On the link above you will find all the info for the project, so let’s start. We will build the release version of Pinax (for development versions I have a side project, which I will show you at right time). Please note – all the release used are current for the day this entry has been written.

Download pinax version 0.5.1 from here and put it in rpmbuild/SOURCES. After that:

cd ~/rpmbuild/SPECS

rpmdev-newspec -t python pinax

Rpmdev-newspec creates the skeleton for a new spec file named pinax. The -t python option tells to create a skeleton with some python definitions in it (python definitions are laid out according to this wiki entry on the Fedora Project Wiki); you can see which skeletons are available looking in ‘\etc\rpmdevtools’.

Why Python? Well, my guess is that being DJango a Python framework, you know….

Let’s look at the spec file and put some info into that. You can use any editor for the file (I use geany, fast and lightweight).

# sitelib for noarch packages, sitearch for others (remove the unneeded one)
%{!?python_sitelib: %global python_sitelib %(%{__python} -c “from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print get_python_lib()”)}
%{!?python_sitearch: %global python_sitearch %(%{__python} -c “from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print get_python_lib(1)”)}

Name: pinax
Version:
Release: 1%{?dist}
Summary:

Group: Development/Languages
License:
URL:
Source0:
BuildRoot: %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-%{release}-root-%(%{__id_u} -n)

BuildArch:
BuildRequires: python-devel

I am assuming that Pinax is a pure python package, so we use the sitelib for noarch packages (first line of the two provided). After that we have to insert some descriptive info of the Pinax project.

But, of course, before going ahead we must check some of the Pinax dependencies.

Continuing tomorrow…

rpm -q -i -p ACR38UDriver-1.8.0-1.i386.rpm
Name        : ACR38UDriver                 Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version     : 1.8.0                             Vendor: (none)
Release     : 1                             Build Date: Sat 15 Sep 2007 06:25:45 AM CEST
Install Date: (not installed)               Build Host: localhost.localdomain
Group       : Smartcards/Driver             Source RPM: ACR38UDriver-1.8.0-1.src.rpm
Size        : 105333                           <strong>License: GPL</strong>
Signature   : (none)
URL         : http://www.acs.com.hk
Summary     : Driver for ACR38 PCSC in Fedora Core 7
Description :
ACR38 PSSC Driver for Fedora Core 7. Compatible with MUSCLE API version 3.0.

So my understanding is that the driver is still GPL licensed. When asked about providing the source code, I received the following answer:

Hello Luca Botti,

Thanks for your email.
We do not release the source code for Linux version 1.8.0.
Please use those of version 1.7.9 for development.
Tks & B. Rgds,
xxxx
Account Manager

Mmh, smells like a licensing violation. I sent an email to FSF which properly directed me to GNU. I sent a recap to GNU organization, along with a polite mail to ACS. Hope to sort it out easily and friendly.
We’ll see…

On a side note, i re-checked and the smart-card reader in my Dell is rightly working with Fedora. Anyway, I am still interested in packaging the thing for F9.