Bob's Notepad

MythNetTV on LinuxMCE

2008-10-15T15:42:00.003-04:00

There is a utility for MythTV called MythNetTV which can be found here. This utility does a great job at grabbing videos from an RSS feed and importing them in to MythTV's database as recorded programs. Set up is quite simple in LinuxMCE but is done via the command line.

Login to a shell as linuxmce
Switch to a suitable directory. We'll just use /home/linuxmce
wget http://www.stillhq.com/mythtv/mythnettv/source/release-5/mythnettv-release-5.tgz
tar -xzvf mythnettv-release-5.tgz
cd mythnettv5-release
sudo apt-get install python-feedparser
sudo apt-get install python-ctypes
sudo apt-get install python-mysqldb
sudo apt-get install mencoder
mkdir data
Subscribe to Shows
./mythnettv subscribe "URL" "Title of Show"

For example, if you want to subscribe to Tekzilla you would issue:

./mythnettv subscribe "http://revision3.com/tekzilla/feed/quicktime-large?subshow=false" "Tekzilla"

Repeat that step for any shows that you want to subscribe to

Get your shows and import them

./mythnettv update
./mythnettv download 1

(the number that follows "download" is how many of each show MythNetTV should download and import)

That's all there is to it.... The shows you subscribed to will now appear in LinuxMCE's Video category as well as in your MythTV Front Ends

Automating the process

In your mythnettv directory you can create a script that will automate this process and then add that to cron to automate the process.
touch get-shows
chmod +x get-shows
nano get-shows

When editting the get-shows script, just add the following lines:

cd /home/linuxmce/mythnettv-release-5/
./mythnettv update
./mythnettv download 1

Press Ctrl-X to save the file and then test it:
./get-shows

Now you can add it to cron so that it will be run automagically every day
cd /etc/cron.daily
sudo ln -s /home/linuxmce/mythnettv-release-5/get-shows mythnettv

Panduit S050X150YAJ Label Template

2008-08-24T21:31:00.003-04:00

So I've come up with a system of labeling each end of a cable with a "serial number" so that when your running cables between racks of servers inside of bundles of wires you can locate which 2 cable ends connect. Then adding the serial number of the cables that are plugged into a server in your server database you're able to easily track them. My customer I am working on this project ordered a pack of Panduit cable labels (S050X150YAJ) that can be printed with a laser or inkjet printer. Panduit also makes their own software for labeling, etc but its at least $200 depending on what options you want. I created a template for these labels and I wanted to post that template here in case anyone else could benefit from it. This is in the open document format and will work in Open Office and should also work in Microsoft Office (but you may need a plugin).

Template: Panduit-S050X150YAJ-Blank.odt

Just for reference, I put this together in NeoOffice 2.2.2 Patch 11 on a MacBook and based on a Samsung ML-2010 printer. It should be universal but if something is wildly different, you may need to tweak it.

OSX is refusing to eject a CD

2008-08-09T18:30:00.003-04:00

I had an ordeal tonight..... I needed to burn an ISO to a blank CD so I put a, what I assumed was blank, CD in my MacBook and Toast informed me that it was not writable. What was it? Some Windows CD, I guess. The problem was my machine refused to eject it. I clicked the eject button multiple times (both on the keyboard and in finder) and it just wouldn't do anything. I figured if I did a reboot of the machine I could eject it when it came back up -- wrong. Whatever was going on on this CD was confusing the hell out of OSX. After the reboot finder never loaded for me and half of my typical start up applications got stuck during boot up. I happened to have Disk Utility in my dock so I tried to open that and, again, no luck.

First thing to try (did not work for me):

Put the computer into sleep mode
Press the eject button on the keyboard

Second thing to try (this worked for me):

Power down your mac
Hold the mouse button (or trackpad button) down
While holding the button press the power button
After 30-120 seconds your mac should eject the CD
Let got of the mouse button and the machine should boot the OS

I will now list the three biggest wishes I have for Mac computers and despite how small and petty they seem they make a night and day difference to me (Please, Steve Jobs, take note):

CD-Rom eject button and/or emergency pin hole
Hard drive activity light
Network (NIC) lights for activity and link

USB to PS/2 Chipsets

2008-07-08T22:22:00.004-04:00

I've been dealing with a lot of issues with repeating keys (sticky keys) when using USB to PS/2 adaptors. My one client needs to use these because the Startech IPKVM solutions mixed with the Aten masterswitch KVM switches requires it now that ATEN has discontinued the CS1216. We've recently ordered in a bunch of different brands and I checked to see what the chipsets were in each of these devices. It appears that the majority of them use a chipset by CHESEN and from what I am seeing that is the chipset that seems to have the most problems. I don't have a solid solution for anyone with the problem but the Q-Stor is looking good at this point. I simply want to post this list so that it is documented since I havent been able to find this information anywhere. If I end up getting more brand names I will append this list. If anyone has any reviews on any of these or another brand please leave a comment with the information.

-----------
Startech USBPS2PC

PS2 to USB Converter:
Version: 0.10
Bus Power (mA): 500
Speed: Up to 1.5 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: CHESEN
Product ID: 0x0205
Vendor ID: 0x0a81
-----------
SIIG USB to PS2 (UPC: 6 62774 02359 5)

USB to PS2 Adaptor V3.10:
Version: 3.10
Bus Power (mA): 500
Speed: Up to 1.5 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Composite USB PS2 Converter
Product ID: 0x0001
Vendor ID: 0x0b39
-----------
Belkin F5U119vE1

PS2 to USB Converter:
Version: 0.10
Bus Power (mA): 500
Speed: Up to 1.5 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: CHESEN
Product ID: 0x0205
Vendor ID: 0x0a81
-----------
Keyspan UPS2A

PS2 to USB Converter:
Version: 0.10
Bus Power (mA): 500
Speed: Up to 1.5 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: CHESEN
Product ID: 0x0205
Vendor ID: 0x0a81
-----------
Rosewill RCW-606

PS2 to USB Converter:
Version: 0.10
Bus Power (mA): 500
Speed: Up to 1.5 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: CHESEN
Product ID: 0x0205
Vendor ID: 0x0a81
-----------
Q-Stor QUPCBL

