Friday, December 07, 2007

Xournal for Maemo 4.0 (OS2008) is here (beta)!

Today I was thinking...that I should release the Xournal version for OS2008 Beta before the week end :)
And here it is, although it's in beta. And I need people to test it.

So here we are:

Go to this link: Xournal install and you should be fine.

It will install two catalogues (extras-devel needed for libgail) and my own catalogue (with xournal and its dependencies).

I tried to open the .install file from my tablet, but it opens the file instead of interpreting it as a regular .install file. I still don't know why. Try to save it and open it from the file manager.

One note, a big one: I tried to open a PDF file (Annotate PDF) and it didn't work. I'm focusing on this issue as this is by far the most useful feature of Xournal.
So do not complain about this :) I know it already.

Let me know EVERYTHING you find about the package, from the application installation to the usability itself.

As soon as the application is stable I'll forward the patches upstream and I will try to make everything available on the garage website (and put the libraries in maemo extras).

So keep this in mind: this is a BETA software. Provided as it is and I, by no mean, take ANY responsibility on what happens to you, your device and whatever is surrounding you! ;-)

I want to thank Etrunko (Eduardo Lima), for his first patch to the Xournal source code to make it work on the Nokia 770, and Henry Tang for his patch to make Etrunko's Xournal work on the N800.
I've used their patches to make my port.

UPDATE: Xournal port is now at its third release. I have fixed the PDF annotation bug and added support for Zoom In/Out and Fullscreen buttons. I've tested it on my N800 with OS2008 Beta firmware, but it should work on the N810 too.

UPDATE2: Actually the port is already at its fourth release. I have added a few more buttons to the toolbar at the bottom and bound the Escape button to the Undo action.

I am still experiencing random crashes and have no idea how to check this out. The console does not show any error or warning. So, actually, I think it closes itself rather than crashing.

UPDATE3: I have fixed the random crashes!! For the developers: you need to be sure that the D-BUS service Name clause has the same value as the osso_initialize first parameter! Or the application will close after few seconds.

Release #5 is in the repo, go update it!

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yet again, I find myself wishing the '-' key was part of the main keyboard on the NIT. ;^)

Just kidding, Anidel. Great job, looking forward to running it through the wringer...

Mitch

Anonymous said...

thanks. good work.

you should put this on maemo.org.

any reason for the download to be 15mb? see a bit huge for what is basically a small app.

thanks again
ssam

Test said...

It's so huge because it depends on ghostscript (that's huge):

This from the Xournal home page (installation page):

requirements:
- libgnomecanvas version 2.4 or later (package libgnomecanvas and dependencies)
-libgnomeprint and libgnomeprintui version 2.2 or later (packages libgnomeprint22, libgnomeprintui22, and dependencies)

Additionally:

- xpdf (more precisely, pdftoppm) is required for PDF file annotation
- ghostscript (optional: used to import PS/PDF files as bitmap backgrounds)


I've been able to remove libgnomeprintui dependency and strippped down xpdf to only the pdftoppm binary needed by Xournal (it's included into the Xournal package itself), but I don't know what's needed from Ghostscript. But without it you can't annotate PDF. And that's the main reason for Xournal being ported to Maemo.

Test said...

Oh, and yes.. I will put it into the Maemo's garage as soon everything is stable (application point of view) and clean (packaging point of view).

kgingeri said...

Thanks for your work on this, Anidel!!!!

This is a very important app for me (and others) and I tried doing some compiling too but the dev environment/scratchbox and dependencies are sssooooo complicated - let alone packaging (obviously ;) )! :(

Again - THANKS for your hard work and perseverence!!

Test said...

Thank you guys.
I am back at work today. I hope I could dedicate some time to check out some bugs in my port:

a) it won't load PDFs for annotations (it exports to PDF, tho)

b) if I run it and let it alone, it will stay up and running for a whole night without crashing, but if I use it, after a minute or so, it dies without no apparent reason.

c) feature: try to add pressure sensitivity

Test said...

Update: I've fixed the PDF loading problem. Yeah "problem", not a bug. Xournal copies the original PDF in order to make modifications to it. The copy was made into the /tmp folder, that, in OS2008 at least, is very small.

I made a patch that copies the PDF in the same location where the original PDF is.
This is not the best solution (the memory card where the PDF is, might be read-only), but I think it's the best one for the tablet.

But I still have an issue with PDF reading: fonts. It can't find any fonts. Thus only graphics appear on the screen.
I haven't updated the Xournal binary into the repo yet, I'm trying to fix it before doing that.

I just wanted to let you know that I am working on it and getting some results.

kgingeri said...

Yes Anidel, I noticed the crashing also. Maybe a memory leak? Not destroying objects properly within main loop?? Not sure - you likely know better than I ;o)

Hey, since your into adding features :oP how about a selection and a tool bar icon -ok I know that's likely a big one!
What about making the palette toolbar button work for colour selection, instead of the arrow beside it?

Hey if you do nothing more none of us can complain! ;o)

Test said...

wel, you should ask to the Xournal developers about those features.

BTW I've released an updated version that is able to read and annotate PDFs.
It's still beta...there's still work to do.
Next I'll put it to garage so that we can have bugzilla to keep track of bugs and features Maemo/tablet related..

Anonymous said...

the only issues i see so far is that the fullscreen button on my n810 wont work with it , though if i go in the drop down menu and select fullscreen it goes fine. but button functionality is a must... im impatient lol. and the other is the major one... if i leave it alone for a minute or so the application totally closes.... not sure if it will close if im actively using the app. hope you can fix this.. this is a majorly used app for me:)

Bruce said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bruce said...

Anidel,
Thanks for your work! With regard to the bug where the full-screen key doesn't work, this may be a system issue because I have had the same problem with a re-build of SciTE text editor that I am working on. Likewise, the author of Notecase has said that the full-screen key does not work on his os2008 build though it did on os2007. If one of us finds the answer, let's share, ne?

Test said...

Thanks bruce, I'll let you know in this blog if I find the answer.
The same issues hold for the zoom buttons as well.

I haven't yet dug into the issue yet (even tho I've noticed it).

About the crash, I've noticed it the very first minute I ran it on the tablet (don't remember if it was crashing into the scratchbox env also). That'll be a pain to figure out!

However, I hope I can remove the "beta" flag to the port soon :)

Actually I'll have to contact the author too. Soon.

Anonymous said...

Is there a possibility of having a version compiled for os2007 ?

Thanks

Test said...

Sure, I will try to re-compile it to OS2007 (mistral/bora) and OS2006 (gregale, or was it mistral?) as soon as it becomes stable.

Unknown said...

IT OS 2008 on an N800, Xournal 0.4.1 install claims it was unable to install app... but app was actually installed and appears to work! Uninstall seems to work. What is going on?

Arturo Portnoy said...

same experience, app manager claims it canot install... what is going on?

Test said...

As commented in my other post, I have just installed it on a fresh upgrade of my N800 tablet and it went fine.

BTW, the first time you install it, the size should be around 14-15Mb (ghostscript is pretty heavy).

Anonymous said...

Anidel

This is a excellent piece of work. I just installed it on my N810 without any pro blems and it fired up nicely. My thanks for all your hard work.

./Colin

Anonymous said...

I tried installing today on 2 different OS2008 800's and it said unable to install..., but the menu icon was installed. However, it did not load. Thoughts?
info@cabida.com

Test said...

For whoever is getting installation problems, well.. just try again.. I truly believe it's a problem with my repository being sometimes not working fine or the Maemo ones as well...

ioan said...

Thanks! I was waiting for this app!

Anonymous said...

It occurs to me that I have a couple of suggestions for UI improvements:
-replace the zoom in/out buttons with the select rectangle and vertical space buttons
-add right click actions to the buttons to connect the pen button to pen options, eraser to eraser options, and highlighter to highlighter options.

Thanks for the button change, your effort porting Xournal is directly helping me and others!

Anonymous said...

Thanks it works a treat on my n800 with latest firmware.

Is it possible to associate .xoj files with xournal so that they can be opened from file manager?

berni at elbournb.fsnet.co.uk

Test said...

It is for sure possible, and I'll see how it can be done...
Thanks for the suggestion...

Anonymous said...

Has anybody had this problem:

xournal[6629]: GLIB WARNING ** Gtk - Unable to parse accelerator 'backspace' for action 'Delete'xournal[6629]: GLIB MESSAGE default - buildind menus failed: Failed to open file '/home/user/.xournal/xo-hildon_ui.xml': No such file or directory

Test said...

Please read post #198 of the Xournal ITt
forum thread

jonathan.dueck said...

Works great for me on my N800 / Diablo. The one issue I've got is that I'd like to move annotated PDFs between the Mac and the Nokia. This doesn't work currently, either way: when I move the annotated PDF from the Nokia to the Mac, the Mac complains that it can't find the background PDF file, and allows me to select another file, so I just select the background PDF again (both PDF and Xoj are in a directory I sync with Unison). Same problem when I move the file from the Mac to the Nokia, but the solution doesn't work: the Nokia complains it can't find the PDF background file; then it presents the dialog asking if I'd like to replace the file, but _no_ "Yes" button appears on that dialog, just a "No" Button. I click "No," and I've only got markings, no background. Is there any way to restore this functionality (of selecting another PDF background) to the Nokia version?
Cheers,
Jon