Fedora with nVidia has Blank Display

If you're having problems with your display on your Fedora with nVidia graphics card, here's a good guide I've been using for years:

https://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2015/fedora-nvidia-guide/

I had to revisit the site this morning as I got another blank screen after I did a system update. Still works on my Fedora 30 (yep, I'm running an older version of Fedora ;D)

Had to write this here so I will not need to search for it again when I decide to do a Fedora upgrade, or just another system update.

Cheers to If Not True Then False.

Viber Window Too Big on Gnome

After I updated my Viber to version 6.5.5.1481-2 on my Fedora box, it launched with a very big window interface! See below.

Looks like it's an auto-scaling issue on an application running on a high resolution screen.

Someone suggested to set QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR to zero (0).

Now, I have my application launcher viber.desktop as so...

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Viber Comment=Viber VoIP and messenger 
Exec=bash -c 'QT_AUTO_SCREEN_SCALE_FACTOR=0 /opt/viber/Viber %u' Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/viber.png Terminal=false Type=Application Categories=Network;InstantMessaging;P2P; MimeType=x-scheme-handler/viber;

Viber for normal vision, back.

Thanks, someone (mrreverendpain)!

(src. https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/5rm8so/issue_with_viber_interface_scaling/)

XPS 13 (9350) - Broadcom BCM4350 - Fedora 23 Upgrade - Linux Kernel 4.5 - WiFi Missing

To make your Broadcom BCM4350 work after upgrading your Fedora 22 to Fedora 23, uninstall broadcom-wl, then restart. Short story below.

Fedora 24 was released a month ago, which means Fedora 22 is losing its support. That pushed me to upgrade my box to the next version, which is Fedora 23, which has 1 more year of support. (I tend to use a version previous the latest release for a bit more stability :D) So, yeah, after that os upgrade, which is now easy via dnf, I started to apply fixes to each issue as they came... and continue to come ;)

One of the issues I got was with my Broadcom BCM4350 wireless. My WiFi just went AWOL while I was fixing another issue. HAHA I've always had issues with Broadcom wireliess on Fedora so it's not really a surprise.

Anyway, i tried my previously noted procedure that worked on Fedora 22 (http://linusramos.blogspot.com/2016/03/xps-13-9350-broadcom-bcm4350-fedora-22.html), but it didn't work. The Broadcom card was not detected as a "network controller" So, I tried to refresh the drivers installed. I removed broadcom-wl and restarted my box. To my surprise, my WiFi worked. Yep, just like that.

The following commands now show...

# lspci -nn -d 14e4: 
3a:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4350 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43a3] (rev 08)

# lshw -C net
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
  *-network                 
       description: Wireless interface
       product: BCM4350 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
       vendor: Broadcom Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:3a:00.0
       logical name: wlp58s0
       version: 08
       serial: 30:52:cb:85:xx:xx
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=brcmfmac driverversion=7.35.180.119 firmware=01-e791c176 ip=10.0.xx.xx latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11abgn

       resources: irq:283 memory:dc400000-dc407fff memory:dc000000-dc3fffff

XPS 13 (9350) - Broadcom BCM4350 - Fedora 22 - Linux Kernel 4.4

I've had my XPS 13 (9350) for a couple of months now and have had issues with its Broadcom wifi chip. Been sharing my mobile phone's wifi via USB while waiting for kernel 4.4's support. Kernel 4.4 released a couple of weeks ago, but still, i haven't had my wifi work.

the following commands gave the following results:

# lspci -nn -d 14e4:
3a:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Corporation BCM4350 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:43a3] (rev 08)

# sudo rfkill list
0: hci0: Bluetooth
Soft blocked: no
Hard blocked: no


#  iwconfig

enp0s20f0u2u2  no wireless extensions.

virbr0-nic  no wireless extensions.

virbr0    no wireless extensions.

lo        no wireless extensions.

# lshw -C net

WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.

  *-network UNCLAIMED     

       description: Network controller

       product: BCM4350 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter

       vendor: Broadcom Corporation

       physical id: 0

       bus info: pci@0000:3a:00.0

       version: 08

       width: 64 bits

       clock: 33MHz

       capabilities: bus_master cap_list

       configuration: latency=0

       resources: memory:dc400000-dc407fff memory:dc000000-dc3fffff

what i know is that the broadcom wireless chip is detected. the driver doesn't get loaded.

i tried a lot of solutions posted online, mostly for ubuntu and some for archlinux. didn't get anywhere. until now. here's what i did to make it work...

