now run free:
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 1543508 463972 1079536 0 18552 299028
Swap: 1957880 0 1957880

Located just outside Interlaken, this is a nice little project for Angela and I. We have big hopes for the place, It is divided into two places, but we plan on making it one big house, bottom floor (house1) will be the “sleeping” area, and the top floor (house2) will be the “living” area.

Specs:
Canton – Bern
Rooms – 8
Size – 360 m2

So our new playground:
Summer

Winter

Here are some pics from the estate agent:

Setting up MySQL

If you add the relevant section to advancedsettings.xml and start xbmc, it will create the relevant databases however with the default collation which is not latin1_general_ci. For some reason I kept on getting:

So, to get it all working is simple, I used mysql admin however, use phpMyAdmin as I have tested this and it works fine.

Things are slow with large databeses, so I suggest greating an indiex. A index is a data structure that improves the speed of operations in a table. On the xbmc_music database:

This reduced my Artist Look up by ~35 seconds (before – 35.4523 : after – 0.1138 )

That’s it for SQL, move on to configure xbmc.

Setting up xbmc

First thing is to update advancedsettings to tell xbmc to use MySQL

And add the following:

Replace 10.0.0.10 with the relevent server thats hosing MySQL

Restart xbmc, and you good to rock and roll.

Setting up thumbnails on NFS

The reason for this is my Thumbnails is 2.3 GB and I don’t want to rebuild these on each pc, or on a reinstall. I also use dds, which is hell fast, however needs to be built from the tbn which takes time.

You can use CIFS too, however I prefer nfs. Add your share to fstab:

At the end add:

Replace 10.0.0.10 with the relevant server that you have your nfs share on.

To save a bit of time if you already have thumbnails:

That’s it you now have xbmc using a remote MySQL database and storing yoru Thumbnails on a remote server to

Using DX1 DDS

This is simple, just add useddsfanart to advancedsettings.xml, this increases my switch times tenfold. I will never look back.

And add the following:

Prerequisites

Install the following qpks on the QNAP
Optware – http://resources.qnap.com/~qnap/Storage/QPKG/X86/Optware_0.99.163_x86.zip
Python – http://resources.qnap.com/~qnap/Storage/QPKG/X86/Python_2.7_x86.zip
SABnzbdplus – http://resources.qnap.com/~qnap/Storage/QPKG/X86/SABnzbdplus_0.5.3_x86.zip
Git

Configure SABnzbdplus

connect to http://NAS_IP:8800
Set the defaults for SABnzbdplus, change the port to 8082
Once restarted go to http://NAS_IP:8082
Select Config
General








Config –> Sorting
Enable Series Sorting
Set the Sort String to:
%s.n/Season.0%s/%s.n.S%0sE%0e.%ext
This will give you a nice name for example:
Show.Name/Season.01/Show.Name.S01E05.avi

Sorting is done using replaceable values such as %sn for the show name.

Install SickBeard

Run SickBeard to create initial config file:

once fully started hit ctrl+c

Edit the config file:

Start up SickBeard and finnish the configuration.

Then go to ttp://NAS_IP:8081
Select the Config Tab
General | Episode Downloads | Search Providers | Notifications






Let SABnzbdplus startup script start SickBeard

after:

add:

before:

add:

Now stop and start SABnzbdplus via the qnap qui
Home –> Applications –> QPKG Plugins –> SABnzbdplus
Disable then Enable Again

Test to see if SABnzbdplus and SickBeard started up
SickBeard – 8081
SABnzbdplus – 8082

Download the ember installer and execute it:

After Instlation:

Actually, I can say nothing else but good things about it. The Android OS feels just like…. natural. You realize quickly, that Google has put in a lot of efforts into this system. Actually, they put in a lot of efforts in their latest products (Chrome, Picasa, etc.). In any case, I could get everything running in short time.

