Here are the factory settings from a default CentOS 7 box default_profile_centos7.txt

Turns out the dnf has changed the way it deals with proxies. If you’re using a basic proxy authentication then you need to specify it: vi /etc/dnf/dnf.conf # proxy settings proxy=http://proxy.domain.com:3128/ proxy_username=username proxy_password=password proxy_auth_method=basic

This has been a straight up nightmare. My CentOS 7 server has been updating just fine via yum through our proxy and all of a sudden it stopped working. This blog is some troubleshooting I've done to try and figure out the issue. FIRST, validate your repos are correct. This is what I have on my server /etc/yum.repos.d/ -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 191 Sep 15 2015 endpoint.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 152 May 22 2018 Tuleap.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1062 Jun 19 2018 rpmfusion-free-updates-testing.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1002 Jun 19 2018 rpmfusion-free-updates.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 159 Aug 1 2018 cwp.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 139 Aug 1 2018 mariadb.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Aug 16 2018 openproject-ce.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 971 Oct 29 2018 CentOS-SCLo-scl-rh.repo.OLD -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 998 Dec 11 2018 CentOS-SCLo-scl.repo.OLD -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 633 Oct 7 2019 zabbix.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 750 Mar 18 2020 remi-safe.repo.rpmsave -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 228 Mar 18 2020 webmin.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1062 Apr 24 2020 epel.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 750 Aug 17 2020 remi-safe.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2605 Aug 17 2020 remi.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1314 Aug 17 2020 remi-php80.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1314 Aug 17 2020 remi-php74.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1314 Aug 17 2020 remi-php73.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1314 Aug 17 2020 remi-php71.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1314 Aug 17 2020 remi-php70.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 456 Aug 17 2020 remi-php54.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 855 Aug 17 2020 remi-modular.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 446 Aug 17 2020 remi-glpi94.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 446 Aug 17 2020 remi-glpi93.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 446 Aug 17 2020 remi-glpi92.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 446 Aug 17 2020 remi-glpi91.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 616 Oct 23 10:53 CentOS-x86_64-kernel.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8515 Oct 23 10:53 CentOS-Vault.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1331 Oct 23 10:53 CentOS-Sources.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 630 Oct 23 10:53 CentOS-Media.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 314 Oct 23 10:53 CentOS-fasttrack.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 649 Oct 23 10:53 CentOS-Debuginfo.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1309 Oct 23 10:53 CentOS-CR.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1149 Oct 31 16:33 epel-testing.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1314 Nov 3 17:50 remi-php72.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1862 Feb 4 11:54 CentOS-Base.repo.OLD -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1062 Feb 4 15:50 epel.repo.OLD -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1501 Feb 26 12:14 CentOS-Base.repo I built a brand new CentOS 7 2019 version and this is what I have yum.repos.d.tar.gz

I use a terminal program on my Mac called zoc by emtec and in comparison to all the other program terminals I have used, its by far the best all around program. With mac I have tried iTerm2 (garbage and very feature less), MacTerm, In your home directory (so I just type cd and press enter which bring me there) I type vi .bash_profile and my bash profile looks like the one below which gives me color. Its really about the PS1 command mainly. # .bash_profile if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then . ~/.bashrc fi # User specific environment and startup programs PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin:$HOME/bin export PATH export {http,https,ftp}_proxy="http://NAO\dhosang:qMtzWRhSTZD8rNHm@10.43.196.154:80" [[ -s "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "$HOME/.rvm/scripts/rvm" # Load RVM into a shell session *as a function* parse_git_branch() { git branch 2> /dev/null | sed -e '/^[^*]/d' -e 's/* \(.*\)/ (\1)/' } # PS1 Base :x # Origin [\u@\h \W]\$ export PS1="\u@\h \[\033[32m\]\w\[\033[33m\]\$(parse_git_branch)\[\033[00m\] $ " LS_COLORS="di=4;33" ..

Okay today, having a bad day. Tried to do an yum update and it locked out my user account. dhosang@usdet1lvdwb001:$ sudo yum update -y Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, product-id, search-disabled-repos Determining fastest mirrors Could not get metalink https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=epel-7&arch=x86_64&infra=stock&content=centos error was 14: curl#22 - "Invalid file descriptor" * base: mirror.dal.nexril.net * centos-sclo-rh: centos.mirrors.tds.net * centos-sclo-sclo: repos.lax.layerhost.com * epel: mirror.arizona.edu * extras: centos.mirrors.tds.net * remi-php72: mirror.team-cymru.com * remi-safe: mirror.team-cymru.com * rpmfusion-free-updates: mirror.math.princeton.edu * updates: repos.mia.quadranet.com https://ci.tuleap.net/yum/tuleap/rhel/6/dev/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno 14] curl#22 - "Invalid file descriptor" Trying other mirror. http://mirror.chpc.utah.edu/pub/centos/7.9.2009/os/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno 14] HTTP Error 407 - Proxy Authentication Required Trying other mirror. http://centos.mirror.lstn.net/7.9.2009/os/x86_64/repodata/repomd.xml: [Errno 14] HTTP Error 407 - Proxy Authentication Required Trying other mirror. The above is definitely cut down from the pages long of Proxy Authentication Required error messages that eventually locks my account out. So once I unlocked the account that is displayed when I type echo $http_proxy I do a quick test to see if I have internet access by running: dhosang@usdet1lvdwb001:$ curl -I https://thezah.com HTTP/1.1 200 Connection established HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Wed, 02 Dec 2020 18:56:36 GMT Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8 Pragma: no-cache X-IPS-LoggedIn: 0 Vary: cookie,Accept-Encoding,User-Agent X-XSS-Protection: 0 X-Frame-Options: sameorigin Expires: Wed, 02 Dec 2020 18:57:06 GMT Cache-Control: max-age=30, public Last-Modified: Wed, 02 Dec 2020 18:56:36 GMT CF-Cache-Status: DYNAMIC cf-request-id: 06c66958fd0000f36115800000000001 Expect-CT: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://report-uri.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/beacon/expect-ct" Report-To: {"endpoints":[{"url":"https:\/\/a.nel.cloudflare.com\/report?s=8ihM44Rlq7k6fVvaopR4jDTQ6o5jmyxqBw4Lkp%2B2TKsSw4dqrJ1IWbMRD%2FMy%2Fp9pnYGRTyUMgWdMbbQNcNWfIiHIIS9qDhdN1ux9"}],"group":"cf-nel","max_age":604800} NEL: {"report_to":"cf-nel","max_age":604800} Server: cloudflare CF-RAY: 5fb744d4cb58f361-ATL Proxy-Connection: Keep-Alive Connection: Keep-Alive Set-Cookie: __cfduid=d75cc7060b11361cce1c54a2cf72f113d1606935396; expires=Fri, 01-Jan-21 18:56:36 GMT; path=/; domain=.thezah.com; HttpOnly; SameSite=Lax; Secure Set-Cookie: ips4_IPSSessionFront=49e2f0fb3cb3740e6db92fccb9b7b35c; path=/; secure; HttpOnly Set-Cookie: ips4_guestTime=1606935396; path=/; secure; HttpOnly All that is really important is that you got HTTP/1.1 200 OK So what's next.. you proved that you can get to the internet fine but your yum update or yum upgrade is failing proxy authentication. Try doing a search for something like wireshark dhosang@usdet1lvdwb001:~$ sudo yum search wireshark Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, product-id, search-disabled-repos Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile * base: mirror.dal.nexril.net * centos-sclo-rh: centos.mirrors.tds.net * centos-sclo-sclo: repos.lax.layerhost.com * epel: mirror.arizona.edu * extras: centos.mirrors.tds.net * remi-php72: mirror.team-cymru.com * remi-safe: mirror.team-cymru.com * rpmfusion-free-updates: mirror.math.princeton.edu * updates: repos.mia.quadranet.com =========================================================================== N/S matched: wireshark ============================================================================ wireshark-devel.i686 : Development headers and libraries for wireshark wireshark-devel.x86_64 : Development headers and libraries for wireshark wireshark-gnome.x86_64 : Gnome desktop integration for wireshark wireshark.i686 : Network traffic analyzer wireshark.x86_64 : Network traffic analyzer Name and summary matches only, use "search all" for everything. This clearly shows that yum is getting through the proxy... but wait, you still are getting proxy authentication errors when trying to do a yum update?

