Taking a break

I thought I would let regular readers know that I haven't stopped writing but I am taking a break for a month or so due to work and family commitments.

If I get a chance to post during the next 6 weeks then I will but I will ramp back up nearer the autumn.

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Connecting to the Raspberry PI from the outside world

Introduction

Yesterday I wrote an article showing how to set up the Raspberry PI as a personal web server. 

The concept of setting up the personal web server on the Raspberry PI really was for a hobby project and shouldn't really be used for hosting an external website. There are various reasons for this such as security, the power of the Raspberry PI, bandwidth and the fact that your external IP address will change at regular intervals.

This article goes some way to addressing some of the things you will need to do to connect to the website on your Raspberry PI from the outside world.

This is a proof of concept and just ideas on paper (or screen) and should not be seen as a gospel guide.

I will warn you now that I have never been that good with the networking side of things so I will try and explain as best I can. I may or may not be wrong in places and I am relying on people to correct me in the comments section.

Get your External IP address

There are basically 2 IP addresses that are important. There is the internal IP address which you can get by running IFCONFIG in a terminal.

When you connect to the internet you will actually be using an external IP address. 

I followed this guide (http://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2010/linux-get-ip-address/) to get an external IP address.

I installed lynx first by running the following in the command line:

sudo apt-get install lynx

Then I ran the following command to get the external IP address.

lynx --dump http://ipecho.net/plain

Another way to get your external IP address is to log onto http://www.whatismyip.com/ but I will explain later why I bothered to install lynx.

Port Forwarding

Now this is the part that I can't really explain in much detail because it depends on the ISP and the router that you are using as to how it is done.

I am using 3 Mobile Broadband and to forward ports using this service you have to open a web browser and navigate to http://192.168.1.1.

This takes you to the home page of the router. There is a login section where you can then access more intricate settings for the router.

On 3 Mobile Broadband there is a settings tab and then under the security heading there is a section called virtual servers.

This is where the port forwarding takes place.

All I had to do was add a new row into the grid and enter the following details:

• name
• wan port
• lan ip address
• lan port
• protocol
• status

The name is just a description so that I can remember what the purpose of the entry is in the list. The wan port is the port from the outside world and so for the web server I entered 80 and for ssh I set this to 22

The lan ip address is the address to the Raspberry PI (run IFCONFIG to get this).

The lan port is the port to forward to on the Raspberry PI. For a web page I set this to 80. For ssh I set this to 22.

The protocol is either TCP, UDP or ALL.

The status can be set to on or off and obviously I set this to on.

Pressing Apply applied the changes.

Testing it out

It is not possible to test this on the same network that the Raspberry PI is on. So if you are using the same broadband connection as the PI then you can't test connecting from the internet to the Raspberry PI as you would essentially be accessing the Raspberry PI from inside the network.

You will therefore need to test it from something not connected using the same network (broadband connection). If you have a 3G smart phone then you can use the browser on the phone to try to connect to your external ip address, alternatively pop round to the local library or pop to your nearest electronics store and buy a cheap 3G dongle. 

If it worked correctly then you will see the web page appear.

Troubleshooting

What happens if you cannot connect to the Raspberry PI?

First of all it is a good idea to see which ports are available from the outside world.

There are a number of sites that provide such a service. One of these services is available at http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/.

You can enter the external IP address and ports to check and you will be told whether they are visible from the outside world. 

If the port is not open or visible then you have set up the port forwarding incorrectly.

Static IP address

To prevent everyone setting themselves up as web hosts, ISPs give each of their customers a dynamic IP address.

This means that the external IP address you will use today to connect to your site will be different tomorrow or even in just a few hours time.

If you are determined to use your Raspberry PI as a web server (not recommended) then there is a service at http://dyn.com/dns/ which enables you to set up an address that will remain static so you can always access the websites and ssh on your Raspberry PI.

Remote access to the Raspberry PI

If however you just want to be able to access your Raspberry PI from say your work then you won't want to pay money to access your Raspberry PI.

I use the following method to continuously be able to access my Raspberry PI when I need to.

First of all I installed SSMTP by following this guide. (http://iqjar.com/jar/sending-emails-from-the-raspberry-pi/).

To install SSMTP I ran the following command:

sudo apt-get install ssmtp

Next I edited the ssmtp.conf file by running the following command:

sudo nano /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf

I then added the following to the end of the file:

root=postmaster 

mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:587

hostname=raspberrypiAuthUser=myemailaddressAuthPass=myemailpasswordUseSTARTTLS=YES

I pressed CTRL O to save the file and CTRL X to exit nano.

Next  I edited the revaliases file by typing the following command.

sudo nano /etc/ssmtp/revaliases

Within the file I added the following line

pi:pi@everydaylinuxuser.com:smtp.gmail.com:587

I then saved the file by pressing CTRL O and exited the file by pressing CTRL and X

Finally I set the permissions to 774 by running the following command:

sudo chmod 774 /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf

All of this basically enables me to send an email.

