Downloading
and Running PySol: Pysol is a Python script that is
exceedingly simple to set up.
The
Steps:
- You can download
PySol form the PySol
project page. Just go down to the Downloads
section and download the PySol tarball (pysol-4.82.tar.bz2,
as I write this). You can also just right-click the link to the left
and select "Save Link Target As..." to download it straight away.
- After you've
downloaded the tarball, double-click the file to extract it via the
File Roller application. Follow the extraction process you
learned in Chapter 11.
- Once the tarball is
extracted, you will have a new folder matching the name of the tarball
minus the "tar.bz2" (pysol-4.82 in this case).
- Now open a Terminal
window and cd to the new folder. If the folder is in your Home folder,
just type cd
pysol-4.82 and then hit ENTER.
Testing
PySol: Because PySol is a Python script, it is actually
now ready to play as is. To give it a go, go back to the still-open
Terminal window, type ./pysol,
and hit ENTER. PySol should now open.
Givng
PySol Some Sound:
Well, PySol is reading to play, but it sure would be nice with a bit of
music to go along with it. Fortunately, this can be done relatively
easily by downloading and installing the PySol Sound Server.
The
Steps:
- First, download the
PySol Sound Sever tarball from the Pysol project homepage. At the time of this
writing, that should be pysol-sound-server-3.00.tar.bz2,
which you can also download directly by right-clicking the link to the
left and then selecting "Save Link Target As..."
- Once you have
downloaded the Tarball, untar it by double-clicking the file and then
following the procedure for untarring files with File Roller that you
learned in Chapter 11.
- Move into the
pysol-sound-server
folder by typing cd
pysol-sound* and hitting ENTER. Note that you are using the *
wildcard to lessen the amount of typing you have to do.
- Now, cd into the src
subfolder by typing cd
src and hitting ENTER.
You
are just about ready to perform the compile/make/make
install steps you learned in Chapter 11, but before you can do
that, you have to download and install a couple of files that the PySol
Sound Server requires in order for you to compile and then use it. The
two files are smpeg and smpeg-devel, which can be had from
the DAG repository. If you added DAG to your list of repositories in
Synaptic, go ahead and download and install the files in that way, just
as you learned to do in Chapter 10. Otherwise download them
individually and install them per the method you learned in Chapter 8.
In the latter case, be sure to download the appropriate files for the
system you are running; in the case of Fedora Core 1, these would be
smpeg-0.4.4-0.rhfc1.dag.i386.rpm and the development package,
smpeg-devel-0.4.4-0.rhfc1.dag.i386.rpm.
- Once those two files
are installed, you are ready to continue with the process. In the
still-open Terminal window, type ./configure
and press ENTER.
- The configure step
will be complete in a second or so. Once it is done and you are back at
your command prompt, type make and press ENTER.
- When make has done
its thing, you are ready to install the server. Become root by using
the su command (su
[ENTER], root password [ENTER].
- Now type make
install and press ENTER.
- Once the installation
process is complete and you are back at the command prompt, exit out of
root
mode, and then exit out of the terminal (exit
[RETURN], exit
[RETURN]).
Testing Out PySol
with Sound: To try out PySol with sound, you will have to
run PySol again, so open a new Terminal window and type cd pysol-4.82
and then press ENTER. Once you've done that, run PySol by typing
./pysol and hitting ENTER. PySol should open up, but still be silent.
In order to activate the sound, you will need to one more simple step.
Go to the Options menu and
select Sound. A small window
(shown below) will then open. Click the checkbox near the top of the
page next to the words Sound enabled.
Once you do this, the checkbox should turn red. Once it is red, click Apply, and then click OK. Pysol should then begin playing
rather pleasant music.
Creating a
Launcher to Make PySol Easier to Run: To keep things
simple, we are going to use PySol as a local application. This being
the case, it is best to move the pysol folder into the LocalApps folder
you created in Chapter 9. So, shut down PySol, if it is still running
(goodbye music), and drag the pysol-4.82 folder into your LocalApps
folder.
Once you have done that, let's go about creating a launcher for the
GNOME panel (or a panel Drawer).
The
Steps:
- Right-click on any
open space in the GNOME Panel or a Panel Drawer. In the pop-up menu,
select Add to Panel/Launcher...
- Fill out the launcher
panel properties as follows:
- Name: PySol
- Command:
LocalApps/pysol-4.82/pysol
- To add an icon to
your launcher, click the button that says No Icon.
- The Browse Icons
window will then open. In the location box next to the Browse button,
type in the following: /home/yourusername/LocalApps/pysol-4.82/data/images/logos/joker10_100.gif
and then click OK.
If that is a bit much to type, just copy the text above and paste it
into that box by selecting whatever text is there, right clicking in
the box, and then selecting Paste.
In this case, be sure to substitute your user name for the text
"yourusername."
- When you are done,
your window should look like that in the image below. If so, press Close and you will be ready for
action.
|
