The distro of the beast

I came across an interesting version of Ubuntu: Satanic Edition. Check it out...

It was a nightmare allright...

But I did manage to get it running. I had run this command to get all the debs in my cache before upgrading the system, as my internet connection is quite slow. (But its free at night)

  apt-get --download-only dist-upgrade 

I checked on the Ubuntu wiki page, and it mentioned that using apt-get is not recommended. So I used the graphical interface, as mentioned. Unfortunately, I got some error, that I didn't bother noting, and the installer quit. The graphical interface gave the same error again, and the only way to fix it would be apt-get -f install

So I chucked the graphical interface, and went back to the CLI. After a whole day of forcing (apt-get -f install) and dpkg-ing (some things went so bad, they had to be done manually), I finally managed to get the system up.

Today, I see that Upstart hasn't been installed, inspite of doing apt-get dist-upgrade twice. I had forgotten to install Ubuntu-minimal...geez...

So now I'm going to reboot my system, and hope that it boots properly, and faster!! :) Wish me luck...

Upgrading to Ubuntu Edgy Eft a "Nightmare" ?

There's an article on Slashdot saying that several people are having trouble upgrading to Edgy (the latest Ubuntu release). I'm currently in the process of upgrading. Lets hope everything works out well...

I have followed this guide to do the upgrade. (The wiki keeps updating) Only difference is that I'm using the command: sudo apt-get --download-only dist-upgrade . Since I have a slow internet connection, I figured it would be better to download all the packages at night, little by little, and then run the upgrade process.

I don't have important data on my root partition, and my /home partition is separate.

Just to be on the safer side, I'll backup all important data before doing the upgrade.

Out of space...

The other day, I was just browsing around, and I started downloading something. All of a sudden, firefox crashed!! I'm like...wtf...

Anyway, I just started the browser again, and recovered my browsing session, thanks to this nice extension.

Then, I tried to copy a shortcut from the K Menu to the desktop. I got an error message saying "Insufficient disk space". Wtf, a teeny-weeny shorcut...how much free space do I have anyway?

So I started Kwikdisk, and I saw that I just have 36KB free on the /home partition!!!



At this point, I would have expected any operating system to crash. But this is linux, things work differently here. ;)

The reason why firefox crashed was because it probably couldn't cache anything in ~/.mozilla. Technically, this would be a firefox bug, and not a linux bug. (Or so I think).

Finally, I just copied stuff onto my other partitions that had some free space. Now i have a lot of DVDs to burn.

MP3FS and Upstart

No need to rip your CDs to MP3s. You can just use MP3FS: http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/09/29/1525201

Also, Ubuntu will be replacing init with Upstart. Check out this article for in-depth information: http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/09/18/1623244

What you should (and shouldn't) expect from 64-bit Linux

See link:
Linux.com | What you should (and shouldn't) expect from 64-bit Linux

Myths, Lies, and Truths about the Linux kernel

The article linked below is a must read for every linux user, new or experienced:
linux kernel monkey log

Installing Xmms Presets

Installing Xmms Presets - Freespire

How to convert YouTube videos to DivX or XviD

Linux.com | How to convert YouTube videos to DivX or XviD: "How to convert YouTube videos to DivX or XviD

Wednesday August 30, 2006 (08:01 AM GMT)

By: Manolis Tzanidakis

YouTube clips are everywhere these days, and I must admit I'm addicted to the site. Nevertheless, I've had a couple of small annoyances with YouTube videos. I wanted to be able to play my favorite ones on standalone DVD/DivX players. I also found I couldn't go backwards or forwards when playing the site's Flash videos with MPlayer. For those reasons, I decided to convert my favorite YouTube videos to DivX or XviD formats. Here's how you can do the same.

