earth tech

…

• Download the Module-Build Perl Package from SourceForge: Download Module-Build (sourceforge.net)
• Download the File-DesktopEntry module from Jaap Karssenberg's page at http://search.cpan.org/~pardus/File-DesktopEntry-0.04/
• The File-MimeInfo module is also available from Jaap Karssenberg's CPAN page &ndash: download it from http://search.cpan.org/~PARDUS/File-MimeInfo/

Note that we're downloading all these into the same directory we used for all the other stuff downloaded earlier (see pt 1).

I find that the ppm install Module-Build command operates on the tarball in the directory where the command is issued. On the next one, we'll try installing it through the ActiveState Perl Module Installer widget.

Ooops. Got this:

item "nearest 154 36" doesn't exist at C:/Perl/lib/ActivePerl/PPM/GUI.pm line 208.

item "nearest 154 36" doesn't exist
    while executing
".p.p.tree selection add {nearest 154 36}"
    ("uplevel" body line 1)
    invoked from within
"uplevel 1 $command $args"
    invoked from within
".p.p selection add {nearest 154 36}"
    invoked from within
"::perl::CODE(0x27d7688) 154 36 267 266"
    (command bound to event)

while the package list in the graphical widget was refreshing. Going back to the command shell... which doesn't work on the second module, either. Maybe this is not a bug in the graphical widget, but a data file problem which caused it to crash...

 Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\Sony\My Documents\Downloads\gtk2-perl

09/21/09  10:05    <DIR>          .
09/21/09  10:05    <DIR>          ..
09/18/09  10:14        16,030,800 ActivePerl-5.8.8.819-MSWin32-x86-267479.msi
09/18/09  10:15           171,959 Cairo-1.021.zip
09/18/09  11:30             7,678 ExtUtils-Depends-0.205.tar.gz
09/18/09  10:14             8,155 ExtUtils-Depends-0.205.zip
09/18/09  11:30               351 ExtUtils-Depends.ppd
09/18/09  11:30             4,746 ExtUtils-PkgConfig-1.07.tar.gz
09/18/09  10:15             5,232 ExtUtils-PkgConfig-1.07.zip
09/18/09  11:30               355 ExtUtils-PkgConfig.ppd
09/21/09  10:00            13,784 File-DesktopEntry-0.04.tar.gz
09/21/09  10:05            29,269 File-MimeInfo-0.15.tar.gz
09/18/09  10:14         1,613,333 glade-2.12.1.zip
09/18/09  10:14           518,907 glade-3-0-2-win32-1.zip
09/18/09  10:15           306,240 Glib-1.142.zip
09/18/09  10:13         5,597,907 gtk-2.8.20-win32-1.exe
09/18/09  10:41           192,692 gtk-demo.zip
09/18/09  10:15         1,676,227 Gtk2-1.141.zip
09/18/09  10:15            53,946 Gtk2-GladeXML-1.006.zip
09/21/09  09:53           196,525 Module-Build-0.2808.tar.gz
09/18/09  10:41           181,280 msvcr71.zip
              19 File(s)     26,609,386 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  47,385,841,664 bytes free

C:\Documents and Settings\Sony\My Documents\Downloads\gtk2-perl>ppm install File
-DesktopEntry-0.04
ppm install failed: Can't find any package that provide File-DesktopEntry-0.04

C:\Documents and Settings\Sony\My Documents\Downloads\gtk2-perl>ppm install File
-DesktopEntry-0.04.tar.gz
ppm install failed: Can't find any package that provide File-DesktopEntry-0.04.t
ar.gz

C:\Documents and Settings\Sony\My Documents\Downloads\gtk2-perl>

Labels: 0x0000, desktop, gtk2, perl, wiki, winxp, zim

posted by pd wilson   #   13:54

Note that this entry seems to be more about installing and configuring ActiveState Perl and Gtk2 on Windows than about Zim, but there is a method to this madness. Zim depends upon Perl and Gtk2, so any system that's going to run it has to have these. There will be additional information added to and/or around this post in the future...

I've been using the Zim Desktop Wiki editor for some time now (not sure how long, really, since the original installs were on systems that no longer function) as sort of daily work-log, planning, and note-taking tool for several months now on an HP laptop running SuSE 11.1+ with one of KDE3, KDE4, Gnome, WindowMaker, FVWM, and probably some other desktop environments.

