Frequently asked questions about GnomeDeveloperKit.

1. How to use the vmware image under VirtualBox

Simply 'open' the gnome-*-x86.vmdk file in virtualbox?

2. How to change the default language/locale

For the virtual machine iamges, the default user is live and gets logged in automatically. Log in as live, change the password for this user (type passwd in the terminal or use System->Administration->Users and Groups) and log out.

When you are at the GDM login screen, select your user and then at the bottom of the screen you’ll be able to select your language and keyboard layout (if needed).

3. How to be able to compile gnome apps

sudo conary sync group-gnome-devel

should get you all the devel libraries.

4. How to install missing troves

You can use 'conary sync' to intall all the troves (read 'sub-packages') of a package, e.g. if to install glib:devel and glib:devellib:

sudo conary sync glib

5. How to enable ssh

Empty password is not allowed for ssh login. So if you want ssh access to your GDK system, set a password for the user. And if you want sshd to be started automatically, go to System->Administration->Services and check sshd.

6. I find a bug!

If you encounter a problem, go file a bug at bugzilla (Please choose the "developer kit" Component). To browse the current list of bugs, see here.

7. I have a question

Have some question that aren't necessarily bugs? Send a message to the mailing list. Or you can drop by at #foresight on irc.freenode.net, where people can probably answer your question.

8. What does the version string mean?

If you run a conary q command, it will return you the info about a package:

$ conary q empathy
empathy=100317+1d08222-2-3

Its format is <package-name>=<upstream version>-<building-script revision>-<build revision>). Here <upstream version> is <package-build-date + git-revision>. Note that <package-build-date> is likely different from the actual commit date of that <git-revision>.

So the above output means, a snapshot is made from git on 2010-03-17, and it's based on the commit 10d8222. There is a script specifying the building process, which is on its second revision. The package is built from this snapshot using this script and it's the third rebuild.

9. Why gnome-media is blacklisted

Several packages (say gnome-python{,-desktop}) start generating ChangeLogs using git. It becomes a problem for us, because Conary the packaging tool doesn't give us the .git/ directory.

In the recipe (which specifies the packaging process), we use addGitSnapshot to pull source from git and make it into a tarball. However, the tarball won't contain .git/ (i.e. you won't/can't know if the tarball is from a git repository, or svn, or bzr).

gnome-media generates the version in its gnome-media-profiles.pc using git describe, which also won't work with the current addGitSnapshot.

See this bug against conary.

10. 'conary updateall' fails

If 'sudo conary updateall' gives a dependency error, as the following example, please try

sudo conary migrate group-gnome-dist

to update your system. If there are still errors, please drop a message to the developers.

[root@linux3 ~]# conary updateall
The following dependencies would not be met after this update:

  rhythmbox:lib=gnome.rpath.org@gnome:trunk/100312+167a4b3-1-1 (Already Installed) requires:
    soname: ELF32/libgpod.so.4(SysV x86)
    soname: ELF32/libmtp.so.8(SysV x86)
  which was provided by:
    libgpod:lib=foresight.rpath.org@fl:2-devel/0.7.2-1-5 (Erased) or libmtp:lib=foresight.rpath.org@fl:2-devel/0.3.6-0.1-1 (Erased)
[root@linux3 ~]#
[root@linux3 ~]# conary migrate group-gnome-dist
Resolving dependencies...The following updates will be performed:
Job 1 of 6: