ATTENTION:

THIS IS A BETA VERSION AND WORK IN PROGRESS of Gxsm4 ported to GTK4 from Gxsm-3.0 on SF (gxsm.sf.net). There are minor gtk4 related issues and shortcomings at this time and this version is for evaluation and future migration readyness. See details of pending / not functional parts below in section 3. (C) PyZahl 2021-12-31

1. General Information

GXSM -- Gnome X Scanning Microscopy: A multi-channel image and vector-probe data acquisition and visualization system designed for SPM techniques (STM,AFM..). A plug-in interface allows any user add-on data-processing and special hardware and instrument support.

Based on several hardware options it supports a commercially available DSP hardware (see https://www.softdb.com/scanning-probe-microscopy/) and provided also open source code for all the low level signal processing tasks and instrument controls in a most flexible and adaptable manner.

All latest stable software is available now via GIT: (Gxsm4 Beta currently) https://github.com/pyzahl/Gxsm4

or Live Demo/Install CD (with GXSM3): http://www.ventiotec.de/linux/GXSM-Linux.iso

GXSM Web Site: http://gxsm.sf.net

2. Installation

Gxsm4 requires GTK4, GtkSourceView5, libfftw, libnetcdf, libquicktime, ... Therefore, please install a recent linux distribution like debian or ubuntu (>= 22.04 LTS). To run GXSM4 with Wayland as window manager, you have two alternative to tweak your linux: i) In Ubuntu 22.04 Wayland is the default window manager if you are not using an nvidia gpu. To deactivate Wayland support, please add/enalbe as root in /etc/gdm3/custom.conf the line.

Native development system is currently Debain 12 or Debian-testing:

apt-get install jed emacs meson cmake libgtk-4-dev libsoup-gnome2.4-dev gsettings-desktop-schemas-dev libglew-dev apt-get install libnetcdf-c++4-dev ncview libnetcdf-dev libnetcdf-cxx-legacy-dev libglm-dev apt-get install libfftw3-dev libgsl-dev libgtksourceview-5-dev python3-dev libpython3-all-dev python3-numpy apt-get install libopencv-*-dev libquicktime-dev

add local lib path below to /etc/ld.so.conf.d/local.conf

/usr/local/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu

and run ldconfig.

Install apt-get install dconf-editor

Disable /org/gnome/gxsm4 Splash if running Wayland! (Splan window can not be positioned/displayed and freezes gxsm4 at start)

WaylandEnable=false

ii) Alternatively, deactivate the splash screen during GXSM4 startup. Open the dconf-editor and navigate to org/gnome/gxsm4. Here change the entry "splash" to off.

To obtain a copy of the source code, please run in a terminal:

 $ git clone https://github.com/pyzahl/Gxsm4 gxsm4-git

a) New build tool: Meson buildsystem -- work in progress:

First create your "builddir" in the project root folder. Then run in the folder Gxsm4-git

 $ meson builddir
 $ cd builddir
 $ meson compile
 $ meson install

Here, "meson compile, meson install" calls ninja. You can simply call "ninja install" to do it all.

To uninstall call in the buildir

ninja uninstall

b) New package tool: Flatpak -- work in progress:

Install flatpak and flathub

 $ sudo apt install flatpak flatpak-builder -y
 $ sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Install the gnome sdk within your flatpak enviroment:

 $ flatpak install flathub org.gnome.Sdk//41 org.gnome.Platform//41

Now install and run GXSM4 (assuming that the json-file/source is in the folder gxsm4-git

 $ mkdir flatpak_builddir
 $ flatpak-builder --user --install --force-clean flatpak_builddir gxsm4-git/org.gnome.gxsm4.json
 $ flatpak run org.gnome.Gxsm4

3. To-Do-List

• Testing testing testing

4. Pending and known issues:

• Window Position Management.... gtk4 does not provide any hands on that any more -- big convenience and usability issue 🙁 - X11: works again via native X11 calls... - Wayland: likely never a solution ever as Wayland dose not give access at all to window's positioning. But please educate me if I am wrong. -

• GL3D Scan View Mode: currently disabled. Port pending.

• All ENTRIES: added configuration menu option not yet attached and not accessible. Need to figure out how to add a custom menu entry to gtk_popovers. It is possible to manually edit the properties via the dconf-editor to get started. Some thing seams slow here at build and update, or has post idel latency.

• known GTK4 shortcomings so far noted:

  • Long popup/down selection lists, items out of "screen limits" are not sccessible, no/missing scrolling feature, etc.. No idea yet how to make this work right.
  • Rendering in cairo fall back mode (when using X11 export via ssh -X for example) is very slow -- some where around a magnitude (10x) slow! What makes remote work nearly impossible. However, varies a lot by "fetaure" used. Menu pop ups are very slow, take long to appear. GUI initial build (many entries, etc.) takes a long time.
  • press/release signals not available for simple button widget. Work around assigning handlers does not work as expected. Work for a canvas "home made" button. Non perfec tbu tworkable workaround currently used: Arrow icons on button widget accept press and release events. (Needed for Mover Controls: "fire wave signal on DSP when pressed" direction buttons.

• Pending back/forward sync or porting from gxsm3: idle callbacks for Tip Move and related vs. blocking or singel shot. Address pending minor random but rare move issue with initiating a scan.

• Pending odd behavior for object move/edit in some situations. (Workaround: remove all, start over)

• Pending: some hot keys are non functional

• DSP-CONTROL windows A, B -- initial TAB Drag to empty secondary window impossible (or hard??) to find a hook area to drop off. Work around for now: Manually hack config via dconf-editor, then further DnD is easy and as usual again:

  • Set for example /org/gnome/gxsm4/hwi/sranger-mk23/window-01-tabs = 'aclefghkmn------------------------------' and /org/gnome/gxsm4/hwi/sranger-mk23/window-02-tabs = 'dijo----------------------------' Then start gxsm4 again.

• Save Profile as Drawing=pdf -> crash

FYI:

---

I disabled warning messages in configure.ac (CFLAG -w) to not get flooded by a silly issue I cannot fix and added -fpermissive. This is needed as I get an error by the C++ compiler per default now when I xor GTK_FLAGS like A | B ... as this foces a typ conversion to int... Oh well some crap.

much more ... to be figured out ans tested ....

4. How to report bugs

Bugs should be reported to the gitlab bug tracking system. (https://github.com/pyzahl/Gxsm4/issues). You will need to create an account for yourself.

In the bug report please include:

• Information about your system. For instance:

  • What version of gxsm4
  • What operating system and version
  • What version of the gtk, glib and gnome libraries

  And anything else you think is relevant.

• How to reproduce the bug.

• If the bug was a crash, the exact text that was printed out when the crash occurred.

• Further information such as stack traces may be useful, but is not necessary. If you do send a stack trace, and the error is an X error, it will be more useful if the stack trace is produced running the test program with the --sync command line option.

5. Patches

Patches should also be submitted to https://github.com/pyzahl/Gxsm4/. If the patch fixes an existing bug, add the patch as an attachment to that bug report.

Otherwise, enter a new bug report that describes the patch, and attach the patch to that bug report.

Please create patches with the git format-patch command.

If you are interested in helping us to develop gedit, please see the file 'AUTHOR' for contact information and/or send a message to the gedit mailing list. See also the file 'HACKING' for more detailed information.

The gxsm team.