Saving Video Streams in Ubuntu
Flash Media
rtmpdump
apt-get install rtmpdump
rtmpdump -r "rtmp://domain.tld/video_name.flv" -o video_name.flv
Docs: http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu/rtmpdump.1.html
Windows Media
mimms
apt-get install mimms
mimms mms://domain.tld/video_name.wmv
Docs: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/man1/mimms.1.html
mplayer
mplayer -dumpstream -dumpfile video_name.wmv mms://domain.tld/video_name.wmv
OpenVPN Install on CentOS 6 Server
I recently had a need to install a VPN service in a OpenVZ container. Since I normally only use Hardware emulating VM’s I ran into quite a few issues in terms of low-level networking support on this Container Virtualisation System. Turns out that you are stuck with a TUN/TAP solution as most services won’t enable PPP services on their infrastructure. Also Ethernet bridging is not available (at least on the service I used) so you’re stuck with NAT IP masquerading. Considering the options I thought best served with using OpenVPN server.
Installing Poptop (pptpd) VPN Server on CentOS 6
For roaming mobile clients PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) is still the quickest way to get VPN connections to tunnel traffic over a secure link.
Installation
I always prefer installation via a yum repository as this will ensure patches are applied during regular system updates
sudo rpm --import http://poptop.sourceforge.net/yum/RPM-GPG-KEY-PPTP
sudo rpm -Uvh http://poptop.sourceforge.net/yum/stable/rhel6/pptp-release-current.noarch.rpm
sudo yum install ppp pptpd -y
Configuration
Note: replace $USERNAME and $PASSWORD with actual values
IP configuration
echo "localip 192.168.0.1" >> /etc/pptpd.conf
echo "remoteip 192.168.0.100-199" >> /etc/pptpd.conf
DNS configuration
Disable services on boot - Ubuntu 12.04
To keep my desktop (notebook) machine light and responsive I don’t want unnecessary services starting on boot-time. Turns out Ubuntu is surprisingly cumbersome to configure in this area (compared to RedHat / Fedora).
Two services I need on my notebook, but don’t want them to start unless I require them running are MySQL and Apache. But it looks like some services are started using upstart init daemon and it appears there is no management tool for this. Services can pe prevented from auto-starting either by renaming the config file or commenting out the start line in the config file
Galaxy Nexus Firmware Upgrade on Ubuntu (manual)
As a Galaxy Nexus Owner I have been waiting for months for an OTA (over the air) upgrade to the factory installed Firmware (4.0.2). I am finally sick of waiting and complaining to Google (an absolute lost cause).
After some research it turns out that (contrary to popular opinion) not every unlocked Google Nexus actually has the ‘official’ Google Firmware. Some of them have a Samsung variant (WTF !?) of the firmware. Now I really don’t want to get off the technical topic, but I personally think that this means Google is misleading their most loyal customer base. The reason I chose a Nexus device over the (from a hardware perspective) superior HTC One X was the fact that they were supposed to have the official Google Firmware and I did not have to wait forever for bugfixes from the manufacturers.
Open Source creative tools
Since I am tired to constantly recite this list whenever one of these designer-type people tells me that they need Adobe’s Whatever Suite to do some basic task here is a summary that I can point them to.
Vector Graphics
Inkscape (http://inkscape.org/)
Xara Extreme (http://www.xaraxtreme.org/)
Raster Graphics
Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/)
Desktop Publishing
Scribus (http://www.scribus.net/)
Photo Editing
Gimp (see above)
Darktable (http://www.darktable.org/)
RawTherapee (http://www.rawtherapee.com/)
Luminance HDR (http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/)
Layout Tools (DTP): Scribus (http://scribus.net/canvas/Scribus)
Running Android 4.0 (ICS) on Virtualbox
Debugging things on the Android Emulator (incluced in the SDK) can be a very slow and cumbersome process. Thanks to the Android-x86 Project it’s quite easy to run Android in VirtualBox. This is highly useful when you need to test mobile apps and websites from the Android Browser (as well as Chrome Mobile).
- Download an Ethernet enabled ISO from Tablets x86
wget http://dl.dropbox.com/u/75945873/android-x86-4.0-eth0-generic_x86-20120426.iso.torrent
transmission android-x86-4.0-eth0-generic_x86-20120426.iso.torrent
- Create new ViratualBox VM



Important Settings (see screenshots)- OS: Linux, Version: Linux 2.6
- Enable VTx/AMD-V
- Use Bridged Network Adapter (if you want to allow direct Internet Access)
- Mount the ISO file downloaded previosly and start the VM

- Create the Root Filesystem (ext3) on the VBox .vdi created with the new VM, mark as bootable
- Write the Filesystem changes to disk (VDI) and format the disk
- Install GRUB Boatloader
- Copy files from ISO to VDI
- Unmount the ISO image and reboot Note: You need to disable the mouse pointer integration (if you have installed VirtualBox Client Add-ons) in the menu of Virtualbox (‘Machine’ –> ‘Disable Mouse Integration’) when you start the VM (see screenshot). I have not found a way to disable this by default on Virtualbox on Ubuntu (If anybody has managed this I would love to know how !)
Install GIMP 2.8 on Ubuntu 12.04
Since the latest version of GIMP has not been included in the main 12.04 repositories because it was not ready at release time you have to use a PPA at current.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gimp
TIP: Go to the “Windows” menu and select ‘Single-Window Mode’ to use Gimp in one window (see screenshot).
Intel Ultrabook tweaks on Ubuntu 12.04
After upgrading my Toshiba Z830 Ultrabook to 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) I noticed that the ability to control the screen back-light was not working using the Toshiba Fn F6/F7 keys.
Thanks to http://www.linlap.com/wiki/acer+aspire+s3 the solution was found quite quickly.
sudo vim /etc/default/grub
This will open the grub configuration file. (Grub is the initial boot selection software)
To be able to dim the screen brightness, You’ve got to modify the line:
Accessing Samsung Galaxy Nexus as USB Media Device Ubuntu 12.04
To use a Samsung Galaxy Nexus as a media device (MTP) there is a utility called gMTP.
sudo apt-get install gmtp mtpfs mtp-tools
NOTE: Unfortunately there is a bug in the 64-bit version at the moment (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mtpfs/+bug/936165) – which means it’s not all that useful to me at the moment.
Disable the Guest account from Ubuntu Login Screen
Having a guest account might be useful on a home computer, but it’s generally not what I want enabled on a notebook.
To disable the default Guest account you need to edit lightdm.conf and add a line (allow-guest=false).
sudo vim /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
[SeatDefaults]
greeter-session=unity-greeter
user-session=ubuntu
allow-guest=false
Tested in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin & Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot
Ideal OS for EEE PC - REVISITED
As a follow-up on a very old post I thought it’s worth providing an update. Despite it’s age (& only costing $350 at the time) my little Asus EEE PC 900 it is still a useful device. It has turned out as one of the better IT investments in my lifetime. However it’s not (and was never) the fastest kid on the block and recent OS upgrades have become increasingly resource hungry.