Generic USB K/B:
Version: 0.01
Bus Power (mA): 500
Speed: Up to 1.5 Mb/sec
Product ID: 0x0017
Vendor ID: 0x13ba
-----------
Cables to Go 27225

USB To keyboard Mouse Converter:
Version: 0.01
Bus Power (mA): 500
Speed: Up to 1.5 Mb/sec
Product ID: 0x8329
Vendor ID: 0x04b4
-----------

Rapidly flashing light on MacBook

2008-05-06T15:51:00.005-04:00

There seems to be a huge lack of information on this so I wanted to share it here. If all of a sudden your MacBook or MacBook Pro refuses to start and all you get is the rapid flashing sleep light then the problem is most likely related to the RAM. The MacBook tends to have RAM that is tough to install and, in mnay cases, you have to push the RAM into the slots MUCH harder than you would expect. Since this is the case it is also highly likely that the RAM wasn't 100% installed at the factory and simply the normal moving of the laptop can losen it enough to create this issue.

This isn't really a HOW-TO but just a bit of information for if your MacBook suddenly gives you the rapidly flashing light :)

Using sudo on a remote rsync session (via ssh)

2008-04-22T17:37:00.002-04:00

I have been using rsync to back up almost a dozen servers for years now and I am convinced that it is the best solution for remote back ups. A couple of months ago I ran into a situation where I need to rely on one of those backups and everything went expected.... well, sort of. All of my data was there and I was able to get things back up and running on a new server in only a few hours but it would have been much quicker if the permissions and file ownership was preserved. Once I got the system back up and running I wanted to make sure my the back up process was going to start preserving the file permissions and ownership. I found that the to accomplish this you absolutely had to be putting the files on the remote server as root. Of course, this is a security concern. The solution was permitting the rsync process to have access to sudo.

Step 1:
On the server that is receiving the back ups you need to add the following line to the /etc/sudoers file:

username ALL= NOPASSWD:/usr/bin/rsync

You will, of course, want to replace "username" with the user that the sending server will be logging in as through the rsync process.

Step 2:
Now you'll need to make sure that your rsync command is using the -a flag and then use the --rsync-path flag to tell it to run the rsync process on the remote via sudo. Here is an example command line:

rsync -av -e "ssh" --rsync-path="sudo rsync" /source/ user@server.com:/destination/

You're all set

You can combine this with using automated SSH login keys. Also, I want to note that this can compromise security in some scenarios.

Doing your own OpenID authentication

2008-01-07T14:34:00.000-05:00

OpenID is an open standard for authentication on various, unrelated, websites. There are many providers that will provide you with an OpenID idenity but, in some ways, this defeates the purpose of OpenID since your ID is controlled by a person other than you. Just last night I ran into a situation where I was not able to do something with my ID that I wanted since I was using MyOpenID.com because I am not in control of my idenity page. Thanks to a fit of insomnia I did some research and implemented my own OpenID idenity -- and it was actually a lot easier than I expected.

In order to implemt this you need a website with PHP support. This can be done on any web server whether you are in control of it or not but it is recommended that it be a server you are in control of for obvious security reasons. We will use phpMyID since it is simple and serves the purpose well.

This works well if it has it's own domain or subdomain but it really isn't a required thing. The OpenID that I created was is http://id.bobkmertz.com. My instructions assume you've created a domain or sub-domain for your OpenID but you can adapt as needed.

First thing, you need to register a domain and point that domain's DNS to your webserver and, of course, configure your webserver. I'm not going to touch on that because if you're doing this you probably should already know how and if not there are plenty of web pages out there that can help you with that.

Now you want to grab phpMyID. The latest version is 0.7 BETA and can be found here.

For me, I have my own server with shell access so I downloaded this directly to my server. This is, by far, the easiest method of implementing this but not everyone has this access so you can download it to your local machine, do the edits and then upload the files to your webserver. If you are uploading keep in mind that when I say editing a file you need to edit it and upload it if your not on the server.

There are 2 files that make up phpMyID. Really, that's it. Your OpenID set up is going to use only 2 php files. Let's get started:

Put both files from the archive into your public_html or www directory
Rename MyID.config.php to index.php
Edit index.php and change "auth_username", "auth_password", and "auth_realm"
- auth_realm doesn't need to be changed but can be anything you want it to be
- auth_username is the username you want to authenticate as - this is for your use only
- auth_password is an encrypted password which you can use OpenSSL to create (echo -n 'username:realm:password' | openssl md5).
  - Make sure you replace username and realm in the command with the same as used in auth_realm and auth_username
  - Windows User? Check here
To use SREG, remove hash (#) marks from the values under the sreg array and replace the values with appropriate information. This allows these fields to be automagically filled in when logging into a site
Save the file

You now have a working OpenID service. But if your OpenID is pointing to your OpenID then it would make sense to have some information about yourself on that page, wouldnt it? The PHP script doesnt allow any easy way of editing your page but it's something that may well be desired. You may ever want to use other Web 2.0 features like a pavatar. Let's make an easy way of doing this.

First, create a file to contain your HTML code. We'll use "id.html" in this example.
In this file you'll want to create your HTML page as you wish. Do not include body or html tags as we're going to leave the headers and such to the PHP script and then just inject this file in the middle.
Open MyID.php in your favorite editor and go to line 1392
Following the function call and the header information you will see some HTML code. Under the body tag we want to add the following:
';
readfile("id.html");
echo '
Now look for the title tags above that. You can change the title to whatever you'd like the name of your OpenID page to be.

You should be all set and have an easier way to edit the information on your OpenID page.

Optionally, you may want to give credit to the author of phpMyID. You can place an HTML link before the close body tag in MyID.php.

