Ubuntuland, The Dream Valley

2009: Rise of popular social bookmarks

2009-11-27T08:53:00.001-08:00

There was a sudden rise of popularity of most of the 'major' social bookmark services since 2009
For some, we see popularity slowly going down towards end 2008 then suddenly rising.

delicious.com

Diigo.com

BlinkList.com (down and up)

Simpy.com

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Predict is an open-source, multi-user satellite tracking and orbital prediction program

2009-11-26T09:51:00.001-08:00

PREDICT is an open-source, multi-user satellite tracking and orbital prediction program written under the Linux operating system by John A. Magliacane, KD2BD. PREDICT is free software. Users may redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License or any later version.

PREDICT software is released in three forms:

* A version compatible with Linux or Unix operating systems (as well as some derivatives, such as Mac OS X),
* A version for DOS and DOS-based operating systems operating on 32-bit CPUs (80386s or better) that contains many, but not all the features and functionality of the Linux/Unix version.
* Bundled as part of an application-specific Linux distribution (Portable PREDICT Plus!) that includes a small suite of satellite communication applications in addition to PREDICT that can all be booted from a pair of floppy disks. (No permanent installation required.)

Download PREDICT

PREDICT may be downloaded through the following links:

PREDICT Version 2.2.3 for Linux: Released May 15, 2006
PREDICT Version 2.2.1d for DOS: Released November 4, 2002
PREDICT Version 2.1.4 for the Sharp Zaurus PDA: Released January 6, 2002
Portable PREDICT Plus! - Version 1.0 - builds under Linux: Released February 8, 2005
Portable PREDICT Plus! - Version 1.0 - builds under DOS/Windoze: Released February 8, 2005

Shortly after its initial release in late 1999, PREDICT was evaluated by the Linuxberg/Tucows web site, and received a rating of four out of five possible penguins/cows. A lot has happened since.

PREDICT has been adopted as a standard application in the Debian distribution of Linux.
PREDICT is included in the latest version of Slackware Linux.
PREDICT has been successfully ported to the Sharp Zaurus Linux-based PDA!
The use of PREDICT software is outlined in Infrastructure for Internet-Based Operations (PDF document) by James Cutler, Gregory Hutchins, Christopher Kitts, and Robert Twiggs of the Space Systems Development Laboratory, Stanford University. This paper was presented at the 14^th annual Utah State University conference on small satellites.
Several important advantages to using PREDICT software for small satellite ground support are illustrated in Design of a Distributed Ground Support System for Small Satellites (PDF Documement) by Richard M. Barry and Dr. Pieter J. Bakkes of the University of Stellenbosch Electronic Systems Laboratory, South Africa. This paper was presented at the 15^th annual AIAA/Utah State University Conference on Small Satellites in August 2001.
Reference is made to PREDICT in TU Sat 1: A Novel Communications and Scientific Satellite (PDF Document), written by members of the Physics Department at Taylor University, and presented at the 16^th annual USU Conference on Small Satellites in 2002.
PREDICT has been used to determine the Data Communication Accuracy of the ARGO Floats located in the seas adjacent to Japan. The following PDF Document provides further details.
The adaptation of PREDICT's core functions in the development of specialized tracking applications is discussed in a paper entitled Development of an Ikonos Coverage Prediction Application (PDF Document), authored at the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering at the University of New Brunswick, and the Department of Industrial Engineering at Dalhousie University.
PREDICT software was selected for use at Aalborg University's Institute of Electronic Systems (Denmark) for the operation of their SSETI-Express and AAUSAT-II automated satellite ground station. A detailed description of the development and operation of this system is available in PDF format.
Use of PREDICT is illustrated in Sources Sensitivity Simulator, Status Report (Postscript Document) written by Sonia Natale at the University of Geneva.
Use of PREDICT's internals is discussed in Orbit Optimization and Scattering Coefficient Analysis for the Proposed GLORIA System (PDF Document) by Bryan Welch, NASA / Glenn Research Center.
Use of PREDICT is cited in Routing in a Delay Tolerant Network (PDF Document) by Sushant Jain, Kevin Fall, and Rabin Patra.
Use of PREDICT is also cited in theses presented recently at Santa Clara University at both the Undergraduate and Graduate levels in Computer and Electrical Engineering.
eHam.net has several reviews of PREDICT.
Icewalkers.com has a page describing PREDICT software.
Linux2000 has a page describing the installation and use of PREDICT.
A description of the history and use of PREDICT software appeared in the July 2000 (Science and Engineering) issue of Linux Journal magazine.
John Heaton, G1YYH, has created several modifications to PREDICT Version 2.2.x to allow some additional features. Details and screenshots are available at his web site.
Fernand Lamberts, ON4LY, has developed several interesting graphical clients for PREDICT.
Christophe Mercier has developed JCP, a graphical Java client for PREDICT. Information on JCP, as well as a PREDICT user manual and installation guide in the French language is available at his web site.
PCRSAT, a PREDICT client application written by Vittorio Benvenuti, I3VFJ, allows operation of an ICOM PCR 1000 receiver in a satellite communication environment.
Iain Young, G7III, has also created some interesting PREDICT clients, including a telemetry decoder for the PCSAT, RAFT, and ANDE satellites.
Alexandru Csete's Groundstation Software Suite uses a derivative of PREDICT's source code for its satellite tracking functions.
Edson Pereira's PetitTrack satellite tracking software for the Sharp Zaurus SL-5000D and SL-5500 series Linux-based PDAs uses a derivative of PREDICT's source code for its tracking functions.
Ktrack by Luc Langehegermann, LX2GT, adopts some code and concepts from both PetitTrack and PREDICT. Luc has also developed a FODTRACK rotator interface utility for PREDICT.
Paul Williamson, KB5MU, has released Mac Vocalizer to enable PREDICT to run with speech announcements under Mac OS X.
Portable and modular coding has allowed users to successfully port PREDICT to operating systems, such as FreeBSD, Mac OS X, and Windows (using Cygwin-32).
Dana, N1OFZ, has created a web page that describes how to run PREDICT and GSAT successfully under Mac OS X.
David A. B. Johnson, G4DPZ, is actively developing a Satellite Tracking Web Service (websat) for the ESA/NASA/JAXA GENSO project that is based on code in PREDICT.
Andrew T. West has created PredictLib, a JavaScript satellite tracking library based on code contained in PREDICT.
Grace Peng has added an entry to her blog detailing her approach toward getting PREDICT to run on her MacBook Pro.
An interesting article entitled, Open Source Moved the Cheese, on an AMSAT discussion group describes the use of PREDICT as a low-cost, highly-capable alternative to hardware-specific approaches to satellite tracking.
Ralf Baechle, DO1GRB, has added gsat-1.1.0 plugin support for the Yaesu/Vertex Standard FT-847 transceiver. A source code patch and RPMs are available at: ftp.linux-mips.net.
PREDICT version 2.2.3 has been released! This is a maintainance release that attempts to offer improved performance together with sustained compatibility with the latest versions of xplanet and gcc.

Predicting Satellite Passes

Orbital predictions are useful for determining in advance when a satellite is expected to come within range of a ground station. They can also be used to look back to previous passes to help to confirm or identify past observations.

PREDICT includes two orbital prediction modes to predict any pass above a ground station (main menu option [P]), or list only those passes that might be visible to a ground station through optical means (main menu option [V]). In either mode, the user is asked to select a satellite of interest from a menu, and then asked to enter the date and time (in UTC) at which prediction calculations should start. Orbital calculations are started and prediction information is then displayed on the screen.

The date and time in UTC, along with the satellite's elevation above ground, azimuth heading, modulo 256 orbital phase, sub-satellite point latitude and longitude, slant range between the ground station and the satellite, and the satellite's orbit number are all displayed. An asterisk (*) displayed to the right of the orbit number means the satellite is in sunlight at the date and time listed on the line. A plus symbol (+) means the satellite is in sunlight while the ground station is under the cover of darkness at the time and date listed. Under good viewing conditions, large satellites such as the International Space Station, and the US Space Shuttles are visible to the naked eye. If no symbol appears to the right of the orbit number, then the satellite is in the Earth's shadow at the time and date listed, and is not receiving any illumination from the sun.

Selecting [V] from PREDICT's main menu will permit a ground station to only predict passes for satellites that are potentially visible through optical means. Since all other passes are filtered out in this mode, and since some satellites may never arrive over a ground station when optical viewing conditions are possible, the program provides the option of breaking out of visual orbital prediction mode by pressing the [ESC]ape key as calculations are made. A prompt is displayed at the bottom of the screen to alert the user of this option.

In either orbital prediction mode, predictions will not be attempted for satellites that can never rise above the ground station's horizon, or for satellites in geostationary orbits. If a satellite is in range at the starting date and time specified, PREDICT will adjust the starting date back in time until the point of AOS so that the prediction screen displays the first pass in its entirety from start to finish.

Single Satellite Tracking Mode

In addition to predicting satellite passes, PREDICT allows satellites to be tracked individually in real-time using PREDICT's Single Satellite Tracking Mode (main menu option [T]), or simultaneously as a group of 24 using the program's Multi-Satellite Tracking Mode (main menu option [M]). The positions of the Sun and Moon are also displayed when tracking satellites in real-time.

Selecting option [T] from PREDICT's main menu places the program in Single Satellite Tracking Mode. The user will be prompted to select the satellite of interest, after which a screen will appear and display tracking positions for the satellite selected.

In Single Satellite Tracking Mode, a wealth of real-time satellite data is provided by PREDICT. If the satellite contains an active communications downlink, uplink, or two-way communications transponder, then Doppler-corrected uplink and downlink frequencies, path loss, propagation delay, and echo are displayed. It is also possible to tune across the transponder's passband using certain keystrokes to locate a specific uplink or downlink frequency within the satellite's transponder. This makes it possible to determine the appropriate uplink frequency to match a desired downlink frequency (or vice-versa). PREDICT supports a number of transponders per satellite, including linear (both inverting and non-inverting), digital (Pacsat), and bent-pipe (FM). Also new to version 2.2.x is the determination of antenna squint angle and solar eclipse depth.

If a soundcard is present in your machine and the Single Satellite Tracking Mode is invoked with an uppercase 'T' rather than a lowercase 't', PREDICT will make periodic voice announcements stating the satellite's tracking coordinates in real-time. Announcements such as:

"This is PREDICT. Satellite is at fifty six degrees azimuth and forty five degrees elevation, and is approaching. Spacecraft is currently visible."

are made at intervals that are a function of how quickly the satellite is moving across the sky. Announcements can occur as frequently as every 50 seconds for satellites in low earth orbits such as the International Space Station (370 km), or as infrequently as every 8 minutes for satellites in very high orbits, such as the GE-2 geostationary satellite (35780 km). Voice announcements are performed as background processes so as not to interfere with tracking calculations as the announcements are made. Announcements can be forced at any time by pressing the 'T' key in Single Satellite Tracking Mode. Alarms are sounded at the precise moment when satellites enter into sunlight or into eclipse.

