RoAkSoAx’s Weblog

UPDATE: A new TestDrive release and new demo for TestDrive PyGTK have been released, included all the features detailed here. If you wish to give it a try, just install the packages as described below:

Adding PPAs:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:testdrive/ppa
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:testdrive-gtk/ppa
sudo apt-get update

Installation:

sudo apt-get install testdrive testdrive-gtk

Please note that the GTK is only available for Lucid. Soon it will be available for maverick.

This week’s updates are:

TestDrive

• Changes have been made in the settings file in such way that now the settings are organized in different sections that will be used for the different TestDrive’s UI’s. Example: There’s now a common section which both UI’s load settings, a section for testdrive itself and a section for testdrive-gtk.
• XDG BaseDirectory support has been added to place TestDrive’s cache.

TestDrive PyGTK

• File -> Open: Now you can open an ISO or an IMG and run it with TestDrive. This will simply run “testdrive – u <file>”.
• Sync Button Added: The Sync button has been added to be able to Sync the ISO’s without having to launch them after being synced.
• Launch Previously Cached ISOs: Given that a Sync button has been added, now launching an ISO in a VM will no longer try to sync the ISO first by default. This allows us to launch previously cached ISOs, without having to Sync right before launching.
• Threading: Now TestDrive PyGTK Supports syncing multiple ISO’s at the same time, which also fixes the UI blocking seen in the demo released last week. Work is in progress to provide the same feature when launching the ISO’s in a VM, however, for now, this will be limited only to KVM.

The new demo release with threading for both, syncing and launching ISO’s will be released in the next couple of days, so stay tunned.

If you would like to see other sketches and keep track of the project, please refer to the following:

• Wikipage: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TestdriveFrontend
• Blueprint: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-maverick-testdrive-frontend-gsoc
• Testing: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TestdriveFrontend/Testing

You can also find me (RoAkSoAx) and my mentor (Dustin Kirkland – kirkland) on IRC at:

• IRC Channel: #testdrive