It’s much much easier then I thought!

You need to use dosfsck!

1. If not already installed, install dosfsck: (it’s in sbin)


sudo apt-get install dosfsck


2. Find your device name.


sudo blkid


You will get output that looks like:

/dev/sdf1: LABEL=”CANON_DC” UUID=”713B-5AE2″ TYPE=”vfat”

Your device name will PROBABLY be different.

3. Check the usb drive or sd card:

Remember that the device should NOT be mounted, and that it needs to run as root (sudo or su -)


sudo dosfsck -av /dev/sdf1


-a says to automatically repair.

-v says to use verbose output.

You will get output that looks like:

dosfsck 3.0.9 (31 Jan 2010)
dosfsck 3.0.9, 31 Jan 2010, FAT32, LFN
Checking we can access the last sector of the filesystem
Boot sector contents:
System ID “PwrShot ”
Media byte 0xf8 (hard disk)
512 bytes per logical sector
32768 bytes per cluster
6304 reserved sectors
First FAT starts at byte 3227648 (sector 6304)
2 FATs, 32 bit entries
483328 bytes per FAT (= 944 sectors)
Root directory start at cluster 2 (arbitrary size)
Data area starts at byte 4194304 (sector 8192)
120752 data clusters (3956801536 bytes)
63 sectors/track, 128 heads
8192 hidden sectors
7736320 sectors total
Reclaiming unconnected clusters.
Checking free cluster summary.
/dev/sdf1: 693 files, 29358/120752 clusters

No errors. Good to go. Look Ma! No Windows!

Wayno

Video Chat Cameras are nice. But they don’t always play nicely with the Linux version of Skype.

1. Here’s the camera I have: (here’s now to find out what you have.)


lsusb


and the output will look like:

Bus 005 Device 004: ID 046d:092e Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Chat

2. First step first. Let’s see if the camera works with Linux Cheese.

If not already installed, install cheese:


sudo apt-get install cheese


Cheese is a local loopback programme. It takes the output from the camera (/dev/video0) and loops it right back for you to view.

If successful, this will tell us, that Linux recognizes the camera, and that it works. The light may/may NOT be on.

3. Let’s try the next step: Installing Skype.

Lets get the latest version of Skype from the website.

The latest Linux version (as of this writing) is: 2.2.0.35. (YES, that is far far behind the Windows Version) — Since Microsoft owns Skype, the future of the Linux version is an unknown at this point.

4. Once the download is finished, install Skype:


sudo dpkg -i skype-ubuntu_2.2.0.35-1_i386.deb


They have a version for Debian, and 32 and 64 bits. The example shown above is for the 32 bit Ubuntu version. So make sure you get the right version, and make sure you get the right architecture: 32 or 64 bit.

NOTE: IF YOU ARE ON A 64 BIT DEBIAN SYSTEM, AND PLAN ON USING THE 64 BIT SKYPE, YOU MUST INSTALL THE 32 BIT LIBRARY:

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

TO GET SKYPE TO WORK ON A 64 BIT DEBIAN SYSTEM. Yeah makes no sense, but you need this if you are running 64 bit DEBIAN Skype.

5. If you do not already have a Skype account, sign up for one. Just follow the prompts. Test the audio by using the Skype Test Call.

6. Let’s try the video. RIGHT click on the green skype logo in your task bar, then LEFT click on Options/Video Devices.

Now hit the test button. You should hopefully see an image. If you do not, don’t panic!

This article gave me the information I needed to get it working. But of course, I found a much simpler method then what was given.

7. If you have no video, and this was especially true with the some of the Web Chat Cameras, all you may need to do is to pre-load the needed libraries.

Using your favourite editor (I’ll use nano in this case) create a file called skype.sh in your home directory (cd ~ )


nano skype.sh


enter the following in the file:


#!/bin/bash
#
# script preloads the video for linux (v4l) libs needed by skype
#
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype


control-o (control plus the “oh” key) to save, and control-x (control plus the “x” key to exit)

note that the library path name /usr/lib/libv4l/ may be different on your machine. This happens the be the correct path for 32 bit Ubuntu 10.04. The LD_Preload loads the Video for Linux Libraries, which Skype needs, but doesn’t get.

Now change the icon executable location to the script we just created:

Repeat step 6, and the video should now work!

Wayno

The information on how to label an ms-dos formatted drive seems scattered across the internet, and might seem overwhelming at first. But it’s not too hard. Here’s my recipe!

1. If not already installed, install the mtools package. This is an open source package for manipulating ms-dos file systems, under Linux.

to do that simply install the package:


sudo apt-get install mtools


We’re half way there!

