Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Add your favorites apps in raspbian aplications panel

You can change your favourites apps in aplications panel editing the file /home/pi/.config/lxpanel/LXDE-pi/panels/panel 

Modify the zone with these line at the beginning:
Plugin {
   type=launchbar

There must be a content like this:
Plugin {
  type=launchbar
  Config {
    Button {
      id=/usr/share/applications/iceweasel.desktop
    }
    Button {
      id=/usr/share/raspi-ui-overrides/applications/pcmanfm.desktop
    }
    Button {
      id=/usr/share/raspi-ui-overrides/applications/lxterminal.desktop
    }
    Button {
      id=/usr/share/applications/kodi.desktop
    }
  }
}
Here we define like our favorites apps iceweasel web browser, pcmanfm file explorer, lxterminal and kodi:


You need restart rasbian or at least X server:
sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm restart


Artículo original en castellano

Monday, September 18, 2017

Open alternatives to proprietary software (I): PSPP, statistic analysis

One reason that many users argue for not to leave the proprietary systems and migrate to GNU/Linux is that the application that they usually use does not exist in the free systems ... or so they believe.
In most case there are some alternative free software that do the same function as their private one, but you know the name of the equivalent software, pages like alterativeTo will help you to find the right software.


I start this series talking about PSPP, an stadistics analysis software, than can replace the well-known SPSS with advantages:
  • SPSS great compatibily.
  • Multi-system: works in GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac.
  • You can try it without instalations using this CD-live.
  • You can export to Excel, opendocument (LibreOffice Calc), gnumeric, ascii and several database managers.
  • No problems with number of licenses because is free sofware, save money and avoid problems with backpacks or license servers when network is offline.
  • You can also export to ASCII, PDF, PostScript or HTML.
  • You can get several types of stadistical graphics.
This is a good oportunity to start get rid of that drug called proprietary software.
 
See wikipedia and the official page for more details.

There is also a lot of courses, books and video-tutorials.
Artículo original en castellano

Saturday, September 09, 2017

Compiling LeoCAD in any GNU/Linux

LeoCAD is a LDraw file editor, a open format to make LEGO(R), TENTE(R), EXIN CASTILLOS(R), etc... virtual models.

I follow this steps to compile Leocad:
  1. Install subversion and the necesary libraries to compile QT code:
    sudo apt-get install git libqt4-dev zlib1g-dev
  2. Download the lastest version of code in a folder, for example $HOME
    cd $HOME
    git clone https://github.com/leozide/leocad/
  3. Change to this directory, compile and install:
    cd leocad
    qmake leocad.pro
    make
    sudo make install 
  4. If we use the LEGO library we might launch the software with this command (I suppose you download the library in /opt/ldraw/lego):
    leocad -l /opt/ldraw/lego/
You can also use the Tente® 3D library, then the comand to run might be:
leocad -l /opt/ldraw/tente
If you compile in a raspberry pi, use qmake-qt4 leocad.pro instead of qmake leocad.pro.

Original articles

Friday, September 01, 2017

How to run CPCXFS under Debian or Ubuntu

CPCXFS is a DSK Amstrad CPC disk image editor for use with emulators, you can:
  • Create new DSK images.
  • List the contents of the DSK.
  • Add, rename or delete files in the DSK.
  • Etc.

Setup

Follow these steps in order to install it in your GNU/Linux distro:
  • Add the necessary packages to compile and install:
    sudo apt-get install termcap* build-essential
  • Download the lastest versión.
  • You can uncompress it with nautilus, mc or console with the command:
    unzip -x cpcxfs.zip
  • Compile it:
    cd src
    make -f makefile.lnx clean
    make -f makefile.lnx
  • Move the binary to /usr/local/bin to get available in any path
    sudo mv cpcxfs /usr/local/bin/

Use

You can use this software in the linux console, you can see all the possibilities with the command:
cpcxfs --help

You can see some help files into the zip:
  • cpcxfs.doc: text plain file, you can use your distro text editor.
  • cpcxfs.hlp: windows help file, you can use xchm to read it.
Some interesting examples of use:
ExamplesResult
cpcxfs disc.dsk -dShow the contents of the DSK
cpcxfs disc.dsk -sShow statistics and technical information about the DSK
cpcxfs disc.dsk -g fileExtract a file from the DSK
cpcxfs disc.dsk -p fileAdd a file from the DSK
cpcxfs disc.dsk -mg file*Extract the files from the DSK acording to the input mask
cpcxfs disc.dsk -mp file*Add the files from the DSK acording to the input mask
cpcxfs disc.dsk -hMore help
..
Artículo original en castellano