Christoffer Kjølbæk » Linux

Cleaning up /boot by removing unused kernels (Ubuntu)

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 14:12:59 +0000

At some point /boot will be full of old kernels (if /boot is a separate partition), which makes it impossible to make a dist-upgrade and it is therefore necessary to remove some old kernels.

Start by finding you current kernel

uname -r

which will give something like

2.6.24-25-server

Now, find all installed kernels

aptitude search linux|grep linux-image | grep "i   "

which will give something like

i linux-image-2.6.24-12-server - Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x
i linux-image-2.6.24-14-server - Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x
i linux-image-2.6.24-15-server - Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x
i linux-image-2.6.24-16-server - Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x
i linux-image-2.6.24-17-server - Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x
i linux-image-2.6.24-18-server - Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x
i linux-image-2.6.24-19-server - Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x
i linux-image-2.6.24-21-server - Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x
i linux-image-2.6.24-22-server - Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x
i linux-image-2.6.24-23-server - Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x
i linux-image-2.6.24-24-server - Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x
i linux-image-2.6.24-25-server - Linux kernel image for version 2.6.24 on x
i linux-image-server - Linux kernel image on Server Equipment.

Purge all of these, except the one found with uname -r and linux-image-server, which is a meta package

sudo apt-get purge linux-image-2.6.24-14-server linux-image-2.6.24-15-server linux-image-2.6.24-16-server linux-image-2.6.24-17-server linux-image-2.6.24-18-server linux-image-2.6.24-19-server linux-image-2.6.24-21-server linux-image-2.6.24-22-server linux-image-2.6.24-23-server linux-image-2.6.24-24-server

The above freed 250 MB from /boot and 550 MB from / at my system.

Krypter med DanIDs “Digital Signatur” i Evolution

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:17:49 +0000

Er du bruger af Evolution og har behov for at sende en krypteret mail med DanIDs "Digital Signatur", skal du først have fat i kontaktpersonens certifikat. Dette finder du på DanIDs Certificeringscenter, såfremt personen har valgt at være listet her. Når du har fundet det rette certifikat klikke du på , hvorefter du kan gemme en .cer fil.

I Evolution vælger du Rediger -> Indstillinger (eller Shift-Ctrl-S) -> Certifikater -> Kontaktpersoners certifikater -> Importer hvorefter du får mulighed for at importere den hentede .cer fil.

Du skal naturligvis have din egen private signaturfil i Evolution.

Howto program the Avnet / Xilinx Spartan-3A Evaluation Kit from Ubuntu 9.10

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:26:34 +0000

The Avnet / Xilinx Spartan-3A Evaluation Kit is a $49 FPGA kit from Avnet, with a XC3S400A Spartan-3A FPGA, and a number of simple peripherals:

Xilinx XC3S400A-4FTG256C Spartan-3A FPGA
Four LEDs
Four CapSense™ switches
I2C temperature sensor
Two 6-pin expansion headers
20 x 2, 0.1-inch user I/O header
32 Mb Spansion® MirrorBit® NOR GL Parallel Flash
128 Mb Spansion MirrorBit SPI FL Serial Flash
USB-UART bridge
I2C port
SPI and BPI configuration
Xilinx JTAG interface
FPGA configuration via PSoC®

The flash is not updated through a JTAG, but through the USB interface. On Windows the AVprog is used, which can run in Wine and therefore usable on Linux. It is however easier to use the tool called ASTriAEKiPro 1.2.1.

Download a newest .deb file from http://sourceforge.net/projects/fpgalibre/files/ASTriAEKiPro/ and install it with:
sudo dpkg -i astriaekipro_1.2.1-2_i386.deb

Using ASTriAEKiPro
Get a bit file for the kit, either from the CD in the package or from the Avnet Design Resource Center, go to the Avnet Spartan-3A page and click on "Support files and downloads", login and get the "Default Serial Flash Factory Image" file.

To write to the SPI flash use:
astriaekipro -w Spartan3AEval_FPGA_Firmware_V10.bit

To verify:
astriaekipro -y Spartan3AEval_FPGA_Firmware_V10.bit

ASTriAEKiPro can furthermore be used as a terminal, which makes it possible to use the USB as serial interface for a MicroBlace etc.:
astriaekipro -t

Which will give you something like:

*******************************************************************
*                    _____                                        *
*                   /     \                                       *
*                  /____   \____                                  *
*                 / \===\   \==/                                  *
*                /___\===\___\/  AVNET                            *
*                     \======/   ENGINEERING                      *
*                      \====/    SERVICES                         *
*                                                                 *
*******************************************************************
*              Spartan 3A Eval Demo V1.0 5/2008                   *
*******************************************************************
* Current Device Status:                                          *
*                                                                 *
*   EF1:  DEACTIVATED                                             *
*   EF2:  DEACTIVATED                                             *
*   EF3:  DEACTIVATED                                             *
*   EF4:  Connected To FPGA System Reset                          *
*   TMP:   29.1250 C                                              *
*   U22:  S29GL032N DETECTED                                      *
*******************************************************************
Type  for command options. 

ADS>

Installing Xilinx ISE WebPack 11.1 under Ubuntu 9.10

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:08:50 +0000

This is a short how to install Xilinx ISE Webpack 11.1 / 11.3 under Ubuntu 9.10. Start by downloading the installation files from "Xilinx Download". The file is 2.67 GB, and Xilinx requires you to have a free account in order to download the file.

Untar the file
tar -xf Xilinx_11.1_WebPack_SFD.tar

and install
sudo mkdir /home/Xilinx/ sudo chmod 777 /home/Xilinx/ cd Xilinx_11.1_WebPack_SFD ./xsetup

Set the installation path to /home/Xilinx/, and follow the installation process.

When the installation is done, you will be asked for a license. Select "Start ISE WebPack" and click next and follow the instructions on the website. When the license is installed, close the browser window and the Xilinx License Configuration Manager.

The installer will ask for installation of updates. This is advisable, but it is imo easier to download the update files from Xilinx homepage. Go to download and "Software Updates".

Untar the file
tar -xf Xilinx_11.4_ISE_DS_lin.tar

and install
cd Xilinx_11.4_ISE_DS_lin ./xsetup

You are now ready to go, by running
/home/Xilinx/11.1/ISE/bin/lin/ise

Pytrainer in Ubuntu 9.10, Karmic Koala

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:43:46 +0000

I have had problems with Pytrainer in both Ubuntu 8.04 and 8.10, but have manage to get it working. I did not use Pytrainer in 9.04, because I got a little tired of looking at graphs and was following a running program where it was not necessary.

If have been injured for some month now, but hoping to be ready for Copenhagen Marathon 2010, and would therefore like to examine my last marathon using Pytrainer. I therefore installed it, and hoped it would work out of the box - but no :)

Enabling the Garmin HR plugin, restarting Pytrainer and clicking "Import from Garmin" did nothing, not even a warning or error in the terminal. Looking at my old post from 8.10, I opened /usr/share/pytrainer/plugins/garmin-hr/main.py to see what was going on.

Pytrainer is using gpsbabel like gpsbabel -t -i garmin -f %s -o gtrnctr -F /tmp/file.gtrnctr, where %s is the device, usb:. But running

gpsbabel -t -i garmin -f usb: -o gtrnctr -F /tmp/file.gtrnctr

in a terminal give this result:

Claim interfaced failed: could not claim interface 0: Operation not permitted

It is therefore still required to make a udev rule for the device.

How to get it working
Make the rule file

sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/51-garmin.rules

add the below and close:

SYSFS{idVendor}=="091e", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0003", MODE="666"

restart udev:

sudo /etc/init.d/udev restart

Now Pytrainer can start gpsbabel, and retrieve data from the watch, which unfortunately just leads to another problem:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pytrainer/main.py", line 166, in runPlugin
self.record.importFromGTRNCTR(gtrnctrFile)
File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pytrainer/record.py", line 410, in importFromGTRNCTR
listTracksGPS = xmlParser.shortFromGPS(gtrnctrFile, True)
File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/pytrainer/lib/xmlUtils.py", line 127, in shortFromGPS
tree = xml.etree.cElementTree.parse(gtrnctrFile).getroot()
File "", line 45, in parse
File "", line 32, in parse
SyntaxError: unbound prefix: line 13, column 8

According to this bug report, it is a problem between Pytrainer and gpsbabel 1.3.6. Luckily it is still possible to get gpsbabel 1.3.5 at http://packages.debian.org/lenny/i386/gpsbabel/download, which I downloaded and installed, and it worked with Pytrainer.

However, Pytrainer imports all data from today back to 24 May 2009, the date of the marathon, and stops without any error. It might be because this record has 43 laps, but I do not know. Anyway, it is quite useless if it is not possible to retrieve all data from the watch.

Danske karakterer under Debian Lenny på en NSLU2

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:03:20 +0000

Jeg har haft gevaldige problemer med rsync på min NSLU2 kørende Debian Lenny, idet alle filer der indeholdt æ, ø eller å blive ødelagt. Jeg fandt ud af at det heller ikke var muligt at skrive æ, ø eller å i en terminal, hvilket blev løst ved først at installere locales-all:
sudo apt-get install locales-all

Hvorefter jeg ændrede /etc/default/locale til at indeholde LANG="da_DK.UTF-8".

Alt virker nu glimrende.

(Husk at logge af og på!)

Microsoft i modent angreb på Lyngby-Taarbæk kommune

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:57:20 +0000

1. oktober valgt Lyngby-Taarbæk kommune at skifte Microsoft Office ud med OpenOffice på samtlige computere på kommunens 11 skoler. Det betyder, at de har opsagt deres licensaftale på kontorpakkeområdet med Microsoft. Dette har åbenbart haft samme effekt på Microsoft, som det har, når man tager slik fra et i forvejen surt barn.

Denne utilfredshed har fået Teknologidirektør i Microsoft Danmark, Jasper Hedegaard Bojsen, til i et åbent brev at rette et meget modent angreb mod Lyngby-Taarbæk kommune.

Jasper starter med at konkludere, at kommunen nok har valgt at skifte pga. muligheden for at skære i omkostninger, hvorefter han skriver:

Ikke desto mindre mener jeg, at det bebudede skift i bedste fald blot omfordeler omkostningerne i kommunen, og pålægger lærere, elever og forældre unødigt besvær samt forringer it-understøttelsen i læringen.

Naturligvis skal OpenOffice lige installeres, men hvis skolernes infrastruktur er bare nogenlunde godt skruet sammen, vil dette hurtigt være klaret. Det er jo ikke sådan, at de skal vente på at få en bunke licensnøgler tilsendt, da OpenOffice blot skal downloades fra da.openoffice.com og derefter installeres. Derudover er vi jo så heldige, at der findes åbne dokumentstandarder, så alle kan bruge dokumenter lige meget hvad de er lavet i.

Men det at bruge OpenOffice frem for Microsoft Office skulle "forringe it-understøttelsen i læringen", det kan jeg ikke magte at forstå - og jeg bruger dog Microsoft Office hver dag på arbejde. Hvad er det Jasper mener OpenOffice ikke kan i forhold til Microsoft Office, og som er helt essentielt for at kunne gennemføre folkeskolen fra 0. til 10. klasse på fornuftig vis?

Jasper fortsætter

Når vi har med uddannelse at gøre, bør hensynet til undervisningskvaliteten selvsagt være udgangspunktet – også når man skal vælge skolesoftware. Jeg medgiver, at det kan være svært at fastsætte den pædagogiske værdi på software. Men tager vi udgangspunkt i, at en gennemsnitlig folkeskoleelev i Danmark ifølge undervisningsministeriet koster 60.000 kr. om året, så er licensudgiften til Microsoft Office en endog meget fornuftig investering i elevernes læring. En skole køber jo heller ikke en matematik bog, der ikke opfylder pensumkravet eller de pædagogiske krav med det ene argument, at bogen er billigere.

Nej, naturligvis køber man ikke en forældet bog som ikke opfylder "pensum- og pædagogiske krav". Men hvilket "pensum- og pædagogiske krav" er det lige OpenOffice ikke opfylder ifølge Jasper? På et punkt vil jeg give ret i at OpenOffice halter lidt, nemlig på stavekontrolområdet. Men efter min mening burde stavekontrol ikke være "lovligt" i folkeskolen, for således kan elever bedre lære at stave.

Dagens folkeskoleelever og fremtidens medarbejdere skal kunne arbejde med tekst, billeder og lyd i en sammenhæng, hvor det ikke er teknikken som sætter begrænsninger for, om opgaven kan løses eller ej. Ligeledes må et værktøj som eleverne kommer til at bruge meget tid med i forbindelse med mere traditionelle opgaver, som stilskrivning, rapporter, osv., naturligvis meget gerne være både indbydende og sjovt at lære og lege med – på den måde får vi også flest mulige med, både elever, lærere og forældre.

Igen ville det være rigtig rart med nogle eksempler på, hvad det er OpenOffice ikke kan, og måske et eksempel på, hvad det er, der åbenbart gør Microsoft Office hylende morsomt at arbejde med?

Det er åbenbart også vigtigt for Jasper at vi får "flest mulige med, både elever, lærere og forældre". Her er det da netop en hæmsko at vælge Microsoft Office, da det jo så kræver at alle, både lærere, elever og forældre har programmet. Det er naturligvis en ønskesituation for Mircrosoft, da det jo er lig med penge i kassen. Men ved at vælge OpenOffice, og måske endda Linux som operativt system, så er der ingen økonomisk hindring for at alle kommer med, heller ikke de økonomisk svagest stillede. (Såfremt kommune/stat hjælper med hardware.)

Med undervisningen som udgangspunkt bør en vurdering foregå ud fra de muligheder, som forskellige kontorpakker har for at understøtte elevens indlæring og individuelle behov. Her er det ikke tilfældigt, at Microsoft Office er langt den mest valgte og anvendte kontorpakke på markedet, for den understøtter bedre end nogen anden pakke behovet blandt millioner af mennesker med forskellig tilgang, baggrund og kultur.

Jeg må gentage mig selv, og spørge hvad det er Microsoft Office er bedre til? Det kunne også være rart at se en eller anden form for bevis for, at Microsoft Office "bedre end nogen anden pakke understøtter behovet blandt millioner af mennesker med forskellig tilgang, baggrund og kultur". Jeg tror nærmere, Jasper skal kigge mod sin markedsføringsafdeling og hans lobbyister, for at finde svaret på den store udbredelse.

Det er korrekt, at Microsoft Office koster en licens, men for denne kendte og forudseelige pris får brugerne til gengæld et bedre produkt, som er lettere at anvende til flere ting og som giver mindre bøvl. Ligeledes er Microsoft Office billigere i drift og vedligeholdelse. Med andre ord er der færre omkostninger og mere værdi hele vejen rundt.

Hvordan kan det være billigere i drift? Begge systemer indeholder fejl der bliver rettet, og fra tid til anden kommer der opdateringer som skal installeres. Hvorfor er det lettere med Microsoft Office end det er med OpenOffice?

Et amerikansk skoledistrikt (i Orange County) konkluderede i en lignende undersøgelse: "Hvis vi ikke underviser vores elever i at bruge den software som gymnasier, universiteteter, handelsskoler og erhvervsskoler bruger, sætter vi dem i en ugunstig situation." Distriktet valgte Microsoft Office.

Så det Jasper i bund og grund ønsker er monopol? Folkeskolen skal bruge det samme som gymnasiet, gymnasiet det samme som universitet og universitet det samme som erhvervslivet - ellers får de unge jo aldrig et arbejde, hvis de har lært at bruge OpenOffice. Men det betyder jo så, at samtlige i erhvervslivet bliver nødt til at bruge det samme, ellers bliver det jo umuligt for uddannelsesstederne at skabe ensporede unge menneske der kan finde ud af at bruge ét og kun ét værktøj.

Jeg er oplært med papir og blyant, har brugt WordPerfect, Microsoft Office, Open Office, Latex m.m. I øjeblikket bruger jeg dagligt Microsoft Office og har bestemt ikke noget at klage over, det virker ganske fortrinligt! Men det gør OpenOffice også, hvilket jeg bruger herhjemme hver dag, og jeg har intet problem med at bruge det ene frem for det andet. Hvad jeg har et problem med, er Microsofts måde at blande sig i virksomheder (og kommuners) beslutninger på.

Hvorfor kan I ikke bare acceptere at I denne gang er blevet slået? I, om nogen, er et kapitalistisk foretagende som på trods af "lettere monopol tilstand" lever af de regler der gælder på det frie marked. Hvis jeres produkt vitterligt er så godt og konkurrencedygtigt, så brug kræfterne på at bevise det, i stedet for at pive som et lille barn der har fået tages sit yndlingslegetøj!

/Et modent svar, til et modent læserbrev!

Installing Adobe Reader 9.2 in Ubuntu 9.10

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:24:31 +0000

To install Adobe Reader 9.2 in Ubuntu 9.10, you have to enable the Canonical Partner Repository. Go to System -> Administration -> Software Sources

Select Third-Party Software and and check the checkbox for http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu partner.
Close and accept to reload.

It is now possible to install "acroread" by
sudo apt-get install acroread

Or from System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager, but for some reason it is not found in Ubuntu Software Center?

Update: 2009-11-03 @ 00:56
According to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoftwareCenter version 3 of the SoftwareCenter will offer "commercial software for sale". But according to http://www.ghacks.net/2009/10/30/the-new-ubuntu-software-center/ and http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/opensource/?p=1031 it should be possible to install "commercial/non-free software" in version 3.

In Ubuntu 10.4 the Software Center should replace "Synaptic, Software Sources, Gdebi, and possibly the Update Manager" according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Software_Center, so version 3 should be out at that time - I hope :)

Howto use Eclipse with PHP and SVN in Ubuntu 9.10

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:58:18 +0000

This little guide will show how to set up Eclipse for developing PHP sites using PHP Development Tools Project and Subversion.

Install Eclipse Galileo from repository:

sudo apt-get install eclipse

A number of dependencies are required inside Eclipse, which has to be added. Start Eclipse from the menu, and select Help > Install new software... The below list of update sites has to be added, which is done be typing the URL in "Work with", click Add and then type the name in the name field followed by Ok. Do this for the below update sites (name followed by URL):

EMF, http://download.eclipse.org/modeling/emf/updates/releases/
MyLyn, http://download.eclipse.org/tools/mylyn/update/e3.4/
GEF, http://download.eclipse.org/tools/gef/updates/releases/
DLTK, http://download.eclipse.org/releases/galileo/
Webtool, http://download.eclipse.org/webtools/updates/

PDT
Add http://download.eclipse.org/tools/pdt/updates/2.0/ with name PDT. Open "PDT SDK 2.1.2" and select "PHP Development Tools (PDT) Runtime Feature", click Next twice, accept the license and click Finish.

Subclipse
SVN integration (or one of them) in Eclipse is called Subclipse and is installed through update sites as well. Select Help > Install new software... and add http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.6.x into the "Work with" field and click Add type "Subclipse" in name and click Ok. Select all three options and click Next, Next, accept License and click Finish.

Checking out a project
Select File -> New -> Other in the new window select SVN -> Checkout Projects from SVN and click Next.

Select "Create a new repository location", click Next. Type SVN repository in URL, click Next. Type username and password if required. Select the part of the repository containing the project, click Finish.

If the repository not already holds project settings for Eclipse, select "Check out as a project configured using the New Project Wizard" and click Finish. In the New Project Wizard select PHP -> PHP Project and click Next. Give the project a name and you are ready to go - have fun! :)

Re-install / upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10 and keep encrypted data from previous version

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:19:06 +0000

When Ubuntu first started with encrypted hard drive support, I made a LVM system inside the encrypted system. I do not like to upgrade Ubuntu from one version to another, and I do not want to copy all my data for each installation. My LVM system therefore have root, swap and home, so that home can survive the re-installation.

Unfortunately, the installer (the alternative one) do not recognise the encrypted hard drive, and is therefore not able to use it. This little guide helps you to reuse your LVM layout - and your data!