To send an email all I have to do is run a command and output it to the mail command. For example:

lynx --dump http://ipecho.net/plain | mail -s "Your PI IP" me@myemailaddress.com

This emails my IP address to my email address

Obviously this only does it once and so it would be better if it sent me an email at regular intervals so that I can see if there has been a change.

To do this I added the above command to a script called sendmemyIP.sh. I opened the script by typing the following:

sudo nano sendmemyIP.sh

I then copied the lynx command into the script and pressed CTRL O to save and CTRL X to exit nano.

To get the script to run regularly I added it as a cron job by copying sendmemyIP.sh to /etc/cron.hourly.

sudo cp sendmemyIP.sh /etc/cron.hourly/sendmemyIP.sh

Now when my Raspberry PI is turned on it will send the IP address to my email inbox once an hour.

I can then use this IP address within putty or ssh to access my Raspberry PI from anywhere.

Summary

This was all done as a proof of concept and I'm looking to the community to tell me if there are any glaring no-nos with the approach I have taken.

It certainly works for me and hopefully it will help some other people out there looking to try the same thing.

Thankyou for reading.

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Setting up a personal web server on the Raspberry PI

Introduction

This week has been an awful week. I have basically had very limited access to the internet and so this has put me behind on the schedule that I had set for May.

I have therefore decided this week to finally type up the notes I had taken when setting up the Raspberry PI as a personal web server.

Why set up a Web Server on the Raspberry PI?

There are a few reasons why you might set up your Raspberry PI to run as a web server.

If you are a student learning to program then you might find it useful to run the Raspberry PI as a web server so that you can practice your PHP scripting or PERL scripting. PHP is good as it is a modern OO language that incorporates a lot of the principles of other programming languages

You can learn common techniques with PHP such as test driven development. There are also good coding frameworks available such as Codeigniter which will help you learn MVC. Skills learned in PHP can easily be transposed to other languages including C# and Java.

Other more hobbyist programmers might like a web server to run something like Joomla to create a home intranet site.

People who design Wordpress templates might like a personal web server to test out new templates. By using the Raspberry PI as the web server the designer can use other computers to make sure the layout looks good in Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox.

Assumptions

This guide assumes you are using the default Raspbian Wheezy operating system.

The web server that is to be used is Lighttpd.

PHP will be installed as the scripting language.

MySQL will be installed as the database server.

Get your IP Address

If you are working directly on the Raspberry PI then you can skip this part but if you are accessing via SSH obtain the IP Address of the Raspberry PI by typing the following into a terminal window on the Raspberry PI.

ifconfig

This will return an IP address in the form of 192.168.1.x where x is the 4th number. (For example 30).

If you follow this guide direct from the PI then you can get away with using localhost instead of the IP address when specified later on in the guide and you can skip the SSH step below.

SSH

If you plan to SSH onto the Raspberry PI from within Windows run Putty.exe (http://www.putty.org/) and type in the IP address into the Host Name box. Now click "Open".

If you plan to SSH onto the Raspberry PI from within Linux open a terminal window and type SSH 192.168.1.x (where x is the last number).

Whether you are running from within Windows or Linux you will be asked for the username and password. You should enter "pi" as the user and the password you set up for the "pi" user when you installed Raspbian.

You should now be logged in via SSH.

Update your repositories

First of all run an apt-get update to make sure everything you need is available to download.

sudo apt-get update

Installing Lighttpd

There are quite a few guides on the internet for showing how to set up a web server. For the Raspberry PI I chose to install Lighttpd as it is light in nature and won't use up too much of the Raspberry PI's resources.

To install Lighttpd run the following command

sudo apt-get install lighttpd

To test whether the web server is installed correctly type the following into the web browser address bar:

http://192.168.1.x

Replace x with the last number of your IP address. If you are running directly on the Raspberry PI then you can just enter the following:

http://localhost

You should see a placeholder page as shown above.

Installing PHP

To install PHP run the following command:

sudo apt-get install php5-cgi

Now you need to add a line to the php.ini file. To do this there is a file called php.ini in /etc/php5/cgi.

Type the following:

sudo nano /etc/php5/cgi/php.ini

Navigate to the bottom of the file and add the following line.

cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1

To save the file press CTRL and O on the keyboard and to exit nano press CTRL and X.

Finally to get fast CGI working type the following onto the command line:

sudo lighty-enable-mod fastcgi

(PLEASE NOTE THIS WAS MISSING FROM THE ORIGINAL VERSION) 

Now type the following:

sudo lighty-enable-mod fastcgi-php 

Now the web server needs to be restarted.

sudo /etc/init.d/lighttpd restart

Create a test PHP script

To test that PHP is installed correctly type the following into the terminal window:

sudo nano /var/www/phpinfo.php

Now within nano enter the following script:

<?php    phpinfo();?>

Press CTRL and O to save the file and CTRL and X to exit nano.

Within a web browser type the following into the address bar:

http://192.168.1.x/phpinfo.php

Replace x with the last number of your IP address. If you are running directly on the Raspberry PI then you can just enter the following:

http://localhost/phpinfo.php

Install MySQL

There are three applications that will be installed for MySQL:

• MySQL-Server
• MySQL-Client
• PHPMyAdmin

MySQL-Server is the actual database server.
MySQL-Client enables you to interact with the server from the command line.
PHPMyAdmin enables you to interact with the server from within a web browser.

 To install all three applications at once type the following into the terminal window:

sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client phpmyadmin

During the install you will be asked to enter a password for the root user. Do not confuse this with the root user within Linux. This is the root password for the database server. Enter a strong password. Repeat the password when asked to do so.

During the installation of PHPMyAdmin you will be asked which web server is installed. Choose lighttpd.

A message will appear asking whether you want to create a dummy database. As the message states, if you know what you are going to be using the database server for or a database is already configured then you can answer no but if you are just experimenting then you can answer yes.

I recommend answering yes to this. It doesn't do any harm.

You will now be asked to enter the root password and repeat it. Enter the root password you created earlier. (remember this is the database root password, not the linux root password).

When the install has finished restart the server by typing the following into the terminal:

sudo /etc/init.d/lighttpd restart

To test that the database server has been installed correctly open a browser window type the following into the address bar:

http://192.168.1.x/phpmyadmin

Replace x with the last number of your IP address. If you are running directly on the Raspberry PI then you can just enter the following:

http://localhost/phpmyadmin

Enter the username and password to log in. 

Summary

This tutorial has shown how to set up the basic web server with PHP and MySQL

You might now want to try installing Wordpress, Joomla, Codeigniter and Blueprint.

I will be following up this article with details of how to install the aforementioned items later this week. I will also show you how to access the web pages externally and how to set up a host name to replace the IP address.

If you have any problems using this guide or you have tips for other users feel free to add them to the comments section.

Thankyou for reading.

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An Everyday Linux User review of Mozillux

Introduction

This month I have chosen to review some of the smaller distributions in the Linuxosphere.

Last week I wrote a review about Emmabuntus which is a French distribution that is based on Xubuntu 12.04.

This week I am writing a review about Mozillux which is a French distribution that is based on Lubuntu 12.04.

What is Mozillux?

Mozillux is one of those distributions that is built to run off a USB pendrive in a similar fashion to Puppy Linux or Slax.

The Mozillux website sets out its intentions with the following sentence:

"Mozillux has been designed with a particular attention to nomads users."

There are two versions of Mozillux available. The first version allows you to save information and install other applications for later use and the other is just used as a live DVD or pen drive. (Basically then you are choosing persistence or no persistence).

For full system requirements and to download Mozillux visit http://www.mozillux.org/.

Installation

You download Mozillux as a zip file and inside the zip file is a set of instructions telling you how to install it to a USB drive or a DVD.

There are 3 methods listed for installing to a USB drive. The "advanced" method is the method I used which involved running Unetbootin. The other methods involved partitioning the USB drive and extracting the ISO and running batch files or shell scripts. The Unetbootin root was easier and achieved the same goal.

First Impressions

Mozillux looks a lot like the stock Lubuntu 12.04 release. The main difference is the panel down the left hand side.

When you have a distribution like this that is so heavily based on another distribution then the thing that I think you have to review is the selection of applications that are included.

In the "What is Mozillux" section I told you that Mozillux is built to run from a USB drive well whilst this maybe true the first thing that is obvious is an icon to install Mozillux on the desktop.

If you run the installer then you get a fairly stock Ubiquity installer and the process works exactly the same except that it doesn't matter whether you install the 3rd party extras or not because they are included anyway.

A second thing to note is that when I tried to enter the security key for my broadband connection the key initially failed. The reason for the failure was the same reason that Emmabuntus failed in last week's review.  The default keyboard layout and language for Mozillux is French.

The Mozillux team have placed an icon on the desktop for keyboard map settings which enables you to change the language quickly and easily.

If you choose to install Mozillux to the hard drive of your computer then the keyboard issue does not occur as you can choose the keyboard layout and language as part of the installation.

Connecting to the internet

Connecting to the internet in Mozillux is a simple process. (It is based on Lubuntu after all!).

Simply click the network icon on the top panel and choose the wireless network you wish to connect to. Follow that by entering the security key and you will be good to go.

As long as your keyboard layout is correct then you should not have any problems.

Flash and MP3

Flash works straight out of the box with Mozillux. There is a good reason for that which I will come to later on.

Playing music also works out of the box with Mozillux so no messing around having to install Lubuntu restricted extras.

Applications

As I mentioned earlier the key to differentiating Mozillux from Lubuntu is with the choice of applications.

I am not going to go through all the applications as there are a lot of them but I am going to go through some of the key ones.

First of all LibreOffice is installed which makes Mozillux immediately useful.

The default browser is FireFox and the mail client is Thunderbird. Mozillux is called Mozillux because the goal of the project is to "Promote Mozilla softwares embedded in a full desktop suite".

Other common applications that are installed are Skype, Keepass, Unetbootin, Dia, Inkscape, Shotwell, Filezilla, Pidgin, Transmission, Audacity and VLC player.

There are a couple of intriguing applications as well. One I quite liked was FreeTux TV.

FreeTux TV lets you choose from a large list of channels that enable you to watch television online.

The choice of channels is both long and ecclectic and the nature of the channels makes it a no no for children as there are some adult channels and a channel called "Knives and Guns".

Other applications that I quite liked were "Drum machine" and "Notessimo" which are small applications that let you compose music.

There is also an application called "Kazam Screencaster" which lets you record your desktop.

Installing Applications

Did I mention that Mozillux is based on Lubuntu 12.04? Oh I did? Well obviously installing applications in Mozillux is done by running Synaptic which is of course the same application you would use in Lubuntu.

Online Applications

Mozillux has followed a trait that is one of the key features of Peppermint Linux which is to include links to online applications such as Google Docs.

There are applications for generating strong passwords, composing music, transferring large files over the internet, cloud services, Picasa, image editing, FTP clients and IRC chat.

Games

Now one striking feature of Mozillux is the huge list of games that are linked to from the "Games" menu.

For a Linux distribution the list of games in general is quite impressive and if you are bored and on the move, it could be a way of wasting a fair amount of time. I like the fact that there were SNES and Sega Genesis emulators included.

There is a menu item called "Flash games" which takes up the whole screen and a fair amount of scrolling. Why?

If you read the Mozillux frequently asked questions paged the question appears "Why so many games?". The answer is given as follows:

"Mozillux was also designed for families, as a safe environment for families"

If this statement is true then I would suggest that the developers look into the FreeTux application which includes adult television channels and a channel which promotes weapons.

On the Mozillux website there is a page called "Games" which shows a list of Flash games provided by Good Game Studios. There is a link for "Partners" at the top and if you click the link then you can sign up and get paid for getting people to play games made by "Good Game Studios".

My instant thought was "Ah Mozillux are being paid every time someone clicks one of the games links".

To test this thought out I tried a few of the games on the list. My inclination was to play the games I thought I would like, such as "Pacman".




The games I tried were all installed in the /usr/games folder and the links at the bottom pointed to various games publishers and there is nothing to suggest that the links are there for financial gain so I was wrong about that theory and the games are there purely for the pleasure of the users.

Performance

The desktop of Mozillux has widgets on the right hand side which tell you the memory usage and CPU usage.

I am using a fairly decent machine. Mozillux runs at about 100 MB off RAM without any applications running and uses 1% of the CPU available. With Firefox running the RAM goes up to 500 MB with 3% of the CPU used.

Summary

Mozillux is basically Lubuntu with a set of applications the developer has decided would make Lubuntu a better distribution.

Mozillux comes with Flash working out of the box which saves effort for the new user.

Mozillux comes with a decent set of applications for the sort of person who just wants to use their operating system without worrying about what is under the bonnet.

There is a mix of standard desktop applications and links to web applications and there is a large selection of games for the casual gamer.

Mozillux would make a decent distribution to keep on a USB drive to enable the travelling family to work, play games and surf the web.

I mentioned before about the FreeTux TV application which has questionable content but this is a small issue that can easily be resolved.

Mozillux doesn't bring much new to the table. Lubuntu works well already and it would be relatively simple to use the base Lubuntu distribution and add just the tools you need but if you are the sort of person that doesn't want to do that and want a more complete set of applications then Mozillux is a reasonably good choice.

An alternative distribution to Mozillux is Peppermint Linux which also uses the LXDE desktop. Peppermint does not include so many desktop applications and more web applications.

Thankyou for reading.

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Emmabuntus 2 - The French Revolution

Introduction

One of my favourite things about writing about Linux is when I decide to review one of the smaller distributions.

This week I have had the pleasure of installing, exploring and now reviewing Emmabuntus 2.

What is Emmabuntus?

I am going to quote directly from the Emmabuntus wiki page:

These distributions claim to be simple, open and fair. They are the results of the humanitarian crossing the free culture, to build together distributions for everyone.

Features

• Distributions based on Xubuntu 12.04

• Quick setup mode through automation scripts

• Mode live on USB/DVD

• Install standalone without internet, everything is installed with the distribution 

• Installation or not of non free software

• An additional 60 applications

• A dock allowing access to all applications

• 3 languages supported (English, French and Spanish)

Comparing to others similar distributions, Emmabuntüs claims to be easier, more accessible and lighter. However, it offers a wide range of installed softwares and includes a large amount of humanitarian and free softwares/projects weblinks and documents. 

So from reading the WIKI what I have understood is that Emmabuntus is based on Xubuntu 12.04, contains a lot of software and it is easy to setup and navigate.

Read on to find out if this is true or not.

WIKI

http://emmabuntus.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page

Before I start with the review properly I wanted to draw your attention to the WIKI page for Emmabuntus because it is one of the most informative that I have seen.

The WIKI page clearly sets out intentions of the project, has hardware requirements, links to the download and installation instructions.

This should be your first port of call. Don't worry if you ignore this advice though because once you have installed Emmabuntus there is an information folder on the desktop which gives you a second chance to get at the WIKI.

Hardware Requirements

These hardware requirements come straight from the WIKI page:

• Processor: Intel or AMD
• Ram: 512 MB minimum, 1 GB recommended 
• Hard Disk: 20 GB minimum
• Video Card: nVidia, ATI, Intel, SIS, Matrox
• Sound Card: Sound Blaster, AC97 or HDA compatible
• Other: DVD drive or PC can boot from the USB port

How to get Emmabuntus

You can download Emmabuntus from http://emmabuntus.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/index.php/Emmabunt%C3%BCs_2

This is a 3 GB + download.

Installation

Normally I use Unetbootin to burn the distribution to a USB drive and boot into the live session before installing to the hard drive.

As the download was over 3 GB I decided to burn the distribution to a DVD.

Emmabuntus is based on Xubuntu and therefore the installer is a customised version of the Xubuntu installer.

Choose your locale, choose whether to install alongside another operating system or use the whole drive (or custom) and create a user and password. All very standard stuff.

It takes a while to install Emmabuntus but it is easy to see why when you run it for the first time.

First Run

When you boot Emmabuntus for the first time you are asked to choose what you want to appear on the dock at the bottom of the screen.

There are 3 options available. I decided to opt for the "All" option and the result is a mass of icons at the bottom of the screen. 

At this point I was prompted to enter the root password again (unfortunately there was no message to say why which is a bit offputting).

This is where I came across a small issue. When I entered my root password I was denied access. The reason I was denied access was that my keyboard was set up to be French. (Emmabuntus is a French distribution so that isn't so shocking I guess). I had to cancel the request for a root user and change the keyboard layout to English. At this point I had no idea what the reason was for entering the root password.

Rather fortunately I decided to go to bed at this point and I shut down the computer. When I rebooted the next day all became clear as I was again asked to enter the root password and now because I was using a UK keyboard layout my root password was accepted.

A series of questions pop up. The first message box provides a link to a donation page and a petition.

The second question asks whether you want to install the proprietary stuff such as Flash, MP3 codecs and fonts.

The next message asks whether you want to remove the languages that you do not need. I can't help but feel it would be better to change the installer to install the languages you want in the first place and then they don't need to be removed after the event. This would also remove the keyboard layout issue when the distribution is first started.

First Impressions

Emmabuntus is by and large Xubuntu 12.04 with the bells and whistles added. Remember the aim of the project is to provide a fully featured operating system with a wide range of software available but also light.

I guess therefore the lightness is the XFCE desktop. I am a big fan of XFCE as you can tell from my Xubuntu reviews:

• Xubuntu Review
• Xubuntu Customising the desktop

Emmabuntus has attempted to enhance upon the Xubuntu system by using the CAIRO dock at the bottom instead of the stock XFCE panel.

The panel at the top is the standard XFCE panel with a menu icon in the top left corner and in the top right icons for the battery, language, audio, messages, networks, notifications and the clock.

The CAIRO dock at the bottom in my case shows a whole host of icons because I chose the "all" option. If I chose the "kids" option or the "simple" option then a smaller subset of icons would have been shown.

The CAIRO dock shows a home icon, a FireFox icon, a communications category icon, an office category icon, audio category icon, video category icon, photo category icon,  disk burning category, interests category icon, education category icon, utilities icon and maintenance icon. There are also icons for changing workspaces, the trash can, shortcuts and power.

Clicking on a category brings up a speech bubble view with a list of applications that belong in the category.

The dock is very stylish but it can get a bit annoying when you accidentally hover over the bottom of the screen whilst trying to navigate to say the bottom of a document in LibreOffice or a the editor within Blogger.

Applications

The thing that is immediately apparent in Emmabuntus is the sheer number of applications that are installed by default. You might want to skim this bit and move to the next section as it is like the competition section of the Gadget Show where they list over 100 prizes.

