YDL in Mac OS X Hints today

[Stefan Bruda]

At 10:04 -0600 on 2004-2-29 Clinton MacDonald wrote:
 >
 > >You may want to try pbbuttonsd as pmud replacement. It seems better
 > >at detecting new hardware (I am using version 0.5.4b).
 >
 > My understanding is that pmud and pbbuttonsd work in concert. 

Newer pbbuttonsd (don't know when it all started actually) can act as
a pmud replacement altogether.  The /etc/pbbuttonsd.conf option is
`replace_pmud' and should be set to `yes' in order for pbbuttonsd to
take over the whole power management stuff.  If you are using a new
enough powerprefs the GUI option is on the section with the gears
label.

The advatnage of pbbuttonsd as power manager as opposed to pmud is
that a full scan of the system is done upon wakeup.  Say for instance
that I plug a mouse once the system is asleep, and I then wake it up.
With pmud the mouse is not there (have to unplug it and plug the thing
back), with pbbuttonsd the mouse it fully active the moment the
machine is up.

As a bonus, you can convince your system to behave differently when
plugged in or on battery, such as never going to sleep when on AC and
going to sleep after one hour of non-activity when on battery.

There are some downsides too, but most of them are a matter of getting
used with the system.  The most annoying `feature' for me for instance
is that if you set the system not to go to sleep no matter how long it
idles it does not go to sleep even when you close the lid, you have to
press the power button first.  Since I prefer that the thing sleeps
once the lid is closed but not otherwise, I got around this by setting
the system to go to sleep when idle but setting the delay to an
insanely large number of minutes. :-)

Over all, pbbuttonsd seems to me more polished and more flexible than
pmud.  It is also actively maintained, which seems not to be the case
with pmud.

 > For instance, pbbuttonsd cannot be started unless pmud is first
 > active (on an Old World Wallstreet PowerBook G3). In any event,
 > both are active on my Wallstreet (or inactive, as the case may
 > be... sniff -- I miss my Wallstreet).

This is the case in which pbbuttonsd does not do power management duty
but instead sits in top of pmud.  Newer pbbuttonsd can also replace
pmud if configured so.

 > >The usual Unix copy and paste (select to copy, middle click to paste)
 > >works for me in any application I can think of (including Mozilla,
 > >OpenOffice). Am I missing something here?
 > 
 > Try typing something in Konsole (say, a URL), select it, choose
 > copy from the menu. Switch to Mozilla and paste into the URL
 > field. Does this work for you?

I don't know, but the following works well (and should work in any
GUI/application configuration): select the text in the terminal,
switch to Mozilla, point to the URL field, and do a middle click.
That's it, no menus, nothing.  I use GNOME, but it would be extremely
unlikely for KDE (and extremely inept from the KDE folks) to suppress
this behaviour.  This is a matter if interface not application under
Unix-like systems, so it should just work.

I am in fact so used with this way of doing copy and paste that I find
annoying when I (infrequently) go to a non-Unix interface and I have
to remember to choose copy and paste from menus or press the magic
accelerators...

 > >I have never understood why people are shy when it comes from
 > >compiling from sources.  I agree that the RPM-ed version of many
 > >applications is ancient, that's why about half of my applications are
 > >built from sources.  Except for the odd package now and then the build
 > >process implies typing ./configure; make; make install and that's it.
 > 
 > I have never successfully installed software in that fashion (though 
 > hope springs eternal). I see cryptic dependencies, and I am immediately 
 > lost. I am very much one of Mr. Welch's non-geeks, though, ironically, 
 > by local standards I *am* a geek. Software compilation is next on my 
 > learning curve list.

I agree, I take that back. :-) I am used to hunt for dependencies
that's all so this is only a minor inconvenience for me.

Cheers,
Stefan

-- 
If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as
it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.
    --Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass