# want to built autopatcher for linux



## gary4gar (Nov 13, 2006)

don't u think that linux is only for the people who have broadband connection with lots of GB's to spare??

so what the Users without internet?
so don't u think that there should be something like autopatcher which cointains  latests updates,patches and soft need for java,flash, win32 codecs


what u say about this project?
is it viable?


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## praka123 (Nov 13, 2006)

So @Gary Best of Lux as you are starting this great project.it surely helps ppl with no broadband connxn.  Maybe Anurag Patil@gnurag can help u on this.


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## gary4gar (Nov 13, 2006)

do u think that i will be able to do this project??
like i don't have any experince in this field.
i wants u all to 
check its if is worth?
there should'nt be a project of same kind running
what kind things do i require for the project?

can u pls guide me

as i am gonna include add non-free soft(flash,jave) as well so what the licencing issues


also i don't want to write the script for it from a start and plan to use exxixting scripts like BUMPS or automatix with little changes


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## mediator (Nov 13, 2006)

@Gary, making autopatcher is very simple for Linux! All u have to do is learn SHELL SCRIPTING! Make individual shellscripts for each package, Mark em in numbers and ask users of their choices of install and what packages they want to install and then execute corresponding shell scripts. As for setting up paths, the answer is again a SHELL SCRIPT. So u may learn SHELL SCRIPT and help noobies here. U may even post it on net and name  it something like "Autopatcher by Gary" .

But mind that u have to download all dependencies for the corresponding softwares urself. Fedora will have different package types and Ubuntu will have different etc. So u may start with the one installed on ur system. Its not an easy task since u have to take a note of dependencies for each and every package! ANd those are not in 10s but 100s of them or may be more.

So u may start by creating an autopatcher with like 5-6 softwares first. Like Sun java, limewire, xmms-mp3 etc. I can help u if u face errors in shell script. But I'm too busy with mah Exams these days and can't do the good work for atleast 1 month or so.

So Best of Luck n keep up the good work!


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## JGuru (Nov 14, 2006)

@Gary, Take the help of @Mediator, @GNUrag + others who know Shell scripting & other stuff.
*Java SE* is already released under GPLv2. So it's there are no licencing issues!!
 For other softwares check their license policies.


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## mehulved (Nov 14, 2006)

You will have to be very careful to include all dependancies and also to resolve the cases where there's round dependancy or conflicts.
__________
I guess reading up a little bit on LFS should help out in this.


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## gary4gar (Nov 15, 2006)

i am changing the idea a little,

how about a *_swift starter_* from digitians like autopatcher from neowinians
i say so because its very difficult for one person to take this project. when a community is envoled  in it its becuase easy as a pie.

Do forum rules permit this @mehul?? or u have to talk to raboo to confirm

@mediator
thanx u showed the light in dark path that is now i actually know what is do be done.

thanx to prakash kerala & JGuru for licensing advice.


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## JGuru (Nov 16, 2006)

@Gary, That's right. It's very hard for a single person to do a project in Linux unless
 he/she knows things thoroughly!!
 Better form a team of 4 or 5 persons. And get started.


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## mehulved (Nov 19, 2006)

Well we can get a few things started. If a few people team up and are ready to join in we can form an unofficial group from digit. 
But if you want digit's name to be officially associated we need to ask FatBeing or Raaabo.


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## Satissh S (Nov 19, 2006)

Whats with rpm/deb/tgz/ebuild configs?? It wud create more confusion than use. A better bet IMO is restricting to deb and rpm based distros.

Thats quite easy, we can write python scripts or if u want the same auto patcher like interface, we can create using pygtk or pyqt.

We just gotta take care of dependancies. And regarding the building of binaries we must decide to what support we have to build with.. like for building with --enable-* as most deps are rather based on features we add.

The tougher thing would be to maintaining it across several distros.

I'd suggest we use aggressive optimisations and also Intel C Compiler. (ICC for linux is free for personal use)


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## QwertyManiac (Nov 19, 2006)

I'd like to join in as well.
Why not just package most available DEBs/RPMs into a simple one click interface.


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## eddie (Nov 20, 2006)

Satissh S said:
			
		

> I'd suggest we use aggressive optimisations and also Intel C Compiler. (ICC for linux is free for personal use)


 Wow!!! I never thought about converting my Gentoo system to ICC.
Is it completely compatible with GCC? I mean when I googled, it says it is C++ compiler but what about the code that is written in C and not C++. Will it compile that code as well? If it can, then may be I should image my Gentoo partition and recompile it using ICC


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## JGuru (Nov 20, 2006)

Welcome my friend @Satissh after a long hiatus.
 @Eddie, I think the Intel C compiler is compatible with gcc.