NB: Use this guide at your own risk!

Follow the installation until "Set up network", then press ctrl-alt F2 to start a console and run
modprobe dm-crypt cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda5 sda5_crypt

Replace /dev/sda5 with your encrypted partition. You will now be prompted for your passphrase for the encrypted partition, after which you run
vgscan vgchange -ay
in order to activate the lvm volumes.

Press ctrl-alt f1 to get back to the installer. When asked for partition method select Manual, and your encrypted LVM volumes are now on the list. You still need to set mount points etc., and remember NOT to mark them for formatting. Continue the installation.

Boot into rescue with your LVM root volume as /

Find the unique id for this "disk" from:
ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid

Insert a line like

sda5_crypt /dev/disk/by-uuid/df05112c-65bf-44a2-b6d1-a740c3444b53 none luks

into /etc/crypttab. Remember to use the uuid found above together with what ever name you have given the device. sda5_crypt will give a device called /dev/mapper/sda5_crypt

To avoid manually typing the uuid, it is possible just to do:
ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid >> /etc/crypttab nano - /etc/crypttab

This will copy the entire content of "ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid" into the bottom of /etc/crypttab, and open the file for editing with nano.

Run update-initramfs -u, reboot and you are ready to go!

Korrektur i Gnome Evolution – det kan man så ikke :)

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:10:55 +0000

God ordbog der er i Gnome Evolution :)

Using Avnet AvProg for Xilinx® Spartan®-3A Evaluation Kit under Linux

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:01:59 +0000

Avnet has made a very cheap ($49) Xilinx Spartan 3A Eval kit, with a lot of nice features.

The FPGA is not programmed through a JTag, but through some "homemade" USB connection. Avnet has made a tool called AvProg for this connection, which is Windows only (shame on them!) :(

It is, however, fairly easy to get working under Linux using Wine.

Start by downloading AvProg from avnet.com, which requires you to register.

Next unzip the archive and install it into Wine

mkdir AvProg
cd AvProg
unzip AvProg_v340i.1_setup.zip
wine setup.exe
cd ..
rm AvProg -r

When the eval board is connected it will be attached to /dev/ttyACM0 (or another number). This device has to be made to comx inside Wine. This is done like this

cd ~/.wine/dosdevice
ln -s /dev/ttyACM0 com1

Removing the Skins directory will disable the fancy coloured GUI and make the application much better under wine (explanation):

cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Avnet/AvProg/
rm -rdf Skins

That's it, write some VHDL/Verilog, make a bit file and run AvProg

wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Avnet/AvProg/AvProg.exe

and have fun :)

Howto backup NetworkManager settings

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:47:47 +0000

Backup with:

tar -zcvf nm.tgz ~/.gconf/system/networking/ ~/.gnome2/keyrings/login.keyring

Caution: This will also backup your keyring!

Restore with:

sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager stop
pkill nm-applet
gconftool-2 --shutdown
cd ~/
tar -zxvf nm.tgz
sudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager start
gconftool-2 --shutdown

Caution: This will overwrite your keyring!

Press Alt & F2 to start "Run program" and enter "nm-applet"

Use Nokia E65 as GPRS modem in Ubuntu 8.04

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:31:57 +0000

A short description about how to use a Nokia E65 as a GPRS modem in Ubuntu 8.04.

Install the needed software packages:

sudo apt-get install bluez bluez-utils wvdial

Enable bluetooth on your phone, scan for it and copy the address for your phone.

hcitool scan

The next step is to find the channel for the phone's dialup service. Run

sdptool browse xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

where xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx is the address found in the previous step. Look for "Service Name: Dial-Up Networking", and note the channel number.

The phone now has to be bound as a rfcomm device, which is configured in /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf. Add

rfcomm4 { bind yes; device xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx; channel 2; comment "Serial Port"; }

to the file with the numbers found above.

Now make a configuration file for wvdial

sudo gedit /etc/wvdial.conf

with this content:

[Dialer Defaults]
Modem = /dev/rfcomm4
Baud = 115200
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Init3 = ATM0
Init5 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet"
ISDN = 0
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Phone = *99***1#
Username = foo
Password = bar

Thats it. I use the commands below to start the connection. First shut down wlan0, which should not be necessary, but sometimes DNS won't work if wlan0 is searching for access points. I restart bluetooth in order to make sure the phone is bound, and finally, I run wvdial to start the connection.

sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart
sudo wvdial

Geotagging images with Garmin Forerunner in Ubuntu

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:16:09 +0000

This guide will show how to geotag images in Ubuntu using GPS data from Garmin Forerunner 305. The software used is gpsbabel and gpscorrelate.

Start by capturing data from the watch, using

gpsbabel -t -r -w -i garmin -f usb: -o gpx -F data.gpx

which will get all data from the watch, and a XML file.

GPScorrelate can be used both in console and GUI mode, using the console tool on a collection of images is done like

gpscorrelate -g data.gpx *.jpg

Using the GUI looks like this

Opening one of the images with for instance eog, it can be seen that the GPS data has been added to the EXIF info.

