Linux Blog

Split and Merge files using GNOME Split

GNOME Split is a tool that allows you to split files and merge them back. It is written in Java and uses a GTK+ user interface (thanks to the java-gnome project). The goal is to offer a native implementation of similar projects which can handle multiple file formats (e.g. Xtremsplit).

Features:
* Split and merge using the GNOME Split file format.
* Split and merge using the Xtremsplit file format.
* Split and merge using the KFK file format.
* Split and merge using the YoyoCut file format.
* Split and merge using a generic file format (like "split" and "cat" tools).
* File integrity verification using the MD5 algorithm.
* Notifications to show the end of a split or a merge.
* Asssistants to make split and merge easy for new users.
* Speed indicator to know how fast the action is performed.

Install GNOME Split 0.6 in Ubuntu Karmic and Ubuntu Lucid
Open Terminal(Applications - Accessories - Terminal) and copy-paste the following command

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome-split-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-split

How to create a customize Ubuntu distribution – Reconstructor

Reconstructor is a GNU/Linux distribution customization and creation toolkit. It allows for the customization of the Ubuntu and Debian GNU/Linux distributions. Customizations include boot logo image and text color, wallpaper, themes, icons, applications, and more.

To start using Reconstructor (it's free) go to https://build.reconstructor.org/ and signup.

Requirements
To use Reconstructor, you just need a modern web browser (Firefox, Safari, Chrome, etc.) with Javascript enabled. We strongly recommend against Internet Explorer, but if you must use it, Reconstructor is only known to work with Internet Explorer 8.

Documentation
View the Reconstructor User Guide

Add Multimedia support in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) cannot include support for MP3 or DVD video playback or recording. MP3 formats are patented, and the patent holders have not provided the necessary licenses. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) also excludes other multimedia software due to patent, copyright, or license restrictions, such as Adobe Flash Player and RealNetworks RealPlayer.
That doesn’t mean you can’t play .mp3 files in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx), it just takes a bit of work (not much).

Follow these instructions to get mp3 and other multimedia support on your Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx).

$ sudo wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list
$ sudo apt-get --quiet update
$ sudo apt-get --yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring
$ sudo apt-get --quiet update

After adding the repositories, install the codecs:
Install non-free-codecs:

$ sudo apt-get install non-free-codecs

Install DVD Support by using following command:

$ sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2

Windows codecs:

sudo apt-get install w32codecs

VLC player and Mplayer:

$ sudo apt-get install vlc mplayer

Adobe Acrobat Reader

$sudo apt-get install acroread acroread-plugins

Splitting and Joining multiple files with lxsplit

lxSplit is a simple tool for splitting files and joining the spitted files on UNIX-like platforms, such as Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc. It is fully compatible with the HJSplit utility which is available for other operating systems. Splitting is done without compression.

Installation:
OpenSuSe user can install lxSplit using "1-click" installer - here

Using lxSplit:
lxSplit splits and merges files with the -s and -j flags respectively.

To split a big file into smaller pieces of 15 MB each, run the following command:

lxsplit -s hugefile.bin 15M

Output size can be given in (M)egabytes, (k)ilobytes and (b)ytes.

To merge (join) the already split pieces into the original big file, run this command:

lxsplit -j smallfiles.bin.001

All resulting files (from either splitting or joining) will be placed in the current directory.

Note: Same thing can be done using 'split' (to split the files) and 'cat' command (to join the files) -- here

How to Split mp3 audio files - Mp3splt

Mp3Splt is a utility to split mp3 and ogg files selecting a begin and an end time position, without decoding. It's very useful to split large mp3/ogg to make smaller files or to split entire albums to obtain original tracks. If you want to split an album, you can select split points and filenames manually or you can get them automatically from CDDB (internet or a local file) or from .cue files. Supports also automatic silence split, that can be used also to adjust cddb/cue splitpoints. You can extract tracks from Mp3Wrap or AlbumWrap files in few seconds. For mp3 files, both ID3v1 & ID3v2 tags are supported. Mp3splt is split in 3 parts : libmp3splt, mp3splt and mp3splt-gtk.

Installation
OpenSuSe user can install Mp3Splt using "1-click" installer - here
Ubuntu and Fedora user can install Mp3Splt from here

After successful installation, go to terminal and type command: mp3splt-gtk to open up the application.