Solar Illumination Predictions

PREDICT even makes it possible to determine how much solar illumination a particular satellite will receive over the course of a day. This information is especially valuable to spacecraft designers and satellite groundstation controllers who must monitor spacecraft power budgets or thermal conditions on-board their spacecraft due to sunlight and eclipse periods. It can even be used to predict the optimum times for astronauts to perform extra-vehicular activities in space.

Multi-Satellite Tracking Mode

Selecting [M] from PREDICT's main menu places the program in a real-time multi-satellite tracking mode. In this mode, all 24 satellites in the program's database are tracked simultaneously along with the positions of the Sun and Moon. Tracking data for the satellites is displayed in two columns of 12 satellites each. The name, azimuth heading, elevation, sub-satellite point latitude (in degrees North) and longitude (in degrees West) positions are provided, along with the slant range (in kilometers), and the slant range distance between the satellite and the ground station (also in kilometers).

A letter displayed to the right of the slant range indicates the satellite's sunlight and eclipse conditions. If the satellite is experiencing an eclipse period, an N is displayed. If the satellite is in sunlight and the ground station is under the cover of darkness, a V is displayed to indicate the possibility that the satellite is visible under the current conditions. If the satellite is in sunlight while conditions at the ground station do not allow the satellite to be seen, a D is displayed. Satellites in range of the ground station are displayed in BOLD lettering. The AOS dates and times for the next three satellites predicted to come into range are displayed on the bottom of the screen between the tracking coordinates of the Sun and Moon. Predictions are not made for satellites in geostationary orbits or for satellites so low in inclination and/or altitude that they can never rise above the horizon of the ground station.

Solar and Lunar Orbital Predictions

In addition to making orbital predictions of spacecraft, PREDICT can also predict transits of the Sun and the Moon. When making solar and lunar orbital predictions, PREDICT provides azimuth and elevation headings, the right ascension, declination, Greenwich Hour Angle (GHA), radial velocity, and normalized distance (range) to the Sun or Moon.

The Declination and Greenwich Hour Angles correspond to the latitude and longitude of the object's sub-satellite point above the Earth's surface. The radial velocity corresponds to the speed and direction the object is traveling toward (+) or away (-) from the ground station, and is expressed in meters per second. When the radial distance of the Moon is close to zero, the amount of Doppler shift experienced in Moon bounce (EME) communications is minimal. The normalized distance corresponds to the object's actual distance to the ground station divided its average distance. In practice, the normalized distance can range from about 0.945 to 1.055 for the Moon, and about 0.983 to 1.017 for the Sun.

EME Support

Included with PREDICT is a utility called MoonTracker. MoonTracker supports moonbounce (EME) communications by calculating the position of the Moon, and sending appropriate control signals to an AZ/EL antenna rotator to track the Moon as it crosses the sky. Once invoked, MoonTracker spawns itself as background process, and continues to run until terminated by a kill signal. If the Moon is not above the horizon when MoonTracker is invoked, MoonTracker goes to "sleep" until the predicted time of Moon rise.

Client Applications

The Linux version of PREDICT includes networking code to permit its use as a socket-based server, allowing it to supply real-time tracking and orbital prediction information to client applications using the UDP communications protocol. A number of excellent client applications have been developed thus far for use with PREDICT, and more are on the way.

The graphical client applications pictured above are included as part of the Linux version of PREDICT.

The latest version of PB/PG (a Pacsat communication suite) for Linux written by Bent Bagger, OZ6BL polls PREDICT for live tracking data, and displays the information in the center of PB's main screen.

source: About.com Linux

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COIN-OR a repository of source code, models, data and examples available under open-source licenses

2009-11-24T00:38:00.001-08:00

COIN-OR stands for the Computational Infrastructure for Operations Research. The stated goal of the COIN-OR project is "to create for mathematical software what the open literature is for mathematical theory." The open literature (e.g., a research journal) provides the OR community with a peer-review process and an archive. Papers in operations research journals on mathematical theory often contain supporting numerical results from computational studies. The software implementations, models, and data used to produce the numerical results are typically not published. The status quo impeded researchers needing to reproduce computational results, make fair comparisons, and extend the state of the art.

The success of Linux, Apache, and other projects popularized the open-source model of software development and distribution. A group at IBM Research proposed open source as an analogous yet viable means to "publish" software, models, and data. COIN-OR was conceived as an initiative to promote open-source in the computational Operations Research community and to provide the on-line resources and hosting services required to enable others to run their own open-source software projects.

The COIN-OR website was launched as an experiment in 2000, in conjunction with 17th International Symposium on Math Programming in Atlanta, Georgia. In the year 2007, COIN-OR had 25 application projects, including tools for linear programming (e.g., COIN-OR CLP), nonlinear programming (e.g., IPOPT), integer programming (e.g., CBC, Bcp and COIN-OR SYMPHONY) and more. COIN-OR is hosted by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, INFORMS, and run by the educational, non-profit COIN-OR Foundation.

Projects

CLP

CLP stands for COIN-OR LP . CLP is an open-source linear programming solver written in C++. It is published under the Common Public License so it can be used in commercial software without any of the contamination issues of the GNU General Public License. CLP is primarily meant to be used as a callable library, although a stand-alone executable version can be built. It is designed to be as reliable as any commercial solver (if not quite as fast) and to be able to tackle very large problems.

CLP is designed to solve linear programming problems such as :

minimize c_1 x_1 + c_2 x_2\,

* subject to problem constraints of the following form

a_{11} x_1 + a_{12} x_2 \le b_1
a_{21} x_1 + a_{22} x_2 \le b_2
a_{31} x_1 + a_{32} x_2 \le b_3

* Non-negative variables

x_1 \ge 0
x_2 \ge 0

with up to millions of variables and/or constraints. Its main algorithm is the Simplex algorithm.

CLP is used in other COIN-OR projects such as SYMPHONY, BCP (Branch Cut and Price), CBC (Coin Branch and Cut) and others.

SYMPHONY

SYMPHONY is a software for solving a class of mathematical problems called integer programming (IP) problems and its variants. A linear programming problem is an optimization (mathematics) problem in which we want to maximize or minimize a linear objective function over a set of linear constraints. A Pure Integer Programming problem is a Linear Programming problem in which all the variables are allowed to assume only integer values. A Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) problem is similar to a Pure IP Problem, but only some of the variables are constrained to be integers. Other variables can assume non-integral values. MIPs are useful in modelling a lot of real life problems in logistics, scheduling, production planning, finance and management sciences. They are also extensively used in theoretical research like combinatorics, statistics, physics and computational biology. MIPs are therefore, an important tool in the field of Operations research (OR), which is, roughly, the analysis and optimization of business and other decisions using mathematics.

SYMPHONY is an acronym standing for Single- or multi-process optimization over networks. It is a callable library which can solve general mixed integer programs (MIPs) over heterogeneous networks. It is an open source branch and cut framework for solving MIPs and is available as a part of COIN-OR. It can use CLP, CPLEX, XPRESS or other linear programming solvers to solve the underlying linear programs.

SYMPHONY is a callable library which implements both sequential and parallel versions of branch, cut and price to solve MILPs. A branch, cut and price algorithm is similar to a branch and bound algorithm but additionally includes Cutting-plane methods and pricing algorithms. The user of the library can customize the algorithm in any number of ways by supplying application-specific subroutines for reading in custom data files, generating application-specific cutting planes, or applying custom branching rules, resulting in a customized state-of-the-art branch and cut algorithm. Most components of the algorithm, e.g., search tree management, management of linear programming solution, cut pool management, and communication management, are internal to the library and need not be touched by the user. The executables can be built in any number of configurations ranging from completely sequential to fully parallel with independently functioning cut generators, cut pools, and LP solvers. The distributed version currently runs in any environment supported by the PVM message passing protocol. The same source code can also be compiled for shared-memory architectures using any OpenMP compliant compiler.

SYMPHONY reads files in both, the MPS (format) (through the COIN-OR MPS reader) and AMPL files (through the GLPK parser). SYMPHONY does not have an LP-Solver of its own, but can be used with solvers like Clp, Cplex, Xpress through the Osi-interface. The cuts are generated using COIN's cut generation library: CGL. SYMPHONY also has structure specific implementations for problems like the Traveling salesman problem, Vehicle routing problem, Set partitioning problem, Mixed postman problem etc. SYMPHONY also has an interactive shell where the user can enter commands to execute and control the program.

Developer tools

BuildTools: COIN-OR Unix developer tools and documentation, tools for managing configuration and compilation of various COIN-OR projects under Linux, Unix, and Cygwin
CoinBinary: COIN-OR Binary Distributions, pre-compiled binary distributions of COIN-OR projects
CoinWeb: COIN-OR Web Services, COIN-OR Web pages, Subversion, Trac, etc.
TestTools: TestTools, Python scripts to automatically download, configure, build, test, and install COIN-OR projects

Graphs

CGC: COIN-OR Graph Classes, a collection of network representations and algorithms
LEMON: Library of Efficient Models and Optimization in Networks, a C++ template library aimed at combinatorial optimization tasks, especially those working with graphs and networks.

