geekhut dot org

This is a quick how to to get you started using the best web based torent downloader / tracker ever created, Torrentflux.

I am sure I’ve blogged this before but I just reinstalled it on geekhut and I thought I’d show it off a second time.

Here is a link to the ogg, I am converting the flv as we speak, I will put it up as soon as it’s done.

The ideal setup is to have to connect via NFS or SMBFS to a NAS and basically you just set it and forget it.

You don’t have to slow down your dektop / laptop with a bunch of torrent threads, just let it do its thing and check up on it once in a while.  We got ours running in a vm which passes all the data to a NFS/SMB server so we can immediately watch it on our XBMC.

Have fun!

How-To download, LAMP, torrent, video

I wrote this post before geekhut recently crashed so I decided to repost the google cache because of the articles popularity.

Well because it is the holidays and I have nothing better to do than drink, I decided to have a few and install OSX86 on my Toshiba Satellite. The problem is Zend Development Environment is not yet available for OSX so I would have to dual boot.

Dual booting was truly a trivial task. There are many forums (Link) with some decent information as to how dual booting any OS with OSX86 can be done. I am comfortable with most Linux flavors so I figured grub would be my best bet. Unfortunately you can’t just point to your darwin mach_kernel and intramfs in /boot/grub/menu.lst, you actually have to chainload the darwin bootloader (which still isn’t so bad). This meant that I would have to install OSX86 first to ensure I could properly tell grub to pass on the bootstrap to darwin bootloader.

So heres how I did it.

PART I - Installing OSX86

1.Get Hackintosh, just search “ToH” on any torrent site and you should be able to find the second release candidate (in ISO format)

2. Burn ISO to DVD and set BIOS to boot from CD (Duhh)

3. Open the OSX Disk Utility and create say a 20 GB Partition, leave enough room for Ubuntu (another 20 gb). Format it for HFS+ Journalized and give it a cool name, like Hard_Disk ( I named mine sda1, remember this name for the next step).

4. Follow the on screen instructions until installation completes, but don’t reboot yet! There is a good chance you’ll end up with a blinking cursor. Open a terminal under the “Utilities” Menu and type :
#/usr/misc/script.sh Hard_Disk (or whatever you named your apple formated disc). Read the scripts output, you may see errors. If so the easiest way to make sure it will work is to unmount the drive, verify it, repair it (using the disc utility) and then run the script again.

5. Once you reboot you will be greeted by a gray screen with a white apple logo (hopefully) and you can proceed to configure your new apple Hackintosh as you wish.

PART II - Installing Ubuntu and configuring grub

1. Boot Ubuntu 7.10 into the live CD environment and follow through with a standard installation. When asked for a partitioning schema, select “Manual”
- This is how your current partition table may look

/dev/sda1 EFI (I am guessing apples boot partition, usually about 200 Mb)
/dev/sda2 Where OSX86 is already installed
/dev/sda3 unformatted / raw, this is where we will install Ubuntu

- Create a swapspace on dev hda3 to a standards size (Double the amount of your RAM)

- Create a root partition with whatever is left, it should be at least 10 - 20 GB

2. Once Ubuntu is installed, we will not immediately reboot, instead lets configure grub while were in a safe environment.

- Open a terminal (alt + f2 -> gnome-terminal)
- Make a directory to hold your Ubuntu partition
$ sudo mkdir /media/ubuntu
- Mount your Ubuntu partition
$ sudo mount /dev/sda4 /media/ubuntu
(sda4 may actually be sda3 depending on how you partitioned your Ubuntu side)
- List the contents of /media/ubuntu to make sure you mounted the correct drive
$ ls /media/ubuntu

If you see :

bin cdrom etc initrd lib media opt root srv tmp var
boot dev home initrd.img lost+found mnt proc sbin sys usr vmlinuz

You are on the right track.

else, try a different partition (hda2 / 3 / 4)

3. Great we’ve mounted our fresh Ubuntu installation and now we are going to edit our boot menu, type :
$ sudo gedit /media/ubuntu/boot/grub/menu.lst
A text editor will popup
- place a # before the “hidemenu” option so you will not have to press escape to access your boot menu.
- you will then look for the section where it lists your installed kernels (usually right at the bottom), at this point it should look something like :
i. your default ubuntu system
ii. your failsafe ubuntu system
iii. your memtest (memory test)
lets add the below text after the default ubuntu block (next line after “quiet”)

title Hackintosh
root (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

If you followed my partitioning scheme, this should work beautifully for you. (NOTE you can change “Hackintosh” to whatever you prefer)

That should be it, once you reboot the livecd, grub should popup and you will have the option to boot ubuntu or “Hackintosh” Enjoy!

Troubleshooting

Problem : When I select Hackintosh from the boot menu, I get an error.
Solution : Try changing /boot/grub/menu.lst to read :
title Hackintosh
root (hd0,2)
chainloader +1
You may have partitioned things weird but youll have to play with the (hd0,1,2,3,4) until it works for you.

Problem : I am still getting an error after changing the root parameter in menu.lst

Solution : Were you actually able to boot into OSX? if yes then keep playing with grub. If no, follow this tutorial closer.

How-To hackint0sh, Ubuntu

This is a sweet little trick you can pull to basically never have to worry about outrageous cell phone billing again.

I personally haven’t owned a cell phone in years, I found it to be very expensive and I would usually end up being forced to pay for services I never used. Now those you have an IPhone, skip right past this article because we know you are Jesus and don’t have to worry about voice rates. But for those of you either stuck in a contract or need to call long distance, this hack is for you!

The Idea

These services used to be offered years ago (and I am sure still exist) - where you would call a number and it would hang up and call you right back with a dial tone - allowing you to make a free outbound call from a service called DISA (Direct Inward System Access)

This is a spectacular idea for cell phone plans with unlimited inbound calls, however, when using this service you’d still have to pay the DISA company for outbound termination. Now a ton of cellular companies still offer a no-catch unlimited inbound calls plan so why not exploit the service and DIY - with Asterisk!

This is something you can do from home, it will cost you as little as 9 dollars a month (for unlimited calling) and about 3 dollars extra in hydro expenses (if you pay hydro). You will be able to have as many phone numbers / extensions as you want and can use it from home / work / across the world.

So here is what you do :

• Sign up with a VoiP company you’ve done your research on - I use Voip Your Life ($25 / Month) -horrible for tech support, however they do not care how many inbound / outbound concurrent calls you make - this number is limited by your total bandwidth - plus they work great with this system.
• Visit your local recycling centre and ask to pick up an old computer - look for one with a closed case, anything should do. If they say no - come back with some garbage and heist one or two on your way out. Dumpster diving for second hand computer hardware can be a lot of green fun - I will write about this later.
• Download and install Trixbox CE and install it on your newly acquired system - if you need help, there are about half a million google results as to how to get this running. Or read Trixbox Without Tears.
• Configure your Trunk, IVR, Inbound Routes, Outbound Routes, DISA and finally your Callback.

So after some reading / playing - youll see that you can call into your system and will be presented with an IVR - interactive voice response menu. You can then program a top secret menu button that will hang up on you and call you back! Once you are called back, you will be asked for a password - the one you set in your DISA configuration. Once you have authenticated yourself you will hear a dial tone. Go ahead and make a call from your free inbound call to anywhere in the United States / Canada without tieing up your home phone

FAQ

Q. That seems like a lot of work - plus I still have to pay my cell phone bill!

A. The point is to use the $10 - $25 monthly VoiP bill for you home use too, many voip companies can port your existing number for free. You also downgrade your cell plan to the lowest rate you possibly can and simply add your home phone number to speed dial.

Q. I got the computer with Trixbox installed, but I can’t place a call.

A. Most likely a firewall issue - set the box with a static IP and forward ports 5004 - 5060 TCP (For SIP) and 10000 - 20000 UDP (for RTP) - or just DMZ the damn thing to get started - fix it later. That or you misconfigured your Trunk / Outbound Routes. The free book mentioned above can help you solve any Trixbox Issues.

Q. Why would you do all this shit when you can just buy an IPhone?

A. Because Google Adsense hasn’t bought me one yet… shutup.

How-To Cell, Savings, VoIP

You watched my “How to Download Movies in < 10 Minutes” post a while back and probably noticed I was using an Ubuntu flavoured distro and an application called “Pan”. Now Pan is wicket cool but don’t you think it would be nicer to pirate media from anywhere in the world at such rediculous speeds?

I thought it would be a tremendous idea so I went dumpster diving through the millions of sourceforge projects (not saying sourceforge projects belong in the trash) and found this gem of a web app that made me jump for joy.

It’s called Urd, and it’s sickening! - in a good way if that is possible. Anyway it is Pan on crack, for two reasons :

1. It groups NZB’s and all your fav alt.binaries.*
2. It parity checks and unrars for you!
3. It is 100% web goodness
4. It has an easy installation script!

I know thats four but I just couldn’t help myself. So get off your asses and install it on a decent linux box. No questions asked you will adore it to the max.

Here’s what you need :

* Somewhat fast computer (Mines a P3 - 512 - NFS 350 GB), this puppy extracts all the shit so you don’t have to!
* A newsgroup account (usually news.isp.com / your email creds) with either your ISP or even better - Giganews
* A bit of patience if your timid of the almighty Linux Shell

Git ‘r Dun!

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 mysql-server php5-cli php5-mysql php-pear yydecode unrar par2 trickle cksfv subversion

sudo pear install net_socket net_nntp

I had to add some sid and etch repos to get everything installed through apt, just google the dependency the install script says you are missing, if you can’t figure this out - forget it.

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

cd /var/www/

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/urd/urd-0.4.tar.gz?modtime=1204990738&big_mirror=0

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data urd/

sudo chmod -R 755 urd/

Now you can start the installation by entering the website address (http://yourpihere/urd/install.php)
(Thanks Ubuntu Forums!) - Now stop wasting your time reading this rubbish and get crackin!

How-To Binaries, Urd, Usenet

I just made this quick how to video for anyone looking to set up their own internet radio station. I do not condone streaming illegally acquired mp3’s… actually I do, Enjoy.

Download the original .ogg file here.

How-To Radio, Shoutcast, Streaming

Grandstream GXP200 phones are wicked cool! Recently I set up a lot of ten for a client and created a custom XML idle screen with their company name and a simplified interface.

Grandstream documentation on configuring idle screens : XML Based Customizable Screen Rev 1.3

Thanks to voip-info.org for the excellent documentation!

Example XML file of gs_screen.xml:

<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<Screen>
<IdleScreen>
<ShowStatusLine>false</ShowStatusLine>
<DisplayBitmap>
<Bitmap>Put your customized screen file with bitmap format here</Bitmap>
<X>0</X>
<Y>0</Y>
</DisplayBitmap>
<DisplayString font=”f8″ halign=”Right”>
<DisplayStr>Doraemon</DisplayStr>
<X>130</X>
<Y>0</Y>
</DisplayString>
<DisplayString font=”f10″ halign=”Left” valign=”Bottom”>
<DisplayStr>Call me:</DisplayStr>
<X>0</X>
<Y>54</Y>
</DisplayString>
<DisplayString font=”f8″ halign=”Left” valign=”Bottom”>
<DisplayStr>$X@$V</DisplayStr>
<X>0</X>
<Y>64</Y>
</DisplayString>
</IdleScreen>
</Screen>

The phones interface also supports base64 gif images, you can use the following command to create one if you like, remember to remove trailing return carriages from the encoded text file!

$ uuencode foo.bmp temp -m | tail -n +2 | head -n -1 | tr -d ‘\n’ > bitmap.txt

You can set the xml idle screen in the phones advanced configuration page, just make sure you name the file as specified above!

How-To Grandstream, XML