Engineering ...

Export layers in DIA

2011-08-10T10:51:00.000+07:00

Hi,

I have just created a small plug-in for DIA to export all layers of active diagram to make it faster to prepare document.

I put it here.

Just copy the file to '~/.dia/python'. A new item "Export layers" will appear in Layers menu. Click to it and choose the folder in which layers should be saved and the file type. The layer name will be used as file name of exported layers.

Please refer to this link for running Python in Windows if necessary :)

Hope it useful.

Intel graphic driver for SandyBridge iGPU

2011-05-19T09:05:00.001+07:00

Recently days, I installed Ubuntu 10.10 on my new desktop PC which has an Intel SandyBridge iGPU. Everything seemed OK, until I couldn't enable Compiz.
Till now, the unique method I've discovered is updating to new driver from xorg-edger, due to the link in the bottom.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Edit: the kernel should be 2.6.38 or above. After upgrading, if the driver is still blacklisted, just disable it in the /usr/bin/compiz (find the ID and change its value)

Full story here.

Have fun :)

Access to Ext partition in Windows

2011-03-13T02:40:00.001+07:00

    I think that reading data in Ext partition in Windows is a need. There is at least 1 person among 3 linux users had did something to do it. I myself tried some programs, each of them has some merits and some weaknesses. Luckily, while waiting for the Ext support from MS (this will never happen, I think), we have a good solution with the help of virtualization technology :D

    All we need are a software such as VMWare or VirtualBox or whatever you prefer, and a guest OS which can access to Ext file system. I choose VirtualBox - because it absolutely free for non-commercial user for virtualization solution, and Ubuntu server 10.04 32bit edition - same reasons. Moreover, I'm familiar with them. The idea is using guest OS to access to Ext partition and share as network storage.

( I did my system on Windows 7 64 bit as host OS to access my /home partition)

    1. Download Virtual Box (Windows version, of course) and Ubuntu Server if you haven't already had. Install Virtual Box and needed packages.

    2. Open command prompt, change to Virtual Box installed folder and run this command:

VBoxManage internalcommands listpartitions -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDriveX

This above command will enumerate all your partitions and their type. Please replace "X" by your drive number. In my case, it is "0". The result should be similar this:

In my case, the Ext3 partitions were number 6 and 7 (0x83 type), my /home partition were number 6 (because I remembered all capacity of my partitions :p ). These information will be used later.

3. Open VirtualBox and create a new virtual machine. Don't need to set high specification for this. Remember to set network to "Bridge", insert the Ubuntu Server iso file to guest machine cd-rom. Power up and install Ubuntu Server to our guest.
(When it ask about "Continue without default router...", just choose Yes. When it ask about name server, leave it blank. When it ask about which kind of server we use, choose Samba server).

4. Now we need to create disk image which point to our Ext3 partition. Open command prompt of Windows host, change to VirtualBox installed folder and run command below:

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename sda6.vmdk -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive0 -partitions 6

Remember to replace sd6.vmdk, PhysicalDrive0, 6 to match your system (number that we got in step 2), but the filename must be .vmdk extension.

5. Shutdown guest machine and add above disk image to guest.

        Click to button Add Attachment, select Add Hard disk and choose above disk image in step 5.

    6. Boot up virtual machine and set something to share our Ext partition with host:
         a. Create a share folder to mount our Ext partition:

$sudo mkdir /Ext_partition
$sudo chmod 777 /Ext_partition

b. Edit your fstab to auto-mount the partition at every startup:

$sudo vi /etc/fstab

add the following

/dev/sdXY /Ext_partition ext3 relatime,,ro,errors=remount-ro 0 1

(where X should be a,b,xn-- depending on hdd number, and Y should 1,2,xn-- depending on partition number - in my case, because the disk image we added later - guest server recognize it as second HDD, so it is sdb6).

c. Edit samba configuration:

sudo vi /etc/samba/smb.conf

change workgroup to be the same as windows one, and uncomment the security line:

workgroup = yourworkgroup
security = user

add this to the end:

[Ext3]
comment = The Ext partition
path = /Ext_partition
browseable = yes
writeable = yes
valid users = tutorial

now add and enable this user to samba

sudo useradd tutorial --shell /bin/false

sudo smbpasswd -a tutorial
sudo smbpasswd -e tutorial

restart samba

sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart

7. Done. Type this \\<IP of server> to Start > Search programs and files. Take a coffee and enjoy it ;)

Hope it useful.

