Re: Wine/USB, was: Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-16 Thread Damjan Jovanovic
On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 2:38 PM, Uwe Bonnes
 wrote:
>> "Damjan" == Damjan Jovanovic  writes:
>
>    Damjan> So it's slow going and there's a lot to do, and few Wine
>    Damjan> developers seem to care. One can only hope that when some
>    Damjan> devices start working, it will generate new interest in Wine
>    Damjan> (and Linux), and Wine will get many more patches :-).
>
> Damjan,
>
> do you have a GIT tree to test with some easily available device to play
> with and some rmearks what to expect and what to expect not?
>
> Lowering the entry barriere might help finding additional interest...
>
> Bye
>
> --
> Uwe Bonnes                b...@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de
>
> Institut fuer Kernphysik  Schlossgartenstrasse 9  64289 Darmstadt
> - Tel. 06151 162516  Fax. 06151 164321 --
>

When I have a Git tree that does something interesting, I will post back.

Damjan




Wine/USB, was: Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-16 Thread Uwe Bonnes
> "Damjan" == Damjan Jovanovic  writes:

Damjan> So it's slow going and there's a lot to do, and few Wine
Damjan> developers seem to care. One can only hope that when some
Damjan> devices start working, it will generate new interest in Wine
Damjan> (and Linux), and Wine will get many more patches :-).

Damjan,

do you have a GIT tree to test with some easily available device to play
with and some rmearks what to expect and what to expect not?

Lowering the entry barriere might help finding additional interest...

Bye

-- 
Uwe Bonnesb...@elektron.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de

Institut fuer Kernphysik  Schlossgartenstrasse 9  64289 Darmstadt
- Tel. 06151 162516  Fax. 06151 164321 --




Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-05 Thread Maarten Lankhorst
Hey,

On 07/05/2011 10:49 AM, Charles Davis wrote:
> On 7/5/11 2:23 AM, Damjan Jovanovic wrote:
>> On Tue, Jul 5, 2011 at 10:13 AM, Stefan Dösinger  
>> wrote:
>>> Do we need full-fledged support for USB drivers for iTunes? I've been told 
>>> in
>>> the past that all we need to do is properly report the new USB drive to 
>>> iTunes
>>> when an iPod is attached, and can leave the USB mass storage handling to the
>>> Linuy OS. Of course "properly reporting" isn't as simple as creating a drive
>>> letter and setting its type to USB drive.
>>>
>>> I'm sorry to interrupt this nice project management discussion by throwing 
>>> in
>>> a technical question :-)
>>>
>>>
>> It used to work that way, but Dan Kegel's analysis of a recent version
>> of iTunes seems to indicate it now pulls in USBD.SYS. Maybe they
>> changed it or maybe they now do direct USB I/O in addition to going
>> through the mass storage interface?
> I have a Mac, and an iPod Touch. When I plug the iPod in, it doesn't
> show up as an external disk in the Finder. So on Mac, iTunes definitely
> does direct USB I/O. It's probably safe to assume it does on Windows, too.
There are 2 ways really. Old ipods used usb mass storage which I had working at 
1 point, but in a hacky way. ipod touch and iphone need direct usb, which never 
worked.

~Maarten




Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-05 Thread Saulius Krasuckas
Perhaps such response is due to my language barrier, but...

* On Mon, 4 Jul 2011, Keith Curtis wrote:
> 
> I bring up Linus because he can focus efforts. You don't need Linus. You
> just need the same result -- focused efforts. There is another name for this
> concept -- teams. Maybe WINE needs sub-teams?

Keith, maybe you should contact Codeweavers to persuade the right persons? 
:)

> However, you have accomplished so much already. Year after year, you 
> accomplish more, and yet you just think that it is hopeless or 
> something.

What makes you say the last part (mentioning hopelessness)?

> And one worthy goal is iTunes runs better than on Windows. If you had 
> that as a goal 5 years ago, you would have succeeded by now. 

Then 64-bit Wine port, DIB engine/rewrite wouldn't be started; XI2, 
XRender, Xcursor support, IO completion ports wouldn't have been born; 
Winsock, OpenGL in child windows, Systray would work in much buggier way; 
and APC would fail in addition to 16-32 bit thunking issues.

I've forgot to mention countless fixes for window handling subsystem (in 
managend and unmanaged mode), COM mechanisms such as proxy delegations, 
marshaling, stubless proxies, RPC, Widl, X11 CopyPaste support, Inetcomm, 
Winhttp, implementations.  Plus ton of Unicode fixes.

All that would stay broken / unfixed / unimplemented.  But iTunes would 
probably work (in possibly wrongly architectured way).

Would such tradeoff be OK for the community?
No offense, but I doubt it.

> I understand that WINE has many apps that you want to work. You are doing
> well. It is just missing some features that are not being caught by your
> random work. I know you'll get there, in the next 10 years. Perhaps by the
> time Apple no longer matters you'll have it working.

BTW, Keith, could you please estimate how much people / work hrs were used 
to make XP a final product + produce security fixes?  (And that's counting 
25 years!)

I guess a lot more people / hrs than it is used for Wine.
My rough guess is 10 times.

In the case of Linux kernel, it is very different game, IMHO.
(less restrictions and INSANE compatibility issues:)

But you could always contact our "dictator-in-chief" Alexandre to hear the 
last decision on project managament:)


My two cents,
S.




Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-05 Thread Charles Davis
On 7/5/11 2:23 AM, Damjan Jovanovic wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 5, 2011 at 10:13 AM, Stefan Dösinger  
> wrote:
>> Do we need full-fledged support for USB drivers for iTunes? I've been told in
>> the past that all we need to do is properly report the new USB drive to 
>> iTunes
>> when an iPod is attached, and can leave the USB mass storage handling to the
>> Linuy OS. Of course "properly reporting" isn't as simple as creating a drive
>> letter and setting its type to USB drive.
>>
>> I'm sorry to interrupt this nice project management discussion by throwing in
>> a technical question :-)
>>
>>
> 
> It used to work that way, but Dan Kegel's analysis of a recent version
> of iTunes seems to indicate it now pulls in USBD.SYS. Maybe they
> changed it or maybe they now do direct USB I/O in addition to going
> through the mass storage interface?
I have a Mac, and an iPod Touch. When I plug the iPod in, it doesn't
show up as an external disk in the Finder. So on Mac, iTunes definitely
does direct USB I/O. It's probably safe to assume it does on Windows, too.

Chip





Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-05 Thread Damjan Jovanovic
On Tue, Jul 5, 2011 at 10:13 AM, Stefan Dösinger  wrote:
> On Tuesday 05 July 2011 06:13:32 Damjan Jovanovic wrote:
>> fix requires device drivers, changes to multiple systems, knowledge of
>> Windows and Wine internals -> W is large
> Do we need full-fledged support for USB drivers for iTunes? I've been told in
> the past that all we need to do is properly report the new USB drive to iTunes
> when an iPod is attached, and can leave the USB mass storage handling to the
> Linuy OS. Of course "properly reporting" isn't as simple as creating a drive
> letter and setting its type to USB drive.
>
> I'm sorry to interrupt this nice project management discussion by throwing in
> a technical question :-)
>
>

It used to work that way, but Dan Kegel's analysis of a recent version
of iTunes seems to indicate it now pulls in USBD.SYS. Maybe they
changed it or maybe they now do direct USB I/O in addition to going
through the mass storage interface?




Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-05 Thread Stefan Dösinger
On Tuesday 05 July 2011 06:13:32 Damjan Jovanovic wrote:
> fix requires device drivers, changes to multiple systems, knowledge of
> Windows and Wine internals -> W is large
Do we need full-fledged support for USB drivers for iTunes? I've been told in 
the past that all we need to do is properly report the new USB drive to iTunes 
when an iPod is attached, and can leave the USB mass storage handling to the 
Linuy OS. Of course "properly reporting" isn't as simple as creating a drive 
letter and setting its type to USB drive.

