How to convert *.rm to mp3 on Ubuntu

This is yet another HOW to on converting Real Media files in *.rm format to mp3 format.

Step 1: copy and paste this text in a file and save it as 'rm2mp3' w/o the quotes 

---------------------

#!/bin/sh
inputfile=$1
inputfilename=`basename $1 rm`
ext='mp3'
outputfilename=$inputfilename$ext

echo 'CONVERTING TO WAV FORMAT'
mplayer $inputfile -ao pcm

echo 'CONVERTING WAV FORMAT TO MP3'
lame -h -b 256 audiodump.wav $outputfilename

rm -f audiodump.wav

echo 'DONE...!'

----------------------------------------------

Step 2: Change permissions to execute the file. Do the command :

$chmod 777 rm2mp3

Step 3: Then execute the script with the command:

$./rm2mp3 filename.rm

Where filename.rm is the input file.

Step 4: The folder that had the *.rm file has the converted mp3 file.

Step 5: Enjoy listening!

Happy Hacking!

PS: This Tutorial was found here. Thanks a lot! That helped me a lot!

How to convert wma files to mp3 on Ubuntu

Do you sync your iPod/iPhone with Rhythmbox/Amarok on Ubuntu and grouse about the lack of auto conversion capability of Windows media audio(*.wma) files to mp3 in Rhythmbox?
Then here is a simple hack, but not completely automatic like in iTunes.

Step 1: Install LAME {Lame is ain't a mp3 encoder}

from the Synaptic package manager by doing so:

System->Administration->Synaptic Package manager

Type lame in the search box. Then install the package(Fig 1).

Fig 1: Install LAME

Step 2: Install Nautilus Audio converter script

After installing LAME, install 'nautilus audio converter script'.

Type 'nautilus audio' in the search box. Then install the package(Fig 2)

Fig 2: Install 'nautilus audio converter script'

Step 3: Choose file to convert to mp3

After you're done with the installing, choose the file you wish to convert, by right clicking on the desired file. Then hoover over 'scripts' which has the audio converter script installed. Choose 'Audio files converter'(Fig 3).

Fig 3: Choose files to convert

Step 4: Choose extension

As in this case its mp3(Fig 4)

Fig 4: Choose Extension

Step 5: Select quality

By Default it would be 'extreme' and its recommended.

Fig 5: Choose quality

Step 6: Enter meta-tags

If you wish to do so, work around with this, else just click OK.

Fig 6: Enter meta-tags

Step 7: Voila! your files are converted!

Make sure you have the files in /home/XXX/music folder, so that Rhythmbox populates your play-list automatically.

Hope this worked for you, leave a comment any ways!

Happy Hacking!

How to insert Single Landscape Sheets in OpenOffice.org

Although you can this info all around, I thought of blogging this Since I was doing my project report and thought it might help our VTU Studs or someone who needs it....
So here it is:

OpenOffice.org uses page styles to specify the orientation of the pages in a document. For example, to change the page orientation of one or more pages in a document from portrait to landscape in a document, you need to create a page style that uses the landscape orientation, and then apply the page style to the pages.
To Change the Page Orientation of a single sheet to Landscape or Portrait

1.Choose Format - Styles and Formatting.
2.Click the Page Styles icon.
3.Right-click, and choose New.
4.On the Organizer tab page, type a name for the page style in the Name box.
5.In the Next Style box, select the page style that you want to apply to the next page.
To only apply the new page style to a single page, select "Default".
To apply the new page style to all subsequent pages, select the name of the new page style.
6.Click the Page tab.
7.Under Paper format, select Portrait or Landscape.
8.Click OK.

To Use Landscape and Portrait Page Orientation in the Same Document
Before you begin, ensure that you have created a page style that uses landscape page orientation. See To Change the Page Orientation to Landscape or Portrait for details.
1.Click in front of the first character of the paragraph where you want to change the page orientation.
2.Choose Insert - Manual Break.
3.Select Page break.
4.In the Style box, select a page style that uses the landscape or portrait page orientation.


P.S: I found this help here , thanks a lot OO.o!

Grub error 15 on a 2 HDD box[solved]

Do you get Error 15(file not found) while loading Grub on your 2 HDD box?
Then here is the solution.

