In Search for Perfect Bread (Part 4)

Intro

This time it was my wife's need to make it. She made the regular white bread dough with addition of some butter.

Seasalt gives it that "old fashioned" look and great taste

Ingredients

• 3 cups of white unbleached flour (King Arthur brand is a good one)
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon or less salt
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1-2 (one to two) teaspoons of active dry yeast
• warm water (up to 1 cup) to be added while mixing and kneading
  

Preparing the Dough

Mix the ingredients and add water till it looks good. Put some flour on your hands and knead until it is mixed and is not sticking to your fingers. This takes probably up to 4-5 minutes of kneading.

Put some oil on the bowl walls and put your ball of dough into it. Cover with dump cloth and leave for hour or two. We usually leave it in the cold oven with lights on. After one to two hours the dough should rise to about two to three times its initial size. The heat coming from the oven light makes it just warm enough for the dough to rise nicely.

The bottom of the "lepinja" is also crusty and salty.

Punch it down and knead for about two more minutes. She decided to make flat or pita bread ("lepinja" in Serbo-Croatian) sprinkled with sea salt. You oil the pan, then put some flour and salt on the bottom. Spread the dough to cover the bottow of the pan and make it half to an inch thick.

Baking

She used a pizza cutter before baking. You can also use fork and punch it from the top. You leave the dough another 30-45 minutes in the cold oven before baking. It will rise again, but you do not need to wait for it to rise all the way like the first time. Turn on the oven to 385 degrees Fahrenheit. It will take 25-35 minutes for baking. When it was almost done we used "broil" feature at 550 degrees Farenheit to darken the top. If you use broiling it takes one to two minutes. Do not overdo it as it will start to burn. When finished with baking, you can sprinkle some water at the top of it and cover it with a cloth. Let it cool on wire rack.

You got to click on these pictures to "zoom in"

To enjoy this thing, you do not need anything else. This bread is just great on its own. Because it is salty you may use some butter spread or make sandwiches with it.

First look at Kubuntu 8.04 LTS with KDE4

I tried the new KDE4 Kubuntu today. The installation and adding of the additional applications went smoothly. I pretty much followed the steps from my typical Ubuntu setup. One thin with Kubuntu is that Firefox is not the default browser and instead of Synaptic it comes with Adept.

The first look at new KDE4 went OK. As long time Gnome/Ubuntu user I find some of the things hard to get used to. It is probably more due to a normal need to get used to new or different things. Mediabuntu setup was identical. I easily added Acrobat 8, Googleearth, Skype. There were some issues when the thing felt little unresponsive. I have a feeling it is Kenqueror web browser. I installed Firefox 3.

Wish I had more time to play with it. I might leave it on one of the PCs I manage (I keep Ubuntu on most) to play with and get more used to it. I have a good feel about new Ubuntu 8.04 and derivatives.

Linux Workstation Setup (Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Hardy Heron)

Intro

I have been installing Linux on several PCs, different models, and vintages. This entry will focus on the most common "workstation" setup that I typically make. Just few days ago Ubuntu released the latest version of their distribution 8.04 LTS Hardy Heron. LTS in the name stands for Long Term Support and means that Ubuntu will provide updates and security patches for next three years. The updates and bug fixes cover not only the operating system but also all the software that is available through Ubuntu repositories (wide variety of software).

The entry will be made in a form of notes and it may go through some changes over time. Please note that this post is based on the previous Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon setup.

Step 1: Backup Your Data

Prior to installation make sure you data have been saved. Burn CD/DVDs, use external USB hard drive, flash disk, etc. I recommend using at least two backups before actually installing the new operating system. Typical things to backup is your complete home folder. Please note that some applications keep their data inside hidden folders. Good example is your email data. If you use Evolution you can easily utilize Evolution's backup/restore settings option.

If you have Windows installation that you plan to keep, and resize its partition to make space for new Linux run de-fragmentation on the Windows disk prior to running the install.

Step 2: Default Setup

• Boot with Live CD or Alternative Setup CD and preform the default setup. In 8.04 version, you can select Install option right at the boot screen.

• Be careful when choosing the options for new partitions.

Step 3: First Boot and Update

• First time you boot into new Linux, preform the system update. At this time there were no updates. You will see a notification at the upper right corner.
• Additionally system may be informing you about use of restricted drivers. Click on the icon and accept offered drivers. Typically, we are talking about video cards (ATI or nVidia), or wireless network cards, etc.
• Add additional users to the system (if needed).
  

