Quoting from its website:

“pf-kernel is another Linux kernel fork, that provides you with new useful features, that are not merged into mainline. It’s not based on any existing Linux fork or patchset, but some parts of Zen kernel may be merged if there’s no official release of needed patch. The name of this fork is not connected with BSD Packet Filter. «pf» means «post-factum» in the short form.”

At this point the latest patchset includes the following:
* mainline update: 2.6.35.4
* -ck patchset (BFS included)
* BFQ
* TuxOnIce
* LinuxIMQ

Its main advantage over other forks seems to be that it’s regularly updated

I’m using it on my main system without any issues, so I added it to Gentoo’s tree:

* sys-kernel/pf-sources
Available versions:
(2.6.31_p9) (~)2.6.31_p9!b!s
(2.6.32_p16) (~)2.6.32_p16!b!s
(2.6.33_p4) (~)2.6.33_p4!b!s
(2.6.34_p7) (~)2.6.34_p7!b!s
(2.6.35_p7) (~)2.6.35_p7!b!s
{build deblob symlink}
Homepage: http://pf-kernel.org.ua/
Description: Linux kernel fork with new features, including the -ck patchset (BFS), BFQ, TuxOnIce and LinuxIMQ

Many thanks to Oleksandr for taking the time to create and maintain it

[I] www-client/luakit
Available versions: (~)2010.08.07 (~)2010.08.13 **9999
Homepage: http://www.luakit.org
Description: a webkit-gtk based, micro-browser framework in Lua

It is a webkit based, low footprint browser written in C and Lua, modeled after awesome wm, my favorite window manager

Vim-like bindings, low memory usage, lua configuration file (if you use awesome you will feel at home) and rapid development are some of luakit‘s key points.

To try it out:

emerge -av luakit

(~testing only, so you have to keyword it if running stable)

For more information, visit the luakit website, or join #luakit (OFTC IRC network)

To help developers decide if they want to vote for me, I wrote a short manifesto. It follows:

swift. decisive. vigilant. for an even better Gentoo!

---

this year I've decided not to write a long, tiresome manifesto.
there is no point in making promises for things that may never even reach the
council's umbrella.

besides, in reality almost everything landing on the council's agenda is
dynamically decided by the developers a few days or weeks before meetings
and council members need to be swift, decisive and always vigilant to be able
to resolve things quickly and efficiently, even from the shadows, if possible.

these three words pretty much describe my "running for council" manifesto:

swift, decisive, vigilant.

Gentoo deserves nothing less  

---

who am I:

Alex Alexander, 26yo, currently working as a web developer.
Qt Project Lead, KDE Project Member, maintainer of various other packages.

--
wired

To install it, add the overlay (using layman or PORTDIR_OVERLAY) and unmask qt-4.7_beta1 by copying or linking the keywords file we provide in your /etc/portage/package.unmask/ folder.

ln -s /path/to/qting-edge/Documentation/package.keywords/qt-4.7 /etc/portage/package.unmask/

# IF YOU USE A package.unmask FILE, run the following INSTEAD
cat /path/to/qting-edge/Documentation/package.keywords/qt-4.7 >> /etc/portage/package.unmask


then update your world:

emerge -avDuN world

if you only want to update Qt, run

emerge -av1 $(eix -I --only-names x11-libs/qt-)

Please report any ebuild-related bugs you find in our bugzilla, prefixed with [qting-edge] in the summary!

Enjoy

update #2 [2010/05/17]: uploaded my updated config file, now using ` as my prefix key

I gave tmux a try yesterday.

Clean config file, thorough documentation and a few nice touches here and there (i.e. better, persistent window splitting) make it a nice alternative to screen, but the biggest difference lies in memory usage. Screen can easily eat up to 40-50mb with just a few windows open, but tmux has yet to reach the 10mb mark!

You may argue that ram is cheap these days, but when you’re on a 360mb VPS ram matters

I did find a few bugs/annoyances, for instance if you add set-option -g default-terminal “screen-256color” in your config file, tmux stops evaluating the #T variable.

I hacked my way out of this one by adding the following in my .bash_profile instead:

[[ $TERM == "screen" ]] && export -p TERM="screen-256color"

Turns out that’s not tmux’s fault but bash’s, I’ll have to create a patch for that as well If you have the same issue, you can use the above hack as a temporary fix.

Also version 1.2 does not provide a way for you to customize the colors used on window titles with alerts (either monitored or when the bell is active), but I patched that and sent it upstream

You can find an ebuild with the patch in my overlay, wirelay (layman -a wirelay ).

The patch was accepted upstream so it’ll be in the next release.

My tmux looks like this:

and with some split panes:

finally, below is my (updated on 2010/05/17) tmux.conf config file, used in the above screenshots.

