Blog from pocket pc

I’am trying to write a post from my pocket pc directly on the web.

Easily run free Linux software under Windows…for free

Sometimes, you need to connect from Windows to a Unix or Linux system just to run a specific software, for example, if you want to run some Linux open source program under windows. What you need is a Linux machine in your network or a virtual machine running  a linux server under windows itself. Here I describe an easy way to do it using Xming + VMWARE player if you want to run linux in the virtual machine.

Xming is a open source X server that runs under windows, easy to install and use. Just go to the homepage: http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Xming.

VMWARE player is a free computer emulator from IBM. You can download an already made virtual machine (called “virtual appliance”) from the VMWARE website. There are many, just install a Linux distribution that you like or want to experience. I suggest Ubuntu but there is a big choice. You can also create your virtual machine if you like, it is pretty easy with VMWARE server and it is free. It is not required to have a complete installation of Ubuntu with a GUI, a server installation is enough and take less memory. Your GUI will be the Xserver under windows.

The installation of XMING is pretty forward. Once installed, the easiest way to use is to run it straight away. You have an X icon on your windows desktop, run it.

Then you need a remote terminal connection software, the best open source is Putty.
It is an executable, just download it and lunch it. Depending from the remote terminal service that is running on your virtual server under VMWARE player, configure Putty to use it. I suggest OpenSSH. You have also to configure the X11 Forwarding setting in Putty to forward the X session to your windows machine IP address. Done.

You will get a console, login in on your Linux server and lunch the application you want. Magically, it will appear on your windows desktop. I use this method to run application like Kivio (no need to buy Visio ) or other good open source that I will mention in other articles, on my office notebook when I am at home. The server is my Linux machine.

I repeat the instruction:

1) Install under Windows the VMWARE player, Xming and Putty. Run under VMWARE player a Linux server that you simply download form VMWARE website.

2) Have a terminal server running under Linux in the virtual machine, like OpenSSH

3) Execute Xming under windows: double click the X icon

4) Execute Putty: configure it to connect your virtual server Ip and to forward the X11 to your Windows machine IP.

5) Login and run the Linux application.

If you need more help just drop a line in the comment.

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ATI driver in Dapper

I have an ATI9550 and my experience with Dapper is very positive. The difficulty of installing ATI card under Linux and Ubuntu are pretty much referring to more than 1 year ago. Since beginning of 2006, the effort of ATI to make easy the integration of their driver with the various Linux distribution is giving good results.

For sake of truth, I found that the only howto really working is this:

Ubuntu Dapper Installation Guide

I suggest to use the Method 1. It works, hassle free, guaranteed. There is really no reason to use method 2, unless you are a masochist. Using method 1, the driver will be automatically updated everytime the system will be updated. If you use method 2 then for every kernel update (3 times a month at least) you have to re-compile the driver.

Anyway, the fun with Linux is that you have the control and you can choose, so method 2 can be fun too.

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Read files under Windows that are stored in your Linux partition (ext2, ext3)

Sometimes you want or have to use Windows. I know, it is not your fault but there is one application that you cannot really run under Linux. For example, some people want to use Linux to download file from p2p network but they need it under Windows later on. If you have to keep the PC connected to the internet 24h, it is better to run it on Linux.

Windows cannot access the Ubuntu ext3 filesystem by default but there is a nice application that wiil help you:

Ext2 Installable File System For Windows

It works both with ext2 and ext3 file system. After installation, the ext2 or ext3 partinion will be visible under windows and available for reading. No writing support.

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Flash Player 9 on Linux – Adobe promise

Last news about Flash development for Linux.

