While Damien enjoys a well-earned break this fortnight, the responsibility to compile the newsletter's Repository Roundup falls to me. So please lower your expectations appropriately, but I hope you'll still find something of interest in amongst all of the many changes that have either been created or merged into the Sailfish OS codebase in the last fortnight.
- nemo-qml-plugin-calendar, for exposing calendar capabilities to the user interface, as part of dcaliste's work to improve the Calendar user interface, and in particular to add a week view, the pull request to move the all day event filtering from QML to C++ has now been merged.
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signon-plugin-oauth2, a library for helping perform OAuth2 authentication, tomin has been working on the OAuth2 support for Exchange servers, and this commit to add PKCE support and ExtraParams to plugin data for sending non-standard query items to the server adds to this, and has now been merged.
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oFono, the mobile telephony stack, slava has had his changes merged in to widen the range allowed for cell broadcast channels. These are messages sent in a specified cell, for example warning or emergency messages.
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sailfish-api-patterns, used to determine which packages will be installed on a device, mkosola has merged his pull request to remove QtWebKit, which, following its deprecation, will now no longer be installed on devices by default.
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qtwebkit5, the deprecated QtWebKit browser plugin, mal had his changes merged to fix the build which had started failing.
- amber-mpris, for allowing multimedia to be controlled using devices and from the lock screen, abranson merged his change to improve the extra metadata field support.
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nemo-qml-plugin-systemsettings, which exposes settings to the user interface, the pull request from martyone to allow charging hysteresis to be configured in the Settings app has now been merged.
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mce-dev, developer portion of mode control entity, spiiroin's pull request to add forced charging D-Bus constants, needed to allow the overriding of charging policy state on D-Bus has been merged in.
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mce, mode control entity, another pull request from spiiroin has been merged in, which allows users to override the battery ageing protection in case they want to charge the battery fully for some reason as a one-off.
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nemo-qml-plugin-systemsettings, which exposes settings to the user interface, a change from spiiroin needed to allow the Settings app to offer controls for the charging hysteresis capabilities (i.e. the battery ageing protection) has been merged in.
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usb-moded, the USB tracking daemon, gber is proposing a change to add support for the USB-PD power supply. There is currently ongoing discussion with spiiroin about it, and so the pull request is currently marked as draft. spiiroin has created his own alternative pull request that's likely to supersede it.
- There have been many new articles and changes made to docs.sailfishos.org, the official Sailfish OS developer and user documentation.
- a pull request from sage that simplifies the Open Source documentation related to Sailfish OS has been merged in.
- jovirkku has merged in a change adding instructions for how to update Sailfish OS to the documentation.
- since on Android 10
ccachemust be installed and configured explicitly, voidanix has merged in a pull request to add instructions to the documentation for how to do this. - jpwalden has merged in a troubleshooting article for device flashing.
- jpwalden had his pull request for creating an article about resetting oFono merged in.
- jovirkku has had his article for how to enable Developer Mode on-device merged into the documentation.
- jovirkku has had his article on encryption of user data merged in to the documentation.
- jpwalden has had his article on how to collect logcat logs merged into the documentation.
- jpwalden has had his article on how to collect oFono logs merged into the documentation.
- jpwalden has also had his article on how to factory reset a device merged into the documentation.
- and finally, jpwalden has had his article on User Interface Basic Concepts merged in as well.
- vige is proposing to add a page about the way Patterns and Images are used in the Sailfish OS build process.
- vige is proposing to add a dynamic table of contents to the Support and Help Articles pages.
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scratchbox2, the cross-compilation tool used by the SDK, the pull request from martyone that reverts an earlier fix that changed the tools prefix priority has been merged. The original aim was to change the tool ordering to ensure packages using Python or Perl at build time worked correctly, but the fix was found to cause problems elsewhere.
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sailfish-qtcreator, the Sailfish IDE, this update from martyone to have the
sfdkhide snapshots when thelistcommand is used unless the--snapshotsoption is added, has been merged in. -
autoconf, used for configuring build files, mal's pull request to update autoconf to version 2.71 has been merged in.
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autoconf, used for configuring build files, mal has merged in a change to fix the changelog, as part of the update to 2.71.
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scratchbox2, the cross-compilation tool used by the SDK, a pull request from mal has been merged in to automatically add
config.guessandconfig.subautomatically if needed, to support the update of autoconf to version 2.71. -
python3-yaml, YAML parser/emitter for Python, a pull request from nephros to update the package to version 5.4.1.1 has been merged in. The update mainly pulls in security fixes.
