RealNitro's Blog

Due to the fact that the screenshot tool had a bug at the time I gave remote X windows a try on the N770, I could't post any 'proof'.

But, that screenshot-bug has been solved, and I connected my N770 to the fresh install of Ubuntu Linux so I could take shoot some screens. It took me about 4 minutes to make my N770 talk to the pc (Ubuntu recognised my usb bluetooth key immediately, it really wasn't hard at all). I installed the openssh-server on the pc (enabled it in Synaptic, and pressed Apply, easy stuff), started it, and logged in with my N770.

This time I used some new command line options (thank you daf):

ssh -X user@server -c blowfish -C

And I started oowriter2 again:

(Larger image)

and a few seconds later (the pc is quite old):

(Larger image)

Then I gave The Gimp another try, but the lag was still there. It was better a bit faster than without the compression settings for the ssh connection, but nowhere near usable. :-(

btw, has anyone tried this keyboard with the N770 yet? Does it work? Or should/will it work? Plz let me know!

RealNitro • Coding

Some topics on internettablettalk.com have great views on what the N770 might have to offer in the future. One nice possibility is forwarding X sessions to a N770. I started with forwarding Gedit from my pc to my N770, but later on I had a go at 'oowriter2' (OpenOffice.org 2 Writer), Supertux and The Gimp. My experiences about those apps on the N770 are at the end of this post. First I'll tell you how to try it yourself.

Some basic requirements:

• a computer running the X-server and sshd (a decent linux box ;-) )
• a (fast) network connection between your N770 and the server
• openSSH for the maemo platform

To install openSSH on your N770, download the openSSH .deb package to your N770. Next,open an X-terminal, and gain root access. If the .deb openSSH package is on your mmc, navigate to it:

cd /media/mmc1/

And install openSSH (it doesn't install using the graphical package installer):

dpkg -x ssh_*.deb /

Caution: make sure that your servers sshd allows X forwarding! Time to connect to the server:

ssh -X user@server

Change user to your login-name, and change server to your servers IP or domain name. The first time you log into your server from your N770, ssh wil ask you a question. Answer 'yes'. Then it will ask your password. Enter it. You should get a command prompt as 'user' on your server. Time to execute a program! I use the Gnome desktop environment, and the default text editor (like notepad in Windows -- but waaay better ;-) ) in Gnome is Gedit. The command to start Gedit from a terminal is 'gedit' (duh! :-p ). Execute

gedit

Give it some time to start, and you'll see Gedit running on your N770! To try any other programs, just tap their commands into the terminal and have fun!

But there are a few downsides. The first big downside is text-input: The onscreen-keyboard does not appear when you put the cursor inside a text-field of an X-forwarded window. Copy-pasting text is possible though. Maybe people with working Bluetooth keyboards will be able to type some text. Is somebody willing to try? One other downside is that X-forwarded windows vanish when they are minimized. There seems to be no way to get them back, killing the parent program and restarting it is the only solution. (You can kill the parent program by bringing your X-term back up, opening 'X Terminal'->'Terminal'->'Send Ctrl-some key', and tapping the 'c' keyboard button.) The fullscreen button didn't work aswell. Gedit just doesn't recognise/receive the signal emited by that fullscreen button, I guess.

Beside those little anoyances, Gedit ran quite smooth. So I decided to start the OpenOffice.org 2 Writer. And it worked too! The gui wasn't 100% snappy (i.e. scrolling was laggy), but it seemed fast enough to be usable. Later that day, I decided to give Supertux a try. (Supertux is a Super Mario clone.) The verdict: not playable. The bluetooth connection between my pc and my N770 just wasn't fast enough to transfer all that graphical goodness without (a LOT of) lag. The Gimp suffers from the same problem. Drawing with your stylus is possible, but the result lags several seconds behind.

A possible solution for the lag problems would be to compress the data that's being sent between the X-server and the client (your N770). A FreeNX-client would be great as the NX protocol is in fact a compressed (and secured) forwarded X-session. (FreeNX is a free alternative to NoMachine NX.)

RealNitro • Linux, Coding

It's been a (very) long time since I have posted here (again), but I bought myself a Nokia 770 last week, and it took me a lot of time to get it on the net, so I thought I'd share how I got it to work.

