Video Playback on GPU in Linux!
One of the major new advancements in nVidia drivers has been the ability to playback video on the GPU instead of the CPU. This is freeing up CPU usage, and putting all the work on the powerful GPUs. However, one of the major problems is getting the correct software to do the job.
In Linux, it appears that there is only one media player which fully supports VDPAU, which is the Linux API developed by nVidia which decodes video on the GPU. Gnome MPlayer supports this technology, which allows both 720p and 1080p video to play on the GPU, without the CPU usage going too high. This technology has allowed me to play HD videos on my Acer Aspire Revo, which if you tried to play on Totem (which renders video on the CPU), the CPU hits 100% and the video very coppy. In Gnome MPlayer, it can playback without a problem with the CPU sitting at 20%.
This is a plea to Gnome to implement VDPAU into Totem!
Clean up Ubuntu!
As you all may know, I love tweaking and clean up my computers. I have already told you about a tool for Ubuntu, Bleachbit, which removes old files. Now its time to remove unnecessary packages from Ubuntu.
First, install two packages; localepurge and deborphan, both can be found in the Ubuntu repos.
Now we are ready to begin!
Getting rid of Residual Config packages
In Synaptic, on the far left hand side, you may see a category called "Residual config". Click on it, remove all the packages in that section. These are all the old packages which you had installed, which have left parts of the old package behind, this will now clean it up.
Getting rid of partial packages
In the terminal type:
sudo apt-get autoclean
This will remove partially completed packages, which I not needed.
Getting rid of unnecessary locale data
You have justed installed localepurge, this will run everytime you install or remove packages from Ubuntu. It will make sure there are no unused locale files or man pages left on your computer after the package was removed. You dont need to worry about this tool, it will work all by itself.
Getting rid of orphaned packages
In the terminal run this command:
sudo deborphan | xargs sudo apt-get -y remove --purge
When you remove an application from your computer, it may leave behind alot of unnecessary libs and other tools for that application to run. These are not needed now, this command will make sure there are no unused packages.
Thats it! Your computer should have more space free now! A more cleaner and slim-lined computer. Make sure you run these commands every so often, so your computer is always clean!
My Thoughts on Synergy
Synergy is a great tool if you have/use more than one computer. It allows you to use your keyboard and mouse on one computer, on many other computers.
One set of keyboard and mouse across a unlimited amount of computers!
It is especially good, if you don't have dual monitors, but you can create that sort of setup with two computers. However, in away it is better to use Synergy than dual monitor, because you can be sharing the computing power across two computers. You can even copy and paste text between computers. Its cross platform, so you can use the tool between Windows, Mac and Linux computers.
Its a great tool if you need to use of different computers at the same time,I found it very useful for IRC client on my eee pc and my general work on my desktop. You can download it here for FREE!
Simple Tip for Better Graphics Performance in Linux!
Linux is still fairly bad when it comes to Graphic drivers. Compiz, 3D Games and Flash video are usually fairly poor compared to Windows.
However, I have found a simple tip, to make the experience better. By setting the default depth from 24 to 16. This should improve 3D performance. Even with cards which were not able to do compiz well, now can!
My Thoughts on Ubuntu 9.10
(Originally post on 29 Oct 2009)
Ubuntu 9.10 is out today! I have been trying it out since the beta, I thought today would be a good idea to give my thoughts on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Kola.
Straight off the bat, Ubuntu 9.10 is the best release so far. Of course, you think that ever Ubuntu release is better than the last one. However, Ubuntu 9.10 has made, in my opinion, a huge leap forward over its past releases. I believe this is down to three key features of Karmic. Firstly, Ubuntu Hundred Paper Cuts project. This project was started at the beginning of the Karmic development cycle. The aim of the project is to fix minor usability bugs within Ubuntu. In past releases, you may have noticed these, such as window titles having no title and inconsistency with naming of certain parts of Ubuntu; e.g. Filesystem or File System. 100 usability bugs have been targeted for Karmic, so far only 50 of these have been fixed. These 50 fixes have made Ubuntu more polished and well put together. One of the major usability bugs have been fixed is system beep. For many releases, I have been interrupted by a loud system beep, now it has been replaced by a sound file.
Secondly, the new look of the User Interface is excellent. Everything from, booting up to logging in to your desktop is beautiful. There is a new “boot experience”, mainly thanks to xorg starting first. This now allows a fully graphically boot, with no flicker! Boot time is quicker than Jaunty, but you will not see as much change as
The New Ubuntu Desktop (click to enlarge)
we did between Intrepid and Jaunty. The login screen now features a list of users with their login picture. Very similar to Windows XP. Its a design feature Ubuntu needed for many years, since its more suited to home users. Before I talk about the desktop, the entire boot experience reminds me of the OS X boot experience. It is very similar, this is not a bad thing, since I believe OS X is the best looking operating system. Ubuntu is coming close to beating OS X in that area. The desktop is looking great too. The new desktop look features a new theme, icons and wallpapers. The new theme makes Ubuntu looking abit smarter and polished, though it is still brown. The new icons are excellent, one of the best improvements to Karmic. The new default wallpaper is excellent, but for the first time, Ubuntu comes with a good selection of different types of wallpapers. Other UI improvements have been with notify-osd, a more slimer notification box, which is used more often. In your home folder, new icons have been added to certain folders, such as Music and Documents, to represent what is in them.
Thirdly, the Linux Kernel. Its usually a feature hidden away from the end user and most people see it as not being very important. However, with the Karmic release, I have noticed major advancements in Linux Kernel. Ubuntu 9.10 ships with kernel 2.6.31, this kernel and the one before it, 2.6.30, have brought big advancements to Linux. More drivers which now include USB 3.0 support, first OS to support it!!! Plus, on my EEE PC 900, the wifi on/off switch now works! Speed and stability improvements to ext4! Faster boot! Better memory management! Better performance! These major advancements have made Ubuntu 9.10 very quick and snappy. I have found that applications load up quicker, just general use of the OS feels more responsive. Plus, improvements to xorg which means that the Intel drivers are back up to good performance again. All these improvements complete a far more polished Ubuntu!
Of course, like all Ubuntu releases, new applications are updated and added. One major application change has been the replacement of Pidgin with Empathy. Personally, I am not happy with the change, Empathy is a good IM client which integrates well with Gnome, however I prefer Pidgin. I have removed Empathy and Installed Pidgin, no problems. Gnome 2.28 is in Karmic, nothing which excites me with this release. Firefox has been updated to 3.5, faster webpage loading, new javascript engine, private browsing and support for HTML5, all good advancements. OpenOffice 3.1 and Gimp 2.6.7 are now in Ubuntu. Canonical's online backup service, Ubuntu One, has been fully integrated into Karmic. It is a good service for Ubuntu users, however it has not replaced Google Docs, because I access my work at University on a Windows PC. Ubuntu One does not work well on Windows. I will hopefully do a full review on Ubuntu One shortly.
To conclude, Ubuntu 9.10 is the best release ever. Mainly down to being a polished version of Ubuntu, thanks to work of the Hundred Paper Cuts project. Advancements in UI and applications have completed the final product, making a more usable OS. Ubuntu has now got an excellent stepping stone onto the next release, for further improvements and polish.
Bleachbit – Clear out the Junk from Linux!
I have recently found a great tool for Linux, called Bleachbit. which will clear out junk such as logs, old config files and cache from applications. Its very similar to one of my favorite programs on Windows, CCleaner (may have to blog that soon as well!). It has support for removing junk from over 70 different applications, including Firefox, Pidgin, Flash, Java and Linux system files. Bleachbit runs in two modes, standard and root. In standard mode, the user can remove files which are stored in the home folder, mainly logs and Firefox cached data. In root, you are able to remove files left over from apt and system files, logs and cache. If you are usure what to remove and what not, Bleachbit will explain what each removal will do. I strongly recommend to run both modes, to remove most of the junk. First time I ran it, I saved about 100 mb of disk space.
Bleachbit can be download from the link above, it is also in the Ubuntu repos!
Bleachbit - Remove all your junk!
Me!
Ed Hewitt, 19, Studying @ - Bored waiting for lecture!
- Coffee and dairy milk :D
- Brilliant match, no way I was expecting a 4 - 0 result. Nice to see Neville.