Grub Error 15 is commonly found when Grub is unable to find vmlinuz(the kernel image). In such a case just boot from a live cd and do the following

$sudo grub

this command enters grub,once that is done,enter

find /boot/grub/stage1

This will return the location of the root ex: (hd0,4)

Now you need to edit the Grub's menu.lst
if running through a Ubuntu Live cd then the command:

$sudo gedit /media/disk/boot/grub/menu.lst

menu.lst may look like this:

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=/dev/sda5 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

if this is the case then ,just replace the (hdx,y) with device UUID.

to get the UUID:

$blkid

will give you the uuid of all the partitions on the disk.

search for the partition with ext3/4 and copy it(in my case (hd0,4) /dev/sda5 uuid=.....)

now replace the line in menu.lst where (hdx,y) appears

ex: root (hd0,4)

the entry in menu.lst should look like this after the edit

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic
uuid ee9fd0b7-29c5-42a4-a606-9342fae9523a
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=ee9fd0b7-29c5-42a4-a606-9342fae9523a ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

observe that even the line with 'kernel' has been replaced with the respective uuid.

now save it and reboot.

and voila! tell me what happens!

How to install Seesmic desktop/Tweet deck on Ubuntu

Ubuntu users who want either Seesmic desktop or Tweet deck on their Ubuntu box here is a small procedure:

1. Open the Terminal
2. Use wget to download http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/lin/download/1.5/AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
3. Set the file to be executable: chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
4. Run it: sudo ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
5. Accept any AIR updates
6. Use wget to download Seesmic Desktop from http://d.seesmic.com/seesmic/SeesmicDesktop-0.2.1.air
7. On the Ubuntu desktop, not terminal, look under Applications->Accessories or Applications->Other for Adobe AIR Application Installer and run it
8. Select SeesmicDesktop-0.2.1.air and the normal Seesmic Desktop installer will run

Almost the same procedure for Tweet deck ,once Adobe AIR is installed.

I found this very helpful article here. Thanks!

How to play Moser Baer DVDs on Ubuntu 9.04

I observed that some people were facing issues while trying to play a Moser Baer (Super DVD) movie DVD on Ubuntu 9.04.
Some times even though all codecs are installed, somehow VLC/totem wont play the DVD. The only suggestion to fix this is to do this:

Go to VLC media player
tools>preferences> videotab
and set the video output to X11 video output.
This *may* help to play those DVDs.

Amarok 2 unable to play audio files on Ubuntu 9.04-Solved

Soon after upgrading to Ubuntu 9.04(Review coming soon!) I found that Amarok 2 was unable to play any kind of audio files.

When I opened amarok from a terminal I was getting this error

[snip]
link XMLID_7_ hasn't been detected!
Couldn't resolve property: radialGradient3986
[/snip]

Some threads suggest to install phonon-xine-backend, but Kubuntu is already shipped with phonon backend.

After posting my problem in launchpad I found this solution
just type this in a command line

[code]
sudo apt-get install libxine1-ffmpeg
[/code]

then Amarok will be back in full swing!

However I'm not all that satisfied with Amarok 2 as I was with earlier versions.
Any way I hope this helps somebody.

How to download .ram files(online streamed files)

Here is a video which helps you to download .ram files from websites which stream files online like kannadaaudio.com
You will need RealPlayer on Windows and some codecs for GNU/Linux box.

the steps are:
1>click on the song/media file you need to download
2>open it with a text editor
3>copy the link that appears
4>paste the link in your favorite browser
5>save the file
6>after download is over open it with Real player(Totem/Kaffiene)
7>Voila! the file is in your HDD!



I learned this trick from Suhas, thank u mate!

USB Ubuntu 8.10 install:tutorial

Every time Canonical Inc comes up with a new release candidate of Ubuntu, it keeps getting better. Even with Interpid Ibex 8.10 its no different. This tutorial shows 'How to' install Ubuntu 8.10 on to a flash media and carry it in your pocket. Earlier I had done a 'How to' install Ubuntu 7.10 on a USB which was completely through command line . Now that Ubuntu 8.10 has new feature of doing it through the GUI, I thought it was worth doing a post. The best part about making USB boot disk is that you dont really need to install it to do all this. A simple Live Cd will do the trick. So here it is:

Step1:System->Administration->Create a USB boot disk




Step2:Insert Ubuntu X.XX CD(haven't checked for other distros)





Step3:Insert Flash drive and set space required for persistent feature




Step4:Watch it happening

Step5: After completed reboot from USB or insert USB elsewhere and boot from USB.

