Speeding Up Software Rebuilds with CCache

Software developers who routinely rebuild large projects would love ccache. Ccache is a compiler cache. It speeds up software rebuilds by caching the result of previous compilations and detecting when the same compilation is being done again.

I use ccache when compiling Linux kernel, Debian/Ubuntu packages, GNOME applications, Mozilla Firefox, FirefoxOS and Android operating system. You could enable ccache by prefixing ccache to your compilation command or update your system path to include ccache.

# Add the following line to your ~/.bashrc file 
export PATH=/usr/lib/ccache:${PATH}

Alternatively you could create symlinks in ~/bin directory. GNOME 3 jhbuild documentation provides a bash script for this purpose.

cd ~/bin
for cmd in cc gcc c++ g++; do
  ln -s /usr/bin/ccache $cmd
done

To take advantage of ccache while building Mozilla Firefox, append the following line to your .mozconfig.

ac_add_options --with-ccache

If you are compiling Android(ASOP), CyanogenMod or Firefox OS. Android build system includes the ccache program, set the USE_CCACHE environment variable to enable ccache.

$ export USE_CCACHE=1

Further more in-depth information, read the ccache manual page. Please do comment and share your experiences using CCache.

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GNOME Asia Summit 2012, Hong Kong

The city of Hong Kong hosted the Gnome Asia Summit this year. GNOME is a popular open source desktop environment for gnu/Linux Operating System. This annual event attracts people from diverse open source communities across Asia.

GNOME Asia Summit kicked off with the pre-event GNOME Design Workshop. The workshop helped GNOME contributors and developers understand GNOME environment design process. The workshop was intended for novice and experience UX designers, graphic artists and experienced desktop users.

The usability of the Open Source desktop environments has always left something to be desired. The keynote talks at the event delivered by GNOME Developers were very interesting. The GNOME community which was mired by conversation and dissent. Recently the developers revamping the software under the 'Every Detail Matters' initiative. Efforts to bring new UX paradigms into GNOME are also in full swing. Check out the GNOME team mock-ups here.

3D software used to create eye-popping prototypes. Don't believe me, check out this YouTube video Channel.

Graphical User Interface's visual elements such as icons, graphics are being re-designed. You can look at the latest icon theme from the GNOME project here. Graphic designers can use Inkscape and Blender to create high-quality visual graphices. You can download the basic symbolic gnome icon set from here.

In the last few years, Javascript programming language had become very popular. Today applications written in Javascript are just as fast as native applications. Gnome-shell window manager is written using Javascript, thanks to GObject Introspection libraries such as Gjs and Seed. This means you can use your web development skills to enhance and extend your GNOME Desktop functionality.

The Gnome-shell add-ons is integrated closely with the Gnome Extensions service. It lets you share your extensions easily, search and enabling new features is a breeze.

The summit also featured talks related to teaching Open Hardware concepts, Gnome Accessibility, Community development and Gender equality in Open Source communities and Localization tools and GNOME predictive text input system

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Nortec SurfBoard Running Ubuntu 10.04

Just heard that Lekan got the SurfBoard running ubuntu 10.4. The video shows Google Chrome running Youtube videos. The video perform flawlessly in fullscreen mode.

The SurfBoard is an ultra low-cost, energy efficient computer keyboard selling for only $119.95. Ideal for classrooms, thin clients, hotels, banks and anywhere else where an energy efficient, silent, low cost computer can be used.

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Accessibility Evaluation: Yelp GNOME Help Browser

During last few months Yelp Gnome help viewer had few hiccups. The ever vigilant users quickly posted "Yelp in Ubuntu Lucid is currently not accessible" messages to various mailing-lists. I am quite happy to report that Yelp (2.29.5.x) is now fully accessible with gnome orca screen reader once again. The accessibility testing was done on Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid with Orca screen reader (2.30.0pre) and Accerciser.

You will find few accessibility and usability suggestions from the evaluation listed below. Willie Walker and Shaun McCance helped by offering sage advice on Gnome #a11y IRC channel and Gnome Bugzilla. You can track these issues by subscribing to bugs.

Click image for full size

• Show Previous page in history button inaccessible (bgo #613265)



• Navigation Links provide additional information (bgo #613262)



• Reverse tabbing fails in search bar(bgo #613301)



• Side bar and other information boxes (bgo #613267)



• Alternative Home Link Location (bgo #613300)

Please do let me know if you find more issues with Yelp. I'll promise to look at them once I return from the easter vacation.

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Gnome Keyboard Shortcuts

Accelerate your Gnome keyboard navigation with these shortcuts. You should master these if you are orca screen reader user along with Orca keyboard shortcuts.

• Global Keyboard Shortcuts



• Alt+F1 Open the Main Applications Menu


• Alt+F2 Open the Run Application dialog.


• Print Screen Take a screenshot of the entire screen.


• Alt+ Print Screen Take a screenshot of the window that currently has focus.


• F1 If the focused element is an application window or dialog, this keyboard shortcut opens the Help for the application.


• Ctrl+F1 If the focused element is a panel or application window, this keyboard shortcut switches the display of tooltips for the window or panel objects on and off.


• Shift+F10
  Open a popup menu for the element that has focus (if a popup menu exists for that element).


• Tab
  Give focus to the next element or control.


• Shift+Tab
  Reverse the navigation direction and give focus to the previous element or control.


• Ctrl+Tab
  Give focus to the next element or control if the Tab key has a specific purpose in a control.


• arrow keys Navigate within an element or control.


• spacebar Activate the element or control that has focus.For example, if the current control is a button, this action is the equivalent of clicking on the button with a mouse.


• Esc
  Close a window, menu, or drawer.


• F7
  Switch to caret navigation mode. Caret navigation mode enables you to use the keyboard to select text.


• Ctrl+Alt +D
  Temporarily hide all windows and give focus to the desktop background.


• Ctrl+Alt +Tab
  Display a popup window with icons that represent the desktop background and the panels. Press and hold Ctrl+Alt and continue to press Tab to switch the focus between the desktop background and the panels.


• Navigating Windows


• Alt+Tab
  Display a popup window with icons that represent each window.


• Alt+Esc
  Raise each window in turn until you reach the window you want.


• Alt+F6
  Cycle between windows belonging to the current application (eg, a multiple document interface application like Text Editor).


• Alt+ spacebar
  Open the Window menu.


• Alt+F4
  Close the window.


• Alt+F9
  Minimize the window.


• Alt+F10
  Maximize the window.


• Alt+F5
  Restore a maximized window to its original size.


• Alt+F7
  Start the move operation.


• arrow keys
  Move the window 10 pixels at a time in the direction of the arrow key.


• Ctrl + arrow keys
  Move the window one pixel at a time in the direction of the arrow key.


• Shift + arrow keys
  Move the window in the direction of the arrow key and align it with the edge of the nearest window, panel or screen edge.


• spacebar
  Complete the move operation, leaving the window in the current position.


• Esc
  Cancel the move operation, restoring the window to its original position.


• Alt+F8
  Start the resize operation.


• arrow keys
  Resize the window in the direction of the arrow key.


• spacebar
  Complete the resize operation, leaving the window at the current size.


• Esc
  Cancel the resize operation, restoring the window to its original size.


• F6
  Give focus to the next pane.The system gives focus to the control that last had focus in the pane.


• F8
  Give focus to the first resize handle in the window.The resize handle is displayed between the panes and enables you to resize the panes.Press F8 again to give focus to the next resize handle.


• Navigating Applications


• F10
  Open the first menu on the application menubar.


• Alt + access key
  Open the menu that is associated with the access key

access keys
Select the menu item that is associated with the access key.

• left arrow and right arrow
  Switch focus between the menus on the menubar.


• up arrow and down arrow
  Move focus into a menu.


• Esc
  Close the open menu and give focus to the control that had focus before the menubar.


• Ctrl+O
  Open the file selector dialog.


• Ctrl+S
  Open the Save dialog.


• Ctrl+L
  Open a Location dialog, enabling you to type the name of a file that you want to open or save.


• Ctrl+P
  Open a Print dialog, if available.


• Ctrl+C
  Copy highlighted text to the global, application-spanning clipboard.


• Ctrl+X
  Cut highlighted text to the global, application-spanning clipboard.


• Ctrl+V
  Paste text from the global, application-spanning clipboard to the current cursor position.


• Alt+access key
  Activate or select a control.


