587. Very Briefly: Getting pictures off of a corrupted Compact Flash card using testdisk

Nothing terribly complicated here. My CFII card (above, at /dev/sdb1)  is about a decade old and occasionally becomes corrupted. To recover the photos I use photorec which is part of testdisk:

sudo apt-get install testdisk
sudo photorec

Select the correct device, in this case /dev/sdb

Search

Pick the correct file system, typically FAT16 or 32

Also select a place to store the recovered photos. Then recover:

And you're done.

577. Skype and webcam on debian wheezy: black screen

This is another shameless re-posting of a solution published by others. See e.g. 
http://community.skype.com/t5/Linux/Webcam-is-not-working-on-skype-with-Ubuntu-12-04/td-p/858418
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=95388
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=966882

Why am I doing this? Mostly because this blog doubles as a notebook where I can write down solutions that worked for me so that I don't find myself scouring the internet over and over again for the same solution.

I hope that I'm adding a bit of value by providing step-by-step solutions and snazzy screenshots though.

The issue:
even though the camera is working fine there's only a completely black picture in skype (not underexposed -- just plain black):

The solution:
Use LD_PRELOAD to load the 32 bit V4L library (which you need to have installed -- use apt-file to find out what package). You can either start skype from the command line, or make changes to the launcher, either via main menu  as shown in the screenshot or by editing ~/.local/share/applications/skype.desktop i.e. run skype with 
env LD_PRELOAD="/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libv4l/v4l1compat.so" skype

 At this point starting skype + webcam should be a happy marriage:

(aside from exposure, white balance etc. etc.)

569. Briefly: Dual monitor set-up on Debian Wheezy with Gnome and a single nvidia graphics card

This is very easy, but I might as well document it here anyway.

This morning another group threw out two functioning monitors and I grabbed both. While I haven't yet decided on what to do with the second one I decided to use one to make a dual monitor set-up for my work station.

My desktop has both onboard nvidia graphics and a separate pci-e nvidia (GT 430) graphics card. Using lspci only the external graphics card shows up, probably because the bios prioritises the external card and disables the onboard graphics.

The nvidia GT 430 card has three output ports: vga, hdmi and dvi. My main monitor (Dell P2411H, 1920x1080) has both vga and dvi, and my 'new' monitor (HP S1932, 1366x768) only has vga.

The first step was to physically connect both monitors to my computer. I originally thought I had to use one card per monitor, which would've necessitated me to reboot, change the bios and probably hand-craft an xorg.conf. I don't like rebooting, so I looked at the alternatives.

Apparently you can simply connect both monitors to the same card by using the different ports, so I hooked up the small screen to the vga port and the big one to the hdmi port.

After that it was a simple matter of opening 'displays' in the gnome 3 systems settings, setting both monitors to 'on', and arranging them side by side correctly by dragging them with the mouse:

I also had a look at it in nvidia-settings:

The only issue that remained was guake -- it was showing up in the 'wrong' screen (i.e. the left-most, smaller one).  This post showed how to edit: http://haifzhan.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/guake-dual-monitor-setup.html

This is how to do it on the version currently in wheezy, 0.4.3:

sudo vim `which guake`

814     def get_final_window_rect(self):
 815         """Gets the final size of the main window of guake. The height
 816         is the window_height property, width is window_width and the
 817         horizontal alignment is given by window_alignment.
 818         """
 819         screen = self.window.get_screen()
 820         height = self.client.get_int(KEY('/general/window_height'))
 821         width = 100
 822         halignment = self.client.get_int(KEY('/general/window_halignment'))
 823 
 824         # get the rectangle just from the first/default monitor in the
 825         # future we might create a field to select which monitor you
 826         # wanna use
 827 
 828         #monitor = 0 # use the left most monitor
 829         monitor = screen.get_n_monitors() - 1 # use the rightmost monitor
 830 
 831         monitor_rect = screen.get_monitor_geometry(monitor)
 832         window_rect = monitor_rect.copy()
 833         total_width = window_rect.width
 834         window_rect.height = window_rect.height * height / 100
 835         window_rect.width = window_rect.width * width / 100
 836 
 837         if width < monitor_rect.width:
 838             if halignment == ALIGN_CENTER:
 839                 window_rect.x = monitor_rect.x+(monitor_rect.width - window_rect.width) / 2
 840             elif halignment == ALIGN_LEFT:
 841                 window_rect.x = monitor_rect.x
 842             elif halignment == ALIGN_RIGHT:
 843                 window_rect.x = monitor_rect.x+monitor_rect.width-window_rect.width
 844         window_rect.y = monitor_rect.y
 845         return window_rect
 846 

Note that the edited version will be overwritten when you upgrade guake.

395. Compiling the ck-kernel 3.8.x on debian (and patching i915)

What is the ck kernel? In short it is a patch for the mainline kernel which is supposed to render it more responsive for desktop use. See here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Linux-ck

I'm not going to try to 'benchmark' this against the stock kernel, since I'm not clear what a good metric would be -- how do you measure 'responsiveness'? Come to think of it -- what's a good, objective definition?

Download the kernel version that you need from http://kernel.org and the ck path from Con's web page at http://users.on.net/~ckolivas/kernel/

I also ended up applying this patch to sort out recent i915 issues:
http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/368-slow-mouse-and-keyboard-triggered.html
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1248190
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-7278760.html
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1254285#p1254285

I did it by creating a file called i915.patch and placing it in the kernel source root:

--- drivers/gpu/drm/drm_crtc_helper.c   2013-04-26 10:24:07.987942008 +1000
+++ ../../linux-3.8.8/drivers/gpu/drm/drm_crtc_helper.c 2013-04-17 15:11:28.000000000 +1000
@@ -1067,7 +1067,7 @@ void drm_helper_hpd_irq_event(struct drm
        enum drm_connector_status old_status;
        bool changed = false;
 
-       if (!dev->mode_config.poll_enabled || !drm_kms_helper_poll)
+       if (!dev->mode_config.poll_enabled)
                return;
 
        mutex_lock(&dev->mode_config.mutex);

Note that as far as I know it doesn't solve the issue, but it does allow you to disable polling by editing /etc/default/grub and adding

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet drm_kms_helper.poll=N"

followed by running

sudo update-grub

So far it's working fine (after testing for ca one hour).

Anyway, here's kernel 3.8.5 (should work on all 3.8.x):

sudo apt-get install kernel-package fakeroot build-essential ncurses-dev
mkdir ~/tmp
cd ~/tmp
wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/linux-3.8.5.tar.xz
tar xvf linux-3.8.5.tar.xz
cd linux-3.8.5/
wget http://ck.kolivas.org/patches/3.0/3.8/3.8-ck1/patch-3.8-ck1.bz2
bunzip2 patch-3.8-ck1.bz2
patch -p1 < patch-3.8-ck1

patching file arch/powerpc/platforms/cell/spufs/sched.c
patching file Documentation/scheduler/sched-BFS.txt
patching file Documentation/sysctl/kernel.txt
patching file fs/proc/base.c
patching file include/linux/init_task.h
patching file include/linux/ioprio.h
patching file include/linux/sched.h
patching file init/Kconfig
patching file init/main.c
patching file kernel/delayacct.c
patching file kernel/exit.c
patching file kernel/posix-cpu-timers.c
patching file kernel/sysctl.c
patching file lib/Kconfig.debug
patching file include/linux/jiffies.h
patching file drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq.c
patching file drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq_ondemand.c
patching file drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq_conservative.c
patching file kernel/sched/bfs.c
patching file kernel/sched/Makefile
patching file include/uapi/linux/sched.h
patching file include/linux/swap.h
patching file mm/memory.c
patching file mm/swapfile.c
patching file mm/vmscan.c
patching file arch/x86/Kconfig
patching file kernel/Kconfig.hz
patching file kernel/Kconfig.preempt
patching file Makefile

patch -p0 -R < i915.patch

patching file drivers/gpu/drm/drm_crtc_helper.c
make-kpgk clean
cat /boot/config-`uname -r`>.config
make oldconfig
time fakeroot make-kpkg -j4 --initrd kernel_image kernel_headers
sudo dpkg -i ../linux*3.8.5-ck*.deb

where 4 is the number of cores on your machine (note: it only has to do with compiling -- you can use the compiled binaries on any number of cores).

That's it. Now all you have to do is reboot and you'll be using your new kernel. Simple, eh?

387. Compiling Wine 1.5.28 in a i386 chroot on Debian Wheezy amd64

UPDATE 16 May 2013: See here for Wine 1.5.30: http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/416-wine-1530-in-chroot.html

UPDATE: for those who don't want to compile and are willing to take a minor risk* there are pre-built debs for mepis here: http://main.mepis-deb.org/mepiscr/testrepo/pool/test/w/wine/
They are provided by Steve Pusser, who is an active member at the debian forums.

* I presume, but don't actually know, that they are compatible with debian due to 1) Steve being active on the debian forums and 2) Mepis being based on debian stable (currently Squeeze)

Original post

New version of wine out now: 1.5.28.

Not much to get excited about from what I can tell, but wine now relies on GnuTLS instead of openssl.

Here's how to build it -- a lot of it is shamelessly recycled from earlier posts on this blog.

Getting started:
If you set up a chroot to build 1.5.27 before, you don't need to set up a new chroot to build 1.5.28. In that case, skip the set-up step below and instead re-enter your existing chroot like this:

sudo mount -o bind /proc wine32/proc
sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf wine32/etc/resolv.conf
sudo chroot wine32
su sandbox

Setting up the Chroot

mkdir $HOME/tmp/architectures/wine32
cd $HOME/tmp/architectures
sudo debootstrap --arch i386 wheezy $HOME/tmp/architectures/wine32 http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/
sudo mount -o bind /proc wine32/proc
sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf wine32/etc/resolv.conf
sudo chroot wine32

You're now in the chroot:

apt-get update
apt-get install locales sudo vim
echo 'export LC_ALL="C"'>>/etc/bash.bashrc
echo 'export LANG="C"'>>/etc/bash.bashrc
echo '127.0.0.1 localhost beryllium' >> /etc/hosts
source /etc/bash.bashrc
adduser sandbox
usermod -g sudo sandbox
echo 'Defaults !tty_tickets' >> /etc/sudoers
su sandbox
cd ~/

---

Building Wine
While still in the chroot, continue (the i386 is ok; don't worry about it -- you don't actually need it):

sudo apt-get install libx11-dev:i386 libfreetype6-dev:i386 libxcursor-dev:i386 libxi-dev:i386 libxxf86vm-dev:i386 libxrandr-dev:i386 libxinerama-dev:i386 libxcomposite-dev:i386 libglu-dev:i386 libosmesa-dev:i386 libglu-dev:i386 libosmesa-dev:i386 libdbus-1-dev:i386 libgnutls-dev:i386 libncurses-dev:i386 libsane-dev:i386 libv4l-dev:i386 libgphoto2-2-dev:i386 liblcms-dev:i386 libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev:i386 libcapi20-dev:i386 libcups2-dev:i386 libfontconfig-dev:i386 libgsm1-dev:i386 libtiff-dev:i386 libpng-dev:i386 libjpeg-dev:i386 libmpg123-dev:i386 libopenal-dev:i386 libldap-dev:i386 libxrender-dev:i386 libxml2-dev:i386 libxslt-dev:i386 libhal-dev:i386 gettext:i386 prelink:i386 bzip2:i386 bison:i386 flex:i386 oss4-dev:i386 checkinstall:i386 ocl-icd-libopencl1:i386 opencl-headers:i386 libasound2-dev:i386 build-essential

mkdir ~/tmp
cd ~/tmp
wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wine/wine-1.5.28.tar.bz2
tar xvf wine-1.5.28.tar.bz2
cd wine-1.5.28/
./configure
time make -j2
sudo checkinstall --install=no

checkinstall 1.6.2, Copyright 2009 Felipe Eduardo Sanchez Diaz Duran
           This software is released under the GNU GPL.


The package documentation directory ./doc-pak does not exist. 
Should I create a default set of package docs?  [y]: 

Preparing package documentation...OK

Please write a description for the package.
End your description with an empty line or EOF.
>> wine 1.5.28
>> 

*****************************************
**** Debian package creation selected ***
*****************************************

This package will be built according to these values: 

0 -  Maintainer: [ root@beryllium ]
1 -  Summary: [ wine 1.5.28 ]
2 -  Name:    [ wine ]
3 -  Version: [ 1.5.28 ]
4 -  Release: [ 1 ]
5 -  License: [ GPL ]
6 -  Group:   [ checkinstall ]
7 -  Architecture: [ i386 ]
8 -  Source location: [ wine-1.5.28 ]
9 -  Alternate source location: [  ]
10 - Requires: [  ]
11 - Provides: [ wine ]
12 - Conflicts: [  ]
13 - Replaces: [  ]

Compilation took ca 19 minutes. Checkinstall takes a little while (In particular this step: 'Copying files to the temporary directory...').

