open source

Microchip LoRaWAN Development Utility on Ubuntu

Having just wasted a few hours on getting this Java software running on Linux I am documenting this for future reference and hopefully saving other LoRa / TTN folks some time. Prerequisites Install a Java JDK + JavaFX. This should work with the default OpenJDK 8 or 9 which comes as part of the Ubuntu repositories. I ended up installing Oracle JDK 8 as well as I thought the error might be related to OpenJDK. sudo apt install openjdk-8-jre-headless openjfx Download & install utility Download location: LoRa® Technology Evaluation Kit cd ~/Downloads/ chmod +x LoRaSuite-linux-1.0.run ./LoRaSuite-linux-1.0.run Fix User Preferences This step is required for the Utility to run. Unfortunately, this is documented NOWHERE... Change the following files to include the FilePath entry. The map is empty by default. /home/USERID/.java/.userPrefs/dfu/prefs.xml /home/USERID/.java/.userPrefs/fed/prefs.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?> <!DOCTYPE map SYSTEM "http://java.sun.com/dtd/preferences.dtd"> <map MAP_XML_VERSION="1.0"> <entry key="FilePath" value="/home/USERID/"/> </map> If you chose the default install location you can now start the utility java -jar ~/Microchip/LoRaSuite/Applications/LoRaDevUtility/LoRaDevUtility.jar A big thank you goes to The Things Network user JBI - who provided this answer in a TTN forum post. No thanks to Microchip as their forum and firmware release policy is a bit of a shocker. There are several reports of such problems in the forum with no answers. Unfortunately, this seems to be no exception with electronics manufacturers (Hello Kerlink!).

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Finding Notebook Hardware for Ubuntu – 2015 Edition

Unfortunately it is still much harder than necessary to find notebook hardware to use with Ubuntu (or other Linux variants). This blog is full of past experiences (some of them quite time-consuming) on finding notebook hardware that will work without too much fiddling. This short note is to document my recent research on that front to help others who want to do the same (as there doesn't seem to be a lot of good current info around).    by  TAKA@P.P.R.S  There are some vendors that do ship with Ubuntu, however they are generally all based in the US and their pre-sales communications are pretty horrible (I am talking to you ZaReason - still waiting for reply email as well as tweet). Then there is Purism Librem, but unfortunately they have still not shipped their 15" version and I need a tool now. The jury on this is still out and I don't really have the time to be a guinea-pig. Maybe next time (as I like what they are doing) ... There was one option from one of the top-tier manufacturers (Dell XPS 13 - Developer Edition) which ships with Ubuntu. But as - per usual - NOT in Australia. However there was a lot of conflicting evidence I found that the Windows Version had some issues with current Ubuntu versions (Dell ship 14.04 LTS - which makes sense from their point). I ended up buying the Lenovo X1 (3rd Generation) and after the install of Ubuntu I have to say…

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Installing Ubuntu Phone (Touch) on Nexus 7 LTE

Add SDK repository sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-sdk-team/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install ubuntu-device-flash Enable USB Debugging on the device Make sure you have developer mode enabled (see http://developer.android.com/tools/device.html if you are unsure). Navigate to Settings > Developer options Enable USB Debugging. When a device is connected, you will be prompted in Android to authorize it. Unlock Bootloader adb reboot bootloader fastboot oem unlock fastboot reboot Check that you have the right device adb shell grep ro.product.name /system/build.prop > mydevicedata \ && adb shell grep ro.product.device /system/build.prop >> mydevicedata \ && adb shell grep build.id /system/build.prop >> mydevicedata ro.product.name=razorg ro.product.device=deb ro.build.id=KTU84P Check which channels are available ubuntu-device-flash --server="http://system-image.tasemnice.eu" query --list-channels --device=deb ubuntu-device-flash --server="http://system-image.tasemnice.eu" query --list-channels --device=deb ubuntu-touch/ubuntu-rtm/14.09 ubuntu-touch/ubuntu-rtm/14.09-proposed ubuntu-touch/utopic ubuntu-touch/utopic-proposed ubuntu-touch/vivid ubuntu-touch/vivid-proposed ubuntu-touch/devel (alias to ubuntu-touch/vivid) ubuntu-touch/devel-proposed (alias to ubuntu-touch/vivid-proposed) ubuntu-touch/ubuntu-rtm/devel (alias to ubuntu-touch/ubuntu-rtm/14.09) ubuntu-touch/ubuntu-rtm/devel-proposed (alias to ubuntu-touch/ubuntu-rtm/14.09-proposed) In my case I am going for the currently stable 'ubuntu-touch/vivid' channel. Install Ubuntu Touch ubuntu-device-flash --server="http://system-image.tasemnice.eu" touch --channel="ubuntu-touch/vivid" --bootstrap References Ubuntu Devices: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Devices

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Install Ubuntu 14.04 on a Chromebook

There are plenty of sites out there that give advise on this topic, unfortunately most of them are highly ad-infested to the point of being unreadable as well as only containing single bit rather that an overall picture. This is a collection of useful links to source materials as well as steps necessary to install.    by  Joe Wilcox  Resource Links Crouton Github: https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton - Thank you David Schneider for the excellent work !!! Developer Info for Chromebooks: https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices Put Cromebook into "developer mode" Back up any data as the process wipes the system Create a restore image for Chrome OS (install the Restore Image Chrome Extension for this task) Enter Developer Mode - hold down ESC and Refresh (F3) keys and press the Power button Download Crouton Script Download link for installer: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dnschneid/crouton/master/installer/crouton Installing Crouton CTRL+Alt+t to open Cronos Prompt + type "shell" to enter proper bash shell. To see the list of supported releases: sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -r list To see a list of the supported desktop envoironments (target names): sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -t help I generally install LXDE on 'resource-challenged' devices. shell sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -r RELEASENAME -t TARGETNAME -e The '-e' at the end is optional to encrypt the chroot. Which is probably a good idea as the Chromebook in developer mode is completely open and allows any user to access. If you do not specify the Release it defaults to Ubuntu 12.04 (precise) My default install would be: sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -r trusty -t…

