There’s one easy command you can type to get you this info, and more.

Let’s say you have SSH installed and you want to know all about it.  Type:

sudo apt-cache showpkg ssh | less

You should see a whole bunch of info, starting with the version of SSH you’re currently running and ending with dependancies.

Technorati Tags: linux, ubuntu, package info, how to, howto, version, dependencies

For 99% of the people, running a software update or typing the following will fix it:

sudo apt-get update

sudo atp-get dist-upgrade

If you see an rdesktop update downloaded, you’re good to go.

Here are the gory details.

=========================================================== Ubuntu Security Notice USN-646-1 September 18, 2008 rdesktop vulnerabilities CVE-2008-1801, CVE-2008-1802, CVE-2008-1803 =========================================================== A security issue affects the following Ubuntu releases: Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Ubuntu 7.04 Ubuntu 7.10 Ubuntu 8.04 LTS This advisory also applies to the corresponding versions of Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Xubuntu. The problem can be corrected by upgrading your system to the following package versions: Ubuntu 6.06 LTS: rdesktop 1.4.1-1.1ubuntu0.6.06.1 Ubuntu 7.04: rdesktop 1.5.0-1ubuntu1.1 Ubuntu 7.10: rdesktop 1.5.0-2ubuntu0.1 Ubuntu 8.04 LTS: rdesktop 1.5.0-3+cvs20071006ubuntu0.1 In general, a standard system upgrade is sufficient to effect the necessary changes. Details follow: It was discovered that rdesktop did not properly validate the length of packet headers when processing RDP requests. If a user were tricked into connecting to a malicious server, an attacker could cause a denial of service or possible execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user. (CVE-2008-1801) Multiple buffer overflows were discovered in rdesktop when processing RDP redirect requests. If a user were tricked into connecting to a malicious server, an attacker could cause a denial of service or possible execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user. (CVE-2008-1802) It was discovered that rdesktop performed a signed integer comparison when reallocating dynamic buffers which could result in a heap-based overflow. If a user were tricked into connecting to a malicious server, an attacker could cause a denial of service or possible execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the user. (CVE-2008-1802)

Technorati Tags: Ubuntu, rdesktop, linux, vulnerability

The long and short of it is, it looks really nice.  Here’s how you can install it.

You’ll need to pop open a command line (Applications-> Accessories-> Terminal Session)

Lets pop in there and edit our sources.list file to include Eternity’s repositories.

gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Now you’ve got a graphical text editor up and running.  Go to the bottom and paste this in, then save it.

# Eternity Screensaver
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/eternity/ubuntu feisty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/eternity/ubuntu feisty main

You can change feisty in the above line to gutsy or hardy as well.

Now to install it type:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install eternal-ubuntu eternal-studio eternal-damnation

Now you can go to System-> Screensaver and select the Eternity screen saver you want.

Technorati Tags: linux, ubuntu, eternity, screen saver, screensaver, eternity, ray traced, cool, geek

If you’re a Linux guru or or experienced enough to know what all of these things are then you probably don’t need this article and we can go our merry ways.  If not, then DO NOT, DON’T, NEVER EVER EVER EVER run these commands in a terminal session.  If you do you will render your system anything from useless without a forced reboot to devoid of any useful purpose ever.

Why write this article then?  Because you should be forewarned as a Linux user that there are people out there who consider it good fun to bait others into running destructive and harmful commands on their machines.  Particularly those new to Linux.  So use this list as a caution as to what not to do.  And note that it’s not an exhaustive list, simply a quick reference against stuff you really don’t want to do.  Bottom line is, research what you’re about to execute before you push the enter key and know what you’re doing to your system, yourself and your job prospects.

Let’s start with commands that delete things that probably shouldn’t be deleted, shall we?

The basic way to delete a file in Linux is with the rm command.  rm foo will take foo, wring its skinny neck and throw it down the drain.  Gone.  See you later.

