USB in VirtualBox

Here are the steps required to get USB working on a Linux host (tested with VirtualBox 2.1.4)

1. Create a group usbusers and put yourself in it.

sudo addgroup usbusers
usermod -a -G usbusers andy

2. Note down the vendor and id numbers for the USB devices that you want to enable after running the following command: -

VBoxManage list usbhost

3. In VirtuaBox’s USB section add both of these devices, making sure you have the vendor and id numbers correct.

4. Add the following lines in /etc/fstab (you can get the ID of the usbusers group by looking in /etc/group) : -

# usbusers is the USB group (id 1001)
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=1001,devmode=664 0 0

5. A reboot is required.

Combining PDF Files

Combining PDF files in Linux is ridiculously easy – its just a matter of installing the PDF Toolkit package (pdftk) and then running the following command: -

pdftk file1.pdf file2.pdf file3.pdf cat output newfile.pdf

Mounting QNAP from Linux

Accessing the QNAP from Ubuntu is fairly easy.

First install “smbfs”: -

sudo apt-get install smbfs

Then it’s just a matter of creating the relevant directories in /mnt

sudo mkdir /mnt/Qdownload
sudo mkdir /mnt/public
sudo mkdir /mnt/Qmultimedia
sudo mkdir /mnt/Qweb

…and then editing /etc/fstab

//192.168.0.2/Qdownload /mnt/Qdownload cifs credentials=/root/.credentials,directio,iocharset=utf8,noacl,noperm,nosetuids,rw
//192.168.0.2/Public /mnt/public cifs credentials=/root/.credentials,directio,iocharset=utf8,noacl,noperm,nosetuids,rw
//192.168.0.2/Qmultimedia /mnt/Qmultimedia cifs credentials=/root/.credentials,directio,iocharset=utf8,noacl,noperm,nosetuids,rw
//192.168.0.2/Qweb /mnt/Qweb cifs credentials=/root/.credentials,directio,iocharset=utf8,noacl,noperm,nosetuids,rw

You then need to create a file with your username and password in it: -

sudo vi /root/.credentials

and put the following in it: -

username=user
password=pass

A simple “sudo mount -a” will mount these filesystems ready for use.

Firefox Backspace Button

For some reason, by default in Ubuntu, pressing the “backspace” key in Firefox doesn’t go back. Fortunately this is easy to fix: -

Open your firefox browser and type the following code into the address bar:

about:config

After that in the filter type:

browser.backspace_action

and change it’s value to “0″.

Fonts in Ubuntu 8.10

By default in Ubuntu 8.10 the fonts aren’t great. To fix this, first install the Microsoft Truetype fonts: -

sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

Then install the Segoe UI font

cd ~
wget http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/2/9/1749988/segoe_ui.zip
mkdir .fonts
cd .fonts
unzip ../segoe_ui.zip

For a great Monospace font, take a look at Inconsolata : -

cd ~/.fonts
wget http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/Inconsolata.otf

In Gnome, the fonts are changed via “System->Preferences->Appearance” under the Fonts tab – you can then change the default to “segoe_ui”, and the monospace to “Inconsolata”.

Finally, change the rendering to “Subpixel Smoothing”.

Everything should now look much better.

Ubuntu 8.10 Under VirtualBox

Ubuntu 8.10 works great under Sun’s Virtual Box. To get everything working perfectly, you need to install “Guest Additions”. This is done by selecting “Install Guest Additions” from the VirtualBox Menu, and then entering the following into a terminal: -

sudo /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run

This installs better mouse & video drivers and enables things like automatic resolution changing, and better mouse control.

For some reason, my xorg.conf file wasn’t updated properly though – the following lines should be present in /etc/X11/xorg.conf : -

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Configured Mouse”
Driver “vboxmouse”
Option “CorePointer”
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “Configured Video Device”
Driver “vboxvideo”
EndSection

rsync on the QNAP TS-101

rsync is a useful application which synchronizes files and folders between devices. The QNAP TS-101 supports this (with a bit of fiddling).

Setting up the QNAP

On the QNAP, go to the “Remote Replication” page, and turn on “Allow remote Rsync server to back up data to NAS”. (“Enable backup from a remote server to the local host.” should already be set, and the port should be the default of 873)

Fixing rsyncd.conf

Unfortunately, there seems to be a problem with the rsync configuration file – the master user is set as “admin” which doesn’t exist (the root user on the QNAP is “administrator”).

To fix this, edit /etc/rsyncd.conf and change: -

uid = admin

to

uid = administrator

Listing Remote Folders

To check that rsync is allowing connections, go to your client and enter: -

rsync 192.168.0.2::

You should get something similar to the following: -

Qmultimedia
Qdownload
Qweb
Qusb
Public

Backing up a directory

To back up a directory, its a simple matter of issuing an rsync command. For example: -

rsync -vrltz –progress –password-file=password.txt –delete –exclude-from=excludes.txt “/cygdrive/C/users/windows_user/Documents/” “qnap_user@192.168.0.2::qnap_folder/“

where: -

password.txt is a file containing your qnap password
excludes.txt is a file containing files not to synchronize
C/users/windows_user/Documents is the folder to copy
qnap_user is a QNAP user that has access to the remote folder
192.168.0.2 is the IP address of the QNAP device
qnap_folder is the destination

Linux Media Centres

I’m toying with the idea of creating a Media Centre PC running Linux. Here are the main contendors for Linux Media Centres that I can find.

• Boxee
• MythTV
• Freevo
• Elisa
• Geexbox
• Linuxmce

Twonky Supported Clients

The latest firmware for the QNAP TS-101 (Version 2.3.0-Build 080618) includes an upgrade to TwonkyMedia V4.4.5

Here’s a list of compatible clients from their website.

Media Players

Buffalo LinkTheater (needs firmware update to version 8.32 or higher)
Buffalo LinkTheater Wireless (PC-P4LWAG)
Digital Rise Xstream Player (video problems with latest firmware)
D-Link DSM-320 / DSM-320RD
D-LInk DSM-520 Wireless HD Meda Player
Fujitsu Siemens Activy Media Player 150
I-O Data AVeL LinkPlayer2 *
iTheater DMS 110
Kodak EasyShare EX811/EX1011
Loewe Connect TVs
Microsoft Xbox 360 (Video streaming supported from TwonkyMedia 4.2 onwards)
Netgear MP115
Netgear EVA 700 Digital Entertainer
Nokia N770
Nokia N800
Philips Streamium SLM5500 Wireless Multimedia Adapter
Philips Streamium SL300i
Philips Streamium MX6000
Philips Streamium SL400i
Roku Photobridge HD1000
Siemens Gigaset M740 AV
SnaZio Digital Media Player
Sony PS3
Sony STR-LV700R
Telegent TG100 Air Media (TwonkyMedia also enables playing videos which are larger than 4GB)
Viewsonic Wireless Media Adapter WMA 100 *
Zensonic Z400 Media Player*
Zensonic Z500 Series
Ziova CS505/510
Zyxel DMA-1000

Music Players

Allnet ALLSOUND WDAP*
Denon AVR-4306
D-LInk DSM-120
Freecom MusicPal
Grundig Ovation 2i
Joybien WorldRadio
Linksys WMLS11B
Macsense MP-100 HomePod
Medion Internet Radio
Netgear MP101 (MP3 only)
omnifi DMS1 Digital Media Streamer (MP3 only)
Philips Streamium MCW770
Philips SLA5500 / SLA5520
Philips WAC3500D
Philips WAK3300
Philips WAS7000
Pinnacle SoundBridge M1000 / Home Music
Pinnacle SoundBridge Radio
Roku SoundBridge
Sagem My Dual Radio 700
SMCWAA-B EZ Stream 11Mbps Wireless Audio Adapter *
SMCWAA-G EZ Stream 802.11g Wireless Audio Adapter
Sony NAS-CZ1 (Music formats are restricted to LPCM and MP3 – needs LAME plugin)
Sony PSP (only MP3 via RSS feeds)
Sony Vaio WA1
Teac WAP-5000
TechniSat InternetRadio 1
Terratec Noxon Audio
Terratec Noxon2
Terratec Noxon Radio
Terratec NOXON 2 radio for iPod
Transtechnology APX-300
Yamaha RX-V2700 (TwonkyMedia 4.2 onwards, limited to 5000 songs)

Software Players & Control Points

Windows Media Player 11 (Windows Vista)
Nokia N95
Cidero Java Control Point
Nero ShowTime
On2share plugin for the Windows Media Players
Rudeo Control
Sony’s VAIO Media Player version 3.1.01.07260

DeltaCopy – rsync for Windows

DeltaCopy is a free piece of software for Windows that allows you to interface with other computers running rsync. Basically, it is a “Windows Friiendly” wrapper around rsync. It is fairly easy to use, and also allows you to run rsync from the command line without having to install CygWin.