Nokia QtSDK installer crash on Ubuntu: how to fix it

HowTo, Linux, Programmazione, Qt, Ubuntu (EN) 4 Comments »

If you try to install Nokia QtSDK on Ubuntu using the Nokia installer (that provides a newer version than the one distributed in Ubuntu Software Center) you could get an error like this:

(Qt_SDK_Lin32_offline_v1_1_3_en.run:3126): Gtk-CRITICAL **: IA__gtk_widget_style_get: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed

to fix it, you need to run the installer with a specific parameter:

andrea@centurion:~/Downloads/Qt$ ./Qt_SDK_Lin32_offline_v1_1_4_en.run -style cleanlooks

and everything should work!

Backing up all your Flickr photos using Linux

HowTo, Linux, Python, Ubuntu (EN) 5 Comments »

I've been a Flickr pro user for 4 years, but the pro account costs 24,95$/year and I was looking for something cheaper. Anyway I was thinking that after all, even if I don't renew my account, I can always access to all my pictures.... wrong! If you don't renew your pro Flickr account you can only access to the low resolution version of your own pictures. That's not acceptable for me, so I decided to download all my pictures and upload them somewhere else. Here comes the second disappointment: there is no automatic way to download all your pictures.

I simply had no time to write an application by myself, so I started searching on Google to see if there was something available to do this simple task. At the beginning I only found abandoned tools (closed source, the API was expired ecc...), paid tools, Windows only tools ecc... but finally I found this post http://hivelogic.com/articles/backing-up-flickr/

There is a Python script that automatically downloads all your Flickr pictures getting the highest resolution available, you can download the script from here https://github.com/dan/hivelogic-flickrtouchr

The usage is very simple

mkdir FlickrBackupFolder
python flickrtouchr.py FlickrBackupFolder

A browser's window will be opened and you'll be prompted for authorization. After that, all you pictures will be downloaded.

Ubuntu Oneiric 11.10 problems and regressions

Linux, Ubuntu (EN) 5 Comments »

Tomorrow Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) will be released officially and I decided to test the RC (release candidate) version on my desktop PC. Being involved in Unity-2D development I used only that desktop environment on my development virtual machine so I didn't have much time to test Unity (3D version).

I must admit that there have been a lot of improvements from 11.04 (Natty Narval) release, but also a lot of bugs and regressions have been introduced. I've noted all the problems I found in every day use and as soon as possible I'll also submit proper bug report on Launchpad for each of them. In the mean time you can give a look to the following list.

Bugs and regressions

Notifications broken: on Ubuntu Natty when an application wants to notify of a new message it popups an icon from the Launcher, then displays a small blue triangle in the top-left corner of the screen. Oneiric doesn’t have the small blue triangle anymore. In this way, if the user is looking away when he gets a notification, he can miss it for hours. There’s no way to know that there is a notify without manually going with mouse to the left and making the launcher to appear.

Launcher visibility: on Ubuntu Natty when the user moves the mouse in the top-left corner the Launcher is shown. Oneiric doesn’t show Launcher if you move the mouse in the top-left corner. You can’t use the top 30-40 pixels (the height of the panel).

Notify area icons: often in Oneiric when you click an icon in the notify area (for example the volume icon, the network manager icon ecc...) the popup is shown and suddenly hidden. You have to click a second time to view it.

Notify icon - Empathy: in Oneiric you cannot open Empathy from the notify area. If you click on “Chat” Empathy is open and visible on the Launcher but not on the screen. You have to move to mouse to the launcher then click on it to view the application window.

Empathy: “Automatically connect on startup” doesn’t work. If you enable this option in Empathy it doesn’t start anyway when the system start.

Launcher doesn’t work as expected: sometimes when you move the mouse on the left, Launcher is not shown. You can try it many times and it still doesn’t appear. I’ve to SUPER+D a couple of times (to show/hide Desktop) to show view it. Even the opposite problem happens: sometime you cannot hide the Launcher.

Boot failing: every time I boot Oneiric the first boot fails. I cannot know what happens because nothing is shown on video. I press CTRL+ALT+CANC, the system reboot and then boot normally.

Showing Skype: on Natty you just need to double-click on Skype icon in the notify bar to show it, now you need to click once on the icon, choose “Activate” from menu and you show it. Why the need to complicate an easy thing?

Webcam problems with Skype: with Natty I could use my webcam with Skype without any problem. Now I can still use it but if I activate the view of myself during a videcall, the video completly locks and it doesn’t work anymore. Skype is always the same version, so probably there is a problem with the new driver used.

Window manager: sometimes moving an application window doesn’t work. You drag a window around the screen then suddenly the window stop moving and the mouse icon starts vibrating. You have to release and click again to move the window and stop mouse icon vibrating.

Conclusion

In the next days I'll work on checking for these bugs on Launchpad to see if they're already submitted and if not I'll submit them, hoping they will be fixed as soon as possible before end users start bothering about them.

HowTo extend HTC Desire internal memory to 2Gb using CyanogenMod 7 and Data2SD

Android, Google, Linux 18 Comments »

Introduction

Even if it's not a new model, the HTC Desire is still a very good Android device, thanks to its 1Ghz CPU and 512 Mb RAM, but one of the biggest problems of this phone is that it comes with only 148Mb available in the ROM. Once the operating system is installed (ROM I mean), after installing few useful applications you'll end the available space very soon. There are many apps available, like App2SD that move your applications to the SD card, but it's not enough because only the application is moved, not the data. To move the data to the SD card, there is a very nice utility called Data2SD. Please note that this procedure requires you to reflash your device and partition your SD card, so please do a complete backup before proceding.

What you need

Procedure

Backup your data

Before following these instructions, please do a complete backup of your microSD, of your original ROM (using Nandroid or similar) ecc...

Prepare the microSD card

  • Open GParted on your Ubuntu Linux or use the GParted Live CD/USB.
  • Delete all partitions on this microSD
  • Create the first one using FAT32 filesystem, leaving 2Gb (2047Mb) available at the end.
  • Create a second partition using ext4 filesystem.
  • Confirm your changes
  • Copy CyanogenMod7 rom, Data2SD installers and Google Apps on FAT32 partition

CyanogenMod 7 installation

  • Reboot your phone into Recovery (turn it off then press volume down + power)
  • WIPE all data (userdata, cache ecc...)
  • Choose "Install from SD card" and select CyanogenMod7 installation zip
  • when finished reboot your phone
  • Enter your Wifi settings, language ecc.... DO NOT enter your Google account settings.
  • reboot your phone

Data2SD installation

  • Boot into Recovery again
  • Choose "Install from SD card" and select Data2SDInstallerX1.zip (please note, you may have to turn off the signature verification in Other->Turn off ecc...)
  • when finished reboot your phone
  • now you should see 1,97Gb if you go in Settings->Storage->Internal Storage->Total space

Google Apps installation

  • Reboot your phone into Recovery
  • Choose "Install from SD card" and select the Google Apps zip file
  • reboot your phone

Conclusion

You now have 1,97Gb total space available instead of 148Mb. Enjoy your HTC Desire!

UDS day-3

Linux, Ubuntu (EN), UDS No Comments »

Even this morning I didn't wake up early because I still felt sick (I already know this sore throath won't abandon me untile I go back home).

I had a light breakfast at 10:30 and then I finishes uploading some pictures and published articles on my blog I already had written before.

While waiting to attend a session, I found Mark Shuttleworth around and I congratulated with him for the effort he is putting into Ubuntu. Without a similar distribution, I'm pretty sure that Linux would not be so popular today.

We had lunch at 13:00 as usual and after that I attended a couple of presentation. The first one on Eucalyptus, then "Cooking Recipes" for Ubuntu and another one dedicated to Wine. The Wine session was so funny! They had a little problem with video projector and all the images appeared with a blur effect so that you could think to be drunk ;)

After these sessions I had to go back to my room since I didn't feel very well, but I was able to attend "Unity's relations and dependancies on GNOME" thanks to audio streaming, IRC for asking questions and etherpad to take notes.

I attended also "desktop-dx-o-unity-a11y" where there was a discussion about the state of Unity and what can be improved before Oneiric release. Lot of work has to be done yet, in particular about accessibility.

Last session of this day, a Q+A with Mark Shuttleworth. The session was very interesting! He replied to all questions coming from the public and from IRC.

Utilizzare la Carta Sanitaria Europea su Ubuntu Linux

HowTo, Linux, Ubuntu (IT) 11 Comments »

In questo periodo le regioni stanno inviando a casa di ogni cittadino la nuova versione della Carta Sanitaria Europea, simile a quella che potete vedere nella foto. Questa nuova carta, oltre a conservare gli stessi utilizzi di quella vecchia, comprende anche un micro chip che permette di utilizzarla con i comuni lettori di smartcard.

