Linux User 26 Developer Issue 125 2C 2013

7/30/2019 Linux User 26 Developer Issue 125 2C 2013

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InstallUbuntu on

your Nexus 7Hack your tabletwith Ubuntu Touch

www.linuxuser.co.uk

FOR THE GNU GENERATIONTHE MONTHLY MAGAZINE

Plus every RasPi distro tested!

SERVER

BUILD A

Remote backupswith DuplicitySecure your files via FTP & SSH

LINUX

GetyourappsontheRaspberryPiStore!

Share & back up your data Host your own website

22 pagesof reviews

PLUS openSUSE 12.3 reviewed Create charts with Gantt Build web apps with Python

nside AmahiBehind the scenes withthe ultimate home server

Amazing RasPiapps and tools

20

RASPBERRY PI DISTRO SUPERTEST

ISSUE 125


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3/100

Richard Hillesley writes about art,music, digital rights, Linux andfree software for a variety ofpublications and is a previouseditor of Linux User. As well asproviding his usual monthlycolumn (page 17), this monthRichard shares the downfall ofMono starting on page 42.

Kunal Deo is a veteran open source developerleading multiple open sourceprojects. He is also a KDEdeveloper and has contributedto many projects including KDE-Solaris, Belenix and Openmoko.This month Kunal shows us howto write web apps in Python in hisdeveloper tutorial on pages 52-55.

Liam Fraser is the creator of the hugely popularRaspberryPiTutorials YouTubeseries and is a Linux server adminfor the Raspberry Pi Foundation.This month Liam shows buddingdevelopers how to share theircreations with fellow RasPi fans onthe Raspberry Pi Store. You can findhis tutorial on pages 48-51.

Joey Bernardhas been using Linux at homefor almost 20 years and hesnow getting paid for it asa computational researchconsultant with ACEnet. Thismonth Joey shows us how tomanage a project using Gannt andPlanner (pages 38-41).

Rory MacDonald is our resident opensource reporter with a keen nose fora story and a good eye for detail. Youcan find his latest stories startingon page 6, including details aboutGoogles new Pixel Chromebooks,developments with Firefox OS andthe big news (not) coming out of this

years Mobile World Congress.

Rob Zwetsloot studied aerospace engineeringat university, using Python tomodel complex simulations inclass while configuring LinuxHTPCs at home. In this issue Robspeaks exclusively to the makersof Amahi and takes us through theprocess of installing Ubuntu Touchon an Android device (p34-37).

Issue 1253

Yourtea

mofLinuxex

perts

Get in touch with the team:[email protected]

Welcometo issue 125 of Linux User & Developer

Welcome to the latest edition of Linux User &Developer, the UK and Americas favouritehigh-end open source and Linux magazine.

Since theres no sign of your insatiable demandfor the Raspberry Pi subsiding any time soon, weveput together a couple of special features celebratingsome of the best software and distros on offer. Every

issue were inundated with emails asking for RaspberryPi-related articles and this month weve taken on the mostregularly requested a group test made up of all the mostpopular distributions.

In his eight-page super-test starting on page 68, Rob

Zwetsloot tests six of the best and ruthlessly whittles themdown to name the one worthy of the prestigious Group TestWinner badge. The results might not be terribly surprising,but were pretty sure the growing list of options available arelikely to raise a few eyebrows.

If youre aiming for a bit more power than the 700MHz ARMCPU for your next project, why not build your own PC? Thatswhat we did for this months cover feature and were ratherhappy with the results. While its designed as a home server,it packs quite a punch for numerous other uses too.

Enjoy the issue!

Russell Barnes,Editor

Buy online

GetLinux User

for 4.19per issue

Page 18

Build your own server Secure remote backups Install Touch on your Android Make web apps with Python

This issue

Visit us online for more news, opinion, tutorials and reviews:

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4/100

Contents

Join us online for more Linux news, opinion and reviews www.linuxuser.co.uk

www.linuxuser.co.uk4

06 News The biggest stories from the

open source world

14 OpinionsThe latest from your favouritefree software columnists

94 LettersYour views on the magazineand the open source scene

OpenSource

96 Cover discThe very latest distros on one DVD

On your free disc

Fedora 18 Remix

Raspbian

Puppy 5.5

Arch ARM

Tutorials30 Secure remote backups

Use Duplicity to protect your files

34 Install Ubuntu Touch to yourAndroid deviceTest the latest beta of Canonicals Touch OSwithout losing all your data

40 Plan your projects with GanntSort your schedule with Gannt and Planner

Developer tutorialsFeatures10 Inside Amahi

Whats happening with thisopen source server solution?

20 Build your own serverPCs are easier than Lego getstarted today!

42 Mono lost intranslationIts downfall investigated

56 The university of LinuxNo degree? No problem

76 20 amazing RasPiapps & toolsMust-have software

86 Q & AYour problems solved!

FEATURE

10 Inside AmahiThis month we get together with Amahisfounder and lead developer, Carlos Puchol,to see how its innovative home server is

doing and where its heading in version 7

48 Get your apps on the RasPi Store Built an app or tool for RasPi? Heres how to

make it available to the whole community

52 Build web apps with Python Theres nothing you cant achieve with Python

conquering the web included

Reviews

20. Backup files andshare your media

Build your ownLinux server

62 Huawei Ascend G330Has the Ascend G300 justbecome a whole 30 better?

64 Popcorn Hour A-400 Latest open sourced-based

media streamer

66 Gizmo Explorer KitThe Pis 64-bit x86 cousin - for

when raw power is required

68 Raspberry Pi distrosuper-testWhich distro should you installon your $25 computer?

80 openSUSE 12.3No big surprises for the latestpoint release, but some polish

82 Sabayon 11

We see how the latest build ofthis Gentoo-spin shapes up

84 Porteus 2Portable computing receives aboost with the newest Porteus

Subscribetoday!

18 Save at least 30%on the shop price.

US customerscan subscribe viapage 86


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06News | 14Opinion | 94Letters

Chromebook Pixel puts Google head-to-headwith Apple in the laptop market

The chrome-plated Android on Googles

Mountain View Campus is it a hint?


The Chromebook Pixel is the first notebook to

truly challenge the Apple MacBook in terms

of looks and build quality. Praise for a Linux-

based device does not come any higher than

from Linus Torvalds himself: Hey, Ive joined all

the cool kids in having one of the new Google

Pixel laptops (aka Chromebooks). And it is abeautiful screen, to the point where I suspect

Ill make this my primary laptop, Torvalds wrote

on his Google Plus account. Praising the Pixels

3:2 screen format, and announcing his disdain

for widescreen laptops, he commented: Im still

running Chrome OS on this thing, which is good

enough for testing out some of my normal work

habits (ie reading and writing email), but I expect

to install a real distro on this soon enough

One thing that the Chromebook Pixel really

brings home is how crap normal laptops have

become, Torvalds continued. Why do PC

manufacturers even bother any more? No

wonder the PC business isnt doing well, when

they stick to just churning out more crappy stuff

and think that full HD (aka 1080p) is somehow

the epitome of greatness.

Torvalds is certainly not the only one rejecting

PC hardware. Take yourself to any open source

conference and you will tend to see an awful lot

of people working on Apple MacBook laptops.Why? Because if you spend half your life working

on any device, there is an undeniable emotional

attachment. Working on a beautiful notebook

makes a difference.

Machined from anodised aluminium, the

new Chromebooks most important feature is

arguably its lightbar, which delivers an ambient

coloured display from the back of the screen just

because it looks cool. A single finger opens the

finely tuned piano hinge to reveal a 12.85-inch

display, whose 4.3 million indivisible pixels give

the Pixel the highest resolution of any notebook

on the market.

The Gorilla Glass screen also offers full

touch with tap, pinch and swipe in parallel to

the trackpad and backlit keyboard. Inside, the

Chromebook Pixel houses a dual-core 1.8GHz

Intel Core i5 Processor with integrated Intel HD

Graphics 4000 GPU and 4GB DDR3 RAM.

