Month: March 2008

Clicking of snd_hda_intel

I've installed Fedora 9 Beta on a laptop with a snd_hda_intel sound card. Every time that alsa powers up the card (from, I guess, a sleep state) I get a speaker and ear popping *click* before the sound effect. I've found Linux is being very aggressive in powering down my soundcard by setting CONFIG_SND_HDA_POWER_SAVE_DEFAULT=5 (seconds). I was playing with the timeout like this: echo 0 > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save So I can actually use my laptop, I've disabled the powersaving doing this: sudo echo “options snd_hda_intel power_save=0” >> /etc/modprobe.conf So, is it:

  • My laptop being crap that it can't power on the soundard with out a DC click.
  • Linux setting a much too low timeout value
  • An ALSA bug that is worth pursuing?

Ideas welcome. Richard.

ServicePack : User Interface

Quite a common use case for Linux is where PC's are installed on computers without internet access, or where internet access is very expensive. So, enter PackageKit. You insert a CDROM or USB pendrive with updates on. The following UI appears: You click “yes” and then the update icon appears as if you were online. You click “Update system” and then the update proceeds as if you were online. Plus, because the local media is an actual repo, you can also use the Add/Remove software tool as normal. Nothing is in git master yet, although I've got a local branch that I'll probably merge after 0.1.10 is released. Comments appreciated.

PackageKit Google Summer of Code Ideas

PackageKit Google Summer of Code Ideas:

  • urpmi backend for Mandriva
  • portage backend for Gentoo
  • ports backend for FreeBSD
  • Rewrite opyum or APTonCD to support libpackagekit and be distribution neutral
  • Design a KDE front-end suitable for upstream inclusion
  • Profiling for memory and speed with a security review of the packagekitd daemon
  • Design of an end-to-end test harness for .rpm and .deb on temporary
    repositories for complete self check

If you are interested in any of these ideas then please email me and I'll give you more details.

gtk-doc legend needed

I think I've included the right markup, but the current web documentation looks like rubbish.

I really can't convince gtk-doc to recognize that the signals are signals, or to pick up the markup and descriptions that I've so lovingly explained.

Any help really appreciated.

EDIT: Dan Winship to the rescue: it's because your object struct name doesn't have a “_” at the beginning of it ie, it has to be “typedef struct _PkClient PkClient”

A very stupid thing

I've just done something very stupid: I dropped my laptop.

It must have fell about 30cm onto soft carpet, and now the screen is broken in about 3 places. My excuse is that I've had a super long day at work, and I'm not feeling great, but I'm just so frustrated with myself.

I'm guessing a replacement screen ~= the price of a new laptop, and I just don't have that kind of money right now. Hence, I'll be offline until I can get hold of an external monitor, which, living in a flat the size of a shoebox, might be hard to find a home for.

In a few weeks I'll be starting at Red Hat, where they are buying me a nice work machine, but until then all major hacking will have to be paused.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH.