CVBS, S-VIDEO, AUDIO(L), and AUDIO(R) inputs. The uninitialized device shows in lsusb as “1c88:0007 Somagic, Inc.”. Once initialized, it shows as “1c88:003c Somagic, Inc”.
EzCAP USB 2.0, with unlabeled CVBS, S-VIDEO, AUDIO(L), and AUDIO(R) inputs. The device is initialized automatically and shows in lsusb as “1c88:003d Somagic, Inc”.
EasyCAP Model 002 (or EasyCAP002), with 1, 2, 3, 4, and unlabeled microphone inputs. The uninitialized device shows in lsusb as “1c88:0007 Somagic, Inc.”. Once initialized, it shows as either “1c88:003e Somagic, Inc” or “1c88:003f Somagic, Inc”.

Identification

Indentify the device before buying

It is hard to identify the chipset of any EasyCAP device before buying because most onlineshops (ebay, amazon) do not mention in the provided technical data the chipset of the device. Example from logilik.de where the chipset is declared

Identify device using installation instructions for Windows

If the chipset is not mentioned in device specifications on the website, one way to figure out the chipset inside the EaysCAP is to read through the installation instructions for Windows (if provided for download).

Screenshots of the windowsinstaller often reveal the devicename.

STK1160 EasyCAP is in Windows: (Syntek) STK1160 or STK1150
Empia EasyCAP is in Windows: USB 2861 Device or EMP
Somagic EasyCAP is in Windows: SM-USB 007 or SMI Grabber Device
UTV007 based EasyCAP is in Windows: USBTV007e

Known Easycap devices

STK1160 EasyCAP

For the stk1160 based EasyCAPs exists another article on this wiki with further information.

It is assumed that the stk1160 based “EasyCAP DC60” ist the “originally” EasyCAP device. This device is sold in different varieties (models) and even under different names like: EzCap, LogiLink, Mumbi, Weltbild, and some more.

Components Used

Syntek STK1160 (USB video bridge)
Silan SC8113 or GM7113 (Philips SAA7113 compatible video decoder)
AC’97 audio processor (In the 4 inputs model this chip is missing. Audio capturing is done by the STK1160 chips built-in ADC for mono microphone audio recording.)

Indentification

# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 05e1:0408 Syntek Semiconductor Co., Ltd STK1160 Video Capture Device

Making it work

STK1160 based devices are supported (video and audio) under Linux by the easycap kernel module (kernel 2.6.38 and later) and further on by the stk1160 kernel module (kernel 3.7). More information on this wiki: Stk1160

Audio support

More information on this wiki: Stk1160#Drivers

Empia EasyCAP

The Empia EasyCAP is based on the EM2860 chip from Empia.

Components Used

Empia EM2860 (EM2861 ?) (USB video bridge)
Silan SC8113 (Philips SAA7113 compatible video decoder)
AC’97 audio processor

Indentification

# lsusb
Bus XXX Device XXX: ID eb1a:2861 eMPIA Technology, Inc.

Making it work

EM2860 (EM2861) based devices are supported in Linux by the em28xx kernle module. More information on this wiki: Em28xx_devices

Audio support

The em28xx kernel module should create a Em28xx Audio ALSA soundcard which can be used for sound capturing.

Somagic EasyCAP

The Somagic EasyCAP is based on the SMI-2021 chip from Somagic. It needs a firmware for operation.

Components Used

Somagic SMI-2021CBE (USB video bridge)
SAA7113 compatible video decoder
Cirrus Logic 5340-CZZ audio processor

Indentification

# lsusb
Bus XXX Device XXX: ID 1c88:0007 Somagic, Inc. 
and after loading the firmware
# lsusb
Bus XXX Device XXX: ID 1c88:003c Somagic, Inc. or Bus XXX Device XXX: ID 1c88:003f Somagic, Inc.

Making it work

For SMI-2021 based devices exists a proceeding Linux-driver project: easycap-somagic-linux which this tutorial explains the installation process for Ubuntu. Continue to the installation portion of this instructional

More information on this wiki: Somagic

Audio support

Audio support is provided by the easycap-somagic-linux driver at an unknown stage.

USBTV007 EasyCAP

This EasyCAP is based on a single UTV007 labeled chip.

This device is sold as “USB video capture QS702” from SHENZHEN FUSHICAI ELECTRONIC CO.,LTD

lsusb reports

Manufacturer: Fushicai
Product: usbtv007

Components Used

Single chip: UTV007 A614231.1 1136L1BK
Inscriptions on the board: FSC VIDEO DVR

Indentification

# lsusb Bus XXX Device XXX: ID 1b71:3002

Full lsusb -v

Making it work

Linux kernel driver, enable CONFIG_VIDEO_USBTV: https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/media/usb/usbtv

From 3.11 (“Linux for Workgroups”) on: Supports NTSC, Composite input
From 3.12 : S-Video input, Fixed deinterlacing, Throw corrupted frames away
From 3.13 (rc5) : PAL support
In works: Controls (brightness, …)

Also, a very experimental (for testing purposes only) userspace driver is available on github: http://github.com/memeruiz/usbtv007

Currently doesn’t do anything beyond what kernel driver does
Written using Python libusb1 and v4l bindings
Requires v4l loopback
Could be useful for easy protocol testing, prototypin

Audio support

A work in progress on the audio support can be found at: https://github.com/simon3z/usbtv

Status: tested and working for composite input (48Khz 2ch 16bit).

Work needed

Testing and fixing of eventual bugs is very welcome!
Audio is currently not supported on the last Linux kernel. Audio is working with the Windows driver (tested on Windows 2000 with the XP driver not on a virtualized computer with a playstation PSX for the video and audio inputs with the software “honestech HD DVR 2.5”).

The Windows driver shipped with the device was for another model. Here’s the correct one: http://v3.sk/~lkundrak/usbtv/usbtv-wxp32.zip

Slides from talk describing setup for reverse-engineering what does the hardware do are available: http://www.slideshare.net/LubomirRintel/usb-reversing

List of known Easycap capture devices Identify your USB device from this list and continue to the kernel module only installation

Somagic-Easycap Installation

Prerequisites

All developement and testing of this driver has been done on a computer running Xubuntu 13.10 but should be no different for any other Ubuntu distribution or version provided you are using Kernel 3.11 or newer. If you are running another distribution, you’ll should visit http://code.google.com/p/easycap-somagic-linux/wiki/BuildingKernelModule and read their installation instructions as they apply to a generic linux in general.

You will of course also need:

Kernel 3.11.x
Kernel source and headers
git
gcc/make and friends
wget
wine
mplayer (for testing the device)
vcl
available hard-disk space for the kernel tree source and headers
The firmware for your EasyCap device installed in /lib/firmware
Somagic variant of the EasyCAP. To determine that: plug in the EasyCAP, run “lsusb“, and verify “1c88:0007 Somagic, Inc” or “1c88:003f Somagic, Inc“.
EasyCAP USB 2.0 Video Adapter with Audio or EasyCAP002 4-Channel USB 2.0 DVR installation CD-ROM.

Somagic-Easycap Getting started

Firstly we will need to update our packages and download and install the following dependencies

sudo apt-get update

Were first going to download the current kernel header source code.

All of the Ubuntu Kernel source is maintained under git. The source for each release is maintained in its own git repository on kernel.ubuntu.com. To obtain a local copy you can simply git clone the repository for the release you are interested in as shown below.

git clone git://kernel.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ubuntu-<release>.git

For example to obtain the precise tree:

git clone git://kernel.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ubuntu-precise.git kernel-source

change into the kernel source directory and use the following command to update the drivers for the kernel
git remote add linuxtv git://linuxtv.org/media_tree.git
git remote update    
git checkout -b media-master remotes/linuxtv/master

This will download the whole kernel, and also the media-tree into a directory called “kernel-source” under your current directory.

All commands from here on should be typed while you are in the linux source-tree unless specified otherwise.

If you are already tracking Linus’ kernel-tree, or are using your distribution’s current kernel-tree, you don’t have to download the media-tree, but then you will need up to six additional patches to build the module (These patches should not be necessary after kernel version 3.12)

To determine your kernel version run “uname -r” this should return something like “3.14.0-rc1-custom”

Here we’re going to install the needed dependencies. (The following is meant to be entered as one line)

sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev fakeroot wget bzip2 libusb-1.0-0 libusb-1.0-0-dev libgcrypt11 libgcrypt11-dev mplayer usbutils libgcrypt11 wine make gcc mplayer git build-essential

sudo apt-get build-dep linux-image-$(uname -r)

Then you will need to download either somagic-easycap-tools_1.1_i386.deb or somagic-easycap-tools_1.1_amd64.deb and somagic-easycap_1.1_i386.deb or somagic-easycap_1.1_amd64.deb depending on your architecture from the original drivers site because we will need the firmware extractor for the Somagic-EasyCap hardware to work.

Extracting firmware

Please do not ask for or provide links to the copyrighted firmware. If you don’t have your driver CD, you might be able to find the firmware online via a web search.
Using wine, run “Drivers/Setup.exe” (or sometimes “Driver/Setup.exe”), on the EasyCAP installation CD. For the EasyCAP DC60, this should create a file named “Program Files/Common Files/Somagic/SmiUsbGrabber3C/xp/SmiUsbGrabber3C.sys”. For EasyCAP002 this should create a file named either “Program Files/Common Files/Somagic/SmiUsbGrabber3E/xp/SmiUsbGrabber3E.sys” or “Program Files/Common Files/Somagic/SmiUsbGrabber3F/xp/SmiUsbGrabber3F.sys”.
Run “
Run as root “somagic-extract-firmware SmiUsbGrabber.sys”, to create “/lib/firmware/somagic_firmware.bin”.
Depending on whether the installation created SmiUsbGrabber3C.sys or SmiUsbGrabber3D.sysSmiUsbGrabber3E.sys or SmiUsbGrabber3f.sys you will copy /lib/firmware/somagic_firmware.bin to /lib/firmware/smi2021_3f.bin

Testing The EasyCap Device

This test is to ensure the device is functioning properly before continuing to install the kernel module.

Plug in the EasyCAP device.
Run “somagic-init” to initialize the EasyCAP device, which changes its USB id. This step is not necessary for the EzCAP USB 2.0, which is automatically initialized. If there is no output, initialization was successful. However, to manually verify whether initialization was successful, re-run “somagic-init” or check “lsusb” for the new id “1c88:003c Somagic, Inc” (EasyCAP DC60), “1c88:003e Somagic, Inc” (EasyCAP002), or “1c88:003f Somagic, Inc” (EasyCAP002). You can also run “somagic-capture --test-only” and check for a return code of 0 with “echo $?“.
For EzCAP USB 2.0 only, run “modprobe -r usbhid“.
Activate your video source and ensure video is connected, either via CVBS/composite (any device), or S-VIDEO (EasyCAP DC60 or EzCAP USB 2.0). For the EasyCAP002 the correct plug may vary. First try “2”, then “3”.
Choose and run a usage example depending on your input type
Play PAL video from CVBS/composite input
somagic-capture | mplayer -vf yadif,screenshot -demuxer rawvideo -rawvideo “pal:format=uyvy:fps=25” -aspect 4:3 –
Play NTSC video from S-VIDEO input
somagic-capture -n | mplayer -vf yadif,screenshot -demuxer rawvideo -rawvideo “ntsc:format=uyvy:fps=30000/1001” -aspect 4:3 –
Installing Somagic Easycap Kernel Module Only
Add supporting modules
The smi2021 driver is depending on the saa7115 module. Some changes had to be made to that module to make the driver work. We will have to download and install 3 or 6 more patches before we can build the kernel Module.
From here we will change to our kernel headers directory to download the updated saa7115 module and patches
cd /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r) (or where ever you have downloaded your kernels headers and source)
Download the patch with the smi2021 driver module
sudo wget –no-check-certificate https://patchwork.linuxtv.org/patch/20010/mbox/ -O smi2021v3.patch
```
git checkout -b smi2021v3
git am smi2021v3.patch
```
If your kernel-tree is older than 3.11, you will first need these three patches.
sudo wget –no-check-certificate https://patchwork.linuxtv.org/patch/18233/mbox/ -O saa7115-0001.patch
sudo wget –no-check-certificate https://patchwork.linuxtv.org/patch/18232/mbox/ -O saa7115-0002.patch
sudo wget –no-check-certificate https://patchwork.linuxtv.org/patch/18368/mbox/ -O saa7115-0003.patch
If your kernel-tree is older than 3.12 – and you didn’t download the media-master tree – you will need these three patches.
sudo wget –no-check-certificate https://patchwork.linuxtv.org/patch/19535/mbox/ -O saa7115-0004.patch
sudo wget –no-check-certificate https://patchwork.linuxtv.org/patch/19536/mbox/ -O saa7115-0005.patch
sudo wget –no-check-certificate https://patchwork.linuxtv.org/patch/19537/mbox/ -O saa7115-0006.patch
When you have downloaded the needed patches we need to apply them. This will count the patch files in the saa7115 patch files and apply them all.
git am saa7115-000*
Compile smi2021 module only
This is how you just compile the module, without having to compile the whole kernel. If your kernel is older than 3.11 continue to the “Compiling Kernel” section.
This will only work if the kernel source-tree is the same version as the kernel you are currently running
First you will need to patch your kernel tree with the smi2021v3.patch, and the three or six saa7115 patches as described above.
Then you will have to build both the saa7115 module and the smi2021 module. These commands are typed when you are in the root of the kernel-source tree.
```
make M=drivers/media/i2c modules
make M=drivers/media/usb/smi2021 modules
```
Then we install the modules.
```
sudo /sbin/insmod drivers/media/i2c/saa7115.ko
sudo /sbin/insmod drivers/media/usb/smi2021/smi2021.ko
```
If you get errors about missing symbols when trying to insmod the saa7115 module, this is probably because the saa7115 module needs some other modules that aren’t loaded yet. We can force them to be loaded if do this before the insmod saa7115 command:
```
sudo /sbin/modprobe saa7115
sudo /sbin/rmmod saa7115
```
You should now be able to insert your EasyCap, and you will see this line in your kernel log:
smi2021 2-1.1:1.0: Somagic Easy-Cap Video Grabber

Compiling A New Kernel And Modules

change directory to the root of where your kernel headers are located

First, we copy the configuration of your current kernel.

sudo cp /boot/.config$(name -r)* > .config

Then we check that we can compile the smi2021 module

Modifying the configuration

This step can be skipped if no configuration changes are wanted. The build process will use a configuration that is put together from various sub-config files. The simplest way to modify anything here is to run:

chmod a+x debian/scripts/*
chmod a+x debian/scripts/misc/*
fakeroot debian/rules clean fakeroot debian/rules editconfigs

This takes the current configuration for each architecture/flavour supported and calls menuconfig for that. The chmod is needed because the way the source package is created loses the executable bits on the scripts.

Device drivers --->

Multimedia support --->

Media USB Adapters --->

Find the entry called “Somagic SMI2021 USB video/audio capture support“. Check that it’s marked with <M>, if not, press m to mark it as a module or y to compile it into the kernel.

Check the config for other options you would like, exit and save the config.

Building the kernel

Building the kernel is quite easy. Change your working directory to the root of the kernel source tree and then type the following commands:

fakeroot debian/rules clean
fakeroot debian/rules binary-headers binary-generic

Now, just wait, and hope you’ve done everything correct (and that I didn’t forget anything).

If the build is successful, a set of three .deb binary package files will be produced in the directory above the build root directory. For example after building a kernel with version “2.6.38-7.37” on an amd64 system, these three .deb packages would be produced:

cd ..
ls *.deb
    linux-headers-2.6.38-7_2.6.38-7.37_all.deb
    linux-headers-2.6.38-7-generic_2.6.38-7.37_amd64.deb
    linux-image-2.6.38-7-generic_2.6.38-7.37_amd64.deb

When the compile ends, and there are no errors, we install the modules.

sudo make modules_install

This should complete in a few minutes, and then we are ready to install the kernel.

Install all packages that were created except the tools-generic package as this sometimes doesn’t have the dependency to properly install. Once that is done you can restart your computer and when it loads up you should see another video device in /dev likely video1

Testing the driver

Insert your device, and type this:

vlc v4l2:///dev/videoX :v4l2-standard= :input-slave=alsa://plughw:X,0

In /dev/videoX, the X is the number of the device, on my computer it’s 1, because my web_cam is 0, but it might be any number.

You can get a list of video devices by typing

ls /dev/video*

You can figure out the value of plughw:X,X by typing:

arecord -l

This should give you a list like this:

**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: MID [HDA Intel MID], device 0: 92HD73C1X5 Analog [92HD73C1X5 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: MID [HDA Intel MID], device 2: 92HD73C1X5 Alt Analog [92HD73C1X5 Alt Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: smi2021Audio [smi2021 Audio], device 0: smi2021 Audio [Somagic smi2021 Capture]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Where you see that card2 is smi2021Audio, so the audio-device is plughw:2,0.

Johnny March 7th, 2014

Posted In: Uncategorized

Tags: kernel module, Somagic

4 Comments

The quick launch bar so familiar to pretty much every operating system and window manager these days, is a valuable asset, simplifying the need to navigate through several menus to start up any application you use regularly. XFCE is no different. XFCE has a quick way to add applications to your launch bar but when you look through the list of applications it provides it is far from complete and in many cases may not contain the application you want to add. No worries This article will show you step by step how to add a “custom” program launcher to your bar.

Add launch bar menu

First we’re going to right-click a space on the launch bar at the top or bottom of the screen as this can be done to the popup launcher as well, and were going to select “Panel” -> “Add New Items…: This will bring up an item list of objects you can add. From this list select “Launcher” and click the “Add” button and then click “Close”. You should now see a screen icon in the right side of your launcher bar. Now, right-click this icon and select “Properties.” When the dialog open there are going to be some icons to the right that allow you to manage your launcher items as each launcher can have several sub application items. Select the “+” which will bring up another Dialog with a list of applications for you to add. If you can’t find the application you want to add close this window and click the icon below the “+” and you can create a custom launcher item,

Adding the launcher item

This part is pretty straight forward. You will give it a name for the launcher to have, in my case I’m adding “Gui2Py”, add comment if any “This is a GUI editor for Python”,add the full path to the command you would like to run in my case it’s “python -m gui.tools.designer”,the working directory is going to be the directory it loads by default using your home directory by either using “~” or “$home” should work as a default. Otherwise provide the full path, you can then set a custom icon either from their list or one you provide, when startup notification is set, the panel and cursor notifies the user that the application has started. When the application appears onscreen, the panel and cursor return to normal. This enables the desktop to use whatever startup notification is built in to either your applicationMost modern toolkits work transparently with the startup notification system. And finally “Run In Termial” will launch a terminal window and then execute the program, This is particularly useful if the program has verbose output in addition to a GUI. With all of that done all you gotta do is click create and your done. Remember this can also be one for the lower popup launcher as well.

To move the launcher icon elsewhere in the “Quick Launch Bar” simply right-click and select “Move” then move your cursor where you would like it and left-click and it will be placed where your cursor is.

Johnny February 27th, 2014

Posted In: Ubuntu, Uncategorized

Tags: launch bar, Tool Bar Launchers, window manager, xfce

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Sometimes after installing XFCE/Xubuntu along side Ubuntu LightDM the configuration for your present and active sound devices will get overwritten or removed. The first thing you should do is go to “Application Menu -> Multimedia -> Pulse Volume Control” Click the “Configuration” tab and check what audio devices it is listing. If it doesn’t display any skip to the section titled “Update”.

Check:

Configuration

Output Devices

If it shows your sound devices click the “Output Devices” tab and make sure the sound device which should be outputting sound is not muted and that it has “Speakers” or “Headphones” in the “port” dropdown box which ever the case may be. Your sound should be functional now

Update:

If the “Configuration” tab doesn’t show any of your audio devices run the following commands from a terminal window.

killall pulseaudio; rm -r ~/.config/pulse/* ; rm -r ~/.pulse*
If it says it couldn't remove the files in question it means pulse never created them when it was loaded.

