Hate it how videos seem to “stick” to the screen when you spin a cube? Well, the X.Org developers are working on that, but for a quick fix for now, all it takes is one program. And it comes with GStreamer.

To start it, just fire up a terminal or Alt+F2 and type:

gstreamer-properties

You should be presented with a dialog such as the one below. Hit the Video tab.

Now all you need to do is select X Window System (No Xv) for Plugin under Default Output.

That’s it! Hit the Test button to check your changes to make sure it works. Close the window, and enjoy your video.

There are only two caveats:

1. This only works with GStreamer apps (no games)
2. Videos are not smoothed when stretched

If you don’t like that, you are better off just switching off effects until a new driver is released. No word on when that will be, but I’m speculating early next year.

Enjoy your movies. With a cube and wobbly effects.

You finally got your Linux environment to crash. Ctrl+Alt+Backspace does nothing, nor do the F-keys. You know you shouldn’t have installed that bad driver, but you did it anyway.

So you reach for the power button.

Stop.

Mashing in the power button to reboot could cause a problem if your hard drive is still being written to, and usually causes more problems than it solves. The Linux kernel includes a secret method of restarting your PC should it ever stop doing its job.

1. Hold down the Alt and SysRq (Print Screen) keys.
2. While holding those down, type the following in order. Nothing will appear to happen until the last letter is pressed: REISUB
3. Watch your computer reboot magically.

What the individual keys do in that sequence are not as important as what it does as a whole: stops all programs, unmounts all drives, and reboots. A lot safer than just cutting the power.

Here it is again: REISUB. Remember that, as it will save you a lot of time when you are configuring a system and something gets messed up. Need a mnemonic? Try Raising Elephants Is So Utterly Boring.

As an aside, don’t try this if you just want to reboot. A normal reboot, if it can be done, should always be used instead of the REISUB keys.

R-E-I-S-U-B.

Logitech has always been notorious for poor Linux driver support. That doesn’t mean their hardware is poor, however. I have managed to find a decent webcam from Logitech that was plug and play in Linux.

Plug and play.

Yes, the moment I unwrapped it from its box in a box, I popped it into my laptop and fired up a webcam test application. To my surprise, it worked. Then I tried Flash apps. The camera worked fine in those too.

The specific camera in question is a Logitech QuickCam Communicate STX. If you were ever wary of getting a certain webcam, get this one. It is a decent price, and works perfectly at the default 320 resolution (or 640 interpolated). There is a microphone built into it that does work, but I found it easier just to use my external mic.

Now if only Adobe Flash would quit freezing when I’m done using Ustream.