LINUXCOVER USERSTORY SchlagwortSchlagwort sollte sollte hier hier stehen stehenFree Software Projects COMMUNITY An up-to-date look at free software and its makers PROJECTS ON THE MOVE Free software covers such a diverse range of utilities, applications, and other assorted projects that it can be hard to find the perfect tool. We pick the best of the bunch. This month we cover Yast2 for Debian, KDE 4, Bluetooth headsets, and the Debian project. BY MARTIN LOSCHWITZ ovell GPL’d the Yast2 configura- scratch would have involved a lot of Yast2 Qt GUI can be built on other Linux tion tool shortly after acquiring work. The Yast4Debian project is cur- systems without any trouble. Unfortu- NSuse. The Yast2 sources were rently porting the Yast2 version supplied nately, porting the other components is freely accessible prior to this change, but with Suse 9.1, although an upgrade to far less trivial. There is even a module the license restricted use and distribu- the Suse 9.2 version is imminent. for Yast2 icons, and there are many inter- tion of the program. These license Yast2 comprises the Libyutil library, a dependencies between modules that do restrictions prevented legal full down- program core, and a number of addi- not appear to make much sense. For loads of the Suse media for a long time. tional modules. The core is simply an example, to compile the partitioning interpreter for Yast2’s own programming module, you need the Autoyast module. Yast4Debian language, YCP, which combines various Autoyast adds other dependencies, such Novell has stated that it intends to make elements of other common scripting lan- as the X11 configuration module, which Yast2 a universal standard. According to guages and is used to create new mod- in turn requires the X11 mouse and X11 Novell, distributors should modify the ules. Both the Yast2 libraries and the keyboard modules. Also, Autoyast Yast source code to match their own core were written in C++ and pre-con- depends on the Yast Online Update mod- products. The first major project to figured with autotools to support build- ule and the Bootloader module. tackle this task was Debian. The Debian ing on any Linux system. distribution does not have its own cen- Porting the modules will be the biggest Under the Hood tral configuration tool, and creating a challenge. User interfaces such as the The task of modifying the highly Suse- comprehensive tool like Yast2 from Yast2 Ncurses text interface and the specific infrastructure to match the tar- WWW.LINUX - MAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 60 NOVEMBER 2005 93 COMMUNITY Free Software ProjectsSchlagwort sollte hier stehen COVER STORY the previous ver- and the Kdesktop, which will act as the sion dates back root window that contains all other KDE almost three years windows. On the design side, Super- to October 21, karamba – an optional component previ- 2001. ously – will allow programmers to One major enhance more or less any aspect of the change to Qt desktop with a minimum of effort, giv- affects the license ing users a Mac OS X style task bar (Fig- rather than the ure 2). As a result, the developers are code. Qt users aiming for a modern and “completely originally only new desktop design.” A KDE 3 compati- had the option of bility library will provide a bridgehead selecting a free between KDE 4 and its predecessor. license on Linux, The KDE programmers have not yet but with Qt 4, the set a completion date. Of course, the manufacturer KDE people are not the only ones really Figure 1: The Yast4Debian project brings Suse’s popular Yast config- Trolltech intro- interested in the success of their devel- uration tool to Debian. duced the GPL opment activities: a few weeks ago, license for propri- Trolltech hired KDE programmer Aaron get distribution is even more complex etary programs by Windows developers Seigo to allow Aaron to concentrate on than compiling Yast2 and the accompa- in addition to the commercial license. KDE development. Trolltech seems to nying modules. In Debian’s case, pack- Some programmers are even talking be looking to make the best known Qt age management is a major challenge. A about porting KDE to Windows – now application an object of prestige. Yast2 module communicates with the that the legal issues have been removed, RPM database, but Debian uses the it is just a question of technology. Bluetooth Headsets on Linux Debian package format. On a more posi- Qt 4 also adds value for end users. The Bluetooth headsets are a useful thing. tive note, other Yast2 modules needed library now supports 64-bit architec- In the car, these cheap earphones can far less modification; for example, tures, and this means considerable per- replace a more expensive hands-free because Debian and Suse both use formance benefits. system, and they work with any Blue- shadow, the developers were able to The new engine, which goes by the tooth devices that support appropriate adopt the user management module name of Arthur, also deserves a men- audio profiles. A driver for the Alsa more or less unchanged. tion. It allows users to add painting and Sound System means that at least a few The Yast4Debian developers can point drawing functions to Qt applications in headsets can be used for listening to to the first fruits of their labor: besides a simple way. Arthur has a big speed music on Linux home PCs. This said, the the user configuration module, the parti- advantage over the QPainter tool pro- Alsa Bluetooth project has still not been tioner now also works without any trou- vided by Qt 3, and it interfaces with the formally accepted into the mainstream ble. But there is still much to do, and the GUIs of any operating systems that sup- Alsa developer branch. Besides the imminent move to the Yast2 version port Qt. This means that the developer source code and an installation guide, from the current Suse distribution will no longer needs to think about the spe- the snd-bt-sco module is available from add considerably to the workload. If you cific characteristics of a user interface. the project homepage at [4]. are interested in getting involved with The new Scribe font engine also removes The Alsa Bluetooth extension uses the the porting work, check out the project the font problems that affected Qt 3. A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Pro- homepage at [1] for details. All in all, Qt 4 gives KDE programmers file) protocol to support stereo sound, a powerful base for the next generation although this has been restricted to ste- Qt 4 and KDE 4 desktop. The project Wiki [2] for the reo reception thus far. Stereo transmis- The KDE development cycle is tradition- recently opened KDE 4 branch already sions have failed, as the current headset ally modeled on that of the underlying has an impressive list of suggested fea- hardware does not support this function. graphics library, Qt. For example, a tures. Among other things, the develop- However, new Bluetooth headsets that development branch of KDE 4.0 was ers plan icon rendering and optical don't have this problem are under devel- opened just after Qt 4.0 was released. updates of the individual KDE compo- opment, and the snd-bt-sco driver KDE 4.0 is designed to leverage the fea- nents. KDE will also improve the user already has the necessary functionality. tures the new Qt version offers, while at experience by using Qt’s own access the same time removing a few design methods for all icons and buttons, thus Bug Squashing Party weaknesses that affected KDE 3. providing a standardized look. There has been a bustle of activity at the The gap between the release dates The Plasma [3] project will be looking developer branch of Debian in the wake makes it obvious that some major to revamp the KDE 4 look. According to of the Debian Sarge release. For example, changes to KDE's Qt underpinnings plans, it will integrate various KDE ele- the future version of the distribution has must have taken place. Version 4.0 of the ments, including a completely reworked moved to GCC version 4.0. The migra- graphics library was released June 27; version of the Control Center, the Kicker, tion pushed the number of release-criti- 94 ISSUE 60 NOVEMBER 2005 WWW.LINUX - MAGAZINE.COM Schlagwort sollte hier stehen COVER STORY ADVERTISEMENT cal bug reports up to almost 600, and At the Debian Developer Conference this has left Debian developers facing the (DebConf) in Helsinki, Finland, a group task of removing the bugs. of programmers centered around Steve To get up to speed, Frank Lichtenheld McIntyre got together to discuss ways of initiated a bug squashing party at the simplifying the CD tool. Source code start of August. A bug squashing party restructuring is the central issue; at the consists of developers meeting on an IRC same time, the team will be looking to channel to hunt down the bugs in their update and improve automated depen- own and other project teams’ packages. dency checking. Steve McIntyre has The administrators loosen up the rules announced a number of goals on the for package uploads to allow anyone tak- Debian-Devel-Announce mailing list [6]. ing part to upload their patches directly. But the CD Tool is facing an even big- The group bug hunt led to the removal ger problem. To find out which packages of 32 release critical errors, letting a it should put where on the 14 CD set, the number of packages previously consid- tool draws on the results of the Popular- ered unstable make their way to testing.