Hey

So a couple of weeks ago I received an email asking how to go about setting up a Git server on Linux. This is actually pretty straight forward, provided you are familiar with Linux. I made a quick video describing the process:

In this video we end up accessing the repository on the server through SSH. There are alternatives to this, such as WebDav, or the built in Git protocol. However, everything I have ever worked on has used SSH to access the repository. It’s also how GitHub does it.

The basic steps:

1. Connect to the server
2. Make sure that all your developers have a user account on the server (adduser)
3. Create a group on the system for your developers (addgroup)
4. Add all the developers to that group. I did this by manually editing /etc/group on the server, but the more correct way would be to use the useradd command. That way you are less likely to mess up the group file.
5. Create a directory in which to put the git repository.
6. Set the group ownership to the group you just created (chgrp)
7. Make the directory group read/writable, with the sticky bit set so subdirectories inherit the group permissions (chmod)
8. Initialise a bare, shared repository
9. ????
10. Profit!

Hope that helps a bit!

So, for the last few months I’ve taken a break from the PhD to do some work for a theatre show for The Border Project, Half Real.

There’s a lot of technology in the show. In particular, most of the set is projected, and we are using a Microsoft Kinect to track the actors on stage, and modifying the projections based on their location.

I’m working on Linux, and using OpenNI for interfacing with the Kinect. Things almost worked perfectly. In this post I will document the trials and tribulations of getting the Kinect to work for Half Real.

(more…)

UPDATED May 1 2012 for the latest versions of everything!

I’ve spent all this morning trying to talk to the Microsoft Kinect using OpenNI. As it turns out, the process is not exceptionally difficult, it’s just there doesn’t seem to be any up to date documentation on getting it all working. So, this post should fill the void. I describe how to get access to the Kinect working using Ubuntu 11.04, OpenNI, and NITE. (more…)

After over a year, here’s the next instalment of my Git tutorial! In this video we look at the difference between rebasing and pulling from remote repositories. Sorry it took so long!
(more…)

I’ve been using Ubuntu since the 6.06 beta. It is my main operating system on my desktop at home, computer in the lab, and my laptop. Normally, I do distribution upgrades. This shields me from a lot of the changes happening around me; the user experience doesn’t change that much when I’ve already got everything setup how I want. However, I just had to do a fresh install on my desktop. While my home directory is backed up, I am currently looking at a default user desktop. So, what do I think? (more…)

In the last video, we just looked at adding files and commiting changes. This is great, but remember that in Git, commits are local. In this video we look at how we can set up remote repositories that we can push data to, either to use as backups, or for sharing with others. (more…)

This video hits up the terminal and starts using git. We start by creating a git repository, which is super easy with Git. Then, we look at adding files to the repository, and commiting changes. (more…)

In this video I give a brief introduction to the Git Version Control System. (more…)

Hey everyone, hope you are enjoying the holidays!

Anyway, today I thought I would distract everyone from my lack of videos by pointing you to some videos made by someone else. And so I present: Martin’s Linux VTM.

(more…)