Linux ® Toys II 9 Cool New Projects for Home, Office, and Entertainment Christopher Negus 01_579959 ffirs.qxd 9/27/05 10:33 PM Page iii Linux ® Toys II 01_579959 ffirs.qxd 9/27/05 10:33 PM Page i 01_579959 ffirs.qxd 9/27/05 10:33 PM Page ii Linux ® Toys II 9 Cool New Projects for Home, Office, and Entertainment Christopher Negus 01_579959 ffirs.qxd 9/27/05 10:33 PM Page iii Linux ® Toys II: 9 Cool New Projects for Home, Office, and Entertainment Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-7995-0 ISBN-10: 0-7645-7995-9 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1B/RY/RQ/QV/IN No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Negus, Chris, 1957– Linux toys II : 9 cool new projects for home, office, and entertainment / Christopher Negus. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-7995-0 (paper/cd-rom+online) ISBN-10: 0-7645-7995-9 (paper/cd-rom+online) 1. Linux. 2. Operating systems (Computers) 3. Multimedia systems. I. Title. QA76.76.O63N4233 2005 005.4 32—dc22 2005025375 Trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. ExtremeTech and the ExtremeTech logo are trademarks of Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings, Inc. Used under license. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. 01_579959 ffirs.qxd 9/27/05 10:33 PM Page iv As always, I dedicate this book to my wife, Sheree. 01_579959 ffirs.qxd 9/27/05 10:33 PM Page v About the Author Christopher Negus landed a job in 1984 at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Summit, N.J., in the group that developed the UNIX operating system. Because he had used UNIX before (and had even written programs in BASIC), he was considered “technical” and started out writing about computer network protocols. Over the next eight years, Chris helped write (and rewrite) the thousands of pages of docu- mentation that accompanied the UNIX operating system. He stayed with the same organiza- tion, even after AT&T spun it off into UNIX System Laboratories and then to Univel, before the organization was sold (with the UNIX source code) to Novell in 1992. (Yes, this is the infamous SCO source code!) Over the following decade, Chris wrote or contributed to about a dozen UNIX books. In 1999, he made the transition to Linux with a vengeance when he wrote Red Hat Linux Bible. Since that time, the book has become a computer book bestseller and in its various editions has sold well over 240,000 copies worldwide. Between editions of Red Hat Linux Bible, Chris wrote Linux Bible, 2005 Edition and co-wrote Linux Troubleshooting Bible with Thomas Weeks. (Tom contributed two chapters to this book as well.) The original Linux Toys and now Linux Toys II reflect Chris’s attempts to put together open source software into fun and useful projects. The projects in this edition reflect Chris’s collabo- ration with leaders and maintainers from a handful of excellent open source initiatives. 01_579959 ffirs.qxd 9/27/05 10:33 PM Page vi Credits Executive Editor Carol Long Acquisitions Editor Debra Williams Cauley Development Editor Sara Shlaer Technical Editors Bharat Mediratta (Gallery) Brandon Beattie, François Caen (MythTV) Roberto De Leo (eMoviX) John Andrews, Robert Shingledecker (Damn Small Linux) Charles Sullivan (Heyu X10) Tim Riker (BZFlag) Heiko Zuerker (Devil-Linux) Michael Smith (Icecast) Jim McQuillan (Linux Terminal Server Project) Contributing Authors Thomas Weeks Jesse Keating Copy Editor Nancy Rapoport Editorial Manager Mary Beth Wakefield Production Manager Tim Tate Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Richard Swadley Vice President and Executive Publisher Joseph B. Wikert Project Coordinator Ryan Steffen Graphics and Production Specialists Carrie Foster Denny Hager Stephanie D. Jumper Barbara Moore Heather Ryan Quality Control Technicians Amanda Briggs Leeann Harney Media Development Project Supervisor Laura Moss Media Development Specialists Angela Denny Steve Kudirka Kit Malone Travis Silvers Media Development Coordinator Laura Atkinson Proofreading and Indexing TECHBOOKS Production Services 01_579959 ffirs.qxd 9/27/05 10:33 PM Page vii Contents at a Glance Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix Part I: The Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Chapter 1: Introduction to Linux Toys II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Chapter 2: Finding What You Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Part II: Multimedia Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Chapter 3: Creating a Web Photo Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Chapter 4: Creating a Personal Video Recorder with MythTV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Chapter 5: Making Bootable Movies with eMoviX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Part III: Home Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Chapter 6: Customizing a Live Linux Pen Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Chapter 7: Automating Home Lights and Gadgets with X10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Chapter 