The new Ubuntu release 9.10 brings version 2.18 of GTK+ to the desktop. GTK+ is a multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces. Offering a complete set of widgets, the GTK+ is suitable for projects ranging from small one-off tools to complete application suites.  In version 2.18, client side windows are introduced which brings nicer redrawing and resizing, as demonstrated in the video :

Some applications – Eclipse, but also Acroread – assume that they can just operate on the X windows corresponding to their GDK windows without ever telling GDK, which causes some widgets to exhibit weird behaviour. Bug 287307 was filed with the Eclipse foundation and this is fixed for the upcoming 3.6 release.

Fortunately, the GTK+ people provide a switch to turn off the client side windows. So to work around the bug with Eclipse pre-3.6, just make sure you set environment variable GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1

#!/bin/sh
export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1
/home/koen/eclipse-galileo/eclipse

Start coding

Trac is an enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects. It integrates your changesets in source repository, roadmap, continuous integration and much more. For a standard installation, tickets in Trac follow a basic workflow which you can see below. The problem with this state diagram is, that there is no explicit Q&A stage.  Developers close tickets, and testers re-open them. But when you are using Scrum, you want to finish your sprint with all tickets ready for testing.

Luckily, this is easy to do in Trac since version 0.11 …

Here’s the diagram we would like to implement :

As you can see in the diagram, we also opted for a reviewing phase before going into Q&A. This is a quick pre-testing by collegue-developers so the obvious bugs can still be fixed within the sprint. This way of working avoids that very obvious mistakes cause two sprints delay for important features/tickets.

Now go to your trac project directory -  /opt/trac/projects/<my-project> or the likes – and open up “conf/trac.ini”. Pasting the following configuration section in there :

[ticket-workflow]
accept = new -> assigned
accept.operations = set_owner_to_self
accept.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
leave = * -> *
leave.default = 1
leave.operations = leave_status
reassign = new,assigned,reopened -> new
reassign.operations = set_owner
reassign.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
reopen = closed,qa,reviewing -> reopened
reopen.operations = del_resolution
reopen.permissions = TICKET_CREATE
close = new,assigned,reopened,reviewing,qa -> closed
close.operations = set_resolution
close.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
ready_for_review = new,assigned,reopened -> reviewing
ready_for_review.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY
ready_for_qa = new,assigned,reopened,reviewing -> qa
ready_for_qa.permissions = TICKET_MODIFY

Now, run the following command :

root@trac:/opt/trac/projects/# trac-admin /opt/trac/projects/<my-project>/ upgrade

When creating a new ticket workfow, contrib/workflow/workflow_parser.py is supposed to  create .dot files that GraphViz understands to provide a visual description of the workflow. But i did not get it to work out-of-the-box so I’ve drawn the state diagram myself with dia.

This article still lacks a follow up on how to configure your roadmap so the sprint completion percentage is counted using the new ticket states. Soon to come !

Follow up :

To get your roadmap and statistics right, add this snippet to your trac.ini :

[milestone]
stats_provider = DefaultTicketGroupStatsProvider

[roadmap]
stats_provider = DefaultTicketGroupStatsProvider

[milestone-groups]
closed = closed, reviewing, qa
closed.order = 0
closed.query_args = group=resolution
closed.overall_completion = true
closed.label=Closed/QA
closed.css_class = closed

in_progress = new,assigned
in_progress.order = 1
in_progress.query_args = group=resolution
in_progress.label = In progress
in_progress.css_class = new

active = *                           # one catch-all group is allowed
active.order = 2
active.css_class = new              # CSS class for this interval
active.css_class = open
active.label=New

The permalinks now all have the structure /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/ where the previous the structure was /%post_id%. Permalink rewrites are based on the Apache Rewrite engine and there are a few caveats when changing the permalink structure. Here’s a checklist to get you going…

First of all, you must make sure that the mod_rewrite module is loaded in your apache instance.

root@export:/var/www/blog# apache2ctl -t -D DUMP_MODULES

and check for

rewrite_module (shared)

If not, checkout the apache document on rewrite engine to enable this module in your apache instance.

Finally, make sure your virtual host configuration has :

RewriteEngine On

When changing the permalink structure in your Wordpress backend, it will generate a .htaccess file. This is what it looks like for our permalink structure :

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

# END WordPress

Normally, this is supposed to be the end of the story but when you receive a 404 surfing to your newly generated links, then verify the following two settings in your virtual host configuration :

• The FollowSymLinks option enabled
• FileInfo directives allowed (e.g. AllowOverride FileInfo or AllowOverride All)

Good luck!

PS: If you don’t want to loose your pagerank for the posts that have incoming links using the old permalink structure, go checkout  “Dean’s Permalinks Migration 1.0“. This will redirect the old permalinks to your new structure, and keep Google happy It is available from the plugins menu in the Wordpress backend.

UPDATE :

UPDATE : Bad news : the latest updates (3.0.195.0~svn20090714r20617-0ubuntu1~ucd2~jaunty) break flash again

Good news for chromium-browser users on Linux.

As of today you can get Flash to work. Make sure you have the latest version installed, pay special attention to the date and build (20090710r20374).

koen@d820:/usr/lib/chromium-browser/plugins$ apt-cache policy chromium-browser
chromium-browser:
Installed: 3.0.194.0~svn20090710r20374-0ubuntu1~ucd1~jaunty
Candidate: 3.0.194.0~svn20090710r20374-0ubuntu1~ucd1~jaunty
Version table:
*** 3.0.194.0~svn20090710r20374-0ubuntu1~ucd1~jaunty 0
500 http://ppa.launchpad.net jaunty/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Now, make a symbolic link to the flash library in your chromium plugins directory.

koen@d820:/usr/lib/chromium-browser/plugins$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/adobe-flashplugin/libflashplayer.so

That’s it. Go give it a try at YouTube.

Enjoy!

Now, the webcam issue : I have a QuickCam Messenger webcam, which is recognized correctly by Ubuntu, but it does not work with Skype or JMF (Java Media Framework) applications.

Here’s my dmesg output :

[30850.333403] gspca: probing 046d:08da
[30851.979243] zc3xx: probe 2wr ov vga 0×0000
[30852.023239] zc3xx: probe sensor -> 11
[30852.023244] zc3xx: Find Sensor HV7131R(c)
[30852.030593] gspca: probe ok
[30852.030667] gspca: probing 046d:08da
[30977.315326] zc3xx: probe 2wr ov vga 0×0000

koen@d820:/home/koen$ lsusb

Bus 005 Device 003: ID 046d:08da Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Messanger

I never had webcam issues with the previous Ubuntu releases.

Jaunty is using V4L2 and although drivers that are in the mainline kernel are often v4l2, many applications will only work with v4l1. Even v4l2 apps often don’t work with v4l2 webcams as the webcams often have camspecific (compressed) pixelformats and most applications don’t support all these.
Skype for one does not work. JMF applications either. The image from the camera is green and black garbage/noise.

The solution is to preload the backward compatibility library for v4l to get it to work.

koen@d820:/home/koen$ LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype &

If you want to setup system-wide and at startup, then create a file /etc/ld.so.preload and put the path to this library in. Or use ld.so.preload-manager from the Ubuntu repositories to do this for you.

koen@d820:/home/koen$ sudo ld.so.preload-manager /usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so

Happy camming !

Trac

Cool stuff, for instance :

• If you write the name of a Java class in your Wiki, Trac will recognize this and link to your source repository.
• If you checkin code into your SVN repo and use comments like #235, Trac will link your SVN comments to the right ticket.
• Visualisation of the branches via revtree en mergeenhancer plugins.
• and much more…

They do eat their own dog food as the Trac project website is build with … Trac. I have Trac-0.11rc2-py2.5.egg running on my VPS. Today I’m trying to get Trac XML_RPC to work.

Ultimate goal : integration with Eclipse Mylyn.

I downloaded the plugin here.

This is a zip file with a 0.10, sandbox and trunk version in it. The documentation says you should install 0.10 so I did :

root@koma:~# easy_install xmlrpcplugin/0.10/

Edit trac.ini to enable the plugin :

[components]
tracrpc.* = enabled

But when surfing to the project website, I get :

SystemError: Parent module ‘tracrpc’ not loaded

A forum post reports the same problem and suggests installing the trunk version.

root@koma:~# easy_install xmlrpcplugin/trunk/

and this works. The project website is online and surfing to /login/xmlrpc on the project website returns the list of exported functions via the XML-RPC interface. And since ticket #1075 is fixed, Mylyn-Trac integration is supposed to work out-of-the-box.

Here’s how you can fix this.

Download the previous version of eclipse. I still have my copy of Eclipse 3.2.2 laying around. In the plugins directory of your Eclipse installation, locate the workbench jar. For my Ubuntu installation of 3.2.2 I find it under this path : /usr/lib/eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.ui.workbench_3.2.2.M20070119-0800.jar.

Browse to org/eclipse/ui/internal/util to locate the SWTResourceUtil.class file :

Extract the file from the jar file (a jar file is basically a zip file). Now locate the workbench jar file under the plugins directory from your Ganymede installation. Here’s where I find mine : /home/koen/eclipse-ganymede/plugins/org.eclipse.ui.workbench_3.4.2.M20090127-1700.jar

Now simply insert the SWTResourceUtil.class file in this jar at the same directory location of course.

Done

What makes this product so great ? First of all, it integrates perfectly in Eclipse, the IDE of choice for me and most other Java developers (sorry Netbeans guys). Installation is standard, add the WireframeSketcher update site and click install. At least Eclipse 3.3 is required to use WireframeSketcher.

Creating mockups was never easier. Start by opening the sketching perspective.

You see all available widgets in a panel on the right, nicely arranged in categories if you like. Choose new -> screen and drag the widgets on the screen.

WireframeSketcher helps you to nicely outline your widgets. Whenever two or more widgets are outlined to the left, right or in the middle, a blue line appears indicating the common outline.

When you’re done with your mockup, you can generate png files from your screen and distribute it to your developers, or use it in your software specifications. You can even generate the png files using a command line tool.

I have nothing but good to say about WireframeSketcher : it does its job and it does it well. Simple – fast – easy.

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