2016 — 15 March: Tuesday
The commissioning of Skylark1 inches ever nearer to completion. For example, last night (on only my second2 attempt) I restored my ability to scan and print with the LaserJet Pro MFP 125a. I know from my initial skirmishes a year ago that I need a proprietary binary module from HP before the XSane plugin will "play nice" and interface the scanner to the GIMP image processor I utterly rely on. I also know that the module currently in the Mint repositories is back-level, and doesn't give my specific All-In-One device all its vitamins.
I further know that the full HP software suite, when fully updated, might still turn out to be a step too far. (Last time I installed it, on BlackBeast Mk III, I had to rip it out and replace it by a deliberately back-level variant that was nevertheless still recent enough to drive my device.) These days, being a devil-may-care sort of Linux adventurer, I went for the Full Monty because the helpful script provided by the HP Open Source folk now both recognises, and claims to support, Mint 17.3...
Yesterday's purchase...
... of the nVIDIA GTX 950 graphics card — that's doing a superb job of driving the 34" Dell from Skylark — rather over-shadowed my parallel acquisition (for less than a tenner) of a very useful 4.8 metre USB 2 "A" to "B" cable. I bought that with precisely the HP software in mind as it easily connects the HP device to the Skylark in its present (possibly/probably? temporary, but well-Dysonned) nest behind the sofa. A good, long, USB cable can be hard to find... (didn't Mae West say that?)
Less PC progress...
... is predicted for today, however, as I'm off out and about in pursuit of my next Free Lunch and to bring a little spare Marantz A/V receiver3 Joy into the currently drab non-surround-sound Life of my chums Gill and Chris after a lightning bolt zapped their present Sony receiver's audio stages. (I similarly lost a Sony amplifier in the mid-1980s in my one [and I sincerely hope only] close encounter with ball lightning. That was both fascinating and very frightening. And all I salvaged from my Sony after the very loud bang and the wisps of smoke was its copper heat pipe, which I then used for quite a few years as a hot drinks stirrer.)
My Linux gurus...
... are exchanging news of difficulties with the 34" Dell (and, indeed, non-Dell monitors of the same ultra-wide aspect ratio on other hardware and software combinations in both the Windows and Apple worlds) so I actually seem to have "got lucky". The problems they tell me about could mean any combination of a failure to implement the DisplayPort 1.2 spec in the monitors, and/or in the Intel graphics on the Skylake series of CPU chips, and/or in the even more complex gubbins in a variety of modern graphics cards. Good luck pinpointing that!
The only minor gripe with my Dell under Linux on BlackBeast Mark III (and it's easily fixed) is the way it casually but reliably throws away 2,880,000 pixels every time I switch its input back to DisplayPort after I've been using the HDMI input to give Skylark a turn. Since at that point BB Mk III also fires up the "Displays" utility for me — I've ticked the option to do that whenever Linux thinks it's just been handed a new display to play with — it takes just two mouse clicks to effect the cure. I can live with that.
I have yet to persuade...
... digital audio to come out of hiding on the CPU's integrated "hi-def" audio chippery — this is par for the course with my past engagements with the ever-more-tangled mess that Linux audio has been becoming, believe me. However, simply re-fitting my Creative X-Fi audio card instantly restored perfect optical digital SP/DIF. I also re-instated secure online banking. But that's far too boring :-)
Having enjoyed...
... about 70 miles of high-speed cruising up and down (mostly) the A34, a delicious Thai lunch, some delightful chatting, an inspection tour of the grounds and garden, and (of course) tea and cake while watching Chris grappling with his new Marantz A/V receiver (guess which idiot forgot to allow for the fact that he's not the sort of chap who keeps spare kettle leads knocking around in abundance?) I got back to Technology Towers more-or-less ahead of the rush hour. In fact, I diverted off the last bit of the M3 at the Marwell exit rather than crawling along with the three lanes of 40 mph bumper-to-bumper traffic. After my evening meal, it was time for...
A session with Gigolo
It's the easiest way, so far, that I've found for making my NAS disks easily accessible to my Linux file manager. No fstab entries to fiddle about with, auto-connection of "book-marked" sensibly named network drives. I'm still trying to find the catch! Meanwhile, here's the first edited screen capture direct from the new Skylark desktop. It shows three folders of MP3 files from compilation CDs:
As you may deduce, I've not yet done much customisation of the appearance. [Pause] I will say this for Skylark so far: it's a very rapid PC!