Hi

First real post on this site, hope I have got it right.

I have been using Linux (Ubuntu mainly) for some 5 years, only use windoze on my net book (I change the hard drive) to update TomTom, takes me hours waiting for the operating system to load and update.

Have built a few Linux desktops for friends and family.

Like Estate man, I too have a 1.4 PD estate, marvellous motor, well built, fair comfort, good economy, plenty of go when needed and plenty of room for passengers and goods.

Only downside, I collided with a deer at 600 miles from new, still the dealer did a very good job of the repairs.

Dave

HI FabEstate and Welcome, this is a great place to be. Hope we get your posts often. Gota agree with your comments relating to the Fabia PD. Join us in the Fabia forum sometime for a chat. There are loads of people on here that can help with virtually any problem (should you ever get any) but you prolly know that already.

Bye for now

+1 for Ubutnu on my Laptop.

It came with Windows Vista - so I bought Win 7 because every said how awesome it was.

I started using Linux back in University on Slackware 1.x (yes, I am that old).

After about a year of constant "You must reboot to update" and having to postpone update reboots for 4 hours, and once I did reboot it taking bloody ages to shutdown and then start up - I downloaded Ubuntu 11.04 and installed that and not looked back since.

I upgraded to 11.10 on it's release and despite it having a few bugs it's working a lot faster and better than Win7.

I only have it dual booted With Win7 as I develop .NET applications for a living (yes, I see the irony).

Am glad to see more and more people switching to free OS and learning to use them.

Hi Hotrod, I can't wait for 12.04LTS out in April. It should have some slight improvements to 11,10 concerning the desktop. My 11.10 installation is running really well with no problems, stable as a rock. I like the way 'apps' are stored and displayed. Cool! I agree it works better than Windows 7 for many things. I am often asked to dual boot 11,10 with Windows when I build for students, friends and others. Most get rid of Windows and stick with just linux, that is unless they are outright power gamers who want the latest Microsoft compatible games. You can wait ages for a game to be made available for Linux. But it's all good stuff eh!

So does someome want to point me to download that I can burn and install, nothing too beardy mind. Just something nice and easy to guide me in with.

As I said above the version was just on a test disck running from ram

Have a look at ubuntu and debian IMHO.

If you prefer RPM's play with fedora.

So does someome want to point me to download that I can burn and install, nothing too beardy mind. Just something nice and easy to guide me in with.

As I said above the version was just on a test disck running from ram

Lo Dave, yep! I think Ubuntu is maybe the best one to go for if it's your first proper Linux encounter and I would suggest Ubuntu 10.04LTS. LTS means 'long term support' (just in case you are not too familiar with the lingo!). There are newer versions but the most stable version is the one I've just listed and it's very very good, easy to install and easy to set up.

Go here for the download: Linux Ubuntu download instructions are on the site which includes how to burn the ISO image to the disc.

Here is a 'to do list' for Ubuntu 10.04LTS TO DO LIST which allows you to copy and paste commands into the command line terminal to set up your installation. Or you can just use the software centre which is already loaded. PM me or come back here anytime if you have problems. Good luck.

Ian

Edited 4 January, 201214 yr by Estate Man

Top recommendations Estate man

Nice and simple to start with.

Folks have to realise that Linux (Ubuntu) is not windows and it takes just a little while to realise that it is in fact easier and simpler once you've had a little play with it.

I have never changed anybody back to windows once they've had a good try with Linux. Dual boot by all means for that extra security, which is dead easy to do with the Ubuntu installation CD. They gradually find that they boot to Windows less and less.

Lo Dave, yep! I think Ubuntu is maybe the best one to go for if it's your first proper Linux encounter and I would suggest Ubuntu 10.04LTS. LTS means 'long term support' (just in case you are not too familiar with the lingo!). There are newer versions but the most stable version is the one I've just listed and it's very very good, easy to install and easy to set up.

Go here for the download: Linux Ubuntu download instructions are on the site which includes how to burn the ISO image to the disc.

Here is a 'to do list' for Ubuntu 10.04LTS TO DO LIST which allows you to copy and paste commands into the command line terminal to set up your installation. Or you can just use the software centre which is already loaded. PM me or come back here anytime if you have problems. Good luck.

Ian

So Linux fans.... Would you please all link ALL helpful, useful and pages on the following:

1) Debian: (Already got the following)

http://www.debian.org/

http://www.aboutdebian.com/x10.htm

2) Bottle Rocket: (Already got the following)

http://www.linuxha.com/bottlerocket/

3) Gnome Speech: (Or alternatives)

-

^ Also anything else which you would think would help with my Linux based 'Home Automation System'. I'm new to this and doing a project so trying to do some background reading in advance. I'm using X10 gear.

This is all being run from a Viglen MPC-L. So please nothing that full on! Thanks in advance for the help!

Something worth mentioning. If anyone does want to dual boot Windows/Linux then you have to install Windows first. Then when you start the Linux install, Linux will find the Windows partiton and ask if you want to dual boot or overwrite Windows and use all the disc.

If you install Linux first Windows will overwrite it without giving you the option to dual boot. Windows only recognizes Windows partitons and file systems and ignores anything else on the drive. That's Microsoft for you. Not happy till they get world domination.

Rob,

Was going to suggest http://www.linuxha.com/ but it looks like you've got that for the bottle rocket.

Rob,

Was going to suggest http://www.linuxha.com/ but it looks like you've got that for the bottle rocket.

