Convert e-books without loosing file names

I managed to get my hands on a few star wars books, unfortunately they were all in .epub format which couldn't be read on my Kindle.

I tried using the calibre software to convert them, which worked, but it threw away all the file names so I lost a lot of the meta data stored there.  To get around this I created a script which loops through the files in a folder and coverts them into another folder keeping the same file name.

A copy of the script can be found here

Recover Windows Files Using Linux

A friend of mine recently corrupted some files on his Windows XP laptop.  The fix is fairly simple and can be handled by a Windows XP recovery CD.  Unfortunately one was not readily accessibly and he needed access to his files.

Since I run a few linux systems I thought I would try booting to a live CD and mounting his local drive from there.  It was a very simple process with lots of documentation all over the web.  I am posting the commands here because it was so useful that it was a must have post for my blog.


mkdir /mnt/mountpoint
mount /dev/sda? /mnt/mountpoint (you need to find the correct number of your partition here: use fdisk -l)
cd /mnt/mountpoint/home/username (puts you in your home directory)

Wireless Network Crashing DHCP

PROBLEM:
I recently had a rather odd problem with my network.  When trying to connect to my wireless network my device would either get rejected entirely, or it would connect to the wireless network but never receive an IP address from the routers DHCP server.  This problem only exists with the wireless network, the wired network has no issues at all, even with receiving DHCP addresses.

TROUBLESHOOTING:
To fix the issue I tried two different wireless routers, both have the same issue randomly.

Next I tried using two routers tied together, one running DHCP and wireless, the other running wired.  But the issue still existed.

I discovered that by unplugging one of my computers I was able to resolve the issue which lead me to believe the router was simply getting overloaded.  Splitting the load between the two routers was supposed to be the fix for that.  However, a home router should be able to handle the load of 6 devices just fine. They aren't all streaming, and it was handling 5 devices just fine before.

I started to wonder if it was simply the DHCP server crashing.  Even though I had reserved specific IPs for most of the MAC addresses, it was still work on the routers part handing them out.  So next I tried staticing all the routers and hard wired computers.  But that didn't work either.

BAND-AID FIX:
I was finally able to fix the issue by separating the wireless network from the wired network with the hardware firewall built into the linksys router.  While this did solve the issue it still didn't tell me what had caused the odd issue in the first place.

RESOLUTION:
After more research and not a little luck I discovered that one of my hardwired computers was causing problems for my network because it was having connectivity trouble. The router port and the cable to the computer don't seem to be the issue so I assume the NIC card is going out and re-transmitting so many packets that it was overloading the router.

Flash plugin crashing in Chromium on Linux

I have been having random luck with the flash player running in Chromium on my Lubuntu computers.  I have 5 different machines and two of them refused to run flash.  Any time I went to a flash enabled website the plugin would crash.


After reading this website I checked out chrome://plugins but only saw one instance installed.  I tried disabling that instance and the crashing would stop but the site would then tell me I needed to install the plugin.  I tried making it ask me before running, and it would ask, then crash.


Finally I tried going to chrome://plugins and expanding the details and disabling the flash plugin from there, even though it seems to do the same thing as disabling it without the details open, the results are different.  If I disable the main plugin for some reason it still doesn't work, but going into details and disabling it there fixed the issue.

Linux Start Application on Boot

Since being in the army I haven't had a lot of time to mess around with my personal computers.  However, I am back in the states and settled down for a bit so I decided to built myself a desktop computer.  I didn't have a lot of money, so older hardware and Linux was the route I took.

On a recommendation from a friend I researched a program called Synergy which was supposed to allow you to use a single mouse, keyboard, and clipboard across multiple computers and OSs via TCP-IP.

I cobbled together three older machines with about one gig of RAM a piece and loaded Lubuntu ( a lite version of Ubuntu Linux ) on each of them.  The Synergy program worked great and I was able to have a three monitor three machine system that felt much like one machine when using it.

Unfortunately, I ran into a small headache.  Every time I restarted a machine Synergy would shutdown.  On windows it has the option to start with the computer, but Linux is pretty much all manual configuration.  Some versions of Linux GUIs now have session managers which allow users to setup custom programs through a nice GUI app, but Lubuntu doesn't yet come with that.  After a little research I came across a website with a very nice detailed answer, which is copied below in case their site goes down.

