Getting a TV tuner card to work properly in Ubuntu can sometimes be tricky, if not just downright impossible. If you are the proud owner of the Pinnacle PCTV HD tuner card then you are fortunate enough to be able to install this card very easily.

In order to install this card you are going to need the proper firmware and drivers. By entering the following commands in a terminal window, you can have your tuner card functioning in a matter of minutes!

First, get the firmware from here. Be sure to download the HVR file and the 'extract.sh' file. Then from the command line, navigate to where you downloaded these files and enter:

chmod a+x extract.sh

./extract.sh

This will extract the firmware and give you notice of a file that you will need to copy to your firmware directory. Copy the file using the 'sudo' preface as you will need administrative privileges to copy any file to that kind of directory.

Next, download the v4l drivers from here. Choose the '.gz' file from the nav menu. After downloading, navigate your way to it's destination and unpack it:

tar xvzf filename.tar.gz

cd newfile

make

Now you're just about done. What you will need to do is tell your computer not to load certain conflicting modules. Do this by entering:

sudo rm -rf /lib/modules/`uname -r`/ubuntu/media/cx88

sudo rm -rf /lib/modules/`uname -r`/ubuntu/media/saa7134

sudo depmod -a

Now all that's remaining is to install the v4l drivers. Do that by entering one last command:

sudo make install

By rebooting your computer, the correct drivers should install themselves and you are ready to watch tv on your computer using your favorite tv viewing program.

If you're like me, you have some music mp3s that are just a little too quiet for your liking.  Most of my songs are loud enough for me, but some make me reach over to my speakers and turn them up.  But there is a way to fix those pesky quiet songs, and that is with MP3Gain.

First off, you need to download and install the package.  If you're one of the fortunate ones running Ubuntu, this is no problem.  Make sure your repositories are up to date and then enter this command from the command line:

sudo apt-get install mp3gain

That was easy, wasn't it? Now that you have MP3Gain, try it out on one of your quiet songs.  Again from the command line, enter this command:

mp3gain -r -k quietsong.mp3

After MP3Gain finished with your quiet song, give it a listen and see if the changed settings are to your liking.  If you like the change, try it on another song, and see if the results are still to your liking.  If you do not like the end result, you can always revert the mp3 back to it's original state by issuing the command:

mp3gain -u quietsong.mp3

If the default settings of MP3Gain are not quite to your liking, you can change the output volume. You can change the gain dB up or down, whichever your prefer. To make your mp3 louder still, enter this command:

mp3gain -r -d 3 reallyquietsong.mp3

Experiment with the gain value until you find what you like. The value doesn't have to be "3" as indicated in the command above; it can be any number of values like 1.5, 2, 5, etc.

To make an mp3 a little quieter, just enter a negative number in the command above, like this:

mp3gain -r -d -2 loudsong.mp3

If the default values in MP3Gain work for you, or if you tweaked around and find an output you like, you can even adjust your entire mp3 collection by issuing this command:

find . -name *mp3 -exec mp3gain -a -k {} \;

If you have a large music collection, this could take a while so you might want to go find something else to do while this is processing.  More information regarding MP3Gain can be found at the following sites:

• Linux.com
• Realgage Freemedia

 (This is a reprint of a post I did on another blog)

Did you know that you don't have to launch a web browser to watch your favorite YouTube videos?  You can use Totem to search for and watch any YouTube video that you want.  The process is very simple, but not everyone knows about it.  Here's how:

After launching Totem by going to Applications –> Sound & Video –> Movie Player, go to your Plugins menu.

Check the "YouTube browser" plugin and then "Close".

Now, click on your playlist menu in Totem and choose "YouTube".

In the search box you can search for any YouTube video you want to see and the search results will be listed in a window.  Related videos will also be listed in a tabbed over window.

There is a way to enable the new Hi-Res YouTube video playback, and that will be covered in a future post.

If you have some sensitive files that you would like to keep from prying eyes, a simple way to do that is to encrypt the files.  Ubuntu Hardy has a built in PGP Encryption that will prevent anyone who does not have the proper encryption key and password from accessing your files.

Let's begin by going to Applications –>Accessories –>Passwords and Encryption Keys.  You will be presented with the main screen.

If this is your first time with this, you will need to create a new encryption key of your own.  To do this, click on "New"

To encrypt files you will need to choose the PGP key option and then click on "Continue".

To make this key unique and your own, fill out your name and email address.  Additional options like the key type and key bit can also be modified.  The default settings will provide you with very good encryption so you need not change these values unless you have additional needs for more security.

Now you have the option of entering a password for your key.  I highly recommend you to do this.  The password you enter is very important; your encrypted files will be as strong as your password!

Now that all the information has been entered, sit back and watch the new PGP encryption key being generated.  This will usually take a minute or two to finish.  Once it is complete, you will be able to encrypt any file you choose.

By right-clicking on the file you wish to encrypt, the menu will come up with the option "Encrypt".  Clicking on "Encrypt" will bring up the following menu where you choose which PGP key to use for this encryption.

Choose which key to use for encryption (if you have more than one) and then click "OK". 