"

Linux Flash Player

FINALLY!! Our prayers have been answered. :D


» Interview with Mike Melanson, lead engineer on the Linux Flash Player team | The Universal Desktop | ZDNet.com

Linux.com | How to recover lost files after you accidentally wipe your hard drive

Linux.com | How to recover lost files after you accidentally wipe your hard drive: "How to recover lost files after you accidentally wipe your hard drive

Monday August 28, 2006 (08:01 AM GMT)

By: Shawn Hermans

Recently I wanted to make sure I had enough space to back up my home digital videos and pictures, so I purchased a new hard drive to add to my home Linux server. I moved all the files I wanted to save onto a single hard drive and repartitioned the old hard drive so I could upgrade to a newer version of Linux. After going through the process of reinstalling the operating system, I mounted the backup hard drive and discovered that it was empty. I had some how mixed up the hard drive I used to back up all the data with a hard drive that I wanted to wipe. Because I had done such a poor job of retaining backups on external media, I did not have any backups of my pictures and videos.

After the overwhelming feeling of dread passed, I started to look into file recovery options. I demoed a variety of commercial products to see if any of them could find my lost files or partitions. Nothing seemed to work. Finally, I discovered TestDisk and PhotoRec, and was able to use the latter to recover my lost files.

TestDisk can recover lost partitions of virtually any filesystem. PhotoRec can recover files of most types, including most picture and video formats. PhotoRec can be used on existing partitions, or can be used to recover files on deleted partitions without having to recover the underlying partitions. Both PhotoRec and TestDisk can be run on DOS, Windows (9x, NT, 2000, XP, 2003), Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Sun Solaris, and Mac OS X, and, their developers claim, can be compiled and run on most Unix systems."

How to Create DVD-Video Content

I found this page very helpful:

How to Create DVD-Video Content

NewsForge | Linus Torvalds doesn't matter!?!

NewsForge | Linus Torvalds doesn't matter!?!

Check it out! ;)

Japanese Input in linux

I was trying to setup Japanese input in linux. This was not an easy task, however I found it easier than windows. Here's what I did (on ubuntu):

1) sudo apt-get install im anthy scim-gtk2-immodule scim-uim scim-qtimm
2) Create a file called 75custom-write_japanese in /etc/X11/Xsession.d/
Paste the following lines in it:
export XMODIFIERS="@im=SCIM"
export GTK_IM_MODULE="scim"
export XIM_PROGRAM="scim -d"
export QT_IM_MODULE="scim"

3) sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales
(Over here, if you have the option of selecting anything, select en_US.UTF-8. But I was not given the option of selecting)

4) Add scim -d to your startup. For KDE, make a file ~/.kde/Autostart/startscim
Paste the following lines:
#!/bin/sh
scim -d

5) Run: chmod 744 ~/.kde/Autostart/startscim

6) Restart the X server.

Now you will see a nice little gtk-applet sitting in the systray. You can click on it, configure it, and use it to select Japanese or English. It takes a while to get used to it. It will also popup an annoying panel of its own when you select Japanese input. You can drag this to a place more convenient.

All in all, it works well, and I'm happy with it.

Information taken from this page

Dealing with "The Most Annoying Web Page"

Many of you may have come across "the most annoying web page". It's a sick page that keeps giving you popups. Now if you don't want to keep clicking on those retarded popups (javascript alerts). Then here's what you do: (apart from killing your browser).

1) Open a new browser window
2) Disable Javascript (In firefox you go to Edit>Preferences>Content)
3) Click on the popup one last time, and it's all over.
4) Enable Javascript again.

Click here if you want to check it out. (Its way too annoying)

Firestarter and BORGChat

I use a LAN chat client called BORGChat. Its a very good piece of work. Although its a windows program, I run it in linux with WINE.

Getting BorgChat to work through firestarter was a bit of a problem, but I managed to figure it out. First, I found out which ports borgchat uses. This can be done in two ways:
1) Open BorgChat, go to "Options > Connections" and it will show you the post
2) Disable the firewall, run BorgChat. now open a terminal, and type sudo lsof -Pni . Now look for Borgchat and Wine. You will find the ports on which they are listening.

