advanced-systemui (0.2.6)

• added a white color theme
• added two new gconf settings to switch color theme with the ambient light sensor
• fixed segfault caused by the 0.2.5 gconf code
• fixed segfault caused when governor list was queried twice

The 0.2.5 segfault was due to an uninitialized variable in the gconf code.

Switches to a white theme when ambient light exceeds 4000 lux and returns to black theme when it drops below 3000. Both values are configurable and the theme switching can be disabled by setting the white threshold to zero or to an unobtainable value. Automatic switching only occurs when on the main screen since the light sensor isn't polled on the others.

• threshold_black -- return to black theme when ambient light drops below this value
• threshold_white -- switch to white theme when ambient light exceeds this value

Set threshold_white to zero to disable black theme or set it to a billion to disable white theme.

I had the bad luck to first get around to trying this program when 0.2.5 was the available version, so it didn't work. But the 0.2.6 works fine, and I like it; I've uninstalled Advanced Power and Advanced Backlight. I'm using an N800 with the Community SSU. My comments:

- The ASUI window does not redraw itself after a notification (such as "Offline mode activated") is displayed.

- Zoom buttons controlling rotation is not good UI: it's unintuitive and easy to make a mistake, and the actual rotation of the ASUI interface is painfully slow. There are onscreen buttons for this purpose, use only them for that purpose. (The buttons are better used to control audio volume.)

- Rather than try to rotate the ASUI window on rotate, how about just closing the window? It's fast enough to re-open it, and typically I wouldn't expect the user to be changing that setting and doing something else?

- Don't bother displaying "0 lux" on N800, as there is no light meter. Similarly, I don't need a GPS status window, but obviously that's a big piece of the UI. Calendar & clock is nice but not necessary

- Add "MB" next to the size numbers in the service buttons; there's enough room and it would be much more understandable.

- It's unclear why shutting down Desktop services would ever be useful; a lot of real estate used here for minimal value.

- Having two wide buttons for each connectivity hardware piece seems wasteful of the interface real-estate. For WiFi, that space could be used for more detailed information display; maybe also for Bluetooth, but I don't have a BT device so I don't know. GPS is just On or Off, right? That feature could be compressed into a narrower space to make room for others.

- Use "WiFi", not "WIFI". On that indicator, rather than showing the GUID, can't you show the user-friendly name of the connection? Can you show the IP address? Signal strength?

- Can the SSH indicator show number of SSH connections?

- Can the process list be given a filter to hide stuff that normally nobody would care about? It's such a long list of items and most of them are unimportant.

- Besides wanting more steps to control brightness (a selectable step, like Advanced Backlight, would be best), what I really want is a Go Dark Now button. This would be useful for the following situations: (1) tablet is plugged in, system setting is "do not dim when plugged in", but I want the screen to go black anyway; (2) I am playing a game and so have set the delay period to a full two minutes (see below), but I want to pause the game and have the screen go dark without waiting for the two minutes to elapse.

- Better control over the dim/black-delay periods would be really nice. I envision allowing two or three selectable presets -- for instance, "normal" and "game", where "normal" is 45sec/60sec and "game" is 105sec/120sec (for the dim/black times). Then in the UI, I would just select the preset (similar to the CPU governor menu).

- A Mute button in addition to setting audio levels is desirable, otherwise I need the standard Audio status indicator turned on.

- I've not figured out if having a USB OTG setting, like Advanced Power does, is useful, but that might be a good feature for ASUI.

I hope at least some of these comments and ideas are useful. Looking forward to improved versions.

Thank you for the feedback.

Disabling widgets that use cpu, like the clock which is updated every 10 seconds, is one thing but getting rid of other widgets or decreasing their size is only important if there are new widgets to take their place, otherwise you have holes in the UI. Once all the major features are complete I will work on UI customization to disable widgets or change their size and placement.

Is this after you press the flight mode button in asui? The window should be redrawn 2 seconds after opening it with the power button if you changed flight mode from another app. I need to know more about the exact problem you are having.

I'll add a setting to allow them to be used for volume instead.

It gets slower when you have other windows open because each process must handle the rotation event and resize its window. It takes one second on my n810 with two other windows and no applets on the desktop.

Actual steps: rotate, open temporary window with rotation message, close asui window, reopen asui window, remap asui window and close temporary window. The close/open could be replaced with a resize command but I was originally closing the display as well to get the correct screen dimensions and now I'm just swapping the existing dimensions and haven't got around to switching the rest of the code over to not closing and reopening the window, which could be a lot faster and not require the temporary window that masks out the rotation process of windows below it.

I will also add a setting to eliminate the asui remap when using the on-screen rotation buttons to allow for quick rotations without the need to manually close asui afterwards.

I'll get rid of the lux on n800 so it doesn't waste cpu querying the sensor. The GPS services are probably needed for external bluetooth devices.

I often stop it so I can run more programs. It's also good to restart the desktop when it or its plugins are leaking memory or using a lot of cpu. Just a couple weeks ago someone on this forum was looking for an easy way to restart the desktop.

Bluetooth shows device name and number of connected devices. GPS will be on, off or connecting and display number of satelites.

I've been meaning to change to WiFi for quite some time now.

The GUID must be an n800 problem because it shows connection name on the n810. Added to bug list. Does it correctly show "connecting..." or "connected" in the widget?

Added signal strength and maybe IP address to the list.

Excellent idea!

This is a tough one. I could add a setting to hide the kernel threads since they consume no memory and it could only show them when they are consuming cpu (damn ksoftirq using 100% cpu and draining my battery!!). But most of the information you need is contained at the top of the first page and scrolling is only required to see the less important stuff that uses almost no ram and isn't running. Filtering out processes would increase the code and cpu usage for stuff that isn't even visible. What type of filtering would you suggest?

If you check the "lock screen and keys" option in the control panel then the lock button will lock and turn off the display immediately. This feature does not work when connected to the charger. It could be that "keep screen lit when charging" option and I could have asui uncheck it, blank the screen and recheck it when the screen is unlocked but messing around with the user's settings probably isn't a good idea.

Added to the list.

Isn't mute just zero volume?

Its already on the list.

I have an N810 and it shows the GUID, not the connection name.

Are you using saved connections or did you just connect to an access point?

It's a saved connection.

good little app-after switching on wifi a "shadow" remains that you cannot close---also any way to change colour of background and fonts

kugw

I wonder if the service start/stop buttons could get a (optional) confirmation query, just like the reboot and shutdown.

as for mute, yes it is very much like zero volume. But it is quicker to hit a single button to get it then try and get the slider to zero (and back to what the user had before).

And on the topic of using the zoom buttons, will it be possible to define a jump step? the combined brightness and volume applet is kinda nice there as it allows the user to set how much the sliders should jump when up/down (volume) and left/right (brightness) is pressed.

I'm not sure why my saved connection uses the name and yours uses the GUID.

Could you explain this in more detail along with any steps or info I could use to reproduce it?

You could use gconf-editor to set threshold_white to 0 for a white background theme. The white theme was designed to make it easier to read in sunlight and the light sensor on the n810 can be used to automatically change the theme. Other than that there is no way to set specific colors at this time.

Added to list.

Of course.

I'll probably use the menu button or dpad center button (does n800 have both of these?) to toggle focus on/off to navigate UI with dpad. When UI isn't focused the dpad up/down, left/right and zoom buttons can be assigned to brightness, volume and rotation. Each button group can be bound to one of those functions using a setting. Brightness and volume will have separate step values. Sound good?

yep, the n800 has them. the dpad is actually easier to access on the n800:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...frontside1.jpg