1. Create a empty file with the size of the corresponding media:

   dd if=/dev/zero of=dvd_image.bin bs=1024 count=4596992

   (at the end of this blog entry you'll find a list of media sizes for different optical discs)

2. Create the UDF Filesystem within this file:

   mkudffs -r 0x0102 dvd_image.bin

3.  Mount the Filesystem (as root):

   mount -o loop ./dvd_image.bin /mnt 

4. Copy data to the Filesystem
5. Unmount the Filesystem (as root):

   umount /mnt 

6. Burn the image to the media:

   wodim dev=/dev/sr0 -data -dao ./dvd_image.bin

Media sizes:

DVD+R SL : 4590208
DVD-R DL : 8343424
DVD+R DL : 8347648

description "VNC Server"
author      "Egon A. Rath"

start on login-session-start
stop on runlevel [016]

emits vnc-server-start

script
    x11vnc -geometry 1680x1050 -clip 1680x1050+0+0 -shared -no6 -forever -nolookup -passwd 'Test123!' -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -ncache -noxinerama -display :0
    initctl emit vnc-server-start
end script

Save the above as /etc/init/vnc.conf and logout (restarts your display server). You should now be able to connect from a remote machine using the specified password - check out the manual page for x11vnc, it's even possible to authenticate against PAM.

Put the following line to your /etc/rc.local to set the lcd brightness via ACPI to a value between 0 and the max (later more on this):

echo 22 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness

To get the maximum brightness:

cat /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/max_brightness

Because this hindered my workflow i looked for a solution which is more convenient - and found "shutter" (it's in the repositories). This little tool allows way more customization than the original screenshot utility, for example marking a rectangle on the screen and capturing just this without any further manual intervention.

Here's what i did:

1. apt-get install shutter
2. Disable the Keybinding for both Print Keys in the Settings
3.  Added "shutter --min_at_startup" to launch at session startup (XFCE Session)
4. Bound "shutter --full" to the Print Key
5. Bound "shutter --select --exit_after_capture" to the Ctrl-Print Key combination

So, now when i press Print alone, i capture the whole screen as always, but Ctrl-Print allows me to define a rectangle on the screen and grabs it directly to the clipboard. Nice thing!

#!/bin/sh
target=on
xprop -root _NET_SHOWING_DESKTOP | grep '= 1' 2>/dev/null 1>&2
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
target=off
fi
wmctrl -k ${target}

Bind this script to the Key Shortcut of your desire.

Locking the Session:

If it's not configured by your distribution, simply call

qdbus org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver /ScreenSaver Lock

#include <iostream>

#include <QApplication>
#include <QClipboard>
#include <QDebug>
#include <QMimeData>
#include <QStringList>
#include <QFile>

using std::cout;
using std::cin;
using std::endl;

int main( int argc, char **argv )
{
    QApplication app( argc, argv );

    QClipboard *clipboard = QApplication::clipboard();
    const QMimeData *data = clipboard->mimeData();

    QStringList formats = data->formats();
    QStringList::iterator iter = formats.begin();
    int id = 1;

    while( iter != formats.end() )
    {
        cout << "(" << id++ << "): " << (*iter).toStdString() << endl;
        iter++;
    }

    cout << endl << "Which one to save? ";
    cin >> id;

    QFile dump( "dump.bin" );
    dump.open( QFile::WriteOnly );
    dump.write( data->data( formats.at( id-1 )));
    dump.close();

    cout << "Written to dump.bin" << endl;
}

It simply shows all the formats available in the clipboard and stores the one you select in a file. Thats it, no more to see here.

*) Kudos to everyone for using openoffice instead of libreoffice when actually meaning libreoffice - it's hard to get used to it :-)

1.) gfdisk /dev/sdd -> Create one partition with type 0xb (FAT32) which is active
2.) mkfs.vfat /dev/sdd1
3.) syslinux --install /dev/sdd1
4.) mount /dev/sdd1 /mnt
5.) mkdir /mnt/syslinux
6.) Download syslinux and extract it somewhere
7.) Download grub4dos and extract it somewhere
8.) Copy menu.c32 from the syslinux distribution to /mnt
9.) Copy grub.exe from the grub4dos distribution to /mnt
10.) mkdir /mnt/images
11.) Copy all ISO Images you want to boot to /mnt/images
12.) Edit /mnt/syslinux.cfg:

menu hshift 0
menu width 82
menu title USB Multiboot
menu vshift 3
menu rows 10
menu tabmsg Press ENTER to boot or TAB to edit a menu entry

### START MENU ENTRY
label systemrescuecd
MENU LABEL System Rescue CD
LINUX /grub.exe
APPEND --config-file="ls /images/systemrescuecd-x86-2.5.1.iso || find --set-root /images/systemrescuecd-x86-2.5.1.iso;map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 /images/systemrescuecd-x86-2.5.1.iso (0xff) || map --heads=0 --sectors-per-track=0 --mem /images/systemrescuecd-x86-2.5.1.iso (0xff);map --hook;chainloader (0xff)"
### END MENU ENTRY

default menu.c32
prompt 0
timeout 0

13.) Create a Menu entry for every ISO you want to boot in syslinux.cfg
14.) Finished

