SUDO APT

-

Setting up the Linux Box

Over the years, my house has become the computer graveyard and I generally try and stop things going to landfill where I can and reuse parts. Therefore, I have several laptops laying around that function but don't have current supported Windows operating systems but will run Linux and be faster to boot than my current work laptop when you choose the right Linux install for your device.

I had an old MSI Laptop that was given to me as the LAN/Ethernet port was faulty, and the screen was flickering on Windows and I chose it for my challenge. For the last 15 years I have used Debian -- The Universal Operating System. Why? it just works. While the release cycle of new packages maybe slow it is stable and security patches are regularly provided with a committed support period. More Debian history can be found here Debian - Wikipedia. 

Debian supports a range of Desktop Environments within the installer and personally I find the LXQT and KDE to be most natural fit being a Windows user.  Given the specifications of the laptop, I installed Debian 12 Bookworm (AMD64) with LXQT at the time, the simple reason it is a lightweight desktop environment where KDE is a rich user experience requiring more resources which this laptop was capable, but I wanted to keep things simple.

To assist you, here are two of my favourite content creators stepping through the installation process of Linux Distributions.

If you have installed Windows before this is a similar process, personally the hardest part I have found is remembering what key for the brand of laptop you have that you need to keep tapping in order to get into the BIOS to change the boot order so you can start the installation process from the USB drive.

Setting up Wine on Linux

I like Wine, the red stuff made from grapes it is delicious, but I also like Wine the little bit of magic software which allows us to run Windows applications in Linux, you can read more here WineHQ - About Wine. Wine is also well documented here Debian/Ubuntu · Wiki · wine / wine · GitLab if you want to move outside the official repository of your Linux distribution. However as I am staying inside the official supported repository, I open my terminal QTerminal and run the following commands: 

This command gets the newest versions of your installed software packages
 
sudo apt update
This command executes the upgrade of the newest available software packages
 
sudo apt upgrade
As I have installed a 64bit installation operating system, this command enables multiple architecture support for 32bit
 
sudo
dpkg --add-architecture i386
This command installs the wine application stable version and packages which are flagged as recommended not just the mandatory dependencies
 
sudo
apt install
--install-recommends winehq-stable
This command confirms your installed version which at the time for me was wine (8.0~repack-4)
 
wine --version
This command will open the Wine Configuration window.
 
winecfg

With the Wine Configuration I adjusted two settings, you may need to experiment depending on what hardware you are using.

  • Application Tab - Set Windows Version - Windows 7
  • Graphics Tab - Set Screen Resolution - 120dpi

Then select apply and close the window.

Setting up SCARM on Linux

Now Wine is installed, we can now proceed to install SCARM. The things we need is the executable (exe) installation file SCARM - Download which should be placed into your downloads or your preferred folder location. I run the following commands:

This command moves you into the Downloads folder on your computer
 
cd Downloads
This command starts wine and executes the installation file (Note: your SCARM download version maybe a different number)
 
wine SCARMsetup_1_9_5.exe

You will be prompted with a setup installer, if you have installed software on Windows just follow the prompts, but to assist those unfamiliar, this is the basic installation process and my settings at the time:

  • Select Setup Language - English
  • Welcome Screen - Select next
  • License Agreement - Select I accept the agreement and select next (ensure you are happy with terms of the agreement)
  • Select Destination - C:\Program Files (x86)\Scarm and select next (Recommend you leave this as default)
  • Select Start Menu Folder - SCARM (Recommend you leave this as default)
  • Select Additional Tasks - Select Create a desktop icon
  • Ready to Install - Select Install

The installer will run through the installation process and complete with a SCARM icon on your desktop. From here you can double click on the icon (Note: you may receive a Execute file prompt, select Execute) and SCARM will open ready for use.

It's important to understand this is a Freeware install and additional features may require the purchase of a license to unlock SCARM - Extensions - SCARM License Key

Learning SCARM

There is range of public resources out there for SCARM, again another thing that impressed me was the free available learning resources. If you used CAD, Visio, Enterprise Architecture or diagramming tools in other jobs then you should pick the program up fairly quick, or if it is new like everything else in life take your time to understand what you want to try and achieve and then practice, and before you know it you will be snapping track together. Below are a couple resources I utilised when I ran into a roadblock.

In my next blog, I will share my experience using SCARM for the Pinkenba precinct. 

Until next time.

Little Shunter

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bits and Bobs

-
Image
Order Sent! After having a go at scratch building with styrene I thought I would up my game and buy a kit from Caintode, so I jumped back on the website and placed an order for a 3 Dome Tanker kit and some more Bar Frame, 5Ft 2Ft 2In bogies for my own model builds. You got mail! My first call for assistance Where do i go now was with PGC Scale Models, after a couple months I received an email from the gentleman who advised he had been busy and been able to produce a range of tank wagon kits and wanted to know if he can organise for them to be delivered to my premises.  A few emails back and forth and the gentleman was kind enough to invite me to their property, so we schedule a time that was convenient and what I thought would be a small visit turned into a couple hours of conversation over a cuppa with some insightful advice and walk through into their processes to get items ready for keen customers. It was such an enjoyable visit that I almost forgot to pay and pick up my 3 and ...
Read more

Let's try another approach

-
Image
Little Shunters Second Scratch Build   What did I learn from my first scratch build 🤓 Body frame was not square Tanks supports were inconsistent  Styrene welding was poor Styrene cuts not square Superglue and thin styrene don't like each other Thin styrene is going to warp Taking these above lessons learnt into consideration, my goal was to improve the quality of the next model. Jig 2.0 I popped down to Bunnings and bought some dressed pine and balsa wood and decided to come up with an idea of reusing the length but committed to a standard width for my scratch built rollingstock, plus added a working space as my last build I kept losing my styrene pieces on the floor. I also decided to cut an aluminum key for the coupler sections which was a guess as I had not bought any couplers at this stage. Model Output and learnings Using my lessons learnt above, things were improving, this styrene build was stronger, like it was one piece, so that was a positive. It started to look a l...
Read more

Prototype Research

-
Knock, knock Australia Post My order from Caintode Flats Products turned up and I will be honest, this was a blind purchase as I had never seen the products in real life. I was not disappointed at all by the level of quality, it was amazing. Unfortunately, I did not take any photos but would recommend checking out the website. I added to my inventory the following:  Bogies Bar Frame, 5Ft 2Ft 2In Brake Cylinders, Combined Air Tank Bogie Screws, #1 X 3/8 In Self Tappers Handbrake Assembly Complete Brass Etch Flex Track Purchase Excited by the purchase I headed down to my local hobby shop and took a bogie to show of my new purchase and explained to the owner I needed some track. He reached behind the cabinet pulled out a thick product catalogue and showed me the limited product range and suggested I think about my layout before purchasing too much product. As I wanted to get my scratch build models onto some simple track, I purchased a couple pieces  Flex track ( PECO SL-1400)...
Read more