bodom_lx at task3 dot cc

If you are running Debian Sid (i386) and are trying to install Gnome using

apt-get install gnome

You will probably might be disappointed because of problems regarding gnome-desktop-environment, ekiga, ptlib (libpt2.6.4) and opal (libopal3.6.4). Everything seems related to a missing 386 version of libpt2.6.4 on Debian Sid. Also libpt2.6.4-plugins is missing. Packages are also reported to be broken.

Well, I was tired to wait for the right solution of Debian’s Gnome maintainers (respect to all of them!) and have just built my version of ptlib with built-in plugins. If you download it, install it and try again to install gnome, everything works fine.
Obviously, there are reasons behind the absence of a i386 version of libpt2.6.4 and libpt2.6.4-plugins from Debian Sid repositories. My workaround is surely not the right way to fix the problem, as I don’t know the reasons of the blocks on those packages. It may be either serious technical reasons or “simpler” political reasons. You might prefer to wait for the heroes to fix the problem in the Debian way. You are advised, anyway.

If you feel brave and just want to see your Gnome Desktop Environment appear on your Sid box then follow these steps:
1) Download my libt2.6.4 Debian Sid package. It provides libpt.2.6.4 and libpt2.6.4-plugins required by Ekiga, which is required by gnome-desktop-environment
2) Install it:

dpkg -i libpt2.6.4_2.6.4-1_i386.deb

3) Try again to install gnome:

apt-get install gnome

Stop here if everything is fine!

If it doesn’t work:
4) Try first to install libopal3.6.4:

apt-get install libopal3.6.4

If it works, go back to step 3.

If it doesn’t:
a) Try first to install Ekiga:

apt-get install ekiga

If there are still problems with libopal:
b) Download my libopal3.6.4 Debian Sid package. It provides libopal3.6.4, which is also required by Ekiga.
c) Install it:

dkpg -i libopal3.6.4_3.6.4-1_i386.deb

Go back to step 3.

Good luck!

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For people having Intel graphic chipset under Gnu/Linux, performance using 3D applications or Compiz-* window manager effects has always been a problem. Intel drivers for Xorg never gave problems but have also never been brilliant. I always looked around searching for xorg.conf tuning configuration entries.
Today I was simply browsing Ubuntu Wiki and discovered the UxaTesting page. I wanted to know something about UXA and Intel drivers, so I found a Wikipedia definition:

In computing, UXA is the reimplementation of the EXA graphics acceleration architecture of the X.Org Server developed by Intel. Its major difference with EXA is the use of GEM, replacing Translation Table Maps.

Yeah cool, the official Xorg Wiki Intel Graphics Driver page Gives also some more information, so if you’ve got one of these chipsets (you can verify using lspci | grep VGA ):

• i810 and variants thereof
• i815
• i830M
• 845G
• i852GM
• 855GM
• 865G
• 915G and variants (GMA 900)
• E7221
• 945G and variants (GMA 950)
• 946GME
• G33
• Q33
• Q35
• 965G/Q
• G35
• G41
• G43
• G/GM/Q45

You may want to try out the new acceleration method by adding this line


Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"


To your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, in section “Device”.

Please note that:

1. UXA is not yet stable as EXA. Try it out, signal your experience on the Ubuntu wiki page and fill out a bug if necessary
2. You will need at least Xorg server 1.6.0
3. You will need at least xf86-video-intel-2.6.2 drivers
4. I don’t think this is mandatory, but please tell me if you encounter differences when updating to 2.6.30.x kernel. I already have 2.6.30.0 on Sid so I don’t know if with a previous version this is working

On Debian Sid I just had to add the Option line to my xorg.conf file.
The performance differences are noticeable and incredible. Everything runs faster and smoother.
My glxgears output went from 60 FPS (using EXA) to 425 FPS (using UXA).
This is a 700% performance improvement!

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Unipoli is a simple simulation of the very popular board game Monopoly by Hasbro. Unipoli is the Java outcome of the Programming Project course I followed in Academic Year 2007 – 2008.

I don’t know for how long the official project page will stay on Unibz servers, therefore I’m keeping this page on task3.

Project Members

• Riccardo Buttarelli
• Daniel Graziotin
• Martin Leitgeb
• Massimiliano Pergher

Mission Statement

This document was the first step made in facing the project:
The project will provide a simple simulation of the very popular board game Monopoly. Unipoli will allow a multiplayer experience (up to 8 human players) on the same machine but not over a network.
We will implement the classical Standard (Atlantic City version) Monopoly game board layout, produced by Charles Darrow, and later by Parker Brothers.
However, by virtue of being a virtual implementation of the real game, Unipoli will overtake some aspects of the real Monopoly game, giving to the players unique visual experiences. As example, we will highlight owned lands with the color associated to their owners. When a player decides to sell a property, the board will be obscured, leaving the lands owned by the player well visible.
Like in the original game, the purpose is to dominate the competition against the opponents, and be the last to survive. Due to time problems, we will not implement all the rules and game features. For example, hotels will not be included in our game version.

