GeoXPlanet now available at Sourceforge.net

[rocket357]

How to use it.
installed both xplanet/xearth also.
command : geoplanet.py
error: command not found.

and i didnt see any windows related files in downloaded files, then how can it run in win

The project is coded in Python. You need to have Python installed for it to run (Python runs on Windows, Linux, *BSD, etc...). If you do have Python installed the underlying OS doesn't matter (other than paths for finding file names, availability of certain tools outside of Python, a very few Python internals, etc...)

What you need to do is this:

If you're on Windows, download GeoXPlanet-0.3.1.zip, if you're on *nix, download the GeoXPlanet-0.3.1.tar.bz2. *These archives are EXACTLY the same files!!*, the zip is provided as a convenience for Windows users (WinZip/7zip/etc... can open tar.bz2 files, but some people don't know that). Once you download the archive of your choice, extract it to a directory of your choice (for Windows users, Desktop is probably best, since there is a compatibility issue with winXPlanetBG that's currently unresolved (I'll get to it this weekend, if I can)). Once you've extracted it, enter the directory where you extracted the project, and run "./GeoXPlanet.py" for *nix (Note the "X" in the name, and the capitalization!), and for Windows "python.exe GeoXPlanet.py" (assuming python.exe is on your PATH), though you might be able to type simply "GeoXPlanet.py". On my XP machine at work when I double click the GeoXPlanet.py file, it opens a command prompt and runs it. Perhaps I have a setting that needs to be outlined in the README?

Once the script is running, it should display "Performing lookup on <ip address>", but it's obviously only going to do that if you have active connections. I have a modification planned (implemented on my machine at home) that spits out a "Waiting for connections..." statement if no connections are found on the first pass, and that will be released soon with fixes for a few other issues.

By 0.4 I hope to have the Windows support working much better =\

In Installation section of README, I can't find anything about making the GeoXPlanet.py file as executable. And the file wasn't executable too. I extracted the tarball with

sudo tar xjpvf GeoXPlanet-0.3.1.tar.bz2

A small quirk but it may confuse new users.

ACK!

Thanks for pointing that out! If you're running GeoXPlanet on *nix, you need to run:

chmod 700 GeoXPlanet.py

and if you run gnome, you need to run:

chmod 700 gnome.sh

My apologies if this caused any confusion! This will be fixed in later releases...

EDIT -

GeoXPlanet-0.3.2 is out...

This release includes arcs, colors, and titling the points with the port numbers of the connections.

*sourceforge.net/project/screenshots.php?group_id=205209

 

[infra_red_dude]

^^^ downloading that... will check it out in sometime

 

[rocket357]

GeoXPlanet-0.3.3 has been released, and this is a major step forward! Now, the script launches xplanet/xearth automatically (so you don't have to figure out paths, configuration options, etc...) while allowing you to control xplanet/xearth via the GeoXPlanet.conf file. Also new in this release is port-number color coordination (for instance, all IM protocols are shown in teal, whereas http connections are shown in purple), and marker size can be changed via the config file. It's most likely broken on Windows for the time being, but I plan on having it working again within the next two days (at least by Tuesday!)

 

[infra_red_dude]

plotting the connections is perfect in xplanet! but few bugs in there.. i'm in bangalore, india. but it sayz my home's somewhere in Africa!!!

 

[rocket357]

plotting the connections is perfect in xplanet! but few bugs in there.. i'm in bangalore, india. but it sayz my home's somewhere in Africa!!!

The home LAT/LONG need to be hardcoded (so you can modify it as you see fit) in the GeoXPlanet.conf file (Under "Display"). I set the defaults to (0, 0), which is somewhere off the western coast of Africa (near the ivory coast, I think?).

At any rate, I have a doc on sourceforge that covers the config file and all of the options that you can set for it...I haven't publicly announced that yet, but it's there. I've been unbelievably busy these past few days...

It's tough sometimes to view your own project like someone else would (because you're so familiar with the code and what it can/cannot do), so each time you guys point something out like this it *really* helps me. Thanks!

 

[infra_red_dude]

The home LAT/LONG need to be hardcoded (so you can modify it as you see fit) in the GeoXPlanet.conf file (Under "Display"). I set the defaults to (0, 0), which is somewhere off the western coast of Africa (near the ivory coast, I think?).

At any rate, I have a doc on sourceforge that covers the config file and all of the options that you can set for it...I haven't publicly announced that yet, but it's there. I've been unbelievably busy these past few days...

i'll just check it out Jon

It's tough sometimes to view your own project like someone else would (because you're so familiar with the code and what it can/cannot do), so each time you guys point something out like this it *really* helps me. Thanks!

very true!