Storage is where Pixel ties you to Googles

vision of the Chromebook, with services delivered

through the cloud. In the US, Google advertises

two versions of the Pixel with either 32 or 64GB

of internal solid-state storage. Currently, in the

UK, the Google Play store only offers the 32GB

version, and a call to the support staff sadly

delivered no results on how we Brits can double

the internal capacity. What the Pixel does offer is

1TB of Google Drive cloud storage for three years.

I suspect Illmake this myprimary laptop- Linus Torvalds

On the operating system side, the Chromebook

delivers all your common programs as appsthrough the Chrome browser. This is where

many reviews have criticised the apps available

for what, at 1,049, is an undeniably high-end

device. With HTML5, apps work offline and sync

automatically when they find a new connection;

and for users of Google Docs, Gmail, Google+,

Hangouts and other Google cloud services, the

device delivers all you need. However, Chrome

is not a primary target platform for most of the

third-party app community.

But this is where it gets interesting. As long

ago as 2009, the then Google co-founder Sergey

Brin stated that the companys long-term

plan was to merge its Chrome OS and Android

into a single ecosystem. Google also has a

habit of using the companys visual branding

to hint at future product announcements.

Interesting then that just as Google launches

the Chromebook Pixel, a chrome-plated Android

figure has appeared on Googles Mountain View

Campus in California.

The ability to run Android apps offline through

the Chrome browser would instantly turn the

Chromebook Pixel from a truly beautiful cloud-

focused device, with limited availability of HTML5

applications, into a notebook with access to

an ecosystem of over 700,000 apps. It seems

unlikely then that this opportunity has escaped

Googles attention.

HARDWARE

Google springsgroundbreakingnew hardware

ImagecourtesyofGoogle

employeePaulWilcoxonG+


7/100

The latest in the Linux community

News

OPEN SOURCE

www.linuxuser.co.uk7 www.linuxuser.co.uk7

Linuxcalendar

17-18April2013 Open Source Data

Center ConferenceHoliday Inn, Nuremberg

Germany

www.netways.de/en/osdc/osdc2013/overview/

This conference offers a uniqueopportunity to meet with opensource professionals and insiders,gather and share expertise over two

days of presentations, hands-onworkshops and social networking.

LinuxFestNorthwest 2013 Bellingham Technical College,

Bellingham, WA

USA

linuxfestnorthwest.orgLinuxFest Northwest is an annualevent produced by the Bellingham

Linux Users Group, and featuresLinux and open source expertsand aficionados sharing theirexperience and enthusiasm witha wide variety of free and opensource technologies.

18April2

013 Android Magazine

issue 24 www.littlegreenrobot.co.ukAndroid Magazine, your best andonly print source for everythingAndroid, is coming out today. Checkout whats in store over on page 60.

27-28Ap

ril2013

Host of major firms also

launch new HTML5 appsfor Firefox MarketplaceBig news from the Mobile World Congress

was the advance of Mozillas Firefox OS and

the announcement that 17 key operators

across Europe, Asia and Latin America have

signed up to ship new devices loaded with the

new operating system. In addition, Mozilla

announced Firefox Marketplace, a new vendor-

independent store for HTML5 apps that can be

used across multiple platforms.

Firefox OS is a smartphone platform built

on elements of the Linux kernel, using open

web standards. The phones hardware andfunctionality are exposed through open APIs,

with all of the features delivered through

HTML5 apps.

Mozillas focus on delivering a phone through

web technologies and standards has proved

highly attractive to mobile operators looking

to provide a more cost-effective smartphone,

especially for use in emerging markets. With

Android now subject to an effective licence fee

through patent settlements demanded from

manufacturers by Microsoft and others, this

strategy is even stronger.

Our goal is to level the playing field and

usher in an explosion of content and services

that will meet the diverse needs of the next

MOBILE

two billion people online, explained Mozilla CEO

Gary Kovacs.

Firefox OS has also garnered support from

significant smartphone vendors looking for

lower-cost devices to bring new customers in

developing economies online. The first wave of

Firefox OS devices will be built by Alcatel One

Touch, LG and ZTE, with Huawei expected to

announce further devices later in the year.

Closely related to Mozillas plans for Firefox

OS, Firefox Marketplace also has a broader

focus on HTML5 apps that can be used acrossmultiple platforms. Like other app stores,

Firefox Marketplace will offer a range of apps

across categories like gaming, news and media,

business and productivity. However, with

apps built on web standards and tied to online

identity, users will be able to transfer their

purchases across devices and platforms.

The list of apps and developers for the new

marketplace already includes AccuWeather,

Airbnb, Box, Cut The Rope, Disney Mobile

Games, EA Games, Facebook, Nokia HERE,

MTV Brasil, Pulse News, SoundCloud, SporTV,

Terra, Time Out and Twitter, alongside personally

tailored and local apps relevant to users in their

respective regions. However, Mozillas key aim is

to open up the world of app development to a far

broader spectrum of developers.

Firefox OS will break down the walls between

apps and the web because Firefox OS apps

are built using web technologies, like HTML5,

commented Jay Sullivan, Mozillas senior vice

president of products. We expect to see lots of

amazing apps built for Firefox OS because more

developers are already creating for the web than

for any other platform.

Firefox Marketplace can currently be

previewed on Firefox for Android Aurora and will

be offered with the first Firefox OS phones to

launch later this year.Screenshots from Firefox OS

Developer previews of upcoming

Firefox-based phones

Firefox OSattracts 17key mobileoperators


8/100

Your source of Linux news and viewsOpenSourceContact usRegister and post your commentswww.linuxuser.co.uk/forum/

Email us [email protected]


Last month, Barcelona played host to the

mobile industrys annual European fiesta,Mobile World Congress (MWC). However,this year many vendors chose to release their

flagship phones in separate launches rather

than battling for the limelight at the show.

Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 8, an

8-inch version of the tablet. But those hoping

for a first look at the Galaxy S4 had to wait for a

mid-March launch event in New York. Likewise,

there was no sign of the Motorola X-phone,

which has been eagerly awaited as the first real

showcase product following Googles buyout of

the company last year.

Sony was showing off its waterproof Xperia Z

that was first announced at CES. This 5-inchsmartphone packs a quad-core 1.5GHz

Snapdragon S4 processor and an impressive

13-megapixel camera. Importantly, the phone

marks a notable improvement in build quality

from previous Xperia releases.

New for the show, Sony also released the

Xperia Tablet Z, a 10.1-inch device, packing

the same processor as the phone into a class-

leading 6.9mm (0.27-inch) thick case. All of

Sonys Android devices use a heavily modified

version of the user interface. There is a focus on

integrating with other devices such as TVs, as

well as pushing the user towards content from

Sonys own media and gaming empire.

Although launched before the show, Asus,

LG and HTC were all showing off their latest

ANDROID

Mobile World Congress2013 loses headlineAndroid announcementsMajor vendors launch flagship handsetsbefore and after in separate events

devices to incorporate the new Qualcomm

600 processor. This quad-core, ARM-basedCPU can be clocked at up to 1.9GHz. However,

the initial wave of phones seem to be released

running at 1.7GHz.

The 5-inch Asus PadFone gives users the

option of plugging the device into the back

of a 10.1-inch docking station, turning the

phone into a 1920x1200 tablet with full cellular

networking capability. LG, meanwhile, has

opted for a slightly larger 5.5-inch form on its

Optimus G Pro. Both devices have a 1920x1080

pixel display and pack a 13-megapixel camera.

