Linux help needed - make fun of the N00b

**PaulF** · 05-26-2009, 05:28 PM

Okay... on the server, you won't be able to control the devices using php directly. You will need a program running on the server written in a "real" programming language such as C, C#, C++, Java (don't do it), mono, or others too. It will maintain the connection to the fusion brain, and then PHP will need to talk to that program to control it.

**Bugbyte** · 05-26-2009, 05:42 PM

Originally Posted by PaulF

Okay... on the server, you won't be able to control the devices using php directly. You will need a program running on the server written in a "real" programming language such as C, C#, C++, Java (don't do it), mono, or others too. It will maintain the connection to the fusion brain, and then PHP will need to talk to that program to control it.

Right. I sort of left that out. I'll need some type of daemon that can respond to commands. For example, gpsd will respond to queries for position data from a script or program. It serves as the go between for the app and the device.

Quick question - why not java?

**cgalpin** · 05-26-2009, 05:44 PM

You can use good old exec with php. It's as real as any other programming language out there

But Kevin of the LinucICE team wrote a dbus daemon for it, and he could use php-dbus

http://code.google.com/p/php-dbus/

I would use something like django (python) with an iphone optimized template for the pages I think before getting too heavily invested in php for it though.

It might be worth learning ruby (and rails) for as well.

charles

**PaulF** · 05-26-2009, 06:11 PM

Java is slow, and linux support for java is annoying. It is possible to make it work, but it is just a pain in the neck. I've worked with java every day for over a year and it is a pain. It runs things in a half-compiled, half-interpreted form which is slow. Plus it's big and bloated.

Java seems fine on a full-powered computer, but only because computers are so fast now. On a device with a limited processor and memory, you might think otherwise.

If you like java though and aren't interested in quick responses, then java will work fine. The only issue will be memory consumption. You'll end up saying "why the hell is that process using up 20mb?"

**ThePistonDoctor** · 05-26-2009, 09:16 PM

I didn't read the rest of this thread so you may have already figured this out, but here is a simple Apache/PHP setup for attacking via SQL injection on OSX (which runs a Debian backend). I did this a long time ago so I don't remember too much about it, but there was a fantastic walkthrough on setting up Apache which I'm sure will be helpful. And if not, it will teach you a little about how you can use your carputer as a mobile hacking machine...lol

http://www.criticalsecurity.net/inde...c=27058&hl=php

BTW, I'm also using Jaunty on my carputer right now so I'm sure we will be able to help each other out with stuff as these projects progress!

**blk02si** · 05-26-2009, 10:10 PM

What about programming this in PERL?

**PaulF** · 05-26-2009, 10:36 PM

Originally Posted by blk02si

What about programming this in PERL?

Perl is more of a scripting language. I'm sure it's possible using some hacky stuff like perl compilers. But other than that, it's pretty much in the same boat as PHP. Maybe someone knows something I don't on this though...

For the fusion brain, you need a program to sit and constantly monitor it for any changes and send it any commands.

If you look, theres already a program here: http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/fusi...ram-linux.html
Which is written in C++. It has a gui made in QT4, but if you just use some of the C++ source code, I'm sure you can get it running as a command line application. Modifying that would probably be the easiest way of going about this as the hardware communication code is already there for you.

**cgalpin** · 05-27-2009, 08:07 AM

First let me apologize if I am repeating myself. I'm a new poster and every post seems to be moderated - I have no idea how long this continues. As such my posts show up late but before other posts so I suspect they are missed.

Perl, python and php and perfectly fine for this sort of thing - don't get fooled by the word "scripting". I think the differentiators are really third party libraries that support your goals, and all 3 will have lots of them, and your familiarity with them. They all support object oriented programming so you can write perfectly good maintainable code in them (and crap too just like most other languages). They are all cross platform so the work could be ported to windows. Their resource use is pretty low - low enough to be used on cell phones even. They also are capable of being used to develop very large and complex web sites as well.

Java has it's place too, but like PaulF I don't recommend it here personally - mainly because of it's relatively high resource use and memory footprint and for the fact that it *isn't* an interpreted language. But there is no reason you couldn't use it here for this too - especially if that's what you are more familiar with.

Specifically addressing the fusion brain, Kev has already written a dbus daemon and all 3 of these languages have dbus bindings so the problem is already solved - use your language of choice.

I have ordered a sheevaplug and a fusion brain and hope to be able to contribute to this soon myself.

charles

**Bugbyte** · 05-27-2009, 08:42 AM

Originally Posted by cgalpin

First let me apologize if I am repeating myself. I'm a new poster and every post seems to be moderated - I have no idea how long this continues. As such my posts show up late but before other posts so I suspect they are missed.

Only a couple more posts before you are out of moderation hell. It's a spam thing and it has worked very well for us. Sorry it makes new posts a pain.

I have ordered a sheevaplug and a fusion brain and hope to be able to contribute to this soon myself.

Great! I obviously have tons and tons to learn but this will go much faster with some help! Unfortunately, my Sheeva took a good month to arrive because they were back-ordered. Maybe they've caught up and yours will arrive faster.

Okay, I understand that Java isn't an ideal language to run on the plug - it is memory and speed limited. One reason I was asking was that a friend of mine has written a java interface that controls the XM Direct and I was wondering if that would work in this case. I presume there is a Linux solution I probably haven't noticed in the past?

**Bugbyte** · 05-27-2009, 08:53 AM

Two questions and yes, I know they are serious n00b questions. I'm going to look for a couple of good books on Linux and php/perl real soon.

1. I was browsing through the plug computing forum last night and there was a post on how someone added a wireless USB dongle to it. That looked pretty cool to me, so I thought I'd see what it took to do it.

The first thing you have to do is add two packages: eeprom93_Cx6 and rtl8187

How do you do this? Using apt-get install [location of the packages]?

Or do you download them first (apt-source?) and then have to make them?

2. How do you add something when it requires a compile for the ARM processor? Say for example, I want to take kev000's Fusion Brain daemon and recompile it for the Sheeva. I have already located and added a gcc compiler for the Sheeva. So, I download his source to a location the Sheeva can access, then use the gcc to compile it and then...what? How would I add it to the distro that the Sheeva is running? By using the apt-install command?