I decided to use ` as my prefix key, its really better than hitting ctrl-a all the time

# ` is an interesting key for a prefix
set-option -g prefix `
# set-option -g prefix C-a

unbind-key C-b
bind-key C-a last-window
bind-key ` last-window
bind-key a send-prefix

# we might need ` at some point, allow switching
# we can also send the prefix char with `-a
bind-key F11 set-option -g prefix C-a
bind-key F12 set-option -g prefix `

# 0 is too far from `
set -g base-index 1

# set-option -g default-terminal "screen-256color"
set-option -g mouse-select-pane on
set-option -g status-keys vi
set-option -g bell-action any
set-option -g set-titles on
set-option -g set-titles-string '#H:#S.#I.#P #W #T' # window number,program name,active (or not)
set-option -g visual-bell on

setw -g mode-keys vi
setw -g mode-mouse on
setw -g monitor-activity on

bind e previous-window
bind f next-window
bind j up-pane
bind k down-pane

set-option -g status-utf8 on
# set-option -g status-justify centre
set-option -g status-justify left
set-option -g status-bg black
set-option -g status-fg white
set-option -g status-left-length 40

set-option -g pane-active-border-fg green
set-option -g pane-active-border-bg black
set-option -g pane-border-fg white
set-option -g pane-border-bg black

set-option -g message-fg black
set-option -g message-bg green

#setw -g mode-bg black

setw -g window-status-bg black
setw -g window-status-current-fg green
setw -g window-status-alert-attr default
setw -g window-status-alert-fg yellow

set -g status-left '#[fg=red]#H#[fg=green]:#[fg=white]#S #[fg=green]][#[default]'

# set -g status-right '#[fg=green]][#[fg=white] #T #[fg=green]][ #[fg=blue]%Y-%m-%d #[fg=white]%H:%M#[default]'
set -g status-right '#[fg=green]][ #[fg=blue]%Y-%m-%d #[fg=white]%H:%M#[default]'

set -g history-limit 4096

# `+r reloads the configuration, handy
bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf

meet IMAP Spam Begone

a nifty python script that uses spamassassin to remotely mark (and optionally move/delete) spam mail over IMAP.
it can also use spam/ham folders to teach your spamassassin

Available in gentoo:
[*] mail-filter/isbg
Available versions: (~)0.99-r1
Homepage: http://redmine.ookook.fr/projects/isbg
Description: IMAP Spam Begone: a script that makes it easy to scan an IMAP inbox for spam using SpamAssassin

usage instructions here: http://redmine.ookook.fr/projects/isbg/wiki#SpamAssassin

some example commands I’m using:

# to check for spam:
isbg.py --imaphost [HOST] --imapuser [EMAIL] --delete --noreport --spamc
# to teach spamassassin:
isbg.py --imaphost [HOST] --imapuser [EMAIL] --noreport --teachonly --learnspambox INBOX.spam --learnhambox INBOX.read-mail --spamc


A 24/7 remote box had been on my wish-list for some time and my shared-hosting 1-year contract was ending, when I discovered linode.com.

They give you a VPS and let you do anything you want with it. They also provide you with a control panel that lets you tweak pretty much everything.

So I bought the cheapest one (360), created some partitions and booted it using a bootable image they provide (something similar to systemrescuecd).

I then downloaded the latest stage3, configured the base system and booted it using a kernel provided by linode.

Instead of compiling anything on the VPS, I decided to use binary packages to speed things up.

I have a bunch of chroots on my home box, one of them being stable-x-less. I cloned it, adjusted the use flags a bit and rsync’d all the binpackages to the VPS.

Now everything works great and I have a bunch of services running (http,email,znc,nagios,etc)

Linode++ for the excellent service they provide

A lot of interesting talks and presentations will take place and I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a lot of beer too! ^_^

Many Gentoo Developers will be there for the whole weekend, including me

See you all there

Its excellent vimperator extension has prevented me from switching to anything else, but it is beginning to show its age. Slow loading times, occasional crashes, horrible JS performance…

Meet uzbl. Wordplay for usable. Its developers describe it as web interface tools which adhere to the unix philosophy. I like to think of it as a terminal for the web.

I have valid reasons: Instead of using tabs, I just spawn uzbl windows whenever I need something, then close them. Same as a terminal. That is possible because it loads instantly – like a terminal! Add the fully customizable vim-like bindings and very good webkit engine and you have a winner!

The fact that I’m using awesome (a tiling wm) also helps, since it manages all the windows for me.

Since I like uzbl so much, I added it to the portage tree:

[I] www-client/uzbl
Available versions: (~)0_pre20091130{tbz2} **9999{tbz2} {helpers}
Installed versions: 0_pre20091130{tbz2}(04:03:14 PM 12/04/2009)(helpers)
Homepage: http://www.uzbl.org
Description: A keyboard controlled (modal vim-like bindings, or with modifierkeys) browser based on Webkit

One tagged release and a live ebuild (that uses either the master or experimental branch).

I’ve also patched dmenu with the vertical patch to make it useful with uzbl. You can find the updated ebuild in wirelay (layman -a wirelay) – at least until I get the dmenu maintainers to add the patch in portage.

layman -d kde-testing; layman -L; layman -a kde;

In other news,

Qt 4.6.0 final was released by Nokia yesterday. You’ll find ebuilds in portage’s ~testing. If you’re using stable and want to try it out, make sure you keyword ALL the ebuilds, or you might get ugly blocks A keyword file is available in qting-edge.

Upgrading world is the recommended way to go to avoid B blocks. If you don’t want to upgrade world, make sure your upgrade command includes all installed Qt modules or you will get blocks.

emerge -av1 $(qlist -IC x11-libs/qt\-)

Remember that “b” (lowercase b) blocks are automatically resolved by portage, just remove --pretend and proceed with the upgrade.

For those wondering, KDE 4 works fine with Qt 4.6

If you’re upgrading Qt from a previous version and your Qt apps misbehave, you should rebuild everything depending on Qt:

emerge -av1 $(for i in $(qlist -IC x11-libs/qt-); do equery -q d $i | grep -v 'x11-libs/qt-' | sed "s/^/=/"; done)

KDE 4.3.4 was also released yesterday, ebuilds are available in portage as usual

Lots of stuff to build, have fun!