Current Synergy Linux Status (on my end)

[Jeremiah Summers]

Hello all,

I am writing both groups here to let everyone know the current status or what's going on with Synergy on my end.

First I would like to point out that Synergy Linux is somewhat split Richard has continued "lite" development using XFCE as the default Desktop Environment. I have really played no role in that. Not that I wouldn't like too but I'm too many places at once and I feel Richard is doing a good job. I like XFCE it's the only gtk+2 environment for that matter that I like. I would also like to point out, I Love green but I have gotten pretty conservative with it. I think Richard has gone the other way ;) it's kinda been an on going joke from our inception when everything seemed to be based on a blue color pallet so I tried to make everything green ;)

All the fluff aside KDE 4 has been taking up a major part of my time and energy along with dealing with different issues from within Unity Linux, really just growing pains nothing I would consider horrible, but sometimes it can be very frustrating and for me to be patient is hard. That being said KDE 4 has managed to get to 4.4.3 and 4.4.4 will be coming in a few weeks. There's a few issues that I need too get too, like kdepim, but really there's not much I can do other then try and stop the hemorrhaging as kdepim is in a terrible state to begin with due to akonadi integration. Also there's some issue system wise that have been sitting in the bug reports that I keep starting and not finishing, poor Richard I'm sure thinks I'm ignoring him.

So here's what's happening. I have become obsessed with this idea of rpms to ISO. In other wards starting with a clean system from rpm and doing any changes if need be and then imaging. For me it signifies a form of independence. Yes we are still using the Unity Core Rpms, so we're not independent from Unity Linux, but we don't have to start with a Unity Linux build, I can just run a script that grabs the latest rpms and have it build Synergy Linux for me. If we wanted to be ambitious we could just grab the current svn and basically build our own distribution and maintain it, but that would defeat the purpose of using Unity Linux. However if Unity Linux ever goes the way of the dodo bird it's open enough that we could continue development, this is very good news. It was an issue I had when I was at PCLinuxOS, I depended on a build of PCLinuxOS, had to install it, update it and tweak it then remaster. When rpms install they don't always remove everything and a lot of times you end up with orphaned files and packages.

So for the first time ever Synergy Linux is clean. In a sense made from scratch, but the credit goes to Unity Linux as it's made from scratch from the binary rpms everyone here has supplied. Yes there's still tweaking to do, but in 20 minutes (with a decent connection) I can rebuild from scratch a new Synergy Linux build load it in VirtualBox and remaster it. I have done this quite a lot in the last few weeks, the major draw back has been having to use the testing repo, but now things have been froze this is a great opportunity to try and stabilize things and see if I can get an ISO out.

If you would like too see the script and what I'm doing you can look in the Synergy Files section on the issue tracker..
http://dev.unity-linux.org/projects/synergy/files

I know there's still a lot of work to do on the Synergy side for things to get us even back to where we were with KDE but it's building. (quite literally)

Jeremiah

[Matthew Dawkins]

Good report on the state of your guys affairs. I'm glad you got the create basesystem script working for you and I hope we can pull back in your changes. I was talking to Gett the other day about it.

The idea of this project has always been to be transparent and allow people to take with them what that need and to never hamper development. I believe we are getting better at it and making the process more accessible to those that really can participate.

[gettinther]

Actually Jeremiah, I was hoping to integrate your script to mklivecd
to allow for creating isos from rpms for everyone who wants to. It is
also my intention to create final from rpms only too. I've been
delayed with trying to figure out the issue with nautilus or whatever
it is that's causing the hassle.

[Jeremiah Summers]

It's really not my script, I have just changed it to install synergy based rpms, I think Matt did most of the work on it and it works well. At least with 64bit. You can use my script as an example but stuff is going to need to be changed, I'm trying to make that process easier. I have adopted the unity task method that Matt was doing ie synergy-iso and synergy-desktop that calls in the needed rpms. I'm thinking about creating a variable so that you can just chance from synergy task rpms to unity ones or whatever name you want also long as the host machine is points to the proper repos.

My method is mirroring Unity branded etc.. as much as I can where possible.

[Stumpy842]

Great job Jman and a very nice report too, I have been running a KDE4
install with a combo of the Unity & Synergy repos enabled in smart and
it's been pretty stable for me, although sometimes now it crashes
knotify when I first log in. But overall it's very good and usable,
it's the install I boot to most of the time. Thanks for all you've
contributed and keep up the good work!

Steve

BTW when you do issue any Synergy isos I will be very glad to install
and test... ;)