Get/probe audio/video codec/container information of a multimedia file

FFmpeg is a very powerful product allowing to play, create or get information from supported multimedia files.
Nevertheless, a light tool allowing to probe audio/video codec information can be very useful.

Migrate Virtual Machines from VMware to VirtualBox

Even if you can add vmdk file as Hard Disks in the VirtualBox Media Manager, you lost your Virtual Machines.
The way giving the best compatibility to migrate your Virtual Machines from VMware to VirtualBox is to convert them in Open Virtualization Format (.ovf) first.

How to install VirtualBox under GNU/Linux

VirtualBox is now embedded in lots of package managers.
For instance, from Fedora 11, it is available in RPM Fusion repository.
Such a way, to install the open-source edition:

Why choose VirtualBox as Virtualization product ?

Today, there is various Virtualization Products like VirtualBox, VMware Server/Player/Workstation, Parallels Workstation/Desktop and Windows Virtual PC.
Choice is not always easy, taking consideration of reputation, age, price, press papers, enterprise policies ...

Fix Java Web Start UnsatisfiedLinkError

In some cases, mixing i386 and x86_64 architectures, Java Web Start can fall into such error:
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: Can't load library: /usr/local/java/jdk/jdk1.5.0_14/jre/lib/amd64/libdeploy.so

Improving efficiencies of OCZ SSD Vertex under Windows Seven

Following my post about SSD, this one is dedicated to OCZ SSD Vertex efficiencies optimization under Windows Seven.

Solid State Drive (SSD), advantages and disadvantages

Although the notion of Solid State Drive (SSD) exists for a long time, industries have made significant progress last few years.
It has become more accessible, less expensive and offering very interesting efficiencies.

Get Java Web Start Application error when console vanished

Java Web Start technology allows activating either "trace" or "log" system (or the two of them).

Update Master Boot Record (MBR) replacing the System disk

Some times ago, I've written an article explaining how to restore MBR with grub. It works only if there is no disk change.

Almost the same procedure can be used if the System disk change.

Restore lost partition with fdisk

Unfortunately, there is various situations where partition can "vanish" (bad manipulation, unwanted application behaviour, issue while using a partition manager ...).
Some years ago, I've started using a very simple rule:

Save the result of fdisk -l into a text file after each disk/partition management

Install VMware-server 2.0.2 under kernel 2.6.31, 2.6.32 or 2.6.33

The free VMware-server has not evolved since end October of 2009 (v2.0.2), although fortunately Linux kernel keeps evolving.
Such a way, there is a gap between VMware-server modules source code and awaited kernel source code.

Check a File System

To check a file system you can use the fsck command.
For detailed information checking GNU/Linux ext2/ext3/ext4 file system, you should use e2fsck.

Check badblocks on a device

If error occurs, strange behaviour or if SMART error are reported (Cf. instructions to get report), you should check file System (see next post), including bad blocks.

Migrate you URL nicknames from Opera to Firefox

Follow those instructions:
 - under Opera, export your bookmarks (e.g. to /tmp/bookmarks.adr file)
 - into a console, parse the file like that :
cat /tmp/bookmarks.adr |tr -d '\n' |sed -e 's/#/\n/g;' |grep "SHORT NAME" |sed -e 's/.*URL=\([^ \t]*\)[ \t].*SHORT[ ]NAME=\([^ \t]*\)[ \t].*$/\2\t\1/g;' > /tmp/urlAlias.txt
 - under Firefox, go to Preferences of Url Alias add-on
 - copy/paste contents of /tmp/urlAlias.txt in "Configuration" panel

Firefox add-ons providing more or less same Opera functionalities

Those are Firefox add-ons which fit more or less some Opera functionalities I found the most useful:

Goodbye Opera, Welcome back my Beloved Firefox Web Browser

I'd used Opera from May of 2008 to March of 2010, against my strong philosophy of open-source software use.

Flush a queue of e-mails

For various reasons it's possible that some e-mails are queued (for instance because of issue into an element of a full and safe emails server - e.g. too old packages, broken anti-virus, broken anti-spam ...).

After having fixed the issue, it's interesting to flush all queued e-mails, which can easily be done with the following command:
postqueue -f