2004.07_Projects-Free Software and Its Makers.pdf

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Free Software Projects

Projects on the Move

Free software covers such a diverse

Multimedia Cards (MMC) hot on its

heels. However, many card readers

do not support Sony memory sticks.

Linux handles both USB card

readers and USB memory sticks as if

they were SCSI hard disks. Ensure

that the usb-storage kernel module

is installed, if you want to access a

card or stick. Any laptop users can

opt for special PCMCIA adapters for

CF, SD, and MMC. Again they are

accessed just like a SCSI hard disk.

If you do not feel like buying a card

reader, you could even use a MP3

player or a PDA with a card slot.

range of utilities, applications and

other assorted projects, that it can

be hard to find the perfect tool

from all that programming effort.

BY MARTIN LOSCHWITZ

so rapidly, you occasionally need

a little help to make your choice

of what to use. We pick the best of the

bunch for you: Linux and digital cam-

eras, 54 Mbit WLAN cards, the Debian

non-free referendum, trouble with

Debian’s Gnome packages, and Martin

Michlmayr’s re-election.

At the end of March, the Gimp project

finally released the long awaited version

2.0 of the Gimp graphics package.

Besides an enhanced GUI, which now

uses the GTK 2 toolkit, there have been a

number of changes under the hood. The

developers have added functionality and

improved the existing tools. For example,

you can now use the text tool to edit

existing text. This is a function from the

top of the Gimp 1 users’ wish list.

Besides the program, the Gimp website

[1] has also been revamped. Let’s now

move on to a related topic: digital pho-

tography.

Protocols for Digital

Cameras

Attaching the digital camera directly to

the computer is still the best solution. It

saves investing in extra equipment, and

removes the need to continually remove

and replace the memory card. Standard

protocols handle the communication

between the camera and the computer.

Software applications can use a standard

protocol to access arbitrary camera

types. Software configuration tasks can

be automated, making life easy for inex-

perienced users.

Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) is a

widespread protocol for exchanging data

between cameras and computers. For

more information on free software with

PTP support, surf to [2]. The gPhoto 2

[3] program suite is just one Linux pro-

gram that speaks PTP. Even if your

camera does not understand PTP, you

may still come to appreciate the gPhoto 2

tool, as it natively supports hundreds of

camera models. The suite is organized in

two parts, the library and the Command

Line Interface (CLI). The library provides

the commands required to support com-

munications with various cameras. The

CLI, which goes by the name of gphoto2 ,

is responsible for auto detecting attached

digital cameras, and handles tasks such

as copying of images to disk.

However, gPhoto 2 will probably not

keep users happy on its own. End-users

Digital Cameras on Linux

Buying a new digital camera typically

means shooting a lot more photos than

previously. Programs such as Digikam or

Gtkam help users organize the image

collections. Before that can happen, your

camera may need some help to get it

talking to your Linux machine. That can

be tricky.

Of course, there are libraries, tools, and

even protocols designed to solve this

problem. Almost all modern digital cam-

eras, no matter what make or model, can

be accessed from a Linux

machine, typically using

a USB connection. How-

ever, if your camera ab-

solutely refuses to talk to

Linux, you can still opt

for a workaround via the

chip card. USB card read-

ers cost about £10, $20,

15EUR, and they typical-

ly support various card

formats. Compact Flash

(CF) is probably the best

known of these, with

Secure Digital (SD), and

Figure 1: The KDE program Digikam helps users to archive and man-

age images from digital cameras. The main window shows the

albums on the left, and thumbnails on the right.

July 2004

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An up-to-date overview of free software and its makers

A s the range of projects increases

Free Software Projects

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Figure 2: Gtkam, a front-end for the gPhoto 2 suite. The program allows easy

access to the images on a digital camera, although the GUI is somewhat

spartan.

Figure 3: 54 Mbit WLAN cards like this SMC2835W with a Prism chipset are

quite widespread nowadays, and not much more expensive than their 11

Mbit predecessors. Thanks to Mad Wifi and Prism 54 most of them now work

on Linux.

typically need a program with a comfort-

able GUI that allows them to perform

simple tasks, such as archiving or print-

ing images. Again, there are a few

ready-made solutions: Gtkam [4] is one

of them. This program is GTK 2-based

and does not have a particularly thrilling

GUI; but it is functional and simple to

use. It supports viewing and organizing

images. See Figure 2.

The KDE camp also has a GUI for

gPhoto 2: Digikam [5]. It includes two

programs, the GUI, and the digikamcam-

eraclient application, which handles

communication between the GUI and

gPhoto 2. The KDE program is visually

superior to Gtkam, although the basic

functionality is the same. The best thing

about Digikam is its ability to load plug-

ins, and thus add more functionality. It

comes complete with a sizable collection

of plug-ins.

