Moving data between Windows and Ubuntu VMWare partition

I use Windows 7 on my laptop (it came pre-installed) and Ubuntu using the VMWare Player. What are the advantages of using VM Player instead of creating a dual-boot system? Well I can quickly shift from Ubuntu to Windows and bakc again without restarting my computer everytime. Using this approach allows me to utilize software that run only on Windows and run software like Rattle, the R data mining GUI, that are much easier installed on Linux.

However if your statistical software is on your Virtual Disk , and your data is on your Windows disk, you need a way to move data from Windows to Ubuntu.

The solution to this as per Ubuntu forums is –http://communities.vmware.com/thread/55242

Open My Computer, browse to the folder you want to share.  Right-click on the folder, select Properties.  Sharing tab.  Select the radio button to “Share this Folder”.  Change the default generated name if you wish; add a description if you wish.  Click the Permissions button to modify the security settings of what users can read/write to the share.

On the Linux side, it depends on the distro, the shell, and the window manager.

Well Ubuntu makes it really easy to configure the Linux steps to move data within Windows and Linux partitions.

 

NEW UPDATE-

VMmare makes it easy to share between your Windows (host) and Linux (guest) OS

 

Step 1

and step 2

Do this

 

and

Start the Wizard

when you finish the wizard and share a drive or folder- hey where do I see my shared ones-

 

see this folder in Linux- /mnt/hgfs (bingo!)

Hacker HW – Make this folder //mnt/hgfs a shortcut in Places your Ubuntu startup

Hacker Hw 2-

Upload using an anon email your VM dark data to Ubuntu one

Delete VM

Purge using software XX

Reinstall VM and bring back backup

 

Note time to do this

 

 

 

-General Sharing in Windows

 

 

Just open the Network tab in Ubuntu- see screenshots below-

Windows will now ask your Ubuntu user for login-

Once Logged in Windows from within Ubuntu Vmware, this is what happens

You see a tab called “users on “windows username”- pc appear on your Ubuntu Desktop  (see top right of the screenshot)

If you double click it- you see your windows path

You can now just click and drag data between your windows and linux partitions , just the way you do it in Windows .

So based on this- if you want to build  decision trees, artifical neural networks, regression models, and even time series models for zero capital expenditure- you can use both Ubuntu/R without compromising on your IT policy of Windows only in your organization (there is a shortage of Ubuntu trained IT administrators in the enterprise world)

Revised Installation Procedure for utilizing both Ubuntu /R/Rattle data mining on your Windows PC.

Using VMWare to build a free data mining system in R, as well as isolate your analytics system (thus using both Linux and Windows without overburdening your machine)

First Time

  1. http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_player/4_0Download and Install
  2. http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/downloadDownload Only
  3. Create New Virtual Image in VM Ware Player
  4. Applications—–Terminal——sudo apt get-install R (to download and install)
  5.                                          sudo R (to open R)
  6. Once R is opened type this  —-install.packages(rattle)—– This will install rattle
  7. library(rattle) will load Rattle—–
  8. rattle() will open the GUI—-
Getting Data from Host to Guest VM
Next Time
  1. Go to VM Player
  2. Open the VM
  3. sudo R in terminal to bring up R
  4. library(rattle) within R
  5. rattle()
At this point even if you dont know any Linux and dont know any R, you can create data mining models using the Rattle GUI (and time series model using E pack in the R Commander GUI) – What can Rattle do in data mining? See this slideshow-http://www.decisionstats.com/data-mining-with-r-gui-rattle-rstats/
If Google Docs is banned as per your enterprise organizational IT policy of having Windows Explorer only- well you can see these screenshots http://rattle.togaware.com/rattle-screenshots.html

Data Mining with R GUI -Rattle #Rstats

Why is RATTLE my favorite R package?
because it allows data mining in a very nice interface.
Complicated software need not have complicated interfaces.
Have a look-

(Note- download rattle from http://rattle.togaware.com)

For better visibility please click the full screen button or click the second pps below- automatically advances every 5 secs

Using Two Operating Systems for RATTLE, #Rstats Data Mining GUI

Using a virtual partition is slightly better than using a dual boot system. That is because you can keep the specialized operating system (usually Linux) within the main operating system (usually Windows), browse and alternate between the two operating system just using a simple command, and can utilize the advantages of both operating system.

Also you can create project specific discs for enhanced security.

In my (limited ) Mac experience, the comparisons of each operating system are-

1) Mac-  Both robust and aesthetically designed OS, the higher price and hardware-lockin for Mac remains a disadvantage. Also many stats and analytical software just wont work on the Mac

2) Windows- It is cheaper than Mac and easier to use than Linux. Also has the most compatibility with applications (usually when not crashing)

3) Linux- The lightest and most customized software in the OS class, free to use, and has many lite versions for newbies. Not compatible with mainstream corporate IT infrastructure as of 2011.

I personally use VMWare Player for creating the virtual disk (as much more convenient than the wubi.exe method)  from http://www.vmware.com/support/product-support/player/  (and downloadable from http://downloads.vmware.com/d/info/desktop_downloads/vmware_player/3_0)

That enables me to use Ubuntu on the alternative OS- keeping my Windows 7 for some Windows specific applications . For software like Rattle, the R data mining GUI , it helps to use two operating systems, in view of difficulties in GTK+.

Installing Rattle on Windows 7 is a major pain thanks to backward compatibility issues and version issues of GTK, but it installs on Ubuntu like a breeze- and it is very very convenient to switch between the two operating systems

Download Rattle from http://rattle.togaware.com/ and test it on the dual OS arrangement to see yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

New book on BigData Analytics and Data mining using #Rstats with a GUI

Joseph Marie Jacquard
Image via Wikipedia

I am hoping to put this on my pre-ordered or Amazon Wish list. The book the common people who wanted to do data mining with , but were unable to ask aloud they didnt know much.  It is written by the seminal Australian authority on data mining Dr Graham Williams whom I interviewed here at https://decisionstats.com/2009/01/13/interview-dr-graham-williams/

Data Mining for the masses using an ergonomically designed Graphical User Interface.

Thank you Springer. Thank you Dr Graham Williams

http://www.springer.com/statistics/physical+%26+information+science/book/978-1-4419-9889-7

Data Mining with Rattle and R

Data Mining with Rattle and R

The Art of Excavating Data for Knowledge Discovery

Series: Use R

Williams, Graham

1st Edition., 2011, XX, 409 p. 150 illus. in color.

  • Softcover, ISBN 978-1-4419-9889-7

    Due: August 29, 2011

    54,95 €
  • Encourages the concept of programming with data – more than just pushing data through tools, but learning to live and breathe the data
  • Accessible to many readers and not necessarily just those with strong backgrounds in computer science or statistics
  • Details some of the more popular algorithms for data mining, as well as covering model evaluation and model deployment

Data mining is the art and science of intelligent data analysis. By building knowledge from information, data mining adds considerable value to the ever increasing stores of electronic data that abound today. In performing data mining many decisions need to be made regarding the choice of methodology, the choice of data, the choice of tools, and the choice of algorithms.

Throughout this book the reader is introduced to the basic concepts and some of the more popular algorithms of data mining. With a focus on the hands-on end-to-end process for data mining, Williams guides the reader through various capabilities of the easy to use, free, and open source Rattle Data Mining Software built on the sophisticated R Statistical Software. The focus on doing data mining rather than just reading about data mining is refreshing.

The book covers data understanding, data preparation, data refinement, model building, model evaluation,  and practical deployment. The reader will learn to rapidly deliver a data mining project using software easily installed for free from the Internet. Coupling Rattle with R delivers a very sophisticated data mining environment with all the power, and more, of the many commercial offerings.

Content Level » Research

Keywords » Data mining

Related subjects » Physical & Information Science

Related- https://decisionstats.com/2009/01/13/interview-dr-graham-williams/

Input Data in R using the top 3 R GUI

PC-DOS was an early OS for personal computers ...
Image via Wikipedia

One area where clearly GUI methods are preferable to command line methods in R, is data input. There is no need of learning read.csv or read.table when these options are only two clicks away in any R GUI. For academics/students there is a definite need to easily access

datasets from attached packages just as it is a need for business analysts to access databases with a few clicks than learn or read pages of pdf on RODBC. However some GUI (like Rattle) need data only in data frames, rather than list or arrays-this limits R’s flexibility. These are my views but you can see and compare views of data input in R Commander, Rattle and Deducer.



R for Analytics is now live

Okay, through the weekend I created a website for a few of my favourite things.

