Slackware Update

January 30, 2008 – 10:24 pm

Yeah, its the time for some new updated Slackware package. In those the most interesting to me is Amarok which was upgraded to the latest version. I have been using that version of amarok for awhile. I took the new version for a test drive in KDE4 which will be really nice. I’ve since went back to KDE 3.5.8 because I felt more comfortable with that version and it’s a bit more stable then KDE4 on my system. Here is the changelog with a bit of acknowledgement from Patrick V. about him and other Slackware dude attending the KDE4 release party in California.

Wed Jan 30 19:07:35 CST 2008
d/ruby-1.8.6_p111-i486-2.tgz: Moved some comments out of the ./configure part
of the build script to fix a couple of missed options.
Thanks to Stuart Winter.
kde/amarok-1.4.8-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to amarok-1.4.8.
l/atk-1.21.5-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to atk-1.21.5.
l/gtk+2-2.12.7-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to gtk+-2.12.7.
l/libmowgli-0.6.0-i486-1.tgz: Added libmowgli-0.6.0, which is needed by
Audacious.
l/libmtp-0.2.5-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to libmtp-0.2.5.
l/libgpod-0.6.0-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to libgpod-0.6.0 (major version bump).
l/libxml2-2.6.31-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to libxml2-2.6.31.
l/pango-1.19.3-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to pango-1.19.3.
xap/audacious-1.4.5-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to audacious-1.4.5.
xap/audacious-plugins-1.4.4-i486-1.tgz: Upgraded to
audacious-plugins-1.4.4-i486-1.tgz.
xap/xine-lib-1.1.10-i686-1.tgz: Upgraded to xine-lib-1.1.10.
extra/slackpkg/slackpkg-2.70-noarch-1.tgz: Upgraded to slackpkg-2.70.
Thanks to Piter Punk.
Great thanks are also due to the KDE team, not only for their tremendous
accomplishments over the years, but for the gracious reception they gave to
the members of the Slackware team who traveled to the release event. What
a wonderful group of people! We had a great time there, learned a lot, and
will be applying that knowledge and our new contacts within KDE to provide
the best possible KDE experience for Slackware users. The next Slackware
release will contain KDE 3.5.9, but we’re targeting KDE 4.1.x for the one
after that. The application end of things doesn’t quite fully cover KDE3’s
functionality yet, but by then it will. As I’m sure most of you know, Robby
has put up test packages of the initial KDE 4.0 release which I’ve tested and
found to be consistent with what to expect from a developer’s preview.
The look of the new desktop is stunning, and the use of SVG and hardware
acceleration gives (IMHO) even something like MacOS a run for its money in
terms of appearance and user-friendliness. We look forward with great
anticipation to merging KDE4 when it is mature enough (and it’s getting there
fast), and then watching it just get better and better.
Once again, _huge_ thanks to our KDE friends! Stop by here any time. :-)

By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Technology | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

KDE4 on NVIDA 1.0-96xx series driver

January 17, 2008 – 1:38 pm

Had a couple of problems making KDE4 load on my desktop. At first I though the packages were wrong but after thinking for a second, why would rworkman release something that isn’t working? I doubt that the packages were wrong so I’ve started poking around and check the logs. KWin was the culprit so I though maybe that there was something that wasn’t initialising like it should.

I’ve also added /etc/profile/qt4.sh and qt4.csh to make sure it loads qt4. It’s basically a copy of qt.sh but with the number 4. ;-) Check this thread for more information about this.

Apparently, NVIDIA cards on KDE4 is an issue according to various thread on the net so to test it up, I changed the driver in my xorg.conf from nvidia to nv and voila it worked. Something was wrong with my nvidia driver. I poke some more and found a couple of other thread about this issue. Here is what I added to my xorg.conf file.

Section "Device"
Driver "nvidia"

Option "NoLogo" "1"
Option "RenderAccel" "1"
Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "1"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "1"
EndSection

I also had to rebuild my nvidia driver for some reason the GLX wouldn’t load. After that I’ve rebuilt against the kernel I am running, it worked flawlessly. Cool!

