Database Develop

Better Terminal Emulator Magic

Just showed up in the market. Awesome works the 1.5 soft keyboard. Has its quirks but does have some good uses, an update was put out this morning to fix the enter key problem.

great find! it's so hard to sort through the **** apps these days. can't wait until we get a well needed market update.

Just to let people know they have a message saying it doesn't work on some modified Roms. I'm on 6.0h and it didnt work for me. it went into a force close loop even when i wasnt using it.

Its a step in the right direction, but its not all there quite yet. VERY HELPFUL though
1) There is a problem getting the <enter> key working. I find that I need to roll around the scroll button a bit before the enter key will work after starting or switching users.
** another way to deal with this is to use a different shell. For some reason, using full bash instead of sh works. There are other (great) advantages to this (more on that later).
2) You can't see what you're typing when in landscape mode, which is the only way that the VK is actually practical -- keys are too small to use effectively in portrait.
3) If you use a colored shell, the colors screw up when switching to/from the vk. Must be something to do with how he's buffering and redrawing the console.
On using bash instead of sh...
Advantages:
1) color
2) BASH HISTORY
3) scroll wheel = arrow keys
4) lots more -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bash
How:
copy bash into some executable part of the filesystem
create a bashrc file anywhere at all in the filesystem.
put in your bashrc the following:
Code:
PS1="[\w]\\$ "
HISTFILE=/some/path/file/with/write/permissions
** this is of course a regular shell script, so add whatever startup code you like in there, like a custom PATH, etc.
IN the "better terminal emulator" program, menu --> preferences --> command line and set it to "/path/to/bash --rcfile /path/to/bashrc"
And of course, running the following:
Code:
su -c "/path/to/bash --rcfile /path/to/bashrc"
will give you root with bash and the same setup as your regular user, including a shared history file (note that the history file is only updated when bash EXITS and so it is current as of the moment you initially LAUNCHED the terminal app.
Note: I like to write that su -c line into a wrapper I call "subash" that I place in the path.
bash is attached for convenience, its a .tar.gz file with an extra extension to confuse the newbs (and trick the forum filter into allowing it).

@lbcoder
Thanks Great tip!

@lbcoder
Thanks Great tip!

using bash as default shell
Id love to use bash, its the shell im used to and since Im not that good at *nix having bash would help, 1 cyanogen rom had ash(i think) and then none of the scripts floating around worked and so they needed to be edited(something that sounds a bit tedious)
Id also like a decent prompt, maybe color ls and all those bells and whistles, I think this could be well received with all the bugs worked out and maybe a script that would make any scripts found on the device into a format that bash needs...
the biggest is the lack of history, I have used a good variety of linux and unix shells and droids is the first without cmd history, a prompt with 'pwd' and tab auto complete...
cant we just get a REAL shell, is that so wrong?
bhang

Job Control
lbcoder said:
On using bash instead of sh...
Advantages:
1) color
2) BASH HISTORY
3) scroll wheel = arrow keys
4) lots more ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very nice and very useful. Thanks for providing this!
One feature lost in this build of bash: Job Control (^Z, jobs, fg, bg, and %number commands to manipulate jobs). Hitting Ctrl-Z suspends the bash shell and all its child processes.
The existing sh shell supports job control. This build of bash does not.
I'm going to have to learn how to set up a cross-compilation environment. Another project to add to the list...

