Upgrade from lenny to squeeze - first impressions

Update: I reported the deluge issues and added a new problem about the lack of click on tapping on the touchpad.

---

I know that installation reports and upgrade reports need to be submitted to the BTS, but I just want to point out some issues for people that might hit the same issue on upgrade from lenny to squeeze.

But before that I must say I like the new Debian site(s) look.

Issue number one: When upgrading from lenny's deluge to squeeze's deluge, the new version of the app is quite different from the prevoious version. Here are some things to take into account:

• when starting for the first time the new version it will take ages to check (and probably recalculate some checksums); make sure you don't mind the I/O activity when you start it; a torrent will not be available until this check is done
  
• the new version relies on a client-server model which is disabled if you use the "classic mode" (Edit->Preferences->Interface)
• some features available in the old version are not available in the new version (e.g.: graph for traffic and embedded search function)
• some features are availbale as modules, but there are just a few modules
• when starting the graphical interface in the new mode, don't use the "Start daemon" button, use the "Connect" button. If you start the daemon via the "Start daemon" button the "Connect" button will become "Disconnect" although the client is NOT connected. Using the "Connect" button directly solves the problem.
• There is an ugly side panel (on the left side) which, IMHO has no real function or use, except filtering in the view the active downloads or similar things
• when choosing the place to save a torrent and trying to set that place as the default location, deluge will not remember that setting
• closing now (with the daemon option) the app will close just the client, but the server/daemon will remain in the background, unless is explicitly closed (there is a dedicated menu entry)
  

Issue number 2: I seem to experience some weird glyph/graphic area reshuffling in GNOME (maybe X?) after recovering from hibernate. With a total (according to my current sloppy counting) 5 resumes, things get back to normal, but I suspect the next hibernate-resume cycle will restart the glyph reshuffling cycle.

By glyph/graphic area reshuffling I mean alterations of the shapes of the glyphs (and some areas on the background picture) in such a manner that it seems that within a set of 8/16/N (?) lines are shifted/rotated sideways with some undefined and different ammount each, but in a reproducible manner ("b" will always be doodled in the same way, no matter if is in the word "be" or if is in the word "absurd".

I'll try to provide some picture in the bug report, once I report this issue in BTS.

Update: I reported this in Debian's BTS and upstream (with screenshots, too). I am not convinced the problem is in the kernel since I tried an old kernel and saw the same issue. I suspect X is at fault.

Issue number 3: This is more like a convenience issue. In the past I was using "hibernate" with uswsusp which I understand is now broken beyond repair and replaced by pm-utils. The thing I miss in the hibernate process now is the ability to abort the hibernation process as it was possible in lenny's uswsusp by pressing the backspace key during the storing of the state on disk phase.


Issue number 4: The upgrade process was quite tedious because once I tried upgrading aptitude, python2.6 was pulled in and almost all apps ended up needing upgrading due to the chaining of necessary package upgrades.


Issue number 5: For some weird reason pulseaudio was initially installed making playback of any audio impossible (the apps wanting to emit noises would just freeze but they were TERM-inatable) and later I've seen a default null audio sink was defined for me. Killing pulseaudio and removing the ~/.pulse directory fixed the issue (but I should probably see why pulseaudio didn't work properly in the first place because I suspect the problem will reappear at the next restart - I usually use hibernate).

Issue number 6: Tapping the touchpad no longer results in a click. Maybe some packages got removed? And, no, it is the same when I remove the external mouse, so it is not because of some smart behaviour of that sort.

Otherwise I am quite satisfied with the result of the upgrade. A huge "thank you" to all people involved in the development of squeeze.

Howto: transitioning to grub2 from lilo (LVM)

Failing to boot my self compiled kernel, I got to the conclusion that, in order to try to debug the initramfs issues I might have I needed to pass easily different break=* parameters on the kernel command line to identify which part of the boot within the initramfs goes awry.

Since I was stuck with lilo and booting with different parameters is a pain when using it, I decided is time to try to install and start using grub-pc, aka grub2.


Documentation on migrating from lilo (or even grub 1) is lacking, even more for cases where you have the /boot directory on LVM, like I do. IMHO, one of the most important things during a migration is to never lose the ability to boot properly your system, which means that it was a must not to write the grub code into the MBR unless I was 100% sure I will be able to boot with grub at the next reboot.


