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Trucs & astuces, Debian, GNU/Linux, Logiciels Libres

Minetest for Android easy download

Minetest is an infinite-world block sandbox game and a game engine, inspired by InfiniMiner, Minecraft and the like.

Minetest screenshot

I love this game and I like to introduce new players to it, however I’ve had a few occasions where people comment how involved it is to unzip the APK installer on Android devices. This blog post is intended to make it easier to anyone looking for a direct link to the APK installer to find it here, uncompressed.

If you have access to a GNU/Linux (Debian or derivative) server, you may also find interesting a guide I wrote to setup your own dedicated Minetest server on Debian.

MD5 checksum Direct APK download link QR code
90d0b836dbae28ae80dc91173ca2abbc Minetest-0.4.10-android-armeabi.apk (2014-06-06) Minetest APK

If you have access to a PC, please download the original .ZIP file directly instead, the direct APK download link is only provided for convenience and may be unavailable or outdated.

Minetest is also available natively for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, and is Free and Open Source Software, released under the LGPL 2.1 or later.

Have a look at some screenshots, taken by the community.

Features

  • Explore, dig and build in a voxel world, and craft stuff from raw materials to help you along the way.
  • Easy plugin based Modding API used to add blocks, tools and features to the game.
  • Multiplayer support for tens of players, via servers hosted by users.
  • Voxel based lighting with gameplay consequences (light caves and buildings with torches)
  • Almost infinite world and several beautiful map generators.
  • Runs natively on Windows, Linux, OS X and FreeBSD.
  • Supports multiple languages, translated by the community.

Background

Minetest was started by Perttu “celeron55” Ahola in October 2010, and is now developed by a random bunch of lunatics.

Minetest is designed to be simple, stable and portable. It is lightweight enough to run on fairly old hardware. It currently runs playably on a laptop with Intel 945GM graphics. Although, as for the CPU, dualcore is recommended.

Note: Most of the above information is inspired by content at Minetest.net, (c) 2013 Perttu « celeron55 » Ahola and contributors [CC BY-SA 3.0]

 
Ubuntu Planet, Ubuntu, Debian, Trisquel, GNU/Linux

Help FACIL improve MultiSystem with UEFI support and produce up to 350 Live USB keys including multiple GNU/Linux systems

FACIL, pour l’appropriation collective de l’informatique libre (FACIL), a Quebec-based non-profit, has decided to crowd-fund the development production of a 16 GB USB key bearing the FACIL logo and capable of booting from a selection of free-software operating systems (such as GNU/Linux and BSD) on a large set of target computers, specifically those using UEFI.

FACIL - 10 ans!Modern systems often won’t boot some Live USB keys created by traditional methods, specially when wanting to combine several systems on one large-capacity USB key. This is a very useful item to add to your advocacy/testing toolkit.

The FACIL key will serve to propagate free software on the computers of ordinary Quebecers all the while providing FACIL with a better source of financing than only selling T-shirts and stickers. This can also be used by any other organization producing their own keys once the project has completed.

The project first consists in developing the prototype of a 16 GB USB key capable of booting different free-software operating systems. The key will be developed using, MultiSystem, an excellent free software application designed to do just that. MultiSystem will have to be modified to allow booting on computers with either a classic BIOS or the more recent UEFI.

Multi SystemThe resulting improvements to MultiSystem source code will be integrated into the project itself, meaning any other organization or individual using it will also be able to produce their own custom USB keys and benefit from this.

The next step will be to mass duplicate the USB key image on good quality devices that will bear the FACIL logo.

For more details on the funding needs and how the money will be used if this succeeds, see the project page at Goteo.

We need your support! Please consider donating any amount you can, and share this information with anyone interested in GNU/Linux and in general free open source software advocacy.

I am posting this as the acting president of FACIL, I can relay / answer any questions about the project to those directly involved.

 
Ubuntu, Ubuntu Planet, Debian, Trisquel, GNU/Linux

Pairing the Logitech Performance MX (and others) to the Unifying Receiver in GNU/Linux

2 commentaires

Back in 2009 Logitech introduced the Unifying Receiver, a great way to connect multiple wireless mice and keyboards to one single RF receiver on your PC.

The Unifying receiver is uniquely paired to your mice and keyboard. When you buy your devices, they are already paired to the accompanying receiver. They work out of the box on any GNU/Linux system.

