xdemorse is useless out of the box

[atari2600a]

Binary package hint: xdemorse

No man entry, no HTML or txt docs anywhere, no license, & the worst offender, no default .xdemorserc file, rendering the program inoperable. Either fix the package or remove it from the repository.

Ubuntu 10.10
xdemorse 1.3-5

[Jonathan Marsden (jmarsden)]

Thanks for helping to improve Ubuntu. In order to confirm this issue, could you please check what the package installed into your /usr/share/doc/xdemorse/ directory by posting the output of

  ls -l /usr/share/doc/xdemorse/

and also

  dpkg -L xdemorse

here? At least on my Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick test machine, this package includes, among other files:

 (1) a copyright file which includes licencing information
 (2) an xdemorse.html file which is the manual for the program
 (3) an xdemorserc file which is a sample .xdemorserc configuration file.

These would appear to me to address all of your concerns except for the lack of a man page.

[atari2600a (atari2600a)]

WHAT THE HELL!? I SEARCHED for that directory manually, then in nautilus, then in a shell, & it didn't show up. AND NOW IT SHOWS UP! Fucking magnets...

Before closing this bug, can someone at least add ~/.xdemorserc to the package?

[Jonathan Marsden (jmarsden)]

No, not really. Which home directory ~ did you have in mind? Linux is a multiuser system.

Packages cannot add files to or mess with individual user's home directories during their installation. Which user or users should xdemorse do this to? All users on the system??

Possibilities:

 (1) It might in theory be possible to create a systemwide config file called say /etc/xdemorserc and have the program read that if no per-user file existed, but then default xdemorse behaviour would be rather different from the upstream software.

 (2) In theory, xdemorse might possibly be enhanced to create a default ~/.xdemorserc when run, if one does not already exist, but again, that's a significant change in behaviour.

I think either of those options would be better implemented by the upstream author(s) of xdemorse rather than in Ubuntu-specific packaging.

At present, the supplied example configuration file is there for you. So all you need to do is

  cp /usr/share/doc/xdemorse/xdemorserc ~/.xdemorserc

and edit that as necessary. Given the rather specialized nature of xdemorse itself, I think it's a bit difficult to argue that this is too much to ask of the technically inclined users it is intended for. But if you disagree, I suggest that the place to ask for more automated or system-wide initial configuration of xdemorse would probably be the xdemorse authors, rather than Ubuntu packagers. This is in essence an enhancement request, rather than a bug report.

[atari2600a (atari2600a)]

I do suppose it is a flaw in the software itself, not being able to neither generate nor copy a template of it's own dependancies...

Anywho, closing

[Yrjö Pokkinen (ypokkinen-2)]

In my Kubuntu 10.10 Maverick there is no xdemorserc file /in /usr/share/doc/xdemorse ,after i compiled xdemorse from source.
Either no .xdemorserc file in my home directory. So I can't start xdemorse.
I can use other demorse programmes like: aldo fine.

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Hello Atari, I feel your pain. If we can work out the exact problems in detail then it should be possible to do something about them:

  (1) First run "Error! Failed to open xdemorse file Quit xdemorse and correct"
  (2) cp -a /usr/share/doc/xdemorse/xdemorserc ~/.xdemorserc
  (3) Second run "Error! Failed to open /dev/tts/2"
  (4) sed -i -e 's/^FT847$/NONE/' ~/.xdemorserc
  (5) Third run "/dev/mixer: No such file or directory" "Error! Unable to open mixer device in /dev/mixer Quit and correct xdemorserc"
  (6) 'lynx /usr/share/doc/xdemorse/xdemorse.html' suggests using 'xdemorse -l' to list mixer options:
  (7) Gives 26 options: $ xdemorse -l | xargs echo
  Printing out mixer device names vol bass treble synth pcm speaker line mic cd mix pcm2 rec igain ogain line1 line2 line3 dig1 dig2 dig3 phin phout video radio monitor
  (8) It appears it doesn't know about ALSA
  (9) padsp xdemorse "Error! Failed to set line level Quit and correct xdemorserc"

[netAction (launchpad-netaction)]

I gave up at step (6).

[williamts99 (williamts99)]

Paul Sladen almost had it!

If you don't have osspd installed, go ahead and install it.
sudo apt-get install osspd

If you don't yet have the .xdemorserc file, go ahead and copy it from /usr/share/doc/xdemorse/ to your users home directory.
cp -a /usr/share/doc/xdemorse/xdemorserc ~/.xdemorserc

If you aren't controlling a FT847 OR FT857 transceiver than change that option to NONE in ~/.xdemorserc
sed -i -e 's/^FT847$/NONE/' ~/.xdemorserc

Then you can run xdemorse and it should run fine, at least it is for me in 14.04

Best Regards

[atari2600a (atari2600a)]

I don't even know what this tool is used for that was so long ago.
Literally years. No user should be expected to 1). Guess correctly where
the default config is & 2). No one should be expected to copy it in the
first place. Rule of Least surprise: if it can be automated, automate
it. In this case, the cp line should both be 1). In the post-install
script in the package file 2 2). In the 'make install' script. Anything
short of this is simply considered sub-par Unix development UNLESS it
generates the config (or asks user to sudo for it) when it can't find the
file.
On Sep 22, 2014 9:41 PM, "williamts99" <email address hidden> wrote:

> Paul Sladen almost had it!
>
> If you don't have osspd installed, go ahead and install it.
> sudo apt-get install osspd
>
> If you don't yet have the .xdemorserc file, go ahead and copy it from
> /usr/share/doc/xdemorse/ to your users home directory.
> cp -a /usr/share/doc/xdemorse/xdemorserc ~/.xdemorserc
>
> If you aren't controlling a FT847 OR FT857 transceiver than change that
> option to NONE in ~/.xdemorserc
> sed -i -e 's/^FT847$/NONE/' ~/.xdemorserc
>
> Then you can run xdemorse and it should run fine, at least it is for me
> in 14.04
>
> Best Regards
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/661963
>
> Title:
> xdemorse is useless out of the box
>
> Status in “xdemorse” package in Ubuntu:
> Invalid
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: xdemorse
>
> No man entry, no HTML or txt docs anywhere, no license, & the worst
> offender, no default .xdemorserc file, rendering the program
> inoperable. Either fix the package or remove it from the repository.
>
> Ubuntu 10.10
> xdemorse 1.3-5
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xdemorse/+bug/661963/+subscriptions
>