MythTV Menus Disapeared!

I have been in the process of setting up a new MythTV frone end and having lots of little issues. I go through this every time, all the little tweaks I need to work with my hardware drive me nuts! I am going to be adding important things here as they come up.
I just rebooted the system and all the menus were gone! Just a blank background. I navigated by “feel” to the settings and the screen came up. I tried changing from OpenGL to QT, changed theme, no good. Started googling, nothing looked familiar. I finally realized I had unplugged the monitor the night before. Opened nvidia-settings, rescanned monitors, saved and that fixed it.
Now a bit more explanation. I have an nvidia 8400gs card connected to a 61″ RCA DLP using DVI. First time I have used this card and this type of set up. I had a small LCD monitor hoked up as well while installing since the RCA cuts off the menus, and switched when finished. I disabled the LCD and every thing was OK. Last night I unplugged the LCD from the AC since I was done with it. Today I powered down to look at mounting a new hard drive and when I powered back up, no menus on Myth. I looked in nvidia-settings and the monitor was still listed. Rescanned and still there, Completely disconnected and rescanned, GONE! Saved xorg.conf, rebooted, changed all settings back, and now it is ok.
Apparently nvidia was trying to be too smart for it’s own good. I had hoped to leave the LCD enabled for future use, but I guess I will just have to reset things if I do.
Now I know, and knowing is half the battle! (To keep from pulling what hair I have left!)

Number of View :2484

Auto login Fedora 11

Another note for future installs of Fedora.
I use the auto login feature in Fedora and it wasn’t working on my latest install. I have had this problem in the past and never figured out why until now.
In the KDE settings there is a “Login Manager” where you can set automatic and password-less login which I set everything and it still didn’t work.
I use KDE but decided to install Gnome as well to try it a bit. I used “switchdesk kde” to change to KDE. Apparently Fedora uses GDM by default not KDM if you install Gnome. The settings only effect KDM! I normally do not even install Gnome to save space so if GDM is missing it will default to KDM. This explains why it normally works for me, but some times, like now, it does not!
The solution is to add the file (if missing) /etc/sysconfig/desktop and add/change the entry
DESKTOPMANAGER=”KDE”
Reboot. Now it works

Number of View :2537

KDE4 Super user file manager in panel

After installing Fedora 11 several times I have finally decided to document how I did this so I will stop pulling my hair out (not much left) each time I do this. I have it working on my main system but can never remember how. Since I got smart a while back and put /home in it’s own partition I now don’t wipe it when upgrading so I haven’t had to recreate it since.
In previous versions (pre KDE4) there was a menu item for super user file manager using Konqueror. I am use to Konqueror and set it to default, but I got use to being able to get at the system files without having to switch users or use a terminal. Yes I know the dangers, It’s my system and that’s the way I like it. You use to be able add it to the panel and when clicked it would ask for password and run. Any configuration files would then open in kwrite in su mode as well and save properly.
The first problem I ran into was that KDE4 requires you to use kdesu instead of su if you want anything to run in X as root. Very upsetting to open a terminal, type su, pw, kwrite, and have nothing happen.
So once I got over that I went to add what I wanted to the panel, but there is no choice for application, only damn “widgets”! Since there is no widget for “file manager super user” I tried dragging /home down there and then modifying it, no joy. It is just a folder, opening with the default app. not an app. itself. I dug on my main system and recreated what I must have done.

What I ended up doing:
Right click the launcher icon, select “Menu Editor”
Created a New Item. (Where ever you like)
Set Command to “kdesu konqueror”
Set other preferences (icon, name, description.)
Save.
Drag new icon and place on panel.
TA DA!

(Edit: I just figured out how to do it in”Menu Editor” DUH!)

Number of View :2336

Rain barrel note

You might have noticed on my main page a note about a rain barrel system. I have to go back and take pictures of each component and put it together. The problem is it is summer and all kinds of other projects have came first (see next posts), and now planning for a wedding to.Here is a quick sneak peek at it and see if you can guess what makes it special.

rainbarrel

Number of View :2449

Front yard landscaping

My front yard has been slowly sliding down hill for years. There is hardly any topsoil left, so the grass looks like crap. I have been wanting to add a small retaining wall along the front then back fill to level out the whole yard and replant new grass. After doing the pool, I had to a lot of dirt left over and figured now was a good time to do it. (hence the “free” pool just got more expensive!) Of course, there was not quite enough dirt to fill it all the way! Now to get more dirt (or dig another hole in the back yard!) and get some grass growing. I like having nice grass in my yard, of course the best grass I had was right where the pool went!! I could always start on the garage I wanted to build and use that dirt. Hmmm… another project, but not for a while, I need to rest up for this whole wedding thing. A few more pictures

Number of View :2213

New “free” pool

Earlier this spring we got a complete free pool on freecycle. It was in pretty good shape, we just had to take it down. At the time it was still cold, in fact part of the pool was buried and was frozen into the ground! The liner had a small leak in it but didn’t matter since it was still frozen too and got destroyed.The reason “free” is in quotes is it still cost some money to install:
A new liner (duh)
Building permit
Electrical supplies ($45 GFCI breaker!!)
Spray paint for the uprights and rails
Renting tiller
Pavers to go around edge
New filter cartridge
Vermiculite for bottom
Misc. replacement hardware
Food to feed the friends who helped on set up day (Thanks Scott)
All in all, no where near the several thousand a new pool would have cost.
For others who might do this, we found the Vermiculite at Menards in the “insulation” department for insulating block walls, worked out to be cheaper than bags of sand and a whole lot lighter to handle!! It also gives a wonderful bottom. We installed the liner using a shop vac to suck it into place and have no wrinkles!! My family had several pools and I had been though setting them up before, and this method rocked!

Next thing will be to install the solar heater we also got on freecycle. I am not happy with it’s cheesy installation though and will be looking into something better. (Oh goody, another project)
You may also notice the home made solar cover roller. It was a quick project that needs some refinement (it bows real bad) When I redo it, probably season, I will try to document it as well.

A few more pictures, during and after

Number of View :2270

Note to self

Bridge network Fedora and VB
http://www.samlesher.com/fedora/bridge-network-interface-on-virtualbox-in-fedora

Number of View :2205