It’s on at https://rforanalytics.wordpress.com/

Graphical User Interfaces for R

 

Jerry Rubin said: “Don’t trust anyone over thirty

I dont trust anyone not using atleast one R GUI. Here’s a list of the top 10.

 

Code Enhancers for R

Here is a list of top 5 code enhancers,editors in R

R Commercial Software

A list of companies and software making (and) selling R software (and) services. Hint- it is almost 5 (unless I missed someone)

R Graphs Resources

R’s famous graphing capabilities and equally famous learning curve can be made a bit more humane- using some of these resources.

Internet Browsing

Because that’s what I do (all I do as per my cat) , and I am pretty good at it.

Using R from other Software

R can be used successfully from a lot of analytical software including some surprising ones praising the great 3000 packages library.

(to be continued- as I find more stuff I will keep it there, some ideas- database access from R, prominent R consultants, prominent R packages, famous R interviewees 😉 )

ps- The quote from Jerry Rubin seems funny for a while. I turn 34 this year.

Troubleshooting Rattle Installation- Data Mining R GUI

Screenshot of Synaptic Package Manager running...
Image via Wikipedia

I really find the Rattle GUI very very nice and easy to do any data mining task. The software is available from http://rattle.togaware.com/

The only issue is Rattle can be quite difficult to install due to dependencies on GTK+

After fiddling for a couple of years- this is what I did

1) Created dual boot OS- Basically downloaded the netbook remix from http://ubuntu.com I created a dual boot OS so you can choose at the beginning whether to use Windows or Ubuntu Linux in that session.  Alternatively you can download VM Player www.vmware.com/products/player/ if you want to do both

2) Download R packages using Ubuntu packages and Install GTK+ dependencies before that.

GTK + Requires

  1. Libglade
  2. Glib
  3. Cairo
  4. Pango
  5. ATK

If  you are a Linux newbie like me who doesnt get the sudo apt get, tar, cd, make , install rigmarole – scoot over to synaptic software packages or just the main ubuntu software centre and download these packages one by one.

For R Dependencies, you need

  • PMML
  • XML
  • RGTK2

Again use r-cran as the prefix to these package names and simply install (almost the same way Windows does it easily -double click)

see http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?suite=lucid&searchon=names&keywords=r-cran

4) Install Rattle from source

http://rattle.togaware.com/rattle-download.html

Advanced users can download the Rattle source packages directly:

Save theses to your hard disk (e.g., to your Desktop) but don’t extract them. Then, on GNU/Linux run the install command shown below. This command is entered into a terminal window:

  • R CMD INSTALL rattle_2.6.0.tar.gz

After installation-

5) Type library(rattle) and rattle.info to get messages on what R packages to update for a proper functioning

</code>

> library(rattle)
Rattle: Graphical interface for data mining using R.
Version 2.6.0 Copyright (c) 2006-2010 Togaware Pty Ltd.
Type 'rattle()' to shake, rattle, and roll your data.
> rattle.info()
Rattle: version 2.6.0
R: version 2.11.1 (2010-05-31) (Revision 52157)

Sysname: Linux
Release: 2.6.35-23-generic
Version: #41-Ubuntu SMP Wed Nov 24 10:18:49 UTC 2010
Nodename: k1-M725R
Machine: i686
Login: k1ng
User: k1ng

Installed Dependencies
RGtk2: version 2.20.3
pmml: version 1.2.26
colorspace: version 1.0-1
cairoDevice: version 2.14
doBy: version 4.1.2
e1071: version 1.5-24
ellipse: version 0.3-5
foreign: version 0.8-41
gdata: version 2.8.1
gtools: version 2.6.2
gplots: version 2.8.0
gWidgetsRGtk2: version 0.0-69
Hmisc: version 3.8-3
kernlab: version 0.9-12
latticist: version 0.9-43
Matrix: version 0.999375-46
mice: version 2.4
network: version 1.5-1
nnet: version 7.3-1
party: version 0.9-99991
playwith: version 0.9-53
randomForest: version 4.5-36 upgrade available 4.6-2
rggobi: version 2.1.16
survival: version 2.36-2
XML: version 3.2-0
bitops: version 1.0-4.1

Upgrade the packages with:

 > install.packages(c("randomForest"))

<code>

Now upgrade whatever package rattle.info tells to upgrade.

This is much simpler and less frustrating than some of the other ways to install Rattle.

If all goes well, you will see this familiar screen popup when you type

>rattle()

 

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