More RedHat RPM packages are available. The binary package for RedHat 8.0 has been contributed by Lledge Rock Llamas, while the KDE2 packages for RedHat 7.1 have been made (as usual) by John Aldrich. Thanks to both for their work.

RPM packages for RedHat 7.3 have been uploaded. They were built using SourceForge's compile farm and come completely untested, so use them at your own risk. ;) Here is the updated download list...

Finally, the long overdue bugfix release for Ksetiwatch is out. Basically, this version addresses an issue with the recent version(s) of Qt, and fixes a few bugs reported by vigilant users. Here is the complete list of fixes and additions:

• Implemented a workaround for the right-click context menu problem that appeared with Qt 3.0.5.
• Added accelerator keys for most items in the context menu of the Analysis tab.
• Added a Hebrew translation (thanks to the work of Diego Iastrubni).
• Fixed a bug where record signals weren't shown in a message box even though the option was switched on.
• Made some changes to prevent a redundant attempt to start the client on startup if the "keep-alive" option is enabled.
• Implemented a sane method to prevent the width of the status column from ever increasing on some systems (thanks to Kjell Randa for the assistence). What's more, the icons now center automatically when resizing the status column.
• Fixed a problem where the client state wouldn't switch to 'Running' after loading a new WU very quickly, e.g. via a proxy (again, thanks to Kjell Randa for the report). In general, the detection of state changes is much better now.
• Limited the size of client output text to a maximum of 5000 characters. Otherwise, Ksetiwatch could easily eat all your memory over a long period of time if you started the client with the '-verbose' option (thanks to Hans Lunsing for pointing this out).
• Made reading of logged data more fail-safe in case of corrupted log files.
• Fixed some minor problems and memleaks reported by valgrind.

Here is the obligatory link to the download section...

Probably this will be the last version that supports KDE2. Nearly all major distributions have upgraded to KDE3 by now, so it's time to move on and make use of all the new features which can be found in KDE3/Qt3.

As reported by several users, after upgrading to Qt 3.0.5 some right-click context menus don't appear any more when clicking on a listview item, thereby preventing the user e.g. to edit an existing S@h location. This is not a Ksetiwatch bug, but an issue with the most recent versions of Qt which fail to deliver the proper mouse-button click events. A workaround has been posted in a SourceForge forum thread. In addition, the Ksetiwatch source code has been adapted to work around the problem. Unfortunately, due to vacation time it won't be possible to make an official release. So, if you are affected by this issue you are encouraged to grab the updated sources from the CVS repository.

Two new packages (or links to them) of the latest version of Ksetiwatch have been added to the download list. One is for FreeBSD, the other for Slackware 8.1. Thanks to those involved in preparing the packages.

Meanwhile, the Ksetiwatch team has grown to 26 members. Almost 11,000 work units have been processed in a total CPU time of more than 24 years. Of course, we are always looking for more participants, so be invited to join the team!

In an attempt to eliminate all sorts of configuration problems with the latest release, an updated source package has been made available. This package should now be (a) really preconfigured for KDE3 as advertised, and (b) configurable with older versions of autoconf. If you had problems with the previous source package, you can get the new one from the Download page. Should you still have problems, please direct your complaints to the usual places or via email to me.

Here are a few quickies.

Although the INSTALL file claims that the source package is preconfigured for KDE3, in reality this isn't the case unfortunately. So, depending for which version of KDE you are compiling, you must do a

make -f Makefile.use kde2 or kde3

just before the usual './configure' and 'make' to avoid compile errors (missing sigmsgtmpl.h). Sorry for the confusion.

Source and binary rpm packages for RedHat 7.1 and KDE2 are available, thanks to the work of John Aldrich.

Finally, the Ksetiwatch API documentation has been updated to reflect the latest development on the source code.

The first stable release of Ksetiwatch for KDE3 is available. Compared to the prereleases, not much has changed.

• Fixed a problem with the conversion of the CPU time to a string. CPU times larger than 136 years were erroneously converted to negative values (thanks to Hasso Leeder for the bug report). CPU times larger than one year are now shown in the form '#.#### yrs'.
• Some minor internal code clean-ups have been made.
• Fixed a compile problem when using gcc 3.1 (thanks to Andris Pavenis for the patch).
• Fixed some autoconf/automake problems (thanks to Tilman Linneweh and Tilman Giese for the reports).
• Updated all files in the admin directory. Since the size of the admin files seem to increase exponentially in time, we have switched now to the more effective tar.bz2 format for the source package.
• Updated the Ksetiwatch handbook.

For a complete list of changes since the last stable 2.2.5 release, please refer to the changelogs of the prereleases below.

The source package can be compiled for both KDE2 and KDE3. Please read the INSTALL file for more details about the necessary configuration steps.

Source and binary rpm packages for SuSE and Mandrake, and for KDE2 and KDE3 are available. Packages for other distributions will be added, as they arrive. Now, head on to the download section...

Another prerelease of Ksetiwatch is out. This update contains a few new features, which are:

• The client's text output can now be inspected in a separate window. Very useful in case of connection problems with the server, in order to see what is going on. The text output window can be accessed via the right-click popup menu in the 'Analysis' tab (located under 'Show...'). Note: due to bugs in the underlying Qt library, this feature doesn't work so well with the KDE2 version.
• Implemented keep-alive functionality. If this option is enabled, the client is automatically restarted whenever it dies or crashes unexpectedly.
• Custom programs or scripts can be executed when starting or stopping the client. This may be helpful e.g. for the control of remote clients via ssh.
• When downloading a new work unit, the systray icon now shows not only the 'Loading' state, but also the progress.
• Added a Spanish translation of the Ksetiwatch handbook (credits go to Luis Bolinches).
• Added a (partial) translation of the Ksetiwatch handbook into the French language (thanks to Renaud Michel).
• Made all window titles more consistent.

If all goes well, the only things that need to be done for the final release are updating the documentation/translation, and preparing binary packages. Until then... enjoy.

Luis Bolinches Martinez, who is translator of the Ksetiwatch handbook (his Spanish translation can be found in the CVS repository already), dropped me a mail to tell me that he has created a Ksetiwatch group at the SETI@home web site. So, if you are a convinced Ksetiwatch user you're invited to join the team! Just hop over to the registration page and sign in.

All right, an update for Ksetiwatch is available. This version finally supports KDE3, but is still compilable for KDE2. However, because of the modified build system and a massive reorganization of the code base, I decided to release it as a development version. This means that no binary packages are available at the moment. Please report any compile or run-time errors, so that any issues can quickly be fixed for a stable release. The changelog:

• Ported to KDE3 while keeping source compatibility with KDE2. Please read the INSTALL file for details about configuring the source package for KDE2.
• Ksetiwatch now knows a new state: Connecting. This (usually intermediate) state is shown whenever the client tries to connect to the SETI@home server.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the user from restarting a client that is stuck in the Loading state.
• Fixed a bug that caused large numbers in some list views not to appear in scientific notation.
• Reorganized the source code in many places.
• Completely documented the source code. The documentation can be generated with doxygen by calling `doxygen ksetiwatch.doxygen' from within the source directory.
• Added a French translation of all message strings within the application (thanks to the work of Renaud Michel).