Re: [Trisquel-users] Anyone else frustrated in lack of WebM content and WebM quality on YouTube?
THERE ARE OBVIOUS ECONOMIC BENEFITS TO THE PRODUCTION OF THEIR GOODS IN CHINA OR ASIA, BUT SHOULD ALSO BE WELL AWARE OF THE QUALITY ISSUES THAT MAY ARISE. ALTHOUGH THE RACISM OF THE PAST ON SHODDY GOODS PRODUCED IN CHINA OR ASIA WERE MORE AMERICAN PROPAGANDA HARD FACTS. Quality Control Of India
Re: [Trisquel-users] What's so special about identi.ca?
But I need to get my photos and videos first, they're precious to me.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Goodbye Abrowser, Long Live Abrowser
I tried, it looks very nice, I like it! Thnks
[Trisquel-users] Ututo gnu linux
hi What happened to Ututo gnu linux??? Is still alive?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Free Driver for Ralink RT2790?
A big IANAL here. We're coming at this from different angles. Yes non-free drivers are a GPL violation. However, these drivers and firmware (or at least the ones I've tried) are click-through licensed by Mediatek under the GPL and you seem to idicate some of the source confirms that too. So looking here: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#DeveloperViolate a developer can't violate the GPL. Thus the code such as it is, even without the blob source, is probably technically GPL if e.g. click through licensing works where you are. Therefore you have the four freedoms including to study, modify and create derivative versions. So logically a reverse complied version would just be a derivative of their binary original. The Linux-libre deblobbing script says pretty much this of some blobs it removes. There's a chance it's a blob for exactly the same reason jxself's linux-libre debs are Bring Your Own Firmware and the latest Atheros firmware was a special packaging effort for Ruben. That is compiling firmware to microcontroller object code is not integrated into the standard Linux compile process. But don't bet on it. With SoCs, the chip design components for the internal devices are licensed from a variety of sources complete with driver. So they'll only have binary drivers for some devices in them to start with. As with another SoC mfr it might be Team A builds a distinct type of SoC and does GPL compliance one way, and Team B builds a different type and doesn't do GPL at all. All the web shows you is Team B perhaps. So given the chances of someone from a free software distro writing to them before is limited, do as you suggest write. But all you can do is ask for the source for the blobs (perhaps saying its to save you reverse compiling them as they've allowed under GPl). It's perhaps best to bear in mind the Chinese have a social taboo against admitting they got something wrong 'losing face.' So you probably shouldn't tell them they have, e.g. the one which the source says is an unpublished work, perhaps say something like the server has a bug and is serving their pre-release code. Even if you send your email to one of their Western offices if it gets any attention they could well forward it to someone Chinese perhaps even to the team who will be in China. Lastly hardware companies tend to be like Mick Jagger and not get out of bed for less than a million(units). So assuming your request gets translated and put in the right team's inbox likely you'll be at the bottom of the list after all the paying customers for support attention.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Free Driver for Ralink RT2790?
Yeah, I don't think we can get it. On the other hand, the Ralink firmware blobs are the smallest in the whole linux-firmware.git tree. And a developer of rt2x00 said "One of the things I like about the Ralink hardware is that almost everything that really matters is handled in software. Only the things that are very timing-specific are handled in the hardware/firmware. I am not encouraging reverse engineering, and I see no point in doing this for the Ralink firmware, since the most interesting features for the hardware can simply be implemented in the driver software itself." [0] So this might be easier to reverse engineer than other blobs. Of course, reverse engineering is not easy, but it might be possible. [0] http://archive09.linux.com/feature/132701
[Trisquel-users] Re : Ututo gnu linux
Last December, the FSF thought the project was dead but it turned out to be wrong (see the "update" at the top of the post): https://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/upcoming-changes-for-ututo That said, it certainly is a bad idea to use their outdated last release.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Free Driver for Ralink RT2790?