You should end up with something like:

PS: To create the Windows 7 PE Image, i highly recommend WinBuilder (http://www.winbuilder.net)

/edit 2012-03-27: Inclusion of a DOS Boot Disk (1,44 MB Image) for BIOS Flashing

If you want to boot a DOS Image to flash your BIOS, follow these steps:

1. Create the 1,44 MB Image file - you can download a empty Dr.Dos Flash Image from www.bootdisk.com or use the one appended in this post.
2. Copy the necessary files for your BIOS to the disk - mount it as a loop device and do your steps

   mount -o loop /tmp/drdos_flash.ima /mnt

3. Copy the image to /images on the stick
4. Append the following entry to syslinux.cfg:

   label drdosflash
   MENU LABEL DR DOS for Flashing (ACER this time)
   LINUX /grub.exe
   APPEND --config-file="map --mem (hd0,0)/images/drdos_flash.ima (fd0);map --hook;root (fd0);chainloader (fd0)+1;boot"

There's a great guide on Grub4Dos over here: http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/Grub4dos.htm - i used this one to gather all the needed informations on how to boot images with grub4dos.

drdos_flash

At first i didn't had any idea on what could have been wrong, so i searched around the internet - and found out that many people are suffering from the same problem. Sometimes with the same model, sometimes with completly different ones. As it turned out, the problem is always related to the DSDT ACPI Table - read the following three links to get an idea what they are doing:

1. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Configuration_and_Power_Interface
2. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/DSDT
3. http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/ACPI/Fix_common_problems

To make it short, most vendors compiler the DSDT Table using the Microsoft Compiler which even compiles erroneous code without any complaints. The Microsoft ACPI Driver "acpi.sys" can use this erroneous table without any problems, but the Linux ACPI implementation (which totally confirms to the official standard) has problems with it. To check if your DSDT has problems with linux try to decompile it and compile it again using the "iASL" compiler (described  the link #3 from above). If this failed your ACPI DSDT Table is buggy and wont work correctly with Linux.

This was the case with my 8710p ACPI implementation.  So, the next step was to decompile the DSDT using the Microsoft compiler - from what i've read on forums it's the recommended way to decompile it using Microsoft's ASL Compiler instead of the Intel one if it's a buggy DSDT Table.

1. Grab the following package from Microsoft and install it (on a windows host):

http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/c/1/2c16c7e0-96c1-40f5-81fc-3e4bf7b65496/MS_ASL-Compiler_3.0.1.msi

2. Dump your DSDT Table:

cat /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/DSDT > dsdt.dat

3. Decompile this dump on the windows machine:

asl.exe /u dsdt.dat

This will yield a dsdt.asl

4. Try to compile the dsdt.asl using iASL:

iasl -tc -vi dsdt.asl

5. This will probably produce errors - examine them and fix em in the source until it compiles clean without any errors and warnings - this can be a bit tricky, be warned!

Now that you have a working dsdt.aml file (ACPI DSDT Table) you need to integrate it to your system.  You can do this, by following the steps described at: http://blog.michael.kuron-germany.de/2011/03/patching-dsdt-in-recent-linux-kernels-without-recompiling/

To make things short:

1. Copy the dsdt.aml file to /boot

2. Copy the file 01_acpi.txt from the link above to /etc/grub.d/01_acpi

3. Edit /etc/default/grub to include the following default kernel parameters:

acpi=force acpi_os_name="Windows 2006" 

4. Run "update-grub"

5. Reboot

If for any reason, you can't get it to work, try to disassemble using iasl and not the microsoft asl.

For your convenience i have attached all necessary files to this entry (including the finished HP 8710p DSDT Table):

Patching DSDT in recent Linux kernels without recompiling

01_acpi

hp_8710p_dsdt

8710w - fan works all the time - Page 8

Project OS X Forums _ Fixing Dsdt Errors For Hp Compaq

HOWTO Fix A Buggy DSDT File - Page 52 - Ubuntu Forums

• Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> General, Config Editor
• Set the following variables to false:
• mail.html_compose
• mail.identity.default.compose_html

Restart Thunderbird to compose mails in Text by default.

After digging around a little bit and lastly asking google for help, it turned out that it was a misconfigured http proxy which delivered some cached files (who were no longer up to date).

Finally i ended up with adding "cache = off" in /etc/wgetrc to instruct the proxy to not use the cache at all.

Refer to http://www.octopuce.fr/apt-mirror-BADSIG-on-security-debian-org-with-solution for more information on this issue.

PDF print of the above site in case it's being removed in the future: apt-mirror_keyproblem

Read here: http://www.matrix44.net/cms/notes/gnulinux/create-a-local-ubuntu-mirror

I am currently planning to authenticate all my home systems using Kerberos and OpenLDAP, i digged around a little bit to learn it - and found a really good introductory tutorial over at cisco.com:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk59/technologies_white_paper09186a00800941b2.shtml

For your convenience the PDF from above is also mirrored here: Kerberos Cisco