BeTips.net

With the release of mpegtools by Marcus Lundblad, it is now possible to create an MPEG file from within BeOS, including video material edited in personalStudio.
„mpegtools“ is able to work with the Pegasus codec optionally used by personalStudio on analog export, so this should be the output codec used. For best results, I have used the following process:
Save output from personalStudio:
Format: Quicktime
Size: 360×240 (if original source is DV – else, or nearest size)
Codec: Pegasus
FPS: whatever (I use 29.97 with NTSC DV input)
Quality Factor = 99
(Note: this is important – we need to ensure max. quality for this intermediate stage, so selecting 100 would seem to be the natural choice. However, 100 seems to equate to no compression, and the mpeg encoder does not understand the resulting video info. Hence, quality = 99).
Convert Quicktime file to MPEG-I:
Execute binary found in the mpegtools/bin directory, i.e.:

mpeg2enc infile.mov -q 5 -o outfile.mpg

(the q 5 [= quality 5] setting seems to give the best appearance/playback performance compromise)
mpegtools also allows the encoding of MPEG-II video files, so there’s no reason that we can’t output a 640 (or 720) width QuickTime file from personalStudio and convert to MPEG-II.

If you are bored of the plain black and white colour file listings when you type „ls“ in your Terminal, you can actually make the ls command colour the files based on their type (not mime type, but directory, symlink, etc) and extension.
If you add the switch -C or –color to the ls command (i.e.)

ls -F -color

then you should get somewhat more interesting output!
If you want to have some control over the colours that are displayed for each file type, create a file called .dircolours (or similar) in your home directory containing an entry for each terminal type (i.e. beterm or xterm) and the list of file extensions along with their colours. The example below demonstrates how this works.

COLOR tty
TERM beterm
TERM xterm
EIGHTBIT 1
NORMAL 00 # global default, although everything should be something.
FILE 00 # normal file
DIR 00;32 # directory
LINK 01;36 # symbolic link
FIFO 40;33 # pipe
SOCK 01;35 # socket
BLK 40;33;01 # block device driver
CHR 40;33;01 # character device driver
EXEC 01;33
*~ 05;31 # stuff we hate to find laying around (flashing red)
.c 00;35 # source code
.cpp 00;35
.h 00;36
.pl 00;35
.pm 00;35
.cgi 00;35
.html 04;35
.tar 00;31 # archives or compressed (bright red)
.tgz 00;31
.arj 00;31

Once you have saved this file somewhere you need to add the following commands to your .profile (or .bashrc is probably better), replacing the .dircolours filename with whatever you used…

eval `dircolors ~/.dircolours`
alias ls='ls --color=always'

If you have this combination, and your machine locks up right after the Desktop displays the icons, you can fix this problem by downloading the drivers for the SB16 by Carlos Hasan. You will need to boot into safe mode to install these drivers. After reboot, you will be able to boot again without needing to comment out the media_server from the Bootscript.

After copying one partition to another, as in the case of restoring a volume from backup, it may be necessary to re-designate you newly restored drive as bootable. First, make sure the volume is mounted. Next, in addition to using bootman to recreate your boot menu (if necessary), you may need to open a Terminal window and issue the command:
makebootable <volume-name>
where <volume-name> is the name of the volume as it is mounted at the time you issue the command.
Note that if you made an exact duplicate of a volume and mounted them both, the system would append a number one(1) to the second drive mounted.
Example: makebootable /BeDrv1

If you like the idea of using fortune to give you a random message of the day at boot-up, try this: it not only gives a message, but also appends it as a motto to your e-mail signature (with the option of rejecting the message if you don’t much like it, and trying another).
To begin, you need a basic signature with your name, address, URL, etc, configured in BeMail. It will exist as a file called signature_0 in /boot/home/config/settings/bemail/signatures. Create it now if you haven’t already.
Now create two more blank signatures. Call the first something like „motto“, the second something like „Autosignature“. They don’t need to contain text, as long as they exist; they will be signature_1 and signature_2 respectively. In BeMail preferences, choose the second as your default email signature.
Now cut and paste the following into StyledEdit:

fortune >
 /boot/home/config/settings/bemail/signatures/signature_1

cat /boot/home/config/settings/bemail/signatures/signature_0
 /boot/home/config/settings/bemail/signatures/signature_1 >
 /boot/home/config/settings/bemail/signatures/signature_2

alert "Today's e-mail motto is:

   `cat /boot/home/config/settings/bemail/signatures/signature_1`"
"Uh... no. Try another"  OK && sigscript

And save the file as „sigscript“ somewhere in your path, such as in /boot/home/config/bin. Finally, add the line „sigscript“ (without the quotes) to UserBootscript.
Now, whenever you boot, sigscript will run and give you an alert box showing the day’s motto. Type „sigscript“ in a terminal to test it. Open a new mail message to see the result.
This could of course be adapted for other e-mail programs. Also, the wording of the alert box and its buttons can be altered to taste, as long as the syntax is preserved.

(Note: this is only related to the UK version of BeOS 5 Pro from KochMedia.)
In some cases, Epson printers will not print in BeOS 5 Pro, saying that the release of the Epson driver is not compatible with your version of the EPSON Driver.
The drivers that are included in the Personal Edition work, so install PE and zip up the drivers located in /boot/beos/system/add-ons/Epson and /boot/beos/system/add-ons/Print . Now uninstall PE and unzip the files back to the above locations on your PRO partition.

Stephen Butters writes:
„Although it’s not very obvious, there’s a way you can fullscreen the default BeOS TV app. With the TV part selected (not „Controls“), hit Esc. It should now fill your screen.
In order to restore it to its previous size, hit Esc again, or click the mouse.
NOTE: I’ve only tested this on my computer, using an ATI All-In-Wonder Pro.“

Bowser, the famous IRC client, has a few easter eggs in its ‚About‘ window. Pressing any of the following key combinations will turn the corresponding picture on. Then, pressing any of them will turn it back to the normal picture. So, to see them all, press Alt-O, Alt-O, Alt-J, Alt-J, Alt-E, Alt-E.

• Alt-E : Erin and patches
• Alt-J : Buddy Jesus
• Alt-O : Gummy orgy

Did you know that you could have multiple Deskbars on your BeOS desktop? Here’s how:
1. Go to /boot/beos/system
2. Copy (don’t move) Deskbar to the Desktop
3. Run it from the Desktop
Now there are two copies of the Deskbar, but the new one appears on top of your old one. Move the new one to another location by dragging it from the grey dots in its right corner.
Every copy of the Deskbar file will launch only one new Deskbar. To have more and more right click the Deskbar file and click Duplicate. Now run the duplicated copy and another Deskbar appears!!

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EDITOR’S NOTE: It’s worth noting that the above effect can also be accomplished simply by changing /boot/beos/system/Deskbar from `Single Launch‘ to `Multiple Launch‘ using the FileTypes Prefs Panel.
Also worth noting is that running multiple instances of the Deskbar offers no real practical benefit. It’s just a meaningless (but kind of neat) hack. You’ll probably tire of it after about 5 minutes.

If your SBLive! sound card does not produce any sound under BeOS, make sure you disable the „PnP OS“ setting in your BIOS. When it is turned ON, BeOS will find the card and list it as a known Device, but will not be able to utilize it. This problem emerged with recent revisions of SBLive! under BeOS, while the older revisions of the card work out of the box.