---

Installing Wine
Exit the chroot

sandbox@beryllium:~/tmp/wine-1.5.28$ exit
exit
root@beryllium:/# exit
exit
me@beryllium:~/tmp/architectures$ 

On your host system
Enable multiarch and install ia32-libs, since you've built a proper 32 bit binary:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

Copy the .deb package and install it

sudo cp wine32/home/sandbox/tmp/wine-1.5.28/wine_1.5.28-1_i386.deb .
sudo chown $USER wine_1.5.28-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i wine_1.5.28-1_i386.deb

---

Links to this post:
http://forum.winehq.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=18924

366. nspluginwrapper on debian testing/wheezy

I only recently realised that nspluginwrapper wasn't in the debian wheezy/testing repos -- and it is absolutely necessary if you want to get BankID to work (here and here).

The easiest way to install nspluginwrapper in debian is to enable the stable repos. E.g. on my wheezy laptop I have the following /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.au.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free

While normally you shouldn't mix different repos without some pretty strict apt-pinning policies, this works since apt automatically pulls in the newest version of each package -- and that'd be the package in wheezy which is the distro I'm using.

If that still makes you nervous, the second easiest option is simply to compile nspluginwrapper yourself. It's complicated a little bit by bug 682678.

sudo apt-get install libc6-dev-i386 g++-multilib checkinstall libglib2.0-dev build-essential libgtk2.0-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libxt-dev
mkdir ~/tmp
cd ~/tmp
wget http://nspluginwrapper.org/download/nspluginwrapper-1.4.4.tar.gz
tar xvf nspluginwrapper-1.4.4.tar.gz
cd nspluginwrapper-1.4.4/
./configure
make
sudo checkinstall

---

Error 1:
make fails with complaints about

/usr/include/features.h -> bits/predefs.h

It's fixed by installig libc6-dev-i386

Error 2:
make fails with a message about

skipping incompatible libsupc++.a

It's fixed by installing g++-multilib

363. Generating an image in PyMol

For some reason I needed to quickly generate a publication quality figure of a protein.

Deep View (SWiss PDB viewer) isn't available for linux anymore, and the old versions rely on 32 bit libs (which is increasingly a headache on debian). Rasmol is a classic, but I haven't used it properly since 1997 -- and all attempts at exporting png, jpg etc. failed on my debian wheezy box.

Jmol is awesome, and while I managed to make some pretty convincing figures I never quite got to where I wanted.

So I tried pymol

Pymol, like rasmol and jmol, has a visual interface which can be controlled via an integrated terminal. The learning curve is steep, but it's quick and easy to make figures once you've got the basics.

---

Install pymol from the repos in debian:
sudo apt-get install pymol

(on Archlinux you can get it via AUR  -- you'll need to install python-pmw first)

Download 1SU4.pdb from here http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/explore.do?structureId=1su4

In the directory where your pdb file is, do

pymol 1SU4.pdb

select helices, chain A

Click on the A(ction) by (helices), select preset/publication.

 select calcium, (res 995-996)
 show spheres, calcium

 Note that 'helices' and 'calcium' are just handles or aliases that I made up.

 alter calcium, vdw=5
 show spheres, calcium

 color purple calcium
 bg_color white

 set antialias=1
 set sphere_mode=5

where sphere_mode 5 means shading.

 ray 1000,1000

 save 1SU4.png

And here's the final figure:

330. Installing Arch linux: installing from existing linux onto an external USB HDD

Update: You might want to look at this post instead: http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/331-full-linux-install-on-usb-stick.html -- it covers setting up Arch with LXDE (very, very basic set-up -- more openbox than lxde) and wicd

I'll update this post once I've got a good solution to setting up network on headless boxes (i.e. a way of bringing up multiple interfaces without knowing their mac addresses)

Original post:

Note: what follows is what I've 'discovered' while learning. If you have suggestions, feel free to post comments. If you have questions, be aware that I'm only a beginning at Arch myself and will probably not have much advice to offer.

The problem: I have a headless server running 32 bit debian. I don't actually use it much, and so I figured I might as well use it to explore Gentoo or Arch. Given that it's a single core atom I didn't want to risk spending hours compiling things just to get things up and running (Feb/March are busy days at Australian Unis) and I figured that Arch, with it's version of ports, ABS, is a better choice for now.

I'm also curious about systemd, which arch uses by default. (that curiosity has currently turned to frustration)

Why Arch?
I do like my debian, but you need to challenge yourself every now and again. I can also see how a more 'sparse' distro might be a good candidate for my cluster nodes -- less overhead is a good thing. But before doing that I need a test case.

Also, even though I've been using debian I occasionally pay a visit to the Arch wiki and forum when I run into trouble with software that I've compiled myself -- Arch is a lot more bleeding edge than debian (which emphasizes stability), and the information there is often quite good.

Well then...
The easiest way (needing little preparation) by far to install arch would be to use ArchBang which is fast, pretty and functional. I don't need the graphical environment, and I want the learning experience. Otherwise I'd definitely give that a look as well: http://archbang.org/

We'll follow this guide: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Install_from_Existing_Linux

We'll use method "2: Chroot into LiveCD image".

I've ripped out the harddrive from the headless box and have attached it via USB to my main desktop, which runs Debian Testing.

I've rewritten this guide a couple of time -- not everything worked smoothly from the beginning -- so if it's unreadable and confusing, let me know. Also, due to the lack of versioning in blogspot I have had to try to recover/rewrite from memory, which annoys me.

A word of warning: at one point when working in a chroot I accidentally did grub-install /dev/sda instead of /dev/sdc. I then did update-grub in the main system and rebooted. I should've done grub-install /dev/sda again but from the host system. Anyway, you might screw things up, so a first precaution will be to burn a live CD of some linux distro that you can use to rescue your system with if you mess things up too badly. I'm a debian guy, but I found that the Ubuntu Rescue Remix (http://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org/) was a pretty good thing to have lying around.

---

Overview:
1. Nuke the existing file system (not necessary, but easier)
2. Get the iso and unsquash it
3. Mount the unsquashed image using chroot, and mount your hdd under it. Get packages
4. Chroot inside the chroot and install the bootloader
5. Set up network

---

Get started

---

Format/Prepare your harddrive:
In this case I'm using a 40 Gb hard drive. Since it's so small I'll just partition it to hold one / partition and one /swap partition. We'll make the swap partition 1 Gb which should be plenty, given that the box has 512 Mb RAM. Make sure that you leave enough space before you partition -- 1 Mb is overkill, but is something you can afford. In my original attempt I used palimpsest to format my drive and ended up having to shrink the partition using gparted. Better to use fdisk which may be slightly more challenging, but will give you full control.

Remove the harddrive from your target box, and attach it to your running linux desktop e.g. via USB (or by opening the case and hooking it up via sata/pata). If it automounted, do df -h so see what device it is (here /dev/sdc), otherwise just do ls /dev/sd* before and after it's attached.

df -h

Filesystem                                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdc1                                                36G   15G   20G  43% /media/steelhead

Unmount it:

sudo umount /media/steelhead

We now know that our disk is /dev/sdc, so let's get cracking with fdisk

fdisk -u -l /dev/sdc

Disk /dev/sdc: 40 GB, 40007761920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders, total 78140160 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System 
/dev/sdc1   *          63    78140159    39070048   83  Linux

We want our swap to be 1 Gb. (40007761920 bytes /4864 cylinders)/(1024*1024*1024)=.00766038894653320312 Gb per cylinder or ca 130.5 cylinders per Gb. Our first partition will start at cylinder 2 and run until cylinder (4864-131=)4733.

sudo fdisk /dev/sdc
Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-1): 1
Command (m for help): n

Partition type
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)

p
First cylinder  (default 0cyl): 2
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeMB or +sizeKB  (default 4863cyl): 4733   
Command (m for help): n                                                   

Partition type                                                            
   e   extended
   p   primary partition (1-4)
p
First cylinder  (default 0cyl): 4735                                      
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeMB or +sizeKB  (default 4863cyl):
Command (m for help): w      
sudo fdisk /dev/sdc
Command (m for help): p                                                   

Disk /dev/sdc: 40 GB, 40007761920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System 
/dev/sdc1               2        4734    38025792   83  Linux
Warning: Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.                   
/dev/sdc2            4735        4864     1036192   83  Linux  

Command (m for help): a                                                   
Partition number (1-2): 1
Command (m for help): t                                                   
Partition number (1-2): 2 
Hex code (type L to list codes): 82                                       
Changed type of partition 2 to 82 (Linux swap)
Command (m for help): w

The cylinder boundary warning is why we started the next partition on cylinder 4735, so as to avoid overlap. 'a' makes the first partition bootable. 't' creates the swap fs.

Create the file system for partition 1:

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc1

sudo mkswap /dev/sdc2

---

Get the iso:

sudo apt-get install bittorrent
cd ~/Downloads
btdownloadcurses https://www.archlinux.org/iso/2013.01.04/archlinux-2013.01.04-dual.iso.torrent

If you're company/isp/whatever has a blanket ban on P2P (e.g. bittorrent) download the file using regular http, e.g.

cd ~/Downloads
wget http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/archlinux/iso/2013.01.04/archlinux-2013.01.04-dual.iso

However you downloaded it, do:

sudo apt-get install squashfs-tools
sudo mount -o loop archlinux-2013.01.04-dual.iso /mnt
unsquashfs -d /tmp/squashfs-root /mnt/arch/i686/root-image.fs.sfs

This is for a 32 bit install. Most likely you'll want the 64 bit, so change i686 to x86_64 for that. Also note that the unsquashed image is 1.4 Gb so make sure you put it somewhere with sufficient space.

Continue:

sudo umount /mnt
sudo mount -o loop /tmp/squashfs-root/root-image.fs /mnt
sudo mount -t proc none /mnt/proc
sudo mount -t sysfs none /mnt/sys
sudo mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount -o bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/etc/resolv.conf
sudo chroot /mnt
[root@beryllium /]#

You're now in the chroot.

---

In the chroot:

mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt
mkdir /run/shm

Since I am installing 32 bit Arch from a 64 bit host, I had to edit /etc/pacman.conf using nano and change

23  Architecture = auto

to

23  Architecture = i686

If you are installing 64 bit Arch from a 64 bit host you don't need to edit anything. Also, the only editor installed by default is nano, not vi, for some reason.

Finally, edit /etc/pacman.d/mirrors and copy/paste (ctrl+k, ctrl+u) the nearest/most logical mirror to the beginning of the file.

pacman-key --init
pacman-key --populate archlinux
pacstrap /mnt base base-devel vim grub-bios openssh

==> Creating install root at /mnt
==> Installing packages to /mnt
warning: database file for 'core' does not exist
warning: database file for 'extra' does not exist
warning: database file for 'community' does not exist
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core                105.1 KiB  15.8K/s 00:07 [##################] 100%
[..]
Total Download Size:    163.59 MiB
Total Installed Size:   603.01 MiB
[..]

I got a couple of errors above re file systems (during grub init) that arch had no business looking at. I don't think it matters since the next chroot is what's important.

pacman -Syy

genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
cat /mnt/etc/fstab

# 
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
#  





              
# UUID=ae73518f-5675-486e-8cdd-6579c528ab72 LABEL=steelhead
/dev/sdc1               /               ext4            rw,relatime,data=ordered        0 1

# UUID=f25a484c-e8e2-4ead-808b-96dd5e915020
/dev/sda5               none            swap            defaults        0 0

Two problems here:
* Since this will be the only hdd on the new system the root partition is probably /dev/sda1. Change the sdc1 to sda1 above OR use UUID
* Likewise, the swap will be the current sdc2 but the future sda2. Alternatively, get the UUID via blkid.

Here's my new two-line version of fstab with uuid:

UUID=ae73518f-5675-486e-8cdd-6579c528ab72 / ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 1 UUID=a12b484c-f2d2-4edd-8d8b-76ee6f725020 none swap defaults 0 0

Continue:

arch-chroot /mnt

which gives

sh-4.2#

You're now in a chroot inside a chroot.

---

A chroot within a chroot:

pacman -Syy
pacman-key --init
pacman-key --populate archlinux
ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/Melbourne /etc/localtime
echo "kookaburra" > /etc/hostname

Kookaburra is the hostname of the new Arch box.

Edit /etc/pacman.conf and change Architecture from auto to i686 if you need to.

Edit /etc/locale.gen and uncomment the locales you want. For me

en_AU.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_GB.UTF-8 UTF-8
en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

Continue working on boot:

locale-gen
echo 'LANG="en_AU.UTF-8"'>/etc/locale
echo 'KEYMAP=us'> /etc/vconsole.conf
mkinitcpio -p linux

==> Building image from preset: 'default'
  -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img
==> Starting build: 3.7.4-1-ARCH
  -> Running build hook: [base]
[..]
==> Creating gzip initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img
==> Image generation successful

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-linux
Found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-linux.img
done

Check /boot/grub/grub.cfg to see that it exists and that it doesn't look like it's about to blow up. Double-check the uuid vs fstab. Check the 'root'. Mine was wrong. I changed it in /boot/grub/grub.cfg by hand, which isn't recommended but we'll deal with that later. In /boot/grub/grub.cfg change hdX to whatever the correct setting is (counting starts at 0) e.g.

        set root='hd0,msdos1'

since /dev/sdc in the future will be the only hdd. Changing this file by hand is untenable in the long run, but our goal is to boot and then regenerate the grub.cfg at a later stage.

grub-install /dev/sdc

Installation finished. No error reported.

Then continue -- in this case we're working with a headless box so we want openssh-server and all that:

passwd

Enter new UNIX password: 
Retype new UNIX password: 
passwd: password updated successfully

pacman -S net-tools ifplugd dialog sudo wireless_tools wpa_supplicant wpa_actiond 
systemctl enable sshd.service
systemctl enable net-auto-wired.service
systemctl enable net-auto-wireless.service
cp /etc/network.d/examples/ethernet-dhcp /etc/network.d/ethli

Edit the /etc/network.d/ethli file as shown in the next section.(the ethli name holds no significance)

adduser verahill -m

Edit /etc/sudoers and add:

verahill ALL=(ALL) ALL

pacman -S pkgtools mlocate htop screen elinks

Time to exit:

sh-4.2# exit
exit
[root@beryllium /]# umount /mnt
[root@beryllium /]# exit

You're now back in your normal host filesystem, and unmount the rest:

sudo umount /mnt/proc
sudo umount /mnt/sys
sudo umount /mnt/dev/pts
sudo umount /mnt/dev
sudo umount /mnt

At this point you have a bootable system. I attached the hdd to my laptop using USB, and chose to boot from it. Went fine. However, it turns out that networking in arch and/or using systemd is very different from debian and initd.

---

Networking:
Networking should be one of the easiest things in the world to set up, since if you have network access everything else will eventually sort itself out. No network means no remote access via ssh if the screen/keyboard/mouse get screwed up. No network means that you can't install anything. No network means that you can't go online and look up solutions.

initd was easy -- you checked your udev rules, then edited /etc/network/interfaces and added an auto eth0 line followed by e.g. iface eth0 inet dhcp or a more extensive static definition. It was easy.
So I'm a bit frustrated that systemd seems to make the whole process of managing network interfaces so much more difficult. At least for a newcomer.

With systemd your interfaces may not have simple names like eth0 right off the bat, but may have names like enpS08 instead -- it does make things a bit more difficult and unpredictable -- remember that my goal is to get a headless box up and running and that I have no way of getting any error messages -- openssh will simply have to work from the start. I mean, there's a certain logic to systemd, but there are plenty of frustrating issues with it too if you're used to chucking start-up commands in rc.local and setting up your own network devices.

Some of this stuff you could do by hand on a running system, but that's not very helpful when you are working with a headless box where your only option is to connect via ssh (technically I could do rs-232 but I can't find a cable).

Anyway.

Create /etc/udev/10-persisten-net.rules

SUBSYSTEM=="net", ATTR{address}=="00:2e:9e:2e:bb:20", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="ethli"
SUBSYSTEM=="net", ATTR{address}=="00:e2:bb:be:d4:c8", KERNEL=="wlan*", NAME="wlan0"

and put the mac addresses of you interfaces in it.

Edit /etc/conf.d/netcfg to use the correct WIRED_INTERFACE,

NETWORKS=(ethli ethkb5 ethkb3 wpa-wireless)
WIRED_INTERFACE="ethli"
WIRELESS_INTERFACE="wlan0"

ethkb5, ethb3 and wpa-wireless are other files that I've set up in /etc/network.d/, although at this point they are pretty darned useless -- I can define plenty of profiles, but I can only define a single WIRED_INTERFACE from what I can tell. So only one interface will be started by netcfg.

Copy /etc/network.d/example/ethernet-dhcp to /etc/network.d/ethli, and edit the interface name.

CONNECTION='ethernet'
DESCRIPTION='A basic dhcp ethernet connection using iproute'
INTERFACE='ethli'
IP='dhcp'

Do the same for any other profiles.
For wireless, all you need to do is copy  /etc/network.d/examples/wpa-wireless to /etc/network.d/ and add the password in clear text (i.e. no need to use wpa_password). Change the permissions so that it's 'safe'.

Here's my wpa-wireless

CONNECTION='wireless'
DESCRIPTION='A simple WPA encrypted wireless connection'
INTERFACE='wlan0'
SECURITY='wpa'
ESSID='verahillunwired'
KEY='sadfUsfdjdsfH87j'
IP='dhcp'

The wired network should now start on boot. To launch it manually, just do

sudo netcfg ethli

---

This is where I'm currently at:
* arch works fine when I boot it by attaching the hdd via usb to a laptop or desktop and booting off of it. I have working internet and the sky's the limit to what can be done

* I can't get it to boot my headless box (or at least not to get a working network connection), and because it's completely headless (it's a server with only eth ports and an RS 232 port) I have no idea why. The logging in systemd leaves a lot to be desired it seems. I'm waiting for an rs-232 cable to arrive via ebay, so we'll see.
The two possibilities that I'm entertaining right now is that either there's an issue with the network devices or...well, I don't know. I'm also getting tired of netcfg and will probably switch to wicd -- it's not quite what I want, but at least I know that it works.
But more about that some other time...

---

Error 1:

# pacstrap /mnt
==> Creating install root at /mnt
mount: mount point /mnt/dev/shm is a symbolic link to nowhere
==> ERROR: failed to setup API filesystems in new root

Solution:

mkdir /run/shm

On debian /dev/shm points to /run/shm via a symlink, so your chroot has a dead link.

Error 2:

error: key "E62F853100F0D0F0" could not be looked up remotely
error: psmisc: key "FCF2CB179205AC90" is unknown
error: key "FCF2CB179205AC90" could not be looked up remotely
error: reiserfsprogs: key "7F2D434B9741E8AC" is unknown
error: key "7F2D434B9741E8AC" could not be looked up remotely

Solution:

pacman-key --init
pacman-key --populate archlinux

You need to get all the gpg keys so you can check the package signatures.

Error 3:

warning: database file for 'core' does not exist
warning: database file for 'extra' does not exist
warning: database file for 'community' does not exist

Solution:

pacman -Syy

Not sure, but probably due to me interrupting pacman rather rudely with ^C at some point.

Error 4:

# arch-chroot /mnt pacman -S grub-bios

error: failed to prepare transaction (package architecture is not valid)
:: package grub-bios-2.00-1-i686 does not have a valid architecture

Solution:

pacstrap /mnt grub-bios

And then skip the arch-root command

Error:

grub-install /dev/sdc
/usr/sbin/grub-bios-setup: warning: your embedding area is unusually small.  core.img won't fit in it..
/usr/sbin/grub-bios-setup: warning: Embedding is not possible.  GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists.  However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged..
/usr/sbin/grub-bios-setup: error: will not proceed with blocklists.

Solution: You partitioned your system without leaving enough space before the first partition. In my case I had 32 sectors*512 bytes.

sudo apt-get install gparted
gparted

Start gparted and shrink the partition. I put 2 Mb (probably overkill) of free space in front, and aligned to cylinder.

326. Compiling Thunderbird 17.0.2 on Debian Testing

I tested this compile in a bare chroot, so the dependencies should be pretty much hammered out. The build is easy but fairly slow.

sudo apt-get install bzip2 build-essential python zip libgtk2.0-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libasound2-dev libogg-dev libxt-dev yasm libcurl4-openssl-dev mesa-common-dev
mkdir ~/tmp
cd ~/tmp
wget ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/17.0.2/source/thunderbird-17.0.2.source.tar.bz2
rm -rf comm-release/
tar xvf thunderbird-17.0.2.source.tar.bz2
mkdir bldthunder17
cd bldthunder17/
../comm-release/./configure --disable-necko-wifi
make
sudo make install

That took 122 minutes on a single core.
Checkinstall doesn't work and ends with segfault.

325. Compiling ECCE 6.4 on Debian Testing

!NOTE! If you provide ECCE with 'localhost' as the hostname, be aware that this will block outside access: http://www.nwchem-sw.org/index.php/Special:AWCforum/st/id858/#post_3178

There's a new release of ECCE 6.4 out which fixes the following bug: http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/minor-bug-in-ecce.html

---

A note on Java: I've only had luck with the openjdk packages -- not with the Oracle/sun java ones (see here: http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/building-ecce-on-debian-testingwheezy.html).

This build was tested in a chrooted Testing/Wheezy i.e. I should've caught most of the necessary packages.

---

Compiling:
Download the source to ecce from http://ecce.emsl.pnl.gov/using/download.shtml, and put it in e.g. ~/tmp

sudo apt-get install bzip2 build-essential autoconf libtool ant pkg-config gtk+-2.0-dev libxt-dev csh gfortran openjdk-7-jdk python-dev libjpeg-dev imagemagick xterm
cd ~/tmp
tar xvf ecce-v6.4-src.tar.bz2
cd ecce-v6.4/
export ECCE_HOME=`pwd`
cd build/
./build_ecce

Hit return if xterm was found... 
The /home/sandbox/tmp/ecce-v6.4/scripts/sysdir script identifies the build
platform directory as: empty
Because this value is empty no platform-specific parent
directory will be created for ECCE executables, libraries, etc.
This works fine unless your site needs support for multiple platforms.
Finished checking prerequisites for building ECCE.
Do you want to skip these checks for future build_ecce invocations (y/n)? Y

./build_ecce

Xerces built
./build_ecce

Mesa OpenGL built

./build_ecce

wxWidgets built

./build_ecce

running build_ext
wxPython built

./build_ecce

Apache HTTP server built

./build_ecce

Making combined tar file ecce.v6.4.tar
Copying NWChem binary distribution nwchem-6.1.1-binary-rhel5-gcc4.1.2-m64.tar.bz2
Copying NWChem common distribution nwchem-6.1.1-binary-common.tar.bz2
Concatenating install script and combined tar file ecce.v6.4.tar
create_ecce_bin finished

ECCE built and distribution created in /home/sandbox/tmp/ecce-v6.4

cd ../
./install_ecce.v6.4.csh

And see the next section for the installation steps.
The compilation steps take progressively longer and longer, so be patient during the build.

---

Installing:
Digital ink is cheap, so I'll show the whole process:

./install_ecce.v6.4.csh

Main ECCE installation menu
===========================
1) Help on main menu options
2) Prerequisite software check
3) Full install
4) Full upgrade
5) Application software install
6) Application software upgrade
7) Server install
8) Server upgrade

IMPORTANT: If you are uncertain about any aspect of installing
or running ECCE at your site, please refer to the detailed
ECCE Installation and Administration Guide at 
http://ecce.pnl.gov/docs/installation/2864B-Installation.pdf

Hit  at prompts to accept the default value in brackets.

Selection: [1] 3
Host name: [beryllium] localhost
Application installation directory: [/home/sandbox/tmp/ecce-v6.4/ecce-v6.4/apps] /home/sandbox/.ecce/apps
Server installation directory: [/home/sandbox/.ecce/server]
ECCE v6.4 will be installed using the settings:

  Installation type: [full install]
  Host name: [localhost]
  Application installation directory: [/home/sandbox/.ecce/apps]
  Server installation directory: [/home/sandbox/.ecce/server]

Are these choices correct (yes/no/quit)? [yes] 

Installing ECCE application software in /home/sandbox/.ecce/apps...
  Extracting application distribution...
  Extracting NWChem binary distribution...
  Extracting NWChem common distribution...
  Extracting client WebHelp distribution...
  Configuring application software...
  Configuring NWChem...

Installing ECCE server in /home/sandbox/.ecce/server...
  Extracting data server in /home/sandbox/.ecce/server/httpd...
  Extracting data libraries in /home/sandbox/.ecce/server/data...
  Extracting Java Messaging Server in /home/sandbox/.ecce/server/activemq...
  Configuring ECCE server...

ECCE installation succeeded.

***************************************************************
!! You MUST perform the following steps in order to use ECCE !!
-- Unless only the user 'sandbox' will be running ECCE,
   start the ECCE server as 'sandbox' with:
     /home/sandbox/.ecce/server/ecce-admin/start_ecce_server

-- To register machines to run computational codes, please see
   the installation and compute resource registration manuals
   at http://ecce.pnl.gov/using/installguide.shtml

-- Before running ECCE each user must source an environment
   setup script.  For csh/tcsh users add this to ~/.cshrc:
     if ( -e /home/sandbox/.ecce/apps/scripts/runtime_setup ) then
       source /home/sandbox/.ecce/apps/scripts/runtime_setup
     endif
   For sh/bash users, add this to ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc:
     if [ -e /home/sandbox/.ecce/apps/scripts/runtime_setup.sh ]; then
       . /home/sandbox/.ecce/apps/scripts/runtime_setup.sh
     fi
***************************************************************

Instead of following the instructions above I normally do:

echo 'export ECCE_HOME=/home/sandbox/.ecce/apps' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'PATH=$PATH:/home/sandbox/.ecce/server/ecce-admin/:/home/sandbox/.ecce/apps/scripts/' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 
source ~/.bashrc

You can now start ecce by either doing

ecce

or if that complains, do

start_ecce_server

then waiting a little while (10 s), followed by

ecce

---

Apppendix:

Selecting Java version

sudo update-alternatives --config java

There are 7 choices for the alternative java (providing /usr/bin/java).

  Selection    Path                                            Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0            /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java   1061      auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/gij-4.4                                 1044      manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/gij-4.6                                 1046      manual mode
  3            /usr/bin/gij-4.7                                 1047      manual mode
  4            /usr/lib/jvm/j2re1.6-oracle/bin/java             314       manual mode
  5            /usr/lib/jvm/j2sdk1.6-oracle/jre/bin/java        315       manual mode
  6            /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java   1061      manual mode
* 7            /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java   1051      manual mode

I've got ECCE running fine with openjdk 7 as well as openjdk 6.

324. Setting up a private git server

Update 11 Feb 2013: fixed a typo that ruined everything.

I've recently moved one of my more mature projects to sourceforge.net, which allowed me to re-discover the joys of using a version management system, in this case git. While I've spent some time playing with SVN in the past, git feels more natural to me. That's it's used widely in the FOSS community certainly doesn't hurt either.

So that got me interested in setting up a local git server for projects that may or may not result in anything tangible i.e. projects that I don't want to put online, but are under so much flux that they may break anytime (and I thus want to be able to roll back).

[A pointer to my students: you can obviously use git to maintain versions of your .tex documents as well...]

In this particular case the development machine and the git host are the same. The project is called shellnmr (an attempt to make a bash-like shell in python for NMR processing)

This is very much inspired by/stolen from: http://tumblr.intranation.com/post/766290565/how-set-up-your-own-private-git-server-linux

---

Getting set up:

On the git host (which has not yet got a copy of the source code)

sudo apt-get install git
mkdir ~/work/programming/var -p
cd ~/work/programming/var
mkdir shellnmr
cd shellnmr/
git init --bare

Initialized empty Git repository in /home/me/work/programming/var/shellnmr

First time:
I''ll use localhost below because in this particular example the git host and the development machine is the same.

On the/a development machine, where we keep the already existing project in ~/work/shellnmr

cd ~/work/shellnmr
git init

Initialized empty Git repository in /home/me/work/shellnmr/.git/

git add .
git commit -m 'initial commit'

[master (root-commit) 5214860] initial commit
 2 files changed, 178967 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 functions.py
 create mode 100755 main.py

git remote rm origin
git remote add origin me@localhost:/home/me/work/programming/var/shellnmr
git push origin master

Counting objects: 2, done.
Delta compression using up to 3 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (18/18), done.
Writing objects: 100% (2/2), 339.14 KiB, done.
Total 2 (delta 5), reused 0 (delta 0)
To me@localhost:/home/me/work/programming/var/shellnmr
 * [new branch]      master -> master

---

Everyday usage:

Say you've edited the code on your development machine and want to commit the changes:

git commit -a
git push

Easy.

Let's say you go home and want to continue editing the code there and that this is the first time you're doing so:

git clone user@githost:/home/me/work/programming/var/nmrshell nmrshell-code

When you're done editing, just commit as normal;

git commit -a
git push

Let's say you've edited the code on another computer, committed the code, and then want to get the latest updates on your regular development machine again:

git pull origin master

And that's about it.

---

GUI - gitk:
The debian repos have a git GUI as well. To install do

sudo apt-get install git-gui gitk

Start it by launching gitk from the directory where you keep your files (on the development machine)

323. Wine 1.5.22 on Debian Testing/Wheezy. Compiling using multiarch

UPDATE 16 May 2013: See here for Wine 1.5.30: http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/416-wine-1530-in-chroot.html

Another update: It seems like your mileage in terms of how well Wine will work for you will vary using this method. It works fine for me and I suspect it's because I've built earlier Wine versions of my systems and have ia32-libs-dev installed. This package is no longer available in Testing. ia32-libs installs the libs you need, but does not provide symlinks between .so and .so.X files -- you can probably do that by hand if necessary though. It's not for beginners.

An additional thing to remember is that the 1.5 series of Wine is a development series -- 1.4 is the stable series which is meant for end users. Progress made in 1.5 will be included in 1.6.

NOTE: there are a couple of issues, and they will depend on how your system is set up.
* libosmesa6-dev:i386 will require mesa-common-dev:i386 which will remove libosmesa6-dev:amd64 and more, which is bad.
* libglu1-mesa-dev:i386 depends on libgl1-mesa-dev:i386 which will remove libgl1-mesa-dev:amd64 and more, which is bad.
*  libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev:i386 depends on libgstreamer0.10-dev:i386 which depends on gir1.2-gstreamer-0.10:i386 which depends on gir1.2-freedesktop:i386 which depends on gir1.2-glib-2.0:i386 which depends on libgirepository-1.0-1:i386 which will remove a whole lot of packages (132 on one of my systems, including gnome, gdm3 etc.)

I'm working on figuring out what's triggering this on some systems but not others.
In the mean time see http://verahill.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/308-compiling-wine-1521-on-debian.html to see how to build wine in a chroot, which is safe. You can then install that .deb package on your normal system and HOPEFULLY there won't be any broken dependencies. You won't need the -dev:i386 packages on the install target.

ldd `which wine` 

linux-gate.so.1 =>  (0x55573000)
 libwine.so.1 => /usr/local/lib/libwine.so.1 (0x55576000)
 libpthread.so.0 => /lib32/libpthread.so.0 (0x556ec000)
 libc.so.6 => /lib32/libc.so.6 (0x55705000)
 libdl.so.2 => /lib32/libdl.so.2 (0x55867000)

so you really don't seem to need much in the way of shared libs installed.

---

A new incremental version of wine is out.