Now there are lots of variants on these commands.  Let’s look at a few.  Again, look but do not execute!

rm -rf ./  - Delete the files in a current directory (all of them)

rm -rf / - Delete the partition.  (AHHH!)

rm -rf . - Delete the whole directory.

rm -rf * - Delete all visible files in a directory

Running all of these commands have certain real world utility.  They’re also a great way to fubar your system if run in the wrong place.  Remember ‘rm’ means remove.  -r means recursive and -f means don’t bother asking me if you want me to really delete your /usr/bin directory - or any other for that matter.

Mean folks have gotten slightly more creative and regular Linux users have made this mistake more than once.

rm -rf .* - Delete all hidden (files that start with a ‘.’) files.

Now, how about the good old fork bomb!  Sounds ominous eh?  What a fork bomb does is eat up all of your available system processes, essentially bringing your system to it’s knees.  A fork is when a program spawns another program - often a version of itself.  A fork bomb is when this happens endlessly and nearly exponentially until there are no resources left on your system.  Most often the only way to get out of this is to hard reboot (i.e. hold down the old power button) which can cause file system problems.  Here’s a few examples of fork bombs to watch out for:

:(){ :|:& };: - The cutest one.  Like a vorpal bunny.

#!/usr/bin/perl  - for Perl meanies.
fork while 1

or also in perl:

fork while fork

#include <unistd.h>
int main(int argc, char* args[])
{
while(1)
fork();
return 0;
}

That last one is in C.  As you can see there are a bunch of ways to do this - the above examples are only that, examples.  Just be careful of code you don’t know with the word ‘fork’ in it, or of typing lots of emoticons into your shell.

Even windows users can be subject to fork bombs in the form of malicious batch code.  Here are two examples:

:s
START %0
GOTO :s

%0|%0

The next kind of code bomb is a tar bomb.  Tar is a nifty program for compressing and uncompressing stuff so you don’t have to lug around hefty loads of data.  Tared files can be crafted however to ‘explode’ into an existing directory, rather than into a new directory.

An example: Say you’re in your home directory and you have file called foo.tar you want to untar.  So you do so and it should untar into a directory called /foo sitting in your home directory.  Through malice or bad practice though, it could just untar all of it’s files into your /home directory.  This is bad if there are say. . . 487,038 files in the tarbomb.  Now you’ve got all the junk to sort through in your home directory.  Ouch!

The same can be said for any uncompiled code.  If you don’t know where it’s coming from think twice before compiling it.  It’s very easy for someone to hide a chunk of malicious code in the thousands of lines of codeit takes to make a program.

Bottom line is - be cautious, don’t run things if you don’t know where they came from and always, always check what a command does if you’re not familiar with it.  Not only will this make you more productive and more powerful user but it will help you protect yourself as well.  Remember this isn’t an exhaustive list, there are plenty of other tricks out there as well.  Be safe.

Edit: Thanks to the commenters for pointing out some errors - I’ve since corrected them!

Technorati Tags: how not to, linux, unix, commands not to run, tarbom, fork bomb, malicous commands, shell scripts, ouchie

Here’s the announcement.

=========================================================== Ubuntu Security Notice USN-637-1 August 25, 2008 linux, linux-source-2.6.15/20/22 vulnerabilities CVE-2008-2812, CVE-2008-2931, CVE-2008-3272, CVE-2008-3275 =========================================================== A security issue affects the following Ubuntu releases: Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Ubuntu 7.04 Ubuntu 7.10 Ubuntu 8.04 LTS This advisory also applies to the corresponding versions of Kubuntu, Edubuntu, and Xubuntu.

