After much searching/trying stuff I have found a way to successfully re-encode videos that can play on my Blackberry Pearl.

mencoder -vf expand=:::::4/3,scale=240:180 "[entervideohere]" -o "[enteroutputhere]" -of avi -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=230:acodec=mp3:abitrate=64

Obviously you need to have mencoder installed

I am not completely sure what other dependencies there are, since I tried installing so many different tools....but I THINK you need the following:  lame, ffmpeg .

Recently I got the bug to try out a different Linux distribution on my laptop. I have been a die-hard Ubuntu user since I made the switch full time (haven't looked back since!), so after trying and failing to install Gentoo (guess I'm not L33T enough for that distro yet) I landed on PCLinuxOS 2007.

Once I got my development environment configured just like I like it, it was time to install a Windows VM so I can run some applications that I need at my day job (IE6,IE7, Flexbuilder, etc). For this purpose, I elected to use Vmware Server 1.03 (we already had that tarball downloaded).

When installing, I encountered an installation error that turned out to be somewhat commonplace.

Building the vmmon module. Using 2.6.x kernel build system. 
make: 
Entering directory `/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only' make -C /lib/modules/2.6.22.15.tex2/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. modules 
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.22.15.tex2' CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o In file included from /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:80: /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/./include/compat_kernel.h:21: 
error: expected declaration specifiers or ... before compat_exit 
/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/./include/compat_kernel.h:21: 
error: expected declaration specifiers or ... before exit_code 
/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/./include/compat_kernel.h:21: 
warning: type defaults to int in declaration of _syscall1 
make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o] Error 1 
make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only] Error 2 
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.22.15.tex2' 
make: *** [vmmon.ko] 
Error 2 make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only' Unable to build the vmmon module.

To get past this error, a quick Google search turned up a patch called the "vmware-any-any-update" that needed to be run. (get that here).

Ok, so that fixed the first error but then I ran into this...

Building the vmmon module. 
Building for VMware Server 1.0.0. Using 2.6.x kernel build system. make: Entering directory `/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only' make -C /lib/modules/2.6.22.15.tex2/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/. modules 
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.22.15.tex2' CC [M]
 /tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/linux/driverLog.o CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/linux/hostif.o CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/common/comport.o CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/common/cpuid.o CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/common/hash.o CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/common/memtrack.o CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/common/phystrack.o CC [M] 
/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/common/task.o gcc: error trying to exec 'cc1plus': execvp: No such file or directory 
make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only/common/task.o] Error 1 make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only] Error 2 
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-2.6.22.15.tex2' make: *** [vmmon.ko] Error 2 
make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config1/vmmon-only' 

Unable to build the vmmon module.

Another quick trip through the Google search told me that I just didn't have g++ installed. The easy way to find this package is to just open Synaptic and do a search for "g++".

Starting VMware services: Virtual machine monitor [ OK ]
Virtual ethernet [ OK ] 
Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0 [ OK ] 
Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet1 (background) [ OK ] 
Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet8 (background) [ OK ] 
NAT service on /dev/vmnet8 [ OK ] 

The configuration of VMware Server 1.0.3 build-44356 for Linux for this running kernel completed successfully.

Recently, Hardy Heron Alpha 3 was released so, being curious and an avid distro-installer I decided to download the iso and create a virtual machine to see what was new.

I am currently running Ubuntu Feisty (one version older than Gutsy) since I encountered some behavior with Compiz-fusion that I just couldn't stand. (I'm really picky about my OS!).

Get the Alpha 3 - 386 ISO HERE

Installing Hardy Heron Alpha 3

First I created my virtual machine using Vmware Server. And set the CDROM device to boot from the hardy heron installation iso file.

Once past the boot menu, I encountered this message: "Unable to register AppArmor" Not sure what the deal was but after hanging at this message for a couple seconds it went on through to boot into the live cd session.

[AppArmor is an alternative to SELinux, (which is pretty difficult to configure btw)]

Live CD: As you can see, this is pretty generic Gnome live cd.

From within the Live CD session, I choose to install Hardy Heron to my virtual hard drive. One thing of note here, the max screen resolution was 800x600 and the GUI for installation was slightly larger than that. So I had to guess my way to the "Next" buttons by tabbing and hoping :).

Eventually we got to a real session:

As with any of the previous pre-release Ubuntu's, you get to enjoy PLENTY of updates to your software. In this case we were greated with 199 updates available.

After clicking on the update notifier and selecting to install the updates, we ran into another little quirky issue...this is Alpha right?! ;) I was able to begin pulling the updates by going into terminal and typing:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

After a reboot, once the updates were all downloaded and installed, I found out why the update manager didn't want to install these updates.

My Impressions

So, what do I think? I think it's just to early to really tell anything about the new features that Hardy Heron plans to offer.

I was really hoping to see the new enhancements to the desktop effects but I could not enable them for some reason. I did not see any Restricted Drivers Manager that would allow me to install the appropriate video card drivers.

So, if you are new to Linux and want to try out Ubuntu, be sure to try out a stable version (Gutsy is the current release version, go download it HERE). I on the other hand, am going to keep this little VM around and see what the next round of updates brings.

Upcoming Features

Among road-mapped features that I'm looking forward to in Hardy Heron:

• hardy-desktop-effects
  • To ensure the smooth operation of compiz as the default window-manager the integration work into the desktop has to be emphasized. The tools for controlling appearance, workspaces, keyboard and sessions have to be made more compiz-aware. The default behaviour (actions triggered via keyboard-shortcuts or by popping up dialogs) of compiz is not to be different from metacity. It has to be taken care of that shortcuts of applications are not overridden by compiz. Interaction with the underlying framework (RandR) provided by Xorg has to be ensured so hotplugging of displays, screen-rotations and resolution-changes work without causing compiz to quit or crash.
• Kubuntu Hardy KDE 4
  • Handle the 4.0 release, merge with Debian and get it in sync with Ubuntu features.
  • I am really looking forward to this. I enjoy switching back and forth between Gnome/KDE/Fluxbox/e17. So a nicely integrated KDE 4 will rock!
• Fix the Linux audio mess once and for all
  • Currently audio on Linux is a mess. Sound servers like Esound, Arts, Jack, PulseAudio constantly fight for exclusive access to the sound device. Applications usually support only a small subset of the available sound server/device APIs, and need to be configured for their use. Sound APIs are generally incompatible. Audio applications usually come with a messy plugin systems to support every API available. Several abstraction APIs exist, however, none is good for all use cases. Professional audio usually requires shutting down all non-professional sound porgrams. On the other hand Apple managed to define a common sound system (CoreAudio) which makes nearly everyone happy - desktop users as much as professional audio people.