 

[mehulved]

README mentions of gnome.sh file. I don't see any such file in version 3.3
XPlanet is not showing up on my GNOME desktop.
Is this *xplanet.sourceforge.net/FAQ.php#gnome2 used as gnome.sh?

 

[rocket357]

README mentions of gnome.sh file. I don't see any such file in version 3.3
XPlanet is not showing up on my GNOME desktop.
Is this *xplanet.sourceforge.net/FAQ.php#gnome2 used as gnome.sh?

Yeah, that's the gnome.sh script (though I'd modified it somewhat). It shouldn't be required anymore, however, since the GeoXPlanet.py script should handle it. Do you get any error output if you launch the main script from a terminal? Look in the GeoXPlanet-0.3.3 directory and tell me if the script is generating two images (should be GeoXPlanet0.jpg and GeoXPlanet1.jpg). If those files exist after you run the script, then something is wrong with setting the background. If they don't exist, then something is going wrong during launching xplanet. Check to make sure you have gnome=True (under "General") and useXEarth=False (under "XPlanet") set in your GeoXPlanet.conf and post any errors you get here.

Just out of curiousity, has anyone tried out setting up the MaxMind database? I'd like to know if the README is clear enough on that...

 

[mehulved]

Yeah, that's the gnome.sh script. It shouldn't be required anymore, however, since the GeoXPlanet.py script should handle it.

I don't see XPlanet/XEarth on my desktop. Surely a problem with XPlanet/XEarth, not the project.

Do you get any error output if you launch the main script from a terminal?

Nope.

Look in the GeoXPlanet-0.3.3 directory and tell me if the script is generating two images (should be GeoXPlanet0.jpg and GeoXPlanet1.jpg).

Yes they're there.

If those files exist after you run the script, then something is wrong with setting the background.
If they don't exist, then something is going wrong during launching xplanet.

Yeah background is still the same, XEarth/XPlanet don't appear.

Check to make sure you have gnome=True (under "General") and useXEarth=False (under "XPlanet") set in your GeoXPlanet.conf and post any errors you get here.

That's fine

 

[rocket357]

mehulved,

Can you launch xplanet manually? Try running this:

xplanet -arc_file /path/to/GeoXPlanet/arcs.txt -marker_file /path/to/GeoXPlanet/markerFile.txt -longitude 0 -latitude 0 \
-projection mercator -config /path/to/GeoXPlanet/xplanet.conf.example -geometry 1280x1024 -wait 15.0 &

and tell me what it outputs...

EDIT -

GeoXPlanet-0.3.4 is out. This release fixes a bug in which GeoXPlanet would "hang" on non-gnome systems, and adds automated localhost ip lookup, a statement to inform the user that the code has entered a waiting state (waiting for initial connections), and a check system to prevent multiple xplanet instances running simultaneously.

 

[gary4gar]

Tested 0.3.4
still does not work for me!
i tried your running it by

gaurish@hero:~$ tar xjpf GeoXPlanet-0.3.4.tar.bz2
gaurish@hero:~$  cd Desktop/GeoXPlanet-0.3.4/
gaurish@hero:~/GeoXPlanet-0.3.4$ chmod 700 GeoXPlanet.py
gaurish@hero:~/GeoXPlanet-0.3.4$ ./GeoXPlanet.py 
Detecting environment settings... Done!
Reading the config file... Searching for database modules...please wait
No module named psycopg2
No module named psycopg2
No module named psycopg
No suitable database module was found!
Done reading config file
Autodetecting your public ip address...
        Unable to determine your public address!
Performing lookup on 209.85.171.104
Performing lookup on 66.102.1.147
Performing lookup on 216.155.193.154
Performing lookup on 209.85.199.111
deleting 209.85.199.111
deleting 66.102.1.147
deleting 209.85.171.104
Performing lookup on 209.85.199.109

i am on gnome i am able to see the globe on desktop

in the GeoXplanet dir there aren't any images genrated

 

[rocket357]

There seems to be quite a bit of problems with the home location autodetection routine (the site I was using was fine earlier when I tested the code from work, but when I tested it from home later on, they'd banned python's urllib). Sigh...its' updated now, and *should* work.

The latest release (0.3.5) removes a bunch of options from the config file because the code can autodetect most of the settings it requires now. It also unifies how XPlanet is launched (previously if you were on gnome and changed to kde or fluxbox, it would still attempt to use the gnome settings...now it autodetects what desktop you're using and launches XPlanet just long enough to generate the new image and then sets the background using that desktop's native background setter (XFCE isn't supported just yet...It'll be in the next release (0.3.6) for sure)).

0.3.5 will be available shortly.

@gary4gar:

I removed the options for XEarth with 0.3.5, so if you're still using XEarth, you need to change to XPlanet. If there's sufficient demand for it, I'll put XEarth back in (I was restructuring the code and it made sense to not include XEarth during the restructure).

 

[gary4gar]

i have both xearth & xplannet installed

 

[infra_red_dude]

nice and fast developments rocket!

 

[mehulved]

mehulved,

Can you launch xplanet manually? Try running this:

xplanet -arc_file /path/to/GeoXPlanet/arcs.txt -marker_file /path/to/GeoXPlanet/markerFile.txt -longitude 0 -latitude 0 \
-projection mercator -config /path/to/GeoXPlanet/xplanet.conf.example -geometry 1280x1024 -wait 15.0 &

and tell me what it outputs...

Nothing. Neither on terminal or on the Desktop

 

[rocket357]

nice and fast developments rocket!

Ehh, it's what I do for a living...only with this project I can focus on something more interesting than work! heh.

Nothing. Neither on terminal or on the Desktop

Sounds like your XPlanet install is broken. What distro? Did you install XPlanet via your package manager or through another means?

EDIT - It's been brought to my attention that there is a bug that results in this warning message:

Warning: Incomplete entry in arc file
line is " 43.65 -79.3833 color=0x009999"

The easy workaround to this error is to place your homeLAT and homeLON in the GeoXPlanet.conf file (instead of autodetecting). You can google <your town> latitude longitude and find the appropriate information you need, or you can use hostip.info to lookup your ip address. Alternatively, you can turn off arcs in the config file.

 

[mehulved]

What distro?

ubuntu feisty

Did you install XPlanet via your package manager or through another means?

using package manager only.

 

[rocket357]

GeoXPlanet-0.3.6 is out. This release optimizes the online lookup times and includes a bugfix where $DESKTOP_SESSION being listed as "default" instead of "gnome" or "kde" was breaking the XPlanet rendering.

EVERYONE IS ENCOURAGED TO UPGRADE, as this new release handles determination of desktop session more gracefully and it now uses the hostip.info api backend (reducing bandwidth and time required to lookup lat/long values).

@mehulved:

Have you tried uninstalling XPlanet and reinstalling it? Try that and download 0.3.6 and try it again.

 

[mehulved]

I just shutdown ubuntu and saw that xearth is running in the background. It's just covered by desktop background. I will try it on fluxbox on my gentoo install.

On gentoo, XPlanet works if I start it manually with your command, but doesn't get updated. It doesn't start at all if I just start GeoXPlanet. Weird, I seem to be missing something I guess.

Just saw that connections are getting mapped. So, that's one thing all right. But, still xplanet isn't starting automatically.

 

[rocket357]

XPlanet is launched in -num_times 1 mode, and it's given an output filename to write the image to. The image file names are GeoXPlanet0.jpg and GeoXPlanet1.jpg (in the GeoXPlanet dir...I have to alternate between the two because of gnome =). After the current image is created, it's set based on a simple if/else structure that looks like this:

# Now let's set the background image
if self.userDesktop.find('gnome') == 0:
os.popen("gconftool -t str -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename %s%s%s%s.jpg" % (self.GeoXPlanetDir,self.Delimiter,self.outputFileName,self.suffix))

elif self.userDesktop.find('kde') == 0:
os.popen("dcop kdesktop KBackgroundIface setWallpaper %s%s%s%s.jpg 5" % (self.GeoXPlanetDir,self.Delimiter,self.outputFileName,self.suffix))

elif self.userDesktop.find('fluxbox') == 0:
os.popen("fbsetbg %s%s%s%s.jpg" % (self.GeoXPlanetDir,self.Delimiter,self.outputFileName,self.suffix))

In each of those statements, if the given name (gnome, kde, fluxbox) is found in the userDesktop variable (sometimes it's listed as kde-3.5, etc...), then Python drops to the os object (the operating system) and runs the popen line directly (as if you're running it in a shell...for instance, if you're running fluxbox, it'll run "fbsetbg /path/to/GeoXPlanet/GeoXPlanet0.jpg"..."popen" is just the function call in Python that launches the command).

If the images are being created, then something between GeoXPlanet, Python, and the individual commands (fbsetbg, dcop kdesktop, and gconftool) is broken. See if you can manually set a background with the appropriate command. If you can, AND the images are there in the directory (and named correctly), then the problem could be your Python install. If the images aren't there, then the problem is with xplanet or GeoXPlanet...you can tell by trying to run this command manually:

xplanet -num_times 1 -projection mercator -config /your/GeoXPlanetDir/xplanet.conf.example -geometry 1280x1024 -output /your/GeoXPlanetDir/test.jpg

If XPlanet generates the file properly (in your GeoXPlanet folder), then I have a bug I need to hunt down =)

Let me know what you find out...