Category: Developing

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Bongo rPath Images

I have been trying to get the latest 0.6.1 release of Bongo onto the rPath images. This unfortunately has not been possible due to our reliance on a newer version of Python than what is available on the rPath system.

This is a sad moment as I have been doing that for quite some time now and will not be able to continue.

So for those that have images which contain Bongo on a rPath system please use either the Fedora, Suse or Gentoo packages that we have created.

Thanks to everyone who has helped me over the years and especially Stu Gott who was instrumental in moving the images forward.

If  rPath eventually support python 2.6 I will revisit the images on their platform.

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Images for Bongo 0.6.0

I have been working on the images in the Suse Studio environment as I mentioned in my blog post  here.

I started the investigations to find that our RPM repository was in need of a bit of work. I wanted to create a new repository in my own name that would allow me to build these RPMs for the project.

Thinking about the delivery of the RPM’s I thought it best to open a repository with a generic name namely “bongo-project”.  This would allow more than one person to work on the repository, but for the repository to keep its identity.

Once the repository was setup I realized that I had to learn RPM packaging as I had been so used to the Conary way of packaging that it was almost second nature.

After quite a long time I have been able to get consistent builds from the OBS which have produced RPM’s for a number of OS’s.

Now cam the part that I really to do from the start Create images.

All in all it has been a painless effort as the interface is easy to use and intuitive. I only had to ask for help a few times to find out that the error was mine and not the studio’s. I have created images for the following

  1. ISO Live CD
  2. Vmware Image
  3. Xen Image
  4. USB/HDD Image

These images are all x86 (32bit) and do not have any web interface (well we ripped it out remember)

The only downside at the moment is that they have not created the marketplace yet so any images created will be deleted after a while.  This left me with a dilemma, how do I publish the images?

My solution…..

To create a subdomain on my own website for the bongo downloads.

The link is Http://bongo.haigmail.com

Here you will find a crude yet cute website with links to the bongo tar.gz files. I was impressed with the size of the images about 150mb each which I think is quite good.

For those of you on the rPath images as promised I will be creating one more update to that image set unless there are enough of you that want it. I have a problem in that Bongo does not work on Python 2.4 which is the deployed version on the rPath system.  rPath is not the only OS affected CentOS 5 and RHEL 5 are also affected by this. I have asked the guys to look at why it is failing and to see if they could get it working as soon as I can build it I will.

I would really like to know who of you are using the rPath images as I have no idea how many of you there are. Please post a response here if you do.

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HTC Hero owner

Over the weekend I was able to have my mobile contract changed and part of the deal is that I get an HTC Hero.

This has made me quite happy as I have been forced to run windows mobile on my old phone for far to long and it is refreshing that I have an android phone.

The first thing I noticed was that the box was really small, I wondered if they had actually just given me the charger by mistake.

As soon as I had opened the box the shiny new black phone was there and there was even place for the charger. In past occasions when I have taken possession of a new phone I dumped the box and manual and turned on the phone, because how difficult could it be to use it?

I went against my better nature and actually looked for a manual in the box and there was none, at first I thought that HTC had eventually realised that Men NEVER read the manual and had not provided one as it was just wasteful and well useless. I dutifully plugged the phone into the socket and waited for the phone to charge, this did not take very long as I was able to turn the phone on after only 2 hours and the battery reading said full. I was in business.

I started clicking round on the application list and found the pdf reader. I thought that would be a good thing to have. When the app opened I realised that HTC had just moved with the times and supplied a PDF user guide all 200+ pages of it.

One of the things that annoys me is that your contacts get synced to a google account. I really don’t like that at all. My contacts are MY property and I want to keep it that way.

I have searched for some time now for a contacts app that allows you to use the phone without contacting google or some other company to store your data. I have looked at what it would take to code my own one and then realised I can’t code……. say no more.

I would really appreciate any help in finding this killer app for my system.

I am really excited that we could develop an app for android or the iPhone that interfaces with our whole system and then this problem goes away. I just can’t wait. Enough for now I need to search for my contacts app.

EDIT: I just realised that I forgot to mention that there is no app I can find that will sync your evolution/thunderbird PIM to the android system. I have searched high and low but as far as I can tell nothing exists.

Boy I wish I could code