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Finding a private location check-in service

Foursquare decided that it was too hard for them to compete with location services like Yelp and split their app into two separate apps. Whilst that might make sense to the 4Square CEO and his VC masters, it makes no sense from a users perspective. Foursquare can be a bit of a battery hog already, and having 2 apps to open and "annoy" you with notifications is not an improvement by any means. And if I wanted Foursquare to be Yelp - I would have used Yelp in the first place. So no - I do not want to install another separate check-in App (called Swarm). One battery hogging location app was enough.    by  leogaggl  The other argument used by 4Square's CEO is that he didn't want users confused about the "gamification" aspects of 4Square. I personally think that this is highly patronising to the Foursquare user base. I am sure most users would be able to work out what it is useful for. Since I have always used 4Square mainly as a means to get some analytics of my movements and historic record of where I was at what time (I always downloaded my checkins to Thinkup on my own server) I was trying to find something that would fit the same use case. Meet Ushahidi (http://www.ushahidi.com/) - an excellent geo-coded "reporting" service developed in Kenya. I have been following this project for years already. Dynamic Timeline Track your reports on the map and over time, filter your data…

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Install FirefoxOS on Nexus S (GT-9023)

I just had one of my old hand-me-down phones returned by my offspring in a great condition (junior is very careful with his equipment - well done young man !). This doesn't happen all too often shows that the Nexus S is a decently built phone. This is also a good example of breaking the built-in obsolescence of modern phones. This particular unit has served me well for nearly 2 years (my average is one year) and served 2 kids after that. These instructions have been compiled on Ubuntu 13.10 64bit to allow me to re-do this process in future. It should work on any Linux based distro (see pre-requisites) - if you are using another Operating System it might be time to switch. Hopefully it might be useful for other people as well. Installing pre-requisites As per https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Developer_Guide/Build_Instructions/Linux_Prerequisites wget https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/raw-file/default/python/mozboot/bin/bootstrap.py python bootstrap.py Ubuntu 13.10 additions As per https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Firefox_OS/Firefox_OS_build_prerequisites#Ubuntu_13.10. sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends autoconf2.13 bison bzip2 ccache curl flex gawk gcc g++ g++-multilib gcc-4.6 g++-4.6 g++-4.6-multilib git lib32ncurses5-dev lib32z1-dev zlib1g:amd64 zlib1g-dev:amd64 zlib1g:i386 zlib1g-dev:i386 libgl1-mesa-dev libx11-dev make zip libxml2-utils sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.6 1 sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.8 2 sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.6 1 sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.8 2 sudo update-alternatives --set gcc "/usr/bin/gcc-4.6" sudo update-alternatives --set g++ "/usr/bin/g++-4.6" Check out & build Firefox OS git clone git://github.com/mozilla-b2g/B2G.git cd B2G echo "export HIDPI=1" > .userconfig ./config.sh nexus-s ./build.sh -j3 The config script will take quite some time depending on your internet connection as…

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Open Source creative tools

Since I am tired to constantly recite this list whenever one of these designer-type people tells me that they need Adobe's Whatever Suite to do some basic task here is a summary that I can point them to. Vector Graphics Inkscape (http://inkscape.org/) Xara Extreme (http://www.xaraxtreme.org/) Raster Graphics Gimp (http://www.gimp.org/) Desktop Publishing Scribus (http://www.scribus.net/) Photo Editing Gimp (see above) Darktable (http://www.darktable.org/) RawTherapee (http://www.rawtherapee.com/) Luminance HDR (http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/) Layout Tools (DTP): Scribus (http://scribus.net/canvas/Scribus) 3D Modelling & Animation Gimp (see above + plugins) Blender (http://www.blender.org/) Video Editing CinelerraCV (http://cinelerra.org/) OpenShot (http://www.openshot.org/) Audio Editing Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) Ardour (http://www.ardour.org/) Before anybody thinks this is to start a flame-war - I don't have a problem with a creative professional whose livelyhood depends on this work needing a professional package such as Adobe Creative Suite. I do however have a problem when some graduate or work-experience kid dabbling in graphics tells me he can not do this with anything else. Hopefully this list helps to open some minds ....

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Installing the latest stable version of LibreCAD on Ubuntu

I have recently been looking at different CAD options on Ubuntu and LibreCAD (http://librecad.org/) is looking like the best option for my needs at current (apart from the wish there would be some DWG support). Since the main Ubuntu repositories are usually a fair bit behind the lastest stable realeases of LibreCAD you need to add the LibreCAD Dev PPA Repository sudo add-apt-repository ppa:librecad-dev/librecad-stable sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install librecad

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Darktable – Photo Management under Ubuntu

Whilst I am by no means a photographer I do end up taking quite a few photos (these days pretty much exclusively on my phone) and the management of these photos can be a pain. So far I have never found an program worth the pain over plain old file management. But having stumbled across Darktable (http://darktable.org/) I think I might have found a worthwile package. Install on Ubuntu: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pmjdebruijn/darktable-release sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install darktable

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Open Governance Index – measuring openness

This is an interesting report and info-graphic by the folks at VisionMobile on a new way of measuring the openness of some mobile open source projects. The Open Governance Index measures the true openness of eight open source projects - Android, Qt, Symbian, MeeGo, Mozilla, WebKit, Linux and Eclipse - and analyses how governance, and not licenses, tell the full story of a project's openness, across transparency, influence and control. The full report can be downloaded free (email required) here.

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