Music track for pidgin with Listen

If you have heard that dcop has been withdrawn, that is right. My old script for tracking music for pidgin from amarok has stopped working, and I navigated from amarok to listen. So I had to write a new one. The script keeps your current status message and updates the song to the end of the status message. So here is the script.

pidginstatusupdater

pcurrstatus=`purple-remote getstatus`
pcurrstatusmsg=`purple-remote getstatusmessage`
pcurrstatusmsg=`echo $pcurrstatusmsg| cut -d’:’ -f1`
listen=`listen -c`
purple-remote “setstatus?status=$pcurrstatus&message=$pcurrstatusmsg :: Currently listening to – $listen”
olisten=$listen
while [ TRUE ]; do
if [ "$olisten" != "$listen" ]
then
purple-remote “setstatus?status=$pcurrstatus&message=$pcurrstatusmsg :: Currently listening to – $listen”
olisten=$listen
fi
listen=`listen -c`
pcurrstatus=`purple-remote getstatus`
pcurrstatusmsg=`purple-remote getstatusmessage`
pcurrstatusmsg=`echo $pcurrstatusmsg| cut -d’:’ -f1`
done

To autostart the pidgin along with tracker i wrote a new script to start both of them, named pidgin and placed it in the first location of $PATH.

It is pidgin

/home/openhappiness/pidgin/bin/pidgin& my pidgin installation
sleep 5
/home/openhappiness/pidginstatus my musictracker location

Having problems? Do ping me.

NOTE: make sure that there is no other instance of pidginstatusupdater running.

A Lenny(RC1) Day

3rd Jan 2009

10:20 pm : Started backing up the system for a new installation. And copied the wifi firmware from the current ubuntu installation to a pendrive for use during debian installation.

10:45 pm : All done and set for installation. I poped in the dvd and started the installation. And gave the firmware when it was requested.

11:00 pm : Pain starts.

Finally Video Chat workaround.. OUT OF THE BOX

Yeah it worked straight out of the box with kopete..
sudo apt-get install kopete libjasper-runtime
jasper is required for web cam image manipulations.
Now check if the webcam is working. Fire on gstreamer-properties at the command line..
go to the video tab and select the default input to your web cam.. and click test. and click ok when done with it.

now check if the webcam is working on kopete..
go to Settings>Configure>Devices>Video if not fiddle around to get it working… most of the web cams work out of the box..

next as usual sign into the yahoo/msn account.
to show your webcam right click on the buddy. take the last option with his/her name and click invite to view webcam..
then your webcam should pop up with video on your side..
a notification will pop up at the other end asking confirmation.
if he/she accepts.. voila there you go with video chat…

I tested this with 2 of my yahoo accounts as there was none online when i was trying to figure this out..

Here are some pics of the workaround

I know the next picture looks crazy.. but there was no one else online to test with..

Right click>Set As wallpaper ;)

Yeah i can’t open it it everytime then navigate to all the menus and set my background. So i wanted a right click and set as wallpaper.So here it is. First of all let me tell you the limitation of the script. I’m not able to handle files with a space in its path. I guess ‘ll try to fix tat soon. So i had to rename everything on my hdd by replacing the space with an _ .
So here is the “renamer” script first

find -type f -name "*." > files ;
while read x;
y=`echo $x|sed 's;%20;_;g'
mv "$x" "$y" ;
done < files ;

Enter the path to the wallpaper folder in the your path and the extension like .jpg .png etc in the extension field one by one and run the script.

Next is the objective script. I know this one is very bad script here. But my job was done.. so ‘m happy..
write the code in a file at ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts and make it an exectuable. You will get the script at the right click as in the old scripts.
test=$NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_URIS
test=`echo $test|sed 's;file\:\/\/;;'`
gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "$test"

Reset root password!!

First thing, don’t think this is a flaw in linux. This is not. This is only possible if you are given the system physically and u are allowed hands on before the booting process.

Here it goes,

1. Start your computer. At the grub screen press ‘e’ on ubuntu os selection.
you get a screen with the kernel and initrd choices.
select the kernel choice and press e.
you will get a line as follows

/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=75058396-0925-491c-badc-d621ea98bf1b ro quiet splash
my kernel is 2.6.24-19, the line will not be exactly same as in yours. just similar.

2. Change it to as follows.
/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=75058396-0925-491c-badc-d621ea98bf1b rw init=/bin/bash

make sure you change ro to rw and remove quite and splash
and add the init process as bash.
then press enter key .

3. then select the kernel that we just edited and press ‘b’ to boot into a root terminal without any authentication.
type in the command passwd
and enter the new root password.

if you want to reset the password of some other users just type su username from the root teminal and use the passwd command to change the password.

Now reboot the system and log with the new passwds.
<<<<<>>>>>

Being root (su root) – No more sudo.

After the ubuntu installation the default user is a sudo user.

Log into that user and type

$ sudo -i

and the password of the user.

now u get a “root” terminal ( inverted comma was to differentiate between the real root and sudo “root”.)

type the command

$ passwd
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:

Zenwalk, Ubuntu and GRUB

Ahh installing zenwalk was an easy process except for the bootloader part. A real pain in the neck.

First i installed zenwalk with its native bootloader zenwalk and then got really mad trying to add my ubuntu to the lilo. Sometimes it is better do the old school stuff.

I popped in the ubuntu cd and then restored grub.

Then i added the following lines to my /etc/grub/menu.lst

# Zenwalk Linux
title Zenwalk

I’m done with Windows

Windows is no longer my master. nor a fixer.

I was a software pirate till now.. Had to use Windows till today morning..Now that i had crashes today morning while tryin to install vista x64 i just thought why shuold i keep it again.
To dust bin. Loss = a few dvd’s and some happy hrs of download..
Gain = Freedom..Style..Life..

Laid hands on Ubuntu 8.04 LTS beta..
wow simply WoW.. the windows WoW is just a  windows WoW
lot of new features.
*firefox 3 beta.
*a new cd/dvd burner “brasero dvd burner”
*and a cool facility the unlock. a kinda graphical sudo.(Policykit)
*and in the recovery console.. i just saw a xserver recovery option..
i wish i had that long ago.. coz i had many xserver crashes on 7.04 till when i had to figure out how the nvidia driver is linked to the os..

*the Gnome 2.22 is cool and smooth.. i kinda liked it and goin to stick on it rather than kde..

*the default torrent client is also change… it’s now

KDE 4 on ubuntu gutsy – The easy way

The much awaited KDE4 has been launched. 11th January 2008 was the day when they had a stable release. To have a small detail about it visit the homepage.

An easy way to install the enviroment is descibed below

Getting Started

First when you hear the word Linux you think Windows.
this means you are a slave or just a passenger.
Linux is a world rather than an OS.
It is a way of living rather than computing environment.
It is the place where you control things.

Windows give you things but….. you should understand you are a slave..
Eat what you get.. do what you are told to… piss when you are told to piss… sleep when you are told to sleep…

Windows Sucks