Tag: Installation

Installing SALOME-Meca on Windows 10
Cyprien Rusu has made very good job (as always) in guiding to install Salome-Meca on Windows platform. But that article is now more than one year old and there has become new downloads available on Code_Aster download page (for Windows).

I am used to write these kind of short posts about my experiences in installing software so that them could help someone else (and myself too later whenever getting back to the situation).

So here are my notes about installing Salome-Meca on Windows 10:

Download page
1. Go to the download page
2. Download Salome-Meca 2018 win64 exe-file
3. After dowloading completed, run the exe-file
4. Click Next, Next and Install
Setup window

Everything should go as expected. The installation is similar to any other Windows software.

But in my case, when I tried to launch teh software after the installation, I faced the following error:

Error message: “VCOMP100.DLL was not found”

After the error message, the program lauch was failed as shown in the console.

How to get this fixed? Let’s look at the README for an advice. If you used the default installation path you should be able to find it from here (or similar location):

There is the following note in README-file:

This version was made as portable as possible. There is no dependecies, but on a fresh windows installation, if you notice an issue using the embeded python version, you may need to install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x64) for Salome and also the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x64) for Code_Aster

In my case, the problem was easily solved by installing Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 from here. After installing it, Salome launched successfully. Hope this helped you as well!

Salome launched successfully on Windows 10.

If you wish to find some further guidance for Salome-Meca in this blog, please drop me a line in the comments below.
26/12/2018
Installation of Salome-MECA (Salome and Code_Aster)

If you are interested in serious open source FEM software, this is a tool stack to look at.

Salome platform is a CAD and meshing software mainly for Linux systems. When combined with Code_Aster FEA package it is generally called Salome-MECA. Together this combination of software provides very extensive tool set for Finite Element Analysis.

Let’s start by downloading the appropriate version of Salome-MECA from here. In this tutorial we go with Salome-MECA version 2017.0.2.

After downloading the package, you may want to check the md5sum to be correct. Type

md5sum Salome-Meca-2017.0.2-LGPL-2.tgz

and see if it matches with the one given on the download page.

After that move the package to a preferred location (for example in /home/user/). And then type

tar xvf Salome-Meca-2017.0.2-LGPL-2.tgz && ./Salome-Meca-2017.0.2-LGPL-2.run

This installs Salome-MECA in the directory of your choice.

Also a shortcut is created on your desktop automatically during the installation.

After successful installation you can run the program by clicking the shortcut icon or by opening the terminal in the installation folder named salome_meca/appli_V2017.0.2. and typing ./salome

You will also see Salome-MECA splash screen..

..as the graphical user-interface of Salome will open up.

Now you are ready to explore the capabilities of your new tool set.

Some document in Code_Aster website’s support section are translated from French automatically and hence not always convenient to read. However, there are very good training materials available at https://www.code-aster.org/V2/spip.php?rubrique68. I recommend you start there.

Please, leave me a comment if you have any further questions or you would like see some Salome-MECA tutorials in this blog.

15/02/2018
Nextcloud Installation on Kapsi
This guide describes the installation steps of Nextcloud server on Kapsi shared hosting service. It covers two methods: the first is based on usage of software with graphical user-interface and the other is focusing on command line usage. The first is suitable for beginners and the latter for more advanced Linux users. At the end there is one common addition to be made, it is described under Configuration title.

Installation using GUI:
1. Go to Nextcloud download page.
2. Click Download under the Get Nextcloud Server title.
3. Select Web Installer (the link is located at middle of the lowest row of the popup window).
4. Save the file on your computer (Step 1. in the instructions).
5. Use FTPS client (Filezilla or similar) and open the connection to Kapsi server (Additional guidance in Finnish).
6. Upload the setup-nextcloud.php file to /siilo/x/username/sites/yoursite-siilo.kapsi.fi/www/
7. Open web browser and go to https://yoursite-siilo.kapsi.fi/setup-nextcloud.php, Nextcloud webinstaller appears to your screen.
8. Click Next.
9. If everything is ready for installation, the installer says: All Nextcloud dependencies found
10. Here you can choose whether you want to install the software in a sub-folder or at the root of www -directory (in case just enter . to the box).
11. Click Next.
12. After few moments the installer says: Success, Nextcloud is now installed!
13. Click Next.
14. Create admin account by entering admin username and password.
15. Click Storage & Database section, select MySQL/MariaDB
16. Enter database information. Usually the database name and the user is same as your Kapsi username. The host address of Kapsi MySQL server is db1.n.kapsi.fi. If you do not have a personal password for database, you can ask for it from the Kapsi support (helpdesk@tuki.kapsi.fi).
17. Installation is ready, see the configuration below.
Installation using CLI:
1. Open terminal.
2. Type ssh username@kapsi.fi
3. Enter your Kapsi password.
4. Type cd siilo/sites/yoursite-siilo.kapsi.fi/www
5. Typewget 'https://download.nextcloud.com/server/releases/nextcloud-12.0.3.tar.bz2'(Check the latest version)
6. Type tar xvfj nextcloud-12.0.3.tar.bz2
7. Open web browser and go to the Nextcloud location.
8. Setup page appears, see the steps 10 -16 from GUI guide above.
9. Installation is ready, see the configuration below.
Configuration

There are some adjustments to be done to make the internet traffic use https and allowing access from different ip-addresses if used with multiple devices. Open the .htacces file in installation directory. Add the following lines to the beginning of the file:

RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{ENV:HTTPS} !on RewriteRule (.*) https://yoursite-siilo.kapsi.fi/$1 [R=301,L]

Then add the following lines to the very end of the file:

IndexIgnore * <Limit GET POST PUT DELETE OPTIONS PROPFIND PROPPATCH MKCOL COPY MOVE LOCK UNLOCK> order allow,deny allow from all </Limit>

In case you have security considerations related to this script that allows all traffic with all methods you may adjust your own setup which can be limited to particular ip-addresses or something else. However, even if all traffic is allowed, there is still the normal Nextcloud authentication system keeping the data safe from outsiders.

Now we are all set. Hope you enjoy your very own Nextcloud server!
13/11/2017
Installing Calculix Launcher
Calculix is an open source finite element analysis software. And Calculix Launcher is a tool that provides a nice graphical user-interface between the components of the tool stack. Read more from here.

This guide is primarily written for my self to point out the steps of the procedure of installing the tool set on a fresh Linux desktop environment. There is a video (by calculix09) of which shows the same steps in very detail, so I recommend using that if you are not familiar with the software. However, the list below may be used as a handy checklist later.
1. Download appropriate installation package from Yandex drive (by launcher3) via this link. Note: Use the link at your own risk. All software are licensed by their authors. The writer of this blog post has no responsibility related to the software.
2. Extract the archive
3. Change the permission to “Allow executing file as a program” by right clicking the executable icon and selecting the Permissions tab on Properties window.
4. Copy the path of bin -folder under the CL32-linux64 -directory (press ctrl+L inside the folder).
5. Open terminal and type cd and paste the path, for example: cd /home/joni/CL32-linux64/bin
6. Let’s make all binaries executable by typing command: chmod 777 *
7. Now we can run the Launcher by double-clicking the executable icon (you may want to pin the icon to Ubuntu launcher after that)
That’s it. The Calculix Launcher is now available.

Let’s change some settings.
1. On Launcher Menu, select Settings and set gedit as Name of Text Editor.
2. On Menu, select Run GSMH.
3. On GSMH Tools, select Options, General and Advanced tab, to Text editor command add gedit '%s'
4. Select File, and Save Options As Default
In case you want to see examples how to use it, please leave a comment below and I will publish some tutorials here.
10/11/2017
The Most Essential Software to Install on Ubuntu

Time to time you may want or need to refresh your linux desktop by re-installation or you are forced to switch from a hardware or an operating system to another. And when it happens you need to setup everything for the basic usage. Of course, on many distros you may have a software center or similar where to download the software from. But it seems that often the default versions of these software are not the latest stable version or does not exist at all.

This is my check list for Ubuntu how to install the most necessary stuff for myself.

Git

sudo apt install git git config --global user.email "you@example.com" git config --global user.name "Your Name"

Spotify

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys BBEBDCB318AD50EC6865090613B00F1FD2C19886 0DF731E45CE24F27EEEB1450EFDC8610341D9410 echo deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install spotify-client

Sublime Text

wget -qO - https://download.sublimetext.com/sublimehq-pub.gpg | sudo apt-key add - echo "deb https://download.sublimetext.com/ apt/stable/" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sublime-text.list sudo apt update sudo apt install sublime-text

Openshot

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openshot.developers/ppa sudo apt update && sudo apt install openshot-qt

Freecad

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:freecad-maintainers/freecad-stable sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install freecad freecad-doc && apt-get upgrade

Chrome

wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add - sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list' sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable

Nextcloud

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nextcloud-devs/client sudo apt-get update sudo apt install nextcloud-client

29/10/2017
Nextcloud Client for Linux

If you have been following the open source cloud storage software scene lately, you may know the history of ownCloud and Nextcloud. In short, Nextcloud is a fork of ownCloud, an open source project that consists of client and server software for creating and running file hosting services for personal and enterprise use. I personally understood that the project split up after some key persons could not share a same vision regarding the level of having close source code for the enterprise customers. Since I may have totally misunderstood what it was all about, have a look at yourself: Nextcloud’s introduction and ownCloud’s statement about it.

I am a huge fan of the project, I liked the idea of former ownCloud and later I got along with Nextcloud. However, all the software were available for all kinds of platform very shortly after the split up. I still missed the Nextcloud branded desktop client for Linux. There was a some sort of theming repository available but it was not straight forward to install for a less advanced user. And even today the default client in the “app stores” of many Linux distributions for this service is the original ownCloud branded client software.

In case you have also being looking forward the Linux Nextcloud client, here they are, you can download it for Ubuntu/Debian as a PPA (explanation). To do so, use command line (open Terminal) and type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nextcloud-devs/client
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install nextcloud-client

Happy Nextclouding!