Once you know the ports, you have to open these ports in Firestarter. I allowed only Local users to access, by using 10.10.19.152/255.255.255.128 (ip-address/subnet-mask) in the "allowed" section.

But borg was still not working. Then, I went to "Options > Connections" in BorgChat again, and selected the method IP multicast instead of UDP broadcast. And then I told my friend on LAN to do the same. Borgchat then started running normally. I can even transfer files.

The obvious drawback of this method is that you'll have to tell all people on the LAN to use IP Multicast. I have only one friend on LAN, whom I chat with, so it was not a problem for me.

If, by chance, Borg is still not working for you, then you may need to follow the steps in my previous post (Firestarter and Samba).

LiNuX RuLZ!!

Firestarter and Samba

In my previous post, I have described how I set up Firestarter. However, there were a few issues with Samba. I was able to browse my shares by entering the IP address. But, today when I tried to "browse" my network, I couldn't see anyone. Konqueror gave me an error saying. "Unable to browse local network. This may be caused by a firewall" (something like that).

Then I stumbled across this thread on ubuntuforums. It gave a very good picture of what was going on, and also a solution to the problem. Now, as you know, I'm a total n00b when it comes to networking, and I didn't actually understand everything, but I managed to set things right.

First of all, in the "Policy" tab of firestarter, I had opened Samba ports (137-139 445) and I had set "10.10.19." as my allowed source for samba. I figured that the correct format should be IP-address/subnet-mask. So I set it as 10.10.19.152/255.255.255.128 . Again, I'm not entirely sure of this. See this page for more details.

Next, I installed "winbind." I don't know what exactly winbind is, but it seems that it plays a role in resolving hostnames. Do a web search for more details.

After that, I edited the file /etc/firestarter/inbound/setup .There I added the line:

# Allow response to netbios name broadcasts from the local network.
$IPT -A INBOUND -s $NET -p udp -m state --state NEW -j ACCEPT


Then just restarted firestarter (sudo /etc/init.d/firestarter restart), and I was able to browse my local network in konqueror.

Since I installed winbind, I also added "wins" to the "hosts" line in /etc/nsswitch.conf:
hosts:     files dns mdns wins

This will allow ordinary TCP/IP programs to resolve hostnames with netbios. (Don't know what it means :-P )

Firestarter

I installed Firestarter today, after the whole "Mysterious Download" thing, I got a little paranoid. Now I'm quite a n00b when it comes to networks and stuff. But I managed to get Firestarter running just fine :)

First, I apt-getted firestarter. Then I started it. Then I had to go through the configuration wizard. I didn't understand a word of wtf was going on in the wizard, so I just kept the default options, and kept clicking Next.

The Firestarter window has 3 main tabs. Status, Events and Policy. I figured I had to open the ports that I get incoming connections on. So after fiddling around a little, I clicked on "Policy", (Editing > Inbound traffic policy)

Then I clicked on "Add rule", and added FTP (ports 20-21), since I run an FTP server. Next, I added Samba, (ports 137-139 445). Here I didn't choose the default option of "When Source is Anyone". I wanted only LAN clients to be allowed, but for some reason, that option was grayed out. So I selected "IP, Host or network" and entered the IP 10.10.19. Notice I didn't put the last digits.



Next, I added Bittorrent (ports 6881-6889). And then clicked on "Apply Policy" on the top.

Now I tested my FTP and Samba. Both were working fine. (I'll also get my friend to test these from his computer, just to be sure. This post will be edited if I encounter problems).

Bittorrent: Azureus was using port 21351, which was obviously blocked. So I configured azureus to use port 6889. Then it showed the nice "green" status, and I was happy. :)

I also noticed many connections on Bittorrent ports, even after quitting azureus. I asked some people on the azureus IRC chatroom if this was normal. Yes, they said its normal. It probably happens because the tracker(s) have my IP address, and people try connecting. But since azureus is not running, the connections just get rejected, or something like that.

ext2 upgraded to ext3

I was absolutely bored of fsck running every time I have an unclean unmount. It was so fscking boring! This was bacause my linux partitions are ext2, and not ext3.

