Speech:Spring 2015 Refik Karic Log


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 * Spring 2015
 * Proposal
 * Report
 * Information - General Project Information
 * Experiments - List of speech experiments

Week Ending February 3, 2015

 * Task:


 * Results:


 * Plan:


 * Concerns:

Week Ending February 10, 2015
(2/5) Read log entries. (2/7) Read log entries. (2/8) Get more information on Red Hat and other software involved in this project. (2/9) Learn about the differences between Red Hat and Open Suse. Get more familiar with the speech software setup.
 * Task:

(2/5) Learned more about the project. (2/7) Learned more about my role in the project. (2/8) Found out that the new Caesar is going to be running Red Hat enterprise linux version 6.5. The other machines will be running a different version of Red Hat, version 6.6. After searching for any other public projects that might be using a similar setup to ours I was not able to find anything close enough to be worth spending further time reading into it. However, I did find quite a few places where people were using Fedora and having trouble with getting Sphinx to run properly. (2/9) Turns out that Open Suse is not that different from Red Hat, apart from some minor things. I managed to find a few videos where people were setting up sphinx on their own PC's. From the looks of it, I think we can have a go at setting this thing up and getting it to run pretty easily.
 * Results:

(2/5) Read more log entries and begin looking into possible software updates. (2/7) Start looking for other people that might have used sphinx on Red Hat and see if they can give some insight into how it works. (2/8) As of right now there seems to be no information regarding speech software setup on the new Red Hat machines. It would probably be a good idea to look into how it is currently installed on our Open Suse machines. Then taking that information and comparing it to how a setup would work on a Red Hat machine. (2/9) Meet with the team during class time this Wednesday. Discuss our findings and figure out what the best thing to do next is.
 * Plan:

(2/5) It will be a problem making sure that everything is backwards compatible. (2/7) Still need more information on Red Hat. As of right now I do not know whether or not we are using a commercial or free version of Red Hat. There might be differences in the two operating systems that could cause us some issues down the road. (2/8) Since the goal of my group is to make sure we can install and run all of the speech software on Red Hat, it will be hard to give any concrete answers since we cannot prove that everything works until we actually have a go on Caesar. I know one of the people in my group wanted to install Red Hat on his PC via virtual box but after learning more about this project, I think we need to have a discussion to see if it is going to be worth it since it is more complicated than we thought. (2/9) No other major concerns as of right now apart from where my other members are at. We need to work on getting a better plan in place so that we are not going off into random directions.
 * Concerns:

Week Ending February 17, 2015
(2/12) Read log entries. (2/13) Read log entries. (2/15) Install putty on my home PC. Connect to Caesar and login using my unh id. (2/16) Read into how to run a train. Possibly document the train depending on what I find out.
 * Task:

(2/12) Got an idea of how to run a train. (2/13) Learned more about what running a train actually does. (2/15) Successfully installed putty. Found the information needed to login to Caesar. Login was successful and now I can do more work since I have remote access to Caesar. (2/16) Learned how to run a train. Learned how to create an experiment and document it.
 * Results:

(2/12) Figure out how to ssh from home and run a test train. (2/13) Start to research into how install Emacs remotely and confirm it works. (2/15) Run a train. Research into software installations on Red Hat and possibly Open Suse. (2/16) Talk with my group and figure out if it would be better to create one experiment. Then use that experiment to run a sub experiment for each person so they can say they have run a train and documented it.
 * Plan:

(2/12) Might have to install some extra software to get it working. (2/13) Never done a remote software installation before, who knows what could happen. (2/15) Although I was able to login to Caesar, I am not sure which Caesar I logged into. I think it might have been the old one that is still running Open Suse. Looks like I have to figure this out at some point as well. (2/16) Now that I know how to run a train I need to figure out if I should actually go through with it. I remember Prof. Jonas mentioning something about the experiment list becoming cluttered so I should probably take some precautions to make sure I don't cause any trouble.
 * Concerns:

Week Ending February 24, 2015
(2/20) Read log entries. (2/21) Read log entries. (2/22) Continue software research. (2/23) Install Emacs on my personal laptop which is currently running Ubuntu Linux.
 * Task:

(2/20) Got a status update for the networking issue which the systems group is dealing with. (2/21) Learned where others are at with their current tasks. (2/22) Nothing worth installing yet. (2/23) Got familiar with how Emacs works and how to set it up correctly.
 * Results:

(2/20) Find some other things to do in the mean time while the systems group finishes up the network configuration. Research into some other useful tools that might helps us with speech recognition on the new RedHat system. (2/21) Continue researching speech software updates until Obelix gets network access. (2/22) Get a status update on where my group (tools group) and the systems group is at with the network issue. (2/23) Keep doing more research until Obelix is online.
 * Plan:

(2/20) At this point there is nothing anyone in the tools group can really do involving updates/installations on the RedHat machines. All of the drones do not have network access and therefore we are unable to install/update any software on them. My plan was to have Emacs up and running earlier this week and this is why I am still waiting to do that. (2/21) If the system is not given network access soon then I might not be able to install any software on it because we are splitting up into different groups very soon. (2/22) No other major concerns apart from the ones listed here already. (2/23) Still no other concerns as of right now.
 * Concerns:

Week Ending March 3, 2015
(2/25) Figure out where Emacs is installed by default on my personal PC so that I can configure it to Caesar in the future. (2/26) Get more familiar with Emacs. (2/28) Figure out how to install Emacs in /usr/local/bin. (3/2) Learn about the installation parameters used when installing things on Linux.
 * Task:

(2/25) By default Emacs seems to be installed in both the /usr/local/share and in /usr/share directories. (2/26) Learned how to launch Emacs directly in the terminal using -nw parameter along with some other cool stuff. (2/28) According to a help page I found on the Emacs website, Emacs should have been installed directly into /usr/local/bin by default. It might be because of some setting on my personal laptop which caused it to install in a share folder under /usr/local but it could also be because I did not install it as root. (3/2) Looks like you can install packages into any directory you want by specifying the directory after the rest of the command.
 * Results:

(2/25) Continue working with Emacs and researching for public speech recognition papers that are using Sphinx. (2/26) Finish up with Emacs then move on to more research. (2/28) Learn more about installing packages to custom directories in Linux. (3/2) Check up on Obelix to see if I can finally install stuff on there.
 * Plan:

(2/25) Have to figure out how to install Emacs directly to /usr/local/bin so that it allows all of the new machines to access that one installation of Emacs rather than performing a separate installation for each drone. (2/26) No concerns as of right now. (2/28) I might attempt to remove and re-install Emacs on my laptop to try and get it to go directly to /usr/local/bin but I have to make sure that I can remove all traces of the current installation so I do not confuse my self when searching directories. (3/2) No other concerns.
 * Concerns:

Week Ending March 10, 2015
(3/5) Read log entries to get a status update on the system groups progress. (3/6) Read log entries. (3/8) Update the tools group Media Wiki page with a page for Emacs. (3/9) Add to the Emacs page which was created yesterday.
 * Task:

(3/5) System group is currently in the process of fully converting the old Caesar to the new Caesar. They are working on finishing up the file copying and mounting of drives, (3/6) Got a status update from the systems group once again. (3/8) Changed the assigned machine to correctly say Obelix. Created a new page for getting started with Emacs once it is installed. (3/9) Figured out how to get the navigation links working correctly. Now you can easily navigate to any other page from the Emacs page. Also added a new section in the page to track give information as to the status of when Emacs will be available.
 * Results:

(3/5) Write up something on the MediaWiki to give a brief introduction into how Emacs is used. Something along the lines of starting Emacs remotely and playing around with a test file to get the feel for it. (3/6) Get back to figuring out what to write on Emacs for the MediaWiki entry. (3/8) Need to go back and add the basic navigation menu that is on every Media Wiki page to the Emacs page. (3/9) Keep on tracking the system group's progress. Look for a more convenient location to move the Emacs page to. Currently it is located under the Spring 2015 tools group page. (3/5) Systems group has been taking longer than I expected to move everything over so this is causing a delay on some of the stuff I was planning to work on. (3/6) No concerns as of right now. (3/8) Spent some time looking for how to copy in the navigation menu at the top but I did not find anything. It does not give you an option to edit it so I might have to talk with someone who knows more about this to figure out why this is the case. (3/9) After speaking with the modeling group I learned that it is impossible at this point in time to completely run a train and decode to get a result. According to our schedule so far we are supposed to do a speech boot camp. Not sure how things are going to work out if nobody can even get it to run properly.
 * Plan:
 * Concerns:

Week Ending March 24, 2015
(3/19) Attempt an install of Emacs onto the new Caesar. (3/21) Check status of Caesar. If Caesar is up then install Emacs. (3/22) Read log entries. (3/23) Read log entries.
 * Task:

(3/19) Failed to connect to Caesar from home. I'm guessing it must be down. Took a look through some of the systems group logs and have not found any information explaining why Caesar is down right now. (3/21) Caesar is still down. (3/22) Learned that the transfer process to the new Caesar has been difficult for the systems group. This might explain why the system is still down. (3/23) Nothing much gained since many people have decided not to continue updating their logs.
 * Results:

(3/19) Check back in on Caesar tomorrow and throughout the week until it gets back online. (3/21) Continue checking back on caesar. Figure out why this is still going on. (3/22) Check in to see what my other group members are working on. See whats going on with the new teams. (3/23) Meet in person during class this Wednesday to discuss the next step for both the tools group and the Patriots group. (3/19) Caesar could be down for a while since nobody seems to know why at the moment. (3/21) No other concerns right now. (3/22) I have no idea what the plan is with the new patriots group that I am now part of. Apparently they tried to meet over spring break but I was not there. (3/23) After seeing Prof. Jonas post a question asking why Caesar is still down, I thought that this might be because of the big move happening between the old 400 building and the new 88 building.
 * Plan:
 * Concerns:

Week Ending March 31, 2015
(3/26) Link up cisunix and blackboard accounts to gain access to Caesar. Install Emacs once that's done. (3/28) Attempt to install Emacs using a different method than the yum installer. (3/29) Refer to the group project page. (3/30) Setup VPN, grab Emacs from GNU ftp, compile and install on Obelix.
 * Task:

(3/26) Successfully linked up the two accounts and was able to login to Caesar as well as ssh into Obelix. Attempted to install Emacs. At first it said only root can install packages. I re-logged in as root and attempted to install once again. Then I found out that RedHat on Obelix is still yet to be activated thus not allowing me to install anything on it. Here is the output of what I got back.
 * Results:

[root@obelix bin]# yum install emacs Loaded plugins: product-id, refresh-packagekit, security, subscription-manager This system is not registered to Red Hat Subscription Management. You can use subscription-manager to register. Setting up Install Process No package emacs available. Error: Nothing to do

(3/28) Learned that since RedHat is not activated the yum package installer is out of date. Tried to use ftp to download and install Emacs manually. RedHat by default does not come with an ftp program. You can only install one by activating it and getting vsftpd. Sftp does not work since it cannot connect to the gnu ftp server. (3/29) Refer to the group project page. (3/30) Successfully setup the VPN and grabbed Emacs from the GNU ftp. Extracted Emacs into a folder on Obelix /usr/local/emacsTest/emacs. When trying to compile Emacs I got an error requiring a C compiler to be installed on the machine.

(3/26) Notify the systems group that they still need to activate Obelix or Caesar. Continue on with other work for my team. (3/28) Move on to group work. (3/29) Refer to the group project page. (3/30) Finish up the Emacs installation soon. Continue with group work. (3/26) It's a problem that the old Caesar has been moved over but RedHat is still not yet activated. I was expecting that by now at least it would be up and running completely. (3/28) It's interesting to see how limited access you get when you do not activate your RedHat subscription. They intentionally give you an outdated version of the yum package installer so that you cannot easily install free software like Emacs. (3/29) Refer to the group project page. (3/30) Ran into some trouble with using yum. Attempted to install it with yum and copy over but it did not work. Switched to using ftp instead and compiling locally.
 * Plan:
 * Concerns:

Week Ending April 7, 2015
(4/2) Continue with the Emacs installation. (4/4) Try and come up with a way to get the current compiled version of Emacs on Caesar to Obelix. (4/5) Attempt to copy Emacs files over to Obelix. (4/6) Check group log.
 * Task:

(4/2) Failed at every attempt to compile and install Emacs on Obelix. Emacs requires a C compiler to build but a C compiler is needed to build the C compiler for Emacs? (4/4) After doing some research it looks like if I copy every single Emacs related file over from Caesar to Obelix it should work. (4/5) Copying the files turned out to be more complicated than I expected. I thought it would be simple like in Windows how you can just copy over the .exe file and be all set but on Linux it seems like it depends on a lot of files rather than just the .exe itself. At that point I decided it is better off to just remove Emacs right now on Caesar and speak to Prof. Jonas to see where I should go with this. (4/6) Check group log.
 * Results:

(4/2) Try and figure a way around this by compiling and installing Emacs on Caesar and then copying it over to Obelix? (4/4) Attempt to copy over all over the Emacs files from Caesar to Obelix. (4/5) Finish up removing the last remaining pieces of the Emacs files. Move on to group work. (4/6) Check group log. (4/2) It has been a big challenge to get this installed on Obelix. I don't understand how you can even install anything on it since you can't build anything without the compiler. This could all have been made much easier by just having an internet connection on Obelix. (4/4) I know that the files Caesar and Obelix are not exactly the same because of all the programs installed on Caesar. When doing the copy over I want to make sure I don't accident break anything in the process. (4/5) There was no telling that even if I managed to copy over every single file perfectly that it was even going to run. (4/6) Check group log.
 * Plan:
 * Concerns:

Week Ending April 14, 2015
(4/9) Now that Obelix has an internet connection, try to install Emacs again. (4/11) Figure out what the problem is with building Emacs on Obelix with the rpm retrieved on Caesar. (4/12) Search for a compatible version of Emacs to install on Obelix. (4/13) Check group logs.
 * Task:

(4/9) Yum can't find Emacs or the gcc compiler. Downloaded an rpm of Emacs on Caesar and copied it over to Obelix in an attempt to install it. Got an error message when attempting to install the Emacs rpm on Obelix. The message said that the cpu was not compatible with the rpm? It is a x64 and x86 rpm and it can be installed on Caesar but not Obelix? (4/11) Did a "lscpu" command on Caesar and got back it's architecture which was x86 and x64. Ran the same command on both Obelix and Methusalix and it said i686. This means that the rpm for Emacs which I got on Caesar cannot be installed on those machines. It could also explain why even with Obelix now being temporarily online, it does not show Emacs when you perform a yum search for Emacs. (4/12) Can't seem to find any versions of Emacs that are compatible with the i686 processor running on Obelix. (4/13) Check group logs. (4/9) Figure out why the yum installer doesn't allow the x64/x86 rpm to install on Obelix. (4/11) Search for a compatible version of Emacs which can be used to run on the drone machines. (4/12) Let Prof. Jonas know about this problem. Move back to group work. (4/13) Check group logs. (4/9) According to the hardware configuration page on MediaWiki, Caesar and Obelix have a very similar architecture. Are they really that different? (4/11) This could be a big problem in the future with any other installations. We now need support for two different cpu architectures and i686 is not a very common one. (4/12) This will probably be the end of attempts to install Emacs on Obelix. At this point it looks like we have to somehow find a way to either grab a compatible precompiled version of Emacs or install a c compiler so that we can build it ourselves. (4/13) Check group logs.
 * Results:
 * Plan:
 * Concerns:

Week Ending April 21, 2015
(4/15) Install Emacs on Obelix now that the gcc compiler is installed. (4/16) Update the Emacs documentation and put some notes on the system software page about the problems related to the Emacs installation. (4/18) Group research. (4/19) Clean up some of the stuff leftover while I was trying to get Emacs on Obelix.
 * Task:

(4/15) Successfully installed Emacs (finally) on Obelix. The systems group was able to activate Redhat on Obelix and install gcc which was the reason why I was able to finally install Emacs. (4/16) Added an update to the current status of Emacs on Emacs page which can be found either by going to the tools group page for Spring 2015 or the speech software page. Documented some of the problems related to the Emacs installation on the system software page. (4/18) Learned more about group stuff. (4/19) Removed some of the folders and files I was using on both Caesar and Obelix to install Emacs.
 * Results:

(4/15) Document some of the hurdles in my attempts to install Emacs on Obelix. Move on to group work for the rest of the semester. (4/16) Group work. (4/18) More research. (4/19) Group work. (4/15) No concerns as of right now. (4/16) No concerns. (4/18) No concerns. (4/19) No concerns.
 * Plan:
 * Concerns:

Week Ending April 28, 2015
(4/23) Group research. (4/24) Checking in. (4/25) Group research. (4/26) Checking in.
 * Task:

(4/23) More information about our goal. (4/24) No results. (4/25) Nothing conclusive. (4/26) No results.
 * Results:

(4/23) More research. (4/24) Figure out what's left to do. (4/25) More research. (4/26) No results. (4/23) No concerns. (4/24) No concerns. (4/25) No concerns. (4/26) No concerns.
 * Plan:
 * Concerns:

Week Ending May 5, 2015
(4/29) Checking in. (4/30) Checking in. (5/1) Help the group with our final report. (5/2) Checking in.
 * Task:

(4/29) No results. (4/30) No results. (5/1) Finished my section of the final report. (5/2) No results.
 * Results:

(4/29) No plan right now. (4/30) Work on the final report. (5/1) No plan. (5/2) No plan. (4/29) No concerns. (4/30) No concerns. (5/1) No concerns. (5/2) No concerns.
 * Plan:
 * Concerns: