Free setting up software for linux

SyncEvolution project synchronizes Evolutions contact, calender and task items via SyncML. The items are exchanged in the vCard 2.1 or 3.0 format and iCalender 2.0 format via the open source Funambol C++ client API library, which should make SyncEvolution compatible with the majority of SyncML servers (but see under known problems). Full, one-way and incremental synchronization of items are supported.
SyncEvolution does not synchronize with another SyncML capable device or another computer directly. A SyncML server that that device and SyncEvolution can talk to is needed. There are several options for that:
using a web service like ScheduleWorld which stores the data to be synchronized on a ScheduleWorld server and provides access to it via SyncML
installing a SyncML server like the free one from Funambol (www.funambol.com) on ones own server
installing a SyncML server on the desktop
The recommended solution is ScheduleWorld because it is easier than setting up a server and provides better support for vCard and iCalendar data than the stock Funambol server installation. Setting up a server on the desktop has the additional problem that not all mobile devices can communicate with the desktop via HTTP.
With a server that fully supports SyncML and vCard/iCalender the following works:
copy a complete database to the server and restore it from the server later
delete or modify an item locally, then make the same change on the server
delete, modify or add items on the server (by synchronizing with another client), then make the same change locally
conflict resolution (where two clients modify the same item, then sync with the server) is handled by the server, but SyncEvolution has support which ensures that no data is lost by creating duplicates
For conflict resolution and synchronization between clients which support different attributes of items the server needs an understanding of the format of items. The Funambol server supports that for contacts, but not yet for the calendar events and tasks that SyncEvolution sends. ScheduleWorld also works with SyncEvolution and calendars plus tasks.
Enhancements:
- This is the first release with full support for synchronizing of Evolutions contacts, calendars, and task lists.
- It was extensively tested with ScheduleWorld (sync.scheduleworld.com).
- This Web based service is easy to use and a lot of effort went into ensuring that it works well together with SyncEvolution and Evolutions PIM data.

Nimages provides an image gallery script featuring themes and a Web-based installation.
Nimages is a simple image gallery script featuring a Web-based installtion and configuration (no editing of the script is needed).
Other features include MySQL support, automatic creation of thumbnails (if supported), themes, and ease of use and configuration.
Nimages is a complete rewrite of the JCS Image Display script.
Main features:
- A nifty web-based install automagically detects most options.
- An advanced and normal mode. Normal mode is for users who arent comfortable setting up and running scripts, and the advanced mode is for people who want a little more control.
- Only one file to mess with...Copy and Go!
- Complete editing of image information from withing the program.
- A system that lets authorized users log in and edit image info, add comments, and manipulate galleries.
- Uses MySQL if available.
- A comprehensive theme system.

Understanding computer networks without performing practical experiments is really difficult, not to say it is almost impossible. Unfortunately, setting up a networking lab can be very expensive.

Netkit has been conceived as an environment for setting up and performing networking experiments at low cost and with little effort. It allows to "create" several virtual network devices (full-fledged routers, switches, computers, etc.) that can be easily interconnected in order to form a network on a single PC. Networking equipments are virtual but feature many of the characteristics of the real ones, including the configuration interface.

Netkit exploits open source software (mostly licensed under GPL) and is heavily based on the User Mode Linux (UML) variant of the linux kernel. The purpose of this project is to solve many of the difficulties and technicalities that a user could have in using UML for networking. We offer the users an easy-to-use-and-install package, which at the same time implements effective network emulation. Further, we provide a corpus of teaching material that can be used for courses at different levels.

Flumotion project is a streaming media server created with the backing of Fluendo.
It features intuitive graphical administration tools, making the task of setting up and manipulating audio and video streams easy for even novice system administrators. Flumotion is released under the GPL.
Built upon proven and tested free software solutions
The Flumotion Streaming Server is built upon a platform of proven free software solutions. We have currently focused on the Linux platform for our main development. Flumotion is mainly written in the extremely popular Python language.
The high-level functionality is built on top of Twisted. The low-level functionality is built on top of GStreamer.
Wide hardware support
Due to the developers decision to focus on supporting the GNU/Linux operating system, we have support for a wide range of audio and video input devices supported by the operating system.
Flumotion currently supports streaming from webcams, TV capture cards, FireWire DV cameras and the OSS and ALSA sound systems.
Distributed design
Flumotion has a distributed design, making it easy to spread the load over multiple machines, allowing you to do advanced media manipulation and stream generation. No matter how many different streams or multiple versions of the same stream you want to do, or different formats, or overlays, Flumotion can easily scale to handle it by distributing the load onto serveral machines.
Commercial support
While Flumotion is a free software product using the widely accepted GPL license, it has the advantage of having a commercial company behind it. This means that if you introduce Flumotion into your company or organisation and you find you would like commercial support opportunities or extra functionality, there is an entity to turn to to have your need filled.
Setting up Flumotion
Depending on how you installed Flumotion, it will or will not be integrated with your distribution.
In this section we will cover configuring Flumotion on both types of systems. First we will explain how to start and run Flumotion when its not integrated with your distribution. These instructions also work on systems where its integrated, but its preferable to use the distribution-specific way of starting the server.
We also provide an example of running Flumotion on a system where it is integrated with the distribution through service scripts.
If you have received Flumotion packages from either Fluendo or your distribution, this type of integration should be available.
Flumotion on a system where it is not integrated
You are repsonsible yourself for providing a working configuration file, and starting the binaries.
Alternatively, we have also provided a service-like script called flumotion that provides some basic integration, much like a standard service script.
This script is installed in your sbin directory. You can list managers and workers configured, and start and stop them. Flumotion on a system where its integrated
In a well-configured system, Flumotion is integrated into the system using Unix service scripts. In this section, we use the Fedora Core installation of Flumotion as an example. Depending on your distribution, these instructions might slightly vary.
To start flumotion with the service scripts, you start it like any other service, by typing as root:
service flumotion start
which results in:
Starting manager default: [ OK ]
Starting worker default: [ OK ]
Configuration files for flumotion are stored under /etc/flumotion/. In that directory, there is one subdirectory for managers and one for workers. Under each of these, there is one directory with the name of the manager or worker, containing the relevant configuration information.
Typically, the managers directory contains a planet.xml file detailing general configuration for the manager, and a flows subdirectory containing all flows that should be loaded onto this manager.
By default, the installation of Flumotion only allows connections from the local host, for security reasons. If you want to allow other hosts to log in workers or administration clients, you should change the authentication settings and remove the host entries from planet.xml.
Enhancements:
- Minor feature enhancements

Voyage Linux is a Debian sarge-based distro (voyage) built from scratch. It is best run on a x86-based embedded platform such as Soekris 45xx/48xx and WRAP boards.
Main features:
- based on Debian Sarge r3.1
- 2.6.8.1 kernel
- prism54, hostap, madwifi, ipw2100, rt2400 drivers
- hostapd, wpa_supplicant from sarge
ToDo:
- improving installation scripts to allow different flavour for building customized distro
- scripts for setting up network configuration
- more wireless drivers (ipw2200, rt2500, etc.)
- further reducing in size
- light-weighted web server (thttpd + php) for system configuration
- bootable CD with voyage installer, pxeboot support
- more software features, like zebra/quagga, OpenVPN, FreeSWAN, traffic shaping/QoS, Asterisk/VoIP, etc.

Eznet makes setting up PPP for Linux easy. Just enter the name of your ISP, a phone number to dial, the login name, the password and the TTY and eznet takes care of the rest.

Setting up PPP under Linux can be intimidating, especially for newbies. Between chat scripts and a zillion options to pppd, setting up PPP can be a hassle for experienced users. Its a wonder beginners are able to do it at all.

``eznet is a new program designed to make it much easier to get PPP running under Linux. Basically all you have to do is supply a name for your ISP, a login name, password and phone number and eznet will do the rest. There are not configuration files to edit, no chat scripts to design and no need to figure out what a "chap-secret" is. Assuming you have pppd and eznet correctly installed (which should happen automatically from your CD-ROM, right?) the following command is all it takes to set up PPP:

eznet add service=NAME user=ABC password=XYZ phone=5551234

The setup command has to be entered as root. But after the setup is done, any user can bring up the PPP connection by simply typing:

eznet up NAME

If everything works right, you should have a PPP connection in 30 seconds or so. The ``eznet up command will not return until either the connection has been established, or the connection attempt fails. The command will return a non-zero result code if the connection attempt fails, making is suitable for use within shell-scripts. ``eznet up prints a status message just before it returns so that interactive users can also see what happened.

The connection established by eznet will automatically go down after 5 minutes of inactivity. Or you can bring it down manually by typing:

eznet down NAME

To see the current status of a connection, type:

eznet status

Eznet also supports demand dialing. If you have Eric Schenks ``Diald package installed, you can start it up by typing:

eznet dialdon NAME

And turn diald back off using:

eznet dialdoff NAME

If you prefer to use the request-route feature of kerneld, then just write the following script into the file ``/sbin/request-route:

#!/bin/sh
eznet up NAME

I prefer to use diald, since it seems to work better and because kerneld will not be supported in the 2.2.X kernels. But either method works.

XMMS InfoPipe is a plugin that reports XMMS status via named pipe. XMMS InfoPipe is handy if you want to add interesting real-time information for a personal web page, or a web cam page.

While theres a possibility of setting up programs to be executed by XMMS when changing songs, XMMS InfoPipe provides better introspection: You can get information on song position, song length, playlist position, status (stopped/playing/paused), song title as displayed by XMMS, and file name. The information is reported in easily parseable textual format.

The possibilities for information use are limitless. So far, here are some of the things people have been using InfoPipe for:

Showing information of XMMS on home page, webcam page, or something related (script included)
Showing player information on IRC (spotted one script for Irssi)
Using any speech synthetizer to say the song information, reducing the need for external displays, and helping listening to unfamiliar music in bed when all you have is a remote control =) (script included).

Yeah, LIRC plugin seems to support this already, but it only supports ViaVoice - this allows you to use any speech synth... or any other types of output. Just an example of flexibility - I created the script to do that at 4 oclock in the morning, and even got 99% of Perl recommendations of good coding right, even when I wasnt fully awake.

The Distributed Hardware Evolution Project allows the distribution of a genetic algorithm evolving hardware designs across the Internet by setting up an island on each clients PC which will evolve during idle time. Individuals from these islands will migrate between each other as they compete for survival.

All source code is available at Sourceforge under the projects named JaGa, DistrIT, and IslandEv. The source code is generalizable to any genetic algorithm or distributed processing task.