Interfaces

CoinMP: CoinMP, a lightweight API and DLL for CLP, CBC, and CGL
GAMSlinks: GAMS/COIN-OR Links, links between GAMS (General Algebraic Modeling System) and solvers that are hosted at COIN-OR
NLPAPI: Nonlinear Programming API, a subroutine interface for defining and solving nonlinear programming problems
OS: Optimization Services, standards for representing optimization instances, results, solver options, and communication between clients and solvers in a distributed environment using Web Services
OSI: Open Solver Interface, a uniform API for calling embedded linear and mixed-integer programming solvers
SMI: Stochastic Modeling Interface, for optimization under uncertainty

Metaheuristics

METSlib: METSlib, an object oriented metaheuristics optimization framework and toolkit in C++
OTS: Open Tabu Search, a framework for constructing tabu search algorithms

Modeling systems

FLOPC++: FLOPC++, an algebraic modeling language embedded in C++
GAMSlinks: GAMS/COIN-OR Links, links between GAMS (General Algebraic Modeling System) and solvers that are hosted at COIN-OR
OS: Optimization Services, standards for representing optimization instances, results, solver options, and communication between clients and solvers in a distributed environment using Web Services

Optimization convex non-differentiable

OBOE: Oracle Based Optimization Engine, optimization of convex problems with user-supplied methods delivering key first order information (like support to the feasible set, support to the objective function)

Optimization deterministic linear continuous

CLP: COIN-OR LP, a simplex solver
CoinMP: CoinMP, a lightweight API and DLL for CLP, CBC, and CGL
DyLP: Dynamic LP, an implementation of the dynamic simplex methods
FLOPC++: FLOPC++, an algebraic modeling language embedded in C++
OSI: Open Solver Interface, a uniform API for calling embedded linear and mixed-integer programming solvers
VOL: Volume Algorithm, a subgradient algorithm that also computes approximate primal solutions

Optimization deterministic linear discrete

BCP: Branch-Cut-Price Framework, a framework for constructing parallel branch-cut-price algorithms for mixed-integer linear programs
CBC: COIN-OR Branch and Cut, an LP-based branch-and-cut library
CGL: Cut Generator Library, a library of cutting-plane generators
CHiPPS: COIN-OR High Performance Parallel Search Framework, a framework for constructing parallel tree search algorithms (includes an LP-based branch-cut-price implementation)
DIP: Decomposition in Integer Programming , a framework for implementing a variety of decomposition-based branch-and-bound algorithms for solving mixed integer linear programs
SYMPHONY: SYMPHONY, a callable library for solving mixed-integer linear programs

Optimization deterministic nonlinear

DFO: Derivative-Free Optimization, a package for solving general nonlinear optimization problems when derivatives are unavailable
Ipopt: Interior-Point Optimizer, for general large-scale nonlinear optimization
MOCHA: Matroid Optimization: Combinatorial Heuristics and Algorithms, heuristics and algorithms for multicriteria matroid optimization
NLPAPI: Nonlinear Programming API, a subroutine interface for defining and solving nonlinear programming problems
OptiML: Optimization for Machine learning, interior point, active set method and parametric solvers for support vector machines, solver for the sparse inverse covariance problem

Optimization deterministic nonlinear discrete

Bonmin: Basic Open-source Nonlinear Mixed INteger programming, an experimental open-source C++ code for solving general MINLP (Mixed Integer NonLinear Programming) problems
Couenne: Couenne, a branch-and-bound algorithm for mixed integer nonlinear programming problems
LaGO: Lagrangian Global Optimizer, for the global optimization of nonconvex mixed-integer nonlinear programs

Optimization deterministic semidefinite continuous

CSDP: CSDP, an interior-point method for semidefinite programming

Optimization stochastic

SMI: Stochastic Modeling Interface, for optimization under uncertainty

Optimization utility

ADOL-C: ADOL-C, package for the automatic differentiation of C and C++ programs
CHiPPS: COIN-OR High Performance Parallel Search Framework, a framework for constructing parallel tree search algorithms (includes an LP-based branch-cut-price implementation)
CoinUtils: COIN-OR utilities, utilities, data structures, and linear algebra methods for COIN-OR projects
CppAD: CppAD, a tool for differentiation of C++ functions
LEMON: Library of Efficient Models and Optimization in Networks, a C++ template library aimed at combinatorial optimization tasks, especially those working with graphs and networks.
OS: Optimization Services, standards for representing optimization instances, results, solver options, and communication between clients and solvers in a distributed environment using Web Services
PFunc: Parallel Functions, a lightweight and portable library that provides C and C++ APIs to express task parallelism

Web services

OS: Optimization Services, standards for representing optimization instances, results, solver options, and communication between clients and solvers in a distributed environment using Web Services

Projects alphabetically:

ADOL-C: ADOL-C, package for the automatic differentiation of C and C++ programs
BCP: Branch-Cut-Price Framework, a framework for constructing parallel branch-cut-price algorithms for mixed-integer linear programs
Bonmin: Basic Open-source Nonlinear Mixed INteger programming, an experimental open-source C++ code for solving general MINLP (Mixed Integer NonLinear Programming) problems
BuildTools: COIN-OR Unix developer tools and documentation, tools for managing configuration and compilation of various COIN-OR projects under Linux, Unix, and Cygwin
CBC: COIN-OR Branch and Cut, an LP-based branch-and-cut library
CGC: COIN-OR Graph Classes, a collection of network representations and algorithms
CGL: Cut Generator Library, a library of cutting-plane generators
CHiPPS: COIN-OR High Performance Parallel Search Framework, a framework for constructing parallel tree search algorithms (includes an LP-based branch-cut-price implementation)
CLP: COIN-OR LP, a simplex solver
CoinBinary: COIN-OR Binary Distributions, pre-compiled binary distributions of COIN-OR projects
CoinMP: CoinMP, a lightweight API and DLL for CLP, CBC, and CGL
CoinUtils: COIN-OR utilities, utilities, data structures, and linear algebra methods for COIN-OR projects
CoinWeb: COIN-OR Web Services, COIN-OR Web pages, Subversion, Trac, etc.
Couenne: Couenne, a branch-and-bound algorithm for mixed integer nonlinear programming problems
CppAD: CppAD, a tool for differentiation of C++ functions
CSDP: CSDP, an interior-point method for semidefinite programming
DFO: Derivative-Free Optimization, a package for solving general nonlinear optimization problems when derivatives are unavailable
DIP: Decomposition in Integer Programming , a framework for implementing a variety of decomposition-based branch-and-bound algorithms for solving mixed integer linear programs
DyLP: Dynamic LP, an implementation of the dynamic simplex methods
FLOPC++: FLOPC++, an algebraic modeling language embedded in C++
GAMSlinks: GAMS/COIN-OR Links, links between GAMS (General Algebraic Modeling System) and solvers that are hosted at COIN-OR
Ipopt: Interior-Point Optimizer, for general large-scale nonlinear optimization
LaGO: Lagrangian Global Optimizer, for the global optimization of nonconvex mixed-integer nonlinear programs
LEMON: Library of Efficient Models and Optimization in Networks, a C++ template library aimed at combinatorial optimization tasks, especially those working with graphs and networks.
METSlib: METSlib, an object oriented metaheuristics optimization framework and toolkit in C++
MOCHA: Matroid Optimization: Combinatorial Heuristics and Algorithms, heuristics and algorithms for multicriteria matroid optimization
NLPAPI: Nonlinear Programming API, a subroutine interface for defining and solving nonlinear programming problems
OBOE: Oracle Based Optimization Engine, optimization of convex problems with user-supplied methods delivering key first order information (like support to the feasible set, support to the objective function)
OptiML: Optimization for Machine learning, interior point, active set method and parametric solvers for support vector machines, solver for the sparse inverse covariance problem
OS: Optimization Services, standards for representing optimization instances, results, solver options, and communication between clients and solvers in a distributed environment using Web Services
OSI: Open Solver Interface, a uniform API for calling embedded linear and mixed-integer programming solvers
OTS: Open Tabu Search, a framework for constructing tabu search algorithms
PFunc: Parallel Functions, a lightweight and portable library that provides C and C++ APIs to express task parallelism
SMI: Stochastic Modeling Interface, for optimization under uncertainty
SYMPHONY: SYMPHONY, a callable library for solving mixed-integer linear programs
TestTools: TestTools, Python scripts to automatically download, configure, build, test, and install COIN-OR projects
VOL: Volume Algorithm, a subgradient algorithm that also computes approximate primal solutions

Download

Binaries

Pre-compiled binaries for a number of projects and platforms are available here. For more information on using these binaries, please visit the Binary Distribution Project Web page.

Source Code

You can find detailed instruction on obtaining, configuring, compiling, installing, and finally using the COIN-OR libraries at the CoinHelp (BuildTools) project page.

An archive containing the source code for the latest stable release of each project can be obtained here or by checking it out using Subversion (SVN). See the FAQs for general instructions on subversion or go to the Web site of the project you are interested in for more specific instructions (see here for a list).

On-line Services

NEOS
Some COIN-OR solvers can be accessed on-line through NEOS. You only need a description of the optimization problem you want to solve---all additional information required by the solver is determined automatically. The following COIN-OR solvers run on NEOS. (Click on the links below to get to the solver's webpage on NEOS.)

BonMin, Basic Open-source Nonlinear Mixed INteger program solver on NEOS using AMPL input
CLP COIN Linear Program Solver on NEOS using MPS input
CBC Coin Branch and Cut Solver on NEOS
- using MPS input
- using AMPL input
IPOPT Large-Scale Nonlinear Optimization Solver on NEOS using AMPL input

source: About.com Linux

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23/09 - Wakkabox, An amusing block shuffling puzzle game

Can Ubuntu reach over 16,000 anime lovers in April?

2009-11-23T22:17:00.001-08:00

Anime Boston returns for 2010 on April 2-4 and the Ubuntu Massachusetts Local Community Team has some ambitious plans. Last year, I went in on behalf of the team and dropped off 50 copies of the Ubunchu Manga with Jaunty CDs attached, and they were all gone within the first couple of hours of the first day of the convention. It seemed to be the only thing on the flyer table that people actually wanted! The event was amazing. There were people there from all over the country, even across the world. Over 15,000 people attended and that number has risen from little over 4,000 since the first convention in 2003. For 2010, we're going to be reaching out to this huge potential user base. While we're at it, we'll also be creating a new model for Linux groups to raise funds for projects without the having to go through registering as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization or being legally recognized in any way.

Ubuntu really is a perfect candidate for the new operating system of choice for all anime lovers, and that is exactly what we aim to make it. Is there a more passionate and tight-knit, yet diverse and open minded cultural phenomenon that we could target than the widespread anime fandom? Convention goers are a great target audience. They tend to be slightly on the geeky side but still cool of course and very receptive to Ubuntu. An OS that is beautiful yet still highly customizable, Free and Open Source with a supportive enthusiastic community that very much mirrors their own couldn't be a better match! With the right planning along with support from the community and maybe a couple of the big dogs, our goals are very attainable.

So, what exactly will we be doing? We can approach this on several levels, starting with setting up a booth in the Dealers' Room of the convention. From here, we can distribute free copies of the Ubunchu Manga, Ubuntu LiveCDs, and materials on FOSS, Ubuntu, and our team. Most importantly, we'll be out there talking and connecting with people and generally just making a big impression on them. We will also offer live installs and do some cool demonstrations, the basic stuff that should be expected. If we gain enough resources, another great opportunity is distributing our materials in the Anime Boston registration bags. This would put our materials in the hands of almost every single convention attendee. That's expected to be over 16,000 people!

It's important that we are smart about how we spread Ubuntu since buying a computer with Ubuntu pre-installed is the most effective way to get people to switch. We are hoping companies who are committed to FOSS and GNU/Linux will be willing to partner with us for the event. We have already contacted some manufacturers such as System76 and ZaReason and would happy to hear from any others. With additional funding we may be able to sell Ubuntu merchandise like bootable USB drives and display some machines from our partner(s) with anime themes (some good wallpapers from here and here). If possible, we'd like to auction or raffle off a customized laptop with anime themes and an Anime Boston design laser-etched into it. How cool would that be!

I might also be signing up for a tech staff or volunteer position at the event so I can be an inside man solving problems and being a computer hero all the while spreading Ubuntu to everyone running the convention. If you thinks you might be interested in doing this, you're encouraged to apply at the Anime Boston website. During one of the main events at the 2009 convention, I remember hearing Windows error sounds!

On top of all of this, we have a digital camcorder which will capture everything every step of the way. The video camera records in full HD and everything (Sony HDR-XR520V if you're curious). So not only would we have an immediate impact on everyone at the convention, but we can extend our reach to YouTube and continue to have a lasting impact long after the convention closes its doors for the year.

As mentioned before, we will be setting a precedent with this project. To the best of our knowledge this has never been done before or at the very least not on this scale. Thanks to Linux Fund, we will be able to accept tax-deductible donations to cover the costs of this event. Linux Fund is currently in the process of setting up a system that will allow them to provide this service to other FOSS community groups at a competitive rate. Such a valuable resource has not been readily available to unincorporated FOSS groups in the past. This is a real game-changer: the possibilities are endless. This relationship reflects the growing trend of FOSS groups building relationships with the nonprofit community. Once this infrastructure has been implemented, we can expect to see many more projects of this magnitude and greater spring up.

This is where all of you, the community, come in. We cannot depend so much on big sponsors to jump on board just yet, so we are going to start with a community fundraiser to raise money for the essential elements of our campaign and show our potential sponsors that this is a worthwhile endeavor. The most important element of this campaign is our physical presence at the Anime Boston conventions so our first fundraising goal will be $700; that's just 70 people willing to give ten dollars! Help us blow this goal out of the water so that we can move on to the good stuff. Please repost this everywhere you can: (micro)blogs, YouTube, etc. Also pitch us your ideas in the comments of this post and please subscribe to keep up with our fundraising. Thank you all!

Copy the code below to embed this button on your website.

Link to this blog post:

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source: Ubuntu Planet

Music Player Daemon (MPD) allows remote access for playing various sound files and managing playlists

2009-11-17T21:35:00.000-08:00

Music Player Daemon (MPD) is a flexible, powerful, server-side application for playing music.

Music Player Daemon (MPD) is a server that allows remote access for playing music in various formats and managing playlists. It makes a great desktop player with frontend options (Qt, GTK, ncurses, Windows, and Web clients are available). It is also appropriate as a console player that is scriptable, and is especially useful if X is restarted frequently. A set of rapid development tools for clients are being developed and include a C library, Python module, PHP class, Perl module, and Java Class. The goals are to be easy to install and use, to have minimal resource requirements, to be stable and flexible, and easy to interface.

Through plugins and libraries it can play a variety of sound files while being controlled by its network protocol. For more information, read about what mpd is and is not.

Support:
Decoder Plugins: AudioFile, libfaad (aac and mp4), ffmpeg, FLAC, fluidsynth, libmad and libmpg123 (mp3), Musepack, OggFlac, OggTremor, OggVorbis, WavPack, libsidplay, libsndfile, wildmidi
Output Plugins: ALSA, FIFO, JACK, OSS, OSX, libao, PulseAudio, Media MVP, Shoutcast/MP3, Shoutcast/Ogg Vorbis
Metadata: APEv2, id3v1, id3v2, MP4, Vorbis
Mixers: ALSA, OSS, Software Mixing
Protocols: TCP, IPv6, and Unix Domain Sockets

General Installing From Source

First check that you have all the dependencies that you want from Dependencies
Retrieving the sources
- First, do you want to install from the latest development sources? If so, follow the guide.
- Otherwise you can download the latest sources
Follow the procedure at linuxquestions.org going straight to the ./configure step if you downloaded from subversion. A hint that that link doesn't give is there are specific options that you can look through by typing ./configure --help, then adding those to your ./configure will make your MPD turn out differently, although the defaults will do just fine.

Installing with Ports

- you may need to update your ports tree (use CVSup, see the FreeBSD handbook)
- make sure internet works, or put the source file in /usr/ports/distfiles
- if portupgrade is installed

portinstall musicpd

otherwise

cd /usr/ports/audio/musicpd

make install cle

Installing with Packages

you may need to set some options, otherwise you will probably get an outdated MPD release (see the FreeBSD handbook)

make sure internet works, then do a

pkg_add -r musicpd

without internet download the package from http://www.freebsd.org/ or http://www.freshports.org/, then do

pkg_add /path/to/package.tgz

Configure MPD

for general configuration: edit /usr/local/etc/mpd.conf (see Configuration for details)

to start MPD at boot time: edit /etc/rc.conf and include musicpd_enable=YES

initial database creation:

/usr/local/bin/mpd --create-db /usr/local/etc/mpd.conf

Kernel compilers beware

MPD needs System V shared memory; make sure 'SYSVSHM' is included in your kernel!

Ubuntu Install Procedure

First, edit /etc/apt/sources.list and enable the 'universe' repository. After you make this change, you will have to run apt-get update.
You can use Synaptic. If for some reason this installation fails, this howto on the Ubuntu Forums may help.

aptitude update

aptitude install mpd

If you just need only MP3 and FLAC support through ALSA, then you can compile it from source:

download the latest sources
extract them to some directory (for example mpd-x-x-x)
go to this directory (for example cd mpd-x-x-x)
install the dependencies, compile and install:

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install libasound2-dev libmad0-dev libid3tag0-dev libflac-dev libflac++-dev ./configure
make
sudo make install

Mac OS X 10.3, 10.4 Install Procedure

Install MacPorts from http://www.macports.org/
You may need to have a look at http://trac.macports.org/projects/macports/wiki/GettingStarted to use MacPorts/Darwinports.
- sudo port install faad2 (optional)
- sudo port install faac (optional)
- sudo port install mpd

See the osx page for details.

NetBSD Install Procedure

First select all the dependencies that you want from Dependencies and put the appropriate indications in the PKG_OPTIONS.musicpd variable. Possibilities are: aac, audiofile, flac, iconv, id3, and ogg.

install MPD through pkgsrc
- you may need to update your pkgsrc tree (2004Q2 and up have it) (see the documentation for more information on updating)

cd /usr/pkgsrc/audio/musicpd

make install

configure MPD:
- for general configuration edit /usr/pkg/etc/mpd.conf (see Configuration for details) (example is in /usr/pkg/share/examples/mpd/mpd.conf)
- initial database creation:

/usr/pkg/bin/mpd --create-db /usr/pkg/etc/mpd.conf

SPARC/SPARC64 notes

Since libmad is integer only, performance isn't the best on NetBSD/sparc{,64}. In case you don't want MPD to use 15% CPU on a 440 MHz UltraSPARC-IIi, you might consider adding these lines to your /usr/pkgsrc/audio/libmad/Makefile:

CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --enable-fpm=sparc
CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --enable-speed

and then run

cd /usr/pkgsrc/audio/libmad

make clean all replace

OpenBSD Install Procedure

These are the configure script flags I found helpful for getting mpd running on Openbsd 3.8 i386.

MPD 0.11:

./configure --with-ao-includes=/usr/local/include --with-ao=/usr/local/lib --disable-ipv6

MPD 0.12:

./configure --enable-ao --with-ao-includes=/usr/local/include --with-ao=/usr/local/lib

Software Appliance Availability

If you have a spare machine (virtual or real) and you don't want to deal with configuration and setup yourself, there is a software appliance based on MusicPD available at http://www.rpath.org/rbuilder/project/musicpd/ -- it's currently shipped as a VMware virtual machine image, and comes with a minimal version of rPath Linux, MusicPD installed and configured, phpMp, and the beginnings of a web-based configuration tool. It also supports music shares over NFS and Samba. Word of warning: the appliance does not include MP3 support.

source: About.com Linux

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The Best Free Linux Music Servers

2009-11-16T22:25:00.001-08:00

A home computer makes an ideal appliance to store and stream music. The purpose of a music server is to deliver tracks when requested by a client. The server can deliver music to machines over a local area network as well as computers connected over the internet.

Linux is widely recognised as an ideal operating system to serve web pages. But the server capabilities of Linux extend far beyond merely providing HTTP servers.

There is a wide range of multimedia software available for Linux which turns your machine into a jukebox. There are even dedicated Linux distributions (such as VortexBox) that turn your computer into a music server. This article identifies the best free software which enables your Linux machine to act as a music server, distributing digital tracks over a network. Such software supports popular audio formats such as OGG Vorbis, MP3 and WMA.

We have focused on software which is simple to set up and has an easy to use interface.

Music server software can be put to a number of different uses. For example, it provides an excellent way to listen to your music collection at home, or to listen from a remote location. Alternatively, users can share their music with friends over the internet. However, it is important to remember that if you stream music to others on the internet, you should only use tracks that are available under a free license, or where permission has been obtained from the copyright owner.

So, let's explore the 6 music servers at hand. For each application we have compiled its own portal page, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, screenshots (where relevant), together with links to relevant resources and reviews.

Sockso
Personal music server for everyone

Jinzora
Web based media streaming and management system

Subsonic
Web based media streamer and jukebox

Icecast
Ogg Vorbis and MP3 streaming media server

Music Player Daemon

Flexible, powerful, server-side application for playing music.

Music Player Daemon (MPD) is a flexible, powerful, server-side application for playing music. Through plugins and libraries it can play a variety of sound files while being controlled by its network protocol. For more information, read about what mpd is and is not.

QuodLibet audio library tagger, manager, and player for GTK+

2009-11-15T10:07:00.001-08:00

Are you sick of audio players that think they know how to organize your music for you? Do other media libraries choke and die after a mere 10,000 songs? Do you often find yourself thinking Boy, I wish I could grep my music? Or are you just looking for something that can tag your audio files?

Quod Libet & Ex Falso

Quod Libet is a GTK+-based audio player written in Python, using the Mutagen tagging library. It's designed around the idea that you know how to organize your music better than we do. It lets you make playlists based on regular expressions (don't worry, regular searches work too). It lets you display and edit any tags you want in the file. And it lets you do this for all the file formats it supports -- Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, MP3, Musepack, and MOD.

Quod Libet easily scales to libraries of thousands of songs. It also supports most of the features you expect from a modern media player, like Unicode support, multimedia keys, and tag editing.

Ex Falso is a program that uses the same tag editing backend as Quod Libet, but isn't connected to an audio player. If you're perfectly happy with your favorite player and just want something that can handle tagging, Ex Falso is for you.

Ex Falso and Quod Libet have been tested on many GNU/Linux distributions, and we've heard it can run on FreeBSD. Anywhere with GTK+ 2.10, Python, and an OSS or ALSA compatible audio device should be able to use it.

Filename
Summary + Labels
Uploaded
Size
DownloadCount
...

quodlibet-2.1.tar.gz.gpg
Quod Libet 2.1 (GPG Signature)

quodlibet-2.1.tar.gz
Quod Libet 2.1 Featured

quodlibet-2.0.tar.gz.sig
Quod Libet 2.0 (GPG Signature)

quodlibet-2.0.tar.gz
Quod Libet 2.0

Screenshots

source: About.com Linux

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23/09 - Wakkabox, An amusing block shuffling puzzle game

Ocrad is an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) program based on a feature extraction method

2009-11-13T01:46:00.001-08:00

Ocrad is an optical character recognition program, developed as part of the GNU Project.

Ocrad 0.18 for Linux released

Based on a feature extraction method, it reads images in portable pixmap formats and produces text in byte (8-bit) or UTF-8 formats. Also included is a layout analyzer, able to separate the columns or blocks of text normally found on printed pages. Ocrad can be used as a stand-alone command-line application, or as a back-end to other programs. Like all GNU software it is free software, and is licensed under the GNU GPL.
Kooka, which is the KDE environment's default scanning application can use Ocrad as its OCR engine.

Introduction

GNU Ocrad is an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) program based on a feature extraction method. It reads images in pbm (bitmap), pgm (greyscale) or ppm (color) formats and produces text in byte (8-bit) or UTF-8 formats.

Also includes a layout analyser able to separate the columns or blocks of text normally found on printed pages.

Ocrad can be used as a stand-alone console application, or as a backend to other programs.

Documentation

The manual is available in the info system of the GNU Operating System. Use info to access the top level info page. Use info ocrad to access the ocrad section directly.

An online manual for ocrad can be found here.

Download

The latest released version of GNU Ocrad can be found in the subdirectory /gnu/ocrad/ on your favorite GNU mirror. For other ways to obtain ocrad, please read How to get GNU Software. The latest released version will be the most recent version available at http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ocrad/.

Old versions and testing versions can be found at http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/ocrad/.

How to Get Help

For general discussion of bugs in ocrad the mailing list bug-ocrad@gnu.org is the most appropriate forum. Please send messages as plain text. Please do not send messages encoded as HTML nor encoded as base64 MIME nor included as multiple formats. Please include a descriptive subject line. If all of the subject are "bug in ocrad" it is impossible to differentiate them.

An archive of the bug report mailing list is available at http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-ocrad.

How to Help

To contact the author, either to report a bug or to contribute fixes or improvements, send mail to bug-ocrad@gnu.org. Please send messages as plain text. If posting patches they should be in unified diff format against the latest version. They should include a text description.

See also the ocrad project page at Savannah.

source: About.com Linux

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23/09 - Wakkabox, An amusing block shuffling puzzle game

Latexdraw vector drawing program for LaTeX using PSTricks

2009-11-08T09:38:00.001-08:00

LaTeXDraw is a free PSTricks code generator or PSTricks editor for LateX distributed under the GNU GPL. LaTeXDraw is developed in java, so it's independent of the OS. It's available in English, in Spanish, in French and in German. You need jre 1.6 to launch LaTeXDraw.

latexdraw 2.0.5 available

This release fixes some problems. It also allows to export a drawing using pdflatex and pdfcrop; this feature allows to crop the generated pdf document.

Download

Features

Shapes
Grid, axes, Bézier curve,... Around 20 possible shapes.

PSTricks oriented
PSTricks is the main format of the software, but others languages will be managed.

Vectorial transformations
Can resize, rotate, move, join and replace. Usefull mirrors and magnetic grid.

Import
For the moment, only PSTricks

Export
PSTricks, eps, jpg, bmp, png, ppm.

Cross-Platform
Thanks to Java, it runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS and Solaris

Intuitive interface
dynamic toolbar, code panel, frame of parameters...

Classical features
Zoom, undo/redo, copy/cut/paste, print,...

tug-pstricks, the main page of the pstricks project where you can download the pstricks packages, documentations, ...
tug-pstricks documentation, pdf files which explain pstricks.
PSTricks tutorial by one of the authors of pstricks (in french).
PSTricks tutorial from tug.
one another PSTricks tutorial in french.

Screenshots

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Install Firefox Plug-ins Fire FTP and Firefox Widgets in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

2009-11-05T06:33:00.001-08:00

How to find out which version of Ubuntu you're using:

Open the command terminal and type:

lsb_release -a

How to find out which kernel you are using

uname -r<br />

Newer Versions of Ubuntu

Ubuntu has a six month release cycle, with releases in April and October.
Lucid Lynx (10.04 LTS), scheduled for release in April 2010, will be the next LTS (Long-term support) version.

Older Versions of Ubuntu

Jaunty Jackalope (9.04) (supported until October 2010)
Intrepid Ibex (8.10) (supported until April 2010)
Hardy Heron (8.04 LTS) (Long Term Support version with desktop support until April 2011 and server support until April 2013)
Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) (no longer supported)
Feisty Fawn (7.04) (no longer supported)
Dapper Drake (6.06 LTS) (Long Term Support for server until June 2011; desktop no longer supported)

Firefox Plug-ins

Adblock plug-in (block ads in a web page)

Adblock Plus blocks ads that appear in web pages. You can subscribe to a free filter service, and can add ads to block with a single click.

sudo apt-get install mozilla-firefox-adblock

You can also add this extension from Firefox -> Tools -> Add-ons -> Get Add-ons -> Browse All Add-ons. (This method will also ensure that automatic updates are installed by Firefox.)

Noscript plug-in (controls scripts)

The Noscript plugin is considered one of the most important security measures for browsing the Internet. Most viruses and trojans gain access to computers from the Internet through scripts. This plugin allows you to choose which scripts to allow and blocks the rest.

sudo apt-get install mozilla-noscript

You can also add this extension from Firefox -> Tools -> Add-ons -> Get Add-ons -> Browse All Add-ons. (This method will also ensure that automatic updates are installed by Firefox.)

User Agent Switcher plug-in for Firefox

The User Agent Switcher plugin allows a browser to masquerade as another browser, allowing (most of the time) browser-specific content to be displayed.

You can add this extension from Firefox -> Tools -> Add-ons -> Get Add-ons -> Browse All Add-ons. (This method will also ensure that automatic updates are installed by Firefox.)

Video Download Helper plug-in for Firefox

The Video Download Helper plugin allows the download of videos (including Flash videos) from sites like YouTube.

You can add this extension from Firefox -> Tools -> Add-ons -> Get Add-ons -> Browse All Add-ons. (This method will also ensure that automatic updates are installed by Firefox.)

Unplug Download Management

The UnPlug add-on lets you save video and audio which is embedded on a webpage.

You can add this extension from Firefox -> Tools -> Add-ons -> Get Add-ons -> Browse All Add-ons. (This method will also ensure that automatic updates are installed by Firefox.)

Java Runtime Environment (JRE) for Firefox plug-in

This package also installs the Java Runtime Environment. (JRE is also installed when OpenOffice or ubuntu-restricted-extras is installed.)

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin<br />

Note: You must accept the license to use this product.

Adobe Acrobat Reader for Firefox Plug-in

This plugin is available from the Medibuntu repository. It allows you to view Adobe Acrobat files within the Firefox browser.

Add the Medibuntu repository to your repository list:

deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ jaunty free non-free

Install:

sudo apt-get install acroread mozilla-acroread acroread-plugins acroread-fonts

Adobe Flash Player for Firefox Plug-in

To install the official Adobe Flash plugin (Flash 10) for Firefox:

sudo apt-get install adobe-flashplugin

Gnash Plug-in (Open source Flash Player replacement)

Gnash is available in a 64-bit version as well as a 32-bit version. It is the open source replacement for Adobe Flashplayer.

sudo apt-get install gnash

After installing, change your web browser's Preferences -> Applications so that SWF and SPL files use Gnash.

VLC plug-in for Firefox

This package allows the popular VLC player to play media within the Firefox browser.

sudo apt-get install mozilla-plugin-vlc

Gecko MediaPlayer Plug-in for Firefox

Gecko MediaPlayer is a browser plugin for all Gecko-based browsers (Firefox, SeaMonkey, IceApe, Opera) that allows Mplayer to play multimedia within the browser. Install:

sudo apt-get install gecko-mediaplayer

An alternative is to use the mplayer plugin for Firefox. Install:

sudo apt-get install mozilla-mplayer

Kaffeine Plug-in for Firefox

This package allows the Kaffeine media player (often used in KDE-based desktops) to play multimedia within the Firefox browser.

sudo apt-get install kaffeine-mozilla

Helix player plug-in for Firefox

This package installs the Helix player (the open source player that plays Real Player content in Linux) as well as the plugin that plays RealMedia within the Firefox browser.

sudo apt-get install mozilla-helix-player

FireFTP for Firefox

FireFTP is a Firefox extension for FTP transfers.

Firefox Widgets

Turn off browser bar drop-down list in Firefox

This is the most frequently asked problem regarding Firefox. To turn off the location browser bar drop-down list (and therefore not show your browsing history):

Firefox -> about:config (in the location browser bar) -> browser.urlbar.maxRichResults -> right-click -> Modify -> set value to 0

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Ximp3 is a simple console MP3 player based on the Xing decoder (also used in FreeAmp)

2009-11-05T04:15:00.001-08:00

Ximp3 is a simple console MP3 player. It is based on the Xing decoder (also used in FreeAmp).

Installation

Monkey comes standard with a console based CD player, but you’ll have to download and install XiMP3 to listen to MP3’s. Download the ximp3-0.1.14.tar.gz source code from home.swipnet.se/~w-10246/unix/ and unpack it like you would any other Monkey software package.

The sound card on your computer(s) must be properly configured (review compiling kernel tutorial) and the gccall.tgz software package (review software packages tutorial) must be installed before installing XiMP3. For XiMP3 to work, /dev/dsp and /dev/audio support have to be compiled into the kernel along with your computer’s sound card.

Follow these instructions to compile and install XiMP3 after you configure your sound card, install gccall.tgz, and unpack ximp3-

0.1.14.tar.gz:
cd /ximp3-0.1.14 CHANGE TO /ximp3-0.1.14 DIRECTORY
sh ./configure CONFIGURE XiMP3 IN BOURNE SHELL
make COMPILE THE XiMP3 PACKAGE
make check RUN SELF-TESTS
make install INSTALL THE XiMP3 BINARY
make clean REMOVE XiMP3 OBJECT FILES
make distclean REMOVE FILES CONFIGURE CREATED

After a successful install, the ximp3 binary will be placed in the /usr/local/bin directory. There is no man page for XiMP3 and I haven’t been able to find an operations manual on the web. There is a file, located in the XiMP3 source directory, listing the programs options. Here are some commands that you can use to find XiMP3 information.

cd /ximp3-0.1.14 CHANGE TO /ximp3-0.1.14 DIRECTORY
cat README | more DISPLAY README FILE
ximp3 DISPLAY XiMP3 VERSION AND SWITCHES
ximp3 v0.1.14
usage: ximp3 [-d device] [-b buffers] [-s] [-l] [-v] [-r] <file...>
Here's a break down of the ximp3 command and it’s options:
ximp3 START XiMP3 OR LIST OPTIONS
- device AUDIO DEVICE TO USE. DEFAULT: /dev/dsp
-b buffers NUMBER OF AUDIO BUFFERS TO USE. EACH BUFFER
IS 18432 BYTES. DEFAULT: 30.
-s SHUFFLE PLAY; RANDOMLY SHUFFLES FILES SPECIFIED
ON THE COMMAND LINE AND, IF THE FILE IS A
PLAYLIST, THE FILES IN IT.
-l PLAY FILES IN AN ENDLESS LOOP.
-v VERBOSE OUTPUT IN STANDALONE MODE.
-r USED WHEN PIPING TO ximp3shell. NOT USEFUL IN
STANDALONE MODE.
<file...> MP3 FILE NAMES.

I have fiddled around with the program and found a few hitches. For instance, Linux/Unix does not like blank spaces in file names so get used to naming your files like music_file.mp3. Also, the first time I started XiMP3 I had to wait until the song was over to get back to the shell prompt. You could press ‘Ctrl+C’ to kill the process. To work around this problem add ‘&’ to the end of the initial ximp3 command. This allows XiMP3 to run as a background process, therefore, allowing you access to the shell prompt while your MP3’s play.

Below I illustrate how I created a song list and used XiMP3 to listen to it.

cd music CHANGE TO DIRECTORY WITH MY MP3'S
cat >> list.m3u CREATE SONG LIST NAMED list.m3u
summertime.mp3
sunday_afternoon.mp3
good_day.mp3
brooklyn_queens.mp3
passing_me_by.mp3
computer_love.mp3
Press Ctrl+D SAVE list.m3u AND RETURN TO PROMPT
ximp3 -l list.m3u & PLAY LIST IN A LOOP AND RETURN TO PROMPT

Two more bits of information that may help you out. Suppose you would like to shutdown the computer, but XiMP3 is in the middle of the playlist. It’s generally a bad idea to shutdown the computer while a process is running. First list out all of the running processes with the ‘ps’ command. You’ll find two processes relating to XiMP3. Next kill the processes with the ‘kill -9 (process id number)’ command. Finally, you can delete the ximp3-0.1.14 source code directory to save hard disk space with the ‘rm -R /ximp3-0.1.14’ command.

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Organize, Enjoy, and Share Your Photos with F-Spot

2009-11-01T07:46:00.000-08:00

F-Spot is an image organizer, designed to provide personal photo management for the GNOME desktop.

F-Spot aims to have an interface that is simple to use, yet still supports advanced features such as tagging images and displaying and exporting Exif and XMP metadata.

All major photographic image formats are supported, including JPEG, PNG, TIFF, DNG and several vendor-specific RAW formats (CR2, PEF, ORF, SRF, CRW, MRW and RAF). Other supported file types are GIF, SVG and PPM. However, as of 2008, the RAW formats were not editable with F-Spot. But newer releases of F-Spot have the DevelopInUFRaw extension, which call on UFRaw for the conversion work, and then reimport the resulting JPEG back into F-Spot as a new version of the original RAW.

Photos can be imported directly from the camera. The driver support is provided by libgphoto2. GNOME desktop environment can also optionally detect if a camera or a memory card has been attached, and import images to F-Spot automatically.

Basic functions such as crop, rotate and resize are available alongside more advanced features such as red-eye removal and versioning. Color adjustments are supported, including brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, and temperature.

Photo CDs can be created by selecting multiple photographs and selecting "Export to CD" from the main menu.

Photos in the F-Spot library can be uploaded to a number of online photo storage sites. F-Spot supports two major gallery sites, Flickr and Picasa Web Album, and also using stand-alone web gallery software, including Gallery and O.r.i.g.i.n.a.l. F-Spot can also generate static web gallery sites and export to facebook.

F-Spot is a full-featured personal photo management application for the GNOME desktop.

F-Spot simplifies digital photography by providing intuitive tools to help you share, touch-up, find and organize your images.

Get F-Spot

The most recent version of F-Spot is 0.6.1.4, released Oct 29, 2009. (Download)

For a list of what has changed, please check the Release News.

Binary packages are available from most distributions.

You can try F-Spot without installing anything by using Live CDs from many popular GNU/Linux distributions.

Simple User Interface

The main F-Spot user interface in Browse mode is shown. F-Spot supports 16 common files types, including JPEG, GIF, TIFF, RAW, and others.

Import your photos from your hard drive, camera (including PTP type), or iPod.

Photos can be tagged for searching and grouping, and the timeline gives quick sense of temporal location, and quanity of photos taken. F-Spot can view and export EXIF and XMP metadata in your images.

Other features include fullscreen and slideshow modes.

Photo Editor

Editing photos in F-Spot is a breeze. Easily rotate, crop, resize, and adjust red eye and other color settings with a few simple clicks.

Versioning ensures your originals are never altered.

Enter descriptions of photos that are saved in the actual file so other people and programs will be able to see them, whether they use F-Spot or not.

Color Adjustments

F-Spot allows for quick and precise color adjustments, including brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, and temperature.

Tag Icon Editor

Easily create your own tag icons directly from your own photos, or use one of the many stock icons. Learn more

about tags.

Create Photo CD

Creating a CD of photos is just clicks away. Simply select the photos you wish to have on CD, and choose "Export to CD" from the main menu.

Export to Web (flickr, picasa etc)

If you have a
Flickr, 23, Picasa Web or SmugMug account, F-Spot can export photos to it, while optionally resizing your selection, and preserving tags and metadata.

You can also export to Gallery or O.r.i.g.i.n.a.l. powered websites, or a nicely themed static webpage.

Extensions

Additional features can be enabled by installing extensions.

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The Apache HTTP Server 2.2.14 released

2009-10-27T02:46:00.001-07:00

The Apache HTTP Server, commonly referred to as Apache is a web server notable for playing a key role in the initial growth of the World Wide Web. In 2009 it became the first web server to surpass the 100 million web site milestone.

Apache was the first viable alternative to the Netscape Communications Corporation web server (currently known as Sun Java System Web Server), and has since evolved to rival other Unix-based web servers in terms of functionality and performance. The majority of web servers using Apache run the Linux operating system.

Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the auspices of the Apache Software Foundation. The application is available for a wide variety of operating systems, including Unix, GNU, FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, Novell NetWare, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, OS/2, TPF, and eComStation. Released under the Apache License, Apache is characterized as open source software.

Since April 1996 Apache has been the most popular HTTP server on the World Wide Web. As of September 2009[update] Apache served over 54.48% of all websites and over 66% of the million busiest.

Features

Apache supports a variety of features, many implemented as compiled modules which extend the core functionality. These can range from server-side programming language support to authentication schemes. Some common language interfaces support Perl, Python, Tcl, and PHP. Popular authentication modules include mod_access, mod_auth, mod_digest, and mod_auth_digest, the successor to mod_digest. A sample of other features include SSL and TLS support (mod_ssl), a proxy module (mod_proxy), a URL rewriter (also known as a rewrite engine, implemented under mod_rewrite), custom log files (mod_log_config), and filtering support (mod_include and mod_ext_filter).

Popular compression methods on Apache include the external extension module, mod_gzip, implemented to help with reduction of the size (weight) of web pages served over HTTP. ModSecurity is an open source intrusion detection and prevention engine for web applications. Apache logs can be analyzed through a web browser using free scripts such as AWStats/W3Perl or Visitors.

Virtual hosting allows one Apache installation to serve many different actual websites. For example, one machine with one Apache installation could simultaneously serve www.example.com, www.test.com, test47.test-server.test.com, etc.

Apache features configurable error messages, DBMS-based authentication databases, and content negotiation. It is also supported by several graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_HTTP_Server

Use

Apache is primarily used to serve both static content and dynamic Web pages on the World Wide Web. Many web applications are designed expecting the environment and features that Apache provides.

Apache is redistributed as part of various proprietary software packages including the Oracle Database and the IBM WebSphere application server. Mac OS X integrates Apache as its built-in web server and as support for its WebObjects application server. It is also supported in some way by Borland in the Kylix and Delphi development tools. Apache is included with Novell NetWare 6.5, where it is the default web server. Apache is included with many Linux distributions.

Apache is used for many other tasks where content needs to be made available in a secure and reliable way. One example is sharing files from a personal computer over the Internet. A user who has Apache installed on their desktop can put arbitrary files in Apache's document root which can then be shared.

Programmers developing web applications often use a locally installed version of Apache in order to preview and test code as it is being developed.

Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) is the main competitor to Apache, followed by Sun Microsystems' Sun Java System Web Server and a host of other applications such as Zeus Web Server.

Apache 2.2.14 Released

The Apache HTTP Server Project is proud to announce the release of version 2.2.14 of the Apache HTTP Server ("Apache"). This version is principally a security and bugfix release.

This version of Apache is a major release and the start of a new stable branch, and represents the best available version of Apache HTTP Server. New features include Smart Filtering, Improved Caching, AJP Proxy, Proxy Load Balancing, Graceful Shutdown support, Large File Support, the Event MPM, and refactored Authentication/Authorization.

Download Apache HTTP Server 2.2.14

source: Wikipedia & Apache

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mtPaint is a graphic editing program geared towards creating indexed palette images and pixel art

2009-10-26T05:42:00.001-07:00

mtPaint is a graphic editing program geared towards creating indexed palette images and pixel art. It is aimed to be simple and easy to use.

mtpaint is designed for use on the GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows computer operating systems, and uses the GTK+ toolkit (version 1 or 2). It was originally created in 2004 and developed by Mark Tyler, but since 2006 it has been maintained by Dmitry Groshev. Released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, mtPaint is free software.

It uses the GTK+ toolkit (version 1 or 2) and runs on PC's via the GNU/Linux or Windows operating systems. Due to its efficient design it can run on older PC hardware (e.g. a 200MHz CPU and 16MB of free RAM).

mtPaint is free software, which means you are able to freely use, modify and distribute it according to the GNU General Public License.

Currently mtPaint is maintained by Dmitry Groshev.

Features

* Interface

o Toggle the toolbars on or off at the touch of a button.
o Horizontal or vertical split view mode.
o Pixel grid for guidance at high levels of zoom.
o Move the mouse pointer with exact precision using the arrow keys.
o Extensive shortcut keys used to improve productivity.
o 12 Image clipboard.
o Up to 1000 undo steps.
o Zoom levels between 10% and 2000%.
o Pan window for quickly navigating a large image, or at a high zoom.
o Browse different files passed at the command line.
o Translations: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Taiwanese), Czech, Dutch, English (UK), French, Galician, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish.
o Use a pressure sensitive graphics tablet.
o Limit memory used for undo images.
o Grab screenshots.

* Pixel Art

o Edit indexed palette or RGB images.
o Save and load BMP, GIF, JPEG, LSS, PNG, TGA, TIFF, XPM, XBM files.
o Extensive palette features - load, save, sort, edit, posterize, quantize, remove duplicate colours, remove unused colours, colour protection, palette shifting.
o Image channels: Alpha, Selection, Mask. All saved to a PNG file.
o Up to 100 layers.
o Create animations by moving layers, or shifting palettes.
o Create animated GIF's using Gifsicle.
o 81 brush presets.
o 100 brush patterns.
o User defined gradients.
o Copy and paste using rectangle or polygon shapes.
o Tools to shuffle pixels, flood fill, draw straight lines, smudge, clone, paste text, draw/fill rectangle/ellipses.

* Image Manipulation

o Quickly transform image gamma, brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, posterize from a single dialog, and preview the results in real time.
o Apply various effects such as invert, greyscale, isometric transformations, edge detect, sharpen, unsharp mask, soften, Gaussian blur, emboss, bacteria.
o Use gamma correction on effects to improve the quality of various effects.
o Crop at the touch of a button.
o Resize the canvas.
o Rescale the canvas, enlarging or reducing, using several filter methods.

Download

Screenshots

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PDFedit is free and open source library for manipulating PDF documents, released under terms of GNU GPL version 2

2009-10-24T06:23:00.001-07:00

PDFedit allows users complete control of editing PDF documents.

It is primary created for simple editing and manipulation of documents in PDF format. There is a graphical and command line interface available.

The software lets you change either raw PDF objects (for advanced users) or use predefined GUI functions. Functions can be easily added as everything is based on a scripts. p>Scripting is used to a great extent in the editor and almost anything can be scripted. It is also possible to create your own scripts or plugins to enhance the functionality of the package.

PDFedit is a low-level application for technical users that provides structured access to the internal structure of the PDF file. It may require familiarity with PDF specifications to be able to make substantial modifications.

Features include:

* Console and graphical interface
o Console - useful for typing in scripts and macros
o Graphical - window is divided into 5 basic parts: Menu, Toolbars, Command part, Page space and Objects tree + property editor
* Manipulate PDF documents in a number of ways
* Add pages from another PDF
* Text editing: add, delete text, change colour, size and fonts
* Revision control
* Simple drawing, lines, rectangles, layer control
* Page rotation, text extraction

Download

All files are hosted at sourceforge.net. Go to the sourceforge download page to download PDFedit.
In case sourceforge is offline or not functioning, you can use local backup download page to download latest source package

Distros

Gentoo Linux
PDFedit is available via Sunrise Overlay.

Debian Linux
There are Debian Linux packages available.

NetBSD
PDFedit packages are in NetBSD package collection

openSUSE
There are openSUSE pdfedit packages

Screenshots

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The Internet Software Consortium DHCP Client, dhclient, provides a means for configuring one or more network interfaces

2009-10-24T00:04:00.000-07:00

The Internet Software Consortium DHCP Client, dhclient, provides a means for configuring one or more network interfaces using the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, BOOTP protocol, or if these protocols fail, by statically assigning an address.
OPERATION

The DHCP protocol allows a host to contact a central server which maintains a list of IP addresses which may be assigned on one or more subnets. A DHCP client may request an address from this pool, and then use it on a temporary basis for communication on network. The DHCP protocol also provides a mechanism whereby a client can learn important details about the network to which it is attached, such as the location of a default router, the location of a name server, and so on.

On startup, dhclient reads the dhclient.conf for configuration instructions. It then gets a list of all the network interfaces that are configured in the current system. For each interface, it attempts to configure the interface using the DHCP protocol.

In order to keep track of leases across system reboots and server restarts, dhclient keeps a list of leases it has been assigned in the dhclient.leases(5) file. On startup, after reading the dhclient.conf file, dhclient reads the dhclient.leases file to refresh its memory about what leases it has been assigned.

When a new lease is acquired, it is appended to the end of the dhclient.leases file. In order to prevent the file from becoming arbitrarily large, from time to time dhclient creates a new dhclient.leases file from its in-core lease database. The old version of the dhclient.leases file is retained under the name dhclient.leases~ until the next time dhclient rewrites the database.

Old leases are kept around in case the DHCP server is unavailable when dhclient is first invoked (generally during the initial system boot process). In that event, old leases from the dhclient.leases file which have not yet expired are tested, and if they are determined to be valid, they are used until either they expire or the DHCP server becomes available.

A mobile host which may sometimes need to access a network on which no DHCP server exists may be preloaded with a lease for a fixed address on that network. When all attempts to contact a DHCP server have failed, dhclient will try to validate the static lease, and if it succeeds, will use that lease until it is restarted.

A mobile host may also travel to some networks on which DHCP is not available but BOOTP is. In that case, it may be advantageous to arrange with the network administrator for an entry on the BOOTP database, so that the host can boot quickly on that network rather than cycling through the list of old leases.
COMMAND LINE

The names of the network interfaces that dhclient should attempt to configure may be specified on the command line. If no interface names are specified on the command line dhclient will normally identify all network interfaces, elimininating non-broadcast interfaces if possible, and attempt to configure each interface.

It is also possible to specify interfaces by name in the dhclient.conf(5) file. If interfaces are specified in this way, then the client will only configure interfaces that are either specified in the configuration file or on the command line, and will ignore all other interfaces.

If the DHCP client should listen and transmit on a port other than the standard (port 68), the -p flag may used. It should be followed by the udp port number that dhclient should use. This is mostly useful for debugging purposes. If a different port is specified for the client to listen on and transmit on, the client will also use a different destination port - one greater than the specified destination port.

The DHCP client normally transmits any protocol messages it sends before acquiring an IP address to, 255.255.255.255, the IP limited broadcast address. For debugging purposes, it may be useful to have the server transmit these messages to some other address. This can be specified with the -s flag, followed by the IP address or domain name of the destination.

For testing purposes, the giaddr field of all packets that the client sends can be set using the -g flag, followed by the IP address to send. This is only useful for testing, and should not be expected to work in any consistent or useful way.

The DHCP client will normally run in the foreground until it has configured an interface, and then will revert to running in the background. To run force dhclient to always run as a foreground process, the -d flag should be specified. This is useful when running the client under a debugger, or when running it out of inittab on System V systems.

The client normally prints a startup message and displays the protocol sequence to the standard error descriptor until it has acquired an address, and then only logs messages using the syslog (3) facility. The -q flag prevents any messages other than errors from being printed to the standard error descriptor.

The client normally doesn't release the current lease as it is not required by the DHCP protocol. Some cable ISPs require their clients to notify the server if they wish to release an assigned IP address. The -r flag explicitly releases the current lease, and once the lease has been released, the client exits.

The -1 flag cause dhclient to try once to get a lease. If it fails, dhclient exits with exit code two.

The DHCP client normally gets its configuration information from /etc/dhclient.conf, its lease database from /var/lib/dhcp/dhclient.leases, stores its process ID in a file called /var/run/dhclient.pid, and configures the network interface using /sbin/dhclient-script To specify different names and/or locations for these files, use the -cf, -lf, -pf and -sf flags, respectively, followed by the name of the file. This can be particularly useful if, for example, /var/lib/dhcp or /var/run has not yet been mounted when the DHCP client is started.

The DHCP client normally exits if it isn't able to identify any network interfaces to configure. On laptop computers and other computers with hot-swappable I/O buses, it is possible that a broadcast interface may be added after system startup. The -w flag can be used to cause the client not to exit when it doesn't find any such interfaces. The omshell (8) program can then be used to notify the client when a network interface has been added or removed, so that the client can attempt to configure an IP address on that interface.

The DHCP client can be directed not to attempt to configure any interfaces using the -n flag. This is most likely to be useful in combination with the -w flag.

The client can also be instructed to become a daemon immediately, rather than waiting until it has acquired an IP address. This can be done by supplying the -nw flag.
CONFIGURATION
The syntax of the dhclient.conf(8) file is discussed seperately.
OMAPI
The DHCP client provides some ability to control it while it is running, without stopping it. This capability is provided using OMAPI, an API for manipulating remote objects. OMAPI clients connect to the client using TCP/IP, authenticate, and can then examine the client's current status and make changes to it.

Rather than implementing the underlying OMAPI protocol directly, user programs should use the dhcpctl API or OMAPI itself. Dhcpctl is a wrapper that handles some of the housekeeping chores that OMAPI does not do automatically. Dhcpctl and OMAPI are documented in dhcpctl(3) and omapi(3). Most things you'd want to do with the client can be done directly using the omshell(1) command, rather than having to write a special program.
THE CONTROL OBJECT
The control object allows you to shut the client down, releasing all leases that it holds and deleting any DNS records it may have added. It also allows you to pause the client - this unconfigures any interfaces the client is using. You can then restart it, which causes it to reconfigure those interfaces. You would normally pause the client prior to going into hibernation or sleep on a laptop computer. You would then resume it after the power comes back. This allows PC cards to be shut down while the computer is hibernating or sleeping, and then reinitialized to their previous state once the computer comes out of hibernation or sleep.

The control object has one attribute - the state attribute. To shut the client down, set its state attribute to 2. It will automatically do a DHCPRELEASE. To pause it, set its state attribute to 3. To resume it, set its state attribute to 4

source: About.com Linux

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23/09 - Wakkabox, An amusing block shuffling puzzle game

Easily Upgrade Any Hard Drive with Linux: desktop vs Laptop

2009-10-20T23:38:00.001-07:00

Of course, this is all relative. Having worked with personal computers for two decades, I can safely make such a statement, since from my perspective the fact that I can get a half-tetrabyte drive for under $100 retail (and around $60 online) seems just short of amazing.

It was just such an opportunity that helped me decide to pop into the local big-box store and grab such a drive to upgrade my laptop’s 160-Gb drive to a 500-Gb device.

There’s a couple of ways to upgrade a drive: you can install a fresh operating system on the new drive then pull all of your personal data across. This is clunky, because you will have to re-install all of the applications and tweak the configuration settings you had on your old drive. A better way is to clone everything on the old drive to a new one, so you don’t have to re-install anything.

What follows is a comprehensive tutorial on the different ways to clone and replace your current drive with a larger one, be it laptop or desktop, no matter what operating system you are using.

Desktop vs. Laptop

There’s a fundamental difference in strategies for replacing a desktop hard drive versus a laptop hard drive. Typically, especially when you have a Windows or Mac desktop machine, you can buy a new drive, connect it in the PC’s spare drive bay, then use the included software to clone your old drive to the new one. Then it’s simply a matter of swapping out the old drive for the new clone.

Naturally, the drive manufacturers don’t include a Linux version of their clone utility, so you have to use other software. Still, the principle is the same.

Laptops, however, are another animal entirely. There really are very few dual-drive laptops on the market, and the ones that are out there (a) are very expensive and (b) often have a solid-state drive (SDD) as the second drive, usually smaller than the main drive. This usual lack of an open drive bay in laptops has created an interesting market condition. A lot of new laptop drives may not include any software to facilitate cloning, figuring that the average person is not capable of cloning a laptop drive.

In fact, the instructions within my new drive’s box indicated that because no software was included, it was recommended that only a professional install the new drive. In other words, hand over a minimum of $99 and your machine for a minimum of five days (the current fee and waiting time at my local big box tech support; your costs/fees may vary) to get your new hard drive cloned and installed.

Or, you can pay about $20 and some change, spend about two or three hours, and do it yourself using Linux-based tools.

The $20 is the average price for a 2.5-inch drive enclosure. If you’ve never used one of these, they’re very nice to have. Essentially they’re specialized boxes into which you can place any hard drive (they come in 3.5- and 2.5-inch sizes for desktop and laptop drives, respectively), and in turn plug into your computer via the USB port. I find them invaluable, because I can keep all my old drives around and use them as memory storage devices after upgrade.

One thing to note: make sure you get the right type and size of enclosure. Size really matters because 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch drives only fit within their respective enclosures. It’s equally important to make sure you have the right type: IDE/EIDE drives (usually found on older machines) will not fit within SATA enclosures (and vice versa).

The change is whatever it costs you for a blank CD-R disk. You’ll need that to install Clonezilla, a Linux distribution that runs from a live CD and provides a very specialized set of services: disk utilities, including cloning. Clonezilla is analogous to those Windows/Mac utilities that come with desktop hard drives.

The important thing to remember is that Clonezilla can be used to clone any hard drive, regardless of operating system or platform. So if you want to upgrade a Windows, Mac, or Linux laptop drive, you can use Clonezilla and save a lot of time and money. Clonezilla is also essential for replacing a Linux-based desktop drive, because of that lack of compatible utilities referred to earlier.

Getting Clonezilla and Prepping Your Data

Clonezilla, like any Linux distro, is easy to get. Visit the download page for the project and choose the stable ISO version to download.

Once the .iso file is saved on your machine, use your preferred CD-burning tool to create a disk from the .iso image file. It’s that easy. Clonezilla is ready to use.

I cannot emphasize that importance of backing up at least your personal data. There is a small chance here that you could select the wrong options and kill off everything on your old drive. If you pay attention, this should not happen, but for safety’s sake, back up your data.

Hardware Setup

Setting up your new drive is not too hard, there are just a couple of basic rules I like to follow. First, treat the drives like glass. Don’t toss them around, don’t drop them, and you should be fine. I also try not to work on any hardware in a carpeted room, because of static. My favorite place is the kitchen counter, away from the sink. Countertops and hard floors are less likely to accumulate static electricity, especially if you’re wearing shoes. Plus, touch the side of the fridge before you start and anytime you walk away from the project and come back to discharge any charge. If you want to be super safe, buy an anti-static wrist strap and follow the instructions for wearing it.

For PCs, you will need to do some internal surgery at the start to get your drive installed. Open the PC case and locate the hard drive bays. You should see a 40-pin, 80-conductor IDE interface cable, which is a flat, grey ribbon that looks like corrugated lasagna. One end is plugged into the motherboard and one end into the existing hard drive. Another 40-pin connector (usually gray) will be on the cable in-between. If you already have a secondary drive, the connector will be plugged into it. If necessary, unplug the old secondary drive and remove it from the PC, carefully setting it aside for later.

Plug your new, empty drive into the secondary drive connector. Make sure the jumper settings are configured to Slave (see the manufacturer’s operating guide for further information) before you connect it. If you don’t need to move your PC to operate it, save a little time and don’t mount the drive with the little screws yet. You’re going to move the drive later, anyway.

At this point, you’re ready to clone your drive. Skip to the Using Clonezilla section to start.

If you have a laptop, the initial set up is a little easier. You simply put the new drive into the enclosure based on the manufacturer’s instructions, and plug the external drive into your computer. The internal surgery comes later. Now it’s time to use Clonezilla.

Using Clonezilla

Cloning a drive with Clonezilla can be done no matter what operating system you are using, because Clonezilla loads and operates from the CD you burned it on. It has its own operating system (a little version of Linux) on which to run, and it doesn’t care what you usually run. By running independently from your primary operating system, Clonezilla can copy information block for block from one disk to another without running into “can’t copy, file in use” errors and the like.

After your new drives are properly plugged in, you can insert your new Clonezilla disk into the CD drive and reboot your machine. Follow your computer’s BIOS instructions to make sure your computer can boot to the CD first and not your primary operating system.

Clonezilla doesn’t have a pretty interface—it doesn’t need it. To use the interface all you need are arrow keys, the spacebar to select items in a multi-choice list, and the Enter key to input your choices.

When Clonezilla first starts, it will ask what language you want to use. Select the language (again, with the arrow keys) and press Enter.

You will then be asked what keymap you want to use. A keymap is how a computer knows what keyboard you are using. Most standard, English keyboards can use the default keymap in Clonezilla, so just press Enter. If you have a non-English or non-standard keyboard, select the option to choose another keymap and walk through that process.

After the keymap is set, you are presented with the choice to use Clonezilla in device-image or device-device modes. The device-image mode is used to backup and restore your drive data for standard backup use. Handy, so keep your Clonezilla disk around to do this at a later date. But that’s not what we need to do today, so select the device-device mode and press Enter.

Now you are asked to choose from Beginner or Expert mode. Let’s pause here and discuss what you want to do.

It’s assumed that you are cloning from a smaller drive to a larger drive, else why would you be swapping drives anyway? When a drive is cloned, all of your data is transposed block for block to the new drive—and nothing else. That means that if you are going from, say, a 160-Gb to a 500-Gb drive, then only 160 Gb’s worth of drive will be cloned over, leaving about 340 Gb of empty space.

That’s okay, you might think, since I can fill that 340 Gb with all-new data. That was the whole point of this exercise, right? In actuality, this is not the case. To explain, here’s a quick primer on how computers store data.

When any operating system tracks data on a drive, it uses an infrastructure of partitions and filesystems to manage the data. A partition is a way an OS organizes data on a drive. In Windows, for instance, you might have one partition for the C: drive and one for D:, etc. For Linux, many users have a partition for their root (/) files and a separate partition for anything in the /home directory, so if they ever switch distros, their personal files in the /home directory will be preserved. A partition is crucial for data storage. Any part of a disk that is unpartitioned is known as free or unallocated space. That means, to any operating system, that space does not exist. You can’t use it until it’s partitioned.

This gets us to the crux of the decision you need to make at this point. You can do a straight clone of your drive, and then use a partitioning tool in your operating system later to partition the unallocated space (gparted in Linux is an excellent graphic tool). Or, if you like your current partitioning scheme, you can have Clonezilla resize all your partitions proportionately to the new drive size.

For instance, if you have two partitions of 100 and 200 Gb on a 300-Gb drive, then on a new 500-Gb drive, the partitions will be resized to 166.7 and 333.3 Gb, respectively.

If you want to do a straight clone job, choose Beginner mode. If the proportional resizing tool interests you, choose Expert mode. Note: if you are using an Itanium-based system, or a new Mac system, you should not use Expert mode, because these systems might use the newer GUID partition table (GPT) system to track partitions. Clonezilla can copy GPT information, but it can’t edit it, so you’ll need to go with the straight clone option and use a partitioning tool later.

The next screen presents you with a number of potential tasks. The one we want is the first option: disk_to_local_disk. It’s important that you have any new drive connected, either internally or externally, at this point, so Clonezilla can detect it. Press Enter.

Now you need to choose the local disk as source option. This is exactly what you think: which disk is the source of your data? Windows users and new Linux users might be confused at this point, because instead of C: or D: (or / or /home), you will see something like /hda and /hdb or /sda and /sdb. Don’t worry, that’s just how the Linux-base for Clonezilla labels hard drives. Fortunately, it’s easy to tell, because Clonezilla lists the sizes of the drives in this list. Looking at the capacity for each drive, it’s pretty easy to tell which drive is the smaller source and which is the new bigger drive.

If, for some reason, you are using equal-sized drives, you need to make absolutely sure which is which. Cancel out of Clonezilla until you get to the menu option to go to the command line. Enter the command line, then type

fdisk –l

You will see a list of partitions and drives with a lot of information that may be confusing. Right now, none of it matters: look for the drive label that is empty. That’s your new drive, because since it came out of the box, there’s been nothing on it.

Make a note of the drive label. Type

shutdown –r now

to reboot Clonezilla, then navigate back to where you were.

Once you are absolutely sure, select the correct drive as the source and press Enter. This is likely the most critical step in the operation, since getting the source wrong has the potential of overwriting all of your data with whatever’s on the new drive. Which is very bad.

Next, choose the local disk as target. Typically, there will only be one option here: the disk you didn’t select as the source. Again, double-check that this is indeed the target, because this is not something you want to mistake.

If you selected Expert mode, there will be some additional steps at this point. You will see a screen of several extra options to choose from. You might be tempted to pick the –r Resize the filesystem to fit the partition size of the target partition option. Don’t. That’s something you don’t need at this point. Just leave the options be on this screen and press Enter.

Another screen will appear, which does have the option you want. Select –k1 Create partition table proportionally (OK for MBR, not GPT), recalling the warning made earlier about doing this on Itanium or Mac platforms, which may use GPT.

At this point, Beginner and Expert modes merge. Confirm twice that you want to do this operation with y. When asked if you want to clone the boot loader, definitely enter y—the boot loader is what your computer needs to see first to properly boot any operating system.

Confirm the operation one more time, then the partclone tool will start. Now get your cup of coffee, because this will take a while, depending on the number of partitions and the size of the new drive.

When the operation is complete, press Enter to continue, then the option to power off and exit Clonezilla. Remove the disk from the CD drive, then press Enter again to shutdown your computer.

Immediately restart your computer and make sure your old operating system and drive is still in place. If so, you’re good to go. Even is something glitched in the cloning operation, at least you have your existing system in place.

Finishing the Hardware Surgery

Once the new drive is cloned, it’s now time to finish the hardware installation.

On the PC, go back into the case and remove the old master drive. You can use it as a storage device in a 3.5-inch drive enclosure, if you have one. Or swap it with the new drive.

Connect the new drive to the primary drive 40-pin connector (usually black) and mount the new drive in the bay. (You don’t have to move it, unless you’re swapping the old and new drives.) Definitely use any fasteners and screws, because you should be done. Close up the PC case.

On a laptop, remove the new drive from the enclosure and open the laptop’s drive bay to remove the old drive. Carefully plug the new drive into the appropriate slot and remount it using the screws provided. Close up the laptop case.

If everything went well, your new drive should boot up the way it always has, only now you have lots of new room for your data. Use the appropriate partition tool for your operating system to add a new partition to any unallocated space on your drive, if necessary.

source: Linux.com

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