gnome15-team team mailing list archive

[Brett Smith <tanktarta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just wanted to give an early warning of the release of 0.7.0. All
the packages are built now, I just need to finish off the web site
changes required. This will be done by Tuesday.

If you want a preview, you can find the source archives at

http://www.gnome15.org/downloads/Gnome15/Pre/gnome15-0.7.0.tar.gz
http://www.gnome15.org/downloads/Gnome15/Pre/gnome15-plugins-0.7.0.tar.gz
http://www.gnome15.org/downloads/Gnome15/Pre/gnome15-impulse15-0.0.9.tar.gz and
http://www.gnome15.org/downloads/Gnome15/Pre/gnome15-iconpack-0.0.3.tar.gz

Alternatively, you could try out the new package repositories. NOTE, the
PPAs will soon be deleted.

http://www.gnome15.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=26&Itemid=33

(any feedback on these packages would be appreciated)


Here is a changelog. It's massive :)


Enjoy,


Brett



Known Issues
------------

Stuff that was found last minute.

1. The legacy GNOME panel applet is broken and will probably be removed
(unless someone can convince me otherwise). The system tray icon or
indicator applets may be used instead.
2. Removed elementary icons from icon pack due to corrupt icon cache
icon with this theme (preventing good package builds)
3. Media Player Plugin - Large artwork can cause high CPU usage. As a
temporary work-around, try to use album artwork no bigger than 256x256
4. Kernel driver must be installed manually on openSUSE
5. The option "Same as desktop background" does not work on GNOME 3. You
may manually select the same background instead if you wish.


New Plugins
-----------

IM - Shows current instant messenger contacts (telepathy based clients
only)
LDCShot - Take screenshot of LCD (location configurable), press and hold
MR to take a shot.
Mounts - Display current drive mounts (allows eject etc)
Tweak - Allows access to some hidden settings (scroll speed etc)

General
-------

* Packaged for more distributions. Fedora 15 and Debian 6 have been
added. All packages are now built at the Open Builder Service. 
* The LG4L kernel drivers have been packaged for DKMS, and is now the
recommended driver for all the models it supports (G110,
  G13, G15 and G110).
* Mouse wheel now works on system tray (not indicator version). Up and
down flip between screens. If you have it, left and right will
  either cycle backlight colours / levels, or when switch between the
'active' screen, i.e. the one that gets scrolled with the up
  and down events.
* Support added for G11 (limited set of plugins).
* g19daemon package has been removed (and the Gnome15 package
gnome15-g19d). Please use gnome15-g19direct driver instead. If you need
G19D, you will have to compile from source
* Plugins now in separate module
* Now handles multiple simultaneous devices.
* DBUS API layout change. See site documentation for details.
* Project layout changed, gnome15 and gnome15-plugins are now the two
main projects. Various components are now disabled or enabled
using ./configure options.
* Start of support for the old MX5500 (I am expecting to obtain one soon
to finish the driver work)
* Scrolling Text. Everywhere where text might overflow, it will now
scroll within it's bounds.
* Improvements to plugins that make change keyboard backlight colour.
Any operations that change the colour of any keyboard lights
will only do so temporarily. When that operation is finished, the lights
will return to their previous state. For example, increase
your Volume, and the M-Key lights will temporarily acts as a level
meter, then return to whatever state they were at when the volume
stops changing.
* Improvements to keyboard handling. Plugins now use 'actions' rather
than hard coded key codes. Coupled with the ability to hold
keys down for a different action, this will allow the MX5500 to be
operable using only the two LCD navigation keys it has. Some key
mappings for the G15 related models have also altered as a result of
this (for example, Page Up and Page Down is now possible by holding L3
or L4). NOTE, this has meant the default key mappings have changed,
especially on the G15 like models. Don't worry though if you don't like
the new mappings, they will be user-configurable in version 0.8.x.
* G19 fades the LCD and keyboard backlight when Gnome15 shutsdown
* Logout, Shutdown and Restart are all now detected and shutdown Gnome15
cleanly (with fading)
* Memory leak fixes. The main memory leak that Gnome15 suffered is now
fixed. It turned out to be caused by pango layouts, and so any
plugin that used this was contributing to the problem. This is include
Cairo Clock, Clock, Weather and anything that had wrapped vertical text
(e.g. screensaver message). The cause was finally discovered due to the
new scrolling feature made use of layouts and chewed up memory even
faster! 
* Many API changes and improvements. Comments have been added to lots of
the core source (with more to follow). 
* Screens in the indicator applet / system tray applet are now sorted
alphabetically.
* The SETUID lgsetled is no longer required. It has been replaced by
g15-system-service which is part of the core application. This
is a system bus service that has the sole job of writing setting
backlights and other LED values for the kernel driver.

