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It is always a problem when you want to print something to a "Windows Only" printer. Either you bough the wrong printer ( as i did), or you are sharing a Windows printer with someone. The fact is : a Windows printer can only be printed by a Windows machine. So, if you want your printer to print something, it has to be connected to Windows, either a real machine or a virtual machine.  The idea is : install a pdf printer driver which will output the file to your Windows printer. However, the detail is difficult. I tried the redmon solution and it works, but i want a simpler solution. First step : Install the driver and print a test page, so you know your printer is working. Second step : Install a free PDF printer driver in your Windows machine. I use PDFCreator which can be configured to send your pages to another printer. So things set up as, PDFCreator installed as "server" and "shared" and redirect the output to another printer.  Linux machine can talk to PDFCreator by LPD and anything can be printed from any Linux program. There is a problem with this set up. The Windows user has to be logged in when you want to use your printer. However, there is way to set up the PDFCreator as "service". There are also some free pdf driver, such as Bullzip's PDF Printer, but you have to write some python script to make it works.

recently, there are some discussion about using digital tv cards in linux, see http://www.hkepc.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=1888776&extra=page%3D1
this post is about a person wants to use a new card and asking if it is supported by linux. the good news is "it is supported", the bad news is we need to dig out some old code to make it works (for remotely recording tv programs with audio and subtitles). still can not figure out why can't we use the same system as in the States. If you like the hear some bad news, here are some more, hk is planning to add 3d support in digital tv system, the "more advanced" system will be used in both hk and china as they said.

I have two tv-cards for watching digital programs in Hong Kong. One is a atbm8830 (usb), another is lgs8gl5 (pci-e). They both worked ok before the kernel 3.3. After upgraded to kernel 3.3, both of them stop working anymore. By peeking into the codes, i found the core frontend (and the xc5000) will not accept a delivery system of SYS_DMBTH.  In my last post, as I said, it is only a small amount of people care about this xxxx. Although I joined the mailing list of dvb-media group and asked them to add the support for the dmb-th system. There is no reply. so i am writing it down here in case i will forget what i did.

in the core frontend.c

 drivers/media/dvb/dvb-core/dvb_frontend.c |    7 +++++++
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/media/dvb/dvb-core/dvb_frontend.c b/drivers/media/dvb/dvb-core/dvb_frontend.c
index aebcdf2..ee1cc10 100644
--- a/drivers/media/dvb/dvb-core/dvb_frontend.c
+++ b/drivers/media/dvb/dvb-core/dvb_frontend.c
@@ -1531,6 +1531,13 @@ static int set_delivery_system(struct dvb_frontend *fe, u32 desired_system)
                                delsys = desired_system;
                                break;
                        }
+
+                       /* check if the fe delivery system corresponds
+                          to the delivery system in cache */
+                       if (fe->ops.delsys[ncaps] == c->delivery_system) {
+                               delsys = c->delivery_system;
+                               break;
+                       }
                        ncaps++;
                }
                if (delsys == SYS_UNDEFINED) {
-- 
1.7.9.5

thanks for Olivier GRENIE, he provided the patch.

and in xc5000.c, just add the SYS_DMBTH inside the switch-case in the function set_params.

        case SYS_DVBT:
 case SYS_DVBT2:
 case SYS_DMBTH:
  dprintk(1, "%s() OFDM\n", __func__);
  switch (bw) {
  case 6000000:
   priv->video_standard = DTV6;
   priv->freq_hz = freq - 1750000;
   break;

after patching the above changes, my atbm8830 works again. the lgs8gxx still has error. need more time to work on it.

I know you may not know who is David Wong , he was the writer of the drivers of atbm8830 and lgs8gxx. Thanks for his hard work, people in Hong Kong can watch digital tv programs in their computers (using linux). Since his gone, no one pick up his work. I also want to thanks the Hong Kong government, they pick the least using digital system in the world. That make me feel i am very unique.

hi, i am back from whereever i have been. anyway, i will try to update my blog as much as possible. in the last summer, i went to the USA and Canada and enjoy the holiday very much. you can see some of the photos in http://www.flickr.com/photos/anson_chan/ , hope you enjoy too.

So many things happened in the last month. one thing is, i got a LCD in house. Although it did not change much of our life, i make our home more complete. I have given Rose and Daisy instruction about using the TV. They have to finish their homeworks before they can watch TV. That make them do not have many times to watch it. When watching DVD with this TV, i think the quality is good. Although something i think the "dark" of the TV is too dark that i can't see the background. I want to see how it perform some HD movie, but i do not any player to play HD movie and neither i have any HD movie. another option is that i build a HTPC and download some HD movies. ps. that photo was taken from Ma Wan around 5:00 pm.

We have moved to Park Island for about a month, In the past one month, we have no tv (we will have no tv for about another month). Rose and Daisy did want to watch TV at the very first week, but later they did not ask for that. One weekend, the kids really want to watch a vcd, so we sent them to Andy's house. He also lives in Park Island. Actually, I am considering buying a tv from the first day we moved. We want to buy a LCD TV. I am a bit out-dated for that. My sony TV has entertained us for 13 years.

I am moved, i moved from tsing yi to park island. therefore, i moved from one island to another. it is only 15 minute drive from park island to tsing yi. some people may think it is far away, but i think it is ok. new home of cause need some new toys. i bought a bluetooth mouse V270. however, i have some difficulty to make it moves in linux. still trying and hope it will move very soon. and that's why linux is not common. i will post some pictures from my home later. nice view.