Pinouts for CAT5 to DTE RS232

2008-01-03T22:01:00.000-05:00

If anyone has ever worked with a router or switch from Foundry Networks, then you know how difficult it is to get into the RS232 console port using the standard cables that you usually have available. This is because Foundry is one of the few companies that use a straight through cable rather than the crossed cable that almost everything else uses. Tonight I was working on installing an avocent cyclades CS4016 to connect to the serial consoles on all of our routers. Using the ADB0039 dongles for our Cisco routers worked just fine but the ADB0036 dongles didn't work for our foundry routers and the reason for this is those dongles expect a Yost "flat" RJ45 cable which connects pin 1 to 8, 2 to 7, etc. This is similar to a CAT5 cable except that CAT5 connects pin 1 to 1, 2 to 2, etc. I had access to RS232 DB9 modules so I worked out the pinouts that I needed to use to make an RJ45 to RS232-DTE adaptor using a CAT5 cable rather than the yost flat cable. It's not rocket science but it took a little bit of thought especially when your mind got the interference of too many options for blue, green, etc :)

Anyway, I know that I will need this again so I'm putting it here so I can find it and maybe I'll help someone else out too. These colors are assuming that your DB9 blank modules have the standard Yost coloring.

Standard Yost module on the RJ45 side:

PIN	Color
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8	Blue Orange Black Red Green Yellow Brown White

Essentially all that we are doing is flipping that around. Ultimately we will end up with the following colored cable going into these pins:

DB9 Pin	RJ45 Color
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9	Brown Yellow Black Orange Green -UNUSED- Blue White -UNUSED-

Using lock files in a script

2007-11-20T12:43:00.000-05:00

When dealing with automated rsync backup scripts you sometimes run in to the issue of a large file taking longer than expected and cron launching another rsync -- eventually spiraling things down. The way to resolve this is create a lock file so that your script doesn't launch again if it is already running. Just put the following in your script under the #!/bin/sh statements:

LOCKFILE="/var/lock/rsync/lockfile"
if [ -f $LOCKFILE ]
then
echo Lock file exists...Exiting...
exit 0
else
touch $LOCKFILE
fi

This declares what the lock file is (you can make the file anything as long as the user running the script has access to read and write). Then it checks to see if the lockfile exists and exits if it does. If it doesnt exist, then it creates it.

All thats left is to add the following to the end of the script so that it cleanly deletes the lockfile after running:

rm -f $LOCKFILE
exit 0

Thanks to @linuxchic for helping out :)

Installing XEN on Ubuntu 7.10 (amd64)

2007-11-13T17:31:00.000-05:00

After finding how-to upon how-to that said to use "apt-get install ubuntu-xen-server" and repeatedly banging my head against the wall because it kept telling me the package wasnt found, I finally found the Xen page at the Ubuntu Community site that explained the situation. Apparently, there is no such package for amd64 kernels and you need to specify each needed package. Thankfully, they list the command you need over there:

(you do need to uncomment the universe repositories in /etc/apt/sources.list)

sudo aptitude install linux-image-xen bridge-utils libxen3.1 python-xen-3.1 xen-docs-3.1 xen-hypervisor-3.1 xen-ioemu-3.1 xen-tools xen-utils-3.1

Once you run that command, reboot the machine (may not be needed but won't hurt)

Now you'll need to edit /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp and uncomment the line (network-script network-bridge) and then comment (network-script network-dummy).

They also recommend adding "max_loop=64" to the end of the "loop" line in /etc/modules but this may not be needed for all people -- again, it won't hurt.

Now just reboot and it should all work.

NOTE: If your using i386, "apt-get install ubuntu-xen-server" should work for you. It's also possible that by the time you are reading this, the same command will work for amd64 but as of this post, it does not

100 Mac OSX Applications

2007-11-07T08:59:00.001-05:00

Someone I've been following on Twitter posted a great list of his 100 top applications for Mac OSX. I wanted to link back to him from here. Click on the "Reference Link" at the bottom of this post.

PVR150 with Set Top Box (KnoppMyth)

2007-11-07T08:08:00.000-05:00

Last year I wrote a HOWTO that I put on the KnoppMyth Wiki. While I don't use KnoppMyth any longer and I feel that MythBuntu is a much easier solution I found myself needing information from that how-to and I apparently forget what I had named my document. After finding it I figured that I would post it here so I could find it if I needed to refer to it in the future. I included the updates that others had made as well.

Setting up KnoppMyth with one or more Hauppauge PVR-150 Cards using Dish Network or other Set Top Box

First, thanks to Mark who pointed me in the right direction at his site: http://www.blushingpenguin.com/mark/blog/?p=24

Reference System: KnoppMyth R5C7 with 2 Dish Network (Echostar) set top boxes running on two seperate Hauppauge PVR-150 PCI Cards (*NOT* the MCE version which does not have the IR Blaster)

Setting up KnoppMyth to use a set top box with the Hauppauge PVR-150's IR Blaster is actually pretty simple but there seems to be a lack of directions on exactly what needs to be done. Hopefully this will shed some light.

First of all, KnoppMyth already has lircd installed and running and should have already installed the drivers for the IR Blaster on the PVR-150. You can confirm this by checking for /dev/lircd. You should also see /dev/lirc and if you have a second PVR-150, you should see /dev/lirc1 (but you wont see an lircd1 at this time - we'll fix that later).
Step One

Make sure the lirc_pvr150 module is loading (needed for R5F27).

In some KnoppMyth distributions (like R5F27), lirc_i2c is loaded instead of lirc_pvr150. lirc_pvr150 is needed for the IR Blaster to work. To use lirc_pvr150, change following line in /etc/lirc/hardware.conf from:
MODULES="lirc_dev lirc_i2c"

to
MODULES="lirc_dev lirc_pvr150"

and reboot.
Step Two

Grab the latest firmware file. You can find a copy over at Mark's blog: http://www.blushingpenguin.com/mark/lmilk/haup-ir-blaster.bin

Note that this loads the firmware into RAM so it will increase your RAM usage. The alternative would be throwing the card in a windows machine and flashing it using Hauppauge's utilities.

Place that file in /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware on your KnoppMyth system and reboot. This step may be able to be skipped but there are some versions of the cards that have issues with IR lock ups.
Step Three

We need to find the codeset that your set top box uses. For my Dish Network / Echostar units, I used code set 1_28. If you need to find your code set, check out the blog listed at the top of this wiki and look at step #9 (you may need to look at step #6 to get an lircd.conf file as well). He has a script that you can download and use to find the code set for your set top box. If you have Dish Network tuner(s), then here is what you need in your lircd.conf file:
--- Begin file insert ---

begin remote

name blaster
bits 32
flags RAW_CODES
eps 0
aeps 0
plead 0
gap 333333
repeat_bit 0

begin raw_codes
name 0
2149318656
name 1
2149318657
name 2
2149318658
name 3
2149318659
name 4
2149318660
name 5
2149318661
name 6
2149318662
name 7
2149318663
name 8
2149318664
name 9
2149318665
name POWER
2149318666
name CH_UP
2149318671
name CH_DOWN
2149318672
name MUTE
2149318673
name VOL_DOWN
2149318674
name CH_PREVIOUS
2149318675
name VOL_UP
2149318676
name DISPLAY
2149318677
name EXIT
2149318680
name GUIDE
2149318683
name SELECT
2149318686
name AV
2149318697
name ENTER
2149318699
name MENU
2149318703
name MUP
2149318704
name MDOWN
2149318705
name MLEFT
2149318706
name MRIGHT
2149318707
end raw_codes

end remote

--- End File Insert ---

If you did the installation of KnoppMyth correctly and told the installer what remote you had, your remote control and IR receiver should already be up and running.
Step Four

We're actually almost done if you have only one tuner. All that is needed now is to have a script that mythtv can point to when it needs to change the channel. Again, Mark wrote a great script that works well. Paste this into a file called "change_channel" or something else that makes you happy and do "chmod +x change_channel". A good location for this script would be /usr/local/bin. Make sure your mythtv user has access to this script.
--- Begin Script ---
#!/usr/bin/perl

# make sure to set this string to
# the corresponding remote in /etc/lircd.conf
$remote_name = "blaster";

# Let's assume you don't need to press enter after you punch in a
# channel number. Change this to 1 if your cable box expects you press
# enter after each command
$needs_enter = 0;

# Change this to point to your rc executable
$rc_command = "/usr/local/bin/irsend";

# This subroutine actually sends the signal to the cable box
sub change_SIGNAL {
my($SIGNAL) = @_;
system ("$rc_command SEND_ONCE $remote_name $SIGNAL");
}

$SIGNAL=$ARGV[0];
open F, ">> /var/log/channel.log";
print F "channel changing $SIGNAL\n";
close F;
print "channel changing $SIGNAL\n";

# Checks if $SIGNAL begins with a digit
# If it detects that the string is made up of digits, then it puts
# spaces between the digits. Ex. 1234 becomes 1 2 3 4
if ( $SIGNAL =~ /^\d+$/ )
{
my $length = length($SIGNAL);
my $counter = 0;
my $temp;

while( $counter < $length )
{
$temp .= substr($SIGNAL,$counter,1) ." ";
$counter++;
}

change_SIGNAL($temp);
}
else
{
# argument we passed was not made up of digits, so it must be a
# command that does something other than channel changing on the
# cable box
change_SIGNAL($SIGNAL);
}

# Do we need to send enter
if ( $needs_enter )
{
system ("$rc_command SEND_ONCE $remote_name ENTER");
}

--- End Script ---

If your set top box needs an enter key pressed after a channel is entered, change the appropriate value to "1" in the script instead of "0" ... For Dish Network, 0 works fine.
Step Five

Test your script. Simply do a "./change_channel xxx" where xxx is a valid channel number on your set top box. With a little luck, your set top box will change channels.

If your script changes the channel without issue, you're set. Now just tell MythTV to use the script when it needs to change the channel. Run mythtv-setup and go to the Input Connections and in the appropriate tuner fill in the blank for the script to change channels. Just put "/usr/local/bin/change_channel" and MythTV will automatically append the channel number each time it is needed.
Stop here unless you have more than one tuner
Step Six

If you have more than one tuner, you'll need to create a seperate PID for the second PVR-150 card. You do NOT need a seperate configuration file. If you only have one tuner, what are you doing reading this section? :)

Creating the second PID is rather simple. This command will start another process of lircd without affecting the first.

/usr/sbin/lircd --device=/dev/lirc1 --output=/dev/lircd1 --pidfile=/var/run/lircd1.pid

This is dependant on the fact that /dev/lirc1 is already created -- If KnoppMyth was installed properly, it should have already detected your second PVR-150 and created that device. If this command worked properly, you should now see a /dev/lircd1 device.
Step Seven

Now you need to create a separate change channel script for this tuner. Just copy the change_channel script you created above to something such as change_channel_1 and do a chmod +x on it as well. Edit the file and change the $rc_command line to this:
$rc_command = "/usr/local/bin/irsend --device=/dev/lircd1";
Step Eight

Tell the second tuner to use this script when changing channels the same way we did in Step Four above
Step Nine

Now you probably want KnoppMyth to start the second instance of lircd on boot. To do that, create /etc/init.d/lirc1 and include these 2 lines:
#! /bin/sh
/usr/sbin/lircd --device=/dev/lirc1 --output=/dev/lircd1 --pidfile=/var/run/lircd1.pid

Do a chmod +x on this file and now tell the system to export it to all run levels by doing "update-rc.d lirc1 defaults".
--
Howto by bibleboy @ 3:31am EDT 07/07/06
Edited by Bigbro @ 16:50 PT 09/18/06 -Fixed the ARG statement syntax.
Wikimarkup made the bracket 0 bracket appear incorrectly.
inserted a tilde infront of first bracket. Works with R5C7!
Edited by RBucci @ 7:59 ET 10/15/07 - Added new Step 1 for R5F27.

Making a back up copy of OSX Leopard install disk on a SL-DVD

2007-10-26T23:03:00.000-04:00

I got OSX Leopard tonight and I want to make a back up copy.... but there are a lot of weird things going on in the partitioning of the disk.... Not to mention it's more than 7GB. Of course, you know, a ton of that are language packs and such that you know that you are never going to use so let's shrink it down..... After searching google and experimenting with my own knowledge I've come up with this process.

Overview: Basically you just need to be able to edit what is on the CD. Of course, CD's are not read/write and if you create an ISO, it most likely will only mount read only. What we're going to do is create an brand new image that is read/write and then we'll dump what's on the entire DVD onto that image. Once we're in that position, we can delete things we don't need on the install CD. Once we have it the way we want it, we'll create another image for a 4.7GB DVD and copy it over to that.... then we can do what we want.

Insert the OSX Leopard DVD
Open Disk Utility
Create "New Image"
- Name can be anything
- It's easiest to save on your desktop
- Size: 8.0GB (Dual Layer)
- Encryption: None
- Format: Spare Disk Image
Click the image you just created and then click the "restore" tab for that.
Drag the "Mac OSX Install DVD" image into the source and then drag the image you just created into the destination field.
Click Restore
Go grab a soda . . . Take a Nap . . .
Create an "Extras" folder (or whatever you want to name it) on your desktop. We will use this to dump things to that we don't need on the first install procedure.
In Finder, go to to "Go To Folder" option under the "Go" menu and type in "/Volumes/[image name]/System" and click go. (Of course, replace image name with whatever you named your 8.0GB image above)
Go into the Installation folder and then into packages and delete what you don't need and move what you may need later but not immediately (Language packs, printer drivers, etc can safely be deleted or moved to your extras).
Drag the "Optional Installs" folder from the top of the CD tree into the extras folder you created above and delete from your image (we'll dump this to another DVD later, if desired)
Empty your trash and then "Get Info" for your mounted image. If it's less than 4.5GB or so, continue... if not, go back and delete/move some more.
Create 2 new images with the same settings as at the beginning of this how-to except both of these should be 4.7GB Single Layer DVD size (leopard-disc1 and leopard-disc2 would be good names for these). If you are an advanced user, you can create the size as custom and fill in variables that would hold the specific data that you have created - this would create smaller image files for archival purposes.
Drag anything you dumped in to the extras folder into the disc2 mount in finder
Click on your disc1 image in disk utility and click the restore tab.
Repeat the same thing as we did above except your source is the image that we just deleted the extras off of and the destination is your disc1 image.
Take another nap . . . You'll be well reseted for the install :)
You can now burn directly from those 2 images.

Theoretically, If you want an ISO image, you can get DMGConverter (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/32275) and use that to convert your sparseimage files to DVD/CD Master files and then simply rename those with an ISO extension.

Automated SSH login using keys

2007-10-22T15:56:00.001-04:00

I always seem to forget how to do this when I need to. When setting up an automated backup you obviously don't want the script to ask for a password so you set up a key pair.

Machine sending the backups (must be logged in as the user that will be doing the backups):

ssh-keygen -t dsa -b 2048 -f /any/directory/filename

Then you copy the resulting filename.pub file (NOT the file with no extension) to the authorized_keys file on the receiving machine in the .ssh directory under the user that will receive the backups. If the authorized_keys file doesnt exist, just rename the file you copied... if it does exist, append it to that file.

If your using rsync, use this command:

rsync -e 'ssh -i /any/directory/filename' source/ user@host:/destination/

Using WGET to retrieve all files of a certain type

2007-10-22T12:57:00.000-04:00

wget -r -l1 -H -t1 -nd -N -np -A.mp3 -erobots=off -i ~/mp3blogs.txt

And here's what this all means:

-r -H -l1 -np These options tell wget to download recursively. That means it goes to a URL, downloads the page there, then follows every link it finds. The -H tells the app to span domains, meaning it should follow links that point away from the blog. And the -l1 (a lowercase L with a numeral one) means to only go one level deep; that is, don't follow links on the linked site. In other words, these commands work together to ensure that you don't send wget off to download the entire Web -- or at least as much as will fit on your hard drive. Rather, it will take each link from your list of blogs, and download it. The -np switch stands for "no parent", which instructs wget to never follow a link up to a parent directory.

We don't, however, want all the links -- just those that point to audio files we haven't yet seen. Including -A.mp3 tells wget to only download files that end with the .mp3 extension. And -N turns on timestamping, which means wget won't download something with the same name unless it's newer.

To keep things clean, we'll add -nd, which makes the app save every thing it finds in one directory, rather than mirroring the directory structure of linked sites. And -erobots=off tells wget to ignore the standard robots.txt files. Normally, this would be a terrible idea, since we'd want to honor the wishes of the site owner. However, since we're only grabbing one file per site, we can safely skip these and keep our directory much cleaner. Also, along the lines of good net citizenship, we'll add the -w5 to wait 5 seconds between each request as to not pound the poor blogs.

Finally, -i ~/mp3blogs.txt is a little shortcut. Typically, I'd just add a URL to the command line with wget and start the downloading. But since I wanted to visit multiple mp3 blogs, I listed their addresses in a text file (one per line) and told wget to use that as the input.

Blank DVD Compatibility

2007-10-02T15:34:00.000-04:00

Every now and then I run into someone who is wondering why their burnt DVDs aren't playing in their player. Each time this happens I always go nuts trying to find the site that lets you search for DVD models and see what other user's have been using as far as media types and brands.

This is it:
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers

Just a note from my experience -- As a rule of thumb, the less you pay for a DVD player, the more likely you are to be able to play the larger majority of blank DVDs. The cheap Target and Wal-Mart specials from CyberHome and Apex generally play whatever you throw at them and they usually support the most data formats (such as MP3, SVCD, VCD, etc).

Google Repositories (apt-get)

2007-09-30T22:38:00.000-04:00

Add this line to /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free

Import the key by running this

wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | apt-key add

Then of course run "apt-get update" and your ready to instantly install Google's apps using apt-get.

System Rescue CDs

2007-09-25T21:40:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to put a little note here because I was reminded tonight of 2 very good rescue CDs that I have used in the past and I highly recommend to anyone who has a broken system (Linux, Windows, and I think even Mac).

The first and primary CD that I carry in my arsenal when I go on jobs is SystemRescueCD. This Linux distro is based on GenToo -- but fear not as there is no knowledge of GenToo required. The CD boots and detects just about any hardware you can throw at it and has a lot of VERY useful tools for recovering data and fixing stuff. The kernel has NTFS support built into it and the distro includes ntfs3g. There are also tools that rival (and maybe beat) PartitionMagic. It's also extremely handy for booting a system in a data center and letting a customer access the machine remotely (great for remote hands type services) as it includes setup scripts for networking and for starting sshd.... so you could walk even the most novice (ok, not all, I'll admit) techs. They also now have a PPC distro which theoretically will let you recover even MaxOS systems -- but I havent had the opportunity to try this yet.

