But now as Factory is open again and we all have our systems updated to openSUSE 11.3, we’re ready to break Factory again (hopefully not). I just submitted the Compiz 0.9.0 stack to X11:Compiz and openSUSE:Factory, where they will hopefully land soon.

Publishing of X11:Compiz has been disabled for all distributions except openSUSE:Factory, meaning that the last 0.8.6 packages will remain there for all others. This mainly to give you the chance to change your repo configuration to use X11:Compiz:Compiz-0.8, which will be kept around to maintain the 0.8 bugfix tree packages.

Looking forward to all the bug reports that will be flying by.

The ChangeLog for this version reads (trimmed, removed Mac and Windows items here):

libVLC:
* New capabilities for libVLC:
* Adjust video filter control: libvlc_adjust_Enable,
libvlc_adjust_Contrast, libvlc_adjust_Brightness, libvlc_adjust_Hue,
libvlc_adjust_Saturation, libvlc_adjust_Gamma
* libvlc_media_player_set_pause() can force the pause state, whereas
libvlc_media_player_pause() would only toggle it.
* libvlc_set_user_agent() configures the “user agent” strings used for some
protocols (HTTP, PulseAudio…). This replaces the –http-user-agent and
the former –user-agent libvlc_new() parameters.
* libvlc_video_set_callbacks() and libvlc_video_set_format() allow grabbing
video frames from a chosen memory location in real-time. This replace the
ugly –vmem-* libvlc_new() parameters in previous versions.
See http://wiki.videolan.org/LibVLC_SampleCode_SDL as an example.
* libvlc_audio_get_delay() and libvlc_audio_set_delay() configure the delay
between audio and video/subpictures for the current input.
* Various fixes and crash preventions, especially when video functions were
called early

Decoders/Demuxers:
* Fix performance issues with GPU decoding using DxVA2 using ATI graphic cards
You NEED ATI Catalyst 10.7
* Fix :program selection in TS and DVB-T
* Fixes and improvements for MKV, Avformat and Avcodec modules
* Fix mod (.xm, .s3m, .it) files support on Windows and Mac builds

Stream output:
* Fix h264 streaming in ts

Interfaces:
* Qt: fix preferences, hotkeys, messages and some fulscreen behaviour
* Skins: support for mousewheel in fullscreen, fix radialsliders
* Http: fix fullscreen toggle

Linux:
* Fix pulse closing
* VAAPI small improvements, notably for extraction mode selection

Translations
* Update translations for Spanish, Polish, German, Sinhala, Hungarian, Khmer,
Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, Hebrew, Slovak, Galician

Packages for your favorite openSUSE version are in the repositories as usual (built for openSUSE 11.0 up to 11.3 plus also Factory, which at this time is not yet too different from 11.3 of course).
For full instructions on how to install VLC, see http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-suse.html; in case you already have an older version installed, use your package manager of choice (zypper, yast) to update your current installation.

The solution is built around some Java code, some suid services and obviously exists as 32bit only.

Since the update from v5 to v6.5, network connect does no longer work when initiated from the web interface, which is a shame. The issue is a 32bit library that seems no longer to be nicely wrapped and thus the 64bit java is no longer able to start the processes up. The worst about all of it: there is no error message, no log file.
If you’re lucky enough and you only have username / password auth, you can simply use ncsvc with some parameters. Of course I am less fortunate, and besides username/password, we also use a OTP RSA Token. And of course, ncsvc does not offer any option to enter a 2nd password.

so, no solution?

Let’s be more optimistic: there IS a solution, albeit a very hakish one. But I DO need to connect to our VPN, so I consider it a ‘valid’ workaround until this is hopefully really getting solved.

So, what needs to be done? When you initiate the VPN tunnel the first time from the web interface, you’re requested to enter the root password and the network_connect client is installed in ~/.juniper_network/network_connect and set suid. That’s about as far as you can get with the automatic stuff.

you’ll have to install gcc45-lib32 in order to be able to do the tasks at hand. But then you can convert the libncui.so to a binary which we can later on invoke directly.
# Change to the installed client folder
cd ~/.juniper_networks/
# Extract the LinuxApp java archive
unzip ncLinuxApp.jar
# go to the actual binary client
cd network_connect
# grab the certificate from the ssl/vpn gateway server
sh ../getx509certificate.sh <host.you.log.in.to> cert.der
# Convert the library into a binary
gcc -m32 -Wl,-rpath,$(pwd) -o ncui libncui.so
# chown and set the new binary suid
sudo chown root:root ncui
sudo chmod 6711 ncui

From now on we will be able to launch ncui (with some parameters) and have it initiate a tunnel for us. The needed command line for this is:
./ncui -h <host.you.log.in.to> -c DSID=<YourSessionID> -f cert.cer

So now the last obstacle: how to find your session ID? It’s stored in a cookie in your browser after logging in to the website. In Firefox you can get it from the properties/privacy or using various plugins (like Web Developer). The cookie name is DSID, so you should have an easy time finding it.

ncui weirdly asks for a password, but in my experience it never mattered what I enter, so I just press enter and go on. The application stays running and builds the tunnel. To tear it down, simply press CTRL-C and abort ncui.

Eventually you’re missing some more 32bit libraries, which I already had. use ldd against libncui and ncsvc to find out what other libraries you might be missing and install the corresponding 32bit equivalents.

Packages for openSUSE are on their way and will arrive in OBS://X11:Compiz:Next in a few minutes.
THEY ARE COMPLETELY UNTESTED BY ME YET

This is what the NEWS, posted by the compiz project team, says:

This is the first unstable release of the Compiz
0.9 series. This release represents a complete rewrite of the 0.8 series from
C to C++, brings a whole new developer API, splits rendering into plugins,
switches the buildsystem from automake to cmake and brings minor functionality
improvements. This release represents the first developer and tester preview of
what will eventually make the 0.10.x stable series. Please note that as such, it
is not yet ready for general use as there are a number of known issues,
regressions and incomplete functionality.

The Compiz 0.9.0 tarballs are available at http://releases.compiz.org/0.9.0/ .
You can verify these tarballs using the sha1sums in
http://releases.compiz.org/0.9.0/compiz-0.9.0.sha1 , which are
signed by Compiz Release Team GPG key (C2B8F46E) at
http://releases.compiz.org/0.9.0/compiz-0.9.0.sha1.asc .
Please note that each component is also available in its own directory in
http://releases.compiz.org/components/ .

Quick changelog:

compiz-core:
————
* Completely rewritten developer API in C++, using boost and stl to simplify a
number of tasks originally handled in core.
* Reworked plugin function hooking system, where the WRAP / UNWRAP macros
have been replaced with ‘smart’ function call chains using real function lists
that can have any component turned off at any time to save unneeded CPU cycles
* Rendering framework split into the composite and opengl plugins, the former
making compiz a compositing window manager and the latter performing that
compositing using OpenGL. Such a split will allow new rendering plugins such
as XRender and Clutter to be developed as well as for compiz to run as a
non-compositing window manager
* Added copytex plugin, which re-implements part of the ‘copy mode’ texture
binding from Beryl. While this is slower, it allows for textures that are
larger than the maximum texture size allowed by the host’s OpenGL
implementation
* Added decoration reparenting to the decoration plugin. This will allow compiz
to run with decorations as a non-compositing window manager.
Reparenting support added to both gtk-window-decorator and
kde4-window-decorator
* Added KDE Plugin to integrate with the QT main loop and create a KApplication,
for further integration into KDE.
* Added compiztoolbox library plugin, allows developers to do tedious but
repeated actions in many plugins such as set up the application switcher
window and draw thumbnails of window
* Plugins rewritten in C++ using the new API
* DBus plugin now uses the screen number to identify compiz instance.
This means that scripts which use /allscreens will no longer work.
In general this means that paths have now changed to be
/org/freedesktop/compiz/screen{screen_number}/ …
In a single instance of compiz, {screen_number} would generally be 0 (i.e
screen0)
* Shape drawing implemented in annotate. Also fixed long standing damage bug
that caused skips in line drawing.
* Added serialization interface to core, which allows plugins to save activity
states on plugin load/unload and through compiz relaunches. The data is stored
in X11 window properties and automatically dropped when relevant X11 resources
are destroyed

plugins-main:
————-
* Rewritten animations interface; supports object oriented animation
construction, which should further simplify creating new animations
* Switchers support viewing only icons
* Added support to drag windows to edges and have them fill the adjacent side of
the screen
* Plugins rewritten in C++ using the new API

plugins-extra:
————–
* Added support for automatic wallpaper rotation
* Added edge support to grid plugin so windows can easily be resized by dragging
to an edge or corner
* Plugins rewritten in C++ using the new API

plugins-unsupported:
————–
* Rewritten elements interface – allows definition of elements in an object
oriented fashion, easily create new plugins that hook into the existing
functionality of the plugin
* Plugins rewritten in C++ using the new API

ccsm:
—–
* Number of buttons increased to 20
* Fixed bug newer gtk exposed where values were not read before destroying the
dialog window resulting in blank entries

compizconfig-backend-gconf:
—————————
* CMake buildsystem

compizconfig-python
——————-
* Distutils buildsystem

libcompizconfig:
—————-
* CMake buildsystem
* Plugins rewritten in C++ using the new API

Please note that there are new build dependencies for this release, including
boost-devel, cmake and cython. Additionally, libboost is a required
runtime dependency.

This is a development release and as such there will likely be bugs. Feel free
to report bugs at our bug tracker at http://bugs.opencompositing.org/. Currently
known issues are:
* Miscompilation with GCC 4.5 resulting in the occasional crash on window
closes or plugin unloads. Please compile with GCC 4.4, or see bug 1308[1]:
for a workaround to compile with GCC 4.5
* Some SDL applications like frozen-bubble and qemu will not display correctly.
Please launch these applications in a window manager like metacity or kwin
first and then switch back to compiz.

Compiz is entirely developed as a volunteer project, and we’d like to thank
everyone who contributed to this release. Translators, testers, the support team
and developers: thank you, your continuous contributions made it all possible.

We hope you will enjoy using Compiz as much as we enjoyed writing it!

- The Compiz Team

The repositories are still maintained for openSUSE 11.0 up to 11.3 (11.3 just waiting around the corner to become gold as well).

The probably most important changes are:

• GPU and DSP decoding on selected platforms
• New support for codecs, demuxers and muxers
• Lua extensions and Lua content extensions (luaSD)
• Improved interfaces
• Video Output rework
• Removal of lots of modules, rewrite of many
• Improved performances, in CPU, RAM and I/O
• New libVLC and bindings
• New or improved ports on misc platforms

VLC 1.1.0 is HD ready

An other important fact is that VLC 1.1.0 is HD Ready. The packages prepared for openSUSE have been fully built with VA-API and vdpau support. Additionally, in the openSUSE repositories of VideoLAN there is currently also a vdpau-video-nvidia package. Unfortunately I did not (yet) manage to build libvdpau for openSUSE 11.2 and older, so this is only available for the brave 11.3 testers. I’m not sure if I will find the time and if it’s possible to provide libvdpau on older releases of openSUSE.

Nevertheless, it seems to be un-intuitive on how to initiate a connection using this new feature, so I’ll try to provide a short step-by-step here on how I did get it to work using my very old Nokia 6300 (yes, that’s actually a pure telephone).

Make sure your bluetooth applet is started (if not, launch bluetooth-applet), open it’s menu

Menu of the bluetooth-applet

and select preferences

Bluetooth Preferences

In case your phone is already listed as paired, I’m afraid you have to remove it (I did not find a way to change options of an already paired device).Otherwise, you can go straight ahead and configure a new device:

Bluetooth Wizard: Configure new device

If your phone has bluetooth enabled, it should show up in the list like:

Select my phone

Next, bluetooth-wizard will present you with a 6 digit combination that you have to enter on your phone keyboard, to confirm that you do want these devices to pair together.

The ‘setup complete’ is only almost true, as it contains the for us most important options:

Private Area Network

For my phone, I have to select PAN, which in the background of the system created a /dev/rfcomm0 device and binds it to NetworkManager (via ModemManager), as can be seen in the list of available connections in Network Manager:

My Phone Network shows up in NetworkManager

When selecting it (I only had success when not wired, you might have more luck) NM initiates a connection and the symbol in the tray area changes to an antenna: and I have a working connection to the internet through the bluetooth adapted of my phone.

with 1.1.0 ready to hit Release Candidate status, and VLC 1.1 not being compatible with the ‘old’ version of Qt being shipped with openSUSE 10.3, I have decided to disable the repository for openSUSE 10.3.

The VideoLAN project stays commited to the repositories for all openSUSE Versions available, this currently being 11.0 up to 11.2 plus openSUSE Factory (11.3 to be).

Any user having VLC already installed on his 10.3 system will not be affected in any other way than no longer being able to receive updates. VLC n the current version continues to run without issues (but you’re still advised to update to any more recent version of openSUSE, also for security maintenance of your main system).

The repository will stick on the servers until Saturday, May 29 2010. At this point I’ll re-sync my internal tree containing the RC version of 1.1.0 and drop the 10.3 repository in the same go.

Not knowing what I will run into I took the challenge and tried to fix the build failures of compiz 0.8.6 (I hope this is not to new for you now David! you asked for 0.8.4 ) and went ahead. All it needed was one single patch reverting some of the GTK fixes back to the old, deprecated GTK calls and it all seemed to build fine.

The updated packages are being built in the openSUSE Build Service Project X11:Compiz (the development project of compiz, same source as is being used in openSUSE Factory).

A warning though: I do not have any openSUSE installation < 11.2 available and could thus not test if the packages do work at all (but considering that they do work on Factory, there are some chances).

A side note though: do not start it by simply invoking compiz –replace if your user does not have a compiz configuration, as compiz on it’s own no longer loads any standard plug-ins (as it did in older releases). This was all outsources to compiz-manager, that takes care of loading a minimal set of plug-ins for you (so invoke compiz-manager –replace).

I’m proud to announce that there are already packages for openSUSE available thanks to our great openSUSE Build Service. Packages exist currently for openSUSE 11.2 and openSUSE Factory.
A warning first: I did not even install the packages yet! So they might or might not work at all.

So, what is the nice new feature we all want from 0.8.1?

BT-DUN -> Dial-up Networking over Bluetooth connections! Yes, NM 0.8.1 should bring this and one as such there is one less action to be done on the console (currently I have to resort to wvdial to get my BT phone to work as a ‘modem’ for me…).

The repositories for the brave ones:
for openSUSE 11.2: http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/dimstar:/NetworkManager-0.8.1/openSUSE_11.2
for openSUSE Factory: http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/dimstar:/NetworkManager-0.8.1/openSUSE_Factory

Any comments regarding the packages are welcome, either here or in the various openSUSE Mailing-lists. Bug reports, as usual, can be submitted to bugzilla.novell.com.

PS: No, this will not fly into openSUSE 11.3. The repos are version and feature frozen and adding a beta of an upcoming release would just call for trouble.

The ChangeLog for VLC 1.0.6 reads:

• Access:
  • Fix crash on FTP URI with no file path
• Decoders/Packetizers:
  • Fix overflows in A/52, DTS, MPEG Audio and subtitles support
• Demuxers:
  • Update LUA script for Youtube pages
  • Fix crashes in AVI, ASF and Matroska files
  • Fix crashes on malformatted ZIP archives
  • Fix crashes and leaks in the FFmpeg/avformat plugin
  • Fix crash on invalid XSPF playlist
• X11 port:
  • Partial Xlib threading fixes
• Interfaces:
  • Fix crash (use after free) in Qt4 bookmarks
  • Fix a few crashes in Qt4 playlist
• Removed modules:
  • RTMP input and output are removed due to security problems.
    Please update to VLC 1.1.0 which provides an FFmpeg-based RTMP
    input if needed.

VLC 1.1.0 branched in upstream git

VLC 1.1.0 has been branched and is quickly heading towards a release. git MASTER by now already tracks VLC 1.2.0. The vlc-beta packages in the VideoLAN repo have always been tracking git master, and as such also represent VLC 1.2.0 (very early development!) at this stage.

As soon as VLC 1.1.0 is ready for final users, the packages will be available to all of you as quick as possible again.