Ultra Random Thoughts

Thursday, 5 January 2012

GKrellM on GNOME 3 openSUSE 12.1

GKrellM is a GTK toolkit based software that can be used to monitor the status of CPUs, main memory, hard disks, network interfaces, local and remote mailboxes, and many other things. Plugins are available for a multitude of tasks like showing weather updates.This article is an overview of the capabilities of GKrellM on GNOME 3.2.1 openSUSE 12.1 (ASPARAGUS)
GKrellM is so cool because:-
==>It is compatible with GNOME 3
==>It very light weight
==>It is skinnable
==>Has a number of awesome plugins
==>Easily configurable
==>It can act in panel mode(it will not show up in alt+tab list)
==>I can monitor my monthly internet usage.It can also show day and weekly usage stats too.

Installation Of GkrellM

==>It is available in Main repo(OSS)
==>Open the terminal (type in "gnome-terminal" and hit return or enter after pressing Alt+F2 key combination)
==> Execute the command :- "sudo zypper in gkrellm"
Note:- You may need to enter admin passcode when prompted and press y when it asks you whether it can install so and so software.
Add GKrellM to Startup
How to Start GKrellM along with your OS?
==>If you want to start the application along with GNOME then you need to add it to "gnome-session-properties".
==>Press key combination "Alt+F2" an type in "gnome-session-properties".

==>In the session properties windows,use add button.Give any name of your liking.In the command text-box you need to use "gkrellm" in lower case as demonstrated below. Press "Save" button and from next boot the application will start automatically

Configuring GkrellM

GKrellM can be easily configured.To access the configurations you can right click on the main window and access the configuration menu
Enable Bandwidth and Internet Usage Monitor

View internet data usage
We can view the internet data usage by clicking on the small button which will appear on the bandwidth monitor when the mouse cursor is moved over it

Enable Clock and Time

Remember screen location
This will cause the program to remember the screen location so that it will show up where it is supposed to be even after restarting the system

Set As panel or dock setting
This will cause the program to not show up in list of switchable programs when "Alt+Tab" , "Alt+`" key combinations are used.

GKrellM Weather Plugin

GKrellM has a lot of plugins whose rpms can be downloaded first,installed and then activated inside GKrellM settings and then configured to work properly. You can get weather updates on opensuse / linux / gnome using the GKrellM Weather plugin.

Download weather plugin
The program and plugins can be downloaded here:- here and here

Install GKRELLM with weather plugin
==>Open the terminal (type in "gnome-terminal" and hit return or enter after pressing Alt+F2 key combination)
==>Navigate to the directory of the where your package or rpm is present using cd <space><dirname>
==> Execute the command :-"sudo zypper in gkrellm-weather-2.0.8-1.fc16.i686.rpm gkrellm"
Sample output for zypper installation:-

anonymous@linux-9p85:~/Software/rpms>sudo zypper in gkrellm-weather-2.0.8-1.fc16.i686 gkrellm2
root's password:
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
'gkrellm2' not found in package names. Trying capabilities.
No provider of 'gkrellm2' found.
Resolving package dependencies...
The following NEW packages are going to be installed:
gkrellm gkrellm-weather libpng12-0
3 new packages to install.
Overall download size: 497.0 KiB. After the operation, additional 1.3 MiB will
be used.
Continue? [y/n/?] (y): y
Retrieving package gkrellm-2.3.5-7.1.2.i586 (1/3), 397.0 KiB (1.1 MiB unpacked)
Retrieving: gkrellm-2.3.5-7.1.2.i586.rpm [done (63.5 KiB/s)]
Retrieving package libpng12-0-1.2.46-9.1.2.i586 (2/3), 73.0 KiB (170.0 KiB unpacked)
Retrieving: libpng12-0-1.2.46-9.1.2.i586.rpm [done (73.3 KiB/s)]
Retrieving package gkrellm-weather-2.0.8-1.fc16.i686 (3/3), 27.0 KiB (55.0 KiB unpacked)
Installing: gkrellm-2.3.5-7.1.2 [done]
Installing: libpng12-0-1.2.46-9.1.2 [done]
Retrieving package gkrellm-weather-2.0.8-1.fc16.i686 (1/3), 27.0 KiB (55.0 KiB unpacked)
Installing: gkrellm-weather-2.0.8-1.fc16 [done]
Additional rpm output:
warning: /var/cache/zypp/packages/rpms/gkrellm-weather-2.0.8-1.fc16.i686.rpm: Header V3 RSA/SHA256 Signature, key ID a82ba4b7: NOKEY

Configuring Weather Plugin

You need to get the 4 letter ICAO Location Indicator from this site
Navigate to the required country to display the weather stations

Locate the necessary location and get the 4 letter code

Right click on GKrellM window and click on configure menu and activate the weather plugin

Enter the location code and click apply

View weather updates

Note:-Similar installation and configuration can b carried out can be carried out for other plugins too.

