XBMC With VDPAU and iPlayer

There’s an interesting article on the How to do something differently… blog about getting VDPAU working with iPlayer under Linux with the SVN build of XBMC. I’ll be sure to look into it some more when I install Ubuntu onto my Revo.

Ubuntu Wallpapers

To install some nice wallpapers on Ubuntu, run the following command: -

sudo apt-get install peace-wallpapers tropic-wallpapers ubuntustudio-wallpapers blubuntu-wallpapers

Useful Plugins for Gimp

Gimp is the image editing tool for Linux. To install additional plugins such as drop shadow etc, the easiest way is to install gimp-plugin-registry.

This can be done using the Ubuntu packages: -

sudo apt-get install gimp-plugin-registry

Starting a VM from the Command Line

Starting a VM from the Command Line (or via a shortcut on the desktop) is easy – just use the command: -

VBoxManage startvm name_of_virtual_machine

for example : -

VBoxManage startvm “Windows XP”

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