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Meikian Live’s Documentation

Contents:

Meikian Live

Meikian Live originally born as CW-Live within the Clone Wars Project community.

The idea behind Meikian Live origin is to provide a working environment with the most common tools to work with 3D printers (part design and printing), Arduino, electronic circuits, CNC, RC, robotics, etc., as well as resources and related documentation.

The main points to be considered in their development are:

  • Make it a free system. It must allow free usage, modification and redistribution to anyone interested in using it.
  • A low resources consumption. It is important that the needed resources for operation are low, as this will allow to use it in a greater number of computers while allowing reuse of older machines.

What is a “Live” distribution?

A Live distribution is a set consisting of an operating system, additional software and settings, that is ready to boot and run from a removable drive (CD/DVD-ROM, USB flash or hard drive, etc.), allowing you to work with it without affecting the operating system, software or settings of the computer on which it runs.

Technological base

Debian GNU/Linux was used for the development of the distribution as base operating system. It is one of the oldest GNU/Linux that exist today and enjoying excellent health, as evidenced by the fact that it is still used as a base for many other distributions, some of them really popular, as Ubuntu or LinuxMint.

The software used for its development is DebianLive, a Debian own system to create custom Live systems.

Resources

  • The Meikian web page.
  • The code and files needed to generate an image of the distribution from scratch are available in meikian-dev GitHub repository.
  • The complete project documentation is included in the distribution itself and also available online at docs.meikian.eu.
  • A mailing list / user’s group at Google Groups.

Hardware requirements

The requirements to run Meikian Live are relatively modest compared with the hardware resources at the disposal of any existing equipment. In turn, the total resources consumption is also determined by the tasks that will be performed, so it is not recommended to use the distribution with lower resources than the specified ones to be able to work with minimal fluency in most included programs:

  • Memory: Minimum amount of RAM memory recommended is 512MB

    Note

    If unpartitioned free space is available on the hard drive of the computer or the device from which you are booting, overall performance may be improved by creating partitions for swap or for data persistence. In this way part of the used RAM is released and is then available to be used by the operating system and the programs.

  • Processor: Intel Pentium4 or equivalent minimum processor.

Hardware tested with the distribution

Computers tested with the 8.x versions

  • Acer Aspire 5542: OK
  • Acer Aspire AS3410: OK
  • Acer Aspire One ZG5: OK
  • Asus K55VD: OK
  • Dell Inspiron One 19: The WiFi card is a Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY using the b43 module (firmware needed). OK
  • Dell Latitude D610: WiFi interface is “eth*” not “wlan*”. OK
  • Dell Latitude E6400: OK
  • Lenovo t61: OK
  • Lenovo t420: OK
  • Lenovo x200s: OK
  • PackardBell EasyNote A7738: WiFi interface is “eth*” not “wlan*”. OK
  • Samsung NC110: OK
  • Sony VAIO VGC-LTS1: OK
  • Toshiba Portege M700: Problems with Xorg on models with the Mobile GM965/GL960 Intel chipset. OK

Computers tested with the 1.x versions

  • Acer Aspire 7220: OK
  • Acer Aspire 5610Z: OK
  • Acer Aspire 7750G: OK
  • Apple MacBook 2007 A1181: Boot from USB devices is not working, booting from DVD unit OK
  • Apple MacBook Air 11” 2011: OK
  • Apple MacBook Pro 5.1 15” late 2008: Not detected booting. KO
  • Apple MacBook Pro Retina 11.2 15” late 2013: Boot with some problems and does not detect the WiFi card
  • Apple MacMini 2012: Boot with some problems and does not detect the WiFi card
  • Asus A55VD: OK
  • Asus EeePC T101MT: OK
  • Asus X54H: —
  • Clevo D400E: OK
  • Dell Inspiron 1564-4730: The WiFi card is a Broadcom Corporation BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY using the b43 module (firmware needed). OK
  • Dell Inspiron n5050: OK
  • Dell Latitude D610: WiFi interface is “eth*” not “wlan*”. OK
  • Dell Latitude E6400: OK
  • Dell XPS L521X: OK
  • HP 500B MT: OK
  • HP Compaq NX9030: WiFi interface is “eth*” not “wlan*”. OK
  • Lenovo Ideapad u430 Touch: Without WiFi support. OK
  • Lenovo n500: OK
  • Lenovo t430s: OK
  • Lenovo x200s: OK
  • PackardBell EasyNote A7738: WiFi interface is “eth*” not “wlan*”. OK
  • PackardBell S1300: Tested booting from DVD unit. OK
  • Toshiba PORTEGE Z930-145: OK
  • Toshiba Satellite A300: OK

Using Meikian Live

Meikian Live distribution download can be made through the links on www.meikian.eu download page.

Once you download the iso file containing the distribution, the content need to be transfered to a physical device. Procedures for performing the operation depend on both the physical device and the operating system used.

Recording to DVD

No problem about the platform or operating system used, since any CD/DVD recording program that allows iso images recording will be able to perform this operation.

Copy to an USB storage device

Using GNU/Linux

The first step will be to connect the storage unit you want used for the copy of the distribution, it must have capacity enough to accommodate the downloaded iso. If you want to create one or more additional partitions to use data persistence, the size needed space will increase depending on the size you want for those partitions.

After connecting the storage unit from a command console dmesg command can be used to see last message lines from kernel and get the device ID that the system assigned to it.

To copy the iso file, two different methods can be used:

  • The first, more correct, will be using the commands isoinfo and dd:

    For example, to obtain the information of meikian-live_beta1.iso file, the following command will be executed:

    user@meikian-dev:~$ isoinfo -d -i meikian-live_beta1.iso

CD-ROM is in ISO 9660 format
System id:
Volume id: Meikian_20140915
Volume set id:
Publisher id: MEIKIAN
Data preparer id: LIVE-BUILD 3.0.5-1; HTTP://PACKAGES.QA.DEBIAN.ORG/LIVE-BUILD
Application id: MEIKIAN LIVECD
Copyright File id:
Abstract File id:
Bibliographic File id:
Volume set size is: 1
Volume set sequence number is: 1
Logical block size is: 2048
Volume size is: 749984
El Torito VD version 1 found, boot catalog is in sector 76
Joliet with UCS level 3 found
Rock Ridge signatures version 1 found
Eltorito validation header:
  Hid 1
  Arch 0 (x86)
  ID ''
  Key 55 AA
  Eltorito defaultboot header:
    Bootid 88 (bootable)
    Boot media 0 (No Emulation Boot)
    Load segment 0
    Sys type 0
    Nsect 4
    Bootoff 19B32 105266

    From the information that the command returns, the values of Logical block size and Volume size fields are needed.

    Warning

    The following process eliminates the partition table and all the information contained in the specified device, so it is imperative to be sure it is the correct device.

    The command that must be executed is:

    dd if="path to the downloaded file" bs="Logical block size" count="Volume size" of=/dev/"device identifier"

    Using data from the previous example for a flash drive that has been assigned a device identifier sdb, the following command will be executed with root privileges, either by using su or sudo command:

    user@meikian-dev:~$ sudo dd if=meikian-live_beta1.iso bs=2048 count=749984 of=/dev/sdb

  • The second, faster and usually enough, using only dd command:

    Warning

    The following process eliminates the partition table and all the information contained in the specified device, so it is imperative to be sure it is the correct device.

    The command to be executed is:

    dd if="path to downloaded file" of=/dev/"device identifier"

    Using data from the previous example for a flash drive that has been assigned a device identifier sdb, the following command will be executed with root privileges, either by using su or sudo command:

    user@meikian-dev:~$ sudo dd if=meikian-live_beta1.iso of=/dev/sdb

Once the command returns control to the console, and if there has been no error during the process, the copy will be made. To start the distribution is necessary to ensure that the computer allows booting from USB devices and that the boot sequence order is correctly selected on the computer BIOS.

Using MAC OSX

On computers running MAC OSX is possible to use the same method as for GNU/Linux, changing only the name of the device being used to dump the content of the image.

To facilitate the utilisation of the dd command, dd-gui utility may be used, allowing you to use a graphical interface to perform the operations.

Using MS Windows

On computers running MS Windows it is possible to use an utility like win32diskimager to perform the operation, which is similar to GNU/Linux dd command but using a graphical interface.

Using persistence for user data

To store the information, files, settings, etc. or changes made between reboots of the Live distribution, it may be resorted to the use of auxiliary partitions in which the information can be stored permanently. To do this, two different types of data persistance may be chosen:

  • System data in which all changes made in the system including the user directory is stored.
  • User data in which only the changes made in the user directory are stored.

They are not mutually exclusive, so we can create both or either separately.

To enable data persistence it is needed to create one or more additional partitions in the free space of the USB device or hard disk, using an ext3 or ext4 type filesystem for them with the volume label persistence.

In the root directory of each partition used for persistence must exist a file named persistence.conf:

  • persistence.conf file to enable system data persistence:

    # Use partition for system data persistence
/ union,source=.

  • persistence.conf file to enable user data persistence:

    # Use partition for user data persistence
/home bind,source=.

If created from the Live distribution itself, the system must be restarted to recognize the new partitions at startup and to generate the files and directory structure required for operation.

Users

Default users defined in the distribution are as follows:

  • root is the admin user and is disabled by default, so to execute actions or commands with root privileges you have to resort to using su, sudo or gksudo commands.

  • user is the common use user of the distribution and its password is live.

    Note

    When the distribution is installed on a hard drive it will be needed to enter the user password to execute certain commands or actions that need root privileges, but not in Live mode.

Specific software included in the distro

2D design

3D modeling

3D printers control

3D scanning

Arduino programming

Circuit design

Programming

Slicer for 3D objects

Tools for working with 3D objects

Building a Meikian Live image

Meikian Live is developed with Debian GNU/Linux 8.x Jessie for x86 architecture, using DebianLive, its own live systems creator. It is possible to use other versions or architectures, even derived distributions, but in such cases it cannot be guaranteed that the following detailed process works or it may not be the same.

To generate a Meikian Live image from scratch, the following requeriment are needed.

Root access

The creation script needs to be executed with root privileges, either by su or sudo command.

Needed tools

A number of preinstalled tools are needed, for which the following command may be used:

user@meikian-dev:~$ sudo apt-get install apt-utils debootstrap dosfstools debian-keyring fakeroot genisoimage genext2fs gnu-fdisk loadlin mtd-utils parted squashfs-tools syslinux uuid-runtime win32-loader xorriso

It is also needed to have the 4.x branch of DebianLive toolset installed which is the currently available in Debian GNU/Linux 8.x Wheezy. For this, may also be used the command below:

user@meikian-dev:~$ sudo apt-get install live-build

Meikian Live repository on GitHub

A copy of Meikian Live repository content on GitHub is needed. This can be obtained in two different ways, by cloning the repository or by downloading the zip file with its content from GitHub webpage.

  • To clone the repository you need to have git installed. In case that is not available in the system, it can be installed with the following command:

    user@meikian-dev:~$ sudo apt-get install git

Next you need to create a directory to store and proceed to clone the repository content in it, for what the follollowing commands can be used:

user@meikian-dev:~$ mkdir my_meikian
user@meikian-dev:~$ git clone https://github.com/ctemescw/meikian-dev.git my_meikian

  • If the compressed file is downloaded from the repository instead, unzip program will be necessary. If it is not available in the system, it can be installed by running the following command:

    user@meikian-dev:~$ sudo apt-get install unzip

Then the previously downloaded zip file is decompressed and renamed to more easily work with it:

user@meikian-dev:~$ unzip develop.zip
user@meikian-dev:~$ mv meikian-dev-development my_meikian

Modifying Meikian Live building script

Few parameters inside the distribution building script need to be modified to specify the path where the content of the Meikian Live repository has been copied.

Within the directory used to host the content of the repository is located the make-live.sh script, in which the lines 14 and 15 need to be edited to specify the corresponding paths.

