How To Install Adobe Reader and Flash on Fedora 18

Fedora 18 has been officially released and it is time to get the How To’s started on getting many of the regularly used programs and configurations started. Adobe reader and Adobe Flash are no exception.

Install Flash 11
Adding Adobe’s YUM repository makes it very easy also keep up-to-date with Flash Player Plugin.
Install Adobe YUM Repository RPM package
Adobe Repository 32-bit x86
$ sudo rpm -ivh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
$ sudo rpm –import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux
Adobe Repository 64-bit x86_64
$ sudo rpm -ivh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-x86_64-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
$ sudo rpm –import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-adobe-linux
Update Repositories

$ sudo yum update

$ sudo yum install flash-plugin nspluginwrapper

Adobe Reader
Since we already have the Adobe repository installed, we have the added ability to install Adobe Reader. If you are running x64 of Fedora you will need to add the i386 repository to install Adobe reader which will install any dependent i386 programs with it.

$ sudo rpm -Uvh http://linuxdownload.adobe.com/adobe-release/adobe-release-i386-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
$ sudo yum update
$ sudo yum -y install AdobeReader_enu

If SELinux is preventing /opt/Adobe/Reader9/Reader/intellinux/bin/acroread from making the program stack executable.
Then type the command as shown below

$ sudo chcon -t execmem_exec_t ‘/opt/Adobe/Reader9/Reader/intellinux/bin/acroread’

That’s all there is to it!

Plex Media Server Startup soci_error

A good friend of mine recently ran into an issue where Plex Media Server running on Fedora would not start up. After multiple times trying to start\stop it, deleted pid files, removing subsys lock files, discovered that /var was full, so it couldn’t write something during startup which was causing it not to start.

Receiving an error similar to this:

Starting PlexMediaServer: terminate called after throwing an instance of 'soci::soci_error'

Searching Google wasn’t much help, just a bunch of guys saying to optimize sqlite and\or reinstall Plex.

Started looking at the filesystems and found that /var was filled up. This was causd by another process filling up the space. After freeing up space in /var/log it and allowed Plex to start no problem.

How To Play Blu-Ray on Fedora 17

Always wanting to be able to do the same thing on Linux that I do on Windows I found myself taking the challenge of playing Blu-Ray on Linux. There are several posts on the net that explain how to achieve this on Ubuntu but not any on Fedora. One thing that was common was the mention of the VideoLan project and VLC which had created the libaacs and libbluray libraries needed for BluRay playback.

All that was available on the site was the source but with a bit more searching found that rpmfusion has the packages available. If you don’t have the repository added you can add them quickly following this easy guide.

Open up a terminal and look for the libraries for install. Type:

$ sudo yum search libaccs libbluray

The search results show us libaccs, libbluray and libbluray-java. So lets install them by typing:

$ sudo yum install libaccs libbluray libbluray-java

Next we have to have something to play the movies with, so the logical choice is vlc.

$ sudo yum install vlc

We are close, there is one more piece to the puzzle, libaacs requires decryption keys to work, these keys are continually changing and require updating.

Now you must create an “aacs” folder in the hidden “.config” folder from your home directory and download the aacs keys there. To do this, run the following commands in a terminal:

$ mkdir -p ~/.config/aacs/
$ cd ~/.config/aacs/ && wget http://vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name/files/KEYDB.cfg

Now to play Blu-rays using VLC, open VLC, select Media > Open Disc, make sure “no disc menus” is selected (without this, VLC will crash for most Blu-ray discs) and browse for the Blu-ray disc.

A piece of fair warning, this may or may not work, due to the aacs encryption keys. The keys will work for Blu-Ray before 2010 but newer ones may not work and you may need to use a program like DVDFab and MakeMKV running in Wine to burn to your disk. This will play um-encrypted Blu-Ray’s without issue.

Scanning and Printing to Epson Artisan 725 on Fedora 17

It is a wonderful thing to get a new toy to play with, but frustrating when you plug it in and then the trouble begins. It works with most systems but sometimes there is one that just wants to cause a bit of pain. Well that happened recently when I tried to install my Epson Artisan To enjoy scanning over the on Fedora 17. This issue was getting the scanning features to work with GIMP.

Previously I was able to get an Epson Perfection Photo 4490 to work on Ubuntu using the Avasys website and the iscan drivers, so I decided to try them again and was joyed to find they had the drivers I was looking for and needed.

First install a few prerequisite packages into Fedora 17.

sudo yum install libsane sane-utils xsane xsane-common

Install the Epson Printer drivers.

sudo yum install epson-inkjet-printer-escpr

Go to http://www.avasys.jp/lx-bin2/linux_e/spc/DL2.do and download the three files we need to install. You’ll need to install the files an install in this order:

core package – iscan_2.28.1-3-1.ltdl7_x86_64.rpm
data package – iscan-data_1.13.0-1.noarch.rpm
network plugin package – iscan-network-nt-1.1.0-2.x86_64.rpm

Install them in this exact order.

sudo rpm -ivh iscan_2.28.1-3-1.ltdl7_x86_64.rpm sudo rpm -ivh iscan-data_1.13.0-1.noarch.rpm sudo rpm -ivh iscan-network-nt-1.1.0-2.x86_64.rpm

Now that the installation is completed there are a few configuration files that need to be changed to allow iscan to see the scanner and present them to the OS. We also need to make sure the printer has either a reserved DHCP address or a static one if the printer is networked. If it is plugged in via USB then there is nothing to set.

Now let’s get on to the editing. The first file we edit is called epkowa.conf found in the /etc/sane.d directory.
sudo vi /etc/sane.d/epkowa.conf

Change the IP value to the one set on our printer. If the printer is not networked then this line edit can be skipped. Add the following line to the bottom of the file and then save.
net 192.168.1.135 1865

Where “192.168.1.135″ is the IP address for this printer, and the 1865 is the port that the Epson uses, similar to port 9100 used by HP printers with JetDirect.

Now we edit the /etc/sane.d/dll.conf file.

sudo vi /etc/sane.d/dll.conf

Scroll down and comment out the epson2 entry and save.

epjitsu #epson #epson2 fujitsu

The final file to edit is the blacklist file supplied from the iscan-data package. The Artisan 725 is blocked from working in this file. To unblock the Artisan 725, we need to comment out the Artisan 700 entry in the /usr/share/iscan-data/fs-blacklist file.

sudo vi /usr/share/iscan-data/fs-blacklist

and comment out the entry for the Artisan 700.

fs-blacklist Artisan 800 #fs-blacklist Artisan 700

Now execute iscan from the prompt and the system should find the scanner and open dialogue to start scanning.

How To Retrieve and edit MOD Movies off Panasonic Camorders

There are days that there is something you see makes you just scratch your head and go What?? Well one of those came to me when I was given a Panasonic Camcorder in which there was no software just the device and USB cable and asked to retrieve the movies and make a DVD.

Upon connecting to the device I found files with the .MOD extension. Since I am running VLC I was able to double-click and was able to watch the videos. With a bit of digging I found that .MOD extension is used by JVC, Canon and Panasonic on various models of their camcorders. Here is a list of some of the models saving SD (Standard Definition) with .MOD extension.

Canon FS100
Canon FS10
Canon FS11
JVC GZ-MG30
JVC GZ-MG70
JVC GZ-MG37
JVC GZ-MG77
JVC GZ-MG50
JVC GZ-MG130
JVC GZ-MG155
JVC GZ-MG255
JVC GZ-MG555
Panasonic SDR-S100
Panasonic SDR-S150
Panasonic SDR-S10
Panasonic SDR-H18
Panasonic SDR-H200
Panasonic SDR-H40
Panasonic SDR-H60
Panasonic SDR-SW20

I found many posts of confused users on what to do with the files and how to play and convert. What .MOD file extension really is just a standard MPEG2 file, so really all you need to do is just rename to .MPG and you can edit the files with you favorite editor. To get to the files with a Windows Vista / 7 system you only need to connect the USB cable to the PC and put the camcorder in the correct USB connection mode. With the Panasonic camcorder set the camcorder to play mode and select PC\Recorder for the USB connection type and Windows will install the drivers and show a selection of what to do with the recently discovered device.

Navigated to the directory on the camcorder that has the MOD files and copy them to a place on your hard drive and just press F2 or right click, select rename and replace .mod with .mpg and that’s all.

Next step is to use your favorite editor (Sony Vegas, Adobe Premier, Kdenlive, and many others) and chain the files together into one. For details on doing that refer to the documentation and posts by others for the program if you don’t know it already. Also look for future posts here on the subject.

Hopefully this will help to clear confusion on .MOD file extension!!

How to install Plex Media Server 0.9.6.6 on CentOS / Fedora / RHEL

In an earlier post we covered installing Plex Media Server 0.9.6.3 on a Windows 7 system. In this post we’ll cover how to install and configure on a Linux system, CentOS 6.2 to be exact, but this process can be used on Fedora / and RHEL as well.

First make sure you meet the system requirements.

System Requirements:

1.6 GHz processor (2.4 GHz dual core for 1080p transcoding).
256 MB RAM
Gigabit Ethernet recommended for HD streaming.
N.B. Flash and Silverlight video playback is not supported on Linux.

Installation is very simple. It is just a matter of adding the repo to the server and importing the key.

Create the plex.repo definition in /etc/yum.repos.d with the following contents.

[PlexRepo] name=PlexRepo baseurl=http://plexapp.com/rpmrepo/release/$basearch/ enabled=1 gpgcheck=1

Import the GPG key

$ rpm --import http://plexapp.com/plex_pub_key.pub

Then install it with this command:

$ yum install plexmediaserver

Now start the Plex Media Server

$ /etc/init.d/plexmediaserver start

Once the startup is completed open a browser and goto http://localhost (or systems ip):32400/manage/index.html

Click on any of the Add Media to you Library icons to add your content for the devices to see. Change preferences from the many options available.

Look for future posts on customizing Plex Media Server and adding DLNA profiles for some of the many devices that can connect.

Currently Plex Media Server runs off older init scripts. there is a post in the Plex forums with a way to use the newer systemd here http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/43464-clean-systemd-scripts-for-fedora-17/

Plex Media Server v0.9.6.6 / Plex v0.9.5.4 / Plex for iOS v2.5 Released

Great News !! Plex Media Server v0.9.6.6 / Plex v0.9.5.4 / Plex for iOS v2.5 has been released and here is the laundry list. You can download it here http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/Downloads and look for a future post on installing and configuring on Linux as well as some custom DLNA configs!

If you’ve experienced an issue with TV scans missing posters or other artwork, somewhat randomly, this has been fixed; we’ve been experiencing increasingly heavy traffic with all the new users, so we had to bulk up our infrastructure!
Movie matching should be more accurate and much faster; we now have a fully automated system which improves the agent matching over time based on the anonymous data sent back. Pretty cool, right?
We’ve pushed quite a few updates to the agents to fix non-ASCII poster/subtitle filename issues on Linux, metadata for personal show scanning, and a number of other issues.
We released a new version of Plex for Android, with fixes and a few new features. The update for Google TV is coming shortly!
We’re in the process of pushing a new release of Plex for iOS today to Apple, should be available in a week or so. Fixes and goodies abound, and to be nice, here’s a full list of changes you have to look forward to:
NEW: Home screen sections can be re-ordered or hidden. Yay!
NEW: Background art while browsing. Pretty!
NEW: Easier to read list view when browsing by folder. Useful!
FIX: High bitrate content will correctly transcode instead of attempting Direct Play (thanks, majortom!)
FIX: Media deletion & progress reporting works when using myPlex without publishing servers.
FIX: Network addresses are resolved earlier to make playing media on remote clients more reliable.
FIX: Easier method for adding friends.
FIX: Crash when attempting to set a user rating for an item with no community rating.
FIX: Crash marking a show (un)watched.
FIX: A few layout & graphical issues.
We also have a new Plex Media Server release for you, with a number of improvements, which can be downloaded from the usual place (and shortly from auto-update):

NEW: Added (advanced) preference for specifying location of Aperture/iPhone XML paths. The preference is ApertureLibraryXmlPath for Aperture and iPhotoLibraryXmlPath for iPhoto. Yes, we’re going to have an easy way to get at these advanced preferences soon.
NEW: (Linux) Allow syslog logging via environment variable PLEX_MEDIA_SERVER_USE_SYSLOG. This has been requested for ages.
NEW: (API) Massive performance improvement for players that ask for paged data (e.g. for Roku). If you have large library sections, you’ll notice a big change; with 1000 items, the page requests are 6 times faster.
NEW: (API) Added /library/sections/X/{sorts|filters} endpoints for advanced filtering.
FIX: Sidecar (e.g. SRT) subtitle files work again. Sorry, that was a bad regression.
FIX: (Windows) Upload speeds from the server were artificially slow in some cases. We’d gotten sporadic reports over the months that upload speeds seemed limited, and we finally managed to track down the issue. The upload speed will now max out your connection, and will take much less CPU as well.
FIX: A crash when scanning for plug-ins when permissions are wrong.
FIX: (Mac) Fix some Aperture photos not displaying properly.
FIX: Library timeline could generate blank items occasionally.
FIX: Web interface didn’t show added and deleted items properly when scanning.
FIX: Don’t pass back bogus blank content ratings.
FIX: (Linux) DLNA icon and server name were missing on some platforms.
FIX: When overwriting plug-ins, files that don’t exist anymore are deleted.
FIX: Handle 302 as well as 301 redirects in the image transcoder.
FIX: When scanning files that had already been scanned, they didn’t end up with thumbnails.
FIX: Certain image formats (TIFF, BMP, PCX) didn’t get thumb nailed.
FIX: Fixed sleep prevention, OS X (and possibly Linux) should sleep now.
FIX: (Windows) Fixed a crash on start.
FIX: (Synology) DLNA to PS3 wasn’t working.
FIX: (DLNA) Memory leak in DLNA server process.
FIX: (DLNA) Fixed PS3 audio dropouts by transcoding to stereo for now in the profile.
FIX: (DLNA) Fixed evaluation of limitations.
FIX: (DLNA) Fixed AAC audio not playing to PS3.
FIX: (DLNA) Build-in profile now supports Samsung SmartTVs (thanks, holzi!)
We also have some fixes in a new release of the Plex Laika desktop client:
FIX: Update RTMP to 2.4
FIX: Fix for connectivity issues when PMS isn’t running locally (thanks to elwertk).
FIX: Playback of interlaced H.264 content (MBAFF) was broken (thanks to elwertk).
FIX: Use the same user agent as earlier in Plex/Nine.
FIX: Add the Plex language and version headers.
FIX: When forced transcode was enabled, playback could fail for local files.
FIX: Support for chained indirects in channels.

