Linux Journal

120 Pages·2013·13.06 MB·English

™
Control
Your Own
Data
with the
Personal Cloud
Since 1994: The Original Magazine of the Linux Community OCTOBER 2013 | ISSUE 234 | www.linuxjournal.com
EMBEDDED
DIAGNOSE
YOUR CAR
WITH ANDROID
TEST NEW
BUILDS
QUICKLY
WITH A
U-BOOT TRICK
BUILD A
PERSONAL
COMPUTER
OR SERVER
WITH AN
EMBEDDED
SYSTEM
+
Shell Scripts and
ImageMagick
HOW-TO: rss2email ZURB FOUNDATION
Set Up Your A Simple Approach Design a Responsive
Own BirdCam for Viewing RSS Feeds Web Site
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Linux Journal_Layout 1 8/6/13 10:19 AM Page 1
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CONTENTS OCTOBER 2013
ISSUE 234
EMBEDDED
FEATURES
Be a Mechanic...with
64
Android and Linux!
Decode Your “Check
Engine” light.
Bill Childers
Create a Mini PC
74
or Server
with Olimex’s
Olinuxino
A13/A13Micro
Build a capable
Linux personal
computer or server
with a cheap
embedded system.
Ronald Kurniawan
A Handy U-Boot Trick
91
U-Boot over LAN.
Bharath Bhushan Lohray
ON THE COVER
• Control Your Own Data with the Personal Cloud, p. 104
• Diagnose Your Car with Android, p. 64
• Test New Builds Quickly with a U-Boot Trick, p. 91
• Build a Personal Computer or Server with an Embedded System, p. 74
• Shell Scripts and ImageMagick, p. 36
• How-To: Set Up Your Own BirdCam, p. 48
• rss2email: a Simple Approach for Viewing RSS Feeds, p. 42
• Zurb Foundation—Design a Responsive Web Site, p. 26 Cover Image © Can Stock Photo Inc. / pzAxe
4 / OCTOBER 2013 / WWW.LINUXJOURNAL.COM
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INDEPTH
The Personal Cloud
104
What happens when you take
all the functionality of enterprise
commercial software and make
it available to individuals? We’re
about to find out.
T.Rob
COLUMNS
Reuven M. Lerner’s
26
At the Forge
Zurb Foundation
Dave Taylor’s Work the Shell
36
Image Manipulation
with ImageMagick
Kyle Rankin’s Hack and /
42
Command-Line Cloud: rss2email
Shawn Powers’
48
The Open-Source Classroom
It’s a Bird. It’s Another Bird!
64
Doc Searls’ EOF
114
The First Personal Platform—
for Everything
IN EVERY ISSUE
Current_Issue.tar.gz
8
Letters
10
UPFRONT
14
Editors’ Choice
24
New Products
60
Advertisers Index
117 74
LINUX JOURNAL (ISSN 1075-3583) is published monthly by Belltown Media, Inc., 2121 Sage Road, Ste. 395, Houston, TX 77056 USA. Subscription rate is $29.50/year. Subscriptions start with the next issue.
WWW.LINUXJOURNAL.COM / OCTOBER 2013 / 5
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Executive Editor Jill Franklin
[email protected]
Senior Editor Doc Searls
[email protected]
Associate Editor Shawn Powers
[email protected]
Art Director Garrick Antikajian
[email protected]
Products Editor James Gray
[email protected]
Editor Emeritus Don Marti
[email protected]
Technical Editor Michael Baxter
[email protected]
Senior Columnist Reuven Lerner
[email protected]
Security Editor Mick Bauer
[email protected]
Hack Editor Kyle Rankin
[email protected]
Virtual Editor Bill Childers
[email protected]
Contributing Editors
Ibrahim Haddad • Robert Love • Zack Brown • Dave Phillips • Marco Fioretti • Ludovic Marcotte
Paul Barry • Paul McKenney • Dave Taylor • Dirk Elmendorf • Justin Ryan • Adam Monsen
Publisher Carlie Fairchild
[email protected]
Director of Sales John Grogan
[email protected]
Associate Publisher Mark Irgang
[email protected]
Webmistress Katherine Druckman
[email protected]
Accountant Candy Beauchamp
[email protected]
Linux Journal is published by, and is a registered trade name of,
Belltown Media, Inc.
PO Box 980985, Houston, TX 77098 USA
Editorial Advisory Panel
Brad Abram Baillio • Nick Baronian • Hari Boukis • Steve Case
Kalyana Krishna Chadalavada • Brian Conner • Caleb S. Cullen • Keir Davis
Michael Eager • Nick Faltys • Dennis Franklin Frey • Alicia Gibb
Victor Gregorio • Philip Jacob • Jay Kruizenga • David A. Lane
Steve Marquez • Dave McAllister • Carson McDonald • Craig Oda
Jeffrey D. Parent • Charnell Pugsley • Thomas Quinlan • Mike Roberts
Kristin Shoemaker • Chris D. Stark • Patrick Swartz • James Walker
Advertising
E-MAIL: [email protected]
URL: www.linuxjournal.com/advertising
PHONE: [phone] ext. 2
Subscriptions
E-MAIL: [email protected]
URL: www.linuxjournal.com/subscribe
MAIL: PO Box 980985, Houston, TX 77098 USA
LINUX is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
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Current_Issue.tar.gz
Stealth Linux
SHAWN POWERS
M y favorite scene from The the Google Reader shutdown. One of
Karate Kid (the original the things I love about Linux is that
from 1984, sorry, I’m old) there’s no single way to do anything.
