Install NVIDIA Optimus Card Ubuntu

Bumblebee project is an open source project for Nvidia graphic card that support optimus technology. I am using Nvidia GeForce GT540M that supported with optimus technology.  Here is step by step bumblebee instalation

1. Check your vga card using command
   

   sudo lspci -vnn |grep '\[030[02]\]'

   VGA has been detected in my laptop, so i get message below

   00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0116] (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) 
   01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GF108 [GeForce GT 540M] [10de:0df4] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller]) 

2. Add Bumblebee Repository
   

   sudo apt-add-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable
   sudo apt-add-repository ppa:Ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

3. Update nvidia-current package if you've install optimus card before
   

   sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current

4. Update repository list
   

   sudo apt-get update

5. Install bumblebee with the nvidia driver
   

   sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia

6. Restart your machine
   

After installing Bumblebee, by default we do not use the nvidia card when running a program. For that we need to add optirun command on the terminal to running an application using nvida card, for example

optirun blender 

We can display our nvidia card properties with this command

optirun nvidia-settings -c :8

nvidia gt540m

Might be a bit complicated to run applications with the terminal, with optirun anyway. I have two tips for running applications with bumblebee.

Using Gnome Shell
If you are using gnome shell you can using shortcut Alt + F2. You will get an box and write

optirun blender

so you can run without terminal. But i think it's same with using terminal. The differences you don't need to keep terminal open

Using Bumblebee-UI
You can using UI for running an application that must use bumblebee. There is step by step install the bumblebee ui on your machine. You must connected into internet first before follow this step.

1. Install git first

   sudo apt-get install git

2. Create a folder for git

   mkdir git

3. Go to the git folder with terminal

   cd git

4. Download bumblebee-ui from git repositroy

    git clone https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/bumblebee-ui.git

5. Go to folder bumblebee-ui

   cd bumblebee-ui

6. Install bumblebee-ui

   sudo ./INSTALL

7. After install Bumblebee UI, open Startup Application menu and add bumblebee aplication that you can run when computer on with this command

   /usr/local/bin/bumblebee-indicator

8. Restart ccomputer and you will get an icon on top (unity) and bottom (gnome-shell) that you can use to select which program that will be run using bumblebee.

If you are Blender user and want to use cycles in Ubuntu, you need more instalation i will write in next post.

Tulisan ini dalam bentuk bahasa Indonesia: Cara Install Nvidia Optimus di Ubuntu

Categories: Tutorial, Ubuntu

Cannot Access PPA Because of Internet Connection?

Have you ever got this error message "Cannot Access PPA (ppa url) to get PPA Information, please check your internet connection"? But in the same time we can browsing some webpage and download files. Why we can't acces the ppa? After search on the forum i get the answer, it's because of what we type in terminal

For example in the screenshot below is

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:irie/Blender

cannot access PPA to get the information

We need to change all letters to lowercase, so we can add the ppa repository in our machine. The code look like this

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:irie/blender

After change all letters into loweracase, the ppa can be added

add ppa success

I hope can help everyone who are frustrated because can't  ppa to repository list :D

Categories: Tips and Trick, Ubuntu

Watching TV with Ubuntu

My brother has a tv tuner that has not been used. Now, i try to use it in Ubuntu 12.10. I try to search linux driver on hardware website but i am not found the driver. But i found an ubuntu package that can use for watching tv, the package called tvtime. To install this package just run

sudo apt-get install tvtime

tv tunner

Although there are a tvtime package, but the application does not run so well for my gadmei. I think because it was too old, about 5 years ago. There are a few things I do to fix the application to be compatible with the hardware I have. The problems that I experienced after the installation is

TVTIME not detect the video source from Gadmei. By default, tvtime detect video source such as a webcam on the laptop. We can figure out the problem by running tvtime in a terminal. Would appear an error message like this

videoinput: Driver won't tell us its norm: Invalid argument
videoinput: Can't get tuner info: Inappropriate ioctl for device
    Your capture card driver: uvcvideo [Laptop_Integrated_Webcam_2HDM/usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.4/19
    does not support full size studio-quality images required by tvtime.
    This is true for many low-quality webcams.  Please select a
    different video device for tvtime to use with the command line
    option --device.

To fix this, go sourcelist of tvtime in the folder / etc by running the command

 sudo gedit /etc/tvtime.xml 

search for code below

 <option name="V4LDevice" value="/dev/video0"/>

Change the video0 to video1 so the code will be look like this

<option name="V4LDevice" value="/dev/video1"/>

Before start watching we need to scan the tv frequency on our location :D. So we can save the frequency of  tv station in our area. To scan tv frequency, run this command to terminal

 tvtime-scanner

tvtime-scanner

After that just rung tvtime and you will can watch television in your ubuntu desktop.

watching television on ubuntu

Categories: Tips and Trick, Ubuntu

Movavi, Integrated Screen Capture Software

Today, I prefer making a video tutorial to writing tutorials. I only need to run the screencapture software, practice a tutorial and explain the steps with my voice. After that, just do a little editing (add watermark, add backsound, etc) and your video tutorial that is ready to shared on social networks such as youtube, facebook, vimeo, etc.

It will be different if I wrote a tutorial, I have to type first and take a screenshot for each step. After that I have to edited each screenshot before combining them. It took a longer time than creating a video tutorial

Selection of a video screen capture software must be done carefully. Because the software is affecting our effectiveness in making a video tutorial. Movavi Screen capture is a good software for creating video tutorial. You can capture screen video to live streaming video,  webcam and online chat 

You also can record high frame rate (up to 60 frame per second) for game without getting slowdown, freezes or hang. So you will get a perfect game footage to share with your friends

Record, Edit, and Share integrated in one software. We do not need other software when creating a video tutorial / video screen capture. Movavi provide all in one what we need to create a video tutorial.

integrated in one software

In addition, with Movavi we can make any kind of video for a variety of needs. For example, to create HD-quality video, video tutorial for distribution through a social networks such youtube, vimeo, or facebook and video tutorial for play in your smartphone

Creating a video tutorial for distribution through a network of online video youtube or vimeo, and video tutorial for your smartphones.

Categories: Multimedia, Software