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FOR THE GNU GENERATION
10 AMAZING
RASPBERRY PI
PROJECTS
Revealed: Incredible things
you can do with the $25 PC
Secure your network
Find and prevent attacks on your
network the open source way Eben
Upton
Raspberry Interview

Pi VPN ALSO INSIDE


Master networking’s » CuBox reviewed
darkest art in easy steps » Beating Microsoft
at its own game
» Fedora 18 reviewed

The Ubuntu Phone


Live distro super-test The latest details
The ultimate desktop in your pocket revealed in full

Wine for developers Linux genealogy 20+ pages


How advanced users can
harness the power of Wine
Map out your family
tree with Gramps of reviews ISSUE 123
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Welcome
to issue 123 of Linux User & Developer Get
Linux User
Gareth Halfacree has been breaking, fixing,
This issue
Your team of Linux experts…

tinkering and voiding warranties


on electrical items for many years, for £4.19
without once receiving a fatal
electric shock. This issue Gareth » Fedora 18 reviewed per issue
brings us his thoughts on the latest
mini-PC to hit the market - the » Eben Upton exclusive Page 30
CuBox. See what he thinks on
pages 68-69. » 10 amazing RasPi projects
Kunal Deo is a veteran open source developer » The Ubuntu Phone revealed
leading multiple open source
projects. He is also a KDE Welcome to the latest edition of Linux User &
developer and has contributed
to many projects including KDE-
Developer, the UK and America’s favourite
Solaris, Belenix and Openmoko. high-end open source and Linux magazine.
This month Kunal shows us how
advanced users and developers
This issue we’re celebrating the first birthday of
can leverage Wine (pages 56-59). the Raspberry Pi in grand style with two very special
features and another excellent ‘how-to’ article from
Liam Fraser is the creator of the hugely popular
RaspberryPiTutorials YouTube the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s own Liam Fraser.
series and is a Linux server admin Our first special feature required us to gather together
for the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
This month Liam delves into the three key members of the Raspberry Pi Foundation for tea,
dark art of VPN to show how the a slice of birthday cake and a whole host of questions. In our
Raspberry Pi can be used to create
a viable virtual private network. exclusive interview starting on page 46, Eben, Liz and Pete
Follow along on pages 52-55. take time out of their packed schedules to tell us all about the
Joey Bernard has been using Linux at home first year on sale and what we can expect in the future.
for almost 20 years and he’s Our second birthday treat is a huge 12-page exposé of the
now getting paid for it as
a computational research very best projects Raspberry Pi enthusiasts have created. It’s
consultant with ACEnet. This quite incredible what can be achieved with a £25 computer and
month Joey shows us how to
create a family tree using open a bit of imagination – see pages 18-29 to find our favourites.
source software in his geneology We’ve already started compiling our top-picks for the
with Linux tutorial (pages 32-35).
next ten amazing Raspberry Pi projects, so if you’ve got an
Rory MacDonald is our resident open amazing idea and have been waiting for an excuse to put it
source reporter with a keen nose
for a story and a good eye for detail.
into action, get in touch with the magazine and let us know!
In the news starting on page 6 this Enjoy the issue…
month, Rory brings us up to speed
on the latest developments in
mobile technology and discovers Russell Barnes, Editor
that CES has lost out on this year’s
big announcements to MWC.

Rob Zwetsloot studied aerospace engineering


at university, using Python to Get in touch with the team:
model complex simulations in
class while configuring Linux
HTPCs at home. In this issue Rob
linuxuser@imagine-publishing.co.uk
reveals Canonical’s latest plans
with his special news report on the Buy online
Ubuntu Phone (pages 6-7) among
other things.

Visit us online for more news, opinion, tutorials and reviews:

www.linuxuser.co.uk
3 Issue 123
Contents Reviews
10 amazing 66 HTC One X+
Raspberry HTC updates its flagship
smartphone for 2013

Pi projects 68 SolidRun CuBox


Another tiny-PC contender
18. Revealed:
Incredible things 70 Samsung Galaxy Ace 2
you can do with The market leader takes
the $25 PC another shot at budget
handsets
72 Live distro super-test
The latest live distros fight to
earn space on your USB stick

OpenSource Tutorials 78 Fedora 18


The Spherical Cow has finally
06 News 32 Genealogy with Gramps entered the field!
The biggest stories from the Track your family history with open source
open source world 80 Pear Linux 6.1
36 Install Cinnamon on your distro We put the squeeze on the
12 Opinions Add this exciting new desktop experience to latest Pear build to see if it’s ripe
The latest from your favourite your favourite distribution
free software columnists 82 Fuduntu 2013.1
40 Protect your network with Snort A fun and functional desktop
94 Letters Spot attacks and protect your network for everyday use
Your views on the magazine

Developer tutorials
and the open source scene

Features 52 Create a VPN with the RasPi


FE
AT
18 10 amazing Raspberry UR
E
Master the mysterious art of virtual private
Pi projects networks with the aid of the Raspberry Pi
Incredible things you can do
with a $25 computer! 56 Wine for Developers
Build and run Windows apps sans
46 RasPi Foundation Microsoft Tax
exclusive interview
We celebrate the occasion
with Eben, Pete and Liz
On your free disc
60 Kolab: David & Goliath 96 Cover disc
Can Kolab beat the likes of The very latest distros on one DVD
Microsoft at their own game?
Fuduntu 2013.1
72 Live distro super-test Knoppix 7.0.5
Four of the best fight it out

86 Q & A
Parted Magic Subscribe
46 Celebrating the life of Pi
Your problems solved! Fedora 18 today! We sit down with three core members of
30 Save at least 30% the Raspberry Pi Foundation to celebrate
on the shop price.
US customers the first year on sale and to find out what
can subscribe via 2013 has in store
page 84

Join us online for more Linux news, opinion and reviews www.linuxuser.co.uk
4 www.linuxuser.co.uk
06 News | 12 Opinion | 94 Letters

The Ubuntu phone


Ubuntu for Android evolves
into a full phone OS

Swipe
Each edge of the phone has a specific use. Here’s
what happens when you swipe from the top…

All the icons on the top bar represent accessible


system settings, such as Wi-Fi, mobile network,
battery settings and even message notifications.
All you need to do is touch the one you wish
to access. On the first working day of the year, Linux the Android Board Support Package, effectively
User & Developer attended a conference at allowing the OS to run on any current Android
Canonical HQ, where a top secret Ubuntu hardware with very little modifications needed.
product would be shown off for the very first To begin with, entry-level phones for the OS will
time. The rumour mill had been churning over need mid- to high-range specs, with a dual-
the Christmas holiday period as to what we’d core CPU and plenty of RAM recommended.
be seeing, and needless to say when Mark However, within a few years the plan is to
Shuttleworth revealed the Ubuntu Phone, it optimise it for even the most low-powered
Pull down the bar with your finger part of the way to was not totally unexpected. Taking a special phones. At the highest end, Ubuntu for
get a description of what the icon means. You can Galaxy Nexus from his jacket pocket loaded Phones also includes the full Ubuntu desktop,
swipe left to right from here to move between the with Ubuntu for Phones, he then proceeded to accessible via docking similar to the Ubuntu
different icons on the bar if you need to. give us a first look at what is essentially a full for Android implementation; however, it’s
Ubuntu OS for smartphones. recommended to use a quad-core CPU for this.
Although the Galaxy Nexus is test hardware Shuttleworth was keen to show off the way
for now, it’s indicative of the functionality Ubuntu for Phones works, with its fairly unique
Ubuntu for Phones will have. It currently uses interface based on the phone’s edges. Swiping

THE SPECS
When you want to access the particular setting or ENTRY-LEVEL SUPERPHONE
notification, pull down the rest of the bar right over SMARTPHONE INCLUDING DESKTOP
the running app, similar to Android notifications. For a solid competitor to For a high-end smartphone
This allows you to change system settings without today’s smartphone, that docks as a portable
going to a whole different menu. you’ll need: desktop, you’ll need:

CPU: Dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU: Quad-core Cortex-A9 or


Memory: 512MB-1GB Intel Atom
Internal flash storage: 4-8GB Memory: 1GB
Multi-touch: Yes Internal flash storage: 32GB
Desktop: No Multi-touch: Yes
Desktop: Yes
■ The Galaxy S II meets ■ High-end phones like the
the minimum specs Galaxy S III can run the desktop

6 www.linuxuser.co.uk
News
The latest in the Linux community
OPEN SOURCE

ANDROID

Ubuntu for Android


What’s going on with the Android dock?
Canonical released Ubuntu for Android to app on the desktop. It still contains the ability
little fanfare late last year – and it plans to to retrieve data from the Android portion,
support it outside of Ubuntu for Phones. such as contacts, documents and photos.
Making its debut last year at CES 2012, the There is unfortunately no phone or network
original image we saw allowed you to access provider that uses it just yet – however,
the Android phone through an emulation 2011 and 2012 saw a few failures in terms
window – this has now been mostly removed, of phone-powered desktop experiences,
as Ubuntu for Android can access the full and we’re only just seeing the advent of
telephony stack of more Android phones now, smartphones powerful enough to provide a
allowing you to call and text from a dedicated seamless experience.

■ Mark Shuttleworth believes in the


vision of one OS for all your devices
from the left edge brings out the Unity app bar,
where you can place some of your favourite
apps and then also access the full home
screen. Swiping from the right edge allows
you to go back through all the apps you’ve
been using, and swiping up from the bottom
brings up the app-specific controls. Swiping
down from the top allows quick access to
system settings for time, volume, networking,
messaging, battery etc – each can be modified
without leaving the current screen, as well.
On the Galaxy Nexus the interface was Estimated OS stretch by 2016
fairly slick and responsive. The edge gestures
worked well – although trying to select items in
the corners was sometimes a little tricky, but it
< >
is still in development. v2 v3 v4
App development wise, Canonical says it has
been working closely with some of the major
smartphone app developers for native Twitter,
Facebook and other popular apps to be ready
for Ubuntu phones. Shuttleworth reiterated
that the OS was more open than any other
current mobile OS, and that development of
apps and tools would be much easier using the
Ubuntu framework.
There are no current release plans for an
Ubuntu Phone, and while talks are underway with
networks and manufacturers, no deal has been
reached as of yet. Images for Ubuntu for Phones
are going to be released to the public sometime in Lean smartphones Mid-range smartphones High-end smartphones Superphones
February, though, so those with decent Android
phones will be able to give it a try.

7 www.linuxuser.co.uk
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MOBILE

Mobile World Congress


steals device launches ■ A new
New processors reveal what we can expect Snapdragon
When it comes to new, market-ready Tegra 4 combines an eye-watering 72 custom the S4 Pro. The Snapdragon 800 also supports
smartphones and mobile devices, this year’s GeForce GPU cores (six times the graphics 4G on the chip, which will reduce costs for device
CES was widely seen as a disappointment. processing power of the Tegra 3) with the first manufacturers. The inclusion of a dual image
What the trade show has revealed, however, is a quad-core implementation of ARM’s newest signal processor to allow the capture of 3D
serious selection of the latest mobile processors Cortex A-15 CPU and a second-generation images and standard resolution video also gives
that will be found at the core of the devices we battery saver core for less intensive tasks. the Snapdragon an added edge.
eventually see at Mobile World Congress (MWC) As with most of the new high-end chips Although many of Samsung’s 2012 phones
on 25-28 February. announced at the show, the Tegra 4 can deliver featured Qualcomm processors, the firm has
Nvidia announced its successor to the Tegra 3 4K Ultra HD video. However, 4G mobile support been working on updating its own Exynos range.
chipset, used in 2012’s most successful high- requires an additional chipset. Importantly, The Exynos 5 ‘Octa’ unveiled at CES offers an
end Android devices, such as the Nexus 7. Billed given the criticisms of the Tegra 3, Nvidia also eight-core design, based on ARM’s big.LITTLE
as the world’s fastest mobile processor, the claimed that the new processor consumes up to architecture. It uses four low-power ARM
45 per cent less power than its predecessor “in Cortex-A7 cores for less CPU-intensive tasks
common use cases” and enables up to 14 hours and four Cortex-A15s to handle heavy loads.
of HD video playback on phones. The intention is to reduce power consumption,
Meanwhile, Qualcomm announced its with Samsung claiming a 70 per cent increase in
quad-core Snapdragon 800, with a 75 per cent battery life for the dual-core Exynos 5.
performance increase on the S4 Pro. It will be Finally, Intel, whose Atom x86-based chips
based on four of Qualcomm’s own Krait 400 have been rivalling ARM in 2012, announced that
CPU cores, which can be clocked at up to 2.3GHz devices based on the ‘Bay-Trail’ quad-core Atom
each. Graphics will be delivered by an Adreno chip are scheduled to hit the shelves towards the
■ The Tegra 4 offers blistering mobile power 330 GPU, which doubles the power available on end of 2013.

TIZEN

Tizen set to rival Android


last year will almost certainly have added
extra impetus to Samsung’s search.
Samsung, a key founder member of the
Ubuntu Mobile is not the only new game in town – former LiMo Foundation, had been working
on Bada, its own mobile Linux distro. But with
Tizen looks set to grow in 2013 limited uptake of Bada, much of this work
While the loudest noise on the Linux front pioneers the LiMo Foundation. The project was subsequently rolled into Tizen.
came from the new Ubuntu Mobile distro took the groups’ existing investments into The vision of Tizen – to provide a Google-
(see page 6), it was not the only significant MeeGo Linux and several other mobile Linux free, unified platform running across phones,
mobile Linux development at CES. variants and redeveloped these into an even cars, home entertainment and broader
Samsung let slip that 2013 will see it more sophisticated and up-to-date mobile smart devices – is compelling. With other
launching a new range of phones built platform. With a heavy focus on open HTML5- Tizen Foundation members including Intel,
on the Tizen OS. Tizen was developed by based applications, Tizen has been making Huawei, NEC, Panasonic and some of the
the Linux Foundation and mobile Linux significant inroads into both the IVI and world’s largest mobile carriers, this vision
smartphone markets. However, Samsung is the is looking increasingly viable as a new force
first major manufacturer to confirm plans for across the consumer electronics industry.
smartphones built on the new platform. Official details of Samsung’s Tizen-
With Samsung’s current smartphone phone plans have yet to emerge. However,
success built on Android, it is no secret that early reports on the Japanese Daily Yomiuri
the company has been looking for alternatives Online news site were confirmed at CES,
that would allow it to hedge its bets against when a Samsung spokesperson told CNET
overdependence on the Google-dominated reporters that the company plans “to unveil
platform. Google’s decision to buy Motorola competitive Tizen devices within this year.”
■ The Tizen OS is gaining momentum

8 www.linuxuser.co.uk
News
The latest in the Linux community
OPEN SOURCE

HARDWARE
Linux calendar
Chromebook Android Magazine –
tops the charts

21 Feb 2013
issue 22
» www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Samsung model top in US ■ Samsung’s 11-inch Chromebook
Android Magazine, our best and
only print source for everything
Online retail giant Amazon is currently putting at the number-two spot in the UK. Although the Android, is coming out today. Check
different variants of the Google Chromebook Windows 8-powered Acer Aspire E1 currently out what’s in store over on page 64.
at the top of its hourly updated listings of holds the top spot in the UK, Windows has been
the bestselling notebooks in the UK and the knocked into third place by the 13-inch Apple SCALE 11x
US. At the time of writing, Samsung’s 11-inch MacBook Pro in the US. It certainly seems that » Hilton Los Angeles International
offering is in the number-one position for US Microsoft’s one-time dominance of computer Airport, Los Angeles, CA
sales, while the Acer C7 Chromebook is sitting hardware is now in question. » USA
»www.socallinuxexpo.org/
HARDWARE scale11x

22-24 Feb 2013


Steambox is
The 11th annual Southern California
Linux Expo is the first Linux and
open source software expo this

confirmed year in North America, and will be


host to more than 100 exhibitors
and 70 speakers.
Based on Xi3 Piston PC
■ Piston PC
Xi3, a firm formed as a Kickstarter project
to create small, modular Linux-based PCs, working together to optimise the Piston PC for
caused a stir at CES amid rumours that the running Steam on Linux. However, Valve founder
company’s new Piston PC was, in fact, a pre- Gabe Newell finally laid all speculation to rest
release version of Valve’s upcoming Steambox after the show. “We’ll come out with our own,”
gaming console. Xi3 has taken investment Newell told reporters at The Verge, “and we’ll sell
from Valve and executives said they have been it to consumers by ourselves.”

MOBILE PyCon 2013


Google plans new ‘X-Phone’ » Santa Clara Convention Center,
Santa Clara, CA
» USA
Ex-CTO of Israeli military to head up development » https://us.pycon.org/2013/
13-21 March 2013

Google has tasked Lior Ron, ex-chief Motorola’s patent portfolio as the chief reason The largest annual gathering for
the Python community, PyCon is
technology officer of the Israeli Army for the acquisition. Google initially played down
a diverse conference dedicated to
Intelligence, to head up the team to develop any talk of the company creating its own in- providing an enjoyable experience
a new Android super-phone, according house, end-to-end, Android ecosystem. for everyone who attends. Tutorials,
to reports in The Wall Street Journal. The “Google remains firmly committed to Android talks, summits and open spaces
‘X-Phone’ is part of a plan for Google to as an open platform and a vibrant open source are available at the conference.
increase the profitability of its Motorola community,” Andy Rubin, Google’s senior vice
Mobility unit and claw back a share of the president of mobile, commented at the time.
smartphone hardware market now dominated “We will continue to work with all of our valued
by Samsung and Apple. Android partners to develop and distribute
When Google first bought Motorola Mobility innovative Android-powered devices.”
last year, the company carefully stage- Since then, Google has avoided any sign of
managed the deal. The focus was placed on favouritism to Motorola. The ‘Nexus’ branded
contract to premiere the latest version of
14 March 2013

Android has been awarded to a string of other


hardware vendors in the Android ecosystem. Linux User &
However, the appointment of a heavy hitter Developer – issue 124
such as Ron to head up its in-house hardware » www.linuxuser.co.uk
development will undoubtedly strike fear into The next issue of Linux User will be
the hearts of an already paranoid Android out today – find out what will be in
■ X marks the spot for a new Google phone hardware community. issue 124 on page 98…

9 www.linuxuser.co.uk
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hardware

OLPC previews new touch devices at CES


Two new low-cost learning devices, both with touch screens
Less cutting-edge, more at the cuddly edge
of Linux, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) n The OLPC XO
association was also showing off its latest 4.0 Touch
wares at this year’s CES. OLPC suffered a
bumpy ride into the world of tablets, shelving
initial plans for the XO 3.0 device. However, with
the new XO Learning Tablet and XO 4.0 Touch, the
project seems to have found its feed again.
The XO 4.0 Touch is the fourth generation of
OLPC’s now iconic green and white notebook
aimed at providing a modern education to
children through a rugged, low-cost, connected
computing device. It features a robust swiveling
Neonode touch screen to convert between
notebook and tablet mode. The processor
has been updated to a 1GHz Marvell Armada
multicore ARM processor with hybrid-SMP
technology. Memory and storage have been left
as flexible as possible, with the option for either
1 or 2GB of DDR RAM, 4 or 8GB of drop-proof
NAND flash storage, internal microSD and a full-
size external SD slot.
The XO 4.0 is designed with a focus on power
efficiency in order to cope with the erratic
electricity supplies in the developing nations Linux, customised with the project’s own Sugar the child is developing. Current content partners
where OLPC predominantly operates. However, user interface. include Sesame Street, MyCityWay and Little
running a customised version of Fedora 18, the The Tablet’s new XO Learning interface is an Pim, and OLPCA is currently in negotiations with
device still delivers sterling performance and the Android-compatible software suite for child- many more of the world’s leading companies
new touch screen is usable in an unlit classroom centric learning. The interface was developed to provide unique experiences in time for the
or in direct sunlight. by OLPC together with Yves Behar’s fuseproject product’s expected launch in May 2013.
OLPC’s first pure touch device, the XO and Common Sense Media, a non-profit In contrast to the traditional XO models
Learning Tablet, offers even more poke with a organisation dedicated to helping parents and which were always hard to come by in the
dual-core 1.6GHz processor and 1GB of RAM teachers make informed decisions about media. Western world, the XO Learning Tablet is
(for full specs, see below right). The XO Learning “OLPCA and Common Sense Media share intended for truly global use and is likely to be
Tablet also marks a change for OLPC, as it is the same vision of a world in which all kids have made available through high-street retailers.
the project’s first Android-based device. To access to the limitless learning opportunities We will keep you updated.
date, the XO notebook range has run Fedora that technology provides,” OLPC commented in
the official launch announcement. “Every child Vivitar licensed XO Learning Tablet
has dreams, and XO Learning directs the child’s
passion, creativity and energy for these dreams
Technical specs
Display size 7.0-inch
into a new user interface that has 12 dreams. Processor 1.6Ghz dual-core
Such dreams include ‘I want to be’ an artist, a RAM 1GB
musician and a scientist. Each dream features Wi-Fi SDIO 802.11b/g/n
a rich learning experience and applications, Screen resolution 1024x600 pixels
books, games and videos that allow children Free apps 100 preloaded
ages 3 to 12 to naturally explore their dreams Parental control Built-in
and learn at the same time.” Storage 8GB
Battery 3,800mA
XO Learning provides a full range of parental
I/O microSD, HDMI,
controls and user IDs for up to three children, micro-USB, stereo headset
n OLPC XO Learning Tablet – scheduled for plus a dashboard where the child or the parent Cameras 1.3MP 720 HD (front);
widespread release in May 2013 can review usage, types of content and the skills 2.0MP (rear)

10 www.linuxuser.co.uk
News
The latest in the Linux community
OPEN SOURCE

OPEN SOURCE

NetflixOSS Open House


promises new insights
Open source developers invited to showcase event
Online film and TV provider Netflix aims to the technologies with their core developers. In
strengthen its position in the open source addition, Netflix is promising more new releases.
community by holding an Open House event Despite several requests to the event’s
at its Los Gatos offices in California. In the organisers, we have yet to determine if the Open
past year, the firm has released 16 of its core House will be streamed live (given Netflix’s
infrastructure components as open source business, we’d expect it to be). However, it will
projects on GitHub (http://netflix.github.com). almost certainly develop interest and activity
These releases have included its Asgard cloud around some of the more useful open source
management tool, Eureka load balancing technologies to have been released last year.
software and the Simian Monkey suite of cloud It is also worth noting that Netflix is clearly
network and cloud infrastructure testing tools. not releasing new tools and holding this type
The NetflixOSS Open House event will provide of event simply to be friendly to its new open
a showcase for the company’s existing GitHub source community: the company is clearly
releases and the opportunity to “deep-dive” into looking to attract new developer talent. ■ Netflix is wooing open source developers

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OpenSource Your source of Linux news and views

THE KERNEL COLUMN

Jon Masters
Jon Masters summarises the latest happenings in the
Linux kernel community, including the closing of the
development ‘merge window’ for the 3.8 kernel
Jon Masters is a compute) bigger brothers than the chip used in
Linux kernel hacker who the Raspberry Pi, while being used in systems
has been working on of similar price. It is possible, for example, to
Linux for almost 17 years, purchase one of the popular ‘MK802’ plug-in TV
since he first attended
university at the age of 13. dongles built using the AllWinner A10 CPU for
Jon lives in Cambridge, $35. That yields a full ARM-based Linux system
Massachusetts, and works running at 1GHz, with 1GB RAM, USB, Wi-Fi,
for a large enterprise Linux
vendor. He publishes an SD card interface and full HDMI output.
a daily Linux kernel Even more capable systems of a similar price
mailing list summary at point are appearing all the time, so the A1X will
kernelpodcast.org
remain popular.
Linus Torvalds closed the 3.8 kernel ‘merge Transparent zero huge pages are another 3.8
window’ (the period of time during which kernel feature that will be popular with users,
disruptive changes are allowed into the although if the feature is working correctly,
kernel, and are then stabilised before final users who use it may never realise that it is
release) just prior to the Christmas holiday. even there. Huge pages are a hardware feature
In his announcement of the first 3.8 ‘release of modern CPUs in which the built-in CPU
candidate’, Linus said, “The longest night of virtual memory translation caches, known as
the year is upon us (and by ‘us’ I mean mainly TLBs (translation lookaside buffers), support
people in the same time zone and hemisphere both the conventional smallest unit of virtual
as I am. Because I’m too self-centred to care memory page size of (typically) 4KB, as well
about anybody else), and what better thing to as a much larger ‘huge’ page of 2 or 4MB or
do than get yourself some nice mulled wine, more. This is useful because the CPU has only
sit back, relax, and play with the most recent a limited number of these much faster TLB
RC kernel?” Some readers might question caches that it uses to store previously looked-
whether this is truly the most relaxing course up (translated) virtual memory mappings from
of action, but nobody can fault Linus for trying addresses used by applications to those of the
to motivate developers to spend some holiday underlying hardware. By using huge pages, the
time testing code. hardware can keep more translations cached
The 3.8 merge window was, according to and improve performance. But, there is a
Linus himself, the biggest merge window in performance catch to using huge pages.
the 3.x kernel series so far (in terms of raw Historically, huge pages had to be manually
number of changes going into the kernel assigned, but support for ‘transparent’ or
codebase). It will contain a number of new and automatic huge pages was added to the
exciting features. Two that interest this author kernel some time ago and has been present in
in particular are the support for transparent distributions for a number of releases. With the
huge zero pages, and newly added support for introduction of transparent huge pages came
the AllWinner ‘A1X’ series of system-on-chip the unintended side effect that some systems
ARM processors. The latter are very popular, would actually waste memory in the process.
inexpensive and more capable (in terms of This is because when allocating conventional