Skins / Themes GKrellM

GKrellM has a variety of skins that can be downloaded here :- site

Typically the skin packages are available as tar packages like "MonkeyLovers.tar.gz" .You can untar or unzip them through terminal using command "tar -xvf MonkeyLovers.tar.gz" or you can use your favourite GUi based archiving tool like "peazip" or the gnome default "File Roller".

You need to move the skin folder to gkrellm theme folder.Sample path is:- "/home/<HOME>/.gkrellm2/themes/MonkeyLovers".Then you need to right click on the main window and click on "configure" menu and enable or switch to required theme.Alternatively you can click on the main window and use PageUp and PageDown keys to cycle through installed themes

Theme switcher

GKrellM in "MonkeyLovers" Theme

If you liked this post, you may like to check out:-

Things to do after moving to openSUSE 12.1 (Asparagus)

(OR)

Get Weather Updates On Gnome 3.2.1 openSUSE 12.1

Monday, 2 January 2012

iTunes On Linux ,GNOME,openSUSE

How to browse iTunes On Linux , GNOME , openSUSE ?

The solution offered for browsing iTunes in this post is tested on openSUSE 12.1 (ASPARAGUS) / GNOME 3.2.1 / kernel 3.1.You can browse sites like apple itunes ,and other itunes based university sites itunes.mc.maricopa.edu, itunes.stanford.edu

Get "TunesViewer"

You can download "TunesViewer" software from here. TunesViewer is originally a program to access itunes-university media and podcasts in Linux. After getting the rpm you need to install the rpm and other dependencies.To do that please go through rest of the post.

Installation Of iTunes Viewer

We should install the downloaded rpm / package and two other packages "python-webkit" and "python-lxml" .
Zypper way
==>Open the terminal (type in "gnome-terminal" and hit return or enter after pressing Alt+F2 key combination)
==>Navigate to the directory of the where your package or rpm is present using cd <space><dirname>
==> Execute the command :-
"sudo zypper in python-lxml python-webkitgtk tunesviewer-1.4.noarch.rpm"
Note:- You may need to enter admin passcode when prompted and press y when it asks you whether it can install so and so software.
Sample output for zypper installation:-

anonymous@linux-9p85:~/Software/rpms> sudo zypper in python-lxml python-webkitgtk tunesviewer-1.4.noarch.rpm
root's password:
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
Resolving package dependencies...
The following NEW packages are going to be installed:
python-lxml python-webkitgtk tunesviewer
3 new packages to install.
Overall download size: 635.0 KiB. After the operation, additional 2.4 MiB will
be used.
Continue? [y/n/?] (y): y
Retrieving package tunesviewer-1.4-2.noarch (1/3), 68.0 KiB (192.0 KiB unpacked)
Retrieving package python-lxml-2.3-6.1.3.i586 (2/3), 532.0 KiB (2.1 MiB unpacked)
Retrieving: python-lxml-2.3-6.1.3.i586.rpm [done (64.2 KiB/s)]
Retrieving package python-webkitgtk-1.1.8-6.1.2.i586 (3/3), 35.0 KiB (115.0 KiB unpacked)
Retrieving: python-webkitgtk-1.1.8-6.1.2.i586.rpm [done (0 B/s)]
Retrieving package tunesviewer-1.4-2.noarch (1/3), 68.0 KiB (192.0 KiB unpacked)
Installing: tunesviewer-1.4-2 [done]
Installing: python-lxml-2.3-6.1.3 [done]
Installing: python-webkitgtk-1.1.8-6.1.2 [done]

YaST/GUI way

==>Press the left windows key on the keyboard and click on "Applications menu"
==>Open Install / Remove Software under "Applications"
Note:- You may need to enter admin passcode when prompted
==>Click on configuration==>repositories
==>Click "+Add" button in the repositories (configured software repositories) window
==>choose "Local Directory" in the "Media Type"(Screenshot below) window and click "Next"
==>In the next window and give a name to the repository like "rpms" and then choose the path where your downloaded files/rpms are.The downloaded path should be something like "/home/<User Name>/Downloads", and enable the checkbox "Plain RPM Directory"then click "Next"
==>You should see a new repository or repo by name "rpms" there.
Click "Ok" button
==>You should come back to the main window.Here you need to click a drop down on the left and navigate to repository and choose the new repository "rpms"
==>Check the packages to install i.e."tunesviewer" and hit the"Apply" button .You may also need to install "python-lxml" , "python-webkitgtk" from "MainRepository(OSS)".After the installation finishes you can check the installation. Relevant screenshots are below.

Install/Remove Software

Media Type

Choose Directory

See New Repo "rpms"

Click on "Groups"

Choose "rpms" repository and Install "tunesviewer"

Set-Up & Use "TunesViewer"

Application can be quickly launched by keying in "tunesviewer" and hitting return or Enter key in the quick launch command window which can inturn be accessed by pressing "AltF2" .You can also access the program by clicking on "Applications" tab after clicking left "windows" key on the keyboard .You can now use TunesViewer to browse and sample songs from iTunes . You may need to explore other settings available under Edit ==> preferences menu.

Applications=>TunesViewer