R i g h t a r d i a: Linux Notes on Codecs and Anti-virus

by Wirehead

My kingdom for the right codecs

First, let's talk about codecs. If you ever tried to play a movie DVD on a PC, you probably ran into a Codec problem. The video wouldn't play unless you had codecs for both MP3 music and MPEG DVD movies.

Well, in the Linux world, a European company called Fluendo makes a product that provides MP3 codecs for audio and MPEG codecs for video.These codecs will works on both Linux and windows systems.

The MP3 audio format is hard to avoid as it is the format supported by most portable music players. In fact, many people have already converted their audio CD collections into MP3. The Fluendo MP3 plug-in project is a combination of multiple things.

It is an MIT licensed source code package implementing the MP3 codec.
It is a fully licensed binary GStreamer plug-in available for download.
It is a redistribution contract allowing distributions to distribute the binary Fluendo GStreamer MP3 plug-in free of charge.

The Fluendo DVD Player is a software application specially designed to reproduce DVDs on Linux/Unix and Windows platforms, which provides end users with high quality standards.It provides the video MPEG-2 codec and has:

Full DVD Playback
DVD Menu support
Full screen support
Dolby Digital pass-through
Dolby Digital 5.1 output and stereo downmixing support

Once I installed the Fleuendo codecs on a laptop that uses Fedora Linux, I could use videos that my wife had taken with my Kodak Z710 camera. Also, Adobe Flash starting worked on Firefox.

Ubuntu provides these third party Fluendo codecs, but Fedora does not. However, we have been unable to get Ubuntu to work on the Rightardia laptop because of a laptop BIOS issue that only Fedora can handle.

We downloaded both the .deb format codecs for Ubuntu/Debian and the .rpm version that works on Fedora and Suse Linux.

The codecs cost $35 and you can order them online form Fluendo: see http://www.fluendo.com/ These codecs work great. Previously, the codec problem had been a major headache.

Yes, Virginia, Linux can now get virii or viruses

Rightrdia had been detecting vuruses, malware and Trojans since we started using CLAMAV and its CLAMTK front end with Linux two years ago. Many virii were probably leftovers from Windows XP Pro that we had used.

CLAMAV is the actual anit-virus program, but CLAMTK is the graphical front end that makes CLAMAV command line program easy to use.

CLAMAV works perfectly in Ubuntu Linux, but not on Fedora. The AV signature file won't update from 30 Nov 2010. See the graphic above. Red Hat is aware of the problem.

So Wirehead started looking around for another AV program. He found Avast, formerly Alwil, developed in the Czech Republic.

Unfortunately, once you updated the Avast AV signatures, the program locked up and stopped working. According to Avast, this is a Linux kernel issue. Wirehead was able to change a value in a file by going into terminal mode, entering the SU (superuser) command and password, and then entering:

sysctl -w kernel.shmmax=128000000

Afterwards, we were able to upgrade the AV signature without Avast locking up. BTW, you will have to enter this code each time after you reboot.

Avast for Linux has a neat trick. If you have any network shares on your desktop, it will check them for virii. Rightardia uses network attached storage (NAS) so Avast gave us the means to check the folders on the NAS device for virii.

We like the Avast program on Linux and had used it in a Windows environment as well. It is faster than CLAMAV, but it can lock up when you scan Linux folders other than your home folder/desktop.

You do have to register the program for a one year license. it takes about 15 minutes to couple of hours get the key from Avast. A screen shot of the Avast AV program follows: