Digital Picture Frame Guide

Digital Picture Frame Guide

Recently I received requests from people how I created my Linux Digital Picture frame out of some old laptops, I told them to search Google for a write up but apparently a lot of the write ups were too difficult to understand for a complete Linux newbie. So I've decided to post easy to follow (hopefully) instructions on how to build your own, you may have to Google for some answers but hopefully I snagged them all. So here I go!

Requirements:
An old laptop that has a CD ROM drive and a USB port
An internet connection (pref. high speed Ethernet)
The DSL boot CD from http://www.damnsmalllinux.org

1. Install Damn Small Linux

• Insert the DSL boot CD
  
• Boot from CD (may have to change BIOS settings)
• When prompted, type "install" and hit the enter key
• Type in your main hard drive which is most likely hda1 (try hda2 if hda1 didn't work)
• Select no for multi-users
• Select yes for ext3 file system
• Continue to cleaning the hard drive and installation
• Select Grub as the boot loader and restart the machine
• On boot, select 800x600 as the initial installation
• Leave the root and DSL password blank!
• On the DSL X Setup, answer the questions accordingly
• Congrats on installing Damn Small Linux! Be sure to eject the CD!
  

2. Grub Configuration

• Open a terminal session and log in as root and type "nano /boot/grub/menu.lst"
• Change the timeout to a shorter time (I recommend 3-5 seconds)
• Edit the line below "Title DSL" and replace "noacpi" with "acpi=force"
• If you laptop only supports 800x600, change vga to equal 788
• Exit, save, and reboot

3. DSL Packages Install (Internet Connection Required)

• Enable Apt by right clicking the desktop and going to Apps -> Tools -> Enable Apt
• After it finishes the installation, open the terminal as root and type "nano /etc/apt/sources.list"
• In the one uncommented line (the line without the ':' in the beginning), change "old stable" to "stable"
• Save and exit the document
• Type "apt-get update"
• After the update type "apt-get install feh unclutter acpid"
• After the update restart the computer

4. Configure the SlideShow

• Open a Terminal as root and type "nano /usr/local/bin/slideshow.sh"
• Type as followed:

#!/bin/bash
# This file is located at /usr/local/bin/slideshow.sh
killall feh unclutter
unclutter &
feh -zZFr -D 300 /mnt/sda1/Pictureframe

• Save and close
• Type "chmod a+w /usr/local/bin/slideshow.sh"
• Type "exit" to logout as root, you want to make sure that you are logged in as DSL for the next step
• Type "nano ~/.xinitrc" and comment out the line that starts with "dillo" by adding '#' in front of that line. Add the following below that line:

#dillo /usr/share/doc/dsl/getting_started.html.....
mount /dev/sda1 &
slideshow.sh &

• Exit and Save
• Shutdown, you're almost there!

5. Using this Picture Frame System

• Load a USB Drive on a Windows Machine
• Create a folder called "Pictureframe"
• Place all the pictures you want to display in that folder
• Take that USB drive and plug it in the Picture Frame System we just configurered
• Turn on the laptop
  

My new iPhone

My new iPhone

Since I saw the iPhone on sale about 2 weeks ago at the AT&T website for $250, I couldn't resist (due to my geeky tech savy cravings) purchasing it. It arrived earlier this week and have been playing with it for the past 2 days. The first thing I did of course was to hack it so that I can use my T-Mobile account with it; AT&T's 2 year contract agreement didn't quite sound so appitizing. It took me about five minutes to update the phone with the newest firmware v1.1.4. and about four minutes to unlock(user other mobile providers) and jailbreak(run unsigned applications) the phone.

First thing I thought was that it was a lot heavier than it looks; it's very very thin, yet it weighs like it has tons off technology stuffed in it. That makes me very happy of course. Second was how shiny and sleek it was.... I've been so scared of putting it in my pocket since I'm afraid of scratching the screen. But after reading this article http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,133636-pg,1/article.html, I realized that unlike the ipods, this phone has a great scratch resistent glass surface!

All in all compared to my Blackberry Pearl, it's a nice flashy upgrade. BUT!!!! The biggest issue is that it doesn't support push email currently and in my work enviroment I need to be notified the moment an email hits my inbox. I'm still debating whether I will be keeping this device, but since Apple says that they will be releasing software that will enable the push email feature to work with Microsoft Exchange, I might have to hold on to it till June and see.

Should you buy it? Well the price dropped from $499 to $399 recently for the 8GB model. If you don't care about the cost, I'd advise waiting till June when they release the 2nd generation of the iphone that supports the 3G network. If cost is an issue, $399 is not too shabby... I'm lucky and got it for $250.

As for the two year contract.... HA! Just go to an Apple store and say you'd like to buy the iPhone for a friend. They will give you an unactivated iPhone which you can hack and activate to your own cell phone provider (or I can do it for you).

It's been a lot of fun playing with this phone's iTunes, iPod, Maps, Safari, YouTube, Wifi, Bluetooth, NES Emulator, and camera. Hopefully I won't get bored of it soon.

Pros:
Hackable!
Big beautiful screen!
Wifi!
3rd Party Apps!
Great Hacking Community!

Cons:
Earphone jack is recessed which makes a lot of my quality headphones useless... :(
No push email or enterprise features yet... :(
Battery life isn't that great, last maybe a day of intensive use... :(
No bluetooth headset option (A2DP)....