Streaming the Internet with Roku HD

Recently I felt the need to stream Internet content and update my Toshiba 19″ Flat panel to the latest century and on a friends recommendation found the Roku 2 XD. The Roku 2 XD is one of four models, It is a stylish small form factor box that plugs in either standard RCA cables or HDMI.

Each Roku 2 XD player comes with:
IR remote
2 x AAA batteries
A/V cable
A/C Power adapter
Getting Started guide
30-day money back guarantee
90-day hardware warranty

For my installation I will be connecting using the HDMI connection. An HDMI cable does not come with the Roku2 so you have to supply one of your own. Connect the cable to the Roku and the TV and plug in the power and you are ready.

The Roku will prompt you to connect to the site and register the device. Create an account and enter in the device code prompted on the screen and the Roku will display the screen of available channels.

Now that the Roku is registered you can choose from the channels or you can activate any accounts you have like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus. When you register these channels you will be required to register the device as well, which will require an internet connected device (tablet, netbook, laptop, etc…) to login and input the code the Roku displays.

Now lets get back to the Roku. Using the supplied remote you are presented with several buttons that make navigation simple and easy.

Roku Remote Buttons

A = [BACK] Return to previous screen
B = [HOME] Return to Roku Home Screen
C = [OK] Select an option from the menu
D = [UP] or [DOWN ] Move up or down; [LEFT] or [RIGHT] Move left or right
E = [REV SCAN] Rewind, scroll left one page at a time
F = [PLAY/PAUSE] Start or pause playback
G = [FWD SCAN] Fast forward, scroll right one page at a time
H = [OPTIONS] View more options
I = Quick launch button
J = Quick launch button
K = Quick launch button

The quick launch buttons will vary, mine are Netflix, Pandora and Crackle.

The menu is simple , a scrolling list of the channels is set before you. You can add by going to the channel store and selecting from a wide selection. Some are free and some are pay. You can also add other channels from Roku private channel site http://streamfree.tv/apps/roku-private-channels/.

Overall I am impressed with the Roku HD and will be adding more at my home and I recommend it for those of you look to add streaming to your TV’s

Creating EPUB documents with LibreOffice Writer

With all the ereaders and tablets available it is now easy to take your documents with you everywhere, be it a book technical manual, etc., but what about stuff you write or company documents. With LibreOffice Writer you can create your own by using the Writer2epub extension for OpenOffice / LibreOffice Writer.

Writer2epub can b downloaded at http://extensions.openoffice.org/en/project/Writer2ePub/ and is easy to install by opening Extension Manage > click Add and browse to where you downloaded the extension. Close Writer and you will now have three new icons on the toolbar.

Simply press the first icon, and an ePub will be created in the same folder of the original file.
The icon with the blue mark is useful to add or edit the metadata information (title, author and so on).
The last icon with the red mark is to modify the preference. In a normal use you don’t need to modify these settings.

According to the developer here is what Writer2ePub is and isn’t.

What is Writer2ePub?

W2E is an ePub creator. Simply write your document with the OOo Word Processor and W2E will make an ePub file using the best traditional typographic rules, by applying a predefined style sheet (CSS). If you need a good ePub document and you can use the OOo Writer Word Processor, W2E is your tool.

What Writer2ePub is not?

