nSpire in Linux lab?

[Jorge Garcia]

I recently got a class set of CX CASs. I teach in a Linux PC Lab. I tried installing the Student Software under WINE but got errors.

I need some sort of emulator for my SmartBoard and students are used to one on their Linux desktops as well. We used to have VTI as an 83 emulator and tiemu for the 89.

So, I tried nspire_emu and nspireX. My problem is getting the boot1, boot2 and OS files uploaded from the handheld. Any one have any luck with this?

Sincerely,
A. Jorge Garcia
http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/calcpage2009

[John Hanna]

Hi, Jorge,
You need to know that TI supports only Mac and Windows platforms.

Sorry,
John Hanna
jeh...@optonline.net
www.johnhanna.us
T3 - Teachers Teaching with Technology
"the future isn't what it used to be."

--
--
To post to this group, send email to tins...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe send email to tinspire+u...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com.au/group/tinspire?hl=en-GB?hl=en-GB
The tns documents shared by group members are archived at
https://sites.google.com/site/tinspiregroup/classroom-news/welcome-abouttime

---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"tinspire" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
email to tinspire+u...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Jorge Garcia]

nSpireX works on LInux, http://youtu.be/b39xrvmWYHI

I also got the Teacher Software to install with WINE. I still have to upload the boot1, boot2 and OS files!

[Lionel Debroux]

Hello Jorge,

> I also got the Teacher Software to install with WINE. I still have to
> upload the boot1, boot2 and OS files!

http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=8698&lang=en
contains information relevant to your needs.
For proper CX emulation with nspire_emu (which is the emulator of
choice, pretty much nobody uses nspirex), you need to somehow obtain a
boot1, usually by dumping it from a real CX (CAS).

Hope that this helps :)


Bye,
Lionel.


PS: in Nspire Clickpad / Touchpad times, the boot1 was not required for
emulation. However, on the CX / CM, TI decided to partially encrypt the
boot2. Needless to say, that move does not prevent reverse-engineering
in any kind of meaningful way; the main consequence of all of those
useless layers of encryption is a slow boot process (progress bar pause
at 50% for decrypting the boot2, then decryption + decompression of the
OS until 100%).
The HP Prime's boot process is faster than the Nspire's, in proportions
much greater than just the effect of a faster (more accurately, "less
slow") processor. The Prime's firmware isn't encrypted.

[Jorge Garcia]

Thanx, Lionel, I followed all the instructions here:
http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=8698&lang=en

The trick to getting the boot2 file is to rename the *.tcc OS file as *.zip and extract it. I put the boot2.img file and the TI-NspireCXCAS-3.1.0.392.tcc in the nspire-emu directory.

Then I'm supposed to run the following command line once to install the OS:
wine nspire_emu /B=boot2.img /MC /PO=TI-NspireCXCAS-3.1.0.392.tcc

Then I should be able to run the emulator from then on thusly:
wine nspire_emu /B=boot2.img /F=image

My problem now is that nspire_emu wants the file boot2.raw - how do I convert boot2.img to boot2.raw?

TIA,

[Jorge Garcia]

OOPS, now I see that CX CAS will not boot in nspire_emu without the boot1 file! However, I can only find the boot2 file using the procedure above. Maybe I can get polydumper.tns onto one of my handhelds somehow? I read somewhere that polydumper can extract the boot1, boot2 and OS files.

I also found a file called imagemanip.cc that's supposed to convert *.img to *.raw files. I tried compiling this file:

gcc -o imgman imgmanip.cc

in the command line but gcc complains about missing libraries....

Help, please!

[Xavier Andréani]

For emulating a TI-Nspire CX, keep the original boot2.img file - don't convert it to a .raw file.

You'll also need the Boot1 you'll have to dump from a handheld with polydumper.

Regards.

---

Date: Fri, 16 May 2014 16:22:02 -0700
From: calc...@gmail.com
To: tins...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [tinspire] Re: nSpire in Linux lab?

[Jorge Garcia]

I finally broke down and got on the wife's WimpDoze box, installed the Student Software, downloaded polydumper3.1.zip, unzipped it and uploaded polydumper.tns to the handheld.

