Splitting a GEDCOM family tree

Use PAF (Personal Ancestral File), a free product of FamilySearch, to export a part of your tree.
It's a Windows software. Install through WINE.
PAF has a very good selection mechanism in exporting, and this makes it possible to split a GEDCOM Family Tree.

Workaround with TwinView

ATTENTION! THIS POST IS OUTDATED!

FINALLY:

xsetwacom --set "Serial Wacom Tablet" "TwinView" horizontal
xinput -set-prop "Serial Wacom Tablet" "Wacom Tablet Area" -24780, -12390, 0, 18630
xsetwacom --set "Serial Wacom Tablet eraser" "TwinView" none
xinput -set-prop "Serial Wacom Tablet eraser" "Wacom Tablet Area" -24780, -12390, 24780, 18630

or, sometimes they work with the same settings... still testing... still testing...:

Wacom options

xsetwacom --list
xsetwacom --list --verbose
xsetwacom --list param
xsetwacom --get "[device]" all
xsetwacom set "[device]" "[option]" [parameters]

xinput list
xinput list-props [id]
xinput set-prop "[device]" "[option]" [parameters]

man wacom

gedit /usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-wacom.conf

Software checklist

For image editing:

• Gimp
• ImageMagick (convert, mogrify, identify)
  
• mkbitmap in Potrace
  
• DjvuLibre-bin (cjb2, djvm)
  
• PdfJam (pdfjoin)
  
• Ubuntu's ps2pdf12
  
• Ubuntu's pdfimages
• InkScape
• FontForge for fonts
  

For windows programs:

• VirtualBox
• wine

For office stuff:

• OpenOffice
• Gedit

For E-Books:

• Sigil
• Calibre
• Comic2lrf
  

Internet tools:

• Firefox with Sun Java 6 JRE plugin for comfort
  
• Chrome for stability
  
• FileZilla for FTP
• Transmission for Bittorent
• DC++
• Skype
• Seamonkey for HTML editing
  

Viewing /editing media:

• Ubuntu Movie Player
• Mplayer & Mencoder
• SoundConverter with MP3 plugin
• Ubuntu Sound Recorder
  

Burning DVDs, CDs:

• K3B
  

System configurations:

• Terminal
• Gedit
• Nautilus Scripts
  

File manipulations:

• Nautilus
  
• MuCommander
• RSync

Tablet tools:

• Xournal
• Cellwriter
• OnBoard
  

NOTE: Making movies from image files using mencoder / ffmpeg

Here's a site. It describes something I wanted to do / did half a year ago but made no blog-post of it.

What I originally wanted to do was to have a single image as a video, and put some music to it and post it on youtube.

I somehow managed it, but I have no idea anymore how.
And I also found mp3tube, so I don't really need this anymore, if I don't care to have a special picture for my music.

Mplayer is too quiet

Actually my problem was only, that MPlayer's own volume wasn't turned up.
Key 9 and 0 are used for volume - and + on your keyboard.

However, here's the manual on MPlayer volume adjustment.

MPlayer error messages

I get this when I open anything in MPlayer:
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
bt_audio_service_open: connect() failed: Connection refused (111)
MPlayer SVN-r1.0~rc3+svn20090426-4.4.3 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.
Playing Movie.mp4.
libavformat file format detected.
[lavf] Video stream found, -vid 0
[lavf] Audio stream found, -aid 1
VIDEO: [avc1] 800x440 24bpp 23.976 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
open: No such file or directory
[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid
open: No such file or directory
[MGA] Couldn't open: /dev/mga_vid
[VO_TDFXFB] Can't open /dev/fb0: Permission denied.
[VO_3DFX] Unable to open /dev/3dfx.

To get rid of all of this, do the following:
1.)Turn bluetooth on.
2.) Disable LIRC support.: ~$ sudo gedit /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf and add the line: nolirc=yes
3.) Define X11 as default video output: in ~$ sudo gedit /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf search for the line: # vo=xv,x11 -> uncomment (remove # from the beginning of the line), change to vo=x11, or whatever is the best.

Editing, manipulating Subtitles

I used Subtitle Processor under Windows XP.

Under Ubuntu:
1.) Subtitle Editor (from Synaptic): something is wrong with the input methods and I cannot type in anything, and I don't like the environment either, so Subtitle Editor is DROPPED.

2.) AegiSub: nope, it didn't play the sounds, and I didn't like the environment.

3.) Gnome Subtitles: LIKE :-) Can do shifting easily.

DVD ripping with MEncoder

From where I learned:
MEncoder DVD to MPEG-4
Making a high quality MPEG-4 (divx) rip of a DVD movie (mplayerhq manual)
HOWTO: rip DVDs in MPEG-4 (ubuntuforums)

And this turned out to be the most useful:
SimpleRip: Ripping / Encoding DVD-s to Xvid with MEncoder

An automated way should be AcidRip, but it somehow got the code messed-up, when shell-script exported, and I had to correct it manually. What I learned from it is how to handle frameno.avi and divx2pass.log:

#!/bin/sh
echo "***********************************************************"
echo "Automated script created by AcidRip - http://acidrip.sf.net"
echo "***********************************************************"

unlink frameno.avi 2> /dev/null
mencoder dvd://1 -dvd-device /dev/dvd  -aid 129 -oac mp3lame -lameopts mode=2:cbr:br=128  -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=740:vhq:v4mv:vqmin=3:vpass=1 -vf crop=672:432:24:22    -o "/dev/null"
mencoder dvd://1 -dvd-device /dev/dvd  -aid 129 -oac mp3lame -lameopts mode=2:cbr:br=128  -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=740:vhq:v4mv:vqmin=3:vpass=2 -vf crop=672:432:24:22    -o "/home/user/movie.avi"
unlink divx2pass.log  2> /dev/null

As for the subtitle (.idx + .sub = VOBSUB format):
I want to convert them to SRT.
--> I used AVIDEMUX (downloaded from Synaptic) It worked fine.

DVD Burning

I plugged in my NEC AD-7201A (manufactured in April 2008) DVD writer drive via USB with the intent to burn a lot of DVD data disks.

1.) I tried Gnome's own burner software, but it's not really working anyway (It's stuck at "starting to record, after finishing a complete simulation), so I downloaded k3b.

2.) k3b seems to work fine. And it's very similar to Nero, which I used previously.

How to install Windows XP from a pendrive?

Use FlashBoot!

Total Commander alternative for Ubuntu

1.) DoubleCommander -> it has all the functions (incl. tabs), but it froze down on me repeatedly -> dropped.

2.) muCommander -> it's java based and has no tabs, but it worked fine for file manipulations. -> keep.

Flash Plugin is crashing constantly

The newest version of Adobe Flash Plugin crashes every other time.
I solved this by using an older version which I found in my Jaunty installation folder.
Here it is - a 2009-11-14 version of Flash Plugin.

Now testing version 10.3.181.14.

Sorting out input devices 5.

For a temporary solution, here are the codes to turn the WACOM device on and off:

~$ xinput -set-prop "Serial Wacom Tablet" "Device Enabled" 0
~$ xinput -set-prop "Serial Wacom Tablet" "Device Enabled" 1

0 in for turning it off and 1 is for turning it on.

EDIT:
in my case, when turning on the Wacom device, screen dimensions are off, so I had to add an extra line to the nautilus script:
~$ xinput -set-prop "Serial Wacom Tablet" "325" 0, 0, 24780, 18630

or

~$ xinput -set-prop "Serial Wacom Tablet" "Wacom Tablet Area" 0, 0, 24780, 18630

Sorting out input devices 4.

As I wrote in the previous post, the pen tip cursor started jumping.
This time I did not only separate the Eraser into a new cursor, but I did it with the Pen too, so now there are 3 cursors on my desktop, and I'm waiting for one of them to jump.

What to do with a write-protected USB filesystem?

My MP3-Player mounts write-protected on Ubuntu (since Gutsy).

Here's what works for me most of the time:

1.) Insert your USB Mp3-player to an USB slot, let it mount automatically.
2.) Check the System Monitor -> File Systems for the proper /dev address of your device (In my case this is /dev/sdc1)
3.) Open a normal Nautilus window and press the Eject button next to the usb device, which causes the device to unmount but stay in the system: If you open your "Computer" location from "Places", you'll see your device is still there.
4.) Open a root Nautilus:
~$ sudo nautilus
5.) Create a directory in your /media folder that will be your mount point for your player (I named mine "player")
6.) Mount your mp3-player with root access to the desired mount point:
~$ sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /media/player
7.) Now you can manage your files in the root Nautilus as you like.

Cursor jumping around #2

Unlucky me...
I got my TC4400 back from the Service with a whole new screen and motherboard, and now - unlucky me... - the pen tip is the one causing the cursor jump and NOT the eraser as before. I was quite fine with not having an eraser as it solved my problems completely, but I'm pretty unsatisfied with not being able to use the pen tip, so I guess I'll have to do a big workaround and hope for the best.

As for differences, now the cursor jumps when it's caught by the pen too.

Restore Ctrl+Alt+Backspace combination to restart X-windows

Source: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/DontZap

Using GNOME

* Get to the System->Preferences->Keyboard menu.

* Select the "Layouts" tab and click on the "Layout Options" button.

* Then select "Key sequence to kill the X server" and enable "Control + Alt + Backspace".

If this doesn't work (e.g. the option is unchecked but the key sequence still works), you can edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

The DontZap option in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file enables or disables the CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE shortcut to restart the X-server. In previous Ubuntu releases, this shortcut was enabled by default, however this has changed with 9.04 "Jaunty", as a number of users have complained about accidentally restarting their X-Server, which results in a sudden, unexpected logout which brings to the logon screen.

You can install the dontzap package and use the command dontzap --disable, or you can manually edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf,

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

then type your password, press enter, and use the simple text editor to add a ServerFlags section like this to the start, end, or middle of the file (Ctrl+O to save file):

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "DontZap" "false"
EndSection

And then restart the Computer (or log out and back in) to apply the changes. The shortcut should be re-enabled now.

If you want to disable the shortcut, either delete the section (in Jaunty) or change it to this or add this:

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "DontZap" "true"
EndSection

And then restart the Computer (or log out and back in) to apply the changes. The shortcut should be disabled now.

Fix Firefox backspace to take you to the previous page

Source: http://embraceubuntu.com/2006/12/21/fix-firefox-backspace-to-take-you-to-the-previous-page/

Type “about:config” in the address bar of Firefox and press Enter.
`Filter` (Ctrl+F) for ‘browser.backspace_action’ and change its value to 0 (zero).

Ubuntu 10.04.1

After getting a whole new motherboard and screen for Alice, I installed a fresh copy of Lucid Lynx. So here's what has to be done to restore her old self:

- Change the MAC address for the registered one
- Java for Firefox
- Xournal, Gimp
- RSYNC the stuff back
- Nautilus Scripts
- Firefox Preferences, etc.
- Gnome themes, background, etc.

This time I installed a Total Commander like program called DoubleCommander. I'll see where I'll get with it.

Change networking hwaddress under Mac OS X

to be able to use sudo:

$ su MYUSER

to see detailed networking information:

$ ifconfig

to change ethernet hardwer address:

$ sudo ifconfig en0 ether MY:MA:CA:DD:RE:SS

SED in text editing.

Sorry guys for the comments are in Hungarian language, but it was so complicated and I spent the whole day doing it.

The project was about: matching two lines within a file, within a single text file. Actually, it was matching the beginning of following two lines and comparing them. It was a dictionary having separate lines for all the meanings and the point was to put all the meanings in a single line.

# szótárunkban minden szócikk minden jelentése külön sorban volt.
# egy szócikk és egy jelentés kettő darab space karakterrel volt szeparálva, sehol máshol nem volt két space a fájlban.
# feladatunk, hogy egy szócikk összes jelentését egy sorba tegyük, pontosvesszővel elválasztva.
# ez végül így sikerült:
# sed -n 'x; s/\(.*\n\)\(.*$\)/\2/; G; s/\(.* \)\(.*\)\n\1\(.*\)/\1\2\; \3/; h; s/\(.*\n\)\(.*$\)\|\(^.*\)\(; .*$\)/\2\4/w output.txt' input.txt
# mindezek után még ki kellett törölni a felesleges sortöréseket geditben.
# a parancsok kifejtése alább.

sed -n ' # csendes üzemmód.
x; # a pattern-space-be behívott sort felcseréli a hold space-szel
s/\(.*\n\)\(.*$\)/\2/; # az előző cycle-ből megmaradt hold-space-es anyagból leszedi az első sort, ha van, ha nincs, nem csinál semmit.
G; # hozzáírja a most hold-sp-ben levő új sort a most pattern-sp-ben levő régihez egy sortörés után
s/\(.* \)\(.*\)\n\1\(.*\)/\1\2\; \3/; # ha a p-sp-ben levő 2 sor eleje karakterre megyegyezik, akkor a második sorból törli a szócikket és hozzávezeti a jelentéseket az első sorhoz egy pontosvessző és egy space kíséretében. ha nem egyezik meg, akkor marad a 2 sor, nincs törlés.
h; # felülírja a h-space-t az új 1 vagy 2 sorunkkal.
s/\(.*\n\)\(.*$\)\|\(^.*\)\(; .*$\)/\2\4/w output.txt # ha két sor van, a másodikat, ha egy sor van, az utolsó szót pontosvesszűstül és szpészestül belevezeti a megadott text fileban egy új sorba.
' input.txt # ezt a fájlt dolgozzuk fel.

The SED MANUAL was a huge help, thank you!