I tried quite a few approaches (installing grub in a partition, trying to create a real /boot partition), but they all failed on way or another, so I will not describe any of those failing methods.


What I found to work was to:

• install the grub-pc package,
• create its configuration and set it up (creates the module files in /boot/grub and /boot/grub/grub.cfg),
• then install the boot code on an external USB stick, while nothing else was to written on the stick (so no data lost from the stick);
• after successfully booting from the USB stick, install the boot image on the internal harddisk's MBR
• reboot and be happy with grub2
  

Note that, although I run lenny, I decided to use sid's grub package since the little information on grub2 that existed pointed to grub-mkconfig which doesn't exist in lenny's grub-common package. Due to some bug I found earlier at work when trying to migrate my workstation, I knew the squeeze version wasn't good either because it failed to properly boot systems with / on LVM. The earliest version that works is 1.96+20090603-2 and installs without problems directly from sid on a lenny system.

Now lets go over the steps in more detail*.

Creating the configuration is a matter of creating the device.map file and grub.cfg:
update-grub


Create a core.img file with support for lvm:
grub-mkimage --output=/boot/grub/core.img ext2 chain pc gpt biosdisk lvm


Install on the MBR of the USB stick (making sure lvm will be visible):
grub-install --modules="pc ext2 biosdisk gpt chain lvm" /dev/sdb


Try to boot from the stick at least one kernel. If it fails, you probably didn't add in the proper modules (see the possible module names in /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc and add the necessary ones in the modules list). If you're dropped into the GRUB rescue prompt, use ls and set to check if the root and prefix variables are set correctly and if the lvm root is visible.

If you manage to boot, you're ready to replace lilo or your old boot loader.


Install on the internal disk MBR:
grub-install --modules="pc ext2 biosdisk gpt chain lvm" /dev/sda


Reboot and be happy.



Please note that you might have added some optional parameters in your old lilo.conf which aren't present in the new /boot/grub/grub.cfg file and you might want to add those. If you want to add some option to all the images, you'll probably want to append those parameters to the value of this variable from /etc/default/grub:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="quiet"

For instance, since I want to find when sleep stopped working for my machine, I changed mine into:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_sleep=beep ec_intr=0"


After that, run update-grub once more to propagate the changes into /boot/grub/grub.cfg.





* skipping package installation; just use aptitude's text user interface and install grub-pc and grub-common from sid; depending on the system you might need to install grub-efi, grub-ieee1275 or even grub-linuxbios instead of grub-pc

[help] kernel: same config as debian, but mine doesn't boot

Update2: I finally managed to figure out what was wrong. The pristine kernel was missing this patch ata_piix-ich8-fix-native-mode-slave-port.patch which I got from the linux-patch-debian-2.6.18_2.6.18.dfsg.1-24etch2_all.deb package.

Fortunately the package was still available from oldstable, but I am wondering when will snapshot.d.[no] return.

Now I can get back to detecting which is the commit that broke sleep, although I suspect I am searching for 9666f40:

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commit;h=9666f400

---

Update: I managed to install grub2 and the initramfs fails to find the root because it can't find the "st" volume group. Since I compiled in the kernel the support for LVM, it was clear that any issue that might have appeared was due to the initramfs.

All this seems to be due to this:

(initramfs) dmsetup ls
/proc/misc: No entry for device-mapper found
Is device-mapper driver missing from kernel?
Failure to communicate with kernel device-mapper driver.
/proc/misc: No entry for device-mapper found
Is device-mapper driver missing from kernel?
Incompatible libdevmapper 1.0.2.27 (2008-06-25)(compat) and kernel driver
Command failed

So now I just have to figure out how to patch the old kernels to work or how to install an older libdevmapper.

---

My laptop doesn't resume properly from sleep (although hibernate/resume works), although it worked at some point in the past with 2.6.18 (at least the one in Debian Etch worked, kind of).

In an attempt to git bisect in order to find which was the commit responsible for the regression, I tried to compile the vanilla 2.6.18 Linux kernel with the exact configuration (with minor differences) as the Debian Etch kernel, but I was surprised to see that my make-kpkg compiled kernel didn't boot.

