Floating iTunes library

I have a MacBook Pro that has Windows XP Professional installed through Boot Camp.  I only ever boot into Windows when I need that one Windows only application, or to maybe play a game.  Because Mac OS X and Windows XP do not work well with each other as far as file systems go, I needed a way to access files from both operating systems.

I have a home server running Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition.  It basically serves as a file server and packs enough power to also serve as a BitTorrent client that never stops and can be accessed from anywhere in the world!  I like to keep what I can on the server.  Not only is the data protected by the configured RAID 5, but it from any computer practically anywhere.

I have several Samba shares on my server, one of which is for my iTunes library.  When opening iTunes under Mac OS X, hold down the option key while or immediately after launching it.  This will allow you to specify a new library or choose an existing one.  You can browse to the shared folder on the network and select this as the new location for your library.  Under Windows, hold down the shift key as you double click iTunes to launch it.  This will give you the same options as before.  This time, you’ll want to choose an existing library which is happily being hosted on the shared folder.

There you have it.  From now on, you’re able to have one iTunes library on multiple computers.  It doesn’t matter which computer you use to create the library, just make sure that wherever you store the library files and music, you have it available to other computers on the local network.

Keep your Mac cool

If you own an Apple product, you know their design is exquisite, but boy do they sometimes get hot.  I’ve never had a problem with overheating, but I still think it would be nice to keep it a little cooler under general use.  This tip applies to MacBooks, MacBooks Pros, MacBook Air and Mac minis.

Head over to MacUpdate and grab a little utility call smcFanControl.  With the utility, you can configure how fast your system fans run.  While the system temperature is usually the controlling factor when it comes to when your fans will spin up to push the hot air out of the system, you can keep your system from ever getting too warm by setting a minimum fan speed with smcFanControl.

I’ve found that a minimum speed set between 3000 and 3500 RPM works wonderfully to keep your system cool, but also not add a lot of annoying noise.

You have the ability to set different profiles to be used under different conditions: AC power, charging or battery power.  Your are also unable to set a minimum speed lower than the current system minimum, so feel free to tinker away!

Sync your BlackBerry with Evolution

Owning a desktop running Ubuntu, a MacBook Pro and a BlackBerry poses a problem: they don’t sync nicely with each other out of the box!  More and more, I find myself in front of my Linux machine.  This is really where I need access to any contacts, memos or tasks I’ve added to my phone through out the day.  I have tried to accomplish getting my BlackBerry to sync to Ubuntu before, but gave up on the search.  Finally after a few exhausting days on the Internet, I pieced together enough information to get things working perfectly.  I thought I would give a run down of the steps I used for any others who happen to make it to this page.

The method I used will provide working over-the-air synchronization.  In fact, that’s the only way this will work.  However, that’s not really a down fall.  It provides what is usually the most sought after feature and just keeps things simple.

I signed up for a service called ScheduleWorld.  You get 7 days free, but after that it will cost you about $25 a year for the service.  You may not be wanting to spend money, but hey, that’s a heck of a bargain!  Once you have your account created, you’ll need a way to sync the information on your BlackBerry back to the ScheduleWorld server.  For that, we’re going to use the application found here.  You can install it straight form you BlackBerry using the OTA link they provide.  Once installed, you’ll launch the application and configure the settings.  There’s nothing too complicated.  You’ll enter in your ScheduleWorld user name and password.  You’ll also need to select which items you want to sync to the server and exactly how you want them to do so.

After you have the above steps working properly, there’s only one thing left to do: get Evolution to sync with the ScheduleWorld server as well.  There is a neat little project under development called SyncEvolution.  If you’re using Debian, Ubuntu or most likely any other Debian based distribution, they offer a repository that has both 32 and 64-bit packages.  I was able to install the application using Ubuntu 9.04.

Once you have SyncEvolution installed, the rest is a breeze.  Open up a terminal and type the following:

$ syncevolution --configure --sync-property "username=" --sync-property "password=" scheduleworld

$ syncevolution scheduleworld

Enter your user name and password after the = in the first line.  This will be the user name and password of your ScheduleWorld account.  The last line will actually perform the sync if all settings are entered correctly.  Open Evolution and see, if by magic, those items from your phone are now available to you in Evolution!

I’m sorry if some of these instructions are a little vauge.  I do assume some general knowledge when it comes to Linux as far as installing applications, whether by packaged form or from source code.  If you need any further aid, please do not hesitate to email me or leave a comment!

Banshee, the holder of my heart

I had dabbled with Linux distributions until finding Ubuntu.  It won me over because everything just seemed to work.  This was version 5.04.  Releases have come and gone since then, and so have many of the applications I used early on.

When it came to managing my media library, there were three big application to choose from (these still hold true today): Amarok, Banshee and Rhythmbox.  Each has unique features and came with its own following.

Amarok was a KDE native applications, but even early on had the most complete offering.  Gnome loyalists would even swear by it.  I liked to have one general feel for my desktop environment and its applications.  Amarok was nice, but to me it felt out of place and seemed to offer too much.  Banshee worked, but had it’s bugs.  A project that was adopted by Novell to show off its Mono project had a lot of active development, but just wasn’t solid enough for me to use all of the time.  Rhythmbox was I adopted.  It was simple, had a familiar (iTunes) layout and worked without too many annoyances.

Flash forward a couple of years and my choice has changed.  I now swear by Banshee.  With one big release, the developers seemed to be reading my mind.  They were offering everything I wanted and nothing more in what was now one solid application.  I experienced no slow downs and only very rarely a crash.

When I use Windows or Mac OS X, I’m still pretty loyal to iTunes.  It works and manages my music library flawlessly.  Sure, it has a few quirks, but no application is perfect.  On the Linux side of things, Banshee is my iTunes replacement.  Music, video, podcasts — there’s nothing you can’t throw at this media beast.  It has the ability to copy imported music into one central folder while at the same time keeping it organized through customizable directory structures.

Banshee is loaded with plugins that actually do something useful.  Intergrated Last.fm support is incredible.  I can listen to my Last.fm radio, or check out new suggestions all from inside the application!

If you’re new to Linux and need to find a media solution, definitely check out Banshee!

RAID 5 and LVM under Ubuntu

Recently I got the itch to build a new computer.  I knew I wanted it to do a couple of things: run Linux (specifically Ubuntu) and work as a file server for the house.  It’s usually a bad idea to combine a server and desktop into one, but I figured it wouldn’t be serving much and I wouldn’t be trying to stress it either.

I needed a way to combine a lot of storage space, but still be able to keep myself protected from a disk failure.  Configuring a RAID had entered my head early, but I was worried about the future.  I didn’t want to spend hundreds of dollard on a hardware RAID controller, and I didn’t want to go through the stress of having a BIOS software RAID fail.  I began to do a little research and found out many users had configured a software RAID under Linux and were quite happy with it.

I looked at the supported RAID levels (0, 1, 5, 6) and tried to determine what would be best for me.  I had two one TB hard drives, so my only option for redundancy was RAID 1.  This was fine, but I didn’t want to be stuck with just one TB when it was all said and done with.  I looked more into RAID 5 and knew it would be my best bet.  Yesterday I went to Office Depot and picked up two more one TB Seagate hard drives.  They’re $99 and you can’t beat the five year warranty!

After I added my new hard drives, I booted my computer with the Ubuntu Live CD.  I used GParted to create two identical partitions on each drive.  The first partition was 256MB.  This was to be the systems boot partition.  The second partition consumed the remaining free space on the disk.  Now I had four drives all partitioned identically.  Before I exited the live CD, I made sure I set the right flags for the partitions I had just created.  On the first partition, I set the boot and RAID flags.  On the second partition, I set the LVM and RAID flags.  Once all of the changes had been applied, I restarted my computer and this time booted from the Ubuntu 9.04 Alternate Install CD.  This CD will give us all of the options for creating our RAID and LVM partitions.

Once the installer had reached the step to configure the systems partitions, I had to make sure I entered the manual setup.  Because I set the RAID flags, I had an option available to me to configure the software RAID.  My first RAID device was to be md0.  Because I had four hard drives, I made sure to enter the correct number of devices I was going to use.  I made md0 a RAID 1 array and stretched it over sda1, sdb1, sdc1 and sdd1.  Remember that the first partition on the drives is going to be my boot partition.  Making a RAID 1 array this way will allow the system to boot no matter which drive fails.  Once I had set up my first RAID array, I created another (md1) and set this to be a RAID 5 array using sda2, sdb2, sdc2 and sdd2.

After both arrays were created, I had to configure LVM for use on md1.  This can all be done under the manual partitioning options.  You will allow your RAID 5 array to act as the physical volume which will hold the volume group and in turn the logical volumes.  Under my volume group, I created two logical partitions: one partition for the root of my file system and one partition to be my swap partition.  This is basically the extent of the steps.  I had to make sure md0 had its mount point set to /boot.  This goes the same for my two logical partitons.  The first had a mount point of / while the swap partition was obviously configured to be used as swap space.

I saved all of the changes I had made and installed Ubuntu 9.04.  After the install, the system did appear to be a little slugish.  running the command

sudo mdadm --detail /dev/md1

allowed me to see the status of my RAID 5 array.  The array was active, but was still syncing.  It took awhile to finish (after all, I had four hard drives), but once everything had synced, I noticed no real difference between the array and running the system on just one drive.  This is a good thing for me.  I don’t need the performance boot of RAID 0, I just want a stable, redundant system.

I hope walk through was clear enough to understand.  I know it is lacking visuals, but it was more of an afterthought.  Feel free to leave a comment if you have a question.  I will do my best to assit you.

Back in the game

To make my life easier, I’ve set my domain name up on Go Daddy’s shared web hosting.  You can’t ask for much more at only $6 a month.

I can’t guarantee regular updates, but I sure as heck will try to do my best.  I already have a post planned for creating a software RAID under Linux, more specifically the Ubuntu distribution.  Having said that, this will be my new home for posting anything I can think of that won’t fit in a tweet on Twitter.

As it’s now a little past 2AM, I figure I’ll call it a night, get some sleep and take on tomorrow hoping the rain will clear out.

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