MIDIbox Linux Distro

[Goblinz]

Wow cool.... Sure to be some good knowhow floating around there! :D

Good idea. I use VMWare at work, and I've read of one other FLOSS virtualisation package... is there a reason you go for VB?

VMplayer is another option. It does pretty much what ti sounds like... Will allow you to sue a VM but not create one. Tis free as well.

But, I saw it broken down like mbuntu, rather than mbuntu - the extra b makes it very midibox, but it would be hidden to anyone else who doesn't know, they'd probably see mbuntu like I did (because it's more like ubuntu, a word they are familiar with)

Sounds like a good idea, there's instant geek kudos in having a name that most people don't know how to pronounce properly.

          G

[stryd_one]

MPLab and Eagle. If I could get a linux distro that supported either of those, I would HAVE to give it a try.

This raises an interesting point - now that the new structure is out , and MIDIBox uses GPASM and MPASM is not required, do we still leave MPLAB on there?

I think MPLAB should be included, along the same lines as AVR-GCC and such for other similar platforms.

A bootable USB stick, that is portable without touching the HD of the host machine.

We've got HDDs, sticks, and DVDs, that are portable live setups; HDDs and sticks that are portable and also save your settings and new apps you install; and full installations to stick and HDD. The HDD in any case is either internal or external.

having it all on a thumb drive means I can work from anywhere, on any borrowed machine ( A VERY useful feature)

Can you imagine all that on a portable USB stick? marvelous!

It's a very attractive concept :D Most of the hard work in getting it to boot in all these useful ways is already built in to ubuntu which is bloody great. The hard part is in configuring it so that it's useful to a midiboxer :)

[cimo]

hi

weird feeling of typing on a 12 inches laptop after you ve worked all day with a chainsaw...

.. as promised to the UbuntuStudio devels  i am going to provide them with doco about which ones of our choosen applications are free source and which not.

My idea is just to place a "X" or likesuchas on the right of any unfree app on the wiki list, so everybody involved can work on that and the guys at USdev can cheak them out anytime.

S1 just nod your head and i ll go ahead.

It  s time to swing the cats.

For all you lurkers on this thread: Ubuntu is f+++++g awesome, it s really worth a try and the people working around it have the same spirit as MIDIBox.Don t be scared about the old belief that Linux is difficult to use and install, that s a thing of the past.

[lylehaze]

Stryd:

I'm sure you know this, but MPLab is not native on Linux. I assume that if it can work at all under Linux, it will need WINE or something.

As far as including it, I'm going to try to switch over to the new dev setup, but I wouldn't complain if a working MPLab was available anyway. I'll know a lot better after I see how well I can work in asm on the "new" stuff.

Cimo:

I'd really like to see how awesome Ubuntu is. If you can show me without having to mess with the HD on my windows machine, then swing those cats! (there's a joke in there somewhere, I'm sure of it!)

All: If I help out as a tester, I'm ready to go. Sometimes having a noob on the test force can find things that others might have missed. I'll also be testing on an "older" machine (800MHZ Athlon, VIA686b, 512MB ram, Voodoo3 GFX, Win98SE). I may need to get a USB 2.0 card for speed.

I will gladly work from LiveCD or USBoot for testing purposes.

Cool Stuff. I wish I could be more help!

LyleHaze

[cimo]

If you can show me without having to mess with the HD on my windows machine

you ve got windows installed, how could you mess it up any further? ;)

download Ubuntu, insert the cd, boot from cd, that s it, you can try it without installing, of course performances are not so good running from cd.

[fluke]

I'm sure you know this, but MPLab is not native on Linux. I assume that if it can work at all under Linux, it will need WINE or something.

MPLab does work under WINE for editing/assembling programs, but i couldn't get it to talk to a programmer.  It did work under VMWare though.

[stryd_one]

We'll be using virtualbox rather than vmware, also piklab will be installed which talks to JDM and Burner...

[stryd_one]

Yeh, just grab ubuntu - you want the "desktop" image. That's a LiveCD, from which you can optionally setup a persistent install (still live, so it boots anywhere, but retains your settings), or a full install.

It's not 100% "just works" don't get us wrong - it is still linux.... But it's a quantum leap from other flavours I've used, and any "issues" don't really arise until you are doing some more specific configuration. Certainly I've been able to get it to work well on every machine I've thrown it at - even my lab PC, a celeron 333 (a pentium2 but less cache, not a new celeron) with 256mb ram..... And you know what, it was actually usable, unlike XP on that box ;) I tend to use my laptop as a the yardstick though, it's about 4 years old, full of proprietry non-officially-linux-supported hardware, connecting to a WPA2-PSK WLAN with hidden SSID. If that thing works then just about anything will ;)

If you're gonna have a play with it, feel free to drop by the chat, quite a few of us have had a go with it and can help out if you need it :)

.. as promised to the UbuntuStudio devels  i am going to provide them with doco about which ones of our choosen applications are free source and which not.

Go for it... I'd say, mark the apps as "NONFREE", in the Ubuntu scheme that seems the "done thing"... What's the aim of doing this?

[cimo]

Quote from: cimo on Yesterday at 17:26

.. as promised to the UbuntuStudio devels  i am going to provide them with doco about which ones of our choosen applications are free source and which not.

Go for it... I'd say, mark the apps as "NONFREE", in the Ubuntu scheme that seems the "done thing"... What's the aim of doing this?

oh well that s what they have asked, as you know that s all about the Ubuntu "ethos".. Luis really wanted to know which application were non-free to see if some workaround was possible..

[lylehaze]

I dl'ed the "Hardy" release yesterday, and made a Live CD to boot from.

Of course it was horribly slow, but that's just the CDRom drives fault. (and it squeaks, but I can't blame that on ubuntu).

It worked better than I thought. Looked good, required no geeking to get it running. I could work with this.

Just a few minor problems..

I could not adjust my screen resolution above 800X600. I don't think it recognized my Voodoo3 GFX card (too old?) I'm guessing that some driver searching could probably fix this.

I could not center the screen on my monitor, or even figure out where to do this. Probably related to problem 1 above.

When I tried to load "FlashChat", it tried to load up nonfree software to make it work, and the load failed. Maybe because I was booted to a CDR?

Finally, I waled away for an hour, and when I returned everything I tried would fail. Mouse and Windows could move, but everything else would just not work. I was not able to select the power-down button, I was not able to remove the live CD from the CDRom drive (though the other ROM drives would open) and I could not CTRL-ALT-DELETE the machine either. I had to hardware reset to get out.

But these things are no too scary. Overall, I was impressed with the Ubuntu installation. I'll go looking for an old HD today that I can offer as sacrifice to the gods of Linux, and maybe a "real" installation will help me resolve some of these issues.

Comments, flames, and suggestions are all welcomed,

LyleHaze

[cimo]

hi

the few time si had problems with installations/running liveCDs was because of defected cds, home burned cds are really easily spoil even within seconds but you know that, CDs yeah what a great invention! there is a verify CD option at boot to check it.

[lylehaze]

OK, more questions.

If I use my Live CD to make my own persistent USBoot flash drive, using instructions from the net, can I then add more applications without too much trouble? I'm thinking SDCC and Eagle Lite for starters.

Two days ago I had never even thought of it, and now I'm in such a hurry I want to do it myself.

If I add a USB 2.0 PCI card, I woulder if I can boot to it? I have options to boot to USB now, but all the builtin USB ports are slow.

Thanks,

LyleHaze

[nILS]

Yes, that's easy. No need to follow the really really hard tutorials on the net. I've put together a script that does all that for you. If you wanna test it, drop me a line and I'll link you. To install sdcc all you need to to is open a console and type "sudo apt-get install sdcc". For eagle, go to their site, download to Desktop, open console, go to desktop type "sudo sh downloadedeaglefilename"

:D

[cimo]

Eagle can be found on Ubuntu repositories so you just need to go synaptic package manager and install from there or sudo apt-get install eagle.. which is the same

[nILS]

For some reason I assumed eagle wasn't gonna be on there. Silly me.

[DrBunsen]

MBuntu

mbuntu

Although to be fair, I added MBuntu with a late edit, and Nils might have got in before me.  It just sprung to mind, and seemed obvious.

Electrobuntu?

Ebuntu?

EEbuntu? (Electrical Engineering)

[stryd_one]

I don't think it recognized my Voodoo3 GFX card (too old?) I'm guessing that some driver searching could probably fix this.

I dunno, it saw the onboard gfx on my celeron and that things so old the heatsink's fossilised... and the voodoo3 was pretty popular..

When I tried to load "FlashChat", it tried to load up nonfree software to make it work, and the load failed. Maybe because I was booted to a CDR?

Nah, it makes a RAMdisk so you can install stuff and all that. Works just like normal, only, slow as hell. Maybe you ran outta ram?

Finally, I waled away for an hour, and when I returned everything I tried would fail...........I had to hardware reset to get out.

Or maybe the CD was not reading well... that's pretty extreme!

[lylehaze]

You think the CD was not reading well?

Just because it sounds like a gerbil running around in an excercise wheel whenever the disk spins up?

OK, ok. so my computer is getting old. ;-)

Today I'll pick up a 2Gig flash drive while I'm out. When I get back, I might even swap in one of them fancy "lightscribe" drives from my daughters old computer, now gathering dust in the corner.

Geeze, I thought that Linux didn't make you upgrade old computers? I feel cheated. ;-) (fade to squeaking noise in the background..)

Thanks to everyone for the help. I am a true Linux newbie, but with a little help from my friends, I just might get a working install.

Just to be sure, the "choice" version is the "Hardy Heron" desktop version right? There have been mentions of ubuntuStudio, xubuntu, mbuntu, and so many others I have lost count.

LyleHaze

[stryd_one]

Heheheheh

Yeh, hardy heron desktop is the one you want. There's a small bug with persistence and it's an easy fix. Drop by the chat when you're ready to rumble and nils or I will hook you up.

[lylehaze]

Great!

Off to do some shopping.

Maybe if I TOTALLY screw it up we can release another version. I could call it "FUbuntu" :-)

Back in a few hours,

LyleHaze

[Goblinz]

Or maybe the CD was not reading well... that's pretty extreme!

Do you still need to un-mount CDs before you can eject them?

[lylehaze]

OK, I'm getting closer.

Progress since yesterday:

I have installed a USB 2.0 card, so I'll be able to make and use the flash drive at a reasonable speed. It's working, but I have not yet tried to boot to it.

I have replaced the squeaky old CDROM with a new(er) BENQ drive. I can boot to the live CD now without the squeaking noise. That helps!

I tried the "Test CD" option from the Ubuntu live CD. The disk tests fine.

When I boot "live" without an install, I am still limited to 800X600 graphics. I'm not going to bother fixing this until I am on the flash drive, so I won't have to repeat the effort (VooDoo3). Actually, with my declining eyesight, I might just leave it there anyway. I'll have to see how Eagle looks at that res.

FlashChat loads a few plugins.. one is nonfree, and after closing and re-opening firefox, it is a blank white screen for chat. Not usable, but I can tell SOMETHING changed.. Again, it may be not enough ram to play "Live" with the ram-loaded plugins.

So, after posting this, (from ubuntu), I'm going to try loading Eagle, but I expect that's too much for a ram image. I have a new 2Gig flash drive, and I'm ready to proceed to a persistent flash drive install. Since I have to revert to windows if I want to chat, I'm hoping nIls can just E-Mail the script to me. My address is my screen name at bellsouth dot net.

Thanks,

LyleHaze

[edit] Eagle loaded and ran great, even from "Live". But the apt-get version(4.16) was not as recent as my current windows version (4.6).I checked online, 5.1 is now available, including linux.

It all looks quite promising. This is going to be cool..

I wonder.. Does ubuntu support lightscribe?

[nILS]

Email sent.

[frailn]

Hey, nILS, can you send me that script when you get a chance? frailn [at] yahoo [dot] com

I've been trying to install to USB using the long, complicated, manual steps, so that I can understand the process. But, it's not working out well. I'd like to try the script.

Thanks!

NEVERMIND. I got it working.  Had to repair the master boot record, and now works like a charm. I'm posting from USB Ubuntu now! The PC is so quiet running from the USB stick. No CD ROM or Disk Drive noises. It's nice.

Can't wait until the distro is ready. I'm available to help others on installation issues as much as I can...

[lylehaze]

more to report, in the continuing saga of "an idiots guide to USB Ubuntu installation".

For those who got here late, a quick refresher: There was talk of making a USB Stick that could boot straight into a ubuntu installation that might include eagle and sdcc. This way we get a portable thumb drive that can carry a complete work environment that can be used easily from any computer, without touching the computers regular disk drives.

So, the brave men that know linux are debating the finer points of how to make it right, and some damn fool with zero experience shows up, looks around, says "Count Me In!!" and proceeds as if the project was already complete.

Needless to say, I am finding ways to trip over every simple problem that can be found. The brave men here are trying to be helpful, but I fear I may wear their patience thin with all my stupid questions and ridiculous observations.

Our story continues:

I've been splitting my time today between working on this and re-installing Winders on a friends PC. (must be a good friend, I won't do that for many people)

After demonstrating that I can't read even simple instructions, I was given enough help to get the installation onto my USB stick. Wow, if you follow the CLEARLY STATED instructions, it really works!

My old Win98 machine has only usb 1.1, so I added a 2.0 card for faster USB access. It seems to be working well (and fast!)

I went to the BIOS, to enable booting from a USB Mass Storage device. Problem. There is no option for that in my old A7V bios. There is "USB Zip" and "USB MO Drive", but no USB Mass Storage" or "USB Flash" options. Crap.

I wander upstairs to use my wifes laptop. It's much younger than my old PC.

After figuring out how to get into the BIOS, it seems that it doesn't support booting to USB either. Fiddlesticks!

Off to try on my daughters NEW laptop, running vista. Change the boot prefs in the BIOS and viola! it tries to boot to te USB ubuntu stuck and errors with "Missing Operating System". Hey, wait a sec. I tried the USB ZIP option on my old computer, and it gave me the same error! Maybe there's hope after all.

Further tests show that it gives the same error only when the drive is plugged in to the original 1.1 USB ports on my old machine. It does NOT recognize the USB2.0 card until after bootup.

I see that frailn had a problem with his MBR. I wonder if that's the problem for me, too?

The data is there. ON a 2G flash drive, it shows as a 716 MB flash drive, so I assume the rest of it is in other partitions that don't show under Windows.

I am tired, it has been a LONG day. Maybe one of the brave men of linux will throw me a few more clues. Maybe they will get wise and ignore me.

Maybe I'll format the drive back to FAT and pretend it was all a bad dream. The idea of a portable workspace is VERY appealing. the reality may not be attainable on my old computer.

Time to sleep,

LyleHaze