How to install the latest Intel Linux Graphics Drivers

20 Nov

It may happen that you become very annoyed by some behaviour of the version of Intel Linux Graphics Drivers currently shipped with your version of Ubuntu.

For me the last straw that broke the camel’s back was yet another startup crash due to poor support of the Dell Display Port in extended desktop mode.

Here you go how to install the Intel Linux Graphics Intaller on your system to make sure that you are always using the latest drivers available (which usually solves the most of the issues out there).

This is the page where you have to go to download the installer package.

https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads

You can install it simply by opening it with the Ubuntu Software Center or by manually using dpkg -i

$ sudo dpkg -i name-of-the-package.deb

Then open the program and say OK to some easy steps to get the latest drivers on your system (reboot required  … Continue reading »

Livestreamer: command-line streaming extractor

18 Nov

I have always preferred to watch internet streams in a video player rather than a browser. In the early days was only a way to avoid to have Flash in the loop, but even in the age of H264 and WebM it is always good to get rid of the browser and website layer and getting the machine to focus only on the bare streaming task.

Here it comes Livestreamer, a command-line utility available in the form of Python Package, that detects the streaming component from a given supported website and redirects it to the player of your choice (default is VLC).

Installation and operation in Linux is straightforward as they show on their main page.

At first we have to install the Python Package Index on our distribution, on Ubuntu is simply:

# sudo apt-get install python-pip

Then from pip we will install the livestreamer script:

# pip 
 … Continue reading »