There's little difference between building 1.5.21 and 1.5.22 but here it is anyway. The build is very easy on an up-to-date installation of Testing/Wheezy. If you are on stable, the list over needed packages can be found in this post.

See here for recent changes between different Wine versions: http://linux.softpedia.com/progChangelog/Wine-Changelog-148.html

Compiling

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install libx11-dev:i386 libfreetype6-dev:i386 libxcursor-dev:i386 libxi-dev:i386 libxxf86vm-dev:i386 libxrandr-dev:i386 libxinerama-dev:i386 libxcomposite-dev:i386 libglu-dev:i386 libosmesa-dev:i386 libglu-dev:i386 libosmesa-dev:i386 libdbus-1-dev:i386 libgnutls-dev:i386 libncurses-dev:i386 libsane-dev:i386 libv4l-dev:i386 libgphoto2-2-dev:i386 liblcms-dev:i386 libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev:i386 libcapi20-dev:i386 libcups2-dev:i386 libfontconfig-dev:i386 libgsm1-dev:i386 libtiff-dev:i386 libpng-dev:i386 libjpeg-dev:i386 libmpg123-dev:i386 libopenal-dev:i386 libldap-dev:i386 libxrender-dev:i386 libxml2-dev:i386 libxslt-dev:i386 libhal-dev:i386 libcurl4-openssl-dev:i386 gettext prelink bzip2 bison flex oss4-dev checkinstall ocl-icd-libopencl1:i386 opencl-headers gcc-multilib

mkdir ~/tmp
cd ~/tmp
wget http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wine/wine-1.5.22.tar.bz2
tar xvf wine-1.5.22.tar.bz2
cd wine-1.5.22/
./configure

config.status: executing include/wine commands
config.status: executing Makefile commands


configure: Finished.  Do 'make' to compile Wine.

time make -j4
sudo checkinstall --install=no

*****************************************
**** Debian package creation selected ***
*****************************************

This package will be built according to these values: 

0 -  Maintainer: [ root@lithium ]
1 -  Summary: [ wine 1.5.22 ]
2 -  Name:    [ wine ]
3 -  Version: [ 1.5.22 ]
4 -  Release: [ 1 ]
5 -  License: [ GPL ]
6 -  Group:   [ checkinstall ]
7 -  Architecture: [ amd64 ]
8 -  Source location: [ wine-1.5.22 ]
9 -  Alternate source location: [  ]
10 - Requires: [  ]
11 - Provides: [ wine ]
12 - Conflicts: [  ]
13 - Replaces: [  ]
[..]
Copying files to the temporary directory...

sudo dpkg -i wine_1.5.22-1_amd64.deb

where 4 is the number of cores on your build machine (see here and here for -jN). The build took 13 minutes on a three-core AMD Athlon II X3 445 (3.1 GHz) with -j4. The 'Copying files to...' can take quite a while, so let it run to completion.

Anyway, that's it. An easy build.

322. Libreoffice and zotero for reference management

I'm happy using latex and bibtex whenever possible, and I'm forced to use Microsoft Office and Endnote in most of my collaborations, so I;m not that interested in libreoffice/openoffice.

However, having heard of a reference manager called Zotero has made me curious to learn more.

You can either get it as a plug-in for firefox, or as a stand-alone program which plugs into any browser of your choice.

While I haven't used Endnote seriously for about half a decade and thus may not know about any fancy recently added functionality, I just can't see any reason whatsoever to use Endnote anymore if you have a choice. Obviously, given the inertia of the 'common user' and the tendency for people to equal costly with good and cheap with rubbish, it will probably take a generation or two for change to happen, no matter how good zotero gets.

And here's another thing: when I went to Google Scholar using Chrome, zotero was recognised, and a list of 'updates' was suggested. I wasn't really interested, until I had a look at them -- Scholar had generated a pretty impressive list of articles that it thought might interest me. The match was surprisingly good. If nothing else I'll certainly make sure to keep my zotero database synced with my bibtex one.

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Get it:

sudo apt-get install bzip2
wget http://download.zotero.org/standalone/3.0.11.1/Zotero-3.0.11.1_linux-x86_64.tar.bz2
tar xvf Zotero-3.0.11.1_linux-x86_64.tar.bz2
cd Zotero_linux-x86_64/
./run-zotero.sh

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First time:

First time you run it it opens a browser window as well as an installation process

For some reason I keep getting errors about DBus even though the dbus-daemon is running. It hasn't caused any other problems beyond the error message in the screenshot.

Even the openoffice I installed for testing purposes got detected

And you're done

To make it work in Chrome, install the extension

The main Zotero window, without any references

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Testing:

Importing a bibtex library

Everything looks ok

If you click on the icon by the arrow you can insert a citation. You need to have zotero running in the background though.

Determine what format to use

Generate the bibliography and you're done

Google Scholar, Chrome and Zotero play nicely together

320. Wsearch32 in Wine

Wsearch32 is a windows program that does what it's supposed to -- open mass spectrometer data files. Because our students use it quite a lot and to save me time in training them, here's how to install wsearch32 and how to get started with it. It runs almost perfectly in Wine.

One notable thing about Wsearch is that it opens HP Agilent Chemstation .D files without any problems. It's notable because different versions of HP Agilent Chemstation can't even open files written by other versions (yup, it's true...) of the same damned program.

Another obvious advantage of Wsearch is that it makes it very easy to export data, although it only exports one spectrum at a time (i.e. you can't get the full time-dependent data set).

WSearch was written by Frank Antolasic at the RMIT in Melbourne, Australia.


What doesn't work under Wine: It will freeze if you try to open several files at the same time. This does not happen on native Windows.

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Installation
Download it from here: http://www.wsearch.com.au/

wget http://www.wsearch.com.au/wsearch32/wsearch32.zip
unzip wsearch32.zip

and follow the instructions:

There's nothing odd about the installation process

It works as well as under windows

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Screenshots

This is the default view

Click on the import icon (the red one in the left corner), and select your file. There are plenty of supported formats.

This is the TIC view. Click anywhere on the TIC to get the corresponding spectrum

TIC and spectrum view.

Click on the M/I icon on the right to get a list of all the data in the spectrum plot..

You can then save the spectrum in a range of ascii based formats.

You can get the acquisition headers under Chromatogram/List header info. You can also make ion plots  in the same menu.

Wsearch also comes with a simple isotopic pattern calculator.

The Help works fine under linux/wine

This is the free version of wsearch -- there is some functionality missing.