DeVeDe, iso’s too small from m4v files

I’m running Maverick Xubuntu on my Desktop Box and finding that if I burn m4v files created in Handbrake of about 1.4Gb using DeVeDe that the resulting iso image is 80Mb yes Meg. When I play them in VLC they are either chopped short or run too fast and short. If I convert them from m4v to avi then DeVeDe creates the correct sized working iso. It’s a solution but who wants to convert files twice when DeVeDe should just do it. All worked ok just a couple of weeks ago [March 2011]. I’ve tried reverting to previous versions of both handbrake and DeVeDe with no luck and am beginning to think it may be an ffmpeg problem. If I run DeVeDe from the command line I get the following output in the Terminal..

mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.
/usr/lib/devede/devede_other.py:685: GtkWarning: GtkSpinButton: setting an adjustment with non-zero page size is deprecated
tree.add_from_file(filename)
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.
Skipping frame!

Skipping frame!

[pages worth of Skipping frame]

Skipping frame!

Skipping frame!

Skipping frame!

Skipping frame!
Launching program: dvdauthor -x /home/bob/Videos/test.xml
elemento: /usr/bin

So apart from a missing mplayer socket problem, a deprecated python reference it’s skipping lots of frames no wonder the results are poor. I think I’ve now solved this after days of testing, the solution seems to be to not convert m4v’s in handbrake using the Framerate option [Same as Source].

Handbrake Video options

So in the Video Tab you need to select an actual frame rate for the conversion. I’ve tested this with two different clips from DVD’s and this has now let DeVeDe create a correctly sized iso image which plays perfectly in VLC. I hope this helps out others with the same problem.

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Transmission Remote GUI

Transmission Remote GUI

Now I have my Transmission daemon up and running which I can access from a web browser [see here ]  I thought I would try out the Transmission Remote GUI as this give me a few more option on a per download basis. First I need to add the package with;

$ sudo apt-get install transgui

Once installed open tools options and add the details of your connection to your remote host

Remote Host: static ip address of Transmission Host

Port: 9091

User name & Password

Now you should be able to see your download queue and manage it from your remote client.

Edit: Just found out you can only sudo apt-get this app from Natty, Maverick and below do not have this in the repos. So visit Transmisson Remote gui Homepage and download the transgui-3.0.1-i386-linux.zip or transgui-3.0.1-x86_64-linux.zip, extract the files to a suitable folder on your system then create a shortcut to the transgui program file.

Move multiple files from command line

Using find to copy or move multiple files

All the .txt files are located in directories and subdirectories of the ~/tmp folder and I want to copy them to ~/tmp2

To copy them, open a Terminal and use;

$ find ~/tmp -name ‘*.txt’ -exec cp ‘{}’ ~/tmp2 \;

This copies all the files in the original folders and sub folders and saves them to the ~/tmp2 folder.

or to move them,

$ find ~/tmp -name ‘*.txt’ -exec mv ‘{}’ ~/tmp2 \;

this deletes them from the original folders and sub folders and saves them to the ~/tmp2 folder.

New Years Resolution 2011

Why not consider donating some of your spare CPU cycles to the Folding@Home Project, Their goal is to understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases and we can help by doing the calculations they need doing using our spare CPU cycles. You can join teams and are allocated points for the work units you fold to give you an incentive other than help out the search for cures for various diseases.

I started Folding at the beginning of 2010 for Team Ubuntu [id:45104]as a New Years Resolution hoping to get into the top 1000 Team Ubuntu user listing by the end of the year and have managed to get to 241 today having completed 420 Work Units gaining 143103 Points. Why not join the Team see the Recruiting notice here and help a good cause, my New Years Resolution for 2011?, to double my points, and as always loose weight, become rich and retire.

Happy New Year All

Apache Server [simple]

So I wanted to have a web album of my photos on my local network so needed my server to be able to serve up the web pages.

install apache;

$ sudo apt-get install apache2

open your favorite web browser and type http://localhost into the address bar, if it work you should get a page saying so.

Now stop the service with;

$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 stop

and edit to config file with;

$ sudo gedit /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

amend the directory path to your site from the default /var/www/localhost/htdocs to something like /home/bob/www/localhost/htdocs so that you can find and add docs without being root etc. Add your site index.html file to this folder and restart the service with;

$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 start

and point your browser at the site again with http://localhost or http://my_servers_name if you have given your server a host name on your network.

gconftool-2

Using the gconf tool to make changes to your desktop from the command line. These allow you to script changes you make every time to upgrade.

These have been tested on the Gnome Desktop on Lynx & Maverick.

