Get the necessary packages with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install postfix bsd-mailx

Begin to configure your postfix installation by choosing satellite system as the general type of configuration. Enter the local machine name as the mail name (eg mycomputer.edafe.org) and the SMTP server address of your email service provider as the SMTP relay host (eg smtp.relayhost.com).

Edit the file /etc/postfix/main.cf and add the following:

smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtp_sasl_security_options =
relay_domains =

Create the file /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd and make the following entries:

smtp.relayhost.com user:password

Substitute smtp.relayhost.com with the address of the SMTP relay host and user:password with your login details.

Continue by executing the following three commands:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo chown root.root /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo chmod 600 /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo postmap hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd

Instruct postfix to reload its settings with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/postfix reload

Making changes to the alias table

The aliases table provides a system-wide mechanism to redirect mail for local recipients.

Edit the file /etc/aliases to contain the following entries:

postmaster: root
root: user@yourdomain.com

Substitute user@yourdomain.com with the email address that you would like mail for the root user to be redirected to.

Finally, update /etc/aliases.db using the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo newaliases

Mail for the local root user from now on will automatically be forwarded to user@yourdomain.com , using smtp.relayhost.com as the relay host.
www.postfix.org, help.ubuntu.com

SMART is available with Parallel and Serial ATA disks, drives appearing as either /dev/hd* or /dev/sd*, respectively. Use the following command to obtain relevant information for your system:

user@ubuntu:~$ df -hl

If required, start by configuring postfix to redirect mail for the local root user.

Get the necessary packages with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install smartmontools bsd-mailx

Configuring smartd

Edit the file /etc/smartd.conf and comment out any lines beginning with DEVICESCAN.

If you are using a netbook or a laptop, add the following line for the smartd daemon to monitor the device /dev/sda:

/dev/sda -a -d ata -n standby -o on -S on -m root -M daily -M test

If you are using a desktop or a server, add the following line for the smartd daemon to monitor the device /dev/hda:

/dev/hda -a -d ata -n never -o on -S on -s (L/../../7/04|S/../.././02) -m root -M daily -M test

See man smartd.conf for more information on how to tailor the operation of smartd to your needs.

Starting smartd

Edit the file /etc/default/smartmontools and uncomment the line containing start_smartd=yes.

Restart the smartd daemon with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/smartmontools restart

Verify that the local root user has received a test message from the smartd daemon.

From now on, the smartd daemon will monitor the disk and, in the event of impending disk failure, alert the local root user by email.

LaTeX is a free document preparation system that enables you to create beautifully typeset pages. It implements a set of commands designed to control TeX, the typesetting engine developed by Donald E Knuth. LaTeX stores the information about your documents as plain text, thus avoiding the risk of vendor lock-in and ensuring that your documents will still be editable twenty years from now. LaTeX processes the plain text data and, with pdfTeX working in the background, generates PDF output of the highest typographic quality—perfect for viewing on-screen or printing on paper. LaTeX runs on many platforms and is included as standard with most Linux distributions. Ready-to-run LaTeX systems are also available for Windows and Mac OS X.
miktex.org, tug.org/mactex

Begin by setting up a new virtual machine and installing Ubuntu 6.06 LTS as the guest operating system. Start the virtual machine and log in as a user belonging to the admin group. You are now ready to install VMware Tools.

Get the necessary packages with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`

Become root and create a symbolic link with the following commands:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo su
root@ubuntu:/home/user# ln -s /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r` /usr/src/linux

On the host, select Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools… from the VMware Workstation menu.

After the guest has mounted the VMware Tools installation virtual CD, change the active directory and copy the VMware Tools archive with the following commands:

root@ubuntu:/home/user# cd /root/
root@ubuntu:~# cp /media/cdrom/VMwareTools-7.6.3-87978.tar.gz /root/

Extract the contents of the archive and then change the active directory with the following commands:

root@ubuntu:~# tar -zxvf VMwareTools-7.6.3-87978.tar.gz
root@ubuntu:~# cd vmware-tools-distrib/

Invoke the install script with the following command, choose to install the binary files in /usr/local/bin and and set your desired screen resolution:

root@ubuntu:~/vmware-tools-distrib# ./vmware-install.pl

Restart your virtual machine.

www.townx.org, www.tech-recipes.com

Get the necessary packages with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install ntp-simple ntpdate

Stop the ntpd daemon and manually synchronise your computer’s clock with the following two commands:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/ntp-server stop
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo ntpdate pool.ntp.org

Modify the file /etc/ntp.conf to read:

# You do need to talk to an NTP server or two (or three).
#server ntp.your-provider.example
#server ntp.ubuntu.com
server 0.pool.ntp.org
server 1.pool.ntp.org
server 2.pool.ntp.org

Start the ntpd daemon with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/ntp-server start

After about one minute, query the status of the ntpq daemon with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo ntpq -p

You can further increase the accuracy of time synchronisation by using the time servers in your continental or country zone.

Printing with CUPS

Get the necessary packages with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install cupsys foomatic-filters-ppds

Add the user cupsys to the group shadow:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo adduser cupsys shadow

Get the file cupsd.conf and move it to /etc/cups/:

user@ubuntu:~# sudo wget "http://edafe.org/ubuntu/cups/cupsd.conf"
user@ubuntu:~# sudo mv cupsd.conf /etc/cups/

The downloaded file contains the following changes from the Ubuntu default configuration:

# Default authentication type, when authentication is required...
DefaultEncryption IfRequested
# Restrict access to the admin pages...
<Location /admin>
  Allow @LOCAL
</Location>

Setting these options enables members of the admin group to modify the configuration of the CUPS server from clients sharing the same local network.

Modify the file /etc/cups/cups.d/ports.conf to read:

Port 631
Listen localhost
Listen 192.168.0.123
Listen /var/run/cups/cups.sock

For 192.168.0.123, substitute the IP address of your machine on the local network.

Restart cupsd with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/cupsys restart

Use a web browser to access http://localhost:631/admin (or http://192.168.0.123:631/admin from another machine on your local network). Go to Administration > Add Printer and begin to set up your printer. When prompted by the system, authenticate yourself as a member of the admin group. If necessary, obtain the correct PostScript Printer Description (PPD) file for your printer model. Print a test page to confirm that your printer is working properly with CUPS.

Making Printers Available over the Network

Install and configure a Samba server and then add the following options to /etc/samba/smb.conf:

[global]
  printing = cups
  load printers = Yes
  printcap name = cups
[printers]
  comment = All Printers
  printable = Yes
  path = /var/spool/samba/print
  browseable = No
  guest ok = Yes
  read only = Yes

Create the directory /var/spool/samba/print and set its permissions with the following two commands:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo mkdir -p /var/spool/samba/print
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo chmod 1777 /var/spool/samba/print

Restart the Samba server with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

Set your Samba clients to use a printer driver that outputs generic PostScript. Use the the Apple LaserWriter driver on Windows, the Generic PostScript driver on Mac OS X or the Raw Standard driver on Ubuntu.
wiki.ubuntuusers.de, www.samba.org

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo nano /path/to/the/file

You can change the default settings for nano by editing its configuration file. For example, to stop nano from wrapping text simply make the following changes to /etc/nanorc:

## Don't wrap text at all.
set nowrap

www.nano-editor.org

For RAID-1, you need two partitions of identical size on two separate disks which are not connected to the same IDE/Parallel ATA-bus.

Use cfdisk to create the two partitions /dev/hdb1 and /dev/hdc1. Set their respective types to FD and do not set their bootable flags. Create the RAID-1 array with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/hd[bc]1

Create a filesystem on the RAID device with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo mke2fs -j /dev/md0

Create an empty directory /raid as a mount point and add the following line to /etc/fstab:

/dev/md0 /raid ext3 defaults 0 2

Mount your RAID array and check its status with the following commands:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo mount /raid
user@ubuntu:~$ sudo mdadm --detail /dev/md0

Monitoring the RAID Array

If required, start by configuring Postfix to redirect mail for the local root user.

Obtain the UUID of your RAID device with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo mdadm -D /dev/md0

Create the file /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf and add the following three lines, replacing 47d1eee2:2cbfr68v:34×75168:142ef912 with the UUID of your RAID:

DEVICE /dev/hdb1 /dev/hdc1
ARRAY /dev/md0 level=raid1 num-devices=2 UUID=47d1eee2:2cbfr68v:34x75168:142ef912
MAILADDR root

Edit the file /etc/init.d/mdadm and append –test to the line beginning with start-stop-daemon -S:

start-stop-daemon -S -q -p $PIDFILE -x $MDADM -- -F -i $PIDFILE -m $MAIL_TO -f -s --test

Restart the mdadm daemon with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/mdadm restart

Verify that the local root user has received a test message from the mdadm daemon.

From now on, the mdadm daemon will monitor the integrity of the RAID array and, in the event of any problems, alert the local root user by email.
users.piuha.net/martti, www.tldp.net

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
  address 192.168.0.20
  netmask 255.255.255.0
  broadcast 192.168.0.255
  gateway 192.168.0.1

Reconfigure the network interfaces with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

www.ubuntuforums.org

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo passwd root

To disable the root account again, use the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo passwd -l root

Get the necessary packages with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install swat netkit-inetd

For an initial configuration, edit the file /etc/samba/smb.conf to contain the following entries:

[global]
  workgroup = SAMBA
[homes]
  comment = Home Directories
  valid users = %S
  read only = No
  create mask = 0640
  directory mask = 0750
  browseable = No

Continue by adding local users to the smbpasswd file:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo smbpasswd -a user

Restart the Samba server with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

The server ubuntu now joins the SAMBA workgroup, giving users who have been added to the smbpasswd file access to their respective home directories.

Using SWAT

Using the Samba Web Administration Tool (SWAT), you can access help, obtain status information and change the configuration of your Samba server. Use a web browser to access http://localhost:901/ and log in as the local root user.
In principle, SWAT can also be reached from other machines on your local network. However, such connections are vulnerable to password sniffing because of the clear text protocol that SWAT uses to authenticate users.
www.samba.org, copia.ogbuji.net

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo tzconfig

www.debian-administration.org

On the Local Machine

Use the command ssh-keygen -t dsa to generate a key pair for the local user. Use an appropriate passphrase to secure your private key (don’t be tempted to use an empty passphrase).
Set the permissions for the private key file with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_dsa

On the Remote Machine

Get the necessary packages with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install ssh

Copy the public key file ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub from the local to the remote machine.

On the remote machine, move and rename the file with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ mv id_dsa.pub .ssh/authorized_keys2

Set the permissions for the file with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2

Add the user user to the group ssh:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo adduser user ssh

Get the file sshd_config and move it to /etc/ssh/:

user@ubuntu:~# sudo wget "http://edafe.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/sshd_config"
user@ubuntu:~# sudo mv sshd_config /etc/ssh/

The downloaded file contains the following changes from the Ubuntu default configuration:

LogLevel VERBOSE

UsePAM no

Setting these options makes root logins impossible. Only users belonging to the group ssh may establish a connection. Access to the remote machine is strictly tied to the private key and the passphrase used to encrypt it.

Next, restart the SSH server on the remote machine with the following command:

user@ubuntu:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/ssh restart

You should now be able to log into the remote machine using the private key stored on the local machine:

user@ubuntu:~$ ssh remote.machine
Enter passphrase for key '/home/user/.ssh/id_dsa':

The book SSH The Secure Shell by Daniel Barrett, Richard Silverman and Robert Byrnes is useful as a reference text and has information on other clever stuff you can do with SSH.
www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/

Setting up page styles in OOo Writer, Bullet proof templates, Style is everything, right?, Fonts of wisdom, Building characters, Shooting the sun, Paragraph styles, Part II, It’s numbering, but not as we know it, Getting in the frame, The outlining and the ecstasy, Macros and add-ons, Floating windows, My objects all sublime, ToCs, indexes and bibliographies in OOo Writer, Fielding questions Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4, Tabling the notion Part 1 Part 2, Recovering hidden treasures, Back to school with bibliographies, Adding AutoText to your work flow, Domesticating Autocorrect, Master documents, Find and replace, That’s your version-document control in OOo Writer, Paragraph and page spacing, Automating the creation of slide shows, Using master slides, Extensions for OOo Draw, Template collections, New add-ons for OOo Writer, Text flow in OOo Writer, Basic arithmetic and statistic functions, Creating business cards, Rounding off numbers, Pivot tables by another name, Writer’s tools, Extensions for OOo Impress’s tools, Manipulating lists in OpenOffice.org Calc

Building the Freeview VDR

These instructions are intended to help you build a system that will receive both digital terrestial and satellite transmissions. Personally, I use a setup that enables me to watch and record broadcasts on Freeview, the terrestial service here in the United Kingdom, and Astra 19.2° East, a satellite transmitting to the whole of Europe. Some of the most frequently asked questions about the Freeview VDR are answered on a separate page.
In addition to an aerial and a satellite dish, you require a PC equipped with a large enough hard drive to store your recordings. Keep in mind that a one hour recording will take up approximately 1.5 GB of disk space.
You also need one DVB-S card of the type TechnoTrend Premium S, one DVB-T card of the type TechnoTrend Budget T and the ATI Remote Wonder remote control. You should also have a working broadband connection accessed from behind a router/firewall.

Installing Slackware

Slackware Linux is ideal for the purpose: It is easy to install and very dependable. Download the file slackware-10.2-install-d1.iso from one of the Slackware mirrors and burn the ISO image to disk. Alternatively, you can help support Slackware and the effort that goes into it by ordering your set of CDs from The Slackware Store.

Install Slackware with: a) a swap partition that is equal in size to that of the installed RAM, b) a root partition of 3 GB, and c) a /video partition taking up all of the remaining disk space. Select the software sets a, ap, d, k, l and n for installation. Configure a network interface with access to the internet. Set the system time to synchronise with NTP.
Add the user vdr, with the default group video and a home directrory located at /etc/vdr. Finish by changing the owner and group of /video:

darkstar:~# chown -R vdr.video /video/

Installing the Drivers

The Linux driver for the DVB-S card requires that the file Sc_main.mc, which is distributed as part of the TechnoTrend driver for Windows, be located in /usr/lib/DVB/driver/frontends.
Start by downloading the driver for the TechnoTrend Premium S card and unzipping the archive file:

darkstar:~# lftp -c "get http://www.technotrend.de/new/217g/tt_Premium_217g.zip"
darkstar:~# unzip tt_Premium_217g.zip

Use the following set of commands to place a copy of SC_MAIN.MC in /usr/lib/DVB/driver/frontends:

darkstar:~# mkdir -p /usr/lib/DVB/driver/frontends
darkstar:~# cp software/OEM/HE/App/boot/SC_MAIN.MC /usr/lib/DVB/driver/frontends/Sc_main.mc

If you are using the TechnoTrend Budget T card, download the required firmware and place a copy in /etc/dvb:

darkstar:~# lftp -c "get http://www.edafe.org/vdr/firmware/tda1004x.mc"
darkstar:~# mkdir /etc/dvb
darkstar:~# cp tda1004x.mc /etc/dvb/

Continue by downloading the Linux-DVB driver source and unpacking the tarball:

darkstar:~# lftp -c "get http://linuxtv.org/downloads/linuxtv-dvb-1.0.1.tar.gz"
darkstar:~# tar -zxvf linuxtv-dvb-1.0.1.tar.gz

Move the resulting directory to /usr/local/src/, renaming it to DVB:

darkstar:~# mv linuxtv-dvb-1.0.1 /usr/local/src/DVB

Change to the DVB directory, build the drivers and then run the makedev.napi script:

darkstar:~# cd /usr/local/src/DVB/
darkstar:/usr/local/src/DVB# make
darkstar:/usr/local/src/DVB# driver/makedev.napi


Change to the driver directory and run the command make insmod while observing the TV-output of your DVB-S card:

darkstar:/usr/local/src/DVB# cd driver/
darkstar:/usr/local/src/DVB/driver# make insmod

If the driver installed successfully, this message will appear and then fade:

(C) 2001 Convergence integrated media

Scanning for Satellite Channels

Check the dvb-s directory to see what configuration files are available and determine which one to use:

darkstar:~# ls /usr/local/src/DVB/apps/scan/dvb-s/

Run the following set of commands, replacing Astra-19.E as necessary:

darkstar:~# cd /usr/local/src/DVB/apps/scan/
darkstar:/usr/local/src/DVB/apps/scan# ./scan -o vdr dvb-s/Astra-19.E > /etc/vdr/sat.conf

Scanning for Terrestial Channels

Download the source for Winfried Köhler’s w_scan application and unpack the tarball:

darkstar:/usr/local/src/DVB/apps/scan# cd ~
darkstar:~# lftp -c "get http://free.pages.at/wirbel4vdr/w_scan/w_scan-20060729.tar.bz2"
darkstar:~# tar -xjf w_scan-20060729.tar.bz2

Move the resulting directory to /usr/local/src/, renaming it to WSCAN:

darkstar:~# mv w_scan-20060729 /usr/local/src/WSCAN

Use the pre-compiled version of w_scan that is included in the tarball to scan for available DVB-T channels:

darkstar:~# /usr/local/src/WSCAN/w_scan -o2 ›› /etc/vdr/ter.conf

Generating Channels.conf

Employ cat to create a single channels.conf file:

darkstar:~# cd /etc/vdr/

darkstar:/etc/vdr/# cat sat.conf ter.conf › channels.conf
If you are only using a single input source, rename either sat.conf or ter.conf to channels.conf.

Installing VDR

Continue by downloading the VDR source and unpacking the contents of the tarball:

darkstar:/usr/local/src/DVB/apps/scan# cd ~
darkstar:~# lftp -c "get ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/vdr/vdr-1.2.6.tar.bz2"
darkstar:~# tar -xjf vdr-1.2.6.tar.bz2

Move the resulting directory to /usr/local/src/, renaming it to VDR:

darkstar:~# mv vdr-1.2.6 /usr/local/src/VDR

Change to the VDR directory and copy the configuration files to /etc/vdr/:

darkstar:~# cd /usr/local/src/VDR/
darkstar:/usr/local/src/VDR# cp keymacros.conf sources.conf svdrphosts.conf svdrpsend.pl /etc/vdr/
darkstar:/usr/local/src/VDR# chown vdr.video /etc/vdr/*

Build the VDR application with support for Linux Infrared Remote Control:

darkstar:/usr/local/src/VDR# make REMOTE=LIRC VFAT=1 NO_KBD=1

Download this version of runvdr, preconfigured to work with your installation:

darkstar:/usr/local/src/VDR# lftp -c "get http://www.edafe.org/vdr/sh/runvdr"
darkstar:/usr/local/src/VDR# chmod +x runvdr

Download rc.vdr and move it to /etc/rc.d/:

darkstar:/usr/local/src/VDR# cd ~
darkstar:~# lftp -c "get http://www.edafe.org/vdr/sh/rc.vdr"
darkstar:~# chmod +x rc.vdr
darkstar:~# mv rc.vdr /etc/rc.d/

Add the following lines to the end of /etc/rc.d/rc.local for VDR to start at boot:

# Starting VDR
if [ -x /etc/rc.d/rc.vdr ]; then
  echo "Starting VDR"
  /etc/rc.d/rc.vdr &
fi

Restart your computer and observe the TV-output of your DVB-S card. You should now be viewing the first channel listed in your channels.conf file.

Installing LIRC

Connect the USB receiver for the ATI Remote Wonder to your VDR. Download lircd.conf, preconfigured with the settings for the ATI Remote Wonder, and place it into /etc/.

darkstar:~# lftp -c "get http://www.edafe.org/vdr/conf/lircd.conf"
darkstar:~# mv lircd.conf /etc/

Continue by downloading LIRC source and unpacking the contents of the tarball:

darkstar:~# lftp -c "get http://www.edafe.org/vdr/tar/lirc-0.7.2.tar.bz2"
darkstar:~# tar -xjf lirc-0.7.2.tar.bz2

Move the resulting directory to /usr/local/src/, renaming it to LIRC:

darkstar:~# mv lirc-0.7.2 /usr/local/src/LIRC

Change to the LIRC directory and launch the LIRC installer with:

darkstar:~# cd /usr/local/src/LIRC/
darkstar:/usr/local/src/LIRC# ./setup.sh && make install

Choose the following options:
1 Driver configuration > 8 USB devices > 1 ATI RF Remote
2 Software configuration > no selection
3 Save configuration & run configure

Set the permissions for the device /dev/lircd with:

darkstar:/usr/local/src/LIRC# chmod 666 /dev/lircd

Add the following lines to /etc/rc.d/rc.local, before the entry for VDR, to start LIRC at boot:


# Starting LIRC daemon
if [ -x /usr/local/sbin/lircd ]; then
  echo "Starting LIRC"
  /usr/local/sbin/lircd
fi

Restart your computer and observe the TV-output of your DVB-S card. You should now see the following message:

Learning Remote Control Keys (LIRC)
Phase 1: Detecting RC code Type
Press any key on the RC unit

Follow the instructions of the OSD to define the keys for the remote control.

Documentation

VDR Wiki

In English and German
Online reference covering many aspects of the VDR. Useful if you want to further expand the functionality of your Freeview VDR or learn about other options for setup.
www.vdr-wiki.de

Help

VDR Portal

In English and German
Interact with other VDR users to help with your questions.
www.vdrportal.de