Yea a long title for something pretty simple So what the heck is the Message Of The Day on CentOS? Well it gives the ability to provide information to users who log into your server. FIRST we have the banner which is defined in your sshd_config sudo vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config Browse or Find Banner and mine looks like this Banner /etc/login.warn So if you open up the banner (/etc/login.warn) it looks pretty straight forward and simple which you can customize that you like ************************************************************* ** NETWORK TEAM JUMP-TEST SERVER ** ** (accounts are local, no AD integration) ** ** ** ** All connections are monitored and recorded ** **Disconnect IMMEDIATELY if you are not an authorized user!** ************************************************************* login: Once you authenticate to the linux server with your credentials you may be presented with the Message Of The Day (motd) [SSH] Logged in (password) Last login: Thu Nov 19 15:28:05 2020 from 66.14.206.254 =============================================== - Hostname............: usdet1cent.thezah.corp - Operating System....: CentOS Linux release 7.9.2009 (Core) - Disk Space..........: 703M remaining =============================================== - CPU usage...........: 0.05, 0.07, 0.05 (1, 5, 15 min) - Memory used.........: 3152 MB / 3789 MB - Swap in use.........: 521 MB =============================================== - Users Logged on.....: dhosang =============================================== To create something like the above to be displayed once logged in, create a file called login-info.sh (for example since you can name it whatever you want) and put it under /etc/profile.d/ since all scripts in this directory will run once a user logs in. cat /etc/profile.d/login-info.sh #! /usr/bin/env bash # Basic info HOSTNAME=`uname -n` OSVER=`cat /etc/centos-release` ROOT=`df -Ph | grep sda1 | awk '{print $4}' | tr -d '\n'` OLUSRS=`who | cut -d' ' -f1 | sort | uniq` # System load MEMORY1=`free -t -m | grep Total | awk '{print $3" MB";}'` MEMORY2=`free -t -m | grep "Mem" | awk '{print $2" MB";}'` LOAD1=`cat /proc/loadavg | awk {'print $1'}` LOAD5=`cat /proc/loadavg | awk {'print $2'}` LOAD15=`cat /proc/loadavg | awk {'print $3'}` echo " =============================================== - Hostname............: $HOSTNAME - Operating System....: $OSVER - Disk Space..........: $ROOT remaining =============================================== - CPU usage...........: $LOAD1, $LOAD5, $LOAD15 (1, 5, 15 min) - Memory used.........: $MEMORY1 / $MEMORY2 - Swap in use.........: `free -m | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'` MB =============================================== - Users Logged on.....: $OLUSRS =============================================== " Here is another example.. maybe the above one is to busy so you may prefer a scaled down version like this one - CentOS Linux release 7.9.2009 (Core) - Kernel 3.10.0-1127.19.1.el7.x86_64 System information as of: Thu Nov 19 16:43:41 EST 2020 System load: 0.08 IP Address: 10.6.0.136/27 Memory usage: 0.0% System uptime: 16 days Usage on /: 13% Swap usage: 0.0% Local Users: 4 Processes: 448 So the process is the same.. add the .sh file that has been marked excutable by running something like chmod +x /etc/motd.sh Here is code you would use to get the above #!/bin/sh # clear #figlet -f slant $(hostnamectl --pretty) printf "\n" printf "\t- %s\n\t- Kernel %s\n" "$(cat /etc/redhat-release)" "$(uname -r)" printf "\n" date=`date` load=`cat /proc/loadavg | awk '{print $1}'` root_usage=`df -h / | awk '/\// {print $(NF-1)}'` memory_usage=`free -m | awk '/Mem:/ { total=$2 } /buffers\/cache/ { used=$3 } END { printf("%3.1f%%", used/total*100)}'` swap_usage=`free -m | awk '/Swap/ { printf("%3.1f%%", "exit !$2;$3/$2*100") }'` users=`users | wc -w` time=`uptime | grep -ohe 'up .*' | sed 's/,/\ hours/g' | awk '{ printf $2" "$3 }'` processes=`ps aux | wc -l` ethup=$(ip -4 ad | grep 'state UP' | grep -v virbr0 | awk -F ":" '!/^[0-9]*: ?lo/ {print $2}') ip=$(ip ad show dev $ethup |grep -v inet6 | grep inet|awk '{print $2}') echo "System information as of: $date" echo printf "System load:\t%s\tIP Address:\t%s\n" $load $ip printf "Memory usage:\t%s\tSystem uptime:\t%s\n" $memory_usage "$time" printf "Usage on /:\t%s\tSwap usage:\t%s\n" $root_usage $swap_usage printf "Local Users:\t%s\tProcesses:\t%s\n" $users $processes echo [ -f /etc/motd.tail ] && cat /etc/motd.tail || true Hope that helps

