desktop May 2004

desktop@lists.fedoraproject.org

61 participants
32 discussions

Desktop application start up indicators
by William Cohen 01 Jun '04

01 Jun '04

I am thinking about ways to measure the startup time for various desktop applications. Obviously, a common one used is how soon after a menu item is selected can I do something in the application. However, this does not lend itself to being automated. I assume that most of the applications can be launched from a command line. Are there applications or applets that are started from the menu and do not have corresponding command line invocations? How similar are the gnome applications in startup? Do they use the same set of libraries? Would it be possible to have instrument a function in a common shared library that generally indicates that the application has initialized everything and is just waiting for the user to do something? If there is a common function could do something like: start profiling note time command-line invocation of application <bunch of application initialization> <call library function that indicates application is running> <key function notes time, shutdown profiling> -Will

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sound subsystem
by Havoc Pennington 31 May '04

31 May '04

Hi, Arjan asks that we move everything to use libasound rather than esound or OSS. Because ALSA lets multiple apps output sound at once, esound isn't really needed; the only functionality we lose is that remote apps can't play sound on the local system, but that functionality was pretty hosed with esound anyway. I don't have a sense of how many things are accessing OSS/esound directly, or how much work is involved here. Havoc

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Running Applix 5 on Fedora
by Ian Robertson 30 May '04

30 May '04

Hello I have just loaded Fedora onto one of my systems and have tried to load Applix. The install process kept falling over but I managed to force each individual rpm onto the system. However when I try to load I get this message: [ian@sskatings2 ian]$ /opt/applix/axdata/axmain: relocation error: /usr/lib/libgdk-1.2.so.0: undefined symbol: XShmQueryVersion axnet error, axmain already started. /opt/applix/axdata/axmain: relocation error: /usr/lib/libgdk-1.2.so.0: undefined symbol: XShmQueryVersion Ayone any suggestions please as i do like this software and hope to run it for some time yet Regards Ian -- Ian Robertson Tel +44 (0)1224 624811 Tel/Fax +44 (0)1224 781326

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gnome-terminal benchmark
by William Cohen 28 May '04

28 May '04

In an effort to create a set of benchmarks for gauging desktop performance I have written up a procedure for gnome-terminal to test the speed that text is sent to the terminal window and written a script to perform the test. I have attached the writeup for the procedure (bench_terminal.txt) and the script to run the test (cattest) to this email. I am interested in hearing people's comments on this test. I know this is only one test and doesn't address desktop issues like program startup time, but we have to start somewhere. We can start to assemble the benchmarks and put them in http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/additional-projects/benchmarks/ -Will Benchmark text output performance of gnome-terminal Frequently output is sent to a terminal window. In Gnome the program gnome-terminal handles the display of text on a terminal window. The, one simple benchmark is to determine the amount of time required to output a large text file to a gnome-terminal window. gnome-terminal is a little tricky to benchmark because has a server. When you start gnome-terminal it connects to the server rather than starting a new child process. Thus, timing the gnome-terminal command will count the time required to communicate information to the gnome-terminal server rather than the time required to actually perform the task. To work around this problem a script is executed within the new gnome-terminal window and the information is saved to a file. Procedure: 0) Get system configuration information hardware and software: CPU: cat /proc/cpuinfo Memory: cat /proc/meminfo Kernel: uname -a gnome-terminal: rpm -qa gnome-terminal xserver: rpm -qa xorg-x11 1) Get the test file, the jargon file from Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.net/etext02/jarg422.txt. 2) Verify that the file is the same with md5sum $ md5sum jarg422.txt ef9b53f52312ee266c98c8e206d9e823 jarg422.txt 3) Place the cattest script in the same directory as jarg422.txt and make it executable. 4) Run the test on the console of the machine with the command below. The script will generate a file "cattime in the directory with the amount of time required to cat the file to the terminal window. gnome-terminal -e "./cattest" 4a) If the system is set up to run oprofile and you have root access, you can run the same script as root with command below to get some additional profiling information in the cattime file: gnome-terminal -e "./cattest --profile" Additional analysis on the oprofile data can be performed after the benchmark completes. #! /bin/bash # # Simple test to gather data on where gnome-terminal spends # time This is compilicated by the terminal server model of # gnome-terminal. Time taken for benchmark written to cattime. # # When optional --profile on commandline, oprofile used to get an # overall view of what is happening on the system. PROFILING is only # going to work with kernel that have oprofile support (Red Hat SMP # kernels). # # Will Cohen # 5/27/2004 # BENCHMARK="cattest" VERSION=0.0 OPCONTROL=/usr/bin/opcontrol OPREPORT=/usr/bin/opreport RM=/bin/rm RESULTS_FILE=cattime if test "$1" = "--profile"; then PROFILING=yes else PROFILING=no fi # Setup default oprofile. if test "$PROFILING" = "yes"; then $OPCONTROL --deinit $OPCONTROL --reset # FIXME Command below may use previous event settings for oprofile. $OPCONTROL --setup --no-vmlinux --separate=library $OPCONTROL --start fi # Run the actual experiment $RM -rf $RESULTS_FILE echo "Benchmark: " $BENCHMARK " Version: " $VERSION >> $RESULTS_FILE date >> $RESULTS_FILE # The actual benchmark being timed is below. /usr/bin/time /bin/cat `pwd`/jarg422.txt 2>> $RESULTS_FILE # Shutdown oprofile. if test "$PROFILING" = "yes"; then $OPCONTROL --dump $OPCONTROL --shutdown # If PROFILING, need to do analysis with oprerport after running the test. # May need more details than what is provided by command below. $OPREPORT --threshold 2 --long-filenames >> $RESULTS_FILE fi

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GDM Suggestion
by Steven Mackay 27 May '04

27 May '04

Why doesn't someone add a "Make this my default" checkbox to the GDM session chooser? This would mean we could change our default desktop from the login screen and get rid of the Switchdesk utility altogether. And add this to KDM as well, of course. _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself with cool new emoticons http://www.msn.co.uk/specials/myemo

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FC2: gnome-terminal takes much longer to startup than Mozilla
by Yusuf Goolamabbas 27 May '04

27 May '04

Hi, I installed Fedora Core 2 on an Athlon 750 with 512MB ram with an Nvidia Vanta II pci video card. After a fresh boot, I timed the following a) startup of Mozilla from the panel till Release notes was rendered b) startup of gnome-terminal from Fedora Menu->System Tools->Terminal till bash prompt The timings for a) and b) on 'cold-start' were 10 and 13 seconds respectively. On a 'warm cache' (ie) start Mozilla/shutdown/start again the timings were 3 and 11 seconds respectively. My expecation is that gnome-terminal is simpler/smaller than Mozilla and as such should startup much faster I was wondering if others saw similar ratio or is there something I might have missed Regards, Yusuf

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Small features for improving Abby's experience
by Seth Nickell 26 May '04

26 May '04

A collection of smaller features that have a relatively high impact-on-abby/work ratio: * A post it note feature that allows Abby to drop notes on her desktop, but also drag them to a panel edge where they stick on top (allowing notes to be irritating is key to standard use of notes as reminders). * Show file attachments (but not little attachments like keys?) as first class objects. File attachments are usually more important to Abby than their containing messages * Let Abby mark e-mail messages as tasks, and have due dates set on them. E-mail is the most common place for people to store todo items. Support this existing behavior better. * OO.o help by example: given any OO.o object in the paste buffer let people "Recreate by example", which steps through how to create that item. Most people learn best by example, and it also allows people to build on "things they've seen". With traditional help systems you have to figure out what things are called, and hope that there's specific documentation on an item. This way Abby can use existing documents and things she's seen (people have pretty good "wasn't there something...." memories) to do new things in her own documents. * Files and folders can be moved seemlessly between the panel and nautilus. The same items apply in both. In the distant future, allow snippets of text, images, and other document contents to be directly dragged in. Allows drag-and-drop to have the deferred property of cut and paste, but retains the nice physical aspect. Also allows for multiple items to be naturally in the "clipboard". * Integrate music player seamlessly with the desktop. Use the desktop interface as the primary piece of the music player, not an "extra". In other words, the play list itself lives on the panel. Allow the music browser to be a floating window. Flips the dominance between the window presence and the panel presence. * Mark relevant items as "sysadmin" in the .desktop files and provide a marker on the account that shows them or hides them. Cleans out the menus a lot for Abby. Also adds the possibility for Horatio to browse through a smaller admin-only tool set. * Provide the ability to turn menu items from a non-base set "on", using a checklist. This is *not* full menu editing, but should easily fill Abby's demand for menu editing. More importantly, it reduces pressure for constantly increasing menu sizes over time. On the backend, Horatio can define two application sets: default applications, and applications which are "allowed" but not default. * Collapse volume control to a single slider. * Preferences cleanup, focused around Abby * An improved calculator designed around quick, small "back of napkin" sort of calculations. Not modeled after the deficiencies of physical calculators. Abby will typically be working in another context, so a good calculator needs to be designed for running in small time windows, and make it very easy to get results into other apps. -- Seth Nickell :: Interaction Designer, Red Hat :: <snickell(a)redhat.com>

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FC2 pcmcia starts after network !
by Zied Fakhfakh 26 May '04

26 May '04

Hi All, I installed FC2 on my old samsung VM7000 (equipped with a pcmcia network card). after reboot the interface eth0 doesn't start because the pcmcia statrs after the network ! I handled it by setting the pcmcia service to start (S09pcmcia) before network (S10network). Now, Each time I install FC2 I need to do that. would you please, who's maintaing that, fix it ? Thanks. -- Zied Fakhfakh

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GDM accessibility support
by Mark McLoughlin 25 May '04

25 May '04

Hey, I was asked by someone about accessibility support in GDM and although I knew GDM had some sort of accessibility support I didn't know what it was or how it worked. I've had a poke and here's what I can tell: * GDM now comes with a set of accessibility modules that can be used to detect certain events happening on the login screen * The two modules shipped with GDM by default are the "DwellMouseEvents" and the "KeyMouseEvents" modules. Both of them allow you to activate the onscreen keyboard from the login screen in different ways. The first by moving the mouse around in a predefined order and the second by clicking the mouse or pressing keys in a predefined way. Take a look at the configuration files in /etc/X11/gdm/modules on FC2. * If you set AddGtkModules=true and uncomment the GtkModulesList line from gdm.conf, you should be able to try this out. You'll also need to install the latest "gok" package from rawhide. I'd recommend setting Greeter=/usr/bin/gdmlogin in gdm.conf also because that seems to be the only way of testing the dwell listener. * So, to activate gok you should now be able to either hold Ctrl-k down for a second and leave go or move the mouse over the login window from top to bottom and then left to right. * gok then comes up, but I haven't figured out how to do anything with it. Its either that gok is broken or I'm missing something obvious. I'm guessing its the form - accessibility stuff is in the habit of being terribly broken :/ So, that's all I have time for now, but if someone had the time to do more on this I'd recommend for a start: - Figure out how to actually use gok once its activated - Get the gok in rawhide pushed to FC2-updates Cheers, Mark.

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Fedora Project Mailing Lists reminder
by Elliot Lee 24 May '04

24 May '04

This is a reminder of the mailing lists for the Fedora Project, and the purpose of each list. You can view this information at http://fedora.redhat.com/participate/communicate/ When you're using these mailing lists, please take the time to choose the one that is most appropriate to your post. If you don't know the right mailing list to use for a question or discussion, please contact me. This will help you get the best possible answer for your question, and keep other list subscribers happy! Mailing Lists Mailing lists are email addresses which send email to all users subscribed to the mailing list. Sending an email to a mailing list reaches all users interested in discussing a specific topic and users available to help other users with the topic. The following mailing lists are available. To subscribe, send email to <listname>-request(a)redhat.com (replace <listname> with the desired mailing list name such as fedora-list) with the word subscribe in the subject. fedora-announce-list - Announcements of changes and events. To stay aware of news, subscribe to this list. fedora-list - For users of releases. If you want help with a problem installing or using , this is the list for you. fedora-test-list - For testers of test releases. If you would like to discuss experiences using TEST releases, this is the list for you. fedora-devel-list - For developers, developers, developers. If you are interested in helping create releases, this is the list for you. fedora-docs-list - For participants of the docs project fedora-desktop-list - For discussions about desktop issues such as user interfaces, artwork, and usability fedora-config-list - For discussions about the development of configuration tools fedora-legacy-announce - For announcements about the Fedora Legacy Project fedora-legacy-list - For discussions about the Fedora Legacy Project fedora-selinux-list - For discussions about the Fedora SELinux Project fedora-de-list - For discussions about Fedora in the German language fedora-ja-list - For discussions about Fedora in the Japanese language fedora-i18n-list - For discussions about the internationalization of Fedora Core fedora-trans-list - For discussions about translating the software and documentation associated with the Fedora Project German: fedora-trans-de French: fedora-trans-fr Spanish: fedora-trans-es Italian: fedora-trans-it Brazilian Portuguese: fedora-trans-pt_br Japanese: fedora-trans-ja Korean: fedora-trans-ko Simplified Chinese: fedora-trans-zh_cn Traditional Chinese: fedora-trans-zh_tw

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desktop May 2004