I wish you Happy Hacking!

Interfaced LCD on an ATMega8!

After slogging out for more than three years I finally managed to boot the LCD panel on an ATMega8!

This winter I was determined to boot the LCD somehow. When I was crawling on the WWW I found this guy's code/tutorial from
extereme electronics which turned out to be very useful. He has explained each step in the interfacing process.
Now since that I haven't done anything great I wont give much details on the interfacing, rather I would like to give the link to the tutorial. The tutorial is here.


In the end I would like to tell that seeing the LCD boot was a big boost to my morale.

How To hack Philips DVP 3166

Recently I got a Philips DVP 3166. When I tried playing a my favorite movie "Me, Myself and Irene" 's original disc on it , the player denied showing me "wrong region" error. I thought It was something to do with the NTSC/PAL system( how dumb ain't it?) then when it didn't work I promptly did a search which gave me this hack.
just follow these steps for a successful hack.

1) Open the Setup menu then go to the Preference page.
if the player is skipping it then press stop twice and try again.
2) Press 1 3 8 9 3 1 on the keypad of the Remote Control.
3) Options will be available to be selected.
4) Press UP / DOWN key to select the desire Region Code.
5) Press OK.
Note:Region 0 = "playable in all regions" - aka "region free" (Also known informally as "All regions")


then I inserted the disc once again...... Bingo! the Disc started playing.....

All thanks to this web site called videohelp.com.

Happy hacking and happy DVD viewing

USB Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon install tutorial

This is a tutorial which helps you to put Ubuntu 7.10 on to your USB flash drive.

This content is copy righted material from www.pendrivelinux.com.

Do try it out and enjoy carrying Ubuntu anywhere you want....!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

USB Ubuntu 7.10 install from Linux: This tutorial enables you to install, boot and run Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) from USB. In addition to installing Ubuntu to a USB device and then booting Ubuntu from USB, this tutorial will enable you to automatically save your changes and settings back to the stick and further restore them on each boot using a second "casper-rw" persistent partition. The tutorial was written for those already familiar with working from Ubuntu or another Linux desktop environment. If you do not have access to or prefer not to use a Windows computer, this Ubuntu Linux on a stick tutorial is for you.

Ubuntu 7.10 takes slightly longer to boot than previous releases. However, once it's up and running, it performs much better than running from the Live CD.

USB Ubuntu 7.10 Essentials:

• Ubuntu7.10 ISO
• CD Burner
• 1GB USB flash drive (2GB+ recommended)
  
• U710fix.tar

Ubuntu 7.10 USB installation tutorial:

Hint: You can drastically speed up the install by Copying (Ctrl+c) and Pasting (Ctrl+v) commands into the terminal instead of manually typing them out. With the exception of replacing X with your drive letter.

1. Grab the Ubuntu 7.10 ISO and burn it to a CD
2. Insert the CD and your USB flash drive
3. Reboot your computer into Ubuntu from the Live CD
4. Open a terminal window and type sudo su
5. Type fdisk -l to list available drives/partitions. Note which device is your flash drive (example: /dev/sda) Throughout this tutorial, replace x with your flash drive letter. For example, if your flash drive is sdb, replace x with b.
6. Type umount /dev/sdx1
7. Type fdisk /dev/sdx
   • type p to show the existing partition and d to delete it
   • type p again to show any remaining partitions (if partitions exist, repeat the previous step)
   • type n to make a new partition
   • type p for primary partition
   • type 1 to make this the first partition
   • hit enter to use the default 1st cylinder
   • type +750M to set the partition size
   • type a to make this partition active
   • type 1 to select partition 1
   • type t to change the partition filesystem
   • type 6 to select the fat16 file system
   • type n to make another new partition
   • type p for primary partition
   • type 2 to make this the second partition
   • hit enter to use the default cylinder
   • hit enter again to use the default last cylinder
   • type w to write the new partition table
8. Type umount /dev/sdx1 to ensure the 1st partition is unmounted
9. Type mkfs.vfat -F 16 -n ubuntu710 /dev/sdx1 to format the first partition
10. Type umount /dev/sdx2 just to ensure the 2nd partition is unmounted
11. Type mkfs.ext2 -b 4096 -L casper-rw /dev/sdx2 to format the second partition
12. Remove and Re-insert your flash drive
13. Back at the terminal, type apt-get update
14. Type apt-get install syslinux mtools
    