1. removed any bcm driver installed (rpm -qa | grep bcm should show nothing associated to broadcom)

2. removed broadcom-wl and reinstalled broadcom-wl

3. ran # sudo modprobe wl

4. ran # sudo modprobe brcmfmac

whew! now, i can use my mobile phone away from my xps ;D

ps. to make sure your wifi works on boot, make sure brcmfmac is not in /usr/lib/modprobe.d/broadcom-wl-blacklist.conf

fedora: scan image to text

so... i had a need to convert hard copy of statements sent by slow mail to flat digital text files. i need them in digital form so i can do comparison with another transmitted digital data. and the procedure below works best for me, so far (you'll need imagemagick and tesseract installed):

1. scan hard copy of statement using the largest resolution

2. save as jpeg image file format

3. convert jpeg file to tif using imagemagick

# convert sample_doc.jpg sample_doc.tif

4. do optical character recognition - ocr using tesseract

# tesseract sample_doc.tif sample_doc

5. manually verify ocr output

here's a sample of the scanned image and its digital text file output. compare rightmost values. (i had to censor some details which were accurately converted by tesseract hahaha)

need met ;)

i remember having a pdf-to-text function before but pdftotext of xpdf didn't work with my scanned image file. also, i had problems using lower resolution scanned images.

conversion of jpeg to tif in step 3 is needed because tesseract works with tif files.

fedora: gnome hotkeys to switch between windows of the same application

been trying to switch windows in my fedora's gnome using the usual alt + tab.

but since gnome groups the same application in the selection, how do you switch between windows of the same application?

use alt + ` (alt + `/~ button)

i was patiently using alt + tab + arrow keys to switch between windows of the same application. if not for my impatient girlfriend i wouldn't have searched for this very useful keyboard shortcut. hahaha

fedora: add script launcher to favorites bar

i recently installed viber on my fedora 20 box. i initially made it to start when i log into my account but i realized i rather want to manually launch it.

first you have to make your script an application launcher:
create a file in /usr/share/applications/<app_name>.desktop with the ff contents:
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=<app_name>
Comment= "<comment>"
Icon=<path_to_image>
Exec=<script_to_execute>
Terminal=false
Categories=<category>

here's what's in my /usr/share/applications/viber.desktop file:
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Viber
Comment= ""
Icon=/home/user/Viber/Viber_icon.png
Exec=/home/user/Viber/Viber.sh
Terminal=false
Categories=Communication

then search your app in your desktop's search field (point mouse to upper left corner then type name); your launcher should now appear and you can do a right click on it and select "Add to Favorites"

(src: https://ask.fedoraproject.org/en/question/24832/how-to-add-an-application-to-the-favorites-bar-in-gnome-in-fedora-18/)

fedora 20: dell install broadcom wifi

got a relatively new pc that comes with a broadcom wifi and fedoras 18, 19 and 20 can't detect it. i found a lot of help from the net, and here's one that works and is the easiest to follow:

include rpmfusion releases:
# su -c 'rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm'

# su -c 'rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm'

update through yum:

# yum update

install wireless driver:

# sudo yum install kmod-wl

restart.

after restart, my fedora 20 took some time before it detected wifi. i also tried turning wifi off and on. i don't know if it had an effect, though. haha


(src: http://www.howopensource.com/2011/08/install-broadcom-wireless-802-11-driver-in-fedora-15-14/)

fedora: compiling results to build: no such file or directory

got this while compiling a driver on fedora 19
make: *** /lib/modules/3.9.5-301.fc19.i686/build: No such file or directory.  Stop.


checked the build folder called
# ls /lib/modules/3.9.5-301.fc19.i686/build
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 36 Jun 28 01:12 /lib/modules/3.9.5-301.fc19.i686/build -> /usr/src/kernels/3.9.5-301.fc19.i686


checked the link which wasn't pointing to anything
# ll /usr/src/kernels/3.9.5-301.fc19.i686
ls: cannot access /usr/src/kernels/3.9.5-301.fc19.i686: No such file or directory


checked my kernel rpms installed and seems that my kernel is different from my kernel-headers.

tried a lot of things, but in the end, a fix for kernel directory from sergio worked:

# yum install kernel-headers-$(uname -r) kernel-devel-$(uname -r) dkm


(src: http://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2010/install-virtualbox-with-yum-on-fedora-centos-red-hat-rhel/)

boxes on fedora: installing from mounted media

when trying to add a new entry in boxes using an image located in a mounted media, i get a 'connection failed' message and an selinux alert.

so i tried copying my images into my local directory, and hey!
looks like something has an issue when installing from a mounted media.

fedora 17: record screen video

gnome 3 on fedora has a screen recording function!
just toggle by pressing alt + ctrl + shift + r
a red dot appears at the lower right corner when recording.

video files are automatically saved in your home video directory.

nice, huh?