The HTC One was launched slightly before

the show. However, MWC was the first chance

for most people to play with the firms newflagship device. HTC has focused on the

phones design and a truly stunning aluminium

unibody. HTC is the first phone manufacturer

to reject the more megapixels bandwagon

(something that hardcore camera enthusiasts

have long known to be a poor indication of

real quality). The camera on the HTC One uses

4 million ultrapixels which, the company says,

let in around four times as much light, giving far

better results for motion capture as well as in

low-light conditions.

The Beats Audio sound system, found on

most HTC phones, has been supplemented

on the One with a Boom Sound amp and the

addition of two front-facing speakers on the

device. This allows the phone to be used as a

micro hi-fi in hotel rooms. The Sense TV feature

also enables the HTC One to be used as auniversal infrared remote for home electronics.

With the increasing similarity in hardware

specs for most high-end Android handsets,

many of the vendors have chosen to

differentiate themselves through increasingly

heavy customisation of the Android user

interface and addition of new software

features. Android still remains a unified

environment for app developers; however,

outside of the physical hardware design,

the user experience is the most significant

difference between phones. The addition of

QSlide on LGs Optimus G Pro is one example.

QSlide allows you to take full advantage of thephones multitasking capabilities by leaving one

app, typically video, running in a window with

adjustable transparency, while you carry on

using a second app.

HTC has customised the Android home

screen beyond recognition with Blink Feed. At

first glance you could be forgiven for thinking

the new HTC One was running either MeeGo

or Windows 8. The home screen is filled with

interactive tiles that can be configured to show

live info from social media, favourite websites

and news feeds in place of static icons. Again

this is a clever use of multitasking to show off

the phones capabilities, and early reviews

suggest that the concept has been executed

far more effectively than by Microsoft.

Wafer-thin Xperia Tablet Z Sleek HTC OneLG Optimus G ProAsus PadFone hybrid


9/100

The latest in the Linux communityNews

OPEN SOURCE

Canonical, corporate sponsor of Ubuntu, has

been criticised for its decision to build Mir,

its own alternative successor to the X Window

System. In addition, Canonicals founder Mark

Shuttleworth has been engaging in a separate

war of words with what he terms the 1337

[LEET] crowd within the Ubuntu community.

X.Org Server, the X Window implementationused to manage desktop environments on top

of Linux, is long overdue for an upgrade. Until

now, most of the desktop Linux community

had focused efforts to create a successor

around the Wayland project. But Canonical

has suddenly decided to drop its support for

Wayland, claiming that the project does not

fulfil its requirements completely.

In case you missed it, Linux User magazine is available to

read on any digital format thanks to the excellent digital

editions super-site, www.greatdigitalmags.com.The site brings together Linux Users offerings on Zinio and

Newsstand, allowing you to enjoy your favourite mag on yourMac, PC, iPad, Android and a host of other devices.

There are some incredible subscription incentives upfor grabs too not just for Linux User but for all ImaginePublishing titles.

To find these amazing deals, point your web browser atwww.greatdigitalmags.com , where you can find links to backissues, subscriptions and more, across almost every platform.Its all available in just one place, and there are massivesavings to be had!

Grab Linux User digitally at

greatdigitalmags.com

UBUNTU

Mark Shuttleworth challenges Ubuntus

LEET crowd

Canonical drops Wayland and goes it aloneWill Shuttleworths unwavering vision destroy community at Ubuntu?

There are no technical reasons Ubuntu

cannot use Wayland in principle, wrote Taigo

Vignatti, Waylands project manager, in an

angry response. What they wrote there is

a very, very mean excuse instead.

Canonical has often followed its own

divergent path from its initial decision to fork

the Debian code base, through to droppingGNOME Shell in favour of its own Unity UI.

Mark Shuttleworth has also spoken out

against the more cantankerous members of

the Ubuntu community on his blog. I simply

have zero interest in the crowd who wants to be

different. Leet. Linux is supposed to be hard so

its exclusive is just the dumbest thing that a

smart person could say, he commented.


10/100

Inside AmahiInterview


Inside

Rob Zwetslootmodels complex systemsand is a web developerproficient in Python,Django and PHP. He loves toexperiment with computing

INTERVIEWERLinux User talks to Amahis original founder andlead developer, Carlos Puchol, about the currentstrengths and future uses of the server software

Puchol is the original founder and lead developer of the Amahi project

Amahi


11/100

IIwA chat with Amahi founder Carlos Puchol

Inside Amahi


One of Linuxs undeniable strengths for

individuals is its use in home servers. The

popularity of using spare, old or hand-me-

down parts to create the central hub of yourhome network has a lot of appeal, and with the

help of a Linux distribution you can keep the

entire thing very inexpensive. It doesnt even

have to be a cheap job either, with top-of-the-

line parts coupled with Linux allowing you to

ofoad resource-intensive tasks onto one

machine, keeping any laptop or desktop free to

continue doing other tasks.

While this denitely sounds great, novice

Linux users may nd it difcult to get such a

system set up. This is where Amahi comes in.

Either distributed as a distro, or installable on

another, Amahi lets you quickly set up a fully

featured, centralised server. Not only does it

cover the basics for home use, allowing you to

stream media or keep it as a NAS, but it can

also grow with you, allowing you to congure it

to use even for enterprise.

We talk to Carlos Puchol from Amahi to

discuss how advanced the software actually is,

and the big changes coming to it in the future.

Typically we have been slotted as a home

server, but really its a general-purpose

server, Puchol begins, describing the features

available in Amahi. Its suitable for media

apps, web apps and generally anything that

centralises digital life in the home. We know

of some people who use it a little bit for home

automation, others use it for backups, and

nAmahis web interface lets you control your server from anywhere nThe applications allow you to extend the servers functions easily

nRaspberry Pi servers are not a new thing,

but Amahi could open it up to more people

more still use it as a front-end. Users have

actually connected it to their TV and then they

have all their data in there so they can watch

videos from it.One of Amahis biggest draws is that its

easily extendible by installing apps from

the Amahi marketplace. These integrate

into the system after downloading, allowing

you to congure them directly for the server

afterwards. Puchol describes the process of

getting apps approved for Amahi:

Overall, we have more than 400 apps.

However, right now because of the new Ubuntu

release, just over 150 of those are packaged.

As were a small team, we have to be careful

how much we test the apps and how many of

them we actually put live. Essentially, on every

new release we start with zero apps packaged,

basically the way it comes out of the box,

and then slowly add more and more apps to

the marketplace.

Theres a development hierarchy to the apps,

with some packages available in alpha or beta

states for testing. Some apps apparently never

make it out alpha, though, while other apps

may leave beta but will still not be up to the

standard needed for making live.

The main priority is how condent we are

that the app is working reliably and working

well, Puchol says. So the last thing we want

is people to have a bad experience with it,

whether theyre installing an app or if the app

just doesnt quite work. Thats just not a great

Amahi on the Raspberry Pi will become

a reality. When discussing the hardware

Amahi can utilise, Carlos Puchol mentions

that the team is currently at work on a

Raspberry Pi version:

Although its not fully maintained,

Amahi did used to be able to run onARM computers. The current release is

just about working on Raspberry Pi, but we

havent made an ofcial release yet as its

not nished. We are going to release

Amahi 7 on x86 and x64 rst, then after

that were going to try for the Raspberry Pi.

Weve begun to test on the Raspberry Pi,

and we already know that the base code

that we already have running on Amahi 7 is

90 per cent there. Most of it runs on ARM,

and it would just be a matter of time, say a

few weeks or couple of months after

release, before nishing it.

Amahi PiThe next version, Amahi 7,is a lot faster and safer


12/100


experience, and it essentially all comes back

to us. People complain, they say its not ready,

and typically they want to have it now, which

basically means that we have to put a lot

resources into support.

Community mattersThe community also plays a part in which apps

are chosen, as Puchol explains:

What we do is we base priorities on the

popularity of the app, and we base it on

how much expertise that we have on hand

to package the app. If somebody in the

community is very interested in having anapp packaged that is well rounded, then that

basically means it has higher priority because

we are more confident that we can package it

in a way that is solid for people to try out. And

so there are some apps that are super-solid

and some apps that are not as well maintained,

and we struggle a little bit with them. So we try

to find a balance between going too fast and

not doing a good job, above all else [to] make

sure we have an app ready to go before we

take it live.

The community aspect of the server is very

important to the Amahi team, which is why

theyve stayed open source as Puchol explains:So, one of the great things with Amahi is

that anybody in the community can essentially

package apps, and the apps can be, and are

mostly, open source. Some of them are not,

Inside AmahiInterview

Theres plenty of storage information to access so you know

exactly how much space you have

Amahis detailed settings pages make it easy to monitor the

current state of servers

Anybody in the communitycan package apps

but essentially anyone in the community can

come and contribute, and our source code is

also in GitHub for the code that runs Amahi

itself, with the installer and everything. One

of the things that we do is try to work hard

to empower people to express themselves

through the forums, through the wiki and

through various other outlets. We tried to make

it a friendly environment for people to come in

and contribute, because thats how we grow.

DistributionIn fact, it was because of the community

feedback that Amahi 6 was brought to Ubuntu.Theres always been a demand for having

Amahi on Ubuntu, Puchol tells us. We were

originally based on Fedora, but theres always

been that demand for Ubuntu. From our point of

view, it almost doesnt matter what runs behind

the engine of Amahi, and it shouldnt really

matter for users. The community was split on

this, and there were people who were interested

in what happened behind the scenes. We found

we had a small number of people who wanted to

develop Amahi for Ubuntu, but most of the time

we underestimated the effort that would take.

Eventually though, we found one person, Frans.

Frans Meulenbroeks helped port the projectonto Ubuntu, and is now not only the Ubuntu

lead, but also works on implementing Amahi on

ARM. Puchol goes on to talk about how this has

changed their release schedule:

Secure your files on your Amahi box by

storing them on the cloud. With people

using centralised servers to store a lot of

files on these days, you can never be too

careful backing up your important data.

In the long term, people worry about

hardware failures, natural disasters,

vandalism or theft, says Puchol. So westarted getting requests for some way

to automatically sync up shares to the

cloud in a way that was easy. This led us to

implement Amahi Sync. You can think of it

as a one-way Dropbox.

Amahi Sync allows you to upload

important data to the cloud automatically.

These files are then browsable from

the web, and links can be distributed to

access the content.

Each user also gets a free

subdomain, where they can host

(static) web sites or otherwise any file they

want, continues Puchol. Amahi Sync is

included with our two premium plans

Pro and Ninja. The Pro plan includes 50GB

of cloud storage and the Ninja plan

provides 150GB of storage.

Amahi Sync comes integrated with

every installation of Amahi. We will

be expanding the use of Amahi Sync in the

next release of Amahi to make it easier.

Amahi Sync


13/100

www.liuxus.co.uk13

We ask Puchol if there are protocols in

place to allow for users to port to other

distributions themselves:

It depends on how many developers are

willing to chip in, he responds. Somebodycan come in and say and they want to run on

Debian, and that probably wouldnt be too

hard as were already running on Ubuntu. So

we would denitely take the patches for that

and we already kind of have some support for

a bit of that. If somebody wanted to run Amahi

on, lets say, Arch, again we would take patches

for that and welcome the contributions.

Essentially its a community-based project,

so all contributions are welcome. So we dont

discourage that, but were also realistic. Justhaving some patches that can make it work

is not going to cut it; we want users to have a

good experience. So if the developers are not

committed and we dont see the community

actually making it work in the long run, testing

applications and so forth, we would take the

patches but wouldnt necessarily make an

ofcial release.

Fuu ambiiosTheres more in store for Amahi users as well,

old and new, as Puchol tells us about the

upcoming update to Amahi:

The next version, Amahi 7, is right around

the corner, which is very exciting. We have a

space on Fedora 18, and it has a lot of new

features, [a] little bit better performance than

previous releases, new versions of Ruby and

Ruby on Rails and so forth. Its a lot faster and

safer. We also have a plug-in system that weve

developed to make it easy to develop thinner

and lighter apps, basically apps that behave

like they are built in as part of Amahi, but can be

installed and uninstalled at will. Theres going

to be a lot of utilities that will appear with this

plug-in system, so were excited about it.

Now, we essentially build enough that we

can actually run Amahi on both Ubuntu and

Fedora. Were going to try and keep on the

Ubuntu LTS releases, then hop onto whatever

the next Fedora edition is available when wereready to release the following version of Amahi.

Right now, after this one, which will probably

be Fedora 18, well basically hop on to the next

LTS release of Ubuntu. Were going to try and

support both, and we have hooks so we can do

that for both distributions.

A chat with Amahi founder Carlos PucholInside Amahi

IntervIew

Amahi has a smart drive pooling feature, which is only getting better.

Having large amounts of storage can get complicated, especially

when dealing with different RAID levels. Amahi makes it easier by

pooling all the drives together so they can act as one. However, there

are some caveats when adding extra drives, as Puchol explains:

Amahi Sync allows you to upload important data to the cloud

automatically. These are then browsable from the web, and

links can be distributed to access the content. Its not very plug and

play just yet. There is one command-line script that we package that

you run to recognise and mount the hard drives, and then you need to

do some editing of Linux les to get them added to the pool. Wedeveloped that aspect rst by hand, and it does require that little

bit of command-line interaction. Unfortunately, that limits the

usability of what we have in terms of adding storage, as not all our

users are technically savvy enough to do it easily. Were trying to

get rid of that, though: we have specced out a project for creating a

wizard that can more easily mount hard drives and incorporate them

into the structure.

no JBOD

nParts of the storage pool are still under development

nYou can even have it act as your DHCP


14/100


Your source of Linux news and viewsOpenSource

Jon Masters summarises the latest happenings in theLinux kernel community

Jon MastersTHE KERNEL COLUMN

Linus Torvalds has announced the first several3.9 kernel release candidates, following the

closing of the 3.9 merge window (period of time

during which disruptive changes to the kernel

and new features are merged). Merge windows

are typically up to two weeks in duration (and

seldom longer), though Linus has gone to great

pains over the past few years to push developers

not to post patches for inclusion at the very end

of the window. Features merged into the kernel

should instead have received heavy testing in

the linux-next kernel and elsewhere, be largely

complete, and posted for inclusion as early as

possible during the two-week window of frantic

development for a given release cycle. This is the

theory, at any rate.

In his mail simultaneously closing the

merge window, and also announcing 3.9-rc1,

Linus said, I dont know if its just me, but this

merge window had more Uhhuh moments

than Im used to. I stopped merging a couple

of times, because we had bugs that looked

really scary, but thankfully each time people

were on them like paparazzi on Justin Bieber.

Those features that made it into 3.9 include

support for Synopsyss 32-bit ARC architecture

(following a third posting of reviewed patches

from Vineet Gupta), which is designed for use in

embedded and DSP applications, particularly

those wherein the ability to extend the CPU

pipeline with custom instructions is beneficial

(though this author notes that butchering a

CPU pipeline comes with its own hidden costs

and so isnt something recommended for non-

embedded applications).

Another very interesting new feature in the 3.9

kernel is support for Intels PowerClamp driver.

PowerClamp aims to constrain the maximum

amount of power used by the system by forcing

the CPUs to enter an idle state for a certain

percentage of their operating time. At first

glance, this may seem to be less than useless.

After all, having paid good money for a powerfulmodern CPU (with multiple cores), most users

expect to get all the oomph they can out of it.

There are some users, however, where this

desire is balanced by overall power constraints

in particular in data centres where there is a

hard limit (often 10 or 15kW) of available power

for a given rack of server equipment. Exceeding

the power available to a rack can cause all of the

servers in it to shut down, which is generally not

what data centre users want. Google and others

have encountered such problems over the past

few years, and have used their own custom

solutions to (presumably) good effect.