Now, when I try to run the tns file on the handheld it complains about an incompatible file format????

Help!

Sincereley,

[Lionel Debroux]

Hello Jorge,

> So, how do I get polymer.tns onto my handheld in Linux? When I
> connect the handheld to my Linux box via USB, it charges but I don't
> see any data.
Make sure you're using the latest release, TILP II 1.17, or compile
libti* + tilp yourself with
http://lpg.ticalc.org/prj_tilp/download/install_tilp.sh . Some distros
provide outdated packages.
If you compile libti* + tilp yourself, or have a distro which doesn't
pre-install the relevant file for you, you'll have to create a udev
definition file if you want to be able to run TILP without using root
privileges.

> I finally broke down and got on the wife's WimpDoze box, installed
> the Student Software, downloaded polydumper3.1.zip, unzipped it and
> uploaded polydumper.tns to the handheld.
>
> Now, when I try to run the tns file on the handheld it complains
> about an incompatible file format????

As pretty much any program which performs advanced things on the Nspire,
Polydumper requires installing Ndless first :)
Lots of relevant, legitimate things would be easier for users if the
Nspire were an open platform - but it's not.


Bye,
Lionel.

[Adriweb]

And.. you can find a ndless installation tutorial here : http://tiplanet.org/ndless/

It's quite simple, in fact.

Then, launch polydumper, and yo'ull have the boot1 file on the same folder I believe :)

(You can then get it with the link software).

After that, nspire_emu should work nicely.

[Jorge Garcia]

So close, yet so far! 

Thanx, everyone, for all your help so far. Sorry for being such a nuisance, I'm usually the one at my school who's ahead of the tech curve. I guess I just let the nSpire craze pass me by as we've been using TI-89/92/200s in AP Calculus BC for decades now...

Anyway, I installed ndless (is that like jail-braking?) and ran polydump. Now I have the boot1,img.tns and boot2.img.tns files. I renamed them boot1.img and boot2.img (even though tiplanet still calls for boot1.raw) and tried these commadlines:

wine nspire_emu /1=boot1.img /MC /PB=boot2.img /PO=TI-NspireCXCAS-3.1.0.392.tcc

wine nspire_emu /1=boot1.img /F=image

After the first commandline I got a very weird looking emulator on my screen and a lot of timeouts in the terminal shell:

Warning at PC=00004C4C: Resetting due to watchdog timeout

Reset

Warning at PC=00004C4C: Resetting due to watchdog timeout

Reset

Warning at PC=00004C4C: Resetting due to watchdog timeout

Reset

...

So, I exited that emulator and ran the second commandline and got this error:

image: No such file or directory

What now?

Thanx in advance,

AJG

[Adriweb]

So close, yet so far! 

Well, you seem close enough to me :)

 

Thanx, everyone, for all your help so far. Sorry for being such a nuisance, I'm usually the one at my school who's ahead of the tech curve. I guess I just let the nSpire craze pass me by as we've been using TI-89/92/200s in AP Calculus BC for decades now...

No problem. 

 

Anyway, I installed ndless (is that like jail-braking?)

Yep, basically. 

and ran polydump. Now I have the boot1,img.tns and boot2.img.tns files. I renamed them boot1.img and boot2.img (even though tiplanet still calls for boot1.raw)

Good.

 

wine nspire_emu /1=boot1.img /MC /PB=boot2.img /PO=TI-NspireCXCAS-3.1.0.392.tcc

That's the initial setup, sure. 

wine nspire_emu /1=boot1.img /F=image

That's when you saved an image so that you can get back to the state you were before leaving.

After the first commandline I got a very weird looking emulator on my screen and a lot of timeouts in the terminal shell:

Warning at PC=00004C4C: Resetting due to watchdog timeout

Reset

Warning at PC=00004C4C: Resetting due to watchdog timeout

Reset

Warning at PC=00004C4C: Resetting due to watchdog timeout

Reset

Hum... Your (boot1 and) boot2 come from a CX CAS 3.1 too ? or did you do it on a 3.6 device ? You'll have to get the same version.