12 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Opinion
The kernel column – Jon Masters
open source

pages, the kernel has the option of using the n Linus


‘zero’ page, a special page that is read-only Torvalds

CC. GFDL. Permission of Martin Streicher, Editor-in-Chief, LINUXMAG.com


and full of zeros. When applications attempt to encouraged
write to it, a process known as copy-on-write developers
actually allocates and sets up the real page to play with
entries in the kernel. The transparent huge the latest RC
pages code did not have a similar concept, kernel over
so applications mapping large amounts of the holidays
contiguous memory might have a large number
of huge pages filled with zeros allocated that
were never used. Linux 3.8 addresses this
situation by sharing a ‘huge’ zero page, similar
to the regular zero page.
During the merge window, some changes to
the Video4Linux (V4L) code were merged that
broke a user-space application (PulseAudio)
by altering the return codes passed by a
system call. Linus got particularly angry about
this, telling the kernel developer concerned
to “SHUT THE F*** UP!” when responding
to protests that the user-space application is then used internally within the file system to update the kernel as to what was reclaimed.
was doing something wrong. Linus reminded determine where in the ‘data structure’ within Both this and the volatile work are useful,
everyone of longstanding policy by saying, “[If] the file-system metadata the given entry will for example, in applications that retain large
a change results in user programs breaking, be stored. If multiple files hash to the same caches (eg of webpage content) that can easily
it’s a bug in the kernel. We never EVER blame location, a list is created. Such lists (buckets) be regenerated.
the user programs. How hard can this be to are not typically very large because the Linux 3.7 introduced support for ARM’s new
understand?” Strong responses aside, there is hashing algorithm does a good job at keeping ‘AArch64’ 64-bit ARM architecture. Previous
established history of never questioning even hash ‘collisions’ to a minimum. Sometimes, kernel cycles have sometimes introduced more
the weirdest of application behaviour, always however, these lists can be artificially enlarged than one new architecture. Although it seems
endeavouring to retain compatibility. The by creating special file-system entries that as if this won’t be the case for 3.8, it does look
patch in question was reverted by Linus and an are known to generate collisions. This is what like 3.9 could have two new architectures.
alternative reworked. Pascal Junod blogged about in December. He James Hogan posted pretty comprehensive
With the merge window closed, development raised a number of known issues with Btrfs and support for Imagination’s ‘Meta’ processor
has returned to a combination of new patch discovered a new bug in the code, which Chris cores (hybrid CPU/DSP cores capable of
development and refinement of the existing 3.8 Mason (the author) has now posted a patch running multiple RTOSs and regular kernels
release candidates, which are several weeks in intended to address the concern. on hardware threads at the same time), while
as of this writing. There are typically seven or A lot of memory (virtual and otherwise) work Vineet Gupta reworded the older 3.2 kernel
eight release candidate kernels (spread over is ongoing. Minchan Kim has continued working support for Synopsys’s ARC processors to bring
several months’ duration) for a typical kernel, on support for volatile memory mappings. it up to date. The latter is interesting because
meaning that we can expect 3.8 final sometime Using special parameters, applications can it is intended to be a highly configurable and
in February. explicitly mark regions of memory as being extensible processor architecture. Those
volatile (the kernel is allowed to trash them implementing the (licensable) ARC processor
Ongoing development at will), and unmark them as volatile when can customise the number of instructions,
This past month saw an interesting series of they are needed again. The application is able registers and many other features, in a manner
conversations around hash collisions in next- to determine whether the volatile memory described online as being “like Lego blocks”.
generation file systems. Many modern file was actually destroyed in the meantime. Finally this month, a number of kernel
systems use a hash-based approach to store Related work includes a user-space memory developers have been considering putting the
the names of individual filename entries within shrinker from Anton Vorontsov, which allows ‘Kernel Hacking’ menu options within the kernel
normal directories. A given name, such as applications to use a mempressure cgroup to Kconfig “on a diet”. Dave Hansen, as well as
‘passwd’ (as in /etc/passwd) is passed through register reclaimable chunks. When the system other developers, consider that 120 possible
a hashing algorithm which generates a finite is low on memory, the application will be asked options is now too large and that a number
number of possible numeric values. This value to reclaim a number of chunks. It will then of these should be removed, or split out. In
particular, Dave posted a cleanup patch to

“Transparent zero huge pages are move ‘debugfs’ out into the file-systems menu.

a 3.8 feature that will be popular”

13 www.linuxuser.co.uk
OpenSource Your source of Linux news and views

the open source column

The tablet the


industry needs?
Simon ponders the continued
explosion in the sales of tablet n Apple is no
devices, and wonders how it longer getting it all
its own way in the
can all be turned to good tablet market

of Windows  8 (which I suspect will continue services above all else. It adds little to nothing to
to cause Microsoft as many problems as it the open source community at all.
resolves), and listening to a salesperson try and But it doesn’t have to be like that. Convincing
sell anti-virus software to someone buying a the mass market to adopt an open source
tablet computer called for rarely seen levels of operating system for a desktop PC or laptop was
restraint. The methodology of old remains the always going to be a proverbial uphill struggle,
same, it seems, even if the products themselves but there’s a different set of parameters now.
gradually changed. While Windows 8 continues to try to win people
Two things have buoyed Currys, however. The over, the truth that Microsoft is facing is that, for
first is the demise of another big British chain, the first time in a generation, there’s change on a
Comet, which inevitably brought fresh footfall software as well as a hardware level.
into the market. Sadly, by allowing the likes of Amazon to
But the other, and less UK-specific factor seize that, there’s an argument that some
is the staggering, ongoing success of tablet opportunities have been lost already. But the
Simon Brew is a technology
writer and editor, computers. Tablets are now heavily mainstream, taking for granted of a touch-screen interface
working across the as well as filling in niches in the market that a full means that there’s space here for something of
Linux, Windows and computer can’t do. Take the rise in educational note in the retail sector to develop; for devices
Mac OS X platforms
and child-targeted tablet computers, for that work on a genuine framework of open
instance. Granted, this is usually a cheap source software, to offer genuine choice.
Given that the general impression given of Android-powered model that’s had a few apps Remember the days when Dell first
the British retail sector in particular post- clustered together on it. But there’s potential introduced its laptop customisation purchase
Christmas was one of doom and gloom, with here to push the hardware itself into affordable, screen that seemed intent on selling you as
several major chains facing well-documented interesting places, and the low price that’s been much as it possibly could? Well, that might just
problems, closer inspection revealed some asked for such devices suggests that there’s be inverted now. Instead, software becomes the
interesting upward trends in the midst of the headroom to do more. choice. Given that most hardware in the sector
figures. And technology, not for the first time, What’s particularly interesting about the is created equal, we’re at a stage where end
was adding some of the fuel. tablet market too is that Apple no longer users can, instead of quibbling over memory and
Appreciating that there were many appears to be having things its own way, and storage space, focus on application and what
contributory factors, the numbers for high- that’s been crucial to the relaxing of the sector they actually want a device for.
street electrical giant Currys were surprisingly as a whole. Samsung and its Galaxy line is at the Currys is unlikely to be interested in that any
impressive. In line with similar chains in other top end of Apple’s rivals, and Google’s Nexus line time soon. But by continuing to fuel the tablet
countries, Currys has spent money making its continues to thrive. Sadly, it looks as if Amazon’s explosion, the retailer may yet have a helping
stores bigger, consolidating its brands under less-friendly-than-it-looks Kindle Fire has been hand in bringing to the fore a more interesting
one (very big) roof. I went in one just before making serious headway, though, which is a way of computing.
Christmas and, truthfully, couldn’t leave worry. As those who have used the Kindle Fire
fast enough. The PC World segment of the extensively can testify, it’s a tablet that exists
business seems to exist to try to sell us copies to get you closer to Amazon’s products and

14 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Opinion
The free software column
open source

the Free software column

Apple scruffs
Android phones are no more a ‘rip-off’ of the iPhone than
the iPhone is a rip-off of earlier mobile phones and technology,
argues Richard Hillesley…

idea. So the cars of any era, however different on clean design and usability principles. Apple
they might have seemed in their time, look like made all the right decisions, sidestepped the
other cars of that era – and the same can be competition and still holds a significant share
said of, say, furniture, graffiti, clothes, hairstyles of the market – but very few of the constituent
and mobile computer devices. A mobile phone is parts of the iPhone were really unique or
based on any number of software and hardware original. Competitors adopted Android, which
technologies developed by individuals and firms had been under development since 2003,
such as Nokia, Samsung and Motorola over a offered all the advantages of the iPhone and
period of 30 years, but a modern phone looks cost significantly less.
very different to one of 30 years ago. The justification for Apple’s subsequent
A mobile phone has some basic requirements. righteous war against the Androids is the
It has to be portable and fit in your pocket, tendentious claim that Android is a ‘rip-off’ of
preferably with smooth edges so that it doesn’t the iPhone and “a stolen product”. The primary
catch on the threads of your jacket or shirt. It contention is that Samsung and Android have
Richard Hillesley writes about has to be able to scan the web and talk to other ripped off Apple’s style and look and feel, but
art, music, digital rights,
Linux and free software for phones. Sometimes we expect a little bit more, Android is no more stolen from the iPhone than
a variety of publications but the basic technology and appearance, the iPhone is a ‘rip-off’ of the pioneering work of
albeit refined and improved, remains the same, the likes of Motorola, Nokia and Samsung itself.
Igor Stravinsky once said that “a good and owes everything to 30 years of research The instrument for Apple’s war has been
composer does not imitate; he steals”, and and development by any number of companies the acquiescence of the United States Patent
TS Eliot once said “immature poets imitate; and individuals who wormed away at the idea and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the US
mature poets steal.” Even the idea that good of touch screens and mobile communications, courts, ownership of scores of debatable
art embraces the work of other good artists is sometimes making breakthroughs and utility and design patents, and its claims
not unique or original. sometimes encountering failure. against Samsung and others of ‘trade dress
Good art is often a synthesis of thoughts The commercial breakthrough of the infringement’. The good news in recent months
and methodologies that have been poached smartphone is dated to the launch of the is that some of these entitlements, such as
and recycled from other sources. Very little is iPhone in 2006, but the ideas and technology Apple’s patent entitled ‘Touch screen device,
entirely new or original, and this understanding it embraced did not slip, clean and new, out of method, and graphical user interface for
is equally true of other aspects of our lives. Ideas Apple’s ownership of one particular part of the determining commands by applying heuristics’
are cumulative and depend upon the evolution ether. Apple was not alone in recognising that (bit.ly/TPWeEw) and ‘the rubber band patent’
of techniques, observation and criticism, so the mobile phone had a significant future, but (ars.to/SmJ6pP) have come up for review and
it isn’t entirely surprising that inventions and had the advantage of being an outsider to the been found wanting by the USPTO. The bad
discoveries are often made simultaneously by business, able to take a dispassionate view of news is that Apple still has a vast portfolio of
different people in different locations. It is still the possibilities. Apple synthesised the best debatable patents to draw upon.
a matter of argument, for instance, whether the aspects of existing mobile phone technologies Patents are not a defence of the rights of the
electric light bulb was invented by Joseph Swan and smartphones, and added the marketing innovator, but a weapon against competition
or Thomas Edison, or the telephone by Elisha potential of the idea behind iTunes to make an and invention and the rights of the user. Android
Gray or Alexander Graham Bell… iPhone out of an iPod – a phone that doubled as is no more a ‘rip-off’ or ‘stolen product’ than
The style and design of the prevailing art and an iPod and a web device, and gave access to the iPhone itself, or the music of Stravinsky or
everyday items of our lives reflect the zeitgeist the Apple store. Marketing and the inertia of the poetry of Eliot.
and are a refinement and an assimilation of competition did the rest.
the judgement of their times. Everybody copies The iPhone was the best mobile phone of
everybody else, and style is not a patentable its time, used the best hardware, and relied

15 www.linuxuser.co.uk
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Feature 10 amazing Raspberry Pi projects

TEN AMAZING
RASPBERRY PI
PROJECTS
The £25 computer is celebrating its first
anniversary – here’s to a year’s worth of
magnificent, unique and exciting achievements
As portable computing whole host of projects. Some have satisfied imagination of the creators. And the balls
goes, the Raspberry Pi a craving for fun; others for exploration and to keep going to realise those dreams, of
could hardly be bettered. indulgence. More still have satisfied the course, but that would be three things.
Small enough to slip inside a current trend for performing real-world Over the next few pages, the creators of
pocket, it can go anywhere tasks at the lowest possible price. The Pi these projects talk us through their projects.
and everywhere with you. Yet is the recession buster with the potential You will find the majority of the source code
to use the Pi as a standard to empower a future generation (as one on our cover disc and we'll also tell you where
Linux machine kind of misses the point – or, at schoolboy emphatically showed). you can find tutorial instructions, where
the very least, the opportunities afforded by Here we present ten of those projects. available, to allow you to replicate them. But
this small-form-factor, high-spec wonder. Each of them, we believe, encapsulates all more than all of this, we hope it provides you
Over the past year, this inexpensive that is good about the Pi, making great use with inspiration for your own projects. You
machine, produced as an educational of two things: the machine itself, with its never know – you may see your creation here
plaything, has taken centre stage for a tiny credit card size; but above all, the bold in a year's time.

18 www.linuxuser.co.uk
10 amazing Raspberry Pi projects 1 RasPi
Top Raspberry Pi projects to amaze and inspire birthday
st

special
feature

19 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Feature 10 amazing Raspberry Pi projects

The Raspberry Pi
Since the ultimate aim of the Raspberry Pi is to encourage
children to experiment with computers and understand their
inner joy, the supercomputer project built by computational
engineers at the University of Southampton could not be a

Supercomputer
better example of the magical things being done with this
miniature marvel.
The creation by Professor Simon Cox and his team cost
less than £2,500 to build, excluding the switches, but it also

Take some Lego and 64 had a special ingredient: Prof Cox’s six-year-old son, James.
It was while playing around with a Pi with his son that the

Pis for a delicious slice of supercomputer expert decided it would be an interesting


experiment to buy 64 of the machines and produce
processing power something rather spectacular. And it was the young boy who
provided specialist support on Lego and system testing,
With 64 Raspberry Pis
and more than 1,000 providing an eye-catching aspect to the entire project.
pieces of Lego, this is
a supercomputer in
more ways than one

The supercomputer
runs Raspbian OS,
which is based on
Debian and optimised
for Raspberry Pi

Maker profile: Prof Simon Cox There is 1TB of Class 10


SD card memory on
It has 192W total electric
power draw, ~4 GFlops
Simon Cox is Professor of Computational Methods at Iridis-Pi, which is named of CPU power and ~1500
the University of Southampton. His research is about after the University of GFlops of GPU graphics
applying and developing high-performance computing and Southampton’s 12,000-core compute power
big data to tackle problems in science and engineering. Iridis supercomputer
The university of has a powerful 12,000-core Intel-based
supercomputer which cost millions of pounds.

20 www.linuxuser.co.uk
10 amazing Raspberry Pi projects 1 RasPi
Top Raspberry Pi projects to amaze and inspire BIRTHDAY st

SPECIAL
FEATURE

“The thing about the Raspberry


Pi is that suddenly things can
be done that come within the
budget of a school so you could
actually have term-long projects
and a whole class involved”

■ Lego features highly in the project, but so does research. link a little Python computer program to a bar graph LED ■ The project
Although the supercomputer uses an ordinary downloadable started when Prof
caught the imagination of myself and my son who built a
system image from the Raspberry Pi website, the performance Simon Cox and his
and various other parts of the firmware and drivers have been Lego case for it,” he tells us.
son, James, began to
improved by a factor of 50 or more So he waited for a large supply of Pis to became available. play with a Pi
“We then had to decide on the network switches. My
Running off a single 13 amp mains socket and using MPI background researching supercomputers and IT meant I
to communicate between nodes using Ethernet, it offers a knew you could spend a lot of money on switches. We begged,
staggering amount of power when you consider the low cost. stole and borrowed some old switches that were being
Prof Cox had been impressed straight away by how great decommissioned from our computing service, which meant
the Pi was for playing around with electronics using the GPIO we could link them together. I got some power over Ethernet
connectors. “The fact you could turn LEDs on and off and switches from another project I was working on.”
James used his design skills to build the racking out of
little plastic bricks before testing it using Python and Scratch.
But one of the most time-consuming processes was getting
all of the images set up. Prof Cox found it was one thing to
download one image on to one SD card, but quite another
doing 64 of them.
“The Pi, for the first time, has meant you can assemble a
supercomputer for a couple of thousand of pounds. And if you
take just four of the units, suddenly you are at £100 and that
means that large-scale supercomputing, or the principle of it,
can be seen in schools. That's very special.”

TRY IT YOURSELF
The Kit: Plus items that were in the lab:
• 64 Raspberry Pis Model B/256MB = £1,475.20 • 3 Netgear ProSafe 24-port smart
• 64 Kingston Ultimate X 16GB Class 10 switches with PoE / 192W total 4 SFP
(SD10G2/16GB) = £622.72 (GS724TP) = £269.99 each
• 64 metres of CAT 5E (misc colours) = £90.88 • DrayTek Vigor 2820N router
• 64 micro-USB power supply adaptors, UK, 1.2A • Keyboard
= £244.48 • Monitor
• Mouse
■ Since the drivers for the Pi's video card are open source,
the potential to use that video chip for processing opens up The Knowhow: • HDMI-to-monitor cable
24 gigaflops of general-purpose computer performance www.soton.ac.uk/~sjc/raspberrypi • 3 CAT 5E cables to connect the
switches together

21 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Feature 10 amazing Raspberry Pi projects

Picade
arcade
cabinet
No need to stand
around in arcades
– bring the action
to your home
Games have often been said to be a key driver of technology
and so we were extremely excited to see the Picade project
when it emerged on Kickstarter. Created by Jonathan
Williamson and Paul Beech, it looks like a mini, retro-style
cabinet and comes in kit form. All people need is a screwdriver,
a pair of pliers and an hour of time to put it together.
“The idea had been in our heads for a while,” says Jonathan.
“Paul and I have been through a number of startups and we
had frequently seen a JAMMA cabinet in the office. It seemed
the thing to have. We thought that only people with too much
money or time on their hands were getting enjoyment out of
them, so we decided it would be good to build one ourselves.”
The pair have been interested in technology for a long time
and the Picade has been an accumulation of knowledge. From
reading about joysticks to monitors, all of those ideas have
come together. “We’ve also benefited from Kickstarter and
globalisation,” says Paul. “Having the Pi was amazing.”
As if to underline just how the project has turned heads, Ian
Stewart, the founder of Sheffield’s Gremlin Graphics – a games

“There are those little specialist


niche markets. The Raspberry Pi lets
you do things which were previously
very expensive if you are prepared to
get your hands dirty and hack a bit”

Maker profile: Jonathan Williamson and Paul Beech


Paul is a designer, hacker and maker. He designed the
Raspberry Pi logo and is the brand and design lead for
the Foundation. Jon is a software guy and electronics
hobbyist. He is the co-founder and technical lead for n Ian Stewart from Gremlin Graphics stepped forward and
Netcopy (a digital archiving solution). allowed his old games to be available on the Picade

22 www.linuxuser.co.uk
10 amazing Raspberry Pi projects 1 RasPi
Top Raspberry Pi projects to amaze and inspire BIRTHDAY st

SPECIAL
FEATURE

■ Jon and Paul say


the exciting stuff with
the Pi is 3D and new
games like Minecraft

■ There is no profit margin on this project. It is


something the pair just wanted to build Finding quality parts
was hard. A lot of
developer big in the Eighties and early Nineties – has allowed components had to come
The creators noticed from the Far East
the use of the firm’s old-school games. “This means we can
lots of startups had
provide a games machine that can be used straight away,” says JAMMA cabinets in
Paul. “And when you look at the Pi Store, the Picade suddenly the break room and
becomes a great way to play legal games.” associated them with
Jonathan is excited about the future. “It’s the 3D games people with a lot of
which I am loving,” he enthuses. “It will show off the Pi as a money. Picade opens up
cabinets to the masses
great gaming machine.” However, there have been some
problems encountered by the pair. “Screens,” says Paul. “There
are tons of models out there and some of these are 3mm in
Getting a quality screen
width. You can’t believe how thin they are. We had to look at was important for Jon
how easy they are to mount, and separating wheat from the and Paul. Delays in stock
chaff. There is always a delay in stock too and we have to get caused problems
on with other stuff while waiting for things to appear. Trying to
get quality parts on time is difficult. A lot of components have
to come from the East, such as arcade joysticks. But it’s been Both Paul and Jon have
brilliant to work on.” accumulated knowledge
of items from joysticks to
monitors following years
TRY IT YOURSELF of reading and research
The Kit:
• Cabinet panels and fasteners
• LCD panel mount with protective overlay
• LCD panel and driver board with inputs (at least 8” for the Picade
Mini and 12” for the Picade)
• Amplifier and speakers
• 3.5mm stereo panel-mounted headphone socket
• Panel-mounted video input socket (allows you to use your Picade
as a second display for your computer or laptop)
• A proper arcade stick
• Illuminated microswitch arcade buttons (at least 4 on the Picade
Mini and 6 on the Picade)
• All other required components and cables
The Knowhow: www.kickstarter.com/projects/pimoroni/picade-
the-arcade-cabinet-kit-for-your-raspberry-p

23 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Feature 10 amazing Raspberry Pi projects

MAKER:
Lego remote- TOM REES

controlled car
A Pi-powered
self-contained
remote-controlled
car guided by an
Xbox controller
Very often what you didn’t have in your
childhood inspires you in adulthood. That was
the case with the Lego remote-controlled car
Tom wanted a simple Although Tom says he Tom suffered dodgy
created by Tom Rees using the Raspberry Pi. and robust chassis could go on for years 5V regulators
Having always wanted a remote-controlled car design, so Technic building larger and and overloaded
when he was young, the desire never left him. clip joints and axles more complex vehicles components. He
The steering is are used through with increased power, also found that the
And thanks to the power of the Pi, he was
controlled via a high- everything. Servos four-wheel drive, cheap micro-USB
also able to go one better. Rather than build torque 180-degree and motors need weaponry, cameras, cable going into the
something controlled on a long tether to a TowerPro servo and a to be held together caterpillar treads, Pi could barely carry
computer or via Wi-Fi from a laptop, Tom could Lego gear is attached tightly and two he is keen to invent half an amp and had
integrate the computer into the car itself. This with superglue motors are required something new to be replaced
means it became a ‘real’ remote-controlled car
comprising just the vehicle and the controller. with the simplest possible proof-of-concept to kept catching fire because the Pi consumes
The original plan was to build an RC Lego show all parts of the system working.” so much current. Smoke pouring out of the
DeLorean, but all he could produce was an To even begin to prototype, jumper wires, Lego Technic holes is pretty terrifying.”
ugly white box. He then came up with different breadboards, a multimeter and lots of batteries Trickiest of all was powering the electronics
prototypes, most of which looked nothing like were needed, plus a selection of resistors, aboard the car. “The Raspberry Pi has strict
a car and were essentially motors, servos and capacitors, LEDs and a soldering iron. Once tolerances on its 5V input, and it will consume
LEDs attached to Technic towers. “I remember Tom had all the necessary supplies, he just well over 1 amp when the Microsoft USB
the very first thing I built was a pair of LEDs decided to dive in. He learned as he went along. peripheral is attached,” he says. But he is more
which were turned on and off by the Xbox “I had plenty of disasters,” he admits. “The than pleased with the result.
controller,” he says. “It’s important to begin cheap inductors I used in the 5V power regulator “Most stunning has been the reaction to
this project. I knew I wanted to do something
“I think the thing that has really encouraged me is original with my Pi, to push the envelope very
if you actually look at the number of these things slightly, and be a little more imaginative than
where the Pi is a tool, it is not the Pi that is really the another ‘internet-controlled LEDs’ project. It’s
hit, it is the thing around it that is really the piece of seen a great reaction and I’m very pleased to
see some projects inspired by this one.”
inventive genius”
■ Extra electronics
■ The car is controlled via a wireless
are needed on top
Xbox 360 controller. Software on the
of the Lego and the
Pi translates the controller buttons
Raspberry Pi. The
into motor speed, motor direction
Cobbler breakout
and steering rotation
kit from Adafruit
broke out the
power, GPIO, I2C
■ All the hardware lives on and SPI pins from
the car. There is no need for a the 26-pin header
laptop issuing commands over onto a solderless
Wi-Fi. This is the simple chassis breadboard

24 www.linuxuser.co.uk
10 amazing Raspberry Pi projects 1 RasPi
Top Raspberry Pi projects to amaze and inspire BIRTHDAY st

SPECIAL
FEATURE

Light painting
with the Pi
Artistic images that
simply astound are
possible with the
power of Pi
There is seldom a more stunning effect than ■ An Arduino could handle the core task, but required a ton of preprocessing
light painting. It uses long exposure times with and staging of the image data in flash storage. Another thought by Phil
lights in motion to produce amazing images. was to use his laptop and FTDI chip, but that machine is rather precious to
him and he was not eager to strap it on a bike. The Pi was a middle ground
When Phil Burgess wanted to produce a
– the horsepower and programming ease of the laptop, but the throwaway
machine that could create effective artistic inexpensive nature of it. As you can see, the results are astounding.
images, he had a hunch that the Raspberry Pi
would be able to streamline the process, not preprocessing and staging of the image data amount of ‘coolness’ in a project can cover for
least because of the memory it could provide in flash storage. The Pi could handle this – and a lousy explanation.”
for the project. because it is inexpensive, it got over the worry of And there were other considerations. A
The concept had been stewing for months, getting it damaged. 5V DC power supply was needed because
but no existing device made for a really “So far we have created the prototype,” Phil the LED strip draws so much more power
satisfactory solution, Phil says, and by that tells us. “The next version will be smaller and than the micro-USB connector can provide.
he meant something that could be shared lighter with a proper battery pack. At the time I A 26-pin IDC cable was sacrificed to create a
and easily built by others. The open source was just scrambling among parts in the garage purpose-built cable between the Raspberry
electronic prototyping platform Arduino and relied on an enormous camping inverter to Pi GPIO header, LED strip and power supply in
was considered and Phil says it could quickly solve the problem at hand.” Things went order to make the whole project more robust.
handle the core task but it requires a ton of well too. “All the hardware and software was Phil also says Python warrants a mention:
amazingly co-operative and everything fell into “My first attempts at communicating with
■ The bike. Other than having place,” Phil adds. the LED strip were in C, but if this project
the basic concept already, there The trickiest part of the project was was to be shared, C with makefiles and extra
was no planning: Phil just went the documentation. “Explaining things as libraries and such would add complexity. In
straight into implementation,
which took about two days concisely as possible, cleaning up the code to 48 hours, starting with zero Python exposure,
be presentable, providing clear diagrams and it was possible to get this not just working,
such is always hard,” comments Phil. “Good but actually pretty well optimised as I got a
documentation can elevate even a modest better handle on the language. And it’s all in
project into something desirable, but no one source file, easily shared.”

