How to: Install Songbird 0.3 Release Candidate

Here are some commands to get and run the latest songbird release candidate:

wget http://download.songbirdnest.com/installer/linux/i686/Songbird_0.3_linux-i686.tar.gz
tar xvfz Songbird_0.3_linux-i686.tar.gz
cd Songbird
./songbird


From there, create a launcher for the panel with these settings:

name: Songbird
command: /home/mike/Songbird/songbird (REPLACE mike with your username)
Icon: Download your favorite from here

Gutsy Time!

Gutsy has been officially released! Check it out for yourself!
http://www.ubuntu.com/

iTunes great with wine. Yep! Its True!

I just took another stab at itunes with wine.. with much success!

1 - download the latest itunes

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

2 - install wine

sudo apt-get install wine

3 - configure wine

winecfg

-change the windows version to XP
-set up your sound card with the audio tab

4 - run (in the directory of the downloaded installer)

wine ./iTunes743Setup.exe

By no means does it run perfectly, but the functionality is there and I expect will continue to be improved.

Fresh New Blue Look How To

I've been tweaking my theme settings for awhile, and I've settled on another blue theme. Here's where to get the stuff and some screenshots!

Emerald Theme
Icon Theme
Wallpaper




I've been tweaking my theme settings for awhile, and I've settled on another blue theme. Here's where to get the stuff and some screenshots!

Booh Bah

One of the trippiest things on the internet

Booh Bah!

How to easily create video DVDs under linux

This tutorial uses an awesome program called tovid. First install tovid and its dependencies:

sudo apt-get install txt2tags mplayer mencoder mjpegtools ffmpeg python-dev python-tk python-wxgtk2.6 python-imaging imagemagick dvdauthor vcdimager transcode sox normalize-audio

wget http://tovid.sourceforge.net/download/ubuntu/tovid_0.30.2-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i tovid_0.30.2-1_i386.deb

If you are uncomfortable with the terminal, you can use the GUI (should now be in your applications > sound & video menu).

Terminal

1. 'cd' to the directory with your video file (if you need help with this, then I do not recommend the terminal mode, but rather the graphical mode described below)
2. Type this command to begin converting the video & audio for a widescreen TV in the eastern hemisphere. This uses the NTSC standard. If this is not what you want, type "tovid --help" in the terminal and read carefully. Run this replcing 'yourvideo.avi' with the file name of your video:
   

   tovid -wide -ntsc -in yourvideo.avi -out converted.avi
   

3. From here on out, im just following the instructions of the program, but i'll list everything:
1. It asked me if I wanted to keep temporary files, I just hit enter, which deletes them.
2. Then I get

   Your encoded video should be in the file(s) /home/mike/converted.avi.mpg.
   You can author a disc with this video on it by running:
   makexml /home/mike/converted.avi.mpg -out MyDisc
   makedvd MyDisc.xml
   You can also use todisc or makemenu to create menus for your disc.
   See the manual pages (i.e. 'man todisc') for more information.
   Thanks for using tovid!

3. So I copy + paste "makexml /home/mike/converted.avi.mpg -out MyDisc"
4. Then it tells me to run "makedvd "MyDisc.xml" and i respect its wishes
5. Finally, it says "makedvd -burn "MyDisc" which will burn the disk! make sure a blank dvd is in your drive!

Graphical
Its pretty straightforward really. Just open up the tovid gui from Applications > Sound & Video and follow the instructions.

How to install rockbox and extras on your ipod in linux

Heres how to install a custom build of rockbox and a few extras. This will install extra fonts, a few themes, and the freeware version of DOOM for rockbox!

Uses this build
Extras from here
Themes from here and here

Step 1: Run all this stuff. It makes a folder named rockbox in your home folder and puts the main files in it.

Ipod Video 5, 5.5 gen 30GB:

mkdir rockbox
cd rockbox/
wget http://home.centurytel.net/tdtooke/rockbox32.zip
unzip rockbox32.zip

Ipod Video 5, 5.5 gen 60GB / 80GB:

mkdir rockbox
cd rockbox/
wget http://home.centurytel.net/tdtooke/rockbox64.zip
unzip rockbox64.zip

Step 2: Run these for video ipod models (all: 5, 5.5 gen , 30, 60, 80 GB)

wget http://download.rockbox.org/daily/fonts/rockbox-fonts.zip
wget http://download.rockbox.org/useful/rockdoom.zip
wget http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/pub/Main/WpsIpod5g/ROCKBlocks.zip
wget http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/pub/Main/WpsIpod5g/Theme_X_HighBar.zip
wget http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/pub/Main/WpsIpod5g/cabbie-ipod.zip
wget http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/pub/Main/WpsIpod5g/45rpm.zip
wget http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/pub/Main/WpsIpod5g/ubuntu.zip
wget http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/pub/Main/WpsIpod5g/yobunny.zip
wget http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/pub/Main/WpsIpod5g/phkFORUM.zip
wget http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/pub/Main/WpsIpod5g/phkOSC.zip
wget http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/pub/Main/WpsIpod5g/phkAMP.zip
wget http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/pub/Main/WpsIpod5g/phkGUITAR.zip
wget http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/pub/Main/WpsIpod5g/phkTAPE.zip
wget http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/pub/Main/WpsIpod5g/slant.zip

unzip -o rockbox-fonts.zip
unzip -o rockdoom.zip
unzip -o StainPack.zip
unzip -o Theme_X_HighBar.zip
unzip -o cabbie-ipod.zip
unzip -o 45rpm.zip
unzip -o ubuntu.zip
unzip -o yobunny.zip
unzip -o Cool_Blue_v1.2.zip
unzip -o phkFORUM.zip
unzip -o phkOSC.zip
unzip -o phkAMP.zip
unzip -o phkGUITAR.zip
unzip -o phkTAPE.zip
unzip -o slant.zip

Step 3: Open your home folder. Open the folder named rockbox. Press Control+H to display hidden files. observe the file named '.rockbox'

In a seperate window, open your ipod

Drag .rockbox to the root of your ipod

Step 4: Load the thing:
There are a few ways to allow rockbox to load, but the prettiest, fastest, and most user-friendly way is what happens automatically when you follow my install ipodlinux guide, which is as follows:

mkdir ipodlinux
cd ipodlinux
wget http://de.dataghost.com/ipl/dg-installer/dg-linux-installer-20070311.tar.bz2
tar -jxf dg-linux-installer-20070311.tar.bz2
sudo ./installer.sh

good luck!

Step 4.5: if you are having trouble loading rockbox and / or ipodlinux, make sure you have followed all the above instructions and have a file named 'loader.cfg' with the following contents in the root of your ipod. if you do not, create it.

Apple OS @ ramimg
iPodLinux @ (hd0,1)/linux.bin
Rockbox @ (hd0,1)/.rockbox/rockbox.ipod
Disk Mode @ diskmode
Sleep @ standby