First off, some interesting links:

• Host to host bluetooth on the gentoo wiki
• Enable root access on the maemo wiki
• Bluetooth networking howto on the Maemo wiki
• X Terminal for the Nokia 770
• IP Masquerade howto

You need to have your bluetooth stick working first. Gentoo users should read the first parts of the host to host bluetooth howto, other distro's should consult the proper information on the community forums/wiki. (Don't scan for other devices yet, just setup your kernel and BlueZ.)

Then open the X Terminal on your 770 and be root. Enter:

hcitool scan

The scan should display your pc's bluetooth name and its bluetooth ID. If the scan cannot find your computer, check again if your bluetooth stick is really working. Scanning for your 770 on your computer is no use, since your 770 will remain invisible. Now let's pair your 770 with the pc. Execute the following on your 770, but replace 00:10:20:30:40:50 with your computer's Bluetooth ID:

hcitool cc 00:10:20:30:40:50

If you get an error, try:

rm /etc/bluetooth/link_key

If the pairing works, you will be asked to enter the PIN code of your pc. There is no need to try to connect from your pc to your 770, it will not work anyway (your pc cannot see your 770, remember). Next, make your computer listen for an incoming (network) connection. As root execute:

pand --listen --role NAP

Now, on your 770, connect to your pc:

pand --connect 00:10:20:30:40:50

(Replace 00:10:20:30:40:50 with your pc's Bluetooth ID again.)

If the connection has been set up, the following command should work on your 770:

ifconfig bnep0 192.168.2.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.2.255

Warning: if your local network already uses the 192.168.2.* subnet, replace the IP with another one that isn't in a subnet your pc is a part of!
On your pc, execute the same command, but change the IP:

ifconfig bnep0 192.168.2.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.2.255

We're almost there now. Your 770 and your pc are part of the same subnet now! Let's try to ping the 770. On your pc:

ping 192.168.2.2

If you installed the ssh server, you can run it now, and log into it from your pc.

Now, let's set up the internet connection forwarding. First off, let your 770 know that your pc is its gateway to the internet:

route add default gw 192.168.2.1

Also add a dummy internet connection:

gconftool -s -t string /system/osso/connectivity/IAP/DEFAULT/type DUMMY

On your pc, display the content of /etc/resolv.conf:

cat /etc/resolv.conf

And add the rules to the /etc/resolv.conf file on your 770. For each line do:

echo "line" >> /etc/resolv.conf

All that's left to do is making your pc act as a router for your 770. One way to do that (not the easiest one), is to use a program called iptables. In this howto I will explain how to setup iptables on gentoo. Again, if you use an other distro, check the community forums and/or wiki. On gentoo, emerge iptables. You might have to recompile your kernel, just follow the 'Kernel Support' chapter of this howto on the gentoo wiki. To configure iptables, you can read this guide, or, if you just want a quick solution, use this script. As root, paste it inside a file. Then comment out IPTABLES=/usr/local/sbin/iptables, and uncomment #IPTABLES=/sbin/iptables. Change INTIF="eth1" to INTIF="bnep0". You might have to change EXTIF="eth0" too. (I had to change it to vpnlink because I connect to the internet with a vpn.) When you finished changing the script, make it executable, and run it. There should be no errors. Now save the script:

/etc/init.d/iptables save

and start iptables:

/etc/init.d/iptables start

If you want to start iptables everytime you boot, do:

rc-update add iptables default

You should be able to surf with your 770 now! I plan on writing a few script to make the linking more automatic. Plz share your comments here, and post any mistakes in the howto.

RealNitro • Linux, Coding

I'm working on a new Jabber bot: HangBot. It should be able to let the user play small text-based games. Atm, playing Hangman (which is the game the bot is named after) and some other basic functions work. The next task on the list is making the menu-class more flexible so other games can be added easily.

The hangman game is finished (it works as it should), but I still need to find a good dictionary for the game to pick words from. 'Ikke' proposed some files in /usr/share/dict/, but those are too difficult, and they're in English (I'm looking for both English and Dutch dictionaries). If anyone knows where to find a fitting dictionary (rather short, simple words), please comment it.

RealNitro • Coding

Yesterday, I uploaded a new index page for realnitro.be. It's a small page, just to have something that refers to this blog, to some sites I made and to my e-mail adress. (I might add my JID too.) I don't know if the page is working in IE as it should, but I might look into that later today.

Having passed my exams in july, I have a lot of free time (three months minus some vacation work), so I'll probably be able to post some more interesting stuff on this blog for the months to come. (I might adjust mabber.py a bit to make it work again on eduserv, and I should finish that little glade/gstreamer-experiment too some day.)

RealNitro • Webdesign, Life, Coding

The exams have started in a bad way. Hardly anybody had enough time to answer all questions of our first exam ('Transportverschijnselen'). Lets hope for the best.

As some people already know, I'm going to buy a PDA (or something similar) in the near future. The ones I am/was interested in are: the Palm Lifedrive, Dell X30 or X50, or the (to be released) Nokia 770. The LifeDrive is too expensive and slow I'm afraid, and the Dell's, well... they use Windows :-p . So I'll probably buy that Nokia 770. There are a few features of it that I'm worried about though:

• Will it support VPN over Wifi?
  (needed to connect to our University network)
• Will it support pdf reading?
• How long will the battery last?
  (the site says three hours, I know)
• Will there be linux desktop software to upload files to the 770?
• I hope there will be apps to view .ppt (powerpoint) files.
• And last, but not least: When will Nokia release it?
  (the sooner the better :-p )

I still have to check out the prices for those mini memory cards the 770 uses too. Lot's of things to think about. ;-)

RealNitro • Life, Linux

It's been quite a while since I posted here. So here's a little update. I'm preparing for my exams, the first one is friday. I can feel the exam stress already, which is good, because I need some stress to study. (if there is no stess, I waste my time with surfing and gaming) I've got 5 exams this semester, 3 difficult ones, and 2 easy ones (surprisingly, the easy ones are computer-related ;-) ). The 3 difficult ones come first, so after those, the worst part is over and the fun begins. :-p

Now, about that weird word 'Sauerbraten' in the title. Sauerbraten is 'Cube 2'. (I have posted about Cube before.) The first 'relatively mature' release is availiable for download here. Saurebraten runs on linux and windows. If you want to try Saurerbraten out, you should extract the .zip file somewhere on your harddrive. Linux users should go to sauerbraten/sauerbraten and run 'sauerbraten_unix'. (you might have to change the permissions of sauerbraten/sauerbraten/sauerbraten_unix and sauerbraten/sauerbraten/bin_unix/linux_client to make sure they are executable) Windows users should execute sauerbraten\sauerbraten\sauerbraten.bat. Remember that this is an early release, so many things might still change. I think the looks have improved a lot, but some features still annoy me: I hate those stupid ogre models and the other monsters. They just don't fit in a FPS game.

Oops, my break is over. Back 2 the books. >:( Cya!

RealNitro • Gaming, CUBE, Life

Some time ago, I wrote a small python script that notified me with a jabber message whenever a new e-mail has arrived on my UGent-account. I already was using a similar script, but I wanted to create one myself. And now it's time to publish it. :-)

What does it do: it notifies you with a jabber message when a new e-mail has arived
What do I need: a jabber account for yourself and for the bot, access to procmail filters, python support on the procmail server, a jabber client and my scipt.
How: first, a procmail filter forwards the e-mail headers to mabber.py. Mabber analyses the headers, extracts the needed info and formats it. Then, using xmpppy and a dummy jabber-account, a the little bot pops online and sends you a 'headline' message.
Where do I get it: download mabber.py here
Note: similar scripts/progs exist in Perl and Java.

How to set it up on eduserv:
1) Download the mabber.tar.gz file to your computer. Use an SCP client (like WinSCP on windows) to log in on eduserv with your own login and password. Make sure the right side is selected and upload the mabber.tar.gz file to your home-directory.

2) Using an SSH client (like Putty for windows), log on to eduserv again. First, the mabber.tar.gz file has to be extracted. To do this, enter:

tar xvpfz mabber.tar.gz

The console should output a list of extracted files. Now enter the command

cd mabber

to enter the created mabber directory. Execute the script for the first time with

chmod 700 mabber.py
./mabber.py

It will tell you there was no configfile found, and a dummy-one was created. To adjust this dummy file, go back to the previous directory and open the dummy file :

cd ..
pico -w .mabber

Change the values for 'jid', 'password' and 'tojid' to the JID of your bot, its password and your own JID respectively. Remove the '#' in front of 'jid', 'password' and 'tojid', save with 'CTRL+O' and exit with 'CTRL+X'.

