Automount a volume in Fedora

To automatically mount a specified volume each time you boot into Fedora, edit the following file:

/etc/fstab

Add the following line  at the end depending on volume and mount point:

/dev/sdb1 /var/hda/files/

Save and exit.

(If the volume is formatted with NTFS, use the following syntax instead)

/dev/sdb1 /var/hda/files/ ntfs-3g defaults 0 0

Mount a drive or volume to use with Amahi home server

How to mount a drive or volume to be accessible by Amahi home server:

First you need to find out what the volume is called within Fedora. To list the drives recognized by the system type the following in terminal:

ls /dev/sd*

Let’s say you want to mount the volume named “sdb1”, then use:

mount /dev/sdb1 /var/hda/files/myvolume

If the volume you want to mount is an NTFS drive, instead use:

mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 /var/hda/files/myvolume

Note that you may need to change priviligies on the mounted drive if you want to download directly from Amahi or copy to it over the network.

When you’ve mounted the volume in /var/files/ you only need to specify the name you gave it to add it as a share in Amahi share settings.

If you want to mount the volume automatically when you boot, read Automount a volume in Fedora.

Amahi home server

After watching movies on the 13″ for a couple of years I got meself a Samsung. Not the grotesque wallpaper sized one but still pretty ok-large. So how and what do I feed it with? Mini-DVI+the great free media center Plex seemed like a reasonable setup for a while. If you want to chain your laptop to the TV set or using a MacMini, that is.

So I went fishing for a cheap setup for my new (HD-)TV needs. Since I consume at least 10 hours worth of podcasting every week there was a small chance I would run across something useful. And then the FLOSS Weekly guys interviewed the project manager for Amahi Home Server.

Quick look:

  • YES – Home server running on Fedora Linux
  • YES – App-store-ish way of installing applications with one-click (mentioned probaby 100 times in Floss weekly episode 112)
  • YES – Built-in and preconfigured VPN and Samba shares
  • NO – Replacement of Media center or media streamer
    You still need something that connects to your TV or projector. I chose the reasonably priced Western Digital WD TV Live HD.
  • NO – plug-and-play.
    Though this is marketed as a quick and easy solution you still need some basic knowledge not to mention interest in Linux to get it working properly. Example, even if you’ve partitioned or mounted a hard drive in Windows or Mac before it’s still not quite the same with Fedora. That said you get a lot of help with the setup from the excellent installation guide provided by Amahi.

But when I got it running it’s doing just fine. I’ll post some quick terminal guide how-tos of things I had to do in order to mount drives, autologin on boot etc.

Back again

Helleu. I have not been gone, just totally off the radar – on the blog at least. Hope to keep this place sort of updated from now on.

Adobe Photoshop Express – cloudy today?

Everything should be in the cloud right? When Adobe recently launched Adobe Photoshop Express, a slimmed down version of PS for the web I felt a wee bit skeptical. The notion of online media editing isn’t exactly new and fresh in 2008, but let me tell you what’s nice:

API skillz.

Support for editing and exporting photos and video to social networks and photo sharing sites is found in iPhoto (Facebook, Picasa etc – only by 3rd party though). The thing with PS Express is that you’re allowed to import your external pics from within the web app. After finishing them up with a basic set of tools much like those found in iPhoto or Picasa you simply send them back to your site of choice. As of today Facebook, Photobucket and Picasa Web album is supported. Flickr should be there soon as well.

Annoyance warning: PS Express puts a caption on its own on all photos you upload back to Facebook. Meh.

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Flash player 9 update 3 – officiellt stöd för H.264

Nu är den släppt! Ett fint litet framsteg förutom den bästa videokodningen just nu, är att man nu kan implementera även flashkodning med H.264 i hårdvarukodare.

 

Flash player logotype

 

Adobe Flash Player 9 now includes H.264 standard video support, the same standard deployed in Blu-Ray® and HD-DVD® high definition video players, and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio capabilities. The latest update also features hardware accelerated, multi-core enhanced, full-screen video playback for high-resolution viewing across major operating systems and browsers.

Länkar:
Pressrelease – adobe.com

Ladda hem spelaren – adobe.com

Diskussion om S3/Jungle Disk på Security now!

Skickade en fråga om tillförlitligheten hos S3 och JungleDisk till Leo Laporte och Steve Gibson på podcasten Security Now häromdagen. De svarade på min fråga och återkommer med ett helt program i ämnet senare i höst. Paranoide Gibson måste ju sniffa sina packets och gräva djuupt innan han vågar lita på någon eller något…

podcast_2.jpg

http://twit.tv/sn114
(min fråga 38:50 in i programmet)

Jungle Disk + Amazon S3

Har varit på jakt efter ett vettigt system för off-site backup ett tag nu. Bilder, jobbgrejer, dokument etc som jag redan backup:at i till nas eller extern disk men inte nånstans utanför huset… Har sneglat på Amazons S3 (Simple Storage Service) ett tag men inte gått vidare då jag vill ha ett lämpligt interface med möjlighet till automatisering osv. Sprang häromdagen på JungleDisk som är en front-end till S3.

logo_phpbb.gif

Själva programmet kostar $20 vilket med dagens dollarkurs renderade 130 riksdaler. Sen pröjsar man Amazon för skickad och lagrad data. Priserna ändras ju men just nu kostar det $0.15 per lagrad GB/månad + $0.10 per GB skickat (upp till 10TB). Rätt överkomligt.

Bra:

  • Relativt billigt
  • Intuitiv installation, mappas som en nätverksdisk automatiskt
  • Etablerat och namnkunnigt back-end för lagringen
  • AES-256 bit kryptering för all data som skickas till S3
  • Brett OS-stöd (finns för Win, Mac o Linux)

Dåligt:

  • Rätt dålig hastighet när man skickar. Se det som en “trickle upload”. Låt stå ett tag helt enkelt första gången. Jag har drygt 1 mbit ut men snittar på 0.45 mbit när jag skickar. Det blev runt ett dygn med 7-8 GB…
  • Funktionaliteten i programmet. Skulle vilja se lite bättre basicfunktioner som t.ex. incremental backup för stora filer där endast delar har förändrats. Har funnits på önskelistan ett tag om man läser på forumet men inget som är inkorporerat än.
  • Fokuserat på filtyper och inte mapphierarki. Om man vill utesluta enskilda mappar från backup måste man filtrera á la Firefox Ad-block.

Som sammanfattning är detta en billig om än lite taggig backuplösning med gott renommé.

http://aws.amazon.com/s3

http://www.jungledisk.com