is when Mr Miyagi stops the Cobra While I want a bookmark to take me
Kai sensei, John Kreese, from beating from RSS site to RSS site, Kyle shows
up his defeated student. Miyagi is a us to have articles delivered via e-mail.
small, feeble-looking old man, and If that sounds interesting to you,
he has no need to prove to anyone check out his column this month for
that he’s an awesome warrior. Linux instructions on how he does it.
is much the same: awesome and Dave Taylor and I have a little
unassuming. Linux is slowly but surely crossover with our columns this
taking over the world, embedded into month, which is completely
cell phones, televisions, wristwatches coincidental, but very aptly timed.
and server rooms. Because Linux itself Dave explores the power of the
isn’t a commercial entity, it doesn’t ImageMagick suite of tools used
need to be flashy, and it doesn’t need in scripting. I follow later in the
to brag. When it comes to embedded magazine with my column describing
systems, Linux is “honking the nose” my homemade streaming Webcam
of proprietary alternatives, just like Mr of “BirdTopia”, or “Backyard”
Miyagi does to the bully. as others refer to it. I use some
We start out our Embedded issue ImageMagick tools to manipulate the
with Reuven M. Lerner’s column. This images pulled from my cell phones,
month, Reuven explores an alternative all from scripts on my Linux server.
to the extremely popular Twitter I’ve enjoyed creating my BirdCam
Bootstrap. Zurb Foundation may setup more than most of my Linux
sound like a character from Starcraft, projects, and I hope it inspires you
but in fact, it’s a competitor to Twitter to try something similar!
Bootstrap that is worth a look. Kyle The truly embedded portion of this
Rankin takes the path less traveled as issue starts with Bill Childers and
well this month with his solution to his article on interfacing with your
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CURRENT_ISSUE.TAR.GZ
vehicle’s OBD system. Using Android with managing our personal, private
and a fancy dongle, Bill explains how data in a world focusing on selling
to get diagnostic information directly services? T.Rob explores that and
from your car! If your “Check Engine” gives us a lot to consider.
light suddenly pops on, but gives no Much like “cloud” computing,
reason as to why, Bill’s article will be “embedded” computing has a fairly
extremely helpful. Ronald Kurniawan flexible definition. One thing is
goes one step deeper and shows how certain, however, and that is that
to use an $80 embedded system from Linux is perfect for the embedded
Olimex to create a desktop system, or world, however you define it. With
even a complete server. Proving there’s its breathtaking variety of hardware
more to the tiny embedded world support and unassuming happiness
than just Raspberry Pi devices, Ronald living behind the scenes, the
walks through the entire process for embedded market may be the vehicle
getting a system running. Linux finally uses to take over the
Most new embedded systems take world. Year of the desktop? Pshaw,
advantage of the U-Boot system more like year of “the everything
for starting up. Bharath Bhushan else”, with a little desktop on
Lohray covers U-Boot and some the side! Although Linux may not
of its features, along with a few have the marketing campaign, or
tricks. Whether you need to boot ad campaigns of the proprietary
your embedded device from an SD alternatives, much like Mr Miyagi, it
card, a USB stick or even over TFTP, doesn’t need it. Just do the job, do it
U-Boot can make modifications as well, and the rest will fall into place.
simple as a device reboot. Bharath We hope you enjoy this issue (very
walks through the process and likely reading it on your embedded
gives configuration examples. And device); we certainly enjoyed putting
finally, T.Rob talks about the future it together!■
of the Cloud—specifically, the
Personal Cloud. While the fluid size Shawn Powers is the Associate Editor for Linux Journal.
and burstable expansion of cloud He’s also the Gadget Guy for LinuxJournal.com, and he has
computing has revolutionized the an interesting collection of vintage Garfield coffee mugs.
way we think about server rooms, it Don’t let his silly hairdo fool you, he’s a pretty ordinary guy
also has moved sensitive data out of and can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].
our personal control. How do we deal Or, swing by the #linuxjournal IRC channel on Freenode.net.
WWW.LINUXJOURNAL.COM / OCTOBER 2013 / 9
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letters
Doc Searls replies: Coincidentally, I
am a youth of 66 as well. So let’s toast
staying young for the duration (clink!).
As I said, mostly I stay in private homes
(all with free Internet connections) when
I’m paying my own way. And, I like
AirBnB. But the youth hostel idea is also
a good one, and even cheaper. Thanks!
Cerberus, I
In the August 2013 issue, Shawn
Powers recommended the
Cerberusapp application to track the
Net Connectivity in Hotels location of your Android phone (see
In Doc Searls’ article “Dear Hotels: his UpFront piece titled “Android
Quit Being A-holes” in the August Candy: Hire a Cerberus to Find Your
2013 issue, he writes: “In the US Phone”). This is indeed a great app;
and Europe, the expensive hotels thanks for sharing.
are the ones with inconvenient
connectivity deals....It’s the cheap However, you should be
hotels that offer free Internet, just aware of the privacy policy
like they offer free electricity, heat, (https://www.cerberusapp.com/
air conditioning and running water.” privacy.php): “LSDroid uses your
personally identifiable, location...
I’ve recently stayed in youth hostels in information...to create new features,
northern Italy and in Alberta, Canada. promotions, functionality and
They all had free Wi-Fi. Why would services....LSDroid uses cookies and
anyone stay in an expensive hotel? log file information to...b) provide
custom and personalized content,
And, I’m a “youth” of 66—most youth advertisements and information;
hostels seem to have no age limit. c) monitor the effectiveness of our
—David Brown marketing campaigns....LSDroid
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