March 02, 2009 at 08:04 PM | categories:
FOSSwire, Oratos, Programming, Planet Ubuntu, Xeiso
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Never make a change to a production site, because a typo will kill you.
I was trying to make a minor change to FOSSwire, missed a comma, and boom!
Sidenote: I'm still working on Xeiso, and will continue to develop it a lot more now that FOSSwire 3 is live. I'm currently working on a Clutter branch backed by dbus, and it's been working very well. If it all works out, there might be a release of it this month.
September 29, 2008 at 09:28 PM | categories:
Xeiso, Planet Ubuntu
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Well, it's been more than a month since I last posted about Xeiso, so I figure I have an excuse to annoy all of Planet Ubuntu and subscribers.
A day after I posted the last Xeiso-related entry here, I got some junk packages published. Those junk packages eventually were polished up into a state I now think is bearable. And now, I present a belated makeshift release simply dubbed: "Moar." "Moar" is a milestone in which I actually feel happy with regarding web services integration (currently called the "Download" menu). No longer is there a simple text interface to download games, but images and requirements to go along with it, along with update checking.
If you installed Xeiso and haven't updated it since my last post (how dare you) then be sure to wipe your ~/.xeiso directory; it isn't compatible. Yes, I just broke backwards-compatibility. Being 0.1 gives me the right to do that. :)
If you haven't installed Xeiso yet and want to give it a shot, don't install the Python way. If you do, you will end up with a bunch of conflicting files if you ever try to install the packaged version. Save yourself some time and just use the PPA. I promise, if I make some commit to Bazaar that has some awesome new feature, it'll be on the PPA within a day.
On a related note, the CD build is making progress. Here's an older video of it running in VirtualBox:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up8ywfi8K3U
Yes, the demo game is supposed to crash. It doesn't exist. But believe me, a lot has changed since that revision. If you're interested in building a disk for yourself, see this page. Some of the packaging used to build the CD environment is in the branch as well. I probably sealed my fate of ever becoming a package maintainer by breaking probably every Debian packaging law known to man, woman, and lolcat, but it gets the job done for the disk. But don't install the package included in that branch unless you want your system to meet certain destruction.
The release name is "Moar." So what next? Aside from the obvious better CD integration, there's a lot of work to be done. The sound system hasn't even been started; no Python library has been working out too well for me yet. Then there is Xeiso Connect, the online services component. Ask me about that if you are daring. And of course, packaging. What would a game system be without games? The package format recently changed to make it all even easier. Documentation isn't complete, but it's coming. In the meantime, feel free to drop by #xeiso on freenode or shoot me an email if you want to learn some packaging basics.
As always, I'm open to suggestions, rants, raves, nitpicks, and the rest, but keep it constructive. Leave a comment or use one of the contact methods above.
August 15, 2008 at 05:08 PM | categories:
Xeiso, Planet Ubuntu
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A few weeks ago, Xeiso 0.1 was published on Launchpad with a tarball to download. It was a pretty quiet release; I had only published it because a few people were demanding a tar.gz to download instead of branching from Bazaar. It's rather primitive compared to the current revision of Xeiso, but it supports almost the whole spec of XPK. You can get it on Launchpad, but I recommend that you keep reading to get a much more updated version.
I finally got Istanbul working right in addition to learning Cinelerra last night, so I figured I should at least get some demo footage out there. Check it out on YouTube. As of writing, that is the latest revision.
The biggest feature showcased in that video is the ability to download Xeiso packages, .xpk files. If Xeiso is installed with python setup.py install, then a MIME association is automatically added to open these files with Xeiso to install. By default they are installed to ~/.xeiso/xpk, but can also be loaded from /usr/share/xeiso/xpk for a system-wide setup.
The downloading interface is basic: it shows a package name and description, and then downloads the package to install it. A lot more will come out of that feature in the near future.
The web side of things has also been greatly improved. Xeiso.com has plenty of new documentation to have a look at. Currently under development is a web interface to game downloads in Xeiso, which will probably surface early next week.
Also on Xeiso.com is some new packaging documentation. It's not complete, but it's available if you want to have a stab at it.
The Live CD portion of the project has not been started. I've been holding it off to develop as a part of my class project for the year, so the pace will pick up very soon. But another reason for the delay is that I'm also trying to make Xeiso easily installable on already-running Linux machines. With the local installation will be a separate series of Xeiso "require-local" packages that don't contain the game themselves, but call the game if it is already installed on the user's system.
