Things I don't like about Git

I recently evaluated Git again for possible use in SuperTux, still some things I don't really like about it:

• lack of sparse/narrow/shallow checkout, this means initial checkout will be 200MB instead of 100MB
• no free hoster that allows >1GB repositories (havn't checked all, but those I did came out way short)
• some free hosters that might allow >1GB repositories don't allow having multiple repositories
  
• git submodule doesn't seem to be quite ready to replace our trunk/supertux, trunk/supertux-editor, trunk/media/, ... layout as it for example doesn't support automatic tracking of HEAD from the remote repositories, it also feels rather hacky and not properly integrated into git
• lack of metadata versioning, if you delete a branch in git that you haven't merged, then its gone after the next gc/repack (+ two weeks time limit it seems), in SVN on the other side you can checkout the way the tree was at a specific date, its impossible to lose history unless you hack the repository
• handling of subdirectories, in SVN its more comfy to just hack around in a subdirectory without bothing whats above it, in Git you always act against the whole repo instead of just the subdirectory, minor usability quirk, still a bit annoying

So for the time being I think I'll stay with SVN.

Getting Krita to work in Ubuntu Karmic

Krita, KDE's take on a graphics application, still contains a nasty bug in Ubuntu Karmic that stops it from functioning with a Wacom graphics tablet. The cause of this issue is rather simple, QT expects a device name of stylus, while Ubuntu assigns the tablet names like Wacom Intuos2 6x8. Luckily one can override the name easily with hal. Just create the file /etc/hal/fdi/policy/10-wacom.fdi containing:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<deviceinfo version="0.2">

<device>

<match key="input.x11_options.Type" contains="stylus">
<merge key="info.product" type="string">stylus</merge>
</match>

<match key="input.x11_options.Type" contains="eraser">
<merge key="info.product" type="string">eraser</merge>
</match>

</device>

</deviceinfo>

You have to reboot after this change or replug your Wacom. A proper fix for this issue seems to be in Qt 4.6, but Ubuntu Karmic is stuck with 4.5 at the moment.

Gimp Double Toolbar Patch for Ubuntu Karmic

I updated my Gimp Double Tooolbar Patch for Ubuntu Karmic/Gimp 2.6.7. Results can be found in my PPA at:

• https://launchpad.net/~grumbel/+archive/gimp

The prebuild packages are available by apt-get via:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/grumbel/gimp/ubuntu karmic main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/grumbel/gimp/ubuntu karmic main

Edit: Location of the packages has changed.