Copy and paste these commands into a Terminal [Applications], [Accessories], [Terminal]

## Add icons to the [System] menu. ##
gconftool-2 --type Boolean --set /desktop/gnome/interface/menus_have_icons True

## Remove shutdown “Do you really want to do this 60 second count down” question ##
gconftool-2 --type Boolean --set /apps/indicator-session/suppress_logout_restart_shutdown True

## Return to old Update notification icon in top menu ##
gconftool-2 --type Boolean --set /apps/update-notifier/auto_launch False

gconftool-2 --type int --set /apps/update-notifier/regular_auto_launch_interval 0

## Add Banner message to GDM ##
sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/gdm/simple-greeter/banner_message_text “Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat 64 Bit”

sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --set --type string /apps/gdm/simple-greeter/banner_message_text_nochooser “Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat 64 Bit”

sudo -u gdm gconftool-2 --set --type boolean /apps/gdm/simple-greeter/banner_message_enable true

## Set wallpaper ##
gconftool-2 --type string --set /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename /home/Pictures/My_Wallpaper.jpg

Tomboy blogposter

Post post to your WordPress blog from Tomboy.

Now available in Maverick repositories using:

$ sudo apt-get install tomboy-blogposter

In Tomboy Notes, go to [Edit], [Preferences], [Add-ins], expand [Tools] click on “Post note to your blog” click on [Preferences] click on [Add] and fill in details of your WordPress blog, the URL should be in the form http://your_blog_name.wordpress.com/wp-app.php/posts You can now open upload a note as a blog post by clicking on the [Tools] option (cog wheels) and selecting the [Post note to your blog] option.

Website:http://flukkost.nu/blog/tomboyblogposter/

Games

Favourite Games.

From the Repositories;

Open Invaders

Pacman

Downloads:

Machinarium:- Flash Adventure Game, http://www.amanita-design.net/

Samorost:– Flash Adventure Game, http://www.amanita-design.net/

World of Goo:– Puzzle Game, http://2dboy.com/games.php

Penumbra, Overture, Black Plague & Requiem:- First Person Survival Horror Games, http://www.frictionalgames.com/site/games

Caster:- 3rd Person Action Shooter, http://www.elecorn.com/caster3d/

Floola

“Floola is a freeware application to efficiently manage your iPod or your Motorola mobile phone (any model supporting iTunes except iPhone, iPod touch.”

Floola was the application which finally allowed me to say goodbye to Windows/iTunes and go completely over to Ubuntu.

I have an 80GM black 6th generation video classic iPod which I can now manage with Floola. I can sync music, audiobooks, photos, podcasts & my gmail calendar. It can cope with Apple formats but I now use mp3 for music & audiobooks. You can also add Album Art and if your mp3 already have Art it usually adds it automatically.

I had already jail broken my iPod as follows;

In a terminal

$ sudo apt-get install libgpod4

Connect your iPod using the USB cable provided and it should auto mount, you now need to navigate to /media to determine the mount point of your iPod [mine show up as /media/MY_IPOD. The iPod needs a SysInfo file adding to it so that it is identified by your system, I found this option to created worked first time. Type or copy and paste the following into a Terminal after the prompt

$ sudo lsusb -v | grep -i Serial

this should give you a result similar to this;

iSerial 3 000D27002446H699
iSerial 1 0000:00:13.2
iSerial 0
iSerial 1 0000:00:13.1
iSerial 1 0000:00:13.0

The 16 digit number is the iPod’s FirewireID, now type or copy and paste the following into a Terminal after the prompt

$ sudo gedit /media/MY_IPOD/iPod_Control/Device/SysInfo

replacing /media/MY_iPOD with the path and name of your iPod. My iPod had one entry already of ModelNumStr: xB147 so I added a new line as follows;

ModelNumStr: xB147
FirewireGuid: 000D27002446H699

and re-saved it to the iPod. This allows it to be identified by Linux programs.

To Install Floola;

Download and extract Floola from the website http://www.floola.com/ to a suitable folder on your HD.

$ sudo apt-get install libstdc++5

For 64 bit systems, also install getlibs, see http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=474790

then type getlibs in a Terminal to install 32 bit libs on a 64 bit system.

The Floola site has further FAQ and installation instructions and I’ve had the program working on both Ubuntu Lucid and Start-up sound fix for Maverick with no problems.

Start-up sound fix for Maverick

Fix the glitchy start-up Sound: 

Open the file /etc/pulse/default.pa by opening a Terminal and typing;

$ sudo gedit /etc/pulse/default.pa

Find the line that looks like this;

load-module module-udev-detect

and add “tsched=0” to the end so it looks like this;

load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0

Save and reboot your PC.