( KGRUBEditor != Application ) && ( KGRUBEditor == KCModule )

If you evaluated the title's expression yesterday, you would receive false. Today, however, this would return true. :-O

Roughly a day after the release of version 0.8, I took some decisions about KGRUBEditor and right now you are reading about the results. But let's shed some light onto KGRUBEditor's past:

Ever since QGRUBEditor received a port from the Qt4 libraries to KDE4, I had often requests to integrate it into KDE's System Settings (formerly known as KControl) and indeed that was where it should be. However there was a major hindrance which prevented me from doing so: users from other DEs(=Desktop Enviroments - mainly GNOME users). Since there is no notable GTK counterpart for KGRUBEditor, the solution should fit all DEs.

As you may know, System Settings is installed with the kdebase4 package which contains the most basic KDE setup. However, not all users would like to install KDE just for a small utility. So developing KGRUBEditor as a KCModule was rejected. Instead, I decided to keep developing KGRUBEditor as a stand-alone application (which only requires kdebase-runtime) and on every release I would "convert" the application into a KCModule and publish both.

The disadvantage of this approach is that it takes quite some time and effort to do this conversion. Hopefully, it was only yesterday that I found out that I *could* actually develop KGRUBEditor as a KCModule and all users would be happy. This is due to (what else?) the "KDE magic".

Using the kcmshell executable (installed with kdebase-runtime), you may run a KCModule as a "stand-alone" application. I quoted stand-alone because you don't really get a stand-alone application. Actually you get a module which is not "docked" in System Settings and resembles a stand-alone application (located in the menu).

So I went on and did the conversion, and you may now all enjoy the result:

1. KDE users will prefer the KCModule:


2: GNOMies (and others) might prefer the "application":


Actually both "versions" are the same KCModule. But the second one doesn't require System Settings to run ;-)

Just for this, I released a new version (0.8.1) which contains just some small fixes over 0.8 and of course in the tarball you will no longer find an application but a KCModule :-)

Instructions on how to install only the KCModule or the "application" can be found in the INSTALL file in the tarball or at www.kde-apps.org

New KGRUBEditor version: 0.8 (Visual Changelog)

Yes, yes you read it right: KGRUBEditor 0.8 is officially ready.

Took me quite some months :-) but I finally made it. As always, I have prepared a contains-only-the-half-features changelog:

v.0.8
-----
*ADDED: Created a new SystemSettings module out of KGRUBEditor.
*ADDED: A more user-friendly approach to selecting the default entry.
*ADDED: A quick entry editor (along with the full-blown Assistant).
*ADDED: Support for monitoring splash images/gfxmenus.
*ADDED: A smarter way to detect splash images.
*ADDED: Introduced an entry preview widget.
*ADDED: A new Tools page.
*FIXED: A totally remade Entries page.
*FIXED: AutoMagic support is now even better.
*FIXED: The application no longer needs to be run as root.
*FIXED: Better handling of paths (they are always converted to GRUB-compatible).
*FIXED: Many other bugs/fixes/corrections.
*REMOVED: A fallback control. Fallback is still detected but not shown to the user.

As promised, half the real features added are not present in the changelog, but don't worry. I'll try to compensate with 10+1 screenshots :-) Enjoy:

1: This is what you get when you launch KGRUBEditor:
2: This is my GRUB OS List (quad-booting ftw ;)
3: I clicked "Show Details" for my Kubuntu entry:
4: The new Quick Editor:
5: The General tab is actually poor in options (since I moved them elsewhere):
6: The Password tab wasn't modified at all (it will, though, in the future):
7: The Background tab was heavily enhanced. Just take a look at the changelog. Prettier GRUB for everyone, please :)
8: And the preview feature, which I really love:
9: Next up the Color preview:
10: Some dummy maps:
11: Finally: the brand-new Tools page:

I am kinda bored with Blogger's image uploading feature, so no more blogging for the time being.

PS: I almost forgot to inform you about the System Settings module :| Don't worry about not being available right now. It will be available in 1-2 days. Just check KGRUBEditor's home page at kde-apps.org.

Background Stuff

Welcome everybody to "Yet another Blog Post" or maybe "Yet another KGRUBEditor Post" (YaKP doesn't sound that awful - at least I can pronounce it :-). This is just another update of what I have been working on recently, which is officially Background (TM) stuff.

To make a long story short, what I had been focusing on the last week, is improvements in the Background Settings tab of KGRUBEditor. I had to go through loads of API and source code reading (guys behind ThreadWeaver and KDirWatch, you rock) but at last I made it.

I have prepared a 22MB video (full quality link: http://rapidshare.com/files/133574001/out.ogv.html ) which shows some of the (obvious) changes in the Background Settings tab. No embedded video is provided because full quality is required in order to see all the details.

Although I don't remember all the changes I did, I provide a small "changelog" with the most changes (duh, I should *always* keep a changelog):

* KGRUBEditor got the ability to monitor folders for splash images. If a splash image is created in a monitored folder or is deleted, the splash preview widget is immediately updated. By default only /boot/grub/splashimages is monitored.
* KGRUBEditor got the ability to gain root permissions in root-owned splash folders while being in simple user "mode". Reading and writing to them won't be a problem any more, provided that you enter your password.
* When the user manually edits the splash image line edit widget or selects a splash image using the file dialog, the following happen:

1. The path is automatically turned into GRUB-compatible (GRUB doesn't understand e.g. /media/kubuntu/boot/grub/splashimages/wolf.xpm.gz - instead it should be converted to (hd0,0)/boot/grub/splashimages/wolf.xpm.gz - and this is automatically done by KGRUBEditor)
2. The splash image is from now on monitored. Other splash images in the same directory are monitored, too.

* The same apply when the user creates a new splash image from a common image file (e.g. .jpg, .png, .xpm etc).
* If an invalid file is specified, no splash image is used (you get an error message).
* Finally, the whole procedure is now threaded which means that if you have many splash images, uncompressing and creating a preview thumbnail for all of them will no longer freeze the application.

I am sure I miss a lot of things, but these must be enough information for the end-user. The good news is that the Background section works flawlessly (at least for me). It certainly has reached release quality along with everything else except for these:

• Password Assistant.
• GRUB Installation Tool
• GRUB Backup Management

Once I fix these and create a SystemSettings module I will release KGRUBEditor 0.8. Hopefully that will be in about a month.

Latest UI Changes

It seems like ages since my last post but it's merely 2 months.

The exams are hopefully finished (I went pretty well by the way) and after some short "relaxation time" I am back to developing. So, what's new?

Thanks to seele who has provided me with useful advices and above all a second UI review ( http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/1532474_yljc1/KGRUBEditorReviewJune22.odp ) I have done quite some progress. Still, lots have still to be done (mostly internal stuff, which although tiring, I enjoy them the most).

The changes are not many so a single screenshot can illustrate them all:















As you can see the toolbars and the menubar are both gone. Since the application will be turned into a SystemSettings (which cannot have toolbars or menubars) all the functionality which was previously found on the toolbars and/or the menubar has been moved onto the Tools page.

There, all the tools are categorised and layed out in groups. I am not sure if you really like it, so any feedback at all is welcome :-)

Die old UI, die!!! ;-)

A lot of stuff has happened recently. Time to blog about them!

Firstly, the Kubuntu Grub Configuration Module has been assigned to me, since KGRUBEditor can be easily converted into a SystemSettings module.

Since, there has been some interest lately about it, seele created some new wireframes. You may check the full specification here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KubuntuGrubconfig

So after many, many changes we have come up with this result:

So, no more colors in the list, the default is now even easier to change (and more eye-pleasant of course ;-), bla bla bla and of course bla bla bla. For those of you who didn't understand my excellent English, check the images above.

Lastly, what I am currently working on is improving internal stuff (the core class was rewritten for even much performance - who the heck would even want performance in a GRUB editor?!?) and the most interesting of all: the application [will] no longer need to be started as root (a.k.a. use su/sudo). If a file is not readable/writable the application will politely ask for the password using the following dialog:

The password needs to be entered only once of course. Then all operations will complete successfully as if the application was running as root. Neat, or what?

Hmm, did I miss something? No. OK. Till my next blogpost.

PS: The OperatingSystem TM was randomly selected to preview. Hopefully, I will be more careful of what I preview in the future :)