This is a guest post by Raymond “tittiatcoke” Wooninck, with contributions from myself and Hrvoje “shumski” Senjan

In the next hours the [KDE:Current]({{ site.url }}/2014/03/being-current/) repository will publish the latest release from KDE (4.13). As that this release comes with a big change (the new semantic search), we would like some simple steps in order to perform the right upgrade.

Before the upgrade

In order to migrate data automatically from the Nepomuk store to the new format, you will need Nepomuk up and running, and just for the time needed for the migration. Ensure that Nepomuk is running before the update (in System Settings > Desktop Search). This is only necessary in case Nepomuk is in use on the system.

The upgrade itself

•  If you are already using KDE:Current then the upgrade should be a simple zypper up or upgrade packages through YaST Software Management.

•  If you are not yet using KDE:Current, then please follow the instructions on the wiki  on how to add the necessary repositories. After adding them, a zypper dup is required to ensure that all the KDE packages are coming from KDE:Current.

Please do not remove nepomuk, as that otherwise the migration to baloo will fail. Also after the upgrade please make sure that the baloo-file package is installed (it is required for indexing). After this check, log off and back on. The Nepomuk migrator will then run and move all the data that can be migrated to the new system. It will also turn off Nepomuk at the end of the migration.

At this moment it would be safe to remove the nepomuk related packages like nepomuk-core, libnepomukwidgets, soprano*, strigi, virtuoso and shared-desktop-ontologies. There are only a few packages left that are stillrequiring the Nepomuk framework (like bangarang, kweshtunotes, etc).

Using the new search system

Unlike the ‘include folders to be indexed’ used with Nepomuk, the new search backend prefers to index everything and exclude unwanted folders explicitly. With the standard setup,  all files and directories below the home-directory will be indexed. All other filesystems are indicated as omitted.

This can be changed by deleting the respective entries in System Settings. To turn indexing off completely, add your home directory to the excluded folder list (bear in mind that this will prevent search from working). To remove the components completely, remove the baloo-file package. The package baloo-pim (only present when kdepim is installed) can be removed if no search capabilities are required for KMail.

Aside from Dolphin, the only search UI  available is the package called milou. Milou can be placed in the panel for easy access and its usage is quite simple. The search term is indicated and search results are shown for files, emails, and so on.  You can pick which categories to use in the settings.  At the moment you should not put Milou in the system tray, because it will cause Plasma to crash at login.

Tags in the files are now stored using extended attributes (xattrs) instead that in the database.

Known issues

• The initial indexing can be heavy on I/O especially if there are large text files: either wait till the indexing is complete (this step is done only once), or exclude the folder containing such files.

• Some data will be lost during the migration: in particular, emails will have to be re-indexed, and file<->activity associations, if used, will not be preserved.

Reporting problems

As usual, use Novell’s Bugzilla if you find issues pertaining to the specific packaging used in openSUSE: otherwise, report bugs directly to KDE.

In the next hours KDE:Current will publish KDE 4.13 SC. As that this release comes with a big change (Nepomuk -> Baloo), we would like some simple steps in order to perform the right upgrade.

Before the upgrade

In order to migrate data automatically from the Nepomuk store to the new format (used by Baloo), you will need Nepomuk up and running, and just for the time needed for the migration. Ensure that Nepomuk is running before the update (in System Settings > Desktop Search). This is only necessary in case Nepomuk is in use on the system.

The upgrade itself

• If you are already using KDE:Current then the upgrade should be a simple “zypper up” or upgrade packages through YaST Software Management.
• If you are not yet using KDE:Current, then please follow the instructions on https://en.opensuse.org/KDE_repositories#Current_KDE_SC_release on how to add the necessary repositories. After adding them, a zypper dup is required to ensure that all the KDE packages are coming from KDE:Current.

Please do not remove nepomuk, as that otherwise the migration to baloo will fail !! Also after the upgrade please make sure that the following package is installed “baloo-file”. After this check, log off and back on. The migrator will then run and move all the data that can be migrated to the new system. It will also turn off Nepomuk at the end of the migration.

At this moment it would be safe to remove the nepomuk related packages like nepomuk-core, libnepomukwidgets, soprano*, strigi, virtuoso and shared-desktop-ontologies. There are only a few packages left that are still

requiring the nepomuk-framework (like bangarang, kweshtunotes, etc).