Ma a cosa serve poter utilizzare la CSE con un lettore di smartcard? Ad esempio ad accedere al proprio fascicolo sanitario tramite il sito della regione, che ci permetterà di vedere alcuni nostri dati come ad esempio: medicine prese, esenzioni, ricoveri in ospedale, ricoveri al pronto soccorso, risultati delle analisi ecc...

Per accedere all'area riservata non viene utilizzato il classico metodo di username/password, ma bensì l'autenticazione tramite smartcard.

Installazione del lettore di smartcard

Prima di utilizzare la carta su Ubuntu Linux è necessario intanto procurarsi un lettore di smartcard (vi consiglio di acquistare il kit che vendono dove siete andati ad attivare la vostra CSE, poichè viene venduto ad un prezzo vantaggioso di 4,20€ mentre se provate a comprare il lettore altrove non lo troverete a meno di 15-20€) e poi installare sul proprio sistema alcuni pacchetti necessari al suo funzionamento.

Il lettore, una volta inserito nel proprio PC dovrebbe essere identificabile tramite la seguente stringa:

andrea@centurion:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 072f:90cc Advanced Card Systems, Ltd ACR38 SmartCard Reader

Per installare il software necessario, occorre eseguire il seguente comando da terminale:

sudo apt-get install pcsc-tools pcscd libccid

dopo di che dovrete procurarvi il driver del lettore, che potete trovare a questo indirizzo ed installarlo con il seguente comando (dopo aver scompattato l'archivio in una cartella a piacimento):

sudo dpkg -i libminilector38u-bit4id.deb

Se tutto è stato eseguito correttamente, utilizzando il programma pcsc_scan da terminale, dovreste ottenere un output simile a questo:

andrea@centurion:~$ pcsc_scan
PC/SC device scanner
V 1.4.16 (c) 2001-2009, Ludovic Rousseau <ludovic.rousseau@free.fr>
Compiled with PC/SC lite version: 1.5.3
Scanning present readers...
0: ACS ACR 38U-CCID 00 00

Thu Nov 11 14:08:37 2010
 Reader 0: ACS ACR 38U-CCID 00 00
  Card state: Card inserted,
  ATR: 3B DF 18 00 81 31 FE 7D 00 6B 15 0C 01 81 01 11 01 43 4E 53 10 31 80 E8

Configurazione di Firefox

Prima di poter configurare Firefox è necessario installare un'ultima libreria che permetterà al browser di poter interagire con il lettore di smartcard. Dobbiamo scaricare l'archivio presente a questo indirizzo, scompattarlo e poi copiare uno dei due file presenti (a seconda che si utilizzi un sistema a 32 o 64 bit) all'interno della cartella /usr/lib ed infine digitare il comando sudo ldconfig per aggiornare l'elenco delle librerie.

A questo punto bisogna aprire Firefox ed andare su Modifica-->Preferenze-->Avanzate-->Cifratura-->Dispositivi di Sicurezza cliccare su Carica e specificare come descrizione "CSE" e come percorso quello dove avete copiato la libreria installata nel passo precedente (che ad esempio potrà trovarsi in /usr/lib/libaseCnsP11.so ).

Per verificare che tutto funzioni correttamente è sufficiente fare click su Accedi e se ci verrà chiesto di inserire la "password" (che nel nostro caso sarà il PIN della smartcard) vorrà dire che tutto sta funzionando nel modo corretto.

Per avere maggiori informazioni sulla Carta Sanitaria Europea e per conoscere tutti i servizi disponibili, vi consiglio di visitare la seguente pagina presente sul sito della Regione Toscana: http://www.regione.toscana.it/cartasanitaria/cse/cose/index.html

MeeGo Conference 2010 / Early Bird Events

Linux, Maemo (EN), MeeGo, Programmazione No Comments »

Introduction

It would be nice to organize a weekend like the Barcelona Long Weekend we (the Maemo Community) organized on October 2009. These two days should be completly organized by the community and for the community. No formal conferences or talks, but interactive activities and hacking sessions where you, the participant, are the main actor.

What about the content of these two days? We could have (for example) programming tutorials, Qt tutorials, hacking sessions on a specific task, round tables where a developer explains his difficoulties implementing a feature and the others help him, ecc...

The first thing to do is spreading this and asking people (users, developers ecc...) what they would like to find during these two days. Once we've gathered some nice ideas we can organize them better.

