Olympian Exchange

LINUXUSER Apollon

File Sharing with Apollon and GiFT OLYMPIAN EXCHANGE

The operators of the popular Internet-based file sharing network, Kazaa, only provide software for Windows systems, but the GiFT project brings www.sxc.hu Kazaa support to Linux.

BY CARSTEN SCHNOBER

azaa [1], the popular Internet- Kazaa makes it difficult for the Linux rent version. Box 1 describes how to add based file sharing network, has community to join the network, as the plugins. Kthe biggest user-base and offers peer-to-peer software Kazaa provides is GiFT is not a client program but a its users the widest range of services. So restricted to Microsoft operating sys- background daemon. When launched, it far, Kazaa has owed its popularity to tems. opens a connection to the P2P networks, Windows users – possibly due to the The GiFT project [2] now has a Linux- providing a gateway to local programs. prominence of illegal copies of expen- based plugin for users who want to The KDE program Apollon [8] uses the sive software packages, which are use- share files worldwide via Kazaa. The GiFT daemon and gives users a GUI for less to most Linux users. Additionally, plugin implements the Fasttrack protocol easy access to the file sharing platforms. used by Kazaa and additionally supports Installation the Gnutella [3] file The Arkollon program installs the Apol- sharing network. At the lon GUI and GiFT, including plugins for same time, OpenFast- track provides an alter- Table 1: Required Packages native to Kazaa. There RPM Debian is another plugin for zlib-devel zlib1g-dev the Ares network [4], libtool libltdl3-dev and the GiFT home- db-devel libdb4.2-dev page also refers to plu- libmagic-devel libmagic-dev gins for Napster [5], libvorbis-devel libvorbis-dev Soulseek [6] and E- imagemagick-devel libmagick-dev Donkey [7], which are qt3-devel libqt3-mt-dev incomplete or no qt3-devel-tools qt3-dev-tools kdelibs3-devel kdelibs4-dev Figure 1: Arkollon installs Apollon automatically. longer support the cur-

82 ISSUE 55 JUNE 2005 WWW.LINUX- MAGAZINE.COM Apollon LINUXUSER

networks, and to name of the artist associated with a specify the folders music track. The Availability column you want to share tells you how many people are sharing with other users on this file, which is important, as the more those networks. slots you have, the better your download Should you speed is. decide to ditch Double-clicking a file launches into Apollon and GiFT the download, and the Transfer window some day, Arkollon gives you an overview of the current will take care of downloads. this. Typing arkol- You can play tracks from your collec- lon --uninstall tells tion directly in Apollon. To do so, the tool to remove change to the Shared Folders frame and the files you open the directory with the track you installed. want to play. Double click an entry to Figure 2: Several million users share files all over the world. When you play the track; the Player gives you con- launch Apollon, the trols. Fasttrack, Gnutella, and OpenFasttrack. program first takes you to the Info win- As Arkollon contains and compiles the dow shown in Figure 2, which displays Finally File Sharing! source code, you need the KDE devel- your connection status for the individual The GiFT project finally gives Linux oper environment. Table 1 gives you a P2P networks. After establishing a con- users access to the Kazaa network, and list of required packages; the package nection, you can switch to the Search Apollon adds an intuitive interface to names may vary with RPM-based distri- window (Figure 3) to search the active Kazaa and other file sharing platforms. butions. networks for keywords. Doing so fills the But before you become too enthusiastic Arkollon first prompts you for the root areas below the search box with a hitlist. about the number of hits a typical search password and then unpacks, builds, and The list gives you the filename and other returns, you might like to consider the installs the programs you selected (Fig- data, such as the size, the length, or the legal consequences before you leap (Box ure 1). If you are run- 2). If you download and upload content ning Ubuntu without a without paying attention to the small root password, you can print, you are likely to collide with the avoid the prompt by law some time. ■ type sudo before you launch the installer and Box 1: Adding GiFT Plugins supplying your pass- Installing a plugin always follows the word. After completing same pattern. After unpacking the the install, you can sim- source code archive, build the appli- ply call apollon; the cation using ./configure && make && GUI-client will automat- make install – you need the developer ically launch the GiFT packages referred to in Table 1 for this. This puts the new program library in daemon. When you first the /usr/local/lib/giFT/ directory. In launch the program, Apollon, now open the Settings | you need to supply a Figure 3: More or less any search key will return a number of Configure Apollon... dialog, and go to nickname for the P2P hits. the Advanced tab. Click on Add... to open a file browser window. Navigate Box 2: Legal or illegal? to /usr/local/lib/giFT/ in this window, and select the new plugin. File sharing on the Internet owes its downloads. Of course, this also applies amazing popularity to the ease with to most commercial software. which users can exchange illegal copies The music industry in particular saw the INFO of music and commercial software. File danger that an almost unlimited supply [1] Kazaa: http://www.kazaa.com/ sharing experienced a boom at the end of free copies meant to its daily busi- of the 90s, with the Napster platform, ness. But the legal issues have more or [2] GiFT: http://gift.sourceforge.net/ which has since turned commerical, at less been settled, despite advertising [3] Gnutella: http://www.gnutella.com/ the fore. The MP3 algorithm developed campaigns that suggest otherwise. File [4] Ares: http://www.aresgalaxy.org/ shortly before this boom was the first to sharing networks are basically legal, but [5] Napster: http://www.napster.com/ support a compression format that lent if you use them to download or propa- itself to the exchange of sound files gate music or software without a license [6] Soulseek: http://www.slsknet.org/ across the Internet. Ever since, the latest to do so, you are breaking copyright law. [7] E-Donkey: albums have typically been put up for People offering illegal copies have been http://www.edonkey2000.com/ grabs very shortly after publication, giv- sentenced to fines of several thousand [8] Apollon: ing users access to free, but illegal dollars both in the US and in Europe. http://apollon.sourceforge.net/