PyG3T (Python gettext Translation Toolkit) is a very useful suite of python based command line tools for gettext translators. It’s developed by Danish translators Ask and Kenneth and it’s been a great help for me for quite some time – recently there was a new release adding even more tools to the suite.

PyG3T includes among others the following tools:

• podiff for creating diffs
• gtgrep which allows you to grep in PO files in msgid or msgstr only and ignoring accelerators
• poabc checks for common mistakes, inconsistent punctuation etc.
• gtmerge provides an alternative for msgmerge, for merging PO/POT files
• gtxml checks for ill-formed xml

Installing PyG3T on openSUSE

1) Download the tarball and uncompress it
2) Enter the resulting folder and run ‘python setup.py bdist_rpm’. This builds an RPM in the ‘dist’ subdir
3) Install the resulting RPM e.g. with ‘zypper install /path/to/pyg3t-0.3.1-1.noarch.rpm’
4) Each tool has a useful help page, try e.g. ‘gtgrep –help’
5) Enjoy

As always there are some pain points you should be aware of too:

• KDEPIM (Kontact, KMail, KOrganizer etc.) of KDE SC 4.7 is now fully ported to using Akonadi and you should expect some problems and probably do some testing before you upgrade/migrate your production machines.
• Touchpad tapping is disabled by default. To enable it, make sure synaptiks is installed and go to systemsettings => Input Devices => Touchpad and enable tapping.
• The new default init system systemd might cause you some grief.
• Sun/Oracle Java is no longer included in the distro because of a license change. If OpenJDK is not working for you, you’ll have to get Oracle Java from Oracle.com.

opensuse-guide.org is mostly updated for 12.1, the missing parts will be added/updated soon.

Join us and help make sure openSUSE 12.2 is even better than 12.1 when it’s released 8 months from now (July 2012)!

So here’s how to make Akonadi not start in KDE SC 4.7.

Step 1
Disable KRunner runners that will start Akonadi. Press Alt+F2, click on the “wrench”, uncheck “Calendar Events” and “Contacts” runners, click on “Apply”.

Step 2
Tell the digital clock not to display calendar events. Right click the digital clock (in your panel), Digital Clock Settings, Calendar, uncheck “Display Events”, click “Apply”.

Step 3
Don’t use applications that need/start Akonadi, such as Kontact/KMail/KOrganizer, Konversation and Kopete.

That’s it. Next time you boot Akonadi won’t start anymore – at least not until needed.

PS
Personally I’m a huge user of Akonadi and the applications mentioned above, so this post should not be seen as any kind of vendetta against Akonadi or KDEPIM developers or anyone else. The purpose is solely to help KDE users who – unlike me – don’t need Akonadi get a leaner and cleaner system.

Scriptet er nu opdateret og Amarok-brugere kan således integrere mere end 60 forskellige netradioer i Amarok med et par klik. Derunder DR, Den2Radio, NOVAfm og din foretrukne lokalradio.

Start Amarok, gå til menupunktet Værktøjer => klik på Håndtering af scripts => Hent flere scripts => Søg efter “danish” => Klik på “Installér” => Genstart Amarok.

Rapporter gerne problemer eller hvis du har foreslag til netradio der mangler. Planen er at opdatere scriptet ca. hver 3. måned fremover. I det næste halve års tid vil DR foretage større omlægninger og Radio 24syv vil gå i luften.

After I had been complaining loudly about the state of things for a while, I ended up being given permissions to the repository on the openSUSE BuildService to shut me up, and I’ll attempt to do the janitorial work needed from now on – which basically just means linking relevant package revisions from KDE:Distro:Factory.

Today I’ve added the following updates (at least for 11.4, not all packages build for 11.3 and 11.2):

• bluedevil 1.0.3
• rekonq 0.7
• scribus 1.4rc3
• plasmoid-cwp 1.5.2
• kvirc 4.0.4
• kradio 4.0.2
• krename 4.0.7
• kst 2.0.2

The repository already has many other important updated packages of course , e.g. digikam/kipi plugins 1.9.0, oxygen-gtk 1.0.3. To add the KDE:UpdatedApps repository you can use e.g.:

# zypper addrepo -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/UpdatedApps/openSUSE_11.4/ kua

If you don’t know how to perform vendor change updates, see the wiki article.

If the plasmoid is not working for your needs you can easily and safely use the GNOME NetwokManager applet (nm-applet) in KDE instead. Just follow the steps below (# means run as root, $ means run as normal user):

1) Upgrade oxygen-gtk – otherwise nm-applet will fail to start:

# zypper addrepo -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/UpdatedApps/openSUSE_11.4 kua

# zypper install 'oxygen-gtk>=1.0.3'

2) Install nm-applet:

# zypper install NetworkManager-gnome

3) Remove the KDE applet:

# zypper remove NetworkManager-kde4-libs

4) Make nm-applet autostart on login:

$ ln -s /usr/bin/nm-applet ~/.kde4/Autostart/nm-applet-link

5) Reboot

Thanks to oxygen-gtk nm-applet will even integrate quite well in the look and feel of KDE.

EDIT: An updated version of the KDE NetworkManager plasmoid is now available in the KDE:UpdatedApps repository. You may want to try this before moving to the GNOME applet. Install it as follows:

Add the repository:

zypper addrepo -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/UpdatedApps/openSUSE_11.4/ kua

Upgrade the packages:

zypper in 'plasmoid-networkmanagement>=0.9.1git20110503' 'NetworkManager-kde4-libs>=0.9.1git20110503'

You will be asked to allow vendor change for some packages. And you might be asked to remove NetworkManager-kde4. Allow both.

I think overall it’s a very good release, besides being the first major distribution to ship KDE SC 4.6, LibreOffice Linux 2.6.37 with free Broadcom wlan drivers (for some recent chips) and other goodies.

You can read the announcement here or read the Product highlights for a more extensive presentation of the new stuff.

As customary I like to also prepare people for the most likely causes of problems:

• PulseAudio is now installed and enabled in KDE installations by default. If it’s causing sound problems, you can disable it in YaST -> Sound -> Other -> PulseAudio Configuration (or run ‘setup-pulseaudio –disable’) or even uninstall it – KDE doesn’t have hard dependencies on it.
• GStreamer is the new default Phonon backend – enough said. You may want to use phonon-backend-xine or phonon-backend-vlc (from Packman) instead, if Amarok or other Phonon applications misbehave.
• The great new KDE Bluetooth tool – BlueDevil – has a missing dependency on obexd-client, which means you’ll need to install obexd-client yourself in order for sending files via Bluetooth to work.
• The NetworkManager plasmoid is not perfect. An online update should be along soon improving it significantly. If it’s causing problems you can easily install and use nm-applet (NetworkManager-gnome) instead – with the new oxygen-gtk theme it doesn’t even look bad

That’s it for me. Have a lot of fun with 11.4.