I realized that ext3 partions are nothing but ext2 partitions with journaling. (ext3 = ext2 + journaling)

So is there any way to upgrade to ext3. Yes, there sure is! I found this page.

Basically, I had to run the command:
tune2fs -j /dev/hda3

/dev/hda3 being my root partition. After running the command, a .journal file will appear in the root directory.

Next, change your /etc/fstab and mount the / partition as ext3, instead of ext2. And then reboot your system.

Warnings:
1) Make sure your kernel supports the ext3 filesystem. Ubuntu Dapper supports is, so no problem.
2) Do this at your own risk. Backup data just incase.
3) Read this page for more detailed information

Mysterious download

The other day, at night, I was doing nothing, just staring at gkrellm. Now, I noticed that some data is being downloaded at a steady 4kBps. At first I just thought it must be a cron job, like apt-get update or something. But I have a 128kbps connection, and whenever something is downloaded, I get a full speed of around 13-14kBps, even during apt-get update

Next, I decided to see whats up, and I ran the command "sudo lsof -Pni" to see all connections. I expected to see an external IP address, but I just saw the usual processes, no external IP was listed, and nothing out of the ordinary was established on the daemons listening on ports. I started to get more suspicious. I started killing daemons that I thought might be causing this: smbd, nmbd, vsftpd, ircd, and some others. But the download didn't stop.

Even though I have a cable connection, my IP address is dynamic. So I simply logged off the internet and then logged in again. The download now stopped, and I had a new IP address.

After this experience, I have decided to install firestarter (which is a firewall). It seems to be very easy to use.

But I wonder what that mysterious download was! And why was it downloading at a lower speed? "ps -A" also showed nothing out of the ordinary and gkrellm showed "1 user".

Strange, isn't it ?

Printer - there and back again

After I upgraded to Dapper, my printer stopped working. /var/log/cups/error_log gave me this error:
E [19/Jun/2006:12:01:40 +0530] cupsdAuthorize: Local authentication certificate not found!


I looked at a lot of threads on ubuntuforums and a lot of results on google. Finally I deleted my printer, and added it again. And now, it works. Just finished printing a test page. Boy, them test pages sure suck up a lot of ink!!

Azureus and the disappearing tray icon

I installed Azureus today, using apt-get. There were a few problems with it:
1) The Tray Icon at the bottom is a white blank space
2) There is no X button to close tabs.
3) If there is an improper shutdown, the warning message will not go, as the "Hide" button does not respond.

These problems are verified by other users on ubuntuforums. There are 2 ways of solving this:
1) Use Automatix to install azureus
2) Download the package from azureus.sf.net and extract and use it mannually.

And remember to remove the apt-getted version first.

Google Earth for Linux!

Yes, its finally released for Linux!

It needs a lot of resources though, and some people are having trouble using it. I'll download it tonight.

Special thanks to Ryan Gordon for making this possible :)

Google Earth - Download

Breezy to Dapper in 36 insane steps

Ubuntu released it's latest version 6.06 (Dapper Drake) a couple of weeks ago, and I decided to upgrade. I was using the Breezy Badger release. I had to do some really insane stuff to upgrade. This is primarily because I have a crappy internet connection, and I can download large files only at night (10:00pm to 8:00am). Also, my computer turns off automatically at 7:50am, I have set this as a cron job.

Note: This is not intended to be a guide to upgrade to Dapper. Please refer to the Ubuntu wiki page for information on how to upgrade.

So here's what I did, step by step:

1) I downloaded the dapper CD. (took 2 nights, on my 128kbps connection)

2) I realized that this is the wrong CD, and the "alternate" CD is needed to upgrade from breezy to dapper. The one I downloaded was for a fresh install only.

3) Downloaded the "alternate" CD. (took another 2 nights)

4) Installed the ubuntu-desktop metapackage, had to remove firefox and gaim that I had installed myself, not from the repository. (Used kopete and mozilla in the meantime).

