A Forum run by Enthusiasts of MidNite Solar

MidNite Solar Monitoring software and hardware => Local App software => Topic started by: asdex on October 28, 2015, 01:59:05 AM

Title: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: asdex on October 28, 2015, 01:59:05 AM
Hi, I have been reading all about running the Midnite Classic Application in Linux and have been thinking of installing Windows 7 as a dual boot and other options using Wine.
I noticed on the Midnite CD adobeair.deb and installed this. I then installed LocalStatusPanel Version 0.3.27 8-2-2013.air and got the window shown in the attached picture. Does this mean the software is running? I can't test it as I'm not going to our remote house for a couple of weeks.
I'm running LXLE
Thanks,
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: TomW on October 28, 2015, 07:56:05 AM
That sure looks like it is "running" and waiting to find a Classic or be given an address to connect to.

It will not get past that until you connect to a Classic.

That is my opinion, of course.

Tom
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: Halfcrazy on October 28, 2015, 10:19:36 AM
I agree with Tom. I believe it is all ready to go. I know we used to support linux but the newer versions of AIR did not support Linux so unfortunately the newer versions of the Local App wont run on the older AIR.

That said I believe we are going to be recruiting a contract engineer to work on a new Local App that is NOT AIR based. Andrew can comment but I heard something about HTML based.

Ryan
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: atop8918 on October 28, 2015, 11:10:01 AM
I am a big GNU/Linux fan which is one reason I chose AIR in the first place as it was one of the few widely used frameworks which provided Linux support. I'd still be working on getting the Local App out if not for having a portability framework like AIR underneath it. Unfortunately Adobe gave up on Linux and we lost out. I have not tried running the Local App under WINE or any other emulator. I'm pretty sure it would work with a VMware player, but I haven't tried it personally.
As far as a new version of the Local App I don't really know anything about those plans as I am pretty much full-time on the website and production support these days.
For those who want to try it, I stopped upgrading the AIR SDK around version 2.5 so if you can find a version of AIR around 2.5 for Linux then the Local app _should_ work. The last version of WINE I played with (can't remember which now) had AIR listed as GOLD support meaning almost all features were working under emulation. It might be worth a try. I'll give it a shot myself at some point.
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: asdex on October 28, 2015, 02:59:34 PM
Hi, thanks very much for your comments. I'll grab a crossover cable from work and try it end of next week.
I had installed Wine but didn't use it. Just installed the deb file then the application. Thais it. two minutes work so was very surprised considering all the complex  instructions on some websites,
Well, time will tell.
Cheers,
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: atop8918 on October 29, 2015, 10:23:56 AM
I can confirm that the Local APp works fine under Linux Mint using Wine. I've got mine purring away here watching my Classics. The only feature I haven't tried (albeit a big one) is setting configuration values. I can monitor just fine though.
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: ChrisOlson on December 15, 2015, 10:19:54 PM
I installed the Air .deb package and the Local App runs but it's hosed

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/4KzE3rhmVLVgV8GbmrFKkZqnuJEdIW18l4HxfpSotgKP0gwNF6sFWn0NB43VGb6p9inCvpODf4ygcZsL9WlMSU5TA5GNKr2_W7IBs5DnJmLX0g6voEymxtCy2BFkspi42cKugQcDLrCsSqfeXoLTYXVfcWvInipriOPNbBq7iknqUTgrRYXMJI5UDFyTSQpTSlVgI5TuR5Q_ydJf2ol6zBbhuEyg7TvLDidp-eMRqGeVVigl6Ze84b3mLomwVSh0VfPuAvTjPrazbYlhGmIK7iczAfPQLm9VFluQAqo8AVcJ6q54xphr06lAoZ3UDvPr4SPibdH4kr3rhRuZSr-LAvMpWzgyctvc5w5fAGR7CfNlyTJDFKDV16OimFDNyVDP3Zn4PZQNXrncqEoE_1YBWPSrjQfj6yoawz9mQi8ZHtyARgsl64IxkKyyXFRw25r6T8T28JwlgMoVTSlpyaO2hGEwRtu1S3MD39DtndyDDqM3uvXA71YwdgQiEIXqTWTpey4yHWqBlJsGXAWkC2XYPRqgrxO8itFFvm1qB0mpTTh-dwcSPfME5Z0sTHuCrKh8uljO=w805-h504-no)

Debian 8.2 Jessie with KDE4/Plasma desktop

Maybe it's because the firmware is really old in my Classic.  But I can't update that either because I don't own a Windows computer to do it with.
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: atop8918 on December 16, 2015, 03:53:33 AM
I think there is a Linux version of the Classic updater based in Python. You may want to have a quick look through the forum to see if it's still available.