PowerClamp helps to generally solve

the problem of hard-limits at the rack level

by allowing an administrator or software

management tool (agent) to configure the

system such that it will inject a certain number

of idle states onto a given CPU. Typically, the

kernels idle thread (idle task or idle process) will

run only when there is nothing else to do. It calls

a special machine instruction that will efficiently

transition the processor into a lower power state

from which it can be woken when there is work

to do (usually through an external interrupt). In

the case of PowerClamp, additional kidle_inject

threads are created to run at specific times

when there is a need to inject additional idle

states (over and above the regular idle thread)

Jon Masters is aLinux kernel hacker whohas been working onLinux for some 18 years,since he first attendeduniversity at the age of 13.Jon lives in Cambridge,Massachusetts, and worksfor a large enterprise Linuxvendor. He publishesa daily Linux kernelmailing list summary atkernelpodcast.org


15/100

www.lix.co.uk15

The kernel column Jon MastersOpinion

en surce

in order to remain overall idle or the percentage

o time confgured by the user. Typically,

PowerClamp will be used with some higher-level

management sotware that looks to the whole

rack and dynamically tunes many dierent

systems or optimal overall power use.

goig dvlopmtDavid Howells announced that The end is nigh!

or his ongoing UAPI work. UAPI is a near year-

long eort by David to clean up the kernels

internal header fles (source code containing

defnitions and small inline code unctions

typically included into kernel or applicationcode), splitting out those parts that pertain only

to the API (application programming interace)

used by non-kernel user space applications,

such as the Bash shell or Fireox web browser. A

typical Linux system includes many such header

fles within the /usr/include/linux directory.

These are installed as part o compiling the

kernel, during the make kernel-headers stage.

Until now, the process o building user

application usable header fles involved

selective copying o a limited number o kernel

headers (most are not intended to be used by

application code) and judicious use o special

conditionals within those fles to ensure the rightthing would happen when they were used by

non-kernel code. Ater Davids work, the user-

space API is more clearly defned and these

pieces are separated out into fles specifcally

intended or direct use by non-kernel code.

Davids latest email suggests that only a ew

changes pertaining to video ramebuers

remain now that the SCSI stu has gone in.

Miklos Szeredi posted patches implementing

a new overlays fle system. Overlay and Union

fle systems have been a topic o much debate

or many years, particularly because they never

seem to work quite right. The problem they

generally attempt to solve is one o allowing

several distinct fle systems to be joined

together, with the net result being a virtual fle

system (only existing as a whole at runtime)

that contains selective pieces o each o its

constituent parts. A typical use case is one o

embedded routers or live CDs. Both contain

some storage (ash memory or optical media)

that is read-only, and some storage (on a RAM

disk or a separate piece o storage a USB

stick, another ash etc) that can be written to.

A special fle system is then used to present

what appears to be a selection o the content

o both o these underlying stores. As fles rom

the read-only media are modifed or deleted,

deltas are written to the separate writable

storage instead (including special markers

that indicate a fle has actually been deleted).

Unlike other eorts to do overlays, Mikloss

code tries to be as small as possible by generally

passing through operations on open fles to the

underlying fle systems as quickly as possible. It

will be interesting to see where this goes.

John Stultz (o Linaro) has posted an RFC

patch-in-progress that would pull support

or Androids sync driver into the staging tree.

Staging is a part o the kernel source tree where

experimental and not-quite-baked drivers

can sit inside the kernel source while they are

being cleaned up. These drivers are available

only i specifcally confgured or use. The sync

driver provides a collection o synchronisation

primitives (code routines that can be used by

other code to ensure operations happen in the

correct order) or use with drivers that provide

dierent parts o the graphics pipeline used with

the Android SuraceFlinger compositor.

Anton Vorontsov posted the latest version

o a memory control groups (memcg) patch

implementing memory-pressure-level event

support. With this patch, applications that

want to maintain the interactivity/memory

I stopped merging a couple o

times, because we had bugs thatlooked really scaryLinus Torvaldsallocation cost can use the new pressure-level

notifcations. What this means is that it is

possible or an application to be aware o the

overall pressure a system is under or memory.

When Linux runs low on available ree memory, it

will do one o several things. This includes ailing

new memory allocations, swapping out certain

parts o applications to disk, and reeing up

internal caches. All o these have a cost in terms

o overall system perormance (particularly

when the system hits a point o swapping large

amounts o data out to slow rotational disks and

is said to enter a state o thrashing) that has not

historically been easily visible to end sotware.

Now, applications can easily monitor a special

event fle descriptor within a memory control

group and be made aware o low, medium

and critical levels o memory as well as set

specifc limits at which a notifcation will be

given. This allows an application to take steps to

release unneeded in-memory caches (such as

web browser pages) beore the system grinds to

a crawl.

CC;TheLinuxFoundation

nLinus Torvalds making a rare public appearance at LinuxCon Europe


16/100


Your source of Linux news and viewsOpenSource

Simon Brew is a technologywriter and editor,working across theLinux, Windows andMac OS X platforms

It was in the very early 1980s that a fledgling

company by the name of Hudson Soft came

up with a title by the wonderful name of Eric

And The Floaters. The core concept was that

you ran around a maze, planting bombs. Said

bombs could blow away the walls, blow away your

opponents, or blow away one of your lives. It was

a wonderful idea, wonderfully executed. Hudson

Soft went on to expand upon it, with the likesof ve-player Dyna Blaster on the Commodore

Amiga, Atomic Bomberman on the PC, and

numerous other versions of the game for lots of

different formats. The key factor though is that

Hudson Soft caught what made the game special

with its rst attempt. Everything else has been

some form of derivative.

Which made me surprised to see a massively

multiplayer online version of Bomberman spring

up online. At rst glance, it doesnt seem ofcial.

But the graphics pay more than a tip of the hat to

Bombermanof old, while its now acknowledged

on the requisite website that the Bomberman

name is a trademark of Konami.However, the game lives on. As such,

Bombermine which you can nd at

bombermine.com has been attracting up to

1,000 people at a time on the same map. The

game is so compact that its playable via your

web browser, and I cant be the only person

whos lost many hours to something so well

thought through, that stands on the shoulders

of proverbial giants, and builds to something

unthinkable a decade ago.My overriding thought, however, is this: well

played Konami. Assuming that Konami is the

rights holder for this now, it could have pulled

the project down within hours, sent off lawyers

letters, or billed the creators of Bombermine a

hefty sum. It seemingly didnt. Instead, it got the

spirit of what they were trying to do right and, at

worst, has turned a blind eye.

Back when emulators for older computers

appeared on the PC in great quantities just over

a decade or go, this was the prevailing attitude.

The majority of people, knowing that nobody

was getting rich off their work, were happy for

old games to be effectively released into thepublic domain. If anything, lots of programmers

were delighted that their earlier efforts were

being rediscovered.

In any form of human development, it is this

kind of ethos that has accelerated progress. In

cinema, its often said that Pixar came in and

revolutionised animation, but it didnt. It advanced

it, it stood on the shoulders of those who came

before, and it made intelligent advances. Now,

others are doing the same to Pixar.

The grey area would be if something like

Bombermine started to charge to play, which is

when Konamis spider senses would presumably

start tingling. But then this whole unwritten

agreement is a two-sided one. It relies on rms

playing nice, and the people behind whatever

project in question doing the same. But as

Bomberminehas shown, thats entirely possible.

In fact, the emulation scene is testament to what

can happen if everyone adopts such an ethos.

Its refreshing in a time of software

as big business to report on a project of

Bombermines ilk. Hopefully, lots more big

companies can follow the lead set here. Id

recommend blocking the game from their

organisations servers, though

THE OE SOE OL

nBombermineis so addictive youve been warned!

Bombermine shows just whats possible wheneveryone plays together nicely, argues Simon...

laying nicely together


17/100

www.ix.co.uk17

The ree sotware columnOpinion

pen surce

he Free sFre clumn

F oftwa i abot oity, o it i

otig. Being ree also makes the sotware

vulnerable to those looking or a ast buck and

a way round the rules, Everyone wants a slice o

the action, even when this means reshaping the

tools and principles o ree sotware. The game

is to take advantage o loopholes in the licence

packaging the sotware, adding proprietary

code and marketing the result, thereby ulflling

the objective o a dual strategy o proprietary

products and low-end open source.

Some licences encourage this type o

behaviour. I you have signed up to a liberal

licence on the model o the BSD one, you may

Mir offers the prospect of more unintended consequences for theLinux graphics stack and the graphics stack should not be in theownership of one company, says Richard Hillesley

yo lix a bog to

have thought the consequences through, and

may not care. You have put your sotware out inthe world, and those who use it can do as they

like. Users o the GPL will take a dierent view.

There is nothing new in this. The earliest

attempt to grab a proft rom Linux was also

the crudest. On 15 August 1994, William R Della

Croce Jr o Boston saw a business opportunity

in the rise o Linux and fled or the US rights

to the Linux trademark. The frst encounter o

Linux users with Della Croce was in March 1995,

when Yggdrasil Computing fled or a trademark

on The Linux Bible and had it rejected on the

grounds that the Linux trademark was the sole

property o Della Croce. During the ollowing year

a number o Linux frms received demands romDella Croce or payment o 25 per cent o royalties

on products that used the name Linux. This

resulted in a long legal battle in which Yggdrasil

had to prove prior use o the name. The case

wasnt resolved until August 1997, when the Linux

trademark was fnally assigned to Linus Torvalds.

This was the irst o many claims on the

ownership o the rights to the code, or portions

o it, that constitutes a GNU/Linux distribution,

many o which were designed to disrupt the way

Linux and other ree sotware is developed, and

to interrupt the success that GNU/Linux has

achieved. Some claims have been more absurd

than others, ranging rom the suit iled against the

Free Sotware Foundation in Indiana in May 2005

by Daniel Wallace which claimed that the GPL was

an illegal attempt to ix prices at zero, to The SCO

Groups claim or $6 billion rom IBM, or making

Linux ready or enterprise use with technologies

that had been misappropriated rom UNIX, to

which SCO claimed the rights wrongly.

One o the more pernicious means o

subverting the purpose o the licensing is

copyright assignment. The GPL, or any other

sotware licence, depends upon the ramework

o copyright law. Copylet puts the rights and

responsibilities back into the hands o the user,

but copyright depends upon the ownership and

assignment o the code and these can change.

riad hiy writes aboutart, music, digital rights,

Linux and free software fora variety of publications

Copyright assignment asks the developer

to assign ownership o the code to a parentorganisation or frm, which means the ownership

and the licence can be reassigned at a uture

date. The motives or demanding assignment

o copyright arent always bad, but the best o

motives can lead to unintended consequences.

The way around this may be to assign the code to

an independent non-proft organisation such as

the FSF or the Linux Foundation.

This is one o the more serious objections to

Canonicals decision to develop the Mir display

server in competition to Wayland and Weston.

Mir code will be licensed under Canonicals CLA,

which assigns rights o ownership to Canonical.

Mir isnt an application, but aims to be theessential underpinning o the graphics stack on

the most popular Linux distro and, as such, may

not only take resources away rom Wayland but

create uture incompatibilities in the graphics

stack. Removing the ambivalences, incongruities

and incompatibilities in the code is one o the

reasons why so much eort has been poured

into Wayland. One doesnt have to doubt the

intentions or motives o Canonical and Ubuntu

to know that Mir oers the prospect o more

unintended consequences or the Linux graphics

stack, and the graphics stack should not be in the

ownership o one company.

But the worst aspect o the story has been

Canonicals ailure to talk through the issues

and proposed remedies with the community. It

is the contention o the Wayland developers that

the issues given by Christopher Halse Rogers

(bit.ly/WfXhBG) have already been fxed, or can

be resolved by Wayland and Weston. Nobody

is accusing Canonical o being in search o a

quick buck, but rom the outside Mir looks like

a solution in search o problem, and the eeling

remains that Ubuntu has either rushed into a

gap that was already being flled, or is looking or

dierentiation at the expense o the community.nMir is named after

the space station Mark

Shuttleworth visited


18/100

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20/100

Build a Linux homeserver from scratch

Ian Jackson takes you through a step-by-stepguide on how to build your very own homeserver its easier than you might think


Building a PC, let alone a server, may at

first seem like a daunting prospect. To the

uninitiated the inside of a computer may look

no more user-serviceable than a television or

photocopier. How the PC differs from these

devices is in its modular nature. Every part

within a PC is designed to be upgradeable

without the use of any specialist tools or solder

and different components can simply be slottedinto the motherboard. In this guide we will show

how to turn a box full of components into a fully

operational home server.

Whats the difference between a PC and

a server?, you might ask. From a hardware

perspective, the answer is not a lot; at

least from a home server point of view. The

difference is more to do with the definition

of how the machine will be used. Typically

you would use a PC to do everyday tasks like

browsing the web and writing emails. A server

on the other hand is usually configured as aheadless system (ie without the need for a

monitor except during its configuration), and

serves as a central access point from which

all of your other devices can access your

data. For large corporate servers, specialist

hardware is usually used in order to increase

remote operability or reliability; but, for a

home or small office server, regular desktop

components are more than sufficient.

Compared to a Windows-based server, a

user-friendly Linux home server distro like

Amahi requires fewer system resources, istypically more reliable and is completely free.

So, without any further ado, lets get this

build started!

1

2

4

8

9

5

6

7

You dont need a monster specificationto run an Amahi server indeed, itslightweight nature is something thatlends itself perfectly to the reuse of a

previously retired box. Nevertheless,here is what we used for our system.

1. CPU Intel Core i3 3220 processor2. Motherboard Asus P8B75-M LX3. Case Fractal Design Define R44. PSU Storm 700W5. Memory 4GB of DDR3 Corsair

RAM7. Storage 1TB Seagate Barracuda

7200.148. Optical Drive LG Blu-ray ROM9. Video Card GeForce GTX 650

Truth be told, some of the hardware inour list is overspecified for an Amahihome server, but we have grander

plans for it in the future!

Shopping list

FEATURE Build a Linux home server from scratch


21/100


1timetaken10 mins

Inspect the partsThe first thing to do before starting

any kind of system build is to check

that all of the components you have

purchased are in perfect condition.

Installing damaged parts could ruin

other non-faulty parts, so its better to be safe

than sorry. Common problems to look for include

bent pins on the CPU socket; broken capacitors

on motherboards, graphics cards and other

circuit boards; and broken SATA or SATA Power

connectors on drives. Once you have verified

that everything looks okay, you are ready to get

started! Building a PC is an untidy job and you

can greatly increase the efficiency of your build

by tidying up as you go. Once you have unpacked

each component, neatly place its packaging

away from the build, but do not dispose of it until

you are sure all is well!


22/100

Installing the CPU cooler will either be a

very simple or very complicated affair,

depending on the kind of model you have

chosen. For socket 1155 (aka LGA1155

or socket H2) CPUs, the default cooler is

rather easy to install. Firstly, you need to line up the

cooler with the four motherboard mounting holes

before pushing down firmly on each of the four pillars

The next step is to install the CPU/

motherboard/cooler assembly into the

chassis. Go ahead and remove the side

panel from the case before emptying it of

the mounting accessories. Position the

leads carefully out of the way of the motherboard tray

before lining up the board with the tray to confirm

where you need to screw in your standoffs. Standoffs

are little hexagonal screws with both female and male

ends. They act as spacers between the motherboard

tray and the bottom of the board. Only install

standoffs where you have to. Installing standoffs

where there is not an associated mounting hole could

result in the board shorting on the case, preventing

it from booting or even worse, causing damage to

the components. Always use the correct threaded

screws from your cases accessory bag to mount

the motherboard.

Install motherboard4timetaken10 mins

3timetaken15 mins

Install the cooler

Installing memory is one of the easiest

upgrades to perform, and is an identical

procedure regardless of whether you are

installing DDR, DDR2 or DDR3. All memory

sticks have a notch that prevents their

installation in an incompatible memory slot, or in the

wrong orientation. To start, release the two memory

clips by pushing them away from the centre of the slot.

Gently slide the memory into the guides, taking care

that the orientation is correct. Push firmly down on

the memory stick in a direction perpendicular to the

orientation of the board and the two clips should snap

closed. If using a dual-channel board (all modern PCs

are at least dual-channel), make sure you look in the

motherboard manual to be sure that you have the sticks

installed in the right slots to enable dual-channel mode.

Install the memory

When installing a processor in an LGA (land

grid array) based socket, the first step is to

remove the socket protection cover. After

this, lift up the socket lever and release the

mounting clamp before carefully aligning the chip,

taking special note of the notches at the side. Once the

chip is aligned, close the clamp and re-secure the lever

again, holding the CPU in place. The best method of

installing thermal paste on a chip with a heat spreader

is to squeeze out a small amount of compound (about

the size of a grain of basmati rice) and install the coolerstraight on top. The paste will then be compressed out

to just the right thickness. Dont worry about having

paste on every square millimetre of the heat spreader -

the pressure of the cooler will do this over time.

2timetaken5 mins

Install the CPU andapply thermal paste

with your thumb until they lock into place. With most

third-party coolers, however, things will be a little more

involved. Normally you would need to fit mounting clips

to the coolers base before pushing them through the

four holes on the motherboard into a custom backing

plate. These elaborate mounting systems keep a heavy

third-party cooler more securely fastened than would

be possible with plastic push pins. Coolers heavier

than about 800g should be removed before moving the

PC any distance.

The chip willbe cut to onlygo in one way



TIP

The screws only need to be

hand-tight, but theyre easier to

access with a screwdriver

Dual-channel slotsare not alwaysnext to eachother on largermotherboards

5timetaken5 mins


23/100

Installing the video card is the same as

installing any other PCI or PCI Express

device; the only difference is the slots size

and shape. Firstly, remove the backing

plate aligned with the main 16x PCI-Express

slot. Make sure that any sliding mechanism or clip

designed to prevent the graphics card from shaking

loose is in its open position. Line up the end of the

graphics card backing plate with the hole in the case,

and then line up the slot

with the contacts. Gently

push the card, exertingequal pressure from either

end so that it enters the slot

in one smooth operation.

Once you think you have the

card in the slot, check to see

that it is in straight and fully

pushed home. An unseated

graphics card is a common

reason for a computer to fail

when booting.

Even if you are building the simplest ofbudget office machines, you should really

be installing at least one or two case fans

within your chassis. In general, a larger case

fan is preferable to a smaller one, as it shifts

more air with less noise. Where possible, look for case

fans with a 3-pin motherboard attachment rather than

a 4-pin Molex plug, since these can take advantage

of the rpm control offered by the motherboard. To

install the case fan on most cases, line up the fan on

the inside of the chassis and screw in the thick case-

fan screws from the outside. These are normally

self-tapping, so they can be quite stiff to screw in. If

necessary, screw a fan guard into the other side of

each fan. As well as protecting your fingers, they alsoprevent stray cables from interfering with the blades.

Install the video card6timetaken10 mins

With most cases youll be provided with two

different kinds of Phillips-headed screws.

One of these will have a coarse thread, and

the other a fine thread. All hard drives are

screwed in by coarse-threaded screws. Where you

install your hard drives depends on the chassis you

are using, but if installing more than one, try to make

sure that there is as much space between drives as

possible. This will maximise the airflow and keep drive

temperatures low. Many of the more elaborate cases

now available allow you to fit the drives into a slide-out

caddy rather than screwing them to the case directly.

This has the benefit of allowing easy access to your

drives should you need to remove them, but also usuallyprovides some form of anti-vibration isolation.

Install the case fans7timetaken10 mins

For longer graphicscards, make suretheres space

Slip the I/O panelbetween the caseand the board


TIP

Experiment with turning thehard drive around and then

plugging it in around the other

side. This can aid in airflow and

cable management

Install the

hard drives8timetaken20 mins


24/100


Now you have the PSU installed, dont just

leave the wires trailing like spaghetti within

your case. Instead, purchase some cable-

ties from any good DIY ship and tether

them together. This will prevent them from

interfering with your CPU cooler and other fans, and

also greatly improves airflow within the case. If you

have spare PSU cables not powering anything, tie

these together and push them into a spare 5.25 drive

bay out of the way if using a case with a top-mounted

PSU, or beside the drive cage if using a modern bottom-

mounted variant. Cases like the Fractal we are using

have a myriad of cable management options so you can

really go to town on making everything as neat as can

be. As well as tidying the PSU cables, make sure case

fan and CPU coolers are tied too.

With all of your other devices installed,

its time to install the PSU. Some system

builders like to install the PSU first, but

we think that the cables simply get in the

way. When installing the PSU, carefully choose which

cables you plug into each device so that you use the

minimum number of leads. If for example you have a

PSU lead with three SATA connectors, use this cable

to power three hard drives, rather than giving each

device its own cable. This will greatly ease future

expandability, since unless you have an extremely

stacked system, you should have spare cables left

over at the end of the build. Be sure to remember to

install the auxiliary 12V motherboard cable (normally

four or eight square pins) as most boards wont boot

without it, as well as any 6/8-pin PCI-E power cables

required by your graphics card.

Tidy the cables

Install thepower supply

11time

taken20 mins

Most cases come with the 5.25 optical bays

initially populated with covers. Refer to your

cases manual on how to remove these;

some just need bashing out, while others will

need the entire case fascia to be unclipped. With the

bay exposed, slide the drive in from the front until the

fascia is flush with the case before you start to screw

it in. If installing more than one drive to the same case,

repeat as required. Dont be tempted to take the easy

way out and only screw in your optical drive on one

side; this will cause severe vibrations that will result inan incredibly noise system whenever the PC is in use.

Many modern cases now employ quick-release clips

for optical drive mounting. Dont be tempted to rely on

these alone if screw holes are also offered; again they

can cause lots of vibrations.

Install opticaldrives

9timetaken20 mins


Quick Tip

Making use of thecase to tidy helps

with any future cable

rearrangements

The point oftidying cables is tohelp with airflow

Efficient power

usage aids in cable

management

Some casesmount opticaldrives from inside

The PSUshould slot intoits own space

10timetaken30 mins


25/100

All cases come with cables that need to be

plugged into the motherboard to enable the

power and reset switches, the LEDs and the

system speaker to function. Front-panel

connectors differ depending on your motherboard,

so you should have the motherboard manual open

for this step. The power, speaker and reset buttons

are not positive or negative, so can be installed on the

relevant pins in either orientation, but the LED cables

and speaker cable must be installed with the right

lead on the + header. The HDD activity LED cable isusually white and orange, with the orange cable being

positive. The system power LED lead is normally green

and white, with the green cable being positive. If all of

your cables are covered in black insulation, look at the

connectors for orientation.

All of your parts should now be installed and

your server ready for its first boot. Before

you power up, however, take a few extra

minutes to ensure that all is installed as it

should be. Make sure that the CPU cooler is

plugged into the correct motherboard header, and that

it is securely on top of the CPU without any rocking.