You definately don't want to be without this CD if you do any kind of computer services. You'd be amazed at how handy it is.

Link:

http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

The second CD is the same similar idea but it's based on Debian with an Ubuntu kernel. The name of this one is Kanotix. The advantage this CD has over SysRescueCD is that it allows you to apt-get applications on the fly. It also has a slightly different hardware driver selection but you'll probably find it has the majority of what you need. I'm definately a synaptics fan but this is still only my second choice for recovering systems because I think SysRescueCD definately has the streamlining down and makes quick tasks remain just that: quick tasks.

This is still something that you want to keep in your arsenal. There have been a few situations where SysRescueCD didn't cut it for me and I pulled out Kanotix and it worked fine. It's also handy if you have some advanced stuff that you need to work on since you can easily apt-get utilities that you may need.

Link:

http://kanotix.com/changelang-eng.html

Making TrixBox not like TrixBox

2007-09-19T00:54:00.000-04:00

Today I was hammered with information about why TrixBox is starting to suck..... my easy-to-install VoIP solution was recently acquired by fonality who wants to make it an easy-to-pay-them VoIP solution. Fear not... I have been provided with solutions from my friend over at eicomm.

Those of us who like open source and VoIP solutions and are lazier than most have a new hero: Tom King

Right now the currently solution is to install TrixBox 2.3.0.1 and then run the script from Tom's site (http://www.script-trix.us/trixbox_2_3_xb.htm). Yes -- this will break a lot of the trixbox functionality but from what I'm reading this is exactly what you want to do.

Of course, if you have lots of money you can go with TrixBox Pro which does offer some cool features such as online backup and sync.... but for those of us that are maintaining systems for Non-Profit organizations and for personal hobby, well, that just isn't an option.

So basically, if you want paid solutions, look no further than TrixBox Pro but if you want real open source, visit Tom's site above and see what he currently has cooking. As of this post, he is working on a bare centos5 script which will seemingly be the way to go once he releases it.

Thanks Tom!

MythArchive on a seperate front end machine

2007-09-09T20:46:00.000-04:00

Apparently MythBuntu (and MythTV under Ubuntu) will only support MythArchive if it is on the same machine as the backend. Basically, if you have a backend only machine you are unable to burn your recordings to a DVD from your front end machine. There is currently a bug open (118700) but, sadly, it doesnt seem like anyone has an interest in fixing it soonish. The good news is there is a very easy solution to the problem.

First, mount your recordings directory from your backend server on to your front end machine. This requires installing nfs.

apt-get install nfs-user-server
nano /etc/exports

Add this line: /var/lib/mythtv/recordings 192.168.1.5(ro)
(Make sure you replace the IP address with your front end's IP)

/etc/init.d/nfs-user/server restart

Now you need to mount that on your front end machine.

apt-get install nfs-client
nano /etc/fstab

Add this line: 192.168.1.3:/var/lib/mythtv/recordings /mnt/recordings nfs
(Replace that IP address with your backend's IP; Make sure /mnt/recordings exists)

mount -a

Now you need to add an entry to the mythconverg database. You can do this from either machine.

mysql -h 192.168.1.3 -u mythtv -p mythconverg
(Replace the IP with your database server - usually same as your backend)

Now you need to run this command at the mysql prompt:

insert into settings (value, data, hostname) VALUES ('RecordFilePrefix', '/mnt/recordings', 'myth-frontend');
(You'll need to change myth-frontend to whatever the hostname is of your front end)

That should take care of it
DISCLAIMER: I am not a database guy.... I don't even fully understand what that command does. I am simply taking information from the bug report and putting it in to a step by step list. I can confirm that this worked for me in my situation and it most likely will work for you.

MythMusic with iTunes

2007-09-08T11:44:00.000-04:00

Now that I am putting more effort into MythTV being the control of entertainment in my house, I've begun working on the MythMusic application. Currently I use iTunes on my iMac for my music library which syncs with my iPod and scrobbles tracks to Last.fm. The last thing I want is another application that I need to keep synced. Here are things I found to make life a little easier/

Trick #1: Share your iTunes Music folder via NFS

On my Mac I moved my iTunes store folder to /music-lib/ rather than the directory it uses by default. My primary reason for doing this was nothing more than the default folder contains a space in the name and this makes things a little harder for NFS. Once all your MP3 files are there, we need to set up the NFS share.... which really isn't all that hard. I used the following guide to do this:
http://mactechnotes.blogspot.com/2005/09/mac-os-x-as-nfs-server.html

Note: On Windows you could substitute this process to use Samba and adjust accordingly

Now you need to mount that share on all applicable MythTV machines. Currently I use Mythbuntu and I have a primary backend machine and 2 front end only machines. First thing you'll need to do is "apt-get install nfs-client" to allow Mythbuntu to connect to an NFS share. Once that's installed, create an empty directory to mount your music in. I created /mnt/music/ for my systems. Now add the following line into your /etc/fstab file on all of your myth machines:

SERVER:/music-lib /mnt/music nfs
(Substitue SERVER with your iTunes' machines IP address and adjust the share names as needed)

Now what's left is to go into the mythmusic settings and change the recordings directory to /mnt/music.

You're ready to listen to music!

Trick #2: iTunes Playlists

So MythMusic has an extreme lack of intuitive playlist editting.... actually, you can't even call it a playlist editor. I want an easy was to use my iTunes playlists. Two people have done an amazing job at a perl script that takes care of a conversion and imports the iTunes playlists into your mythconverg database.

http://www.mickelson.org/2006/11/07/mythmusic-mac-os-x-and-itunes/
http://simonster.com/mt/archives/000038.html

Grab that perl script and throw it on the machine that serves as your mythtv backend. On mythbuntu you need to install XML:Parser which can be done by "apt-get install libxml-parser-perl". Edit the variables at the top of that script and do a chmod +x on the perl script. If you have multiple machines, you will need to run the script different times with the hostname set as each of the myth machines you want the playlists to be active on.