sudo dnf remove --duplicates Tried again: sudo dnf install 'dnf-command(config-manager)' --allowerasing Running transaction check Error: transaction check vs depsolve: (flatpak-selinux = 1.6.2-3.el8_2 if selinux-policy-targeted) is needed by flatpak-1.6.2-3.el8_2.x86_64 rpmlib(RichDependencies) <= 4.12.0-1 is needed by flatpak-1.6.2-3.el8_2.x86_64 To diagnose the problem, try running: 'rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest'. You probably have corrupted RPMDB, running 'rpm --rebuilddb' might fix the issue. The downloaded packages were saved in cache until the next successful transaction. You can remove cached packages by executing 'dnf clean packages'. [dhosang@net1 ~]$ -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 173 Jul 12 2019 google-chrome.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1203 Dec 18 2019 epel-testing.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1266 Dec 18 2019 epel-testing-modular.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1104 Dec 18 2019 epel.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1249 Dec 18 2019 epel-playground.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1167 Dec 18 2019 epel-modular.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 928 Jun 2 21:02 CentOS-Media.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 338 Jun 2 21:02 CentOS-fasttrack.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 756 Jun 2 21:02 CentOS-Extras.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 668 Jun 2 21:02 CentOS-Debuginfo.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1043 Jun 2 21:02 CentOS-CR.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 712 Jun 2 21:02 CentOS-Base.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 731 Jun 2 21:02 CentOS-AppStream.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1075 Nov 3 15:15 epel.repo.rpmsave -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 798 Nov 3 15:21 CentOS-centosplus.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 738 Nov 3 15:24 CentOS-HA.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 736 Nov 3 15:25 CentOS-PowerTools.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1382 Nov 3 15:25 CentOS-Sources.repo -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 743 Nov 3 15:27 CentOS-Devel.repo Official Centos Repos [Base] – The packages that make up Centos, as it is released on the ISOs. It is enabled by default [Updates] – Updated packages to [Base] released after the Centos ISOs. This will be Security, BugFix, or Enhancements to the [Base] software. It is enabled by default [Addons] – Contains packages required in order to build the main Distribution or packages produced by SRPMS built in the main Distribution, but not included in the main Red Hat package tree (mysql-server in Centos-3.x falls into this category). Packages contained in the addons repository should be considered essentially a part of the core distribution, but may not be in the upstream Package tree. It is enabled by default [Contrib] – Packages contributed by the Centos Users, which do not overlap with any of the core Distribution packages. These packages have not been tested by the Centos developers, and may not track upstream version releases very closely. It is disabled by default [Centosplus] – Packages contributed by Centos developers and the users. These packages might replace rpm’s included in the core distribution. You should understand the implications of enabling and using packages from this repository. It is disabled by default [csgfs] – Packages that make up the Cluster Suite and Global File System. It is disabled by default [Extras] – Packages built and maintained by the Centos developers that add functionality to the core distribution. These packages have undergone some basic testing, should track upstream release versions fairly closely and will never replace any core distribution package. It is enabled by default [Testing] – Packages that are being tested prior to release, you should not use this repository except for a specific reason. It is disabled by default You can have a look at the packages here: http://dev.centos.org/centos/6/ http://dev.centos.org/centos/7/ Base Repository: Updates Repository: Addons Repository: Contrib Repository: Centosplus Repository: CSGFS: Extras: Testing: Section 2 Then tried sudo rpm --rebuilddb

Total 1.3 MB/s | 755 MB 09:36 Running transaction check Error: transaction check vs depsolve: (flatpak-selinux = 1.6.2-3.el8_2 if selinux-policy-targeted) is needed by flatpak-1.6.2-3.el8_2.x86_64 rpmlib(RichDependencies) <= 4.12.0-1 is needed by flatpak-1.6.2-3.el8_2.x86_64 To diagnose the problem, try running: 'rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest'. You probably have corrupted RPMDB, running 'rpm --rebuilddb' might fix the issue. The downloaded packages were saved in cache until the next successful transaction. You can remove cached packages by executing 'dnf clean packages'. [dhosang@net1 ~]$

When I try and run sudo dnf update I get a bunch of errors that state ... conflicts with file from package ... So in researching the wonderful world of the web I found a suggestion to check for duplicates and if running the following command produces any results, you are in a bad way. sudo dnf repoquery --duplicated [dennis@net1 ~]$ sudo dnf repoquery --duplicated Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8 - x86_64 0.0 B/s | 0 B 00:00 Docker CE Stable - x86_64 0.0 B/s | 0 B 00:00 Failed to synchronize cache for repo 'epel', ignoring this repo. Failed to synchronize cache for repo 'docker-ce-stable', ignoring this repo. Last metadata expiration check: 0:39:17 ago on Tue 03 Nov 2020 11:49:50 AM EST. kernel-devel-0:3.10.0-1127.10.1.el7.x86_64 kernel-devel-0:3.10.0-1127.13.1.el7.x86_64 kernel-devel-0:3.10.0-1127.18.2.el7.x86_64 kernel-devel-0:3.10.0-1127.19.1.el7.x86_64 kernel-devel-0:3.10.0-1127.el7.x86_64 [dennis@net1 ~]$ So as you can see, I'm in a bad way. Since I'm running this server on proxmox, I went to the GUI and backed up this virtual before I run the next command which "could" render the server inaccessible (so I need the ability to restore) sudo dnf --disableplugin=protected_packages remove $(sudo dnf repoquery --duplicated --latest-limit -1 -q)

My ex is coming after me again for more money so I went to my QNAP drive for my archived records and saw most of the files had this .muhstik at the end of the file. I tried to open the file and the computer doesn't know what application to open .muhstik type files with. You can't do anything with these files since they are "encrypted" (so just give up trying to rename or use malware or antivirus programs. I've tried with no success) So somehow the Ransomware has infected the QNAP (which mind you its typically just QNAPs, not found on other NAS devices, just QNAP which makes me think the hacker got login information from QNAPs database) The ransomware goes through and encrypts each file and leaves a README_FOR_DECRYPT.txt file throughout your file system. If you open the file it will provide you with the key you would provide the hacker after paying hundreds if not thousands of dollars and they would send you the decrypt key. LUCKILY we have some ethical hackers (to prove not all hackers are bad).. This ethical hacker (good guy or girl) hacked the hacker and obtained the unencrypt keys and shared with everyone. If this helps you in anyway, you should send the guy a few dollars for helping you save all your data. More information can be found here I can tell ya I copied all the files to a another drive ran the decrypt with the unencrypt key that matched the encrypt key found in the README.... Important note: I had to run the decrypt several times before I got all files fixed. What I did was before running the decrypt I counted how many files on the system with .muhstik and then ran the decrypt and when it bombed I counted the files again and it was about a million files less each time. Then you copy the files back to your QNAP... but, make sure its protected against ransomware which these articles may help https://www.qnap.com/en/security-advisory/nas-201907-11

The above did not work but what seems to be working is $ ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vcodec h264 -acodec mp3 output.mp4 Using this command it reduced a 245M mp4 video to a 37M mp4 video but no sound. Changed to using -acodec aac which gave me sound so the best command would be the following (same file size reduction) $ ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vcodec h264 -acodec aac output.mp4 Maybe the following would work better but I'm happy with the above command. ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vcodec libx265 -crf 28 output.mp4 ?

