Get sound playing and recording to work in Skype

21 06 2009

I installed Skype in Ubuntu jaunty 9.04 from medibuntu repository, which have a packaged version available. With default settings no sound could be played nor recorded.

Work around:

in skype’s options -> Sound Devices set the following:

Sound In: hw0
Sound out: pulse
Ringing: pulse


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Correct $HOME/.dmrc permissions

21 06 2009

Something modified the permissions of my $HOME/.dmrc file. Consequently an annoying error display at login:

User’s $HOME/.dmrc file is being ignored. This prevents the default language and session from being saved. File should be owned by user and have 644 permissions. User $HOME directory must be owned by user and not writeable by other users.

to fix the permissions:

$ sudo chown -R $USERNAME: $HOME
$ chmod 755 $HOME
$ chmod 644 $HOME/.dmrc


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Alternative way to handle hard drives & partitions in Ubuntu

21 06 2009

Just got Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 installed. I like the following behaviour to be applied to my hard drive partitions and mass storage devices – pen drives, USB disks:

  • Automount all partitions of internal hard disk – without using fstab:

In /etc/hal/fdi/policy/preferences.fdi

<merge key="storage.automount_enabled_hint" type="bool">false</merge>

false -> true

  • No hard drive icons displayed on desktop:

In gconf-editor – Alt+F2 to launch it, go to:

apps -> nautilus -> desktop

uncheck volumes_visible


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