Adobe returns attention to Flash for LinuxJuly 25, 2006 11:03 AM PDTAdobe has resumed work on a Linux version of its Flash Player and plans to catch the software up to its Windows and Mac OS X equivalent, version 9, the company has said.”Yes, Adobe is actively working on the Linux version of Flash Player 9,” said XXX in a May blog posting. “We expect to make a pre-release version available on Adobe Labs for early feedback and testing before the end of the year, with the full release expected in early 2007.” A better performance for the Linux version is one goal, as is a consistent experience across different operating systems.An Adobe developer, Mike Melanson, launched a blog about the Linux Flash work. On Monday, he described the software interfaces he plans on using and asked for input on his choices.Adobe has revived other desktop utilities before as well. The company skipped version 6 of Adobe Reader but released version 7.Adobe doesn’t release Linux versions of its flagship desktop software products, though. A Novell survey found that Linux users believe Adobe Photoshop is the most important missing desktop application.

Adobe returns attention to Flash for Linux | News.blog | CNET News.com

Let’s see. Maybe they realized that they are going to miss opportunity in the enterprise.

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Adobe Flash Player 8 on Ubuntu

If you are a Linux user, for sure, you noticed that many web site are using the latest Flash player ver. 8.0. The point is that Adobe haven’t release yet the ver. 8 for Linux and it seems that doesn’t want to. Take a look to this site: http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/2006/07/stoppage_1.html

This is a big limitation for the desktop Linux users, just an example, it is not possible to see the trailers for many new movies. The whole Internet experience is crimpled and many features are limited to the Windows users.

First of all, if you are a web developer, please don’t use Flash, use something else or at least try to use the open source version of Flash (I know, it isn’t easy).

Then, as usual, I give you solutions….2 solutions, very similar indeed.

Solution #1: Install Internet Explorer 6 using IE4Linux . The installation is pretty simple, as explained in the site and works, I swear. After installing IE, just go to the Flash site and install the new player. The video playing can be a little bit “flashing”, but it is Flash player, so what’s the matter with it.

Solution #2: Install Firefox using WINE and then install the Flash player. I don’t like this method because Firefox is native in Linux, so why install it under WINE. Just use IE6 installed through IE4linux. Use this method only if you don’t like IE6 and M$.

Warning: Do not try to install IE6 directly using WINE, simply doesn’t work anymore after the release 0.9.5 of WINE.

If you can, please donate to the open source projects, these guys deserve your money.

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Multimedia support in Ubuntu

Here my experience on installing Multimedia support in Ubuntu.
I reccomend to follow the Ubuntu WIKI for Restricted format, I did it for Kubuntu and Ubuntu and it simply works. You have to use the consolle, but the installation at the end will be very clean and functional.

Here is the link: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

I tryed Automatix in Ubuntu, it doesn’t really work well. It install a lot of unusefull stuff and the multimedia support is not working in some cases, i.e. DVD playing and few multimedia format. There isn’t a clear description of the many package it ask you to install, just to be sure I installed them, but at the end I found my system full of “garbage”.

It is worth to try Automatix only if you want to have an automatedinstallation of all the package that are not coming with the basic install and you are really scared of the console.
Anyway if you want to try, this is the web site : http://getautomatix.com/

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TUX magazine

The best magazine for Linux desktop users is, without any doubt, TUX magazine. It is published by the Linux Journal editor, it is free and ROCKS!

You will find all you want to know about linux for desktop use: software reviews, suggestions, howto, etc.

The level of quality of the articles is really high and even the novice will find easy and interesting.

You can subscribe and your copy will be delivered every month in your Email.

Dont’ miss it, http://www.tuxmagazine.com/

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Linux Software Review

The Softpedia web site is really interesting if you are looking for good review of software for Linux. The editor write 5 review a week of the best Open Source software for Linux. The review are well done, complete and pretty interesting.

Don’t miss it, http://linux.softpedia.com/

MythTV on XBOX

This is a guide on installing MythTV on a XBOX. Personally I don’t understand why to do that since XBMC is working pretty well and the support is great. Check this out http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/

The main reason why I say so is that MythTV requires a server PC always on to run many of its task or you have to use a linux install on the XBOX. The XBMC works just with a direct connection to the Internet and doesn’t requires a Linux server with a MySQL running underneath.

HERE WE GO, FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTION (I AM NOT THE AUTHOR).

