June 18 2014
v 0.2
Of Windows, Skype and Printers
My Father has had a Pentium 4 3.2 gig IBM computer for a few years now. It has 1 gig of memory and came with Windows XP installed. Of course he never did software updates and it has not helped that I live on the opposite side of the Continent to him so I have forever been reminding him that Windows XP is the devil and that it will bit him if he is not careful. I've had limited success training him NOT to use it for sensitive work. My preferred option is for him to update, however he is adamant that this machine is fine and he does not want a new piece of hardware.
Well about a year ago, I installed Debian Wheezy in a dual-boot configuration and eventually convinced him to at least only do his banking and other critical work using Linux. It has been unfortunate that Skype has not been functioning - no microphone detection and I was unable to help fix the problem, so he used Skype from the Windows side. The other major problem was the old Epson printer / scanner just wouldn't speak to Linux. It said it had installed, but just refused to function.
I've been visiting for the last week and one of the tasks I set myself was to get him set up safely so that he'd be less tempted to use Windows XP - he finally realised there were no more security updates, however like most people just does not understand how he can be badly burnt by malware. The two major things I needed to do were to get Skype functioning and the Printer / Scanner on-line.
My starting point was Debian 7 Wheezy with Gnome 3.4 classic. (I find this a very pleasing setup by the way ... elegant and fast)
Skype
When first sitting down to use Skype on Wheezy, I found everything worked except the microphone (combined with a logitech webcam which WAS detected). Skype was at version 4.2 for me. When I checked the sound options, I found that pulseaudio was the only microphone option I had. I googled and found various recommendations for configuration file edits, but none worked. I subsequently found that there is a bug in Skype that needs these edits, however this did not work for me.
Of course there was a simple fix. The Gnome 3 settings have a "sound" icon where you can select the input device. VICTORY! Gnome is the only desktop / manager that I've found that allows you to do this and Skype has ONLY worked for me in Gnome 3.
Printer / Scanner
I figured I'd just go and replace his old printer. They are cheap and much improved on a few years ago. I figured on an HP 8600 which I have found to be really great - particularly for scanning where you can scan double sided multiple sheets into a pdf file. You can also save the scans/pdf to a memory card/stick, which is particularly simple. This was not to be and I arrived home with an HP Deskjet 1510 having purchased it for the princely sum of $28. "Nothing can go wrong now!"
Why did I go for an HP? There is a linux support package called HPLIP that I have found makes integrating HP printers a breeze. I simply went with what I know.
But of course there is a catch. The version of HPLIP with Wheezy is too old for this printer. Backports? Nope. I DID get the printer installed with the Gnome 3 setup though and it worked like a bought one. The scanner though was not detected. Sigh.
Distribution Upgrade
After some thought and looking at the HP support site, I thought that maybe it was time to bite the bullet and put the next Debian version Jessie (current testing branch) on and go from there. This was more than I'd intended, but I figured I was probably going to have to do it eventually. After backing up the files in the appropriate directories, I thought I'd give the in-place upgrade a whirl. It was only partially successful and in retrospect I probably should have un-installed all but essential packages before progressing, however I took it as part of the learning experience.
Upgrading with Jessie DVD / CD ... 64 / 32
As luck would have it, I had a Jessie DVD with me and thought that would be perfect to use to upgrade, so off I went blowing away the old clagged installation. Everything was going smoothly as I've found Debian installs generally go when one part of the installing packages caught my eye. I was installing an amd64 Debian onto an i386 machine!!! Bother. But .... why was it installing then? My initial urge to cancel and work out another plan gave way to curiosity so I let the install complete, reboot, and ... well .... well.... it works beautifully. I had a smoothly working 64 bit Debian install on a Pentium 4 machine. I'm left wondering if this was owing to the Debian "multiarch" characteristics I've read about or if the chip was secretly 64 bit. Installing Skype proved a challenge however achievable (skype is only 32 bit and needs 32 bit support activated in 64 bit Debian), although the dependencies became too much of a bother for me so .. once again I decided to install it properly with a 32 bit version. I downloaded and burnt a 32 bit Netinstall CD on another machine and tried again.
In trying to get both the HP printer/scanner and Skype working on the setup, I was getting driven nuts as things just weren't working. After a few hours and somewhat dejected after trying various desktops I gave up for the evening. Not happy. (I subsequently found I was easily able to sort things after a night of my brain mulling over the problems).
Final Configuration
Whilst the default desktop for Debian Jessie is now Xfce, I have found that the ONLY desktop that conveniently does what I want this machine to do is Gnome 3 (3.8). I did try putting some icons on the desktop for home and trash etc, however this killed the wallpaper, so I went back to the default settings.
Of course, how do you install Gnome3? You can look in "Synaptic" however using the command line, it is simply:
# aptitude install gnome
Here is what I have and I am quite happy with it - it took a while to discover however there is nothing difficult about my setup:
Debian Jessie 3.8
GDM3 login manager
HPLIP and HPLIP GUI installed
HPLIP GUI made visible using the Main Menu editor
Skype works fine with the microphone selected in the Gnome Settings.
Printer installed
Scanner works fine - detected by scanning programs.
It works.
I am happy.
