Category Archives: Software

XEphem on Ubuntu

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XEphem is an outstanding software for astronomers.It is written in C and there aren’t any packages built for it so you have to compile it using the source codes.
When building on Ubuntu, it is most likely that you’ll get some error messages, because need some libraries not included in Ubuntu by default.
Download the source code and extract it.

$ wget http://97.74.56.125/free/xephem-3.7.4.tar.gz

$ tar -xvf xephem-3.7.4.tar.gz

Before compiling, we need these packages installed.

$ sudo apt-get install libmotif3 libmotif-dev x11proto-print-dev libxp-dev libxmu-dev

If you don’t install these packages, you’ll get errors during compilation from various files, like aavso.c

Now let’s compile!

$ cd xephem-3.7.4/GUI/xephem

$ make MOTIF=../../libXm/linux86

(NOTE : If you’re using an x86_64 system, use MOTIF=/usr/lib as make the option since the libXm delivered with xephem won’t do any good for you)
The rest is as stated in the INSTALL file.

how to get the size of a folder in Linux CLI

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It seems like a simple request…and it mostly is. But if you want to get the size of a folder – including sub-folders – in Linux from the command line, you need to use the du command. The simplest trick (thanks linuxforums.org) to get the total size without listing all the sub-folders is to use the following:

du -h | grep -v ‘/’ | awk ‘{print $1}’

Multimedia on Linux

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Multimedia content is quite well supported in Linux, contrary to popular perception. Though it requires more customisation, and everything doesnt work out of the box, everything works perfectly when configured. This fact was made clear, by a number of demonstrations of multimedia softwares in Linux, during the Linux InstallFest

Softwares Demonstrated:

1.) Rhythmbox:
The default music player in most GNOME distributions. It supports most music formats, and brings in features such as Podcast support, iPod support, and syncing with Online Radio Stations

2.) Amarok:
The de facto player in KDE based distributions, it is a hot favorite with many people, owing to its large support base, excellent features such as Scripting, Online Music Store support, and support for a large number of audio devices.

3.) Banshee:
It is another GNOME player, developed by Novell. Its interface is quite similar to Rhythmbox. It supports both audio and video formats, and has a large plugin base. Some notable plugins are Youtube videos, Multimedia Key Support among others.

4.) VLC:
VideoLAN Client or VLC has been a popular player due to the fact that it plays almost all known formats, with its large codec set. It is also known for its stream content playback, which was its original purpose. It is by far the preferred player by many for video playback.

5.) Brasero:
The default CD/DVD burning application in most GNOME based distributions. It has a minimalist approach, so users of Nero and other softwares will feel completely at home.