Zoneminder

The setting to get Zoneminder working on Ubuntu 12.04 Card: Leadtek Winfast 2000xp, BT878 based /dev/video0 channel 1 NTSC BGR24 384x288 ERR [Shared data size conflict in shared_data for monitor Monitor-1, expected 328, got 316] To fix this error just make the following changes to /usr/share/perl5/ZoneMinder/Memory.pm at around line 130 #our $arch = int(3.2*length(~0)); our $arch = 32;

Linux backup and restore

trying this to see if it works.

Command I use:

sudo tar cvpzf /data/backup0926.tgz --exclude=/proc --exclude=/lost+found --exclude=/mnt --exclude=/sys --exclude=/data --exclude=/media --exclude=/tmp /

DesireHD

Mostly followed this blog and this page to downgrade from 1.84 software to 1.32, root, and SHIP S-OFF the phone.
Download tools here.

Then burned the RCMix3D 2.3.3 ROM.

Only problem left is to import SMS from my old faithful WinMo6.5 Raphael to this new Android baby. I fiddled with many different solutions and ended up with the following:
1. Use iMobileTool SMS Backup to export SMS on WinMo to a csv file.
2. Edit the csv file to remove the unnecessary fields.
3. Use Anything2SMS (Athg2sms, a free app on Android Market) to import the csv to Android.
Conversion set used:
Indox: "Inbox";"$(dateyyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss)";"$(address)";"$(body)";[\n]
Sent: "Sentedbox";"$(dateyyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss)";"$(address)";"$(body)";[\n]

VPN:
Both get-a-robot-vpnc and vpnc widget works.
Possible Solution

New MBP 6.2

Change touchpad sensitivity

Emulate a USB drive

Problem with joining Win7 VM to Cisco domain: solution

Win7 client need to set WINS server address to get Outlook connected to exchange server over VPN: source
Adding printers in Win7 link

Enable Medibuntu to install mencoder that's compiled with libfaac to convert video to iPad format.
Enable Empathy IM to display nicknames in MSN group chat: link
Empathy bug: can't connect to MSN
and this

Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) on MacBookPro 5.3

Haven't updated this for some time.

My beloved X61s got stolen, so I got a new MBP from company and immediately started done the path of repartitioning and dual booting with Ubuntu.

Some notes along the way:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro5-3/Lucid

http://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/java#TOC-Install-JRE-64-bit-
to get webex working.

Install Medibuntu codecs

Ubuntu on new HTPC

Use x11vnc instead of vino

Update alsa to 1.0.20 to get spdif working.

Use arialuni.ttf to replace /usr/share/xbmc/media/Fonts/arial.ttf, and choose GBK as charset in XBMC settings to get Chinese filenames working.

Mythtv:
Couldn't connect to database after installation. Had to:

mysql -u root -p
mysql>grant all privileges on mythconverg.* to mythtv@"localhost" identified by 'avxGzq44';

Use tar to backup and restore the system: link
Using rsnapshot, rdiff-backup, flyback and timevault look interesting too.

New HTPC build

I'm going to build a new mATX HTPC for use in both WXP and Linux. It needs to play 1080p H.264 smoothly and be quiet.

I bought a case already thanks to this thread.
Mobo/CPU/Video/Audio:
It seems the latest crop of on-board video cards are not too bad for HD video playback, with AMD's 780G better than Nvidia's 8x00 chipesets in this respect. However, there is no hardware acceleration for HW decoding in Linux for AMD so far, while Nvidia has VDPAU.
So I'm looking at this combo on newegg.
Edit 7/16: Now I'm leaning towards the new Athlon II x2 Regor 250, an AM3 socket CPU but the M3N78-EM board also support it, sans DDR3 support. I'll probably buy the CPU from newegg (update 7/17/09, bought with coupon AMD791 for $10 off) and buy the board from ewiz (update 7/17/09: bought).

