Cygwin Gnome News

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4 March 2003
More bug fixes, and some more changes to support Windows 9x/Me. The desktop still fails to run correctly on 9x/Me because of a problem with cygwin's implementation of fork() on those platforms; hopefully that can be corrected soon. Also introduced vfork() in place of fork() whereever possible to improve performance. An important bug fix in ORBit means that all capplets now run correctly without crashing on exit.
If you strip all the .exes and .dlls to reduce their size, then the system now feels quite fast in use (I run a 800MHz Pentium 3 laptop with 256Mb memory). Startup and shutdown still take around 20-25 seconds each though.
Modified patches:
- ORBit 0.5.17
- oaf 0.6.10
- GConf 1.0.9
- gnome-vfs 1.0.5
- gnome-libs 1.4.2
- gnome-core 1.4.2
- gtkhtml 1.1.7
28 January 2003
Updated bonobo and gal, added gtkhtml. Moved these libraries from the apps page to the main page as they are now properly tested, and important for many gnome apps. Bonobo additionally has fixes to the install target so that all necessary exes are now installed.
New patches:
- gtkhtml 1.1.7
Updated packages:
- bonobo 1.0.22
- gal 0.22
22 January 2003
Fixed error in gnome-vfs that prevented it from reading directories correctly. This change appears to have fixed a number of crashes in some applets and capplets. Both the panel and the control center now appear quite stable.
Modified patches:
- gnome-vfs 1.0.5
4 January 2003
Added extra comments to home page, modified librep patch, and updated gnome-mime-data; all suggested by Rob at jesterware.org.
Modified patches:
- librep 0.15.2
Updated packages:
- gnome-mime-data 2.0.1
13 December 2002
Fixed make install error in esound. Changes in GConf which may be a step towards getting it to work on Win 9x/Me
Modified patches:
- esound 0.2.29
- GConf 1.0.9
25 November 2002
Updated many packages to the latest 1.4 release. Some changes to support the latest cygwin tools, especially gcc and bison. Now requires cygwin 1.3.16 or later, as a bug in releases 1.3.13 to 1.3.15 prevents any of the gnome services from operating correctly.
Note: the packages on the applications page have not been updated, and so may fail to build or run.
Updated packages:
- esound 0.2.29
- gnome-libs 1.4.2
- gdk-pixbuf 0.21.0
- gnome-core 1.4.2
- gnome-applets 1.4.1
- gnome-print 1.37
- gnome-pim 1.4.6
- startgnome 0.5
Modified patches:
- glib 1.2.10
- GConf 1.0.9
- oaf 0.6.10
- sawfish 1.1-gtk1
1 August 2002
Improved gnome-core patch to fix the default session. This should correct the initial startup of sawfish which many users have reported. Modified gnome-applets patch to work with the newly introduced libgtop. Fixed build problem with gedit patch. Updated gnumeric to 1.0.9. Introduced two new packages - libgtop and gtop.
autobuild no longer uses a shared config.cache file, as this was causing too many problems.
New packages:
- libgtop 1.0.13
- gtop 1.0.13
Updated packages:
- gnumeric 1.0.9
Modified patches:
- gnome-core 1.4.1
- gnome-applets 1.4.0.5
- gedit 0.9.7
27 July 2002
Improved ORBit patch to deal with a timeout problem in the gnome name service. Also includes fix by David F. which is a work-around for cygwin socket problems that were afflicting bonobo.
Updated patches:
- ORBit 0.5.17
21 July 2002
Dropped libungif as it is now an official cygwin package. Updated sylpheed to 0.8.0
Updated patches:
- sylpheed 0.8.0
Discontinued packages:
- libungif
19 July 2002
Improved anjuta patch so it builds correctly on non-ntsec systems
Modified patch:
- anjuta 0.1.9
14 July 2002
Fixed autobuild.conf entry for mc, and modified entry for sawfish so it builds on Windows ME.
12 July 2002
Updates for some build problems that sneaked in last time
Modified patches:
- ORBit 0.5.17
- bonobo 1.0.20
- gal 0.19.1
- gedit 0.9.7
- ggv 1.0.2
- gnumeric 1.0.8
- librep 0.15.2
10 July 2002
The system is now *much* more stable. A change to ORBit has fixed the panel start-up problem at last, and sawfish puts much less load on the processor than icewm resulting in a much stronger overall package. 9x/Me still does not run properly, but its closer!
Dropped icewm in favour of sawfish as default window manager. Dropped BerkeleyDB as it is now in the official cygwin distribution. Dropped Guile as it is now in the official cygwin distribution. Minor changes to accommodate cygwin 1.3.12, including new cygextras package. Minor changes to support Windows 9x/Me Revised startgnome to accommodate Windows 9x/Me
Modified patches:
- gnome-libs 1.4.1.7
- gnome-vfs 1.0.5
- mc 4.5.54
- ORBit 0.5.17
- gedit 0.9.7
- gnome-games 1.4.0.4
New packages:
- gmp 4.1
- librep 0.15.2
- rep-gtk 0.15
- sawfish 1.1-gtk1
Updated packages:
- cygextras 0.3.2
- startgnome 0.4
- esound 0.2.28
- mc 4.5.55
Discontinued packages:
- Berkeley DB
- icewm
- guile
3 July 2002
Reverted cygextras to 0.2.2, and dropped support for cygwin 1.3.11. You must now use cygwin 1.3.10. Fixed broken configure in startgnome.
Reverted patches:
- cygextras 0.2.2 (requires cygwin 1.3.10)
Updated packages:
- startgnome 0.3
29 June 2002
Updated most patches so restore the Chinese language localisations now that the official cygwin distribution includes libiconv, and the official cygwin gettext package is built with it.
26 June 2002
replaced getdelim() in cygextras as cygwin 1.3.11 does not export it after all. updated wording on index page as libiconv is now an official cygwin package.
Updated packages:
- cygextras 0.3.2
24 June 2002
Removed strptime() and getdelim() from cygextras as they are now exported from cygwin1.dll, as of cygwin 1.3.11; added gnome-user-docs and gnome-audio; updated gnumeric. Two bug fixes from David F: gal now recognises ":" as illegal in filenames and bonobo has references to ".so" replaced by ".dll". gnome-games is modified so that gnome-stones now works.
Updated packages:
- cygextras 0.3.1
- gnumeric 1.0.8
- gnome-user-docs 1.4.1.1
- gnome-audio 1.4.0
Modified patches:
- gnome-games 1.4.0.4
- gal 0.19.1
- bonobo 1.0.20
18 June 2002
First set of updates to remove dependence on ntsec, and to allow easier building of binary distributions. Also some changes made necessary by the recent (9 June) update to cygwin popt/libpopt, and fixed an error in autobuild.conf that was setting the wrong prefix for BerkelyDB.
Added check_ntsec() function (from Corinna Vinschen's cygwin port of openssh) to cygextras so that it is available to any package that needs it. Modified ORBit patch to remove dependence on ntsec by using check_ntsec(). Orbit should now operate correctly (if less securely) without ntsec - it is not yet tested on win9x/Me though. This change adds a dependency on cygextras to ORBit, so cygextras must now be built before ORBit.
libungif, gal, and cygextras are modified to allow easier building of binary distributions. Also, extra options have been added to the autobuild script, with corresponding extra entries in autobuild.conf, to allow it to produce .tar.bz2 binary packages. Note that these are not yet ready to be incorporated into the cygwin setup package scheme because the necessary post-install work has not yet been defined and automated.
The gnome-libs patch has been modified to accommodate the latest cygwin popt/libpopt. It was necessary to remove the gnome internal popt functions from gnome-support because they appear to be no longer compatible with the system libpopt. This in turn means that all packages that depend on libgnome, libgnomeui, or libgnome-support will have to be re-built so that they link against the system popt library.
Included improved startup script and instructions for starting gnome from a desktop shortcut so that error messages are redirected to a file, with the windows console hidden by the "run" utility.
Updated packages:
- cygextras 0.2.2
Modified patches:
- ORBit 0.5.17
- gal 0.9.1
- gnome-libs 1.4.1.7
- libungif 4.1.0
12 June 2002
Fixed gnome-panel-screenshot from gnome-core
Updated packages:
- sylpheed 0.7.7
Modified patches:
- gnome-core 1.4.1
10 June 2002
Updated packages:
- gnome-core 1.4.1
7 June 2002
modified gnome-core so that panel tools are now installed correctly. Updated ORBit, gnome-print and gnome-games. gnect now works correctly in gnome-games.
Updated packages:
- ORBit 0.5.17
- gnome-print 0.36
- gnome-games 1.4.0.4
Modified patches:
- gnome-core 1.4.0.8
6 June 2002
Fixed theme-selector-capplet so now you can choose different themes from the control center.
Modified patches:
- control-center 1.4.0.5
5 June 2002
fixed broken entry for db-4.0.14 in autobuild.conf (thanks to Sergey Ivanov for reporting this). Updated ORBit to 0.5.16 and gnumeric to 1.0.7
Updated packages:
- ORBit 0.5.16
- gnumeric 1.0.7
24 May 2002
fixed broken install target in audiofile-0.2.3. Fixed broken link on index page
Modified patches:
- audiofile-0.2.3
23 May 2002
Fixed broken website directory structure!
Updated gnome-libs and audiofile to the latest stable releases. Moved to BerkeleyDB 4 as gnome-libs configure now finds it correctly. Improved the glib patch by including some windows code from glib2 - this enables g_module_open(NULL) so that all symbols in loaded DLLs can be found by g_module_sym(), however symbols in the EXE are still not found.
Updated packages:
- audiofile 0.2.3
- db 4.0.14
- gnome-libs 1.4.1.7
Modified package:
- glib 1.2.10
21 May 2002
Added a few new simple apps.
17 May 2002
Added applications page with a selection of useful apps. Modified autobuild script to accomodate guile.
14 May 2002
Panel improved so that it can start up successfully with more than 2 applets. I have had to serialise the startup of applets (normally they are started asynchronously) to avoid the socket management problems that were causing the crashes. The system now feels much more robust, although startup can still occasionally fail if sockets are not closed down and tidied up correctly from the previous run.
Modified patch:
- gnome-core 1.4.0.8
8 May 2002
Following reports of build errors involving libpng and pkgconfig, I have done a complete re-build against the latest cygwin distribution (as downloaded yesterday, 7 May). I found that some modifications to the configure instructions were necessary, and have updated autobuild.conf and the webpage accordingly.
Modified gnome-core patch to improve applet support (shared library applets are now working, but the panel still fails on startup if more than 2 external applets are loaded); and gnome-vfs to fix the desktop module configuration. If you have configured a suitable browser (I tested it with dillo) then the default desktop links to gnome news and slashdot now work properly.
Modified patches:
- gnome-vfs-1.0.5
- gnome-core-1.4.0.8
6 May 2002
Updated package:
- esound-0.2.26
2 May 2002
Removed pkgconfig from the patches and list of packages to build, because the latest cygwin release of pkgconfig (version 0.12.0) works fine with gnome-vfs 1.0.5 so there is no need for the out-of-date copy here. Users who have my patched version installed should uninstall it and use the "official" cygwin pkgconfig instead.
1 May 2002
More changes to autobuild.conf, this time to gnome-core and gnome-libs, to accommodate the new libpng. Also updated the patches table on the index page to reflect these changes.
30 April 2002
Modified autobuild.conf to correct problems with imlib and gdk-pixbuf using the latest png package. Updated package:
- gnome-core 1.4.0.8
29 April 2002
Updated gnome-libs to 1.4.1.6
27 April 2002
Updated esound to 0.2.25. Minor improvements to ORBit and gnome-libs patches.
Updated package:
- esound 0.2.25
Modified packages:
- ORBit 0.5.15
- gnome-libs 1.4.1.5
24 April 2002
Fixed broken link to cygextras.tar.gz (thanks Tim). Updated gnome-core to 1.4.0.7
Updated package:
- gnome-core 1.4.0.7
22 April 2002
Fixed error in default panel that was giving warning messages "Unknown applet type" on first startup. Added missing include of sys/types.h before include of regex.h as latest cygwin regex package requires this (as does susv2). Made strptime MT-safe.
Modified patches:
- gnome-core 1.4.0.6
- gnome-applets 1.4.0.5
Updated source:
- cygextras 0.2
21 April 2002
This time, icewm really is defined as the default session window manager.
Modified patch:
- gnome-core 1.4.0.6
20 April 2002
Fixed some errors in my patch for glib.
Modified patch:
- glib 1.2.10
19 April 2002
Fixed some problems with previous update, added new package glade.
It is now required to build and install icewm with the patch here because the default session now starts it explicitly as the window manager. Hopefully, at last, a default build will be sufficient to get a gnome desktop running first time for most users.

New package:
- glade 0.6.4
Modified patches:
- control-center 1.4.0.5
  Fixed error in patch so that .exe files are now installed correctly
  (thanks to Sergey Ivanov for finding this)
- gnome-core 1.4.0.6
  Changed default session again so that icewm is started explicitly. This is because too many people were having problems getting gnome to start reliably with the previous approach. Downside is that icewm is now a required component.
- gnome-games 1.4.0.3
  Update to allow compilation of aisleriot if guile is installed.
17 April 2002
Updated package:
- oaf 0.6.10
15 April 2002
Updated packages:
- control-center 1.4.0.5
- gnome-libs 1.4.1.5
- ImageMagick 5.4.4
Added new patch:
- icewm 1.0.9
This patch modifies the default settings so that icewm is ready-to-use with cygwin-gnome. It sets the default theme to gtk2, enables auto-detection of a running gnome session, and turns off the icewm taskbar. It also links with gdk_imlib so that windows display the gnome icon rather than the default X icon.
14 April 2002
The ntlworld web server was unhelpfully ungzipping the patch files on download, causing confusion all round. As I cannot turn off this behaviour, I have had to replace the gzip files with plain patch files. Thanks to Mark Jones for reporting this.
The .tar.gz containing all patches and build script is unaffected.
Added note on need to use ntsec. Thanks to Jack Larsen for discovering this.
12 April 2002
Extended the patch for gnome-core so that it modifies some of the default config settings that are used on first startup. The session now only starts programs that are installed from this site and are known to be working. This includes the default window manager program, which will look for a known wm in the PATH. A correctly configured and installed icewm will do fine. Hopefully now more users will get a successful first startup without having to change any of the default config.
11 April 2002
Found problem with glib: reading /etc/passwd caused buffer overrun with consequent data corruption. Fixed patch to correct this.
10 April 2002
Added notes on building icewm
Corrected chinese language name reference
6 April 2002
Fixed libungif patch so that it installs the dll correctly (thanks to Sergey Ivanov)
5 April 2002
Added notes on using icewm
4 April 2002
Added missing links to pkgconfig
Added note on rebasing
2 April 2002
Fixed problem with autobuild script in cygwin-gnome-patches.tar.gz
1 April 2002
First release

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