• Tab
  Give focus to the next control.


• Ctrl+Page Up
  Move to the next page/tabbed section of the dialog.


• Ctrl+Page Down
  Move to the previous page/tabbed section of the dialog.


• Esc
  Cancel/dismiss the dialog.


• Return
  Perform the default action for the dialog.


• Navigating Folders


• arrow keys
  Select the next or previous file or folder in the direction of the arrow key.


• Ctrl + arrow keys
  Give focus to the next or previous file or folder but do not select the item.

spacebar
Open the focused file or folder.

• Ctrl + spacebar
  Select the item that currently has focus.


• Home
  Select the first file or folder within the current folder.


• End
  Select the last file or folder within the current folder.


• backspace
  Open the current folder's parent folder.


• Shift-F10
  Open a file or folder popup menu.


• Ctrl-F10
  Open the enclosing folder's popup menu (equivalent to right-clicking on the view pane background).


• F6
  Switch focus between the side pane and the view pane.


• Shift+F10
  Open the side pane popup menu.



• Caret Navigation Mode


• F7
  Switch to caret navigation mode [Yelp-only].


• left arrow
  Move one character to the left.


• right arrow
  Move one character to the right.


• up arrow
  Move up one line.



• down arrow
  Move down one line.



• Ctrl + left arrow
  Move to the beginning of the previous word.



• Ctrl + right arrow
  Move to the end of the next word.



• Page Up
  Scroll up one page of content.



• Page Down
  Scroll down one page of content.



• Home
  Move to the beginning of the current line.



• End
  Move to the end of the current line.



• Shift + arrow keys
  Move from the current position to the destination position, selecting all text between the two positions.



• Tab
  Move focus to the next focusable control.



• Shift+Tab
  Move focus to the previous focusable control.



• Enter Activate a button, link or other control
.

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Orca Keyboard Shortcuts

Perhaps the most common request from Orca screen reader users is the documentation. Few months ago Orca developers started rewriting most of the existing documentation. The Orca keyboard shortcut cheat sheet is part of this effort, it is now part of new orca man page.

Desktop Mode
       Flat review commands

       Numpad-7 move the flat review cursor to the previous line and read it.

       Numpad-8 read the current line.

       Numpad-9 move the flat review cursor to the next line and read it.

       Numpad-4 move the flat review cursor to the previous word and read it.

       Numpad-5 read the current word.

       Numpad-6 move the flat review cursor to the next word and read it.

       Numpad-1 move the flat review cursor to the previous character and read it.

       Numpad-2 read the current character.

       Numpad-3 move the flat review cursor to the next character and read it.

       Numpad-slash perform a left mouse click at the location of the flat review cursor.

       Numpad-star perform a right mouse click at the location of the flat review cursor.

       Bookmark commands

       Alt+Insert+[1-6] assign a bookmark to a numbered slot. 

       Insert+[1-6] go to the position pointed to by the bookmark bound to this numbered slot.

       Alt+Shift+[1-6]

       Insert+B and Insert+Shift+B move between the given bookmarks for the given application or page.

       Alt+Insert+B save the defined bookmarks for the current application or page.

 Miscellaneous functions

       Numpad+Plus
        'say all' command; reads from the current position of the caret to the end of the document.

       Numpad+Enter 'Where am I' command; speaks information such as the title of the current application 

       Insert+H enter into orca's 'learn mode'; press Escape to exit.

       Insert+Shift+Backslash toggle live regions monitoring on and off.

       Insert+F speak font and attribute information for the current character.

       Insert+Space Launch the orca Configuration dialog.

       Insert+Ctrl+Space  reload user settings and reinitialize services as necessary.
 Also launches the orca Configuration dialog for the current application.

       Insert+S toggle speech on and off.

       Insert+F11 toggle the reading of tables, either by single cell or whole row.

       Insert+Q quit orca.

       Debugging

       Ctrl+Alt+Insert+Home report information on the currently active script.

       Ctrl+Alt+Insert+End print a debug listing of all known applications 
to the console where orca is running.

       Ctrl+Alt+Insert+Page_Up print debug information about the ancestry of the object with focus.

       Ctrl+Alt+Insert+Page_Down print debug information about the hierarchy of the application with focus.

Laptop Mode
       Flat review commands

       Caps_Lock+U move the flat review cursor to the previous line and read it. 
Double-click to move flat review to the top of the current window.

       Caps_Lock+I read the current line. 
Double-click to read the current line along with 
formatting and capitalization details.

       Caps_Lock+O move the flat review cursor to the next line and read it. 
Double-click to move flat review to the bottom of the current window.

       Caps_Lock+J move the flat review cursor to the previous word and read it. 
Double-click to move flat review to the word above the current word.

       Caps_Lock+K read the current word. 
Double-click to spell the word. Triple-click to hear the word spelled phonetically.

       Caps_Lock+L move the flat review cursor to the next word and read it. 
Double-click to move flat review to the word below the current word.

       Caps_Lock+M move the flat review cursor to the previous character and read it.
Double-click to move flat review to the end of the current line.

       Caps_Lock+Comma read the current character. 
Double-click to pronounce the character phonetically if it is a letter.

       Caps_Lock+Period move the flat review cursor to the next character and read it.

       Caps_Lock+7 perform a left mouse click at the location of the flat review cursor.

       Caps_Lock+8 perform a right mouse click at the location of the flat review cursor.

       Caps_Lock+8 perform a right mouse click at the location of the flat review cursor.

       Bookmark commands

       Alt+Caps_Lock+[1-6] add a bookmark to the numbered slot. 
If a bookmark already exists for the slot it will be replaced with the new one.

       Caps_Lock+[1-6] go to the position pointed to by the bookmark bound to this numbered slot.

       Alt+Shift+[1-6]

       Caps_Lock+B and Caps_Lock+Shift+B move between the given bookmarks 
for the given application or page.

       Alt+Caps_Lock+B save the defined bookmarks for the current application or page.

 Miscellaneous functions

       Caps_Lock+Semicolon Caps_Lock+Enter

       Caps_Lock+H enter learn mode (press Escape to exit).

       Caps_Lock+Shift+Backslash toggle live regions monitoring on and off.

       Caps_Lock+F speak font and attribute information for the current character.

       Caps_Lock+Space launch the orca Configuration dialog.

       Caps_Lock+Ctrl+Space reload user settings and reinitialize 
services as necessary; also launches the orca Configuration dialog 
for the current application.

       Caps_Lock+S toggle speech on and off.

       Caps_Lock+F11 toggle the reading of tables, either by single cell or whole row.

       Caps_Lock+Q quit orca.

       Debugging

       Caps_Lock+Alt+Ctrl+Home report information on the currently active script.

       Caps_Lock+Alt+Ctrl+End prints a debug listing of all known applications
to the console where orca is running.

       Caps_Lock+Alt+Ctrl+Page_Up prints debug information about the ancestry 
of the object with focus.

       Caps_Lock+Alt+Ctrl+Page_Down prints debug information about the 
object hierarchy of the application with focus.

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Getting Started with Mallard Help Documentation

Gnome 3.0 help documentation is based on the new topic-based Mallard documentation format created by Shaun McCance. The Yelp help browser and Gnome documentation utilities already support Mallard format.

Creating a Mallard Document

In this post we will use Shaun's Ten Minute Tour to create a multi-page Mallard document.Mallard documents use a '.page' extension. The 'Beanstalk' application help needs a guide page (index.page) and a topic page (planting.page). Make a new directory named 'beanstalk' and create the two files with following content using your favorite text editor.


# index.page
<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
type="guide"
id="index">
<title>Beanstalk Help</title>
</page>

# planting.page

<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
type="topic"
id="planting">
<info>
<link type="guide" xref="index"/>
</info>
<title>Planting Beans</title>
<p>By the end of this page, you will be able to plant your magic
beans and nurture them into a bean sprout.</p>
<steps>
<item><p>Dig a hole 5cm deep.</p></item>
<item><p>Place your magic beans in the hole.</p></item>
<item><p>Fill the hole with clean dirt and pat it level.</p></item>
<item><p>Water daily.</p></item>
</steps>
</page>



Now use Yelp help browser to view the files. Open a terminal and type the following command.

$yelp file:///tmp/beanstalk/

Adding to Gnome Help system

The next step is make it part of the Gnome help system. Here we are copying the beanstalk help files manually to folder where gnome help file are stored.


$ sudo mkdir /usr/share/gnome/help/beanstalk
$ sudo mkdir /usr/share/gnome/help/beanstalk/C
$ sudo cp beanstalk/ /usr/share/gnome/help/beanstalk/C/ -rfv
`beanstalk/' -> `/usr/share/gnome/help/beanstalk/C'
`beanstalk/index.page' -> `/usr/share/gnome/help/beanstalk/C/index.page'
`beanstalk/planting.page' -> `/usr/share/gnome/help/beanstalk/C/planting.page'


We are done! You can now access beanstalk help by calling 'yelp ghelp:beanstalk' from your application or via Yelp search.

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how to override compiz blacklist?

Enabling Compiz eZoom desktop plugin for our partially sighted and low vision users hit a snag. Compiz refused to work as Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 chipset is blacklisted in Ubuntu 8.10 Jaunty. This tutorial describes how to override and enable compiz on blacklisted hardware.

You need to add SKIP_CHECKS="yes" at the end /etc/xdg/compiz/compiz-manager. That should fix it.



$ SKIP_CHECKS=yes compiz
Checking for Xgl: not present.
xset q doesn't reveal the location of the log file. Using fallback /var/log/Xorg.0.log
Blacklisted PCIID '8086:2a02' found
aborting and using fallback: /usr/bin/metacity


# Edit the following file and add at the end of the 'SKIP_CHECKS=yes'
$ sudo nano /etc/xdg/compiz/compiz-manager

# restart compiz and try enabling compiz again.
$ compiz
Checking for Xgl: not present.
xset q doesn't reveal the location of the log file. Using fallback /var/log/Xorg.0.log
Blacklisted PCIID '8086:2a02' found
SKIP_CHECKS is yes, so continuing despite problems.
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: not present.
Trying again with indirect rendering:
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: present.
Checking for non power of two support: present.
Checking for Composite extension: present.
Checking screen 1Comparing resolution (1280x800) to maximum 3D texture size (2048): Passed.
Checking for Software Rasterizer: Not present.
Checking for nVidia: not present.
Checking for FBConfig: present.
running under gnome seesion, checking for gnomecompat
Checking for Xgl: not present.
/usr/bin/compiz.real (video) - Warn: No 8 bit GLX pixmap format, disabling YV12 image format
Starting gtk-window-decorator


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Better Gnome Desktop Magnification with eZoom

The Gnome desktop provides magnification with gnome-mag. This program has very limited features and has quite a few performance issues. After upgrading to Ubuntu Jaunty, we had trouble using the full screen magnification. Ever since I have been searching for a better magnification for partially sighted, low vision Gnome desktop users.

The Compiz-Fusion's eZoom (Enhanced Zoom) desktop plugin steps in to fill the gap.

The zooming is quite smooth, but its appears very jerky in this video.

How to enable eZoom in Ubuntu Gnome Desktop?

To use eZoom desktop plugin, first install the compiz-fusion-plugins-main package. This package is available in Ubuntu itself. Then open the Compiz Configuration Manager and enable "Enhanced Zoom Desktop" under Accessibility menu.

Next step is to assign the keyboard shortcuts to zoom in and out. I have assigned Super+1 (Windows Key+1) to zoom in and Super+2 to zoom out.

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GDM Timed Login

The Gnome Display Manager(GDM) is the graphical login program for Gnome Desktop environment. It is being completely rewritten, one of its goals is to provide better accessible login support.

The latest version of GDM has been uploaded into Ubuntu Karmic and is under active testing. There are few issues to be ironed out before we can have a fully accessible login with orca screen reader and magnifier. Until then I advice the blind gnu/Linux users to use GDM timed login.

Add the following lines to your /etc/gdm/custom.conf file to enable GDM timed login. Replace 'user' with your username.


[daemon]
AutomaticLoginEnable=true
AutomaticLogin=user
TimedLoginEnable=true
TimedLogin=user
TimedLoginDelay=10



Please note that the configuration of GDM has moved away from previously single configuration file /etc/gdm/gdm.conf . As of now you can't use the graphic gdmsetup to configure GDM.

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Netbook For Developing Countries

Varadarajan Narayanan has a vision, a x86-based SoC netbook that is affortable, efficient and easy to repair. This innovative netbook is aimed for the develping countries. Though it is still in a very early phase of development it already shows much promise.

Netbook Unboxed



Netbook running Gnome desktop (now runs with more lightweight window managers)



Builtin AC Adapter, Just plugin in the cable




Powered by AA sized batteries



Under the hood: Motherboard SOC


What's inside: CPU Module





SODIMM CPU Connector

I thank Varadarajan for allowing me to share the pictures and content on this blog. Please do get in touch with him if you are interested in working on this netbook project.

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Gnome Default File Associations

One of the thing that's missing in the Gnome Desktop is an easy way of changing the default file associations. Especially for people with special needs like the blind and low-vision who access the Gnome Desktop using a Orca Screen reader. You can edit the mailcap file straight away to change the setting however that way for people who dabble in technical stuff.

The Davyd Madeley What's new in GNOME 2.8? page provides a nice preview of the changes in Gnome 2.8. The new MIME system looks the same as in the Gnome 2.24.1 . You still have to right click and use context menu, that a terrible idea for me. I rather like the accessible GUI like the Gnome Preferred Applications tool or the Nautilus File Management Preferences. I hope someone from the Gnome team can remedy this and provide single place to easily edit file associations.

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GNOME Shutdown Menu Not Accessible

The accessibility problem of the GNOME shutdown menu is perhaps the most frequently raised question on accessibility (a11y) and the Orca mailing-lists and chat rooms. Orca screen reader doesn't speak up the contents of the shutdown dialog and its a pain to wait for next 60 seconds for the computer to start the shutdown process.

Here is a work around I use in Braille Without Borders IISE campus, the idea is to avoid the shutdown dialog prompting altogether. Here is how you turn it off. Go to System Menu and choose Preferences sub menu and scroll down to Power Management and select it (System > Preferences > Power Management). In the GNOME Power Management tool, select General Preference tab, change the "When power button is pressed is pressed" option to 'shutdown' instead of 'ask me'.

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GNOME Shutdown Menu Not Accessible

Updated on 30 Jan 2009: Checked the shutdown dialog on Ubuntu Interpid Ibex 8.10, it is accessible with orca screen reader.

The accessibility problem of the GNOME shutdown menu is perhaps the most frequently raised question on accessibility (a11y) and the Orca mailing-lists and chat rooms. Orca screen reader doesn't speak up the contents of the shutdown dialog and its a pain to wait for next 60 seconds for the computer to start the shutdown process.

Here is a work around I use in Braille Without Borders IISE campus, the idea is to avoid the shutdown dialog prompting altogether. Here is how you turn it off. Go to System Menu and choose Preferences sub menu and scroll down to Power Management and select it (System > Preferences > Power Management). In the GNOME Power Management tool, select General Preference tab, change the "When power button is pressed is pressed" option to 'shutdown' instead of 'ask me'.

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Compiz Wobbly Windows (side) effect

Here is an interesting side effect to watch out for if you have enabled the Compiz-fusion wobbly windows visual effect. When a window is placed on a certain corner of the desktop, almost overlapping the next desktop, it develops this nervous twitch. (See the video)

Please do check if you can reproduce this issue on your desktop and post a comment.

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Gnome Notification Area Applet

Notification Area applet is a nifty tool that lets you keep an eye on application activity of your Gnome desktop. Quite often new users tend to accidental it in the applet adding and removing frenzy that we all succumb to one time or other.

Here is how you can get the applet back on to your desktop panel. Select the 'Add to Panel' option by right-clicking the empty space before the clock applet. Scroll down and type the name of applet you want to add to the panel as show in the screenshot below.

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Beagle is a hog

Alright this blog entry is aimed as a suggestion to the openSUSE project chaps, I don't want to get into any holy wars here. The first thing we do every time we deploy or update to the latest version of openSUSE in our lab is get rid of beagle desktop top search tool. Any failure to do so results in shrieks of agony and hair pulling (mine, not theirs;-). I mean why do you ship a tool that grinds the computer to halt at least you can try tone down the search ranges a little or something, should the tool be such a resource hog. I have used tracker on Ubuntu I don't have trouble with it, perhaps there is someone out there who'll read this post and try fix this issue in next release.

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