Failure to Develop: netbook-launcher
I wanted to have a crack at developing a customised version of the Ubuntu Netbook Remix launcher screen (the netbook-launcher package in the repositories), these modifications would have been simple additions which take the new message system notifications currently in the system tray and would have displayed them as large icons in a similar style as the netbook launcher.
If you remember I was talking about easy to use interfaces with which I could give to my nan and my dad who both have bad eyes and could do with a computer that’s even simpler to use than the normal Ubuntu interface.
The problem is that when I started to hack on the ubuntu netbook-launcher code base, I couldn’t compile it. The apt-get build-dep command installed all the dependencies, but it still wanted a gnome SVN autogen file. Making it officially the hardest project to hack into as a new comer since I joined into the Ubuntu/launchpad/bzr easy to develop mantra.
So I gave up, since there weren’t any instructions on how to do it in the README or any logical reason why it should need some random development file from gnome that isn’t available in a devel package.
Instead I did a ui mock-up in inkscape, it’s not as useful as doing the devel work myself, but at least it gets my ideas on paper for you guys to see.
Oh and Happy Yule!
Update:Neil J. Patel has kindly given instructions on Christmas day explaining how to compile the netbook-launcher, so I’ve submitted two bug reports to add the missing packages to the build-deps. #500335 and #500334
Looks good to me. I only hope it will have some common ground with Gnome-shell….
Merry X-Mass!
Sudo apt-get install gnome-common; ./autogen.sh
there is a difference between build deps for a distributed tarball and build-deps for something you clone from bzr. If you use apt-get source, you should just be using ./configure.
Many gnome autotooled projects are like this., so it not always documented (I’ll ad it to the todo list). If you think gnome-common should be installed at build-dep regardless, just file a bug against the package…it has nothing to do with the author (me).
Thanks for the info! much appreciated
I think I will file a bug report.
This seems like a documentation rather than a packaging problem. The build dependencies are meant only for rebuilding the package, not for rebuilding from VCS, etc. The dependency on gnome-common and gtk-doc-tools should be listed in a README or INSTALL file along with all the other dependencies.
I just got an inspiron mini and my desktop Ubuntu distro dont work on it the the Ubuntu Netbook Remix wont install. What should i try??
Please, if possible, write the answer to this on my blog!
thedeal3500.blogspot.com
Hay man
some AMAZING mockups above here – we are currently about to put EB4 into public beta status and have had NO sucess in getting netbook-launcher working at all . We have the elightenment version only atm as standard launcher gives constant segfaults. It seems ubuntu users ALSO see this error but they are not fixing for gnome 2.28 but ONLY in lucid
We would be very interested in using any patches / varients you do develop by default on our new release
contact me on the forums if you would be interested with this 
Hey Paul,
I’ll certainly keep you guys in mind if I ever get to develop it further. Although of course as I said the post is more about getting the ideas out of my head on down on paper.
Its ideas like this that catch on thou
the new aims for EB4 and onward is simplicity and conveince for the end user – your mockup is a classic example of this 
If you ever get anywere with netbook-launcher give us a bell 
FYI – it might be worth looking at the port to efl using the elightenment libs as its still got nice gfx effects and users about 40% less CPU on the machines ive built it from source on! And unlike netbook-launcher it doesnt segfault lol