( 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.