By Popular Demand - Fixing On-Demand Video in Mint 16

After a brutal shift at work, all I wanted to do this afternoon was crash in front of the TV but I got home to find that I had no signal. So, I thought I'd catch up with some on-demand TV from Channel 5 but I couldn't get any video to play via Chromium on any of my Mint 16 systems.

A little research suggested that installing the (now deprecated) hardware abstraction layer (HAL) should get everything except Amazon Prime working. If I've understood the concept correctly, HAL is (more accurately, was) simply a generic way of allowing the OS to access the system hardware regardless of type: conceptually, I think of it as a universal translater! Installing it on Mint 16 is simple. First you need to close Chromium and add a new PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mjblenner/ppa-hal


Next, install HAL:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install hal


This was all that was needed on the DELL Dimension 8400, but I needed to reboot the Aluetia for the changes to take effect. It was worth it though, TV always looks better on a bigger screen!

Sources & References:

• Wikipedia: Hardware Abstraction Layer
• Linux Mint Hint: Fixing Channel 4 OD Video Playback
• OMG!Ubuntu!: Fixing Amazon Prime Streaming DRM Protected Flash 13.10

Keeping Up With The Jones's

This week more than a couple of sites are reporting on the Firefox refresh, Australis. Both are also pointing out the similarities between this latest incarnation and a close rival; Google Chrome.

I've blogged before about preferring Chromium to Firefox and these reviews do nothing to persuade me that I'm wrong. Indeed, the only significant difference appears to be that the options menu in Firefox is now icon (rather than text) based: hardly, the height of innovation. Convergent, it seems, means emulating your competitors.

I may give it a look over the next few weeks, but it won't be at the top of my to do list.

Sources & References:

• The Register: Firefox, is that you? Version 29 looks rather like a certain shiny rival
• OMG!Ubuntu!: Mozilla Firefox 29 Released With Brand New Look

Chromium Flash Player in 14.04 LTS

If, like me, you're not a big fan of Firefox, you may prefer an alternative browser - I like Chromium, but in 14.04 flash player is not enabled by default. In 14.04 the fix is fairly straight forward, in a terminal, copy & paste:

sudo apt-get install pepperflashplugin-nonfree

Followed by:

sudo update-pepperflashplugin-nonfree --install

If restarting your browser doesn't enable flash video, rebooting my PC worked for me.

Sources & References:

• Web UPD8: Pepper Flash Player Installer For Chromium Available in Ununtu 14.04 Repositories

Bling for 13.10?

Joey-Elijah Sneddon has reported that Chromium is the likely replacement for Firefox in the 13.10 release of Ubuntu.

I haven't used Firefox for a while: I find it slow to open and flaky to use. In fact, the only time that I use FF now is when I'm testing changes made to the Komphix website from Bluefish. I'm not sure that it will ever be my favourite browser again as it once was.

Sources & References:

• OMG!UBUNTU!: Chromium Likely to Replace Firefox as Default Browser in Ubuntu 13.10

A Night at the Opera

The news that Mozilla has released a new version of Firefox hasn't tempted me away from Chrome; but, something else has persuaded me to change my browser!

Recently, page loads in Chrome have got slower and slower and it seems that this is neither a new problem, nor is it attributable to a single reason. After enduring the rather cryptic sending request error message for a few days, I thought I'd take the opportunity to see how Opera performs on Ubuntu. This move isn't entirely a leap in the dark, I'm already a regular Opera user - it's the primary browser on my iPAQ hx2790!

Opera Mini on Windows Mobile

I've always liked the speed dial page in Opera Mini and, in my opinion, text rendering has always been superior to Firefox. So, this weekend I downloaded Opera 11.50 and gave it a whirl on my Ubuntu machines.

It's taken a day or so to get used to the way the browser works and shortcuts aren't as intuitive as I would like. Moreover, online help is not as readily available as it is with other browsers and this dearth of expertize is probably a reflection of the minuscule market share (estimated at around 2.3%) that Opera enjoys. However, Opera is probably the quickest browser that I've used (particularly with the Turbo function enabled) and text rendering is as stunning on the desktop version as it is on the WinMob application!

If you are tempted to give Opera a try, here's a couple of tips:

1. If you enable Speed Dial, use your mouse's centre button to open links in a new tab or window rather than than the current tab.
2. Take a look at Opera's tutorial on mouse gestures - it could save you some time trying to set preferences.

Sources & References:

• Opera Software: Home
• Firefox: Release Notes (v.6.0)
• Chrome Help: Webpages load slowly or don't load at all
• W3 Counter: Global Web Stats (July 2011)

Not So Shiny?

My personal victory over both Microsoft and Skype at the weekend diverted my attention from my laptops. On my return, I find that, on the DELL Inspiron 6400, Chromium crashes immediately it is started - couldn't do a thing with it.

There is a fair bit of chatter on the Internet about this problem and several solutions are offered, including turning off hardware acceleration via Firefox: however, I chose to replace Chromium (from the repository) with Google Chrome (a direct download). I've outlined the process here for two reasons:

1. The linked instructions aren't absolutely clear.
2. The download link in the original instructions directs to the French download page.

Instructions to Replace Chromium:

• Install Google Chrome using the package manager: Download Page. Select the appropriate package and then click the Accept & Install button. When the download is complete, the Package Installer will start automatically - click Install.
• Uninstall Chromium using the Ubuntu Software Center.

Whilst this option is a quick and dirty method for replacing the browser in the repository with Google's version (and adding Google's ppa to your software sources at the same time), you can also repair Chromium by copying the libgcflashplayer.so file from Google's browser to Ubuntu's browser.

Instructions to Repair Chromium

• Install Google Chrome using the package manager: Download Page. Select the appropriate package and then click the Accept & Install button. When the download is complete, the Package Installer will start automatically - click Install.
• When the installation is complete, open a terminal and copy & paste the following into the command line:
  
  sudo cp /opt/google/chrome/libgcflashplayer.so /usr/lib/chromium-browser/plugins

  
  Press the return key and enter your sudo password at the prompt.
• Copy and paste the following into the command line
  
  sudo chmod ugo+x /usr/lib/chromium-browser/plugins/libgcflashplayer.so

  
  Press the return key.
• Uninstall Chrome by searching for google-chrome-stable in Synaptic Package Manager and marking the package for removal

Sources & References:
Ask Ubuntu How Can I fix Crashing Flash on Chromium?
Chrome Download (English)

Spit and Polish - Adding Chrome

My upgrade to Maverick a week or so ago resulted in some time spent reconfiguring my setup. One of the things I've decided to try is the Chromium web browser to see how it compares to Firefox.

So far I confess to being somewhat ambivalent to the browser. There's no doubt that it's much (MUCH) faster than Firefox 4.0 and the page rendering is vastly superior, but I have found the interface to be less intuitive and user-friendly than Firefox. I suspect that it's a sign of (my) age when a new interface grates on the nerves of the user: after all, browsers are really just delivery vehicles and Chromium does focus the attention on the page content rather than the bling that surrounds the application! However, it took me a while to figure out rss feeds and bookmarks although, once I'd done my homework, importing data from Firefox was simplicity itself.

You can install Chromium in 10.04 and 10.10 from the Ubuntu Software Center.