Ubuntu Live! 9.04

This Saturday I attended the Danish LoCo teams Ubuntu 9.04 release party. People from the Danish forum, IRC, mailinglists and various other places attended. As always, there were many different sessions. To name a few: What is good support, What’s new in 9.04, What is UbuntuDanmark, Translations, and so on.
But, there’s were two sessions that I found particularly interesting; Bug triaging and Clever remote control of computers.

Søren Hansen, who works for Canonical as a visualization specialist on the Ubuntu server team, was asked to talk about Bug Triaging. Søren held a very enlightening talk. I never actually meet Søren before (though we only live 5 minutes walk from each other). He was very friendly and accommodating, and I really enjoyed his talk very much. Of course, I would have loved to hear him talk about his work for Canonical.
BTW, if you've watch his UDS interview or his hackergotchi this might be shocking news to you - Søren has cut off his ponytail!!

Anyway, back on a more serious track again. Mads Chr. Olesen talked about remote controlling computers in various ways. He mentioned VNC (Virtual Network Computing), SSH and MultiADM. Since I had no knowledge on this topic I also found this session very enlightening. MultiADM is Mads’s own project for managing and updating installations of various systems. Currently supported is Debian-based/Ubuntu systems, Typo3 (CMS) and Wordpress. The first release just made it to Launchpad this weekend!

The group photo includs a big cardboard Tux:

(Photo by Martin Jensen)
If this isn't scary enough, click here for a larger image.

Ubuntu 9.04 Released!

Today Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Desktop and Server editions and Ubuntu Netbook Remix was releashed, continuing Ubuntu tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. Ubuntu 9.04 will be supported for 18 months on both desktops and servers. Users requiring a longer support lifetime may choose to continue using Ubuntu 8.04 LTS rather than upgrading to or installing 9.04

I thought it would be a good idea to share the .torrent links from here, so you can download the latest image without affecting the main site or any of the mirrors. Please be a good citizen and seed at least 1:1.

ubuntu-9.04-alternate-amd64.iso
ubuntu-9.04-alternate-i386.iso
ubuntu-9.04-desktop-amd64.iso
ubuntu-9.04-desktop-i386.iso
ubuntu-9.04-server-amd64.iso
ubuntu-9.04-server-i386.iso

If you find a bug in Jaunty, please read the recommended procedure for filing bugs correctly before you submit a bugreport.

Torrent source: http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2009/04/23/ubuntu-904-jaunty-released-torrents-available-here/

Introducing Arista Transcoder

(Jaunty only)
Arista Transcoder is an easy to use multimedia transcoder for the GNOME Desktop. Arista focuses on being easy to use by making the complex task of encoding for various devices simple. Pick your input, pick your target device, choose a file to save to and go.


The 0.8 release is the first public release and includes a to-do of items that will be completed for the 1.0 final release. All development will happen on Launchpad, which provides bug tracking, distributed version control, milestone / roadmap planning and tracking, a forum and translation utilities.

Features:

* Presets for iPod, computer, DVD player, PSP, and more
* Live preview to see encoded quality
* Automatically discover available DVD drives and media
* Rip straight from DVD media easily (requires libdvdcss)
* Simple terminal client for scripting

Jaunty is the first release that supports everything needed to run Arista (GTK+ 2.16, latest GStreamer libraries, etc.). Make sure you have all the GStreamer plugins installed (including those in Multiverse!)

The author Daniel G. Taylor is looking for any feedback and/or help others can provide.

More info here: http://programmer-art.org/projects/arista-transcoder

Jaunty available from ShipIt

There's only one week left until the final release of Ubuntu 9.04 and, if you are anxious to get your hands on some nice CDs with the new Ubuntu operating system, then you should pre-order them right now from Ubuntu's ShipIt service, free of charge (a free account or an OpenID is required). They have started taking the orders a few minutes ago, so hurry up!

Also, if you want to count the days until Ubuntu 9.04 is released – which will happen on April 23rd – you can get a nice javascript to post on your website. If you've been following this blog, you will know that, besides the fantastic banners Thorsten Wilms created, you can also find the banner I created at http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/countdown

Although many of you have downloaded the Beta release of Jaunty Jackalope, later tonight the Release Candidate will be available for download. Of course you won't notice many changes compared to the Beta version, because most of them are internal, like bugfixes, improvements, security and software updates.

Notification Disappointment in Ubuntu Jaunty

glyph.twistedmatrix.com has a very interesting review of the new notification system in Jaunty. Everyone loves the bling, but it's not all love

Read it here...

Source: http://glyph.twistedmatrix.com/2009/04/notification-disappointment-in-ubuntu.html

Jaunty CD label artwork

Okay, so this really didn't take me more than five minutes. I've edit one of my 8.04 CD labels to match Jaunty (edited text and changed background). I didn't take the time to create a vector version so I hope the resolution works out fine.

I realise now that I've only posted the 8.04 dvd cover artwork and not the labels on this blog (the labels can be found on the ubuntuforum)



Grab the large image here...

I didn't create this one, but it very practical :-)

Grab it here...

Non-free-codecs for Jaunty

The non-free-codecs from the Medibuntu repositories package provides codecs that are not distributed by Ubuntu.

* Please first install the ubuntu-restricted-extras package from the multiverse ubuntu repository.
* Add the Medibuntu repositories to your sources.list:

## Medibuntu.
deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ jaunty free non-free

* Add the key to your keyring, reload the sources.list file and install the package:

wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install non-free-codecs

Enjoy!

Source: Isabelle Duchatelle

Ubuntu Countdown Banners Available

I remember when I was running Feisty Fawn and visited www.Ubuntu.com for the first time. I never imagined seeing any of my own work on the page, but that changed today.
From today you can grab the code for my countdown calendar (Option 2). Thorsten Wilms (thorwil) has done amazing work on the official/default countdown banner.

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/countdown

Ubuntu 9.04 Free Culture Showcase Winners!

Jono Bacon announced the winners of the Ubuntu 9.04 Free Culture Showcase today. Although my contribution (The Mark Shuttleworth beat) wasn't selected, I think the community judging panel has done a great job (much better than last time!) picking the winners.

Audio: Jean Francois Marais - WINNING ENTRY: Invocation

Video Category: Robbie Ferguson - WINNING ENTRY: Spirit Of Ubuntu

Graphic/Photo: William J McKee Jr - WINNING ENTRY: Canadian Clouds

Jono wrote:

Ladies and Gents, I am pleased to announce the results of the Ubuntu 9.04 Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase. This is the competition in which creative types can submit their work for inclusion in the Examples/ folder of the next edition of Ubuntu. In this competition we expanded the Audio and Video categories to also include a Graphic/Photo category too. We netted a fantastic range of entries and many great submissions!

Our submissions list was then assessed by our esteemed community judging panel and they made selections from each category. This final set of selections was then voted on by the Ubuntu Community Council to find our winners. I would like to thank everyone for participating and congratulate each of the winners for having their work about to be delivered to millions of Jaunty desktops.

Read more at: www.jonobacon.org/

New Default Wallpaper In Jaunty

Just one hour ago, there's finally a new wallpaper in Jaunty. So far the Alpha releases have been using the Intrepid wallpaper. https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/+source/ubuntu-wallpapers/0.28.2

ubuntu-wallpapers (0.28.2) jaunty; urgency=low

[ Kenneth Wimer ]
* New wallpapers for Jaunty release. (LP: #34492

[ Daniel Holbach ]
* debian/control:
- update description,
- add ${miscepends},
- updated Standards-Version,
- move python-distutils-extra, xsltproc to Build-Depends-Indep,
- use Vcs-Bzr instead of XS-*.
* debian/copyright: updated.

Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:31:54 +0100
Changed-By: Daniel Holbach
Maintainer: Ubuntu Artwork Team
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/jaunty/...lpapers/0.28.2

Personally I feel that this is a step down from the two previous wallpaper (Intrepid, Hardy) - let's hope Koala will be beautiful. You'll also notice that the GDM changed today too. The Ubuntu logo is bigger and there are lines above and below the login box. Jaunty is still a work in progress.

Jaunty’s New Usplash Theme

If you somehow managed to miss todays hot topic, here it is: Jaunty’s new Usplash theme

Pushed into the Jaunty repository this morning for Ubuntu 9.04 was a new theme for USplash. This Canonical project for providing a splash screen at boot-up on Ubuntu is being replaced by Plymouth with Ubuntu 9.10 (the Karmic Koala release), but there is a new Ubuntu theme as one last hurrah. This new USplash theme has a fixed-size Ubuntu logo centered in the middle of the display and a new progress bar. From our feelings at least, this new theme looks more professional than its predecessor, but it's not exactly a complete overhaul. Below is a video of this newly-pushed theme.

A new theme should then come in the next Ubuntu development cycle once Plymouth is pushed into the Karmic repository. Plymouth is a Red Hat created project that leverages kernel mode-setting and newer Linux technologies to provide a clean, flicker-free boot experience. A few new features were also recently introduced in Plymouth.


This new theme to mark the retirement of USplash can be found in the forthcoming release of Ubuntu 9.04. For those interested in living on the bleeding edge of software, there are Plymouth packages for Ubuntu available that will work with Ubuntu 9.04 but without Intel kernel mode-setting support and with no Ubuntu theme being available.

Source: www.phoronix.com/

QtCurve GTK Style

All of the GTK apps now match KDE4's Qt because QtCurve GTK style has been updated to have a more KDE4/Oxygen-ish look and feel. True, it doesn't fit in perfectly with Oxygen, but even though it fits a lot better than the pixmaps gtk-qt-engine would output.
QT apps are also looking very nice under Gnome in Jaunty. Good work to the developers on this :-)



Source: http://jtechinda.blogspot.com/

Jaunty Plymouth PPA Plugin Development Tutorial

Last November we learned that Plymouth would replace USplash in Ubuntu, but the official graphical boot splash screen change wouldn't come until Ubuntu 9.10 (a.k.a. the Karmic Koala). However, for those not interested in trying out Fedora to see Red Hat's Plymouth, there is a http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=6892088&postcount=83">Jaunty Plymouth PPA plugin development tutorial on the http://ubuntuforums.org/">Ubuntuforum.org posted byred_team316.

The Phoronix recently reported that new work has entered Plymouth, includes various fixes, an improved layout of the help output, and command line parsing support for the Plymouth daemon. Support was also added to Plymouth for a one-time animation helper and a simple progress sequence helper, both of which will help designers and developers construct new Plymouth boot plug-ins. In fact, Plymouth has now gained a glow plug-in. This plug-in flips through a series of images until the progress reaches 90% completion, and then at that point it runs through the series of images as an animation.

This new Plymouth work -- plus more work we anticipate ahead -- will find its way into Fedora 11 and Ubuntu 9.10, but it has now yet landed in this PPA for Jaunty.

Tutorial here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=6892088&postcount=83

Wallpaper update

Just made some minor changes to the wallpaper background. There's now a dark 1920x1200 version with a discreet incorporated jackalope on the wiki.

Can you spot the jackalope(s)? here...

Jaunty Countdown Banners - Again...

I've created the first set (32 images) of countdown banners for Jaunty. Everything should be working and ready. You can grab them and the JavaScript here: http://madsrh.googlepages.com/MadsRHcountdownbanner.tar.gz
JavaScript is all new to me, but I've written a new script - which I think works better than the one I grabed of Ubuntu.com.

Stéphane Vergeylen and Wolter Jolan have used javascript to dynamically modify the texte which is displayed on the banner. There is thus infinite possibility of updating the welcome text, or to animated the displayed text. See what it looks like here...
You can also grab a version of my countdown banner using this script: http://madsrh.googlepages.com/Animatedcountdown.rar.

There is no official Ubuntu countdown banner yet (I really like Thorsten Wilms suggestion), but Matthew Nuzum will soon meet with Kat Kinnie who is in charge of "corporate identity" to pick out the ones that are most promising.

LTSP LDM theme for Jaunty

As I mentioned earlier I've created a shiny new LDM login screen for Jaunty (LTSP). Kenneth Wimer forwarded the request from Stéphane Graber in this post on the Ubuntu-art mailinglist.

As you can see from the email, there's a lot of limitations when working with LDM rather than GDM:

- Positioning of all widgets is static.
- Text is black and can't be changed to another color. Careful with dark backgrounds
- Most thin clients are limited to 16bit for speed reason so be careful with gradients.
- LDM doesn't crop the background but scale it down.

I came up with a theme which I think meets all the requirements mentioned above. I'll have to emphazise that this is a re-mix of the Greenome wallpaper found at gnome-look.org. Here is what my version looks like:


Personally, I really think this works great while still fulfilling all the requirements. However I have two concerns.

1. The theme is not matching with the Jaunty desktop wallpaper - because
there is no wallpaper atm. (and I don't think there's any white/light artwork used in Ubuntu, so perhaps it stands out?)

2. As you can see on gnome-look.org, the author of Greenome wallpaper has written “by me “ under license. I’ve already contacted to author to ask permission to used, edit and publish his artwork, which has agreed to.

I really hope this will make it into Jaunty, although this is only for the thin client version and regular desktop users won't see it. Desktop users will however be looking at the new black GDM artwork.

New Set Of Default Themes In Ubuntu

Did you ever wonder who actually uses themes like: Crux, Glider, Glossy or Mist? For Jaunty these themes will be removed in order to make room for New Wave and Dust.

Source: Launchpad

PPA For Testing Plymouth In Ubuntu

Plymouth will not be arriving in time for Jaunty, but it is currently planned to replace the Usplash in Karmic Koala (Ubuntu 9.10). However Plymouth is now available for testing in Jaunty though PPA:

https://launchpad.net/~plymouth-dev/+archive/ppa

You'll need kernel 2.6.29 which you can get from here:

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa...e/v2.6.29-rc6/

There should be a PPA for the kernel you can add to your software sources soon, but for now this should work for testing purposes. Plymouth seems to be more CPU consuming than Usplash however, the boot time is unchanged.

Some people are hoping the Ubuntu Usplash Smooth will make it into Jaunty, but there hasn't been any sources confirming that. With Jaunty in feature-freeze, this now seems highly unlikely.

Jaunty Countdown Banners

Like I've done in the past (for Intrepid Ibex and other projects), I've spent a little time working on Jaunty countdown banners this weekend. Below are the four banners I've come up with so far. You can post your own ideas and get more information about countdown banners here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Website/JauntyCountdownBanners

A How-To For Writing Notifications

Mirco Müller has written a wiki page about notification development guidelines. Though it isn’t done yet, C, Python and C#-examples are provided there. These examples are self-contained and act as a good copy&paste source for anybody who wants to adapt existing or new code to the Jaunty notifications. You’ll see correct checking of daemon capabilities and name. For a better overview of the different layout-cases screenshots are shown too.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NotificationDevelopmentGuidelines