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Alberto Milone (76 unread)

• September 02, 2009
• 15:05

  How to enable/disable Ctrl+Alt+Backspace in (K)Ubuntu Karmic 9.10

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  As you might have noticed already if you use Ubuntu Karmic, Ctrl+Alt+Backspace (i.e. the shortcut which was used to restart the X server) has to be enabled in a different way with respect to previous releases of Ubuntu.

  This is due to the fact that “DontZap” is no longer an option in the X server and has become an option in XKB instead.

  As a result, now it’s very easy to use your Desktop environment of choice (e.g. GNOME, KDE) to enable or to disable the Ctrl+Alt+Backspace shortcut. It is also possible to do it without KDE or GNOME.

  I recommend that you do it from your desktop environment of choice (as you may find it easier):
  Instructions here

  P.S. Instructions for XFCE are more than welcome.

• July 02, 2009
• 16:00

  X-Bus – a daemon for input devices

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  What is X-Bus?

  It’s a personal project I’ve been working on (among other things) since I joined Canonical. It’s a daemon which handles input devices through the XInput protocol. In the future I hope to add support for outputs too.

  What’s the purpose of X-Bus?

  Its main purpose is to provide developers with a common (and simplified) way to access XInput from languages which have DBus bindings (Python, Ruby, C, C++, Java, Perl, etc.). It is not specific to any desktop environment, even though it uses C++ and QT4 (see below).

  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have KDE, Gnome, Xfce, etc. applications which make use of the same backend with different frontends (as opposed to having different backends and frontends)?

  Current features:

  • Exposes XInput (listing/setting properties, catching signals, etc.) through Dbus with a simplified API.
  • Stores the (per-user) current inputs configuration in an XML file and applies it at startup or when requested.
  • Emits signals (through Dbus) when new devices are plugged in or unplugged (so that, for example your client application can refresh its UI to reflect the new situation).
  • Tracks keyboard activity so as to disable your touchpad when you’re typing.

  It’s an attempt to combine the features in syndaemon and xinput (the command line tool), from both of which X-Bus borrows code.

  3 examples of what X-Bus can be used for:

  • User interfaces to configure touchpads (which is the 1st thing I would like to work on).
  • User interfaces to configure touchscreens whose drivers support XInput (I still need to expose the calibration functions provided by XInput though).
  • Automatic rotation of your touchpad (figuratively speaking) when your screen is rotated (after this is implemented).

  Why QT?

  Because of its DBus and XML modules and because it’s a pleasure to work with QT in general.

  Example: if you add the Q_SCRIPTABLE macro to the function in the header file, this function will be made available in your DBus interface. This applies to signals too. This makes maintenance a lot easier.

  In my opinion it would be overkill to use the DBus low-level API and I don’t think the glib (DBus) bindings can offer what I described in the example (feel free to prove me wrong on this). Furthermore I would have to use an external xml module to perform validation and the things that I currently do with the xml file.

  Doesn’t it duplicate efforts? Why don’t you work on $INSERT_DAEMON_HERE instead?

  Yes, it does (partially) but my point is: can we use $INSERT_DAEMON_HERE on KDE, Gnome, Xfce, etc. ?

  Furthermore, if you have a look at X-Bus’ API you’ll see that (currently) there’s very little duplication.

  Where’s the code?

  Source code (have a look at the examples which are written in Python)
  Packages

  NOTE: this is just a first release and users won’t benefit from it without a user interface (unless they want to edit the xml file manually).

• March 29, 2009
• 16:35

  On my New Job

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  It’s been almost a month now since I started working for Canonical. I was hired as a “Sustaining Engineer (System)” in the Foundations team which, in turn, is part of the OEM Services team, whose offices are located in Lexington, Massachussets, USA (I work from home though).

  I mainly do work on X.org related stuff (e.g. touchpads, graphics drivers, etc.) in order to solve problems such as the ones that Canonical’s customers report and to develop new things (I hope to be able to blog about my new projects).

  I really like this job as it allows me to work on the things I’m passionate about in a very friendly and relaxed work environment. It means a lot to me.

  I would like to thank all the people who made this possible, the ones who kept providing me with new challenges in Ubuntu which made me acquire experience that is proving extremely valuable in my job. I would also like to thank all the people who supported me and encouraged me to apply for this job at Canonical, my team mates and team manager(s) who helped me move my first steps at work and to feel at ease and deeply involved in the OEM team, and the impressive amount of people who congratulated me on IRC on my first day of work. It was a warm welcome that I’ll never forget.

  It’s an honour to work with you and I hope we can all work together to fix bug #1.

  I hope to see you at the next UDS in Barcelona in May.

• January 22, 2009
• 18:37

  How to enable/disable Ctrl+Alt+Backspace from the command line

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  If you don’t want to use a user interface to change the effect of Ctrl+Alt+Backspace in any flavour of Ubuntu you can follow these steps:

  1) Install the “dontzap” package
  sudo apt-get install dontzap

  2) Open Terminal or Konsole and type:
  sudo dontzap --enable
  or
  sudo dontzap --disable

  Where “disable” means that Ctrl+Alt+Backspace restarts the xserver while “enable” means that it won’t.

  I’ll post something on the GTK UI when it’s ready.

• 17:39

  How to enable/disable Ctrl+Alt+Backspace in Kubuntu Jaunty

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  As you might have noticed already, X.org no longer ships with the DontZap option set to False by default i.e. pressing Ctrl+Alt+Backspace won’t restart the xserver any longer. At the UDS we discussed on how to deal with this change and we came to the conclusion that Ubuntu and Kubuntu would deal with this change in different ways. I worked on both the implementations.

  This blog post is about the Kubuntu implementation. Click on the thumbnails to see the screenshots in their full size.

  1) Install the “dontzap” package (hopefully this step can be skipped in the future):
  sudo apt-get install dontzap

  2) Launch “systemsettings”
  

  3) select the “Display” module
  

  4) click on the checkbox which says “Ctrl+Alt+Backspace restarts the xserver” and press the apply button:
  

  5) insert your password
  

  And that’s it.

  I’ll blog more about the way you can do it in Ubuntu and from the command line.

• December 15, 2008
• 19:51

  Back from the UDS

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  After spending a week in Sunnyvale I’m back from the UDS. It was a long trip and I can definitely say out loud that it was a fantastic experience, very hard to put into words, part of which you’ll be able to see in the video-recorded sessions (available soon?).

  I gave speeches on 3 projects of mine: Xorg Options Editor, Tablet configuration tool (the project doesn’t have a name yet), Display configuration tool (no name yet). I’ll blog about these projects as soon as I clean up the relevant specs and the wiki pages. It’s been an extremely productive UDS and (in addition to these 3 projects) I think I have already work for Jaunty+1 (and maybe Jaunty+2 too). The feedback I received was really great.

  The Silicon Valley is exactly as I expected (if you played GTA San Andreas you know what I mean) and I really liked the place, which is very different from the European towns I visited.