Cairo Clock
-----------

1. Now supports G15 and other monochrome models. However, you can't use
any old 
Cairo Clock theme, special bitmap themes must be crafted. A single
simple theme
is indcluded.
2. "Sweeping seconds" option for smooth second hand animation (uses more
CPU, so is disabled by default)
3. Gnome15 also now ships with default themes for the G19, in case cairo
clock is not installed.
4. Can now show digital time on the face as well

Calendar
--------

1. Events are now shown in a scrollable area. You may switch between
this area using the "View" action (Cog key on G19, L2 on the monochrome
models). Events may be selected, but nothing happens yet.
2. Events that last longer than a day, all days will be highlighted.

Menu
----

1. Menu is now activated by holding L2 on the G15 (instead of just
pressing it).
2. Menu is now sorted alphabetically.

Impulse
-------

1. New "Disco mode" that flashes the keyboard in time with audio
2. Now has support for keyboards without screens, can use M-Key lights
as  a simple level meter
3. Frame rate option added to decrease CPU usage
4. Automatically decreases frame rate if when there is no audio

Indicator Me
------------

1. Now allows changing of current status.

Indicator Messages
------------------

1. Will blink the M-Key lights when there is a message waiting. This
allows the plugin to be useful on plugins without screens.
2. Automatic popup on menu change may now be disabled.

Macro Recorder
--------------

1. Blinks the MR light (and the current bank key) while recording is in
progress. This allows the plugin to be useful on plugins without
screens.

Macro Information
-----------------

1. Rewritten to use the standard Gnome15 menu.
2. Automatic popup on change can be disabled.

Menu
----

1. On G15 like models, the key to active menu has changed. Press and
hold L2 to activate it.

MPRIS
-----

1. Fixed problem where track progress would exceed 100% and keep
growing.
2. Fixed problem where MPRIS would cause Gnome15 and the Media Player to
hang for 10 seconds when the track changes and the NotifyLCD 
plugins is enabled.
3. Some artwork locations could cause severe lag and CPU spikes. This
should be improved, although there are still some issues when you use
massive images.
4. Panel artwork icon fixed.

Notify
------

1. Can now operate in "Passive mode". This works by rather than
replacing the notification daemon, it simply watches for notify events
being send to the standard notification service. This allows the Notify
plugin to work on desktops where it is near impossible to kill the
standard notification service, or when you messages to appear on your
desktop AND the keyboard LCD

2. Can now blink M-Key lights when notifications are received.

Screensaver
-----------

1. Keyboard backlight now gently fades when screensaver activated (when
dimming is turned on).
2. Added support for screenless models that have a backlight (G110, G11)

Video Player
------------

1. Now uses "Action" keys instead of G1-G5. 

Stopwatch
---------

1. Now has option to keep the stopwatch visible while it is running (as
a high priority screen).
2. Keys used on some models have changed.

Configuration
--------------

1. Driver configuration has been moved to a tab in the main
configuration user interface (no additional dialog)
2. If mulitple devices are available, they will be displayed down the
left hand sand of the user inteface. Selecting each
device will allow configuration of its plugins, macros and other
settings.
3. "About" details moved out of main plugin information area into a
separate dialog.
4. Each plugin now shows the keys it uses (appropriate for the model)
5. g15-desktop-service may be stopped from withing g15-indicator
6. New color picker replaces buttons using on controls tabs.