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I’ve just jumped ship from Ubuntu to Linux Mint Debian Edition (20011-08 RC1, 64-bit Gnome version) because as much as I tried, I just couldn’t get along with Xfce and Thunar, and I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with the Ubuntu desktop experience *@&%ers making decisions for me.

So now I need to be able to build the latest version of a few packages. Again. In this case, it’s GLEW 1.7.0 – but thankfully this one’s pretty do-able:

1.) Install some GLEW build pre-req’s with:

sudo apt-get install libxmu-headers libxmu-dev libxi-dev

2.) Get the GLEW source and extract it.

3.) If you want to install in /usr/local/ instead of /usr/ (which is generally a good idea for packages you’ve built yourself so you can easily distinguish them from “system packages”) then edit the Makefile in your extracted glew folder and make the following change:

GLEW_DEST ?= /usr

Should be modified to read:

GLEW_DEST ?= /usr/local

4.) On Debian it appears that /usr/local/lib64 doesn’t already exist as a symlink to /usr/local/lib (which means that you could end up with some of your stuff in the local/lib folder and some in the local/lib64 folder – which would be rubbish), so create the symlink yourself first with:

sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib /usr/local/lib64

5.) Run make then sudo make install

6.) Finally, once you have your GLEW stuff installed, don’t forget to link in libGL.so to your OpenGL projects, which if you’re making the switch from Ubuntu to Debian like I am, have now moved from /usr/lib/libGL.so to /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libGL.so, at least on my 64-bit setup.

Fun, eh? Sheesh!

The Kinect just came out in Australia today, so I’m already a little bit late to the party, but I’m keen to see what I can do with it so I went and picked one up earlier – a couple of minutes after unboxing and it’s happily working with Linux. Awesome =D

The GLView example running on LibFreenect

Anyways, here’s what you need to do to build the library for yourself:

1. Using synaptic or apt-get, install the following packages: libusb1.0-dev, freeglut3-dev, git, cmake

   sudo apt-get install libusb1.0-dev freeglut3-dev git cmake

It’s possible you may need to install some other packages as well depending on what you currently have or don’t have installed, but if you need anything additional then cmake will let you know about it when you get to that step.

2. Download the libFreenect source code using git (this will make a directory for you called libfreenect):

   git clone https://github.com/OpenKinect/libfreenect.git

3. Make a directory inside the c folder where you’ve downloaded the libFreenect source code and use cmake to configure the build:

   cd libfreenect/c
   mkdir build
   cd build
   cmake ..

4. Actually compile the library:

   make

That’s it – you’re done!

Now you can check out what the kinect’s seeing by going into the examples directory (which will now exist at ~/libfreenect/build/examples) and running ./glview as root:

cd examples
sudo ./glview

I think we’re going to have a lot of fun with this… =D

Update: To install a working version of Handbrake in Ubuntu 10.10 or 11.04, you’ll need to install from the PPA, and you’re probably best off doing so like this…

First, you’ll need to add the Handbrake PPA (personal package archive) to your Ubuntu system. Open up a Terminal window and use this command:
For the official builds:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-releases

Or for the nightly builds:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stebbins/handbrake-snapshots

After the repository has been added, update your system’s listing of its repositories with this command:

sudo apt-get update

Once the repository listings have been updated, you can then install the graphical version of Handbrake with this command:

sudo apt-get install handbrake-gtk

You can also install the command line version of Handbrake with this command:

sudo apt-get install handbrake-cli

Props to Jonathon Moeller for his write up on this 10.10 technique.

If You’re Still Want to Build Your Own Copy However…

The currently available pre-packaged version of Handbrake (the Video/DVD transcoder/ripper) at the time of writing is 0.9.4 (actual filename for the 64-bit version: HandBrake-0.9.4-Ubuntu_GUI_x86_64.deb) – and it’s about as much use as a chocolate teapot on Ubuntu 10.04… You simply can’t endcode/transcode with it because it’s broken, with the Add to Queue and Start buttons permanently greyed out because the functionality behind them is mashed.

So let’s build a fresh version that works!