Using Baloo

Unlike the ‘include folders to be indexed’, Baloo prefers to index everything and exclude unwanted folders explicitly. With the standard setup, Baloo will index all files and directories below the home-directory. All other filesystems are indicated as omitted. This can be changed by deleting the respective entries. Unfortunately it is not possible to switch baloo off through systemsettings. If baloo is not wanted on the system, then the package “baloo-file” needs to be removed to prevent files being indexed. The package “baloo-pim” (only present when kdepim is installed) can be removed if no search capabilities are required for kmail.

The only search client currently available for baloo, is the package called milou. Milou can be placed in the panel for easy access and the usage is quite simple. The search term is indicated and search results are shown for files, emails, etc. In the Milou settings, the categories from which results are shown can be selected. Milou can NOT be placed in the systray, as that this would cause the plasma desktop to crash upon login.

Tags on files are no longer stored inside the database, but stored in the extended file attributes (xattr), which are stored in separate files on the filesystem.

Known issues with KDE 4.13

• The initial indexing can be heavy on I/O especially if there are large text files: either one waits till the indexing is complete (this step is done only once), or the folder containing such files is excluded using System Settings.
• Some data will be lost during the migration: in particular, emails will have to be re-indexed, and file<->activity associations, if used, will not be preserved.
• Milou causes the Plasma-desktop to crash if it is placed in the systray !!

We are happy to announce that the LibreOffice project has 10 Google Summer of Code projects for this 10th edition of the program. The selected projects and students are:

Project Title	&nbsp	Selected Student
Connection to SharePoint and Microsoft OneDrive	&nbsp	Mihai Varga
Calc / Impress tiled rendering support	&nbsp	Andrzej Hunt
Improved Color selection	&nbsp	Krisztián Pintér
Enhancing text frames in Draw	&nbsp	Matteo Campanelli
Implement Adobe Pagemaker import filter	&nbsp	Anurag Kanungo
Improvements to the Template manager	&nbsp	Efe Gürkan YALAMAN
Dialog Widget Conversion	&nbsp	freetank
Dialog Widget Conversion	&nbsp	sk94
Improve Usability of Personas	&nbsp	Rachit Gupta
Refactor god objects	&nbsp	Valentin

We wish all of them a lot of success and let the coding start!

Continuing in our efforts to create SUSE Cloud 3 Admin Appliance into a quick and easy way to deploy OpenStack, we have reached version 1.1.0. You can download the Standard or Embedded version.

Standard v1.1.0: https://susestudio.com/a/Mrr6vv/suse-cloud-3-admin
Embedded v1.1.0: https://susestudio.com/a/Mrr6vv/suse-cloud-3-admin-embedded

Standard has a process which will mirror all of the required repositories for the Admin Server, and contains the SLES 11 SP3 / SUSE Cloud ISO's

Embedded has everything that the standard image has and all of the required patch and update repositories in the image ready for you to consume. It might take a little longer to download but might be worth the wait if you need something with everything included and you want a quick testing environment to play with.

Changes from Github Project
1. restructure files into proper kiwi build directories to make it easier to build from a checkout
2. shell code needs consistent indentation
3. add a proper README.md
4. eliminate disk wastage from rebuilding huge .txz
5. eliminate copy'n'paste between setup-suse-crowbar*
6. Provide sensible default network config as outlined in the Deployment Guide
7. mount SLES 11 SP3/Cloud ISOs permanently instead of extracting files once the appliance is deployed

I like to call this "drive-by-bugfixing" and this is how it usually happens:

• I have a problem with e.g. xfce4-power-manager, which I'm unable to fix right now


• I check out some random other package (let's call it "yerba-power-manager") to check if it can replace xfpm for me


• I find it has a bug. Or two. Actually caused by broken openSUSE patches trying to implement new APIs


• Because it is "an interesting problem", I fix it them just for fun


• Later I find that I have no use for this package as (for unreated reasons), it does not fix any of my original problems

So far so good. Now I have a fixed package lying around in my home:seife buildservice repository. Trying to be a good cititzen, I submit it back to the original YERBA desktop project.
Can you imagine what happens next?
Correct! It gets rejected. Why? Because I did not mention all my patches in the changelog.

Come on guys. Policies etc. are all fine, but if you want people helping maintain your broken packages, then don't bullshit them with policy crap, period.
I had done the heavy lifting last sunday and fixed the bugs, now all that the desktop maintainer would have needed to do would have been to amend the changelog.

Well, I am not that interested in that particular desktop and its problems, so I just revoked the submitrequest and am done with it. I fixed XFPM instead :-)

And yes, I understand very well that such policies are a good thing to have, and necessary, and if I'm contributing to some subproject on a regular basis, then I of course make sure that I'm following these rules. On the other hand, it's really easy to discourage the occasional one-time contributor from helping out.

(Names changed to protect the guilty)

Some ruby gems are packaged for openSUSE, but often the packages are out of date or simply missing. Apparently, most people use the "Ruby Way" of installing gems. But. . . what is that and how to apply it in openSUSE?

Read more »

Do you love writing elegant and well-understandable code in Ruby? Do you want to do something new that really matters to thousands of people? Do you want to create open-source as your daily job and make openSUSE better? Join us and become a full-time Yast developer!

Yast team is looking for a new "Yastie". Job description can be found here at SUSE Careers page.

In an effort to make OpenStack available to the non-tech user and appear much less of a heavy lifting project for them, I have created the SUSE Cloud 3 Admin Appliance. I have worked with so many partners, vendors, and customers deploying OpenStack with SUSE Cloud that the idea came to me that SUSE had some great tools that would enable me to create something that they could use to easily deploy, test, and discover OpenStack on their own without a whole lot of effort required. SUSE has integrated Crowbar/Chef as part of the installation framework for our enterprise OpenStack distribution – SUSE Cloud – to improve the speed of deploying and managing OpenStack clouds. This has allowed us to be flexible in our deployment when working with partners and software vendors and provide greater ease of use.

The creation of the SUSE Cloud 3 Admin Appliance is intended to provide a quick and easy deployment. The partners and vendors we are working with find it useful to quickly test their applications in SUSE Cloud and validate their use. Beyond those cases it has become a great tool for deploying your production private cloud based on OpenStack.

I have developed two different appliances and you can find them here:

Standard v1.0.1: SUSE Cloud 3 Admin Standard
Embedded v1.0.1: SUSE Cloud 3 Admin Embedded

Standard has a process which will mirror all of the requiredrepositories to the Admin Server.

Embedded has all of the required repositories in the image ready for you to consume. It might take a little longer to download, but might be worth the wait if you need something portable that can quickly load a private cloud.

This is version 1.0.x

Its important that you answer several questions before proceeding. You can find those questions in the SUSE Cloud 3 Deployment Guide

This Questionnaire will help you as a companion to the Deployment Guide. SUSE Cloud Questionnaire

This guide on using the appliance can help walk you through step by step. SUSE Cloud Admin Appliance Guide

- This version contains the GM version of SUSE Cloud 3
- Disabled IPv6 - Added motd (Message of the day) to reflect next steps
- Updated logos and wallpaper to align with product
- Updated init and firstboot process and alignment with YaST firstboot

Enjoy!

I was requested during the beginning of this year to give a crash course on C++ for the developers with C background in our company. A while back, sankar gave an introduction to go language using http://tour.golang.org/ . Fascinated by the interface of gotour, I wanted to give the C to C++ tour using a similar interface but needed it in a quick time.

I discussed it with sankar and he came up with https://github.com/psankar/kuvalai/. He masters in pulling people to learning something new So I quickly learnt a bit of Go and contributed to kuvalai. It was taking a while to get it done, so we discussed and decided to hack up the go-tour. Made it to work with c++!!

Readme.txt – explains howto apply the go tour patches and get it running.

All the programs and the article is now available at https://github.com/chenthillrulz/cpp-tour I wanted to put this up on webserver so that it can benefit others, esp. beginners to c++ and students. But since I don’t have any webspace at the moment, thats going to take time

It was really challenging to construct simple, connected, practical examples for demonstrating the features. I wanted this tour to go simply like a movie. I did not know that I would enjoy so much doing this stuff Got some happy, encouraging feedback from my peers after the training sessions. Perhaps I should thank my manager, Pradeep for persuading me to do this stuff. And my team, some of whom are still pushing me for the final session!!

Have conducted four sessions and the last one would cover advanced concepts such as traits, functors, template specialization, c++-11 features etc. The last session is taking time as I dont have practical experience on using traits, but still want to get some practical examples   Working on it!!

The descriptions in the doc. many require some polishing. It has about 42 sections at this point. And as always patches are welcome!!!

writing a blog after quite some time, refreshing