Is there anything else you can think of that would help?

I'm testing a few bits but have exams so getting them out the way first. Next week once I start I will do a complete build thread -

Rob, I don't have anything in my arsenal that would be of any help you. But it looks an interesting project. Good luck and keep us all up to date with what you are doing if you can.

All is going well and a blog is on the way. I'm a little confused and hope you can all throw some suggestions/reading my way.

I ended up having to use Xubuntu 8.0.4 (Heron Hardy). The server itself is a Viglen MPC-L with a massive 256mb RAM but it's perfect for what I need it for. Bottlerocket v 0.05b3 and RocketLauncher is installed alongside Wish TK 8.4. I'm (rather) new to Linux but this all made sense so far (ish).

Question. The mobile application I'm developing on Android is in theory going to work as it's Linux based. I presume that this will indeed be a XML script? In investigating further with trial and error - I'm guessing I need a Shell Script (SSH) ? This would mean once a user clicks on a button on the phone e.g. (Downstairs Lights) a script for example.

Password > SSH dhome@IP > Command

To complicate this further, I want the script to be made using variables if that makes sense? So:

Room: // Light:

LR1 (Living Room) // ON

DR1 (Dinning Room) // OFF

BR1 (Bedroom) // OFF

Password > Login > br -- (Room) (Light) (ON) for example? You can see where I'm going with this, so as the user selects the different variables which are to be controlled the script is updated and then run. Anyone know where I can find some good reading on how this can be done? I'm shooting in the dark at the moment and not hitting much -

Thanks in advance.

Question. The mobile application I'm developing on Android is in theory going to work as it's Linux based. I presume that this will indeed be a XML script? In investigating further with trial and error - I'm guessing I need a Shell Script (SSH) ? This would mean once a user clicks on a button on the phone e.g. (Downstairs Lights) a script for example.

You could use a shell script for this, but if you're calling it frequently and you want the variables to persist, you'll probably want to make it a daemon process so it runs in the background listening for requests. Variables are very easy to manage in shell (although they are generally typeless) and there are lots of ksh and bash tutorials which will show you how to use them. Alternatively, you could store state in a file and call the script on demand, updating it each time.

I wonder if a cleaner way to do it, however, might be to use Java (since the Android app will be written in Java)? Create a daemon process that runs on the Linux box listening for inbound TCP requests and design the network flow to have some form of security, eg encrypted password, MAC address, etc and then room and state. The lighting states can then be managed within a dedicated class. If Java is too memory hungry (I don't think it will be for this application), C would be a good alternative, although networking is slightly trickier than Java as you'll have to do the building of the flows and parsing yourself.

I haven't been on here for a while so not sure how you're planning on interfacing with the hardware - is there an API?

Chris

You could use a shell script for this, but if you're calling it frequently and you want the variables to persist, you'll probably want to make it a daemon process so it runs in the background listening for requests. Variables are very easy to manage in shell (although they are generally typeless) and there are lots of ksh and bash tutorials which will show you how to use them. Alternatively, you could store state in a file and call the script on demand, updating it each time.

I wonder if a cleaner way to do it, however, might be to use Java (since the Android app will be written in Java)? Create a daemon process that runs on the Linux box listening for inbound TCP requests and design the network flow to have some form of security, eg encrypted password, MAC address, etc and then room and state. The lighting states can then be managed within a dedicated class. If Java is too memory hungry (I don't think it will be for this application), C would be a good alternative, although networking is slightly trickier than Java as you'll have to do the building of the flows and parsing yourself.

I haven't been on here for a while so not sure how you're planning on interfacing with the hardware - is there an API?

Chris

Hello Chris, it's good to see you back again. Thanks for the help - I appreciate it. After a nights sleep and reading what you replied, would a database help within this scenario? An additional objective is to monitor how long each device is on and produce graphs so a database would be needed here. In regards to API, I'm using a 'head' to talk to with Voice Recognition which will indeed carry the requests and commands e.g. Computer - Power on Living Room Lights.

Then the mobile phone application will have an interface but the idea is that you control the system via either the head (inside the house) or the mobile (outside the house) if it's a 'Oh dear, I left the T.V. on'. I'm new to Linux so didn't even think about making it a daemon process, on reading this further it does sound like a good idea. I hope to have the basics for the blog uploaded today and I will start a thread to show everyone.

Have to say it sounds like an interesting project, hopefully that MPC I sent you is going to come in useful. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for any blogs/threads on the subject and offer any crazy suggestions I can :p

Hello Chris, it's good to see you back again. Thanks for the help - I appreciate it. After a nights sleep and reading what you replied, would a database help within this scenario? An additional objective is to monitor how long each device is on and produce graphs so a database would be needed here.

If you're looking to store a large amount of data then a database makes sense and something like MySQL can be accessed via either C or Java and a good design should mean querying the data you want for monitoring will be easy and quick. One thing you might want to consider is how re-usable you want to make this, especially if you're looking to share the technology with friends/colleagues/etc, and so it may be that you want to create your own simple internal database and handle everything under a single application that can be deployed anywhere. That would make it a slightly bigger project

Something that also occurred to me is that MQ-TT may be a technology worth investigating. It's a lightweight publish/subscribe API that is specifically designed for this sort of thing and so will simplify the comms side of things and "guarantee" delivery of any messages.

If you want any help with knocking up some code give me a shout or drop me a PM.

Chris