8: Setting Up a Game Server with BZFlag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Chapter 9: Building a Dedicated SOHO Firewall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Part IV: Small Business Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 Chapter 10: Running an Internet Radio Station with Icecast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 Chapter 11: Building a Thin Client Server with LTSP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 Part V: Appendixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 Appendix A: Using the Linux Toys II CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 Appendix B: ABCs of Using Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 Appendix C: Installing Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 02_579959 ftoc.qxd 9/27/05 10:25 PM Page viii [...]... the source code is included on the Linux Toys II CD as well If you are predisposed to do so, it should be possible to build most projects on other Linux distributions (See Appendix A for descriptions of the software included on the Linux Toys II CD.) The Linux Toys (and Linux Toys II) Web sites There are two separate Web sites associated with Linux Toys II: Ⅲ Linux Toys at Wiley (www.wiley.com/go/negus)—Wiley... the publisher of Linux Toys and Linux Toys II, maintains a Web page that pertains to issues surrounding the purchase and features of the book Ⅲ Linux Toys Web Site (www.linuxtoys.net)—Come to the LinuxToys.net site for further information about the Linux Toys II projects On with the Show I hope that you are as excited to try out these projects as I am to bring them to you If you are a Linux expert, feel... xxi xxii Introduction The Linux Toys II CD The CD that comes with this book contains the software you need to complete the Linux Toys II projects Each chapter describes which packages from the CD you need for the project Most of the Linux Toys II software is in RPM format (which is the format used to install software in Fedora Core and Red Hat Enterprise Linux) Although binaries of Linux Toys II software... start Welcome to Linux Toys II Linux Toys II is my second attempt (the first being Linux Toys) to gather up a few cool projects based on open source software and create a book that steps through how to make them In the few years since Linux Toys was published, the pool of open source software on which to base Toys projects has grown astronomically As a result, you’ll find Linux Toys II projects to be... xvii Introduction xix How This Book Is Organized xx Conventions Used in This Book xxi What You Need for the Projects xxi The Linux Toys II CD xxii The Linux Toys (and Linux Toys II) Web Sites xxii On with the Show ... Introduction to Linux Toys II component parts of Linux and put them back together again as you like, you can end up with Linux systems that include everything you might ever want or only the exact components you need Here are some ways in which Linux Toys II projects let you use specialized versions of Linux: Ⅲ Multimedia player — The eMoviX and MoviX2 projects include a specialized Linux system, geared... $50) The topics of interest covered in Linux Toys II projects that I’ve just described here are just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do with Linux and open source software But the skills you learn in building these projects will scale down to handheld devices or up to enterprise computing clusters About the Linux Toys II Projects Behind each Linux Toys II project are one or two primary open... licensing agreements (See the description of what you can and can’t do with “free” software later in this chapter.) in this chapter ˛ Learning about Linux ˛ Linux Toys II projects ˛ Understanding “free” software ˛ Improvements from Linux Toys to Linux Toys II 4 Part I — The Basics Ⅲ The spirit of open source software is sharing the pieces of software you add so that together everyone can benefit Examples... mailing lists Those facts will help you if you get stuck or want to continue to grow with the Linux Toys II projects you build Learning About Linux The projects in Linux Toys II reflect the growing phenomenon of open source software and the Linux operating system For the computer enthusiast or professional, Linux is now in so many places (PCs, enterprise computers, handheld and wireless devices, and... choice If you are new to Linux, be sure to go through the introductory materials and step through the appendixes to get a feel for how to use Linux Okay, let’s go! The Basics part in this part Chapter 1 Introduction to Linux Toys II Chapter 2 Finding What You Need Introduction to Linux Toys II chapter T he same building blocks used to create the world’s most powerful computer system (Linux) can also be used . . . . . . xxi The Linux Toys II CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxii The Linux Toys (and Linux Toys II) Web Sites . Page ii Linux ® Toys II 9 Cool New Projects for Home, Office, and Entertainment Christopher Negus 01_579959 ffirs.qxd 9/27/05 10:33 PM Page iii Linux ® Toys