The latest edition of the popular Linux distribution; Ubuntu was released on Thursday. Unfortunately if one wishes to use Amarok as their preferred music player the discovery that installing through Synaptic provides version 2 may come as a disappointment.

For me, I will not upgrade Amarok until the new edition supports an external MySQL database. I access my collection not only from my desktop computer, but also from a laptop in the living room (for playing music through the hi-fi). Having the collection stored within Amarok itself means that I would in effect have two different databases each maintaining their own statistics. Not good.

In addition to that, at present my website has a link to view my music library. This is compiled by accessing the external MySQL database that Amarok 1.4 is using. Therefore if I play a track, and the statistics are updated in Amarok; my website will show those exact same statistics. If I upgrade to Amarok 2 then this feature disappears.

I'm sure there are many that are in a similar situation to me for the reasons above and probably many others. So is the solution to just not upgrade Ubuntu from 8.10 to 9.04? No. There is another way.

A quick search on Google ('Amarok 1.4 Jaunty') reveals a blog which has detailed some very easy instructions for how replace Amarok 2 for Amarok 1.4. I've linked to the blog below, but for ease of reference I have expanded on those instructions here:

(Remember: to make life easy; you can highlight code, move to the terminal window, and then press the middle mouse button to paste and execute it.)

1. Open a terminal window (Gnome: Applications > Accessories > Terminal)

2. Enter the following code:

   sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/amarok.list

3. Add the following text to the newly created text file:

   deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/bogdanb/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
   deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/bogdanb/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

4. Press CTRL+X to close the text file (DO NOT close the terminal window). When asked to save changes, press Y.

5. Enter this code into the terminal (as one line):

   sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com / 
   0x1d7e9dd033e89ba781e32a24b9f1c432ae74ae63

6. Update the repository with the new sources, remove the existing copy of Amarok (if it's installed) and install 1.4:

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get remove amarok && sudo apt-get install amarok14

That's all there is to it. I've tested it and it works without fault! Huzzah!

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Tags: ubuntu, linux, amarok, music

At long last Amazon has launched it's MP3 music store in the UK, providing more choice for DRM free music downloading (along with the likes of 7Digital and Play.com).

The new store very kindly provides downloading software which is designed to make downloading albums straightforwarded, and even more kindly they have provided a version of the software for Linux. Unfortunately there is not a native 64-bit version of the software so anyone attemping to do a straight install will come up against an error due to the differences in architecture.

Fortunately, in Ubuntu 8.10 at least, this is very easy to overcome, just by following these simple instructions:

• Download GetLibs (provides libraries for 32-bit software on a 64-bit architecture) from <a href="http://www.boundlesssupremacy.com/Cappy/getlibs/getlibs-all.deb">here</a>, saving it to your desktop

• Double click on the GetLibs icon, on your desktop to launch the installer. Install this package

• Download the Amazon MP3 Downloader installer for Ubuntu 8.10 from <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/dmusic/help/amd.html/ref=sv_dmusic_3">here</a>, saving it to your desktop.

• Open a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal)

• Move to the Desktop directory:

  cd Desktop

• Attempt an install of the downloader:

  sudo dpkg --install --force-architecture amazonmp3.deb

• The install will show dependency errors. Do not worry about these.

• Run GetLibs on the downloader install, stating Yes if you're prompted to continue at any point:

  sudo getlibs /usr/bin/amazonmp3

• The downloader is now installed, and can be started from the 'Run Application' dialog (ALT+F2) by typing amazonmp3

The first time an album is purchased using Amazon MP3, the browser will ask what application to use to open Amazon's AMZ file. Point the browser to the Amazon Downloader which can be found in /usr/bin/amazonmp3. Tick the box to use this program from now on, and that will be the only time the browser will ask.

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Tags: linux, ubuntu, music

As is pretty well established, I've been a Linux user for a while now and I've come to expect certain things of which one is whilst most things work, somethings can be a right pain in the derriere. Wireless networking has often been cited as a prime example of such headache inducing problems.

So it was with that in mind (and the expectation that laptop computers will cause more problems than desktops) that I set to work over the weekend on installing Ubuntu Linux 8.04 onto a damaged IBM/Lenevo Thinkpad R50e.

This particular laptop has a damaged screen making it pretty much useless as something to use on the lap. The computer itself though was functioning fine. My mission then, was to employ this machine as a living room media computer. For the requirements of such a system it ticks all the boxes - it's small (fits into my TV centre), it's very quiet, it's high spec'd enough to playback HD (720p) video and it's onboard audio is of a suitable standard for my existing audio equipment.

I didn't want to use the supplied OS (Windows XP) not because of a hate of all things Microsoft, but because my Server runs Linux and I find sharing disc space between machines using NFS rather more straight forward and reliable than SAMBA (although I do have the latter available). A Linux OS would play FLAC audio files (the format my CDs are ripped to) out-of-the-box whereas Windows would need extra software; but above all I wanted to use the Amarok music player connected to an existing Amarok MySQL database so that my music stats would be updated.

So it was with keen determination that I downloaded and ran the latest LiveCD on said laptop and straight away things worked. The LiveCD booted without so much as a whimper and at that point everything seemed fine. The wireless adaptor was detecting nearby networks including my own, I had widescreen resolution on my television and I could hear audio. Result!

Not wanting to get my hopes up though, I told myself to stay skeptical until the final install was complete. The 6 installation steps went by uneventfully although I did get concerned when the partitioner appeared to hang but it was just taking it's time. 30 minutes later, the system restarted without the LiveCD and Ubuntu loaded up. Again happy as a happy thing.

So now came the real testing. Wireless network - connected first time. Internet access - connected first time. NFS shares - mounted first time. Amarok - installed, accessing the database and playing tunes first time. Playing HD video - codecs installed and the video playing full screen first time.

I even tested a few of the laptops special keys: the volume keys (up/down/mute) all functioned, and brightness worked fine. I didn't notice any effect of the external screen button (Fn+F7) though and I haven't yet tested the zoom (Fn+Space), wireless (Fn+F5) or other special keys but only because I have no need for them. I should probably also note that I haven't tested battery life since I'm running without it (no need for a battery if it's staying plugged in).

I really could not be happier. With the exception of mounting drives using fstab, no terminal access was needed. Although I used it for software installation, Synaptic would have worked just as well.

I now have a tidy media computer controlled by VNC (on a fully working Windows laptop) running on my TV allowing me to listen to music all day long (as evidenced in my last.fm profile from yesterday), watch stored videos, stream radio stations across the net, use the BBC's catchup service; the iPlayer, and view photographs on a large screen.

Yes, I fully realise that there are hundreds of different laptop and desktop computers out there, and that there are problems on many when installing Linux. This example however shows how good and simple it can be given the right hardware. This is what Ubuntu, Linux in general and the computer industry should strive for.

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Tags: ubuntu, linux, computers

The Linux command line makes the task of making a DVD-Video compliant disc fairly straight forward when one knows how, but finding straight forward instructions on the internet isn't always so simple. So after searching through various sites I've come up with my own guide.

1. Create a folder on a hard disc with ample storage space (15GB should be plenty for one 4.7GB DVD). Make sure this is easily accessible from the command prompt (keep the name short for ease of typing). For this example, I'm going to place a folder on the desktop called "dvd".

2. Copy the video files that you wish to place on the DVD into this new folder.

3. If you haven't already, call up the Terminal (Applications - Accessories - Terminal in Ubuntu).

4. Ensure tovid, mencoder and dvdauthor are both installed

   sudo apt-get install tovid mencoder dvdauthor

5. Navigate to the new folder containing your videos

   cd ~/Desktop/dvd

6. Use tovid to convert videos to DVD compliant MPG files

   tovid -noask -dvd -in myvideo.avi -out myvideo.mpg

   
   Repeat this for each video file

7. Use dvdauthor to convert the newly created MPG files to DVD format files

   dvdauthor -o DVD/ -t myvideo.mpg

   
   Repeat this for each video file. Each file will become a title on the DVD.

8. Run the following command to create the titles:

   dvdauthor -o DVD/ -T

9. Create an ISO of the DVD, ready to be burnt to disc:

   mkisofs -dvd-video -v -o DVD.iso DVD

10. A file called DVD.iso will now be found in the folder created earlier. Use a CD/DVD burning package such as K3B or Brasero to burn this image to a disc.

11. The DVD should now be playable on a standalone player

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Tags: ubuntu, linux, computers, dvd


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I spent a little while searching for instructions on how to setup the beta version of Adobe Flash 10 on Ubuntu. Now I've found them, I'm putting them here for easy reference.

Note that these instructions are for the beta version of the latest Flash player. It may have some bugs or do something unexpected. Don't blame me for anything going wrong.

1. Download the flashplayer file from the link below. Ensure it is saved to your desktop.

2. Make sure the file is called flashplayer10_install_linux.tar.gz. If it's not, rename it. If you don't want to rename the file, then ensure the commands below reflect the correct file name.

3. Open the terminal

4. Copy and paste the following commands

cd ~/Desktop
tar -xzvf flashplayer10_install_linux.tar.gz install_flash_player_10_linux
sudo mv -f ~/Desktop/install_flash_player_10_linux/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/
sudo apt-get install -y nspluginwrapper
sudo nspluginwrapper -i /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/libflashplayer.so
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/nspluginwrapper/plugins/npwrapper.libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/

Restart Firefox

Flash should now be installed and working

This has been tested on Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron 64-bit. I don't know how well it works on other versions, or if it does at all.

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Tags: ubuntu, linux, flash