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Welcome
to issue 125 of Linux User & Developer Get
Linux User
Richard Hillesley writes about art,
This issue
Your team of Linux experts…

music, digital rights, Linux and

free software for a variety of
publications and is a previous
editor of Linux User. As well as
providing his usual monthly
column (page 17), this month
Richard shares the downfall of
Mono starting on page 42.
Kunal Deo is a veteran open source developer
leading multiple open source
projects. He is also a KDE
developer and has contributed
to many projects including KDE-
Solaris, Belenix and Openmoko.
This month Kunal shows us how
to write web apps in Python in his
developer tutorial on pages 52-55.
Liam Fraser is the creator of the hugely popular
RaspberryPiTutorials YouTube
series and is a Linux server admin
for the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
This month Liam shows budding
developers how to share their
creations with fellow RasPi fans on
the Raspberry Pi Store. You can find
his tutorial on pages 48-51.
Joey Bernard has been using Linux at home
for almost 20 years and he’s
now getting paid for it as
a computational research
consultant with ACEnet. This
month Joey shows us how to
manage a project using Gannt and
Planner (pages 38-41).
Rory MacDonald is our resident open
source reporter with a keen nose for
a story and a good eye for detail. You
can find his latest stories starting
on page 6, including details about
Google’s new Pixel Chromebooks,
developments with Firefox OS and
the big news (not) coming out of this
for £4.19
» Build your own server per issue
» Secure remote backups Page 18
» Install Touch on your Android
» Make web apps with Python
Welcome to the latest edition of Linux User &
Developer, the UK and America’s favourite
high-end open source and Linux magazine.
Since there’s no sign of your insatiable demand
for the Raspberry Pi subsiding any time soon, we’ve
put together a couple of special features celebrating
some of the best software and distros on offer. Every
issue we’re inundated with emails asking for Raspberry
Pi-related articles and this month we’ve taken on the most
regularly requested – a group test made up of all the most
popular distributions.
In his eight-page super-test starting on page 68, Rob
Zwetsloot tests six of the best and ruthlessly whittles them
down to name the one worthy of the prestigious Group Test
Winner badge. The results might not be terribly surprising,
but we’re pretty sure the growing list of options available are
likely to raise a few eyebrows.
If you’re aiming for a bit more power than the 700MHz ARM
CPU for your next project, why not build your own PC? That’s
what we did for this month’s cover feature and we’re rather
happy with the results. While it’s designed as a home server,
it packs quite a punch for numerous other uses too.
Enjoy the issue!
Russell Barnes, Editor

Get in touch with the team:

year’s Mobile World Congress.

Rob Zwetsloot studied aerospace engineering

at university, using Python to
model complex simulations in
class while configuring Linux
HTPCs at home. In this issue Rob
linuxuser@imagine-publishing.co.uk
speaks exclusively to the makers
of Amahi and takes us through the Buy online
process of installing Ubuntu Touch
on an Android device (p34-37).

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

www.linuxuser.co.uk
3 Issue 125
Contents
Build your own
Linux server
20. Backup files and
share your media
OpenSource Tutorials
06 News
The biggest stories from the
open source world
14 Opinions
The latest from your favourite
free software columnists
94 Letters
Your views on the magazine
and the open source scene
Features
10 Inside Amahi
What’s happening with this
open source server solution?
20 Build your own server
PCs are easier than Lego – get
started today!
42 Mono – lost in
translation
Its downfall investigated
56 The university of Linux
No degree? No problem…
76 20 amazing RasPi
apps & tools
Must-have software
86 Q & A
Your problems solved!
Join us online for more Linux news, opinion and reviews www.linuxuser.co.uk
4 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Reviews
62 Huawei Ascend G330
Has the Ascend G300 just
become a whole ‘30’ better?
64 Popcorn Hour A-400
Latest open sourced-based
media streamer
66 Gizmo Explorer Kit
The Pi’s 64-bit x86 cousin - for
when raw power is required
68 Raspberry Pi distro
super-test
Which distro should you install
on your $25 computer?
80 openSUSE 12.3
30 Secure remote backups No big surprises for the latest
Use Duplicity to protect your files point release, but some polish
34 Install Ubuntu Touch to your 82 Sabayon 11
Android device We see how the latest build of
Test the latest beta of Canonical’s Touch OS this Gentoo-spin shapes up
without losing all your data
84 Porteus 2
40 Plan your projects with Gannt Portable computing receives a
Sort your schedule with Gannt and Planner boost with the newest Porteus
Developer tutorials FE
AT
48 Get your apps on the RasPi Store UR
Built an app or tool for RasPi? Here’s how to E
make it available to the whole community
52 Build web apps with Python
There’s nothing you can’t achieve with Python
– conquering the web included
On your free disc
96 Cover disc
The very latest distros on one DVD
Fedora 18 Remix
Raspbian
Puppy 5.5 Subscribe 10 Inside Amahi
Arch ARM today! This month we get together with Amahi’s
founder and lead developer, Carlos Puchol,
18 Save at least 30%
on the shop price. to see how its innovative home server is
US customers doing and where it’s heading in version 7
can subscribe via
page 86
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 06 News | 14 Opinion | 94 Letters
The Chromebook Pixel is the first notebook to
truly challenge the Apple MacBook in terms
of looks and build quality. Praise for a Linux-
based device does not come any higher than
from Linus Torvalds himself: “Hey, I’ve joined all
the cool kids in having one of the new Google
‘Pixel’ laptops (aka Chromebooks). And it is a
beautiful screen, to the point where I suspect
I’ll make this my primary laptop,” Torvalds wrote
on his Google Plus account. Praising the Pixel’s
3:2 screen format, and announcing his disdain
for widescreen laptops, he commented: “I’m still
running Chrome OS on this thing, which is good
enough for testing out some of my normal work
habits (ie reading and writing email), but I expect
to install a real distro on this soon enough…
“One thing that the Chromebook Pixel really
brings home is how crap normal laptops have
become,” Torvalds continued. “Why do PC
manufacturers even bother any more? No
wonder the PC business isn’t doing well, when
Image courtesy of Google
employee Paul Wilcox on G+
■ The chrome-plated Android on Google’s
Mountain View Campus – is it a hint?
6 www.linuxuser.co.uk
HARDWARE
Google springs
groundbreaking
new hardware
Chromebook Pixel puts Google head-to-head
with Apple in the laptop market
they stick to just churning out more crappy stuff
and think that ‘full HD’ (aka 1080p) is somehow
the epitome of greatness.”
Torvalds is certainly not the only one rejecting
PC hardware. Take yourself to any open source
conference and you will tend to see an awful lot
of people working on Apple MacBook laptops.
Why? Because if you spend half your life working
on any device, there is an undeniable emotional
attachment. Working on a beautiful notebook
makes a difference.
Machined from anodised aluminium, the
new Chromebook’s most important feature is
arguably its lightbar, which delivers an ambient
coloured display from the back of the screen “just
because it looks cool”. A single finger opens the
“finely tuned piano hinge” to reveal a 12.85-inch
display, whose 4.3 million indivisible pixels give
the Pixel the highest resolution of any notebook
on the market.
The Gorilla Glass screen also offers full
touch with tap, pinch and swipe in parallel to
the trackpad and backlit keyboard. Inside, the
Chromebook Pixel houses a dual-core 1.8GHz
Intel Core i5 Processor with integrated Intel HD
Graphics 4000 GPU and 4GB DDR3 RAM.
Storage is where Pixel ties you to Google’s
vision of the Chromebook, with services delivered
through the cloud. In the US, Google advertises
two versions of the Pixel with either 32 or 64GB
of internal solid-state storage. Currently, in the
UK, the Google Play store only offers the 32GB
version, and a call to the support staff sadly
delivered no results on how we Brits can double
the internal capacity. What the Pixel does offer is
1TB of Google Drive cloud storage for three years.
“I suspect I’ll
make this my
primary laptop”
- Linus Torvalds
On the operating system side, the Chromebook
delivers all your common programs as apps
through the Chrome browser. This is where
many reviews have criticised the apps available
for what, at £1,049, is an undeniably high-end
device. With HTML5, apps work offline and sync
automatically when they find a new connection;
and for users of Google Docs, Gmail, Google+,
Hangouts and other Google cloud services, the
device delivers all you need. However, Chrome
is not a primary target platform for most of the
third-party app community.
But this is where it gets interesting. As long
ago as 2009, the then Google co-founder Sergey
Brin stated that the company’s long-term
plan was to merge its Chrome OS and Android
into a single ecosystem. Google also has a
habit of using the company’s visual branding
to hint at future product announcements.
Interesting then that just as Google launches
the Chromebook Pixel, a chrome-plated Android
figure has appeared on Google’s Mountain View
Campus in California.
The ability to run Android apps offline through
the Chrome browser would instantly turn the
Chromebook Pixel from a truly beautiful cloud-
focused device, with limited availability of HTML5
applications, into a notebook with access to
an ecosystem of over 700,000 apps. It seems
unlikely then that this opportunity has escaped
Google’s attention.

MOBILE
Firefox OS
attracts 17
key mobile
operators
Host of major firms also
launch new HTML5 apps
for Firefox Marketplace
Big news from the Mobile World Congress
was the advance of Mozilla’s Firefox OS and
the announcement that 17 key operators
across Europe, Asia and Latin America have
signed up to ship new devices loaded with the
new operating system. In addition, Mozilla
announced Firefox Marketplace, a new vendor-
independent store for HTML5 apps that can be
used across multiple platforms.
Firefox OS is a smartphone platform built
on elements of the Linux kernel, using open
web standards. The phone’s hardware and
functionality are exposed through open APIs,
with all of the features delivered through
HTML5 apps.
Mozilla’s focus on delivering a phone through
web technologies and standards has proved
highly attractive to mobile operators looking
to provide a more cost-effective smartphone,
especially for use in emerging markets. With
Android now subject to an effective licence fee
through patent settlements demanded from
manufacturers by Microsoft and others, this
strategy is even stronger.
“Our goal is to level the playing field and
usher in an explosion of content and services
that will meet the diverse needs of the next
■ Screenshots from Firefox OS
News
The latest in the Linux community
OPEN SOURCE
Linux calendar
Open Source Data
17-18 April 2013
Center Conference
» Holiday Inn, Nuremberg
» Germany
» www.netways.de/en/osdc/
osdc2013/overview/
This conference offers a unique
opportunity to meet with open
source professionals and insiders,
gather and share expertise over two
days of presentations, hands-on
■ Developer previews of upcoming workshops and social networking.
Firefox-based phones
two billion people online,” explained Mozilla CEO
Gary Kovacs.
Firefox OS has also garnered support from
significant smartphone vendors looking for
lower-cost devices to bring new customers in
developing economies online. The first wave of
Firefox OS devices will be built by Alcatel One
Touch, LG and ZTE, with Huawei expected to
announce further devices later in the year.
Closely related to Mozilla’s plans for Firefox
Android Magazine
18 April 2013
OS, Firefox Marketplace also has a broader
focus on HTML5 apps that can be used across – issue 24
multiple platforms. Like other app stores, » www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Firefox Marketplace will offer a range of apps Android Magazine, your best and
across categories like gaming, news and media, only print source for everything
business and productivity. However, with Android, is coming out today. Check
out what’s in store over on page 60.
apps built on web standards and tied to online
identity, users will be able to transfer their
LinuxFest
purchases across devices and platforms.
The list of apps and developers for the new
Northwest 2013
marketplace already includes AccuWeather, » Bellingham Technical College,
Airbnb, Box, Cut The Rope, Disney Mobile Bellingham, WA
27-28 April 2013
Games, EA Games, Facebook, Nokia HERE, » USA
MTV Brasil, Pulse News, SoundCloud, SporTV, » linuxfestnorthwest.org
LinuxFest Northwest is an annual
Terra, Time Out and Twitter, alongside personally
event produced by the Bellingham
tailored and local apps relevant to users in their Linux Users Group, and features
respective regions. However, Mozilla’s key aim is Linux and open source experts
to open up the world of app development to a far and aficionados sharing their
broader spectrum of developers. experience and enthusiasm with
“Firefox OS will break down the walls between a wide variety of free and open
source technologies.
apps and the web because Firefox OS apps
are built using web technologies, like HTML5,”
commented Jay Sullivan, Mozilla’s senior vice
president of products. “We expect to see lots of
amazing apps built for Firefox OS because more
developers are already creating for the web than
for any other platform.”
Firefox Marketplace can currently be
previewed on Firefox for Android Aurora and will
be offered with the first Firefox OS phones to
launch later this year.
7 www.linuxuser.co.uk
OpenSource Your source of Linux news and views
Contact us…
Register and post your comments… Email us directly…
www.linuxuser.co.uk/forum/
ANDROID
Mobile World Congress
2013 loses headline
Android announcements
Major vendors launch flagship handsets
before and after in separate events
Last month, Barcelona played host to the
mobile industry’s annual European fiesta,
Mobile World Congress (MWC). However,
this year many vendors chose to release their
flagship phones in separate launches rather
than battling for the limelight at the show.
Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 8, an
8-inch version of the tablet. But those hoping
for a first look at the Galaxy S4 had to wait for a
mid-March launch event in New York. Likewise,
there was no sign of the Motorola ‘X-phone’,
which has been eagerly awaited as the first real
showcase product following Google’s buyout of
the company last year.
Sony was showing off its waterproof Xperia Z
that was first announced at CES. This 5-inch
smartphone packs a quad-core 1.5GHz
Snapdragon S4 processor and an impressive
13-megapixel camera. Importantly, the phone
marks a notable improvement in build quality
from previous Xperia releases.
New for the show, Sony also released the
Xperia Tablet Z, a 10.1-inch device, packing
the same processor as the phone into a class-
leading 6.9mm (0.27-inch) thick case. All of
Sony’s Android devices use a heavily modified
version of the user interface. There is a focus on
integrating with other devices such as TVs, as
well as pushing the user towards content from
Sony’s own media and gaming empire.
Although launched before the show, Asus,
LG and HTC were all showing off their latest
■ Asus PadFone hybrid ■ Wafer-thin Xperia Tablet Z
8 www.linuxuser.co.uk
linuxuser@imagine-publishing.co.uk
devices to incorporate the new Qualcomm
600 processor. This quad-core, ARM-based
CPU can be clocked at up to 1.9GHz. However,
the initial wave of phones seem to be released
running at 1.7GHz.
The 5-inch Asus PadFone gives users the
option of plugging the device into the back
of a 10.1-inch docking station, turning the
phone into a 1920x1200 tablet with full cellular
networking capability. LG, meanwhile, has
opted for a slightly larger 5.5-inch form on its
Optimus G Pro. Both devices have a 1920x1080
pixel display and pack a 13-megapixel camera.
The HTC One was launched slightly before
the show. However, MWC was the first chance
for most people to play with the firm’s new
flagship device. HTC has focused on the
phone’s design and a truly stunning aluminium
unibody. HTC is the first phone manufacturer
to reject the ‘more megapixels’ bandwagon
(something that hardcore camera enthusiasts
have long known to be a poor indication of
real quality). The camera on the HTC One uses
4 million ‘ultrapixels’ which, the company says,
let in around four times as much light, giving far
better results for motion capture as well as in
low-light conditions.
The Beats Audio sound system, found on
most HTC phones, has been supplemented
on the One with a ‘Boom Sound’ amp and the
addition of two front-facing speakers on the
device. This allows the phone to be used as a
■ LG Optimus G Pro
micro hi-fi in hotel rooms. The Sense TV feature
also enables the HTC One to be used as a
universal infrared remote for home electronics.
With the increasing similarity in hardware
specs for most high-end Android handsets,
many of the vendors have chosen to
differentiate themselves through increasingly
heavy customisation of the Android user
interface and addition of new software
features. Android still remains a unified
environment for app developers; however,
outside of the physical hardware design,
the user experience is the most significant
difference between phones. The addition of
QSlide on LG’s Optimus G Pro is one example.
QSlide allows you to take full advantage of the
phone’s multitasking capabilities by leaving one
app, typically video, running in a window with
adjustable transparency, while you carry on
using a second app.
HTC has customised the Android home
screen beyond recognition with Blink Feed. At
first glance you could be forgiven for thinking
the new HTC One was running either MeeGo
or Windows 8. The home screen is filled with
interactive tiles that can be configured to show
live info from social media, favourite websites
and news feeds in place of static icons. Again
this is a clever use of multitasking to show off
the phone’s capabilities, and early reviews
suggest that the concept has been executed
far more effectively than by Microsoft.
■ Sleek HTC One
 News
The latest in the Linux community
OPEN SOURCE

UBUNTU

Canonical drops Wayland and goes it alone

Will Shuttleworth’s unwavering vision destroy community at Ubuntu?
Canonical, corporate sponsor of Ubuntu, has
been criticised for its decision to build ‘Mir’,
its own alternative successor to the X Window
System. In addition, Canonical’s founder Mark
Shuttleworth has been engaging in a separate
war of words with what he terms the “1337
[LEET] crowd” within the Ubuntu community.
X.Org Server, the X Window implementation
used to manage desktop environments on top
of Linux, is long overdue for an upgrade. Until
now, most of the desktop Linux community
had focused efforts to create a successor
around the Wayland project. But Canonical
has suddenly decided to drop its support for
Wayland, claiming that the project does not
fulfil its requirements completely.
“There are no technical reasons Ubuntu
cannot use Wayland in principle,” wrote Taigo
Vignatti, Wayland’s project manager, in an
angry response. “What they wrote there is
a very, very mean excuse instead.”
Canonical has often followed its own
divergent path – from its initial decision to fork
the Debian code base, through to dropping
GNOME Shell in favour of its own Unity UI.
Mark Shuttleworth has also spoken out
against the more cantankerous members of
the Ubuntu community on his blog. “I simply
have zero interest in the crowd who wants to be
different. Leet. ‘Linux is supposed to be hard so
it’s exclusive’ is just the dumbest thing that a ■ Mark Shuttleworth challenges Ubuntu’s
smart person could say,” he commented. “LEET crowd”

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 Interview Inside Amahi

Inside
Amahi
Linux User talks to Amahi’s original founder and
lead developer, Carlos Puchol, about the current
strengths and future uses of the server software
INTERVIEWER Rob Zwetsloot
models complex systems
and is a web developer
proficient in Python,
Django and PHP. He loves to
experiment with computing

■ Puchol is the original founder and lead developer of the Amahi project

10 www.linuxuser.co.uk

n Amahi’s web interface lets you control your server from anywhere
“The next version, Amahi 7,
is a lot faster and safer”
One of Linux’s undeniable strengths for
individuals is its use in home servers. The
popularity of using spare, old or hand-me-
down parts to create the central hub of your
home network has a lot of appeal, and with the
help of a Linux distribution you can keep the
entire thing very inexpensive. It doesn’t even
have to be a cheap job either, with top-of-the-
line parts coupled with Linux allowing you to
offload resource-intensive tasks onto one
machine, keeping any laptop or desktop free to
continue doing other tasks.
While this definitely sounds great, novice
Linux users may find it difficult to get such a
system set up. This is where Amahi comes in.
Either distributed as a distro, or installable on
another, Amahi lets you quickly set up a fully
featured, centralised server. Not only does it
cover the basics for home use, allowing you to
stream media or keep it as a NAS, but it can
also grow with you, allowing you to configure it
to use even for enterprise.
We talk to Carlos Puchol from Amahi to
discuss how advanced the software actually is,
and the big changes coming to it in the future.
“Typically we have been slotted as a home
server, but really it’s a general-purpose
server,” Puchol begins, describing the features
available in Amahi. “It’s suitable for media
apps, web apps and generally anything that
centralises digital life in the home. We know
of some people who use it a little bit for home
automation, others use it for backups, and
Inside Amahi
A chat with Amahi founder Carlos Puchol
Interview
n The applications allow you to extend the server’s functions easily
Amahi Pi
Amahi on the Raspberry Pi will become
a reality. When discussing the hardware
Amahi can utilise, Carlos Puchol mentions
that the team is currently at work on a
more still use it as a front-end. Users have
Raspberry Pi version:
actually connected it to their TV and then they
have all their data in there so they can watch Although it’s not fully maintained,
videos from it.” Amahi did used to be able to run on
One of Amahi’s biggest draws is that it’s ARM computers. The current release is
easily extendible by installing apps from just about working on Raspberry Pi, but we
the Amahi marketplace. These integrate haven’t made an official release yet as it’s
into the system after downloading, allowing not finished. We are going to release
you to configure them directly for the server Amahi 7 on x86 and x64 first, then after
afterwards. Puchol describes the process of that we’re going to try for the Raspberry Pi.
getting apps approved for Amahi: We’ve begun to test on the Raspberry Pi,
“Overall, we have more than 400 apps. and we already know that the base code
However, right now because of the new Ubuntu that we already have running on Amahi 7 is
release, just over 150 of those are packaged. 90 per cent there. Most of it runs on ARM,
As we’re a small team, we have to be careful and it would just be a matter of time, say a
how much we test the apps and how many of few weeks or couple of months after
them we actually put live. Essentially, on every release, before finishing it.”
new release we start with zero apps packaged,
basically the way it comes out of the box,
and then slowly add more and more apps to
the marketplace.”
There’s a development hierarchy to the apps,
with some packages available in alpha or beta
states for testing. Some apps apparently never
make it out alpha, though, while other apps
may leave beta but will still not be up to the
standard needed for making live.
“The main priority is how confident we are
that the app is working reliably and working n Raspberry Pi servers are not a new thing,
well,” Puchol says. “So the last thing we want but Amahi could open it up to more people
is people to have a bad experience with it,
whether they’re installing an app or if the app
just doesn’t quite work. That’s just not a great
11 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Interview Inside Amahi
Amahi Sync
Secure your files on your Amahi box by
storing them on the cloud. With people
using centralised servers to store a lot of
files on these days, you can never be too
careful backing up your important data.
“In the long term, people worry about
hardware failures, natural disasters,
vandalism or theft,” says Puchol. “So we
started getting requests for some way
to automatically sync up shares to the
cloud in a way that was easy. This led us to
implement Amahi Sync. You can think of it
as a one-way Dropbox.”
Amahi Sync allows you to upload
important data to the cloud automatically.
These files are then browsable from
the web, and links can be distributed to
access the content.
Each user also gets a free
subdomain, where they can host
(static) web sites or otherwise any file they
want,” continues Puchol. “Amahi Sync is
included with our two premium plans –
Pro and Ninja. The Pro plan includes 50GB
of cloud storage and the Ninja plan
provides 150GB of storage.
Amahi Sync comes integrated with
every installation of Amahi. We will
be expanding the use of Amahi Sync in the
next release of Amahi to make it easier.”
■ There’s plenty of storage information to access so you know
exactly how much space you have
12 www.linuxuser.co.uk
experience, and it essentially all comes back
to us. People complain, they say it’s not ready,
and typically they want to have it now, which
basically means that we have to put a lot
resources into support.”
Community matters
The community also plays a part in which apps
are chosen, as Puchol explains:
“What we do is we base priorities on the
popularity of the app, and we base it on
how much expertise that we have on hand
to package the app. If somebody in the
community is very interested in having an
app packaged that is well rounded, then that
basically means it has higher priority because
we are more confident that we can package it
in a way that is solid for people to try out. And
so there are some apps that are super-solid
and some apps that are not as well maintained,
and we struggle a little bit with them. So we try
to find a balance between going too fast and
not doing a good job, above all else [to] make
sure we have an app ready to go before we
take it live.”
The community aspect of the server is very
important to the Amahi team, which is why
they’ve stayed open source as Puchol explains:
“So, one of the great things with Amahi is
that anybody in the community can essentially
package apps, and the apps can be, and are
mostly, open source. Some of them are not,
“Anybody in the community
can package apps”
■ Amahi’s detailed settings pages make it easy to monitor the
current state of servers
but essentially anyone in the community can
come and contribute, and our source code is
also in GitHub – for the code that runs Amahi
itself, with the installer and everything. One
of the things that we do is try to work hard
to empower people to express themselves
through the forums, through the wiki and
through various other outlets. We tried to make
it a friendly environment for people to come in
and contribute, because that’s how we grow.”
Distribution
In fact, it was because of the community
feedback that Amahi 6 was brought to Ubuntu.
“There’s always been a demand for having
Amahi on Ubuntu,” Puchol tells us. “We were
originally based on Fedora, but there’s always
been that demand for Ubuntu. From our point of
view, it almost doesn’t matter what runs behind
the engine of Amahi, and it shouldn’t really
matter for users. The community was split on
this, and there were people who were interested
in what happened behind the scenes. We found
we had a small number of people who wanted to
develop Amahi for Ubuntu, but most of the time
we underestimated the effort that would take.
Eventually though, we found one person, Frans.”
Frans Meulenbroeks helped port the project
onto Ubuntu, and is now not only the Ubuntu
lead, but also works on implementing Amahi on
ARM. Puchol goes on to talk about how this has
changed their release schedule:
 Inside Amahi
A chat with Amahi founder Carlos Puchol
Interview

Not JBOD
Amahi has a smart drive pooling feature, which is only getting better.
Having large amounts of storage can get complicated, especially
when dealing with different RAID levels. Amahi makes it easier by
pooling all the drives together so they can act as one. However, there
are some caveats when adding extra drives, as Puchol explains:

Amahi Sync allows you to upload important data to the cloud

automatically. These are then browsable from the web, and
links can be distributed to access the content. It’s not very plug and
play just yet. There is one command-line script that we package that
you run to recognise and mount the hard drives, and then you need to
do some editing of Linux files to get them added to the pool. We
developed that aspect first by hand, and it does require that little
bit of command-line interaction. Unfortunately, that limits the
usability of what we have in terms of adding storage, as not all our
users are technically savvy enough to do it easily. We’re trying to
get rid of that, though: we have specced out a project for creating a
wizard that can more easily mount hard drives and incorporate them
into the structure.” n Parts of the storage pool are still under development

“Now, we essentially build enough that we
can actually run Amahi on both Ubuntu and
Fedora. We’re going to try and keep on the
Ubuntu LTS releases, then hop onto whatever
the next Fedora edition is available when we’re
ready to release the following version of Amahi.
Right now, after this one, which will probably
be Fedora 18, we’ll basically hop on to the next
LTS release of Ubuntu. We’re going to try and
support both, and we have hooks so we can do
that for both distributions.”
We ask Puchol if there are protocols in
place to allow for users to port to other
distributions themselves:
“It depends on how many developers are
willing to chip in,” he responds. “Somebody
can come in and say and they want to run on
Debian, and that probably wouldn’t be too
hard as we’re already running on Ubuntu. So
we would definitely take the patches for that –
and we already kind of have some support for
a bit of that. If somebody wanted to run Amahi
on, let’s say, Arch, again we would take patches
for that and welcome the contributions.
Essentially it’s a community-based project,
so all contributions are welcome. So we don’t
discourage that, but we’re also realistic. Just
having some patches that can make it work
is not going to cut it; we want users to have a
good experience. So if the developers are not
committed and we don’t see the community
actually making it work in the long run, testing
applications and so forth, we would take the
patches but wouldn’t necessarily make an
official release.”

Future ambitions
There’s more in store for Amahi users as well,
old and new, as Puchol tells us about the
upcoming update to Amahi:
“The next version, Amahi 7, is right around
the corner, which is very exciting. We have a
space on Fedora 18, and it has a lot of new
features, [a] little bit better performance than
previous releases, new versions of Ruby and
Ruby on Rails and so forth. It’s a lot faster and
safer. We also have a plug-in system that we’ve
developed to make it easy to develop thinner
and lighter apps, basically apps that behave
like they are built in as part of Amahi, but can be
installed and uninstalled at will. There’s going
to be a lot of utilities that will appear with this
plug-in system, so we’re excited about it.”

n You can even have it act as your DHCP

13 www.linuxuser.co.uk
OpenSource Your source of Linux news and views
THE KERNEL COLUMN
Jon Masters
Jon Masters summarises the latest happenings in the
Linux kernel community
Jon Masters is a
Linux kernel hacker who
has been working on
Linux for some 18 years,
since he first attended
university at the age of 13.
Jon lives in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, and works
for a large enterprise Linux
vendor. He publishes
a daily Linux kernel
mailing list summary at
kernelpodcast.org
Linus Torvalds has announced the first several
3.9 kernel release candidates, following the
closing of the 3.9 ‘merge window’ (period of time
during which disruptive changes to the kernel
and new features are merged). Merge windows
are typically up to two weeks in duration (and
seldom longer), though Linus has gone to great
pains over the past few years to push developers
not to post patches for inclusion at the very end
of the window. Features merged into the kernel
should instead have received heavy testing in
the linux-next kernel and elsewhere, be largely
complete, and posted for inclusion as early as
possible during the two-week window of frantic
development for a given release cycle. This is the
theory, at any rate.
In his mail simultaneously closing the
merge window, and also announcing 3.9-rc1,
Linus said, “I don’t know if it’s just me, but this
merge window had more ‘Uhhuh’ moments
than I’m used to. I stopped merging a couple
of times, because we had bugs that looked
really scary, but thankfully each time people
were on them like paparazzi on Justin Bieber.”
Those features that made it into 3.9 include
support for Synopsys’s 32-bit ‘ARC’ architecture
(following a third posting of reviewed patches
from Vineet Gupta), which is designed for use in
embedded and DSP applications, particularly
those wherein the ability to extend the CPU
14 www.linuxuser.co.uk
pipeline with custom instructions is beneficial
(though this author notes that butchering a
CPU pipeline comes with its own hidden costs
and so isn’t something recommended for non-
embedded applications).
Another very interesting new feature in the 3.9
kernel is support for Intel’s ‘PowerClamp’ driver.
PowerClamp aims to constrain the maximum
amount of power used by the system by forcing
the CPUs to enter an idle state for a certain
percentage of their operating time. At first
glance, this may seem to be less than useless.
After all, having paid good money for a powerful
modern CPU (with multiple cores), most users
expect to get all the oomph they can out of it.
There are some users, however, where this
desire is balanced by overall power constraints
– in particular in data centres where there is a
hard limit (often 10 or 15kW) of available power
for a given rack of server equipment. Exceeding
the power available to a rack can cause all of the
servers in it to shut down, which is generally not
what data centre users want. Google and others
have encountered such problems over the past
few years, and have used their own custom
solutions to (presumably) good effect.
PowerClamp helps to generally solve
the problem of hard-limits at the rack level
by allowing an administrator or software
management tool (‘agent’) to configure the
system such that it will inject a certain number
of idle states onto a given CPU. Typically, the
kernel’s idle thread (idle task or idle process) will
run only when there is nothing else to do. It calls
a special machine instruction that will efficiently
transition the processor into a lower power state
from which it can be woken when there is work
to do (usually through an external interrupt). In
the case of PowerClamp, additional kidle_inject
threads are created to run at specific times
when there is a need to inject additional idle
states (over and above the regular idle thread)
 Opinion
The kernel column – Jon Masters
open source

in order to remain overall idle for the percentage

CC; The Linux Foundation

of time configured by the user. Typically,
PowerClamp will be used with some higher-level
management software that looks to the whole
rack and dynamically tunes many different
systems for optimal overall power use.

Ongoing development
David Howells announced that “The end is nigh!”
for his ongoing UAPI work. UAPI is a near year-
long effort by David to clean up the kernel’s
internal header files (source code containing
definitions and small inline code functions
typically included into kernel or application
code), splitting out those parts that pertain only
to the API (application programming interface)
used by non-kernel ‘user space’ applications,
such as the Bash shell or Firefox web browser. A
typical Linux system includes many such header
files within the /usr/include/linux directory.
These are installed as part of compiling the
kernel, during the ‘make kernel-headers’ stage.
n Linus Torvalds making a rare public appearance at LinuxCon Europe
Until now, the process of building user
application usable header files involved
selective copying of a limited number of kernel “I stopped merging a couple of
times, because we had bugs that
headers (most are not intended to be used by
application code) and judicious use of special
conditionals within those files to ensure the right
thing would happen when they were used by
non-kernel code. After David’s work, the ‘user-
space API’ is more clearly defined and these
looked really scary” Linus Torvalds
pieces are separated out into files specifically storage instead (including special markers allocation cost can use the new pressure-level
intended for direct use by non-kernel code. that indicate a file has actually been deleted). notifications”. What this means is that it is
David’s latest email suggests that only a few Unlike other efforts to do overlays, Miklos’s possible for an application to be aware of the
changes pertaining to video framebuffers code tries to be as small as possible by generally overall pressure a system is under for memory.
remain “now that the SCSI stuff has gone in”. passing through operations on open files to the When Linux runs low on available free memory, it
Miklos Szeredi posted patches implementing underlying file systems as quickly as possible. It will do one of several things. This includes failing
a new ‘overlayfs’ file system. Overlay and Union will be interesting to see where this goes. new memory allocations, swapping out certain
file systems have been a topic of much debate John Stultz (of Linaro) has posted an RFC parts of applications to disk, and freeing up
for many years, particularly because they never patch-in-progress that would pull support internal caches. All of these have a cost in terms
seem to work quite right. The problem they for Android’s sync driver into the staging tree. of overall system performance (particularly
generally attempt to solve is one of allowing Staging is a part of the kernel source tree where when the system hits a point of swapping large
several distinct file systems to be joined experimental and not-quite-baked drivers amounts of data out to slow rotational disks and
together, with the net result being a virtual file can sit inside the kernel source while they are is said to enter a state of ‘thrashing’) that has not
system (only existing as a whole at runtime) being cleaned up. These drivers are available historically been easily visible to end software.
that contains selective pieces of each of its only if specifically configured for use. The sync Now, applications can easily monitor a special
constituent parts. A typical use case is one of driver provides a collection of synchronisation event file descriptor within a memory control
embedded routers or live CDs. Both contain primitives (code routines that can be used by group and be made aware of ‘low’, ‘medium’
some storage (flash memory or optical media) other code to ensure operations happen in the and ‘critical’ levels of memory as well as set
that is read-only, and some storage (on a RAM correct order) for use with drivers that provide specific limits at which a notification will be
disk or a separate piece of storage – a USB different parts of the graphics pipeline used with given. This allows an application to take steps to
stick, another flash etc) that can be written to. the Android SurfaceFlinger compositor. release unneeded in-memory caches (such as
A special file system is then used to present Anton Vorontsov posted the latest version web browser pages) before the system grinds to
what appears to be a selection of the content of a memory control groups (memcg) patch a crawl.
of both of these underlying stores. As files from implementing memory-pressure-level event
the read-only media are modified or deleted, support. With this patch, applications that
deltas are written to the separate writable “want to maintain the interactivity/memory

15 www.linuxuser.co.uk
OpenSource Your source of Linux news and views
the open source column
Playing nicely together
Bombermine shows just what’s possible when
everyone plays together nicely, argues Simon...
Simon Brew is a technology
writer and editor,
working across the
Linux, Windows and
Mac OS X platforms
It was in the very early 1980s that a fledgling
company by the name of Hudson Soft came
up with a title by the wonderful name of Eric
And The Floaters. The core concept was that
you ran around a maze, planting bombs. Said
bombs could blow away the walls, blow away your
n Bombermine is so addictive – you’ve been warned!
16 www.linuxuser.co.uk
opponents, or blow away one of your lives. It was
a wonderful idea, wonderfully executed. Hudson
Soft went on to expand upon it, with the likes
of five-player Dyna Blaster on the Commodore
Amiga, Atomic Bomberman on the PC, and
numerous other versions of the game for lots of
different formats. The key factor though is that
Hudson Soft caught what made the game special
with its first attempt. Everything else has been
some form of derivative.
Which made me surprised to see a massively
multiplayer online version of Bomberman spring
up online. At first glance, it doesn’t seem official.
But the graphics pay more than a tip of the hat to
Bomberman of old, while it’s now acknowledged
on the requisite website that the Bomberman
name is a trademark of Konami.
However, the game lives on. As such,
Bombermine – which you can find at
bombermine.com – has been attracting up to
1,000 people at a time on the same map. The
game is so compact that it’s playable via your
web browser, and I can’t be the only person
who’s lost many hours to something so well
thought through, that stands on the shoulders
of proverbial giants, and builds to something
unthinkable a decade ago.
My overriding thought, however, is this: well
played Konami. Assuming that Konami is the
rights holder for this now, it could have pulled
the project down within hours, sent off lawyer’s
letters, or billed the creators of Bombermine a
hefty sum. It seemingly didn’t. Instead, it got the
spirit of what they were trying to do right and, at
worst, has turned a blind eye.
Back when emulators for older computers
appeared on the PC in great quantities just over
a decade or go, this was the prevailing attitude.
The majority of people, knowing that nobody
was getting rich off their work, were happy for
old games to be effectively released into the
public domain. If anything, lots of programmers
were delighted that their earlier efforts were
being rediscovered.
In any form of human development, it is this
kind of ethos that has accelerated progress. In
cinema, it’s often said that Pixar came in and
revolutionised animation, but it didn’t. It advanced
it, it stood on the shoulders of those who came
before, and it made intelligent advances. Now,
others are doing the same to Pixar.
The grey area would be if something like
Bombermine started to charge to play, which is
when Konami’s spider senses would presumably
start tingling. But then this whole unwritten
agreement is a two-sided one. It relies on firms
playing nice, and the people behind whatever
project in question doing the same. But as
Bombermine has shown, that’s entirely possible.
In fact, the emulation scene is testament to what
can happen if everyone adopts such an ethos.
It’s refreshing in a time of software
as big business to report on a project of
Bombermine’s ilk. Hopefully, lots more big
companies can follow the lead set here. I’d
recommend blocking the game from their
organisation’s servers, though…

the Free software column
All your Linuxes are belong to me
Mir offers the prospect of more unintended consequences for the
Linux graphics stack – and the graphics stack should not be in the
ownership of one company, says Richard Hillesley
Richard Hillesley writes about
art, music, digital rights,
Linux and free software for
a variety of publications
Free software is about community, or it is
nothing. Being free also makes the software
vulnerable to those looking for a fast buck and
a way round the rules, Everyone wants a slice of
the action, even when this means reshaping the
tools and principles of free software. The game
is to take advantage of loopholes in the licence
– packaging the software, adding proprietary
code and marketing the result, thereby fulfilling
the objective of “a dual strategy of proprietary
products and low-end open source.”
Some licences encourage this type of
behaviour. If you have signed up to a liberal
licence on the model of the BSD one, you may
n Mir is named after
the space station Mark
Shuttleworth visited
have thought the consequences through, and
may not care. You have put your software out in
the world, and those who use it can do as they
like. Users of the GPL will take a different view.
There is nothing new in this. The earliest
attempt to grab a profit from Linux was also
the crudest. On 15 August 1994, William R Della
Croce Jr of Boston saw a business opportunity
in the rise of Linux and filed for the US rights
to the Linux trademark. The first encounter of
Linux users with Della Croce was in March 1995,
when Yggdrasil Computing filed for a trademark
on The Linux Bible and had it rejected on the
grounds that the Linux trademark was the sole
property of Della Croce. During the following year
a number of Linux firms received demands from
Della Croce for payment of 25 per cent of royalties
on products that used the name Linux. This
resulted in a long legal battle in which Yggdrasil
had to prove prior use of the name. The case
wasn’t resolved until August 1997, when the Linux
trademark was finally assigned to Linus Torvalds.
This was the first of many claims on the
ownership of the rights to the code, or portions
of it, that constitutes a GNU/Linux distribution,
many of which were designed to disrupt the way
Linux and other free software is developed, and
to interrupt the success that GNU/Linux has
achieved. Some claims have been more absurd
than others, ranging from the suit filed against the
Free Software Foundation in Indiana in May 2005
by Daniel Wallace which claimed that the GPL was
“an illegal attempt to fix prices at zero”, to The SCO
Group’s claim for $6 billion from IBM, for making
Linux “ready for enterprise use” with technologies
that had been “misappropriated” from UNIX, to
which SCO claimed the rights – wrongly.
One of the more pernicious means of
subverting the purpose of the licensing is
copyright assignment. The GPL, or any other
software licence, depends upon the framework
of copyright law. Copyleft puts the rights and
responsibilities back into the hands of the user,
but copyright depends upon the ownership and
assignment of the code – and these can change.
Opinion
The free software column
open source
Copyright assignment asks the developer
to assign ownership of the code to a parent
organisation or firm, which means the ownership
and the licence can be reassigned at a future
date. The motives for demanding assignment
of copyright aren’t always bad, but the best of
motives can lead to unintended consequences.
The way around this may be to assign the code to
an independent non-profit organisation such as
the FSF or the Linux Foundation.
This is one of the more serious objections to
Canonical’s decision to develop the Mir display
server in competition to Wayland and Weston.
Mir code will be licensed under Canonical’s CLA,
which assigns rights of ownership to Canonical.
Mir isn’t an application, but aims to be the
essential underpinning of the graphics stack on
the most popular Linux distro and, as such, may
not only take resources away from Wayland but
create future incompatibilities in the graphics
stack. Removing the ambivalences, incongruities
and incompatibilities in the code is one of the
reasons why so much effort has been poured
into Wayland. One doesn’t have to doubt the
intentions or motives of Canonical and Ubuntu
to know that Mir offers the prospect of more
unintended consequences for the Linux graphics
stack, and the graphics stack should not be in the
ownership of one company.
But the worst aspect of the story has been
Canonical’s failure to talk through the issues
and proposed remedies with the community. It
is the contention of the Wayland developers that
the issues given by Christopher Halse Rogers
(bit.ly/WfXhBG) have already been fixed, or can
be resolved by Wayland and Weston. Nobody
is accusing Canonical of being in search of a
quick buck, but from the outside Mir looks like
a solution in search of problem, and the feeling
remains that Ubuntu has either rushed into a
gap that was already being filled, or is looking for
differentiation at the expense of the community.
17 www.linuxuser.co.uk
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FEATURE Build a Linux home server from scratch

Build a Linux home

server from scratch
Ian Jackson takes you through a step-by-step
guide on how to build your very own home
server – it’s easier than you might think…
Building a PC, let alone a server, may at What’s the difference between a PC and all of your other devices can access your
first seem like a daunting prospect. To the a server?, you might ask. From a hardware data. For large corporate servers, specialist
uninitiated the inside of a computer may look perspective, the answer is “not a lot”; at hardware is usually used in order to increase
no more user-serviceable than a television or least from a home server point of view. The remote operability or reliability; but, for a
photocopier. How the PC differs from these difference is more to do with the definition home or small office server, regular desktop
devices is in its modular nature. Every part of how the machine will be used. Typically components are more than sufficient.
within a PC is designed to be upgradeable you would use a PC to do everyday tasks like Compared to a Windows-based server, a
without the use of any specialist tools or solder browsing the web and writing emails. A server user-friendly Linux home server distro like
and different components can simply be slotted on the other hand is usually configured as a Amahi requires fewer system resources, is
into the motherboard. In this guide we will show headless system (ie without the need for a typically more reliable and is completely free.
how to turn a box full of components into a fully monitor except during its configuration), and So, without any further ado, let’s get this
operational home server. serves as a central access point from which build started!

Shopping list
You don’t need a monster specification
to run an Amahi server – indeed, its
lightweight nature is something that
lends itself perfectly to the reuse of a
previously retired box. Nevertheless, 6
here is what we used for our system. 4
1. CPU – Intel Core i3 3220 processor
2. Motherboard – Asus P8B75-M LX 8
3. Case – Fractal Design Define R4
4. PSU – Storm 700W
5. Memory – 4GB of DDR3 Corsair
RAM
7. Storage – 1TB Seagate Barracuda
7200.14
7
8. Optical Drive – LG Blu-ray ROM
9. Video Card – GeForce GTX 650 9
Truth be told, some of the hardware in
our list is overspecified for an Amahi
home server, but we have grander 5 2 1
plans for it in the future!

20 www.linuxuser.co.uk
1
time
Inspect the parts
The first thing to do before starting
taken
10 mins any kind of system build is to check
that all of the components you have
purchased are in perfect condition.
Installing damaged parts could ruin
other non-faulty parts, so it’s better to be safe
than sorry. Common problems to look for include
bent pins on the CPU socket; broken capacitors
on motherboards, graphics cards and other
circuit boards; and broken SATA or SATA Power
connectors on drives. Once you have verified
that everything looks okay, you are ready to get
started! Building a PC is an untidy job and you
can greatly increase the efficiency of your build
by tidying up as you go. Once you have unpacked
each component, neatly place its packaging
away from the build, but do not dispose of it until
you are sure all is well!

21 www.linuxuser.co.uk
FEATURE Build a Linux home server from scratch

2
time
Install the CPU and
apply thermal paste The chip will
taken
5 mins When installing a processor in an LGA (land be cut to only
grid array) based socket, the first step is to go in one way
remove the socket protection cover. After
this, lift up the socket lever and release the
mounting clamp before carefully aligning the chip,
taking special note of the notches at the side. Once the
chip is aligned, close the clamp and re-secure the lever
again, holding the CPU in place. The best method of
installing thermal paste on a chip with a heat spreader
is to squeeze out a small amount of compound (about
the size of a grain of basmati rice) and install the cooler
straight on top. The paste will then be compressed out
to just the right thickness. Don’t worry about having
paste on every square millimetre of the heat spreader -
the pressure of the cooler will do this over time.

3
time
Install the cooler
Installing the CPU cooler will either be a
taken
15 mins very simple or very complicated affair,
depending on the kind of model you have
chosen. For socket 1155 (aka LGA1155
or socket H2) CPUs, the default cooler is
rather easy to install. Firstly, you need to line up the
cooler with the four motherboard mounting holes
before pushing down firmly on each of the four pillars
with your thumb until they lock into place. With most
third-party coolers, however, things will be a little more
involved. Normally you would need to fit mounting clips
to the cooler’s base before pushing them through the
four holes on the motherboard into a custom backing
plate. These elaborate mounting systems keep a heavy
third-party cooler more securely fastened than would
be possible with plastic push pins. Coolers heavier
than about 800g should be removed before moving the
PC any distance.

4 Install motherboard
time The next step is to install the CPU/
taken
10 mins motherboard/cooler assembly into the
chassis. Go ahead and remove the side
panel from the case before emptying it of
the mounting accessories. Position the
leads carefully out of the way of the motherboard tray
before lining up the board with the tray to confirm
where you need to screw in your standoffs. Standoffs
are little hexagonal screws with both female and male
TIP
ends. They act as spacers between the motherboard
The screws only need to be
tray and the bottom of the board. Only install hand-tight, but they’re easier to
standoffs where you have to. Installing standoffs access with a screwdriver
where there is not an associated mounting hole could
result in the board shorting on the case, preventing
it from booting – or even worse, causing damage to
the components. Always use the correct threaded
screws from your case’s accessory bag to mount
the motherboard.

5 Install the memory closed. If using a dual-channel board (all modern PCs
are at least dual-channel), make sure you look in the
time Installing memory is one of the easiest motherboard manual to be sure that you have the sticks
taken
5 mins upgrades to perform, and is an identical installed in the right slots to enable dual-channel mode.
procedure regardless of whether you are
installing DDR, DDR2 or DDR3. All memory
sticks have a notch that prevents their
installation in an incompatible memory slot, or in the
wrong orientation. To start, release the two memory Dual-channel slots
clips by pushing them away from the centre of the slot. are not always
Gently slide the memory into the guides, taking care next to each
that the orientation is correct. Push firmly down on other on larger
the memory stick in a direction perpendicular to the motherboards
orientation of the board and the two clips should snap

22 www.linuxuser.co.uk
6
time
Install the video card
Installing the video card is the same as
taken
10 mins installing any other PCI or PCI Express
device; the only difference is the slot’s size
and shape. Firstly, remove the backing
plate aligned with the main 16x PCI-Express
slot. Make sure that any sliding mechanism or clip
designed to prevent the graphics card from shaking
loose is in its open position. Line up the end of the
graphics card backing plate with the hole in the case,
and then line up the slot
with the contacts. Gently
push the card, exerting
equal pressure from either
end so that it enters the slot
in one smooth operation.
Once you think you have the
card in the slot, check to see
that it is in straight and fully
pushed home. An unseated
graphics card is a common For longer graphics Slip the I/O panel
reason for a computer to fail cards, make sure between the case
when booting. there’s space and the board

7
time
Install the case fans
Even if you are building the simplest of
taken
10 mins budget office machines, you should really
be installing at least one or two case fans
within your chassis. In general, a larger case
fan is preferable to a smaller one, as it shifts
more air with less noise. Where possible, look for case
fans with a 3-pin motherboard attachment rather than
a 4-pin Molex plug, since these can take advantage
of the rpm control offered by the motherboard. To
install the case fan on most cases, line up the fan on
the inside of the chassis and screw in the thick case-
fan screws from the outside. These are normally
self-tapping, so they can be quite stiff to screw in. If
necessary, screw a fan guard into the other side of
each fan. As well as protecting your fingers, they also
prevent stray cables from interfering with the blades.
8
time
Install the
hard drives
TIP
Experiment with turning the
taken hard drive around and then
20 mins With most cases you’ll be provided with two plugging it in around the other
different kinds of Phillips-headed screws. side. This can aid in airflow and
One of these will have a coarse thread, and cable management
the other a fine thread. All hard drives are
screwed in by coarse-threaded screws. Where you
install your hard drives depends on the chassis you
are using, but if installing more than one, try to make
sure that there is as much space between drives as
possible. This will maximise the airflow and keep drive
temperatures low. Many of the more elaborate cases
now available allow you to fit the drives into a slide-out
caddy rather than screwing them to the case directly.
This has the benefit of allowing easy access to your
drives should you need to remove them, but also usually
provides some form of anti-vibration isolation.

23 www.linuxuser.co.uk
FEATURE Build a Linux home server from scratch

9
time
Install optical
drives
taken
20 mins Most cases come with the 5.25” optical bays
initially populated with covers. Refer to your
case’s manual on how to remove these;
some just need bashing out, while others will
need the entire case fascia to be unclipped. With the
bay exposed, slide the drive in from the front until the Some cases
fascia is flush with the case before you start to screw mount optical
drives from inside
it in. If installing more than one drive to the same case,
repeat as required. Don’t be tempted to take the easy
way out and only screw in your optical drive on one
side; this will cause severe vibrations that will result in
an incredibly noise system whenever the PC is in use.
Many modern cases now employ quick-release clips
for optical drive mounting. Don’t be tempted to rely on
these alone if screw holes are also offered; again they
can cause lots of vibrations.

10
time
Install the
power supply
taken
30 mins With all of your other devices installed,
it’s time to install the PSU. Some system
builders like to install the PSU first, but
we think that the cables simply get in the
way. When installing the PSU, carefully choose which
cables you plug into each device so that you use the
minimum number of leads. If for example you have a
PSU lead with three SATA connectors, use this cable The PSU
to power three hard drives, rather than giving each should slot into
device its own cable. This will greatly ease future its own space
expandability, since unless you have an extremely
stacked system, you should have spare cables left four or eight square pins) as most boards won’t boot
over at the end of the build. Be sure to remember to without it, as well as any 6/8-pin PCI-E power cables
install the auxiliary 12V motherboard cable (normally required by your graphics card.

Quick Tip
Making use of the
11
time
Tidy the cables
Now you have the PSU installed, don’t just
taken
case to tidy helps 20 mins leave the wires trailing like spaghetti within
with any future cable your case. Instead, purchase some cable-
rearrangements ties from any good DIY ship and tether
them together. This will prevent them from
interfering with your CPU cooler and other fans, and
also greatly improves airflow within the case. If you
Efficient power
have spare PSU cables not powering anything, tie
usage aids in cable
these together and push them into a spare 5.25” drive
management
bay out of the way if using a case with a top-mounted
PSU, or beside the drive cage if using a modern bottom-
The point of mounted variant. Cases like the Fractal we are using
tidying cables is to have a myriad of cable management options so you can
help with airflow really go to town on making everything as neat as can
be. As well as tidying the PSU cables, make sure case
fan and CPU coolers are tied too.

24 www.linuxuser.co.uk
12
time
Fit case front-panel
connections
taken
15 mins All cases come with cables that need to be
plugged into the motherboard to enable the
power and reset switches, the LEDs and the
system speaker to function. Front-panel
connectors differ depending on your motherboard,
so you should have the motherboard manual open
for this step. The power, speaker and reset buttons
are not positive or negative, so can be installed on the
relevant pins in either orientation, but the LED cables
and speaker cable must be installed with the right
lead on the ‘+’ header. The HDD activity LED cable is
usually white and orange, with the orange cable being
positive. The system power LED lead is normally green
and white, with the green cable being positive. If all of
your cables are covered in black insulation, look at the
connectors for orientation.
14 Final checks
time All of your parts should now be installed and
taken
10 mins your server ready for its first boot. Before
you power up, however, take a few extra
minutes to ensure that all is installed as it
should be. Make sure that the CPU cooler is
plugged into the correct motherboard header, and that
it is securely on top of the CPU without any rocking.
13
time
Install front-panel
USB, FireWire and
taken
audio cables
10 mins
Most chassis have front-panel USB and
audio connections; some also have eSATA,
FireWire or USB 3.0. Most motherboard makers denote
internal USB headers in blue and FireWire heads in red,
but check the manual first as the pin-outs are the same
shape. Helpfully, some cases have cables with large
connection blocks that slide straight onto the whole
USB header; others come with small, fiddly cables that
must be installed individually on each pin. If using a
standalone sound card, you’ll need to plug the FP audio
connector into this instead. eSATA headers will need
plugging into a spare SATA port on the motherboard.
USB 3.0 headers are often thick and inflexible, so
position them carefully so they can’t easily pop out.
Give the memory modules a firm push to ensure they
are all the way into their slots. Make sure that your
graphics and any add-in cards are pushed fully into
their respective slots, and that you have screwed down
their backing plates. Secure any loose cables with ties
and replace the side panel. Plug your keyboard and
mouse into the USB ports, your video card cable into
the DVI or VGA slot, and the 3-pin ‘kettle’ power lead
into the PSU.
Quick Tip
Some motherboards
come with a caddy
to attach the audio
cables – helpful
15
time
Powering on for the
first time
taken
1 min With fingers crossed, press the power
button on the front of your case. If all has
gone to plan, you should be greeted by
a POST sequence on your monitor. This
will show the amount of memory installed, a list of
connected drives and CPU information. Press Delete or
the relevant F key to enter the BIOS. Firstly, you should
go into the drive settings and make sure all of your
disks are showing up correctly. Next, take a visit to the
hardware monitor section and ensure your processor
temperatures are steady and within safe limits (above
50°C is a concern and may point to an unseated
cooler). Set the boot order to your optical drive first
(assuming you are installing from DVD rather than a
USB stick), then save the settings and exit the BIOS
by pressing F10.
25 www.linuxuser.co.uk
FEATURE Build a Linux home server from scratch

Installing Amahi
Many Linux distros can be used to run a home
server, but Amahi is a particularly good choice
due to the ability to extend its functionality using
apps. Here we set it up with Ubuntu…

Troubleshooting if
there is no POST
If the worst happens and there
is no POST when you press the
power button, don’t panic. If
the system powers up, ie the
fans spin, the power supply is
functioning properly. If there
are no signs of life, first make
sure that you have the power
switch installed on the correct
motherboard header, and then
make sure that the switch on the
case is attached to the cable and
not damaged in some way.
If there is a standby LED
on your board and it is not
illuminated, the PSU may need
1 Sign up and
configure Amahi
On another computer, head over to www.amahi.org
and create an account and login. Once done, verify
your account by clicking on the emailed link; you will be
forwarded to a page asking you to create your HDA or
‘Home Digital Assistant’. The first screen will ask you
for your gateway, or router’s address. In our case this
was 192.168.1.254. Next, choose a non-conflicting IP
address for your HDA. We chose 192.168.1.50. The next
step is to name your local DNS domain. This can be
called anything you want, but we left it at the default of code; you will need this later. Download the Ubuntu
amahi.net. Perform the final check that all details have 12.04 install CD if you don’t already have a copy and
been correctly entered and take a note of your install burn the ISO to a blank disc.

replacing. If you hear beep
codes, check your motherboard
manual for their meaning. The
most common cause for a
motherboard failing to POST
without beep codes is that one of
the memory sticks is faulty. Try
removing one of the sticks if you
have two or more and see if that
causes the machine to POST.
Check that all graphics and PCI
cards are fully installed into
their slots. Disconnect any USB
devices from the machine and
reattempt the boot.
2 Install Ubuntu
be on the desktop. If you are a seasoned Ubuntu user
you’ll already feel at home; if not, bear with us! Click
Place the bootable operating system CD the dash home icon (top left) and type in ‘Terminal’ to
in your computer’s primary optical drive. If you set bring up the terminal window.
the boot order to CD-ROM first in step 15, the CD
should begin the operating system setup sequence
automatically. The first screen to greet you will ask
you if you want to try or install Ubuntu – choose the
latter. Do not select and install additional packages
while installing Ubuntu, as Amahi requires the default
installation. During the install process you will be
asked to create partitions and to pick a suitable
name, computer name and password. Installation
shouldn’t take too long and before you know it you will

5 top Amahi applications

Although Amahi itself is an incredibly useful home server, its
functionality can be further enhanced with applications! They also
help support developers and are extremely reasonably priced.
TIME MACHINE – Allows CLONEZILLA – Allows you
CRASHPLAN – Allows you DLNA – Enables DLNA/ COUCHPOTATO – An Mac OS X Time Machine or to fully clone complete
to automate the backup UPnP clients like Xboxes, automatic NZB and torrent similar AFP-based backup file systems for multiple
of your PCs. It can be set PS3s and set-top boxes downloader. If you download tools to work with your deployments or system
to intelligently identify to stream media from a lot of content using these home server. This results in restorations from scratch.
duplicates so incremental your server. An invaluable P2P standards, you need effortless data security for Clonezilla has a myriad of
backups are very quick. addition to Amahi! CouchPotato in your life. your peace of mind. possible applications!

26 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 3 Install Amahi
Within your open terminal window, type
‘wget http://u12.amahi.org/install-amahi’ and press
Enter. Assuming you get a response, now type in
‘sh install-amahi’. The terminal will now ask you for
your install code. This is the one we received in step 1.
Type it in and press Enter. You will now be asked
for your password. This is the one you configured
during the installation phase in the previous step.
Type it in and press Enter. After a few minutes Served up
you may receive a pop-up asking you to check for Amahi is a great server, but it’s
not the only one out there. Here
updates – click Close. Eventually you will be asked to
are some alternatives you may
reboot to get started. Installation of Amahi may take want to consider…
minutes or hours depending on the quality of your
hardware and internet connection. For our i3-based CENT OS
A community-built Red Hat
setup and with a BT Infinity fibre optic line, it took
Enterprise Linux using all the
about 7 minutes. official sources, making it a rock-
solid and reliable distro that can
handle all your server needs with
some tweaking.
UBUNTU SERVER
Ubuntu without X is otherwise
very similar to the desktop
version, although it does include
more software to allow it to host
email and websites. Support is
also maintained for five years.
TURNKEY LINUX
There are over 100 variations of
TurnKey Linux, and each one is
specialised for a specific type of
server. While it’s primarily used
in the cloud, it’s designed to work
on physical boxes as well.

4 Use Amahi
After the next reboot, Amahi is now fully
Amahi’s key features
What makes it tick?
installed and ready to use. There should be two Amahi
logos on your desktop. Go ahead and open the Amahi
Dashboard. The Firefox web browser will open with
http://hda and ask you to log in. Use your Ubuntu
login, not your Amahi website login. The first login will
create the first user, so take note of the details you
enter. You can now go ahead and begin sharing your
movies, photos and videos on your network. From
a remote computer or media streamer device like a
games console, you simply connect to ‘hda’ and enter
your user credentials. By default, files stored in the
/var/hda/files folders will be shared. Creating new
shares or changing the directories within the dashboard
is very easy and there are a host of apps available for
you to try and enjoy!
UBUNTU CORE
Amahi is built on Ubuntu, and as such it
means you can set it up on a pre-existing
install, and save a lot of time and hassle.
ONE-CLICK ADD-ONS
The Amahi App Marketplace is comprised
of hundreds of packages that add
functionality to Amahi with a single click
of a button.
WEB INTERFACE
Amahi comes preconfigured with a fully
featured browser-based interface that
you can access over a network or even via
the internet to control your server.
BUNCH OF DRIVES
Using its own open source utility, Amahi
is able to smartly combine your spare
storage drives into one, much more
useful virtual hard drive.
EXTERNAL NETWORKING
Dial into your own network with the built-
in VPN server, allowing you to access your
files and other systems directly.
REROUTING
Take control of your network with Amahi
to route PCs, phones etc. It comes with
DHCP and dynamic-DNS, and is more
stable than some ISP-supplied routers.

27 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 1&1 WEB HOSTING

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 Tutorial Create secure remote backups using Duplicity

Create secure remote

backups using Duplicity
Remote backup is an increasingly popular Advisor
Michael Reed is a technology
way to protect your files, and Duplicity writer and he’s been
hacking away at Linux
makes it easy to implement a secure yet for over 15 years. He
specialises in desktop

flexible backup system Linux solutions

Resources Duplicity is an easy-to-use system that

allows you to make encrypted backups that
We've tried to make the example commands
as generalised as possible, so wherever we
Duplicity: duplicity.nongnu.org/
are stored at a remote location or even in have put something within square brackets,
a locally accessible directory. It has a good remove the brackets and insert your own
vsftpd: security.appspot.com/vsftpd.html selection of networking back-ends (SFTP, SSH, information. Note that Duplicity uses relative
NcFTP: www.ncftp.com/
Google storage, S3 etc), so you should be able paths. So, for example, if you backed up your
to fit it into your organisation. The backups /etc/ directory to a separate archive, you would
are incremental, which saves on bandwidth specify simply ‘resolve.conf’ rather than ‘/etc/
and storage space when making subsequent resolve.conf’ when retrieving that file. Duplicity
backups. Incremental backups also allow the is scalable, so it’s possible to carry out a quick
user to step back to a specific point in time to backup with a single command or to build
retrieve an older version of a file. something much more elaborate…
Duplicity can store
your encrypted
backups on an FTP
server, and it has a
host of other back-
ends such as local file
access or SSH

Most of Duplicity
is controlled via
the command line

As we start to use
the more advanced
features of Duplicity,
it becomes
convenient to create
small helper scripts
for each function

A cron job is the

easiest way of
automating regular
Duplicity jobs

30 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Create secure remote backups using Duplicity
01 Installation
Install Duplicity itself along with NcFTP
using the package manager for your system
(‘sudo apt-get install duplicity ncftp’ on Ubuntu).
Don’t forget to compare the version on the
website with the version in the repo.
02 Prepare FTP server
In this tutorial, we’re going to begin with
an FTP server as the storage medium. Later
on we’ll cover SSH. To test things out, set up an
FTP server on a locally accessible machine by
installing vsftp with
sudo apt-get install vsftpd
Configure it by editing /etc/vsftpd.conf.
Uncomment the lines “local_enable=YES” and
“write_enable=YES”. This allows a user on the
host system to log in using their normal username
and password and to operate on files within their
home directory. Restart vsftp by typing
sudo /etc/init.d/vsftpd restart
03 Simple backup
We’ll do a quick backup to test the
setup. Use mkdir [backups directory]
Use Duplicity to securely back up your data online and restore it
TUTORIAL
to create a directory to store backups. Use the depositing three or more new files onto the FTP
following command: server. In a typical home directory, there may only
duplicity [source directory] ftp:// be a few small changes, for example. The output
[username]@[IP address of server]/ of Duplicity will reflect the extent of the changes
[backups directory] between backups.
Choose a smallish directory to begin with.
You’ll then be prompted for a user password
for that machine. Following this, enter a GnuPG
passphrase. As this is a test, come up with
something quick and easy to remember – we'll
create a stronger password later. The backup to
the FTP server will now commence.
04 Examine output
If everything went okay, Duplicity should
06 Verify backup
You can verify a Duplicity backup with
the verify command as so:
have backed up the files and will report this in its duplicity verify ftp://[username]@
output. In addition, the destination directory on [address of FTP server]/[backup
the FTP server should now hold three or more
folder] [folder that was backed up]
encrypted files. These are: the signatures file, the This will alert you to any problems and show
manifest file and at least one volume file.
you any current inconsistencies between the
05
Repeat test backups and source directory.
If you run exactly the same command
again, Duplicity will resynchronise the backup,
31 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Tutorial Create secure remote backups using Duplicity
07 Local backup
You don’t have to back up to a remote
server. Duplicity allows you to back up to a
locally accessible directory such as an external
hard drive. The command is:
duplicity [source directory] file://
[destination directory]
The other options work in exactly the same as for
FTP backup.
08 Single file restore
Let’s try retrieving a single file. Let us say
that we have corrupted /etc/network/interfaces
and want to retrieve a known good file.
duplicity --file-to-restore /etc/
network/interfaces ftp://[username]@
[FTP server]/[backups directory]
./interfaces
This command places the file into the current
directory.
32 www.linuxuser.co.uk
11 Generate key
You don’t have to use secure keys, if
you are confident about the security of your
backup medium. However, you can do so, using
gpg --gen-key. Accept the defaults as you go
along, but make a note of the GPG passphrase
that you choose when prompted. When it finally
finishes, type gpg --list-keys and make
a note of the ID (eight numbers and letters next
to the ‘pub’ entry) of the public key. It’s usual
to create separate keys for encryption and the
signing of archives, so repeat the procedure to
create a second key.
09 List files
You can list all of the files in an archive
using the following command sequence
duplicity list-current-files ftp://
[username]@[FTP server]/[directory]
12 Déjà Dup
10
There is a GUI front-end for Duplicity
Using SSH Instead of FTP
called Déjà Dup. It’s worth considering for simple
Begin by testing that you can SSH into
jobs and for clients who need a bit of control but
the server from the command line. On the
can’t handle the command line. Fortunately, the
machine that runs Duplicity, run sudo apt-get
actual archives that it creates can be operated
install python-paramiko.
on by the regular Duplicity tools.
To back up, use the command
duplicity [source directory]
scp://[user]@[SSH server]/[backup
directory]
If you use a password to SSH, use the ‘--ssh-
askpass’ switch.
13 Recover file by date
You can recover a file or directory from
a specific time. For example, if you had backed
up your /etc directory to its own directory and
you want to recover the version of resolv.conf
that was known to be working five days ago,
then do a single file restore but include the
parameter ‘-t 5D’.
You can recover a file or directory
from a specific time
 Create secure remote backups using Duplicity
14 Create scripts
From now on, we will use scripts
to control Duplicity. Create a file called
dupbackup.sh and place the following lines in it:
export FTP_PASSWORD=[ftp password]
export PASSPHRASE=[GPG passphrase]
duplicity --encrypt-key "[encrypt
key]" --sign-key "[gpg ID]" [sign
key] ftp://[username]@[IP address of
server]/[backups directory]
The retrieval script (call it dupretrieval.sh) is
similar, but the command line becomes
duplicity --encrypt-key "[encrypt
key]" --sign-key "[sign key]" ftp://
[username]@[IP address of server]/
[backups directory]
Remember to chmod+x them both before use.
15 Excluding files (size, pattern)
Exclude files from the backup by using
a list file specified with the ‘--exclude-filelist’
switch. Put a minus sign in front of files and
Use Duplicity to securely back up your data online and restore it
directories to exclude and the list file can include
wildcards. To exclude files over a certain size,
use the ‘find’ command – for example:
find . -size +100M -print
> oversize.txt
16
Automating backups
You can add a crontab to run your backup
script at regular intervals. For example, type
sudo crontab -e and then add a line such as
0 2 * * 1 /home/myuser/mybackup.sh to
run a backup at 2am once each day.
TUTORIAL
17 Full system backup
Modify the existing backup script, save it
under a new name and make it executable. The
command sequence is now
duplicity --encrypt-key "[encrypt
key]" --sign-key "[sign key]
--exclude-filelist=exclusion_list
/ ftp://[FTP user]@[FTP server]/
[backup folder]
This starts backing up files from the root folder,
and must be run as root. You also need to create
an ‘exclusion_list’ file with the following entries
on separate lines: - /sys - /dev - /proc - /tmp - /
mnt (dashes included).
18 System restore
There is more than one approach to
recovering an entire system, but the easiest
is to reinstall the system as usual and then
replace the files with those from the backup.
Exercise extreme caution when carrying this out.
Unfortunately, Duplicity won’t overwrite existing
files, so you have to do this manually. Create a
new script with the command sequence:
duplicity --encrypt-key "encrypt
key" --sign-key "sign key" ftp://
[FTP server]@[FTP server]/[backup
directory] /[destination directory
Now wipe the existing files from the destination
disk and use rsync -avz [source dir]
[destination drive root] to copy the
backup files across.
33 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Tutorial Install Ubuntu Touch to your Android device

Swipe between individual

elements of the phone’s
system settings before
choosing one to customise

Search the contents of the

phone and the internet using
the search bar. Applications
can also utilise a HUD search
The apps aren’t all quite
ready yet, but you can at
least connect to Facebook,
Skype and Gmail

Example contacts populate the

image, along with sample missed
calls and messages so you can
experience the full version

Install Ubuntu
Touch to your
Android device
Canonical’s new mobile OS
is out for testing on select
Nexus devices – we cover
the best way to try it out, and
then recover Android
Advisor
Rob Zwetsloot models complex
systems and is a web
developer proficient in
Python, Django and PHP.
He loves to experiment
with computing While the Ubuntu for Phones announcement – something you may use in your day-to-day life.
at the beginning of the year was not entirely This means you may want to return your device
Resources unexpected, the sudden announcement of
Ubuntu on tablets to coincide with the release
to its previous state afterwards. Thanks to the
nature of Android, this is perfectly possible.
A recent Nexus device
of the images was a bit more of a surprise. Now In this tutorial, we will guide you through the
named Ubuntu Touch, the first development steps to first back up your phone or tablet, install
Carbon Desktop: images have been released to the public, Ubuntu Touch and then restore Android if you
www.clockworkmod.com/carbon
allowing for testing and development on a select need to do so.
Android image: range of Android devices. This of course means Note: Make sure your device is fully charged
https://developers.google.com/
android/nexus/images completely wiping your Android phone or tablet before attempting this as well.

34 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Install Ubuntu Touch to your Android device
01 Version check
First of all, make sure you know the
Android version on the device you want to wipe.
To find this out, go to the device Settings and
scroll to the bottom. Here you’ll find ‘About
phone/tablet’, and the relevant number will be
under ‘Android version’.
02 Touch tools
On your desktop system, add the PPA for
the tools we need by using Apt like so:
$ sudo add-apt-repository
ppa:phablet-team/tools
After that’s been added, make sure to do an
apt-get update, then install the following tools:
$ sudo apt-get install phablet-tools
android-tools-adb android-tools-
fastboot
Test out the new mobile OS, then restore Android
TUTORIal
the newer Nexus devices. In your terminal, type:
$ ./run.sh
And then disconnect it after it says ‘Starting
shell runner...’
07 Carbon backup
Open up Carbon on your device and
it will check to make sure it’s rooted, which it
should now be. Select the apps you want to
back up, give them a name and then press
‘Backup’. With the standard version, you can
save it to the phone’s storage.
03 Android backup
Download the Carbon App Sync and
Backup application to your device from the
Play Store. This is a free backup utility that
does not require you to have your phone rooted
beforehand, but is quicker if you do.
04 Carbon PC
If your phone is not rooted, you must now
go to the Carbon website and download the Linux
script. Extract the files from the tarball. Now
open a terminal and navigate to the files using cd
so you can be ready for the next step.
08
05 Develop USB AirDroid
To get the files off the device, the best
You’ll need to enable USB debugging
method is to use AirDroid – it allows you to
before you can go any further. This is found in the
navigate to your device in a web browser over
developer menu, which is hidden in the latest Jelly
Bean version. To get to it, find the build number in the network without having to install any extra
drivers. Install from the Play Store, then follow
‘About phone/tablet’ and tap it seven times.
the instructions.
06
Carbon Desktop
Plug your Android device into your PC
and make sure the connection is set to PTP for
35 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Tutorial Install Ubuntu Touch to your Android device

09 Unlock bootloader
You may need to unlock your device if
you haven’t done so already. First, unplug the USB
cable, turn off the device and then reboot while
holding the volume-down button. It will now start
into the bootloader. Plug the USB back in.
12 Out of space
An error may pop up while trying to flash
the device, and it will complain about there not
being enough space. As you’re about to wipe
it anyway, the quickest way is to erase all data
on the device, either from the Storage menu or
via bootloader.

13 Eye on things
The image for Ubuntu Touch will be
downloaded to your system and then copied
onto your device. The copying operation is not
verbose, so be patient. Afterwards, the device
will reboot and show a blue bar loading up the
new image.

10 Unlock fastboot
Once it’s plugged in, open the terminal
and type in:
$ sudo fastboot oem unlock

And then accept the unlock on the screen of your

device. Once it’s done, you just then need to press
Start, usually using the power button.

15 Swiping system
Ubuntu Touch has its own special
interface, one that does not have universal
buttons. Swiping from the edge of the screen
is the way to navigate: swiping from the left
brings up the Unity bar if you hold it, and the
Home screen if you let go; swiping from the right
switches between open apps; swiping from
the top allows you to access system settings.
The bottom is used for access app settings by
dragging your finger to the magnifying glass. It's
an interesting take on the tablet interface, but

11
takes a little getting used to.
Phablet flash
Now we can finally flash the device. Open
up a terminal if you haven’t already and type in
the following: 16 Develop me
The images right now are purely for
development – in fact some of the apps don’t
phablet-flash -b

14 Unlock screen even work and are just placeholders. However,

The -b performs a full bootstrap of the device for
the first run. Accept the terms and continue.
You’ll boot into a fixed lock screen
for now, giving an example of how the lock
wheel will work when it”s finished by giving
ambient data about your messages and other
notifications. Swipe from left to right to show
the Unity bar, and press Home to unlock.
it’s a great way for developers to start getting their
apps ready for the final version, so get stuck in.
17 Prepare to restore Android
To put Android back on the device, first
you need to download the relevant image – we

Swipe from left to right to show the

Unity bar, and press Home to unlock

36 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Install Ubuntu Touch to your Android device
took a note of the version the device was on
before we started. The images are available on
the Android Nexus download page.
18 Image prep
Once the image is downloaded, make
sure to extract it. cd in a terminal to the directory
you just unpacked it to, as we will work from here.
Now make sure to plug your device into your
workstation, and that it’s turned on.
19 Reboot loader
Make sure the device is fully charged
just in case, and then type the following into
the terminal:
$ adb reboot-bootloader
This will reboot the device straight into the
bootloader after a short delay so that we can
reinstall Android.
20 Android install
Now we can install Android by typing into
the terminal:
$ ./flash-all.sh
Test out the new mobile OS, then restore Android
This may require root access to run. This will take
a little less time than putting on Ubuntu Touch
and then boot straight into the initial setup.
21
Prep restore
Once you’ve set up your accounts on your
phone, obtain Carbon again and go through the
steps to root it that we did earlier in the tutorial.
Also make sure to grab AirDroid, so we can put the
files back onto the device for restoration.
TUTORIal
22 Android restore
Restore using Carbon Backup, and
begin logging into any accounts you may need
to. You should now have successfully restored
your device back to the way it was previously.
This process can be used in general to keep your
phone backed up.
23 Update Touch
If you want to install Touch to your device
again, you don't have to go through the same
process as you will have already bootstrapped it.
Instead, use the following to get the latest nightly
image and install:
$ phablet-flash -l
24
The future of Touch
As the development progresses, new
hardware will likely get added to the compatibility
list, and more apps and functions will be
activated on the image. With these steps, you can
check back regularly with Ubuntu Touch and find
out how it’s evolving.
37 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Tutorial Plan your projects with Gannt and Planner

This list of buttons gives This panel shows a list of all Here you will find the Gantt This row of buttons gives you
you quick access to the of your tasks, sorted in the chart of all of your tasks, access to the most common
four different views of order that makes the Gantt showing when all of your tasks actions, based on the context of
your project plan chart easiest to manage are scheduled to be handled which view you are currently in

Plan your projects with

Gannt and Planner
Using Gantt charts and Planner, you can get all of your
work mapped out and scheduled. Here’s how…
Advisor
Joey Bernard As a true renaissance
man, he splits his time between
building furniture, helping
researchers with scientific
computing problems and writing
Android apps. When the kids let
him have some time, that is
As people need to deal with more and more
work, they require tools in order to deal with
this without overloading. One of the classic
tools to help schedule people, work and
resources is the Gantt chart. While you can
draw these out by hand on paper, having some
electronic format makes for much easier editing.
that will hopefully help get your tasks under
control. You can create tasks and subtasks, and
control linking of tasks in order of completion.
You can include slack, along with the duration
and start dates for your tasks. Planner also has
the ability to identify and mark critical paths.
You will also learn how to export your final Gantt

Resources
One of the tools available in Linux is Planner. chart as an HTML page, or print the final Gantt
With Planner, you have the ability to schedule chart out so that you can give hard copies to your
Planner: https://live.gnome.org/Planner all of your tasks and generate the Gantt charts hard-working team members.

38 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Plan your projects with Gannt and Planner
Use the Planner tool to map out a helpful work schedule
TUTORIAL

01 Installation
As always, most distributions should

04
have packages available to let you install Project properties
planner. On Ubuntu, you would use ‘sudo apt-get Each project has a set of properties that

install planner’. The source code is available at
the homepage. There is even a set of binaries
available for Windows users.
you can edit by selecting the menu item Project>
Edit Project Properties. Here, you can set the
name, manager and organisation for the project.
You can also set the project phase, and select the
calendar to contain the deadlines and any alarms.
07
Task properties
Double-clicking the task number in
the task list will pop up a Properties dialog; you
can set the name of the task and whether it is a
milestone or has a fixed duration. You can also
set date/time information, like work and duration,
when you want to schedule it, what percentage is
completed and what priority you give it.

02 New project
When you first start Planner, you are

presented with a new, empty project. You can
have multiple projects open at a single time. At
any point, you can open a new project by either
clicking the New Project button or selecting the
menu item File>New Project. This will open the
new project in a new window.
05
Calendars
In Planner, you have the freedom to
create calendars that will set days and times that
are available for work and which are non-working.
There is a default calendar where working is
allowed 8:00-12:00 and 13:00-17:00, Monday
until Friday. If you have some other working time
requirements, you can create a new calendar
by selecting the menu item Project>Manage
Calendars and creating a new one.
08 Task resources
Clicking on the Resources tab will let
you select resources to assign to this task. You
can only assign resources that have already
been defined within the project. Once they are
selected, the entry on the Gantt chart gets tagged
with the short name for those resources.

09 Task predecessors
Clicking the Predecessors tab lets you
define task relationships. You can select the

03 Importing a project
If you are switching over to Planner in
the middle of a current project, you probably
have information in another product. The
most common choice is Microsoft Project.
You can import the project information into
Planner by clicking the menu item File>Import>
MS Project XML...
06 Creating a task
Now that you have your project set up,
preceding task and define it as finish to start,
finish to finish, start to start, or start to finish. This
will update your Gantt chart with a relationship
you need to start creating tasks. You can either arrow between the tasks. You can also define a
click on the Insert Task button, or right-click in lag between the tasks, if needed.
the task list and select ‘Insert task’. All tasks are
numbered, and on creation it is not given a name
and is given a work duration of 1 day.

39 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Tutorial Plan your projects with Gannt and Planner
10 Moving tasks
Tasks can be moved up and down the task
list by clicking on the ‘Move Task Up’ and ‘Move
Task Down’ buttons. Depending on the size of your
screen, these buttons may not be immediately
visible. Just click on the arrow on the far right to
see missing buttons.
11 Creating subtasks
There are two ways you can create a
subtask. The first is to right-click the parent task
and select ‘Insert subtask’. The other option is
to create a new task, directly below the parent
task, and click on the Indent Task button to
indent it below the task above it.
12
Linking tasks
Using the Predecessors tab in the Task
Properties dialog is not the only way to define
relationships between tasks. You can also click
and drag between tasks directly on the Gantt
chart display. If you accidentally create a loop,
Planner will pop up an error message.
13 Looking at the task table
There are times when looking at data
in a tabular form actually gives you a clearer
40 www.linuxuser.co.uk
completed. To get a better view, you can zoom
into your Gantt chart. When you hover over the
task, near the beginning of it, the pointer will
change icon – alerting you that you can now
click and drag to mark the progress.
view of what is going on. Planner provides this
when you click on the Tasks button on the far
left side of the application. Here, you can see a
summary of all of your work for this project.
16 Looking at resource usage
The flip side to scheduling your tasks
is scheduling your resources. In order to see
whether any of your people or materials are
being double-booked, or whether they are being
used efficiently or not, you can click on the
Resource Usage button on the far left.
14
Adding new resources
Resources are defined for a project as a
whole. You can click on the Resources button on
the far left side to pull up the list of all resources
currently defined. You can add new resources by
either clicking the Insert Resource button or by
right-clicking within the resource list window and
selecting Insert Resource.
17 Highlighting the critical path
Once you have a large number of tasks
15 Using the Gantt view
At this point, you should have all of the
tasks for your project planned out and you
that you are tracking, it may become difficult
to see what set of tasks is the critical path to
reach the end of the project. Select the menu
can start to actually get some work done. As item View>Highlight Critical Tasks to show the
your project progresses, you can click and critical path in red. This way, you can focus on
drag along a task to mark the percentage those tasks of highest importance.
 Plan your projects with Gannt and Planner
Use the Planner tool to map out a helpful work schedule
TUTORIAL

Now that you

have your project
planning all done,
you can feel free
to delegate all of
the actual work to
your underlings
18 Unlinking/deleting tasks
During project reviews, you may notice
tasks that are either in the wrong location or

22
are completely unnecessary. If one is in the
Export to HTML
wrong spot in the plan, you can right-click
Once you have the project completely
the task and select ‘Unlink task’ to remove
plotted out, you need to communicate this out
its relationship to other tasks. If you need to
to all of the employees. If you have an internal
completely remove the task, you can right-click
company website, you can export your project
the task and select ‘Remove task’.
plan to HTML to include there. Selecting the
menu item File>Export>HTML will save this off
to a file of your naming.

numbers. In the tasks view, select the menu item

Actions>Edit Custom Properties. These new
properties will then show up in the task table.

23 Print off charts

If you have to generate hard copies of
your project plans, Planner can print off your
plan. You can actually print to a PDF file, so that

19 Creating a new calendar you have a printable version that you can share
To create a new calendar, you will need with other people.

24
to bring up the calendar manager and click What next?
on the ‘New…’ button. You can then choose to Now that you have your project
either derive this new calendar from an existing planning all done, you can feel free to delegate
one, make a copy of an existing one or create a
new empty calendar. You can then edit working
and non-working days and times.
21 Creating groups
In the resources view, you have the
option to group together resources. You can
all of the actual work to your underlings, leaving
you free to do all of the high-level thinking for
the next project. If Planner doesn’t quite fit your
click on the Edit Groups button to bring up the workflow, don’t be afraid to go out and look into

20 Adding custom task properties

You can add even further properties
to your tasks to better fit your workflow. They
editor, where you can create a new group. You
can define a manager and his or her contact
information, as well as selecting a default
all of the other options available out there.

can be either text, integer or floating point group from the list.

41 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Feature Mono - Lost in translation

AUTHOR Richard Hillesley

writes about art, music,
digital rights, Linux
and free software for a
variety of publications

Making a success of Mono as a key element

in the free software development stack was
always going to be an uphill task, given Mono’s
origins as an explicitly Microsoft technology.
Mono was a free software implementation of
the .NET framework, which the developers, led
by Miguel de Icaza, hoped to take to the heart
of the free software ecosystem as the tool of
choice for the rapid development of applications
for GNOME.
.NET had been Microsoft’s response
to the success of Java. As such, it shared
some objectives with Java and was a tool for
developing web-related technologies. But there
were significant differences. Java was the ‘write
once, run everywhere’ solution to the problem
of interoperability. .NET had no such aims, and
was specific to Windows, but gave programmers
the ability to write applications in a variety
of languages to a single Common Language
Runtime (CLR), which was something akin to the
Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

Between the language and

the user
The Common Language Runtime took away the
responsibility for the more menial tasks from
the programmer, and made it easier to write
lean applications. The CLR element of .NET was
designed to nullify the problems Microsoft had
encountered with its own APIs, which had “made

lost in
the (Windows) platform horrible.” As Miguel
de Icaza noted, “Microsoft has terrible APIs to
code against. Anyone who has used Win32 and
any combination of the various layered cakes
that have been built on top of it has stuck to that

translation
platform only because of the size of the market,
but it is one of the most horrible APIs ever built.”
The CLR “injected fresh air” into the Windows
platform “by building and designing a new
programming platform that addresses all these
pains.” De Icaza hoped that Mono would solve
similar issues for the developers of GNOME,
where “libraries have been built by disconnected
Mono could have been many things, groups (PNG, JPEG, GTK+, XML, Bonobo,
CORBA spec APIs etc) and the end result is

but never found complete acceptance that a developer eventually has to learn more
than he wanted to in the course of developing a

as part of the Linux ecosphere. large application.”

The simple theory was that a programmer

Richard Hillesley tells the story could achieve fast and predictable outcomes by
writing against the Common Language Runtime.

42 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Mono - Lost in translation
The story of the Mono project
FEATURE

CC. From an original by Leif Arne

SOURCE CODE BYTE CODE NATIVE CODE

C# compiler
C#

VB.NET compiler CIL CLR

VB.NET code
Native code

Other .NET Other compiler One more cup

language
COMPLILE TIME
■ The CLR converts code from the Common Intermediate Language to native code
As De Icaza pointed out, “The CIL (or Common
Intermediate Language) has one feature not
found in Java: byte code representation that is
powerful enough to be used as a target for many
languages: from C++, C, Fortran and Eiffel to
Lisp and Haskell including
of coffee
.NET was Microsoft’s response to
RUNTIME Java, which had been developed by
Sun Microsystems. Java was platform
independent and had one primary purpose,
to enable the development of ‘write once,
run anywhere’ web-based technologies
“.NET is nothing but Java,” said de Icaza. that would run on a virtual machine (JVM) on
“They just happened to learn the mistakes any platform.
from Java and build things they couldn’t do Java was seen as a threat to Microsoft’s
dominance of the consumer desktop, so
with Java because it was set in stone. GNU
Microsoft released a Windows-specific
was based on a proprietary technology
version of the JVM which included
[UNIX]. Think of Mono ‘extensions’ that worked only on Windows

“The CLR
things like Java, C#, as following the same and Internet Explorer, to “impede the
JavaScript and Visual Basic process: we are bringing development of network effects that
in the mix.” the best technology out cross-platform technology like Netscape
The CLR wasn’t a
new idea. An earlier ‘injected there to our beloved free
software platform.”
Navigator and Java might enjoy and use to
challenge Microsoft’s monopoly.”

fresh air’ into

manifestation, sometimes The complication was An internal Microsoft document revealed
that “the plan was not simply to blunt Java/
quoted by de Icaza, was that de Icaza saw the
browser cross-platform momentum, but to

the Windows
ANDF (the Architecture
Neutral Distribution
Format), developed by
the UK Royal Signals
Research Establishment as
a binary standard format
platform”
for UNIX applications. It gave a means by which
applications could be stored and distributed
in a format, the ANDF format, which an ANDF
translator would transform into native machine
code on the host machine. The ANDF translator
could be seen as a precursor of the Java Virtual
Machine and the translation process was
roughly equivalent to just-in-time compilation.
Nothing but Java
From de Icaza’s perspective, the objective of
Mono was not so much to achieve compatibility
with Microsoft but to use the CLR as an enabler
for the development of distribution- and
language-neutral Linux desktop applications.
De Icaza’s argument was that Mono, the CLR
and the .NET framework were “the fastest way
we can get stuff out there.”
CLR as a means of writing
destroy the cross-platform threat entirely.”
applications for GNOME, Microsoft’s ‘Strategic Objective’ was to
without much relevance “Kill cross-platform Java by grow[ing] the
to Microsoft’s project for
world domination, and
others couldn’t see it that
polluted Java market.”
After losing in court, the company’s
response was to create .NET, a rival to Java
way. Although Mono is based on a published that took the best aspects of the language
standard and is a clean implementation of and reshaped it as C#. .NET would be
specifications that Microsoft had, for the used to generate web services that were
Windows specific and would challenge
most part, put in the public domain, the
Java’s access to that platform. .NET was
doubts remained.
designed to maintain Microsoft’s monopoly
of the commercial desktop,
Visual Basic for Linux The big difference was that .NET
Mono and the alternative free software clone was language independent. Programs
DotGNU were deliberate attempts to offer open would compile to a Common Language
alternatives to .NET, independent of proprietary Runtime (CLR), which allowed language
interests. C# and Asp.NET developers could independence, so developers weren’t tied
jump straight from Windows to Linux, or to one language or another for the rapid
development of useful applications. This
vice versa, and applications developed for
was the attraction for Mono developers.
Windows could be migrated to Linux more or
less seamlessly. Mono allows you to program in
Visual Basic on Linux and run your applications
on Windows, or develop in C# on Windows and
run your applications on Linux.

43 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Feature Mono - Lost in translation
■ Banshee is a music organisational
and playback tool, written
in Mono for Linux
A campaigner for computer users’ freedom
The development of Mono was initiated by Miguel
de Icaza through his company Ximian, which he
founded to further the development of GNOME,
of which he had been a co-creator and the lead
developer. GNOME, originally a mnemonic for
the GNU network Object Model Environment,
grew out of misgivings with the licensing of the Qt
widget toolkit for KDE in the mid-Nineties. Miguel
de Icaza was a GNOME project leader from
the inception of the project. At the time Qt was
licensed under a non-free licence, and GNOME
was intended to be the free alternative.
The Qt licence was revised in 2000 (and
again by Nokia) and Qt can now be considered
to be untrammelled free software, so there is
a certain irony that Mono and C# – which may
or may not be patent encumbered, depending
upon which Microsoft executive is talking –
were considered as potential future building
blocks for GNOME, the project that was created
to preserve the integrity of free software.
De Icaza has a long history with free
software. He created Gnumeric and the popular
Midnight Commander file manager. De Icaza
was also a significant contributor to the Linux
kernel, for which he worked on software RAID
development, the SGI kernel enhancements and
the SPARC port.
In 1999, de Icaza was given the Award for
the Advancement of Free Software by the Free
Software Foundation “for his leadership and
work on the GNOME Project. The other finalists
44 www.linuxuser.co.uk
were Donald Knuth for TeX and METAFONT,
and John Gilmore for work done at Cygnus
Solutions and his contributions to the Free
Software Foundation.”
In the same year, de Icaze received
an Innovator of the Year Award from MIT
Technology Review. The magazine noted
that “De Icaza is co-ordinating development
of a graphical interface called GNOME that
makes Linux accessible to all by giving Linux
the windows and icons that the masses have
become accustomed to… Richard Stallman, the
MIT open software guru, calls de Icaza ‘not only
a capable software designer, but an idealistic
and determined campaigner for computer
users’ freedom.’ ”
A year later, TIME magazine nominated de
Icaza as an Innovator for the New Century.
Ximian was purchased by Novell in
2003, signalling a significant change in
the business model of Novell, one of the
older survivors of the computer wars of the
Eighties. Novell had been there, climbed the
mountain and come down the other side.
Linux was seen as an opportunity for Novell
to reinvent itself as a young and energetic
open source company with a new platform
for its expertise in networking technologies.
The same year that Novell purchased Ximian,
Novell also purchased SUSE Linux, the most
successful commercial distribution of Linux
after Red Hat.
De Icaza’s enthusiasms for Microsoft
technologies were not widely shared. He once
said of Silverlight 4: “I think I speak for the whole
Mono team when I say that this is exciting,
fascinating, challenging and feels like we just
drank a huge energy boost drink.” Writing
Visual Basic for Linux is not an ambition for
many developers, and duplicating Microsoft
technologies (where the firm allows you to) is not
often the motivation for becoming involved with
free and open source software.
Mono did serve one useful purpose, which
was to allow access to Microsoft technologies
for migration and interoperability purposes,
but the Mono developers wanted a world where
Mono was the base technology for developing
applications for the desktop. The ability to
“join forces with Windows/Mac OS developers
to create the next generation of desktop
■ Miguel de Icaza talking at the MySQL
Conference in 2005
Three years later the firm reached its fateful
interoperability and patent agreement with
Microsoft, which offered a hostage to fortune
in the shape of patent indemnity, and gave
credibility to Microsoft’s often iterated, never
substantiated, and highly contentious claims
of patent infringements in the Linux kernel.
Ultimately, the mix of the patent indemnity
agreement and a Microsoft-oriented technology
in the shape of Mono was toxic to the reputation
of both Novell and Mono in the community,
not helped by the fact that the inspiration for
GNOME itself owed something to de Icaza’s
fascination with Microsoft technologies.

■ F-Spot is a photo management application for the
GNOME desktop, written in Mono
applications” is only useful if the underlying
technologies are free and open, and are likely to
remain free and open.
Nonetheless, Mono fulfils a useful role for
Windows developers and applications, providing
an easy route for the migration of commercially
developed Asp.NET and other software
applications from Windows Server to Linux, and
allowing .NET developers to migrate seamlessly
from Windows to Linux. And MonoTouch has
evidently found a successful niche as a tool for
developing cross-platform mobile apps that will
run on iOS and Android.
Owned by “Most computer users don’t
Microsoft
Mono isn’t the only free care about the origins of the
software they use”
software project to have
been based on Microsoft
technologies. Samba, which
implements Microsoft’s SMB/CIF protocols,
could provided some useful lessons. Jeremy
Allison once recounted that Microsoft was
helpful to the Samba project as long as Samba
was seen as an ally in its aim of overturning the
market share of NetWare, but “once NetWare was
defeated by Windows NT, their attitudes changed,
and the flow of information stopped. Proprietary
modifications to core protocols like the Kerberos
authentication protocol followed, and these
changes were treated as trade secrets, patented
if possible, and only released under restrictive
non-disclosure agreements, if released at all.”
Much later down the road, the Samba Team
managed to forge an agreement between the
Protocol Freedom Information Foundation (PFIF)
and Microsoft which gave the Samba developers
Mono - Lost in translation
■ MonoDevelop is a free GNOME IDE primarily designed for C# and
other .NET languages
the right to access and use the SMB/CIF
protocols. This agreement stands in stark
contrast to the confusion and ambivalence
that surrounded Microsoft’s patent indemnity
agreement with Novell and the ‘IP’ issues
surrounding .NET and Mono.
Microsoft gave a certain level of
encouragement to Mono in the knowledge
that the project helped to spread the word and
bring developers into the Microsoft fold. It is
also true that many individuals within Microsoft
had a genuine interest in promoting the idea of
‘open source’, usually with strings attached,
and Mono gave credibility to Microsoft’s claim
that its technologies were multi-platform,
accessible to free software developers and a
‘part of the open web’.
But Microsoft always held back on a full
commitment to patent neutrality and the
possibility was always open that some aspect
of Mono might be patent encumbered. Some
elements of Mono were covered by ECMA.
Some were not. Even where de Icaza did
manage to forge an agreement with Microsoft
such as its ‘Covenant to End-Users of
Moonlight’, the language was ambivalent and
open to reinterpretation.
As Tom ‘spot’ Callaway, Fedora’s engineering
manager noted, the ‘covenant’ was
The story of the Mono project
FEATURE
“specifically worded to apply only to end-users,
and makes the following noteworthy distinction:
‘an entity or individual cannot qualify both as an
End User and a Distributor for use of the same
copy of a Moonlight Implementation.’ It grants
no patent rights to Distributors, aside from
those already granted to Novell in the previous
covenant. What it practically means is that
once you distribute, you stop being considered
an ‘End User’ by Microsoft, and are no longer
protected by this ‘covenant’ (unless you’re Novell
or Microsoft).” The covenant reserved the right
for Microsoft to discontinue
the agreement at any time,
and didn’t allow the use of
“GPLv3 or a similar licence”.
Most computer users don’t
care about the origins of the
software they use, but this
has never been the case with
Linux users and developers. Richard Stallman
expressed the opinion of many when he wrote:
“I have always supported the development of
free platforms for C#, just as I’ve supported the
development of free platforms for any language
that users use. I also wouldn’t argue that people
should not use C# with a free platform for
secondary applications… However, making
GNOME depend on Mono is running a grave risk,
and [is] a grave mistake.”
The shame is that the idea of a Common
Language Runtime hasn’t been taken up as a
realistic free software project, independent of
the .NET or Mono implementation.
45 www.linuxuser.co.uk
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The only Linux magazine for open source developers
100% FOSS focused » Features » Tutorials » Sample code

Build web apps with

PYTHON
Create a feature-complete app with the
fastest and easiest language in open source
Get an There’s
app on the nothing you
RasPi Store cannot do with
Built a cool app? Here’s Python
how to share it
Page 48

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47 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Tutorial Get an app on the Raspberry Pi Store

It’s not all games on

the Pi Store. There are
tutorials, development
tools and applications

Once you’ve registered,

installing applications
and games is as simple
as clicking a button

LibreOffice is now
available on the
Raspberry Pi, and it
actually runs pretty well

Get an app on the

Raspberry Pi Store
So, you’ve written a game or app for the Raspberry Pi,
why not put it on the app store? Here’s how it’s done…
Before we begin
Advisor
developers of all ages to share their games,
You can download the latest Raspbian image applications, tools and tutorials with the rest
Liam Fraser is the creator from www.raspberrypi.org/downloads. From of the community. The Pi Store will, we hope,
of the RaspberryPi Tutorials
here, flash the image to your SD card as you become a one-stop shop for all your Raspberry
YouTube series and volunteers as
a Linux server administrator for usually would. Instructions can be found at Pi needs; it’s also an easier way into the
the Raspberry Pi Foundation www.linuxuser.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-set- Raspberry Pi experience for total beginners,
up-raspberry-pi if you are unsure on this. You’ll who will find everything they need to get going

Resources
Original content – to upload to the app store
A Raspberry Pi – running the latest Raspbian
image with an internet connection
An email address – which you can use to
register with the app store
only need to go up to the step where you write
the image to the SD card. You’ll have to adapt
the instructions slightly for using the newer
Raspbian image rather than the Debian one.
Recently, the Raspberry Pi Foundation
launched an app store in collaboration
with IndieCity. In their own words: “We’re
launching the Pi Store to make it easier for
in one place, for free.”
The app store provides a great opportunity
for developers to share their work with as many
people as possible, as well charge a small fee
for their software should they wish. Our expert
is going to be uploading a simple Noughts and
Crosses game that he wrote for a previous
Linux & User Developer tutorial.

48 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Get an app on the Raspberry Pi Store
Upload your app to the store to share with others
TUTORIAL

01 Getting to the app store

The app store runs as an X Windows
application, so start up the LXDE desktop
environment using the command startx, and
then double-click on the Pi Store shortcut on
the desktop. The store may take a short while to
start because it will need to update its package
lists when it first runs.

02 Logging into the Pi

You need to register before you can
do anything on the app store. Click the Log In
link in the top-right corner and then click the
Register button. Don’t worry, the registration
process is hassle-free. You only need to
provide an email address, a password and
a security question/answer. Once you’ve
filled in the required fields, click the Sign Me
Up button. Once you’ve done this, you’ll be
signed in with an account with a name similar
to ‘IndieGamer47601’. You can change your
username and upload an avatar for your
account by clicking on the blue Edit link and
filling in the required fields.
03 Registering as a developer
Now that you’ve registered as a
standard user, you can click on the Upload tab
04 Disabling the default Bluetooth
plug-ins
You’ll be taken to the Developer page once
and register as a developer. If you don’t have a you’ve registered as a developer. Here, you
company name, you can enter your own name. can fill in information about yourself, or your
You also need to provide a contact email address company, including any public email addresses
and agree to the terms and conditions of the or a website you may have. Feel free to have a
distribution agreement, which you can read by
clicking on the blue Distribution Agreement link.
Once you are happy with everything, click the
Register button.

The Pi app
store provides a
great opportunity
for developers
to share
their work

49 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Tutorial Get an app on the Raspberry Pi Store

browse around the developer area and fill in any

information you like. If you go to the My Company
tab, you can upload a company logo and even
link your account to social media accounts such
as Twitter and Facebook.

05 Creating a project
Go to the My Games & Apps tab and
select the type of project you want to create.
Our expert wanted to upload a game so he
selected the Game option.

06 Taking screenshots
You’ll need screenshots of your
application, so before continuing let's learn how
to do that. We’ll be using a program called scrot
to take screenshots. You can install scrot using
the command ‘sudo apt-get install scrot’. Once
you've installed scrot, open up your application,
and a terminal and type ‘scrot -s’. Then click on
your application. Scrot will take a screenshot of
the window you clicked on, and save an image
file in your terminal’s current directory named by
the date and time you took the screenshot.
the Pi folder to access your files. When filling in
the price, set each value to 0.00 if you want to
make your app free.
08 Setting a URL and folder name
Go to the Platforms/Installers tab. The
first step is to set a URL and folder name for the
project. You need this to continue. Once you've
set a URL and folder name you are happy with,
click the Save button.
09 Creating a zip file containing the
project’s files
Projects are uploaded to the Pi store in zip files.
This is because a zip file allows everything
required for your program to run to be uploaded
as a single file. Our expert made a directory for
his project to demonstrate how to create a zip

07 Filling in the information

Go through the project page and
various tabs, filling in information about the
application and uploading images. Note that
when uploading images, you’ll need to click on

50 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Get an app on the Raspberry Pi Store
Upload your app to the store to share with others
TUTORIal

file containing multiple files – for example, any

sounds or images needed by your program.
Raspbian doesn’t come with the zip utility by
default, so we’ll need to install it using the
command ‘sudo apt-get install zip’. Once you’ve
done that, you can create a zip archive, as
demonstrated below (missing out the creating
a folder step if you already have one). The
-r flag tells the zip command to recursively
add files, which basically means to add files
inside directories.
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ mkdir
NoughtsAndCrosses
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ mv O&X.py
NoughtsAndCrosses/NoughtsAndCrosses.
py
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ zip -r
Liam-NoughtsAndCrosses.zip
NoughtsAndCrosses/

adding: NoughtsAndCrosses/ (stored
0%)
adding: NoughtsAndCrosses/
NoughtsAndCrosses.py (deflated 75%)
11
Building the game
Once you are happy that you have filled
in every aspect of the applications information
pages correctly, you can go back to the Manage
Platforms/Installers section and select the
BUILD button to build the application. The build
process should only take a few seconds.
again and submit the game for approval. You
can submit the game for both In Progress and
Final Approval. The latter means that the game
will be in the main store whereas In Progress
approval means that the game is not marked as
finished yet, but can still be tried out by people
if they decide to look through the In Progress
section. Our expert submitted his game for
Final Approval. Check the box to indicate that
you have tested your game. Once you’ve filled
in the information, click the Submit button.
If you have uploaded an improved version of
your game, you can write information about
any bugs that you have fixed, or new features.
You will receive an email to notify you that the
game has been submitted for the community
approval process.

10 Uploading the project

Once you’ve filled everything in, and
checked that you are happy with the licence
12 Testing your build
Select the Download Build option.
Clicking on this will take you to your library and
that your project will be distributed under, you
download the build that you’ve just uploaded.

14
can upload the files for you project. Click on the The waiting game
Double-click on the game, once it’s installed, to
Pi link, under the Manage Platforms/Installers The community approval process may
test it out.
section, and select Full Game. Once you’ve take a few days. Our expert’s game was on the
done that, select the Upload Installer Files link store within three days of submitting. As long as
and upload your zip file. If your application is you haven’t uploaded any copyrighted content
written in Python, then you need specify that it and your game works, there should be no
should be launched with Python. You then need problem getting your app into the Pi Store. You’ll
to specify the path to the main executable that receive an email when your application has been
you run to start the application. Clicking in the through the community approval process.
field will show a list of possible files. Once you
are happy the form is filled in correctly, click the
Confirm Settings button.
13 Submitting your game for approval
If the game runs, then you can go back
to the Manage Platforms/Installers section

51 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Tutorial Making web apps with Python
Making web apps with Python
Python provides quick and easy way to build
applications, including web apps. Read on to find out
how to use it to build a feature-complete web app
Advisor
Kunal Deo is a veteran open source developer.
Currently he is leading two open source
projects: WinOpen64 and KUN Wiki.
He is also a KDE developer. He has
contributed to many open source
projects, including KDE-Solaris, Belenix
and Openmoko
Resources
Python 2.7: This tutorial is written using
Python 2.7. If you have yet not done so, please
install it from your distribution’s package
manager. Python 3.x is not yet supported
for the current stable release of Django, ie
version 1.4. This information is up to date
as of writing of this feature. Django will fully
support Python 3 from version 1.6.
To install/upgrade Python 2.7 and pip
(Python package manager) on Ubuntu- or
Debian-based distributions, the following
command sequence has been verified to
work with Ubuntu 12.0.
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get -f install
$ sudo apt-get install python-pip
python-dev build-essential
$ sudo pip install --upgrade pip
Django version 1.4: Django can be
installed using pip. To install Django using
pip, use the following command:
$ sudo pip install django==1.4
By now you should be able to run
the command ‘djang-admin.py’. If the
command fails to run then you may want
to copy /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-
packages/django/bin/django-admin.py to a
directory which is in your path.
This tutorial assumes you have some
knowledge about Python. If you are new to
Python, you can read the Python master
class at www.linuxuser.co.uk/tutorials/
python-development-masterclass or the
official Python documentation at http://
docs.python.org/2.7/
52 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Python is a very popular programming
language which is known for its simplicity and
capabilities. At this point there is nothing you
cannot do with Python, and conquering the web
is one of the possibilities. When you are using
Python for web development you get access to
a huge catalogue of modules and community
support – make the most of them.
Web development in Python can be done
in many different ways, right from using the
01
Creating the Django Project LUD
Issue Tracker
The django-admin.py file is used to create new
Django projects. Let’s create one for our Issue
Tracker project…
In Django, a project represents the site and
its settings. An application, on the other hand,
represents a specific feature of the site, like
blogging or tagging. The benefit of this approach
is that your Django application becomes
portable and can be integrated with other
Django sites with very little effort.
$ django-admin.py startproject
ludIssueTracker
A project directory will be created. This will also
act as the root of your development web server
that comes with Django. Under the project
directory you will find the following items…
manage.py: Python script to work with your
project.
ludIssueTracker: A python package (a directory
with __init__.py file) for your project. This
package contains your project’s settings and
configuration data.
ludIssueTracker/settings.py: This file contains
all the configuration options for the project.
ludIssueTracker/urls.py: This file contains
various URL mappings.
wsgi.py: An entry-point for WSGI-compatible
web servers to serve your project. Only useful
when you are deploying your project. For this
tutorial we won’t be needing it.
plain old CGI modules to utilising fully groomed
web frameworks. Using the latter is the most
popular method of building web applications
with Python, since it allows you to build
applications without worrying about all that
low-level implementation stuff. There are many
web frameworks available for Python, such
as Django, TurboGears and Web2Py. For this
tutorial we will be using our current preferred
option, Django.
02
Configuring the Django project
settings
Before we start working on the application,
let’s configure the Django project as per our
requirements.
Edit ludIssueTracker/settings.py as follows
(only parts requiring modification are shown):
Database Settings: We will be using SQLite3
as our database system.
NOTE: Red text indicates new code or
updated code.
‘default’: {
‘ENGINE’: ‘django.
db.backends.sqlite3’,
‘NAME’: ‘ludsite.db3,
Path settings
Django requires an absolute path for directory
settings. But we want to be able to pass in the
relative directory references. In order to do that
we will add a helper Python function. Insert the
following code at the top of the settings.py file:
import os
def getabspath(*x):
return os.path.join(os.path.
abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)),
*x)
Now you can update the path options:
@code
TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
getabspath(‘templates’)
)
MEDIA_ROOT = getabspath(‘media’)
 Making web apps with Python
Use Python to create a fully functional web app
TUTORIAL

MEDIA_URL = ‘/media/’ ('new', 'New'), You just installed Django's auth

('accepted','Accepted'), system, which means you don't have
Now we will need to enable the admin interface ('reviewed','Reviewed'), any superusers defined.
for our Django site. This is a neat feature of Django ('started','Started'), Would you like to create one now?
which allows the automatic creation of an admin ('closed','Closed'), (yes/no): yes
interface of the site based on the data model. The )
admin interface can be used to add and manage
content for a Django site.
Uncomment the following line:
class Issue(models.Model):
# owner will be a foreign key
05 Enabling the admin site
The admin site is already enabled,
but we need to enable it in the urls.py file – this
INSTALLED_APPS = ( to the User model which is already contains the regex-based URL mapping from
‘django.contrib.auth’, built-in Django model to view. Update the urls.py file as follows:
‘django.contrib.contenttypes’, owner = models.ForeignKey(User,n from django.conf.urls import
‘django.contrib.sessions’, ull=True,blank=True) patterns, include, url
‘django.contrib.sites’, # multichoice with defaulting to from django.contrib import admin
‘django.contrib.messages’, "new" admin.autodiscover()
‘django.contrib.staticfiles’, status = models.CharField(max_
‘django.contrib.admin’, length=25,choices=ISSUE_STATUS_ urlpatterns = patterns(‘’,
# ‘django.contrib.admindocs’, CHOICES,default='new') url(r’^admin/’, include(admin.
) summary = models.TextField() site.urls)),
# date time field which will be )

03 Creating ludissues app

In this step we will create the primary
app for our site, called ludissues. To do that, we
set to the date time when the record
is created 06 Starting the Django web server
Django includes a built-in web server
opened_on = models. which is very handy to debug and test Django
will use the manage.py script: DateTimeField('date opened', auto_ applications. Let’s start it to see how our admin
$ python manage.py startapp now_add=True) interface works…
ludissues modified_on = models. To start the web server:
DateTimeField('date modified', auto_ $ python manage.py runserver
We will need to enable this app in the config file now=True)
as well:
If you do not have any errors in your code, the
INSTALLED_APPS = ( def name(self): server should be available on port 8000. To
............. return self.summary. launch the admin interface, navigate your
'django.contrib.admin', split('\n',1)[0] browser to http://localhost:8000/admin.
‘ludissues’,
You will be asked to log in here. Enter the
) # Admin front end for the app. We username and password that you created while
are also configuring some of the

04
Creating the data model
This is the part where we define the
data model for our app. Please see the inline
comments to understand what is happening.
From django.db import models:
# We are importing the user
authentication module so that we use
the built
# in authentication model in this
app
from django.contrib.auth.models
import User
# We would also create an admin
interface for our app
from django.contrib import admin
# A Tuple to hold the multi choice
char fields.
# First represents the field name
the second one repersents the
display name
ISSUE_STATUS_CHOICES = (
syncing the database.
# built in attributes for the admin
interface on
# how to display the list, how it
will be sorted
# what are the search fields etc.
class IssueAdmin(admin.ModelAdmin):
date_hierarchy = 'opened_on'
list_filter = ('status','owner')
list_display = ('id','name','sta
tus','owner','modified_on')
search_fields = ■ Admin login screen
['description','status'] After logging in, you will notice that all the apps
installed in your project are available here. We are
# register our site with the Django only interested in the Auth and LudIssues app.
admin interface You can click the +Add to add a record. Click
admin.site. the Add button next to Users and add a few
register(Issue,IssueAdmin) users to the site.
Once you have the users inside the system,
To have the created data model reflected in the you can now add a few issues to the system.
database, run the following command:
$ python manage.py syncdb
You’ll be also asked to create a superuser for it:

53 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Tutorial Making web apps with Python
n Admin homepage
Click the Add button next to Issues. Here you
will notice that you can enter Owner, Status
and Summary for the issue. But what about
the opened_on and modified_on field that
we defined while modelling the app? They
are not here because they are not supposed
to be entered by the user. opened_on will
automatically set to the date time it is created
and modified_on will automatically set to the
date time on which an issue is modified.
Another cool thing is that the owner field is
automatically populated with all the users inside
the site.
We have defined our list view to show ID,
name, status, owner and ‘modified on’ in the
model. You can get to this view by navigating to
http://localhost:8000/admin/ludissues/issue/.
n The ‘Add issue’ menu
n The list view for issues
54 www.linuxuser.co.uk
07 Creating the public user interface
for ludissues
At this point, the admin interface is working. But
we need a way to display the data that we have
added using the admin interface. But there is no
public interface. Let’s create it now.
We will have to begin by editing the main
urls.py (ludIssueTracker/urls.py).
urlpatterns = patterns(‘’,
(r’^’,include(‘ludissues.
urls’)),
(r’^admin/’, include(admin.site.
urls)),
) a Django feature called generic views. In this
This ensures that all the requests will be
processed by ludissues.urls first.
08 Creating ludissues.url
Create a urls.py file in the app directory
(ludissues/urls.py) with the following content:
from django.conf.urls import
patterns, include, url
# use ludissues model
from models import ludissues
# dictionary with all the objects in
ludissues
info = {
‘queryset’:ludissues.objects.
all(),
} ludIssueTracker/templates/. Since we will be
# To save us writing lots of python
code
# we are using the list_detail
generic view
#list detail is the name of view we
are using
urlpatterns = patterns(‘django.
views.generic.list_detail’,
#issue-list and issue-detail are the
template names
#which will be looked in the default
template
#directories
url(r’^$’,’object_
list’,info,name=’issue-list’),
url(r’^(?P<object_
id>\d+)/$’,’object_
detail’,info,name=’issue-detail’),
)
To display an issue list and details, we are using
case we are using views called list and details.
This allow us to create an issue list view and
issue detail view. These views are then applied
using the issue_list.html and issue_detail.html
template. In the following steps we will create
the template files.
09
Setting up template and media
directories
In this step we will create the template and
media directories. We have already mentioned
the template directory as
TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
getabspath(‘templates’)
)
Which translates to ludIssueTracker/
accessing the templates from the ludissues
app, the complete directory path would be
ludIssueTracker/ludIssueTracker/templates/
ludissues. Create these folders in your
project folder.
Also, create the directory ludIssueTracker/
ludIssueTracker/media/ for holding the CSS
file. Copy the style.css file from the resources
directory of the code folder.
To serve files from this folder we need to make
it available publicly. To do that, open settings.py
and add the following lines in ludIssueTracker/
ludIssueTracker/urls.py:
from django.conf.urls import
patterns, include, url
from django.conf import settings
# Uncomment the next two lines to
enable the admin:
from django.contrib import admin
admin.autodiscover()
urlpatterns = patterns(‘’,
(r’^’,include(‘ludissues.
urls’)),
(r’^admin/’, include(admin.site.
 Making web apps with Python
Use Python to create a fully functional web app
Tutorial

urls)),
(r’^media/
(?P<path>.*)$’,’django.views.static.
serve’,
{‘document_root’:settings.
MEDIA_ROOT})
)

10 Creating the template files

Templates will be loaded from the
ludIssueTracker/ludIssueTracker/templates
directory. In Django, we start with the
ludIssueTracker/ludIssueTracker/templates/
base.html template. Think of it as the master
template which can be inherited by slave ones.
ludIssueTracker/ludIssueTracker/templates/ n LUD Issue Tracker in action – list of issues
base.html
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD Now we need to create the issue_list.html ludIssueTracker/ludIssueTracker/templates/
XHTML Strict//EN” template. This template is responsible for ludissues/issue_detail.html
“ HYPERLINK “http://www.w3.org/ displaying all the issues available in the system. {% extends ‘base.html’ %}
TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd” ludIssueTracker/ludIssueTracker/templates/ {% block title %}Issue #{{ object.id
http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/ ludissues/issue_list.html }} - {% endblock %}
xhtml1-strict.dtd”> {% extends ‘base.html’ %} {% block content %}
<html> {% block title %}View Issues - {% <h2>Issue #{{ object.id }} <span>{{
<head> endblock %} object.status }}</span></h2>
<title>{% block title %}{% {% block content %} <div class=”issue”>
endblock %}LUD Issues</title> <table cellspacing=”0” <h2>Information</h2>
<link rel=”stylesheet” class=”column-options”> <div class=”date”>
href=”{{ MEDIA_URL }}style.css” <tr> <p class=”cr”>Opened {{
type=”text/css” media=”screen” /> <th>Issue</th> object.opened_on }} ago</p>
</head> <th>Description</th> <p class=”up”>Last modified
<body> <th>Status</th> {{ object.modified_on }} ago</p>
<div id=”hd”> <th>Owner</th> </div>
<h1>LUD Issue </tr> <div class=”clear”>&nbsp;</div>
Tracker</span></h1> {% for issue in object_list %} <div class=”block w49 right”>
</div> <tr> <p class=”ass title”>Owner</
<div id=”mn”> <td><a href=”{% url issue- p>
<ul> detail issue.id %}”>{{ issue.id }}</ <p class=”ass”>{{ object.
<li><a a></td> owner }}</p>
href=”{% url issue-list %}” <td><a href=”{% url issue- </div>
class=”sel”>View Issues</a></li> detail issue.id %}”>{{ issue.name <div class=”clear”>&nbsp;</div>
<li><a }}</a></td> <div class=”block”>
href=”/admin/”>Admin Site</a></li> <td>{{ issue.status }}</td> <p class=”des
</ul> <td>{{ issue.owner}}</td> title”>Summary</p>
</div> </tr> <p class=”des”>{{ object.
<div id=”bd”> {% endfor %} summary }}</p>
{% block content %} </table> </div>
{% endblock %} {% endblock %} </div>
</div> {% endblock %}
</body> Here we are inheriting the base.html file that we
</html> created earlier. {% for issue in object_list %} And that’s everything! The LUD Issue Tracker app
runs on the object sent by the urls.py. Then we is now complete and ready to use. You can now
{{ variablename }} represents a Django variable. are iterating on the object_list for issue.id and point your browser at localhost:8000 to start
(% block title %} represents blocks. Contents issue.name. using the app.
of a block are evaluated by Django and are Now we will create issue_detail.html. This
displayed. These blocks can be replaced by the template is responsible for displaying the detail
child templates. view of a case.

55 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Feature The University of Linux

THE
UNIVERSIT Y

lin u x
of

No degree? No problem. Free software

companies value aptitude and community
involvement, and apprenticeships offer a leg up
AUTHOR Richard Smedley
First agricultural college, then Kew for
a Royal Botanic Gardens Diploma, yet
ending up in free software, Richard found
he wasn’t the only one bypassing the
traditional degree route to an IT career
The free software world is about doing and
making, not ticking boxes, so it’s possible
to get started in your FOSS career without a
degree in computer science. IT is still a new
field, sucking in people from other disciplines
as it grows. But as large firms’ HR departments
often insist on a certificated three years of
studying, is it still viable to just jump into a job
with a free software firm, even with no degree?
If systems administration is a pragmatic,
wing-and-a-prayer sort of discipline, it’s natural
that those of a practical bent – who can keep
calm under pressure, dive into a problem at
different levels of detail, think laterally and
learn vary quickly from man pages and Google
– should positively thrive managing servers
running an ever-changing roster of critical
services. Given the continual growth of young
hosting companies, open-minded employers –
based not just in the capital – are also a given.
Long-term readers of LUD will have noticed a
number of articles on free software luminaries
who started out in the arts, as well as many
from other scientific disciplines. Despite the
best efforts of universities and parts of industry
to present computer programming as a science,
the real world will not play ball. Coders soon
find by experience that when given a new brief,
it is impossible to set out, with any accuracy,
how long it will take to come up with a solution.
Indeed, it’s often hard to picture what the
solution really should be.
The only way forward is to dive in and code
a little, and see what starts to take shape.
Recognition of the problem is now seen in the
slow death of waterfall programming, and the
spread of Agile into even some of the largest
and most conservative corporations. Again,
this points to a demand for creative people

56 www.linuxuser.co.uk

who can show results, have imagination and
are unafraid to explore and experiment. It is
a common complaint that imagination and
experimentation are not encouraged by much
of the education system.
Makers
21st Century careers are vastly different from
those of the 19th Century, which still shape our
education system. Flexible skills are needed,
and the creativity and imagination to make
astounding new things, and to think your way out
of problems created by old ways of doing things.
Little wonder there’s such an overlap between
free software and the makers at fab labs and
hackerspaces. Natural, too, that many should
want to make their own career and education.
Launching your career without getting a
degree might go against most of what young
people have been told by their teachers. Leaving
the safety blanket of education is a big step,
and most recruitment ads that don’t demand
a degree do want years of experience, a classic
catch-22 for newcomers. Fortunately for young
people, there is another formal way into the
workplace: the modern apprenticeship. Anyone
aged 16 or over and not in full-time education
The University of Linux
Free software welcomes anyone with talent
n Virya Technologies’
apprentices get
interesting work,
responsibility and to
see their code up live
on clients’ sites
can apply for an apprenticeship. From the UK
government website (www.gov.uk):
Apprenticeships are work-based
programmes that combine practical training
with study. They take between one and four
years to complete depending on the level
of apprenticeship.
An apprentice:
• works alongside experienced staff
• gains job-specific skills
• earns a wage
• studies – usually one day a week – towards a
related qualification
Recently, IT apprenticeships have been hailed
as the only way to bridge the skills gap, and new
players are coming in, such as CISCO – about to
start hundreds of apprentice network engineers.
But for careers entirely with GNU/Linux and free
software, the UK’s small FOSS businesses are
already working with the scheme.
We spoke to Ruth Cheesley, director of Virya
Technologies, who is now training up her second
Open Source Apprentice: “When I first took
on an apprentice, I was the only person in the
business. I was running round doing [all the]
fairly easy stuff like setting up sites, and having
to spend a lot of money on outsourcing.”
feature
Ignore the careers teacher
User groups for networking
Dissatisfied with the applied IT A-level at
his local sixth-form college, Tim Dobson
continued to build websites and learn the
LAMP stack in his own time, producing a fully
functional Zen Cart shopping site. Attendance
at the new Manchester Free Software User
Group showed him that there were interesting
IT jobs without moving to London (speakers
included Aiden McGuire of Blue Fountain and
ScraperWiki; John Leach of BrightBox; and
Matthew Bloch of Bytemark).
Three years of university still seemed
inevitable: “The teachers told me ‘without a
degree you’ll be living on a council estate’  ”,
Dobson tells us, still incredulous. But a visit
to a recruitment event – supposed to be
for graduates, but Dobson wanted to meet
some local employers – led to a meeting
with Colin Cuthbertson of Data Messaging &
Communications Ltd (DMC). “He asked me
if I knew anything about VOIP, and I told him
about some of the stuff I’d been trying to get
working.” Impressed, Cuthbertson offered
Dobson a part-time job which, after A-levels,
became a full-time one where Dobson found
himself “learning something new every day.”
Within a year Dobson was offered a post at
Bytemark Hosting, where he’s still happy to be
working despite an approach from the Google
recruiters which showed, he says, that he’d
“not really lost out by not having that degree.”
n Self-taught in LAMP, Tim Dobson took
the direct route to FOSS employment,
making contacts via local tech groups
Cheesley spoke to her business mentor and
discussed options for expansion, including an
apprentice they could “train how we want.”
The first apprentice, Chris Smith, was soon
working on Joomla design, sales, installation,
working with the database and file permissions.
Smith stayed on after completing his
apprenticeship year and now takes an “active
lead” in commercial projects, and is busy with
57 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 THE
UNIVERSIT Y
lin u x
of
“templates, adapting extensions, even writing
extensions.” Virya Technologies is “completely
standardised on Kubuntu and an open source
stack, using Inkscape, GIMP and Git for change
management.” Apprentices are “given the right
support,” but get to manage their own day.
“It isn’t slow-paced. We warn the apprentice
that they’ll hit the ground running,” says
Cheesley. LUD notes that in Buddhism, the term
Virya refers to a practitioner’s energy or exertion,
and has also been translated as persistence,
effort or diligence. Cheesley was advised by her
business mentor to treat apprentice selection
“as an interview for the highest paid position in
your business.” 20 applicants, many of whom
hadn’t filled in the form correctly or bothered
to find out what Joomla was, were whittled
down to three – all with “experience of web
technology; HTML/CSS; tinkered with new stuff;
inquisitive mind... not necessarily JavaScript
and CSS technical skills, but skills to learn from
available resources.”
Virya Technologies has found the
apprenticeship scheme “instrumental in
expansion” and now has two new apprentices:
Andrew Matthew on the Joomla side, and
Chelsie Abbott in marketing and PR. In total the
firm now has eight employees, only two of whom
hold university degrees.
Virya Technologies isn’t the only open source
company to see the value in apprenticeships.
Not only does TDM Open Source Software
Services have apprentices, but they’ve spun
off a sister company – TDM Wyre Academy – to
manage apprenticeships across the Midlands.
Start your own project - 60 million websites
How WordPress founder Mike Little went from music to software
Mike Little once worked in the music industry,
and 30 years ago was asked by a band he
worked with to produce graphics on stage
with a ZX Spectrum and a stack of televisions.
Reading printed listings, and combining code
from different sources to produce animated
3D text bouncing around the screen, Little was
bitten by the bug and went on through Atari ST
and then PC to learn Pascal and then C, using a
1990s port of GCC, Emacs and the GNU tools.
Little got involved in reporting and fixing
bugs way back in the dial-up bulletin board
days, enjoying the “satisfaction of solving a
problem; looking at the code, working through
58 www.linuxuser.co.uk
■ Virya Technologies’ Ruth Cheesley with
latest apprentices Andrew Matthew and
Chelsie Abbott
Moodle
Wyre Academy recruits, screens, helps to train,
and certifies apprentices – it currently has 90
placed at 80 firms across the West Midlands.
A handful of these specialise totally in free
and open source software, such as web and
mobile software developer Pale Purple. TDM
Open Source Software Services itself – and its
apprentices – works with “Moodle, Mahara,
Totara, Magento, Joomla!, WordPress, Alfresco
and vtiger etc. They also use open source
programming languages such as PHP and Ruby,”
Wyre Academy’s Kerry Carpenter tells LUD. And,
■ WordPress founder Mike
Little evolved his own
career in Open Source
the logic, and trying to modify it.” Ten years
ago, Little co-founded WordPress with Matt
Mullenweg after leaving a comment on the
latter’s blog. Now WordPress runs a staggering
60 million websites (17.5% of the web!) and Little
makes his living entirely from work with the open
source CMS that he helped to create.
“at least 90 per cent of our apprentices are using
open source for some aspect of their role within
their organisations.”
“TDM Wyre Academy deliver the
apprenticeship programmes using open
source technology,” adds Carpenter. “We have
developed Totara LMS for Apprenticeships
which is an integration of Totara LMS (the
enterprise version of Moodle) and Mahara
ePortfolio, with additional functionality for
assessment and evidencing of competencies
and monitoring progress. Our assessors
use Android tablets in assessment visits
rather than relying on old-fashioned paper-
based processes.”
TDM’s Thomas Bell, who trains and assesses
the apprentices for LPI and other certification,
has spoken of the apprentices’ “passion for
Linux”, and how even the 16 to 18-year-olds
“have been fiddling and contributing in the open
source community for years.”
As we go to press (coincidentally, during
National Apprenticeship Week), Carpenter
informs us: “We currently have eight vacancies
on our site itapprenticeships.org (that was
developed by an apprentice using WordPress).”
Aptitude
Pale Purple Ltd is a Midlands-based developer
of web and mobile apps working entirely with
open source software. Director David Goodwin
is used to taking on students for an industrial
placement year, but had dismissed the idea
of an apprentice when approached by the
Wyre Academy as “we didn’t think they’d find
someone suitable.” However, needing a new
member of staff, the firm asked Wyre if it had
someone with some coding aptitude.
It’s yet another example of how enthusiasm
and getting involved can draw you into a career
in open source. Now Little is helping the next
generation, getting involved in projects like
Young Rewired State: “Quite inspiring. There
are some brilliant kids there – producing awe-
inspiring software.”

n TDM’s MD Derrin Kent and Patrick Beasley of eSkills UK
presenting IT apprentices with their certificates
“Real-world experience: doing the job
instead of just learning how to do it”
William Redman, apprentice with Pale Purple
Wyre presented two candidates for a “fairly
techie” interview and one, William Redman, “got
out his laptop and started writing some Perl.” Pale
Purple employed him as “he had the knowledge,
but not the experience on paper – we haven’t had
to sit down and teach him.”
Apprenticeship in Redman’s case has meant
“real-world experience: doing the job instead of
just learning how to do it,” as he has constructed
sites in HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, and started
building mobile apps.
Clearly the UK government’s apprenticeship
scheme, given the right employer (who gives
responsibility and support), and the right
apprentice (enthusiastic for learning and doing),
is a promising way into a free software career.
It’s also a boost for small companies looking to
expand, as Virya Technologies ably demonstrated
with its subsequent rapid growth.
The apprentices we have mentioned were
taken on by free software companies because
of their interest and aptitude. Tim Dobson (see
‘Ignore the careers teacher’ boxout on page 57)
worked on websites in his own time, discovering
how to do things that the school couldn’t teach.
Dobson got involved in the local free software
community and even founded a youth group
to get young people more involved in FOSS.
Mike Little (see ‘Start your own project’ boxout)
founded an open source project that thrived
because it was so easy to get involved with.
The University of Linux
Free software welcomes anyone with talent
n Who needs three years? An app built during a year
of apprenticeship with Pale Purple
Meritocracy
Is there a common pattern here? The free
software community is a meritocracy: show
us the code; the bug fixes and reports; the
answers given on forums; useful blog posts;
meetings organised. Involvement, enthusiasm
and what you do and make are what matters.
Dive in and build your own career if you are
confident; get involved with the community
and look for mentors if you are not so sure; or,
for those needing support from a more formal
entry, try an apprenticeship.
We’re not suggesting all university courses
are a waste of time – but we are suggesting
that while many employers only interview
candidates with degrees, free software
remains a very open field. Furthermore,
starting your career without a degree doesn’t
preclude going back to college later in life, when
you may benefit from a broader perspective
and a more settled lifestyle. Meanwhile you
can dip into the many massively open online
courses (MOOCs) available via the web (see
boxout), to sample what you’re missing.
Conclusion? Get involved in doing, making,
sharing and collaborating. Free software might
be a multibillion-pound industry (especially for
HP and IBM), but it also remains a community
– one built on merit and achievement, and well
aware that its future depends upon welcoming
anyone who has something to contribute.
feature
Massive open online courses
Benefiting from the MOOC stampede
Distance learning has long been an option for
those too busy to take out three years for a
degree, and the UK’s Open University is one
of our most successful tertiary education
institutions, turning out highly employable
graduates. However, it is still a formal
commitment involving fees, registration
and exams.
In 2008 the University of Manitoba
experimented with putting a course online for
free, in parallel with teaching it to students
at the university. Other colleges trialled
MOOCs, and two years ago Stanford offered
three courses online, including an AI course
that attracted 160,000 online students. MIT
followed, as did many others.
Stanford University staff founded Coursera
to help other universities launch MOOCs, and
another Stanford professor launched Udacity,
a rival service working with several colleges.
The choice of courses is now in the hundreds,
and student numbers are in the millions.
MOOCs are here to stay.
www.coursera.org
www.udacity.com
n Stanford professors Sebastian Thrun and
Peter Norvig teach AI to the online world
59 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 UNLOCK THE POWER OF ANDROID
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 Review index
Essential kit, software and resources for the open source scene
REVIEWS

Hardware
62 Huawei Ascend G330
Has the Ascend G300 just become a
whole ‘30’ better?

64 Popcorn Hour A-400

The classic open source-based
maker releases its latest model

66 Gizmo Explorer Kit

The RasPi’s 64-bit x86 cousin – for
when raw power is the only answer

“It’s a clear attempt to do for the How we review

Our experts thoroughly test
x86 market what the RasPi has the kit and grade it using the
following criteria
done for the ARM market”
Gizmo Explorer Kit Avoid at all costs

A designer/developer’s bad day

Good but could do better

Software Books Get this. It won’t disappoint

68 Raspberry Pi distro 87 The latest Linux
reads dissected
super-test
Which distro should you install Software or hardware nirvana
on your $25 computer?

80 openSUSE 12.3
No big surprises for the latest
point release, but some polish

82 Sabayon 11
We see how the latest build of
this Gentoo-spin shapes up

84 Porteus 2
Portable computing receives a
boost with the newest Porteus

61 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Review Huawei Ascend G330

SMARTPHONE

Huawei
Ascend
G330 £179.99
Huawei updates
its popular
Ascend G300
with a new
budget handset,
the G330…

Pros One of the more popular budget smartphones of 2012 was
Excellent value for
money and includes Huawei’s Ascend G300. At £100 SIM-free, it packed in a 4-inch
a front-facing
camera – rare at screen and a 1GHz processor – both at the time of launch were
this price point specifications worthy of more expensive smartphones.
Hoping to capitalise on the success of the G300, the Ascend
Cons G330 is in fact only a minor upgrade, and one which fails to steal
Not the prettiest
design, processor the limelight in quite the same way that its predecessor did.
can struggle to The Huawei Ascend G330 features an updated processor in
keep up with
demanding tasks the shape of a dual-core 1GHz model, but this is supported by
the same 512MB of RAM found in the handset’s predecessor.
This means that while it runs smoothly for workday tasks, if
you find you need to push the multimedia capabilities of the
phone, or are a power user switching between multiple apps
at the same time, it may complain and judder.
Storage is not a strong suit of this phone, either. With 4GB
on board, the initial vibe is good, but in fact only 2.5GB of
this is user accessible. You may well find you need to use a
microSD card to augment that, and unfortunately Huawei
has not made the best job of locating the microSD card slot.
It sits underneath the back cover, and you have to remove the
battery to get at the slot. It basically means you will need to fit
in as large a card as you can get, because you won’t want to
ever find yourself juggling cards on the go.
The build quality of the G330 is good in that the phone is
relatively solid and tough. But aesthetically things aren’t great.
Yes, the back is rubberised to assist with grip, but overall the
impression is not of a device that is pushing the boundaries of
industrial design.
At least the 4-inch screen with its 480x800 pixels is sharp
and bright. This is in fact the same specification as found on the
G300. But it is still a pretty good spec as the budget end of the
market is still cluttered with far lower-resolution screens, even
in the hands of some of the industry’s most prestigious names
like Samsung. We’d love to see a 4.3-inch screen make its way
into the budget sector, but for the time-being this will suffice.
Under the hood, Huawei has chosen to go with Android 4.0
Ice Cream Sandwich. Slightly behind the times, as Android
4.1 Jelly Bean is very much in the wild, it is still a pleasure to

62 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Huawei Ascend G330
Entry-level Android 4.0 smartphone
REVIEW

It is nice to see a
front camera on a
budget handset like
The 4-inch screen this one

with its 480x800 pixels Measuring in at

is sharp and bright 4 inches, this

is a solid effort
compared to other
budget models, and
the resolution is
With just 2.5GB of acceptable too
user storage built
in, you are probably
going to need a
microSD card

The blocky design

might look bland to
some eyes. It does to
ours anyway

Technical specs
Operating System Android 4.0
Processor 1.0GHz dual-core
Memory 512MB
Storage 4GB internal (2.5GB usable)
Dimensions 122.5 x 62.6 x 11.2mm
Weight 130g
Display Size 4-inch
Display Resolution 480 x 800 pixels
Expansion Slot microSD

see this version of the OS in a budget phone. And Huawei has
added a few tweaks of its own without obscuring Android’s
own primal goodness.
Huawei makes a bit too much of the fact that the BBC iPlayer
app is pre-installed. It’s not particularly difficult to download
this from the Play Store onto other handsets. Perhaps people
will be more impressed by EA Games’ The Sims Freeplay, but
here too we are nonplussed. To get to the game you have to pass
a screen advertising trial versions of other EA games, and The
Sims Freeplay is also downloadable from Google Play.
What we do like is the inclusion of a DLNA app, file manager
and All Backup which can be used to back up your SIM, contacts
and other information. There’s a flashlight app too, which
you can access by long-pressing the Home button beneath
the display when you’re in the lock screen. This is the one true
innovation evident on the G330 and is a feature we really like
and would love to see other manufacturers emulate.
It is easy to change the number of home screens on offer –
you can go between three and five, and a neat lock screen gives
you quick launch into the call log, messaging and camera apps,
as well as the ability to control music playback and that already
noted torch feature.
Overall the Huawei Ascend
G330 represents a reasonably effective update of the
G300, but as we’ve seen with other landmark budget
devices (like the famous Orange San Francisco), it is very
difficult to pull off the same trick twice. With last year’s
phone, any weaknesses were easily overlooked due to
the handset’s incredible value. This time around, not so
much. It’ll be fine for someone on a very limited budget,
but it’s not a groundbreaking phone likely to grab any
attention from the wider Android world.
Sandra Vogel
More
information
www.huaweidevice.co.uk

63 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Review Popcorn Hour A-400

mini pc

Popcorn
Hour
A-400
£169 ($249)
The newest version of one
of the most popular HTPCs
is here, and with a few
notable additions over the
A-300, is it time to upgrade?
The Popcorn Hour A-400 is the latest in the line
Pros
Plays just about any
Cons
No 10-bit video
playback, poor
of Syabas devices to use the firm’s own NMT
file type over any software. Primarily designed to stream media
video connection,
either over a
selection of apps,
and pretty buggy.
There’s also no
over a network, the A-400 upgrades the basic
network or via
internal storage PVR functionality
usage experience of the Popcorn Hours by adding
a hard drive bay to the design. This has changed
the form factor of the box a little over the A-300,
making it slightly taller as well as reducing the width. It actually
seems a little smaller because of this change, although how it
might fit into your setup is entirely subjective.
The box itself is a little more sleek, with the front USB port
moved discreetly to the side, and the lights on the front are
not surrounded by symbols either. Another
major addition to the hardware is
a USB 3.0 port, allowing for Super
Speed data transfers – although this
is only necessary for actually moving
or copying data, as even the highest
bitrate videos work just fine streaming
off USB 2.0.

Technical specs
Processor Sigma Designs SMP8911
800Mhz dual-core
Dimensions 182 x 158 x 56mm
Weight 1.3kg
AV Outputs HDMI, Component, CVBS,
Stereo Audio, S/PDIF,
Digital Optical
Network Ethernet 10/100/1000Mbps
Expansion 2x USB 2.0 Host, 1x USB 3.0
Slave, 1x eSATA

64 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Popcorn Hour A-400
Latest media-streaming HTPC
Review

The remote has plenty

Able to play just about
of functions, although
it is a little awkward to
every type of file format we
get used to
could throw at it

You can connect the A sleek design that

Popcorn Hour any way fits neatly into many
you want to entertainment centres

Also
consider

Roku 2 XS
£99.99
The Roku box is filling the
The Popcorn Hours come with remotes that seem to caused it to near enough stop working. Input selection needs market that Boxee left
be designed for use with the entire range, and not just the to changed regularly to see anything, and trying to alter the behind with a tiny-yet-
powerful media box that can
individual products. Evidence for this comes in the form of output resolution in an attempt to fix it caused it to crash again. not only stream video over
eject buttons for discs – yet there are no disc trays or slots on There’s no hardware reset button to fix this either. We cannot be a network, but also access
a large array of apps with
the A-400. Redundant buttons aside, it’s a fairly nice remote certain how common a problem this could be, but dying when decent content – including
with plenty of actions, and it even lights up so you can see what the media is not playing as it expects isn’t ideal. movie-streaming services.
It also doesn’t nearly break
you’re pressing. The layout and buttons seem a touch odd, Another drawback is the number of apps available. We as much.
though: the home button is in an awkward position from the were sorely disappointed to find a tiny selection of around www.roku.com
d-pad, and the play and pause buttons are on the same rocker 60, many of which were newsreaders, RSS readers and social
bar for an unknown reason. It’s definitely serviceable and you network apps. There wasn’t even a Netflix app.
can either use a different IR remote if you’d prefer, or download It’s a shame then that what was otherwise a pleasant
the Android or iOS control app. experience, albeit one not notably better than XBMC, was
The most important part of the system, though, is of course hampered by technical issues. For now though, stick with the Popcorn Hour C-300
the playback functions, and these proved generally very good. previous version, or use your own with XBMC. Combo
£249
The A-400 was able to play just about every type of file format Based on the A-300, the
we could throw at it – MKV, MP4, AVI, WMV etc. Whether it used C-300 Combo might be a little
less powerful than the A-400,
H.264, Ogg or DivX compression, it was able to play it perfectly, When it works, it’s a but it also includes a Blu-ray
with the only exception we could find being Hi10p/10-bit H.264 fantastic piece of kit with only small issues warranting drive, wireless networking
and many more options for
media. This is not so commonly used, however, although it’s attention. However, the lack of apps is a problem and storage. While there may be a
slowly gaining traction and may be a necessity in the near the instability of the hardware is an even bigger one. C-400 in the future, the C-300
is still the best Popcorn Hour
future for more than just watching anime. Something like Look elsewhere if there’s the smallest chance of a www.popcornhour.com
that can be fixed via a firmware update, though, something playback error with your collection.
the Popcorn Hour can do while connected to the internet or Rob Zwetsloot
via USB storage, allowing problems to be fixed for the box More
over time. information
Unfortunately, during a network error the system hung www.popcornhour.com/
up on us. We were eventually forced to pull the plug, which onlinestore/

65 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Review Gizmo Explorer Kit

mini pc
Gigabit Ethernet Easily accessible A SATA 3.0Gb/s port,
and a very capable analogue VGA display plus nearby 5V power

Gizmo
processor make the output is joined by a supply, makes it easy
Gizmo an extremely DisplayPort output on the to add high-capacity
powerful device High-Speed Connector storage to the Gizmo

Explorer
Kit
£157 ($199)
If the Raspberry Pi
doesn’t have the grunt for
your project, the Gizmo
– a 64-bit x86 AMD APU-
based development board
– might be the answer
The Gizmo is undeniably remarkable. A joint bundled copy is only valid for 30 days from registration. In
Pros Cons venture from several firms including AMD and both cases, once the time limit has expired you’ll need to buy a
Excellent Relatively low
performance purchase price Sage Electronic Engineering, it’s a clear attempt licence – but non-commercial users can do so at a discounted
from a remarkably excludes ongoing
compact system, licensing costs for
to do for the x86 market what the Raspberry Pi rate of $299 (around £237 including VAT) for a year’s EDK and
with great bundled software and similar have done for the ARM market. unlimited SmartProbe use. Commercial users, however, will
extras aimed at development kit
development use
The board itself is compact, measuring have to pay Sage’s full retail price of $1,350 (around £1,068.)
101.6mm on a side, with a pair of small heat sinks Licensing costs aside, the Gizmo and Explorer bundle is
rising up to just below the level of the combined USB and an impressive way to get started. The add-on Explorer board
Ethernet ports. These heat sinks disguise the real power of connects to the Gizmo’s Low Speed Connector – a 36-pin PCI
the board: an AMD G-T40E accelerated processing unit (APU) Express edge connector – and provides a small LCD display,
combining two 64-bit x86 processing cores running at 1GHz motor controller, prototyping area and full access to the
with an AMD Radeon HD 6520 GPU offering a claimed 52.8 board’s general-purpose input-output (GPIO) capabilities. An
gigaFLOPS of floating-point performance. included matrix keypad and demonstration programs, loaded
The first thing you notice about the Gizmo, however, is the into Sage’s customised coreboot BIOS, help guide the user
bundled accessories. As well as the board itself, the purchase through making best use of the Gizmo in embedded projects.
price includes a handy breakout board dubbed the Explorer, The high-speed port, meanwhile, offers serious expansion
as well as a hardware JTAG debugger with USB and Ethernet potential, carrying two PCI Express lanes, a SATA interface,
connectivity – the Sage SmartProbe. The latter, designed two USB 2.0 interfaces and a DisplayPort interface for
specifically for AMD processors, offers fine-grained analysis connection to a digital display. These are all in addition to the
and control over the CPU, GPU, chipset and connected two USB 2.0 ports, three analogue audio ports, SATA port,
peripherals, but comes with a serious restriction: after 20 Gigabit Ethernet port and VGA ports brought out on the Gizmo
hours’ use, it stops operating. board itself.
The same is true for the Sage EDK, an integrated As the list of ports suggests, the Gizmo is perfectly
development environment (IDE) for embedded systems: the usable as a microcomputer as well as a development board.

66 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Gizmo Explorer Kit
64-bit x86-based development board
Review

The Gizmo’s
heat sinks are
entirely passive,
and barely get
warm even during
The first thing you notice
extended use about the Gizmo, however, is
The micro-display,
the bundled accessories
coupled with a
bundled matrix
keypad, can be used
for headless projects

A generous
prototyping area
on the Explorer
board is provided for Also
electronic circuits consider

Intel D33217GKE NUC

£240
Packing a far more powerful
Technical specs 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Core
i5-3217U processor and
Processor AMD G-T40E APU1GHz dual-core upgradeable memory, the
Intel Next Unit of Computing
Graphics Embedded AMD Radeon HD 6250 GPU board is a tempting
Memory 1GB DDR3 alternative. Sadly, a lack
Network Wired Gigabit Ethernet of GPIO capabilities and no
bundled debugging tools
Audio Microphone In, Line In, Audio Out coupled with a far higher
Display Analogue VGA Output 17W thermal design profile
Other ports 2x USB 2.0, 1x SATA 3.0Gb/s, High-Speed make it a poor choice for
Connector, Low-Speed GPIO Connector embedded development.
www.intel.co.uk
Dimensions 101.6 x 101.6mm (excluding Explorer board)
Weight 155g (excluding Explorer board and cables)

Disconnecting the Explorer board provides a compact ideas – the Gizmo is certainly a device that you should be
footprint, and the passive heat sinks mean silent operation keeping a close eye on if you’re interested in the embedded
with a peak power draw of just 10W. The AMD APU offers full hardware market.
AMD64 x86 compatibility, meaning the board can easily boot Raspberry Pi Model B
£30
any Linux distribution from a USB drive, PXE boot or a SATA- Its somewhat outdated
connected storage device – and it’s even possible to install the For a price that puts the ARMv6 processor aside,
the Raspberry Pi remains a
proprietary AMD Catalyst driver package for surprisingly high- Gizmo on a level with ARM-based development boards, great choice for embedded
performing 3D acceleration. you get a full 64-bit x86 microcomputer with powerful development on a budget
– so long as your project
Benchmarking shows the true capabilities of the Gizmo graphics, and the multi-purpose connectors offer doesn’t need the power
compared to ARM-based development boards: while the great expansion possibilities. While the inclusion of of a dual-core 64-bit x86
processor. Inexpensive add-
Raspberry Pi may be far cheaper, its 95th percentile time time-limited trials for the SDK and debugging hardware on boards can provide extra
of 51.45ms in the SysBench CPU test is blown away by the rankles, upgrading to the full release comes with a capabilities, too.
www.raspberrypi.org
Gizmo’s 9.87ms. For users looking to build a compact web hefty discount for Gizmo owners.
server or NAS, the Gizmo’s impressive processor and Gigabit Gareth Halfacree
Ethernet capabilities will surely shine. More
Coupled with the GizmoSphere – a community of Gizmo information
enthusiasts and owners who share projects, code and www.gizmosphere.org

67 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Group Test Distro Super Test - Pi Edition
GROUP TEST
Distro Super Test -
Pi Edition
We pit six Raspberry Pi operating systems against one another
to find out which one is the king of the tiny computer distros
The Raspberry Pi has been out for over
a year now, and in that time the number
of distributions for the device has grown
considerably compared to the few available
at launch. The function of these distributions
has also expanded, with the desktop operating
systems making way for media centres and
Raspbian
Your first port of call to get a Raspberry Pi going
68 www.linuxuser.co.uk
thin clients. Today, we’re focusing on the
desktop distros, comparing six of the best
to find out exactly what their strengths and
weaknesses are.
All but one of the operating systems in this
test use armhf, ‘hard float’, and are optimised
for the ARMv6 processor that powers the Pi.
■ Using LXDE and Openbox
allows for maximum available
power on the desktop
Reportedly this can result in floating point
operations speeding up by a factor of ten, so are
such distros generally a better choice to get the
most out of the Raspberry Pi?
We’ll be using a pretty varied mix of distros in
the test, from the Debian-based Raspbian to the
source-built Gentoo and everything in between.
The basic Debian distro for Raspberry Pi
was originally just a straight Wheezy remix
for ARM – but shortly afterwards, Raspbian
was released. This version supports the all-
important hard float, and is the base for a lot
of other distros that we’re not checking in on
today. As well as Pi Bang and Moebius, there’s
also Occidentalis from Adafruit, and a number of
XBMC-based distros for HTPCs.
Raspbian’s approach to starting to use your
Raspberry Pi is quite simple: dd the image to
the SD card, turn on the Pi, and a configuration
screen welcomes you to modify the setup of your
system or just go straight into the OS. There’s a
good selection of functions, with the ability to
expand the image to fill the SD card, change the
default password without having to know the
default one, and even options to overclock and
overvolt the CPU to some predetermined values.
All of these extras come alongside some of the
more basics as well, such as locale and time, and
it’s great to have this kind of control before even
getting to the desktop.
The Raspbian desktop is LXDE, and uses
Openbox as a windows manager. This allows
the distro to run smoothly and quickly on the Pi,
even the 256MB early Model Bs and Model As.
While there is no graphical package manager as
standard, a small selection of great educational
 Distro Super Test - Pi Edition
Six Raspberry Pi distros go head to head
Review

scores

tools are available at the start, such as Scratch,

Python and a weblink to some courses by UK
exam board OCR on ways to teach with the
Raspberry Pi. There’s also a link straight to the
Pi Store, so you can download apps, games and
tools developed by the community.
Overall, Raspbian is very easy to use and
customise, fantastic for those coming to Pi with
for the myriad of Raspbian-based distros that are
available, especially thanks to its huge repository
Installation & support
The best supported Pi distro
is very easy to configure 9
8
of Debian software immediately available. The
only issue we can level with it at the moment is Ease of use
the lack of a dedicated tool to install images to Requires a little common sense,
an SD card – dd is easy enough to learn, and not but otherwise great to use
a problem for more knowledgeable users, but
young kids and newbies could benefit from a

8
little Linux experience. It also makes it very useful Linux graphical tool. Stability
Although based on the Debian
testing branch, it is very stable

Features & capabilities

Makes great use of the
Raspberry Pi for just about
any task you’d want it for 9

9
Overall
Raspbian is a fantastic tool
for teaching, general coding
and all manner of home-
grown projects. Definitely
the best distro for beginners

More information
www.raspbian.org
n Professional course structures are available for teaching with and for the Raspberry Pi

69 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Group Test Distro Super Test - Pi Edition

Arch SCORES

8
TM

Installation & support

A more advanced distro for those who want more
TM

No further installation
needed than copying the
control over their Pi image to the SD card

Ease of use

5
You need to be very comfortable
with the command line to get
anywhere with Arch

Stability
With only the minimum
packages installed at a time,
Arch is very stable 9
Features & capabilities

■ You need to work to get to this point of the install

There’s not much in the way
of specific Pi optimised
software, but there is a lot to
choose from
7

7
Arch is another of the officially promoted packages you need for the networking and
Raspberry Pi distros – in that it’s available
on the Foundation’s download page. Joining
sharing, and forgoing the desktop environment
completely. The Raspberry Pi itself has the
Overall
Raspbian as the only other Linux distro, this potential for a lot of uses, thanks to its size and Do anything you want with
Arch ARM build also includes the hard float, and incredibly low power requirements, and distros Arch, just make sure you
is aimed towards the more veteran Linux user. like Arch allow you to really tweak the software have a handy guide if you’re
Arch is a distro you build yourself, almost from so that you can get a low-footprint server that a bit newer to Linux
scratch, with the system already configured to will fit anywhere, or a focused workstation
at least boot to a command-line interface. From with everything you need to work and nothing More information
here you customise the system to your exact more. To the patient user, it’s also a great way www.archlinux.org
specifications, without any of the extra bloat to the learn the deeper ins and outs of using a
you’d get from something like Ubuntu. Linux distribution.
The Pi image is the same way, with Arch
booting into a command line. There’s no
desktop, and no users other than root. There’s
nothing more than the standard tools and
packages that make up part of the Linux kernel.
From here you need to start building up your
system using the pacman package manager, or
grab Yaourt to access source code from AUR.
You’ll need to update everything first before
trying to install software, and the time from
command line to booting into the most basic
LXDE environment was about 90 minutes. As
mentioned before, though, while this might be
frustrating and slow to some Raspberry Pi users,
this extra control allows you to fully streamline
your system, making it as fast as possible with
the smallest imprint on the storage and Pi itself.
This makes it fantastic for headless server
or NAS uses – allowing you to only install the ■ Arch can be whatever you want it to be

70 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Distro Super Test - Pi Edition
Six Raspberry Pi distros go head to head
Review

Fedora
18 Remix
The Pi remixes of Fedora
haven’t had the best time
While originally one of the first recommended
Pi distros, the Fedora Remix fell out of favour
due to some issues at launch. This hasn’t
stopped people from continuing to work on the n It takes a
distro, and the Fedora 18 Remix is beginning to while for the
see the light of day. The image for the remix is whole system
the largest in this test – and at 3GB you’ll need to get set up
to make sure you upgrade your SD card before
attempting to use it. 4GB SD cards are fairly low- There’s noticeable lag even just browsing the scores
priced these days, but it’s still one extra thing to interface, and it straddles the line between

get for your supposedly cheap mini-PC.
Like the others, this image needs to be
manually transferred to an SD card with
whatever method you prefer. However, on first
boot, Fedora Remix has the same graphical
setup as the full desktop version. From here
you set up users, locales and more, and it
definitely looks and flows a bit better than
7
being frustrating and something you could get Installation & support
used to. It even crashed on us a number of times It’s a community-supported
after the initial setup, such as when asking us if project with a delayed
we wanted one or two panels to use on Xfce and release cycle, but setup is
freezing, or just getting in a reboot cycle until we graphical and easy
disconnected the power. The first major update
took about an hour or so to perform, and there
are some intermittent underscan issues on Ease of use

the command‑line equivalent on Raspbian,
although you don’t nearly have quite the same
level of customisation.
One of the first things Fedora users will
notice once they get to log in is that Xfce is now
the preferred desktop, and there is no option
6
monitors using the HDMI cable. Coming with a DE pre-
It’s not a great experience as a desktop. As installed makes it easier to
it’s Fedora though, there’s flexibility to use it in use, as long as you can get
any other way, although the same could be said around the crippling speeds
for Raspbian. At the very least, however, being
a build of Fedora it is made up completely of

to select the GNOME Shell to begin with. It’s
best you don’t though, as even with Xfce and a
very small selection of lightweight programs
like the Midori browser, it runs very slowly.
4
truly free software. While that may be limiting Stability
to some, it at least means that any advanced A lot of hiccups getting it
projects will be a great showcase for open working to begin with, and it’s
source software and Linux. not entirely stable afterwards

Features & capabilities

7
As feature-full as a standard
Fedora distro, albeit more
noticeably watered down for
ARM than others

5
Overall
Slow and buggy, there’s a
reason the Fedora Remixes
never took off. It needs a bit
more time in the oven

More information
fedoraproject.org
n Even with lightweight software, Fedora on Pi still chugs

71 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Group Test Distro Super Test - Pi Edition

SliTaz 4
A tiny distro supposedly for use on desktop and on server
With the smallest image in the test, SliTaz is version only has 268. These are mostly utilities, thanks to the lack of packages it is fast, and it will
quick to download, install and boot. In fact, and you can’t install a desktop environment from draw very little power. The problem is, something
it shows off on startup that it took only three the repos. However, there is access to Xorg, and like Arch is basically as fast, and the repositories
seconds to get to the command line – the fastest all the tools needed to compile it yourself. SliTaz are full of software that will allow you to also
in this test. SliTaz is in its fourth version, released has its own package manager, tazpkg, with a make it into a server. Also, you can also very easily
in the middle of last year. As an independent good search function to find what packages are turn Arch into a desktop system, something that
distro, not based on anything else, it is one of the available in lieu of a graphical manager. While you SliTaz is very noticeably lacking.
genuine few that support hard float operations can also search the website for packages, you SliTaz definitely has its place, and as a server
without being based on Raspbian. Clocking in at can’t filter by what’s available on Pi or not. it is quick to set up and has a lower footprint than
only 500MB on the SD card, it’s certainly a feat to SliTaz on Pi then is very focused on being used the others. It just lacks the flexibility inherent in
have this fully working system on the Pi. as some kind of headless server, and admittedly the Raspberry Pi itself.
That low storage footprint comes at a price,
though: there isn’t much to SliTaz. Coming with a
grand total of 17 packages pre-installed, it’s an
incredibly lightweight system that the developers
themselves admit is meant to eke the max out of
the Pi. The problem is, while the full SliTaz repos
have a decent selection of packages, the Pi

scores

7
Installation & support
Installs easily enough and
is fairly well supported

5
Ease of use
As a command-line drive distro,
your mileage may vary
n Package searching doesn’t work very well without filters

9
Stability
It’s very simple, which means
it’s also very stable

3
Features & capabilities
Very limited usage thanks to
a stunted package repository

4
Overall
SliTaz has a place as a very
fast web server, but that is
unfortunately all it can do
without serious work

More information
www.slitaz.org
n There are graphical spins of the full version of SliTaz, but none for Pi

72 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Distro Super Test - Pi Edition
Six Raspberry Pi distros go head to head
REVIEW

Gentoo
Compile it yourself with
the most customisable
distro, now on Pi
Using Gentoo is not for the faint-hearted.
While all the distros on this list will let you write
an image to disc and then have the Raspberry
Pi boot just fine from it, Gentoo has you
manually setting up the SD card with a specific
file system layout, adding a specific stage 3
image to the disc, before adding Portage (the
package manager) and the Linux and kernel ■ The quick install guide is a lot more involved than other Pi distros
modules. You’re still not done though, as
afterwards there’s the matter of setting up then do whatever you want with it – after you SCORES
fstab and the boot options, along with clearing configure the network, profiles, software clock

the root password.
While this saves you some of the usual
Gentoo hassle of having to compile an entire
system, where the smallest thing can cause
problems down the line, it is still a lot of work
to get the distro installed in the first place. As
Gentoo provides the pre-compiled kernel, you
5
and rcconf etc. Handily though, it does include Installation & support
tools to activate the Raspberry Pi Foundation- One of the best supported
approved overclocking profiles from the start. Pi distros is easily the most
Like Arch, Gentoo is for the ultimate tweakers, difficult to install
allowing you to get absolutely every ounce of
power possible from the system and have it
do anything any other similarly powered Linux
Ease of use

don’t get the extra customisation available from
compiling it directly. This means there’s not a
huge amount more streamlining you can do over
something like Arch unless you decide to start
compiling your own Pi-based Gentoo kernel and
risk stability problems.
2
computer can achieve. You can then hide it
Gentoo forgoes all semblance
away almost anywhere thanks to the size of the
of usability in the name of
thing. From servers to media streamers and
customisability
even desktops, you can make a Gentoo Pi do
whatever you want, without any of the bloat of a
completely pre-packaged system – it obviously

8
Of course, once you’ve gone through the just takes a lot of time and technical know-how Stability
process of getting the SD card set up, you can to get the best out of it, and is not for everyone. Depends really on how you
build it up, but Gentoo can
generally be very stable

Features & capabilities

10
You can make pretty much
anything you want with a
Gentoo Pi

Overall

6
It wholly depends on the
user and what you’re
comfortable with, but
Gentoo is nonetheless
designed for a very
particular audience

More information
www.gentoo.org
■ With enough time, you can get Gentoo looking like anything you want

73 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Group Test Distro Super Test - Pi Edition

RISC OS SCORES

9
■ RISC’s design Installation & support
The OS of British schools in is much simpler
than more
Putting the image to disc is
the only installation required,
the ’90s is still alive for the Pi modern systems and the new Pi popularity will
allow it to stay supported

Ease of use

7
A simple interface, although
somewhat different to a lot of the
modern desktop environments

Stability
Not much new or experimental,
so RISC has stayed solid. Some
websites won’t render well 9
Features & capabilities

RISC OS should be familiar for anyone who went PlingStore, there are limitations to the amount
A lot less flexible than
the Linux distros also
available for the Pi 3

5
to school in the UK in the Nineties, when Acorn you can do. What it can allow for is to teach some
computers were ubiquitous in the classroom. computing basics to people who have not used a
The software that powered them was RISC OS, computer before. While it is overall quite different Overall
and while Acorn Computers’ main legacy is ARM, to a lot of modern operating systems, mouse
RISC, while nostalgic, is not
RISC OS is still being maintained. It recently control and window management is roughly the
very useful for day-to-day
became available for the Pi via RISC OS Open, and same, and there are far fewer distractions.
computing, or as the base of
is officially promoted as a recommended Pi OS. RISC OS is an important part of history and
an advanced project
Originally designed for the earliest ARM chips, it’s great to see it on a device with aspirations of
RISC OS has always looked fairly basic. With replacing the old Acorn-built school computers. More information
more simplistic icons and art style throughout However, it unfortunately does not serve much www.riscosopen.org
the interface, a lot more work has gone into how more purpose than as a history lesson.
you interact with RISC than its aesthetic, leaving
it smooth and responsive. This is ultimately
more important, and is only really a step behind
something like the Xfce DE in this way. Usability-
wise, it is different from a lot of the main Linux
DEs, and in general a lot of the modern OS
workflow – windows cascade as you open them
rather than opening in the original window, scroll
wheel click is the equivalent of context-sensitive
right click, and there is no real terminal emulator
for the system, forcing you to quit out of the shell
with a simple F12 to get to the command line.
Software-wise, RISC OS is definitely lacking
compared to its Linux counterparts, and not
much of it is open source. As well as a package
manager, there’s the PlingStore, which is the
main way to get graphical applications. There’s
not much between them, though: with less than
200 packages available in the package manager,
and a mixture of 50 free and paid-for apps in the ■ It is quite configurable, yet still limited by software

74 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Distro Super Test - Pi Edition
Six Raspberry Pi distros go head to head
REVIEW

In brief: Compare and contrast our verdicts

TM

Raspbian TM
Fedora 18 Remix Gentoo RISC OS
Installation &
support
Just put it on
an SD card and
go, extra config
9 As one of the
recommended
distros, it’s well
8 Little support, but
the only one with
graphical setup
7 Supported fairly
well, and no
further config
7 Gentoo is
horrendously
difficult to install
5 It’s been
supported for over
a decade with no
9
optional supported after install and set up proper home, now
it has one

Ease of use The easiest any

Linux distro
can be
8 Command-line by
default is not the
easiest
5 Very slow, making
it sometimes
frustrating
6 Command line
only, and uses
a lot of its own
5 Gentoo’s extreme
customisability
makes it hard to use
2 A simple windowed
interface, albeit
different from
7
software others

Stability Even when

overclocking,
Raspbian is
8 Very stable thanks
to a fairly simple
build
9 Crashed and froze
on us on multiple
occasions
4 Simple, fast and
very stable 9 We didn’t encounter
any problems
using Gentoo
8 Built for ARM, and
has many years
of updates
9
extremely stable

Features &
capabilities
Very
customisable,
and has access
9 A good amount of
software, nothing
Pi-specific though
7 Full of free
software and
some Pi-specific
7 Packages are
extremely lacking,
and it’s designed
3 It is the most
configurable and
customisable distro 10
As RISC is
effectively
obsolete, it does
3
to plenty of packages only really to be of the selection not have much
packages a server available software
A great distro
for any level of
Linux user
9 While not the
easiest to use or
set up, it is highly
7 Slow, buggy and
generally not as
good to use as
5 SliTaz can be
used for very
little, although
4 Difficult to
recommend
over Arch for
6 It may be
nostalgic, but
there’s little
5
configurable Raspbian it does that one anyone choosing reason to use RISC
Overall thing fine between them as your main OS

AND THE
WINNER IS… GROUP TEST
Raspbian
A lot of these distros seemed to go back and WINNER
forth between being as lightweight or as
customisable as possible, or trying to offer a
full desktop experience on the Pi. Raspbian
goes the extra mile and not only supplies a great
desktop experience, but is also heavily tied into
the Raspberry Pi community. With access to
learning modules and the Pi Store, it’s excellent
for teaching computing, as well as for using in a
headless state for a quick and easy-to-use server.
We want to also give special mention to
Arch, as while it may not come with a desktop
as standard, it was the only command-line
distro that proved usable and also highly
configurable. The desktop environment, while
time-consuming to set-up, was as fast as
Raspbian thanks to the lack of bloat that Arch
comes with. Choosing between the two of these
really depends on how much time, patience and
expertise you have with Linux, whatever project
you want to use your Pi for.
Rob Zwetsloot ■ Raspbian was the only distro that came with teaching tools

75 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Raspberry Pi
All-Stars
We find out the 20 best apps, tools and packages that
can help you get the very best out of your Raspberry Pi
So you’ve got your new Raspberry Pi, and you’ve
gone over our feature and decided which is the
best Pi distro for you. Whichever you opt for,
you’ll now need to figure out how best to use
your Raspberry Pi. As we’ve mentioned, the Pi
is a very flexible piece of kit. Thanks to its form
factor and low-power requirements, it’s much
easier to place around a house or office then
something in a proper ATX case.
76 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Whether you plan to use it as a desktop,
learning tool, HTPC or some kind of file server,
there are a number of apps you’d be wanting
to employ for each use case. We’ve uncovered
the 20 best applications available right now
on the Raspberry Pi, from the basics like
updating tools and office suites, all the way
through IDEs, web interfaces and even media
streaming solutions.
We’ve put all the software onto the disc for
this issue as well, so you can either grab it from
there or get it from them the various package
managers and Pi Stores.
author Rob Zwetsloot
models complex systems and
is a web developer proficient in
Python, Django and PHP. He loves
to experiment with computing
 Raspberry Pi All-Stars
The top 20 apps and tools for Raspberry Pi
FEATURE

Multimedia
Whether you want a HTPC, or
just want to watch something

XBMC
While not intentional, the Raspberry Pi’s
design ticks all the boxes for it being used as
a home theatre PC. It’s small, has low power
requirements, and it includes hardware decoding
that allows it to output smooth 1080p video and
audio over HDMI. While streaming is the easiest
option, with USB hard drives and TV tuners you
can make use of XBMC’s other features. The
most recent release of XBMC includes specific
support for the Raspberry Pi; however, builds
of XBMC have been available for the Pi for a
while now. While you can always install XBMC
via Raspbian, there are dedicated distros
like RaspBMC and OpenELEC which run a bit
smoother, and provide a better experience.

Mumble
The open source alternative to Team Speak is
a great way to keep up and strategise with clan
mates, although it needs a dedicated server to
host the actual conversation. While you could
use your PC, you’re likely to want all available
resources, so putting it on an external system
can be advantageous. However, what if you
don’t have the space for a full server or extra
computer, especially just for in-game chat?
This is another great use for the Raspberry Pi –
which, thanks to its size, can be hidden almost
anywhere while managing your team chat.

Clementine
Originally a port of Amarok, Clementine has
come into its own as a music playing and
organisation app that is full of features to
enhance your music playing experience. It’s also
fairly lightweight and doesn’t completely bog
down the Raspberry Pi while playing music. It
has support to stream web radio and can also be
used to manage portable media players, making
it the full package for audiophiles.
VLC
The Raspberry Pi has surprisingly great media
playback qualities, and VLC is probably the
best media player to make full use of this.
Lightweight, small and able to play just about
every type of file you can throw at it, VLC is a
good way to extend your Pi’s capabilities from a
basic workstation.
Subsonic
Another use for a Raspberry Pi server is to have it
stream your audio over the internet to wherever
you are. Subsonic is available on the Raspberry
Pi and works best with big music collections.
It uses its own web interface, can stream to
multiple players at once, and supports all major
audio file formats.

77 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Feature Raspberry Pi All-Stars
Development
Start developing your own
software with these tools
Eric Python IDE
Eric is an alternative to the ubiquitous IDLE for
Python development, created in Qt and using
Scintilla editor control. As well as the features that
IDLE has, Eric has an integrated debugger. It even
has a plug-in system to make the software easily
extendible, and can also be used to program in
Ruby. Eric works with both Python 2 and Python 3.
Pygame
Graduating from Scratch, but still want to make
some games? Python is an easy-to-understand
Desktop
Get the full desktop
experience with
these packages
Midori
Midori is a very lightweight web browser that is
often used as the default in Pi distros and is just
as functional as something like Firefox or Chrome.
While it may not be quite as extendible as those
browsers, nor have the same sync features, it is
based on WebKit and so conforms to all modern
web standards. It also looks like a modern browser.
78 www.linuxuser.co.uk
language, and the Pygame module makes it
easier to develop Python games. We’ve used it in
a couple of prior tutorials, to create a Pong game
and Noughts and Crosses, but it can be used to
make so much more.
Scratch
One of the main aims of the Raspberry Pi’s
creation is to teach kids how to code, and one
of the first steps in this process is to help them
understand the basic logic structure inherent
in all programming languages. Scratch boils
Claws Mail
While the best way to keep your Raspberry Pi
running at full speed would be to use a webmail
service like Gmail, there is still a place for
dedicated desktop email clients. Claws Mail is an
alternative to Thunderbird that is very lightweight,
while still being feature full. It has support for
multiple accounts, address books, all manner of
protocols, and has its own plug-in system as well.
down code to just this, allowing you to arrange
logic blocks in a graphical interface to create
simple videogames, which can be shared via
Scratch’s online service. It’s a great way to get
young kids interested in programming, which
could eventually lead them to create the next
Raspberry Pi in 20 years’ time.
Code:Blocks
While designed mainly to be an IDE for C++
development, Code::Blocks is also able to be
used for coding a variety of other types of apps
and programs in ARM, D, DirectX, Fortran, GTK+,
Qt, wx and many more. It also includes support
for multiple compilers, and projects can be
taken across all platforms – even FreeBSD. It’s a
fantastic editor that will allow those looking into
doing some serious coding to get their start.
LibreOffice
The best open source office suite is now available
for the Raspberry Pi. The fantastic selection of
pro-quality word processing, spreadsheets,
presentations and database apps run without
any problems and are a great way to extend the
functionality of a desktop Pi. It’s all cross-platform
too and will be even better when the online
collaboration feature makes an appearance.

Tools
Make your life of
Pi much easier
with these apps
Pi Store
The Pi Store is a hybrid web store and software
centre that allows you to get free and paid-
for software moderated by the Raspberry
Utilities
Extend the
functionality and
uses of the RasPi
Synergy
The Raspberry Pi has very limited I/O ports, with
the Model A only having one USB port and not
even any network connections. Adding powered
USB hubs to increase the number of ports on the
system decreases the size advantage that the
Pi has; however, this is where Synergy can help.
Synergy is a virtual KVM server that allows you to
share another system’s keyboard and mouse over
the network, thereby freeing up the two USB ports
on a Model B.
rTorrent
If you’re using a Pi as a file server of some kind, you
might be wanting to use a command-line torrent
Raspberry Pi All-Stars
The top 20 apps and tools for Raspberry Pi
FEATURE
Pi Foundation and IndieCity. Not only is it a
convenient place to get some apps and utilities,
it’s a good way to get your own work published and
rpi-update
Every now and then, the Raspberry Pi needs a
firmware update. It can be a tricky process if
made available for other Pi users.
you’re not quite sure how to do it, but this is where
ImageWriter Hexxeh’s dedicated rpi-update tool comes in.
All you need to do is download it to a Pi, make it
Ubuntu has a dedicated image and ISO writing tool
executable, and then run the tool. It also has some
that you can use instead of dd to get a Raspberry
extra features for advanced firmware updates.
Pi image onto an SD card. It’s fairly easy to use:
download the distro you want to use, select the
appropriate image, then choose the destination
Fedora ARM Installer
While originally designed to be used for installing
card. Make sure you’ve backed up any files, though,
Fedora ARM images via Fedora, the tool is available
as the card will be wiped.
for other Linux distros, and will allow you to install
images you’ve already obtained. The interface is
quite simple and can download Fedora images for
you. Again, make sure any files on the SD card are
backed up before installing an image.
client to not only cut down on resource usage, but
also to allow for easy management over an SSH
connection. There’s even a selection of web-based
front-ends to use. There’s plenty of automation
you can set as well, such as picking up torrent files
from specific folders, and self-cleaning.
WebIOPI
Built on the REST framework, WebIOPI is a web app
that, once installed on your Raspberry Pi, allows
you to control the GPIO ports from any web browser
on the same network. The interface is graphical,
allowing you to change GPIO direction and the state
of the outputs by simply clicking. You can even log
in via the web for remote manipulation.
Asterisk
There’s a port of Asterisk already available for the
Raspberry Pi that makes it into a communications
server, and can be used to power IP PBX systems,
VOIP and conference servers. It runs a lot better on
the 512MB Model B, and it is highly recommended
to use a 4GB SD card as well.
79 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Review openSUSE 12.3

n The new theme suits openSUSE well

distro

openSUSE 12.3
Is there a specific area in which openSUSE 12.3 shines? No, but it adds
some polish and consistency to the distro’s already firm foundations
While openSUSE 12.2 was delayed by two are hybrid images. This extra space on the live images is used
Pros Cons months last year due to development issues, by the complete LibreOffice 3.6 package and GIMP. Of course,
Underneath With all those small
its stylish dark improvements, it’s the 12.3 release comes only six months after you could still use the smaller NetInstall images, which still fit
theme, the latest not easy to become
openSUSE shows excited about
the previous one, so the distro is back on track on a CD but are only usable for an installation. OpenSUSE 12.3
a lot of small openSUSE 12.3, for its usual eight-month release cycle. However, adds a completely new image that still fits onto a CD: a rescue
improvements and as there’s nothing
is more consistent revolutionary here
because of this shorter-than-normal release image that provides a lightweight Xfce environment with tools
cycle, openSUSE 12.3 doesn’t offer revolutionary to recover lost data or partition your disk and even some YaST
new features, but focuses on polish and details. modules to help with system recovery.
First about the installation media: there’s still an ISO file The first thing you observe after installation is the new
with all packages to burn to a DVD, but the KDE and GNOME theme, which is darker and more subtle than the previous
Live CD ISOs don’t fit any more on a CD: they are meant to be one. It’s used from the boot menu through the Plymouth
written to a USB stick, which is easy to do with dd because they bootsplash and the login window to the desktop to give a

80 www.linuxuser.co.uk

■ Using Bluetooth in KDE 4.10 is very easy
■ Boost your terminal skills with this simple option in Konsole
consistent experience. We put the KDE version (with KDE 4.10)
to the test to see whether openSUSE lives up to its promises.
KDE 4.10 comes with a lot of updated programs, many of
them with performance improvements. For instance, the new
digiKam 3.0 is much better at batch processing of images, KDE’s
Semantic Search feature uses fewer resources when indexing
your files, and Dolphin’s performance has been improved when
viewing large folders. If you have a multi-monitor system, you
can now configure colour management per-monitor. Other
notable KDE improvements are the new Print Manager and
better Bluetooth integration with the Plasma Desktop. And
some of the new features are really small but time-savers. For
instance, Konsole has a new item in the Edit menu to send your
keystrokes to all tabs simultaneously. This means that you
could easily execute the same command on different servers or
in different directories without having to copy/paste.
Other desktop environments aren’t left in the cold. GNOME
has been updated to version 3.6, and Xfce 4.10 is also available.
And in this release, openSUSE adds three new options: the
Enlightenment 17 desktop environment; awesome, a highly
configurable window manager for power users; and Sawfish,
a minimal window manager.
The ‘plumbing layer’ also has some interesting
improvements. For instance, you should be able to install
openSUSE 12.3 on a UEFI machine without problems, and
there’s even experimental support for Secure Boot-enabled
hardware. The version bump from Linux 3.4 to 3.7 is also
responsible for some new and improved functionality, such
openSUSE 12.3
Strong all-round Linux distro
REVIEW
■ OpenSUSE 12.3 also offers the
Enlightenment 17 desktop environment
OpenSUSE 12.3 doesn’t offer
revolutionary new features, but
focuses on polish and details
as RAID 10 support for the device mapper, aggressive SATA
device sleep for SSD and HD devices, as well as a faster and
more stable Nouveau driver for Nvidia GPUs.
And last but not least: the move to systemd is finally
complete, which means that the sysvinit package isn’t needed
any more and power management is also controlled by
systemd. This is more important than it sounds: for instance,
closing the lid of your laptop now even puts your system
to sleep when you are not logged in. OpenSUSE also uses
systemd’s new journald service for logs of all system services.
By default the output is still forwarded to rsyslog, but if you
install the package systemd-logger, all logs will be written in
journald’s binary format.
After some exciting
releases, the latest openSUSE 12.3 could be
described as ‘a bit boring’, because it just builds
upon already existing foundations. However, after
the development issues of the previous release, it
was probably a wise decision to focus on polish,
consistency and breadth of functionality now. The
end result makes openSUSE 12.3 a stronger all-round
distro than ever.
Koen Vervloesem
More
information
en.opensuse.org
81 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Review Sabayon 11

n Sabayon is a well-presented, accessible version of Gentoo

distro

Sabayon 11
Sabayon is Gentoo-out-of-the-box, but does this approach work for the
Linux distro built on being infinitely customisable?
As a distro that iterates very quickly, Sabayon
Pros Cons has already gone up three version numbers
A very usable Installation and
version of Gentoo package upgrades since this time last year. While this may imply
that you can use are slow; some
for desktop or software bloat that there are only small updates each time,
HTPC straight out with superfluous the release notes seem to imply that there are
of the box packages and DEs
always some fairly major changes going on
behind the scenes. This iteration there’s support
for EFI/UEFI boot and Secure Boot, and only recently the
package manager had an overhaul to become Rigo.
Sabayon comes in four initial flavours: GNOME, KDE, Xfce
and a much newer MATE iteration. Each of these is just for
a default environment, and the others are of course easily
accessible from the package manager, among many more. They
even include Cinnamon in the mix. Installation uses Anaconda,
the Red Hat installer, albeit not the brand new version causing
some problems for people in Fedora 18. This means that the
process is fairly painless, although unlike some versions of
Anaconda, you set up a user account during the installation and
not afterwards. This is good on one level, though, as installing
takes a while for the distro to be copied to disk.
The GNOME experience in Sabayon is in Fallback mode,
which is a little odd since the live version used the full GNOME
Shell. As it’s running GNOME 3.6, though, GNOME Classic
still functions perfectly well. Of course, the functionality
and availability of GNOME Classic in the future seems to
be at risk; however with MATE as an option, this should not
affect people with a particular desire to use that kind of
desktop environment.
Sabayon’s out-of-the-box claims seem fairly validated
by the stock selection of applications. Alongside the usual

82 www.linuxuser.co.uk

n The out-of-the-box ethos extends to a great selection of apps
n The installer lets you choose the right Sabayon for you
Rigo is a great,
simple and quick
package manager
selection of a browser (Chromium), some system tools and
an image viewer, there’s also GIMP, the full LibreOffice suite
and plenty of media playing options. There isn’t a mail client,
although you can easily get one from the new package
manager if you don’t want to rely on webmail.
Rigo is a great, simple and quick package manager, with a
nice layout that makes it easy to find the packages you want.
It’s a sort of cross between a traditional package manager
and the software centres of other distros, although there
are no featured or sponsored apps like in Ubuntu. One of
the nice things about Rigo is that, just in case you didn’t look
hard enough in the info pages, some info boxes will pop up on
the interface to let you know what dependencies will also be
downloaded, and what licences the software is distributed
under as well. While they’re not intrusive, you cannot turn
them off, so it may annoy some more than others.
Each version of Sabayon also comes with Fluxbox and
the new Sabayon Media Centre software installed, both
Sabayon 11
Gentoo made easy
Review
n Rigo is a
lightweight, informative
package manager
n Multiple desktop
environments are
installed by default
accessible as desktop environments during login. The latter
is actually just XBMC 12, the latest version of the HTPC
software; however, it’s an interesting addition to the distro.
It even allows you to install Sabayon as just Sabayon Media
Centre, extending the uses of the distro beyond the desktop
and allowing it to work out-of-the-box as a media PC. Fluxbox
is of course the lightweight window manager that is in some
ways the main environment of Sabayon. It’s very quick and is
a fine alternative to the other DEs if you need to get every last
drop out of your system.
This is a very different take on Gentoo then, and one that
isn’t unwanted. Of course, the Gentoo core is still there, so
while for some people it’s perfectly usable as standard, for
others you can always tweak away to your heart’s content.
One of the most daunting
Linux distros made accessible for more novice users,
Sabayon packages the power of Gentoo and makes
it available to all skill levels. The addition of XBMC to
the default version is a great incentive to get Sabayon
in your media centre as well, although it’s not as good
as more specialised HTPC distros.
Rob Zwetsloot
More
information
www.sabayon.org
83 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Review Porteus 2.0

n Porteus boots
distro incredibly fast

Porteus 2.0
Portable Linux computing has received an upgrade as the newest
Porteus is released, now with an even lighter desktop environment
Pros Cons Along with Knoppix and Slax, Porteus remains Trinity. Like Trinity, Razor-qt is a KDE 3-style environment,
Lightweight, fast No duplication one of the premier portable Linux distros. More featuring a single panel along the bottom with an application
and able to run on or install to other
an image less than media option, comparable to Slax, Porteus is also based on menu. It’s quite fast and has a little more functionality than
250MB in size. The and desktop Slackware and is designed to be lightweight and something like Xfce or LXDE, albeit with a lot less bloat than full
module system environments not
also makes it standard across fast. The website proudly proclaims that Porteus KDE or Cinnamon. The 64-bit version comes with a choice of
easily extendable architectures will boot in 15 seconds on a modern PC, and our KDE or LXDE as defaults, as Razor seems to only run on 32‑bit
experiences have shown this to be generally systems. While this split is a little odd, both architectures have
correct. The latest Porteus is based on the recent Slackware a dedicated Xfce remix, and you can of course install any other
14.0 and comes just over half year after 1.2. compatible environment to each version.
The new version’s biggest difference is a switch to the Porteus will run just fine off of any storage media and
Razor‑qt desktop environment in the 32-bit versions, replacing you can even install it to a hard drive if you wish. However,

84 www.linuxuser.co.uk

n A lot of manual partitioning is involved in installation
n Porteus is still also very configurable
its strength lies in the way it’s installed to portable storage,
such as optical discs or USB drives. Porteus installs in a
compressed state that keeps its footprint on the disc/drive
small; however, it’s still able to decompress and boot into the
main desktop very quickly. It’s a full desktop environment as
well, with a decent range of Web and Media apps, along with
a serviceable smattering of Office-suite-style packages
like AbiWord.
One of the best features included in Porteus is the Porteus
Package Manager (PPM). If you need to add more software
to your Porteus build, you have access to five different
repositories, including the dedicated Porteus repo, the full
Slackware library and even packages from Debian. The
Porteus repo does not have a full set of packages, or always
dependencies for those packages; however, the PPM can fill
in the dependencies from across the other repositories. These
are then treated as separate modules and can be activated
or deactivated at will. This allows Porteus to retain its speedy
boot time while still giving users access to all the applications
they need. With some tweaking, you can even have it set
up to activate some modules at boot time, and have some
deactivated yet available.
The one feature we’d like to see, though, is some kind of
installation or duplication utility, as being able to copy or move
Porteus 2.0
Portable Linux distro
Review
n You can add some extra hardware drivers to the ISO
One of the best features
included in Porteus is the
Porteus Package Manager
your perfectly configured distro to new storage – either for
yourself or a friend – would be very handy. It’s also not that
easy to have your own setup on optical media for obvious
reasons, and being able to copy from a USB stick to a DVD
would also be a great feature.
That aside, Porteus is a very well-put-together and fairly
unique project. It’s somewhat surprising that it’s as stable as
it is then, although being based on Slackware probably also
helps in that regard. If you’re looking for a portable distro that
needs to be lightweight and extendable on the fly, you could
definitely do a lot worse than Porteus.
Porteus’s strengths lie in
being a fast, portable distro that you can configure
and install packages to on the fly, which sets it
apart from a preconfigured Slax install. The module
system is fantastic, while the 32-bit Razor desktop
environment is one of the better lightweight desktops
we’ve used.
Rob Zwetsloot
More
information
porteus.org
85 www.linuxuser.co.uk
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 Book Reviews
Latest Linux books revealed
REVIEWS

COMING SOON
The best Linux books heading to a
Effective JavaScript
68 Specific Ways to Harness the Power of JavaScript
bookshelf near you…
At last, a book which takes the general JavaScript user and,
FreeSWITCH 1.2 holding them carefully by the hand, guides them safely through
Good Governance and Better
Regulation in the Information Age the deeper mysteries until they gain real understanding. Right
from the start, Herman dives into the internal workings of the
Authors: Anthony
Minessale, Michael S language, and their consequences for the coder; for example, why
Collins, Darren Schreiber, numbers are all floating point, and integer arithmetic is the way to
Raymond Chandler avoid errors; what’s going on with UTF-16 representation in JS (try
Publisher: Packt “𝄞 clef”.length for a possibly unexpected result).
ISBN: 978-1782161004 A look at variable scope shows the power of JS, but unearths
Price: £44.99 corner-cases that have caught out many, but the chapter Working
Learn how to install and With Functions will be the main course for most. Objects and
configure a complete telephony system Prototypes; Arrays and Dictionaries; and Library and API Design
of your own, even if this is your first time also receive systematic dissection from Herman.
using FreeSWITCH. In-depth discussions Concurrency may be seen as a particular challenge, as it has
of important concepts like the dialplan, yet to make it to the official ECMAScript specs, nevertheless
user directory, NAT handling and the Authors: David Herman JS’s event-loop concurrency is well supported in the real world,
powerful FreeSWITCH event socket. Best Publisher: Addison Wesley and Herman rounds off the book with a chapter highlighting its
practices and expert tips. ISBN: 978-0321812186 potential pitfalls. A good follow-on for those who’ve read Eloquent
Price: £25.99 JavaScript (LUD #101) and are ready to learn more.
HTML5 Canvas, 2nd Edition
Native Interactivity
and Animation for
The Book of Managing the
the Web GIMP: A Complete Unmanageable:
Authors: Steve Fulton,
Jeff Fulton
Guide to Nearly Rules, Tools, and Insights
for Managing Software
Publisher: O’Reilly Everything People and Teams
ISBN: 978-1449334987
Authors: Olivier Lecarme, Authors: Mickey W Mantle,
Price: £34.50
Karine Delvare Ron Lichty
Flash is fading fast, and Canvas Publisher: No Starch Publisher: Addison Wesley
continues to rise. In the second edition of ISBN: 978-1593273835 ISBN: 978-0321822031
this popular book, you’ll learn how to use Price: £34.99 Price: £25.99
Canvas to draw, render text, manipulate Combining a tutorial with a reference is a well- There’s only so much management you can
images and create animation — all in the worn way to a weighty volume. But with a good learn from a book, but, when it comes to
course of building an interactive web game tutorial, and a useful manual, it can be worth software teams, most of it’s here. Mantle
throughout the book. the strain on your bookshelves. Here we have and Lichty originally conceived of a collection
what may be the most thorough guide to the of useful rules-of-thumb, such as Brooks’s
Absolute OpenBSD, GNU Image Manipulation Program so far. “Adding manpower to a late software project
2nd Edition After walking through the basics for those makes it later,” but found themselves writing
Author: Michael W Lucas totally new to GIMP, the authors dive right in a more comprehensive book to “mentor”
Publisher: No Starch with popular photo retouching tasks, then a programming managers.
ISBN: 978-1593274764 guide to drawing and colouring that, if you’ve Programmers are free spirits, so the authors
Price: £40.99 ever struggled with this in GIMP before, will get devote much time to understanding coders, as
Lucas takes you through you past those less-than-intuitive menus and well as how to recruit a good team – and that
the intricacies of the producing some surprising results. The tutorial includes integrating the new member into the
platform, offering continues with logos and textures; composite team after hiring her.
thorough explanations, technical photography; animation; preprocessing; and As well as providing broad insights into
background, best practices and copious laying out a website. programmers, teams and their environments,
humour throughout. Absolute OpenBSD, Add in the reference section on colour- Mantle and Lichty are good on the fine details:
2nd Edition is completely updated to cover balancing; masks; several filters; customising the many lessons that, once learned, make the
OpenBSD 5.3 and includes new coverage of GIMP; and writing scripts and plug-ins in a difference between a good and a great manager.
OpenBSD’s boot system, security features range of languages, and you have yet another Create and manage a good programming culture,
like W^X and ProPolice, and advanced bookshelf essential from No Starch – and very as well as a fine place to work, and your coders
networking techniques.. good value, too. will be free to excel.

87 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Contact us...
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Email: linuxuser@imagine-publishing.co.uk

Contact us @linuxusermag
Questions Become a fan on
Linux User & Developer
& answers

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

Russell Barnes has been

a computer and technology
journalist for nearly 15 years

Joey Bernard helps

researchers with scientific
computing problems

n Mirage Viewer is a lightweight PyGTK image-viewing package

Rob Zwetsloot studied

aerospace engineering, using
Python to model simulations
Michael Reed is a tech
writer and has been hacking
away at Linux for over 15 years
Python pictures
I’m having a problem with the Mirage Image
Viewer in Python, and I want to know how I can
remove it. I’ve installed it with ‘python setup.py
install’ as described in the README file
shipped with the package, but the uninstalling
process isn’t even mentioned. I’ve also typed
‘python setup.py --help’ and in the possible
options listed here, there isn’t anything about
uninstalling. What can I do? I don’t want to have
to start my project again.
Stephen Jay
There is no specific uninstall
function in Python for that kind of
thing. However, you can remove it
with some creative coding. First,
you’ll need to reinstall the package
and record the output like so:
$ python setup.py install --record
files.txt
Now you can use that to delete the package with
this little script:
for i in $(less install.record);
sudo rm $i;
done;
It’s a bit of a roundabout way, but it does the job.

88 www.linuxuser.co.uk

Image Pi
I’m a bit of a Linux newbie, so excuse me if this
question has an obvious answer!
I have just tried to create a DVD version of the
Raspbian image from a previous Linux User DVD
– however, the file is an IMG and not an ISO.
The instructions you have in the
magazine only deal with ISO, but I could
not find any instructions on how to use or
install the Raspbian IMG. Can you explain
why the different formats, and if I am
missing something?
Thanks for the great mag!
Kevin Hill
Well, the easy answer is that
the Raspbian image is for the
Raspberry Pi. You install it to an SD
card, either via command line or
with a utility, and then it just runs
on the Raspberry Pi. These images are the full
operating system – already set up, rather than
just a live disc or the like.
We’re switching up the tutorial on this
magazine to show how to install the image onto
an SD card for use on the Raspberry Pi. There
are two methods for this, the first using the
command line and a tool called dd:
$ sudo dd bs=1M of=[image].img of=dev/
[sd card address]/
This will take a few moments, wipe your SD card,
■ There are many methods to get an image to your Pi
Questions & answers
and install the image to it. If you’re using Fedora-
or Ubuntu-based distros, you can use Fedora
ARM Installer and Image Writer respectively to do
it with a graphical UI.
Otherwise, we also have a tutorial on our
website, which you can find at this link here:
bit.ly/QDkoS5
Hope that’s cleared it up for you.
Problems on the
table
I’ve got an irritating problem on my LibreOffice
Writer 3.5, which isn’t present on my other Writer
on a different computer. I’m not sure why I’m
having this problem as they’re both running the
same distro, and I set them up at the same time.
I’m trying to hide borders in specific table
cells (not the whole table). But my Table toolbar
does not have any ‘Borders’ button, or any way
of adding one. How can I hide top and bottom
borders in one particular cell of a table?
Seb Maxwell
Well we know that in LibreOffice
4.0, that button should exist and
be available for you after install.
We would suggest upgrading to
LibreOffice 4.0 anyway, as it fixes
a few bugs over 3.5 and adds some great
new features.
All your technical problems solved
Q/A
What you can do is highlight the entire table,
right-click, then choose Table. You should then be
able to edit the borders in a Border tab.
Otherwise, you may need to add the button to
the Tables toolbar by editing it, and adding it from
the list of buttons.
One of these solutions will hopefully work out
for you.
■ The new version of LibreOffice is a great
step-up from 3.6
Remix with Linux
How does one use info files within Emacs, ie
info documents other than the info manual?
When I open them with ‘emacs /path/to/info/
file’, Emacs opens them in their raw format (in
fundamental mode). And there doesn’t seem
to be an M-X info-mode command.
I want to view them in Emacs instead of
GNU Info for a few reasons, but especially
because Emacs displays them in colour. I am
running Emacs 23.4.1.
Vic Davenport
Emacs does actually support
this kind of use, and to get it
working you only need to use
one command:
$ C-u C-h i FILEPATH <RET>
This will get it displaying in Emacs without
any problem.
■ The developer’s best tool
89 www.linuxuser.co.uk

Questions Become a fan on
Linux User & Developer
& answers
n We were once told by an open source company that Netflix is afraid of Linux users “stealing
their bytes”
Netflix novice
On my previous install, an Ubuntu 12.04 box, I
had Netflix on my machine. I was using a third-
party repo for it, as I suppose it’s not available
in the main Software Centre.
I’ve recently upgraded to Linux Mint 14,
though, and I’m very much enjoying the
experience of using Cinnamon. However, I was
wondering if I can use the same PPA to get
Netflix working in Mint? Hope you can help.
Ethan James
As Linux Mint 14 is based on
Ubuntu, the PPA will work – as long
as it supports Ubuntu 12.10,
though. Mint 14 used Quantal
Quetzal as a core, and you’ll have
to make sure the PPA has the right packages
before trying to install it.
There shouldn’t be a difference in adding the
PPA. Just use the same command-line method
as before:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:[PPA name]
Follow the on-screen instructions to make
sure it works.
Root of the
problem
Hello,
I’m a Ubuntu user and I’m trying to install the
ROOT software. I’m following all the steps, like
‘./configure’, ‘make’ and ‘make install’. After
90 www.linuxuser.co.uk
Contact us @linuxusermag
that, I need to type the command ‘source path/
root/bin/thisroot.sh’, so I can type ‘root’ from
anywhere and get the software. It works at first,
but when I close the terminal and open again,
the ‘root’ command doesn’t work any more and
I have to type ‘source path/root/bin/thisroot.sh’
again for it to work.
Another issue is that I’ve installed all the
dependencies from the website and still cannot
use some packages from the software, like the
Geometry package.
What am I missing to make ROOT work? I’m
currently using Ubuntu 12.04.
Thanks a lot.
Jeff Dyland
n ROOT is an advanced piece of software that allows you to analyse large sets of data
ROOT is actually included in the
official Ubuntu repositories for
Ubuntu 12.10, so what you could do
is upgrade to the newer Ubuntu, if
possible, and then install it the
normal way like so:
$ sudo apt-get install root-system
If you need to keep to the LTS release, though, you
can always install a third-party PPA that contains
it like so:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:marco89-7/
root
Then make sure to update Apt and then do the
same installation process.
Game of tag
Hi, I have a bit of a situation. I have a collection of
photos, some 20,000+ pictures. Large portions
of these have been tagged, using a tag structure
that seemed to make sense at the time. It is
important for me to have the metadata not
only in the database of my photo management
software (digiKam 3.0.0rc1 at present), but also
independent of this inside the image files.
Parts of the tag structure hierarchy have
turned out to be too volatile and/or the
depicted subject cannot be categorised clearly
enough to follow one particular hierarchy
branch, though. I would like to move certain
tags around, either under other branches or
just simply up a step or two in the structure
hierarchy. For example:
MyTags/Customers/Firm-A/Division-I/
Product-1
…should become
MyTags/Customers/Firm-A/Product-1

We can use exiv2 to make the edits
Or
MyTags/People/Family-1/Person-ABC
…should become
MyTags/People/Family-2/Person-ABC
Simpleton that I am, I’d wish that I could just
load all my existing image collections in digiKam,
move things about in my tag structure and then
have digiKam sync the image metadata with
the database, either by writing the metadata to
the image or via ‘maintenance’. That last step,
however, does not seem to work. In my tests, the
images retain the old structure hierarchy inside
the image files.
What I would like to avoid is having to do a
tag search for images, give them a ‘temporary
marker tag’, remove the tag in question, save
metadata to images, move tag around, reassign
to those images with the marker tag, remove
marker tag, then again save metadata to
images. I just have too many tags (and images)
for this to be a good workaround.
Any hints how to achieve this ‘structure
change’ would be appreciated. I’m running
Slackware 14.0 if that helps at all solving it.
■ digiKam is one of the best photo management suites on Linux
Questions & answers
Thanks in advance.
Claire Darling
Sounds like you’d have a huge job
on your hands to do this manually.
digiKam cannot really do this in its
current state, though, so we’ll have
to try a different method. We can
use the metadata writing tool itself, exiv2, to
make the edits you need.
First, check your images to find out what the
hierarchy might be like with something like this:
$ exiv2 pr -p a image.jpg
They should all come up looking a little like the
following examples:
Xmp.digiKam.TagsList
Xmp.MicrosoftPhoto.LastKeywordXMP
Xmp.lr.hierarchicalSubject
The last two are keys used by proprietary
software (lr meaning ‘Adobe Lightroom’).
Depending on the environment you wrote the
tags in, they can turn up even without actually
using them.
All your technical problems solved
Q/A
Mount all the image collections under one
directory, and from there clean out the keys
using this command:
$ find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0
exiv2 mo -M “reg lr dummyNameSpace/”
-M “del Xmp.lr.hierarchicalSubject” -M
“del Xmp.digiKam.TagsList” -M “del Xmp.
MicrosoftPhoto.LastKeywordXMP”
You’ll need the dummy name space part (-M
“reg lr dummyNameSpace/”) as exiv2 might
complain about the lr-key being invalid and
generally not do the task.
From here you can open up digiKam again and
move around the tags as you please. While this
may still take a while when you choose to sync
the database, it’s a lot quicker than editing each
individual tag. Hopefully you now have a better
tagging system in place for your photos.
Disk formats
I’m having a bit of a panic, as my last backup of
data files via K3B was a disaster. When I went to
use the files from the DVD, the file permissions/
owners were incorrect. Is there some place
where I should have indicated I wanted to save
those features to/from the DVD? I don’t want to
ruin my backup process.
Francis Buccellato
You may have missed a step while
burning the backup data – the
ISO9660 file system used for CDs/
DVDs does not support Linux/UNIX
file permissions. To enable them to
work on your backup you have two options.
Firstly, you can enable Rock Ridge extensions,
which add support for Linux/UNIX permissions.
You can change that in the Filesystems tab in the
Burning dialog. Alternatively, you create a tarball
and burn that to the CD/DVD instead of the single
files, as this will preserve the permissions also.
Either one of these two possible methods
should work, although the Rock Ridge one is the
preferred method.
■ K3B has tools to make file permissions work
91 www.linuxuser.co.uk
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Contact us…
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YOUR VIEW

Linux User
Letters
Your opinions about the
magazine, Linux and open source ■ The Linux Foundation
went to a lot of trouble to

Lock, stock and

ensure Linux can still be
used on newer systems

bootload
Hi,
Secure Boot should not be forced on the user.
It should be a choice that the user can make,
and I would have no problem with it if it was
like that. But to do what Microsoft has done
with locking the bootloader, I think, is just a bad
move on their part. Luckily, we now have a way
to install Linux on these new computers thanks
to the efforts of the Linux Foundation, and I will
be doing so.
Charlie Ferro
Secure Boot and UEFI has been a hot topic in
the Linux community for almost a year now,
and it’s great to see that the Linux Foundation
has managed to come up with a solution.
Let’s hope that an easier one presents itself in
the future.

THREAD BARE
Relative theories
In issue 123, IgnorantGuru provided evidence of a conspiracy by
big corporations to take control of Linux and free software. We
stuck it to the man by putting it up on the Linux User website, and
the open source community engaged in a debate about it. Join in
yourself here: bit.ly/Y3ZIVk

earl cameron said:

Maybe you should specify ‘desktop Linux’ or ‘Linux distros’
because this isn’t really a Linux (kernel) problem.

Theodore said:
udev is, in fact, a kernel problem, FYI earl.
Now, iguru, I read you here and there about this great Red Hat
swindle. Now… why aren’t we downloading all the GIMP-based stuff and
redoing it from 2.4 to have a working fork already?
Scott Dowdle said:
You showed a good connection between development work… and
those doing the development work… and then those doing that
development work answering questions… with answers that you don’t
approve of. Okay. That’s fine. What I don’t see is any evidence that Red
Hat the company is dictating these changes… nor that these changes are
being made because of tablets. Perhaps the developers – yes, many who
happen to be employed by Red Hat – made these decisions on their own
without the orchestration of a Red Hat overlord.
As a Linux user, I go to Linux conferences and see presenters using
Mac OS X. Why is that? I think that has hit the GNOME developers and
they want a more strongly defined environment that is easier to use…
and is a functional equivalent (but not necessarily a clone) of Mac OS X.
Part of that is (perhaps in their eyes) having a tighter grip on branding and
themes. I’m just guessing though.
So if you are proposing a conspiracy theory… usually one of the items
you include is… what is the big plan or the goal of such a conspiracy. Did
I miss it?
Bruce said:
“So if you are proposing a conspiracy theory… usually one of the
items you include is… what is the big plan or the goal of such a
conspiracy. Did I miss it?”
It is implied by the last sentence of the article. Once Red Hat wraps its
tentacles around an open source project, the project is changed so that
nobody can use the code to make something that is faster and/or better
looking than what Red Hat offers.

94 www.linuxuser.co.uk
 Your view
Secure Boot, Linux conspiracy theory, LG webOS
LETTERS

Open to webOS Web Designer

I think it’s a smart move by LG to buy webOS. Development for the
Just like Samsung has Bada OS, which is its own web is a huge part of
OS as a backup if Android fails, LG can groom modern computing,
webOS and prepare the second level of defence. with the majority of
If it’s running inside their other tech as well, it services available
online and in the
may lead to a fully integrated and connected
cloud. While we pride
smart home, which is something I’m very much ourselves on having
looking forward to. some fantastic open
Dennis Newman source web design
tutorials, our sister magazine Web Designer is
That’s a good way to think about it – although dedicated to bringing you many more of these
features at the same level of quality. Regularly
right now it would be hard to imagine Android
covering the newest technologies such as
going under or getting to an unusable state. If HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, WordPress and mobile
that were not to happen, there would also be apps, Web Designer is the best choice for
the problem with people moving to another hobbyists and professionals who want a more
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support with apps. It will be interesting to see find out more at:
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