Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

A beta test of the next update of GPE for Maemo is available (for OS2008 users only at the moment). If you use GPE on Maemo Diablo or Chinook, please install this update and report any problems (preferably in bugzilla but, if not possible, as replies here) as this is the basis of the next update to be released as a stable release for the Maemo community.

Beta versions for bora and gregale will be available soon (I will announce their availability here). If no major problems are found, I expect to release the stable update in a few weeks. If you do not fancy beta testing please wait for the stable release.

Although the stable update will be made available in the Extras repository, this beta release is available in the "extras-devel" repositories. To see the update you should add a catalogue to the Application Manager as:

Catalogue name: extras-devel
Web address: http://repository.maemo.org/extras-devel
Distribution: your distribution name: gregale, bora, chinook or diablo
Components: free

Note: even if you already have this repository set up, it is essential that the Application Manager gets the latest list of packages. To force this, open up the repository entry as if you are going to change it but just click on OK. When you Close the Catalogue list the application manager will say it is "checking for updates".

After refreshing the package list and checking for updates, the application manager should offer to update whichever of the the GPE applications you have installed: gpe-calendar, gpe-contacts, gpe-filemanager, gpe-timesheet, gpe-todo, gpesummary, gpesyncd or starling. The version should be 2.8+maemo+svn20080720-1 or later. You may want to disable the extras-devel repository again after you have done the upgrade as it contains unreleased versions of many programs.

I recommend rebooting after installing the update. That will make sure the latest versions are running and is the only way to load the latest version of gpesummary.

It would be really useful to me if everyone who installs this beta test could just reply briefly here telling me they installed it, which OS they are using (diablo, chinook, bora or gregale), and which applications they have installed/upgraded.

This update is mainly bug fixes, although it includes the following new features:

o gpesummary (the homepage plugin) watches for alarms and starts gpe-calendar to handle displaying an alarm whenever one fires. This means that gpe-calendar no longer needs to be running for alarms to fire. This feature (and related changes and bugfixes to gpesummary) are most in need of testing.

o gpe-calendar no longer iconises when the close button is pressed. Instead it gives the user a choice of iconising or closing and the choice can be remembered for the future. The close option is most useful if you also use gpesummary so that it can open gpe-calendar when necessary to show alarms.

o Several translations have been improved or added.

Many bugs have been fixed. Notable bugfixes include:

o The crashes and other problems when switching to/from the agenda view when the sidebar is disabled have been fixed.

o gpesummary only runs once per minute, to avoid running the battery down

o Sidebar calendar works

o Several improvements in import and export to/from pe-calendar, gpe-todo and gpe-contact, including support for 8-bit characters, better support for recurring events and support of the birthday field in contacts

o Several bugs which could cause alarms to be repeated even after they have been acknowledged have been fixed. There may be a few unexpected repeats for the first 24 hours but this should be fixed after that. If anyone sees alarms still repeating after they have been acknowledged, please report the circumstances

Graham

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Hey Graham,

It's too bad the Sunday/Monday start patch didn't make it into this release. I think having it default as Monday and have people override it to Sunday if they wish is better than nothing. I unserstand wanting to default to the correct start day for the locale, but surely having the same default behaviour and an override is better than no option whatsoever.

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Thanks Graham, for this post and the news of an updated gpe-suite. I rely on these tools and appreciate your work on keeping them current.

Beta testing report: let's see...I am running Diablo; my version of gpe suite is 2.8+maemo+svn20080722-1

Apps I have installed: gpe-calendar, gpe-contacts, gpe-filemanager, gpe-timesheet, gpe-todo, gpesummary

A brief test revealed but one minor problem. In to-do, the "show:" box at the bottom was not 'showing' anything. Otherwise, all went well. I like the improvements to the calendar. No more crashes, thanks!

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

I've updated gpe calendar and summary.
activating the gpe summary applet, occasionally white screens my N810 and comes back with all my applets gone from my desktop.
Where can I post this bug?

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

I see the same thing, except it isn't "occasionally" for me, it's always. As a result, I've removed GPE Summary from my desktop.

More info here

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Thanks for the reports.

If possible, please use the the GPE bugzilla at http://bugs.linuxtogo.org/ to report bugs. However, if you don't want to use the bugzilla please add a reply here: I will be watching this thread for the time being.