 

So, I exited that emulator and ran the second commandline and got this error:

image: No such file or directory

What now?

That's only meant to be used when you saved a flash image from within the emulator first :) (Menu -> File -> Save flash)

 

Adrien

[Xavier Andréani]

wine nspire_emu /1=boot1.img /MC /PB=boot2.img /PO=TI-NspireCXCAS-3.1.0.392.tcc

For a TI-Nspire CX CAS, it's /MXC and not /MC, which explains your error messages.

Regards.

---

Date: Sat, 17 May 2014 13:29:18 -0700
From: bertran...@gmail.com

To: tins...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [tinspire] Re: nSpire in Linux lab?

[Jorge Garcia]

OMG, I'm such a noob! You wouldn't know that I've been using Linux for 20 years and UNIX for years before that! 

I did as you suggested, /MXC is certainly required. I blindly copied the code from tiplanet where it is wrong. 

I did mix boot1.img 3.6 with OS 3.1 also! Now I run this commandline:

wine nspire_emu /1=boot1.img /MXC /PB=boot2.img /PO=TI-NspireCXCAS-3.6.0.550.tcc

Eureka! I did get the emulator running. I worked with the scratch pad a bit and did some calculations and graphs. I didn't play with the documents yet. I'd mainly be using that for programming. On the TI-83 and TI-89 I used TI BASIC a lot. However, I've been using SAGE/python  in preCalculus of late, so I may stick with that in AP Calculus next year anyway. We write a few number crunching programs for Newton's Method, Riemann Sums and Euler's Method.

I still have a problem. The keyboard is very weird. I can click on it and it works but its not graphical, it looks text based. This can't be normal. Am I missing a skin file? I'm using nspire_emu_070. Please see attached screenshot.

Thanx,

AJG

[Adriweb]

I still have a problem. The keyboard is very weird. I can click on it and it works but its not graphical, it looks text based. This can't be normal. Am I missing a skin file? I'm using nspire_emu_070. Please see attached screenshot.

Nope, it's actually normal on nspire_emu (it's representing the keyboard as "it is" for the calculator.

It doesn't matter much since it's bound to your computer's keyboard, anyway...

However, a closed-source ( :( ) fork of nspire_emu has been made (look around for "kArmTI") with several enhancments (transfer GUI, video recording, skin etc.) however I'm not sure if it contains the latest features of nspire_emu (0.7) and I don't know if it works under Wine, actually...

[Levak]

Hi Jorge,

Le dimanche 18 mai 2014 03:43:37 UTC+2, Jorge Garcia a écrit :

I did as you suggested, /MXC is certainly required. I blindly copied the code from tiplanet where it is wrong. 

 

You actually had to scroll down in order to see "TI-Nspire CX CAS". Generally "TI Nspire CAS" refers to Clickpad and Touchpad TI-Nspire, not CX ones.

I still have a problem. The keyboard is very weird. I can click on it and it works but its not graphical, it looks text based. This can't be normal. Am I missing a skin file? I'm using nspire_emu_070. Please see attached screenshot.

 

The keyboard layout is, as Adriweb said, based on the internal representation (matrix keyboard). I think another problem you will encounter is that nspire_emu has a one-way transfert method. That means you cannot fetch the documents you will produce inside nspire_emu. There existed some hacks that let you save the internal xml representation on you HDD based on some breakpoints OS-version dependant.

Such features need time and effort to be integrated inside nspire_emu trunk. Since it is an opensource and community project, it depends on contributor's free time.

That said, you might want to try KarmTI, which is sadly closed source, but allows you to do such things without bothering much with such reverse-engineering things. As Adriweb pointed out, I'm not sure it actually runs under Wine. But how doesn't try out, doesn't know :)

[Jorge Garcia]

I spoke too soon! The keyboard is incomplete. I can install the OS by clicking "I" when prompted and I can type simple things like f1=x^2. Howver, some keys are missing (see screenshot above) and some keys don't work. For example. I tried clicking "menu" to save an image but nothing happens! 

If I could maximize the scratchpad window, hide the text based keyboard and use the PC keyboard, I guess I'd be happy. However, the PC keyboard produces only "A" and "I" no mater what key I press!

