https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+ppas

I found all kinds of cool packages. Some for new application, and some for updated versions. My favorites so far are: ldc, pcsx2, vlc, arora, gnome-colors, shrip, eclipse, and pitivi.

http://workhorsy.org/junk/shrip_0.5.0-1_i386.deb

Source packages:

http://workhorsy.org/junk/shrip_0.5.0-1.diff.gz

http://workhorsy.org/junk/shrip_0.5.0-1.dsc

http://workhorsy.org/junk/shrip_0.5.0.orig.tar.gz

Updated:

Here is how to use shrip:

For example to encode episode 1 of Jericho from a DVD ISO to a matroska container with h.264 video and aac audio at 720×480, you would do this:

shrip encode --device=/media/archive2/JERICHO_S1_AC_D1.iso --title=3 --chapters=1-9 --audio=1 --scale=720:480 --crop=0:0:720:480 --container=mkv --video-codec=x264 --video-quality=extreme --audio-quality=10 --passes=1 --audio-codec=aac --normalize --ensure-sync --threads=2 /home/matt/Desktop/jericho_ep_1.mkv


You should be able to just change some of the parameters in the above example.

Lately I’ve been researching how to create Ubuntu packages. For those that don’t know, packages are the Linux way of installing and managing software. Think Windows Update, but for all software on your computer. There are a few differences though: Each package will specify what versions of other packages it requires. This makes it trivial to see if a newer version of some library will break any software on your system. And since everything on your system is managed by one repository, you usually don’t have to worry about each program installing another copy of the same library. This happens on Windows a lot. When you install a game, it tends to install its own private version of DirectX.

The only down side to packaging, is that it takes a few hours to awkwardly walk through making your first package, and many more to properly package more complex programs.

I decided to start by packaging shrip. It is the command-line sister program of ogmrip. It makes it easy to encode DVDs into other containers and formats such as AVI, MPEG, OGG, MKV, et cetera.

I decided on it because, it is a smallish, stand-alone program, which would be much easier than packaging something that is in pieces, like open office. I also wanted to use it for a project I am working on called Ripspread.

I first started learning about packaging by reading the official Complete Ubuntu Packaging Guide. This did not turn out well, as the guide goes off on tangents, and those tangets go off on tangents, and somehow we would end up moving onto the next step, without me understanding which part was actually performed. I muddled through anyway and built the example package. Then I did it again. And again. Even after that I did not retain much of the process.

Then those smarties at ubuntu decided to make a screencast packaging guide. But instead of explaining every possible way of doing it, they focused on how they would do it in real life. And it was nice.

Since then I have been able to package shrip and a few other things. Generally my packages work. But there are some things I have not yet figured out. I want to list them here, so I can refer to them as I continue my research:

• How do I label a package that is not an official release, but checked out from a code repository? And what if I have to change the code before the package can compile?
• What about recommended packages? In some places you might want to just install libdvdcss, and others you might want to leave it up to use user’s discretion.
• What about situations where there are multiple options for a required package? For example there are 3 different options for OCR software for reading subtitles in shrip. But I have to pick one when compiling. Is there any way to let the end user decide which to use when installing the package?
• What is the difference between XSBC-Original-Maintainer and Original-Maintainer? The Ubuntu guides use XSBC-Original-Maintainer, but many packages just use Original-Maintainer.
• How does a package get marked as being in Multiverse or Universe? There does not seem to be anything in the control files that indicates this.
• Is it correct to mark the maintainer as Ubuntu MOTU Developers <ubuntu-motu@lists.ubuntu.com>, even though I am not yet a MOTU? People at this mailing list will have no idea what this package is. It makes me feel like I am misrepresenting the MOTU by doing this.
• What is the difference between having the priority set as “extra” or “optional”? They seem almost the same  when you read the description.

I hope to figure out these issues, and make some good packages that make it into ubuntu some day.

tango-gdc_0.99.7-1_i386.deb

I’m still learning to package. So this isn’t good enough to put into official repositories. In fact, it is very messed up in a few places. But everything I have compiled using it works just fine.

If anyone is interested, it is heavily based on the packages that were built with the scripts on this page: http://codeblog.palos.ro/2008/03/27/debian-d-packages-release-3/

Keep your fingers crossed that things keep compiling.

I just wanted to point this out because it is yet another example (albeit small one) of Ubuntu in popular culture. We must be doing it right, if the average users are starting to see Ubuntu as a viable alternative to Windows.

First as a reference, here is MeMaker on Ubuntu with the Human theme. Notice that the box that lets you pick a head style has 2 columns. Notice the standard icons on the ‘New’, ‘About’, ‘Remove’, and ‘Save As’ buttons. Also notice that the window has a decoration, with minimize and close buttons.

As for running MeMaker on the XO, my first observation is that it actually works without any code changes. It is a little slow to start up (but we have some experiments that fix that greatly). The only real bug, is that the face panel on the left is smashed, and the feature panel on the right should be limited to 2 columns instead of 6.

A few minor user interface issues reveal themselves: Although you can’t see them in any of these pictures, the tool tips are a dark gray, that makes them not standout from the widgets. And the selected tab, or page in this picture, is not highlighted. Below, the ‘Head’ page is selected, so it should be highlighted. You can get it to somewhat highlight, by clicking the page twice.

The only real other difference, is that the window does not have a decoration or close button. You have to go back to the XO’s Home menu and close it. This sounds cumbersome, but actually works well.

Here is the About dialog on the XO. It is so big that it takes up the whole screen. On a regular Gnome desktop, it is bigger than average, but not that big. (Hmm. If we made the url to launchpad a link-button, wold it work correctly on the XO?) Also, thank reason that someone added working code to the close button. Rather than relying on the window decoration’s close button to be present.

Here is the Save dialog. Pretty standard Gnome stuff. Although I’ve only played with Sugar for a bit, nothing seems to use save dialogs. So we would should research what the other Sugar apps do, and copy them. We could possibly just save the avatar directly to the place it will be used. IE: the icon that represents the XO. But I have no idea if that is even possible or desired.

This is the main Hame panel of the XO. All the running apps show up as an icon in the circle. There are two apps other than MeMaker running in there. The terminal and the Journal. They each have their own icon. MeMaker does not have an icon, so it shows up as a gray circle.

The programs also have a black menu that pops up when you mouse over (as seen below). This lets you perform app specific functionality, as well as start and stop the program. It should also show the name of the app in the top of the menu. But it is blank for memaker.

I’m very impressed with this machine, and how close standard Gnome apps are to just working. I look forward to testing other apps on the XO in the future.