5) CD burning issues cropped in, maybe the DVD lens has dust, or my CDs are bad. :(

6) Mounted the iso directly, using the command "mount -o loop /mnt/ranjan/dapper/whatever-alternate-i386.iso /cdrom"

7) Changed the repository to "dapper" and added the CD to the repository.

8) Tried to run "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade", but it said that another 740MB of packages need to be downloaded. This is a pain in the ass. Will take another 2 nights.

9) I used the option "sudo apt-get --download-only dist-upgade" to download the packages at night, i didn't want the upgrade to take place while I'm asleep.

10) Now I realized that some packages are going to be REMOVED, this incudes KDE, that I need. Can't let this happen, can I?

11) Found help in the ubuntu chatroom, someone told me I need to install the kubuntu-desktop metapackage as well, since I'm using KDE.

12) I must change the repo back to breezy, and I'm afraid I might lose all the data that I downloaded in 2 nights, so I took a backup. "cp /var/cache/apt/archives/*.* /mnt/c/apt-cache"

13) changed back to breezy, and apt-get updated and apt-get cleaned.

14) sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop and got this error:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.

Since you only requested a single operation it is extremely likely that
the package is simply not installable and a bug report against
that package should be filed.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
kubuntu-desktop: Depends: akode but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages


15) Decided to install the "akode" package manually. "sudo apt-get install akode"

The following packages will be REMOVED:
juk kdeaccessibility kdemultimedia kttsd libakode2 libarts1-akode

I decided to proceed anyway. Then Went to pee and then drank some cold water.

Came back, and process went smoothly.

16) sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop.

17) KDM was kind enough to ask me which login manager I want to use, and I selected GDM. This happened while "configuring packages" after apt-get.

18) Changed /etc/apt/sources.list back to dapper.

19) sudo apt-get clean

20) cp /mnt/c/apt-cache/* /var/cache/apt/archives

21) sudo apt-get update

22) had to add cdrom again

23) sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

24) had a look at the packages removed, they are in the "installed" list, so no problem

25) closing all programs and proceeding. 60 MB more need to be downloaded, using --download-only option and going to sleep.

26) Woke up this morning, all downloads were complete. Did sudo apt-get dist-upgrade, and got an infinite loop of errors. Now doing sudo apt-get update to correct the problem. I can only hope it will be solved, as the error seems to be similar to the one when apt-get update fails.

27) Process started (apt-get dist-upgrade) :D .I hope I don't run out of disk space (only 1.4GB free) :-P

28) Dist-upgrade suddenly stopped in the middle, and gave me this error:

Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/artwiz-cursor_1%3a1.3-2ubuntu1_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)


29) Anyway, I did "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" again, but some problem about something depending on libsdl-gfx1.2-4, so installing that mannually

"sudo apt-get install libsdl-gfx1.2-4"

Then it started installing/setting up a whole load of stuff :-S (possibly continuing the dist-upgrade?)

30) That got over after a long time. Then i did "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" yet again. And again, got the artiwiz-cursor error :(

31) I decided to remove the artwiz-cursor deb file from the cache, maybe it got corrupt somehow.

32) sudo apt-get dist-upgrade again, 8KB need to be downloaded, fine.

Same error again. This is sick, saw the description of this horrid artwiz-cursor. OK, its just a freakin Ascii X mouse cursor font, I got rid of it.

33) Again, sudo apt-get dist-upgrade. And Finally no more artwiz shit.

34) Finally, its over :) Checked if there are any broken packages. No broken packages, now rebooting.

35) X server refused to start, thanks to artwiz being uninstalled. Now I had to boot into windows to use the net to find out what I could do about it. A bug report page told me that installing or reconfiguring "xcursor-themes" package may do the trick. And yes, "dpkg-reconfigure xcursor-themes" solved the problem. And then I could install artwiz-cursors.