15. Type syslinux -sf /dev/sdx1
16. Type cd /cdrom
17. Type cp -rf casper disctree dists install pics pool preseed .disk isolinux/* md5sum.txt README.diskdefines ubuntu.ico casper/vmlinuz casper/initrd.gz /media/ubuntu710/

Ignore any "cannot create symbolic link" errors


18. Type cd /home/ubuntu
19. Type wget pendrivelinux.com/downloads/U710fix.zip
20. Type unzip -o -d /media/ubuntu710/ U710fix.zip
21. Restart your computer, set your BIOS or Boot menu to boot from the USB device and reboot again.

You should now have a USB Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon flash drive that should automatically save your changes, restoring them on boot.

Note: If your having trouble getting Ubuntu to boot, your memory stick may have a corrupted MBR. To repair the MBR of your USB device, at the terminal type sudo apt-get install lilo then type lilo -M /dev/sdx (replacing x with the letter of your flash device)

Ubuntu® is registered trademark of Canonical ltd.

©2006-2007 Pen Drive Linux Credits and Resources
Linux is a registered ™ of Linus Torvalds.

A "How to" install Linux tutorial for new bees....by a Linux enthusiast

This is an interesting post found on a Tech blog by a Linux geek Who calls himself as "Just another computer hobbyist- binary blues"
This is interesting and easy especially for New bees.
courtesy "Binary blues". For more geeky stuff visit his blog here.
Thanks a lot Binary blues.

I am going to write a very basic HowTo for those who are willing to use Linux. I assume you already know and use Windoze XP/98. Though I cannot guarantee that every concept in Linux will relate to that in windows analogically. There can be many new commands, procedures to be followed and concepts, while learning Linux for the first time.
So here it goes
---------------------------------------------------------
First of all allocate some space for installing Linux on your hard disk. You may use this tool to resize you partition, make some free space(say 10GB) and use that free space for Linux. Discussing how to partition your hard disk is out of scope, just make some free space in your extended partition by resizing logical drives. Then you will create SWAP partition(logical) in that space which will be typically of double the size of you RAM( If your RAM is 256MB, keep your SWAP 512MB approx.) Next you will create EXT3 partition(logical) of size around 9GB(10GB-512MB). Now thats done, partitioning part is over.

Its time to decide which Linux flavor you wish to install. For the first timers, Ubuntu(Kubuntu/Xubuntu) is recommended. Though you are free to try any other flavors listed below:
Fedora
Vector
Slackware ( ~ - ^ )
Debian

Download ISO image and burn it to CD/DVD. If you have very less bandwidth or limited download you can give me blank CD and I will return it to you with one of the flavors of your choice (currently I have slackware12DVD, Debian3.1CDs, Ubuntu7.04Cd, VectorLinux5.8SOHO CD etc)

Now its time to boot your install CD. Put it in drive, enable CD booting in BIOS settings and set priority to CD before your hard disk. Reboot, the CD will load its default kernel. At the boot prompt(if any) hit Enter.

Later part varies according to the flavor. In slackware installation is very straightforward if you have done partitioning beforehand. I will discuss the ubuntu method here. Most probably you will have Ubuntu Live CD, where you will get a nice GUI after booting. Click on Install icon on dektop. And just folllow the procedure. Its very simple. But at one point, it will ask about partitioning, select the option which says 'Manually set the partitioning'. Then you can assign the SWAP system on SWAP partition and the ROOT filesystem on the EXT3 partition you've just created. When the installation is complete you will probably reboot your pc and then Grub will appear on you screen. Grub is a bootloader, used for multi-booting with different OSs. Now you will have a complete Linux system with you, and surely you can play with it.

Try following tutorials for getting started with Linux,

http://www.linuxrsp.ru/win-lin-soft/table-eng.html
http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/commands.htm
http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/basic.shtml
http://rkrishna.tp.googlepages.com/slackerbasics
http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/cli.html

After spending one week on command line[;-) seems adventurous] , you may like to check the GUI. For that try KDE, Gnome, XFCE and fluxbox ...

iPod Linux demo