The original content of these lines is:

## default values
HOME_DIR="/home/debian-live/"
BUILD_DIR="${HOME_DIR}/meikian-live"
  • HOME_DIR represents the path to the parent directory of the directory with the content of the repository
  • BUILD_DIR represents the full path to the directory with the content of the repository

As an example for the case of a use user having its home directory in /home/user and creates inside it a folder my_meikian for the Meikian Live repository data, the values that have to replace the originals are:

## default values
HOME_DIR="/home/user/"
BUILD_DIR="${HOME_DIR}/my_meikian"

Applying patch to Live-Build 4.x

Within the Meikian Live repository in GitHub exists a directory named patches that contains a patch for the Live-Build 4.x branch needed to build images with more than two boot kernels.

Using the same scenario as in previous sections, the commands to be executed to apply the patch are as follows:

user@meikian-dev:~$ cd my_meikian/patches
user@meikian-dev:~/my_meikian$ sudo patch -p0 < live_build-4.x_binary_syslinux.patch

Creating Meikian Live iso

The distribution building script can generate various types of images for different purposes. The available types are:

  • iso image formated with ISO9660 standard intended for recording in DVD
  • iso-hybrid iso hybrid image allowing to be recorded in DVD or to be copied to a USB flash drive
  • usb-hdd image to be copied to a USB hard disk
  • tar generates a file that contains all the distribution filesystem

Once all the requirements specified in previous sections have been accomplished, you can proceed to create the Meikian Live image.

Note

Factors to be considered:

  • The process can take from one to several hours depending on the resources of the computer that is used
  • At least 15GB of free space on the hard drive are needed
  • It is necessary that the computer has Internet connection during the process

The command for the distribution image building:

make-live.sh <"type of image to be created">

Using the same scenario as in previous sections, the commands needed to generate a distribution image of the hybrid type are as follows:

user@meikian-dev:~$ cd my_meikian
user@meikian-dev:~/my_meikian$ sudo ./make-live.sh iso-hybrid

Contributing

Contributions are welcome and really appreciated. Every single contribution helps and will always have the corresponding acknowledgement.

You can contribute in many ways:

Types of contributions

Bugs/issues reporting

They can be reported creating new entries at issues section of GitHub repository.

When an issue is being reported, it is convenient to include:

  • Operative System name and its version.
  • Any detail related with your local settings that may be helpful to solve the problem.
  • Detailed steps to reproduce the error.

Debugging

All entries tagged as bug on issues section of GitHub repository are available for anyone who wants to help debugging them.

Implementing features

All entries tagged as feature on issues section of GitHub repository are available for anyone who wants to help implementing them.

Writing documentation

Meikian Live can always benefit with more documentation, either as part of the official documentation, comments within the code or even on the web, or as blog posts, articles and similar.

Giving feedback

The best way to provide feedback to the project is adding comments and new entries at issues section of GitHub repository.

If a feature is being proposed, it is convenient to consider:

  • To include a detailed explanation of how it would work.
  • Keep the field of application as small as possible, to get it easier to implement.
  • Remember that this is a project maintained by volunteers and any contribution is welcome :)

Starting!

Ready to contribute? How to prepare Meikian Live to develop locally is detailed below.

  1. Fork meikian-dev repository at GitHub.

  2. Clone locally the repository you have just created:

    $ git clone git@github.com:"username"/meikian-dev.git

  3. ToDo

  4. Create a new branch for local development:

    $ git flow feature start "name of bug or feature"
From this moment local changes may be made.

  1. ToDo

  2. Confirm changes and synchronise local repository with GitHub:

    $ git add .
$ git commit -m "detailed changes description"
$ git flow feature publish

  3. Make a “pull request” through GitHub web interface.

Instructions to make a “pull request”

Before a “pull request”, the following guideline should be checked:

meikian-dev uses git-flow for its branches management.

  1. Implement changes on new`git`_ branches following git-flow model:

  • Changes focused on develop branch will be easier accepted.

  • Changes focused on release branches (if any) tend to be considered, especially for small bug fixes affecting this version. New features will not be accepted on release branches.

  • Changes focused on master branch or in older versions branches will probably never be accepted. In certain cases it is possible that patches to fix serious bugs in previous versions are taken into account, but it is preferable that these changes follow the normal process of git-flow.

