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Rafał Cieślak
Asked: 2011-08-22 06:41:42 +0800 CST

Is pad.ubuntu.com available for everyone?

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I really love the interface at http://pad.ubuntu.com . It seems to be a great notepad when you want to do notes with other people.

However, the main page says 'Ubuntu Developer Summit'. Does it mean it's meant to be used exclusively for UDS? If not, can I use it with my friends, would it be awkward?

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2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    The link you posted is actually only for UDS/Ubuntu but the software used is etherpad and you can use it yourself on localhost with a browser.

    Etherpad was bought by Google and they open source'd it (More info). That link has several working instances of forks of Etherpad: Piratepad, Typewith.me, iEtherpad. You can use these with your friends but all of these are untrusted and use a remote server to host your files so be careful). Random image from those links:

    enter image description here

    All the Ubuntu debs and ppas I found are really old (like from hardy) so if you want your own version on your own system Google supplies instructions on compiling and running the latest version of Etherpad. From the link:

    Requirements

    • Java 1.6 (tested with 1.6.0_10)
    • Scala 2.7 (tested with 2.7.4)
    • MySQL Server 5.1 (tested with 5.1.41)
    • mysql-connector-java (tested with 5.1.0)

    Environment Various scripts make assumptions about environment variables:

    • JAVA should be set to the java executable.
    • JAVA_HOME should be set to the main jdk directory.
    • SCALA should be set to the scala executable.
    • SCALA_HOME should be set to the main scala distribution directory.
    • PATH should contain $JAVA, $SCALA, and mysql
    • MYSQL_CONNECTOR_JAR should be set to the mysql-connector JAR file included in the mysql-connector download.

    Database Setup

    • The scripts assume mysqld is running on localhost. Once mysqld is running, you can set up the etherpad database by running the following command inside ajcode/etherpad/.

      sudo bin/setup-mysql-db.sh

      This will create a database called "etherpad" with the password "password", and grant privileges to the user "etherpad". All the tables will be set up the first time etherpad is run.

    Compiling

    • EtherPad compiles all its Java and Scala libraries into a single JAR. To build this jar, you can run the following command inside ajcode/etherpad/.

      bin/rebuildjar.sh

      If you modify anything in ajcode/infrastructure, you will most likely need to kill the server, rebuild the jar, and re-launch the server before your change takes effect. Code inside ajcode/etherpad/src can be modified while the server is running, and the changes will automatically get picked up.

    Running

    • To run the etherpad web server, execute the following command inside ajcode/etherpad/.

      bin/run-local.sh

      The first time you run this, it should print out lots of messages about database migrations and finally print:

      HTTP server listening on http://localhost:9000/

      At this point, you should be able to visit http://localhost:9000/ in your web browser and create a new pad.

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  2. If one actually need to use http://pad.ubuntu.com/

    go and join the group at the https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-etherpad

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