The problem can be corrected by upgrading your system to the following package versions:

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS: linux-image-2.6.15-52-386 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-686 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-amd64-generic 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-amd64-k8 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-amd64-server 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-amd64-xeon 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-hppa32 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-hppa32-smp 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-hppa64 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-hppa64-smp 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-itanium 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-itanium-smp 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-k7 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-mckinley 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-mckinley-smp 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-powerpc 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-powerpc-smp 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-powerpc64-smp 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-server 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-server-bigiron 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-sparc64 2.6.15-52.71 linux-image-2.6.15-52-sparc64-smp 2.6.15-52.71

Ubuntu 7.04: linux-image-2.6.20-17-386 2.6.20-17.39 linux-image-2.6.20-17-generic 2.6.20-17.39 linux-image-2.6.20-17-hppa32 2.6.20-17.39 linux-image-2.6.20-17-hppa64 2.6.20-17.39 linux-image-2.6.20-17-itanium 2.6.20-17.39 linux-image-2.6.20-17-lowlatency 2.6.20-17.39 linux-image-2.6.20-17-mckinley 2.6.20-17.39 linux-image-2.6.20-17-powerpc 2.6.20-17.39 linux-image-2.6.20-17-powerpc-smp 2.6.20-17.39 linux-image-2.6.20-17-powerpc64-smp 2.6.20-17.39 linux-image-2.6.20-17-server 2.6.20-17.39 linux-image-2.6.20-17-server-bigiron 2.6.20-17.39 linux-image-2.6.20-17-sparc64 2.6.20-17.39 linux-image-2.6.20-17-sparc64-smp 2.6.20-17.39

Ubuntu 7.10: linux-image-2.6.22-15-386 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-cell 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-generic 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-hppa32 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-hppa64 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-itanium 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-lpia 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-lpiacompat 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-mckinley 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-powerpc 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-powerpc-smp 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-powerpc64-smp 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-rt 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-server 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-sparc64 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-sparc64-smp 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-ume 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-virtual 2.6.22-15.58 linux-image-2.6.22-15-xen 2.6.22-15.58

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS: linux-image-2.6.24-19-386 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-generic 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-hppa32 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-hppa64 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-itanium 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-lpia 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-lpiacompat 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-mckinley 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-openvz 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-powerpc 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-powerpc-smp 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-powerpc64-smp 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-rt 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-server 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-sparc64 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-sparc64-smp 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-virtual 2.6.24-19.41 linux-image-2.6.24-19-xen 2.6.24-19.41

After a standard system upgrade you need to reboot your computer to effect the necessary changes. Details follow: It was discovered that there were multiple NULL-pointer function dereferences in the Linux kernel terminal handling code. A local attacker could exploit this to execute arbitrary code as root, or crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2812) The do_change_type routine did not correctly validation administrative users. A local attacker could exploit this to block mount points or cause private mounts to be shared, leading to denial of service or a possible loss of privacy. (CVE-2008-2931) Tobias Klein discovered that the OSS interface through ALSA did not correctly validate the device number. A local attacker could exploit this to access sensitive kernel memory, leading to a denial of service or a loss of privacy. (CVE-2008-3272) Zoltan Sogor discovered that new directory entries could be added to already deleted directories. A local attacker could exploit this, filling up available memory and disk space, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2008-3275) In certain situations, the fix for CVE-2008-0598 from USN-623-1 was causing infinite loops in the writev syscall. This update corrects the mistake. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, linux, kernel, security risk, updates needed

Note: This will work on any system using gnome, or just about any other system if you know your way around cron.  I happen to run Ubuntu though, and enjoy it over other distros, so that’s where I wrote this and that’s how I titled it.

I also like to see what’s going on with the world, particularly the weather but often find myself not in orbit so I’m unable to track worldwide weather patterns like I want to.

Then a though occurred to me - what if I set up one of my Ubuntu boxes to have a map of the world with clouds overlayed, updated every hour?  Neat!  I now have a map of the world with cloud overlays updated hourly for my background.

It took me a little time to figure this out but I’ve nailed it and now you can do it too by following my quick, easy plan to wealth and . . . er. . . to a weatherified desktop.