Step 1.) Get the Necessary Libraries

A quick trip to the command line will get everything you need (where everything you already have in this list is simply ignored):

sudo apt-get install subversion yasm build-essential autoconf libtool zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev intltool libglib2.0-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libgtk2.0-dev libgudev-1.0-dev libwebkit-dev libnotify-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev

Step 2.) Get the Source Code

Create a folder for it, move to it, then grab the latest source code via subversion like this:

mkdir handbrake
cd handbrake
svn checkout svn://svn.handbrake.fr/HandBrake/trunk hb-trunk

Step 3.) Build It!

Once we’re in the right place, this configure line with the given switch will configure and make Handbrake in one fell swoop:

cd hb-trunk
./configure --launch

Step 4.) Test It!

After a successful build, you’ll see the executable HandBrake-CLI in the build folder – but you’re probably after the GUI version, which is tucked away in build/gtk/src and called ghb – just go to the right folder, launch it and give it a try out – should be absolutely mint.

There are a stack of different options for the encoding process which can slow down the encode/transcode process and increase the quality – I went with these final settings to get high encoding quality without the encode process taking all week:

ref=2:bframes=2:subme=6:trellis=2:b-pyramid=1:b-adapt=2:direct=auto:no-fast-pskip=1

HandBrake - Now Working! Woo-Hoo!

Cheers!

It’s really easy to get this emulator up and working – but you do have to compile it yourself in linux – still, it’s only a couple of commands and you’re set. I did it on Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit and it worked like a charm…

Update (04/07/2011): Easiest way yet – simply add the PPA and get it (for Ubuntu 10.10 & 11.04 32/64 bit only) like this:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:glennric/dolphin-emu
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dolphin-emu

Update (Older than above): I found that you can download pre-compiled .deb files for Ubuntu 9.10 here (PPA addition required) – be careful with that sudo apt-get upgrade command in the instructions though – I don’t really think you need it and you probably don’t want to upgrade your entire linux distribution just to play an emulator… I’m confusing sudo apt-get upgrade (which upgrades currently installed packages) with sudo apt-get dist-upgrade (which updates your linux distribution if there is a newer version available) – my bad.

Either way, I’d recommend you just compile it yourself – it only takes a couple of minutes.

Update – Nov 2011: Like anything published, it ages and what might have been correct at the time of writing may no longer be the case – so with that in mind, if you’re going to build your own copy of Dolphin, you’re probably best off going to http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu/wiki/Linux_Build and using the instructions there.

#Get the project dependencies
sudo apt-get install subversion scons g++ wx2.8-headers libwxbase2.8-0 libwxbase2.8-dbg libwxbase2.8-dev libwxgtk2.8-0 libwxgtk2.8-dbg libwxgtk2.8-dev libgtk2.0-dev libsdl1.2-dev nvidia-cg-toolkit libxrandr2-dbg libxrandr-dev libxext6-dbg libxext-dev libglew1.5-dev libcairo2-dbg libcairo2-dev libao2 libao-dev libbluetooth-dev libreadline5-dev
 
# Make a directory to get the source and go into it
mkdir dolphin
cd dolphin
 
# Grab the latest source code through subversion
svn checkout http://dolphin-emu.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ dolphin-emu-read-only
 
# Get to the right location to build the emulator (it needs to be the one with the SConstruct file in it)
cd dolphin-emu-read-only/stable
 
# Build it!
scons flavor=release

Issues: If you’re getting errors along the line of Looking for lib Cg… no. Plugin_VideoOGL must have cg and cggl to be build, then the fix is to install the nvidia-cg-toolkit package with:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-cg-toolkit

With all that done, it takes around five minutes to compile and build, then you can go to the Binary folder inside your source-code download location to find the executable and launch it. Once it’s up and running just go File | Open and point it at an Wii or Gamecube ISO and you’re in business!

By default you get a gamecube controller bound to the keyboard (Enter = Start button, x = A button, cursor keys up/down/left/right) and an emulated Wiimote is bound to the mouse (where the left mouse button is the A button), but you can use joysticks, real Wiimotes etc as well without too much fuss. Fantastic stuff

If you’re having any issues, just read more about linux confix/setup/dependencies here, while the main Dolphin wiki lives here.