Sadly, this procedure didn’t resolve my issues properly. I would advise those having similar issues to attempt to switch the router to send only 802.11G signals (Smartphones apparently look for one signal – if two are found, the connection becomes slow). if your router setup utility doesn’t allow that, try to find a firmware upgrade for it then try again. The router I was using had no Firmware Upgrade (Unicorn Pre-n MW800). Eventually I bought a more recently manufactured wireless router. This one allowed me to configured the router to send 802.11g signals ONLY. I also configured WEP2 encryption AES, and chose an uncrowded channel from the router’s setup utility. The ‘wifi manager app’ was useful in finding the best channel. Now my connection problems are completely resolved.

Update – Please read my comment below this post which describes further essential information. The procedure described here can still be followed, as it DID improve my connection considerably.

I have a faster WiFi connection at my home than at work, yet my Android phone would be painfully slow at opening pages in the browser.
I solved this by setting my router’s
1) MAC filtering
2) Change DHCP settings in router, to Google DNS or OpenDNS
3) Match static IP in Android device
UPDATE – Switch your router to send ONLY 802.11G signals – If you have a more advanced router, you should also have 802.11N option which is much faster, but Do make sure that your device is compatible with 802.11N wi-fi. Also, select an uncrowded channel and set your router to use that channel.

Find your gateway address by checking your network manager. Enter that into your PC browser using a WIRED connection. My router configuration pane is at this address http://192.168.123.254/
Log in using your user defined password or the manufacturer’s default password (usually the default password is “admin”).

Check a previous blog post for some help with securing your wireless network
Secure your wireless network/WAN, no one else will

1. Wireless Router – Configure MAC fIltering

Find the “MAC Filtering” configuration pane and do the following
Check/Enable MAC filtering
Check “Association Control” and drop down to “enable or allow”
Enter your phone MAC Address in one of the blank slots
(MAC address can be found in Android 2.1 by going to Menu > Wireless & networks > Wi-Fi settings Menu > Advanced)
My connection uses DHCP, so I found the range of legitimate IP addresses for example from 192.123.456.100 to 199
In my MAC filtering pane, I can generate a static IP by dropping down a menu – my android MAC address had been stored in there, so it made it easier for me.
You need to enter the last 3 digits (a legitimate IP address from the range obtained from your router)
Check the “Association Control” box to the right of that slot.

2. Wireless router – DNS
This step is optional
Find DHCP settings and go to the advanced settings – to assign DNS
You can use Google’s servers 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 or OpenDNS servers 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220

Save your new configuration and turn the wireless router off then back on again.

Log in again and now find essential data from the System Status pane of your router.

3. Android Device – Static IP configuration (to a DHCP internet connection via a wireless router)
In your android phone, go ‘Menu > Wireless & networks > Wi-Fi settings Menu > Advanced’

Check “Use Static IP”
IP Address – enter the IP you assigned in the MAC filtering slot of your router
Gateway – enter the IP address you entered in your PC browser to access your router’s configuration
Netmask – enter the subnet mask you find in the status pane of your router’s configuration System Status
DNS 1 enter the first DNS address from your router’s configuration System Status or if you changed these servers, then enter the DNS server you entered previously
DNS 2 enter the second DNS address from your router’s configuration System Status or if you changed these servers, then enter the DNS server you entered previously

Useful additional apps from the Android Market:
IP Manager or Wifi Static are two useful apps in the Market to conveniently store and switch between more than one static IP configuration (Android OS currently only makes provision for one static configuration).

I’m finding my android browser handles pages faster after doing this.
Please give me any advice or share your own experiences.
This is pretty much a trial and error process, so I’m all ears.

NOTE: You will need to assign any other devices/by MAC address, to individual ‘static IP’ addresses in the same way. Choose ‘DHCP with Manually assigned IP’ on Mac or Linux

Excellent detailed advice as well as a few more apps that might be used to trouble-shoot, at SearchNetworking.au.com “How to fix Android Wi-Fi problems“
More on MAC filtering at Tomshardware

I made a previous post concerning configuring Twinkle with the Diamondcard SIP Gateway. Twinkle now includes a dead simple wizard for Diamondcard.us. The release of a very stable version of Linphone (with video calling from PC to PC), and my frequent use of Linphone on my Android has led me to make this post now. To utilize free PC to PC Video/IM/Audio, you would need to register a sip2sip account. Configuration info below.

I have tested the mobile apps on Android 2.1 Eclair and the PC application on Mandriva GNU/Linux 2010.1

Diamondcard Configuration on Linux version of Linphone

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1. Linphone > Preferences
2. Manage SIP Accounts* > Add >
Your SIP Identity: [sip:######@diamondcard.us]
(###### is the 6 digit Account ID obtainable from diamondcard.us Admin Center. (You can check your signup email for login username and password reset/info: https://www.diamondcard.us/login)
3. SIP Proxy Address: [sip:sip.diamondcard.us]
4. Your preference? enable ‘Register at startup’ and ‘Publish Presence Information’
5. A window will appear asking for your Password. Enter the 9-digit PIN obtainable from the admin center.
*Note: For your security (on a shared computer) to Erase All Passwords.

Mobile Apps
You can install Linphone on your Android or iPhone/iTouch. On the mobile devices, video calling will not be enabled, at least not at this time. Linphone integrates well with the contact list, making the use of your SIP account effortless.
Linphone Android Configuration
Menu > Settings > Username (6-digit Account ID from Admin centre)
> Password: 9-digit PIN (obtainable from admin center)
> Domain: sip.diamondcard.us
> Proxy: sip.diamondcard.us
> Disable Outbound proxy >
Placing a call. Wait for registration confirmation (bottom of the screen: Ready)
Dial 00 (instead of the +) followed by international access number, (drop the usual 0 you use if calling domestic to domestic), regional access number, the subscriber number.
Watch the bottom of the screen to see status of call being placed.
Linphone will also appear as an alternative when you call up a number from your contact list. Just remember to adjust the number to show two zero’s instead of a PLUS.

3CXPhone is an alternative if you’d like one app that enables multiple SIP accounts. It also supports recording of calls. Find out more about 3CXPhone for Android (you can find it listed on the Android App Market/Appbrain) or for the iPhone/iTouch. There is a windows version as well (not tested by myself).
3CXPhone Android Configuration
Menu > Profiles > Add New > Profile Name: diamondcard.us
> User: 6-digit Account ID (obtainable from the Admin center)
> Password: your 9-digit PIN (Admin Center)
> Internal Server: sip.diamondcard.us
> External Server: sip.diamondcard.us
> STUN Server: delete this server
> Advanced > Proxy: LEAVE BLANK
> Port: 5060 > Registration Timeout: 3600 > Keep-Alive terminal: 60 > DTMF: RFC-2833
> Enable NAT: uncheck > Enable ICE: Uncheck > Back button > Save.
The Integration settings can be as follows:
Lock WiFi: Never
Proximity Sensor: Yes (HTC Desire)
Enable 3G: Yes (you will be billed by your network for data costs. If this is not set to ‘yes’, then you will only be allowed to place calls via a wifi spot)
Redirect normal calls: Yes (if you long press the plus sign from your dialer and complete a number that exists in your phone book, then the call gets routed through your 3CXPhone instead of your cellphone voice calling account)
Log Call Records: Yes (unsure how this really affects the call history log)
Record calls: I haven’t used this.
Placing a call. Wait for registration confirmation (top left of the screen)
3CXPhone doesn’t seem to mind the use of two zero’s or a plus sign. You can also long press the plus sign from your usual dialer (without opening 3CXPhone), then followed by international access number, (drop the usual 0 you use if calling domestic to domestic), regional access number, the subscriber number, and 3CXPhone will take over dialing the call out instead of your usual dialer (cellphone voice network). This is provided 3XCPhone has already been started at boot up of your phone or prior to dialing the outgoing number.

Alternate internal and external servers for diamondcard.us
sip.diamondcard.us (as above)
eugw.ast.diamondcard.us
usgw.ast.diamondcard.us

A useful list of other sip configurations for your reference at Apuntes persoais

Sending SMS from your Diamondcard account

1. Install TeaSMS.
Setting this little wonder up needs no guidance at all. Grab it from here. It’s free.

http://www.androlib.com/android.application.corralz-teasms-BEE.aspx

2. From your PC browser,
Login to Diamondcard.us from a desktop, make calls, send sms, and manage your account from here https://www.diamondcard.us/login.

3. From your mobile browser, go to the Diamondcard.us Lite Admin site
https://www.diamondcard.us/llogin for similar joy.

Part 3, Post-install Mandriva::2010 update: resolving libx264.so dependency

Fedora users would be familiar with Mauriat Miranda’s post-install guides at mjmwired.net. I have often used Miranda’s excellent guides and was inspired by those, to attempt something similar to follow whenever my own notes or memory are not close at hand . For a Fedora Installation Guide, click here http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/

All procedures i will suggest here require an active WIRED network connection of course. Furthermore, these are procedures that work for me. I have tested them many times. I have set up my desktop the way i need it. I would highly recommend that you set up sudo which will make all these commands work effortlessly.

A word to the wise from the dumb – backup your stuff regularly.

Since April 2010, some packages have been removed from the repositories. You will have to install them by going to an RPM package site (see below – Step number 7 for libx264.so resolution)

Make sure you have followed the howto posts on this blog

Part 1, Post-install Mandriva 2010:: Network Settings
*Remember though, to first follow this Part 3 guide before attempting to setup your wireless connection.

Part 2, Post-install Mandriva 2010::setup ‘sudo’

I installed Mandriva 2010 to my laptop today and aria2 and curl seem to be behaving well.
If you encounter problems with these components on the system, you can remove these packages making sure that wget is used instead. remove them thusly:

sudo urpme aria2 curl

I like to remove the CD/DVD as a source. But this step “Remove all media”, can also be skipped.

1. Remove all media sources

double click to copy all commands in grey block, paste the full command strong into a terminal,

sudo urpmi.removemedia -a

hit [enter] wait …

2. Add Media Sources

Mandriva 2010.0: i586 (32-bit), use command procedure 32bitMDV, 32bitPLF, and 32bitMIB

32bitMDV more info

copy and paste  this into a terminal,

sudo urpmi.addmedia --distrib --mirrorlist 'http://api.mandriva.com/mirrors/basic.2010.0.i586.list'

hit [enter] wait…

32bitPLF more info

enter this into a terminal

sudo urpmi.addmedia --distrib --mirrorlist 'http://plf.zarb.org/mirrors/2010.0.i586.list'

hit [enter] wait…

32bitMIB more info

enter this into a terminal

sudo urpmi.addmedia --update MIB-basic_32 http://mib.pianetalinux.org/MIB/2010.0/32/basic/ with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz

hit [enter] wait …

sudo urpmi.addmedia MIB-experts_32 http://mib.pianetalinux.org/MIB/2010.0/32/experts/ with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz

hit [enter] wait…

If you have just done the 32bitMDV, 32bitPLF and 32bitMIB commands then skip this section

This is ONLY for Mandriva 2010.0: x86_64 (64-bit). To add media sources (software repos) to a 64bit Mandriva installation, complete the 64bitMDV 64bitPLF and 64bitMIB procedures

64bitMDV more info

enter this in a terminal

urpmi.addmedia --distrib --mirrorlist 'http://api.mandriva.com/mirrors/basic.2010.0.x86_64.list'

hit [enter] wait…

64bitPLF more info

enter this into a terminal

urpmi.addmedia --distrib --mirrorlist 'http://plf.zarb.org/mirrors/2010.0.x86_64.list'

hit [enter] wait…

64bitMIB more info

enter this into a terminal

urpmi.addmedia --update MIB-basic_64 http://mib.pianetalinux.org/MIB/2010.0/64/basic/ with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz

hit [enter] wait …

urpmi.addmedia MIB-experts_64 http://mib.pianetalinux.org/MIB/2010.0/64/experts/ with media_info/synthesis.hdlist.cz

hit [enter] wait…

3. Update media sources (repositories)

sudo urpmi.update -a

[enter]

4. Best audio device control

sudo urpmi gnome-alsamixer mpg123-pulse

[enter] y [enter]

Step 4 is needed when you use skype or other communication software packages. I find I have more control over my devices with the gnome-alsamixer tool.

5. Lightweight Music player

sudo urpmi audacious audacious-musepack audacious-plugins audacious-pulse audacious-skins audacious-wavpack libaudacious1 libaudacious2

[enter] y [enter]

6. Ear and eye candy

sudo urpmi cairo-dock-compiz-icon compiz compiz-fusion-icon compiz-fusion compiz-fusion-plugins-extra compiz-fusion-plugins-main libcompiz0 pidgin-rhythmbox emerald emerald-themes libemerald0

hit [enter] 2 [enter] y [enter] wait ….

7. Video Lan Client

Since April, 2010 .. libx264.so has been removed from the repositories.
You will have to get this package from here

http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/13468132/dir/mandriva_2010/com/libx264_79-0.79.2245-1plf2010.0.i586.rpm.html

Go down till you see this:
Download
http://ftp.pbone.net libx264_79-0.79.2245-1plf2010.0.i586.rpm
In the next dialogue box, choose “Install Software”

sudo urpmi vlc vlc-plugin-pulse vlc-plugin-dvdnav vlc-plugin-theora vlc-plugin-ogg vlc-plugin-flac vlc-plugin-mpc vlc-plugin-schroedinger vlc-plugin-dv vlc-plugin-a52 mozilla-plugin-vlc

hit [enter] y [enter] wait ….

8. Gstreamer

sudo urpmi  gstreamer0.10-a52dec gstreamer0.10-cdio gstreamer0.10-decoders gstreamer0.10-decoders-audio gstreamer0.10-dirac gstreamer0.10-dts gstreamer0.10-dv gstreamer0.10-faad gstreamer0.10-faac gstreamer0.10-lame gstreamer0.10-metadata gstreamer0.10-mms gstreamer0.10-mpeg gstreamer0.10-mpeg2enc gstreamer0.10-musepack gstreamer0.10-resindvd gstreamer0.10-schroedinger gstreamer0.10-wavpack gstreamer0.10-twolame gstreamer0.10-x264 gstreamer0.10-xing libgstreamermm-get-plugin-defs0.10_0 libgstreamermm0.10_2 gstreamer0.10-xvid

hit [enter] y [enter] wait …

9. Xine

sudo urpmi xine-pulse gxine-mozilla libxine1 xine-faad xine-flac xine-plugins xine-skins xine-ui xine-wavpack

hit [enter] y [enter]

10. MPlayer

sudo urpmi mplayer-gui mplayer-skins mplayer-fonts mplayerplugin smplayer

hit [enter] y [enter] wait ….

11. DVD’s, and more

sudo urpmi dvd+rw-tools libdvdcss2 libdvdnav4 libdvdread4 faac gstreamer0.10-faac libfaac0 libquicktime-faac faad2 libfaad2_2 xine-faad libquicktime-faad mencoder ffmpeg helixplayer k9copy ogmrip win32-codecs

hit [enter] y [enter] wait ….

12. Java

sudo urpmi java-1.6.0-sun-plugin java-1.6.0-sun totem-mozilla mozilla-plugin-vlc wmwebcam webcam_server camorama kmplayer mplayer dkms-squashfs dkms-squashfs-lzma hfsplusutils hfsutils

hit [enter] y [enter] wait ….

13. Adobe Flashplayer

sudo urpmi flash-player-plugin

hit [enter] y [enter] wait …

If you plan on using Facebook, you will want to get the Adobe 10.1 Beta 2 Flashplayer.
To do this, check out the Perfect Desktop post of January 6th, 2010 Post

14. Communication Central I still can’t get everyone to use Ekiga

sudo urpmi skype

hit [enter] y [enter] wait …

Now.. it’s all done. You might want to restart your browser to activate the new flashplugin. I hope it works for you. Mandriva is the perfect desktop. My next post is in the festive spirit – it deals with candy, with compiz fusion and emerald. I’m no expert but mine works.

Related links:

What is free software and why it exists. Link to the Free Software Foundation

A video by Stephen Fry (Happy Birthday Linux)

Mandriva Media Sources (repositories) explained

The Official Mandriva Wiki::

The Mandriva Linux ftp mirrors for final release versions contain at least:

• main which contains most important programs, supported by Mandriva

• contrib which contains some more optional programs added by contributors, but which do not necessarily get (security) updates

• non-free which contains some programs which are not free

Each media has 4 sub-medias:

• release the packages as of the release day.

• updates the packages updated since the release day for security or bug concerns. Everyone should have this medium, even with a very slow internet connection. When adding an update medium, add the –update switch so urpmi can distinguish it from a regular medium.

• backports some packages of new versions backported from cooker.

• testing which is used to temporary tests of new updates, to allow the bug reporters to validate the corrections.

*Cooker is the future release of Mandriva before it becomes official (new stable version).

The PLF packaging policy (link) and Easy URPMI online tool

The MIB repositories explained at this link

Secure your wireless network/WAN, no one else will

I noticed some naughty young hacker looking boys in the park next to my home which got me thinking how INsecure my personal wireless network was… Stock-standard SSID: unicorn, Security: None, Router setup password: admin. Not Good!

There are various lists and services to discover your own broadband router manufacturer’s default IP and password. You can google those but after many failed searches I followed my intuition and checked my unsecured Wi-Fi network Default Route IP in my network connection pane and entered THAT into my browser.. BINGO!

This link here was useful, and I entered the password “admin”.

I followed those steps in that link:

Important note! Connect using a wired LAN to setup your router.

On my router’s setup page, I chose “preferences” then found my way with some trial and error (made difficult because my router’s setup UI is in Korean – used chrome to translate it)
1. Changed my password from admin to “mypassword”
2. Changed my SSID to “mine”
3. Selected WEP 40/128-bit key

4. Entered four unique 26 character Hexadecimal keys on that router admin page..
Allowed characters are “0-9″ and “a-f” eg. 123456789abcdef10237689546
Saved these keys to a file on my computer. I also made a backup as a draft in my email (perhaps not wise, but knowing myself and paswword.. eg.
WEP Key 1 = 123456789abcdef10237689546
WEP Key 2 = 123456789abcdef10237687896
WEP Key 3 = 1234abcdef123def1023768956
WEP Key 4 = 123456789abcdeab123456d546

It took some guesswork but eventually I got a notice saying something about “Reboot”. So I turned off my router box and rebooted my laptop. Unplugged the wired connection to the internet and waited to discover my wifi. It was now renamed and secured.

Now all I needed to do was setup my network. My laptop is running Ubuntu (Karmic Koala) but I am certain these procedures are very easy to perform on Mandriva.

Select WEP 40/128-bit key
And toggle to Authentication: Shared Key
Drop down to WEP index: 1 and enter WEP Key 1 from my records file
and hit apply.
I did the same routine for WEP Index 2-4 entering the corresponding keys from my file record.

My wireless network is now encrypted with WEP. I have heard that WPA encryption is more solid, but I can’t be too bothered. WEP is better than nil. Good luck and have fun blocking those would be hackers out there.

*Update:
I have now encrypted using WPA2-PSK(AES)
at Step 3 above, select WPA2-PSK(AES) then ASCII and enter a single password
A good password contains a mix of upper and lower case characters, letter and numbers. You can also include punctuation characters. To be quite honest, I was surprised at how simple WPA security setup is. So there. Life is easier than we expect sometimes. With my setup, I only have one key which all devices will share, unlike WEP keys which different users can each have a special key. One user can have a key revoked as well, giving the admin of a network some level of control which is lacking with my current setup.

Google Chrome Beta v5.0.307.11 :: Mandriva 2010

Google Buzz is still in it’s early phase and so the user experience leaves a few annoyances to be dealt with. A useful extension has been written by Jeremy Chone for the Google Chrome Browser . You are advised to follow Jeremy Chone for updates about the extension. As of today, the link provided at the end of this post, has been tested and works fine.

To use the extension, you will need the very latest version of Chrome. The version in Contrib doesn’t allow extensions yet. So here’s how you should go about that:

Download the binary file.

Select the rpm version for Fedora/OpenSuse

Use Mandriva’s Sotware Installer (either Open it and Install in one step, or save it first then open it with the Installer). Install all dependencies and accept the package as “trusted” (without a signature).

Now for the fun part. Chrome won’t run. Mandriva 2010  has libbz2.so.1.0 and Chrome is searching for libbz2.so.1.0.0

Solution:

Open a terminal

type this into the terminal

su

[enter]

your root password

[enter]

cd /

[enter]

create a symbolic link to the absent lib.so like this

For 32-bit systems

ln -s /usr/lib/libbz2.so.1.0.0 /usr/lib/libbz2.so.1.0

[enter]

exit

[enter]

exit

[enter]

For 64-bit system, the line is like this

ln -s /usr/lib64/libbz2.so.1.0.0 /usr/lib64/libbz2.so.1.0

Don’t forget to “exit” [enter] “exit” [enter]