Before you run that script, you need to make sure the iTunes library XML file is in your music-lib directory. I renamed mine to exclude spaces and then copied it to the music-lib directory on my iMac.

Run the script and you should now have playlists in MythMusic.

Trick #3: Automate Trick #2

I have a lot of smart playlists and I am often creating new playlists and, of course, always adding new music to my library. I don't want to have to do this everytime I make an update so I automated the process. I created a script on my iMac to copy the "real" iTunes XML file into the music-lib directory every hour. OSX has dropped the use of cron and replaced it with launchd. Here is a guide you can use to get this set up:
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/11/15/terminal5.html?page=3

Once that's set up, you need to set up a crontab on your myth system(s) to run the perl script. If you do this hourly, make sure you set your iTunes computer to copy the file before the crontab runs on your myth machines. For instance, make your itunes machine run on minuet 05 and the myth machines run on 08.

Now you're set.... things should automatically update for you.

Trick #4: Scrobble to your Last.fm account

I use Last.fm an awful lot and if I start using MythMusic over iTunes, I lose that scrobbling. I have not completed this yet (or even really began looking at it) but here is a link where you can get a patch. I need to figure out how to apply this on an active mythbuntu system. I'll report back when/if I come up with something :)

http://yaron.org/mythscrobbler/

Mythbuntu: My new favorite MythTV solution

2007-09-04T13:53:00.000-04:00

As much as I love KnoppMyth and it's ease of installation I have constantly ended up haunted by the lack of upgradeability. If you even think about using apt-get, the system cries and stops working. It's an amazing distro but if you run into a problem with it not playing nicely with some hardware device you have or you get a cool idea that you want to implement, you're most likely going to render your box useless once you start tinkering.

So I installed Mythbuntu last night and.... WOW. I ran into a hardware incompatibility with the new machine I was building. I have a dual opteron 246 mainboard that I wanted to use as my mythbuntu system but the issue was with compatibility with PCI-X and PVR-150's. I have 2 of the older PVR-150 retail versions (these are the cards that the new knoppmyth and it's ivtv version were having issues with) and a PVR-150 MCE version. I also have a Chaintech 710 sound card (*HIGHLY* recommended by me for anyone who wants 5.1). The mainboard only has 1 32 bit (5v) slot and the sound card runs only at 5v. All of the PVR-150's run at either 3.3v or 5v but there is apparently something in the chipsets of the PVR-150 retail versions that make them inoperable in a PCI-X slot. The MCE version works fine so I had a choice of either my chaintech card or a second tuner because the PVR-150 Retails would work fine in the 32 bit slot but the machine wouldnt boot if they were in a PCI-X slot. I have a Sound Blaster Live card so I figured I'd try it and it worked until I wanted to do the digital 5.1 and then hell broke lose which is the same results in ANY distro including KnoppMyth..... so I opted to make that my server and build a seperate front end machine.
Note: Hauppauge will apparently update your PVR-150 to work with PCI-X but who has time for that? :P See this link.)

I can not tell you how easy the install was. In Mythbuntu you can select advanced configuration and select any configuration you want. You have options of the following:

Master backend and Front end
Secondary backend and Front end
Master backend only
Secondary backend only
Front end only

In all of these configurations, the plugins are installed and 100% working..... installation of the frontend machine asks you for the address and login information for the primary backend and.... it's running.

One thing even more amazing about Mythbuntu.... since I wasn't going to have any PVR-150's in my front end, the use of my Hauppauge remote control wasn't an option. Years ago I bought a StreamZap USB remote control which I previously tried to use on KnoppMyth and I eventually gave up. I decided I'd fight with it in this scenario and dug it out of the "archives" .... Mythbuntu asked me what remote I had and StreamZap was actually an option. When the system booted the remote worked without a single bit of configuration from me. The only thing that I think I need to do is configure the red button for delete like my Hauppauge remote was.... other than that, it's working great even in the DVD program.

Mythbuntu also puts the display to sleep automagically.... if you're sitting at a menu for a while, the screen will go into sleep mode and as soon as you press a button on the remote it will turn back on. This is a huge advantage for me because there are times I'll fall asleep while watching TV and the fact that my 19" CRT is going to sleep is a great savings in energy costs.

Another thing is the DVD player. I adjusted my general settings to use /dev/adsp for the SPDIF port and I figured I'd have to set up the DVD seperately.... I put a DVD in to see what state it was in and not only did my audio come out of the SPDIF optical port but my receiver went to digital mode..... Mythbuntu handles everything with the DVD player internally so there aren't any options that you need to pass... it's very impressive.

For everyone's reference, here is my configuration

Server:
- Tyan S-2882D Mainboard
- (Qty: 2) Opteron 246 - 2ghz
- 4GB DDR333 Crucial (128bit mode)
- 3ware 7500-8 Raid Controller
- (Qty: 8) 250GB Western Digital SATA drives (Raid 5)
- Hauppauge PVR-150 Retail version (26052)
- Hauppauge PVR-150 MCE
Front End:
- Intel 815 Server Board
- Pentium 3 @ 1.2ghz
- 512MB PC133 Ram
- 40GB IDE Seagate
- Lite-On DVD Burner
- Chaintech AV-710 with optical out
- StreamZap USBIR2 Remote Control

I really like the front end being the configuration it is. I was a bit concerned about the Pentium 3 with only 512MB of RAM (thats all the 815 chipset supports) but it runs incredibly smooth.... the network keeps up, the CPU keeps up.... no slow downs at all. The best part about it is all it has is a VERY low speed fan on the power supply and a cpu cooler.... the box makes almost no noise at all. Right now the server is sitting next to eat but I will be moving that to my crawlspace eventually and it should get really quiet in my living room :)

Here are some URLs for anyone interested in some of the things above:

http://techgage.com/article/chaintech_av-710_71_sound_card/ (Chaintech AV-710)
- I really can not recommend this card highly enough. It worked flawlessly on my KnoppMyth box as well as this Mythbuntu box. The quality is amazing.... and the Envy24 chipset is so much enjoyed by linux distros. If you're just getting into MythTV I would highly recommend not even thinking about touching a Creative Labs sound card (that is, if you want anything more than standard 2 channel). Their chipsets are a 3 ring circus and it's always a nightmare
StreamZap USB Remote control
Mythbuntu
- My installation was based on Alpha 4..... so far I have seen no reason why this is still considered Alpha.... I havent run into an issue yet.

Keep in mind I have only been running this set up for 24 hours but I have had a very large queue of recordings and I'd say more than half of that time the system was recording two shows at the same time. I haven't tested all of the plug ins yet (like mythweb, archive, etc) but from navigation it appears they are installed and operating.

Overview

Installation is quite easy. KnoppMyth may be a touch easier for someone who hasn't a clue about linux but if you know even a tiny bit of computer hardware and the ideas behind the OS, this is a piece of cake.
MythBuntu has a sleep function for the monitor out of the box
Mythbuntu has a front end only installation option as well as a front end live CD option
Mythbuntu is designed from the ground up to be placed in multiple machine configurations. Having mutliple backends and frontends is a breeze
Using 5.1 optical on the Chaintech is as simple as changing your audio device in myth setup to /dev/adsp - and it takes it from there (including DVD player)
The base system is 100% Ubuntu and is designed with the Ubuntu repositories in mind. Updating packages appears to be no issue at all.
Supports my StreamZap USB remote which I previously had not been able to get to work easily
Gives you the option to set up VNC access during the install
Allows you to select plugins rather than forcing you to install all of them

There is no doubt that this is now my MythTV distro of choice. MythDora has got some great reviews but I'm not such a fan of RPM based distros so when looking for a KnoppMyth replacement I decided to try Mythbuntu - and I'm glad I did.

Please keep in mind that KnoppMyth is still considered a great distro to me. It works flawlessly in what it does but I just sometimes feel trapped by it. That trapped feeling is a trade off, however, as it is designed with the widest automatic support of hardware and it can generally have you set up and running without many technical questions at all.

As far as I'm concerned, KnoppMyth, Mythdora, and Mythbuntu are all very great options but I think Mythbuntu fits into my scenario (as well as many other's) the best.

KnoppMyth SPDIF in Xine with Chaintech

2007-08-02T17:50:00.000-04:00

Reference Version: R5F1

After doing a lot of searching to try to find the solution to this problem, it turns out it is a really simple one. I have a KnoppMyth system set up that I am using a ChainTech AV710 sound card on (I give high recommendations to this card) and I configured MythTV to use SPDIF to get audio output but simply changing my audio output device from /dev/dsp to /dev/adsp and everything worked a-OK except for playing DVDs. I tried playing with the settings in Xine to get it to work and I couldn't obtain ANY audio (5.1 or not). After doing some googling on the subject, I found a HOWTO over at the Ubuntu forums and the solution was quite simple.

For the applicable output devices, simply use "plug:iec958" and select the speaker configuration as pass through.

Thats it, your done. Restart Xine and all should be merry. As soon as I started playing a DVD I didn't just have audio but my receiver's little DIGITAL light came on.

Target Disk Mode (Macintosh)

2007-06-26T00:33:00.000-04:00

For the last few days I have been pissed about not being able to boot an iBook from a USB CD-Drive. Apparently this is only possible by using a firewire external drive. The bigger issue is that God forbid anywhere local have a firewire IDE enclosure... hell, I had a hard enough time finding a firewire cable......
.... Then I learned about something that I will gladly trade the ability to boot from a USB drive. This little gem is called "Target Disk Mode". The uses of this are really endless. Basically any drive in a macintosh computer can be used as an external firewire drive. Yes, you can do backups of your hard drive this way..... AND it allows you to use the DVD drive of another macintosh as a firewire drive.... which means if you have an ibook with a dead optical drive, you can use the drive from another mac by starting that mac in this mode.

1. Make sure that the target computer is turned off. If you are using a PowerBook or iBook as the target computer, you should also plug in its AC power adapter.
2. Use a FireWire cable (6-pin to 6-pin) to connect the target computer to a host computer. The host computer does not need to be turned off.
3. Start up the target computer and immediately press and hold down the T key until the FireWire icon appears. The hard disk of the target computer should become available to the host computer and will likely appear on desktop. (If the target computer is running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, you can also open System Preferences, choose Startup Disk, and click Target Disk Mode. Then restart the computer and it will start up in Target Disk Mode.)
4. When you are finished copying files, drag the target computer's hard disk icon to the Trash or select Put Away from the File menu (Mac OS 9) or Eject from the File menu (Mac OS X).
5. Press the target computer's power button to turn it off.
6. Unplug the FireWire cable.

Macintosh Boot Commands

2007-06-24T02:21:00.000-04:00

I always seem to forget these so I'm putting them here so I know where to find them next time I forget :)

Command-S Boot into Single User Mode
Command-V Boot using "Verbose" mode (shows all kernel and startup console messages)
X Reset startup disk selection and boot into Mac OS X Server
Shift Boot into "Safe Boot" mode, which runs Disk First Aid. A reboot will be required afterward.
Option Boot into Open Firmware to select a boot device
Command-Option-Shift-Delete Bypass internal harddrive on boot
T Boot into Firewire target disk mode
C Boot from the internal optical drive
N Start from the Network (NetBoot)
Command-Option-P-R Reset Parameter RAM (PRAM) and non-volatile RAM (NVRAM)
(mouse button) Eject (internal) removable media

ALSO: if you use open firmware password... you'll need this:
Startup Manager -accessed by pressing the Option key during startup
Enter commands after starting up in Open Firmware -press Command-Option-O-F key combination during startup.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106482

How to troubleshoot a computer with Open Firmware Password enabled
If you cannot access the Open Firmware Password application and need to troubleshoot your computer by:

Resetting the PRAM
Starting up in Single-user mode
Starting up in Verbose mode
Starting from CD-ROM

Then follow these steps:

Start up into Open Firmware by pressing and holding the Command-Option-O-F key combination during startup.
At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-nvram
Press Return.
When prompted for your password, enter it and press the Return key. It responds OK.
At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-all
Press Return.

The computer restarts and you are now be able to reset the PRAM and startup in Single-user mode, Verbose mode, or from CD-ROM.