Brave Cobra's Hideout :: If Linux doesn't have the solution, you have the wrong problem.

Making your webcam act as a security camera with zoneminder

Having some time to spare (although not as much as I wanted), I thought it’d be a nice idea to convert my webcam into a security camera. The best (free) solution I found was zoneminder, which runs perfectly on linux.

Logitech QuickCam Messenger with Skype on Linux

I finally got my webcam to work on skype (sort of). I have a Logitech QuickCam Messenger (046d:08da), which is a v4l2 (video4linux v2) device. Skype only (still) works with v4l version 1. Thus “Houston, we’ve got a problem”!

I almost solved the puzzle.

Zikula upgrade

After visiting Camp Zikula this last weekend, there was no other option than finally upgrading the website.

Best music player for Windows: aTunes

We all love to listen to music, right? I've been searching for a good music player for windows for a while now. I already found it in Amarok, but that one only runs natively on Linux.

Joining movie parts is easy with mencoder

How often does it happen that, when downloading a movie, it's all separated into chunks? You don't want to open file by file when watching that movie. You want to combine all those chunks into a single avi, wmv or mpeg. Mencoder is your solution.

Another Windows Vista Update error: 800F0902

Today I got another Windows Vista update error: 800F0902.

Luckily I found a useful post @ http://itsvista.com/2008/01/windows-vista-sp1-rc-refresh-available-to-public/ that proposed to change some stuff in the registry.

NX Server on Ubuntu Hardy

For those in need of NX Server installation guide on the latest Ubuntu (Hardy), here it is:http://www.drtek.ca/freenx-server-ubuntu-hardy#en. It worked fine on my laptop.

Vista Update gives error 80071a91

I recently had a Vista installation which gave me an error on every update I tried, namely 80071a91. Googleing 'round brought me to http://blog.stevex.net/index.php/2007/05/21/80071a91/. I tried the suggested solution, finding that the delete statements didn't work: The files were in use by another process. That was quickly solved with a tool from http://www.creativelement.com/ and a reboot. Now I was able to continue the solution method and regain access to Windows updates on this Vista machine.

Windows Vista not accepting IP address from a Linux dhcpd

I had a problem with Windows Vista not accepting an IP address, being offered from a Linux DHCP server. Apart from changing the already known registry entry (DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle), I had to add the following line to my dhcpd.conf

Codeserver-identifier 192.168.0.3;

Now my config looks like this:

Code

subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
allow unknown-clients;
ddns-updates on;
ddns-domainname &quot;olympus.home&quot;;
option domain-name-servers 192.168.0.3;
option broadcast-address 192.168.0.255;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
option routers 192.168.0.1;
range 192.168.0.100 192.168.0.200;
server-identifier 192.168.0.3;
}

Restarting the dhcpd server, solved my problem. I found the solution at http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-157188.html

Zikula is the new name for PostNuke

It's out there. We've been waiting for this a long time now, but finally the new name for Postnuke is known: Zikula. Congratulations, guys! The announcement tells us the new is derived from the Zulu language. Read more in theofficial press release.

andLinux brings almost any linux application to windows

Linux is better than window$, there, I've said it. On some rare occassions, you still need to run windows and I've tried several options in the past: vmware, qemu, virtualbox... All of them had their backdraws. Most of them just being slow. The latest I've tested is andLinux, and I must say, this one has impressed me the most. You're able to run almost any linux application, directly in windows. You're still running a linux distro (ubuntu) in the background as a windows service and although you need to share your files between the host and the guest, you're actually running the linux application within the windows desktop. All the others I've tested ran those application on the guest desktop. Here is a screenshot, illustrating my point:

Ubuntu shutdown problem

I had a little shutdown problem with my laptop which has ubuntu as OS. If your ubuntu installation hangs on shutdown and you had NFS mounts, you'll probably solve it by following this guide:http://blog.avirtualhome.com/2008/03/10/ubuntu-shutdown-problem-cifs-related/

Some other linux blogs

Here is a list of some interesting blogs on Linux
http://blog.linuxoss.com/
http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/
http://vertito.blogspot.com/

ZendStudio fails to start

My ZendStudio installation just failed to start with following error:

Codejava: xcb_xlib.c:50: xcb_xlib_unlock: Assertion `c->xlib.lock' failed.

Seems an error with the java installation and apparently a well known one. So I issued the following lines from a shell

Code# cd /usr/local/Zend/ZendStudio-5.5.0/jre/lib/i386/xawt
# cp libmawt.so libmawt.so.bak
# sed -i &quot;s/XINERAMA/FAKEEXTN/&quot; libmawt.so

Play dvd iso image with xine

Havin' an iso image of the latest movie on dvd is all pretty well, but you still would like to see it. You could mount the image and let xine play the vob files or take advantage of the dvd:// capability of xine like this:

Codexine &qout;dvd://path/to/your/file.iso&qout;

Even handier would be to have that command in your context popup (by right-click'ing the file). To have that in KDE, open up the directory "~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus/" and make a xine_iso.desktop file with the following content.