Think-Free

Hi !

As you may know I’m working on a dbus over network mechanism.

It consist on two simple daemons written in Qt4 as usual. The « server » side listen the network for dbus request and make that request on local bus than send reply ( if requested ) to the client side. Client side listen on the local dbus and send the request to the server. Simple !

Methode calls are working, methode call with return arguments are working with some hacks ( not fully transparent for now ).

The client side only listen on the local bus for a single methode ( see wikipage ) but remote methode will be available in the future from an xml file ( you declare on the xml file which remote methodes you want to be able to call and the client side make them available on the local bus, but that’s not done yet

There is no security mechanism yet, in the future there will be authentication and encryption and the possibility to reduce available methods for the remote host ( maybe you don’t want to export all the methods available  on dbus to the network …).

You will not be on the remote bus, that’s just a helper to call remote methods simply and securely, you just have to start two programs and you can go ..

Signals notification from server side to client is missing, be patient.

In parallel, I’m developing a test program : an Amarok remote controler !!

That’s the reason for this early blog post, sharing with you this cool stuff

You can play/stop/pause/next/previous the music but you also have metadatas shown on your neo ( or remote computer ) and the picture associated with the song which is downloaded from the server side running amarok ! ( With an amarok helper server ( a simple web server exporting ~/.kde/share/apps/amarok/albumcovers/large . Just run « python -m SimpleHTTPServer » in this folder ( That’s a little hacky for now, I have to make something better … )

In the future, I’ll integrate it with GorshPlayer and make it better ; remote playlist, dowload of current played song to local folder, …

And lots of applications based on those servers will come …

Christophe

Others Screenshoots

PS : I hope to get Qalee stable enough to release version 1.0 for the fosdem

Hi all !

I’ve released a new version of Qalee this week, 0.0.4

This version bring interesting features but they are a little buggy ..

- Widgets managers : as you know Qalee has the ability to load menu entries dynamically and their is also widgets on the background. I’ve developed a plugin/widget server and a menu entry to manage install/delete/configure those plugins …

- Network management plugin, it can now configure the gprs ( thanks to burn2 ) and wifi networks ( witch works at least with opened one, wpa is buggy and wep not tested ) ( to show the configure dialog, press the aux button when you are on the plugin ( need help for user guide on the wifi … ) )

- Network widget : will connected to network, press the network icon to show some basic informations ( ip, … )

- New keyboard : I’ve developed a keyboard with 6 keys. For now, it’s long to launch ( 10 seconds ), I’ll work on it. But it’s really finger friendly. Under the hoods this keyboard contains two parts, a daemon witch send keyevents to the active window and the keyboard itself, they communicate by dbus ( utility ? later )

- Their is also some changes in the core and some widgets added to the libqalee ( You will see the GenericPage widgets in action with the widget manager and the wifi connection manager )

I’ve released this version for testing purpose and to get feedback .. it’s already in development stage, not stable. A new version should come quickly, with fixes to the known bugs, you can use the bug tracker to fill bug reports.

I’m now working on an other project, Qamino and poi proximity alerter witch will be able to show wikipedia page. It will warn you when you are next to a poi and show his decription or wikipedia page if available. ( Use case : citytrip, radar proximity alert, … )

Then I will work on a dbus network daemon, you will be able to send dbus message over network … Yes, with the keyboard daemon, you will have the ability to launch a keyboard on you pc to write on the freerunner or to make some keyboard shortcuts on the freerunner to manage you pc. It will be also possible to be warned on the pc when the battery is low, when you get a sms, …

Hope you like it,

Christophe

PS : Sorry for dns problems ( due to isp ) and for being long to make this release

http://www.qalee.org

Hola todos !

Como quizá lo habeis leído en el post en inglés, ya estoy en Madrid ..

Estoy buscando trabajo como informático, mejor de programación, pero cualquier trabajo de informática me puede interesar!

Voy a finalizar en la UNDED la carrera emprendida en Bélgica, no me queda mucho y en Bélgica asistí todas las classes (pero no presenté todos los exámenes)…

Si os gusta lo que hago y tenéis un puesto libre en vuestra empresa o conocéis a alguien que busca a un programador/informático … aquí va mi currículum: curriculum

Contacto: meumeu1402 [at] gmail.com o 0034/697479747

Gracias por vuestra ayuda!

Christophe

Hi !

Lot of time since my last post due to some personal problems :/

I have had to move to Madrid quicker than previsted … I’ve not spent a lot of time on Qalee last weeks, I had to make a lot of administratives things to be able to work in Spain and to continue to study there at the same time, I believed that I lived in Europe but borders are still there …

Now, things go better … I’m finishing implementing the network management panel and then I’ll work on the plugin manager panel and server and on the developers documentation …

Stay tuned !

Christophe

PS : Thanks to everybody who contribute to this project, burn2 and all other who worked on the wiki !

PS 2 : I’m looking for a job in Spain ( with a preference to Madrid ), I’ll post something in Spanish soon

Hello just a small post to show what christophe has made for wifi and to have report of what you think  about it :

Burn2

Hello this is my first post on this blog so i will introduce me a little in first.

As i found this interesting project, i have decided to participate at the « adventure ». First my report as freerunner user, is that they miss a lot of information about development in all the distributions today, and that user could not know what is plan to the new version and what delay the new version. In fact it’s why i will try to communicate a lot of what is made, what brings problems and delay the new version,  you will not see dates of release version, because it is too blur in software development, particularly when it is on your free-time.

So now, about qalee! As you know if you follow the shr distribution, a lot of work as been made on FSO and the distribution is usable and nearly new testing release (not sure so be careful about this ), that’s why with have to follow this on the new release too. We have been working on the gprs interface, so now you could save and configure gprs and use it without edit a text in console line. We are working on the wifi client now, it will be perhaps in first an interface of iwlist, the objective is now to bring functionality faster we can, so sometimes it could be DIY but will be corrected after.  The list of the wireless app is ok, we have to test if the connection work in wpa/wep (ok for open network). Christophe is working on the core and will have time in the 2 next week to improve it. We are looking for a great web browser if we found one too (perhaps we have got one but not sure). There’s still a lot of  work to do as there were no power-manager panel (for screen, suspend…), the virtual keyboard should be improved, we should find a solution about the vibration on touch screen, and in fact we have got all the phone panel to do even if we can use some like litephone, zhone etc…

That’s all for today

Burn2

No new version, no new devellopment ( I was very busy at the end of august ) but :

• New domain : http://www.qalee.org !
• New website in construction :

• As you can see we have now a mailing list, a wiki, a bugtracker !!

What’s next ? ( near furure )

• Finishing network manager panel
• Create a plugin manager ( download community proposed plugins and creator ( for devellopers )
• Make a generic list view in libqalee
• Finish first version of qalee-core ( maybe this month we will have a first beta of qalee core  )

Fell free to edit the wiki !!

If you want to help, propose it on the mailing list

Hi !
Qalee 0.0.3 is out ! No realy new features, I’ve just implemented some that didn’t worked or were incompletes in 0.0.2. But you’ll see above, their is a lot of changes !

You can watch the screenshoots

Or

Directly grab the image

So, what’s new ?

- Qalee is now based on shr instead of debian, debian images will be back when the new version of framework will be used

- clock widget show now a calendar when clicked ( in the future it will allow controlling an agenda )

- status panel widget : now show gsm network name and power, show the internet connection status while on wifi or gprs ( blue led : internet reachable, black : connection problem )

- screen menu : you can now choose the background picture with a coverflow effect, letting the backlight always on now works

- network menu : all entries work, gsm one is a little buggy as it’s not turned on at startup but enabling/disabling it close the phone app. Gprs should work, just configure your APN, User and Password in /etc/Qalee/qalee.conf ( see documentation ). Wifi also work despite the the bug in the kernel 2.6.29 opened for 4 month .. to add an encrypted wireless network, configure /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf. It should connect automatically on opennetworks

This panel need more work to allow adding encrypted wireless netwoks, configure gprs and show full status of connection ( aux button while in panel )

- application menu : to launch application just click on it when launched the button become green, to close it, press the close button which become red and click on the application you want to close

- power menu : power button, when press <= 1 second while put the phone in suspend mode, when pressed > 2 sec it will show the powermenu ( when in Qalee )

- phone application is now litephone modified to use Qalee’s buttons, more visual modification will come

- GorshPlayer is broken, if you have Qt4.5.2 librairies with phonon working on shr, tell me

- keyboard is still literky, to launch/kill it press aux button > 2 seconds, to show it put you finger on the right bottom corner of the screen and move up

- Themable interface : you can now change some color of the interface by edinting /etc/Qalee/qalee.conf and creating a theme file on /etc/Qalee/Themes/ ( a theme selector will be created )

- Installed applications are :

- panwebview ( from trolltech but modified ), show single webpages, based on qt/webkit. ( Installed page : Google-book, Google, wikipedia )

- Dillo : webbrowser

- GorshPlayer ( broken )

- Gtalk

- Weather application ( only madrid now, sorry, configuration will come later )

- mokomaze

- tangogps

- xterm

Installation instructions are on the download server

Test it and give me feedback !!

If you want to collaborate on this project, just send mean email

You can also make donations with paypal using the button on the top right corner of the website

Know bugs :

- The phone seems to freeze sometimes, just wait ( python eat all the cpu ?!? ), we use the development version of the framework so it can be less stable than 0.0.2 ( but it works )

- gsm switch is not enabled at startup, no feedback is given when trying to show the phone application while she is not launched

- wireless connection is unreliable and miss of feedback ( is there any wireless network ? adding network, on wich network am I connected, … )

- application menu : green color is now setted by position in the menu and not by a application …

EDIT :

A new bug tracker is available : http://think-free.homelinux.org:81/qalee-trac

Source are directly available by subversion : svn co http://think-free.homelinux.org/project/qalee/

Hi everybody !

I’m back to Belgium where my server goes offline a month ago. That was due to a storm which burn a network card :/ . Now everythink is ok !!

Qalee page isn’t uptodate, I’ll correct it this week …

Two weeks ago, I’ve released the 0.0.2 based on debian development preview version …

This week, if everythink is ok, the third development preview should be out !

It will be based on shr ! I just have a big problem with wifi connection ( kernel problem ) :/ and I want to finish some point before the release …

You can see screenshoot and grab the 0.0.2 based release on the main mirror : http://openmoko.openmatica.es/QALEE/

Well, I’m a little busy so that’s all for now. More news soon !

Note : svn isn’t uptodate …

Hi !

I received a lot of e-mail requesting the source code …

Sorry, I forgot to put the link on the website

Here you are : Qalee svn repository

Thanks for the e-mail feedback I didn’t had the time today to respond to everybody, I’ll do it tonight or tomorrow