Banana Pi Programming

Since the Banana Pi is a full blown computer, you can run your development tools on the Banana Pi itself, unlike the Arduino where you have to build a program on a separate computer and then upload it to the Arduino.

Development IDE

Eclipse or not? I would if I could. However, Eclipse keeps crashing because of a Java out of heap memory error.

Next: Geany. Lightwight and some git integration.

Geany

installing geany:

sudo apt-get install geany

Installation works and geany starts very quickly.

https://github.com/geany

Project management with geany

Menu Project -> New

The project file has to have the extension .geany so that the file browser will find it when you open an existing project.
Which files will be part of this project? The files that happen to be open when you close the project. That's it.

Plugins

http://plugins.geany.org/install.html

Version Control System

we use git in combination with github.

sudo apt-get install git

https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/setting-up-a-repository

Preparation

set push.default

try

git push

read error message and fix accordingly

Basic usage of git via command line

On github.com, create repository with readme.md so that it wil be ready for cloning.

clone remote:

git clone https://github.com/atmelino/bananapi.git

cd bananapi

git command line daily workflow

change into directory of local repository

When you start working on your computer, update local repository from remote repository:

git pull

When you are done programming, send changes to remote repositoy:

git add (your filename)

git commit
(enter your comments)

git push

Git Cola installation and setup

The git integration with geany is complicated, so we will use an external program to synchronize our code with github.

git-cola runs both on Ubuntu and on the Banana Pi

sudo apt-get install git-cola
sudo apt-get install python-pyinotify


Before we start git-cola, you should create a credentials file, otherwise you will have to enter the credentials for every operation (downside: password is in plain text)

create a file named .netrc in you home directory

put the following into your file:

machine github.com
login technoweenie
password SECRET

machine api.github.com
login technoweenie
password SECRET 

Bugs specific to Banana Pi

If you try to push and get an error
failed to retrieve property `GtkRange::activate-slider' of type `gboolean' from rc file value
edit the file
/usr/share/themes/Lubuntu-default/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
change
GtkScrollbar::activate-slider=FALSE
to
GtkScrollbar::activate-slider=0

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20140267/gtk-scrollbar-error

git-cola window settings

It is difficult to arrange the git-cola windows with the mouse. Alternatively, you can edit the config file

nano ~/.config/git-cola/settings

make sure save GUI settings is checked

File -> Preferences

Here is a "sane" setting:

{
    "gui_state": {
        "mainview": {
            "lock_layout": false, 
            "height": 433, 
            "windowstate": "AAAA/wAAAAL9AAAAAgAAAAAAAAFjAAABsfwCAAAAAvsAAAAMAEMAbwBtAG0AaQB0AQAAAAAAAADmAAAAPgD////7AAAADgBDAG8AbgBzAG8AbABlAQAAAOkAAADIAAAAFgD///8AAAABAAABXwAAAbH8AgAAAAP7AAAACABEAGkAZgBmAQAAAAAAAABEAAAAHgD////7AAAADABTAHQAYQB0AHUAcwEAAABHAAAA+QAAAGAA////+wAAAA4AQQBjAHQAaQBvAG4AcwEAAAFDAAAAbgAAADMA////AAAAAAAAAbEAAAAEAAAABAAAAAgAAAAI/AAAAAA=", 
            "width": 709, 
            "maximized": false, 
            "y": 21, 
            "x": 45
        }, 
        "pull": {
            "rebase": false, 
            "height": 420, 
            "width": 666, 
            "maximized": false, 
            "y": 14, 
            "x": 301
        }, 
        "dagview": {
            "count": 1000, 
            "lock_layout": false, 
            "height": 744, 
            "windowstate": "AAAA/wAAAAH9AAAAAwAAAAAAAAKSAAAA1PwCAAAAAfsAAAAGAEwAbwBnAQAAAAAAAADUAAAAawD///8AAAABAAACkgAAANT8AgAAAAH7AAAACgBHAHIAYQBwAGgBAAAAAAAAANQAAABgAP///wAAAAMAAAUnAAACEfwBAAAAAfsAAAAIAEQAaQBmAGYBAAAAAAAABScAAAGHAP///wAAAAAAAADUAAAABAAAAAQAAAAIAAAACPwAAAAA", 
            "width": 1319, 
            "maximized": true, 
            "y": 24, 
            "x": 47
        }, 
        "push": {
            "y": 20, 
            "x": 260, 
            "maximized": false, 
            "width": 666, 
            "height": 420
        }
    }, 
    "bookmarks": [], 
    "recent": [
        "/media/data/public_html/bananapi"
    ]
}

create and clone repository with git-cola

On github.com, create repository with readme.md so that it will be ready for cloning.

Start git-cola. Click on clone. Get URL from github

and paste into git-cola dialog.

click ok and navigate to local path (here: /media/data/public_html)

The remote will now be cloned to your computer.

Daily workflow with git-cola

start your computer. Open repository.

pull all changes from remote to your computer.

Do you get the error "fatal: unable to access 'https://github.com/atmelino/bananapi.git/': server certificate verification failed. CAfile: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt CRLfile: none"
is your date set correctly?

http://kingofprotons.blogspot.com/p/linux-tips.html

Edit your files.


When finished:

in git cola:

refresh.

select your files and stage. commit. push.

Helpful Links:

http://cerebrux.net/2013/02/07/github-git-cola-gui-step-by-step-management-of-your-code/

git-cola without .netrc

If you are not using an external credentials method, you have to start git cola from command line

git-cola

Then click on clone in the GUI

then go back to the command line and enter the credentials.

When all the files have been pulled, the main GUI will finally come up.

Make sure to set View-> Console to that you can see the messages:

Next time you start git-cola, you will just have to click on the name:

Now, if you make any changes, you will have to enter the credentials again in the terminal.

Note: You have to start git-cola from command line so that you can enter the credentials.

Python

the Adafruit DCTest.py program has an infinite loop that will keep the motors running even after you leave the web browser. How to stop it?

1. find process ID

ps -ef | grep python

output:
UID        PID  PPID  C STIME TTY          TIME CMD

UID or USER    Username of the process's owner

PID                    Process ID number
PPID                  ID number of the process's parent process
C or CP              CPU usage and scheduling information


2. kill the according process

sudo kill 1234

http://superuser.com/questions/446808/how-to-manually-stop-a-python-script-that-runs-continuously-on-linux