Billix | Rails | Gumstix | Zenoss | Wiimote | BUG | Quantum GIS LINUX JOURNAL ™ REVIEWED: Neuros OSD and COOL PROJECTS Cradlepoint PHS300 Since 1994: The Original Magazine of the Linux Community AUGUST 2008 | ISSUE 172 WE’VE GOT Billix | Rails Gumstix Zenoss Wiimote BUG Quantum GIS MythTV BUGs AND OTHER COOL PROJECTS TOO E-Ink + Gumstix Perfect Billix Match? Kiss Install CDs Goodbye AUGUST How To: 16 Terabytes in One Case www.linuxjournal.com 2008 $5.99US $5.99CAN 08 ISSUE Learn to Fake a Wiimote Linux 172 + UFO Landing Video Interface HOW-TO 0 09281 03102 4 AUGUST 2008 CONTENTS Issue 172 FEATURES 48 THE BUG: A LINUX-BASED HARDWARE MASHUP With the BUG, you get a GPS, camera, motion detector and accelerometer all in one hand-sized unit, and it’s completely programmable. Mike Diehl 52 BILLIX: A SYSADMIN’S SWISS ARMY KNIFE Build a toolbox in your pocket by installing Billix on that spare USB key. Bill Childers 56 FUN WITH E-INK, X AND GUMSTIX Find out how to make standard X11 apps run on an E-Ink display using a Gumstix embedded device. Jaya Kumar 62 ONE BOX. SIXTEEN TRILLION BYTES. Build your own 16 Terabyte file server with hardware RAID. Eric Pearce ON THE COVER • Neuros OSD, p. 44 • Cradlepoint PHS300, p. 42 • We've got BUGs, p. 48 • E-Ink + Gumstix—Perfect Match?, p. 56 • How To: 16 Terabytes in One Case, p. 62 • Billix—Kiss Install CDs Goodbye, p. 52 • Learn to Fake a UFO Landing Video, p. 80 • Wiimote Linux Interface How-To, p. 32 2 | august 2008 www.linuxjournal.com lj026:lj018.qxd 5/14/2008 4:00 PM Page 1 The Straight Talk People SM SINCE 1991 ABERDEEN HOW MUCH STORAGE DO YOU NEED? • Aberdeen Stirling Storage Servers deliver vast and flexible expansion capabilities in a single storage server without additional controllers • Expand up to 328TB with Aberdeen DAS and JBOD units without any performance degradation • SAS and SATA support concurrently in same server (separate arrays) • Four Gigabit Ethernet Ports allow network teaming • Dual Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processors with up to 1600 MHz Front Side Bus • iSCSI support with available NAS versions • Multiple available expansion slots The Aberdeen line of expandable storage servers provide a full spectrum of scalable, maximum capacity storage solutions for data backup, media sharing storage, content creation, streaming media, nearline storage, and post-production needs. 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For terms and conditions, please see www.aberdeeninc.com/abpoly/abterms.htm. lj026 888-297-7409 www.aberdeeninc.com/lj026 AUGUST 2008 CONTENTS Issue 172 COLUMNS INDEPTH 8 SHAWN POWER’S 68 LINUX FOR THE LONG HAUL CURRENT_ISSUE.TAR.GZ Checking in with the Greater Linux: the Root of All Coolness Houlton Christian Academy’s switch to Linux. 22 REUVEN M. LERNER’S Michael Surran AT THE FORGE Profiling Rails Applications 72 ZENOSS AND THE ART OF ENTERPRISE MONITORING 26 MARCEL GAGNÉ’S Stay on top of your network with COOKING WITH LINUX an enterprise-class monitoring tool. Cool as Ice! Jeramiah Bowling 80 HOW TO FAKE A UFO LANDING Use Voodoo to solve video match-moving problems. Dan Sawyer 56 E-INK’S E-PAPER DISPLAY 30 DAVE TAYLOR’S WORK THE SHELL Next Month Movie Trivia and Fun with Random Numbers THE UNDERDOG ISSUE 32 KYLE RANKIN’S HACK AND / Everybody loves an underdog. Wiimote Control Some people even consider Linux to be an underdog (we 96 DOC SEARLS’ prefer “Undiscovered EOF Champion”). Next month, we Mixing Up a Generative Mobile Feast focus on the little guy. Sure you 86 QUANTUM GIS: THE know all about Ubuntu, but REVIEWS OPEN-SOURCE GEOGRAPHIC what about Gentoo? Granted, INFORMATION SYSTEM Apache is