Note:In order to keep your password hidden from other users, mabber.py creates your file with '600' permissions (only you are able to read it and adjust it). If you descide to create the file yourself, do not forget to execute

chmod 600 .mabber

3) Now its time to add a procmail filter. More info here. First execute (while still in the folder of .mabber -- your home folder)

pico -w .forward

In this file, add one line:

"|IFS=' '&&exec /usr/local/bin/procmail -f-||exit 75 #USERNAME"

in which you change USERNAME to your own username. Save with 'CTRL+O', exit with 'CTRL+X'. Now its time to define the filter. Again we use pico to create/adjust a text file:

pico -w .procmailrc

and add:

PATH=$HOME/bin:usr/bin:/usr/local/bin
MAILDIR=$HOME/mail
DEFAULT=/var/mail/USERNAME
LOGFILE=$MAILDIR/from
LOCKFILE=$HOME/.lockmail

#mabber
:0 hc
| $HOME/mabber/mabber.py


Again, change USERNAME into your own username, save with 'CTRL+O' and exit with 'CTRL+X'.

That's it! Try sending yourself an e-mail. A few seconds later (could be half a minute) you should receive a jabber-message containing the sender, the subject and the date. Be sure to check if you really received the mail. If not, doublecheck your .procmailrc file! If you have any questions about the installation or use of this file, feel free to comment. I'll answer asap.

RealNitro • Coding

It has been a while since I have posted here, for two reasons: I didn't have much to say, and last week was very busy. I did a rewrite of the gotcha php-code that is used for the Home I live in. It took me a while to decypher the old code (amazingly complex), and eventually it took me 4 evenings to finish the job. However, the gotcha that's going on atm still uses the old code. :-( There was no time to test the new version thorougly, and just before the start of the gotcha (22h. last sunday), I discovered a little bug too. But I'm looking at it from the bright side: now I have the opportunity to fine tune my code, check it for weaknesses in its security, add new features, maybe add a fully featured admin-page, give it some new html code... If anyone (that is: anyone I know and trust ;-) ) wants to see my code running, just let me know. Btw, does anyone know of a way to check if an e-mail that should have been sent with the php code has really been sent? I'm asking this because last sunday the old php code did not start at first (I had to try 3 times!), and apparently some people didn't receive their passwords (which sould have been sent with the php mail function). :-/

Two days ago (sunday) I went to FOSDEM. The overall 'experience' was better than had I expected it to be. None of the presentations I attended were too technical (except the one about nautilus ;-) ). The one I enjoyed the most was the one about FAI, followed closely by XFCE. I think I liked the one about FAI the most because we might use it in stead of Fedora Stateless. (the speaker was very good too)

There ya go. Not much more to say. I have a big, unpublished post here at this blog about 'mabber.py'. But I will not publish it before I tested the installation instructions, and I still need to choose a license (or invent one).

RealNitro • Webdesign, Linux, Coding

First of all: do not try to use a XHTML strict doctype with a .tk adress. It makes IE go maaaaaaaaaaad. The rendering of my site didn't even come close to what it was supposed to be. (Firefox did the job nicely, btw. ;-) :-p )

The site had been around for a year and a half now. It used to contain three frames and a lot of crappy code, and looked even worse than it does now ( ;-) ). But now I updated the code, basicly rewrote the entire site, using php and lots of CSS (most of this was done during the Christmas Holydays). Yesterday I added a logo in the top left corner. It's with the gimp, using some other pics I made for the previous edition of the site. Let me know what you think of it, graphical stuff is really not my thing so I need feedback.

My next little project will probably be some php-code for the Gotcha contest of the home I live in during the weekdays. I still have to finish my little jabber script too. :-/ And: I wrote my first C program today. B-) (all it did was print some text though :-D )

RealNitro • Webdesign, Life

The lessons for the second semester started today. The classes in the morning were dropped, but the ones in the afternoon -- Electric Networks -- were terribly boring (as usual :roll: ).

I'm changing the code of one of my sites to XHTML atm. I'm nearly finished, but it will probably look quite f*cked up in IE. I'll reboot into windows tonight and check it out. If anyone has some feedback about the code, plz comment it, so I can learn from my mistakes. ;-) (Idd, the menu in the corner thing is similar to the one on www.eikke.com, sorry about that Ikke. :oops: )

*looks at download window*
Wheeeeee, a new episode of RedvsBlue!

RealNitro • Webdesign, Fun, Life

Good bye exams! Mechanica was all right, but it should have been better (did some calculations that took me 3/4 of an hour, and I didn't need them :'( ).

Atm, I'm updating my system, and hopefully I will get the hardware acceleration working, so I can check the new test release of TC:E out. My expectations are high, I hope this release is not as much of a disappointment as the other one was.

I haven't been posting a lot in this blog for the last few weeks, but that should improve in the coming days/weeks. ;-)

RealNitro • Gaming, RTCW:ET, Fun, Life

Remember me introcucing Cube? Check this out! More info here and here. Too bad I can't check it out on my pc, I hope an x86 version will be released aswell. The article in the gentoo newsletter says "a whole cluster of ODWs running Cube will be part of the presentations in the Gentoo developer room at FOSDEM in Brussels, 26-27 February 2005", so maybe I'll see them running there. ;-)

And now for something completely different: more gaming news! :-p The homepage of my favorite RTCW:ET mod has been updated. Next week the developers will release another test-version containing lots of new goodies, and maps. Those screenshots of the 'snow' map look 88| (<-this smiley should be forbidden. I bet it makes some people have an epilepsy attack or something).

RealNitro • Gaming, CUBE, RTCW:ET

Whoohoo, no more Statistics to study for at least half a year.:-D Maybe even forever, because I feel like I have a nice chance to get a B. We'll see. The next exam is Mechanics, next wednesday. It's not easy, but at least it's nog as boring as Statistics.:-p

After I read Ikke's post about using pyGTK, Glade and Python to create small GUI programs, I decided to learn some Python. I already read a small crash course, and I started reading the official tuturial. Too bad I can't afford to spend a day or so to read and practice, so my progress in the tut is rather slow, but I'll get there.:-) Maybe I'll read this tutorial aswell. Hopefully all that will enable me to understand this final tutorialB-)

So far I really like Python, I even solved some Statistic exercices with it yesterday (couldn't resist :oops: B-) :-p )

That's it for this time. bb!

RealNitro • Life, Linux

Peter seems to be interested how I'm doing atm, so here's a small update. First of all, the cold is (almost) over. And my Physics exam was, erm, reasonable. I think I can get a B on it, but I'm not entirely sure (it was a multiple choice exam, which means that if I answered a question wrong, points are substracted :-/ ). An A is possible as well, but I don't think I'll have that much luck :-p (the theory questions were very hard imho).

(if you are not familiar with the grade-system at our faculty: A>=13/20, B>=10/20, C>=6/20, D>=0/20 or less :-p )

Anyway, I'm preparing for the next exam now, and that's one of the reasons why I waited this long to post here. I don't think that next exam (Statistics, just like Peter) is going to work out well. But we'll see.

About the 'Linux Gaming' part: It's quite simple, I like linux, and I like gaming. I just love fragging a bunch of people online to relax or focus my mind (really!). Just to give this blog some content, I plan to (shortly) review some (linux) games I have played. Just try them out, most of them are free (some free as in free beer, some free as in ...). Btw, my nick is [BE]RealNitro. ;-)

Number one: Cube

Cube is an Open Source FPS (First Person Shooter). Just like most other FPS games, Cube has a singleplayer and multiplayer mode.

In single player mode you just shoot some dumb (as in Doom1-dumb) monsters, in a lot of different levels. Some levels have a 'story' in them, but most of the time it's just a matter of killing all the monsters and using a trigger to open a room with even more monsters. This is nice, but not my favorite part of the game.

So I prefer playing the multiplayer mode. The gameplay in it is very, very fast. If you're not used to playing FPS games online, you're dead meat (except if you hit a n00b server ofcourse :-P ). And I'm serious here.

The Cube soundtrack is great aswell, and really brings up the adrenaline when playing online. A unique feature of this game is the ability to change levels while playing them (just hit 'E'), and even online (search for a server with the co

RealNitro • Gaming, CUBE, Life

I'm sick. My nose is running and my thoat hurts. Damn colds. And I have to study. I'm in the middle of what we call here 'den blok', which means I have to study all day to pass my exams. So I'm not really having the time of my life. But I felt like starting this blog, so here I go:

I'm not entirely sure about what I'll post here yet. I created categories for the games I play, for webdesign, and for 'fun', but some may disappear, and some others may be created later on. Now that I think about it, there should be a 'linux' of 'gentoo' category too. I've been enjoying gentoo for over half a year now, and I still enjoy it. Though I'm pretty p*ssed @ the ati-drivers and the way they work with xorg atm -- can't get DRI to work. This means I can't relax while playing Cube or TC:E. >:( Hopefully some new ebuilds are released soon. (note to ikke: the smileys don't appear where they should :-p )

Before I forget: many thanks to Ikke for hosting this blog! :>>

RealNitro • Life