February 6th, 2010 Ansi
Moin
I am using Ubuntu “Daily builds” for some time inside Suns VirtualBox. Unfortunately the daily builds are not longer booting inside VirtualBox for more then 2 weeks now. Christian told me about a new feature of Grub2. You can boot ISO images directly from your hard disk without burning them on CD or USB. Awesome feature and I had to try it today. Here is the description on how to do it with Ubuntu 9.10.
First I am using this tiny script to update all daily builds with the zsync tool. It transfers only the changed parts of the ISO so you and the Ubuntu teams save a lot of traffic.
zsync http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/lucid-desktop-i386.iso.zsync
cd kubuntu
zsync http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current/lucid-desktop-i386.iso.zsync
cd ../netbook
zsync http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-netbook/daily-live/current/lucid-netbook-i386.iso.zsync
cd ../xubunutu
zsync http://cdimages.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/daily-live/current/lucid-desktop-i386.iso.zsync
cd ..
rm `find ./ -name "*.zs-old" `
This script keeps all my daily builds up to date.
Next Step is to enable the grub menu. In Ubuntu it can be done in “/etc/default/grub“. Change the following lines
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=false
With this change you will see a 10 seconds count down when booting up. With the shift-key you get access to the grub boot menu. Next is to add the ISO images to the grub menu. Change to the “/etc/grub.d” dir.
Here you can find the grub menu entries and configuration files. Add your ISO images starting with 50 here. For example my entry for the normal Ubuntu ISO image (50_ubuntu) looks like this:
echo "Adding $(egrep menu[e]ntry $0 | cut -d'"' -f2)" >&2
cat << EOF
menuentry "Ubuntu 10.04 Daily Build" {
loopback loop (hd0,3)/ansi/software_and_config/ISOs/ubuntu/lucid-desktop-i386.iso
linux (loop)/casper/vmlinuz boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ansi/software_and_config/ISOs/ubuntu/lucid-desktop-i386.iso file=(loop)/preseed/ubuntu.seed quiet splash bootkbd=sg --
initrd (loop)/casper/initrd.lz
}
My ISO files are stored on sda3 under /ansi/software_and_config/ISOs/ubuntu/. In order to change it for your needs there are 3 elements to change. The loopback line contains your hard disk in grub style (hdx,y x=0->sda x=1->sdb aso) and the path. The third element to change is in the linux line. Store this file as “50_ubuntu” in “/etc/grub.d“, make it executable with “chmod a+x 50_ubuntu” and activate the changes with “ubdate-grub“. After a reboot you should be able to activate the grub menu with the shift-key and select the new entry. Have fun.
I found some pages on this topic but the description there was not working for me so I changed it. But take a look on your own:
Posted in System, Tools | 9 Comments »
December 20th, 2009 Ansi
Moin
I just run through several Chrome Extensions and here is my list of extensions I can recommend. Please write some comments if you have additional recommendations.
Posted in System, Tools, Web2.0 | 1 Comment »
June 14th, 2009 Ansi
Moin
I just played a little bit with APRS igate on Linux. There are some igate software available on Linux but the most supported package (javAPRESSrvr) is not available today because of an error on Yahoogroups where the files are hosted.
Therefore I installed xastir from Sourceforge and connected the the local running instance with the APRS-IS network. Now DM1AS is visible on FINDU. 
Nice side effect on this, the server generates an Google Maps page every 5 minutes with APRS stations around my home. Maybe tomorrow I connect my radio to the igate and there will be more local stations available.
So far you can see the map here:http://tinyurl.com/nacc5k
View Larger Map
Posted in GPS, HAM, System | No Comments »
April 26th, 2009 Ansi
Moin
My blog will be offline on sunday for some time because I will reinstall the server with new HD and Ubuntu 9.04.
Posted in System | No Comments »
January 9th, 2009 Ansi
Moin
Thanks to Oli (@EOLUS) I am now Beta Tester of Pachube. Cool Web 2.0 Service for Real Time Data exchange. People are streaming their measurement data with geographical informations in CSV or EEML XML format and can exchange their data.
I am now streaming my server temperature just for testing. Check out
http://www.pachube.com/api/1287.xml
Hope more will follow soon.
Its very easy to send your data from linux. For example with curl and csv:
/usr/bin/curl -X PUT -H “X-PachubeApiKey: abc123″ -d “`/bin/cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/temperature | /usr/bin/cut -c 26-27`,” http://www.pachube.com/api/1287.csv
Important is your Pachube key in the header of the PUT request. And your feed ID. With this example I am catching the acpi CPU temp and send them to Pachube.
Posted in System | 3 Comments »
August 19th, 2008 Ansi
This post if more for myself then for others because you can find this information on many places. I bought a Garmin GPS Map 60 some time ago. It works great with Linux and the GPSBabel software. In order to transfer the loc files from the Geocaching.com side you can use this script:
#!/bin/bash
rm a.csv
rm a.kml
rm a.gpx
for i in *.loc
do
gpsbabel -i geo -f $i -o csv,prefer_shortnames -F $i.csv
cat $i.csv >> a.csv
rm $i.csv
done
gpsbabel -i csv -f a.csv -o kml -F a.kml
gpsbabel -i csv -f a.csv -o gpx -F a.gpx
sudo gpsbabel -i gpx -f a.gpx -o garmin -F usb:0
sudo gpsbabel -i garmin,power_off -f usb:0
This script converts all the *.loc files in one folder into one GPX and one KML file. the KML file can be placed on a webserver and then fiewed with google maps or via google earth. Here are some usefull commands:
Upload route:
sudo gpsbabel -r -i garmin -f usb:0 -o kml -F u.kml
Tracks downloaden from Garmin:
sudo gpsbabel -t -i garmin -f usb:0 -o gpx -F tracks.gpx
Switch the Garmin off:sudo gpsbabel -i garmin,power_off -f usb:0
Best Webpage I found for creating routes for bike tours is Marengo
And now have fun.
Posted in GPS | 5 Comments »