First, you’re going to want to get a program called gnome-schedule. You can either start Synaptic (System-> Administration-> Synaptic Package Manager) and search for ‘gnome-schedule’ or open up a terminal session (Applications-> Accessories-> Terminal Session) and type:

sudo apt-get install gnome-schedule

What is it?  Gnome Schedule is a GUI front end to Cron, which is a scheduling daemon.  It allows you to tell your computer to execute a command at a given time, which in our case is going to be every hour - and to repeat this command at given times, again, hourly.

Gnome-scheduler isn’t automagically added to your menus, so let’s add it to the Applications-> Accessories menu, shall we?  Right click on Applications and choose “Edit Menus”.  From there, left click on Accessories and click the New Item button.  Call this new menu item “Gnome Schedule” in the Name field and in the Command field, type ‘gnome-schedule‘.

Click okay, and it’s there.  You can also always launch it from a terminal session by typing gnome-schedule.

Thankfully, there’s an awesome site out there called die.net.  They host a nice good sized image of the world with cloud cover updated once every hour or so.  We’re going to automate the task of going to die.net and downloading the needed .jpg file.

Open Gnome Scheduler, and click the New button.  From there, choose “A task that launches recurrently”.

In the description field, call it “weather wallpaper” or whatever you’d like.  In the Command field, type

wget -r -N http://static.die.net/earth/mercator/1600.jpg

In the Time & Date section, click the Advanced radio button.  Now, in the Minute field, put something between ‘10‘ and ‘55‘  - you choose a number.  In the hour field, put 0-23. Now click the Add button to add this task to your scheduler.

What does this do?  It tells your computer to go out to die.net and grab the 1600.jpg file some number of minutes past every hour.  Why do it this way?  Well I figure if the image updates on the hour and my clock is a little off, a few minutes past the hour or a few minutes to the hour should be enough leeway for me to get the latest image.  If we vary our numbers, we won’t all flood the site at 10 minutes past.

Once you’ve added this to Gnome Schedule, click the Run task button.  This will execute the task so you can both test it, and grab the appropriate file.  Gnome Schedule will run this command as you, and dump the file into your home directory.

Now to get it on to your computer as your background.  Right click your desktop and choose “Change Desktop Background”.  Now click the Add button and browse to your home directory.  Choose the file 1600.jpg and it will be added to your backgrounds and set up as your wallpaper.

When this image updates every hour, your background will automatically update as well.  Neat, eh?

You can do this with any image that’s available on the web which updates.  All you need is the URL to download the image and you’ll have to modify your little script to reflect the correct file name.

Enjoy!

EDIT: Thanks to Sam R and some astute Reddit readers, I’ve edited this article to make it even easier to do.  Now - anyone got a list of pictures online that are updated every N minutes?

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, how to, wallpaper, desktop, rotating, weather map, linux, updated world cloud coverage, geek

A note: I say Ubuntu in the title because that’s what I’m running and that’s where I wrote this how to article.  It is most likely applicable to any Debian system and probably good for just about any other flavor out there.

Now, we begin!

First thing you’ll need is an intimate knowledge of how your Linux kernel is programed, along with a decent working knowledge of physics program for modern GPUs.  Nah, just kidding.  You’ll need a terminal session. Go to Applications-> Accessories-> Terminal and lets get this show on the road.

In your terminal session, we’re going to create a directory for your Steam dedicated servers to live.  Let’s call it ’steam’.

sudo mkdir /steam

Hey, we’re on our way! No lets head into the directory we just created.

cd /steam

Once there, we’ll need to download a .bin file called hldsupdatetool.bin, like so:

sudo wget http://storefront.steampowered.com/download/hldsupdatetool.bin

That will take but a few seconds, unless you’re on dial up in which case you probably shouldn’t be running a dedicated server anyway.  Once that’s there, let’s run it.

chmod +x hldsupdatetool.bin

sudo ./hldsupdatetool.bin

Now that we’ve gotten the half life server update stuff out of the way, we’ll run Steam for Linux for the first time so it can update itself.

sudo ./steam

Let that do it’s thing, it could take a minute or two.  Once that finishes, you’ll have to decide on what game(s) you want to host and then tell Steam to go get the dedicated server.  The command looks like this:

sudo ./steam -command update -game “SOMEGAME” -dir .

You’ll want to substitute SOMEGAME with one of the following options (keeping the quotes) cstrike, dmc, dod, ricochet, tfc, valve, Counter-Strike Source or hl2mp.  The two that I’ve messed with are Half-Life 2 Multiplayer (hlf2mp) and Counter Strike Source.  So to set up Counter Strike Source, do this:

./steam -command update -game “Counter-Strike Source” -dir .

That tells Steam to update the game (in this case, install it too) in to the local (.) directory.

Once you’ve downloaded a particular game you want to host, you’re going to want to change some directory permissions, like so:

sudo chmod -R 755 steam

Now that you’ve gotten the game downloaded, you launch a dedicated server like so:

./srcds_run -game cstrike +maxplayers 16 -autoupdate

That will launch Counter Strike Source, set the max players to 16 and update as necessary.  You can also specifiy a map, located in the cstrike/maps directory by adding -map de_mapname.  Leave off the file extension when you do this.  To see all of the maps, do this from the steam directory.

cd cstrike/maps

ls | grep *.bsp

if you go up one directory (cd ..) you can look at maplist.txt to see all of the maps available.  There’s also a mapcycle.txt which I’m assuming is how the server knows to move through maps.

I do know you can set a specific port with the +port 12345 command where 12345 would be the desired port number.

Now you and I are both up to the same level of understanding on this.  I’d love to delve further into it, and love even more to know how to get statistics (number of players connected, which map is currently running, etc.) or some sort of GUI control panel.  And how do you ban J. Random Asshat players?

If you discover more, please let me know!

Technorati Tags: half life 2, counter strike, steam, valve, dedicated server, multiplayer, linux, ubuntu, how to, video games

Error removing file: Permission denied

I like computers but I’m not a big fan of when they talk back.  So here’s a quick and easy way to go into your system and nuke those files.

First, open up a terminal session (Applications-> Accessoris ->Terminal)

Now, type this:

cd /home/YOUR-USER-NAME/.local/share/Trash/files

Typing ‘ls’ at this point should reveal to you the folders and files you’re trying to delete.  Now on to the nuking.  If it’s just a few files, this will do:

sudo rm -f *

If it’s files, folders and files within folders, try this:

sudo rm -Rf *

No more stuck stuff in your trash.

Technorati Tags: linux, ubuntu, trash, stuck, howto, geeks, computers

While Ubuntu (the distro that I use) and other distros don’t really use Superfetch, you can still get an advantage using the disk cache functionality - particularly if you’re running on a system that doesn’t have a ton of RAM available. This tutorial is written with Ubuntu in mind but can be easily modified to use with just about any distro.  And yes, there’s some command line stuff.  No, it’s not as guified as Vista.

First, stick the USB drive into an open USB slot. Make sure it’s a drive that you don’t mind overwriting.

Ubuntu should mount this automagically in /media/disk.  You’ll probably also get a nifty icon on your desktop.

To unmount this  - open up a terminal session (Applications-> Accessories-> Terminal) and type

mount

Now look to see where your USB drive is mounted.  In Ubuntuland it’s usually under /media/disk or /media/usbdisk.  On my system it’s mounted like this:

/dev/sdb1 on /media/disk type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,shortname=mixed,uid=1000,utf8,umask=077,flush)

The easy way to tell if this is the correct disk is to run the mount command before you stick it in your USB slot and then after.  The newest mount - well that’s the one you want.

To unmount this, type:

sudo umount /dev/sdb1

Of course, change the /dev/sdb1 bit to reflect what’s on your system.

Now, we’re going to create a swap file on the unmounted USB drive.  In my case I’ll type:

sudo mkswap /dev/sdb1

Again, change the /dev/sdb1 bit to what you say when you ran the ‘mount’ command earlier.

Now that I’ve filled this drive with a swap partition, it’s time to turn it on and give it high priority.

sudo swapon -p 32767 /dev/sdb1

That turns the swap partition on, with a priority (-p) of 32767.  Why 32767?  Well that’s the highest priority available.  Here’s the documentation if you’re interested.

You can double check that you did everything correctly by checking the /proc/swaps file:

cat /proc/swaps

My output is as follows:

Filename                Type        Size    Used    Priority
/dev/sda5                               partition    3229024    0    -1
/dev/sdb1                               partition    1981928    0    32767

You can see I have about 2GB of swap space allocated on /dev/sdb1

This won’t give you a huge speed boost on higher memory machines but if you’re using a laptop with only 512 megs of RAM you should see a noticable difference.

Technorati Tags: how to, howto, ubuntu, linux, swap, readyboost, geek, technology, foss

Getting music from ‘out there’ to ‘in here’.  There are several ways to go about doing this.  The first, and easiest is to hang around your favorite DRM-free download store, like Amazon.com or Rhapsody for starters.  See something you like?  Buy it!  You may also have a lot of your music on an ancient format, like a CD or perhaps a clay tablet.  Let’s say you’re looking at a stack of CDs that are sitting outside of your computer and you’d like to get all that music into your computer.

Grab the first CD you want to encode (and remember, this is for your one, archival purposes only copy of your CD.  Don’t sell it, share it or do anything illegal with it - or if you do, remember that I told you not to).

You’ll have to install a program called Sound Juicer to rip those tracks from your CD and deposit them to your computer.  Here’s a previous post on how to install Sound Juicer and enable it to rip to MP3 format if it doesn’t default to that option for you.

When you run Sound Juicer, I’d suggest saving all of your files to your Music folder.  You can find it at /home/your-user-name/Music, or click on Places -> Music.

In my 8.04 Ubuntu install, Sound Juicer wasn’t put into the Applications menu for me.  You can always hit the terminal and type sound-juicer but I like a menu entry as much as the next guy.  Right click on your Applications menu and choose Edit Menus.  From there, click on the Sound & Video menu on the left, and then click the New Item button on the right.  Call it Sound Juicer, use the command sound-juicer and the icon should find itself.  Click Okay and exit out of everything until you’re back on your desktop.  Open it up and rip some CDs!

Now, you’ve got a few CD’s ripped, you’ve downloaded all of Barry White’s music from Amazon and you also have a gig or two (or twenty) of music you’ve been carting around with you since your brother’s friend used to DJ, you’ve got to decide what to do with all this stuff.

My first suggestion would be to take the whole cart load of music, in it’s many folders and various locations and put it all in one place.  Ubuntu 8.04 has a nice place all set up for you called “Music” which we talked about earlier.  Not terribly original, but eminently workable.  The folder is located in your home director, under Music, or Places -> Music.

Once you’ve got everything in one place, what should you do?  I’ve been working hard at getting all of my MP3’s tagged correctly.  Tags are bits of the file that tell you and your computer what the song is, where it came from, who the artist is, what album it’s from and lots of other information. Improperly tagged music can cause a lot of problems for those who like order and organization.  It’s also the leading cause of MP3s showing up in players as “03.mp3” rather than “Sweet Barry White.mp3”.  (I made that title up, by the way).

So you’ve got your music in one place, what now?  Let’s make sure it’s all properly tagged!  If you’ve downloaded the music from a reputable site, it’s most likely tagged correctly, although it could have some extra information there you don’t want.

What about all the other stuff?  If you’ve ripped it and made sure your info was correct in Sound Juicer (default settings usually work) then you should be okay as well.  All the other files you’ve got laying around though, they could use some work most likely.

In comes MusicBrainz.  It’s a community run and updated music metadata site!  Wha?  Essentially they’ve compiled a list of music, musicians and albums and have made a way for you to use that information to correctly tag your stuff.

You’ll need to get get a nifty piece of software called Picard to utilize their services.  Go to System -> Administration -> Synaptic File Manager.  Once synaptic is open, search for Picard.  Find it, right click on it, mark it for install and say okay.  Synaptic does it’s thing and you’ve got Picard!

Again, you’ll have to add it to your Applications menu manually.  Right click on your Applications menu and choose Edit Menus.  From there, click on the Sound & Video menu on the left, and then click the New Item button on the right.  Call it Picard, use the command picard and the icon should find itself.  Click Okay and exit out of everything until you’re back on your desktop.

Now, start up Picard from your new menu entry.  You can do a single MP3 or load up a whole folder’s worth by clicking the Add Files or Add Folder buttons.  For this example, I’ll use a single file.

Click the Add Files button, browse to where your dubiously tagged MP3 file is and open it.  I’ll show you how this works, by illustrating tags with one song.

Once your file is opened, double click on it to see what kind of tags you have.  I’ve used a Bobby McFerrin song because he’s cool and I like to seem worldly.  As you can see, there’s only one tag, and that’s the file name.

Click Okay.  Now, back at the main Picard screen, with your MP3 highlighted still, click the Lookup button.

BAM!  There’s your MP3 info!  It’s like magic!  Or not.  Anyway, highlight the song on the right side panel and click the Save button.

Now you’ve got all the info you need for this MP3.  You can use the Add Files or Add Folder buttons to put up as many MP3’s as your mind can handle, and then highlight them all and click the Lookup button.  You’ll have to go through and save what you want but it sure beats manually looking up all this information.  This means opening each album, and saving the selected MP3s.

Picard can do a lot more but those are the basic tools you’ll need to get started.  Here’s the documentation for those who want to dig deeper.

There may be songs that Picard and MusicBrainz just won’t have info on.  At this point, you can manually tag your songs using a program called Ex Falso.  Ex Falso can be gotten by going to System -> Administration -> Synaptic File Manager.  Once synaptic is open, search for ex falso.  Find it, right click on it, mark it for install and say okay.

Strangely, this was added to my Applications -> Sound & Video menu automatically.  Open the program up, select an MP3 to modify, click on it and you can see all of the tag information.  By clicking on a tag, you can edit it.

Okay, you’ve got your MP3’s all lined up, they’re tagged and just ready to go!  What now?  Now you need a good player and playlist organizer.  On to my new favorite program for this – Amarok!

A note to Ubuntunistas.  Yes, I know Amarok is a KDE program.  I don’t care that I’m running it in Gnome.  I love this program.  Love it in a near-biblical sense.

Back to Synaptic, search for Amarok and install it!

Once you’ve gotten it installed, fire it up and walk through the Wizard which will tell Amarok where all of your MP3s are.  Applications -> Sound & Video -> Amarok.

This is an easy to use yet fully feature piece of software which you can use to do everything from create and play simple play lists, to sync your MP3 players.  This would take an entirely new post to describe how to use this. Or bettery yet, head on over to the Amarok site and check it out yourself.

There are lots of other music players for Linux and Ubuntu out there that you can use as well. They’ll be a lot more fun now that you’ve got your music organized and tagged correctly.  Banshee is a great Gnome native player which just hit release 1.0.  I’ve also used XMMS with a good deal of success.  All of these are available through Synaptic on your Ubuntu computer.

You’re organized, you’re tagged and you’re ready to go!

Technorati Tags: mp3, music, rip, tags, mp3 tag, amarok, musicbrainz, geek, picard, how to, ex falso