deadbabylon's blog

Packaging some experimental applications for KDE4

deadbabylon — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 23:23:10 +0000

I’ve set up a small repository containing some experimental packages for KDE4 for testing purposes. Some of them will be submitted for review if they are working properly (konq-plugins), some of them are building fine but crashing (kaudiocreator), some will maybe become part of KDE 4.1.0 (kdiamond) or are just test versions (kgrubeditor, krename). Also some packages won’t be packaged in Rawhide soon due too upstream problems (rsibreak) .

At the moment the provided packages are:
kaudiocreator - A Frontend for audio file creation
kdiamond - A Frontend for audio file creation
kgrubeditor - A graphical grub editor
konq-plugins - Some additional plugins that interact with konqueror
krename - Powerful batch file renamer
rsibreak - A small utility which bothers you at certain intervals

All packages are build for i386 and x86_64 and the debuginfo packages are also present. I will try to update them in time when upstream releases a new version.

Repository file
SRPMS

If someone want to submit them for review and maintain them in Fedora, please feel free to do so. But they will need some love.

Some more KDE4 packages

deadbabylon — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:22:19 +0000

dragonplayer, the successor of codeine, was accepted and imported today and should hit rawhide with the next push:

Homepage: http://dragonplayer.org/
Koji build: 31481

[inspic=186,,fullscreen,thumb]
(I’ still don’t know how to make proper screenshots of a playing video…)

And two more packages:
I’m also trying to get kaudiocreator into rawhide. At least it’s compiling again but normally crashing after the launch. I’ve not looked deeper into that because it still has no official release. The second one is the pre-alpha of amarok2. It’s compiling. It’s actual really playing some music if you force it to. But it’s not for normal usage and just to see what happens in the development.

SPEC-files (which still needs some love) and mockbuilds are located here: kaudiocreator,
amarok2

Livecd for rawhide with KDE 4.0.0

deadbabylon — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:29:48 +0000

Today is the release day of KDE 4.0.0. The packages should find their way into
the repository soon or they are already there. What’s missing is another live
image to test the new stable version of KDE without the need of installing
rawhide.

[inspic=175,,fullscreen,thumb]

rawhide-KDE4-i686-20080109.4.iso
rawhide-KDE4-i686-20080109.4.sha1sum

Package list, Screenshot gallery

Some notes:
- the live image is for i686
- the packages are from 2008-01-09
- system-config-date is a newer version (which removes some dependencies:
#420101)
- the updates for xorg-x11-server and xorg-x11-drv-vesa aren’t included
because the rest of the new x-server was missing
- installation should be working again
- firstboot seems to be re-written and is lacking the possibility to add a new
user. This has to be done manually with “adduser”

If you file bugs please add them to the KDE4Live-Tracker:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/showdependencytree.cgi?id=421891

The problems from the former kde4 live image are collected here:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SebastianVahl/KDE4LiveBugs
Please verify if they are still existing. If so, please file bugs and add them
to the page and/or the tracker.

And please note: This is a test release for the inclusion of KDE 4.0.0 in
Fedora. If you think there are other things, which could be enhanced, please
notice us. If you find problems, please bug them. If you think you
could/would help us constantly, feel free to join the KDE-SIG and/or
participate in our SIG-Meetings.

Help us to create a great user experience with KDE 4 in Fedora 9.

This said, have fun with it.

Status of the kde 4 live images

deadbabylon — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 23:35:30 +0000

I want to drop a small comment of what is preventing the release of some kde 4 live images for testing. The main problem at the moment are two bugs:

#421261 - crash on startup: ‘module’ object has no attribute ‘arch.

#422061 - KDE4 applications aren’t starting at all.

The second one is really funny to debug. With these two bugs resolved the live images should be ready for a release. But there may be other issues which come up until then.

But there are also some smaller other issues:

#421951 - Selinux is preventing kdm to login a user.

#420101 - please omit require on yelp.

Using selinux in permissive mode would work for the first one. So it’s not a blocker here. With the second one we could get rid of yelp which pulls in xulrunner (and maybe also firefox) and so we are able to get under 700 megs on i386. But releasing a dvd version because of the size here is better than nothing.

I’ve also created a tracker bug to collect all the related bugs: KDE4Live
But this one is not divided into MUST SOLVE and SHOULD BE SOLVED (like the F9Tracker and F9Target).

I’ve also committed my latest version of livecd-fedora-kde.ks to the livecd-creator git. If someone want to test this one, he/she should wait for kdepim > 3.5.8-11.svn20071204.ent. Smaller versions would have file conflicts with kdeartwork-icons-crystalsvg (Rex Dieter is working on this and it should be fixed soon).

Create your own localized version of Fedora-8-Live-KDE

deadbabylon — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 22:04:02 +0000

Fedora 8 will be freely available tomorrow. So it’s time again for a short howto for the creation of a localized spin of the english only Fedora-8-KDE live image. Sadly I wasn’t able to use revisor to do this (again). But the opportunity would be that this howto describes the needed steps in the same way the official images are created.
In my blog I’ve only c&p’ed the initial version from here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SebastianVahl/F8-KDE-localized

—-

As in Fedora 7 the official live images for the KDE spin are lacking support for different languages than english. This is due to the limited space available on the version for i686. This Howto will help you to create your own localized version in the same way the official one is created.
What do you need?

Fedora 8 already installed

livecd-tools (available in the official repository)

at least 4 gigs of free space at /var/tmp (or a different location)

a fast internet connection will reduce the time to spin

a fast cpu will also reduce the time to spin

Preparations

First you have to install the livecd-tools via yum or pirut:
# yum install livecd-tools

Changing the language settings

The next step will be to prepare an additional kickstart file with your language settings. A template is available here: livecd-fedora-kde-language-template.ks

The template itself has to be placed as root in /usr/share/livecd-tools/ .

Changing the language settings

The first step is to change the globally used language on the live images. A list of all available languages is shown by this command:

locale -a

Pick the locale you want to use and replace it in the kickstart.

lang it_IT.utf8

Changing the keyboard type

The second step is to change the used keyboard type globally. A list of all available keyboard types is provided by this command (as root):
# system-config-keyboard --noui --help

Pick the keyboard type you want to and replace it in the kickstart, eg:

keyboard dk-latin1

Changing the timezone

The last step for changing the default configuration will be to change the timezone. If you’re unsure what the exact term for your timezone is, have a look in the subdirectories of /usr/share/zoneinfo/ . You probably have to use the name including the directory where it is located. Examples:

Berlin:

timezone Europe/Berlin

Paris:

timezone Europe/Paris

Tokyo:

timezone Asia/Tokyo

Changing the package set

The easiest way to include all the needed packages for your language is to include the specifig group:

German:

@german-support

French:

@french-support

Brazilian:

@brazilian-support

All available language groups are listed in the template. Just remove the # in front of your language to include it.
If you want to create a Live CD for i686 you also need to remove some packages to free some space. The official image is around 698 megs. So your additional language packages wouldn’t fit on one CD. If you want to create an image for x86_64 you don’t need this and could proceed with the next step. The removal is defined with a starting “-” followed by the name of the package or group. To find the right packages is a bit tricky and you may need more than one attempt for this. The following list is only a proposal, you have to decide this on your own:

# remove fonts if they are not needed
-baekmuk-ttf-fonts-*
-cjkunifonts-uming
-jomolhari-fonts
-kacst-fonts
-lohit-fonts-*
-paktype-fonts
-sazanami-fonts-gothic

# remove some packages to save space (krusader: ~ 10 megs, koffice-krita: ~30 megs)
-krusader
-koffice-krita

Creating your localized spin

The last step would be to create you localized spin. You have to be root to perform this:
# livecd-creator --fslabel=Fedora-8-Live-KDE-- –config=/usr/share/livecd-tools/livecd-fedora-kde-language-template.ks

It’s obvious to replace with your language (e.g. spanish) and with the architectur of your image (e.g. i686).
If you don’t have enough free space in /var/tmp you could use the switch –tmpdir to define an alternate directory. Remember: You will also need about 4 gigs of free space on this partition:
# livecd-creator --fslabel=Fedora-8-Live-KDE-- –config=/usr/share/livecd-tools/livecd-fedora-kde-language-template.ks –tmpdir=/Path/to/your/directory/you/want/to/use

Now you will see all the magic of livecd-creator. After some time the completed iso image will be available at your current directory with the fslabel you’ve choosed.

KDE in F8 with a counterpart to Gnome’s Desktop Effects

deadbabylon — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:07:46 +0000

Since the removal of beryl from the repo at the date of the final development freeze, KDE was lacking an easy way to switch from kwin to compiz and back again. Now I’m glad to say that we would be able to provide a small kdialog script to do this job: compiz-kde now ships kde-desktop-effects which uses compiz-manager to fire up compiz. It is also used to switch to kwin again. The choosed settings would be saved to ~/.kde/env/kdewm.sh. So they are also used after a re-login.
compiz-manager and the new compiz-kde were approved by the release engeneering team today and also marked in comps-f8.xml as default in the kde-desktop group. So they will find their way on the installation media and also on the live images.
If somedays a better solution comes up (maybe like fusion-icon) it would be quite easy to replace it.
I just want to say thank you to all involved people in this late state of development!

A request for participation in the KDE-SIG

deadbabylon — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00:59 +0000

This evening the long discussed “request-for-help-the-KDE-SIG-mail” has gone out to some Fedora mailinglists (eg. fedora-devel-list).
Since Roland Wolters (liquidat) has requested to include my blog to planet.fedoraproject.org (thanks for that! ), I will try to explain this mail in my basic english a little bit.
Why do we (the KDE-SIG) needs help? On the wiki pages there are listed 16 participants for the KDE-SIG. But that’s not the real list of active participants. ATM we are only three active contributors: Rex Dieter and Kevin Kofler do the actual packaging (plus Than Ngo from Red Hat) and myself is working mostly on the KDE live images.
With the upcoming KDE 4.0 and the beginning of the release cycle for Fedora 9 we are (in my opinion) far to few people to do all the needed work.

In the mails to the mailing list and also on the wiki I’ve described a few possibilities to help us. Here I will try to describe them in some different words:

Packagers and Reviewers: One reason for using Fedora as your “KDE-Distribution” would be that your most wanted packages are already included and you could easyily install them. So we need packagers who are maintaining this packages and also reviewers to get them quickly into Fedora.

Testers/Bug Zappers: Well, this is the main part where we need help. KDE 3.5.8 for Fedora 8 has no known bugs (listed as Blockers or Targets). But that would not mean that there are no bugs at all. Without testers who are filling bugs we couldn’t be aware of them. This also would IMHO be possible for most of the “normal” users by activating updates-testing and test the proposed updates for the normal release. And especially KDE 4.0 would be (and is atm) far from known as being stable. Hunting bugs here would help us (if they affect the packaging of KDE) and also the KDE-Team (if they affect KDE 4.0 in general).
“Bug Zappers” could also help us to sort the existing bugs and collect more needed informations so that we could quicker fix them.

Documentation writers: Where would new users to Fedora and (maybe) to KDE look first? To the documentation, I think. But this is atm mainly centered to Gnome. This is not really a problem at all because Gnome is the main Desktop of Fedora. But having a good documentation for KDE as well would be really great.

Releases Notes: Since I’m a member of the KDE-SIG (which means: since late F7 development cycle) one thing bothers me most: The lacking release notes, provided on the installation media. (In F7 and also F8 the main problems were solved not till the release notes were freezed). If someone would help us in writing the release notes, we would be very thankful.

Wiki: The KDE-related pages at the wiki always needs some attention. This is primary meant to http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/KDE. But also pages of the KDE-SIG needs some cleanup or could be enhanced.

Artists: Since Bluecurve isn’t the main theme of Fedora anymore the Gnome and KDE spin have both different looks. IMHO it would be really great if we could get closer again in this point, e.g. provide a unified desktop theme. For KDE this could be done by providing a port of the nodoka-gtk-engine and nodoka-metacity-theme but also in providing a KDM theme and a splash theme early in the development cycle.

But this are only the most obvious points. There would be many other things where you could help us that I’m not aware of. So If you’re interested in KDE and would like to help us to make KDE in Fedora better, please feel free to join the KDE-SIG. It’s not a matter of skills, it’s a matter of participation.

KDE Desktop Effekte mit compiz-manager

deadbabylon — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:51:41 +0000

Damit die Ergebnisse aus dem zugehörigen Blogeintrag über die Desktop Effekte in KDE nicht verloren gehen, schreibe ich das einmal hier kurz nieder und werde es auch weiter aktualisieren.
Worum gehts? Die beryl-Pakete wurden letzte Woche im CVS von Fedora für tot erklärt und aus dem Repository entfernt. Die Begründung dabei war, dass sie dem Merge von compiz und beryl zu compiz-fusion obsolet wären. Für KDE-Nutzer waren sie das aber bis dahin nicht, denn es fehlte bis dato ein einfache Art der Umschaltung zwischen kwin und compiz.
Kevin Kofler von der KDE-SIG hatte schon einmal ein kleines Skript dafür geschrieben, zusammen mit einer durch kdialog gestellten GUI. Prinzipiell funktionierte es, es fehlten aber noch weitergehende Checks, ob compiz z.B. mit der verwendeten Hardware überhaupt funktionieren würde.

Nachdem glücklicherweise das Umschaltskript compiz-manager vorgestern für compiz-0.6 (das in Fedora 8 einziehen wird) released wurde, habe ich dieses und Kevins kdialog-Skript etwas angepasst und in ein RPM verpackt. Zusammen mit den Icons und dem Desktop-File aus dem originalen Compiz-Paket wird so ein Menüeintrag in KDEs Settings-Menü gestellt, der nach der Aktivierung bzw. Deaktivierung der Desktop Effekte fragt und danach kwin bzw. compiz-manager startet. Bei Erfolg gibts noch ein passives Popup von kdialog mit einer Rückmeldung. Falls compiz-manager nicht starten konnte, wird das ebenfalls angezeigt. Im Terminal gibts wie üblich ein paar mehr Ausgaben dazu.
Die gewählte Einstellung wird dabei in einer Datei ~/.kde/env/kdewm.sh gespeichert, so dass sie auch nach einem erneuten Login gültig ist.

Verpackt ist das ganze in ein Paket compiz-manager mit dem gleichnamigen Skript und einem Paket compiz-manager-kde, das den KDE-Menüdialog stellt. Die nötigen Abhängigkeiten sind als “Requires” eingetragen.

Hier einmal ein paar Screenshots:

[inspic=166,,fullscreen,thumb]
[inspic=167,,fullscreen,thumb]
[inspic=168,,fullscreen,thumb]
[inspic=169,,fullscreen,thumb]

Im Moment warte ich noch auf ein wenig Feedback von der KDE-SIG bzw. auf das Meeting morgen. Wenn es abgesegnet wird, wird das Paket zum Review eingereicht.

Download:
compiz-manager-0.6.0-4.fc8.noarch.rpm
compiz-manager-kde-0.6.0-4.fc8.noarch.rpm
compiz-manager-0.6.0-4.fc8.src.rpm

[Update:] Es wurde erstmal nur das Skript compiz-manager zum Review eingereicht. Wenn das durchkommt, kann man immer noch entscheiden, wo das Startskript für KDE bleibt oder ob bis dahin nicht eine bessere Lösung bekannt wird.

[Update 2:] Das Review von compiz-manager wurde Ende letzter akzeptiert und heute endlich ins CVS eingefügt. Mittlerweile ist es auch für F8 gebaut. Die einzige Hürde ist jetzt noch, dass das Release-Engeneering-Team die Aufnahme für F8Final explizit erlauben muss (da ja Final Development Freeze ist) und der Maintainer von compiz(-kde) der Integration von kde-desktop-effects zudem auch zustimmen muss (und auch dafür bei rel-eng um Erlaubnis fragen muss). Die entsprechenden Mails an beide gingen jedenfalls gerade raus.

[Update 3:] compiz-manager wurde vom Release-Engereering-Team für F8final akzeptiert. Jetzt liegt es nur noch an den Maintainern von compiz-kde.

[Update 4:] kde-desktop-effects wurde in compiz-kde integriert, gebaut und als F8Final akzeptiert. So gibts das ganze also schon auf den Installationsmedien und LiveCDs.

Expose ala compiz

deadbabylon — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:06:15 +0000

Beim herumtesten mit Compiz in KDE bin ich im “Compiz Configuration Settings Manager” (ccsm) über ein kleines nettes Plugin gestolpert, dass wie beim “Desktop Plane”-Plugin die Viewports herausgezoomt nebeneinander anzeigt und dabei auch noch ein Fenster direkt von einem Viewport in einen anderen per Drag’n'Drop verschieben kann.

[inspic=165,,fullscreen,thumb]

Da ich schon immer mal mit Desktop-Videos herumspielen wollte, hab ich das ganze mal mit “recordmydesktop” aufgenommen. Im herausgezoomten Modus wird scheinbar nicht jedes Frame aufgenommen, so dass manchmal schwarze Streifen von oben nach unten wandern.

compiz-expo.ogg

Fedora 8: KDE (wohl) ohne Desktop Effekte

deadbabylon — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 22:17:56 +0000

Wie es aussieht, wird KDE in Fedora 8 ohne die wabbelnden Fenster auskommen müssen. beryl wurde am Mittwoch aus dem CVS entfernt mit der Begründung:

Mark beryl bits as dead, since its merged back with current compiz

Leider nur haben es die Konfigurationstools, die auch unter KDE benutzbar sind (ehemals beryl-manager und beryl-settings) nicht in compiz-(fusion-)0.6 geschafft, weswegen das Paket compiz-kde diesen grandiosen Inhalt hat:

# rpm -qlp compiz-kde-0.6.0-2.fc8.i386.rpm
/usr/bin/kde-window-decorator

Das heisst: Für KDE wird lediglich der Window-Decorator mitgeliefert, keine Möglichkeit der Umschaltung, keine Möglichkeit der Konfiguration. Der Menüpunkt “Desktop Effekte” ist auf Metacity zentriert (und da er im Paket compiz-gnome mit weiteren Gnome-Abhängigkeiten ist für die KDE-LiveCD nicht zu gebrauchen).

Was ich davon halten soll, weiß ich heute Abend noch nicht. Vielleicht hat morgen meine Nachfrage ja eine Antwort parat….