Android Development - Starters Guide (Updated for Android 4.0)

First things first, major appreciation goes out to Lars Vogel for his incredibly helpful tutorial on Android development.  The last time I tinkered with all this, the best (only) online resources available were on the official Android Developers site, which is a great reference site, but didn't provide the clearest guidance to get you up and running quickly.  If you're here to get started with Android Development for the first time, save yourself some headaches and head straight over to Lars' tutorial.  Thanks Lars!

Second, the folks at Google have simplified the initial setup and installation process.  No more mucking around to download and install the SDK, then install Eclipse and install the APK plug-in, then tell the APK where your SDK is... all these dependencies can be installed for you from inside Eclipse now, and that awkward SDK configuration is handled for you.  So thanks Google!

So, here are the steps I took to set up my Android development environment.  FYI, I'm working in a VirtualBox VM with a sparkly fresh copy of Ubuntu 11.10.

• First, open the Ubuntu Software Center, search for "eclipse", and install the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment.  (No need to install eclipse-jdt separately anymore, Ubuntu apparently gives it to you automatically now.  Yay!)  Note that it might take a while to download and install.
• When it's done installing, launch Eclipse.
• Use Eclipse's Update Manager (Help -> Install New Software...) to install the Android Development Toolkit plug-in.
• First, be sure to add the software site for the version of Eclipse that you're using (in my case, it was http://download.eclipse.org/releases/indigo/).  Otherwise Eclipse won't be able to resolve dependencies when installing the ADT plug-in.  I don't know why this isn't added by default, but it always trips me up.
• Next add Google's ADT software site (https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/).
• Working with the Google software site, select the "Developer Tools" item and it's four sub-items.
• Click Next, and after Eclipse did some calculating, click Next again to confirm that you want to install the items you selected.
• Then accept a couple of license agreements, and click Finish.
• Eclipse will popp up a progress dialog, and do its download and install magic.
• Note that in the middle of this step, I got a warning prompt asking me to confirm that I want to install unsigned content.  Clicking "Details" revealed that it's Google's ADT components making Eclipse a little nervous.  I clicked OK and didn't look back.
• When the installation completes, Eclipse should prompt me to restart (Eclipse, not the whole computer), which you should do.
• After Eclipse restarts, it should prompt you to configure a copy of the Android SDK that it can use.
• I opted to let it install a new copy of the Android SDK, and chose to install the "latest available version" (4.0.3 at the time I'm doing this).  I left the default install location.
• Clicking Next will lead to being prompted to let Google gather anonymous usage statistics on the SDK (your choice).
• After a little bit of Eclipse progress-bar action, you should be prompted to Accept all of the SDK packages you wanted installed.
• Then the Android SDK Manager will take over, showing a progress bar while it downloads and installs the SDK.
• Note that only some of the SDK components are installed during this step.  It's enough so you can write and release an app, but there are other components for each API version that you'll also want.
• In order to install ALL the components for a particular API version, you'll want to select them yourself in the Android SDK Manager.
• In Eclipse, Window -> Android SDK Manager
• Under the Packages section, check the box next to any entry or sub-entry that you want to install.  I recommend just checking the box for each version of Android that you want to target, and let it auto-check all of it's sub-entries.
• Then click Install, and wait...
• ...and wait...
• ...and maybe put on a TV show until it finishes downloading and installing.

From here, I should be good to create a new android project.  But that's for another day...

Ubuntu 11.10 Upgrade

Just upgraded to Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, and found that Flash was no longer installed or working. Fixed it by (re?)installing restricted extras, though I was surprised I had to do this since restricted extras was installed prior to the upgrade. Oh well.

Also ran across this interesting post on "10 things to do after installing Ubuntu 11.10". It's focused on a fresh install, and was written based on the 11.10 beta, but everything still applies and may be a helpful reference in the future.

Ubuntu Ambiance Icons for Dropbox 1.0

I found these icons for Dropbox that match the Ubuntu mono dark (ambiance) theme. The link includes instructions for installing the icons for Dropbox 0.8, but Dropbox is up to 1.0 now and the path and filenames have changed. The new path is:

~/.dropbox-dist/icons/hicolor/16x16/status

and the filenames have all been prefixed with "dropboxstatus-". With these minor tweaks, my Dropbox indicator now matches nicely with the rest of the Ambiance theme.

Enabling DVD Playback in Ubuntu

Surprisingly, I've never done this before, but I needed to enable DVD playback on my wife's new netbook which she uses for her work. While I was at it, I also enabled it on my new laptop. We're both running Ubuntu 10.10 and loving it.

Because of Ubuntu's commitment to free / open-source software (and because of some licensing concerns), Ubuntu doesn't ship with the libraries to play mp3s, DVDs, or some other media formats. They are, however, freely (as in beer) available through the package manager / Software Center. Here's what I did to enable DVD playback:

1. Installed Ubuntu Restricted Extras from the Software Center (ubuntu-restricted-extras if installing using apt or Synaptic).
2. Verified in the Software Center that 'libdvdread4' was installed (it was for me, but you should install it if it's not).
3. Ran the following command from a terminal to install the restricted DVD decryption codec (thanks to the Ubuntu Help site for this):
   

   sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

4. Installed 'VLC Media Player' via the Software Center. This may not be required, but Totem (Movie Player) crashed a few seconds into playing a dvd before doing this. After installing VLC, both VLC and Totem played the DVD fine. There are probably some codecs installed along with VLC that fixed the problem.

There it is. Both laptops are playing DVDs without any errors.

Disabling Ubuntu Swap Partitions

When installing Ubuntu on my wife's new netbook, the installation crashed mid-way through... after it reworked the partition table and added the ext3 and swap partitions. Some trial and error showed that Ubuntu had trouble recognizing the intended partitions when choosing to install alongside Windows again (it tried to cram everything into the space held by the shrunken Windows partition). So in order to get the partitions back to where they were, I tried to delete the new ext3 and swap partitions. Unfortunately, when booting to the Ubuntu Live USB stick, it mounted the swap partition on the main hard drive and prevented me from deleting it! Some googling showed me that I could force-disable all swap partitions via the command-line:

sudo swapoff -a

When running as the Live disk's default 'ubuntu' user, there is no password so there's no password prompt.

Turning off Bluetooth by Default in Ubuntu

The Ubuntu 10.10 install on my new laptop turns on the Bluetooth adapter by default, which is a minor battery drain. Since I rarely (if ever) use any Bluetooth devices, I'd rather turn off the adapter by default. Unfortunately, this is not as simple as changing an option in the Bluetooth panel application and requires some minor command-line tweakage.

Per this helpful post on the Ubuntu forums, I just had to edit the file '/etc/init.d/rc.local':

sudo vim /etc/init.d/rc.local

And add the following line:

rfkill block bluetooth

Although the post suggests putting the line at the end of rc.local, that didn't seem to work for me. So I added it near the beginning and all is well. Now, after booting up and logging in, the Bluetooth panel icon is happily grayed-out to show that the adapter is deactivated.

Remote Desktop (VNC) Refresh Problem in Ubuntu

I set up my main desktop computer to enable remote access to my desktop (System -> Preferences -> Remote Desktop). Then, when I access it from my laptop (Applications -> Internet -> Remote Desktop Viewer), I run into problems. I am able to make a connection, and see the initial screen state when I first connect. Any actions I take through remote desktop are visible on the desktop monitor, but my laptop's Remote Desktop Viewer doesn't get screen updates... it always looks as it did when I first connected.

This is apparently a known issue with a workaround. You just have to disable visual effects on the computer you're accessing (via System -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Visual Effects -> None). This is definitely not ideal as it does clunkify and de-prettify Ubuntu a bit on the target system, but I can live with it for now as I'll be using the laptop far more often.

Configuring Ubuntu to Auto-Mount an NTFS Partition on Boot

I have a partition on a second internal hard drive that I use for media storage. Ubuntu is smart enough to detect it's existence and add a link in the Places menu to mount and open this partition, however I'd like to have it mounted automatically on boot so it can be accessible to my online backup software. I also want to make sure it maintains it's entry in the Places menu, so I can access it as easily as I currently do.

There are two administration utilities I used to accomplish this:

• NTFS Configuration Tool (ntfs-config)
• Storage Device Manager (pysdm)

Both utilities are GUI tools for modifying the '/etc/fstab' file, which defines the file-system table configuration. Both can be found in the Ubuntu Software Center, or can be installed from the command-line with apt-get (package names are in parenthesis). Once installed, both can be launched from the System -> Administration menu, as of Ubuntu 10.10.

The NTFS Configuration Tool is obviously focused on NTFS partitions, so it's not a general-purpose 'fstab' configuration tool. Before launching, make sure you don't have any partitions mounted or it may be unable to detect them properly. When launched, it will detect any new NTFS partitions (meaning ones that don't have entries in 'fstab') and ask if you want to configure them. When this happens, make sure that only the partitions you want to be auto-mounted are checked! Then click OK to add an entry for the checked drive to 'fstab', or you can click Cancel if you don't want any to add any new entries to 'fstab'. This leaves you at the main NTFS Configuration Tool window. If you open up Advanced Configuration, you'll see an entry for any of the partitions you just selected. You may need to check the 'Writable' box next to your new entries. From here you can Close the utility. Your selected partitions will be mounted automatically on boot, and they will still be listed in the Places menu! If you accidentally configured a partition, or want to remove a previous entry, you'll have to fix that with the Storage Device Manager.

The Storage Device Manager is a GUI front-end to modifying any 'fstab' entry, not just for NTFS partitions. When launched, you can select a partition to configure from the Partition List on the left side. If a partition does not have an entry in the 'fstab' file, you'll get a message box saying it hasn't been configured and asking if you want to configure it now. If you load this before running the NTFS Configuration Tool, then it should prompt you when you choose any of the unconfigured drives. If you need to remove an entry that you added with the NTFS Configuration Tool, you can do that here (be sure to Unmount first if applicable).

The only other thing I'd like to tweak would be to not have the mounted partitions display a desktop icon (I like my desktop as clean as possible), but I can live with it for now. And it's probably possible to use the Storage Device Manager to do all this (and of course I could just learn to edit the 'fstab' manually), but I haven't figured that out yet.

Installing CrashPlan 3.0 in Ubuntu 10.10

I've put off installing online backup software for ages. It's the kind of thing that sits on your TODO list, nagging at you, but for some reason it just always seemed very daunting. At some point a friend of mine recommended a service called CrashPlan. It's cheap ($6 a month gets you unlimited space for all your home's computers), and best of all, it supports Windows, Mac, and (gasp!) Linux. The program also allows free offline backup, for example to a dedicated hard drive or another computer on your network. They offer a 30-day trial of their online backup service, which I'm trying right now. So far, I'm thoroughly impressed and will likely buy a year's subscription when my 30 days are up!

My only gripes have to do with ease-of-use on Linux:

• The first is with the Linux installation, which basically consisted of a shell script which obviously ran in a geeky terminal window. To be fair, CrashPlan gets major points for even supporting Linux, so this does feel a bit like nitpicking. And, granted, Linux users tend to be significantly less command-line averse, but I'd still prefer to see them offer a more novice-friendly installation option. I have no trouble recommending Ubuntu to the average "grandma" user (web/email/word processing), but this is not something Grandma could install herself. It's just not up to par with the ease-of-use expected on the more ubiquitous Windows or Mac platforms.
  
  
• The second gripe is with the shortcut (launcher in Ubuntu parlance) for the CrashPlanDesktop GUI configuration tool. The installation added a shortcut to the tool on my desktop, but not one to the Ubuntu Applications menu. Other third-party installations (like Dropbox) have integrated into the standard Ubuntu applications listing, so why doesn't CrashPlan? Also, after rebooting, the shortcut disappeared and I had to manually re-create it. This was probably a glitch, but the annoyance would have been averted if there had been a shortcut in the Applications menu.

Gripes aside, the installation worked without a hitch. I just chose all the default options and it installed and ran fine. The GUI tool is clean, simple to use and understand, but offers plenty of options to fine-tune the backup to my needs.

