Posted by Roger

I was asked earlier if there is a way to capture or save the audio on DVD’s to MP3 (I prefer ogg, which also works using this method). While I have no idea of the legality (with regards to saving audio tracks off a DVD), you should therefore check the laws in your area before using this method. After much Googling I also, you will need a transcoder (lsdvd) to do this.

If you already have lsdvd installed on your system, you can skip the first step.

To install lsdvd, run the following command from a terminal:

sudo apt-get install lsdvd transcode

After installing you will be using lsdvd to find the audio tracks (usually they are longer in length). Use this command

lsdvd

You will see text output to your terminal that will look similar (in structure) to this:

Title: 01, Length: 02:17:23 Chapters: 24, Cells: 25, Audio streams: 02, Subpictures: 01
Title: 02, Length: 00:19:12 Chapters: 02, Cells: 02, Audio streams: 01, Subpictures: 00
Title: 03, Length: 00:13:43 Chapters: 02, Cells: 02, Audio streams: 01, Subpictures: 00
Title: 04, Length: 00:00:13 Chapters: 02, Cells: 02, Audio streams: 01, Subpictures: 00
Longest track: 1

So, we’ve established that the audio is in track 01. To extract all the audio to an MP3 file, we would type this command (in the terminal):

transcode -i /dev/dvd -x dvd -T 1,-1 -a 0 -y raw -m complete_audio.mp3

To do this in ogg, just enter:
transcode -i /dev/dvd -x dvd -T 1,-1 -a 0 -y ogg -m complete_audio.ogg

or for wave is:

transcode -i /dev/dvd -x dvd -T 1,-1 -a 0 -y wav -m complete_audio.wav

If for example, you are interested in the audio of only one chapter (and you know it’s chapter 3), then you can save the audio just from chapter 3 by typing:

transcode -i /dev/dvd -x dvd -T 1,3,1 -a 0 -y raw -m audio_chapter_3.mp3

What do all the switches mean?
Using this example “transcode -i /dev/dvd -x dvd -T 1,3,1 -a 0 -y raw -m audio_chapter_3.mp3″:

On my system the DVD physical player is: /dev/dvd therefore “-i” specifies the input device (which is the DVD player). That is why we type “-i /dev/dvd”.
-x specifies the type of input (which is a DVD). That is why we type “-x dvd”.
-T 1,3,1 refers to the title “T”, the chapter “3″ and camera angle “1″.
-a is the audio track “0″
-y is the output format “raw” (mp3).
-m is the output file “audio_chapter_3.mp3″

While I personally am by no means an expert, I’ve found this works well. Also, helpful is the “The definitive DVD backup resource” found at Doom9 here: www.doom9.org

Posted by Roger

For some time I thought streamed online video (flv) could be downloaded easiest using one of the many Firefox Extensions and others such as VideoDownloader 2.0 from JaviMoya.com. In other words, I always thought I had to install something - Not so!

I was surprised that there are two even simpler ways anyone can save flv video files.

1) In your Firefox address bar, type:

about:cache

Then, under the title “Disk cache device” click “List Cache Entries”. They may take time to list. After they are listed, save searching time by:

Pressing CTRL+F on your keyboard. When the little search window appears, simply type “flv” and press enter (on your keyboard). Now all flv videos will be available to you.

2) The second method is simply to surf to your /tmp folder in Ubuntu and again, all flv’s will be available to you.

Why is this helpful? When I don’t have an Internet connection, or the existing connection is too slow, I can still, view or show streamed videos!

Posted by Roger

The Ubuntu certification track is available and there is sure to be a demand!

This reminds me of my earlier days when I studied to obtain various certifications, MCSE among others. While later I did check the RHCE and associated certifications, I found (at that time) the costing to be somewhat excessive. In truth I was also somewhat jaded by my experiences with the MCSE certification. To be blunt, demand was very low for MCSE’s after finally obtaining certification (at that time) and that lack left me leary (to invest time and money).

