Getting the great scripts of Hans site: http://hans.ecke.ws/xplanet/ working with a newer version of xplanet might be quite cumbersome, so I decided to make things easier for the end user. That is why this page exists. Hope you'll find the hints useful.
Note: I only test my stuff on Linux/Unix boxes. If it works on Windows, that is great. I'll report it here if it works or not. But don't ask me questions about it.
First of all you'll need to create a personalized configuration directory that will contain all of your configuration files: $ mkdir ~/.xplanet. Also create some subdirectories within that configuration directory. All in one go:
mkdir ~/.xplanet/{images,markers}
Now you'll need to create, copy or download a default configurationfile named: default. This file can be found (on a Gentoo sytem) in /usr/share/xplanet/config/default, or you can download it from here.
Ok, first of all we'll get the volcano's to be shown on your desktop. You'll need two components from Hans' page first:
Unpack the images into ~/.xplanet/. They unpack into the images/ subdirectory. Now run the command volcano.pl once. If it goes well, you'll see some messages like:
making new config file /home/dirkjf/.xplanet/xplanet.conf
Adding variable XPLANET_DIR =/home/dirkjf/.xplanet to config file /home/dirkjf/.xplanet/xplanet.conf
Adding variable COOKIES_FILE = to config file /home/dirkjf/.xplanet/xplanet.conf
Adding variable TMPDIR =/home/dirkjf/.xplanet to config file /home/dirkjf/.xplanet/xplanet.conf
Adding variable AUTO_UPDATE =1 to config file /home/dirkjf/.xplanet/xplanet.conf
Adding variable VOLCANO_TEMPLATE =$lat $long "$name" image=volcano.png color=red transparent={255,255,255}
# summit: $elev to config file /home/dirkjf/.xplanet/xplanet.conf
no latitude to Additional Reports of Volcanic Activity by Country found. bailing out.
All these messages can be savely ignored. If it went well, you'll now have a ~/.xplanet/markers/volcano file and a ~/.xplanet/xplanet.conf file. The last one contains some information about wether or not the script ought to check for updates of itself. Personally I prefer to set this option (AUTO_UPDATE) to 0. Not that I don't trust Hans, but if his machine gets hacked, it might leave me with some unknown script on my machine that will run from cron. It is up to you wether to change this option.
Now start editing the main xplanet configurationfile: ~/.xplanet/default and set the marker_file option right:
marker_file=/home/dirkjf/.xplanet/markers/volcano
Mind that there are no spaces in that line; xplanet does not like that.
You are now ready to test. Run xplanet -proj mercator and you ought to see the volcano's pop up around the globe. The -proj mercator option is there because most of the volcano's are on one side of the globe. This option will guarantee that you'll see them all. Feel free to stick to your favorite projection later on.
All there is left to do is to start running the volcano.pl script from cron:
03 2 * * 2 ~/bin/volcano.pl &> /dev/null
Please change these values into something random different. As the volcano reports on http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs/ only get updated once a week, there is no need to run the volcano script more often.
Only one download is needed for this to work:
Run it once:
Adding variable US =1 to config file xplanet.conf Adding variable LOCATION =Golden to config file xplanet.conf Adding variable LATITUDE =39.75 to config file xplanet.conf Adding variable LONGITUDE =-105.22 to config file xplanet.conf Adding variable XPLANET_EXECUTABLE =xplanet to config file xplanet.conf Adding variable VISIBLE_SATELLITES_MAGNITUDE =3.5 to config file xplanet.conf Adding variable VISIBLE_SATELLITES_TIMEZONE = to config file xplanet.conf Adding variable VISIBLE_SATELLITES_TEMPLATE =# $name [$mag]$satid "$name ($maxtime)" color=white $satid "" image=none altcirc=45 trail={orbit,-$start2max,0,1} color=white $satid "" image=none trail={orbit,0,$max2end,1} color=red to config file xplanet.conf Could not find xplanet satellites directory /home/dirkjf/.xplanet/satellites
Now adjust the ~/.xplanet/xplanet.conf file to set your timezone:
VISIBLE_SATELLITES_TIMEZONE = CET
If it doesn't exist already, create the ~/.xplanet/satellites/ directory. Now run the perl script visible-satellites.pl once more. If everything worked alright, you'll now have two files in the previously named directory: visible-satellites and visible-satellites.tle. Al you need to do now is to adjust the main xplanet configuration file ~/.xplanet/default to point to the correct satellite file:
satellite_file=/home/dirkjf/.xplanet/satellites/visible-satellites
Run xplanet -proj mercator again and if everything works well, you could start putting the perl script into cron. Though I must admit that I don't know wether you ought to run this often.
I like this one a lot. This one also requires two downloads:
Unpack the images in your ~/.xplanet/ directory and run eaqthq.pl once.
Adding variable DEBUG =0 to config file xplanet.conf Adding variable EARTHQ_TEMPLATE =$lat $long "O" image=none align=center color=yellow fontsize=$size # $info$lat $long "$info" image=none color=yellow transparent={255,255,255} # $detail $time to config file xplanet.conf Adding variable EARTHQ_TEMPLATE_LAST =$lat $long "O" image=none align=center color=yellow fontsize=$size # $info $lat $long "$info" image=none color=yellow transparent={255,255,255} # $detail $time to config file xplanet.conf Adding variable EARTHQ_TEMPLATE_OLD =$lat $long "O" image=none align=center color=yellow fontsize=$size # $info $lat $long "$info" image=none color=yellow transparent={255,255,255} # $detail $time to config file xplanet.conf Adding variable EARTHQ_OLD =1 to config file xplanet.conf Adding variable EARTHQ_NEW_MINSIZE =0 to config file xplanet.conf Adding variable EARTHQ_OLD_MINSIZE =6.2 to config file xplanet.conf
Run it once more. And you'll ought to have a ~/.xplanet/markers/quake file, containing the locations of all recent earthquakes. All there is done to do left is to update the main configurationfile to show another marker_file:
marker_file=/home/dirkjf/.xplanet/markers/quake
Last thing to do is to add this to your crontab. You ought to be able to figure out how to do that yourself by now. :)
Though not mentioned on Hans' pages, the clouds give a great effect on some of the generated earth views. First of al get the download_clouds.pl perl script that was written by Oliver White. This script will fetch the up to date cloud map from one of the mirrors that is hosting the clouds file. This will take care of dividing the load of the used mirrors, which is good. Please don't run this script too often, though it does have some checks built in to keep you from hammering the mirrors.
The script, by default, downloads the file to the current directory. This is not the best behaviour, so modify the line where the cloud file is stored into:
my $Filename = "$ENV{HOME}/.xplanet/images/clouds.jpg";
This way, the cloud file is stored on the right place. If you are too afraid to adjust the file by hand, you can get my version here.
Now all you'll need to do is to modify the ~/.xplanet/default file and point the cloud_map to the right file. In my case that 'll be:
cloud_map=/home/dirkjf/.xplanet/images/clouds.jpg
Now test your setup by running the command xplanet. If that works, you can put the download_clouds.pl file into your crontab and your done! An example cron entry might look like:
13 */3 * * * ~/bin/download_clouds.pl &> /dev/null
Please choose a random number between 0 and 60 instead of the 13 I used here.
$Id: index.html 12 2005-04-13 11:38:45Z dirkjf $
Comments and suggestions about this site can be mailed to dirk-jan at
selwerd.nl.