May 25, 2019

How to install the latest version of NodeJS on MX Linux 18 “Continuum”

I recently needed to install a couple of packages using npm on my MX Linux box. Now MX Linux is fantastic distro, but their repos leave a lot to be desired.

I basically did a standard sudo apt-get install nodejs, I soon realized that this version of node is severely outdated, and thus utterly completely useless, as you can’t even call npm from the CLI. So I turned online for help, surely someone else must’ve come up with a working solution.

Turns out, somebody did.

The problem is, it didn’t work.

Not on my installation of MX Linux anyway. The script always failed with this message

## Your distribution, identified as "Continuum", is not currently supported, please contact NodeSource at https://github.com/nodesource/distributions/issues if you think this is incorrect or would like your distribution to be considered for support

This puzzles me a lot because Continuum was clearly listed as one of the supported distributions right inside the script itself. So I turned to Reddit for help, and they delivered. It appears that listing Continuum alone wasn’t enough, you actually need to append MX or mx-linux in front of it to be identified correctly.

So long story short, here’s the instruction on how to install the latest release of Node.js on MX Linux 18 Continuum

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November 26, 2018

The best way to install and manage your fonts (even without admin rights)

If you’re a font hoarder like me, you’re likely to have a folder somewhere in your cloud drive that has hundreds of thousands of TTFs, OTFs. However, the process of installing fonts had always been a daunting one.

Normally, on Linux, the poor UX ideology means you have to resort to the terminal to get things done, a most unituitive way. On Windows,you can just type the word ‘Fonts’ in the Run dialog and get access to the font folder, while it’s not ideal, it’s still far better UX than OS X and Linux. However, on Windows, there’s one major obstacle, you need admin right to get access to the system font folder. At least on OS X and Linux, you can install the fonts locally.

Historically, people had to resort to a dirty workaround, that is to install PortableApps.com. It’s a messy hack as this app wasn’t specifically designed for this purpose.

Thankfully now we have a more elegant solution.

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November 10, 2018

Zeplin Desktop client for Linux

As mentioned in one of my previous posts, we now have an excellent tool for screen design to work on right there on Linux. But what about design handoff? With Figma, normally you have 2 choices for handoff: one is Avocode, the other is Zeplin. Most people would prefer Zeplin since Avocode is a subscription based abomination. But there’s one problem for Linux screen designer: Zeplin does not have a desktop client for Linux. Now this isn’t much of an issue like other softwares because they have a webapp, but you can’t integrate Figma with the webapp, unfortunately.

After looking around, I realize Zeplin, like many other great web-based apps, was built on top of the execellnt ElectronJS framework, that means porting it is fairly trivial. After murking around, I came up with this, let me know if it works:

Download zeplin-linux-x64.tar.gz

Made with nativefier

So now that we’ve managed to make desktop client for both Figma and Linux, it should be trivial to integrate them right? Well not really, turns out the folks over at Figma currently only has the integration option enabled for their Windows and Mac client. If you’re a designer working on Linux right now, and need Figma & Zeplin integration, consider spamming their support blog for this feature. I mean, we did that hard part, creating the desktop clients for them, right? All they need to do now is enable integration between the 2 apps.

October 30, 2018

Installing Figma client on Deepin Linux 15.7 Desktop

Grab install.sh from this Github and just run it.

It’s that simple, really. This is why the opensource community is great. The Figma team had failed to create a native Linux desktop app for over 2 years (which is still nothing compare to Google on their promise to launch a Google Drive client for Linux), and yet an unknown individual managed to do it in his/her spare time.

Why would you need a desktop app when Figma works in your browser, you ask? Here’s a hint: Native Font! I mean Figma did a great job integrating Google Fonts in their app (I figure that would be sufficient for 90% web-related design work). But any real designer would have to have their own font collection, and not being able to use it in their favorite design tool is just bad design.

Note: if for some reason the install script fails, you can always download a premade AppImage for Figma from the same Github

September 17, 2018

Installing multiple WordPress modules for Bitnami WAMP Stacks

I absolutely love Bitnami due to its sheer simplicity in making the process of setting up a local web stack a complete breeze, especially how adding modules like WordPress, Drupal, Magento etc. is as easy as installing Skype. There’s one thing that bothers me with the module installers though, is that there’s no multi installation option available during the installation process. Well after a bit of digging around, I realize that the option is there, but for some reason it’s not baked into the GUI installer. Instead you’d need to pass the option using the command line interface. That’s not a problem for me but many people who’s not familiar with the CLI may find it a hassle, which it is. But once you get the hang of it, it’s actually the easiest way to add additional installation of a webapp to your development stack (yes, even easier than doing it manually since you don’t have to go through the database creation process).