The differences are:

--- config-2.6.18-6-amd64    2009-06-17 00:57:56.000000000 +0300
+++ /boot/config-2.6.18-heidi    2009-06-17 10:36:49.000000000 +0300
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
#
# Automatically generated make config: don't edit
-# Linux kernel version: 2.6.18
-# Thu Dec 25 21:04:29 2008
+# Linux kernel version: 2.6.18-heidi
+# Wed Jun 17 10:36:49 2009
#
CONFIG_X86_64=y
CONFIG_64BIT=y
@@ -1045,7 +1045,7 @@
CONFIG_IDE_GENERIC=m
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CMD640=y
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CMD640_ENHANCED is not set
-CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPNP=m
+CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPNP=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPCI=y
CONFIG_IDEPCI_SHARE_IRQ=y
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_OFFBOARD is not set
@@ -1069,7 +1069,6 @@
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HPT34X=m
# CONFIG_HPT34X_AUTODMA is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HPT366=m
-CONFIG_BLK_DEV_JMICRON=m
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SC1200=m
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_PIIX=m
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IT821X=m
@@ -1144,7 +1143,6 @@
CONFIG_AIC79XX_DEBUG_ENABLE=y
CONFIG_AIC79XX_DEBUG_MASK=0
CONFIG_AIC79XX_REG_PRETTY_PRINT=y
-CONFIG_SCSI_ARCMSR=m
CONFIG_MEGARAID_NEWGEN=y
CONFIG_MEGARAID_MM=m
CONFIG_MEGARAID_MAILBOX=m
@@ -1360,6 +1358,7 @@
CONFIG_ADAPTEC_STARFIRE_NAPI=y
CONFIG_B44=m
CONFIG_FORCEDETH=m
+CONFIG_DGRS=m
CONFIG_EEPRO100=m
CONFIG_E100=m
CONFIG_FEALNX=m
@@ -1418,6 +1417,7 @@
#
CONFIG_TR=y
CONFIG_IBMOL=m
+CONFIG_3C359=m
CONFIG_TMS380TR=m
CONFIG_TMSPCI=m
CONFIG_ABYSS=m
@@ -2088,7 +2088,6 @@
CONFIG_SENSORS_ATXP1=m
CONFIG_SENSORS_DS1621=m
CONFIG_SENSORS_F71805F=m
-# CONFIG_SENSORS_F75375S is not set
CONFIG_SENSORS_FSCHER=m
CONFIG_SENSORS_FSCPOS=m
CONFIG_SENSORS_GL518SM=m
@@ -2116,7 +2115,6 @@
CONFIG_SENSORS_W83781D=m
CONFIG_SENSORS_W83791D=m
CONFIG_SENSORS_W83792D=m
-CONFIG_SENSORS_W83793=m
CONFIG_SENSORS_W83L785TS=m
CONFIG_SENSORS_W83627HF=m
CONFIG_SENSORS_W83627EHF=m
@@ -2350,6 +2348,7 @@
CONFIG_VIDEO_BTCX=m
CONFIG_VIDEO_IR=m
CONFIG_VIDEO_TVEEPROM=m
+CONFIG_USB_DABUSB=m

#
# Graphics support
@@ -2737,6 +2736,19 @@
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_GARMIN=m
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_IPW=m
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_KEYSPAN_PDA=m
+CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_KEYSPAN=m
+# CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_KEYSPAN_MPR is not set
+# CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_KEYSPAN_USA28 is not set
+# CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_KEYSPAN_USA28X is not set
+# CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_KEYSPAN_USA28XA is not set
+# CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_KEYSPAN_USA28XB is not set
+# CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_KEYSPAN_USA19 is not set
+# CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_KEYSPAN_USA18X is not set
+# CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_KEYSPAN_USA19W is not set
+# CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_KEYSPAN_USA19QW is not set
+# CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_KEYSPAN_USA19QI is not set
+# CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_KEYSPAN_USA49W is not set
+# CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_KEYSPAN_USA49WLC is not set
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_KLSI=m
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_KOBIL_SCT=m
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_MCT_U232=m
@@ -2756,6 +2768,8 @@
#
# USB Miscellaneous drivers
#
+CONFIG_USB_EMI62=m
+CONFIG_USB_EMI26=m
CONFIG_USB_AUERSWALD=m
CONFIG_USB_RIO500=m
CONFIG_USB_LEGOTOWER=m
@@ -3002,7 +3016,6 @@
CONFIG_ADFS_FS=m
# CONFIG_ADFS_FS_RW is not set
CONFIG_AFFS_FS=m
-# CONFIG_ASFS_FS is not set
CONFIG_HFS_FS=m
CONFIG_HFSPLUS_FS=m
CONFIG_BEFS_FS=m
@@ -3201,6 +3214,7 @@
CONFIG_SECURITY_NETWORK_XFRM=y
CONFIG_SECURITY_CAPABILITIES=y
# CONFIG_SECURITY_ROOTPLUG is not set
+CONFIG_SECURITY_SECLVL=m
CONFIG_SECURITY_SELINUX=y
CONFIG_SECURITY_SELINUX_BOOTPARAM=y
CONFIG_SECURITY_SELINUX_BOOTPARAM_VALUE=0

The initramfs simply stopped at an early point with some errors which look really weird taking into account debian kernel's shouldn't be that different from mine (photo described below):

Loading, please wait...
unknown keysym 'endash'
/etc/boottime.kmap.gz:23: syntax error
syntax error in map file
key bindings not changed
usb 1-2: device descriptor read/all, error -84
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: invalid MAP value 2
resume: libcrypt version: 1.4.1
resume: Could not stat the resume device file '/dev/sda5'
            Please type in the full path name to try again
            or press ENTER to boot the system:

I suspect the key map error, the usb error and the resume error to be unrelated to the boot problem.

For some reason I suspect the ata_piix error to be related.


After pressing enter more messages appeared:


The image reads further:

mount: mounting /dev/root on /root failed: No such device
mount: mounting /dev on /root/dev failed: No such device or directory
mount: mounting /sys on /root/sys failed: No such device or directory
mount: mounting /proc on /root/proc failed: No such device or directory
Target filesystem doesn't have /sbin/init.
No init found. Try passing init= bootarg.


(BusyBox prompt follows here).

I looked over the net for some hints, but i wan't able to find a solution.


Since I am forced to use Lilo (/boot on LVM) and I didn't managed to make grub-pc work on this system I am kind of stuck and don't know what to do to make the damn kernel boot.

I am running Debian Lenny, but I am willing to backport a few packages, if ncessary.

Help would be really appreciated.

Kernel issues - Debian and pristine

Ever since I bought this laptop I was quite content with it running Debian GNU/Linux (Lenny) and, except the sleep functionality not working (bug reported, but I have no answer for any new approaches) I have no other major issues.


Actually, the problems are partially solved since I am in a "pick your favourite bug" situation:

• with the 2.6.26 kernel from Debian the information about the power source is incorrect (kernel bug which goes away for me right since 2.6.27)
  
• while with a newer (>=2.6.27) pristine kernel, power information is accurate, but the entire bluetooth stack (init.d scripts and apps) needs a restart after a hibernate/resume cycle to work again; I added my info in the corresponding upstream bug and I hope it gets fixed

Still, I am really curious, since the Debian Kernel Team policy is to accept only patches accepted upstream, theorecally that would mean newer upstream kernels should work wrt that bluettoth issue, assuming this isn't a regression (it doesn't look like one from my experience).

So what is present in Debian kernels that isn't in the pristine ones that makes BT work afer resume? If you know the answer, please add it to the bug report.


On the Debian side of the kernel, which are the chances that newer Lenny kernels will include the power fixes necessary for MSI laptops to report power related info correctly? I know, I know, I should probably report a bug, but I want to know first if there will be a lenny-n-half release, otherwise it doesn't make sense.

cd-circleprint - calibration info for c5380

If you're using a HP Photosmart C5380 All-in-One printer to print on a CD, you might find it useful to use the following cd-circleprint configuration file when using mainly A4 paper format.


delta 20.0
begin_from_bottom 7.5
viewer /usr/bin/evince
converter convert
radius_inner 21
tickmarks 1
print_circle_boundaries 1
begin_from_left[0] 1.5
begin_from_left[1] 1.5
number_of_labels 2
debug 0
circle_radius[0][0] 50
circle_radius[0][1] 41
circle_radius[0][2] 41
circle_radius[0][3] 50
circle_radius[1][0] 50
circle_radius[1][1] 41
circle_radius[1][2] 41
circle_radius[1][3] 50
x_scale 1
y_scale 1


I am unsure if usually using A4 paper format changes anything, but the .ps file cd-circleprint creates uses A4 on my system.


Does anyone knows a decent editor for CD artwork?

Symbian develoment on Linux (almost native) (Part 1)

After my previous failed attempt at installing Carbide C++[1] to allow me to develop stuff for Nokia E71 (i.e. Symbian), recently I have been digging up the internet on information on how to develop directly in Linux.

After much digging and lots and lots of confusion, I actually managed to find some useful information which allowed me to install a cross compiler and the C++ SDK for my phone (S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1) on my MSI PR200 laptop which runs Debian Lenny (amd64). The compiler was built from source and its build arch is x86_64 linux, so it should be able to be a little bit faster than the precompiled binaries for i686.


The key of the solution was the GnuPoc project and the fork that offers support for platforms newer than S60 v2 which is avilable at:

http://www.martin.st/symbian/


Besides the GnuPoc download, you'll need to install the appropriate toolchain and compiler:

EKA1 + a modfied gcc release - for S60 v1 and v2
EKA2 + CodeSourcery's GCC (I chose the source variant) - for S60 v3 or newer and UIQ


The instruction on Martin's page are really good, so I won't repeat them here.



After this, there's the non-free part, the SDK installation which needs to be downloaded from forum.nokia.com (you need an account on forum nokia, but the download is free of charge). The installation procedure is also explained on Matrin's page and they work properly (at least they worked for me).

By the way, there are two variants of the SDKs: a full SDK (Java, C++) and one only for C++. The instructions refer to the C++ version, but I don't know if they'd work with the full version.



I did everything until this point and I haven't completed and/or tested if things work, but I'll do it and update the information.


[1] actually I needed a tool chain, but having a graphical IDE was looking really good

Coordinating localization via git

Note: this is quite long and might not be interesting for people not involved with /in either of: debian i18n, debian l10n, git, shell scripting.


For some time now I have been the de-facto coordinator of the Romanian localization team. During this time I was faced multiple times with problems related to motivation of the team members, setting goals for a release, coordination of the changes inside the team, integration of new translators in the team, loosing team members, my lack of time on some occasions and other problems.

I thought a lot about how to improve on those points and I was never satisfied with the answers I got. What I think was the worst problem in the team was the inability to set clear goals, especially during lenny's development cycle.

During sarge's and etch's development cycles we were in an infancy state and setting as the goal to have a fully translated installation process was really enough to keep people motivated. For sarge we missed by a small margin, but the translations were of poor quality, while for etch we worked more on improving the translations.


But during lenny it was bad, really bad. My free time had been shrinking for a while, starting with etch's release, and we were unable to set clear goal, since for etch we managed to have the installation process fully translated and a few other translations. There was no way for us to reach 100% translations during lenny's development cycle, so setting that as a goal was really unrealistic. Percents by themselves don't mean anything for people, and as long as there's no substance to those numbers, there's no motivation to reach for one arbitrary percent.

I tried to set as a goal translating the packages installed by default in a new installation, but that hit the eternal question How do we know easily which are those packages?. This remained sometimes unanswered or got an unsatisfying answer. Also, there was a goal to have correct diacritics for Romanian in lenny, to have aspell-ro that uses the correct diacritics.

I even got to a point that I, myself, lost my motivation and set myself a personal goal of overrunning the level the translations that the language just above Romanian had in the po-debconf l10n statistics (ranking between languages). This was nice way for me to keep myself motivated, but I had my reserves in making this motivation public out of fear of being misinterpreted, because, by a strange coincidence, that next language was Hungarian, and in Romania's history there was some friction between Hungaria and Romania, while there are still some tensions with the Hungarian minority in Romania, in areas where they represent the local majority.

I managed to reach my personal goal, but this wasn't addressing the big picture.



So, sometime around the start of this year I started thinking about ways to coordinate the Romanian localization team in order to have:

• a clear goal at any given time
• a way to always be able to change that goal as we go
• a way to sync with eventual calls for translations, or the current sid translations
  
• stats immediately available
• automated checks for spelling, correct diacritics usage and other checks that might be useful (e.g. translation completeness)
• an easy way to assign somebody else as a language coordinator (I would appreciate some help or I might even consider stepping down)
• easy integration of new translators (by providing immediate answer to the question "What can I do to help with the translations?")
  

For short, a tool that would allow the team to work more efficiently while having the possibility to set clear goals in order to keep people motivated.



So after some pondering, I thought that creating a repository with the translations and the helper tools that would do the funky sync, checks, stats would be the best way to do that. So I started hacking on that somewhere around July-August and I published the result, but without much publicity, since it is still incomplete.

Some of the technical details are still in a haze, but I have a general idea and I got some basic functionality.


Today I decided that I should announce this semi-officially though my blog, maybe I get some input, ideas, or even contributions (I really should write a TODO).




I give you the Debian L10n Romanian coordination repository.

This is a git repository that has some tools to facilitate translation coordination and the translations that are current in the distro for the team.


Can be cloned with:

git clone git://git.debian.org/git/users/eddyp-guest/debian-ro-repo.git

or, if you're behind a restrictive firewall:

git clone http://git.debian.org/git/users/eddyp-guest/debian-ro-repo.git



Currently the work flow for updating a translation is as follows:

1. source _bin/polibs (. _bin/polibs)
2. cd foo
3. po_refresh
4. complete the translation
5. po_rearrange "ro.po"
6. git add "ro.po" && git commit -m "updated translation for foo"
7. send the translation ("git format-patch origin" and send the patches by mail, or, alternatively, just "git push")
   

Features:

• provides a po_refresh function that can import material directly from http://i18n.debian.net/material, but can also allow manual imports (template.pot from a call from translation)
• for a new translation: source _bin/polibs (. _bin/polibs), make a directory with the name of the source package, cd into it, and run po_refresh
  
• po_rearrange - beautify and unify the layout of PO files (facilitating compact and sane diff-ing for PO files)
• po_merge uses compendium, if present
  

Planned features:

• sync translations/templates from package VCS-es (Vcs-* headers and debcheckout should be the means to the end)
• po_rearrange should be called as a pre-commit hook; should either reject the commit if the po file was not rearranged, or automatically rearranged before the commit
• generate stats
• add commands for "what's outdated", "what needs review", "submit translation", and maybe "reserve translation for offline use"
• conflict merges should be done via po_merge (.gitattributes is key here)
• support other file types (?) - does this make any sense?
• periodic and automated sync with sid for all translations
  

Problems:

• security - running tests automatically from files within the repo doesn't seem too wise, but looks like the only way to get automated testing on any translator machine; maybe keeping the code in a submodule might address this issue?
• entry level translators still have a hard time - UI sucks now; there should be a wrapper command that should use the library functions and should provide a useful help
  
• is git too difficult ? - git backend usage maybe should be cloaked?
• still in development/alpha stage - I still haven't figured some of the issues
• central repo or really distributed - should there be a central git repo where the coordinator(s) do the pushes? it seems the central repo with a small pushers team for new translators (which can't commit directly) might actually facilitate interactions between experienced and new translators to instruct/bring up to speed the rookies

I was hoping that the release notes for lenny would facilitate from this infrastructure, but unfortunately I was lately in a really inactive period wrt Debian.



Questions, suggestions, ideas are welcome.

Recommending the MSI MegaBook PR200WX-058EU laptop to Linux users

I recently bought a new MSI laptop and I am really pleased with my choice so far.

Since with the previous laptop I managed to kill two of my desired features, long battery life and pretty portable, I decided is time to look really well and see what the market has to offer.

I settled on a MSI PR200WX-058EU which has the following:

• built on a Centrino platform
• Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T8300 @ 2.40GHz
  
• Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN
• Intel mobile chipset
• 3GB of memory (yes, I would have enjoyed 4, but it seems the 32 bit barrier still decides hardware configurations)
• 320GB HDD
• DVD+/-RW
• Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller
• 12" wide screen (1280x800)
• 1 Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
• 8 cell battery by default (long battery life)
  
• 1 USB 2.0 Camera - uses luvc driver
• bluetooth
• 1 card reader
• 3 USB port, 1 HDMI, 1 D-sub 15 connector, 1 PCI Express port, modem port
• fingerprint reader
• an advertised weight of 1.8kg (I weighted it at 2.1kg with the 8 cell battery)
  

In other words a small and mobile powerhouse for which I payed 3800 RON (approx. 1100€). I'd say not too bad at all.

Thanks to Gonéri Le Bouder and some searches on the internet I concluded that
the brand is not bad at all, and now that I have it I really am sure.

Of course, I installed Debian Lenny on it (I also sent an installation report), and, in spite of the initial problems, I managed to make the laptop work pretty nice, but I am especially excited about the webcam, which works with the linux-uvc driver.


There were some issues, but I managed to fix some them while I have been ignoring some other. The LaptopTestingTeam page for MSI PR200 on the ubuntu wiki was very helpful.
What have I been ignoring?

• it seems that from time to time the battery charge status isincorrect, or acpi report that the AC is plugged in
• headphones don't automatically turn off the speakers
• fingerprint reader is not used yet, but I intent to experiment at some point with it (authentication via the fingerprint would be cool)
  
• the keyboard seems a little bit too hard (but I hope it will loose up with time)
• modem isn't probably working, but I don't think I'll ever try
• there are some issues in gnome-power-manager which cause strange behaviour and grief wrt screen brighness
• sleep doesn't work,but hibernation does
  

What would you do if I'd tell you that the battery lasts 4 hours or even more while the wlan is on and working (browsing and stuff like installing new packages, configs) with the brightness set to minimum?


I am really excited about this and I can say that I think I have found my next generation laptop, so if you're thinking of a cheap mobile powerhouse on which Linux must run, this laptop might be for you.

I find the following to be selling points (for a Linux buyer or others):

• comes with FreeDOS, so no extra money for an OS you don't use
  
• wifi works
• webcam works with luvc
• no big problems during install (the most severe are already fixed)
• long battery life, even when using wifi (4+ hours in browsing+some package installation mode, according to my tests)
• light enough to carry around easily (2.1kg, 2.4kg with charger)
• nice design - some people asked me if I bought a MacBook
• 4 state kill switch for all possible combinations for wifi/bluetooth
• hibernate works with 2.6.24 or newer (sleep doesn't, but I will try a few things later)
  
• there's no mechanical latch for the lid, there is a magnet, so there's no plastic to be broken, the laptop is more robust
• the 8 cell battery is thicker than the regular one, allowing better ventilation
• it seems it doesn't get too hot to put on my lap (still, I am a little afraid of blocking its ventilation due to the fabric of my clothes, so I'll probably try to carry around a hard paperboard or something like that)
• the big resolution 1280x800 (for this screen size) seems to partly compensate for the reduced physical size of the screen (12")
• bright screen

So, thanks again to Gonéri, Debian Installer team, LVM2 maintainers, Ubuntu Laptop Testing team, linux uvc developers, Lilo developers and maintainers, all the nice people who made and still make Debian possible.

svn-buildpackage pending changes

Just a few snippets:

Author: eddyp-guest
Date: Wed Sep 26 02:14:15 2007
New Revision: 4959

URL: http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/collab-maint/?sc=1&rev=4959
Log:
create a special branch for the svn "mkdir -p" like functionality until all scripts are converted to use this function and more tests are done

Added:
  deb-maint/svn-buildpackage/branches/svnmkdir-p/
    - copied from r4958, deb-maint/svn-buildpackage/trunk/

0 eddy@bounty ~/usr/src/svn-buildpackage/svnmkdir-p $ dpkg-parsechangelog
Source: svn-buildpackage
Version: 0.6.22
Distribution: UNRELEASED
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Eddy Petrișor
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 05:24:59 +0300
Closes: 408690 411666 414581 419996 423487 428225 428689 433404 433536 434932 435746 436133
Changes:
svn-buildpackage (0.6.22) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
.
[ Eddy Petrișor ]
* IMPORTANT: changed default behaviour of saving the configuration in
.svn/deb-layout by default to avoid stale data to override the
configuration options that were updated in the repository.
(Closes: #414581)
As a consequence, a new option --svn-savecfg was added to allow a
mechanism for easily overriding options locally
.
[ Gonéri Le Bouder ]
* SDCommon::sd_exit: read the parameter correctly is SDCommon::nosave=1
(Closes: #428225)
.
[ Eddy Petrișor ]
* s-u: when importing options from ~/.svn-buildpackage.conf, filter in
only the valid options (Closes: #428689)
* s-u: replace retcode with retval for consistency with svn-bp
* s-i: manpage still claimed layout 2 was not implmented (Closes: #433404)
* s-i: now really supports injects for layout 2 (with the disadvantage of
not creating the tag directory)
* s-i: no longer fails on initial checkout (Closes: 411666)
* when using origUrl, make sure the origDir exists before downloading
in it
* s-i: man page: document the missing -o option (Closes: 419996, 435746)
* s-u: complete the man page synopsis section (Closes: 436133)
* s-b: do not require the build deps to be present when exporting
(Closes: 423487); thanks Stefano Zacchiroli for the patch
* SDcommon.pm: enhance the guessing algo of the layout to make svn-upgrade
guess correctly on layout 2 repos; thanks Gregor Herrmann for the patch
(Closes: 434932)
* Makefile: the version of the package is placed quoted in "SDCommon.pm" so
that versions like "0.6.22~bpo40+1" don't cause s-b to barf
* SDCommon.pm: implemented a function that emulates a 'mkdir -p'
functionality for svn; this will allow a fix for #434932
* s-i: based on the mkdir-p functionality create missing directories on
inject (Closes: 433536, 408690)

svn-buildpackage:development, RFH

Although slow, development on svn-buildpackage still continues. Sorry for the delays, but both myself and Eduard Bloch have been unable to assign more time to svn-buildpackage development in the last few months.

From the changelog of the trunk package (unreleased 0.6.22):

  [ Eddy Petrișor ]
* IMPORTANT: changed default behaviour of saving the configuration in
.svn/deb-layout by default to avoid stale data to override the
configuration options that were updated in the repository.
(Closes: #414581)
As a consequence, a new option --svn-savecfg was added to allow a
mechanism for easily overriding options locally

BTW, did you know that svn-buildpackage is maintained in collab-maint and welcomes contributions and committers/reviewers (especially those)?

In case you want to help, this is the place to start from:

svn co svn+ssh://svn.debian.org/svn/collab-maint/deb-maint/svn-buildpackage/trunk

or

svn co svn://svn.debian.org/svn/collab-maint/deb-maint/svn-buildpackage/trunk

If you don't have commit access to collab-maint yet (just make a request on the alioth tracker and that will be fixed ;-) ).

hmm, I was here before

I am stumbling again on the problem of not being able to install libgnome-dev and libsvn-dev side by side, namely bug #429025.

For some reason, I was under the impression that the bug was fixed... but apr-util is behind :-(.

debian lenny on my laptop

I did this Friday night:

cat /etc/debian_version
lenny/sid

The good:

• the upgrade was pretty painless, including the kernel upgrade (I just spent about an hour to resolve/force the upgrade path for some packages since aptitude was stubbornly refusing to upgrade since some recommends were not satisfied)
  
• the kernel doesn't seem to need any options to make the headphones work
• I can use a free driver for the wlan (bcm43xx instead of ndiswrapper)
• as a bonus, now I can suspend-to-disk while the wlan interface is turned on (with ndis+2.6.18-5 the system hanged during suspend)
  

The bad:

• the two icons I got on the desktop for the crypto partition I have mounted under /crypto are still both there (the worse thing is that I don't remember/can't find the bug number)
  
• suspend-to-ram still doesn't work - I suspect flgrx being the culprit
  
• there are now two icons for xchat in the systray. Should I be removing xchat-systray? Apparently yes, although there are a few things that xchat-systray had which are not available in the native systray thingie:

This is xchat-systray's menu:


And this is xchat's native menu:
By the way, the Hide menu entry there hides xchat itself, not the tray icon.

---

Update:
one more bad: this is still not fixed.

---

Update++:
I am a moron: apparently this is a known problem and a workaround exists. Now I can have my sincle xchat-systray icon :-) .