Technology and Making

Running Apple iTunes is still a dream of many Ubuntu users, particularly new starters who want a system that is as accessible and easy to use as the Windows or Mac systems they've come from. The native Ubuntu competition just isn't up to the job - Rhythmbox is underfeatured and looks dated, Songbird has enormous potential but is painfully slow and heavy on system resources (and still doesn't do a true sync to an iPod), Amarok and Banshee don't do a true sync either, and most of the competition is underdeveloped and buggy.

Unfortunately, the only working solution right now to get true iTunes functionality and manage your iPod is to run a Windows virtual machine on your Ubuntu desktop and run iTunes over that. Fortunately this is now relatively straightforward. Here's how you do it:

This is tested with Ubuntu 8.10, but it should work with other near versions just fine. Let me know if you have any problems via the comments.

All this is done with free software, except that you will need a Windows (ideally XP) disc or image. Of course, that doesn't necessarily have to cost you either, but I'm not making any recommendations on how to obtain it.

1. Download VMware server 2 from the website.

You'll have to fill in some basic details to get the free licence. When you get to the download page, find the listing for "VMware Server 2 for Linux Systems" and click to download the TAR image. The other way to go is to download the RPM image and use alien to convert it into a Ubuntu-friendly DEB, but I've found this unreliable in the past and can break your packages.

2. When you've downloaded the TAR image, browse to the directory it's in, right-click on it and select "Unpack here". It'll create a new directory. Note the name.

3. Open a terminal from the Accessories menu, and type in the following:



The installer will prompt you with a whole bunch of questions. Unless you're planning to use VMware Server for other Windows applications, just hit enter for each one to take the defaults.

4. When you run VMware Server, it will require you to login using the root username and password. On Ubuntu, this is disabled by default, so you'll have to activate it. From the terminal:



When it prompts you for a password, enter your user password. Now it will prompt you twice for a new password - this will be your root password.

5. In order for VMware to recognise your iPod, you'll need to make a change to the Ubuntu USB system. VMware relies on a setting that has been made obsolete in newer versions of Ubuntu - fortunately it can be re-enabled without any harm to your system.

In the terminal, type:



When the text editor comes up, add the following line to the bottom of the file:



Then save and exit. Back in the terminal, type:



This will make Ubuntu re-read the fstab file and mount the USB filesystem. It'll do this automatically when you start up from now on.

6. Open Firefox, and type into the address bar:



This will take you to the VMware Server interface. It'll prompt you for a username and password. For username type "root" (all lowercase) and for password use the new root password you set up in step 4.

You should now be seeing the VMware Server interface screen. It's time to create your virtual machine.

7. First you will need to add a Datastore. This is just a directory in which your virtual machine will store its files and find images to mount. Most files you are going to access from your virtual machine must be in a datastore. You'll need at least three or four gigabytes of space in this directory.

Click on "Add Datastore" in the Commands menu on the righthand side, give it a Name (this is just for your own reference) then type in the full path to the directory you want it to use. Hit OK and you're done.

8. Now select Create Virtual Machine from the same Commands menu, and follow through the wizard. Take the default values until you get to Hard Disk. You'll need to create a new virtual hard disk in the datastore you selected. Make it as big as you can, up to the capacity of the disk it's located on - because of the way VMware Server allocates space, it will only take up as much space on your real disk drive as the amount of data that's put into it.

Follow on through the instructions to attach a Network Adaptor (choose Bridged), CD and DVD drives. If you want to install Windows from an image file like an .iso, Add it at this stage too.

When you hit Finish, VMware Server will work for a minute and then you should see your new virtual machine appear in the Inventory panel on the left. Select it, and hit the green "play" icon. If you've done everything right, the panels should all light up and you'll see "Power On Virtual Machine" in the Task panel at the bototm, with a progress bar followed by a "Success" message.

9. Now you need to install Windows on your new virtual machine. Click on the "Console" at the top of the VMware interface page, and follow the prompts to install the Firefox VMware plugin. Once Firefox has restarted, go back to the Console and click anywhere to open it. This is the window in which you will work with your new virtual machine.

If you've correctly attached your Windows installation disc or disc image, you should be seeing the normal Windows installation interface. Just follow the prompts as you would on a new installation, partitioning the whole of the available space.

10. Assuming you don't want to move your whole music collection onto your virtual machine, you're going to want a way for iTunes to access your music. The easiest way to do this is to Share it in Ubuntu by right-clicking on your music folder, selecting Properties then making your selections on the Sharing tab - Ubuntu will install the relevent packages if you don't have them. Make sure you tick the box to allow writing to the folder if you want iTunes to be able to download cover art, edit your tags etc.

Once your Windows virtual machine is installed and booted up, you can now connect to that folder through Windows' normal Network tools - the Windows virtual machine sees its host as just another computer on the network.

11. Download and install iTunes from Apple's website, and point it to your network folder to load up your music.

12. Plug in your iPod's USB cable. In order to get VMware Server to pass the connection on to Windows, you'll need to go to the VMware infrastructure page in Firefox where you did the original setup. You should see a purple USB icon in the bar at the top, next to the start and stop buttons. Click on it, and you'll get a drop down that says something like "iPod" with a tick button next to it - tick the box to load the iPod into the Windows virtual environment, and in a minute or two you'll see it installing in the Windows session. Now you're all set with your new iTunes installation!

If you have any problems with this process, or there's anything you don't understand, drop me a line in the comments and I'll help out if I can.

Labels: how to, Installation, IPod, ITunes, itunes in ubuntu, Microsoft Windows, Ubuntu, usb, virtual machine, VMware, VMware Server, vmware server 2, Windows

A brief look at three of the most interesting players in the fast-growing world of online storage.

Google

Image via CrunchBase

The big word is, of course, "G-Drive". There have been rumours that Google would offer online file storage since before 2006, and it's consistent with their business model (they have publicly stated the intention to index every piece of data on the planet) and their capabilities.

There doesn't seem to be current figure on google's data storage capacity, but over two years ago their total stored data, not including Gmail, was estimated at over one petabyte - one thousand million megabytes. Considering Gmail has tens of millions of users and offers over seven gigabytes of storage to each one, that figure has clearly now increased astronomically.

The belief that Google will soon offer an online hard drive is further supported by a buried passage in a package sent out to their translators, and the fact that their Picasa and Gmail services now offer the option to buy more space (up to four hundred gigabytes), indicating that Google are establishing the infrastructure of a storage-for-hire service.

A Google Drive is an exciting possibility because it can be expected to share the qualities of their other services - it's likely to be free (at least for a basic service, which will probably provide greater benefits than their competitors), innovative, and it will interconnect at a high level with other Google offerings, which have become the backbone of many people's connected lives.


Amazon

Image via CrunchBase

Amazon launched their Simple Storage Service (S3) in 2006, leveraging the huge server base they had established as the world's largest online retailer. S3 is not actually a consumer product - it doesn't have a user interface by which to upload and download data. Instead it is intended as a universal online storage solution which other companies can then use to create their own products - from data-heavy websites to user-friendly online hard drives - and many partners like Jungle Disk are now doing exactly that.

S3's most innovative characteristic is its fine-grained pricing model, which scales from (relatively) small to huge amounts of storage, and charges only for space and bandwidth (amount uploaded and downloaded) used rather than for the total space available. Prices currently start from fifteen cents a month per gigabyte stored, ten cents per gigabyte uploaded, and seventeen cents per gigabyte downloaded.


Dropbox

Image via CrunchBase

Dropbox has rapidly established itself as one of the most accessible and simple online disk drives, although in some ways it is really a backup and synchronisation tool rather than online storage. At installation time, a Dropbox folder is created or designated which is then synced in realtime with Dropbox's online space, any changes in the folder immediately mirrored (allowing for time to transfer data) in the online service. However, the files do remain on the user's computer, so this is not an option for moving ones data online to save hard disk space.

The most powerful aspects of Dropbox's service are the ability to create shortcuts in the Dropbox folder to files or folders elswhere, which are then also sychronised automatically, and the ability to install Dropbox across multiple systems. The Dropbox folders on each machine are then kept in sync (as long as they are online) providing access to one's files from any location. This is also one of the few online storage solutions to provide clients for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Labels: Amazon S3, Dropbox, File hosting service, Gmail, Google, Google Drive, jungle disk, online storage, Picasa, synchronisation

Yes, I know, I'm a massive geek. I made gadget pockets for my jeans.

