Richard has been reading about Ubuntu 11.10, “Oneiric Ocelot”, due to be released on October 13th. Our hosts hope to have some sort of review in the near future. Richard is also considering trying KDE. (The version of Ubuntu with KDE as default is Kubuntu.)
Look for another episode of Richard’s Radio Adventures in the near future. It’s recorded mobile, and Richard wonders how to reduce the road noise with Audacity. Russ offers some advice on training the noise removal plug-in for Audacity.
Richard did not make it to the Belton hamfest this year, but maybe next spring. He’s looking forward to attending the Texoma Hamarama, October 21 – 22, 2011 at the Ardmore Convention Center, 2401 North Rockford Road, Ardmore, OK.
Richard is recruiting hams for the Kaufman County (TX) ARES group. Please visit the KCARES website for more information.
Richard re-tells the infamous badger story. Speaking of badgers, you can find the Kiss My Badger tee-shirt, and a lot of other good stuff, at the LHS store.
Feedback:
Danny inquires about an easy-to-use distribution for a senior and computer novice, perhaps Linux Mint. Our hosts suggest Linux Mint and PCLinuxOS. Note that the Mint live CD does not include the codecs, but the DVD does. If you install from the CD, you can install the codecs later.
Danny also asks if there is a way to ask the Mumble developers to support screen-reading software. Since Mumble isn’t a GTK-based application, it’s probably not well supported under Orca. You may wish to raise your concerns on the Mumble forum, or on IRC at irc.freenode.net, #mumble, or click the Live Chat Now button on the www.mumble.com website.
Burt, K1OIK, left a comment regarding Episode 61 entitled “South of the Border”: “I’d like to go south of your borders!” We’re a little worried about you, Burt.
Michael, KD8GIJ, asks for instructions on removing a dual-boot installation of Linux Mint if he decides he doesn’t like it. You can, of course, just wipe the whole drive and reinstall Windows. You may be able to boot the Windows install media and let it “repair” your installation. However, you don’t really need to remove grub; just make Windows the default and remove Linux from the grub menu. If that’s not acceptable, you’ll likely have to wipe and reinstall Windows to return it to the pre-Linux state.Other suggestions include:
install Mint as a virtual machine with Virtual Box.
use the Windows Ubuntu Installer (wubi) which will also allow you to uninstall Linux after testing.
install Linux to a flash drive and boot and run from that to try it out
make an image of the Windows drive before installing Linux, perhaps with PartImage or Clonezilla, and you’ll have an easy means of returning to the pre-Linux-install state.
John “The Nice Guy” Spriggs, G7VRI, asks about a live Linux distribution reviewed in Episode 62 that contained software to run EchoLink. (I think he’s referring to Andy’s Ham Radio Linux CD). svxlink is the Linux-native EchoLink client, but it is CLI-driven. The Windows client does run well under Wine. You may want to look at qtel, another Echolink client. It’s an older application. In fact, svxlink is based on Qtel.
John also wonders if the music played on the show is Creative Commons licensed. While most of the music is Creative Commons or podsafe, the music in Episode 62 is not CC or podsafe, but Russ did have permission from the artists to play them.
John pointed out that the description tags in the podcast audio files were empty. Thanks, John, and rest assured that Russ will be adding descriptions as time permits.
By the way John, please contact Richard at the email address below as you may be able to help him with some music for another project.
Contact Info:
Contact Richard at kb5jbv@gmail.com, Russ at k5tux@lhspodcast.info, or both at the same time at info@lhspodcast.info.
Listen to the live stream every other Tuesday at 8:00pm Central time. Check the LHS web site for dates.
Leave us a voice mail at 1-909-LHS-SHOW (1-909-547-7469), or record an introduction to the podcast.
Apologies for the delays in releasing new episodes.
This episode is an interview with Jonathan Nadeau of Frostbite Systems and a user of the Linux screen-reading program, Orca.
Interview:
Orca is a screen reading program integrated with the Gnome desktop. It’s available for most Linux distributions.
Russ and Jonathan discuss how a sight-impaired individual might install Linux. There are a couple of Linux distributions that have screen-reader support during the installation: Talking Arch Linux and Vinux.
Speakup is another accessibility tool, but one that speaks the command line.
Vinux is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution with Orca built-in, allowing a sight-impaired individual to install it from the CD. Vinux is the distribtion Frostbite Systems normally installs for it’s sight-impaired customers.
Slackware has a Speakup kernel, and more distributions are including the Speakup module as well. Several distributions can be installed using Speakup. Some instructions are available at the Speakup site.
Russ mentioned the Quick Learning Techies Show (QLTS) that also occasionally discusses accessibility issues.
Jonathan discusses the pros and cons of Vinux, as well as his concerns about it being Ubuntu-based.
Richard asks Jonathan for more details about how Vinux talks a new user through the install.
If the application is GTK-based, it will likely work with Orca; if it’s QT-based, it probably won’t work with Orca.
Ted’s software (WA0EIR), including PSK31LX, works via ssh, so the programs are controllable from the command line and would work with the Speakup module.
Meanwhile, Russ attempts to install Orca during the show.
Jonathan mentions another podcast he does, This Week in Fedora, and says there is an amateur radio Fedora spin. (I could not find a link to a specific spin of Fedora for amateur radio, but there is a Special Interest Group. -Ed.)
