Open Source Relish: How-To

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KDE Connect - Mobile Integration

The 2013 Google Summer of Code project has allot going in the KDE desktop environment. Just look at the list of ideas here http://community.kde.org/GSoC/2013/Ideas, one that sparks particular interest to Android users is the KDE Connect project. The KDE Connect project's goal is to provide better integration with the Android platform.

Some of the features now available are:

Call & SMS Notifications
App Notification & Alerts
Battery Status Support
Clipboard Syncing
Media Player Controls
File Transfer

Linux is well known to run on all kinds of hardware from the oldest machines to the worlds super computers, and am always coming across friends that have older machines with only half a gig of RAM but most modern desktops recommend at least one gig of RAM. While it might not cost much to upgrade, I still think that a PC can still be comfortably usable without upgrading.

So there is that unstable, or just released program that you have just got to try and don't got a spare machine to try it out on, or don't want to risk damaging your main system. Well why not try that program out in a VirtualBox.

VirtualBox lets users install operating systems inside their current OS. The main OS is the Host, and the other OS's are called the Guest. Users can run many systems at one time with VirtualBox, in fact allot of servers run hundreds of VirtualBox images at one time, all day everyday.

To get started using VirtualBox Windows can go to VirtualBox Downloads and install the right package for their system. Linux users can install VirtualBox-OSE (Open Source Edition) from their respective package manager.

To add the oracle maintained repository and install VirtualBox using a Debian based Linux distro (Ubuntu, Mint), copy paste this command into a terminal:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian '$(lsb_release -cs)' contrib non-free' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list" && wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.1 dkms

After installing VirtualBox you'll want to install an OS (operating system) to it. I recommend a lightweight Linux distro such as Xbuntu or Lubuntu. Download either of those ISOs and then launch VirtualBox, click new and point it to the ISO. After that it's just a matter of following all the on screen prompts to get the system up and running.

When testing out software in the VirtualBox you'll probably want to open it up to the internet. Was having an issue with this, as every time it was tested to see if it was broadcasting on the internet there was an error, which ended up being a loop back error in the router ( trying to go out to the net and back in).

What did work for me was changing the adapter setting on the machine to Bridged Adapter then go into the setting of the guest OS and change the IP to a static IP. Open up the ports on the router and the VM should be broadcasting. Again I had an issue and couldn't test that it was working from home, had to actually leave and go to another location to verify it worked (router loopback error).

It's kinda hard to remember the IP addresses, that and they are constantly changing unless it is a static IP, so to access the VM use NO-IP. They provide 3 free host names for your IP addressing needs, making it much easier to share your VM on the internet.

ownCloud - Your Own Personal Cloud

There are tons of free cloud web services out there such as Google Drive, Ubuntu One, and iCloud from apple all offering 5 gigabytes of space which is perfect for keeping those really important files backed up. What about pricing though, how much is it for 50 gigabytes or 100 gigabytes?

Google Drive is asking $2.50 a month for 25 gigabytes, $5.00 a month for 100 gigabytes, and $50 a month for 1 terabyte. Ubuntu One works a little differently if you buy 1 song from the music store they give you 20 gigabytes for free for 6 months then charge you $4.00 a month. Apple's iCloud is charging $3.25 for 10 gigabytes of storage.

The jMonkeyEngine SDK is a custom environment built on-top of netbeans for developing with the jMonkeyEngine library. The jME3 SDK provides you with unique plugins for creating jMonkeyEngine 3 game content. You can download and install the jMonkeyEngine SDK as a ready-to-use complete game development environment, rather than using a generic Java IDE. (What's an IDE?)

Showcase of some jMonkey Powered Games http://jmonkeyengine.com/showcase/

Lets install and setup all the software to start developing with jME3 for Android, we'll need:

The Java Development Kit JDK6 - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork
Android SDK - http://developer.android.com/sdk
jMonkeyEngine SDK - http://jmonkeyengine.org/downloads/

After installing and starting the jMonkeyEngine SDK start a new project, and make it a jME3 BasicGame, the project will have code already in place that opens a window and displays a cube in 3d space press "f6" to run the project. After seeing the cube and debug info we know that we installed everything correctly and can close that window by hitting the "esc" key and move on to getting jME3 to make Android packages. This is done by adding the Android plugin in the plugin browser. It's under "Tools > Plugins".

After installing the plugin go to the jME3 options under Tools and select the mobile tab, and point it to the Android SDK folder. Almost there getting it all set up, the last step to make a jME3 project run on an Android device, is to right-click the project that you created and select "properties". First click "Build > Compile" and deselect "Compile on Save" Now go to "Application > Android" and select "Enable Android Deployment" then give your package a proper name.

Congratulations!! It is now possible to run jMonkey Engine games on an Android device or emulator.

If there was a problem take a look in the forum for a solution, if there isn't one leave a post and someone will respond with suggestions. http://jmonkeyengine.org/forums

Documentation & Tutorials

One of the best things about the jMonkeyEngine is the community provided documents and tutorials. They have really detailed tutorials that will cover allot of questions that would arise, plus the forum members are always there to answer a question and give a helping hand.

Open Source Relish

KDE Connect - Mobile Integration

Low Ram Linux Desktop

VirtualBox

ownCloud - Your Own Personal Cloud

3d Android Dev with jMonkeyEngine SDK

Documentation & Tutorials