Tag Archives: packaging

Updated Tiled for Fedora

Posted by on July 28, 2011 4 comments

A few months ago (Back in December!) I decided to package Tiled for Fedora. Since then, it has seen a couple of releases but I’ve neglected the package for a while, until Bjorn reminded me today about it.

It’s been a while and a lot of things have changed. Including the location of the Tiled packages.

I’ve set up a Fedora Repository in my domain, you can view a very crappy placeholder index here.[http://repo.k3rnel.net]. The repo currently only has the Tiled-QT packages, but I’ll probably package the Java version and maybe other Android-related things up there.

One of the new things in the RPM is that it finally creates a menu item (Under Development in KDE or Programming in Gnome), so you can get started and map your game in no time.

Should you find any bugs, please report them to Tiled’s Github.

Happy Mapping!

BlueBubble: What I learned

Posted by on June 30, 2011 5 comments

I had a lot of fun recompiling Gnome 2.32 for Fedora 15, and a lot of help too. Here’s a list of things I learned, in no particular order:

  • fedpkg is the best thing ever. It grabs the specs, it builds the rpms, it cooks bacon. (More on that later)
  • The Fedora Project Weightless Packager Cube is better than I thought. (It’s the one on the right, with no preview image)
  • You can’t install 32 bit and 64bit -devel packages of every library, therefore needing a Virtual Machine or a secondary computer
  • If you’re on 64bit Fedora, installing 32bit -devel packages will let you bypass the BuildRequires, but will fail because the 64bit package isn’t actually installed.
  • If you’re on 32bit Fedora, installing the 64bit -devel packages will let you bypass the BuildRequires but will fail because the 32bit package isn’t actually installed… (See what I did there? Yeah, took me a while to catch on too)
  • Building on a Virtual Machine is slooooooooooooooooooow.
  • I spent a couple of hours chowning and chmodding an RPM trying to get rpm –resign to work. (See below)
  • This bug needs love.This bug needs love.This bug needs love. (It’s worth saying three times just to get you to click it)
  • Building as root is a terrible, terrible idea.
  • There’s a huge difference between rm -rf %{_libdir}/* and rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_libdir}/* (See above)
  • There are build orders for a reason. (And I wrote a song about that)
  • createrepo makes creating a repository an extremely easy task.
  • The comps.xml file isn’t built by fairies, but is powered by Dark Elf magic.
  • Fighting against artificial obsolescence is kinda hard.
  • If you Provide: %{title}, and you Conflicts: %{title}, yum will throw a warning. Use Conflicts: %{title} >= {your-version} instead.
  • The best way to avoid artificial obsolescence is to rename your package and skip the Provides clause.
  • Google returns about 2,190 results for “artificial obsolescence”.
  • If you listen to your heart, it goes “lub-dub” “lub-dub” “lub-dub”
  • rsync is like my bff now.
  • Adding alias ding=”play /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/complete.oga” to your .bashrc is an absolute must.
  • Adding alias bake-on=”fedpkg local && ding” to your .bashrc makes building tastier.

As a closing note, I’ve got both 32bit and 64bit packages uploaded to the BlueBubble repository. If you’re having issues, clean your cache.

BlueBubble FAQ

Posted by on June 15, 2011 16 comments

It’s Q&A Time!

Q: What exactly is BlueBubble?
A: It’s an effort to bring back the Gnome 2.32 desktop in Fedora 15, or as Hannah would put it.. “The best of both worlds”.

Q: What does the logo represent?
A: It’s a parody on Fedora’s kick-ass logo. Instead of representing Infinity, Freedom and Voice, it represents equality, as in “We want things to stay the same“. Have you seen the video?

Q: Why did you do this?
A: Gnome 3 just isn’t *there* yet. The fallback mode is horrible, and the Shell itself needs a metric ton of extensions to become usable. In my humble opinion.

Q: Haven’t you heard about XFCE, LXDE or KDE?
A: Yes, I have.

Q: But?
A: Gnome is where the heart is.

Q: What is the target audience?
A: The same people who miss the Coke “Classic”, are afraid of change and/or suffer from Freemanic Paracusia.

Q: What architectures are supported?
A:i686 / x86_64. No ARM / PPC packages are planned.

Q: How’d you do it?
A: I actually wrote a song about it. Packagers might complain that the build order is wrong, but I had to sacrifice reality to make the lyrics sorta match.

Q: Where does Fedora stand in all of this?
A: I don’t know. I haven’t asked the board. This project is not endorsed or sponsored by Fedora or Red Hat in any way, shape or form.
Yes, I’m a Fedora ambassador, contributor and user, but this does not represent Fedora’s goals and ideals. The packages are not hosted on any Fedora domains.

Q: Alright, you’re convincing me…. What’s the catch?
A: You’ll have yum-conflicts for life! (Or for however long you decide to stay on BlueBubble)
A2: To clarify, you’ll only have yum-conflicts on the files you installed. You can’t have Nautilus and Nautilus-Classic at once. Duh.