To install the WordPress module into an alternative location, you need to use the switch –wordpress_instance_name NEW_BLOG where NEW_BLOG is the directory you want to install your copy of WP in.

Specifically, here’s the instruction for each platform:

Windows

shell> ./bitnami-wordpress-VERSION-module-windows-installer.exe --wordpress_instance_name NEW_BLOG_NAME

Linux

Only use sudo if the stack was installed as root.
sudo chmod a+x bitnami-wordpress-VERSION-module-linux-x64-installer.run
sudo ./bitnami-wordpress-VERSION-module-linux-x64-installer.run --wordpress_instance_name NEW_BLOG_NAME

Mac OS X

hdiutil mount bitnami-wordpress-VERSION-module-osx-x86_64-installer.dmg
/Volumes/WordPress\ Module\ VERSION/BitNami\ WordPress\ Module.app/Contents/MacOS/installbuilder.sh --wordpress_instance_name NEW_BLOG_NAME

Once you have the module installed, you will be able to access it through http://localhost/NEW_BLOG_NAME

(if you launch it using the launcher, it will still go to the default address http://localhost/wordpress, you will need to enter the address manually in the URL bar).

Bitnami is a great product and hopefully the company will have enough money to afford a read developer who could put this simple option in the GUI installer soon.

August 19, 2018

Install Unity3D on Deepin Linux 15.6

Okay this post is nothing but a link, which is this one:

Download Unity 2017.4.9f1 (latest version as of this post (yeah I know, it’s almost 2019 but I guess Unity isn’t big enough to hire a real Linux maintainer)

Seriously, that link should’ve been the first result when you google ‘Unity3D Installer for Linux’, but google thinks you want to read a blog post instead. Typical third rate search engine.

August 19, 2018

Installing Autodesk Mudbox 2018 on Deepin Linux 15.6

Mudbox 2018 running on Deepin Linux 15.6

Following my previous post on how to install Maya 2018 on Linux, today I’m gonna be installing Mudbox 2018. But instead of forcing you to go through all that craps, I’m just going to condense the steps into this simple script. Just run this thing and be done with it. (If you need the installer, you can grab it directly from Autodesk, for some reasons they try to hide the 2018 version from my account, only showing 2017 and older, I had to dig up half the server to hunt down this link) Read More

August 17, 2018

Installing Autodesk Maya 2018 Update 3 on Deepin Linux 15.6

Okay so this is pretty much a journal of how I managed to get Maya to run for the first time on one my my Linux boxes.

As you may have know, Autodesk is one of the major names in the graphic and VFX industry, with their line-up of industry standard softwares like 3DS Max, Maya etc.

Unfortunately, for some reasons they still couldn’t hire a capable engineer who could create a half decent installer package for the Linux platform. Maya is the only software in their lineup that is still currently being maintained for Linux, and even then it’s still using old packaging techniques from 20 years ago, made for RPM-based Linux distros (which made sense at the time since professional Linux distros are mostly RPM-based, Red Hat, CentOS, etc.). But 20 years later, with the rise of Ubuntu and its DEB-based variants, the RPM distros now hold only a fraction of the market share. And yet, for some reason, official Maya installer is still created with RPM in mind. I reckon it’s either they couldn’t afford a capable engineer, or the guy who’s responsible for maintaining Linux installers is too old to learn new technologies (as an old guy working in the tech industry myself, I deeply sympathize).

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August 15, 2018

Working on Linux: Restore Firefox’s normal behavior

One of my main gripe when switching from Windows to Linux is that my favorite web browser Firefox doesn’t behave exactly the same way it does on Windows. Specifically, 2 things that bother me the most are:

  • The Backspace button doesn’t go back to the previous page
  • Clicking on the url address bar doesn’t automatically highlight the entire line.

Fortunately, it’s possible to change those behaviors simply by fiddling around with the settings a little bit. You’d want to go to your about:config page and change the following values:

  • Find browser.backspace_action and set the value to 0 (default is 2 or something). This will make the backspace button behave as it does in Windows.
  • Find browser.urlbar.clickSelectAll and set the value to True

And that’s about it. Personally I can’t understand why the developer would choose to keep these little annoyances. If it was just for a versions or two then we could accept it as bug but it’s been many years since these behaviors were implemented. The fact they’re still there mean that they are intended. Maybe they were made by Mozilla devs who are actually Microsoft moles who want to low-key diminish the user experience in Linux, I guess we’ll probably never know.