New versions of the daemon, python api and gtdi (graphical interface) have been released today.

This daemon release together with the dongle firmware upgrade are fixing the USB communication bug so now you should get it working on all kernels. You should upgrade the firmware to use this version, just follow the howto: "Updating the firmware".

Here are the changelogs:

Tux Daemon 0.2.0-alpha2:

  * USB communication now uses interrupt transfers.
  * Raises an ERROR when connecting to the old firmware.
  * Cleaned the code to follow the new guidelines at
    http://www.tuxisalive.com/documentation/how-to/guidelines-for-creating-and-packaging-an-application
    and improve readbility and debugging.
  * Bug fixes.

Python API 0.1.1:

  * Added a limitation of the wav file to store the sounds in the local 
    flash to 70 seconds and avoid the crash when overfilling the flash.
  * Added new functions and events.
  * Minor modifications.

GTDI 0.2.0:

  * Complete rework of the interface and new functionalities

When we started the project, quite a long time ago, maybe 2 years, I setup a mailing list on the kysoh mail server but as I didn't have complete access to it, I couldn't get the archives easily. One year ago I created the tux-droid project on sourceforge, which has been idle since then, but I now decided to move the mailing list there. So you'll be able to search the archives as soon as there will be some posts ;-) I added the information about this on the 'Getting started' page. So for all of you who prefer emails to the forum for support or development, join us there.

There's also the #tuxdroid channel on irc.freenode.net which has been virgin for a while, but since a few weeks a few enthousiasts are joining now and then. I'll try to be connected during the day at least (GMT+1).

I also added on the same page some information and the link to the subversion repository. Subversion (also called svn) is an open-source revision control system and we use it for all the sources of Tux Droid firmware, daemons, api and applications. The repository is now moving to the same server as the website. The main benefit is that you'll be able to access svn with the same account as the website as we're using LDAP for authentication. The plan is to create a 'devel' group which members will be granted write access to most parts of the website in order to contribute to it. You'll be able to add documentation (FAQ, howto, tutorial, etc.) or add and manage your project in the developer corner, or simply contribute to the code which is already there. To help you keeping on top of what's happening from day to day, you can subscribe to our new automated check-ins list. Every commit on the svn repository is reported on the list.

Finally, some of you already received their Tux today, more are on the way. The fun should start, you have some great ideas and I'm eager to see what you'll end up doing with your Tux. I should definitely know shortly :-)

The subversion repository has been cleaned, old outdated code have been removed, it's now better organised. I created tags for the daemon, the Python API and a couple of applications we already have and released the packages in the developer corner.

I made a very quick draft of what you have to do to get everything installed. That's certainly incomplete but I guess that those of you who have already a tux and were at FOSDEM shouldn't be stopped by such things :-) We're going to update that next week anyway.

The daemon is still in alpha as there are going to be problems when spreading it around the globe. Well, as of writing this, there's just been a post on the forum about an issue I've already been bitten with when updating my kernel. As the software is released now, I may have a bit of time to deal with that too.

If you install everything, it would be nice to report things you had to do and that would be of interest to other users. Use the forum or leave a comment on the install page and we'll integrate that in the installation procedure.

I would also ask more advanced users to leave advices about packaging an application. Right now we decided to put everything in /opt/tuxdroid though that's not the most common use in Linux but that's how our programmer ended up when copying the Acapela TTS wizard. The python API certainly would benefit from some kind of packaging. I'm going to look into distutils but any advice would be more than welcome.

I also spent some time to setup a mailing list at sourceforge to receive all commit messages made on our repository. I then decided to move the user mailing list there too as this will be more convenient for you and you'll get archives.
To subscribe, visit https://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=163550

See you there then.