Elphel Software Kit for Ubuntu
All Elphel cameras are packaged with a DVD what can be used as a Live DVD or installed on the disc. This DVD is kubuntu based GNU/Linux distribution with some additional softwares and preconfigured settings. This page describe the content of the DVD, how to use and customize it.
The idea is to bring to our customers a GNU/Linux distribution what whey can use with our cameras installing it on they computers or using it as LiveDVD. On the other side it provide more advanced users and developers with many tools to cros-compile, simulate FPGA code, reflash the camera etc..
Contents
DVD content:
Our DVD differ from standard kubuntu in several way:
- it include all softwares needed by users of our cameras
- we added some video editing & images processing softwares
- it include softwares for software and hardware developers
- some configuration file are modified to suit our needs
- some OpenSource applications for Windows (R)
User software
For users we provide:
- flashit icon on the desktop to reflash our cameras with the latest firmware
- Firefox web browser with mplayer and genres plugin to provide live view of our cameras
- LAMP based DVR to provide a simple way to record video and audio from our cameras
Video Applications:
- mplayer
- genres
- VLC
- gstreamer
- cinerella
- cinepaint
- ImageMagick
- gocr
- mjpegtools
- avifie-utils
- ElphelSrv
- DVR software
Elphel SDK
We provide our clients with a complete SDK to develop software, FPGA code and even to redesign the hardware.
IDE:
- Eclipse IDE
- VDT verilog plugin for Eclipse IDE
CAD:
- Qcad
- Varicad (demo)
- Kicad
FPGA:
- iverilog
- GNURadio
- GTKWave
Other:
- dash shell is replaced with bash to comply with Axis SDK
- LAMP preinstalled on the DVD
- GNUeda
- Gerbview
OpenSource applications for Windows (R)
If you insert our DVD into a windows computer you will be able to install opensource softwares to use with our camera:
- Mozills FireFox
- mplayer-win
- VLC
Special configurations
- ...
- ...
How building latest version software for LiveCD(i.e FireFox)
To compile FireFox for a specific version of Knoppix requires a system with fixed versions the system libraries, utilities, etc. then identical versions used in LiveCD / DVD Knoppix. Another option is to boot from a LiveCD and compile the required packages. Booting from LiveCD, you can directly on the free hardware, or using Virtual Machine. The first option is unacceptable, if will be used to compile computer, restart which is not desirable and disconnection. In this case, you may use the virtual machine. Alternatively, perhaps using VMware Workstation for virtual machines (see http://vmware.com). In addition to the LiveCD version of the steps in setting up the same environment. Basic requirements and documentation for the compilation FireFox http://www.mozilla.org/build/ located on the site. When downloading from LiveCD need to create the swapfile, tons by the compiler uses intensively pyamyat and exhaustion free memory lead to the computer freezes. Let's start
1. Booting from LiveCD
2. Mounting physical partition on the hard drive (virtual or real). Here, and as an example to be used hda1.
knoppix$ su knoppix# mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1
Sources & packages
Here is the list of additional debian/ubuntu packages and sources used on our DVD:
AXIS SDK http://www.axis.com/ftp/pub/axis/tools/cris/compiler-kit/cris-dist_1.64-1_i386.deb http://www.axis.com/ftp/pub/axis/dev/soft_dist/R2_10/devboard-R2_10.tar.gz
Elphel's VDT plugin for Eclipse http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=105686&package_id=184538
Another Verilog & VHDL editor for Eclipse http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=103963
Icarus Verilog ftp://ftp.icarus.com/pub/eda/verilog/snapshots/verilog-20070608.tar.gz
GTKWave http://home.nc.rr.com/gtkwave/gtkwave-3.0.29.tar.gz
MPlayer (patched) http://dfn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/elphel/mplayer_1.0pre7-elphel-2_i386.deb
LIVES ftp://ftp-mirror.internap.com/pub/www.getdeb.net/li/lives_0.9.8.5-1~getdeb1_i386.deb
Kicad http://iut-tice.ujf-grenoble.fr/cao/kicad-2007-05-25.tgz
Remastering the DVD:
Our distribution is based on Kubuntu GNU/Linux. You can remaster it from Live session with an external hard-drive or after installing our base distribution on your computer. Here i suppose what it's installed and you have sufficient space (~6 GO).
So here is the modification process:
prepare the environment:
sudo su cd mount /media/cdrom mkdir remaster-root remaster-iso remaster-new-files tmp cp -R /media/cdrom/* remaster-iso mount -t squashfs -o loop,ro remaster-iso/casper/filesystem.squashfs tmp cp -R tmp/* remaster-root umount tmp rmdir tmp
modify the distribution:
mount --bind /proc remaster-root/proc mount --bind /sys remaster-root/sys mount --bind /dev remaster-root/dev chroot remaster-root #install your softwares, remove unneeded softwares modify configuration files, ... apt-get remove nano apt-get install vim apt-get clean exit umount remaster-root/dev umount remaster-root/sys umount remaster-root/proc
rebuild the DVD:
chroot . dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Package} ${Version}\n' > ../remaster-iso/casper/filesystem.manifest
chroot . dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Package} ${Version}\n' > ../remaster-iso/casper/filesystem.manifest-desktop
mksquashfs . ../remaster-iso/casper/filesystem.squashfs
cd ../remaster-iso
find . -type f -print0 |xargs -0 md5sum |sudo tee md5sum.txt
mkisofs -o ../remaster-new-files/Elphel-Software-Kit.iso -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -r -V "Elphel Software Kit" -cache-inodes -J -l .
What's all :) you have a new DVD image in /root/remaster-new-files/Elphel-Software-Kit.iso
links:
- ubuntu
