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GDM over VNC was great, until I discovered FreeNX. FreeNX was based on NX technologies by NoMachine. Quoted from Wikipedia:

NX technology is a computer program that handles remote X Window System connections, and attempts to greatly improve on the performance of the native X11 protocol to the point that it can be usable over a slow link such as a dial-up modem.

You see that right, dial-up modem. It’s been three days now since I’ve installed FreeNX on the Hardy VPS on SliceHost. Result? Impressive. Not only there’s barely anything you have to configure, it also tunnels connections through ssh by default to give better security. What makes it a winning choice is that it does not get disconnected :) In the previous VNC setup, if I’m disconnected and server did not realize, I have to log in and do a kill-all-pid-by-user script to finish off all processes related to the dead x-session. Maybe there’s workaround (I’m pretty sure there is), but I didn’t bother looking it up. With NX, say byebye to disconnections and hello to the sweet working x-session. Installation instruction for Ubuntu Gusty and Hardy is availble here: Installing FreeNX in Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy. Summary:

1. Add apt-source and key:
   deb http://www.datakeylive.com/ubuntu hardy main
   deb-src http://www.datakeylive.com/ubuntu hardy main

   wget http://www.datakeylive.com/ubuntu/dists/gutsy/wjeremy.key -O - | sudo apt-key add -
   sudo apt-get update

2. Install all necessary packages (seperately install X if you haven’t):

   sudo apt-get install expect openssh-server tcl8.4 dbus-x11 libxcomp3 libxcompext3 libxcompshad nxlibs nxagent nxproxy nxclient freenx-server

3. Make sure font path in /etc/X11/xorg.conf is set correctly like the following:

   Section "Files"
   
   # path to defoma fonts
         FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
         FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
         FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
         FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
         FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
         FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
         FontPath     "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
   EndSection

4. Add user:

   sudo nxserver --adduser xxxx

5. Download Client

總之，很好用就是了 XD

Why would you do that? Because you can! And the fact that it’s a VPS/Dedicated Server, chances are its Internet connection is a lot faster than yours. As root, the following steps are tested working for Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy.

1) Install Gnome, vnc4server, inetd
apt-get install gnome compiz vnc4server openbsd-inetd

2) Enable XDMCP
Edit /etc/gdm/gdm.conf
Look for:
[xdmcp]
Enable=false

Change it to:
Enable=true


3) Configure inetd:
Edit /etc/inetd.conf, add (one line):
5901 stream tcp nowait root /usr/bin/Xvnc Xvnc -inetd :1 -query localhost -geometry 800x600 -once -fp /usr/share/fonts/X11/misc -DisconnectClients=0 -NeverShared securitytypes=none -extension XFIXES
Now restart inetd with service restart openbsd-inetd

4) Restart GDM
service restart gdm

DONE. Now you can access your VPS as a GNOME desktop with with any vnc client at serveraddress:1, :1 being the display. You can add multiple displays for multiple desktops at the same time ;)

好孩子不要嘗試喔 XD

input_file=$1
output_dir=/home/peter/.ipodvideos

ffmpeg -y -i "${input_file}" -an -v 1 -threads auto -vcodec libx264 \
  -b 1000k -bt 175k -refs 1 -loop 1 -deblockalpha 0 -deblockbeta 0 \
  -parti4x4 1 -partp8x8 1 -me full -subq 1 -me_range 21 -chroma 1 \
  -slice 2 -bf 0 -level 30 -g 300 -keyint_min 30 -sc_threshold 40 \
  -rc_eq 'blurCplx^(1-qComp)' -qcomp 0.7 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 \
  -i_qfactor 0.71428572 -maxrate 768k -bufsize 2M -cmp 1 -s 640x480 \
  -f mp4 -pass 1 /dev/null

ffmpeg -y -i "${input_file}" -v 1 -threads auto -vcodec libx264 -b 1000k\
  -bt 175k -refs 1 -loop 1 -deblockalpha 0 -deblockbeta 0 -parti4x4 1 \
  -partp8x8 1 -me full -subq 6 -me_range 21 -chroma 1 -slice 2 -bf 0 \
  -level 30 -g 300 -keyint_min 30 -sc_threshold 40 \
  -rc_eq 'blurCplx^(1-qComp)' -qcomp 0.7 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 \
  -i_qfactor 0.71428572 -maxrate 768k -bufsize 2M -cmp 1 -s 640x480 \
  -acodec libfaac -ab 192k -ar 48000 -ac 2 -f mp4 \
  -pass 2 "${output_dir}/${input_file}.mov"

2 pass encoding 的用意是在於第一次是作 profiling，然後第二次就參照第一次得到的 profile 來分配哪些片段要比較高的 bitrate，這樣整體壓縮起來的效果會好很多。

不過話說回來以上的 h264 + aac 的壓縮實在非常 CPU intensive，速度大概是 mp4 的 4~5 倍.. 囧

ccd2iso image.img image.iso

使用如下: convmv -f big5 -t utf8 -r *

會先出現一次測試 output 如果都沒有錯誤的話會提示說加個 –notest 正式改名

所有 big5/gbk 檔名一次輕鬆解決

詳情請參考 Ubuntu Nvidia Compiz “Black Window Bug” Fix

黑色視窗再見了 (l)

省得要 root 權限或以後更新跟系統衝突，所以我把東西都安裝在自己的 home directory 下面。原始碼我都丟在 ~/work 下面，然後編好的執行檔是安裝到 ~/build 下面。

TCL

1. 在 ~/work 下面將 TCL 的原始碼抓下來
   

   cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@tcl.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/tcl login
   ENTER
   cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@tcl.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/tcl co -P tcl

2. 在 ~/work/tcl/unix 設定 + 編譯
   

   ./configure –prefix=/home/peter/build –includedir=/home/peter/build/include/tcl8.5 –enable-shared –enable-threads –enable-64bit –mandir=/home/peter/build/share/man –enable-man-symlinks –enable-man-compression=gzip && make CFLAGS=”-g -O2 -D_REENTRANT”

3. 安裝
   

   make install

TK

1. 在 ~/work 下面把 TK 的原始碼抓下來
   

   cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@tktoolkit.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/tktoolkit login
   ENTER
   cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@tktoolkit.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/tktoolkit co -P tk

2. 在 ~/work/tk/unix 下設定 + 編譯
   

   ./configure –prefix=/home/peter/build –includedir=/home/peter/build/include/tcl8.5 –with-tcl=/home/peter/build/lib –enable-shared –enable-threads –enable-64bit –enable-man-symlinks –enable-man-compression=gzip –enable-xft && make CFLAGS=”-g -O2 -D_REENTRANT”

3. 安裝
   

   make install

aMSN

1. 在 ~/work 把 aMSN 的原始碼抓下來
   

   svn co https://amsn.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/amsn/trunk/amsn amsn

2. 在 ~/work/amsn 下設定 + 編譯
   

   ./configure –with-tcl=/home/peter/build/lib –with-tk=/home/peter/build/lib –prefix=/home/peter/build
   make

3. 安裝
   

   make install

桌面捷徑

1. 建立 ~/bin/amsn.sh 並把 amsn.sh 設成執行檔
   

   #!/bin/sh
   /home/peter/build/bin/wish8.5 /home/peter/build/bin/amsn

2. 建立 ~/Desktop/aMSN.desktop
   

   [Desktop Entry]
   Version=1.0
   Encoding=UTF-8
   Name=aMSN
   Comment=Flock Web Browser
   Exec=”/home/peter/bin/amsn.sh”
   GenericName=aMSN
   Icon=/home/peter/work/amsn/desktop-icons/128×128/apps/amsn.png
   Path=$HOME/work/amsn
   StartupNotify=true
   Terminal=false
   TerminalOptions=
   Type=Application
   X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
   X-KDE-Username=
   Categories=Network;Application;
   GenericName[en_US]=aMSN

效果比較

Blogged with Flock

Tags: amsn, antialiasing, font, ubuntu

用到目前為止覺得最大的問題是 Logitech 的 Webcam 不能用。雖然偵測的型號都很正常，但是 aMSN 或者 Camorama 就是不能用。第二的大問題就是 Linux 下的多個 mixer 之間的不同。對電腦來說我現在有 3 個輸入輸出裝置，一個是主機板上的 on board 音效卡，一個是 free.2 Skype Phone，還有一個是 Logitech webcam 上的麥克風。雖然進去 Ubuntu 內建的 Mixer 把輸出裝置都改成 onboard 音效卡後，大部分的軟體都正常播放，少數卻還是沒有正常的播。影響最大的是 Firefox 裡面的 Flash 沒有聲音。好吧可能在多花點時間多爬一些文章說不定就會好了，可是很浪費時間耶。

Update: 某次 Software Update 後忽然間 Firefox 的聲音又好了

7.10 的更新很頻繁，再怎麼說幾天後就要 Release 了，每天都可以很開心的 apt-get update + upgrade 上百個剛編好的 package。用到目前覺得最好用的部份應該還是這是一台 Linux Box：伺服器的功能全部都是內建的。有 shell access 的工作站就是比 Windows Box 好用太多了。

下次回台灣來把老被老木的電腦全部灌成 Ubuntu。