Category: Online Services

Troubleshooting: Playing DRM Videos from Amazon

This is the second time this has happened.  I keep getting:

Sorry we were unable to stream this video.  This is likely because your flash player could not be updated.

I had just reinstalled my media laptop with Linux Lite OS (a flavor of Ubuntu), and I was trying to watch a video from Amazon.  It was one of the Prime Instant Videos.

To fix the issue, I followed McDougall’s instructions.  Basically, it was just installing the “hal” package and deleting the .adobe and .macromedia settings directories:

sudo apt-get install hal
rm -r ~/.adobe ~/.macromedia

Finally, I rebooted and retried.  It all worked fine after that.

Resources

What App Can I Use for a Single Social Heaquarters?

This post is just a quick research into the different apps that attempt to unify all of the different social websites.  I just want one place to read the updates and one place to publish updates/thoughts.

For me, these are the sites that are on my radar:

Ok, so that’s the idea.  Here’s some applications that I found:

TweetDeck LogoTweetDeck

Links:

The interface looks cool.  It has multiple columns and you can add filters to show what you want in each column.  The only problem is that it seems limited to just one Twitter Account and/or one Facebook account.  Here’s the setting screen, and I don’t see where you can add anything else:

TweetDeck Settings Screen

Yoono Logo Yoono

Links:

This option looks pretty cool too.  They have a desktop app, browser app, and an iPhone app.  (What about Android?)  But, they don’t list Google Plus and Diaspora on their supported services list:

Yoono Supported Services

Hotot LogoHotot

Links:

This option looks very promising because of the extension support.  I couldn’t find any list of supported services, but it sounds like you could write an extension to support a new one if needed.  It is a desktop app with versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Gwibber LogoGwibber

Links:

This project is an open source Linux desktop client.  It came preinstalled on my latest Ubuntu installation, so I will probably play with it the most.  It also doesn’t have Google Plus or Diasport, so I need to do some research there.

Gwibber Supported Services

Conculsion

I will have to report back if I find a solution that works well for me.  In the meantime, can you help?  Please comment if you have some a useful tool or method that helps you keep up with the “social” world.

WebEx in Fedora 15 (64 bit)

At one point, I thought WebEx was working natively in 64-bit Linux.  Either I am mistaken or it no longer works on 64-bit.  So, I decided to dust off my old 32-bit hack where you install 32-bit versions of Java and Firefox to make it all work.

Earlier, I had thought I would use my regular 64-bit installation, and I had posted my hooking Java up to Firefox for WebEx.  I was rightly corrected on troshlyak’s blog.  The 64-bit will work, but you can’t share your desktop or view another’s desktop.  So, I am back to the old way.  So, here’s what I did…

I downloaded the two programs:

I created a directory in ~/bin/webex to hold it all.  Under that, I put the Java SDK under the “jdk1.7.0_01” directory.  Then, I put Firefox under “firefox”.

Environment Script:

I created this script in ~/bin/webex/env.sh:

#!/bin/sh

export WEBEX_HOME=~/bin/webex
export JDK_HOME=$WEBEX_HOME/jdk1.7.0_01
export JAVA_HOME=$JDK_HOME/jre
export FIREFOX_HOME=$WEBEX_HOME/firefox
export MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH=$FIREFOX_HOME/plugins
export PATH=$FIREFOX_HOME:$JAVA_HOME/bin/:$JDK_HOME/bin/:$PATH

To make sure you have it right, you can check it like this:

[skp@pecan bin]$ . ~/bin/webex/env.sh
[skp@pecan bin]$ which java
~/bin/webex/jdk1.7.0_01/jre/bin/java
[skp@pecan bin]$ java -version
java version "1.7.0_01"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_01-b08)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 21.1-b02, mixed mode)

Now, you can link in the Java plugin like this:

mkdir $MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH
ln -s $JAVA_HOME/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so $MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH/libnpjp2.so

Now, fire up firefox.  Note you may be asked to create the WebEx profile.  Make sure you create a profile with the same name you use on the command line so it won’t ask you again.

firefox --no-remote -P WebEx http://java.com/en/download/testjava.jsp

This should give you a successful Java applet working on the test page.  You also should see the architecture as i386.

Java Test Successful and shows i386

Finally, I created a ~/bin/webex.sh script to launch webex easily for me.

#!/bin/bash

cd ~/bin/webex
. ./env.sh
firefox --no-remote -P WebEx

And you should be good to go.

Tips for WebEx on 64-bit Fedora 15

Things are settling down now on my Fedora 15, and it is time to get WebEx working.  After a few Google searches, I came across instructions on using 32-bit Firefox on 64-bit Fedora.

I had WebEx working in my 64-bit Ubuntu installation, so I decided to not settle for a 32-bit hack. I didn’t get a good how-to going, but here’s some tips that might help:

First, get Java working. I have Sun’s JDK 1.7 installed. I am not sure the version matters. Open JDK or Sun’s JDK should work, and the 1.6 should be fine. From this posting, I found the command to link the Java plugin to Firefox:

sudo /usr/sbin/alternatives –install \
    /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin.so \
    libjavaplugin.so.x86_64 \
    /usr/java/default/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so 20000

For Chrome, I used this command:

sudo ln -s \
   /etc/alternatives/libjavaplugin.so.x86_64 \
   /usr/lib64/chromium-browser/plugins/libjavaplugin.so.x86_64

If this still doesn’t work, you can troubleshoot with these commands:

ls -l /usr/java/default/lib/amd64/libnpjp2.so
ls -l /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins
ls -l /etc/alternatives/libjavaplugin.so.x86_64

Now, make sure this page comes up and says that the Java plugin is working:
Java.com: How do I test whether Java is working on my computer?

If that works for you, move on to WebEx:
WebEx Join Test

Update: Unfortunately, while the Join Test works, it is not a good test. The 64-bit will not work with Desktop Sharing. If you plan to try to view someone’s desktop, you will need to fall back to the 32-bit version of Firefox and Java. You can view the requirements here, and notice that 27.27 has updated to requiring 32-bit.

Resources:

LogMeIn Hamachi on Fedora 15

The time has come to get my LogMeIn VPN working again. The learning curve was not near as steep as this time (I didn’t loose any hair!), but I did still have a few issues.

First, I downloaded the RPM from Logmein’s website: logmein-hamachi-2.0.1.15-1.x86_64.rpm

When I went to use the VPN, I got this message:

Hamachi does not seem to be running. 
Run '/etc/init.d/logmein-hamachi start' to start daemon. 

That seemed like an easy fix, but it wouldn’t start. I got this error message when I tried to start the service:

/etc/init.d/logmein-hamachi: line 28: /lib/lsb/init-functions: No such file or directory 

To fix it, I found a bug reference that suggested I should install a package like redhat-lsb-4.0-6.fc15. You should be able to do it with this command:

su -c "yum install redhat-lsb"

After installing that, the VPN service started fine:

su -c "/etc/init.d/logmein-hamachi start"
Starting LogMeIn Hamachi VPN tunneling engine logmein-hamac[  OK  ] 

One thing I did notice is that the service doesn’t automatically start like it did when I was using it on Ubuntu. I don’t know why, but this is actually what I want anyway. I can just start the service when I want to use it with:

su -c "/etc/init.d/logmein-hamachi start"

LogMeIn VPN; PullMeHairOut on Ubuntu

You would think a stereotypical Linux user would not mind getting his hands dirty in the command-line trying to make a program work.  Well, either this user is not typical or that’s not true.  The LogMeIn Hamagi VPN solution seems to have some cool features, but the Linux client was painful to figure out.  Some documentation or instructions would be nice, but I think a nice basic user interface would also be helpful.  Command-line is cool, but I just need to get connected, and I don’t want to learn yet another networking tool to get where I need to go.

If you are attempting Hamachi, this blog post is your lifesaver:

Eric Lefevre-Ardant on Java & Agile: How to use LogMeIn under Linux

Next task is finding the Linux client.  They don’t have a production one, but they do have a beta version available.  Check out their beta page: LogMeIn Labs & Betas.  This part is awesome once you find it — choose your flavor, deb or rpm, they have it.  The Deb worked great for me on Ubuntu x64 10.04.

After installing, it was like nothing happened.  No new menu items show up in the menu.  Well, don’t worry, it installs a service and a command line program.  Here are the files shown in the package:

Files in the package

When the package installs, it starts the service.  You can see it running here:

Service Running

Now, you have it installed.  You need to use the command-line program to connect.  First, you simply need to connect to the LogMeIn server (everything goes through there server).  Note that you don’t need a user name or any credentials for this part (that will come later).  Here’s the command plain and simple:

sudo hamachi login

Now, if you have an account on LogMeIn, you need to “attach” to it.  If you are connecting to someone else’s network, you can skip this step.

sudo hamachi attach <email_address>

As far as I can tell, the next command just sets a name for your client.  This is the name that will appear in the administration pages online for LogMeIn Hamachi.

sudo hamachi   set-nick <name>

In my case, I set my nickname to “stephen”:

My Nickname Setup

Then, online it will show this name:

Nickname Used

Now, the final step is to connect to the network.  This is where it got really confusing for me.  It was not the command or how to do anything, but the problem was just determining what network ID to use.  So, let me walk you through how to figure out the ID.

The person with the account on LogMeIn who setup the network, will need to login and view the “My Networks” page.  Then, click on the edit link next to the network:

Viewing the Network Settings
Then, here’s where you see the network ID to use in the join command.

Finding the Network ID for the Join command

Once you know this ID, you can simply run the command:

sudo hamachi do-join "<network ID>"

It may ask you the password for the network.  The LogMeIn account holder can optionally setup the password.  If no password was setup, just hit enter, and it will proceed.  Here’s what the configuration looks like when you setup a network:

Network Password Setup

Now, you should be connected.  You should have a new network interface in your network settings:

ham0 network interface

If you need to connect to other machines in the Hamachi network by IP address, you will need the LogMeIn account holder to give you those IP addresses.  You talk to other machines via the IP address for the Hamachi network not the local network.

All in all, once you get it setup, it seems to work well.  I don’t like the fact that you have to run the program as administrator.  For my other VPNs, I don’t need super user access to configure or connect.  I also don’t like having an extra service running in the background.  Why can’t it just use the Network Manager Applet like the other VPNs?

Now, I would be amiss if I didn’t mention the GUI.  I found a Community Thread that points to a front-end called Haiguichi.  It has a Deb package that you can install, and that part worked fine.  It gives you a new menu item under Applications > Internet > Haiguichi.  I couldn’t get it to configure though, and I finally figured out the command-line, so I left it alone.

Gizmod for Volume on Mythbuntu

Our remote control has been working fine with my Mythbuntu setup for a while now, but there are a few things I would like to work better. Volume is one of those thing. Lirc controls the volume differently between Hulu Desktop and the built-in video player. It is a little annoying.

So, after a little Googling, this thread sparked my interest in Gizmod.

Installing…

To install it on my system, I followed the Ubuntu directions. That calls for installing via the repositories:

sudo apt-get install gizmod

Next, I had to address the UDev / Security. First, that means creating an “input” group:

sudo groupadd -f input
sudo gpasswd -a username input

Then, I added the following lines to /etc/udev/rules.d/99-input.rules:

KERNEL=="event*",       NAME="input/%k", MODE:="660", GROUP="input"
KERNEL=="js*",          NAME="input/%k", MODE:="664", GROUP="input"

Then, to make the changes take effect, I ran:

sudo service udev restart

Here’s the problem. When I tried to start gizmod, I got this error:

GizmoDaemon v3.4 -=- (c) 2007, Tim Burrell &lt;tim.burrell@gmail.com&gt;=---------=
Unable to Initialize Gizmod :: User Script dir [/usr/etc/gizmod/modules.d] does NOT exist or permissions are wrong!
GizmoDaemon Shut Down.

Recompiling

I found a bug report that seemed to suggest that maybe recompiling from the source might fix the problem. So, here is what I did.

So, I downloaded the latest version from the Download Page. Then, here’s the command to unzip:

tar -xjvf gizmod-3.5.tar.bz2

cd gizmod-3.5/

Installing dependencies

The easiest way to make sure that you have all the dependencies is with apt-get. Otherwise, you need to check the documentation and manually go through the list installing all the programs.

sudo apt-get build-dep gizmod

Then, continuing on, I followed the instructions and ran CMake.

mkdir build && cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DSYSCONF_INSTALL_DIR=/etc ../../gizmod-3.5

make

The make command failed with this error:

skp@gabriel:~/Downloads/gizmod-3.5/build$ make
[ 29%] Built target H
[ 31%] Building CXX object libGizmod/CMakeFiles/Gizmod.dir/CPUUsage.o
/home/skp/Downloads/gizmod-3.5/libGizmod/CPUUsage.cpp: In constructor ‘Gizmod::CPUUsageInfo::CPUUsageInfo()’:
/home/skp/Downloads/gizmod-3.5/libGizmod/CPUUsage.cpp:83: error: ‘memset’ was not declared in this scope
make[2]: *** [libGizmod/CMakeFiles/Gizmod.dir/CPUUsage.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [libGizmod/CMakeFiles/Gizmod.dir/all] Error 2
make: *** [all] Error 2

I found a fix online. The fix was to add #Include <cstring>:

Then, it worked. Everything compiled with no problem.

Lastly, I finished the compile/install with:

sudo make install

Now, I haven’t used it very much. I think I need to do some configuring and hacking to get it to do what I want it to. Currently, it doesn’t seem to do well with Hulu Desktop.

Setting up Google Custom Search

The other day, I was trying to create a Custom Search for all of my blogs.  I had trouble getting it to work.  It wouldn’t save my URLs and therefore wouldn’t return any results.

I finally found a thread showing that you leave the protocol (http://) off when you enter the URLs.  So, my settings look like this:

URLs on Google Custom Search

One of the things that I don’t like about the search is that I don’t seem to have control over the ads on the page.  I don’t like the big section of ads before you see the search results.  That seems like it would be slightly annoying side for the users, but that’s just my thought.

Example Search Results Page from My Site

Still, it seems like it works well though.  All in all, I am happy with it so far.

Please comment any thoughts you have.

Resources

Hulu with MythTV

We found some of the old shows on Hulu, and we have really been enjoying them: Bewitched, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, etc.  Since we don’t have cable, this works great for us.  It’s like a new kind of TV!

On top of that, I found out that I could install the Hulu application on my MythTV box.

I downloaded it from here:

Hulu Desktop (Linux)

And, I followed these directions:

Mythbuntu Wiki: Hulu Desktop in Mythbuntu