Now run the following commands from terminal, once they have completed reboot your computer, once you are back in XFCE open “Pulse Volume Control” and follow the directions from the section titled Check.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-audio-dev/ppa; sudo apt-get update;sudo apt-get dist-upgrade; sudo apt-get install pavucontrol linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils lightdm ubuntu-desktop linux-image-`uname -r` libasound2; sudo apt-get -y –reinstall install linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils lightdm ubuntu-desktop linux-image-`uname -r` libasound2; killall pulseaudio; rm -r ~/.pulse*; ubuntu-support-status; sudo usermod -aG `cat /etc/group | grep -e ‘^pulse:’ -e ‘^audio:’ -e ‘^pulse-access:’ -e ‘^pulse-rt:’ -e ‘^video:’ | awk -F: ‘{print $1}’ | tr ‘\n’ ‘,’ | sed ‘s:,$::g’` `whoami`

Johnny October 28th, 2013

Posted In: General, How To

Tags: active sound devices, audio devices, no sound, pulse, pulse audio, Pulse Volume Control, pulseaudio, sound, sound card, sound device, ubuntu 10, ubuntu 11, ubuntu 12, ubuntu xfce, xfce, xfce4

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When running playonlinux if it suddently freezes or locks up with the following text you will need to upgrade your installation of playonlinux. There is a bug in older versions due to GTK changes made to the system it freezes

[install_plugins] Message: Checking plugin: Capture…
[install_plugins] Message: Checking plugin: ScreeddentnCap…
[install_plugins] Message: Checking plugin: PlayOnLinux Vault…

To resolve this issue you will need to update playonlinux. Firstly backup your playonluinux configurations and all of your prefixes. Once you have done this remove the current installation. Go to http://www.playonlinux.com/en/download.html and download the package for your distribution.

Johnny October 27th, 2013

Posted In: General

Tags: crash, freeze, installation, older versions, play on linux, playonlinux, pol, ubuntu playonlinux

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Splash screens are every were created to basically cover up the boot process. If your like me you prefer to see the initiation process so you can watch for errors and . To disable the boot you will need to make the following.changes to /etc/default/grub

Find the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash” and change it to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”text”
After making the change in GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT you will need to rebuild and apply the new changes by running sudo update-grub2.

Now when you boot you will get a grub boot menu after selecting which installation or mode to use. Now you should see the verbose boot process rather the splash screen.

Johnny October 27th, 2013

Posted In: General, How To

Tags: boot loader, console, grub, initialiation, splash screen

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If your like me and are not a fan of the gui login screen that ubuntu uses or you want to reduce resource usage you can do the following to disable the gui login and rather use a console login instead.

echo "manual" | sudo tee -a /etc/init/lightdm.override

You can also do this with GDM

echo “manual” | sudo tee -a /etc/init/gdm.override

This prevents the desktop manager from loading it’s service, you will now either need to start lightdm manually or have a different window manager installed because with out lightdm being started unity will not work. You can restart lightdm by doing the following

sudo service lightdm start

I personally use XFCE rather than lightdm since it uses less resources, you can edit the ..xinitrc file in your home directory to change which window manager you are using. If you do not have another window manager installed please read Changing Window Managers, which will guide you through the installation process.

If the file .xinitrc is not in your home directory create the file and chmod +x .xinitrc

In the .xinitrc you will find a line like

 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 exec xfce-se

You will change this to whichever window manager you would like to use.

I’ve listed a few available window manager

	WM=gnome-session                      
	WM=startkde
	WM=afterstep                      
	WM=wmaker
	WM=enlightenment
	WM=blackbox
	WM=icewm

Once you have finished when you reboot you will be greeted with a text login prompt and can use startx to start your xsession.

No sound after rebooting into XFCE or other window manager read No Sound After Installing XFCE/Xubuntu

Johnny October 27th, 2013

Posted In: General, How To

Tags: gui, gui login, lightdm, login screen, startx, text login, Ubuntu, ubuntu 12, xfce, xsession

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Using one of the many versions of Ubuntu but want to use a different window manager than the one it came with? This can be done quickly and easily by installing the window manager you wish to use and logging out and back in. Sound simple enough? It is.

To install your new window manager you can use the following commands through a terminal.

For LXDE

sudo apt-get install lxde

for XFCE

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

for Gnome

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

For KDE

sudo apt-get install kde-plasma-desktop

Once you install the one you want, log out, choose the one you want by clicking the icon next to your username, and log in.

No sound after rebooting into XFCE or other window manager read No Sound After Installing XFCE/Xubuntu

Johnny October 23rd, 2013

Posted In: How To

Tags: change window manager, Gnome, kde, Linux, sessions manager, Ubuntu, window manager, Window Managers, xfce

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In recent versions of Ubuntu popup notifications have been added keeping you aware of software and system activity. As great as it sounds to be constantly updated with this information it can get very annoying if you are running peer 2 peer software or other highly active software. In cases such as this popup notifications just get in the way and become annoying. Unfortunately there is no option to disable these notifications with in the system settings.

Not to worry though there is a simple way to disable these popup notifications which I have included below how to disable popup notifications for each branch of ubuntu that is available.

Ubuntu 10.xx +
sudo apt-get remove notification-daemon

Xubuntu
sudo apt-get remove xfce4-notifyd orif you only want to disable the notifications
sudo mv /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.xfce.xfce4-notifyd.Notifications.service /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.xfce.xfce4-notifyd.Notifications.service.disabled

Kubuntu
sudo apt-get remove notify-osd
or to disable
sudo mv /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.freedesktop.Notifications.service /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.freedesktop.Notifications.service.disabled

Lubuntu
sudo apt-get remove notify-osd
or to disable
sudo mv /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.freedesktop.Notifications.service /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.freedesktop.Notifications.service.disabled

Johnny October 12th, 2013

Posted In: How To

Tags: kubuntu, lubuntu, notification, notification center, notify-osd, osd, Ubuntu, xubuntu

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If you are a gamer and play most of your games on a laptop running Ubuntu 11.xx + you might have run into the same issues I have regarding keyboard hot keys by accidentally hitting the super key(windows key) causing your game to minimize or behave in a less then preferable way.

The solution to this is to disable the super key (windows key) using compiz.

Install the compizconfig-settings-manager package.
Hit Alt+F2, type about:config and hit Enter to open the Unity configuration.
Change or disable the shortcut for Key to show the launcher as you like to free your Super key:
By selecting the super key(windows key) you can effectively disable it or change the key combination that is used to open the program launcher.

Johnny October 9th, 2013

Posted In: How To

Tags: Application Launcher, compiz, hide launcher, launch bar, launcher, Ubuntu, ubuntu 11, Unity

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If you are using Ubuntu 11.xx or greater you are familiar with Unity and it’s launch bar. Some times this bar can just be in the way or become annoying taking up desktop real estate. Luckily hiding this sucker is a snap.

From the launch bar open “System settings”, then select “appearance” and finally select the “Behaviour” tab. From here set “Auto-hide the launcher” to “on” and set the desired sensitivity. The sensitivity is how much you will have to roll your cursor over the reveal area to make the launcher pop out.

Johnny October 9th, 2013

Posted In: How To

Tags: hide launch bar, hide launcher, launch bar, launcher bar, the launch bar, Ubuntu, ubuntu 11, Unity

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Linux, video games and web hosting

Description

Identification

Indentify the device before buying

Identify device using installation instructions for Windows

Known Easycap devices

STK1160 EasyCAP

Components Used

Indentification

Making it work

Audio support

Empia EasyCAP

Components Used

Indentification

Making it work

Audio support

Somagic EasyCAP

Indentification

Making it work

USBTV007 EasyCAP

Indentification

Making it work

Audio support

Work needed

Somagic-Easycap Installation

Prerequisites

Somagic-Easycap Getting started

Extracting firmware

Testing The EasyCap Device

Installing Somagic Easycap Kernel Module Only

Add supporting modules

Download the patch with the smi2021 driver module

Compile smi2021 module only

Compiling A New Kernel And Modules

Modifying the configuration

Building the kernel

Testing the driver