Rob's HOWTO

Convert MP3 files to WAV files: > mpg321 -w file.wav file.mp3

For batch processing of multiple mp3 files use the mp32wav script.
> mp32wav *.mp3

Or the following command line if files have Unix friendly filenames.
> ls -1 *.mp3 | perl -ne '/(.+)\.mp3/ and system "mpg321 -w $1.wav $_";'
Convert WAV files to MP3 files: > toolame file.wav file.mp3

For batch processing of multiple wav files use the wav2mp3 script.
> wav2mp3 *.wav

Or the following command line if files have Unix friendly filenames.
> ls -1 *.wav | perl -ne '/(.+)\.wav/ and system "toolame $_ $1.mp3";'
Normalize a group of WAV files: > normalize-audio -m *.wav

Use normalize-mp3(1) for MP3 files and normalize-ogg(1) for OGG files.
Rip an Audio CD to MP3 files: Use the mp3c(1) application.

Clone an Audio CD

Read from SCSI device 1,0,0 and then write at speed 32x to same device. Change both settings if required.

> cdda2wav dev=1,0,0 -vall -H -B -x -Owav
> cdrecord dev=1,0,0 driveropts=burnfree speed=16 -v -dao -pad *.wav

Create an Audio CD from MP3s

Convert the MP3s
> cdrecord dev=1,0,0 driveropts=burnfree speed=32 -v -dao -pad *.wav

If files are from different sources (i.e. PtP) then normalize them after point 1.

Create a data CD/DVD

> mkisofs -o image.iso -ldots -R -J -v <target> [<target> ...]
> cdrecord dev=1,0,0 driveropts=burnfree speed=4 -v -dao image.iso

In point 1. if <target> is a directory then mkisofs(8) will create an ISO image containing the content of the directory. To include the full directory path or define a fake one then use the -graft-points option.

> mkisofs -o image.iso -ldots -R -J -v -graft-points <dir1>=<dir2> [<dir1>=<dir2> ...]

Where <dir2> is the real relative/absolute directory path and <dir1> is the directory set in the ISO image. <dir1> can even not exist in the filesystem.

For a DVD replace cdrecord(1) command above by dvdrecord(1). (Works with DVD-RW but only the Plextor accept to mount it. The Thoshiba don't want ...) For a DVD-R maybe better burn using

growisofs
    -Z /dev/dvdr=image.iso

Blank a CD-RW/DVD-RW

For a CD-RW
> cdrecord dev=1,0,0 blank=fast

For a DVD-RW replace cdrecord(1) command above by dvdrecord(1).

Resynchronize the package index files from their sources

# apt-get update

Network install of a package

# apt-get install -uV <package>

Network install of a package in testing

# apt-get install -uV -t testing <package>

List selection states

# dpkg --get-selections

Change selection state

Put nedit(1) package on hold
# echo "nedit hold" | dpkg --set-selections

Make a Debian package from a tarball (with alien(1))

Build the sources

> ./configure --prefix=/mnt/auxdisk/sw/usr/local

> make

> make install

Make the .tgz

> cd /mnt/auxdisk/sw

> tar zcf dvdauthor_0.5.4.tgz usr

Generate the temporary alien directory where futur package will be build from.

# alien -s -k dvdauthor_0.5.4.tgz

Edit files in dvdauthor_0.5.4-1/debian/ if required.

Change file changelog to contain:

dvdauthor (0.5.4-alien1) experimental; urgency=low

Change Description, Source and Package in file control.

Source: dvdauthor

Section: alien

Priority: extra

Maintainer: Roberto Romano <rob@forkboy>

Package: dvdauthor

Architecture: all

Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}

Description: Program to generate a DVD

dvdauthor is a program that will generate a DVD movie from a valid

mpeg2 stream that should play when you put it in a DVD player.

.

(Converted from a tgz package by alien.)

Run the rules script.