During this process, however, whenever I switched to a "blank" terminal (say, CTRL+ALT+F10), the system would freeze. No keyboard response, nothing at all. Had to press the reset button. And had to run fsck every time, and loads of errors were found on /home. I wonder how many files became corrupt in the process :'(

36) Reboot again, and HURRAY, DAPPER IS WORKING!!

About google & Linux

Google, I think, has been more kind to linux compared to other companies of the same gernre. When they released google-pack, linux users were quite disappointed, because it was available only for windows. However, they recently ported their software Picasa to linux. It uses WINE and mozilla. Google also made several patches for WINE in the process.

Google-talk is another software thats available only for windows. However, it uses the Jabber Protocol, which means that linux users can use Gaim or Kopete to chat. Later on, they made a web-interface built into GMail. The fact is, my friends who use windows prefer the web-interface over Google-Talk.

Google-Earth is available only for windows, but linux users can go to maps.google.com and have a look at satellite images. Maybe not as good as Google-earth, but heck, it works!

Google even has Special Search options, which includes a section on linux and BSD.

Recently, google started an online-calendar, and they are working on an online Spreadsheet. All you need is a web-browser, which means they'll work on any OS.

Slashdot | First Photos of MIT $100 Laptop

Slashdot | First Photos of MIT $100 Laptop

Processes using the internet

Sometimes I notice that some mysterious process is downloading data from the internet. (gkrellm shows me that data is being downloaded, even though I'm not doing anything). This is probably just "apt-get update" running in the background. But is there any way to tell for sure which process are sending and receiving data from the internet?

I asked this question on Ubuntuforums, and I got a very nice reply.

There are two ways of doing this:

1. Simply use the command: sudo lsof -Pni
   
2. You can use a tool called trojanscan (homepage here)
   

Personally, I prefer the first method. But system administrators may like TrojanScan better, has it has more features, and you can choose to ignore the usual processes.

Have fun

-Aku

Super Grub Disk : HomePage

Super Grub Disk : HomePage

This is a great software that helps you boot if you've messed up grub or your MBR. I haven't tried it out, but it seems fairly simple to use. If I encounter any problems with it, I'll edit this post and tell the details. :)

A new look & feel

I've been using xfce for quite some time now, almost a year, and I began to get bored of it. So I decided to switch to KDE. That's quite a drastic change, compared to the minimalistic look of xfce.

Even so, it's a good change. That's the beauty of linux, you have many choices. And if you don't like the choices given to you, you can even make your own desktop environment :)

subtitle trouble

My friend gave me a copy of Final Fantasy - Advent Children. It has an srt file with english subtitles. But for some reason, mplayer wouldn't recognise the subtitles.

Then I realised that the subtitle file and avi file must have the same name. So a simple renaming solved the problem, and I could play the subtitles

Copying VCD tracks using cdfs

I tried to copy a vcd just by copying the avseq01.dat and other .dat files, but I was getting an I/O error. So I found out that I have to install a program called CDFS. You can download it from here.

Next, I unzipped the folder, used "make" and "make install". I had to do an additional step: sudo insmod cdfs.ko This is to activate the filesystem. See the INSTALL file for more details.

Now I mounted the VCD, not using iso9660, but cdfs, like this: sudo mount -t cdfs /dev/dvd /media/cdrom

Now when I browse the /media/cdrom folder, I can see the vcd tracks as mpeg files. All I have to do is copy them. Its taking a long time, but its working...

Apparently, CDFS has a lot of other uses, like copying data from corrupt multisession disks. Get more info from this site.

Update: 05 August 2006: Easier solution:

Just get vcdimager and use vcdxrip :)

Enable DMA

Is your CD/DVD Burning too slow? Does it make your system hang? Maybe you need to enable DMA !!

I bought a DVD writer, an LG model, and I noticed that burning was slower than usual and it was making my system hang.

To check whether DMA was enabled, I did:

sudo cat /proc/ide/hdd/


The last line was something like this:

using_dma 0 0 1 rw


Notice that the value in the first column is zero, which means that DMA is not enabled.

