Aravind Narayanan's blog

With the next release of Ubuntu linux, 9.10 (Karmic Koala) scheduled to come out on October 31 this year, the work for the release after 9.10 has reportedly begun at Canonical and Mark Shuttleworth

Everyone who works on microcontrollers knows that MPLAB is a great IDE when it comes to programming and interfacing with Microchip's PIC and dsPIC microcontrollers. But like many other softwares, it runs only on Windows and there is no official Linux port as yet(and neither does one seem to be in the offing). And the popularity of Linux has been increasing of late and more and more people are switching over from Windows to Linux. One can always try running it on Wine, but it's definitely not close to having a software that is native to the platform in which you are working. But no fear, for PIKLAB is here. :)

Piklab is an IDE for applications based on Microchip PIC and dsPIC microcontrollers similar to the MPLAB environment. It integrates with several compiler and assembler toolchains (like gputils, sdcc, c18) and with the GPSim simulator. It supports the most common programmers (serial, parallel, ICD2, Pickit2, PicStart+), the ICD2 debugger, and several bootloaders like Tiny, Pickit2 and Picdem. It can be found at http://piklab.sourceforge.net. Though the page says that it being a beta software, is prone to contain bugs, you'll surprised at how good and neat it is.

Some of the features of Piklab include:

• Compiling, assembling and linking with several compilers like GNU PICUtilities, Small device C compiler, CCX, MPC, CC5X compilers etc.
• Programming with ICD 1&2, Pickit 1&2, PicStart+, TinyBootloader etc.
• Debugging with run, halt, step, single breakpoint and read, watch and write registers.
• Several other tools and command line utilities.

ICD2 is reportedly supported on both serial and USB interfaces with options to automatically upload the firmware. With features such as this, and the BIG advantage of being an open source project, Piklab is definitely a great IDE for working with Microchip's PIC microcontrollers. There is no more any need to lament that MPLAB doesn't work on Linux! Piklab has now been added to the UBUNTU repos. So UBUNTU users can simply apt-get it using

sudo apt-get install piklab

Others can easily download it from http://piklab.sourceforge.net/download.php.
Enjoy working with PICs(yeah, they are great microcontrollers) using PIKLAB.

cheers

Aravind

HTOP is an interactive command line based process manager for linux. It caters to almost every process management need that a day to day user can have.

Have any doubt on anything even remotely related to UBUNTU? You are bound to find a solution at TOMBUNTU.

This was announced quite sometime ago. But for those whose ears this hasn't reached yet, here you go.

Most windows users know about the system restore feature available in it. Now this is one thing that had not been implemented in linux. No more complaining about that. The alpha 5 release of ubuntu 8.10(which has been named Intrepid Ibex) has such a feature. Users will now find a new option in the boot menu named "Last successful boot". And this is how it works.

Ubuntu will always keep a copy of you kernel(healthy, perfectly functioning kernel) and incase of any problem you can simply revert back to this state by selecting the "Last successful boot" option in the boot menu.

The alpha 5 also runs on the brand new linux kernel 2.6.27, features gnome 2.24 beta 2 and has DKMS, a tool that automatically rebuilds all kernel modules when the kernel is upgraded.

Cheers
Aravind.

The next edition of UBUNTU, (which is probably the most popular linux distribution today) called Intrepid Ibex is due for release late this October. And the fourth alpha release is quite impressive.
This one has a different theme(Human-Murrine). The kernel ofcourse is the new 2.6.26-5 (based on Linux kernel 2.6.26.2). A lot of bugs have been fixed too. As for the applications, these are the important ones that the alpha 3 has.

• X.Org Server 1.5
• Mozilla Firefox 3.0.1-Web browser
• OpenOffice.org 2.4.1-Office suite
• GIMP 2.4.6-Image editor
• F-Spot 0.4.4-photo manager
• Pidgin 2.4.3-IM client
• Brasero 0.8.0-dick burner
• Transmission 1.22-bit torrent client
• Rhythmbox 0.11.6-music player
• Ekiga 2.0.12-soft phone
• Evolution 2.23.6-
• Nautilus 2.23.6.1-file manager
• Vinagre 2.23.4-Remote desktop client

In addition to this 8.10 will have a guest session, a network manager to manage 3G connections and a directory encryption facility. One more pathbreaking feature in the final release will be the ability to be connected to the internet where ever you go.
The next alpha is due on september 4th and the final release will be on october 30. For those who want to try out the aplpha 4 here is the image download link :http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/intrepid/alpha-4/

cheers Aravind.

There are three main file systems used in windows.

1. FAT16 :- The 16 bit file allocation table file system is ancient technology and is now used only in floppy disks(just in case somebody still uses floppys :D). It has certain size limitations that practically nullify the chances of using it in modern day computers.
2. FAT32 :- It was used in Windows 95, 98 and ME. It can handle disks larger than 2GB(which is the limit for FAT16). But still it is susceptible to problems if the power supply to the system goes out.
3. NTFS :- This is the Windows NT file system. It is the primary file system used in Windows NT,2000 and XP. It is much more capable and reliable than FAT32.

Now let us see how to change your file system from FAT32 to NTFS. If you had bought your system with Windows XP preinstalled in it, then all you drives will most probably be of the NTFS file system. There are certain reasons however, why you might have a FAT32 drive in your system. If you are running Windows 98 or ME along with XP, then you must surely have a FAT32 drive as those versions of windows cannot recognize an NTFS drive.
The first task is to find out the type of drive that you have.

1. Click on Start -> My computer.
2. Right click on the drive that you desire and click
   Properties.
3. You will find the file system mentioned in the general tab.
4. Click OK to close the Properties dialog box.

Now that you have identified the FAT32 drives in your system, you are now ready to convert them to NTFS.

1. Click on Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt.
2. Type convert x:/fs:ntfs /v, where x is the drive whose file system you want to change.
   Ex: To convert the E: drive, type convert e:/fs:ntfs /v.
3. You may get a message that Windows can't change the filesystem as it is being used by some other process and asking if you would like to force a dismount of the drive. Type Y and press Enter.
4. You might get another message saying that Windows cannot dismount the volume and asking if you would like to reschedule the change to the next system restart. Type Y and press Enter.

Now click on Start -> Turn off computer -> Restart.
The change will be made during the start up and the FAT32 drive is now an NTFS drive!!

cheers
Aravind
:)

One brilliant thing about Linux is that it can be tweaked anyway to suit any kind of a system. If your system is pretty old and if ubuntu is too slow in it, then here you go. LXDE(Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) is a light weight environment that's fast even on antique systems. It is surely not designed to be powerful or bloated but it is light enough to keep the system usage low.

Not all components are integrated but most of them are independent and each of them can be used with a few dependencies.

Here are some of the important LXDE features :

• It's lightweight and runs with reasonably low memory usage.
• Fast and runs on old machines producced in the '90s.
• Gook looking gtk+2 internationalized user interface.
• Desktop independent(every component can be used without LXDE)
• Standard compliant, follows the specs on freedesktop.org

Installing LXDE in UBUNTU:
This first step is to edit the "/etc/apt/sources.list" file. Add the following lines to the file.(Please make a back up before you do so)

For hardy heron users:
"deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/lxde/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/lxde/ubuntu hardy main"

For gutsy gibbon users:
"deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/lxde/ubuntu gutsy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/lxde/ubuntu gutsy main"
Save and exit the file.

Now the source list has to be updated. Open a terminal and type the following command:
sudo apt-get update
Use the following command to install the LXDE environment:
sudo apt-get install lxde

This will install all the required components for LXDE. Now you need to logout from you system. Then go to Options->Select session.

Select the LXDE option and click on Change Session.

The following screen allows you to select if you want LXDE environment as your default or only for this session. Select what you desire and you are logged in to the light weight gtk+2 desktop environment!!!

source : ubuntu geek.com - http://www.unix-tutorials.com/go.php?id=3712

cheers
aravind
:)

GIMP, the open source image editing software will be available in version 2.6 this month.