Using halevt to automount media and make them appear on ROX desktop

With the recent addition of halevt in Gentoo’s portage it is now relatively easy to automatically mount media like USB sticks and CD/DVD discs on /media.

What I wanted to do was to emulate my previous set of configs and scripts that ivman used to create icons of automatically mounted media on ROX desktop (called pinboard). I am using ROX pinboard on top of my favorite window manager, fluxbox.

The idea is that halevt is started by the fluxbox startup config file and when a new device is attached to the computer, halevt config calls a script that creates an icon on the ROX pinboard using ROX rpc. When a device needs to be removed ROX pinboard is configured to call a special eject command that checks for a couple of things before unmounting the device and calling the script to remove the icon from ROX pinboard.
Apart from automatically mounting/unmounting of devices I have also added a nice option in the halevt config to unmount and eject the CD/DVD drive when the eject button on the device is used and of course when the CD/DVD is not in use. That emulates a bit the windows behavior that so many users have gotten used to.

Since the script used by halevt involves a lot of file reading/writing and parsing I thought it would be wise to convert my old rox.panelput bash script to perl. And I was correct, the speed difference, even for such simple tasks is more than noticeable.

The installation process. Please take notice of the user executing the commands, $ is for normal user, # is for root:
0) create /usr/local/bin/ path and put it in your shell’s PATH
# mkdir /usr/local/bin
$ echo "export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin/" >> ~/.bashrc

1) install halevt
# echo "sys-apps/halevt ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
# emerge halevt

(more…)

qt libraries upgrade problem for gentoo

To complement alex’s post upgrading Qt libraries in Gentoo with Portage, here’s what started it all. I wanted to upgrade my kpdf to the most recent version without upgrading world. So the output of emerge -1uDNavt kpdf looked like this:

[ebuild U ] kde-base/kpdf-3.5.10-r1 [3.5.9] USE="-debug (-arts%) (-kdeenablefinal%) (-xinerama%)" 6 kB [0]
[nomerge ] app-mobilephone/pysmssend-1.32 USE="qt4" [?]
[nomerge ] dev-python/PyQt4-4.4.4-r2 USE="X dbus opengl qt3support svg -debug -doc -examples -webkit" [0]
[ebuild U ] x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.5.1 [4.4.2] USE="accessibility -custom-cxxflags% -debug -kde% -pch -phonon%" 111,980 kB [0]
[ebuild U ] x11-libs/qt-sql-4.5.1 [4.4.2-r1] USE="iconv qt3support sqlite -custom-cxxflags -debug -firebird -mysql -odbc -pch -postgres" 0 kB [0]
[nomerge ] kde-base/kpdf-3.5.10-r1 [3.5.9] USE="-debug (-arts%) (-kdeenablefinal%) (-xinerama%)" [0]
[ebuild N ] virtual/poppler-qt3-0.10.5 0 kB [0]
[nomerge ] dev-python/PyQt4-4.4.4-r2 USE="X dbus opengl qt3support svg -debug -doc -examples -webkit" [0]
[ebuild U ] x11-libs/qt-gui-4.5.1 [4.4.2-r3] USE="accessibility dbus glib gtkstyle%* qt3support -cups -custom-cxxflags -debug -mng -nas -nis -pch -raster% -tiff -xinerama" INPUT_DEVICES="(-wacom%)" 0 kB [0]
[ebuild U ] x11-libs/qt-script-4.5.1 [4.4.2] USE="iconv%* -custom-cxxflags% -debug -pch" 0 kB [0]
[ebuild U ] x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.5.1 [4.4.2] USE="-custom-cxxflags -debug -pch" 0 kB [0]
[nomerge ] dev-python/PyQt4-4.4.4-r2 USE="X dbus opengl qt3support svg -debug -doc -examples -webkit" [0]
[nomerge ] x11-libs/qt-svg-4.4.2 USE="-debug -pch" [0]
[blocks b ] >x11-libs/qt-script-4.4.2-r9999 (">x11-libs/qt-script-4.4.2-r9999" is blocking x11-libs/qt-xmlpatterns-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r3, x11-libs/qt-sql-4.4.2-r1, x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-svg-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-test-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-opengl-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2-r2)
[blocks b ] >x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2-r9999 (">x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2-r9999" is blocking x11-libs/qt-xmlpatterns-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-script-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r3, x11-libs/qt-sql-4.4.2-r1, x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-svg-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-test-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-opengl-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2-r2)
[nomerge ] sys-boot/unetbootin-319 [0]
[nomerge ] x11-libs/qt-gui-4.5.1 [4.4.2-r3] USE="accessibility dbus glib gtkstyle%* qt3support -cups -custom-cxxflags -debug -mng -nas -nis -pch -raster% -tiff -xinerama" INPUT_DEVICES="(-wacom%)" [0]
[blocks b ] x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2-r9999 (">x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2-r9999" is blocking x11-libs/qt-script-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r3, x11-libs/qt-sql-4.4.2-r1, x11-libs/qt-xmlpatterns-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-svg-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-test-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-opengl-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2-r2)
[blocks b ] >x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2-r9999 (">x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2-r9999" is blocking x11-libs/qt-xmlpatterns-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-script-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r3, x11-libs/qt-sql-4.4.2-r1, x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-svg-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-test-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-opengl-4.4.2)
[blocks b ] >x11-libs/qt-sql-4.4.2-r9999 (">x11-libs/qt-sql-4.4.2-r9999" is blocking x11-libs/qt-xmlpatterns-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-script-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r3, x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-svg-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-test-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-opengl-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2-r2)
[blocks b ] >x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r9999 (">x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r9999" is blocking x11-libs/qt-xmlpatterns-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-script-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-sql-4.4.2-r1, x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-svg-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-test-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-opengl-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2-r2)
[ebuild U ] x11-libs/qt-test-4.5.1 [4.4.2] USE="iconv%* -custom-cxxflags% -debug -pch" 0 kB [0]
[ebuild U ] x11-libs/qt-core-4.5.1 [4.4.2-r2] USE="glib iconv qt3support ssl -custom-cxxflags -debug -doc -pch" 0 kB [0]
[nomerge ] kde-base/kpdf-3.5.10-r1 [3.5.9] USE="-debug (-arts%) (-kdeenablefinal%) (-xinerama%)" [0]
[ebuild U ] kde-base/kdeprint-3.5.10 [3.5.9] USE="kdehiddenvisibility -cups -debug -kde (-arts%) (-kdeenablefinal%) (-xinerama%)" 0 kB [0]
[nomerge ] app-text/epdfview-0.1.6-r1 USE="-cups -nls -test" [0]
[nomerge ] virtual/poppler-glib-0.10.5 USE="cairo" [0]
[nomerge ] app-text/poppler-bindings-0.10.5-r1 USE="cairo gtk qt3 qt4 -test" [0]
[nomerge ] app-text/poppler-0.10.5-r1 USE="-doc" [0]
[ebuild U ] media-libs/openjpeg-1.3-r2 [1.3] USE="-tools" 0 kB [0]
[nomerge ] kde-base/kdeprint-3.5.10 [3.5.9] USE="kdehiddenvisibility -cups -debug -kde (-arts%) (-kdeenablefinal%) (-xinerama%)" [0]
[ebuild U ] app-text/enscript-1.6.4-r4 [1.6.4-r3] USE="-nls -ruby" 1,013 kB [?=>0]
[nomerge ] app-pda/msynctool-0.21 [0]
[nomerge ] app-pda/libopensync-0.21 USE="-debug -doc -python" [0]
[ebuild U ] dev-db/sqlite-3.6.13 [3.6.11] USE="threadsafe -debug -doc -soundex -tcl" 0 kB [0]
[blocks B ]
x11-libs/qt-test-4.4.2-r9999 (">x11-libs/qt-test-4.4.2-r9999" is blocking x11-libs/qt-xmlpatterns-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-script-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r3, x11-libs/qt-sql-4.4.2-r1, x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-svg-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-opengl-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2-r2)
[blocks B ] >x11-libs/qt-script-4.4.2-r9999 (">x11-libs/qt-script-4.4.2-r9999" is blocking x11-libs/qt-xmlpatterns-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r3, x11-libs/qt-sql-4.4.2-r1, x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-svg-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-test-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-opengl-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2-r2)
[blocks B ] >x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2-r9999 (">x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2-r9999" is blocking x11-libs/qt-xmlpatterns-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-script-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r3, x11-libs/qt-sql-4.4.2-r1, x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-svg-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-test-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-opengl-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2-r2)
[blocks B ]
x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2-r9999 (">x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2-r9999" is blocking x11-libs/qt-script-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r3, x11-libs/qt-sql-4.4.2-r1, x11-libs/qt-xmlpatterns-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-svg-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-test-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-opengl-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2-r2)
[blocks B ]
x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2-r9999 (">x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2-r9999" is blocking x11-libs/qt-xmlpatterns-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-script-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r3, x11-libs/qt-sql-4.4.2-r1, x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-svg-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-test-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-opengl-4.4.2)
[blocks B ]
x11-libs/qt-sql-4.4.2-r9999 (">x11-libs/qt-sql-4.4.2-r9999" is blocking x11-libs/qt-xmlpatterns-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-script-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r3, x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-svg-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-test-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-opengl-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2-r2)
[blocks B ] >x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r9999 (">x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r9999" is blocking x11-libs/qt-xmlpatterns-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-script-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-sql-4.4.2-r1, x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-svg-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-test-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-opengl-4.4.2, x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2-r2)
[blocks B ]
=x11-libs/qt-svg-4.4.2:4 required by ('installed', '/', 'dev-python/PyQt4-4.4.4-r2', 'nomerge')
('ebuild', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-gui-4.5.1', 'merge') pulled in by
>=x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2:4 required by ('installed', '/', 'dev-python/PyQt4-4.4.4-r2', 'nomerge')
x11-libs/qt-gui required by ('installed', '/', 'media-video/vlc-0.9.8a', 'nomerge')
x11-libs/qt-gui required by ('installed', '/', 'sys-boot/unetbootin-319', 'nomerge')
(and 4 more)
('ebuild', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-test-4.5.1', 'merge') pulled in by
x11-libs/qt-test:4 required by ('installed', '/', 'app-text/poppler-bindings-0.10.5-r1', 'nomerge')
('ebuild', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.5.1', 'merge') pulled in by
~x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.5.1[-debug] required by ('ebuild', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-gui-4.5.1', 'merge')
>=x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2:4 required by ('installed', '/', 'dev-python/PyQt4-4.4.4-r2', 'nomerge')
('installed', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-opengl-4.4.2', 'nomerge') pulled in by
>=x11-libs/qt-opengl-4.4.2:4 required by ('installed', '/', 'dev-python/PyQt4-4.4.4-r2', 'nomerge')
('ebuild', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.5.1', 'merge') pulled in by
~x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.5.1[-debug] required by ('ebuild', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-gui-4.5.1', 'merge')
>=x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2:4 required by ('installed', '/', 'dev-python/PyQt4-4.4.4-r2', 'nomerge')
('installed', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2-r2', 'nomerge') pulled in by
~x11-libs/qt-core-4.4.2 required by ('installed', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-script-4.4.2', 'nomerge')
x11-libs/qt-core required by ('installed', '/', 'media-video/vlc-0.9.8a', 'nomerge')
x11-libs/qt-core:4[qt3support] required by ('installed', '/', 'app-admin/keepassx-0.4.0', 'nomerge')
(and 7 more)
('installed', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2', 'nomerge') pulled in by
>=x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2:4 required by ('installed', '/', 'dev-python/PyQt4-4.4.4-r2', 'nomerge')
~x11-libs/qt-dbus-4.4.2 required by ('installed', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r3', 'nomerge')
('installed', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2', 'nomerge') pulled in by
~x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2 required by ('installed', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r3', 'nomerge')
>=x11-libs/qt-qt3support-4.4.2:4 required by ('installed', '/', 'dev-python/PyQt4-4.4.4-r2', 'nomerge')
('installed', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-xmlpatterns-4.4.2', 'nomerge') pulled in by
x11-libs/qt-xmlpatterns:4 required by ('installed', '/', 'app-admin/keepassx-0.4.0', 'nomerge')
('installed', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2-r3', 'nomerge') pulled in by
>=x11-libs/qt-gui-4.4.2:4 required by ('installed', '/', 'dev-python/PyQt4-4.4.4-r2', 'nomerge')
x11-libs/qt-gui required by ('installed', '/', 'media-video/vlc-0.9.8a', 'nomerge')
x11-libs/qt-gui required by ('installed', '/', 'sys-boot/unetbootin-319', 'nomerge')
(and 6 more)
('ebuild', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-core-4.5.1', 'merge') pulled in by
~x11-libs/qt-core-4.5.1[qt3support,-debug] required by ('ebuild', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-sql-4.5.1', 'merge')
x11-libs/qt-core:4[qt3support] required by ('installed', '/', 'app-admin/keepassx-0.4.0', 'nomerge')
~x11-libs/qt-core-4.5.1[-debug] required by ('ebuild', '/', 'x11-libs/qt-script-4.5.1', 'merge')
(and 7 more)

The output is also at: http://dpaste.com/52703/
Unless you are a Gentoo Developer there is no easy way to understand the output.
So I joined #gentoo-el on Freenode to ask the greek gentoo developers (hwoarang, deathwing00, tampakrap, wired, yngwin), which happen to be on QT/KDE herds, to explain to me what’s wrong.
I was suggested to run an emerge -uDavt world to upgrade my whole system, but that’s not what I wanted and I asked for a solution that would not involve upgrading the whole system. The following is the output of emerge -uDNavt world:

http://pastebin.com/m8371430

Then they explained to me that there has been a change on QT eclass to provide protection to the system from having mixed QT versions. The problem is that the protection works by blocking the mix, but the output is at least “unfriendly”.

The solution, as alex said is to do: emerge -av1 `eix -I --only-names x11-libs/qt-`

Even though eix is a standard tool every gentoo user has probably installed, I don’t really like the solution because it depends on using another extra program, eix, and not pure portage techniques. Portage should be able, somehow, to handle these dependency problems and provide a custom error when such a problem occurs. The errors on “-9999” versions need vast improvement.

I hope Gentoo devs do something about improving portage even more 🙂

*EDIT*
After a small conversation with alex, I completely unmerged my x11-libs/qt-4.X package. As it seems it’s not needed at all any longer since all programs correctly reference the x11-libs/qt-NAME-4.X.

halevt in portage!

Since yesterday halevt (HAL Events Manager) and its dependency, boolstuff library are in the official Gentoo portage!
halevt on Portage
boolstuff on Portage

They only thing it took was convincing hwoarang how much they were needed since ivman is pretty much borked. At first I asked him to add them to sunrise overlay but he insisted they go straight to portage.

The original ebuilds were taken from Gentoo bugzilla: new ebuilds for halevt and boolstuff -> supersedes ivman, they were refined a bit and then added to Portage. Thanks to Mike Gualtieri for the original ebuilds.

Hwoarang has added me as the proxy maintainer of these two packages. I hope that when updates go out, I’ll test them as soon as possible and then create new ebuilds for them.

The packages are currently only in ~x86 and ~amd64 (testing) branches. If you test the packages and think that they are stable enough please let me know and I’ll try to convince hwoarang to put them to x86 and amd64 (stable) branches.

Thanks again to hwoarang! Cheers!

upgrading a gentoo box that hasn’t been upgraded since 2007

I was given root today in a gentoo box that nobody had upgraded since 2007. As expected the “emerge –sync; emerge -uDavt world” showed a lot of blockages.

I tried to solve each one but I got stuck while trying to upgrade portage 2.1.3.9 to 2.1.6.11. In order to upgrade portage I had to upgrade sandbox, but sandbox couldn’t be ugraded correctly due to portage 2.1.3.9 being unable to handle .tar.lzma files.
The box had sandbox-1.2 installed and it was unable to upgrade to sandbox-1.6. The error was:

unpack sandbox-1.6.tar.lzma: file format not recognized. Ignoring.

Upgrading lzma-utils, tar and a few other packages did not work. In the end I edited the sandbox-1.6-r2.ebuild and changed the src_unpack function from:
src_unpack() {
unpack ${A}
cd "${S}"
epatch "${FILESDIR}"/${P}-disable-qa-static.patch
epatch "${FILESDIR}"/${P}-disable-pthread.patch
epatch "${FILESDIR}"/0001-libsandbox-handle-more-at-functions.patch
}

To:
src_unpack() {
unpack ${A}
cd /var/tmp/portage/sys-apps/sandbox-1.6-r2/
tar --lzma -xvf sandbox-1.6.tar.lzma
mv sandbox-1.6/ work/
cd "${S}"
epatch "${FILESDIR}"/${P}-disable-qa-static.patch
epatch "${FILESDIR}"/${P}-disable-pthread.patch
epatch "${FILESDIR}"/0001-libsandbox-handle-more-at-functions.patch
}

Then:
cd /usr/portage/sys-apps/sandbox/; ebuild sandbox-1.6-r2.ebuild manifest

After this edit, sandbox emerged properly, so portage emerged properly too. Everything else worked as expected…