HS: I'll probably buy this one from svc.com which is a little cheaper than newegg and can be picked up locally. The fan needs to be removed and the case vent and fan will be used to force air through the HS. The case fan can be connected to CPU fan header for control.

RAM: (update 7/17/09: bought this one)

HDD: maybe reuse some old drive laying around.

OS: I'll try Ubuntu first.
Media frontend: try XBMC first, Mythtv if XBMC isn't enough.

DD-WRT and vpnc

Followed this to configure vpnc on my Buffalo router with DD-WRT. In addition, added the following options to netmasq on router setup:
dhcp-option=6,192.168.123.254,68.87.66.196,171.70.168.183
It's still not ideal, iTalkBB doesn't work and DNS lookup is slow when vpn is established.

ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope (9.04) on Thinkpad X61s

I used wubi to install Ubuntu inside Windows, then used LVPM to move it to a separate partition later when everything's verified working.

I'm amazed that almost everything works out of box, below are some little tweaks needed.

Sync with Windows Mobile phone:
http://www.synce.org/moin/SynceInstallation/Ubuntu/ModernDevice
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6913410

Vertical scrolling:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_configure_the_TrackPoint

Webcam:
Logitech QuickcamPro4000 works without tweaks but it only works on the USB port on the left side, no image when plugged into the two USB ports on the right side.

Email:
Evolution, need to import the pst files into Thunderbird on windows first and then import from Thunderbird to Evolution.
http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2006/10/24/use-evolution-with-microsoft-exchange-ubuntu-606-610/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/Applications_GUI_Multimedia/Howto_migrate_from_Thunderbird_to_Evolution
Update06/16/09: email seems to be most troublesome, the pst import of Thunderbird works but html emails are not shown correctly. So I ended up installing hMailServer on windows and set up a local IMAP server, copy archived folders into the IMAP server in outlook and then copy them to local folder in Thunderbird. Once it's in TB, make a s-link from ~/mail to TB local directory and import in Evolution.

Auto-archive in Evolution: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/evolution/+bug/197290 Anoop P B. (doesn't work for exchange mail)

IM:
Pidgin, I use Pidgin on windows too so no issue here. Sametime server for Cisco is sametime-im.cisco.com, port 1533.

Virtualbox:
I still get BSOD with Virtualbox booting the windows partition (error 0x00000050).
Followed instructions here to get the box booting:
http://brionetka.com/linux/?p=82

VMware Player:
Followed this:
http://imrannazar.com/Running-a-Windows-Partition-in-VMware
But no luck either.

VMware Server:
Follow this and use Cisco's preinstalled WinXP vmdk image file. The bridged network didn't work in Player and it is somehow required for the Cisco domain registration to go through.
Use Ctrl-Alt-PrtScn instead of Ctrl-Alt-Ins
http://danielmiessler.com/blog/vmware-server-20-for-linux-doesnt-have-a-send-ctrl-alt-del-button
add to /etc/fstab following line to make usb devices work on VM.

usbfs   /proc/bus/usb   usbfs   auto,devmode=666   0   0

It seems VMware sometimes mess up the keyboard making ctrl, shift and some other keys unusable. Type setxkbmap to get the keys back.


VPN:
Use network-manager-vpnc and the patch by Patrick Healy in this bug report:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager-vpnc/+bug/360818
SoftokenII: http://zed.cisco.com/confluence/display/LINUX/SofToken+under+WINE

Webex:
http://www.gargolito.com/2008/11/how-to-fix-webex-in-ubuntu-hardyibix.html
http://linuxsagas.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/webex-in-ubuntu-810/

When you see NO_PUBKEY:
In short, you have to find the gpg key for your ppa (Personal Package Archives) I believe you are looking for this one http://keyserver.ubuntu.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xCA5D96E9AB82B686
Save the contents of the webpage as a text file
Import the textfile into System -> Administration -> (Software Sources(Authentication->import key))
Or this:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com {key}

Compiz:
Need to comment the line to blacklist Intel 965 and update mesa to 4.0:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1115208.html

PulseAudio and Skype
Skype didn't play nice with PA originally, I tried these:
Guide 1
Guide 2
Guide 3
And Skype kinda works but still have memory leak issue as reported here, so I ended up using HDA Intel (hw:intel,0) device for both sound out and ringing.

