Older blog entries for spstarr (starting at number 26)

sshd kicking you out? Check your SELinux labeling!

KDE Project:

So, on my Fedora Rawhide box, somehow it refused to allow logins via ssh, somehow SELinux in permissive mode was spewing failures left and right.

Aug 28 13:35:27 panic kernel: [ 67.224233] type=1400 audit(1346175322.774:78): avc: denied { read } for pid=618 comm="fedora-storage-" name="ld.so.cache" dev=dm-0 ino=1271 scontext=system_u:system_r:initrc_t:s0 tcontext=system_u:object_r:file_t:s0 tclass=file
Aug 28 13:35:27 panic kernel: [ 67.226381] type=1400 audit(1346175322.778:79): avc: denied { open } for pid=618 comm="fedora-storage-" name="ld.so.cache" dev=dm-0 ino=1271 scontext=system_u:system_r:initrc_t:s0 tcontext=system_u:object_r:file_t:s0 tclass=file

And so forth, now even though SELinux was in permissive mode, sshd was dropping all connections, including to localhost with write error: broken pipe.

If you encounter such situation, do a yum reinstall selinux-policy selinux-policy-targeted -y , reboot and at grub prompt, edit selection and append to linux options with autorelabel=1 to force selinux to relabel to fix any broken permissions. It's possible my specific rawhide snapshot broke in some spectacular way (which I wouldn't expect to affect when in permissive mode!)

*phew*! This is what you get for using Rawhide on a dev box, but it's also a good exercise if you really want to learn how to recover from unusual system issues.

Enjoy!

Shawn

Syndicated 2012-09-02 03:03:25 from spstarr's blog

One adventure ends....

It is sad to report, but I have been laid off at RIM/BlackBerry today.

I wish them all the best with Qt.

I now look for a new adventure, a new opportunity to help the Open Source community grow.

If you know of any great places that are hiring, please let me know :)

Thank you.

Shawn

Syndicated 2012-08-21 16:51:04 from spstarr's blog

RIM is hiring Qt developers!

We're hiring Qt developers in Germany, for those who might not know, BlackBerry 10 is using Qt for our core platform with Cascades for our UI/UX framework.

Details are here: https://rim.taleo.net/careersection/professional/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=256223

Syndicated 2012-06-20 14:14:26 from spstarr's blog

From Plasma to BlackBerry 10/Qt and Cascades

Speaking for myself and not for RIM

With RIM's serious push for Qt as part of the core frameworks and a more Open Source push for its ecosystem, it's the right time for me to jump in.

I Just started my initial porting of the Weather Forecast engine and applet to BlackBerry 10. It won't be Plasma based but pure Qt and Cascades UI with the kinds of effects that I really want to use.

I have to say it's pretty easy to get going. You go here: BlackBerry 10 Development

Download the Simulator VM image for the BB10DevAlpha device, get VMPlayer and the BlackBerry NDK+IDE. Qt and Cascades builds are already in the VM image.

Although we're using VMPlayer, It's ok but mouse cursor is sluggish for some reason. I'd rather we had used VirtualBox.

The only real irritant which I hope is fixed is the IDE Cascades QML previewer. It requires legacy Mesa, jpg/png libraries not found in Fedora (I use rawhide but Fedora isn't supported only Ubuntu) any more but I can workaround this issue in other ways (maybe Qt Creator for QML previewing).

Since QNX/BlackBerry 10 are POSIX, porting my code won't be much an issue. At most, I have to just re-implement some methods similar to what Plasma has in pure Qt but that won't be difficult.

I already have the plugin mechanism working. The fun part will be the Cascades UI framework to look at. It is similar to QtUi but different enough for mobile use, takes the pain of layouts out, extends QML usage and adds a rich set of functionalities that are common across the platform which I plan to take advantage of when those APIs are ready.

The embrace of Qt with QNX/BlackBerry 10 should be applauded and I hope more KDE and Qt developers look at the platform.

Porting parts of KDE to BB10 is possible but I don't know the logistics or restrictions that would be placed on it since we want a secure platform for people to trust. But I would certainly like to see KDE apps running on BB10!

Syndicated 2012-05-21 18:36:45 from spstarr's blog

Out of the loop, but not out of sight, hello PlayBook and Qt!

Please note: This blog is personal and opinions are of my own.

I've been quiet for a while now. Lots of things going on in my life. I have not forgotten KDE, but I'm still unable to work on anything at this time (more on that in future post).

But I'm glad to say that having Qt as part of PlayBook is awesome!
I look forward to seeing what people will do.

We've ported a number of projects to QNX for the PlayBook and can be found here: BlackBerry GitHub

I really want to see Open Source flourish on PlayBook, BBX and these steps are great :)

Syndicated 2011-11-03 04:02:29 from spstarr's blog

A New Decade, a new beginning...

It's been awhile since I've posted. 2009 was a year of reflection and figuring out a new direction. Now that 2010 is here, things have been up on the up turn. I accepted a position at RIM (Research In Motion) and look forward to exciting stuff.

This does mean however, my KDE development as it stands, must cease, at least within Plasma. I enjoyed the time I had to help KDE grow, even if it was a small bit. It's sad letting go of a baby you nurtured and developed (in my case the weather plasmoid) but now someone else can make improvements and help it grow, I will be able to answer questions though.

Sometimes the directions you take make unexpected turns, but in the long run, a good future can be made.

Syndicated 2010-03-20 17:09:41 from spstarr's blog

Even though you know it's coming it's never something you really want to happen...

Well, today I was let go after being at Platform Computing working on our Open Source software for almost 5 years. It's been one of those up and downer days. I read the FLOSS blog postings from all the different communities and see people being let go and now I'm one of them Sad

The writing was on the wall though for months, it's not like I didn't know this would happen. I just wanted to deny that It could happen, but it has happened.

So, for now. I will not be dedicating much time to KDE while I try to find new work elsewhere. I don't look at this as a sad day, but as a new beginning for me...

If anyone wants to hire a pretty smart Linux guy, please contact me Smiling

Shawn.

Syndicated 2009-04-21 20:50:22 from spstarr's blog

Weather Forecast Widget - Update

There will be some new weather providers coming soon. I am currently working on adding a Netherlands source (current conditions only provided free). Someone is working on a German source and I plan on adding 7 day forecast info to the NOAA provider hopefully soon.

Just be aware, I do read what's out there from googleland and yes we do need more weather providers for you folks complaining Eye-wink
As for using Marble, I'd like to, as NOAA provides .kml files which would make radar display very nice to have. But I'm only one person you know, help me out and things happen faster!

Thanks to aseigo, we have Solid Network awareness support for the dataengine.

Thanks to Petri Damstén, we have a cleaner interface for weather data handling.

It's very nice to see the weather wallpaper!

More to come... Smiling

Syndicated 2009-04-16 20:30:45 from spstarr's blog

Congratulations KDE! and a note on weather forecast plasmoid

We did it!

KDE 4.2 Released!

Congratulations to everyone who made this possible! It's this kind of spirit that makes me want to shed a tear of joy.

For those looking for the weather forecast plasmoid (that's the official name of it), it's now in extragear for the KDE 4.2 post-release so distros can now package it.

My plan is to move this to kdeplasma-addons for KDE 4.3 in a few months. We have some features planned that will be really nice Smiling

Syndicated 2009-01-29 22:50:51 from spstarr's blog

A Holiday Present - Weather Plasmoid 1.0 is finished

Well, I've been extremely busy on the weather plasmoid and finally, '1.0' is ready for use. It's now moved to kdereview so that any final bugs can be shaken out. This should arrive in extragear as soon as the review is completed.

You'll notice some differences:

* New! Five day view. Special thanks to Marco Mart and Lee Olson also the wind icon.
* Dock applet to plasma panel thanks to Marco Martin for this.
* Tooltip support that displays the icon, place, condition and current temperature.
* Rearranged configuration dialog thanks to Davide Bettio for this.
* All the conversion combo boxes now work it you can mix and match any combinations.
* Clickable credits where present (depends on data source) this will take you to the original data from the source's website.
* Popup tooltips when you hover over the 5 day icons to show you what the condition will be.
* Clickable watches/warning links where present (depends on data source).
* If in Canada, if a watch or warning for your area is issued the applet will add the 'Notices' tab on its next update of data.

If you're using KDE trunk, please test and report any bugs you find to me on #plasma or email.

And now, for screen shots!

In this screenshot, two shots using the Environment Canada data source:

Weather Plasmoid Config Dialog

You can click on the watch and warning text and it will open up in a browser to show the official warning text from your weather agency (where supported, only Environment Canada at the moment)

Weather Plasmoid Applet

In this screenshot, using the BBCUKMET data source, I configured temperature for Fahrenheit, wind speed in Meters Per Second (m/s) and pressure in Inches of mercury.

Here is the applet docked to Plasma panel

Weather Plasmoid on panel

* NOTE: The NOAA data source only provides current conditions not long term forecasts.

Thank you for your patience =)
Shawn.

Syndicated 2008-12-29 05:52:37 from spstarr's blog

17 older entries...

New Advogato Features

New HTML Parser: The long-awaited libxml2 based HTML parser code is live. It needs further work but already handles most markup better than the original parser.

Keep up with the latest Advogato features by reading the Advogato status blog.

If you're a C programmer with some spare time, take a look at the mod_virgule project page and help us with one of the tasks on the ToDo list!