For future reference, to recreate the CrashPlanDesktop launcher, just create a new launcher or copy an existing one, open it in a text editor, and replace the contents with the following:

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Icon[en_US]=/usr/local/crashplan/skin/icon_app_128x128.png
Exec=/usr/local/bin/CrashPlanDesktop
Name[en_US]=CrashPlanDesktop
Comment[en_US]=CrashPlan Desktop Configuration Tool
Name=CrashPlanDesktop
Comment=CrashPlan Desktop Configuration Tool
Icon=/usr/local/crashplan/skin/icon_app_128x128.png

Installing Dropbox 1.0 in Ubuntu 10.10

Dropbox recently released a new 1.0 client for all platforms with several new features. Particularly, the selective folder syncing would be very helpful for the Ubuntu netbook my wife uses. However, the Dropbox website only offers Linux downloads for the 0.6.7 version. Strange.

A little googling led to this forum discussion, which linked to this forum post and this French-language blog posting. The steps are quite easy, but it's bothersome that Dropbox hasn't made this obvious. The download and installation process is seamless for both other platforms.

1. Stop the Dropbox client to your home folder.
2. Download the appropriate 1.0.10 linux client for x86 or x86_64.
3. Rename or delete the '.dropbox-dist' folder (in a terminal at ~, mv .dropbox-dist .dropbox-dist.backup).
4. Unpack the downloaded client archive (tar zxvf dropbox-lnx.x86-1.0.10.tar.gz).
5. Restart the Dropbox client from the Ubuntu menu (Applications -> Internet -> Dropbox).

The Dropbox icon should appear in the Ubuntu notification area. The new version (1.0.10) should show in the Preferences window, on the Account tab.

Update 1/31/2011: I installed Dropbox on my new laptop Ubuntu install using the 0.6.7 installer downloaded from the website. After installing, it immediately downloaded an update to the 1.0.20 version. Thanks, Dropbox team.

Deluge Icons for Ubuntu Ambiance Theme

I prefer the Deluge bit-torrent client over Ubuntu's default of Transmission, but it's always been a minor annoyance that Deluge's icon in the notification area didn't match the mono-chromatic icons of Ubuntu's excellent Ambiance theme. Fortunately, numbfall over at deviantart has created a set of deluge icons to compliment this theme.

His instructions are pretty clear, so enjoy!

Fixing Android ADT After Upgrade to Ubuntu 10.10

After upgrading from Ubuntu 10.4 to Ubuntu 10.10, I found that the Android ADT plug-in was not showing up in Eclipse anymore. None of the features were accessible from the Eclipse menus. The "Help -> Install New Software..." dialog would hide the packages when "Hide items that are already installed" was checked, and attempting to re-install gave an "already installed" error message.

Some googling uncovered others with this problem, particularly this helpful post from Sonal. The fix is, basically, to delete the entire configuration directory for eclipse. While a bit heavy-handed for those with complex installations and many installed components, it was fine for me as all I'm doing is Android development. My steps were slightly different from Sonal's, so here's a recap:

1. Exit eclipse if running
2. Delete (or backup) ~/.eclipse/org.eclipse.platform_3.5.0_155965261
3. Start eclipse
4. Open Help->Install New Software
5. Add the Eclipse 3.5 Default update site: http://download.eclipse.org/releases/galileo/
   (Note that I explicitly installed the WST Server Adapters, though adding the update site may be enough.)
6. Add the GEF (Graphical Editor Framework) plugin update site: http://download.eclipse.org/tools/gef/updates/releases
   (I did not explicitly install GEF.)
7. Add the Google Android ADT plugin update site: https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse
8. Install the "Android DDMS" and "Android Development Tools" packages from the Android ADT update site.

Notably, the GEF plugin appears to be new. I don't recall installing this under Ubuntu 10.4. Also, I believe that if you just add the update sites for the dependancies (WST Server Adapters and GEF), they will be installed automatically when you install the Android ADT packages. No need to hunt them down and install them directly. I haven't verified this though.

There may be more re-configuration to be done. I'll update this post with anything I find as it comes up.

(Not) Fixing Banshee Notification Area Icon in Ubuntu

I've been annoyed by the Banshee notification area icon in Ubuntu for a while now. I've changed Ubuntu to use the darker Ambiance theme as opposed to the light (blinding) Radiance theme. I really like it, except that Banshee's notification area icon displays the same with either theme, so it appears as a grey icon on an ugly white block.

I finally googled the issue and found these comments on the Ubuntu Forums. The wonderful Ubuntu community has created a replacement Banshee notification area plugin. The downside is that I've lost the notification popups that appear on song changes (which I kind of liked) and can no longer get a quick display/control area by hovering over the icon (which I never used anyway and actually found a little annoying). All-in-all it's a win for me!

Update 11/13/2010: Gah! Just after saving this post, I discovered that closing Banshee with this new notification icon in effect actually closes the program. With the default icon, "closing" the program leaves it running in the background while the notification icon stays in place, allowing you to control the "hidden" program from there. With the new community extension, this is no longer the case. A deal-breaker for me!!!

Update 11/14/2010: After upgrading to Ubuntu 10.10, all is well. The icon matches the rest of the supported notification area, and all functionality is intact. Phew!

Changing the Default Java Runtime Environment in Ubuntu

I've been having trouble with a couple Java programs in Ubuntu, so I'm attempting to switch the Java Runtime Environment from the OpenJDK, which is default in Ubuntu, to the official Sun runtime. I found instructions, which I've followed with the following changes:

• the partner repository was added through the GUI Software Sources utility (System menu -> Administration -> Software Sources, or from the Ubuntu Software Center, Edit -> Software Sources)
• The sun-java6-jre and sun-java6-fonts packages were installed by searching in the "Canonical Partners" section of the Ubuntu Software Store. The sun-java6-plugin package was not found and not installed.

Here's hoping things improve, and that there are no problems because of not installing the plugin package.

Android Development - Starters Guide

I'm giving Android development another shot, and had to install Eclipse and the Android Development Tools again. Note that this is all on a box running Ubuntu 10.4.

The Android Developers site is a plethora of information, including setup instructions, a developer guide and reference, videos, tutorials, etc. The following pages seem to be the most relevant when first getting started:

• SDK Download and Quick Start, which includes a to-the-point SDK Quick Start guide
• Installing the SDK is a more thorough version of the Quick Start guide, including next steps such as recommended reading and tutorials
• A Hello, World tutorial, the recommended first step for new developers
• A Notepad tutorial, the recommended second step for new developers
• Developer Resources lists a few other tutorials that may be worth looking at

Here are the steps I took to prepare my development environment per the 'Installing the SDK' instructions:

1. I followed (and updated) my old post on Setting up Eclipse and Android Development Tools in Ubuntu to install the required Eclipse packages, and install the Android Development Tools plug-in for Eclipse. This covers steps 1 & 3 of the Quick Start / Installing the SDK guides.
2. For step 2 of the guides, installing the Android SDK, I downloaded the Linux platform SDK file from the SDK download page and unpacked it from the terminal with 'tar xzvf [filename]'. I also added the SDK tools directory to my path, per instructions in the Installing the SDK guide.
3. For step 4 of the guides, I ran the GUI 'Android SDK and AVD Manager' by typing 'android' at the terminal (the 'android' executable is in the SDK 'tools' folder). In the 'Available Packages' section, I installed everything. At this time, it included the SDK Platform and Google API packages for Android versions 1.5 - 2.2, the Samples for SDK API 7 and 8 (Android 2.1 and 2.2), and the latest Documentation package.

Note, I've let Eclipse use it's default '~/workspace/' path as my workspace, and I've unpacked the Android SDK into a folder under '~/dev/'. Also, the "Android SDK and AVD Manager" can also be launched from within Eclipse by selecting "Window -> Android SDK and AVD Manager". You must first tell it where to find the SDK by going to "Window -> Preferences -> Android".

From here I was able to successfully complete the "Hello, World" tutorial. Good luck, and happy coding!

Ubuntu - Secure, Automated File Backup Using Dropbox and 7zip

Since switching to Ubuntu as my primary OS, I've been lax in setting up an automatic backup of important files. I finally got around to it this weekend, using a combination of cron (via Gnome Scheduler), 7zip, some simple shell scripting, and the Dropbox application for linux.

At this point, I'm not concerned about backing up every little thing. Just the file-based equivalent of "what would you grab if the house was on fire". So no music, videos, or large amounts of photos for this. And, of course, some of these files will be sensitive or personal in nature, so I want to make sure they're encrypted. Dropbox does a fine job of encrypting the files they store, but they're still just a password hack away from public access, so providing a second encryption password for sensitive data is at least a step towards more protection.

So let's get this set up...