Communications

• Thunderbird and Evolution mail clients
• Chromium and FireFox browsers
• Pidgin and Empathy messenging software
• Skype, Ekiga Softphone, Wammu 
• XChat IRC
• Filezilla FTP Client
• Transmission torrent software
• Ubuntu one
• Google Docs
• Dropbox
• Framapad

Office

• Abiword
• Gnumeric
• LibreOffice
• Document Viewer
• Ebook Reader

Audio

• Rhythmbox, Audacious, Clementine Audio Players
• Audacity - Audio Editing
• Radiotray
• GPodder - Podcasts

Video

• VLC Player, SM Player
• Cheese Webcam Viewer
• Openshot video editor, WinFF
• Mythbuntu
• KDenlive

Photo

• Openshot, FotoXX, Picasa, Digikam
• GIMP
• Inkscape

Burn

• K3B
• Brasero
• XFburn

Interests

• Homebank
• Geneology
• Play On Linux
• Stellarium
• Supertux
• Supertuxkart

Education

• Tuxpaint
• Tuxmath
• Tuxtyping
• Childsplay
• OOO4Kids

There are lots of other applications installed that I haven't listed here but you get the idea. If all that isn't enough WINE is installed as well so you can run Windows programs as well.

Installing Applications

If you decide that there aren't enough applications installed there are two things you should know. The first is that you are probably insane and the second is that software can be installed via the Ubuntu Software Centre.

Connecting to the internet

As Emmabuntus is based on Xubuntu connecting to the internet is a breeze. There is a network icon on the panel and clicking it brings up a list of the available networks.

All I had to do was enter the security key and I was connected to the internet.

A rather interesting feature I stumbled upon was when I tried to go to the Everyday Linux User website. (This site).

I was denied access to the website because this site is in an unrated category for the site blocking software. This is an add-in that has been installed in Chromium and FireFox.

To turn off the add-ons I had to go into the settings for the browser where I also found add-ons for advert blocking and ghostery which helps you find out which sites are tracking your browsing.

Changing the desktop background

To change the desktop background in Emmabuntus you follow the same process as you would in Xubuntu.

Simply right click on the desktop and select desktop settings.

There are some desktop wallpapers available but I like to add my own so I added some into my pictures folder and clicked the plus symbol and located the pictures I had downloaded.

I always find it amazing how a well crafted wallpaper image brightens up the desktop.

Flash and MP3

The scripts that run when you first install Emmabuntus take care of all your Flash and MP3 needs and as you can see Youtube works perfectly.

There are a plethora of music applications installed with Emmabuntus but what surprised me was that when I loaded Rhythmbox there was already some songs installed. I thought this was a nice touch. The music installed however is in OGG format.

To test MP3s I downloaded a Ramones track which was automatically to Rhythmbox

There were no issues playing the MP3 files.

RadioTray

One of the applications in the audio category is called Radiotray. This adds an icon in the top right corner of the screen. When you click on the icon a list of online radio stations appear broken down into various categories.

By default the radio stations are mainly French in nature but you can change the preferences to make the list show the radio stations of your choice.

Summary

Emmabuntus basically takes Xubuntu and adds to it in an attempt to cut out the configurations steps many people have to go through before using their system.

There are a number of ways of creating a distribution and when it comes to the choice of software I see there being 3 approaches.

1. Keep it minimal by only installing the applications necessary to run the operating system.
2. Install a popular set of applications you believe users would like to use.
3. Install a heavy assortment of applications so that users do not have to download anything extra.

For me there are merits in each approach.

If you keep it minimal then it is up to the user to decide on the software they wish to install. For more experienced users this is easy because they already know what is out there.

If you go for option 2 and install a popular set of applications then you are second guessing the applications that people would like to use. This is an acceptable approach because it means the system is useable out of the box and the user can get going straight away and if they prefer other applications they can install them as required.

Option 3 seems more scattergun but for new users it is actually a fairly valid thing to do. Disk space is no longer really at a premium and so installing extra software isn't really a problem unless it loads at startup and uses up memory. 

If you have never tried Linux before it is probably quite an exciting prospect seeing so many options available. You can try out 2 or 3 of each type of application and decide on the one you wish to use.

Emmabuntus has a few quirks. As it is a French distribution there are a few menus and applications that have French headings. The radiotray application is full of French radio stations and there is the issue I raised when running Emmabuntus for the first time where I couldn't enter a root password because the keyboard layout defaulted to French.

Other than the small issues raised I have to say that Emmabuntus was a real pleasure to use for the past week. Everything just works and the XFCE desktop keeps things running snappily. Emmabuntus does really take the Xubuntu 12.04 release and add to it. 

The Cairodock is really nice and it makes it much easier to navigate the system than the standard XFCE panels.

I have decided to install Emmabuntus onto my netbook for a while to see how I get on because having downloaded 3.5 GB of software I may as well use it.

If you have a computer that is a few years old but not ancient then I would really recommend Emmabuntus. 

Thankyou for reading

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Windows Users - Welcome to the world of open source with PortableApps

Introduction

A comment I often get from Windows' users is that they quite like the look of Linux but they also really like Windows.

A common question I get asked is "What can Linux give me that Windows doesn't?".

There is a fear factor that Linux is going to somehow ruin their day and they aren't going to be able to do all the things they normally do.

I have written an article previously which gives examples of how Windows' users can try Linux without messing up their current Windows setup but I think there is something that can help the transition from Windows to Linux long before an ISO is downloaded from the Ubuntu website.

A good proportion of the key applications used within Linux are also available in Windows and if the people wanting to try out Linux can get used to those applications first then it makes the final transition a lot smoother because instead of looking for Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Outlook and Photoshop the user has already become accustomed to FireFox, Rhythmbox, Thunderbird and GIMP.

Another thing a Window's user might not be keen on is filling up their hard drive with full blown applications that do pretty much the same as their current applications. This is where PortableApps (http://portableapps.com) comes in.

The PortableApps website has a whole host of applications that can be installed onto a pen drive which can also run from the pen drive without touching any files on the host system. What is more is that the applications available are portable versions of the major applications that are available in Linux anyway.

This means that a Window's user can use all the applications available in Linux without installing anything onto their computer at all.

Once the Window's user is comfortable with the applications they are using they might consider installing the full application on their main computer and ultimately become less dependent on their Windows only alternative.

When the user has become used to all the open source applications they will realise that they are now ultimately device independent and so whether they use Windows or Linux is entirely irrelevant.

At this point the selling points of Linux become a lot easier to sell. No viruses, no subscriptions, freedom of choice, performance, better support etc.

The other good thing about PortableApps is obviously that you can carry them about on a USB drive and use them wherever you go. Whilst I like to carry a bootable version of Linux on a pen drive I also carry a pen drive with PortableApps on it.

The Applications

To download PortableApps visit www.portableapps.com.

You can choose to either download the menu and app store application or you can click on the "Get Apps" link which will provide you with a long list of applications to choose from.

The applications are split into the following 10 categories:

• Accessibility
• Development
• Education
• Games
• Grraphics and Pictures
• Internet
• Music and Video
• Office
• Security
• Utilities

There are over 300 applications to choose from so I won't list them all here but here are just a few that you could use to replace existing Windows applications and also because they are really useful to have with you.

Database Browser Portable

For anyone who has to work with  SQL databases this tool is a good replacement for SQL Server Management Studio.

It allows you to run queries against the databases you have access to.

Database Browser Portable works with SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL and PostgreSQL. It also works with OLEDB and ODBC so in theory will connect to any database servers using those layers.

Geany

Geany is a lightweight IDE. 

This is one of my favourite applications both in a Windows and Linux environment. 

It can be used for editing all sorts of programs including C, C++, Python and PHP.  

I used this tool heavily when building my son's school website. Whenever I had a spare 30 minutes I could log on to the nearest computer and continue working on the site because my project and files were editable within Geany.

This brings me onto the next application.

Xampp

Xampp provides a portable version of Apache, PHP and MySQL. Also included is PHPMyAdmin which makes it easy to create and amend MySQL databases and their objects.

Notepad ++

Not really a Linux application but for Windows users it enhances the existing Windows notepad by adding things like tab editing, syntax highlighting and auto completion.

I found it to be a good tool for editing XML files.

SuperTux Portable

SuperTux is basically Linux's answer to Super Mario where Mario is replaced by a Penguin.

SuperTuxKart Portable

SuperTuxKart is to Linux what SuperMarioKart is to Nintendo. The game play is quite good if not quite to the level of Nintendo.

Dia Portable

Microsoft Visio is a tool used by project managers, business analysts and anyone who needs to create process diagrams, network diagrams, flow charts and database diagrams.

Dia is a tool that has many of the features of Microsoft Visio. I have found Dia useful on many an occasion where I have had to insert a diagram into a software specification.

I am not really a huge user of Visio or indeed Dia but if you are a Visio user then Dia is just one example where you can become device independent.

GIMP Portable

A lot of Windows users will already be aware of GIMP. GIMP is the open source equivalent to Photoshop.

I am not qualified to determine whether GIMP is as good as Photoshop. As a casual user however I can say that GIMP has a lot of really good features for manipulating photos, creating logos and aiding with web page design.

Adobe have created a new Creative Cloud service that you subscribe to online. The cost for the service is £48 a month or for the standard Photoshop £17.58 a month. Now if you are a professional you might not find all the features in GIMP that you need but it is worth giving it a shot because it is free.

Inkscape Portable

Inkscape makes it possible to create Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). I have used SVGs in professional dashboard applications for quite some time and I use Inkscape to create them as opposed to Adobe Illustrator.

Filezilla Portable

Whether you ever plan to use Linux or not, Filezilla is a great tool. The Filezilla FTP client enables you to upload and download files to and from your FTP server.

Google Chrome Portable

I am currently working for a major Oil and Gas company. We are currently stuck using Internet Explorer 7 within the office.

Internet Explorer 7 is not supported by a lot of websites nowadays which is very frustrating. Google Chrome is for me the best browser there is and so having a portable version on a USB drive has become invaluable to me.

FireFox Portable

As an alternative to Internet Explorer and Google Chrome there is FireFox. If you haven't heard of FireFox then the question has to be asked "Where have you been?".

A lot of Linux distributions come with FireFox installed as the default browser. It is therefore a good idea if you have any inclination of moving to Linux to use the portable version of FireFox to get started.

Thunderbird

Thunderbird is the closest application in Linux to Microsoft Outlook. Many of us for home use probably use web mail for accessing our emails.

If you do prefer to use Outlook then you may be using Outlook Express as opposed to the full product.

Thunderbird is free and easy to use and provides most of the functionality that you will find in Outlook. (Especially Outlook Express). For home use Thunderbird is perfect.

Opera

Yet another browser on offer is Opera. Opera isn't open source but is free to download and use.

Some of the features include a built in webmail client, the ability to compress web pages before downloading them and a speed dial option to access your favourite pages with a single click.

Pidgin Portable

If you use MSN or any other instant messaging program then Pidgin is the open source equivalent that it is worth getting used to.

Pidgin is made available by a lot of Linux distributions and contains many of the features of MSN. It is compatible with MSN, Yahoo and AOL.

Seamonkey

Seamonkey is a web browser used on some of the more lightweight Linux distributions. If you are looking to get more juice out of your system by moving to Linux and you wish to maximise your resources then Seamonkey is a web browser that will enable you to achieve that goal.

Skype

If you want to chat with distant relatives over the internet then Skype enables you to do that. It is great for grandparents who wish to see their grandchildren when they live a long way away.

Skype is available for both Linux and Windows.

VLC Media Player

If you use Windows Media Player for listening to music and watching videos then it is worth giving VLC a go because whether you plan to use Linux or not VLC is a much better application.

Abiword

Abiword is a word processing package. It isn't really a replacement for Microsoft Word. There are better applications for that purpose. Abiword is good though if you want to type the odd letter or create basic documents. (It is a bit like the word processing package that used to come with Microsoft Works).

Abiword is quite often included with lightweight Linux distributions so if you are looking to get extra juice out of that old computer then Abiword might suffice if you need a word processing package without all the bells and whistles.

Gnumeric

Gnumeric is a spreadsheet package. As with Abiword it can't be considered a replacement for Microsoft's mammoth spreadsheet package Excel.

Excel is used by every man and his dog for creating simple invoices, small applications and complicated analysis tools. There are a lot of so called Excel and VBA experts out there.

Gnumeric can't replace that but if you just need to quickly create a spreadsheet for say working out a budget or for creating import/export files then Gnumeric should more than suffice.

LibreOffice

LibreOffice is a tool that can compete with Microsoft Office. In fact LibreOffice has become so good that Microsoft even includes features in their products that were first thought of and used within LibreOffice.

For home use LibreOffice is great. It is feature packed and includes a word processor, spreadsheet package, presentation package, database package and more.

OpenOffice

Before LibreOffice there was OpenOffice. In fact LibreOffice is a forked version of the OpenOffice software.

The PortableApps version is out of date as approval is required from Apache to package OpenOffice as a portable application.

UNetbootin

As someone that often changes Linux distribution, the Unetbootin tool has been invaluable to me. This software makes it possible to create bootable versions of Linux on a USB pen drive.

Installing PortableApps

There is a full installation guide available at http://portableapps.com/support/portable_app#installing

I will go through a small example here though. The program I will demonstrate is KeePassPortable which enables you to store all your passwords in one place. The idea is that you create more secure passwords and different passwords for each site and application. 

To install the application first download it from Portable Apps. The download will be a file with a ".paf" extension.

Double click on the downloaded file and a box similar to the one above will be shown asking the language you wish to use to install the software.

A wizard style application will be displayed. Click "Next" to get past the initial welcome message.

Now choose the destination folder for the application. You should point the destination folder to your USB drive.

That is it. The application is installed.

Summary

As I said before there are over 300 portable applications available and it doesn't matter whether you are a Windows user planning to use Linux or not.

There are some great applications that can run straight from a USB drive without touching the host system and that has to be a good thing.

PortableApps enables users to get used to applications that are operating system independent.

Thankyou for reading.

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