(src: fedoraproject.org/wiki/ScreenCasting)

fedora: gnome-shell high cpu usage

installed fedora on a couple of newly acquired desktops and noticed slow graphics rendering. when i checked processes running gnome-shell was surprisingly eating up too much cpu. i have the same fedora setup on more than a handful of desktops but didn't experience this issue. tried reinstalling fedora and got the same slow graphics and high cpu usage.

read a lot of posts about this happening even on ubuntu boxes.

for now, i'm adopting others' solution of enabling Settings > Graphics > Forced Fallback Mode > ON

yes, this disables the dynamic graphics effect on the interface, but whatever works for now is always welcome until we find a better solution.

to note: setups with no graphics issue are using foxconn and dell boards. the two desktops with issues are using msi boards.

update: issues with msi boards solved by adding a video card! :)

fedora 17/20: install google chrome

found this howto in 'if not true then false' site

1. create an /etc/yum.repos.d/google-chrome.repo file with the following contents:

[google-chrome]
name=google-chrome - 32-bit
baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/rpm/stable/i386
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub

[google-chrome]
name=google-chrome - 64-bit
baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/rpm/stable/x86_64
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub

2. yum install google-chrome-stable

(http://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2010/install-google-chrome-with-yum-on-fedora-red-hat-rhel/)

fedora 17: enable minimize and maximize button on titlebar

an easy way to make the minimize and maximize button display in fedora 17 is to do it via gnome-tweak-tool

install gnome-tweak-tool

# yum install gnome-tweak-tool

launch gnome-tweak-tool

# gnome-tweak-tool

in the dialog, select Shell then set set Arrange of buttons on the titlebar to All

no more need to right-click on titlebar for minimize and maximize functions!

fedora: gnome-tweak-tool no module gi

i got this when running gnome-tweak-tool after upgrading my python

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/gnome-tweak-tool", line 22, in <module>
    import gi
ImportError: No module named gi

to make gnome-tweak-tool work again, edit the startup script to run python in normal environment
   
edit your /usr/bin/gnome-tweak-tool

replace #!/usr/bin/env python with #!/usr/bin/python

then go back tweaking :)

(http://askubuntu.com/questions/101906/gnome-tweak-tool-doesnt-start-due-to-importerror-no-module-named-gi-error)

fedora 17: disable blank screen

i read a lot of people using recent releases of fedora (15-17) seeking how to disable blanking of screen because Brightness and Lock settings dialog only offers a max of 1 hour before it turns off the screen.

on boot, my fedora 17 has the ff. xset screen saver and power management settings:
# xset -q

i tried a lot of things (even installing the presentation mode extension in gnome, but it would require you to click on the presentation toggle everytime you reboot).

my final solution was to do the ff:

1. disable launching of the screen saver application in gnome

# gnome-session-properties

2. create a script that does the ff in xset:
 a.) disable blanking of screen
      # xset s noblank
 b.) turn of screen saver
      # xset s off
 c.) disable power management

      # xset - dpms

my final xset settings show:

#xset -q

i tested this in fedora 17 (beefy miracle) on a laptop and a couple of desktops.

fedora: set application window size and position

if you want to customize the window size and position of your application, you can use the -geometry parameter when calling your app.

syntax is :
<application> -geometry <width>x<height>+<offset x>+<offset y>

ex. #./myapp -geometry 620x540+1+1

fedora: running programs upon login

to add/edit/remove applications that run upon login on your fedora

launch startup applications preferences dialog
# gnome-session-properties

take note of the user you use when you launch the dialog

fedora 17: play media files

i've been having troubles playing my video and music files on my fedora because of a missing codec. and this is what fedora says:

sebastian moreno shared this quick fix to play mp3 files: (http://sebastianmoreno.com.uy/?p=170)

here's his instruction:

Install rpmfusion:

su -c 'yum localinstall --nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm'

Install gstreamer plugins

sudo yum install gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-ffmpeg -y

after installing rpmfusion and gstreamer i launced rhythm box and it started installing the files it needs to play my media.


a lot of thanks, man!

and guess what, i can now play my avi vids too!!