My rationale was: There are several devices I like to have on me most of the time - the foremost being my T-Mobile G1 and my iPod. They're too bulky for regular jeans pockets, and I'm not always wearing a jacket or carrying a bag, so I always end up carrying the damn things around and leaving them places. But I'm basically always wearing a pair of jeans.

They were a little fiddly to make, requiring a couple of false starts, but each one is made from a single piece of denim (hacked off an older, shredded pair of jeans). I kept a hem at the top of each one for durability and to give them a bit of character. For the iPod pocket, since it's very slim, I got away with just using a flat piece, folding the edges under and using very small, tight overstitch all round the edges.

The denim's interesting to work with - once you cut off a piece the edges fray very quickly, as anyone who's made cutoff shorts will know. But if you fold the edges under and make your stitches just far enough in to hook them through the crossways weave (warp?), the result seems to be very durable.

For the G1 pocket I put darts in the two bottom corners to give it a thicker shape - this made overstitching the edges considerably fiddlier, but the G1's just too thick to put in a flat pocket, however wide. I left the "chin" of the phone protruding over the top, partly because it's too thick to incorporate into the pocket and partly to make it easier to grab a hundred times an hour :)

They would have been a little more stylish on the front of the legs, but the devices are just too big and heavy to have there - they'd be uncomfortable when I sit down and apt to get banged into things. This configuration works pretty well sitting or standing, and feels comfortable walking - they're not banging into my legs and they won't hop out when I run. It's a first experiment and my stitching could use work, but I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Labels: Clothing, Denim, gadgets, geek, IPod, Jeans, pockets, sewing, T-Mobile G1

So, what are the most interesting features of today's online file storage providers?

Automatic Syncing

The old method of offsite storage was to add files to a queue which would then be (slowly) transferred to your online repository. The user would have to monitor the files in transfer, often restart the process if the connection was lost, and if a file changed it had to be added to the queue again. Most modern online storage hosts provide software which automatically synchronises your computer with the net - you simply check off whichever folders you want synced, and the software will work away in the background uploading all the files for you. If you edit, remove or add to the files in a synced folder, those changes will be automatically passed on to the online version. If the connection is lost in the middle of a transfer, the software can often resume the process without having to start that file all over again.

Mount Your Storage like a Hard Drive

Many of the major online file hosts now offer the ability to hook up your storage just as though it was a hard drive. This gives you easy access to your stored files using your file browser, without having to go through a webpage or load up a dedicated program. More importantly, it allows your computer to work with the space as thought it was just another drive, so you can use your preferred tools to work with your data.

Sequential Backups

If the software you use to access your online storage offers sequential backups, you can upload only the files (or even parts of files) which have changed since the last upload. This saves a considerable amount of bandwidth if you are working with very large files or regularly editing large amounts of data.

Versioning

Some online hard drives (mostly those offering sequential backups) now offer versioning on smaller files (like text documents and spreadsheets) - when you upload a new copy, the system keeps track of what has been changed and allows you to access older versions in case of corruption or user error.

File Sharing

With file sharing capability, you can select any file you have uploaded and create a download link to send to another user, usually without requiring them to sign up or install any software themselves.

Multiple Users and Access Controls

Sometimes offered only to paying subscribers, these features allow you to give other users access to different parts of your online storage. Access control means that you can determine how much access a given user has (view-only, read and write, no deletions etc.) and to which files and folders specifically.

Interconnectivity

The most exciting potential of online file storage solutions, and what really makes them part of the Cloud, is the possibility of interconnecting with other online services. Image files in your internet hard drive can be shared in online galleries like Flickr and Photobucket or ordered as prints, videos can be embedded in pages or shared via sites like YouTube, audio files can be streamed or embedded, and so on. The possibilities of interconnectivity are expanding every day, and will be a large part of the power of the Cloud in future.

Next post: Interesting Players in Online Storage

Labels: access control, Computers, File sharing, Flickr, online file storage, online hard drive, photobucket, sequential backup, synchronisation, versioning, Web 2.0, youtube