The GUI will consist of two main components:

• A 2D top view of the game-board, that will occupy about the 80% of the window.
• A sidebar containing information on players and the dice.

Players will be able to buy lands and build houses in case of monopoly. The opponents have to pay rents if a land is owned. There will be both factories and railroads.
Our game implementation will also feature the so-called Chance Cards.
There wonʼt be the possibility to play as the Bank. Money will just be considered as a number which increases and decreases. Therefore, a graphical representation of paper money is not scheduled.

Screenshots

Unipoli - Board Overview

Unipoli: user choices

Documentation

• Vision Statement (pdf)
• Vision Statement Presentation (pdf)
• User Stories (pdf)
• Noun Extraction (pdf)
• Product Backlog (pdf)
• UML Classes, Hierarchy and Relations (png)
• UML Classes in details (huge png)
• A more precise Class Diagram (huge png)
• Javadoc (browsable)

Source code and Javadoc

• Unipoli 1.0 source code (tar.gz)
• Unipoli 1.0 Javadoc (tar.gz)

Binaries

• Unipoli 1.0 with splash-screen (jar, jvm 1.6)
• Unipoli 1.0 (jar, jvm 1.5)

License

Unipoli is released under the GPL v. 3

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <http ://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

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BD-theme Zen is a minimalistic, imageless, 2-columns, orange Wordpress theme.
Its clean design was inspired by the great style of Dean Lee blog. The theme was quite written from scratch, using Chris Nolan’s modified version of the default WordPress theme as codebase, that is optimized for viewing at 1024 pixels and adds sidebars on pages and posts.
BD-theme Zen is thought for focusing on the content of your posts while maintaining a delicious but clean aspect.

BD-theme Zen Screenshot

Features:

• Minimalistic, clean, zen design. Following Plaintxt principles
• Imageless, lightweight, fast
• Content separated from funcionalities: big menu on top and classical menu on right side
• Wide space for content: thought for developers who post code snippets
• Ready for Wordpress sidebar, but also uses custom widgets (called BD-widgets)
• BD-widgets are just blocks which integrates default wordpress functions and html
• Tested with every famous browser: IE7, IE8, FF3, Chrome, Opera 10

Download:

• 2009-01-04 – version 0.2

License:

BD-theme-zen is released under the GNU GPL v3. See the source code or http ://www.gnu.org/licenses/ for details.

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I’ve never been a big fan of rpm-based Gnu/Linux distributions, since I’ve always preferred the stability of Debian and Debian based distros, with their great dpkg system.
The problem with Debian on Macbooks is that I do not see both the stability and performance anymore, as I have to use Lenny/Sid. Etch is too old and I don’t have the time (*sic*) to play with it to make it work well. Lenny should be next to be released but I don’t feel the very famous stability AND lightness of Debian distributions on this release, like I was accustomed in the past years. Is this because I own a Macbook? Maybe, but a Macbook Santa Rosa is nothing more than an Intel-powered notebook with some strange input devices and a strange non-bios system

Regarding Ubuntu, I believe that this distribution has become naff and really slow. See this Slashdot discussion on this topic.

Yesterday I stumbled to Scientechie review of Fedora 10, which convinced me to try it out.
The software shipped with Fedora 10 is aligned with the one provided with the other distributions: Gnome 2.24.0, kernel 2.6.27.5, NetworkManager 0.7.0 (svn) and so on. Read the release notes for more information.

Fedora 10 really surprises me, as it is the first Gnu/Linux distribution in many, many years that makes me feel again the great stability and performance of the Penguin. Therefore I’m writing this review that is also a how-to, as it contains some fixes for Fedora 10 and Macbooks.

Read more…

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I really like (and miss) Linux Mint Menu (mintmenu), so I installed it on my Debian Sid box and here is how I managed it:

• Install mintsystem and mintmenu deb packages, either by adding mint repository to yout sources.list file or by downloading them from mint packages or simplier, by grabbing them from my blog
• Help it to recognize your applications by symlinking some files in /etc/xdg/menus (as root):
  

  ln -s gnome-applications.menu applications.menu
  ln -s gnome-preferences.menu preferences.menu
  ln -s gnome-settings.menu settings.menu

• Add mintMenu to your Gnome panel..

et voilà! Here are the two deb files I’m using:
mintsystem_61_all
mintmenu_4.2_all

Here is an updated screenshot:

MintMenu complete under Debian Sid

If you also want to enable beagle or tracker, be sure to add the correct search command in the preferences of mintMenu (see the screenshot)

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