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libyaml, the "Yet Another Markup Language" parser library, nephros is proposing a pull request to update it to version 0.2, since the library is used by python3-yaml, which just received an update.
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ruby, the interpreted scripting language for quick and easy object-oriented programming, mal has merged in his pull request to update Ruby to version 2.7.6. The update mostly concerns security fixes.
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sdk-setup, part of the Sailfish SDK, vige has merged in his pull request to update the
mb2documentation to highlight the fact that the.mb2directory can be removed to stop its parent being treated like a build directory. -
sailfish-qtcreator, the Sailfish IDE, vige has also merged in a similar pull request for the Qt Creator documentation.
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ed, part of the build pipeline, mal has merged in his pull request to update ed to version 1.18, which also addresses a potential security vulnerability.
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sdk-harbour-rpmvalidator, the tool for validating apps for inclusion in the Jolla Store, mal has updated the
allowed_libraries.conffile so that it's now acceptable to link againstlibkeepalive-glib. -
sdk-harbour-rpmvalidator, the tool for validating apps for inclusion in the Jolla Store, vige has removed the deprecated QtWebKit, since this is now no longer allowed for use in the Jolla Store.
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vala, the Gnome-oriented C#-like programming language that interoperates with C, pvuorela had his pull request updating it to version 0.56.1 merged in.
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bison, the parser generator for creating context-free language parsers, pvuorela has created a pull request to update it to version 3.8.2. Bison isn't installed by default but is a useful tool for developers.
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dbus, the inter-process communication library, pvuorela has merged in his pull request to update dbus to version 1.14.4. This pulls the library from an unstable to the stable release.
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zlib, the compression library, pvuorela has also merged in his pull request to update zlib to version 1.2.13. This addresses a potential security vulnerability.
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libksba, the "Kasbah" library) for utilising X.509 certificates, mal has merged in his pull request to update libksba to version 1.6.2.
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libxslt, the XML toolkit, mal has merged in his pull request to update libxslt to version 1.1.37, which addresses a potential security vulnerability.
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libdbusaccess, providing more fine-grained D-Bus access control, slava has had his change merged in to fix the build dependencies for the package.
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libffi, a library providing a high level programming interface to various calling conventions, pvuorela had his changes merged in to update it to version 3.4.4, since it was due an update.
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gobject-introspection, for supporting GIR files, which allow GLib APIs to be introspected for language binding, pvuorela had his pull request updating it to version 1.72.1 merged in.
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libgee, the GObject data structure utility library, pvuorela merged in his pull request updating it to version 0.20.6.
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gssdp, the GLib SSDP resource discovery library, pvuorela has merged in his housekeeping pull request to make use of Vala directly, rather than libvala.
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gupnp, the GLib UPnP library, as with gssdp, pvuorela has merged in his housekeeping pull request to make use of Vala directly, rather than libvala.
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texinfo, the single-source-multiple-output-format document generator, mal has had his change merged in to update it to version 6.3.
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gpgme, allowing GunPG functionality to be easily added to other applications, mal has merged in a backported fix for use of the newer texinfo.
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cups, the standards-based printing system, mal has merged in his pull request that updates it to version 2.4.2. This addresses a number of security issues.
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cups again, mal has also had his housekeeping pull request which removes an unused source file merged in.
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mlite, the configuration storage library, neochapay has proposed a pull request to fix the build on Qt6.
It's always nice to try out new apps, and while the apps in the App Roundup this time aren't all new, all of them bar AIDA64 are new to the newsletter. The apps seem particularly appropriate as the reds and browns of autumn fade into the whites and blacks of long winter nights. Whether you're looking to virtually warm yourself on a virtual open fire, snuggle up on the sofa and project a movie from your phone, or enjoy a pint in from the cold in your local alehouse, then these apps should do the trick.
We covered the introduction of the 64-bit ARM version of AIDA64 to the Jolla Store back in September, and now we're seeing FinalWire Ltd update it again, this time with improved support for the Xperia XA2 Compact, and with improved Sailjail support. In case you're not already familiar with it, AIDA64 is an app that provides a wealth of information about your device, from battery voltage to Open GL ES capabilities, it's a mine of useful data.
