Installing software without a package manager.

Zak Jones! · #1 12-25-2008, 05:46 PM

Alright. Been using Ubuntu since mid September, and I'm loving it. I still haven't figured out how to do this one super simple thing though.

I just downloaded an application on my G1, called Gmote, that allows you to treat the phone as a remote control for your computer. Anyways, it requires a 'server' on the computer (in the sense of client-server).

I downloaded the server package, unzipped it to my desktop, and now I'm looking at a folder called "GmoteServerLinux2.0.0". Inside are folders named 'bin' and 'lib', and a executable text file called Gmoteserver.sh.

If I run the file, it crashes because, obviously, I haven't installed the right things yet. So, I need to know what to do with the files.

I'm sure I'm just missing something really stupid and simple, but hey, that's what the newbie corner's for, eh?

Thanks in advance, guys. I look forward to knowing enough to post outside the corner.

Zak Jones!

**JohnT** · #2 12-25-2008, 07:14 PM

Where did you download from?

Zak Jones! · #3 12-25-2008, 07:49 PM

Direct download can be found at http://marcsto.googlepages.com/Gmote...ux2.0.0.tar.gz

The page that links there is www.gmote.org/server (Linux install, of course.)

E1PHOTON · #4 12-25-2008, 08:37 PM

Well this shouldn't be too much of a problem to get running.

First off, you need to make sure you have VLC installed. If you don't have it, nab it from the Ubuntu repo's thusly:

Code:

sudo apt-get install vlc

Or get it from the Add/Remove New Software application in the start menu.

Then you have to have Java running in order to get it started up, too. So make sure you have the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed.

Now, this little script requires VLC to reside in /usr/bin/. I don't know where ubuntu drops the VLC executable, but

Code:

whereis vlc

should find it for you. If it isn't in /usr/bin/, make a symbolic link to it.

Code:

sudo ln -s <where vlc is> /usr/bin/vlc

Zak Jones! · #5 12-25-2008, 09:02 PM

Alright, it worked great.

Thanks a lot.

And hey, if anyone is rocking a T-Mobile G1, this Gmote app is honestly the coolest one I've come across yet. I'm seriously typing this from my phone (well, then editing typos later), not touching the computer at all. If you haven't got one, switch to T-Mobile and get one.

Satanic Atheist · #6 12-26-2008, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by: Zak Jones!
And hey, if anyone is rocking a T-Mobile G1, this Gmote app is honestly the coolest one I've come across yet. I'm seriously typing this from my phone (well, then editing typos later), not touching the computer at all. If you haven't got one, switch to T-Mobile and get one.

Nah, thanks. I use a Nokia N95 and I have PuTTy on it using RSA keys instead - I can remotely control my server from there (or log in to my laptop). Works great over 3G as well as HSDPA and WiFi. For longer stuff (downloads or updates), it's easier to run stuff under a screen so I can detach, log out and come back later. The web browser's pretty good as well. I don't really see the point of GMote...

James

trilarian · #7 12-26-2008, 12:56 PM

I've been eyeing up the N95 and G1 for awhile now... (I'm not a big iPhone fan)

I'm currently using a BB 8330 on the Verizon network. I can ssh into my box as well, but the screen is to small for much more than basic command line entries.

I was hoping they would make their way to Verizon, but it doesn't seem like that is going to happen anytime soon. Additionally, I have two main work email accounts I have to connect too. One is a GroupWise and the other a *sigh* Exchange account. I think the N95 has support already, but the G1 is currently in development.

I'm thinking if I can hold out until after my target move date, then I can check what service is reliable locally at that point (and hopefully my new job doesn't use Exchange

).

Zak Jones! · #8 12-29-2008, 12:32 AM

@SA

Yeah, Gmote is mostly just a novelty. You can't do much of anything unless you're actually looking at the monitor. It would be useful as a presentation remote, perhaps, but that's about the only thing I can imagine, other than the wow factor. Which I'm getting over. The G1's really neat though. All sorts of cool stuff. Wish I knew enough coding to write my own apps.

Satanic Atheist · #9 12-30-2008, 04:55 AM

The N95's screen is small (it's a phone, goddammit!) but is still readable and you can use different font sizes so it's more useful than most. I've managed to send e-mail from it using the basic "mail" command from a PuTTy shell, but it's awkward because you have to rely on the duplex link to respond. There's no predictive text. I've also recently opened up my server to the Internet to allow IMAPS to function and the N95 can use it perfectly with SSL/TLS settings, but sending e-mail is impossible with Debian on the server because it uses GNU/TLS instead of OpenSSL which has issues (mostly to do with licensing) but it works fine with the iPhone (Gagh!) still, better to receive anytime and anywhere... The GPS is superior to the iPhone as is the (relatively) open architecture.

James

trilarian · #10 12-30-2008, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Satanic Atheist

The N95's screen is small (it's a phone, goddammit!)