If you have a Google (or Google Apps) account then synching and setting up the phone is a breeze. All you have to do is to enter your eMail address and password and your phone pulls all the eMail, Calendar and Contacts from Google. Nothing else to do there. I actually had a funny thing with Contact synching. Exchnage webdav support is also nice. Quicker and easier to setup than the iPhone.

You can feel that Android was build for working with Google Apps. eMails come in almost as instantly as on any desktop app. GTalk is integrated also and you get notification going all over the place. One thing that Android has definitely gotten right, are the notification in general. They don’t only work for some applications, but work for about everything. This is especially useful if you are on Twitter (who isn’t? btw: follow me at @thenitai) and someone mentions you or is sending you a message. This works with Seesmic or Hootsuite and any other app. Very nice.

Another thing is the geo location functionality. Google Maps with direction just blows aways about everything you have seen before. Did you ever try to use Directions on the iPhone? The last time in London, I ended up in a total different place. Anyhow, all I’m saying is that Android is really a good system and if they continue like this, they will give everyone a run for their money (yes, Apple I mean you).

Not being a “game” guy, I did not play one game on it yet, but can imagine that the Galaxy screen just screams for it Talking about the screen. WOW. This Super Alomed screen is just marvelous. The phone itself is bigger then the iPhone (3g and 4G) but just a little. Since it is lighter then the iPhone 4G you actually don’t feel a difference at all. Actually, you won’t even notice a big difference between the iPhone and the Samsung, until you start working with it and realize that Android is not just a “Linux” and “Geek” system, but a grown up operating system for the phone. And a fun one as well. Turn on “Live Wallpaper” and you know what I mean…

At the end, I recommend the phone wholeheartedly to everyone who is thinking of switching from the iPhone.

Setup GPRS and MMS for Swisscom network

If you, like me, have not bought the phone from Swisscom directly you have to setup the phone manually to be able to connect to any Internet service on 3G. Swisscom offers a “setup your device” website which will send you a SMS and will automatically configure the phone, but unfortunately the Samsung Galaxy can not be configured this way. Thus we have to do some hand work here.

Go to “Settings”, click on “Wireless and network” and then on “Mobile networks”. Within click on “Access Point Names”. You will probably see a black screen. Thus we will have to add a APN now. Click on the menu key and “New APN” (do it once for GPRS and one time for MMS). Then simply enter all the required paramaters according to the list below:

For GPRS:
Name: Swisscom GPRS
APN: gprs.swisscom.ch
Proxy:
Port:
User name: gprs
Password: gprs
Server:
MMSC:
MMS-Proxy:
MMS-Port:
MCC: 228
MNC: 01
Authentication type:
APN-Typ: Internet + MMS

For GPRS:
Name: Swisscom MMS
APN: event.swisscom.ch
Proxy:
Port:
User name:
Password:
Server:
MMSC: http://mms.natel.ch:8079
MMS-Proxy: 192.168.210.2
MMS-Port: 8080
MCC: 228
MNC: 01
Authentication type:
APN-Typ: MMS

That’s it. Now you should be able to see the “3G” sign in the upper menu bar and will be able to connect to Twitter et all on your mobile network.

Java? Java!

You will need Java, the standard OpenJDK implementation will work just fine:

Once that’s installed, you might want to verify that it seems to work:

Downloading the Android SDK

Grab the latest Android SDK tarball from here, and install it somewhere under your home directory. Once you do that, you should add the newly-installed tools/ subdirectory to your search path, since you’re going to want to be running the android and emulator executables real soon now. Once you do that, naturally, log out and log back in to make sure you have the updated search path.

And now, the real downloading starts.

Adding the SDK components

At this point, you need to download and install the SDK components for whatever versions of Android you want to support. Initially, you can tell that you have no SDK versions downloaded:

So what you need to do is run the following, and select whatever versions of the SDK you’re going to need. Unless you’re being frugal, just select everything since you never know if you’ll need to support older versions:

Depending on your download speed, take a break. Once the entire download is done, you can verify that it’s all there with:

So that tells us that we have support for various versions of Android, but no virtual devices yet. No problem. Time to create some virtual devices.

Creating a virtual device or two

A fairly simple procedure:

Select “New,” give your new Android Virtual Device (AVD) a name and so on, but there’s one caution — apparently, there’s still a bug (reported by your humble author) that you can’t select an SD card image of size 2G or larger so just pick something smaller. Once that appears to be done, close the window and verify you have a new AVD (given some values I pulled out of thin air):

Run the EMU!

Note that, the first time you run the emulator on a new AVD, it might take a while so be patient. And now, the fun part — installing a new app.

Installing a new app on your emulator

A detailed explanation of how to install a new Android app can be found here, but let’s keep it short. Assuming you have your new app in .apk file format, simply make sure your emulator is running:

at which point, install the app with:

whereupon the icon for your new app should show up in the emulator.

Hacks to get things working Smoothly

Volume OSD
Volume buttons now work find in ubuntu 10.04 however there is no OSD. To get OSD working do the following:
vi /etc/rc.local
add this just before exit 0
cp /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/hotkey_all_mask /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/hotkey_mask

Nice to haves

Enable playback of MP3’s, MP4’s & more

Ubuntu aren’t allowed by law to ship certain multimedia codec’s out of the box. Installing them yourself, thankfully, is a breeze – just click the button below!

Change font and/or font size

I know what you’re thinking: those fonts look huge, huh? Set them to a smaller size via the Appearance menu (Shortcut: Right click on Desktop > Change Background > Fonts).

Most people find size 9pt works well but if you have a very wide display 8pt may suit you better. If the default font isn’t to your taste a lot of readers suggested installing DroidSans:

Many people also recommend you install the Microsoft Core fonts package for better web browsing:

Install Ubuntu Tweak and make your life easier

Ubuntu Tweak is a one-stop shop for managing and installing extra applications, tweaking your desktop (such as putting the window controls back on the right and choosing which icons show on the desktop) and allowing you to keep your system in tip-top shape with the built in system cleaning options. (Ubuntu tweak recently won our ‘Best System Cleaners’ poll by a landslide – and for good reason!)

First of all, modelines are not a the magic solution to all your problems. Modelines are only needed with tv’s that have faulty EDID information. Most TVs provide the correct modes for 29.97/59.94 Hz, but the modes are not used by xrandr by default, so XBMC can’t see that they are available.

To check how ~24 and ~60 Hz modes are currently handled on your setup you can run the following command:
(XBMC Live doesn’t have libgtk, which is required by nvidia-settings. Either check the refresh inside XBMC instead by pausing a video and pressing “o”, or run “sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0″.)

The command will print the actual refresh rates used when switching the way XBMC does. Most setups will show 24 and 60 Hz instead of the wanted 23.97 and 59.94 Hz. You can run the command again after step 3 to check the difference.

The steps needed to set everything up are:

• Adding a proper xorg.conf
• Finding what modes the TV says it supports in it’s EDID.
• Adding the wanted modes to xorg.conf so XBMC can use them.
• Adjusting the settings in NVIDIA’s drivers.
• Adjusting the settings in XBMC.

Manual installation

1. Adding a proper xorg.conf

Now your /etc/X11/xorg.conf should look like this:

The XBMC forum contains a lot of posts with messy xorg.conf settings, using options that are enabled by default, deprecated or unrelated to video playback. This is all that is needed. Don’t use options you don’t understand! Explanations to all the options can be found in the NVIDIA drivers manual. The ModeDebug option makes the nvidia driver print all the available modes to Xorg’s log file.

2. Finding what modes the TV says it supports in it’s EDID.

Now that ModeDebug is enabled Xorg needs to be restarted so the available modes will be written to the log file.

or if you are running XBMC Live:

Parse Xorg’s log file and output a text file with all the available modes on your desktop:

3. Adding the wanted modes to xorg.conf so XBMC can use them.

Open up modes.txt and /etc/X11/xorg.conf in your favourite editor.

The relevant part of my modes.txt looks like this:

If you don’t have any 23.97 or 59.94 modes here, that’s when you need to use modelines instead! Use the test command in the beginning of the post to see if your modelines work as expected. Then continue with step 4.

The above TV supports both both 60 and 59.94 Hz. The left column is the name of the mode. As you can see both modes have names that start with “1920x1080_60″. Since xrandr can’t have two ~60 Hz modes available at the same time, we need to tell it to use the 59.94 Hz mode when switching to a ~60 Hz refresh rate. Same needs to be done with the ~24 Hz mode.

The two modes wanted are called “1920x1080_60_0″ and “1920x1080_24_0″ since they provide the correct refresh rates. To enable these, paste the names of the modes to the Modes-line of /etc/X11/xorg.conf replacing the current setting. The first mode on the line will be your default mode. In my case it looks like this when done:

Save and exit. Restart Xorg for the settings to take effect:

or if you are running XBMC Live:

4. Adjusting the settings in NVIDIA’s drivers.

To enable all the right and disable all the wrong options in the drivers you can run this command: (Not needed on XBMC Live)

All these options are available though the gui of nvidia-settings aswell.

5. Adjusting the settings in XBMC.

In XBMC you want to set the following:

System Settings

• Vertical blank sync – Always enabled

Video Settings

• Render method – Auto detect
• Adjust display refresh rate to match video – On
• Sync playback to display – On
• A/V sync method – Audio

XBMC should now automatically switches between 23.97, 50, and 59.94 Hz for 23.97, 25 and 29.97 FPS content respectively.

Two settings that you might want to try if you run into trouble is setting “Sync playback to display” to Off in XBMC and/or change NoFlip to “false” in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

I’ve always been well aware of the dangers of not taking backups but yet still lazy enough to ignore it.

Backup for the lazy includes the following steps:

• Put USB stick in computer
• Wait for computer to BEEP or USB stick to stop flashing
• Unplug USB stick
• Rinse and repeat!

I wrote a package that does the following:

• Detects USB drives connected to the computer and runs the backup script
• Only runs backup on partitions that match the configured volume_id
• Mounts the volume
• Runs rsync and takes an incremental copy of the files that have changed since a last backup.
• Unmounts the volume
• Gives a good or a bad beep through the PC speaker

Step by Step

1. Insert your USB stick/disk
2. Make sure it has a usable partition. I use FAT32 so my Mac can also read it. (hint: System > Administration > Partition Editor)
3. Download the two files and put them in the appropriate places

/etc/udev/rules.d/55-usb-backup.rules (udev rule)
/usr/local/bin/usb-backup (shell script)

4. Find the volume id of your partition and replace mine in the ‘usb-backup’ file
<div id="_mcePaste">nitr8@slayer:~$ sudo blkid /dev/sdb1</div>
<div id="_mcePaste">/dev/sdb1: LABEL="data" UUID="235f29f7-b951-4d33-8c87-4756e9652d40" TYPE="ext4"</div>
5. Set SRC_DIR to the directory you want backed up within ‘usb-backup’
6. Make sure the ‘usb-backup’ file has the execute permission for root:
chmod 700 /usr/local/bin/usb-backup
7. Unplug USB stick
8. Plug in USB stick
9. After it beeps or stops flashing try mounting it f.e.
mount /dev/sdd1 /mnt/sdd1
10. Check if all your files made it accross
Unmount the volume again f.e.
umount /dev/sdd1
11. Unplug and plug it in again once a week or so.

For audio beep to work you need the ‘beep’ package (apt-get install beep)

Notes and credit

Thanks to Anders for his original idea and implementation of this.
The script does not check if the volume has enough space to do the backup. If it doesn’t, it will fail!
If umounting seems slow, it’s due to delayed write to the USB drive.
Should work on other Linux distributions as long as udev is present.
This is provided ‘as is’ and offers no guarantee. Use at your own risk!