Most Awesome CMS, ever!

Well, I’ve been testing CMS systems for quite some time.  While most of them are very nice, some powerful, some simple to setup, none are easy to use by an “end user”.  At least, that’s what I thought until I tried gp|Easy.

Ubuntu 10.04 + AVCHD + FFmpeg: Converting .MTS files to MP3

Well, it’s been awhile since I posted last. Been a little busy.

Where I work, we have to convert a lot of audio/video to another format for transcription purposes. Mplayer and ffmpeg have been lifesavers for me. However, getting setup to convert the newer .MTS (AVCHD) files that the latest videocams use was a little tedious as Google searches often yielded a lot of results that were not quite the solution I needed for Ubuntu 10.04. I realize this is a moving target for each release of Ubuntu, but hopefully this will help Ubuntu users (NOTE: this is more helpful for me as I will forget how to do this in 2 weeks). Here goes nothing!

OK, ready? Get a cup of coffee as this is going to take awhile…

The Pesky HP “Only One Copy?” Mystery Solved!

Here is one that took a bit o’ detective work to solve.  A client of mine was lamenting how they couldn’t print multiple copies to their HP4200 printers, unless the document was longer than one page.  If the document was one page, you could set the number of copies to one bazillion and it would still only print one copy.

A Google search turned up a boatload of hits, but no fix.  The solutions ranged from unchecking/checking “collate”, disabling “mopier/job storage” options, etc., etc.  Tried them all to no avail.

But then the answer came down from high, so I’ll spare you the boring details of how I arrived at the solution.  Actually it was part luck, and part deductive reasoning (well, OK, mostly luck).  The answer simply boiled down to the Print Processor setting.

Automount SMB Share on OpenSUSE: How I got SqueezeCenter to read from a SMB share

Here are the steps:

Automagic Bridged Networking Under *Ubuntu (and maybe Debian?)

I use Virtualbox for all of my virtual machining needs.  For some of my guest vms I like to use “host” networking, meaning that essentially the vm will share the hosts network adapter using a bridge and a TAP interface on the host computer to perform its virtual networking magic.  However, it can be a little more tricky to setup than using Virtualbox’s other type of networking, NAT.

However, with two packages “bridge-utils” and “uml-utilities” the chore of setting up a bridge interface on Ubuntu (and maybe even Debian) is almost pain free.

Ubuntu and mount.cifs

Using SMB/CIFS under Nautilus was too slow. For Windows shares that I use regularly I figured it would be faster and easier to have the share mounted permanently as part of the file system. This also has the benefit of all Linux programs being able to access the files, not just Gnome based apps. Here is how I mounted a R/W Windows share under Linux.

Removing a Virtual Machine from VirtualBox

Below are the steps to remove a virtual machine from the command line:

1. Remove the disk from the VM:
   VBoxManage modifyvm xfce-test -hda none
2. Unregister the VM:
   VBoxManage unregistervm xfce-test
3. Unregister the disk (vdi):
   VBoxManage unregisterimage disk /path/to/vdi

Adding a VirtualBox Guest via the Command Line

Needs work…

Installing pfSense on the alix2c1

So, what is pfSense, and more importantly what the heck is an alix2c1? pfSense is a complete purpose-built firewall software that can be installed on a PC, as well as embedded platforms such as PC Engines ALIX boards. The focus of this recipe is to build an embedded firewall appliance. Why would I do this when a cheap firewall can be purchased off of the shelf? Simple, the cheaper firewalls don’t come with very many features (VPN built in, RRD network graphs, 3rd LAN port for “orange” DMZ setups, etc.). To get these features in a commercial firewall appliance means spending in the neighborhood of $300 as well as being locked into a certain vendor for VPN, etc. Making my own costs about $150 and give me a lot of flexibility.

So, this is a story of how I spent the past two nights sitting cross-legged on the floor with a laptop connected to a tiny motherboard that would become a firewall/router.

Joining Ubuntu SAMBA to MS Active Directory

Well, every time I install SAMBA I go through fits trying to remember how to link it up with Windows AD. Well, now that I’ve got this handy blog I am going to record it once and for all. I take no credit for any of the steps below. They are all taken from various sources I found on the ‘net. YMMV…