The result can be shown in various programs and web application, for instance PicasaWeb
http://picasaweb.google.com/ostehamster/Fotosafari

NB: Remember to select the correct time zone!

Split LVM volume into two, Ubuntu Ibex 8.10

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 01:14:48 +0000

This worked for me, but use the "how to-guide" at your own risk!!!! I can not be held responsible for any data loss - take backup!!!

A standard Ubuntu installation with encrypted hard drive will give you a boot partition and a LVM partition with two logical volumes. If your computer name is “Ubuntu”, the volume group will typically be called Ubuntu, with two volumes: root and swap.

In order to make a logical volume for /home and for /, do the following:

Start by booting onto the alternative version of the Ubuntu cd - the one without LiveCD - and select rescue. The system will automatically find you encrypted and ask for the password. When starting the terminal, you will have to mount a partition - select your boot partition, on my computer /dev/sda1

Make all volume groups active:

sudo lvm vgchange -a y

Run disk check on the volume:

sudo e2fsck -f /dev/mapper/ubuntu-root

Resize the file system to 10G

sudo resize2fs -f /dev/mapper/ubuntu-root 10G

Wait... make some coffee... maybe even bake a cake, there is time enough :)

Resize the volume to 10G

sudo lvreduce -L10G /dev/mapper/ubuntu-root 10G

Important: you have to shrink the file system before the logical volume!

Display how much free space the LVM group has, the first number is free "extents" and the second is in GB, MB etc.

sudo vgdisplay | grep Free

Create the new volume, -l specify the size in extens, -L in GB, MB etc.

sudo lvcreate -l 50 -n home ubuntu

Make the file system

sudo mke2fs -j /dev/ubuntu/home

sudo vol_id /dev/mapper/ubuntu-home | grep ID_FS_UUID=

will give the UUID for the "device", which can be used in /etc/fstab like:

# /dev/mapper/ubuntu-home
UUID=37563b54-50e5-486c-8796-2df55598fb63 /home ext3 relatime 0 2

Of cause you will have to move all data from /home to the new volume, before mounting it at home!

Ubuntu Ibex, Fullrate, Huawei E220 USB Modem

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:08:26 +0000

I just got my "Fullrate Mobile Broadband Testpilot package", and a now writing this post on a mobile broadband connection. The purpose is to explain, how simple it is to make the USB modem work.

As far as I can see, Ubuntu lacks the possible to tell the modem the PIN, which makes the SIM card useless. To get round this missing feature, just put the SIM card into you cellphone, enter the PIN and disable the PIN under the security settings. This makes it possible for anyone to use your SIM, so guard it with you life! :)

Now put the SIM back in the modem, and connect it to your computer. The below pop up will show up, and you just have to click Config. (If it do not show up, right click on the Network Manager and select Edit Connections.)

Click Next, and select TDC as Service Provider (Fullrate uses TDCs net), click Next again, and give the connection a name and then click Apply.

Now the system should connect you, if you have coverage, and this pop up will appear

Very simple!!! :)

The connection is quite good, and the speed is as promised. Fullrates speedtest at http://speedtest.fullrate.dk/ gives 1.15Mps, while the upload is at 0.25Mps.

The ftp servertest at http://www.fullrate.dk/support/hastighed/ do not work, which might be because the server only allow Fullrate connections, while this is basically a TDC connection.

Downloading a part of an Ubuntu image from HEAnet Ireland gives an average of 115K/s, which is the normal, according to http://www.fullrate.dk/support/hastighed/

Update:
22 jan 2008, 22:18
Maybe a little to early to say anything works. After 40 minutes the modem lost connection for 5 min, before getting on-line again.

Pytrainer in Ubuntu 8.10, Ibex Intrepid

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 11:01:33 +0000

I just use the Gutsy binary, which works fine in Ibex.

echo "deb http://www.e-oss.net/ubuntu/gutsy/ ./" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pytrainer
sudo apt-get install python-gnome2-extras

To get the Garmin kernel driver working in user space, make an udev rule in /etc/udev/rules.d/51-garmin.rules with this content

SYSFS{idVendor}=="091e", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0003", MODE="666"

Pytrainer is made to use path like /dev/ttyUSBX to connect to the Garmin watch. I believe the right way is to use Garmin usb driver directly, hence usb: in the config. Therefore you have to open /usr/share/pytrainer/plugins/garmin-hr/main.py and change

if not os.path.exists(options.device):

if (not os.path.exists(options.device) and not options.device == "usb:"):

In Tools -> GPS Device Plugins -> Garmin* ->Preferences change device to [usb:] and status to [Enable].

Thats it, have fun :)

Updated: 11 January 2009:
- Quotes in code-blocks is now "copy/paste enabled"
- Pauls comment from December 31st, 2008 at 14:22 added to the text

Open source – uden risiko

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:07:10 +0000

Politikkens Tjek sektion citere i dag en artikel i 24timer om Open source, og at det er muligt at finde en masse gratis software på nettet. Ifølge artiklen er der flere grunde til, at open source-programmer ikke hitter. Per Andersen, managing director fra analyseinstituttet IDC, siger til 24timer:

De færreste har mod på at afinstallere Windows og installere et andet styresystem. Man bruger det, man kender

De glemmer bare at nævne, at det ikke er nødvendigt at afinstallere Windows for at bruge Linux. Dels har alle de store distributioner en Livecd, hvilket betyder at hele systemet kan køre fra en CD, uden at pille ved harddisken. På den måde er det muligt at prøve Linux, uden risiko for at der sker noget med ens Windows systemet.

Derudover er det muligt at installere Linux ved siden af Windows, således at man har begge systemet installeret. Dette kan være en god mulighed hvis man ønsker at skifte, men gerne vil beholde Windows til man har helt styr på sit nye system.

De tre nedenstående Linux distributioner har Live CD:

Ubuntu

Fedora

Mandriva

Som der også står på 24timers hjemmeside, findes der massevis af Open source software der både virker under Linux og Windows, så man kan sagtens bruge det uden at skille sig af med Windows.

Pytrainer in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Sat, 03 May 2008 14:02:56 +0000

Pytrainer didn’t work for me under Ubuntu 8.04, because my Garmin Forerunner wasn’t attached to /dev/ttyUSBx something which Pytrainer assumes.

To use gpsbabel and Garmin Forerunner, a command like the one below is used

gpsbabel -t -i garmin -f usb: -o gtrnctr -F /tmp/file.gtrnctr

“usb:” is the input device. The problem is that Pytrainer checks if the device exists as a file/directory, which it doesn’t. The workaround is to open /usr/share/pytrainer/plugins/garmin-hr/main.py and change

if not os.path.exists(options.device):

into

if (not os.path.exists(options.device) and not options.device == "usb:"):

Updated 04-05-08 12:41:
Philippe Piquer just pointed out that the reason it don't work in Ubuntu 8.04, is that the garmin_gps module has been blacklisted. According to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist because

# most apps now use garmin usb driver directly (Ubuntu: #114565)

Updated 04-05-08 21:21:
There must be a file /etc/udev/rules.d/51-garmin.rules containing

SYSFS{idVendor}=="091e", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0003", GROUP="plugdev", MODE="660"

Hvad blev der af åbne standarder?

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:08:42 +0000

Ifølge Politiken har Danmark i dag givet NATO midler til at starte og drive en online TV-kanal, natochannel.tv, prisen for dette er ca. 10 millioner kroner. Ifølge NATO’s generalsekretær, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, er formålet med kanalen at

vise for den brede offentlighed, »hvad vi gør og hvorfor« i Afghanistan, Kosova og andre brændpunkter, hvor alliancen har militære operationer.

Kanalens forbillede er den danske internet TV-kanal Forsvarskanalen, som drives af Forsvarets Mediecenter og viser nyheder om det danske forsvar.

I forbindelse med lanceringen udtaler Anders Fogh Rasmussen

Enhver seriøs organisation er nødt til at tage kommunikation meget alvorligt. Nu om dage er det internettet og YouTube, der er tidens løsen

Hvis det er så vigtigt at tage kommunikation "meget alvorligt", hvorfor bliver man så mødt af en tom skærm når man besøger natochannel.tv med en Firefox browser kørende i et Linux styresystem? Besøger man derimod Forsvarskanalen får man følgende besked

Du kan ikke se www.forsvarskanalen.dk, fordi du ikke har installeret Windows Media Player version 9 – 11 på din maskine.

Hvor seriøst tager man kommunikation, hvis kun nogen kan få lov til at se og høre hvad NATO har at sige?

Det er dog også bemærkelsesværdigt, at den danske stat nu har lavet to online TV-kanaler som ikke benytter sig af åbne standarder, eftersom et enstemmigt Folketing i 2006 vedtog B 103, som blandt andet siger

Regeringen bør sikre, at alle digitale informationer og data, som det offentlige udveksler med borgere, virksomheder og institutioner, findes i formater, der er baseret på åbne standarder.

Xilinx Webpack and Linux

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:26:23 +0000

If you would like to run the floorplaner as a stand alone application, do like this:

1) Add /opt/Xilinx92i/bin/lin to /etc/ld.so.conf, and execute sudo ldconfig
2) Execute export XILINX="/opt/Xilinx92i/"
3) Execute export DISPLAY=":0"

Errors If you get an error like this: error while loading shared libraries: libXm.so.3 Install libmotif3sudo apt-get install libmotif3

vncviewer localhost:0, dooh

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 17:16:01 +0000

Never run vncviewer localhost:0 :)

PHP highlight bug in jEdit

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Mon, 21 May 2007 19:33:23 +0000

For a long time, I have been experiencing a bug in the PHP highlightning in jEdit. The problem is when writting something like

$foo = "bar\"";

the highlightning ignores \" and start looking for the ending of the "".

This page gives the answer to my problem.

In Ubuntu Feisty Fawn, with jEdit installed with the Java-installer, the file is here:

/usr/local/share/jedit/4.3pre9/modes/php.xml

FeistyFawn, installation on T42

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 00:54:08 +0000

This blog-post should have been about installing FeistyFawn on an IBM T42, but EVERYTHING I needed worked out of the box, quite cool :D

The only think that doesn't work, is the fan control. Which by the way, doesn't work in Windows either. I uses the tp-fancontrol script from thinkwiki.org

Save tp-fancontrol as /usr/bin/tp-fancontrol and tp-fancontrol.init as /etc/init.d/tp-fancontrol and run

sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/tp-fancontrol
sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/tp-fancontrol
sudo update-rc.d tp-fancontrol defaults

Warning! Remember that it can be dangerous to control the fan in this way!!!

Time synchronization
Left-click on the clock, and select Adjust date and time. Under Configuration select Keep synchronized with Internet servers, and accept to install NTP-support.

NFS
In order to use NFS, install "nfs-common"

sudo apt-get install nfs-common

Latex

sudo apt-get install lmodern texmaker tetex-base tetex-extra tetex-doc

Network diagnostic tools

sudo apt-get install iptraf wireshark

Gaim plugins

sudo apt-get install gaim-encryption gaim-thinklight

SUN Java

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin

Moving evolution files
http://fedoranews.org/cms/node/875

C/C++ development, Build essential and glade

sudo apt-get install build-essential glade-gnome-2 libglib2.0-dev libgtk2.0-dev

Flash
Download version 9.x.x from http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer, untar and run

sudo ./flashplayer-installer

Mediaplays

sudo apt-get install amarok helix-player mplayer mplayerplug-in

and codecs

sudo aptitude install gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-gl gstreamer0.10-plugins-base gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse libxine-extracodecs w32codecs

Servers

sudo apt-get install mysql-server-5.0 mysql-client-5.0 apache2 php5 php5-gd php5-mysql phpmyadmin phpsysinfo websvn php5-cgi libapache2-mod-php5 subversion

Bluetooth

sudo apt-get install bluez-gnome gnome-bluetooth

Sound editing

sudo apt-get install audacity

Firewall

sudo apt-get install firestarter

When using nm-applet and wireless, my eth0 isn't ready when firestarter tries to start. To make firestarter start, when the connection is ready, do this:

cd /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d
sudo gedit my_script

Into this file, set

#!/bin/sh -e
# Script to dispatch NetworkManager events
#
# Runs commands when NetworkManager fiddles with interfaces.

# Run the right scripts
case "$2" in
    up)
        /etc/init.d/firestarter start
        ;;
    down)

        ;;
    pre-up)

        ;;
    post-down)
        /etc/init.d/firestarter stop
        ;;
    *)
        exit 1
        ;;
esac

and finally

sudo chmod +x my_script

Now firestarter should start, when you connection is ready

Backup

sudo apt-get install duplicity

Diverse

sudo apt-get install dia

Things from ubuntuguide.org
Insert "deb http://medibuntu.sos-sts.com/repo/ feisty free non-free" and "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu feisty-commercial main" in /etc/apt/source.list

wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

sudo apt-get install mozilla-acroread

OpenWrt – tips & tricks

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 20:19:31 +0000

Change SSH port from 22 to e.g. 2222
Change the last line of the file /etc/init.d/S50dropbear to:

/usr/sbin/dropbear -p 2222

OpenOffice, gnuplot/Matlab and eps with preview

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:26:54 +0000

Making eps graphs in gnuplot and Matlab, makes very nice printouts. But neither gnuplot or Matlab makes eps files with preview, which makes OpenOffice using a lot of resources, just to show the plots.

But using the epstool, it is possible to make previews
epstool -t6p in.eps out.eps

The downside is, that the graph isn't pretty in OpenOffice. Furthermore, the PDF export function can make pretty PDF. Instead, you have to print to a ps file, and the use ps2pdf.

LaTeX on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 20:30:09 +0000

sudo apt-get install lmodern texmaker tetex-base tetex-extra tetex-doc

postfix: forward root mails to non-local email

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 14:20:38 +0000

In order to make postfix forward all mails from "root", to a non-local email, the Postfix virtual alias table format must be used.

Start by making a file called /etc/postfix/virtual, with this content

root    receiver_email@non_local_host

Then run the below, to make a virtual lookup table.

sudo postmap /etc/postfix/virtual

To enable the virtual alias, insert the below into /etc/postfix/main.cf

virtual_alias_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/virtual

Now restart postfix, and send a mail to root

sudo /etc/init.d/postfix restart
echo "hmm" | sendmail root

This worked for me at Ubuntu Dapper and Ubuntu Edgy.

Sound over TCP with mplayer

Christoffer Kjølbæk — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:34:16 +0000

When you wanna see Simpsons on your MythBox and don't wanna disturb your girlfriend, you wear headphones. But when the headphone cable isn't long enogh to reach the couch where you are sitting with your laptop, you have a problem!

After a couple of hours I found the solution, esd over TCP. Open a terminal on the box attached to the TV, and write this:

export ESPEAKER=ip_on_your_laptop:16001

On the laptop execute this in a terminal:

esd -tcp -public

Now you can start mplayer on the MythBox using "-ao esd", and the sound will be sent to your laptop, if no firewall or other stuff is blocking :)

You also have to ajust the soundt delay in mplayer, using +/-, but it works.