W2E is not a simple file converter. It does not just convert an existing document to ePub. If you need to obtain a pure WYSIWYG ePub file, W2E is not for you. Please look at Calibre http://calibre-ebook.com/ or other OOo extensions available on the Internet to do this kind of jobs.

Neither is W2E an ePub editor, please look at Sigil http://code.google.com/p/sigil/ or other similar product if you need to edit and modify an existing ePub.

Writer2ePub is exactly what it says it is, it takes a document created in Writer and creates a perfectly formatted ePub document. Just click on the ePub icon on the toolbar and a MetaData dialog will appear asking for information.

Title (required)
Author
Language
ID/ISBN
Publisher
Publishing Date
Original Title
Tags
Description
Cover (image, no image)

The document will be saved and you now have created an ePub document out of your Writer document. What is so nice is now you can edit the original document and recreate an updated ePub with a simple click.

Your Own Media Server using Plex Media Server

Recently I found a need to add the ability for my Roku XD box to be able to access my home movies and other media on my NAS, also looking for an all in one solution to stream to Asus Transformer TF101, iPod Touch, Sony Bravia TV and iPhone. A good co-worker recommended Plex Media Server which does all the above and more.

Plex Media Server is the solution for local and online media. According to the site:

” Plex Media Server seamlessly connects your Plex clients with all of your local and online media. The combination of centralized library management, streaming of online content, and powerful transcoding functionality provides an unrivaled level of flexibility and ease of use.
Plex Media Server runs on your Mac, PC, or compatible NAS device and serves your media to all of your Plex clients including Plex-enabled mobile devices and 2011 LG Smart TVs.”

Plex uses apps (iOS and Android) to connect mobile devices, channel for Roku and DNLA settings to connect to PS3, xBox and TV’s. There are also forums where users have submitted working DNLA configurations for other devices.

Things look good and sound good to me, so first need to download Plex Media Server from http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/Downloads and install Windows or Fedora. At the time of this posting Plex Media Server 0.9.6.4 was available. !!!Update!!!! Plex Media Server 0.9.6.5 has been released. Download it from here.

For my use it will be on a Windows 7 Professional.

Once the file has been downloaded just double-click and accept the defaults for Windows installation. For Fedora add the repo and use yum to install the package.

Create the file /etc/yum.repos.d/plex.repo and insert the following contents.

[PlexRepo]
name=PlexRepo
baseurl=http://plexapp.com/rpmrepo/release/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

Import the Plex GPG key:

$ rpm --import http://plexapp.com/plex_pub_key.pub

Then install it with this command:

$ yum install plexmediaserver

After the installation the Plex Media server will be running. Next we need to define a folder on the NAS that is attached to the Windows 7 system. The steps are the same for adding to the Linux system as well. Open the Media Manager interface with Mozilla FireFox, Google Chrome or Opera, Internet Explorer is not supported.

To open the Plex interface click on the plex icon in the toolbar and it will open your default browser and you will be introduced to the Plex interface. If you are using Linux open a browser and goto http://localhost:32400/manage/index.html

Now we can add movies or home movies. Click on the link and a box will appear. Click Add and browse to the location on your NAS or hard drive to the location of the movies. Once done click Add Section and Plex will scan the drive and add what it finds.

At this point you can add photos, music, TV shows and other movies. Now you have content ready for you to attach devices you have.

Attaching Roku XD

Adding access to the Roku to Plex Media server is as easy as using the Add Channel feature on the Roku and add Plex. When you start the Plex channel on your Roku, it will try to discover your Plex Media Server(s) automatically. Unfortunately, discovery may not work, depending on your network. You can add the server manually by going to Preferences -> Plex Media Servers -> Add Server Manually. On that screen, enter the IP address of the Plex Media Server. Verify that the server is running and you have the right IP address by opening a browser and going to http://[ip_address]:32400/. If it’s working, it’ll show some XML. If you get an error message from your browser (e.g. server not responding), then either your Plex Media Server isn’t running, or you have the wrong IP address. Once it’s working, enter that IP address into your Roku.

Asus Transformer

To attach the Asus Transformer to Plex Media Server you just have to purchase the app from Google Play and install it. Just as the Roku open the app and it will attempt to find your Plex server and if not add it the same way.

Sony Bravia

As for the Sony Bravia TV I am still working on creating a DNLA profile for the TV to discover the server. Newer Sony Bravia TV’s (2010 – 2012) have profiles that work, but since mine is a 2009 it is taking sometime to get a working profile. With the help of the Plex forums I don’t expect this to be a big hurdle.

I hope this will help you to look at another way to deliver your content to your connected home.

Life of a Geek Admin

The Daily adventures of a true geek administrator

Tag Archives: multimedia