Willing wheels

1. To extract part of a video file
   => you can use avidemux (apt-get install avidemux), usage is pretty straight forward
2. To convert a dvd into divx
   => you can use dvd:rip (apt-get install dvdrip), usage is pretty straightforward (first, load TOC, then rip selected track, last encode it)
3. Convert a video into mp3 (ie. extract soundtrack)
   => use either avidemux (select ‘mp3′ as audio output on left menu, the on top menu fo to /audio/save after having loaded the video) or ffmpeg (see similar post on this blog)

sources

• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=480343
• http://www.videohelp.com/tools/AviDemux
• http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/221948-VirtualDub-for-Linux

Due to badly implemented shell script I had to give root user’s password to a shell script (pretty ugly I must admit!).

Problem is that with ubuntu, by default you cannot use root user account. To change this simply run: “sudo passwd root” and then set your password for root user.

If you want to go one step further and login into gnome as root (which I recommend NOT to do at all – I personally do not do it, never), then do the following:

• run “sudo gedit /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf”
• locate ‘AllowRoot=false’ and change it into “AllowRoot=true’
• save your changes

That’s it.

sources

• http://www.sizlopedia.com/2008/04/16/how-to-login-to-ubuntu-as-root-user/

Nothing easier!

1. look for your profile folder (~/.thunderbird/xxxxxxx.default), copy it and paste in on your new computer at the equivalent location
2. update ‘profiles.ini’ file to point to your profile folder (ie. update it to match ‘xxxxxxx.default’)
3. start Thunderbird

That’s it.
Nothing easier.

sources

• http://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/kb/Profiles#_Moving_a_profile

When I tried to run “sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales” to add a new locale as I used to do it on debian, it simply regenerated my existing locales without letting me the choice to add/remove new ones!

After searching the web, it looks like under ubuntu you need to:

1. open /var/lib/locales/supported.d/local
2. add your locale (let’s say en_US.ISO-8859-15 ISO-8859-15)
3. regenerate your locales: “sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales”

I’m pretty sure (at least I hope) there’s a better way to do it, but this way worked for me.

sources

• http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-select-and-generate-locales-on-ubuntu.html

I updated my ubuntu box, and it automatically removed cups-pdf… I installed it again, and guess what, it no longer worked. When trying to print into pdf, I noticed the following message:

backend /usr/lib/cups/backend/cups-pdf does not exist

I already faced this message in a previous life (see cups-pdf not working on Ubuntu Intrepid).
note: read above post to ensure you have correctly configured cups-pdf otherwise solution explained on this page might no be the cause of your trouble

To have cups-pdf work again I had to do the following:

1. purge cups-pdf package (simply removing it is not enough):

   sudo apt-get purge cups-pdf

2. reinstall it:

   sudo apt-get install cups-pdf

   note: you do have to purge cups-pdf package, simply removing or simply forcing –reinstall when installing new cups-pdf package is not enough

That’s it! It should work by now.

sources

• https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cups/+bug/270046 – particularly comment #27
• http://www.qc4blog.com/?p=475

simply run

convert *.jpg my_new.pdf

sources

• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=808596
• man convert

It looks like Lexmark finally released some drivers for its printers on linux!!!

This is great news!

Simply go to www.lexmark.com, click on the download section, then enter your printer name (x4650 in my case) and hit search.
Click on drivers & downloads, then click on ‘downloads’ tab and if you’re lucky you will be able to download the driver for your distribution.

Once you’ve downloaded the gz file, unzip it and execute the shell script as root from a terminal.

I did not believe it, below are the printscreens!

Don’t get too enthusiastic though, printing works through usb cable connection, so far I did not make it work through wifi. Anyway, it’s a start, my printer is no longer a total paper weight!

sources

• www.lexmark.com
• http://support.lexmark.com/index?locale=en&segment=DOWNLOAD&startover=y&userlocale=EN_US&question=x4650&productCode=LEXMARK_X4650&page=answers&detectedProductFacet=CMS-CATEGORY_REF.LEXMARK.PRODUCTS.ALLINONE.LEXMARK_X4650&searchid=1270566453048#2 (direct link to x4650 driver page – click on ‘dowloads’ tab)

Let’s say you have multiple version of a package that are available and you want to install a specific one.
We will use ‘mysql-server-5.0′ package for our example:

remy@r12925:~$ apt-cache policy mysql-server-5.0
mysql-server-5.0:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 5.0.32-7etch12
Version table:
5.0.32-7etch12 0
500 http://security.debian.org etch/updates/main Packages
5.0.32-7etch8 0
500 ftp://mir1.ovh.net etch/main Packages
5.0.32-7etch5 0
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

You want to install bolded version of mysql-server-5.0 package.
Nothing easier!!
Simply run apt with following syntax:

apt-get install <package-name>=<version>

In our case, I would run “sudo apt-get install mysql-server-5.0=5.0.32-7etch8″

sources

• man apt
• http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ch-apt-get.en.html

If you want to find in which package a file is located, ‘apt-file’ is your friend:

1. sudo apt-get install apt-file (we should install it first!)
2. sudo apt-file update (we update its db)
3. apt-file find myfilename

note: you can use –regexp | -x option to search using a regular expression pattern (apt-file -x find mypattern)

That’s it!

sources

• http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=310882