I think I'm going to try KARMTI or nspireX next. Thanx for all you help!

Regards,

AJG

[Adrien Bertrand]

Did you try the Keypad menu -> Touchpad option ?

Thank you,

Adrien Bertrand

--

--
To post to this group, send email to tins...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe send email to tinspire+u...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com.au/group/tinspire?hl=en-GB?hl=en-GB
The tns documents shared by group members are archived at
https://sites.google.com/site/tinspiregroup/classroom-news/welcome-abouttime

---

You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "tinspire" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/tinspire/qabk1tn13sQ/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to tinspire+u...@googlegroups.com.

[Levak Borok]

2014-05-19 1:44 GMT+02:00 Jorge Garcia <calc...@gmail.com>:

> I think I'm going to try KARMTI or nspireX next.

nspireX is _really_ outdated. You cannot even install >= 3.x OSes with it.

--
Jérémy `Levak` ANSELME
EPITA | YAKA 2015

[Levak Borok]

2014-05-19 1:44 GMT+02:00 Jorge Garcia <calc...@gmail.com>:

> Howver,
> some keys are missing (see screenshot above) and some keys don't work. For
> example. I tried clicking "menu" to save an image but nothing happens!

I'm a bit surprised that you're struggling that much with the keyboard.
Maybe we've become such blind, by using it so much, that we cannot see
hard it can be for new users ?

Also, it happens sometimes that the calculator turns in sleep mode.
Just wake it up by clicking the "on" key.

[Jorge Garcia]

Thanx for all your input! I did try different keypads, etc. I have an old Linux box at home with Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop that I've been using over the weekend for all this experimentation. Maybe at school nspire_emu_070 will work better on my Ubuntu 14.10 Desktop. 

Anyway, I tried KARMTI and its a bit better (see new screenshot), but I still need a better skin!

Thanx,

AJG

[Jorge Garcia]

This keyboard works and I can make the scratchpad larger. I can live with this. It looks like I can add skins too. Thanx!!!

Sincerely,

AJG

[Jorge Garcia]

OK, I'll forget about nspireX since everyone says its so bad.

I'm surprised, however, as the youtube on it looks as if it works well.

Also, based on that youtube, it's a more recent port of nspire_emu than KARMTI even though it's LInux only.

Regards,
AJG

[Levak Borok]

Hi,

2014-05-19 20:51 GMT+02:00 Jorge Garcia <calc...@gmail.com>:
> OK, I'll forget about nspireX since everyone says its so bad.

We never said it was bad. We all stated it was outdated (which is a
big difference - some software are awesome but not updated and tend to
have a lack of support for new hardwares).

> I'm surprised, however, as the youtube on it looks as if it works well.
> Also, based on that youtube, it's a more recent port of nspire_emu than

Hmm ? Do you have a link ?
"More recent port of nspire_emu" means it supports CX and 3.x OSes,
not because it has a skin. Indeed, nspire_emu is most likely to never
have a skin according to its main contributor.

[Jorge Garcia]

Well, I just meant to say that it was a recent port to Linux,

Also, nspire_emu doesn't need skins since KarmTI is nspire_emu plus skins!

Sincerely,

[Lionel Debroux]

Hi,

> Also, nspire_emu doesn't need skins since KarmTI is nspire_emu
> plus skins!

nspire_emu would need skins, for increased ease of use (non-developer
users are a crushing majority), but nobody's sufficiently motivated to
spend time reimplementing from scratch the secret work done by SpiroH in
kArmTI, which he will not release.
The harm to the community done by kArmTI being closed source crap made
out of an open source code base is obvious. What happens if the author
somehow goes away before releasing the source code (which he did) ? Good
work lost, and we've seen too much of that in the community, over a
couple decades...

Being open source enabled the other, developer-oriented good work in
ExtendeD's Ncubate (namely, GDBstub functionality) to be merged back
later into nspire_emu.


Bye,
Lionel.

[Jorge Garcia]

I agree whole heartedly, Lionel, as I use FLOSS (Free Linux Open Source Software) everyday in class and at home!