TRY IT YOURSELF
MAKER PROFILE:
The Kit: PHIL BURGESS
• Raspberry Pi = £25
• Adafruit Pi Cobbler breakout kit = $7.95 A Californian living in the
San Francisco Bay area,
• Digital RGB LED weatherproof strip 32 LED = $29.95
Phil Burgess’s roots in
• 4-pin JST SM receptacle cable = $1.50 art and technology go
• 4-pin JST SM plug cable = $1.50 back many decades.
• 5V 10A switching power supply = $25 The light painting demo is the
• 5V 2A (2000mA) switching power supply = $9.95 latest in a progression of LED
• Female DC power adaptor: 2.1mm jack to screw terminal block = $2 projects inspired by artist/engineer
Bill Bell in the 1980s. Today Phil
• Plus a bike and mounting hardware (PVC pipe, hula hoop, zip ties)
develops kits and tutorials for
■ Phil just scrambled among parts in the The Code: We’ve included the code on the cover disc Adafruit Industries, a firm at the
garage and relied on an enormous camping The Knowhow: learn.adafruit.com/light-painting-with- centre of the open source and
inverter to get these effects raspberry-pi ‘maker’ movements.

25 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Feature 10 amazing Raspberry Pi projects

The one-button
audio player
Music to a grandma’s ears…
it’s the easy-to-use audio player
Michael Clemens’s idea for his Raspberry With her 90th birthday approaching, Michael
Pi project came less out of hobbyism and sought a solution: to build an audiobook player
more out of a solution to a very personal that was inexpensive and easy to operate, with ■ The difficult part came in the automatic
problem. His wife’s grandmother is visually as few buttons as possible. It also needed to be mounting of the USB flash drive and the
process of deleting the old audiobook,
impaired and the couple find it difficult to open source. The Raspberry Pi was the answer.
copying the new one and refreshing the
keep her entertained. Listening to television “The idea came quick, but planning it playlist of the music player daemon (MPD)
is not ideal and she struggles to operate through and building it was kind of fragmented which Michael used to play the MP3s
her CD player. because my work includes travelling,” he
says. “When I knew what I wanted, I soldered As for how well the present was received,
TRY IT YOURSELF the button and LED to a board that could be Michael laughs. “It was Christmas and she
The Kit: connected via the GPIO pins and then I used was obviously confused about all the people
• Raspberry Pi = €40 a little Python coding and configuration of around her. On another day, we showed her
• ModMyPi enclosure = €12 standard Linux software for the rest. Being no how to use it and she was very happy about it.”
• 1 button = €2 good coder or expert in electronics, this was the
• 2 resistors (330 ohm, 10 kilo-ohm) = few cents simplest way to achieve my goals.” MAKER PROFILE:
• 1 blue LED = few cents
• 1 (slow) 8GB SD card = €8
The sound quality can crack when you play or MICHAEL CLEMENS
resume an MP3. “But,” Michael says, “that is a
• Some wire = few cents known problem in the Raspberry Pi community. Fascinated by electronics and
• A pair of speakers – he already had them, rough mechanics from childhood, Michael
The quality of the device itself is quite solid, began work as an IT apprentice and
cost about €30
but I’m thinking about building a new, large worked seven years as a UNIX and
The Code: We’ve inluded the code on the disc
enclosure out of wood for the player together database administrator before
The Knowhow: blogs.fsfe.org/clemens/ becoming an IT security consultant.
2012/10/30/the-one-button-audiobook-player with the speakers.”

MAKER PROFILE:
Time-lapse photography AARON HILL

with Pysnap
Aaron Hill is a 12-year-
old schoolboy who
loves to program and
is very knowledgeable

The competition-winning CLI tool about computers.

created by a talented schoolboy I would use it for my project. Next, I started


writing the actual code. I started off with just
It was a contest for young programmers, His success? Amazing software that turns a adding the option to choose different time
but few would have expected to see quality Raspberry Pi computer into a time-lapse camera. intervals: seconds, minutes and hours. Later
of the type produced by 12-year-old Aaron By connecting a USB camera to a Pi and running I got the idea to allow taking of pictures on a
Hill, who ran away with first prize in the the software, it is possible to fine-tune the specific day, and a specific time.”
under-13 category. interval at which it takes pictures. One feature he initially liked but ended up
“My aunt has a motion-sensing camera set discarding was having the program print out
up in the woods near their hunting stand. That text one character at a time, instead of all at
TRY IT YOURSELF triggered the idea,” Aaron tells us. “The first once. The effect wasn’t very noticeable with
The Kit: thing that I did was to find out how I would get a fast speed, and irritating to the user if it was
• PySnap software the program to take the pictures… I discovered a slower, he says. And although he didn’t have
• USB camera
command-line program called Streamer, which the GUI ready in time for the content, there was
The Code: Aaron’s code is on the disc was in the Debian and Ubuntu repos. I installed enough to prove that Aaron was very much on
The Knowhow: www.raspberrypi.org/ it and, after playing around with it, decided that to a good thing.
archives/2544

26 www.linuxuser.co.uk
10 amazing Raspberry Pi projects 1 RasPi
Top Raspberry Pi projects to amaze and inspire BIRTHDAY st

SPECIAL
FEATURE

Pi-Face - the
The interface has
been designed to
take some abuse
since it’s targeted

digital interface
at beginners

Let the Raspberry Pi be the


hub to your digital life
Being able to control the real world using a
computer is the sort of thing that we wanted
The Pi-Face is credit
back in the mid-Eighties when watching
card sized and it
Back To The Future. There have been lots of stacks on top of
solutions for this issue, but none has been as Raspberry Pi. It
cost effective and wide open as the Pi-Face is buffered to The interface and
Digital Interface created by scientists at protect the Pi software is being
used all over the
Manchester University.
world for robots and
“I’d been working on getting more people wouldn’t put a PC and connect it up to the world. a central heating
interested in computing for a few years,” So I designed Pi-Face to be ready for when the controller, for example
explains Dr Andrew Robinson, the brains Raspberry Pi came out, and planned some fun
behind the device. “I was really excited to hear activities – like the twittering chicken.” on because a connection got missed. It was a
Raspberry Pi was coming along, but worried The first design was published on bit like the early Raspberry Pis that also had
that people wouldn’t know what to do with it. 15 December 2011 and the interface board is the bits of wire tacked on by hand.”
I saw the interface as a missing link, to allow same size as the Raspberry Pi. It slots onto the Apart form that, it has all gone rather
people to put the Raspberry Pi where they GPIO pins and has screw terminals so it’s very smoothly, however. “The interface has
easy to connect up switches to sense things and been designed to take some abuse since
lights/motors for the Raspberry Pi to control. it’s targeted at beginners,” he adds. “We’ve
It’s very easy to program in Scratch or Python connected things up wrongly a few times, but
too. It’s not just about the interface, either. The so far not seen any smoke! On the workshop
project is also about creating the fun activities side of things, the children have really loved
and tutorials to support using the Raspberry Pi. it. We have a harder time when we run the
“It took four prototypes to get right,” says Dr workshops for teachers! Still we’ve learned
Robinson. “The first one has a yellow wire tacked from it.”
■ Pi-Face integrates with
existing tools already prevalent
in the classroom, such as
Scratch and Python. A range of
class activities are planned

MAKER PROFILE:
DR ANDREW
ROBINSON
Andrew Robinson can
trace his first interest
in electronics back
to making a model
lighthouse aged five.
At the University of Manchester,
Andrew did a PhD in low power
TRY IT YOURSELF processor architectures (which
The Kit: Pi-Face is available complete from Farnell for included looking at ways to make
■ The hardware architecture was altered ARM processors more efficient).
during the project so that it would work with £20, which is cheaper than buying the parts separately –
piregistration.element14.com/signup.html While working in the group Andrew
mobiles (with Android and USB OTG) and became interested in ‘public
desktop PCs too. It works with Raspberry Pi The Knowhow: engagement’, to get more people
through SPI, but also through USB pi.cs.man.ac.uk/interface.htm interested in Computer Science.

27 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Feature 10 amazing Raspberry Pi projects

Pi in the sky - 40km


high photography
A record-breaking balloon
mission records stunning
near-space photos
It’s hard to say what is more amazing – the year, and thought that it would be fun to fly the Pi
photographs taken high up in space or Dave instead. The Arduino is ideal as a basic tracker,
Akerman’s Raspberry Pi/webcam/GPS/ but the Pi does make it much easier to add
hydrogen balloon combination which enabled things like live picture downloads.”
him to capture such magnificent shots. It took about an hour to wire up a radio
Not only are they believed to be the highest transmitter and GPS, and another hour to
ever photographs transmitted live from port Dave’s Arduino code over to the Pi. At that
an amateur device, the ability to thrust a point he had a working Pi tracker and he was
Raspberry Pi into space is an amazing feat. keen to fly it just to be the first to do so. But the
And it barely took Dave any time at all to figure weather remained poor and he couldn’t launch n Above is the radio transmitter for sending
out, making it all the more extraordinary. for two weeks. That gave him time to add some data back, while below it is the GPS receiver
“The idea to combine the Pi and a weather more capability.
balloon came after I took delivery of the “Adding a live image download was obvious,
Pi,” he tells us. “I ordered it just because I since the Pi can interface very easily to a USB
was curious, and didn’t really have any use webcam,” Dave says. “It was a couple of days’
planned for it. By then I’d been flying weather work to get that working. After that I had to
balloons with Arduino trackers for about a make a regulator so the tracker could run
from batteries.”
“I’m just about He kept quiet about his project because he
young enough to wanted to do it before anyone else. He didn’t
be a space cadet. I say when the launch was planned either. “The
remember staying launch itself was fairly stressful – as they
up when I was a usually are – but particularly this time because n This is the power regulator to reduce the
kid to watch the it was a new tracker and the first time I’d battery voltage to 5V for the Pi. This became
first shuttle launch. Dave transmitted live images,” he admits. “I had two
trackers to get ready, one as a backup, and a
warm and David now uses an improved version
Akerman was sending down friend added his payload with a GoPro camera. Try it yourself
images from 40 kilometres So it was quite a complex launch and it made an
up. That is wonderful” The Kit:
impressive sight as it went up.”
• Raspberry Pi = £25
n In the future, Dave wants to • NTX2 radio transmitter = £25
use the forthcoming Pi camera: • Webcam = £13
“That will mean I can record high- • Lassen IQ GPS receiver and
definition images and video” antenna = £30
• 1200g Hwoyee balloon = £70
Maker profile: • Gas cylinder (Helium = £80)
Dave Akerman • Parachute = £30
David Akerman is a • 6x Energizer AA Lithium = £8
high-altitude ballooning • Yupiteru radio scanner = £80
enthusiast who hit • Radio aerial = £15
the headlines when he • Plus polystyrene foam, duct tape,
tethered a Raspberry nylon cord
Pi, complete with a
webcam to photograph The Knowhow:
its progress, to a www.daveakerman.com/?p=592
helium balloon. www.ukhas.org.uk

28 www.linuxuser.co.uk
10 amazing Raspberry Pi projects 1 RasPi
Top Raspberry Pi projects to amaze and inspire BIRTHDAY st

SPECIAL
FEATURE

Brew beer with BrewPi


Relax with a cool beer (and maybe
a pie) thanks to the magic of the Pi
Elco Jacobs loves his beer. So much Elco had experimented with analog
so that he makes his own. What he has temperature sensors, which were noisy
found, however, is that a tasty brew can be and needed a lot of software filtering, so he
enhanced using the power of the Raspberry replaced them with more accurate digital
Pi. This capability led to the forming of the OneWire sensors. He also ditched floating- ■ The Pi offered a great alternative for the
BrewPi project with three aims: to control point filtering and used fixed point. BrewPi original BrewPi (called UberFridge). The Pi
the temperature of his fermenting beers, log uses solid-state relays which are safe and replaced a Linksys WRT54G router flashed
temperature data into graphs and the ability quiet. Elco also dropped the idea of a three- with open source firmware and 16MB of RAM
to slowly raise or lower the beer temperature. button interface in favour of a rotary encoder – running a Python script and a web server, it
had logged data to a USB memory stick
interface, which is much more intuitive.
MAKER PROFILE: TRY IT YOURSELF
ELCO JACOBS “Things like this The Kit:
Elco Jacobs is a 26-year-old
from Eindhoven, the Netherlands,
let me have SparkFun Inventor’s Kit for Arduino, a professional
kit for Arduino = £83
studying electrical engineering at the thermostatically Raspberry Pi = £25
Technical University of Eindhoven.
He likes electronics, design, user controlled beer The Code: Elco’s code is on the cover disc
interaction and entrepreneurship. brewing!!” The Knowhow: brewpi.com

MAKER PROFILE:
Retaliation-inspired NATHAN BYRD

mobile missile launcher


Nathan Byrd is a technical consultant
in software development with almost
20 years of experience in the field. He
lives in Saint Louis, Missouri with his

This simple foam-missile project is a wife and son. Other hobbies include
amateur photography and open

great way to inspire young coders


source software development.

This office missile launcher is an inventive use requires one to be on all the time or at least
of the Pi and while not original (the inspiration whenever there are people there to shoot…
came from https://github.com/codedance/ and greatly limits the placement of the missile
Retaliation#readme), the portable nature of launcher. With the Raspberry Pi I could mount it
the Pi has proved a perfect fit. “The original just about anywhere and leave it on all the time
project had a few limitations,” says Nathan without requiring a full computer.”
Byrd. “Using a full computer for this project Nathan bought the Pi to teach his 11-year-
old son to program and familiarise him with
TRY IT YOURSELF hardware. Retaliation worked in this regard
too: “What 11-year-old, or adult for that matter,
The Kit:
• Raspberry Pi (initially he used an early 256M doesn’t love shooting foam missiles around the
revision with polyfuses) = £25 house?” Nathan had to order the missile launcher,
• Dream Cheeky USB missile launcher = $34.99 then find the packages and software, before
(www.dreamcheeky.com/thunder-missile-launcher) testing and documenting the build. Hooking it up
• Powered USB hub = from £14 without a powered USB hub proved a problem
• USB extenders, mounting hardware etc as needed so there was a bit of soldering involved (although
for environment ■ While a powered USB hub can be used (and
that is no longer the case with newer revisions of
The Code: You’ll find everything on the DVD is recommended), Nathan removed the need
the Raspberry Pi). And along the way they had to
The Knowhow: itr8r.tumblr.com/post/ for one by soldering across the polyfuses on
31840231144/raspberry-pi-retaliation shoot lots of foam missiles at each other. his early-model Pi (bit.ly/RDIJVe)

29 www.linuxuser.co.uk
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Tutorial Open source genealogy with Gramps

This panel provides quick


access to all the various
sections, like people, events,
places and media entries

The centre panel will show lists


of whatever object type you
have selected in the left side
panel, like a list of people if you
select the ‘People’ entry

If you have many entries,


you can filter down to a
manageable subset by
selecting filter criteria here

You can find details for the item


you select above. The tabs that
are available depend on what
type of object you are looking at

Open source genealogy


with Gramps
Genealogy is a fun hobby for many people
around the globe. While there are lots of
programs for Windows, Linux options have
been lacking. Gramps helps fill this gap
Resources Genealogy is a very popular hobby with people
all around the world. If you pick up any of the
that Windows users have enjoyed for some time.
Gramps is written in Python and is designed
Gramps: gramps-project.org genealogy magazines at your local bookstore, with a plug-in architecture. This means that you
they will cover Windows programs that are can rather easily write your own plug-in to add
Advisor available. But no one seems to have realised
that people who use Linux are also interested in
any specialised functionality that isn’t provided
through a base installation. In this article, you’ll
Joey Bernard As a true renaissance
man, he splits his time between researching their family trees. While there have see how to get started on your family tree, analyse
building furniture, helping been text-based programs to work with GEDCOM the data that you have collected, and generate
researchers with scientific files, there hasn’t been a really complete GUI reports that you can print and share with others.
computing problems and writing
Android apps. When the kids let program until Gramps came onto the scene. With You’ll also learn how to share the data you have
him have some time, that is Gramps, you have all of the functionality available collected through GEDCOM files.

32 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Open source genealogy with Gramps
Use Gramps to research, organise and share your family tree
TUTORIal

on the plus sign in the icon bar will bring up


a dialog box where you can enter all of the
relevant information.

04 Setting the home person


To generate charts and reports from all
of this data, you will need to set a ‘home person’
who will act as the root of the family tree. Again,
if you are doing your own family tree, it would
make sense to select yourself. To do so, you will
need to select the People entry on left-hand side
of the screen. Then select the person from the
list, and click on Edit>Set Home Person from the
main menu.

01 Getting Gramps
Gramps should be available in most
Linux distributions. For Debian-based ones, you
07 Adding a spouse
Staying in the Relationships section, you
can click on the ‘Add a new family’ icon to create a
would install with ‘sudo apt-get install gramps’. new family with this person as a parent. You can
There are Windows binaries available, if you then either add an existing person or create a new
want to get your friends hooked on Gramps, too. person as the spouse.
As always, the source is available if you would
rather compile your own copy.
08 Setting marriage Information
While the New Family dialog is open, you
will need to click on the Event tab in the bottom
section. Click on the plus icon to add a new event,
selecting Marriage as the type. You can then set
the date and location.

02 Create a new tree


The first step, once you have Gramps,
05 Adding birth Information
Double-clicking a person from the list
will reopen the Edit dialog. At the bottom, you
is to create a new family tree. This can be can add events to the person’s record. Arguably
considered almost like a project, for the the most important event is their birth. To add an
software developers out there. A family tree will event, click on the plus icon in the event section.
contain all of the information relevant to a single
lineage going back in time.

09 Adding children
Before closing the New Family dialog, you

06 Adding parents can also add any children. Clicking on the Children
Click on the Relationships entry on the tab in the bottom section will allow you to add

03 Add a new person left-hand side. This will open the relationship either existing people or new ones as children of
A family tree is of little use without section for the selected person. You can add this family unit.
people. So, the next step is to add your first parents to this person by clicking on the plus icon
person. If you are doing your own family tree, in the top bar. You can either add existing people
you may as well start with yourself. Clicking or create new people, for the father and mother.

33 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Tutorial Open source genealogy with Gramps

10 Editing events
You have used events to add information,

You can
like births and marriages. There are many built-
in event types when you install Gramps, covering

generate a full
most areas of life. You can edit the details of any
of these events by clicking on the Events link on

website, with
the left-hand side.

navigation, of all of
your genealogical
information
14 Adding notes
All of the objects in Gramps can have
notes attached to them. This allows you to add
usual chart that you will likely want to look at is
the ancestral chart. This shows all of your direct
ancestors in the classic family tree form. Clicking
extra information to items like photos that have on the menu item Reports>Graphical Reports>
been added, places of importance, sources of Ancestor Tree will open a dialog window. Here, you

11 Adding and editing places


Events take place somewhere in the real
world. When you add a new event, you can select
information. You can edit details of these notes
by clicking on the Notes link.
can select how many generations to display and
presentation details.

a place where it happened. After you have added


a place to an event, you can edit the details by
clicking on the Places link on the left-hand side
15 Displaying your ancestral chart
Now that you have all of your information
entered into Gramps, you can start to see what
16 Displaying a fan chart
Another common way of visualising your
ancestors is by using a fan chart. You can select
and selecting the place of interest. your family tree looks like. There are many the number of generations to look at, and several
charting functions available in Gramps. They display options. These graphs are interactive,
are available under the Reports menu item. The allowing you to move around in your history.

12 Adding sources
You can add sources to your family tree
by clicking on the Sources link on the left-hand
side. You can add a new one by clicking the plus
icon and filling in all of the relevant information.
Recording where you get your information is a
very important part of research.

13 Adding media
In this age of digital media, it is easier than
ever to add a new dimension to your research. You
can add media objects (eg image files, videos) to
your family tree. Once added, they can be linked
through references to events and people.

34 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Open source genealogy with Gramps
Use Gramps to research, organise and share your family tree
TUTORIAL

Tools>Family Tree Processing>Find Possible

20 Exporting a GEDCOM file


The standard file format for genealogical
information is called GEDCOM. There are several
Duplicate People will bring up a dialog box where
you can set the sensitivity. Then it will search
through the data for possible matches.
versions around, the latest one being 5.5.
Gramps exports to the latest version. This is how
you can share the information you’ve collected
with other researchers.

17 Generating a calendar
With the power of Python, you have the
ability to do very complicated processing. One
21 Checking an import
You can also import data from a
GEDCOM file. Sometimes these files may
of the included plug-ins allows you to generate have errors in them. You can check the
a calendar of important dates, like birthdays imported data by clicking on the menu item
and marriage anniversaries. You can generate Tools>Family Tree Repair>Check and Repair
a calendar by clicking on Reports>Graphical Database. This will check several possible
Reports>Calendar. problems in your data.

24 Getting a full book


You can generate a full book report
containing all of the information you have
collected. Clicking on Reports>Books>Book
Report will open up a window where you can
select which items to include. Each of these
elements can be configured individually. Once
everything is ready, you can click on ‘OK’ to get
output in either an ODT file or a PDF file.

18 Looking at a timeline
You can generate a timeline of events
throughout your history. Clicking on Reports>
Graphical Reports>Timeline Chart will open a
new dialog where you can set the options. By

22
default, it will create an OpenDocument file,
Verifying your data
but this can be changed to one of several other
You may also need to verify the actual data
file formats.
itself. Do you have a 200-year-old relative? Do you
have someone who has kids that are older than

19 Generating a website
You can generate a full website,
with navigation, of all of your genealogical
they are? Clicking on Tools>Utilities>Verify the Data
will bring up a dialog window where you can set the
parameters to use in the verification.
information. You can choose how much

23
information gets exported, and details of the Locating duplicates
formatting. You can set the stylesheet that is One common issue, especially when
used for the display. You can even export the importing data from other sources, is having
whole thing into a gzipped tarball. duplicate entries in your database. Clicking on

35 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Tutorial Put Cinnamon on your distro

A mixture of the KDE The panel shows you There’s plenty of Cinnamon is also
and GNOME 2 menu what windows you ways to add extra highly customisable
also includes a great have open, unlike bits of information by default, and is
search function GNOME 3 and navigation extendable with
with applets plenty of extensions

Put Cinnamon on your distro


Want to use the Linux Mint desktop environment, but
partial to a different operating system? We show you
how to get Cinnamon on some major distros
Resources Every time GNOME gets an update, more and
more people seem to be complaining and
thanks to a very smartly designed, traditional
layout. The layout utilises the best parts of
Cinnamon source: ultimately switching from the once ubiquitous GNOME, namely the search function and
https://github.com/linuxmint/
desktop environment to any number of keyboard shortcuts, with a familiar and easy-to-
Cinnamon
alternatives. At the same time, one of the use interface for mousing around.
Advisor most popular Linux distributions in the world
debuted its own homegrown desktop, as Ubuntu
Not every Linux distro comes with Cinnamon
by default. However, some have it readily
Rob Zwetsloot models
complex systems and adopted Unity amid groans and complaints from available in the repository, or can have it added
is a web developer fans and users alike. via other means. In this tutorial, we’ll show
proficient in Python, Recently, Linux Mint’s Cinnamon desktop you how to get Cinnamon added to a number
Django and PHP. He
loves to experiment has been stealing the limelight from previous of major distros, and throw in a few essential
with computing popular alternatives, such as LXDE or KDE, tweaks as well.

36 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Put Cinnamon on your distro
Use the Cinnamon desktop environment with any major distro
TUTORIal

01 For starters…
Remember, once you’ve installed
Cinnamon, you’ll need to log out and select it
from the Session’s menu of your login/display
manager before you log back in. It will show
up as Cinnamon, and don’t worry about the
GNOME options it might add.

04 Ubuntu repository
Cinnamon is not included in the
standard Ubuntu repos, but no matter what
07 openSUSE GNOME
The first step to getting Cinnamon
onto openSUSE may sound a little odd – you

02 Mint MATE
Here’s a simple one to start off with
– if you got the MATE version of Linux Mint and
the reason for that is, you can simply add the
official Cinnamon PPA using the following:
need to install GNOME first. To do this, open
the package manager and install GNOME 3.4.
$ sudo add-apt-repository If you’re already running the GNOME spin, then
want to try out Cinnamon, you can easily install ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon- you can continue to the next step.
it either via the Software Centre, or in a terminal stable
like so:
$ sudo apt-get install cinnamon
Agree to the prompt to add the PPA.
08 openSUSE sources
Once you have GNOME installed, you

05 Cinubuntu
Once that’s finished, you can install
it from the terminal you’re using by first of all
can add the repos you need by entering this in
the terminal:
$ sudo zypper ar http://download.
updating your package list with: opensuse.org/repositories/
$ sudo apt-get update X11:/Cinnamon:/GNOME34/12.2/
…followed by: X11:Cinnamon:GNOME34.repo
$ sudo apt-get install cinnamon Unless you have an update or installation going,
you can tell openSUSE to quit the PackageKit.

09 CinnamonSUSE
To install Cinnamon, first refresh your
package list with:

03 Cinnamon Fedora $ sudo zypper refresh


Cinnamon is included in the Fedora You can choose whether to trust the new repo
repos, and once you find the package manager temporarily or permanently. Follow that up with
or a terminal somewhere in GNOME, you can the installation command:
either search for it, or install it with: $ sudo zypper in cinnamon
$ sudo yum install cinnamon-destop …and you’re done!
The install is fairly quick, and in Fedora 18 it’s
looking a lot better.
10 Debian distributions
You can easily create a DEB binary to
work in any Debian-based distribution. First

06
you’ll need to install dpkg-dev so you can
Ubuntu tip
download dependencies for other packages.
In Ubuntu 12.10, if you have too many
Do this with:
desktop environments and too low a resolution
$ sudo apt-get install dpkg-dev
monitor, you may not be able to click the Accept
button to switch session. The trick to this is to
key down with an arrow until you get to where
Accept is, and hit Return.

