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Curse Fedora everytime and everywhere, but still you will be using their technologies in the future.
Whatever, I'm going to write will not please everyone, but still I'll do!
Recently in Februrary 2008, with other Fedora ambassadors and contributors we were at FOSDEM. Yes, yet again, we all wore our blue ambassador t-shirt with pride.
Everyone in the Fedora team talked pretty much what they do at the Fedora Project to the public and how important it is ( from koji, packaging, transifex, OLPC, translation, R, FEL .... ). Ok stop ! I should rephrase my sentence "how important it is for the users".
We had many visitors at the Fedora booth. Many were RHEL users and using Fedora at home. Compared to last year, this time, many RHEL users were gathering at the Fedora Booth and talking with us. It was rather fruitful to me listening to their needs, especially I'll soon join the real professional work life.
Nevertheless, I was fed up, but REALLY FED UP, with random comments such as:
" I quit fedora because of yum "
" I quit fedora because of selinux "
" I quit fedora because X, Y and Z "
" I quit fedora because fedora's KDE had always the bluecurve theme "
Ok, some people have different opinions. So I do, while talking politics. Well I ignored those comments.
Today, while having a glance to my rss feeds, what do I find ?
"Ubuntu Gets SELinux". I quickly flew over a few more words:
"This is the result of the amazing work of the ubuntu-security and ubuntu-hardened teams."
Ha, there is something wrong here !
First, some previous users quit fedora because of SELinux, in favour of Ubuntu which doesn't support it. But now Ubuntu gets SELinux ? Hmm who is not listening to its users ?
Second, this is the result of amazing work of DanWalsh and his colleagues. The credit goes to them, and NOT ubuntu-security and ubuntu-hardened teams.
I don't recall where I have seen this phrase, but it sounds truthfully true and I give credit to that writer.
In FedoraLand, people talk "Linux" and in UbuntuLand people talk "Ubuntu".
You might be thinking that I'm bashing, Ubuntu well no. I just don't find the Logic in it. After all there is no sense of community in the UbuntuLand.
Another thing I've noted at FOSDEM this year that, those who met me last year did stop by to say "hi, how are you doing ?" I did the same whenever I went to get myself a break or a drink. Now who are the ones who stopped by ? Those were CentOS guys, Opensuse, a kopete developer, AMSN developers(thanks for the t-shirt), some are unaffiliated.
Ok, let's slow down a moment, I think CentOS guys (Dag, Karanbir, Dries, and the guy with the white hair I met at Chemnitz2007 and FOSDEM) are a rock solid team.
The RPM family is really a family. If this isn't social, I don't know how to call it.
On Fedora IRC channels, Ubuntu guys need X, Y and Z on IRC, fedora guys simplify their life. Debian guys need something or patches from Fedora KDE contributors, Rex, Kevin and others give them.
Well after all, why can't there be ground for real collaboration and really community ? Ok, someone last time said "because you have Red Hat". What's the problem? I'm not a software engineer, but microelectronics, sometimes I need help to code other than VHDL and Tcl. Red Hat engineers (Rahul, Jesse, Jeremy, Max, to name a few) are there to give me that help I need. Please don't take that away from me. Yes, sometimes, some scolded me because of my stupid hacks to get something working, but I deserved those. At least I learnt pretty nice things from the Fedora community.
Have a look at this title Bet you didn't know Linux could do this!". In UbuntuLand, it would be called "Bet you didn't know Ubuntu could do this!".
If you are thinking that Fedora should be popping more "Fedora" words in their title, I think you are wrong ! While Fedora contributors think "community" and shaking hands with CentOS and OpenSuse, others are just having a glimpse at the windows and waiting the perfect time to steal.
Recently in Februrary 2008, with other Fedora ambassadors and contributors we were at FOSDEM. Yes, yet again, we all wore our blue ambassador t-shirt with pride.
Everyone in the Fedora team talked pretty much what they do at the Fedora Project to the public and how important it is ( from koji, packaging, transifex, OLPC, translation, R, FEL .... ). Ok stop ! I should rephrase my sentence "how important it is for the users".
We had many visitors at the Fedora booth. Many were RHEL users and using Fedora at home. Compared to last year, this time, many RHEL users were gathering at the Fedora Booth and talking with us. It was rather fruitful to me listening to their needs, especially I'll soon join the real professional work life.
Nevertheless, I was fed up, but REALLY FED UP, with random comments such as:
" I quit fedora because of yum "
" I quit fedora because of selinux "
" I quit fedora because X, Y and Z "
" I quit fedora because fedora's KDE had always the bluecurve theme "
Ok, some people have different opinions. So I do, while talking politics. Well I ignored those comments.
Today, while having a glance to my rss feeds, what do I find ?
"Ubuntu Gets SELinux". I quickly flew over a few more words:
"This is the result of the amazing work of the ubuntu-security and ubuntu-hardened teams."
Ha, there is something wrong here !
First, some previous users quit fedora because of SELinux, in favour of Ubuntu which doesn't support it. But now Ubuntu gets SELinux ? Hmm who is not listening to its users ?
Second, this is the result of amazing work of DanWalsh and his colleagues. The credit goes to them, and NOT ubuntu-security and ubuntu-hardened teams.
I don't recall where I have seen this phrase, but it sounds truthfully true and I give credit to that writer.
In FedoraLand, people talk "Linux" and in UbuntuLand people talk "Ubuntu".
You might be thinking that I'm bashing, Ubuntu well no. I just don't find the Logic in it. After all there is no sense of community in the UbuntuLand.
Another thing I've noted at FOSDEM this year that, those who met me last year did stop by to say "hi, how are you doing ?" I did the same whenever I went to get myself a break or a drink. Now who are the ones who stopped by ? Those were CentOS guys, Opensuse, a kopete developer, AMSN developers(thanks for the t-shirt), some are unaffiliated.
Ok, let's slow down a moment, I think CentOS guys (Dag, Karanbir, Dries, and the guy with the white hair I met at Chemnitz2007 and FOSDEM) are a rock solid team.
The RPM family is really a family. If this isn't social, I don't know how to call it.
On Fedora IRC channels, Ubuntu guys need X, Y and Z on IRC, fedora guys simplify their life. Debian guys need something or patches from Fedora KDE contributors, Rex, Kevin and others give them.
Well after all, why can't there be ground for real collaboration and really community ? Ok, someone last time said "because you have Red Hat". What's the problem? I'm not a software engineer, but microelectronics, sometimes I need help to code other than VHDL and Tcl. Red Hat engineers (Rahul, Jesse, Jeremy, Max, to name a few) are there to give me that help I need. Please don't take that away from me. Yes, sometimes, some scolded me because of my stupid hacks to get something working, but I deserved those. At least I learnt pretty nice things from the Fedora community.
Have a look at this title Bet you didn't know Linux could do this!". In UbuntuLand, it would be called "Bet you didn't know Ubuntu could do this!".
If you are thinking that Fedora should be popping more "Fedora" words in their title, I think you are wrong ! While Fedora contributors think "community" and shaking hands with CentOS and OpenSuse, others are just having a glimpse at the windows and waiting the perfect time to steal.
Fabless Semiconductor Business Model Presentation
Below you will find a presentation I made on how the free semiconductor business model can be attractive to academic institutions and research work.
Rawhide and KDE4's preparation
Since last week, the following packages were marked as "dead.package" for rawhide:
This means that they will be shipped with F-9 along with the KDE4 family and not as a separate package.
Kevin and Rex have already obsoleted these packages in the KDE4 packages in order to make yum update from F-8 to F-9 less painful. Well I recently upgraded from F-7 to F-8 WITHOUT any troubles.
If before F-9's release,:
* KDE3 icon sets
* KDE3 kwin decorators
haven't yet been ported to KDE4, I fear it would be time to obsolete them as well. So please, if you like a particular kwin decorator or kde3 icon set, please encourage upstream to port it. A mere simple mail to the developers might make you happy.
- kdmtheme kdmtheme has just had a bug fix release (1.2.2) for F-7 and F-8.
- marble
- d3lphin
- kalgebra
This means that they will be shipped with F-9 along with the KDE4 family and not as a separate package.
Kevin and Rex have already obsoleted these packages in the KDE4 packages in order to make yum update from F-8 to F-9 less painful. Well I recently upgraded from F-7 to F-8 WITHOUT any troubles.
If before F-9's release,:
* KDE3 icon sets
* KDE3 kwin decorators
haven't yet been ported to KDE4, I fear it would be time to obsolete them as well. So please, if you like a particular kwin decorator or kde3 icon set, please encourage upstream to port it. A mere simple mail to the developers might make you happy.
Fedora 8 & Skype: audio and webcam
With Skype 2.0 beta, one can now have webcam support.
chitlesh(~)$ rpm -q skype
skype-2.0.0.27-fc5
Mirjam got a Logitech Quickcam Chat as a Christmas present.
chitlesh(~)$ /sbin/lsusb
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 046d:092e Logitech, Inc.
Use livna repository to install gspca for Webcam Kernel Module.
# yum install gspca
gspca-1.00.20-1.lvn8
kmod-gspca-2.6.23.9-85.fc8-1.00.20-1.lvn8
kmod-gspca-1.00.20-1.lvn8
For the first, as root type:
# modprobe gspca
Then launch the skype 2.0 beta.
I had an annoying problem with the headset I had. I could only hear my friend through only one ear. Googling a bit, showed that I should use plughw listed for sound in/out.
Now I have webcam and audio support for skype :)
chitlesh(~)$ rpm -q skype
skype-2.0.0.27-fc5
Mirjam got a Logitech Quickcam Chat as a Christmas present.
chitlesh(~)$ /sbin/lsusb
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 046d:092e Logitech, Inc.
Use livna repository to install gspca for Webcam Kernel Module.
# yum install gspca
gspca-1.00.20-1.lvn8
kmod-gspca-2.6.23.9-85.fc8-1.00.20-1.lvn8
kmod-gspca-1.00.20-1.lvn8
For the first, as root type:
# modprobe gspca
Then launch the skype 2.0 beta.
I had an annoying problem with the headset I had. I could only hear my friend through only one ear. Googling a bit, showed that I should use plughw listed for sound in/out.
Now I have webcam and audio support for skype :)
FEL: gerbv 1.0.3
This is to announce the fourth release in the stable branch of gerbv, 1.0.3 was just built for Fedora and will be available shortly among the updates.
This release represents a point release incorporating a few patches made against the 1.0.X source over the last 1 1/2 years. Specific updates include:
Gerber Viewer (gerbv) is a viewer for Gerber files. Gerber files are generated from PCB CAD system and sent to PCB manufacturers as basis for the manufacturing process. The standard supported by gerbv is RS-274X.
This release represents a point release incorporating a few patches made against the 1.0.X source over the last 1 1/2 years. Specific updates include:
- Incorporate changes from Joost Witteveen to support extended %SR% commands.
- Fix endless loop bug when gerbv encountered an unknown % code. Patch from Joost Witteveen.
- Fixed initial scale setting for %MOMM% Gerber files. Patch from Joost Witteveen.
- Fixed format for small drillfiles. Patch from Trevor Blackwell.
- Fix setting of the initial window size when the screen is larger than the display. Patch from David Carr.
Gerber Viewer (gerbv) is a viewer for Gerber files. Gerber files are generated from PCB CAD system and sent to PCB manufacturers as basis for the manufacturing process. The standard supported by gerbv is RS-274X.
Users are not stupid ! They want Fedora 8 Werewolf.
You heard it here, there, from your friends, from various articles/reviews and now even from ME.
I won't make the list of the features and innovations brought forward by Fedora with Fedora 8, because you will continue to see people, friends or other distributions talking about our features after 8th November 2007.
If you are curious, click here.
Yet again, Fedora satisfies its users ranging from beginners, gamers, artists, translators, electronic engineers to experts with its Fedora 8. Fedora maintains/introduces everything for everyone.
From our sponsor Red Hat, a Fedora user no doubt inherits Enterprise technologies for free as a average Linux user. Again the fedora user is a winner.
Our configuration tools has made our average users stood up on their feet on their own. Because we think, our users aren't stupid.
Our users now know that using Linux is nothing but just pure logic. We believe that a "pipelined" development process is among the best solutions for our users. Developers develop or package the products and users use the products. We don't have only newcomers as linux users, but users from different cultural and technical background. We have successfully satisfied all their needs in the past and will continue to do so.
Our technologies are now everywhere, and in many distributions (ranging from Ubuntu to OLPC). Fedora's progress in OLPC was among the best contribution that Fedora could bring to all linux users, e.g Improved support for using Fedora on Laptops,...
From our metrics taken with smolt, shows us Fedora's success.
I won't make the list of the features and innovations brought forward by Fedora with Fedora 8, because you will continue to see people, friends or other distributions talking about our features after 8th November 2007.
If you are curious, click here.
Yet again, Fedora satisfies its users ranging from beginners, gamers, artists, translators, electronic engineers to experts with its Fedora 8. Fedora maintains/introduces everything for everyone.
From our sponsor Red Hat, a Fedora user no doubt inherits Enterprise technologies for free as a average Linux user. Again the fedora user is a winner.
Our configuration tools has made our average users stood up on their feet on their own. Because we think, our users aren't stupid.
Our users now know that using Linux is nothing but just pure logic. We believe that a "pipelined" development process is among the best solutions for our users. Developers develop or package the products and users use the products. We don't have only newcomers as linux users, but users from different cultural and technical background. We have successfully satisfied all their needs in the past and will continue to do so.
Our technologies are now everywhere, and in many distributions (ranging from Ubuntu to OLPC). Fedora's progress in OLPC was among the best contribution that Fedora could bring to all linux users, e.g Improved support for using Fedora on Laptops,...
From our metrics taken with smolt, shows us Fedora's success.
Fedora Electronic Lab 8 - Stable release
Last Thursday, 8th November 2007, the very first Fedora Electronic Lab LiveCD was released officially. This LiveCD is based on Fedora 8 KDE along with almost all electronic design tools.