# cd dvdauthor_0.5.4-1

# debian/rules binary

Make a Debian package from a tarball (with checkinstall(1))

Build the sources

> ./configure

> make

Build the package

# checkinstall -D

Update rc.d links

Setup rc.d links for bootemail script

# update-rc.d -f noticemail remove
# update-rc.d noticemail start 99 S . stop 01 0 6 .

List all listening TCP sockets

> netstat -plant | grep LISTEN

Find disk partition bad blocks

Find bad blocks 32 at a time, of size 4096B, on 3 passes
# badblocks -vs -c 32 -b 4096 -o sda1_badblocks -p 3 /dev/sda1

Find bad blocks 32 at a time, of size 4096B, with non-destructive read-write mode
# badblocks -n -vs -c 32 -b 4096 -o sda1_badblocks /dev/sda1

Create a Linux ReiserFS filesystem

The standard way
# mkreiserfs /dev/sda1

Providing a list of bad blocks)
# mkreiserfs -b 4096 -B sda1_badblocks /dev/sda1

Authorize connection to X server

Give root account permission to open display on localhost.

> xhost +
# xauth generate :0 . trusted timeout 0

Generate a new asymmetric key pair for use by gpg(1): > gpg --gen-key
Asymmetric encryption with gpg(1): Encrypt <file> into <file.gpg> with the <recipient> public key.
> gpg -o <file.gpg> -er <recipient> <file>

Decrypt an encrypted <file.gpg> into <file>. Will prompt for passphrase.
> gpg -o <file> -d <file.gpg>
Symmetric encryption with gpg(1): Encrypt <file> into <file.gpg> with a passphrase.
> gpg -o <file.gpg> -c <file>

Decrypt an encrypted <file.gpg> into <file>. Will prompt for passphrase.
> gpg -o <file> -d <file.gpg>
Symmetric encryption with aespipe(1): Create 65 random encryption keys and encrypt those keys using gpg(1). This only need to be done once.
> head -c 2925 /dev/random | uuencode -m - | head -n 66 | tail -n 65 | gpg -c -a > symkey.gpg

Encrypt <file> into <file.aes> using above generated keys.
Will prompt for passphrase.
> aespipe -e AES256 -K symkey.gpg < <file> > <file.aes>

Decrypt an encrypted <file.aes> into <file>. Will prompt for passphrase.
> aespipe -d -e AES256 -K symkey.gpg < <file.aes> > <file>

Replace a string in multiple files

> find . -type f -exec sed -i 's/string1/string2/g' {} \;

Clone a floppy disk

Dump floppy content to HD and copy it back to another floppy.

> dd if=/dev/fd0 of=diskimage bs=18k
> dd if=diskimage of=/dev/fd0 bs=18k

Build the Linux kernel the Debian way

See this article for the full story.

Create the linux symlink in /usr/src

Configure the kernel

/usr/src/linux # make xconfig

Make the kernel and modules images

/usr/src/linux # make-kpkg clean

/usr/src/linux # make-kpkg --append-to-version='-01' kernel_image modules_image

/usr/src

Install the kernel and nvidia modules packages

/usr/src # dpkg -i kernel-image-2.6.14-01_10.00.Custom_i386.deb

/usr/src # dpkg -i nvidia-kernel-2.6.14-02_1.0.7174-3+10.00.Custom_i386.deb

Edit /etc/lilo.conf file and don't forget to run lilo(8)

Make a boot disk of the new kernel

# mkboot /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.14-01

Remove the /usr/src/linux symlink

Reboot

Remarks:

NVidia drivers modules are build from /usr/src/modules during the kernel build phase above. Details on installation of the nVidia driver modules could be found here.
Set KBUILD_VERBOSE to 1 for a verbose build.

Fetch Debian Sarge DVD images

Use the fetch_sarge_dvds script based on Jigsaw Download.

Convert man pages to text

> man <command> | col -b > <command>.txt

Mount an ISO-9660 file

# mount image.iso -r -t iso9660 -o loop /mnt/tmp

Rob's HOWTO

Table of contents

Sound files

CD/DVD burning

Debian packages

System