Getting Linux to talk to your digital

camera should be no problem. Thanks to

gPhoto 2, support is available for most

common cameras – the gPhoto 2 website

refers to more than 400 supported mod-

els. Linux includes the new PTP protocol

standard, and as a final resort, you can

always install a memory card reader.

Gtkam and Digikam are both practical

GUIs for attaching cameras to comput-

ers. It only remains to be hoped that

camera manufacturers will adopt PTP for

new models thus removing the issue of

heterogenic protocol landscape.

their ticket machines. Linux supports 11

Mbit cards quite well. Many cards can

use the Orinoco drivers, which have

established themselves as core Linux

components. You can even set up WLAN

hardware with the Prism 2.5 or Prism 3

chipsets as an access point, thanks to the

Host AP driver.

Unfortunately, 11 Mbit WLAN (IEEE

802.11b) does have a legacy feeling to it.

Speeds of more than 700 KBytes per sec-

ond are impossible, even in ideal

conditions. Enter 802.11g, the successor

that promises higher speeds, with a

throughput of up to 54 Mbit in theory. 54

Mbit cards with Windows drivers spread

like wildfire, while Linux users bided

their time. There were no drivers avail-

able for common chipsets, such as those

by Atheros and Prism.

PCMCIA) and with any current distribu-

tion without any major issues. Many

distributions include the driver as a

matter of course. The Knoppix Linux

Live distribution auto detects cards with

supported chipsets and loads the appro-

priate driver. If you want to install the

driver manually, you need a current 2.4

or 2.6 series kernel.

The second project, which aims to

establish 802.11g for Linux, is called

Prism 54 [7]. As the name suggests, the

developers are working on drivers for

cards with Prism chipsets, such as

Indigo, Duette, and GT. The Prism 54

code is completely free, and Linus Tor-

valds recently admitted it into the official

2.6 kernel tree. Although the driver is

completely free, it does need to hotplug

proprietary firmware on the card. So

users actually get a wolf in sheep’s cloth-

ing. The driver may be free, but it needs

proprietary firmware to run.

Linux can handle 54 Mbit WLAN cards

quite well, thanks to Mad Wifi and Prism

54. Both projects suffer from the issue of

having a free driver that ultimately

depends on non-free binary code. If you

consider this to be a philosophical rather

than technical issue, either driver might

suit your needs.

Two (almost) Free Drivers

Tw o projects were quickly launched to

start programming the required drivers.

One of them was named Multiband Ath-

eros Driver for Wifi, a.k.a Mad Wifi [6].

Its aim is to write a driver for the Atheros

chipset. Although this goal has now

been achieved, the driver is non-free.

Instead, it depends on a binary module

that handles hardware communication.

The programmers defended this design

by referring to the US Federal Communi-

cations Commission (FCC) rules. The

commission stipulates that software

should not allow users to perform illegal

activities with the hardware. What that

translates to is that a free driver would

allow users to use the WLAN card to

transmit on reserved frequencies.

The Mad Wifi driver should work with

any supported chipset (PCI, USB, or

Referendum for Non-Free

In the recent referendum on the future of

non-free, the Debian project decided to

keep the section with a surprisingly large

majority. It is interesting to note that the

proposal to remove non-free from the

project was unable to raise even a simple

majority among Debian developers.

A large number of developers voted to

continue the debate on the proposals

Fast WLAN with Linux

Wireless LAN is here to stay. Not only

home users and hotspot providers use

wireless technologies, some public trans-

port companies use WLAN to coordinate

www.linux-magazine.com

July 2004

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Free Software Projects

that had been submitted. Each option

would have needed a three-quarter

majority to be adopted. The decision to

retain non-free is a hard blow for devel-

opers who made public appeals in

support of removing non-free. External

observers and developers both see the

decision as a clear stance in favor of the

goal of user-friendliness within the

Debian distribution.

get a short message that reads as fol-

lows: “You have to read all my

Debian.changelog.gz entries in the right

order, to understand what I wrote.

Gnome sucks more and more. I’m leav-

ing you all my Gnome packages. This

will certainly make some people happy.”

While many developers failed to

understand this move, the members of

the Gnome Maintainer group were

relieved. It remains to be seen whether

the group, which has taken over the

maintainership of the Gnome packages,

will take better care of the packages and

user concerns. One thing is for sure,

Christian Marillat is unlikely to disap-

pear without a trace. Many users will be

familiar with his MPlayer package,

which he released for Debian

GNU/Linux some time back.

