Notes on conventional desktop tools
Some quick notes after an exploration of various tools packages outside of our Sugar world. Some may be old news. os353 (of the 10.1.3 series) used... - `umount /var/cache/yum` is a prerequisite for any serious yummage - Gmixer is a useful extra to our Gnome env. - Java (via open-jvm) works. JClick is an excellent example. Strangely, applets work but not very well -- the Java runtime seems to not exit, and often a java process stays behind, eating 99% of CPU. - OpenOffice works well, gstreamer, mplayer, vlc work a charm. If you shamelessly use the rpmfusion repos, you can play any content out there on the intarwebs. - Flash pays a hefty price for its refusal to use Xv. Don't install pulseaudio. - Skype 2.0.0.72 works reasonably well once you set the right microphone input. Latest Skype (2.1.0.81) doesn't play well with our ALSA implementation. We aren't alone in this, various chipsets/drivers are affected similarly -- your voice is distorted into a growling mess, see https://jira.skype.com/browse/SCL-638 -- someone with serious alsa trickery and magic may be able to massage .asoundrc to work around the issue, I could not. This is recent - previous release 2.1.0.47 has good audio but video is corrupt. - Ekiga is *not* happy. Not sure if it's interaction with alsa or with our video driver -- but it freezes the Gnome UI (apparently when it's probing devices); calling the echo service echoes back horrible audio. Help diagnosing / reporting these upstream is welcome. Fedora folks are probably more insterested in F14 reports, so exploring whether these things work better on F14 is a start. cheers, m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Notes on conventional desktop tools
On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 2:48 PM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com wrote: - Flash pays a hefty price for its refusal to use Xv. Don't install pulseaudio. - Skype 2.0.0.72 works reasonably well once you set the right microphone input. Latest Skype (2.1.0.81) doesn't play well with our ALSA implementation. We aren't alone in this, various chipsets/drivers are affected similarly -- your voice is distorted into a growling mess, see https://jira.skype.com/browse/SCL-638 -- someone with serious alsa trickery and magic may be able to massage .asoundrc to work around the issue, I could not. This is recent - previous release 2.1.0.47 has good audio but video is corrupt. I think you'll have more success with the latest skype using pulseaudio. Yes, pulseaudio is awful. But it's what's being adopted upstream. Pain now == less pain later. (But you probably want to use the pulseaudio plugin called idle something or other (IIRC) to close the audio device when it's not being used, otherwise your indicator light will be stuck on. --scott -- ( http://cscott.net/ ) ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Notes on conventional desktop tools
On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 11:48 AM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com wrote: Some quick notes after an exploration of various tools packages outside of our Sugar world. Some may be old news. os353 (of the 10.1.3 series) used... - `umount /var/cache/yum` is a prerequisite for any serious yummage I started work on a plugin that breaks each update/installation into its own transaction starting at the smallest and working its way up. This helps with constricted space installations and tmpfs mounted filesystems - Gmixer is a useful extra to our Gnome env. I would also suggest including volti along with this. It is a small python based volume control systray applet that can run a custom mixer. I supplied the patch to integrate it with HAL keyboard events, would be easy enough to get it to understand XO keyboard events. - Java (via open-jvm) works. JClick is an excellent example. Strangely, applets work but not very well -- the Java runtime seems to not exit, and often a java process stays behind, eating 99% of CPU. I remember this bug from the F11 days on the desktop. I think it is fixed in F12. - OpenOffice works well, gstreamer, mplayer, vlc work a charm. If you shamelessly use the rpmfusion repos, you can play any content out there on the intarwebs. - Flash pays a hefty price for its refusal to use Xv. Don't install pulseaudio. The newest flashplayer square beta makes considerable improvements in playback on the XO. Ultimately I think it is our pathetic fpu performance the hurts us here. - Skype 2.0.0.72 works reasonably well once you set the right microphone input. Latest Skype (2.1.0.81) doesn't play well with our ALSA implementation. We aren't alone in this, various chipsets/drivers are affected similarly -- your voice is distorted into a growling mess, see https://jira.skype.com/browse/SCL-638 -- someone with serious alsa trickery and magic may be able to massage .asoundrc to work around the issue, I could not. This is recent - previous release 2.1.0.47 has good audio but video is corrupt. I agree here. The difference is that skype 2.1 includes their SILK codec that is enormously cpu intensive. Of course this will only work for voice. I am working on multiple XV surfaces for the XO 1.5 so we can support video. - Ekiga is *not* happy. Not sure if it's interaction with alsa or with our video driver -- but it freezes the Gnome UI (apparently when it's probing devices); calling the echo service echoes back horrible audio. no comment. Probably both. -Jon ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Notes on conventional desktop tools
On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 3:08 PM, C. Scott Ananian csc...@laptop.org wrote: I think you'll have more success with the latest skype using pulseaudio. No need for speculation. I can tell you: in general terms, F11 pulseaudio ain't a good one. And for whatever reason, this pulseaudio does not play ball with our alsa drivers. PA proponents should hop on the F14 builds and push, tweak, bastardize, abuse, patch and report :-) m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Notes on conventional desktop tools
On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 3:41 PM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 3:08 PM, C. Scott Ananian csc...@laptop.org wrote: I think you'll have more success with the latest skype using pulseaudio. No need for speculation. I can tell you: in general terms, F11 pulseaudio ain't a good one. And for whatever reason, this pulseaudio does not play ball with our alsa drivers. PA proponents should hop on the F14 builds and push, tweak, bastardize, abuse, patch and report :-) Perhaps you are mistaking me for a PA proponent. ;-) I just know which way the wind is blowing. --scott -- ( http://cscott.net/ ) ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Notes on conventional desktop tools
On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 2:48 PM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com wrote: Some quick notes after an exploration of various tools packages outside of our Sugar world. Some may be old news. os353 (of the 10.1.3 series) used... So here's the recipe I've used to fancy-up the XO-1.5 for a day at the races: http://dev.laptop.org/~martin/gcbabid/gcba-prep.sh Thanks to Martin Dengler for his clock patch. m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Notes on conventional desktop tools
On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 1:49 PM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 2:48 PM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com wrote: Some quick notes after an exploration of various tools packages outside of our Sugar world. Some may be old news. os353 (of the 10.1.3 series) used... So here's the recipe I've used to fancy-up the XO-1.5 for a day at the races: http://dev.laptop.org/~martin/gcbabid/gcba-prep.sh I have a static linked skype rpm if you are interested. This will keep all of QT from being pulled in. I also have a volti rpm that I use on my machines at home if you want to add it. you shouldn't need nspluginwrapper as we aren't using pulseaudio and the platform isn't 64-bit -Jon ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Notes on conventional desktop tools
On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 5:04 PM, Jon Nettleton jon.nettle...@gmail.com wrote: I have a static linked skype rpm if you are interested. This will keep all of QT from being pulled in. I think we're ok with it as it stands. Unless your skype is for some reason working extra well on xo-1.5... I also have a volti rpm that I use on my machines at home if you want to add it. I'm tempted, but truly, gmixer autodetects our gear 100% and works a charm. No work needed. you shouldn't need nspluginwrapper as we aren't using pulseaudio and the platform isn't 64-bit Good hint, thanks -- I wasn't paying attention. Got rid of that, and now FF reports the 'square' plugin version. Playback seems a tad smoother than under Chrome, but the difference isn't radical in the videos I've tested. cheers, m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
