News from Xfce !

• July 25, 2014
• Skunnyk

Update 19/11/2014 : A new post is available !

Some news from Xfce, my favourite Desktop Environment, that I use since something like 2006.

The development is relatively slow (the last stable version, 4.10 was released in April 2012). There is not so many developers, 1 or 2 "core" devs, and less than 10 contributors (who are generally distributions maintainers, from debian, xubuntu, gentoo, arch, thanks to them !).

There was a roadmap for 4.12, where it was planned to release 4.12 mid-2013. But, hey, it's open source, it will be out when "it will be ready" :-).

Some weeks ago, it was decided to establish a list of "critical bugs" to be eradicated in order to release xfce 4.12.
You can find the list here : https://wiki.xfce.org/releng/4.12/roadmap/critical-bugs.
Xfce 4.12 will still use gtk2, with some support of gtk3 for better integration.
Port to gtk3 will maybe be done for the next version.

What will be new in xfce 4.12 ?

All major components are already available in development version (4.11), here are a small list of what to expect :

xfwm4 :

• Zoom mode. I wrote about this cool new feature in december
• New, themable tabwin (alt+tab)

• Changelog at http://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfwm4/tree/NEWS

xfce4-settings :

• The display settings have been much improved with supporting extended desktop mode for 2 monitors and an improve minimal dialog.
• Changelog at http://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-settings/tree/NEWS

xfdesktop :

• Lot of works on xfdesktop, already 6 pre releases!
• Per-workspace wallpapers support (finally !)
• Better multi monitor handling
• Changelog at http://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfdesktop/tree/NEWS

xfce4-panel :

• Support of gtk3 plugins
• Better behavior of buttons/menus
• Changelog at http://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-panel/tree/NEWS

And lot of works on other components, like xfce4-power-manager (systemd support), xfburn, xfce4-mixer etc There is still some works/tests to be done on upower or systemd support for example.

Update : You can see lot of screenshots of new features on the Xfce forum, by ToZ : https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=8945

Buildbot

A new buildbot based on jenkins is available since few days on http://buildbot.xfce.org

Bountysource

It's easier to copy the mail from Simon Steinbeiß to explain this part :

To get to the point: we see bountysource[2] as an easy way to offer
the community with a way to financially support Xfce. There are two
avenues a backer can choose from.
1) Set a bounty on a specific bug (we've pulled in all the reports for
many components already, so you can easily find them on
bountysource.com)
2) Back the Xfce team

Update: More explanations about bountysource: https://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce4-dev/2014-July/030807.html

So if you are interested yo help Xfce, go to the contribute wiki page !

The bright future of Foresight Linux

• April 1, 2014
• Mark Trompell

Refining Foresight

Why

How

Which one

The Plan and Progress

Why not...

The bright future of Foresight Linux

• April 1, 2014
• Mark Trompell

Refining Foresight

Why

How

Which one

The Plan and Progress

Why not...

The bright future of Foresight Linux

• April 1, 2014
• Mark Trompell

Refining Foresight

Why

How

Which one

The Plan and Progress

Why not...

Remote notifications

• January 5, 2014
• Mike Massonnet

• A notification daemon! (dunst, xfce4-notifyd, etc.)
• socat
• notify-send

apt-get install socat libnotify-bin

• forward a TCP port,
• execute a local command.

Host remote-host
    Hostname remote-host.gandi.net
    RemoteForward 12000 localhost:12000
    PermitLocalCommand yes
    LocalCommand socat -u tcp4-listen:12000,reuseaddr,fork,bind=127.0.0.1 exec:$HOME/.local/bin/notify-remote.sh 2>/dev/null &

#!/bin/sh
delay="5000"

read line
summary="$line"
read line
msg="$line"
read line

if [ "$line" = "" ] && [ "$summary" != "" ]; then
  [ -x "$(which notify-send)" ] && notify-send -u critical -t "$delay" -- "$summary" "$msg"
fi

local$ ssh remote-host
remote-host$ echo -e 'SummarynBodynn' | nc 127.0.0.1 12000

Integrate into irssi

# shamelessly copied from http://git.esaurito.net/?p=godog/bin.git;a=blob;f=rnotify.pl
use strict;
use Irssi;
use HTML::Entities;
use vars qw($VERSION %IRSSI);

$VERSION = "0.01";

%IRSSI = (
    authors     => 'Luke Macken, Paul W. Frields',
    contact     => 'lewk@csh.rit.edu, stickster@gmail.com',
    name        => 'rnotify',
    description => 'Use libnotify to alert user to hilighted messages',
    license     => 'GNU General Public License',
    url         => 'http://lewk.org/log/code/irssi-notify',
);

Irssi::settings_add_str('misc', $IRSSI{'name'} . '_port', '12000');
Irssi::settings_add_bool('misc', $IRSSI{'name'} . '_if_away', 0);

sub is_port_owner {
    my ($port, $uid) = @_;
    my $wanted = sprintf("0100007F:%04X", $port);

    # XXX linux-specific
    open HANDLE, "< /proc/net/tcp" || return 0;
    while(<HANDLE>){
        #   sl  local_address rem_address   st tx_queue rx_queue tr tm->when retrnsmt   uid  timeout inode
        my @splitted = split /s+/;
        my $local = $splitted[2];
        my $remote = $splitted[3];
        my $uid = $splitted[8];

        return 1 if $local eq $wanted and $uid == $<;
    }
    close HANDLE;
    return 0;
}

sub notify {
    my ($server, $summary, $message) = @_;

    $message = HTML::Entities::encode($message);
    $summary = HTML::Entities::encode($summary);

    # echo  escaping
    $message =~ s/\/\\/g;
    $summary =~ s/\/\\/g;

    my $port = Irssi::settings_get_str($IRSSI{'name'} . '_port');

    return if ! is_port_owner($port, $<);

    # check for being away in every server?
    return if $server->{usermode_away} &&
              (Irssi::settings_get_bool($IRSSI{'name'} . '_if_away') == 0);

    # XXX test for other means of doing TCP
    #print("echo '$summaryn$messagenn' | /bin/nc 127.0.0.1 $port");
    system("echo '$summaryn$messagenn' | /bin/nc 127.0.0.1 $port &");

    #my $pid = open(FH, "|-");
    #if( $pid ){
    #    print FH "$summaryn$messagenn";
    #    close(FH) || warn "exited $?";
    #}else{
    #    exec("/bin/nc 127.0.0.1 $port") || warn "can't exec $!";
    #}
}

sub print_text_notify {
    my ($dest, $text, $stripped) = @_;
    my $server = $dest->{server};

    return if (!$server || !($dest->{level} & MSGLEVEL_HILIGHT));
    my $sender = $stripped;
    $sender =~ s/^<.([^>]+)>.+/1/ ;
    $stripped =~ s/^<.[^>]+>.// ;
    my $summary = "Message on $dest->{target}";
    notify($server, $summary, $stripped);
}

sub message_private_notify {
    my ($server, $msg, $nick, $address) = @_;

    return if (!$server);
    notify($server, "Private message from ".$nick, $msg);
}

sub dcc_request_notify {
    my ($dcc, $sendaddr) = @_;
    my $server = $dcc->{server};

    return if (!$dcc);
    notify($server, "DCC ".$dcc->{type}." request", $dcc->{nick});
}

Irssi::signal_add('print text', 'print_text_notify');
Irssi::signal_add('message private', 'message_private_notify');
Irssi::signal_add('dcc request', 'dcc_request_notify');

# vim: et

Remote notifications

• January 5, 2014
• Mike Massonnet

• A notification daemon! (dunst, xfce4-notifyd, etc.)
• socat
• notify-send

apt-get install socat libnotify-bin

• forward a TCP port,
• execute a local command.

Host remote-host
    Hostname remote-host.gandi.net
    RemoteForward 12000 localhost:12000
    PermitLocalCommand yes
    LocalCommand socat -u tcp4-listen:12000,reuseaddr,fork,bind=127.0.0.1 exec:$HOME/.local/bin/notify-remote.sh 2>/dev/null &

#!/bin/sh
delay="5000"

read line
summary="$line"
read line
msg="$line"
read line

if [ "$line" = "" ] && [ "$summary" != "" ]; then
  [ -x "$(which notify-send)" ] && notify-send -u critical -t "$delay" -- "$summary" "$msg"
fi

local$ ssh remote-host
remote-host$ echo -e 'Summary\nBody\n\n' | nc 127.0.0.1 12000

Integrate into irssi

# shamelessly copied from http://git.esaurito.net/?p=godog/bin.git;a=blob;f=rnotify.pl
use strict;
use Irssi;
use HTML::Entities;
use vars qw($VERSION %IRSSI);

$VERSION = "0.01";

%IRSSI = (
    authors     => 'Luke Macken, Paul W. Frields',
    contact     => 'lewk@csh.rit.edu, stickster@gmail.com',
    name        => 'rnotify',
    description => 'Use libnotify to alert user to hilighted messages',
    license     => 'GNU General Public License',
    url         => 'http://lewk.org/log/code/irssi-notify',
);

Irssi::settings_add_str('misc', $IRSSI{'name'} . '_port', '12000');
Irssi::settings_add_bool('misc', $IRSSI{'name'} . '_if_away', 0);

sub is_port_owner {
    my ($port, $uid) = @_;
    my $wanted = sprintf("0100007F:%04X", $port);

    # XXX linux-specific
    open HANDLE, "< /proc/net/tcp" || return 0;
    while(<HANDLE>){
        #   sl  local_address rem_address   st tx_queue rx_queue tr tm->when retrnsmt   uid  timeout inode
        my @splitted = split /\s+/;
        my $local = $splitted[2];
        my $remote = $splitted[3];
        my $uid = $splitted[8];

        return 1 if $local eq $wanted and $uid == $<;
    }
    close HANDLE;
    return 0;
}

sub notify {
    my ($server, $summary, $message) = @_;

    $message = HTML::Entities::encode($message);
    $summary = HTML::Entities::encode($summary);

    # echo \ escaping
    $message =~ s/\\/\\\\/g;
    $summary =~ s/\\/\\\\/g;

    my $port = Irssi::settings_get_str($IRSSI{'name'} . '_port');

    return if ! is_port_owner($port, $<);

    # check for being away in every server?
    return if $server->{usermode_away} &&
              (Irssi::settings_get_bool($IRSSI{'name'} . '_if_away') == 0);

    # XXX test for other means of doing TCP
    #print("echo '$summary\n$message\n\n' | /bin/nc 127.0.0.1 $port");
    system("echo '$summary\n$message\n\n' | /bin/nc 127.0.0.1 $port &");

    #my $pid = open(FH, "|-");
    #if( $pid ){
    #    print FH "$summary\n$message\n\n";
    #    close(FH) || warn "exited $?";
    #}else{
    #    exec("/bin/nc 127.0.0.1 $port") || warn "can't exec $!";
    #}
}

sub print_text_notify {
    my ($dest, $text, $stripped) = @_;
    my $server = $dest->{server};

    return if (!$server || !($dest->{level} & MSGLEVEL_HILIGHT));
    my $sender = $stripped;
    $sender =~ s/^\<.([^\>]+)\>.+/\1/ ;
    $stripped =~ s/^\<.[^\>]+\>.// ;
    my $summary = "Message on $dest->{target}";
    notify($server, $summary, $stripped);
}

sub message_private_notify {
    my ($server, $msg, $nick, $address) = @_;

    return if (!$server);
    notify($server, "Private message from ".$nick, $msg);
}

sub dcc_request_notify {
    my ($dcc, $sendaddr) = @_;
    my $server = $dcc->{server};

    return if (!$dcc);
    notify($server, "DCC ".$dcc->{type}." request", $dcc->{nick});
}

Irssi::signal_add('print text', 'print_text_notify');
Irssi::signal_add('message private', 'message_private_notify');
Irssi::signal_add('dcc request', 'dcc_request_notify');

# vim: et

Relaunch

• December 25, 2013
• Brian Tarricone

I finally decided to redo my website, and ditch WordPress in favor of a static site generator (I decided to use Jekyll). I also took the opportunity to simplify the design.

There’s a bit more to do, and likely some broken links here and there (not to mention some broken WP-to-markdown conversion), but it’s time I finally got this done.

In theory, I’ll start blogging again as well, but… we’ll see.

Relaunch

• December 25, 2013
• Brian Tarricone

I finally decided to redo my website, and ditch WordPress in favor of a static site generator (I decided to use Jekyll). I also took the opportunity to simplify the design.

There's a bit more to do, and likely some broken links here and there (not to mention some broken WP-to-markdown conversion), but it's time I finally got this done.

In theory, I'll start blogging again as well, but... we'll see.

Xfce – Xfwm4 zoom mode in 4.12

• December 10, 2013
• Skunnyk

Xfce is my main desktop environment since more than 6 years, and I really like it. I try to make some patch from time to time, and if you search a project to contribute, it’s here ;-)

The core team is really small (2 or 3 people), so development evolves rather slowly, and the 4.12 will be released when it is ready.

One of the latest feature is the implementation of a compositor zoom, like the compiz ezoom plugin, from an external developper ( see this thread).

Here a little video with latest git version ( from http://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfwm4/ ). You just need to press ALT and scroll up/down to zoom in/out.

(yeah, it’s an excuse to test the html5 <video> balise with ogv file ;)).

I will try to make some blog posts about new features in xfce world for the upcoming 4.12 (in 2014 I hope!), stay tuned !

Xfce – Xfwm4 zoom mode in 4.12

• December 10, 2013
• Skunnyk

Xfce is my main desktop environment since more than 6 years, and I really like it. I try to make some patch from time to time, and if you search a project to contribute, it’s here ;-)

The core team is really small (2 or 3 people), so development evolves rather slowly, and the 4.12 will be released when it is ready.

One of the latest feature is the implementation of a compositor zoom, like the compiz ezoom plugin, from an external developper ( see this thread).

Here a little video with latest git version ( from http://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfwm4/ ). You just need to press ALT and scroll up/down to zoom in/out.

(yeah, it’s an excuse to test the html5 <video> balise with ogv file ;)).

I will try to make some blog posts about new features in xfce world for the upcoming 4.12 (in 2014 I hope!), stay tuned !