Dock eject hangs the system. Fix.

Internal Mic need to be activated:
Go to the Volume Control (gnome-volume-control) > Edit > Preferences > check the Capture box > Close. Next go to the Recording tab and set Capture to max (and unmute it if it's muted)
Then went to the mixer's Options tab and where it said input source and set them both to internal mic.
now skype works just fine.

Chinese filename in Linux and Samba for Windows share

Ok, so there was some old files with Chinese characters that I have in the harddrive with GB2312 encoding, they were downloaded by Azeureus in my gentoo build, but after I installed Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex), they don't show up correctly, but they show ok on Samba viewed from Windows machine. On the other hand, the files with Chinese characters created under Ubuntu was not recognized in Samba. After a lot of googling and fiddling around, I finally got it working correctly both ways:
1. In Ubuntu, I need to do
sudo apt-get install convmv
convmv -r -f gb2312 -t utf8 --notest --nosmart *
to convert all filenames to utf8 encoding.
2. In smb.conf, I need
display charset = cp936
dos charset = 936
unix charset = utf-8
Voila, everything works.

firewire and mythtv

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MythTV_Edgy_Firewire

Chinese display and input

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=582424

ape in bmp and audacious

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=52785
http://hi.baidu.com/ilmhy/blog/item/0427ff13f70d1f015baf5309.html
http://ftp.br.freebsd.org/distfiles/bmp-mac-0.1.1.tar.gz

Edit: bmp works but audacious doesn't (with ape), the audacious lyriczilla plugin wasn't found either.
For rhythmbox, the gstreamer mac plugin is still at version 0.8, it need to be updated to 1.0 to be used.

Edit2: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=3716721 update audacious to 1.4.3
http://www.netswarm.net/misc/ update audacious-mac plugin to 0.3.10
now audacious seems to play most ape files, but it still has a weird problem, the playlist window will follow the movement of mouse without clicking on it.

alsa

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/96509133/m/645003958831

I'm trying to configure alsa to work with the Chaintech AV-710 flashed to AudioTrak Prodigy 7.1 card, but no luck so far. Above is the thread I'm looking at now.

Edit: somehow, it just works now, but problem is it go through dmix so it is not bit perfect any more. To play music bit-perfect, I need to set the 'sound' in system->preferences to ICE1724 IEC958 (gstreamer?), and software that use the default system sound will go to the device directly.

vino and x11vnc

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=45565
I followed this howto because vino does not support clipboard syncing. Somehow, I encoutered problem that the client does not update after x11vnc is used, I replied to the thread, hopefully somebody can help.

Edit: turns out I need to call x11vnc with -noxdamage option.

xorg.conf

Here is my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

# xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "ServerLayout"

# Uncomment if you have a wacom tablet
# InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
# InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
# InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "aticonfig-Screen[0]" 0 0
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "stylus"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "eraser"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "cursor"
Driver "wacom"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
Option "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
Option "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
Option "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
Option "DesktopSetup" "horizontal"
Option "Capabilities" "0x00000800"
Option "PairModes" "1440x900+1280x720"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]"
Device "aticonfig-Device[0]"
Monitor "aticonfig-Monitor[0]"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1440x900" "1280x720"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

flgrx config

http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Gutsy_Installation_Guide#Method_2:_Install_the_Catalyst_7.11_Driver_Manually
Follow method 2 to install the latest fglrx driver.

Ubuntu

I decided to use Ubuntu instead of Gentoo for my htpc. This blog will keep track of all the problems and findings along the way.