[Matt Rhodes]

Can we please take this discussion to a private venue.  As John replied at the beginning of the discussion, TI only supports Mac and Windows.

I would far rather see discussions that deal with best practices in the classroom.

On Thursday, May 15, 2014 6:37:58 PM UTC-4, Jorge Garcia wrote:

I recently got a class set of CX CASs. I teach in a Linux PC Lab. I tried installing the Student Software under WINE but got errors.

I need some sort of emulator for my SmartBoard and students are used to one on their Linux desktops as well. We used to have VTI as an 83 emulator and tiemu for the 89.

So, I tried nspire_emu and nspireX. My problem is getting the boot1, boot2 and OS files uploaded from the handheld. Any one have any luck with this?

[Levak Borok]

Matt,

2014-05-23 12:13 GMT+02:00 Matt Rhodes <matt....@suddenlink.net>:
> Can we please take this discussion to a private venue. As John replied at
> the beginning of the discussion, TI only supports Mac and Windows.

And is this usergroup THE official TI user group ? I doubt so. As it
stands for, it is a _user_ group.
What the constructor supports or not doesn't matter, only user problems do.

> I would far rather see discussions that deal with best practices in the
> classroom.

Why is that a *bad* practice to use Linux in classrooms ? Linux which
is used on 90% of both user and professional servers, which runs dozen
bilion of desktop ? Linux that runs inside your Android phone. I see
your post as provocative and closed-mind answer to that constructive
topic.

[Adriweb]

> Can we please take this discussion to a private venue.  As John replied at
> the beginning of the discussion, TI only supports Mac and Windows.

Sure, John informed him that he wouldn't be able to get any official (TI) help here (or at TI-Cares), that's what I understand at least.

That also means that non-TIers would be able to help, which is precisely what happened. (And it looks like it's been helpful !)

Which is also probably why Jorge came here, don't you think ? :) 

 

And is this usergroup THE official TI user group ? I doubt so. As it stands for, it is a _user_ group.
What the constructor supports or not doesn't matter, only user problems do.

I believe that too. Even if 99% of the topics here come from/for teachers, the priority should be on helping each other (and "sharing [inspiration]", as TI says.)

 

> I would far rather see discussions that deal with best practices in the classroom.

Why is that a *bad* practice to use Linux in classrooms ? Linux which
is used on 90% of both user and professional servers, which runs dozen
bilion of desktop ? Linux that runs inside your Android phone. I see
your post as provocative and closed-mind answer to that constructive
topic.

(I assume you meant "million", but nevertheless your reply is perfectly valid.)

Matt, I wonder too why using Linux in the classroom is annoying you. Not only that, but your reply seems to me as the one that ends the streak of productive/useful posts about an issue encountered with "best practices in the classroom"

I see no reason this topic shouldn't be in this group.

Now, let's go back on topic if need be :)

Adrien "Adriweb" Bertrand.

[Jorge Garcia]

Wow, all I can say is:

Thanx again to all those kind souls on this list who helped me out. I am the better for it. My students are the better for it. This group is the better for it. I salute you all!

[John Hanna]

Re: Thanx again to all those kind souls on this list who helped me out.

That’s why we’re here! I couldn’t help out, but we’re a diverse and eager group, eh?

 

     John Hanna

     jeh...@optonline.net

     www.johnhanna.us

     T³ - Teachers Teaching with Technology

     "the future isn't what it used to be."

 

---

From: tins...@googlegroups.com [mailto:tins...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Jorge Garcia
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2014 8:40 AM
To: tins...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [tinspire] Re: nSpire in Linux lab?

 

Wow, all I can say is:

--

--
To post to this group, send email to tins...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe send email to tinspire+u...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com.au/group/tinspire?hl=en-GB?hl=en-GB
The tns documents shared by group members are archived at
https://sites.google.com/site/tinspiregroup/classroom-news/welcome-abouttime

---

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "tinspire" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tinspire+u...@googlegroups.com.

[Jorge Garcia]

BTW, I'm all set:

[Jorge Garcia]

And here is one final blog post and screencast about this whole experience!

http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com/2014/05/may-meeting-ti-nspire-cx-cas-last-post.html

Thanx,