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## eddie (Nov 20, 2006)

But what does this compatibility mean? If it means that it can compile the C++ code that can be compiled using gcc then ok...but what about the C code? Can anyone confirm whether it works then?


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## mehulved (Nov 20, 2006)

I guess rpm's for FC , Suse and Mandriva and deb's for ubuntu to start with should be good. Satissh and eddie can chip in with tgz for slackware and ebuilds for gentoo. And maybe i can lend a helping hand so that I can learn a bit.
To start with we should just cover 2-3 specific distros say FC6, Suse 10.2 and Ubuntu 6.06. As we get going, if we feel we're getting somewhere, we can extend further.
I would say, we should rather not attach it with digit forum. It should be an independant project so many outsiders may feel willing to join in and contribute.


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## desertwind (Nov 20, 2006)

It's a good idea in fact, but how do you manage the size if you're using a variety of precompiled binaries and it's dependencies ? Why not original source and all dependencies, so that can be used in multiple distros.


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## ray|raven (Nov 20, 2006)

Why not use AutoPackage
*autopackage.org/
I dont know much but its supposed to work on all Linux distro's.

Regards...
ray


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## JGuru (Nov 20, 2006)

@Eddie, The Intel C++ Compiler supports both C & C++. Also there is icc/gcc 
compatibility. Click here


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## paragkalra (Nov 20, 2006)

I am ready to work on the project....I know bit of shell scripting.........I am very good in Linux Networking.....I am a RedHat Certified Technitian....I know basics of Databases like Oracle and Mysql.......I also know just the basics of C, C++, Java, Perl, Python, bla bla bla (just how to compile & run simple programs on Linux) but don't worry I can even master them keeping time constraints in mind.....I am doing Engineering in Electronics from Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. I am a final year student. I have my exams from 27th Nov to 12th Dec. Them I am totally free for at least two months......Who so ever becomes the project leader, Just let me know how can i help.


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## subratabera (Nov 20, 2006)

You can use the EasyUbuntu source code found here to study the way they do it. I think that this can help you in many ways in designing such autopatcher specially for Debian based systems...
__________


			
				rayraven said:
			
		

> Why not use AutoPackage
> *autopackage.org/
> I dont know much but its supposed to work on all Linux distro's.
> 
> ...



Great link...


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## mehulved (Nov 20, 2006)

desertwind said:
			
		

> It's a good idea in fact, but how do you manage the size if you're using a variety of precompiled binaries and it's dependencies ? Why not original source and all dependencies, so that can be used in multiple distros.


 Yeah I am more for just providing the official binaries along with dependancies, so offline installation can be done. But, we have to decide what to pack and how much to pack in a CD/DVD that we release. I mean there are so many and frequent updates every week, We can't just go and get them all. We have to see the most essential ones and pack them in the iso.
Do we include non-free software? Then, as discussed earlier, what about the licensing terms?
Then what is the method of distribution to be adopted?
As for making something like autopackage, it will be somewhat a bit of headache cos we will have to make sure of many things when messing around with the source, that's what I feel. But, if others want to do it, we can as well get along and start it.
We can meet at irc.freenode.net #freeme channel and talk about this.


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## mediator (Nov 20, 2006)

I don't think updates shud be included, but only the minimum essential part. Well, for non-free  stuff that shouldn't be included either.

What I suggest is that we start with minimum stuff. If that becomes a success, then may be we can add more to it. We shudn't add packages that are dependent on kernel version. Lets start with simple such options!
1. W32codec pack,
2. Sun Java
3. xmms-mp3
4. Gstreamer plugins
5. xmame,gxmame
6. Xine+Plugins
7. Mplayer
8. Anjuta

This shud be enough for noobies and then we conduct a test all each of us on our own machines! I know many of us have Already completed our Linux distros with these things, so lets try it on VMWARE and if any of us changes his/her distro frequently then it will be boon for him and us as well. Well digit may be  having more machines then all of us combined and does testing too. So we can hand it over to digit also. So wat say?? Like the idea??


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## Satissh S (Nov 21, 2006)

eddie said:
			
		

> Wow!!! I never thought about converting my Gentoo system to ICC.
> Is it completely compatible with GCC? I mean when I googled, it says it is C++ compiler but what about the code that is written in C and not C++. Will it compile that code as well? If it can, then may be I should image my Gentoo partition and recompile it using ICC


 Hi  
I saw in one of those pages at gentoo-wiki. Also i remember reading at lfs-hints. Yes i think its compatible with gcc. It just asks for a license key to install which we can get from intel when registered.

Have a look here, 
*linuxfromscratch.org/pipermail/hints/2004-September/002672.html

Don't know why gentoo wiki is down at times, anyways have a look here, *gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_ICC_and_Portage .

regards.

@jguru: Just woke up from slumber


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## JGuru (Nov 21, 2006)

@Satissh, Good to have you back here in the forum. Atleast visit here once in a week. *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif
 So how are your own projects going on? I saw your website. Looks cool.

 @Mediator, If you guys include MP3 plugin for XMMS, then what about licensing issues?


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## mediator (Nov 21, 2006)

@Jguru : I dunno much about licensing issues. May be u can help here!


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## gary4gar (Nov 25, 2006)

so till now the members interested to take the project are:-
anyone more interested to join or any developers want to quit please post here.
so guys lets rock!
1) Gary4gar 
2) JGuru
3) Mediator 
4) Paragkalra
5) QwertyManiac
7) Satissh S
8 ) tech_your_future

NOTE:list is in  alphabetical order


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## eddie (Nov 26, 2006)

Satissh S said:
			
		

> Hi
> I saw in one of those pages at gentoo-wiki. Also i remember reading at lfs-hints. Yes i think its compatible with gcc. It just asks for a license key to install which we can get from intel when registered.


 Thanks a lot man


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## gary4gar (Dec 22, 2006)

hi guys,
i got holidays so i am free and can take up the project,
i am working 2-3 hrs daily on this,to make things first a fall i will try and make system for Unbuntu with source packges. in the test built u will see aroung 4-5 option.

i think i will take the GUI interfaernce from easy ubuntu.as i am not that good in gtk


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## mediator (Dec 22, 2006)

Try with commandline scripts. It will be the simplest to initiate the project! Modularise the install procedures for each package and then just add them to the main script. If succesful, then u can replace the main script with GUI one!


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## JGuru (Dec 22, 2006)

@Gary For building a GUI, use *GLADE*. It's a RAD tool like VB.
  Checkout these links, see how easy it is build a GUI using GLADE!!!

  1) *www.writelinux.com/glade/
  2) *www.linuxjournal.com/article/6586
  3) *wingtk.sourceforge.net/ishan/starting.html
  4) *www.ibiblio.org/onebase/onebaselinux.com/About/features/developgo.php


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## gary4gar (Dec 23, 2006)

JGuru said:
			
		

> @Gary For building a GUI, use *GLADE*. It's a RAD tool like VB.
> Checkout these links, see how easy it is build a GUI using GLADE!!!
> 
> 1) *www.writelinux.com/glade/
> ...


it seems like somebody have already started making the project for *UBuntu*. see this
Easyubuntu is of no use to people without broadband.i think now its no use to develop a version for ubuntu. so i started off first with fedora core 5 but the problem is that what to use pre packed binaries(rpms) or source tarballs??

thanx for the link @Jguru i almost forgot the terms RAD,IDE etc applies to linux too


@mediator
can u tell me a little in depth what exactly i have to do??


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## mediator (Dec 23, 2006)

Hmmm. @gary I'm assuming that now u know a little bit shell scripting. So...

I wud adivice to make individual scripts for each and every package. e.g u wanna make a script that installs gstreamer plugins. Then just make a shellscipt say gstreamer_install.sh for that. Debug it, implement exception handling so that installation can easily takeplace.

So now u have gstreamer_install.sh! Similarly make another shellscript for mplayer and xine and other apps. Name them mplayer_install.sh, xine_install.sh etc. Likewise make 5-6 shellscripts for individual packages that install corresponding packages when invoked individually!!

Now make a main shellscript! Implement "switch" in it coz if-then-else wud be difficult in such case.



OK, I developed the main script for u!!



> men()
> {
> echo -e "\n*********************************"
> echo "0. Main menu"
> ...


Save it something like "main_script.sh" so its easier to recognise it !!
Here "men" (highlighted one) is a function that invokes menu again n again wheneva needed!

Now what all u need to do is, replace the "name" options in "men" (e.g mediator) with "package install" options like w32codec, gstreamer etc! And then replace the functionality of the corresponding option with appropriate install command like "sh gstreamer_install.sh" which inturn invokes the "gstreamer_install.sh" script and thereby installs gstreamer. After its execution the control will automatically return to the main script!

I hope this helps!!


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## subratabera (Dec 23, 2006)

> echo "U selected @subratabera. Nice guy....helps others!";;


Thanks for that brother...

BTW, nice example...


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## subratabera (Dec 25, 2006)

Here is a suggestion -->

Here is the the list of some files which needs to be installed on a default Fedora Core 6 installation -->



> *Repository links*
> Fedora Core = *download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/
> Fedora Update = *download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/updates/
> Fedora Extras = *download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/extras/
> ...



You can just download them in different folders and use shell scripts (as provided by mediator) to install them accordingly. Just use rpm -Uvh /respective-directory/*.rpm, and rpm will handle the rest. I think this will be easy...(I also follow this procedure to install and update my system).

Please comment...


