Category Archives: Linux

Running Euler Math Toolbox on Linux Mint

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Euler Math Toolbox is in my opinion the best free mathematical package, however it is for Windows and it does not fully run out of the box with the latest versions of Wine. Here are the few easy steps to fix this issue.

  1. Run “Synaptics Package Manager”
  2. If you have Wine already installed you can skip this test. Enter “Wine” without quotes in the quick filter box and press enter. Right click the first wine entry and select “Mark for Installation”
  3. Enter “Maxima” without quotes in the quick filter box and press enter. Right click the first wine entry and select “Mark for Installation”. Click the Apply button.
  4. Download the windows install for Euler Math Toolbox here, right click the file and “Open With” then “Open With Wine Windows Program Loader”
  5. Run Euler Math Toolbox with the desktop icon. Open the “Options” menu then “Symbolic Settings” then “Setup Maxima Call String…” and put “z:\usr\bin\maxima” without quotes in maxima executable line, click ok, and exit Euler Math Toolbox. Yes you need to close and reopen the app so that the new setting works.

You are done. You can test it with something simple like “&solve(x^2+1)” without quotes and Euler Math Toolbox should display the results as expected.

Compiling and patching Wine on Linux Mint

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This is an area where Linux shine a bit, the default latest version of Wine does not work with Euler Math Toolbox, but a patch exist so I decided to dump into compiling it and patching it on my own. It was surprisingly straight forward, even if I had to compile the information from a dozen pages.

Here are the simple steps

  1. Download the .tar.bz2 source code from http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wine/wine-1.5.15.tar.bz2
  2. Go to the folder where you downloaded the file, open a terminal and run without quotes “tar -xvf wine-1.5.15.tar.bz2”
  3. Then enter the directory without quotes “cd wine-1.5.15”
  4. Get the tools and libraries needed to build wine again without quotes “sudo apt-get build-dep wine1.5”
  5. Build configuration for your machine again without quotes “./configure” yes there is no typo: “./configure”
  6. When it is done just type “make” without quotes again
  7. If everything went well just install with “sudo make install” without quotes

And that’s it. Now imagine you want to patch the code base. In between steps #4 and #5 run the following.

  1. Download the patch for example in my case it was http://bugs.winehq.org/attachment.cgi?id=36637 which I saved as winepatch.diff
  2. Make sure to copy your .diff file into the wine-1.5.15 folder
  3. In terminal run “patch -p1 < winepatch.diff” from the wine-1.5.15 folder

Updating to latest version of Wine with Linux Mint without using Terminal

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Another example of Linux not being ready for mass market. If you want to update to the latest version of a software, if it is not yet supported in the default repositories you are on your own. And contrary to windows, it is not as simple as downloading and running a setup program.

  1. Click your “Menu” button then “Administration” then”Run Synaptic Package Manager”
  2. Click the “Settings” menu and then click “Repositories”
  3. Go to the “Other Software” tab, click “Add” and put “deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-wine/ppa/ubuntu precise main” without the quotes in the text box
  4. Click the “Edit” menu and “Reload package information”
  5. Enter “Wine” without quotes in the search box.
  6. If you have already had wine installed, right click wine, mark for upgrade, and click the big “Apply” button.
  7. If you did not have wine installed, right click wine, mark for install, and click the big apply “Apply” button.

That’s it.

Installing GIMP 2.8 on Linux Mint without using Terminal

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This is the perfect example of why Linux is not yet ready for prime time. Installing the latest version of a software is not just about downloading it and running it as you would do on windows. Worse most of the solutions (see here and here) proposed require you to use the command line, which is a serious no go for beginners.

Being a Linux noobie myself I decided to learn how to install the software without using the terminal, and found a relatively simple solution.

  1. Click your “Menu” button then “Administration” then”Run Synaptic Package Manager”
  2. Click the “Settings” menu and then click “Repositories”
  3. Go to the “Other Software” tab, click “Add” and put “deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/otto-kesselgulasch/gimp/ubuntu precise main” without the quotes in the text box
  4. Click the “Edit” menu and “Reload package information”
  5. If you have already removed the old version of gimp you can skip this step. Enter “gimp 2.6” without quotes in the search box, right click, mark for removal, and click the big “Apply” button.
  6. To install the new gimp, put “gimp 2.8” in the search box without quotes and when it appears, right click, mark for installation, and click the big apply “Apply” button, and you are done.

That’s it to start Gimp 2.8 just go to “Menu” then “Graphics” and “GIMP Image Editor”