[Howto] Use your desktop keyboard & mouse on the webtop

While this may not be something that most people may want to do, it's something that I wanted to figure out here at work since I have a tri-monitor setup and wanted to use my existing keyboard & mouse on my Atrix's webtop without having to get the HD dock and use a physical KVM. Another obstacle to overcome was the fact that my linux workstation (main machine) is on a separate, wired network from my Atrix, which is connected via a 3G/4G MiFi device. You'll want to make sure you're rooted in both android OS and the webtop OS. You'll also need lxterminal working in the webtop.
So you'll need to get a couple of Jaunty packages compiled for arm:
x11vnc
libvncserver0
Once downloaded, you'll need to get them onto the /osh partition for installation. I do this via adb:
adb push x11vncfiles/ /sdcard/tmp/
adb shell
su
mkdir /osh/tmp
cd /sdcard/tmp
cp *.deb /osh/tmp
sudo -H -u adas bash (switch you to adas user in webtop)
sudo /bin/bash (switches you to root in webtop; you may need to use sulogin)
chroot /osh
cd /tmp
dpkg -i *.deb
exit
Now on to testing...
If you are like me and need to be able to get to the webtop but it isn't on the same network that your desktop/laptop machine is on, you can use the USB cable and adb forward to handle the connectivity. A positive side-effect of this limitation is that x11vnc only needs to listen on the lo (localhost) interface, which helps keep that connection more secure.
LOCAL USB CONNECTION
In lxterminal in the webtop, run the following (as adas) for testing:
export DISPLAY=:0.0
x11vnc -noncache -nolookup -localhost
On your desktop/laptop, run the following:
adb forward tcp:5900 tcp:5900
Using a vnc viewing application (vncviewer, tightvnc, etc), connect to localhost:5900
If all worked out, you should see a remote view of your webtop
REMOTE WIFI CONNECTION
If your Atrix and desktop/laptop are on the same network (or can reach each other via routing), you can do the following steps to test:
In lxterminal in the webtop, run the following (as adas) for testing:
export DISPLAY=:0.0
ifconfig (notate the IP address for eth0)
x11vnc -noncache -nolookup -listen ip_addr_from_prev_step
On your desktop/laptop, run the following:
Using a vnc viewing application (vncviewer, tightvnc, etc), connect to ip_addr_of_atrix:5900
If all worked out, you should see a remote view of your webtop
AUTOMATING THE PROCESS
In order for the x11vnc process to spawn automatically, we need to add it to the lxsession autostart file. This file is read when lxsession starts up and in turn fires off whatever scripts are listed in there. The file is located at:
/etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart
By default, the only thing listed in that file is start-oshwt-1.sh, which is a script located at /usr/local/bin. So to get x11vnc working, we add an additional entry into that file:
(as root in webtop): echo start-x11vnc.sh >> /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart
Then we need to create that script in /usr/local/bin:
vi /usr/local/bin/start-x11vnc.sh
Code:
#!/bin/sh
export DISPLAY=:0.0
cd ~
nohup /usr/bin/x11vnc -usepw -forever -nossl -logappend /home/adas/.vnc/x11vnc.log -noncache -nolookup -localhost -nofb -bg
(If you're using it on the same network, replace -localhost with -listen ip_addr like the example above)
Save that file, and make it executable:
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/start-x11vnc.sh
Also, we need to modify Tomoyo to allow it to run that script. Edit /etc/tomoyo/domain_policy.conf and around line 1440:
Code:
<kernel> /osh/usr/bin/lxsession
use_profile 3
Change the 3 to a 2.
Add the following lines to that section:
Code:
allow_execute /osh/usr/bin/x11vnc
allow_execute /osh/usr/local/bin/start-x11vnc.sh
FINAL TOUCHES
I wanted to be able to just move my mouse cursor to the right edge of my desktop machine and have it magiaclly jump to the atrix monitor. To do this, I use a piece of software called x2vnc. If you're using Windows, there's also a package called Win2VNC that will accomplish the same thing. With either software, you run the client (in my case, it's x2vnc) and tell it which direction your vnc server is located at. So to the right of my linux desktop would be east, so I run x2vnc like so:
x2vnc -east localhost:5900
And this connects me to the x11vnc instance running on the atrix. By moving my mouse to the right edge of my main screen, the cursor now appears on the webtop, and I'm able to mouse around and type using my desktop's keyboard.
USING X2X INSTEAD OF X2VNC/WIN2VNC
For anyone that would rather not install any additional packages, and are already running a local X server (XFree/Xorg/Cygwin) you can use x2x to directly connect to the X server running on the Atrix. In order to do this, you'd need to modify /etc/init.d/startXServer.sh and remove the -nolisten tcp from the startx lines and reboot. Then X will listen on port 6000 (for the first display) and that can be used via adb forward on your host machine. The keyboard entry still doesn't work in the Mobile View for some reason...still investigating this. But the mouse seems to function a lot better over native X; selecting text and dragging windows works fine, as does copy & paste.
The top section still applies (you'll need double-root), but the changes are rather minimal:
Code:
adb shell
su
sudo -H -u adas bash
sudo /bin/bash
vi /etc/init.d/startXServer.sh
At the bottom of this script you'll find the lines:
Code:
sudo -u adas -i /usr/bin/startx -- -nolisten tcp -layout HDMI vt2 &
else
sudo -u adas -i /usr/bin/startx /usr/local/bin/xnull -- -nolisten tcp -layout HDMI vt2 &
Remove the -nolisten tcp from both of those lines. Save that file.
You'll also need a method of giving your localhost access via xhost. This has to run under the user context that has the primary display (adas). Since I went to this method after the x11vnc method, I already have the /usr/local/bin/start-x11vnc.sh script setup. I modified this to not run x11vnc but to instead disable access controls for X connections:
Code:
cat /usr/local/bin/start-x11vnc.sh
#!/bin/sh export DISPLAY=:0.0
xhost +
With those set, reboot your phone. When ready, relaunch the webtop and either fire up x2x directly or via forwarding over adb like so:
adb forward tcp:6001 tcp:6000
x2x -east -to localhost:1 &
You should now be able to mouse around on your webtop. Typing in terminal, browser, etc works, but Mobile View is still not working. I think I have it narrowed down to that app (aiw) not responding to XKEYBOARD events. I'll know more once I get my usb hub working and can plug in a keyboard.

This is awesome. I noticed that everything works great but then when I try to click into my mobile view and use my keyboard it wont work there. So for instance once my vnc is up, i can type in firefox, lxterminal, etc etc. But once I click into the phones mobile view the keyboard just isnt recognized. Its pretty odd.
Again though. This is great. Thanks.

EDIT: After poking around some more, I guess I was mistaken. I must've been using my BT keyboard when I was typing in Handcent. The keyboard via vnc isn't being passed to the aiw (Mobile View) window. I'll try and get that resolved.

Awesome work. This is sweet.

Synergy?
Has anyone tried installing a program called Synergy?
It's a software KVM that lets you "place" another screen beside your current screen and lets you control it by moving your mouse beyond the edge of your screen. For example, you have a desktop monitor in front of you and a laptop to the left. Running the server program on the desktop (where the mouse and keyboard are plugged in) and the client program on the laptop, after a quick setup, you can move your desktop mouse+keyboard to control the laptop. You can't drag windows or files across but copy+paste does work for text between computers, which is very useful.
It's open source and runs on Linux so I don't see any reason the client software couldn't be installed on the webtop (may have to be compiled from source).
I can't post links in the forum yet but the software is at www dot synergy-foss dot org.
I don't have an Atrix (yet) so I can't test it but if VNC works then I don't see any reason that this shouldn't work.
The default port on Synergy is 24800, so substituting that in the tutorial should allow the same thing to be achieved.
If this works it would be one more reason to get the phone when it comes out in Canada (2 days)!

Yep, I tried synergy first, but unfortunately, it wouldn't work in my situation since the synergyc (client) runs on the phone and tries to connect to the syngerys (server) on my PC. I can't redirect ports in that direction over USB, so x11vnc it was.
For those on the same network, there's no reason it wouldn't work just fine. I actually use synergy on the other side of my tri-monitor setup to control our 50" plasma when doing demos and whatnot.

D'oh
I was hoping this was a "got usb host working" thread
Oh well...
/me begins learning about his phone to get that project started.

Does the hdmi cable need to be connected to phone after we setup vnc server to run automatically ? What happens after reboot without cable plugged in ..

The x11vnc server will autostart whenever the webtop is started for the first time. After that, I believe that entire X instance runs in the background. It's just idle, waiting for the next time you connect the hdmi cable/dock.
x2vnc auto reconnects by default, but for those that are forwarding tcp ports via adb, you'll have to recreate the port forward prior to it reconnecting.

agentdr8 said:
The x11vnc server will autostart whenever the webtop is started for the first time. After that, I believe that entire X instance runs in the background. It's just idle, waiting for the next time you connect the hdmi cable/dock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was your hdmi cable always plugged in your testing ?

I just tested this right now; disconnected both cables and rebooted. Once the phone was fully up, I plugged in usb and adb shell'd in:
Code:
[email protected]:~# ps aux | grep x11vnc
Unknown HZ value! (176) Assume 100.
root 4351 0.0 0.0 1648 528 ? S+ 08:42 0:00 grep x11vnc
[email protected]:~# uptime
Unknown HZ value! (171) Assume 100.
08:42:39 up 2 min, 0 users, load average: 2.29, 1.29, 0.50
[email protected]:~#
And then I plugged the hdmi in, selected Webtop from the popup, and reran that above:
Code:
[email protected]:~# !ps
ps aux | grep x11vnc
adas 4645 0.2 0.2 9832 2020 ? Ss 08:44 0:00 /usr/bin/x11vnc -usepw -forever -nossl -logappend /home/adas/.vnc/x11vnc.log -noncache -nolookup -localhost -nofb -bg
root 5258 0.0 0.0 1652 548 ? S+ 08:44 0:00 grep x11vnc
[email protected]:~# uptime
08:44:36 up 4 min, 0 users, load average: 1.26, 1.16, 0.53
[email protected]:~#

Not sure if usb host without a Motorola media hub / lapdock has been mentioned. I managed to get my Atrix working with full usb host by applying 5vdc to the usb power rail. Seems to work with any usb hub and keyboard / mouse combo long as 5vdc is present on the host side(phone microusb connector). This works in both webtop and normal android shell.

agentdr8 said:
EDIT: For anyone that would rather not install any additional packages, and are already running a local X server (XFree/Xorg/Cygwin) you can use x2x to directly connect to the X server running on the Atrix. In order to do this, you'd need to modify /etc/init.d/startXServer.sh and remove the -nolisten tcp from the startx lines and reboot. Then X will listen on port 6000 (for the first display) and that can be used via adb forward on your host machine. The keyboard entry still doesn't work in the Mobile View for some reason...still investigating this. But the mouse seems to function a lot better over native X; selecting text and dragging windows works fine, as does copy & paste.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, this is great. I was wondering if you could make more of a step by step guide for this portion. I'm currently in the middle of getting Cygwin but just in case anything goes wrong haha. Thanks.

^^ Sure thing. I'll update the first post tomorrow.

usb host...?
@callen81 - You got USB host working?! I am highly interested in how this would work, but by applying 5v DC to USB, I don't exactly get what you mean. Could you possibly post a guide? I know a TON of people on this forum would love to hear how exactly you did it.

It's as easy as it sounds; you just connect a micro usb togo cable to a hub and make sure power goes back to the phone. Usually most hubs have a diode to make sure power can only come from the host port not to it. So I just hardwired +5vdc from the hub power socket.

Great work callen. Will give it a try. You may want to draw up a simple schematic or maybe some pics and start a new post in Dev or Accessories so others can benefit from your discovery.

agentdr8 said:
Great work callen. Will give it a try. You may want to draw up a simple schematic or maybe some pics and start a new post in Dev or Accessories so others can benefit from your discovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just made a small film.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shvFmLRUNGA

so agentdr8, great guide but im just havin to much trouble with tryin to get x2x workin. its bein a pain with cygwin on my windows box, and too much work for my osx box. im wonderin, would it be hard to just get X workin forwardin the webtop session straight over like ssh or even telnet :/

I haven't tried redirecting the entire webtop X session to a different X server...not sure how that would work out.
I did try some simple ssh forwarding and that works fine. You'd need to install openssh-server, openssh-client, and grep packages (use -i --force-overwrite for grep). You can then tunnel whatever you want over that ssh connection to the phone.

Webtop Reloaded

SEE LATEST UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM OF POST.
After quite a bit of tinkering, I have finally gotten to a point where I have nice spartan webtop. It's sad that it doesn't come this way from the factory. I am dropping a few pics, and if there is enough interest, I can share some of the files and mods needed. I am no dev so, don't expect a pretty script you can run to make it one click, but it shouldn't be to hard to replicate. I am pretty much running a full lxde desktop with all of the appropriate hooks and dependencies to allow you to use it pretty "normally". All of the preferences apps, tools, panels work properly. The lxde menus are all intact as well.
I have not destroyed my system and rebuilt it from scratch, but the basics are pretty straight forward.
1. [webtop] webtop2sd 2.0.1
2. WebTopScripts - Fixing apt-get dependencies on WebTop
After you have completed those setups, you will need to modify your startup scripts like so:
WARNING DRAGONS AHEAD, TURN BACK IF YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE BREAKING STUFF!!
sudo apt-get install nano (it's just easier this way )
sudo nano -w /usr/local/bin/start-oshwt-1.sh
Bottom of start-oshwt-1.sh
# Cache Firefox files to improve startup times
#[ -x /usr/bin/firefox-readahead ] && /usr/bin/firefox-readahead &
# start OSHWT 1 scripts
update-font.sh
sfalv -w "webdaemon -d -n"
#gnome-settings-daemon **NOTE** Leave this uncommented if you want to keep webtop-panel
lxde-settings
#sfalv -i "xscreensaver"
#sfalv -i "aiw -d"
sfalv -i "docking_manager"
fcitx
webtop-smartfolder-monitor
webtop-refresh-bookmark
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Press Ctrl+x and overwrite that file.
nano -w /usr/local/bin/start-oshwt-2.sh
Bottom of start0oshwt-s.sh
# start OSHWT 2 scripts
#sfalv -i "awn-autostart"
#sfalv -i "webtop-panel"
#sfalv -i "webtop-wallpaper"
sfalv -i "lxpanel"
sfalv -i "pcmanfm"
sfalv -i "evbridge"
sfalv -i "window_switcher"
sr-test avahi_start &
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ctrl+x and overwrite
What we are basically doing is stopping startup of all non-essential services, and the lxde+gnome soup that Motorola used, and reverting to all ldxe pieces. You should be able to customize you panel, icons, and desktop by just right-clicking as you normally would in lxde. All of the existing icons from awn should still show up in the lxde menu. It's so simple , once I got it all working, that I am not sure why Motorola choose to slap all the random gui stuff together.
Getting the window manager to behave was a little trickier, the theme is hard to get changed and I don't remember which setting worked. I will have to revert to find the right process. I also wanted to nuke the desktop compositing, but it looks like it is baked in somewhere, and I was never able to completely disable it.
Updates 2011/1/16:
I personally hate the default window decoration. I choose to switch to Metabox
Window Decoration
Change the default window decoration:
Edit /osh/etc/gconf/gconf.
Find the section name="metacity"
Change the <stringvalue>webtop-theme</stringvalue> to something like Metabox
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
XFCE4 Notes
In order to get a fully functioning xfce4 session, you need to use the following settings...For bonus points, running xfwm4 seems to disable compositing as well, so there is a gconf flag I can probably find to turn it off by default later.
--start-oshwt-1.sh--
gnome-settings-daemon
--start-oshwt-2.sh--
sfalv -i "xfce4-panel"
sfalv -i "xfwm4 --replace"
#NOTE: The --replace tells linux to replace the active WM after it is started, there is a cludge of scripts that startup lxsession and call the default window managers that I am still untangling.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disable desktop compositing (shadows)
To disable compositing run this from lxterminal:
gconftool-2 -s '/apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager' --type bool false
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why does switching themes not work?
I ran across the primary reason that theme switchers are broken. Motorola did something really silly and hardcoded gtk to include the gtkrc of the webtop theme by default.
Open /osh/etc/gtk-2.0/gtkrc and comment out the include line. Once you comment out this line, you can use normal theme tools to swap settings. The best tool is going to be gnome-appearance-properties. ENJOY!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Please do. Peace
MB860 - ROM junkie

berniesteven said:
Please do. Peace
MB860 - ROM junkie
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Does it work with 2.3.6?

I would be interested also, thanks.

Nice looking peace of work man!

Yea, please share this! Looks a lot better than what I'm running! +1

Please share. It seems very interesting.

Yes! Yes!
Beer Money may be available if your of age!!!

I can help you make a nice script if you pm me
sent from my AL60R!THM Atrix

My first post and so worth it lol. Please share would be much appreciated ...

Shouldn't be to difficult to reconstruct. I have consolidated most of it to the startup scripts and used pieces that should already be present.

Dude this is nice. I was looking to get LXDE running on my webtop, but it is already on there.
This is quick and easy just edit the 2 files and you have LXDE running without having to use Synaptic to add anything.

I want to put iOs on my webtop or windows

This is really slick. the only problem I have right now is that awn manager can't save the config file & I had to start aiw from lxterm

ycavan said:
This is really slick. the only problem I have right now is that awn manager can't save the config file & I had to start aiw from lxterm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are using my files, you aren't using awn anymore. lxpanel has it's own settings. Just right click on the panel and choose "Add/Remove Panel Items". You can add whatever icons/executables you want to the panel. I have icons for lxterm, firefox, ysclient and aiw on my dock.

blingmaster said:
Dude this is nice. I was looking to get LXDE running on my webtop, but it is already on there.
This is quick and easy just edit the 2 files and you have LXDE running without having to use Synaptic to add anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, the main reason I used the other steps were to add programs I needed like tsclient for vnc and remote desktop connections. I have profiles for all of my windows and linux servers, so the laptop running fullscreen rdp is actually very very very productive. I use virtual servers I rent with linux and windows via rdp on the web, and I have all of my heavy-lifting tools on-call 24/7.

ssmr2t said:
I want to put iOs on my webtop or windows
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Remote Desktop FtW...

But how is this dev ? Its like theming webtop really .......

helfrez said:
I also wanted to nuke the desktop compositing, but it looks like it is baked in somewhere, and I was never able to completely disable it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dude if you can make that happen you will be my personal hero for at least a week =D
dicksteele said:
But how is this dev ? Its like theming webtop really .......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i agree it's not exactly dev, but it's hard to fit this into the other categories.. i know i probably come off like i'm defending my own theme switching thread, but eh. this seems like the best place for this stuff. maybe we need a webtop specific forum?

Post about a separate subforum here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=976354
We really need one place to collaborate on things. Either one main one or a separate one on each device subcategory that supports webtop.

[Q][n00b] Could anyone develop a program for me?

Hello everybody,
I recently bought my RaspberryPi for a school project, but I have no experience with python or coding in general.
My guess this isn't too hard to develop, but with no knowledge I won't come far.. I really hope one off you would like too help me
I am setting op a 'Hall of Fame' in my school, but I want to make it more interactive, so I figured this;
My RaspberryPi connected to a flatscreen and a numberlockpad, to show people short video clips of people in this 'Hall of fame'.
The idea is this;
1. On the screen is a box that states; "Insert birthdate here and hit enter".
2. When people do that, a short clip, about 1 - 2 minutes and stored on the SD, will be shown.
3. When it's ended, the screen with "Insert birtdate here and hit enter" has to come back.
I hope this is will be possible, and that anyone would like to help me..
You will definately be credited!

I'd imagine you'd want to use PyGame for the interface and then pass a command to omxplayer. I'd love to help you out but life is a bit frantic at the moment.
Sent from my GT-S5830 using Tapatalk 2
---------- Post added at 10:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:35 PM ----------
Check my python thread. It has links to some resources.
Sent from my GT-S5830 using Tapatalk 2

That is definitely possible and probably won't require much programming to get working. Making it pretty will be more challenging, but so long as you focus on the underlying script first you should be fine.
You should start by learning some Bash and/or Python.
Create a script that will prompt the user for birthday inputs (i.e. Enter Month of Birth).
Create another for script for launching the video in full screen (i.e. Enter Name of Video to Play).
Then you only need to tie these scripts together in another script such that when a user enters each input (year, month and day) it will funnel the strings into the video launching script. If your videos are named logically (i.e. with date codes as thier names) it will be trivial to set up.
I'm happy to help out in my free time when I can, but you have to make the effort yourself first. If you ask specific questions you'll be more likely to get help too. I doubt anyone here is willing to just code this for you. The whole point of the Raspberry Pi is that it is supposed to promote education and insprire people to learn how to code

m2xtreme said:
That is definitely possible and probably won't require much programming to get working. Making it pretty will be more challenging, but so long as you focus on the underlying script first you should be fine.
You should start by learning some Bash and/or Python.
Create a script that will prompt the user for birthday inputs (i.e. Enter Month of Birth).
Create another for script for launching the video in full screen (i.e. Enter Name of Video to Play).
Then you only need to tie these scripts together in another script such that when a user enters each input (year, month and day) it will funnel the strings into the video launching script. If your videos are named logically (i.e. with date codes as thier names) it will be trivial to set up.
I'm happy to help out in my free time when I can, but you have to make the effort yourself first. If you ask specific questions you'll be more likely to get help too. I doubt anyone here is willing to just code this for you. The whole point of the Raspberry Pi is that it is supposed to promote education and insprire people to learn how to code
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, Thanks for your reply, and you are completely right. I am going to do that!
Do you maybe know a way to start with python? Could this be a good starting point?
Great idea, to split the action in 2 seperate scripts, I guess, but I am going to try to make it work.
NathanBookham said:
I'd imagine you'd want to use PyGame for the interface and then pass a command to omxplayer. I'd love to help you out but life is a bit frantic at the moment.
Sent from my GT-S5830 using Tapatalk 2
---------- Post added at 10:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:35 PM ----------
Check my python thread. It has links to some resources.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your reply, I am going to learn some python basics and will definately check out your stuff, thanks!
-------------------------
(I don't have much spare time, but I'll update on my progress here )
(oh and I am dutch, so I am sorry for my englisch..)

I have heard of codecademy but never used it so I cannot comment on the quality of it.
First you should look into what version of Python you are using on your development computer. You can check this by running from terminal:
Code:
python --version
I learned Python the old fashioned way; by reading through the official documentation. The official documentation can be found here, just make sure you select the correct version since there are (mostly minor) discrepancies between versions:
http://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/
Also, check out Kahn Academy. They have video walkthroughs of some of the basics of Python that are very good. If you aren't into reading through loads of documentation I would say this is your best bet. Admittedly, the official documentation can be quite hard to read at times. Watching a video to learn supplemented with exercises seems easier to me.
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/computer-science
I believe all the computer science stuff on Kahn Academy is only Python and is in order so click on the first one even if it doesn't say "Python" in the title.
Best of luck! Let us know how it goes and if you have any more questions.

I am currently learning python, if you need some help let me know, id be glad to help where i can
[email protected]

Some questions..
Hello
I am trying to get my code together, learned the basics of the basics, but I have some questions, this is my code so far;
Code:
print "Hallo, en welkom in deze Hall of Fame!" #Hello and wecome in my hall of fame
print "Kies een van de personen uit waarover u meer zou willen weten te komen" #Choose one
print " "
print "Vul hieronder de geboortedatum van uw keuze in en druk op 'enter'" #Enter bithdate of your choice
print " "
y = " "
while y != "stop" :
x = str(raw_input("Geboortedatum: ")) #Geboortedatum = Birthdate
print " "
if x == "26-10-1994" or x == "26101994" or x == "26 10 1994":
print "De gekozen geboorte datum is 26 Oktober 1994, dit is de geboortedatum van Bjorn van Beek." #Chosen bithdate is the one from Bjorn etc..
elif x == "01-11-2003":
print "De gekozen geboorte datum is 1 November 2003"
else:
print "Oeps, waarschijnlijk heeft u een foutje gemaakt tijdens het typen." #Oops, You have probably entered something wrong
print "Probeer opnieuw.."
print " "
y = x
else : print "Finish"
- What is the command to execute a videofile? so when someone enters a birthdate the video starts instead of a line of text
- A clear command? refres of the windows?
thanks for the feedback so far!!

B-vb said:
- What is the command to execute a videofile? so when someone enters a birthdate the video starts instead of a line of text
- A clear command? refres of the windows?
thanks for the feedback so far!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Happy to hear you have made some progress. There are many ways to play this video so you will have to decide yourself how you want to do it. First you must choose what videoplayer to use and install it. In this example I will use 'mplayer' as it is probably sufficient for your needs. I would probably so something like this:
Code:
import os
videoplayer = "mplayer"
options = "-fs" # Play in fullscreen
date = "26101994"
#
# Write code to match your input videofile string to the actual filename
#
# It should look like 'videofile' below...
#
videofile = "/path/to/file_26101994.ext"
# mplayer [options] [file]
# i.e. "mplayer -fs /path/to/file_26101994.ext"
os.system("%s %s %s" %(videoplayer, options, videofile))
print "Now playing your videofile. Enjoy!"
Make sure you put the 'import os' at the top of the script. I'm not sure what you are asking in the second question. Perhaps you can explain a bit more?

m2xtreme said:
Happy to hear you have made some progress. There are many ways to play this video so you will have to decide yourself how you want to do it. First you must choose what videoplayer to use and install it. In this example I will use 'mplayer' as it is probably sufficient for your needs. I would probably so something like this:
Code:
import os
videoplayer = "mplayer"
options = "-fs" # Play in fullscreen
date = "26101994"
#
# Write code to match your input videofile string to the actual filename
#
# It should look like 'videofile' below...
#
videofile = "/path/to/file_26101994.ext"
# mplayer [options] [file]
# i.e. "mplayer -fs /path/to/file_26101994.ext"
os.system("%s %s %s" %(videoplayer, options, videofile))
print "Now playing your videofile. Enjoy!"
Make sure you put the 'import os' at the top of the script. I'm not sure what you are asking in the second question. Perhaps you can explain a bit more?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Thanks for your feedback!
First I had to start everything from my pi, but that's already the point where I get stuck..
I can't seem to figure out, how to start my script? double click does nothing, choosing a program to launch it with doesn't do anthing too.
Even making it executable by $ chmod +x myscript.py
And the first line is; #! /usr/bin/env python
So what am I doing wrong?
m2xtreme said:
I'm not sure what you are asking in the second question. Perhaps you can explain a bit more?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, someone has entered a birthdate and a video has been show, I would like the windows to be cleared (fresh window).
A restart or something, is there a command for that?
Thanks in advance!

B-vb said:
I can't seem to figure out, how to start my script? double click does nothing, choosing a program to launch it with doesn't do anthing too.
Even making it executable by $ chmod +x myscript.py
And the first line is; #! /usr/bin/env python
So what am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try running it from the terminal, that might give you a hint as to what is happening:
Code:
python myscript.py
B-vb said:
Well, someone has entered a birthdate and a video has been show, I would like the windows to be cleared (fresh window).
A restart or something, is there a command for that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what windows are you referring to? do you mean the terminal and the videoplayer? Perhaps you can describe what you are using more? What operating system are you running on your Pi?

Screenshots don't always save

Hello.
I have a tasker profile that's not quite working as I want it to, trying to get a screenshot method working because the buttons on my phone aren't reliable
(Task) 1: Run shell ~ Command screencap -p /sdcard/screenshots/screengrab-%DATE-%TIME.png
Use root (ticked)
2: Flash "Saved!"
It works, but I have to wait awhile before screenshotting again. If I want to take two screenshots in a row, the first one will save, the other won't. Seems like it's affected by what minute it is.... if it's 5:16 on the first screenshot, and 5:16 on the second, the second won't save. But if it's 5:16 on the first screenshot, and 5:17 on the second, it works. Is there something I need to add after %TIME so I'm not limited, or is this not a fixable issue?
This may not seem like a big deal for many people but sometimes I take screenshots of important emails, payment receipts, etc, sometimes they're too big to fit all on one screen and need 2 or 3 screenshots.
May or may not be relevant, but my phone is on 6.0 and stock ROM.

Bump

Found someone else with the problem I was having, adding %TIMES seems to have solved it.

Cinderbunny said:
Found someone else with the problem I was having, adding %TIMES seems to have solved it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Glad that you solved it. Just a friendly tip: to be able to save multiple (999, to be exact) screenshots per second, you could add %TIMEMS instead of %TIMES.
Additionally, if you want the actual, human-readable time in the filename, you could use the following task:
Code --> Java Function
Class Or Object: Date
Function: new {Date} (long)
Param (long): %TIMEMS
Return {Date}: date
Code --> Java Function
Class Or Object: SimpleDateFormat
Function: new {SimpleDateFormat} (String)
Param (String): yyyyMMdd-HHmmssSSS
Return {SimpleDateFormat}: formatter
Code --> Java Function
Class Or Object: formatter
Function: format {String} (Date)
Param (Date): date
Return {String}: %datetime
Code --> Run Shell
Command: screencap -p /sdcard/screenshots/screengrab-%datetime.png
Use Root: ticked
I hope this is of use to you, or anyone!