The Road to Elysium

February 28, 2008

Quake Wars and switchscreen

Filed under: Linux — jorge @ 17:06

Still being thrilled about having gotten my 22″ monitor, after 2 years of nagging (I need to emphasize that I’ve spent TWO years nagging my better half about a damn monitor. Did I mention I spent 2 years?), I briefly spoke to a co-worker of mine about having nothing to play after I quit World of Warcraft. He said that he’d heard about a game called Quake Wars, and that it had a Linux-client. So I took a look at it, downloaded the demo, and now I’m hooked! Not as much as before, but it’s fun nonetheless. Anyway – playing the game with a 1680×1050 monitor resolution is INSANE! I can just about feel a grenade blowing up in my face. We’re about 3 people at work planning on making a clan, so we just need a few more to make it work. And I am definitely going to buy the full game tomorrow! For more information about Quake Wars, take a look at http://community.enemyterritory.com/.

Right, that was that about Quake Wars. Now to my next subject – a nifty little program named switchscreen. A quote from the website:

switchscreen is a command-line utility that moves the X mouse cursor to a given point on a given screen. I wrote it because I could find no other program that can define both the mouse position and screen number.

In other words – you can use your keyboard to navigate between your two monitors instead of your mouse! I find it to be a wicked program that I just had to mention. ;)

Update: I forgot to mention yesterday (as I’m typing it’s the 29th) that I nearly got bald and (even more) nuts by not being able to find the “x-devel-” package for SuSe, being that we need libx.h to make switchscreen work. Just fire up YaST and search for xorg-x11-devel, and there you go!

February 26, 2008

OpenSuSe and Dual Head

Filed under: Linux — jorge @ 19:29

So! I’m finally back to working, and things seem to be going pretty good. :) I’m working with a really nice guy, who seems to be genuinely interested in what I have to say, so that’s a big plus! Anyway, for my “efforts”, Marte granted me the wish of me having another computer monitor! For those of you reading there, here you go. If you want some new equipment, just nag your better half for 2 years, and eventually he/she will give in! The new monitor I got is this one: http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=342945.

I’m currently using OpenSuse 10.3 at home, and have a 17″ Eizo L550 from before, and now the new Eizo S2201W (a 22″ monitor). So I want to set up a dual head system, with the widescreen being my main desktop, and the 17″ being my second monitor, having an independent desktop (that means no Xinerama or Twinview).

After having cursed and tried over and over, I finally got it to work. Instead of explaining the whole deal, I’ll just paste my xorg.conf. There is one thing I can mention though. If you have an NVIDIA-card, remember to install the drivers from www.nvidia.com. Once the drivers are installed, start X, and open a terminal. su to root, and type nvidia-settings. There you’ll be able to modify how your monitors should interact with each other. Unfortunately (or fortunately rather), I haven’t tried this with ATI yet, as I’ve yet wounds to heal when it comes to that particular brand of graphics-cards. Anyway, here’s my xorg.conf!

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder3)  Wed Sep 12 14:30:30 PDT 2007

# /.../
# SaX generated X11 config file
# Created on: 2008-02-26T17:33:13+0100.
#
# Version: 8.1
# Contact: Marcus Schaefer , 2005
# Contact: SaX-User list 
#
# Automatically generated by [ISaX] (8.1)
# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!
#

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout[all]"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    Screen      1  "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard[0]" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse[1]" "CorePointer"
    Option         "Clone" "off"
    Option         "Xinerama" "off"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    InputDevices      "/dev/gpmdata"
    InputDevices      "/dev/input/mice"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/local"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/URW"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/Speedo"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/PEX"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/misc:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/75dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/100dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/Type1"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/latin7/75dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/baekmuk:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/japanese:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/kwintv"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/truetype"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/uni:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/CID"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/misc:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/75dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/100dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/misc:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/75dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/100dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/Type1"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/misc/sgi:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/xtest"
    FontPath        "/opt/kde3/share/fonts"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "type1"
    Load           "glx"
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "dbe"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "AllowMouseOpenFail" "on"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Keyboard[0]"
    Driver         "kbd"
    Option         "Protocol" "Standard"
    Option         "XkbLayout" "no"
    Option         "XkbModel" "microsoftpro"
    Option         "XkbRules" "xfree86"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Mouse[1]"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Buttons" "6"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option         "Name" "ImExPS/2 Generic Explorer Mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "explorerps/2"
    Option         "Vendor" "Sysp"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Modes"
    Identifier         "Modes[0]"
EndSection

Section "Modes"
    Identifier         "Modes[1]"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

#  HorizSync    30-71
#  Option       "DPMS"
#  VertRefresh  43-75
    Identifier     "Monitor[0]"
    VendorName     "GSM"
    ModelName      "Storskjerm Eizo"
    UseModes       "Modes[0]"
    Option         "CalcAlgorithm" "XServerPool"
#  DisplaySize  376 301
EndSection

