Blog of Finster » linux

Checking video codec information via the command-line

finster — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 23:04:36 +0000

Here are a couple of commands to get he information about a video file in Linux (bitrate etc): -

 ffmpeg -i foo.avi

 mplayer -vo null -ao null -identify -frames 0 foo.avi

VirtualBox piix4_smbus Error

finster — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 20:00:23 +0000

VirtualBox 3.2.10 gives me the following error message when booting Ubuntu 10.10: -

piix4_smbus 0000.00.07.0: SMBus base address uninitialized - upgrade bios or use force_addr=0xaddr

This error is caused by VM having no smbus but Ubuntu always trying to load the module. It doesn’t affect anything but is a bit annoying – to fix: -

1. Check module is being loaded: -

lsmod | grep i2c_piix4

2. If so, blacklist it in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf, by adding the following to the end of the file :-

blacklist i2c_piix4

3. Update the initramfs

update-initramfs -u -k all

Installing Torrentflux on the Viglen MPC-L

finster — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:49:04 +0000

This is a quick guide to installing Torrentflux on my Viglen MPC-L.

First, make sure that python, mysql-server and mysql-client are installed.

Then simply install the software with apt-get: -

    sudo apt-get install torrentflux

Once it is installed, point your web browser at the following location (where a.b.c.d is the IP address of your Viglen).: -

http://a.b.c.d/torrentflux

…and then start uploading .torrent files to it.

By default, files are saved in the following location: -

    /var/cache/torrentflux/

By default, the ports used are 49160- 49300, so remember to open these on your firewall/router.

XBMC With VDPAU and iPlayer

finster — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:22:04 +0000

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

finster — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:41:00 +0000

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

finster — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:29:00 +0000

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

finster — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:20:00 +0000

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

finster — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 09:36:00 +0000

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

finster — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:34:00 +0000

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

finster — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 21:24:00 +0000

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.