DistantFire and antikx, thanks for your reports. I am sorry you are having problems: this is exactly the problem I was most worried about. I have done quite a lot of testing of the changes to gpesummary but the problem is if something goes wrong and gpesummary crashes, it takes the whole desktop environment with it (which then gets automatically restarted without any applets).

Unfortunately, debugging the problem is also hard and I may need to ask you to send me your database files. But before I do that, can I please ask you, and anyone else who sees this desktop crash, to try a few things:

1) Reboot the tablet and try again. I mean really reboot (e.g. by shutting down with no power connected or running the reboot command as root).

2) Check which version of libeventdb2 is installed. To do this, start an Xterm window and enter the command:
The correct version should be 2.8+maemo+svn20080722-1

3) Post the contents of the file /home/user/.gpesummary (which shows me the options you have enabled).

If I can't reproduce the problem I will contact you by PM.

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Beta testing report...I am running Diablo n810:

No issues of yet, everything is still running smoothly without any issues, which I was not having any previously. Here are the installed applications:

abiword
Advance backlight
Agps-ui
Bash2
camera
canola tuning
canola2
canola cleanup
countdown
Diablo kernel
easyroot
ermining
gnumeric
Gpe – cal
Gpe – sum
Gpe – todo
Gpe – contacts
Load-applet
maemodrac
map
mc
mediabox
mplayer
omweather
Openssh-client-server
Personal-menu
Python2.5 -all
skype
Statusbar-clock
Usb-otg-plugin
xournal

Do not install the other beta applications... (e.g., Abiword, gnumeric, mc and xournal). If one of those cause a problem how will you know if it was them or GPE....?

Graham said previously:

I do not recommend installing any of the other applications you find in the extras-devel repository as these are normally test versions of those applications. I also recommend disabling or removing the extras-devel repository after you have updated/installed the GPE applications so you do not get confused later.

Suggestion: add GPE to the name as there is/are other cal/contact, also an "about" choice...which gives the version, etc.

Keep up the excellent work...:D

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

FYI, the GPE summary update two days ago also 'crashed' and wiped my desktop and status bar icons. However the update yesterday seems to have fixed the problem and the summary is much better (it actually shows todo entries which the previous version didn't).

I see I have both your repository and Maemo Extras Devel in my catalogues - presumably the GPEsummary update was in one (or both) of those which is why I got the two sequential updates mentioned above. I will try the updates of the other apps and then disable the devel repo after install. Should I remove your repo as well?

Thanks Graham for this great suite of apps. I use them daily.

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

I think I know what happened, at least in DistantFire's case (although we are still working on it, to be sure). If you already had the extras-devel repository set up, the application manager may decide that it doesn't need to re-check the repository list of packages. If it last checked the repository after the buggy gpesummary package was created, but before the fixed package was created (about 24 hours I think) it might download the bad package and not realise there is a newer update.

A similar problem can happen to other packages: the application manager may just decide that there are no updates available!

So, if you want to install this beta release you need to force an update. The easiest way to do that is to open the extras-devel repository in the Catalogue list as if you were going to change it, but then just click on OK. The Application Manager will then re-download the list of packages.

In particular, before updating gpesummary, please check the version that is going to be installed. It should be 2.8+maemo+svn20080722-4 (or later). In particular, it should NOT be 2.8+maemo+svn20080722-1, which can cause crashes.

Graham

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

BINGO! Problem solved. It was a matter of updating the lib file as Graham has said. THANKS again Graham, not only for the very useful program, but for helping me get it back on my desktop again!

DF:)

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Ditto.

A simple check in the view menu works great. Making it based on locale sounds like too much effort. Set it once and forget it.

I can't go back to Monday.

Frank

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Ditto on my N810. But in the last few days, this problem occurred only once (a few hours ago), AFAIK. A core dump was generated (hildon-desktop crashed) but the backtrace didn't give any useful information (the stack was corrupt). I have:
(though I currently only use gpe-calendar and gpesummary) and the contents of .gpesummary are:

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Graham,

OK, I've updated the GPE apps and still have the alarm problem. Just now, at 12.19am three went off together. Two were from earlier today (for meetings) - don't remember what the third one was. There seems to be no correlation to set alarm times and activation. Sometimes they go off when programmed, sometimes not. But in either case they can also go off later (and usually after midnight!).

