HAL: release schedule for v0.5.11

The next HAL version is on the way and since I manage this time the release, here the current release schedule for hal v0.5.11:

• feature and major changes go into until Wednesday (2008-03-12)
  
• HAL 0.5.11 RC1 get announced and offered as source package (2008-03-13)
• bugfixes and hal-info related changes until Friday (2008-03-14)
• release of new version on the weekend (2008-03-16), or depending on open critical bugs by Monday (2008-03-17) at the latest.

I would like to see atm these (major) patches go into the release:

• optimization patches (Rob Taylor)  [1] ff.
• TabletPC support (Danny Kukawka) [2]

So please review and test them carefully. Let me know, if there are other patches left, that need to go into the release.

Tech Tags: HAL

Hacking umtsmon

After I had a beer with Klaas van Gend (the UMTSmon developer) and some members of the UUGN (that's from Seife: "umtsmon user group Nuremberg") two weeks ago, I hacked a little on UMTSmon. 

Here what I did:

• added support to sort the content of QTable objects of the info dialog (bug #1616485) [1]
• fixed tabstop order for some widgets [2][3]
• reduce the really annoying flickering of the LCD widget in the main window, by use QWidget::setPaletteBackgroundPixmap() instead of QLabel::setPixmap() to draw the background image [4]

There are some ideas left to improve UMTSmon, some really nice features, we will see if and when I find the time to implement them ...

Tech Tags: Patches

HAL: some deprecated keys ...

... will be removed from HAL with end of this month, because they are deprecated since 12 months now and already replaced by other keys/properties. The affected keys  (old --> new/replacement) are:

2008-02-28:

• smbios.system.manufacturer --> system.hardware.vendor
• smbios.system.product --> system.hardware.product
• smbios.system.version --> system.hardware.version
• smbios.system.serial --> system.hardware.serial
• smbios.system.uuid --> system.hardware.uuid
• smbios.bios.vendor --> system.firmware.vendor
• smbios.bios.version --> system.firmware.version
• smbios.bios.release_date --> system.firmware.release_date
• smbios.chassis.manufacturer --> system.chassis.manufacturer
• smbios.chassis.type --> system.chassis.type
• system.vendor --> system.hardware.vendor

2008-03-01:

• info.bus --> info.subsystem
• *.physical_device --> *.orginating_device

Please note, that there are some other (IMO rarely used) keys which are planed to be removed end of March:

2008-03-21:

• usb_device.speed_bcd (int) --> usb_device.speed (double)
• usb_device.version_bcd (int) --> usb_device.version (double)
  

Please check your packages for these keys (code and shipped fdi-files) and prepare them for the next HAL package. If you use openSUSE or you package RPMs  for openSUSE:  the next HAL version for openSUSE 11.0 (Beta) will be shipped without support for these keys.

Tech Tags: HAL Packaging SUSE

New/updated packages ...

... I have added new packages to my openSUSE Build Service homeproject for SLE-10 and openSUSE 10.2 - Factory. Some of them already existed in some other projects in the buildservice or in other places, but not up-to-date.

The new packages are:

• KBlogger v1.0 Alpha 2 for KDE4
• QSvn v0.6.1 for QT4
• QGit v1.5.8 for QT3
• QGit v2.1.1 for QT4
• SVK v2.0.99_991

Some other packages get updated:

• CellWriter to v1.3.3
• kvkbd to v0.4.8
• Jarnal to v9.20

HAL: sysfs ACPI batteries fixed

With the recently released linux kernel v2.6.24 and if configured with ACPI_PROCFS_POWER and ACPI_SYSFS_POWER, you get now two ACPI battery interfaces in the system. One, as before, under /proc/acpi/battery/ and a new in the power_supply subsystem in the sysfs under /sys/class/power_supply/ . HAL listed both batteries, which was fixed by show the proc batteries only if there is no power_supply battery in the system [1]. Unfortunatly the sysfs battery was never updated (except on add/remove events of the AC adapter). This could lead, besides missing information updates, to a system crash on empty batteries if the userspace tools as e.g. KPowersave trusted these information. They never reached critical battery levels in this case.

I have now fixed this problem in HAL git master with several patches (last one was this), which also fix the power_supply battery handling in general (since it were several bug in the code). HAL poll now the power_supply ACPI batteries every 30 seconds as HAL already does for proc batteries. The code should work basicly, but I assume there are some corner cases left. Need to check the existing ACPI code for the proc batteries to find and port them. Maybe it make sense to split up the ACPI sysfs battery part from the existing power_supply handling to merge it into the existing ACPI code ... we will see.

I have added an updated HAL version for openSUSE factory (and for openSUSE 10.3 as testing package) to my OSBS HAL project repo and to the next Alpha2 of openSUSE 11.0. Fell free to test and report problems.

Tech Tags: HAL ACPI battery sysfs

Fixed KDBus

I commited today two fixes to the KDE SVN to make KDBus usable again on DBus method calls:

• fixed show the input widgets for input/output method parameters, show in the 'Output:' section only the output and not again also the input parameter widgets [1]
• fixed handling of boolean method parameters, now you should be able to call e.g.  SetPowerSave(bool) on the org.freedesktop.Hal.Device.SystemPowerManagement interface again without errors [2]

Updated RPM packages are already available for openSUSE 10.2 - openSUSE Factory and SUSE Linux Enterprise (Desktop) 10 as always in my openSUSE Build Service project.

Tech Tags: KDE Patches Packaging

New hal-info package released

Yesterday I released a new package of hal-info. The new version (20071212) contains now also most of the suspend quirks from the s2ram whitelist. For more information about the changes see the release mail on hal@lists.freedesktop.org.

For openSUSE you can get an up-to-date hal package (which contains the latest hal-info) for Factory and 10.3 here.

Tech Tags: HAL hal-info