I managed to get mine working with the latest AIR from Adobe installed on Linux Mint which I think is Jessie-based + LXE. That looks to me like the communications aren't working properly, though if it popeed up it must have gotten the first 100 packets or so from the Classic.
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: ChrisOlson on December 16, 2015, 10:34:09 AM
Yeah, it scanned the network and found the Classic OK.  Just that the interface is screwed up and won't show any data.  Back when, running 'winetricks adobeair' used to install AIR on a Debian box.  That doesn't work anymore.

chris@toshiba:~$ winetricks adobeair
Executing w_do_call adobeair
Executing load_adobeair
Downloading http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/win/download/4.0/AdobeAIRInstaller.exe to /home/chris/.cache/winetricks/adobeair
--2015-12-16 09:09:38--  http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/win/download/4.0/AdobeAIRInstaller.exe
Resolving airdownload.adobe.com (airdownload.adobe.com)... 23.79.104.148
Connecting to airdownload.adobe.com (airdownload.adobe.com)|23.79.104.148|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 404 Not Found
2015-12-16 09:09:43 ERROR 404: Not Found.

------------------------------------------------------
Downloading http://airdownload.adobe.com/air/win/download/4.0/AdobeAIRInstaller.exe failed
------------------------------------------------------

The path to the Adobe installer was changed or deprecated on Adobe's end and it changed to:
https://get.adobe.com/air/download/?installer=Adobe_AIR_20.0_for_Win32&standalone=1

Various Debian-based distros had .deb packages for it.  Adobe didn't like the the fact that other people were packaging it for their systems (typical with Adobe over the years for everything), so they pulled it.  Adobe likes to keep control and their business model doesn't fit in the open source world.  They even tried to stop Google's Pepper Flash but had to bow to the majority when Android, which is linux-based, gained the largest installed base of any operating system on earth in billions of smartphones and tablets.

The sooner you guys can get away from Adobe and build something different, the better it will be for everybody.
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: ChrisOlson on December 16, 2015, 12:31:04 PM
OK, well - I built a pseudo WinXP wine install with winetricks on Debian 8.2.  This has to be done manually in Debian, where it comes pre-packaged with a lot of the Debian offshoots.  Mint, Ubuntu, etc are based on Debian, but they are not Debian.

So then I manually installed the Adobe AIR and the Local Status Panel and it works fine.  Although in Debian you have to write a little shell script to execute the airappinstaller.exe, put the script somewhere in your PATH as a normal user and chmod it a+x to install AIR applications.

Yeah, Mint (and maybe Ubuntu) make this a lot easier.  But I don't like distributions where they pre-package stuff I don't necessarily want, and then break it later when they shove a half-baked update out the door.  So I stick with Debian where I can custom build my system the way I want it, and it stays stable until I decide to change it, not when some update pops up that says "hey - get the latest and greatest - we just fixed a bunch of stuff that wasn't broke".

Can make settings and so on to the Classic fine with the Local Status Panel after I got it running.

Where's that Python Classic firmware updater tool at?  Can't find it.
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: atop8918 on December 17, 2015, 05:11:26 AM
Ah, my mistake. I thought we had a Linux updater but I think I was wrong about that. Sorry to get everyone's hopes up again.

I'm with you on Debian though I was tired of the hassle of updating my netbooks and just went with Mint for one of them. I liked it so much I just stuck to it. 1GHz 2nd gen Atom processor with 1G ram. Runs better than my brand new Windows10 i5 + 8G!
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: Halfcrazy on December 17, 2015, 05:49:06 AM
We do have one but I need to get some one to put the files in it. Let me see what I can do. The actual reason it slipped away as it works on apple to but so many people had so much trouble on apple because of the command line interface I guess. Give me a bit I will see if I can resurrect this
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: ChrisOlson on December 17, 2015, 12:22:45 PM
Yeah, OS X's shell is kinda broken compared to the pure Unix/linux world.  Apple basically took BSD back to the days when it was proprietary, so Linus Torvalds wrote the linux kernel to get away from proprietary Unix operating systems.

We dropped use of Windows here when Microsoft started playing the Windows XP -> kludge -> worse kludge -> max kludge -> total kludge game.  My wife bought a MacBook Pro, which she likes because it's fancy.  I got the old computers and revived 'em with linux and have never looked back.  This old Toshiba that I'm on with only a single core T1350 @ 1.86 GHz and 2.5 GB RAM is way faster with Debian/KDE in it than my wife's fancy MacBook Pro.  My server that I built with a quad-core i7 clocking 2.47 GHz with 8GB RAM and internal RAID10 can compute the Force in the universe and write the results to disk before Win10 running on the same hardware can open Internet Exploder and connect to Windows Update.