Section "Monitor"

#  HorizSync    30-71
#  Option       "DPMS"
#  VertRefresh  50-75
    Identifier     "Monitor[1]"
    VendorName     "GSM"
    ModelName      "Litenskjerm Eizo"
    UseModes       "Modes[1]"
    Option         "CalcAlgorithm" "XServerPool"
#  DisplaySize  714 301
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor1"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "EIZO L550"
    HorizSync       31.0 - 80.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 76.0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "EIZO S2201W"
    HorizSync       31.0 - 65.0
    VertRefresh     59.0 - 61.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device[0]"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVidia"
    BoardName      "GeForce 8600 GT"
    Option         "RenderAccel" "True"
    Option         "EnablePageFlip" "on"
    BusID          "1:0:0"
    Screen          0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device[1]"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVidia"
    BoardName      "GeForce 8600 GT"
    Option         "RenderAccel" "True"
    Option         "EnablePageFlip" "on"
    BusID          "1:0:0"
    Screen          1
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Videocard0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 8600 GTS"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen          0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Videocard1"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 8600 GTS"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen          1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen[0]"
    Device         "Device[0]"
    Monitor        "Monitor[0]"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       15
        Modes      "1680x1050"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       16
        Modes      "1680x1050"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes      "1680x1050"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       8
        Modes      "1680x1050"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen[1]"
    Device         "Device[1]"
    Monitor        "Monitor[1]"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       15
        Modes      "1280x1024"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       16
        Modes      "1280x1024"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes      "1280x1024"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       8
        Modes      "1280x1024"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"

# Removed Option "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    Identifier     "Screen1"
    Device         "Videocard0"
    Monitor        "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "CRT: 1280x1024 +0+0; CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Videocard1"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP: 1680x1050 +0+0"
EndSection

February 17, 2008

Changes

Filed under: Day to day — jorge @ 05:56

It’s 4.45 in the morning, and I’ve been up for a little over an hour. I (stupidly) suggested to Marte that I watch over Michael this night. And this little guy isn’t exactly easy to keep watch over. He’s like an alarm clock that is bound to make some sort of noise at least once an hour. So you can’t really sleep, you just spend an hour in bed with your eyes closed, wondering when he’ll ring. Marte wasn’t able to sleep either knowing that the Michael-bomb would soon explode, so being the gentleman I am (read: sucker), I took him to the living room, and I’ve been sitting at the computer trying to find something to do. With nothing in particular to do, other than watching yet another Ally McBeal episode, I found myself wandering the endless plains of Facebook again. I might’ve perhaps mentioned before that looking at my past makes me nostalgic, because quite frankly, it was one of the best times of my life. I’m thinking specifically when I was around 13+ years of age.

Anyway, Facebook. I tend to stay away from Facebook as much as I can because inflicting that sort of “pain” on myself, consciously, is just stupid. But lacking something better to do, I just searched for old classmates anyway. I surprised myself with my own reaction. Upon finding people I knew, I couldn’t help but smile. Things have changed, people have changed, and so have I. And that’s not a bad thing at all. I came to find close friends, people I hardly knew, and people I just remember seeing at some point. Change isn’t always a bad thing, I’ve come to notice. And I do notice things late, I know. ;)

I admit, when looking on what my earlier classmates have achieved at my age, I get a little jealous. They go out, have fun with their friends, and keep on studying. I myself haven’t really achieved anything good, except for Michael and Marte. But then again, I bought my house at 21, I was fortunate enough to get together with Marte when I was 19, and our son was born when I was 23. The most correct thing, if not the only correct thing, I have done, is having given Michael the gift of life. And I’m pretty sure Marte agrees with me. But time passes by so quickly! Just as my younger days flew by, so do these. Michael grows bigger by the day, and soon enough he’ll be the one at the computer at 4 in the morning, trying to get his baby to sleep, while typing in his thoughts. I just hope that he learns to value his youth, because that’s something that you only experience once, and before the blink of an eye, it’s gone. But here I am, freezing my butt off in the living room, smiling upon changes.

February 16, 2008

Back on the horse

Filed under: Day to day — jorge @ 11:13

A few weeks back I wrote about me starting to get back to work again. Things seemed to be going okay for some time, but then I had a setback. Yesterday I got back on the horse and tried to get back to work again. It was a very satisfying day in that aspect, I actually felt kind of useful for once. But I do notice that I’m not as strong as I would like to be. Perhaps I just keep disappointing myself by having too high expectations. I recall hearing a prayer a while ago, never really remembering it completely, but the words “..to accept the things I cannot change”. I looked it up on the internet, and I finally found it.

God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

I’ll try to memorize it, hoping it will grant me the serenity I need to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. I need it.

February 11, 2008

batch resize images using mogrify (imagemagick)

Filed under: Snippets — jorge @ 22:07
$ mogrify -resize 1280x1024 *.jpg
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