UTAU, MMD, PMD/PMX Editor in Linux. -- Status, Installation, and more.

UTAU

---

If you know of Vocaloid, you probably know of UTAU. UTAU is a singing synthesis shareware application designed for Microsoft windows [With it's recent Mac Implementation which has spurred some rumors of another version to soon come out for Linux], that allows users to create their own "voice banks" and have their personal "UTAU's" sing in harmony. It is known to at times produce better, more realistic results than Yamaha's Vocaloid, amongst others, but requires more effort on part of the user.

MMD [Miku Miku Dance]

---

If you know of UTAU, you probably know of Miku Miku Dance. Miku Miku Dance is free software that is designed for Microsot Windows that allows users to move models that either they or others created. This can be use to create lipsyncing videos, music and dancing videos, PV's, home made movies (with the models) amongst other things, frame by frame.

PMD/PMX Editor

---

This program was also designed for Windows. It is for the creation and editing of .PMD/.PMX files that are used to dance/move/sing in MikuMikuDance.

Prerequisites [Required Programs]:

---

-- Linux Distribution [Any kind will do, really]
-- Playonlinux
-- Wine
-- Winetricks
-- Japanese Locale Enabled

Assuming that you already have a Linux distribution coming to this tutorial, first, download and install the lastest play on linux version. At the time of this tutorial, that would be 4.2.1. The instructions for installation depends upon your distro. If you use Arch like me, then it's no problem! Installation is as simple as popping a terminal and entering in:

pacman -Syu playonlinux wine winetricks

This command, not only updates your system but it also syncs to the repositories and gives you the proper programs that you need for this tutorial.

The Japanese Locale issue [This will demonstrate how to acquire it in Archlinux], is a no brainer. If locale -a yields anything similar to these:

C
POSIX
en_US
en_US.iso88591
en_US.utf8
ja_JP
ja_JP.eucjp
ja_JP.ujis
ja_JP.utf8 # Specifically this one
japanese
japanese.euc
zh_CN
zh_CN.gb18030
zh_CN.gb2312
zh_CN.gbk
zh_CN.utf8

Then there is really nothing else you have to do.

Otherwise, uncomment the line ja_JP.UTF-8 in the file /etc/locale-gen. And then run:

sudo locale-gen

If you already have these things, then great, skip this step.

Installation of UTAU

---

To install utau, it is pretty easy.

Steps:

1. Use Playonlinux To Install the Program.
2. Enjoy!

Step 1:

Select the install button as depicted above.

This dialogue should pop up.

Check testing and this dialogue should pop up, just click okay.

Then type into the search bar: UTAU, this should pop up.

Step 2:

Finish the installer and you're done! If it asks to create a virtual drive and/or a shortcut select yes! You can choose to install the English patch or not. Click on UTAU and hit the "run" button in the upper left corner.

Installing Miku Miku Dance/MMD [WIP -- Check back later for an update!

---

The installation of MMD is a bit more involved.

Prerequisites [Required Programs]:

-- Playonlinux
-- Wine
-- Winetricks
-- MMD

Steps:
1. Correct Settings, Create the 64 Bit Virtual Drive, and put MMD inside of it
2. Adjust the Windows version
3. Debug to figure out the required programs to run
4. Fix The Layout Issue
5. Enjoy MMD!




Step 1:
First, select tools.

Then select x64 and scroll down to the wine version 1.4-rc4-raw3 and install it. Then click on configure.

In the bottom left corner, select new, run through the installer and select 1.4-rc4-raw3 for your wine version.

Take note of the name of your Virtual Drive. The next part will be easier. Open a terminal and Do:

cd /path/to/the/mmdfile.zip

unzip -x *thezipfile*; cp -a *thefolderthatcomesoutofit* ~/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/nameofthevirtualdrive/drive_c/Program\ Files\(x86\)/

Now you go into the PlayOnLinux configuration dialogue and you click on "Create shortcut from virtual drive."

Step 2:

Now it's the time to adjust the Windows version. Click on the Wine tab Inbetween "general" and "install components" and select "Configure wine".

Then in the first part of the Windows 98 looking dialogue box on the bottom right, select "Windows 7". It should be towards the top.

You may now press apply and okay, and then close the dialogue boxes. Leave the main Playonlinux window open, the one that has your shortcuts in it.

Finally, you settings must match the ones I have up on my virtual drive. Select the "Display" tab second to last and then change your settings to match.

Step 3:

In order to complete step five, you'll have to select MMD, and then "debug" on the right hand side above "Report a problem". If no errors are returned and MMD runs successfully, congratulations, move to the next step! Otherwise, watch the error messages dialogue to figure out if there are any necessary .dll's.

Step 4:

With MMD open in Linux at the moment, it looks atrocious.

So, to solve this, click on the window and press  alt+ V and then alt+W (view > separate window). Resize them to your heart's content and enjoy MMD in linux.

Step 5:

So far in this wine version that we've selected, there are no issues with even multimodels. In fact, I feel like it ran faster in linux than it ever did on any of my Windows computers. The raw speed is incredible. The controls like on Windows are the same, so enjoy the familiarity of the program!!