Fedora's Electronic Laboratory provides a complete electronic laboratory setup with reliable open source design tools in order to meet one's requirements to keep one in pace with current technological race. Project management tools such as spreadsheet, gantt diagram, mindmapping tools.... are also included. This Electronic Laboratory can either be deployed by:
Download Fedora Electronic Lab LiveCD NOW via torrent
Read the abstract, the flyer or its website for more details.
For Fedora 8's release, "Fedora Electronic Lab" targets mainly the Micro-Nano Electronic Engineering field. It introduces:
Fedora's Electronic Laboratory provides a complete electronic laboratory setup with reliable open source design tools in order to meet one's requirements to keep one in pace with current technological race. Project management tools such as spreadsheet, gantt diagram, mindmapping tools.... are also included. This Electronic Laboratory can either be deployed by:
- yum or
- a Fedora Electronic Lab LiveCD
Download Fedora Electronic Lab LiveCD NOW via torrent
Read the abstract, the flyer or its website for more details.
For Fedora 8's release, "Fedora Electronic Lab" targets mainly the Micro-Nano Electronic Engineering field. It introduces:
- tools for Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) Design Flow process to the Fedora Collection.
- extra open source standard cell libraries supporting a feature size of 0.13µm. (more than 300 MB)
- extracted spice decks which can be simulated with gnucap/ngspice or any spice simulators.
- interoperability between various packages in order to achieve different design flows.
KDE: F8 Werewolf's Ksplash mockups
Following the discussion with Rex and Kevin on #fedora-kde(on F8 ksplash), here are the constraints:
have a proper color gradient from the splash_top to splash active/inactive bar the actual inactive/active bar is with echo icons but fedora's kde uses crystal icons by default not enough time before F8
My two mockups of F8 Werewolf's kplash mockups:
Which one do you prefer ?
Which one do you prefer ?Aliening FEL RPM packages to DEB
Gabriel Augusto Ordónez is a Electrical Engineering student from Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogotá-Colombia South América) Linux enthusiast and a debian GNU linux user.
He tried Fedora Electronic Lab live cd and saw that this fedora version has several electronic packages which was useful to him.
He defined "the Fedora Electronic Laboratory" as a "great great project". Unfortunately, debianrejected alliance's inclusion in their repositories, doesn't have other simulation tools or standard cells, or has old versions of those simulation tools.
Since Debian uses .deb, Gabriel is using "Alien" to convert the FEL rpm packages in .deb one by one. He is concerned about compatibility problems between fedora and debian.
Thereby, I'm calling to contributors of other distributions to package FEL packages for their distributions, thus making their users' life easier. Gabriel is a brave guy and has enough patience, others don't.
JulienBoucaron was synchronizing his Ubuntu alliance deb package with that of Fedora's. He even requested a package review for Ubuntu MOTU Science, but the package review didn't go far.
He tried Fedora Electronic Lab live cd and saw that this fedora version has several electronic packages which was useful to him.
He defined "the Fedora Electronic Laboratory" as a "great great project". Unfortunately, debian
Since Debian uses .deb, Gabriel is using "Alien" to convert the FEL rpm packages in .deb one by one. He is concerned about compatibility problems between fedora and debian.
Thereby, I'm calling to contributors of other distributions to package FEL packages for their distributions, thus making their users' life easier. Gabriel is a brave guy and has enough patience, others don't.
JulienBoucaron was synchronizing his Ubuntu alliance deb package with that of Fedora's. He even requested a package review for Ubuntu MOTU Science, but the package review didn't go far.
Fast User Switching since F7
Whether you are a fedora user or not, "Fast User Switching" was a feature during F7's (moonshine) release.
If you are writing an article (whether on your blog or somewhere else) about any "new features" in the open source community, please don't say that fedora's is missing it without enough proof otherwise!
I never thought that lack of software updates might severely affects end users' mind.
If you are writing an article (whether on your blog or somewhere else) about any "new features" in the open source community, please don't say that fedora's is missing it without enough proof otherwise!
I never thought that lack of software updates might severely affects end users' mind.
Fedora Electronic Lab Live CD Test 3
Fedora Electronic Lab Live CD Test 3 was released yesterday.
Use get-fedora wiki page to download a copy.
Use get-fedora wiki page to download a copy.
FEL - Fabless Semiconductor business model
You don't have financial strength to invest in building your own foundry in order to fabricate your chips?
You are opting for a fabless business model for trial (focusing on design and outsourcing the actual manufacturing) ?
The Fedora Project proposes a free fabless semiconductor business model for your needs, thus allowing you to stay focused on cutting-edge design, and not invest in manufacturing.
With the "Fedora Electronic Lab" along with its RPM package management, any electronic engineer can deploy his/her VLSI simulation environment quickly and easily. You will have tools for RTL simulation, place & route, timing closure up to digital physical design. In addition, 7 opensource technology libraries are available with a feature size up to 0.13µm.