Change the output filesize of an mp4 You can type ffmpeg -i input -fs 10M -c copy output, where input is your input address, output - filename you want your file to have. M specifies that you want size in megabytes (also k for kilobytes is allowed).

I'm currently using some syslog-ng servers as a collector(destination) for my F5 devices logs and then Splunk reads those syslog-ng servers and ingests the data. Well as you can imagine, these files get pretty huge on these syslog-ng servers and if you don't keep your eye on it the /logs/ directory/partition gets full on our redhat Linux servers. So the best solution is to run a job daily to remove files older than two days and how I do that is shown here. First you identify the directory and in my case its /logs/ Next you determine how old do you want to keep the files and in my case I'm okay with two days worth Then you decide at what time each day you want to remove the old files. I want to remove the old files before the day really starts. And you end up editing your crontab file sudo vi /etc/crontab Adding a line that looks like this which runs every day at 5am since the server is in central time which means it runs at 6am eastern 0 5 * * * root /usr/bin/find /logs/ -type f -mtime +1 -exec rm {} + So the +1 is for two days since it automatically gives 24 hours and the +1 is another 24 hours for a total of two days.

First I want to mention I installed Linux Mint 19 on a Mac running Catalina (10.15.5) using Parallels Desktop 15 for Mac Pro Edition and it would not update no matter what we did. Aptitude repositories would not install no matter what. After messing with all the suggestions from multiple forums I gave up and went to reliable Ubuntu (the god father of Linux.. lol). It is always reliable and works no matter if I install it on a laptop, virtual machine or a server. Reason I don't like Ubuntu is the bloatware.. just seems slower than other distro's but when it always works you wonder why you ever tried anything else. When installing Ubuntu 20.04 on the Mac make sure you configure options and ensure Hypervisor is checked under the CPU section or Ubuntu install will just hang with a spinning Ubuntu circle of death but after you wait for everything to get done, it also fails with a Parallels Tools install because Parallels Desktop 15 for Mac does not support Ubuntu 20 and the newest version of Ubuntu it supports at the time of this article is 19.10 so going to try #3 which is download Ubuntu Desktop 19.10 from the archive and try to install that. Just as a note, I am seriously considering installing the Arch Linux madjaro which looks totally awesome and I have only read great things about it but to be honest I haven't worked with pac as the software update/installer. I'm familiar with aptitude for Debian systems and yum installer for Redhat systems but pac would be all new to me so let me get Ubuntu working first then play with something new.

ffmpeg has been around for a long long long time and its still the tool many choose when wanting to convert video and/or audio especially since its free. Many of the pretty GUI applications that are out there use ffmpeg in the background but you typically will find yourself paying for the simplicity of using a GUI versus command line. Here are some instructions on for the command line How to reduce the file size of MPEG-4 multimedia format video with ffmpeg Before we begin let's first get some statistics about our sample mp4 video file video1-orig.mp4 $ ffmpeg -i video1-orig.mp4 ... 17015 kb/s, 29.99 fps, 30 tbr, 90k tbn, 180k tbc (default) ... Identify the current file, which in this case the size is 22MB: $ ls -hl video1-orig.mp4 -rw-rw-r--. 1 user1 user1 22M Jul 23 10:56 video1-orig.mp4 The current bitrate of our mp4 video file is 17015 kb/s based on the first command you ran above (using the -i when you were looking for information about the file). The following linux command will reduce the bit rate of the above MP4 video file by approximately half and save the output as video1-new.mp4: $ ffmpeg -i video1-orig.mp4 -b 8507k video1-new.mp4 The new size of our mp4 file is: $ ls -hl video1-new.mp4 -rw-rw-r--. 1 user1 user1 12M Jul 23 11:14 video1-new.mp4