With fingers crossed, press the power

button on the front of your case. If all has

gone to plan, you should be greeted by

a POST sequence on your monitor. This

will show the amount of memory installed, a list of

connected drives and CPU information. Press Delete or

the relevant F key to enter the BIOS. Firstly, you should

go into the drive settings and make sure all of your

disks are showing up correctly. Next, take a visit to the

hardware monitor section and ensure your processor

temperatures are steady and within safe limits (above

50C is a concern and may point to an unseated

cooler). Set the boot order to your optical drive first

(assuming you are installing from DVD rather than a

USB stick), then save the settings and exit the BIOS

by pressing F10.

Fit case front-panelconnections

Final checks

Powering on for thefirst time

Install front-panelUSB, FireWire andaudio cables

12timetaken15 mins

14timetaken10 mins

15timetaken1 min

13timetaken10 mins

Give the memory modules a firm push to ensure they

are all the way into their slots. Make sure that your

graphics and any add-in cards are pushed fully into

their respective slots, and that you have screwed down

their backing plates. Secure any loose cables with ties

and replace the side panel. Plug your keyboard and

mouse into the USB ports, your video card cable into

the DVI or VGA slot, and the 3-pin kettle power leadinto the PSU.


Most chassis have front-panel USB and

audio connections; some also have eSATA,

FireWire or USB 3.0. Most motherboard makers denote

internal USB headers in blue and FireWire heads in red,

but check the manual first as the pin-outs are the same

shape. Helpfully, some cases have cables with large

connection blocks that slide straight onto the whole

USB header; others come with small, fiddly cables that

must be installed individually on each pin. If using astandalone sound card, youll need to plug the FP audio

connector into this instead. eSATA headers will need

plugging into a spare SATA port on the motherboard.

USB 3.0 headers are often thick and inflexible, so

position them carefully so they cant easily pop out.

Quick TipSome motherboards

come with a caddy

to attach the audio

cables helpful


26/100



If the worst happens and thereis no POST when you press thepower button, dont panic. Ifthe system powers up, ie thefans spin, the power supply isfunctioning properly. If thereare no signs of life, first makesure that you have the powerswitch installed on the correctmotherboard header, and thenmake sure that the switch on thecase is attached to the cable andnot damaged in some way.

If there is a standby LED

on your board and it is notilluminated, the PSU may needreplacing. If you hear beepcodes, check your motherboardmanual for their meaning. Themost common cause for amotherboard failing to POSTwithout beep codes is that one ofthe memory sticks is faulty. Tryremoving one of the sticks if youhave two or more and see if thatcauses the machine to POST.Check that all graphics and PCIcards are fully installed intotheir slots. Disconnect any USBdevices from the machine and

reattempt the boot.

Troubleshooting ifthere is no POST

5 top Amahi applications

On another computer, head over to www.amahi.org

and create an account and login. Once done, verify

your account by clicking on the emailed link; you will be

forwarded to a page asking you to create your HDA or

Home Digital Assistant. The first screen will ask you

for your gateway, or routers address. In our case this

was 192.168.1.254. Next, choose a non-conflicting IP

address for your HDA. We chose 192.168.1.50. The next

step is to name your local DNS domain. This can be

called anything you want, but we left it at the default of

amahi.net. Perform the final check that all details have

been correctly entered and take a note of your install

Place the bootable operating system CD

in your computers primary optical drive. If you set

the boot order to CD-ROM first in step 15, the CD

should begin the operating system setup sequence

automatically. The first screen to greet you will ask

you if you want to try or install Ubuntu choose the

latter. Do not select and install additional packages

while installing Ubuntu, as Amahi requires the default

installation. During the install process you will be

asked to create partitions and to pick a suitable

name, computer name and password. Installationshouldnt take too long and before you know it you will

code; you will need this later. Download the Ubuntu

12.04 install CD if you dont already have a copy and

burn the ISO to a blank disc.

Install Ubuntu

Sign up andconfigure Amahi

Installing AmahiMany Linux distros can be used to run a homeserver, but Amahi is a particularly good choicedue to the ability to extend its functionality usingapps. Here we set it up with Ubuntu

be on the desktop. If you are a seasoned Ubuntu user

youll already feel at home; if not, bear with us! Click

the dash home icon (top left) and type in Terminal to

bring up the terminal window.

Although Amahi itself is an incredibly useful home server, itsfunctionality can be further enhanced with applications! They alsohelp support developers and are extremely reasonably priced.

CRASHPLAN Allows youto automate the backupof your PCs. It can be setto intelligently identifyduplicates so incrementalbackups are very quick.

DLNA Enables DLNA/UPnP clients like Xboxes,PS3s and set-top boxesto stream media fromyour server. An invaluableaddition to Amahi!

COUCHPOTATO Anautomatic NZB and torrentdownloader. If you downloada lot of content using theseP2P standards, you needCouchPotato in your life.

TIME MACHINE AllowsMac OS X Time Machine orsimilar AFP-based backuptools to work with yourhome server. This results ineffortless data security foryour peace of mind.

CLONEZILLA Allows youto fully clone completefile systems for multipledeployments or systemrestorations from scratch.Clonezilla has a myriad ofpossible applications!

1

2


27/100


Amahi is a great server, but itsnot the only one out there. Hereare some alternatives you maywant to consider

CENT OSA community-built Red HatEnterprise Linux using all theofficial sources, making it a rock-solid and reliable distro that canhandle all your server needs withsome tweaking.

UBUNTU SERVER

Ubuntu without X is otherwisevery similar to the desktopversion, although it does includemore software to allow it to hostemail and websites. Support isalso maintained for five years.

TURNKEY LINUXThere are over 100 variations ofTurnKey Linux, and each one isspecialised for a specific type ofserver. While its primarily usedin the cloud, its designed to workon physical boxes as well.

Served up

Amahis key features

Within your open terminal window, type

wget http://u12.amahi.org/install-amahi and press

Enter. Assuming you get a response, now type in

sh install-amahi. The terminal will now ask you for

your install code. This is the one we received in step 1.

Type it in and press Enter. You will now be asked

for your password. This is the one you configured

After the next reboot, Amahi is now fully

installed and ready to use. There should be two Amahi

logos on your desktop. Go ahead and open the Amahi

Dashboard. The Firefox web browser will open with

http://hda and ask you to log in. Use your Ubuntu

login, not your Amahi website login. The first login will

create the first user, so take note of the details you

enter. You can now go ahead and begin sharing your

movies, photos and videos on your network. From

a remote computer or media streamer device like a

games console, you simply connect to hda and enter

your user credentials. By default, files stored in the

/var/hda/files folders will be shared. Creating new

shares or changing the directories within the dashboardis very easy and there are a host of apps available for

you to try and enjoy!

during the installation phase in the previous step.

Type it in and press Enter. After a few minutes

you may receive a pop-up asking you to check for

updates click Close. Eventually you will be asked to

reboot to get started. Installation of Amahi may take

minutes or hours depending on the quality of your

hardware and internet connection. For our i3-based

setup and with a BT Infinity fibre optic line, it took

about 7 minutes.

Install Amahi

Use Amahi4 What makes it tick?

3

UBUNTU COREAmahi is built on Ubuntu, and as such itmeans you can set it up on a pre-existinginstall, and save a lot of time and hassle.

ONE-CLICK ADD-ONSThe Amahi App Marketplace is comprisedof hundreds of packages that addfunctionality to Amahi with a single clickof a button.

WEB INTERFACE

Amahi comes preconfigured with a fully

featured browser-based interface thatyou can access over a network or even viathe internet to control your server.

BUNCH OF DRIVESUsing its own open source utility, Amahiis able to smartly combine your sparestorage drives into one, much moreuseful virtual hard drive.

EXTERNAL NETWORKINGDial into your own network with the built-in VPN server, allowing you to access yourfiles and other systems directly.

REROUTING

Take control of your network with Amahi

to route PCs, phones etc. It comes withDHCP and dynamic-DNS, and is morestable than some ISP-supplied routers.


28/100

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Documents

Linux User 26 Developer Issue 125 2C 2013