Jason L. Froebe - Tech tips and How Tos for Fellow Techies » How To

How to: How to copy an Oracle tablespace across platforms – quick and dirty ;-)

Jason L Froebe — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:03:57 +0000

On the source machine:
- Set the tablespace(s) into read only mode
  - SQL> Alter tablespace read only
Export the tablespace meta data using export
- % expdp system/ DUMPFILE=expdat.dmp DIRECTORY = dpump_dir TRANSPORT_TABLESPACES = TRANSPORT_FULL_CHECK=Y
- If the dumpdir is not set up, you will get an ‘invalid’ directory error:
  - SQL> CREATE DIRECTORY dmpdir as ‘/somedir’;
  - SQL> GRANT read,write on DIRECTORY to system;
Export the data converting on the fly:
- Determine the platform name for the destination machine:
  - SQL> SELECT PLATFORM_ID, PLATFORM_NAME, ENDIAN_FORMAT FROM V$TRANSPORTABLE_PLATFORM
- % rman TARGET /
  - RMAN> CONVERT TABLESPACE to PLATFORM ‘’ FORMAT=’/somedir/%U’;
Put the tablespaces into read/write mode
- SQL> alter tablespace READ WRITE;
- Transfer the files to the destination machine (Setup the dumpdir if you haven’t already)
  - Create the oracle user(s) with the same names as on the source oracle (if you don’t you will need to remap the ownership using the REMAP_SCHEMA for the impdb )
  - Import the tablespace schema and data (repeat for each tablespace)
    - % impdp system/ DUMPFILE=expdat.dmp DIRECTORY = dpump_dir TRANSPORT_DATAFILES =
Put the tablespaces in to read/write mode
- SQL> alter tablespace READ WRITE;

How to create an iTunes/iPod compatible audiobook (MPEG4 m4b) on Linux using MP4Box and mp4v2 v1.9.1 – it can be done!

Jason L Froebe — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:39:18 +0000

I’ve been wracking my brains over this for the past few weeks and it finally struck me how to create an m4b audiobook with chapters that is compatible with your iPod, iTunes, VLC, etc. It was very simple once I figured it out:

Step 1:

encode the mp3 files to “aac” (mpeg4) using your favorite converter (I use ffmpeg):

ffmpeg -i "track1.mp3" -y -vn -acodec libfaac -ab 128k -ar 44100 -threads 3 -f mp4 track1.aac

Step 2:

Create a chapters file so that MP4Box can understand it:

* Common syntax : CHAPTERX=h:m:s[:ms or .ms] on one line and CHAPTERXNAME=name on the other – the order is not important but chapter lines MUST be declared sequencially (same X value expected for 2 consecutive lines).

$ cat track1.chapters
CHAPTER1=00:00:00.000
CHAPTER1NAME=Chapter 001
CHAPTER2=00:30:00.139
CHAPTER2NAME=Chapter 002
CHAPTER3=01:00:00.728
CHAPTER3NAME=Chapter 003
CHAPTER4=01:30:01.269
CHAPTER4NAME=Chapter 004
CHAPTER5=02:00:01.858
CHAPTER5NAME=Chapter 005
CHAPTER6=02:30:02.375
CHAPTER6NAME=Chapter 006
CHAPTER7=03:00:02.964
CHAPTER7NAME=Chapter 007
CHAPTER8=03:30:03.553
CHAPTER8NAME=Chapter 008
CHAPTER9=04:00:04.094
CHAPTER9NAME=Chapter 009
CHAPTER10=04:30:04.683
CHAPTER10NAME=Chapter 010
CHAPTER11=05:00:05.224
CHAPTER11NAME=Chapter 011
CHAPTER12=05:30:05.765
CHAPTER12NAME=Chapter 012
CHAPTER13=05:46:14.106
CHAPTER13NAME=Chapter 013
CHAPTER14=06:16:14.143
CHAPTER14NAME=Chapter 014
CHAPTER15=06:46:14.732
CHAPTER15NAME=Chapter 015
CHAPTER16=07:16:15.249
CHAPTER16NAME=Chapter 016
CHAPTER17=07:46:15.790
CHAPTER17NAME=Chapter 017
CHAPTER18=08:16:16.331
CHAPTER18NAME=Chapter 018
CHAPTER19=08:46:16.920
CHAPTER19NAME=Chapter 019
CHAPTER20=09:16:17.460
CHAPTER20NAME=Chapter 020
CHAPTER21=09:46:18.050
CHAPTER21NAME=Chapter 021
CHAPTER22=10:16:18.639
CHAPTER22NAME=Chapter 022

Step 3:

Add the chapters to the audio file (creates Nero format chapter markers):

MP4Box -add track1.aac -chap track1.chapters test.mp4

Step 4:

Convert the Nero chapter markers to Quicktime chapter markers using mp4chaps from the mp4v2 project (you will want v1.9.1 or higher):

mp4chaps –convert –chapter-qt test.mp4
converting chapters in file "test.mp4" from Nero to QuickTime

Step 5:

Rename the file from .mp4 to .m4b extension so iTunes will see it as an audiobook:

mv test.mp4 test.m4b

Proof that it works:

and VLC showing the chapters:

Of course, we aren’t putting in any tags such as “author” or “genre” in this example. Use your favorite tags editor to do so.

How to install Sybase’s ODBC driver on Ubuntu Linux for ASE/IQ/Replication Server/SQL Anywhere/etc

Jason L Froebe — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:33:04 +0000

ASE 15.0.3 full install on Linux 32bit.
First we need to install unixODBC:

% sudo aptitude install unixodbc unixodbc-bin unixodbc-dev libstdc++5

Because of a bug within the Sybase ODBC install, we need to change /opt/sybase/DataAccess/ODBC/samples/drivertemplate.txt.

/opt/sybase/DataAccess/ODBC/samples/drivertemplate.txt:

[Adaptive Server Enterprise]
Description = Sybase ODBC Driver
Driver = /opt/sybase/ODBC-12_5/lib/libsybdrvodb.so
FileUsage = -1

Change to:

[Adaptive Server Enterprise]
Description = Sybase ODBC Driver
Driver = /opt/sybase/DataAccess/ODBC/lib/libsybdrvodb.so
FileUsage = -1

This template file is used to install the ODBC driver with unixODBC:

odbcinst -i -d -f /opt/sybase/DataAccess/ODBC/samples/drivertemplate.txt

Currently Sybase’s ODBC driver does not have a GUI component for unixODBC. I’m waiting on the bug #. Once I have it, I’ll update this post.

Now we are ready to define an ODBC dsn. We will need to create a template file to do so:

dbadev1.dsn

[dbadev1]
Description=Sybase ODBC Data Source
UserID=sa
Password=password
Driver=Adaptive Server Enterprise
Server=dba-dev1
Port=5000
Database=sybase_dba
UseCursor=1

To add it to unixODBC we need to run:

odbcinst -i -s -f dbadev1.dsn

If you wanted a system wide dsn:

sudo odbcinst -i -s -l -f dbadev1.dsn

Updated to include libstdc++5 for the newer releases of Ubuntu

Ryan Putnam: How to upgrade Sybase ASE 12.5 to 15

Jason L Froebe — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:12:21 +0000

Ryan Putnam: How to upgrade Sybase ASE 12.5 to ASE 15

Hi,
I have attached a sample ASE 15 upgrade document which I had created for version 12.5 and have made changes for our version 15 upgrades. I don’t know if it will help anyone, but I seem to recall a few people asking for some documentation. Hopefully it can be used as a template? Anyways, you are welcome to look at it, clone it, get ideas, or whatever.

Enjoy,
Thanks,
Ryan