First problem: I'm a Linux user (no Windows in my house...)

[blackSP]

And as such I just ran into my first problem. Let me explain.

Today I picked up my brand new EP2 (love it!) and found out that the Camera Updater runs fine under Wine but doesn't see the camera! Damn!!!

So, if a firmware update comes out, how am I supposed to do the update?
Anybody any ideas?

 

[Djarum]

I would try to find a linux patch to update the USB drivers.

 

[Djarum]

I use linux at work quite a bit, and just in searching the web, WINE uses parts of a Windows Kernel to run apps, but the underlying drivers are still Linux. If there isn't a USB driver for Linux, then it won't work.

Ever thought abour partitioning your HD to have both windows and linux on it?

 

[kevinparis]

you could try an other minority OS... and buy a mac
K

 

[blackSP]

Well, I can always run the updater from my friends Windows PC or something but wat Oly should really do is have the firmware run from a .bin file on the memory card or something like that...

 

[Djarum]

Well, I can always run the updater from my friends Windows PC or something but wat Oly should really do is have the firmware run from a .bin file on the memory card or something like that...

After doing several updates over windows, I think what it actually does is download the file to the camera, and the camera stores it temporarily in RAM. Then the Camera writes it to internal operating flash.

 

[blackSP]

After doing several updates over windows, I think what it actually does is download the file to the camera, and the camera stores it temporarily in RAM. Then the Camera writes it to internal operating flash.

Something like that. Shouldn't be too hard for the Oly developers to make this a feature for 'other' OS users. I' just wrote a mail to them, let's see what happens!

BTW, I can't seem to find what the latest ep2 firmware is. I have 1.0 for the body, 1.1 for the 14-42

 

[Brian Mosley]

You're up to date blackSP.

Cheers

Brian

 

[Streetshooter]

you could try an other minority OS... and buy a mac
K

he he...agreed :horse:

 

[hohoho]

I don't know about Amsterdam but here in Tokyo there are squillions of people using The World's Best Loved Operating System. Some of them are even friends of mine.

Just borrow a friend's computer.

[RANT]I ordered a computer the night before last. Getting it without Windows was not an option (I asked). Removing Windows will be a lot easier than removing the ad for Windows that's stuck on the computer, so I asked them to spare me the sticker. No, that is not an option. Dell has decided that even if I perversely choose to delete Windows I should continue to advertise it, and Dell knows best.[/RANT]

 

[mabelsound]

You might seek out a copy of TinyXP (illegal, I'm afraid) and dual boot, or stick it in via Virtualbox.

 

[Djarum]

As far as Linux treating the camera as another mass storage device, this shouldn't be an issue. My guess is, there are actually two drivers, a mass storage device driver and a driver for the APP to talk to the camera for downloading.

The saddest part about Linux in general is that it is a great OS, but drivers can be hard to come by, especially for newer products. I love fedora, but I don't use it at home because of the above problems.

 

[blackSP]

You might seek out a copy of TinyXP (illegal, I'm afraid) and dual boot, or stick it in via Virtualbox.

I installed Virtualbox last night, after some tweaking I got it to work, I can now update the Oly.

Bad thing, very bad, is that I now have infected my nice and clean Linux box with the worlds biggest virus ever. Called Windows. That hurts, that really hurts...

 

[mauve]

As far as Linux treating the camera as another mass storage device, this shouldn't be an issue. My guess is, there are actually two drivers, a mass storage device driver and a driver for the APP to talk to the camera for downloading.

The saddest part about Linux in general is that it is a great OS, but drivers can be hard to come by, especially for newer products. I love fedora, but I don't use it at home because of the above problems.

Aside from firmware updates for which no current solutions exist (I didn't tested Qemu though, maybe it's a partial solution, neither did I tried the standalone updater under wine), e-p1/2 support is absolutely perfect under Linux. If you have at least KDE 4.3 as your desktop, mtp transfer is supported. You plug your camera, and it launches digikam.You can then transfer pictures to your computer. Latest KDE kippi-plugins are e-pX aware, so every KDE graphic app can work with ORF raw files natively and in 16bits : dngconverter, showfoto, krita, etc. Of course, KDE is colour managed via lcms, and you can profile your monitor with argyll cms.

As far as picture making goes, Linux delivers pro results on par with anything made on a Mac.

 

[blackSP]

... If you have at least KDE 4.3 as your desktop, mtp transfer is supported...

As far as picture making goes, Linux delivers pro results on par with anything made on a Mac.

Agreed. But what's with KDE if you have GNOME

 

[mauve]

Agreed. But what's with KDE if you have GNOME

I'm not religious about desktops ; I've been a long time window maker user. I don't like Gnome, the developers team has a way to dumb things down that I dislike. But for photography, KDE is head, shoulders and torso above anything else. Applications have ways of integrating that just are fit with the general linux "philosophy" of Keeping It Simple, Stupid. And extremely powerful in the end.

 

[blackSP]

I'm glad Ubuntu is extremely easy to customize and my Gnome desktop does exactly what I want with all my apps nice and tightly integrated, scripts automating what have you and doing everything I ever did under windows but better. (except for the Oly firmware updater, damn!)