How To: Install Pyrobot in Ubuntu

A quick guide for getting pyrobot running in Ubuntu, I’ve managed to get it running on 32bit and 64bit Ubuntu (10.10) so follow the guide accordingly to whichever architecture you’re using (64bit is about half way down the post).

32-bit

1. Download this file, or copy the below into a file and save it as pyroinstall.sh to your home dir.

#!/bin/sh

currentdir=$(pwd)

sudo apt-get install build-essential python2.6 python2.6-dev python-tk python-numeric libjpeg62-dev libncurses5-dev swig

wget http://pyrorobotics.org/download/pyrobot-latest.tgz

tar -zxvf pyrobot-latest.tgz

cd pyrobot

python configure.py

make

sed -ie 's/-e #!/#!/g' $currentdir/pyrobot/bin/pyrobot
sed -ie 's/-e # /# /g' $currentdir/pyrobot/system/version.py

echo 'export PATH=${PATH}:'$currentdir'/pyrobot/bin' >> $currentdir/.bashrc

Note: The ‘ in the code highlighter I have above won’t work in terminal, there isn’t much I can do about it so you’ll have to re-write it. Also if you’re doing this manually change the “$currentdir” to “~” if you are doing it in your home directory.

2. Make sure this file is in your home directory (e.g /home/alex/pyroinstall.sh) and make it executable:

 chmod +x pyroinstall.sh

3. Run the usual way (as super user because it has to install stuff etc):

 sudo ./pyroinstall.sh

4. It’ll ask you some questions, below are the answers I used – you can use other configurations if you know what you need. I also put the full output in pastebin ’cause it was bunging up the guide - http://pastebin.com/Kc5jyhja

1. 	2.6
2. 	/usr/include/python2.6
3. 	/usr/bin/python2.6
4. 	/etc/X11
5. 	none
6.01	n
6.02	n
6.03	n
6.04	n
6.05	n
6.06	n
6.07	n
6.08	n
6.09	n
6.10	n
6.11	y
6.12	y

5. Once it’s done reboot or run:

 source ~/.bashrc

6. Allow read/write/execute permissions for the pyrobot folder:

 sudo chmod -R 777 ~/pyrobot

You should all be done, try typing the following to get it running!

 pyrobot

64-bit

In order to get pyrobot running on 64bit, you basically need to add -fPIC to CFLAGS in all the relative Makefiles as explained in this mailing list post – http://www.mail-archive.com/pyro-users@pyrorobotics.org/msg00344.html - Lucky for you I’ve already gone through the effort of doing it and compressed it (download here you won’t need to if you are going to run the script though, it’ll do it for you..).

This script should download the file, configure and make and output the path to the .bashrc file for you (similar to the 32bit one does) so download this file, or copy and paste the script below into a file in your home directory:

#!/bin/sh

currentdir=$(pwd)

sudo apt-get install build-essential python2.6 python2.6-dev python-tk python-numeric libjpeg62-dev libncurses5-dev swig

wget http://dl.dropbox.com/u/307455/pyrobot-5.0.0_64bit.tar

tar -zxvf pyrobot-5.0.0_64bit.tar

cd pyrobot

python configure.py

make

echo 'export PATH=${PATH}:'$currentdir'/pyrobot/bin' >> $currentdir/.bashrc

2. Make sure this file is in your home directory (e.g /home/alex/pyroinstall64.sh) and make it executable:

 chmod +x pyroinstall64.sh

3. Run the usual way (as super user because it has to install stuff etc):

 sudo ./pyroinstall64.sh

Steps 4. 5. and 6. are the same as above..

Change Default Editor

If you want to change the default editor from emacs to anything else (this will change the default editor used in other terminal applications too..) use the following commands, just change gedit to whatever you’d like (vi, vim, kedit etc):

echo "export EDITOR=/usr/bin/gedit" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Any problems leave a comment and I’ll try and help as best as I can..

How To: Fix “Unknown keyword in configuration file.” Ubuntu USB Boot

Attempting Boot From USB Device

SYSLINUX 3.63 Debian-2008-07-15 EBIOS Copyright (C) 1994-2008 H. Peter Anvin
Unknown keyword in configuration file.
boot:
_

After creating a USB bootable version of Ubuntu from the Startup Disk Creator (or usb-creator-gtk) and attempting to boot, I was greeted by the error above. It might look a bit scary but it’s really easy to fix, just plug the USB flash drive into a computer (windows or linux, mac too probably but I haven’t tried that.)

Solution 1:
  1. Open the the syslinux folder in the root of the flash drive.
  2. Inside is a file called syslinux.cfg you’ll want to edit that.
  3. Find the line “ui gfxboot bootlogo” and simply remove the “ui “.
  4. Save and try booting again.

Below is how my syslinux.cfg file looks after editing:

# D-I config version 2.0
include menu.cfg
default vesamenu.c32
prompt 0
timeout 50
gfxboot bootlogo


Solution 2

Alternatively it looks as though there is another way of fixing this issue if there is no “ui” in the file, this is to do as followed (as pointed out in the comments below):

  1. Type “help” and press enter
  2. Hit Enter again

This should boot correctly and shouldn’t need to be done every time.

Ubuntu Disconnecting from Wi-Fi and Failing to Reconnect.

I have an updated fix for this issue using a startup script to connect and a time scheduled script for checking the connection, rather than having one constantly running in the background, avalible here – http://alexsleat.co.uk/2011/01/09/a-more-elegant-solution-to-ubuntu-wi-fi-reconnecting-issue/

I’ve been having some trouble with my wifi on Ubuntu recently but I think it’s because I’m almost out of range of the access point. The problem is that once it disconnects it never seems to be able to reconnect unless wireless is disabled and re-enabled. No doubt there is another way of fixing this issue but it gives me a chance to write my first shell script.

In short the script disables network-manager (it was trying to do things auto which was screwing with things), sets up the connection and connects then checks for a string in the wireless card parameters which will only occur if it’s disconnected, if the string appears it’ll disable and re-enable the wireless device which seems to allow it to connect again. If it’s connected it’ll wait 3 minutes (180 seconds) before checking again where as if it does disconnect it’ll check again 30 seconds after it’s tired rebooting the device.

Here’s the script, be sure to try it if you’re having the same problem (you might need to change the wireless device ‘wlan1′ to yours) and comment if I’m doing something wrong or there’s another way around this, cheers.

#!/bin/bash

service network-manager stop

iwconfig wlan1 essid NETWORKNAME
iwconfig wlan1 key NETWORKKEY
ifconfig wlan1 up
dhclient3 wlan1

while true;
do

if (iwconfig wlan1) | grep -o "Access Point: Not-Associated"
then
	ifconfig wlan1 down
	echo "not connected, rebooting Wifi"
	ifconfig wlan1 up
	sleep 30
else
	echo "connected"
	sleep 180
fi

done

gedit – failed to load type module: menu_proxy_module_load | Ubuntu

(gedit:2205): Gtk-WARNING **: Failed to load type module: (null)

`menu_proxy_module_load’: gedit: undefined symbol: menu_proxy_module_load

Annoying error, seems to has no serious effect on it running but just nice to clean stuff up so just install ‘appmenu-gtk’.
sudo apt-get install appmenu-gtk

September

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HowTo: Install & Use Resynthesizer for GIMP

Remember this Photoshop CS5 sneak peak showing off it’s latest and greatest feature Content-Aware Fill a couple months ago, well it turns out a reasonably old plug-in for GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) named Resynthesizer seems to work just as great and because it is what it is, it’s free and open-source.

Installing on Ubuntu 9.10/10.04 install:

sudo apt-get install gimp-resynthesizer

or for the Source/Windows/Fedora Core 4 versions see the download section.

Once you have it installed, it’s simple to use really just select something on your image that shouldn’t be there and right click on the selection Filters -> Map -> Resynthesize.. and up should pop an options box, these settings are pretty standard and will get rid of most things given that they aren’t too big. It’s best if you’re not getting the results you want to play around with the settings yourself to get to know them better.

Click after the break for an example with step by step guide. Continue reading HowTo: Install & Use Resynthesizer for GIMP

Remember this Photoshop CS5 sneak peak showing off it’s latest and greatest feature Content-Aware Fill a couple months ago, well it turns out a reasonably old plug-in for GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) named Resynthesizer seems to work just as great and because it is what it is, it’s free and open-source.

Installing on Ubuntu 9.10/10.04 install:

sudo apt-get install gimp-resynthesizer

or for the Source/Windows/Fedora Core 4 versions see the download section.

Once you have it installed, it’s simple to use really just select something on your image that shouldn’t be there and right click on the selection Filters -> Map -> Resynthesize.. and up should pop an options box, these settings are pretty standard and will get rid of most things given that they aren’t too big. It’s best if you’re not getting the results you want to play around with the settings yourself to get to know them better.

Click after the break for an example with step by step guide. (more…)

HowTo: Install BURG in Ubuntu Lucid (10.04)

BURG if you didn’t notice is GRUB backwards and actually stands for “Brand-new Universal loadeR from GRUB” which was probably decided a while after picking the letters.. Basically though it’s a much nicer looking alternative to the very dated looking GRUB bootloader.

Installation

Until only recently it’s seemed far too much hassle of installing something which only gets displayed for a couple of seconds at boot and isn’t seen again unless something goes wrong, but now that a PPA has been created for it (for Lucid anyway) it seems like its worth the very little bother.

First add the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bean123ch/burg

Now type the following to install the loader, emulator and some themes:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install burg-pc burg-themes burg-emu

You’ll be prompted to do some configuration settings in order for it to install, for these I just hit enter for each with the default to options however make sure to double check!

Now that’s done try rebooting and you should now see a slightly different screen? If so you can get on to tweaking it to get it to look even nicer :)

Tweaking

Themes:

When on the new shiny bootloader hit the ‘T’ button to load a new popup menu which allows you to toggle between themes without the need to restart so pick a favourite (mine are Radiance and Sora Clean.)

Clean Up The Boot List:

If you’re like me and have a bunch of old kernels still cramming up your boot screen you might want to get rid of them, it’s easy enough just make sure to note down your current version and the older versions which you can see on the loader (the newest version will have the highest number). My versions were 2.6.32-22 and 2.6.32-21, so I wanted to remove the later and here’s how to do that:

Open Synaptic Package Manager (System-> Administration->Synaptic Package Manager)

search for the version you want to remove (eg mine was 2.6.32-21) right click on the checked ones and “Mark for Complete Removal”, if you are at all unsure about which version to remove it’s probably best you just leave it or ask someone to check.

Now in order to update BURG to notify changes have been made, run:

sudo update-burg

Set the BURG Screen Resolution:

Very simple to do, note down your screen resolution (you should be able to find that under System->Preferences->Monitors under Resolution) now you want to edit the following file and change the default size to the one that matches your screens.

sudo gedit /boot/burg/burg.cfg

Find the following line and replace the 640×480 with your resolution (for example I had to change mine to 1440×900)

set gfxmode=640×480

Save and close this file and you should be done.

If you want to try customising BURG more or if you’re having some problems you should check out their very useful help page:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Burg

Update:
Over at OMG! Ubuntu! they have found an even nice looking theme, so make sure to check that out: link

HowTo: Run .jar files in Ubuntu

To run a JAR file from the command line in ubuntu using the following command:

java -jar filename.jar

Otherwise it is also possible to enable double clicking to run jar files too by the following simple steps:

  1. Find the .jar file in the File Browser (a.k.a Nautilus)
  2. Right click the .jar file > Properties
  3. Click on the “Open With” tab along the top
  4. Change the bullet to be Sun Java 6 Runtime
  5. Click Close and you’re done.

Now you should be able to just double click the file and it will run just like most other files!

HowTo Fix: The file ‘/path/file.exe’ is not marked as executable.

The file ‘/path/file.exe’ is not marked as executable.  If this was downloaded or copied form an untrusted source, it may be dangerous to run.  For more details, read about the executable bit.

While re-installing Spotify on my Desktop I came across this error while trying to run the .exe through wine (shown above) and here’s a really simple way of fixing it:

  1. Right click the .exe
  2. Properties
  3. Under the Permssions tab make sure “Allow executing file as program” is checked
  4. Click Close and you should be able to now run it through wine..

HowTo Fix: “There is a problem with your sound card. Spotify can’t play music.” (Wine)

Quite a few times I have encountered this problem, which I think is caused when the soundcard was recently used by another program and might still be busy but it means Spotify can’t play music, so a quick fix for this is to load winecfg and test your sound card which seems to force wine into tacking control of the it.

  1. Close Spotify
  2. In terminal type winecfg
  3. Click on the Audio tab (should be in the top middle)
  4. Click “Test Audio” and if you hear a sound this should work..
  5. Re-open Spotify and check a track, if it’s playing it’s worked otherwise you may have a different issue..