2. Let’s insert that flash drive, thumb drive, micro sd card or whatever it’s called.

3. Most systems should auto-mount the drive. If not, view this article, on how to mount a usb or micro-sd card.

4. We’ll use


sudo blkid


to get the device id!

$ sudo blkid
[sudo] password for :

/dev/sde1: LABEL=”" UUID=”1B44-206B” TYPE=”vfat”

That’s the guy I want! sde1! Your device WILL probably have a different device name.

5. Let’s fix /etc/mtools.conf first.

using your favourite editor (nano in my case) let’s change mtools.

as always the # (octothorpe) is a comment and need NOT be coded.


cd /etc # change to the /etc directory
sudo cp mtools.conf mtools.conf.org # make a backup of the current file
sudo nano mtools.conf # edit the mtools.conf file


add a line at the bottom which reads:


drive p: file="/dev/sde1"


control+O (OH) to write, and then control x to exit. Again, your device name, might be different.

do a

cd ~ # change back to my home directory


to get back to your home directory, after editing /etc/mtools.conf.

6. So now I try to label the drive, p: but I get:

nwayno@Homer:~$ sudo mlabel p:WAYNOFLSH
Total number of sectors (1957888) not a multiple of sectors per track (62)!
Add mtools_skip_check=1 to your .mtoolsrc file to skip this test

Oh-oh! It turns out the it tells you how to fix the problem right there, but it may not be obvious. (All this to label an ms-dos drive under Linux? YES, unfortunately!)

Using your favourite editor, create .mtoolsrc (yes the period at the beginning is important!)
and add the line:

mtools_skip_check=1

to the file. Save and exit. Again, all this is not hard, it’s just a pain.

7. Let’s try again!

$ sudo mlabel p:WAYNOBKFLSH
$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on

/dev/sde1 955M 203M 752M 22% /media/WAYNOBKFLSH

8. Flush the buffers with sync


sync


Mission accomplished!

Look Ma, I didn’t have to use Windows, after all!

Wayno

Well some calamities, Jane. Our old webhoster went down, and I needed to re-locate. So….I am back….almost.

Some of the pictures are missing, and wordpress needs some tweaking, but I alone survived to tell the tale.

If you were a subscriber, you will need to re-subscribe. Apologies, but I have no access to any of the old data. Fortunately, my wordpress backup was only a few days old. Didn’t lose any articles, just pictures, which can be re-added.

So I ask for your patience while I recover.

Your patience WILL be rewarded!

Wayno

This is the first Android based phone I had ever used. I am hoping that the rest of the products on the market, are NOT like the LG Optimus V.

The Good

The Wi-fi worked fairly well for me, and I was able to complete calls using Skype.

The Bad

Two issues for me.

1. The keyboard is absolutely impossible to use. I spent 45 minutes just trying to enter my gmail userid and password. It requires too much tactile precision to be of any practical use. When I finally got beyond getting the gmail setup (required if you want to download anything for the market place) — I downloaded Thick Buttons app. It helped, but only marginally. Swype. Okay if they have to put this on a phone, it is too difficult to use, m’kay?

2. The second issues was the speaker phone. Admittedly I am deaf and wear hearing aids. But I need to hear the phone without the hearing aids. Even standing just 2 feet away, I could barely hear it ringing. Yes volume to the max physically, and within the phone settings. My Samsung Restore (which is what I went back to) has plenty of speaker power, and I am able to hear that without issue.

The Ugly:

There is no way to adjust font size in the browser. You are stuck with it, like it or not. Even installing Handcent did NOT help. (Useless application)

When I tried to check my usage using this phone, all I got was a generic https error message. Oh yeah, that tells me a lot! NOT!

Best Buy was selling these phones for $150, so I went to Target to get one for $130 instead. Target has a 90 day return policy. I returned the phone to Target, less then 24 hours after purchase, with my receipt.

45 minutes later, and 3 trips between Customer Service and Electronics, they FINALLY took the phone back.

I like the Android interface, but I would be reluctant to try the next Android phone up from this, since it is about $300. I am happy with my Samsung Restore, and that’s where I will stay.

This is something I am asked by n00bs a lot. My Linux system doesn’t automount my USB or micro sd card / camera card, what do I do now?

(NOTE: You can usually tell an automounted device because it will have a mount point of

/media/volumelabel

First of all, like Douglas Adams said: Don’t panic!

The first thing you want to do, is to find out if Linux can first see the device? How? Easy.

1. The first thing we want to do, is see if Linux see’s the device? How? Easy! lsusb


lsusb


Sample lsusb output

nwayno@Homer:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 03f0:4211 Hewlett-Packard OfficeJet 7300 series
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 051d:0002 American Power Conversion Uninterruptible Power Supply
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 010: ID 0951:1603 Kingston Technology DataTraveler 1GB/2GB Pen Drive
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0488:0022 Cirque Corp.
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bc2:3000 Seagate RSS LLC
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0409:005a NEC Corp. HighSpeed Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

and sure enough the device I am looking for is present:

Bus 001 Device 010: ID 0951:1603 Kingston Technology DataTraveler 1GB/2GB Pen Drive

It is NOT mounted, but I know that Linux can see it.

2. The second step is to determine what the device is called. How do you do that? blkid. blkid will list all the block devices attached to a system. NOT necessarily mounted. We want ALL devices, so we do that as root. Be patient! This can take a couple of minutes (Your patience will be rewarded.)


sudo blkid


Sample blkid output

nwayno@Homer:~$ sudo blkid
[sudo] password for nwayno:
/dev/sda1: LABEL=”Homer699″ UUID=”12345AB567″ TYPE=”ntfs”
/dev/sda2: UUID=”4dac-408816aecd1e” TYPE=”swap”
/dev/sda3: LABEL=”homer” UUID=”4e75-985fd59115e4″ TYPE=”ext4″
/dev/sda4: LABEL=”waynohome” UUID=”bc4-4c34-9d7d-3f5a56d13″ TYPE=”ext4″
/dev/sdb1: LABEL=”BFDNTFS” UUID=”FC1687414″ TYPE=”ntfs”
/dev/sdb2: LABEL=”bfdlinux” UUID=”143-4c0-4db-a392-55fb94a0f” TYPE=”ext4″
/dev/sdd1: UUID=”7E-4CEC” TYPE=”vfat”
/dev/sdd2: UUID=”42062a-9f99-a4ec71894″ TYPE=”ext4″
nwayno@Homer:~$

Notice that all the devices on my system were listed. Both mounted and umounted.

So the guy I am looking for is /dev/sdd1

YOUR DEVICE MAY BE A DIFFERENT NAME.. Remember the device is STILL not mounted at this point.

We know that /dev/sdd1 is vfat which is pretty typical of micro-sd cards. They are almost always vftat.

3. We have a couple of choices on mounting the device. We can use the a system mount point /mnt or create one with mkdir. I’ll only show the mount with the system mount point, but it could easily be anything that you create. Remember that to Linux, a device is just a mount point.

4. So become root, and mount the device:


sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdd1 /mnt


YOUR DEVICE MAY BE A DIFFERENT NAME.

Remember, only root can mount/unmount (umount) devices.

The -t tells us that the device is vfat (windows). We got that from the blkid command. If it’s not vfat, the output of blkid well tell us what the file structure is. Use man mount for more information.

/dev/sdd1 was also obtained from the blkid information, tells us to associate this device with the mount point that follows: /mnt.

5. To access you files, launch your file browser (I use nautilus and just navigate (Filesystem/mnt directory) or just do a a cd to the /mnt directory:

And the contents of /mnt are:


cd /mnt


6. List the files:


ls


and you should get some output:

A6VWN4.pdf
aztcs.htm
budgeting
discovery
FNPACK
ubuntu_11.04.png
ubuntu_11.04_unity.png
unity_11_04.png
vsftpd.conf_25K

7. And how much space do you have left on that device?


df -h


the df command displays used and free space on the device:

Sample df -h output

nwayno@Homer:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 50G 23G 25G 48% /
none 934M 268K 933M 1% /dev
none 940M 1.5M 939M 1% /dev/shm
none 940M 344K 940M 1% /var/run
none 940M 4.0K 940M 1% /var/lock
/dev/sda4 834G 306G 486G 39% /home
/dev/sdb2 773G 397G 337G 55% /media/bfdlinux
/dev/sdb1 147G 90G 58G 61% /media/BFDNTFS
/dev/sdd1 975M 847M 128M 87% /mnt
nwayno@Homer:~$

YOUR DEVICE MAY BE A DIFFERENT NAME.

In my case I have used 847M, and have 128M free on a 975M device (/dev/sdd1 above or /mnt)

8. All done? Umount the device, and sync the output.


umount /dev/sdd1


YOUR DEVICE MAY BE A DIFFERENT NAME.


sync


sync flushes the buffers, writes any pending data to the drive, and avoids data loss!

Easy! Painless!

Wayno

No place on the internet, have I found the location to add your own music, to a Samsung Restore Cell Phone. Till now. While this is Linux oriented, the same location would be used in Windows.

It goes into the Downloads folder. (Yes. Spelled “Downloads” with a capital D!)

1. Copy your music from your source, to this folder. Yes you can have embedded folders. Mine is called: “The Moody Blues”

You can use nautilus to create the folder, or mkdir from the command line. In Windows, you would use the File Manager.

You will notice that my microsd is labelled WAYNOSVMFON. You can do this with gparted. Note that the microsd is formatted as vfat. Debian has some issues auto-mounting vfat partitions, so you may need to manually mount it.


sudo mount /dev/sdxx /mnt


where xx is the device name (hint: use sudo blkid to get that)

You will notice that when you use the media player, that a file in (yup, remember this is windows) is created called:

SamsungMusic_key.txt

The file seems to contain some random 4 digit number.

You may also notice a folder called “music” That’s NOT where you put the music. BUT, you will find the file: playlist.mdb Yup, that’s a Microsoft Database file.

Oops! Added an SONG you no longer want? Want to make it disappear? Sort of easy. This is how you do it from the phone itself.

1. Select the LEFT Menu button.

2. Go to Tools and Settings.

3. Select Tools.

4. Mass Storage.

5. File Manager.

6. Memory Card

7. Downloads folder.

8. Open the Folder that your music is in, then the sub-folder within that contains the song you to delete, and finally the song. Nope it will NOT let you just delete the folder, if it contains files. You must delete the contents of the folder, one at a time.

9. Options Button (right button)

10. Delete

Enjoy your music!

Wayno

Let’s face it. Debian != Ubuntu. It can be difficult to configure. But this DVD may help!

BOTH 32 and 64 BIT SYSTEMS on the DVD (under $5)

The main advantages to this DVD over this free ones you can at the Debian Site are:

1. Comes with the non-free software already on the dvd.

2. Comes with drivers you’d have to hunt up, like the atheros wireless driver.

Order it here

Thanks Joe!

Wayno

I had never viewed pkill-9.com on a cell phone. Till Today. UGH! The colour scheme made it pretty ugly on a cell phone.

So I changed it, so it’s black (#000000) text, and a white (#FFFFFF) background.

Sorry about that folks. I never realised that someone maybe accessing this site from a cell phone. Hopefully now, you can actually read it!

Wayno

Original post here.

The basic idea of how to convert a video for the Sansa Fuse Mp3/Video player is simple. What’s not so simple is directions.

1. You will need to make sure you Sansa Fuse is set correctly. Set it to MSC Mode.

2. If not installed already, you will need to install k9copy. You can do this simply by:


sudo apt-get install k9copy


Note this is a KDE application, so it may add the required KDE libraries to make this application work, and this may take some time. As Alton Brown says: “Your patience WILL BE rewarded. Your impatience, will be punished!”

3. Follow the directions give in the post above, to install fuzemux, and video4fuze.

4. Now the k9copy part. To change the settings, bring up k9copy, and find “configure k9copy”

Hit the MPEG-4 encoder and select the vido tab:

It should look like this: Encoder: mencoder

Width: 224 Height: 176

and I arbitrarily set the file size to 500 meg.

Video part done!

5. Now to the audio. Select the Audio tab (still under MPEG-4) — codec is mp3 (lame) and bitrate: 128. The gain was preset to 7 (I did NOT change this)

It should look like this:

6. If you have never used k9copy, it can be a bit intimidating. What you want to do, is to OPEN the DVD. All the title sets will be presented: (make sure you check ALL the title sets)

Set you input/and output as shown in the image above. Your name is going to be different then: “SOUTH_PACIFIC”

7. Hit the COPY button, and then go do you favourite 30 minute activity: walking, biking, television, reading. You know: something other then watching k9copy work!

It will create an output file called .avi in your home directory.

NEXT!

8. While the directions say to start video4fuze on the command line, in reality, that didn’t work for me. Why? Because at least in Ubuntu 10.10 (64 bit), it installs it into /usr/share/video4fuze

And while that’s NOT in-correct, it’s probably NOT in your path either.

Two choices:

either manually navigate to the directory


cd /usr/share/video4fuze


or

create a launcher:

You will note, that this is a Python Script.

so to run it: python /usr/share/video4fuze/video4fuze.pyw

And the screen pops up. Select the input file. The output file will be called, /home/username/input_file2_fuze.avi

You will note, that video4fuze – is really a front end for mencoder.

Again, this is NOT fast. So yea, another 30 minute thing.

10. Plug in your Sansa Fuse to your usb port. My Sansa Fuze has 8 G internally, and a 16G external drive. So I put this on the external drive. Videos will be 300 – 500 meg.

You MIGHT need to create a VIDEOS folder on the Sansa Fuze. (mkdir or nautilus will do this).

11. Copy and Paste time. Simply copy the /home/username/input_file2_fuze.avi file video4fuze created to your mp3 player VIDEOS folder. This will take some time, depending on how fast your ram is. Mine isn’t so, this time a 15 minute break. (Who said any of this was fast?)

12. When it’s done copying:


sync


sync to flush the buffers to disc.

13. Unplug the usb cable, let the fuze refresh, and enjoy!

Wayno