That said, while there will eventually be a Xeiso PPA, I do not want Xeiso to be in Intrepid. The project is still being constantly updated, and is not currently supported. If anyone manages to get it into 8.10, expect plenty of SRU bugs to be shoved down your throat. Daily. :)
Edit: PPA ready.
And finally: Revision 39 marks the beginning of more open development. Starting now, I will be accepting patches, merge requests, bugs, and blueprints, all of which can be done on Launchpad. There is currently an open blueprint for sound in Xeiso: while it is supported, Xeiso remains mostly quiet. Boring.
If you are interested in heavy development of Xeiso, start out by branching and making merge requests on Launchpad. There is no official development team (~xeiso is just used on Launchpad for friendly URLs at the moment) but one can be made when necessary. If you need specific help, mail me (my first name at xeiso.com) or visit #xeiso on freenode.
July 03, 2008 at 07:30 PM | categories:
Xeiso, Planet Ubuntu
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I'm too tired to write a clever opening for this post. There. Now that that's out of the way, let me introduce Xeiso.
Xeiso is:
- A game console.
- An operating system.
- A bootable LiveCD.
- An intuitive interface.
- Open source.
Time to elaborate: it will be an Ubuntu-based system with a custom interface with the goal of making a fast-booting, open game console. I've been researching solutions for a few months now, and have been testing out various languages and methods, from C++/SDL, to Python/Pygame, and back to C++/OpenGL. But now I think I've finally found a compatible, fast development and fast running framework for the user interface: Python and Pyglet. Hey, if it can run an OpenGL ortho projection on a 1680x1050 screen at 60fps with minimal CPU usage, it's good enough for anything.
I'll stop blabbing for a few minutes while you watch this video:
Xeiso Early Tech Demo
That's the basic interface. Keep in mind that that demo is relatively old; the current revision is varied quite a bit. But that's the gist of how it runs: everything, from games to controller options, is configured and controlled via this "slider" interface. It's intuitively simple: if an arrow appears on the screen, you can press that arrow on the keyboard to go there. Allows for blind and quick motions. Like it? Cool. Hate it? Great. Suggest an improvement on Launchpad or in the comments.
A lot of the meat is under the screen - there is a rather extensible packaging system that allows for anything to be run from Xeiso. In the latest revision (17) there is a basic Neverball package, though currently Neverball must first be installed. "Hey - if this is to be an APT-based distro/system, why not use dpkg?" Good question. Because in the future I'm hoping to support downloadable content - and remember we're looking for a fast-booting system - "xpackages" are being used. It's basically a tarball and module system, meaning that packages can be dynamically loaded into memory at boot from an external device without much delay.
Some planned features:
- LiveCD:
- Fast booting: "Boot to X in 10 seconds or less." Likely? Not for a while.
- Ability to use the host HDD or an external device as a "memory card" to store game save data, additional XPackages, boot configuration, etc.
- Automated CD build system (near completion)
- Install to system w/ GRUB
- Partial install: Copy most of the files to the host device, and chainload it from the CD to speed up boot
- XPackage:
- Ability for banners, small animations that load on a preview screen (almost done)
- Content distribution system for downloading games (still researching)
- Patched games to support a freeze menu to reset, configure controllers, etc. (designing)
- Controllers:
- Mouse/Keyboard, Wii remote, Joystick
- Key customization
- Multiple players
Working code is available on Launchpad. It's still under heavy development, so if you make a feature branch expect it to be 99% incompatible within a day. I'm not currently looking for any main developers - as I said it is being worked on at a fast pace and things can't easily be coordinated. (I'm having trouble keeping up with my own documentation!)
In the future, though, I'll be looking for:
- Packagers - work with XPackages and patch games.
- Graphic artist - I'm not too creative.
- Someone good with audio. Can't have a game console without sound! Mostly creating/finding tracks/sound effects for the UI.
Again - don't contact me about getting involved with development yet - you will be able to soon.
I was trying to make a minor change to FOSSwire, missed a comma, and boom!
Sidenote: I'm still working on Xeiso, and will continue to develop it a lot more now that FOSSwire 3 is live. I'm currently working on a Clutter branch backed by dbus, and it's been working very well. If it all works out, there might be a release of it this month.
