Seems like the webpage of the Google Open Source Programs is under heavy load currently: I cannot complete my mentor registration. I could not imagine something like this happening to Google servers…
Archive for March, 2009
KaNDAS 0.2
KaNDAS 0.2 is out. Packages for openSUSE 10.3 and openSUSE 11.0 are available, and I hope to figure out soon why the packages for 11.1 do not build.
KaNDAS 0.2.0
Update: Someone commented that I should have explained what KaNDAS is. I have done so in my last blog post, and was tired to do it yet again. Check the project homepage or this very old blog post which tells the story behind the project.
Dear lazyweb: Question about udev/HAL
Is there a way to tell udev/HAL that a certain device file is a block device which it should automount (ideally through some C/C++ method calls)?
On the background: I’ve been working on KaNDAS again, and as most of you did not hear of KaNDAS, I’ll introduce it again: NDAS is a patented system for network drives with a closed-source Linux driver. Its only interface is a folder in procfs and a quite inconvenient command-line administration tool. As I have to use such a device, I implemented a better solution. A root daemon (KaNDASd) polls on the procfs and sends some metadata about connected devices to DBus clients (a KDE 4 client and a suite of command line tools is available). The clients send action requests (connect or disconnect) to the root daemon which transfers them to the standard administration tool.
The problem I’m having is that when I connect the NDAS, a block device /dev/ndas-[serial]-0p1 (with the “p1″ for the first partition) appears which I can mount, but I want KaNDAS to tell udev or HAL that this device be offered for automounting. Do you know a solution for this? (I haven’t found something like API documentation for udev or HAL.)
On a completely unrelated side note, the ODE port of Kolf is complete after I brought the black hole back to life.
KDE at CeBIT (wrap-up)
CeBIT is nearly over. As businessmen have better things to do on Sunday, we’re not that busy anymore. Apart from that, Eckhart won a giant Tux at the Linux New Media booth, so we can finally show Linux with KDE (caution, bad joke):
I wanted to have Konqi on Tux, but that was not stable (unlike KDE on Linux). Here are some more pictures from our booth and the presentation I did on Wednesday (together with Felix):
And now, Tux and Konqi have been joined by some fellow open source mascots. (Well, Mike only gave his head for the photo shooting.)
KDE at CeBIT (day 3)
I’m writing again from the KDE booth at CeBIT (hall 6, stand F50). Although our booth’s location is suboptimal, many users and business representatives are visiting us to checkout what’s new in KDE. Eckhart set up a Windows XP virtual machine with KDE 4.2.1 running on it, and Jos Poortvliet, Alexander Neundorf, and Rolf Eike Beer have joined us to bring the message of free and open source software to the visitors. (Jos also demoed the new Air theme; I’m really looking forward to this in 4.3.)
You can find an image of our booth in an article on Linux-Community.de. Note how insomnia has conquered my face. 
KDE at CeBIT (day 1)
The organisators finally got networking to work, so I can invite you from the KDE booth to visit us. We are at hall 6, booth F50.
Illumination is quite bad, and I’m a bit blurry, still this is our staff for Amarok and KDE booths: (from left to right) Oluf, Eckhart, Björn (crouching), Felix, me, Sven, Casper, and Claudia. I hope to get better images, but we’re busy now. See you!
