Tag: linux

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How to upgrade to Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 LTS without Internet Connection

ubuntu hardy logo

Previously I’ve published how to upgrade Ubuntu Linux operating system to the latest release using “upgdate-manager” tool. But what if the computer you are upgrading does not have internet connection ?

Upgrading to Hardy Heron without Internet Connection

  1. Download and burn the alternate installation CDROM
  2. Put it in your CDROM Drive and follow the instruction
  3. If nothing happened, you can launch upgrade manager by typing :

    gksu “sh /cdrom/cdromupgrade”

That’s all hope you can enjoy the latest Ubuntu 8.04 LTS release !

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Linux: How to get Harddisk UUID number

Modern Linux system uses UUID instead of traditional block name (/dev/hda1, /dev/hda5, /dev/sdb) to uniquely identify harddisk or other storage medium. This is because UUID is unique and never changes even if you switch the harddisk ordering.

So by mounting or refering your hard disk by its UUID, you are guaranteed to mount the correct storage medium no matter where its connected on your system.

Here’s how to get your harddisk UUID number

Method 1: Ubuntu and Debian Way

sudo vol_id /dev/hda1

This command display harddisk extra information including its filesystem and uuid number.

Method 2: using /dev/disk/by-uuid/

Another method which works universally on modern GNU Linux operating system is :

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid

which will uuid of connected storage medium to your computer.

That’s all, now you can easily identify your storage disk UUID number without much problem anymore.

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FLV2MPEG4 : Convert FLV to MPEG4

Here is an easy way to convert Adobe Flash Video files (FLV) to MPEG-4 using a tool called flv2mpeg4.

  1. First you need to download flv2mpeg4 using svn from its project websites

    svn co https://vixynet.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/vixynet/trunk vixynet

    .

  2. Install ffmpeg, libavcodec-dev, libavformat-dev and libavutil-dev package
  3. read the docs and compile flv2mpeg4

You can convert flash video file to mpeg4 by executing :
flv2mpeg4 youtube.flv youtube.mpeg4

Alternatively you can install flv2mpeg4 from GetDeb.net website.

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AVTech CCTV DVR Motion Detector Settings

Couple of days ago I was given a task to configure CCTV DVR device (AVTech 4 Channel MPEG 4 recorder). I prefer the embedded device approach as opposed to the cheap PC CCTV cards as the latter requires a full blown PC and it depends on Windows operating system (which naturally incur additional costs).

AVTEch CCTV Security DVR

The AVTech CCTV DVR is priced slightly higher, but you get the perks of having a dedicated and compact device for your CCTV solution. It has a network interface which lets you configure and view your CCTV security camera over the internet.

Motion Detector Settings
Generally I’ve no trouble at all in using AVTech, the only thing that I’ve hard time figuring is the motion detector settings, which allows the camera to record the video only if it detects movement on one of its cameras.

Fortunally I found a source which reveals the meaning of each configurable settings on the AVtech CCTV device :

Continue reading “AVTech CCTV DVR Motion Detector Settings”

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Wubi – Easiest way to install Ubuntu in Windows partition

Wubi is an application which simplifies Ubuntu Linux installation on Windows partition. To Windows users, Wubi eliminates the hassle of having to repartition hard disk which carry the risk of loosing precious data.

Wubi does this by using a loopback device, creating a large file on a Windows partition and installing Ubuntu inside it. The best thing about Wubi is, it does not use virtual machine or any type of emulation. Thanks to Wubi, Ubuntu can be booted natively using Microsoft Windows boot loader.

When you are done experimenting with Ubuntu (who does?), or need to reclaim the hard disk space back, you can choose the uninstall button from the Windows Start Menu and everything will be removed, just as simple as that.

Wubi is one of the few application that made me wish that I have a Windows machine because I’m dying to try it out!

Wubi will be included with the upcoming Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) release, due in late April 2008.

Credits to fenris the 1337 pencacai for his original research on Wubi.

Visit Wubi official website here : http://wubi-installer.org/

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Upcoming OpenOffice.org 3.0 supports Microsoft OpenXML (docx) out of the box

The popular Free and Open Source Office application, OpenOffice.org is going to have OpenXML (*.docx, *.xlsx, *.pptx) support by default. Scheduled to be release on September 2008, OpenOffice.org 3.0 packs a lot of features you might find interesting :

openoffice 3.0 development release
  • Import PDF files support. PDF documents can be edited in Writer
  • Official Mac OS support, now includes native “Aqua” interface
  • Multiple page view in Writer
  • Error bars in OpenOffice.org charts
  • Supports OpenDocument 1.2 specification

The BETA is scheduled to be released on April 30th, 2008. For the time being, OpenOffice.org 2.x users can open Microsoft OpenXML files (*.docx, *.xlsx) using odf import filters

Thanks to Andrew Ziem for the original article, OpenOffice.org 3.0 new features, an early look