Starting with the first install of Zim, I realized that I was going to have to take measures to ensure that this tool would be available to me in the future. I first saw it running on a frankensteinesque box that had started out with no hard disc, running DSL from an optical disc, and by the time Zim popped up on the desktop, was running a system that included components of DSL, KNOPPIX, Debian, and several kernels of both the 2.4.x and 2.6.x varieties. There was no MS Windows partition, and it was not virtualized.

Soon after that I tried to install Zim on an OpenSUSE 11.0 system. That didn't go well, and I didn't have time to sort it all out. I did get it to work, but could not get a global install working reliably - something to do w/ perl module version numbers, or something.

More recently I followed a set of instructions for some package(s) found on the Internet [and grafted into the earlier dysfunctional OpenSuSE install] and got Zim working on the OpenSuSE 11.1 so smoothly that I forgot to write down how I did it - or have forgotten if I wrote it down or not.

So now I'm looking for a way to share the same ‘Zimspace’ between a WinXP Sony Vaio laptop and the HP running OpenSuSE.

Now, of course there are dozens of ways to do that - I can connect to the HP from the Vaio [running Cygwin/X] and pop Zim up on the XP desktop over the office LAN, of course, but that still tethers me to the HP - and not just for the data, but for the executable binary and the processor time slices, as well.

So, to make a long story short:

In an attempt to install Zim Desktop Wiki on the WinXP Vaio Laptop (WVL), I followed the instructions on the page at http://zim-wiki.org/Install/Windows.html

All went as expected up to the point where it said to run the command ppm install Gtk2

The command failed on

Downloading Gtk2-1.141...done
Downloading Glib-1.142...done
Downloading ExtUtils-PkgConfig-1.07...done
Downloading Cairo-1.021...done
Downloading ExtUtils-Depends-0.302...not found
ppm install failed: 404 Not Found

In order to fix this, I had to Download the ExtUtils-Depends package separately, and install it using the command shown in the instructions at http://www.lostmind.de/gtk2-perl/, thus:

PRECONDITION:  Having performed the above listed procedure down to the point of ppm install Gtk2, perform the following steps:

1. Download ExtUtils-Depends-0.205
2. Unzip ExtUtils-Depends-0.205.zip – The unzip no longer works at the windows command line, use the 'Extract' functionality from the Windows Explorer Context Menu. Hit "Cancel" or whatever if it starts asking you about a ExtUtils-Depends-0.205.tar.gz file. Whatever it is (probably source code) it has not proven to be necessary to complete the install process - or maybe it's necessary that it just be there alongside the .ppd file. In any case...
3. At the command prompt. om the directory where the .ppd file resides, issue the command ppm install ExtUtils-Depends.ppd

Once the ExtUtils-Depends is installed, you can restart the original install at ppm install Gtk2 to complete the process.

Here is a [partial] screen dump log showing the steps EXCEPT for unpacking the archive that ExtUtils-Depends.ppd came in.

C:\Documents and Settings\Sony\My Documents\Downloads\gtk2-perl>ppm repo add http://www.lostmind.de/gtk2-perl/ppm/
Downloading www.lostmind.de packlist...not found
Downloading www.lostmind.de packlist...done
Updating www.lostmind.de database...done
Repo 3 added.

C:\Documents and Settings\Sony\My Documents\Downloads\gtk2-perl>ppm install Gtk2

Downloading Gtk2-1.141...done
Downloading Glib-1.142...done
Downloading ExtUtils-PkgConfig-1.07...done
Downloading Cairo-1.021...done
Downloading ExtUtils-Depends-0.302...not found
ppm install failed: 404 Not Found

C:\Documents and Settings\Sony\My Documents\Downloads\gtk2-perl>
C:\Documents and Settings\Sony\My Documents\Downloads\gtk2-perl>ppm install ExtUtils-Depends.ppd
Unpacking ExtUtils-Depends-0.205...done
Generating HTML for ExtUtils-Depends-0.205...done
Installing to site area...done
   2 files installed

C:\Documents and Settings\Sony\My Documents\Downloads\gtk2-perl>ppm install Gtk2

Downloading Gtk2-1.141...done
Downloading Glib-1.142...done
Downloading ExtUtils-PkgConfig-1.07...done
Downloading Cairo-1.021...done
Unpacking Gtk2-1.141...done
Unpacking Glib-1.142...done
Unpacking ExtUtils-PkgConfig-1.07...done
Unpacking Cairo-1.021...done
Generating HTML for Gtk2-1.141...done
Generating HTML for Glib-1.142...done
Generating HTML for ExtUtils-PkgConfig-1.07...done
Generating HTML for Cairo-1.021...done
Installing to site area...done
  72 files installed

C:\Documents and Settings\Sony\My Documents\Downloads\gtk2-perl>extract

[end of pt 1 - see pt 2]

Labels: 0x0000, gtk2, perl, wiki, winxp, zim

posted by pd wilson   #   15:38

The method shown in the previous post worked – now posting from system running from USB stick.

This is a hybrid USB file system – partition one is 750M FAT16, partition two is the rest of the 4G USB stick, formatted as ext2, I believe.

Here are some vital stats copied from a console:

knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ sudo su
root@Microknoppix:/home/knoppix# ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0c:6e:6c:d0:dc  
          inet addr:192.168.0.185  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::20c:6eff:fe6c:d0dc/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:11 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:10 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:1512 (1.4 KiB)  TX bytes:1536 (1.5 KiB)
          Interrupt:22 Base address:0x6000 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

root@Microknoppix:/home/knoppix# host host.earthside.org
host.earthside.org has address 67.43.9.226
root@Microknoppix:/home/knoppix# df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1             716M  645M   71M  91% /mnt-system
tmpfs                 1.0G  2.8M 1022M   1% /ramdisk
/dev/cloop            1.7G  1.7G     0 100% /KNOPPIX
unionfs               1.0G  2.8M 1022M   1% /UNIONFS
unionfs               1.0G  2.8M 1022M   1% /home
tmpfs                  10M   60K   10M   1% /UNIONFS/var/run
tmpfs                  10M     0   10M   0% /UNIONFS/var/lock
tmpfs                 100M   48K  100M   1% /UNIONFS/var/log
tmpfs                 1.0G   12K  1.0G   1% /tmp
udev                   20M   56K   20M   1% /dev
tmpfs                 1.0G  4.0K  1.0G   1% /dev/shm
root@Microknoppix:/home/knoppix# cat /etc/fstab 
# DEFAULT BASE FSTAB, UNCONFIGURED
proc       /proc         proc       noauto             0 0
sysfs      /sys          sysfs      noauto             0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/sda1 /media/sda1 vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000,shortname=winnt,uid=knoppix,gid=knoppix 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/sda2 /media/sda2 ext2 noauto,users,exec 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/sr0 /media/sr0 auto ro,noauto,users,exec 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hdd /media/hdd auto ro,noauto,users,exec 0 0
# Added by KNOPPIX
/dev/hdc /media/hdc auto ro,noauto,users,exec 0 0
root@Microknoppix:/home/knoppix#  cat /etc/mtab
rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt-system vfat rw,noatime,fmask=0000,dmask=0000,allow_utime=0022,codepage=cp850,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=winnt 0 0
tmpfs /ramdisk tmpfs rw,size=1048576k 0 0
/dev/cloop /KNOPPIX iso9660 ro 0 0
unionfs /UNIONFS aufs rw,noatime,si=e57182f3,xino=/ramdisk/.aufs.xino,noplink,br:/ramdisk=rw:/KNOPPIX=ro 0 0
unionfs /home aufs rw,noatime,si=e57182f3,xino=/ramdisk/.aufs.xino,noplink,br:/ramdisk=rw:/KNOPPIX=ro 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs rw 0 0
tmpfs /UNIONFS/var/run tmpfs rw,size=10240k 0 0
tmpfs /UNIONFS/var/lock tmpfs rw,size=10240k 0 0
tmpfs /UNIONFS/var/log tmpfs rw,size=102400k 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs rw,size=1048576k 0 0
udev /dev tmpfs rw,size=20480k 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs rw,size=1048576k 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,mode=1777 0 0
root@Microknoppix:/home/knoppix# 

Labels: 0x0000, config, knoppix, pendrive, v6.0.1, x86

posted by pd wilson   #   01:42

Used the instructions as shown for KNOPPIX v5.1.1 excepting only that I found no /cdrom directory on KNOPPIX v6.0.1. Used the /mnt-system directory instead as that appeared to be where the CD was mounted (according to df -h).

Testing Pendrive boot of KNOPPIX v6.0.1 this time 2009-09-07 EST 22:25.

Labels: 0x0000, knoppix, linux, pendrive, usb, v6.0.1, x86

posted by pd wilson   #   01:24

Posting this from a disc-less host, using a KNOPPIX V6.0.1 LiveCD downloaded to the Vista host using BitTorrent / BitComet.

This KNOPPIX disc divined the correct network configuration from the USR5430 Ethernet / WiFi bridge, which is configured as part of an AdHoc wireless (802.11) LAN which has an Internet backhaul (configured using ICS) over a Cricket CDMA USB BroadBand modem on the Vista box.

The KNOPPIX network configuration routine psychically determined all that and configured it without having to ask me any stupid questions. That, all by itself, is freaking amazing. Contrast it, for instance, with DamnSmallLinux (DSL) [v?] which I just argued with all weekend about the identical configuration. The DSL solution required adding a eth0:1 interface as root to begin with – it got worse from there. …

So it just booted up and ran without question, so far pretty much everything working, it appears.

Notable Factoids

• no spkrs on this box, so not sure about sound
• spell checker in Iceweasel is set for German
• Iceweasel is the default browser
• Iceweasel comes with the NoScript plugin already installed (!!!)
• a /slick/ new [to me] desktop environment called ‘Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment’ (LXDE) - really nice

Oddities

Is it true that USB devices only boot if they are formated FAT/32? Some weirdness going on there. If TRUE, I could put my PortableApps and my KNOPPIX on the same 4G USB stick? Maybe?

Glitches

For some reason, the 2nd & 3rd times I tried to boot this CD on this box, it hung during the X11 initialization - I believe(d) that some BIOS changes I made may have affected this, so the current settings changed are:

• Legacy USB support: enabled
• Startup Diagnostics screen: disabled

These settings may not matter, or may be specific to this system. They are recorded here so I can refer to them later, if necessary ;)

The hanging of the X11 startup is critical, since the system will shut itself down when X11 exits, and I was unable to find a way to interrupt the shutdown from the console during the time the X server was running. This means that if X hangs on this CD, the system shuts down after a short timeout.

Out of 4 boot-up attempts, the two that have worked (first and fourth) were both simple "put the CD in and hard boot w/o going to setup or boot-device select menu" sequences.

Video Resolution Bug

The screen resolution only seems to go up to 800x600. This has to be an incorrectly selected video device driver, since this same video card will go up to 1600x1200 and has done so in the past.

Labels: 0x0000, iceweasel, knoppix, linux, lxde, network, pendrive, usb, v6.0.1, x86

posted by pd wilson   #   21:22

The Visible bell mini-Howto describes the measures necessary to disable audio processing of the ASCII system bell (0x07 – BEL) character as a console "beep" in various shells and applications, including Bash and Emacs. under Linux.

Labels: 0x0000, ascii, bash, bell, emacs, howto, linux, shell, visual-bell

posted by pd wilson   #   14:37

##
## Set that annoying Cygwin Bash prompt...;)
##
##   There was an error in this string the previously 
##   published version - here is the corrected version.
##   This is Bash shell script code; it should go in the
##   file ~/.bashrc in the user's HOME directory - it 
##   could also go in  /etc/bashrc
##
export PS1='\[\033[32m\]\u@\h: \[\033[33m\w\033[0m\]
\$'

Labels: 0x0000, bash, linux, script, shell, terminal

posted by pd wilson   #   17:11

In constructing a web application with more than 2 PHP source modules, I found that it is useful to have a quick and easy way of finding a syntax error that may exist in one (or more) of a list of included modules.

Getting a List of PHP Includes

There is a function in PHP for this, which we will get back to in a moment. For right now I wanted to address some things we can do at a Bash prompt to troubleshoot why a script may not be sending any output to the browser on STDOUT.

That's a very common situation when you're working on a large application with many modules. It becomes important in those situations to be meticulous about syntax checking each change in any code before making additional changes.

I've been using the 'Lint' mechanism provided by PHP to syntax check PHP source code. It works like this: 

  $php -l <fileName>

Now, some of you might already be seeing the implications of this. Hows about: 

$for fn in \
      `grep require frmPlayerInformation_body.09.inc\
      | perl -ne '/\"([a-zA-Z0-9.]+)\"\;/ && print "$1\n";'` ;;
 do 
      echo $fn ;;
      php -l $fn ;;
      echo "########" ;;
 done

The implications for scripting this operation from the command line are clear.

get_included_files()

PHP provides a function to get a list of module dependencies for a running script. It's called

get_included_files()

… and here's the URL for the docs: http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.get-included-files.php

Problems with this Approach

There is at least one serious deficiency inherent in using the require, require_once, include, and include_once directives as the sole indicators of module dependency;  that is that, simply, the modules which are required or "included" due to HTML element attribute values.

Examples include the ACTION attrubute value(s) of HTML FORM element(s), the SRC attribute values for SCRIPT elements. and so on. IFRAME and LINK elements are also among those that can cause a module dependency within the HTML, CSS, or Javascript layer(s) generated by PHP code of a site.

Labels: 0x0000, bash, code, css, html, javascript, linux, perl, php, script, source, webappdev

posted by pd wilson   #   22:13

• Procedure for Creating Transparent SSH Logins

Labels: 0x0000, bash, gpg, linux, perl, php, script, shebang shell, SSH, ssh-add, ssh-agent, ssh-copy-id, vnc

posted by pd wilson   #   04:58

This is an excerpt from the Perl manuals at perlDoc.perl.org concerning redirection of STDOUT and STDERR in Perl:

Because backticks do not affect standard error, use shell file descriptor syntax (assuming the shell supports this) if you care to address this. To capture a command's STDERR and STDOUT together:

    $output = `cmd 2>&1`;

To capture a command's STDOUT but discard its STDERR:

    $output = `cmd 2>/dev/null`;

To capture a command's STDERR but discard its STDOUT (ordering is important here):

    $output = `cmd 2>&1 1>/dev/null`;

To exchange a command's STDOUT and STDERR in order to capture the STDERR but leave its STDOUT to come out the old STDERR:

    $output = `cmd 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3 3>&-`;

To read both a command's STDOUT and its STDERR separately, it's easiest to redirect them separately to files, and then read from those files when the program is done:

    system("program args 1>program.stdout 2>program.stderr");

The STDIN filehandle used by the command is inherited from Perl's STDIN. For example:

    open BLAM, "blam" || die "Can't open: $!";
    open STDIN, "<&BLAM";

    print `sort`;

will print the sorted contents of the file "blam".

The I/O Operators manual also has some interesting information about standard file I/O in Perl.

Labels: 0x0000, bash, example, linux, perl, source

posted by pd wilson   #   14:35

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
#
# ls2csv.pl - show a listing of the PHP file
#            (*.inc and *.php) 
#             as a CSV table; no table headings included in 
#             output; no params defined
#
sub create_listing($) 
{
  my $xtn = shift;
  my @files = `ls -ghoG *.$xtn`;
  foreach my $f (@files) {
    chomp($f);
    $f =~ s/^\s*[-rw]+\s+\d\s+(.+)/$1/;
    $f =~ s/ /\",\"/g;
    $f =~ s/^(.)/\"$1/;
    $f =~ s/(.)$/$1\"/;
    print "$f\n";
  }
}

map { create_listing($_) } ("inc","php");

Labels: 0x0000, bash, code, gnu, linux, perl, script, shebang, source

posted by pd wilson   #   05:08

In order to not show hidden file names in the Emacs dired directory listings, take the following steps:

1. Use the Meta–x to enter a command.
2. At the M–x prompt, type customize–groupand hit <Enter>
3. At the ’Customize group (default emacs):’ prompt type ’dired’
4. In the Emacs customization buffer for group Dired, find the option setting titled List Directory Verbose Switches [option variable name is list-directory-verbose-switches]
5. Remove the a from the string value provided to list-directory-verbose-switches
6. Save the changes.

Here is the Lisp code to set this option:

(if
    (eq system-type 'vax-vms)
    "/PROTECTION/SIZE/DATE/OWNER/WIDTH=(OWNER:10)" "-l")

The Lisp code can be placed in the .emacs file manually, if that method of editing and setting the Emacs environment options is preferred.

Labels: .emacs, 0x0000, dired, emacs, howto, options

posted by pd wilson   #   00:00