Canon Digital Photo Professional 3.13 for Ubuntu 13.10 (64 bit) and Wine 1.7

After going through the procedure on this forum link on how to install Canon Digital Photo Professional (DPP) on Ubuntu, I decided to post a detailed and latest set of instructions. You'll need some patience during the installation procedure because it is not straight forward.

I am on the latest 64-bit version of Ubuntu (13.10 Saucy Salamander). Before you start a fresh install of DPP you'll need the following:

1. Wine (I have the latest version 1.7) installed - to do so open a Terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T) and type the following commands
• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa
• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install wine1.7 winetricks
2. Download the latest updater package of DPP (edit: I used the 32-bit version). I downloaded DPP 3.13.45 from Canon India
3. Now, the updater installation works only when an earlier version of DPP is installed. Since this is a fresh install we'll need to create registry keys in Wine to fool the installer. This is the procedure
• Open Winetricks
• Ensure Select the default wineprefix is selected and click OK
• Select Run regedit and click OK
• Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and select Software
• In the toolbar click Edit--> New --> Key
• Type Canon
• Select Canon
• In the toolbar click Edit--> New --> Key
• Type DPP
4. The next steps are very important, follow carefully
• Run the Canon DPP installer package using Wine
• Select the region click Next
• Select the country click Next
• The Legal disclaimer page will be displayed. When you click Next the installation will crash. Dismiss the error message but do not close the installer.
5. Confirm the following two folders exist by using any file manager then proceed to step 6
• ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Canon/Digital Photo Professional/
• ~/.wine/drive_c/users/<userid>/Temp/CanonOFI_TEMP/Data/SOFTWARE
6. If you have closed the earlier terminal open a new one and enter the following commands
• cabextract -d "~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Canon/Digital Photo Professional/" "~/.wine/drive_c/users/<userid>/Temp/CanonOFI_TEMP/Data/SOFTWARE/DPP/en/resdata.CAB"
• cabextract -d "~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Canon/Digital Photo Professional/" "~/.wine/drive_c/users/<userid>/Temp/CanonOFI_TEMP/Data/SOFTWARE/DPP/COMMON/program.CAB"
• cabextract -d "~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Canon/Digital Photo Professional/"/icc "~/.wine/drive_c/users/<userid>/Temp/CanonOFI_TEMP/Data/SOFTWARE/DPPLib/COMMON/DATA.CAB"
• mv "~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Canon/Digital Photo Professional/"/icc/*.dll "~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Canon/Digital Photo Professional/"
• cabextract -d "~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Canon/Digital Photo Professional/" "~/.wine/drive_c/users/<userid>/Temp/CanonOFI_TEMP/Data/SOFTWARE/Image%20Handling%20Library%20Core%20Common/COMMON/IHLCC.CAB"
7. Close the DPP installer. There should be a desktop icon of DPP or find DPP in the Application Scope and open the application
8. If the application does not open type the following command in the terminal and try step 7 again.
•  regsvr32 "~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Canon/Digital Photo Professional/"/*.dll 

Synaptic Package Manager Crashes After Changing Icon Theme

I installed a new iconset (Areao 43) and dark theme for Ubuntu, but soon after that Synaptic Manager kept crashing on entering the password.

After researching a bit and checking different solutions (one of them being http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1854470&p=11343209#post11343209) I realized that the iconset was the problem. After trying out different things I was able to figure out a fix for this particular issue.

1. Open a Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T)
2. Open Nautilus with superuser permissions by typing the following and entering your password :
   sudo nautilus
3. Go to the icon folder
   /usr/share/icons/<insert icon folder name>
4. Open the file index.theme with a text editor (I use Kate)
5. Look for the line that starts with Directories =
   Directories=scalable/actions,scalable/apps,scalable/categories,scalable/devices,scalable/emblems,scalable/mimetypes,scalable/places,scalable/status,scalable/stock
6. Add ,16x16/gtk at the end if it is not there in the line (don't miss the comma)
7. Go to the end of the file and paste this code
   [16x16/gtk]Size=16
8. Search any other icon folder in this location (/usr/share/icons) for a 16x16 folder, copy the entire folder and its contents, come back to the original icon folder mentioned in point 3 and paste it there
9. Save the file and close

Synaptic package manager should now work. Apparently there is a dependency on 16x16 icons along with scalable icons. 

Metronome for Jackd and Ubuntu 13.04

One of the challenges while playing an electric guitar with the laptop on Ubuntu is getting a metronome that works with Jackd.

I'm a noob guitarist and need the metronome to learn keeping time while playing. After trying GTick, I've switched to GTKLick because it is compatible with Jackd. By compatible I mean, you can hear the metronome when the Jackd server is switched on. Usually all sound output from the any application (except for any app that the guitar uses) is shut off when Jackd is switched on.

This application is available on Synaptic Package Manager and Ubuntu Software Center.

After setting up your guitar using Jackd you can open the app and get it to work by selecting Automatically connect to soundcard output in the preferences window.

Electric guitars on Ubuntu 13.04

I decided to learn how to play the guitar when I saw that Coursera was offering a beginner's course by Thaddeus Hogarth from Berklee College of Music. I bought an electric guitar and decided to use the laptop as the amplifier rather than purchasing an actual one. It took me close to 4 hours to set up the electric guitar, guitar effects app (Rakarrack), guitar tuner app (FMIT) and recording app (Audacity) on Ubuntu 13.04. I am using a USB to PC Guitar Link to connect the guitar to the laptop.

Guitar Link USB Connector

Setting it up is not straightforward. I could not get the audio to work for most of the time. I wanted to share the steps I took to help noobs like me set up an electric guitar on Ubuntu with minimum hassle and without using the Terminal.

Step 1: Install the following apps from the Ubuntu Software Center

• Rakarrack - Comes highly recommended from most of the users
• Audacity - Comes highly recommended from most of the users
• FMIT - Many users recommended Lingot and GtkGuiTune but Lingot did not recognize the USB Audio Input and GtkGuiTune refused to open in Ubuntu 13.04
• QJackCtl - Required to use Rakarrak and FMIT

Step 2: It would be advisable to turn off the internal mic of the laptop or remove any external mics of the PC or laptop.

To turn off the internal mic, go to the Sound Settings --> Input --> Internal Microphone and select OFF next to Input Volume

Select the Guitar USB input. In this case it says Microphone - PCM2902 Audio Codec and confirm the Input and Output Volume is ON

Step 3: Open QJackCtl and configure the input (this step is important as it sets up the USB guitar link as the input and your headphones or speaker as the output)

Select Setup...

In the Input Device option click > and then select  the Guitar USB Input (USB Audio CODEC - hw:1 in this case)

In the Output Device option click > and then select the laptop or PC sound card (HDA Intel PCH - hw:0 in this case)

Click OK to save the changes and return to the QJackCtl app.

Step 4: Start JACK connection by clicking Start and open Rakarrack

Step 5: Establish connection between Rakarrack and the system audio by clicking on Connect in QJackCtl

Establish the same connections as shown above. To learn how to do the same you can check this video.

Step 6: Set up Audacity to accept Rakarrack as the input. For this go to Edit --> Preferences --> Devices and ensure the following settings are selected and click OK

• Interface Host = JACK Audio Connection Kit
• Playback Device = system
• Recording Device = rakarrack
• Recording Channels = 1 (Mono)

You can now test recording by clicking the record button.

That's it! You can now use your laptop to record and playback your guitar.

If you do not wish to use Rakarrack and just use the laptop or PC for playback, do the following. The following steps includes setting up the guitar tuner FMIT too.

Step 7: Make sure Rakarrack and Audacity are closed but QJackCtl has to remain open. Now open FMIT.

Now you will have to setup a connection between the guitar USB input and the computer's output.

As before set up the connections as above. You will now be able to tune the guitar using FMIT and play the guitar without effects from Rakarrack.

Happy jamming!