Chico3/Archive

Note: these methods are obsolete and kept here for historic reference only. Most probably, you may ignore this page and go back to iCub laptop (2014-) or Chico3 (2009-2014).

Information archived in Nov. 2014 when dismissing this laptop

Network

• configure the internet connection with the following parameters (see iCub machines configuration#Network_configuration if in doubt) :

Address	Netmask	Gateway	DNS Servers	notes
10.10.1.53	255.255.255.0	10.10.1.254	10.0.0.1, 10.0.0.2	for when we connect to the iCub switch
10.0.3.88	255.255.0.0	10.0.0.254	10.0.0.1, 10.0.0.2	for when we connect to the rest of ISR

• added the following lines to /etc/hosts, to enable running commands like: ping cortex1 (if we don't make this change, we can still easily access other machines, but with .visnet attached at the end of their names, see VisLab network for details)

  10.10.1.50	pc104
  10.10.1.51	icubsrv
  10.10.1.53	chico3
  10.10.1.1	cortex1
  10.10.1.2	cortex2
  10.10.1.3	cortex3
  10.10.1.4	cortex4
  10.10.1.5	cortex5
  10.10.1.6	cortex6
  10.10.1.41	icubbrain1
  10.10.1.42	icubbrain2

Nvidia graphics card

Enable the Nvidia proprietary drivers to obtain a decent screen resolution.

In order to have multi-screen external monitor support for beamers,

  sudo apt-get install nvidia-settings
  sudo nvidia-settings

In the 'X Server Display Configuration' menu, select the 'Separate X screen' configuration. Then, edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf (make a backup first) by doing the following under Section 'ServerLayout': switch the Screen 0 with the Screen 1 strings. Restart the xserver and enter nvidia-settings again, you will get some errors in the terminal because of the manual change, furthermore you will now see the correct screen numbering. To resolve the error in the configuration press "save X configuration file". Restart xserver, everything should be ok.

YARP and iCub

Follow the instructions on the iCub software article. For compilation, do not use sudo make install but simply make (we have configured the PATH variable to find the latest compiled binaries, and we do not want two copies of the same thing on the system).

• Custom yarp configuration

 CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE Release
 CREATE_GUIS
 CREATE_LIB_MATH

 CREATE_OPTIONAL_CARRIERS
 ENABLE_yarpcar_bayer_carrier

• Custom iCub configuration

 CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE Release
 ENABLE_icubmod_cartesiancontrollerclient # for Cartesian robotMotorGui
 ENABLE_icubmod_gazecontrollerclient

Wacom Bamboo

• Follow these instructions: http://www.ubuntugeek.com/install-the-wacom-bamboo-driver-in-ubuntu-10-04-lucid-lynx-using-ppas.html
• Also install the package wacom-dkms
• Reboot

Passwordless connection to other machines

• set up passwordless log-in to the Cortex computers:

  # type the following commands on chico3:
  #
  # generate public and private keys. enter empty strings when prompted for various answers.
  ssh-keygen   
  #copy the public key you just generated to cortex1, on the user account you want to use there (e.g. icub).
  scp /home/icub/.ssh/id_rsa.pub icub@cortex1:   <-- be sure to write the colon ":" at the end
  #
  # log in as 'icub' to cortex1 and type the following commands there:
  ssh cortex1
  #add the public key to the authorized ones
  cat id_rsa.pub  >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys   
  #remove the id_rsa.pub file and log out
  rm id_rsa.pub
  exit
  exit
  #log in again to each cortex computer, to check that the process worked and they don't prompt for a password.

• set up passwordless log-in to the iCubBrain server configuration computers: as above.

• set up passwordless log-in to chico3 (this very machine - needed by the Cluster Manager): as above.

• set up passwordless log-in to pc104: as above.

Customization of GNOME

Add buttons to the panel/bar at the top of the screen, to conveniently open terminals and file managers on remote machines. The top bar should look something like this when you're done:

Pick the images you like and turn them into 48x48pixel GIF images with GIMP or a similar program.

Example for the button to open the gnome-terminal on cortex1:

  right click on the panel and select "add to panel"
  select "custom application launcher"
  click on the icon and select the directory where your icons are, typically ~/Pictures/
  click on open, then select the picture for this particular button
  write in the field "command": gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=cortex -e "ssh icub@cortex1 -X" # or icub@10.10.1.1, or icub@cortex1.visnet
  set the name to something like: ssh icub@cortex1

The profile specified (--window-with-profile=cortex) does not exist by default, you need to create it. These profiles are used to give terminals on different machines different colors (e.g. all terminals running in a cortex computer will be blue, terminals local to chico3 will be white, etc.). In order to create the "cortex" profile:

  open a terminal on, say, cortex1
  click on File, select "new profile" and name it "cortex". choose the colors. cortex windows usually are blue with white text, while pc104 windows are yellow with black text.

