StellarTech Blog

After posting about my initial script for controlling the Roku Digital Video Player, ProdigiousJuggalo and eri3k from the roku forums took up the torch and added some really nice functions and UI enhancements. Thanks guys!

The screen shot to the left is the new interface. The latest version of the script can be downloaded by  clicking  here.

Some of the changes include function for rebooting beta firmwares, changing bit rate, saving IP information, and a much better UI.

It’s possible I might put something together to control the roku from the iPhone, eg. roku soundbridge and boxee,  if someone doesn’t beat me to it in the next week or two.

Hooray for necessity. My Roku digital video player remote controller stopped working yesterday. While it’s pretty cheap to replace I needed to find something I could use in the interim. Since the device will let you telnet to port 8080 and feed in remote commands, my first attempt was to use setup a few bash aliases using netcat like so:

alias ru='echo "press up" | nc -n $rokuIP 8080'
alias rd='echo "press down" | nc -n $rokuIP 8080'
alias rl='echo "press left" | nc -n $rokuIP 8080'

You get the idea. However this got tedious fairly quick and the idea of explaining the use of netcat or telnet to my wife seems frightening.

Instead of living in fear I put together a script using Autoit. Now the Mrs . and I have a  UI that resembles the remote we’re waiting for.  It’s pretty basic and self explanatory. Just enter in the appropriate IP of the device and start using.

You can grab the script and compiled .exe by clicking here.

Have you ever setup a cool /etc/motd on your Ubuntu installation just to see it vanish after a reboot? We don’t need Scooby and the gang to solve this mystery since it’s obviously a start-up script.

Here some cli medicine to make things all better:
touch /etc/motd.static && rm -f /etc/motd; ln -s /etc/motd.static /etc/motd

By default /etc/motd is symlinked to /var/run/motd which is rebuilt by /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh every time you reboot.

I post this for archival purposes and the greater good of all mankind since I had little luck in finding a solution on Google quick enough.

Some things make me mad. Enough to want to start pulling my flesh out in clumps. This includes controlling all things in my environment down to even the smallest detail. So when I lose the ability to change my desktop background I seriously lose sight of all reason until the pain goes away.

I was at work connected to my Linux workstation, using Gnome’s Remote Desktop setting aka VNC aka VinoServer, through a ssh tunnel when lo and behold the power flickered at home and shut the workstation down. When I got back home I had a big ugly solid color set as my background. Changing the background in ‘Appearance Preferences’ and turning off Remote Desktop both fixed nothing. I even rebooted and then rebooted again picking a different kernel. Each time I was presented with the same big black screen. I foamed, I raved, I swore. Anything would have been more tolerable than this.

I finally fixed the problem by launching gconf-editor and then transversing to / -> desktop -> gnome -> background and checking draw_background. All was well after and I went to sleep.