  The UDS is all about people (apart from serious development) and I met a lot Ubuntu enthusiasts. I met some old friends and made a lot of new acquaintances. Actually the term “acquaintances” doesn’t do justice to these extremely nice people which therefore I’ll promote to “friends”:

  mv acquaintances friends

  Having studied Spanish (together with English) at the university, I had a great chance to practice my Spanish with Ara, María and Luis and I also bugged them with some notions of Spanish Linguistics that I learnt. Do you see the irony? An Italian guy who talks to native Spanish speakers about some peculiarities of their own language

  I also received a lot of hugs and ended up in the Ubuntu Hall of Fame. I really didn’t expect to see myself on that page, therefore I was very surprised when Bryce showed my picture and the article on his laptop. A lot of people congratulated me on this achievement but all I have to say is simply that it’s the Ubuntu Community that really rocks. I have yet to find another community which makes you feel not only at ease but perfectly integrated, as in a very big family. It’s definitely something you have to experience (at least) once in your life.

  I won’t list the names of all the people I met since I really wouldn’t like to flood Ubuntu planet but I would really like to thank them all for being so nice to me and for making this UDS even better than the one in Prague (which I deemed impossible).

  A special thanks to Google for hosting the event at the Googleplex (Mountain View). It’s a really cool place and I met Guido Van Rossum (yes, the creator of Python) there. I told him that I started learning programming thanks to Python and he joked about it by replying that he was sorry that his language made me enter the programming world. A very cool guy.

  A big thanks to Canonical for sponsoring my travel and to all the people who made this possible.

• November 03, 2008
• 12:11

  Call for testing: NVIDIA drivers and nvidia-settings in Intrepid

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  As promised, NVIDIA drivers 71.86.07 and 96.43.09 are now available for testing in Intrepid’s proposed repositories. If you don’t know how to use these repositories you can read the instructions.

  Please give feedback here (say something like “driver 96 works for me”, etc.).

  There is also a small fix which will solve a problem with diversions for drivers 177 and 173.
  Please give feedback here

  I have also fixed a bug in nvidia-settings (i.e. NVIDIA’s control panel) which made it segfault when no ServerLayout section is available in the xorg.conf.

  Please test the package and give feedback here.

  The sooner you test these packages, the sooner they will enter Intrepid’s stable repositories.

• October 30, 2008
• 18:34

  Some updates on the NVIDIA driver in Intrepid and Hardy…

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  First of all, happy release to you all.

  I have noticed that NVIDIA released two beta drivers which work with Intrepid’s X.org and I will make new packages available in the -proposed archives ASAP. In the meantime you might want to see why I recommend you to wait for these packages. Keep an eye this bug report so as to know when these packages are available for testing.

  As regards Hardy, I need a plan to backport driver 177 from Intrepid without breaking dist-upgrades and/or the available drivers. I should also update the fglrx driver in my lrm-envy.

  Stay tuned.

• August 28, 2008
• 15:16

  A few updates on EnvyNG, NVIDIA and URandR

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  EnvyNG:
  I have updated envyng-core (2.0) and envyng-qt (2.0) in Intrepid. The GTK interface doesn’t work and even if I managed to solve the problems with GTK and threading I couldn’t upload it since we’re in feature freeze.

  The new textual interface and the QT4 interface now rely on python-apt and python-xkit. Thanks to the work I did on the drivers I won’t have to keep the compatibility list updated since it will rely on the same system which we are using for Jockey.

  By testing EnvyNG you will (indirectly) help Jockey too since you will test X-Kit and some other features I have worked on for Jockey.

  NOTE: if you have this problem please have a look at the suggested solution in the same bug report.

  NVIDIA and kernel 2.6.27:
  Currently only driver 177.68 seems to work with 2.6.27. I have written a patch for driver 173 too, however I’m experiencing a rather nasty problem.
  EDIT: the driver works well with a new patch now

  URandR:
  as you can see on Bryce’s blog I am now contributing to GNOME’s Monitor Resolution Settings panel. There is still some work to do (in C) and I’m having a lot of fun with it. I find it a great program and I’m focusing on it instead of completing the rewrite of URandR. I’m not saying that URandR is dead but it’s development has stalled.

  Stay tuned

• August 20, 2008
• 16:27

  NVIDIA driver 177.67 in Intrepid

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  I have updated the NVIDIA driver 177.67 (still a beta) in Intrepid (a special thanks to Timo Aaltonen who sponsored the upload).

  If you still have 2D performance issues, you can have a look at this post (a special thanks to nullack for suggesting this link).

  NOTE: this driver won’t be available on Hardy until a final release of the driver is available.

• August 04, 2008
• 19:36

  NVIDIA driver 173.14.12 in hardy-proposed and intrepid

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  If you experienced problems with the NVIDIA driver 173.14.09 you might want to give version 173.14.12 a try.

  The driver is available on Hardy in the hardy-proposed repository (you will have to install it through EnvyNG, if you haven’t already done so) and should now work with Xen kernels too (thanks to a little trick which I backported from Intrepid).

  The name of the package for Intrepid is nvidia-glx-173.

  Release Highlights:
  Added support for GeForce 8600 GS.
Fixed a problem with missing rendering in OpenGL Workstation Overlays.
Fixed a problem with running some SDL applications and virtual terminal switching.
Fixed a potential crash in nvidia-settings when saving to the X configuration file.
Improved error recovery paths in the case of corruption of the commands sent to the GPU.

  Please test the driver (for Hardy) and report your experience with the driver in this bugreport.

  NOTE: the driver has been uploaded today but should be available tomorrow.

• July 25, 2008
• 17:33

  Blueprint - X-Kit and Xorg Options Editor

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  As promised in my previous posts, in this blog post I will deal with a project I’m working on which implements this blueprint.

  Bryce Harrington (the mentor of this blueprint), Colin Watson (the approver) and I talked about this at the UDS in Prague. The blueprint is based on Bryce’s original idea to improve the Screen Resolution panel. The work was divided into 2 phases:

  Phase 1 (which is a higher priority) is about providing the Screen Resolution panel with the capability to set the virtual resolution in the xorg.conf when, put simply, 2 or more screens don’t fit the framebuffer. Currently the Screen Resolution panel doesn’t succeed in such case since the drivers are not able to reallocate the framebuffer yet. A simple GUI should allow users to set the required virtual resolution and write the settings to the xorg.conf through PolicyKit.

  Phase 2 is about adding an “Advanced settings” button to the Screen Resolution panel so as to allow advanced users to edit the xorg.conf through a simple GUI. The aim of such program is not to set up multiple screens layouts but only to make it easier for users to add, edit and remove options without having to know which section an option, say, DontZap, belongs to, or to switch to a different driver. A more detailed explanation of the use cases is available here.

  In Prague we agreed that this project couldn’t become reality without an xorg.conf parser/writer and some other tools. For this reason I started the X-Kit project:

  

  Components:

  * XorgParser: a simple, transparent and easy to extend xorg parser.
  * XorgValidator: a program which uses X-parser, tries to make sense of xorg.conf and operates accordingly.
  * Xorg Options Data Store: a program which translates the content of the manual of the xorg.conf into an XML file.
  * Xorg Options Editor GTK: a simple GTK GUI to the xorg.conf.
  * Xorg Options Editor KDE: a simple GTK GUI to the xorg.conf.

  NOTE: all the code is in Python

  Aim:

  * a desktop agnostic kit to manipulate the xorg.conf (and whatever will replace the xorg.conf in the future).

  Advantages of XorgParser:

  * Simple API.
  * Easy to extend.

  Current Status:

  * XorgParser: version 0.3 is available. You can get the code from my bazaar branch or from my PPA
  * XorgValidator: there is already some code in place which I haven’t released yet.
  * Xorg Options Data Store: the program is complete, works well and will be released soon.
  * Xorg Options Editor GTK (aka Phase 2): the program is almost complete and will be released soon. You can have a look at this screencast to see how it works.
  * Xorg Options Editor KDE: not started yet
  * Phase1: the Python part is complete and, as you can see in this screencast, it works well. The screencast, however, doesn’t reflect the current status of phase 1 but still gives an idea of how this will work in practice.

  For further details on the project, please have a look at the wiki.

  A special thanks to Bryce Harrington and Martin Pitt whose feedback on the parser was extremely important.

• July 15, 2008
• 18:59

  Updates on the NVIDIA drivers in Intrepid

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  What is ready

  • Currently there are 4 flavours of the NVIDIA driver: 177, 173, 96, 71.

    They are all compatible with Xen and work only with 2.6.26 kernels (no 2.6.24, sorry).

    They all use DKMS therefore you will have to keep the linux-headers installed.

    CUDA is now supported by default (drivers 173, 177).

    The packages can replace each other without any need to remove one driver before installing the other. All it takes is a simple “sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-VERSION”.

  NOTE: these drivers won’t be backported to Hardy. The “-envy” flavour in multiverse will be kept updated on Hardy.

  Problems

  xorg-server 1.5

  The xserver was updated to version 1.5, which broke the ABI compatibility. As a result, drivers 96 and 71 (and fglrx) dont’ work with the new xserver and unfortunately the -IgnoreABI option of Xorg doesn’t solve the problem. This is something that only NVIDIA can solve. (177 and 173 work well)

  Dist-upgrades

  Currently when you dist-upgrade from Hardy to Intrepid, there is no way to update an old driver, say, nvidia-glx-new, to a driver with the new name scheme, say, nvidia-glx-173. You will have to install the driver manually with, for example, “sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-173″ (there’s no need to uninstall the previous driver, since it will be replaced by the new one).

  Currently we can’t rely on dependencies to make dist-upgrades smooth. If you compare the situation in Hardy with the one in Intrepid and especially if you think that NVIDIA could add and remove the support for more models to/from their drivers in the future, you will see why relying on dependencies wouldn’t be the best choice now.

  SITUATION IN HARDY:

  nvidia-glx-new (169.12):
  Geforce 5xxx, 6xxx, 7xxx, and a few models of the 8xxx series

  nvidia-glx-new-envy (173.14.09):
  Geforce 5xxx, 6xxx, 7xxx, and a few models of the 8xxx series

  nvidia-glx, nvidia-glx-envy (96.43.05) in Hardy is a legacy driver which supports:
  Geforce 2xxx, 3xxx, 4xxx, 5xxx, 6xxx, 7xxx up to 7800

  nvidia-glx-legacy, nvidia-glx-legacy-envy (71.86.04) is another legacy driver which supports:
  RIVA TNT/2, Vanta/Vanta LT, GeForce 256, GeForce DDR, GeForce2, Quadro2
  Pro

  SITUATION IN INTREPID:

  nvidia-glx-177 (177.13):
  Geforce 6xxx, 7xxx, 8xxx, 9xxx, GeForce GTX 260, GeForce GTX 280

  nvidia-glx-173 (173.14.09):
  Geforce 5xxx, 6xxx, 7xxx, 8xxx, 9xxx

  nvidia-glx-96 (96.43.05):
  Geforce 2xxx, 3xxx, 4xxx, 5xxx

  nvidia-glx-71 (71.86.04):
  RIVA TNT/2, Vanta/Vanta LT, GeForce 256, GeForce DDR, GeForce2, Quadro2 Pro

  As Martin Pitt suggested, we could have metapackages for each card series so that, for example, if NVIDIA decides to drop the support for GeForce 6xxx from driver 177, we can make the metapackage depend on driver 173 instead of 177. This is something which we might do in the next future when the hardware database for Jockey is ready. In the meantime we have no way to see which card series a card belongs to by relying only on its pci-id. Therefore we are working on an alternative solution (see the “Plans” paragraph).

  nvidia-xconfig

  Please be careful if you’re planning to use nvidia-xconfig. Xorg-server 1.4.99.901 removed support for the RgbPath option but nvidia-xconfig will add the following line to the “Files” section of your xorg.conf:

  RgbPath "/usr/lib/X11/rgb"

  You will have to comment it out.

  NVIDIA should fix this soon.

  Jockey

  Jockey doesn’t support the new NVIDIA drivers yet, therefore you shouldn’t use it to install the NVIDIA driver (yet). I’ll work with Martin on this so that Jockey can keep rocking as usual.

  Plans

  Dist-upgrades

  We will handle 2 cases: dist-upgrades done through Update Manager and the ones done from the command line.

  Update Manager

  If any version of the nvidia driver (with the old name schemes) is installed, basic hardware detection should be performed and the appropriate driver should be installed.

  Command line

  If the dist-upgrade is done from the command line we can’t install the appropriate driver automatically during the dist-upgrade (you can’t call apt while apt is in use). As Martin suggested, all we can do is warn our users through debconf so that they will know what to do. I have already implemented Martin’s idea by creating “nvidia-common”, which you can find in my PPA (NOTE: this is not the final release).

  How does nvidia-common work?
  nvidia-common depends on 4 new packages (nvidia-VERSION-modaliases) which contain the lists of the pci-ids of the NVIDIA cards supported by NVIDIA’s proprietary drivers. Such lists are generated automatically when the packages of the drivers are built therefore, when a driver is updated, its list of pci-ids will be updated too.

  My Python program will detect the pci-id of your card and find the newest driver which supports it. If you have more than 1 one card plugged in, then it will look for a driver which supports all your cards and install that if available, otherwise the newest driver will be chosen (since I guess that you would prefer using your GeForce 9xxx rather than your GeForce 2).

  This check is (currently) triggered in 3 cases:
  1) when nvidia-common is installed
  2) when the kernel image is installed/updated
  3) when the kernel headers are installed/updated

  If you haven’t a driver with the old name scheme installed or if your card is not supported you won’t see any debconf dialog, otherwise you should see something like this:

  

  How to test it on Hardy:
  add my PPA to your software sources:
  deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/lrm-intrepid/ubuntu intrepid main

  and install only nvidia-common (revision ubuntu12 or higher) and let it install its dependencies (i.e. the modalias packages). Then disable the PPA. Do NOT install any other package. You should see a debconf screen. The same will happen if you reinstall the kernel headers or image.

  Backports
  The drivers will be updated in the backports repositories as they will be actually backported from Intrepid+1 to Intrepid.

  Credits

  Ben Collins:
  gave me some tips on TLS for the drivers.

  Bryce Harrington:
  has been very available and has followed all the steps of the migration to the new NVIDIA drivers.

  Mario Limonciello:
  tested the packages and gave me a few useful tips.

  Martin Pitt:
  guided me through the migration and has been very available. He gave me a lot of feedback on the packages, on the new name schemes and on how we should deal with dist-upgrades. His experience has been invaluable. Furthermore he is doing all the uploads for me.

  Timo Aaaltonen:
  did the merge of the Debian package with my initial package (hoping that the changes could be merged back into Debian) thus providing me with a new base to work on.
  Furthermore he suggested the use of a dynamic dependency on the server ABI (so that we don’t have to hardcode it in the source) like the Intel driver does.

• July 08, 2008
• 9:52

  NVIDIA 173.14.09 and FGLRX 8.6 in hardy-proposed

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  It took me some time to update the FGLRX and the NVIDIA driver in Ubuntu since I’m working on the drivers for Intrepid and on my new projects for Ubuntu. Furthermore driver 173.14.09 breaks the compatibility with realtime kernels and I didn’t want to upload something which would cause problems to a lot of users. For this reason I have written a patch (thanks to mizvekov from the NvNews forums for the tips) which will fix this problem while keeping the compatibility with non-realtime kernels.

  Both the NVIDIA and the FGLRX contain a lot of fixes and I need your help to test the packages so that we can get them into hardy-updates (i.e. the stable repositories) soon. Please report your experience with the driver in this bugreport.

  NOTE: the instructions to enable and use -proposed are in the bugreport (see Martin’s link)

• June 11, 2008
• 22:00

  NVIDIA driver 173.14.05 in hardy-proposed

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  Today, I’ve uploaded the latest release of the NVIDIA driver (173.14.05) to the the hardy-proposed repository (you should thank the Ubuntu-SRU and the MOTU-SRU teams for this). This is the bugreport containing the request for a SRU (Stable Release Update). Please test the new driver and post your comments there so that we know whether the driver works well for you too, and if it does, the update will be moved to the stable repository.

  NOTE: this update won’t affect Ubuntu’s official linux-restricted-modules but only the linux-restricted-modules-envy so that nothing will break if you use the former.

  Instructions:
  All you have to do in order to test the new driver is enable the hardy-proposed repositories, refresh your list of packages and:
  1) if you have already installed the driver through EnvyNG you should receive an update through Update manager
  2) otherwise you will have to install and launch EnvyNG and select the “Manual selection of the driver” (since I haven’t had the time to update EnvyNG’s compatibility list for the automatic detection).

  News:
  I promised that I would blog about the projects I was assigned at the UDS and here’s the first news: I’ll maintain the NVIDIA driver for Ubuntu Intrepid together with Timo Aaltonen while Mario Limonciello will take care of the ATI (fglrx) driver. We’ll use DKMS for both drivers.

  Stay tuned for more news and please help us testing the driver.

  P.S. I’m working on the latest ATI driver too

• June 05, 2008
• 17:08

  On anti-spam filters or how I lost a lot of emails…

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  I’ve been experiencing problems with people who said that they had sent me emails which I never received. I thought there were some temporary problems with my mailbox (with alice.it) since it’s not unusual to see the pop server complaining for nonsensical reasons.

  This morning I noticed that I had no new messages in Evolution (my email client of choice) and this was a bit weird since I’m subscribed to a few mailing lists. I tried accessing my mailbox from alice’s web interface and, while it was true that there were no new emails, I noticed that there were about 860 emails in the junk folder, even though I had never set up a junk filter. A lot of emails were spam but a number of other messages were not. The website says that the emails in the junk folder are automatically deleted after 20 days. Now I’m wondering how many emails I lost all these years thanks to such a smart junk filter (which I hope I have disabled for good now).

  If you sent me an email and didn’t receive a reply, it is very likely that alice’s spam filter is to blame.

  P.S. If you sent me an email on adding the latest release of the graphics driver then I’ve definitely received a lot of them but I haven’t replied yet since I’ve been very busy with some new projects which I hope to be able to show soon. I will blog about the new drivers soon too since, in case you had doubts, I’m working on them.

• May 25, 2008
• 16:50

  I’m back from the UDS (with pictures)

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  I haven’t blogged for a while since I’ve been very busy and and I was too tired to blog or to do any actual work on my projects. This was my 1st time at the UDS and my 1st time abroad. It was a dream-like experience and went far beyond my expectations. I have met lots of interesting people ranging from developers to forum staff. We discussed about the new features in Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10 and, as a result, a few non-trivial tasks have been added to my todo list (I’ll blog about this later). The sessions were very well organised and the topics were extremely interesting but unfortunately I couldn’t attend them all at the same time.

  We had a lot of fun and I would like to thank all the people who contributed to make this UDS rock.

  In case you haven’t noticed, I appeared in some photos on flicker and in some blog posts:
  

  Here are a few photos taken with Emanuele Gentili’s camera with some very interesting people.

  myself, Mark Shuttleworth and Emanuele Gentili
  

  Martin Pitt and I
  

  Emanuele Gentili, Timo Aaltonen and myself
  

  Emanuele, Henrik Nilsen Omma and myself
  

  Agostino Russo, me and Emanuele
  

  myself and Emmet Hikory
  

  me, Scott Kitterman and Emanuele
  

  Emanuele, Rob Savoye (the GNASH guy) and myself (a special thanks to MaryBeth Panagos - the girl in the background - who provided the nice “Gnash Cygnal” logo).

  WARNING: talking to Rob about programming will dramatically decrease your self-esteem. He’s a genius.
  

  A creepy guy on the 3rd floor…
  

• May 10, 2008
• 11:16

  Call for testers for EnvyNG

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  It’s been a month since my last blog post. EnvyNG was included in Hardy but it had a few problems and I have worked to fix them. I can’t upload such fixes since Hardy is a stable release. This means that all the updates will have to be tested before they are moved to the stable repositories. This is why I need your help. The more users test the fixes the sooner we can get them into stable.

  Special Thanks:
  All this wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing support of Martin Pitt, who guided me and helped me with the SRU (Stable Release Update). He has spent a lot of time on EnvyNG, gave me a lot of extremely useful suggestions, therefore I can say that you should really thank Martin for this release.

  Timo Aaltonen brought bugs #212648, #186382, #118605 to my attention and suggested the solution. In case you don’t know it already, he’s one of the guys who take care of Ubuntu’s restricted modules. Keep up the good work, Timo!
  
  A stripped down list of Changes:
  
envyng-core (1.1.1ubuntu15) hardy-proposed; urgency=low
* Fix (LP: #224004) Update NVIDIA compatibility list.
* Fix (LP: #221304) Use the new l-r-m-envy packages now.
* Install -envy packages instead of the ones in main
* Hide FutureWarning caused by python-apt
* xorgconfig2 now ignores sections which are not relevant in xorg.conf


linux-restricted-modules-envy-2.6.24 (2.6.24.500-500.28) hardy-proposed; urgency=low
* Fix (LP: #228649) xorg-driver-fglrx-dev conflicted with
xorg-driver-fglrx
* Sync with the fixes in linux-restricted-modules-2.6.24 (2.6.24.12-17.36)
* nvidia: Do not divert libwfb.so, because if the xserver provides one
it should be used. This caused at least problems with some websites
crashing on certain pages (see #212648), and pink shadows with compiz.
(see: #186382)
* fglrx: Patch authatieventsd.sh to search for xauth files in
/var/run/xauth/. Otherwise the session would freeze on logout for KDM
users. Thanks Ilja Pavkovic! (see: #118605)
* Remove previous diversions of libwfb.so in the postinst. Thanks Timo
Aaltonen.
* Make sure that any previous module of fglrx and nvidia built by DKMS are
removed before the new module is built and installed.
* Use -envy so as not to conflict with Ubuntu's lrm
* Add fglrx driver 8.4


  Envyng-core will also fix the problem which prevented the QT interface from working properly.

  EnvyNG now relies on its own packages (available in multiverse) therefore you will have to install the driver from EnvyNG again so that the correct packages are installed. If you don’t do it you will keep using Ubuntu’s default restricted modules. Of course DKMS, CUDA, etc. are back in my packages.

  The latest release of ATI’s proprietary driver (8.4) is also available and contains a patch which should fix bug #118605 (which doesn’t solve the problem on my computer though).

  How to test it:
  You will have to enable the hardy-proposed repositories (Go to System/Administration/Software Sources/Updates and select “Proposed Updates (hardy-proposed)”) and upgrade to envyng-core (1.1.1ubuntu15), then launch EnvyNG and install the drivers.

  Where to report:
  If you have problems with EnvyNG (e.g. if EnvyNG crashes during the installation of the driver) you can report them here.

  If you have problems with the drivers which EnvyNG installed you can report them here.

  You can simply add a comment to one of the bugreports which you will find at these links if your problems are related to those reports or if you just want to confirm that either EnvyNG or the drivers work well for you (this will really help us).

  If you want you can use this model to report:

  Used EnvyNG (yes/no):
  Worked with Ubuntu’s default restricted modules (yes/no):
  Graphic card model:
  Problem (solved/otherwise describe the problem):

  Example:
  If it works for you:

  Used EnvyNG: yes
  Worked with Ubuntu’s default restricted modules (yes/no): yes
  Graphic card model: Geforce 7300GT
  Problem: solved

  OR if it doesn’t solve the problem

  Used EnvyNG: yes
  Worked with Ubuntu’s default restricted modules (yes/no): yes
  Graphic card model: Geforce 7300GT
  Problem: NVIDIA driver 169.12 still freezes my computer when I visit this website…

  NOTE:
  I’m working on this Bug too.

• April 09, 2008
• 16:15

  Updates for EnvyNG and Envy Legacy

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  I’m working on EnvyNG every day. I’m fixing as many bugs as possible. Here’s a list of what’s changed in EnvyNG and Envy Legacy:

  Improvements in EnvyNG-core:
  * New connection detection method (based on Network Manager)
* Update compatibility list
* Update translations
* Use unicode (utf-8) for the translators' names
* Use an additional xorg.conf parser in order to set the default colour depth


  EnvyNG checks the availability of an Internet Connection either by asking Network Manager (through dbus) or (if you don’t use network manager) by using only Python’s “urllib2″. This solves Bug 211620.

  The latest update of EnvyNG-core includes an additional xorg.conf parser which should finally solve the problem with ATI cards which don’t have a “defaultdepth” option set in xorg.conf. This made the Xserver crash (at times?) since the fglrx driver assumed that the default colour depth was 8bit.

  Improvements in EnvyNG-qt:
  * The links in the about dialog can be selected with the mouse cursor
* Fix complete dialog showed up when restart dialog should have
* About dialog can expand now
* Fix if both EnvyNG-qt and -gtk are installed, -qt should be the one which is launched on KDE

  Improvements in EnvyNG-gtk:
  * GTK filechooser points to /home by default

  Bugfixes in Envy Legacy:
  * Fix Bug #210392 in classes
* Catch exception in classes.restorenvfolder()
* Add "n/a" to dkms blacklist so the unofficially dkms is not installed
on Debian Lenny (Lenny is still unsupported)

  Should you find other bugs, please report them to me.

• April 02, 2008
• 18:38

  A new repository and another mini-call for translations

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  I’ve set up a new PPA repository for Hardy containing EnvyNG 1.1.0. The repository includes a new version of the three packages with a few bugfixes.

  Add this line to your /etc/apt/sources.list so as to be sure to get always the latest release of EnvyNG :
  deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/envyng-hardy/ubuntu hardy main

  Update your list of packages:
  sudo apt-get update

  and then, for the textual installer, type:
  sudo apt-get install envyng-core

  or for the GTK GUI:
  sudo apt-get install envyng-gtk

  or for the QT4 GUI::
  sudo apt-get install envyng-qt

  I have followed your suggestions and I’ve fixed a few inconsistencies in the QT4 interface, therefore I need you help again with the translations for just 1 word (”Cancel”). I’ve tried to use what Rosetta suggested as alternative translations from other packages (i.e. firefox 3) therefore some translations will look like they are complete but please check that everything’s ok even in such case.

  Thanks again.

  P.S. please keep reporting bugs so that I can fix them ASAP.
  
  EDIT: I had posted the wrong repository. Sorry for the inconvenience.

• April 01, 2008
• 18:01

  EnvyNG 1.1.0 is now available - please test it

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  Here is a new release of EnvyNG (which supports only Ubuntu Hardy). EnvyNG 1.1.0 is made up of 3 packages:

  • envyng-core (which contains the main program + the textual interface)
  • envyng-gtk (which contains the new GTK interface for GNOME, XFCE, etc. users)
  • envyng-qt (which contains the new QT4 interface for KDE users)

  Brief Explanation
  If you install only envyng-core you will have only the textual interface which (currently) has less features than the 2 GUIs.

  If you want to install either envyng-gtk or envyng-qt you will have to install envyng-core first.

  New Features
  The 2 GUIs now enable you to:

  1) Install and save the packages with the driver to a folder
  2) simply download the packages without installing anything (this will be useful if you want to install such packages on a computer which is not connected to the Internet)

  EnvyNG relies upon my PPA repository (the packages are no longer built locally), therefore every time a new driver is released I will only have to update my repository and you won’t have to install a new release of EnvyNG. You will receive the update via update manager. The packages use DKMS (i.e. you won’t have to reinstall the driver for each kernel you have since this is done automatically), do not conflict with Ubuntu’s linux-restricted-modules, do not cause problems during dist-upgrades since they can be overwritten by Ubuntu’s official packages (if they provide a driver which is newer than the ones in my repository or if the kernel is upgraded, say, from 2.6.24 to 2.6.25, ABI bumps won’t do anything).

  Translations
  There was a problem with Launchpad therefore I wasn’t able to upload all your translations in time (but I promise I will ASAP). Thanks again for your translations.

  Instructions
  Please read point A of the FAQ before you install EnvyNG (so that the old EnvyNG doesn’t conflict with version 1.1.0)

  Testers
  Please test the packages and let me know if there are problems.

  Credits
  As I said in the past, I would have never done all this alone. I would like to thank all the Ubuntu developers who helped me, all the artists who participated in the artwork contest, and the translators. And special thanks to Carlos Perelló Marín who helped me with Rosetta.

• March 29, 2008
• 14:37

  A few updates

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  I’m still trying to get over the stress of graduating, dreaming (every night!) of having yet to do exams in order to graduate doesn’t help though. I’m working on my projects at a slower pace, fixing a few bugs here and there before the release of EnvyNG. I have designed a new system for URandR and I hope to write some real code soon.

  Today I have fixed a nasty bug in the old EnvyNG which affected automatic hardware detection with the following ATI cards:

  ['ATI FireGL V7300', 'ATI FireGL V7350', 'ATI FireGL V7350 Secondary', 'ATI FireGL V3400 Secondary', 'ATI FireGL V7300 Secondary', 'ATI FireGL V5200', 'ATI FireGL V3300 Secondary', 'ATI FireGL Z1 Secondary', 'ATI FireGL X3-256 Secondary', 'ATI FireGL X1 Secondary', 'ATI FireMV 2200 Secondary', 'ATI FireGL V3200', 'ATI FireGL X3-256', 'ATI FireGL Z1', 'ATI FireGL V5200 Secondary', 'ATI Mobility FireGL V5200', 'ATI FireGL X1', 'ATI FireMV 2200', 'ATI FireGL V3100', 'ATI FireGL V3300', 'ATI FireMV 2200 PCI', 'ATI FireMV 2200 PCI Secondary', 'ATI FireGL 8800', 'ATI Mobility FireGL V5000', 'ATI Mobility FireGL V5000', 'ATI Mobility FireGL V5250', 'ATI Mobility FireGL V7200', 'ATI FireGL V5100', 'ATI Mobility FireGL V3100', 'ATI Mobility FireGL V7100', 'ATI Mobility FireGL V3200', 'ATI FireGL V7200 Secondary', 'ATI FireGL T2 Secondary', 'ATI FireGL V7200 Secondary', 'ATI FireGL T2', 'ATI Mobility FireGL T2/T2e', 'ATI Mobility FireGL V5100', 'ATI FireGL V5100 Secondary', 'ATI FireGL V7100 Secondary', 'ATI FireGL V3100 Secondary', 'ATI FireGL X2-256/X2-256t Secondary', 'ATI FireGL V5000', 'ATI FireGL V3300', 'ATI FireGL V5000 Secondary', 'ATI FireGL V7200', 'ATI FireGL V3200 Secondary', 'ATI FireGL X2-256/X2-256t', 'ATI FireGL V7200', 'ATI FireGL V3400', 'ATI FireGL V7100']

  It’s all fixed in EnvyNG’s new release.

  As regards the translations for EnvyNG 1.1.0, you’re doing an amazing job. Thank you all. One thing that I’ve noticed though is that a few translators are having problems with the translation of the word “Main”, maybe because it’s a rather generic word which doesn’t make much sense out a context. Here is screenshot which hopefully will make things a bit clearer (”Main” is the label of the 1st tab):

  

• March 27, 2008
• 16:48

  Call for translations (for EnvyNG 1.1.0)

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  Dear users of EnvyNG,
  if you want to help to translate EnvyNG (1.1.0) into your native language you can contribute by using Rosetta’s web interface.

  The Italian translation is complete.

  As regards the EnvyNG 1.1.0, it will no longer build the packages locally but will rely on my repository so that you won’t have to install all those dependencies anymore. This means that when a new driver is released you will only have to wait for me to update my repository (rather than having to install a new release of EnvyNG).

  EnvyNG 1.1.0 is ready (but I haven’t released it yet), therefore the sooner the translations are available, the better.

  Thanks in advance for your help.

  P.S. the %s symbol must be left as it is.

• 15:42

  A quick update for Envy Legacy

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  If you were affected by this bug in the ATI installer on Ubuntu 64bit, the new release of Envy Legacy (envy_0.9.10-0ubuntu8) fixes it.

  EDIT: please try envy_0.9.10-0ubuntu9 instead

• March 24, 2008
• 10:12

  EnvyNG - The End of the Artwork Contest

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  First of all I would like to thank all the ones who contributed to EnvyNG with their icons and logos. You all did an amazing work. I received many works and they were simply beautiful, therefore it was very hard for me to choose only one. My choice is based on my (questionable) personal taste and on my (anything but clear) idea of what EnvyNG should look like, therefore I don’t expect everyone to agree with my decision.

  In the end I chose Alberto Gasparin’s icon and logo which I find beautiful, stylish and representative of the spirit of EnvyNG:

  

  

  Here is the list of the artists (for once in inverted alphabetical order) who created the other wonderful icons and logos:

  Valerio Tarabella
  Tommaso Gardumi
  Simone Zuliani
  Simone Scalas
  Sergio Gridelli
  Seaofgrass
  robilive
  rigobot
  Michael Gatta
  Julian Saraceni
  Jonathan Grass
  Jesús Alonso Abad
  Jack Eatnins
  Ivan Prignano
  Hussanin Al Hammady
  George Connor
  Frank Quotschalla
  Federico Pelloni
  excalibur1491
  Eduardo Ruiz
  deviantdark
  Davide Candita
  Daniele Reviglione
  Damiano Dallatana
  Antonio Acquarica
  Anton Petersson
  

  Thank you very much, you all rock!

  P.S. You will read more about EnvyNG soon

• March 20, 2008
• 8:36

  Just a quick update for EnvyNG

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  If you are affected by bug 204044 with the ATI driver, please try envyng_1.0.4ubuntu11.

  Let me know if there are still problems.

  EDIT: The problem with fglrx and DKMS is solved in envyng_1.0.4ubuntu12

• March 19, 2008
• 15:56

  I graduated again

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  This morning I defended my thesis (in foreign languages) whose title was “Language and Artificial Intelligence”. I experimented a bit also with chatterbots and I had corrected and modified Joe Strout’s therapist (written in Python), added a few more patterns and added the support for Espeak (a voice synthesiser). I had to present my work and then chat to the chatterbot (which I called “Alberta”) so as to show how it could trick us into thinking that we are dealing with a human being (in limited contexts).

