OBMIN

Installation

  1. Dependencies
  2. Gnome extensions
  3. Debian package
  4. Installation from sources
  5. Running without installation
  6. Restarting Gnome Shell
  7. Managing Extensions
  8. Upgrading the extension
  9. Uninstalling
  10. Troubleshooting

Dependencies

If you have Gnome Desktop, you already have all requirements installed probably. But if not or something is wrong, you should recheck the dependencies.

  • gjs (core dependency)
  • GTK3 libraries:
  • gir1.2-glib-2.0
  • gir1.2-gtk-3.0
  • gir1.2-soup-2.4
  • psmisc (mics tools for applets)
  • gir1.2-appindicator3 (the obmin-indicator for non-Gnome shell extension)
  • Gnome Shell 3.14+ (the gnome version only)
  • Font Roboto (recommended for the client side browsers)

Debian/Ubuntu flavors can do next:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install gjs gir1.2-atk-1.0 gir1.2-glib-2.0 gir1.2-gtk-3.0 gir1.2-soup-2.4 psmisc curl gir1.2-appindicator3

# Building dependencies (optional)
sudo apt-get -y install make automake autotools-dev build-essential gnome-common libglib2.0-dev git

Gnome extension version

The easiest way to install OBMIN Server is installing the gnome extension package. There are a few ways to make it.

  • Official Gnome Site for all supported by Gnome extensions.
  • You can use your Software Application Center on many modern distributions. They already have the integration with Gnome extensions repo. So you can just type Obmin in the search box of your application center.
  • You can install it manually from the latest stable zip package on GitHub’s releases page and install it through gnome-tweak-tool or in terminal:
# Remove the old extension if exist
rm -rf ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/obmin@konkor

# Unpack obmin@konkor.zip package to the Gnome extensions folder
unzip obmin@konkor.zip -d ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/obmin@konkor

# Make it executable
chmod +x install_obmin.sh

# Run it
./install_obmin.sh
  • The deb package installing contains Gnome extension so.
  • You can just clone git repo and move it to ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/obmin@konkor
  • At least you can download desired branch as an archive on GitHub and install it even in Nautilus.

After some installation methods, you have to restart Gnome Shell and enable it via managing tools

Debian package

You can use the deb package on other Linux distributions like Fedora, Solus, Manjaro, etc. You will get the same functionality except for you have to install required dependencies and updating/uninstalling manually without help from a package manager. The project open to your contributions and you could bring up supporting of your OS

There is a pre-compiled deb package for Debian/Ubuntu flavors. It is a full version of the application and includes global bins for all components, MAN pages, icons, desktop shortcuts so. The deb will help you to install all dependencies, application components and desktop applets system widely. You can find it here. You can use a terminal or GDebi, Software Center to install it.

Debian/Ubuntu flavors

# Open root terminal
sudo su
# Update repositories
apt-get update
# Install the deb package
dpkg -i obmin_latest_all.deb
# Install dependencies
apt-get -f install
# Close root terminal
exit

Non-Debian based distributions

# Solus OS Badgie installation
# Install dependencies
sudo eopkg install gjs libsoup libappindicator

# Extract the deb package
ar -x obmin_latest_all.deb && tar xf data.tar.xz
# or you can use dpkg command
dpkg -x obmin_latest_all.deb .

# Copy the extracted structure to /usr folder
sudo cp -r ./usr /usr

# Done

Installation from sources

Install all dependencies to able compile it.

Here is how to get sources and compile it.

git clone git@github.com:konkor/obmin.git
cd obmin
./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install

# Optionally, you can configure user local folder for the installation.
./autogen.sh
./configure --prefix=/home/USER/.local # REPLACE USER
make
make install

Optionally, here are steps to build deb, gnome zip and sources tarball packages.

# Make the extension package
make zip-file

# Make a dist source package
make dist

# Also, you can build deb package like this
./autogen.sh
make
make dist
cd packaging
./packaging.sh

Running without installation

You have to install the dependencies first.

Unpack, clone the package and just run the applications from terminal.

# Just run
./obmin-server

# Run with custom configuration in JSON file format
./obmin-server --config sample-config.json

See Configuration Section for more information about JSON file config.

Restarting Gnome Shell

Different ways to restart or re-log current Gnome Shell session

  • user’s Log-out / Log-in (X11/Wayland)
  • Alt+F2 and enter r command (X11 only)
  • or just reboot PC (X11/Wayland)

Managing Extensions

Here are some ways to manipulate the extension state (enabling, disabling, installing, updating, removing settings...).

You can manage your extensions in many ways:

  • gnome-shell-extension-prefs
  • web browser page Installed Extensions
  • gnome-tweak-tool
  • Gnome Software Center.
  • Manual method by removing any extension folder you will remove the extension. After this operation you have to restart current Gnome session.

Upgrading the extension

Here are some ways to upgrade the extension

Hopefully frequently, the extension will receives updates to fix bugs, update the documentation or add new features and abilities. So here is a few ways to do this:

  1. You can update the extension through the web browser page Installed Extensions
  2. You can do this in the Gnome Software Center.
  3. You can get the development version from GitHub.
    • Download desired archive from GitHub 
      wget https://github.com/konkor/obmin/archive/master.zip
    • Extract obmin-master.zip.
    • Replace all files in the ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/obmin@konkor folder.
    • Restart GNOME Shell.
  4. You can use installation script for the Gnome extension version. Using the command will switch you to the latest desired GitHub branch: 
    ./install_obmin.sh [GITHUB_BRANCH]
  5. Download deb package

You can also use manual method, gnome-tweak-tool, software center etc.

Uninstalling

Sometimes we need to remove some extension. The cause could be for example complete reinstallation or bugs. It can be useful if you have saved broken settings values or to clean up previous installations.

Completly removing the extension and stored settings.

  1. Remove the extension folder 
    rm -Rf ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/obmin@konkor

    Be careful with this command as any mistake could cause a data loss!!!

  2. You can check this values in the dconf-editor at /org/gnome/shell/extensions/obmin/. If you want reset the extension’s values to defaults just run it and restart gnome-shell. 
    dconf reset -f "/org/gnome/shell/extensions/obmin/"

Troubleshooting

Check a system journal

# for current log
sudo journalctl

# for monitoring
sudo journalctl -f

Check GitHub Issues

Check known issues on GitHub and if can’t find the solution just report there.

Check your installation

  1. Enable Obmin Server from user interface or run it in terminal.
  2. Open your browser and enter the local IP address and obmin server port (default 8088). So you can look your local address in the gnome or obmin-indicator applets it’s looking like http://192.168.1.10:8088 to an example or just enter localhost:8088. You should see obmin home page with selected file locations or link to your Home Folder if it’s not configured yet.
  3. Now you can check it from other devices (mobile phones, other machines) connected to the same the network. Do the same at 2 for your local IP address (ex. http://192.168.1.10:8088). If not you have to check your Firewalls on the server and/or guest sides.