There are two main steps:

1. Create a text file named firefox.desktop in your ~/.config/autostart directory. (~ represents the current users home directory, typically /home/user; you will also have to click on View/Show Hidden in the File Manager to see folders starting with a period.)
2. Fill the new file with contents.

Obviously rename the first part of the filename to whatever description best fits the program you are trying to start.  Below are 4 different examples to start up various programs, firefox and thunderbird were the examples on the site, chromium and synergy are the files I built for my needs.  Use or modify them to fit your needs.

One additional bonus, by creating this file you will also make an entry appear in the "Start menu"/Preferences/"Desktop Session Settings" program allowing you to easily toggle it on or off without having to delete and recreate the file.


[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Firefox Web Browser
Comment=Browse the World Wide Web
GenericName=Web Browser
Exec=firefox %u
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=firefox


[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Thunderbird Email Client
Comment=Email Client
GenericName=Email Client
Exec=thunderbird -%u
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=thunderbird


[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Chromium Web Browser
Comment=Access the Internet
GenericName=Chromium
Type=Application
Exec=/usr/bin/chromium-browser %U
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false



[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Synergy Client
Comment=Connect to the keyboard network
GenericName=SynergyC
Type=Application
Exec=synergyc 192.168.111.114
Terminal=true
X-MultipleArgs=false

Lubuntu on an old Compaq machine

I recently decided I wanted to fire up an old compaq machine for a spare computer.  Due to life circumstances I was down to one machine and really needed to start building the collection back up.

After a little research on stripped versions of Linux I settled on Lubuntu, primarily because of its association with Ubuntu.  I figure with the development support behind the Ubuntu distro there would be updates and fixes coming out for it for awhile still.

I burned a live CD of Lubuntu and started up the Machine:
512MB RAM
120GB HD
AMD Sempron processor 3400+

It had previously run Windows XP very successfully, so I was fairly confident that I wouldn't have any problems.  True to expectations it booted and ran very well off of the CD.  So I clicked the install button figuring that this would be the easiest setup ever.  But the installer couldn't make it past the partitioner, it gave a couple of different errors and refused to format the HD.  After trying every configuration I could think of I gave up for the day.

The next day, on a hunch, I started the computer back up with the live CD, launched a terminal window, and used fdisk to manually format all the partitions on the drive to a Linux format.  After that the installer ran perfectly with no problems.

My next issue came when I tried to boot the newly installed OS.  It would let me into the command prompt on first boot after taking the CD out, but after that it wouldn't even let me get that far.  The error it was throwing was:
drm_crtc_helper_set_config failed crtc:6

After Googling for awhile I finally found someone else who had a similar issue and had posted a fix.
Their post can be seen here.. I have copied the steps below:

There is no other way than adding a parameter to the kernel line before booting. In your case it is probably "nomodeset" or "nomodeset noapic".
1. Restart your PC
2. Hold down SHIFT (if it doesn't work, try 'Esc' or any other key) to display the hidden menu during boot (Note: SHIFT only works for single-OS systems)
3. When you see GRUB menu, highlight the Linux Mint entry and press the 'E' key
4. Use the cursor keys to navigate to the line that ends with "quiet splash", and add nomodeset (like this: quiet splash nomodeset)
5. When you are done editing the kernel line, press Ctrl-X to boot

I held the shift key, got to the Grub menu, pressed E and was on my way.  The line I needed to edit didn't End with "quiet splash" there was a variable after that text, I inserted "nomodeset" between the quiet splash and the variable.  When I pressed Ctrl+X the system booted normally.

Google Voice and Secondary IPs

Have you ever had a problem getting your google voice and video to work?  Perhaps you can make the call but the other side can't see you, or you can try videoing but you can't see each others video feeds.

So far I have found two things to try to fix this issue.  One is a definite issue, the other is a suspected issue.

First, the definite issue:
If you add a secondary IP address to your computer ( I was using 172.160.0.100 to connect to a secondary private device ), then it causes this issue.  Remove the secondary ip and your problem should be resolved.

Second, the suspected issue:
I was putting off running my windows updates which had been downloaded and were waiting to be installed.  I did try restarting my computer during the troubleshooting.  After fighting with the Google voice issue for awhile I installed the updates and restarted fixing the issue.  This particular problem was more likely an issue specific to one of the updates that was installed rather than an issue with the Microsoft update service itself.