However, given the current marketing and business push by Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical to further entrench Ubuntu in the server and desktop industry, I can increasingly glimmer a more realistic demand for Ubuntu (and Linux in general), within the corporate (and consumer) arena. For many of us that is great news!

So with gusto, it was interesting to learn that Canonical and the Linux Professional Institute had teamed up to conduct the “Ubuntu Certified Professional” (UCP) certification track.

Currently, this is best leveraged by System Administrators (obviously the more experience the easier), who are looking not only to add a focus on Ubuntu, but also at the same time to obtain industry standard credentials. What does this mean? Well…

UCP requires that candidates successfully complete the following exams from the Linux Professional Institute (LPI):

LPI 101 - LPI Level 1, Common across all Linux distributions.
LPI 102 - LPI Level 1, Common across all Linux distributions.
LPI 199 - LPI Ubuntu

As you may see, this allows not only the Ubuntu certification, but automatically garners standard industry certifications.

More information about the certification specifics are found direct from Ubuntu at: www.ubuntu.com/partners/training/certificationcourses/professional

I phoned to obtain testing costs from Prometric and was told:

LPI 101 - $150 (USD)
LPI 102 - $150 (USD)
LPI 199 - $100 (USD)

If you’re seriously entertaining the thought of obtaining UCP credentials, you may ask “Where do I take the exams?”. As with any standard IT related technical certification, they are available at Prometric testing centres. In my opinion, the timing demonstrates a keen business savvy, the purpose of which is sure to further increase the adoption of Ubuntu server and desktop systems.

Personally, I’m VERY interested.

Posted by Roger

I had an interesting conversation yesterday about keeping your computer safe on the Internet. One of the issues raised was that Ubuntu was not as safe as Windows, because there was no Firewall software like Zonealarm; and instead Linux Ubuntu users had to install a separate physical firewall. “That is just not true!”  Although I don’t think that’s quite what I said at the time… <smiling>

While I do agree (very much) that it is safe to maintain a separate physical firewall; many of us do not necessarily have the resources or technical skill to so this. There are several firewall applications that Ubuntu users can install on their local computers. One of them is called “Firestarter”.

Firestarter is an Open Source visual firewall program. The software aims to combine ease of use with powerful features, therefore serving both Linux desktop users and system administrators.

If their web site (and solution) interests you, you can install it in a terminal using this command (make sure the universe repository is available):

sudo apt-get install firestarter 

After installing, you can use the easy “wizard” to configure and start your local firewall. To access the wizard, simple select “System” –> “Administration” –> “Firestarter” and follow the prompts.

The next screen simply prompts you to select the appropriate network card (Network Device Setup). Most of us only have 1 card installe, which by default is eth0. If you have more than one card the numbers increase as eth1, eth2 and so on…

In my case I do not use a modem (therefore no dial-out). IP addresses are dynamically assigned to my computer when I log in, (which is a default) so it may be a good idea for you to have that selected as well.

I do not need Internet connection sharing. (It’s better to use a router for that). I’ve made sure it is turned off. If you have another computer that connects to your computer for Internet access, then turn this feature on.

The next step (above) is simple, enable the “Start firewall now” checkbox - Easy!

After the firewall starts, you will see that you have access to edit various firewall options.

After starting the firewall (above) you will begin to see events as they occur. Using the example above, I can see the my Firefox browser accessing google.com (72.14.207.165).

I can also see Thunderbird accessing email. The reason why the colour is greyed out is because the session finished (terminated) - And it will no longer appear after 10 seconds.

Personally, I found this to be a great Open Source solution. Fast, simple and easy to install and get running in no time. Windows user, Zonealarm of course! Linux, Ubuntu user Firestarter!

If you’d like to read more, I found their web site here:  www.fs-security.com/

Posted by Roger

The good people over at thecomputingexpert.com wrote an insightful article, outlining the advantages of Ubuntu Linux. I must say that I agree with many of the points, however, I have to completely disagree with their perspective on networking. They say “…The other day I was amazed with how easy it was to connect my Ubuntu laptop to my Windows XP PC. I simply plugged in my laptop to the network hub and it immediately connected with no problems, I didn’t even have to configure it…”

Not in my case. I had to install a Samba server so that all computers could access the same resources, regardless of the platform used.

Here’s what else they had to say:

“I converted from Vista to Ubuntu a little over 2 months ago and am soooooo happy with it, best decision of my life. I am going to tell you my top 10 advantages of it over Windows Vista. Please remember these are my own opinions, if you have more advantages and indeed any disadvantages (if you can find any) then please post them as comments.

1) Eye Candy
If I am completely honest, the biggest reason why I converted was the eye candy. Sure Windows Vista comes with lots of it, but it just isn’t as good. Ubuntu 7.04 comes with just a few of the effects seen a lot nowadays, these effects include the rotating cube desktop and wobbly windows, it just makes it much nicer to use. I have installed Beryl on my computer to give much more eye candy. I base a lot of my judgments on looks first, features later.

2) Easy to Install Applications
Installing new programs in Ubuntu is a doddle, far easier than in Windows, because there is one program that basically gives you access to most applications available to Ubuntu, simply click the program you want and it will install, you don’t need to accept agreements because its all open source so there is no need to click Next 20 times before the program is installed. Simply select the program and click OK, wallah! done.

3) Secure
In Windows Vista, to change a setting requires a ridiculous amount of dialog boxes and passwords, in Ubuntu, you are never logged in as an administrator (root), you are logged in as a simple user, you can change options that are only applicable to your user area but for changing options that affect the system you are required to input the administrator password, one dialog and you’re in, simple and secure. There is also the added bonus that there are very few viruses for Linux, I haven’t ever come across one yet so you can feel safe, imagine not having any virus protection software installed in Windows, there is no need for it in Linux, freedom from the threat of losing all your data.

4) Easy to change options
Ubuntu comes with a control panel but also comes with a menu next to the Applications menu where you simply select the thing you want to change, be it the Desktop background or the network settings. Everything on the windows that appear is simple and there are just the options you need so it is easy to change the options.

5) Community
The community behind Linux, especially Ubuntu is what attracts many people to the operating system. People in the Linux community are mainly ex-Windows users so they know what it feels like to be new to an operating system, so they are happy to help. Whenever I had and have a problem with Ubuntu I simply post on the Ubuntu forum and within minutes there are answers to the problems. I never got put on hold or had to phone up customer service and wait for hours if I had any problems.

6) Free
Everything about Ubuntu is free, the operating system (you can even have them send you a free copy of the operating system, they even pay the postage charges), the software installed is free (including all the software you can download) any help and support is free. The whole experience is 100% free, because it is open source. Open source means that you can distribute and even edit the code behind the program.”

Read the remaining four advantages and comments from their web site: thecomputingexpert.com/start/?p=261

Posted by Roger

A couple of days ago I turned my PC on and the BIOS failed to auto-detect my hard drive. Assuming it was just a boot-up mistake, I rebooted the system - I got the same result. Suffice it to say, it did not take to long to realize that my hard drive had failed!

I even tried using the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) tool from ultimatebootcd.com. UBCD is a great free diagnostic CD with lots of troubleshooting tools, I’ve used this tool often and highly recommend it.

The bad news, the degree of hard drive failure was not worth the excessive time to reclaim any data.
The good news, I had backups and could get my system back up and running in minutes!

How you ask? First install Ubuntu, as of the writing of this article, part one of my article “How to Install the Perfect Ubuntu Based Computer - Introduction” is available on this web site. I had previously made backups of my settings, package installations as well as email, and other important data.

Backing up important data is relatively easy! - Just burn it to a CD or DVD. That’s what I did to save email messages, documents, my home folder, fonts, etc.

What I needed was to preserve the installation packages installed (which I’d never remember and prefer not to write down). That would actually have taken me too long to figure out and I’d probably not have found them all!

Here’s how to ensure you get all your packages and applications back…

Run the command

sudo dpkg –get-selections > /backup/applist.txt

What this does is create a simple text listing of all the packages and applications installed on my system and stores it in my “backup” directory (which I created earlier). I can email that list, burn it to CD or do whatever I wish, so as to have a safe copy of it.

Restoring is a simple matter, install Ubuntu and copy your “applist.txt” file to “/backup”, then restore the packages using that backed up package list (applist.txt) like this:

cat /backup/applist.txt | sudo dpkg –set-selections

next:

sudo apt-get -y update

then:

sudo apt-get dselect-upgrade

Now your packages will be restored. Now I’m free to copy any data I wanted to save that was in my home directory; documents, images, audio files, etc.

Why is this so good to do? It saves a lot of time searching for the packages you need or want as well as keeping a listing of the ones I probably forgot I had installed and at most I may have lost a day or two of file changes. A real time-saver!

Posted by Roger

The good people of TALL blog, in Oxford provide a very good perspective of some of the issues; comparing Microsoft Windows and Ubuntu Linux.

Areas covered (in the chart on their web site) are: software management, malware scanner, performance, hardware support, “User runs the computer, or the other way around?”, and License costs. Read what they have to contribute below…

“I want to re-install my work PC - get rid of Windows and install Ubuntu. Here’s why…

Around 5 years ago, after using AmigaOS, MS DOS, and MS Windows (versions 3.1, 95, 98, ME, and NT, 2000) , I started playing with Linux (or GNU/Linux if you prefer). I started with Mandrake (now Mandriva), and Linux From Scratch (compiling and setting up the whole operating system from source code), and I learned a lot about how a Linux system is put together, how software is developed and managed, and how PC hardware is often poorly put together, neglecting industry “standards” in favour of “does it work on Windows?”.

It seemed clear 5 years ago that Linux could do all I want a computer do, do it well, and maybe even gratis. The only problem was that it took a lot of effort to get to the system set up correctly in the first instance. Once it was ready it was great, but getting ready took time, research, and effort - that’s fine for messing around at home, but not so good for getting work done.

I now run Ubuntu Desktop Linux on my home PC, with virtually no effort required to run it - as these things should be.

My work PCs have always run MS Windows. Currently it’s Windows XP, and gives me hassle most days.

I don’t want to write reams of prose about the two platforms, so I’ll just describe the key issues that bother me, comparing Windows to Ubuntu…”

Read the really good bits by visiting their blog (in the comparison chart): tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk/index.php/2007/08/03/windows-vs-ubuntu-why-switch/

Posted by Roger

Readers have been asking me for a bit more background information about the issues in part one, this results in a far more technical article (follow up) than ever intended. And I hope the technical gurus among us can correct any errors here. As requested, here is more background to the settings…

To clarify the Window/Packet size tweak:

In a Windows environment we improve speed by editing what’s called “rwin” (Receive Window) - In other words what is the largest receiving window size that works best for your Windows based PC. There are several other settings for Windows, however our blog is specifically for the benefit of the Ubuntu and Linux community.

Linux, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. uses several configuration values. Below is what each “value” (in part one) refers to.

net.core.rmem_default
This refers to the DEFAULT size we want to set our RECEIVE window to.

net.core.rmem_max
This refers to the MAXIMUM size we want to set our RECEIVE window to.

net.core.wmem_default
This refers to the DEFAULT size we want to set our SEND window to.

net.core.wmem_max
This refers to the MAXIMUM size we want to set our SEND window to.

net.ipv4.tcp_wmem
Refers to the SEND window size range to use. The first number is the minimum size, the second is the default and the third is the maximum.

net.ipv4.tcp_rmem
Refers to the RECEIVE window size range to use. The first number is the minimum size, the second is the default and the third is the maximum.

net.ipv4.tcp_mem
In general, it refers to the memory buffer used for packet transactions. It keeps the communications buffers from being drained. Communication bottlenecks can occur if this value is too low.

net.ipv4.tcp_rfc1337
Enables or disables time-wait hazards. It’s rather complicated as it is a feature that enables (or disables) the ability to handle some of the proposed TCP extension’s new class of TCP failures. Check this url for the technical details: www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1337.txt
(1 turns this on and 0 turns it off).

net.ipv4.ip_no_pmtu_disc
Maximum Transfer Unit (MTU) discovery. If you disable this setting, then the MTU settings will be calculated from the MTU’s of all the hops along the path to the host (web site server) you are connecting. Again, 1 enables and 0 disables. MTU is the largest packet size that can be transferred in one physical frame at a time. Remember, the packet also contains the header and trailer information (addresses are part of each packet and are required by routers so that data can be sent to the correct addresses).

net.ipv4.tcp_sack
This refers to SACK (Selective Acknowledgment). The handling of out-of-sequence or duplicate data. When a packet is receive by a computer (the receiver), it send out an acknowledgment to the sending computer (the sender). In other words…

Receiver says to sender: “I got your packet. Please send the next packet”.

But what happens when there are duplicate packets? According to www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2883.txt (lots of details in this link), when duplicate packets are received, the first block of the SACK option field can be used to report the sequence numbers of the packet that triggered the acknowledgment.

net.ipv4.tcp_fack
This refers to the control of data flow. Particularly to work with Sack (net.ipv4.tcp_sack above) in avoiding bottlenecks/data congestion. In other words, avoiding data traffic jams. It’s a good idea to enable it “1″.

net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling
This refers to the increasing or decreasing of the window sizes. If memory serves me correctly, in Windows the size is static, but in Linux it is dynamic. Therefore, turning this on (by setting it to 1) enables the ability to change window sizes as needed.

net.ipv4.tcp_timestamps
Timestamps are used for RTTM (Round Trip Time Measurement) and PAWS (Protect Against Wrapped Sequences). RTTM I think is self-explanatory. PAWS protects against the old/duplicate packet overlaps. You can find more detailed information here: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1323.txt and here: http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/rfc/rfc13xx/RFC1337.html

net.ipv4.tcp_ecn
This ads ECN (Explicit Congestion Notification), details of which can be found here http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3168.txt and here: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2884.txt

net.ipv4.route.flush
This simply flushes the routing cache. Systems store the routing information in a cache. How to get from point A to point B - In other words where to route (or send) the data, so that it gets to the next (correct) router.

As I mentioned, this follow-up is far too technical (in my opinion) that I ever intended, however it is here by request and I really do hope it helps.
And I hope some of you technical gurus can correct any mistakes or inaccuracies.

The original, Part 1 of this article can be found here: ubuntulinuxhelp.com/speed-up-your-internet-connection-in-ubuntu-linux/

Posted by Roger

If, like me, you enjoy tweaking and playing with your Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty) installation then check out the download (zipped text file). It contains pretty much all the software repositories for Ubuntu Feisty (7.04) that are available to enhance the “apt-get install” command. Obviously, if you plan on continuing to upgrade your distribution as new Ubuntu versions are released, be careful which things you actually install. What does this do for us? Saves time searching for repositories!Below is a peek of some of the repositories on the list and the download link.

Have fun!

Repositories included:

Medibuntu
Beryl
Audacious
Skype
Ekiga & Debian pkg-voip
Opensync
Google
Opera
Wine
SimplyMepis
EasyCam
Linux2Go
TVFreePlayer
GnomeMeeting
Cinelerra
Mjpeg
MythTV
Screenlets
MusicBrainz
Dbuntu
SysAdmins
PeaDrop
IVTV
Ubuntu Studio
Elisa Media Creator
Qemulator
and more…

The download contains two files:

sources.list and sources_keys.sh

Download: sources.zip
Download: sources.gz

Posted by Roger

A Linux Experience - Having a couple of hours to kill one day, Lionel decided to download a copy of Ubuntu’s Live CD. When everything worked from the boot, he was intrigued and decided to try the dual boot option. Needing to run some priority software for his writing, he did some research and found that Virtual-Box could run everything he would need. After 45 days of testing, he found that didn’t need to ever boot in to the Windows partition. Now his computer is an Ubuntu only machine and he is a full time Ubuntu user. Read more here: www.5thwind.com/?p=12