Player/Stage on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64-bit

Player Installation: 

The instructions given on this link worked for me with some changes.Install the necessary dependencies:

$ sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic autotools-dev build-essential cmake cpp libboost-signals1.46.1 libboost-signals1.46-dev libboost-thread1.46.1 libboost-thread1.46-dev libcv-dev libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-dev libopencv-features2d-dev libopencv-calib3d-dev libgnomecanvas2-0 libgnomecanvas2-dev libgsl0-dev libgtk2.0-dev libjpeg-dev libtool libxmu-dev swig python2.7-dev libcv-dev libcvaux-dev libhighgui-dev

Download the source code:

$ wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/playerstage/files/Player/3.0.2/player-3.0.2.tar.gz

Build and install as usual. See this link for more information.  Now set the following two variables:

$ export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib64/pkgconfig

You may like to put this into your ~/.bashrc file to avoid repeating every time you log into your system.

Stage Installation: 

Install the dependencies:

$ sudo apt-get install freeglut3 freeglut3-dev libfltk1.1 libfltk1.1-dev libltdl7 libltdl-dev libpng12-dev libpng12-0

Usual building process should work, this link (same as given in the beginning) tells you to make some changes in the file 'CMakeLists.txt'. 

After the installation, you should be able to execute the following command without any error:

$ cd ~/Downloads/Stage-3.2.2-Source/worlds

$ player simple.cfg

You may get error if it fails to find the libstage plugin. Just 'locate' libstage library and add this folder into /etc/ld.so.conf and run 'ldconfig'.

While installing stage, make sure that the cmake command finds the Player Installation. You should be able to run the following command:

$ pkg-config playercore --libs 

and you should see something like this:

-L/usr/local/lib64 -lplayercore -lpthread -lltdl -ldl -lplayerinterface -lplayercommon

Ubuntu on Beagleboard XM

Nearly after a year of hiatus, I started my work on robotics once again. I just finished the installation of Ubuntu 10.10 build on Beagleboard XM board. I will upload an image soon to make you believe that I really did it ;-)

I followed the instructions available at this wikipedia site and it worked for me without any hiccups. I collected few information before deciding to go for Ubuntu for Beagleboard. Even though it has a slow graphics compared to Angstrom or Android, Ubuntu is supported by a large repository of packages which makes life easier while installing softwares like opencv.  My next task is to install OpenCV on it.

When you first boot from the SD-Card image, you get a login prompt on the terminal. Use following login information:

login: ubuntu
password: temppwd

After you finish installing the desktop environment (xfce), it again presents you with a login prompt (GUI screen). This time click on the Demo User and type "temppwd" as the password.

One more thing: My ethernet lan port is detected as usb1 rather than eth0. In order to configure your network do the following:

$ sudo dhclient usb1

I think you need to execute this command every time you restart the system.