Something I've been promising myself for a long time was to learn how to do packaging (the process of putting software into an Ubuntu supported installer format) properly and make use of the wonderful facilities provided by Launchpad that also include hosting and building package files for multiple architectures. The repository, called a Personal Package Archive (PPA) can be added to Ubuntu as a software source just like any other repository, and the files are even digitally signed so end users know they are getting the genuine article. I've put together packages before, but wanted to learn how to do it in a way that work with Launchpad as this seemed a much better way to facilitate the whole process. The PPA will be a home for various ideas I have for packages and also to some other package files for software I use but haven't found readily available on Ubuntu. Be warned some packages will be better than others! I will be announcing details of packages that I'm reasonably happy with here though.

As previously mentioned in ZTE MF627 - the easy way packages are now available in my PPA for the zte-mf627-switch package as well as the usb-modeswitch utility it relies upon. By adding these through the PPA instead of standalone package files you'll get updates when they are released as part of your normal update routine, there will be no need to download them separately.

New in the PPA within the last few days is an update for FreeMind, the mind mapping program. I really quite like FreeMind and have found it a very useful tool on a number of occasions to organise ideas into something coherant. The version supplied by default in Ubuntu though is 0.7.1, somewhat older that the current stable version 0.8.1 that has been out for some time and has some additional useful features. On the FreeMind website there is a package and source files to bring this release to Debian which were put together by Eric Lavard, so I took these files and adapted them slightly so that the package would build on Launchpad and could be hosted in a PPA. As well as an upgrade to the freemind package itself, three packages to provide plugins for FreeMind are also available; freemind-plugins-help provides enhanced help, freemind-plugins-svg provides the ability to export mind map in the SVG graphics format (which can be read by Mozilla Firefox) and freemind-plugins-time adds some calendaring and time functionality.

At the moment the packages are only for the 9.04 (Jaunty) release of Ubuntu, but I'm hoping to bring them to older, but supported, versions of Ubuntu soon. Instructions on how to add the PPA to your system can be found at: http://www.greenhughes.com/ppa.