I'm sorry to interrupt this nice project management discussion by throwing in 
a technical question :-)



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Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-04 Thread Damjan Jovanovic
On Tue, Jul 5, 2011 at 4:50 AM, Keith Curtis  wrote:
> None of the Linux kernel developers are paid by Linus nor can be fired by
> him. Linus never forces people to respond to his mails or to work on
> anything. What has happened is that the team has realized that having goals
> and leadership has led to good results, and Linus is a good leader, and so
> they follow along. If Linus says something needs to be worked on, it
> happens. The rest of the people keep doing their own work.
>
> I'm not suggesting to force people to work on iTunes. However, it shouldn't
> take too much prodding for people to want Linux to work with one of the most
> important hardware product lines.
>
> It is sad that Linux in 2011 cannot run iTunes. This is the fault of WINE
> and Apple. Maybe the work has been slow. I can't speak to how quickly you
> are moving, only the results. I have read through your code some years ago.
> The software that existed was high quality. You keep getting bigger and
> better.

It's easy for Linus to ask people to fix regressions, and they get it
done in a few hours, under threat of their patches getting thrown out.
Unlike the kernel (and to its detriment), we have regression tests
which work even better for that, because they stop bad code from
getting committed in the first place, and during a release freeze
extra efforts are made to reduce regressions. But adding a new feature
is something completely different, because it's not a matter of fixing
existing code, but producing new code.

> I understand you have a lot of work to do. That is why I suggest priorities
> or goals. They help manage large workloads. From the outside, you appear to
> be working on things randomly, and you can do better.

If:
I = importance of a bug
W = work needed
then I/W is the probability the bug gets fixed

eg. Wine doesn't compile -> I is huge -> fix is rapid
a small typo -> W is tiny -> fix is rapid
iTunes has native alternatives, few people have iXxx devices, Apple
fans generally use MacOS anyway -> I is small
fix requires device drivers, changes to multiple systems, knowledge of
Windows and Wine internals -> W is large
So the I/W for iTunes is tiny. In fact the only reason it might get
fixed by me is because iXxx devices are part of the larger group of
USB devices, thus making I larger without increasing W.

It's worth noting W is always large for hardware problems. Serial port
support in Wine has also dragged on for years, had many bugs and
regressions, needed kernel changes for some USB to serial converters,
and still doesn't always work because the kernel API is too limited.
Relative mouse events needed X changes and have also dragged on. Sound
support in Wine has also taken forever. From what I see this isn't
unique to Wine, hardware support is the bane of every open source
project - even the kernel doesn't always boot. We could really use
some kind of public hardware test farm.

You're convinced me to prioritize my work on USB support, but it will
still be +/- end of 2011, with luck.

> Regards,
>
> -Keith
> http://keithcu.com/
>
>
>
>

Damjan




Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-04 Thread Keith Curtis
I bring up Linus because he can focus efforts. You don't need Linus. You
just need the same result -- focused efforts. There is another name for this
concept -- teams. Maybe WINE needs sub-teams?

I assure you that the problem isn't for lack of resources. I know you feel
busy and perhaps that I'm just wasting your time. However, you have
accomplished so much already. Year after year, you accomplish more, and yet
you just think that it is hopeless or something. Are you masochists? If you
are going to do the work, make goals worthy. And one worthy goal is iTunes
runs better than on Windows. If you had that as a goal 5 years ago, you
would have succeeded by now. I can think of more goals around Ableton,
Office 2010, etc. but for now let's get the hardware working!

I understand that WINE has many apps that you want to work. You are doing
well. It is just missing some features that are not being caught by your
random work. I know you'll get there, in the next 10 years. Perhaps by the
time Apple no longer matters you'll have it working.

I have my own projects, but I appreciate your interest in my patches.
However, I find that my way to contribute is to report social bugs and
suggested patches. It can be though about in terms of: planning, priorities,
goals, leaders, teams, etc. There are multiple ways to fix this.

Regards,

-Keith
http://keithcu.com/



Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-04 Thread James McKenzie

On 7/4/11 7:50 PM, Keith Curtis wrote:
None of the Linux kernel developers are paid by Linus nor can be fired 
by him. Linus never forces people to respond to his mails or to work 
on anything. What has happened is that the team has realized that 
having goals and leadership has led to good results, and Linus is a 
good leader, and so they follow along. If Linus says something needs 
to be worked on, it happens. The rest of the people keep doing their 
own work.
I think you missed my point.  There is a 'leader' for Linux and that 
person just happens to be Linus.  Whether or not he wants that position 
is pointless.  He has it.  Linux is and will remain his 'baby'.  There 
is NO such person, that I'm aware of for Wine.  Thus if I happen to 
'need' to have a few functions in Wine I have two options:
1.  File a bug report, categorize it, define it and then hope that 
someone has the skills and desire to fix the problem I've identified.
2.  File a bug report, categorize it, define it and then fix it myself.  
I have two bug reports that I have worked on and now I'm working on code 
to bring those functions into Wine, with assistance from other Wine 
developers to insure that my code is high enough quality and is 
implemented properly.
You have the same options as does everyone else.  And yes, if you look 
through Wine's bugzilla you will see very old bugs (that is why I 
mentioned the DIB Engine, it is bug 421 and is almost ten years old) to 
bugs filed yesterday.  All need love and attention.  Some bug reports 
were opened only to be closed when this did not happen.  Also, remember 
what is important to you may not be so for the entire project.  That is 
why I'm working on code.  Those functions are important to me, but to 
the overall project no so.
There is one other difference between the LKM project and Wine.  The 
Linux Kernel is essential to the functioning of Linux.  Wine is only 
essential to getting well-behaved Windows programs to run on 
Linux/UNIX.  There are some programs that started the project, many 
years ago, that are no longer available or now have Linux/UNIX equivalents.


James





Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-04 Thread Keith Curtis
None of the Linux kernel developers are paid by Linus nor can be fired by
him. Linus never forces people to respond to his mails or to work on
anything. What has happened is that the team has realized that having goals
and leadership has led to good results, and Linus is a good leader, and so
they follow along. If Linus says something needs to be worked on, it
happens. The rest of the people keep doing their own work.

I'm not suggesting to force people to work on iTunes. However, it shouldn't
take too much prodding for people to want Linux to work with one of the most
important hardware product lines.

It is sad that Linux in 2011 cannot run iTunes. This is the fault of WINE
and Apple. Maybe the work has been slow. I can't speak to how quickly you
are moving, only the results. I have read through your code some years ago.
The software that existed was high quality. You keep getting bigger and
better.

I understand you have a lot of work to do. That is why I suggest priorities
or goals. They help manage large workloads. From the outside, you appear to
be working on things randomly, and you can do better.

Regards,

-Keith
http://keithcu.com/



Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-04 Thread max

On 07/04/2011 02:15 PM, André Hentschel wrote:

Am 04.07.2011 20:08, schrieb max:

1. Does it run on Windows? iTunes is an Apple product and it could be that it 
has
 been intentionally implemented so that it does not run on Microsoft's OS.

Why then providing a Windowsversion??? :)
So you are saying it runs on MS Windows.  That answers the question.  
Thanks.





Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-04 Thread André Hentschel
Am 04.07.2011 20:08, schrieb max:
> 1. Does it run on Windows? iTunes is an Apple product and it could be that it 
> has
> been intentionally implemented so that it does not run on Microsoft's OS.
Why then providing a Windowsversion??? :)


-- 

Best Regards, André Hentschel




Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-04 Thread Henri Verbeet
On 4 July 2011 15:32, Juan Lang  wrote:
> But really, what are we talking about?  Talk is cheap.  Code isn't.
> Your contributions are welcome.
In principle yes, but having worked for Microsoft complicates that a bit.




Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-04 Thread max

On 07/02/2011 03:46 PM, Keith Curtis wrote:

Hi;

Here is a rant about iTunes:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/229398-2/day_3_dude_wheres_my_itunes.html

You guys are doing great, but I think it would be better if you were to work
more in priority order. There are 200M devices, last I checked. I don't
think iTunes has ever properly worked in WINE. It seems like Apple keep
revising it and so the current WINE never works with the current iTunes.

Can you make a goal of supporting iTunes with no glitches? I know many of
you are volunteers, but it is globally efficient if the installation number
plays into the priority of the bugs. Just this one app could be huge for
Linux on the desktop.

Warm regards,

-Keith

Everyone (with very few if any exceptions) who works on Wine does so because
they want to.   Priorities are set by each person for themselves.  That 
is simply a
fact of life when it comes to community developed software.  You are, of 
course,
entitled to your opinion of what is important but you need to persuade 
rather

than trying to command compliance with your wishes.

One of the most effective ways to assure progress on a particular piece 
of Wine
is to put your own effort into improving that particular piece.  In the 
case of
iTunes, one of the early steps would be to examine the log Wine produces 
when
you try to install it or run it.  This is likely to show that some 
particular function is not implemented or is not implemented properly.  
Next, write a test that demonstrates what should happen.  Make sure it 
works on recent native Windows versions.  Submit the new test as a 
patch.  Then fix Wine so that it passes that test and does not fail any 
existing tests due to your changes.  Once the test patch has been 
accepted, check that you changes to Wine pass the new test.  Finally, 
submit your change to Wine.  At that point there will be one less thing 
that keeps iTunes from running on Wine.


Other things you need to keep in mind:

1. Does it run on Windows? iTunes is an Apple product and it could be 
that it has
been intentionally implemented so that it does not run on 
Microsoft's OS.

2. Are there legal issues that would keep it from being run under Wine?
3. Assure that your code meets the Wine style.





Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-04 Thread Juan Lang
Hi Keith,

> WINE in general does many things, and you've got a big team now. Your
> contributor list shows 1250 and you've got 2M lines of code.

Few of these contributors remain active.  Most had small
contributions.  The total number of contributors obviously can only
increase over time, but the number of active contributors has always
remained small.

But really, what are we talking about?  Talk is cheap.  Code isn't.
Your contributions are welcome.
--Juan




Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-04 Thread Frédéric Delanoy
On Mon, Jul 4, 2011 at 04:44, Keith Curtis  wrote:
> <...>
>
> In general, people can work where they want, but it is better if some work
> is prioritized.

Well indeed volunteers work where they want, but also on the parts
they're good at (not everybody is interested, and if they're are, they
can lack the expertise in that domain).
If you try to force contributors to work on something they don't like
(or refuse work on sthg else), they generally won't agree, and
probably even stop contributing altogether.
Now it's probably different for codeweavers employees, and I'm sure
they have priorities, but they don't necessarily match yours.

> You don't need to use the buglist for this. When Linus finds
> a bug he needs fixed before he can make a release, he posts to the LKML and
> all the developers read it and the relevant ones respond. Typically he
> reverts, but sometimes he requests help, and he gets it within hours. He
> doesn't wait for someone to check in code that works.

This isn't about a random bug. IIRC you were basically talking about
adding USB support which, as Damjan pointed out, needs a lot of work
to be complete.

