Category Archives: Software

Multimedia on Linux

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Multimedia content is quite well supported in Linux, contrary to popular perception. Though it requires more customisation, and everything doesnt work out of the box, everything works perfectly when configured. This fact was made clear, by a number of demonstrations of multimedia softwares in Linux, during the Linux InstallFest

Softwares Demonstrated:

1.) Rhythmbox:
The default music player in most GNOME distributions. It supports most music formats, and brings in features such as Podcast support, iPod support, and syncing with Online Radio Stations

2.) Amarok:
The de facto player in KDE based distributions, it is a hot favorite with many people, owing to its large support base, excellent features such as Scripting, Online Music Store support, and support for a large number of audio devices.

3.) Banshee:
It is another GNOME player, developed by Novell. Its interface is quite similar to Rhythmbox. It supports both audio and video formats, and has a large plugin base. Some notable plugins are Youtube videos, Multimedia Key Support among others.

4.) VLC:
VideoLAN Client or VLC has been a popular player due to the fact that it plays almost all known formats, with its large codec set. It is also known for its stream content playback, which was its original purpose. It is by far the preferred player by many for video playback.

5.) Brasero:
The default CD/DVD burning application in most GNOME based distributions. It has a minimalist approach, so users of Nero and other softwares will feel completely at home.

Mounting a Drive On Linux System

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This post is meant to be a simple walk-through on how to mount a new drive on your Linux System.

Here we will take a scenario of mounting a new drive ?backup to store backup of your system..

***WARNING*** ***WARNING*** ***WARNING***

” What ever you do make sure to NOT use the command “fdisk /dev/sda” or “fdisk /dev/hda” as that means you are editing your main and boot partition ”

So let us begin..

Quote:

First run fdisk to look at your available disks.

# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 14 268 2048287+ 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda3 269 9726 75971385 83 Linux

Disk /dev/hdc: 80.0 GB, 80000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9726 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

What we see above is two separate disks, one being hda and the other is hdc. The hda is the main boot drive which should not be played with !

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The second step is to format the drive. ( If the drive is hdb, hdd, sdb, sdc, sdd simply replace it with “hdc” )

#fdisk /dev/hdc

-press “n” for new partion
-press “p” for primary partition
-press “1″ for the first partition
-press enter for the first AND last cylinders. This will make it automatically use the entire disk
-press “w” for write out to save what you have done

The next step is to make the file-system readable by Linux. You need to format it using ext3 which is widely used file-system .

#mkfs.ext3 /dev/hdc1

Note that I have used “hdc1″ because it is the first partition. Now we are going to set the disk to automatically be mounted on boot as /backup.

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#mkdir /backup

#vi /etc/fstab

Add the following line:
/dev/hdc1 /backup ext3 defaults 1 1

Verify if this new drive is mounted.

#mount /backup

Howto install PlayOnLinux in Karmic-Jaunty-Intrepid-Hardy

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What are PlayOnLinux’s features?

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the interesting points to know:

* You don’t have to own a Windows® license to use PlayOnLinux.
* PlayOnLinux is based on Wine, and so profits from all its possibilities yet it keeps the user away from its complexity while exploiting some of its advanced functions.
* PlayOnLinux is a free software.
* PlayOnLinux uses Bash and Python

Nevertheless, PlayOnLinux has some defects, as every piece of software:

* Occasional performances decrease (image may be less fluid and graphics less detailed).
* Not all games are supported. Nevertheless, you can use our manual installation module.

Install PlayOnLinux in Jaunty/Intrepid/Hardy

Method 1 (Using repository)

For Karmic Users

First you need to add the PlayOnLinux repository using the following command

sudo wget http://deb.playonlinux.com/playonlinux_karmic.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list

Update source list

sudo apt-get update

Install PlayOnLinux using the following command

sudo apt-get install playonlinux

For Jaunty Users

First you need to add the PlayOnLinux repository using the following command

sudo wget http://deb.playonlinux.com/playonlinux_jaunty.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list

Update source list

sudo apt-get update

Install PlayOnLinux using the following command

sudo apt-get install playonlinux

For Intrepid Users

First you need to add the PlayOnLinux repository using the following command

sudo wget http://deb.playonlinux.com/playonlinux_intrepid.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list

Update source list

sudo apt-get update

Install PlayOnLinux using the following command

sudo apt-get install playonlinux

For Hardy Users

First you need to add the PlayOnLinux repository using the following command

sudo wget http://deb.playonlinux.com/playonlinux_hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/playonlinux.list

Update source list

sudo apt-get update

Install PlayOnLinux using the following command

sudo apt-get install playonlinux

Method 2 (Using .deb File)

Download .deb file from here

Install .deb package using the following command

sudo dpkg -i PlayOnLinux_3.7.deb

If you want to know more about how to use check the official documentation