First things first, I installed the Dropbox client for linux. Dropbox creates a folder in your home directory that is automatically backed up to their servers, and is synced among any other computers or devices connected to your account. They have clients for the three major platforms (Win/Mac/Lin) plus iPhone and Android apps. You can check out their website for instructions or more info.

Second, I installed 7zip (search "7zip" in the Ubuntu Software Center) to get the best compression rate. I don't want to eat up more of my limited Dropbox storage than I need to. I got some help on the 7zip command-line options from (what else?) the man page.

Next, I created a shell script to create a compressed and encrypted archive of any specified folder:

#!/bin/bash

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
echo usage: first parameter must be a target filename
exit
fi
if [ -z "$2" ]; then
echo usage: second parameter must be the folder to backup
exit
fi

FILENAME=$1
FILESTOCOMPRESS=$2/*
DESTINATION=~/Dropbox/Backup/[computername]
PASSWORD=[password]

7z a -mhe=on -mx=9 -p"$PASSWORD" ~/$FILENAME $FILESTOCOMPRESS
mv ~/$FILENAME $DESTINATION/$FILENAME

Note the use of the "-mhe=on" switch to encrypt the archive header, which includes the list of files in the archive. And also the use of "-mx=9" to enforce the highest level of compression.

I also created another script which calls this one multiple times, once for each folder I want backed up. I'm quite the shell script novice, so there are probably better ways to do this. Perhaps with a function and by reading the filename and a list files to archive out of a text file. I'll get around to it eventually (maybe).

Finally, I set up this script to run daily using Gnome Scheduler (a GUI frontend for cron). Search "Gnome Scheduler" in the Ubuntu Software Center. Here's a nice overview of the tool. For those who wish to apply their command-line kung fu directly to cron and the crontab, this page from the Ubuntu Community Documentation may be of use.

There are some things to keep in mind with this backup option. There are certainly more secure backup options available. Although Dropbox uses high-end encryption when it stores your files on their servers, anyone with your Dropbox account password can access your files through the Dropbox website. So your files are only as secure as your account password. Adding a second level of encryption with 7zip is a step in the right direction, but of course you should be sure not to use the same password for 7zip encryption and for your Dropbox account. All in all, though, this seems like a decent trade-off between security and ease-of-use.

Setting up Eclipse with Android Development Tools in Ubuntu

To get set up for Android App development, I'm following the instructions from Google here:
http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing.html

I installed Eclipse through the Ubuntu Software Center (searched for "eclipse" and clicked install).

Also had to install eclipse-jdt (Java Development Tools) through the Synaptic Package Manager.
Also had to install eclipse-pdt (Plugin Development Tools) through Package Manager.

(Edit 11/11/2010: When going through this process again with Ubuntu 10.4, I used the Ubuntu Software Center instead of the Synaptic Package Manager. Also, I must have meant eclipse-pde - Plugin Development Environment, as I can't find eclipse-pdt listed as an available package.)

Through Eclipses "Help -> Install New Software" dialog, I had to add the basic software source for eclipse (don't know why this isn't set up by default) which is:
http://download.eclipse.org/releases/galileo/
and install "WST Server Adapters" which is apparently a prerequisite for the ADT plugin. Learned that from this site: http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers/browse_thread/thread/1da899d34557f2e8?pli=1

Now to try installing the android plugin (ADT) by adding:
https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
to the eclipse list of software sources.

Looks like that did it! ADT is installed... (now what's next?)

Launch a VirtualBox Virtual Machine from a Shortcut

Found this link about creating a shortcut to launch a VirtualBox machine directly without having to first load the VirtualBox GUI. In short, the linux command-line is:

VBoxManage startvm <your virtual machine name>

The Bigisi Project - High-quailty Themes for Ubuntu

Just discovered a website called the Bigisi Project, which provides some really high-quality themes for Gnome/Ubuntu. Check it out.

ubuntu-restricted-extras

After mucking around with Amarok for about half an hour, I remembered that by default, Ubuntu doesn't include support for "non-free" codecs like mp3 or dvd playback. You have to install the ubuntu-restricted-extras package to enable these abilities. Full terminal command is:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

It's easy enough to do, but annoying that this isn't included by default. Still, it's a small price to pay to use free (as in speech) software. Especially when it's also free (as in beer).