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Mounting a SMB filesystem in Xubuntu

sirnet — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 20:11:44 +0000

Fellow users of Xubuntu may have noticed that the file manager doesn’t support viewing samba shares in the same way that Ubuntu’s file manager does. This functionality used to exist, however they changed the filemanager used around 8.10. In order to view samba shares, you must therefore mount them on your system.

Mounting Samba Shares

1. Create a folder to mount your Samba share

sudo mkdir /media/music
sudo runs the command as root, mkdir tells the system to make a directory and the rest is the path you specify, I usually mount things in the /media/ directory but you can just as easily mount them in your /home/username directory.

2. Editing the fstab so it loads on boot

This file contains information on your disk partitions and you shouldn’t change anything that already exists!
sudo nano /etc/fstab
In the fstab file you will need to enter a line similar to the following:
\\SAMBASERVER\ShareName /media/music smbfs user=username,passwd=password 0 0
The left part indicates the server the share is hosted on, followed by where it should be mounted to in your file system, you then need to tell it that it’s a samba filesystem. If you have a username or password to view the share, enter it – if not use the line below. One word of warning – usernames and passwords stored in the file are in cleartext, it’s highly advisable that on your samba server you create a new user with limited privellages to restrict access.
\\SAMBASERVER\ShareName /media/muisic smbfs 0 0
save the file.

3. Run the mount command

sudo mount /media/music
this will lookup what should be mounted in the fstab file, it should then allow you to view the contents of the folder in /media/music in the Xubuntu filesystem as if it were on your local machine.

4. It didn’t work! (wrong mount type, bad option, bad superblock on…)

this means you need to run the additional command:
sudo apt-get install smbfs
This will install the samba filesystem package on your system, simply re-run the mount command when you’ve got this package and all should work!

Tagged: network shares, Samba, smb, smbfs, xubuntu

7z (7zip) errors with unsupported method message

sirnet — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:10:45 +0000

When trying to extract a .rar file with 7zip I encountered an error about an unsupported method. The directory contents of the file were listed, however it wouldn’t extract the files. After alittle reserach I discovered you required the following apparently unreleated plugin: p7zip-rar

sudo apt-get install p7z-rar

after installation, re-run your 7zip command and it will work fine

7z x filename.rar

Tagged: 7 zip, 7z, 7zip, error message, Linux, rar

Linux: list all sub files and folders

sirnet — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:09:49 +0000

On occasion, it’s necissary for me to generate a list of all of the files and folders inside my current working directory. I can use the ls command to view all the files in the current folder, but it’s too cumbersome to navigate to each folder and use the command again and again to generate a complete list. The command ls -R adds the recursive operator, so all files, and all sub files and folders are searched, giving you a compelete picture of your folders entire contents.

Recusive list (list files and folders from every sub directory)
ls -R

Recursive list with results going to a text file
ls -R > results.txt

Tagged: cli, command line, Linux, list all files

Xubuntu Android Development Environment in Eclipse

sirnet — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 20:30:47 +0000

I’m going to be working on developing Android and iPhone applications in the future at work, so I decided it’d be a good time to start working on a development environment.

1. Setting up JDK

I firstly downloaded the JDK from the sun website ([update] http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk6-jsp-136632.html), extracted and installed it. I also setup the Xubuntu restricted extras which contains Java. It was a straight install with no problems.

2. Installing Eclipse

Eclipse was originally installed from the Sun developer network – now owned by Oracle – but this did not work with the android ADK. When you try to install the ADK it crashes with an error towards the end of the install. Run the following from the command in order to setup the “PDE” version of Eclipse:

sudo apt-get install eclipse-pde
3. Setup the Android SDK

Download the android SDK from: http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

extract it into to you home folder somewhere

3. Install the android development environment (ADK)

open Eclipse and select “help” then “install new software”

Click “Add”

Enter the following URL:

https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/

if that doesn’t work, change the HTTPS to HTTP. be sure to accept the lisence agreement.

once done, a menu should be available in “Window” called “Android SDK and AVD manager” click it

Enter the path to the SDK

Download components through the manager as appropriate

That should be it, you can create AVDs through the menu. To create a new android project, click “File”, “new”, “project” followed by “android”.

Tagged: ADK, Android, development

Extracting a tar.gz file at command line

sirnet — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:50:33 +0000

using a terminal or at command line, navigate to the directory in which the file.tar.gz is located. Once found, you need to run the following commands:

gzip -d file.tar.gz

this decompresses the file, leaving you with file.tar

tar -xvf file.tar

this extracts the file(s) to the current directory in verbose mode. you should then be able to access it.

Tagged: decompress file, tar.gz, ubuntu file compression

BBC Radio using Windows Media Player (WMP)

sirnet — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:10:28 +0000

BBC Radio WMA Streams for Windows Media Player

So you want to access the BBC Radio streams as you did in the good old days before the iplayer? Well i’ve found the links hidden away on the BBC’s website. Many a day have i been swearing that I can’t stream programmes such as click, and radio stations to my media player. I just hate the need for flash, a security hole in any system. I hate the need to have a web browser open. I hate the media interface that doesn’t work with my laptops hot-keys! For all those with similar complaints over the iPlayer go to:

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/streaming_programmes/real_wma_streams

Tagged: BBC, bbc radio streams, internet radio, iPlayer, WMA

Making Windows Meida Player 12 More Friendly

sirnet — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:33:33 +0000

Windows media player 12 comes with Windows 7, and in my opinion it leaves alot to be desired. Not only do you lose the well integrated player layout that we’ve had since windows media player 10, but the task bar media player option has been removed. It’s left me utterly frustrated. One thing that’s missing is the now playing list in the visulisation view… And this is one thing that can be corrected. There is an option to enable it – hidden in the right click menu. Simply right click in the player instance and select “show list”. Unfortunatly it is no where near as dynamic as MP 11′s now playing screen, but it is something! Until hacks are available for my 64 bit windows 7 install, I guess I’ll have to make do.

Tagged: windows media player 12

7zip maximum compression on command line

sirnet — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:49:41 +0000

in order to run 7zip on the command line with maximum compression use the following command:

7z a -t7z -mx9 (ARCHIVE NAME) (FILE/FOLDER TO COMPRESS)

Tagged: 7zip

Using Virtual Box for CMS reviews

sirnet — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:08:49 +0000

Virtualisation has become a keyword in IT in recent years. There are several large organisations pushing their own version of virtualisation technology to consumers. Microsoft and VMWare are big players in this market and have countless offerings of their own technology, but I’m not here to review them. Instead I thought it would be a good idea to tell you how I use Virtualisation, the benefits of it and how you can use it to make life easier!
This first article is based on finding an appropriate CMS system for various goals. The beauty of virtual box is the ability to snapshot the current setup of the machine. This means that if you install a base operating system you can take an image of it, allowing you to roll back after you’ve tested the CMS of your choice. It really is a great feature!
Most open source CMS are based around PHP and mySQL. This is great, if you run linux and a pain if you run windows. Virtual Box to the rescue! Install the Linux distribution of your choice, ubuntu is probably the best supported, although there are many others. Your CMS may even recommend a specific distribution. For demo purposes, most people choose the Desktop variant of an OS, this is because it’s more user friendly. Command line server editions are usually quite scary for beginners and do take a bit of getting used to! Below are the steps i recommend for setting up a CMS in Vbox ubuntu:

Install your OS (do not select to install LAMPP if given the option!)
Use the console to (sudo apt-get install) your webserver, php and mySQL
Snapshot the machine
Install your CMS using the instructions provided

With your OS and CMS installed you can do all the testing that you need to in a safe environment. The hassle of hacking things should the installation go wrong is somewhat removed by our snapshotting, go back to an old image and install it again. The big advantage comes from removal. People who’ve used some of the more advanced CMS’s will know how difficult they can be to remove, particularly if you don’t know much about the technology. If you took the snapshot of your base OS you can simply revert to it, and all of the CMS will be removed. That means no stray entries in your Apache htaccess file, no stray databases in MYSQL. Put simply it’s a blessing for all those who want a quick reversion to test a new product.

Windows

If you want to run Microsoft Windows in Virtual box, once again you can. It keeps everything separated from your host OS, so when you’ve finished with the CMS you can revert and try the new one. This has all the advantages you’ve been told about with Linux virtual machines. One thing to remember is Windows comes with system restore which might make things even easier for you. I’d still recommend snapshots though. Remember that most things you install will leave junk behind on your system somewhere so Windows in a Virtual box does provide you with the security of knowing that your host machine isn’t getting clogged up!

Alternatives to Virtualisation

For some of you, virtualisation may seem like it’s overkill. You’re probably right. Some systems really do just need to be demoed to make sure they’re fit for purpose without needing to change any of the back end like you can when you download them and install them on your own PC. An excellent resource for this can be found at opensourcecms.com. This website allows you to review demos of the various open source CMS’s. They provide a timed session where you used a username and password to access the CMS of your choice. There is no registration required so it makes this site fantastic to quickly and easily try out your latest brainwave without the effort of setting up a test environment yourself.

Resources

http://www.virtualbox.org/ Virtual Box download.

http://www.ubuntu.com/ Download the latest version of ubuntu for your Virtual Box

http://spyrestudios.com/free-content-management-systems/ some ideas on CMS’s available to you!

Tagged: CMS, open source, open source CMS, virtual box, virtulistion

Disk usage in Linux cli (terminal)

sirnet — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:44:02 +0000

If you need to find your disk usage on linux, for example ubuntu server edition, there are several quick and easy commands that should help:

df -h
This command shows the free disk space of all mounted drives.

du
This shows the disk usage of a folder. there are plenty of options to add to the end of the command so try using –help or man du in order to get more information on how to use it!

Tagged: disk space, Linux, ubuntu