nxcl/qtnx (open-source NX client) in portage, freenx new release

After the live ebuild version in the NX overlay, I’ve added the newly released 0.9 version of nxcl (base library)/qtnx (QT4 front-end), a GPL client for NX servers. For now I’ve keyworded them on x86 and amd64 (where I could test them), but who knows, it may work on other arches, where the official nxclient is not available!

Be warned that some options may be missing or incomplete, when compared to nxclient. But all the basics are there 🙂

In the meantime, a new FreeNX release (0.7.2) was made available. While some changes were already backported in Gentoo 0.7.1 ebuild, there are quite a few new features. Fabian Franz (main FreeNX dev, who does a great work) has posted the (long because of all the new features) announcement on the mailing list here. Here are some new features I picked up:

  • new helper program that should help for VNC sessions
  • slave mod is usable (think “This dramatically reduces session login times and makes single sign on possible”)
  • new samba sharing system (sharing and remote printing)
  • New “nxsetup –test” command: this one will help a lot if you have an incorrect sshd conf for example
  • lots of bugfixes

I’m preparing the version bump in portage, hopefully you will get it in a few days (new installation method, patches to update/remove/…). Stay tuned! EDIT: nxserver-freenx-0.7.2 is now in portage, enjoy!

Time does fly by

The LDAP infos on Gentoo dev server confirm it:

gentooJoin: 2007/03/13

So it’s been a year since I officialy joined Gentoo developers, after discovering gentoo, the forums, trying n amd64 installation with a 2004.3 CD, harassing bugzilla (and giving jakub some work) for some time… 😉

NX does not take much of my time anymore, mostly revision bumps. I still need to write some documentation on this great piece of software (oh and add ebuilds to portage for qtnx, an open-source client I mentioned earlier).

After some work and eclass rewrite, GNUstep in Gentoo is in a much better shape: a few bugs are still opened, but most of the packages work fine now.

What’s been great so far? Well most importantly: the Gentoo people. And I mean both developers and users. Developers with their knowledge, motivation, counseling, … Users that report problems, fill bugs, help other users (forums, IRC), …

Ok now happy Gentoo birthday me, and back to work 😉