26/08/2017
Getting on with Hass.io
The first time I tested Home Assistant software was couple of years ago and it was on Linux desktop. I liked the idea and the execution, and it made me think I would like to able to build my own custom kit for some random home automation. So I decided I will get back to this as soon as I have a suitable platform to constantly run the software on. Later on, I found myself having a spare piece of Raspberry Pi 2 mini computer. Since then I have happily run Home Assistant on my Raspy and used it mostly for some lighting adjustments etc. Back then I installed my Home Assistant as Hassbian, which is a customized operating system for the Raspberry Pi. It was so far the easiest to install and use but requires the traditional command line access for maintenance actions. And now this may have changed. Follow through this tutorial and become a Home Assistant user in no time! All you need is a Raspberry Pi and minimum 4 GB SD card.

Hass.io is a dedicated operating system that takes care of installing and managing Home Assistant software on Raspberry Pi. It was introduced in H0me Assistant blog post at the end of July 2017.

Installation

Let’s dive in. You may start the installation by looking at these instructions. Choose and download the software package depending on which device you are going to install Hass.io on. I went with Raspberry Pi 2. Extract the resinos-hassio-1.0-raspberrypix.img.bz2 file and flask it to your SD card using Etcher. Flashing may take up to 5-10 minutes. At this point we could setup the WiFi or static IP as the instructions suggest as an optional step. However, we go now without it. Since I will be are using an Ethernet connection with a router there should be no configuration required and it should work out of the box. Also, one could consider setting up a static address being not necessary – or even recommended at all. All right, let’s insert the SD card into Raspberry Pi and switch on the device.

You can open a new browser tab and navigate to http://hassio.local:8123/ and wait couple of minutes. After the reboot ResinOS downloads Home Assistant and starts the installation. You will be soon able to see the following view at your browser window:

For me it took around 15 minutes Hass.io being setup and running. You will see the default Home Assistant welcome screen in your browser:

Getting Started

Nice. Now we have a fresh Home Assistant installation properly running. Obviously the next actions are setting up configurations and automations. To do so, we still need to do some adjustments. The design philosophy of Hass.io seems to be making the management of Home Assistant via web browser GUI as easy as possible. However, as far I know it does not yet support full control over the configuration files. Hence, we need to build some kind of access to the file base. There are couple of options for this but for sake of simplicity we deside not to prefer any command line tool for this but go with Samba add-on, which gives us a way to handle the files on our local desktop environment.

To install Samba follow these step on your Home Assistant instant opened in browser windows:
1. On the left hand side menu click on Hass.io tab
2. You will be noted there are no add-on installed, click on the link to add-on store
3. Add-on store opens in the same view
4. Scroll down to Samba Share and select it
5. Click install
6. It shows Info and Options but go with the defaults and click Start
7. On the left menu again, select the first icon (Services) under Developer Tools
8. Select the Domain as homeassistant and as Service set restart
9. Then click on Call Service
10. You will see a notification Connection lost. Reconnecting…
11. After a minute or two Home Assistant is rebooted and Samba Sharing should be enabled
Now you are able to find your Hass.io files from your desktop computer that is using the same WiFi network as the Rasbperry Pi. You can browse in the file system Network folder and find HASSIO directory. On Ubuntu it looks like this:

There you can find configuration.yaml and automations.yaml-files, which allow you to freely tweak and customized your Home Assistant installation as normally. Look at the tutorial and example resources at Home Assistant website to get started. Also, come back to check my next Home Assistant post I will make for introducing some of the basic and most useful setups. Good luck!
13/08/2017
Joomla! Installation on Remote Server
To install Joomla! -publishing platform on remote server follow the these steps:
1. Login to you server account via ssh: ssh username@service.com and enter your credentials.
2. cd to the right directory you are intended to serve your web site from (public_html, www or similar)
3. Download Joomla! installation package: wget https://downloads.joomla.org/cms/joomla3/3-7-3/Joomla_3.7.3-Stable-Full_Package.tar.gz You can check the latest version at: https://downloads.joomla.org/ but see the note at the end of this post!
4. Extract the package: tar -xzvf Joomla_3.7.3-Stable-Full_Package.tar.gz
5. Open browser and navigate to website.service.com
6. Joomla! web installer opens up
7. Define Site Name, Description and Super User Account Details
8. Input Database details
9. See the summary that all the system requirements are fulfilled and press install
10. Installation is run in seconds
11. After the installation is ready you may download language packages right away if needed or continue by logging into the site as administrator.
Note: At the time of writing the latest stable version of Joomla! was Joomla_3-7.4-Stable-Full_Package. However, while trying to install that version I run into problems. The installation got stuck in the first step. It seemed that it was a bug that many people had faced and based on the this discussion on github it will be fixed for the next version. Until then I recommed installing 3.7.3 as done above and updating the software right after the process. The previous full packages of Joomla! can be found at https://downloads.joomla.org/cms. Click on Downloads to display the official series of Joomla! releases.
06/08/2017