Find Google Chrome Browser from your starting Menu
Applications/Internet/More/Google Chrome

Get the extension by Jeremy Chone here:

The Chrome Google Buzz Extension affectionately known as ZBuzzR

Thank you Mr Chone, for a great piece of work. Now we can enjoy Buzzing just a little bit more.

reBlog from Justmakler: “The Year was 1993″

I found this fascinating quote today:

-   Today we have blue tooth, wifi, 3G networks, GPS, AGPS and some other things I won’t pretend to even understand. We’ll in 1993 I had a pager the size of a pack of cigarettes and a car phone the size of a PS3 still in the box. People could get in touch with me anywhere. Ok, we’ll anywhere might be a bit of an exaggeration. If the car phone wasn’t turned on or out of range, I had my beeper as backup. Find a payphone was never a problem in 1993. Do they even have payphones anymore?Justmakler, Feb 2010

You should read the whole article.

VOIP – Ekiga.net Diamondcard.us Twinkle and Qutecom

Many of us cannot use Skype for whatever reason. Ekiga is quite buggy at present, as it doesn’t work well with pulseaudio. In fact, I fail to connect to other Ekiga.net users using Ekiga so I use Twinkle on Mandriva 2010, to get access to Ekiga.net for PC to PC calls and messaging. I also have my diamondcard.us account linked to Twinkle to call land and mobile phones very cheaply.

I am aware that Linphone will give me video capability, but I haven’t set that up as yet. Watch this space. Linphone is in the repos (Mandriva) in case you wish to try it out – just remember that you must disable IPV6 in your network settings and reboot, or Linphone will not work.

Coming to Qutecom – I think Qutecom is a great program, as it is cross platform and links with so many other IM services as well as Ekiga and Diamondcard.us. The problem is there is no rpm for my mandriva 2010. I am sure this is a project worth tackling in the coming weeks. For now, Here is a link for those of you who can install Qutecom… How to set it up with diamondcard.us

Snapshots to help you configure Qutecom with diamondcard.us

I haven’t got access to Qutecom at the moment so I can’t give you specifics about setting Ekiga.net to Qutecom.

Ekiga.net on my Twinkle (Qutecom will be similar)
Register with Ekiga and then you have username and password (check your email)
Install Twinkle from repos (Linux only)
Open twinkle (first time) and follow the wizard to set up a profile for yourself.. call it name.ekiga for example. You can access the new profile feature later by Alt F – C – Alt N – enter name.ekiga – enter (OK)

User Profile window of Twinkle
Sidebar – USER
Alt Y – (Your name) First Lastname
Alt U – (Username) ekiganame (check you email ekiga.net for a sip account)
Alt D – (Domain) – ekiga.net
Alt R – (Realm) – ekiga.net
Alt n – (Authentication name) – ekiganame (check email)
Alt p – check your email for this (ekiga password check email)
Sidebar – SIP Server
Alt R – (Registrar) – ekiga.net
Sidebar – Transport/NAT
Alt S (Use STUN) – stun.ekiga.net
Alt O (OK)
Add Buddy to Buddy List
Highlight your user profile in the sidebar marked as “Buddy List”
Right mouse click – Add Buddy
enter buddy’s name like this
Name – Friend Real Name
Phone – sip:friendsekiganame@ekiga.net

Diamondcard Profile in Twinkle

(sorry still incomplete – I have some errands to run today – tara’s birthday tomorrow .. pls comment me and I will get back asap

YoVille stalls on Linux – Solution, Install Adobe Flashplayer 10.1 Beta 2

If you play YoVille you would have noticed that since upgrading your flash player from version 9, you have not been able to play your game. It will stall at 75% and fail to connect to the game server.

Solution is to install Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta 2 (released Dec 17th, 2009)

Installation of the plugin ….

Firstly, have you set up “sudo”? If not, then follow my guide here

2. Uninstall your existing flash player plugin AS ROOT.. (use sudo or su command), thusly:
OPEN Terminal.. GNOME desktop.. Applications > Tools > Terminal
Enter this in the terminal (you may copy by left-clicking three times, and paste the command string in your own terminal)

sudo urpme flash-player-plugin libswfdec0.8_0 swfdec-mozilla

hit [enter] wait…

OR… if you haven’t setup sudo then do the following..

su

hit [enter] … enter root password.. hit [enter]
then…

urpme flash-player-plugin libswfdec0.8_0 swfdec-mozilla

hit [enter] wait…

then logout of root (super user) thusly…

exit

hit [enter]

3. Download the flashplayer version 10.1 from this link here find the “Linux plugin.tar.gz”.

or… copy and paste into a terminal

wget http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplayer10/flashplayer10_1_rc4_linux_050510.tar.gz

4. Uncompress it, thusly

The latest plugin name is flashplayer10_1_rc4_linux_050510.tar.gz (May 13th, 2010) If you use the link to adobe and find a more updated plugin, then change the name of the plugin in the commands below accordingly

tar -xzf flashplayer10_1_rc4_linux_050510.tar.gz

5. Create the ./mozilla/plugins directory in your home directory, thusly

mkdir -p ~/.mozilla/plugins

6. Copy the plugin to the new directory, thusly

cp libflashplayer.so ~/.mozilla/plugins

When you restart firefox, you will be using the new flash player plugin. This will not be system wide, so you would need to install for each user.

When the stable version is released, you would install it via the repository (system wide) and then remove the plugin from ./mozilla/plugin lik e this..

rm ~/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so

Except for the Mandriva command “urpme”, this plugin installation guide is all thanks to Craciun Dan’s entry at the TuxArena blog – “How to Install Flash Player 10.1 in Ubuntu 10.1 Karmic Koala“. Thank you Craciun Dan.

Burn subtitles from MKV to AVI to 3GP

INPUT: Embedded vobsub in MKV container (h264/AAC)
OUTPUT: Hardcoded “burned-in” subs in AVI container

The Input = movie_x264_aac.MKV from DVD by OGMRip ver. 0.13.2  or K9Copy then OGMRip* (note below)
Output = movie_libavcodec_mp3lame.AVI by mencoder/ffmpeg, thusly:

The easiest way is to navigate to the folder where your input file is saved, then open a terminal. If you already followed the guide here, then your life will be simple.guide link

You can also change the input option in the command below, to explicitly point to the location of the input file and output file in the commands below, eg “~/Videos/DVD_T1 – multisubs – x264 aac.mkv” (include the “commas if there are spaces in the file name”). In this case, it would not matter where your terminal is active.

If you have the script installed now, open a terminal and enter this (this assume you have installed the software in my Post-install guide)..

mencoder ‘DVD_T1 – multisubs – x264 aac.mkv’ -slang kor -spualign 2 -subpos 96 -o DVD_T1_KOR.avi -oac mp3lame -ovc lavc -lavcopts vbitrate=700

Now you can convert the movie.hardcoded.subs_lang.AVI to a 3GP. I use ffmpeg which is ver y easy and allows one to cue the jobs right away. I was able to get fully AAC enable ffmpeg with ease in Mandriva 2010.0. Check my December 2009 post-install part 3. Make sure you have those essential packages, and then install the correct WinFF.rpm. Try rpmfind. Just make sure you have the package that fits your installation/architecture the best eg. winff-1.1.1-1mdv2010.1.i586.rpm or “x86_64″

I found these links and others useful in solving this problem…
Ubuntu Forum – Burning subs (forum link)
Taiabati Linux Goodies (read more)
Check out my.del.icio.us bookmarks with the tag mencoder

*OGMRip User Manual (user manual link) and Sourceforge.net (support link)

OGMRip User Manual Snapshot

When using OGMRip, to avert the indefinite stalling during encoding (user issue note), unchecked the Automatic Compressibility Check (the last pane of the GUI, before hitting “Extract”). I found a ‘log file’ in my rip data folder that grew to a ridiculous size as a result of this stalling. b-frames and automatic compressibility was recently included into the software and may not work reliably. We await OGMRip version 0.13.3 for fixes.

As an example, my custom profile settings in OGMRip are::
Ctrl+f to open “Edit Profiles” pane
Select “PC, Low Quality” and “Copy”
Select Copy of PC, Low Quality and “Edit”
General tab – Format, MKV & FourCC, FFMpeg
Video tab – Codec, X264 & Quality, Normal
Audio tab – AAC & 24000Hz
Subtitles tab – Codec, VobSub

You can Rename this profile to
Custom PC, Low Quality
1-pass, 1x700MB (MKV + x264 + AAC)