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Amarok 1.4.9.1 for Mandriva 2008.1

Published

1 month, 4 weeks ago

. 3 Comments

Amarok 1.4.9.1 was released 6 weeks ago and was backported to Mandriva 2008.1 some times after. Usually I wait the “official” backport to rebuild the RPM with some extra features and add it to my personnal repository.

But this time it’s different: for Mandriva 2008.1, all the features I added to my builds (especially the full SQLite, MySQL and Postgresql database support) are now included in the “officialy” backported RPM. So starting from Mandriva 2008.1, you don’t need my Amarok backports. All you need is the love from the official backport repository (FTP URL given above). I’m happy as this mean more free time for me and less things to maintain !

Website Backup Script: bug fix release

Published

kev

1 month, 4 weeks ago

in English

. 0 Comments

14 months after the last release, here is a new version of my website backup script. As you can see in the changelog, this version is essentially released to fix some bugs.

Changelog:

Check version of Python (at least v2.4 is required)
Rename --debug option to --verbose
Add a --dry-run option for testing
Remove use of deprecated pexpect methods
Add and update some error messages

QLC 2.6.1 for Mandriva 2008.1

Published

kev

2 months, 1 week ago

in English

. 0 Comments

I’ve just backported QLC 2.6.1 from Fedora Core to Mandriva 2008.1. Q Light Controller is a software designed to pilot lights (both moving and static ones) on stages via the DMX communication protocol. This is my first step to bring together two of my main recent interests: stage lightning and linux.

These RPMs are currently only available for the x86_64 version of Mandriva but includes the Open DMX USB drivers and Lighting Architecture for Linux (LLA) packages. All the sources of these packages came from the repository I found in the “LLA, OpenDMX USB and Q Light Controller Tutorial” tutorial.

I haven’t played with QLC yet: I’ve just started it and as you can see on the screenshot it seems to work. Happy testing !

HP w2207h external display on Intel 945

Published

kev

4 months, 2 weeks ago

in English

. 5 Comments

I recently had the oportunity to plug the HP w2207h screen (see review #1 and review #2) as an external display to my Samsung Q35 laptop. The external display has a native resolution of 1680×1050 and the laptop’s is 1280×800.

The laptop is powered by an Intel 945 graphic chip:

[root@localhost ~]# lspci 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) (…)

After some googling and tests, I’ve designed the perfect xorg.conf for this configuration:

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the xorg.conf man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

Section "Extensions"
  Option "Composite"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
  AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse does not work
EndSection

Section "Module"
  Load "dbe" # Double-Buffering Extension
  Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
  Load "extmod"
  Load "type1"
  Load "freetype"
  Load "glx" # 3D layer
  Load "dri" # direct rendering
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
  Identifier "Keyboard1"
  Driver "kbd"
  Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
  Option "XkbLayout" "fr"
  Option "XkbOptions" "compose:rwin"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
  Identifier "Mouse1"
  Driver "mouse"
  Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
  Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
  Identifier "SynapticsMouse1"
  Driver "synaptics"
  Option "SHMConfig" "on"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier "laptop"
  Option "PreferredMode" "1280x800"
  Option "Below" "external"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier "external"
  Option "PreferredMode" "1680x1050@60"
  HorizSync 24.0 - 82.0
  VertRefresh 48.0 - 76.0
  Modeline "1680x1050@60" 147.14 1680 1784 1968 2256 1050 1051 1054 1087 -HSync +Vsync
EndSection

Section "Device"
  Identifier "device1"
  VendorName "Intel Corporation"
  BoardName "Intel 810 and later"
  Driver "intel"
  Option "DPMS"
  # Option "XaaNoOffscreenPixmaps" "1"
  Option "monitor-LVDS" "laptop"
  Option "monitor-VGA" "external"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Identifier "screen1"
  Device "device1"
  Monitor "external"
  Subsection "Display"
    Virtual 1680 1850
  EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier "layout1"
  InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
  InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
  InputDevice "SynapticsMouse1" "AlwaysCore"
  Screen "screen1"
EndSection

What I’ve learned so far during these experiments:

With DRI, virtual screen can’t be greater than 2048×2048 for Intel 945 (or less) chips. This explain why my screens are one above the other instead of side-by-side.
XRandR and its friend KRandRTray make screen positionning user-friendly…
…until you play with the xrandr’s “--off” option ! After I manually called it, this parameter disabled all my screens, forever, and at each boot. I’ve randomly deleted xorg-related files, but I still didn’t know how I solved this mess. If you have a better understanding of how xrandr store its configuration, please let me know !
Dual screening is awesome !