Not only can you browser through the info on you phone, you can also get the app to email out a complete report of the data so that you can capture it for later review. The app is available on an impressive roster of platforms, not just Sailfish OS but also Android, iOS, Ubuntu Touch, Windows Phone and Tizen. That makes it particularly useful if you want to compare characteristics across platforms.
The latest version 2.1.1 of AIDA64 is only available from the Jolla Store, but you can also read more about it on the FinalWire website.
Qayttamaton helicalgear is billed as an unofficial UNTAPPD Client for Sailfish OS. And for those who aren't familiar with UNTAPPD, it's like FOURSQUARE for beer. And in case you aren't familiar with FOURSQUARE (or, more specifically, Foursquare Swarm) that allows you to "Check in" to places that you've visited and share this info with your friends. UNTAPPD riffs on this idea by allowing users to check in beers that they're drinking, building up a list of both beers you'd like to try, and those you've already tried.
I have to admit that I'm not an UNTAPPD user, but I can see the appeal. The app allows you to search for beers of different types to get ratings and descriptions provided by other users. If you like the look of it, add it to your wishlist. And after finding a local alehouse to test it out, check it in to add your own comment and rating for the beer. The laser focus on beers keeps things clean and simple, and the app seems to have pretty good coverage of the functionality on the official website. Beer icons, statistics and sharing are all supported. You can check your own wishlist, although lists other than the main wishlist aren't supported by the app.
But when you're out on the town after having enjoyed a few beers, complexity isn't what you'll be looking for, and Qayttamaton seems to cover the basics really well, with a clean interface that's nicely tailored for the Sailfish Silica user interface.
The latest update brings Qayttamaton to version 0.1.2. OAuth login has been improved, Sailjail permissions have been added and the internals of the app have been improved, making for a nice realise.
Qayttamaton is available only from the Jolla Store. If you're a beer connoisseur and aren't already acquainted with UNTAPPD, then I'm sure you'll appreciate checking out Qayttamaton.
Fire is a new app from prolific app author and Jolla engineer Slava Monich (slava). As we head towards the cold winter months (at least here in Finland) it's good to have a nice warm fire to snuggle up beside. While Slava's app doesn't generate real heat, so won't keep you warm on the outside, it presents a very attractive flame-like animation to keep you warm on the inside.
The flames themselves are generated using a colour indexed cellular automaton. At each frame the heat of a pixel is derived from the average of the pixel and the three pixels below it. The bottom row of pixels is randomised to create the flickering effect, and the heat is transformed using a colour index to create the glorious yellow-to-red-to-blue colouring. Not only does it create a beautiful flame-like effect, it also captures the mesmerising way a simple set of mathematical rules can generate a complex, chaotic, result.
Version 1.0.1 was the first version to arrive in the Jolla Store, swiftly followed by Sailjail-compatible version 1.0.2. You can get yourself some virtual fire from the Jolla Store, OpenRepos and Chum.
If you've ever been a bit envious of Android's ability to send audio, images and video to televisions with a Chromecast attached, then Jupii from Michal Kosciesza (mkiol) may be the app you've been looking for. By supporting UPnP (Universal Plug n Play) and DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) interoperability, Jupii is able to send just these things to any television or device that supports these same protocols.
In practice, that means that if you have a video on your phone, you can connect to your TV and play the video without having to get off the couch (assuming you have your phone on the couch with you, of course). In my testing with a JVC smart TV over a Wifi network it worked extremely well, casting videos captured with my phone to the television without any stuttering or buffering.
The app picked up the TV immediately, and items added to the playlist on my phone were playable on the TV almost immediately. I say "almost" because I had to exit out of the UPnP source on the TV and back again for it to pick up new material, but this behaviour can probably be blamed on the TV rather than the app.
Two particularly nice features of Jupii stand out. First the ease with which new devices can be found on the network. This ease is supposed to be the purpose of UPnP, but when it comes to technology the reality doesn't always live up to the hype. But in the case of UPnP and the Jupii app, the "Play" part really is just a couple of taps away (whether there's any Plugging involved will depend on whether your TV is already powered up). Second, files on your Sailfish OS device need to be explicitly shared before they become available on the TV, which should minimise the chance of your entire video, photo and audio collection being made available by accident on the network.
Jupii is available on the Jolla Store and OpenRepos, and while the version on OpenRepos is rumoured to have an even greater range of features (including YouTube, Bandcamp and Soundcloud integration), I personally found the Jolla version to be immediately useful, and worth the download.