write(msg)

write(msg)

A Linux blog to share any hints, tips, ebuilds, and insight I have picked up along the way. My interests mainly lie in security, photography, the web, and multimedia.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Updated sK1 gnome patch

It seems that the latest revision of sK1 has a new configurator.py that breaks my old gnome patch. I've updated the patch to work with the latest revision. Hopefully this won't end up being an arms race type of affair where configurator.py is constantly changing. Just rename to gnome-sK1.patch and copy in place of the old patch and remember to edit the fonts and font sizes in the patch if you want to match your gnome theme better.

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Updated Midori ebuild

Midori is now using a new build system so if you attempt to emerge it like before it will not work. There is an updated ebuild available on bugzilla. Unfortunately I have yet to get it to work. It builds fine with the new ebuild but the program will not start. I am using it in conjunction with my webkit-gtk svn ebuild. If I find the solution to the problem I will post an update.

UPDATE: It's working now. I built it with a vanilla compiler instead of my default hardened compiler and it is running now. I test Acid3 on Midori everytime I rebuild it. It gets to 77 before it crashes. This is better than the 69 I was getting before. At one time I was able to acheive 100 percent compliance but that hasn't happened in months. My biggest gripe/bug continues to be the font settings. It seems that Midori will not respect my font settings until I adjust them. I have to change the font size and then change it back again every time I start Midori.

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Monday, August 18, 2008

Updated sK1 ebuild with gnome USE flag

I've updated my sK1 svn ebuild to include a gnome USE flag. The normal build defaults to Crystal icons. The USE flag patches the configurator.py file to use Tango icons and also changes the fonts. You can edit the patch to use different fonts if you like.

/usr/local/portage/media-gfx/sK1-9999.ebuild

/usr/local/portage/media-gfx/files/gnome-sK1.patch

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Webkit-GTK svn ebuild

I have been very interested in Webkit ever since the GTK port was announced. It seems like a good fit for integration with Gnome applications like Epiphany and Evolution. Right now I'm using it in Evolution-RSS and Midori, a Webkit-GTK browser. There are a couple of svn snapshot ebuilds in portage but I find myself constantly creating new snapshot ebuilds to test out the latest Webkit-GTK along with the svn ebuild of Midori. So in a similar fashion to my sK1 svn ebuild I decided to create a Webkit-GTK svn ebuild. Be forewarned that the checkout process takes a very long time. Based on my genlop output the checkout process alone took 40 minutes and compilation took another 20 minutes.

/usr/local/portage/net-libs/webkit-gtk-9999.ebuild

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Sunday, August 17, 2008

Extremely hacked Flash 10 on Gentoo

Flash has always been a problem for me on 64-bit linux. It works ok with Nspluginwrapper but is continually crashing or hanging the browser. It has even started to crash X lately which is just screwed up. So I decided to take Flash 10 beta for a test drive to see if anything is improved but I ran into some stumbling blocks along the way. Nspluginwrapper failed to install the latest flash because it was missing some necessary 32-bit libraries. Fortunately I found that the 32-bit binaries of OpenOffice and Adobe Reader provided the necessary libraries but they were not located in /usr/lib32. I didn't want to mess with the library path so I just symlinked the necessary libraries into /usr/lib32. I logged out and back in again and Flash 10 is working! I'll report back later so see how well this hack stands up and how well Flash 10 performs. If you want to try it out here are a couple of files you might want. Remember that this only works on 64 bit, you need nspluginwrapper, and you must have both the Adobe Reader binary and the OpenOffice binary installed.

This script will symlink the necessary libs into place. It needs to be given execute permission and run as root. Also the script is extremely dumb so check the output for failures:

symlink.sh

This ebuild is just a copy from portage but with a modified version number to get the latest beta released on August 11, 2008:

/usr/local/portage/net-www/netscape-flash/netscape-flash-10_beta20080811.ebuild

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Evolution-RSS

For years I have been using Liferea for RSS feeds and Evolution for email. After years of searching for information in mailing lists using Evolution then switching to Liferea for RSS I got tired of it and started looking for a RSS plugin for Evolution when I found Evolution-RSS. That was a few months ago when the stable version was 0.0.8. Since then a newer version has been released but not updated in the sunrise overlay. I took the 0.0.8 ebuild and Auke Booij's advice on Gentoo Bugzilla and created this ebuild:

/usr/local/portage/gnome-extra/evolution-rss/evolution-rss-0.1.0.ebuild

The newest Evolution-RSS has the ability to display feeds using either Gecko or Webkit (if installed). You can also use Evolution's excellent search function on your RSS feeds. It makes finding information so much easier. The downsides are that it is still incomplete and I have come across a few crasher bugs (adding a feed within evolution crashes evo for me). Also there is no dbus integration so downloading feeds directly through Epiphany is a no go. You need to manually add feeds using evolution-import-rss.

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Friday, August 15, 2008

sK1 svn ebuild

For ten years now UNIX has had a fantastic vector editor called Skencil (formerly Sketch). The bad news is that it hasn't been updated in over 2 years. That's where sK1 comes in. It has a new updated interface along with a cairo backend and CMYK support for use in pre-press. I've been checking out svn versions and the project looks very promising although quite incomplete at the moment. Anyway, I got tired of fetching things manually and adapted an sK1 ebuild I found on the net to fetch the latest svn version. Here it is:

/usr/local/portage/media-gfx/sK1/sK1-9999.ebuild

Labels: , , , , ,

Fix frequency scaling on Gentoo >=2.6.25

I created this blog for a few reasons. One of those reasons is to document tips, tricks, and workarounds for computer related problems that I have come across. I have been creating notes on my computer to reference these problems but this blog will allow me to not only store my findings on the web but also allow other people to access them should they provide useful. So without futher ado here is my first fix.

First a little background, my OS of choice is Gentoo Linux. Currently I am running a 64-bit kernel with a hardened profile, and a hardened gcc 4.2 from Xake's toolchain overlay. I am using PaX/Grsec for hardening.

The Problem:

After upgrading to kernel with version 2.6.25 or higher frequency scaling stopped working with cpufreqd. After hours of investigating the problem, and a few Gentoo forum posts it was determined that the problem lay with cpufrequtils. In order to work properly cpufrequtils had to be upgraded. Unfotunately there is only one cpufrequtils package in portage and it is quite old.

The Solution:

A new ebuild had to be created for the latest cpufrequtils. I based the new ebuild on the current ebuild only modifying the "epatch" line. Here are the results for anyone who may be experiencing issues with cpu frequency scaling on Gentoo.
/usr/local/portage/sys-power/cpufrequtils/cpufrequtils-004.ebuild

/usr/local/portage/sys-power/cpufrequtils/files/cpufrequtils-conf.d

/usr/local/portage/sys-power/cpufrequtils/files/cpufrequtils-init.d

Labels: , , , ,

write(msg)

A Linux blog to share any hints, tips, ebuilds, and insight I have picked up along the way. My interests mainly lie in security, photography, the web, and multimedia.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Updated sK1 gnome patch

It seems that the latest revision of sK1 has a new configurator.py that breaks my old gnome patch. I've updated the patch to work with the latest revision. Hopefully this won't end up being an arms race type of affair where configurator.py is constantly changing. Just rename to gnome-sK1.patch and copy in place of the old patch and remember to edit the fonts and font sizes in the patch if you want to match your gnome theme better.

Labels: , , , ,

Updated Midori ebuild

Midori is now using a new build system so if you attempt to emerge it like before it will not work. There is an updated ebuild available on bugzilla. Unfortunately I have yet to get it to work. It builds fine with the new ebuild but the program will not start. I am using it in conjunction with my webkit-gtk svn ebuild. If I find the solution to the problem I will post an update.

UPDATE: It's working now. I built it with a vanilla compiler instead of my default hardened compiler and it is running now. I test Acid3 on Midori everytime I rebuild it. It gets to 77 before it crashes. This is better than the 69 I was getting before. At one time I was able to acheive 100 percent compliance but that hasn't happened in months. My biggest gripe/bug continues to be the font settings. It seems that Midori will not respect my font settings until I adjust them. I have to change the font size and then change it back again every time I start Midori.

Labels: , , , , ,

Monday, August 18, 2008

Updated sK1 ebuild with gnome USE flag

I've updated my sK1 svn ebuild to include a gnome USE flag. The normal build defaults to Crystal icons. The USE flag patches the configurator.py file to use Tango icons and also changes the fonts. You can edit the patch to use different fonts if you like.

/usr/local/portage/media-gfx/sK1-9999.ebuild

/usr/local/portage/media-gfx/files/gnome-sK1.patch

Labels: , , , ,

Webkit-GTK svn ebuild

I have been very interested in Webkit ever since the GTK port was announced. It seems like a good fit for integration with Gnome applications like Epiphany and Evolution. Right now I'm using it in Evolution-RSS and Midori, a Webkit-GTK browser. There are a couple of svn snapshot ebuilds in portage but I find myself constantly creating new snapshot ebuilds to test out the latest Webkit-GTK along with the svn ebuild of Midori. So in a similar fashion to my sK1 svn ebuild I decided to create a Webkit-GTK svn ebuild. Be forewarned that the checkout process takes a very long time. Based on my genlop output the checkout process alone took 40 minutes and compilation took another 20 minutes.

/usr/local/portage/net-libs/webkit-gtk-9999.ebuild

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Extremely hacked Flash 10 on Gentoo

Flash has always been a problem for me on 64-bit linux. It works ok with Nspluginwrapper but is continually crashing or hanging the browser. It has even started to crash X lately which is just screwed up. So I decided to take Flash 10 beta for a test drive to see if anything is improved but I ran into some stumbling blocks along the way. Nspluginwrapper failed to install the latest flash because it was missing some necessary 32-bit libraries. Fortunately I found that the 32-bit binaries of OpenOffice and Adobe Reader provided the necessary libraries but they were not located in /usr/lib32. I didn't want to mess with the library path so I just symlinked the necessary libraries into /usr/lib32. I logged out and back in again and Flash 10 is working! I'll report back later so see how well this hack stands up and how well Flash 10 performs. If you want to try it out here are a couple of files you might want. Remember that this only works on 64 bit, you need nspluginwrapper, and you must have both the Adobe Reader binary and the OpenOffice binary installed.

This script will symlink the necessary libs into place. It needs to be given execute permission and run as root. Also the script is extremely dumb so check the output for failures:

symlink.sh

This ebuild is just a copy from portage but with a modified version number to get the latest beta released on August 11, 2008:

/usr/local/portage/net-www/netscape-flash/netscape-flash-10_beta20080811.ebuild

Labels: , , , , ,

Evolution-RSS

For years I have been using Liferea for RSS feeds and Evolution for email. After years of searching for information in mailing lists using Evolution then switching to Liferea for RSS I got tired of it and started looking for a RSS plugin for Evolution when I found Evolution-RSS. That was a few months ago when the stable version was 0.0.8. Since then a newer version has been released but not updated in the sunrise overlay. I took the 0.0.8 ebuild and Auke Booij's advice on Gentoo Bugzilla and created this ebuild:

/usr/local/portage/gnome-extra/evolution-rss/evolution-rss-0.1.0.ebuild

The newest Evolution-RSS has the ability to display feeds using either Gecko or Webkit (if installed). You can also use Evolution's excellent search function on your RSS feeds. It makes finding information so much easier. The downsides are that it is still incomplete and I have come across a few crasher bugs (adding a feed within evolution crashes evo for me). Also there is no dbus integration so downloading feeds directly through Epiphany is a no go. You need to manually add feeds using evolution-import-rss.

Labels: , , , , , ,

Friday, August 15, 2008

sK1 svn ebuild

For ten years now UNIX has had a fantastic vector editor called Skencil (formerly Sketch). The bad news is that it hasn't been updated in over 2 years. That's where sK1 comes in. It has a new updated interface along with a cairo backend and CMYK support for use in pre-press. I've been checking out svn versions and the project looks very promising although quite incomplete at the moment. Anyway, I got tired of fetching things manually and adapted an sK1 ebuild I found on the net to fetch the latest svn version. Here it is:

/usr/local/portage/media-gfx/sK1/sK1-9999.ebuild

Labels: , , , , ,

Fix frequency scaling on Gentoo >=2.6.25

I created this blog for a few reasons. One of those reasons is to document tips, tricks, and workarounds for computer related problems that I have come across. I have been creating notes on my computer to reference these problems but this blog will allow me to not only store my findings on the web but also allow other people to access them should they provide useful. So without futher ado here is my first fix.

First a little background, my OS of choice is Gentoo Linux. Currently I am running a 64-bit kernel with a hardened profile, and a hardened gcc 4.2 from Xake's toolchain overlay. I am using PaX/Grsec for hardening.

The Problem:

After upgrading to kernel with version 2.6.25 or higher frequency scaling stopped working with cpufreqd. After hours of investigating the problem, and a few Gentoo forum posts it was determined that the problem lay with cpufrequtils. In order to work properly cpufrequtils had to be upgraded. Unfotunately there is only one cpufrequtils package in portage and it is quite old.

The Solution:

A new ebuild had to be created for the latest cpufrequtils. I based the new ebuild on the current ebuild only modifying the "epatch" line. Here are the results for anyone who may be experiencing issues with cpu frequency scaling on Gentoo.
/usr/local/portage/sys-power/cpufrequtils/cpufrequtils-004.ebuild

/usr/local/portage/sys-power/cpufrequtils/files/cpufrequtils-conf.d

/usr/local/portage/sys-power/cpufrequtils/files/cpufrequtils-init.d

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