I think the way we're phrasing this is off. Quite a bit of GPL licensed code violates the principles of the GPL and free software movement. This is something that distinguishes the free software movement from the "open source" movement. "open source" proponent have no problem with non-free pieces as the goal is purely to code more efficiently (code reuse where its beneficial and non-free code where it isn't). CodeWeaver's CrossOver Linux is a good example of a piece of software that is "open source". It is based off of mostly free software, but has a non-free user interface that runs on top of the free software piece (WINE) to make it easier to configure/use MS Windows software (keep in mind some MS Windows-only software is 100% free, but only runs on the non-free platform, and therefore needs WINE). Ralink and most companies developing GPL licensed drivers are doing something similar although in a reverse fashion. Instead of making the interference proprietary they make the core proprietary. This is worse because now the software is totally useless. Unlike with WINE / CrossOver Linux it is at least possible to utilize the software without the non-free parts. That is not the case with drives that depend on non-free firmware. Ralink and most other companies developing drivers dependent on firmware have not released the code because the "open source" community isn't demanding it. Unfortunately Linus Torvalds (the lead kernel developer) has taken a stance that he doesn't care. This has lead to an undesirable situation where companies are less cooperative than they probably otherwise would be. It's so bad in many cases that even Linus has gotten upset and yelled out at times. Personally I think it is in part his own doing in his support of the "open source" movement. While it can be argued that the "open source" movement is the reason we have many of the drivers that we do it can also be argued it's why we have many of the problems we do. In any event Ralink has been uncooperative in the full release of source. While the driver is under a GNU GPL license it's not free software as the source consists of a binary-only (and thus not free despite it being under the GNU GPL) component. That violates the spirit of the GNU GPL license. What you should take from all this is that GNU GPL licensed work is not sufficient to make something free software in its entirety. While in many cases the free software community gains some benefit from partly free software it gains nothing in other cases (as it is in this case, with drivers). In most cases the GNU GPL licensed driver has separate firmware, but in other cases, like the Ralink drivers that firmware is non-free and embedded within the free code and thus not really free (and particularly not in any useful way).
Re: [Trisquel-users] Free Driver for Ralink RT2790?
"In most cases the GNU GPL licensed driver has separate firmware, but in other cases, like the Ralink drivers that firmware is non-free and embedded within the free code and thus not really free (and particularly not in any useful way)." The drivers on Mediatek website are the old drivers that have the firmware embedded. The rt2x00 drivers, which were made with the help of Ralink and are of higher quality, use a separate firmware blob. I read a quote from a rt2x00 dev who said that, in the case of Ralink, most things are actually done in the driver, and the firmware only handles what is really needed. So I guess the situation is better than other chips that require nonfree firmware.
[Trisquel-users] Kongoni GNU/Linux
Hello, Anyone have any experience using Kongoni? Apparently it's free as in freedom but it's not endorsed by the FSF. It looks impressive but it seems to be dormant at the moment. Hopefully it will come back to life because it looks user friendly and we could do with more user friendly free as in freedom OS's like Trisquel. The more the merrier!! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kongoni_(operating_system)
[Trisquel-users] Abrowser 30 slow html5 video
Hey every one. I'm having a problem with abrowser 30 that I didn't use to have with previous versions. Now, after watching a video on youtube using the html5 player for a while, the video starts playing choppy and slow, although the audio sounds right. It even takes a while for the video to stop when I click on pause. Something that I notice is that the buffing circular thing that appears when the video is loading is shown a lot while the video is still playing. I've tried to make a new abrowser profile but this didn't solve the problem, so I'm sure is not any addon or history issue. It seems like this happens when watching the video in "720p HD", I'll keep testing and let you know because I'm not so sure. Thanks.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Free Driver for Ralink RT2790?
I'm going to provide a bit of information on what chipsets are free software friendly and contain no non-free parts (embedded or otherwise) in most cases: RTL8187L/RTL8187B/RTL8187 - USB G wireless Adapters AR9271/AR9170/AR7010+AR9280 - USB N Wireless Adapters AR9280/AR9281/AR9285/AR9287 - PCI/PCI Express Wireless N Cards (desktop and laptop cards) All newer Atheros chipsets are dependent on non-free firmware (All PCI/PCI Express Cards) at this time. ath6kl which supports Atheros AR600x 802.11n series chipsets are dependent on a non-free firmware component. Other things to note: The chipset info in and of itself isn't really enough to go on. It can be useful to identifying hardware that is free software friendly. However some components may have a different ID number thats not included in the driver and thus not compatible. Other things you can come across are adapters/hardware where the design is based on a given chipset, but there are significant deviations which make the kernel driver incompatible with the hardware. In other cases there are more than one chipset on a card and one of those chipsets depends on a non-free driver. Don't get confused. Just because your wifi card works doesn't mean it's totally free. In other cases you may get confused because the firmware was loaded by your non-free MS Windows OS, Ubuntu, or similar. While the device worked in Trisquel/Parabola GNU/Linux/etc it was only because you accidentally loaded the non-free firmware. Model numbers don't equal chipsets. When someone says model XYZ of something utilizes a free chipset that doesn't make it so. What they should have said is that at least one version of the model utilizes a free chipset. In many instances there are dozens of different, but similar releases that use the same model #. That means totally different driver/firmware/etc. In many cases where a chipset is advertised the product actually contains something else. What happened was the company which manufactured it included the info in the advertising somewhere. That was copied to a sellers product information page. The manufacturer then changed the chipset(s) in the product and failed to update the site, or the seller didn't get told that the product changed. As the model number remains the same you have no idea what your actually getting even in cases where you think you do because the information's been specified. Another big thing to concern yourself with is digital restrictions in laptops. Particularly on the Mini PCI/e slot where the wifi card goes. As an example even if you can 'free' (and we'll be talking specifically about some or all of the BIOS here and not other bits of non-free code found elsewhere) a laptop your still promoting a company that enables this bad practice. Not good. Specifically the companies that do this I'll call out here: Lenovo/IBM, HP, Dell, Sony, Apple, and Toshiba. Don't buy from them. That's my thought on this. There may be other issues with other companies, but at least those companies aren't implementing digital restrictions. One last thing about the Lenovo laptops. Not only do we know Lenovo uses digital restrictions (and was the first to start using them) there is yet another reason to avoid Lenovo. A member of the free software community who I bump into regularly and know well has identified code in Lenovo laptops which communicates (via encrypted means) information about its user. Simply flashing libreboot is not enough to eliminate this spyware. While we don't know exactly what information is being communicated at this time it's another reason we should be avoiding Lenovo/IBM laptops altogether rather than working on freeing them. Reverse engineering is a good idea in some cases. However when it involves doing so to a line of laptops from a company that is hindering free software adoption I feel it should be avoided. There is no good reason in my mind for furthering entrenching said company's reputation in the eyes of other users. A 100% free laptop which is recognizable is still promoting a bad company. It's furthering the brand recondition and that is bad. It's intolerable.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Free Driver for Ralink RT2790?
Where is that Lenovo spyware located: in BIOS or firmware of another chip? I know two related issues: spyware in their BIOS (replaced by coreboot/libreboot) and ME firmware in all models since X61 (while only X60 is supported by libreboot), this one is different. Avoiding laptop manufacturers that are "hindering free software adoption" requires using nonfree software (which cannot be replaced for e.g. post-GM45 Intel chipsets) or buying old computers without much hope for future products, it's not a clearly superior solution. pgpsMGKouI2Qi.pgp Description: PGP signature
[Trisquel-users] What maintainted add-on is similar to this?
https://trisquel.info/en/browser/addons/aging-tabs Tried to install it but it is outdated and uncompatible with my updated Abrowser. Are there similar add-ons? Thanks!
Re: [Trisquel-users] Searching for Open Wifi
I actually just posted on this. I believe this is a near complete list of the 802.11n wireless chipsets that are free software friendly: RTL8187L/RTL8187B/RTL8187 - USB G wireless Adapters AR9271/AR9170/AR7010+AR9280 - USB N Wireless Adapters AR9280/AR9281/AR9285/AR9287 - PCI/PCI Express Wireless N Cards (desktop and laptop cards) * There is one Broadcom chipset left off the list that is also free software friendly technically although from my understanding/recollection its not a good choice. It's a PCI/PCIe chipset. One of the developers advised me against using it. This was a developer who actually worked at and did the work on behalf of Broadcom (from what I recall/understand). That said there is at least one user here whose been using it without issue. A user of one though isn't really a good evaluation to go off. Given the combined info I have on it from various sources/people/etc I'd advise not using it and going with one of the other chipsets. I'd also advise against the AR9170 chipset at this time even though it is a good free software friendly chipset. It's based on an older draft N spec and may/does not work as well with some routers. http://libre.thinkpenguin.com/ You can find the wifi adapters amongst other free software friendly hardware with the above chipsets at the above site. You can order from a US or UK warehouse with shipment almost anywhere. If you do order 25% of the profits will go to the Trisquel project too. * Disclaimer: I'm the CEO of the company above.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Kongoni GNU/Linux
Not a good sign: The website is now being used by someone else for some other computer-related business. I don't know if it's the old maintainer or not, but it definitely isn't being used for the distro. Too bad. A fully free Slackware would be nice.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Abrowser 30 slow html5 video
Well, this seems to happen only on full screen. Exiting the full screen doesn't fix the problem thought. Refreshing the page does momentarily, until the problem comes again after a while.
Re: [Trisquel-users] What maintainted add-on is similar to this?
You can try maxversion bumping it, see e.g. https://web.archive.org/web/20080701223109/http://forum.addonsmirror.net/index.php?showtopic=973#post-member-3818
Re: [Trisquel-users] Free Driver for Ralink RT2790?
I'm not sure. Lenovo systems though have a number of different firmware pieces. Simply flashing LibreBoot doesn't fix it. That much I know. You might be able to write over it or something similar. It doesn't solve the problem that it exists in the first place though. I think your missing something in what I'm saying. We have two options and we're taking the least desirable path right now. Option 1: Free laptops from companies hostile to free software adoption like Lenovo and Apple Option 2: Free laptops from companies that have not been hostile to free software adoption (at a minimum are not implementing digital restrictions or other spyware) Your drawing a conclusion that I'm saying adoption of hardware dependent on non-free software is superior to that of one not. I think flashing a free BIOS on a Lenovo laptop is more of a wash than anything. While its better than a non-free BIOS it's not moving us any further along.
[Trisquel-users] Can't freakin' comment on an awesome YouTube video! :(
Trying to comment as well as being first :D on this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6LU_kUwySI
Re: [Trisquel-users] Abrowser 30 slow html5 video
Yes confirm, this only happens in "720p HD" on full screen. 360p works fine at full screen.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Abrowser 30 slow html5 video
I have notice that html5 videos in abrowser seem to require kind of a lot from the computer, specially in small netbook computers, but this is the first time happing with my laptop. Using linterna magica or even downloading the same videos played with totem plays smoothly at 720p even in old computers. So I wonder why abrowser has so many problems playing webm videos. oh well, hopefully could give me some ideas.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Free Driver for Ralink RT2790?
Unless we want free boot firmware, we should choose option 2, boycott Apple and Lenovo. If we want free boot firmware, we need laptops similar to ones for which hard reverse engineering work was done, like Lenovo X60 or the Apple laptop using similar chips. A modified Lenovo laptop being the only FSF-endorsed one isn't good. I think it will motivate people to get X60 for use with the proprietary BIOS (and wifi whitelist) or newer Lenovo laptops with proprietary BIOS and AMT. Users already buy AMD systems after reading the FSF page on how Intel opposes free boot firmware (and get the usual graphics issues due to missing blobs). Currently no solution is much better than others, much work is needed to change this, probably via reverse engineering for non-Intel systems. pgpsQNlOPKYwC.pgp Description: PGP signature
[Trisquel-users] Re : Kongoni GNU/Linux
I tried what probably was the first version of Kongoni GNU/Linux. The package management was *horrible*: extremely slow, very few packages, buggy GUI. If I recall well, the project later included some proprietary software. Adobe Flash I believe. Anyway, the project looks dead now.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Abrowser 30 slow html5 video
I found the following solution: http://superuser.com/questions/741355/html5-video-playback-is-choppy-and-corrupted-in-firefox Just go to edit>preferences>advance tap and disable "Use hardware acceleration when available". Maybe this could help in old computers and netbook. I think I should have made the tittle of this post more specifically like "Youtube html5 video choppy" or something. Hope it helps some one out there. Thank you all :)
[Trisquel-users] BLAG Linux and GNU
hi What happened to BLAG Linux and GNU Is still alive?
Re: [Trisquel-users] BLAG Linux and GNU
You're probably new to the Free Software world?
Re: [Trisquel-users] BLAG Linux and GNU
no I old to the Free Software world but Busy with programming
Re: [Trisquel-users] Free Driver for Ralink RT2790?
Yea- ultimately the best solution is neither of the above. The best solution is to move away from x86. I think we would need a more coordinated effort to do that. We need 1. people with reverse engineering skills, 2. people with some development background/packaging skills (Rubén a.k.a. quidam is a good example), 3. demand, and 4. financial resources, 5. hardware engineers, 6. companies that are actually designing the chipsets cooperation, and 7. cooperation from a company capable of doing the actual manufacturing. I think we could probably muster up 1, 2, 5, possibly 6, and 7. 3,4 might be more challenging. I don't think there is going to be enough user demand. People are just too particular and want something very specific. That's just not going to be what they get. They're going to get whatever the most desired feature set is/and or what we're actually capable of doing given the above resources.
Re: [Trisquel-users] BLAG Linux and GNU
Distrowatch has a "Pre-Alpha" from May of this year and lists the status as "Active". The previous release looks to have been 2011. I hope this means it's being picked back up.
[Trisquel-users] Re : BLAG Linux and GNU
Blag is back on track. Jeff Moe left it but, after an uncertain period, the community managed to release version 140k (based on Fedora 14). It was admittedly quite some time ago. However 200k (based on Fedora 20) should be released soon: http://forums.blagblagblag.org/viewtopic.php?t=5619
[Trisquel-users] I connected my Android phone and can't see it in file explorer.
I want to snyc my music.
Re: [Trisquel-users] I connected my Android phone and can't see it in file explorer.
You may want to check out Replicant. It's a free android replacement. Android is not free. That said if you can't sync your phone you may be able to utilize a microsd card reader instead.
Re: [Trisquel-users] I connected my Android phone and can't see it in file explorer.
Has your phone got an option (usually accessible through notifications on mine) to either only recharge the phone with the USB connection or to make the phone treat itself as a storage dive?
Re: [Trisquel-users] Can't freakin' comment on an awesome YouTube video! :(
Commenting on Youtube requires 3rd-party cookies, which is a security flaw, because it leaks data about your web browsing to those 3rd-party web sites. The following is a message from an apparent Google tech-support guy: "Yes, I agree that it should be fixed, but it's not going to be a quick or easy fix. I suspect that when the new system was developed, nobody stopped to consider whether third-party cookie filtering might pose a problem. It's not a bug -- that is, it's not a mistake in the code that's making it behave wrongly -- but a design flaw, and fixing design flaws means redesigning something. If YouTube and Google+ can't use cookies to communicate, that will have to scrapped and replaced by a server-side solution. FWIW, I know that the folks at YouTube are now aware that this is an issue." That post was made way back on 2013-12-16. The whole thread is here: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topicsearchin/youtube/unable$20to$20comment|sort:relevance|spell:true/youtube/AUNr4ikX9pU I've tried to enable exceptions to the 3rd-party cookie block, but Abrowser doesn't seem to allow that. That's probably a good thing.
Re: [Trisquel-users] Abrowser 30 slow html5 video
If you use ViewTube Greasemonkey script you can watch the videos using VLC, Totem or other video players. http://isebaro.com/viewtube/?ln=en
Re: [Trisquel-users] BLAG Linux and GNU
Great to hear that. BLAG did some nice work on Linux-libre.