37 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Tutorial Put Cinnamon on your distro

15 Build Cinnamon
Now we’ve built Muffin, the window
manager for Cinnamon, we can actually build
Cinnamon itself. Move into the Cinnamon
directory using cd, and start the process with:
$ ./autogen.sh
This will quickly get things set up to compile.
You can create your DEB files by again using:
$ dpkg-buildpackage
This shouldn’t take as long as the Muffin
compiling. Once it’s done, cd back up again, and
install the Cinnamon DEB with:
$ sudo dpkg -i cinnamon[version and
architecture].deb
Log out or reboot, and then select it from the
session manager.

16 Cinnamon Mageia
While it’s definitely not recommended,
if you’re desperate to get Cinnamon in Mageia
without compiling, the RPM binaries from Fedora
will install and work. Long term, though, it’s not
the best solution. The Mageia devs are currently

11 Cinnamon dependencies
Now that dpkg-dev is installed, you
14 Install Muffin
considering adding the DE officially to the repos.

17
can install the necessary dependencies with Move back up to the working directory Arch Cinnamon
the following: with this command: There is a specific Arch Linux remix
$ sudo apt-get build-dep muffin $ cd .. called Cinnarch that already exists, but if you
…followed by: Here’s where all the DEBs are you just made. want to install it to an existing Arch system, you
$ sudo apt-get build-dep cinnamon The best thing to do is install of them using: can find the source in AUR at:
Both will take a little while to download all the $ sudo dpkg -i *.deb h t t p s: //a u r. a r c h l in u x .o r g /p a c k a ge s .
necessary packages. At the very least, though, install: libmuffin-dev, php?ID=55330
gir1.2-muffin-3.0, libmuffin0, muffin and Download the tarball, makepkg, and then
muffin-common. install with pacman to add it to your system.

12 Cinnamon source
You can get the source for Muffin and
Cinnamon from Git to build your DEB. First
create a project folder with:
$ mkdir CinnamonSource
Then sync the sources for Muffin with:
git clone git://github.com/
linuxmint/muffin.git
…and Cinnamon like so:
git clone git://github.com/linuxmint/
Cinnamon.git

13 Compile Muffin
Use cd to move into the Muffin folder we
downloaded in the project directory, and build

Now we’ve built Muffin, we can


the DEB binaries with:
$ dpkg-buildpackage

actually build Cinnamon itself


It will take a while, but it will automatically
compile you the correct packages to install.

38 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Put Cinnamon on your distro
Use the Cinnamon desktop environment with any major distro
TUTORIAL

22 Turbo Cinnamon
A quick and easy way to speed up
Cinnamon if you’re using a slightly older or
low-powered system is to turn off the desktop
effects. These are also found in the Cinnamon

18
Settings under the Effects menu.
Cinnamon Gentoo
Cinnamon is actually available in the main
portage tree for Gentoo, and can be found here:
http://packages.gentoo.org/package/gnome-
extra/cinnamon
Make sure to use the latest build, as older ones
are unstable on x86 and x86_64 systems – you
know, the kind you’re most likely using.
20 Cinnamon spaces
By default, there are two workspaces
in Cinnamon, which can be accessed with the
applet, or by using Ctrl+Alt+Left or Right. To add
or remove workspaces, press Ctrl+Alt+Up, and
press the ‘+’ button on the right side, or click X on
the spaces. You can also use this mode to preview
spaces and switch between them with a mouse.

23 Cinnamon spin
More and more distributions are adding
Cinnamon to the repos, and there are some
that come with Cinnamon spins for Cinnamon
by default. Next time you need to reinstall a
system and want to go with Cinnamon, look for
such distros as Cinnarch, Snowlinux and more
in the future.

24 Cinnamon everywhere
Now you’ve got Cinnamon running,
play about with it. While every environment

19 Cinnamon applets
You can add extra features to the panel
21 Cinnamon corner
Like GNOME 3, you can move the
mouse to the top left of the screen and zoom
has its own quirks and can take a little bit of
getting used to, Cinnamon should be familiar
to anyone. Over the past year it’s got better and
with the applets selector. To find this, click on out to preview the workspaces. You can turn better, and we’re looking forward to the next
the up arrow next to the Network Manager, click this function on or off, and move the location in year of updates.
Settings, and go to Applet. From here you can add the Cinnamon Settings. The Cinnamon Settings
buttons to click between workspaces, a shortcut menu is automatically added to the left side of
link to monitor settings, and accessibility. the Cinnamon Menu.

39 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Tutorial Protect your network with Snort

Protect your
network with Snort Advisor
Whether meaning to be mischievous or Michael Reed is a technology
malicious, hackers can wreak havoc on writer and he’s been
hacking away at Linux
your network. Fortunately, Snort makes it for over 15 years. He
specialises in desktop

easy to spot them and set up protection Linux solutions

Snort is an intrusion detection system (IDS). As you get to know Snort, you might consider
It works by monitoring network activity and setting up a testing environment using virtual
raising an alert in the case of suspicious machines. A simple approach would be to use

Resources activity. What constitutes suspicious activity is


definable by rules, and it comes with a massive
a virtual machine that has its network adaptor
configured to be visible on your network
Snort: www.snort.org selection. It can protect a single machine from (the setting is called ‘bridged adaptor’ in
attacks or even an entire network. This guide VirtualBox, for example). The techniques
The Snort manual:
will show you how to set up and use Snort and outlined here are not dangerous, but they can
www.snort.org/start/documentation
also take you through some typical security be considerably easier to get working within a
A second network card (optional) scenarios in which Snort will prove useful. controllable environment.

Snort runs on
single machine,
but can monitor
an entire network

You can visit the


website to grab
the rulesets

Snort has one main


configuration file,
but it comes with
sensible defaults for
most scenarios

Snort will sit on the


network and output
attack logs in a
variety of formats

40 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Protect your network with Snort
Use the Snort intrusion detection system to log and block attacks
TUTORIal

04 Create network activity


Presuming that the network you are on is

07
reasonably quiet, you can generate some network
More detail
activity by pinging the server. Open another

01 Install Snort Here’s a more extensive command line:


terminal and type ‘ping [IP address of server]’, and
Install Snort with ‘sudo apt-get install ‘snort -vde’. This produces more output due to the
cancel after a couple of successful pings. Now, go
snort’. If you need the very latest version, visit d (display packet data) and e (application layer).
back to the terminal with Snort running.
the website and fetch, build and install it. For example, if you fetch POP email without SSL
selected, you’ll be able to see the username and
password scroll past.

05 Interpreting the data


In this example, the ping activity is

02 Set Up a ‘quiet’ network reported in entries that end with lines ‘ECHO’
environment and ‘ECHO REPLY’. You may have to scroll back in
When first setting up Snort, it helps to have
as little activity on the network as possible.
the terminal to see these entries. Notice that the
entries contain the time that the activity occurred
08 Log packet data
Make a directory called ‘snort_logs’.
Now run ‘snort -d -l ./snort_logs’ and Snort will
Disconnect other computers or even set up a VM and the source and destination of the traffic.
log all recorded traffic into the log directory with
with a bridged adaptor which you can operate
a separate file for each interface. We’ll skip the
upon from the host machine.
verbose flag (-v), as all of the screen output eats
into Snort’s throughput.

09 Back up Snort configuration file


Snort comes with a default configuration

03 Test Snort installation


Nearly all Snort operations need to
be carried out by the root user. On Ubuntu, 06 Exiting Snort
Exit Snort by hitting Ctrl+C. When you
file which we will back up. Type ‘locate snort.conf’
to find the file and then make a copy of it. ‘cp /etc/
snort/snort.conf /etc/snort/snort.conf_old’ should
it’s probably worth using ‘sudo -i’ to avoid exit Snort, it prints a statistical summary of the work for Ubuntu, for example.
password prompts. Use ‘su’ on other distros. As traffic that it observed. In this example, there
root, type ‘snort -v’. This puts Snort into packet should have been some ICMP traffic from the
sniffer mode. ping operation.

41 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Tutorial Protect your network with Snort

network adaptor on your server. This is because


the network card must be put into promiscuous
mode to capture all traffic being transmitted,
and this is the scenario we will work with here.
Once you have installed the second card and
rebooted the machine, determine the naming of
the two network interfaces by typing ‘ifconfig’. In

13 Simulate an attack (Nmap)


We’ll begin by carrying out a port scan
on the machine running Snort using Nmap, a
this example, the second network card is called
‘eth1’. Now open ‘/etc/networking/interfaces’ in a
text editor.
common first step in a typical intrusion attempt.
From a different machine on your network,

10 Initial configuration
Open the config file in a text editor. For
now, make sure that the variable ‘HOME_NET’
type ‘nmap [IP address of Snort machine]’. A file
called ‘alert’ should have appeared in the log
folder. Examine it.
accurately describes your network. For example,
if your computers have IP addresses that begin
at 192.168.0.1, set it to 192.168.0.1/24.

16 Configure promiscuous mode


Add the following lines to the file: ‘iface
eth1 inet manual’, ‘up ifconfig $IFACE 0.0.0.0 up’,

11 Create launch script


Make a startup script to save time.
Create an empty file with ‘nano start_snort’,
14 Automatically start Snort
The method to launch a script at startup
varies between distributions. On Ubuntu, simply
‘up ip link set $IFACE promisc on’, ‘down ip link
set $IFACE promisc off’, ‘down ifconfig $IFACE
down’. Type ‘sudo ifup eth1’ to start up the second
then add the line ‘snort -de -l [full path to add our ‘start_snort’ script to ‘/etc/init’ by typing Ethernet adaptor and physically plug it into your
script]/snort_logs -c /etc/snort/snort.conf’ to ‘ln start_snort /etc/init/’. Remember to use fully router, hub or spanning switch.
it, and then save. Now type “chmod +x start_ qualified path names in the script.
snort”. This will launch snort in IDS mode, with
reasonable defaults.

17 Test promiscuous mode


Type ‘ifconfig’ and eth1 should be listed
without an IP address. Now add ‘sudo ifup eth1’
to your Snort startup script along with the flag

15 Protect the network


Protecting an entire network requires
‘-i eth1’ on the Snort launch command. When
launched, Snort will now monitor all traffic on

12 Intrusion detection mode either a dedicated Snort machine or a dedicated your network.
First, find the IP address of the machine
running Snort by using ‘ifconfig’ and make a note

We’ll begin by carrying out a port


of it. Now run ‘./start_snort’. Some extra startup
information scrolls past as we are now using the

scan on the machine running Snort


Snort configuration file and the rules files that it
references.

42 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Protect your network with Snort
Use the Snort intrusion detection system to log and block attacks
TUTORIal

18 Create a simple Snort rule


For the sake of simplicity, we are going
to add a rule to the configuration file rather than
create a new rule file. As root, open up snort.conf
in a text editor. On the final line of the
configuration file, add the following line: ‘alert tcp
any any -> any 23 ( msg: "telnet alert!"; sid: 1; )’.

19 Test simple rule


Launch Snort with ‘snort -dev -l ./snort_
logs -c /etc/snort.conf’. From another machine,
21 Add CSV output module
Unless you know that you are going
to have to use Snort alert logs as input for
type ‘telnet [IP address of Snort machine]’. If another networking utility, consider switching
everything has worked, you should now have an it to CSV output so that you can view the data
update in the alert file. See the Snort manual for in a spreadsheet. Simply add the line ‘output
a full breakdown, but open the file and check alert_csv: alert.csv default’ to the end of the
that source IP and destination IP look correct. configuration file.

23 Block an attack (part 1)


Block the IP address of the attacker as
reported in the alert file. Obviously, the address
can change, but they tend to be fairly static from
the most common type of automated attacks.
Use the command ‘iptables -A INPUT -s [attacker
IP address] -j DROP’.

24 Block an attack (part 2)


It’s possible that an attack is targeting
an unused or unimportant port on your network.

20 Fetch extra rules


Get extra rules from the Snort website
(free sign-up required). They belong in ‘/etc/ 22 Interpreting an attack
When an attack is logged, begin by
Use ‘/iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --destination-
port 80 -j DROP’ to block a port, if you have
determined that it will not harm the normal
snort/rules’ and should be enabled using looking up the IP address with the ‘whois’ function of your system. To unblock a port or IP
the ‘include’ directive in snort.conf. The command or by using an online geographic address, use the ‘-D’ switch instead of ‘-A’.
comprehensive selection is an excellent starting IP lookup address. Note the port number of
point for creating your own rules for dealing with, the attack to try to figure out the service or
for example, application-specific exploits. application that is the focus of the attack.

43 www.linuxuser.co.uk
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The only Linux magazine for open source developers
100% FOSS focused » Features » Tutorials » Sample code

Celebrating
life of Pi
the

An exclusive interview with Pete Lomas and Eben & Liz Upton
Page 46

VPN with We had the


Raspberry Pi profile of a large
Conquer the electronics
dark art of virtual company before
private networks we shipped a
Page 52
single unit

Wine for
developers RasPi
Get your Windows Foundation
software running special!
under Linux
Page 56

45 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Interview Celebrating the life of Pi

RasPi
1st BIRT
SP HDAY
ECIAL

■ Co-founder Eben Upton

■ Pi designer Pete Lomas

46 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Celebrating the life of Pi
The Raspberry Pi founders talk about its first year
INTERVIEW

Celebrating the
Life of Pi
We celebrate the first birthday of the Raspberry
Pi with an exclusive interview with its creators
covering its first year on sale and goals for 2013
In a year when Nintendo was supposed to be incredible work on the Raspberry Pi, he and the team say they still cannot believe the
taking the plaudits for its latest console; at remains technical director and ASIC architect innovation which is evident on an almost daily
a time when Apple was expecting punters for Broadcom and, during a mammoth email basis. “Just today I was looking at a post on the
to lap up its latest tablet and phone; during exchange, suddenly had to change plans blog about water droplet photography which
a period when small-form-factor gaming when he was asked to go to Los Angeles on somebody is doing with a Raspberry Pi,” says
was going to be the sole preserve of the urgent business. Liz. “It has been a whole year and pretty much
Sony PlayStation Vita, another machine was Liz also has her work cut out. She is the every day there is something which we just
gathering column inches. Raspberry Pi Foundation’s only full-time worker haven’t considered. The educational stuff is
By the end of 2012, no less than The – and that entails running the large community working brilliantly, but there is also this huge
Independent newspaper was celebrating which has built up around the device, carrying hobbyist maker crowd out there just picking it
this underdog as the standout technology out PR and communications work, looking after up and running with and they are brilliant. They
innovation of the year. And yet it was not one social media, taking photos and getting busy are really, really good people.”
made by a well-known brand, nor one which with a soldering iron when needed. On top of One of the biggest challenges for the team
had design aesthetics appealing to anyone that, she is a professional writer and the sole has been the sheer demand for the device,
but in-the-know geeks, nor a device which had blogger at gastronomydomine.com, which and the major breakthrough came when they
dozens upon dozens of games for it. she has had to effectively abandon due to the realised that they needed to create a licensing
It was the Raspberry Pi, a computer that’s mammoth Pi workload. model for the Pi and have a UK manufacturer
barely larger than a credit card and which Then there is Pete, trustee of the Raspberry produce a high volume of them. The transition
readers of this magazine don’t really need Pi Foundation and designer of the final from a few thousand to tens of thousands went
explaining in any greater detail. This computer hardware that turned into the device so many relatively smoothly in the end thanks to a lot of
has the potential to do so much more than love. But if they are busy, it is for a reason. And hard work by many people, and the complex
any of the aforementioned giants and their Pete just can’t quite believe the ride which has transition has meant they now have a secure
kin, and that is because it is as much about taken place since the first Pi was swallowed up manufacturing base to take them forward.
ideology as it is about mechanics. And it has by those eager to buy it on 29 February 2012. There were some bumps in the road – some
been successful, of that there is no doubt. “I “The pickup from the community has been customers experienced extensive delivery
really do think that this time last year we were tremendous and the amount of innovation that delays – but the biggest promise, which was
starting to get the idea that we weren’t going to has come out of the back of what is a relatively to remain true to its initial price point, has held
sell 10K of them,” Eben Upton, the co-founder simple piece of kit has been absolutely firm and it is something the Pi team remain
of the Raspberry Pi Foundation tells us. “I think fantastic,” he says. “The way that they have committed to.
we were starting to get the idea that we were been able to repurpose it from our original “That was something that, to be honest,
going to sell tens of thousands of units. But I ideas and the way that it just teaches kids scared me to death in the early days, because
don’t think any of us had imagined that it would how to program and do some basic interfacing it was my responsibility to bring it in at the price
come true.” has gone stratospheric. I say that literally too, points we stated,” says Pete. “It has taken us a
Gathering together Eben, wife Liz and because we’ve had Pis in space.”
technical guru Pete Lomas for this interview The large number of projects for which the
was not a simple task. Despite Eben’s Pi has been put to use has been phenomenal

47 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Interview Celebrating the life of Pi

“We had the profile of a large Is Kickstarter pie in the sky?

electronics company before


Over the past year, the concept of
crowdfunding has become ever more
popular, with services such as Kickstarter

we shipped a single unit”


and Indiegogo attracting much cash for
new projects. But would The Raspberry Pi
Foundation have gone down that path?
“I can answer that: absolutely not,” says
while to get the model made at this price point, a point where they were just losing too much Eben. “No, absolutely no way,” adds Liz.
but it is now there and will be available very, money and then they would have had to have “On some level, if you can get an unsecured
very shortly at the price point that we stated. jacked the prices up. So you know, the only interest-free loan from your customers to
There is no doubt in the very early days where thing that we ever asked from our component build the thing you want to build, it is a very
we were only making a couple of thousand to suppliers was, in the early days, that they not appealing concept,” continues Eben. “And I
20,000 that we would be struggling, but now penalise us for having low volumes. You know, think over the last year we have looked at one
we’ve got a user base, we’ve got a perception that they should be prepared to extend to us or two projects that have [had[ some success
within the industry and the supplier base that the kind of pricing that they would give you in that area and you know, on some level
allows us to get volume pricing has made that at a million of, at our initial volumes, which thought ‘Oh my God’ you know, that would have
made a lot of problems go away. The reason we
really achievable.” were down in the sort of 10,000 range. Now, of
didn’t do that was we didn’t want to have that
The Foundation was keen not to build the course, we do have those kinds of volumes and
horrible day where you realise that you can’t hit
Pi on charity. At no point, they say, has anyone it looks much more like a regular commercial
the price point. I have seen projects in the past
been asked to lose money in order to keep the business for a lot of people in the supply chain.”
do this and I think we were very conservative
device affordable. “If there is not a commercial The exposure of the Pi has ensured that the
in wanting to make absolutely sure that we’d
story for everyone involved, you are kind of Foundation and its team have been thrust into build a few thousand of these on price before
building on sand,” says Eben. “Charity doesn’t the limelight of the technology industry. One we went out and started taking money off
scale, so you would get to a point where we thing which blindsided them, however, was people. I don’t regret having done that. I think
might have gone to a component supplier and EMC testing. This is required to confirm that a it was a good move even if it gave me a lot of
got a price that they could sustain for 20,000 particular device meets the required standards sleepless nights.”
or 30,000 units and then we would have got to and it is divided broadly into emissions testing

RasPi
1st birt
sp hday
ecial

48 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Celebrating the life of Pi
The Raspberry Pi founders talk about its first year
Interview

and susceptibility testing. “We spoke to the


government about it, and they said if you sell The Pi Store LUD: Were you pleased that Blitz Games is
behind the Pi Store?
two boards, two PCBs and you are not EMC Linux User & Developer: What was the thinking
tested and you are not CE marked, you are behind the Pi Store? EU: The Pi Store was provided for us by
breaking the law,” says Pete. “But they said IndieCity, which is a division of Blitz Games,
Eben Upton: It is important to give non-technical which is the company founded by The Oliver
they had a light touch regulatory regime, which users a route to get more content onto their
means that in general they don’t get to you until Twins, Andrew and Philip, who wrote [1980s
Pi. One of the nice things about the store is computer game] Dizzy among other things.
you’ve sold a decent bit of volume.” that it provides a way to access all sorts of In fact, they were two of the people who I read
This system allows low-volume products documentation and tutorials and examples about as a child, who were making a bit of
to climb up and get to a point where they have and applications. It does this without having to money out of computer games. So there is a
got volume in place and they have got revenue cross that command-line hurdle on the first day. wonderful kind of closure there in terms of
coming in the door before they have to jump Obviously we want them to cross the hurdle at what we’ve done with the store, for me anyway.
through some of those compliance hoops. The some point, but not necessarily on the first day.
LUD: Why have games content?
problem with the Pi’s success, however, was LUD: Why have paid content?
that it was pushed into the spotlight very early EU: Games get that rap you know. But it is what
EU: It gives kids an opportunity to make a little got me into programming. I love to program and
on. “We had the profile of a large electronics bit of money. If a child does an interesting thing
company before we shipped a single unit,” write computer games and I think that is true of
they can put it up there for free and get respect, a lot of people.
says Eben. “So this is the reason why we had you know, get recognition, which was I think
this horrible thing in March where we had to a powerful motivator for kids. Or if they want
stall; we had to stop for a couple of weeks and to make a little bit of money, and we’ve always
Pete and I were down in Cardiff, EMC-testing said we want to compete with the paper round,
these boards and crossing our fingers. All of then they can.
this was simply because we’d achieved a level LUD: So it’s about empowering children and
of visibility… We stuck our necks out, beyond getting them to recognise their talent?
anything that the actual volumes that we
EU: You know, we want children to think ‘well
were shipping justified. It was an interesting
you know I could go out and do a paper round or
experience and I think we continue to be
I could do this’. Maybe I’m an unusual money-
surprised by both the level of interest and also grabbing capitalist, but it was a motivator for
the very positive interest that we get. I think me. All of the motivators for me as a child were
people do appreciate that we are trying to do that there were stories about people, stories
something new.” in the press about young people who had been
A major aim of the Raspberry Pi project has able to make a bit of money using computer
been for education. The team stated early programming ability.
on that this was their driving motivation. The
much-loved BBC Micro helped to encourage
a generation of programmers and it kick- 800,000 or 900,000 units, that is actually a lot side of the Foundation is going to be running
started interest not just in what computers of computers going to kids.” separately from the technical side. And it is
did but how they achieved it. The bare-bones In the future, the Foundation is keen for already reaping benefits.
system of the Raspberry Pi invites young after-school clubs to use them, teaching “In September, when schools went back,
people to play around with the technology programming in the evenings. “We are seeing we saw a great big bump in orders because a
and understand the component parts. lots and lots of pictures from parents of kids lot of teachers have been coming in now and
It also gives them a way to program the sitting in front of the television coding,” says Liz. outfitting whole classrooms,” says Liz. “We are
device. But is it fair to say that the huge “Somebody last week sent me some photos of also sending people out from the Foundation
take-up of the Raspberry Pi by adults and his five-year-old girl actually building games to master classes workshops, so that teachers
hobbyists has had an adverse impact on from scratch, so that has been kind of an eye- actually get to be on top of things and [it’s] not
the number of units available for schools opener for the whole family. It is just really, as intimidating as some IT teachers think… One
and universities? really nice to watch with everyone pushing thing that I really, really like actually, is that we
“I think there was a backlog with at least one ahead with this stuff.” are seeing all the parents who are engineers,
of the suppliers until shortly before Christmas Pete admits that getting Pis into schools was so using the Raspberry Pi as a tool to show
and I think that that has actually impacted always going to be a long haul. An educational their kids what it is that they do at work.”
some people’s ability, especially outside of the manual has been produced and they have It is a concept that strikes a chord for Pete,
UK, to get hold of them,” says Liz. “So at the taken on board comments from teachers. whose father was an electrical engineer. Such
moment we are saying about 20 to 25 per cent They have been encouraged by the amount of father-son bonding led to him becoming an
of them are actually getting straight into the extracurricular education taking place using engineer himself. His father would take bits
hands of kids now, which is great and although the Pi. Talks have been held with exam boards
that doesn’t sound like a massive percentage, and there is growing interest in computer
when you look at that as part of sales of around science in schools. In 2013, the educational

49 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Interview Celebrating the life of Pi

“Yes I think it has [peeled away] the levels


of abstraction that the kids have seen with
their ‘shiny toys’ that you can’t get inside”
of electronics home with him and Pete was The sense that children can make a difference been all their own work, you know, and that is
inspired by what could be achieved. “We have when programming on the Pi is noted by Eben, a great thing. Again, it’s something we didn’t
children with their iPads, their computers and who says that kids coding on regular, desktop or see coming.”
the games that they’ve been playing,” he says. laptop machines tend to think that the computer Pete agrees. “Yes I think it has [peeled away]
“They are very comfortable with it, so they are is responsible in some way for whatever they the levels of abstraction that the kids have seen
just surprised that the Pi doesn’t come in a create. The Pi gives the illusion, he adds, that it is with their ‘shiny toys’ that you can’t get inside,”
box and they can actually touch the bits and such a simple piece of hardware and that they are he says. “It has allowed them to sort of peel the
they can actually see the bits that do all the the driving force behind whatever they achieve onion right back to centre core and see the bit
work. I mean I love the story about the young with it. “There is a higher level of ownership of that actually does the work. Although having
lad that looked at one and said ‘where is the the things that the child has done,” he says. said that, I mean we have software systems
computer?’, until somebody pointed out this “They credit themselves more because they on there that are quite sophisticated and allow
little 2cm square chip in the middle and he believe the Pi can’t possibly be as sophisticated them to do quite sophisticated things. But in
went ‘wow, is that it?’.” enough to have helped them. So it must have the essence they can actually see the chip that

RbairsthPdaiy
1st l
specia
CC: Jim Killock

50 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Celebrating the life of Pi
The Raspberry Pi founders talk about its first year
INTERVIEW

Educating teachers
LUD: Is there a need to educate the teachers to
understand the Raspberry Pi if they are to help
Minecraft and the pleased when they said they were going to children get the most out of it?
Raspberry Pi produce a Pi version. The Pi version has this
Liz Upton: Definitely yes and we’ve got some
very rich integration with other programming
One release which has got people very excited stuff in motion at the moment to do things
languages so there is wonderful stuff you
is Minecraft: Pi Edition. Markus Persson about that in the next couple of months.
can write.”
revealed the port at MineCon 2012 and it was We do recognise that for some ICT teachers
Liz continues: “I was talking to a teacher in
said that the Pi Edition is similar to the Pocket this is a little bit intimidating because not
America actually who is using Minecraft with
Edition except that is downgraded to an older everybody has necessarily done any coding
his students. He is going to design stuff inside
version, and with the added ability of using text before. Now we continue to believe that there
the Minecraft world and then exporting both
commands to edit the game world. is actually quite an attractable thing, but it is
things to a 3D printer, which I thought was
“Marcus is like a rock star to a lot of these quite hard sometimes for teachers to come
super cool. Suddenly you are not stuck with the
kids,” says Eben. “So yeah we were really forth and say ‘Look I could do with a little bit
physical now.”
of handholding here, I need some help just to
get started’, so we are working very hard on
does the work, they can even feel it getting just things to play games on – although I [must] that at the moment. And yeah we have got
warm when it is working hard and staying cool admit to have spent most of my Christmas some stuff coming up.
when it is idle. So there is a massive amount of playing games with my nine-year-old on LUD: To what level do you need to teach them?
education that comes from having this bit of various products, including the Pi – but devices
Eben Upton: Teachers and professionals
computer in front of you.” to capture imaginations and allow people then
want to deliver a quality education
Education seems very much to be the focus to say ‘wow, this is fantastic, I wonder if I can
experience to the kids who are in their
for the Foundation over the next 12 months do this and I think I have got a tool in front of me
care and there is that confidence thing.
and the aim is to get through to children who that will allow me to at least try’.” Professional development is very important
do not have a teacher at school and a parent There will not, however, be a major overhaul for giving them confidence. They don’t need
at home with computer knowledge. They are of the platform. There will be a third revision at to be that good: we’re not talking about
looking beyond these shores too. “I very, very some point to the PCB and that will probably training teachers up to be professional
much want to see the educational side of things take the Pi very close to a state where the engineers and then having them teach this
working in other places,” says Liz. “So I have got team are completely happy. But there are no stuff. We are talking about getting people
plans this year to look at the developing world immediate plans for a higher-performance to a point where they are just confident
as well because there are things that we can Pi and efforts will concentrate on subsidising that they can answer the basic questions;
do there, not just with computing education, software development work to try to get more confident they can stay a page ahead.
but with education in general. It is a good tool out of the existing platform.
and giving people access to those tools I think For them, videogame consoles provide a
is very, very important, so for me that is what good analogy. “If you compare a year-one that is probably where we are going over the
it is about.” PlayStation 3 game to a modern PS3 game next year. And also things like putting in the
At the same time, they do not want to lose they are almost unrecognisably different,” says camera in the display board, these things that
the engineering focus, with Pete in particular Eben. “You would imagine they were different we said we would do, bringing in the model A
keen on this area. “My drive is to see some pieces of hardware. So it is kind of this other which we said we’d do. So to some extent we
of these extension boards actually get into model where you put a marker down, you are introducing new hardware, it is already
the mainstream and get kids using them,” he work on optimising the software experience bringing out stuff, it is just kind of fulfilling
explains. “I want them to actually build out from and hardware on that. We want to look at promises that we’ve made.”
the Pi and see what they can control and what taking cost out of the hardware, on adding
they can monitor and what they can measure, incremental features to that piece of hardware
using the Pi as a tool. I mean that is a really rather than a revolution per year. So I guess
exciting area for me because that is the bit that
I love to do.”
For Pete, computing and real life has to
interact. “I just think being able to make
kids enthusiastic about being able to sense
temperatures, pressures, humidity, measure
light, cosmic rays or anything like that, is a
good thing,” he says. “It allows them to interact
with the real world and it brings home what
computers are really about. They are a tool to
allow you to achieve other things. They are not
Tutorial Create a VPN with the Raspberry Pi

Create a
VPN with the
Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi is cheap enough to Advisor
leave on a network you’d like to connect Liam Fraser is the creator
to remotely, so let’s learn how to set it
of the RaspberryPi Tutorials
YouTube series and volunteers as
a Linux server administrator for
up to do just that… the Raspberry Pi Foundation

One possible scenario for wanting a cheap Base Arch Linux system
server that you can leave somewhere is if OpenVPN – the software we will use to create a
you have recently moved away from home secure VPN
and would like to be able to easily access all Netcfg – used to easily manage the multiple
of the devices on the network at home, in a network adapters we’ll need

Resources
secure manner. This will enable you to send Bridge-utils – used to bridge the VPN and
files directly to computers, diagnose problems Ethernet adaptors
and other useful things. You’ll also be leaving a SSH – will provide secure remote access to the
A Raspberry Pi with all necessary powered USB hub connected to the Pi, so that Raspberry Pi and the files on it
peripherals : you can tell someone to plug in their flash drive, A dynamic DNS daemon (No-IP) – software
www.raspberrypi.org
hard drive etc and put files on it for them. This that runs in the background and points a domain
An SD card containing the way, they can simply come and collect it later name to your router’s IP address, meaning that
latest Arch Linux image for the whenever the transfer has finished. you can access your Raspberry Pi from anywhere
Raspberry Pi: We’ll be using Arch Linux as the operating using an easy-to-remember web address.
www.raspberrypi.org/downloads system for our VPN server, since it is lightweight This tutorial assumes that you have flashed
A second computer to be used as and has only the minimum packages required the latest Arch Linux ARM image to an SD card.
a VPN client – we’ll assume you’re using a for a working system. If it’s been a while If you haven’t, the instructions for flashing an
popular Linux distribution that uses since you’ve used Arch Linux, the distro has image can be found at www.linuxuser.co.uk/
Network Manager, like Debian recently moved to a new service management tutorials/how-to-set-up-raspberry-pi/. You’ll
framework called systemd, so it’ll be good to get only need to go up to the step where you write
up to speed on that also. the image to the SD card. You’ll have to adapt
Our VPN server will be made up of the the instructions slightly for using the Arch Linux
following software components: image rather than the Debian one.

52 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Create a VPN with the Raspberry Pi
Configure the Pi as a VPN server that you can access from anywhere
TUTORIal

01 Logging into Arch Linux


Connect the necessary cables to the
Pi and wait for the Arch Linux login prompt.
The login is ‘root’, and the password is also
‘root’. We’ll change the root password from the
default later on.

02 Run a full system update


Arch Linux runs on a rolling release
schedule, meaning that there are no version
numbers and software is continually updated.

05
The package manager in Arch Linux is called
Investigate your network and configuring the networks array as follows:
pacman. Use the command ‘pacman -Syu’ to
We highly recommend assigning a NETWORKS=(bridge)
start a full system update. If for some reason
static IP to your server Raspberry Pi rather than Save the changes, exit nano and then run
the update fails, try running ‘pacman -Syu’
being handed one by your router because you’ll the following commands to disable DHCP and
again. Sadly, the Arch Linux ARM servers tend
always know where to find it on the network, enable the Ethernet interface and the bridge
to be quite busy. There may be a lot of packages
which will be useful for accessing it remotely. with a static IP permanently:
to update so it may take a while, especially
You’ll also need a static IP if you want to access systemctl disable dhcpcd@eth0.
because the Pi runs from an SD card.
the Raspberry Pi from the internet. We’ll need service

03
to find out a couple of things about your current systemctl enable netcfg.service
Install the required packages
network setup before setting a static IP. You can You can now restart the Pi for the changes to
Use the command
use the commands ‘ifconfig eth0’ and ‘ip route take effect.
pacman -S noip netcfg bridge-utils
show’ to do this.

07
openvpn Log in with SSH
to install the required packages mentioned at
the start of the article. Answer ‘y’ to any prompts
you may encounter.
06 Set up a static IP Address
Now that we have found out things
about your network, such as your current IP
Once the Pi has booted back up, open a
terminal on your Linux computer and type ‘ssh
root@[IP of your pi]’. Answer yes, to say that you
address, the network mask and so on, we can
want to connect, and type in the root password,

04 A word about subnets


One thing to note here is that because
we’re setting up a client-to-site bridge, we’ll be
set up a static IP address. We’re going to use
the Arch Linux netcfg framework to manage
our network connections as we’ll need three
which will still be root. You are now logged in
over SSH.

connecting the client to the server’s network. different connections eventually: Ethernet,
This means that the subnet that the server is which is automatically handled by the bridge
on needs to be different from the client subnet. adaptor; a VPN tap adaptor; and a bridge
For example, the subnet at your advisor’s adaptor to combine the two.

08
home is 192.168.1.0/24, and the subnet here Change directory to the /etc/network.d Change the root password
is 172.17.173.0/24. If the subnet here was directory and open a new file called bridge in Since we will probably be exposing an
192.168.1.0/24, then there would be a routing nano (or the text editor of your choice): SSH login to the internet, it would be a very good
conflict because the machine won’t know if cd /etc/network.d idea to change the password to something much
you’re referring to a local address or one on the nano bridge more secure. Type ‘passwd’, then follow the on-
VPN. It’s a good idea to have a non-standard Then fill in the bridge configuration to look screen instructions to change your password.
subnet for this reason. In our case, the client as follows and save the changes (swapping our Your SSH session will stay logged in, but you’ll
subnet is non-standard so it doesn’t matter network values for your own): need to use the new password next time you log
what the server subnet is for now. However, INTERFACE=“br0” in. You may also want to change the contents of
we’re still going to change the server subnet at CONNECTION=“bridge” /etc/hostname to set the hostname to a self-
some point because you may end up needing to DESCRIPTION=“VPN Bridge connection” identifying name, such as ‘vpnserver’ rather
connect from a network such as public Wi-Fi, BRIDGE_INTERFACES=“eth0” than the default ‘alarmpi’. The change won’t take
which may use a standard subnet. If you need to IP=‘static’ place until after a restart.
change your server subnet, we suggest picking a ADDR=‘192.168.1.215’
/24 subnet (subnet mask 255.255.255.0) in one
of the private address ranges:
NETMASK=‘24’
GATEWAY=‘192.168.1.254’
DNS=(‘192.168.1.254’)
09 Set up the public key
infrastructure variables
We’re going to be using a certificate
10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 Once done, save the file using Ctrl+O followed infrastructure to authenticate OpenVPN. This
192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 by Enter, then exit nano using Crl+X. We’ll add is where a certificate and private key (which
You should be able to easily change your the VPN adaptor to the bridge later on.
network configuration on your wireless router’s We now need to configure what profiles
settings page. netcfg should load by editing /etc/conf.d/netcfg

53 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Tutorial Create a VPN with the Raspberry Pi

must be kept a secret) is generated for each We now need to generate the Diffie–Hellman last two values are the start and end ranges of IP
client, and signed by the certificate authority. parameters, needed to allow two users to addresses allocatable to connecting clients.
Only clients with signed certificates are allowed exchange a secret key over an insecure medium Finally, uncomment the lines:
to connect. The key and certificate are used using the Diffie–Hellman key exchange protocol ;user nobody
to encrypt the data sent between the client (this may take a couple of minutes): ;group nobody
and the server. This secure approach means ./build-dh to give OpenVPN the least privileges possible
that additional username and password The final step is to generate a certificate for and then save the changes to the file.
authentication on the client is not necessary. each client that you would like to connect to the
There are a bunch of scripts which make setting
this up easy. Start by copying the scripts to
VPN. In this case, our client is a laptop.
./build-key liam-laptop 12 Configure the tap interface
Open the file /etc/network.d/tap in nano,
add the following lines, and then save the file:
/etc/openvpn with: Simply do what you did during the build-
cp -r /usr/share/openvpn/easy-rsa/ /etc/ key-server script and then you’ll have all the INTERFACE=‘tap0’
openvpn certificates you need. CONNECTION=‘tuntap’
and then change to that directory. MODE=‘tap’
We’re going to be making a template to base
our certificates on. Edit the vars file with nano 11 Configure the OpenVPN server
We’re going to base our configuration
file on the example server configuration file
USER=‘nobody’
GROUP=‘nobody’
We then need to add the tap0 interface to
and change the following lines at the bottom of
the file from something like: using the command ‘cp /usr/share/openvpn/ our bridge, so edit /etc/network.d/bridge and
export KEY_COUNTRY=“US” examples/server.conf /etc/openvpn/server.conf.’ change the bridge interfaces line to look like:
export KEY_PROVINCE=“CA” Open /etc/openvpn/server.conf in nano. BRIDGE_INTERFACES=“eth0 tap0”
export KEY_CITY=“SanFrancisco” Start by changing: Finally, change the networks line in /etc/
export KEY_ORG=“Fort-Funston” ;dev tap conf.d/netcfg to:
export KEY_EMAIL=“me@myhost.mydomain” dev tun NETWORKS=(tap bridge)
export KEY_EMAIL=mail@host.domain to: Notice that the tap network needs to be
export KEY_CN=changeme dev tap0 started first, so that it can be added to the
export KEY_NAME=changeme ;dev tun bridge successfully.
because we are using a network tap adaptor

13
export KEY_OU=changeme Enabling OpenVPN
to which allows us to bridge the networks, rather
than create a tunnel. Now that we have configured OpenVPN,
export KEY_COUNTRY=“UK” we want to enable it permanently. Use the
export KEY_PROVINCE=“” Replace the certificates here with the ones
you created: command ‘systemctl enable openvpn@server’
export KEY_CITY=“Ormskirk” and then reboot the Pi to make sure that
export KEY_ORG=“Home” ca ca.crt
cert server.crt everything starts successfully from a clean boot.
export KEY_EMAIL=“liam@vpn.home.org” Our VPN is now configured, so we’re going to set
export KEY_CN=“liamvpn-ca” key server.key # This file should be
kept secret up dynamic DNS and port forwarding so that we
export KEY_NAME=“liamvpn-ca” can access it from the internet.
export KEY_OU=“None” dh dh1024.pem
Once you have saved the changes, export the In our case, the configuration looked like:
variables with: ca /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/ca.crt
source ./vars cert /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/liamvpn.
and then clean any previous configuration with: crt
./clean-all key /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/liamvpn.
key

10 Create the certificates


Start by generating the certificate
authority certificate, with which we will sign
dh /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/dh1024.pem
Comment out the line:
server 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0
14 Set up dynamic DNS
Head over to www.no-ip.com/personal/
and sign up for the No-IP Free option. Once
everything else (press Enter to leave fields set as by placing a semicolon in front of it because you have done that, don’t bother downloading
they are): we want an Ethernet bridge rather than a No-IP’s client because we’ve already installed
./build-ca regular server. To enable the Ethernet bridge, it. Go to your email inbox and follow the
Following that, we want to generate a server uncomment the line: activation link that was just sent to you by No-
certificate with: server-bridge 10.8.0.4 255.255.255.0 IP. You can now sign into your account. Once
./build-key-server [server hostname] 10.8.0.50 10.8.0.100 you have logged in, select the ‘Add a host’
Press Enter when asked for any information, Then change the values to match your server’s option. Choose a hostname and a domain to
don’t fill in a password or company name and network configuration. The first is the server’s be part of from the drop-down list. Leave the
accept the request to sign the certificate. IP address; the second is the subnet mask. The host type as ‘DNS Host’ and then click the

54 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Create a VPN with the Raspberry Pi
Configure the Pi as a VPN server that you can access from anywhere
TUTORIAL

‘Create Host’ button. For example, we used that it will be hidden away in the ‘Advanced’ Note that we use chmod to add read
the hostname liam-ludtest with the domain section of your wireless router. You should be permissions because the files need to be
no-ip.org, so we would access that using able to access your router by typing your No-IP readable by all users. We need to do this because
liam-ludtest.no-ip.org. hostname into your web browser. If not, it should the Network Manager GUI doesn’t run as root.
be at the address of your default gateway that
we used earlier on.
On our router, we had to go to Advanced>NAT> 19 Create the VPN connection
Note that you’ll probably want to be on a
different subnet to your server otherwise it’s likely
Port Mapping, and add a mapping (Fig 1). We
then had to add a second mapping for OpenVPN, you’ll run into connectivity issues on the client
using port 1194 specifying UDP rather than TCP because of the aforementioned routing problem.
as the protocol. We worked around this problem while at home
by using a virtual machine that’s connected with

17 Install an OpenVPN client


We’ll use a virtual machine running
NAT. As far as the virtual machine is concerned,
it’s on the 10.0.2.0/24 subnet.

15 Configure No-IP
Run the command
noip2 -C -Y
Ubuntu 12.04 as our example VPN client. There
are simply too many possible combinations to
show them all. There are a couple of options that
Click on the Network icon in the top menu
bar and click on the ‘Edit connections’ option.
You will then be shown a window that has
to be taken through interactive configuration must be used on every client, however: multiple tabs at the top. Go to the VPN tab and
of the No-IP client. We left the update interval • Use a TAP device click ‘add’. Select OpenVPN as the connection
to the default 30 minutes, meaning the client • Use LZO data compression type and then click on ‘Create’. Now fill in the
will check every 30 minutes for an IP address • Do not use the default gateway on the appropriate information.
change. Once done, start the daemon with: remote network (on Ubuntu, this is called
/etc/rc.d/noip start
After a minute or two, your IP address will be
‘Use this connection only for resources on its
network’). This basically means ‘don’t tunnel 20 Advanced settings
We need to set the advanced settings
that we mentioned before:
accessible via your No-IP hostname. However, my internet through this VPN’. If this option is
disabled, then the client’s internet connection • Use a TAP device
it’s likely that trying it from inside your house
wouldn’t work because we haven’t configured • Use LZO data compression
will simply take you to your router’s homepage.

21
our VPN to deal with internet. Route settings
Ubuntu uses Network Manager to configure The final thing we need to set is
its networks, so the instructions we give the option to ‘Use this connection only for
here should be almost identical to any other resources on its network’. To do this, go to the
distribution that uses the same thing. Ubuntu IPv4 Settings tab and click the Routes button.
doesn’t come with the OpenVPN plug-in for Tick the box for the aforementioned option
Network Manager by default, so we’ll need to and then click Okay. Once you have done this,
start by installing it. From a terminal, run: you can Save your connection and close the
Fig 1 NAT port mapping sudo apt-get update Network Connections window.

16
sudo apt-get install network-manager-
NAT port forwarding
openvpn-gnome
It is likely that there are multiple devices
behind your router that all use the same external
IP address. This is because of the shortage of
IPv4 addresses, and also because it is more
18 Copy the required certificates
to the client
We need three files from the Raspberry Pi to be
secure to segregate the internet from your able to connect successfully:
internal home network. NAT (network address The certificate authority certificate
translation) forwards a port from the router’s The client certificate
external IP address to a computer on the LAN The client key

22
(local area network). In this case, we’ll want to We’ll be using SCP to copy the files into the Test your connection
forward any traffic for TCP port 22 that comes /etc/openvpn/keys directory: Click on the Network icon in the menu,
to your router’s external IP address to the IP cd /etc/openvpn hover over the VPN Connections option and
address of your Raspberry Pi. TCP port 22 is sudo mkdir keys then click on the VPN that you just created. You
the port used for SSH. SSH will provide remote cd keys should see a success message and a padlock
access to your Raspberry Pi, and also access sudo scp root@[Pi’s IP address]:/etc/ as part of the Network icon. Open up a terminal
to any files on it via SCP (Secure Copy Protocol). openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/ca.crt . and run ifconfig to check that the tap device has
You’ll also want to forward UDP port 1194, as sudo scp root@[Pi’s IP address]:/etc/ been corrected with an appropriate IP address,
that’s what OpenVPN uses. openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/[client].crt . and that you can ping a device behind the VPN.
The configuration of port forwarding really sudo scp root@[Pi’s IP address]:/etc/
depends on the router that you are using, so openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/[client].key .
you may have to look it up. The chances are sudo chmod +r *

55 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Tutorial Wine for advanced users and developers

Wine for advanced


users and developers
Build and run windows apps without using Windows
While Linux has one of the largest software straightforward, but is not able to unleash the
catalogues on the planet, there are still many full power of the Wine subsystem. However, this
software applications which are either only is the only way to go if you do not have the access
available for Windows or are only possible to to the source code. You can also wrap Wine with
make on Windows. For users, it means that your application to create an easy-to-use way to
they will miss out on some of their favourite run it on the Linux platform.
software (for example, Microsoft Office and a Recompiling the application with Winelib: In
lot of games). For developers it means losing this method the source code file is taken to the
a significant market to people who are using Linux box, where it is compiled against the Winelib
Linux. While most of the software can be written libraries using GCC. This way, the application will
for both the platforms if you plan ahead, it also be able to catch up with UNIX API calls in
becomes painfully difficult (and sometimes order to leverage the full power of UNIX. Winelib
impossible) when the software is already ships with a tool called Winemaker, which creates
written. This is where Wine comes to rescue. a GNU standard autoconf-based makefile out of
For users, Wine provides a way of running a VC++ project. Winemaker is a Perl script that
Windows applications without any modification does all the dirty work involved in converting the
on a Linux system. For developers, it provides a source code, making it UNIX specific, clearing up
way of making their applications work with Linux case issues and a lot more.
with maximum compatibility.
Winelib
Wine Winelib is a software development kit for
Before we dive into the tutorial, let’s understand building Windows applications for Linux (and
what Wine is. Wine is not an emulator that other POSIX operating systems). It includes
emulates the Windows OS to run Windows the Win32 API implementation providing the
applications. It is a compatibility layer for necessary libraries and header files. It supports
Windows applications on POSIX-compliant C/C++ and shares 100 per cent of its code
operating systems such as Linux, BSD and Mac with Wine.
OS X. It translates Windows API calls into POSIX Winelib is capable of building GUI
Advisor calls on-the-fly. Being just a compatibility layer
means that Wine runs applications at native
applications, console applications and dynamic-
link libraries (DLLs).
Kunal Deo is a veteran open source developer. performance. That’s not all: since it doesn’t need One of the biggest benefits Winelib provides
Currently he is leading two open source
projects: WinOpen64 and KUN Wiki. Windows to function, you won’t need a Windows is the ability to make calls to UNIX APIs directly
He is also a KDE developer. He has licence to run Windows applications. In addition from your Windows source code, resulting in
contributed to many open source
projects, including KDE-Solaris, Belenix to the Windows compatibility, Wine provides better integration than with the direct binary
and Openmoko open source implementations for some of the execution method.
most sought-after APIs in the industry (like In this tutorial we will be using Winelib

Resources DirectX, ActiveX, DDE etc).


Wine helps Windows developers to bring their
to compile a Visual C++ application on the
Linux platform.
software to Linux in the following ways…
Mandatory development tools:
GCC, G++, Make etc

Git: It is used by the Wine project as the primary


Direct binary execution: This is achieved
with the tool called ‘wine’ (part of the Wine
distribution). In this process, application source
01 Rules of engagement
The first step to any porting project
is to make sure your code is ready for the new
source control system code is compiled on the Windows platform, and platform. There are a few basic rules of thumb
then the binary file is taken to the Linux system that apply to any application which is supposed
Access to Windows system with
and is run through Wine. When the application to be ported. These cover some basic Windows
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 is run with binary compatibility, it can use and Linux operating environment differences.
installed (optional) all existing .dll files. This process is pretty First, differences between DOS and UNIX text

56 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Wine for advanced users and developers
Build and run windows apps without using Windows.
TUTORIAL

files must be fixed. Otherwise you may receive ■ Wine


errors related to carriage returns and numerous Notepad
other similar errors. running in
Then there’s the case of filenames. As you chrooted
will probably be aware, kunal.c and Kunal.c environment
are the same in a Windows environments, but
not in Linux. So, the filenames used in include
statements might be different from the original
files you are actually referring to.
Include statements should avoid using ‘\’ –
instead they should use ‘/’. ‘/’ is recognised in
both the environments, but using ‘\’ may cause
errors in UNIX.
Makefiles should be changed accordingly to
fit into the new environment. Makefiles are not
generally cross-platform compatible.
Sprinkle your code with #ifdefs. This good old
technique can be used to isolate the platform-
specific code in a very efficient manner.
#ifdef _WIN32 the chroot environment build dependencies
// Windows (x64 and x86) $ sudo mkdir /var/chroot $ sudo chroot /var/chroot
#elif __unix__ // all unix Create chroot configuration for the # apt-get update
// Unix current distribution # apt-get build-dep wine
#elif __posix__ @config file: /etc/schroot/schroot. # apt-get install git
// POSIX conf Install additional dependencies
#elif __linux__ [quantal] # apt-get install libosmesa-dev ocl-
// linux description=Quantal Quetzal icd-opencl-dev libhal-dev libxml-
#elif __APPLE__ directory=/var/chroot perl
// Mac OSX code users=kunal
#endif groups=sbuild Cloning the Wine Git
root-groups=root $ git clone git://source.winehq.org/

02 Building Wine
There is a very good chance that
the Wine shipping with your favourite Linux
You’ll need to replace ‘Quantal’ with the name
of the distro you are using. You will also need to
replace ‘kunal’ with the correct username.
git/wine.git
Build and install Wine
We are now all set up to build Wine.
distribution is outdated. That’s why we will build # cd wine*
Wine directly from the source. This will allow us NOTE: The distribution name should be a valid # ./configure
to build Wine to our liking. distribution, else chroot environment will # make
not be created. To find valid and supported # make install
NOTE: We are using Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit for distribution names, look in the directory
this tutorial. If you are using any other 64-bit /usr/share/debootstrap/scripts/. Setting up the X-server
distribution you will need the respective To make the GUI applications work from within
package management command. If you are Install the base system for your chroot the chrooted environment, you will need to set
using Ubuntu 12.10 32-bit or any other 32-bit $ sudo debootstrap --variant=buildd up the X-server:
distribution, skip this – go directly to installing --arch i386 quantal /var/chroot/
build dependencies. http://mirrors.us.kernel.org/ubuntu/ On the system shell
$ xhost +
Creating chroot for Wine: Since Wine depends NOTE: You can replace the mirror with one On the chrooted shell
upon a lot of 32-bit libraries, it is a good idea to of your liking, preferably nearby. A list of # export DISPLAY=:0.0
build it in a chroot environment. A chroot is a way mirrors is located at https://launchpad.net/ You can now test the setup by running the
of isolating applications from the rest of your ubuntu/+archivemirrors. You will need to following command
computer, by putting them in a jail. In this case make sure that the mirror you are selecting # wine notepad
we will set up a chroot with the 32-bit binaries contains the distribution you are chrooting.
and libraries. Now you can use the chrooted environment
Install the chroot packages Set up the Apt sources for all your Wine-related activities.
$ sudo apt-get install dchroot $ sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /
debootstrap var/chroot/etc/apt/
Create a directory which will hold the root of Enter chroot and install the

57 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Tutorial Wine for advanced users and developers

■ Visual Studio
2008 New
Project dialog

03 Porting Hello World Win32


application
In this step we will see what it takes to build
a simple Hello World application in Linux
using Wine.
The following example shows a message box
with the text ‘Hello from Windows World!’.
hello.c
#include <windows.h>
int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE
hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nShowCmd )
{
MessageBox(NULL,TEXT(“Hello
from Windows
World!”),TEXT(“HelloMsg”),0);
return 0; appdir=’’ most cases a Windows application consists of
} case “$0” in multiple source files as well as resource files.
Winelib ships with nice GCC wrappers which */*) Winelib ships with a tool called Winemaker.
are compatible with the MinGW compiler. These # $0 contains a path, use it It is capable of generating UNIX-compatible
wrappers are called winegcc and wineg++. This appdir=`dirname “$0”` makefiles from Windows project source code.
way if you have an application that uses the ;; Winemaker is a very important tool in getting
MinGW compiler on Windows, you can simply *) your first step (also the most difficult one) ready.
replace the gcc/g++/windres with winegcc/ # no directory in $0, search in It does all the dirty work for you, from fixing up
wineg++/wrc . PATH files to creating a UNIX-compatible makefile. It
To compile the application, we use the saved_ifs=$IFS is capable of fixing most of the issues mentioned
winegcc command: IFS=: in step 1 ‘Rules of engagement’.
# winegcc hello.c -o hello for d in $PATH Winemaker provides the following options
Upon successful compilation, you will notice do to help you out with porting your code. These
that it produces two files instead of just one. In IFS=$saved_ifs options customise the resultant makefile to suit
this case… if [ -x “$d/$appname” ]; then your needs.
hello.exe.so: This is the main binary of the appdir=”$d”; break; fi --lower-uppercase: This option deals with the
application. But you cannot execute this directly. done cases of filenames and puts them in order.
It is a shared object file that must be run using ;; --dll: This option instructs Winelib to build a
Wine. It is directly linked to the Wine library. esac DLL (dynamic-link library) project instead of a
# ldd hello.exe.so # figure out the full app path GUI project.
linux-gate.so.1 => (0xf771d000) if [ -n “$appdir” ]; then --console: This option directs Winelib to build a
libwine.so.1 => /usr/local/lib/ apppath=”$appdir/$appname” console application.
libwine.so.1 (0xf75b9000) WINEDLLPATH=”$appdir:$WINEDLLP --mfc: This directs Winelib to build an MFC
libc.so.6 => /lib/i386-linux-gnu/ ATH” (Microsoft Foundation Class) library application.
libc.so.6 (0xf740f000) export WINEDLLPATH Please note that Wine does not ship with the
libdl.so.2 => /lib/i386-linux- else MFC library; you will have to build it on your own
gnu/libdl.so.2 (0xf7409000) apppath=”$appname” with Winelib.
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xf771e000) fi --nobackup: Winelib keeps a backup of files
hello.exe: Although it looks like the main output # determine the WINELOADER which it changes. If you already have this source
of the source, it is merely a script to launch the if [ ! -x “$WINELOADER” ]; then code present somewhere else, you can use this
main application. You can modify hello.exe to WINELOADER=”wine”; fi option to save a lot of time and disk space.
customise the launch parameters. You can even # and try to start the app -Idir: Specifies to include file directories. This
specify a different version of Wine for use with exec “$WINELOADER” “$apppath” “$@” option accepts paths to files in absolute format.
the executable. -Ldir: Specifies library file directories.