Debian and keeping in touch with the

developers. Martin Michlmayr also tack-

led internal issues affecting the Debian

project, such as expanding the security

team. The developers reciprocated by

electing Martin for a second term of

office.

There were a few critical comments

after the results were announced. Exter-

nal observers commented that reforms

necessary to the well-being of the Debian

project had not materialized. It remains

to be seen whether Martin will respond

to this kind of criticism in his forthcom-

ing term of office. The data and facts on

the DPL election 2004 are available on

the election website at [11] and in the

form of an email posted by the Project

Secretary, Manoj Srivastava, to the

debian-devel-announce mailing list [12].

Finally, the usual request before we

go: If you can recommend a program

that you would like to see featured in

Projects on the Move, why not mail me

with your suggestion [13]? I look for-

ward to your comments!

Trouble with GNOME

Up to a few weeks ago, the Debian

Gnome desktop packages were firmly in

the hands of Christian Marillat, who

maintained the whole desktop program

collection. His role as the Gnome main-

tainer was the subject of some debate,

however. According to some developers,

Christian showed little understanding of

bug reports, and this led to jibes in mail-

ing lists and via IRC.

The trouble reached its first climax

when a number of developers who

opposed Christian’s Gnome maintainer-

ship formed the Gnome Maintainer

group. At first, they seemed to be con-

tent with a few packages that Christian

Marillat had dropped due to a lack of

interest. These were primarily Gnome

add-on packages, whereas the core desk-

top stayed with Christian.

The trouble, and the veiled attacks

on Christian continued. By the end

of March, he had had enough, and

announced that he would be opening

up all the Gnome packages. The way

Christian did this caused quite a

stir. Christian failed to adhere completely

to the official guidelines for releasing

package maintainership. The rules state

that a maintainer wanting to drop

a package with immediate effect should

upload a new version of the package

to the repository. The version has

to include the name and email address

of the Debian QA (Quality Assurance)

Team. The changelog has to include

a short note on the change of main-

tainer.

Martin Michlmayr Re-Elected

The Debian Project Leader Election

2004, which closed at midnight on April

11, 2004, sees Martin Michlmayr again

triumphant and at the helm of the

Debian project for another year as the

DPL. The election results were surpris-

ingly clear. Of a total of 482 votes cast (a

turnout of approx. 53 percent), 278 were

in favor of Michlmayr. In contrast, the

2003 election was a neck to neck race

between Michlmayr and his opponent

Branden Robinson. Branden Robinson

again ran for DPL, as he has done for the

last three years, and again came in sec-

ond, just like in 2003. The third

candidate, Gergely Nagy, came in last

behind the “None of the above” option.

That is not surprising, as he had made it

clear from the outset that his candidature

was not meant to be taken seriously, and

that he did not want anyone to vote for

him as Debian Project Leader.

The election result can be seen as an

expression of the developers’ apprecia-

tion for the work that Martin Michlmayr

put in during his first term of office. With

his “am DPL, will travel” approach, Mar-

tin took part in almost every developer

conference last year, holding talks on

■

INFO

[1] Gimp: http://www.gimp.org/

[2] Free software for PTP:

http://ptp.sourceforge.net/

[3] gPhoto 2: http://www.gphoto.org/

[4] Gtkam:

http://www.gphoto.org/proj/gtkam/

[5] Digikam: http://digikam.sourceforge.net/

[6] Mad Wifi: Questions and answers:

http://www.mattfoster.clara.co.uk/

madwifi-faq.htm

[7] Prism 54: http://www.prism54.org/

[8] Debian Installer: http://www.debian.org/

devel/debian-installer/

[9] Anthony Towns’ release plan:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-

announce/2003/debian-devel-

announce-200308/msg00010.html

[10] Colin Watson’s release plan:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-

announce/2004/debian-devel-

announce-200403/msg00026.html

[11] DPL Election 2004: http://www.debian.

org/vote/2004/vote_001

[12] Email posted by the project secretary:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-

announce/2004/debian-devel-

announce-200404/msg00008.html

[13] Tips and suggestions:

projects@linux-magazine.com

Unfriendly Goodbyes

The changelog entry that Chistian added

was not a notice to this effect, but a com-

ment. The Gnome environment is spread

across multiple smaller packages on

Debian. If you take all the comments

from Christian’s changelog entries, you

Martin Loschwitz is from a small Ger-

man town called Niederkrüchten and

a developer for Debian GNU/Linux.

Martin’s leisure time is mainly pre-

occupied with activities in the Debian

or GNU community.

July 2004

www.linux-magazine.com

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