It shouldn't be that hard to write even a bash shell script that can make the calls to the USB port to upload and write a firmware file to a Classic.  Just use 'lsusb' to figure out which port it's connected to and send it.  Fldigi and Flrig does it using CAT commands (or CI-V on ICOM) on ham radios with no issues and gives me full software control of the rigs from my linux computers over a USB interface.  Which is one hell of a lot more complicated than updating the firmware in a Classic.
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: Halfcrazy on December 17, 2015, 02:19:20 PM
Quote from: ChrisOlson on December 17, 2015, 12:22:45 PM
We dropped use of Windows here when Microsoft started playing the Windows XP -> kludge -> worse kludge -> max kludge -> total kludge game. 

Yes but then they made "Windows 10" to loosen all the Kludge, but it unfortunately plugged all the filters and destroyed everything
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: ChrisOlson on December 17, 2015, 09:06:10 PM
Quote from: Halfcrazy on December 17, 2015, 02:19:20 PM
Yes but then they made "Windows 10" to loosen all the Kludge, but it unfortunately plugged all the filters and destroyed everything

LOL!  Yeah.  I haven't really used Windows 10 much, but from what I've seen on other people's laptops it's slower than slow.  Fortunately, for Microsoft, most people have never used anything else so they don't know any better.

The only reason Redmond skipped Windows 9 is because Apple is pretty much kicking their %@*.  Since OS X is, well, version 10 of Mac OS, they decided to make Windows 10 too, to try to keep up instead of looking like the has-been they really are.
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: atop8918 on December 18, 2015, 04:52:53 AM
The one redeeming feature of 10 is that it is not as slow as 8.
Still prefer XP over any of them and Linux over all of them!
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: anvil on December 19, 2015, 05:28:29 PM
I'm out of my league a bit. I only have an android phone.

is there any possibility of upgrading via android using this apk?

http://qpython.com/
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: ChrisOlson on December 21, 2015, 03:23:13 PM
Quote from: anvil on December 19, 2015, 05:28:29 PM
I'm out of my league a bit. I only have an android phone.

is there any possibility of upgrading via android using this apk?

http://qpython.com/

AFAIK, updating the firmware in a Classic requires direction connection with a USB cable.  Unless something has changed and there's a network-based firmware updater now.  Not sure an Android phone supports serial link commands over USB.  If I knew what the Classic uses to communicate over serial link I'd attempt it at the command line with just a simple bash shell script.
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: Cniemand on December 21, 2015, 04:00:09 PM
Probably the main reason I stick with the mac environment regardless of it being pricey. The OS.
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: ChrisOlson on December 21, 2015, 04:53:32 PM
Quote from: Cniemand on December 21, 2015, 04:00:09 PM
Probably the main reason I stick with the mac environment regardless of it being pricey. The OS.

My wife has her MacBook Pro and likes it.  OS X is ok, but it's like Windows in one way - it is commercially packaged and you do it the Apple Way or No Way.  That sort of turns me off on it.  The last Mac I had was a PowerBook G4 and I ran that right up to the end of when they stopped supporting PowerPC and went to x86.  When I sold it on eBay several years back it had PowerPC Debian in it.
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: Cniemand on December 21, 2015, 05:56:34 PM
Sure. I have used linux. Nothing wrong with it. I would classify it more as an OS for those who really want to learn nuts and bolts of getting it all to work. OSX is for those that either do not or simply do not have the knowledge to tinker with theirs os. I'm happy with OSX just working. :)
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: Halfcrazy on May 06, 2016, 11:02:28 AM
I was able to get it running on my desktop running mint linux. Pretty straight forward so far. Got to unlock the classics and see if I can write to them now
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: Halfcrazy on May 06, 2016, 11:20:09 AM
Looks like I have all the functionality I had under windows, except the Local App runns about 3x faster
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: binkino on July 19, 2016, 09:31:34 PM
Hey
some news about a new App? Long time gone

Just tried ... installed Air in Wine on a Mint18/64bit
then the Local App - first thought, it looked well
but can connect a classic, open up the window with the gauges,
after some seconds it is like frozen
sometimes can enter the serial number, so i could access the classic, and if it tries writes data to classic,
game over. "connection closed" or keeps "frozen"
Title: Re: Midnite application running in Linux
Post by: binkino on July 21, 2016, 08:39:25 AM
Possible a way for other users?

We can not use Air+wine - so I played around after changing from XP to MINT18/64bit
I am not new on this, but never worked enough with it, so I find out some things, other for sure allready know, but if this help will help some one, time was not wasted.


In Linux you can get Oracle VM VirtualBox for free (search in the software depot of your distribution)  + the  additional expansion here, http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.0.18/ if you want to use adaptive sreenresolution (really best thing ever)

Take a image of an XP or install it fresh without any extra programs into an virtual HDD and install in it the Air and App
You can reduce the screen resolution to a minimum, (800x600 is ok) just big enough for showing the app
Or change to "seamless mode"* (menu shortcut is HOST+L --- it can do it automatic after start if wished)
That works also great, so long as we don't have someting really better usefull. On Android also no update, not working better, just useless.
You have the windose in the background and only see the local app, best emu ever so long.


*(translated from germany to english, please find it)