  I made my laptop (running Hardy with Compiz) resume from standby, I used URandR to clone the content of my screen on the beamer and then the audio decided to crash. What the heck???
  

  I tested the program 2 days ago with the same projector and audio cable and it worked well. *Of course*, after my graduation both my program and Ubuntu worked well… I should have restarted my computer but I was running out of time.

  I also told the commission that something similar happened to Bill Gates

  I explained what my program was supposed to do, etc. and, as you can see in this photo, the defence of my thesis went great. I really can’t complain.
  

  Here I was explaining what happened to my laptop to a friend of mine:
  

  Of course now that I graduated I am also unemployed, therefore I’m officially looking for an IT job (better if located in Europe).

• March 10, 2008
• 16:05

  Updates on URandR

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  A few days ago I decided to have a deeper look at the API of the Python bindings for Xrandr (pyxrandr) written by Sebastian Heinlein and Michael Vogt. While I must admit that they did a good work with the bindings I’m still not completely satisfied with what I can do with them. This is not a complaint, actually I’m quite happy since it will give me a reason to learn C and complete the bindings myself (when I have the time). In the meantime I will use such bindings in URandR in at least 2 ways:

  1) To achieve compatibility with drivers which support only RandR 1.1 (such as “nvidia”, “fglrx”, etc.)
  2) To drop hardcoded names of the outputs for the sake of a more dynamic detection

  As regards point 1, this screenshot shows how URandR works with NVIDIA’s proprietary driver as well:
  

  If a driver doesn’t support RandR 1.2 you will only be able to change its resolution, refresh rate and to rotate the screen. This means that I won’t have to check which driver you’re using by reading your “/proc/$(pidof X)/maps”, which requires having root permissions. If URandR can get the current rotation of the screen through the xrandr bindings then the driver supports RandR 1.2, otherwise URandR will use compatibility mode.

  Thanks to point 2 I won’t have to worry about the names by which each driver refers to output connections. For example this table contains the names of the outputs used by the ATI (radeon) driver and by the Intel driver:

  Ati (radeon)	Intel
  VGA-0	VGA
  LVDS	LVDS
  DVI-0	TMDS-1
  S-video	TV

  I assume that drivers such as radeonhd, nouveau, etc. which support RandR 1.2 use other names. Fortunately I’ll no longer have to deal with their idiosyncrasies (directly) since the xrandr python bindings give URandR access to such names at runtime. Another thing I won’t have to worry about is the number of monitors, tvs, etc. that you connect to your graphic card. If you can connect 20 screens at the same time (provided that such thing is possible and that the driver supports it) URandR will detect them all. Thanks to these changes I was able to improve my own detection library (which is *a bit* more readable) and to make it much more dynamic as well.

  Here are my plans for the next release of URandR:

  * Support for RandR 1.x (DONE)
  * Support for any driver which supports RandR 1.2 (DONE)
  * PolicyKit integration - so that you don’t have to
  be root in order to run URandR and that if the
  framebuffer is not enough URandR can ask your
  root password only to set the virtual resolution
  in your xorg.conf
  * When you apply your settings, things can go wrong,
  therefore URandR will show a dialog with a countdown
  and a button which, if not clicked in time (if for example
  you disabled your main screen by mistake), will revert to
  your previous settings.

  When the new URandR is ready I will work on an alternative interface in QT4.

  Here are a two screenshots of URandR with the Intel driver with my laptop screen (LVDS) (virtually) positioned to the left of an external monitor (VGA):

  

  

  As you can see, each output has its own place in the treeview instead of having its own tab.

  When will all this be available? I don’t know, however I’m going to graduate (yes, again…) next week therefore I guess I’ll have (relatively, as usual…) plenty of time to work on URandR.

• March 06, 2008
• 11:18

  ATI Catalyst driver 8.3 in Envy Legacy and EnvyNG

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  The ATI Catalyst driver 8.3 is now available in Envy Legacy and EnvyNG. You can check the release notes of the driver here.

  As regards the future of EnvyNG, I’m glad to say that the GTK GUI for EnvyNG 1.1.0 is finished and the QT4 interface is in good shape. I only have to solve a problem with the logger in QT4 since using QProcess and TextEdit as a virtual terminal (a la VTE) makes the log look a bit weird. I’ll write a post about this.

  EDIT: if you had problems with Envy Legacy and the ATI driver, try version 0.9.10-0ubuntu7

• March 02, 2008
• 11:51

  EnvyNG is now available (Only for Hardy Heron)

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  EnvyNG (1.0.4ubuntu2) is now available.

  Here is a stripped down changelog:
  
* Defaultdepth is set to 24bit in xorg.conf as required because of BUG #94963
* Added: NVIDIA driver 169.12
* Changed: ATI packaging scripts are now based on Ubuntu's lrm
* Added: ATI driver 8-02
* Added: NVIDIA driver 96.43.05 and 71.86.04
* Added: patch for xen kernel 2.6.24 and NVIDIA driver 169.0x
Thanks to Kano for reporting the problem and the solution.
* Added: patch for rt kernel 2.6.24 and ATI driver
Thanks to Kano for reporting the problem and the solution.
* Changed: DKMS patches the NVIDIA driver if necessary.
* Changed: nvidia-settings is installed from the repos for all the driver
flavours.
* Changed: NVIDIA's libglx.so.$VERSION is now installed to
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/ rather than in
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/
* Added: NVIDIA support for DKMS
* Changed: the NVIDIA driver now depends on DKMS
* Changed: there no longer is a popup which asks users whether they want to
let EnvyNG configure their xorg.conf. It's all done
automatically.
* Changed: when a driver is uninstalled, the driver in xorg.conf is set to
an open source driver (as in the --uninstall-all mode)


  Features
  Have a look at this blog post

  I have updated the FAQ for EnvyNG which I suggest you to read. For example you will learn that you will have to launch Envyng with “envyng -t” rather than “envy -t” from the command line or that you will have to remove the old Envy before you install EnvyNG (see point A).

  Special thanks:

  • Ben Collins: suggested how different versions of the same module (EnvyNG and Ubuntu’s) could coexist without conflicting at boot

  
  

  • Bryce Harrington: suggested a tool for semi-automatically building drivers (which I hope to use in the future), suggested to switch to guidance, set up a page on the wiki, and (above all) took the time to answer all the question I asked him

  
  

  • Colin Watson: for quick but extremely useful lesson on bash on #ubuntu-devel

  
  

  • Daniel Holbach: contacted me about the EnvyNG project so as to make it possible for Envy to be 100% compatible with Ubuntu (I’ll reveal more about it later…). He organised the meetings and made sure that I had all the support I needed. He also corrected the way EnvyNG was packaged so as to make it compliant with Ubuntu’s policy.

  
  

  • Kano: told me about two issues with DKMS and gave me the solution to both problems. In case you’re wondering, yes he is the guy behind Kanotix.