A mythtv setup consists of one or more servers (PCs with video cards), and one or more clients. I have a mythtv server and a couple of clients running on PCs. The main problem is to fit a Mythtv client in a typical media center, where you don’t want to have a large noisy PC running. So the XBOX is a perfect fit, it’s really a PC but without a noisy fan and it fits in a typical media center shelf. The XBOX isn’t powerful enough to be a Mythtv server, and there’s no (easy) way to

install a TV card in the XBOX. But it should work ok as a client.

Mythtv is a Linux application, so we’ll install Linux on the XBOX, and then we’ll install Mythtv.

Prerequisites

1. A running Mythtv server and a LAN with sufficient speed, either a fixed LAN or a 54Mbps or better wireless network. I used a 54Mbps wireless network. I originally set up my Mythtv on Ubuntu using this HOWTO: http://www.quietglow.com/docs/ubuntumythtv.html
2. An older XBOX, not XBOX 360, but the older kind. Stay away from the newest versions. I bought mine on Ebay for $110 or so.
3. The MechAssault game for XBOX, the original, not the platinum version. I bought mine on Ebay for < $10.
4. A linksys wireless game adapter WGA54G (Ebay $60 or so).
5. A special USB to XBOX cable. I bought mine on ElectricQuarter.com for about $6.00

XBOX USB cable, Wireless adapter, MechAssault

Preparing the XBOX

I used the “software” method to prepare the XBOX for Linux. You can see a detailed HOWTO here.
But here is what I did:

Download the “MechInstaller” savegames. Go to
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=54192&package_id=91497&release_id=177464
and choose to download MechInstaller-1.0-FATX-Images.zip (use the latest version). I use Ubuntu,
so after the download I used FileRoller to extract the MechInstaller-1.0-FATX-128MB.img file.
My USB memory stick is a 128MB stick.

Plug in your USB memory stick and install the MechInstaller image on the USB disk with the
following command:
sudo dd if=MechInstaller-1.0-FATX-128MB.img of=/dev/sdb
/dev/sdb may not be the right device for you. Find out the right device first by choosing
System->Administration->Disks.

Connect the USB memory stick to your XBOX using the special usb/XBOX cable and start the XBOX
without a CD in the drive. Copying is done by using the savegame management features on the
original Xbox Dashboard. You will need to navigate to your USB stick and copy each savegame on
it one by one to your HDD. The MechInstaller savegames should have little penguin icons on them.

Now restart the XBOX with the MechAssault game in the CD drive. Then choose “CAMPAIGN”, and then
“Install Linux”. This will take some time. Afterwards, your Xbox is fully Linux-compatible,
and there is an item “LINUX” in the Dashboard main menu which boots a minimal Linux system.

You are done with the preparation phase!

Preparing the wireless game adapter (WGA54G).

Connect the game adapter to any PC using the LAN cable that came with it. Configure your LAN
interface with a fixed IP in the 192.168.1.X subnet (X can be anything you want except 5 or 250).
Point your browser to http://192.168.1.250 and you should get a prompt to logon to the
configuration page. Use the password “admin” with no username.

If you can’t get this to work then get a paperclip, unfurl it and use it to press the reset button
on the game adapter. Push and hold for a few seconds until the lights flicker to show that the
game adapter is reset. Then try the admin page again.

When you get into the admin page make sure you connect to your wireless network. I configured a
fixed IP address of 192.168.1.5. When you’re done connect the LAN cable to back of the XBOX.

Installing Linux

I used Xebian. The complete howto is here. Download Xebian from here. Use the latest available
version. I chose
dist-1.1.4-xbox.tar.gz.

Extract the .iso file:

tar xzvf dist-1.1.4-xbox.tar.gz

The .iso file is dist-1.1.4-xbox/1.1.4-xbox.iso.

Use the .iso file to burn a DVD. The XBOX prefers DVDs. If you don’t have a DVD burner you could
try a regular CD-R, but I don’t know if this will work. Stick a blank DVD+R or DVD-R in
the drive, Right mouseclick on the .iso file and choose “write to disk”.