04 -idll: Directs Winelib to import a library file


#!/bin/sh Porting a bigger project using
appname=”hello.exe.so” Winemaker through the spec file mechanism.
# determine the application Winegcc is helpful if your application consists -llibrary: Instructs Winelib to import UNIX
directory of only one file, but that isn’t usually the case. In library files.

58 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Wine for advanced users and developers
Build and run windows apps without using Windows.
TUTORIAL

In this step we will take the default application Copyright 2009-2012 Andr Hentschel ### Global source lists
built by Microsoft Visual Studio and try to Scanning the source directories... C_SRCS =
compile it with Winemaker on Linux. Projectfile found! You might want to $(ludwin32project_C_SRCS)
Creating the Win32 Application: try using it directly. CXX_SRCS =
Open Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. Click File> Fixing the source files... $(ludwin32project_CXX_SRCS)
New>Project… LUDWin32Project.cpp RC_SRCS =
From the New Project dialog box, select Visual LUDWin32Project.rc $(ludwin32project_RC_SRCS)
C++>Win32. Then select Win32 Project. Give LUDWin32Project.h ### Tools
an appropriate Name for the project, Location Resource.h CC = winegcc
and Solution Name. Then click OK. The Win32 stdafx.cpp CXX = wineg++
Application Wizard will open. stdafx.h RC = wrc
Click Next to continue. On the Application targetver.h AR = ar
Settings page, select the Application type as Generating project files... This is not a complete makefile, but the main
a Windows application. Leave the rest of the . options you should take a look at. However, most
settings as is. Click Finish to create the project. The above command fixes the case-related of the options will be filled by Winemaker itself.
The finished project will now open in Visual issues with the source code. ‘-nomfc’ indicates Compile the project by issuing Make
Studio. Solution Explorer will show all the files that we do not want to use the MFC library with # make
created for the project. this project. As you can see in the output above, wineg++ -c -mno-cygwin -I. -o
As you can see, this is a fully featured project it has located a project file (vcproj), but we will LUDWin32Project.o LUDWin32Project.
with multiple header files, source files and skip it for this tutorial as Visual Studio project cpp
resource files. For this tutorial we need to files are not fully compatible with Winemaker. wineg++ -c -mno-cygwin -I. -o
modify the project itself. We would rather focus Winemaker will fix the files and create .bak stdafx.o stdafx.cpp
on porting part of this application. files for the modified files. It will also create the wrc -I. -foLUDWin32Project.res
Let’s run this application to see if everything makefile which we can run against the standard LUDWin32Project.rc
is working perfectly. Click Build>Build Solution GNU Make utility to build the application. wineg++ -mwindows -mno-cygwin -o
to build the project, then click Debug>Start Makefile structure of a Winelib project: ludwin32project LUDWin32Project.o
Without Debugging. Most of the time, the makefile generated with stdafx.o LUDWin32Project.res
Copy the LUDWin32Project directory to the Winemaker will be a good fit for your project. -lodbc32 -lole32 -loleaut32
chrooted folder, ie /var/chroot/. Then perform However, for some advanced and complex -lwinspool -lodbccp32 -luuid
the following steps to create a UNIX makefile applications, you might need to customise the As you can see, the correct compilers are used
project using Winemaker: makefile yourself. The following explains the for respective files. For example, wineg++
cd into main project directory very basic structure of a Winelib project. is used for .cpp files, wrc (Wine Resource
# cd LUDWin32Project/ Makefile generated by Winemaker Compiler) is used for .rc files.
LUDWin32Project/ SRCDIR = . The ‘make’ command will produce
Run Winemaker to fix the source files and SUBDIRS = ludwin32project.exe.so and ludwin32project.exe.
create UNIX makefiles: DLLS = Run the ludwin32project.exe file to start the
# winemaker --lower-uppercase LIBS = ported application.
--nomfc . EXES =
Winemaker 0.8.3
Copyright 2000-2004 Francois Gouget
<fgouget@codeweavers.com> for
ludwin32project
### Common settings 05 Conclusion
Wine is one of the key technologies
which can help you go Windows free. There are
CEXTRA = -mno-cygwin
CodeWeavers CXXEXTRA = -mno-cygwin an enormous number of Windows applications
Copyright 2004 Dimitrie O. Paun that just work on Wine without developer
support – see the full list at appdb.winehq.org.
If your application is not on that list, you can
use Winelib to port your application natively to
Linux. It will have the same performance as any
other native application. Winelib is very easy
to use, especially with a tool like winemaker
which takes care of much of the standard
porting issues by itself. So, if you are a Windows
developer avoiding the Linux platform because
you thought it was too much work, it’s time to
give Wine a try.

■ Solution Explorer with LUDWin32Project open

59 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Feature Kolab: David and Goliath

Kolab:
David and Goliath
Groupware is a tough domain to break into.
With competition from giants the likes of Lotus
Notes and Exchange, how can an open source
offering, like Kolab, ever hope to compete?
Dr Karl Beecher investigates…
Author Dr Karl Beecher Lotus Notes. Between them, these entrenched Imagine this was your groupware product.
Until recently an academic players can boast hundreds of millions of users You know that users, through desire or
specialising in computer science
and open source, Karl now works around the world and the backing of some of the necessity, often want to keep using their
as a freelance consultant, writer wealthiest technology companies in existence. familiar old systems and will resist change.
and trainer based in Berlin, It’s a tough domain to break into and not one Any proposed alterations to their setup must
Germany. You can check out more
of his stuff at computerfloss.com
you might automatically associate with open therefore cause minimum disruption or risk
source software. being rejected; key features must remain intact
Nevertheless, it’s in this domain that Kolab and the disruptive effects of migration should
has positioned itself. Kolab is just one of a be few. You basically need to entice users away
Groupware is an overused and ill-defined number of collaborative software applications, from the world of Exchange in favour of your
term, so you have to make clear what it is both proprietary and open source, which fight product. It needs to provide the same feature
you’re talking about. It’s often taken to mean to be noticed on a crowded stage. How on set and it had better offer compatibility with
any software that allows users to work together earth can a participant in this market hope to Exchange, or an easy migration path at least.
on common projects over a network. Such distinguish itself, not only from the giants of Many free and open source (FOSS) products
programs usually package together email, Microsoft and IBM, but also from a sizeable are in this very position. A popular strategy that
a shared calendar, task management, an pool of other more similar players? emerges is to retain Outlook as the desktop
address book and document management as Entering the groupware domain can be client (sometimes offering web and phone
a minimum. Just about any organisation that fraught with difficulty if you wish to see any interfaces too), but connected to new back-end
uses a computer these days needs some sort significant usage of your application. In such systems. By building on FOSS technologies,
of groupware on their systems. If you use a a well-established realm, where proprietary and by virtue of its smaller size, a company
computer on the planet Earth, you’re probably technologies have long reigned supreme, how attempting this should be able to offer an
aware of two groupware programs that dominate can users be convinced to leave their current alternative at a cheaper price than a full-blown
the market, namely Microsoft Exchange and applications behind and take up an alternative? Exchange installation. Sounds reasonable, yes?

60 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Kolab: David and Goliath
Can open source groupware take on the big proprietary players?
feature

n Georg Greve, CEO, Kolab Systems

n Roundcube, with its rich UI, becomes the default web interface in the latest version of Kolab

“You can hoover up the smaller


customers but the bigger ones will
stick with Exchange” Dr Paul Adams n Dr Paul Adams, COO, Kolab Systems

Kolab’s alternative strategy 2003 (see page 60 boxout ‘Profile: Community their new community website in 2011. You can
As it turns out, customers with tight IT budgets and Company’). Accordingly, FOSS issues better appreciate this approach when you
may go for it, as would smaller clients with were given a high priority from the start. The realise the nature of Kolab’s architecture.
humble requirements and an even humbler CEO of Kolab Systems, Georg Greve, has been “Kolab is not a single monolithic application,”
bank balance. However, groupware users who outspoken on issues of freeness in groupware Adams explains. “When you deploy the Kolab
are more financially flush are apt to stay with and other so-called ‘open source’ alternatives. server, you’re actually deploying several
Exchange, paying a premium for the warm “Often they turn out to be open core,” Greve independent services. The job of the Kolab
feeling of ‘reassurance’. explains, pointing out the disappointing mix code is to make all these work together.” These
“In short,” argues Paul Adams, “this of proprietary and open source. “But there is are programs like OpenLDAP, Postfix, Cyrus
approach is basically a race to the bottom. You another, bigger problem. Outlook is based on and OpenSSL.
can hoover up the smaller customers but the the Windows platform. And while the web clients Hence, Kolab’s developers are not trying
bigger ones will stick with Exchange.” give some level of platform independence even to compete on the terms of the entrenched
Dr Adams is the chief operating officer at for Microsoft Exchange itself, there are many market leader; the Kolab back-end has nothing
Kolab Systems, the professional organisation scenarios where web clients are just not good to do with an Exchange server at all. Instead,
behind the Kolab groupware. He and his enough.” We still live in a world where users Kolab provides its own server, one which
colleagues believe they know how to avoid this insist on the rich client experience. If the rich makes extensive use of open standards and
downward race and achieve real success in the client is Outlook, available only on Windows and can boast of being 100% FOSS. The server
FOSS groupware domain. And it’s not just idle Mac, that poses real problems for users of a free uses IMAP as its underlying protocol (not just
talk – it’s the strategy on which they are driving operating system. for email storage, but other information too,
the development of Kolab. In light of all this, Kolab’s strategy is like tasks, calendar events and contacts) and
Kolab Systems was formed in 2010 to somewhat different from its competitors’. configuration and user details are stored in
provide services around Kolab, as well as Kolab itself is still clearly groupware, but LDAP directories using Kolab’s own, published
leadership of the development community. it’s trying to distinguish itself in different
Prior to this, the software had been ways. I first learned about Kolab’s alternative
commissioned by the German government in approach when I briefly helped them set up

61 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Feature Kolab: David and Goliath

Qt-powered applications on a wide range


of operating systems, meaning that Kolab’s
client is as consistent and widely supported
XML format. Other open formats are supported as Qt allows it to be. Nevertheless, a web-
too, like iCal and vCard. based client is available as well. In fact, the
By glueing several independent programs recent release of Kolab version 3.0 might
together, the developers of Kolab make make all this rich-client vs web-client talk
extensive use of open standards. Of course, quite redundant, because the new release
this can make their job more difficult, but sees Roundcube becoming the application’s
it pays dividends. As well as the obvious default web interface. While web-based mail
modularity, there’s the interoperability which clients typically aren’t enormous fun to use,
makes Kolab a fertile ground for innovation. ■ The 2012 development sprint was a Roundcube has been making a big name for
For instance, at a recent development sprint, rare, face-to-face gathering. Most Kolab itself thanks to a highly fluid and responsive
Kolab engineers collaborated with OwnCloud developers work around the world from home interface. Its judicious use of AJAX makes the
developers to work on integrating OwnCloud browser-based experience much closer to
functionality into Kolab, a possibility thanks in Maemo/MeeGo and Windows Mobile. But, as traditional rich-client applications.
large part to modularity and open standards. already mentioned, achieving a consistent cross-
And it’s not just on the server that Kolab platform user experience is a challenging thing to Kolab races along
deviates from the norm. Kolab’s tagline is ‘Five do. What’s Kolab’s answer to this problem? So how is Kolab faring in the race? Is it, too,
platforms. One groupware,’ a reference to the Kolab’s client is actually based on Kontact, destined to serve only small customers,
rich-client support on no less than five different which itself is a KDE-based application. For making do with the crumbs off Exchange’s
platforms, including Linux, Windows, OS X, several years now, it’s been possible to run table? Its makers claim not, although they’re

PROFILE: COMPANY AND COMMUNITY


Who’s behind all this? System Enterprise Community,
The Kolab community dates back an association of organisations
to 2002, when a consortium of that act as Kolab consultants and
companies (made up Klarävdalens user support.
Datakonsult, Erfrakon and A good proportion of development
Intevation) won a contract from is done by paid employees engaged
the German Federal Agency for IT mainly in packaging and distribution.
Security for the development of Although there’s plenty of community
Kolab. The Kolab Konsortium, as it participation, there are some
became known, led the community problems obtaining contributions
until it was succeeded by Kolab back from users. Kolab’s user base
Systems, a Swiss-based company is highly corporate and, in practice,
that sponsors Kolab’s development these business-oriented users
and provides related services. The have precious little time to give to
company also maintains the Kolab community participation.

REQUIREMENTS
To get started with the Kolab IMAP, MTA, the web admin and the
server, you will need a “reasonably web client.
recent version of Linux” (CentOS, Kolab ships with a standard
Debian, Fedora and RHEL are all configuration specifically tailored
cited as suitable). At its easiest for smaller, all-on-one-box
level, setting up a Kolab server is as deployments, which are the most
simple as entering ‘apt-get install common. If you want to spread the
kolab’ at the command line, although deployment over many boxes, Kolab’s
this is a meta-package that installs packages do a lot of the work for you,
all components on a single machine. but some post-install configuration
The individual packages are: LDAP, will be required.

■ Kolab is just as at home


on Windows as it is on Linux

62 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Kolab: David and Goliath
Can open source groupware take on the big proprietary players?
FEATURE

FURTHER READING
AND RESOURCES
• www.kolab.org: The community website where
you can get information, help, and the latest
news from the developers.
• www.kolabsys.com: Kolab Systems is the
professional organisation behind the Kolab
groupware offering.
• If you want to get face-to-face (in a virtual
sense) with Kolab’s developers, then you’ll
find them hanging out in various IRC channels.
#kolab and #kontact are sure-fire bets.
• There are lots of community mailing lists. Good
ones for beginners are: kolab-announce@
kolab.org and kolab-users@kolab.org.
• And there’s a presence at all the usual social
media outlets:
• diasp.eu/u/kolab
• identi.ca/kolaborg
• twitter.com/kolaborg

“And speaking of elite users,


components to store application data). Instead,
all of the user’s data are stored in IMAP folders
under the auspices of a Cyrus server and are
there’s one other attribute of Kolab accessed via services. To get at their data, a user
must authenticate against a service. Thus, if a

that makes its developers beam cracker manages to compromise an account,


they would only be able to access the data

with pride, and that’s security” belonging to the compromised user. Without a
central admin account, the cracker cannot gain
themselves sweeping access to user data.
frustratingly unable to cite specific examples, seems like overkill beside Kolab’s method.
as much as they’d like to brag. It’s on these grounds that Kolab’s developers The future
“We can’t reveal names,” admits Paul claim its suitability for a wide range of users, At the moment, the Kolab community are
Adams. “Large organisations see their choice from small clubs and societies right up to busy with their latest major release. Kolab 3
of groupware as a strategic advantage and so enterprises and governments. has just been launched and brings a raft of
prevent us from advertising them as users.” And speaking of elite users, there’s one other improvements to existing features. Version 3
The best he can do for now is cite certain attribute of Kolab that makes its developers also aims to make Kolab more easily integrated
tricks up Kolab’s sleeve which are essential beam with pride, and that’s security. For big into an existing setup; it will happily work with
for attracting big users. Chief among these business and government, security of data an existing LDAP system rather than its own,
are the flexibility on offer and the scalability is paramount. When they use groupware, should you be migrating.
that results from it. When I worked with the they want it to be as hard as possible for Other changes include the internal data
community, the developers often boasted an attacker to gain unauthorised access to format, switched from Kolab’s own version
how a Kolab sysadmin has lots of options user data. Kolab’s approach makes this very (XML based on iCal and vCard) to xCal and
when it comes to evolving their system. difficult indeed (not surprising when you learn xCard. One of the developers’ other devotions,
Because Kolab is made up of loosely coupled that Kolab’s first major user was the German security, also gets a boost from the improved
parts, components can be spread out over Federal Agency for IT Security). Storing data mobile synchronisation. Users will be able to
several machines. The mailboxes, the storage the standard way – on a server-side database, have different credentials on mobile devices, so
folders, the authentication server etc; these like MySQL – means that the data store has that the main credentials aren’t compromised
could all be deployed on different machines an admin account that can automatically in the event of a device being lost.
and maintained separately. This allows an access all the contents. Therefore, the danger The final release of Kolab 3 was made
organisation to scale their deployment with a always lingers that a cracker compromises available on 15 January and the community
fine level of control, increasing power or space this account and so gains access to all an are now aiming for a six-monthly release cycle.
to individual services. The standard approach organisation’s data. Meanwhile, the race to offer FOSS enterprise
to scaling – purchasing new boxes as demand This danger isn’t present for a Kolab groupware will continue.
increases, installing a separate copy of the installation, because a central database
whole server on each one and then managing administrator simply doesn’t exist (although
incoming requests via load balancing – a MySQL database is necessary for certain

63 www.linuxuser.co.uk
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Review index
Essential kit, software and resources for the open source scene
REVIEWS

Hardware
66 HTC One X+
HTC updates its flagship
smartphone for 2013

68 SolidRun CuBox
Another tiny-PC contender

70 Samsung Galaxy Ace 2


The market leader takes another
shot at budget handsets

“It’s one of the


smallest fully featured How we review
microcomputers around” Our experts thoroughly test
the kit and grade it using the
following criteria
SolidRun CuBox

Avoid at all costs

A designer/developer’s bad day

Good but could do better

Software Books Get this. It won’t disappoint


72 Live distro super-test 85 The latest Linux
reads dissected
The latest live distros fight to
earn space on your USB stick Software or hardware nirvana

78 Fedora 18
The Spherical Cow has
finally arrived!

80 Pear Linux 6.1


We put the squeeze on the
latest Pear build to see if it’s ripe

82 Fuduntu 2013.1
A fun and functional desktop
for everyday use

65 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Review HTC One X+

SMARTPHONE

HTC
£462
One X+
HTC moves into 2013 with an update
of its 2012 flagship. Does it fix what
was wrong with the original?
Technical specs
Operating System Android 4.1
Processor Quad-core 1.7GHz
Memory 164GB storage
Dimensions 134.36 x 69.9 x 8.9mm
Weight 135g
Display Size 4.7-inch
Display Resolution 1280 x 720 pixels
Expansion Slot None

Cons HTC began 2012 telling the world about how it


Pros
Up to 64GB of No microSD card intended to streamline its range and focus on a
internal storage, slot or removable
backplate; a very
small number of high-quality handsets rather
very powerful and a
stunning screen large phone than repeat the strategy that let the company
down so disastrously the year before, flooding
its portfolio with multiple devices barely
discernible from the rest. Alas, while HTC has made great
improvements, it still has not been able to completely resist
tinkering. And so we get the HTC One X+, a modest update to
the company’s flagship phone released only a few months
ago. For once though, it is not tweaking for the sake of it. This along, though we did notice it getting hot when we pushed it by
update attempts to address the two main complaints about asking it to run more graphic-intensive games.
the original One X, and is worthwhile, even if it could lead to the The handset supports a range of up-to-date technologies
inevitable criticism that this new model is what HTC should including NFC and MHL (providing HDMI-out through an
have produced in the first place. adaptor used in the micro-USB connector port). It also adds
HTC’s One X was hailed as one of the hits of the year. With a further 25GB of Dropbox storage to the internal memory
a quad-core processor, high-resolution screen, good camera for two years. And the front camera has been upped to
and plentiful built-in storage, it was a high flyer only let down 1.6 megapixels and takes advantage of access to a dedicated
by suspect battery life – quite a serious issue. The update imaging chip to produce quite passable photos. Great if you
improves on many of the core specs and adds a larger battery. like self-portraits. The main camera retains the One X’s ability
The One X+ has a massive 64GB of internal storage and a very to shoot a still while taking a video, and will produce the latter
impressive 1.7GHz quad-core processor. It positively flies to 1080p resolution.
It is a pity that HTC has not seen fit to include a microSD card
slot on the One X+, though. For all that internal memory and
access to Dropbox, it would have been nice to also have access

It’s one of the best handset to hot-swapping storage. But sadly that’s not to be.
HTC has improved on the battery this time around, providing

screens we’ve seen a 2100mAh battery in place of the 1800mAh cell that was used
in the original. If you’re hoping this has dealt with the poor

66 www.linuxuser.co.uk
HTC One X+
Improved flagship Android smartphone
REVIEW

The One X+ launches with Jelly Bean,


but like on all HTC handsets the OS
is largely obscured by the presence The front camera is improved to
of HTC Sense. This overarching 1.6MP and takes decent pictures.
skin reworks many of the features The main 8MP camera on the rear
of Android, giving them their own can still take a still while shooting
distinctive style and functionality video – the latter at 1080p

The 4.7-inch Super LCD 2 display is


as good as any we’ve seen on any
smartphone. It really shines here,
although do beware that it saps the
battery quickly as well

HTC has stuck with the dedicated


buttons below the screen. They
are capacitive rather than physical
buttons, and the task-switching
one can be reassigned to the Menu
function if you wish

battery life issue you’re only half right. The more powerful webpages, and for looking at video. It’s almost large enough for
processor must cause a larger drain, because while we found serious catch-up TV.
life to be a bit better than before, it is far from superb. If we It is great to see Android 4.1 being used here, and HTC Sense
spent time gaming and using mobile data during the day, an has been given a slight makeover too. It’s not enough to jar or
early evening trip to the mains power was often in order. present you with any complex or difficult new learning curves,
Physically HTC has retained the HTC One X chassis design but if you are upgrading from a recent HTC handset you might
almost entirely, with only a couple of stylistic alterations. So, notice some subtle changes.
this handset has a polycarbonate shell with a rubberised
finish – and it is a bit too easily scratched for our liking. A
Beats Audio logo on the back indicates that the partnership For the most part HTC has
continues, and five little notches on the back are the clue that done well with its upgrade to what was its flagship
a docking kit can be used with the HTC One X+. handset of 2012. A faster processor and plenty
Incidentally, the chassis does not incorporate a removable of internal storage headline the updates. But the
backplate. The micro-SIM goes into a caddy that sits on the weakness in battery life has not been completely
top edge of the casing at the back. If you’re worried about solved. The trade-off between power and performance
battery life, then you should be warned that you can’t swap in looks set to continue for some time yet.
a spare in desperate times. Sandra Vogel
This is a big handset, and its screen is a generous 4.7 inches More
in size, with 1280x720 pixels of display resolution. It’s one of information
the best handset screens we’ve seen and perfect for reading www.htc.com/uk/

67 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Review SolidRun CuBox

An optical port
on the side of the
CuBox provides
S/PDIF audio output
at up to 192KHz
Extra storage can
be added via USB
2.0 or an eSATA
3.0Gb/s port, as
well as through the
microSD slot

Gigabit Ethernet
makes the CuBox
adept at shuffling The HDMI output on
high-definition video the CuBox is picky
around a network about display types,
preferring standard
16:9 TVs and monitors

MINI PC

SolidRun CuBox£105
One of the smallest fully featured ARM Raspberry Pi, OLinuXino and similar, it’s also provided in a
specially designed casing which hides the components and a

microcomputers on the market, can the large aluminium heatsink that’s bonded to the processor.
The system-on-chip is a Marvell Armada 510. Based on

CuBox justify its top-end price? the ARMv7 instruction set, the chip runs at 800MHz and
includes an integrated Vivante GC600 graphics engine. A
vMeta HD Video Decoder provides extra grunt for 1080p
The CuBox, announced in December 2011, video playback.
Pros Cons has been slow in coming to the UK, but is That does have a knock-on effect on the system, though:
The CuBox offers a General-purpose
remarkable amount performance is finally available through compact computing the CuBox’s 1GB of memory seems generous in a market
of multimedia poor for the price;
performance in an little to excite specialist New IT. Has it been worth the wait? where 512MB is the norm, but a whopping 256MB is reserved
incredibly small developers looking The first thing that strikes you about the CuBox for the GPU and a further 128MB for the vMeta – meaning a
package, with IrDA to play with the
and CEC support ARM architecture is its size: measuring just 55mm on a side and mere 640MB is available to the user. This can, however, be
42mm tall, it’s one of the smallest fully featured tweaked: operating system images are available to turn the
microcomputers around. Its compact footprint comes CuBox into a headless server, disabling the GPU in order to give
courtesy of a split design, which moves some components the user access to the full 1GB of DDR3 memory – extended to
onto a mezzanine board above the main PCB. Unlike the 2GB in the recently launched CuBox Pro.

68 www.linuxuser.co.uk
SolidRun CuBox
Miniature desktop computer
REVIEW

Technical specs A mezzanine PCB provides


Processor Marvell Armada 510 (ARMv7) the secret to the CuBox’s
800MHz
tiny footprint
GPU Vivante GC600 2D/3D
Accelerator plus
vMeta HD video decoder
Memory 1GB DDR3 (shared with GPU,
640MB available to system) A large aluminium heat sink is
Storage None (expandable via attached to the processor but
microSD/SDXC card and eSATA) sits snug against the plastic
Ports 2x USB 2.0, 1x micro-USB, casing, harming its dissipation
HDMI, S/PDIF optical audio,
eSATA 3.0Gb/s,
Gigabit Ethernet, IrDA
Audio Digital via HDMI and/or
S/PDIF optical port A small sensor at the front,
Power 5V DC at 2A with a transparent block in the
(includes suitable PSU)
case, provides IrDA remote
GPIO None
Extras Serial console available via
micro-USB port
Operating System Ubuntu 10.04 ARMEL Also
soft-float
Size 55 x 55 x 42mm consider
Weight 91g (excluding cables)

1GB of memory is generous,


but a lot gets sucked up by Raspberry Pi
the GPU and video decoder £25
General compute
performance of the
Raspberry Pi is equal to or
better than that of the CuBox,
at a fraction of the price.
While it lacks IrDA, eSATA or
Software is the CuBox’s weak point. Although it’s been out remote. An IrDA port at the front allows for a dedicated remote optical audio output, the Pi
has a larger community and
in the US for a year, development is slow and the available control – not included – and an optical port at the side provides supports a wider range of
software lags behind rival devices. The stock OS, Ubuntu S/PDIF digital output at sample rates of up to 192KHz. resolutions over HDMI.
www.raspberrypi.org
10.04 supplied on a bundled 4GB microSD card, is particularly The only real fly in the ointment for home theatre use
poor: as well as being nearly three years out of date, the – aside from the £105 price tag, which puts it head and
software is compiled for soft-float – a decision which cripples shoulders above the competition and nearly into the realm of
performance and makes the desktop almost unusable. professional development platforms – is a somewhat picky
Replacing the operating system – a handily easy process, HDMI output, which is happiest when working with standard
thanks to a built-in serial console available on the micro-USB 1920x1080 displays. There’s no support for 16:10, 17:9 or
port and a clever script that allows the CuBox to download 3:2 display aspect ratios, nor does it support the PAL SD
operating system images and write them to its own microSD resolution of 768x576. For most users, though, this will be a Olimex A13-
OLinuXino-WiFi
card – with a hard-float build of Ubuntu 12.04 drops the minor inconvenience. £59.95
SysBench benchmark time from 174.2ms to 48.83ms, beating A fully open source design,
the OLinuXino lacks
the Raspberry Pi’s score of 51.45ms. For an ARMv7 chip, on-board wired network
though, that score is somewhat disappointing: the Olimex The multimedia performance connectivity but comes with
integral Wi-Fi support and a
A13-OLinuXino scores 25.7ms on the same benchmark and of the CuBox is excellent, let down only by the selective general-purpose processor
costs half the price. nature of its HDMI video output. The integrated micro- that wipes the floor with the
CuBox. Sadly, multimedia
Where the CuBox shines is not as a general-purpose USB serial console makes recovery from disaster support is lacking, with the
desktop, but as a home theatre PC. Its eSATA port allows for simple, and the compact dimensions make it easy board limited to 800x600
resolution video output over
easy connection to high-capacity external hard drives, and to hide among home entertainment devices. Sadly, an analogue VGA connection.
its Gigabit Ethernet connectivity is more than up to the job its general-purpose compute performance and high www.olimex.com
of streaming 1080p video around the place. Installing the price make it a poor choice for other uses.
recommended GeeXboX operating system, which includes Gareth Halfacree
XBMC, results in an incredibly capable home entertainment More
system with support for Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) information
for pausing, playing and navigating the menus using the TV’s www.newit.co.uk

69 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Review Samsung Galaxy Ace 2

smartphone

Samsung
Galaxy
Ace 2 £230
The Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 is a budget
handset with highs and lows to reel you
in, turn you away and reel you in again
Technical specs

Operating System Android 2.3
Processor Dual-core 800MHz
Memory 4GB storage
Dimensions 118.3 x 62.3 x 10.5mm
Weight 118.5g
Display Size 3.8-inch
Display Resolution 800 x 480 pixels
Expansion Slot microSD

Pros Cons It’s tough if you have around £200 burning a hole Samsung has managed a strange feat with the sound
Highly affordable The chassis is a bit in your pocket and you are looking for the ideal output. It’s poor through the back-mounted speaker: loud
and at 3.8”, the chunky, it features
screen is right in Android 2.3 and
SIM-free Android handset. There’s a fair bit of enough but rather too tinny for our tastes. Use the provided
the sweet spot for doesn’t attempt choice hovering around that price and Samsung headphones, though, and it is much, much better with pretty
size and usability to innovate
recently added another option for you to ponder good bass tones.
in the shape of the Samsung Galaxy Ace 2. The camera benefits from an on-board photo editing app,
This is an update of an earlier handset that proved extremely but shooting itself isn’t a great experience. You can’t expect
popular with the pay-as-you-go crowd, and it has to be said more than 5 megapixels from a handset in this price bracket,
that while some of the specifications are noteworthy, others and photos are okay as far as quality goes, but there is a
most certainly are not. It also has to be said that Samsung big issue: there is serious shutter lag here, and you will need
has barely bothered to do anything novel in the design of this a steady hand to take a half-decent photo. Don’t even think
phone, but its solid lines are perfectly good enough. about trying to capture a sharp image of anything that’s
In fact, the Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 looks very, very familiar. moving. If your pet cat is photogenic, you’ll need a proper
A physical Home button beneath the screen. A black chassis camera to capture its antics instead of this phone.
with rounded corners. Samsung’s trademark name and a The highlight of the Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 has to be its
silver sliver of speaker above the screen. All these are very screen. At 3.8 inches it hits the sweet spot between size and
clearly Samsung design elements. usability. Larger than this and phones tend to get a bit too big
While it might be a bit dull and samey, what’s good about for many people to use one-handed. Smaller and it can be
the design is the well-placed buttons and connectors. difficult to do media-rich activities like browsing webpages
Headset on the top edge, micro-USB on the bottom. Volume or watching video. At this size both those activities are nice,
rocker on the left edge, power switch on the right. What’s not and eBook/email reading are easy on the eye. The keyboard
so good is the flimsy backplate that you could snap if you are is perhaps a bit cramped for some hands, but that particular
overenthusiastic when you remove it. size/usability compromise will be a personal matter.

70 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Samsung Galaxy Ace 2
Low-cost Android all-rounder
Review

The 5-megapixel main camera


is supplemented by a front-
facing VGA option

The screen might not be as


large as we’re accustomed to,
but it delivers good quality

One thing is guaranteed


to give away the value of a
phone, and its position in the
pecking order: its girth. The
Ace 2 is a thickset device,
taking away much of the
benefit that is gained from the
smaller all-round profile

The micro SD card slot is on


the edge of the phone, and
protected by a hinged cover

The dual-core 800MHz processor is nippy


The screen itself is clear and sharp. Its 800 x 480 pixels aren’t and the battery ought to get many users who place average-
top-notch, but they do deliver pretty crisp results, and we had level demands on their phone through a whole day between
no real problems. It’s perfectly acceptable for the price point. charges. This is not a phone for those who want to play the latest
We do have a couple of major gripes, though. Android 2.3 high-end games, but for the Angry Birds crowd it is more than up
is used here, and that just feels quite old hat now. It’s not to the job.
that you’d have a big problem with it, and it is well hidden
for the most part beneath Samsung’s TouchWiz UI, but it’s
a couple of paces behind the leading edge and you will find Overall, when you add up the
that some apps are not available for the device, such as the pros and cons, the Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 comes out as
Chrome browser for instance. More significant is that the a pretty good phone, its screen and capable processor
4GB of storage installed equates to just over 1GB that’s user standing out in particular. However, if it is on your new
accessible, and that probably won’t be enough for you. While phone shortlist, make sure the negatives aren’t things
microSD cards are cheap enough these days, we’d rather not you really care about.
have to buy one right from the off, or would at least prefer to Sandra Vogel
pay a very small amount extra to have one included in the box. More
There’s good news on the performance front. The dual-core information
800MHz processor is nippy, supported ably by 768MB of RAM, www.samsung.com/uk

71 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Review Live distro group test

group test

Live distros
Which portable Linux distro allows you to have a fully functional Linux
system with office suites, IDEs and more, wherever you need it?
Knoppix 7
Knoppix has been around for a long time now, trackers, are available for programming. Every
and the Debian-based distro has gone through major video and music player, creator and editor
a lot of changes over the years to keep it is also included, along with preconfigured Wine
current with not only the changing computing and a decent set of system management tools.
landscape, but differing user requirements. It’s more than a lot of people may be wanting to
USB installs and a change from KDE to LXDE use; however, if you’re planning to install this to a
are just two examples of these developments in USB stick and use it as a mobile system, you can n Installation is handled by different apps
recent years, to deal with the proliferation of large easily add and remove missing or superfluous for different storage
USB sticks and low-power hardware respectively. packages as you see fit. The separate HD and
Knoppix takes a kitchen sink approach to flash disk installers give you different options to
scores
the distro, loading it up with an absolute ton of automatically or manually partition drives, and
Installation

9
software that really bulks out the DVD version of you can choose a persistent memory option at
the live disc to a full 4GB or so – packing it with the end of the flash install to create a way to save A quick and easy
much more software for office use, programming system settings. process that automates
and engineering, according to the official blurb. Speed-wise, Knoppix manages to boot some key processes
For web you have multiple browsers such as incredibly fast thanks to its own custom
Chromium and Iceweasel, torrent clients, bootloader that allows you to add your own
Software

9
mail clients, instant messenger clients, feed specific options at boot time. The so-called
Fantastic selection of
aggregators and more. The full LibreOffice suite is cheat sheet for this is available on the website
default software, and
included in the office software, along with some to get the most out of it, although simply
access to much more
lightweight alternatives and a LyX processor. hitting Return will get you going for any normal
Major IDEs such as Eclipse and IDLE for a number situation. It’s still a great live distro after all these
of languages, as well as web editors and bug years, and that’s no easy accomplishment.
Customisability

8
Boot options give you a lot
of customisation while live,
which carries over to installs

Speed

9
Thanks to using LXDE,
Knoppix boots very quickly
and stays fast while using it

9
Overall
Knoppix was and continues
to be a great live or portable
distro if you have very
specific Linux needs you
cannot always satisfy
More information
knoppix.net
n Knoppix has hundreds of apps pre-installed

72 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Live distro group test
Four of the best live distros battle it out
Review

Slax 7
n The
modified
KDE is fast
yet still
Three years in the making, Slax 7 brings a works just
major overhaul to the previous 6.x line of like KDE
the Slackware-based portable OS. Most
noticeable in the update has been the upgrade
of KDE to a much more recent 4.9, a big leap over
3.5 that was in the last version, and a technical
triumph as the usually bloated KDE has been
wrangled into a fully functional Linux distro that
can come in a tiny 210MB ISO if needed.
This base ISO has very little to it, though –
Firefox and SMPlayer are among the most
exciting applications included by default, and
you’ll need to load up a Google Doc if you want
to do any more word processing than Kate
can handle. If you want to have a bit more
included with Slax, you can add ‘modules’ to
the ISO before you download directly from the
Slax website. Different categories of module
are available, maintained by the community, the software, and the best way to put it onto
and they allow you to add software, office a USB stick or similar is by using something
scores
suites and programming IDEs to expand the like UNetbootin or any other alternative flash
Installation

6
functionality. Before Slax 7 came along, the installer. While Slax does automatically detect
modules for 6 numbered in the thousands and any attached USB storage, like the one it lives on,
No dedicated installer
were kept well up to date, as best as Slax 6 it would be nice to have the tools to replicate it to
program, but putting it onto
would allow. Unfortunately, this number has other USB sticks or hard drives. At the very least,
a USB stick is fairly easy
reduced significantly since 7’s release and has it’s much more common and practical to use live
not recovered yet, with temporary solutions to distros from USB storage.
Software

4
use Calligra Office suite, while Eclipse isn’t even Even using KDE, as Slax is so lightweight in
The base version has very little,
available yet. This will turn around, but it won’t general, it runs at lightning speed. Of course, the
and there’s not much to add to
be for a little while. more you put on the ISO, the slower it will get;
it right now from modules
As a more portable OS, Slax doesn’t really however it doesn’t have anywhere near the bloat
have a way to be installed to a system HDD in of some of the full desktop distros.
Customisability

8
Software on the distro is
highly customisable, when it’s
actually ready

Speed

10
Extremely fast thanks to
a very lightweight image
and modified KDE

6
Overall
We like Slax, but it’s going to
be a few months or even a
year before there’s enough
available software to make
it worthwhile
More information
www.slax.org
n The extra modules section is a bit thin right now

73 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Review Live distro group test

Ubuntu 12.10
Ubuntu was one of the earlier distros to
adopt the use of a live disc, and while it is
primarily used to let you test out some of
the Ubuntu basics, this test environment
gives you access to quite a large selection of
default applications.
The software present on this base Ubuntu
covers you pretty well for a lot of simple tasks:
Firefox for web browsing, Thunderbird for emails,
Rhythmbox for music, a video player, torrent
client and even apparently a disc-burning utility in
Brasero. There are some system tools present as
well, so you can manually set up your computer
before installing it on a regular machine. However,
there aren’t any programming tools or IDEs to
let you get on with some more heavy coding
from the environment. There is the ability to
add some extra software, but it’s limited to only n Installation to all types of storage is quite easy
the packages in the Ubuntu Main repo – while to any device really, and even includes tools to
apparently numbering 10,000, this is a lot less prepare a USB stick for installation. Also, if you scores
than the full 60,000+ of full Ubuntu. put the image onto a USB stick to begin with,
Installation

10
One of the major problems using Ubuntu as you have a portable way to install Ubuntu, and
a live distro is that it’s slow in comparison to UNetbootin will allow you to create some specific It’s Ubuntu, so it has
all the others, and is not well suited for older space on the storage to save files and changes. a fantastic native
or very underpowered machines. While it will So it’s not the absolute worst live distro – in a installer for all devices
certainly run, the user experience will be pretty pinch you can easily get some office work done
terrible and it doesn’t have the benefit of being or even just watch something to pass the time.
Software

6
able to boot into either a 32- or 64-bit kernel However, if you need a serious portable distro and
Usable and extensible, but
like Knoppix can. you need to do some real work on the go on many
otherwise still a fairly basic
Installation-wise though, it’s probably the best. different computers, Ubuntu is probably not the
selection of applications
From the live environment, it allows you to install best distro for the job.

Customisability

4
You can add the odd piece of
software and change the off-
system setting

Speed

3
While fine on modern PCs,
anything where resources are
a premium will be affected

5
Overall
It was worth a look, but
Ubuntu just doesn’t really
cut it as a live distro,
although it wasn’t really
designed to be one
More information
www.ubuntu.com
n Good for office and media, not so good for programming

74 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Live distro group test
Four of the best live distros battle it out
Review

Porteus 1.2 scores


Installation

9
We like its quick and simple
installations that can be
done over and over

8
Software
A decent set to start, with a full
library accessible after the fact

Customisability
Activating and deactivating
modules and other
customisations affords you
a lot of control
8
Speed

7
n Simple and with a decent number of applications, Porteus can add more though Very fast in general, although
Based on an older version of Slax, Porteus existing files to the hard drive or a USB stick takes mildly laggy sometimes, but
provides a much more comprehensive ‘base’ a few minutes at most, depending on system only relative to the others

8
than its ancestor, but still comes in a tiny and write speeds, and it allows you to set up
package of around 250MB while including
multiple desktop environments, along with a
bootloaders. If you’ve installed it to a USB stick,
then you’ve basically got a clone of whatever live Overall
handful of extra applications to get you going. media you were using, allowing you to install it Porteus is a great
It handles a lot of functions quite differently from onto further devices and storage in the same way. reimagining of Slax that
Slax as well, making it a little more customisable The one thing we have to say is that Porteus allows you to change and
post-installation. is not presented all that well, and although we tweak stuff after installing,
Mainly, instead of using a system to add gladly make concessions for such a small distro, rather than having to get a
software modules to the ISO, it has its own Slax itself looks a lot more professional – better brand new ISO
package manager for adding and removing than the sort of hacked together live distro it More information
software. The Porteus package manager treats really is. Functionality-wise though, Porteus is www.porteus.org
this in a similar manner, though, referring to the pretty amazing.
packages as modules, and grants access to other
Slackware- and Slax-based distros’ libraries to
download from. Porteus itself has a large number
of programs available in its repos anyway, so this
should only be necessary for the more obscure
packages. The Slax style of adding modules to
the image does still exist to a degree, though,
as you can add specific video drivers to the
image beforehand.
Porteus is very fast. Boot time is minimal,
with a pause taken only to choose a desktop
environment to begin with – LXDE or KDE for the
basic version. LXDE is of course slightly faster,
but the KDE version is definitely much faster n You can
than a lot of other KDE 4 implementations, save select different
Slax 7. Speaking of that, Porteus is perhaps not boot options
as fast overall as Slax, but it beats it by a mile in like choosing
the installation department: merely copying the a desktop

75 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Review Live distro group test

In brief: Compare and contrast our verdicts

Installation Dedicated install


options for multiple
types of storage
9 Limited installation
options other than
using UNetbootin from
6 Ubuntu installation
is simple and
straightforward onto
10 Installation is
easy and fast and
can be done from
9
other systems any storage installed devices
Software Comes with a huge
selection, and you’re
able to add more
9 At the moment the
software database is
slowly being rebuilt,
4 A fairly basic selection
that can be somewhat
augmented
6 A good selection
of all types of
software but office,
8
but is lacking with more to add

Customisability Easy enough to


add and remove
software, with other
8 Fully customisable
with different
modules of software
8 Not a huge amount
can be changed
other than a little
4 Not much can be done
beforehand, but a rich
selection of packages
8
system modifiers to add and remove software per session can be installed

Speed Very fast, in part


thanks to a custom
bootloader and LXDE
9 Thanks to it being very
lightweight, it’s fast even
using KDE
10 On modern
machines it’s fine,
but in comparison it
3 Generally very fast, but
seems to lag a little on
slower machines more
7
chugs along than others

A comprehensive live Out of the gate with a Not suited for a live or A great Slax remix
and portable distro limp, Slax still needs a portable distro if that’s adding functionality

9 6 5 8
for working on system few months to mature what you need, but okay and post-install
maintenance in an emergency customisation
Overall

AND THE GROUP TEST


WINNER IS… WINNER
Knoppix
Knoppix takes home the trophy in this group
test for a number of reasons. Firstly, even for
what could be considered a bloated image
for CD and DVD compared to the Slaxes of
this world, it still runs fast enough for this to
be of little consequence. And the best part
is, you then get to keep the sheer plethora of
available applications that Slax frankly lacks
right at the moment.
If Slax had full access to a more complete
library of packages, it may have been a different
story, though. While it may not be a clear victor,
it would give Knoppix a run for its money by
being able to have a much more focused and
lightweight image with a similar selection of
apps far more customisable to what the user
wants. This space saving can be essential when
using USB storage if nothing else.
Rob Zwetsloot ■ Full software repos are available to customise your Knoppix

76 www.linuxuser.co.uk
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MAGAZINES BOOKS DVDS DOWNLOADS GIFTS


Review Fedora 18

n The new Fedora is finally here

distro

Fedora 18
After much delay, the Spherical Cow
makes an entrance. How does the final
version of Fedora 18 measure up? n Installation is easy and looks great

Pros Cons A new Fedora is always a big deal, as the It also starts copying and installing while you finish up
A great installer, Limited software Linux distribution is known for being on with root passwords and such, similar to how the Ubuntu
and it’s also nice selection
to see MATE and due to FOSS
the bleeding edge of free and open source installer works. While there’s not always much to do after the
Cinnamon in the commitment, software and technology, coming with the actual installation starts, it’s a step in the right direction to
standard repos GNOME 3.6 is
horrible to use
best and brightest the extended community streamline the installation process. It also has the standard
has to offer. Fedora  18 may have had a bit of post-reboot user setup that we also saw in Fuduntu this
a bumpy ride to the finish line, but the longer issue, which is good for OEMs and sysadmins, and doesn’t
wait hasn’t hampered the quality of the release at all. Any really slow down the process for desktop users. The actual
quality problems are mainly down to GNOME 3.6, but we’ll installation itself is a little slower than we’d like, but it won’t
get onto that later. keep you waiting for too long.
As we mentioned in our review of the beta, the new installer It’s after all this that you’re put straight into an updated
is a wonderful, minimalist-designed app that allows for GNOME environment – GNOME 3.6. We’ve aired our
quick installations with decent default settings, and a more grievances in previous issues about this latest version
advanced setup if you have some specific requirements. of GNOME, about how it slows down workflow in favour

78 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Fedora 18
Final release of cutting-edge Linux distro
Review

n The default app selection has grown just a bit

n The inclusion of Cinnamon is a great,


modern alternative to GNOME 3

n MATE integration is great, and brings GNOME 2 back for purists

n The GNOME 3.6 features and simplification


The new installer is a wonderful,
can be frustrating to navigate minimalist-designed app
of being touch and keyboard friendly. Luckily, it’s at this The Fedora devs also thought it noteworthy to mention
point that you can start installing any number of other the inclusion of a new command-line tool, System Storage
desktop environments, such as KDE, Xfce, or newcomers Manager. Available in the repos, this can do some basic
Cinnamon and MATE. Now that both of these are native partition management, as well as checking partitions for
to the repos, they definitely look a lot better than previous errors and such. It’s a nice little tool, perhaps more suited to
implementations on Fedora 17, with fonts being crisper on headless servers or working from the command line.
Cinnamon, and MATE gaining the ability to look a lot more Otherwise, it’s got the standard package and security
like a modern desktop. Red Hat has a big stake in GNOME, updates, a move to Linux kernel 3.6.y, and is still a great
same as Fedora, so it’s not surprising that it still shows up operating system for desktop, server or the cloud.
as the main desktop choice. It would be nice to have more
available spins, though.
There’s a bit of an update to the default app selection as Fedora 18 is a minor but
well, and while nothing has really changed that’s not related important improvement over Fedora 17, and the new
to the system settings, the Fedora Project has at least added desktop environment choice is great for desktop
the LibreOffice suite to the starting selection. While it’s a users, especially with the inclusion of a default
minor thing, it’s a nice addition. On the system tools side, the GNOME 3.6. Fedora is just as slick, up to date and free
package manager, updater etc are all now part of the same as ever, and well worth the update.
generic Software app. This is not accessible by typing ‘update’ Rob Zwetsloot
or ‘updater’ into the search bar, and in GNOME 3.6 the drop- More
down menu to access the graphical updater is a little hidden.
information
It’s easier to just use YUM to update the system. fedoraproject.org

79 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Review Pear Linux 6.1

n Pear comes with built-in


social networking tools

distro

Pear Linux 6.1


Has the beleaguered Ubuntu spin sorted out all its issues, or is this
OS X clone still not ripe?
Pros Cons The last time we reviewed Pear Linux, the even live-boot. On different machines it either started
A shiny interface Still very buggy, French developer had just changed the name X and then did nothing else, or hung at the boot graphic.
that does a good albeit for different
impression of OS X reasons. Won’t live-
to Comice OS in an effort to rebrand it slightly, This is a wide-ranging problem also affecting other users;
while offering the boot, problems with to whatever end. This was an updated version however, at the very least, if you choose the install option
superior workflow virtualising, and
of a Linux DE Appstore broken
of Comice OS 4, which launched with several at the boot menu, this works just fine. The installation is
bugs making it difficult to install, and near pure Ubuntu, with a few branding changes, so it’s pleasant
unbootable unless you exited to command enough to use and installs at an average/decent speed on a
line and started X manually. The ‘fixed’ version worked all modern computer.
right, but there were still some underlying bugs that made it After installation, you’re presented with the fairly clean,
unsuitable for day-to-day use. So after a name change back custom Pear desktop environment. Drawing its interface
to Pear Linux, and a couple of version number upgrades, inspiration from OS X, there’s a dock at the bottom of the
we’re back to try out the OS X-inspired Ubuntu distribution. screen, and the top bar displays user and time information.
And it’s still a mess, only for wholly different reasons now. While you can click the top left of the bar to open up a list of
The image for 6.1 is a point update to another, apparently applications, the so-called Launcher (named after the Mac
troubled, 6.0 release, and at the very first step it will not equivalent) is also on the dock. It’s split up into categories

