Linux-India Website

I went to the site referenced below, to install Bolnagri-in. 

> http://www.indlinux.org.in/wiki/index.php/BolNagri


The following install instructions are a little sparse on explanation
for a new linux user like me:

Bolnagri-in

     1. tar zxvf bolnagri-in.tgz
     2. cd bolnagri-in
     3. ./install.sh

Could you please tell me in plain English what I have to do
to  install bolnagri-in in Ubuntu 7.04. What are the three steps above?
First, I assume I click on Bolnagri-in tarball (137KB).  But what do I
have to do after that? What do "1. tar zxvf bolnagri-in.tgz" and "2. cd
bolnagri-in" mean-- what do I do in these steps? And the third step
"3. ./install.sh", what do I have to do here. Are these command lines in
terminal? Kindly give me the exact lines I need to paste in terminal if
this is the case, and I will do it. And please, don't use short-cut
language I don't understand like "do root", etc. 

Many thanks,
Swarup

Hi Swarup.

On 7/14/07, Dinbandhu <dinbandhu@...> wrote:
> I went to the site referenced below, to install Bolnagri-in.
>
> > http://www.indlinux.org.in/wiki/index.php/BolNagri

Under the download section, there are three links. You need to decide
which is the package you need for your system. You're assuming you
need Bolnagiri-in, which is correct, as far as I can see.

> The following install instructions are a little sparse on explanation
> for a new linux user like me:
>
> Bolnagri-in
>

True. It's very rare to find documentation which is really helpful for
a newbie.
Anyway, the first step is to right click on the 'Bolnagiri-in
tarball', and then click on 'Save link as' option. This basically
downloads the tarball package onto your machine. You can choose which
directory to save this tarball at this stage.

>      1. tar zxvf bolnagri-in.tgz

(This command is to uncompress the tarball.)
You need to open a command line terminal.
Where have you saved the tarball? You need to be in that directory.
Suppose you have saved it in your home. Then you'll have to do, from a
command line, 'cd /home/swarup'.
(The command cd stands for 'change directory'.)
Once you have changed to the directory which contains the tarball,
then give the command given in step 1 on the website, i.e. 'tar zxvf
bolnagri-in.tgz'.
Wait till it has finished untarring, i.e. till it comes back to the prompt.
It would have created a directory called 'bolnagri-in'.

>      2. cd bolnagri-in

As you've guessed by now, this command asks you to change directory again.
Just type 'cd bolnagri-in' and you'll be in the directory needed.

>      3. ./install.sh
Then type 'sudo ./install.sh'. This basically means that there is a
script called install.sh in this directory bolnagri-in. Typing the
command will run the script (as root, because of the sudo part), and
presumably, install bolnagri onto your system.

> Could you please tell me in plain English what I have to do
> to  install bolnagri-in in Ubuntu 7.04.

I hope I've been able to do that. ;-) Do feel free to ask if there's
anything unclear.
-- 
- Hassath

Hi Hassath,
Many thanks for your kind and very clearly worded explanation. I think I
understood everything you wrote.

But I got stuck on the very first step. Because I went to the website,
right-clicked on Bolnagri-in tarball (137KB), and chose 'Save link as',
then selected my home directory ("Swarup"). Then I clicked on "save",
and the download window opened and said it had finished the download. I
looked in my home-Swarup directory, but did not see anything there that
looked like it. Anyhow, I thought perhaps either I just didn't know what
it should look like, or perhaps for some reason it is a 'hidden' file.
So I opened a terminal window, and typed cd /home/swarup. Then I typed
tar zxvf bolnagri-in.tgz. It said there is "no such file or directory".
Here below I am pasting the terminal window printout. Please let me know
what I should do next. 
Many thanks, Swarup


Here is the terminal window printout:

swarup@...:~$ cd /home/swarup
swarup@...:~$ tar zxvf bolnagri-in.tgz
tar: bolnagri-in.tgz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
swarup@...:~$ cd /home/swarup
swarup@...:~$ 
swarup@...:~$ 
swarup@...:~$ tar zxvf bolnagri-in.tgz
tar: bolnagri-in.tgz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
swarup@...:~$ cd /home/swarup
swarup@...:~$ tar zxvf bolnagri-in.tgz
tar: bolnagri-in.tgz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors




On Sat, 2007-07-14 at 08:14 +0530, wrote:
> Hi Swarup.
> 
> On 7/14/07, Dinbandhu <dinbandhu@...> wrote:
> > I went to the site referenced below, to install Bolnagri-in.
> >
> > > http://www.indlinux.org.in/wiki/index.php/BolNagri
> 
> Under the download section, there are three links. You need to decide
> which is the package you need for your system. You're assuming you
> need Bolnagiri-in, which is correct, as far as I can see.
> 
> > The following install instructions are a little sparse on explanation
> > for a new linux user like me:
> >
> > Bolnagri-in
> >
> 
> True. It's very rare to find documentation which is really helpful for
> a newbie.
> Anyway, the first step is to right click on the 'Bolnagiri-in
> tarball', and then click on 'Save link as' option. This basically
> downloads the tarball package onto your machine. You can choose which
> directory to save this tarball at this stage.
> 
> >      1. tar zxvf bolnagri-in.tgz
> 
> (This command is to uncompress the tarball.)
> You need to open a command line terminal.
> Where have you saved the tarball? You need to be in that directory.
> Suppose you have saved it in your home. Then you'll have to do, from a
> command line, 'cd /home/swarup'.
> (The command cd stands for 'change directory'.)
> Once you have changed to the directory which contains the tarball,
> then give the command given in step 1 on the website, i.e. 'tar zxvf
> bolnagri-in.tgz'.
> Wait till it has finished untarring, i.e. till it comes back to the prompt.
> It would have created a directory called 'bolnagri-in'.
> 
> >      2. cd bolnagri-in
> 
> As you've guessed by now, this command asks you to change directory again.
> Just type 'cd bolnagri-in' and you'll be in the directory needed.
> 
> >      3. ./install.sh
> Then type 'sudo ./install.sh'. This basically means that there is a
> script called install.sh in this directory bolnagri-in. Typing the
> command will run the script (as root, because of the sudo part), and
> presumably, install bolnagri onto your system.
> 
> > Could you please tell me in plain English what I have to do
> > to  install bolnagri-in in Ubuntu 7.04.
> 
> I hope I've been able to do that. ;-) Do feel free to ask if there's
> anything unclear.

On 7/14/07, Dinbandhu <dinbandhu@...> wrote:
> Hi Hassath,
> Many thanks for your kind and very clearly worded explanation. I think I
> understood everything you wrote.

I'm glad.

>
> But I got stuck on the very first step.[...]

I suspect that the download manager downloaded it onto your desktop
directory. That means, it could be in /home/swarup/Desktop.
You can find out the contents of a directory by using the 'ls' (list) command.
So, if you change directory to /home/swarup (by doing 'cd
/home/swarup'), press enter, and then type 'ls', it will show you, as
a list, the contents of that directory.
You can scroll up or down and see if you have the tarball.
Similarly, if you want to check the contents of your Desktop
directory, 'cd /home/swarup/Desktop' and at the next line, type ls.
Let me know if this helps.