However, if you loose the original receiver, and get another one for free from Logitech under warranty, or if you want to pair / unpair new or existing devices, you will need to pair them again. This used to be only possible using Windows. Not anymore. 🙂

Solaar is a GNU/Linux device manager for Logitech’s Unifying Receiver peripherals. It is able to pair/unpair devices to the receiver, and for most devices read battery status.

It comes in two flavors, command-line and GUI. Both are able to list the devices paired to a Unifying Receiver, show detailed info for each device, and also pair/unpair supported devices with the receiver.

I tested this in Debian 7 for which there are packages and a repository, and there is also a PPA available for Ubuntu, which also works in Trisquel 6. Here are some screenshots:

Solaar_022

Solaar_021

Solaar_020

 

Wow, it’s been quite some time I hadn’t seen such attention to detail in an application apparently destined to such a « simple » task.

Buttons mapping

Solaar doesn’t take care of the buttons mapping (yet?), but I thought I’d throw this extra here. Some time ago I went through the trouble of identifying all the buttons on my mouse and documenting (from Logitech’s accompanying manual) the various expected functions as present in Windows.

This is useful for applications where you can specify which button is assigned to an action. Enjoy!

Logitech-Performance-Mouse-MX-031

  • Button 1 – left click
  • Button 2 – wheel click / middle button
  • Button 3 – right click
  • Button 4 – wheel forward
  • Button 5 – wheel back
  • Button 6 – wheel left click
  • Button 7 – wheel right click
  • Button 8 – browser history: forward
  • Button 9 – browser history: back
  • Button 10 – application switch / Exposé on Mac
  • Button 13 – zoom
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Ubuntu, Trucs & astuces, Debian, GNU/Linux, Logiciels Libres

Helping Debian help others (including Ubuntu)

Yesterday someone asked to be involved in a project I started long ago, involving translations, in Ubuntu. I’ve left a few dozen projects I used to participate in but my name remains in a few places. I understand how incredibly rewarding it is to start joining projects in Launchpad, start contributing and do so much in Ubuntu, I did it for a long time (and was hired at Canonical in part because of it).

I explained how I couldn’t help anymore there, to look for someone else in the community, and how my focus was now on other free software projects (including Debian). I mentioned how even helping elsewhere would help Ubuntu.

This was the next reply I got (translated):

« [I’ve] decided to make my [possible contributions] to Ubuntu less of a priority, I mean, instead of working with a specific distribution (like Ubuntu) and make it the only beneficiary, now I prefer to work with the [upstream] distribution Debian, so my contributions will benefit Debian, but also all of its derivatives. […] »

 
Ubuntu, Ubuntu Planet, Debian, Annonces, Communautaire, GNU/Linux

Debian Quebec is here :)

As many of you already know by now, Debian 7 is here!

I’ve been using Debian as my primary work environment for a few months now and Trisquel at home for the past year and a half or so. My advocacy work has changed as a result, and I stopped focusing on Ubuntu, while still recommending version 12.04 LTS that just works for many. There’s also Ubuntu Gnome (or is it Gnome Ubuntu) now, so there is still a good array of choices for those like me that like the GNOME 3 environment and find it productive. Oh, did I mention Cinnamon 1.8 was just released?

openlogo-100

I am happy to announce that there is now a Debian Quebec group, and we just got our mailing list approved in the Debian project. This was not as fast an easy as in Ubuntu-land, and I took the time to fully document the process to get the mailing list going, in case others may want to do the same. It may all seem too slow or difficult, but every step of the way several people helped and I learned a lot. I took this as an opportunity to contribute to the project and at the same time I found that it may be hard for new GNU/Linux users to get started in Debian – or even for experienced ones like me, coming from Ubuntu.

That’s why after a few IRC messages I started working on a Welcome to Debian resource (and team) aimed at people that use other distributions and come to Debian for the first time. It’s still very new and incomplete, but it’s what I wished was around when I started dedicating serious time to this distribution a few months ago.

As luck would have it, Debian 7 was just around the corner, just a few days/weeks after Ubuntu 13.04 and Trisquel 6 were released. This called for an all-distributions Debian 7 release party (we’ll have two locations, Montreal and Quebec City). There will be workshops and presentations from 12:30 to 5:30 PM and then a happy hour with CLibre and Libre Planet. Check the Agenda du Libre if you’re in Montreal this week (or any time soon), perhaps we can cross paths.