Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04 on Acer Aspire One AO751h (11 inches)

Hello everyone,

I know I have said this before, I need to post more frequently, but as you know I will fail again and will make a new post in a year, so don't worry ;).

After weeks of work I just got Ubuntu Netbook Remix Jaunty (9.04) running on a brand new Acer Aspire one of 11 inches. We even got live mode running, so if you bought this nice laptop you don't need to worry about installing from command line or doing anything weird.

It's not easy to get the live image created for the first time, but I got it, and I want to share this with others, so you don't have to go through the pain I had to.

You can find a package that will do it for you at: http://kwort.aircable.net/vmware/ubuntu-netbook-remix-for-acer-aspire-one-AO751h.tar.gz

You will need a running linux machine to get the job done, original ubuntu netbook remix image and a pen drive.

If you have any questions post your comments here.

Thanks to AIRcable for they're support on this work.

If you don't want to mess with all this process you can buy an Acer Aspire One A0751h directly from AIRcable.

Thanks,
Manuel

Updated documents for the Server XR

Hello everyone,

We just updated some docs for the Server XR specially regarding package handling, you can find them at: http://sites.google.com/a/aircable.net/aircable/Home/Server-XR/Package-Handling


Last month we were in Chicago in the Chicago Sensor's Expo showing some of our stuff. Among the things we were showing one was a new server targeting industrial uses. This is just a Linux based obex server using the Server XR, one of the reason why this thing hasn't reached the public yet was instability of obex-data-server but with release 0.3.3 of ODS things had really changed. So expect this new package to be in our servers soon.

This new project is intended for remote sensor networks where you put a main server getting messages from all your bluetooth sensors and then making some stuff in that server like committing to a web server, showing on a screen, or what ever you can imagine. The other part of the server, which we will start working soon will be an SPP server so your sensors can connect to the server over a wireless cable and exchange data between them, this way you can implement stuff as a remote interactive screen.

All this new server code is been developed together with our new Development Kit for the AIRcable SMD which will be available soon, if you want any more information don't doubt about reaching us.

And as always you will be able to find all our code in our google code site.

Thanks,
Manuel

How to install packages into Server XR, a real example of how to get mplayer running.

Hello everyone,

Now that we have the new repository running you all can install packages in a quite easy way.

For example, suppose you want to install mplayer then you do:


root@Aquiles:~/kpkg install mplayer
...
Done (install) mplayer.


As the Server XR is not a full Kwort 2.4 there might be chances it is missing some packages, specially libraries. So we check for that:

root@Aquiles:~/ldd /usr/bin/mplayer | grep not
libtheora.so.0 => not found
libogg.so.0 => not found
libxvidcore.so.4 => not found
libfaac.so.0 => not found
libspeex.so.1 => not found


So now we have a list of missing libraries, we need to install lots of packages, but which package includes each library? Well that's easy to tell thanks to kpkg, for example let's suppose we want to find out who provides faac:

root@Aquiles:~/kpkg search faac
Package found: faac
....
* mirror: kwort.aircable.net


As you can see there's a package called faac, so it's quite provable this is the one, then we install it:

root@Aquiles:~/kpkg install faac
....
Done (install) faac.


Now we can check for missing libraries again:

root@Aquiles:~/ldd /usr/bin/mplayer | grep not
libtheora.so.0 => not found
libogg.so.0 => not found
libxvidcore.so.4 => not found
libspeex.so.1 => not found


You can see that libfaac has been removed from the list, so then it has been installed.

The other packages you will need to install are:
* speex
* libogg
* xvidcode
* libtheora

You will need to call kpkg install for each of this items.

That's all now you can run mplayer without any problems.

This has been an ready to use guide on how to install a certain package, hope it helps.

Thanks,
Manuel

New repository and updates for Server XR

Hello everyone,

We've been working on a new repository for our Kwort 2.4 based distribution included in the ServerXR.

Well this new repository is finally ready and online.

Thing is that moving to this new repository isn't so easy, so we created a little script to make your life easier (and ours too, as that means less support requests).

So please do:

wget http://kwort.aircable.net/updates/update01.sh
bash update01.sh


If you have any non Spanish keyboard you might want to temporary load the keymap for your country, for example for US you can use:
loadkeys us
(Just replace us with your keyboard layout).