You are free to decide whether your design process will be either top-secret or open to the world. However the simulation tools will be free. Processes can be modified and created graphically (if desired).
Extensive work was done to provide enough interfaces useful for your automated configuration scripts (e.g Makefiles).
On the Fedora Electronic Lab livecd, you will benefit from the KDE desktop environment in terms ofProject implementation tracking capabilities Visibility to assigned tasks, resources and issues
The Fedora Repositories entail a wide range of applications with graphical means to manage all aspects of data flow throughout an enterprise in a highly efficient manner.
You are opting for a fabless business model for trial (focusing on design and outsourcing the actual manufacturing) ?
The Fedora Project proposes a free fabless semiconductor business model for your needs, thus allowing you to stay focused on cutting-edge design, and not invest in manufacturing.
With the "Fedora Electronic Lab" along with its RPM package management, any electronic engineer can deploy his/her VLSI simulation environment quickly and easily. You will have tools for RTL simulation, place & route, timing closure up to digital physical design. In addition, 7 opensource technology libraries are available with a feature size up to 0.13µm.
You are free to decide whether your design process will be either top-secret or open to the world. However the simulation tools will be free. Processes can be modified and created graphically (if desired).Extensive work was done to provide enough interfaces useful for your automated configuration scripts (e.g Makefiles).
On the Fedora Electronic Lab livecd, you will benefit from the KDE desktop environment in terms of
The Fedora Repositories entail a wide range of applications with graphical means to manage all aspects of data flow throughout an enterprise in a highly efficient manner.
FEL - Test 2
Fedora Electronic Lab Live CD Test 2 was released today.
Use get-fedora wiki page to download a copy.
Use get-fedora wiki page to download a copy.
KDE: d3lphin replacing dolphin
Those who have installed dolphin on their fedora in the past, will notice among their updates:
Installing:
d3lphin i386 0.9.2-2.fc7 updates 1.3 M
replacing dolphin.i386 0.8.2-2.fc7
dolphin has been replaced by d3lphin on FC6 and F-7.
dolphin-0.8.2 (dolphin kde3 branch) is unmaintained.
d3lphin is a fork of dolphin which includes some minor improvements and fixed some bigger annoyances.
Installing:
d3lphin i386 0.9.2-2.fc7 updates 1.3 M
replacing dolphin.i386 0.8.2-2.fc7
dolphin has been replaced by d3lphin on FC6 and F-7.
dolphin-0.8.2 (dolphin kde3 branch) is unmaintained.
d3lphin is a fork of dolphin which includes some minor improvements and fixed some bigger annoyances.
FEL: Importing OPJ project files
Yet another user is interested in Fedora Electronic Lab.
This one is eager to switch to Fedora from Ubuntu Feisty if Fedora can provide him tools to read his OriginLab PRO 7.5 project files. He pointed to the fact that on Ubuntu Feisty, LabPlot crashes while importing his OriginLab OPJ project files. Actually on Launchpad there is an open confirmed bug on LabPlot since February 2007.
For some reason Fedora's LabPlot does NOT crash on importing OriginLab OPJ project files. I've tested on i386 while kwizart did on x86_64. Well what's our trade secret ? We don't have any, if I remembered, except we are using system wide libraries during the build process.
Case study:
Either create an OriginLab PRO 7.5 project on windows:
Save the project.
or grab a copy from here.
# yum install LabPlot
on LabPlot : File -> Import OPJ Project (that's it)
Now that I've explained how to import data from OriginLab to LabPlot, one can also import their data from LabPlot to OriginLab. On LabPlot : Spreadsheet -> Export data. Save the data in a .dat file. Then use OriginLab to import that .dat file.
If one is using OriginLab in the past, he/she would be happy with LabPlot as it has sufficient features to compete with OriginLab. LabPlot on stable FC6 and F-7 does NOT crash.
This one is eager to switch to Fedora from Ubuntu Feisty if Fedora can provide him tools to read his OriginLab PRO 7.5 project files. He pointed to the fact that on Ubuntu Feisty, LabPlot crashes while importing his OriginLab OPJ project files. Actually on Launchpad there is an open confirmed bug on LabPlot since February 2007.
For some reason Fedora's LabPlot does NOT crash on importing OriginLab OPJ project files. I've tested on i386 while kwizart did on x86_64. Well what's our trade secret ? We don't have any, if I remembered, except we are using system wide libraries during the build process.
Case study:
Either create an OriginLab PRO 7.5 project on windows:
Save the project.or grab a copy from here.
