NOA: SUSE Labs and GCC

Okay, so no release last week. Stuff happens.

This week’s Novell Open Audio covers the GNU Compiler Collection, also known as GCC, and we finally get Erin to explain himself. Turns out that he still loves the Timex Sinclair.

Oh, and one other thing. I mastered this edition myself, so if the audio quality is notably better than some of our past editions (including the audio quality from a Nuremberg interview), then I would appreciate some comments that I can wave in front of Mike the Audio Guy’s nose and say, “See?!” And if not, you should still comment, since my whole goal in life is to get the audio issues past us.

Oh, and one other other thing. I got Audacity running on SLED10. Anyone interested in the how-to?

Feed Update Notifications through Instant Messaging

A while back, Jon Strickland wrote a Cool Solutions article on how to enable RSS feed updates to notify you via your instant messenger client.

If you have an RSS feed, such as a blog or podcast, that you regularly monitor for changes, this is kind of a cool tip to check out.

Automate Banshee Updates

[Update 24DEC06: These instructions are now out of date because the always Mighty Aaron Bockover has integrated with openSUSE.org Build Service, and now openSUSE.org directly hosts the Banshee repositories. For updated instructions on how to use these, please consult the "Banshee and SUSE Linux" page that Aaron and I co-wrote on the Banshee project site.]

Old Article

Okay, time to finish off the “How to Update Banshee” posts. The Mighty Aaron Bockover has put up a repository for SLED10 and another for openSUSE 10.2 (openSUSE 10.2 is still being developed).

Notes:

• If you followed my previous steps on buidling banshee from source, you have to uninstall all the packages before adding these. This is as easy as using “sudo make uninstall ” on each of the source folders from which you previously did the install, but going in reverse order. (If you did not save the source install folders, then you have a bigger problem–same as a couple of my systems–that I have yet to work out how to fix.)
• Remember that on SLED10 this is not officially supported by Novell, so this is not for production deployments.

Procedure:

1. Add the Banshee Update Repository to your Update Lists

1. Start YaST2, and open the “Installation Source” tool
2. Add a new HTTP installation source
3. In “Server Name,” enter “dist.banshee-project.org”
4. In “Directory on Server” enter “SLED-10/”
5. Click OK
6. Import the crypto certificate when presented
7. Click Finish to close and save the added repository

(click the thumbnail at right to see interfaces)

2. Select the Banshee packages to Install/Update

1. Start YaST2, and open the “Software Management” tool
2. Select the following packages to Install or Update
   1. banshee
   2. banshee-engine-gst
   3. banshee-engine-helix
   4. banshee-plugins-DAAP
   5. banshee-plugins-default
   6. banshee-plugins-extra
   7. helix-dbus-server
   8. libipoddevice
   9. ipod-sharp

(click the thumbnail at right to see interfaces)

Technical Issues

1. Main menu often locks up after installing the packages.
2. Banshee start up does not complete on the first attempt.
3. If you did my previous method for compiling banshee from source, Banshee may crash on each subsequent starts.
4. Others? Please comment below.

San Francisco, Oracle OpenWorld

I’m at Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco this week, pimping desktop Linux goodness. How does desktop Linux fit at an Oracle show? Pretty well, judging by the audiences we have been gathering.

If you’re at the conference and you want to talk with me about anything related to Novell or desktop Linux, swing by Novell’s booth and hello me.

Please Help Us Test the New Novell Open Audio Site

The new Novell Open Audio site is online, but we have not replaced the old site with it, because we’re not sure it’s 100% ready to go.

So, I am asking any willing members of our listener community to help us test it out. We’re looking for suggestions on the look and feel, and whether all the interactions work well or not.

If you find any issues, please let me know by commenting on this post. Thanks for your help!

SLED10 Deployment Tips Wiki

Thanks to Novell Open Audio listener Mike Petersen, the Cool Solutions wiki now has an initial collection of articles about deploying SLED10. [this link now fixed]

Says Mike: “Just listened to the Survey results show and noticed that you may do a show about Deploying SLED10. Well, I had a guide on my site that had some tips ‑ but I now decided to move it to Novell’s Wiki so other admins can edit or add to it.”

The coolest thing about wiki is that it’s community property, so anyone can add or modify content on it.

Erin and I did a BrainShare session on using wiki and implementing wiki, and we posted the accompanying how-to guides on…wait for it…on the wiki!

John Dragoon Discusses Novell Open Audio

Novell Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon blogged some background info on the origins of Novell Open Audio and his philosophy about the program.

Response comments so far have been few, but John is definitely listening for them. (He emailed me the first comment this morning.)

So, if you are interested in sharing any of your thoughts–positive or negative, please have at it. John is essentially our patron and NOA’s longterm future is in his hands.

Tonight: Salt Lake Linux Users Group

Tonight I present on how to /install/use/configure Desktop Effects (Xgl/Compiz) at Salt Lake Linux Users Group at the University of Utah.
Depending on his current post-surgery pain levels, Erin Quill may help me present.

The meeting is open to anyone, so if you are interested (and in the area), you can find meeting details here.

NOA: Listener Survey Results (and Free Stuff)

Sometimes things just take too long. We closed the Novell Open Audio listener survey on Spetember 30th, but so much has been happening (mostly involving Erin’s appendages and emergency rooms) that we have not yet announced the winners. We tried to release this episode on Friday, but we hit a snag that forced us to release on the same day as our special coverage on Access Manager.

The episode is finally online, and for those who need to know all the gory details, the complete, detailed survey results are posted here.

We gleaned a lot of ideas from the survey, and want to thank all our listeners for giving us heaping amounts of written feedback. We know that such effort takes people’s valuable time, and we want to show our appreciation in a cool way.

Even though we advertised that the survey would only have one limited edition Green backpack, we mustered up a second one. Then we stuffed them full of shirts, stuffed penguins, and other cool swag. We mailed those out yesterday.

Then we decided to make sure that our appreciation went out to everyone who responded. Listen to the episode to find out who won, and what we did for the general appreciation reward. Hmmm…what would make a good thank you gift for our 233 listener respondents? Listen to the episode to find out…

Banshee 0.11.1 RPM’s

Pursuant to my previous post (”Upgrade to Banshee 0.11.0 on SLED10“), there are now SLED10 rpm’s online for Banshee 0.11.1. Bockover is working to get a YaST Online Update server going for this, too.

If you followed my previous instructions and got Banshee updated to 0.11.1, please wait until I provide uninstall instructions before you upgrade. (Or, try reversing the process with “sudo make uninstall” in place of all the previous “sudo make install” commands).
Meanwhile, I am still awaiting the one geek repository to in the darkness bind them.

NOA: Novell Access Manager

Lo and behold, the latest edition of Novell Open Audio has an extended interview (38 minutes) on Novell Access Manager.

In the course of the next month or two, we plan to do 3 or 4 more shows that go in depth into some of the major features of Novell Access Manager.

Tell me what things about Access Manager that you want us to cover. Post “tough questions” either by commenting here or to openaudio@novell.dottie-dot-dot.com.

Listener Survey Results
Sorry for the delay on the Listener Survey Results episode. We will release it tomorrow.

(We may even get out another edition this Friday. Consider it “October Flood Week,” a tradition that will likely happen every year until the end of 2006.)

GroupWise client updates

Ken Muir has shared some updated screenshots of his team’s work on the GroupWise Client for Linux.

NOBUG “Load Fest”

That would be Novell Oakland BayArea Users Group. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to re-blog that I would be here, so I’ll take the opportunity to point out that I have an “Events” item on the right nav, which shows the various events I will be at.

Anyway, we’re installing some SUSE Linux here tonight.

Boise Tonight

I’ll be at IdaNAG tonight. That would be the Idaho Network Administrator’s Group, in Boise, Idaho. (Yes, there is a Beavis-worthy pun to be crafted out of this, but I prefer to shoot barrel-bound fish that don’t come right to the water’s surface and scream “Shoot me now! Shoot me now!”)

Anyhoo, if there are any readers out there who would like to come say hello, have a chat, or whatnot…here are the details from the group’s organizer:

Subject line: IdaNAG meeting tonight.

Today is the day. We are meeting at the Boise Idaho library this
evening at 6 PM. The Boise Library address is 715 S Capitol Blvd. It is
across the street from Julia Davis Park. On the left (eastside) just as
you cross the Boise river coming into downtown on Capitol Blvd. We are
meeting in the auditorium on the main floor.

We have a lot to talk about. Upcoming events and future product
discussions. Ted Haeger will be here to talk about Linux and Novell as a
whole. He will also answer open questions we may have.

Spread the word and let everyone know about this meeting. This is our
group. We will have more meetings in the future as we show the software
and hardware groups that we are organized to meet with them.

Please contact me if you have any question or comments at
James@Johnatakis.com.

I hope to see you this evening.
James

[Update 11OCT06: Here are meeting notes.]

Changes for Novell Open Audio

This coming week, we hope to roll out a new site for hosting Novell Open Audio. It’s been a long time coming, and we’re really eager for the update. The primary change is that the site will now be hosted using WordPress, which allows us to shorten the distance between us and our listeners (which is an ongoing goal for the NOA team).

Benefits from the change:

• Faster posting of new materials
  The new site gives Erin, Mike and me direct control of the Novell Open Audio site, which means that we can post new episodes much more easily, as well as update other features.
• Open Listener Feedback
  I have always been able to review listener comments, but unfortunately, listeners don’t get to see others’ feedback, and we have not been able to respond to anonymous feedback. Now we can have direct interaction as an open process.
  
• Tough Questions & Upcoming Interviews
  Our upcoming interviews will now be an RSS feed, so our more avid listeners can subscribe to the feed through their favorite feed aggregator. Also, because each upcoming interview announcement will essentially be a blog entry, listeners will be able to post their desired questions directly on the announcement, and we will be able to flag which ones we will use in the interview.
• Categories
  We also get the use of categories for different episodes, which will allow us to tag each episode with topics that are covered in it. So, if you love “News from Support” or “iFolder,” you will be able to see all episodes that we have filed in that category. Each category will also be a feed, allowing people to subscribe to sub-feeds. We still don’t have listener tagging yet, but it is something that we would like to do in the future.
  
• Search
  Another cool thing is a search tool that is exclusively confined to the Novell Open Audio site, allowing listeners to find, for example, any show that includes the text “Martin Buckley.” (At some point we want to get transcriptions and make them searchable.)
• Topic Requests
  I hope to add a “Requested Topics” page on which we can keep a public record of what our listener community wants us to cover, and where people can request new topics.
• Better Layout
  Lastly, I have not been happy with the layout of the Novell Open Audio site. Mostly, it’s getting at the archives. This will be made much better in WordPress’ format.

Tell me your thoughts on these changes. What do we need to add?