bash's blog

A new beta of kdepim 4.5 has been released and packaged.

To try it you have to enable the [kde-unstable] repository on Arch Linux (both arches available).

Is the most usable beta (obviously); With the beta 2 only POP was working, but I can use a disconnected IMAP account with this release. I’ve just upgraded, migration worked (WOW!) and I’ve successful sent a mail.

No more to say at the moment.

PS. backup your data before the upgrade!

KDE SC 4.5.0 moved to the [extra] repository a week ago, and today I released the new (minor?) release of the 4.5.x series for Arch Linux.

This release fixes many bugs (ChangeLog is available here), but the most important is the regression which caused desktop effects not working with some drivers (mainly with Intel cards). Also, there is a security fix for Okular, but our kdeutils-okular-4.5.0-2 was already safe.

For us archers the changes are:

• fixed FS#20597: [kdenetwork-kget] libktorrent dependency missing
• fixed FS#20627: [kdebase-workspace] kdm doesn’t remember last username
• fixed FS#20639: [kdesdk-poxml] no po2xml and swappo binaries
• fixed FS#20648: [kdebase-workspace] kdm dirty root /
• implemented FS#20601: [kdeedu-marble] add gpsd support
• added Interlingua and Thai translations
• added WebKitPart support to KGet
• updated kdeplasma-applets-networkmanagement to a new snapshot
• added cagibi package to allow dolphin to browse UPnP devices

Have a nice update :)

Hi arKers,

how are you? About 4 months from my last post…University, work and summer give you no more time to relax and write something on your personal blog. Ok, come to the point.

Yesterday I read a bad bad news on the net: KBluetooth is dead – Oh s**t!

But reading that post I also read a word: BlueDevil. Uhm…WTF BlueDevil is? I waited 8/10 hours as Afiestas said there and in fact he wrote something about BlueDevil.

It’s a set of components to manage your bluetooth adapter in KDE. There is a KCM module that allows you to enable/disable it, set trusted devices, the adapter name and more. Also is integrated with KIO so you can explore your device from dolphin. Again, a wizard allows you to pair your devices, send files to them and use the audio stuff.

I installed it and I am really impressed. Say "Goodbye" (and thanks) to kbluetooth and install BlueDevil from AUR.

PS. Hello Planet KDE! :)

Hi everyone,

this is my first post from my new domain! Yes, I bought a domain and I moved my blog from deelab to this one.

I must say thank you to Dario (dax); he gave me unlimited space on his domain for 3 years and he did that before meet me personally. I think this is a great thing, so thank you again Dario ;)

I just upgraded to Xorg 1.8 using Jan’s repository ([xorg18]); he did a good job, thanks Jan!

This release works with udev for input hotplugging and supports /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/*.conf as replacement for the hal .fdi files. After upgrading to this release, configuration for input devices in hal is ignored and should be done by udev rules or xorg.conf.d files.

So, as Jan said, I set up a new configuration file for my touchpad:

$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-synaptics.conf
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
MatchIsTouchpad "on"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
Option "TapButton1" "1"
Option "TapButton2" "2"
Option "TapButton3" "3"
Option "VertEdgeScroll" "on"
Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "on"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "on"
Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "on"
Option "CircularScrolling" "on"
Option "CircScrollTrigger" "2"
Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" "0"
EndSection

…and everything is working again better than before ;)

I bought a new laptop: the ultrathin Satellite T130!

I’m not writing a post about this (awesome) laptop, but on how to make it working with your (Arch) Linux OS.

• Graphics. The Intel GMA 450 works fine with the official Intel driver without any patch; install xf86-video-intel and start X.
• Wireless. Here there are issues. This laptop uses a wireless card with the Realtek 8192SE chipset. There’s a driver, but ATM isn’t included into the last kernel, so you need to build and install the RTL8192SE driver. Take it from AUR.
• Bluetooth. Works! Install bluez package and nothing else.
• Touchpad. Everything works here too. I setup vertical/horizontal and circular scrolling with two fingers (I never tried it before, it’s really nice). Just install xf86-input-synaptics and set your config. Here mine.
• Webcam. I did only a test using mplayer and…works!
• Audio. To mute speakers after headphones connection I had to add a line to modprobe.conf: options snd-hda-intel model=dell-vostro.

In conclusion everything works fine, but I still am trying to made backlight control working; I added the known acpi_backlight=vendor kernel line to GRUB with no lucky.

EDIT: A man sent me a script to fix the backlight issue. The trick is easy: using setpci you can hack the brightness. Then I set up KDE Power Management to run sudo setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=40 when I am using Powersafe profile, and sudo setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=FF when I am using Performance profile. (You need to add the rule to your sudoers file). This is enough for me, you could use a script to increase/decrease the brightness editing the F4.B argument. Thank you Petri!

Cheers

It’s true…It’s live!

Yes men, Repoman is reasen from the dead.

Due to my engagements Repoman development stopped one year ago. Also [deelab] repository was dead and I didn’t need a tool to manage any repository.

But some days ago I joined into [unarch] team, [unarch] is a new repository maintained by few Italian people. So, I need a tool to build and upload packages without fool around.

I completeamely rewrote Repoman. I made it more simple to use, syntax is similar to pacman/makepkg. For example, to add a package you must type $ repoman -S foo meantime if you want to add a package without extract source files (using existing src/ dir) you must type $ repoman -Se foo. Another news is -l, ‘L’ for log: makepkg will log everything. Latest thing, finally all packages are uploaded together using the same lftp session and old packages are removed after the upload of newer packages.

This Repoman looks better too, useful messages and less colors.

Give it a second chance, and let me know what do you think of it ;)

package on AUR

…still I cannot update it.

The problem is with Akonadi: it does not start with MySQL 5.1.43 and does not start with the new MySQL release too.

I reported this on bugs.kde.org three weeks ago (#225333); others people confirmed this issue (#226960) and I think that Akonadi developers are working on it, logs do not help too much.

So, seems that we will skip this minor release too. Stay tuned.

Probably you already know, but I had not enough free time to write this first. Anyway the point is that the last KDE release candidate is waiting for you in [testing] ([kde-unstable] is dropped).

There are no big changes, only fixes; KDE devs want to be sure everything build and work.

If you already are using KDE with virtuoso backend, you should read this thread on arch-dev-pulic mailing list.

Have a good update!

They released it, we packaged it!

Yesterday KDE developers tagged the 2nd Release Candidate and today we released the Arch Linux packages into [kde-unstable]…nearly there, 4.4.0 will be out soon!

The x86_64 packages are already on [kde-unstable] whereas I am still uploading i686 packages, they will be in the mirrors tonight. ;)

The packages are built with libpng 1.4.0 and libjpeg 8, so you can update easy without any problems.

As ever, please report any bugs. Thanks!