That will not only get your system ready to use the new repository, but also update all your packages. It might take some minutes to do all it's work.

Thanks,
Manuel

New ServerXR image

For all those that have all ready bought a Server XR, we're glad to announce that during the week we launched out a new image (file system) for our ServerXR.

You can follow this guide: http://sites.google.com/a/aircable.net/aircable/Home/Server-XR/image-recovery to get the update done.

There are 2 known bugs on this new version, that are all ready fixed, and solutions will be published during the week:
* BlueZ plugin services fails to load, this is a known bug in the bluez original package, related to the way things get compiled, we all ready have our package fixed, and will be in our repository during the week.
* KPKG fails to install standalone packages, we're including a pre-release version of kpkg, kwort package manager, this new version includes support for multiple repositories, but one of our users has been able to find a bug on it, even before us. We told the kpkg team (I'm a new member of it by the way) and they fixed it. This new version has some fascinating new things for the ServerXR, for example you can safely pull upgrades from the main kwort repository without worrying those updates will breake your ServerXR as ServerXR specific packages are been maintained by us, in our own repositories.

Well that's all by now, stay tuned, we'll let you know as soon as the new packages are there.

Thanks,
Manuel

Kwort 2.4 is out

Hello everyone,

I'm glad to say that Kwort 2.4 is finally out. For those who don't know what Kwort is, or haven't ever used, Kwort is the Linux distribution we are providing with the Server XR.

When we started to deliver the Server XR Kwort was delivering 2.4 beta 2 or 3, I can't remember actually. In a few days we are going to make a huge update to the Server XR so stay tuned.

I want to wish best luck to David Cortarello with this new release, he's a really good friend and deserves to get the best results on his projects. In behalf of the company we want to keep the perfect relationship we have, providing patches, fixing bug and providing new ideas. The Kwort users that aren't using the Server XR can expect to get bluetooth support for Kwort soon.

For more information check:

• Kwort Web Page
  
• Kwort 2.4 Official Announce
• AIRcable Web Page
  

Thanks everyone for reading,
Manuel Naranjo
Wireless Cables Inc.

New Packages for Server XR

Hello everyone,

We just finished uploading some new packages for the Server XR. This post will be rather short telling which packages had been upgraded and how to install them, a more detailed post will be made soon.

Updated packages:

• Recommended to update:
• Bluez-libs: Updated to version 3.28
• Bluez-utils: Updated to version 3.28, compiling all the dbus services now.
• Obex-Data-Server: Updated to version 0.3.
• OpenProximity: Updated to version 0.1.1.
  
• Optional:
  
• Bluez-hcidump: Updated to version 1.41

Check this little guide on how to upgrade packages, take special atention to the note in the end.

Packaging software is a very interesting experience, only that it's quite repetitive and can become REALLY boring, so now we are going to use scripts to package, you can check our scripts and see how we make our packages here.

Thanks a lot,
Manuel Naranjo
Wireless Cables Inc.

First images of kwort running in the ebox

Hello everyone,

It's me again. It's amazing we were not expecting so many people been exited about getting kwort running on the ebox. Not only people interested on Bluetooth, and our products. But also people that bought and ebox and wanted a nice, stable and good looking distro running.

We've been working hard on it, so you don't have to mess with much with distribution internals and all that. But I expect that the first release for testing will be ready in a day or two.

In the meantime here's a picture of kwort running OpenBox and wbar at my home, in a brand new LCD TV from Philips. You can see xterm running, along with xclock and wbar at the bottom. Wbar has LOTS of icons, most of them (actually all except for one are invalid and doesn't work at all). But you can see the nice eye candy from it.

Take into account I took the picture with my cellphone that's why it looks so blurry.





Cheers,
Manuel

Happy new year everyone!, How small Linux can go?

Wow it's been a long since my last post. I promise I will start making posts more regularly! This will be my present for this brand new year.

From our side we had been very very busy, and we have a lot of exiting new ideas and projects. Right now we are working on getting Kwort Linux ( www.kwort.org ) an Slackware based Linux distribution, into a machine based on the Vortex86 processor. This is a pc compatible computer, with about 10 * 10 * 4 cm with all the things you could imagine you can find on your desktop pc. Except of a monitor off course. It has RAM, a CF reader so you can use CF cards as hard drives, a VGA board, Ethernet and even a sound system, all integrated for quite a little price. Here you can find the machine if you want to know how it looks like: http://www.embeddedpc.net/Default.aspx?tabid=110

Anyway, the thing is that we got Linux working on it (Thaks David, AKA Nomius, for your help and the great work you have done with Kwort). And we are working on some packages so others can use it too, without the need to waste time like we did.

So stay tuned, and I promise you will hear from us more frequently,

Manuel

Interrupts handling

Hello everyone,

We have received lots of questions from our customers regarding how interrupts are being handled.

Interrupts handling is much more simpler from what you might thought in the AIRcable, even simpler from a PC interrupt schema.

Basically as in any other processor you have an interrupt stack, where each new even get's registered. The biggest difference between this stack schema and the PC schema is that interrupts are only pushed at bottom or at top of the stack, depending the interrupt priority.

Only 4 interrupts are pushed to the top: @ALARM, @PIN_CODE, @MESSAGE and @FTP. You might ask your self why @INQUIRY is not high priority, as we insist so much in making it short as possible, simple because if @INQUIRY would be high priority it would interrupt it self.

So how does the interrupt handler work? Simple each time a new interrupt is pushed into the stack it checks if it goes in the top of the current serviced interrupt, if it does then it goes to service that new interrupt, if it doesn't it will execute the code until it reaches RETURN. Once it reaches RETURN it will go and see if the stack has more stuff to service.

As you might know every processor allows you to disable interrupts, this is achieved by adding ; at the end of each line.

I think this will clarify all your questions regarding interrupts, if you have more questions for us please leave your comments and we will be glad to help you.

Thanks,
Manuel

Command Line Version 0.8 UART Released

Hello everyone,
We found a couple of bugs in the command line version 0.7 UART. Most of this bugs where related to the manual inquiry, and the service master mode. Version 0.8 fix all this bugs, and is another step forward the new generation command line (Version 1.0) which should be released soon.
Meantime we encourage you to download version 0.8 from here.
Thanks,
Manuel

NOTE: There's a bug in the Command Line V0.8 UART for the SerialOS device, please get the AIRcable.bas file from here.

Command Line Version 0.7 UART Released

Hello everyone,
We had just released the 0.7 command line for the UART. This version is a bug fixing from version 0.6, most sensitive bugs where related to mode changing.
You can get it here: http://aircable.googlecode.com/files/0.7UART.zip
This version applies to SerialOS, Mini, Industrial and OEM Boards.
Thanks,
Manuel

FAQ Released

Hello everyone,
We had started a FAQ section for our users. Based in the questions from our costumers, we wrote a simple FAQ that can be accessed from here.
Please give us your feedback, and if you think there is any question missing, don't hesitate to ask.
Thanks,
Manuel

Production Tools

Hello everyone,
We had released a series of tools that can be used for product testings, and massive uploading. This tools are mainly targeted for internal use, but you can use them if you want.
Get here for more information http://www.aircable.net-a.googlepages.com/productiontools2
Thanks,
Manuel Naranjo

Command Line Version 0.7 SPP and Devel Tools Alpha 2 Released

Hello everyone,

We has just released version 0.7 SPP of our command line. This corrects a bug that made version 0.6 SPP don't behave correctly when using a parity different than even. WARNING: Only upload this code to AIRcable SMD. It's not compatible with other devices.

This should be our last release before we make the Command Line version 1.0, which will be fully rewritten from scratch, thanks to your suggestions we could improve our tool, and now is time to make it much better.

We have also corrected some bugs on our JEdit tools, please start using the Alpha 2 instead of the Alpha 1, serious bugs where found on the first alpha release.

You can get all this stuff from: http://code.google.com/p/aircable/

Thanks,
Manuel Naranjo

More jEdit stuff

Hello everyone,
I had been working on some jEdit Scripts this week, this scripts are like the Java Tool Set we have made in the past, but it is much better it has Graphical Interface. And is integrated with one of my favorite editors jEdit.

Here you can read about his new tools: http://code.google.com/p/aircable/wiki/jEdit_Tools, you can even watch a video there to see the scripts in action.

If anyone has a comment, suggestion, question, etc, don't doubt to ask,
Thanks
Manuel Naranjo
AIRcable Development Blog Admin

Code Highlight for JEdit

Hello everyone,
I just ended submitting a file that does the code Highlighting for AIRcable Basic code in the JEdit editor.

You can find the file here: download
You will need to modify the file that is under $HOME/.jedit/modes called catalog, you need to add this line:
before the tag.

$HOME is C:\Documents and Settings\\ in Windows or /home/ in Unix systems like Linux or Mac.

Here you have an snapshot of how the code highlighting looks like:

With this new tool you can tell if you are writing the code well or not. If any of the commands you write doesn't highlight somehow then that command doesn't exist on the OS.

This is the first part of our next AIRcable JEdit's Pluging, feel free to try it, and to give us your comments.

Thanks,
Manuel Naranjo
AIRcable Development Blog Admin.

Command Line Version 0.6 Released

Hello everyone,
We had just released the command line version 0.6. This new version includes a lot of new and exciting stuff like:

• Command line over Bluetooth for the AIRcableSMD.
• Power Measurement for the future AIRcableOS.
• PIO list editing from the command line.
• PIN and Name settings regarding the unique number of each AIRcable device.
• Parity and Stop Bits configuration from the command line.
• .....

You can see the electronic version of the docs from: here.

And you can download the code here:
UART Version - For all Devices
SPP Version - Only for AIRcableSMD

Please leave your comments with feedback, suggestions and questions, feel free to ask.
Thanks,
Manuel Naranjo

Tutorial Started

Hello everyone,
We had started working on our Tutorial/Example series, you can find it all here.
As we continue working on this you will start finding more links.
Thanks,
Manuel
AIRcable Development Blog Admin

Sample Programs

Hello again,

We know how hard is to start knowing a new technology from the scratch, with that in mind, we had made a list of example programs we are going to put on the web, so our costumer can use them as a reference for they're code.

This list is temptative, and can change a lot, so please if you think there is something we are missing, something you think we can add or delete please let us know, we are here to help you. Here is the list (the order is not relevant):

• Micro Slave: A simple code that opens the slave port on discoverable mode and accepts all the incoming connections. It will teach you how to open the slave channel, and how to make slave connections, and finally how to handle leds.
  
• Little Slave: Like the micro slave, but now it will open the shell if the user press "+" when the connection is firstly started. It will teach you how to handle input characters and how to open shell connections.
  
• Filtered Service Slave: A more complex mode, it will open the port in discoverable mode, but will check that those who want to connect to this peer complies with an address pattern. It will teach you how to compare string, and reject incoming connections.
  
• Cable Slave: This is a piece of code taken from our command line, that will pair to a device, and then will apair invisible to all the other devices. It will teach you how to make an slave device discover and undiscoverable.
  
• Mini Master: This code will make inquires, and once it found a device it will try to connect, once the connection is closed. This will teach you how to handle alarms, make inquires, handle inquires results, make master connection, and check master connections.
• Filtered Service Master: This code will make inquires, and if the device it discovers matches a given pattern it will make a connection, once the connection is lost it will connect to the first thing it can find. It will teach you how to work with inquires showing how sensitive they are.
• Listed Master: Those interested on buying AIRcable Mini or SMD can be very interested in this code. This code will have a predefined list of devices (between 0 and 30), will open a connection to each one of this (one at the time), will make some work over the connection, will close the connection and will continue with the next device, all this on an endless working cycle. It will teach you how to iterate, control state and close master connections from the master side.
• Cable Master: This code is like our Cable Master, it will make inquires and will pair with the first device it can find. Once it is paired it will not inquiry any more and will only connect to it's peer. This code will show you a way to handle pairs from the master side.
• Interactive Code: Sometimes you need an interactive shell on the other side, this code will teach you how to write a simple interactive program that will let the user control a series of leds and will read some analog/digital inputs.
• Relay Mode Code: This code will show you how easy is to create a network of AIRcable devices. For this example you will need at least 3 different bluetooth devices, and one of those 3 must be an AIRcable OS enabled device. In this mode the AIRcable OS device will be connected to two other devices and will make a bridge between them, this way you can make the range of your bluetooth devices much longer.

Please let us know if you think we can add something more, or if you have your examples and want to show us your way to achieve things feel free to do it. Also if you need some support with your work, let us know we can surely help you.

Thanks,
Manuel
AIRcable Development Blog Admin