80 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Pear Linux 6.1
OS X-inspired Ubuntu spin
Review

n Pear looks great, but does not work so well

n The black bar obscures a fair portion of the virtual desktop

n At least there’s an alternative to the broken Pear Appstore You’re presented with the
fairly clean, custom Pear
desktop environment
was going well, just like it had on a physical machine,
and it even had the correct Guest Additions installed for
VirtualBox. However, once logged in, a permanent black
bar covered the right quarter of the screen, obscuring
full-screen windows and not letting you click past it.
Virtualising is great for testing out app builds and if you only
have access to a severely handicapped version to test on, it
won’t go well.
It’s disappointing really, as while not everyone is
n There’s a browser choice app similar to Windows hankering for an OS X experience on Linux, it doesn’t mean
there shouldn’t be one for those that do. The interface
in the standard GNOME way, but there’s very little on there is great to use, almost perfectly copying the Mac while
after you first install it. throwing in a few Linux extras that make it overall a bit
At this point you’ll want to start installing packages, and better. Maybe next time we look at it, it will work flawlessly.
there’s a special Pear Appstore (a reskinned Software And we won’t have to use a ‘ripe’ pun again.
Centre) to give you access to the various software. Only, the
Appstore will never load, cycling a loading animation for as
long as we could bear to watch it. Based on our impressions Every time we use Pear, we
on earlier versions of Pear Linux, this is a great-looking want to like it. There’s a lot of great potential for a
software centre that works absolutely fine, grabbing the custom, ‘unique’ interface that goes beyond the OS X
right data from the repos and Ubuntu sources to make it a one it’s trying to imitate. However, each time there’s
different experience from its Linux counterparts. Luckily, always something pretty major that breaks the
the distro comes with Synaptic installed by default, so if experience. One to avoid for the moment, especially
you’re uncomfortable installing all your packages from the the 64-bit version.
command line, you can at least do it graphically. It’s a shame Rob Zwetsloot
though, as this is one of the selling points of Pear Linux. More
Another problem that occurred during testing was when
information
we decided to install it on a virtual machine – everything pearlinux.org

81 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Review Fuduntu 2013.1

n A nice
welcome
when you
start Fuduntu

distro

Fuduntu 2013.1
Designed to fit somewhere between Fedora and Ubuntu, this
fork of Fedora is a fully functional and easy-to-use distribution
Whenever we get a chance to look at the new OEMs or sysadmins, and the Fuduntu version is as good as any
Pros Cons Fuduntu, our first impressions are always other bar the Mandriva-derived distros. The whole process
Great to use, GNOME 2 is still
plenty of apps in great, but it’s about how nice it is to work with. Positioning runs at a fairly normal speed on a modern computer, but is
repos, only Linux starting to show its
distro to support age in the light of
itself as a lightweight, battery-friendly distro, nothing to shout about.
Netflix and Steam MATE’s maturity Fuduntu is one of the few remaining Linux The initial Fuduntu setup comprises Chromium for web
distributions that still uses the venerable browsing, LibreOffice suite for all kinds of office work, and
GNOME 2 desktop environment, enhancing its functionality a small selection of media players. Enough to get yourself
with a dock similar to OS X. It’s quite fast, and comes with a going, then, and the repos are well stocked with programming
decent selection of default apps to let you hit the ground packages and IDEs, among everything else, so it’s quick
running while you further enhance the experience. enough to get down to some serious work if time is short.
Installation of Fuduntu is nice and simple, with some The dock for the GNOME 2 interface has been changed from
advanced options for storage and partitioning, followed by AWN in previous versions to Cairo – apparently AWN is no
setting up users and other system options post-reboot. This longer maintained and there are a few bugs present that are
particular Red Hat/Fedora style of install is always great for not being fixed. The Cairo dock is a nice replacement, works

82 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Fuduntu 2013.1
Latest release of Fedora fork
Review

n The default apps in Fuduntu are a great starting point

n GNOME 2 still works fine, but it might be time to move to MATE

New, fairly high-profile apps


that have been added – Netflix
n The repos are well stocked with more software and Steam
in practically the same way and allows for some snazzy UI proprietary, non-free software, and that is not likely to
effects like previewing the contents of a folder on the dock, change in the foreseeable future – it’s just nice to have them
and of course hides away just fine when it’s not in focus. so readily accessible.
It seems odd in 2013 for a modern, up-to-date distro to Fuduntu is a great, user-friendly distro that is very much
still be using GNOME 2, especially with some high-profile focused at users who are in the community and need a
alternatives. Especially MATE, which is slowly maturing as straightforward version of Linux to use day to day. The extra
a very competent replacement and upgrade to the original additions and changes make sure it’s kept relevant as well,
codebase. GNOME 2 still runs fine, of course, and the extra and as a rolling distro it means you’ll have to worry about
functionality from Cairo is much appreciated; however, it may upgrading a lot less than with others.
be time to think about changing to MATE.
There are a couple of new, fairly high-profile apps that
have been added to Fuduntu – namely Netflix and the Steam Fuduntu is a pleasure to
Beta client. Fuduntu is the first Linux distro to officially use and doesn’t really have any concessions made to
support and distribute either of these via its repos, although appease any particular sect of the community. The
there are a few caveats. Netflix itself has to run on Wine, and use of GNOME 2, while perfectly fine, still seems odd,
installing and setting it up takes a while as it sets up enough but it works well even with the new additions of
core Wine modules to allow it to run. It can then be found in Steam and Netflix. The distro is great for laptops too,
the Sound & Vision part of the applications menu; however, with its power management.
we generally had issues getting it to work on our review Rob Zwetsloot
setup in what was apparently a rare case for people using More
Fuduntu. Steam is a native app, though, so there wasn’t any
information
problem there. Of course, both of these apps are restricted, www.fuduntu.org

83 www.linuxuser.co.uk
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Book Reviews
Latest Linux books revealed
REVIEWS

COMING SOON Ethics of Big Data:


Balancing Risk and Innovation
The best Linux books heading to a
bookshelf near you…
CentOS 6 Linux Server A timely enquiry into IT’s newest set of problems
Cookbook: RAW With 90 per cent of the world’s data generated in the last two
Author: Jonathan Hobson
years, the unprecedented size, variety and velocity of new
Publisher: Packt
information generates new questions, and companies that
ISBN: 978-1849519021
have lost reputation through mishandling of aggregated
Price: £30.99
data seem to be those who have failed to ask the right
Maintain a performance- questions, and act on their values.
based server solution, from Davis looks at four distinct areas of big data ethics: identity,
monitoring your RAM to managing the privacy, ownership, and reputation – and how to frame enquiry
syncing of remote files. Administer the into your values in terms of these areas. He then walks us
file system, from monitoring hard disks through methods (and benefits) of putting values into practice.
to rebuilding a logical volume. Design The book is a timely ethical enquiry into big data, giving
and implement a series of checkpoints to organisations and individuals the necessary framework to ask
protect your server. Deliver a domain name important questions which just weren’t necessary a few years
service to power the working environment. Author: Kord Davis ago. If your organisation wants to align its actions to its values,
Publisher: O’Reilly here is the framework you need to conduct the necessary
Processing ISBN: 978-1449311797 conversations. In cyberspace, it seems, philosophy still has
Creative Coding and Generative Price: £15.50 something to contribute to practical action.
Art in Processing 2
Authors: Ira Greenberg,
Dianna Xu, Deepak Kumar Definitive XML Schema, Practical Object-Oriented
Publisher: Apress Second Edition Design in Ruby:
ISBN: 978-1430244646
Still the definitive An Agile Primer
Price: £35.49
guide to XML schemas Really understand the
A fun and creative approach Author: Priscilla Walmsley what and how of OOD
to learning programming. Publisher: Prentice Hall Author: Sandi Metz
Using the easy-to-learn Processing ISBN: 978-0132886727 Publisher: Addison Wesley
programming language, you will quickly Price: £38.99 ISBN: 978-0321721334
learn how to draw with code, and from Price: £25.99
there move to animating in 2D and Prentice Hall is known for Charles ‘SGML’ Object-oriented design (OOD) has been bogged
3D. These basics will then open up a Goldfarb’s XML series, and in particular down carrying Java and C++’s baggage train, and
whole world of graphics and computer Definitive XML Schema, the classic work on OO principles are usually picked up by osmosis,
entertainment. XML schema. This second edition, ten years rather than in any systematic fashion. Metz is
after the first, is updated for XML 1.1 (released here to bring back the certainties of real OOD,
Performance Modeling by W3C in 2012) and looks set to extend the giving Ruby programmers of all levels rules
and Design of Computer classic for at least another decade. and principles, and preparing you to use design
Systems Walmsley’s work of reference is also intended patterns properly.
Queueing Theory in Action to be read through as a tutorial, starting with “OOD is about managing dependencies” – to
Author: Mor Harchol-Balter the purpose of schemas (and considering reduce the cost of change. Metz brings design
Publisher: Cambridge alternatives such as RELAX NG); then walking the squarely into programming with agile techniques:
University Press reader through an example schema; exploring OOD techniques giving the ability to support the
ISBN: 978-1107027503 the role of namespaces; the relation between changes that the agile methodology needs.
Price: £48.00 instances and schemas; then exploring elements From the right way to create a class (hint: a single
Bringing queueing theory and attributes, the building blocks of XML, and responsibility), to really making dependencies
decisively back to computer science, this when to use local or global declarations. work, Metz helps you code a ready-to-evolve
book is written with computer scientists As knowledge is introduced, it is related back collection of loosely coupled objects. Using Ruby’s
and engineers in mind and is full of to the reader’s own design problems, such as duck typing, and walking you through, then around,
examples from computer systems, as how to break down data values. Complexity is a number of elephant traps, the author is bursting
well as manufacturing and operations built from simplicity. Design, documentation, with insight that she communicates into the fractal
research. The goal is to train readers not extensibility, reuse and versioning round off a nature of object-oriented design, laying down the
only to customise existing analyses but also work that should sit on the bookshelf of anyone rules, then giving the reader the confidence to try
to invent their own. who has to work with XML documents. breaking them.

85 www.linuxuser.co.uk
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& answers

Your questions
answered
ASK THE EXPERTS
This month your questions
were answered by…
Send us your questions and we’ll do our best to answer them!

Russell Barnes has been


a computer and technology
journalist for nearly 15 years

n LibreOffice is readily available in the Fedora repos


Gareth Halfacree has
been breaking, fixing and
overclocking his PC for years Out of Office
Hi, I’ve run into a problem that I hope you can
libraries: libpng12.so.0: cannot
open shared object file: No such
help me with. I tried to install LibreOffice file or directory
3.6.4 on Fedora 17, 32-bit version, using the It’s also not showing up in the menus, under
following method: Office or anywhere else. Have you got any
First I downloaded the compressed Fedora suggestions on how to fix it?
RPMs from the website using wget, then made
sure to remove any older version of OpenOffice. Mark Poffo
It turned out there was no OpenOffice on my
Rob Zwetsloot studied system, so I then extracted and then installed Well, what you can do is try to
aerospace engineering, using the packages like so: locate the shared object file. You
Python to model simulations
$ cd /tmp/LibO_3.6.4_Linux_x86_ can do that using:
install-rpm_en-US/RPMS/ $ find /usr/lib /lib
$ rpm -Uvh *.rpm -name libpng12.so.0 or
$ rpm -Uvh desktop-integration/ locate libpng12.s0.0
libreoffice3.6-freedesktop- Then run:
menus-3.6*.noarch.rpm $ ldd /path/libpng12.so.0
After that was all done, I tried to run LibreOffice After that, find out the missing object file from
from the command line using ‘libreoffice3.6’ the ldd o/p and then search/locate for the
and was greeted with this error: missing object file:
Joey Bernard helps
researchers with scientific /opt/libreoffice3.6/program/soffice. $locate <missing so file>
computing problems bin: error while loading shared If you find out there’s a similar file, create a soft

86 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Questions & answers
All your technical problems solved
Q/A

Storage RAID
Hi, I’ve done a couple of mdadm arrays and
foolishly assumed I knew what I was doing.
Now I’m stuck. I was trying to build a four-
drive RAID 10 array, but I messed up the
command syntax:
$ mdadm -v --create /dev/md0
--level=raid10 --raid-devices=4 /
dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 /dev/sda3 /dev/
sda4
Notice I was incrementing the number
and not the letter. Well, the array creation
failed and I found my mistake. I then tried to
create the array using the correct syntax:
$ mdadm -v --create /dev/md0
--level=raid10 --raid-devices=4 /
dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/
sdd1
It once again failed to create an array so I
tried to remove what I thought was a broken
array. But the stop command
$ mdadm --stop /dev/md0
■ GnuCash is popular among accountants just gives me an ‘It’s a directory’ error
message. When I try to zero the superblock I
link to that file and run ldd again. Alternatively, program crashes. I will be checking into how to
get an error message saying it couldn’t open
you could just try installing again, this time using resolve this issue since it is critical.
/dev/sdx. I tried deleting partitions but I get a
YUM instead. LibreOffice is in the Fedora repos, Which accounting program would you suggest?
‘Device or resource busy’ message.
though, and is kept fairly up to date, so you
If you guys have any ideas, suggestions
shouldn’t have to download the files separately. Steve Richards
or recommendations I’d greatly appreciate
hearing them.
Money Both GnuCash and KMyMoney are
quite popular among accountants
Joe Barton
management using open source software.
However, we have heard of more
You’re very nearly there, and I’m
Which personal finance program would you people having issues with
sorry to tell you that you’ve
suggest? I’m currently looking at GnuCash KMyMoney than GnuCash in general. Importing
missed a fairly minor step.
or KMyMoney, and I had planned on being the data from Quicken is trickier the more data
You’ve set up the RAID array,
further down-the-road in my testing of both you try to import, and we’ve heard of some people
and now you need to format it
products, but alas it is now getting close to my just giving up and deciding to enter the data
as a disk/partition. To do this, you need to use
self-imposed deadline to make a decision. My from scratch.
the command:
objective is to dump Quicken. You’ll also have to get used to the idea of
$ mkfs.ext3 /dev/md0
To get the data out of Quicken and into either double-entry bookkeeping, and there may be
And once that’s finished, it should be working
GnuCash or KMyMoney, I need to generate a a few more manual entries than you’re used to.
for you. Good luck with mdadm in the future.
QIF, which turns out to be less than satisfactory. Otherwise though, the best way is to get stuck
As an editorial aside, Quicken is very hostile in as soon as possible and figure out if you like
when it comes to sharing (exporting/importing) it or not.
data. In fact, the ability to export/import data
from Quicken seems to have been essentially
deprecated. A major reason for moving to a
Linux-based accounting program. ■ RAID 10

Install again,
So far, I have only accomplished preliminary offers
massaging of imported data. In terms of simple

this time using


testing, it has been easier to import data into striping and
GnuCash than into KMyMoney. Last night I mirroring in

YUM instead
was able to ascertain that KMyMoney ‘chokes’ one array
when attempting to import securities. The

87 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Contact us @linuxusermag
Questions Become a fan on
Linux User & Developer
& answers

Speak up
I was looking for a low-resource voice-only chat
We hate to be the bearers of bad
news, but it seems like the best
way to fix this is really to go and
software for Linux. From what I saw, Mumble/ upgrade the operating system so
Murmur seems a good choice. The problem is, one you can use the newer, or even up-
of the machines, which will be running the Mumble to-date packages.
client only (not the Murmur server) is old – so old You could use a more creative method, though
that it’s running Ubuntu Intrepid. Due to its remote – using the Launchpad search feature, you can
location, I cannot upgrade that machine right now. search for the dependencies manually and install
So I went back and found an older version the binaries from there. It will be a little tricky, but
Mumble client from Ubuntu Hardy, mumble_1.1.3- definitely a lot easier and faster than getting to
0ubuntu2.1_i386.deb to be exact. Newer versions this remote system, wherever it is.
had too many dependencies that were not met.
This old version had only libqt4-core and libqt4-gui
as unmet dependencies. I then went and got those NFS niggle
older versions of libqt4* from Hardy as well. I have a problem with NFS regarding file
These seemed to install fine, apart from permissions when copying a file that has no read/
libqt4-gui, which asks to remove libqt4-designer. write permissions for a group.
It tries to do this automatically; however, it fails and First, this is how I set up NFS:
quits out. I don’t know what libqt4-designer does • Created accounts for users on the server.
and I am hesitant to remove it as the above message • Each user has in server’s /etc/exports line with
advises, because this is a remote computer I have exported folder and his machine IP as well as
no physical access to. Since many apps may be following parameters: anonuid and anongid to
dependent on Qt I want to be on the cautious side match his uid/gid, rw and all_squash.
■ Write permissions in Linux are
before doing any removal. What should I do? • All users are in one common group, let’s call
difficult to exploit for good reason
it ‘fornfs’.
John Wilkinson • Each user has in his .profile on their machines BUT, if user A gets some file via Skype for
umask set to 002. example, and that file lands on user’s machine
Example of /etc/exports line: with permission 600, and user A then puts that
/mnt/share 192.168.1.10(rw,no_subtree_ file on NFS, other users can’t use that file at all
check,all_squash,anonuid=1001,anong because of the permission.
Search for the id=1004)
Server is Debian Squeeze, clients are
What I am looking for is, if there is some
kind of umask or similar that will force default
dependencies Kubuntu 12.04.1. Exported folder is SEC_
TYPE=”ext2” TYPE=”ext3”
permission on a file being copied to NFS. Which
means a user puts that file on NFS, NFS sees
manually and Now, if user A makes a file, it gets correct
permissions (by correct I mean also rw for group)
that file permission has no read and write for the
group, and corrects it. Like umask sets for a newly
install binaries thanks to umask. He puts that file on NFS and
other users from the ‘fornfs’ group can open it
created file.
I should mention also that you should assume
and edit too. that users are people that do not know/care to
change permissions, they just expect to put files
on NFS and that it should work automatically.
So advising users to chmod files before
putting on a mounted NFS is no-go (nor would
I like that system, although that depends on
user behaviour).
Thank you in advance.

Andrew Nguyen

Well, there are a few things you can


try. Firstly, a cron job could be
created to just chmod the files on a
regular basis – obviously it’s not
ideal and will cause unnecessary
server load, even if it’s incredibly minimal.
■ Mumble is popular among game clans Otherwise, if the file goes to a user folder first,

88 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Questions & answers
All your technical problems solved
Q/A

say in home, you can do some permission score input to control its virtual instruments (not not be the quality you want, you can get some
tweaking. This will result in that any file yet implemented). I’m about to give Ardour a shot, proper samples to try to use in Rosegarden itself.
downloaded to the folder will then inherit the but I’ve been having trouble getting a bead on Otherwise if you want to emulate it, you’ll get
correct permissions. You can do it with: what it can actually do, and am not sufficiently varying results depending on the instrument.
$ chmod g+xs /home/UserA experienced with the program to know if I’m being Hopefully this is enough information to get
Alternatively, you could switch the whole inept or if the program doesn’t support what you going!
system to Samba, although of course that could I want.
take a while to get properly set up depending on Do you know if you can use notation software,
the network. or the MIDI output, to control virtual instruments
on Linux?

Remix with Linux Thanks for any help you can provide.
Ardour right
I’m a composer. I’ve been using the (wonderful!)
program MuseScore to notate music and play
Ryan Everson
now is strictly for
it back with MIDI. This is fine for composition
purposes, but not for releasing music to the
Ardour right now is strictly for
recording and mixing audio – recording and
public, since even good MIDI samples tend to
sound very artificial. More importantly, this
currently it does not have any
software synthesizers. And while a mixing audio – it
program (or perhaps the samples/MIDI back-end)
is unable to articulate things like pitch bending,
few may be added in the next
version of Ardour, it sounds like it won’t be a full does not have
tapering dynamics etc.
I’m aware that ProTools (and others) can use
suite. For the moment, I would suggest trying
out Rosegarden. any software
‘virtual instruments’ to accomplish this, and
even be nearly indistinguishable from actual
Rosegarden is able to do MIDI-controlled
software synthesizers in the form of DSSI, as synthesizers
instruments. Audacity seems unable to use MIDI/ well as LADSPA v2, and while by default they may

n Rosegarden is one of the best free synthesizers on Linux

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Your view Your source of Linux news and views
Contact us…
Register and post your comments… Email us directly…
www.linuxuser.co.uk/forum/ linuxuser@imagine-publishing.co.uk

YOUR VIEW
■ Coming to
Android at some

Linux User
point, but in
what form?

Letters
Your opinions about the
magazine, Linux and open source You’re brushing next to a much wider problem

Touch the button all users on any particular platform will want a
than touch for Android ports, and we totally
agree. Even the desktop interfaces you’ve
I recently read the interview you had with Michael touch interface. Given Android is making inroads pointed out still primarily use a mouse and
Meeks from the Document Foundation a while into smart TVs, we can expect those to have high- keyboard, which is why LibreOffice is using it
back, and I had an issue with something he said definition mouse wands, or actual mice attached with them in the first place. While we’re not
re touch-screen interoperability. It’s a completely – not touch. We can expect some Android users sure how much use people will get out of an
different issue to Android platform compatibility will want the standard windowed LO interface. office suite on their TV with a limited remote
– LibreOffice would best be ported to Android and Not all platforms do support mice and physical control, Android phone manufacturers keep
there should also be a project to provide a touch- keyboards, so we shouldn’t presume a UI based trying to break the desktop market by using
screen UI to LO, regardless of platform. on platform. We really need LO to have a touch- docked Android phones – which also use a
Yes, Windows 8 is touch oriented. Ubuntu has friendly UI available on all platforms, but at the mouse and keyboard. Of course with Android,
been moving towards touch friendliness for some same time, keep the standard UI available. though, it is primarily touch, and there are
time. iOS is a touch platform. That is not to suggest Nick Hill space considerations to keep in mind.

THREAD BARE switch overheads. People interested in this specific topic might want to
read Amit Singh’s excellent book Mac OS X Internals.

That’s what happened to


In the context of microkernel performance, the work of Jochen Liedtke
and the numerous people working on L4 should not be underestimated.

the Hurd For a discussion of microkernel performance, I would recommend


Liedtke’s paper ‘µ-Kernels Must And Can Be Small’. In this paper, he
discussed why microkernels have to be small and why this in turn is
Right before Christmas, we posted Richard Hillesley’s
in-depth feature on the fate of GNU Hurd, the microkernel OS required for developing a fast microkernel.
championed by Richard Stallman some time ago. It quickly Nevertheless, thanks for the interesting story on the Hurd!
became one of our most read articles ever, and sparked a little
debate on the blog. You can see more at: http://bit.ly/12ItLWz DrunkButHappy said:
Listen, the Stallman/GNU defence is: “oh, it was too hard [to take
Don Brown said: the Mach kernel and DO something with it”. And yet, Apple took it
Good article. I had many “Heh… I didn’t know that…” moments. I and – together with the FreeBSD userland stuff – made the best UNIX
enjoy reading these types of stories. Even if they make me keep out there for the end user.
looking things up. It’s clear to me Stallman did not have the chops for his lofty goals.
I never wrote an OS or a compiler – I never wanted to, but I sure do When GNU wrote GCC, the standard book was the Dragon book.
appreciate the people who do. God bless them all. They helped me ANYONE, today, can probably write the early GNU stuff.
become the Engineer/IT Guy/Teacher that I am today. And Linux is the OS, it’s not GNU. Here I’ll prove it: even before LLVM
came along, I saw people use other compilers (Intel, for example). The
Michael Engel said: userland NEVER had to be GNU tools. So that leaves you… Linux as the
This may seem like nitpicking, but mentioning that “Rashid’s work fundamental part.
[at Carnegie Mellon] had suggested that this problem was not so
terribly significant after all” in relation to microkernel performance Nymphus said:
problems does not tell the whole story. Performance problems were Oh please. OS X is BSD-for-noobs. FreeBSD is too busy sucking up
IMHO one of the reasons for the slow acceptance of Mach – this still to OS X these days. OpenBSD is where it’s at! ;)
shows today in Apple’s OS X kernel, which is based on Mach 3, where for
performance reasons the idea of a clearly separated microkernel was dos said:
given up and a hybrid kernel was developed that again ran the BSD DrunkButHappy please. RMS is a beast. The Dragon book is a
emulation layer (among other things) in kernel space to avoid context great book.

94 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Your view
LibreOffice, GNU Hurd, Linux security
LETTERS

Utmost security use that to make your own decision whether


to try out a distro or not. Although, people can Android Magazine
I’ve noticed a couple of reviews where you learn a thing or two about backing up data to With more and more
comment on the lack of users on login. A display the degree you do! Android features being
manager that requires entry of the username merged back into
increases system security, which can only be a the Linux kernel, it’s
good thing. Installations that either encourage becoming easier to
develop for one of the
automatic login or whose login managers list
most popular mobile
the username go against good security practice. operating systems
When I regularly hear about people losing around. With over 25
their laptop/netbook that contains all their billion app downloads,
personal data, important photographs etc, I and over 500 million Android devices worldwide,
can feel reassured that by having an encrypted there’s a wide audience of folks ready and willing
to consume apps. For a more Android-driven
and password-protected installation, and all
editorial, you can look to our sister mag Android
my valuable data backed up in triplicate on Magazine, the only publication dedicated to the
encrypted external hard drives (and nothing of platform. Along with news and reviews to keep
great importance or value on my netbook’s hard you up to date on everything Android, there
drive), my data is fairly safe. are also tutorials and advice on developing
Of course, I could encrypt each folder and file, and hacking your hardware. Find out more at
■ It’s your choice to decide between user- www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk.
as well.
friendliness and security
Pierre Millien

Security is very important, of course. However, Contact us @linuxusermag


that’s why we explain in our reviews what we
Become a fan on
do and do not like. If you don’t agree with a Linux User & Developer
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