kernel and gcc and python, oh my!

Desktop Tricks Tips Tools

The stupid Windoze gaming sirens had me out of linux for a bit on my desktop. Back with a vengeance, and a huge emerge world. Hours of fun! The nice thing is I’ve gotten into gentoo enough that I no longer feel the need to document every massive emerge. For the most part, just keep using these strategies until it works itself out – while keeping your brain engaged of course:

  • emerge -DavuN @world
  • emerge -DavuN –with-bdeps=y @world
  • emerge -DavuN @world –autounmask-write
  • emerge –resume –skipfirst
  • emerge –unmerge (i unmerge the SHIT out of all conflicting non-world packages! keep it clean! :O)
  • emerge -1v (anything that’s missing!)
  • gcc-config (as early as possible)
  • eselect (boost|java-vm|php|python|etc….)
  • use eix and equery to answer any package questions
  • get the latest gentoo-sources and configure that kernel!
  • don’t forget to emerge nvidia-drivers or any other kernel-specific package
  • google for help – gentoo support information is AMAZING
  • dispatch-config
  • emerge -av –depclean
  • revdep-rebuild
  • lafilefixer –justfixit
  • python-updater
  • perl-cleaner –all
  • targeted rebuild, for those nasty upgrades: revdep-rebuild –library libpng14.so.14
  • find broken autotools stuff: find /usr/ -name ‘*.la’ -exec grep png14 -c {} +|grep \:1
  • rinse and repeat!

I had a few new wrinkles…

  • considered emerging gnome-base/gnome (new) to get GNOME 3 but it is soft-masked and who knows how much trouble would follow
  • stupid libpng upgrades always cause everyone all kinds of headaches – see this awesome post
    • revdep-rebuild --library '/usr/lib64/libpng14.so.14' -- --keep-going</li>
emerge -1av --keep-going $(find /usr \( -name "*.la" -o -name "*.pc" -o -name "*-config" -o -name "*.pm" \) -exec grep -H png14 {} \; | cut -d : -f 1 | xargs qfile -CSq | sort | uniq)
  • removed nsplugin USE flag from picasa and acroread since it thought that firefox (not firefox-bin) was a requirement, stooopid things
  • Qt needed a bump, which should happen all at once, which is impossible :-)
  • of course i had to add a FEW more bells and whistles!
  • emerge -DavuN xfce4-meta xfce4-verve-plugin xfce4-mixer xfce4-taskmanager xfwm4-themes thunar thunar-volman tumbler thunar-archive-plugin google-chrome
  • etc

Comments | Friday, September 7, 2012    [ * * * * ]

Designing cross-cross-platform code

C++ HangTheDJ iPhone

I’m using the cross-platform Qt C++ library to write an app for linux, OS X, and Windows. Qt source can be compiled to a wide range of systems and devices, with two obvious omissions that are not likely to be filled any time soon: iPhone and Android. I know I am going to need client code on these devices, and I know that the client code is going to be extremely similar to the Qt client code. How do you design for this?

Applying the concept of separation of concerns, you design your classes into layers. The base layer consists of high level concept classes that perform all fundamental actions using generic data types. Then, the derived layer is used to get the job done, using the most useful and powerful lower level tools at your disposal. Push everything you can into the base layer, until you hit the limit of non-portable information and data types. It’s a beautiful way to code.

To be more specific, in my case, the base class layer will be using C++, including the STL, which gives me tons of power. I will pull in boost if even more horsepower is needed. The derived class layer for the first round of clients will be Qt-powered. The Qt library has a massive amount of real-world usefulness, supporting everything from http to video playback. I have not gotten to the iPhone and Android clients yet so the whole concept may change, but here’s my current plan. The iPhone code will be Objective C with the C++ base class layer linked in. I will attempt to incorporate the C++ base class layer into the Android code using the NDK.

Here’s a quick example of the layer approach, in this case used to quickly set up profiling using Qt’s QTime class at the lower level: (continued…)

Comments (6) | Wednesday, July 13, 2011    [ * * * * * ]

The latest boost tweaks

Chatter Linux Projects Projects Windows

I’m updating my boost installations to latest CVS, here are a couple quick notes. In addition, instead of having blog chatter all over the place, I’ll consolidate my boost installation notes onto my wiki, see here. (continued…)

Comments | Tuesday, January 2, 2007    [ ]