> <...>
> Regards,
>
> -Keith
> http://keithcu.com/

Just my 2 ¢

Frédéric




Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-03 Thread Keith Curtis
On Sun, Jul 3, 2011 at 1:37 AM, Damjan Jovanovic wrote:

>
> Hi Keith
>
> Having worked at Microsoft, you of all people should appreciate the
> size and complexity of the driver architecture on Windows. So I would
> say that "failure" is mostly from the scale of the problem to be
> solved.
>
> My attempts at adding USB support to Wine have been painful and slow.
>

Hi Damjan et al;

I don't know much about the USB architecture as my contributions to Windows
were via RichEdit. I just know that the Linux kernel has mature USB support,
WINE in general does many things, and you've got a big team now. Your
contributor list shows 1250 and you've got 2M lines of code. I'm amazed at
how many things work -- or almost work.

If you had a leaky roof in a house on fire, what would you work on first? It
appears from the outside that the answer for WINE would be random.

In general, people can work where they want, but it is better if some work
is prioritized. You don't need to use the buglist for this. When Linus finds
a bug he needs fixed before he can make a release, he posts to the LKML and
all the developers read it and the relevant ones respond. Typically he
reverts, but sometimes he requests help, and he gets it within hours. He
doesn't wait for someone to check in code that works.

You don't have to work like that. I am just pointing out that if you have
goals (do not ship without certain apps working) or priorities (certain bugs
are higher priority), or something, things will be better for the same
amount of effort.

Regards,

-Keith
http://keithcu.com/



Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-03 Thread Damjan Jovanovic
On Sun, Jul 3, 2011 at 4:49 AM, Keith Curtis  wrote:
>
>> So: yeah, we know it's an important app.  But it's hard.
>> Feel free to help out.
>> - Dan
>
> Hi;
>
> I am glad to hear you say that iTunes is an "important" app, but I don't
> understand what you mean because it has never worked.
>
> You don't need my help. You've got a big group making many good fixes. It is
> just that priority is being ignored or something. Failure is not from lack
> of effort, but from planning.

Hi Keith

Having worked at Microsoft, you of all people should appreciate the
size and complexity of the driver architecture on Windows. So I would
say that "failure" is mostly from the scale of the problem to be
solved.

My attempts at adding USB support to Wine have been painful and slow.
In 2006 my first patches ever submitted to Wine dealt with some
SETUPAPI.DLL bugs. By around 2007 hacks I made to Wine and the Linux
kernel to emulate USBSCAN.SYS allowed my Windows-only user-space USB
scanner driver to work in Ubuntu 6.06. Some of those hacks were
eventually cleaned up and made their way into Wine's STI.DLL in 2009,
but my kernel patch never worked on any other kernel version, and I
doubt either Wine or the Linux kernel would accept the dodgy code I
had to use. I began investigating the option of implementing USBSCAN
in a user-space driver with something like CUSE, but then Wine got a
rudimentary NTOSKRNL.EXE and the ability to load Windows SYS files.
Since then the idea was to implement everything in Wine, and use
libusb for USB I/O.

In 2010 I added some USBD.SYS functions and some USB headers to Wine.
Later I tried to add libusb support, USB device monitoring, and basic
on-demand driver loading infrastructure, but none of that was accepted
into Wine for various reasons. Currently I am trying to gradually
generalize driver loading in Wine. Then I hope to add loading drivers
as USB devices are plugged in. Then add libusb support. Then actually
add basic USB I/O. Then get ReadFile/WriteFile working for drivers.
And even then, there's still higher-level drivers to write (eg.
USBSCAN.SYS), and many SETUPAPI.DLL bugs and features like support for
class installers that have to be added before drivers will even
install properly. And then we hope they don't start using too many of
the unimplemented functions in NTOSKRNL.EXE.

So it's slow going and there's a lot to do, and few Wine developers
seem to care. One can only hope that when some devices start working,
it will generate new interest in Wine (and Linux), and Wine will get
many more patches :-).

> Let's win!
>
> -Keith
> http://keithcu.com/
>
>
>
>
>

Damjan




Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-02 Thread James McKenzie

On 7/2/11 7:49 PM, Keith Curtis wrote:


So: yeah, we know it's an important app.  But it's hard.
Feel free to help out.
- Dan


Hi;

I am glad to hear you say that iTunes is an "important" app, but I 
don't understand what you mean because it has never worked.


You don't need my help. You've got a big group making many good fixes. 
It is just that priority is being ignored or something. Failure is not 
from lack of effort, but from planning.




Keith:

Maybe you missed Dan's point.  iTunes, for a while, did work.  Most of 
the work to get it to work has been by volunteers and it remains up to 
the volunteer side of the project to 'make it so'.   Syncing an iPod did 
work as far as I knew using the USB device patches.  Also, this is, 
mainly, an all-volunteer effort.  I, for instance, picked up three 
richedit functions that are very near and dear to the functioning of 
several programs that I use.  There is a long known work-around, but I 
would like to see appropriate code included in the Wine project so that 
the work-around is no longer needed.


iTunes on the Linux platform may or may not be forthcoming.  Making 
iTunes work on any flavor/distribution of Linux might take a very 
interested and talented user with programming skills in 'c' to generate 
the code and get appropriate fixes made in the Wine code.  Attempts have 
been made and some successes gained, but more needs to be done and 
mostly by a small staff of volunteers.


Project priorities might say 'make this work' but without appropriately 
interested and skilled volunteers, iTunes might not be working under 
Linux anytime soon.


James McKenzie





Re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-02 Thread Keith Curtis
> So: yeah, we know it's an important app.  But it's hard.
> Feel free to help out.
> - Dan
>

Hi;

I am glad to hear you say that iTunes is an "important" app, but I don't
understand what you mean because it has never worked.

You don't need my help. You've got a big group making many good fixes. It is
just that priority is being ignored or something. Failure is not from lack
of effort, but from planning.

Let's win!

-Keith
http://keithcu.com/



re: Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-02 Thread Dan Kegel
Keith wrote:
> http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/229398-2/day_3_dude_wheres_my_itunes.html
> Can you make a goal of supporting iTunes with no glitches? ...
> Just this one app could be huge for Linux on the desktop.

The main problem is driver support, I think
(mainly usb, but probably also cd-r).

There is some work on usb support going on; see http://wiki.winehq.org/USB
I haven't tried that myself.  (Has anyone tried this with iTunes yet?)
According to
$ winedump -j import ~/".wine/drive_c/Program Files/Common
Files/Apple/Mobile Device Support/Drivers/usbaapl.sys" | grep offset
  offset 9250 ntoskrnl.exe
  offset 9264 HAL.dll
  offset 9278 WMILIB.SYS
  offset 928c USBD.SYS
support for wmilib.sys might need to be added for this app.

And I suspect the pcworld guy was using an outdated version
of wine (given the problems he reported with the package
manager ui).

Otherwise, current iTunes seems to be working reasonably well in current wine.
I just downloaded and installed iTunes 10.3.1 with wine-1.3.23.
I did have to set win7 mode, and I do have to click through
one dialog saying it won't be able to burn cd's,
but I can use the iTunes store to search for movies
and play their trailers nicely; I can listen to internet radio
or a local .mp3 for 5-10 minutes with no hint of trouble.

So: yeah, we know it's an important app.  But it's hard.
Feel free to help out.
- Dan




Glitch-free iTunes?

2011-07-02 Thread Keith Curtis
Hi;

Here is a rant about iTunes:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/229398-2/day_3_dude_wheres_my_itunes.html

You guys are doing great, but I think it would be better if you were to work
more in priority order. There are 200M devices, last I checked. I don't
think iTunes has ever properly worked in WINE. It seems like Apple keep
revising it and so the current WINE never works with the current iTunes.

Can you make a goal of supporting iTunes with no glitches? I know many of
you are volunteers, but it is globally efficient if the installation number
plays into the priority of the bugs. Just this one app could be huge for
Linux on the desktop.

Warm regards,

-Keith