the king of the Web 42 HOT AND BOTHERED Hooked on Google Earth? Check server world, but what about AT STARBUCKS out Quantum GIS to satisfy your the alternatives? (No, not IIS.) geographic cravings. Heck, even Inkscape has some Dan Sawyer less-popular alternatives like James Gray Xara Xtreme. So, whether 44 THE NEUROS OSD CONNECTS you’re looking for a command- YOUR TV TO THE INTERNET 92 BUILD A MYTHTV BOX line e-mail client, or you want Marco Fioretti WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK an alternative to BIND, next A quick-and-easy guide to the month will be an issue you world of MythTV. don’t want to miss. IN EVERY ISSUE P. Surdas Mohit 12 LETTERS 16 UPFRONT USPS LINUX JOURNAL (ISSN 1075-3583) (USPS 12854) is published monthly by Belltown Media, Inc., 2211 Norfolk, Ste 514, Houston, 36 NEW PRODUCTS TX 77098 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Houston, Texas and at additional mailing offices. Cover price is $5.99 US. Sub scrip tion rate 38 NEW PROJECTS is $29.50/year in the United States, $39.50 in Canada and Mexico, $69.50 elsewhere. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Linux Journal, PO Box 980985, Houston, TX 77098. Subscriptions start with the next issue. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement 81 ADVERTISERS INDEX #41549519. Canada Returns to be sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2 4 | august 2008 www.linuxjournal.com Executive Editor Jill Franklin [email protected] Associate Editor Shawn Powers [email protected] Senior Editor Doc Searls [email protected] Art Director Garrick Antikajian [email protected] Products Editor James Gray [email protected] Editor Emeritus Don Marti [email protected] Technical Editor Michael Baxter [email protected] Senior Columnist Reuven Lerner [email protected] Chef Français Marcel Gagné [email protected] Security Editor Mick Bauer [email protected] Contributing Editors David A. Bandel • Ibrahim Haddad • Robert Love • Zack Brown • Dave Phillips • Marco Fioretti Ludovic Marcotte • Paul Barry • Paul McKenney • Dave Taylor • Dirk Elmendorf Proofreader Geri Gale Publisher Carlie Fairchild [email protected] General Manager Rebecca Cassity [email protected] Director of Sales Laura Whiteman [email protected] Regional Sales Manager Joseph Krack [email protected] Regional Sales Manager Bruce Stevens [email protected] Circulation Director Mark Irgang [email protected] System Administrator Mitch Frazier [email protected] Webmistress Katherine Druckman [email protected] Accountant Candy Beauchamp [email protected] Linux Journal is published by, and is a registered trade name of, Belltown Media, Inc. PO Box 980985, Houston, TX 77098 USA Reader Advisory Panel Brad Abram Baillio • Nick Baronian • Hari Boukis • Caleb S. Cullen • Steve Case Kalyana Krishna Chadalavada • Keir Davis • Adam M. 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Current_Issue.tar.gz Linux: the Root of All Coolness SHAWN POWERS f you are a regular visitor to the LinuxJournal.com As someone who has implemented Linux in Web site, you might recognize me as the schools before, I always find it cool when Igoofy video Gadget Guy, or possibly as the schools take the plunge. Web author with a penchant for controversy. Perhaps you are a programmer, and code all While the latter is largely coincidental, the former day, and code all night. Reuven M. Lerner shows is just the way I am (my wife can grudgingly us how to make sure our Rails are optimized, attest to that). This month marks the first issue and Dave Taylor helps us extract really important that I’m the Associate Editor of the print maga- data—from the Internet Movie Database.