Net Activity View: how to install it on Mint 18.x

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karlchen
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Net Activity View: how to install it on Mint 18.x

Post by karlchen »

Application: Net Activity View
Homepage: http://netactview.sourceforge.net/index.html
Download:
Ubuntu packages (Ubuntu 10.04 to 14.04 LTS)
32bit PC (x86): netactview_0.6.4-1_i386.deb
64bit PC (amd64): netactview_0.6.4-1_amd64.deb
Preface:
Users of Mint 17.x, who want to install Net Activity View (netactview), can simply download the .deb package which matches their system architecture, right click on the downloaded file in their file-manager and select "open with gDebi" and install the application.
Only users of Mint 18.x, who want to install Net Activity View (netactview), will have to correct the name of a shared library package, which netactview depends upon, to match the changed package name on Mint 18.x. Only afterwards, gDebi will be willing and able to install netactview on Mint 18.x as well.

Step by step instruction for Mint 18.x 32-bit:
  1. Open a terminal window and prepare the needed directory structure

    Code: Select all

    cd ~/Downloads
    mkdir Netactview
    mkdir Netactview/new
    mkdir Netactview/org
    mkdir Netactview/work
  2. Save download file netactview_0.6.4-1_i386.deb or netactview_0.6.4-1_amd64.deb to ~/Downloads/Netactview/org
  3. Extract the content of the original .deb file

    Code: Select all

    cd ~/Downloads/Netactview/work
    dpkg-deb -v -R ../org/netactview_0.6.4-1_i386.deb .
  4. Edit file control

    Code: Select all

    cd ~/Downloads/Netactview/work/DEBIAN
    xed control
    # Inside xed navigate to line starting with "Depends:" (without the double quotes)
    # search for: "libgtop2-7 (>= 2.20.0)" - replace by: "libgtop-2.0-10 (>= 2.20.0)"
    #             without the double quotes
    # save & quit xed
  5. Give directories and files back to root

    Code: Select all

    cd ~/Downloads/Netactview/work
    sudo chown -R root:root DEBIAN/ usr/
    Note:
    sudo will prompt for your password. While you type it there will be no visual feedback. Type it and press the enter key.
  6. Build the new .deb file

    Code: Select all

    cd ~/Downloads/Netactview
    sudo dpkg-deb --build work new/netactview_0.6.4-1_i386.deb
  7. cleanup work directory

    Code: Select all

    cd ~/Downloads/Netactview
    sudo rm -r work/*
  8. Install Net Activity View
    Inside your graphical filemanager navigate to ~/Downloads/Netactview/new, right click
    .
  9. netactview_0.6.4-1_i386.deb and select "open in gdebi" and install. No error messages must occur.
    .
  10. Create needed symlink named libgtop-2.0.so.7
    Netactview looks hardcoded for the shared library name libgtop-2.0.so.7. Therefore before launching Netactview for the first time, it is necessary to create this name as a symlink pointing to the real shared library.
    On a 32-bit system:

    Code: Select all

    cd /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu
    sudo ln -s libgtop-2.0.so.10.0.0 libgtop-2.0.so.7
    On a 64-bit a system:

    Code: Select all

    cd /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu
    sudo ln -s libgtop-2.0.so.10.0.0 libgtop-2.0.so.7
  11. Invocation:
    Net Activity View can be invoked by executing the command netactview.
    Also there should be a launcher labelled "Net Activitiy Viewer" inside the Mnint menu > Internet, which you can click on.
Step by step instruction for Mint 18.x 64-bit:
Same steps as above. Just replace the filename netactview_0.6.4-1_i386.deb by netactview_0.6.4-1_amd64.deb wherever appropriate.

Epilogue:
NetActView has last been updated in 2015. This raises concerns that development has stopped.
The NetActView source code is available on its homepage as well. In case someone is more comfortable with compiling and linking from source code, instead of installing a .deb package from outside the official software repositories, please, go ahead.

Good luck.
Last edited by karlchen on Thu Jan 31, 2019 1:15 pm, edited 4 times in total.
Reason: Thanks to Administrollaattori's post below, added the missing step of creating symlink named "libgtop-2.0.so.7" pointing to "libgtop-2.0.so.10.0.0"
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Re: Net Activity View: how to install it on Mint 18.x

Post by kukamuumuka »

In this Mint 18.1 computer I had to make a symbolic link from libgtop-2.0.so.10 to libgtop-2.0.so.7 so that Netactview worked.

Code: Select all

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgtop-2.0.so.10 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgtop-2.0.so.7
Actually I made the installation package different way:
1. I extracted the original deb-package
2. I edited DEBIAN/control file as guided
3. I made a fixed package for Mint 18

Code: Select all

sudo chown root:root -R netactview_0.6.4-1_amd64
sudo dpkg -b netactview_0.6.4-1_amd64 netactview_0.6.4-1_amd64-fixed.deb
PS. An excellent tutorial (original). :D
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karlchen
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Re: Net Activity View: how to install it on Mint 18.x

Post by karlchen »

<belated amendment>
Thanks to Administrollaattori's post above, added the missing step 10. of creating the symlink named "libgtop-2.0.so.7" pointing to "libgtop-2.0.so.10.0.0" in my tutorial.
How could I ignore this step, although without having done so, my NetActView would have never started? Because the name of "libgtop-2.0.so.7" is hardcoded in NetActView.
</belated amendment>
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trytip
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Re: Net Activity View: how to install it on Mint 18.x

Post by trytip »

in NetActView > File > Restart As Root have you figured out how ? you can always just edit the launcher or menu entry as pkexec netactview but it is nice to see what the user and root connect to individually?

create .local/bin/gksu blank text and paste

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/pkexec env DISPLAY=$DISPLAY XAUTHORITY=$XAUTHORITY HOME=$HOME PWD=$PWD $@
edit file .bashrc add to the bottom:

Code: Select all

alias gksu=pkexec
alias pkexec='pkexec env DISPLAY=$DISPLAY XAUTHORITY=$XAUTHORITY HOME=$HOME PWD=$PWD $1 $2 $3 $4 $5 $6 $7 $8'
you should get a password window now if you try to open it as root from the menu
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Re: Net Activity View: how to install it on Mint 18.x

Post by thx-1138 »

karlchen wrote: Sun Apr 08, 2018 12:39 pm Epilogue:
NetActView has last been updated in 2015. This raises concerns that development has stopped.
The NetActView source code is available on its homepage as well. In case someone is more comfortable with compiling and linking from source code, instead of installing a .deb package from outside the official software repositories, please, go ahead.

Good luck.
...just built it natively under Mint 18.x (64-bit) for the fun of it, attachment below with .zip pseudo-extension.
Deb provided on an 'works for me' as-is basis... :)

Besides being directly linked under newer versions of the required libs (and obviously not needing symlinks etc),
it also has the benefit of dropping completely the libgnome2 / libgnomevfs, libbonobo, libgconf, and liborbit deps.

For those interested in building such themselves (ie. say for Mint 19 also, with pkexec support), well...
may the the source be with you, Luke...(and Arch's patches:1, 2) ;-)
Attachments
netactview_0.6.4-5.deb.zip
(49.94 KiB) Downloaded 109 times
Last edited by thx-1138 on Fri Oct 11, 2019 4:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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thx-1138
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Re: Net Activity View: how to install it on Mint 18.x

Post by thx-1138 »

...built it with Polkit support and dropped gksu (under xenial / Mint 18 64-bit again).
Some minor adjustments for the Depends in the control file as well.

Although i didn't tested such on Mint 19 (neither i plan to do so...), i believe it should also work there, after:
1) As per karlchen's procedure above, by editing the control file to read libgtop-2.0-11 instead of libgtop-2.0-10....
2) Symlinking after installation...

Code: Select all

cd /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu
sudo ln -s libgtop-2.0.so.11.0.0 libgtop-2.0.so.10
netactview_polkit_0.6.4-5.deb.zip
(44.96 KiB) Downloaded 122 times
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Re: Net Activity View: how to install it on Mint 18.x

Post by Drugwash »

Dunno how I got here but out of curiosity I struggled and finally built the app in Mint 19.2. It's running but don't see any automatic switch to root or whatever it's supposed to do. Also not sure about that Polkit thing, the Arch page was not very useful. Applied the patches though, hopefully correctly and completely.
Anyone knows how to actually build a .deb package from scratch for this - or any other - application? Might come in handy to someone else. I might even attempt to port the GUI to GTK3.

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