# yum install LabPlot
on LabPlot : File -> Import OPJ Project (that's it)
Now that I've explained how to import data from OriginLab to LabPlot, one can also import their data from LabPlot to OriginLab. On LabPlot : Spreadsheet -> Export data. Save the data in a .dat file. Then use OriginLab to import that .dat file.If one is using OriginLab in the past, he/she would be happy with LabPlot as it has sufficient features to compete with OriginLab. LabPlot on stable FC6 and F-7 does NOT crash.
LiveCD: Fedora Electronic Lab - development version
The first development snapshot (04/09/2007) of Fedora Electronic Lab Livecd was released yesterday night.
This development livecd FEL is downloadable via torrent for i386.
It is meant for testing purposes only. This is to be a new spin with Fedora 8. See Features/FedoraElectronicLab for more of the details about the spin.
This development livecd FEL is downloadable via torrent for i386.
It is meant for testing purposes only. This is to be a new spin with Fedora 8. See Features/FedoraElectronicLab for more of the details about the spin.
gEDA/gaf stable version 1.2.0-20070902 released!
This morning, a stable version 1.2.0-20070902 of gEDA/gaf was released. FC-6 and rawhide packages have already been built whereas for F-7, I'm waiting for a manual override for interdependent package for libgeda.
One thing that struck me is that codes have been backported to guile-1.6 and at the same time providing compatibility for guile-1.8. Because some (older) distributions still use guile-1.6 (even the latest Ubuntu still has the old guile-1.6). Since Fedora Core 6 was released, guile-1.8 was included. Though there is a compat-guile-16, I don't package geda against it.
The current stable series of guile is 1.8 and the current stable release of Fedora is 7.
There has been 3 or 4 releases of gEDA with a lot of cool features and many enhancements. gEDA/gaf developers are active and can be easily contacted. They have worked so hard to provide quality gEDA/gaf applications the last few months. Users of those distributions are missing a lot if they cared about quality applications for their own personal work.
One thing that struck me is that codes have been backported to guile-1.6 and at the same time providing compatibility for guile-1.8. Because some (older) distributions still use guile-1.6 (even the latest Ubuntu still has the old guile-1.6). Since Fedora Core 6 was released, guile-1.8 was included. Though there is a compat-guile-16, I don't package geda against it.
The current stable series of guile is 1.8 and the current stable release of Fedora is 7.
There has been 3 or 4 releases of gEDA with a lot of cool features and many enhancements. gEDA/gaf developers are active and can be easily contacted. They have worked so hard to provide quality gEDA/gaf applications the last few months. Users of those distributions are missing a lot if they cared about quality applications for their own personal work.
EDA: standard cells for chip design
A standard cell is group of transistor and interconnect structures, which provides a boolean logic function (e.g., AND, OR, XOR, XNOR, inverters) or a storage function (flipflop or latch). All CAD tools for chip design (whether proprietary or open source) require standard cell libraries. These standard cell libraries contain primitive cells required for digital design.
A fedora user will have some standard cell libraries from
the alliance package the pharosc package
# yum install pharosc\*
Pharosc provides five new open source standard cell libraries, the vsclib, wsclib, vxlib, vgalib and rgalib. They have been drawn with the Graal software from Alliance, part of an extensive open source software suite for designing integrated circuits with a standard cell design methodology.
The libraries have been characterized in a generic 0.13µm technology, compatible with most foundry rules. Pharosc is the result of a book that Graham Petley is writing, The Art of Standard Cell Library Design.
Among the standard cells from pharosc there are many scripts to provide interoperability between magic, alliance and xcircuit as well as scripts to allow one to update actual cells or create his/her own cells (pharosc-devel). There are more than 500 spice decks which can be simulated with either gnucap or ngspice.
Each single component in any standard cell library comes with a well documentation html manual.
The latter entails schematics, layouts and several parameters for spice simulation. The transistor schematics for the libraries have been drawn with Xcircuit, which uses Postscript as its native file format.
Pharosc entails Alliance's sxlib which has been characterised in 0.13µm using the same methodology and converted to the same 0.13µm layout rules. There is also an ssxlib which is the Alliance sxlib converted with a script from 1µm to 2µm layout and adjusted to obey DSM layout rules. The adjustments change the timing slightly.
A fedora user will have some standard cell libraries from
# yum install pharosc\*
Pharosc provides five new open source standard cell libraries, the vsclib, wsclib, vxlib, vgalib and rgalib. They have been drawn with the Graal software from Alliance, part of an extensive open source software suite for designing integrated circuits with a standard cell design methodology.
The libraries have been characterized in a generic 0.13µm technology, compatible with most foundry rules. Pharosc is the result of a book that Graham Petley is writing, The Art of Standard Cell Library Design.
Among the standard cells from pharosc there are many scripts to provide interoperability between magic, alliance and xcircuit as well as scripts to allow one to update actual cells or create his/her own cells (pharosc-devel). There are more than 500 spice decks which can be simulated with either gnucap or ngspice.
Each single component in any standard cell library comes with a well documentation html manual.
The latter entails schematics, layouts and several parameters for spice simulation. The transistor schematics for the libraries have been drawn with Xcircuit, which uses Postscript as its native file format.
Pharosc entails Alliance's sxlib which has been characterised in 0.13µm using the same methodology and converted to the same 0.13µm layout rules. There is also an ssxlib which is the Alliance sxlib converted with a script from 1µm to 2µm layout and adjusted to obey DSM layout rules. The adjustments change the timing slightly.
Creating his Fedora Electronic Lab livecd
Someone asked me by email, when he will get his FEL livecd ? Well one should be out for F8Test2, following the discussion with Jeremy.
However if one is so eager to get his livecd he/she can spin his own at home:
# yum install livecd-tools --enablerepo=development
# mkdir livecd
# cd livecd
# wget http://chitlesh.fedorapeople.org/FEL/livecd-fedora-electronic-lab.ks
# wget http://chitlesh.fedorapeople.org/FEL/livecd-fedora-base-desktop.ks
# livecd-creator --config=livecd-fedora-electronic-lab.ks \
--fslabel=Fedora-Electronic-Lab
In about one hour you will have a rawhide based livecd.
Everyday one will be surprised with rawhide. Today it was something good and very professional. It's the new theme for Fedora 8.
Grub:
rhgb:
KDE: It is a custom for fedora that just before Test 2, KDE loses its wallpaper. However it keeps up the suspense, how will the new wallpaper look like. Someone has already seen it ?
However if one is so eager to get his livecd he/she can spin his own at home:
# yum install livecd-tools --enablerepo=development
# mkdir livecd
# cd livecd
# wget http://chitlesh.fedorapeople.org/FEL/livecd-fedora-electronic-lab.ks
# wget http://chitlesh.fedorapeople.org/FEL/livecd-fedora-base-desktop.ks
# livecd-creator --config=livecd-fedora-electronic-lab.ks \
--fslabel=Fedora-Electronic-Lab
In about one hour you will have a rawhide based livecd.
Everyday one will be surprised with rawhide. Today it was something good and very professional. It's the new theme for Fedora 8.
Grub:
rhgb:
KDE: It is a custom for fedora that just before Test 2, KDE loses its wallpaper. However it keeps up the suspense, how will the new wallpaper look like. Someone has already seen it ?
Livecd for Fedora Electronic Lab
Following the discussion on Fedora Electronic Lab on the Fedora development mailing list, I've started creating a livecd for Fedora Electronic Lab this weekend.
Well a few hours ago, livecd-creator ended with a 691 MB image (built from yesterday's rawhide). It looks great, while my previous trials exceeded 750 MB. That reminds me of kadischi.
Firefox and its dependencies are pulled up. So in this live image, firefox is present. Hopefully soon the directory ownership on its dependencies such zenity might be fixed, thus making room for more applications. Possibly by then, gspiceui and gwave would be on the live image.
Two additional things this live image would have by default:
1. keyboard switch applet on kicker. (I have 2 laptops with 2 different keyboard layouts - fr and de. Believe me I know what's its like when "us" keyboard layout is by default. I believe this will encourage more users to try the demos from alliance or magic on the livecd and save their data on their usb sticks.)
2. "keep all below" and "keep all above" buttons on the window decorator.
Simply while using graal, xsch and dreal (from alliance), your desktop will be full with windows. Layout editing will be a pain in the neck as one have to keep on shifting windows as you can see in the following screenshot. Having those two buttons will ease the load of stress one might have.
Some work still need to be done in terms of failed services (nscd and avahi till now) upon boot. I haven't yet tested the Jeremy's fix for rhgb yet. Currently, there is a live image built going on, while I'm writing. Once it's completed I'll post the kickstart file for comments from those on the fedora livecd mailing lists.
Ah yes, I know there was discussions like "whether fedora livecds have gcc on it or not" in the past. Due to lack of space gcc wasn't included. But on the Fedora Electronic Lab live image gcc will be present.
Well a few hours ago, livecd-creator ended with a 691 MB image (built from yesterday's rawhide). It looks great, while my previous trials exceeded 750 MB. That reminds me of kadischi.
Firefox and its dependencies are pulled up. So in this live image, firefox is present. Hopefully soon the directory ownership on its dependencies such zenity might be fixed, thus making room for more applications. Possibly by then, gspiceui and gwave would be on the live image.
Two additional things this live image would have by default:
1. keyboard switch applet on kicker. (I have 2 laptops with 2 different keyboard layouts - fr and de. Believe me I know what's its like when "us" keyboard layout is by default. I believe this will encourage more users to try the demos from alliance or magic on the livecd and save their data on their usb sticks.)
2. "keep all below" and "keep all above" buttons on the window decorator.
Simply while using graal, xsch and dreal (from alliance), your desktop will be full with windows. Layout editing will be a pain in the neck as one have to keep on shifting windows as you can see in the following screenshot. Having those two buttons will ease the load of stress one might have.
Some work still need to be done in terms of failed services (nscd and avahi till now) upon boot. I haven't yet tested the Jeremy's fix for rhgb yet. Currently, there is a live image built going on, while I'm writing. Once it's completed I'll post the kickstart file for comments from those on the fedora livecd mailing lists.
Ah yes, I know there was discussions like "whether fedora livecds have gcc on it or not" in the past. Due to lack of space gcc wasn't included. But on the Fedora Electronic Lab live image gcc will be present.
KDE4: rdieter's rpms
Last weekend I gave a try to rdieter's KDE4 rpms. They look promising. I've compiled kdepim without some buildrequires, tonight I'll try to meet the buildrequires and rebuild.
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EDA: Physical Layout is done, so what's next? (PART_2)
In EDA: Physical Layout is done, so what's next? (PART_1), I talked about interoperability between opensource Layout Editors which Fedora is shipping or will ship soon:
alliance (soon on fedora) magic toped with the GDS II stream format (GDSII) or Caltech Intermediate Form (CIF) provided the proper technology has been fed.
In Part_2, I'll demonstrate with an Invertor (TSMC 0.25µm SCN5M_DEEP technology) how with magic I can exchange my layout with toped using the GDS II stream format (GDSII) (I believe you can do the same with CIF on your own) and what I can do next with gds2pov which was recently included. Here's a graphical overview of what I'm talking about and it also defines the wafer fabrication's position in the process:
The opensource tools are described in blue.
I've already created the layout of the invertor (both NMOS and PMOS: w=0.48µm l=0.24µm) and available here.
Open magic with:
magic -TSCN5M_DEEP.12.light -dOGL &
Lambda is the unit length in magic layout. It is a visible square box in the grid mode of magic. Since the minimum size of a ploy (red) area (which is also the possible minimum size of magic) is 2 lambda, the length of lambda is half of the technology size.
When using TSMC 0.25µm, 1 lambda = 0.25µm/2 = 0.12µm
Have a look at the Tech Manager:
_THEN_ open the layout: invertor_lay.mag
Convert the layout to GDSII format with "File -> Write GDS".
Now that you have a GDSII data file, you can import it on "toped".
Once your layout has been completed and appropriate checks have been made, you can either send for wafer fabrication or view it in 3D with gds2pov.
gdsoglviewer -p pov_process.txt -i invertor_0u25.gds P+ -c pov_config.txt
I update the pov_process to fit the technology I'm using. However the height of each layer doesn't show the real fabrication's heights. The pov_process file defines the Layer Maps of my GDSII data files. For the TSMC 0.25µm SCN5M_DEEP technology I used these Layers are described on MOSIS SCMOS Technology Codes and Layer Maps :SCN5M, SCN5M_SUBM,and SCN5M_DEEP
Use your mouse to rotate and zoom (right click = zoom out and left click zoom in).
This is a mere simple example that does nothing more than:when input is 1 output is 0 when input is 0 output is 1
In Part_2, I'll demonstrate
The opensource tools are described in blue.
I've already created the layout of the invertor (both NMOS and PMOS: w=0.48µm l=0.24µm) and available here.
Open magic with:
magic -TSCN5M_DEEP.12.light -dOGL &
Lambda is the unit length in magic layout. It is a visible square box in the grid mode of magic. Since the minimum size of a ploy (red) area (which is also the possible minimum size of magic) is 2 lambda, the length of lambda is half of the technology size.
When using TSMC 0.25µm, 1 lambda = 0.25µm/2 = 0.12µm
Have a look at the Tech Manager:
_THEN_ open the layout: invertor_lay.mag
Convert the layout to GDSII format with "File -> Write GDS".
Now that you have a GDSII data file, you can import it on "toped".
Once your layout has been completed and appropriate checks have been made, you can either send for wafer fabrication or view it in 3D with gds2pov.gdsoglviewer -p pov_process.txt -i invertor_0u25.gds P+ -c pov_config.txt
I update the pov_process to fit the technology I'm using. However the height of each layer doesn't show the real fabrication's heights. The pov_process file defines the Layer Maps of my GDSII data files. For the TSMC 0.25µm SCN5M_DEEP technology I used these Layers are described on MOSIS SCMOS Technology Codes and Layer Maps :SCN5M, SCN5M_SUBM,and SCN5M_DEEP
Use your mouse to rotate and zoom (right click = zoom out and left click zoom in).
This is a mere simple example that does nothing more than:
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