By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Technology | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

KDE 4.0 on Slackware

January 16, 2008 – 10:16 pm

KDE 4.0

Finally someone took the time to build packages of KDE 4.0 for Slackware. I didn’t moan about it but deep down, I was secretly asking to get some of those sexy KDE 4.0 packages. You will have to thank rworkman for all the prep work and here is what he says in the README. I just didn’t want to build them one by one, call me lazy. ;-)

Tue Jan 15 17:06:38 UTC 2008
TESTING/kde-4.0.0: Added. Yeah, everybody’s been clamoring for this, so here
you are. All of this still undergoing heavy testing from several members
of the Slackware team, and Pat’s planning to push some more “official”
packages after returning from the KDE4 Release Event. In the meantime,
this should satisfy your curiosity. ;-)

Be sure to read the “_README” file in the TESTING/kde-4.0.0/ directory.
Among other things mentioned in that file, make sure you understand that
these packages can NOT be installed alongside -current’s existing qt and
kde packages. Enjoy! -rworkman

Here is the link.

Thank you rworkman!

UPDATE: packages of KDE 4.0.3 for slackware are available at http://kde4.rlworkman.net/

By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Technology | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Alpine Messaging System, the alternative to Pine. Gmail Included.

December 22, 2007 – 2:51 pm

Alpine

I just tried Alpine the email program from Washington University. Alpine is released under the Apache License, Version 2.0. All of the source needed to build Unix, Windows, and Web-based mail user agents is included. Alpine was developed by the department of Computing & Communications at the University of Washington. It’s as if it was based on Pine. Duh! It is. It is similar to Pine and it’s very easy to use. I didn’t notice any difference in the way I use it which is to say I like to use alpine for my gmail account. Here is what I’ve done. I got the source from the Washington website located here. I then compiled it with the normal configuration like so

./configure --prefix=/usr --localstatedir=/var --sysconfdir=/etc --disable-debug

make

and the final

make install

I’m running slackware-current as my linux distro of choice and because I have such an audience, I know that it will use all of my alloted bandwidth on westhost.com. Right?! I have produced a package with checkinstall. It it available here for your pleasure and laziness.

alpine-1.00-i386-1.tgz

I also configured it to check my gmail account. The way to do that is very simple. Let me take you through the steps.

1. Type MSLA (Main> Setup> collectionLists> Add)

2. Enter something like the following but replacing the information with your gmail account

Nickname : Gmail
Server : imap.gmail.com/ssl/user=id@gmail.com
Path :
View :

3. Let’s setup SMTP to use the gmail server. You will be able to send email from you gmail account which is very useful if you have a hostname that doesn’t resolve to your computer.

SMTP Server (for sending) = smtp.gmail.com:587/tls/user=id@gmail.com

4. I like using alpine configuration that comes out of the box. I only modified two more setting.

[X] save-will-not-delete

pruning-rule =
(*) don’t rename, don’t delete

You can setup alpine to use a password file which could contain your gmail password but I do not recommend this as it not safe and usually not recommended. If you do want to use a password file you can go read some more here about it.

That’s it. You should be able to run Alpine with your gmail account. Nice eh? If you want to setup more advance stuff like setting up two imap account and so on, check out ii.com. It is a tremendous information source.

By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Technology | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (12)

Bartered Bride “White” Model

December 12, 2007 – 7:15 pm

Here is what I have been working on for the last couple of weeks. We are producing Bartered Bride at Pepperdine University in the Spring 2008 semester. This opera will be directed by Henry Price and conducted by Tony Cason. I am doing the scenic design.

For background information about Bartered Bride you can visit the wikipedia article here. The most interesting aspect of the opera for me is that it’s set in the time of a festival from morning to evening. The implication is that it should be set in a happy environment almost like a spring festival. I have conducted a very interesting visual research which I will take a photograph of and talk a bit more about it but until then, here are some of “white” model shot that I am/was working on. The white model is for the scenic designer to get a feel for scenery and to communicate his vision to other fellow artists. In my case, it’s not a white model but it is mostly white. The idea is that I can change it easily at any time. The next step is to add another layer on top of it with either paint or re-do some of the elements in a more “finish” state. Here is act one.

Bartered Bride - ACT 1

Act 1 is mostly played outside in fron of the tavern. I wanted the scene to be as happy as possible so that it is very lighthearted and happy. It is mostly characterized by a sea of sunflowers in the background working against the outside of the tavern which is represented here by The Wall. The floor is another representation of a sunflower, in this example, the color.

Bartered Bride - ACT 2

Act 2 is inside the tavern so expect lot’s of table, chairs and mugs. The Wall will be somewhat different then what is shown here but it’s possible to communicate the “feel” for this act. It should still be happy and uplifting in every way possible.