Installing PMD/PMX Editor [WIP -- Check back later for an update!]

---

My Opinion on Ubuntu

Don't get me wrong, I've used Ubuntu before, in fact, it was my first distro. My mother's computer n
ow runs Ubuntu specifically because I found that it was easier for her to use. My biggest problems w
ith Ubuntu Linux are coming from the Unity interface, which I was very much objective of, despite fi
rst trying Ubuntu roughly 9 months ago, when Unity had first begun to rear its ugly head in 12.04LTS
..


 Lag and Slow Boot-Up Times.
        Sometimes, you want to use your computer, but if you're like me, you'll turn it off so that
you don't kill your battery life when it's not in use. Bad idea with Ubuntu 12.10. For me, it takes
roughly 5 - 10 minutes for Ubuntu to load, even after removing grub's 5 second count down feature in the boot loader and adding readahead. I won't say it's because they aren't using Systemd because I've used other distros that don't use systemd that don't boot as slowly as this. I am going to just assume it's because of the next reason why I don't like Ubuntu.

At Times, *understandable* Software Bloat.
        Ubuntu is meant to be a complete distro with a complete suite and set of applications. And that's fine, but there are some things that it includes that should be left out, like for example, maybe "gimp". That sounds silly on some level, but think about it, most people who switch from Windows to Linux(Ubuntu) Aren't necessarily doing it for the painting/image editing programs. I see that there is something called "Ubuntu studio" that should already have these things packaged with it. There are a few others that I can't name off the top of my head, but there are quite a few applications such as VNC that seems to have come preinstalled on the Desktop version that most people wouldn't even really look into, and somehow the number of preinstalled applications make it really hard to have a lightweight system in general. Your System can be lightweight AND stable, it's just a matter of method This also slows down the time it takes for the desktop to load on unity, which is what I find as unsurprising.

Limited GUI System Settings [Though this could be Gnome 3's Fault], and the long APT command [probably Debian's fault also].
        Why is it that I can't change some things around with the launcher? Why can't I change the color from the apperance settings? And what's the deal with this bluetooth thing? How many people use Bluetooth with their computers?! This can't be right. And why must I have to update the system with "sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade" everytime I log in from SSH?

Dock that sucks up screen realestate.
        This a big one. Especially since the feature there is to mess with the existence of the launcher is the "hide" and the "resize" feature, both of which are functionally retarded. I've tried unhiding the launcher only to watch it bounce back into "crouching position" when I'm trying to get work done.

Buggy and incomplete GUI that lacks important features.
        When you go into ubuntu's System settings and page around a bit, you'll notice that there are a few things that you might want to change that aren't so much listed up there. Why should you have to install Ubuntu tweak or *insert_some_other_appearance_setting_manager_here* to make it look nice? What's the deal? What if I want the launcher on the right side instead of the left? What if I wanted it on the bottom? Why can't we move the unity launcher? Would it be that hard to flip it around a bit? Less lag on the launcher bar showing please and maybe a bit of an interval adjustment with numerals instead of "slow and fast". I've seen videos with older versions of Ubuntu that have far more features in the software center than the CURRENT system settings. That, in my opinion, is a bit sad.

Unity that seems to suck the strength out of the graphics card.
        If you were to play minecraft on my Archbox, and you were to play minecraft on the Ubuntu laptop in the house, you'd see a significant difference. What's the deal? Why is that? Is it Unity's fault? Or is it the software bloat?

Broken "sleep" mode.
        I won't blame Ubuntu entirely for this, I feel that this is on part of the fact that my Mother's Ubuntu installation is a wubi installation. Though, that is no excuse for being unable to close the lid, and then expect myself to see Ubuntu's horrific Unity mess pop back up again.

But It's All Good.
        Fortunately, this is a Linux Distro, enabling us to install something that is less non-sensical, like... KDE[Also bloated on ubuntu], GNOME3 [Ha, ha... Right ], or Xfce4[This is just about right]. But what were the devs thinking? I mean, I can understand having the community judge and mess with your interface to find bugs and whatnot, but can't you at least make some real changes and get rid of the real functionality faults in the interface itself? I don't ask that you include less software in your distro, as I understand that it's supposed to be complete, but it seems like there is more than what is necessary in this distro. Ubuntu could be a distribution worth mentioning to people to install, but because of the unity interface, it is really making it heisitate on suggesting it over maybe something like Linux Mint. I'm certain that it could be something much better than it is, and that with a few more additional features and updates, it would make the userspace a better place.

Feel free to comment if you think my arguments are biased, or out of place.

A Bit More on Chmod & Chown

There are a few more things that I would like to introduce when it comes to the chmod and the chown command, one of these things being options that can be passed to reduce the amount of typing the user does in the command line. I'm certain that there are those of us who have had yet to learn how to touch type in QWERTY and even fewer of us who have learned to type in DVORAK. There is such thing as OCTAL NUMBERS that I would like to introduce in this chapter.

Octal Numbers

---

With octal numbers:

• They are any number between 0 and 7.
• Each digit in an octal number represents three binary digits.

