View source for Linux Installation with VirtualBox


This page should be mostly obsolete, as you can run the lightmeter on linux-systems directly. This page is for reference and archiving unless you want to use Windows XP in a VirtualBox.

--[[User:GuentherWuchterl|GW]] ([[User talk:GuentherWuchterl|talk]]) 15:33, 28 April 2016 (CEST)

Example for installing the drivers under Ubunto 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) using Sun's free to download and us Virtual Box 2 to create a Windows XP virtual machine.

# Install Virtualbox2 (you need the proprietary version from Sun, the open version does not support USB.
# Make sure all users that need to run the Virtualbox are in the group "vboxuser"
# Create new virtual machine and install Windows on it (e.g. from disk-image)
# Start Windows ''and install Virtualbox 2 guest additions'' to make life easier: Click on the window of the virtual machine once windows is running.
# Activate USB-support:
##1 Edit /etc/fstab (you need sudo / root privileges) and add the line
    usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=<groupID_vboxusers>,devmode=664 0 0
<groupID_vboxusers> is the ngroup number of vboxusers on your system. You can
get it e.g. by typing in an xterminal
    cat /etc/group | grep vboxusers
If it is 123 the line to add in /etc/fstab reads:
    usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=123,devmode=664 0 0
##2 Take it easy and reboot the linux system (alternative in the above links)
##3 Plug in the instrument
##4 Aktivate the USB-support by looking for USB on your Virtualbox and add the
the USB device called "Microsystems .." to the list of USB-devices in your Virtualbox
**5 Download the instrumentdrivers [or the Skysensor-software by Jörg Weingrill, with similar procedures not described in the following] from this wiki, unzip it and put it on a USB-stick
**6 Activate the USB-stick in the USB-list of your virtualbox
# Restart your Windows Virtual machine
# Wait for the windows-hardware-manager to discovert the new instrument
# Go through the windows installation and guide the installer to the ''Luxmeter_install''
directory that contains the drivers
# Finish installation with the windows installer
# Copy the ''Luxmeter_run'' directory from the stick e.g. on your desktop
# Go into the _run directory and Start ''Test.exe'': A window should then pop up.
# Push the [Start] button: the window will start showing time, temperature and the counts measured by the luxmeter (typicall above a million in daylight)
# Push [Stop] to end measurements and [Beenden] to terminate the software. A file test.txt will habe been created that contains the measurments.
# Rename (!!) test.txt to an appropiate_name.csv (see the section on the DB-upload for recommendations. Warning: If you do not rename the file, the next start of the instrument will result in a (mercyless) overwrite of whatever data you wrote because it creates a new 'test.txt'.