Power on the Xbox without a disc in the drive, wait for the Dashboard to appear, and then insert
the Xebian disc. My XBOX has a Thompson DVD drive. You can find out which DVD drive your XBOX has
by going to this page.
My Thompson drive refused to read a standard DVD+R disk so I then tried to use a CD-RW, and this
worked. In theory Thomson drives should read DVDs fine, but this seems to be a case where you need
a bit of trial and error.

If you get the XBOX to boot off the Linux installation image, you’ll eventually get to a screen
with icons etc. This is the fluxbox desktop which is the default in Xebian.
This is just Xebian linux running off the LIVE-CD, it’s not installed on the HD yet.

Now you’ll need a way to logon to the Xebian system and enter commands with a normal keyboard,
(don’t try to do it with the game controllers etc.).

You could simply try to connect a USB keyboard to the USB cable you have. I prefer to use a laptop
and a crossover cable. You could just plug the XBOX into your network router, but I have a
wireless LAN so did the following:

Connect a laptop to the XBOX using the crossover cable.
Configure the LAN adapter in the laptop with a fixed IP address:

IP address: 192.168.0.11
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

This means your laptop is using 192.168.0.11, whereas the XBOX is 192.168.0.10.
If your laptop is using Linux, then use ssh to logon, If you’re using Windows then download PuTTY
and use this instead.

ssh root@192.168.0.10
Password: xebian

You should get in and get a # prompt. Now type XBOXLinuxInstall and press Enter.
Now you’ll get a series of questions:

I installed Linux inside the Gamesave partition (E:). I chose a root filesystem size of 1990MB
instead of the default value of 2000MB. and I chose the defaults for all the rest. I did this
to stay within the total size of E: which is 2250.5MB. Swap by default is 250MB.

This runs for some time, and you’ll see the list of files being copied from the CD to the hard
disk. At the end of the script you’ll be prompted for the network configuration. I used:

IP address: 192.168.1.10
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.10

This is now a fixed ip for use within my wireless LAN, where we already set up
the wireless game adapter. Now the script is finished.
Type
# reboot
and the XBOX will reboot, take out the CD and choose “Linux” in the Dashboard. This will boot
the new Linux system from the hard disk.

Plug in the game adapter to the XBOX using a normal LAN cable. Try to ping 192.168.1.5 (the
game adapter itself) from another PC on the local wireless network. If this doesn’t work then
repeat the section about configuring the game adapter. When you get this to work then try to
ping 192.168.1.10.

If you’re security concious, then follow the Xebian post-installation instructions.
You are done with installing Linux!!

Installing the MythTV client.

There is a very good easy MythTV on Xebian HOWTO. In my case all the assumptions held for going
ahead with this HOWTO. I already have a couple of PCs running mythtv clients on my network, so
MySQL etc. is set up to accept connections over the network.

Here’s what I did from my Ubuntu PC:

ssh root@192.168.1.10
Login with the root password.

vi /etc/apt/sources.list

add the following lines to the end of the file:

deb http://alexfisher.me.uk/debian sarge main
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org sarge main

Save the file.

tzconfig

Set the timezone of the XBOX.

apt-get update
apt-get install ntp-simple ntp-doc ntp-server
/etc/init.d/ntp-server start
cd /etc/rc2.d/
ln -s ../init.d/ntpdate S24ntpdate

Now we’re ready to install MythTV:

# There’s a bug here in the installer
mkdir /etc/mythtv/
chmod 777 /etc/mythtv/

apt-get install mythtv-frontend

This prompts for the host of the MySQL server. I typed the Ip address of my MythTV/MySQL server:
which is 192.168.1.4.

I’m just going to use the default “live” username on the xbox to run mythfrontend.
I want to start the frontend now to test it but to start the frontend I need to be able to
control the desktop. So I’m going to use VNC:

# apt-get install x11vnc
# su – live
$ x11vnc -display :0

Then on your local (ubuntu) system type:
$ vncviewer 192.168.1.10

Now you get a window containing the fluxbox desktop. Now just click on the “Terminal”
icon, start a terminal session and type
$ mythfrontend

This will fail. Just ignore the errors and exit. Now try

$ cd .mythtv
$ vi mysql.txt

Edit this file and make it look exactly like the one on your other mythtv clients.
I just use a hardcoded ip address in mine for the server name.
Now try

$ mythfrontend

Again. This time enter the language and then you’ll see the main mythtv menu!

To setup your DVD remote to work with mythtv do the following (as root):

cd /tmp
mkdir lirc_temp
cd lirc_temp
wget http://bit.blkbk.com/mythtv-xbox.0.4.5-beta.tar.gz
tar xpzvf mythtv-xbox.0.4.5-beta.tar.gz
cp live/lircrc /home/live/.lircrc
ln -s /home/live/.lircrc /home/live/.mythtv/lircrc

To set up autostartup of myth and the vnc server do this (from the HOWTO):
Add the following lines to /home/live/fluxstartup.sh file:

# Disable dpms (EnergyStar) features
/usr/bin/X11/xset -dpms
# Disable screensaver
/usr/bin/X11/xset s off
# Start VNC server
x11vnc -display :0 &
# Start the mythtv frontend
mythfrontend &

NOTE: This fluxstartup.sh file is a little different from the guide I mentioned above. I think
they have an error in their guide.
Now kill the /usr/bin/X11/X process and let the desktop restart. This will automatically bring up
the mythtv frontend, and you’ll also be able to use the vncviewer remotely. I found that after
a while I don’t really use the vncviewer, so I commented it out from the file. This will save
some precious memory resources on the xbox.

To configure the system to shutdown from the frontend, do this (as root):

# chmod +s /sbin/halt

Then from the mythfrontend go to Utilities/Setup -> Setup -> General -> (Hit three times)
And enter the “Halt command:” as /sbin/halt
Now the shutdown should work even though you run as “live”.

I also use some additional mythtv plugins, so I did this (as root):

apt-get install mythvideo
apt-get install mythmusic
apt-get install myththemes

I have my music and video on an NFS share. So I did this:

vi /etc/hosts

Add the host gct3102 and it’s ip address to the list.

mkdir /gct3102
vi /etc/fstab

Add the following line:

gct3102:/usr/local/archive /gct3102 nfs rsize=8192,wsize=8192,timeo=14,intr

This specifies the NFS mountpoint /gct3102 which is the same as local directory /usr/local/archive.
Now try this:

mount /gct3102
ls /gct3102

You should see the files on the remote server. I use /gct3102/Video and /gct3102/Music to store my
video (including video grabbed from video podcasting) and music. To view them in MythTV
go to:

Main Menu -> Utilities/Setup -> Setup -> Media Settings -> Music Settings
-> General Settings

And set the “Directory to hold music” to /gct3102/Music (or whatever you use).
Then instead of “Music Settings” go to “Videos Settings” -> General Settings.
And set the “Directory that holds videos” to /gct3102/Video (or whatever).

To make sure mplayer plays most media files do this (as root):

vi /etc/modules.xbox
Comment out the joydev line. We’re not going to use the joystick in linux and this module makes
the most up to date mplayer crash on startup when initializing lirc.

rmmod joydev
apt-get install mplayer-386
apt-get install w32codecs
cd /tmp
wget ftp://mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/releases/codecs/all-20060611.tar.bz2
bunzip2 all-20060611.tar.bz2
tar xvf all-20060611.tar
mkdir /usr/lib/win32
mv all-20060611/* /usr/lib/win32

vi /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf
Change the sound driver setting from alsa to oss. This will prevent problems when playing some
windows media files. Comment out the old setting and add a new line to specify oss:
#ao=alsa
ao=oss

This should let you play lots of different formats. Also since you upgraded to the newest mplayer
you’ll get a working DVD-remote when using mplayer from MythTV.

Install mythgallery if you want and use the flickr download in a cronjob as described here.

Now you can just shutdown, install the XBOX in your cabinet below your TV,
hook it to your main TV and use it with the DVD remote.

You’re done!

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