• Scanning with the Steam Deck

    4 May 2025 Author: Stefano Prenna
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    Out of the box, there is no apparent view to scan with a Steam Deck. In reality, the relevant back end support (sane) is already present so the only thing one should need (assuming that the scanner is supported) is to install NAPS.

    NAPS is available in the software center Discover and once installed and executed, it’s only a matter of creating a “Profile” by choosing the button of the same name:

    And then you’ll be able to add a new profile that you will be able to configure and recall at a later stage. This is particularly useful if you want to have a profile for scanning text, and another one for scanning pictures. These will most likely have different settings.

    In the new profile window, make sure you click on the button “Choose device” as this will look for a scanner plugged to your system.

    Once you have a profile saved, you can then select it when you want to enjoy scanning on a Steam Deck! Please note that sometimes I have to “choose device” when I connect the scanner as the USB address that it automatically receives from the system is not always the same and NAPS might complain that is not able to find it.

  • Tutorial: stream GTK applications and use them in your browser (with GTK+ and Broadway)

    6 February 2016 Author: Stefano Prenna
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    A few days ago I’ve (finally) received my first C.H.I.P.. This is the first 9 dollars microcomputer with a 1Gzh R8 ARM CPU, 512Mb of RAM, 4Gb of on-board space and it includes Wireless B/G/N and Bluetooth 4.0.

    All in all for that price, I have to admit that it’s a good, all purpose machine that you can easily use for your experiments and to learn new possibilities in computing.

    So the first thing I wanted to test is how this little machine would be able to stream GTK applications over the network using the Broadway back-end available in GTK+.

    After flashing Debian Jessie on it (that comes without and window manager), I had to compile GTK+ with the Broadway backend enabled (this is now standard in most i386 and amd64 distribution, but not in ARM ones), following the compiling instructions on the GTK+ page.

    So after logging into your C.H.I.P. you need to install the dependencies – some of them are already packaged in the right version, while you will have to compile others:

    sudo apt-get install pkg-config make autoconf2.13 libtool zlib1g-dev libffi-dev gettext libfam-dev libpackagekit-glib2-dev libgtk2.0-dev python2.7-dev gtk-doc-tools libglib2.0-dev gir1.2-glib-2.0 libtiff5-dev flex bison python-dev libcairo2-dev libepoxy-dev libatk-bridge2.0-dev vim libgirepository1.0-dev unzip

    then you will need to install GLIB:

    cd ~

    wget http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/glib/2.46/glib-2.46.2.tar.xz

    tar xvfJ glib-2.46.2.tar.xz

    cd glib-2.46.2

    ./autogen.sh

    ./configure

    Now you need to find the path for giving the CFLAGS to make:

    pkg-config --cflags glib-2.0

    the path that will be shown will have to be used as the example below:

    make CFLAGS='-I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/glib-2.0/include'

    make install

    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/local/lib/:/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig"

    Now it’s time to compile pango, gobject-introspection, gdk-pixbuf, atk and finally GTK+

    cd ~

    wget http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/pango/1.38/pango-1.38.1.tar.xz

    tar xvfJ pango-1.38.1.tar.xz

    cd pango-1.38.1

    ./autogen.sh

    ./configure

    make

    make install

    cd ~

    wget http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/gobject-introspection/1.46/gobject-introspection-1.46.0.tar.xz

    tar xvfJ gobject-introspection-1.46.0.tar.xz

    cd gobject-introspection-1.46.0

    ./configure

    make

    make install

    cd ~

    wget http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/gdk-pixbuf/2.32/gdk-pixbuf-2.32.3.tar.xz

    tar xvfJ gdk-pixbuf-2.32.3.tar.xz

    cd gdk-pixbuf-2.32.3

    ./configure

    make

    make install

    cd ~

    wget http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/atk/2.18/atk-2.18.0.tar.xz

    tar xvfJ atk-2.18.0.tar.xz

    cd atk-2.18.0

    ./configure

    make

    make install

    cd ~

    wget http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/gtk+/3.18/gtk+-3.18.6.tar.xz

    tar xvfJ gtk+-3.18.6.tar.xz

    cd gtk+-3.18.6

    ./autogen.sh --enable-broadway-backend --enable-x11-backend

    ./configure --enable-broadway-backend --enable-x11-backend

    make

    make install

    The time to test the result of our creature has come:

    first of all enable the broadwayd deamon server and choose the port and screen to use:

    broadwayd -p 8080 :2 &

    export GDK_BACKEND=broadway

    export BROADWAY_DISPLAY=:2

    Finally, install a GTK application like shotwell, gedit or galculator

    sudo apt-get install gedit galculator shotwell

    and launch one of them…

    gedit

    From another machine, now you can fire your browser and point to the address http://ipofyourc.h.i.p:8080

    and use your application running remotely from your browser.

    GEdit working in Chromium

  • Ubuntu: unable to play DVD

    16 March 2015 Author: Stefano Prenna
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    If your Ubuntu installation is not able to play DVDs, here you can see all the steps to enable this feature:

    from a command line, make sure you install the main libraries:

    sudo apt-get purge libdvdread4 libdvdcss2 libdvdnav4 ubuntu-restricted-extras
    sudo apt-get install libdvdnav4 libdvdread4 ubuntu-restricted-extras

    Finally, in order to be able to read crypted content (that is most of the DVD you would find in stores), you need to install the css libraries by running (still from the terminal):

    sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

    And now… enjoy your DVDs!

     

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