The GPE apps installed are
Calendar
Contacts
Filemanager
todo
Summary

I presume you were not asking for every installed app on the tablet.

I do like the new summary with todo's now showing.

If you need any more info just ask. Cheers!

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Thanks very much for the complete report. It shows that you are running the right version of gpesummary and libeventdb2. And nothing unusual in options (I have set mine to match to see if I can reproduce the problem at all).

I really need to reproduce the problem. If you see it again please take note of anything you think might be relevant. And, if it does crash again, please take a copy of your calendar and todo databases (in /home/user/.gpe) before starting gpesummary again (if gpe-calendar or gpe-todo are running, do not close them before copying the database files). If you do see it again I can send you a special version of gpesummary which writes logs to a file in /tmp.

Thanks for taking the time to report the problem, Derek, and I am very sorry it is waking you up in the middle of the night! Just to be clear, was gpe-calendar running at the time of the problem or was it started automatically by gpesummary? If gpe-calendar was running, is it possible that the time they went off was (some exact multiple of) 24 hours after you last started gpe-calendar?

I will contact you off-line to ask you to send me your calendar database, if you are willing.

Graham

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

I won't be "upgrading" until the week is able to be set to Sunday. Looking forward to that be integrated in the future.

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

That is up to you, of course. But this was intended to be mainly a bug fix release -- many people have been waiting quite a long time for the fix for spurious alarms. I do not want to delay getting that out.

On the other hand, I am looking into whether the Sunday patch can be included with minimal risk.

Graham

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Hope I'm not to far off topic. Is there a way just to disable alarms ?

Didjit

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

About alarms, I've noticed that when an alarm fires up, GPE neither switches on the screen, nor unlocks the keyboard, contrary to standard alarms. Could this be fixed?

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

played around a bit with the gpe file manager and found two issues.

1. no way to see .hidden dirs

2. it crashed when i tried to open aa sub-dir holding a long named dir with the directory browser turned off...

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

I Just discovered that GPE Calendar can import ics files. I didn't know that. Seems to synchronize to the extent that only new items are updated.
So my iCal calendar which shares format with Mozilla Sunbird on my pc laptop can also be shared on my n800.
This isn't truly synchronizing but certainly makes my life easer. ics export would be nice.
Thanks.

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Does Timesheet work with Diablo? I won't upgrade to Diablo without timesheet.

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

I have entered the enhancement request as bug 223.

I have entered this as bug 224.

Bug 225

Bug 226

There is no menu option (this is already reported as bug 202) but you can do this from the command line (i.e. Xterm):

By the way, 'gpe-calendar -h' will show all the command line options.

Yes. Although I don't use gpe-timesheet regularly I have tested it on Diablo.

Graham

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

oops, i should have read this forum post before opening some bug reports...

reason i posted them here in the first place was that i could not find the bugzilla for gpe for a while :(

tagged them as duplicates now, sorry about that.

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Graham,

This may already be common knowledge but some time after the update none of my alarms have gone off at their appointed time. I have also rebooted several times and there have been no spurious alarms after reboot.

Edit Silent alarm problem solved: Alarms continued not to sound so I did some testing. I had 'system sounds' set to 'off' in control pannel. After setting it to 'level 1' the alarms now sound! I thought I had set them to off originally (to conserve power I generally switch off all system type sounds) and that GPE overode this setting (or was controlled by some other setting) but I must have been wrong. My appologies for any confusion! Out of interest, could GPE calendar switch on system sounds automatically during an install or update?

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Hi Graham

Thanks for the updates - a couple of things I've noticed.

Using GPE Calendar:
When going fulls-screen there is sometimes screen distortion. You can remove this by going backwards / forwards in the month or year, but I'm hoping it would be a fairly simple fix. See the day names in the screenshot below.
http://www.screenshots.cc/images/723...8_16_46_18.png
This problem also occured in the previous versions.


Using GPE Todo:
The auto-refresh time of 1 minute is quite nice, but I've found if I'm doing anything with the database during that time I get a "database is locked" error message.
I was clearing out lots of previously completed / abandoned items the other day, and fortunately the whole process was a complete success, but it took approx 2.5 minutes, so I kept getting the error message. Any chance of GPE Summary checking whether the database is in use before trying to lock it for itself?

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

grumble, all i need now is some way to sync gpe using syncml...

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

If only SyncEvolution worked with GPE and contact sync was working..

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Guys, I can't get alarms working. Can someone help?
system sounds are on in Control Panel.

Nokia-N800-23-14:~# dpkg-query -W \*gpe\* libeventdb2

gpe-calendar 2.8+maemo+svn20080722-1
gpe-contacts 2.8+maemo+svn20080722-1
gpe-icons 2.8+maemo+svn20080114-2
gpe-todo 2.8+maemo+svn20080722-1
gpesummary 2.8+maemo+svn20080722-4
libeventdb2 2.8+maemo+svn20080722-1
libgpepimc0 2.8+maemo+svn20080722-1
libgpevtype0
libgpevtype1 2.8+maemo+svn20080722-1
libgpewidget1 2.8+maemo+svn20080722-1

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Your versions all look correct (ie: same as mine)

Two things to check:
1. Is you volume muted or very low?
2. Did you touch the checkbox on the alarm tab (far left box)

I have, by mistake, adjusted the 'before event' time and forgotten to enable the alarm!

Perhaps try a dummy alarm test and if it does not sound, check the system sound again and see if it has been switched off somehow.

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

1. Volume is max
2. it's checked

I tested alarms with gpe cal opened - works like a charm.

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Graham, a feature request:

Would it be possible to have the alarm switched off if it is sounding and the dismiss button is pressed?

If one hits dismiss instead of acknowledge when an alarm pops up, the alarm continues to sound and it takes several clicks to get back to the alarm to switch it off.

Thanks.

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

yep, that dismiss button is badly labled imo. i hit it, thinking that the alarm would shut up and go away. maybe it should be labeled ignore or something?

that, or allow me to set something a bit more discreet as an alarm sound. the current one sounds like i just broke into pentagon over the wifi or something...

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

I presumed that since this is a port, the actual words could not be changed but if it is possible how about these:

Alarm OFF (Instead of acknowledge)
Close Window (Instead of dismiss)

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

those could work, as for port or not, i would guess that a similar issue shows up when using the app along with the rest of the gpe pack.

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

The calendar runs OK, but it seems that it doesn't save it's settings. After each reboot it starts with the sidebar although I've deselected it from the view menu. It also asks if I want to iconize or shut down the program after pressing the X in the right upper corner although I've checked the box to remember my answer.

Using the calendar still takes patience. It takes 2-3 seconds to open any single day view and 5-15 seconds for a month view. This makes it impossible to quickly browse through the calendar.

It's a very nice improvement on the recurrence tab, having to first select the recurrence type before making other changes :)

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Bug 231.

Bug 232.

Actually I would go further: I am thinking that the alarm should stop sounding if the screen or any of the buttons are pressed while it is sounding.

Entered as bug 233.

I like Close Window but not Alarm Off (as it does not just turn it off, it acknowledges the alarm). In any case, entered as bug 234.

Hmm. It does sound like it is not saving its settings. I haven't heard this problem before.

The settings are saved in a file called ~/.gpe-calendar. Can you see if that file exists? If it exists, please try deleting it (rm ~/.gpe-calendar), start gpe-calendar again, and exit. See if the file has been created and, if so, take a look at its contents (cat ~/.gpe-calendar).

If the problem persists, we need to work out whether the file is not being created at all, whether its contents are wrong or whether it is being ignored on the next startup.

Do you know roughly how many calendar entries you have? If not, you can get an approximate idea by installing gpesyncd and typing:

echo uidlist vevent | gpesyncd | wc -l

There are already some bugs suggesting performance improvements but it would be useful to know how many events are causing your slowdown.

Graham

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Graham, could you help with my problem, no alarms at all?
I tried to strace it but not sure what process to trace (checked hildon-desktop process), no luck...

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

MirteX, can you please explain in more detail what problem you are seeing?

I assumed this meant it was now working for you. What is not working?

Graham

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

I deleted the file, booted and now things seem to work OK. Thanks for help! :)

I have 3673 events.

Re: Beta test of Maemo GPE update
 

Graham, they do work if gpe-cal is open. No alarms, though, with gpesummary applet. That's the problem.