  
  

  • Mario Limonciello: was very helpful with the ATI driver. He wrote a patch which I used in an earlier (never released) version of EnvyNG.

  
  

  • Martin Pitt: expressed his doubts on the first patch to /sbin/lrm-video I suggested and accepted my 2nd patch in Ubuntu.

  
  

  • Matthew Domsch: gave me a brief but extremely valuable lesson on how DKMS and modules work and helped me with my first dkms.conf .

  
  

  • Michael Vogt: helped me with a few things in EnvyNG and (above all) was always there when I had a doubt.

  
  

  • Timo Aaltonen: uploaded my patch and was very helpful with the l-r-m.

  
  

  Without their help there would have been no EnvyNG. I think it was Daniel who suggested the creation of a page on the wiki titled “EnvyNG”. I liked the name and this is how EnvyNG was born.

  I must admit that working with (Ubuntu and non-Ubuntu) developers who are *a bit* more experienced than me is *slightly* better than working on my own. It was a real pleasure. I look forward to working with them again in order to improve the linux-restricted-modules and (hopefully) many other things in Ubuntu.

  This community rocks

  P.S. Enjoy this new release and let me know if you have problems with it

  EDIT1: I have just fixed a bug which affected the ATI driver. The fix is in EnvyNG (1.0.4ubuntu4)

  EDIT2: I have just fixed a bug which affected the NVIDIA driver (all versions but the latest). The fix is in EnvyNG (1.0.4ubuntu7)

• February 26, 2008
• 15:17

  A new Envy Legacy and the death of Envy New…

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  If you use an operating system other than Ubuntu Hardy you will now have to use Envy Legacy. Envy New is dead and will be soon replaced by EnvyNG.

  Release highlights of Envy Legacy:
  
* Fixed: Envy tried to install dkms on Debian.
* Fixed: the GUI didn't show the missing dependencies which can't be installed.
* Added: Nvidia drivers 96.43.05, 71.86.04
* Added: AMD Catalyst driver 8.02


  Enjoy

  EDIT: there was a problem with the ATI driver which I have just solved. Please download Envy Legacy again

  EDIT 2: I have updated the NVIDIA driver to version 169.12

• February 24, 2008
• 13:25

  More on the Artwork Contest

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  First of all I would like to thank you all for participating in the contest. I apologise if I didn’t reply to all your emails but I’m receiving so many emails that it’s hard to keep pace with your emails. I’m so busy doing the uploads of your work, coding EnvyNG and living my life (but only in my spare time)… anyway I just wanted to let you know that you ROCK and that I do appreciate all the effort you’re putting into your works.

  I have set up a new gallery with all your logos (with thumbnails) so that I don’t have to edit html code every time I receive a new logo. I will only have to upload the new logos and the php scripts which I’m using (LGR Photo) will update the gallery for me.

  NOTE: unfortunately the script supports only .jpg.For this reason I had to convert all your works to jpgs therefore the quality of the images in the gallery may be poorer than the one of the originals (which I will use for EnvyNG). If you know a php script with supports pngs and svgs, and which creates albums from folder structure, please let me know.

  I would like to make it clear that there’s no rush to create and send me your works since EnvyNG 1.1.x is still under heavy development. EnvyNG 1.0.x won’t include the new GUI and hasn’t been released yet.

  Here’s something I managed to do yesterday (despite the fact that I hadn’t slept at all the night before):
  

  The error dialog (of the QT4 interface) shows what prevented the installation process to end successfully in EnvyNG. You will be able to copy and paste the content of the text browser in dialog (hopefully) without having to send me the full log.

  QT4 is great

  Of course I’ll do something similar in GTK as well.

• February 22, 2008
• 13:08

  Artwork Contest for EnvyNG

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  The reactions to the screenshots of the prototypes of EnvyNG 1.1.x were positive however some users (see the comments to my previous posts and this blog post ) led me into thinking that it’s time for me to change EnvyNG’s icon and logo.

  I won’t draw a new icon and logo myself though. I wouldn’t define myself as skilled with the GIMP or Inkscape therefore I need your help:

  • If you are a designer (or you can use either the GIMP, Inkscape, etc.) you can send me an icon and logo (you can find my email address on my website) which reflect your idea of what EnvyNG should look like.
  • If you’re not a designer you can post a comment the artwork you think it’s more appropriate.

  Requirements for the icons and logos:

  1. They cannot contain trademarked components (e.g. ATI or NVIDIA’s logos).
  2. Their license has to be GPL 2.
  3. The preferred size of the logo is (more or less) 550×133 pixels.
  4. The preferred file formats are “png” or (even better) “svg”.
  5. It would be better if the colours reproduce the look and feel of the old Envy, however you’re free to surprise me in this respect.

  For further details you can have a look at the Frequently Asked Questions.

  Two Italian users have already sent me their logos. Of course your (polite) feedback on this blog is more than welcome.

  Follow this link to participate.

  EDIT: the new galley is here

• February 20, 2008
• 15:42

  A few updates - Part 2

   » ‎ Alberto Milone

  Features in EnvyNG 1.1.x

• A new interface in GTK.
  Its code will be cleaner (more readable and sensible). I will use SimpleGladeApp as glatzor (Sebastian Heinlein) suggested a long time ago.
  It won’t waste as much screen space as it used to do (see the screenshot below) as using Envy in 640X480 is not an easy task. It will use tabs and a treeview.
• A new interface in QT4
  EnvyNG will have an alternative interface written in PyQT4 so that it has a native look on KDE4 and that it doesn’t require GTK dependencies, VTE, etc. It will also use Adept instead of Synaptic.
• An improved Logger
  The logger of EnvyNG will be improved so that it will be easier for you (and for me) to see what goes wrong in the installation process.
  In GTK I use VTE to show the output of the subprocess which performs the installation, uninstallation, etc. and there’s still room for improvement.
  In QT4 I use a KProcess and insert the output into a QTextEdit widget. I rely only on QT4 (no VTE is required).

• Save the packages built by EnvyNG to your hard disk
  You will be able to either build, install and save the packages to your hard disk or just build and save without any need to install such packages. For example you might build the packages on a computer which is faster or which has access to a broadband internet connection and install such packages on another computer which lacks these features (in this case you will have to configure your xorg.conf manually).
• EnvyNG will be split into 3 packages
  envy-core - which contains the program and its textual interface and doesn’t depend on any GUI toolkit so that if, for example, you want to include EnvyNG in your customised distro but don’t have enough space for either the GTK or the QT4 libraries in your livecd, you can include just the textual installer.
  envy-gtk - the GTK interface
  envy-qt - the QT4 interface
  I will set up a PPA repository so that if you do a “sudo apt-get install envy-qt” (or -gtk), envy-core will be installed automatically as a dependency.

  The new GTK interface:

  

  The new QT4 interface:

  

  P.S. In case you’re wondering, I will update the good old Envy soon.