Harpia : an other easy approach to image processing

2011-03-05T21:53:00.003+07:00

I had chance to get acquainted with digital image processing in my 3rd year in university. However, due to lack of foundation knowledge about digital signal processing, it was so hard for me to deal with this field; I don't know how and where to start :( However, I finally made my first image processing project work well. Gods bless me :D

This project is very tiny. I chose OpenCV.NET and C# to start (at that time, the newest OpenCV was 1.0). I was usually review this video and ask myself how I could do a "noob" project like that :D But it was a good starting point for a newcomer, as I was.

I have been receiving many email asking me about how to deal, where to start, etc... recently days. It is very surprise that I was not only the one :p I had tried to help them, as much as I can, in a simple approach. However, the OpenCV.NET project seems not be developed actively, and I currently don't have a Windows machine so that I can not recompile my old files, also help them about debug code (I didn't want to see unmanaged code in C# project so that I chose OpenCV.NET, it seemed that many newcomers who asked my advices chose too for easier reference). A new tool to make everything easier, stable, exist in many platform is exactly what I wanted to introduce to them.

After doing some googling, I found out this project: Harpia. It was too happy to see that's better than my expectation. It use OpenCV library to process digital image. It can run in both windows and linux. You don't have to write any code line, just simply drag 'n drop. By this project, you can easily get acquainted with foundation knowledge about digital image processing, and be familiar with OpenCV library rapidly by looking into the generated source codes (only C/C++ ^^).

I have tried some example and it works very smoothly. The generated source code is commented very well and easy to understand. There are some tutorial video here.

Hope it useful :)

Connect wired internet without network-manager or wicd

2010-12-27T01:24:00.001+07:00

Just for reminder:

ifconfig eth0 inet <ip address>
route add default gw <gateway>

It should work.

Dual monitor, dual desktop

2010-12-22T19:16:00.003+07:00

   I have 1 LCD which I want to use as second desktop. Although it's very easy in Windows and some other laptops with Ubuntu, it seems to be difficult with mine, even with Ubuntu 10.04 and latest Nvidia driver :(

Edit : everything seems OK after some newer upgrade. Now I don't have to manually setting these stuff anymore :)

   Till now, I always prepare 2 xorg.conf files, one for 1 monitor, one for dual monitor. The first one is same to this entry, the second is below:

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 1.0 (buildd@palmer) Sun Feb 1 20:21:04 UTC 2009

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0 "Screen0" 0 0
    Screen      1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "type1"
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Sony Nvidia Default Flat Panel"
    HorizSync       29.0 - 47.0
    VertRefresh     0.0 - 61.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: unknown, VertRefresh source: unknown
    Identifier     "Monitor1"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "LG L1982U"
    HorizSync       0.0 - 0.0
    VertRefresh     0.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GT 330M"
   Option   "ConnectedMonitor"   "DFP-0,DFP-1,CRT"
    Option   "NoLogo"   "True"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen          0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device1"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce GT 330M"
    Option   "NoLogo"   "True"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen          1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    Option        "CustomEDID"   "DFP-0:/etc/X11/EDID_vaio_monitor.raw"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen1"
    Device         "Device1"
    Monitor        "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "CRT: 1280x1024_75 +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

So, my work is creating a script to swap 2 file whenever I change from 1 monitor to 2 monitor. What's a pity that I can not use function buttons of my laptop :(

cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf ~/store/xorg.bak
mv ~/store/xorg.switch /etc/X11/xorg.conf
mv ~/store/xorg.bak ~/store/xorg.switch

with xorg.switch including content of second xorg.conf file (or the first one if you're currently in 2 monitor mode).

Remember to run above script with sudo and then restart X server.

Hope this useful,

Cheers,

Time record

2010-12-14T23:26:00.002+07:00

Today I start to learn php and mysql for doing something for fun :) However, as my experiences, many of such kind of that thing would be lengthen to too many day.

So I decide to make something helping me to manage how many hours per day I spend for this work. It may be reuse for other projects later, even for business tasks.

The easiest tool to do it is OpenOffice Spreadsheet or MS Excel :D I've created a small spreadsheet template with some macros to help me manage my working time. I think it would be helpful for your works too. I put it here. I should be easy to use in Excel without/with a bit of modification.

Hope that I can estimate my time better with this. And so do you.

Cheers,

How to install nvidia driver to Sony Vaio

2010-12-11T02:28:00.003+07:00

    Remember when I had just bought a laptop. The first thing I did was installing Ubuntu :D
    But there were some problem with Nvidia driver for Geforce GT 330M. The screen blanked :( I did google a lot. Finally, it works. But now I can not remember exactly where to start :(
    So I try to summary those steps to make it work before everything is out of my memory.

My specification: Sony Vaio VPCCW22FX with Geforce GT 330M. Install Ubuntu 10.04
This page is a good reference before starting:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia

Prerequisite:
- Internet connection.
- Windows (or if you have same laptop to mine, leave your email as comment and I will send you my EDID file).
- EDID Viewer to get above EDID file (this software runs in Windows platform :( ), or ignore it if you already have EDID file for your monitor.

1 - Boot to Ubuntu, switch to console (I prefer to select recovery mode in Grub menu, who knows that ctrl+alt+F1 will be changed or not :( )
If it doesn't work (screen is still blank), restart and press "e" while grub menu appears. Move to options "quite splash" and repleace them by "nomodeset".

2 - In System > Administrator > Hardware Driver, activate NVIDIA driver. It will download and install driver.

3 - Restart computer and boot to Ubuntu as normal. If it works, congratulation! And you can bypass the rest of this entry. If it does not, we need to do some workaround.

4 - Restart and boot to Windows.

5 - Use EDID Viewer to get information about identity and capabilities of monitor. This is a free Windows program (hope that you keep Windows in your laptop to run it:D ). Please click here to get it or google for new version if available. Save the result to a file, for ex: EDID_vaio_monitor.raw (you are free to name it).

6 - Boot to Ubuntu as step 1.

7 - Edit /ect/X11/xorg.conf like this (my current configuration file)

Section "Module"
   Load   "glx"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier   "Monitor0"
   Vendorname   "Unknown"
   ModelName   "Nvidia Default Flat Panel"
   HorizSync   29.0 - 47.0
   VertRefresh   0.0 - 61.0
   Option       "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
   Identifier   "Device0"
   Driver   "nvidia"
   VendorName   "NVIDIA Corporation"
   BoardName   "GeForce GT 330M"
   Option   "NoLogo"   "True"
   Option   "RandRRotation"   "on"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
   Identifier   "Screen0"
   Device   "Device0"
   Monitor   "Monitor0"
   DefaultDepth   24
   Option   "ConnectedMonitor"   "DFP-0,DFP-1,CRT"
   Option       "CustomEDID"   "DFP-0:/etc/X11/EDID_vaio_monitor.raw"
   SubSection   "Display"
       Depth   24
   EndSubSection
EndSection

In "Section Device", I added

Option "RandRRotation" "on"

So that I can enable "rotation" feature in NVIDIA X Server Setting.

In "Section Screen", I added

Option "CustomEDID" "DFP-0:/etc/X11/EDID_vaio_monitor.raw"

Please remember to adjust the correct path to file which we've got from step 2.

Another part, I modified a bit for using 2 monitor later.

8 - Reboot or restart XServer. It should work now :) If it does not, please leave a comment. We will try to solve the problem :)

Cheers,
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*I decided to install 64bit edition yesterday and get same problem. So that it was a chance to review these works and edit this entry :D