When and Where

The basic idea is to organize these two days on November 13th, 14th. About the location that will host us we still have no idea. Probably it will be possible to use the same hotel used for the MeeGo Conference, but this must be confirmed yet.

Ideas for the program structure

  • Active participation in the event - less talk, more code. No powerpoints - just you, the editor and the compiler. Be productive!
  • A two-day Hackathon: Start putting your ideas into fresh code, or finish a project that has been on the back burner for some time
  • Participants are encouraged to share their progress at the end of each day - what they accomplished, where they need further help, etc.
  • A short but intensive indroduction to Qt/C++ (something like 3-4 hours course, offered by some expert developer)
  • Round tables to discuss about UI improvements or features implementation: a developer could have found some difficoult implementing the UI for his application or to provide a particular feature. Other expert developers could try to help him with his problem.
  • A workshop for x86 developers on getting started with MeeGo development for ARM - end goal: By the end of the session, everyone has a sample application running in an emulator on their laptop
  • Developer tools training - a half day on using git, valgrind, oprofile

Discussion resources

The official place where I would like to take this discussion forward is the MeeGo Forum. The official thread is available here: http://forum.meego.com/showthread.php?t=1342
We also have started a discussion on Maemo Forum and you can find it here: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=61708

The official page with all informations available is on MeeGo Wiki: http://wiki.meego.com/MeeGo_Conference_2010/Early_Bird_Events

Maemo Coding Competition: voting open!

Linux, Maemo (EN), MeeGo, Programmazione, Qt No Comments »

What is Maemo Coding Competition?

This competition has been organized by Maemo Community for the Maemo Community. Developer can work to an application and submit it for one of the six categories available: Desktop, System & Utilities, Games, Graphics & Multimedia, Location & Navigation, Other. Another category is available too, and it's for beginner developers. The competition entry has now ended, but voting is open. You can find more information about the competition, in the official wiki page: http://wiki.maemo.org/Maemo_Coding_Competition_1

How can I vote?

Voting is available using a forum's poll for each category. Every t.m.o. user can give one vote for each category. Here's the complete list of polls:

p.s: I partecipate in the Graphics & Multimedia category with two applications: LastGo and mSoma. Please at least test them and let me know what do you think about!

Announcing LastGo: Maemo/MeeGo client for Last.fm

Linux, Maemo (EN), MeeGo, Programmazione, Qt 25 Comments »

While I'm still working to mSoma with Lorenzo Bettini, I decided to start writing another application. I needed to write something from scratch to learn better how to use C++ and Qt libraries, so I decided to write a client for Last.fm service. The application is still in full development, but you can already taste it if you have extras-devel repository enabled on your N900. At the moment it only supports basic radio features: tuning user's radio, playing a song, skipping a song and displaying song informations.

Other basic Last.fm features like scrobbling, marking a song as loved or banned ecc.. are not supported yet, but of course they're planned for the stable release. Please not that the application is still a bit unstable even if it works for normal tasks.

If you are a Last.fm subscriber and you want to test it, please install it from extras-devel repository and send me your feedback.

Note: since it's not allowed to use Last.fm API from a mobile phone (due to API license restrictions) I cannot distribute a valid api key with the application. I'm writing this software mainly to learn C++ and Qt and for the future tablets and netbooks that will be based on MeeGo. If you feel to assume the responsability, you can download the api key file and import it using "Import Api Key" that you can find in the application menu.

Announcing mSoma: Maemo/MeeGo client for SomaFM

Linux, Maemo (EN), MeeGo, Qt, Recensione 7 Comments »

SomaFM is a streaming radio with near 16 different channels, available for free. Even if it's possible to copy-paste their streaming URLs to N900 Media Player, we (me and Lorenzo Bettini) decided to create a custom application, to make channels switching easier for the end user and to be able to add more features. We decided to take advantage of the new Nokia SDK and write the application in Qt/C++. Source code is available on Gitorious and it's always updated with latest version we're working on. If someone want to test the application, it's available in extras-devel repository  ("msoma" under Multimedia section) of N900.

mSoma

The UI is still in development as you can see. The application is already usable, but of course we have to work hard on the user interface. Feel free to test/use it and send us any feedback. If you want to contribute to our project (coders are welcome) please send us a patch with your code or ask us to be added to mSoma development team in Gitorious.

WP Theme & Icons by N.Design Studio
Entries RSS Comments RSS Log in