Adding a new terminal button

Example for the button to open the gnome-terminal on cortex1:

• right click on the panel and select "add to panel"
• select "custom application launcher"
• click on the icon and select the directory where your icons are, typically ~/Pictures/
• click on open, then select the picture for this particular button
• write this in the "command" field:

  gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=cortex -e "ssh icub@10.10.1.1 -X"

• set the name to something like: ssh icub@cortex1

Note about gnome-terminal profiles: the profile we have specified specified (--window-with-profile=cortex) does not exist by default, we need to create it. These profiles are used to give terminals on different machines different colors (e.g., all terminals running in a cortex computer will be blue, terminals local to chico2 will be white, etc.). To create the "cortex" profile do this:

• open a terminal on, say, cortex1
• click on File, select "new profile" and name it "cortex", then choose the colors
• cortex windows usually are blue background with white text, while pc104 windows are yellow with black text.

Nautilus buttons

For the buttons that start the file manager Nautilus on pc104 and on cortex (once again, all cortex computers share the same disk, so you need only one button for them) you should use these lines of code:

  nautilus sftp://icub@10.10.1.50/home/icub/
  nautilus sftp://icub@10.10.1.1/home/icub

After you are done browsing a remote machine disk with Nautilus, don't forget to unmount the volume (right-click the relevant icon on the desktop).

Desktop background

Last but not least, you can change the default Ubuntu desktop background to something fancier:

Initial 2009 installation

Additional RobotCub software

iCub: downloading the repository

In /home/icub, do:

 cvs -d vislab@cvs.robotcub.org:/cvsroot/robotcub co iCub

For now, don't compile iCub but start installing YARP instead. (This is the most general approach which always works. However, since this machine does not have special iCub hardware to be found by YARP, like in the case of the PC104, then in this case we could've probably compiled straight ahead.)

YARP

• Type this from the homedir (/home/icub):

  mkdir ~/YARP
  cd ~/YARP
  cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@yarp0.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/yarp0 login
  cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@yarp0.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/yarp0 co -P yarp2
  cd yarp2

• (SKIP THIS POINT, AS THIS MACHINE IS NOT ATTACHED TO dragonfly esdMotionControl headcalibrator xsensmtx) Enter yarp2/conf and do:

  cp ExternalModules.cmake.template ExternalModules.cmake

then write the following lines in ExternalModules.cmake:

  SET(EXTERNAL_MODULES icub)
  SET(icub_DIR "/home/icub/iCub/src/modules")

• Proceed with the configuration and compilation:

  ccmake .

Click 'c' when CMake starts, then enable:

  COMPILE_NEW_YARPVIEW  <-- right?
  CREATE_DEVICE_LIBRARY_MODULES
  CREATE_GUIS
  CREATE_LIB_MATH

Click 'c' again, then choose

  ENABLE_yarpmod_opencv_grabber

Click 'c' a couple of times more, until nothing happens when you do it. Now hit 'g': generate and quit.

  make
  make test
  sudo make install

iCub: compiling and installing

• Off we go:

  cd /home/icub/iCub
  ccmake .
  c   <-- whenever necessary

• Enable these modules:

  BUILD_IN_ROOT
  CREATE_GUIS_GTK
  CREATE_GUIS_GTKMM
  CREATE_GUIS_QT

• And finally:

  g
  make
  sudo make install

Operating system installation

Partitions

We chose the 'Guided - use entire disk' option, which yielded the following:

Hard disk partitioning

size	mountpoint	filesystem
287GB	/	ext3
8GB		swap

Other operations performed

Additional packages and environment variables

• Copy all that stuff at the bottom of ~/.bashrc, too (this step could be redundant, provided that we always source .bash_env - TO CHECK):

  cat ~/.bash_env >> ~/.bashrc

Customization

Passwordless connection to other machines

• set up passwordless log-in to pc104

pc104 boots from a read-only medium, so you cannot modify permanently its authorized_keys file. pc104, though, mounts a part of icubsrv's hard-disk and then runs some scripts from there (see the pc104 page for reference).

  #copy the usual public key to the icubsrv (laptop)
  scp id_rsa.pub icub@10.10.1.51:
  #ssh to icubsrv
  ssh icub@10.10.1.51
  #add the key to the authorized ones
  cat id_rsa.pub >> /exports/code-pc104/pc104/hooks/keys/authorized_keys
  #rm the id_rsa.pub file
  rm id_rsa.pub

PC104 authentication caveat

For pc104 it might be necessary to add a StrictHostKeyChecking=no option argument to ssh (because there are different incompatible keys depending on the pc104 hardware setup, i.e., with or without pen):

  gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=pc104 -e "ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no icub@10.10.1.50 -X"