BlackCat Astronomy Edition now available

[Taco.22]

It's up!!  Finally. The new revised link is http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18945176/BlackCat.iso.  Download size is 688mb.  The md5sum link is http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18945176/BlackCat.md5sum
Login is "root" = "root", and "guest" = "guest".  Will add that the the login page some time!

So what is it, and what's in it?  BlackCat Astronomy edition is a suite of dedicated software for people interested in astronomy.  It has a variety of planetarium programs, a couple of CCD apps, and a comprehensive star chart, as well as image manipulation programs and telescope drivers.  The browser also has links to appropriate astronomy sites, plus the home page gives an explanation of the included software, with links to the parent web sites.  Some of the software is in the repos, but quite a bit isn't.  Because it is quite a narrow field of interest it would probably be asking a bit much for all the apps to be packaged for PCLinuxOS.  So be aware that there is no official support for this edition.  However, its previous incarnations seem to have been running for a while without issues.

BlackCat is based on the latest Openbox Bonsai put out by Mélodie.  It keeps the initial footprint small, it is easy to modify, and I just love the simplicity.  Much thanks to Mélodie and those willing testers in coming up with a new, improved Bonsai.

List of software - the astro software is described in the browser home page.

gmrun
libindi+libindi0.  
wcalc+gwcalc
gimp + plugins
chromium-browser
evince
gftp
vlc
simpleburn
conky
tint2
java
flash
gtkam
gnuplot

bluemoon theme

virtualmoon
kstars
stellarium
xephem
gpredict
qastrocam
wxastrocapture
fitsblink
sao ds9
skycat
skychart
jskycat
astroimagej
jskycalc
nightfall

Unfortunately wxcam is not included in the repos any more, as it doesn't seem to want to play nice on the packaging front.  That leaves a gap regarding webcams, as cheese rocks in at about 120mb installed!  Any suggestions would be welcome.  

I have taken a leaf out of Crunchbang's book, and set keybindings around the "W" key, and have them listed in conky.  For those who don't have a "W" key, there is an rc.alt file that uses "Ctrl" instead.  However I forgot an alt-conkyrc to reflect this!  Next time  

That's probably it for now.  Give it a test run and let me know how it all goes.  

Clear skies    

[Taco.22]

Just thought I'd add a screenshot.



Ignore the small addition to conky's title - already fine tuning the next update
      

[Taco.22]

Just did an install of the live cd - hadn't been able to 'till now - and oops, two errors.

First, no wallpaper.  I didn't even think of carrying over pcmanfm's preferences!  The wallpaper is in /etc/skel/.local/wallpapers, and also in /home/guest/.local/wallpapers on the live cd.

Second, the home page in Chromium doesn't carry over on install - file:///etc/skel/.config/chromium/home_page/home.html will get you there for the time being.

See what other bugs I can find 

[Neal ManBear]

Taco.22,
To have your configurations carry over from the live session to a new install, you will need to copy all the relevant hidden files and folders to /etc/skel. For example, copy /home/guest/.config/pcmanfm to /etc/skel, and you will have /etc/skel/.config/pcmanfm ready to be copied to /home/<new_user>/.   

Maybe you should put in some package requests. Or learn packaging (not hard with pkgutils) and submit the SRPMs.     

[Taco.22]

Hi Neal,

I just didn't even think about pcmanfm's prefs because normally I don't use it.  I combine thunar and nitrogen in my setups - neither of which are in this combo.  Totally forgot about where the wallpaper was coming from.  As for package requests, I did one for pytyle which I thought might have got some action - I don't use openbox without it any more - but it seems to have died on the vine.  So I don't see a lot of hope for the rather esoteric bits of software.  Not having a go at the packagers - just understand the demand that is placed upon them - so much software and so little time/hands etc.  As for packaging myself - gently, gently.  I'm maybe slowly building up to that!

Anyway, I am almost ready to start uploading the repair job - give it about a day from now. 

[Neal ManBear]

Packaging isn't as hard as coding perl, Taco.22. If I can do it, and I can, then you should be able to pick it up easily, IMO.     

[Taco.22]

Hi Neal,

The main problem I have at the moment is hardware - barely able to put together a custom built iso.  The testing computer currently has a 6gb hd salvaged out of an old iMac - not even enough space for a dual boot.  The previous 37gb hd from an eMac died as I was about to create a BlackCat iso.  Head banging stuff  I need to get some stable hardware before I can seriously look at packaging.  It is something I want to do and have been looking at tutorials and the like - need to do it in some degree of comfort/security!  

[Neal ManBear]

I wish you the best of luck in getting the hardware you need, Taco.22.     

[Taco.22]

The debugged version is now up, and the first post has been edited with the new link.  The browser home page and the desktop wallpaper now work on install!  The alt.conkyrc has been added, as well as some user manuals for a few of the astro applications, and there is a desktop icon on the live cd that gives an introduction to BlackCat.

Enjoy.

[Rudge]

This makes me want to spend $3,000.00 on a telescope.

Maybe I should learn packaging instead.   

[Neal ManBear]

This makes me want to spend $3,000.00 on a telescope.

Maybe I should learn packaging instead.   

Cheaper and easier to learn packaging.      

[Taco.22]

I wish you the best of luck in getting the hardware you need, Taco.22.    

Looks like your wish came true .  Just found a skip load of computers thrown out by a local school.  I got two, and a friend of mine grabbed three, plus assorted monitors and other bits.  Turns out they are 2.6ghz Pentium P4, with 40gb hd and 512mb of ram.  There is actually a law against throwing that sort of stuff out,  but government departments operate on their own planet!  Anyway, I can now set up a dedicated system and look at packaging.  Oh heck, now I've got a job ahead of me!!

PS - this is posted from a live cd of BlackCat running on one of those computers - don't ya love Linux      

[Neal ManBear]

I wish you the best of luck in getting the hardware you need, Taco.22.    

Looks like your wish came true .  Just found a skip load of computers thrown out by a local school.  I got two, and a friend of mine grabbed three, plus assorted monitors and other bits.  Turns out they are 2.6ghz Pentium P4, with 40gb hd and 512mb of ram.  There is actually a law against throwing that sort of stuff out,  but government departments operate on their own planet!  Anyway, I can now set up a dedicated system and look at packaging.  Oh heck, now I've got a job ahead of me!!

PS - this is posted from a live cd of BlackCat running on one of those computers - don't ya love Linux      

Excellent! Yep! Love linux!      

[ka9yhd]

Taco.22:
I have noticed that cheese works better with this webcam on my Acer Aspire laptop then wxcam did.  Seems like the sensitivity in a low light condition was better.  If I used wxcam I had to put a desk lamp over the laptop to light up what I was viewing.  

Downloading it now.  Is there an md5 checksum?

[melodie]

Hi,

Downloading BlackCat 1 to my webspace now. I'll try to find some time tomorrow to test it in a machine.

Best thoughts,
Mélodie


PS: have you seen grnich's post at Sandbox ? http://www.nmm.ac.uk/visit/exhibitions/astronomy-photographer-of-the-year/winners-2011

PS 2 : I find BlackCat having 683 MB with a "ls -lh".
http://tyruiop.eu/~melodie/Downloads/ISOS/BlackCatAstronomy

please tell me if the md5sum is correct ?