Frostbite Systems sells desktops and laptops with Linux pre-installed. Customers can choose from Debian, Fedora, Linux Mint, OpenSuse, Ubuntu and Vinux. A portion of each sale is donated back to the distribution chosen.
Russ asks Jonathan about the hardware he uses in Frostbite systems. All of the laptops/notebooks have all-Intel hardware, while some desktops have nVidia video cards. All are completely Linux-compatible.
Russ then examines the specifications of some of the Frostbite computers.
Jonathan also produces several podcasts through Frostbite Media:
Frostcast: interviews with project leaders of various GNU/Linux and Free/Open Source projects.
This week in Fedora: interviews with people involved with the Fedora project.
Welcome to Episode #057 of Linux in the Ham Shack. On this edition, we talk with Jonathan Nadeau of Frostbite Systems about Linux for the sight impaired. Jonathan, being a blind Linux user, has overcome many challenges when it comes to using his favorite operating system and he shares with us the ins and outs of accessibility on Linux systems. There is a Linux distribution dedicated to blind users called Vinux, along with an accessible version of Arch called Talking Arch. Even newer versions of Slackware are jumping on the bandwagon with a Speakup enabled installation kernel.
This is also the first episode of LHS with a blooper reel left in at the end. Listen all the way to the last so you don’t miss out on any of the fun. Many thanks to Jonathan for his time and expertise, and many thanks to our listeners for making our show so fun to do.
Ilan Rabinovitch writes to tell us about the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE 9X), February 25-27, 2011.
Thanks, Ilan. Sorry we couldn’t include this earlier.
Kevin, KB9RLW, writes in response to Episode 51 that he agrees that Linux is a good fit for the amateur radio community for several reasons: added flexibility, security, and more choices. Even Windows 7 is still vulnerable and he points to a recent Sophos test. He keeps a WindowsXP virtual machine, in VirtualBox for those Windows applications he must run, though WINE usually works fine. He’s also a fan of The GIMP, OpenOffice, Inkscape, and Scribus. Good points, Kevin, thanks.
Dave, KA6YQ, points us to instructions for running the DX Lab suite in Linux, which, unfortunately, just says that you can run their software in a Windows XP virtual machine, which isn’t the same as running it on Linux.
Rick, K9AO, tells us of a native Linux EchoLink client SvxLink. Russ uses the Windows EchoLink program under WINE, but checked out the program. He tried building it from source, because he’s running Debian instead of Fedora, using the posted instructions, without success, but he’ll keep trying.
Joseph C. sent a donation to the LHS Dayton Hamvention fund. Thank you very much, Joseph!
Jonathan Nadeau of Frostbite Systems says that if you want to install the extra codecs in Debian, you must first add the multimedia repository to your sources list file (/etc/apt/sources.list). Add the repo, then install the codecs you want. Linux Mint Debian does much of this by default.
Richard spent most of a day trying to uninstall Gnash and install Flash… without success. And it’s true that IceWeasel and IceDove are the same as Firefox and Thunderbird, but they are one release back. Richard prefers running the current versions.
Russ tells us that by adding the following line to your /etc/app/sources.list file
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org testing main non-free
and then doing an apt-get update, you’ll be able to install the non-free codecs.
Russ and Richard then talk about removing Gnash:
dpkg --remove --force-all gnash
Russ recommends GhostBSD if you’d like to play with BSD.
John, EI7IG, writes that Episode 53 was a “cracker” and that he’s a fan of fldigi, too. He also tells us of APRSISCE32, an APRS client for Windows written by Lynn, KJ4ERJ. John has been running IPV6 in the shack and points us to this article by Geoff Huston. Thanks, John.
Larry Bushey and Tom Chaudoir of the Going Linux podcast send their regards.
Russ gives an impromptu review of the Linux Reality podcast by Chess Griffin.
LHS is a sponsor of the upcoming Indiana LinuxFest, and Lord D. sent his appreciation.
Mogens, OZ1AKN, asks for help on a couple of topics.Question: Is it possible to automatically start a program under WINE?
Russ responds with:To make a program under WINE start at boot, look at /etc/rc.d/skeleton for a sample. Copy the skeleton file to the name of the WINE app you want to start, then edit it to start whatever you want to start, such as /usr/bin/wine/echolink.
If you want a program to start when the X session starts, click:
menu -> system -> preferences -> statup applications -> Add a startup app
In the dialog, give it a name and add the command: /usr/bin/wine <application path>
Question: How do you reinstall Windows in a dual-boot setup?
Russ responds with:
It’s easier to install Windows first, then Linux, as the Linux boot loader will automatically detect Windows and include it in the boot menu. If you install Linux first, then Windows, Windows will overwrite the Linux boot loader.
Otherwise, if you’re trying to repair a dual-boot system, try booting with a system rescue CD to repair GRUB.
Google “linux boot ntldr ” to find instructions to tell the Windows NTLDR to also boot Linux.
Tom H. sent a donation to the Dayton Hamvention fund. Thanks, Tom!
Frazer writes that the LHS Facebook fanpage seems to be geoblocked in Canada. (Russ has fixed the problem. Thanks, Frazer.)
Jim, KG9EQ, discovered the podcast while searching for QSSTV and wrote to share his appreciation for the website. Thanks, Jim.
B.B. in the chat room asked if Jerry Taylor has resumed the Practical Amateur Radio podcast. (Richard’s comments were recorded before Jerry resumed recording episodes.)
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