mplayer-gui error : Error in skin config file

After installing mplayer-gui package, I can't start it.

$ gmplayer

MPlayer 1.1-4.8 (C) 2000-2012 MPlayer Team

mplayer: could not connect to socket

mplayer: No such file or directory

Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Error in skin config file on line 6: PNG read error in /usr/share/mplayer/skins/default/main

Config file processing error with skin 'default'

After googling a bit, I found out that it was due to the png files in dir /usr/share/mplayer/skins/default. This is the default skin directory. To fix this error, I have to install ImageMagick package because I want to use the convert program to convert all of the png files to format png24. Thus,

cd /usr/share/mplayer/skins/default; for FILE in *.png ; do sudo convert $FILE -define png:format=png24 $FILE ; done

Rerun gmplayer and all should be fine.

Have fun!

UPDATE (02-10-2017)

It doesn't work on Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) but there's a workaround here.

You can update your system with unsupported packages from this untrusted PPA by adding ppa:mc3man/mplay-skins to your system's Software Sources. (Read about installing) 

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mc3man/mplay-skins
sudo apt-get update 

Now just upgrade the related package by running:

sudo apt-get upgrade 

Have fun!

New job, new place and new adventure

I have been working in a new place and environment for almost 6 months now. A lot has happened since in my life and i am very excited to begin blogging again.

I gained new knowledge in many areas of Linux, servers and networking. I dealt with 6 hypervisors here, many virtual machines on them, about 20 vlans, many vpns, many pfsenses, NAS, HAS, AD, win 2012 R2 and zimbra collaboration suite.

I need to master all of this and hopefully with my basic knowledge in Linux, AD and postfix, it will be easier to grasp them.

The most important things here are the bosses and colleagues. So far they are very helpful, friendly and supportive.

I will post more about my Linux work here soon. So stay tuned but don't hold your breath. :D

Cheers.

cannot ssh to server

If you got the following error when trying to connect to ssh server:

me@pluto ~]$ ssh -vvv -l you localhost.localdomain  
OpenSSH_6.2p2, OpenSSL 1.0.1k 8 Jan 2015
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 49: Applying options for *
debug2: ssh_connect: needpriv 0
debug1: Connecting to localhost.localdomain [192.168.5.11] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /home/zamri/.ssh/identity type -1
debug1: identity file /home/zamri/.ssh/identity-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/zamri/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/zamri/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/zamri/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/zamri/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/zamri/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/zamri/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1
ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host

Try putting this in /etc/host.allow:

sshd:ALL

It solved my problem. Your mileage may vary.

Book review: Implementing SAMBA 4

Samba is a Windows implementation of sharing files and folders in Linux world. It is a favorite way of sharing your files on Linux with Windows users. But its use is much more than that. It can also act as servers of various roles.

Implementing SAMBA 4 is a book worth reading for Linux admins, system engineers or anybody who plan to use and master SAMBA configurations. In this version, a new feature, Active Directory Domain Controller (AD DC) is the most sought after by admins. This will let you configure SAMBA 4 as an AD DC. Using Debian 7 as the OS, I found no problem with it although many admins out there are using Fedora/Red Hat/CentOS as the main distros of choice.

Looking at the table of contents, I can say this book is not for beginners. So you have been warned. :)

Reading the sample chapter provided (Chapter 3), this book is an interesting to read. Steps are shown in pictures and clearly explained. Although I have little knowledge of AD DC, this book will make it easier for you to understand the steps needed by lots of screenshots.

Other topics mentioned that I found important and interesting are:

• Understand the migration steps from Samba 3 to Samba 4
• Integrate GNU/Linux operating system authentication into the AD
• Understand the tasks and attention points when replacing a Microsoft Windows AD

If you are looking for a reading to better understand on how to configure SAMBA 4 for your AD DC, I recommend this kind of book.

Using mail command to send email using SMTP AUTH and no SSL

This is the command to send email using mail server with SMTP AUTH.

mail -v -s "Testing SMTP AUTH from mail command" -S smtp-auth=login -S smtp=smtp://mysmtpmailserver.com:587 -S from=me@mysmtpmailserver.com -S smtp-auth-user=me -S smtp-auth-password=mypassword mybuddy@somehost.com


-v = verbose
-s = subject
-S = option

For more options and info, please type man mail or info mail.
The last email address is the recipient address.
You can replace mail with mailx.

This command is useful to test your mailserver setup without login to GUI.

Have fun! :)

Apache redirection

I want to redirect all of my users who go to www.mywebmailserver.com to webmail.mywebmailserver.com. I have learned that from my googling, there are 2 popular ways to do it in apache web server. First, by using mod_rewrite and second, I can use redirect. The latter is the simplest. So I chose it. :)

Put this in vhost container.

NameVirtualHost www.mywebmailserver.com
<virtualhost www.mywebmailserver.com>
ServerName www.mywebmailserver.com
Redirect 301 / http://webmail.mywebmailserver.com/
</virtualhost>

In Mageia 4, the file is located in /etc/httpd/conf/vhosts.d and the file name is 00_default_vhosts.conf

That's it. Restart or reload apache for the changes to take effect.

Have fun!

Mageia 4 and HP Laserjet P1102 can't print

Hi all,

Since upgrading my Mageia 3 to 4, I never test my printer. It worked in Mageia 3. I never knew that it was going to give me a headache LoL. It didn't work!. I tried reinstalling the CUPS, the driver, and even changing the USB cable. It was after 2 weeks of busy schedule, I thought I wanted to try to find a solution.

After googling a bit, I found out from a post which I didnt remember to bookmark it, the culprit was the usblp module. Remove it by rmmod usblp and the printer could print again. I could say the problem is the module conflicts with the HP printer driver. Your mileage may vary.

Have fun!