A Ventrilo Compatible Client for Linux
econnell
This user hasn't shared any biographical information
Posts by econnell
Mangler with ALSA support
Jan 5th
For all of the PulseAudio haters out there, “Haxar” in our IRC channel has written a patch that gives Mangler native ALSA support. This is now in the latest SVN revision with a couple of new options to configure. To build with ALSA, run:
./configure --enable-alsa
Then rebuild Mangler and give it a go. It hasn’t been tested extensively, so let us know if it does or does not work for you. And come join us on IRC and give Haxar big slobbery kisses for his effort.
Update: In the latest SVN revision, ALSA is enabled by default if you have the appropriate libraries.
Mangler 1.0.1 is released
Jan 3rd
Mangler version 1.0.1 is now available. This release fixes a couple of minor bugs:
- Removing/changing the mouse used for PTT no longer causes a crash
- The server options in the server list configuration are now honored (accept pages, allow recording, etc)
This release also fixes a number of documentation errors that were preventing inclusion in the Ubuntu repositories. This means Mangler is on track for inclusion in Ubuntu 10.04.
Admin functionality progress update
Jan 2nd
Over the past month, we’ve taken what we feel is a well deserved break from coding. However, with the new year, we’re ready to start going again. We’re not quite to the point of having a new snapshot available, but we’ve made good headway in the past few days. If you’re running directly from SVN, the following features are now available:
- You can now log in as an admin
- Drag and drop users to move channels
- You can kick and ban users via right-click
- Per-user volume settings are saved between restarts
- Channel passwords are saved between restarts
- A master volume control is available in the Audio Settings menu
Remember, the SVN build is unstable. Things may or may not work as expected. But if you’re feeling adventurous, test it out.
As previously stated, the next release will focus primarily on administrator functionality. Also in the works is version 1.0.1 which fixes some minor issues and gets us on the path to inclusion into the Ubuntu repos.
Features for 1.1 Announced
Dec 5th
We went through all open tickets and set up a targeted feature list for Mangler v. 1.1. Obviously other features are likely to be added as we go along. The majority of enhancements will be centered around administrator functionality. In addition to those already announced in the current 1.1 snapshot, we will be adding:
- Private Chat support
- Channel editor (creating, removing, modifying channels)
- Server properties editor (setting idle time limits, chat filters, auto-kick, etc)
- Master volume control
- Saving per-user volume across restarts
- Saving channel passwords across restarts
- Force Channel Move
- Kicking and banning users
- Detecting voice level to auto-transmit
- Sending and receiving pages
For a full list of raw tickets, you can view the Trac Roadmap. We have not yet set a date for the 1.1 release, but it will likely be some time around March or April.
First 1.1 Developer Snapshot Available
Dec 2nd
Along with our 1.0.0 release yesterday, we also posted the first 1.1 developer snapshot which contains some new features. This weekend, we hope to go through unscheduled trac tickets to assign features for the 1.1 milestone. If you have feature requests, now is the time to make them.
New features in the 1.1 snapshot are:
- Global Chat
- Phantom Support
- Interface changes to use less screen space (ability to hide the buttons and server information panel)
- Window size is remembered across restarts
- Per-server character set setting
- Remember channel passwords (only during current connection at present)
As always, developer snapshots can be found on the download page.
Last RC before release — 1.0rc4 — is ready for testing
Nov 25th
With any luck, this is our last RC before release date. RC4 adds a couple of bug fixes and by popular request, a new feature.
Changes in RC4:
- Ability to copy comment and url to clipboard
- Hopefully fixed all temp bans on transmit. Please tell us if you’re still seeing these. We have only had a few reports of this problem, but I imagine this must have been widespread. If you’re getting banned from your server, we need to know about it.
- Do not attempt connections if we know required data is missing
1.0rc3 Is Available
Nov 21st
As I mentioned in the 1.0rc2 notes, RC3 will have a fix for users using Speex at 8kHz and 16kHz getting temporarily banned when they try to transmit. This is the only change in this version.
We finally identified an unknown value that we’ve been searching for a couple months now. This behavior would not have affected anyone connecting to a personal server. It seems that the bug Luigi reported in the official Ventrilo client was fixed for the hosting companies’ version of the server.
Problems With 1.0rc2
Nov 21st
A number of users reported problems with 1.0rc2 crashing whenever someone tried to talk. 1.0rc2.2 is now available for download which should correct this problem. My apologies for not catching this.
There have also been some reports about Mangler hanging when starting up. This is caused by errors reading the configuration file, but we cannot reproduce. If this is happening to you, you can remove your ~/.manglerrc file (save your server list information!) and start Mangler again. This will recreate the file.
Snapshot and Packages for 1.0rc2 Available
Nov 21st
Mangler 1.0rc2 is available today with some major bug fixes. Thanks to everyone that reported bugs from the 1.0rc1 release. The major bugs fixed are:
- Fixed a few pretty major memory leaks
- Properly implement password protected channel hierarchy (sub-channels are protected by parent channel passwords)
- Support servers that do not allow you to view the channel list
- Added PTT support for mouse buttons 8/9
- Added Gnome desktop information files and icons
- Increased the maximum amplification for per-user volume
- Fix for speex channel specific codec format changes
- Fixed a bug/crash in outbound speex codec processing
- Fixed the last transmit timestamp resetting on comment change or channel change
There is still a major issue on some Speex codec combinations that are causing issues. It is possible that — depending on your server codec — you can get temporarily banned by attempting a transmit. Unfortunately, the only way to get yourself unbanned is to restart the server. This issue is currently our highest priority. This only affects specific Speex codec formats and specific servers. For example, Speex @32khz Quality 10 is known to function normally. Speex @16khz Quality 5 is known to cause problems. Other formats may or may not work. When this problem is resolved, we will release rc3 immediately.
Two Month Anniversary Snapshot for 1.0rc1
Nov 13th
Two months ago today, I wrote out the beginnings of libventrilo3. It barely worked, and when it did work, all it did was display some hex packet dumps while attempting to connect to a server. The whole thing was about 1000 lines of code and the majority of that was debug code.
Two months, 8,800 lines of code (11,200 if you include the UI definition), and hundreds of hours of staring at network packet dumps later, we have a stable and functional client. And more importantly, we’re about two weeks away from release. Today’s snapshot is Mangler 1.0 release candidate 1.
New features since the previous snapshot include:
- Per-user volume settings (double click a user in the channel list)
- Mouse button push-to-talk
- Fix all ticking audio in both Speex and GSM (in both directions)
- Added notification sounds for users joining your channel, login, logout, etc. (disable them in Settings -> Audio)
- The server list window is fully implemented
- The ability to set your comment, URL, and your music player text
- And of course, other minor bug fixes.
An additional feature that may squeak into 1.0 is music player integration for showing your current media player’s song as “now playing” in the channel list.
I also want to say thanks to Darryl Grennan (a.k.a. x3464) who was the most active person performing QA testing for us. I can’t stress enough that if we don’t know about the bugs and/or it’s not behaving the way you think it should, we need to know about it, especially during this phase.