    In no case new features focused on master branch or in earlier versions will be accepted.

  1. Limit changes scope to a single bug fixing or feature per branch.
  2. Consider documentation as an essential part of any change.
  3. Update the change log in a proper way.

History

v8.0 (2015.12.01)

  • Updated Cura to the 15.04 version
  • Updated FlatCAM to the 8.4 version
  • Updated FreeCAD to the 0.15.4671 version
  • Updated Inkscape to the 0.91 version
  • Updated LinuxCNC to the 2.7.2 version
  • Updated OpenSCAD to the 2015.03 version
  • Added Arduino 1.6.5
  • Added CNC Gcode controller 2015.07.03
  • Added Horus 0.1.2.4
  • Added LibreCAD 2.0.4
  • Added RepSnapper 2.3.2
  • Added Visualino 0.5.2
  • Added UDEV rules for the BeagleBone card
  • Fixed several bugs and glitches in the desktop configuration
  • Updated the documentation for Meikian

v8.0 Alpha (2015.08.08)

  • Added an installer to hard disk
  • New naming scheme based in the Debian GNU/Linux version
  • Base system migrated to Debian 8 Jessie

v1.1 (2015.04.25)

  • Updated bookmarks of the Chromium and Iceweasel browsers
  • Fixed the configuration of the Chromium and Iceweasel browsers
  • Updated FreeCAD to the 0.14.3702 version from the Debian backports repository
  • Updated Fritzing to the 0.9.2b version
  • Updated Cura to the 15.02 version
  • Updated S4A to the 1.6 version
  • Removed the S4A firmware from the meikian-misc package and build a standalone package for it
  • Removed LibreCAD
  • Changed the location for the desktop’s background images
  • Updated LinuxCNC to the 2.6.5 version
  • Added Abiword
  • Added Gnumeric
  • Added FlatCAM 8.3
  • Added Universal Gcode Sender 1.0.7
  • Replaced Vinagre remote desktops manager with Remmina
  • Added Avrdude

v1.0 (2014.11.07)

  • Updated Cura to the 14.09 version
  • Firefox browser replaced by Iceweasel
  • Updated the meikian-arduino-extras package with new libraries
  • Removed Repetier-host due to license issues
  • Added FreeCAD Library, Printbot part library and Printbots library for use with FreeCAD
  • Added the english translation for the documentation
  • Changed the images for boot menu and desktop’s background

v1.0 Beta (2014.09.28)

  • Packaged Arduino binaries from arduino.cc due to several problems with the Debian testing packages
  • Changed the isolinux bootsplash image
  • Changed the name of the project to Meikian Live
  • Added a second kernel with PAE and SMP support as the default option in the boot menu
  • Added a third kernel with realtime extensions for LinuxCNC
  • Added an option for old systems in the boot menu that uses the kernel in the previous versions of the distro
  • Migrated the documenting system to RST and readthedocs.org
  • Updated Fritzing to the 0.9.0b version
  • Updated Slic3r to the 1.1.7 stable version
  • Added LinuxCNC 2.6.3
  • Added MeshLab 1.3.0
  • Added Scratch 1.4
  • Added S4A 1.5
  • Added UDEV rules from the OpenOCD project
  • Added packages with extra libraries and macros for FreeCAD
  • Added a directory to make easier the access to the 3D Printing tools’ configuration files
  • Added several links to the file manager
  • Replaced oracle-java7-installer with openjdk-7-jre due to license issues
  • Removed the memtest86 boot image due to license issues
  • Removed the Balder and gPXE boot images
  • Removed the Netfabb Basic package due to license issues

v1.0 Alpha7 (2014.07.12)

  • Migrated the system for the creation of the distro to GitHub
  • Packaged all the needed software that were not available as a .deb package
  • Changed the boot menu to make it multi-language
  • Changed the boot scripts to permit language based customizations
  • Disabled the Hard Disk installer
  • Removed the examples directory
  • Updated Printrun to the 2014.01.26 version
  • Updated Cura to the 14.7 version
  • Updated Netfabb Basic to the 5.1.1 version
  • Updated Slic3r to the 11.6 version
  • Updated FreeCAD to the 0.14.3692 version
  • Added Fritzing 0.8.7b
  • Added Graphviz to be able to see the objects’s dependencies in FreeCAD
  • Backport of PySerial from Debian testing. Included a patch to permit serial connections at any speed
  • Added Adobe Flash support to the Chromium browser
  • Fixed the installation of the Intel IPW wireless cards’ firmware

v1.0 Alpha6 (2014.03.23)

  • Added a directory with the firmwares’ code “/usr/local/share/firmwares”
  • Added a directory with examples and calibration objects “/usr/local/share/examples”
  • Added the F.Malpartida’s Marlin firmware version that supports the SAV MKI’s LCD
  • Added the F.Malpartida’s New LiquidCrystal v1.2.1 library for use it with the SAV MKI’s LCD
  • Updated OpenSCAD to the 2014.03 version
  • Updated Cura to the 14.03 version
  • Added the Inkscape’s Gcodetools v1.7 extension

v1.0 Alpha5 (2014.02.19)

  • Added Netfabb Basic 5.1.0
  • Updated Slic3r to the 1.0.0RC3 version
  • Añadidos the following packages: unetbootin, unetbootin-translations, vinagre, x11vnc
  • Added a directory to be able to access from the desktop to the configuration files

v1.0 Alpha4 (2014.02.13)

  • Added an entry to the boot menu for the Debian-installer
  • Updated RepetierHost to the 0.95F version
  • Added the following packages: chromium, chromium-l10n, geda-xgsch2pcb, xchat
  • Hidden the following packages: htop, mc
  • Removed the following packages: dia, firefox, gigolo, thunderbird
  • Fixed the support for the Sanguinololu and Rambo controllers in the Arduino’s IDE

v1.0 Alpha3 (2014.02.01)

v1.0 Alpha2 (2014.01.14)

v1.0 Alpha (2014.01.09)

Licenses

Meikian Live is Free Software. It consists on 2 main elements, the system to build the distribution and he distribution itself, counting each one with specific peculiarities in terms of their licenses.

The source code of all the software included in both cases, which is necessary to make publicly accesible to meet the requirements of the different licenses, is available through the following sources:

Distribution building system

The distribution building system is based on DebianLive, a Debian GNU/Linux system for building customised Live systems:

Copyright ©  2006-2015 Live Systems Project

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms
of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either
version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Link to the GNU General Public License

Own scripts and custom content

The scripts and other own content made specifically for Meikian Live:

Copyright ©  2014-2015 The Meikian Project

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms
of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either
version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Link to the GNU General Public License

Other included files or projects

  • Grub Legacy

    Copyright ©  1996  Erich Boleyn <erich@uruk.org>
Copyright ©  1999-2000  Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms
of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

  • Grub

    Copyright © 1999-2009  Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms
of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

  • Memtest86+

    Copyright © 2004,2005,2007,2009 by Samuel Demeulemeester <memtest@memtest.org>, based on
memtest86 by Chris Brady <cbrady@sgi.com>, and various contributors.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms
of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; version
2 dated June, 1991.

  • pci.ids

    Maintained by Martin Mares <mj@ucw.cz> and other volunteers from the PCI ID Project at
http://pci-ids.ucw.cz/.

This file can be distributed under either the GNU General Public License (version 2 or
higher) or the 3-clause BSD License.

  • Syslinux

    Copyright © 1994-2014 H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms
of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Meikian Live Distribution

All the software included in the distribution uses free licenses.

Software contained in Debian GNU/Linux repositories

All the software listed in the official Debian GNU/Linux repositories stores the information corresponding to copyright and their licenses in the documentation directory of each package.

This information can be found from the distribution itself, accessing to the /usr/share/doc/"package name" directory.

Software specifically packaged for the distribution

All the software specifically packaged for the distribution stores the information corresponding to copyright and their licenses in the documentation directory of each package.

This information can be found from the distribution itself, accessing to the /usr/share/doc/"package name" directory.

Credits

Main developer

Contributors

Projects that have made possible Meikian Live