Q: Did you know that Gnome 2.32 will no longer be supported?

A: Lies! Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 comes with Gnome 2.30, I think, (And I’m later versions will update it to 2.32, but not to 3.0. It’s not their style) This means that it will be supported until the Mayans destroy the Earth or I grow sick and tired of Gnome 2.32, whichever happens first, which means there’ll be no new features, but there will be bugfixes.

Q: Alright, how do I get it?
A: It’s finally available, however this isn’t your average REPO, I suggest you RTFM.

Q: Can I mix and match Gnome 3 apps with Gnome 2 apps?
A: Yes. Your milage may vary, but I managed to run the 3.0 versions of Evince, Cheese and Brasero on Gnome 2.32 without any problems.

Q: Will you make a LiveCD or DVD?
A: Yes, I’m still working on some minor details (Wallpaper and Plymouth, for starters), but they’ll be available *after* the repo.

Q: Surely everything’s unstable?
A: No. I’ve been “Eating my own dog food” for these past few weeks, running nothing but my RPMs. Other than the few things I’ll mention below, everything’s been buttery-smooth. And my name is not Shirley.

Q: Okay, Bugs and Issues you’ve found so far?
A: Here’s the list:

  • gnome-display-properties thing is completely broken. You can’t use an external screen for now, unless you use xrandr.
  • GDM looks ugly, so use KDM instead. (This is due to GTK Themes / GTK 3 themes not matching)
  • A lot of applets are missing. PyGTK2 obsoleted them.Applets are back! Installing them is as easy as yum install gnome-applets.
  • Obviously, trying to install certain gnome-centric gtk3 apps will fail and come up with all sorts of conflicts. I’ll provide “classic” version of conflicting packages. Yeah, using old versions instead of newer ones is kinda lame, but c’est la vie.
  • Rhythmbox’s notification status icon is gone. Bummer.
  • Some apps have a blue scrollbar, some apps have a white scrollbar. It depends if you’re running gtk2 or gtk3 apps.
  • Sometimes you get a black screen when you turn on the computer. Just press Ctrl-Alt-F2 then Ctrl-Alt-F1. Suggestions on how to debug are welcome. This isn’t a BlueBubble issue afaik, it could be Fedora 15 or Intel’s fault somehow, as I’m using KDM.
  • Sometimes you look at the screen and just have a strange sense of nostalgia. Then you realize its artificial. You can’t miss Gnome 2.32 if it isn’t gone.

Q: Did you know Evolution is missing?
A: You say ‘missing’. I say ugly. Use Thunderbird instead.

Q: How do I stop GTK 3 apps from looking ugly?
A: Contact whoever made the old GTK 2 themes and ask them to port it to GTK3. Adwaita is just horrible.
In all seriousness, go to System-> Preferences -> Apperance. Click on Customize, and under the ‘Controls’ tab, click on Adwaita. You can choose any window border, but until there are other themes that provide both gtk2 *and* gtk3 files, we’re stuck with ugly.

Q: You’re insane, you know that?
A: Indeed.

Q: I have a package request and/or something’s broken!
A: Well you’re in luck, I just added a Bug Report page to my blog.  (WordPress as a Bug Tracker? Did I mention I’m insane?)

Q: I have a question, where can I ask?
A: Drop me a comment below, tweet in my general direction or just mail to bluebubble at k3rnel.net

Fedora Packagers Cube

Posted by on February 7, 2011 3 comments

Man's best friend?

A while ago, I created a Fedora Users Cheat Cube, some sort of a Cheat Sheet, in Cube form, which is something that can be handed out in events.

For FUDCon Tempe, I decided to create the Fedora Packagers Cube, and handed out about 10 of these. Mat Booth already built his, and you can have your own. The PNG and SVG have been uploaded to Fedora’s Marketing Collateral page.

I hope Packagers find these useful, and if there’s any bugs on the cube, feel free to let me know so I can upload a v0.2

Try the RabbitVCS beta, live a happier life

Posted by on December 10, 2010 2 comments

Lets face it, typing svn or git commands into a terminal is no longer cool. What’s cool is having a user interface where you can just right click a folder, and commit it onto your favorite* Version Control System with no fuss. (I know, I know, I should get off your lawn).

RabbitVCS does such a thing. I’d call it a Nautilus extension, but there’s more than that, since they’ve added gedit and thunar support as well as command line.

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Tiled for Fedora

Posted by on December 8, 2010 3 comments

If you ever woke up at midnight in cold sweat thinking “Oh man, I had another nightmare today trying to compile packages on Linux, I wish someone packaged Tiled for Fedora” then you can finally rest.

I created an unofficial Fedora RPM for both Fedora 13 and Fedora 14.
You can find the packages here [http://repo.k3rnel.net], as well as the SPEC file used to build it (If you’re a SUSE/Mandriva packager, for instance).

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