2008 January

Jan 30

Vonage and Ekiga on SUSE Linux

For the first time ever, I lost my cell phone. No freakin’ idea where it went and this IS the first time I have every lost a phone. Quite pissed.

Regardless…in my searchings for a better way I figured I’d take a look at VOIP using Ekiga. I have been a Vonage user for several years now so that was my first stop. I found an article that outlined using kphone with Vonage so I started digging.

First, you must have a softphone number from Vonage. It’s 9.99 per month and you can register for one at Vonage (do email me as you will get me a free month and I can get you an extra month free!).

Once you have signed up for a softphone number and received all of the gory details simply open Ekiga and input the following into a new account:
Account name - I used Vonage
Registar - sphone.vopr.vonage.net:5061
User - enter your complete softphone number - don’t forget the “1″
Password - enter the password Vonage provided.

Once you click the checkbox to activate it you will see “Registered to sphone.vopr.vonage.net” and you are all set.

Enter in a phone number and enjoy calls through Vonage on Linux!!

Jan 19

How to write udev rules

Technocrap No Comments »

I found a link that explains in fairly good detail how to get those elusive usb devices and other portable devices to mount their filesystem automagically…

Take a look!
Writing udev rules

Jan 14

Use those Thinkpad buttons in SUSE Linux!

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Thinkpad Notebooks feature a number of additional buttons on the keyboard. This includes controls for volume and brightness amongst other things. This wiki entry helps you take advantage of that on either SLED or openSUSE.

1. In YaST/Software Management, install the xosd software. This gives Xorg the capability to handle overlayed on-screen-display text. This is similar to the onscreen display you get on your TV when you use the volume control
2. Copy the attached file tpbrc to /etc. This is the overall configuration file for the on-screen-display hooks for the Thinkpad.
3. As root, edit the following /etc/udev/rules.d/50-udev-default.rules and search for the nvram entry. Change the permissions MODE to 0666 from 600. This allows all users to read and write to the non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) that controls some of the Thinkpad’s subsystems.
4. As root, edit /etc/sysconfig/kernel and modify the line with MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT=”" to MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT=”nvram”. Save it and run SuSEconfig. This will make sure the kernel module that accesses nvram will load on bootup.
5. Leave the root console and, as a standard user, run gnome-session-properties and select the “Startup Programs” tab. Hit the Add button and create an entry ‘tpb -d’. This will ensure that when your GUI starts (after login) that the Thinkpad button control software that works through nvram is loaded. If you want the same functionality for the root user, then su to root and run the same tool for root’s profile.
6. Reboot your system. Here’s what you’ll get….
1. The “Access IBM” will launch a console (though you can configure this to do whatever you like in /etc/tpbrc such as launching Groupwise or Firefox)
2. OSD display for Volume Up/Down and Mute
3. OSD display for LCD brightness Up/Down
4. OSD display for the overhead keyboard light (Thinklight on/off toggle)

Here’s my tpbrc file…

#### TPB CONFIGURATION FILE

### DEVICE SETTINGS

## NVRAM

# Should define the nvram device from where the information about the key

# states is read. Default is to try /dev/nvram, followed by /dev/misc/nvram.

NVRAM /dev/nvram

## POLLTIME

# Defines the delay between polls in microseconds. Default is 200000.

#POLLTIME 200000

### KEYBINDINGS AND CALLBACK

## THINKPAD

# String with command and options that should be executed when ThinkPad

# button is pressed. It is possible to execute any program.

# By default no command is executed.

THINKPAD /opt/gnome/bin/gnome-terminal –geometry=80×50

## HOME

# String with command and options that should be executed when Home button is

# pressed (only available on A and S series). By default no command is executed.

#HOME /usr/bin/mozilla

## SEARCH

# String with command and options that should be executed when Search button is

# pressed (only available on A and S series). By default no command is executed.

#SEARCH /usr/bin/mozilla http://www.google.com

## MAIL

# String with command and options that should be executed when Mail button is

# pressed(only available on A and S series). By default no command is executed.

#MAIL /usr/bin/X11/xterm -T mutt -geometry 140×40 -e mutt

## WIRELESS

# String with command and options that should be executed when Wireless button is

# pressed(only available on A and S series). By default no command is executed.

#WIRELESS /usr/bin/X11/xterm -T wavemon -geometry 140×40 -e wavemon

## FAVORITES

# String with command and options that should be executed when Favorites button is

# pressed (only available on A series). By default no command is executed.

#FAVORITES

## RELOAD

# String with command and options that should be executed when Reload button is

# pressed (only available on A series). By default no command is executed.

#RELOAD

## ABORT

# String with command and options that should be executed when Abort button is

# pressed (only available on A series). By default no command is executed.

#ABORT

## BACKWARD

# String with command and options that should be executed when Backward button is

# pressed (only available on A series). By default no command is executed.

#BACKWARD

## FORWARD

# String with command and options that should be executed when Forward button is

# pressed (only available on A series). By default no command is executed.

#FORWARD

## FN

# String with command and options that should be executed when Fn button is

# pressed. This is only triggered, when Fn is released again and it was not used for

# a key combination.By default no command is executed.

#FN

## CALLBACK

# String with command and options that should be executed each button press and

# state change. tpb passes an identifier as first argument and the new state as

# second argument to the callback. So you can do fancy things By default no

# command is executed. Supported identifiers and states are:

# IDENTIFIER STATES/VALUE

# thinkpad pressed

# home pressed

# search pressed

# mail pressed

# favorites pressed

# reload pressed

# abort pressed

# backward pressed

# forward pressed

# fn pressed

# zoom on, off

# thinklight on, off

# display lcd, crt, both

# expand on, off

# brightness PERCENT

# volume PERCENT

# mute on, off

# ac_power connected, disconnected

# powermgt_ac high, auto, manual

# powermgt_battery high, auto, manual

#CALLBACK /usr/share/doc/tpb/callback_example.sh

### MIXER SETTINGS

## MIXER

# Use OSS mixer to change volume and for mute/unmute. This should be use on

# models with no hardware mixer (volume and mute buttons show no effect). R31

# is reported to have no hardware mixer. To use this you must enable write

# access to the NVRAM device (possibly dangerous). Possible values are on and

# off. Default is off.

# MIXER OFF

## MIXERSTEPS

# Defines how much steps should be available when using the OSS mixer. Default

# is 14. If an other number of steps is used, tpb needs write access to the

# nvram device.

#MIXERSTEPS 14

## MIXERDEVICE

# Defines the mixer device to use for OSS mixer support. Default is /dev/mixer.

#MIXERDEVICE /dev/mixer

### POWERMANAGEMENT SETTINGS

## APM

# Some ThinkPads generate mouse and keyboard events or have a high CPU load when

# polling /proc/apm. You may enable this, if you want the AC connected/AC

# disconnected messages. Default is off.

#APM OFF

## POWERMGT

# The program apmiser (part of tpctl package) switches the power management

# mode according to the needs of the user. This results in lots of changes

# displayed in OSD. To avoid this, the power management messages can be turned

# off. Default is auto.

#POWERMGT AUTO

### X11 SETTINGS

# XEVENTS

# Some of the special keys generate X11 events instead of changing the nvram. TPB

# is able to grab those keys and run an application. However some people like to

# use the X11 events through xmodmap or the like. This option turns off the

# grabbing of the events. Affected keys are HOME, SEARCH, MAIL, FAVORITES,

# RELOAD, ABORT, BACKWARD, FORWARD and FN. Default is on.

#XEVENTS OFF

### ON-SCREEN DISPLAY SETTINGS

## OSD

# Global switch for showing on-screen display for volume, mute and brightness.

# Possible values are on and off. Default is on.

OSD ON

## OSDZOOM

# Specific switch for showing on-screen display for zoom button.