Category: Linux Stuff

Downloading Who’s Line is it Videos from YouTube

Post author By George
Post date June 30, 2009
2 Comments on Downloading Who’s Line is it Videos from YouTube

One of my favorite TV shows was “Who’s Line is it Anyway” from ABC. I was bummed the show was cancelled several years ago, and never thought too much of it since then. About two weeks ago I was on YouTube and found clips from Who’s Line. After watching a few of them, I decided to download the video to my Linux PC and move the video into the path /home/george/Video/YouTube/Whos Line. However, the YouTube down is not installed with Ubuntu. You need to install the file from the universe repository using the following steps:

Open a Terminal Window
enter without quotes “sudo apt-get install youtube-dl”
enter your password

Leaving the Terminal Window open, you can down run the command youtube-dl <url address of the video>. In a few minutes the file will download to your /home directory as a .flv file. Now I hate the fact when the file downloads the title of the file make no sense to me what so ever. If you change the command to youtube-dl -l <url address>, the title of the video will be inserted into the file name. To see the list of other parameters for downloading videos type youtube-dl -h.

Tags Ubuntu, Video

Linux Stuff Ubuntu

Installed KeyTouch and KeyTouch Editor

Post author By George
Post date June 25, 2009
2 Comments on Installed KeyTouch and KeyTouch Editor

I have an old Dell Dimension 8200 which has a Dell SK 8100 with extra function buttons: E-mail, Internet Home, Search, and Sleep. I never could never get any of these keys to work in Linux… that is until today.

I was in Synaptic Package Manager and typed in keyboard into the Search field. In that list I saw keytouch-editor. I remember reading about that before, but never got around to trying it out. I selected KeyTouch Editor and installed it. KeyTouch can be found in the Control Center or under System > Preferences menu.

I was prompted by KeyTouch Editor to press any of the “extra function keys” which will bring you to a blank interface. All you need to do is enter in the manufacture name and model number of the keyboard. Click the New button in the bottom left, press an extra function key, and either give it a name or choose the name it KeyTouch displays.

I configured all four buttons and three of them work great. The sleep button will not work. For some reason it does not like the Lock Command from the Special Action Plugin menu. I’m think if I knew the line command to initate a sleep or hibernate power save, I can enter it on the program line.

Once your buttons are programmed, click on File and Save As and save the file anywhere you choose (mine is in the root of my profile.) You will be prompted to send your file to the developer if you wish. Although I did it really doesn’t matter. Exit KeyTouch Editor.

But that is only the first step; you need to install KeyTouch to import your keyboard file into your system. I opened Gnome Terminal and entered sudo apt-get install keytouch. Now you can go back to Control Center or System > Preferences and run KeyTouch. The Key Setting tab should be blank (mine are populated due to my settings are already entered.) Select the Keyboard tab and click on the Change button. A new window will open with a list of available keyboards to choose. Click on the Import button and find your new keyboard file. Your keyboard should be available in the list, select it and click the OK button.

Now your keyboard is displayed click on the Key Settings tab. Select each key listed on the left side of the window and verify what action will take place. Once complete, click the Apply and OK buttons to close out of KeyTouch. Now you can try out your buttons. If you programmed them correctly, your assigned programs will open. If not, just go back and modify them.

Another nice thing about this setup, it works on all of my local accounts.

Of course additional information can be found at the KeyTouch Web Site.

UPDATE: 06/26/2009

I figured out why the sleep / hibernate button was not working. In the Power Management section under ScreenSaver, I had the button set to “Do Nothing.” So of course I enabled the only other option – hibernate. It will hibernate when I press the button, but it has problems when trying to come back. So I set the sleep / hibernate button back to “Do Nothing.”

Tags KeyTouch, Linux, Ubuntu

Ubuntu Windows 7 Work

Trying Out Windows 7 RC at Work

Post author By George
Post date June 17, 2009
No Comments on Trying Out Windows 7 RC at Work

Well a co-worker of mine gave me the latest RC of Windows 7 to reinstall the previous version of Windows 7 on a HP PC that kept suffering from the standard BSOD. The reason I asked for it, the PC came up on a report that it was not on, receiving any updates, and it was not reporting to the Symantec Anti-virus server.

So after installation I changed the theme from Sky Blue to Slate and changed the background from the Beta fish to something I did not expect to find, PENGUINS! I was shocked to see penguins, and I also saw a koala bear in there too. Does Windows 7 have a secret envy of being Linux or Ubuntu 10.04? Here are the screen-shots from my PC.

Tags Ubuntu, Windows 7, Work

Fedora Core

Fedora Core 11

This afternoon during lunch, I downloaded Fedora 11, burned it to CD, and ran it on a test PC at work. The PC is an HP D530 Intel P4 running at 3.00 GHz, 2 GB of Ram, and 80 GB SATA hard drive, and a unknown video card connect to a 22″ Samsung wide-screen. Currently I am writing this post using the Live User session from the CD and it works nicely. I was pleasantly surprise that I was able to enable the Desktop Effects to have the spinning cube and wobbly windows. Usually I have no luck with that kind of stuff.