Then I ran the command:

sudo hdparm -d1 /dev/hdd


And Tada !! CD burning doubled in speed, and no more hanging. cool, eh ?

Edit: Everytime you reboot, DMA will be disabled, so you have to take appropriate steps to make sure that DMA is enabled on boot. Ubuntu users can follow this guide.

Resizing lots of images at once

My sister got engaged recently, and I had a lot of high resolution pics, which I wanted to upload. I needed to resize these images, in order to make them small and upload them.

I found out about a command called "mogrify". All I had to do was:
1) Create a separate folder, and backup the high-res pics, as they will be overwritten.
2) Run the command mogrify -geometry 640x425 ./*.* in the directory that I had to resize the images.
3) Wait...

In a couple of minutes, all the images will be resized !!

Mogrify can do a lot more than just resize images. Run mogrify -help for details. :)

Why windows Vista won't suck.

I came across this article from slashdot. Why Windows Vista won't suck

Well, I'll be able to tell that only after I use it. Moreover, my computer isn't fast enough to support Vista. I've only downloaded a transition pack that changed the graphics to Vista style :-P

Whatever the case, there seem to be some major improvements in Vista. Lets wait and see

wma to mp3

I found an old script on linuxquestions.org to convert wma's to mp3's.
I had to make a minor change to get it working with the latest version
of mplayer.



Requirements: Lame, mplayer.



To save the script, do this:

sudo
gedit /usr/bin/wma2mp3

then copy paste the code.

Then type:

sudo
chmod a+x /usr/bin/wma2mp3



If you don't have sudo, then just remove sudo and run the commands as
root.



Here is the code:


#!/bin/bash

current_directory=$( pwd )
#remove spaces
for i in *.wma; do mv "$i" `echo $i | tr ' ' '_'`; done
#remove uppercase
for i in *.[Ww][Mm][Aa]; do mv "$i" `echo $i | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`; done
#Rip with Mplayer / encode with LAME
for i in *.wma ; do mplayer -vo null -vc dummy -af resample=44100 -ao
pcm:waveheader $i && lame -m s audiodump.wav -o $i; done
#convert file names
for i in *.wma; do mv "$i" "`basename "$i" .wma`.mp3"; done
rm audiodump.wav


The script runs without any arguments, and it will convert all files in the folder.

Warning: All files will be overwritten

mp3 player

I bought a Creative mp3 player. Its 1 GB, with FM, Voice recorder, FM recorder, 4 equalizer presets, and folder support.

To get it running on linux was a breeze. First, I shoved the player into the usb port, then I mounted the player on a directory that i created, /mnt/usb/

So I do:
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb/

And then I run nautilus as root, and just copy whatever songs I want into the player. Voila !!

I could have solved the permission issues if I wanted to, but I didn't want to :-P

Oh, before pulling out the player, remember to
sudo umount /mnt/usb

Have a nice day!

nihongo benkyo

This is a really cool Japanese dictionary, that I found helpful.
GnomeFiles - GNOME/GTK+ Software Repository

Evince - PDF viewer

I came across this really neat PDF viewer. I like it bacause I can actually copy-paste text from it :)

Click here to go to the homepage

Gimp Plugin GREYCstoration - Haypo

Gimp Plugin GREYCstoration - Haypo

Software War

softwarewar.png (PNG Image, 959x719 pixels)

Desktop screenshot

Here is a screenshot of my desktop. Its nothing grand, but its my blog, so I can post whatever I want

Frostwire

I found this really great p2p client. I had heard a little about it. Today, I downloaded the linux rpm, used alien to convert it to a deb, and then did a dpkg -i to install it. Its a java progam, but I fell in love with it instantly. Bye bye apollon


Heres a link to frostwire

Main Page - Ubuntu Document Storage Facility

Main Page - Ubuntu Document Storage Facility

Automatix (Automated GUI installation script) - Ubuntu Forums

Automatix (Automated GUI installation script) - Ubuntu Forums