Woof: update desktop drive icons

01micko reported that upon exit from Gparted, having changed one or more partitions, the desktop drive icons no longer update.

This functionality got lost when I moved from the big /sbin/pup_event_frontend_d script daemon to a small compiled binary.

The technique used to involve creating a file, and the daemon checked every couple of seconds to see if that file exists.
I want to move away from polling techniques like this, as they are inefficient.

The new daemon reads kernel hotplug events (also known as uevents). Now, all that has to be done is this, to cause the desktop drive icons to update (using sdb as the example):

echo change > /sys/block/sdb/uevent

The script /usr/local/pup_event/frontend_change has been modified to handle this.
The scripts /usr/sbin/gparted_shell, bootflash, and puppyinstaller have been modified to use the new method.

Woof commit:
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/info/2e73f1ee5a

I have also updated the gparted PETs in the 'common', 'precise' and 'armv7' repos at ibiblio.org.

Tags: woof

Woof: Precise 5.6.9, QtWeb

Here are the latest Woof commits:

another fix for running qtweb as spot
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/info/12947fe7c4
built precise 5.6.9 (5.7beta1). fixed qtweb running as spot
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/info/6ca16f3d1b
precise: have gone back to mesa with llvm debs
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/info/3f8fd025ac

The QtWeb PET has been fixed a few times. The latest (10.2M):
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/pet_packages-common/qtweb-3.8.4-1-x86.pet

Tags: woof

Running QtWeb as spot

I implemented QtWeb running as user spot, however ran into difficulties. Thanks to jamesbond who solved it, see our earlier discussion:
http://bkhome.org/archive/blog2/201307/qtweb-a-surprise.html

I have just now re-uploaded the QtWeb PET, that creates /usr/bin/unins000.exe when it installs (10.2MB):
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/pet_packages-common/qtweb-3.8.4-x86.pet

I have implemented the offer to run QtWeb as spot in Woof:
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/info/1ae0479631
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/info/6cd0d9bcb5

This is just about to be tested. Surprise, surprise, I am planning to build the next Precise (5.7beta1) with two browsers builtin, SeaMonkey 2.19 and QtWeb. Both of these will be able to be run as spot, if you wish.

I think that I should be able to build and upload it tomorrow.

Tags: woof

welcome1stboot for 96dpi

When Puppy moved from a default screen DPI (Dots Per Inch) of 78 to 96, many applications had to be adjusted so that their text did not display to large.

This problem also applies to the welcome1stboot application, the "Welcome, woof, woof" window that you get at first bootup.

I have now recompiled it for 96dpi, for x86 and ARM.

Woof commit:
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/info/e207239620

Read more...

QuickSetup network frame

Gcmartin will be overjoyed. I have decided to have the network-frame in the QuickSetup main window, always displayed.
Previously, it only displayed at first bootup if a network connection was already automatically established on an ethernet port.

The reason that I have done this, is I have added a checkbox to select running Internet applications as user 'spot'. I wanted this to be offered up-front, at first bootup, and the logical place for this checkbox is in the network-frame, so the entire network-frame has come along for the ride.

The script is /usr/sbin/quicksetup.

Woof commit:
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/info/7190c384bf

Tags: woof

Drive hotplug server for IPC

I reported yesterday on a new pup_event IPC infrastructure for Puppy:
http://bkhome.org/archive/blog2/201306/pupevent-interprocess-communication.html

I have now enhanced pup_event_frontend_d to feed drive hotplug events to any client via the IPC mechanism. I have updated the README page to explain this:
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/finfo?name=woof-code/rootfs-skeleton/usr/local/pup_event/pup_event_ipc-README.htm

Woof commit:
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/info/575a4b8655

I have updated the jwm and bacon PETs to very latest versions (compiled in Wary, also for ARM in the Mele 1000, running Ubuntu Lucid Lynx).

I intend to build Raring pup alpha2 in a day or two, to test the new IPC mechanism, plus there are bugs in the alpha1 release that have been fixed.

Not that anything is using the new IPC yet, but I do intend to use it.
For example, I am thinking of working toward removing dependence on ROX-Filer, by a tray applet that displays drive partition icons, replacing the ones currently on the desktop (which is ROX-specific). This new tray-app can easily obtain drive hotplug notifications via the IPC system.

Tags: woof

Mir/XMir in Saucy Salamander

Ubuntu 13.10, Saucy Salamander, is due for release in October 2013. That is not far off, and what has surprised me, and many others, is the announcement that Mir and XMir will be the default graphics servers. XMir will allow running all Xorg-based applications.

Links:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTM5NzM
http://fridge.ubuntu.com/2013/06/27/mir-plans-in-13-10/

...the second link has a video, that shows how far the Mir project has come along.

Just a casual observation -- the Wayland project has been in development how many years? Yet these guys have come along, just a few of them, and created Mir/XMir in hardly any time, and it is looking very good.

Anyway, this is going to be very interesting. I am very keen to know what the performance is like, with the XMir compatibility layer running on top of Mir. I am sure that demo video was done on a very fast CPU and with an abundance of RAM.

Read more...

pup_event InterProcess Communication

Thanks to technosaurus for the idea, I have now implemented an IPC infrastructure for Puppy. It is very simple, and can even be used on older puppies and other distros.

I have written an intro page. Here is the Woof Fossil repository link to it:
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/finfo?name=woof-code/rootfs-skeleton/usr/local/pup_event/pup_event_ipc-README.htm

So far there is only one binary executable, 'pup_event_ipc'. It is written in BaCon, with embedded C. Source code:
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/finfo?name=woof-code/rootfs-skeleton/usr/local/pup_event/pup_event_ipc.bac

Woof commit:
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/info/a6d3c420c2

Tags: woof