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## gary4gar (Dec 25, 2006)

i am now developing the user interface(gui) for the application. i have also decisided its name:

*P*eacock  *O*ffline *P*ackage *I*nstaller(Popi)
& a peacock will be its logo.

tell me how's it???


@meditor
i know little shell by now
o.k i can make shell scripts but i want a gui interface so its easy for n00bs to understand whats happening. so can shell scpits integrated with gtk????
so we need to write code in c,c++,perl

which language to go??

what do u say???


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## mediator (Dec 25, 2006)

@gary....its been really long since I tried the UI part of shells. I have almost forgot it now. 
Neways this is how u implement the simple UI => *www.freeos.com/guides/lsst/ch04sec7.html

And IMHO, u dont need either of the languages u mentioned to implement the project. ShellScript is the most powerful,singular and a complete answer!


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## gary4gar (Dec 25, 2006)

ok if say that u can integrate gui with shell then i trust u.

anyways how it the name???


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## praka123 (Dec 25, 2006)

@gary:the name for ur project is gr8.btw a shell script is good enough na,gui means...is that easy..+chances of bugs?


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## gary4gar (Dec 25, 2006)

hey just created a site where we all can develop our project
so pls any wiling to join should come up here
*popi.bountysource.com


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## mehulved (Dec 25, 2006)

It's taking too long to open here. Is it possible to host on maybe sourceforge.net?


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## subratabera (Dec 26, 2006)

Here is something interesting for your project -->

*jan.netcomp.monash.edu.au/xscript/shellprogramming2.html

It says -->


> Scripting and command languages are important programming paradigms that many computing students need to learn. However, they are usually presented in a terminal-based environment, which is foreign to students used to a windows GUI environment. This paper discusses "scriptlets" - small windows applications that are designed to be used in shell scripts. It shows how these can be used to teach shell programming constructs, while giving a GUI flavour to the lessons. Student reaction is also discussed.


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## gary4gar (Dec 27, 2006)

tech_your_future said:
			
		

> It's taking too long to open here. Is it possible to host on maybe sourceforge.net?


sourceforge.net or googlecode.com??

which is better
__________


			
				subratabera said:
			
		

> Here is something interesting for your project -->
> 
> *jan.netcomp.monash.edu.au/xscript/shellprogramming2.html
> 
> It says -->


thanx for this.
but i want to use gtk. can u find some tut's on passing commands from gtk to the shell??


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## mehulved (Dec 27, 2006)

I haven't seen googlecode as such. Just been through it breifly.
But, sourceforge is the best AFAIK. Maybe someone else has more idea. I have personally never seen any problems with sourceforge.


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## gary4gar (Dec 27, 2006)

which type of License to select for the Popi??
GPL??


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## gary4gar (Dec 29, 2006)

this is the project page
*code.google.com/p/popi/


All those intereated in joining the project do pm me your gmail id so that i can send u a invite

also this is the project discussion group
Here are the essentials:

* Group name: popi development discussion
* Group home page: *groups.google.co.in/group/popi-devel?hl=en
* Group email address popi-devel@googlegroups.com


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## subratabera (Jan 1, 2007)

Here is something that can be useful for your project...

Copy the following code in a ".sh" file and make that file executable.



> #project POPI (test) by Subrata Bera
> #01-01-2007
> 
> #First make a temp file
> ...



This will give you a graphical window that a user can interact without knowing anything about the shell script...

Hope this helps...
Waiting for comments...


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## mediator (Jan 1, 2007)

Excellent!! Thats perfect for GUI installation. Nice work @subratabera

@gary all u need to do now is make install scripts for individual packages!!


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## subratabera (Jan 1, 2007)

Thanks @mediator. I think this is the easiest way to present a GUI with shell interaction...And AFAIK it works on any latest distro...


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## gary4gar (Jan 3, 2007)

great work on your part subratabera!
meanwhile i have prepared a GUI user interface using gtk+
school will upload it here


then with a vote of all members we can use between *zenity* or *GTK+*


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## subratabera (Jan 3, 2007)

Thanks gary...


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## mehulved (Jan 3, 2007)

Will GTK work with those who have installed only KDE?
And zenity too?


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## subratabera (Jan 3, 2007)

tech_your_future said:
			
		

> Will GTK work with those who have installed only KDE?
> And zenity too?



Here is a possible answer...

Create GUI dialogs for GNOME and KDE

GNOME --> zenity, GTK+
KDE --> kdialog

Both have almost same functionality. We first have to check the installed DE and then run the script accordingly...


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## gary4gar (Jan 4, 2007)

see the problem with zenity is it just dialog box but we need more than that as in future we can have seacurity updates, tweaks & many other things which will need to be categaoriesed.


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## gary4gar (Jan 7, 2007)

added a wiki page on *code.google.com/p/popi/

do check it out


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## subratabera (Feb 19, 2007)

Here is something really interesting for you...


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