There!  Your newly encrypted file will have the same file name as before but with the .pgp extension.  The original file is not deleted by default, so for security purposes you should delete the original and keep the encrypted file.

When you want to access your encrypted files simply double click on the encrypted file and the decrypting menu will pop up and prompt you for the encryption password.  After entering the correct password, the unencrypted original file will appear in your file browser.

Ettercap is a program that can accomplish many things, most notably gaining usernames and passwords from networked computers.  For example, let's say you think your husband or wife is carrying on an online relationship with somebody and you want to gain access to their email or social site accounts.  With ettercap, you can do just that.

First, you need to install ettercap.  From the command line type in this:

sudo apt-get install ettercap-common ettercap-gtk

Before running ettercap you will need to modify the config file to allow for SSL access. Some other guides state to edit the file located at /usr/local/etc/etter.conf but my config file was not located there.  I found mine at /etc/etter.conf.  You have to uncomment the two iptables lines about iptables in the .conf file to allow for SSL access.  So locate these two lines:

#redir_command_on = "iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i %iface -p tcp –dport %port -j REDIRECT –to-port %rport"

#redir_command_off = "iptables -t nat -D PREROUTING -i %iface -p tcp –dport %port -j REDIRECT –to-port %rport"

Remove the "#" before each line and save the edited file.  Then go to Applications –> System Tools –> ettercap and follow this mini-guide to "sniff" your local network for usernames and passwords.

 

Go to Sniff –> Unified sniffing

Choose your network interface (eth0, wlan0, etc.)

Press CTRL+s to scan the network for hosts

Go to Mitm –> Arp poisoning

After selecting arp poisoning, then check the box "Sniff remote connections"

Finally, select Start –> Start sniffing to start the sniffing for usernames and passwords

This works out quite nicely if you have everything set up right.  I have tried this out and can confirm that it does indeed sniff out usernames and passwords.  When someone on your local network goes to a website where they need to log in to gain entry, such as Yahoo Mail, then immediately after they log in to the site, the website url, username and password will be listed in the ettercap terminal.  Pretty cool, huh?

Just to be on the safe side I will just say that this guide is for informational purposes only; it is not my intention to have anyone read this and head off to a local coffee shop and try to hack everyone's accounts!

Ubuntu offers several different ways to backup and restore your operating system.  There are backup methods that take snapshots of your directories, such as TimeVault or Flyback, and they allow you to restore your computer to a previous state from the past.  These methods are graphical in nature, and very popular with certain people.

Backing up your Ubuntu system from the command line may sound like a daunting task and many beginners may shy away from such a thing but they need not to.  Backing up the Ubuntu OS from the command line is not only fast, but it is also perhaps the easiest method available.

So if you find yourself at the point where you like how your Ubuntu system is set up and would like to save it in case you need to do a system restore, then open a terminal window and enter the following:

sudo su

cd /

tar cvpzf ububackup.tgz –exclude=/ububackup.tgz –exclude=/proc –exclude=/lost+found –exclude=/sys –exclude=/mnt /

Note: For some reason the above command is not accurately displayed; the dash in front of every "exclude" command is a double dash.

 What the above commands do is "tar" your entire system, except the directories that were excluded, into a compressed file in your root directory named "ububackup.tgz".  It will also preserve the file permissions in their original state.  This could take a little while depending on the size of your system.  You can take your backup file and transfer it to an external hard drive, DVD, or flash drive.

Later, if you need to restore your Ubuntu system, take the backup file you made and move it to your root directory.  Then from the command line enter this:

tar xvpfz backup.tgz -C /

By doing this, you will overwrite every single file on your system partition with the ones in your backup file. It's been said that after restoring your Ubuntu system this way from a backup file you will need to manually create the folders that were excluded, such as /sys, /proc, etc.. but I never seemed to have the need to; the residual folders were fine.

Backing up your Ubuntu system in this manner is a good idea if you're a tinkerer like me.  That way you can totally wreck your system and still have the ability to resurrect your system back to it's original splendor.

There are many different IM clients to choose from.  Some, like Pidgin, are multi-protocol which means they support many different IM accounts (MSN, Yahoo, AOL, ICQ, etc).  Others, like aMSN or Yahoo Messenger, are intended for use on one chat network only.  emesene is an IM client for the MSN chat network.  I have used Pidgin mainly in the past, have dabbled with aMSN, but I will be sticking with emesene for now on.

While emesene does lack the multi-protocol capabilities of Pidgin and the webcam support in aMSN, it makes up for it in it's clean interface and usability.  emesene offers smooth rendering combined with simplistic style.  From the startup screen the similarities between emesene and MSN messenger are apparent:

After logging in, the main emesene screen looks similar to the MSN one as well:

Even the chat window looks very much like MSN Messenger:

I use emesene as a way to stay in contact with everyone I work with and I haven't noticed any performance lags with emesene.  File transfers work great between emesene and MSN Messenger and most of the features available in MSN Messenger are capable in emesene.

One hint though; if you are going to enable the plugin to show your chat buddies what you're listening to, you will need to have python-dcop installed for the plugin to work.  You can install this package from Synaptic or via the command line.