Now, for further explanation, you lay out a chart like this for better understanding:

Octal	Binary	File Mode
0	000	---
1	001	--x
2	010	-w-
3	011	-wx
4	100	r--
5	101	r-x
6	110	rw-
7	111	rwx

How This Can Be Applied to Chown

---

Now, you would use octal numbers as an 'option' rather than an argument when you're making a change to a file, but unlike most options that we have seen, it does not possess a "-" before it. That's okay, different programs might not even contain options and might just have the program itself and yet the use of the program, or command, may vary. For example:

chmod 777 text.txt.

With an ls -l, we'd see that everyone can see, edit, and execute the file called "text".

But what if we don't want to put in that extra typing into the command line to see what the changes made were? Then we use the '-c' [called 'change'] option to print only if there was a change. If you want an output regardless, use the '-v' [called verbose] option.

These same commands can be passed to someone who wants to print the change in a file [if there is one], or just the supposed adjustments made regardless of whether there is an actual change or not.

And Those Two Options Are The Same For Chown

---

Simply 'chown -c olduser newuser' where the 'olduser' is the original owner and 'newuser' is the new owner, will print a change only if there is one, but 'chown -v olduser newuser' will print a change regardless.

That's it.

---

Thanks for taking the time to read this and be sure to comment if there is anything that you are fuzzy about or that you do not understand. useradd

---

userdel

---

usermod

---

Awesome-WM: How to Set Dvorak [or other keyboard layouts] as default.

In my personal experiences with AwesomeWM, I could not seem to set the DVORAK keyboard layout without messing around with the xorg.conf files, and even then it was to no avail.

As an actual solution [or in other words 'work around' to this, the ~/.xinitrc file must contain:

setxkbmap -layout dvorak [or ru, fr, etc..]

Before the line:

exec awesome

And that should solve the issue.

The Linux Command Line Interface -- File and Directory Manipulation Tutorial

Manipulating Files & File Permissions

---

Now before we even get started, this is going to be a bit of a large article, so you can read maybe the first three commands and study them or you can try and learn everything here as you go along.

First off, I'll start by explaining files and file permissions in layman's terms so that everyone can easily grasp the concept.


ls -l & ls -h

---

ls -l is a very useful command that is good to know for a few reasons.

Regular ls:

ls -l:

Let's take a closer look at the output of one of these commands. ls -l prints a "longer version" of the ls command. Here are two perfect examples of the ls -l output.

Now, there are two things. The user name "vadim" and the group "users". They sit beside the 10 characters on the far left. After that is the file size in kilobytes, the last time it was modified, and finally, the name. Now that I've clarified that, I'll explain those characters a bit more.

"d" in the first strip represents a "directory", in the second strip, it is a "-" which represents a file. You'd see as "l" if it was a link, which is similar to a "shortcut" in windows [We'll go over creating links in a later guide]. The r stands for "read" which means that you can see, and look into the file. W meaning "write" means that you can edit or "write" into the file, and "x" means you can "execute" that file, like for example if it was a program of some kind then you could run it by typing ./programname and hitting enter in the terminal.
There are nine of these characters, the first one being for the owner of the file which is the user name that is listed above. The second one being the group that is "users". Anyone in the "users" group on the computer can edit the file. The last, being "global" or "everyone". Anyone can read and execute, or go into the (d)irectory.
In the file (as expressed by the "-"), the owner can read, but not execute the file and every one else can only read it, and see that it's there.

ls -lh

The only thing that ls -lh changes is the way that the file size is read. It actually tells you that it is 4.0K(ilobytes) instead of expecting you to figure it out.

For more, see man ls.

cp

---

The cp command is actually a very simple command. It copies a file from one place in the file system to another. Say we had a file on the Desktop called "some_text.txt". We wanted to copy that file to our "Documents" directory.

To copy that file:

As you can see, I've both copied the file and then shown you that it is now ALSO in the Documents folder. "But what if we want to move folders? It just tells me that it 'omitted the directory'." - That's why we use the -a option for "archive".

For more, see man cp.

mv

---

Let's say that we didn't want our text file to be "some_text.txt" anymore, and we wanted to name it "a_text_file.txt". That's where the move command comes in.

But it doesn't just "rename" files, it also allows us to move them too! That's why it's called "move"!

You do not need an option to move a folder.

For more, see man mv.
mkdir

---

Being able to edit directories is fine, but what about making them? mkdir does this.

rm

---

What about getting rid of, or r(e)m(oving) the old file that's on the desktop? No problem.

Once again, an option is needed to remove directories. That option is -r.

It is extremely important that you do not remove things you think you might want to recover later with the "rm" command. There is no way to recover those files! To be extra careful, add the -i option to prompt you before every removal!

For more, see man rm.

less

---

The less command just allows you to read your text files.

For more, see man less.

chmod

---

Remember what we were talking about with permissions? This command allows us to change the permissions of a file. "u" represents the user, "g" represents the group, and "a" represents "all" or everyone.

But what if we wanted to be selfish and make it so that no one but ourselves could see, change, or edit the file?

For more, see man chmod.

chown

---

But let's say that we wanted to change who owned the file?

For more, see man chown.

If there are any questions or criticisms, feel free to comment.