Linux/Ubuntu and Photography???

AndyWest

AndyWest

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Andy
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Just curious here but is anyone processing their images under Linux like Ubuntu? I had Linux Mint on an old PC and it ran really well and everything was free! Ok most progs didn't look great but it was a stable, fast OS.

If you are i have a few Q's

Were printer drivers a problem?
Can you run 2 printers from one machine?
Does it accept memory card readers, memory sticks and external HDD's?
I suspect gimp is the programme of choice so can you get the RAW plug-in for Linux and would the Canon .CR2 files work?

Cheers in advance

Andy
 
Andy,

I've been using Ubuntu for quite a while, though not for image-processing. I can help with some of the questions though...
AndyWest said:
Were printer drivers a problem?
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It depends. I could run my old Epson 2400 off my Ubuntu system, but had to scrabble around for a driver. Some manufacturer's printers are better-supported than others. It might be worth your while having a look on the Open Printing Website.

Can you run 2 printers from one machine?
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I don't see any reason why you can't do this.
Does it accept memory card readers, memory sticks and external HDD's?
Click to expand...
Yes, it does
I suspect gimp is the programme of choice so can you get the RAW plug-in for Linux and would the Canon .CR2 files work?
Click to expand...
There are RAW converters for open-source, but I can't remember what they are (it's too early). If you trawl through the Ubuntu or Linux fora, then you should be able to find out.
If you have a copy of Photoshop 7 or CS2, these can be made ti run under Linux by means of a utility called 'wine'. Or, if your machine has enough power, you could run Windows in a VM. Granted, it does kind of defeat the object of running Ubuntu though :thinking:
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Somewhere, I have some articles on using open source for photography. If/when I get time I'll have a trawl and see what I can find. I think it was in Linux Format magazine - they do have an on-line archive, so it might be worth your while seeing if there's anything there.

Hope that helps.

Mark
 
(y)Thanks Mark, much appreciated(y)
 
For dipping a toe in, try the Grafpup LiveCD: http://grafpup.org/index.php

dcraw is programmed with the aim of decoding any RAW image from any digital camera on any computer running any (current) operating system. UFRaw is based on it and can be used as a plugin for the Gimp.
 
Had a look at Grafpup and i have no idea what they are on about, how to download and run the programme or whats included. It's a shockingly bad website for beginners! Mint and Ubuntu are pretty easy to sort, unfortuanetly i can't get either ubuntu or mini to work as my HDD is already partitioned and they wont config the partition.. Ubuntu won't even let me use the OS from the CD! I think there must be something wrong there as i tried to burn the Ubuntu iso twice and the same problem occured both times.
 
Do you have a particularly strange disk set up? I use ubuntu and I've not known it refuse to set up disks unless you havent got any more partitions available.

for instance there is a limit on the number of primary partitions on a disk. I've sometimes had glitches with trying to set stuff up in extended partitions.

but yes - you can set as many printers up as you like. Driver availability is variable, but most mainstream stuff is fine. I have a xerox colour laser, hp laser and an epsom photo inkjet. All work fine.

As said above dcraw/ufraw/raw therapee handle raws. Im olympus so I've never tried your stuff but I'm sure it works fine.
 
If you can burn an ISO and want to give Grafpup a try, download from: http://grafpup.org/download.php?path=./iso/releases/

Select according to desired web-browser or size of download: Dillo, Opera or SeaMonkey.

When you burn, if you don't close the session, you should be able to save setup parameters to the CD-R when you shut down. Otherwise, there's some setup to do each time, but it doesn't take long when you're used to it.

You might want to get a couple of hard drive caddies (suitable for your current hard drive: SATA or PATA) and another drive (smaller/cheaper, but with the same interface) so you can quickly swap OSes.

Let me know if you're going to try Grafpup (incl which file) and I'll try and help, though I'm no expert!
 
AndyWest said:
I suspect gimp is the programme of choice so can you get the RAW plug-in for Linux and would the Canon .CR2 files work?

Cheers in advance

Andy
Click to expand...

UFRaw I know works with Canon's CRW file format and probably works with CR2.

http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/Camera...s very powerful but not quite as easy to use.
 
Thanks for the info chaps.

I did try and load Mint (i had it before and liked it) but as said it wouldn't install and stopped at the partition set up window with everything greyed out so i had no option but to quit. My PC wouldn't boot to windows after that and it took a couple goes before it would boot properly. When it did i had a message saying that there was a problem amd it has been rectified...phew!!

On the Mint forum someone asked me this question: Was the drive mounted? Mounted drives can not be manipulated thus they will not appear in the partitions list. but i have no idea what he's on about! I have been using PC's for the last 25 years and it's still a mystery to me :LOL:

I'm a bit reluctant to try anything else now as i don't want to screw up my PC. I could go over to linux but i would loose Lightroom2 and my canon photo printer wont work as there are no drivers for it so i am sadly going to have to stick with winows:crying:
 
AndyWest said:
Just curious here but is anyone processing their images under Linux like Ubuntu? I had Linux Mint on an old PC and it ran really well and everything was free! Ok most progs didn't look great but it was a stable, fast OS.

If you are i have a few Q's

Were printer drivers a problem?
Can you run 2 printers from one machine?
Does it accept memory card readers, memory sticks and external HDD's?
I suspect gimp is the programme of choice so can you get the RAW plug-in for Linux and would the Canon .CR2 files work?

Cheers in advance

Andy
Click to expand...
This is by Ubuntu, Xandros and SuSE experience.

Anything which NEEDED a Windows/Mac based system is a bit of a chore since the drivers need to be stripped and rebuilt. I had a nightmare with my Graphics and Wireless on two laptops. Some are easier than others.

Running two printers is pretty simple depending on how they are connected. USB wasnt an issue.

The majority of mem cards and external drives worked fine for me without any driver installations.

From what I remember, Gimp did not have the support for the latest Canon CR2 files but maybe have a look at their FAQ section on supported formats.

I didnt get to use it much but from what I did test, noted.
 
I did have Mint running on an old Dell PC a few years ago and everything worked, even the printer!! If i only needed a pooter for browsing, email, Writing and printing letters and listening to music then i would deff deff go with Linux but as it is at the moment i need lightroom, PS and my photo printer.
 
AndyWest said:
I did have Mint running on an old Dell PC a few years ago and everything worked, even the printer!! If i only needed a pooter for browsing, email, Writing and printing letters and listening to music then i would deff deff go with Linux but as it is at the moment i need lightroom, PS and my photo printer.
Click to expand...

You could run Wine and then just boot a shell of Win XP and run Lightroom and PS in there. Not sure how stable it is these days but it was prone to crashes as soon as I blinked. :(
 
Matt

Do you run Linux? Judging by your avater you do. Which one do you use? Have you been able to get drivers for everything?
 
Ubuntu is the best ive used for beginners starting out on linux, it keeps getting better with each edition
 
Tried linux last year Mandriva I think but once it was on (a live install from the web) but I couldnt find my network so internet was a no go is it any different now as Vista is so dam crap
 
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