Bartered Bride - ACT 3

Act 3 is all about the circus passing in town. The scene is set for dance and acrobat which will be cool to have fun with. I wanted to clear the space as much as possible to have an open space for dancing, etc.. The platform are there to be able to have different layer of bodies on stage to be able to fill the space as much as possible.

Disclaimer: The model is not what some NYU kids could do in terms of model building skills, I am after all, from CalArts.

By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Theatre | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

A Letter to Jim Prentice About the Canadian DMCA

December 8, 2007 – 2:42 pm

Bonjour Monsieur Jim Prentice,

I am writing you on this beautiful day from California. I am a Canadian living abroad working at Pepperdine University as a teacher in the field of theatre.

Tougher Copyright restriction for us, theatre artist, is something that will be detrimental to our art. Not only it will hinder how we do our craft but it will also affect the quality of our work. Please do not let this go through as our culture will seriously be impacted by this new Copyright. I beg you, overturn this new Copyright and let’s have an open conversation. A conversation with the people so that we can make a policy that is sensible to various groups and more importantly to the Canadian people.

There is a tendency in the United States from the music industry to lock music with their DRM. This is not the wave of the future as more and more are starting to offer music without DRM. The people are speaking and I beg you to not do like the United States on DRM.

The music industry as we know it is slowly dying. Do not act on their request as they are only thinking about themselves. They are not even thinking about their own talent. Why should you?

I seriously hope that you are acting in the best interest of the Canadian consumers and not the RIAA and MPAA. Are you?

Please explain to me what are the interest of the Canadian consumers?

Sincerly,

Benoit Beauchamp

By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Technology | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

I want that space!

December 4, 2007 – 9:08 am

Hello? Is there anybody in there?

How cool would it be to transform this into a performance space. Put some sort of flooring and voila you got a space that you can use. Ill find one some day.

By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Life | Comments (0)

MX500 on Slackware Current

November 17, 2007 – 6:28 pm

When I upgraded packages on my slackware box this morning to the latest xorg server, my mouse wouldn’t scroll so I googled for a fixed. I don’t when the change occurs but that’s not relevant. At first I just though that the xmodmap changed on me. Well that prove to be right I actually found a better solution.

In File: /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "evdev"
Option "evBits" "+1-2"
Option "keyBits" "~272-287"
Option "relBits" "~0-2 ~6 ~8"
EndSection

Under XOrg 7.1, this gets all buttons working normally (mostly), including Back, Forward, Scroll, and Cruise. xmodmap and imwheel are not needed. With this config the Quick Switch Program Selector button doesn’t do anything by default, but xev shows it as Button 8. Cruise Up triggers three events - Button 4 Press, Button 4 Release and Button 9 release. Cruise Down triggers three events - Button 5 Press, Button 5 Release and Button 10 Release.

..Gentoo Wiki

By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Technology | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

kira kira shower

November 16, 2007 – 3:34 pm

kira kira shower

By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Life | Comments (0)

Hobby and work, can they mix?

November 16, 2007 – 12:21 am

By trade I am a theatre designer who is currently teaching and my hobby is working on computer on various projects unofficially. I have been mixing those two for quite some time and I can actually see the two merging at some point in time. I am fond of lighting design and I think more and more we see progress towards new technology. The days of just having a vibrant filament are almost over, now is the time for the 0 and 1. I have been debating the use of the blog and I wanted to open up to the world. Can the two mix with some sort of success?

I always gather as much as if there is good content then there should be a crowd. I have read some of the theatre blogs out there. They are mostly geared towards reviews and bringing nothing but critic to the table. I am personally not a fan of those type of blogs. I also spent some time reading dance blogs which to me are more interesting because they bring out interesting questions. So to re-cap, theatre nay, dance yay.

I have been a slackware user for more then 10 years now. I haven’t done much for the community but feel the need to participate in some ways now. I wonder if people are interested in having a gemini tell his story.

Can you mix dance/theatre design and a personnal hobby in a blog? I haven’t seen much of them around. You could ask the same question for any type of other art mixed with technology? What would the answer be? I actually don’t know of any blog that post something regularly about design. I know all about the reviews so no need to remind me. If you do have a blog about theatre design, please let me know, I would love to read yours.

I would like to think that it is possible. Theatre design is evolving into something that is very interesting and well, we all know about technology. For example, Linux is, to me at least, starting to get some attention from various people and maybe the more we talk about it the better open source software can position itself to lead the way. It’s a dream but, eh, why not?

By Benoit Beauchamp | Posted in Life | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)