Ah... I think I had my numbers crossed. In looking over the sites, I had looked at the N810 as the base line then saw the N99 as the prospect. At least N95 resembles N99 in acronym letters so I'm not completely crazy.

bwkaz · #11 12-31-2008, 12:28 AM

Completely off topic, but:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Satanic Atheist

instead of OpenSSL which has issues (mostly to do with licensing)

Hmm? Last I checked, the license was BSD.

Or do you mean the import/export restrictions? I thought those were removed in the U.S. at least (not sure about other countries), though it probably depends on the particular algorithm used. (Of course that means that gnutls should have most of the same restrictions, since it uses almost all of the same algorithms...)

Satanic Atheist · #12 12-31-2008, 02:58 AM

Trilarian:

Don't get too confused with Nokia's numbering system: I know from experience that the US and other parts of the world have different numbering schemes for each model of phone from (traditionally) the US using a different frequency (1900MHz) to the rest of the world (900MHz and 1800MHz). Hence the "Tri-Band" phenomenon a decade ago. The N95 is Nokia's Symbian based state-of-the-art phone that's now being replaced by the N96 in the UK.

bwkaz:

The licence was "BSD"???

Debian has strong issues with OpenSSL and will not release software through their repositories if they have links into OpenSSL. The import/export licence restrictions are now defunct and Debian have taken their "non-US" servers offline.

It is not possible to install (for example) FreeRADIUS under Debian and have true 802.1x encryption systems because it uses OpenSSL software.

It is extremely frustrating to attempt to maintain a system which is both easy to use and fantastic in its operation (through APT) but crippled because of bureaucracy. All Debian will support is GNU/TLS (compatible licence) and not OpenSSL. Unfortunately, Symbian only use OpenSSL compatible licensing so we're screwed. GNU/TLS is not widely supported.

James

bwkaz · #13 01-01-2009, 12:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Satanic Atheist

The licence was "BSD"???

As in the BSD style of license, which is only incompatible with the GPL if a few specific clauses are left in. I haven't read the reason Debian won't include it, but I suppose if it uses one of the "wrong" BSD licenses, then it's not actually open source according to the definition, and Debian wouldn't include it.

However: there's a package page. The library is obviously present and available.

I also remember openssl being present on a Debian Lenny install at my previous job, since we used the "openssl" binary to administer a CA.

So I'm even more confused. Where did you see that it wasn't allowed?

Satanic Atheist · #14 01-01-2009, 03:20 AM

I tried installing FreeRadius to set up a RADIUS server here at home and I could not for the life of me get it to work with 802.1x encryption. It turned out that the software used OpenSSL and Debian would not allow it into their repositories because of the licensing issues.

There're a few other packages as well that have hit this snag and it p*sses me off because Debian would be so much better without all of these arguments!

James

bwkaz · #15 01-01-2009, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Satanic Atheist

I tried installing FreeRadius to set up a RADIUS server here at home and I could not for the life of me get it to work with 802.1x encryption.

Nitpick: 802.1x is authentication, not encryption. 802.1x works fine with the Debian FreeRADIUS package.

What (it turns out, after a bunch of searching on my own, since there weren't many details provided here) does not work are a few EAP methods (though granted, they are the most secure methods that I know of that have standards): EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS, and EAP-PEAP. All of these methods require a TLS tunnel, which FreeRADIUS uses OpenSSL for.

And the problem is not (as I assumed) that OpenSSL is not allowed in Debian -- it's that GPL-licensed programs that link against OpenSSL cannot be redistributed, because OpenSSL uses the BSD license with the advertisement clause intact, which is incompatible with the GPL. Anyone redistributing a FreeRADIUS that links against OpenSSL is violating the GPL (and BSD license too, actually), not just Debian. That's why they won't do it.

FreeRADIUS could be patched to use gnutls, I bet, but instead of doing that, the package maintainer decided to just disable all the OpenSSL stuff. (I think that's a horrible way to fix the problem, personally.)

Quote:

It turned out that the software used OpenSSL and Debian would not allow it into their repositories because of the licensing issues.

It's less of a "we won't allow it into our repositories". It's more of a "we believe that we can't legally redistribute it, since there is no way to satisfy both licenses; for that reason, we can't allow an unpatched FreeRADIUS into the repositories". The fact that they didn't allow it was a secodary effect, not a primary effect.

Any other distro has this problem as well, as it turns out, although many of them likely ignore it. Even though that's a really really bad idea.

The core issue is that (a) the GPL disallows further restrictions on redistribution, and (b) the particular BSD license variation in use requires a further restriction. Nobody can combine those two (except end users, who don't redistribute the package). (I should also note that source-based distros may not create any issues here either, since the end user is the one doing the linking, and no further distribution happens.)

Yes, from a user's standpoint, it would be better if this incompatibility didn't exist -- but it does, and the only way to get rid of it is to convince one of the two parties to change their license. Good luck...