Step 4: Adjust Clock

• Right click on the clock in the upper right corner. Select Adjust Time and Date.
• You will need to click on Unlock and enter your sudo (administrator) password.
  
• Verify your time zone and select to keep synchronized with servers. It will ask to install NTP related package. Do it.

Step 5: Add Applications

Start Synaptic Package Manager. Change Repositories to include Ubuntu Software, Third-Party Software.


Search for and add the following packages:

• amsn + libscnack2 (optional, I prefer/suggest Skype)
• build-essential (optional, not needed for most users)
  
• dia-gnome
• ghex (optional)
  
• mc
• nautilus-open-terminal
• ntfs-config
• planner
• wine
• ubuntu-restricted-extras (installs gstreamer plugins, flashplugin, sun-java)
  

Accept and install dependences offered for each package. For VPN client, you can install open-source client (optional) packages:

• vpnc
• kvpnc (GUI for vpnc)

If you need to access other computers via VNC add the following package:

• xvnc4viewer
  

Step 6: Install Java Development

Basic Java JRE and plugin have already been installed through extras package in previous step. If you need JDK for developing Java programs use Synaptic to search and install the following:

• openjdk-6-jdk
• openjdk-6-doc
  

Here also accept all the dependences and install. UPDATE (mid July): Please note here that because of the issues with OpenJDK, Ubuntu 8.04 installs Sun Java 6 as an update to OpenJDK. You will end up with both JDKs and JREs installed on the system. OpenJDK has higher priority and that can be changed with changing the priorities (please refer to separate Blog entry from July 2008)


Step 7: Install NetBeans (6.0.1)

In Synaptic, search for and install package:

• netbeans

Accept all the dependences and proceed to install.

Step 8: Additional Software, Mediabuntu

Add Mediabuntu repositories (please check https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu) with following two commands issued in the terminal:

• sudo wget http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O/etc/apt/sources.list.d medibuntu.list
• sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get update

Install following packages from Mediabuntu repositories using Synaptic:

• acroread (including script, plugin, mozilla-acroread)
• googleearth (optional)
• opera (Firefox is my first choice, however I noticed on some websites Opera behaves better)
• skype

Install codecs:

• non-free-codecs
• w32codecs

Install encryption package for playing DVDs:

• libdvdcss2

Step 9: Optimize (to be updated)

9-1) Firefox Config

• In Firefox address line enter about:config
• Set browser.cache.disk.capacity to 15000 (or 5000 on systems with small amount of RAM)
• Set network.dns.disableIPv6 to true (default was false)
  
• Set network.http.pipelining to true
  
• Change network.http.pipelining.maxrequests to 8
  

Change of these settings should speed up your Firefox. Probably the most important one is disabling IP6.

9-2) Firefox Add-ons (Foxmarks, FireFTP)

• Foxmarks
• FireFTP
  

9-3) Disable IP6: edit file /etc/modprobe.d/bad_list:

• sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/bad_list

• and add following line
  alias net-pf-10 off
  

9-4) Fix Java printing by configuring page setting in Job Options for each printer to "Portrait" (not "Auto"). This fix the issue between Java and CUPS (and NetBeans).


9-5) Fix Java and Compiz issue by editing /etc/environment and adding this line at the end:

• export AWT_TOOLKIT=MToolkit

Issues and Glitches

• Trash can applet sometimes disappears after logout and login. Funny thing is I did not have this issue on Beta.
• Firefox 3 is still Beta. I did not find Foxmarks (add-on). This is a big turn down for me at this time cause I am so used to Foxmarks. UPDATE(mid June): Foxmarks and FireFTP now available!
  

References

• http://www.ubuntu.com
• http://java.sun.com
• http://www.netbeans.org
  
• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
• http://tp0x45.blogspot.com/2008/03/linux-workstation-setup-ubuntu-710.html

Spring is in the air

I have this small tree in my back yard. I believe it is Autumn Purple Ash. We called it "stick" for a couple of years. This is its 4th year. It does most of it major grow once a year in Spring. It probably does grow during the whole year but this one or two week period is most active. Its buds turn into seriously develiped branches. I took few picture during last few days.

10 mile ride on a road bike

We have those road bikes for some time now. My daughter has that little kid's road bike we got from Amazon for last New Year's. We have done some short (2-3 miles) rides mostly around our neighborhood. Today we finally decided to make a longer run. We made total 10 miles (I know people riding road bikes are laughing at this), but I was happy we finally found some time and strength to do it. We visited our friends that live 3 miles away. Then we came back and made another ride this evening. If we get to be persistent I might have found my fun and healthy hobby after all.

Mac 512KE and Mac SE

Good old days...

Well in good old times, I had a Commodore 64 - "computer for mases, not classes" (Jack Tramiel, guy who built Commodore empire). When Mac 128 and 512 came out, these were computers for classes, but extremely cool and nice. I admired the sharp black and white monitor and crystal clear picture. Whoever used early home computers with TV sets they will know what I am talking about.


I got bunch of Mac stuff from a guy here who also collects old computers (Macs). I never got a Mac before, but certainly remember them well.


I am not Microsoft Office fan, but you got to love this old version. I like those good times when you could decently run a serious application of a single 400K floppy disk. Even though, my friend tells me it worked much better if you had an external floppy disk and used one drive to run the program and another one to save files.


Mac 512KE and Mac SE side by side. Mac SE also has a SCSI 20GB hard drive. That hard drive still works. Impressive. I like the old Mac's keyboard. It is fun that it took them long time to admit that cursor keys are needed and that a mouse is not solution for everything.

On Mac SE they improved the keyboard and mouse little bit. The fun thing is that they did not change CPU. It was still good old reliable MC68000 @ 8 MHz.

I also got to run MS Basic on them today. It was fun to write some simple programs and revoke some memories of my first steps on computers. Got to say it was much easier to do Basic on 8-bit computers that booted from ROM directly into Basic editor/operating system with "READY" prompt.

Fiat 500 and Lada Samara (VAZ 2108)

Intro

I guess there is a part of me that is still a kid. Maybe only 75-95%. I recently discovered those Zastava 750 (kind of like Fiat 600) car models and started looking at others. Of course, my interest are the ones that were around in when I was growing up... in former Yugoslavia. I find those Cararama models in scale 1:43 extremely nice. I also found bunch of Russian car models in same scale that are just wonderful.

Pictures

I took those on my back porch. It was sunny afternoon and I love the fact the concrete is kind of fine grain so it all kind of look like these were the cars on real road or parking.

I like the shadows there.

Fiat 500 "Microcar"

Wish I had a real one like this...

Kolko juri? ("How fast can it go?")

Believe it or not my dad had one just like this. Little darker blue though. This car was very comfy and fun to drive. It was a mixture of a sporty and Russian rugged type of feel. I loved that car.

Not sure if it can be seen, but the seats can be folded.

Cararama Fiat comes with lots of details, but this Lada has bunch of moving parts...

Both are fantastic models. Will follow with more...

Retro Computers - Collection Inventory (Draft)

Unofficial List

1. Amstrad CPC464
   
2. Apple IIc
3. Apple Mac 512KE
4. Apple Mac SE (2)
5. Apple Mac IIvx
6. Apple Mac Centris 650 (upgraded to Quadra)
   
7. Apple Mac PowerBook 5300
   
8. Apple Power Mac G3 Blue
   
9. Atari 130XE
10. Atari ST1040 (2)
11. Atari Mega ST 2
12. Atari Portfolio
    
13. Cambridge Z88
    
14. Commodore VIC 20
15. Commodore 64 (2)
16. Commodore 64C
    
17. Commodore 4/Plus
18. Commodore 128
19. Commodore Amiga A500 (2)
20. Dell Dimension 3000 (P4@2.8GHz)
21. eMachines eTower 500is (will probably throw this in trash :)
    
22. Ei Pecom 32 (or 64) - not put my paws on that one yet.
    
23. Epson PX
24. Gateway 2000 (P3@800MHz, Win98)
25. HP-48sx
    
26. HP e-pc (P3@933MHz)
    
27. HP Multimedia PC m7750n (Dual P4@2.8GHz)
    
28. IBM ThinkPad (to be updated)
    
29. Nec 8301 (Like TRS-80 Portable Model 100)
30. KayPro II (CP/M portable)
31. Panasonic JR200
32. Sharp PC1430 (calculator size)
    
33. Sinclair QL
    
34. Texas Instruments 92 (MC68000 based calculator, size of small laptop :)
    
35. Texas Instruments 99 4/a (silver)
36. Texas Instruments 99 4/a (gray, non working)
37. Timex Sinclair 1000 + 16K memory module
    
38. Timex Sinclair 2068
    
39. TRS-80 CoCo2
40. TRS-80 CoCo3 (128K)
    
41. TRS-80 MC-10 (2)
42. TRS-80 Portable Model 100
43. TRS-80 Portable Model 102
44. VTech Laser 5 (red and blue)
45. VTech Unlimited
46. Zenith Portable PC (to be updated)
    

Zastava 750 (Cararama 1:43)

What is that?



Looks like Fiat 600 from 60s, in a way it is. Lot of European car makers in 60s, 70s, and even 80s (Zastava) were making copies or their own variants of Fiat 600. Zastava 750 has little stronger engine (750cc) and there was also a version with 850cc, which was flying. In former Yugoslavia it was called Fica or Ficko (check movie "Nacionalna Klasa"). Some (rarely) called it Figuar (any similarity with Jaguar is a pure coincidence). Lots of fun to drive. Even funnier when I tell you I am 6'4" (192cm).


Anyways, this one here is a little model, scale 1:43 to the real one. I bought couple of these recently primarily from my personal Yugo-nostalgia, but also I have to admit the level of details on such a small diecast model deserves every admiration. Please note that the length is around 2" (5cm) on this one. Feel free to click on pictures to zoom in.


This one has Yugo "license plates". I got a police one, too. Will follow up with pictures. Anyone has 1:43 scale Yugo or Zastava 101?

In Search for Perfect Bread (Part III)

Another Bread Craving

I got some real bread craving today. I needed something relatively quickly. So I made some bread with the help of my trusty old Breadman Pro bread maker.


I used Breadman's Basic bread recipe and just the dough cycle. I probably put little more flour as I noticed I needed add some water. When the dough cycle finished I left the dough little bit in the bread maker. We again used trusted King Arthur's flour.


Then I pulled it out, put some flour on the work surface. Punch the dough down and knead for like at least two minutes. Put some flour on your hands so it does not stick on you. After kneading I split the dough in two balls. One larger for a loaf of bread and smaller to make a ring shaped one. I put both of them into the oven and left around 45 minutes for the dough to rise again.


For the ring shaped one, I poked it with a fork and put lots of salt at the top. I just love it that way. You can notice in the picture that someone stole a piece before I got to take a picture.


The regular loaf took little longer to bake. Again, we used 1-2 minutes of the broil at the end. This bread was perfect (read "like a bread is supposed to be").

Puppy Linux on a P4 @ 2.80GHz

Intro

I usually played with Puppy on slower PCs (i.e. P3 at 800MHz). The other day I got an Insignia PC D400a with a dead hard drive. This machine is a P4 at 2.8GHz with 512MB RAM. I always wondered how would Puppy or DSL worked on a faster PCs. This is a quick story about Speedy Gonzales.

Puppy on steroids

I put my spare HDD that had Puppy 3.01 installed on it. What a pleasant surprise that was. First, the Puppy booted as it was installed on that machine (beauty of Linux and Kernel 2.6). Kids do not try that with Windows, especially if you are alone at home. This is not plug and pray. I got Puppy desktop in like 15-20 seconds. I configured LAN with Puppy network wizard and I was surfing net. I am still picking up my jaw from the floor from looking at OpenOffice at the speed of light. I could not stop smiling.

What's next

I am not sure. I am still not at the stage to recommend Puppy especially not to beginners. I am not feeling comfortable with auto-login as root. I am definitively impressed with speed and I find Puppy as a demo how the things should work. I have seen too many computers being thrown away just because Windows got so bloated that it cannot run. Even P4 2.8GHz machines after fresh Win XP install and all the updates starts running slow without anything on it.

I shut down Puppy. Three seconds! Wow... I am impressed with its compatibility and speed...

Coolest people I know...

Solved: System Restore DSR Fix (Dell Dimension 3000)

Intro

I got this little Dell Dimension 3000. The Windows XP on it was in the stage where it was booting like 10 minutes or more. I put a Linux on it and the Box started behaving very nicely. Actually this system is pretty fast (P4@2.8GHz, 512MB). I noticed two Dell partitions, one at the beginning of the disk and another towards the end (Dell Utility). This is a 2005 vintage system. I learned that at that time Dell started shipping systems with Symantec restore utility. It is called Dell System Restore (DSR). That is what that first partition was. It has a DOS on it and a system restore to the factory condition. Unfortunately, booting from it requires that MBR in the hard drive that supports CTRL-F11 hot key during the boot. With my Linux install I created a "normal" MBR that would not do it. Same thing happens if someone tries to install Windows XP from Windows CD. Also, standard fdisk /mbr command would disable DSR, too.

Symptoms

• Dell System Restore (CTRL+F11) during the boot disabled.
• Typically, Windows CD install, Linux install, or fdisk /mbr would create a "normal" MBR that unfortunately does not know anything about DSR.
  

Solution

I found a nice website discussing Dell System Restore and Dell Utility partitions. There I found a link for a tool that installs DSR supporting MBR. The solution is as follows:

• Download DSRFIX.ZIP file from:
  http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/files/dsrfix.zip
• You will need to create a DOS boot floppy, which may be troublesome and also useless if your system does not have a floppy drive. Easier approach is to create a bootable CD.
• Unzip DSRFIX.ZIP file. Inside you will locate and ISO file. Burn a CD with that ISO file. You will get a bootable FreeDOS CD with DSRFIX tool on it.
• Put that CD into the PC which MBR you want to analyze and fix. Reboot the PC and make sure it boots from the CD.
• Once system boots, you will get a DOS command prompt. Type DSRFIX then press Enter key. It should analyze your MBR and give you status.
  
• DSKFIX /H command prints you the Help. With DSRFIX /F you initiate fixing of the MBR.
• It worked great for me. After it finished, I removed the CD, rebooted and got a Dell screen just like if the machine was coming from the factory.
  

Remarks

Please note that the DSRFIX tool is not a Dell supported tool. Please read the documentation and disclaimers. It seems it has been tested with several Dell systems.
An interesting detail is that if you have a correct Dell MBR , there will be a blue line with Dell logo at the top of the screen while booting the machine. During the time you can see that blue line you can type in CTRL-F11 and initiate booting into DSR.
Please do not initiate restore if you have important data on you hard drive that you need to backup. Backup all your files before messing up with DSR or you will loose it all.
I generally don't like this approach at Dell to have this "special" type of MBR. It makes things very specific and limits use of the hardware the normal way. Similar thing (if not worse) is Direct Media button (aka "Kill your partition table" button), but that is another story...

Reference

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/index.htm
http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/files/dsrfix.zip

Westell 6100 DSL modem and Linksys BEFSR41 router (Verizon)

Intro

If you use Verzion DSL and have little Westell 6100 DSL modem this could be of interest for you. I used my Linksys router with older (read slower) Verizon DSL modem. Putting the two together was not a trivial step at first. Finally, while reading several posts in forums I found a nice and quick way to set things to run together smoothly.
Occasionally, I noticed my Linksys router and DSL modems get messed up (this happens very rarely, maybe once in a year or two) so I have to redo this setup. This is the main reason I made these notes.

Goal

The goal is to utilize Westell 6100 DSL modem as modem and nothing else. Linksys router will be in charge for Firewall, router, DHCP functions. It also has several ports. The similar (if not the same) steps should be applicable to Linksys wireless routers.

Setup Steps

1. Connect a PC directly to Westell modem and connect Westell modem to your phone line following the directions from Westell manual. Turn on the modem, then PC.
2. On the PC start a web browser. In the address field, enter http://192.168.1.1 to access Westell's configuration application (it has web interface). It will ask for username and password. The default credentials are "admin" and "password" (not an easy guess as it looks). In this step you can also check if your Internet is connected and works.
   
3. Now, reset Westell modem to the factory defaults by pressing its reset button and holding it for a long time (do not just press and release, it will just reset it). I think it needs to be held around 20-30 seconds (please check Westell's manual). This "hard" reset will set the modem to the factory defalts and also reset its username and password settings to default ("admin" and "password").
4. Now, change the VC configuration to "Bridge" mode (not "Routed Bridge")
5. Disable the DHCP function in Westell.
6. Check the status and write down Westell's MAC address. You will need it later on when setting up your Liksys router.
   
7. Now, shut down the PC and turn off the DSL modem. Connect the PC to Linksys router and Linksys's WAN port to Westell modem.
   
8. Turn on the modem, then the router, then the PC. Start a web browser on the PC. Now, by entering http://192.168.1.1 in the address field, you should be getting Linksys configuration web interface. It will ask for username and password.
9. Reset Linksys to default factory settings. Push the reset button on the Linksys router, and hold it for a long time (again I think it takes around 30 seconds for that, check Linksys documentation). The default username and password are nothing (or anything) for username and "admin" for password. You will need that password to access Linksys configuration at http://192.168.1.1
10. In the Linksys setup find option for Cloning MAC (click on Advance, then MAC Addr. Cloning). Here, enter the MAC address from your Westell 6100 (from step 6). There should be 6 hexadecimal numbers here (6 pairs of digits and letters).
11. You should also change Linksys password (click on Setup, then Password).
12. If your Linksys router has wireless access point, setup the security for the wireless (you do not want to keep your router accessible by anyone).

Conclusion

Everything should be working by now. Your Linksys router will perform firewall, DHCP, and other functions. Westell 6100 modem will behave only as a modem. Be advised that the Internet LED on Westell modem will be off, which is OK.

Solved: Bluetooth Mouse by Logitech v470 (Ubuntu 7.10)

Intro

On my office laptop Dell Vostro 1400 I have this built-in Bluetooth interface. I was looking for a decent mouse that works with that. Finally I decided on Logitech v470. This blog entry contains few steps needed to make it work with Dell Vostro 1400 and Ubuntu 7.10.

Symptoms

• Logitech mouse v470 not automatically recognized by default Ubuntu 7.10 setup

Solution

• Install gnome-vfs-obexftp package:
  $ sudo apt-get install gnome-vfs-obexftp
• From Bluetooth applet in the upper screen corner, right click to show the context menu, and choose Preference.
• Select Services tab, and make sure that Input service checkbox is enabled.
• Turn on the v470 mouse and click the "Connect" button at the bottom.
  
• While in Services tab, click on Add button, select "Bluetooth Laser Travel Mouse"

That should do it.

Solved: Dell Vostro 1400 built-in webcam (Ubuntu 7.10)

Intro

Dell Vostro 1400 laptops can be configured with built-in webcam, which seems to be from Creative. I believe that 1500 and 1700 series come with same type of webcam. These instructions are compiled from couple of forums I found on the topic.

Symptoms

• Built-in webcam not recognized by Ubuntu 7.10 default setup

Solution

• Check if you have svn installed, if not add the "subversion" package with Synaptic or apt-get.
• Download svn trunk with command:
  svn checkout svn://svn.berlios.de/linux-uvc/linux-uvc/trunk
• open file uvc_driver.c and insert the following code:
  /* after line 1661 */
  /* OmniVision OEM Dell Notebook */
  { .match_flags = USB_DEVICE_ID_MATCH_DEVICE
  | USB_DEVICE_ID_MATCH_INT_INFO,
  .idVendor = 0x05a9,
  .idProduct = 0x2640,
  .bInterfaceClass = USB_CLASS_VIDEO,
  .bInterfaceSubClass = 1,
  .bInterfaceProtocol = 0,
  .driver_info = UVC_QUIRK_PROBE_MINMAX },
• Compile and install by running the following commands in terminal. Be sure you are in the "trunk" folder while doing that:
  sudo make
  sudo make install
• Load driver with:
  sudo modprobe uvcvideo
  

After that the blue light (LED) next to your built-in cam will flash. You can check if the webcam works within Skype for example.

video group

To make the webcam available for other users, you need to make them members of the video group (I believe that the video group was created in the install step). On the Hardy Haron (8.04 LTS) this step was not needed. All the users had access to my webcam.

After the install process your webcam will be available after each boot automatically. I tested the webcam with Skype and aMSN.

Solved: ALSA settings for HP DC7700 (Ubuntu 7.10)

Intro

I am using this small factor desktop from HP Compaq, model DC7700. After the default Ubuntu 7.10 Linux install, there are some issues with sound ports.

Symptoms

• Mic not working
• Bad quality or no sound

Solution

• With sudo, edit file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
• add the following line to it:
  options snd-hda-intel model=hp position_fix=2 probe_mask=1

This allowed me to use the front mic input and front headphones jack as an output for my speakers. Skype works smoothly now.

Good luck!