I was going through the menu and found a cool program called Palimpsest Disk Utility. I selected drive sda and it told me the drive was running for 4.25 hours (which I know is incorrect because the PC never turns off), the current temperature, when it was last tested and updated, and assessment. I can click on the Details button and see all kinds on information such as Spinup Time, Seek Error Rate, Write Error Rate, plus a slew of other attributes. there is also a Self Test button which I do not want to run because this PC is a production unit, and if I goof and wipe out the hard drive, I’ll have to rebuild.

If I get a chance, I’ll have to install it on a test PC to check out the other features and see what’s new and different between FC11 and Ubuntu 9.04. But as of right now, my work day is over and I need to head home to be with the family.

Tags Fedora Core

Geek Stuff Humor Ubuntu Video Windows Stuff

The Matrix Runs on Windows

Post author By George
Post date June 8, 2009
No Comments on The Matrix Runs on Windows

This has been around for a while, I just happen to come across it tonight on YouTube.

Tags Geek Stuff, Humor, Ubuntu, Video, Windows XP

Home PC Ubuntu

Reinstall Ubuntu 9.04

On Saturday May 30th, I woke up and decided to backup my /home folders to the external USB hard drive and wipe out and reinstall Ubuntu 9.04 so I can experience the ext4 file system. Since I know this is a long process on my home PC, I started at 12:00 noon.

I ran Evolution first, caught my mail and ran the backup command located under File from the menu bar. After closing Evolution, I ran rsync -avh /home/ /media/New Volume/backup 05-30-2009 to backup 28.3 GB of data. After 8.5 hours, I was ready to rebuild. While working on this task, I watched the Pittsburgh Penguins play against the Detroit Red Wings for game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Go Pens (even though they lost)!

Since I have to share my PC with my family, and some people are afraid of Linux, I had to use the Windows XP Restore CD that came with my Dell Dimension 8200. I booted off the CD, ran Recovery Console and ran fixmbr and fixboot. This resets the MBR (Master Boot Record) back to a state of Windows only, no other operating systems available. Then of course I booted into Windows XP to verify the family can continue to use the PC.

I then booted off my new Ubutnu 9.04 CD that arrived a few weeks ago, and proceeded to install onto the second hard drive. In order to have ext4 as my file system, I had to select it from the drop down menu, and of course format each partition that would use ext4. The total install time on my PC was under 30 minutes. Heck, you can’t get a pizza under 30 minutes anymore, so I was very pleased.

The update manager started shortly after I logged onto the system for the first time. Afterwards, I rebooted and installed the NVIDIA GForce video card. Of course the cool Compiz 3-D effects didn’t work…and I was sad. However, everything else worked like a champ. I was on-line (because I downloaded my updates) and installed my HP Color LaserJet 2605dn network printer.

I also brought over the following folders

.purple
.mozilla
.skype
.fonts

Starting Evolution and having it reinstall everything from the backup I ran worked the way it should. All of my mail filter, addressbooks, mail folders, and the two different mail accounts were there. Since everything was working I closed Evolution.

I stared Pidgin and enter one of my AIM accounts and then closed the application. I copied the .purple folder into my home directory so the rest of my accounts and other settings were available when I started Pidgin again. I also ran Firefox and Skype to copied over there respective hidden folders too.

I then followed the directions from “The Perfect Desktop – Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)” submitted by Falko Timme. I picked almost all the same options as Falko, but some I didn’t want or feel a need for a this time. Falko’s directions were easy to follow, and I had my system back up to specs in no time. Ii tested this by watching the Mac ads to verify Quicktime was working with Firefox, watching the local videos with wmv, mov, wma, avi extensions, and I was able to play a DVD with no problems. Of course my mp3’s and other sounds worked, but something was still out of place.

I forgot to add my Desktop Themes from a post I read a few weeks back called “9 Great Gnome Themes with Ubuntu Repositories.” François Vogelweith is the author of the themes and they are great! I really enjoy having them on my PC. Currently I am running Wild Shine.

I also went to OpenOffice.org to download some templates to see if I can get OpenOffice to work better for me so I don’t have to rely on Office 2007.

So now by boot time has decreased from 33 seconds to 21 23 seconds. The best I saw on my PC before I added everything was 19 seconds. I am uploading my bootchart into my Box.net shared files.

I’m glad the re-installation worked as well as it did. I’ve been in the boat of “crap, everything is broke and I can’t recover because the Moon was not aligned with Saturn during the initial backup command”

Tags Home_PC, Ubuntu

Linux Stuff Ubuntu

Logout Icons on Ubuntu Desktop

Post author By George
Post date May 23, 2009
1 Comment on Logout Icons on Ubuntu Desktop

A few weeks ago I created a new user on my Ubuntu 9.04 system for guests who come to visit and wanted to use my PC. I modified the guest account and locked it down, but I wanted to make it a little easy for my guest with a logout icon on the desktop. So after searching the Internet I came across a command the will log-off the guest account without asking for a password if you use the sudo command.

I right-clicked on the Desktop and select Create Launcher. I left the file type as Application, gave it the name Logout, and entered this command gnome-session-save –logout fig 1. But the default icon looks terrible, and does not convey to my guests this is a log out icon. I have the Infinity theme pack (which I read about a few weeks ago at this site) installed and I used the logout icon located at /usr/share/icons/infinity/scalable/apps fig 2.

So now anyone who uses my PC can login with the guest account and enter the password. They have access to Firefox so they can read and their web based e-mail, or access anything else on the Internet.