-- 
- Hassath

On Sat, 2007-07-14 at 09:59 +0530, wrote:
> On 7/14/07, Dinbandhu <dinbandhu@...> wrote:
> > Hi Hassath,
> > Many thanks for your kind and very clearly worded explanation. I think I
> > understood everything you wrote.
> 
> I'm glad.
> 
> >
> > But I got stuck on the very first step.[...]
> 
> I suspect that the download manager downloaded it onto your desktop
> directory. That means, it could be in /home/swarup/Desktop.
> You can find out the contents of a directory by using the 'ls' (list) command.
> So, if you change directory to /home/swarup (by doing 'cd
> /home/swarup'), press enter, and then type 'ls', it will show you, as
> a list, the contents of that directory.
> You can scroll up or down and see if you have the tarball.
> Similarly, if you want to check the contents of your Desktop
> directory, 'cd /home/swarup/Desktop' and at the next line, type ls.
> Let me know if this helps.
> 
I checked both directories you suggested above, and it is not located in
either one. I do not know whether this relevant, but you know how the
download window, once it has finished downloading your file, it says
DONE. And it has two further options there on the download screen: OPEN,
and REMOVE. When I click on OPEN, a message comes up which says,
"bolnagri-in.tgz does not exist. It may have been renamed, moved,
deleted, or since it was downloaded."

Now, there is one other thing I want to mention here. I did try to
download this bolnagri-in file several days ago from another page on the
website, and the folder did get downloaded into my Swarup directory.
Before trying to download it again tonite, I deleted that copy. But
then, when I found that the new one did not seem to be coming into my
swarup directory, I undeleted the bolnagari folder which I had sent to
the trash earlier. That folder does not seem to have any .tgz file in
it. But it does have a read-me file with instructions for installing,
which are the same as what is on the website. I tried giving the untar
command line again-- and when that did not work, I tried the second and
third steps in the install process to see if they would work. Nothing
seems to have worked, but I am pasting the output from terminal below so
you can see it. My main suspicion right now, is that the bolnagri-in
download on the website may perhaps be defective. Maybe it does not have
the tarball bolnagri-in.tgz in it. Because even when I downloaded the
bolnagri-in application a few days ago from a different page on the
website as I mentioned, that folder still does not appear to have the
tarball bolnagri-in.tgz file in it. Please see the terminal output
below.

I can delete that bolnagri-in folder again if you think that is the best
approach, and try to download it afresh. But I will need to do something
different this time--otherwise the same set of error-messages is bound
to come.

Looking forward to to your thoughts,
Many thanks,
Swarup

swarup@...:~$ tar zxvf bolnagri-in.tgz
tar: bolnagri-in.tgz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
swarup@...:~$ cd
swarup@...:~$ cd /home/swarup
swarup@...:~$ cd bolnagri-in
swarup@...$ ./install.sh
Installing bolnagri-in...
mkdir: cannot create directory `/usr/share/doc/bolnagri-in': Permission
denied
cp: cannot create regular file `/usr/share/doc/bolnagri-in/in.orig': No
such file or directory
cp: cannot create regular file
`/usr/share/doc/bolnagri-in/base.lst.orig': No such file or directory
cp: cannot create regular file
`/usr/share/doc/bolnagri-in/base.xml.orig': No such file or directory
cp: target `/usr/share/doc/bolnagri-in/' is not a directory: No such
file or directory
cp: cannot create regular file `/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/in':
Permission denied
cp: cannot create regular file `/usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.xml':
Permission denied
cp: cannot create regular file `/usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/base.lst':
Permission denied
Done
swarup@...$

Hi Swarup.

On 7/14/07, Dinbandhu <dinbandhu@...> wrote:

<snip>
(You don't need to quote the whole message, just the relevant bits.)

> I do not know whether this relevant, but you know how the
> download window, once it has finished downloading your file, it says
> DONE. And it has two further options there on the download screen: OPEN,
> and REMOVE. When I click on OPEN, a message comes up which says,
> "bolnagri-in.tgz does not exist. It may have been renamed, moved,
> deleted, or since it was downloaded."

Yes, Swarup, you're right. I tried the same thing, and got the same
message. Something's wrong there.

> Now, there is one other thing I want to mention here.[...] But
> then, when I found that the new one did not seem to be coming into my
> swarup directory, I undeleted the bolnagari folder which I had sent to
> the trash earlier.

Fine.

>That folder does not seem to have any .tgz file in
> it. But it does have a read-me file with instructions for installing,
> which are the same as what is on the website.

Ah. This sounds like you have the folder that you would have got AFTER
you gave the untar command.

>I tried giving the untar
> command line again-- and when that did not work,

Yes, the untar command won't work- because you don't have the tarball,
you seem to have the folder itself. The untar command would have given
you the folder if you applied it to the tarball (if you had the
tarball, which seems like you didn't). So it just means that you have
to do one step less.

>  Nothing
> seems to have worked, but I am pasting the output from terminal below so
> you can see it.

Which is generally a sensible thing to do, and did help me now, in
understanding what your problem could be.

> My main suspicion right now, is that the bolnagri-in
> download on the website may perhaps be defective.

Indeed, you're right. I suggest you could write to the website people
and let them know that you're unable to download the tarball. One
hopes they'll set it right.

Meanwhile, it looks like fixing your problem should be simple.

> swarup@...:~$ cd bolnagri-in

This tells me that you tried to cd to the directory. (And the next
line implies you succeeded.)

> swarup@...$ ./install.sh
> Installing bolnagri-in...
> mkdir: cannot create directory `/usr/share/doc/bolnagri-in': Permission
> denied

This is where you are making the mistake. Please go back and look at
my instructions. I said, you have to type 'sudo ./install.sh'. You
have missed the sudo. I also explained that using sudo gives you root
privileges. Since you were not root when you tried to run the
install.sh script, it tried to run it, but failed. "permission denied"
is the relevant error here. It means that it was trying to do what it
needed to do to install, but permission was denied because that
privilege (in this case, of creating a directory
/usr/share/doc/bolnagri-in, to begin with) is available only to root.

Basically, you don't have to change anything. Just go back to the
directory and type 'sudo ./install.sh'. Let me know how it goes.


-- 
- Hassath

Hi Hassath,
You are an excellent diagnostician and an excellent teacher. You were
correct on every count. The download on that page of the website is
defective. And that's why our work was stalled from that pathway. And
the file I got a few days ago and brought back from the trash, that IS
the bolnagri-in folder already unzipped. So you're right on that count
too--it was ready to go and did not need the first step--that of
un-tarring.  I did the 2nd and 3rd steps you outlined just now, and it
seems to have worked perfectly. Here's the terminal output:

swarup@...:~$ cd bolnagri-in
swarup@...$ sudo ./install.sh
Password:
Installing bolnagri-in...
Done
swarup@...$ 

The reason I neglected to put the "sudo" in the install command line
yesterday, was at that point I was following the "read-me" file that
came with the bolnagri-in folder. And it just says "./install.sh" for
that step. Nothing about using "sudo". Actually, the entire read-me
instructions are quite misleading, because in that download site the
folder came not as a tar file but already unzipped. So there was no need
to untar. But the instructions from the read-me file of that very
download, still say to do so. Here are the instructions, direct from the
read-me file:

Untar it
# tar zxvf bolnagri-in.tgz

Manual
# cd bolnagri-in
# ./install.sh

Who could follow such instructions? Nothing mentioned about no need for
the tar command line, and nothing mentioned about using "sudo" in the
install command.

Anyhow, my last request for you (you've been so very helpful, I am
terribly sorry for all the questions!) is that of teaching me how to set
up the bolnagri-in application so I can use it. Ok, the application is
installed. --But where is it??? I cannot find any icon to click to make
it active. I have SCIM, but it does not seem to appear anywhere in the
SCIM language options pop-up window. 

Here are two cryptic lines from the Bolnagri read-me file, which may
give a hint as to how to set up the Bolnagri application. I do not know
how to execute what they suggest, but hopefully you do.

"Bolnagri is a phonetic devanagari keymap....It can now be used through
keyboard layout switchers by adding the option India - Hindi Bolnagri
keymap / Bolnagri"

Could you tell me how to set up the above "layout switcher"? Maybe this
is the key to getting a start-up icon for the application.

Many thanks,
Swarup

Hi Swarup.

On 7/14/07, Dinbandhu <dinbandhu@...> wrote:
> And
> the file I got a few days ago and brought back from the trash, that IS
> the bolnagri-in folder already unzipped.

Actually, it's possible that your web browser may have automatically
unzipped the tarball. I'm not very sure about it, but I believe it's
possible.

> Here's the terminal output:
>
> swarup@...:~$ cd bolnagri-in
> swarup@...$ sudo ./install.sh
> Password:
> Installing bolnagri-in...
> Done
> swarup@...$

Looks fine.

> Anyhow, my last request for you (you've been so very helpful, I am
> terribly sorry for all the questions!) is that of teaching me how to set
> up the bolnagri-in application so I can use it.

I'm sorry, Swarup, but I'm afraid I'm not familiar with bolnagiri-in
or anything similar.
However, let's see.

> "Bolnagri is a phonetic devanagari keymap....It can now be used through
> keyboard layout switchers by adding the option India - Hindi Bolnagri
> keymap / Bolnagri"

Hmm. On my desktop panel, I went to 'System', then 'Preferences', then
'Keyboard'. A 'Keyboard Preferences' box pops up. There's a 'Layout'
tab in it. If you click on it, you'll see an 'Add' button. Click on
this button and scroll down and see if you have anything under 'India'
which corresponds to the Hindi Bolnagiri that is mentioned.
See if there are any options there.
Let me know how it goes.

-- 
- Hassath

On 7/14/07, lih@... <lih@...> wrote:

> Hmm. On my desktop panel, I went to 'System', then 'Preferences', then
> 'Keyboard'. A 'Keyboard Preferences' box pops up. There's a 'Layout'
> tab in it. If you click on it, you'll see an 'Add' button. Click on
> this button and scroll down and see if you have anything under 'India'
> which corresponds to the Hindi Bolnagiri that is mentioned.
> See if there are any options there.

Actually, I tried it on my machine. Of course, I don't have bolnagri,
but I chose Bengali (at random, since it's the first language under
India). After adding it, I checked the 'default' box, to make it my
default, and then opened an OpenOffice word processor window and
started typing. It gave me Bengali characters. So I think it should
work for you too. :-)
(You'll have to select the English layout when you want to go back to
typing in English, of course.)
Hope this helps.
-- 
- Hassath

Thank you-- it worked perfectly, and now it is all set up.



On Sat, 2007-07-14 at 20:41 +0530, wrote:
> On 7/14/07, lih@... <lih@...> wrote:
> 
> > Hmm. On my desktop panel, I went to 'System', then 'Preferences', then
> > 'Keyboard'. A 'Keyboard Preferences' box pops up. There's a 'Layout'
> > tab in it. If you click on it, you'll see an 'Add' button. Click on
> > this button and scroll down and see if you have anything under 'India'
> > which corresponds to the Hindi Bolnagiri that is mentioned.
> > See if there are any options there.
> 
> Actually, I tried it on my machine. Of course, I don't have bolnagri,
> but I chose Bengali (at random, since it's the first language under
> India). After adding it, I checked the 'default' box, to make it my
> default, and then opened an OpenOffice word processor window and
> started typing. It gave me Bengali characters. So I think it should
> work for you too. :-)
> (You'll have to select the English layout when you want to go back to
> typing in English, of course.)
> Hope this helps.

Hi Swarup.

On 7/15/07, Dinbandhu <dinbandhu@...> wrote:
> Thank you-- it worked perfectly, and now it is all set up.

Good. (I did discover the keyboard switching directions later on the
website under 'Using'. But following those instructions exactly didn't
work.)
I hope the maintainers are listening and will try to make the
documentation more helpful.

-- 
- Hassath